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new version is that it lets us skip some steps. If we’re calculating F(1000) with the traditional definition, we have to calculate each Fibonacci along the way; but now, we can set x = 500, and skip down to the neighborhood of F(500):
F(1000) = F(500) * F(501) + F(499) * F(500)
We can continue to skip down to about n/2, decreasing the amount of calculations we need to do.
Just for fun, I implemented both fib_orig and fib_new in ruby: here’s the file. I memoized the methods, for two reasons:
It’s clearly much faster, and it’s simple to do. It lets us see exactly which Fibonacci numbers were calculated.
I put the two methods in a test case, with four test methods.
The first test ensures that the new equation matches the old. Unfortunately, I could only reach 6000 with the fib_orig, before I ran out of stack space.
The second test benchmarks the two versions. It reports the memo array size (6000 for fib_orig, as expected, and 40 for fib_new — 99.3% fewer calculations).
When fib_orig ran out of stack space so quickly, I wondered how far I could take the new version (which should recurse many fewer times). So in the third test, I benchmarked it with progressively bigger numbers. It starts to slow down around the millionth Fibonacci number: it completes in about 12 seconds on my machine. I suspect it’s spending the extra time array-seeking at that point, since the array gets pretty sparse — the last few non-null array indexes are: 125001 249999 250000 250001 499999 500000 500001 1000000. Maybe I’ll try a hash…
The fourth test is a bit of extra-credit, and a sanity check. Fn / F(n+1) approaches the golden ratio, 1.61803398874…, as N approaches infinity. So I calculated F(1401) / F(1400) with fib_new, and it’s accurate to 15 decimal points, rounding the last one, which seems to be the limit of precision on my WinXP machine. I tried using higher Fibonacci numbers, but was warned that I was exceeding the range of ruby’s floating point numbers. Here’s the output of that test:
actual golden ratio: 1.6180339887498948482 approx. golden ratio: 1.618033988749895 precision-level test: 0.333333333333333
So it seems the new approach is correct, faster, uses less space, and is still pretty elegant. Who knows whether this will ever come in handy, but at least it was fun to do.
F(n) = F(x) F(n-y) + F(y) F(n-x), for n > x, and y = x – 1
AdvertisementsFor longer than I’d really care to admit I’ve been working on my game: Los Buenos (previously called Voluntarios). The game is working well and the core mechanics are all fleshed out. The thing I’m now thinking about is what kind of content I’d like the game to have. Specifically, the game allows for different buildings to be built. What should these buildings do exactly?
A bit of background
As I’ll be using my own game-under-construction as an example, let me give a very quick introduction.
Players are trying to rebuild a village after an earthquake. And as it’s a tight-knit community, you’re not just in it for yourself, you’re trying to be helpful to the others. In fact, being helpful gives you karma points, which determine the winner of the game.
During your turn you will be placing workers to gather resources (construction material and money). Resources and workers are placed on construction sites, to construct the buildings depicted. The twist of the game is that placing your workers on someone else’s construction site gains you karma. The initiator of the construction however will get the benefits of the building (once it is finished).
My current dilemma: What should buildings do once they are finished?
Content – first thoughts
The easiest thing to do is to have buildings give karma as well. It makes reasonable sense: Having a house or shop (re)built benefits the community and as such should give karma.
It is however also a bit bland… Every building would be the same except for the amount of construction required and the amount of karma it garners.
On the other hand, it does keep the game nice and simple. But is that what I want? Wouldn’t it be much more interesting to have a deep and complex game? I’m sure these buildings could be used as parts for an in-game engine; allowing for efficient resource swapping. Or perhaps they could be used to in some way make life for your opponents more difficult (build Mayor’s office to collect taxes from the other players?)?
Maybe something in between? Not so simple, but not super intricate either.
The questions is, how do you decide between these options? Deep games are good, but so are simple games. What’s a designer to do?
What’s your vision?
This is the first game I sank a serious amount of time into. I never really had a very clear idea of where I wanted to go with it and as such it has evolved through at least 4 very distinct phases – different games almost.
After thinking about it (and more importantly trying many things out), I’ve come to some ideas about what I want the game to be like:Companies pay out more than £2,250 after two interns demanded wages for over seven months' work
Companies have paid former interns hundreds of pounds after they petitioned to be paid the minimum wage.
Celebrity magazine NOW, a south London auction house and a major international media conglomerate have paid out more than £2,250 after two interns demanded to be given a wage for over seven-and-a-half months of work.
The case follows several other settlements made without recourse to the courts, including those of interns working for clothing retail group Arcadia, which owns Top Shop and Miss Selfridge.
Both interns were offered payouts after the Justice for Interns campaign, run by jobs website Graduate Fog and Intern Aware, took up their cause.
A 27-year-old graduate of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design who wanted to be known by her middle name, Anita, said she had been paid around £750 for a one-month internship last year at NOW.
Anita said that although she attended a few fashion shoots, she spent most of her time working in a stockroom "packing and unpacking" clothes with another intern.
"It wasn't what I signed up to do … Generally you weren't treated very well."
She added that she was shown the ropes by one intern and didn't meet management staff until a week into the placement. She then went on to train her intern replacement.
The magazine's publisher, IPC media, said the reason for the settlement was that Anita had progressed to paid tasks.
In a statement it said: "IPC has a very clear policy covering work experience, internships and short-term freelance contracts. The individual undertook what had been understood by both parties to be unpaid work experience, but, during that time, it appears that she progressed to carrying out tasks for which she was entitled to be paid.
"Once this was brought to our attention, the payment was made through IPC's payroll."
IPC also disputed the term internship and said that it was usual for work experience staff to hand over to each other, though they would always meet with staff at the start of their placement. "This was a work experience placement. This individual was not an intern. Work experience staff already progressed into their placement may be asked to explain to newer work experience staff normal process etc. Passing on knowledge already gained and best practice is also a valuable part of the work experience," it said.
Anita, who was on jobseeker's allowance during this period, went on to do a six-month unpaid internship at a south London auction house, where she was told to clean and vacuum the office and catalogue items that were being put up for sale.
"It was all the jobs you'd have to do at an auction house but people were getting paid to do. I was doing them, and being asked to do them," she said.
"They basically led me on to believe that when a place became available I would be offered the job … if I stayed on and worked hard and impressed them I would up for the position."
However, after five months of full-time unpaid work, the company failed to inform her that they were offering a paid job and subsequently gave the position to an outsider.
"I felt a bit stupid. Even though I was working there, I had to work [unpaid] alongside someone who'd just joined."
The company eventually offered her £1,000 in a settlement, a sixth of her minimum wage claim.
Last year government lawyers warned ministers that many employers were breaking national minimum wage rules by not paying interns, advising that "most interns are likely to be workers and therefore entitled to the NMW".
"People should think carefully before doing internships because you can be really misled," Anita said. "I've done a few now, so I know better, but I think everyone should claim their money back. It's only fair. You put in the hours but you end up with nothing."
A second intern, who could not reveal his name or that of the company he worked for without breaking the terms of a post-settlement gagging agreement, said that he had worked for two weeks for a major US-owned media conglomerate, during which time he was doing exactly the same work as other staff and was offered very little training.
In a settlement letter sent last month the company wrote "they were very surprised" to receive a letter "stating that you feel you are entitled to be paid".
"However," the letter said, "the company is willing to pay you the sum of £486.40, which amounts to the minimum wage for the hours which you worked."
News of the payouts also follows the publication of the third and final report from the government's social mobility tsar, Alan Milburn, on Wednesday. Milburn said he was concerned by the "number of universities whose careers services advertise unpaid internships", and recommended that universities should no longer "facilitate any exploitative work placements of any kind".
Tanya de Grunwald, founder of Graduate Fog and one of the organisers of the campaign said: "These payouts are hugely significant for our campaign against unpaid internships.
"Companies are realising they don't have the right to unlimited free labour just because someone is young and desperate for experience. After years of being downtrodden and voiceless, interns are finding the courage to stand up to the tight-fisted employers who thought they could get something for nothing without any repercussions.
"Interns contact us every day with new stories – some of whom have worked for very famous companies and individuals – so we look forward to more victories like this in the next few weeks. It's going to get ugly."
Gus Baker from Intern Aware added: "We are delighted to see NOW magazine and big companies coughing up and paying young people... But it's a strange state of affairs when the government is failing to enforce its own minimum-wage law, and pressure groups are left to fill the gap."
• This article was amended on 19 October 2012 to correct grammatical errors.The conventional wisdom is that the US government is taking a new tack when it comes to confronting the Iranians. As a recent piece on Breitbart.com and dutifully posted by Matt Drudge put it:
"The Bush administration is changing course on Iran in its final months. The hope is that engagement can jolt a stagnant effort to resolve concerns about Tehran’s disputed nuclear program where war drums could not."
This is flat out wrong. The war drums are still belting out a martial ditty, albeit accompanied by a "diplomatic" chorus. To get closer to the truth about what is really happening on the front lines of our latest Middle Eastern crusade, take a look at this Washington Post report on the same "diplomatic" dog-and-pony show:
"With negotiations now a real possibility, the Bush administration, which had largely subcontracted the nuclear diplomacy with Iran to its European partners, also appears intent on making sure that Iran hears its voice directly, rather than having it filtered by other interlocutors. U.S. officials wanted to ensure that the preliminary talks did not veer off course and lose sight of the suspension demand."
The Europeans, who tend to resent Washington’s unbridled arrogance, don’t want a war that would wreck the world economy. They can’t be trusted to deliver our intended message to Tehran: surrender or die. This is just foreplay if such a thing can be said of an intended rape and White House spokeswoman Dana Perino didn’t try very hard to put a good face on it:
“The substance remains the same, but this is a new tactic. What this does show is how serious we are when we say that we want to try to solve this diplomatically.”
The Bush administration is interested only in appearing to be serious about resolving this peacefully, when in actuality this diplomatic "surge" is merely a new tactic aimed at their real goal, which is regime-change in Iran.
Hardline neocon John Bolton was quick to denounce the administration for what he characterized as "a complete capitulation," but Philip Zelikow, formerly with the State Department, got it right when he told the Post:
“For some time, we and our allies have been reflecting on ways to reinforce that basic approach while taking away some of the more superficial complaints about it. This move does that. But the substantive position remains unchanged.”
What we are seeing is a variation on the same prelude, almost note for note, that we heard in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. A surrogate "dissident" group funnels phony intelligence about "weapons of mass destruction" to its masters in Washington, a full-court propaganda campaign is launched, sanctions are imposed, allies are pressured to get on board, and the whole performance takes place complete with a soundtrack of constant threats.
Nothing ever changes with this administration, in spite of the best efforts of the moderate "realists," because the War Party is still in the saddle and because both political parties uphold the principle of American hegemonism. Their differences are merely over strategy and tactics, and over matters of style and tone, but when it comes to the goal American domination of every region and continent "politics stops at the water’s edge," as the old foreign policy adage goes.
For example, look at the "debate" that’s going on between John McCain and Barack Obama: the former wants to stay in Iraq for a hundred years while remaining relatively indifferent to what’s going on in Afghanistan, while the latter says we should get out of Iraq so we can focus all our military resources on trying to do what the Soviets (and the Brits) could never do, and that is subdue the Afghan people.
While the partisan Punch & Judy show takes center stage, and Democratic politico and Obama surrogate Rahm Emmanuel taunts McCain and Bush that they’re following the mulatto messiah’s lead on Iran, the wheels and gears of the American regime-change machine are whirring and spinning, getting ready to move when the time comes. And this is where the Iranian war scenario is scripted a little differently than the Iraqi version: the timeframe is considerably telescoped, condensed into the months remaining before the end of Bush’s term.
As the sand spirals down in the hourglass, the War Party knows its window of opportunity will soon close. While Obama is loath to challenge them on this issue, and has done more than his share of kowtowing to the Israel lobby the principal proponent of military action against Tehran he’s not likely to guarantee they’ll be in Tehran by the summer of ’09, and they don’t want to take any unnecessary chances. Yet this hardly means Obama’s election will save us from the prospect of committing yet more war crimes in that part of the globe. Just as the Democratic candidate is using the Afghanistan issue to define himself as a "national security Democrat" tough enough to be Commander-in-chief, so he isn’t above using the Iranians to prove the same point.
"Coercive diplomacy" is a pat phrase Obama has used more than once to describe his preferred course of action, and, when it comes to Iran, I would emphasize the coercive side of the equation over the diplomatic. The American elites are unanimous in their verdict that the US must establish and maintain an American enclave in the Middle East: the only "debate" is over where the main forward base is to be located. McCain says Iraq, and Obama prefers Afghanistan.
Obama’s rise is based on a promise he isn’t prepared to deliver and never made. Whether the voters wake up to that before election day doesn’t really matter, because the alternative is at least just as bad, and probably worse.
What is needed isn’t just a new President we sorely require a new foreign policy. Or, rather, a return to the old one, a policy derived from the traditional stance of the Founders of this country, who warned against foreign adventurism, disdained entangling alliances, and realized, above all, that the acquisition of an overseas empire would amount to taking a poison pill that would kill off our republican form of government for good.
The American people yearn for real change, especially when it comes to our dangerously crazed foreign policy, but it is unlikely their hopes will be fulfilled this time around.
Remember: our own intelligence apparatus is telling us [.pdf] that the Iranians abandoned efforts to weaponize their nascent nuclear technology years ago. Yet both McCain and Obama deem Iran a "threat" to the US the latter even characterized Tehran as “the greatest strategic challenge to the United States in the region in a generation.” The only "change" I see is in the names of our overseas victims, whom we target, demonize, and destroy.
By the way, under the terms of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty which, unlike the Israelis, the Iranians are signatories to Tehran is perfectly entitled to develop nuclear power for peaceful uses. Given the long lines for gas in Iran, that is no doubt what they’re doing. Like us, they realize that the world’s oil supply is limited, and also like us they want to achieve illusory "energy independence," whatever that may mean. This, however, is one illusion we’re not willing to share with just anyone, and certainly not with the Iranians.
Read more by Justin RaimondoPhoto: UCT
Estimated size of the Lesotho megatheropod based on the footprints discovered in Roma, Lesotho. Theropod image adapted, with permission, from Scott Hartman.
A team of scientists from universities in SA, the UK and Brazil have discovered the first evidence of a large carnivorous dinosaur roaming Southern Africa 200 million years ago, according to a statement from the University of Cape Town (UCT).
The UCT-led team comprised of scientists from the University of Manchester in the UK, and Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil. The discovery of the large footprints was made in the Roma Valley near the National University of Lesotho in western Lesotho.
A new study published by the team reveals a 50cm wide, 57cm long, three-toed footprint of the large animal colloquially known as a megatheropod - a major contrast from the usual small dinosaurs with a body length of between 3m - 5m.
"With an estimated body length of about 9m and hip height of 2.7m, this animal would have roamed a landscape otherwise dominated by much smaller carnivorous dinosaurs and a variety of herbivorous and omnivorous dinosaurs," read the statement.
Lara Sciscio, lead author on the publication, explained the meaning behind the name - Ambrokholohali - given to the megatheropod tracks of the new species of dinosaur discovered.
"This name was... derived in honour of Emeritus Professor David Ambrose for his detailed recording of the trace fossil heritage within the Roma Valley, Lesotho. In trying to relocate one of Prof Ambrose's sites, we discovered the newly exposed megatheropod tracks reported in the article."
What makes the discovery scientifically impactful is the fact that during Early Jurassic days, dinosaurs were relatively smaller, and only starting growing within the Late Jurassic and Early to Middle Cretaceous - about 120 million years ago.
"These are the largest theropod trackways ever found in Africa for this time period. These large tracks are unique with only one other site, in the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland, bearing similar aged tracks but of a marginally larger size," read the statement.
Source: News24Technical Debt is usually referred to as something Bad. One of my other articles The Solution to Technical Debt certainly implies that, and most other articles and books on the topic are all about how to get rid of technical debt.
But is debt always bad? When can debt be good? How can we use technical debt as tool, and distinguish between Good and Bad debt?
Exercise: Draw your technical debt curve
Think of technical debt as anything about your code that slows you down over the long term. Hard-to-read code, lack of test automation, duplication, tangled dependencies, etc.
Now think of any system you’re working on. Grab a piece of paper and draw a technical debt graph over time. It’s hard to numerically measure technical debt, but you can think of it in relative terms – how is the relative amount of technical debt changing over time? Going up? Down? Stable?
Sadly, in most systems tech debt seems to continuously increase.
How do you WANT your debt curve to look?
Next question: if you could choose, in a perfect world, how would you like that curve to look like instead? Might sound like an obvious question, your spontaneous thought may be something “Zero tech debt! Yaay!”
Because, heck, didn’t I just say that technical debt is anything that slows you down? And who wants to be slowed down? If we could have zero technical debt throughout the whole product lifecycle, wouldn’t that be the best?
Actually, no. Having zero technical debt at all times will probably slow you down too. Remember, I said “Think of technical debt as anything about your code that slows you down over the long term”. The short term, however, is a different story.
Let’s talk about Good technical debt.
When is a mess Good?
Think of your computer and desk when you are in the middle of creating something. You probably have stuff all over the place, old coffee cups, pens and notes, and your computer has dozens of windows open. It’s a mess isn’t it?
Same thing with any creative situation – while cooking, you have ingredients and spices and utensils lying around. While recording music, you have instruments and cables and notes lying around. While painting, you have pens and paints and tools lying around.
Imagine if you had to keep your workspace clean all the time – every time you slice a vegetable, you have to clean and replace the knife. After each painting stroke, you have to clean and replace the brush. After each music take, you have to unplug the instrument and put it back in it’s case. This would slow you down and totally kill your creativity, flow, and productivity.
In fact, the “mess” is what allows you to maintain your state of flow – you have all your work materials right at your fingertips.
When is a mess Bad?
A fresh mess is not a problem. It’s the old mess that bites you.
If you open your computer to start on something new, and find that you still have dozens of windows and documents open from the thing you were working on yesterday, that will slow you down. Just like if you go to the kitchen to make dinner and find that the kitchen is clogged up with old dishes and leftovers from yesterday.
Same with technical debt. Generally speaking, old debt is bad and new debt is good.
If you are coding up a new feature, there are lots of different ways to do it. Somewhere there is probably a very simple elegant solution, but it’s really hard to figure it out upfront. It’s easier to experiment, play around, try some different approaches to the problem and see how they work.
Any technical debt accumulated during that process is “good debt”, since cleaning it up would restrict your creativity. In fact, somewhere inside the messy commented-out code from this morning you may discover the embryo to a really elegant solution to your problem, and if you had cleaned it up you would have lost it.
Another thing. Sometimes early user feedback is higher priority than technical quality. You’re worried that people might not want this feature at all, so you want to knock out a quick prototype to see if people get excited about it. If the feature turns out to be a keeper, you go back and clean up the code before moving on to the next feature.
The problem is, just like in the kitchen, we often forget to clean up before moving on. And that’s how technical debt goes bad. All that “temporary” experimental code, duplicated code, lack of test coverage – all that stuff will really slow you down later when you build the next feature.
So regardless of your reason for accumulating short-term debt, make sure you actually do pay it off quickly!
But wait. How short is “short term”?
When does Good Debt turn into Bad Debt
My experience is that, in software, the “good mess” is only good up to a few days, definitely less than a week. Then it starts going stale, dirty dishes clog up the kitchen, the leftovers start to stink, and both inspiration and productivity go downhill.
So it’s really important to break big features into smaller sub-features that can be completed in a few days. If you need practice doing that I can highly recommend the elephant carpaccio exercise.
The ideal technical debt curve
If new debt is good, and old debt is bad, then the ideal curve should look something like this, a sawtooth pattern where each cycle is just a day or two.
That is, I allow myself to make a temporary mess while implementing a new feature, but then make sure to clean it up before starting the next feature. Sounds sensible enough right?
Just like the kitchen; It’s OK to cause a creative mess while cooking, but clean it up right after the meal. That way you make space for the next creative mess.
The more realistic ideal technical debt curve
In theory, it would be great to get down to zero technical debt after each feature. In practice, there’s an 80/20 rule involved. It takes a reasonable amount of effort to keep the technical debt at a low level, but it takes an unreasonably high amount of effort to remove every last last crumb of technical debt.
So a more realistic ideal curve looks like this, with a baseline somewhere above zero (but not too far!).
That means our code is never perfect, but it’s always in good shape.
The “debt” metaphor works nicely because, just like in real life, most people do have some kind of financial debt (like a house mortgage) on a more or less permanent basis. It’s not all bad. As long as we can afford to pay the interest, and as long as the debt doesn’t grow out of control.
Have a debt ceiling. Just for in case.
Now, even if we do clean up after every feature, we are humans and are likely to accidentally leave small pieces of garbage here and there, and it will gradually accumulate over time. Like this:
So it best to introduce a “debt ceiling”. Just like certain governments….
When debt hits the ceiling, we declare “debt alert!”, the doors are closed, all new development stops, and everybody focuses on cleaning up the code until they’re all the way back down to the baseline.
The debt ceiling should be set high enough that we don’t hit it all the time, and low enough that we aren’t irrecoverably screwed by the time we hit it. Maybe something like this over a half-year period:
How to set the baseline and ceiling
All this begs the questions “yes, but How?”. It may seem hard to quantify technical debt. But actually, it’s not. Anything can be measured, as long as it doesn’t have to be exact.
Just ask people on the team “How do we feel about the quality of our code?”. Pick any scale. I often use 1-5, where 5 is “beautiful, awesome code with zero technical debt”, and 1 is “a debt-riddled pile of crap”. With that scale, I would set the debt baseline to 4, and the debt ceiling to 3 (think of debt as the inverse of quality). That means quality will usually be 4, but if it hits 3 we will stop and yank it back up to 5.
Of all the possible metrics that can be used, I find that teams often like this subjective quality metric. It’s simple, and it visualizes something that most developers care deeply about – the quality of their code.
Other more objective metrics (such as test coverage, duplication, etc) can be used as input to the discussion. But at the end of the day, the developer’s subjective opinion is what counts.
Use debt ceiling to avoid a vicious cycle
The debt ceiling is very important! Because once your debt reaches a certain tipping point, the problem tends to spiral out of control, and most teams never manage to get it back down again. That applies to monetary debt as well. And governments…
One reason for this “tipping point” effect is the “broken window syndrome”. Developers tend to unconsciously adapt the quality of new code to the quality of the existing code. If the existing code is bad enough (many “broken windows”), new code tends to be just as bad or even worse – “oh that code is such a mess, I don’t know how to integrate with it so I’ll just add my new stuff here on top”.
Think of a kitchen, at home or at the office. If it’s clean, people are less likely to leave a dirty cup on the counter. If there are dirty cups everywhere, people are very much more likely to just add their own dirty cup on top. We are herd animals after all.
Make quality a conscious decision
My experience is that a quality level of 4 (out of 5) is a good-enough level of quality; clean enough to let the team move fast without stumbling over garbage, but not so overly clean that the team spends most of it’s time keeping it clean and arguing over code perfection details.
The key is to take a stand on quality. Regardless of how you measure quality, or where you place your debt baseline and ceiling, it’s very valuable to discuss this on a regular basis and make an explicit decision about where you want to be.
How Definition of Done helps
“Definition of Done” is a useful concept for keeping tabs on technical debt. For example, your Definition of Done for a feature could be:
Code clean
In production
User accepted
These are in no particular sequence, as that will vary from feature to feature. Every sequence has it’s advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes we’ll want to put something in production first, then get user feedback, then clean up. Sometimes we’ll want to clean up first, then get user feedback, then put in production. But the feature isn’t Done until all three things have been done.
Here’s a sample board to visualize features flowing through this process.
Feature A: All done. It’s in production, the code is clean, and the user has given thumbs up.
All done. It’s in production, the code is clean, and the user has given thumbs up. Feature B & C: Current focus is getting user feedback. B has already been cleaned, C has not.
Current focus is getting user feedback. B has already been cleaned, C has not. Feature D: Current focus is cleaning up the code. User has tried it and given thumbs up.
Current focus is cleaning up the code. User has tried it and given thumbs up. Feature E & F: Currently being developed, trying to quickly get to a point where we can get user feedback.
Currently being developed, trying to quickly get to a point where we can get user feedback. The rest of the features are in the idea pool (most teams call that a “backlog” but I prefer the term “idea pool”).
How TDD helps
Acceptance Test-driven development is a really effective way to keep the code clean while still enabling experimentation and creativity.
All features are developed in three distinct steps:
First step is to write a failing (“red”) acceptance test. When doing that, we focus exclusively on the question “what does this feature aim to achieve, and how will I know when it works?”. We’re setting a very clear goal and embedding it in code, so at this point we don’t care about quality, or how the feature will be implemented.
Second step is to implement the actual feature. We know when we’re done because the executable acceptance test will go from red to green. We’re looking for the fastest path to the goal, not necessarily the best path. So it’s perfectly fine to write ugly hacks and make a creative mess at this point – ignore quality and just get to green as quickly as possible.
Third step is to clean up. Now we have a working feature and a green test to prove it. We can now clean up the code, and even drastically redesign it, because the running tests (not just the newest test) act as a safety harness to alert us if we’ve broken or changed anything.
This process ensures that we don’t forget the purpose of the feature (since it forces us to write an executable acceptance test from the beginning), and that we don’t forget to clean up before moving on to the next feature.
To emphasize this process, we can update the board with “acceptance test written” column, just to make sure that we don’t start implementing a feature before we have a failing acceptance test.
The acceptance test doesn’t necessarily have to be expressed at a feature level (“if we do X, then Y should happen”). Some alternatives:
Lean Startup style acceptance test: “we have validated or invalidated that users are willing to pay for premium accounts”. Maybe rename the “User feedback” column to “Validating assumption”.
Impact Mapping style acceptance test “the feature is done when it increases user activation rate by 10%”. Maybe rename the “User feedback” column to “Validating impact”.
Either way, we just need to make sure cleanup is part of the process somewhere.
TDD can be done at multiple levels – at a feature level (acceptance tests) as well as at a class or module level (unit tests). Think of the unit tests as a bunch of triangles inside the acceptance test triangle. One loop around the big triangle involves a bunch of smaller loops inside.
After each unit test goes green, do minor cleanup around that. When the acceptance test goes green, do a bigger cleanup. Then move on to the next feature.
The key point is that each corner of the TDD triangle comes with a different mindset, and each one is important.
Good quality = happier people
At the end of the day, technical debt is not about technology. It’s about people.
A clean code base is not only faster to work with, it is more fun (or less annoying, if you prefer seeing things that way…). And motivated developers tend to create better products faster, which in turn makes both customers and developers happier. A nice positive cycle 🙂Have you been wondering where the ARK public Testnet for all developers, hobbyists, and bug hunters is? Want to help test core upgrades, make your own upgrades/tests, or just play with test ARK? The Testnet is now called DEVNET (Development Network).
The coin/token used on DEVNET is called DARK (DѦ) — these are test tokens that can only be used on DEVNET.
This guide will help you get your DEVNET node up and running in no time!
REMEMBER : THIS GUIDE IS FOR DEVNET AND NOT MAINNET! ALL TOKENS ON DEVNET ARE FOR TESTING PURPOSES AND DON’T HOLD ANY MONETARY VALUE, NOR WILL ANY MAINNET TOKENS WORK ON DEVNET.
You will also need ARK Desktop Wallet 1.3 or later to follow this guide, for switching networks and creating DARK addresses. You can download the latest version from here:
If you are looking for the MainNet guide, please use this:
How to set up node for MainNet
#1 Setting Up Node for DEVNET
Start by getting a VPS(Virtual Private Server).
Minimum requirements for running a DARK node VPS (active or relay):
— 1 dedicated CPU core, x86 or x64 architecture (the higher the CPU clock speed, the better) — KVM virtualization as opposed to OpenVZ
—1 GB RAM (the more the better, we suggest at least 2GB),
— Ubuntu 16.04.x (this is optimal, and this guide is written for it)
— 10GB free space (we recommend SSD/m.2, as opposed to traditional HDD drives, and we suggest at least 20GB).
Recommended VPS/Cloud providers:
— DigitalOcean
— Vultr
— OVH
Connect to your newly created VPS with the IP and password from your provider:
username : root
password : xxx (sent in email)
IP : xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (sent in email)
SSH port : 22 (this is default)
Windows : use any SSH client. For our example, we will use Putty, an open-source client you can download here : download Putty.
use any SSH client. For our example, we will use Putty, an open-source client you can download here : download Putty. MAC OS : open Terminal. To start Terminal, go to your Mac’s Applications folder => click on the Utilities folder => then click on Terminal.
open Terminal. To start Terminal, go to your Mac’s Applications folder => click on the Utilities folder => then click on Terminal. Linux : depending on your distribution, you can usually open a terminal shell by pressing a combination of “Ctrl + Alt + T” keys.
For terminal in Linux / MAC OS you can connect to the VPS with this command:
ssh user@<your-server-ip>
for example in Linux / MAC OS the command would be:
ssh root@138.197.206.43
Starting an SSH session in Putty:
If you are connecting for the first time to Putty, it will tell you about host key — click ‘Yes’.
An SSH session will open:
Login as: root
Password: (enter your pass received from your VPS provider)
All bash commands will be in code boxes for this tutorial.
like this
Some VPS providers require you to immediately change the root password. If not prompted to do so, changing your root password is still recommended. Use the command:
passwd
On the first run, we recommend running update and upgrade options to get the latest security patches and core updates for Ubuntu 16.04.x. Use the commands:
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
#2 Setting Up Regular User With Sudo Privileges
Now it is time to |
crisis. #HalfAsianProbs (twitter.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 1 commentsavehidereport 95 4 Your children will be denied the official classification of Caucasian within the White Supremacist racial hierarchy. your hapa sons will be psycho-emotionally castrated then given positions as palace eunuchs, allowed to look but never touch. (afroalchemist.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 96 2 I went through a similar Asian American upbringing/identity crisis as you did, but I experienced another shade of things because I'm half Asian and half white. there was a lot of insecurity and self-doubt when I realized that I was more Asian than Caucasian, but couldn't speak any Chinese (kotaku.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 97 2 I'm 50% Korean Mother side and a little everything from my Father side, Irish Native- American(Cherokee) Scottish German and Italian. Growing up I wasn't accepted from Caucasians nor Asian people. It was like I was a disgrace that I was half mixed. (experienceproject.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 98 3 almost every half-Korean I know goes through some kind of identity crisis. White people never consider me to be white. Even though I'm just as much white as I am Korean, they only see the black hair and yellow skin. they'll always bring up something about me being Asian. (waygook.org) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 99 2 Eurasian Teenage daughter who killed her Asian mother Yun Mi Hoy by stabbing her 151 times and then beat her with a baseball bat AVOIDS jail after judge declares her insane. She had become'more threatening and disrespectful' towards her Asian mother (dailymail.co.uk) submitted 1 month ago by hapagirlz commentsavehidereport 100 5 I am half white but I do feel disconcerted that all the Asian women in my family are married to white men despite living in an Asian area and attending predominantly Asian universities. I have found that being even half Asian is a complete turn off to a lot of girls. (ampedasia.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 3 Geoff Grossman, a 29-year-old who is half-Chinese and half-Caucasian, explains that he was the only visible minority at his Toronto Hebrew school. He says the typical reaction he receives from Jewish girls on JSwipe is essentially, “‘Why the hell are you on JSwipe? Your eyes are different,’” (cjnews.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 102 1 I’m half-asian and half-white, so people are racist to me approximately half the time. “No, like, ok…” here it comes… “you’re not white. You look like you have something else in you.” As for people who know I’m a halfie, plenty of asian jokes ensue. (sophieologie.me) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 103 4 I think their alienation can be seen in their children – half white/half Asian. These children form their own bubble of “Have-Nots.” These offspring are now considering themselves as discriminated against, and even demanding various affirmative action regulations in jobs and academic institutions. (thinkinghousewife.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 104 3 I'm half Asian and half Caucasian, and I can assure you I'm neither that attractive nor popular. (smogon.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 105 4 Ashley Viager did not get much feedback about relationships until she started dating her current boyfriend, who is black. “Most of my family on the Korean side are married to white men,” Viager said. “I think for them they would have always preferred I dated a white person (host.madison.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 1 commentsavehidereport 106 3 I'm half Asian, half white and as a young kid I was teased by other people about my eyes and avoided by kids who were predominately white. My grandfather always says the U.S is a white man's country. I can't help but feel Asians are mistreated in the U.S (telltalegames.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 107 3 mom am i white? the answer is yes, he is. Stop confusing the poor child and STOP telling him he's of Asian descent when you and the baby daddy are clearly white. He will grow up with an identity problem and will very likely hate you for it. Have some decency as a parent. (multiasianfamilies.blogspot.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 108 4 My curious eight year old, half-white, half-Chinese son Callum wanted to know what “European Labour Only” meant. I wasn’t looking forward to exaplining to him what racism is, but he has to find out sometime, right? Callum had no idea that anybody would hate someone else (karencheng.com.au) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 109 1 this is why when people tell me interracial marriages stop racism I laugh in their face, because they don’t. This guy married a Chinese woman and had a child with her and continues to objectify (weareallmixedup.tumblr.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapagirlz commentsavehidereport 110 5 A Eurasian daughter asks her Asian Mom- you were just a gold digger? (img.4plebs.org) submitted 1 month ago by lulzerzz commentsavehidereport 111 2 Like a co-worker who wasn't sure what to say when his half-Caucasian, half-Chinese son came home asking: "Why are people calling me Chinese? I'm not Chinese." No, you can't choose your cultural background. (geocities.ws) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 112 2 What happens when you have a "hapa" kid and the kid actually looks more asian than you? I'm half asian/half caucasian but look more asian than my mother. You'd actually marry a white man to have hapa kids? SICK. What are you going to tell your future "hapa" son if he turns out to look very asian? (community.myfitnesspal.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 113 1 WM/AF Mischlinge are a “breed” unto themselves. Generally, they don’t like Mommy because she’s responsible for their non-White-ness. They feel like since they’re half-White, the White Privilege attaches to them and they “deserve” White women. White women, of course, disagree (beyondblackwhite.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 114 3 Half asian guy here. I'm a half Japanese / English guy. exposing some of the hypocrisy that’s tolerated in today’s PC society. I think a lot of people are sick of it, and people are starving to watch / hear someone who is 100% logical and 0% politically correct. (stormfront.org) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 1 commentsavehidereport 115 3 A White Dad Criticizes Hollywood’s lack of Opportunities for his Half Asian Son. (bigwowo.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 116 2 I’m half-Japanese and half-white. if you refer to Japanese as “pin dick motherfuckers,” you ought not to complain when people refer to blacks as “gorillas.” If you describe exactly why you find the women of another race unattractive, you ought not to be offended if someone does the same to you. (amren.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 1 commentsavehidereport 117 2 Did you hug your white dad and Asian mom today, you Hapa dipshits? (longingfordeath.files.wordpress.com) submitted 1 month ago by [deleted] commentsavehidereport 118 2 “Go away, Mommy!” I thought I had a good ten years before I would hear this from my Hapa son. Alas, these words are almost a daily occurrence now. He often couples it with other telling phrases like “Don’t touch me!” and “I want Daddy!” (chengtozun.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 2 commentssavehidereport 119 4 If you tell people your dad is the Asian parent, you will literally blow their minds. But if you go anywhere with your Western dad, everyone will assume you’re a really inappropriate couple. (buzzfeed.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 1 commentsavehidereport 120 2 Asian girls don't like me because I'm not fully Asian White girls don't like me because I'm not fully white (reddit.com) submitted 1 month ago by hapa666 1 commentsavehidereport 121 0 Lol @ Eurasian men (self.hapas) submitted 1 month ago by [deleted] 2 commentssavehidereport 122 7 mixed-race people have especially difficult odds of finding a bone marrow donor. The odds are even smaller for a Hapa person, who will need a donor who is specifically of the same ethnic blend: ie. my children would need a donor who is also Taiwanese-English-Irish, not just Asian and white. (hapamama.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 123 1 what disturbed me was that the White father would dye his Eurasian child's hair light brown It didn't even match his eyebrows, which were a deep thick black. Now was the father basically "dying" away the asian side of his child's identity? There was no way this kid, in my eyes, could pass for white. (hapas.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 124 7 I'm half asian, and pretty much any time I see an internet dating ad, it almost always says something to the extent of 'No Asians'. it's still discouraging when from the outset it seems they have a preset discrimination against those who have Asian blood. (stepupdating.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 125 3 I’ve had the opportunity to exchange thoughts with a couple of extremely outspoken and unapologetic Hapa males, themselves products of a Asian woman White male unions.I was listening to pitbulls. they have the insider scope. They know what happens behind closed doors outside of earshot (webcache.googleusercontent.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 126 4 I’m glad we got divorced. I am now raising our two Eurasian children in Australia. My Japanese ex-wife’s violent side was terrible. I couldn’t stand her lies anymore, or her neglect to our Eurasian sons. It was a very bitter experience (japantoday.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 127 6 I'm a half White half Chinese male, but I look like a Hispanic and I can't get conversations with White girls. With White women, 90% of the time they reject it. Why White women are like this I don't know, but most of them are cowards (city-data.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 128 3 Eurasian guys inherit the Asian characteristics that make prevent them from getting dates and inspiring white guys to follow them such as low sex drives, introversion, general lack of personality, smaller penises, more difficulty building muscle, lack of athleticism, lack of humor, and shortness (halfsigma.typepad.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 129 3 I am a Eurasian. I feel so depressed because i find no one talks to me at my new school. I feel like i am on an island populated with monkeys, and i am the only ant on that island with no one to relate to or socialise with. Because of this, i think i am an abomination. (sgforums.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 130 1 A ugly half italian, half korean male, with sweaty palms. Thats one huge Grosso. (urbandictionary.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 131 0 Being a half white-half Asian guy, I've always wondered if there was a place where my kind is more accepted. I though maybe LA, but boy am I wrong. (instinctmagazine.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 132 3 eurasian guys are stuck in the middle...singaporean girls don't want them because they are not caucasian enough and caucasian girls don't want them because they are not completely asian or completely caucasian. (hongkong.asiaxpat.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 133 2 The Human Experimentation which created WMAF Eurasian Mutants (youtube.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 2 commentssavehidereport 134 3 Amanda Todd's Asian Mother Speaks out about how her Eurasian teen daughter was manipulated into doing pornography and then cyberbullied into suicide (youtube.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 135 5 I now hate being eurasian. I've become a white supremacist. everything they spoke about has sunk deep into my head; 'race mixing is wrong and infecting our gene pool' - Those words have up to today influenced how I treat my family & friends, especially my mother who carries the asian blood (eurasiannation.proboards.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 136 3 My mother came to the United States in her late 20s. She is from Taiwan, and she met my father, a white, southern Baptist (redneck), at the University of South Carolina. they had a hard time starting out. She was an Asian after all, didn't exactly respect her because of her race. (everything2.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 137 3 Sorry i sound like a stupid whinger thats how pathetic i am. Hope i die in my sleep… I want a job but i know im a failure, so much better off dead. I hate being Eurasian too… Sorry for wasting your time. Failures dont belong in this world (suicideproject.org) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 138 2 sometimes i hate being eurasian. People won’t date me because I’m not white enough, on the other side people think I’m too white for them. It just feels that way.. Kind of sucks because I don’t fit in with anyone. People who are of Caucasian descent label me as Asian (gilbogarbage.tumblr.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 139 1 The White Dad and Asian Mom of Matthew de Grood are ‘shocked and devastated’ after their Eurasian son perpetuated the worst knife spree-killing attack in Canadian history at a college house party. (news.nationalpost.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 140 3 Beginning this week, Eurasian Columbia student Emma Sulkowicz has vowed to carry her mattress around at all times until her White male rapist is expelled from school. (nymag.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 141 4 Nicole John, Eurasian daughter of US ambassador to Thailand Eric John, commits suicide after sneaking into an adult party (nydailynews.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 142 1 I hate being Eurasian so much... if i get married, i want to marry a guy who is either asian or caucasian... not a mix asian... mix caucasion is ok, but better off pure asian (or close enough). (clairzy.blogspot.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 143 4 I hate being Eurasian (Mixed). I am half white, half Chinese girl (White father, Chinese mother) and I hate it. I always feel different, and feel bad about myself. Why would anybody want to be my friend? (ca.answers.yahoo.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 144 2 Half Asians carry in their physical features The burdens that EVERY “Asian American” carries, Embodied in their HALF-slanted eyes. the yellow mulatto shamed out of their heritage. that is why I hate being half-Asian, half “American.” (collateralanguage.blogspot.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 145 2 You claim not to think 'white is right' but you basically try to point out every Caucasian feature on your clearly half-Asian son. Its one thing to deny it on yourself and say you just prefer blonde hair, but you project your insecurities and twisted logic onto you child. (pinsta.me) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 146 2 I'll still want my son to know Chinese because it's who he is; he's half Chinese. I fear if he loses the language, he'll lose a part of himself. And so, I continue to wage battle every day to protect a king that I myself once overthrew. (scmp.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 147 2 George Winkel is a regular participant on the Asiaphile & Sellouts Homepage he and his Chinese wife are the proud parents of one son. Basically, I see HIF as a "One-Drop" brainwashing machine attempting to turn bright young Eurasians into Asian-American clones of Al Sharpton (scipoet.tripod.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 148 2 How do they have the face to belittle their own Asian fathers/brothers yet are producing Asian-looking sons, themselves? Is the son supposed to feel proud that his mother saved him from being another low-life full-blooded Asian male? (pebhmong.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 149 3 Imagine having a half asian son, who is some fucking beta introvert with a baby dick. You throw the football to him and it hits him and he starts crying. (godlikeproductions.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 150 3 I'm a white girl. Over my dead body will I date a euroasian.I'm sure a lot of white girls have the same view. Hence why you don't see that mix much. I see more white men with "euroasian" women. (answers.yahoo.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 151 5 Just How Corrupt is the Asian Woman + White Man Relationship? (self.hapas) submitted 2 months ago by JohnnyMangoes 29 commentssavehidereport 152 4 How do I as a white dad respond to angry attacks from my Eurasian Hapa son on my marriage to his Asian mother? Hes always cursing me and my wife out, and spouts ultra-nationalist propaganda, not just from Asian writers but Anything thats anti-white. (reddit.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 153 3 Race Stereotype Drama in /r/pics when a redditor posts pic of his Asian wife & Eurasian kid, and someone concludes that he is white & a programmer because Asian women are less aggressive than white women & programmers are beta males (reddit.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 154 3 I can speak about this issue because I am a half-American, half-Japanese who lived in the States until I was 15, but had a deadbeat dad and had no other choice but to come to Japan with my mom. My biological father has never looked me up since. (japantimes.co.jp) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 155 3 I am half German, half Korean. I experience racial slurs and bullying from everyone around me for looking different. I have, and will always, be treated like a second class citizen all because my white father was selfish enough to have kids with an Asian woman. (reddit.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 1 commentsavehidereport 156 3 I'm half Japanese and grew up in Japan, and I'm the product of a relationship like this. Seen first hand what a timid father marrying a strong willed and not submissive Japanese mother is like. nerds and losers end up fetishizing Asian girls as smart and submissive and willing to date nerds. (reddit.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 157 2 This woman, an Asian, is being abused by her US citizen husband. Briefly, this woman used to live in Japan for 17 years and has one half-Japanese son. she met (in Japan) an American, got married, and was invited to live in Florida. They then have two children together (forums.welltrainedmind.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 1 commentsavehidereport 158 2 I am a Korean American. Half white and half Asian. A Hapa. My parents were very abusive. Physically and emotionally. I wanted to remind my mom of the times I would yell at adults, as a child, to defend my mother when they mocked her English. When they told her to go back to China (reddit.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 159 2 I am half chinese, half white. I only speak english, and was born and raised in Canada. women who are not asian are less inclined to date asian men, or in my case, a man who looks asian. (reddit.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 160 2 My mom is from Asia, and my father basically picked her up over there and brought her back here. She told me that she saw a fortune teller in China and that it was my destiny to ruin her life. If only I was more like her. But nope, I was just like my worthless, horrible, American father. (reddit.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 161 2 I feel so much pain and suffering. I'm a 25 year old half asian/half white guy. I live in North America and have lived my whole life celibate. I feel like no one finds me atractive(possibly because I don't know the signs or how to flirt, feel like race plays apart) (reddit.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 162 2 I'm half Japanese/half white. I'm not white enough to be accepted by white people and too white to be accepted by Asian people. What am I supposed to do? (reddit.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 163 2 My wife is half Philipino. Her White father has several times made comments about "Rice is good for your eyes" and then proceeds to pull his eyes to a slant whenever my wife has eaten a rice dish etc etc. He hates the fact that she's part Asian and has told me to "Breed the Asian out of her" (reddit.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 164 2 As an Asian (half) dude who is primarily attracted to Caucasian ladies, am I doomed to failure? (reddit.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 165 2 I've given up telling women I'm half-Asian, as they seem pretty hostile to the notion. Girls have called me Jackie Chan's bastard son, act surprised I speak English. I find random women staring at me frowning quite a bit. (reddit.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 166 2 Asian Girl Dating White Guy= Parents Dilema The girls will look like me...petite, cute, sweet, friendly,and pretty. The boys will look like him, tall, smart, cool, and handsome hehe. It would be very nice, if his parents doesn't mind that I'm Asian right? (relationshiptalk.net) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 167 3 the Vietnamese immigrant wife annoys her hapa son by being more shadow than equal partner to her white Canadian husband (even as she’s apparently the more substantial breadwinner); (smithsonianapa.org) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 168 2 A White Dad observes that his Hapa son is unable to make friends with any children who are not Hapa in pre-school. kids do notice race from an early age; by the age of three, they will start sorting themselves into racial groups (beaconbroadside.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 169 2 Picture a 21-year-old half-asian guy who doesn't shave in all black clothing and often a trenchcoat. He does not shave. He does not bathe. He does not wear deodorant. He's very creepy looking. He is also an absolute social failure. (forums.somethingawful.com) submitted 2 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 170 14 You okay mate? (self.hapas) submitted 3 months ago by [deleted] 2 commentsunsavehidereport 171 2 How Can Euro-Asian Males Build Self-Esteem? Mixed race kids have it much tougher in life because they don’t have a clear identity and a clear in-group. So they have a lot more mental problems. (lukeford.net) submitted 3 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 172 1 It is also well known that many half Japanese children, rejected by white chicks and weakened by their Japanese mothers who spoil them and make them wet, unassertive and drippy end up marrying another Japanese women. All evidence of your white genes will have been wiped out. (forum.gaijinpot.com) submitted 3 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 173 2 Everyone calls me gay because I'm Eurasian. the fact that I'm half-white and half-asian, the fact that I look slightly unusual is perceived as "uppity" on my part somehow. (ask.metafilter.com) submitted 3 months ago by hapa666 1 commentsavehidereport 174 2 Julie felt that she and other Hapas only exist because their Asian mothers were the object of a fetish for Oriental exoticism (books.google.com) submitted 4 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 175 2 Half-White Half-Asian son, so he’s half-Alpha half-Omega? I wouldn’t mind a son that’s Beta as fuck. Pave way to more Alpha men, he can stay in him room and be friendzoned by everyone. His purpose in life in to spread awareness of White Supremacy. (webcache.googleusercontent.com) submitted 4 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 176 1 I don't find white women attractive, mainly because of their attitudes. I do however like asian women and I have a mixed son. The white men should get all the asian women and the asian men would rather go to a secret island with their buddies to drink beer and give hand jobs to eachother (yellowbullet.com) submitted 4 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 177 1 Friend drunkenly confessed the other night that he regretted having a half-Asian son.. I feel fucking awful for saying this, but sometimes I look at him and it's more like looking at an alien than at a son. (f169bbs.com) submitted 4 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 178 2 When my husband got home, he was a little shaken. Not by the violence he'd seen, but because the incident crystallized for him, as the soon-to-be (non-Asian) father of an Asian American boy, what our son might be up against (modelminority.com) submitted 4 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 179 2 What are the future dating prospects for my Eurasian sons?. I just hope that if my sons' eye ever falls on a white lady she will not cruelly reject him somehow. (happierabroad.com) submitted 4 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 180 1 Now, being a half Asian male who looks predominantly Asian growing up in Canada, I have had my fair share of teasing.. The first thing I ever said to her was "Can I borrow a highlighter?" She calmly said "I dont lend things to Ch**ks". she would say "where's your bowl of rice yellow belly?" (ultimate-guitar.com) submitted 4 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 181 1 I was recently called a "sell outs and racist" by one of my eurasian male friends semi-jokingly. I felt really offended but he insisted that what he said make sense. (forumosa.com) submitted 4 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 182 1 I am 15 years old, a Eurasian male. My mother is Thai and my father is European. When I am with my white friends, they always mock me with the "Asian stereotypes" that drive me absolutely insane. (socialanxietysupport.com) submitted 4 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 183 1 I'm actually Eurasian and a product of the white male/ asian female relationship my friends hate so much. So I get the worst of both worlds. I have very little connection to my mom's Asian family overseas, don't speak the language, and am basically culturally white. But I look mostly Asian (answers.yahoo.com) submitted 4 months ago by hapa666 commentsavehidereport 184 1 my first day at school, everybody was full Caucasian expect for me. One student came up to me and asked me if I was Mexican,While promoting his unconventional take on U.S. history in Japan, filmmaker Oliver Stone says Obama the'snake' must be opposed.
While promoting his documentary series in Japan, filmmaker Oliver Stone tells reporters that President Obama is a'snake.' (Photo11: Yoshikazu Tsuno, AFP/Getty Images) Story Highlights Why is the filmmaker so ticked off at Obama?
He's promoting his documentary series in Japan
He has a different take on how WWII ended
Looks like director Oliver Stone is definitely off the White House invite list: He says the current occupant is a "snake."
He said this in Tokyo on Monday at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan while promoting his 10-part documentary series for Showtime called The Untold History of the United States, which argues, among other things, that it's a "myth" that the United States had to drop atomic bombs on Japan to win World War II.
Stone has ripped Obama before, including in the book that accompanies the series. He said last year that Obama has too often mimicked Republican predecessor George W. Bush, and this year, he and historian Peter Kuznick argued in USA TODAY that Obama has backed away from his promises to diminish the American "empire."
Lately, Stone is peeved at the POTUS for backing the NSA spying-on-Americans programs and for criticizing leaker-in-chief Edward Snowden. Stone said Snowden is a "hero" last month.
"Obama is a snake," Stone told the journalists in Tokyo. "He's a snake. And we have to turn on him."
Stone said Snowden sacrificed himself for the good of the country and praised Russia for giving Snowden asylum. "I think (Russian President Vladimir) Putin did the right thing, and I'm proud of him for doing it," he said. "We need more countries to stand up to the U.S."
Stone, who's as famous for his liberal politics as his unconventional takes on American presidents in his movies (JFK, Nixon, W), is all about standing up to the U.S.; in fact, he advised Japan to "disassociate" itself from its defense agreement with the United States and instead get closer to China.
Stone tweeted that reports of his remarks in Stars and Stripes should be "taken with a grain of salt" because the daily that covers the military is "our Empire's foreign base beat sheet." Still, an earlier tweet displayed his exasperation with Obama, who is regularly excoriated as a liberal and a socialist by his critics on the right.
"Look please at Obama's quote on Korea to see how crazy his sense of history has become," Stone tweeted, linking to an article describing an Obama speech in South Korea as the "most militaristic" of his presidency.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/14GzvyyWATCH: On Friday, B.C.’s politicians return to the legislature for the fall sitting. For the first time in 16 years, the throne speech will outline an NDP Government’s objectives. Mary Griffin reports.
The B.C. legislature will resume on Friday with a speech from the Throne.
This will be the first session of the legislature since the New Democrats and the Green Party combined to topple the minority Liberals after 16 years. Following a confidence vote, NDP Leader John Horgan was sworn in as the new premier after former premier Christy Clark resigned.
Victoria resident Germaine Williamson receives just over $1000 a month in disability benefits. She makes herself a cup of coffee in her rent-subsidized apartment that she pays $320 a month for.
She is hoping tomorrow’s Throne Speech will be kind to those on disability.
“I’m hoping that the bus pass will be, the original bus pass, will be re-established,” Williamson said. “For 45 dollars a year.”
During the provincial election, then NDP leader John Horgan promised to reinstate the $45 annual bus pass, and make life more affordable for British Columbians. University of Victoria political scientist Michael Prince said the theme of this Throne Speech will be different from the previous Liberal government.
“We’ll see that theme of affordability. Already the things that have been announced, improving the welfare rates, and disability rates, tuition fees, the toll bridges,” Prince said. “There’ll be that theme of the things that the Liberals nickeled and dimed you to death on over the last ten or fifteen years. We’re starting to ease that financial pressure.”
The NDP promised to get big money out of politics, a key election platform made by Horgan.
“We’re going to be tabling legislation to end union and corporate donations as soon as the legislature returns in September,” Horgan said on March 13th.
But a $525 a plate NDP party fundraiser is going ahead in Vancouver at the Fairmont Hotel September 22nd.
“The optics don’t look good. Clearly this is something that led the NDP to the success they achieved in this election,” Prince said. “The Liberals really got hurt on that cash-for-access.
Big money, big politics with the big friends of Christie Clark.”
The new government also has to deal with housing affordability, and the fentanyl crisis. Forestry in the interior is going to take a hit with this years’ wildfires, and more than a million hectacres burned. But Prince says the government will want to ensure they are sending a message of competent financial managers.
“I think they want to be sure to convey a sense of competence. That they are not just going to be tax and spend socialists,” Prince said. “That old criticism of the NDP.”
Back in her apartment, Germaine Williamson just wants a better future.
“I’m hoping that things will be a little better for people all the way around.”
READ MORE: John Horgan was sworn in as British Columbia?s 36th premier
A new speaker will be elected on Friday, a task that has been made easier after Clark’s resignation, which left the NDP and Green Party with two more seats than the Liberals.
Lieutenant-Governor Judith Guichon will deliver the throne speech in the afternoon setting out the new NDP government’s plans and priorities. The throne speech is expected to include bills that will ban union and corporate donations, increase penalties for lobbying violations and change the timing of general elections. The NDP government will be providing a budget update on Monday.
With files from The Canadian PressA former employee of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Wednesday compared the workplace atmosphere to a “plantation,” because of how black employees such as himself were treated.
In the third House Financial Services subcommittee hearing to address claims of discrimination against the CFPB, Kevin Williams, a former quality assurance monitor at the agency, painted a picture where black employees were constantly belittled – even to the point where they were stereotypically offered fried chicken at company lunches.
“I was a charter member in the intake unit, which, indeed, came to be referred to as the 'plantation,'” Williams testified. “There, I personally witnessed and was the victim of racial discrimination perpetrated by black as well as white managers. The unit was dubbed the 'plantation,' because when we started, the majority of black employees were assigned to intake, which was basically data entry.”
After the team's one white employee was transferred to another division, “someone then remarked that this looked like a 'damn plantation,' and the nickname stuck,” Williams added.
Williams left the CFPB in February after facing what he said was several years of discrimination from the federal agency tasked with protecting consumers.
Republicans on the committee were shocked, with Rep. Sean Duffy Sean Patrick DuffyHouse to push back at Trump on border On The Money: Shutdown Day 27 | Trump fires back at Pelosi by canceling her foreign travel | Dems blast 'petty' move | Trump also cancels delegation to Dav |
perplexed: Was it really necessary to repeat a "Cultural Revolution" which would push the Chinese people to the bottom of an abyss from which they would never emerge? Nobody had yet given me a clear answer. The rumors multiplied. It seemed to me that a big broom was sweeping, sweeping. I counted the days and waited: One, then two, then three. How slowly the time passed! And how agonizing the wait! It was dark clouds gathering above my head. All around, the drum roll beat faster and faster. Yet my mind remained lucid, and I could contrast each event that occurred at that time with the beginning phrases of the last "Cultural Revolution." I did not hear shouts of "Long live Chairman Mao!" Nobody took a stand, nor did anyone lay down their weapons and capitulate. All continued on their own course. Thunder claps resounded from afar and it began to rain. But less than one month later, people came out and talked, the brooms ceased to sweep away "dust," the threatening clouds had dispersed, and those who had sounded the trumpets disappeared from the scene. We had escaped the catastrophe this time.
In May, 1984, I was invited to participate in the 47th Congress of the International Pen Club in Tokyo, and I drafted my address in my hospital room. I quietly spent another half year in the hospital. A constant flow of visitors came. The flood of rumors did not dry up, and all I could do was not try to sort out what was true and false in my own mind. In my room I was not disturbed, and I should thank those people who vividly remember the "Cultural Revolution." Who would not let others use their blood to cultivate the flowers of another "Cultural Revolution." The flowers that bloom in human blood are bright and beautiful but they are poisoned. If these flowers were still to bloom, even just one, I would have to be dragged out of the hospital, not yet cured.
At the end of six months of reflection and analysis, I understood completely. If we do not have a second "Cultural Revolution," it is not that the ground is un-fertile or that the climate is unfavorable, quite the contrary. It seems that all the conditions already exist. For example, if the period of "less than one month" that I have just mentioned was prolonged a little - for example, twice or even four times as long, then the situation, could be delicate, began again, because there are many who benefited from the "Cultural Revolution."
It is pointless to continue the argument. The mass of letters which I receive from my friends and my readers, the articles which come to the press, demonstrate that more thoroughly more completely, and convincingly than I could. The authors had experiences worse than mine, crueler misfortunes. "Let us not allow under any pretext such a monstrous episode of history to be repeated," they declared.
To build a museum of the "Cultural Revolution" is not the business of any one person in particular: it is of the responsibility of all to build one so our descendants, generation after generation, will learn the painful lessons of these ten years. "Let history not be repeated" must not be an empty phrase. In order that everyone sees clearly and remembers clearly, it is necessary to build a museum of the "Cultural Revolution," exhibiting concrete and real objects, and reconstructing striking scenes which will testify to what took place on this Chinese soil twenty years ago! Everyone will recall the march of events there, and each will recall his or her behavior during that decade. Masks will fall, each will search his or her conscience, the true face of each one will be revealed, large and small debts from the past will be paid. If we free ourselves from our selfishness we will no longer fear deception. Let us dare to proclaim the truth, and we will not so easily swallow such lies any longer. It is only by engraving in our memory the events of the "Cultural Revolution" that we will prevent history from repeating itself, that we will prevent another "Cultural Revolution" from recurring.
The construction of this "Cultural Revolution" is absolutely necessary, because only those who do not forget the past will be masters of the future.Developers and Reddit users HighlifeTTU and lazertester unified 70 Minecraft servers using a central lobby system, enabling cross-server travel and the potential for massively multiplayer online play.
HighlifeTTU explained the duo's accomplishment via Imgur. "The typical method of joining these servers is to go on a website, find a server with an open slot and then type in that particular server," HighlifeTTU wrote.
"If that server is full, you'd try a different one. This led to people having huge server lists just for one game mode, and an even larger server list if they played a lot of game modes."
To remedy this, HighlifeTTU and lazertester created a lobby system that can support "any number of servers and pretty much any number of players." Players can connect to servers through portals or quick connect signs; each are located down opposite hallways. The lobby also includes a PvP-disabled lounge, where players can interact with one another outside of typical game modes or contact admins.
HighlifeTTU credits the original proxy created by md_5 as the catalyst for the lobby's creation.
"He has enabled us to take Minecraft to a level we never thought possible before," HighlifeTTU wrote. "This proxy system opens up huge possbilities. Imagine a large MMO-style server where a single world is broken into pieces and split among a cluster of servers. We have only begun to explore what is possible using this new proxy system."LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The shootings at two Chattanooga military facilities prompted Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson to take action.
On Friday, THV11 reported the Governor authorized the Arkansas National Guard Adjutant General Mark Berry to arm all full-time military personnel.
The Governor released the following statement:
“Our hearts break at the news of another senseless act of violence and terror, this time out of Chattanooga,” Governor Hutchinson said. “Our prayers go out to all the families of the victims, especially the family of Staff Sgt. David Wyatt of Russellville, one of Arkansas’s own.” “I want to join in those who are calling for greater security at our recruiting stations and military installations. We’ve had numerous instances of attacks. Clearly they are a target, and for us to have unarmed military personnel makes no sense, which is why I am directing Major General Mark Berry to arm full-time personnel as he deems necessary at military installations.”
In addition, Hutchinson announced a proclamation ordering that all flags fly at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Monday, July 20 to honor the four Marines that were killed in Chattanooga on Thursday
One of those, Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, was an Arkansas native from Russellville.President Barack Obama forcefully defended trusted Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin on Friday, praising her as "an American patriot" in the face of charges from Republicans like Representative Michele Bachmann that she is secretly tied to Muslim extremists.
Speaking at a White House Iftar dinner to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Obama hailed Abedin as "a good friend" who has "worked tirelessly in the White House, in the U.S. Senate, and most exhaustingly at the State Department — where she has been nothing less than extraordinary in representing our country and the democratic values that we hold dear."
"Senator Clinton has relied on her expertise, and so have I," he said. "The American people owe her a debt of gratitude, because Huma is an American patriot, and an example of what we need in this country: more public servants with her sense of decency, her grace, and her generosity of spirit."
Obama's comments came nearly one month after Republican Senator John McCain took to the Senate floor to defend Abedin, who is also known for her marriage to disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner.The U.S. Supreme Court has given Hawaii et al until noon Tuesday to respond to the government’s motion on the reinstated travel ban. The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a Motion to Clarify and Application for Stay after Hawaii Attorney General Douglas S. Chin judge-shopped seeking a broader definition pertaining to those permitted to enter the U.S.
The Court in June reinstated President Donald J. Trump’s travel ban until oral arguments were heard in October, 2017. With the ruling, the order banning travelers from six Muslim-majority countries identified as hotbeds of terrorism is back in effect with the exception of those who have bona fide relations to U.S. citizens or institutions etc.
The Trump Administration further interpreted the phrase “close familial relationship” to include fiancé(e)s and parents- and children-in-law.
But U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson, a leftwing ideologue appointed by Barack Obama, decided again to interfere with the travel ban after Hawaii Attorney General Chin filed the request. He, along with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the most liberal and overturned court in the land, were reversed when the Supreme Court reinstated the order last month.
The judge unilaterally decided to expand the interpretation to include grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins and siblings-in-law.
“Once again, we are faced with a situation in which a single federal district court has undertaken by a nationwide injunction to micromanage decisions of the co-equal Executive Branch related to our national security,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “By this decision, the district court has improperly substituted its policy preferences for that of the Executive branch, defying both the lawful prerogatives of the Executive Branch and the directive of the Supreme Court.”
Judge Watson’s order would essentially expand eligible travelers to anyone working with refugee resettlement agencies. The government argues the link is too indirect to constitute a genuine close relationship required by the High Court’s June 26 order.
“The district court has issued decisions that are entrusted to the Executive Branch, undermined national security, delayed necessary action, created confusion, and violated a proper respect for separation of powers,” Attorney General Sessions added. “The Supreme Court has had to correct this lower court once, and we will now reluctantly return directly to the Supreme Court to again vindicate the rule of law and the Executive Branch’s duty to protect the nation.”
President Trump’s executive order came on the heels of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealing nearly a third of the 1,000 domestic terrorism cases currently being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) involve those admitted to the U.S. as refugees.
Officials said some of those 300 came to “infiltrate” the U.S., while others were radicalized once they were in the country. The report represented the first official solid tie between the refugee resettlement program and an increase in domestic terrorism.
The People’s Pundit Daily (PPD Poll) Big Data Poll has repeatedly found majority support for President Trump’s executive order.Alison Slavin, adopted as a child, realised Sam Davies was her half sister when she discovered the name of her biological father
They look and sound alike, have the same job, a similar taste in clothes and jewellery, and over the years have often been mistaken for siblings.
But it still came as a huge shock to Alison Slavin and Sam Davies when more than 15 years into their friendship they found out they really are sisters.
Slavin was adopted as a child but earlier this year found out who her biological parents were. She realised at once that her father had the same name as her best friend's dad – and a DNA test later confirmed that he was the same man, making them half sisters. "We had joked in the past we were sisters and people used to always ask us if we were, saying we looked alike," said Slavin, who was a bridesmaid at Davies's wedding before they knew of their blood tie. "But I was shocked to find out we were actually half sisters."
The women live a mile apart in Bristol. They met in 1993 through a mutual friend, used to go to karaoke twice a week, and soon became best friends, sharing the same taste in clothes and jewellery.
Slavin, 41, told how the colour drained from her face when she found out the name of her biological father because she saw immediately the possible link with her friend.
When the relationship was confirmed Slavin could not get through to Davies on the phone so she sent a text message saying: "Hello sis."
Davies, 43, said: "When Alison texted me telling me we were sisters a tiny part of me thought she was joking but a bigger part thought: 'Oh my God.'
"After the initial shock I spoke to Alison and she explained everything and I thought: 'Wow.' I had always wanted a sister, and what better sister could I have than my best friend?
"It's sad we didn't find out sooner but you can't change what's happened. We're just absolutely thrilled we have found out now."
The women, who are both childminders, have bought matching charms for a bracelet to show they are sisters. Davies said: "The charm is a silver book which has the words 'once upon a time' on it because we thought it was relevant because this is such a nice story."Saints have held talks with Dutch legend Ronald Koeman - with one of the club's former managers describing him as a "perfect" choice to replace Mauricio Pochettino.
The 51-year-old outgoing Feyenoord boss is a serious contender to succeed Pochettino at St Mary’s, after the Argentine quit to join Tottenham last week.
Koeman met with officials from Saints on Monday to discuss the position, although the club are expected to also meet with other candidates.
The timescale for an appointment is most likely to be another ten days to two weeks, but Koeman is very much in the frame.
Fellow Dutchman Mark Wotte, who managed Saints during the 2008/09 campaign, believes Koeman, who remains the odds-on favourite with the bookies, would be an excellent choice.
“In my opinion, Ronald Koeman is perfect for Southampton for several reasons,” he said.
“He has a great CV as a player, winning the 1988 European Championship with Holland and the Champions League with Barcelona “But he has also managed PSV, Ajax and Feyenoord, as well as Valencia and Benfica abroad, so he is a very experienced coach.”
Wotte, who is currently the Scottish Football Association’s performance director, believes Koeman would bring a similar footballing philosophy to that of Pochettino, while he would also be willing to promote players from the academy system.
“As a Dutch manager, he is always used to playing ‘the Dutch way’, with high pressure, a passing style and a positive approach, playing to win and not always playing not to lose,” he said.
“His last job at Feyenoord was initially a big challenge, as a lack of funds forced him to work with ‘the kids’, but most of them now are selected in the 23-man squad for Holland and also qualifying for the Champions League first phase – a great achievement for the Feyenoord academy, but also for the talent management skills of Ronald Koeman.
“Knowing Southampton and St Mary’s personally, he would be an excellent choice.”
One of Koeman’s biggest influences is Johan Cruyff, having played in his famous Barcelona team from 1989 to 1995, winning the European Cup in 1992.
The centre-half, who was capped 78 times by his country, moved into management after hanging up his boots, working as an assistant with the national team and then Barcelona.
His first manager’s job came at Vittesse Arnhem, leading them to a sixth-place finish in the 2000/01 Eredivisie, before moving to Ajax.
He won the domestic double in his first season there, finished as runners-up in the next campaign, and then regained the league title in 2003/04.
He left in 2005, as PSV regained status as top dogs, then joined Portuguese side Benfica.
Koeman spent a fairly unsuccessful year there, before taking up the reins at PSV.
Again, he lasted just one full season, before joining Valencia, although he did deliver an Eredivisie title before his departure.
In Spain, he won the Copa del Rey, but Valencia’s league form proved poor, with the club parting company with Koeman in April 2008.
A brief, unsuccessful stint with AZ Alkmaar then followed.
In 2011, though, Koeman arrived at Feyenoord, reviving the ailing club.
Having finished tenth in the Eredivisie the season before he arrived, Koeman led Feyenoord to second place in his first campaign – their best result in 11 years.
They then came third in 2012/13, before finishing as runners-up to Ajax last term.
Koeman announced in February that he would leave the club this summer, when his contract expired.
Former Swansea boss Michael Laudrup, another name who might fit the bill, does not look to be in the frame.
In an interview in his homeland, the Dane has said he will take time out of the game until an opportunity with a really big club comes along.
Previous bookies’ favourite Murat Yakin is not thought to have been approached.Skeptics have dismissed the threat posed by Pyongyang’s weapons programme but the regime has a track record of getting there – eventually
Why North Korea might not be bluffing about its nuclear plans
Skeptics of North Korea’s nuclear threat, and there are many, have long clung to two comforting assurances.
While the North has the bomb, it doesn’t have a warhead small enough to put on a long-range rocket. And it certainly doesn’t have a re-entry vehicle to keep that warhead from burning up in the atmosphere before it could reach threatened targets, for example Manhattan.
But today North Korea suggested it would soon be ready to show the world it has mastered both technologies.
This may be just the latest case of Pyongyang’s propaganda, but if true it would represent a huge advance in the country’s suspected nuclear capabilities, and undermine suggestions that its claims are all bluff and bluster.
North Korea readying another nuclear bomb for test – Kim Jong-un Read more
“We have proudly acquired the re-entry technology, possessed by a few countries styling themselves as military powers,” said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in state-run media.
The authoritarian leader was said to have made the comment after meeting scientists and technicians following, what it claimed, was a successful test of a re-entry vehicle.
Kim ordered preparations for a “nuclear warhead explosion test” and test-firings of “several kinds of ballistic rockets able to carry nuclear warheads”, the report added.
With no way independently verifying any of these claims, it’s difficult to separate Pyongyang’s rhetoric from its reality.
Nuclear arsenal
Kim’s most likely candidate for an intercontinental ballistic missile is KN-08, or the Hwasong as it is known in North Korea. The three-stage rocket has an estimated range of 5,000-6,000km (3,100-3,700 miles), but could be modified to increase this.
That range would be ample for attacks on US military bases in Japan, but not New York.
But a militarised version of the rocket used to put a North Korean satellite into orbit last month is believed to have potentially a much longer range – one that could reach the US mainland.
When a new version of the KN-08 was displayed at a military parade in North Korea in October, military experts at Jane’s defence weekly said it featured a smaller, blunter warhead shape “that could confirm US intelligence assessments and North Korean claims of success in miniaturising its nuclear warheads”.
But the Pentagon has often expressed doubt over the reliability of the KN-08 because North Korea has never tested it “end-to-end” – from launch through re-entry and warhead delivery – to prove that it works.
Just last week, photos of Kim splashed across the front page of the ruling party’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed him standing in a hangar filled with ballistic missiles, inspecting a disco ball-sized silvery orb.
Experts said the object looks very much like a credible nuclear weapon, though it was clearly a mock-up of whatever device the North may have – Kim wouldn’t have stood so close to the real thing without radioactivity protection gear, nor would he have been holding a lit cigarette.
North Korea’s message, however, was obvious: we know what you think our weaknesses are, but don’t be so sure.
“Every time the North Koreans test another bomb or a missile, I get calls asking what message the North Koreans are trying to send,” wrote nuclear expert Jeffrey Lewis for Foreign Policy magazine.
“Well, let’s see: they’ve paraded two different ICBM [inter-continental ballistic missiles] through Pyongyang, conducted four nuclear tests, showed us a compact nuclear design sitting next to a modern re-entry vehicle in front of one of those ICBMs, and hung a giant wall map of the United States marked with targets and titled ‘mainland strike plan,’” he said.
“Here’s a wild guess: they are building nuclear-armed ICBMs to strike the United States! Why is this so hard to grasp?”
They are building nuclear warheads to strike the United States Jeffrey Lewis
The timing of Pyongyang’s recent moves is crucial. The regime faces a new UN sanctions package after its 6 January nuclear test, which it claimed was an “H-bomb”, and has significantly amped up its rhetoric while the US and South Korea carry out annual joint military exercises.
Cause celebre
The country is also conducting a 70-day “loyalty campaign” ahead of a once-in-a-generation ruling party congress in May. The congress could be something of a coming-out party for Kim, allowing him to emerge from the shadows of his father and grandfather and establish himself more firmly as North Korea’s supreme leader.
He could also lay out his own long-term domestic and international agenda. Kim presumably wants to face this from a position of power and making nukes his cause celebre serves that purpose.
Standing firm on nukes bolsters his credibility with hard-liners in the military and reinforces his regime’s defiant, dangerous reputation against its key antagonists.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest US-South Korea joint military exercises in the Korean peninsula Photograph: Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA
It also has domestic propaganda value, showing how North Korea, singlehandedly and against all odds, can make breakthroughs few countries have accomplished.
Of course, that logic breaks two ways: if the country hasn’t made major advances, exaggerating them is the next best thing.
But Lewis and other experts have expressed concern that Washington, in particular, has a pattern of not taking the North’s purported capabilities seriously enough.
While it might declare success prematurely, as with the recent H-bomb claims, North Korea has an established track record of getting there eventually.AMERICANS and Europeans stand out from the rest of the world for our sense of ourselves as individuals. We like to think of ourselves as unique, autonomous, self-motivated, self-made. As the anthropologist Clifford Geertz observed, this is a peculiar idea.
People in the rest of the world are more likely to understand themselves as interwoven with other people — as interdependent, not independent. In such social worlds, your goal is to fit in and adjust yourself to others, not to stand out. People imagine themselves as part of a larger whole — threads in a web, not lone horsemen on the frontier. In America, we say that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. In Japan, people say that the nail that stands up gets hammered down.
These are broad brush strokes, but the research demonstrating the differences is remarkably robust and it shows that they have far-reaching consequences. The social psychologist Richard E. Nisbett and his colleagues found that these different orientations toward independence and interdependence affected cognitive processing. For example, Americans are more likely to ignore the context, and Asians to attend to it. Show an image of a large fish swimming among other fish and seaweed fronds, and the Americans will remember the single central fish first. That’s what sticks in their minds. Japanese viewers will begin their recall with the background. They’ll also remember more about the seaweed and other objects in the scene.
Another social psychologist, Hazel Rose Markus, asked people arriving at San Francisco International Airport to fill out a survey and offered them a handful of pens to use, for example four orange and one green; those of European descent more often chose the one pen that stood out, while the Asians chose the one more like the others.PHOTOS: The Alberta Legislature, about the best your blogger can do on the road to illustrate this illustration-resistant story (Photo: Wikimedia Commons). Below: Wildrose Leader Brian Jean, Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney and Wildrose Treasurer James Cole, every one of them people mentioned in this story of whom photos exist.
CALGARY
It turns out the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties have a plan for ensuring their constituency associations get to hang onto their assets when they merge into the United Conservative Party, notwithstanding an Alberta law that says they can’t.
It’s breathtaking in both its simplicity and its arrogance. They’ll just change the law to suit themselves.
This isn’t unheard of in the annals of politics, of course, but it’s certainly brazen to just lay it out as the Wildrosers did yesterday in a memorandum to their constituency association boards, which was also sent to the party’s general membership.
The memorandum was apparently intended to reassure members who might be considering voting against the merger plan, although its eye popping chutzpah may shock some Albertans who aren’t party members.
Wildrose members have apparently been asking their party leaders what will happen to the money they donated to the constituency associations in their electoral districts if the two conservative parties “merge” by agreeing to form a new political entity, the UCP, as set out in their May 18 unification memorandum.
Their worry, sensibly enough, is that since party mergers are not actually allowed under Alberta’s Elections Finances and Contributions and Disclosure Act, it’s not clear what would happen to the money they donated to a party that was slated to cease to exist. Under the Act, if a registered provincial political party is dissolved, the funds are held in trust by Elections Alberta and eventually passed on to the government of Alberta’s general revenues.
Now, this part of Alberta’s legislation was drafted and passed when the PCs were still the government of Alberta, and it was generally assumed they would be forever. If a party were to be dissolved, it was understood, it wouldn’t be the Conservatives. It was also presumably accepted, quite rightly, that a donor to a political cause should have some reasonable certainty that his or her donation didn’t end up benefitting another political organization.
But that was then and this is now.
Accordingly, the Wildrose brain trust wrote its members, if the agreement in principle between the two parties is ratified on July 22 and then implemented, there are two “logical paths” that can be considered by Wildrose constituency associations, which are abbreviated as CAs in the memo.
The first, the memo says, is to “keep the CA’s assets and go dormant (other than monthly bank service charges).” A short discussion of the process for filing records follows, then …
“In 2019, the United Conservative Party (‘UCP’) would form the government and change the law to permit mergers of political parties,” the memo states. “At that time, the assets of the legacy Wildrose CA could be merged into the CA of the UCP in that constituency.”
Don’t worry! We’ll be automatically elected. And when we are, we’ll change the law to suit ourselves and to tilt the playing field in our direction. Easy-peasy!
My guess is that if a UCP government were elected, this formula would be applied to more than just this particular aspect of election financing. Indeed, Alberta would most likely say goodbye to the ban on corporate and union donations implemented by the NDP Government of Premier Rachel Notley. This would certainly not be out of character with the self-interest, arrogance and entitlement evident in the Wildrose memo.
The other alternative, the memo goes on, would be to “transfer the CA’s assets to the Wildrose Party and de-register the Wildrose CA.”
“It is also possible that in time the UCP would be able to attain such financial strength that it could afford to transfer a like amount of cash to the UCP CA in that constituency,” this section of the memo says. “There could be no guarantee of that, however, given that the UCP will need all of its money for the next two years to prepare for and run a general election campaign.”
In fact, as the memorandum then indicates, the party has in mind using both stratagems, depending on which makes the most financial sense in the circumstances. “The first course above may be more suitable for Wildrose CAs with larger net assets; the second course may be more suitable for CAs with little or no assets.”
The memorandum closes by urging Wildrose Party members to ratify the agreement in principle with Jason Kenney’s PCs on July 22. Wildrose Leader Brian Jean’s name does not appear on the email. Instead, the memorandum is attributed to James Cole, the party’s treasurer, and Brandon Swertz, its fund-raising VP. Both were Wildrose representatives on the parties’ unity discussion group.
One wonders what Revenue Canada, which administers this provincial tax break, would have to say about this. Deductions for political donations are designed not merely to support the democratic process in Canada, but to ensure that money donated by Canadians goes to political parties those donors wish to support.
Many contributors to the Wildrose and PC parties would not want to see their contributions go either to the other party, or a party dominated by members of another group with which they profoundly disagree. Many Canadians would argue that what is discussed in the Wildrose memo would be a serious misapplication of the federal government’s policy on political deductions. And – who knows? – Ottawa might have something to say about that, being concerned with the rule of law and the like.In 1954 Abraham Maslow published his landmark work Motivation and Personality. A true stalwart that you’ll find being taught in virtually every social science and psychology program. In it Maslow lays out his deduction of why humans act the way they do, what they’re motivated by, and what they’re demotivated by.
We can think of our situation (personal, professional, familial, etc.) in life like we do a pyramid. The lower levels of the structure act as support for the upper levels. The lower levels must be there, and they must be stable, in order for the upper ones to exist.
Basic survival makes up the ground floor of our pyramid. We have to eat, drink water, and be protected from the elements. If we can’t do that what’s the point of doing anything else?
Once you have clothes you don’t want to go back to not having clothes. You also want to live in a safe area so your physical self isn’t threatened. But if you happen to be assaulted you want to make sure you have a way to regain your health through medical care. That’s security — “I don’t want to lose what I have”.
Most people will never fully escape the green rung of safety.¹ This is tragically unfortunate because all of the good things happen above it. All of them.
This is the best version of you. If you are here on the pyramid you’re reaching your full potential, accomplishing everything you can and want. If you wanted to be the absolute best parent you could be and you were hitting the mark, that might be the way you self-actualize. Maybe it’s being the teacher that many of us only encountered once or twice in all of our time in school. Being a top athlete might be another one. In short, mastery of body and mind; doing what you set out to do and doing it as well as it can be done.
To self-actualize you need respect. Respect from peers, yes. But more importantly, self-respect. You need to accept who you are internally. This can be boiled down to being unforgivably who you are and being completely ok with the consequences of that choice.
Next up is social connection. The people in your life. All those good people that make you laugh and feel loved, that’s this spot. Friends, family, intimacy, these are extremely rewarding and important parts of life. We must have them before we can get to Respect. It’s very difficult, if not impossible, to have a healthy level of self-esteem without a stable support structure around you.
Those three top pieces of the pyramid make up what we would call the “good life”. Those areas are where you want your attention to be. If you can live your whole life focusing on just those three areas you will live an extremely fulfilling life. The problem is, the vast majority simply can’t. It’s on the bottom two levels where almost everyone, for the duration of their lives, is forced to exert their daily energy.
This should be the real argument for Universal Basic Income. Getting everyone off the bottom two rungs so they can focus on being the best human they can be. If everyone is focused on being the best version of themselves, not just on surviving, they’ll build, connect, and create. Shifting the energy spent by the majority of the United States population from maintaining their status quo to realizing their potential would become a major windfall not just for America but for the whole human population.The vast majority of direct marketers want happy customers who buy again and again, and yield what's known as high lifetime value.
Then there's that other type.
Look at this landing page from IQ Derma, with one of the wiliest before and afters you'll ever see. You may find yourself saying "No effen way" and wondering how they're able to depict such an impossible transformation without incurring the wrath of some governing body.
I'll tell you how. Take another peek at the photo and zoom in on the right-hand side where it says, "simulated imagery" in vertical type. They're actually saying it's bullshit!
But wait, there's more. Click the "CLICK HERE" button and fill in the required fields to reach the payment page. Notice the "FREE TRIAL" for as low as $3.95 with standard shipping. Great deal, don't ya think?
Before you click "Place Order," read the oh-so-fine print in 7 1/2 point type. Basically, if you don't return the product within 30 days, you pay the "discounted price" of $95.70 -- and because this is a negative option offer, they'll automatically ship you nearly a hundred bucks worth of miracle cream every 60 days until you say "STOP."
You may be wondering why IQ Cosmetics placed such critical terms near the bottom in tiny type. I'll take a stab at it: They were hoping you'd miss it. And apparently more than a few people did.
The Better Business Bureau said, "On September 24, 2007 we wrote to this company requesting they make modifications to their websites and pop-up ads to clearly and conspicuously disclose the terms and conditions of their free trial." You tell me if the owners, Intelligent Beauty, adequately addressed the problems.
To date, the BBB has received 42 complaints relating to Intelligent Beauty. In almost 100% of cases, they agreed to make a full refund or "perform according to their contract." But if a small fraction of buyers complained to the BBB, that's a lot of dissatisfied consumers.
Question for my direct marketing colleagues: Do you think this approach is misleading?The need to win reactionary white voters in huge numbers goes a long way toward explaining the recent turn of the Romney-Ryan ticket toward resentment-focused race-baiting that continues the false narrative of lazy minorities sucking up the tax dollars of hard-working white people. This has manifested itself in Romney's new turn toward birtherism and his mendacious insistence that the president is gutting welfare-to-work requirements, as well as Rep. Paul Ryan's entire cavalcade of prevarication, but especially the part where he falsely accuses President Obama of directing $716 billion from Medicare (read: earned benefits for older white people) toward ObamaCare (read: free, unearned health care for poor people).
The problem? It's not working for Romney right now. And even with the implementation of voter ID laws that are specifically designed to prevent Democratic-leaning demographics from voting, the dauntless march of demographic destiny assures that without major change, the Republican Party is doomed at the national level unless it changes its tone to appeal to the hopes and dreams of minority populations.
But Sen. Graham's comments quoted above suggest the complete opposite approach. Rather than accepting the more diverse future of the country, Graham views the changing demographics of the country as a race—presumably between the white people who vote for Republicans and the minorities who don't. And instead of suggesting that the Republican Party should try to do something to get the faster-growing minority populations to see things their way, he recommends "generating" more angry white guys. Now, maybe the senator from South Carolina is merely suggesting that his party needs to find ways to make existing white guys even more resentful of minorities (presumably because birtherism and lies about welfare and Medicare aren't enough), but there's another way to read that comment as well: that they literally, physically need to generate more white guys. It harkens back to a concept I have addressed before called Demographic Winter, which is a a key priority for socially conservative organizations:
And what is the concept of "demographic winter"? A right-wing notion with culturalist, if not racist, overtones regarding the end of first-world civilization because of declining birthrates.
If Sen. Graham is to be taken at face value, the solution for the Republican Party may not be to cater to minorities at all, but to try to breed more white people. It may seem counterintuitive, but it would be much more in keeping with the tea party extremists and the social conservatives who have come to dominate it.There hasn't been any public polling in the Ward 8 special election, but the other candidates seem to have decided that their biggest opponent is well-funded Muriel Bowser favorite LaRuby May. Two candidates dropped out last week in a bid to foil May's campaign, and now candidate Eugene D. Kinlow has a mailer that asks voters, "Who is LaRuby May?".
The mailer opens with references to attempts to build a prison and a trash transfer station in the ward, both of which Kinlow opposed. But then the mailer tries to tie May to those interests and other developers outside the ward:
They tried to build a prison in our community when we didn’t even have a grocery store. Then they tried to make our community the dumping ground for the city. Now the big money from outside Ward 8 is trying to choose our councilmember. Who is LaRuby May? You can tell a lot about a person by the companies she keeps. Ward 8 residents deserve a council member who will fight for their interests, not the interests of big business and developers.
The mailer also references an LL story about May's overwhelming fundraising advantage. |
Jerk, Andy Work" Josh Gordon & Will Speck Luvh Rakhe Unaired (USA) 107 Nick causes problems for Joel when his girlfriend Kate refuses to spend the night. Joel starts spending more time at her place and finds he'd rather be with his roommates. In the end, Joel moves back home and they all make compromises to get along. Andy starts working for SodaCo and his coworkers find him rather annoying. The entire office is forced to go through a series of seminars starting with "boundary training" because of him. He figures out that they can't fire him and continues to do all of the good-natured but annoying things that made everyone upset. 9 "Nick Sick" Fred Savage Scott Marder & Rob Rosell Unaired (USA)
July 23, 2008 ( ) (AUS) 109 Nick goes to see the student health centre with paresthesia in his buttocks, where he is advised by the caveman doctor to exercise more. While there, he learns that his CRP is up but he his told not to worry. However, he does research on the internet and finds out it could be a sign of leukocytosis. Worried, he pretends to be Joel and uses his insurance to see an HMO who tells him he has appendicitis and schedules him for an appendectomy. Meanwhile Joel and Kate are having relationship troubles, with Kate using far-fetched excuses not to sleep with Joel and avoiding him. Their relationship has lasted three months, which is when Kate traditionally dumps her boyfriends. Joel's boss finds out about the surgery for Nick when the insurance calls, but believes it to be for Joel and so gives him time off. When Kate comes to break it off with Joel, she learns of his major surgery and rushes to the hospital where Joel, disgusted that she only came when she thought he was having surgery, breaks it off with her. 10 "Caveman Holiday" Lee Shallat-Chemel Chris Kelly Unaired (USA) 110 The boys are throwing a party because it is Long Night, a cavemen holiday that remembers when the cavemen did not die in the coldest day in history. 11 "Andy the Stand-Up" Gail Mancuso Jace Richdale Unaired (USA) 111 Andy participates in Nick's open mic night, and becomes famous for his character of a dumb caveman. 12 "Cave Kid" Lee Shallat-Chemel Peter Saji Unaired (USA) 112 Neighbors who adopt a cave kid ask Joel, Nick and Andy to be his mentor. 13 "Hunters & Gatherers" John Blanchard Joe Lawson Unaired (USA) 113 Joel runs into trouble when he parks in an executive's parking space. Nick competes with Maurice for the attention of his ex-girlfriend, Heather, after Maurice explains his own charm with women in terms of hunter and gatherer roles, classifying himself as a hunter and Nick as a gatherer.
Weekly ratings [ edit ]
In the following summary, rating is the percentage of all households with televisions that tuned to the show, and "share" is the percentage of all televisions in use at that time that are tuned in.
Unless otherwise cited, the overnight rating and share information comes from Zap2It[26] The following week, the Nielsen numbers from TVWeek.com.[27] Additional ratings information, including the 18–49 rating, comes from BroadcastingCable[28] and finally weekly overall ratings come from ABC Medianet[29]
# Title Air Date Rating Share 18-49 Viewers Rank
(Timeslot) Rank
(Overall) 1 "Her Embarrassed of Caveman" October 2, 2007 6.1 10 3.3/10 9.06 #1 #34 2 "Nick Get a Job" October 9, 2007 4.5 8 2.5/8 6.96 #3 #59 3 "The Cavewoman" October 16, 2007 4.6 8 2.7/8 6.92 #3 #64 4 "The Mascot" October 23, 2007 4.5 7 2.2/6 6.55 #4 #71 5 "The Shaver" November 6, 2007 3.4 5 1.7/5 5.51 #4 #83 6 "Rock Vote" November 13, 2007 3.3 5 1.6/5 4.61[30] #4 #84
Seasonal ratings [ edit ]
Seasonal ratings based on average total viewers per episode of Cavemen on ABC:
Season Timeslot (EDT) Season Premiere Season Finale TV Season Rank Viewers
(millions) 1 Tuesday 8:00 pm (October 2, 2007 – November 13, 2007) October 2, 2007 November 13, 2007 2007–2008 #107 6.6[31]
+ Information is current as of January 7, 2008.[32]
Worldwide premieres [ edit ]
Overseas distribution [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Hundreds of protesters marched after the release of a graphic video showing the killing of a black teenager by a white officer.
Hundreds of protesters marched after the release of a graphic video showing the killing of a black teenager by a white officer.
Hundreds of protesters marched after the release of a graphic video showing the killing of a black teenager by a white officer.
Leaders of the Chicago City Council’s black caucus called Wednesday for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to remove his police chief, Garry McCarthy, one day after authorities released a graphic video showing a white police officer fatally shooting an African American teenager last year.
Prosecutors charged the veteran officer, Jason Van Dyke, with first-degree murder on Tuesday. But the move did not defuse the anger rippling across parts of this city. Groups of protesters returned to the streets Wednesday, and parents of individuals slain by police demanded action from Emanuel’s administration.
Although demonstrations by several hundred Chicago residents remained largely peaceful as the city prepared for Thanksgiving, Emanuel and McCarthy were facing mounting questions in what has been a trying week in a very difficult year for the mayor.
Emanuel barely escaped with a reelection victory in April, winning a second term after being forced into an unexpected runoff. Now, he is under pressure to hold Chicago police to account for excessive force and to restore his administration’s credibility amid growing public anxiety about a rise in violent crime. Chicago has recorded more than 2,700 shootings this year, more than all of 2014 — and 433 of them have been fatal.
The mayor said he was appalled by the video, which shows Van Dyke firing at Laquan McDonald, 17, hitting him with 16 rounds, some while the teen was motionless on the ground.
On Oct. 20, 2014, Officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times. Police video of the shooting was made public this month. Here's what we know about the shooting and the video that was made public a year later. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
Emanuel said he fully supported McCarthy and called for calm as demonstrators demanded changes in police tactics.
Prominent activists urged civil disobedience in Chicago’s busiest shopping district on Friday.
A dozen members of the council’s black caucus gathered to renew their recent calls for Emanuel to fire McCarthy, a leading voice for stricter gun regulations and a lightning rod for critics angered by the department’s history of rough policing.
“We want McCarthy gone. We want new leadership,” Alderman Roderick Sawyer said.
The mayor has faced criticism after resisting the release of the police video for 13 months, asserting that he did not want to prejudice the criminal investigation by the Cook County state’s attorney, Anita Alvarez. A Cook County judge ordered the release last week.
A federal investigation of the incident is underway, “irrespective of the state charge,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Fitzpatrick said, describing the probe as “very extensive.”
Emanuel and McCarthy are in a tough spot, said Jens Ludwig, director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, who credited them with taking serious approaches to policing in a city with a long history of economic distress and racial tension.
Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, who faces murder charges after shooting Laquan McDonald, had at least 17 citizen complaints against him, according to a University of Chicago database of police records. Here's what else the records show about complaints against Chicago cops. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)
“McCarthy is doing a lot of things that the progressive, evidence-based policing manual would say to do,” Ludwig said. “Mayor Emanuel is doing as much as any mayor I know to pay attention to things we have reason to believe are promising.”
But many, especially in the African American community, remain unconvinced.
Several parents whose children were killed by Chicago police officers gathered outside Emanuel’s office at noon Wednesday to demand a meeting. Gloria Pinex, 48, whose 27-year-old son, Darius Pinex, was killed by police after a 2011 traffic stop in Englewood, said she is not convinced that Emanuel is serious about addressing police violence in black communities.
“If he is really about his city, he would do something about his police officers. He is not doing his job at all,” said Pinex, who lost a civil suit against the city. “I want to see that any officer that is out here stepping over the line be indicted like anyone else. Once that starts, all this genocidal stuff happening out here will end.”
Chicago has paid tens of millions of dollars to settle negligence and brutality cases against police officers. In 2014, seven years after police opened fire on local rapper Freddie Latrice Wilson, hitting him 18 times during a traffic stop, the city paid $4.5 million to his family.
Wilson’s father, Freddie McGee, 68, said Wednesday that Emanuel should meet with him and other parents of slain children to show he is taking police misconduct seriously.
“He should get on board with us or he should leave his office. We have asked him. We have begged him. Now we have made a demand for him to talk to us. He has to make a change,” McGee said. “Had they done something in 2007, Laquan McDonald would be here today.”
Former Chicago alderman Dick Simpson, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said Wednesday that Emanuel finds it difficult to show that he takes police misconduct seriously. This makes him vulnerable to allegations that he fails to recognize or resolve long-
standing problems within the department.
“He hasn’t convinced much of Chicago to believe he is really empathetic,” Simpson said. “You can’t expect him to change his personality entirely, but somehow providing some sense the mayor is on the side of the citizens and the black community would be helpful in this case to lessen the violence.”
At the same time, Chicago law enforcement is failing to keep up with the recent surge in violent crime. Many in the public are looking for Emanuel’s administration to do more.
Last year, more than 2,500 people were hit by gunfire in this city of 2.7 million. So far this year, the figure has topped 2,700. On each of four consecutive weekends in August, 40 people were shot. The last weekend in September, the total was 57, four fatally, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis.
“We’ve lost our conscience, Chicago,” the Rev. Michael L. Pfleger said this month at a funeral for 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee. Police suspect that the boy’s attackers had lured him into an alley and executed him to punish his father in a gang dispute. His father denies having gang connections.
The same day that Tyshawn was found dead, bullets intended for someone else killed Kaylyn Pryor, 20, a talented Evanston, Ill., model who was waiting for a bus after a visit with her grandmother.
President Obama took note of this deadly violence when he visited Chicago last month. Not far from the home he still owns on the South Side, he reminded a convention of police chiefs of a “spike in violent crime in a number of predominantly urban, minority communities.” He pledged support for police, but also said the United States “can’t have a situation in which a big chunk of the population feels like maybe the system isn’t working well for them.”
Praising community policing as one tool, Obama credited Emanuel, a fellow Democrat and his first White House chief of staff, with creating partnerships with ministers and assigning more officers to bicycle and foot patrols. He also spoke of the need for greater gun regulation, a principal plea of Emanuel and McCarthy, the police chief the mayor brought in from New York in 2011.
McCarthy inherited a police department that critics say has long engaged in excessive force.
Data from the Citizens Police Data Project, an online portal launched this month by the Invisible Institute, suggests that the department has been slow to conclude that officers acted wrongfully and deserve punishment.
Van Dyke faced 20 citizen complaints in 14 years on the force, including several allegations of excessive force, according to the data from the project. In most cases, the complaints against Van Dyke were deemed unfounded or otherwise not sustained, according to the database, which included no evidence of disciplinary action against him.
This makes sense to Dean Angelo, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, who said Van Dyke patrolled “some of the highest-crime areas of the city.”
“To me, that comes with the territory,” Angelo said. “You’re putting people in jail, no one wants to go to jail, and a lot of times people complain.... But it’s 14 years. And he’s dealing with some extremely violent circumstances, every day, nine hours a day, for 14 years. One complaint, two complaints, three complaints a year, where’s the significance there? I don’t see it.”
Loyola University criminologist Arthur Lurigio said Emanuel and McCarthy hardly bear the entire blame for the city’s troubled history or all episodes of violent, unprofessional or counterproductive police behavior. And yet, he said, the anger is real and answers have been slow in coming.
“I would like the mayor to talk about systematic plans in districts where most police shootings take place,” Lurigio said. “Outrage comes, not only from that video, but from a history of tense relationships with police in those neighborhoods. Everybody knows somebody whom the police stopped.”
Berman reported from Washington.The startup minor league soccer team launched by developer Ersal Ozdemir is on the verge of nailing down deposits for 2,500 season tickets.
More than 2,000 deposits have been made and a deal with a youth soccer league for another 500 should close within 10 days, team officials say.
That would hit the season ticket goal of the unnamed North American Soccer League franchise almost 14 months before the team takes the field.
And it looks like Indianapolis will be among the league's leaders in attendance. In 2012, average NASL attendance was 3,810. Only two teams, San Antonio and Atlanta, averaged more than 4,500 fans per game.
“We’re blowing our expectations out of the water,” said Peter Wilt, the franchise president. “We haven’t even started our first phase of aggressive outreach.”
The team initially hoped to sell 2,500 season tickets, 1,500 group tickets and 1,000 individual tickets for each of 15 home games. The team’s first season starts in April 2014 at the IUPUI track and soccer stadium.
Sales have been so brisk that Wilt thinks the franchise may have to limit the number of season tickets sold. Buyers are required to put down $25. Seat selection begins this summer, when another $75 deposit will be required. Season tickets range from $135 to $390.
“We want to make sure we have some tickets available for group sales and we’d also like to have some [individual ticket] availability,” Wilt said. “We should be able to sell 6,000 to 7,000 season tickets, and the way it’s going now, we could get that.”
Depending on the seating configuration, the venue could hold as many as 12,000 for soccer, Wilt said.
Wilt, who formerly worked as general manager of the Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire, said the outpouring is due to pent-up demand.
Wilt credits the Brickyard Battalion, a local soccer fan club, for firing up ticket sales.
“They’re not only advocates for soccer in general and this team in particular, they’re evangelists,” Wilt said.
In early April, Wilt and Ozdemir expect to announce the name of the team and unveil the uniform design. They’re now gathering input from fans.
At the same time, Wilt said he’ll start hiring sales and marketing people and other front office employees for the team, which will initially be headquartered in a building at Maryland and Pennsylvania streets owned by Ozdemir.
“Once we get staff added, we’ll hit full outreach mode,” Wilt said. “And then you’ll see things really take off.”In its first unclassified report on the subject in six years, the Office of Naval Intelligence depicts a powerful trajectory for China’s maritime forces. Titled “The PLA Navy: New Capabilities and Missions for the 21st Century,” the document and accompanying videos also cover the China Coast Guard—precisely the right approach, since the world’s largest blue water civil maritime fleet serves as “China’s Second Navy” and is on the front lines of island and maritime “rights protection” in the East and South China Seas. This focus on both the PLA Navy (PLAN) and the China Coast Guard is also especially appropriate given their role as the principal institutions charged with furthering regional sovereignty claims. The PLAN is also responsible for safeguarding Chinese interests much farther afield, and is gradually developing power projection capabilities to do so.
Looking towards 2020, the Office of Naval Intelligence sees China’s maritime forces on a trajectory of major improvement through hardware acquisition and accrual of operational proficiency. Chinese shipbuilding capabilities and resources allow both forces to replace old ships with new, far more capable ones. Last year alone, China’s navy laid, launched, or commissioned more than 60 vessels; the report expects a similar figure for 2015. More naval ships emerged from Chinese shipyards than from those of any other country in 2013 and 2014. The Office of Naval Intelligence expects China to lead in naval ship launching in 2015 and 2016 as well.
Chinese naval development remains more a quality improvement swap than a Soviet-style numerical buildup. PLAN ships include 26 destroyers, 52 frigates, 20 corvettes, 85 missile patrol craft, 56 amphibious vessels, 42 mine warfare ships, more than 50 major auxiliaries, and more than 400 minor auxiliaries. Beyond the numbers, though, what is most noteworthy is (1) the increasing number of vessels with multi-mission capabilities and their ability to operate both near to and far from China, and (2) growing numbers of specialized ships. Examples of geographic versatility include four-and-counting Yuzhao-class landing platform docks. They can support South China Sea island seizures and potentially even overseas expeditionary warfare.
In other revelations, the Office of Naval Intelligence explains that China can deploy heretofore publicly-unknown remote-controllable Wonang-class inshore minesweepers. China has four Dongdiao-class intelligence collection ships, which support growing surveillance operations in the Western Pacific. Three cutting-edge Dalao-class submarine rescue ships augment Chinese undersea warfare ability, which is relatively strong in the proximate waters that China cares most about. Likewise relevant to the East and South China Seas: twenty Jiangdao-class patrol corvettes in China’s fleet, with 10-40 additional hulls anticipated. The PLAN is also introducing UAVs. The Camcopter S-100 UAV has already been deployed, with a variety of indigenous systems likely to follow soon.
In the most groundbreaking single piece of information in the report, a U.S. government source has confirmed for the first time that Chinese ships and submarines have deployed the potent new-generation supersonic YJ-18 anti-ship cruise missile. Previously designated the CH-SS-NX-13 by the Department of Defense, it is apparently a copy of the 3M54E Klub (SS-N-27B export variant), with which Russian Kilo-class 636M subs are equipped. Like the Klub, the sea-skimming YJ-18’s high speed and terminal trajectory make it extremely difficult for ships’ air defense to thwart.
While most PLAN growth is primarily qualitative, the China Coast Guard is undergoing both a qualitative and a quantitative buildup. Over last decade, it received 100 new large patrol ships, patrol combatants and other craft, and auxiliary ships. Between the beginning of 2012 and the end of 2015, the report projects, the China Coast Guard will have added more than 30 large patrol ships and more than 20 patrol combatants—an overall hull increase of 25%. No other Coast Guard in the world is remotely close to that rate of growth.
And China already boasts the world’s largest blue water coast guard fleet. Compared to its maritime neighbors, the numbers are grossly in Beijing’s favor. China has more Coast Guard ships than Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines combined (China’s smaller neighbors are in another civil maritime category entirely: the minor leagues). While the Japan Coast Guard is extremely competent, it is already behind quantitatively and the gap will likely only grow.
To ensure that these hardware advantages can be translated into overall capabilities gains, however, the PLAN must continue to improve its training, coordination, and jointness. To truly master long-range precision strike weapons that it emphasizes in the hopes of deterring—and if necessary defeating—U.S. intervention, China must maintain awareness over a tremendous swath of ocean and airspace. The China Coast Guard faces less lofty operational objectives, but must continue to consolidate and organize itself effectively, no small task given its swelling ranks and the large number of new ships it needs to integrate.
If Beijing can continue on its present maritime trajectory, its neighbors and the United States are in for substantial challenges. Chinese sources frequently invoke “three million square kilometers of blue territory,” which equate to approximately 90% of the major waters within the First Island Chain (Bohai Gulf, Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea). Already, China is engaged in massive island construction in the South China Sea, likely to give its maritime forces a better set of outposts from which to uphold and extend its claims there. There are numerous flashpoints in both the East and South China Seas, with frequent and deliberate vessel collisions during the Sino-Vietnamese Haiyang Shiyou 981 standoff in 2014 particularly worrying. The Office of Naval Intelligence judges that the clash “could easily have escalated into a military conflict.”
China is also becoming more active in distant seas. The report concludes that carriers, ballistic missile submarines and possibly large-deck amphibious ships will transform PLAN operations and further increase its international visibility: “in the next decade, China will complete its transition…to a navy capable of multiple missions around the world.” The question is to what extent Beijing will be able to reconcile a posture that pressures its neighbors in waters close to home, while seeking to protect growing interests and be seen as a global leader further afield.
Andrew S. Erickson is an Associate Professor in the Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute and an Associate in Research at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. He blogs at www.andrewerickson.com.Acute nicotine enhances hippocampus-dependent learning through nicotine binding to β2-containing nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), but it is unclear if nicotine is targeting processes involved in short-term memory (STM) leading to a strong long-term memory (LTM) or directly targeting LTM. In addition, the molecular mechanisms involved in the effects of nicotine on learning are unknown. Previous research indicates that protein kinase A (PKA), extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), and protein synthesis are crucial for LTM. Therefore, the present study examined the effects of nicotine on STM and LTM and the involvement of PKA, ERK1/2, and protein synthesis in the nicotine-induced enhancement of hippocampus-dependent contextual learning in C57BL/6J mice. The protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin impaired contextual conditioning assessed at 4 h but not 2 h post-training, delineating time points for STM (2 h) and LTM (4 h and beyond). Nicotine enhanced contextual conditioning at 4, 8, and 24 h but not 2 h post-training, indicating nicotine specifically enhances LTM but not STM. Furthermore, nicotine did not rescue deficits in contextual conditioning produced by anisomycin, suggesting that the nicotine enhancement of contextual conditioning occurs through a protein synthesis-dependent mechanism. In addition, inhibition of dorsal hippocampal PKA activity blocked the effect of acute nicotine on learning, and nicotine shifted the timing of learning-related PKA and ERK1/2 activity in the dorsal and ventral hippocampus. Thus, the present results suggest that nicotine specifically enhances LTM through altering the timing of PKA and ERK1/2 signaling in the hippocampus, and suggests that the timing of PKA and ERK1/2 activity could contribute to the strength of memories.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.An asteroid estimated to be 100 feet in diameter will rocket past Earth on Wednesday at a distance closer than the moon.
But NASA says the space rock poses no danger. The asteroid will still be about 217,000 miles away from Earth when it swings by at around 4 p.m. ET — that's about 22,000 miles closer than the Earth's average distance from the moon.
See also: 10 Brilliant Photos of the Moon and Jupiter
This space stone is just one of about 20 rocks per year that fly by Earth at a similar distance, according to NASA.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
"The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them and identifies their close approaches to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet," according to NASA's website.
But they don't catch everything. In fact, according to Phil Plait at Slate, NASA found yet another asteroid on Tuesday night that will also soon speed past Earth.
This one is about 10 meters across, half the size of the asteroid that smashed into Chelyabinsk, Russia last year and injured more than 1,400 people, and it'll pass by at a distance of just 35,000 miles around midnight on Thursday. The smaller rock will miss our planet this time, but currently has a 1 in 2.7 million chance of hitting Earth 11 years down the road.
Anyone who wants to watch the bigger asteroid won't be able to do so without a telescope, but but you can track its path in the video, below.
BONUS: NASA's Plan to Save Earth From Killer Asteroids'Ted 2' approaches $20 million on a weekend lacking new releases and seeing few changes to the rankings.
Jurassic World spent its eighth weekend on the Japanese box charts and has now taken $73.5 million (￥8.84 billion) from 5.9 million tickets in the country, while Ant-Man held on to the third spot it debuted in last week.
On a weekend that lacked major new releases, the only change on the Japanese box-office chart was the number one and two debutants from last week swapping places. Heroine Shikkaku, based on the romantic manga by Momoko Koda, jumped up to the top of the chart. Meanwhile, another live-action manga adaptation, Attack on Titan: End of the World, the second part of this year's double-header directed by Shinji Higuchi, fell one spot in the other direction.
Critically-panned Pixels, which opened at number one in Japan for Sony and has so far done $6.9 million (￥830 million) worth of box office in the country was in the seventh spot for the second weekend in a row. The Adam Sandler video game homage has pulled in double its U.S. take internationally and is heading toward a respectable $240 million.
Ant-Man pulled in $1.15 million (￥137 million) on the weekend to take its local total to $6.2 million (￥746 million).
Remaining in eighth spot was Ted 2, which has pulled in $19.25 million (￥2.31 billion) from 1.69 million tickets.
Jurassic World stayed in ninth, and Kingsman: The Secret Service remained fixed at the bottom of the chart on its third weekend, recording a total of $5.2 million (￥620 million) locally.
Next weekend will see releases for Good Kill and A Most Violent Year, both critically well-received imports that will likely struggle to make a mark in Japan.
Twitter: @GavinJBlaireDellroot is not the only self-signed trusted root certificate on Dell computers.
Researchers at Duo Security found two more on a Dell Inspiron 14-inch laptop purchased by Darren Kemp, one of its researchers who is based in Calgary, Canada, including one cert related to eDellroot that also ships with a corresponding private key, and a Atheros Authenticode certificate and private key used to sign Bluetooth drivers.
The impact of the two other certs is limited compared to the original offender. The Bluetooth certificate has been expired since March 2013, but Duo Security director of research Steve Manzuik said it was in the wild for 10-15 days. Now that the cert is expired, it could cause problems for the drivers.
“Because it’s expired, the risk is quite a bit lower. You can’t use cert to man-in-the-middle traffic,” Manzuik said of the Bluetooth cert. Duo published a report last night on its findings. “There was a period of 10-15 days when it was valid and being shipped. In that scenario, you could sign device drivers with it and the OS would trust them if signed by a known trusted cert. The risk now is when you revoke it, it will more than likely have an impact on Bluetooth drivers. You may have to reinstall new ones.”
As for the related eDellroot cert, it has a similar name and is self-signed also, but has a different fingerprint, Manzuik said. It too can be abused to snoop on encrypted traffic, but Manzuik said a scan conducted by Duo researchers turned up only 24 machines with the cert installed. One of those, Manzuik said, is a SCADA machine and Duo is taking steps to inform the owner.
“It’s a machine we don’t own, so we didn’t go any further. But it is a webserver identifying itself as a SCADA machine that’s using the compromised cert,” Manzuik said. “That doesn’t mean the machine is compromised, but if they’re expecting communication from the machine secure, they’re mistaken.”
Dell, meanwhile, late on Monday said that it was going to remove the eDellroot certificate from all Dell systems moving forward, and for existing affected customers, it has provided permanent removal instructions, and starting today will push a software update that checks for the eDellroot cert and removes it.
Manzuik cautions that reformatting the affected machine and reinstalling Windows will not resolve the issue since once the Dell drivers are reinstalled, the eDellroot cert is put right back.
“In order to fix this, it’s not a matter of just deleting the cert. You have to delete the cert and delete the [Dell Foundation Services] DLL as well to prevent it from reinstalling itself,” Manzuik said. “We’ve seen a Reddit thread where they’re saying a simple fix is to just delete the cert. That’s not complete.”
Dell Foundation Services installs the cert and its purpose is to quicken online support engagements with Dell staff. The certificate, Dell said, allows online support to identify the PC model, drivers, OS, hard drive and more.”
“Dell does not pre-install any adware or malware. The certificate will not reinstall itself once it is properly removed using the recommended Dell process,” Dell said in a statement provided to Threatpost. Dell also said that commercial customers who image their own systems are not vulnerable.
Already, eDellroot is being likened to the Superfish adware found on Lenovo computers in February. Superfish was Lenovo bloatware used to install ads in users’ browsers; it also opened the door to abuse leading to man-in-the-middle attacks similar to the Dell situation.
So far, eDellroot has been found on Dell XPS 15 laptops, M4800 workstations, and Inspiron desktops and laptops.
“It means attackers are de facto certificate authorities, free to generate man-in-the-middle certs, or just direct phishing sites that won’t get flagged as illegitimate,” said researcher Kenneth White, director of the Open Crypto Audit Project. “For these users, it’s as if there’s a bogus equivalent to Verisign, Comodo, or Symantec CA.”
White has built a website that checks whether machines are vulnerable to the cert. German security blogger Hanno Bock has also built a similar online check.
“This is not difficult at all to exploit. To man-in-the-middle traffic, the only roadblock you usually have is to get the cert loaded on the machine. In this case, it’s already on the machine,” Manzuik said. “Now you have the private key on the machine too. There are tools on the Net that would allow the average computer geek to do this.”Chicago is running a multimillion-dollar deficit and faces a pension-funding crisis that dwarfs many others around the country.
Yet the nation's third-largest city is on the verge of selling as much as $3 billion in bonds at a triple-A rating, the latest twist in the tale of cash-strapped U.S. municipalities adopting Wall Street financial engineering in their struggle to raise money in the market.
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Echoing methods adopted by Puerto Rico and New York, Chicago has created a new company to sell debt, offering a tempting pledge to investors: a dedicated first claim to the city's sales-tax revenue.
In theory, that should make the debt as secure as U.S. Treasury bonds. But there is a catch: analysts and investors say in the scenario of a bankruptcy, it is difficult to predict whether owners of the new bonds would get paid back ahead of other creditors, pensioners or even police and emergency services workers.
The deal tests whether years of near-zero interest rates will send yield-starved investors into complex bond structures. And Chicago -- with a school system that has teetered near bankruptcy and greater expenses than its revenues -- could still face a funding gap down the line even if it manages to lower its borrowing costs, analysts say.
For the $575 million in bonds being priced this week, Jefferies LLC is the underwriter, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will lead the next batch, according to city presentations. Carole Brown, chief financial officer of Chicago and a former banker at Barclays PLC, told investors that she devised the plan to create the corporate entity to issue the bonds, according to a person who attended an investor luncheon for the sale.
Through the sale, Chicago is tapping a tool New York's leaders developed in the 1970s as the city faced the specter of a bankruptcy. Back then, Felix Rohatyn, a famed mergers and acquisition banker at Lazard, led an entity called the Municipal Assistance Corp., which allowed New York to borrow money even after major banks had choked off financing.
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Puerto Rico sold more than $15 billion in sales tax bonds over the past decade. Rating firms considered the debt to be the island's safest offering, and it was snapped up by investors. Now those bondholders are fighting in court against creditors owning general-obligation bonds, who say their claim on the island's full faith and credit should include sales taxes also. Known by the acronym Cofina, those bonds recently traded at pennies on the dollar.
"Sometimes greed overtakes fear" in the market, said Chris Ryon, a portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management, which oversees more than $10 billion in municipal bonds. "It's a function of investors' desire for income."
Earlier this year, Chicago issued more than $1 billion in bonds, with part of the deal yielding 6%, far higher than most tax-exempt municipal credits. The coming deals would allow Chicago to refinance some of its over $9 billion in debt with lower interest costs, city officials have said.
The new debt, the first portion of which has maturities up to 26 years, could save the city more than $90 million in borrowing costs next year, according to the city. Chicago's leaders emphasize in bond filings that the new company, dubbed the Sales Tax Securitization Corp., is separate from the city.
Illinois currently doesn't allow its municipalities to file for bankruptcy, though lawmakers introduced legislation in recent years that cleared the way for Chicago or its school system to file.
Chicago declined to comment on the debt deal. Robert Christmas, a partner at law firm Nixon Peabody, which is advising the city on the sale, said investors shouldn't compare Puerto Rico's sales-tax bonds with Chicago's offering, in part because the city has stronger protections for investors than the island territory had.
Chicago's deal also sheds light on how widely diverging views can emerge from credit-ratings firms in the municipal bond market. Moody's Investors Service has graded the city's debt as junk, but S&P Global Ratings, Fitch Ratings and Kroll Bond Rating Agency have given Chicago investment-grade ratings.
For this latest issuance, Fitch and Kroll gave Chicago's corporate entity an additional boost: a AAA rating, the highest possible grade and equivalent to U.S. Treasurys.
S&P scored it two grades lower, although the firm still rates it five notches higher than other Chicago bonds. S&P also said in November it could change how it evaluates debt like Chicago's latest issuance, meaning investors could end up with bonds that are later downgraded by the firm.
In 2015, two years after it defaulted on its debt, Detroit snagged an investment-grade rating from S&P on new bonds by promising investors they would have first claim on income-tax revenues, although it didn't create a new corporation like Chicago.
Thornburg's Mr. Ryon said Chicago's new entity doesn't deserve separate credit ratings from the city's other debt. "It's a bit of smoke and mirrors," he said.
Moody's, which lowered the city's general-obligation bonds to junk in 2015, doesn't have a rating for the city's new debt. Chicago asked Moody's to withdraw the junk ratings on the general-obligation bonds, the firm said.
Bond ratings are also important because they can dictate money flows. Fund managers are often restricted to buying bonds with certain grades.
Other cities |
3 4.5 Walsh 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 1 0 0 1 2 2 4.5 2 2 2 6 6 4 Ferris 0 0 28 24.5 6.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 17 18 17.5 Walsh 0 0 0 2.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Baker 0 0 0 0 48 55 54 57 56 56 56 57.5 54 5 2 1 1 0 0 0 Wheeler 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 Rogers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Coolidge 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Daniels 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.5 - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Kevin 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Roosevelt 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 Gerard 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
(81-100) Presidential Ballot 81st 82nd 83rd 84th 85th 86th 87th 88th 89th 90th 91st 92nd 93rd 94th 95th 96th 97th 98th 99th 100th J.W. Davis 70.5 71 72.5 66 68 65.5 66.5 59.5 64.5 65.5 66.5 69.5 68 81.75 139.25 171.5 183.25 194.75 210 203.5 McAdoo 432 413.5 418 388.5 380.5 353.5 336.5 315.5 318.5 314 318 310 314 395 417.5 421 415.5 406.5 353.5 190 Smith 365 366 368 365 363 360 361.5 362 357 354.5 355.5 355.5 355.5 364.5 367.5 359.5 359.5 354 354 351.5 Glass 73 78 76 72.5 67.5 72.5 71 66.5 66.5 30.5 28.5 26.5 27 37 34 39 39 36 38 35 Underwood 48 49 48.5 40.5 40.5 38 38 39 41 42.5 46.5 45.25 44.75 46.25 44.25 38.5 37.25 38.25 39.5 41.5 Robinson 29.5 28.5 27.5 25 27.5 25 20.5 23 20.5 20 20 20 19 37 31 32 22 25 25 46 Owen 21 21 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 20 Ritchie 16.5 16.5 16.5 16.5 16.5 23.5 23 22.5 22.5 16.5 16.5 16.5 16.5 16.5 20.5 21.5 19.5 18.5 17.5 17.5 Ferris 16 12 7.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Walsh 7 4 4 1.5 3 5 4 5 3.5 5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4 2 4 4 6 4 52.5 Saulsbury 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 0 0 0 6 6 6 6 C.W. Bryan 4.5 4.5 5.5 6.5 9.5 7 7 9 9 15 8 8 8 9 9 7 6 5 5 2 Ralston 4 24 24 86 87 92 93 98 100.5 159.5 187.5 196.75 196.25 37 0 0 0 0 0 0 Barnett 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Daniels 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 23 19.5 19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 24 Roosevelt 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 Miller 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wheeler 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Coyne 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Baker 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 Meredith 0 0 0 0 0 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 0 0 0 37 75.5 Maloney 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 J.M. Davis 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 20 20 22 4 0 0 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 Cox 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Cummings 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8.5 8.5 8.5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Houston 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 Callahan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Copeland 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 17 2 0 0 0 0 0 Stewart 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Marshall 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 2 0 Berry 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 Gerard 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10
(101-103) Presidential Ballot 101st 102nd 103rd Before shifts 103rd After shifts J.W. Davis 316 415.5 575.5 844 Underwood 229.5 317 250.5 102.5 Walsh 98 123 84.5 58 Glass 59 67 79 23 Robinson 22.5 21 21 20 Meredith 130 66.5 42.5 15.5 McAdoo 52 21 14.5 11.5 Smith 121 44 10.5 7.5 Gerard 16 7 8 7 Hull 2 1 1 1 Daniels 1 2 1 0 Thompson 0 1 1 0 Berry 0 1.5 0 0 Allen 0 1 0 0 C.W. Bryan 0 1 0 0 Ritchie 0.5 0.5 0 0 Owen 23 0 0 0 Cummings 9 0 0 0 Houston 9 0 0 0 Murphree 4 0 0 0 Baker 1 0 0 0
Progressive Party nomination [ edit ]
The movement for a significant new third party had its impetus in 1919 when John A. H. Hopkins, earlier a prominent member of the Rooseveltian Progressive Party, organized the Committee of 48 as a progressive political action group. The work of political mobilization begun by the committee was taken up in 1922 by a conference of progressives called by the railroad brotherhoods of Chicago, where La Follette established his position as head of the young movement. The majority of participants at a second meeting that December in Cleveland were trade union officials, the delegates including William Green of the United Mine Workers and Sidney Hillman of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. A quarter of the delegates came from the Nonpartisan League, the Farmer-Labor Party, and Morris Hillquit's Socialist Party of America, while individual farmers and labor spokesmen comprised the remainder of the progressive conclave. The Forty-Eighters acted as a mediating force between the idealistic Socialists and the pragmatic labor men. Although majority sentiment for an independent party did not crystallize in Cleveland, the dream of a united new liberal party captured the loyalty of many delegates who subsequently turned away from the major parties in 1924.
Out of the Committee of Forty-Eight, some earlier organizations formed by La Follette, and the Chicago conventions grew the Conference for Progressive Political Action. La Follette had told reporters the previous summer that there would be no need for a third ticket unless both parties nominated reactionaries. Then came the Doheny scandals. As it seemed likely at the time that the scandals would eliminate Democratic frontrunner William Gibbs McAdoo, who was popular among railroad unions and other labor groups, the way was paved for the party which was launched at Cleveland in July 1924. Twelve hundred delegates and nine thousand spectators ratified the nomination of La Follette. The atmosphere was more sober than the one that had prevailed in 1912, where Theodore Roosevelt elicited much enthusiasm among the delegations. Farmers themselves were sparsely represented; they were too "broke" to come, according to Senator Lynn Frazier. Only one African-American sat in the audience and only one or two eastern intellectuals. Duly accredited delegates appeared for the Food Reform Society of America, the National Unity Committee, and the Davenport Iowa Ethical Society. Many students attended, one of the largest groups coming from Columbia University. Jacob Coxey was present as well as John J. Streeter. Radical labor leaders constituted the main body of the congregation. It was the dream of the Progressives that they might replace the Democrats, and thereby bring a clearer ideological alignment to American politics. The best way to do this, according to John Hopkins, would be to prevent either of the major parties from gaining a majority in the Electoral College and thus force the House of Representatives to choose the President.
As the Progressive candidate for President, La Follette became leader of the first formal prominent alliance in American political history between members of organized labor and farm groups, and of these with Socialists and independent radicals. Even the American Federation of Labor, although weakened by a precipitous decline in membership since the First World War, gave La Follette mild backing and so officially supported a presidential candidate for the first time. The Progressive vice-presidential candidate was Senator Burton K. Wheeler from Montana, only one of many Democrats who abandoned the chaos of their own party for La Follette's, and found there an idealism and dedication unparalleled within any of the other major political organizations of the 1920s. Wheeler explained his defection in his autobiography: "When the Democratic party goes to Wall Street for a candidate, I must refuse to go with it." The Senator added special strength to the ticket, for he had played a major role in bringing to justice Attorney General Harry Daugherty. Moreover, his selection made it plain that the Progressives would seek votes from both major parties.
Ill with pneumonia and absent from his Senate desk during most of the spring, sixty-eight-year-old La Follette still was a formidable contender. Drawing on a variety of discontents, he could injure the cause of either major party in sections it could ill afford to lose. The long appeal to the farmer in the party platform suggested his major target, but the candidate was addressing every American. In his acceptance speech La Follette urged that military spending be curtailed and soldiers' bonus paid. At the foundation of La Follette's program was an attack on monopolies, which he demanded should be "crushed." His Socialist supporters took this as an attack on the capitalistic system in general; to non-Socialists, including the Senator himself, who believed this encroached on personal liberty, it signified a revival of the policy of trust-busting. The Progressive candidate also called for government ownership of water power and gradual nationalization of the railroads. He also supported the nationalization of cigarette factories and other large industries, strongly supported increased taxation on the wealthy, and supported the right of collective bargaining for factory workers. William Foster, a major figure within the Communist Party, considered La Follette a hopeless reactionary who wanted to break up monopolies and return to an era of small businesses.[7]
Results [ edit ]
This was the first presidential election in which all American Indians were recognized as citizens and allowed to vote.
With the disastrous Democratic Convention having badly divided the Democrats, and with the economy booming, there was little doubt that Coolidge would win the election. His campaign slogan, "Keep Cool with Coolidge", was highly popular.
[8] Results by county explicitly indicating the margin of victory for the winning candidate. Shades of red are for Coolidge (Republican), shades of blue are for Davis (Democratic), shades of green are for "Other(s)" (Non-Democratic/Non-Republican), grey indicates zero recorded votes and white indicates territories not elevated to statehood.
The total vote increased 2,300,000 but, because of the great drawing power of the La Follette candidacy, both the Republican and Democratic totals were less. Largely because of the deep inroads made by La Follette in the Democratic vote, Davis polled 750,000 fewer votes than were cast for Cox in 1920. Coolidge polled 425,000 votes less than Harding had in 1920. Nonetheless, La Follette's appeal among liberal Democrats allowed Coolidge to achieve a 25.2 percent margin of victory over Davis in the popular vote (the second largest since 1824). Davis's popular vote percentage of 28.8% remains the lowest of any Democratic presidential candidate (not counting John C. Breckinridge's run on a Southern Democratic ticket in 1860, when the vote was split with Stephen A. Douglas, the main Democratic candidate), albeit with several other candidates performing worse in the electoral college.
The "other" vote amounted to nearly five million, owing in largest part to the 4,832,614 votes cast for La Follette. This candidacy, like that of Roosevelt in 1912, altered the distribution of the vote throughout the country and particularly in eighteen states in the Middle and Far West. Unlike the Roosevelt vote of 1912, the La Follette vote included most of the Socialist strength.
The La Follette vote was distributed over the nation, and in every state, but its greatest strength lay in the East North Central and West North Central sections. However, La Follette carried no section, and he was second in only two sections, the Mountain and Pacific areas. In twelve states, the La Follette vote was greater than that cast for Davis. In one of these states, Wisconsin, La Follette defeated the Republican ticket also, thus winning one state in the electoral college. The "other" vote led the poll in 235 counties, and practically all of these (225) gave La Follette a plurality. Four counties, three in the South, recorded zero votes, as against seven in 1920 – this decrease reflecting the Indian Citizenship Act.
On the basis of number of counties carried, the Republican Party was weaker than in 1920, whilst the Democratic Party, despite its heavy losses in numerous states, was stronger than in 1920. Davis led the poll in 1,279 counties. This was a gain of 183, due to his recovering lost support in the Confederate and border states. Republican strength in the Middle West and Far West was undermined by La Follette. It is important to note that La Follette ran second in 566 counties.
The result of a three-party contest is also reflected in party majorities. Coolidge had a majority in 1,217 counties and Davis in 1,193 counties while La Follette had a majority in 137 counties. The fact that in this election only 540 counties gave no party a majority clearly shows that it was not the kind of division of sentiment which was brought to light in the election of 1912.
The relative position of the Democratic Party may be seen by glancing at the maps for 1904, 1920, and 1924. The similarities in the distribution are striking. The inroads of the La Follette candidacy upon the Democratic Party were in areas where Democratic county majorities had been infrequent in the Fourth Party System. At the same time, the inroads of La Follette's candidacy upon the Republican Party were in areas where in this national contest their candidate could afford to be second or third in the poll.[9] Thus, Davis carried only the traditionally Democratic Solid South and Oklahoma; due to liberal Democrats voting for La Follette, Davis lost the popular vote to Coolidge by 25.2 percentage points. Only Warren Harding, who finished 26.2 points ahead of his nearest competitor in the previous election, did better in this category in competition between multiple candidates (incumbent James Monroe was the only candidate in 1820 and thus took every vote).
The combined vote for Davis and La Follette over the nation was exceeded by Coolidge by 2,500,000. Nevertheless, in thirteen states (four border and nine western), Coolidge received only a plurality. The Coolidge vote topped the poll, however, in thirty-five states, leaving the electoral vote for Davis in only twelve.[10] All the states of the former Confederacy voted for Davis (plus Oklahoma), while all of the Union/postbellum states (except Wisconsin and Oklahoma) voted for Coolidge. It remains the last time anyone won the Presidency without carrying a single former Confederate state.
This was the last election in which Republicans won Massachusetts and Rhode Island until 1952. The Republicans did so well that they carried New York City, a feat they have not repeated since, and this was also the last election in which they carried Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Ramsey County, Minnesota, Costilla County, Colorado and Deer Lodge County, Montana,[11] or the City of St. Louis, Missouri. Davis did not carry any counties in twenty of the forty-eight states, two fewer than Cox during the previous election, but nonetheless an ignominy approached since only by George McGovern in his landslide 1972 loss. Davis did not carry one county in any state bordering Canada or the Pacific. The election was the last time a Republican won the presidency without Florida, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, and the last until 2016 that they did so without Virginia.
Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. "1924 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration.
Popular vote Coolidge 54.04% Davis 28.82% La Follette 16.61% Others 0.53%
Electoral vote Coolidge 71.94% Davis 25.61% La Follette 2.45%
Geography of results [ edit ]
Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote
Cartographic gallery [ edit ]
Map of presidential election results by county
Map of Republican presidential election results by county
Map of Democratic presidential election results by county
Map of "other" presidential election results by county
Cartogram of presidential election results by county
Cartogram of Republican presidential election results by county
Cartogram of Democratic presidential election results by county
Cartogram of "other" presidential election results by county
Results by state [ edit ]
[12]
States won by Coolidge/Dawes States won by Davis/Bryan States won by La Follette/Wheeler
Close States [ edit ]
Margin of victory less than 5% (30 electoral votes):
North Dakota, 2.52% Kentucky, 2.96% Maryland, 4.00% Montana, 4.60%
Margin of victory between 5% and 10% (69 electoral votes):
West Virginia, 5.38% Nevada, 5.48% New Mexico, 5.50% Oklahoma, 5.59% Arizona, 5.79% Missouri, 5.79% Tennessee, 9.21% Minnesota, 9.92%
Statistics [ edit ]
Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Republican)
Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Democratic)
Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Other)
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]Orlando City have a major announcement set for Tuesday night and MLSsoccer.com will have all the live coverage.
Check back at 7 pm ET for a live stream of the announcement as well as on-site reports from MLSsoccer.com's own Andrew Wiebe.
Tuesday's event is open to the public in downtown Orlando, with fan festivities kicking off on Church Street beginning at 5 pm ET, followed by the main event at Cheyenne Saloon.
Speculation has been rife that the announcement will be related to the team's MLS expansion bid, with the team hinting as much on the official club site after Monday's news that the club has extended its deal with jersey sponsor Orlando Health.
"The second of two major announcements involving the future of Orlando City will occur [Tuesday] and is open to the public," reads the team statement online. "The fan event involving announcement about the Club’s pursuit to become a Major League Soccer club will take place in downtown Orlando at the Cheyenne Saloon (128 W Church Street, Orlando, FL, 32801)."In mathematics, specifically in category theory, the Yoneda lemma is an abstract result on functors of the type morphisms into a fixed object. It is a vast generalisation of Cayley's theorem from group theory (viewing a group as a particular kind of category with just one object and only isomorphisms). It allows the embedding of any category into a category of functors (contravariant set-valued functors) defined on that category. It also clarifies how the embedded category, of representable functors and their natural transformations, relates to the other objects in the larger functor category. It is an important tool that underlies several modern developments in algebraic geometry and representation theory. It is named after Nobuo Yoneda.
Generalities [ edit ]
The Yoneda lemma suggests that instead of studying the (locally small) category C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}}, one should study the category of all functors of C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} into S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} } (the category of sets with functions as morphisms). S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} } is a category we think we understand well, and a functor of C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} into S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} } can be seen as a "representation" of C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} in terms of known structures. The original category C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} is contained in this functor category, but new objects appear in the functor category, which were absent and "hidden" in C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}}. Treating these new objects just like the old ones often unifies and simplifies the theory.
This approach is akin to (and in fact generalizes) the common method of studying a ring by investigating the modules over that ring. The ring takes the place of the category C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}}, and the category of modules over the ring is a category of functors defined on C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}}.
Formal statement [ edit ]
Yoneda's lemma concerns functors from a fixed category C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} to the category of sets, S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} }. If C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} is a locally small category (i.e. the hom-sets are actual sets and not proper classes), then each object A {\displaystyle A} of C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} gives rise to a natural functor to S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} } called a hom-functor. This functor is denoted:
h A = H o m ( A, − ) {\displaystyle h^{A}=\mathrm {Hom} (A,-)}
The (covariant) hom-functor h A {\displaystyle h^{A}} sends X {\displaystyle X} to the set of morphisms H o m ( A, X ) {\displaystyle \mathrm {Hom} (A,X)} and sends a morphism f : X → Y {\displaystyle f\colon X\to Y} to the morphism f ∘ − {\displaystyle f\circ -} (composition with f {\displaystyle f} on the left) that sends a morphism g {\displaystyle g} in H o m ( A, X ) {\displaystyle \mathrm {Hom} (A,X)} to the morphism f ∘ g {\displaystyle f\circ g} in H o m ( A, Y ) {\displaystyle \mathrm {Hom} (A,Y)}. That is,
h A ( f ) = H o m ( A, f ), or {\displaystyle h^{A}(f)=\mathrm {Hom} (A,f){\mbox{, or}}} h A ( f ) ( g ) = f ∘ g {\displaystyle h^{A}(f)(g)=f\circ g}
Let F {\displaystyle F} be an arbitrary functor from C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} to S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} }. Then Yoneda's lemma says that:
For each object A {\displaystyle A} of C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}}, the natural transformations from h A {\displaystyle h^{A}} to F {\displaystyle F} are in one-to-one correspondence with the elements of F ( A ) {\displaystyle F(A)}. That is,
N a t ( h A, F ) ≅ F ( A ) {\displaystyle \mathrm {Nat} (h^{A},F)\cong F(A)}
Moreover this isomorphism is natural in A {\displaystyle A} and F {\displaystyle F} when both sides are regarded as functors from S e t C × C {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} ^{\mathcal {C}}\times {\mathcal {C}}} to S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} }. (Here the notation S e t C {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} ^{\mathcal {C}}} denotes the category of functors from C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} to S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} }.)
Given a natural transformation Φ {\displaystyle \Phi } from h A {\displaystyle h^{A}} to F {\displaystyle F}, the corresponding element of F ( A ) {\displaystyle F(A)} is u = Φ A ( i d A ) {\displaystyle u=\Phi _{A}(\mathrm {id} _{A})} ;[a] and given an element u {\displaystyle u} of F ( A ) {\displaystyle F(A)}, the corresponding natural transformation is given by Φ ( f ) = F ( f ) ( u ) {\displaystyle \Phi (f)=F(f)(u)}.
There is a contravariant version of Yoneda's lemma, which concerns contravariant functors from C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} to S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} }. This version involves the contravariant hom-functor
h A = H o m ( −, A ), {\displaystyle h_{A}=\mathrm {Hom} (-,A),}
which sends X {\displaystyle X} to the hom-set H o m ( X, A ) {\displaystyle \mathrm {Hom} (X,A)}. Given an arbitrary contravariant functor G {\displaystyle G} from C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} to S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} }, Yoneda's lemma asserts that
N a t ( h A, G ) ≅ G ( A ). {\displaystyle \mathrm {Nat} (h_{A},G)\cong G(A).}
Naming conventions [ edit ]
The use of h A {\displaystyle h^{A}} for the covariant hom-functor and h A {\displaystyle h_{A}} for the contravariant hom-functor is not completely standard. Many texts and articles either use the opposite convention or completely unrelated symbols for these two functors. However, most modern algebraic geometry texts starting with Alexander Grothendieck's foundational EGA use the convention in this article.[b]
The mnemonic "falling into something" can be helpful in remembering that h A {\displaystyle h_{A}} is the contravariant hom-functor. When the letter A {\displaystyle A} is falling (i.e. a subscript), h A {\displaystyle h_{A}} assigns to an object X {\displaystyle X} the morphisms from X {\displaystyle X} into A {\displaystyle A}.
Proof [ edit ]
The proof of Yoneda's lemma is indicated by the following commutative diagram:
This diagram shows that the natural transformation Φ {\displaystyle \Phi } is completely determined by Φ A ( i d A ) = u {\displaystyle \Phi _{A}(\mathrm {id} _{A})=u} since for each morphism f : A → X {\displaystyle f\colon A\to X} one has
Φ X ( f ) = ( F f ) u {\displaystyle \Phi _{X}(f)=(Ff)u}
Moreover, any element u ∈ F ( A ) {\displaystyle u\in F(A)} defines a natural transformation in this way. The proof in the contravariant case is completely analogous.
The Yoneda embedding [ edit ]
An important special case of Yoneda's lemma is when the functor F {\displaystyle F} from C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} to S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} } is another hom-functor h B {\displaystyle h^{B}}. In this case, the covariant version of Yoneda's lemma states that
N a t ( h A, h B ) ≅ H o m ( B, A ). {\displaystyle \mathrm {Nat} (h^{A},h^{B})\cong \mathrm {Hom} (B,A).}
That is, natural transformations between hom-functors are in one-to-one correspondence with morphisms (in the reverse direction) between the associated objects. Given a morphism f : B → A {\displaystyle f\colon B\to A} the associated natural transformation is denoted H o m ( f, − ) {\displaystyle \mathrm {Hom} (f,-)}.
Mapping each object A {\displaystyle A} in C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} to its associated hom-functor h A = H o m ( A, − ) {\displaystyle h^{A}=\mathrm {Hom} (A,-)} and each morphism f : B → A {\displaystyle f\colon B\to A} to the corresponding natural transformation H o m ( f, − ) {\displaystyle \mathrm {Hom} (f,-)} determines a contravariant functor h − {\displaystyle h^{-}} from C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} to S e t C {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} ^{\mathcal {C}}}, the functor category of all (covariant) functors from C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} to S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} }. One can interpret h − {\displaystyle h^{-}} as a covariant functor:
h − : C op → S e t C. {\displaystyle h^{-}\colon {\mathcal {C}}^{\text{op}}\to \mathbf {Set} ^{\mathcal {C}}.}
The meaning of Yoneda's lemma in this setting is that the functor h − {\displaystyle h^{-}} is fully faithful, and therefore gives an embedding of C o p {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}^{\mathrm {op} }} in the category of functors to S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} }. The collection of all functors { h A | A ∈ C } {\displaystyle \{h^{A}|A\in C\}} is a subcategory of S e t C {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} ^{\mathcal {C}}}. Therefore, Yoneda embedding implies that the category C o p {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}^{\mathrm {op} }} is isomorphic to the category { h A | A ∈ C } {\displaystyle \{h^{A}|A\in C\}}.
The contravariant version of Yoneda's lemma states that
N a t ( h A, h B ) ≅ H o m ( A, B ). {\displaystyle \mathrm {Nat} (h_{A},h_{B})\cong \mathrm {Hom} (A,B).}
Therefore, h − {\displaystyle h_{-}} gives rise to a covariant functor from C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} to the category of contravariant functors to S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} } :
h − : C → S e t C o p. {\displaystyle h_{-}\colon {\mathcal {C}}\to \mathbf {Set} ^{{\mathcal {C}}^{\mathrm {op} }}.}
Yoneda's lemma then states that any locally small category C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} can be embedded in the category of contravariant functors from C {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} to S e t {\displaystyle \mathbf {Set} } via h − {\displaystyle h_{-}}. This is called the Yoneda embedding.
Representable functor [ edit ]
The Yoneda embedding essentially states that for every (locally small) category, objects in that category can be represented by presheaves, in a full and faithful manner. That is,
N a t ( h A, P ) ≅ P ( A ). {\displaystyle \mathrm {Nat} (h_{A},P)\cong P(A).}
for a presheaf P. Many common categories are, in fact, pre-sheaves, and on closer inspection, prove to be sheaves, and, as such examples are commonly topological in nature, they can be seen to be topoi in general. The Yoneda lemma provides a point of leverage by which the topological structure of a category can be studied and understood.
Preadditive categories, rings and modules [ edit ]
A preadditive category is a |
to Gould’s efforts, Harrison regained the honor he deserved. He is now considered to be one of the most important inventors in British history. A commemorative stone was placed in his honor in Westminster Abbey, the same church where Admiral Shovell was buried. The stone marks the longitude of the church. Now, at last, the admiral can be certain of his location.In the circular world of the Downtown Eastside’s social welfare industry, where what goes around comes around again and again and again, last month’s little drama felt familiar:
Protesters — in this case organized by VANDU, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users — demanded a city-owned lot at 58 West Hastings be converted to social housing. Note, they did not ask for a mix of market and non-market units, such as in the Woodward’s building. Nor did they ask a component of market units be built to help subsidize capitalization costs. They demanded that the development be all social housing.
The math? The city estimates the operating cost of the most modest social housing at about $660 a month, well above the province’s income assistance allocation of $375 per month for rent. To make up the difference, there would need to be — on top of writing off the city’s multi-million dollar property, plus the building costs — a government rent subsidy of at least $285 per month per unit, in perpetuity.
Four or five dozen tent campers had been occupying the lot, and their protest culminated on Aug. 2 when Mayor Gregor Robertson met with them, heard their demands and obligingly signed his name to the following statement scrawled on a leaf of easel board paper:
“We commit to 100% welfare/pension rate community-controlled social housing at 58 West Hastings, working with the community to develop a rezoning application to proceed to council by the end of June 2017.”
It didn’t look so much like the culmination of city policy as a capitulation. The mayor, as he has been known to do when it comes to the homeless, went all in. It was Robertson who in 2008 pledged — prematurely, rashly, stupidly, pick your adverb — to rid the city of street homelessness. Instead, the numbers have grown. So was the mayor’s signing off the result of months of carefully considered staff recommendations, or did he do so to burnish his public image on an issue that has made him look like a chump?
Some context: At the moment, there are 25,629 units of government-subsidized non-market housing in the city of Vancouver proper. That’s nine per cent of the city’s entire housing stock, a not insubstantial percentage.
To break that down, 15,250 0f those units are for people who live independently but have incomes too low to pay market rents. Another 4,599 are supportive housing units for people who need support for a range of conditions like cognitive impairment, addiction or physical disability. The remaining 5,780 units are co-op units with below-market rent.
The province, money-wise, does the heavy lifting. Of those 25,629 units, the city operates only 851 of them, some of which are owned outright by the city, some of which are owned by the province but for which the city acts as agent. The city’s annual budget isn’t onerous: According to Kathleen Llewellyn-Thomas, the city’s new general manager for community services, the operating cost is $1.46 million a year (though that figure is nowhere near representative of land costs and overall cost to all taxpayers). The city’s policies toward the homeless are also, I’d argue, the most compassionate, especially compared to that of most of Metro Vancouver’s suburbs.
Whether it’s the wisest and most sustainable is another question. Projections are the number of social housing units will continue to grow. More than a quarter of them, especially that of the supportive kind, have been centralized in the Downtown Eastside to disastrous effect — ghettoizing the hard-to-house, corroding the livability of adjacent neighbourhoods like Chinatown, anchoring vastly expensive and redundant social welfare groups that serve the resident population. Some 260 organizations in the DTES receive $360 million in tax dollars a year.
But in a city where middle-income earners cannot only not buy a home but can’t even find affordable rentals, how long before the taxpaying public’s patience runs dry and they begin to wonder, not out of greed but need, where their help is, where their government’s priorities lie?
And if the numbers of homeless continue to grow, as they will, does Vancouver have a limit on the amount of social housing it will host within its borders? Will it continue to bear the burden of social housing in Metro Vancouver while its own middle-class citizens can’t find housing, period?
“Well, that’s a question that we’re asking ourselves as we take a look at our housing and homelessness strategy,” Llewellyn-Thomas said. “We’re launching a reset of it all (this fall). These are really important questions, and we’re going to be engaging the public. I know it sounds like I’m not answering your questions, and in a way I’m not. We don’t know the answers to them.”
pmcmartin@postmedia.comHillary Clinton took to Twitter to crow about the unanimous federal appeals court ruling stating President Trump could not ban refugees from 7 terror-infected counties.
3-0 — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 10, 2017
“3-0,” Clinton tweeted tauntingly after the decision was handed down Thursday evening, referring to the three judges ruling against her former opponent.
Bloomberg reported:
A federal appeals court ruled unanimously that the U.S. will remain open to refugees and visa holders from seven Muslim-majority countries, rejecting a bid by the Trump administration to reinstate a travel ban in the name of national security.
The San Francisco-based appeals court on Thursday spurned the government’s request to close the doors after days of public debate over President Donald Trump’s attacks on the judicial system and a rush of fearful immigrants. The ruling increases the likelihood that the administration will ask the Supreme Court to step into a case that’s the biggest test of Trump’s executive power yet.
Trump vowed to continue fighting for the national security of the country.
SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017
“See you in court,” he tweeted in all capital letters, “the security of our nation is at stake!”
UPDATE:
Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway responded to Clinton, reminding her the president broke through the so-called “blue wall,” winning Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.Are you a cutting edge Ubuntu user that’s been using Precise Pangolin since it was made available December 1? If you are, you’ll want to try out the just-released Unity 5.0. It’s an absolute test version, and you won’t want to install it on your production machine, but if you’re running 12.04 we’ll assume you’re already running a test box, so let’s dig into the process and changes.
Some of the best improvements to Unity as far as we’re concerned is to the Launcher and its options. The Launcher will now allow you to move your icons around to any order you like, and right-clicking on the shortcut icons gives you options previously not working with Unity. The menu itself (via the “super” button) has been sectioned out neatly into Home, Apps, Files & Folders and Music, and you can do searches within that criteria and even add filters to your results. You can now also change the color of the Unity Dash and Launcher with the CompizConfig Settings Manager.
In our testing, the Unity experience seems much more snappy now, both on the older and less robust hardware and a newer workhorse laptop. Beware some Ubuntu 12.04 issues with the install, though the workarounds seem to work fine. If you run into errors installing that involve LibreOffice, make sure to check that bug report. (And thank you to the folks on Google Plus that led to the fix!)
Next page: CompizConfig’s Experimental tabPlease Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/invasive-algae-removal-with-waikiki-aquarium-tickets-56454408656
Please join us and help in rehabilitating this iconic Hawaiian landmark – Waikiki Beach!!
THE PROJECT
Several species of alien algae have become established on Hawaii’s reefs, and have contributed towards the decline of some reef areas. One such area is the reef fronting the Aquarium, and here efforts have been underway since 2002 to remove these alien species and to restore the reef to its natural condition. Driven by Dr. Celia Smith and her students at the University of Hawaii’s Department of Botany, this Waikiki Aquarium/Botany Department collaboration is a community-oriented project that seeks to remove the alien algae from the reef ecosystem by picking them from the substrate and loading them onshore. Care is taken that any native species inadvertently collected by volunteers is returned to the ocean. The alien algae are weighed, to assess both the scale of the challenge and the effectiveness of the removal efforts, and transported to Honolulu Zoo. There the algae are added to the Zoo’s compost pile, which is used to fertilize the plants on the Zoo grounds and available for public use. At each cleanup, volunteers numbers range from 25 to 100 and represent individuals from throughout the community. All ages are welcome, however minors should be accompanied by an adult at all times.
DAY OF DETAILS
Cleanups start around 9am and have a soft ending about 11 - 11:30.
* We ask volunteers to arrive at 8:45am to check-in.
Meet by the big Banyan tree behind the back fence of the aquarium (Natatorium side). Look for the tables set up and group gathered. Volunteers can leave backpacks/equipment/etc. along the fence. Do not bring valuables.
Parking can be found around Kapiolani Park or at the Natatorium (not in the Aquarium’s lot).
Meters begin at 10am and are.50/hr.
What to Bring:
Volunteers will want to bring their own tabis or reef shoes, gloves, and even water gear - goggles, mask fins snorkels, towels and reef-safe sunblock...but, you don't have to go in the water, there are jobs on land.Image copyright AFP Image caption Judge Aydin Sefa Akay is meant to be reviewing the case of convicted former Rwandan minister Augustin Ngirabatware (right)
A UN legal body has ordered that Turkey release a judge detained in the aftermath of last year's failed coup attempt.
Aydin Sefa Akay is part of a panel of UN judges reviewing the case of a former Rwandan minister convicted of involvement in the 1994 genocide.
The UN's Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals said Mr Akay was protected by diplomatic immunity.
Turkey has ignored past requests for his release.
The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) ordered Ankara to release Judge Akay by 14 February and end all legal proceedings against him.
It cited a UN Security Council resolution requiring states to comply with its orders, which it said were legally binding.
Mr Akay was among tens of thousands of officials detained by the Turkish government after the bloody coup attempt last July, which it blamed on followers of exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Mr Gulen, who leads a mass movement in Turkey, has denied being involved.
Turkey post-coup purge convulses society
Rwanda genocide: 100 days of slaughter
What has Rwanda genocide tribunal achieved?
The MICT said that replacing Judge Akay, who has been detained since September, would have a "chilling effect" on judicial independence because it would allow a state to interfere in the conduct of a case.
"Diplomatic immunity is a cornerstone of an independent international judiciary," MICT President Theodor Meron said.
Mr Akay is involved in reviewing the 30-year sentence given to Augustin Ngirabatware, a former Rwandan planning minister, by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
His lawyers asked for the review based on new evidence.
Turkey was initially a strong backer of international courts set up in the 1990s to prosecute serious crimes committed during the Yugoslav wars and Rwandan Genocide, but it has shifted its stance to a more unilateral approach under current nationalist leader President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.On Wednesday morning, the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency introduced VOICE—or the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office—a special new branch created by the Trump administration to, in the agency’s words, “serve the needs of crime victims and their families who have been impacted by crimes committed by removable criminal aliens.”
The new office stems from a promise made by President Trump during his speech to a joint session of Congress in February, where he vowed to “[provide] a voice to those who have been ignored by our media, and silenced by special interests” (and conveniently ignored data which suggests that high rates of immigration coincide with reduced crime rates).
At a press conference today, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Thomas Homan told reporters, “I’ve been enforcing immigration law for 33 years, today is a good day.”
The office also unveiled a new, toll-free hotline where callers can expect (per the VOICE website):
Assistance signing up to receive automated custody status information about an alien in custody (DHS-VINE);
Additional criminal or immigration history may be available about an alien to victims or their families;
Local contacts to help with unique victims’ requests, and
Access to skilled social science professionals available to refer victims to appropriate services
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Curious, I called the hotline.
I was greeted by a pre-recorded message explaining that the service exists to provide information “for victims and their families who have been impacted by a crime committed by an alien who may be subject to removal.” Callers are then prompted to choose between either an English or Spanish speaking representative.
The message—recorded by a friendly sounding woman with a flat midwestern accent—notes that theirs is not “a hotline to report crime,” and urges those callers to contact local law enforcement or the ICE tip line.
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Along with the VOICE office, ICE announced the creation of a DHS-VINE service, which “will help victims track the immigration custody status of illegal alien perpetrators of crime.”
These services, with their emphasis on providing the “criminal and immigration history” of those within its database, are emblematic of the Trump administration’s fear-mongering when it comes to immigrants living in the United States. It essentially creates a new class of people, dividing them into those who simply commit crimes, and those who are foreigners who commit crimes. Similarly, victims of crimes are delineated along the same lines.
“All crime is terrible, but these victims are unique —and too often ignored,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said in a press release announcing the office’s formation. “They are casualties of crimes that should never have taken place—because the people who victimized them often times should not have been in the country in the first place.”
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The implications of something so clearly set up to turn immigrants into a villainous, separate category of people are sobering.
“The VOICE program won’t do anything to increase public safety,” Black Alliance for Just Immigration Deputy Director Carl Lipscombe, told Fusion. “Rather, like all of this administration’s immigration programs, it will serve as another vehicle for those with nationalist, xenophobic tendencies to criminalize and spread fear amongst immigrant families and communities. Today is not a good day.”
Ominously, the VOICE hotline as it exists currently is just the beginning. As ICE explained on its Twitter account, the agency “intends to expand the services VOICE offers in the future.”
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Additional reporting by Jorge Rivas.In case you hadn't heard, Emeka Okafor is hurt. The Washington Wizards center is out indefinitely after having herniated his C4 disc during a five-on-five game in New York a few weeks ago. He should be back at some point this season, although it's anyone's guess when and how well he'll play when he returns.
Okafor's absence is an enormous blow to Washington, in particular on defense. Okafor has anchored some of the NBA's best defenses throughout the years and the 2013 iteration of the Wizards was no exception. Okafor was an excellent rim protector and rebounder who was a perfect complement to Nene, a similarly sized player who was at his best defending the pick and roll and cutting off penetration, last year. Between the two of them, as well as impressive efforts from the team as a whole and Trevor Ariza in particular, Washington was able to muster up the NBA's fifth-best defensive efficiency last year.
No one player currently on the roster is capable of filling Okafor's size 15s. Washington will be forced to alter its rotation to account for his absence, so bumps in playing time for Al Harrington, Kevin Seraphin and Summer League Sensation Jan Vesely are probably in the works. Washington's defense was incredible whenever Okafor and Nene shared the floor last year, but much more pedestrian whenever Okafor sat, despite the alternatives (Seraphin, Vesely and Trevor Booker) playing the overwhelming majority of their minutes against less offensively-gifted second units. Not only is Washington going to lose Okafor's contributions, they're going to be forced to fill his minutes at center with either a guy who can't protect the rim (Harrington) or someone who performed worse than a replacement level player last year (Seraphin and Vesely).
The scariest part of all of this is that Nene will almost undoubtedly be asked to play more minutes, something that could lead to disaster considering his age and injury history.
Where each member of the rotation will play could also change in the wake of Okafor's injury. Nene split his time between center and power forward last season and was effective at both positions. He's a middling rebounder (8.8 per 36 minutes last season), though, and seems to prefer playing the less physically demanding power forward position. Seraphin, Vesely and Harrington, all of whom were projected to play the majority of their minutes at power forward, could all see some time at center depending on matchups. Of the three, Seraphin probably has the most potential as far as holding the defense together while Nene sits, but he's been playing basketball for less than 10 years and still hasn't mastered the nuances of team defense.
There isn't much the team can do if it wants to bring in a free agent, too. Washington currently has all 15 of the team's roster spots taken up by players on guaranteed deals, so someone would need to be waived in order to bring in a free agent. Even if that happened, there aren't many players who would be an upgrade over who the team already has. Of the big men currently not signed to a team, the only names that would make one iota of sense for the team are Drew Gooden, Earl Barron, Chris Wilcox and Tyrus Thomas. None of these guys did anything of note last year and only Gooden could even conceivably be considered an upgrade from Seraphin. Thomas is still reasonably young and would make a great reclamation project -- he was very good the last time he was able to play significant minutes at his natural power forward position -- but his attitude has been Blatche-like historically.
Wizards Small Lineups Minutes Played 540 Offensive Rating 103.4 Defensive rating 97.0 Net Rating 6.4 Data via NBA.com/stats
The team could also attempt to go small, going with more offense and shooting and less defense and rebounding. Ariza and Otto Porter have the length necessary to guard most smaller power forwards, plus both should be above average rebounders next year. The team played a four perimeter player sparingly last season, using a converted small forward at the power forward spot for only 540 minutes over the course of the year. The results were surprisingly good, as the team outscored opponents by more than six points per 100 possessions with four perimeter players on the floor at once. This should in theory improve with the addition of Harrington, whose most natural position is as power forward in a small lineup and who should have less trouble guarding big men than one of the team's converted small forwards.
Every team experiences injuries throughout the course of a season. If anything, Washington should count its blessings that at least a month and a half of Okafor's recovery will take place before the season starts. If the typical recovery time from an injury like this is three months, Okafor should be back by January and should only miss 20 or 30 games. If this had happened in November, he'd miss twice that amount. The team is also fortunate in that it will have an entire training camp to tinker with new offensive sets, lineups and defensive schemes that can mask its lack of rim protection and rebounding.
That's why, despite the doom and gloom noted elsewhere, I don't think Okafor's neck injury automatically prevents Washington from making the playoffs. Even if no one on the roster is able to replicate his production, the pieces are there to hold the team together until he comes back.
More from Bullets Forever:Why Google’s crash is a good thing
Reports released reveal that one of Google’s Gen-2 vehicles (the Lexus) has a fender-bender (with a bus) with some responsibility assigned to the system. This is the first crash of this type — all other impacts have been reported as fairly clearly the fault of the other driver.
This crash ties into an upcoming article I will be writing about driving in places where everyone violates the rules. I recently landed from a trip to India, which has a chaotic road system (far more chaotic than California) and it got me thinking a bit about problems.
Google is thinking about them, too. Google reports it just recently started experimenting with new behaviours; in this case, making a right turn on a red light off a major street where the right lane is extra wide. In that situation it has become common behaviour for cars to effectively create two lanes out of one, with a straight through group on the left, and right turners hugging the curb. The vehicle code would have there be only one lane, and the first person not turning would block everybody turning right, who would find it quite annoying. In India, the lane markers are barely suggestions, and drivers — which consist of every width of vehicle you can imagine dynamically form their own patterns.
As such, Google wanted their car to be a good citizen and hug the right curb when conducting a right turn. So they did, but found the way blocked by sandbags on a storm drain. So they had to “merge” back with the traffic in the left side of the lane. They did this when a bus was coming up on the left and they made the assumption, as many would make, that the bus would yield and slow a bit to let them in. The bus did not, and the Google car hit it at very low speed. The Google car could have probably solved this with faster reflexes and a better read of the bus’ intent, and probably will in time, but more interesting is the question of what you expect of other drivers. The law doesn’t imagine this split lane or this “merge.” And of course the law doesn’t require people to slow down to let you in.
But driving in so many cities can mean expecting the other guy to slow down and let you in. (In places like Indonesia, the rules actually give the right-of-way to the guy who cuts you off, because you can see him and he can’t easily see you, so it’s your job to slow. Of course, robocars see in 360 degrees, so no car has a better view of the situation.)
While some people like to imagine that important ethical questions for robocars revolve around choosing who to kill in an accident, that’s actually an extremely rare event. The real ethical issues revolve around this issue of how to drive when driving involves routinely breaking the law — not once in a 100 lifetimes, but once every minute. Or once every second, as is the case in India. To solve this problem, we must come up with a resolution and we must eventually get the law to accept it the same what it accepts it for all the humans out there, who are almost never ticketed for these infractions.
So, why is this a good thing? Google is starting to work on these issues, and you need to solve these problems to drive even in orderly places like California. And yes, you are going to have some mistakes, and some dings on the way there and that’s a good thing, not a bad thing. Mistakes in negotiating who yields to who are very unlikely to involve injury, as long as you don’t involve things smaller than cars (such as pedestrians.) Robocars will need to not always yield in a game of chicken or they cannot survive on the roads.
In this case, Google says it learned that big vehicles are much less likely to yield. In addition, it sounds like the vehicle’s confusion over the sandbags probably made the bus driver decide the vehicle was stuck. It’s still unclear to me why the car wasn’t able to abort its merge when it saw the bus was not going to yield, since the description has the car sideswiping the bus, not the other way around.
Nobody wants accidents — and some will play this accident as more than it is — but neither do we want so much caution that we never learn these lessons.
It’s also a good reminder that even Google, though it is the clear leader in the space, still has lots of work to do. A lot of people I talk to imagine that the tech problems have all been solved and all that’s left is getting legal and public acceptance. There is great progress being made, but nobody should expect these cars to be perfect today. That’s why they run with safety drivers, even before the law demanded it. This time the safety driver also decided the bus would yield and so let the car try its merge. Expect more of this as time goes forward.
This post originally appeared on robocars.com.This was actually from a dream from a couple years back. I don't remember much of the 'before' and 'after', just the descent into cold, dark, deep waters and what was down there. Soft blue light coming up from below, strange dark architecture, and then of course these creatures. There were three of them, they stood out in yellow-gold, their movements very slow and fluid and deliberate, weightless, and they gave the impression of being quite intelligent. They did not speak, yet there was a faint "whispering" that I didn't understand, and while the location seemed silent, there was still this odd sort of pulse or rhythm to it, something that is felt more than heard.
Overall, it was eerie, but I did not actually feel threatened by these things, whatever they were.When did crime and punishment become crime and profit? If we have 4% of the world’s population, why do we have 25% of the world’s prisoners? Contrary to popular belief, contemporary America now strongly resembles Stalinist Russia’s Gulag Archipelago, taking the lead for per capita incarceration. Somewhere during our entertainment intoxication and obsessive materialistic addictions, this monster has grown right under our noses, invisible to us because its body is dependent on a permanent population of incarcerated persons utterly stripped of their rights. Most of us think that taxpayers pay for prisons, unaware that the Privatization of prisons means that taxpayers actually pay for empty cells. Profitability in this industry demands as many prisoners as possible be housed in as many prisons as possible, while eliminating as many expenses as possible. Countless corporations now turn to forced prison labor to manufacture their products as an alternative to third-world sweatshop labor.9-Day-Old Baby Murdered, Parents Charged
Baltimore police have arrested the parents of a 9-day-old boy in connection with his death.
Matthew Kirsch, 37, and Anne Kirsch, 35, are charged with murder, child abuse, neglect and assault-related charges, police said Friday.
Police said officers were called on Oct. 20 to a house in the 4200 block of Groveland Avenue on a report of an unresponsive child. The infant was taken to Sinai Hospital, where he died.
The infant's parents told investigators that they found the child unresponsive. Police said an autopsy revealed the cause of death to be homicide by blunt-force trauma and neglect.
"It's really even tough to find words to describe what this 9-day-old child had to endure during his very short life," Baltimore police Detective Jeremy Silbert said.
According to charging documents, the baby was born in an auto repair shop, where both parents worked, the birth was never reported and no doctors were involved.
The birth of the infant, also named Matthew Kirsch, was announced on Facebook on Oct. 11. His father wrote: "My first child born at 7 this morning, and it's a boy."
Police said investigators believe that the infant was neglected and abused in the nine days that followed. Police said they found signs of dehydration and malnutrition.
A report from the Medical Examiner's Office says the "child was a road map of abuse and neglect," and that his stomach was empty except for gastric fluid.
Investigators said they believe the couple tried to give the impression that they were feeding the child by placing bottles of formula out before they called 911.
The medical examiner also reported an injury to the back of the boy's head consistent with being slammed on a flat surface.
Charging documents say the couple "caused such egregious conditions that they managed to deplete the life of the child, causing his death in only nine days."
Neighbors in the 4200 block of Groveland Avenue said the house where the couple lived has been vacant for about a year and they believe the couple was living there without the owner's permission.
"They came out with what appeared to be a small baby and put it in the ambulance, and then I left for work, and when I got back home about 5 o'clock, I saw the house taped off," a neighbor told 11 News.
The charging documents say the couple have been married for 13 years and share a heroin addiction. The charging documents say Anne Kirsch admitted she used heroin during the pregnancy. Investigators said the child may have been born addicted to the drug.
Both parents are being held at Central Booking.1 / 28 Pat Robertson: Gays With Aids Wear Rings To Cut, Infect Others
Pat Robertson made an <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/27/pat-robertson-aids-rings_n_3824401.html" target="_blank">outrageous comment</a> in August 2013 on an episode of the 700 club, in which he claimed that gay people suffering from AIDS in cities such as San Francisco wear "special rings" that allow them to cut and infect other individuals with the disease. Right Wing Watch reported that particular comment from the broadcast was edited out of the clip the Christian Broadcasting Network later posted online. The Huffington Post could not immediately reach a CBN representative for comment. “You know what they do in San Francisco? Some in the gay community there, they want to get people. So if they got the stuff they’ll have a ring, you shake hands and the ring’s got a little thing where you cut your finger,” he said. “Really. It’s that kind of vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder.”
APMegyn Kelly, a humble journalist just like you and me, has come into some criticism for booking our nation’s eminent conspiracy theorist Alex Jones as an interview subject. But as the saying goes, the road to making enormous piles of money is not paved with good intentions. It is paved with the cynical assumption that any drooling television audience is too dumb to care what they watch and that the wider journalistic community will support what you do as long as it’s marketed as a brave, credible, truth-seeking mission that only a reporter with the biggest set of metaphorical balls could handle — and with a firm grace that still has some sex appeal. ;)
The announcement of the Jones interview, to be aired Sunday night, was followed by considerable outcry, which makes sense as Jones is an insanely huge piece of shit whose lies are so odious that he lost a free-speech case to a yogurt company. Despite the irrefutable fact that Jones is a putrefying sack of garbage stuffed in a human-skin suit, certain news outlets (BuzzFeed, it’s always BuzzFeed, but probably also most of the New York Times believes this as well) have defended the Kelly interview. Here’s BuzzFeed, in an article posted last night titled “The Case for Interviewing Alex Jones”:
“Like it or not, Alex Jones is an architect of our current political moment, and as such, the mainstream media shouldn’t try to shield its audience from him or pretend he doesn’t exist — it should interrogate him.”
So, several things going on here. Let’s start with the one that annoys me the most, which is something I like to call “The Bret Stephens Fallacy” (AKA the “B.S. Fallacy”): That we should “interrogate” ideas and persons who offend and/or challenge us to understand them. This is a nice, kumbaya-type little impulse but it falls apart completely when we acknowledge that many of the most prominent people who offend or challenge us (the “us” here typically being the the liberal elite, of which the mainstream media is a part) are unquestionably wrong and their ideas are based on lies. Do we really need to challenge our views on climate change when climate change is a widely documented fact? Seems silly! And yet this type of thing jauntily masquerades as “intellectual thought” on our nation’s vaunted op-ed pages.
Alex Jones is an insanely huge piece of shit whose lies are so odious that he lost a free-speech case to a yogurt company.
There’s also the hypocritical flipside to the B.S. Fallacy. If the right to publicly express lies and misrepresentations is challenged — in my observations, this usually happens when a middle-aged white man’s right to “free speech” is pushed back upon even the tiniest bit — the challengers are decried as identity-politics-loving snowflakes who would be better off back in their gender-neutral safe-space dorm at Wesleyan, or some shit. Those most in favor of the interrogation of others usually cannot stand being interrogated themselves. Funny how that works.
But back to BuzzFeed. Alex Jones might have a rabid following (it seems probable, at this point, that his audience is mostly composed of Russian dummy accounts on 4-Chan, teenagers, and anti-government West Texans; BuzzFeed isn’t able to specify who they are), but to call him “an architect of our current political movement” feels like quite a reach (although that description probably gives Jones a raging boner, so, good job BuzzFeed). This is not to deny that Jones has influence — he obviously has enough to prompt one of his followers to bring a gun to a random pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C. and inspire a subsequent Law & Order SVU episode — but his influence cannot be quantified or specified in any useful sense, and in the absence of that specification certain media outlets tend to consider it in a vacuum where it is the only thing that matters, and its prevalence becomes exaggerated. In the world where Alex Jones is an architect of the current political movement, it’s inconvenient to recall that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, or that Fox News is tanking in the ratings, or that Trump has yet to achieve a single thing in office besides frightening immigrants and the LGBTQ community and making it impossible to have a normal conversation in which his Twitter is not mentioned.
If NBC — which is very much hoping that Megyn Kelly, whom the network is paying north of $15 million per year, will make it the best and most popular network in the country (a very Trumpian goal, indeed!) — had chosen for some respectful, clear-headed reason not to interview Jones, they wouldn’t be “shielding” their audience from him or “pretending he doesn’t exist” — they would simply… not be interviewing him. The idea that news outlets protect their readers or viewers is very quaint and somewhat laughable; I feel nothing but disrespected when I read the news these days and not just because someone set my homepage to Vox.com. Further, sending Megyn Kelly, one of our nation’s most self-serving media figures, to interview Alex Jones is not exactly an exercise in intellectual debate — it doesn't bode well that a cheeky selfie of the journalist with the man whose feet she promises to hold to the coals has emerged — nor is giving a mass-murder denier a prime-time platform to espouse his scurrilous views.
BuzzFeed says that to ignore the “seriousness of the far-right’s information war, in the hope that it goes away, isn’t just naive, it’s dangerous.” But perhaps a more potent act of naiveté is entertaining the notion that the seemingly amorphous alt-right and its associated fascists merit mainstream interrogation. In either case, if BuzzFeed is correct in asserting the robustness and legitimacy of Jones’s following, those hoping for a hard-hitting interview tomorrow night should take heed: Megyn Kelly needs Alex Jones way more than Alex Jones needs Megyn Kelly.
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The Leah Letters I would follow Martha Stewart to hell The Bari Weiss problem Honestly, fuck Harper’s You don’t have to talk When men
fear women No justice for bad men Opinion: Trolling is not opinion The internet is making me sick Just say no to media coverage of drugs Living with ennui in Trump’s America Alex Jones is a piece of shit, and interviewing him is idiotic The NYT crossword is old and kind of racist Access journalism is not for you or me Mark Zuckerberg will be our downfall ‘New Yorker’ covers? Watercolor me unimpressed The insidious rise of the microcelebrity Who goes Nazi? Media edition Political diversity is a cop-out for overpaid media men The New York Times’ public editor is bad at her job Eat, pray, hate Music criticism, take a look at yourself With a soul this ugly, who cares about her looks? Silicon Valley’s future looks exactly like the past Nevertheless, she bought a shirt Live, from New York, it’s futile satire! Lady Gaga’s political message: drink Pepsi Zero Sugar What is going on?ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Ann Arbor police are investigating Friday after they found graffiti containing racial slurs and swastikas in and around a city skate park.
The skate park inside Veterans Memorial Park was closed after the discovery.
Ann Arbor police officers were called around 8 a.m. Friday to Veterans Memorial Park, where they found racist graffiti spray painted in and around the skate park.
The Ann Arbor Police Department will have increased patrols around city parks as a result of the incident.
Ann Arbor police are asking for the public's |
notice is half the track list of the album. Joey and Kami have given us one of the first albums in the post-Yeezus soundscape that successfully acknowledges and incorporates the polarizing direction Kanye took without actually copying him or creating an experience that will divide audiences. Most people will find several things to like about Season and, from a critically objective viewpoint, the only real complaint to throw at the final result is the occasional repetition of themes.
“In Da Club”, “Rocket Man”, and “Chicken Talk” should satisfy any pure rap fans, but there’s also a wonderfully rough punk sound on “Developers”, and a sound reminiscent of The Beatles’s daring phase on “My Good Girl” and “Lucile”. If you’re worried about the Yeezus mention earlier, don’t be — Season does incorporate some dissonance and strange song structures but it doesn’t seek to deprive the listener of a closing musical phrase or cause anxiety by denying a chorus. A wonderfully diverse instrumentation is employed to create the different feels on Season — from Daft Punk or Justice-esque electronic notes, to an organ, to simple drums and snares.
Leather Corduroys, perhaps by benefit of having less to lose than their more well-known comrades in the SAVEMONEY group, are more daring on Season than pretty much any other group right now; if you’re curious about the directions Hip-Hop may be heading in the future, starting here is probably a good idea. Check it out on Soundcloud or just straight up download it.
— A. B. Schmidt (Bradapalooza)
Editor's note - Joey and Kami's SaveMoney friend Towkio also dropped a brilliant full-length début,.wav theory. Fans of Chance are sure to enjoy it, and, like all SaveMoney projects, it's completely free. Download it here.
Dengue Fever - The Deepest Lake
Dengue Fever are the sort of band someone would make up as a parody of hipster tastes. Brothers Zac and Ethan Holtzmann founded the band after a trip to Cambodia, where Ethan fell in love with the local 60s rock songs which dominated the radio airwaves. They were fortunate to find an accomplished Cambodian vocalist in Long Beach, and Chhom Nimol’s timeless voice made it possible for them to recreate the sounds of the Holtzmanns’ holiday on the West Coast.
Their early records are an uneasy blend of by-numbers covers and crude pastiches, but The Deepest Lake sees them masterfully incorporate a range of influences and find their own distinct sound. Nimol now sings in English as well as her native Khmer, and overdubs her own floating harmonies to good effect. The songs are anchored by Senon Williams’ assured walking basslines, with elements such as understated African drums and jazzy horns mixed in with Nitzschean mastery. The old master’s influence, direct or otherwise, both anchors the album within the Western canon and allows the international influences some sincerity; the little Sixties flourishes, not least a Nitzsche-phone, mean this could be his soundtrack to a Cambodian spy film.
Naturally, many of Nimol’s lyrics – written by the Holtzmanns in English, then professionally translated to Khmer, before finally being edited to fit the music by Nimol – are completely impenetrable. That doesn’t detract from the experience, even for listeners unaccustomed to world music. The Deepest Lake is an atmospheric record, the high points tempered by unease, which will delight fans of mainstream indie and folk, as well as 60s revivalists and world music aficionados or simply anyone looking to broaden their musical palette.
- Vesuvius
Jay Prince - BeFor Our Time
2015 has been the year of Grime. Brothers Skepta and Jme have been at the forefront of bringing the UK Rap scene to a wider audience in Britain and overseas in America. Whilst Grime has taken all the plaudits, many up-and-coming rappers have made moves by going against the traditional London sound.
One of those is Jay Prince, a 21 year old from East London who released his latest EP, BeFor Our Time in January. With a production style that recalls the West Coast, and an effortless flow to suit, this could be the man to fill in that market.
A large part of Prince’s EP sees him utilise a sing-rap style as he effortlessly flows over every beat, putting listeners in a trance. He's London's answer to TDE’s Isaiah Rashad. Songs like “Polaroids” and “I’m Good” epitomise this with his melodic vocals, making for some of the catchiest hooks of the year, and echoing a message from the project’s opening skit.
On “1993” he opens up his second verse with “Some people still feelin’ low, and I’m just tryna give these people hope”, a message that translates to the masses, with the fundamental concept focused on todays youth. Speaking with Noisey he said: “there's hope where we come from. We all have a story to tell. This project is about Truth, Love, Passion”. He executes that brilliantly to produce an EP that should not be missed.
- zk123
San Fermin - Jackrabbit
In 2013, we ranked San Fermin's self-titled début as Rock Genius' third best album of the year. Their second record might as well represent the band once again. Jackrabbit is a baroque-rock album conceived by Ellis Ludwig-Leone, who composed around the interplay between male lead vocalist Allen Tate and female vocalist Charlene Kaye. Ludwig-Leone built on his previous orchestra full of horns and strings with more folk influences and dissonant sounds, which elevate the singer couple's stale of a world haunted by death and longing.
This time, San Fermin strengthened their concept with a thematic tale that keeps momentum through the finale. Kaye goes from a sweet melody to anguish mourning in "Philosopher" as she stabs at the entertainment industry with the words "And if I let all my demons out / Oh, you would love it." Meanwhile, Tate evokes realization in backend cut "Reckoning", where he describes time passing with the metaphor "when your friends are grayer by the day."
Accuse the band of revelling in pretentious angst, but it's hard to not acknowledge the power of the ambitious interaction of rock with a mighty brass section. Classical crossover, indeed.
- chihuahua0
Viet Cong - Viet Cong
Viet Cong may have only just released their début album, but all of them are experienced musicians, and it shows. The album falls shy of the 40-minute mark, but every second leaves you unsure of what the next will contain, and so Viet Cong doesn’t sound like a short record.
Their music is grimy and industrial. Drums rumble ominously, and the hiss of white noise is inescapable, but the discord is carefully managed, and exists only to emphasise those moments of release; the organ outro of opener “Newspaper Spoons”, the jingle-jangle guitar which introduces “Death”, the rousing final section of “March of Progress”. Even the rougher moments aren’t cynical anti-pop – rather, the heavier moments examine the gaps between mainstream music and the experimental fringe. Simplicity is teased, and then sharply snatched away.
The band’s sound isn’t burdened by revivalist or progressive expectations. Having said that, this is neither a genre-blending mish-mash nor a deliberate rejection of sixty years of pop history. There are definite echoes of krautrock in with the experimentation; Matt Flegel is an archetypal brooding post-punk frontman, echoing every notable vocalist from the darker side of New Wave. Comparisons to Tom Verlaine of Television are unavoidable, but he also variously evokes Robert Smith, Ian Curtis, and even Remain In Light-era David Byrne. This doesn’t define or restrain Viet Cong though. Their heavy determination, equally expansive and tight, is distinctly theirs.
- Tom Brailli
Natalie Prass - Natalie Prass
Natalie Prass opens her début album with the words “I don’t feel much”, and spends the rest of the album’s forty-minute run time singing to the world about how much she feels the the pain of her breakup from Kyle Ryan Hurlbut, who plays in Kacey Musgraves’s band. In what is ostensibly a breakup album, Prass comes across like a real-life Disney princess that had her heart wounded by failed relationships. This comparison is solidified in the closing track, ”It Is You.”
Break-up albums are the best kind. It’s just what was happening and I had to deal with it somehow
Prass's blend of country and soul with lush instrumentation provided by the house band at Spacebomb Records is something that feels instantly recognizable, yet comes together in a distinctive way. Her voice is stunning and provides these set of songs exactly what they need but she is not a powerhouse vocalist in the classic sense. Instead, it fits in the middle of the mix somewhere; floating on top of the instrumentation à la Lauren Mayberry.
Whatever the reason for the shelving of this record, it’s hard to feel bad for record companies when they sit on incredible albums like this for three years. Natalie Prass cuts through the noise of the constant race for attention that is the indie blogosphere and delivers a record that sounds like an instant classic.
- Benjamin R. Swanson
Editor's note: This review was originally written for Genius's Album of the Month award for January. Natalie has since made a verified account on Genius. View her annotations here!
Tim Gray - Polyhedrons
Meditative. Therapeutic. Shape-shifting. The drone masterpiece Polyhedrons by music theorist Tim Gray represents the boundless nature of singular sound. The music of the four lengthy pieces shifts chameleonic to the shades of life, lulling one to sleep as easy as it commands the waking day forward. To listen to the suites requires all of you and none of you. Background music to the most focused session of self-introspection. Polyhedrons is an apt title: listening to the academically-crafted songs initiates a circular being to find its edges, a fragmented person to find their completion. Listen and exist.
- Brian Duricy
Siskiyou – Nervous
One of the best albums to come out of the Great White North this year so far, Nervous pulls no punches with its depiction of a bleak, anxious world, crafted after lead singer Colin Huebert came down with an inner ear condition. Nervous pairs lush orchestral instrumentation with Huebert’s hushed, almost pained vocals, taking you deep into his affliction with equal parts melodic beauty and jarring, disorienting sound.
Nervous is the third album from Siskiyou, and marks a departure from the project’s typical folk sound. And depart it does; over the record’s 10 tracks, it covers vast sonic ground, but there is a cohesiveness throughout, a common thread of constant tension through acknowledging life’s simultaneous beauty and brutality. The record runs the gamut of emotions, from the beautiful string accents on “Bank Accounts and Dollar Bills" and the upbeat, Arcade Fire-esque “Imbecile Thoughts” to the tense paranoia of “Violent Motion Pictures” and “Babylonian Proclivities'” symphonic squealing, encapsulating life’s rollercoaster of experience. It can be a tough listen, but the record provides more than enough sonic material so you can find something to latch onto.
Nuanced, haunting, and heartbreaking, Nervous showcases life’s myriad emotions through its evocation of stark contrast, but using myriad elements to provide 10 different, potent perspectives that work impeccably together.
- Alt-Weakling
Torres — Sprinter
Indeed, who would have suspected that the twenty-four year old Mackenzie Scott would have such a world weary soul? Surely anyone who took a listen to her self-titled debut, but for the uninitiated, it's one of the many surprises her new album supplies.
There's a darkness at the heart of Sprinter that could have easily become overwhelming but Torres deftly balances it in a way that would have made PJ Harvey proud. It's never bleak to the point of driving a listener away. Instead, Torres brings a staggering emotional energy that provokes us to instantly latch on to her voice. We honest-to-God relate to her contemplations as they rumble through the distortions and guitars. Her ability to hone in on the sadness that drowns us without ever forcing us into the water is spectacular (as she does in the dreamy "Ferris Wheel). We're invited in, inspiring our own introspections. That level of songwriting isn't easy or quick to master, it's from Torres' own ability to empathize musically. Some of her best moments spring from anger and she lets it run through tracks like "Strange Hellos" and "Son, You're No Island". There, she snaps and energizes the album with searing lines like.
Ouch. And yet, Torres still finds ways to breathe in between moments of such fire. The playful "Cowboy Guilt" offers some relief from the intensity with a fun Submarines-like beat. but to let up entirely would just not be her style. Few others would consider a song about Native American reparations and Southern summer childhoods a breather, but that's just the unique kind of tone that Torres brings. Of course, this couldn't go much farther without mentioning the raw closing track, "The Exchange" that showcases the very power Torres is capable of. Experimental, moody and absolutely honest to a devastating level. For sure, one of the best moments of 2015.
Torres finds herself in a sweet spot, finding her stride in "Sprinter", leaving us eager to what we can expect of someone of her talent. As she says it herself in the gloriously sharp title track, "So I found myself some ground to stand/Bound to be the better man."
Now that's what we call some solid footing.
-TheRaconteur
Have you listened to any of these albums, or do you have another hidden gem to share with us? Let us know in the comments below!New research on the Canadian housing market shows foreign buyers account for a small portion of house and condominium owners in the country’s largest cities.
Non-residents owned 3.4 per cent of all residential properties in Toronto, according to new housing statistics by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. and Statistics Canada. In Vancouver, non-residents owned 4.8 per cent of residential properties.
READ MORE: Here’s what the new mortgage rules will do to home prices in 2018: Royal LePage
CMHC also says that foreign buyers owned less than one per cent of the condo stock in 17 metropolitan areas across the country.
WATCH: New mortgage rules mean you might have to buy a smaller home
The figures mark the first time that CMHC and Statistics Canada have quantified the level of foreign ownership in the country’s hot housing market to see how much influence foreign buyers have over skyrocketing prices.
And the numbers suggest a limited role of non-resident homeowners.
“These numbers are still significant, but of course they alone don’t explain the rapid appreciation in house prices in the [Greater Toronto Area],” said John Pasalis, president of Toronto-based Realosophy, a real estate information and services company.
“Domestic speculation was probably a bigger factor than non-resident purchases,” he adds.
READ MORE: New mortgage rules 2018: A practical guide
The impact of foreign homeowners is likely more pronounced in the condo market, where non-residents hold 7.9 per cent of residential properties in Vancouver and 7.2 per cent in Toronto, StatCan found.
And in both the condo and the single-detached homes segments, property owned by non-residents is more expensive, on average, than that owned by Canadian residents.
In the city of Vancouver, the average value of condo apartments owned by foreign residents was $930,600, or 25.6 per cent higher than the average resident-owned unit. In Toronto proper, the average foreign-owned condo is valued at $439,000, 7.6 per cent more than the average condo owned by residents.
The same trend was evident for single homes. In Vancouver, the average detached house owned by foreign homebuyers is worth $2.3 million compared with $1.6 million for resident-owned homes. In Toronto, the difference was $103,500, with homes owned by non-residents roughly 12 per cent more expensive than those owned by residents on average.
WATCH: Housing prices expected to keep rising
Still, the relatively small share of foreign-owned homes raises questions about the effectiveness of recently adopted measures aimed at dampening foreign investment in real estate.
Both B.C. and Ontario have enacted a foreign homebuyers tax in an attempt to slow breakneck price growth in their hottest real estate markets.
“Every attempt at estimating the role of foreign buyers reaches the same conclusion: They play an overstated role compared to the facts, while policy measures that target foreign buyers are more about the politics than the economics,” Derek Holt, head of Capital Markets Economics at ScotiaBank, told Global News.
B.C.’s first-ever data on foreign homebuyers in Vancouver showed that non-residents accounted for five per cent of purchases in June of 2016, before the implementation of the tax.
READ MORE: The Vancouver foreign homebuyer tax is one year old. Here’s what Canada can learn from it.
A similar survey in Ontaio shower non-resident homebuyers accounting for around seven per cent of monthly purchases in Toronto, prior to the tax.
And while both provinces saw a dip in foreign buying activity following the surtax, neither has seen a meaningful and lasting impact on home prices from it so far.
“At some point we need to face the reality that the deterioration of housing affordability has been driven by domestic buyers and domestic policy choices governing housing supply,” said Holt.
– With files from the Canadian PressBy Andrew M. Seaman
A boy poses with a chicken burger at a fast food outlet in Taipei January 29, 2010. REUTERS/Nicky Loh
(Reuters Health) - Regulating fast food kids’ meals that include toys may end up making the meals healthier, according to a new study.
If a proposed new policy in New York City is approved, then fast food meals that come with toys would contain fewer calories overall, and fewer from fat and sodium, researchers report.
“We can create policies that will nudge us toward healthier behaviors,” said senior author Marie Bragg, of NYU Langone Medical Center in New York.
The proposed policy, which was introduced to the New York City Council, says fast food meals that come with a small toy must include a serving of fruit, vegetable or whole grain. The law would also limit meals with toys to no more than 500 calories, and it would place additional restrictions on fat and salt.
To estimate the effect of the proposal, researchers analyzed food purchases made by 358 adults for 422 children at Burger King, McDonald’s and Wendy’s restaurants in New York City and New Jersey in 2013 and 2014.
The average child in the study was seven years old.
As reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the adults purchased an average of 600 calories of food for each child, with a third of those calories coming from fat.
The meals contained an average of 869 mg of salt - more than half the total daily limit recommended by the American Heart Association.
About 35 percent of the children ate kids’ meals that came with toys - and 98 percent of those meals did not meet the proposed guidelines, the researchers write.
If all the meals with toys met the proposed standards, children would consume 9 percent fewer calories and there would also be 10 percent reductions in salt and calories from fat, the researchers calculated.
“It’s a rather small amount in comparison to how bad the country’s obesity problem really is,” Bragg acknowledged. But small changes could add up, she said.
“There’s a lot of value in the incremental changes that can sum up to a great impact with all the other changes occurring in the environment,” such as policies that create healthier workplaces and communities, Bragg told Reuters Health.
Bragg hopes fast food restaurants won’t try to sidestep any new policies.
“We’re at a point where we have to move the needle and we have to do it with policies like this,” she said.
SOURCE: bit.ly/1JsvT8L American Journal of Preventive Medicine, online August 6, 2015.Despite a few recent venue closures, Edinburgh still has a lot to offer music fans. You just have to know where to look.
Whether you’re seeking an intimate bar where you can cosy up in a corner and listen to a singer-songwriter, or a larger venue to head-bang the night away with hundreds of strangers, Scotland’s capital city has a variety of options.
Here Morag Robertson offers an introductory guide to live music venues, local festivals to look out for, and some of the best blogs and record shops in Edinburgh.
Want to suggest an addition to this guide? Post a comment below (just register first), tweet to #wow247 or add a comment to our Facebook page.
Small, intimate venues
If what you seek is a smaller, more intimate space with regular gigs, then there are several good options.
The Wee Red Bar is a small bar and club with cheap drinks, and most importantly, great music. You can find it in the grounds of Edinburgh College of Art, which you can enter through Lady Lawson Street. A similarly small but perfectly formed gig space awaits you at Sneaky Pete’s on the Cowgate. It has a cosy wee bar, with a small dance floor and stage, making it a perfect hangout throughout the week.
Just off Lothian Road on Morrison Street, Henry’s Cellar Bar claims that they are the “venue of choice for people who want to see amazing talent in an intimate, unpretentious setting.” Their packed calendar of gig listings backs up this claim. If jazz music is your thing, then The Jazz Bar on Chamber Street is calling your name. Although the name suggests a strict music policy, that’s definitely not the case, and they often host funk, fusion, soul, blues, roots and acoustic acts. With multiple gigs every night, seven nights a week, every week, The Jazz Bar might be your ideal bar.
Hosting bands and solo artists six nights a week, the team at Bannerman’s (above) on the Cowgate are very keen on giving local up-and-coming bands a good chance in furthering their career, which is reflected in their roster of gigs. The back bar of this popular venue has been recently revamped to create the Jäger Lounge. So if what you are looking for is jäger bombs and good listening, head down.
Open mic nights
If you enjoy hearing singer-songwriters do their thing in front of a small audience, then open mic nights are often a good bet. You never know, you might even decide to pick up a guitar and give it a go yourself.
Whistlebinkies is a well-known live music bar, just off the Royal Mile on South Bridge. Its Monday open mic night is one of the busiest in town, filled with a mix of locals and tourists. On Blackfriars Street, Bar 50 is another Monday open mic session that captures the right buzz. As it is a hostel, the bar is friendly and sociable. An added bonus? You even get a free pint if you perform.
With a rocky vibe in a very small space, The Black Rose makes for a great open mic session. Head on over to Rose Street on a Tuesday night. At a slightly higher-end venue, the open mic at The Loft (at The Outhouse), tucked away on Broughton Street Lane, is held fortnightly on a Wednesday and is a lovely wee space for original music to be heard.
Lastly, an open mic in a more artistic venue is held on a Tuesday night in the Blind Poet (above) on West Nicholson Street, a cosy literary pub in the Southside of town.
Folk nights
Even if you’re not a dyed-in-the-wool folk fan, Edinburgh has a few venues that will have you joining in the spirit of camaraderie.
The Royal Oak (above) is a typical an old man’s pub, but with a unique character and history. Often hosting a sing-a-long late into the night, this Edinburgh institution on Infirmary Street is a place you have to try at least once. The similarly venerated Sandy Bell’s over on Forest Road is a more traditional folk music pub, always busy with locals showing the visitors how it’s done. Chances are there will be a group of musicians strumming away in the corner.
Finally, if you’re looking for a more organised, larger folk event, then the Edinburgh Folk Club, held at The Pleasance, is your ideal choice. On Wednesday nights they hold their weekly shows, which you can simply turn up to and pay a modest admission charge.
Music shops
There are several independent record shops in Edinburgh offering vinyl delights, first of which is the well-established Avalanche Records (above) on the Grassmarket. They are Scotland’s largest independent record shop, and were nominated for “Music Retail Store of the Year” in 2010.
A new kid on the block is VoxBox Music on St Stephen Street in Stockbridge. The independent store became the newest record shop in the world on May 21, 2011, and they sell mostly pre-owned records. Other good options are Underground Solu’shn on Cockburn Street for dance and hip-hop junkies, Coda Music on Bank St, which specialises in folk and trad, Elvis Shakespeare on Leith Walk, Vinyl Villains nearer the city centre on Elm Row.
If you’re a budding musician in Edinburgh and don’t know what shops to start with, Red Dog Music next door to Avalanche on the Grassmarket is the capital’s largest general music store with guitars, recording equipment, digital pianos and electronic drum kits. A bit further out of town, Guitar Guitar on St Johns Road is also a go-to shop for quality guitars, containing everything you could possibly need to start a band and beyond.
Club venues with a music focus
For those who prefer a proper night out, there are at least a half dozen clubs in Edinburgh with imaginative music policies, often including gigs.
Staging everything from live bands to club nights, Cabaret Voltaire on Blair Street is an underground, dark and smoky club, built over two floors. Just make sure you don’t lose your friends in the smoke. True to its name, Electric Circus hosts a range of colours in its décor, following the theme of a traditional circus. It specialises in a variety of nights, with karaoke rooms as well as a huge variety of live music, upbeat club nights and party options for special events.
The Mash House (formerly the GRV) on Guthrie Street is housed in an extensively refurbished church, rebuilt as a multi-purpose venue. Close to the Grassmarket and the Royal Mile, it has become a key addition to Edinburgh’s music scene, and a great live music venue and club.
The Bongo Club (now settled into its new home on the Cowgate) bills itself as “putting the cult into culture”. So it pushes the boundaries of the Edinburgh scene, hosting a variety of alternative club nights as well as original live music (past bands have included Kasabian, Vampire Weekend and KT Tunstall).
In the heart of the Old Town, The Caves is unique and atmospheric. As the name suggests, it is a cavernous space with plenty of character, on Niddry Street South. The vaulted rooms mean multiple possibilities of events, but it does live music and parties very well.
The Voodoo Rooms is an award-winning bar and restaurant with several rooms, hosting an exotic range of live music, cabaret and club nights. If you want to experience the Voodoo vibes, you can find them on West Register Street.
If you’re looking for an independent night club, you’ll find it on Calton Road. Studio 24 showcases live music regularly and is home to a diverse collection of alternative club nights, from metal to Motown. Definitely not for Radio 2 listeners.
Festivals and one-off events
While T on the Fringe and The Edge have gone the way of the dodo, during August the city’s independent music scene has found inventive ways to seize the opportunity to promote the best new acts during the Fringe spotlight, and in previous years events like Retreat, Pale Imitation and Ultrachip have done just that.
Outside Festival season there are few multi-venue events left, including the likes of Haddowfest in October (now expanded to two days), a night of Oxjam (above) gigs in the same month, and in-store sets for Record Store Day in April.
There are two other festivals outside the Fringe that range over a longer period of time. Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival is a permanent fixture for ten days in July, taking over a wide range of venues with its eclectic line-up of virtuoso players. The Edinburgh Guitar and Music Festival pops up after the heat of the Festival season is over in November.
Mid-size venues
To get the best of both worlds and see a reasonably successful band up close, there are still a few good places in Edinburgh, even if their number has dwindled in recent years.
The Liquid Room (above) on Victoria Street may double up as a respected nightclub, but it’s equally well known as a venue that has hosted artists from every genre, from legends like Toots and the Maytals and Dinosaur Jr to the best of Scottish talent.
Over in the New Town, on Queen Street you’ll find The Jam House, a jazz-centrist venue for over 21s. Guests can dine on the first floor above the main stage, before taking to the dance floor for a boogie. For jazz, rock and blues, this place offers a good night out with an older clientele.
For the lovers of the arts, Summerhall has quickly established itself as a hub of forward-thinking talent in Edinburgh. The former Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies is now a creative centre for the arts, with studio and workshop spaces. It is also home to alternative live music, from string quartets to theatrical shows, and really comes to life during the Fringe.
Edinburgh music websites and blogs
If you want to keep up with music news and gig announcements from Edinburgh’s scene, there are a few sites and blogs to keep in mind.
Perhaps the most well-known Edinburgh music blog is Song, by Toad, which has also branched out into a record label. Run by the hard-working and expletive-loving Matthew Toad, it offers a frank, funny and well-informed look at both Edinburgh music (including a weekly gig round-up) and alt-folk bands from further afield.
Other notable blogs include 17 Seconds from Ed Jupp (also hosting its own DIY label), the Edinburgh Man podcast series, The Steinberg Principle from Euan McMeeken (who also runs mini50 Records), The Pop Cop, which covers the whole of Scotland and has handy tidbits of news and venue links, and jockrock is another Scotland-wide site with news, gigs and a forum.
Born to Be Wide stage regular networking events aimed at musicians and those looking to work in the music business, as well as their annual Wide Days events.
Feeling nostalgic for gigs of years gone by? Check out the Edinburgh Gig Archive, where fans send in stories and scans of their crumpled old tickets.
Remember to check our Edinburgh music page for regular listings, where you can also add your own events for free.
The big venues
To see the top names, you have to make do with sharing the room with thousands rather than hundreds of fellow fans. While Edinburgh may not have The Hydro, there are a handful of larger venues that attract the cream of the touring acts.
Not just a beautiful historic building, the Usher Hall (above – which celebrates its centenary this year) is the city’s key venue for visiting national and international orchestras, as well as hosting concerts from legendary names in rock and pop. Stars to have played this grand arena on Lothian Road over the years have included everyone from Marvin Gaye to Morrissey.
You have to head out of town to find Edinburgh’s biggest regular concert venue. The Corn Exchange on New Market Road is a bus journey from the centre and has few pubs in the vicinity, but it has a decent track record of bringing the big names to the capital.
Finally, The Queen’s Hall on Clerk Street is another converted church that plays host to a diverse range of live music, and is home to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. From classical to indie-rock and world music to Scottish folk, there’s something for everyone.
Pictures: TSPL
Find these venues and shops on our Edinburgh music map:
More Edinburgh guides:
• 5 of the best places for brunch in Edinburgh
• Coffee stops: 5 of the best places to refuel in Edinburgh
• Edinburgh Restaurants Guide – read the reviews and book tables
• The knowledge: Edinburgh Foody’s guide to eating out in the Scottish capital
What’s your favourite music venue in Edinburgh?
Post a comment below (just register first), on Twitter with #wow247 or on our Facebook page."The Cask of Amontillado" (sometimes spelled "The Casque of Amontillado" [a.mon.ti.ˈʝa.ðo]) is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in the November 1846 issue of Godey's Lady's Book. The story, set in an unnamed Italian city at carnival time in an unspecified year, is about a man taking fatal revenge on a friend who, he believes, has insulted him. Like several of Poe's stories, and in keeping with the 19th-century fascination with the subject, the narrative revolves around a person being buried alive – in this case, by immurement. As in "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", Poe conveys the story from the murderer's perspective.
Plot summary [ edit ]
Fortunato and Montresor drink in the catacombs. 1935 Illustration by Arthur Rackham
The story's narrator, Montresor, tells an unspecified person, who knows him very well, of the day he took his revenge on Fortunato (Italian for "the fortunate one"), a fellow nobleman. Angry over numerous injuries and some unspecified insult, Montresor plots to murder his "friend" during Carnival, while the man is drunk, dizzy, and wearing a jester's motley.
Montresor lures Fortunato into a private wine-tasting excursion by telling him he has obtained a pipe (about 130 gallons,[1] 492 litres) of what he believes to be a rare vintage of Amontillado. He proposes obtaining confirmation of the pipe's contents by inviting a fellow wine aficionado, Luchesi, for a private tasting. Montresor knows Fortunato will not be able to resist demonstrating his discerning palate for wine and will insist that he taste the amontillado rather than Luchesi who, as he claims, "cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry". Fortunato goes with Montresor to the wine cellars of the latter's palazzo, where they wander in the catacombs. Montresor offers wine (first Médoc, then De Grave) to Fortunato in order to keep him inebriated. Montresor warns Fortunato, who has a bad cough, of the dampness, and suggests they go back, but Fortunato insists on continuing, claiming that he "shall not die of a cough". During their walk, Montresor mentions his family coat of arms: a golden foot in a blue background crushing a snake whose fangs are embedded in the foot's heel, with the motto Nemo me impune lacessit ("No one attacks me with impunity").
At one point, Fortunato makes an elaborate, grotesque gesture with an upraised wine bottle. When Montresor appears not to recognize the gesture, Fortunato asks, "You are not of the masons?" Montresor says he is, and when Fortunato, disbelieving, requests a sign, Montresor displays a trowel he had been hiding. When they come to a niche, Montresor tells his victim that the Amontillado is within. Fortunato enters drunk and unsuspecting and therefore, does not resist as Montresor quickly chains him to the wall. Montresor then declares that, since Fortunato won't go back, Montresor must "positively leave" him there.
Montresor reveals brick and mortar, previously hidden among the bones nearby, and proceeds to wall up the niche using his trowel, entombing his friend alive. At first, Fortunato, who sobers up faster than Montresor anticipated, shakes the chains, trying to escape. Fortunato then screams for help, but Montresor mocks his cries, knowing nobody can hear them. Fortunato laughs weakly and tries to pretend that he is the subject of a joke and that people will be waiting for him (including the Lady Fortunato). As Montresor finishes the topmost row of stones, Fortunato wails, "For the love of God, Montresor!" to which Montresor replies, "Yes, for the love of God!" He listens for a reply but hears only the jester's bells ringing. Before placing the last stone, he drops a burning torch through the gap. He claims that he feels sick at heart, but dismisses this reaction as an effect of the dampness of the catacombs.
In the last few sentences, Montresor reveals that 50 years later, Fortunato's body still hangs from its chains in the niche where he left it. The murderer concludes: In pace requiescat! ("May he rest in peace!").
Publication history [ edit ]
"The Cask of Amontillado" was first published in the November 1846 issue of Godey's Lady's Book,[2] which was, at the time, the most popular periodical in America.[3] The story was only published one additional time during Poe's life.[4]
Analysis [ edit ]
Casks of amontillado in a commercial cellar
Although the subject matter of Poe's story is a murder, "The Cask of Amontillado" is not a tale of detection like "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" or "The Purloined Letter"; there is no investigation of Montresor's crime and the criminal himself explains how he committed the murder. The mystery in "The Cask of Amontillado" is in Montresor's motive for murder. Without a detective in the story, it is up to the reader to solve the mystery.[5]
Montresor never specifies his motive beyond the vague "thousand injuries" and "when he ventured upon insult" to which he refers. Some context is provided, including Montresor's observation that his family once was great (but no longer so), and |
the stage when the shooting began. "It sounded like they were on top of us. Everyone got down. We tried to get as low to the ground as possible. The first thing I did was look for my family.
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"I turned around and looked to find my aunt, and I’ll never forget the look on her face. We made eye contact and we thought we were about to die. You could hear the bullets ricocheting. It’s one of those moments where you just want to try to get out of there."
Derby, who lives in Duarte, Calif., was staying on the 28th floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, and learned later the shooter, Stephen Paddock, was firing an automatic weapon from a room on the 32nd floor.
"We didn’t know the shooter was sniping from up top with an automatic weapon," said Derby, who attended the concert with his parents, his sister and her family, a cousin and an aunt. "My thought was that he was somewhere near the stage. That’s where it sounded like the shots were coming from.
"At first, we thought it was just firecrackers going off. We realized something was really bad when Jason Aldean sprinted off the stage. You don’t see a country artist do that. Everyone, at the same, time dropped to the ground.
"My sister and her husband were (in a) central (location in the crowd). They weren’t by the main stage. My sister wanted to look from afar and stayed back in the grass area with her husband. I went (closer) with my cousin, his girlfriend and my aunt. That changed my life forever, unfortunately."
Derby tweeted about his experience after the shooting, urging Las Vegas to "stay strong."
I cannot believe what I witnessed last night. My heart aches for those who lost loved ones. Stay strong Las Vegas #prayforvegaspic.twitter.com/oQIDqyn2DJ — Bubba Derby (@Bderby11) October 2, 2017
Derby said his parents left before the shooting began to take his 6-year-old nephew to a nearby Beatles show, sparing them the terrifying scene.
"The fact that (the nephew) wasn't there; it's so hard to think about what he would have seen," Derby said. "It would have been horrific in every sense of the word.
"It was difficult at the time because we were all spread out when everything went down. I had an angel looking out for me and my family."
When the shooting stopped for a few moments, Derby said he and his family decided to "run for our lives." But he said there was the secondary danger of being trampled as everyone else tried to do the same thing.
"We waited a few seconds and it felt like an eternity," he said. "Finally, we got up and just started running. Then we started hearing the gun go off again. It was very loud. It sounded like a bunch of firecrackers going off in a row.
"That was probably the worst feeling. Everybody was just running for their life. They were scared beyond belief."
Derby, his cousin and cousin's girlfriend, and aunt, as well as a couple he didn't know, took refuge at the House of Blues party tent at the Mandalay Bay, but opted not to remain there.
"There were a bunch of people inside, hiding and crying," he said. "We still didn’t know where the shooter was. It seemed to get louder and at that point, I said, "We can’t stay here because we’re sitting ducks." I was shouting for people to get out.
"We went out the back but on the other side of the tent there was another group of people trying to go the same route. We went down a back street and you could still hear the shooting. We just kept running and we ended up going into the Tropicana (Hotel), through where the workers go.
"At that point, I got a call from my sister. I’ll never understand fully how she was able to call me and get hold of me. We were screaming at each other, ‘Where are you? Where are you?’ They were in the Tropicana as well. So, we ran into each other, and it was then that I knew we were going to be OK."
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Derby wanted to return to California on Monday but was unable to because he was not allowed to retrieve his car from what was a massive crime scene.
"I’m actually stuck here," said Derby, who was still staying in his room at the Mandalay Bay. "My truck and my sister’s car are in the valet (parking) and that lot is locked down and being investigated by the FBI. They’re not letting any cars in or out of that valet lot.
"My dad, mom, sister and nephew rented a car today to start the drive home. My brother-in-law and I are going to stay another night and then drive back tomorrow when we feel rested.
"I’ve been walking around today kind of in a haze. You see the city is pretty empty. I think people are pretty shaken up. You can tell because they have a certain look on their face like they saw a ghost. For me, personally, processing this information took a while. It’s going to be one of those things where I just have to accept what happened and try to move on from it."
Derby said it "was incredible to see" people risking their lives to provide help and treatmnt for others who were shot and wounded. And he had one thought going around and around in his mind Monday: How fortunate he is to still be alive.
"I’m sending my thoughts and prayers to all the people and families they still can't find," he said. "It’s not something I ever wanted to see. I’m extremely grateful that I was able to get out. It makes me think about the ones who weren’t so lucky. I definitely had an angel looking out for me."
Derby was one of two prospects acquired from Oakland on Feb. 12, 2016 in a trade for outfielder Khris Davis. He pitched this season at Class AA Biloxi and Class AAA Colorado Springs, going 7-1 with a 3.26 ERA in 30 appearances (14 starts).Sampling is the way of a farmers market; it gives vendors the ability to showcase their products.
And now, much like trying the Metropolitan Market’s freshly stretched mozzarella, wineries, too, will be able to give out small samples at the Sammamish Farmers Market.
In a unanimous vote of approval June 6, the Sammamish City Council allowed samples of wine to be served in a blocked off area during the market this year. Council will review the program before next year’s market.
“I’m very excited about it,” Sammamish Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Deb Sogge said. “I think it just makes common sense.”
Sogge said the market will showcase no more than two wineries at a time, though they have approval for three.
“We don’t want to overdo it,” Sogge said. “We just want to start small and see how it goes.”
Sogge said it is likely that two local wineries, Fivash Cellars and Sol Stone Winery, will be the first to appear at the market.
Samples will be no more than 2-ounce pours.
The sampling area must be enclosed with a 42 inch high barrier, like a rope or stanchions.
Each person gets one tasting per winery.
In order to serve beer or wine samples, the market must have an endorsement from the state. Breweries and wineries must also have their own endorsements from the state to allow tastings.
As of 2013, state law had allowed beer and wine samples at farmers markets. The Issaquah Farmers Market, for example, currently allows wine tastings.
In late 2013, the Sammamish Chamber of Commerce requested permission from the city of Sammamish to offer alcoholic samples at the market.
The Parks Commission reviewed the proposal and recommended against allowing tastings, citing concerns associated with youth drinking rates. The request was denied.
“Originally there was a great deal of sensitivity that went on related to the problem of alcohol in youth in the community,” City Manager Lyman Howard said June 6. “They just didn’t want to bring it out front and center.”
This year, in early May, the chamber applied to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board for an endorsement to allow wine tastings at the market. The state board, per state law, contacted the city to provide concerns or objections to allowing the tastings. The city had until June 13 to respond.
“The Chamber of Commerce has been very responsible in this,” Howard said. “They did let us know that they were intending to do that.”
While the council cannot set conditions to the endorsement — it could simply OK it or disapprove it — it could and did consider conditions it has with the chamber’s contract to use city property for the market.
One consideration was bringing in an off-duty officer to monitor the tastings, a move that would cost the chamber $500 each market the officer was needed.
The council did not think this was necessary, especially given the market takes place right next to the police station.
The one condition it did set was making this a one-year trial to see how it goes. Council will re-evaluate allowing wine tastings next year.
The farmers market runs every Wednesday through September 20 from 4-8 p.m. in the Sammamish Commons at Sammamish City Hall, 801 228th SE.Adult Swim announced today their quintessential animated comedy shows Aqua TV Show Show, created by Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro and Squidbillies, created by Willis and Jim Fortier, are both back for laugh-packed seasons. All-new episodes premiere on Sunday, August 11 at midnight and 12:15 a.m. (ET/PT), respectively, on Adult Swim.
To mark their 12th and 7th seasons, both returning series will feature top musical artists spanning genres from classic Americana to "flower punk." To kick off the new season of Aqua TV Show Show, Flying Lotus will be covering the new theme for the long-running series. In typical Early Cuyler fashion, one new artist covering their theme song was not enough for Squidbillies, they needed nine of them! Every Sunday, audiences will hear the Squidbillies theme performed by a wide range of top musical artists including southern rock icons Lynyrd Skynyrd and Atlanta's own Black Lips.
For well over a decade, Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro have electrified the entertainment world with the antics of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Meatwad, Master Shake, and Frylock have been able to revive interest in the once-dying medium of televised cable entertainment, becoming household names in the process. The powder keg that is Aqua Teen has ignited two other incarnations of the multi-billion dollar franchise: Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1, a hard-boiled detective series that redefined the genre, which in turn sired Aqua Something You Know Whatever, an edgy, coming-of-age romp inspired by text message conversations found on reddit. To date, the Aqua-verse (Aqua Teen universe) is shown in over 500 countries, and has been translated into 3,000 different languages across 3 planets.
Aqua TV Show Show is the latest offering of 'lightning in a bottle' from Willis and Maiellaro. Their absurdist brew is a virtual who's-who of voice-acting all-stars (Dave Willis, Carey Means), with an ensemble cast sure to delight even the harshest of television critics. Aqua TV Show Show finds our favorite fast-food trio starting a bakery for dogs, hoping to make some serious dough in Manhattan's upscale 'Tribeca' neighborhood. There won't be a dry eye in the audience when Frylock's secret recipe is stolen by a rival bakery.
Adult Swim is also teaming up with the global artist community Threadless, who will host an online t-shirt design challenge beginning August 8. Artists can submit designs inspired by Aqua Teen Hunger Force through August 29. The winning t-shirts will be sold on Threadless.com, and two artists will receive grand prizes including cash and a unique Adult Swim prize pack. Details about submissions for the t-shirt design challenge are coming soon.
Immediately following Aqua TV Show Show will be America's fourth favorite animated family, The Cuylers. Season seven of Squidbillies features ten exciting new episodes! This time around, Rusty becomes a drone pilot, Early is proclaimed space king, Sheriff runs for re-election, and the ghost of Early's father returns with a vengeance. Squidbillies is written and produced by Dave Willis and Jim Fortier.
Adult Swim (AdultSwim.com), launched in 2001, is Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.'s network offering original and acquired animated and live-action series for young adults. Airing nightly from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. (ET/PT), Adult Swim is basic cable's #1 network with persons 18-34 and 18-49, and is seen in 99 million U.S. homes.
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.
Related Articles View More TV StoriesLK8000 is the "turbulence proof" flight computer for PDAs and PNAs (car navigators).
It works on any Windows CE 4, 5 or 6 device, and on PC.
It is designed to work in landscape mode, because all PNAs have landscape screens, and in portrait mode for those who still use a PDA.
It is designed to perfectly work also with no hardware keys or buttons, because PNAs do not have them.
It is designed to make use of these powerful CPU that are nowadays available. There is no reason to have a 500mhz processor aboard if the software running on it is still 5 to 10 years old and now it is spending most of its time in an idle state.
It is designed to be fully functional even on older hardware, fully supporting those Ipaq ppc still around since 2002!
It is rock solid and crash proof, tested by thousands of pilots.
All informations available with a simple click Why choosing on ground which information you may need during a flight? You have been frustrated more than a time for not having one value quickly available, or not available at all, because you forgot to "configure" it before the takeoff. LK8000 has all of the important informations, and there are dozens, always available. Overlays are giving you the basic info you will always need to know during the flight. The bottom bar has 5 values that can change by touching the screen, rotating 9 stripes of values (three of them configurable). Not enough? Switch to textual info pages. With LK8000 you always know that you can take off with NO configuration at all. Because you don't need to choose, you have them all!
A matter of User Interface Let's be honest: most of the software around is great in the hangar or at home, but quite unusable during a flight. You cannot select a pixel on the screen! Sometimes it's hard enough to look at the screen itself! That's why LK8000 allows you to switch pages and access informations without even looking at the screen. We have selected audio tones to let you know "where you are" in the software. Actually, you can use LK8000 even blindfolded! Want to bet?
Do you care about landing places? Nothing better than LK to look around for landing options. The Nearest pages can be sorted in real time by distance, direction, arrival altitudes etc. And the Best Alternate function is working in the background, looking around and calculating terrain obstacles, wind, glide ratio, mac cready, anything useful not only to guess but actually to predict the very best landing opportunity in case of troubles. And time to time, without bothering you too much, during the flight you will listen to a soft sound and a message will tell you that your best alternate has just changed. A dream come true for most pilots that are concerned about landing places during their flights.
It is a perfect companion for FLARM units (and compatibles), handling up to 50 simultaneous traffic, sortable by distance, direction, average vario and altitude, all values updated in real time. Support for Live, Ghost and Zombie traffic, fully configurable. Selection of individual traffic for more details.
Full support for FlarmNet database ( Full support fordatabase ( www.flarmnet.org
FLARM Target special "sight" page with glide path to the moving target, estimated IAS of target, arrival altitude on target's position, requested efficiency to arrive on target's. The shown position of target is relative to the estimated altitude arrival over there! If a target is 5km ahead, with a lower altitude, you may be nevertheless much lower when you get there. So the Sight page is showing you what is your real situation, compared to the target's position, estimated for current wind and MC.
NO BUTTONS to press, no configuration needed: it is all automatic, and "turbulence proof". When a target had disappeared for some time, and suddenly it is back visible by the "Flarm Radar", a Scramble message will appear on screen to alert you.
Enhanced topology, detailed roads, medium cities, small and very small cities, lakes and rivers' names, and all of them fully configurable. You can choose what to see, up to the desired zoom level.
A totally redesigned automatic decluttering system will avoid your screen to be full of unreadable labels, both for waypoints, airports and topology. At any zoom level you are granted to have always the best possible moving map experience, with no rivals even among cxpensive commercial products. You can load 4000 waypoints with all the names of the mountains in the Alps, for example, and still have a perfect readable moving map.
LK8000 does manage two simultaneous serial lines with automatic fallback and full redundance : for example, you may connect a Flarm to the serial port (either as Bluetooth or RS232) and in case of failure let LK use the internal GPS of your PNA, with no downtime, automatically!
Wind calculation during straight flying, with no digital compass of airspeed probe needed!
Thermal assistant, smart and non-invasive! A simple tone will tell you that it is time to lever the aircraft for better centering. No need to look at the screen!
REALTIME CONTEST CALCULATOR, including the new OLC 2011 PLUS. ALL VALUES AVAILABLE IN REAL TIME. PREDICTED VALUES FOR BACK HOME. FAI Triangle optimizer in real time, and we also create a virtual waypoint for you to close the triangle!
3D airspaces: sideview, topview, for bulletproof airspace vision
Combined vision of top and side view terrain obstacles, fully resizable
Airspace SONAR
Vector airfields symbols
Many configurable altitude alarms
Compatibility with CUP task files and waypoints, OZI Explorer, CompeGPS, CUP format, DAT format
Outdoor functions for 2D usage (Car, Bike, Trekking)
The best possible task support for Paragliding and Hanggliding competition, with route optimization
Integrated IGC logger AND a real Flight Data Recorder.. and many, many other features.
It supports all screen resolutions, and it is fine tuned for each of them: Landscape mode Portrait mode 480x272 480x234 800x480 400x240 320x240 640x480 272x480 480x800 240x480 240x320 480x640
It has been well tested on all major car navigators on the market. It works wonderfully on those chinese devices that come only with CE installed, but also on commercial flight devices based on CE such as Bendix King's AV8R, Naviter's Oudie.
A PNA running LK8000, connected to FLARM and Butterfly: a perfect combination.
Since the LK not only looks great, but it also works flawlessy, some companies are already selling their flight computers with LK8000 preinstalled.
Glider's, Paraglider's and Delta pilots are fully supported. LK is a unique flight computer for all purposes. Please visit our Gallery for some good screenshots, and download the manual which is full of pictures as well.Syrian troops backed by Lebanon’s Hezbollah killed at least 50 jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the Al-Qaeda-affiliate Al-Nusra Front late Friday, activists said on Saturday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamists clashed Friday night and into Saturday morning with troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allied forces in the Qalamoun region near the Lebanese border.
The Qalamoun clashes killed at least seven pro-regime fighters and members of Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, The Britain-based Observatory and Turkey-based activist Mustafa Osso said tribesmen forced ISIS fighters to withdraw from some villages in the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour.
The clashes forced the extremist group to call for reinforcements from neighboring Iraq, AFP reported on Saturday.
The Al-Qaeda breakaway ISIS group seized large swaths of western and northern Iraq in June. It has declared a self-styled caliphate in territory it controls in Iraq and Syria, imposing harsh Islamic laws on the areas’ residents.
The death of an ’emir’
A local chief of the Al-Nusra Front was killed late Friday after a bomb exploded in his car, the Observatory said.
“Nusra’s emir in Idlib [province], Yaacub al-Omar, was killed overnight when a bomb went off in his car near his house in the Khan al-Subul area,” the observatory said, according to AFP.
Two of his sons were wounded in the blast, the group added.
Omar took over the post in April after his predecessor, Abu Mohammad al-Ansari, was killed by ISIS fighters.
While both jihadist groups are rooted in al-Qaeda, ISIS and al-Nusra Front have been conflict since early 2014.
[wpResize]SRINAGAR: An emotional appeal of a mother bore fruit when a Kashmiri youth, who had joined Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashker-e-Taiba(LeT), was persuaded to surrender.This happened in an interior area of Sopore late on Thursday night after the Army with the help of other security agencies laid a siege of a locality after intelligence inputs indicated presence of a militant in a house.A senior Army official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said on Friday that the troops came to know the identity of the holed up militant as Umaq Khaliq Mir alias 'Sameer', a resident of Tujjar in North Kashmir.When attempts to draw out the youth proved futile, it was decided to request his parents, whose home was five km away, to come and persuade him to surrender, the official said.His mother agreed readily and came to the place and pleaded with his son as the Army had assured her that they would take a lenient view in case her son surrendered."It was an anxious moment for us as we were risking life of a civilian along with some of my boys, who had provided human shield to the woman," the official said.The mother was allowed to go inside the house and request her son to come out and surrender which he eventually did.After a lot of persuasion, Mir emerged from the house and handed over one AK rifle, three magazines, three grenades and a radio set.Mir, a 26 year-old boy of Tujjar, had been missing from May this year and had joined the LeT."We make all out efforts to preserve human life and this is one such example. I am glad that my decision was right because at the end, motherhood prevailed over a boy who had been brainwashed to carry out innocent killings in the state," the official added.After his surrender, he was handed over to the local police which arrested him.ROBERT HOOKE, a contemporary of Isaac Newton, was in his day even more of a polymath than that great natural philosopher. Sic transit gloria mundi. These days Hooke is well known only for his law of elasticity: that the amount a material stretches is proportional to the force applied. Such stretching, inter alia, causes the material to get thinner, of course. Unless the substance in question is what is known as an auxetic material. Then, it gets fatter. And Robert Hooke’s near namesake, Patrick Hook, the boss of Auxetix, a small firm based in south-west England, hopes to exploit this weirdness to make everything from body armour to dental floss.
To understand how an auxetic material works, imagine a rubber bungee cord with a piece of fishing line wrapped around its length in an open spiral. If you pull on the line, the cord’s shape becomes distorted into a spiral, too. That spiral is, in effect, wider than the undistorted cord. But because the line holds it in place, it is no shorter. And if several such line-wrapped bungee cords were laid alongside each other and the fishing lines pulled simultaneously, then they would push each other aside, increasing the area that they covered and the volume they occupied.
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The threads from which Auxetix’s materials are made are thinner than bungee cords, obviously. But they are constructed in a similar way, using a technique called weft insertion to wrap a thin line of high-strength material such as Kevlar around a core made of specially processed elastic polyester. These threads are then woven into auxetic cloth that can be cut to shape for the application in mind.
Auxetic materials have two useful properties. One is the shape change per se. The other is that the shape change absorbs and stores energy, and does so rapidly. If a sheet of the material is hit in one place, the energy of the impact is thus spread over the whole sheet. Then, when the material relaxes back into its original shape, that energy is dissipated from the entire surface, rather than just the point of impact.
Auxetix has already tested a bomb-resistant curtain made of such material. It can stop fragments of glass and similar shrapnel, but is thin enough to be translucent and thus let a useful amount of daylight through a window. If hit by a blast, the curtain expands. That creates pores which allow the air of the blast to pass through, so that the cloth is not damaged—but these pores are small enough to stop the passage of solid debris. The kinetic energy of the debris is then absorbed by the material.
The firm also hopes to use its technique to make body armour. The American army’s current kit, known as Interceptor Body Armour, weighs up to 15kg including ceramic-plate inserts. Soldiers are obviously keen to reduce this weight. Dr Hook has tested prototype auxetic armour that is 10% lighter than Interceptor while, he hopes, being just as effective at absorbing impacts.
If the new material works in these military applications, then Dr Hook hopes civilian ones will follow. Auxetic seat belts would dissipate a driver’s kinetic energy in a crash more effectively than existing designs. Auxetic dental floss would expand into the gaps between teeth when it was pulled. And a less obvious application is in an easy-to-clean filter: stretch this filter and its pores grow, allowing stuff stuck in them to be flushed through when the filter is washed.
That line of thinking leads to the idea of smart filters, which maintain a constant pore size by stretching as the gets clogged up, and also to bandages that dispense drugs in response to swelling. In fact, once you get used to the idea of something that stretches thick instead of being stretched thin, the possibilities are enormous. Welcome, then, to the world not of Hooke’s law, but Hook’s.If The Originals' Klaus didn’t already have an enemy in his brother Finn, than he sure will when the resurrected sibling learns the fate of their mother Esther.
Just as it seemed Esther had one-upped her son, Klaus & Co. proved they were one step ahead by putting vampire blood in their mom's drink before killing her. Awakening in a dungeon, it wasn't long before Esther realized she had to either 1.) feed and become the species she hates, or 2.) die. But while their Esther problem might be on hold, another Original, Kol, got his own revenge by making sure that Rebekah woke up from Esther's spell in the body of a witch. And in the closing moments of the fall finale, it was revealed that Rebekah, alongside Harvest girl Cassie, were stuck behind locked doors.
Will Rebekah escape? Will Esther turn or die? What will happen when Finn learns what his brothers have done? Plus: Will Hayley choose Jackson or Elijah? I talked to executive producers Julie Plec and Michael Narducci to find out.
The fall finale ended with Rebekah waking up in an insane asylum. How long before her siblings find her?
Michael Narducci: First thing is they have to suss out that there is a problem. They did this very dangerous ritual and Rebekah should pop up in a new body, that was the plan, and as we get into Episode 10 they're waiting and she's not showing up and her original body is laying in a coffin, but the new Rebekah isn’t here. So Klaus has to deduce, "Who's responsible for this and who am I going to punish in order to find out where my sister is?" So that'll be a big part of [the winter premiere]—the reaction to Rebekah missing—but then right away circumstances conspire where he can't do anything about it. [Meanwhile], Rebekah will awaken in this asylum for wayward witches and she's going to have to figure out, "Where am I? What is this body I'm in? What am I capable of doing to get out of this situation?" Her circumstances go from pretty bad to extremely dire very quickly.
How will Finn react to his mother being locked up and forced to transition or die?
Julie Plec: We come back right away and Finn is very intent on finding his mother and is full of piss and vinegar and Klaus is like, "Sure, check her out, she's chilling in the tomb." So Finn is the one who figures out what happened to his mother in our first episode back, and his response to it is quite aggressive. He's not happy and he takes some drastic measures and it amps up his power and vengeance and makes him do wild stuff. The fun of this next chapter is Finn the villain, and Yusuf [Gatewood] is so good and… he's got a point, he's the righteous one in all of this, so it's fun to hate him and love him all at the same time.
Narducci: As with any zealot, he hates vampires and what his family has become and he'll do anything to stop them, but zealotry often leads to extreme actions. There will be a point where he makes a choice to go one step too far and he will need to be stopped with extreme prejudice.
Plec: He crosses a line for sure, and anybody who's been fighting with anybody will be like, "There's a code here and he breaks the code."
Hayley had made her decision to marry Jackson—and then hooked up with Elijah. How will that complicate things?
Plec: I love this storyline so much. It's such a Mr. Darcy-esque predicament where you have the man you shouldn’t be with and the good man you should be with for the family. Hayley is struggling between really having deep feelings for an Original vampire who clearly cares about her... and this honorable man who happens to look like Nathan Parsons coming at her saying, "I love you, I will make a commitment to you and honor you and if we marry then all of our pack and everyone we're responsible for will be free." Very soon, she learns troubling news about things she'll have to do to prepare for the ritual which could put her in danger, Jackson in danger, the whole family in danger, so it's not a decision that's going to come easily for her.
What's next for Davina and her duty as a witch, while also falling for Caleb?
Narducci: I think she's beguiled by this guy's ability to not get taken down. That means something to her, so she's impressed by him, she's amazed by him and she knows if she can make an alliance with this guy who she feels true affection for, then she can make a stance in the city and not live in fear.
Plec: Davina has allowed herself to be sidetracked by Caleb and her feelings for him that are growing and they've been tunnel vision trying to get this dagger made, but there will be a series of circumstances before the season is out that reminds her she has a duty to this body of witches. There needs to be leadership and there needs to be someone speaking for them and it's not something she thought she'd do, but a situation may present itself that puts her in a position where she has to take that role. That’s part of her journey growing up, first real love, first experience dealing with the fallout of falling in love and finding yourself and who you're meant to be.
What's your biggest tease for the second half of the season?
Narducci: This run of episodes is Finn's revenge and what the family is going to have to do. It's Elijah taking stock of his mental condition in the aftermath of Esther tormenting him and trying to return to the Elijah we remember. It's Klaus dealing with Kol who screwed over Rebekah. It's Hayley determined to save her people and win an army of werewolves who can protect her child through this wedding. And it's whatever Rebekah is going to unlock as a witch who's trapped in this insane asylum and how she's going to rejoin her family and what she'll bring with her in this new body, which will maybe change the family forever. All of those things will come to a head in the next five episodes.
Plec: Plus, we have the lingering mystery of Freya and Dahlia and is she coming? Of course if you talk about someone long enough eventually they'll knock on the door, so the devil will make an appearance by the end of the season.
The Originals returns Monday at 8pm on The CW.Buy Photo A school bus rests in the intersection of Humber Drive and Torbay Drive in Antioch after sliding off the road into a ditch with children on board Friday, Jan. 6, 2017. (Photo: Larry McCormack / The Tennessean)Buy Photo
Firefighters are on scene of a Metro Schools bus crash involving children in Antioch, a fire department spokesperson said late Friday morning.
Crews responded at about 11:35 a.m. to Humber Drive and Torbay Drive after a bus transporting nine students from Overton High School slid off the road into a ditch and tipped with children on board.
Buy Photo Passengers exit a school bus that slid off the road in Antioch on Jan. 6, 2016. (Photo: Holly Meyer / The Tennessean)
No injuries were reported and children were safely unloaded from the bus, then transferred into another bus to be taken home.
The crash is one of hundreds that snarled roadways in Davidson and surrounding counties late Friday morning after snowfall returned to the region causing slick roadways.
Related: Snow causes closures, crashes across Tennessee
In Davidson County, Metro police spokesman Don Aaron said officers responded to 308 non-injury crash calls received between 7 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
Late Friday morning, Nashville Fire Department spokesman Brian Haas said five vehicles were stuck in a pileup at bottom of hill at Tulip Grove Road and Rockwood Drive.
"No apparent injuries, but a mess, so avoid area," Haas tweeted.
Earlier in the morning a Metro Schools bus hit a mailbox in South Nashville at Tusculum Road and Shihmen Drive and about two others in that area got stuck on a patch of ice. No injuries were reported.
Metro police tweeted that road conditions in parts of South Nashville and its Midtown precincts were icy and asked motorist to be cautious when driving.
In Wilson County, city officials said Devonshire Drive, Willoughby State Boulevard and Pleasant Grove Road were impassable.
In Wilson County early Friday afternoon at least two school bus crashes were reported including one involving a West Wilson Middle School bus that crashed with another vehicle near the 900 block of N Mt Juliet Rd.
Mt. Juliet police said no kids were on board and no injuries were reported.
In Cheatham County two crashes along Interstate 24 just south of Pleasant View had traffic clogged in both directions.
Early Friday morning, Brentwood police were "overwhelmed" with the number of incoming calls, city spokeswoman Deanna Lambert wrote in an email. More than 40 accident calls came into Brentwood police during the 7 a.m. rush hour, Lambert said.
Dozens of motorists were stuck on the hill trying to get up Concord Road just east of Arrowhead Drive throughout Friday morning. To help out, three Brentwood residents, Tim Lawyer, John Bass and Kyle Piccirilly, decided to spend their morning helping the stuck drivers.
Lawyer, who lives at the top of the hill, said he works from home and couldn't stand to keep watching people get stuck outside. He took his truck and tow straps out to the road and spent more than two hours helping tow cars up the hill.
"I live here and I see it every year," Lawyer said. "This is just a little thin sheet of ice under here and if people get over in the snow they're usually OK, but not everyone makes it."
Bass and Piccirilly were driving through the area about 7 a.m. Friday and saw the drivers getting stuck. They spent the next few hours helping Lawyer push and tow cars up the hill.
"I was on my way to the gym this morning but pulled over after I couldn't make it," Bass said. "This is my workout I guess."
A city plow showed up about 10:45 a.m. and salted the roadway, eventually making it passable for motorists.
Earlier in the morning emergency crews shut down a portion of Highway 100 at Whippoorwill Hill in Williamson County to investigate a vehicle crash, authorities said and police in Nolensville were also asking motorists to avoid Clovercroft Road due to a traffic crash.
In Spring Hill, emergency crews reported multiple cars stuck on a hill at Lewisburg Pike and Thompsons Station Road East. The roads, they said, were not pass |
that an investigation has been launched. In the meantime, all of the units training flights have been suspended.
Safety is our No. 1 priority at this point, he said. Were going to let our investigative team do their job, and as we come up with the results of what happened, we will use that to make things safer.
The aircraft crashed while flying in approved airspace during a routine student training exercise after taking off from Fort Drums airfield. No injuries or property damage were reported in connection to the crash, and the aircraft, which Col. Semmel valued at approximately $4 million to $5 million, had no weapons or hazardous materials on board.
Boat and helicopter crews from the U.S. Coast Guards stations in Oswego and Buffalo took part in the search effort prior to it being called off for the night. A plan for todays search still was being developed, Col. Semmel said Tuesday.
At Fort Drums airfield, the attack wing has a local crew that serves in a launch and recovery role, controlling takeoff of the aircraft before transferring control by satellite to a remote cockpit in Syracuse, where much of the units pilot training takes place. The local crew also performs maintenance work.
The aircraft has a wingspan of 66 feet and weighs approximately 8,000 to 10,500 pounds, depending on how much fuel, gear and supplies it is carrying.
Col. Semmel said a second Reaper drone was airborne at the time of the crash and that aircraft was able to return to Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield without any damage.
Despite Tuesdays crash, Col. Semmel said he was confident in the aircrafts safety record.
Its as safe of an airplane as any other airplane that the Air Force flies, he said.
The commander did not specify what the weather was like at the time of the crash, but said conditions were good enough to fly.
The unit currently has video of the crash, but a timetable for the release of that footage was not announced during the news conference.
The crash took place less than a week after the unit opened up a new $5,194,860 hangar to store two of its drones at the Wheeler-Sack airfield. Last month, the unit reached its 2,000th flight hour with the unmanned aircraft at Fort Drum.Computer manufacturer Origin PC is no longer selling units with GPUs made by AMD; instead, going forward, all Origin PC computers will contain Nvidia graphics chips.
The company made the decision based on a variety of factors, with the most important one being customer satisfaction.
"Origin PC is dedicated to providing the best experience for our customers and right now that is with Nvidia GPUs. It's not about brand loyalty or marketing; our loyalty is 100 percent to our customers," said Kevin Wasielewski, co-founder and CEO of Origin PC, in an email to Polygon.
Other considerations in the decision included requests from Origin's own support staff, as well as specific concerns with the performance, stability and driver support of AMD graphics hardware.
"Primarily the overall issues have been stability of the cards, overheating, performance, scaling and the amount of time to receive new drivers on both desktop and mobile GPUs," said Alvaro Masis, a technical support manager at Origin.
We've reached out to AMD for comment, and will update this article with any information we receive.Image copyright Loraine Patrick Image caption A notice at the Pulse leisure centre in Dursley informed swimmers about the discrimination row
Women-only swimming classes have been axed at a leisure centre following a complaint that they discriminated against men.
The sessions at the Pulse leisure centre in Dursley, Gloucestershire, have been changed to adults only.
Stroud District Council said they hoped people would "understand we have to abide by the law".
The decision has been derided on social media and described as being against the spirit of equalities legislation.
The women-only classes have run at the centre for years and take place for an hour once a week.
But from next month the classes will be open to both men and women, after a single complaint.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Women-only swimming classes in Dursley have run for years without any complaints
"We've run these ladies-only sessions for years but we were recently contacted to justify why we ran them, as single-sex classes are likely to be in breach of the Equalities Act 2010," a spokesman for the council said.
"Consequently we've had to change the sessions to 'adults-only swims'.
"While this may not be ideal for everyone, we hope they will understand we have to abide by the law."
'Astonished and outraged'
Conservative councillor in the town Loraine Patrick said the decision went against the spirit of equalities legislation.
"To say that I'm astonished, furious, outraged is putting it mildly," she said.
"The Equalities Act is meant to give everyone a chance. But taking that session away removes that chance to swim for a lot of people, so it is not equal.
"This may be the letter of the law but is certainly not the spirit."
The decision has been derided on social media in the town, with some suggesting they will complain about age discrimination in retaliation.
Hannah Norman wrote: "I can't believe they have stopped a session that enables women the opportunity to feel safe and confident. How ridiculous. They should have just made a men-only session too."(Picture: Getty Images)
London is the world’s leading city for drug trade money laundering, a world renowned crime expert has said.
Bestselling author Roberto Saviano has warned that UK banks and financial services are ignoring ‘know your customer rules’, which are designed to prevent criminals from laundering the profits of their illegal activities.
Mr Saviano currently lives in fear of his life after writing the book Gomorrah, which provided an insight into the Camorra crime syndicate in Naples, Italy.
The National Crime Agency estimated last month that ‘hundreds of billions of US dollars’ are currently being laundered through UK banks every year.
Describing the international drug trade, Mr Saviano told the Independent on Sunday that ‘Mexico is its heart and London is its head’.
Roberto Saviano is known for international bestseller Gomorrah (Picture: Justin Williams/ REX)
He also singled out the £1.2bn fine that HSBC received for money laundering for a Mexican drugs cartel in 2012, and said: ‘The biggest UK bank! Yet it has scarcely been written about. The British treat it as not their problem, because there aren’t corpses on the streets.
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‘They think it’s all happening “over there somewhere”, so they needn’t worry about it. Sure, HSBC has been reported but there has been no debate. You need to fill the papers.
‘The intellectuals have said nothing. [David] Cameron has said nothing. It’s his country. How can he say nothing on such a piece of news?’
MORE: 74-year-old man drowned trying to save teenage girls from the sea
MORE: Humans of New York boy has been getting all kinds of support after coming out
Last week, Mr Saviano met Labour mayoral hopeful David Lammy, who said the UK needed to take his claims ‘very seriously’.
‘I am particularly concerned that London’s inflated property prices are fuelled by dirty money and I will do everything in my power as mayor to ensure that money laundering and tax evasion as rooted out by the authorities’, Mr Lammy said.I have a python script foo.py in my current directory C:\test.
Here is the code.
import sys print('sys.path:', sys.path) print('sys.argv:', sys.argv)
When I execute it as a script, I see this output.
C:\test>python foo.py sys.path: ['C:\\test', 'C:\\Windows\\system32\\python34.zip', 'C:\\Python34\\DLLs', 'C:\\Python34\\lib', 'C:\\Python34', 'C:\\Python34\\lib\\site-packages'] sys.argv: ['foo.py']
But when I execute it as a module, I see this output.
C:\test>python -m foo sys.path: ['', 'C:\\Windows\\system32\\python34.zip', 'C:\\Python34\\DLLs', 'C:\\Python34\\lib', 'C:\\Python34', 'C:\\Python34\\lib\\site-packages'] sys.argv: ['C:\\test\\foo.py']
Why does sys.path[0] become empty string when I execute my program as a module?
The documentation at http://docs.python.org/3.4/library/sys.html#sys.path mentions this:
As initialized upon program startup, the first item of this list, path[0], is the directory containing the script that was used to invoke the Python interpreter. If the script directory is not available (e.g. if the interpreter is invoked interactively or if the script is read from standard input), path[0] is the empty string, which directs Python to search modules in the current directory first.
So if the script directory is not available, only then it is supposed to set sys.path[0] to ''. But in my case, even while executing python -m foo, the script directory foo is clearly available. So it should not set sys.path[0] to '' as per the documentation. Instead, it should set it to 'C:\\test'.
Is it a bug in the documentation or a bug in the Python interpreter or a bug in my understanding?Paramount Pictures has sent out a posh press release today, revealing that the advanced box office for Star Trek Into Darkness will be open from tomorrow morning. We wouldn't usually cover a piece of news like that, but they only went and bribed us by including the latest poster for the film. The cads.
This time, to give you a further indication of his growing star stature, Mr Benedict Cumberbatch has the poster all to himself. He is looking suitably moody too, as if the place he's just bought his coat from has gone up in smoke, only for him to realise that he's got the wrong size.
Star Trek Into Darkness heads into UK cinemas on 9th May 2013. Here's Benedict...
Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.After a 30-year fight to destroy Guinea worm disease, former US president Jimmy Carter said on Wednesday that only 22 cases of the debilitating disease remain worldwide, all in sub-Saharan Africa. He believes that following control and elimination of dracunculiasis, there is hope for permanent eradication.
“If we get the Guinea worm totally eradicated, that will be my most gratifying experience,” said Carter, at a private talk in London.
“It’s so intimate and personal, the relationship between me, and our workers of course, and the inhabitants of a small village with 500 people, half of whom have Guinea worm coming out of their bodies,” he said.
Carter described basic steps, such as digging a deep well and instructing the population to use a filter cloth to prevent the flea from entering the drinking water can result in zero transmission.
“The emotion and gratitude, it’s so intensely personal, that it’s unforgettable,” said the head of the Carter Center, referring to a crusade he has been committed to for 30 years.
Carter, the 39th US president, has worked on abolishing the Guinea worm disease from 3.5 million cases in 1986 to only 22 today—in Mali, Chad, South Sudan and Ethiopia. He was in London to speak to the House of Lords on Wednesday after the UK development aid arm, DFID, announced 2016 funding of 5.9 million euros.
“This funding will pay for health volunteers, water filters and larvicide in the few remaining endemic villages in South Sudan, Ethiopia, Chad and Mali,” said UK International Development Minister Nick Hurd.
Guinea worm disease, while not fatal, greatly affects the quality of life of the infected person. Humans contract it when they drink water from stagnant sources that contain larvae that mate in the abdomen, taking a year to grow.
The 80 centimetre worm makes a painful sore and comes through the skin, taking weeks to be coaxed out. Infected people feel a burning sensation, and run into the water to cool down their skin. However, submerging the infected sore into the water actually helps spread the disease, re-infecting the population.
In the village of Ogi, Nigeria, a village volunteer inspects the length of a Guinea worm emerging from a man's calf. The Carter Center/E. Staub
The Carter Center says that the success of the program has stemmed from changing practices in dealing with standing water, filtering water, and training villagers in basic healthcare.
President Carter told reporters that in some instances, ongoing crises stand in the way of total eradication.
“Now we’ve got conflict in South Sudan and Mali, and to some degree, in parts of Ethiopia. In fact, this past week, we had four cases of violence that afflicted our people, including one death that was in South Sudan,” said Carter, referring to one of his staff members.
During the outbreak of violence in northern Mali in 2012, Carter Center staff could not get to a remote area northwest of Timbuktu. “That desert area is where that Guinea worm began again because we just couldn’t get out people in there,” he added.
But while strife can come into play, particularly in getting supplies to filter water and health, political issues due to previous administrations also surface, said Carter, giving an example of dealing with eradicating Guinea worm in west Africa.
Former US President Jimmy Carter tries to comfort 6-year-old Ruhama Issah at Savelugu (Ghana) Hospital. The Carter Center/L. Gubb
“We had one problem in Ghana, where one heroic anti-Guinea worm president was replaced by another one, and he didn’t want to espouse the project that his predecessor had adopted,” he said, citing former president Jerry Rawlings as the one who had previously hailed Guinea worm eradication.
Rawlings is “quite controversial in Ghana, so we had a quagmire there for almost 10 years. We finally prevailed on the renewal of interest in Guinea worm because I threatened the president that I was going to change the name to Ghana worm,” he said, adding that the disease has now been eradicated in the country.
While the Guinea worm has nearly been eliminated, a worrisome new issue has emerged in Chad on the shores of the Chari River—dogs contracting Guinea worm disease through eating raw, contaminated fish. The dogs then transmit it to humans.
There were nearly no cases in Chad for 13 years, said president Carter, and then two to three cases emerged due to the dogs contracting Guinea worm disease.
Carter said the journey towards eradicating Guinea worm has had a number of positive secondary outcomes.
“If an expert goes into a village and teaches the people that they can get rid of Guinea worm, then they, for the first time in their life, can experience success. And they also experienced the fact that foreigners are helpful instead of otherwise,” he said.
By training locals in healthcare, they learn the techniques and gain the confidence needed to deal with other health issues, he said.
“And they will take on then other illnesses in the community which we haven’t dealt with yet,” said Carter.Image copyright PA
In Jessica North's house in York, I'm trying out her new broadband connection.
Its arrival was signalled by a fibre optic cable poked through a hole in the front room wall by a TalkTalk engineer just a few minutes ago. Now the needle on the speed test I'm running on my phone swings further and further to the right and gives me a spectacular reading - 319 Mbps download and an even more astounding upload speed of 243Mbps.
This kind of speed has been made possible by an experiment in York which could spark a change in direction for the UK's broadband strategy. That's certainly the ambition of TalkTalk and Sky, the two firms working with a fibre specialist Cityfibre to roll out a new fast broadband network, designed to reach 20,000 homes in the city.
Anywhere outside York, both firms are dependent for their broadband infrastructure on BT's Openreach division - which they've attacked for delivering a poor service and tying Britain into the wrong strategy. They have lobbied hard to persuade Ofcom that Openreach should be split off from BT, and we will hear the regulator's thinking on that next Thursday.
The York network is designed to demonstrate that fibre to the home - deemed too expensive an option by BT for most of the country - can be rolled out quickly and economically. The Cityfibre team are using a technique called micro-trenching to lay the cable. We watched as they cut a narrow channel down a pavement in the Huntington area of York, moving much faster than would be possible for a conventional cabling operation.
As for the customer, TalkTalk is offering a price of £21.70 a month including line rental for its ultrafast broadband, no more than its standard connection which it buys at a wholesale price from BT Openreach. Jessica North, a young mother with two small children, said the speed was attractive as the family used a number of devices and her husband did a lot of online gaming. But it was the price that was decisive in persuading the family to move from their existing supplier Virgin Media.
Image caption Jessica North (and daughter) look forward to faster broadband
Now BT is going down a different cheaper route to the superfast broadband future, relying mainly on Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) where dozens, perhaps hundreds of homes are connected via a copper cable to a fibre hub in a green box by the side of the road. With York's Gigabit City trial only expected to reach about a quarter of homes, most will still be dependent on the FTTC option which offers speeds of up to 78Mbps.
I was surprised to find, however, that BT Openreach has made its own FTTP option available in York - and in the same areas that TalkTalk and Sky are building their fibre network. But that is sold by its arms-length customer BT Retail at a hefty price - about £60 per month including line rental, so I can't imagine people like Jessica North will be snapping it up.
What then can we learn from what's happening in York about the best way forward for our broadband future? At last there is some competition for BT in providing a fast broadband network, which must be good news. But while that £21.70 per month for a raging fast connection sounds great - is it really an economic price for TalkTalk and will it be available elsewhere?
I've seen a suggestion from their joint venture partner Sky that it costs £800 to hook each home up to an FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) service, so it may be a challenge to make profits in York, let alone in more rural areas. And while BT's record in using government money to roll out superfast broadband to rural Britain has been criticised, rivals like TalkTalk and Sky aren't exactly rushing to do the job.
Image caption A BT workman - is the company's broadband strategy barking up the wrong pole
And here's the big question - would the separation of Openreach from BT make any difference to investment in broadband in York or elsewhere? TalkTalk, Sky and some competition experts believe an independent Openreach would have more focus on its customers, and would hence make bigger and better investment decisions.
BT counters that the whole tortuous process of dividing up its business would impede progress at a crucial time in the rollout of fast broadband. It points to other countries - New Zealand, Singapore and Australia - which have tried the same kind of separation as is being proposed here and claims the results in terms of broadband rollout have been either unsuccessful or extremely expensive.
Ofcom's chief executive Sharon White has been weighing up all these rival claims, and we should find out on Thursday what she thinks of them. Whatever the results of her Strategic Review of Digital Communications, we can expect the arguments about Britain's broadband strategy to continue for years.“Nothing bad happens when you do things out of your comfort [...]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo plans to require all credit reporting agencies to register with [...]
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of the next-gen client, which can be a drop-in replacement for cpanm, but the base installer can be shipped without these features, as long as you can upgrade to the next-gen in one command.
Namewise, I haven’t decided whether it should be cpanm (base) vs something-else (2.0), or just cpanm-base vs cpanm-2.0 where the single cpanm executable can be upgraded to the fully featured 2.0 from the fatpacked image. I think the latter is neater and creates less confusions since most of the commands will still available as long as you install to the latest, but I can see corner cases where this could be tricky. (“Oh your cpanm is in a weird state — try upgrading to 2.x with the following command.”)
Alternatively, cpanm can be shipped as a base fatpack script like today, but installing another package will be able to overwrite the cpanm executable with the updated features.
There might be many ways to do this (as always), and I can see pros/cons for each approach.
Names
Speaking of the naming, I see this as an opportunity to make an alternative name to cpanminus — because frankly, cpanminus has started as an internal joke with CPANPLUS as an elephant in the room. For people outside the Perl community, the name “minus” just sounds weird.
Luckily people remember the command by its executable, “cpanm”, and we can be creative and give a name that gives the “m” initial.
Just a thought, I think it’s a great time to change the name if we ever want to do so. As of this writing, cpanm 2.0 is developed under the code name Menlo.
Plugin Architecture
Basically some of these options linked above are backdoors to implement things like reporter or Carton/Carmel. All of these can be implemented as a proper plugin if we provide a hook point. Too bad I killed the plugins idea in early days of pre-1.0 due to some criticism of making cpanm bloat despite the name — which wasn’t really true, compared to the current bloat!
Plugins should be able to be configured globally under ~/.cpanm but also should provide a modular interface to disable/enable per run, so tools like plenv/cpanminus-reporter/Carmel/Carton can hook in properly.
Legacy Support
Here’re some of the things I need to figure out for legacy support:Whole Wheat Brown Sugar Banana Bread Pancakes.
Here’s what I know about pancakes.
They taste good with cherries.
Apples and bacon too.
They make slept-in mornings with toothpaste stains eight thousand times better.
MY OTHER RECIPES MY OTHER RECIPES
They are what my dad stuffs with blueberries.
They probably wouldn’t be good with things like broccoli or beans… because that’s just weird.
Oh! But they do taste good with potatoes. Hmmpf.
They taste extra excellent with ice cream on top.
Even better steaming hot with oozing butter… then ice cream on top. Plus a sweet strawberry.
They save marriages. Mine included.
They aren’t the best choice for breakfast when you want to wear a string bikini.
They often slip you into a welcoming food coma that causes you to desk nap.
They are darn good.
They are cake. For breakfast. Win. Obvious win.
Seriously. Cakes for breakfast?! Whoever decided this was genius.
Now hold your horses. I’m well aware that banana pancakes are not a new development. I mean, according to my iTunes, Jack Johnson wants to make them for me all the time. He’s super sweet.
I feel bad declining him day after day.
But it’s the combination… the bananas, the brown sugar, the maple vanilla glaze… that has etched this breakfast into the rotation at our house. This is a thing. A big thing. It’s like… banana bread… in pancake form. For reals.
There is a reason this is huge. When I make banana bread, it mysteriously disappears within 24 hours. Sometimes it even disappears before the other member of this household arrives home from a long, strenuous day at work. I have no idea how. Really I don’t. It just… evaporates into thin air. I think it might have something to do with the “skinny slice rule.” You know… skinny slices don’t count. Yeah.
So now people can eat banana bread without stuffing an entire loaf down their face. I find this to be extremely beneficial. And satisfying.
Whole Wheat Brown Sugar Banana Bread Pancakes
makes 12 pancakes
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
2 tablespoons butter, melted
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Measure out the milk and add the vanilla extract to it. Whisk together the dry ingredients and add in milk and vanilla, stirring to combine. The mixture will still be dry. Add in mashed bananas and mix. Add in melted butter and stir until batter is somewhat smooth.
Heat a skillet or grilled on medium heat. Using a 1/3 cup measure, spoon batter into rounds and cook until bubbles form on top – about 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook for a minute or two more. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve hot with butter and syrup, or the vanilla maple glaze.
Note: if you don’t have/can’t find whole wheat pastry flour, use 1 cup of regular whole wheat and 1 cup of all purpose. Or 2 cups of all purpose.
Vanilla Maple Glaze
1/2 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until smooth. Pour over pancakes.
Want to come for breakfast? You can bring the bacon.This figure shows the probable pathways of the debris that entered the ocean on March 11, 2011, as estimated from historical trajectories of drifting buoys. View an animation. Credit: Nikolai Maximenko, International Pacific Research Center
The tsunami that hit Japan devastated buildings and farms, and carried entire houses down streets. But as waters retreated, tons of debris was washed into the sea. Where will all that garbage flow now that it has hit the open water? Researchers have created a guess at where and when we'll see refuse from the tsunami, including which shorelines will soon see debris from Japan's disaster washing up on beaches. University of Hawaii at Manoa's Nikolai Maximenko and Jan Hafner have created a model for where debris will flow. It has been based on the movement of buoys deployed over the years for scientific research, and by watching how currents move the buoys, they are showing how objects from the tsunami will travel across the Pacific.
The team estimates that the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument will start to see trash within a year, and more trash will hit Hawaiian islands shores over the following year.
Within three years, California will start to receive some of the garbage from the tsunami, and then much of the rest will be added to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Finally, in five years, Hawaii will be hit again with a larger batch, and much of it will be stuck in amongst the coral reefs along its shores.
Check out this amazing animation of how the debris moves from the shore of Japan, to the west coast of the US, and back to Hawaii.
It sounds frustrating, especially knowing that any clean-up efforts will be difficult -- afterall, the Great Pacific Garbage patch and several other trash gyres around the world are nearly impossible clean-up tasks. While tracking debris from the tsunami will aid in scientific understanding about how materials flow, and change over time in the ocean, it doesn't exactly help us do the dirty work of cleaning up the mess. Still, knowing where and when the trash will hit can help with organizing shoreline cleanup efforts.
Right now, TreeHugger Paula Alvarado is aboard the Sea Dragon with the 5 Gyres project. She's out with the research team tracking the extent to which marine litter is affecting the ocean. They're learning about the impacts of plastic pollution and, hopefully, what can be done about it.
Follow Jaymi on Twitter for more stories like this
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An Ocean of Plastic...In Birds' Guts (Slideshow)Washington, DC - By most accounts this was the fourteenth time US President Barack Obama has had to address the media after a gun shooting with multiple casualties.
We've seen him brought to tears by the killings at Sandy Hook elementary school. Now we've seen him react to nine African-Americans being shot dead in their church in South Carolina.
This time the president looked angry and frustrated.The president took the risk of being seen as politicising a tragedy by saying:
"But let’s be clear: At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it.
"I say that recognising the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those avenues right now. But it would be wrong for us not to acknowledge it. And at some point it’s going to be important for the American people to come to grips with it, and for us to be able to shift how we think about the issue of gun violence collectively."
To boil down his words the president is saying any gun control legislation isn't going to happen in Washington until the people demand it.
The reason he believes that is after 20 first graders were shot dead in their classrooms he tried to pass legislation that would have required background checks on gun sales made on the internet and at gun shows.
Pro-gun lobby
It failed even though at the time polls showed 91 percent of the country wanted the legislation to become law. It's important to look at what happened after that vote.
The Republican Party blocked the legislation but still managed to take control of the chamber in the next election.
There is some evidence that the Democrats who voted against it lost some support from their base, and although campaigns were not hinged on this sole issue, in the end they lost to people who happen to be even stronger supporters of the gun rights.
So now you might be asking why the Congress hasn't acted even when the American people wanted them to? The simple answer is the National Rifle Association.
They are a powerful pro-gun lobby in Washington, DC. They have the ability to recruit and fund competitors for politicians who don’t listen to them. Lawmakers like their jobs and most try to keep them for life.
So that explains why the president is saying the gun laws in this country won’t change until the American people demand it. Right now, Americans seem pretty split on whether gun control is a problem.
In one poll, about half of the people think gun laws need to be kept as is.
Money in politics
It's easy for pundits to say it’s never going to change, that this is just how Washington will always be.
I don’t necessarily agree. There are a couple of ways this could change. Americans are becoming increasingly angry about the amount of money in politics.
In one Gallup poll, seven out of 10 people asked said elected official reflect mainly the values of the wealthy. More than 80 percent said money and lobbyists have too much influence in politics.
They could choose to take the very difficult path of trying to change that by getting a constitutional amendment passed. That would be exceptionally difficult but if Americans get mad enough or a billionaire decides to fund it, it could happen.
The other thing they could do is actually start voting for lawmakers based on their record on gun control legislation. The last but highly unlikely option is that the US Supreme Court will reverse itself and say that the second amendment only applies to militias, as in the National Guard.
There is history to support my belief that nothing is inevitable in Washington. I think back to the Mothers against drunk driving movement. MADD as it is called changed not just laws but the social norms.
It used to be that it was fine to drive drunk, socially acceptable and almost expected. In 1982, one mother lost her son to a drunk driving accident and started the organisation.
It took time, but you would be hard pressed to find a place where drunk driving wasn’t illegal. You would also be hard pressed to find a person who would publicly say, "Drunk driving is cool."
Apartheid
There was a time when people in Washington couldn’t imagine the US not supporting the Apartheid government in South Africa. Their lobby was incredibly strong even feared.
The US Congress forced President Reagan to sanction Apartheid when the American people demanded it. That movement started in college campuses and in the African American religious community.
The American people can change their government. They just have to want to. That is the point the president was trying to make.
When my parents were growing up they did drills in school on what to do if a nuclear bomb went off. They hid under their desks. Obviously that would probably have been a futile exercise but still it showed what the country was afraid of at the time.
When I was growing up we did fire and tornado drills. You can’t predict man-made disasters so it’s best to be prepared. Children in the US now do drills based on an active shooter(s) making their way into a school.
They lock the doors and hide. This is what this country has told our children to be prepared for, to be afraid of. The president was basically saying until that is no longer acceptable, don’t expect the gun laws in the United States to change at all.Bryan is a fourth grader in a regular public school. According to his teachers, he is bright and easily understands the material. He tends to squirm incessantly and has a very short attention span. He rushes through assignments and class work without double-checking, ignoring the insistence of his teachers and parents. He wishes that he was as fast at schoolwork as the rest of his peers, but he usually ‘runs out of gas’. More often than not, he is impulsive and as a result, is frequently involved in fights. Ryan has been diagnosed with ADHD since Kindergarten. ADHD – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a psychiatric disorder involving problems with attention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. This disorder is commonly diagnosed in children but can continue to adulthood.
One way to increase our understanding of the illness is to examine the genders individually. Boys are 3 times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD. However, it is unclear whether the illness is more common in boys or diagnosed more easily in them. For girls, behaviours indicating ADHD may be different. ADHD in girls is characterized by forgetfulness, distraction, disorganization, and poor concentration and attention. In my opinion, girls are under-treated and under-identified.
ADHD may manifest in two forms within individuals, sometimes both are combined together. It is important to note that these behaviours need to be carried out in more than one setting for them to be classified as ADHD.
Hyperactivity-Impulsivity ADHD
Under this condition, children, specifically boys act more active than usual. Children with hyperactivity cannot settle in one place and constantly have the urge to squirm and move about. This can lead to difficulties in educational settings, where a child is confined to one seat for the first half of the day. Long car rides may be especially difficult for such children who have an urge to move about.
Naturally, the patience level of these children is low. For children this includes blurting out answers without waiting for their turns or not being able to wait in lines. They are unable to control sudden impulses and demand ‘instant gratification’. Therefore, using reinforcements with ADHD children is not effective, because the children want to be rewarded in the moment and not after completing a task or chore.
When people in general act impulsively, they forget the consequences that would result from their actions. ADHD children will grab objects which belong to others without reluctance, because they fail to realize the harm caused to the other person.
Compared to ADHD girls, ADHD boys will be more aggressive. However, girls in general show fewer signs of aggression.
Inattention ADHD
This condition is most likely to appear in girls (but can also be seen in boys) where they are more prone to forget, pay less attention and be disorganized. They make careless mistakes and they have difficulty maintaining an organized notebook.
Attention to detail and the capability to remember is seriously affected by ADHD. Because of this, children with ADHD have difficulty in remembering what assignments are due when. Processes that involve multiple steps mark an obstacle for ADHD children. In sequential and structured processes, these children forget to go from one step to the next. They fail to understand that some steps are not interchangeable and they may switch their order.
For an inattentive child, these minor details can cause serious issues.
Inattention goes hand in hand with forgetfulness. Children with ADHD cannot focus on one activity for a long time. They have a habit of losing their belongings and pay less attention to games and activities, with the exception of video games.
Typically, because of their aggressiveness, boys with ADHD are easily recognizable in kindergarten or the first grade. Girls exhibit their ADHD in more cognitive forms such as dreaminess and forgetfulness. They are described as spacey.
Parental guidance and education is a powerful tool for countering ADHD. Early signs of ADHD are often disregarded and treated as normal behaviour, but parents should observe their children’s activities more closely to find clues or hints of ADHD. If in question, the parents should consult a child psychologist or licensed therapist rather than rely on kindergarten or school teacher’s opinion. If diagnosed at an early age, children will be able to learn how to cope with it better.
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/theodorescott/4845485712Celebrity Toilet – The Neorest
The great thing about having a bunch of extra money lying around is that you get to buy all sorts of ridiculous things. Unfortunately, if you are not a celebrity or extremely wealthy and you save your money only to buy a $5000.00 toilet people think you are crazy. However, the more you learn about the Toto Neorest 600 the better you understand the fine line that separates crazy and genius.
Will Smith is one Hollywood star that knows how to drop a comfortable deuce!
If you check out the Neorest website here you see how seriously the people at Neorest take their toilets. Their website alone makes you feel like you are embarking on a magical journey into the unknown.
Here are a few product details on the toilet that we pulled from the Neorest site:
Full wireless remote options Automatic hands-free lid opening and closing Heated SoftClose seat Remote Flush Automatic hands-free flush First tank-less toilet with integrated wash-less seat Cyclone flushing system Rear/front/soft front cleanse Oscillating comfort cleanse Self-cleaning mode Dual flush water conservation mode Warm air dryer Adjustable wand positioning Automatic wand cleaning Catalytic air purifier Sana gloss glaze on the bowl for more hygienic, easy-to clean surface
I don’t even know what half of that stuff means, but this toilet has more features and screams of more luxury then anything I own, including my entire apartment and car.
I don’t know about the rest of the NTG readers but I feel like my life now has a distinct purpose. I must try one of these! With a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work, one day I might even be the proud owner of my own oscillating comfort cleanse toilet. One can dream.The metro service is to be halted along the entire L11 line and a section of the L4 for ten days. The service alterations along these lines have been planned for the coming Easter week, to minimise disruptions to passengers, given the fall in urban travel over this period.
Barcelona’s metro service will see disruptions from Saturday, 19 March, to Easter Monday, 28 March (both days included), along part of the L4 and the entire L11 line as a result of improvement and maintenance work on the network being carried out by Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB).
The service alterations along these lines have been planned for the Easter period, to minimise disruptions to passengers, given the drop in urban mobility during this period.
Partial disruption of the L4 metro service
A 2.6-km-long section of the metro L4 line, between La Pau and Selva de Mar, is to close from 19 to 28 March for infrastructure improvement work. A diagonal track shunting device at La Pau will also be renovated, to allows trains to change track at the end of their lines’ route. The rest of the L4 line, between Trinitat Nova and Selva de Mar, will operate as normal.
TMB will be providing a shuttle bus service during the disruptions, to cover the section affected between La Pau and Selva de Mar, following the same timetable as the metro. Users are also recommended, as alternative transport, to use the metro link between L4 and L2 at Passeig de Gràcia station, the H14 bus line (Paral·lel – Sant Adrià) and the T4, T5 and T6 Trambesòs lines.
The entire L11 line metro service is to be halted
The entire L11 metro service, between La Trinitat Nova and Can Cuiàs, will be halted from 19 to 28 March. This will affect the line’s five stations: Trinitat Nova, Casa de l’Aigua, Torre Baró / Vallbona, Ciutat Meridiana and Can Cuiàs. TMB will be providing a shuttle bus service throughout the disruption of the service, to cover the section affected between La Trinitat Nova and Can Cuiàs. It will follow the same timetable as the metro’s.
The ten-day halting of the service will allow improvement work to be carried out on the infrastructure and the tracks to be renovated along this automated 2.3-km line uniting the Ciutat Meridiana, Trinitat Nova and Torre Baró neighbourhoods in the Nou Barris district and Can Cuiàs, in the Montcada i Reixac municipality.In the past, the obvious reaction to any unusual big cat was to shoot it for the trophy room. As a result, many interesting mutations may have been wiped out before the genes were passed on. Some colour mutations which would disadvantage a wild big cat are bred in captivity and are not viable in the wild. It is questionable whether these mutants should be perpetuated for the sake of curiosity or aesthetics alone.
Mutants are natural variations which occur due to spontaneous genetic changes or the expression of recessive (hidden) genes. Albinism (pure white), chinchilla (white with pale markings) and melanism (black) are the commonest mutations. Erythristic (red), leucistic (partial albinism/cream) and maltesing (blue) are also been reported. Sometimes the markings are aberrant e.g. too sparse or too heavy (abundism), giving the appearance of a pale or dark individual. Numerous colour and pattern mutations occur in domestic cats so why are they less common in big cats? Wild cats displaying these traits may be less likely to survive to pass on the traits. In captivity, humans control which traits are bred, hence the multitude of domestic cat colours and types. In the wild, nature selects against any trait which does not enhance the animal's survival chances.
CHEETAH MUTANTS
The king cheetah is a mutant form of cheetah. This may be a form of abundism where spots coalesce into swirls. Alternatively, it may be that cheetahs can also be striped as well as spotted (like blotched tabby and spotted tabby cats). The blotched tabby was one of the first pattern mutations in the domestic cat so it would not be unusual to see this pattern mutation appearing in other cat species. It was originally believed to be a new species of cheetah or a cheetah/leopard hybrid, but is now believed to be a relatively recent mutation. The identity of the king cheetah was not resolved until researchers noticed that some cheetah litters contained both striped individuals and spotted individuals. The darker patten may give better camouflage in less open territory and it has been suggested that evolution is allowing cheetahs to exploit new habitats.
The king cheetah, a cheetah with black stripes along its back and swirls and splotches instead of spots was known to natives, but its existence had been pooh-poohed by white hunters and settlers. It was first noted by Westerners in Zimbabwe in 1926. In 1927, the naturalist Pocock declared it a separate species, but reversed this decision in 1939 due to lack of evidence. In 1928, a skin purchased by Lord Rothschild was found to be intermediate in pattern between the king cheetah and spotted cheetah and Abel Chapman voiced the opinion that it was a colour form of the spotted cheetah. 22 skins were found between 1926 and 1974. Since 1927, king cheetahs were reported 5 further times and though strangely marked skins had come from Africa, a live king cheetah was not photographed until 1974 in South Africa's Kruger National Park. Cryptozoologists Paul and Lena Bottriell mounted expeditions to find the king cheetah, finally photographing one in 1975. They also managed to obtain stuffed specimens. The king cheetah appeared larger than a spotted cheetah and its fur had a different texture.
Lists of known skins and reliable sightings, along with the non-lethal studies by Lena and Paul Bottriell between 1973 and 1979 established that king cheetahs derived from adjoininq portions of Zimbabwe, eastern Botswana, and the northern and eastern Transvaal of South Africa. When King cheetah cubs turned up in litters alongside spotted cubs in captivity, it was realised that the mutation was a recessive gene carried by some spotted cheetahs. There was another wild sighting in 1986 - the first for 7 years. By 1987, 38 specimens had been recorded, many from pelts.
King Cheetah early sightings and skins:
1925: Bikita, Zimbabwe - originally in possession of Native Commissioner HN Watters. Later mounted in proportions of a leopard by Rowland Ward Ltd and sold to the British Museum of Natural History. A second skin owned by Watters and also mounted by Ward Ltd went to the Natal Museum, South Africa. Watters obtained a third skin in 1928.
1926: Macheke, Zimbabwe - skin purchased by a farmer from natives and given to the Queen Victoria Museum in Salisbury. Destroyed in 1950 by museum authorities due to deterioration.
1926: Seki Reserve, Zimbabwe - photograph published by Major AC Cooper showing skin owned by a Mr Lacey who bought it from native hunters. Whereabouts unknown.
1927: Mt Selinda, Zimbabwe - flat skin obtained by Major Cooper for the private collection of Lord Rothschild (now part of the Natural History Museum collection)
1928: Bikita, Zimbabwe - a third skin obtained by Native Commissioner HN Watters; sold to South African Museum in Capetown and exhibited as mounted specimen.
1935: Birchenough Bridge, Zimbabwe - killed by native hunters on a ranch near the Sabi River. In private collection of Sir Archibal James, England.
1940: Messina, Transvaal - shot by rancher (van der Walt) at a lion stakeout, skin in private collection of J Joubert of Krugerdorp.
1942: Tjolotjo, Botswana - purchased by wife of Native Commisioner NL Dacomb from an African. Sold to Kaffrarian Museum in King Williams Town.
1960s: Rakops, Botswana - owned by a merchant, Charlie Freeman of Palapye who claimed to have lost 3 further King Cheetah skins to a thief.
1960: Tuli, Botswana - purchased from a local hawker by a rancher L van Niekerk.
1960, 1965, 1966: Eastern Botswana (presumed) - owned by Messrs JR Ivy, Curio Dealers in Pretoria.
1971: Moljabana, Botswana - originally owned by Mr Clark, a dealer in skins; donated to the National Museum of Botswana in Gaberone.
Cooper persuaded the Queen Victoria Museum to sent the Macheke skin to Reginald Pocock, curator of mammals at the British Museum in London. Pocock had earlier dismissed a photo of the find as being an aberrant leopard, but when he examined the skin itself, particularly the feet and claws, he realised it was a new kind of cheetah. In 1927, Pocock published an official description of acinonyx rex (King Cheetah) in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. As a result of the publicity, trophy hunters demanded a King Cheetah skin for their private collections. An unknown number of King Cheetah skins disappeared into the stores of taxidermists and into private collections. Pocock himself asked Cooper to find a skin for Lord Rothschild's collection (which is now part of the Natural History Museum). The two Bikita skins were purchased by the London taxidermy firm Messrs Rowland Ward Ltd who mounted them and sold them to museums in London and Natal. A similar selective slaughter of woolly cheetahs but hunters seeking unusual specimens had already wiped out one cheetah mutation.
In 1937, Captain W Hichens, Late of the Intelligence and Administrative Services, East Africa, wrote in African Mystery Beasts. (Discovery (Dec): 369-373) wrote: Nor is the African native a fool in the ways of the bushveld and its beasts; he does not assert that a beast is an mngwa when any old woman in the kraal could tell by a glance at its spoor or by the way it attacked that it is a lion, a leopard or a hyæna. Native hunting lore clearly dis-tinguishes the bush beasts. One well-known hunting-song tells of the simba (lion), nsui (leopard) and the mngwa all in one verse plainly showing that there is no confusion in the native mind between these three great carnivores. Moreover, many white hunters, settlers and officials, whose bona fides cannot be doubted, have spoored, heard, shot at and sometimes even seen and grappled with these mystery monsters; and very occasionally one of the "mythical" beasts is shot or trapped, as happened with the nsui-fisi recently. Then the natives say, "We told you so!" and zoologists scratch their heads and mutter, "ex Africa semper, etc.!"
[...]It is not impossible that the khodumodumo may yet prove to be an animal hitherto unknown. The nsui-fisi was a brute of a similar kind. Its name means " leopard-hyæna," and many hair-raising tales are to be heard of it in Rhodesian kraals. For many years natives have told white hunters of this beast, averring that it was incredibly cunning, swift and ferocious, as one would expect of a hybrid " killer" combining a leopard's ferocity with the hyæna's slinking guile. It always attacked, the kraalsmen said, at night, and smashed its way through the flimsy doors or roofs of stock-pens, making off with goats and sheep, and often turning the pens into a veritable shambles. It was like a leopard, the natives declared, but instead of being spotted, it was barred, white and black, like a zebra, and not unlike a striped hyena. But no such beast was known to white hunters and so the nsui-fisi was pooh-poohed into the limbo of "it's just native superstition, of course!"
In this case, however, the native was right. No less an authority than Mr. R. I. Pocock was able to lay on the table of the Zoological Society not long ago, a skin of the nsui-fisi, one of a number obtained in Rhodesia. It was shown to be a new species of cheetah (Acinonyx rex), not spotted, but striped like a zebra, as the kraalsmen had been saying for many years! As Mr. Pocock remarked, it was "most extraordinary that so large and distinct a species should remain for so long unknown." The natives were wrong in supposing the nsui-fisi to be a leopard-hyaena cross, but that is certainly what it looks like to anyone other than a skilled zoologist. It would thus be rash to assert that other "mythical beasts" like the nsui-fisi cannot exist, and it is by no means impossible that the mngwa, kerit, and ndalawo may yet prove to be as real. By description all these beasts are well known.
The question of its identity was resolved (for Europeans) in the 1981 when king cheetahs were born to spotted cheetah parents at the De Wildt Cheetah Center in South Africa. In May 1981, two sisters gave birth there and each litter contained one king cheetah. The sisters had both been mated to a wild-caught male from the Transvaal area (where King Cheetahs had been recorded) and further King Cheetahs were later born at the Centre. The gene is recessive, meaning it is carried hidden in some spotted cheetahs. When two carriers mate, there is a chance that some offspring will inherit two copies of the hidden gene and be king cheetahs. King cheetahs mated together will produce king cheetahs. This cheetah mutation has been reported in Zimbabwe, Botswana and in the northern part of South Africa's Transvaal province. There are probably only a handful of king cheetahs in the wild, but it has been bred in captivity. As with the selective breeding of white tigers and white lions, there is a danger of inbreeding - since cheetahs are already so inbred (causing infertility problems), this could be disastrous. The king cheetah is disadvantaged when stalking prey on the open plain, but less so in areas where it can begin its sprint from dappled shade.
Woolly cheetahs with longer, denser fur have occurred several times and were thought to be a separate species. They were shot rather than captured alive so the mutation has vanished. They had thicker bodies and stouter limbs than normal cheetahs (this may be a trick of the long hair) with dense, woolly hair especially on the tail and neck where it formed a ruff or mane. The long fur made the normal spotted cheetah pattern indistinct and it appeared pale fawn with dark, round blotches. In domestic cats, the markings of longhairs are less distinct than those of shorthairs due to the blurring effect of longer fur. In domestic cats, long hair is due to a recessive gene, so the gene may still be present in the cheetah gene pool. The cheetah gene pool, however, is not as diverse as the gene pools of most other cat species. The painting of the woolly cheetah (shown below) suggests not only a longhaired cheetah, but a red (erythristic) cheetah.
In 1877, Philip Sclater of the Zoological Society of London wrote of a recent acquisition by the zoo: "It presents generally the appearance of a cheetah, but is thicker in the body, and has shorter and stouter limbs, and a much thicker tail. When adult it will probably be considerably larger than the cheetah, and is larger even now than our three specimens of that animal. The fur is much more woolly and dense than in the cheetah, as is particularly noticeable on the ears, mane, and tail. The whole of the body is of a pale isabelline [yellowish-fawn] colour, rather paler on the belly and lower parts, but covered all over, including the belly, with roundish dark fulvous blotches. There are no traces of th black spots which are so conspicuous in all of the varieties of the cheetah which I have seen, nor of the characteristic black line between the mouth and eye." Although described as blotched, the painting depicts it as freckled. In 1878, a second woolly cheetah was reported as a preserved specimen in the South African Museum. Both the London and South African specimens had come from Beaufort West. In 1884, a third skin was obtained from the same area, though this had more distinct spots and was a little smaller. Sadly, by the 1880s, the trophy hunters had eliminated the woolly cheetah.
In Harmsworth Natural History (1910), R Lydekker wrote of the "hunting leopard" or "chita", as the cheetah was then known: "The hunting leopard of South Africa has been stated to differ from the Indian animal in its stouter build, thicker tail, and denser and more woolly fur, the longest hairs occurring on the neck, ears, and tail. This woolly hunting leopard was regarded by its describer as a distinct species (Cynaelurus lanius), but it is, at most, only a local race, of which the proper name is C. jubatus guttatus."
The Moghul Emperor of India, Jahangir, recorded having a white cheetah presented to him in 1608. “The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri or Memoirs of Jahangir “was translated into English by Alexander Rogers and edited by Henry Beveridge, and published between 1909-1914. The description of the white cheetah is in Vol 1, pp. 139-40. ”In the third year of his reign (1608 A.D.), the Emperor records the following event: ‘On this day Raja Bir Singh Deo brought a white cheeta to show me. Although other sorts of creatures, both birds and beasts, have white varieties, which they call tuyghan, I had never seen a white cheeta. Its spots which are (usually) black, were of a blue colour, and the whiteness of the body was also inclined to bluishness. Of the albino animals that I have seen there are falcons, sp |
48.2% 76.5% 40.0% 50.4% 78.7% 113.1% 68.5% 81.3%
Looking at things with a bit more granularity, the relative strength difference also depends on skill in the sport. The average 10th percentile man is further ahead of the average 10th percentile woman in terms of relative strength than the average 90th percentile man and woman. By the 99th percentile for both men and women, the relative strength gap is down to 42% for the squat, 59% for the bench press, 30% for the deadlift, and 41% for the total.
Just for fun, I also calculated the odds that a randomly selected female powerlifter would be stronger than a randomly selected male powerlifter, in either a relative or an absolute sense. Just in terms of totals, you’d expect the woman to be stronger in a relative sense roughly 4.85% of the time, and stronger in an absolute sense roughly 2.36% of the time. I just point that out because, while it’s undeniably true that men are stronger than women on average, I also think female powerlifters don’t get as much respect as they deserve, and that people tend to be excessively surprised when a woman out-lifts a man. It’s atypical, but not exceedingly rare. If you randomly selected 14 pairs of male and female powerlifters, it would be likely for at least one of the pairs to feature a woman who was relatively stronger, and if you randomly selected 29 pairs, then it would be likely for at least one to feature a woman with a higher absolute total, just to put those probabilities in perspective.
Finally, the last thing I wanted to look at in the data was the relationship between the three lifts, the spread in performance in the three lifts, and to see whether success in a particular lift was predictive of overall success as a powerlifter.
Performance Spread
For the men, squat and bench performances were somewhat more variable than deadlift performances. The standard deviation of relative squat and bench strength was 18-18.5% of the mean, while the standard deviation of relative DL strength was only 16.2% of the mean. In essence, that means that the spread of “normal” performances is larger for the squat and bench (more very good and very bad squatters and benchers), while it’s a bit smaller for the deadlift (fewer deadlifters who are really good or really bad compared to average).
It’s the same story on the women’s side, but the overall variability is also higher. For the squat and bench, the SDs were ~22% of the mean, while the SD for DL was only 19.4% of the mean. In other words, there’s a larger spread in bench and squat talent than deadlift talent on the women’s side as well, but there’s also a larger overall spread of talent for women than for men.
An interesting thing to note is that, for both men and women, totals were slightly less variable than any of the individual lifts (the SDs were a smaller percentage of the means). This lends credence to the idea that the lifts contested in powerlifting are fundamentally fair and don’t give people with a particular build an advantage (i.e. long arms are beneficial for DL, but they’ll hurt you on the bench), as you see more people bunched around the “average” total.
Lift Ratios
For the men, the squat accounted for 35% of the total, on average, with the bench accounting for 24% and the deadlift accounting for 41%. Men could bench around 69% of their squat and 59% of their deadlift, and squat about 86% of their deadlift.
For the women, the deadlift is a bit more important, and the bench is a bit less important. The squat accounted for 35.5% of the total, the bench accounted for only 20.5% of the total, and the deadlift accounted for 44% of the total. Women could bench around 58.5% as much as they could squat and around 47% as much as they could deadlift, and could squat about 81% as much as they could deadlift.
There was also a considerable range in these lift ratios.
Does success in a particular lift predict overall competitiveness
Finally, I wanted to see if stronger lifters tend to excel more at a particular lift, or if they’re just stronger overall in a pretty balanced fashion. In other words, the people in the top 10 at a major meet will obviously be stronger in all three lifts than the average lifter in their weight class, but I’m curious whether that dominance is spread evenly over all three lifts. I’ve heard people posit, for example, that lots of men have big benches and deadlifts, so squats are the larger differentiating factor, and that since DL is already the lift that makes up a disproportionate chunk of the total for women, the top female lifters are the ones who can really dominate the deadlift.
I didn’t think the data really bore that out at first. I compared the top 5% of lifters to lifters in the 90th-95th percentile, lifters in the 80th-90th percentile, lifters in the 50th-80th percentile, and lifters below the 50th percentile. All of them had pretty similar ratios – within about 2% of the average. The only general trend that jumped out at me is that reasonably competitive women tend to be relatively better squatters. All the groups above the 50th percentile squatted 82%+ of their deadlift, while women below the 50th percentile squatted 79.5% of their deadlift.
I also ran some simple correlations, and they changed the picture a bit. Unsurprisingly, strength in each lift individually correlates very strongly with overall strength in the total. The relationship was a bit stronger for squat and deadlift than for bench for both men and women (r=0.93-0.95 vs. r=0.84-0.86), but that should be expected because the squat and deadlift make up a larger overall percentage of the total.
However, the lift ratios tell a slightly different story. For both men and women, relative strength in the total correlated with the proportion of the total accounted for by the squat (in other words, the person whose squat is 40% of their total likely has a bigger total than the person whose squat is 35% of their total). The correlations were weak (r=0.21 for women and 0.23 for men), but they were there. Similarly, the squat/deadlift ratio correlated positively with the total (r=0.17 for men and 0.18 for women). Furthermore, the proportion of the total accounted for by the deadlift had a weak negative correlation with the total (r=-0.14 for men and -0.18 for women). That also makes sense when you think about it, though: Generally, people gain proficiency in the deadlift quicker than the squat, newer lifters are likely to have a more deadlift-heavy total, and more experienced lifters are likely to have a more squat-heavy total, all other things being equal.
Correlations Men Women Squat vs. total 0.94 0.93 Bench vs. total 0.85 0.86 DL vs. total 0.92 0.94 Squat/total vs. total 0.23 0.21 DL/total vs. total -0.14 -0.18 bench/squat vs. total -0.18 -0.14 squat/deadlift vs. total 0.17 0.18 squat vs. bench 0.72 0.74 squat vs. deadlift 0.79 0.80 bench vs. deadlift 0.66 0.73
It doesn’t surprise me that those relationships didn’t show up when I was only looking at group averages of various percentile range. Though those relationships existed, they were weak relationships. Lifters can have a great degree of success (or lack of success) with a wide range of strengths and weaknesses.
The major takeaway of this section is that you shouldn’t get too hung up on lift ratios; they’re not very predictive of competitive success.
One final thing worth noting: Notice the correlations between the individual lifts at the bottom of the chart. You’ll see that for both men and women, the strongest correlation is between the squat and the deadlift, which should be expected – both require lower body strength, so if you’re good at one, odds are you’ll be pretty good at the other. However, also notice that for men, the correlation between bench and deadlift is the weakest of the three. That may lend some degree of validation to great benchers with t-rex arms who complain that they can’t get their DL up, or great deadlifters with orangutan arms who struggle with bench; strength in the two lifts is still correlated, but the relationship is the weakest out of the three pairs. It’s also interesting, however, that the correlation between bench and deadlift strength isn’t meaningfully different than the correlation between bench and squat strength for the women.
So, to wrap this article up, what is strong?
There’s not a simple answer to that question. The best goal, in my opinion, is to aim to be stronger than you are today and let the long-term results take care of themselves after grinding away at progress over several years. However, if you want to get some concrete targets to aim at, see where you fall on these percentile charts. They’ll tell you how you size up against the competition. This is about the most objective strength comparison you can get, based on 12,000+ actual competition results spanning 4 years in the largest, strictest, and most competitive drug-tested organization in the sport. Simply keep trying to climb up the ladder. If you’re planning on moving up or down a weight class, scope out your target percentile in the new class first to see how much strength you’ll need to gain/how much strength you’ll need to hold onto to be equally competitive in your new class.
Click to enlarge the charts below. If you’re on a mobile device, you can click this link for the men and this link for the women.
Men’s strength percentiles:
Women’s strength percentiles:
Stay tuned! The next article will address how to identify and assess the factors that are most likely to be limiting your performance so you can start building a training plan to address them.
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PinterestQUEBEC — Newly-minted Transport Minister Laurent Lessard confirmed Tuesday there is still no agreement with Uber over a pilot project that would see the ride-sharing company operate legally in the province within its own special category.
The question of whether Uber has the right to operate in Quebec has been stirring up passions for months, and Lessard — barely three days into his new job — received warning from taxi drivers that the pilot project better respect the law or drivers will take the matter to the courts, and also into their own hands by reporting Uber drivers to police.
“Uber has presented a proposal, and the process is following its course,” Lessard told reporters, adding he is scheduled to meet with Uber Quebec and taxi industry representatives separately next week.
Bill 100, which passed amid much controversy June 10, calls for ride-hailing companies to adhere to Quebec’s existing system of taxi permits, or risk facing stiff penalties. But the law was also amended to give the government and Uber until Sept. 8 to hammer out a pilot project. In the absence of an agreement, the law will come into effect at midnight Sept. 8, and Uber drivers operating without permits could be severely sanctioned.
Uber insists its drivers will never be able to afford taxi permits because they work too few hours, but the company is open to paying an annual administration fee of $100,000, as well as a 35-cent fee per ride, which would generate an estimated $3 million annually for the province. In addition, it has proposed that a 7-cent per ride tax could be charged for the benefit of Quebec’s automobile insurance board (SAAQ).
Uber is also ready to levy QST and GST on each ride, and submit to the province a quarterly summary of each of its drivers’ earnings.
“We continue negotiating the parameters of a pilot project with the government so that Quebecers can benefit from ride-sharing,” Uber Quebec spokesperson Jean-Christophe de Le Rue said in a statement Tuesday.
Lessard said he has never used Uber and doesn’t have an opinion on the company, just that it needs to be a “good corporate citizen.”
Earlier this year, the government estimated Uber owes the province about $20 million in unpaid taxes.
Uber had promised at a parliamentary hearing to stop its activities during discussions over a pilot project, but has kept operating.
Former Parti Québécois minister Guy Chevrette, who represents the taxi industry, said Tuesday it is “abnormal and abhorrent” that the government continues to negotiate with an “illegal company.”
“We’ve had enough of the government playing yo-yo with 22,000 people … half of whom are immigrants,” Chevrette said, adding that come Sept. 8, his members will begin “unmasking drivers who commit fraud.”
Lessard inherited the explosive file when he replaced Jacques Daoust as transport minister Aug. 20. Daoust resigned over claims he played a role in the controversial sale of Investissement Québec’s shares in the Rona hardware chain to the American giant Lowe’s.
It was the Couillard government’s fifth cabinet shuffle since January.
Opposition parties argued Tuesday time is ticking and Quebecers need to know where the government stands on Uber.
“For us, it’s extremely worrisome that two weeks before the deadline, there is still no indication that the government has progressed in its negotiation,” said Coalition Avenir Québec house leader François Bonnardel, whose party is pro-Uber.
cplante@postmedia.com
twitter.com/cplantegazetteKenya’s parliament passed a motion Thursday to withdraw from the International Criminal Court just before the country’s president and deputy president face trial at The Hague for allegedly orchestrating post-election violence more than five years ago.
Noting that the United States and other world powers are not members of the International Criminal Court, the majority leader of Kenya’s parliament said Thursday that the country should withdraw from the statute that created the ICC.
Adan Duale told a special session of lawmakers that presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had argued against the United States becoming a party to the Rome Statute, which regulates prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the ICC.
The motion easily passed on a voice vote after members of the opposition party walked out, but Kenya can withdraw from the ICC only if the government, not parliament, offers a formal notification to the U.N. secretary general.
Clinton and Bush, Duale said, refused to join the ICC in order to protect U.S. citizens and troops from potential politically motivated prosecutions.
“Let us protect our citizens. Let us defend the sovereignty of the nation of Kenya,” Duale said.
The Kenyan debate is a reaction to the start next week of the ICC trial of Deputy President William Ruto. Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta face charges of crimes against humanity for allegedly helping to orchestrate post-
election violence in 2007-08 that killed more than 1,000 people.
Kenyatta, who was elected president this year, faces trial in November. Both leaders have said they will cooperate with the court.
Parliament has voted before to withdraw from the ICC, but the executive branch took no action. The Rome Statute says a “state party” may pull out with written notification to the U.N. secretary general; withdrawal takes effect a year later.
A withdrawal does not affect a state’s obligation to cooperate with criminal investigations and proceedings already underway. If Kenya were to pull out, it would be the first nation to do so.
“Kenya gains no legal advantage by withdrawing from the ICC,” said William Pace, an official with the Coalition for the ICC. “In the long run, the promoters of this action are hurting the reputation of Kenya as a nation that supports international human rights and the rule of law.”
Kenyatta’s and Ruto’s indictments led the United States and Britain, among others, to openly advocate for the two leaders’ electoral defeat. However, Kenya’s ties with those countries have appeared to be at least quasi-normal since the two men were elected in March, although President Obama did not visit Kenya, his father’s home country, when he toured Africa in June and July.View Photos Michael Simari and the Manufacturer
As we’ve suspected pretty much since GMC reintroduced its Canyon mid-size pickup for 2015, there will be an upscale Denali trim level, and it’s coming late next year as a 2017 model. GMC has finally revealed the Canyon Denali, and it traces the now-familiar (and 17 years old!) luxe Denali theme perfectly.
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The Denali package includes the anticipated chrome grille, chrome body trim, and dazzling—and surprisingly not-chrome—machined 20-inch wheels. Each of the six available paint colors come paired with a Jet Black cabin swathed in “Mulan” leather seats (the fronts are heated and ventilated), Denali-inscribed doorsills and floor mats, and a standard heated steering wheel, eight-inch touch screen, navigation, automatic climate control, and remote engine starting.
View Photos Michael Simari and the Manufacturer
The Canyon’s 3.6-liter V-6 is standard, as well, but buyers also can opt for the lineup’s newly available 2.8-liter diesel four-cylinder. Being top-of-the-line, the Canyon Denali comes only with the four-door crew-cab body, although the choice of two- or four-wheel drive is left up to the consumer. There’s no word yet on pricing, but don’t be surprised if the Canyon Denali costs more than $40,000.
View Photos Michael Simari and the ManufacturerUPDATE: Dubai Silence on the Call to Prayer
In a recent conversation it was brought to my attention that a certain residential community in Dubai may have taken to silencing the Muslim call to prayer in deference to tenants’ complaints.
I was told that most non-Muslim (and even some non-practicing Muslims) residents had petitioned for the action, deeming the Adhaan a ‘nuisance,’ ‘public disturbance,’ and even going so far as to categorize it under ‘noise pollution.’
As a Muslim, that’s a rather harsh pill to swallow. Even more bitter was the possibility that the developer had surrendered to these absurd charges, supposedly effectively quashing what is not just an Islamic ordainment, but what is a fundamentally native observance to any Muslim country.
Taking the word of a source, this post was previously a textual finger-pointing not only at those residents of the UAE but also the authorities for petitioning and allowing this to be followed through.
I have since been informed by both residents of the development in question as well a member of the community’s mosque committee, that the latter assertion was incorrect. The Adhaan continues to be sounded at each prayer, and, moreover, the authorities would not allow any such silencing.
The older post has now been replaced with this update.
As soon as the previous article was up, it was met with outrage. Indignant protests from Muslims, and more heartening from a greater majority of non-Muslim expatriates at the possibility that this was true. Many found it disrespectful and near-impossible to imagine that anyone would create a furore over a host country’s cultural (if not religious) affiliations, especially after having been accommodated so liberally.
Most who commented on the issue, did so along the lines of a Devina Devicha:
I’m not Muslim, but the news that they’re quashing the call to prayer is appalling. People need to realize they’re in a Muslim country, and part of religion means people are going to pray. If the method of prayer involves adhaan 5 times a day, so be it. I’ve lived near mosques before and this hasn’t bothered me. I realize I have the distinct advantage of growing up in Dubai, so adhaan is normal to me. Perhaps those coming in from elsewhere find it hard in the beginning? Even if that’s the case, it’s part of the country’s culture and religious behaviour, and can’t be removed (although your piece shows it’s starting to go down that path!). I lived in the UK for a while, and the cathedral near where I lived would have pealing bells on Sunday afternoon…do you think anyone would call for the bells to be silenced calling it noise pollution? Look, my brother has autism and part of his autism means that he cannot handle loud sounds, so sometimes he has gotten upset by the call to prayer, and in those situations we try and move him away from the sound, so he can calm down. I’m not going to petition for the call to prayer to be dampened just because his auditory senses are hyper-sensitive! It’s not noise pollution; I was in India in January, I was outside a church ready to attend a wedding, and while Mass was going on inside, a mosque right behind the church started its call to prayer and I felt at home.”
The Azaan/Adhaan, for those who aren’t too familiar, is the scheduled summoning by the muezzin (assigned caller) of a mosque calling all practising Muslims to worship – namely for the five daily prayers divinely prescribed via the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) during his miraculous journey, Isrá wa Mi’raj (the anniversary of which is a public holiday in the Emirates).
Re. the advent of the Adhaan:
When the Muslims arrived at Medina, they used to assemble for the prayer, and used to guess the time for it. During those days, the practice of Adhaan for the prayers had not been introduced yet. Once they discussed this problem regarding the call for prayer. Some people suggested the use of a bell like the Christians, others proposed a trumpet like the horn used by the Jews, but ‘Umar was the first to suggest that a man should call (the people) for the prayer; so Allah’s Apostle ordered Bilal to get up and pronounce the Adhaan for prayers – Ibn Umar [Bukhari :: Book 1 :: Volume 11 :: Hadith 578]
The wording of the Adhaan in itself is said to be a loose synopsis of the Islamic faith, and is repeated as follows:
Allahu Akbar(x4) – God is Great
Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah(x2) – I bear witness that there is no god except the One God.
Ashadu anna Muhammadan Rasool Allah(x2) – I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
Hayya ‘ala-s-Salah(x2) – Hurry to/rise up for the prayer
Hayya ‘ala-l-Falah(x2) – Hurry to success
[During pre-dawn prayer: As-salatu Khayrun Minan-nawm(x2) – Prayer is better than sleep]
Allahu Akbar(x2) – God is Great
La ilaha illa Allah(x1) – There is no god except the One God
From the above, it is understood then that the Adhaan serves primarily as a melodious reminder of religious commitment to those preoccupied with the day’s non-spiritual obligations. Although some may argue that in this current age of sophisticated gadgetry devices can be programmed for the same, the exotic allure of the call cannot be denied.
Although this particular allegation has proven to be only partially true – the calls for the quietening of mosques in Dubai is real and is not new. Back in 2007, a certain property developer was under media and public scrutiny for luring potential investors to their luxury residences using assurances that the daily five times call to prayer would be silenced.
The UAE, Dubai especially, is extremely liberal in aspects of religious and cultural tolerance – rhetoric so oft-repeated that this in itself may as well be the bait that lures expats to set up camp.
Islam is not imposed on any resident, and aside from the call for decency in dress-code, stringent legislation enforcing a set attire is non-existent. Hindu temples and churches of all factions have propped up in the past 40 years of the county’s establishment, and even alcohol/pork consumption is not the anathema Western media just love to portray.
Admittedly there are a few Muezzins who don’t ‘carry the tune’ of the Adhaan as melodiously as others more rhythmically-endowed, but the less-stubborn alternative employed is choosing to reduce the decibel-level of the Adhaan; (especially for the early morning and min-afternoon prayer), out of consideration for the neighbourhood.
The Adhaan is not a deafening barrage of fire-crackers, nor a series of resounding horns blaring from impatient motorists in a traffic rut – to be classified under ‘noise pollution.’ It is a series of sacred verses dear to the devout, calling the faithful to prayer.
This misunderstanding has proven if not anything else, the level of accommodation by the varying cultures represented by the expatriates living here in the Emirates – of the values and practices it upholds affiliating it to an Islamic state.
While there will always be a handful of those not as understanding of the country’s cultural and religious values, it is comforting to witness that the numbers appreciative of the same visibly exceeds the latter.
A lesson learned in issues of verification, and an eye-opener to this unorthodox form of patriotism not likely to be witnessed anywhere else.
“They… were lined up praying, their shadows long upon the desert floor. I was watching them and thinking how this ritual must have remained unchanged in every detail since it was first prescribed by Muhammed…” – Wilfred Thesiger, Arabian Sands, 67.Time to continue our interview series! This time we’re interviewing CEX.io Chief Marketing Officer Eugene Kovalyk, a crypto exchange suitable for both newbies and traders.
You can find some controversial reviews and opinions on CEX.io from the web, so we reached out to them to talk about their platform, their recent improvements and cryptos in general.
1. What is your story? How did the team end up together? Have you done some previous projects together as well?
Our story has mining roots. Thus, CEX.IO was the pioneering platform for cloud mining and worked in conjunction with GHash.IO, the largest mining pool back in 2014. At some point, we were even close to the 51% Bitcoin network hash rate but blocked the inflow of new miners not to cross the line.
Along with the industry development, the temporary fall of the Bitcoin price and the growth of the mining difficulty, we decided to focus on CEX.IO project as a cryptocurrency exchange. In January 2015, we suspended cloud mining services and entered the full trading era for the company. We believe that was a good decision, as today CEX.IO is one of the leaders among exchanges, providing services to both beginners and professional traders, as well as covering almost the whole world.
2. From where the name “CEX” comes from?
Although people tend to joke about our title how it sounds, the meaning is very simple and straightforward — ‘cryptocurrency exchange’
3. What are the biggest challenges and milestones for You in the next 12-months?
It’s not a secret that we’ve been growing rapidly over the past year, which is always a challenge for service-oriented businesses. We have already tripled our support and compliance teams and are aiming to speed up in terms of processing tickets and verification requests.
Another task is to provide even better conditions to our customers in terms of raised limits and geographical coverage, yet remaining compliant to the strict AML/KYC rules set by regulators and partnering payment systems. Finally, we are working on a special trading product and will announce its beta version soon. Stay tuned.
4. What’s the biggest achievement you’ll celebrate with the CEX team 3 years from now?
The fact is our user base has crossed the point of 1 million signifies that our business is solid and growing. The biggest achievement is that we have maintained and even raised our position on the market despite downtimes the industry experienced. We managed to adapt to the changes and are now more confident in our business than ever.
5. What makes CEX exchange a no-brainer choice for a crypto investor?
Crypto investors of any level are highly welcome at CEX.IO. Thus, the beginners can use our Buy/Sell interface to easily buy cryptocurrency with credit cards, just like any other goods on the web. Traders can enjoy margin trading and arbitrage. Both options come along with the most popular trading pairs, and, what is most important, safety. As we are a legitimate business with high-security standards, the investors can be patient about their funds.
6. What is the biggest myth/misconception about CEX, if there is one?
There is a big misconception that crypto market is kind of shady one and there are no serious players or regulation working here. Which is completely false. Besides the fact that we are FinCEN registered and PCI DSS compliant, we are a self-regulated platform with a very thorough due diligence we make for the new customers. You can see that as a con because it makes the procedure of verification last longer and requires a lot of documents, but at the same users can be calm about their money.
7. Trading or holding?
In fact you can do both; however, it’s important not to overestimate your abilities as a trader. It is always easy to be a trader on a growing market. In addition, everything leads to the point in nearest future when trading robots would take the biggest share of the trading job. Therefore, if you are not 100% sure in your abilities as a trader, you’d better buy and hold.
8. Which cryptocurrencies has CEX team invested into? Why?
We are investing into cryptocurrencies that have perspective, clear adoption and cannot exist without blockchain.
9. How do you pick your winners?
We pick up only the ones we really believe in based on the criteria I have named in the previous answer and also it’s important they pass our due diligence procedure.
10. If you were to trade on another exchange, then which would it be? 🙂
Bitstamp
11. Is there anyone who you specifically follow in the cryptocurrency (investment) space?
Mainly proven leaders of the industry like Charlie Lee, Roger Ver, Brian Armstrong
12. If you could borrow someone’s brain for a week, whose brain would it be?
Satoshi Nakamoto 🙂
13. When it comes to cryptocurrencies, is there anything that needs to be said to the people that are just discovering what cryptocurrency actually is and what’s the buzz all about? Maybe something that isn’t easily understood at first?
The buzz is about the unprecedented cutting-edge technology backing the cryptocurrencies. Although a lot of people think that the idea is here to resist the control of the government and banks, blockchain and cryptocurrencies can be a perfect tool to improve lots of processes in various industries. What I am trying to say is that cryptocurrencies are more than just money. Secondly, you can think of crypto as an investment but bear in mind that the market is still turbulent and volatile, so, as with any investment, make sure not to invest more than you’re ready to lose. Thirdly, avoid shady crypto businesses and choose trusted and time-proven platforms for the crypto services.
We appreciate Eugene for taking the time to answer our questions and wish him and the whole Cex.io team all the best.
Enjoy reading those interviews? Consider making a small contribution to support our blog:
BTC: 1LcsAstjpv6KFukrmpj7d121SH8C1cb8qg
ETH: 0x375f34eB3DFCd9b7De45b8FD11F8a55C23fe3BCdAre you one of those Amazon Echo users that have the house full of X10 devices and you’re sad you can’t use them with the Echo? There’s a way you can control them if you have a Linux server around, even if it’s something as simple and cheap like a Raspberry Pi!
NOTE: You can control the X10 natively following these steps additional to the steps on this post.
By the time I wrote this post, the Amazon Echo supports a decent range of Smart Home devices like Wink, Samsung SmartThings, Insteon and the Phillips Hue. I’m sure that if you don’t have any of these devices at your home you have been tempted to buy one of these but they definitely aren’t cheap.
But if you are a long time Smart Home aficionado like me and still use those old cheap X10 devices you can still control them with the Amazon Echo with the If-This-Then-That free web service and a Linux server.
This is all you need:
CM19A X10 USB PC Transceiver. It’s like $14.99 on eBay. The CM15A also works but it’s like $80.
An X10 Wireless Transceiver module for the CM19A. You don’t need it for the CM15A. You might already have this if you have an X10 wireless remote control. The TM751, for example, is just $19.99.
A Linux server that will be on 24/7.
A Web Server like Apache.
A little software called mochad to control the CM19A/CM15A on a Linux machine. It’s free.
A domain name for your server. I suggest FreeDNS. It’s free.
An account on IFTTT.com. Also free.
As usual in this blog all commands here are for Debian, and they should work in Debian-based distributions like Ubuntu, Mint and Raspbian for the Raspberry Pi.
Installing the X10 Gateway: mochad
The first thing we need to do is to install mochad, a TCP gateway daemon for the X10 interfaces CM15A and CM19A. It’ll run on ports 1099 – 1101 so you need to be sure those ports are free in your server. You can change the ports by editing the file mochad.c and changing the line:
#define SERVER_PORT (1099) 1 #define SERVER_PORT (1099)
With the starting port that you want. To build and install the mochad server (no surprises here) use the following very familiar sequence of commands after you have uncompressed the package:
root@htpc ~/mochad-0.1.16 #./configure ; make ; make install 1 root@htpc ~/mochad-0.1.16 #. /configure ; make ; make install
And that will install the binary /usr/local/bin/mochad and the udev rules in /etc/udev/rules.d/91-usb-x10-controllers.rules.
Testing the Installation
Now plug your X10 module to the Linux server and check the logs. You should see something like this (I have a CM19A):
[16140.737104] usb 1-2: new low-speed USB device number 7 using xhci_hcd [16140.926146] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0bc7, idProduct=0002 [16140.926152] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 [16140.926155] usb 1-2: Product: USB Transceiver [16140.926158] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: X10 Wireless Technology Inc [16140.926440] usb 1-2: ep 0x81 - rounding interval to 64 microframes, ep desc says 80 microframes [16140.926449] usb 1-2: ep 0x2 - rounding interval to 64 microframes, ep desc says 80 microframes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 [ 16140. 737104 ] usb 1-2 : new low-speed USB device number 7 using xhci _ hcd [ 16140. 926146 ] usb 1-2 : New USB device found, idVendor=0bc7, idProduct=0002 [ 16140. 926152 ] usb 1-2 : New USB device strings : Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0 [ 16140. 926155 ] usb 1-2 : Product : USB Transceiver [ 16140. 926158 ] usb 1-2 : Manufacturer : X10 Wireless Technology Inc [ 16140. 926440 ] usb 1-2 : ep 0x81 - rounding interval to 64 microframes, ep desc says 80 microframes [ 16140. 926449 ] usb 1-2 : ep 0x2 - rounding interval to 64 microframes, ep desc says 80 microframes
Instantly the udev should kick in and execute the mochad binary. You can check for that using the process status command:
naikel@htpc ~ $ ps aux | grep mochad root 10888 0.0 0.0 95340 1948? Ssl Mar12 0:00 /usr/local/bin/mochad 1 2 naikel@htpc ~ $ ps aux | grep mochad root 10888 0. 0 0. 0 95340 1948? Ssl Mar12 0 : 00 /usr/local/bin/mochad
And you can now telnet to the 1099 port and send some commands. Use rf for the CM19A and pl for the CM15A like this:
naikel@htpc ~ $ telnet localhost 1099 Trying 127.0.0.1... Connected to localhost. Escape character is '^]'. rf a2 on 03/24 12:16:03 Tx RF HouseUnit: A2 Func: On rf a2 off 03/24 12:16:09 Tx RF HouseUnit: A2 Func: Off 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 naikel@htpc ~ $ telnet localhost 1099 Trying 127. 0. 0. 1... Connected to localhost. Escape character is '^]'. rf a2 on 03/24 12 : 16 : 03 Tx RF HouseUnit : A2 Func : On rf a2 off 03/24 12 : 16 : 09 Tx RF HouseUnit : A2 Func : Off
I turned on the lamp module on with the X10 house code A and the unit code 2, and then off. Read the README file for mochad for the list of commands available.
Installing Apache
If you don’t have the Apache Web Server installed (and |
-playoff team named to the league’s Best XI, Laing was dominant for an FC Edmonton side that very much saw him as a focal point in the attack. Statistically, Laing finished in the top 10 in goals and assists, contributing eight and seven respectively.
Laing’s banner year saw him advance to the next level with Jamaica, earning appearances against the likes of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay in the Copa America. Those lessons learned on the international level, Laing said, were a bright spot in his career and demonstrated that he was more than capable of showing in major tournaments.
Still, Laing is far from satisfied and was determined to push for even more, even if it meant leaving something special behind in the process.
“It was difficult. I’d been there for three years,” Laing said of leaving FC Edmonton. “We literally formed a family there. It was just a very good team chemistry between the guys that had been there from 2012 to 2015. We were like brothers and I’ll definitely miss those players, but I was looking at my life and where it was going.
“I think I might have been settling in too easily and getting too comfortable, which I’ve learned that I don’t want to get too comfortable anywhere anymore. I want to always be wanting more and to push myself to the limit. I think in Minnesota, I will. I’ll be pushing myself to the max. We left on good terms, so it will be fun seeing them again and actually playing against them.”
In acquiring Laing, Minnesota United head coach Carl Craig sees a player that has the ability to push the club to a level yet unreached while also bringing back the feeling of years past.
Citing the departure of Miguel Ibarra, Craig says the 2015 Minnesota United team lacked a bit of speech and creativity in linking defense to the attack. Alongside Pinho, Laing is seen as a player that is as fast as he is powerful, as well as a player that will contribute significantly to the team’s goal tally.
Craig says that the team struggled to break defenses down last season, and said Laing is expected to provide a “different” way of solving that issue. Overall, Laing is viewed as a major piece of a puzzle that was just one step away from reaching an NASL title game.
“I love footballers who can run with the ball and dribble,” Craig told SBI. “Not only can he do that, he can serve a cross and he can finish. We haven’t had many guys who do that. Khalif Alhassan could control the ball closely. Ibson has wonderful close control, but doesn’t necessarily have the pace to drive into space behind. I know Lance can do that and that’s what we’re looking for from him.”
Minnesota United knows exactly what the Laing of yesteryear brings to the table, but the player himself is moreso looking forward to what the Laing of the future can bring to the table.
At 27, Laing finds himself in the prime of his career, and the Jamaican international is glad to be spending that prime with a team that gives him a real shot at achieving something that he believes can be very special.
“I’m a very keen player to learn. That helps me adjust to anywhere I need to go,” Laing said. “I’ve been around many teams in North America, whether it’s on trials or playing with them. I normally get along with everyone fine, so chemistry on the pitch usually is no problem at all. I’m looking to get my playing time, but I definitely expect to contribute even more next year.
“Personally for me, it’s exciting, man. This is a very big club that is looking to go places that I dream of playing. They’ve been a great club so far in the NASL and I just think it’s the right move to make.”For many women (and even fathers), opening up about pregnancy or infant loss may be difficult for a variety of reasons. October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month and in honor of this event, mother of three, Shreeda Tailor shares this poignant narrative of how she came to the realization that sharing the loss of a child is not something one should shy from.
For some time now I’ve struggled with the question “How many kids do you have?” Let’s be honest. I have three.
There was a sweet girl named Sahaara that forever changed us. I love talking about her and remembering the very short time I got to hold her and physically be her mother. Now I am spiritually her mother.
I struggled with that aforementioned question because I worried I would be pitied if I replied with “I have three but our middle child passed away” or that I would be judged as an attention seeker if I said that.
But then today my eldest child did something that put it all in to perspective in one quick second, so fleeting it could have been missed if I was wrapped up in a business email or cooking dinner.
Someone asked him if he had a brother or sister and he very simply replied “I have two sisters. One is dead.”
He didn’t pause expectantly waiting for a pitiful look. Nor did he seem like he was seeking attention. He just seemed matter of fact and grounded in his reality.
My perspective shifted. Why was I wasting my time worried about what someone else thinks? Someone outside of my grief. Why was I concerned with how someone felt about the horrible card I was dealt? It’s my reality.
The fear of being pitied or misjudged should never have overshadowed my need to honor my daughter daily. So today my five and a half year old taught me something. I learned that I need to stay rooted in my reality and practice grace with my grief. I accept that this is the way it is for us. We get to be spiritual parents.
But if I shy away from talking about it, not only am I not honoring Sahaara’s memory but I am enabling the taboo that surrounds discussing infant loss. #infantlossawarenessOne of my favorite bands growing up was Hot Rod Circuit. When ‘Sorry About Tomorrow’ came out, I remember having to buy a new copy because I wore mine out.
The last album they released was ‘The Underground is a Dying Breed’ and the first and only album released on Immortal Records. It hit me nearly the same way ‘Sorry’ did.
Enjoy the Ride Records issued this on vinyl last year for the first time, and contacted me about doing 24 covers for the test presses. The front image of the covers is taken from an inside drawing on the gatefold of the record, and the back image is nearly a copy of the original back artwork.
One of my favorites to do, and I love working with artists that I have admired for a while.
(Side note: Not until cutting this cover did I realize the guys in Hot Rod Circuit got their start in Auburn, Al., where I went to school. Neat.)
You can buy copies of the record from me (10 available), and I have one of the quad-split colored copies (limited to 100) that will go in a random order. For the rest of the month, beginning today, get 10% off your order (off anything!) with code HRC.
Advertisements*A cruel 2015 April Fools joke conjured up by Jamie Mann, Mike Horne, Alex Eames & Tim Richardson.. Did we get you? ;)*
Original Description:
"The latest iteration of the popular Raspberry pi computer, with a fabulous 2GB of memory and an upgraded 8-core processor, is sure to grab the attention and imagination of the entire planet, if not the entire universe as we know it!
Full Specs!
8-core processor (BCM214171)
2GB of RAM
A gigabit ethernet port… “Bitchin’ Fast” apparently.
4k/AK camera port
ATMEGA328P added with all the ports broken
A composite video, audio out and audio in port that can be used with a microphone as well as earphones.
USB3 – courtesy of the new network chip
Both Mike Horne (Raspberry Pi Pod) and Alex Eames (Raspi.tv) have been lucky enough to bear witness to the latest technological wonder to fall from the Raspberry Pi tree (bush?). Here are their respective reviews:
http://www.recantha.co.uk/blog/?p=12281
http://raspi.tv/2015/raspberry-pi-model-c"When Graeme Stevely debuted in ICW as the lovable comedic wrestler Grado few could have imagined that he would become the true cornerstone of British wrestling that he is today. Grooving to Madonna and yelling ‘it’s yersel’ was always going to make him a fan favourite but his capture of the ICW world heavyweight championship is testament to how hard he has worked and improved, whilst still maintaining the endearing characteristics that fans have embraced with open arms.
His in-ring skill level has risen tenfold over the past year and the Road to Fear and Loathing tour painted Grado in a wonderful light coming into the biggest fight of his career. Powered by the support of the rabid ICW faithful, the 27-year-old produced memorable promos and picked up impressive victories along the way. In every location he roused the audience and the gigantic wave of support perfectly poised him to challenge Galloway at the sold out SECC event…
So all roads lead to Sunday 15th November and the man from the top end of Stevenston was ready to show the globe why he was the bollocks, and that he did, in emphatic fashion. Drew and Grado meshed perfectly and put on one of the finest main event matches you will ever see; both competitors kicked out of a heap of punishment with some of the closest 2-and-three-quarter counts going. Eventually, amongst shenanigans from Red Lightning, Jack Jester and Mick Foley, Grado nailed the behemoth Galloway with a wee boot plus chair combo allowing Mark Dallas to slide into the ring and make the 3-count, much like Paul Heyman and RVD at ECW One Night Stand 2006. The crowd went fucking wild, breaking out in song and leaping like children in pure ecstasy, applauding their hero who stood tall after what was certainly the best match of his career to date.
Grado’s victory epitomised everything that was and is so bloody joyous about wrestling. The match was spectacular, the story was compelling and ultimately we witnessed a regular, charismatic, slight chubby guy live his life’s dream; a moment so fantastic that is so rarely seen. Never before have I personally been so invested in a wrestler and who knows when a story will grab me by the balls and take me on an emotional joyride again? This was the year of the Grado and was truly one to cherish forever.
So congrats to Grado, Mark Dallas and Insane Championship Wrestling overall – this championship victory was special for far more reasons than I can possibly list and I must personally thank them all for producing something so fun and immersive. Here’s to the new champ’s title run and hopefully Fear and Loathing IX tops this incredible peak that ICW and Grado have already reached.
Watch his awesome entrance at Fear and Loathing VIII here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yig8NsBRVA
AdvertisementsColorado's craft brewers are constantly coming up with new beers, so many that it can be hard to keep up. Some are permanent additions to their lineups, while others are seasonal specialties that are available just a few weeks or month each year. Still more are small-batch releases that come and go before you knew they were here.
To help out, here's a list of six beers that you should buy right now -- because they all will be gone soon. Tomorrow, I'll give you a list of ten beers that are just hitting the scene and could be worth a little of your hard-earned cash.
See also: - Novo Coffee teams up with New Belgium for a Colorado nod to coffee cherries - River North Brewery celebrates a year on Saturday, plans to can beer in 2013 - Odell's upcoming seasonal, Lugene Chocolate Milk Stout, dedicated to local cows
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Vielle Artisanal Saison Crooked Stave Crooked Stave makes four basic beers that it bottles for liquor stores, but each one changes slightly each time as brewery owner Chad Yakobson adds or subtracts ingredients and tinkers with the recipe. The latest version of Vieille (which was formerly known simply as Saison) "finishes with a little more of a floral/citrus hop character," he explains on Facebook. "It's all about the evolution of the beers." Anniversary Ale #1 River North Brewery River North brewed this massive, complex Imperial Stout to celebrate its first anniversary in mid-February. And although the brewery just released its latest barrel-aged beer, Barre Reserve 2013, you can still find 12.5 percent ABV Anniversary Ale in a few liquor stores. But it is going fast.
Lugene Chocolate Milk Stout Odell Brewing This beer is wweet and satisfying, but with a lighter body and mouth feel, so it's possible to drink three or four of these chocolately pudding treats before you realize that the four-pack is gone and you need to send someone to the store for another round. Maybe it's not fair to compare a beer made with rich chocolate and milky lactose to other beers, but if you get addicted you won't care about being fair.
Sadly, this decadent treat isn't part of Odell's year-round lineup (at least not yet), so stock up because Lugene is supposed to melt away at the end of March. Foreign Style Stout Upslope Brewing Boulder's Upslope Brewing first made this beer in 2009 for its one-year anniversary and then feted it again in 2012 by making it the brewery's first canned seasonal release. The smooth 6.9 percent ABV beer returned again in January, helping Coloradans warm up with its roasty, toasty notes. Cascara Quad New Belgium One of the first two Lips of Faith series beers that New Belgium released in 2013, Cascara Quad was made in conjunction with Denver's Novo Coffee using 700 pounds of cascara -- the dried husks of the fruit (called coffee cherries) that produce coffee beans. The is a lighter quad, but with rich notes of tobacco and leather. Apricot AC Golden Brewing As an incubator for MillerCoors beers, AC Golden Brewing is primarily known for its Colorado Native -- 100 percent made with Colorado ingredients -- but the brewers know how to push the envelope as well, having released a rich, barrel-aged imperial stout and a couple of sours. This is the third version of their Apricot (there are 100 cases this time) and it will cost you a pretty penny. But previous versions have shown that the sour ale, made with handpicked apricots from Palisade, is worth it.
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's Beer Man on Twitter at @ColoBeerMan and on Facebook at Colo BeerManWhile the question remains whether or not you should be eating Domino’s pizza at all, a clever service now allows you to pay for your pie with Bitcoins. The service is far from an official Domino’s app and is instead a gateway or broker between the world of pizza and the world of popular virtual currencies.
The site, PizzaForCoins, asks for your address and then brings up pizza places near you. You place your order and send over your coins – the exchange rate is “APPROXIMATELY $0.50 Cents less then the current Mt.Gox Rate,” their emphasis – and wait for your pizza. Then you eat it.
The team behind the site, Matt Burkinshaw and Riley Alexander, built the service as a conduit between bitcoin and the real world, a key tool that will improve the visibility and viability of the platform.
The pair are working on adding other pizza places to the service including Papa John’s.
Bitcoins are currently trading at about $25 so two pizzas and bread bites will cost you $17.75. You can also add things to your order like wings, different crusts, and the like. It’s a fascinating tool and far more valuable to the average user than sites like Silk Road where bitcoins are used for more illicit purposes. I’m sure an entire subset of users would love a way to use an untraceable currency to pay for everyday things and pizza is a great start.
via DigitalTrendsAdvertisement Donkey gives birth at Vermont High School Ester gave birth Tuesday morning, live-streamed internationally Share Shares Copy Link Copy
Missisquoi Valley Union High School students will have a new classmate when they return from winter break. The agriculture department's donkey, Ester, gave birth to a healthy foal at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. Ester and new addition, Evie, are part of the animal science class, taught by James Messier. He said it's offered to MVUHS students, and it's the only tech program in Vermont with live animals on campus. He said it's an important tool in teaching responsibility. "For students to realize that even though they're on vacation, these animals have to be taken care of, and they do realize that," Messier said. This school year, Messier set up a live-stream to share Ester's progress. He it was amazing how many people were tuning in, from Oregon to Australia. Watch the live-stream here. Although it was just an experiment, he hopes to put webcams in all the stalls of the barn so people across the world can continue to watch and learn, just like the students. "Most of the people don't live on farms anymore," Messier said. "They don't have the background. They don't know what to expect, so one of the things that I'm trying to achieve is to expose them to something like Evie." Messier hopes to get more cameras installed soon because his sheep may be about to give birth, too.Space fans will be able to relive the Apollo 11 moon landing thanks to a detailed virtual reality simulation that recreates the entire experience.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the lunar surface on 20 July 1969 while crew mate Michael Collins stayed aboard the command spacecraft in orbit around the moon.
The simulation includes the 1960s on-board computer that got humans to the moon (Immersive VR Education)
“The Apollo 11 mission changed the world back in 1969 and showed us all just how small and fragile our place in the universe is. Apollo also showed us what is achievable when great minds work together for a single goal,” says a statement from the makers at Immersive VR Education.
The ‘Apollo 11 VR Experience’ will feature accurate digital models of the Saturn V rocket, Apollo Command Module and Lunar Lander, including the original real-time audio from the mission and interviews with the astronauts themselves.
Viewers can relive Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon (Immersive VR Education)
The VR film will work on the Facebook-owned Oculus headset, along with the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. The Samsung Gear VR isn’t supported just yet, but the makers hope to change this in future.
The people behind the moon landing recreation believe that it may help to inspire the astronauts of the future.
“Our goal has always been to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and astronauts and we do believe that there is a child somewhere alive today on this planet that will one day walk on Mars,” said the makers.
The VR experience includes historically accurate 3D renderings of the spacecraft (Immersive VR Education)
After successfully reaching its cash goal on crowdfunding site Kickstarter, the new Apollo 11 VR experience is set to land in a matter of weeks.
The makers also hope to put together a simulation of the doomed Apollo 13 mission in which the viewer has to help to get the crew safely home.
Image credit: Immersive VR Educationpeche said: so in the news... asus charges a lot of money for a crappy, plain, no leds or finishing sli bridge identical to the ones supplied with every Gigabyte, MSi, EVGA, Asrock and all the well known board manufacturers? well....
Regards,
cyneater said: only big of wank about these bridges is the ROG logo the rest is how it should be...
personally I don't see the point of a zillion dollar bridge that lights up...
cadaveca said: Anyway, I has to wonder about that slot spacing... which seems to be the same for nearly every HB bridge so far. I wonder if NVidia dictates that...
ASUS is including these with their new packaging for their motherboards as well. This is just for people, like me, that bought a motherboard long before HB SLI Bridges were even a thing, and need to buy one separate. Also, since we don't know pricing, you can't say they are charging a lot of money.But considering ASRock's "no frills" HB SLI Bridge is $30, I'm not holding my breath for a cheap price. But once there are more actually on the market(ASRock and ASUS seem to be the only ones available separately) and once ebay starts getting flooded with the direct from China ones, we'll see the prices go down.And really, buying the nVidia one direct from nVidia is only $40. And while they aren't as no frills as these, I also don't think they are as tacky looking as some of the others. And $40 isn't a terrible price when you consider the $1,000+ people are paying for the two graphics cards. Though really couldn't they throw one in with the cards at that price?Yeah, but I spray paint my bridges so they are all a solid color and the metal pins don't look like ass anyway, so not a big deal breaker.+The nVidia site lists 2, 3, and 4-slot versions. So I doubt they dictate the slot spacing. I'm guessing 3-slot is just the most common configuration, so that is what we see the most.ES Football Newsletter Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in or register with your social account
West Ham are confident that Manuel Lanzini will soon be the latest star name to extend his contract at the London Stadium.
The Argentine international's new deal will propel him into the ranks of the London Stadium's highest earners at around £70,000-per-week.
Lanzini will follow Pedro Obiang and Angelo Ogbonna, both of whom have signed extensions to tie them to the club until 2022.
But it is the signature of Lanzini that will constitute the most significant boost to West Ham in a summer transfer window when progress has been frustratingly slow since the arrival of Pablo Zabaleta from Manchester City on a free transfer.
The 24-year-old, who made his debut for Argentina last month in a friendly against Brazil, has been one of West Ham's brightest stars since joining on loan from Al Jazira club in the summer of 2015 before a permanent switch to London a year later.
In particular the departure of Dimitri Payet in January allowed Lanzini to take on the leading creative role in the West Ham attack, providing five goals since the turn of the year.
That form won Lanzini the Players' Player of the Year prize at the end of the season in addition to his first senior caps at international level.
West Ham's priority still remains surrounding Lanzini with pace and Premier League experience. Andre Gray and Michy Batshuayi are among the options being considered at the London Stadium.Use these forms to obtain rise, set, and transit times for the Sun and Moon; civil twilight beginning and end times; and, lunar phase information for any year between 1700 and 2100. First, specify the date and location in one of the two forms below. Then, click the "Get data" button at the end of the form.
Use Form A for cities or towns in the U.S. or its territories. Use Form B for all other locations. Both forms are immediately below.
Be sure to read the Notes section located after the two forms, especially if you wish to use these data for legal purposes.
Form A - U.S. Cities or Towns
Year: Month: January February March April May June July August September October November December Day: State or Territory: Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota N. Mariana Islands Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming City or Town Name: The place name you enter above must be a city or town in the U.S. The place's location will be retrieved from a file with over 22,000 places listed. Either upper- or lower-case letters or a combination can be used. Spell out place name prefixes, as in "East Orange", "Fort Lauderdale", "Mount Vernon", etc. The only exception is "St.", which is entered as an abbreviation with a period, as in "St. Louis". You need only enter as many characters as will unambiguously identify the place. The city or town name may be left blank if the State or Territory is District of Columbia.
Form B - Locations Worldwide
Year: Month: January February March April May June July August September October November December Day: Place Name Label: The place name you enter above is merely a label for the table header; you can enter any identifier, or none (avoid using punctuation characters). The data will be calculated for the longitude and latitude you enter below. Note: Coordinate components should be entered as integers (no decimals). Longitude: east west degrees minutes Latitude: north south degrees minutes Time Zone: hours east of Greenwich west of Greenwich Need coordinates? Try NGA's GEOnet Names Server (GNS).
Need U.S. coordinates? Try the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
Need a time zone? Try the time zone map.
Notes
Legal Use of the Calculated Data
Please see Astronomical Data Used for Litigation if you are interested in using the data produced by this service for legal purposes.
Definitions
For more information on the terms used, see the Astronomical Almanac On-line Glossary, Rise, Set, Transit, and Twilight Definitions, or Phases of the Moon and Percent of the Moon Illuminated in the Astronomical Information Center.
Computing Data for Multiple Days
If you need rise, set, or twilight times for a series of dates for a specific location, use our Sun or Moon Rise/Set Table for One Year service, which computes a one-page table covering a calendar year.
Lunar Information
The moon phase and fraction illuminated provided are computed for noon on the date requested, in the time zone requested.
Time Formats
For U.S. cities or towns (Form A), the output times will be on a 12-hour clock (with "a.m." or "p.m." listed). For worldwide locations (Form B), the output times will be on a 24-hour clock.
Time Zones
For U.S. locations (Form A), phenomena times are presented in the standard time or daylight time (see below) of the place requested, using the current time zone of that place. Standardized time zones were introduced in the U.S. in 1883, but the time zone boundaries have evolved considerably since then, with places shifting from one zone to another. This service makes no attempt to track such changes.
For worldwide locations (Form B) that require it, the time zone can be entered in hours and a fraction. For example, for locations in India, the time zone may be entered as 5.5 hours east of Greenwich. The time zone field can accommodate up to five characters.
Daylight Time
In accordance with the Uniform Time Act of 1966 and subsequent legislation, daylight time (DST) is implemented only for U.S. locations (Form A) from 1967 to the present day. Daylight time is not used for places currently exempt from it.
Application Programming Interface
This data service uses one of our new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The API returns data in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format for users who wish to manipulate data into a customized format. For more information on the API, please see the documentation page.
Sunset photo by Lu Rarogiewicz from Mt. Wilson, California.
Back to... top Form A Form BRussell Street Report Filmstudy A Sampling of Jeremy Zuttah’s 2013 Performances
I wanted to give you my observations from watching some 2013 video for the Ravens new center.
I didn’t have time to watch the entire season, but wanted to select a representative 4-game sample. Your first question may well be “How did you pick which games to watch?”
To summarize:
I reviewed PFF’s season and by-game scores
I noted his season score was 0.2
I picked 4 games (2 good and 2 bad as PFF scored it) with an aggregate score of close to 0
Those games included weeks 1 (NYJ, +1.1), 4 (Ari, -2.6), 9 (Sea, +2.2), and 12 (Det, -1.1)
All were starts where he played virtually every snap and exclusively as a center
While I chose simply based on the PFF score, this was a truly impressive set of assignments for JZ
Here is a brief synopsis of his performance in each game:
Week 1 (NYJ): Jeremy faced an imposing rotation of big men in the opener at the Meadowlands. He was responsible for Ellis, Harrison, and Richardson at various times and turned in a solid performance. He pancaked Kendrick Ellis as the lead blocker on Martin’s 5-yard TD run (Q2, 6:51). It was otherwise a game of offsetting positives and negatives. He had an awful snap that went for a safety and resulted in Freeman falling awkwardly against the goalpost (Q1, 8:38), but he also recovered Martin’s fumble on the last play of the half. He was flagged for a false start, but he also drew Wilkerson offside by bobbing his backside (Q3, 5:44). Unadjusted, that score would be a C- at center, but I have upgraded him to a C+ with offsetting adjustments for quality of competition and the safety snap.
Week 4 (Ari): Zuttah faced an ensemble cast of Ta’amu, Campbell, Rucker, and Dockett. He was party to 3 QB knockdowns:
(Q1, 11:11): In a truly unusual blitz, the Cardinals sent both safeties through the A gaps. Yeremiah Bell flew by Zuttah’s right untouched for the sack, but Javier Arenas also got past him on his left side. Interestingly, both guards blocked outside. Since Zuttah was beaten, he gets a share of the sack. I called it 1/3, the equivalent of a pressure.
(Q3, 12:18): He was overwhelmed by Campbell for a shared QH.
(Q4, 0:56): He allowed another QH to the stunting Dockett as Glennon through the game-sealing interception.
All 3 pass-rush events ended drives.
Week 9 (Sea): JZ neutralized Brandon Mebane in the middle of his outstanding season. His only negative pass-rush grade was a pressure allowed to Jordan Hill (Q4, 13:34) where he was backed into the pocket forcing Glennon to adjust. He pulled successfully on all 3 attempts to lead gains of 2, 8, and 11. He had 5 pancakes and 6 blocks in level 2 in his best mobility game.
Week 12 (Det): In arguably his most difficult assignment, Zuttah turned in a top-drawer performance against Suh and Fairley. The Bucs beat the Lions in Detroit despite running just 45 offensive plays (not including 4 kneels). Jeremy missed 3 blocks that included a play that would have been a penetration (Q2, 11:21) had not the remainder of the TB line collectively gave up as Rainey was taken down for a loss of 3.
A few general observations:
His run-blocking style can be described as “get to the body and stick there.” He uses his hands effectively on the jersey to avoid separation.
He finishes blocks well. He drives his opponent to the ground as a pass blocker frequently when most other linemen are content simply to reposition. The same goes for run blocking, but he does have an internal clock that causes him to stop. On the MO scale (McKinnie is a 1 for indifference to either start or continue a block for more than a brief instant and Michael Oher as a rookie was a 5 because he blocked to the whistle and pissed off his opponents), Zuttah would be a 4+. There can’t be more than a few centers who do it as well.
He registered 10 solo pancakes in these 4 games.
I have seen other descriptions of him as quick, but that’s not how I would describe him. He’s ponderous in his movement which shows up in his difficulty getting in front of screen passes and a level 2 blocking rate which is just average (18 for 25 in these 4 games).
However, he was used to pull on 4 occasions and converted them all.
He can give ground in the pocket, but he typically stays square with his opponent. That may be a technique issue (he may come off the ball too high).
He makes up for giving ground by being able to re-anchor effectively as he backpedals.
Over his career, his low error rate as a pass blocker has stood out. PFF scored him with just 5 career sacks allowed in 6 seasons at both guard and center.
Another thing I liked about his pass blocking was the way he assists his guards on double teams. He doesn’t simply block at shoulder level, but frequently drops down for the ribs. Combined with his physical run blocking, this is a player that understands tiring a defensive line rotation.
Unfortunately, nothing about Tampa Bay’s performance with him at center tells me he’s exceptional with line calls. In particular, the play where both guards blocked outside tells me the assignments may not have been understood. However, effective line calls can be taught and Tampa Bay has now jettisoned 4 of its 5 OL starters from 2013.
While he was flagged just once in these 4 games studied here, JZ’s biggest negative has been his penalty count. Zuttah has been flagged 25 times in the last 3 seasons. An astounding 19 (!) of those were for holding which may have something to do with his few QB knockdowns allowed.
The Ravens like Zuttah and there are some good reasons. If Osemele can return at anything like the same level as the 2012 SB run, the interior line should be more than solid. While it might be reasonable to assume Zuttah maintains himself physically for several more years, any hope to take a step forward will depend on a different system or better line mates.Just weeks after someone pilfered a seven-foot-high wooden sign from the bargain centre’s exterior, another, smaller one has been snatched. This time, the store is willing to cough up some serious dough to find out who took it.
“It’s terrible,” general manager Russell Lazar said Saturday morning. “We’ve got to do something about this.”
At the end of April, he announced a $1,000 reward for the safe return of the first lifted sign. He’s now offering $3,000 for the arrest and conviction of the person who stole the two-foot-wide sign from the entranceway Friday night.
Lazar isn’t sure of the exact wording on the freshly smuggled sign, but said it referenced the “Rags to Riches” story about store founder Ed Mirvish hanging below it. The entire display case was shattered and damaged, and Lazar is now grudgingly on cleanup duty. He has reported the incident to police, and officers from 14 Division are investigating.A small plane made an emergency landing at @FlySJC & 4 passengers on board were uninjured. https://t.co/avgVexpPw0https://t.co/AaXh1zjOHc — ABC7 News (@abc7newsBayArea) March 24, 2016
A small plane made an emergency landing at Mineta San Jose International Airport this afternoon and the four people on board are uninjured, an airport spokeswoman said.The four people on board that small plane are very lucky. It could have ended so much worse, had it not been for the pilot's skillful handling of a collapsed landing gear.The plane took off from the airport in San Jose and was headed to Boeing's headquarters in Washington state, but the pilot noticed something was wrong.The plane is an Italian made Piaggio P-180 Twin Turbo Prop. The pilot called the tower at around noon, shortly after he took off."The call initially came in as an aircraft having difficulty with its landing gear," said San Jose Fire Department Capt. Christian Salcido.More specifically, the pilot said a part of the landing gear may have collapsed."They did fly over a few times to burn down some of the fuel, as well as have the tower do a visual inspection to see if the landing gear was down," said Mineta San Jose Aiport spokesperson Vicki Day.About 10 minutes later, the pilot landed the plane safely on its belly."Once the aircraft stopped moving, we were able to put foam blanket down to ensure no sparks, no fuel were on the ground," Salcido said.Once they cooled the fuselage, the four people on board, including the pilot, disembarked. Fortunately, no one was injured. The pilot stayed behind, but the passengers were eventually taken off the tarmac in a black SUV.The plane is registered to a company called Monolithic Power Systems in South San Jose. They declined to comment.Medicaid, the government program that provides health insurance coverage to low-income and disabled Americans, is the largest payer for health care in the United States in terms of enrollees and the second-largest payer (behind only Medicare) in terms of spending. Escalating health care costs, a growing federal budget deficit, and fiscal challenges in many states have led to calls to reform the program to decrease spending growth. Recent federal reform proposals from House and Senate republicans would change the current financing system in which the federal government guarantees a share of total program spending to states to one limiting federal cost exposure by setting a per capita cap on federal payments to a state.
A change in the Medicaid program to a per capita cap financing system is included in the House-passed American Health Care Act (AHCA) and in the Senate-proposed Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 currently under consideration. With the Congressional Budget Office estimating that the Medicaid proposals in the AHCA will cut federal Medicaid spending by 25 percent by 2026, much attention has |
hweldon: You know, we should really take a step back here. This is the death of a superhero in a comic book, after all. And I've told you before: In comics, death is not, as Hamlet called it, "that undiscover'd country/from whose bourn no stranger returns."
No: It's Tijuana, and there's a shuttle.
So don't worry about Wolverine. He'll be back. They all come back.
Golfrguy: wait back up the microverse is that where the micronauts were from? Same place?
Ghweldon: Now, I know what you're gonna say....
Golfrguy: hows a virus control a dudes mind huh
Ghweldon: You're gonna say but Glen, when Mike Marts, the Marvel editor in charge of this whole thing, spoke to Entertainment Weekly back in April, he claimed that THIS death would be different.
"The concept of 'death' in comic books can seem a bit tenuous," EW wrote, understating like crazy, "... but Marts says that Marvel approached this event 'from a standpoint of finality, of closure.' "
That sound you hear? Is the noise made when millions of nerdy eyes roll and roll and roll.
Here's the thing: Wolverine is a corporate-owned, heavily licensed nugget of intellectual property. He's one of the company's flagship characters, and he fuels a vast merchandising machine that includes movie franchises, video games, toys and clothing. If anything about him changes — if, Crom forbid, he dies — the bottom drops out of the Wolverine footy pajamas market.
Here's another thing: Comics are essentially soap operas: ongoing, open-ended narratives that deny their characters the very thing that makes a story a story: the ending. Endings give shape and weight to a narrative by providing exactly what Marts so disingenuously promises: Finality. Closure.
Superheroes go on adventures, endlessly iterating the same spandex Ragnaroks over and over... they can't grow, they can't learn, they can't emerge from an adventure wholly and permanently different from how they were before.
In lieu of an ending, then, superheroes go on adventures, endlessly iterating the same spandex Ragnaroks over and over. They can change, albeit in carefully proscribed ways (I'm evil now! I'm good again! I'm dead! I'm back!) but they can't grow, they can't learn, they can't emerge from an adventure wholly and permanently different from how they were before.
Writers of corporate-owned superhero comics make their peace with this: They know their tenure with these characters is finite, that they are essentially taking Daddy's precious vintage toys off the shelf and playing with them for a period of months or years. They know, too, that when they finally, gingerly return those toys to the shelf, they must ensure that they remain unscathed, unchanged, pristine.
Which is not to say that great, nuanced, character-based work can't be done in the genre. Matt Fraction is writing a hugely entertaining take on the Marvel superhero Hawkeye, turning him into a world-weary, long-suffering schlub who just wants to do right, and who finds himself perpetually overmatched by life. Writers like Kieron Gillen, Kelly Sue Deconnick, Gail Simone, Brian Michael Bendis, and Wolverine's own Paul Cornell take their characters and invest them with human frailties and specific personalities.
But when they leave the book, everything they've brought goes with them, and the character returns to starting position. It's the nature of the medium.
So now, yes: Wolverine is dying, as so many have died before him. One of the many infographics found in Tim Leong's searingly clever book, Super Graphic, compares the relative lengths of comic book dirt-naps, ranging from a few scant months (Superman, The Human Torch) to multiple decades (Robin II, Bucky).
Well you may wonder: Don't you Nerds get sick of it? Don't you tire of these endless cynical ploys to goose sales, when you know that Marvel will eventually dig up and reanimate whatever corpse they're making such a show of burying?
By way of answer, I direct you to the fact that Death of Wolverine is currently the No. 1 comic on the market: Sales of the first issue topped 260,000 copies.
We nerds have come to accept the cycle of eternal return as permanent feature in the landscape of superheroic narrative. It's become just another genre trapping, like the secret origin, the evil doppelganger, the dance tights.
You might as well ask if romance readers get sick of all that kissing, or if football fans get bored with all that endless running to and fro.
Golfrguy:... ok but a sentient VIRUS?????
Ghweldon: Got to go.Share. Take a tour of your new city. Take a tour of your new city.
Forget Michael, don’t give Franklin a second thought, and, as for Trevor… watch your back, obviously, but that psycho is nothing to worry about -- because the real star in Grand Theft Auto V is Los Santos. Rockstar has proved to be something of an expert at realising cities, even entire states, but GTA V's Los Santos is its most ambitious project yet. And while the game map doesn't encompass three entire cities as it did in San Andreas, according to Rockstar it’s the most varied, densely populated and believable landscape it has ever created.
Liberty City felt like a proper city, a vast expanse divided into distinct districts; the wealthy excess of Algonquin was in stark contrast to the deprived neighborhoods of Bohan. But from what we've seen so far, Los Santos makes Liberty City look a little two-dimensional by comparison. It’s not just large -- the city of Los Santos alone is comparable in size to the whole of Liberty City, and that doesn't take into account the surrounding areas -- but it’s diverse, too.
Rockstar has spoken briefly about the huge swathes of countryside that have been hinted at in the trailers. These feature rolling hills peppered with wind farms and oil derricks, enlivened by the kind of indigenous wildlife you’d expect to find in the barren wastelands surrounding Los Angeles. Are we likely to see bears, bobcats, mountain lions and eagles? Most likely, but we’ll definitely come face-to-face with rednecks like Trevor who haunt the backwaters beyond the bright lights of the big city. Rockstar hasn’t officially confirmed what we’ll find in them thar hills, but if the intention is to create an eco-system that fits with its surroundings then venturing out into the outback with nothing more than hiking boots and a backpack could land you in hot water.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Los Santos revealed so far is the diversity within the city itself. Obviously it’s based on LA but it’s certainly not a 1:1 copy -- rather a compressed interpretation that features many of the districts and landmarks associated with the City of Angels. From the handful of screens and two trailers, eagle-eyed GTA fans will be able to pick out equivalents of the Griffith Observatory, Echo Park, The Forum, and much more. There’s the Richman Hotel, which looks uncannily like the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and Del Perro pier is to all intents and purposes the Santa Monica pier, complete with Ferris wheel and fairground.
It takes a rich man to stay at the Richman.
Importantly, each area feels distinctly different from the next. Take Rockford Hills, Grand Theft Auto V’s equivalent of Beverly Hills and home to one of the game’s protagonists, Michael. It’s the epitome of the glamorous excess of Los Angeles, with vast, gated villas with pools and tennis courts dotted along tree-lined streets that snake up into the hills. Think the Kardashians, complete with high-end sports cars and dysfunctional families.
At the opposite end of the scale is Blaine County, which is where we first find Trevor. It’s a dusty, barren wasteland where not much happens. There are trailer parks, gas stations and roadside bars, home to bikers and junkies, both of whom appear to be high up on Trevor’s hit-list if the second trailer is anything to go by.
Blaine County looks like a mix between the Salton Sea region, Antelope Valley and Lake Powell.
Despite its dirt-bag inhabitants, Blaine County has a hidden beauty in the form of Mount Chiliad and, at the bottom of its slopes, the Alamo Sea. Presumably based on the Salton Seas, situated on California’s San Andreas rift, the Alamo Sea is a putrid, salt-rich lake whose waters are unlikely to be home to anything you’d want to go fishing for. Sure, we’d all rather swim in the cyan-blue oceans off the coast of Vespucci beach, but the idea you’re free to roam anywhere, from the deepest lows to the highest peaks, has always been one of Grand Theft Auto’s charms.
Speaking of peaks, Mount Chiliad is the stand-out landmark in Blaine County and the towering mountain is apparently the highest point in the game, taller than any of the skyscrapers in downtown Los Santos. Again, Rockstar has only teased fleeting glimpses of Mount Chiliad but one thing’s for certain: walking to the top -- or even mountain biking, which is definitely in the game -- will take a very long time.
Then there’s Vespucci Beach, which combines the beatnik vibe of Venice Beach with the tourist-friendly streets of Santa Monica. This is where we first meet Franklin, who emerges from a shop that sells ‘herbal remedies’. The promenade is all surf shacks and flea markets, plus it’s home to open air gym Muscle Sands, where all of the beautiful people of Los Santos go to pose and work out.
On the opposite side of the city is Downtown, which is immediately recognisable by the cluster of skyscrapers at its heart -- these provided the backdrop to the first mission we played. On the surface Downtown looks much like Algonquin, the glass high-rises and suited businessmen reflecting the district’s financial roots. But there’s also a less salubrious side to Downtown, with scores of homeless bums camping out in graffiti-covered underpasses.
Then of course there’s Vinewood, overlooked by GTA’s homage to the Hollywood sign. It’s a place where people come to live out their dreams, but the reality is very different and for every high roller there are a dozen wannabes forced to live at the bottom of the food chain.
Linking all of the districts together is a complex network of roads and freeways, many of which will once again be familiar to anyone who has a passing knowledge of Los Angeles. The Del Perro freeway cuts from the east to west, while the Los Puerta freeway goes from north to south with links to Downtown via Little Seoul, presumably Grand Theft Auto V’s take on Koreatown.
Even though Los Santos feels familiar if you know LA, we’ve probably seen less than one percent of what will make up the final game. We’ve basked in the crystal-clear waters of the Zancudo river, which weaves through the mountains, and done a fly-by of Grapeseed’s agricultural farmlands, but at this point we’re only able to speculate about what lies beyond the bird’s-eye view. We know there are biplanes, jets, and helicopters in the game, but so far we've not seen so much as a glimpse of a runway, let alone an entire airport.
Los Santos is a city with many sides. How we’ll discover everything it has to offer remains to be seen, and no doubt we’ll see more of its undiscovered beauty in the coming months. But the whistle-stop tour we've currently had, taking in the affluence of Rockford Hills to the run-down trailer parks of Blaine County and beyond, all set beneath a sun-drenched sky, has definitely left us wanting more.
Alex is IGN's UK Editor-in-Chief. He used to rob banks for a living but has since retired to write about videogames. You can check if he's broken parole on IGN IGN and Twitter.M: The danger in the election – if it makes sense to talk about danger in an election – was the national socialist from Vermont, not the victorious real estate developer. The Vermont senator had spokesmen for the Venezuelan regime speak at his rallies. I’m glad he didn’t win. The guy who did win has been interesting. He’s drawn the intelligence agencies into the open. Through incompetence, strategy, or foolhardiness, I’m not sure. Now spies are at the center of politics. It’s like a dramatic performance of Debord’s Comments: “The general conspiracy has become so dense that it is almost out in the open, each of its branches starts to hinder or trouble the others, because all these professional conspirators are spying on each other without exactly knowing why, or encounter each other by chance, yet without recognizing each other with certainty…”
W: It does not make sense to talk about danger in an election or to talk about an election at all. You get caught up in politics, and I worry that your critical detachment is not as detached as you make it out to be. You follow these things too closely. What a terrible trap, to be stuck in the present, especially at such a lonely time. You roll your eyes at me when I say this, but it was only yesterday that Alcibiades led the Sicilian expedition and Abraham walked Isaac up the mountain. Breton is right; we’re still living off the poetic ideas of the first men. What is an election? Not even a moment. I want to live as long as a stone – not forever, but for a very long time. I want to be a stone on Mt. Moriah. And here you worry yourself with the ‘danger’ in an election, in something less than a moment.
M: I don’t disagree with you, if what you’ve said can be agreed or disagreed with, but I can’t help myself. I can’t just think about rivers and stones and mountains and poems. What you call ‘less than a moment’ is inescapable, especially since the birth of my daughter. At her birth, the catchphrase ‘live in the moment’ was made flesh.
W: There was a Hasidic rebbe who told his followers to ‘live with the times’. They didn’t know what he meant. Did he want them to adopt a modern way of life? Change how they dressed? Stop praying so much? Surely not. Finally, they arrived at an interpretation. ‘Live with the times’ meant every day to keep in mind the Torah portion for that week. I understand ‘live in the moment’ in a similar way. Our moment stretches back at least to the 17th century.
M: I don’t know. There was a time when we competed for the most radical negation. I’m against work! So? I’m against friendship! Well, I’m against love! Then I’m against happiness! And I’m against time! I-I-I’m against language! I’m against thinking! Until finally we were against nothing because we opposed opposition itself (on simple grounds: opposition cleaves one to the opposed object). Negation did not negate enough. And at the end of that, I was left dissatisfied and lonely. Why did we go through it? What did we hope to achieve? Less than nothing? Now I want to affirm, to say yes, to accept, to embrace, to create, like those poetic first men…
W: But you cannot will yourself authentic creation any more than you can will a community into place.
M: I used to think that was true, but great works have always been self-conscious. Introspection is not a new problem in art. Virgil knew exactly what he was doing.
W: You think this because you see history as a single line, not a series of cycles. Virgil is like Joyce, greatness after the game is up. After that game is up. Then another cycle begins somewhere else.
M: What does that have to do with the stone and the moment?FILE - This 2011 image provide by CERN, shows a real CMS proton-proton collision in which four high energy electrons (green lines and red towers) are observed in a 2011 event. The event shows characteristics expected from the decay of a Higgs boson but is also consistent with background Standard Model physics processes. Physicists in Italy said Wednesday, March 6, 2013 they are closer to concluding that what they found last year was the elusive "God particle." But they still haven't reached that "Eureka moment" when they can announce the Higgs boson is found. The long theorized subatomic particle would explain why matter has mass and has been called a missing cornerstone of physics. (AP Photo/CERN)
While American physicists today offer more tantalizing evidence that the Higgs boson exists, the term journalists once loved to call it, the "God particle," is going out of fashion. Speaking at the Moriond Physics Conference in Italy, scientists from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (above) say that after flinging a proton and antiproton together on a four-mile track, they noticed a bump in their data could signal the particle's existence, confirming earlier results in December from European colleagues. Wired explains the science better than we ever could:
Scientists in charge of the two detectors on Fermilab’s Tevatron particle collider, CDF and DZero, announced that they have seen a small excess of events between 115 and 135 GeV that could correspond to the mysterious Higgs
In short, though scientists, with their typical hesitation, are saying nothing has been proven, it's another step closer to knowing that the Higgs boson is real. It's the last undiscovered particle in the Standard Model, the theory reputed to explain the behavior of particles, which has led to the media to dubbing it the "God particle," even though scientists resent the name. "I hate that “God particle’ term," one member of the CERN team in Europe said last December. "The Higgs is not endowed with any religious meaning. It is ridiculous to call it that."
RELATED: Has the 'God Particle' Been Found?
So it's interesting to see reports today abstain from using the term. Wired, The New York Times, and the BBC did not use it once, whereas the latter two were using it back just last December. (The AP and Reuters today did not get the memo.) It's nice to see hints of the often tenuous relationship between scientists and reporters ease. Or at least the copy editors are listening.Protesters rally against President Trump’s executive order barring entry to nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, at Los Angeles International Airport, on 28 January. (Cindy Chu)
Immigration attorneys in Southern California have told The Electronic Intifada that the US Marshals Service is failing to enforce federal court orders against the Customs and Border Protection agency at LAX, Los Angeles International Airport.
The development comes after several days of reports that Customs and Border Protection has been violating nationwide court orders suspending key provisions of US President Donald Trump’s executive order, which many are calling a Muslim ban.
This represents a potential breakdown in the division of powers: the US Marshals Service, according to the Judiciary Act of 1789, is obligated to serve as the enforcement arm of the federal courts.
After Trump signed the executive order last Friday, closing the border to refugees and barring entry to potentially hundreds of thousands of people with valid US visas and permanent resident cards from seven Muslim-majority countries, civil rights attorneys and state governments around the country moved to file lawsuits against the measure.
They argue it violates constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law.
On Saturday night, as thousands of people gathered to protest the executive order at airports across the country, a federal judge in Brooklyn issued a nationwide partial stay that temporarily bars deportation of persons with a valid US visa.
The next day, a Boston court handed down a more expansive stay, ordering that no one who is legally authorized to enter the US be detained or removed until 4 February.
Confusing statement
But over the weekend, there were reports from around the country that officers from Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Homeland Security agency that inspects all international travelers at ports of entry, were failing to comply with court orders.
On Tuesday, CBP published a statement that seems to add more confusion. It claims to have taken immediate steps to comply with the court orders, while also implementing Trump’s executive order.
It also states that the entry ban could still apply to green card holders – legal permanent residents – from the seven countries, contradicting previous statements by the White House that this group would be exempt.
CBP said that “lawful permanent resident status will be a dispositive factor in our case-by-case determinations” of who can enter, indicating that the agency still asserted the authority to deny entry to green card holders.
Though the statement includes a few statistics on how many waivers CBP has granted travelers with green cards and visas, it does not reveal the number of people it has detained or deported.
With such little transparency, only fragments of what is happening at ports of entry are reaching the public.
At LAX, at least one foreign national with authorization to enter the US was deported, in violation of the court orders.
The Intercept reports that when two California members of Congress, Rep. Judy Chu and Rep. Nanette Barragan, came to LAX and asked to speak with CBP officials, they were refused.
When the CBP officials were asked who they were reporting to, they said, “Donald J. Trump,” and hung up, according to The Intercept.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and the law office of Stacy Tolchin petitioned the court on behalf of a man who was denied entry despite having a valid visa. After the petition was filed, he was deported on a plane to Dubai.
On Sunday, 29 January, Judge Dolly Gee ordered the government to allow him to return to the US, and set a follow-up hearing for 10 February.
Refusing to accept court order
But the border officers at LAX had already defied two court orders, and immigration lawyers feared they would defy Judge Gee’s order as well, so a group of attorneys began pressuring the US Marshals office in Southern California to enforce the court orders.
The New York court specifically ordered the US Marshals to enforce its ruling.
On Monday morning, a group of immigration lawyers went to the US Marshals office to serve them with the court order instructing them to ensure CBP and federal agencies comply with the judicial decisions.
Laura Riley, one of the attorneys there, told The Electronic Intifada that it is only necessary to invoke the US Marshals when there’s evidence of noncompliance.
But the US Marshal’s office informed the team that it had “been instructed by its Office of the General Counsel to await instruction from the US Attorney’s office.”
The US Attorney is a federal prosecutor who answers to the Department of Justice – the executive branch.
Faith Nouri, one of the lawyers coordinating the effort, told The Electronic Intifada that she then contacted a US Attorney in Southern California who agreed to accept the court order on behalf of the US Marshals.
Nouri kept the identity of the US Attorney anonymous because she does not want him to face repercussions.
Nouri asked Riley and her colleagues to serve the unnamed US Attorney the court order.
When Riley arrived, she said the US Attorney was poised to accept the court order, “But in the middle of our conversation, the person we were talking to was called away.”
The US Attorney came back and informed Riley that he could no longer accept the court order.
Nouri said that the US Attorney sent a follow-up email to her, informing her that he would no longer be able to assist.
The US Attorney did not say who had instructed the office not to accept the court orders.
Starting to comply?
“The underlying, real issue here is that these government agencies are not complying with the judicial branch,” Riley told The Electronic Intifada.
“Nor are they being transparent with attorneys, so we don’t know who is being detained or removed.”
Riley said she cannot say if anyone else has been deported since Judge Gee’s decision.
Nouri was subsequently advised by the US Marshals office to contact the Department of Justice.
She was able to speak with a person who has been assigned to deal with CBP.
Nouri says civil servants, like US Marshals, are being “very cautious,” and they “feel that they cannot do their jobs, because they are getting pressure from higher up.”
Trump summarily fired Acting US Attorney General Sally Yates, the top official at the Department of Justice, when she announced earlier this week that she would not defend his executive order in court.
A US Marshals spokesperson told The Electronic Intifada on Wednesday that marshals could not take any action based on the court orders issued over the weekend because they were not specific enough.
According to the spokesperson, the US Marshals cannot determine if the court orders have been violated, and must await further instructions from a judge.
There are two status hearings for the New York and Boston cases scheduled for Thursday and Friday. The spokesperson said these hearings should determine if there have been violations, and how the marshals might assist in their implementation.
The spokesperson added that there was no reason to serve the US Marshals with the court order – as the attorneys in Southern California attempted to do – because the Department of Homeland Security had already published a statement saying agents would comply.
The 29 January statement says CBP would enforce Trump’s executive order and comply with the courts. In subsequent statements, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly claimed CBP immediately began taking steps to act in compliance.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice told The Electronic Intifada on Wednesday that it had “notified and provided guidance” to CBP and the US Marshals with regards to the Brooklyn and Boston court orders.
“Dangerous turn”
There is no clear precedent for the federal government and its agencies defying a judge’s order. But in such cases there is, in theory, an enforcement mechanism through the US Marshals.
In a 30 January Slate article examining the implications of federal agencies defying a court order, Ari Ezra Waldman, the director of the Innovation Center for Law and Technology at New York Law School, imagines the US Marshals could be pitted against CBP.
“This is what sets us up for a darker, dangerous turn,” he writes. But so far, the US Marshals appear to be allowing CBP to flout the courts.The Atlantic Coast Conference has received application letters from Pittsburgh and Syracuse to join the league, a move that would leave the Big East scrambling to replace two of its longest-tenured members.
Florida State president Eric Barron told The Associated Press on Saturday before the Seminoles played No. 1 Oklahoma that the ACC was excited about adding to its "northern tier."
"Pittsburgh and Syracuse, who have applied, these are solid academic schools, and the ACC is a truly academic conference," Barron said. "Certainly great basketball teams, a good history of football.
"I'm sure consideration will be very fast. I'll be surprised if it's not tomorrow (Sunday)."
But USA Today reported early Sunday that the ACC presidents had already voted on Saturday morning to accept Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the league. Citing an anonymous source, the newspaper said the ACC was still considering adding two other East Coast teams and that Connecticut and Rutgers would be the candidates.
ACC officials have scheduled a 9:30 a.m. ET Sunday teleconference but did not disclose the subject of the call.
Barron confirmed that 11 of 12 ACC presidents attended a meeting in Greensboro, N.C., on Tuesday -- the other participated by phone -- and unanimously approved raising the exit fee to $20 million -- up from $12 million to $14 million -- for any member leaving the conference.
"The great thing is that the conference is strong and committed to a unanimous commitment to staying together," North Carolina State chancellor Randy Woodson said. "And to the extent that this is kind of a dramatic shift in conferences, we're trying to be proactive and stay strong."
A high-ranking ACC official told ESPN.com's Heather Dinich on Saturday morning that Pitt and Syracuse were part of at least 10 schools that approached the ACC about membership.
Multiple sources told ESPN.com's Andy Katz that Pittsburgh and Syracuse's applications to the ACC happened fast, within the last 48 hours.
One source who was briefed on the situation told Katz, "There is panic. There is panic about what league (Syracuse) was going to be in."
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was thrilled with the potential additions.
"I'm proud of the leadership of our conference to be ahead of things," Krzyzewski told ESPN.com's Katz on Saturday night. "We're in a period of change. Whether everyone agrees with it or doesn't agree with it -- change is happening. It's not a revolution, it's evolution. These things are happening.
"The NBA had the ABA. The NFL had the AFL. There was once no BCS. The NIT was once better than the NCAA (tournament). When it happens while you're doing it, it seems like it shouldn't happen, but it is. I think the leadership in our conference is doing a great job of getting ahead. It's good thinking, especially if everything goes down with these two schools that have great athletic programs. They are unbelievable fits for our conference."The 2017 Major League Baseball season is less than a week underway, so any broad-sweeping conclusions would obviously be folly. We can, however, make observations, especially those that seem to be a continuation of recent years or that we expect to continue. On that front, let’s discuss the power that some leadoff men have flashed early.
Hello Carlos Santana:
Oh, hey, Kyle Schwarber.
George Springer of the Astros already has three homers from the leadoff spot -- two to start the game for his team -- but I chose those Santana and Schwarber shots for a few reasons.
First off, Santana’s bomb came on the road to lead off the game. That’s a pretty big deal to all of a sudden spot your team a 1-0 lead before an out is even recorded in the game. It’s a total game-changer from a mental standpoint, not to mention the lead on the actual scoreboard.
Secondly, those who oppose power hitters -- especially bigger guys like Santana and Schwarber -- often talk about how they should be lower in the lineup so they can drive in more runs. In Schwarber’s case, that was a three-run shot that would prove the game-winner. If Joe Maddon was concerned about having a smaller guy who can steal more bases leadoff in order to move Schwarber down, perhaps the Cubs don’t win that game. Maybe they do. Regardless, Schwarber was the leadoff hitter and still picked up a three-run homer.
It’s more than just the three names I’ve mentioned, of course.
A.J. Pollock is hopefully around for a full season with Arizona. He had 20 homers in 2015 and already has one with five RBI this season.
Ian Kinsler hits atop a powerful Tigers lineup and clubbed 28 bombs last year. He has one in two games so far in 2017.
Rockies center fielder Corey Dickerson had 24 homers last season and already has one this year.
Brian Dozier hasn’t homered yet this year, but he hit 41 homers last year and leads off for the Twins.
Carlos Gomez has three seasons with at least 19 homers in his career and already clubbed one over 460 feet this season. Jean Segura hit 20 home runs last year and has one so far in 2017. Believe it or not, the speedster Jonathan Villar had 19 homers last year for the Brewers and already has one this time around. New Dodgers leadoff hitter Logan Forsythe hit 20 homers in only 127 games year.
Several others have some power, such as Dexter Fowler, Dustin Pedroia and Devon Travis.
Perhaps one of these guys will make a run at the leadoff homer record in a season (counting the bottom of the first as well as leading off the game). Here are the players in MLB history with at least 10 leadoff homers in a season.
Alfonso Soriano, 13, 2003 Alfonso Soriano, 12, 2008 Brady Anderson, 12, 1996 Bobby Bonds, 11, 1973 Jacque Jones, 11, 2002
Again, Springer already has two.
It goes beyond that, though. The leadoff man is the hitter who gets the most plate appearances for his team, so his at-bats past the first inning can come with runners on base and that’s where the power really comes in.
There’s an overall uptick in power at the top spot in the order. As alluded to in the quick intro, this is a continuation from last season. Before 2016, here were the top five seasons ever for home runs from the leadoff spot in the order:
2008, 466 HR 2015, 453 HR 2006, 448 HR 2007, 448 HR 2004, 445 HR
That record was shattered in 2016, as there were a whopping 576 home runs hit from the number one spot in the order. Also take note of 2015’s standing on the leaderboard and some of the names hitting leadoff this season. It’s a trend.
There have been 12 home runs from the number one spot this season and we’ve only been watching regular-season action since Sunday. It’s far too small a sample to start drawing conclusions from such a number, but, again, look at the personnel listed above.
Between the likes of Santana, Schwarber, Springer, Dozier, Dickerson, Pollock, Kinsler et al, would it really surprise anyone to see the record set for the second-straight season?
Home runs are up across the board, but nowhere like at the top: The leadoff man, MLB’s trendy power source.Christine Assange is desperate to hug her son, Julian, in his prison cell.
Christine Assange is desperate to hug her son, Julian, in his prison cell.
THE Sunshine Coast mother of jailed WikiLeaks mastermind Julian Assange has just one mission in mind: to hug her son.
Christine Assange, who has never before left her home in Australia, has landed in London to visit her son in jail.
She told the Sunshine Coast Daily that she needed to see her son and know he was well.
After a 24-hour flight to London, Mrs Assange was exhausted but not distressed.
If she was nervous it did not show as she pulled the hood of a black jumper over her head and walked out of the airport into the 4C winter night.
“I came here to be with my son. I want to see him, I want to see how he is,” she said.
Mrs Assange said the Australian government needed to do more to help her son.
“There’s Julia Gillard opening for Oprah … and my Julian is sitting here in prison,” she said.
“Is it more important to suck up to the Yanks than to look after your own people?”
Mr Assange is being held in an isolated cell at Wandsworth Prison ahead of his court appearance today.
He faces allegations of sexual assault on two women in Sweden.
Supporters of WikiLeaks have accused authorities of acting on political pressure to silence Mr Assange and the whistleblower website, which has started leaking more than 250,000 confidential US government cables.
Mr Assange will apply for bail as prosecutors push to extradite him to Sweden.
His mum said her son had a strong will but would be struggling while being held in a jail cell.
“It would be depressing for him. He likes his freedom and wide open spaces,” she said.
“He’s now in a cramped, cold, forbidding place.”
Mrs Assange said she was angry with Prime Minister Julia Gillard for suggesting her son was a criminal.
The Daily revealed on Sunday that Mr Assange had demanded Ms Gillard stop implying his guilt for fears it would encourage his assassination.
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has defended Mr Assange’s legal rights.
Mr Rudd emphasised that it was his decision as to whether Mr Assange’s passport would be revoked or not.
He said that decision would be made on advice from the Australian Federal Police and other authorities.
At the weekend, Mr Rudd said he had received no such advice.
Mrs Assange said she believed there was political pressure on Swedish authorities to charge her son.
“This hearing is a forerunner for the US to extradite him. If the US get their hands on him he will be jailed forever or he will be killed … that’s how serious this is,” she said.
Mrs Assange does not believe the sexual allegations against her son are true.
“The only reason it’s happening is because it’s Julian from WikiLeaks,” she said.In coming weeks, CNN.com will roll out a number of video interviews with interesting thinkers, scientists and artists. Check CNN.com/OPINION and CNN.com/TECH for the latest.
Long Beach, California (CNN) -- Jane McGonigal is one of the most interesting inventors you've never heard of.
The bubbly game designer -- whose optimism seems to flow out of her wild blond hair -- is trying to get the world to play a lot more online video games, and not just for the sake of fun.
The cooperative skills and hopefulness that people learn while pecking away at online games like World of Warcraft will help our society address real-world problems like climate change and nuclear arms proliferation, she says. To get people to use less oil and mentor entrepreneurs in Africa, she also is developing games that merge the digital and real worlds.
"My goal for the next decade is to try to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in online games," she said.
McGonigal was only one of dozens of provocateurs, thinkers, scientists, math nerds and musicians to wow audiences with offbeat ideas and plans for the future at the brainy TED Conference last week in Long Beach, California.
TED, which stands for "technology, entertainment and design," and is pronounced like the common name, is a nonprofit dedicated to "ideas worth spreading."
Some of the conference's speakers -- like Bill Gates, Sarah Silverman and Jamie Oliver -- have names that precede them.
Far more, however, are of McGonigal's stature: They're stirring things up in one corner of the world, but, as of yet, they've escaped the mainstream spotlight.
That can stop now. Here's our list of nine other fascinating and generally under-the-radar people, all gleaned from a week at this year's TED Conference:
Temple Grandin, autistic professor
Temple Grandin sees her autism as a gift, not a disability. The professor at Colorado State University, who has become a prominent animal rights activist, spoke at TED about how people's brains work in different ways -- and how that's something that should be appreciated, not stigmatized. Grandin, for instance, thinks in pictures, "like Google for images," she said.
She also grabs hold of details, a brain function she feels could help politicians.
"I get satisfaction out of |
The ability to work in two planes is important for orthopedic and spinal surgery and can reduce operating times by eliminating re-positioning.[5]
Angiography [ edit ]
Angiography is the use of fluoroscopy to view the cardiovascular system. An iodine-based contrast is injected into the bloodstream and watched as it travels around. Since liquid blood and the vessels are not very dense, a contrast with high density (like the large iodine atoms) is used to view the vessels under X-ray. Angiography is used to find aneurysms, leaks, blockages (thromboses), new vessel growth, and placement of catheters and stents. Balloon angioplasty is often done with angiography.
Contrast radiography [ edit ]
Contrast radiography uses a radiocontrast agent, a type of contrast medium, to make the structures of interest stand out visually from their background. Contrast agents are required in conventional angiography, and can be used in both projectional radiography and computed tomography (called "contrast CT").[6][7]
Other medical imaging [ edit ]
Although not technically radiographic techniques due to not using X-rays, imaging modalities such as PET and MRI are sometimes grouped in radiography because the radiology department of hospitals handle all forms of imaging. Treatment using radiation is known as radiotherapy.
Industrial radiography [ edit ]
Industrial radiography is a method of non-destructive testing where many types of manufactured components can be examined to verify the internal structure and integrity of the specimen. Industrial Radiography can be performed utilizing either X-rays or gamma rays. Both are forms of electromagnetic radiation. The difference between various forms of electromagnetic energy is related to the wavelength. X and gamma rays have the shortest wavelength and this property leads to the ability to penetrate, travel through, and exit various materials such as carbon steel and other metals. Specific methods include industrial computed tomography.
Darwinius fossil Radiography may also be used in paleontology, such as for these radiographs of thefossil Ida
Image quality [ edit ]
Sharpness of a radiographic image is strongly determined by the size of the X-ray source. This is determined by the area of the electron beam hitting the anode. A large photon source results in more blurring in the final image and is worsened by an increase in image formation distance. This blurring can be measured as a contribution to the modulation transfer function of the imaging system.
Radiation dose [ edit ]
The dosage of radiation applied in radiography varies by procedure. For example, the effective dosage of a chest x-ray is 0.1 mSv, while an abdominal CT is 10 mSv.[8] The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) have stated that the "risks of medical imaging at patient doses below 50 mSv for single procedures or 100 mSv for multiple procedures over short time periods are too low to be detectable and may be nonexistent." Other scientific bodies sharing this conclusion include the International Organization of Medical Physicists, the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, and the International Commission on Radiological Protection. Nonetheless, radiological organizations, including the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and the American College of Radiology (ACR), as well as multiple government agencies, indicate safety standards to ensure that radiation dosage is as low as possible.[9]
Shielding [ edit ]
Lead is the most common shield against X-rays because of its high density (11340 kg/m3), stopping power, ease of installation and low cost. The maximum range of a high-energy photon such as an X-ray in matter is infinite; at every point in the matter traversed by the photon, there is a probability of interaction. Thus there is a very small probability of no interaction over very large distances. The shielding of photon beam is therefore exponential (with an attenuation length being close to the radiation length of the material); doubling the thickness of shielding will square the shielding effect.
X-rays generated by peak voltages below Minimum thickness
of lead 75 kV 1.0 mm 100 kV 1.5 mm 125 kV 2.0 mm 150 kV 2.5 mm 175 kV 3.0 mm 200 kV 4.0 mm 225 kV 5.0 mm 300 kV 9.0 mm 400 kV 15.0 mm 500 kV 22.0 mm 600 kV 34.0 mm 900 kV 51.0 mm
The following table shows the recommended thickness of lead shielding in function of X-ray energy, from the Recommendations by the Second International Congress of Radiology.[10]
Campaigns [ edit ]
In response to increased concern by the public over radiation doses and the ongoing progress of best practices, The Alliance for Radiation Safety in Pediatric Imaging was formed within the Society for Pediatric Radiology. In concert with the American Society of Radiologic Technologists, the American College of Radiology, and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, the Society for Pediatric Radiology developed and launched the Image Gently campaign which is designed to maintain high quality imaging studies while using the lowest doses and best radiation safety practices available on pediatric patients.[11] This initiative has been endorsed and applied by a growing list of various professional medical organizations around the world and has received support and assistance from companies that manufacture equipment used in radiology.
Following upon the success of the Image Gently campaign, the American College of Radiology, the Radiological Society of North America, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, and the American Society of Radiologic Technologists have launched a similar campaign to address this issue in the adult population called Image Wisely.[12] The World Health Organization and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the United Nations have also been working in this area and have ongoing projects designed to broaden best practices and lower patient radiation dose.[13][14][15]
Provider payment [ edit ]
Contrary to advice that emphasises only conducting radiographs when in the patient's interest, recent evidence suggests that they are used more frequently when dentists are paid under fee-for-service [16]
Equipment [ edit ]
A plain radiograph of the elbow
Sources [ edit ]
In medicine, projectional radiographs and computed tomography images generally use X-rays created by X-ray generators, which generate X-rays from X-ray tubes.
A number of other sources of X-ray photons are possible, and may be used in industrial radiography or research; these include betatrons, and linear accelerators (linacs) and synchrotrons. For gamma rays, radioactive sources such as 192Ir, 60Co or 137Cs are used.
Grid [ edit ]
A Bucky-Potter grid may be placed between the patient and the detector to reduce the quantity of scattered x-rays that reach the detector. This improves the contrast resolution of the image, but also increases radiation exposure for the patient.[17]
Detectors [ edit ]
Detectors can be divided into two major categories: imaging detectors (such as photographic plates and X-ray film (photographic film), now mostly replaced by various digitizing devices like image plates or flat panel detectors) and dose measurement devices (such as ionization chambers, Geiger counters, and dosimeters used to measure the local radiation exposure, dose, and/or dose rate, for example, for verifying that radiation protection equipment and procedures are effective on an ongoing basis).[18][19][20]
Image intensifiers and array detectors [ edit ]
As an alternative to X-ray detectors, image intensifiers are analog devices that readily convert the acquired X-ray image into one visible on a video screen. This device is made of a vacuum tube with a wide input surface coated on the inside with caesium iodide (CsI). When hit by X-rays material phosphors which causes the photocathode adjacent to it to emit electrons. These electron are then focus using electron lenses inside the intensifier to an output screen coated with phosphorescent materials. The image from the output can then be recorded via a camera and displayed.[21]
Digital devices known as array detectors are becoming more common in fluoroscopy. These devices are made of discrete pixelated detectors known as thin-film transistors (TFT) which can either work indirectly by using photo detectors that detect light emitted from a scintillator material such as CsI, or directly by capturing the electrons produced when the X-rays hit the detector. Direct detector do not tend to experience the blurring or spreading effect caused by phosphorescent scintillators of or film screens since the detectors are activated directly by X-ray photons.[22]
Dual-energy radiography is where images are acquired using two separate tube voltages. This is the standard method for bone densitometry. It is also used in CT pulmonary angiography to decrease the required dose of iodinated contrast.[23]
History [ edit ]
Radiography's origins and fluoroscopy's origins can both be traced to 8 November 1895, when German physics professor Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered the X-ray and noted that, while it could pass through human tissue, it could not pass through bone or metal.[24] Röntgen referred to the radiation as "X", to indicate that it was an unknown type of radiation. He received the first Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery.[25]
There are conflicting accounts of his discovery because Röntgen had his lab notes burned after his death, but this is a likely reconstruction by his biographers: [26][27] Röntgen was investigating cathode rays using a fluorescent screen painted with barium platinocyanide and a Crookes tube which he had wrapped in black cardboard to shield its fluorescent glow. He noticed a faint green glow from the screen, about 1 metre away. Röntgen realized some invisible rays coming from the tube were passing through the cardboard to make the screen glow: they were passing through an opaque object to affect the film behind it.[28]
The first radiograph
Röntgen discovered X-rays' medical use when he made a picture of his wife's hand on a photographic plate formed due to X-rays. The photograph of his wife's hand was the first ever photograph of a human body part using X-rays. When she saw the picture, she said, "I have seen my death."[28]
The first use of X-rays under clinical conditions was by John Hall-Edwards in Birmingham, England on 11 January 1896, when he radiographed a needle stuck in the hand of an associate.[29] On 14 February 1896, Hall-Edwards also became the first to use X-rays in a surgical operation.[30]
The United States saw its first medical X-ray obtained using a discharge tube of Ivan Pulyui's design. In January 1896, on reading of Röntgen's discovery, Frank Austin of Dartmouth College tested all of the discharge tubes in the physics laboratory and found that only the Pulyui tube produced X-rays. This was a result of Pulyui's inclusion of an oblique "target" of mica, used for holding samples of fluorescent material, within the tube. On 3 February 1896 Gilman Frost, professor of medicine at the college, and his brother Edwin Frost, professor of physics, exposed the wrist of Eddie McCarthy, whom Gilman had treated some weeks earlier for a fracture, to the X-rays and collected the resulting image of the broken bone on gelatin photographic plates obtained from Howard Langill, a local photographer also interested in Röntgen's work.[31]
X-rays were put to diagnostic use very early; for example, Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton opened a radiographic laboratory in the United Kingdom in 1896, before the dangers of ionizing radiation were discovered. Indeed, Marie Curie pushed for radiography to be used to treat wounded soldiers in World War I. Initially, many kinds of staff conducted radiography in hospitals, including Physicists, Photographers, Physicians, Nurses, and Engineers. The medical speciality of radiology grew up over many years around the new technology. When new diagnostic tests were developed, it was natural for the Radiographers to be trained in and to adopt this new technology. Radiographers now perform fluoroscopy, computed tomography, mammography, ultrasound, nuclear medicine and magnetic resonance imaging as well. Although a nonspecialist dictionary might define radiography quite narrowly as "taking X-ray images", this has long been only part of the work of "X-ray Departments", Radiographers, and Radiologists. Initially, radiographs were known as roentgenograms,[32] while Skiagrapher (from the Ancient Greek words for "shadow" and "writer") was used until about 1918 to mean Radiographer.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Mogadishu, Somalia - Mustapha Izekor left his home in Nigeria's Kano State to pursue his childhood dream of playing football in a professional league. This dream of playing in a big stadium in front of thousands of cheering fans brought him to the opposite side of the continent to Somalia, at the Horn of Africa.
More than a year ago, while seeking the opportunity to play in one of the continent's top football leagues, Izekor was approached by a football scout representing Benadir Sports Club which is based in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
After an initial trial period Izekor joined Benadir, one of the most popular teams in Somalia, and he has not looked back.
"For me football is my life. I have had passion for it since I was a kid. So, wherever football takes me I'm happy with it," Izekor told Al Jazeera after his last training session with the team before the summer holiday break.
Football, the most popular sport in this country of an estimated 10 million people, is making a slow but visible and colourful come back.
Stadiums that had long been abandoned to warring armed groups, have been reclaimed. Fresh bright paint, new green artificial grass pitches and newly rebuilt stands greet fans in the newly refurbished stadiums in Mogadishu. Local businesses in this seaside city are now competing to be the main sponsors of the league.
Once, the many FM radio stations filled the city's airwaves with broadcasts of the latest scores. But, the affordable $0.50 per game price has allowed fans to flock to football pitches in the hope of catching an up close glimpse of the latest foreign players and local heroes.
Mbalangu Hussein stood a few metres away from where Izekor barked orders at a confused-looking group of players standing in a circle. Hussein was hired from Uganda two months ago to lead Benadir's charge to the top of the league.
The 38-year-old father of three, said he has been pleasantly surprised by the willingness of everyone he had met so far to improve the standard of the game in Somalia.
"The players' level of fitness is really good. The players in Somalia are very quick and mobile. They have huge potential," Hussein said.
"A bit of improvement on the tactical side and they could challenge any team in Africa," Hussein said, keeping an eye on the training players.
Officials feeling safer and energised after more than two decades of civil war are busy trying to shed the country's ugly history of conflict, bombs and bullets.
RELATED: The quiet tragedies of Africa's escape routes
Hassan Mohamed, Somalia's Football Federation Secretary proudly pointed to the thousands of fans who turned out to watch a local match between Benadir and Heegan football clubs.
"There are thousands here today watching this game," he told Al Jazeera in a reassuring manner. "This is proof that life here is returning to normal."
"This would not have been possible a few years ago. It shows how far we have come along. We are back," Mohamed said.
There are at least 20 foreign players that have joined the league in the past year.
Aside from the fact that Mogadishu offers a pleasant tropical climate, the players say they came to Somalia because the Somali league offered them better opportunities than the leagues in their own countries.
In addition, because they have more experience, they are the best paid in the league, and in some cases take home three times more pay than the local players.
"We pay them well. We also provide them with housing, food and flight tickets when the season ends and they return home to their countries," Abukar Mohamed, director of Benadir Sports Club told Al Jazeera.
Apart from their Ugandan team manager, Benadir has four additional foreign players on their roster.
Fearing that local teams were trying to buy their way into winning titles at the expense of local talent, the football association stepped in to stop teams fielding all foreign players.
"Every team is allowed to register only four foreign players," Mohamed said. "This is to protect the local talent. We can't have a league made up of only foreign players."
"We are trying to build a league that will help the national team. We don't want anything that will harm our national team and our home players," Mohamed added.
For the foreign footballers, playing in Somalia comes with some unique challenges.
Differences in language becomes an issue during training - most of the team speaks Somali but the foreign players speak English. Gestures and signs become an important mode of communication for the team.
However, the fragile security situation is an even more challenging obstacle for the foreign players.
The country is slowly turning a corner, but explosions and targeted assassinations still occur. Armed guards keep watch over the players as they go about their training session and travel around the city.
Yet, the players are determined to remain in Somalia.
"I'm only interested in football. Life is good here and I will tell any young footballer to come and experience football here," Izekor, the Nigerian, told Al Jazeera.
Follow Hamza Mohamed on Twitter: @Hamza_AfricaNew research out of the University of Cincinnati supports the argument that momentum is more like a myth in the NFL. The research by Michael J. Fry, a UC associate professor of operations and business analytics, and UC alumnus F. Alan Shukairy, who earned his master's of science in business analytics, is published in the current issue of the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports.
The word, "momentum," is often described by coaches, players, sports writers and announcers as those defining points in the game that causes a team to win or lose. "However, it is often difficult for human perception to separate intrinsic changes in probability from simple, random occurrences," Fry says.
In their paper, "Searching for Momentum in the NFL," the researchers analyzed data on five years' worth of plays during the NFL season, from 2002 to 2007. They examined four particular plays that are popularly described as "momentum-changing events:"
1. Successful fourth-down conversions
2. Unsuccessful fourth-down conversions
3. Turnovers
4. Allowing scores (touchdowns and/or field goals)
For each of the events, the researchers compared a team's performance up to the "momentum-changing event" to plays from a control data set. The data set used pairwise matching to control for field position, score differential, time of game and for whether the team was playing at home or on the road.
The researchers say their analysis found possible statistical evidence of positive momentum gains after a team successfully converted a fourth-down. They found no statistical evidence of in-game momentum resulting from turnovers or allowing scores.
Momentum is taken very seriously in the NFL and can be a turning point for coaches as they plan team plays.
"While our findings cannot conclusively disprove the existence of momentum in the NFL, they further support the argument that momentum should not be a guiding factor for in-game decision making," write the authors.
"We conclude that in many instances, players, coaches and writers may put too much credence on the existence of momentum and that this may affect play-calling," conclude the authors.August 8, 2012
— Space shuttle Endeavour's final flight plan — and road trip map — were revealed on Wednesday (Aug. 8), previewing the cross-country, and cross-county, routes the retired NASA orbiter will follow before landing at the California Science Center for display.
Endeavour, the youngest of NASA's shuttles having been built after the 1986 space shuttle Challenger tragedy, flew 25 space missions between 1992 and 2011. Next month, it will embark on "Mission 26," which will (tentatively) span 26 days to travel from Florida to the Los Angeles museum.
"We are calling it 'The Big Endeavour,'" Jeffrey Rudolph, the president of the California Science Center (CSC), told collectSPACE. "It is pretty exciting and yet a challenging task. We've a lot of things to do to make sure everything works, but we're ready to go."
Departing its launch site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a final time, Endeavour will be ferried on top of NASA's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), touching down mid-day on Sept. 20. The target date is flexible, pending weather conditions, but NASA has tentatively set Sept. 17 for the shuttle's farewell from Florida.
The tail cone that will cover Endeavour's aft engines for its ferry flight to L.A. is prepared for installation, Aug. 3, 2012. (NASA)
Endeavour will spend two weeks at the airport, housed in a hangar on loan from United Airlines. On Oct. 12, it will leave on a 2-day, 12-mile road trip atop a NASA wheeled transporter. Described by the mayor of Los Angeles as the "mother of all parades," the slow but steady procession through the streets of L.A. and Inglewood will feature a 'half time' show produced by famed actress Debbie Allen.
"Los Angeles is a world class city that deserves an out of this world attraction like the Endeavour," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in a statement. "We welcome the shuttle with open arms."
"We look forward to everyone joining in the celebration," said Rudolph. "This will mark the first, last and only time a shuttle will travel through 12 miles of urban, public streets. It is not only one of the biggest objects ever transported down city streets; it's an irreplaceable national treasure. Most importantly, this marks the beginning of Endeavour's ultimate mission of inspiring current and future innovators and explorers at the California Science Center."
Rolling up in the early evening hours of Saturday, Oct. 13, the five story tall, 78 foot wide (24 meters), 170,000 pound (77,111 kilogram) winged spacecraft will enter the CSC's newly-erected Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion. The building, which was named after the late philanthropist whose foundation made a significant gift to exhibit Endeavour, will open to the public on Oct. 30.
From Florida to the freeway
Endeavour's ferry flight atop NASA's SCA jumbo jet will proceed similarly to the earlier deliveries of space shuttle Discovery to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and the prototype orbiter Enterprise that was flown to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City. In both earlier cases, the shuttle made spectacular flyovers of the cities' metropolitan areas and landmarks before touching down.
"The final decision and determination on flyovers is very close to the actual date," said Rudolph. "Because of FAA and NASA requirements, they won't determine anything until later. But we are obviously in discussions with them about flyovers and the precedent that was set in New York and D.C. helps make it likely."
Space shuttle Endeavour, as seen in November 2008 being flown back to Florida after its last landing in California. (NASA)
Once on the ground at LAX, the shuttle-747 combo will taxi from the runway to a United Airlines hangar located on the west side of the airport. There, NASA will have already staged large cranes to hoist Endeavour off of the aircraft's back and onto the wheeled overland transporter.
"It is a week to ten days of work to prepare the orbiter, getting it de-mated, taking off the tail cone, and doing the miscellaneous other work we need for transport," Rudolph told collectSPACE. "And then we'll hopefully have a little extra [time] there, as we have built in a cushion. So if any weather issues delay the ferry flight in Florida or anywhere across the country on the way, our contingency for that is extra time at LAX."
"We don't have flexibility with respect to the days that we move from the airport to the science center. That has to go on the day it's planned," he added.
The move from LAX to the CSC will begin in the late night hours of Friday, Oct. 12 to avoid impacting active aircraft operations and to facilitate navigating around power lines.
"There are some transmission lines that have to be shut down to be moved out of the way and can't be done during regular daylight hours," Rudolph said. "They have to do it overnight because of the grid demands. So, overnight will be a series of moves through, I think it's four transmission lines that are particularly challenging."
Beyond those lines, the late night to early morning move will take space shuttle Endeavour across the 405 Freeway to arrive at Inglewood City Hall for a launch ceremony on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 13.
A full day
"The procession of the Endeavour to its new home at the California Science Center will allow our children to bear witness to history, up close and personally," said James T. Butts, the mayor of Inglewood, in a statement. "We are proud that the City of Inglewood will be involved in this great event."
Road map for space shuttle Endeavour's procession through the streets of Inglewood and Los Angeles. (California Science Center)
Moving the shuttle from the city hall to the CSC, which is located south of downtown LA in historic Exposition Park, will take the entire day.
"We are going to start in the morning at about 8, 8:30 by Inglewood City Hall and plan about dusk to arrive at the science center," Rudolph said. "It will be a full day."
Though the trek is only 12 miles, the city streets were not designed to accommodate a space shuttle. The move will be made slow and steady, with certain phases slower and steadier than others.
"There are two or three areas [along the route] that are a little of a challenge," Rudolph explained. "Basically, what it comes down to [is], there are areas where we have more street lights and trees where we're trying not to move them but move around them and then there are areas with wider streets without as many obstructions."
Of most concern are a couple of points along the way with older, larger trees. They could be cut back or removed, but the science center is working hard to save them.
"That is requiring some really careful maneuvering. It is a matter of inches, not feet, from the side of the shuttle. We will be spotting it and going really slowly to make sure we get through," said Rudolph.
Turn-by-turn directions for the delivery of shuttle Endeavour from Los Angeles International Airport to the science center. (CSC)House and Senate leaders have reached a deal to extend three expiring Patriot Act surveillance authorities for four years, until June 1, 2015.
The agreement comes just eight days before authorization for the surveillance techniques are set to expire Friday, May 27.
On Wednesday, Senate Major Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidSenate confirms Trump court pick despite missing two 'blue slips' Can Lindsey Graham take the politics out of judicial battles? Bottom Line MORE (D-Nev.) introduced a bill extending them until the end of 2014, but that bill had a different expiration date than others proposed by House and Senate Democrats and did not extend them as far as Republicans wanted.
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With the agreement, the House and Senate are poised next week to take up identical legislation and extend them until mid-2015. Reid on Thursday evening filed cloture on S. 1038, which would implement the agreement.
Reid said a cloture vote on the bill would take place Monday at 5 p.m.
The House was preparing to take up its own bill extending the three authorities until 2017, but has pulled back that bill, H.R. 1800. Once the bill is passed, U.S. intelligence authorities will be able to continue conducting roving wire taps, accessing business records and running surveillance on "lone-wolf" operators.President-elect Donald Trump appears to started a Twitter war against the Broadway musical Hamilton, having tweeted insults about the show multiple times over the last day after Vice President-elect Mike Pence was booed at the theater and received a direct message from the cast after attending a performance Friday night.
Trump took issue with the cast’s message—which called on the presidential administration to “work on behalf of all of us—and demanded they apologize to Pence.
“The cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologize to Mike Pence for their terrible behavior,” Trump said in one of his many tweets about the incident. It’s unclear if he’s actually seen the Tony-award-winning musical.
But not all Trumps seem to share the President-elect’s view that the show is “highly overrated.” In March, Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump attended Hamilton with “very high expectations.”
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“They were still surpassed,” she tweeted, sharing a photo of the Hamilton playbill.
Write to Mahita Gajanan at mahita.gajanan@time.com.BETHESDA, Md. (AP/WJLA) -{} Police said Monday there was "no evidence of a firearm discharge" at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda and normal operations were expected to resume.
Police conducted a search of a 20-story tower after reports of a single gunshot fire.
Montgomery County police spokeswoman Natasha Plotnikov said a 911 caller reported hearing one shot inside Building 1, the original hospital on the campus in Bethesda, on Monday morning. Police completed a search of Building 1 and said the area was clear.
One lane of northbound Maryland Route 355 and two lanes of southbound traffic on the route were reopened after a complete closure between Cedar Lane and Jones Bridge Road due to police activity.
The Medical Center/NIH Metro station remained open across from Walter Reed, according to a tweet from Montgomery County Highway Services. Metrobus halted service to the area.
The Department of the Navy and Unified Command released this statement Monday:
"Naval Support Activity Bethesda is currently in lockdown and all base personnel are sheltering in place as a result of unconfirmed reports of an active shooter. DOD Security Force, NIH Police Force and County EMS and Medics have responded and searching the area. More information to follow."
Local television coverage shows police cars parked by the building and people walking away from the building.
Police tweeted that they have not confirmed the report of a shot, but they are sending additional officers.
Walter Reed officials could not immediately be reached.
Montgomery County Police tweeted Monday morning about a reported single shot heard on the campus of Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda.
MCP ASSISTING Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda with report of single shot heard on their campus.— Montgomery Co Police (@mcpnews) July 6, 2015
Police say a call came in at 10:48 a.m.
The U.S. Navy confirmed via Twitter that personnel are responding to unconfirmed reports of an active shooter.
Some tweets of a reported active shooter were sent Monday morning too:
Bathesda navel Walter Reed. Active shooter.— Brendan (@BMarr86) July 6, 2015 active shooter at walter reed. and im at work rn. please pray for me.— Cat (@Jungle_CAAT) July 6, 2015 We have been told it's not a drill— Brendan (@BMarr86) July 6, 2015
More details when they become available.PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The curtain fell a final time for elephants performing at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus as the circus ended a practice that enthralled audiences for two centuries but became caught between animal rights activists’ concerns and Americans’ shifting views.
Six Asian elephants danced, balanced on each others’ backs and sat on their hind legs during their last show in Providence, Rhode Island on Sunday.
“This is a very emotional time for us,” Ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson told the crowd as the performance came to an end.
He called elephants beloved members of the circus family and thanked the animals for more than 100 years of service.
“We love our girls. Thank you so much for so many years of joy,” he said as the elephants left the ring for a final time. “That’s history tonight there, ladies and gentlemen, true American icons.”
Elephants have been used in the circus in America for more than 200 years. In the early 1800s, Hackaliah Bailey added the elephant “Old Bet” to his circus. P.T. Barnum added the African elephant he named “Jumbo” to “The Greatest Show on Earth” in 1882.
“We came to say farewell to the elephants,” said Sheila Oliver, of East Providence, who brought her 4-year-old daughter, Lilliana. “This is her first circus and, unfortunately, it’s their last one.”
Five elephants also performed earlier Sunday in a Ringling Bros. show in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania.
The Providence show opened with the national anthem. An elephant carried a performer holding an American flag then stood at attention as the song ended. A few minutes later, six elephants entered the ring, each holding the tail of the one in front of her.
After Sunday’s performance, the animals will live at Ringling’s 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida, said Alana Feld, executive vice president of Feld Entertainment, which owns the circus. Its herd of 40 Asian elephants, the largest in North America, will continue a breeding program and be used in a pediatric cancer research project.
The Humane Society says more than a dozen circuses in the United States continue to use elephants. But none tour as widely or are as well-known as Ringling Bros.
It’s also getting more difficult for circuses to tour with elephants. Dozens of cities have banned the use of bullhooks — used to train elephants — and some states are considering such legislation.
Before Sunday’s show, around half a dozen protesters stood outside, including one wearing a lion costume, to protest Ringling’s use of animals.
Just as in the Disney movie “Dumbo,” elephants in the past have been dressed up as people and trained to do a range of tricks: play baseball, ride bicycles, play musical instruments, wear wedding dresses or dress in mourning clothes, said Ronald B. Tobias, author of the 2013 book “Behemoth: The History of the Elephant in America.”
The change at Ringling signifies a shift in Americans’ understanding of elephants, Tobias said. People no longer see elephants as circus performers, he said, “but sentient animals that are capable of a full range of human emotions.”
Attitudes are shifting about other animals as well. Last month, Sea World announced it would end live orca shows and breeding. Ringling will continue to use animals, Feld said. Sunday’s show included horses, lions, tigers, dogs, pigs and other animals.
The Humane Society has called for an end to the breeding program at Ringling’s Florida center, and for the company to retire its elephants to one of two accredited sanctuaries, one in California and one in Tennessee, both of which have more than 2,000 acres of land.
Feld said they have the most successful breeding program in North America and have determined they can accommodate the elephants in the space they have. In 2014, Feld Entertainment won more than $25 million in settlements from animal-rights groups, including the Humane Society, over unproven allegations of mistreated elephants.
An announcer told the crowd before Sunday’s performance in Providence about the cancer project. Cancer is less common in elephants than humans, and their cells contain 20 copies of a major cancer-suppressing gene, compared with just one copy in humans. A researcher at the University of Utah is working with Ringling to study the elephants’ blood cells.
Tobias said as attitudes have changed, people are more interested in seeing elephants in a natural habitat such as a sanctuary, rather than in a circus or zoo.
“I think people will get a lot more satisfaction out of elephants living their real lives than to see them performing as clowns,” Tobias said. “It’s kind of a new age in our understanding and sympathy and empathy toward elephants.”
___
On the Web:
https://www.facebook.com/RinglingBros/Samsung Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET
Once in awhile, there comes along a lover who just won't let go.
This lover will want to know your every movement, your every thought, your every act in times gone by. This lover will tell you what you're thinking before you've ever thought it.
This lover will tell you that you are loved beyond all reason, which, indeed, you are -- which is why you end up neglecting the lover.
Samsung feels you are behaving this way toward your computer. It has decided to shame you by employing Laina, better known as Overly Attached Girlfriend, to drive the point home, just slightly before you get your feet cut off.
I am painfully indebted to the Los Angeles Times for bringing this ad (and so many memories of having to call the police on a stalker) to my attention.
Laina became attached to fame earlier this year when her entry into Justin Bieber's competition for a girlfriend version of his magnum opus "Boyfriend" spawned, well, Laina.
Laina is the hell of which some men just can't get enough. (They know who they are.)
In this case, Overly Attached Girlfriend is ultimately pushing the SSD 840 solid-state drive.
After watching this, how can you not want one? How can you not want several?
The last thing on Earth you would surely want in your life is to make Laina cross. If Laina gets cross, she might take her love away. And then what would you do?The fiery build-up to Saturday's qualifying final between Melbourne and Parramatta has ramped up another notch with Craig Bellamy taking his concerns about the Sydney club's defensive tactics to NRL referees boss Tony Archer on Monday.
There is no shortage of tension between the minor premiers and the Eels, who finished the season fourth, ahead of their clash at AAMI Park, particularly between Bellamy and Parramatta coach Brad Arthur.
The Storm mentor is still fuming at Arthur's suggestion following victory over South Sydney last Friday night that if the visitors were "allowed to play a bit of football we might be a chance" in Melbourne this weekend.
The title favourites had anticipated a rival team complaining about their so-called smothering defence at some point in the finals but were surprised that the jab had come from someone who spent four years at the Storm and who they still regard south of the border as |
rumours was close to reality. As expected, the GM204 is set to replace the GK104 graphics processing unit (which powers GeForce GTX 780/770/760/680/670 solutions), which is why it was naïve to expect it to outperform graphics boards based on the fully-loaded GK110 (GeForce GTX Titan Black, GeForce GTX 780 Ti).
“Speculation is [the GeForce GTX 980] replace[s] 780, not 780Ti,” said Mr. Gibson. “Performance wise, my lips are sealed on how it compares to 780Ti, but of course 980 is quicker than 780 for sure!”
The GeForce GTX 780 graphics card is based on a cut-down GK110 GPU that features 2304 stream processors (SPs), 192 texture units (TUs), 48 raster output units (ROPs) and 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory bus. The GeForce GTX 780 Ti powered by the fully-fledged GK110 graphics processor is a much more powerful graphics solution with 2880 SPs, 240 TUs, 48 ROPs and 384-bit GDDR5 memory bus.
Based on KitGuru’s analysis of what to expect from graphics solutions based on the GM204, the GeForce GTX 980 graphics card could be 30 per cent or even faster compared to the currently available high-end GeForce GTX solutions. However, this expectation might be too optimistic.
“Do not expect a huge leap in performance over current single GPU stuff,” said Mr. Gibson.
Nvidia did not comment on the news-story.
Comments of Andrew Gibson reflect his personal expectations and are not official statements from Overclockers UK.
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KitGuru Says: While graphics cards based on the GM204 may not represent a performance breakthrough, they will still be faster compared to today’s solutions not based on ultra-premium GK110 GPU with all the units activated.Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi will appear before a Delhi court in connection with the National Herald case on December 19 but may not seek bail, sources said, though the party didn’t make any official confirmation.
The Congress is keeping its cards close to its chest on the future course of action after a Delhi court issued summonses to its top leadership and other leaders based on a complaint of alleged cheating and misappropriation of funds in taking control of the defunct National Herald newspaper.
Party strategists on Wednesday maintained that the Gandhis will not apply for bail on Saturday and a decision on whether to seek exemption from future court appearances in the case may be taken that day itself.
Read | National Herald Case explained in six simple points
Under procedures, once an accused has been summoned, he or she has to appear before it and seek bail which the court may grant. If the accused does not apply for bail, the court can take him or her into judicial custody.
Senior leader and advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who represented the Gandhis in court, steered clear of questions whether they will apply for bail. “We cannot share our strategy. I cannot speak on it.
Several senior party leaders will accompany the Gandhis to court as a mark of solidarity.
Congress leaders insisted that the party will fight the issue legally as well as politically. The party is preparing for the leadership’s court appearance. A meeting of Congress legislature party leaders from all states has been called at the party headquarters ahead of the court hearing.
On the political front, the party accused the BJP-led government of playing vendetta politics — an issue that has disrupted Parliament.
Read | No link between National Herald case and GST, reiterates Rahul Gandhi
The tone for the party’s aggression inside and outside Parliament was set by the Congress president as she invoked her mother-in-law and former Prime Minister, the late Indira Gandhi, to underscore that she is not afraid. “I am the daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi. I am not scared of anyone. I am not disturbed,” she said.
For their part, son Rahul and other senior leaders sought to dispel suggestions that the party was trying to threaten the judiciary.
“I have full faith in the country’s legal system. Truth will come out,” he said.
The Congress maintains that Parliament disruptions have nothing to do with the National Herald case, but prolonged protests over allegations of the BJP trying to browbeat opposition parties are blocking the NDA government’s push to pass key reforms this winter session, especially the goods and services tax (GST) bill.
(With agency inputs)
Read | BJP plans to counter Congress on National Herald issue
First Published: Dec 17, 2015 09:48 ISTIn a recent post, I argued that the recent rise in the inequality of incomes and wealth in some major advanced capitalist economies, like the US and the UK, was not the cause of crises under capitalism, and in particular, the Great Recession.
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/is-inequality-the-cause-of-capitalist-crises/
A correlation between rising inequality, slower growth and economic recession does not prove causation. Indeed, I argued that rising inequality has been a consequence of capitalism trying to avoid slumps from declining profitability by trying to squeeze more out of the workforce in increased surplus value – during the neoliberal era.
The British think-tank Resolution Foundation published a study by Paolo Lucchino and Salvatore Morelli that looked at all the empirical evidence on this issue. They concluded that “efforts to validate empirically the posited relationship between inequality and crisis have so far been inconclusive”. Morelli had worked with the eminent ‘inequality economist’, Sir Anthony Atkinson (see my post, https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/the-story-of-inequality/) on a study of 25 countries over a long period and again they “did not find conclusive evidence supporting the hypothesis that a growing level of economic disparities leads to higher macroeconomic instability”.
But that does not mean the grotesque levels of inequality of wealth and income that have been reached can be ignored – on the contrary, these inequalities exhibit the rottenness of a mode of production that concentrates wealth in the hands of a very few while the billions globally are poor in every sense of the word. And being poor is bad for you. The ever-increasing gulf between rich and poor in Britain is costing the economy more than £39bn a year, according to a report by the Equality Trust think tank.
The effects of inequality can be measured in financial terms through its impact on health, wellbeing and crime rates. The report puts the annual cost of inequality to the UK at £622 for every man, woman and child, with a total of £12.5bn lost through reduced healthy life expectancy, £25bn lost through poorer mental health, £1bn lost through increased imprisonment figures and £678m lost through an increase in murders. But it points to the incalculable extra benefits of a higher level of community cohesion, trust and social mobility associated with less unequal countries.
The wider economic cost of mental illness in England alone is estimated to be £105.2bn each year, which includes direct costs of services, lost productivity at work and reduced quality of life. The cost of poor mental health to businesses is just over £1,000 per employee per year, or almost £26bn across the UK economy. In 2008-09, the NHS spent 10.8% of its annual secondary healthcare budget on mental health services, which amounted to £10.4bn. Service costs, which include the NHS, social costs, and informal care costs, mounted to £22.5bn in 2007 in England. In a more equal UK, people could expect an extra eight and a half months of healthy life expectancy while rates of poor mental health could improve by 5%, valued at £24bn.
This sore in the side of humanity is getting worse, according to Thomas Piketty, one the world’s experts on global inequality (see his book, Capital in the 21st century at http://www.voxeu.org/article/capital-back and my post https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/americas-lost-generation-and-pikettys-rise-in-capitals-share/). Piketty recently commented: “According to Forbes’s global billionaires list, very top wealth holders have risen at 6 to 7 percent per year over the 1987-2013 period, i.e. more than three times faster than per capita wealth and income at the world level. Wealth concentration will probably stabilize at some point, but this can happen at a very high level.”
I already reported on the Oxfam report that found the wealth of 85 global billionaires is equivalent to that of half the world’s population – or 3.5 billion people. (see https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/more-on-global-wealth-inequality-davos-and-the-chinese-princelings/). These figures came from the extensive analysis of the UN database by economists Anthony Shorrocks and Jim Davies, who found that the top 10% wealth holders had 86% of all household wealth globally while the bottom 41% had just 1% (https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/global-wealth-inequality-10-own-86-1-own-41-half-own-just-1/).
Now, as the UK government prepares to present an annual budget designed to cut welfare benefits further for the working poor and squeeze real incomes for the average earner, Oxfam reports the country’s five richest families now own more wealth than the poorest 20% of the population. In its report, a Tale of Two Britains (mb-a-tale-of-two-britains-inequality-uk-170314-en-1), Oxfam said the poorest 20% in the UK had wealth totalling £28.1bn – an average of just £2,230 each. The latest rich list from Forbes magazine showed that the five top UK entries were the family of the Duke of Westminster, David and Simon Reuben, the Hinduja brothers, the Cadogan family, and Sports Direct retail boss Mike Ashley – between them had property, savings and other assets worth £28.2bn. These are Britain’s own top oligarchs (aside from the Russian ones that live in London).
Indeed, the 100 wealthiest people in the UK have as much money as the poorest 18 million – 30% of all people. The total wealth of these oligarchs rose £25bn last year to £257bn to surpass the £225bn held by the poorest 30% of British households. And remember household wealth consists of the ownership of a house or flat, pension fund and other possessions like cars. Total household wealth in the UK is £10trn, with the top 10% having £967bn and the bottom 10% just £13bn. The bottom 10% really have no wealth at all except old cars and a few personal possessions. Imagine a room with 100 hundred people. 90 people are so short they can hardly reach the door handle to get out. Another nine people are only high enough to get a drink from the table. But one person is so huge that his or her head hits the ceiling and bursts through it. Such is the scale of inequality and concentration of wealth. Even the top 10% of wealth holders really own only their house that they live in along with maybe a reasonable pension. It’s the top 1% or even the top 0.1% who really have wealth in stocks, bonds and commercial property and businesses etc.
You see what really matters is not personal wealth but the ownership of the means of production. That gives you power as well as wealth – this is what oligarchs have. What is decisive for capitalism is surplus value (profit, interest and rent), not wage income or spending. Control of that surplus is key. The main feature of the last 100 years of capitalism has not been growing inequality of income. The main feature has been a growing concentration and centralisation of wealth, not income. And it has been in the wealth held in means of production and not just household wealth.
I have mentioned this before but it is worth repeating. Three systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have taken a database listing 37 million companies and investors worldwide and analyzed all 43,060 transnational corporations and share ownerships linking them (see http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2011/10/22/the-147-companies-that-control-everything/). They have a built a model of who owns what and what their revenues are, mapping out the whole edifice of economic power. They discovered that a dominant core of 147 firms through interlocking stakes in others together control 40% of the wealth in the network. A total of 737 companies control 80% of it all. This is the inequality that matters for the functioning of capitalism – the concentrated power of capital.
Britain’s oligarchs are part of this nexus.
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Like this: Like Loading... RelatedHergé’s comic books have sold millions... but filmed versions have all been turkeys. Here, the mastermind behind Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Jurassic Park tells Live why that's about to change
'I was struck by Hergé's illustrations... Without knowing one word of the language, I understood the whole story,' said Steven Spielberg of Tintin
I don’t speak or read French. In 1981, when I saw a review of Raiders Of The Lost Ark in a French magazine, I didn’t understand what any of it meant.
But I could see one word all over the place: Tintin. So I got the review translated into English, and in a very nice way it said that Raiders was a homage to Tintin’s creator, Hergé.
It suggested that I must have read all of the Belgian artist and writer’s books. In fact, I’d never even seen a Tintin book in my life.
So I asked my assistant to go out and buy me a Tintin story, and she chose The Seven Crystal Balls. It was in French – they weren’t translated in the U.S. then – but even though I couldn’t read the text, I was struck by Hergé’s illustrations. They were so evocative of storytelling, plot and character relationships that by the end, without knowing one word of the language, I understood the whole story. I bought all the Tintin books.
I discovered that Tintin is a tenacious young discoverer and investigative reporter. His passion to achieve or uncover a mystery inspired me. I admired how nothing will stop him, and how he has this amazing relationship with the most unlikely partner, Captain Archibald Haddock.
Together they’re the yin and the yang: Tintin is the straight man, Haddock the fall guy – he’s the one who gets cold and drunk and lights a fire in a lifeboat, not realising it’s going to burn a hole in the boat and they’re going to sink. Hergé’s sense of humour was very close to slapstick and the silent movies. The detectives Thomson and Thompson are comedic characters, a double act like Laurel and Hardy.
'Tintin's passion to achieve or uncover a mystery inspired me. I admired how nothing will stop him,' said Steven, pictured above with Jamie Bell (Tintin) on the set
I said to Kathy (Kennedy), my fellow producer, ‘We’ve got to make this into a movie. Where do we start?’ Kathy said, ‘We start by meeting Hergé.’
So I called him, and we had a wonderful conversation. He told me that he loved Raiders, he said I was the only person who could turn his adventures into a motion picture, and he invited us to meet him. Only a few weeks later he passed away, and I was absolutely devastated.
That was in the early Eighties. At the time I was intending to make Tintin as live action – perhaps with Jack Nicholson as Captain Haddock. Roman Polanski, an old friend of mine, was going to come on board and direct one of the films. But I always say, if it’s not on the page, it’s not on the stage. I just couldn’t get the screenplay right. So I let the rights expire. It wasn’t until 2001 that I suddenly had an epiphany about how to make Tintin the movie and the whole process started again.
'Tintin has this amazing relationship with the most unlikely partner, Captain Archibald Haddock,' said Steven
This time, Tintin was to be animated with the aid of motion capture (recording actors’ movements via sensors and using them to animate 3D models on a computer), combining live action and animation. With this method, I was confident that after four minutes of the audience wondering what genre this was, they would forget the medium.
Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) in the film
It would be like when I saw War Horse on the London stage. There were four puppeteers around each horse and the horses weren’t even realistic – they were impressionistic. Five minutes into War Horse, I stopped watching the puppeteers and I only watched the horses. Six minutes into War Horse, I saw real horses; there were no puppets.
It all comes back to the story and how you involve an audience in your storytelling, how you get them to forget where they are, who’s sitting next to them, that they’re in a movie theatre or even that there’s a special effect. They’re simply transported by the experience. I am very nostalgic. I can’t help myself – it’s a wistful moment we all experience where we yearn for a return to our childhoods. If you’re not nostalgic, I don’t think there’s a pill you can take. You are or you aren’t.
For Tintin, 3D was right, but I have strong feelings about the medium. It isn’t right for every film. I would love to see David Lean’s Lawrence Of Arabia in 3D. But not Brief Encounter 3D! There are certain movies where 3D gives depth and breadth to the experience. There are other films where 3D removes the intimacy.
When it came to producing Tintin, I wanted Peter Jackson on board. I’m a big fan of his; he has invented some brave new worlds. The first time we met was in front of 800 million people – I opened up an envelope, took out a card and said, ‘And the Oscar goes to…’ And I presented Peter with Best Picture for his third Lord Of The Rings movie.
Tintin with Thomson and Thompson (Nick Frost and Simon Pegg) in a scene from the film. 'The detectives are comedic characters, a double act like Laurel and Hardy,' said Steven
The second time, I didn’t take the most honest route. I didn’t know if Peter had any interest in Tintin, but I commissioned his company, Weta, to do the original motion-capture test to show what Tintin and Snowy would look like. When the film came back I saw a perfect Snowy dressed up in a Captain Haddock costume! I guessed that I had got Peter at least halfway pregnant, so I called and popped the question. Would he be interested in producing the first Tintin movie with me, and, if successful, directing the second?
He said, ‘You should see what’s behind me right now. I’m sitting in front of the entire Hergé library containing every single Tintin book.’
'For Tintin, 3D was right, but I have strong feelings about the medium. It isn't right for every film. There are certain movies where 3D gives depth and breadth to the experience,' said Steven
Ours was a collaboration unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before – except perhaps with George Lucas. It was a real brotherhood. I had no ego. Peter and I shared all major creative decisions, starting with the scripts through to the 31 days on the motion- capture stage and beyond.
Peter is based in Wellington, New Zealand, so we had a live feed between us, and there he was on the television screen in front of me every day. It was usually 3am New Zealand time, so he would be in his pyjamas – him and Hugh Hefner! – mug of tea in hand.
'For the movie, the Hergé estate gave permission to combine several stories - so I could show audiences how Tintin and Captain Haddock first met,' said Steven
I wish there could have been a fly on the wall listening in on the conversations going back and forth between our offices, with us trying to get an exact match for the colours that Hergé used on his palate, trying to pick out minute details that the audience would never even know about, not just to honour Hergé but to represent his world in a photorealistic way. We were sensitive to the diehard fans from the very beginning of this entire endeavour, and throughout every day of the shoot.
For the movie, the Hergé estate gave permission to combine several stories – Red Rackham’s Treasure and The Secret Of The Unicorn, already companion pieces, and The Crab With The Golden Claws – so I could show audiences how Tintin and Captain Haddock first met.
'Tintin's dog Snowy is as human as some of the characters in the movie. He really comes to the rescue and he's one of the superheroes of the entire Tintin series,' said Steven
Now it’s down to the public to say what they think of Tintin. Who knew anybody would like Jaws?
I was 27 years old, I went 100 days over schedule, massively over-budget, and I was roasted by the studios, who called me an irresponsible young film-maker. It was a debacle. Who could have guessed the public would embrace Jaws the way they did?
Interview by Martyn Palmer
‘The Adventures Of Tintin’ is out on October 26
BEASTS! SWINE! COWARDS!
From cartoon heroes to big screen stars
Spielberg's full-colour CGI treatment brings a photo-realistic quality to The Adventures Of Tintin
SPIELBERG ON CGI
I once said that CGI makes you less inventive. At the time I was bemoaning the loss of the practical stunt. If a stunt can be done practically and safely, I’d rather do it old-style. The opening chase sequence in Casino Royale is one of the most exciting action sequences I’ve seen in years, yet it’s all done as good old-fashioned stunt work. But I no longer believe CGI makes you less inventive. Tintin is a big step forward for me. Jurassic Park back in 1993 was a huge step. For that I created the first digital characters in cinema history that were the stars of the movie.
Hergé standing in front of a Tintin statue in Brussels in 1982
SPIELBERG ON HERGE CONTROVSERY
Before we made Tintin, I didn’t know very much about Hergé’s political views and what happened during the war (Hergé was accused of being a Nazi sympathiser, having produced a Tintin strip for a Nazicontrolled newspaper). Nothing has been proven and I’m giving him the complete benefit of the doubt. I don’t even think about that part of his life. There are so many rumours about so many of us in the public eye. Sometimes it’s too hard to deny what is not true. You get tired of always saying that’s not so. So we just continue telling good stories
SPIELBERG ON SNOWY
Tintin’s dog Snowy is as human as some of the characters in the movie. He really comes to the rescue and he’s one of the superheroes of the entire Tintin series. Sadly, I didn’t get to know Snowy for the film, because he wasn’t actually with us. Snowy was a cardboard cut-out, with a stick running up his behind and a few motion sensors attached. He was no more than a place-holder for the animated Snowy that Weta would create a year later. So we didn’t have much interaction with him. We all had to use our imaginations to bring him to life.
The three Tintin books adapted for the new film, The Adventures Of TintinCoal is without question our dirtiest fuel source: When burned, it dumps toxins like mercury and nitrogen oxides into the air and packs an outsize punch when it comes to carbon emissions. Since America has a lot of it, though, we've tended to use a lot: Historically, around half our electricity has been generated by coal combustion plants. But as a result of sustained anti-coal activism, low prices for natural gas, and new EPA regulations on power plant emissions, Americans are using a lot less coal than we used to, and the future of the sooty stuff in this country is looking dim. So the U.S. coal industry is pinning its hopes on China. While historically most of our exported coal has gone to Europe, U.S. exports to China increased 176 percent between 2009 and 2010, and that number is likely to keep rising as the Asian market for coal continues to expand. The prospect of shipping coal across the Pacific is even more appealing considering that Western states like Wyoming and Montana have vast coal reserves in the Powder River Basin, one of the largest coal deposits in the world.
But while the incentives to drastically scale up Western-mined, Asia-bound coal exports exist, the infrastructure to do so does not — at least, not yet. Coal mining companies are hoping to change that by building up to six coal export terminals in the Pacific Northwest — three apiece in Washington and Oregon — with the combined capacity to ship around 150 million short tons of coal to Asia each year. These new plans would more than double 107 million short tons of coal the U.S. exported in 2011.
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But good news for the coal industry is bad news for the climate, and whether Powder Basin coal is burned here or abroad, it’ll add the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions to an already-warming atmosphere. In 2007, Powder Basin coal alone was responsible for an estimated 877 tons of carbon, around 13 percent of the U.S. total; Eric de Place at the Sightline Institute crunched the numbers and found that the coal shipped by just two of the proposed terminals would be responsible for more annual emissions than the tar sands oil carried by the Keystone pipeline. As Bryan Walsh points out, many industrialized countries have cut their own carbon footprint by exporting carbon-intensive fuels to be burned elsewhere, essentially employing an accounting trick rather than actually reducing global emissions. But climate activists aren’t going to let us get away with it if they can help it: Having largely succeeded in stopping Americans from burning coal, activists are trying to make sure no one else burns it either. And, as with Keystone, they're seeking to accomplish their climate goals by blocking fossil fuel infrastructure from being built.
Climate change is notoriously difficult to organize around, but climate activists have won one small victory after another by allying with local communities who are worried about the more immediate and tangible impacts of fossil fuels on health and quality of life. Shipping coal overseas instead of using it at home may cut down on pollution from coal-fired power plants, but the health impacts of coal could simply be shifted to the communities along the transportation route and near the proposed port sites: accordingly people in Montana, Washington and Oregon have raised concerns about coal dust, diesel pollution, increased railway traffic and use of waterfront space.
In Washington, new ports have to pass a review under the State Environmental Policy Act, and in late 2010, the state temporarily blocked one proposed coal terminal at the Port of Longview, citing increased greenhouse gas emissions. Other terminals, like the Gateway Pacific Terminal, are similarly contentious: Though past campaigns have sought to build connections between Washington’s labor and environmental constituencies, local communities are divided along those familiar lines over whether the project should go forward. In Oregon, the proposed terminals aren’t subject to statewide review, yet Gov. John Kitzhaber has joined protesters in voicing concerns about the environmental and health impacts of increased coal traffic, calling for a "full national debate" on the matter. While the EPA has also weighed in with concerns, the federal government has no formal role in the review process, so whether coal exports actually become the focus of a national conversation will probably depend on how successful activists are at stopping them.
Matt Yglesias thinks they have a decent shot, explaining that "the fact that the vast coal reserves of the American heartland need to pass through the relatively narrow bottleneck of the generally progressive Pacific Northwest gives environmentalists one of their best available opportunities to curb carbon dioxide emissions in the absence of any meaningful progress toward a national or global framework." But if the coal industry starts to get worried, it’s hard to imagine Republicans and coal state Democrats won’t gleefully seize the opportunity to denounce the protesters as tree-hugging job killers. In fact, the Obama administration’s so-called war on coal is already shaping up to be a campaign issue in states like Kentucky and West Virginia, which together employ nearly half the coal mining industry's 83,000 workers. But employment in renewable energy industries is rapidly outstripping coal mining jobs, and coal isn't likely to ever produce another great jobs boom: Even if Western coal mining ramps up, it’s over twice as productive as Appalachian mining, which means more profits but fewer jobs, and the coal export terminals themselves won’t create many jobs either.
Still, it’s common to hear the argument that if China’s going to get its coal somewhere, we might as well be the ones who sell it to them. And sure, Indonesia and Australia will continue to supply China with coal regardless of what the U.S. does. But there’s evidence to suggest that the loss of U.S. coal exports could still make a difference in China’s energy habits. In a recent paper, former University of Montana economics chairman Thomas Powers argues that stopping coal exports could actually result in enough of a price hike to decrease coal use in China, saying that “decisions the Northwest makes now will impact Chinese energy habits for the next half-century.”
Of course, all the usual caveats still apply: The coal being exported still represents a small fraction of global carbon emissions; coal may be replaced with other carbon-intensive fossil fuels; dealing with climate change requires system-wide changes rather than a patchwork of stopgap local measures. While the battle continues in the Northwest, coal may find other routes out of the country: Coal producers have made deals with ports in British Columbia and along the Gulf Coast, where environmental scientists are concerned that the runoff from expanding coal-exporting facilities in Plaquemines Parish could undermine Louisiana’s attempts to restore its rapidly disappearing wetlands. On the other hand, coal investments are riskier than they seem: If Mongolia starts selling more coal to China, or if China itself starts mining and using more coal, the bottom could fall out of the market, leaving Oregon and Washington with worthless coal terminals.
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At the same time, the argument for why coal exports matter actually is pretty simple: as Grist’s David Roberts sums up, “to prevent the climate from spiraling forever out of control, we’re going to have to leave most of the remaining fossil fuels in the ground … we desperately need to keep coal in the ground anywhere and everywhere it’s possible.” American activists can’t stop Australia or Indonesia from selling China coal, but if they can manage to stop American coal from leaving the country or being used within its borders, a huge amount of coal — and the carbon it contains — will stay put. So while it’s a big if, it’s a battle many feel they have no choice but to fight.Everton midfielder Gareth Barry has urged fans to be patient amid growing disquiet over the club's lack of transfer business.
Midfielder Tom Cleverley and forward Gerard Deulofeu are the Toffees' only acquisitions so far -- and they were both signed in June.
Manager Roberto Martinez is keen to sign a No. 10 and a centre-back but supporters are growing increasingly discontented with the lack of activity to bolster a squad which finished 11th last season.
Chelsea's intent to continue their pursuit of England centre-back John Stones after having two bids -- the last a £26 million offer -- turned down, has only added to the unrest among supporters.
Everton have spent the least of all Premier League clubs this summer but Barry has asked for fans to remain calm.
"It is just about being patient," Barry said.
"It is always hard to be patient being a fan. You want players joining your club to excite you and give you something different to look at.
"Every club does things differently and that means leaving business till late then that is the way Everton do it.
"Other clubs have strengthened really well and spent a lot of money so we are up against quality teams but it is about getting momentum and that comes from winning games.
"It is a great group of lads who really trust each other and we know what we are about and everyone does their jobs.
"If the manager can keep that core of players together and keep them fit we are capable of achieving good things.
"I am sure the manager and chairman [Bill Kenwright] have something up their sleeves to excite fans."
Gareth Barry says that Everton supporters need to wait until the end of the transfer window before judging the team.
Everton's 2-2 home draw with newcomers Watford did not help to quell supporters' unhappiness but Barry believes it is unwise to read too much into one result.
"We have tinkered with our preseason in the way we have done stuff and games we have had and generally the lads felt good," he added.
"Overall I think we were disappointed with it [the Watford result] as we were at home and wanted to get three points but at the same time it was the opening weekend and you only have to look at the other results at the weekend to see how difficult it can be.
"It is just important we take things forward and hopefully results will do the talking, as they generally do."Republicans in the House of Representatives blocked legislation early Thursday morning that would provide additional benefits to the long-term unemployed.
The House is currently debating a "continuing resolution" that will fund government operations through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, in lieu of a formal budget. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) attempted to amend the CR with her provision to provide another 14 weeks of federally-funded unemployment benefits for people who've been out of work for six months or longer.
In remarks on the House floor after midnight, Lee noted, as HuffPost did earlier this week, that her amendment to the CR is the only one of the hundreds proposed that addresses the jobs crisis.
"Of the nearly 600 amendments to the continuing resolution that have been proposed or considered so far, this amendment is the only one, mind you, that deals with the problem of the unemployed directly," Lee said. "Don't resort to parliamentary maneuvers to block help to the unemployed."
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) then used a parliamentary maneuver to successfully block the amendment.
"An amendment to an appropriation bill shall not be in order in changing existing law," said Rehberg. "The amendment directly changes existing law."
The amendment, based on a bill introduced by Lee and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), would modify the tax-cut deal that President Barack Obama struck with congressional Republicans in December. That deal reauthorized tax cuts for the rich for two years and 73 weeks of federal benefits for the long-term unemployed for one year.
The Lee-Scott measure is aimed at "99ers" -- people who have exhausted the maximum 99 weeks of state and federal unemployment benefits without finding work -- but it would add the extra 14 weeks of benefits to the first "tier" of federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which kicks in when state benefits run out after 26 weeks. The benefits would apply retroactively, so 99ers who ran out of benefits weeks or months ago would start receiving checks again.
Even if it reached the floor for a vote, the measure would probably fail: Republicans are in a budget-cutting frenzy and the Lee-Scott bill would add something like $16 billion to the deficit. Lee has said she would consider funding cuts to offset the bill's deficit impact, but even a deficit-neutral proposal to help the unemployed would face tough sledding.
Several 99ers have told HuffPost over the past several months that they appreciate legislation addressing their situation even if it has no chance of becoming law. "I'm happy for the effort," 99er Stuart Koplowitz told HuffPost last week. "I'm happy representatives like Barbara Lee keep bringing it up, keeping it as a subject, not letting it get lost in the background."
The Congressional Research Service estimated that there are roughly 1.4 million Americans who have been unemployed for 99 weeks or longer as of October. The National Employment Law Project estimates that 3.9 million people exhausted their benefits in 2010, though not all of them received 99 weeks' worth and not all of them necessarily remain jobless.
"Congress has missed another opportunity to show that it cares about those who have been hit hardest by the recession," said Judy Conti, a NELP lobbyist. "It seems that the callous attitude of "so be it" with respect to the unemployed is shared by far too many."
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) immediately denounced Rehberg's point of order, as did Lee.
"That's really a shame and a disgrace," Lee said.Abuse of prescription opioid medicines used to treat chronic pain has reached epidemic proportions, so much that the White House has announced new efforts to combat addiction and prevent the thousands of overdose-related deaths reported in the U.S. each year.
But a University of Texas at Arlington research team has been working on an alternative solution: electrical stimulation of a deep, middle brain structure that blocks pain signals at the spinal cord level without drug intervention. The process also triggers the release of beneficial dopamine, which may reduce the emotional distress associated with long-term pain, researchers said.
"This is the first study to use a wireless electrical device to alleviate pain by directly stimulating the ventral tegmental area of the brain," said Yuan Bo Peng, UTA psychology professor. "While still under laboratory testing, this new method does provide hope that in the future we will be able to alleviate chronic pain without the side effects of medications."
Peng and J.-C. Chiao, an electrical engineering professor, detail their discoveries in a new paper published in the leading neuroscience journal Experimental Brain Research. Professor Xiaofei Yang, an electrical engineering professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China also participated in the study.
The project was supported partly by grants received from the Texas Norman Hackerman Advanced Research Program, Intel Corp. and the Texas Medical Research Collaborative, a research partnership among universities, health care providers and corporations that gives grants to jump-start research around real-world problems.
Nearly two million Americans abused or were dependent on opioid medicines in 2014, and 165,000 died between 1999 and 2014 from overdoses related to opioid |
members. According to Olhava, future actions against Freshii are to be expected. Freshii representatives were unable to secure an official statement as of publication, so stay tuned for developments.
—Stephanie SackLast week, The Atlantic rendered a great service to those of us who contend that America is in the midst of a civil war between the right and the left.
It provided a smoking gun—actually, the gunshot itself—to those of us who contend that the left (never to be confused with liberals) is intent on dismantling Western civilization.
It published articles by two left-wing writers, one by Peter Beinart titled “The Racial and Religious Paranoia of Trump’s Warsaw Speech,” and one by its national correspondent, James Fallows, written on the same theme as Beinart’s.
The subject of both articles was President Donald Trump’s speech in Warsaw, Poland, last week, a speech described by The Wall Street Journal as “a determined and affirmative defense of the Western tradition.”
Yet, to The Atlantic writers, defending Western civilization is nothing more than a defense of white racism.
Beinart begins his piece saying: “In his speech in Poland on Thursday, Donald Trump referred 10 times to ‘the West’ and five times to ‘our civilization.’ His white nationalist supporters will understand exactly what he means. It’s important that other Americans do, too.”
And Fallows begins saying, “what he called ‘civilization’ … boils down to ties of ethnicity and blood.”
Is there one liberal or conservative American who thinks that the words “the West” and “Western civilization” mean a celebration of white-blood purity?
I doubt it.
What we have here are two vital lessons.
One is that leftism is the primary racist ideology of our time, seeing everything in terms of race, whereas mainstream liberalism and conservatism advocate a race-blind society as manifest in Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “content of his character” line. The left disdains this view.
To cite one of innumerable examples, the University of California has published a list of biased “microaggression” statements students and faculty are to avoid. One of them is “There is only one race, the human race.”
In other words, the left, which controls our universities, teaches American students that it is wrong to believe in one human race. That was precisely what the Nazis taught German students.
And now, we have another expression of this doctrine enunciated in the pages of The Atlantic: that those who wish to protect or save Western civilization are talking about saving the white race.
I am certainly not equating leftism with Nazism. The left doesn’t seek to annihilate all Jews (it merely supports the Palestinians, who seek to annihilate the Jewish state).
I am merely stating an unassailable truth: No significant political movement since the Nazis has “honored” race or equated Western civilization with race, as Beinart and Fallows do.
The second service provided by The Atlantic writers is proof that the left loathes Western civilization and therefore has become the internal enemy of Western civilization both in America and Europe.
In the left’s eyes, the mere suggestion that Western civilization needs to be saved is, by definition, a call for the preservation of the white race. Therefore, the left opposes calls to save Western civilization.
As Beinart wrote:
The most shocking sentence in Trump’s speech—perhaps the most shocking sentence in any presidential speech delivered on foreign soil in my lifetime—was his claim that ‘The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.’ … Trump’s sentence only makes sense as a statement of racial and religious paranoia.
Those of us who have long equated the left with opposition to Western civilization are vindicated.
We didn’t need Beinart and Fallows—we already had innumerable examples, such as the University of Pennsylvania English Department removing its longstanding poster of William Shakespeare because he was a white male—but in their explicit articulation of the left’s view, they are immensely helpful.
Shakespeare is read in every language that has an alphabet not because he was white or European but because he is regarded as the greatest playwright who ever lived.
But the leftists who run that English Department place race (and gender) above excellence—a thorough rejection of Western values.
Ironically, outside of liberals and conservatives, those most likely to celebrate Western values are likely to not be Western.
The Japanese would scoff at the idea that Bach and Beethoven did not write the greatest music ever composed. That is why some of the greatest Bach recordings of our time come from Japanese musicians living in Japan.
Nor would the Japanese deny that their modern country’s democratic values come from the West.
The West’s disdain for its own values seems to be getting increasingly strident with each passing day. Trump is making an important and laudable effort to reverse this trend. He’s walking in good company.
In an address to the Pan-American Scientific Congress in Washington, D.C., on May 10, 1940, then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Americans might have to become the guardian of Western culture, the protector of Christian civilization.”
FDR frequently spoke about protecting both Western and Christian civilization.
We owe a debt of gratitude to The Atlantic, CNN (whose senior White House correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, described Trump’s address as a “white America, America first kind of speech”), and others.
They have made it clear that the left has contempt for Western civilization and therefore constitutes the greatest threat to its survival.WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a freak accident following Game 3 of the N.B.A. Finals, Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Matthew Dellavedova suffered fractures in all four of his limbs and neck, but said that he should be ready to play in Game 4, on Thursday.
Speaking from an intensive-care unit at the Cleveland Clinic, the gritty Australian declined to dwell on the details of the accident, but said that he would not let the loss of his limbs and neck keep him out of Thursday's contest.
"I'm not going to give less than a hundred per cent just because I'm playing without a spinal column," said Dellavedova, who acknowledged that he also broke his spinal column.
Cleveland coach David Blatt praised Dellavedova, calling him "the kind of blue-collar steelworker lunch-pail smokestack guy who won't let a little full body cast slow him down."
Blatt said that he anticipated another gutsy performance from his point guard in Game 4, noting that Dellavedova had played several games in college with a detached head.The North Carolina academics scandal is now affecting elementary schoolers.
Per a report in the News & Observer, North Carolina receiver Erik Highsmith plagiarized content from four 11-year-olds in order to fill a class requirement. Highsmith was required to add posts to blog for 30 percent of his grade and wrote about poultry farming and people and pets — the poultry piece was originally written and posted by kids in grade school.
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The first entry was virtually identical to a passage on an education website written by four 11-year-olds for their peers. The second mirrored much of an essay someone posted on Urch.com, a website that helps people prepare for the SAT, GRE and other college entry exams.
But don't let the media tell you what to think. Take a look at the entry from Highsmith and the entry from the 11-year-olds and decide for yourself.
Highsmith's entry: "Poultry farming is raising of turkeys, ducks, chicken and other fowl for meat or eggs. Poultry farms can be breeding farms where they raise poultry for meat, or layer farms where they produce eggs. The 'best' breeds depend on what you want from them. Good egg layers are Rhode Island Reds [brown eggs] and Leghorns [white eggs]."
Entry from the 11-year-olds: "Poultry farming is raising chickens, turkeys, ducks and other fowl for meat or eggs. Poultry farms can be: 1. Breeding farms where they raise poultry for meat, or 2. Layer farms where they produce eggs.
The 'best' breeds depend on what you want from them. Good egg layers are Rhode Island Reds [brown eggs] and Leghorns [white eggs]."
Story continues
At least Highsmith was "smart" enough to change some of the words around and cut out some of the punctuation and numbers otherwise it would have looked like he totally copied it. He also made sure to make his entry one paragraph instead of two. I bet when Highsmith was (re)writing this, he was cackling and thinking, "No way they'd pick up on that. I'm so freakin' smart."
OK, one second while we have a good, hearty laugh about this.
One more second… One more… OK.
UNC is already serving a one-year bowl ban for academic fraud violations under former coach Butch Davis.
On the plus side, these 11-year-olds have to be pretty smart to be plagiarized by a college student. Their parents must be very proud. As for Highsmith's parents, well, at least he's (probably) going to be a high NFL draft pick. Ya know, if he doesn't copy someone else's Wonderlic.
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• ThePostGame: Most athletic presidents -- sabermetrics styleThe warships successfully hit targets imitating a vessel and a submarine of the simulated enemy.
ZHANJIANG (China), (Sputnik) — Russian and Chinese warships carried out gun drills within the framework of the joint Naval Interaction-2016 military exercises, a spokesman for the headquarters of the drills said Monday.
"Within the framework of the drills a practice fire with the use anti-submarine bombs and artillery was carried out against naval and air targets," Сapt. 1st Rank Vladimir Matveev told reporters.
He added that the shooting practice was successful, as the warships had successfully hit targets imitating a vessel and a submarine of the simulated enemy.
A total of two submarines, up to 20 ships and supply vessels, more than 20 aircraft and over 250 service personnel from the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet are taking part in the Naval Interaction-2016 naval drills on September 12-19 in the South China Sea.BOONE, N.C. — A Watauga County man says texts from Walmart caused him to become paranoid about a murder he says he committed 17 years ago in Arizona.
According to the Charlotte Observer, Matthew Gibson was living in a small settlement near Boone when he felt he needed to divulge his secret.
Gibson, 55, drove to Arizona and met with Detective Alicia Marquez of Winslow Police Department and said he wanted to talk about a crime he committed more than a decade ago.
Gibson told the detective that he met a woman in Bullhead City, Ariz. in 1997 and they went back to his trailer. She became loud and obnoxious, so he told her to leave. When she wouldn’t leave, he says he bludgeoned her to death with a Maglite flashlight and dumped her body by the Colorado River.
Gibson said he would have kept quiet about the incident, but he started getting text messages from Walmart that caused him to be paranoid.
He says the texts messages and voice mails from Walmart informed him that a prescription for Anita Townshed was ready. Gibson also later received an envelope with a Walmart advertisement in it but no return name or address.
Gibson, a former cocaine and methamphetamine addict, decided that Townshed must have been the woman he killed and he felt someone might have put “a contract on his head.”
So, he drove to Arizona to confess his secret.
Gibson says he didn’t know the name of the 38-year-old woman he’d killed in Bullhead City in 1997. Detectives said the story checked out, but the woman murdered wasn’t Anita Townshed.
It was a woman named Barbara Brown Agnew.
Detectives say that without Gibson’s confession, police would never have had a case against him.
Gibson wanted to plead guilty to manslaughter and begin his 10-year sentence without delay.
Source: Charlotte ObserverBy Martin Bosworth
That Bush and his inner circle of neocon zealots lied and cooked the books to get us into a war we never should have fought is not news, of course. But to see the number of lies told and analyzed in such a fashion as Lewis and Reading-Smith have done beggars the imagination–the sheer amount of bullshit spewed by this cabal is astonishing. Consider: President Bush, for example, made 232 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and another 28 false statements about Iraq’s links to Al Qaeda. Secretary of State Powell had the second-highest total in the two-year period, with 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq’s links to Al Qaeda. Rumsfeld and Fleischer each made 109 false statements, followed by Wolfowitz (with 85), Rice (with 56), Cheney (with 48), and McClellan (with 14).
The study also holds the media culpable for their role in cheerleading the march to war without even the slightest desire to dig deeper into the claims and propaganda:
Some journalists — indeed, even some entire news organizations — have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, “independent” validation of the Bush administration’s false statements about Iraq.
Again, this is no surprise. The media knew Bush’s true goals were oil and empire, and did their part to keep the public somnolent and thirsting for blood simultaneously. But I disagree with my friend Joe over at CenterBlue when he says:
This all has bearing on the current presidential election going on, as people try to sling mud at some candidate or other (Hillary, Edwards, etc.) over their having initially voted for the war. Well excuse me, but if I had been subjected to a relentless months-long misinformation campaign emanating from the president himself over the certainty of WMD’s and terrorism in Iraq I probably would have voted the same way. In fact I supported the war to begin with, having been played for a fool just like everyone else. This is why I consider these votes to be non-issues and pin the blame fully and squarely on Bush.
But not all of us fell for that. It’s something that a child could see–why attack Iraq when bin Laden was in Afghanistan?
People chose not to see the truth. They willingly blinded themselves to the obvious in order to remain favorable in the court of public opinion. Clinton and Edwards went along with the herd in order to look tough (and Clinton continues to do so today, even as Edwards has renounced his vote). Everyone who bought into the hype and supported this damnable false war must be held accountable and forced to bear the weight of their failure to question.
But they won’t be, of course. Bush continues to lie to this very day, and while Clinton’s lies about getting a blowjob nearly tore this country apart, Bush, like Rollo Tomasi, is the guy who gets away with it. And we are left with the burden of a costly, brutal, bloody, and useless war that has killed thousands, cost trillions, and turned our country into a pariah on the global stage.
Bush is the one who lied, but we are all responsible for believing the lie and not holding him accountable. Until that day comes, we must all bear the burden of that sin.Lt. Col. Liz Valenzuela at work. Photo courtesy of Liz Valenzuela
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is centering his campaign around support for anti-gay “religious liberty,” claiming that Christians forced to tolerate gay people face religious persecution. On Sunday, Cruz released a video profiling “victims” of LGBT nondiscrimination measures. It was all nonsense, but one segment was particularly inaccurate: Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Phillip Monk alleged that he was “fired” by his lesbian commanding officer for “expressing a traditional view of marriage.”
That commanding officer was Lt. Col. Liz Valenzuela, a married mother of two who served two tours of duty in Iraq. I spoke to her on Tuesday about the conflict with Monk, her experiences with homophobia, and the Cruz video.
What led to the conflict between you and Monk?
One military training instructor who worked for me and counseled young airmen told them: “Homosexuals were the downfall of Rome, and now they’ll be the downfall of the military, and the military will fall because of their lust and greed.” About 13 trainees filed a complaint against him. Those complaints went straight to my boss, who told me we had to do something about it.
I went to legal, and legal said, “You have to do something about this.” We had a zero tolerance policy on discrimination. I went back to my staff and told them. Monk said, “He’s got freedom of speech!” But we had to discipline the instructor. It wasn’t even a huge punishment. It was a warning.
Monk was up in arms. He came to me and said, “You know, ma’am, I can tell we’re not gonna agree on this. My replacement is already coming in. Do you mind if I take leave while this happens?” I said, “Sure, it’s your prerogative.” He walked out of my office, filled out the paperwork, gave it to me, and I approved.
Then he said I fired him.
But he was scheduled to leave the position already.
Yes. When I first met Monk, he told me, “I’m getting ready to leave, and I don’t want to get too involved with the squadron.” He was slated to rotate out.
How quickly did Monk take his story public?
The Wednesday after he went on leave, I was at a restaurant, and my major called me. “Have you seen Fox News?” he asked. And there was Monk, on Fox News, talking about how I fired him over religious freedom.
Then he went to the Liberty Counsel, and they changed it completely. They said I’m a lesbian, and I had an agenda. Monk went on this crusade against me. I’m getting hate mail and death threats because of this.
My family, we are Christian as well. We bow our head to pray for dinner. We hold hands and we pray together. It blows my mind that people took Monk at his word. That’s not a Christian thing to do—bearing false witness to your neighbors.
Did the Air Force believe Monk?
They launched an investigation and cleared me. They found him guilty of lying. But then they gave him a decoration because they didn’t want to rock the boat. My commander did nothing to help me or protect me.
How did your commander react to all this?
She wasn’t going to do anything to help me. At one point I went to her and said, I’m getting physical hate mail to my home, emails to my government computer that are threatening my life. I asked if I could change my email address. She said, “No, you need to get a tougher skin.”
Do you think she was homophobic?
Lt. Col. Liz Valenzuela. Photo courtesy of Liz Valenzuela
When I took command of the squadron, and I told her I wanted to introduce my wife and children, she said, absolutely not. You cannot say that she’s your wife. I said, we’ve been married—we have a certificate from the state of New York. She said, no, actually, you’re not. I had to go to legal and fight her. Legal barely gave an inch and said, you can call her your “partner.”
When I wrote up my speech, my commander reviewed it and told me, “If you slip up and say she’s your wife, you and I are gonna have a discussion afterward.” I was just asking to say she was my spouse like anybody else would say. After that, my commander wouldn’t let my spouse do anything with the squadron. She said it “wouldn’t look proper” for my female spouse to be in the front and center.
My commander also refused to give me leave for my son’s first day of school so I could explain to his teachers that he has a medical condition—something I’d done every year before. She denied me leave when my son had a medical emergency that required hospitalization. She was really unfair about my family.
What do you make of Ted Cruz’s fawning profile of Monk?
I believe Ted Cruz believes Monk is telling the truth. He doesn’t realize that Monk lied—a lot. Hopefully, if Ted Cruz actually knew that Monk lied, he would not have used him.
That’s the problem. Nobody knows the actual truth because I never got to say my side. Everybody kept saying, keep quiet. Let this blow over. I’m getting death threats and hate mail, but nobody seems to care because Monk’s in the spotlight crying on cue.
You were promoted to lieutenant colonel despite Monk’s accusations. Was there any acrimony among Monk’s supporters over your advancement?
When I was promoted, I had such a huge turnout at my change of command. People I had served with way before came and told me, “I can’t believe you’re leaving! We loved you so much! You were the best commander ever!” I got so many accolades and warm wishes.
I don’t mean to toot my own horn. But I’m gay and married to a woman, and I thought people would shy away from me. But they didn’t. They were very excited and happy once they realized I didn’t have an agenda. It’s not a matter of being gay or straight. It’s a matter of being a leader.
This interview has been edited and condensed.UK unemployment reaches 17-year high
By Julie Hyland
17 November 2011
A further 129,000 people joined the ranks of the UK’s unemployed in the three months to September, figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed Wednesday.
Fully 2.62 million people are officially out of work, the highest level in 17 years—a rate of 8.3 percent of the economically active population.
Among youth and young workers aged 16-24 years of age, the unemployment rate is more than double that at 21.9 percent. Youth unemployment grew by 18,000 in the last two months alone to 1.02 million—the highest level since records began in 1992. More than one-fifth of young people are officially classified as unemployed, comprising more than a third of total joblessness.
An indicator of how scarce jobs have become is the record number of applications for seasonal employment over the Xmas period at Royal Mail. A record 110,000 people applied for the 18,000 temporary jobs.
The government immediately sought to blame the figures on the crisis in Europe. Employment Minister Chris Grayling asserted that the statistics “show just how much our economy is being affected by the crisis in the eurozone.”
“Our European partners must take urgent action to stabilise the position”, he said.
The claim is spurious. The full ramifications of the eurozone crisis—and the severe austerity measures being implemented in countries from Greece and Portugal to Italy and France—have yet to really hit the UK. Joblessness grew sharply as a result of the global financial breakdown in 2008, and was increased by the major spending cuts implemented by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government. Some 111,000 jobs were lost in public services in just three months up to June. Many more have gone since then.
The statistics on youth joblessness confirm this. In May 2004, just over 12 percent of young people—one in eight—were out of work. This rate increased slowly year on year, but surged after 2008. In May 2008, 14.8 percent of youth were jobless. As billions were pumped into Britain’s banks, youth unemployment jumped to 19.8 percent in May 2009.
The coalition government’s decision to abolish Education Maintenance Allowance, triple tuition fees and cut higher education spending for 16 to 18 year olds by 15.8 percent has meant that many young people have been priced out of higher education. And those able to still attend are increasingly likely to be unemployed when they finish their study.
Official statistics as always mask the full extent of youth unemployment. Many of those aged 16-18 are unable to claim benefits and therefore are not counted. There has also been a sizeable increase in so-called “internships”, where young people work for nothing, or just expenses, in the hope they will eventually get a job.
In addition, as the Guardian exposed, under the government’s work experience programme the young unemployed are working in shops and the major supermarket chains for up to two months without pay. The scheme is meant to be voluntary. However, the Department for Work and Pensions “has clarified that there is a clause which allows jobcentre case workers around the country to force the unemployed into placements”, it said.
“[I]f jobseekers ‘express an interest’ in an offer of work experience they must continue to work without pay, after a one-week cooling-off period, or face having their benefits docked.”
Many are on flexible hours, on call at virtually any time, and are “doing up to 30 hours a week of unpaid labour.”
The situation is set to worsen. The Bank of England slashed its growth forecast for next year to just one percent. In a statement, Mervyn King, head of the BoE, said the euro crisis meant “the journey to a balanced economy will be long and arduous. … Outlook for world growth has worsened, and this is also true in the UK. Activity could be flat until middle of next year. This is a difficult economic environment. Growth over the next few quarters is likely to be markedly worse than predicted in August.”
The Office of National Statistics also revealed that total pay, excluding bonuses, rose by just 1.7 percent in the quarter to September. With the annual inflation rate at 5.2 percent, this represents a significant decline in real pay. King claimed inflation would “fall sharply at the start of next year,” but admitted that the impact of the euro crisis meant this “is particularly uncertain”. “We do not have a crystal ball”, he said.
In fact, the government is well aware of what it is doing. As is the case across Europe, it is utilising high levels of unemployment to drive down wages and conditions. Wages freezes and cuts are now the norm across the private and public sector. In addition to the government’s bogus work schemes and similar measures, its Welfare Reform Bill is intended to depress wage rates still further.
In particular, the Bill removes the automatic provision of “top-up” welfare benefits currently available to the low paid and part-time workers. A single Universal Credit is to be created, under which claimants will be expected to increase their working hours to qualify, or lose their entitlement altogether. This includes housing benefits.
Part-time workers will be told they must earn a minimum of £212.80 a week. If they fail to extend their working hours, or take on other employment to achieve that amount, the credit will be stopped. Single parents are to be particularly affected by the change.
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, used the ONS release to criticise government policy. But the TUC has played the lead role in facilitating the assault on workers’ jobs and conditions, abandoning an entire generation to super-exploitation. It has not led a single struggle against the mass lay-offs that have taken place, nor the assault on wages. The trade unions were conspicuously absent from the mass mobilisations of young people that took place over the last year against the attack on higher education. Nor have they done anything to prevent the young unemployed being used as a free labour force.
It is not that the trade unions are simply absent from any fight back. They are working hand in glove with the coalition.
Barber called for the government to guarantee “a job or high quality training to every young person out of work for six months”. His statement came as the government held a breakfast meeting with representatives of the Confederation of British Industry and other business leaders. According to reports, the trade bodies had pressed for the “financial incentives” to help businesses employ young people including reducing National Insurance contributions for those aged 16 to 24.
While the detail is short, the only result of this will be further schemes aimed at establishing ever-lower wage rates and working conditions. The government has made clear that it hopes to use European instability to press for a renegotiation of regulations covering working hours and workers’ rights.EXCLUSIVE: Snake Plissken is back! Fox has emerged from competitive bidding and closed a deal to remake the 1981 John Carpenter-directed cult classic Escape From New York. Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman’s The Picture Company will produce.
The original was released by Avco Embassy, and the rights were owned by Studiocanal. Carpenter will be an executive producer and will exert creative influence over the project. Fox’s Mike Ireland brought it in and will steer. The hope is to reinvent the property with an eye toward launching a new franchise.
In the original, Kurt Russell played Plissken, an eyepatch-sporting tough guy who is conscripted to rescue the president of the United States after Air Force One — en route to a summit that could head off WWIII — goes missing after it crashes in New York, which has been relegated to a maximum security prison. Plissken, a former special forces operative convicted of trying to rob the Federal Reserve, is given 22 hours to liberate the president and a tape he carries which holds the key to peace. If he fails, he’s wired to explode.
The cynical original, hatched by Carpenter after the Watergate scandal, was set in a futuristic Gotham circa 1997. There have been remake overtures before, but not with Carpenter involved. New Line tried it with Neal Moritz. It’s the second producing project set up by The Picture Company, after they set Nottingham And Hood at Disney. TPC has a deal with Studiocanal.
While there was a spate of rumors earlier this fall that the film was about to be cast with the likes of Sons Of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam, I’m told those rumors amounted to wishful thinking by fans, because there was no rights deal made until now, and there is no script. They are starting from scratch. That said, the notion of Hunnam playing the Snake, or Chris Hemsworth who was another one rumored, seems like pretty inspired ideas from here. I saw Russell at an AFM buyers event for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, and he certainly looked robust though you can’t do a remake with the original guy.
All of that is fantasy league stuff and the reality comes down the road when they hire a scribe and a filmmaker and the studio gets a script it likes. Who else is worth considering for Plissken?US President Donald Trump expressed confidence that special counsel Robert Mueller is 'going to be fair' with regards to the probe into Russian meddling in the US election
US President Donald Trump expressed confidence that special counsel Robert Mueller is 'going to be fair' with regards to the probe into Russian meddling in the US election
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Washington (AFP)
US President Donald Trump Thursday said he believes the probe into Russian meddling in the US election "makes the country look very bad," according to The New York Times.
Speaking to the newspaper, Trump said he believes special counsel Robert Mueller will treat him fairly -- a view in contrast with recent attacks on Mueller's credibility from Republicans, who have pressed for a new independent prosecutor to investigate anti-Trump bias.
"It makes the country look very bad, and it puts the country in a very bad position,? Trump told the Times. "So the sooner it?s worked out, the better it is for the country."
The president added that he was not concerned about the ongoing investigation -- which his lawyers insisted would be finished by Thanksgiving -- as "everybody knows" there was no Russian collusion.
"There?s been no collusion. But I think he?s going to be fair," Trump said of Mueller.
He repeated the allegations were invented by Democrats "as a hoax, as a ruse, as an excuse for losing an election," the Times reported.
Trump also distanced himself from ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was indicted in October in the first legal action stemming from the investigation.
"He worked for me for -? what was it, three and a half months?" he told the Times, mentioning Manafort's connections to other Republicans including John McCain and Ronald Reagan.
According to the newspaper, Trump added it was "too bad" that Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from overseeing the probe -- pointing out that although he did not want to "get into loyalty," Barack Obama's first attorney general, Eric Holder Jr, "totally protected him."
Meanwhile, questioned on the re-opening of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, Trump maintained focus on the collusion probe.
He told the Times that "for purposes of hopefully thinking I?m going to be treated fairly, I've stayed uninvolved with this particular matter."
© 2017 AFPSeptember - The Month Ahead
September has arrived and the month ahead is going to be a good one. Here is a sneak-peak of what September has in store.
Bounty Hunter target system
In August the players of Old School voted in the Bounty Hunter target system as described in the developer blog. Since then, we have received a fair amount of feedback saying that you want to see rewards come with the Bounty Hunter target system.
We have since released a developer blog giving an idea of how we would like Bounty Hunter rewards to work and received an enormous amount of feedback. In September we will be releasing a follow up developer blog to show you all what changes we have made and what content we have added to the Bounty Hunter rewards list.We will also be polling Bounty Hunter rewards later on in the month. Bounty Hunter should be out by the end of September, with or without rewards. If you are looking forward to hunting down some noobs and making use of your DDS, September is going to be a good month.There have been rumors floating around RuneScape that Snagwort will, once again, be launching an assault on Gielinor. The white knights refuse to believe, what they describe as, "hearsay" and are not preparing for the potential invasion, you may need to lend them a helping hand.We have been talking about Corporeal Beast for quite some time now and this month we will be finalising everything to do with the monster.Later on this month there will be a developer blog discussing our plans for the Corporeal beast that, after we have gone over all the feedback and made necessary adjustments, will be shortly followed by a Corporeal Beast poll.Towards the end of September we will be running a poll for the return of the 2007 Halloween event.Those of you that were playing at the time may remember Death's house and the event that accompanied it. The poll at the end of September will be your opportunity to see the event return and pay Death another visit.As always there will be a constant flow of livestreams, including the community livestreams every Wednesday, developer Q&A every Thursday and numerous guest streamers, on on the RuneScape Twitch.tv channel. Mod Alfred's Colour Run charity efforts have been going excellently so far and he has now raised £1,000 for Save the Children. Since he has reached the £1,000 milestone, as promised he will be eating a scorpion live on the Old School developer Q&A taking place on September 4th.Keep up-to-date with updates and what is going on with the Old School team by following us on Twitter: @JagexAlfred @JagexRonan and @JagexWeathLiverpool have begun the search for their fourth manager in four seasons, having sacked Kenny Dalglish for failing to replicate cup success with a challenge for Champions League qualification. Fenway Sports Group, the club's owners, face costs comparable to the £8.4m spent replacing Roy Hodgson and his backroom staff for ending the Anfield legend's second spell as manager after only 16 months.
André Villas-Boas, the former Chelsea manager, Jürgen Klopp of Borussia Dortmund and Marseille's Didier Deschamps are among the candidates to succeed Dalglish, who signed a three-year contract 12 months ago but paid the price for Liverpool's lowest league finish for 18 years. Steve Clarke, Dalglish's assistant, has also left the club out of loyalty to his fellow Scot.
Dalglish was informed of the decision by John W Henry, Liverpool's principal owner, and the chairman, Tom Werner, as he prepared to go on holiday on Wednesday. The 61-year-old had flown to Boston for face-to-face talks with his employers after the final game of the season at Swansea City on Sunday, a move prompted by concern at the lack of assurances over his position since Liverpool lost the FA Cup final to Chelsea on 5 May. No assurances were forthcoming in the United States and Dalglish returned to Merseyside on Tuesday prepared for the worst.
The Scot issued a staunch defence of his reign both in public last Friday and during the meeting with Henry and Werner, at which he also outlined plans to improve the squad for a top-four finish next season. He cited success in the Carling Cup, an FA Cup final appearance and Europa League qualification as evidence of progress in his first full season back in charge. Liverpool's owners, however, were unconvinced the club could achieve Champions League qualification under Dalglish and doubted his transfer acumen following a meagre contribution last season from Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson, part of the £120m investment in new players since January 2011.
A club statement confirmed: "After a careful and deliberative review of the season, the club came to the decision that a change was appropriate. It is not a decision that was reached lightly or hastily. The search for a new manager will begin immediately."
The departures of Dalglish and Clarke follow those of Damien Comolli, Dr Peter Brukner and Ian Cotton from Anfield in recent weeks, leaving Liverpool without a manager, assistant manager, director of football, head of sports science and head of communications. Werner, however, insisted FSG had no option but to sack Dalglish after Liverpool ended the season eighth in the Premier League, four points behind Everton, 17 behind fourth placed Tottenham Hotspur and 37 behind the champions, Manchester City.
Liverpool's chairman said: "Kenny came into the club as manager at our request at a time when Liverpool Football Club really needed him. We owe him a great debt of gratitude. However, results in the |
Heyer, was tragically killed.
Steve Rose, who researches extremism for Faith Matters, spotted the sticker on a lamp post. He took a photo, before ripping the sticker off.
Steve took a photo, before ripping the sticker off the lamp post (Picture: Steve Rose)
‘The sticker is representative of the potentially more violent form of neo-Nazi activism,’ Steve told Metro.co.uk.
‘Its use of a Dodge Charger vehicle is a disturbing and deliberate choice following the terroristic murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville.
‘It is intended to threaten communities and individuals they perceive to be on the “left”.’
The Dodge Charger that ploughed into anti-racist protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer (Picture: Getty Images)
White nationalists carry torches on the grounds of the University of Virginia, for a Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville (Picture: Reuters)
Fiyaz Mughal OBE, the founder and director of Faith Matters, added: ‘To find a sticker like this in London shows that we all need to remain vigilant in pushing back extremism, because extremist groups are always trying to find footholds to create tension and division.’
The sticker has been reported to the Metropolitan Police.
Metro.co.uk has contacted the Met Police for comment.Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) on Wednesday said that she would not be a member of the Republican Party if it were not for novelist Gore Vidal.
“I had been a Democrat and I’d actually worked on Jimmy Carter’s campaign and I was reading a novel by Gore Vidal and when I was reading it he was mocking the Founding Fathers and all of the sudden it just occurred to me,” she told Michelle Fields of The Daily Caller.
“I set the book down on my lap, I looked out the window of a train I was riding in and I thought to myself, ‘I don’t think I’m a Democrat. I think I really am a Republican,’ because the Founding Fathers were not the characters that I saw Gore Vidal portraying in his novel and that snotty, mocking attitude to me didn’t in any way reflect who we are as a nation.”
On Tuesday, Vidal died in his home from pneumonia. The provocative liberal author and social critic wrote 25 novels, essays, Broadway hits, screenplays and television dramas.
“I know that Gore Vidal has passed away today, I understood he’s 86 years old, and it’s interesting how his work, while he intended it, I think, one particular way, it was used actually to help me see a completely different way which is the conservative way,” Bachmann added.
Watch video, courtesy of The Daily Caller, below:Sen. Loren Legarda on Saturday expressed support for Vice President Leni Robredo’s nutrition program that aims to help the small farmers increase their income.
Legarda praised the program, under which small farmers would plant the crops required for feeding programs.
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It is a convergence program of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the Department of Agriculture (DA), and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
“I believe in the advocacy of improving the nutritional needs of our children,” Legarda said in statement. “I am glad that the OVP has this program and it should be supported by the whole bureaucracy.”
Robredo said the program had been successful in increasing the income of very small farmers.
In her district in Naga, she said, the average income of small farmers increased from P1,800 a month to P6,000 to P8,000 a month.
“This is a good example of inclusive growth – the government addresses the needs of one sector, which is our schoolchildren, through the support of another sector, which is our small farmers, who also benefit through improved income,” Legarda said. “I hope this could be replicated in all parts of the country, especially in areas with high malnutrition incidence.”
The senator said that local government units with exemplary nutrition program should be made models for other LGUs to replicate, especially those with a high incidence of malnutrition.
“We have so much unutilized funds which could be used to address the concerns of poor, far-flung areas,” Legarda said. “The inputs from the OVP would be very helpful in reminding the concerned government agency of the needs of those communities.”
Legarda urged the OVP to strengthen collaboration with other government agencies to further boost its anti-poverty programs. /atm
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MOST READIsraeli soldiers patrol near the border with Syria after projectiles fired from the war-torn country hit the Israeli occupied Golan Heights on June 24, 2017.
Errant fire from the Syrian war hit the Israeli Golan Heights on Wednesday, the Israeli military confirmed. There were no damages or casualties. Israel struck Assad regime targets soon after the incident in response.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was attending a ceremony marking 40 years since the establishment of the town of Katzrin in northern Israel at the time of the fire.
Israel will not allow for an Iranian presence in the Golan Heights, Netanyahu said during his remarks. "We are always amazed that there is still someone who says we will return the Golan," said the prime minister. "The Golan is our and the Golan will always be ours. The Golan is ours because it belonged to our forefathers, and because it was taken back by us due to Syrian aggression."
Netanyahu also threatened that, "Those who fire into our territory will encounter a swift response."
In the past week, errant fire trickled in from the Syrian Golan Heights into the Israeli side. This took place on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. No injuries or damage was reported. Israel responded to this fire by attacking Syrian military posts across the border.
Early on Tuesday, the Israeli army declared an area in the Golan Heights near the border with Syria a "closed military zone," prohibiting civilian access, following an upsurge in cross-border stray fire.
"We are not prepared to accept any amount of fire in the Golan or any other area and likely, we will not allow extremist Islam led by Iran or ISIS to open a front of terror against the State of Israel from the Syrian side on the Golan," said Netanyahu, "We will protect the Golan. We are staying on the Golan and the Golan will always remain under Israeli sovereignty."Music of Bond : Interview by Jack Lugo
Lukas Kendall is the founder and editor in chief of Film Score Monthly. Back in 2003 he had the unique opportunity to produce the remasters of the Bond soundtracks. I recently interviewed Jeff Bond who wrote the liner notes to those releases, and Jeff was kind enough to put me in touch with Lukas who had actually supervised these soundtracks. Needless to say I was very keen to ask Lukas some questions regarding the Bond soundtracks, and Lukas was quite generous to take the time to answer my queries. If you’re a fan of the Bond soundtracks, then you’ve most likely listened to these 2003 remasters since they are the most current commercially available official releases. It’s time to find out the story behind this project and find out more about Lukas Kendall, the man who produced these 2003 remastered editions.
JL: Can you tell us a little about yourself and what you do at Film Score Monthly? How did you come to develop a passion for film scores?
LK: I am the founder and publisher of Film Score Monthly, a hardcopy magazine about movie music (1990–2005) and a specialty CD label (1996–2013). I was a huge movie music fan as a kid, as an extension of my interest in movies and television (mostly sci-fi and genre), and desperate for more information about movie soundtracks—this was before the Internet so it was very difficult even to find out composers’ credits. Today FSM exists as a free website (www.filmscoremonthly.com) and message board with an online subscription magazine (FSM Online). Recently, I’ve personally stepped away from FSM and film music in general in favor of other pursuits, though I am still involved with some CD projects from other labels as a consultant.
JL: Tell us how you came to produce the 2003 remasters to the James Bond soundtracks. Was this a project that you lobbied for or were your services sought out based on previous work?
LK: Strangely I can’t remember exactly how it happened. I had been licensing soundtracks for FSM from MGM for several years and I’m sure I inquired about the Bond scores, as did my competitors. The album rights were held by EMI (today, Universal Music) and I dimly remember reaching out to an A&R executive over there. I definitely remember being invited to a meeting at EMI because they were, in fact, going to reissue the Bond soundtracks that they controlled (from Dr. No through GoldenEye, excluding Licence to Kill). I pitched them on expanding as many of the titles as possible. I remember at that meeting desperately saying anything to get them to say yes—I was a huge fan, I had been dying to hear this music for myself. I think I finally said, “What were you planning on spending?” and whatever the answer was, I said I would produce the expanded editions for the same amount of money. They said yes.
JL: Can you explain a little bit about the technological aspect of the remastering process and how you managed to achieve the best sound quality possible for these soundtracks?
LK: For the titles I worked on—Thunderball through Live and Let Die—we had the first-generation master tapes of the scoring sessions newly transferred and mixed in Pro Tools (the predominant music recording/engineering software) from the multi-track tapes: from 1/2″ three-track for Thunderball to 2” 16-track for Live and Let Die. We used the existing album mixes as a guide for how the music is supposed to sound. Doing new mixes from the original, unmixed channels allows for much greater clarity and quality than fans have ever heard on the LPs or even the first versions of the CDs. In the old days, every time you made a copy of the master, you lost some of the sound quality—and the old album masters were many generations away from the source, intended for home vinyl playback. So it was a substantial improvement.
JL: What was the biggest challenge you faced on this project?
LK: The time crunch was very stressful. We had to do all the albums in three to four weeks. I didn’t make a dime because I had promised to spend only the money they initially allocated, which I knew would just barely cover my engineers—but that was fine, I was in heaven. I think they did spend more than they planned because the tape transfers in England were more expensive than I had estimated. I liked working with the folks at EMI even though they weren’t particularly fans, it was just part of their jobs. Not long after, the people I worked with were laid off—it was a rough decade for the music business.
JL: Is there a Bond soundtrack that stands out as an overall favorite to you?
LK: My favorite period for the Bond scores is John Barry’s You Only Live Twice–O.H.M.S.S.–Diamonds era—with his big sweeping romantic themes and brassy action music too. I couldn’t pick just one score or cue.
JL: Can you explain why some music cues remain omitted and why certain soundtracks like the ones for The Spy Who Loved Me and Octopussy did not receive further expansion?
LK: Because Lukas Kendall is just one man, haha… there was limited time and money so I recommended we do the titles that I thought were the most important, and for which I knew exactly where the master tapes were: at EMI’s Abbey Road tape vault in London. I had been slipped an inventory some time before and knew what was there, so we didn’t have to go hunting—we had to get started immediately. I did not know where The Spy Who Loved Me and Octopussy’s complete masters are—and still don’t. They did have The Man With the Golden Gun at Abbey Road but the transfer costs for the first few titles were coming in too high so they said, sorry, no Golden Gun for you. Sorry, world.
JL: Many Bond fans would like to a see a future release featuring the complete scores of all the films including all the musical cues in the chronological order in which they appear in their respective films. Are you aware of any obstacles that exist to prevent such a release from occurring? Is there a reason why many of the tracks on the 2003 releases could not have been arranged in the order in which they appear in the film?
LK: I was instructed to present the track lists of the original albums on the CDs first, and add bonus tracks after that. It was a mandate from EMI for licensing purposes. I managed to sneak some additional cues into the existing programs, and restore some passages that had been edited out for the original albums. It is possible to re-sequence the O.H.M.S.S. and Diamonds CDs so they play almost entirely in chronological order, though not the other titles. I’ve lived with the You Only Live Twice soundtrack album so long that it didn’t seem right to pull apart some of those tracks. You hear one cue go into another on the album for 30 years and it’s just how the music belongs.
JL: Are you aware of the Kickstarter project from a couple of years ago to re-record the Moonraker soundtrack? Reportedly the master tapes were lost because the soundtrack was recorded in Paris as opposed to the UK. It’s my understanding that for tax reasons John Barry could not work in the UK during this time. The Kickstarter project was eventually cancelled. Is the report about the master tapes true? Do you foresee any possibility of finally hearing a complete score for Moonraker one day?
LK: I’m afraid I can’t shed any light on this, as I haven’t had anything to do with the Bond music since 2003. I’m sure the film music boutique CD labels have inquired about these titles with MGM and Universal Music, and continue to do so. You are correct, the Moonraker tapes were not in the Abbey Road vaults in London at the time of our CD productions, probably because the score was recorded in Paris (and yes, John Barry was a British tax exile). But whether the tapes are safely some place else, I don’t know.
I feel like I did the best I could on the projects I did—and would be happy to help out anybody doing more with them—but I would only make myself crazy if I kept pursuing these titles. So people ask me about future Bond CD plans every so often and I wish I could give you some news or promising gossip but I can’t.
JL: If you were approached to supervise a new release of these Bond Soundtracks today, would you do anything differently?
LK: I would do all of them and take the time to do them all complete and in order, and probably recreate the original album presentations as bonus tracks—across 2CD or even 3CD sets, if warranted.
JL: What do you think of both the David Arnold and Thomas Newman scores for the Daniel Craig era of Bond?
LK: Films and soundtracks are so different today than the ones I grew up on—far more action-oriented, and not necessarily to my taste. The Bond movies are wildly successful, billion-dollar commercial enterprises and the scores for them are aesthetically correct for what they need to be. But they’re not what I grew up with and not written in a style that particularly speaks to me. The last John Barry score that he wrote sort of in the Bond style was for the 1994 Stallone film, The Specialist. That’s the kind of movie music I grew up loving.
JL: Who is your favorite Bond actor?
LK: Sean Connery
JL: Who do you think should be approached to compose the score for Bond 25?
LK: Among established film composers, Alexandre Desplat. If I could have anybody, Yoko Kanno, from Japanese anime like Cowboy Bebop.
JL: Do you have a favorite Bond Girl? For this question, you’re allowed to pick 2. One can be based on strength of character. The other can be based purely on who you find most attractive.
LK: My wife!
JL: Is there a popular musical artist you would like to see sing the theme for Bond 25?
LK: The choice of Bond title song artist has become like who plays the Super Bowl. I could suggest Goldfrapp but it’s more likely to be Beyoncé. They are not going to choose some obscure but hip indie act that I like from “Morning Becomes Eclectic” (my favorite radio show, on L.A.’s KCRW public radio). Incidentally, the Radiohead demo song “Spectre,” which I heard on that program, was better than the one in the movie! Also, by the way, KCRW often plays “007 and Counting” from Diamonds Are Forever. That piece is so timeless and cool it fits right in with today’s ultra-hip electronica and alternative rock acts.
JL: Finally, what is the most Bondian thing you’ve ever done in your own personal life and have you ever visited any Bond locations?
LK: I have never visited Bond locations. I don’t think I am very Bondian at all. Just today I was listening to the Beatles without earmuffs.By CAITLIN MURRAY
Hope Solo may not be going to jail, but she will be off the U.S. Women’s National Team for a month.
One week after Solo had criminal assault charges against her dismissed, U.S. Soccer announced Wednesday that Solo will be suspended for 30 days over an unrelated incident. The suspension is effective immediately and, as a result, Solo will miss the USWNT’s first matches of the year, a pair of friendlies in France and England early next month.
U.S. Soccer did not offer specifics surrounding the incident, but TMZ reported this week that Solo’s husband, Jerramy Stevens, was arrested for drunken driving near Carson, California, where the USWNT has an ongoing training camp, while Solo rode as a passenger. Unnamed sources told TMZ Solo had been belligerent with police officers.
“During our current National Team camp, Hope made a poor decision that has resulted in a negative impact on U.S. Soccer and her teammates,” said USWNT coach Jill Ellis in a statement. “We feel at this time it is best for her to step away from the team.”
After her 30-day suspension, Solo will be eligible for reinstatement, pending review and approval by U.S. Soccer and Ellis.
“I accept and respect the Federation’s decision, and more importantly, I apologize for disappointing my teammates, coaches and the Federation who have always supported me,” Solo said in a statement late Wednesday. “I think it’s best for me to take a break, decompress from the stress of the last several months, and come back mentally and physically ready to positively contribute to the team.”
Stevens’ DUI arrest marks the latest in a long string of legal run-ins for the former NFL player.
Solo’s National Women’s Soccer League club team, the Seattle Reign, said the matter was being handled by U.S. Soccer.
“Hope is not scheduled to return to Reign FC until early April,” a statement on the Reign’s Facebook page said. “Given the circumstances surrounding the suspension, and based our recent discussions with U.S. Soccer about this incident, Seattle Reign FC has no plans to take any additional action at this time.”
Solo’s suspension comes one week after fourth-degree assault charges against her were dropped due to lack of cooperation from the alleged victims.
Solo, 33, had been charged with two counts of fourth-degree domestic violence assault for allegedly attacking her 17-year-old nephew and his mother, her half sister, in June. But the alleged victims were uncooperative, failing to go through court-ordered depositions and changing their stories, causing Judge Michael Lambo to dismiss the case.
Controversy swirled over the allegations, with many calling for U.S. Soccer to suspend Solo, but U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati said the legal process would need to play out before decisions were made regarding Solo’s standing with the team.
The USWNT is in a training camp until Jan. 25. After that, the USWNT will open 2015 with a pair of overseas matches Feb. 8 against France and Feb. 13 against England.At Firehouse Subs, subs are only part of our story. A portion of your purchase in 2019 at all US Firehouse Subs locations goes to the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, to be used to provide lifesaving equipment to first responders. Since the Foundation started, it has granted over $40 million to provide equipment, training, and support to hometown heroes. All because at Firehouse Subs we believe that making great subs is not enough; you have to do good, too.
Firehouse of America will donate 0.11 percent of your purchase in 2019 at all US Firehouse Subs locations to the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation. This percentage will result in a minimum donation of one million dollars.
FULL DETAILS:
Charitable Organization: Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, Inc., 12735 Gran Bay Parkway, Suite 150, Jacksonville, Florida, 32258, (904) 886-8300
Commercial Co-Venturer: Firehouse of America, LLC, 12735 Gran Bay Parkway, Suite 150, Jacksonville, Florida, 32258, (800) 388-3473
Promotion is active only in locations within the fifty states and the District of Columbia, and is void in Puerto Rico and wherever prohibited. Promotion not currently applicable in Massachusetts while awaiting regulatory approval.
Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation. No portion of consumer’s purchase is tax deductible.
While Firehouse of America is not being compensated for conducting this promotion to benefit Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, Inc., it is considered a professional fund-raiser or solicitor under the laws of some states.
This promotion does not benefit a particular public safety organization under Texas law, but the funds will be used to purchase life-saving equipment for first responders across the country. More information about Firehouse of America can be obtained from the Office of the Texas Secretary of State, P.O Box 13193, Austin, TX 78711-3550 or through its Solicitation Information Hotline: (800) 648-9642.I mean, from what I have gathered from this thread, people are arguing that a complex ban is too much since not all pokemon who carry dpunch are broken with it, nor are every combo of dpunch + no guard broken either since there are some shitty pokemon who learn it.But then what we're left with is, from what I can tell, an impossible situation standpoint in terms of the PU council and I can empathize with the decision that has to be made here. Because machoke on its own is not a broken pokemon, it is very viable, it's very consistent, it has a lot of checks and counters.However, if you consider confusion in this scenario, then a pokemon providing confusion as a way of breaking past its walls and counters because they are unable to hit them back, allowing free switches for your team and forcing switches at the same time, this pokemon may seem quite unhealthy for that reason. But from my perspective, machoke is a very healthy pokemon for PU to have in the tier for what it does outside of confusion chance.Now from what I gather, it is not the move nor the pokemon here that is broken, but confusion in general that needs to be gone here. Moves that 100% confuse the opponent with no risk of a miss or setback, with move combinations such as dpunch + no guard and confuse ray are what takes the competitive element out of it.Using confuse-ray purely as an example here in this replay: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-nu-155213 nupl week 5it shows that you do not need to try and outpredict your opponent, you can sit there and click prankster confuse ray + twave and you'll win the match up 75% of the time. Confusion inducing moves (excluding outrage and water pulse etc etc) like no guard dpunch, chatter, confuse ray, swagger etc provide nothing but a coin flip in terms of competitive play. If by not banning dpunch + no guard / other confusion inducing move combinations isn't a step in the right direction for improving competitive play, then I just disagree. I appreciate my post is a little jumbled in terms of the points i'm making, but it's late so fuck it.my point is that banning the pokemon won't solve the issue that confusion inducing combinations such as no guard + dpunch + moves such as confuse ray or swagger produce in our games, i think that by banning them or at least suspecting them, it's a step in the right direction for producing a more satisfying and competitive battling experience.tl;dr banning 100% confusion chance is a good thingArticle by SA_Upc on February 20, 2014
1. Kirin
2. AA Metatron
3. SoD Lucifer
Another ultimate Siegfried /
LS: 3.5x ATK for physical types when above 80% HP
Another ultimate Cu Chu /
LS: 3.5x ATK for balanced types when above 80% HP
New evolve material, Golden Keeper, skills-up Radius
Ultimate Phoenix
Ultimate Cerberus
Ultimate Sasuke
Ultimate Mechdragon Hadar
Ultimate Zaerog
Ultimate Siren
Ultimate Lilith #1/#2
Twin Dragons for normal dungeons after Zaerog
New card, Udon
New card, Durga
New card, Cao Cao
Top 3 from player survey for ultimate evos:1. Kirin2. AA Metatron3. SoD LuciferAnother ultimate SiegfriedLS: 3.5x ATK for physical types when above 80% HPAnother ultimate Cu ChuLS: 3.5x ATK for balanced types when above 80% HPNew evolve material, Golden Keeper, skills-up Radius Ultimate PhoenixUltimate CerberusUltimate SasukeUltimate Mechdragon HadarUltimate ZaerogUltimate SirenUltimate Lilith #1/#2Twin Dragons for normal dungeons after ZaerogNew card, UdonNew card, DurgaNew card, Cao CaoTHERE have been some seismic days for football in Australia over the last decade - World Cup qualification, the move to Asia, the arrival of Alessandro del Piero - and now you can add 26th October, 2015 to the list.
Make no mistake, yesterday’s announcement by FFA that Wellington Phoenix will not be granted their desired 10 year A-League licence extension, is another game changer.
Why? Aside of the devastation it could cause football across the ditch, it also sends a signal that the mooted third Sydney team is firmly on the FFA agenda. Quite why expansion in one market must be accompanied by contraction in another however, is baffling, to this writer at least.
First, let’s deal with the ‘Nix.
My own opinion is that the Phoenix have been - and continue to be - good for the league in many respects. They are the most competitive club ever to come out of New Zealand, they are financially stable, have a committed (if small) fan base, and they also play good football under Ernie Merrick.
On a broader level, it’s also sometimes forgotten that Australia benefited (and continues to benefit) hugely by the “helping hand” given by the many countries to the north, in welcoming the nation into the Asian Football Confederation in 2006. Isn’t it only right that we extend that helping hand to our neighbours, as they try to develop their football?
It’s also true however, that commercially, the numbers don’t add much to the A-League. The 6,000 that showed up on Saturday night prime time to watch the team take on the league leaders, Brisbane, can only be described as disappointing.
In this week’s Fox Football Podcast, Adam Peacock, Simon Hill and Mike Cockerill dissect a controversial week in the game with the rejection of Wellington’s 10 year license application, joined by New Zealand commentator Jason Pine. Daniel Garb is also on the show to chat all things Premier League and overseas football.
The TV deal with Sky Sport fails to deliver significant cash, and ratings are low, both for home games in New Zealand, and whenever the ‘Nix play away in Australia. In corporate speak, the ‘Nix “fail to help the brand.”
It’s estimated that keeping the ‘Nix alive costs Australian football up to $3 million annually - money FFA believe could be better invested in the game here, particularly with regards to development pathways for players.
Those figures however, are disputed by Phoenix Chairman, Rob Morrison. In an interview with Fox Sports in May, Morrison argued it was actually private money from New Zealand contributing to football in Australia - by paying (for example), Nathan Burns’s wages, among others. He did, however, admit that the New Zealand FA needed to make a bigger contribution - another bone of contention at FFA HQ.
Roy Krishna (L) of the Phoenix celebrates with teammates. Source: Getty Images
As things stand, Phoenix’s licence runs out at the end of the current season - but even if Welnix were prepared to go for the offer of the four-year extension, its success would not be guaranteed.
Muddying the waters are the “exemption” clauses needed from the NZFA, Oceania, AFC, and ultimately FIFA, for a non-AFC club to continue playing outside its own confederation.
The reason? AFC could soon face problems of its own, over a mooted ASEAN Super League. The countries involved - Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia - contain some clubs that are hugely in favour, but others aren’t so keen. AFC, keen to avoid conflict, may not want to set a precedent by offering a club an “opt-out” from its own domestic competition, as is currently the case with Wellington.
Phoenix fans show their support. Source: Getty Images
Presuming then, Wellington are not long for the competition, is the third Sydney franchise ready to go? Perhaps even as early as next season? The answer is unclear.
While there is no doubt the “Shire” region has big playing numbers, one consortium at least, says it is no longer interested. George Koulouris, restaurateur, and President of the Cronulla Seagulls FC, was part of a group interested in obtaining a licence - and he says they had significant overseas backing.
Phoenix supporters hold up a 'Ten More Years' sign relating to the team's application. Source: Getty Images
But plans to base the team out of Cronulla (Remondis Stadium), ran aground after the local NRL team appointed it’s new CEO. Koulouris now says the groups football focus is on overseas investment, not Australia.
Bruce Gordon, owner of WIN Television and more readily associated with Rugby League, has long been touted as an A-League investor. It’s rumoured his Chief Executive at WIN, Andrew Lancaster, has held meetings with FFA officials. But the feeling is, Gordon would prefer an exclusively Wollongong-based team, reportedly not the favoured model of FFA.
Investment from abroad is still a possibility, with a group from China rumoured to be in the mix - and there may be others. FFA has clearly set its course fairly & squarely on a third team in the southern part of Australia’s biggest city - and you’d imagine at least some backing is in place, otherwise the timing of yesterday’s announcement is, frankly, odd.
Are Wellington to be the fall guys? I hope not - and there’s still time.
Professional club football in New Zealand is - as of today - on life support, and the football (and business community) across the ditch have to make a choice whether to try and revive it, or let it die. That would be a travesty, after eight years hard work - first by Terry Serepisos, and now the Welnix group. With Rugby Union so dominant, the pro game would probably never return. This is its last chance.
Almost ten years since Frank Lowy unfurled the Australian flag at AFC House, as Australia were welcomed into the fold in the spirit of generosity, what a terrible last act of the Lowy administration that would represent. Killing off the professional club game in Oceania, the home we left behind.Welcome to Health Reform Watch, Sarah Kliff’s regular look at how the Affordable Care Act is changing the American health-care system — and being changed by it. You can reach Sarah with questions, comments and suggestions here. Check back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons for the latest edition — and read all previous columns here.
The health-care law is supposed to extend health-care benefits to millions of Americans who currently lack coverage. How does that happen when a public is largely unaware of the law — and, when they learn more, still remain deeply skeptical that it will actually help.
These are questions that Michael Perry and Tresa Undem have spent months trying to answer. Working with Enroll America, a nonprofit focused on public outreach for the Affordable Care Act, the two have put together one of the most comprehensive polls about how those most likely to qualify for new programs feel about the expansion of health insurance. The survey covered 1,814 adults who earn less than 400 percent of the federal poverty line, the exact demographic likely to qualify for new benefits.
The results, released last week, suggest both challenges and opportunities for those implementing the insurance expansion. Undem and I spoke Wednesday about some of their most interesting findings.
1. Low and middle income Americans have overwhelmingly negative views about shopping for health insurance.
Forty-four percent of those surveyed said they had shopped for health insurance outside their job and most described it as a stressful, frustrating experience. Seventy-seven percent said it was difficult to find a plan that they could afford, and 70 percent had trouble understanding the details. "I think you're certainly going to face a lot of skepticism from this population," Undem told me.
2. Very few are aware of the new health law provisions...
3....and even when they do learn about them, they remain skeptical that insurance will be affordable. This was probably the most interesting finding that Undem shared with me. They found that, when read a brief description of the exchange, 37 percent of those surveyed thought that a health plan would be affordable.
When they gave them an actual price estimate for how much that plan would cost for an individual earning $30,000 — a $210 out-of-pocket premium — those who thought it was affordable dropped to 29 percent. "We said the plan was affordable, and everyone was skeptical," Undem says. "Then we gave them a sample premium and the skepticism got even higher. It's like, oh, I can't afford that."
4. How to temper the skepticism? Talk about how much the plan would cost without subsidies. Undem and Perry tested out a number of other ways to talk about the premiums, ones that would mention how big the subsidies were — and how much the plan would cost without them. They found that each lead to an uptick in survey respondents thinking they could afford coverage.
The most compelling explanation — telling an individual how much they would save annually by using the new subsidies — had 48 percent of respondents agree that the premium amount was "in the affordable range."
5. Will the online marketplaces actually work? The whole idea of the Affordable Care Act is that Americans will use online portals, called exchanges, to purchase insurance coverage. Perhaps surprisingly, Perry and Undem found that many of those they surveyed saw insurance as too important to buy online — it's not like shopping for a birthday present on Amazon.
"I don't know if it's so much the idea of it being online," Undem told me, "But more of that doing this online represents doing this alone. They want somebody who they can hold accountable, somebody who is going to make sure they get coverage."
Seventy-five percent said they would want assistance in person, while just 9 percent would seek support from an online chat function.
6. So where do people want to buy insurance? Maybe at the Medicaid office. Undem saw in the survey results relatively strong interest in seeking coverage at a state Medicaid office, especially among low-income Americans and Latinos.
"Part of it is they already know the Medicaid office," Undem says. "While people do not like sitting in the Medicaid office all day with screaming kids, when they do get in to see someone, they're told 'you did everything correctly, and in two weeks you're going to get a card.' They walk out of there with a sense of security that the application was done right and that they've had all their questions answered."
7. When in doubt, ask mom. Undem thinks that women are going to be especially important in encouraging family members to seek coverage. They found that, for unmarried adults, "mom" would be the family member they would most likely seek advice from.
"For the segment of the uninsured in their early 30s, the mandate is biggest motivator," Undem says of her findings. "They don't think insurance is necessary and they're one of the most skeptical demographics. When we asked about the family member they'd trust, it was the mom, that's where they're going to go. Really engaging women is going to be key to reducing the uninsured."
KLIFF NOTES: Top health policy reads from around the Web.
The robot will see you now. "IBM didn’t build Watson to win game shows. The company is developing Watson to help professionals with complex decision making, like the kind that occurs in oncologists’ offices—and to point out clinical nuances that health professionals might miss on their own." Jonathan Cohn in the Atlantic.
The Virginia legislature is headed to a showdown over the Medicaid expansion. "One day after House and Senate negotiators struck a transportation funding deal, some Democrats were trying to link passage of that plan to the issue of Medicaid expansion. Some House Democrats vowed to vote against the transportation package if the General Assembly does not lay the groundwork this year for expanding Medicaid. They are also threatening to vote against state budget amendments if they do not include a framework for expansion." Laura Vozzella and Frederick Kunkle in The Washington Post.
A do-it-yourself test for...cancer? "Mode Diagnostics Ltd. wants to bring the medical laboratory into your bathroom -- with a mobile phone-size device that can detect signs of cancer right before your eyes. The do-it-yourself test market, estimated at $2 billion to $3 billion globally, is expanding 20 percent a year as new checks for colon and prostate cancer, HIV, chlamydia, stomach ulcer, sperm count and drug abuse take their place on pharmacy shelves alongside standards such as blood-sugar monitors for diabetics and pregnancy tests." Andrea Gerlin and Makiko Kitamura in Bloomberg.According to Richard Seymour, founder of design agency Seymourpowell: "The future's |
irrespective of the domain/s in which it was accrued, it is important to focus on factors contributing to total PA. Furthermore, walking is the most prevalent and preferred form of PA in older adults [9], low-risk and beneficial to health and can contribute substantially to daily energy expenditure [10]. Hence, this review will focus on total PA and total walking.
Socio-ecological models posit that PA behaviour is shaped by complex and dynamic interrelations between individual, social, and environmental factors [11, 12]. The built environment offers substantial public health potential, due to people being regularly exposed to it across their life span. Understanding the impact of built environmental attributes on older adults’ PA is particularly pertinent as their diminished physical capacity makes them more vulnerable to the detrimental effects of physically challenging environments (e.g., inclines, uneven surfaces, absence of walk-friendly infrastructure) on PA [13]. In turn, this may lead to less venturing outside of the home due to fear of falls [14]. However, a previous review of the built environment and older adults’ PA identified no consistent correlates [15].
One postulated reason for the lack of consistent significant associations between environmental correlates and PA was the relative ‘western’ bias of the reviewed research – 68% of the 31 articles reviewed by Van Cauwenberg and colleagues were from North America alone [15]. This is an important limitation since homogenously low-density western cities lack environmental variability potentially resulting in the underestimation of the strength of associations between the built environment and PA. Also, western cities differ from the built environments of Africa, Asia, and South America, limiting the generalizability of findings [16–18]. In consideration of the recent growing evidence from non-western countries (e.g., [19–25]), an update of the literature was necessary.
Further reasons for inconsistent findings on the associations between the built environment and PA may relate to the methodologies of the systematic reviews and/or the studies being reviewed. For example, Gebel and colleagues [26] recommended that systematic reviews should: a) consider article/study quality in the synthesis of findings; and b) include relevant data from grey literature. Also, small sample sizes, a large variety of built environmental exposures and PA outcomes [27, 28], and the inappropriate categorisation of continuous variables [29] in examined studies may have contributed to inconsistent findings. To date, no systematic review on the built environment and total PA has considered these issues.
A synthesis of evidence would also need to distinguish between findings based on objective- and self-report measures of exposures (environmental attributes) and outcomes (PA). Self-report measures are more likely to be influenced by culture [30, 31] and, thus, yield different findings across geographical locations due to measurement rather than substantive reasons. Also, perceptions of the local environment may not accurately represent the ‘real’ environment [32, 33]. Indeed, associations of PA with objective and perceived measures of the built environment tend to differ [34, 35]. This does not necessarily mean that one type of measurement is better than the other, however, as perceived environmental measures may be more closely associated with PA than objective alternatives [27], a consideration of these differences would help better inform policies and interventions.
With regard to measurement of total PA, objective PA measures are considered to provide more valid assessments of intensity, duration, and frequency of PA than subjective alternatives [36]. They are also less likely to be influenced by cultural biases [30]. Additionally, differences in environment-PA associations between self-reported and objectively-measured PA have previously been reported in adults [37]. This indicates that there is a need for a synthesis of findings on built environment correlates of total PA by type of PA assessment (objective and self-reported).
Therefore, this systematic review aimed to provide a timely, robust overview of studies that investigated associations of built environmental attributes and estimates of total PA, including total walking. This included addressing some key methodological limitations of previous reviews by stratifying findings by measurement methods (objective and self-reported) and applying a meta-analytic procedure. The latter incorporated study quality data to more robustly quantify the direction of associations between the built environment and older adults’ PA [27] and assisted the formulation of objective conclusions based on statistical theory rather than on subjective criteria (e.g., defining >50% of significant positive associations as convincing evidence of a positive association between a specific environment characteristic and PA).Story Highlights Aerial drone malfunctioned and struck a guided missile cruiser
Accident on the USS Chancellorsville happened while the ship was testing its combat weapons
Two sailors were treated for minor burns
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Navy says an aerial target drone malfunctioned and struck a guided missile cruiser during training off Southern California, causing two minor injuries.
Lt. Lenaya (luh-NEY-yah) Rotklein of the U.S. Third Fleet said the accident on the USS Chancellorsville happened Saturday afternoon while the ship was testing its combat weapons system off Point Mugu.
She said two sailors were treated for minor burns after the ship was struck. She said the ship was heading back to Naval Base San Diego so that officials can assess the damage.
The Navy was investigating the cause of the drone malfunction.
Rotklein said the drone was being used to test the ship's radar. She had no immediate information on whether the drone has malfunctioned before.
About 300 crew members were aboard the ship.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1bPXPDuForum moderation concerns
Several users have raised concerns about censorship or other posters being banned unfairly. We take these complaints seriously and are investigating the issue.If you have specific examples of what you feel was unfair or incorrect moderation on this forum, please post them in this thread (or on my profile) and we'll have a look. There has been a lot of traffic in this forum - a new topic every minute for the last day and a half, with thousands of replies. All that makes moderation a very difficult task.If you have concerns or criticisms about the game, you are free to post those in this forum. However, please keep your posts on-topic and about the game. There's no reason to personally insult other posters, the developers, or the moderators. Please keep the discussion rules and guidelines in mind when posting.Ubuntu 17.10 - on the GNOME again Ubuntu is one of the world's most popular Linux distributions. The distribution is available in several flavours, the two most widely recognized being the Desktop and Server editions. The release of Ubuntu 17.10 introduces a number of important changes, the most visible ones mostly affecting the Desktop edition which I will focus on in this review. As 17.10 is an interim release rather than a long term support release, it will received security updates for just nine months.
One technical change in version 17.10 is the phasing out of 32-bit builds of the Desktop edition, though the Server edition is still available in 32-bit and 64-bit builds for the x86 architecture. Another significant change is the Ubuntu distribution has swapped out its in-house Unity desktop and replaced it with a customized version of the GNOME Shell desktop. Unity is still available in Ubuntu's software repositories if we wish to install it later.
I opted to download the Desktop edition of Ubuntu 17.10. The ISO for this edition is 1.4GB in size and booting from this media brings up a graphical window where we are asked if we would like to try Ubuntu's live desktop mode or launch the system installer. This screen also lets us select the system's language with the default being English.
Ubuntu 17.10 -- The live GNOME desktop
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At a glance, Ubuntu's GNOME desktop looks a great deal like the Unity 7 desktop environment. The colours and layout are much the same. A panel which acts as a quick-launch bar and task switcher is displayed down the left side of the display. A panel across the top of the screen displays the time and we find a system tray in the upper-right corner. On the desktop there are icons for opening the Nautilus file manager and launching the Ubiquity system installer. There are a few things which reveal the desktop to be GNOME instead of Unity, despite the default theme. One is the presence of the GNOME Activities button in the upper-left corner of the screen which shows us currently open applications and provides a search bar for running searches and queries. (I will talk about search queries later.) The Activities page essentially replaces Unity's dash. The second feature is another button positioned in the bottom-left corner of the screen. Clicking this button brings up a full-page grid of installed applications.
Installing
Ubuntu uses a graphical system installer called Ubiquity. The installer is pleasantly streamlined and quickly walks the user through a minimal number of configuration steps. We are asked if we want to install software updates and media support, we are asked to select our time zone from a map and confirm our keyboard's layout. We are asked if we would like to manually partition our hard drive or have the installer handle partitioning for us. I like Ubiquity's partition manager, it is fairly simple to use, works quickly and supports a wide range of file systems, including ext2/3/4, XFS, JFS, Btrfs and LVM volumes. The final screen gets us to set up a username and password for ourselves and gives us the option of encrypting our user's home directory. The installer worked quickly and successfully in my test environments and concluded by offering to reboot the computer so I could get started with my new operating system.
Early impressions
Ubuntu 17.10 boots to a graphical, mostly purple login screen. By default, two session options are provided. These are labelled "Ubuntu" and "Ubuntu on Xorg". The first one loads the GNOME desktop running on Wayland while the second runs GNOME using the classic Xorg display server. For most of my trial I experimented with the Wayland session, though I did try both to confirm each session would work.
The first time I signed into my account, a window appeared and let me know that since I had encrypted my home folder, I could set up a recovery password. This would allow me to rescue my files in case I was unable to sign into my account at a later date.
Ubuntu 17.10 -- Browsing Help documentation
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One feature I explored early on and appreciated was the large Help button on the launch bar. Clicking this button opens documentation detailing how to use the GNOME desktop. Some of the help pages include videos, demonstrating where to find key features. I think this level of documentation and attention to detail is most welcome and, unfortunately, lacking in many distributions.
Ubuntu 17.10 -- The GNOME application menu
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As with the previous versions of Ubuntu featuring the Unity desktop, GNOME allows us to pin open applications to the launch bar for quick access later. GNOME refers to this action as marking a program as a favourite rather than pinning a short-cut, but the result is functionally identical.
Another feature I explored and appreciated is the Activities search bar can do more than find installed applications. We can also search for applications we have not yet installed. Typing the name of an application we have not yet downloaded brings up an option to open the distribution's software manager. We can also enable or turn off other search bar functions in the desktop's settings panel. The search bar can look for documents, find appointments in our calendar and work out simple math problems.
Hardware
I experimented with running Ubuntu 17.10 in a VirtualBox virtual machine and on a laptop computer. In both environments, the distribution worked well. Ubuntu automatically integrates with VirtualBox and could use my host computer's full screen resolution. When running on my laptop computer, Ubuntu detected and properly used all my hardware. In either environment, the distribution tended to use about 790MB to 830MB of RAM and a fresh install took up about 4.6GB of hard drive space.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only did the GNOME on Wayland desktop session work, but it tended to be more responsive than the Unity desktop was on the same hardware. In the past I have had poor experiences with Wayland sessions. Fedora's Wayland session typically fails when I try to login and the RebeccaBlackOS Wayland sessions work, but tend to be unpolished. Ubuntu's Wayland session not only worked, it was usually hard to tell whether I was using the Wayland session or the Xorg session. I only noticed two differences when switching between the Wayland session and the classic Xorg session. The Wayland session usually worked better, especially when run inside VirtualBox. Windows would respond quicker and animations were smoother. However, I could not get the Totem media player to display video when running in a Wayland session. Totem did work properly when run from the Xorg session.
Ubuntu 17.10 -- Trying to play a video in Totem and VLC
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Applications
Ubuntu ships with a fairly small selection of popular open source software. The Firefox web browser and LibreOffice are included along with the Thunderbird e-mail client. Shotwell is present for working with photos and the Transmission bittorrent application is included. Ubuntu ships with the Cheese web cam utility, the Totem video player and the Rhythmbox audio player. We are also given a calendar application, a text editor and the Nautilus file manager. Network Manager is present to help us get on-line. In the background we find the systemd init software and version 4.13 of the Linux kernel.
The default applications generally worked well for me and I didn't run into many surprises. One of the few exceptions was my aforementioned trouble with the Totem video player not being able to play videos when run in the Wayland session. I could get around this limitation by installing the VLC multimedia player or switching to the GNOME on Xorg session.
One application I feel is worth highlighting is the calendar. The calendar by itself is a nice, simple calendar tool, but what makes it stand out is the ability to sync the calendar with on-line accounts. The default calendar can be synchronized with, for example, a Google or Nextcloud account. I successfully synced my desktop calendar with my Ubuntu Phone calendar for convenience and quite liked the result. As the calendar also links to the Activities search bar, this allows me to find appointments I previously made on my phone through my laptop's search feature.
Ubuntu 17.10 -- Running Firefox and LibreOffice
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However, I also ran into a bug when using calendar. Once, right after I signed into my account, a notification appeared saying the calendar application had crashed. The crash report tool offered to automatically submit a bug, which I agreed to do. Then the Firefox web browser opened and asked me to sign into an Ubuntu One account. This was probably to help the crash reporter submit a bug, but this connection was not made clear and I think a new user would see Firefox asking for credentials on an unfamiliar website as being entirely a different (and scary) process from the crash reporter sending a bug. Ideally, I don't feel the user should need to sign into any account to file an automated bug report.
I found when applications had notifications they wanted to share a small dot would appear next to the clock on the panel at the top of the screen. At first this notification reminder was so subtle I failed to notice it. On the one hand it is nice GNOME does not distract the user, but something a little more noticeable than a small, white dot might be useful. Clicking the dot shows us recent notifications.
Earlier I mentioned we can use the Activities search box to find applications, even ones we have not installed yet. The Ubuntu terminal does something similar where if we type the name of a program into the shell we have not yet installed, the terminal will provide the command we need to enter to install the missing software.
Software Centre
Ubuntu uses the GNOME Software Centre to handle finding, installing, removing and updating software packages. The Software Centre begins by showing us a list of software categories and some featured items. Clicking on a category brings up a list of sub-categories we can explore on the left side of the window and specific applications on the right. Clicking a program's entry brings up a full screen display with information on the selected program.
When we are on the first screen, browsing categories, there is a search button in the window's title bar we can click to search for packages by name. The search option disappears while we are browsing categories, which I found inconvenient as it meant I had to return to the initial page to perform a search. Searches tended to be slow and I sometimes saw error messages reporting not all results could be shown as the search query had timed out.
Ubuntu 17.10 -- The Software Centre
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The Software Centre handles working with traditional Deb packages and Snap packages. Unfortunately it can be hard to tell the two apart at a glance. Some searches, such as one for the Chromium browser, would return two options, the Deb package and the Snap, but they are not clearly marked. I found I could usually identify the Snap because it would not have a rating next to its name, while Deb packages typically had a rating out of five stars. Clicking on a package to bring up its information screen will also list the package's origin and Snaps list their origin as being from the Snap Store.
For most purposes it might not matter where a package comes from, or if it is bundled as a Deb or Snap, but Snaps are a lot larger. Some Snap packages could be anywhere from 4 to 40 times larger than their equivalent Deb package.
When searching for desktop applications I found that not all desktop software would show up in searches from the Software Centre. I could switch to a command line and use the APT tools to locate and install these packages which did not show up in Software Centre.
Software Centre features three tabs, one for finding new software, one for displaying installed applications and one for managing software updates. I found that if I went into the Installed tab, there were some applications I could remove and others I could not. For example, I could not remove Totem from within Software Centre, but another default application, Cheese, could be removed.
I tried installing a few Snap applications and found they mostly worked like traditional Deb packages in the way they installed and ran. However, sometimes when installing a new Snap the software manager would report the installation failed. However, if I tried to re-install the Snap, another error would be displayed reporting the Snap was already on my system. I found that closing and restarting the Software Centre would not fix this, but logging out of my account and signing back in would take the Snap out of package limbo and allow me to complete the installation.
Settings
The GNOME settings panel has changed since the last time I used the desktop environment. Now, rather than having a panel with a grid of icons which open new screens of settings, the settings window is split into two panes. On the left are categories of settings such as Wi-fi, Notifications and Privacy while on the right we see the settings in that category. The new panel is perhaps less colourful and the layout of the specific settings (and their spacing) make me think touch screens may have been a motivation behind the new design.
Ubuntu 17.10 -- The settings panel
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I generally found the new settings panel worked well. It took me little time to get used to the new layout. Something I appreciated about the two-pane style was I did not need to go back "up" a level to get an overview of available options. Categories are simply listed down the side which I think makes quickly browsing for an option faster. One of the few things I did not like about the new panel was that some settings categories are hidden under others. For example, to manage user accounts or adjust the system's clock, we need to know to look under the Details category, which brings up a new screen of categories, including Users and Date & Time.
Conclusions
Version 17.10 is a big change for the Ubuntu distribution. Apart from the desktop switching to GNOME from Unity, more effort appears to have been made to integrate Snaps into software management. The introduction of Wayland is also new as, previously, the next iteration of Unity was going to use the Mir display software.
On the surface, just looking at the desktop and the way things are presented, I feel the developers did a very good job at making GNOME look like Unity. In that respect, existing Ubuntu users should feel more or less at home. I was especially impressed with Wayland. I have never had a truly positive experience with Wayland desktop sessions before, but Ubuntu not only got GNOME on Wayland working, the Wayland session generally worked better and faster than the Xorg session. The Totem application did not work well with Wayland, but VLC did making it an easy issue to work around. I think GNOME on Wayland is more responsive than Unity which is another nice point in this release's favour.
However, I did run into some frustrations with the transition to the GNOME desktop. GNOME does not have Unity's HUD, or the option to disable the global menu bar and searches in the Activities screen were slower than Unity's scope searches. These missing (or less polished) features might not be noticed by new users, but existing Ubuntu users are likely to feel let down. I also noticed that some applications use the global menu bar while others do not. The file manager uses the menu bar at the top of the screen, but the LibreOffice suite does not and it makes for an inconsistent experience.
I do like the new settings panel. It feels more open, more transparent in a way. And I was able to perform fewer clicks to find what I wanted, so I feel the new system settings panel is a step in the right direction.
My big complaint this time around was with the software manager. Software Centre was slow, it did not always find items I wanted and knew were in the repositories, and searches for Snaps often timed out. I sometimes ran into glitches where I could not install a package, or a package would install while claiming it had not. The Software Centre also would not allow me to remove some programs. These limitations led me to use the APT command line tools in place of the Software Centre. I realize the developers are trying to mix Deb packages and Snap packages together under one unified umbrella and I sympathize because that must be difficult. Unfortunately, the result right now is that many things mostly work, but nothing in the Software Centre really works perfectly.
On the whole the transition from Unity to GNOME (and Xorg to Wayland) went much better than I thought it would. Ubuntu 17.10 was quick and easy to navigate and worked smoothly for the most part. There are some minor rough patches here and there, but on the whole I was pleasantly surprised with the performance of this release. I was sceptical about Ubuntu dropping Unity for GNOME, but I think the transition is going well. I do hope some features, like the HUD and disabling the global menu bar, come back in time for Ubuntu 18.04. If not, the Unity 7 desktop is still available in the distribution's repositories. * * * * * Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a de-branded HP laptop with the following specifications: Processor: Intel i3 2.5GHz CPU
Display: Intel integrated video
Storage: Western Digital 700GB hard drive
Memory: 6GB of RAM
Wired network device: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast
Wireless network device: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless network card * * * * * Visitor supplied rating
Ubuntu has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.6/10 from 396 review(s).
Have you used Ubuntu? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.CeCe Asuncion might be one of the trans community’s greatest allies. He started Slay Model Management along with Cassandra Cass (pictured, left), and is now the Director of Scouting and Development at the agency, which is the focal point of Oxygen’s newest show, Strut. Executive Produced by Whoopi Goldberg, Strut follows the lives of five transgender models as they attempt to take the fashion world by storm. CeCe is a source of constant support and encouragement—a blessing in a world that is often hostile to, or non-inclusive of, the trans community.
CeCe became heavily involved with the trans community after directing a documentary called What's The T, which explored the lives of five transgender women. With his allegiance to the community, his eye for beauty and love of fashion, CeCe created a unique agency for people who are neglectfully underrepresented and underexposed in the fashion industry, and the media world at large. We spoke to CeCe about his involvement with the trans community, the challenges of starting an all trans modelling agency, and how the trans community helped him through the death of his father.
What prompted you to start Slay Model Management?
I've always loved fashion, and when I did my documentary, What's the T? In 2012, I had a chance to really get to know the transgender community. What a lot of them needed were opportunities for employment. After I had met Arisce, I knew there were other trans women and men out there who could benefit from having an all-trans agency and the rest is history!
What are the biggest challenges you've faced with your agency?
The biggest challenge is that some brands or designers are not yet open to hiring or using a trans model because of how conservative they are. I always find this frustrating because I come from the school of thought that if someone can do the job, let them do the job. They have the right height, they can walk like no body's business, they are beautiful, who cares what they were assigned at as birth? They're models first and transfolk second!
What do you think the modelling industry has the capacity to achieve in the realm of LGBT rights and awareness?
The fashion/modeling industry is in a very strong position to form acceptance and influence. Every season, this industry dictates on what style and color trends we end up wearing. Major designers employing trans models walking alongside cisgender models on the runway would indicate that transfolk are no different when they can be seen alongside other models. Beauty is beauty.
You've also made a documentary about trans women—what is it about the trans women you documented that is so important to you?
As someone who is Filipino, I know what it's like to never see someone who looks like me on TV or in movies, except when Joy Luck Club and Memoirs of a Geisha came out and that's been a hot minute! I started my documentary so that young trans kids can see it and know they have a future and they can dream. During filming "What's the T?," my father had passed away and I had to focus on finishing the film. I always see it as the trans women in my film saved me.
What have you learned over the course of filming Strut?
I have learned that I see my models as more than just business collaborators or clients. I see them as my children, my friends, my family and how we are all the same. We are just people trying to make our dreams happen.
What do you hope audiences will take away from Strut?
I hope people walk away with the sense of dreaming and dreaming big! All of us, no matter whether you're trans, gay or straight, we are all on the same planet and we have to understand that there are experiences we all share and that we are not exempt from! That being said, while we are all here, let's all get together and help one another achieve as much as we can instead of dragging each other down!When: Back to Calendar July 21, 2012 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm Where: Interstate 285
Atlanta,GA
USA
✔ Add to Calendar Add to Google Calendar Cost: Free Categories: Action Public
Heads up about a demonstration for every driver. It’s called “Lights for Liberty Drive” but is unaffiliated with Transportation Leadership Coalition or TrafficTruth.net.
Driver will converge onto the outer loop of I-285 at 10am on Saturday, July 21st and go counter clockwise for 2 loops or about 2 hours. The group will drive the speed limit in the center lane with our flashers on.
Organizers encourage all drivers not to impede traffic. The group is hoping to have hundreds of cars on the loop at the same time, coming in from all directions at the same time displaying signage to decorate your car in protest to the NEW TAX and send a message that we do not support it!
Organizers request you keep this protest to T-SPLOST only.
Please direct all questions to Yellowstone95@gmail.com or call 770-401-8157An estimated 3,666 crimes are detected a year because someone's profile is already on the system for a previous incident, according to the review by the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.
The trend will fuel criticism over the retention of the DNA of innocent people, which the Government has proposed should be kept for up to six years.
The committee also called for a return to "common sense" policing over the collection of DNA to end "flimsy" arrests, such as minor playground fights.
The Human Genetics Commission, a Government watchdog, claimed last year that police are arresting people for "everything" just so they can take their DNA and boost numbers of the national database, which has more than five million profiles.
Chris Sims, the West Midlands Chief Constable, told the Committee that 33,000 crimes are detected each year by matching DNA.
However, that figure includes both crimes that are solved because a known person's DNA was already on the system and also those were a profile is taken from a crime scene and is later matched when someone is arrested, either for that crime or some other reason.
The report said research by Gene Watch estimates the number of incidents where a crime is solved because someone's profile is already on there stands at just 3,666 a year.
It said that is the equivalent of 0.3 per cent of the 1.3 million crimes detected each year. However, when compared against the 4.9 million crimes reported annually, it is the same as one in every 1,336.
The database holds around one million genetic profiles of individuals never convicted of any crime.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled it illegal to hold these profiles indefinitely.
In response, the Home Office plans to store the DNA of innocent adults who are arrested, but not convicted, for six years before deleting it.
The report also criticised the target culture within the police encouraging officers to treat minor offences more seriously, such as treating as violence an incident involving no physical attack, while arrests have also been made for "trivial incidents" such as playground fights.
It said some witnesses to their inquiry have claimed they had their DNA taken after being wrongly arrested but still find it very difficult to have the profiles removed.
The Committee said: "We hope that both these trends will be mitigated by the move back to 'common sense policing'; if so, the number of arrests for flimsy reasons should decline sharply."
Keith Vaz, chairman of the committee, said: “DNA profiling and matching are vital tools in the fight against crime.
"However, Especially in the case of those of who are arrested and have their DNA taken but are then never charged, or never convicted of a crime, it is a very complex issue to balance the potential benefit of retaining their data against the threat to individual privacy.
We don’t have good information about how many later detections arise from this data."OH IT'S THIS GUY AGAIN WIT THE MODS AND THE THINGSFixes names in build window and adds an all concrete version.V1.1 fixes their vertical snap, they still wont sink properly ala solo placement, but if you have snapped them to a floor you can keep snapping them to each other vertically into the ground now properly.
DescriptionIt adds the pudding to the pudding popI mean.. look at the pic.. all ya need to know right there people!They mostly stack at night, mostlyTheres a UV issue in the SS that was fixed ignore that blackish blob of square pixel hate0 Compatibility issues, It uses vanilla keywords etc. If you find this mod is having issues with another settlement mod OTHER than the menu limit bug, contact that other MA immediately cause they done screwed with something vanilla in a bad bad wayI think I get it: Charles Davidson and Charlie Fuqua are trying to make Romney appear more moderate. That’s the only imaginable excuse for something like this.
Charlie Fuqua, the Republican candidate for the Arkansas House of Representatives who called for expelling Muslims from the United States in his book, also wrote in support for instituting the death penalty for “rebellious children.” God’s Law,” Fuqua’s 2012 book, the candidate wrote that while parents love their children, a process could be set up to allow for the institution of the death penalty for “rebellious children,” according to the Arkansas Times. Fuqua, who is anti-abortion, points out that the course of action involved in sentencing a child to death is described in the Bible and would involve judicial approval. While it is unlikely that many parents would seek to have their children killed by the government, Fuqua wrote, such power would serve as a way to stop rebellious children.
I forgot about religion, so I guess there are two ways something this horrid could be explained.LTE is now available to more smartphone users than ever before. Is all this high speed data driving us to consume great and great amounts over cellular connections? Some new statistics are out for Android data use, broken down by age group, that show what the average American data consumption looks like.
In some news that would make the cellular network happy, we seem to be going easy on their towers, and pulling-down the vast majority of our data over WiFi. Users in the 25-34 age group seem to be taking the most advantage of WiFi networks, but even much older Android users are pulling most of their data down by WiFi.
Actual cellular consumption is remarkably consistent across age groups, only differing by a few hundred megabytes. The youngest users are the only group to consistently use over a gigabyte of cellular data each month, while the oldest hit about three-quarters of that figure.
How do you fit in with these figures? Are you a data junkie that’s going through something like an order of magnitude more than these numbers, or is your use even more conservative? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: NPD
Via: EngadgetLatest news
First grotesque anal grafted stills for Tom Six's HUMAN CENTIPEDE quietearth [Celluloid 07.06.09] horror comedy
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Just 3 days ago we posted news on Tom Six's
Internationally respected Siamese twin surgeon Dr. Josef Heiter has a demented vision for mankind’s future existence. He wants to remove human beings’ kneecaps so they have to exist on all fours and then surgically graft them mouth-to-anus to form a centipede chain. When two stranded female Americans arrive at his luxury home-cum-hospital looking for help, his long-gestating plan swiftly moves into chilling action with a shocking force. Kidnapping a third Japanese male tourist he begins the tissue matches, teeth removal and buttock moulding to create his triplet creature.
NOTE: Stills removed due to google adsense compliance which is utterly ridiculous.
Just 3 days ago we posted news on Tom Six's Human Centipede which sounds so Cronenbergian I'm already in love.. and thanks to producer Ilona Six we've got the first stills! And yes they're twisted, NSFW, and utterly beautiful. To recap, this is a Dutch film (and a UK co-production) in English, Japanese, and German which is 90 minutes long. It's the "first sequence" which will be followed by "the full sequence", completing the film. I can't wait for the trailer.NOTE: Stills removed due to google adsense compliance which is utterly ridiculous.
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Sunolet (9 years ago) Reply
i've seen a lot of sick stuff, i've been around ER's in gang cities and seen brutal torture and murder victims but to be crude and quite frank, that looks too fucked up
Scrosy (9 years ago) Reply
I am quivering with anticipation. This looks fun. Anus linked!
Alice (9 years ago) Reply
Yes! That doctor (?) looks amazing in the second picture. I can't wait to see this sick flight of fancy.
readyoufool (9 years ago) Reply
so...i bet that really cuts down on laxative expenditures...
Anonymous (9 years ago) Reply
i always pictured the food chain differently
Anonymous (9 years ago) Reply
I'd hate to be the one at the end of that chain.
Pat (9 years ago) Reply
would u put tht on ur resumee if u were one of the actors part of the... <- those 3 dots say it all really, hm?
bunny hoover (9 years ago) Reply
It's documentaries like this that got me interested in studying medicine in the first place! Will there be free screenings for med students, or giant mutant rabbits?
David Carradine (9 years ago) Reply
I saw a human centipede while I was hanging around Bangkok.
Anonymous (9 years ago) Reply
just say miam miam miam scato is happy
hey (9 years ago) Reply
where's the trailer for this?
Anonymous (9 years ago) Reply
Three Girls One Centipede?
Anonymous (9 years ago) Reply
NOM NOM NOM
LOL (9 years ago) Reply
TITS or GTFO
just wasting time (9 years ago) Reply
I don't know what's more appalling; the plot itself or that someone actually feels inspired to make a film about it.
In all likeliness, he's getting off on it.
Anonymous (9 years ago) Reply
This shows how sick some people are. Lack of morals and afterwards they complain about the Third Reich. Disgusting ideas of a deranged mind.
I feel sorry for those who watch this kind of movies. The worst part is that the doctor is portrayed as German.
Flawed (9 years ago) Reply
Err... how is removing the kneecaps actually going to help this "creation"?? Flawed, very flawed.
dynamitemarky (9 years ago) Reply
Do do do, come on and do the conga....
Lionel Blair (9 years ago) Reply
also... might be being a little too literal but how does "it" drink?! huh? huh?
jasonn jess lauryn (8 years ago) Reply
Wooh I'll d the conga |
.
Microsoft also laid out a road map for the release of Windows 7 and handed out a pre-beta version to developers at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC), where it also demonstrated new features in a keynote address Tuesday.
The first public beta of the OS will be available early next year, and subsequent test releases and release candidates will follow based on that feedback, said Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president of Windows and Windows Live at Microsoft.
Windows 7 is still targeted for release three years after Vista, he added. This would put its business release in late 2009 and general availability at the end of January 2010 if the OS remains on schedule.
In his keynote Tuesday, Sinofsky said Microsoft is learning its lessons from Vista, which was widely criticized by users and the press, and spoofed famously in humorous television advertisements by competitor Apple.
Sinofsky acknowledged that some of the criticism was deserved, particularly around Microsoft's lack of preparing its hardware, software and peripheral partners for Vista's release, even though it was more than five years in the making.
Early Vista users experienced incompatibility with applications and found that devices and peripherals would not work with the OS because drivers weren't available upon the release of the OS.
Microsoft won't repeat this mistake with Vista, Sinofsky said, and because the OS kernel -- or its underlying code base -- is the same as the one in Vista and Windows Server 2008, all of the devices and applications that work with those OSes should also run on Windows 7.
"All of this device and compatibility work will pay off in Windows 7," he said.
Microsoft also will tweak the User Account Control feature (UAC), which was new in Vista, so it will be less of an inconvenience and work more efficiently for users, Sinofsky said.
UAC prevents users without administrative privileges from making unauthorized changes to a PC. But because of how it was set up in Vista, it can prevent even authorized users on the network from being able to access applications and features they should normally have access to.
UAC did this through pop-up windows, which also were spoofed by Apple in television ads because Vista users reported they appeared so frequently, even when users were performing authorized tasks.
Sinofsky acknowledged that Microsoft "went a little too far with UAC," but as a result the Windows client OS is now more secure. In Windows 7, Microsoft will focus on the security aspects of UAC but will ensure it is not an invasive feature for users, he said.
During Tuesday's keynote, Microsoft showed off some new features in Windows 7, including a streamlined view of all the files and folders contained not only on a user's PC, but also any other PCs on networks that the users are allowed access to.
This feature is called Libraries, and it will improve desktop search in Windows 7 by allowing users to search more comprehensively across PC folders than ever before, according to Microsoft.
Microsoft also changed its Gadgets feature, another new Vista feature. Gadgets are mini-applications that give users quick access to information, such as stock prices or weather, with icons that users in Windows 7 will be able to move around the desktop. In Vista, gadget icons were confined to a task bar.
Perhaps the sexiest new Windows 7 feature demonstrated Tuesday was its touchscreen interface, which lets people use their fingertips and small hand gestures to control applications on their PCs.
Microsoft demonstrated how touchscreen controls can replace the mouse for things like opening the taskbar and choosing a Windows Explorer window. If a user opens a folder with photos in it in Windows Folder, they can scroll through those photos using their fingers, and drag a photo into a Windows Paint application window and draw directly on the photo.The beaver was a cute curiosity until it got mad. Then it was just plain scary.
The mad beaver of Miramichi, pictured here in a cellphone photo just moments before it turned aggressive, slapping its tail and hissing. ( Terry Furlotte )
Terry Furlotte would know; he barely escaped without getting nipped. The 52-year-old was visiting family in Miramichi, N.B., on Tuesday afternoon, about to tuck into a big steak at Mike’s, a pub and grill near the city’s main drag. That’s when he noticed an uncharacteristic kerfuffle on the street out the window. Traffic was halted and people were gathering, gawking at something. He saw the beaver.
Article Continued Below
The dam-dwelling rodent of symbolic, historic and national import was sauntering along the sidewalk, much to the amusement of those pouring out of the Jean Coutu pharmacy and nearby homes for a gander. “There I see the beaver going down the sidewalk,” said Furlotte with a hearty chuckle. “I found it odd that he was just walking downtown here. He was on a stroll down King St.” It was the strangest thing, so naturally, Furlotte went outside to get a closer look and immortalize the moment with a picture on his phone. Having “grown up in the woods,” the Nova Scotian wasn’t nervous about approaching the beast, which Furlotte described as about two feet long and one foot around. He bent down to snap the beaver’s photo, but evidently the beast didn’t like it. “He slapped his tail, turned around with a big old hiss, you could see his teeth there sticking out,” said Furlotte, who was startled.
“I had to turn and run away.... He chased me down the road.” Once the mad beaver of Miramichi got aggressive, police were called to deal with the animal. They dealt with the scene by cordoning off streets to make sure the rodent didn’t get hit by a car, and waited for the beaver to wander back into the wilderness.
Article Continued Below
He’s still out there. He could return. Days late, the scene is still the talk of the town. Call up city hall, people along the King George Highway that runs through town, or one of the local shops and you’ll get a chuckle about the stir caused by the beaver. Peter Richardson, the animal control officer for the city of 17,000, said there are many beavers in the area, but he’s never heard of one roaming into town like this. Even so, he doesn’t think the beaver’s behaviour was abnormal. In the spring, young beavers are often “driven” out of their dams by their parents to make room for a new litter, Richardson said. And as for the apparent aggression, that’s normal, too. “All that was, was that too many people were getting out to take a look,” said Richardson. “The only thing it knows to do is either run or stand its ground.... It was just protecting itself.” Though it’s exceedingly rare, beavers have been known to attack people. Last May, a fisherman in Belarus died after being bitten by a beaver he was trying to photograph. An elderly Virginia woman was knocked into a lake and battled a beaver that had bitten her leg for 20 minutes in 2012. She managed to escape. Jeff Gates, owner of an animal management firm called All Canadian Wildlife Control, said beavers shouldn’t be considered dangerous, but like all rodents, can get mean when they feel threatened or are protecting their young. “They’re pretty tough. If you ever tangled with one it would win probably. They’ve got a good bite and big claws.”
Read more about:Bitcoin Cloud Services is No Longer Paying Its Users 11 Jun
2015
The cloud mining service Bitcoin Cloud Services has apparently stopped paying to its users a few days ago, the last payment from the service was on June 7th for the earnings from the previous day (public payout address). We have tried contacting the service operators for an explanation on what is going on and have allowed enough time to get a reply, but so far we are yet to receive a response. Bitcoin Cloud Services has been one of our advertisers and our team has personally used the service for about a year without any problems up until now. Our readers have also reported that no new orders are being processed at the moment, though payments still go through apparently as the website of the service is still online and it seems as if everything still runs normally, but it is NOT. So we would advice to stay away from Bitcoin Cloud Services and do not try to purchase anything from the service until things get cleared or the situation resolves. Meanwhile if you are looking for a really good and transparent cloud mining operation you might want to check out Genesis Mining, the cloud mining service we would recommend.Since the St. Louis Blues were considered Stanley Cup favorites in 2001, the franchise has watched the Carolinas and the Pittsburghs acquire talent mid-season to assist with their championship runs.
Now, it may be the Blues’ turn again.
Yes, it’s February. That means its time for the hockey analysts and fans alike to groupthink the best — and the worst — rumors imaginable. Some are strewn together with tiny tidbits of misinterpreted coach interviews and small sample-sizes of a certain player’s game while others have logical reasoning and trusted sources to support the theory.
The Blues have been involved in both of these rumors for the better part of a year with their goaltending as Ryan Miller has been the supposed next starting goalie to be donning the blue and yellow uniform. It seems, though, that the team’s 2012-13 leading scorer is now making the headlines.
Chris Stewart, who posted 18 goals and 36 points last season, was the subject of TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger’s tweet on Friday:
Western Conf teams suggest the Rangers are gathering intel on Chris Stewart. Callahan for Stewart would be a sweet deal for the Blues. — Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) January 31, 2014
When looking at, yes, a sample size, you can see validity in Dreger’s claim. From Dec. 12 -23, Stewart exploded offensively with eight goals and 11 points in seven games. Since then, the right winger has contributed just two goals and two assists in 18 games. His ice time has dipped from 17:22 (Dec. 29) to 5:32 (Jan. 25). He’s moved from a scoring role to a checking role multiple times this season.
Conversely, the acquisition of Ryan Callahan makes some fans and media cringe at his asking price. An unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, the Rangers captain has reportedly asked for seven years at $42 million on his next contract. Yikes.
There are plenty of layers to this possible deal. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Callahan as a rental
If some variation of this rumor were to actually occur, the Blues would likely consider bringing on Callahan as the rental of a lifetime. The rugged right winger has posted nine goals and 21 points in 39 games for the Rangers this season. Although he isn’t known for his flashy play or goal-scoring prowess, he is known for something the Blues covet: work ethic.
Is that worth $6 million per year? Somebody will be willing to pay Callahan his asking price over the summer, there is no doubt about that (see Toronto Maple Leafs winger David Clarkson). Although there are teams that are willing to overpay for a big name, the Blues usually do not fit that mold.
Losing Stewart in the trade and Callahan in free agency would look troublesome if the team doesn’t reach their lofty postseason goal. However, freeing up a hole in the offense opens some room for youngster Dmitrij Jaskin to prove his worth next season. With his tremendous upside in mind, Jaskin could provide the Blues with identical numbers in the near future.
This theory is not foreign to GM Doug Armstrong. Just this past summer, he moved David Perron to Edmonton for Magnus Paajarvi and a draft pick, but the publicly accepted reason was to free up playing time for Alexander Steen and Jaden Schwartz. We’ve seen how that worked out.
Callahan in the long term
Turning 29 in March, Callahan plays a hard-nosed game while, for the most part, avoiding long-term injuries. The Callahan machine seems to be well oiled, meaning a seven-year contract for the proven leader isn’t a crazy notion.
The problem is money. His current team has been public that he is on the trading block, according to Dreger, among others:
Developing story, NYR grant permission to at least 1 team who has already talked with Callahan’s agent. More on Sportscentre. #TSN — Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) January 31, 2014
It’s no secret that the salary cap will rise next season. For one, it has every season since the 2004-05 lockout, with the slight exception of this season since a new CBA was negotiated. The league has all but said that 2014-15 will be upwards of $70 million.
Currently, the Blues are just under the league’s $64.3 million cap. After management decides what to do with impending free agents Patrik Berglund, Carlo Colaiacovo, Brenden Morrow, Derek Roy, Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Sobotka, as well as goalies Brian Elliott and Jaroslav Halak, Callahan could be offered the amount that the Blues have remaining before hitting the cap.
The hope would likely be, though, that his asking price would come down. A contributing factor to that possibility would be that the Sochi-bound forward would be welcomed by fellow U.S. Olympians David Backes, T.J. Oshie and Kevin Shattenkirk. The prospect of an All-American line for multiple years could be appealing to the native of Rochester, N.Y.
Unloading Stewart’s contract
Either of these scenarios could drop Stewart’s $4.2 million price tag next season (if the Blues agree to not retain any of the money owed). If the Blues go with Option 1 of using Callahan purely as a rental, the team could revamp its offense in 2014-15 if desired. Roy and Morrow are likely to depart, meaning that the combined salaries of the three players ($9.65 million) would come off the books.
Accompanied with a higher salary cap, this circumstance could allow the Blues to develop an entirely new line to open next season. Jaskin and AHL Chicago teammate Ty Rattie are making strides in the AHL, while a slew of free-agents could fit the Blues’ system. These names include UFAs Ales Hemsky, Matt Moulson, Paul Stastny and Thomas Vanek.
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We always have to remember, though, that these discussions need to be taken as what they are: rumors. Stewart’s increase in ice-time (averaged —- in the past two games) may not be a showcase of his talents as others say, but a likelihood that head coach Ken Hitchcock is wanting to see what his player will do after riding the bench as of late.
There will be an answer to these queries soon enough with the NHL’s March 5 trade deadline fast approaching. For the Blues, that is just seven games to assess their talent and decide the final roster for the long playoff run.The American supermarket now offers more than 38,000 items, and an infographic by Oxfam International making its way around the Web reveals how 10 companies are responsible for almost all the processed food and beverages stocked on the shelves.
According to Oxfam, the Big 10 are Coca Cola Co. /quotes/zigman/222647/delayed /quotes/nls/ko KO, Nestle, PepsiCo Inc. /quotes/zigman/238082/delayed /quotes/nls/pep PEP, General Mills Inc. /quotes/zigman/227548/delayed /quotes/nls/gis GIS, Kellogg Co. /quotes/zigman/231157/delayed /quotes/nls/k K, Associated British Foods /quotes/zigman/189025/delayed UK:ABF, Mondelez International /quotes/zigman/11829567/delayed /quotes/nls/mdlz MDLZ, Mars, Danone /quotes/zigman/163487/delayed FR:BN and Unilever /quotes/zigman/409909/delayed UK:ULVR.
The report warns about the dangers of a convoluted global food system: farmers with fewer buyers for their products, agricultural workers exploited and suffering unsafe conditions, consumers unable to keep track of who’s behind the brand, and massive international conglomerates unaware of what’s happening in their own supply chains.
Oxfam also says the food and beverage industry is not doing enough to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, contributing to climate change and ultimately hurting farmers.
A May 2014 report says if the Big 10 were a country, it would be the 25th highest-polluting nation in the world, more than Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway combined.
(H/T KnowMore)
— Michelle Coffey
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Dow 17,000 is on the wrong side of historyUS's biggest bank to pay penalties to US and UK regulators for 'unsound practices' relating to $6.2bn losses last year
JP Morgan has agreed to pay about $920m in penalties to US and UK regulators over the "unsafe and unsound practices" that led to its $6.2bn London Whale losses last year.
The US's biggest bank will pay $300m to the US office of the comptroller of the currency, $200m to Federal Reserve, $200m to the securities and exchange commission (SEC) and £137.6m ($219.74m) to the UK's financial conduct authority.
JP Morgan admitted wrongdoing as part of the settlement, an unusual step for a finance firm in the crosshairs of multiple legal actions.
"JP Morgan failed to keep watch over its traders as they overvalued a very complex portfolio to hide massive losses," co-director of the SEC's division of enforcement, George Canellos, said.
"While grappling with how to fix its internal control breakdowns, JP Morgan's senior management broke a cardinal rule of corporate governance and deprived its board of critical information it needed to fully assess the company's problems and determine whether accurate and reliable information was being disclosed to investors and regulators."
In a statement the OCC blamed "unsafe and unsound practices related to derivatives trading activities conducted on behalf of the bank by the chief investment office (CIO)", for the fine.
The OCC said its inquiries had found inadequate oversight and governance to protect the bank from material risk, inadequate risk management, inadequate control over pricing of trades, inadequate development and implementation of models used by the bank, and inadequate internal audit processes.
The US authorities are still pursuing JP Morgan. The Justice Department is pursuing criminal charges against some of the bankers responsible for the massive loss. In an indictment unsealed in federal court this week Javier Martin-Artajo, who oversaw trading strategy at the bank's London office, and Julien Grout, a trader who worked for him, were charged with securities fraud, conspiracy, filing false books and records, wire fraud and making false filings to the SEC.
Grout's lawyer said this week that his client was being "unjustly played as a pawn in the government's attempt to settle its highly politicized case against JP Morgan Chase".
The bank also faces another fine from the commodity futures trading commission which is still investigating whether the bank is guilty of market manipulation.
Jamie Dimon, the bank's chairman and chief executive, initially dismissed the mounting losses at the bank's London offices as a "tempest in a teapot". In a statement Dimon said: "We have accepted responsibility and acknowledged our mistakes from the start, and we have learned from them and worked to fix them. Since these losses occurred, we have made numerous changes that have made us a stronger, smarter, better company."
This week in a letter to staff he warned: "Unfortunately, we are all well aware of the news around the legal and regulatory issues facing our company, and in the coming weeks and months we need to be braced for more to come."
The admission of wrongdoing is a major victory for the SEC. US judges in recent years have questioned fines where banks were allowed to neither admit nor deny wrongdoing. Judge Jed Rakoff blocked a 2011 SEC settlement with Citigroup because he said the lack of an admission of wrongdoing made it impossible for him to determine whether the fine was "fair, reasonable, adequate and in the public interest".
John Coffee, Adolf A Berle professor of law at Columbia Law School, described the fine as "somewhat less than satisfactory".
"The victims of this enormous loss were the shareholders of JP Morgan and the remedy is for those shareholders to pay $900m-plus in fines. It's not just adding insult to injury, it's adding injury to injury.
He said no senior bank official had been charged with wrongdoing and described the those indicted so far as "relatively small fish".
"Ideally the regulators should fine actual individuals who are responsible. But time and again the SEC settles for large penalties and gives virtual immunity to some officers."There’s an awful lot we can’t talk about in Britain these days. We can’t talk about immigration, we can’t talk about gender, about race, and most of all we can’t talk about Muslims and Islam. We just can’t talk about the hijab or the niqab, and we certainly can’t talk about child abuse by men of Pakistani origin.
If you dare pipe up about any of these taboos you will be gagged, sacked and shunned. If you ask a question about immigration on BBC Question Time, for instance, a member of staff will rugby-tackle you and bundle you out of the studio. Politics, the media and polite society have become dominated by a powerful cabal, a liberal league that has so stifled debate for fear of offence that it has become an act of immense bravery to merely suggest that there is a religious or racial issue to any political or social problem.
This isn’t hyperbole, it is the parallel universe that many, including politicians and most of the British media establishment, inhabit.
Let’s take a quick glance at the news coverage over the past seven days. There have been three stories about Muslims and migrants, followed by their own noxious cloud of newspaper columns, radio phone-in shows and social media. The Labour MP Sarah Champion, who was forced off the Labour frontbench last month after writing a Sun column saying Britain “has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls”, ramped up her thoughts in a Times interview, where she blamed “the floppy left” – who, she claims, shy away from tackling difficult issues because they fear being accused of racism.
In another case, newspapers reported claims over the case of a child placed in foster care with a Muslim family that allegedly imposed a Muslim way of life – although the original reports contained questionable details and provocatively worded extrapolations. When challenged on this story, the Times played what is now a sort of meta race-card, defending its position by stating that the objection to the investigation “is a kneejerk response that betrays a blind spot on the left”. Champion herself went full martyr and said she would “rather be called a racist than turn a blind eye to child abuse”.
And this weekend the Sunday Times published a story on its front page about how five-year-old girls are wearing hijab as school uniform. The article quoted the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, who said: “Personally, I am against the wearing of hijabs altogether.”
A listener could switch from a debate on the hijab on LBC, to Radio 4 discussing the foster care case
Following these stories, there have been phone-in shows, interviews and discussions on LBC, BBC Radio 4’s Today and BBC Newsnight, plus two columns in the Sun. Not to mention the Daily Mail, which sank even further than usual by grafting a niqab on to a stock photo to illustrate its own report on the foster-parenting story.
At one point on Monday, a listener could switch over from Nick Ferrari hosting a debate on the hijab on LBC, to Radio 4 discussing the foster care case. The conspiracy of silence runs deep in the British establishment.
To claim, in this climate, that any criticism of reports that are sometimes inaccurate or even entirely made up, is due to a liberal progressive consensus that muffles discussion, is little short of gaslighting. We talk about “it” – immigrants, Muslims, political correctness, the apparent assault on Judaeo-Christian Britain – all the time. It has become a national obsession, as British as tea and crumpets. Keep calm and carry on dog-whistling.
Not only is there little fire to justify all the smoke, there is now a deliberate confection on the part of politicians and journalists in order to make careers or attract attention. A fake controversy which, when exposed as lies or exaggeration, is rehashed as an attack on the left for trying to suppress free speech.
And where is this “left” that has such a vice-like grip on politics, the media and public debate? Certainly not in government, and certainly not recently enough in power to have left such a lasting impact. Even when the left was in government, New Labour’s overtures to the right were very much in evidence.
So where is this gagging left in the British media? Is it in the pages of the immigration- and Islam-obsessed Daily Mail? Is it in the tabloids? Is it in the pages of the respectable broadsheets like the Times and the Telegraph (the print edition of Allison Pearson’s column last week was headlined “I’m deeply uneasy about this Muslim foster family”)? Or in the BBC, which now largely acts as a referee providing a platform for false equivocation? Or maybe it is in our immigration-obsessed, Brexit-infected politics?
What we seemingly can’t talk about is anything that takes these issues away from race or religion. We can’t talk about how child abuse is also linked to class and economics, to the power of men over vulnerable children; we can’t talk about how cultural compatibility in foster care is informed, and yes also sometimes compromised, by practicalities such as ease of familial access.
The PC liberal censorship claim is a lie employed by the partisan, the cynical, the slow-witted and the xenophobic. If we don’t challenge it, their toxic agenda will seize control of our public debate.
• This article was amended on 6 September 2017 to clarify that the wording quoted was the headline of the print edition of Allison Pearson’s column in the Telegraph.The Palestinian town of Susiya is about to be demolished by Israeli bulldozers to make way for nearby settlements. The people of Susiya have lived there for generations and they have no where else to go. We can help.
Australian aid money bought the town its clinic, its school and the beehives that provide the town’s honey trade. We could see our aid investment bulldozed within days, impoverishing the 350 people that live there. International pressure is all that is standing in the way of the bulldozers; Australia can stop this community from seeing their homes crushed into the dirt.
Israel spends millions on it's diplomacy, and is already coming under fire for this decision. If Julie Bishop, our formidable Foreign Minister and strong ally of Israel spoke out, it would be almost impossible to demolish Susiya. Let's call on Minister Bishop to act immediately, before the bulldozers arrive -- sign now.Around forty years after the beginning of reforming and opening, only a handful of Chinese companies – Lenovo, Huawei, Haier, Tsingtao – have made the leap to global leadership in their sectors. This invites a comparison with Japan, that around the same forty years after it was flattened by the U.S. Army had already produced dozens of leading consumer brands, like Sony, Panasonic, Toyota, Honda, Canon, Nikon, that were disrupting industries around the world. Today, many observers think we are on the cusp of a major change, one that will see a rash of Chinese companies go global, and in the process disrupt global markets much the same way the Japanese did in the 1980s.As Chinese workers’ wages rise, Chinese manufacturers are no longer content with their traditional role of making phones for foreign firms, possibly also in fear of a new outsourcing rush toward East Europe or South-east Asia. Instead, they are gearing up to take on the market leaders under their own name. The battle being carried on by Chinese smartphone producers to penetrate Western high-end markets for mobile devices is proving to be the state of the art in a much broader war. A war that so far has seen Chinese brands struggling to make their way into the West. But the past year saw people in the West buying their smartphones outside of contracts more than they used to, and this is the best opportunity for Chinese manufactures to get their foot in the door. Right now, Chinese companies like Huawei or Lenovo are sleeping giants, with no real marketing and poor local distribution outside of China. When they do start marketing their devices and improve their distribution worldwide though, by offering something different in the Western market, Chinese manufacturers could very well give the likes of Samsung some serious headaches.
Four of the ten largest global makers are now Chinese. Their names – Lenovo, Yulong, Huawei and ZTE – are not well known outside China, and they are still considerably smaller than Samsung and Apple. Nonetheless, these four companies already outsell Nokia and BlackBerry. In 2012, China overtook the United States to become the world’s largest global smartphone market in terms of shipment. In that year, smartphone shipments in China were estimated to have reached 208 million units, accounting for almost 21 percent of the entire global smartphone market share. By the end of 2012, the number of smartphone users in China had reached 380 million, smartphone sales to end users were also reaching new levels, with sales around 169 million units sold in total that year. During the fourth quarter of 2012, smartphones made up 74.5 percent of the total cell phone sales volume, 90 percent of which were 3G smartphones. Now, if market for smartphones is growing so fast at home, why these tech giants bother to enter much more brand conscious markets in the West? Because there’s only really one thing to do when you get big at home: expand. In order to strengthen their position in North America, Latin America, and Western Europe, Chinese companies are having a tough time at increasing their brand credibility, so Lenovo chose the path of spending some of their cash. While the company’s laptops can be found in most western department stores, 95% of its smartphones were still in China, where it was number two behind South Korea’s Samsung. However, as the PC market fades, Lenovo has made no secret of its desire to expand overseas. So on January 29, 2014 Lenovo bought Motorola Mobility smartphone business from Google, for approximately $2.91 billion. The move was a win-win deal: Google kept the vast majority of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio [licensing it to Lenovo], and Lenovo got Motorola’s 85-year history brand, together with its strong relationships with U.S. carriers.
Huawei, the sixth largest smartphone seller worldwide, has made no secret of its international expansion plans. Better known as a maker of telecoms equipment, where contracts with mobile network EE and BT have helped it become the second largest vendor after Sweden’s Ericsson, phones comprise a small but growing part of its $35 billions a year in revenues. October 8, 2012 the U.S. government has rise suspects about the alleged security threat that the company’s telecoms equipment and business connections pose limiting its business opportunities. Huawei reacted in two ways: setting its sights on emerging markets, especially in Africa – Angola, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa; and adjusting by focusing on its mobile phone and tablet businesses. The company has demonstrated its innovative skills, having released the world’s thinnest (6.68 mm) smartphone in 2012 – the Ascend P1s, and the first smartphone with a 6.1-inch display, the Ascend Mate, in 2013. At the same time, Huawei has brought its own software innovations, including Magic Touch, Guiding Wizard, Smart Reading, and Floating Windows.
Yulong’s Coolpad is the Chinese equivalent of BlackBerry. Founded in 1993, some models of Coolpad phones also have settings for heightened privacy protection. As a result, Coolpad phones are favored by and are purchased as gifts for businessmen and government officials in China. Starting from 2009, however, Yulong has become more aggressive in expanding its market to include lower-to-middle end customers. Reflecting the general shift of the Chinese smart phone market to the cheaper end: market share of smartphones at the $60-$110 price range soared from 0% to 27% in 2012. Steps outside China have been tentative. Its first deal with a US network was secured in 2012, with a budget 4G smartphone running on Google’s Android software. Its sales topped out at 900,000 but sales revenue grew proportionally with selling and distribution expense due to Yulong’s increased efforts in product promotion. To achieve more sustainable growth in the future, Yulong will have to cut down costs by streamlining their operations.
In seventh position globally is ZTE that, like its larger rival Huawei, also majors on telecoms equipment and Internet devices such as household modems. Founded in 1985, it is part owned by the Chinese state. Its low-cost handsets are increasingly popular in the US, where it is now the fifth largest and fastest growing smartphone vendor. The brand, which has traditionally gained market share through low-priced handsets, is seeking to reposition itself as a high-end provider as 4G mobile technology spreads. I already wrote about how Chinese First Lady helped to improve ZTE brand value. ZTE also employed British rap star Professor Green to act as an ambassador for the brand in 2011 and 2012.
The most talked Chinese smartphone company is certainly Xiaomi, which only began R&D in 2010. Xiaomi has operated with a simple value proposition: sell phones better than domestic competitors at prices far below foreign competitors. And to achieve this result, they rely only on social networks for marketing and on e-commerce to deliver their product to consumers. Moreover, Xiaomi’s strategy in mobile phones market resembles that of Amazon selling Kindles, selling their phones below cost. Xiaomi’s founder Lei Jun wants to turn Xiaomi into a software company. Its internet platform, which includes games, an online marketplace and a social messaging app, bring in just over $3 millions a month and he thinks that number could be much higher. When Hugo Barra left Google and said goodbye to a high-ranking position on the Android team, to join Xiaomi he did so in order to drive their internationalization effort. He’s not been with the company long, but already Xiaomi has moved into Singapore and it’s said that India is next. If Xiaomi wins its bet and manage to get a share in the U.S and Western Europe markets for high-end mobile devices, Xiaomi could represent the key to a global empire, for a broader range or Chinese products.
Below there’s an interesting Hugo Barra’s speech on Chinese social apps and Internet companies.
0 SharesCandidates must formally express their interest before June 30, after which they will be sent more detailed criteria. The FIA says full submissions must be registered by September 1, leading to a final decision on September 30.
The selection process will prioritise the "overall long-term interests of the championship" and all applicants will undergo a due diligence process to include assessment of:
the technical ability and resources of the team
the ability of the team to raise and maintain sufficient funding to allow participation in the championship at a competitive level
the team's experience and human resources
the FIA's assessment of the value that the candidate may bring to the championship as a whole.
The FIA's statement added that "In the event that no applicant is considered suitable by both the FIA and the commercial rights holder, no additional team will be selected".
American squad Haas are set to become the 11th team on the grid when they join next year. An additional entrant could therefore boost the grid to 24 cars.Twitter's user growth has slowed significantly and user engagement has declined.
Twitter's revenue growth could become a function of growth in user monetization rates.
Twitter's revenue growth could slow to just over 60% in 2015.
Author's Note
Twitter's revenue growth has been driven largely by two factors, growth in Twitter's timeline views, and growth in its ad revenue per 1000 timeline views (monetization rate).
Twitter's user growth has really tapered and user engagement levels have been on the decline, implying that the only way for Twitter (NASDAQ:TWTR) to sustain its revenue growth, is to improve its monetization rate.
With revenue growth becoming a function of growth in monetization rates, Twitter looks poised for a slowdown in revenue growth unless it manages to improve user growth or engagement levels. That of course assumes that Twitter's ad revenue per 1000 timeline views will continue to grow at the pace at which it did in 2014. In reality, this growth rate has dropped quite a bit from its levels 2013.
Twitter's revenue guidance pegs growth at about 64% to 68% YoY, which is in the range that we're talking about. However, investors are used to seeing Twitter beat its guidance, and might still be factoring in a huge beat.
You can see our Twitter stock analysis for a quick round-up of key fundamentals like cash flows, daily updated valuation multiples
Twitter Revenue Growth To Slow Significantly In 2015: Video Transcript
Hello and welcome to this videograph about Twitter's revenue growth outlook for twenty fifteen.
Twitter Timeline Views Growth
Twitter, measures user monetization in terms of advertising revenue per thousand timeline views. Since 2012, Twitter's timeline views, and thereby its revenue, have been driven in part, by the platform's user growth. But over twenty fourteen, Twitter's user growth has slowed significantly, implying that bulk of the growth in timeline views will have to come from an increase in the timeline views per user.
However, Twitter's timeline views per active user have declined, not just from levels seen in twenty thirteen, but also sequentially, towards the end of the year. In the absence of strong growth in users and engagement levels, Twitter's revenue growth becomes a function of the growth in its user monetization rate. Even under the assumption that twitter's revenue per thousand timeline views will continue to grow at the same pace, Twitter's revenue growth could slow to a little over 60%.
Thanks for watching this video, for more videos about your favorite stocks, always visit amigobulls.com.This is a list of countries and dependencies ranked by human population density, and measured by the number of human inhabitants per square kilometre or square mile. The list includes sovereign states and self-governing dependent territories based upon the ISO standard ISO 3166-1. The list also includes but does not rank unrecognized but de facto independent countries. The figures in the following table are based on areas |
solar plant nearby.
Apple has made a commitment to running its iCloud on 100 percent clean energy. Amazon, meanwhile, operates the dirtiest servers of any major tech giant that operates its own servers—only 15 percent of its energy comes from clean sources, which is about the default national average. Much of the rest comes from polluting sources like coal and natural gas. In other words, Amazon makes no effort at all to power its corner of the internet (which is big, and growing) with clean energy. That includes its own cloud.
"It's fair to say that Amazon's smartphone runs the dirtiest cloud, and cloud use is becoming an increasingly large part of a phone's energy footprint right now thanks to services like photo and video storage," Pomerantz told me in an email. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Greenpeace's report puts it even more bluntly. "Amazon Web Services (AWS), owned by Amazon.com, has grown since its launch in 2006 into one of the largest digital ecosystems of the online world," the report notes. "Unfortunately, AWS has dropped further and further behind its competitors in building an internet that runs on renewable sources of energy, estimated at only 15%, and is the least transparent of any company we evaluated."
This should matter. Data centers consume two percent of the nation's energy, and worldwide, industry now usurps about 10 percent of the world's energy, and a lot of that is dirty, climate change-driving coal power. Calling out tech companies for relying on polluting power sources—and publicizing the clean energy achievements of those that switch—has been one of the environmental group's most successful campaigns over the last few years. It has awarded Apple, Google, and Facebook with As and Bs for their efforts—meanwhile, Amazon is Fs, nearly across the board.
With all other factors being comparable—the Fire is manufactured by Foxconn in China, like most other smartphones, with the same component parts—the extra pollution created by the Fire Phone's dirty, coal-fired cloud is enough to make it a top contender for the dirtiest smartphone on the market.
“Cloud-based storage of photos and other smartphone data doesn’t have to harm the environment: Apple, in stark contrast to Amazon, is powering its iCloud with 100% renewable energy," Pomerantz says. "If Amazon wants to offer its customers a modern phone, it could start by powering its operations with modern, renewable forms of electricity like the wind and solar power currently being employed by its competitors.”
The post title has been changed since publication to better reflect the Greenpeace report's claims.
UPDATE #1: A spokesperson for Amazon Web Services responds: “Greenpeace’s data is incorrect, and their claims about AWS data centers are inaccurate and misleading. We’ve told them this, and they continue to ignore the facts and irresponsibly publicize it. AWS has been and continues to be committed to working hard on our own, and together with our power providers all over the world, to offer AWS Cloud services in an environmentally friendly way in all of our Regions. AWS operates efficient and highly utilized datacenters across 10 different Regions globally, two of which (Oregon and GovCloud Regions) use 100 percent carbon-free power.”
UPDATE #2: Greenpeace responds: "We have no interest in getting Amazon's data wrong, which is why we asked them to share their own data with us and the public. Unlike other companies, Amazon declined to do that. We have used the best public sources we can to determine their energy mix, which means government or utility data. We would be very happy to update Amazon's data if it simply followed the lead of Apple, Google, Facebook and became more transparent with the public about its energy mix and use.
We did share our data with Amazon in advance of publishing the report. Amazon told us that our energy mix data for some of its AWS facilities was incorrect, but refused to elaborate or offer alternative data for any of its facilities other than Ireland, where it claimed a mix of 50 % renewable energy and 22 percent coal. When asked, Amazon refused to provide data on how it is achieving that mix in Ireland, so Greenpeace has continued to use Irish national data for that facility. Using Amazon’s Ireland data would result in a company CEI that would be improved from 15 to 19 percent, still quite low. (We note this on the bottom of p 64 of the report).
As for the AWS Oregon and "GovCloud" region (which is also housed in Oregon), our assessment of that facility is on p. 64 of the report in the facilities appendix. We use publicly available grid numbers for that region, which place the data center as being almost entirely powered by hydropower (which we count as clean for our clean energy index), with a small amount of other sources in the mix as well. We invite Amazon to be transparent and provide more accurate data for all of their facilities. If Amazon can show how they're getting cleaner energy than our assessment has determined using the best available public data, we will update our figures.
It's worth noting that while Amazon is currently powering with hydropower in Oregon, which is carbon-free, it is growing so fast there that its utility partner lobbied effectively to avoid meeting a state law that requires it to produce more wind and solar energy. If Amazon were acting responsibly, it would partner with its utility to bring more wind and solar to its energy grid, not less.
Having one hydropowered data center out of an otherwise vastly dirty energy footprint, based mostly in Virginia on a coal, gas and nuclear powered grid, is a far cry from the ambitious 100 % renewable energy goal that peers like Apple, Facebook and Google are pursuing."A senior BBC executive has revealed that the corporation avoids using the term ‘terrorist’ to describe the Islamists who carried out the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris.
Tarik Kafala, head of the BBC Arabic Service, said the term “terrorist” was too “loaded” for reporters to use when describing the two men who killed 12 people in the attack on the French magazine.
Related – Who Were The Murderers in the Paris Attack?
He told the Independent: “We try to avoid describing anyone as a terrorist or an act as being terrorist.
“What we try to do is to say that ‘two men killed 12 people in an attack on the office of a satirical magazine’. That’s enough, we know what that means and what it is.
“Terrorism is such a loaded word. The UN has been struggling for more than a decade to define the word and they can’t. It is very difficult to.
“We know what political violence is, we know what murder, bombings and shootings are and we describe them.
“That’s much more revealing, we believe, than using a word like terrorist which people will see as value-laden.”
He said that when discussing the Paris case “we avoid the word terrorists. It’s a terrorist attack, anti-terrorist police are deployed on the streets of Paris.
Related – Muslim Scholars on Charlie Hebdo Attack!
“Clearly all the officials and commentators are using the word so obviously we broadcast that.”
According to the Independent, BBC guidelines on reporting terrorism says that the word is not banned, but that the corporation asks ‘that careful thought is given to its use by a BBC voice.
“There are ways of conveying the full horror and human consequences of acts of terror without using the word ‘terrorist’ to describe the perpetrators.
“The value judgements frequently implicit in the use of the words ‘terrorist’ or ‘terrorist group’ can create inconsistency in their use or, to audiences, raise doubts about our impartiality.
“It may be better to talk about an apparent act of terror or terrorism than label individuals or a group.”
Instead BBC correspondents should use words such as “bomber”, “attacker”, “gunman”, “kidnapper” or “militant” in reports.
BBC Arabic, television, radio and online news services reach a weekly audience of 36 million people and is part of the World Service, which is funded by licence-fee payers.
The Article was First Published in The JCNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un salutes as he arrives to inspect a military drill at an unknown location, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 25, 2016. REUTERS/KCNA
BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Tuesday banned imports of gold and rare earths from North Korea as well as exports to the country of jet fuel and other oil products used to make rocket fuel, a move in line with new United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang.
The Security Council unanimously passed a resolution in early March expanding U.N. sanctions aimed at starving North Korea of funds for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs after Pyongyang conducted a fourth nuclear test in January and launched a long-range rocket in February.
The mining sector is a key part of North Korea's economy, which is already largely cut off from the rest of the world. Experts believe revenue from the sector helps underwrite North Korea's military expenditures.
The ministry said it would also ban coal shipments from North Korea, although it made exemptions consistent with sanctions, including uses intended for "the people's well-being" and not connected to nuclear or missile programs.
North Korea delivered around 20 million tonnes of coal to China last year, up 27 percent on the year, overtaking Russia and Mongolia to become China's third biggest supplier, behind Australia and Indonesia.
An exception was made for coal originating in third countries and supplied via North Korea's port of Rason. Landlocked Mongolia, looking for alternative supply routes for its commodities, has already signed an agreement with the port that gave its exporters preferential treatment.
Export bans on jet and rocket fuel included exemptions for "basic humanitarian needs" in conjunction with inspections, and for civilian passenger jets flying outside of North Korea.
Other restricted minerals include vanadium and titanium, both used in steel alloys.
Independent experts have frequently questioned China's resolve to enforce sanctions against North Korea, whose economy is heavily dependent on its neighbor. China has said it will enforce the measures "conscientiously".
U.S. State Department officials have expressed optimism the sanctions will be more effective than earlier attempts to curtail North Korea's nuclear program, pointing to China's apparent willingness to support them.
China disapproves of North Korea's nuclear program, although, as its sole major ally, it has supplied large quantities of aid off the books for decades.
(Reporting by Michael Martina and David Stanway; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)Internal emails reveal Boris Johnson, mayor of London, intends to introduce single hotline for capital, but charities say plans will dilute community trust
London’s Jewish, Muslim and LGBT communities have joined forces to oppose plans by Boris Johnston for a hate-crime hotline, claiming it would dissuade victims from reporting antisemitic, Islamophobic and homophobic attacks at a time of rising attacks.
Not yet officially announced, internal emails from the mayor’s office for policing and crime, seen by the Guardian, reveal that Johnson is intending to introduce a one-number hotline for reporting hate crime throughout the capital.
However, the Community Service Trust, a Jewish security charity that runs an incident hotline; Tell Mama (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks), which monitors Islamophobic incidents in Britain; and the charity Galop, which records hate crime towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, say that Johnson’s plans will dilute community trust in the existing hotlines and discourage reporting.
“Reporting relies on trust between organisations and their communities, and a one-number, blanket approach ignores this fundamental principle,” said Nik Noone, chief executive of Galop.
The development comes as statistics show that the number of antisemitic incidents in the UK recently reached the highest level ever recorded, with CST reports of violence, property damage, abuse and threats against Britain’s 291,000 Jews more than doubling last year. Last year some of the UK’s biggest police forces recorded a rise in the number of violent homophobic crimes.
Similarly, Muslims in Britain are consistently the target of hate crimes in retribution for global terrorist attacks, with noticeable spikes observed in the immediate aftermath of high-profile terrorist attacks in Paris, Sydney, and Copenhagen in the past year.
New figures reveal that pattern was repeated during the aftermath of the shootings in Tunisia that killed 38 including 30 British nationals last month. During the week before the attack, Tell Mama recorded 11 incidents of offline and online Islamophobia, rising to 23 in the week following the terror attack in Sousse.
Richard Benson, former chief executive of the CST for 12 years until 2013, said: “It is quite clear that communities feel more comfortable when they are victims of a hate crime to report the issue to somebody within that community who understands them.
“That’s why the CST and Tell Mama have both been successful in providing a level of support to their communities, but to have a one-stop shop that covers every single community will be confusing and, secondly, will dilute the existing successful work currently carried out by those groups.”
A similar proposal by the Metropolitan police, said Benson, to introduce a hate crime monitoring hotline was defeated around five years ago after resistance by experts and anti-discrimination groups.
The CST declined to comment, pointing out that Benson was speaking in his capacity as former director of the charity.
Noone said the mayor’s plans risked undermining the existing schemes that meant London was a world leader in its approach to hate crime.
“If London wants to retain its place as a world-leading city in tackling hate crime they need to retain and invest in the community-built solution, not impose a new generalist service that will push away direct access to the specialist services which are at the heart of why London is currently the world leader.”
She added: “These community-led approaches have made the UK the world leader for hate crime reporting. A quarter of all anti-LGBT hate crime reports in UK are made in London and the city has more hate crime reports each year than the whole of the US.”
Fiyaz Mughal, who founded interfaith group Faith Matters, which runs Tell Mama, said: “There is a real problem with this, since singular reporting points do not work well and where implemented, anti-Muslim hate figures are extremely low. Furthermore, another number will confuse members of the public and, in relation to anti-Muslim hate, it is already difficult to report and this will add another layer of confusion. It will also segment data-collection.”
According to the emails from Johnson’s office, the launch of the hotline will be announced during Hate Crime Awareness Week in October. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office for policing and crime said: “While there has been an increase in the reporting of hate crime, we know that these offences are still significantly under-reported and that is why the mayor is committed to making it easier for victims to come forward”.The Lumineers are heading for their first No. 1 album, as Cleopatra is set to debut atop next week's Billboard 200 chart. Industry forecasters suggest the trio's second effort, which was released through Dualtone Records on April 8, could earn a little over 100,000 equivalent album units in the week ending April 14.
The Lumineers 'Breathe New Life' Into Band With Long-Awaited 'Cleopatra' Album
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The top 10 of the new April 30-dated Billboard 200 chart is scheduled to be revealed on Billboard’s websites on Sunday, April 17.
The Lumineers' self-titled debut album was released in 2012 and rose to No. 2 on the chart the following year. It has sold 1.7 million copies according to Nielsen Music, thanks in large part to the popularity of its hit single "Ho Hey" -- the track reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, spent 62 weeks on the chart and sold 5.1 million downloads. It also hit No. 1 on a range of song rankings, including Hot Rock Songs (18 weeks at No. 1), Adult Pop Songs airplay (eight weeks), Adult Alternative Songs (eight weeks) and Alternative Songs (two weeks).
The Lumineers & Foals Notch Rock Airplay No. 1s
Cleopatra's lead single, "Ophelia," is in its sixth week at No. 1 on the Adult Alternative Songs (dated April 23), while climbing 8-6 on Alternative Songs and rising 9-8 on Hot Rock Songs.
Other albums aiming for high debuts on the new Billboard 200 include Deftones' Gore (around 65,000 units with a possible No. 2 debut), Zakk Wylde's Book of Shadows II and Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals' Call It What It Is (both around 20,000).How to bring back the Google Photos Backup while Charging Option
Google Photos is Google’s ambitious free photo backup solution. It’s one of the best Google services out there, and since Google I/O it has been getting even better. But not every feature change has been met with applause. Back in late June, Google suddenly removed the ability for photos to be backed up only while the device is charging. According to a top contributor on the Google product help forum, this change is intentional, though Google has still not offered a reason as to why they removed. What’s even stranger is that the removal of the Google Photos backup while charging option is not universal – some users report still having it while many do not.
Perhaps Google is transitioning to a new algorithm based on JobScheduler which they believe does not result in a significant impact on battery. Whatever the reason, the transition has not been handled very well. Having Google Photos automatically start backing up photos when the device connects to WiFi is a major pain as it cripples my slow home Internet (I don’t have very many options in my town). Nevertheless, I figured out a way for you to manually bring back the Google Photos backup when charging feature, but it requires a bit of effort (and root access).
Left: No Backup While Charging Only Option. Right: Backup While Charging Only Option.
The following tutorial requires root access on your device because you will be modifying a file located in the /data directory, which is inaccessible on unrooted devices. That means your device’s bootloader is probably unlocked and you have a superuser binary installed through either SuperSU or Magisk.
Bring Back Google Photos Backup while Charging
I can confirm that the following tweak works as I have tested it on Google Photos version 3.3.0.165520514 on both my OnePlus 5 running Android 7.1.1 Nougat as well as a Google Pixel on Android O Developer Preview 4.
You will need to install a file explorer application that is capable of browsing directories in the /data partition, as mentioned previously. This means that the application should be root-enabled. While I personally prefer Solid Explorer, if you don’t already have a file browser that you prefer I recommend downloading the free MiXplorer app from our Apps & Games forum.
MiXplorer Developer: Hootan ParsaMega.co.nzMail.ruYandex.ruMyDrive.ch Price: Free
Once you’ve installed a file manager app, open it up then navigate to the following directory:
/data/data/com.google.android.apps.photos/shared_prefs
now open the following preference text file:
photos.backup.backup_prefs.xml
Find the following line near the top and change the value “false” to “true”
<boolean name="backup_prefs_backup_only_when_charging" value="false" />
Preference change to enable Google Photos backup while charging only
After you’ve changed the boolean value, close the preference file. Go to Settings –> Apps and find and Force Close Google Photos. Now re-open Google Photos and you should be able to enable the backup while charging only Google Photos option!
Follow the tutorials category for more posts like this. Download the XDA Labs app to keep up to date with all the latest news from the Portal and forums!AUBURN HILLS, MI – Lots of people talk about self-driving cars as if they are inevitable. They say it’s only a matter of time before computers become so smart, sophisticated and quick-thinking that human beings ultimately will be deemed dangerous behind the wheel.
I find that utopian idea ridiculous, while admitting some reckless drivers leave me yearning for stricter traffic enforcement.
What’s needed is a voice of reason from a bright executive with extensive automotive experience who hasn’t bought into the hype.
Someone like Jeff Owens, executive vice president and chief technology officer for Delphi, a supplier that spent a decade in the financial wringer and had to downsize, but realized expertise in safety electronics must remain core.
A 41-year industry veteran who worked previously for General Motors, Owens has led Delphi’s electronics business since 2001.
He doubts the auto industry ever will solve all the issues necessary to unleash a driverless car on public roads, although he admits the technology is advancing.
Jeff Owens, executive vice president and chief technology officer for Delphi.
“Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should do it,” Owens tells WardsAuto during a Delphi media event here.
With its own self-driving cars in pilot testing, Google has done plenty to generate excitement about the possibilities.
But Owens frowns at the cost, which Google has estimated at more than $40,000 per vehicle, at least in the beginning. So how much are most consumers willing to pay?
“Think about the fully evolved autonomous vehicle with no driver in the seat. You’re in the back seat drinking a beer, taking a nap, reading the paper,” he says.
“The consumer will pay something for that, but will they pay the expense of literally taking the driver out of the seat? Will they pay $10,000 to be able to go to sleep or watch a movie?”
The cost would be prohibitive to adapt existing vehicles to drive themselves. Imagine the exorbitant expense of designing an autonomous car from the ground up.
The concept of an autopilot is not new, particularly in aerospace. But Owens notes even the airline industry has never crossed that threshold by placing hundreds of lives solely in the digital hands of a computer.
“You still need a pilot in even the most sophisticated triple-fault redundant systems on airplanes and usually two pilots on the big planes,” he says. “It’s just a lot of hurdles to get over.”
What About Bad Weather, Emergencies?
The building blocks are being put in place, such as lane-departure warning, radar-based adaptive cruise control, camera-based collision mitigation and pedestrian detection.
But these vision and sensing systems don’t work so well in inclement weather, particularly snow, and when a road has been rerouted, such as in an emergency.
Owens knows these technologies will keep getting better while becoming more affordable on mainstream vehicles.
“You’ll get, I’d say, 80% of the benefit of autonomous vehicles without ever going fully autonomous,” he says. “We can already accrue the benefit of fewer accidents and fatalities.”
Which makes you wonder: Why then should we focus so intently on that last 20%?
Getting there will require a massive buildup of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure technology, because the whole system literally crashes and burns without effective communication. And don’t forget the regulatory requirements to keep the legal vultures at bay.
President Obama has said he wants to establish rule-making for a vehicle-to-vehicle network by the time he leaves office in 2016.
Based on other government safety initiatives, Owens expects two years of regulatory haggling, followed by “five years to apply it and then 10 years to age it through the system. That’s how long you’d be talking before you had a majority of vehicles with that capability,” he says.
There’s the fuel-economy argument, too: If every car drove itself, speeds would be controlled, throttle inputs would be tempered and fuel consumption would fall.
But we don’t need autonomous cars to achieve those things. Vehicles with adaptive cruise control, which has been around for nearly 20 years (and Delphi began supplying Jaguar in 1999), already are instrumental in reducing congestion and improving fuel economy.
Owens is optimistic about self-driving vehicles for the elderly and physically challenged. “That would be a big boon for that segment of the population,” he says.
But isn’t it cruel to give these people false hope that someday they will gain mobile independence?
I mean, weren’t cars supposed to be flying by now?Luis Soriano’s Biblioburro – The Donkey Library of Colombia
Luis Soriano
A lifetime lover of books Luis Soriano, is a legendary man who came from a small town called La Gloria, Colombia. Growing up in a remote part of his country, Luis Soriano managed to obtain a college degree in Spanish literature from a professor who visited his town two times per month. After his studies he went on to become an elementary school teacher. The Magdalena province of Colombia, where Luis Soriano taught his students, was a particularly poor and violent area of the country. Most of the children in the area had witnessed intense conflict first-hand. Being in a very remote and poor region, books were not easy to get a hold of, but with the limited resources that Luis Soriano had, he noticed the immensely powerful affect that books had on his students.
Biblio Burro
With a passion to share books with the children of the Magdalena Province and using two donkeys, Luis Soriano decided to spend his weekends carrying around a small collection of books to the impoverished communities in the area. Through this idea, his portable library, known as the ‘Biblio Burro’ (which translates to donkey library) was born. The Biblio Burro began with a modest 70 books, but slowly Luis Soriano began to grow his collection. A major turning point was when he wrote a letter to a Colombian journalist and writer called Juan Gossain. Mr. Soriano had heard Juan Goassain reading excerpts from a novel that he wrote on the radio. Luis Soriano liked what he had heard and wrote to Mr. Gossain asking for a copy of the book to include in his donkey library. Juan Goassain not only decided to send Luis Soriano a copy of his book, but broadcasted the details of the exchange over the radio which created a huge amount of other authors to do the same. Because of this game changing event the Biblio Burro collection eventually grew to nearly 4,800 books, with children’s adventure stories being the most popular genre.
Struggles Along the Way
The rural, conflict riddled region where Luis Soriano was sharing books with children has been no easy place to travel. Mr. Soriano has braved a variety of hardships along the way including being accosted by armed paramilitary groups and drug traffickers. At one point bandits tried to rob him and tied him up, only to find out that he had no money at all. Through intense heat, braving jungles of dangerous animals, Luis Soriano’s donkey library has been serving the children of Northern Colombia since the late 1990’s. Just a few years back the Biblio Burro suffered a major setback as Luis Soriano had to have one leg amputated due to an accident he suffered involving one of his donkeys. The inspirational story of the donkey library and Luis Soriano has been turned into the Biblioburro children’s book and a documentary has been made filmed about the library.
Below is a YouTube video with more information about Luis Soriano and the Biblio Burro:I don't know why I find something so mundane so fascinating but I can't get enough of watching Argentinian silversmith Juan Carlos Pallarols create a chalice for Pope Francis. It's incredible just to see his hands and tools shape what will be the cup for the holiest man in the world.
Pallarols had previously made the roses that adorned Princess Diana's tomb so he's no stranger for making things pop for the famously powerful. You can see him hammer away and turn silver bumps into lovely roses.
In another video you can see Pallarols team work on making the shape of the chalice, with the blueprints on how it'll look when it's done on the wall. Gotta love the people who spend a ridiculous amount of time in creating a pimp cup or I guess, the pimpest of cups. Craftsmanship! [Hyper Vocal]UPCOMING HOME FIXTURES ALBION V fulham
SaturDAY 29TH November, KICK-OFF 3PM ALBION V millwall
friday 12th december, KICK-OFF 7:45PM
Albion v reading
fRiDAY 26TH decEMber, kick-off 3pm
London-born Bent passed a medical at the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre earlier today, before training with his new teammates ahead of Saturday’s game with Fulham.Manager Sami Hyypia said, “We are delighted to welcome Darren to the club, and I hope he will score plenty of goals for us during his time with us.“His record speaks for itself. He is a top-class striker with more than 100 Premier League goals with Charlton, Spurs, Sunderland and Aston Villa.“Three years ago he was a regular in the England squad under Fabio Capello; there is no doubting his ability to score goals.“He also wants to play regular games and that is evident in his willingness to step down from the Premier League to the Championship.”Overall he’s made 53 starts, 19 appearances off the bench and hit 25 goals since his move to Villa in January 2011 – including seven sub appearances this season in the Premier League, the most recent in Monday’s 1-1 draw with Southampton. He will wear the number 39 shirt for the Seagulls.Bent spent last season on loan at Fulham scoring six times from 14 starts (plus 15 sub appearances) – before returning to Villa Park at the end of last season.Sunderland paid £10m for Bent in August 2009, and he smashed an astonishing 36 goals in 63 games for the Black Cats; which led to Aston Villa parting with a club-record fee to sign him– which was announced as £18m, with the potential to rise to £24m.He scored 37 goals in 79 games for the Addicks, before a £16.5m move to White Hart Lane in 2007 – he made 43 starts and 36 appearances from the bench for Spurs, scoring 25 goals for the club.That won him recognition at England under-21 level, where he vied with Albion legend Bobby Zamora for one of the starting spots in the team, and prompted Charlton to pay £2.5m for his services June 2005.Tooting-born Bent began his career with Ipswich Town, where he caught the eye with a string of stellar performances and 55 goals for the Suffolk club.A new malicious campaign has been identified by security researchers spreading fake news about the Ebola virus, in order to redirect users to phishing websites and delivering Malware.
Symantec has reported three Malware operations and a phishing campaign using the Ebola virus as a social engineering theme.
1. The first phishing campaign shows that cybercriminals are taking advantage of devastating situation due to Ebola virus. The procedure followed by these criminals is that they send a simple email about a report on Ebola, once the user clicks on report, gets infected by Trojan.Zbot malware.
2. In the second phishing campaign, these cybercriminals are sending emails posing as world renowned telecom and ISP claiming to offer an in depth presentation on the Ebola virus. The email comes with a zip file named as “EBOLA – PRESENTATION.pdf.zip” that installs a dangerous Trojan.Blueso malware on computer.
An important point is that Trojan.Blueso malware also infects user’s browser with W32.Spyrat which can further perform following actions.
Recording key strokes (everything you type on your keyboards) Recording from your webcams. Open web pages without your permission Capture screenshots of ongoing session Upload and download files Making New folders and files Deleting folders and files Take information on computer’s OS, apps and uninstall itself.
3. The third part of this campaign uses Zmapp (an Ebola drug in an experimental stage) to infect people with Backdoor.Breut malware. The criminals send email that claims the drug for Ebola has been found curing the virus and the news should be shared as much as possible.
Last but not the least a phishing campaign using CNN’s name telling a brief story outline and includes links to an “untold story” about Ebola. The email also promises “How-to” precaution information and a list “targeted” regions.
Once the users click on the links mentioned in the email they are redirected to another page, asking them to select their email service and put their login details. The details are then sent to cybercriminals directly and users are redirected back to CNN’s homepage.
This is not the first time when the crooks have taken advantage of such situation. In past wereported on a scam claiming missing Malaysian Jet found in Bermuda Triangle. The scam was used to spread malicious virus on Facebook.
We urge users to keep an eye on such scams and do notify us by clicking here so we can educate our readers.
Homepage image credit: Symantec.One of the largest usability gaps in Windows Phone 8 stems from the lack of a quick and easy way to toggle system settings, similar to what Android's quick settings or iOS's Control Center offer. The feature allows users to turn Wi-Fi, mobile data, GPS and others on and off in as little steps as possible, without having to navigate through the Settings menu every single time to alter their state.
Luckily there are apps in Windows Phone's Store that fill this void, with System Tiles being one of the most appealing and customizable offerings available today. The app is easy to use and quite powerful, allowing folks to create intuitive live tiles that can gather a significant number of shortcuts to apps and settings, all in one place.
You may argue that live tiles are already intuitive. And you would be correct. But, when a live tile collects such items under the same umbrella it is very difficult to figure out what may or may not be included before opening it.
System Tiles makes the best out of this situation by showing a maximum of eight pictograms in the live tiles that users create; that's for the largest live tile size, with the medium and small ones showing a maximum of four pictograms.
As a result, users know exactly which settings they can control just by looking at the live tile. This approach fits well with the information-at-a-glance philosophy behind Windows Phone.
Live tiles can also be created for individual settings, like Wi-Fi, GPS, lockscreen rotation, Bluetooth, airplane mode, cellular options, user accounts, battery saver and so on. The list of supported feature controls is extensive, covering a large part of the Settings menu (and more).
A number of apps are also supported (those can be pinned individually as well as in a collection), with the list limited to Evernote, Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, WhatsApp, Yelp and YouTube at the moment. An interesting addition is the option to turn the smartphone's LED on and off, via the Flashlight toggle.
System Tiles is certainly not a replacement for a native implementation, nor as polished as one would be. But, it is certainly an interesting app that can help deliver a smoother transition from Android or iOS, and help Windows Phone users get more out of their smartphones.
System Tiles is available to download from Windows Phone Store. The app works as a limited trial, with the full version costing $0.99.Florida Rep. Trey Radel Charged With Cocaine Possession
Enlarge this image toggle caption J. Scott Applewhite/AP J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Florida Rep. Henry "Trey" Radel is being charged with cocaine possession and faces arraignment on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
Authorities say the freshman Republican was found in possession of cocaine on Oct. 29, a misdemeanor offense, but provided no other details.
NPR's Tamara Keith says the charge carries a statutory maximum sentence of 180 days of imprisonment and/or a fine of $1,000.
Radel, 37, represents Florida's 19th District, which covers parts of the Gulf Coast, Fort Myers and Naples.
He issued the following statement:
"I'm profoundly sorry to let down my family, particularly my wife and son, and the people of Southwest Florida. I struggle with the disease of alcoholism, and this led to an extremely irresponsible choice. As the father of a young son and a husband to a loving wife, I need to get help so I can be a better man for both of them. "In facing this charge, I realize the disappointment my family, friends and constituents must feel. Believe me, I am disappointed in myself, and I stand ready to face the consequences of my actions. "However, this unfortunate event does have a positive side. It offers me an opportunity to seek treatment and counseling. I know I have a problem and will do whatever is necessary to overcome it, hopefully setting an example for others struggling with this disease. "Please keep my family in your prayers."
The Washington Post says:
"During votes last Friday, Radel told a Washington Post reporter that the last few weeks of intense debate regarding the partisan government shutdown and new health-care law had been'stressful' on his young family. Radel's wife, Amy, and their young child have been splitting their time between Washington and their Florida home so that the young family can be together more often. "On Friday, Radel recounted how at the height of the 16-day shutdown, he had to drive his wife and child home to Florida because of an ear infection. He did not specify when the trip occurred."
USAToday reports:
"Radel is a former radio host, TV reporter and newspaper owner who was swept into office with Tea Party support. He was born and raised in Cincinnati, where his family owned a funeral home company. "A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said the incident is 'between Rep. Radel, his family and his constituents.' " 'Members of Congress should be held to the highest standards and the alleged crime will be handled by the courts,' Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said."
Update at 8:20 p.m. ET. Radel Reportedly Bought Cocaine From Undercover Officer:
The Associated Press reports:Twice now, I’ve seen Heavy Spectrum’s Matt Birch stand up and talk about Shadow of the Beast – first as the game was announced at Gamescom 2013 and now at a PSN showcase – and both times his struggle to contain his emotions, his excitement and his passion for this game have been endlessly endearing. This is quite literally his dream project, which he has wanted to create ever since he played the original game in 1989.
It’s a passion which is quite clear to see in the game itself, and was surely a major part in Heavy Spectrum being able to inherit the game’s legacy as they work alongside what remains of Psygnosis and Studio Liverpool – who created the original game – at Sony’s XDev team.
The original’s lauded parallax effects have been reimagined in the vast vistas that seem to carry on into the background forever. The sun hangs low above the horizon, |
modernity we have had to endure. The doubt of non-truth is in fact a nightmare, but nightmare is a variation of dream. Where are we when we dwell between nightmare and dream? Between past and future? How can we, against all pessimism of reason, oblige the Angelus Novus to look forward, to settle the debt that it has contracted with history, and to overcome the constriction of the past?
Let’s return to our point. The difference that shows itself as creative is the passage that leads the nightmare back to the dream, and the dream to a project (which is fully aware of the difficulty and limitation) of life. If difference is resistance, the dream can live its historical projection in a fully aware and conscious manner. If difference is a mode of life, it identifies the mode of life as productive. No one here is putting critical and transcendental action into question: but we should pity it, comprehend it in the radical aporia that gives rise to it, and which does not allow it to take root in the only natural and temporal difference that counts: that of power. As a matter of fact, in the theory of creative difference there is something like an extremely strong return to an origin that is not burdened with nightmares and repressive violences. This is not an illusion but the very thing which is here at stake. Difference does not become creative when it identifies itself with an origin (burdened by the past), but when it confounds itself with a power that is always new, open onto what is to-come. Difference destroys every determinate ontological foundation because it is the creative determination of an ontology of freedom.
No, neither Husserl nor Gentile nor Bergson support us here. Rather, we are aided by that strange, hard positivity of the only existing thought that is consistently immanentist and materialist, the one that we have revisited here. In the Italian twentieth century, this took the names we mentioned above. We thus have a paradoxical difference that is capable of positively producing the whole, bit by bit. A difference that knows how to develop into a network and to move from inside to outside, from the singular to the common, without solution of continuity, and vice versa. That knows how to be res gesta (after having destroyed the damned historia). It is with great respect for the story of the Angelus Novus that we ask it—following the rhythm of the practice of difference—to look forward. ‘Another’ world is possible, just as another place (that of difference) was possible in our Italian province.
Translated by Lorenzo ChiesaMisao Okawa, a Japanese woman recognised as the world's oldest person who credited her longevity to "eating delicious things" and getting plenty of rest, died at the age of 117 on Wednesday, Japanese media reported.
Okawa, the daughter of a cloth merchant in the western city of Osaka, was born in 1898 - the year that the United States annexed the Hawaiian islands and a new drink named Pepsi-Cola was launched. She shared her birth date with Chinese revolutionary leader Zhou Enlai.
Well enough to enjoy cake at a birthday party on March 5, Okawa gradually lost her appetite and died early on Wednesday surrounded by her grandchildren, Japanese media said.
She was recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's oldest person in June 2013 when Jiroemon Kimura, also from Japan, died at the age of 116 years and 54 days.
The world's oldest person is now Gertrude Weaver of the United States, who will turn 117 on July 4.
First Published: Apr 01, 2015 12:29 ISTCLOSE District 4 Doña Ana County Commission Republican candidate: Roman Jimenez
Roman Jimenez of Las Cruces is chairman of the Doña Ana County Republican Party. (Photo11: Las Cruces Sun-News file photo)
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — The Republican Party of Doña Ana County announced Tuesday that it has accepted the resignation of its chairman following controversial comments made on the party's Facebook page.
Roman Jimenez was widely condemned for stating on the party's official Facebook page that "violent, leftist protesters" were "getting exactly what they asked for" in the wake of racist rallies in Charlottesville, Va., that turned deadly.
The party announced on its Facebook page Tuesday that Victor Contreras will serve as interim chairman "until the county central committee convenes a meeting to elect a new chairperson."
Contreras offered a statement saying the party takes "a bold stance against all the extreme acts of violence, racism and hate that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"We believe there is no room for bigotry, racism or hate in our country."
Previous: N.M. GOP leader blames 'leftist protesters' after Virginia attack
More: Donations to help Charlottesville victims surpass $800K and continue to rise
More: Protesters face off again outside Trump Tower
Heather Heyer, 32, of Charlottesville was killed Saturday after she was struck by a vehicle that mowed over a group of counterprotesters, following the Unite the Right rally that brought together neo-Nazis, Klu Klux Klan sympathizers and other white nationalist groups to protest the potential removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Nineteen people were hospitalized after the car attack, according to USA TODAY. Two Virginia state police officers — Lt. Jay Cullen, 48, and Trooper-Pilot Berke Bates, 40 — were killed in a helicopter crash while supervising the rally.
Contreras' message ran counter to the theme of Jimenez's post the day following the protests in Charlottesville:
“These violent, leftist protesters are the brainless robots that are created by evil Soros money. The white ones have been taught to hate their color, the women are taught to hate their men, blacks and minorities want to kill whites and police. Then they have the audacity to call conservatives racist. Their own racism, hate and violence has created the divide among those that refused to be bullied anymore. They’re getting exactly what they asked for. A segregated society of groups that they’ve created and even labeled themselves.”
Jimenez has not talked to the Sun-News. He did speak to Albuquerque TV station KOB-TV, before his resignation, saying: “The post was made in regards to other protests and violence that I was aware of. I had not been aware of the Charlottesville violence until after posts started coming in in response to what I put.”
Jimenez's comment on Facebook, which generated a lot of feedback on social media and from news media, was deleted hours after it was posted.
More: Analysis: Combative Trump returns to form with defense of alt-right
More: Late-night talk hosts scramble to respond to Trump's impromptu press conference
Many prominent New Mexico Republicans denounced the statement, including U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, who is running for governor; Ryan Cangiolosi, the chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party; and Ceil Levatino, a Las Cruces city councilor. She welcomed Tuesday's announcement.
"I think it is appropriate," Levatino said in response to the change in county GOP leadership. "I'm terribly disappointed in what he said and how he said it. I'm glad that we've had some resolution and I look forward to finding a new chairman.
"I wish Roman the best," she said.
Pearce also addressed Jimenez's resignation, saying the former chairman's post was "unacceptable."
“Regardless of differences, Americans must treat each other with respect. His actions could not go unaddressed. He was right to step down," Pearce said.
Follow Las Cruces Sun-News on Twitter: @CrucesSunNews
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2x3hJM6How programmers can easily choose strong passwords
Passwords are part of our lives, especially for us techies. When you think of the consequences of having your password compromised, you get a grasp on how important they are: the effects vary from discomfort and frustration to stolen money to stolen identity. Anything is scary enough to prompt us to be wary.
The possible attack scenarios that result in having our password compromised are very different, here are some examples:
Phishing can trick you into giving away your credentials
Trojans, viruses and other exploits could compromise your machine and grab what you type
Man-in-the-middle attacks on the network could read your secrets sent on unencrypted (or poorly encrypted) channel
Website security could be physically compromised, and the private data stolen
Log-ins to websites could be discovered by brute force attacks
Encrypted content could be decrypted with offline brute force attacks
In order to defend ourselves from some of these attacks (mainly the last ones), a strong password is required. But what is a strong password? Most guidelines tell us that:
It should be long enough
It must not be a “dictionary” word
It shouldn’t contain “weak” patterns
It should be composed of different character sets (letters, numbers, special characters)
The problem with these guidelines is that they clash with our brain’s ability to remember, because some of the things that makes a word stick in our brain are:
Be short enough
Be meaningful (like an existing word)
Contain some sort of way to help remember it from other things (patterns)
Phonetic (alphabetic)
For this reason, choosing a password is always a trade-off between security and usability. Sometimes websites enforce these policies, sometimes they give you a hard-to-remember password themselves. The famous webcomic XKCD tackled the problem in this strip, suggesting a simple method for common people to choose strong pass phrases. But in my opinion things can be even easier for a particular subset of people.
I assume most of my readers are programmers. We have a very peculiar job, we type stuff on our keyboards that doesn’t have any sense for the common people, but for us it sure has. We type so much that the muscles of our hands memorized the motions, together with the position of some unusual characters such as the “[ ]” square brackets, and we can type without even looking. Sometimes, especially after we debug an ugly problem, we examined a particular snippet of code so much that we can write it immediately off the top of our heads.
I believe programmers develop throughout the years a familiar way to remember and write strong passwords which are harder for computers to guess than the norm. If you’re a programmer, this is what you can do:
Pick a language that you are experienced with, write a short piece of code, insert letters, numbers, and special characters, insert some kind of information related to the website (if it’s an online password) or the date (if the password expires regularly)
For example, I created one of the simplest examples I could think of:
W = printf("93
");
I am experienced in C programming, and inserted a “ W ” in the code to hint to WordPress site. How easy is it to remember? Easy (I print 93 and put the number of characters in “ W “). How easy is it to write? Easy (if I don’t forget the semicolon). How hard is it to guess? Let’s see… I used the following online calculators to get their “opinion” on the strength of this password:
The results are that my 19-character password is strong, the character set is about 93 to 95 characters (between letters, numbers and specials, depending on how you divide them), and the entropy is between 84 and 125 bits. To make some comparisons using the XKCD examples, the password “ Tr0ub4dor&3 ” is 11 characters, a charset of 72 to 95, and an entropy of 51 to 72 bits. The password “ correct horse battery staple ” is 28 characters long, with a charset of 27 to 59 characters, and an entropy of 104 to 165 bits.
Using a method similar to XKCD I say that, knowing that the password is a piece of code, we have:
Something like 20 possible common programming languages
A hundred possible patterns (very conservative)
Something like 5 different coding conventions (such as where to put the space)
One function name/keyword, chosen from hundreds of possibilities
Two short common variable names/strings, composed of up to four characters
Each has a charset of size 64 (lowercase, uppercase, numbers, underscore and dot)
It results in this number of possibilities:
20*100*5*100*((64^4)^2) = 2.8*10^20
This number translates roughly into 68 bits of entropy.
I can think of some of the “cons” of choosing a line of code as a password:
Many programmers are used to look at the screen while writing, to have a feedback that the code they’re writing is correct. With passwords you can’t see what you are typing.
If you use an existing line of an open source software you are working on, then you could theoretically be more vulnerable to a dictionary attack tailored for you.
Code written in a language obeys to common patterns derived from the syntax.
If you are on a different PC, the language of the keyboard may impede the correct typing of the special characters.
In the end, I am not saying that if you are a programmer you have to use a line of code as a password because it’s the best way. I’m suggesting that this choice has many benefits for the common programmers, because it exploit some qualities of the programming work to shift the compromise between security and usability. But in the end it boils down to finding the place in this compromise where you personally feel comfortable.
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If Georgia is going to live up to its preseason hype, it's probably a good idea to get over the South Carolina speed bump when the Gamecocks roll into Athens during Week 3.
The Bulldogs have dropped four of the last five games against their border rivals to the East, including a devastating 38-35 loss last season in rain-soaked Columbia, South Carolina.
Georgia will likely be picked to win the SEC East when the assembled members of the media meet in Hoover, Alabama, next month. Holding serve against the Gamecocks will establish head coach Mark Richt's crew as the front-runner in the division.
For South Carolina, it's a chance to make a statement.
After a 7-6 season a year ago, the program has lost the luster it had when it reeled off three straight 11-win seasons from 2011 to 2013. If South Carolina, in the face of massive roster turnover, can go on the road and upset Georgia between the hedges, it will signal that the program hasn't taken a step back and is still a force to be reckoned with in the East.Hardware Battlefield favorite Wiivv has announced a $4 million Series A funding and an acquisition. Not too shabby for a footwear company.
But remember: this isn’t just any shoe company. Founded by Shamil Hargovan and Louis-Victor Jadavji the team at Wiivv is making and selling 3D-printed insoles. The company has sold 10,000 insoles already and they’re going to start shipping custom-printed shoes this year.
The system is pretty ingenious. To get a pair of insoles you simply take a few shots of your foot with the Wiivv app which sends them to the factory in San Diego. It takes five days to get a custom insole sent to your door and the insoles promise to reduce fatigue, foot pain, and joint-load. If you, like me, have a little bit of the old plantar fasciitis you’ll know the benefit of a good pair of insoles and it seems that Wiivv has streamlined the process completely.
The company also just acquired ESoles which gives it access to 50,000 3D foot scans to help the company produce custom shoes with more accuracy. In short it seems like the “sole” of the company is “on the right path” as they “walk” into a “fu-toe-ure.” Ugh.Inquiry: Dolphin Square, where boys are said to have been taken for sex sessions in the 1970s and 1980s
The claim was as clear as it was chilling: behind the genteel façade of one of London’s most famous apartment blocks, children faced abuse on an industrial scale.
Every weekend, groups of vulnerable boys from local care homes were being smuggled to an address in Dolphin Square, Pimlico. There, after being plied with alcohol, they suffered sickening sexual assaults.
The paedophile ring orchestrating these crimes had, over time, come to believe it enjoyed immunity, a whistle-blower told police at the time.
After all, members were said to include a cross-section of Britain’s most influential politicians.
‘I had been specifically told that we were dealing with Conservative MPs,’ that whistle-blower, John Mann, recalled to me this week. ‘That’s one of the things which stood out for me.
‘Another was how violent it sounded. There was talk of dogs being involved and beatings. I would describe it as quite awful; the sort of thing you don’t easily forget.’
Mann, who is now a prominent Labour MP, originally stumbled across claims of abuse at Dolphin Square in 1988, when he was an ambitious young councillor in the South London borough of Lambeth.
At the time, he was leading an inquiry into endemic corruption in the Left-wing council’s housing department, where millions of pounds of taxpayer money was being syphoned to crooked building contractors.
‘The whole place was rotten to the core,’ he recalls. ‘I was leading a team of three or four employees looking into it. The scale of corruption was enormous. It involved criminal gangs. Two of our sources were drivers for [the Krays’ gangster rival] Charlie Richardson.’
During the course of this 18-month investigation, Mann had, however, uncovered evidence of a very different sort of organised crime: that a shady group linked to the building fraud was also running child sex rackets.
‘My team was getting tip-offs about all sorts of things,’ he says. ‘But this particular one was very precise. We were told that young boys from Lambeth care homes were being recruited as rent boys. Many went to Dolphin Square.
‘We were told this by several sources. It was very specific: there were sex parties there, and they involved Tory MPs.’
Initially, Mann says he ‘couldn’t work out what to do’ with this information, since ‘sex crimes weren’t something we were supposed to be investigating’.
But soon, realising the gravity of the situation, he decided to call a meeting with two officers from Streatham police station in South London.
‘I told them everything, and they promised to look closely into it,’ he says.
So far, so straightforward. But three months later, Mann heard a knock on the door of his office on South Lambeth Road. It was the two policemen. They apologised, but told me they had been forced to close their entire investigation,’ Mann recalls.
‘They’d been forced to drop it. Pressure had come from on high in the police service. There was nothing they could do about it. They were very unhappy.’
A string of prominent figures from all three major parties have so far been implicated in the scandal, most notably Cyril Smith (pictured)
With that, the Dolphin Square child sex scandal of 1988 was brushed under the carpet.
And there it might very well have remained were it not for an extraordinary series of events which began at exactly 12.06pm last Friday.
That was when the Metropolitan Police issued a press release revealing that it has launched an inquiry, ‘possible homicide’, linked to an establishment paedophile ring believed to have operated at Dolphin Square and other locations 30 years ago.
News of the inquiry, Operation Midland, came as an alleged victim, known as ‘Nick,’ gave two harrowing interviews detailing his ordeal at the hands of ‘very powerful people’ who ‘controlled my life for … nine years’.
Speaking to the BBC, ‘Nick’ told how he was originally ‘handed over’ to the group by his own father, an active paedophile, in the late 1970s.
‘They created fear that penetrated every part of me,’ he said. ‘I’ve never experienced pain like it. I hope I never do again.’
The group was ‘very organised’ and included leading members of the judiciary, military, and security services, along with politicians. It would hire chauffeurs to pick up victims and ferry them to sex parties or ‘sessions’.
The group would hire chauffeurs to pick up victims and ferry them to sex parties
After several hours of carousing, the ‘sessions’ would descend into ‘private time’, where ‘you’d have to perform various sexual things, but it would always culminate in being raped’.
On occasion, events took an even darker turn. For in an interview with Exaro, an investigative website, ‘Nick’ made the extraordinary claim that in addition to abusing victims, the gang had killed at least three of them.
He recalled seeing one small boy murdered in the presence of a former Tory Cabinet Minister, and another asphyxiated by a Conservative MP at a central London townhouse.
‘I watched while that happened. I am not sure how I got out of that,’ he said.
The third murder is said to have occurred in broad daylight on a street in South-West London in 1979, when a member of the group deliberately ran over and killed a boy aged between 11 and 12.
‘Nick,’ who claims to have visited Dolphin Square on at least ten occasions (and recalls its ‘dimly-lit, musty corridors’), has supplied Operation Midland with a written account of his ordeal and been interviewed extensively by investigators, passing them names of the Tory MP and the Cabinet Minister.
He has also identified a third abuser, Sir Peter Hayman, a former diplomat prominent in the Paedophile Information Exchange, a pro-paedophile lobby group endorsed at the time by the National Council for Civil Liberties, run by the future Labour grandees Harriet Harman, Jack Dromey and Patricia Hewitt.
The three boys identified by ‘Nick’ are doubtless not the only alleged victims now on Operation Midland’s radar.
On Wednesday, for example, the father of Vishal Mehrotra, an eight-year-old boy murdered in the 1980s, went public with the claim that his son also died at the hands of a Westminster paedophile ring.
The late Sir Peter Hayman was a former diplomat prominent in the Paedophile Information Exchange
Vishambar Mehrotra, a retired magistrate, told the Daily Telegraph how he received an anonymous phone call following his son’s disappearance on a Putney street in July 1981.
It purportedly came from a male prostitute who believed Vishal had been taken to Elm Guest House, a gay brothel in nearby Barnes allegedly frequented by high-profile sex offenders, including several figures now implicated in the Dolphin Square scandal.
At the time, Mr Mehrotra passed a 15-minute tape recording of the call to detectives, but claims they never properly investigated the allegation.
Part of Vishal’s body was found in woodland in West Sussex in February 1982. His legs, pelvis and lower spine were missing, along with his outer clothes and Superman underpants.
‘Now it is clear to me that there has been a huge cover-up,’ Mr Mehrotra said. ‘There is no doubt in my mind.’
The very idea that grown men might have killed small boys for sexual gratification might sound outlandish, but it’s not without precedent.
In a notorious 1989 court case, Sidney Cooke and three other members of a paedophile gang dubbed The Dirty Dozen were convicted of killing 14-year-old Jason Swift, who had been gang-raped.
Cooke was later implicated by one of his co-accused in that case, Leslie Bailey, of having also been involved in the 1984 abduction, rape and killing of seven-year-old Mark Tildesley, although only Bailey was eventually charged, having pleaded guilty to Mark’s manslaughter.
Police are believed to have tried recently (without success) to persuade the now 87-year-old Cooke to assist with recent inquiries. He is understood to have refused to help, and is not believed to have had personal links with MPs, judges or other VIPs.
Wherever they lead, this week’s developments will, nonetheless, add weight to claims — first aired by the Labour MP Tom Watson in October 2012 — that a ‘powerful paedophile network’ with links to Parliament operated with impunity in the 1970s and 1980s, using friends in high places to stay ahead of the law.
A string of prominent figures from all three major parties have so far been implicated in the scandal, most notably Cyril Smith, the Lib Dem MP for Rochdale, and Sir Peter Morrison, Margaret Thatcher’s private secretary.
The former Home Secretary Leon Brittan, has, meanwhile, been accused of ignoring or burying a dossier, given to him by the Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1983, which named eight MPs as members of the sex ring. He denies the allegation.
Over the past year, I have devoted much of my time to investigating these child sex scandals, along with others involving the Paedophile Information Exchange, the Labour peer Lord Janner, and the Tory backbencher Sir Nicholas Fairbairn.
The idea that grown men might have killed small boys for sexual gratification might sound outlandish, but it’s not without precedent
While a definitive ‘smoking gun’ is yet to emerge, the surprising number of parallels between the cases, and the weight of evidence to support the often-outlandish claims at their centre, leaves me in little doubt that some sort of Establishment paedophile ring existed in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s. And it seems increasingly likely many of its members were protected by the security services.
With this in mind, three police investigations are duly underway: Operation Midland, Operation Fernbridge (focusing on Elm Guest House) and Operation Fairbank (looking at political figures). A fourth, Operation Cayacos, is scrutinising the late Peter Righton, an influential social worker and convicted paedophile.
A source with knowledge of their progress told me this week that investigators currently believe Establishment paedophiles used flats at Dolphin Square as a ‘dropping-off point’ for young prostitutes.
‘Kids were brought there, and often partied there, but were sometimes also ferried to the Dorchester, or the Ritz, or addresses in central London,’ he said.
‘They were like lumps of meat in the back of a car. It [Dolphin Square] was a very convenient, and discreet, dropping-off point.’
The vast complex of 1,250 flats on a 7.5-acre plot close to the Thames was built in 1937 to provide homes for individuals its developers described as ‘notable in public life or society’.
Past tenants include the Far-Right political leader Oswald Mosley, Harold Wilson, Christine Keeler and Princess Anne, who (after moving out) allegedly claimed to be tired of ‘nosy neighbours, noisy traffic and the sight of hookers plying their trade nearby’.
By the late 1980s, it housed 51 MPs, 16 peers, 12 generals and six admirals. More recently, such noted Parliamentarians as William Hague, Alastair Darling, Malcolm Rifkind, Menzies Campbell and Mo Mowlam called it home.
The vast complex of 1,250 flats on a 7.5-acre plot close to the Thames was built in 1937 to provide homes for individuals its developers described as ‘notable in public life or society’
Dolphin Square, just a few hundred metres along the Thames from Parliament, has always contained its own shops, restaurants and leisure facilities, but — unusually — was not gated, meaning outsiders could come and go. Some of its units could also be rented on short-term lets, making them perfect for non-residents to hold decadent parties or conduct fleeting affairs.
Intriguing in light of recent events is the fact that in 1994, a small-circulation magazine called Scallywag published a lengthy article detailing rumours that politicians had been abusing children at Dolphin Square for 20 years.
‘We often have underage boys wandering around, totally lost, asking for a particular flat,’ a source there purportedly told it.
Scallywag was, however, the very opposite of a reliable source. It had achieved notoriety in 1993 after being sued by the Prime Minister John Major for reporting entirely fictitious rumours that he’d had an affair with a Downing Street caterer.
Its coverage of Dolphin Square was also riven with factual errors. Indeed, it centred on the entirely false premise that a paedophile ring was being run there by the late former Tory treasurer Lord McAlpine.
Only one source was named for this very serious allegation: a former care home resident called Steve Messham.
In 2012, the same Mr Messham resurfaced on BBC Newsnight. He again alleged that he had been abused by a ‘senior political figure’, who was later identified on social media as Lord McAlpine, only to realise — after being shown a photograph of the Conservative peer two days later — that it was a case of mistaken identity.
The ensuing controversy saw the BBC pay £185,000 in damages, and led to the resignation of its new director-general George Entwistle.
It is vital this new investigation is utterly rigorous - only then will Dolphin Square finally give up its secrets
All of which neatly illustrates the difficulty of separating truth from fantasy when dealing with historic sex abuse, along with the scale of
the challenge now facing investigators if they are to assemble sufficient evidence to secure any convictions.
The testimony of ‘Nick’ provides another case in point. A professional man, who has no criminal record or apparent mental health issues, he is considered a trustworthy witness.
However, there is at present no physical or documentary evidence to back up many crucial aspects of his story about the Dolphin Square sex ring (I have searched in vain, for example, for contemporary newspaper articles about a small boy being mown down on a London street in broad daylight).
Neither are the police believed to have found anyone capable of providing reliable testimony that corroborates many of ‘Nick’s’ claims.
This fact may explain why the BBC have (unlike the news website Exaro) so far held back from broadcasting some of the more explosive aspects of his story, including suggestions that he witnessed murders carried out by senior Tories.
It may also explain why the police chose so publicly to announce their murder investigation — believing, perhaps, that media coverage might be a good way to persuade other victims to come forward.
After all these years, attempting to substantiate even vague details of Labour MP John Mann’s tale is equally difficult. Only two members of the small team who worked with him at Lambeth are still believed to be alive. The location of one, Hayley Graham, is currently unknown, but this week I tracked the other, Jack Organ, to Almeira in Southern Spain.
Here, the 73-year-old retiree lives with his wife Paula Strudwick, who coincidentally is a former dominatrix who in 1997 made headlines after telling the News of the World about her lengthy affair with the Tory minister Jonathan Aitken.
Organ told me that in September he was contacted by police officers from London working on the Dolphin Square sex inquiry. However, he was unable to offer them much help.
‘I remember rumours of abuse, involving homosexuality in Lambeth children’s homes. There was talk of important people being involved. But it was hard to pin down anything specific.
‘The police were searching for hard evidence. They offered to come and see me if I had any. I just can’t remember the sort of details they are after.’
Time will tell whether other lines of inquiry yield more fruit. The tragedy, of course, is that if police had mounted a thorough investigation 30 years ago and these allegations had been tested in court, the fate of ‘Nick’ and so many other young men is likely to have been very different.
That is why it is vital this new investigation is utterly rigorous. Only then will Dolphin Square finally give up its secrets.Responding to a weak statement on fossil fuel extraction from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Thursday, protesters at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire on Thursday demanded the former secretary of state "act on climate" if she wants their votes.
Clinton was questioned about her stance on banning fossil fuel extraction on public land, something she said she couldn't support "until we get alternatives into place," according to CNN.
In response, an audience member stood up and asked of Clinton: "Is your answer, and your refusal to take leadership on climate change, due to the fact that you have contributions from the fossil fuel industry in your campaign?"
Bloomberg reported Friday that lobbyists for big companies including ExxonMobil raised money for the Clinton campaign.
In fact, Paul Blumenthal and Kate Sheppard of the Huffington Post wrote on Friday, "[n]early all of the lobbyists bundling contributions for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign have at one time or another worked for the fossil fuel industry."
The Democratic frontrunner—whose progressive rival Bernie Sanders has noted the candidates' divergence on the urgency of climate change—denied that her stances on climate-related issues were based on campaign contributions.
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She said that while she knew that the "right answer in terms of getting votes" would have been to say, "You bet I will ban extraction on public lands," such an answer would be meaningless without a concrete plan for getting it done in Congress.
As she continued to respond, a number of agitated audience members began chanting: "Act on climate." Elsewhere in the audience, two people held up a sign that read, "Ban extraction on public land."
"That's OK, that's OK, that’s OK," Clinton said as they chanted. "I am all in favor of acting on climate."
Watch the full exchange below:As Lil Pump’s unlikely rise to the top of the charts continues with his single “Gucci Gang” (currently sitting pretty at No. 4), one author takes pause to reflect on the problematic way in which the rapper’s use of the n-word addresses a broader discussion of Latino identity in hip-hop.
Lil Pump grew up as Gazzy Garcia in the Miami area of South Florida; his fans claim he was born to a Cuban father and a Mexican mother. Over time, he tamed his fluffy curls into bleached blonde and hot pink dreads. Tattoos blossomed across his cheeks and couture embroidery threaded itself through his clothes even as his teeth remained spangled with braces.
The 17-year-old Wingstop aficionado and Smokepurpp affliate has received criticism before, most notably for the way he speaks to and about women. However, critique of his fairly frequent use of the n-word has been largely absent from the discussion of the music that’s propelled him into mainstream success.
Lil Pump’s single “Gucci Gang” hit the Billboard Hot 100 fueled by Nielsen Music streaming data and a teenage audience that can score under the table Xanax more easily than over the counter Bud Light. He’s managed to parlay the viral popularity of songs like “D. Rose” and “Flex like Ouu” into a debut full-length album with features from the upper echelon of hip-hop establishment (Gucci Mane, Chief Keef, Rick Ross and 2 Chainz) and a number three spot on the Billboard Hot 200 Albums chart upon its debut.
Even as the music media has attacked his manufactured contrivance and inability to personally live up to his improbable public persona (he once claimed to put 500 pills inside a Xanax-shaped cake), the ramifications of his casual use of the n-word have remained largely unexamined.
Merritt Clark / Getty Images
It’s important to note that Cuban and Mexican lineage doesn’t necessarily, in and of itself, preclude having Afro-Latino heritage. Lil Pump’s racial ambiguity, and the fact he isn’t white, has allowed him to sidestep accusations of racism that have dogged other artists who drop the n-word, like Post Malone. However, as a non-black (or non-black-passing) person of color, Lil Pump hasn’t experienced the specific form of racism known as anti-blackness. That alone is enough to make a powerful argument that he has no right to use an anti-black slur; but the debate over whether Latino hip-hop artists can use the n-word was raging years before he hit puberty.
Chart topper Cardi B has sometimes come under fire for her language (from people who forget being Afro-Latina is a thing). In a video interview, DJ Vlad once asked the Dominican and Trinidadian artist her opinion on J.Lo’s controversial use of the n-word on the Ja Rule penned single “I’m Real (Murder Remix).”
“It’s just, it’s something like, that’s like, it’s just something that’s just like a lingo,” she answered. “If it comes to the fact that she’s Latina, my parents, my father’s side, we’re Spanish, we’re Hispanic and everything… What am I considered? At the end of the day, Latinos, they are considered a minority. Like you think white folks see Hispanic and Black people like, ‘Oh, ok, they’re Hispanic, they’re black.’ No. We are all considered the same to them.”
When Complex interviewed the Puerto Rican head of Terror Squad, Fat Joe offered a different explanation for the line “Now who’s gonna tell me that I can’t say n****?” on the opening track to “The Elephant in the Room.” “Blacks and Latinos, anywhere you go in any hood, any ghetto, we’re right beside each other, and with each other all the time, especially in New York City. They’ve been calling me ‘that n****’ my whole life. It’s a term of endearment.”
Rick Kern / Getty Images
Television show Black-ish famously joked about the dichotomy in an episode titled “THE Word,” where two African-American characters broke the rules down to their coworkers:
“Mexicans can’t say the n-word, but Dominicans are ok?”
“Exactly. Puerto Ricans are cool too. Unless you a J.Lo Puerto Rican.”
“Look, it’s simple. Big Pun, Fat Joe, ok. Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, no bueno.”
“See, basically, the whole Terror Squad can say it. But not Menuedo.”
There are glaring issues with light-skinned Latinos using a word loaded with hundreds of years of oppression and a direct lineage to slavery, no matter what neighborhood they grew up in — and Latinos working in hip-hop continue to land themselves in hot water for using racial slurs.
??? hi A post shared by Lil Pump Jetski (@lilpump) on Apr 16, 2017 at 5:17pm PDT
For example, Julieanna “YesJulz” Goddard rose to the ranks of Def Jam A&R rep and highly paid professional influencer on clout built from trap playlists and luxurious Snapchats. While certainly never exempt from criticism regarding cultural appropriation, attention became focused on her when she tweeted |
, Instagram, Facebook and Google+.EDMONTON, Alberta, Jan. 27 (AP) — Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers celebrated his 13th birthday yesterday by signing an agreement to extend his current seven‐year World Hockey Association contract to 21 years.
Edmonton's Wayne Gretzky signing 21‐year contract as Larry Gordon, term's vice president, looks on
The agreement will keep the star teen‐aged center an Oilers’ employee until 1999.
Terms and conditions of the deal were not disclosed although it was reported to be worth $5 million. Gretzky's seven‐year contract was signed for a reported $1.75 million.
The contract was signed at cen- ter ice before the Oilers met the Cincinnati Stingers and was witnessed by Gretzky's mother, father and three younger brothers.
“Wayne Gretzky is the greatest young player in the world right now,” said the Oilers’ owner Peter Pocklington. “One day he'll likely be the oldest.
Gretzky, acquired from the defunct Indianapolis Racers this season, entered the game with 2,3 goals and 23 assists in his first season as a professional.By Sato. December 8, 2017. 4:30am
Idea Factory International shared a new character trailer for the romantic visual novel, Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms, highlighting Toshizo Hijikata, Souji Okita, Hajime Saito, Heisuke Toudou, Sanosuke Harada, Shinpachi Nagakura, Keisuke Sanan, Susumu Yamazaki. Hachiro Iba, Kazue Souma, Ryoma Sakamoto, and Chikage Kazama.
Here are story details from Idea Factory International:
Chizuru Yukimura traveled from Edo to Kyoto in hopes of searching for her father who had mysteriously vanished. Along the way, she encountered the Shinsengumi, and spent the next 4 years working with them to locate her father. In 1868, the final year of the Bakumatsu Period, the Shinsengumi, with Chizuru at their side, took part in the Battle of Toba-Fushimi to decide the future of the Tokugawa Shogunate against the rise of the Imperial Nationalism. Unfortunately, defeat for the Shinsengumi came swiftly at the hands of the Imperial Army, and retreated back to Edo in shame.
It was a bittersweet homecoming for Chizuru and the warriors of the Shinsengumi, as the city of Edo resembled very little of its former self, engulfed by the harrowing winds of change that were sweeping through the country. As the Shinsengumi’s survival came under threat, they were faced with a choice: discard their principals, or give up their lives. Some of them had no choice, and they cloaked themselves in darkness to protect the Shinsengumi’s greatest secret: the Furies.
This story is about a girl who allies with the warriors of the Shinsengumi, who are struggling to uphold their faith in an era of rapid social change in Japan, and those fate of those who sought to resist that change…Here’s the latest in my series of player previews as the Cardinals near the start of the 2016 season …
Today: RH starting pitcher Michael Wacha, who turns 25 on July 1. He’s been a part of the big-league staff since the 2013 season.
Career overview: drafted in 2012 with a compensation pick coming from Albert Pujols‘ free-agent signing with the Angels, Wacha got to the majors on a fast track, promoted from Class AAA Memphis during the 2013 season. Wacha has made 58 starts for the Cardinals and will always be remembered for his epic performance during the Cards’ postseason run to the NL pennant in ‘13. Wacha went 4-1 with a 2.64 in five postseason starts that October. In the NL playoffs, Wacha won all three starts and allowed one run in 21 innings for an 0.43 ERA. Wacha kept the Cardinals alive in Game 4 of the NLDS at Pittsburgh with a 2-1 victory at PNC Park, then won two duels vs. Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw in the NLDS. Winning the NLCS MVP, Wacha pitched 13.2 shutout innings and allowed nine base runners and allowed only nine of 49 Dodgers’ hitters to reach base.
Wacha’s 2014 season was interrupted by weakness in his right shoulder blade, and after spending more than two months on the DL he never regained form after returning in early September. Wacha, who didn’t make the Cards’ 2014 postseason rotation, came out of the bullpen in NLCS Game 5 and surrendered the Giants’ walk-off, series-clinching homer.
Wacha rebounded impressively in 2015 until tiring late in the season.
Let’s talk about that 2015 season: If you look at the body of work, it was a very good year. Wacha made 30 starts, pitching a career-high 181.1 innings. He went 17-7 with a 3.38 ERA and in the NL only Jake Arrieta, Gerrit Cole, Zack Greinke and Madison Bumgarner were credited with more regular-season wins than Wacha last year. But as noted, Wacha struggled late in the season and tumbled into a decline.
The late fade: Through the end of August 2015, Wacha stood with a 15-4 record and 2.69 ERA and had turned in 18 quality starts in 25 outings. But after exceeding his innings-pitched total for a MLB regular season, Wacha ran out of gas in September. His final six starts, including the loss in NLDS Game 4, were a mess.
Here’s side by side comparison of Wacha’s numbers before and after Aug. 30, and it includes his one postseason start:
ERA: 2.69 before … 7.94 after.
Home runs per 9 IP: 0.69 … 3.18
Walks per 9 IP: 2.29 … 6.67
Ground ball rate: 46.3 … 42.2
Opponents’ batting average:.230 ….284
Opponents’ onbase percentage:.282 ….406
Opponents’ slugging percentage:.344 …..624
Opponents’ OPS:.616 … 1.030
Strikeout/walk ratio: 3.35 … 1.14
Walks/hits per inning: 1.13 … 1.84
Big difference, eh?
Hitters had a booming hard-contact rate of 38.4 percent vs. Wacha in September-October. And his Sept-Oct walk rate of 16% was almost incomprehensible. He seemed helpless at times, and it had to be difficult for Wacha to go out there late in the season knowing that he did’t have his best stuff. But pitchers who lack command will stray into big trouble.
OK, so what happened? Wacha wasn’t hurt. He wasn’t pitching with an injury that the team kept hush-hush. This was just a classic case of a pitcher running out of fuel. The numbers make that perfectly clear. Wacha’s delivery is demanding, because he needs full extension on his pitches for maximum effectiveness. Wacha is tall at 6-6, and when he comes at hitters with that high-elevation overhand delivery, they have a terrible time seeing the pitch and picking up on it as it comes out of his hand. And when a pitcher gets tired, it isn’t easy to reach the full extension. And with Wacha’s arm dropping a bit, it flattened out his pitches and dramatically reduced his command. That was the No. 1 problem with his late-season form: way too many walks, not controlling counts, and leaving himself vulnerable, which led to a thunder crack of homers against him. According to the data at Brooks Baseball, Wacha’s four-seam velocity didn’t collapse; he was still hitting 95 mph in September. But Wacha had turned to the cutter as an important secondary pitch in 2015, and late last season it lacked bite. Wacha began using it less and turning to the four-seam fastball more frequently. In the first five months he threw four-seamers in 54 percent of his pitches; in Sept-Oct that four-seam rate increased to 63 pct. And Wacha threw about half as many cutters (on a percentage) bases in Sept-Oct compared to April through August.
The changeup: The change was a devastating weapon for Wacha in 2013. But when he returned from shoulder difficulties late in the 2014 season, he didn’t have the feel for the changeup. This certainly had something to do with the necessary alterations made to his pitching mechanics during his recovery from the shoulder-blade weakness. But after throwing the change 27 percent of the time in 2013, the reliance on the pitch dropped to 18 percent in 2014 and 16.3 percent last season. In 2013 hitters batted.171 against the Wacha change; struck out 47 times in the 117 at-bats that ended with the change. It’s still a solid pitch for him, but not as nasty. In 2013 and 2014 combined, Wacha gave up only one homer on a changeup. But last year, hitters bombed his changeup for six homers. The fatigue made the pitch less deceptive and more hittable; last September hitters simply crushed Wacha’s change — with four homers and an.875 slugging percentage in 24 at-bats. What will become of the Wacha changeup in 2016? Will he use it more, less, or about the same? And will it confound hitters as it did in 2013?
The 2016 projection: ZiPS is sort of “blah” on Wacha. Not that the forecast is bad; it just isn’t as positive as you’d think. On the plus side, ZiPS has Wacha maintaining his overall strikeout (21%) and walk (7.5%) rate. (And his HR rate normalizing for the most part.) But based on 154 innings, ZiPS has Wacha with a 3.51 ERA and an adjusted ERA that’s nine percent better than the league average. For context, Wacha was 35% above the league average in 2013, 14 pct. above the average in ’14, and 17% above the average in 2015. ZiPS sees Wacha as being worth around 2.5 wins above replacement level; that’s about the same as last season.
General season outlook: Wacha has something to prove — can he make it through the entire season with full pitching health and effectiveness? That’s a fair question. But it’s important to point out some of the positives here. Two points: (1) after the injury scare in 2014, it was reassuring for Wacha to bounce back with a strong performance. Which he did if you just look at his season from a bottom-line perspective. And (2) Wacha’s volume of innings — while reasonable — was a new challenge for him. He’d worked 42 innings after being drafted in 2012, 179 innings (including the postseason) in 2013, and only 107 innings in 2014. But Wacha was also given some built-in breaks in 2013, which alleviated the innings strain and kept him fresh into October. Wacha didn’t have much down time in 2015. It would probably help Wacha if manager Mike Matheny can schedule a few missed starts to keep Wacha fresh. But internally the Cardinals believe that Wacha will benefit from going past the 180-inning barrier last season. They view it as a stamina-building season. And they could be right; Wacha was only 23 years old through the first half of last season. This is about the time in a young pitcher’s career that endurance takes hold.
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Read all of Bernie’s 2016 Cardinals player previews here.There’s “zero” chance the Mets will release Jason Bay or ask him to compete for a job next Spring Training, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports. Mets executives have already decided to stick with Bay, Puma reports. “He’s a part of this team,” a Mets person said.
The Mets aren’t likely to trade Bay or left-hander Johan Santana, Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com reports. Both players have no-trade clauses and tens of millions remaining on their current contracts. Bay will earn $16MM in 2013 and his contract includes a $3MM buyout for 2014. Santana, who's now on the disabled list with lower back inflammation, will earn $25.5MM in 2013 and his contract includes a $5.5MM buyout for 2014.
Rubin also surveys MLB rosters for bad contract swap candidates the Mets could consider. GM Sandy Alderson will likely be looking for a new center fielder this offseason and the team could also pursue a right fielder, Puma writes.Complaining about the new Mass Effect might be a bit old hat right now, but I just finished my final year of university, so I think you can give me a pass for being late to this party. The memes were pretty thorough when it came to mocking the facial animations, walking animations, and anything which involved human movement really. Considering I only began playing the game this July, and it has been through a series of patches to fix these problems since its release, I was surprised to see a pair of eyes were left suspended in midair after I biotic’d the shit out of a Salarian.
Basically, the game was universally panned and felt hugely undercooked.
At this point, I should make two things clear. Number 1: I’m about as close to a die-hard Mass Effect fan as its possible to be without buying an N7 jacket and swearing off the possibility of intimate contact for the rest of my life. Number 2: I actually enjoyed Mass Effect: Andromeda. Or at least, it was much better than its initial condemnation warranted.
The gameplay was a big improvement upon previous instalments. The worlds were much larger and there was much more to explore than previous instalments. The main character (I played as the male Ryder) was arguably more fun to play as than Commander Shepard. That sounds like sacrilege, I know, but this is mainly because of the conversation choices, more variation and some genuinely brilliant moments really help connect you to your Pathfinder. You wouldn’t find Commander Shepard quoting Han Solo now, would you?
Be this as it may, there was something that irked me throughout the game. Somehow the strongest aspect of the entire series had been lost. And it seems hard to find where it went.
Many reviews I’ve come across for Andromeda have praised the crew and characters you play alongside. If we can get past their goofy animations, most people seem to agree that the people you fight alongside are as enjoyable as ever to play alongside and interact with. People who say this are wrong.
Whilst the characters are interesting. The dialogue is well written and voiced. The loyalty missions and moments of character development were fun. Hell, my favourite part of the game is your squadmate Liam Kosta’s loyalty mission (which is impressive in its own right, I was fully prepared for Liam to be Jacob Taylor 2.0). But despite this, the characters are a mess of lost opportunity and frankly silly choices in the context of the universe they exist in. This largely appears in too many characters occupying the same spaces emotionally and for their personalities, and that the whole concept of certain species in the Mass Effect universe are completely forgotten.
Let me take you through a few to show you what I mean.
Peebee
Peebee is eccentric, flighty, impuslive and supremely intelligent. Sounds familiar, no? Sounds a little like a certain beloved Salarian from the original series? Indeed, Peebee is nothing like the stoic, patient, proud and regal species from which she hails: the Asari. I don’t understand why she isn’t a Salarian, who are inherently suspicious, quick minded and quick acting. This would offer so much more to the narrative choices that could be added in, as well as making much more sense when understanding the character.
Her being an Asari offers nothing to the story, other than the potential romance option. But this could easily be replaced by making someone else an Asari if you really just want a blue female alien to sleep with. And, of course, if the Asari doctor on board isn’t good enough…
By doing this, they lost the opportunity to discuss the genophage in any detail (which could have been AMAZING if the remnant offered some way to cure it. Especially considering Peebee is the local remnant expert). The genophage (alongside the Quarian/Geth debacle) is without a shadow of a doubt the most intriguing secondary narrative in the whole original trilogy. What a waste.
Vetra
Like seriously what happened here. Vetra is great and all, but what was the point in her. All of the interesting aspects of her character were completely overlooked. Firstly, she’s renowned from the beginning of the game for her smuggling ability, as well as her diplomatic nous. Not once does she ‘smuggle’ anything for you, nor does she need to by the by. She doesn’t resolve much either.
She’s also a female Turian, which is huge by the way. She’s only the second to appear in the game. She doesn’t act like a Turian at all which is infuriating too. She says she never grew up as part of Turian society. Great, more wasted potential of Mass Effect’s brilliant diversity. The only defining feature of Vetra is that she’s a kind and loving older sister. Great. There was no need for her to have all of this character development if it’s to be stripped out as soon as you actually engage with her.
As far as I’m concerned she could have been the human with no negative consequences to her character, and the whole sister arc could be put onto another character, potentially your science officer, Suvi. Making this smuggler actually smuggle things as intrinsic to the story would also be a good start. Similarly to how Mordin’s brain was crucial in the second game. Also, making this character the female human squadmate would have allowed us to deal with the worst offender: Cora. More on that later.
Drack
Right honestly Drack is great, so I shouldn’t rag on him too much. But the whole ‘aged soldier’ gig causes a number of problems for Drack. Firstly, why is he not replacing Morda as the head of the Krogan in Andromeda? It makes no sense. Judging by the militaristic, patriarchal and huge value placed on strength and fighting in the Krogan culture, Drack is without a shadow of a doubt the natural leader for the Krogan in Andromeda.
On top of this, Morda is the worst. You can’t even speak to her after you’ve finished your work at the Krogan camp, aside for a grunt. What’s the point in her? Honestly, it’s such a waste. Maybe if rather than that nonsensical Jorgal Strux fool it was Drack who you could support in replacing Morda this would make much more sense, and be much more rewarding.
Finally, Drack is almost too kind, and calm to be a typical Krogan. They are an inherently violent and aggressive species. This makes sense in the narrative I suppose when you get to know Drack well enough. But truthfully, Drack is almost too honourable. As far as I can see, an aged Turian would have been almost as effective, so long as you could still speak to Drack in depth in his role as Krogan Overlord.
This wouldn’t be a perfect trade off, I admit, Drack is a brilliant character. But, so long as he existed in his current state in the game, it would be acceptable I believe. Having an old Turian would also add in another dynamic, making up for the lost potential of Vetra, adding wisdom and a new perspective, and also having a slight Garrus nostalgia trip (which I think we all desperately needed in this game).
Cora
Oh my goodness this character is just the worst. It’s not because shes unkind, or rude, or aggressive or anything that might actually make her interesting… its because shes exceptionally boring. This is Cora in a nutshell: ‘I’m human but I was an Asari huntress’. Fucking fantastic Cora. Proud of you.
Oh and also ‘I was meant to be the Pathfinder but now it’s you’. But that bit dissapears pretty quickly, which makes her just that little bit more boring.
Quick question: why isn’t she an Asari? no, better yet, Why isn’t she an Asari huntress with an actual personality? God only knows.
Jaal
You know what, I like Jaal. I think he is a welcome addition to the crew. He and Drack were almost exclusively the two squadmates I chose for every mission. One criticism: he is obviously the new Garrus. This was done a little hamfistedly, all the way down to his little blue monocle eye computer thing. No-one can every really replace Garrus, he will always be one of the greatest NPC’s in gaming to me. I miss you Garrus.
However, speaking of Jaal I do have a qualm: the Angara themselves. Their intergalactic gimmick is that they are… emotive? Well… apparently they are. They have a slightly heightened emotive range compared to the other races. Guess who else was meant to have that same trait in the original trilogy? Humans. Guess who even apparently has the same gimmick in Andromeda? Humans. Find your own fucking niche, Angarans. This ones ours.
Seriously though, there seems to be nothing to them. All of the other species are hugely distinct from one another (well, they used to be), and the Angara look cool, sure, but theyre just the same as humans. This is lazy storytelling.
Liam
Eh, Liam’s pretty cool. His skills seem a bit basic to be assigned to some really high level military special forces. Other than that, theres not much to be said. At least he’s not boring…
Here’s the thing, every single character in this is just a different shade of human. That fact is so sad, and such a waste for any sci-fi property. Its especially sad with a property such as Mass Effect with its brilliantly well thought through and fleshed out lore. Being Krogan used to mean something, being Salarian did too. Asari, Turians, Quarians, Elcor, Volus, Drell, Hanar, Geth, all meant a specific culture, traits and personalities. To have all of them done away with is such a waste, and very sad to a fan like me.
(P.S why does Kallo talk about Salarians having eidetic memories as if theyre being relived? Thats the fucking Drell you fools. It seriously feels like Bioware forgot their entire established Mass Effect universe.)
AdvertisementsIn the short twenty years since Yu Hua, a fifty-three-year-old former dentist, has been writing, China has undergone change enough for many lifetimes. His country’s transformations and what they leave in their wake have become the central theme of Yu’s writing.
Many readers consider him China’s greatest living author. They have loved him since he published his early novel To Live, which chronicled the life of a family visited by wave after wave of political turmoil in the first decades after the revolution. Still, like any good writer, he also has myriad critics, some of whom bemoan his failures of imagination or style even as they clamor for his next books. The Seventh Day, published in Chinese at the end of June 2013, saw 700,000 pre-orders—more than the print run for most books over an entire lifetime.
Chinese people often worry Yu’s writing will be banned. Luck has played its part in keeping his works in print. But more than luck is in play. To Live has had six million copies printed over twenty years and was made into an internationally acclaimed film by the director Zhang Yimou. Critics hailed Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (1995) as one of the most influential books of the 1990s.
A novel by Yu Hua Boy in the Twilight, a new novel by Yu Hua.
In the fall of 2013, Yu started to contribute regular essays on contemporary China to The New York Times. As the first among his Chinese novelist peers to reach out to global media this way, Yu has had to strike a balance among his many identities as a writer. At home, he must also navigate censorship writing about issues the Chinese government deems “sensitive.”
In January, Yu’s Boy in the Twilight: Stories of the Hidden China, was published in English in the United States by Pantheon. His latest novel, The Seventh Day, will be published in English in January 2015.
I conducted this interview with Yu over email over several months beginning in July 2013.
Zhang Xiaoran: In the postscript of your novel Brothers, you wrote, “A Westerner would need to live four centuries to experience epochs as poles apart as the two Chinese people have lived through in just four decades.” What did you mean? How did this rapid change affect the Chinese people?
Yu Hua: I was speaking about my own experience. I grew up during the Cultural Revolution. Then came Reform and Opening and the economy’s explosive takeoff in the ‘90s, and then came the fantastic wildness of the new century and our world-view and our value system were both turned upside down. We moved from one era to another that was absolutely different—it seemed to happen with no transition period, which only makes the contrasts between the two periods of time that much more stark.
I wrote [that sentence in the postscript] in 2005. Taking that rollercoaster ride left Chinese people lost. The change came so fast it was dizzying. People didn’t have time to react. That was when I finished Brothers and then the criticism started–most of it was directed at the second part of the book in which I describe contemporary Chinese society. Some readers said it was too far-fetched, not true to real life. Some of the critics thought so too. But now that we’ve been through the past seven or eight years, China looks way more surreal than it did. Now no one says Brothers was unrealistic.
Personally, I never thought of the book as absurdist, just maybe a little hyperbolic. My new novel, The Seventh Day, is a true absurdist novel, so it has surprised me that many Chinese readers consider it a work of realism.
Judging from the readers’ responses, Chinese society is what’s absurd beyond comprehension.
It seems like you could say the same thing about China in Ten Words. How did your perspective differ when you were writing China in Ten Words?
Yes. What I just said relates to an intense personal experience about which I feel very deeply. I treasure it because, before my generation, no one in China had lived through anything like it, and probably no one in the generations to come will either. After I finished Brothers, I started to work on other novels, but I still felt I hadn’t finished what I had started. I wanted to write non-fiction; something on the same time period as Brothers. That was how China in Ten Words came about. When I had finished the first chapter “The People,” I knew that, for the time being, I wouldn’t be able to release the book in mainland China, but I still finished it because I was convinced someday it would become possible to publish it.
After The Seventh Day came out, I wrote a tweet on Weibo. I said, “People ask me why in The Seventh Day I wrote about a mayor and not about a Municipal Party Secretary.” I said, “It’s simple. By the time The Seventh Day is a classic, readers won’t have any idea what a Municipal Party Secretary is. This post was reposted by more than 2,400 people, many of whom said things like “[I] hope the day The Seventh Day becomes a classic comes soon.” One person left a comment that moved me: “I’ve started to believe in the future.” So have I.
Your experience during the Mao era—the Anti-Rightist Movement, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution—left an indelible mark on your life. You said that you once indulged in writing about violence to the extent that you found yourself on the verge of a nervous breakdown. When you realized this, you quit writing about violence all at once. But this didn’t happen spontaneously, you had to force yourself to stop. So do you still feel inclinations to write about violence and, if so, how do you handle them? How do you think about this shift in your writing?
I grew up during the Cultural Revolution. Childhood experiences greatly impact the rest of a person’s life. To me, the bloody struggle at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution and the oppressive atmosphere at the end were both forms of violence. As the Cultural Revolution came to an end, China commenced the era of Reform and Opening, and I began writing novels. The violence that began in my youth hung over me like a shadow. I wrote about violence a lot in my novels and I wrote about it very directly. After a while, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I deliberately tried to distance myself from violence in my writing, but it continues to appear indirectly in what I write. That’s because Chinese society never made a clean break with violence, it just made superficial changes. Today’s forced demolitions and forced abortions are both forms of violence. You’re right that violence has long existed in my subconscious. My current writing is just a way to transfer it. But where does it go? That’s not something I can decide. I write about real life, so when there is violence in a certain place in society my writing follows it there.
Michael Lionstar Yu Hua
Do the logic and discourse of violence in the Mao era still influence you today? How do they influence your writing?
In the 1980s, the whole process of writing for me was about casting off or revolting against Mao-era discourse and logic. I picked it up again twenty years later, but this time I tried to get at it through humor. Given the indelible imprint that logic and discourse left on that particular era, if I’m going to write about that era, there’s no way for me to avoid it. But now I freeze it with irony or burn it up with satire.
China in Ten Words seems like a summation of your previous work in that you connect the history of the Mao era with China as it is today. You move back and forth through time and space. It’s a technique you use in many of your novels, but in this book it’s more pronounced. One of the things that’s most distinctive about your writing is the way you connect the Cultural Revolution to the present. How did this conception of time emerge?
It’s something that emerged through the process of writing. I came up with the idea for China in Ten Words while I was working on another novel. The first four novels I wrote all deal with the Cultural Revolution and all four depict Chinese society before and after. Particularly when I was writing Brothers, I realized that even though the difference between China during the Cultural Revolution and China today is so stark, they have fundamental things in common. Take feverishness. During the Cultural Revolution the fever was for politics, today it’s for money. Take violence. Then it was the violence of revolutionary struggle, today it’s the violence of economic development. The substance is different, but the fever and the violence are unchanged.
You have been writing about social issues in a very direct way for a long time, beginning in your novels and now also in The New York Times. You seem to have collected hot button issues and systematically put them in your books. Aren’t you worried about getting into trouble?
I may write surrealist and absurdist novels, but that’s because of the increasingly pervasive absurdity of Chinese society. But I’m still a realist writer. Our lives are formed from a lot of different pieces. There are the things that happen to your family and friends, the things that happen in the place you live, the things you hear about that happen in the news…These things surround you. I don’t need to go out and collect them, because they’re the kinds of things you run into constantly in the course of everyday life. Unless you turn a blind eye, you can’t avoid them even if you want to.
I’m not a brave person. I used to have a lot I wanted to say, but I was scared to say it. I hoped someone else would speak up and say it for me. But gradually I came to realize that if everyone thought that way, China wouldn’t have such a bright future. So I told myself that I had to stand up and speak my mind—and I did. I have a lot of hope for China’s future because more and more people are speaking up and criticizing the government.
Will that get me into trouble? I just don’t have time to think about that right now.
I personally think that in the final analysis most of Chinese society’s problems emanate from the political system. But your novels don’t broach that topic. Is that because of censorship or for some other reason? How has censorship affected your writing?
It takes time to evaluate a novel. Decades. At least one decade. So people today may think they are only reading about contemporary social issues, but future readers may perceive my criticism of the regime more clearly. Still, one thing will never change: whether a novelist is facing history or the present, he should approach it novelistically rather than issuing political manifestos.
When I’m writing a novel, censorship is never a consideration. The release of Brothers was smooth, as was that of The Seventh Day. I may see a lot to criticize in the current system, but you’ve got to admit Chinese society is getting more and more permissive. When The Seventh Day was released some readers worried it would be banned in China, but even more felt comforted that Chinese society was making progress. The same thing happened when Brothers was released.
China in Ten Words couldn’t be published in mainland China because one of the chapters discusses the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, which is still off limits.
You use a lot of Internet slang, puns, and humor—the language people use to get around censorship. In a certain way this language is a necessity, but it’s also a way of letting off steam and is a source of creativity. What do you think about this kind of language? How do you evaluate this language? Is it a real form of criticism? Is our ability to speak critically improving or deteriorating?
My friend Emily Parker was an editor of the Op-ed section of The New York Times. In 2009 she came to Beijing and asked me to write an article, and we became friends. She did research on the Internet in the U.S., in Russia, and in China. She says in the U.S. the Internet was boring, in Russia it was dull, but in China it was fascinating. Why? Because China’s strict censorship was forcing people to be creative. They skirted around sharp corners to launch their critiques of the government, they became masters of disguise and subterfuge. By the time the government figured out what they were really saying and came after them, they’d switched tactics.
I wrote an article about this for The International Herald Tribune. I said in this kind of cat and mouse game, the “mice taunt their adversaries, they make sure to have a bolt-hole right next to them.” Ironically, at least in my mind, China's censorship hasn’t suppressed people’s critiques, it has sharpened them.
China in Ten Words is your first collection of social commentary. Has the shift from fiction to nonfiction been difficult? Is it permanent?
It came very naturally. When I wrote China in Ten Words in 2009, I had been writing novels for twenty-six years. I had a lot of ideas I didn’t feel I could express in another novel. I needed nonfiction.
Is the twentieth century Chinese writer Lu Xun the writer who has influenced you most deeply?
Lu Xun is my spiritual guide, he’s my only spiritual guide. A lot of other great writers have influenced the technical aspects of my writing, but he has influenced me the most deeply. Especially in the last ten years, Lu Xun has encouraged me to be independent and critical, and I’ve tried my utmost to achieve that. I think he’d be happy. Ten days ago, at a symposium on The Seventh Day at Beijing Normal University, a professor said that I was channeling Lu Xun. This was a compliment. But I know how far short I fall. Especially when it comes to essays, I can’t do social satire the way he could.
A commentator at Sanlian Life Week magazine after reading your novel The Seventh Day said in this age of information where everything is laid bare, people are no longer moved by literature because they’ve already been numbed by the news. He said, “This places even higher demands on writers, because in China how can you surpass the news? How do you tell that to Tolstoy?” What do you think?
He is half right, half wrong. When it comes to Chinese society today, no question: the news has literature beat. Still, in the long run, people forget the news, but they remember literature. News gets there first but it doesn’t stick like literature. So I won’t tell Tolstoy immediately. But when people have forgotten about the news, I will fly all the way from Beijing to Moscow, take a two-hour bus to the Tolstoy State Museum, stand alone beside his grass-covered grave and quietly tell him about it all.
Among contemporary Chinese novelists of your generation, you’re the only one who also writes nonfiction social criticism. How do you balance these two identities? For you, where is the line between fiction and reality?
Writing novels and writing criticism are two completely different matters. I always remind myself that I can’t bring the language of news commentary into my novels. The language of commentary needs to hew closely to reality, but the language of a novel must do the opposite. It’s interesting, sometimes bringing narrative techniques into a piece of social criticism gives it a new feel. I did that once and it seemed to work. But never the opposite. A novel written in the mode of social criticism would be a disaster.
For me, a single principle governs both kinds of writing: the author should value truth above opinion. When Sewell Chan, an editor at The New York Times, invited me to do a column, he said that he did |
don’t want them to. If you aren’t at least working on getting all four wheels sideways, these wheels won’t wear very evenly…Which will affect their performance. Though, small mistakes (i.e. coning, minor flat spots, possibly even slight ovaling) are easy to fix given you have good form.
Hitting The Core:
Out of the package Spuds definitely seem like your standard mids, which calls the price into question. It’s not crazy, but a little high for mids. It’s not until you start to hit the core that you realize what them extra dollars was for. DHD seems to, for better or worse, missed the point of making mids…they aren’t dirt cheap and a bit to much thought seems to have been put into them. These are more of “performance mids”, if that’s even a thing. These wheels have a very quick releasing urethane that seems specifically designed to compensate for their wide contact patch/center set geometry. Why not just have a wheel shape better suited for sliding then? Because near the core the soft urethane deforms slightly and that wide contact starts to hug the ground in an hourglass shape. These lips continue to provide grip when not sliding and maintain more consistency than other wheels I’ve experienced. Is this the only wheel designed this way? Of coarse not…a lot of wheels will have decent albeit very different slide characteristics near the core. What impressed me was that the Spuds compound seemed designed in such a way that a fresh wheel and a nearly cored wheel would feel and perform as similarly as possible. I’m not saying it’s exactly the same all the way through…but it’s not going to be throwing you any huge curve balls.
Does that make it worth the extra money? That’s entirely up to you…I’d say, if you’re learning checks and relatively new to holding out long slides with all four wheels going sideways, then you’re going to love the extra play you get. This is a very forgiving wheel designed to keep you on top of your board no matter what. You become very confident on this wheel and it gets easier and easier to push your limits…especially since it stays familiar all the way through. Once you find that release point, it never wanders too far…even near the core. If you kill a wheel in one sesh, then it might not be cost effective for you to stock up on spuds…but then again, you’d have to be holding out long enough slides already that you probably don’t need the safety net of this wheels huge margin for error. Though, even the most experienced skater could easily justify trying them given all the freebies you get from Thane Store! For more info on Spuds, it any of DHDs other wheels, check out their Facebook page.
As always, don’t forget to like The Longboard Critic on Facebook to get updates on our weekly reviews! Not to mention, some pretty cool contests.
DISCLAIMER: This company was confident enough in its quality that it was willing to provide me with product to review.
AdvertisementsORONTO — Ontario’s opposition parties accused the governing Liberals of hypocrisy Monday after Premier Kathleen Wynne released an open letter promising more openness and transparency.
The Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats said the Liberals’ efforts to cover up the gas plants scandal — which cost taxpayers up to $1.1 billion — speak a lot louder than their words.
“How dare they talk about open access to government information when they spent years covering up the gas plant scandal,” PC Leader Tim Hudak told reporters. “It made me think Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals are a bunch of hypocrites.”
In her open letter to the “people of Ontario,” Wynne said she wants to make government information easier to find, understand and use so the province can design services that deliver better results.
“Part of this process will be the use of innovative models of public engagement, giving you a greater say on a range of items, including transit, regional economic development and fiscal responsibility,” she wrote.
The NDP questioned Wynne’s appeal for a new era of openness in government at the same time the premier refuses to agree to appear a second time at committee hearings into the cancelled gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga.
“We had to drag them kicking and screaming to give Ontarians the answers, and even to this day the premier is refusing to come back to the committee to deal with the gas plant issues that came up in the auditor’s report,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.
“I think what people expect is their government to be open and transparent, but apparently Kathleen Wynne needs a panel to show her how to do it.”
Hudak said the Liberals cancelled the gas plants to save Liberal seats in the 2011 election, but Ontario taxpayers will be stuck with the billion-dollar tab.
“We’ve seen a pattern of deliberate decision making by the Liberals to put their own political party interests ahead of the interests of taxpayers,” added Hudak.
“We’ve had not one but two major gas plant scandals, eHealth, Ornge, Ontario Lottery and Gaming and now the Pan Am Games. How much more evidence do you need that all Liberals care about is themselves?”
Wynne said the government would engage the public in finding the best ways to make the government more open and transparent.
“We will also create a central space online where people can find information about government consultations, get engaged in that process, and express their ideas on government policy,” she wrote.
The scandal-plagued Liberals have no credibility whatsoever to call for openness and transparency in government, said Hudak.
“I think that ship sailed long ago,” he said.
Hudak pointed out the Tories and New Democrats had to continually fight the Liberal government before it turned over 160,000 documents on the cancelled gas plants.
The government’s initial refusal to release the documents led to a rare contempt of parliament charge, which prompted Dalton McGuinty’s decision to prorogue the legislature in October 2012 and announce his resignation.
Hudak mocked the Liberals’ plan to set up an expert panel to study ways of achieving a more open government, saying they should worry more about the economy and creating jobs.
“Kathleen Wynne’s been premier for nine months and we’ve had all kinds of consultations, hand-holding, all kinds of studies, but my question is where’s the plan for jobs,” said Hudak. “Enough conversations. It’s time for action.”
Wynne’s open letter promised new initiatives to improve government transparency and accountability.
“I believe that government data belongs to the people of Ontario and so we will make government data open by default, limiting access only to safeguard privacy, security and confidentiality,” she wrote.What Discounted Gift Cards are Bitcoin Users Purchasing at CardCash.com?
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Durant says he and Westbrook are still friends, but they no longer talk -- One of the storylines of interest around this time a year ago was how Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook would react in their first game against each other. Overall, no moments stood out as particularly icy in last season's Warriors-Thunder matchups between the two ex-teammates. In a recent interview on The Bill Simmons Podcast, Durant talked about the state of his friendship with Westbrook:
Kevin Durant recently reiterated his respect for Russell Westbrook in a way that might intrigue NBA fans. Much has been made of the former Thunder teammates’ relationship since KD left for Golden State and, on The Bill Simmons Podcast that posted Thursday, the Warriors star rejected the idea that his friendship with Westbrook ever ended. “I don’t think we ever stopped being friends,” Durant told Simmons. “We just stopped talking — but I don’t think we stopped being friends.” Simmons asked if KD and Westbrook are speaking again. “Not talking, nah, but I mean, I don’t think any… there’s no problems,” Durant said. “But I don’t think we ever stopped being friends.”
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Irving has big shoes to fill in Boston -- The aftershocks of this week's Kyrie Irving-Isaiah Thomas trade are still being felt across the NBA and, particularly, in Cleveland and Boston. Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald knows just how beloved Thomas was in the city and community and opines on just how Irving will have a bigger role to fill than his on-court one:
But let’s put down the depth chart for a moment. Let’s toss out the playbook and the short- and long-range projections. Let’s do what Ainge cannot and should not do. And let’s pose a question: Though Kyrie Irving has replaced the player that is Isaiah Thomas, can he replace the man that is Isaiah Thomas?... What matters is that Celtics fans liked Isaiah Thomas who, incredibly, was a member of the Green for just a little over two seasons. They liked the way he electrified the offense. They liked the way he persevered during the playoffs following the tragic death of his sister in a car wreck. They liked the way he played in physical pain as well, this after loosing some teeth after getting his face smashed in and then injuring his hip. Celtics fans also liked the work he did in the community. He was a presence. He resonated. And be honest, Celtics fans: You also liked it that Isaiah Thomas is a little guy. The 5-foot-9 stat that’s been stamped into the media guide? That’s fake news. I’ve read that he himself has said he’s only 5-8, and I’m not even sure about the 5-8.... Thomas didn’t play on a title team. He wasn’t around long enough to get his number retired. Hall of Fame? He’ll need to have several more seasons like the one he just had in order for that discussion to become meaningful. But he connected with Celtics fans. Man, did he ever. And I hope what we now must call the Century of Dominance hasn’t become so intoxicating and be-all-end-all that we can’t take a moment to admire a guy who, while he didn’t contribute to the dominance, did contribute in ways that don’t call for mayoral proclamations and rolling rallies. In that respect, Kyrie Irving has some big, big shoes to fill, whether or not he leads the Celtics to a championship.
Kenny Smith had some pointed thoughts on the Celtics trading Isaiah Thomas.
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Pacers pumped about new practice facility -- First, it was the Milwaukee Bucks. Now, another Central Division team has fancy, new practice digs to trump up as the 2017-18 season nears. The Indiana Pacers officially unveiled their new St. Vincent Center, which the team's players and coaches can't stop raving about. Clifton Brown of the Indianapolis Star has more:
Located across the street from Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the facility's features include two NBA-regulation courts, an enormous weight room, saunas, whirlpools, a video room featuring movie theater-style seats, a locker room, a player’s lounge and a training room. With the team retooling its roster this offseason after trading Paul George, the organization wanted a practice facility that would set a positive tone for a franchise headed in a new direction. “It’s a place that will encourage everybody to get better together, probably get to know each other a bit more, especially with a new team this year,” said center Myles Turner. “It’s top notch. I haven’t seen any one better. Phoenix had a pretty good one. Sacramento just got a new one, but ours has everything. “It just shows that the Pacers are fully invested in their player development. They’ll do anything for us. Anything we want, anything we ask for, they’ll make sure it happens for us, as long as it goes toward building for the future.”... “Indiana is not a small market; it’s not a big market,” said team president Kevin Pritchard. “What it really is is a good market, and this (facility) matches the market. You’ve got the (Bankers Life) Fieldhouse which has aged perfectly, and is an elite place to play games. Now you have a training facility that matches the fieldhouse. Us and our relationship with St. V is going to be phenomenal. “It feels like a little bit of an arms race, in terms of facilities and sports performance. Indiana is basketball; basketball is Indiana. You look at how competitive the league is, the way the salaries are going, the way the salary cap is. We want to make sure our advantage was taking care of players and sports performance. “We want players walking in here thinking about a couple of things: One, how can they be their best? And then our coaches, how can they get the best out of our players? That was the thought behind designing this building.”... St. Vincent will provide care and treatment in the new facility not only for players, but for the public. The new facility will begin treating patients next week. Many believe the Pacers are facing a rebuilding season, but McMillan thinks the practice facility will help a young team with many new faces. “The timing is perfect for what we’ve gone through this offseason, all the change,” McMillan said. “Everything that they need to prepare themselves, and to perform during the season, is here. Once you come in here, you don’t want to go.”
Go inside St. Vincent Center through our photo gallery 👉 https://t.co/9v0lsE0Orypic.twitter.com/fDoxb3rvNl — Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) August 24, 2017
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SOME RANDOM HEADLINES: Construction work on the Bucks' new arena is progressing nicely... Manu Ginobili inked a two-year deal with the Spurs yesterday... LeBron James has some words for fans who are burning jerseys... Next season, there will be a 14-foot tall Jazz note outside of Vivint Arena...Update 3 Release Candidate for Visual Studio 2013
Visual Studio
Today we’re announcing the Release Candidate for Visual Studio 2013 Update 3, which is now available for download; direct links for these downloads are at the bottom of this post. You can read more about the announcement on Brian Harry’s blog, this Channel 9 video, and on the Visual Studio 2013 Update 3 RC release notes. As with all VS updates, Update 3 offers new features as well as reliability fixes and bug fixes, with a particular focus on three areas: support for multi-device development with Apache Cordova™, improvements to our diagnostics experience, and general improvements to the user experience including a new setting that enables you to turn off the ALL CAPS menus – something many users have asked for.
Here’s some more information about the new features:
Application Insights. Application Insights, Microsoft’s service for monitoring production web sites and Windows Store and Phone apps, is now included in this update. Key enhancements in this release include polish to the account setup experience to create accounts directly in Azure without requiring a Visual Studio Online account as well as other enhancements from the Preview we published to the Visual Studio Gallery.
. Application Insights, Microsoft’s service for monitoring production web sites and Windows Store and Phone apps, is now included in this update. Key enhancements in this release include polish to the account setup experience to create accounts directly in Azure without requiring a Visual Studio Online account as well as other enhancements from the Preview we published to the Visual Studio Gallery. Visual Studio Graphics Analyzer. Diagnosing DirectX rendering and performance issues is tricky and the Visual Studio Graphics Diagnostics features help. In Update 3, we have enhanced the Graphics Analyzer to analyze graphics frames and to view the impact of shader code changes without re-running the app. You can easily configure capture options in Tools Options under Graphics Diagnostics.
Managed memory dump analysis. When analyzing managed memory dump files, you can now Go to Definition and Find All References of the selected type. To learn more, check out the blog post on.NET Memory Analysis.
CPU and Memory Usage tool. The CPU Usage tool in the Performance and Diagnostics hub now enables you to navigate from a function name in the Call Tree to the definition of that function in the editor so that you can easily see the code that is using CPU in your application. We have also made improvements to the Memory Usage tool such as support for Win32 and WPF applications (.NET 4.0 and up on Windows 8.1) and the ability to force garbage collections in managed apps.
Multi-Monitor configuration with Windows Store App. When debugging a Windows Store app with a multi-monitor configuration, Visual Studio now remembers which monitor your app was last run on. Here are some images to describe this experience.
CodeLens. CodeLens, an editor productivity feature available in Visual Studio Ultimate, is now available to show authors and changes to files in Git repositories. If you use Git for source control and TFS for work item tracking, CodeLens work item indicators now provide information about work items associated with a method, or class.
ALL CAPS. The change in our menus to use all capital letters was one of the areas about which we received a lot of feedback, so a while ago we added a registry key that disabled the ALL CAPS menus in Visual Studio 2012. To make the setting more discoverable and to enable it to remain set as you upgrade across Visual Studio versions, we have now added a Tools Options setting under the general Environment settings that lets you set your preferred menu bar styling. We also roam this setting so it’s available on all your devices.
You can learn more by reading the release notes and KB article, and then download the Update 3 RC bits on the download center. You can also install an integrated package of Visual Studio 2013 RTM and Update 3 RC for six Visual Studio products:
NOTE: After installing Visual Studio Update 3, you must install Multi-Device Hybrid Apps CTP 2.0 available later this month. Previous CTP releases are incompatible with this update.
Many of the features and bug fixes in this release come from your feedback. Thank you for sharing these suggestions, thoughts and ideas with us on our UserVoice site and through the thousands of Send-a-Smile and Send-a-Frown actions you sent us from inside the IDE. If you find a bug please send it to us the Visual Studio Connect site.President Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 38 percent, according to Gallup’s daily tracking poll.
The Monday number in the Gallup Daily Tracking poll is Trump's lowest since April 1.
His approval dropped as low as 35 percent in late March.
According to Gallup’s records, Trump’s rating on his 115th day in office is lower than any of the last four presidents at the same point in their term.
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Gallup’s Presidential Job Approval Center shows that 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 had a 64 percent approval rating at this point in his presidency, President George W. Bush had a 56 percent approval rating and President Bill Clinton William (Bill) Jefferson ClintonInviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Howard Schultz must run as a Democrat for chance in 2020 Trump says he never told McCabe his wife was 'a loser' MORE stood at 45 percent — all higher than Trump's current rating.
The Trump administration has been roiled by controversy since the firing of FBI Director James Comey last week.
The Gallup daily tracker is based on telephone interviews with 1,500 adults. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.Template tags can be useful for making your applications more reusable by other projects. For this example I will be adding to the books project that I started in a previous post. Also, I’ve bundled the example files into a google code project.
Start off by creating a folder called templatetags in your app directory and create two files in it. The first one named __init__.py and the second book_tags.py. There’s 3 things that we need to accomplish with our template tags. The first is to create a tag that will output the url for the action of the form. For example, {% get_book_form_url foo_object %}Next we need to get the form and assign it to a template variable that can be specified by the template variable. For example, {% book_form as bar_var %}. And the third template tag will get the books for an object and place in a template variable. For example, {% books_for_object foo_object as bar_var %}.
from django. template import Library, Node, TemplateSyntaxError from django. template import Variable, resolve_variable from django. utils. translation import ugettext as _ from django. contrib. contenttypes. models import ContentType from django. core. urlresolvers import reverse from books. models import Book register = Library ( ) def get_contenttype_kwargs ( content_object ) : "" " Gets the basic kwargs necessary for form submission url " "" kwargs = { 'content_type_id' : ContentType. objects. get_for_model ( content_object ). id, 'object_id' : getattr ( content_object, 'pk', getattr ( content_object, 'id' ) ), } return kwargs def get_book_form_url ( content_object ) : "" " prints url for form action " "" kwargs = get_contenttype_kwargs ( content_object ) return reverse ( 'new_book', kwargs=kwargs ) class BooksForObjectsNode ( Node ) : "" " Get the books and add to the context " "" def __init__ ( self, obj, context_var ) : self. obj = Variable ( obj ) self. context_var = context_var def render ( self, context ) : content_type = ContentType. objects. get_for_model ( self. obj. resolve ( context ) ) # create the template var by adding to context context [ self. context_var ] = \ Book. objects. filter ( # find all books for object content_type__pk = content_type. id, object_id = self. obj. resolve ( context ). id ) return '' def books_for_object ( parser, token ) : "" " Retrieves a list of books for given object {% books_for_object foo_object as book_list %} " "" try : bits = token. split_contents ( ) except ValueError : raise TemplateSyntaxError ( _ ( 'tag requires exactly two arguments' ) if len ( bits )! = 4 : raise TemplateSyntaxError ( _ ( 'tag requires exactly three arguments' ) if bits [ 2 ]! = 'as' : raise TemplateSyntaxError ( _ ( "second argument to tag must be 'as'" ) return BooksForObjectsNode ( bits [ 1 ], bits [ 3 ] ) def book_form ( parser, token ) : "" " Adds a form to the context as given variable {% book_form as form %} " "" # take steps to ensure template var was formatted properly try : bits = token. split_contents ( ) except ValueError : raise TemplateSyntaxError ( _ ( 'tag requires exactly two arguments' ) if bits [ 1 ]! = 'as' : raise TemplateSyntaxError ( _ ( "second argument to tag must be 'as'" ) if len ( bits )! = 3 : raise TemplateSyntaxError ( _ ( 'tag requires exactly two arguments' ) # get the form return BookFormNode ( bits [ 2 ] ) class BookFormNode ( Node ) : "" " Get the form and add it to the context " "" def __init__ ( self, context_name ) : self. context_name = context_name def render ( self, context ) : from books. forms import NewBookForm form = NewBookForm ( ) # create the template var by adding to context context [ self. context_name ] = form return '' # register these tags for use in template files register. tag ( 'books_for_object', books_for_object ) register. tag ( 'book_form', book_form ) register. simple_tag ( get_book_form_url )
Add this to your template
To start adding books to an object, add this code to your template and change my_awesome_object_here to the template variable name of your object.
<h2>Books</h2> {% load book_tags %} {% books_for_object my_awesome_object_here as books %} {% for book in books %} <a href="{{ book.get_absolute_url }}">{{ book }}</a> - {{ book.description }} {% endfor %} <h2>Add a book</h2> <form action="{% get_book_form_url my_awesome_object_here %}" method="post"> {% book_form as form %} {{ form }} <input type="submit" value="Go" /> </form>
You can get the template tags source code and the code from the previous post at the google code project page or by doing
svn co http://django-books.googlecode.com/svn/trunk books
in a directory on the python path.
I use webfaction to host a lot of my django projects. It has an easy setup that will get you developing quickly and a great community of talented programmers. There is also a quick setup for rails, wordpress, and a lot more.
Related posts:Nick Clegg faces growing calls to suspend an MP who said he would be prepared to fire a Hamas rocket at Israeli civilians.
David Ward, the MP for Bradford East, provoked widespread anger amongst Jews in Britain and overseas after he wrote on Twitter: “The big question is - if I lived in #Gaza would I fire a rocket? - probably yes".
He added: "Ich bin ein #palestinian - the West must make up its mind - which side is it on?"
Asked about the comments this morning, Mr Ward said his critics “jump straight on the anti-Semitism bandwagon".
In a rare intervention, Daniel Taub, the Israeli ambassador, wrote to Nick Clegg to express his “shock and disgust” at the remarks.
“It is hard to convey the hurt such a statement causes to the five million Israelis forced to live within reach of bomb shelters, or the damaged caused to Palestinian society when incitement to terrorism is legitimised by a member of the British Parliament.”
“I urged you to take forceful and immediate action to make clear beyond any doubt that views such as those of Mr Ward have no place in your party.”
Nick Clegg said he “utterly condemned” the remarks, but refused to suspend him from the party.
Instead, Lib Dem officials will decide “in due course” if “further disciplinary action should be taken,” the party said last night.
In what the Liberal Democrats described as a “categorical apology”, Mr Ward said at lunchtime had not “intended” to support rocket attacks on Israel and added: “If they gave the opposite impression, I apologise."
He added: "However, while I defend the right of Israel to exist and defend itself, I will continue to speak out for the rights of the Palestinian people who are facing untold suffering. More must be done by the world community to end this humanitarian crisis and protect the families living in Gaza. I can understand their plight and desperation.
Mr Ward was previously suspended from the party for questioning Israel’s right to exist and describing the Israeli government as “the Jews".
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the community’s leaders in Britain, described the Hamas comments as “abhorrent” and said the apology was nothing but “spin”. It urged Mr Clegg to expel Mr Ward.
“We have seen Ward apologise and receive rebuke before, to no avail. The Party will now be judged not by its words but by the action it takes. Time is running out for it to act.”
Nadhim Zahawi, a Conservative MP and Downing Street advisor, last night wrote to Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, urging him to investigate Mr Ward for encouragement of terrorism.
"Mr Ward's tweets would appear to be prima facie evidence that he has committed the offence of encouragement of terrorism as defined by Section 1(2) of the Terrorism Act 2006.
"Mr Ward may or may not have intended this statement to encourage others to fire rockets from Gaza into Israel, but regrettably he would appear to at least have been reckless as to whether others would be encouraged to commit such acts,” he said.
Grant Shapps, the Tory chairman, said the comments were “appalling” while Labour said they were a “vile” comment by a “desperate” MP.
David Gauke, a Conservative Treasury minister, responded to Mr Gauke: “In firing your rockets into Israel, how many Jews would you hope to kill?"
Mr Ward was suspended by the Liberal Democrats last year after he "questioned the continuing existence of Israel".
That related to a Tweet which read: "Am I wrong or are am I right? At long last the Zionists are losing the battle - how long can the apartheid State of Israel last?"
Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat chief whip, said he had failed to live “proportionate and precise” language.
He had previously been criticised after referring to the Israeli government as “the Jews”.
He wrote on his website that he was "saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps, be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza".Minnesota United midfielder Rasmus Schuller has been called up to play for Finland’s national team in its World Cup qualifier against Turkey on March 24, and a friendly match against Austria on March 28, the team’s Twitter account said Wednesday. Related Articles Minnesota United counting on Ike Opara to be leader and defensive upgrade
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Schuller, 25, was a key offseason singing for the Loons and started in the center of the field in United’s first two matches. Before coming to Minnesota, he played for top teams in Sweden and Finland, and has made appearances with his national team.
United also expects Costa Ricans Francisco Calvo and Johan Venegas, and possibly Trinidad and Tobago’s Kevin Molino, to leave for their countries’ World Cup qualifiers later in March.
United is among six of 22 MLS clubs slated to play the weekend between the World Cup qualifiers. The Loons face New England in Foxboro, Mass., on March 25, but coach Adrian Heath expects the players with international duty to return in time for an April 1 match versus Real Salt Lake.
HEAVNER IS NEW GOALIE
With starting goaltender John Alvbage (knee) and third-stringer Patrick McLain (concussion) out out with injuries, United has brought on goalkeeper Billy Heavner.
Heavner went undrafted out of Maryland-Baltimore County in the 2017 MLS SuperDraft. He will back up Bobby Shuttleworth against Colorado on Saturday.
It’s believed Heavner signed a four-day under MLS’ “extreme hardship call-up” rule.
“Hopefully Billy will come in and it won’t be for too long and just help us through the weekend,” Heath said. “We hope he isn’t going to be called upon, but sometimes it happens.”
Heath hopes McLain will be ready to play next week. If not, United could extend Heavner’s short-term deal.
VENEGAS QUESTIONABLE
Venegas, whose wife is due to give birth soon, might not travel to Colorado. He has made two starts and assisted on Christian Ramirez’s goal in a 5-1, season-opening loss at Portland.
“I think we are under the impression that if she has not had the baby, he will stay,” Heath said. “If she has had the baby, he will go. So, hopefully she has the baby (Wednesday).”
United will leave for Colorado on Friday.
GATT’S PROGRESS
Former U.S. men’s national team player Josh Gatt, who has overcome three knee injuries while playing abroad in Norway, continues to work his way back. He has yet to play this season.
“He’s training hard,” Heath said this week. “For Josh, it’s a gradual progression. He’s like everybody, he’s frustrated. He wants to help. He wants to get in the team, and we have to evaluate that in the next week or so to see if he’s going to give us something.
“He’s certainly getting better and fitter by the day, which is something he needed to do when he got here.”
QUICK KICK
When Kevin Molino was fouled inside the box during Sunday’s 6-1 loss to Atlanta, there was no set plan for him to take the ensuing penalty kick. He grabbed the ball, placed it and slotted a shot past Atlanta keeper Alec Kann for Minnesota’s only goal.
“I think he just picked it up, and he was confident in his ability,” Heath said.The Chrome team is delighted to announce the promotion of Chrome 48 to the stable channel for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Chrome 48.0.2564.82 contains a number of fixes and improvements -- a list of changes is available in the log. Watch out for upcoming Chrome and Chromium blog posts about new features and big efforts delivered in 48.
Security Fixes and Rewards
Note: Access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix. We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third party library that other projects similarly depend on, but haven’t yet fixed.
This update includes 37 security fixes. Below, we highlight fixes that were contributed by external researchers. Please see the Chromium security page for more information.
[$3000][ 497632 ] High CVE-2016-1612: Bad cast in V8. Credit to cloudfuzzer.
[$3000][ 572871 ] High CVE-2016-1613: Use-after-free in PDFium. Credit to anonymous.
[$2000][ 544691 ] Medium CVE-2016-1614: Information leak in Blink. Credit to Christoph Diehl.
[$500][ 468179 ] Medium CVE-2016-1615: Origin confusion in Omnibox. Credit to Ron Masas.
[$500][ 541415 ] Medium CVE-2016-1616: URL Spoofing. Credit to Luan Herrera.
[$500][ 544765 ] Medium CVE-2016-1617: History sniffing with HSTS and CSP. Credit to Yan Zhu.
[$500][ 552749 ] Medium CVE-2016-1618: Weak random number generator in Blink. Credit to Aaron Toponce.
[$500][ 557223 ] Medium CVE-2016-1619: Out-of-bounds read in PDFium. Credit to Keve Nagy.
We would also like to thank all security researchers that worked with us during the development cycle to prevent security bugs from ever reaching the stable channel. The total value of additional rewards and their recipients will updated here when all reports have gone through the reward panel.
As usual, our ongoing internal security work was responsible for a wide range of fixes:
[ 579625 ] CVE-2016-1620: Various fixes from internal audits, fuzzing and other initiatives.
Multiple vulnerabilities in V8 fixed at the tip of the 4.8 branch (currently 4.8.271.17).
Many of our security bugs are detected using AddressSanitizer, MemorySanitizer or Control Flow Integrity.
Interested in switching release channels?
Find out how
. If you find a new issue, please let us know by
filing a bug
. The
community help forum
is also a great place to reach out for help or learn about common issues.
Krishna GovindLalit Modi: "The bidding was extremely competitive and I hope they [the bidders] make good business." © Associated Press
The financial might of the IPL was on display again on Sunday when Pune and Kochi became the league's two new franchises, being sold for a value in excess of the original eight franchises combined.
The Sahara group, the biggest patron of sports in the country, became owners of the Pune franchise after offering a staggering US$370m. The other new franchisee is a consortium of five companies called Rendezvous Sports World, which bid US$333.33m for Kochi. There were three other qualified bidders, including Adani Enterprises and VC digital solutions Pvt Ltd (Videocon), who were in the fray to become part of the IPL, which will be heartening for any existing franchise owners looking to offload their stake.
"It only shows there is no recession for the IPL and it is on the upswing," Lalit Modi, the league's commissioner, said after announcing the new franchises in Chennai.
Sahara, who have been sponsoring Indian cricket for the past 15 years, had bid for the same amount for three cities, but ultimately chose Pune over Ahmedabad and Nagpur. "When we considered the cities, in terms of infrastructure and logistics, Pune came first," Abhijit Sarkar, the head of Sahara's corporate communications, said. "Ït is also close to Mumbai - the commercial capital of India - and Aamby Valley (an upmarket township owned by the Sahara group)."
Ajay Shirke, president of the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) and a prominent businessmen from Pune, said he was obviously happy about Pune being rated as the most popular venue at the auction with three out of the five bidders preferring Pune as their home base over the rest of the 11 cities. Puneites have been hungry for top-quality cricket for nearly half a decade now. The last international match played in Pune was in the 2005 ODI series between India and Sri Lanka.
"MCA has always maintained that we will support all bids that are made for Pune," Shirke, who was present at the auction venue in Chennai, |
36 of the Family Code, which is sometimes referred to as the de facto divorce law in the Philippines. The provision allows a marriage to be voided if one of the parties is proven to be psychologically incapacitated to perform marital obligations. But it requires a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation, not to mention lawyer’s fees, which makes it a costly solution.
The proposed divorce law would address the limitations of these existing legal remedies by expanding the grounds of separation. Divorce is granted if these grounds are met: De facto separation from his or her spouse for at least five years at the time of the filing of the petition and reconciliation is highly improbable; Legal separation for at least two years at the time of the filing of the petition and reconciliation is highly improbable; When any of the grounds for legal separation have caused irreparable breakdown of the marriage; When one or both spouses are psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations; and when the spouses suffer from irreconcilable difference that have caused the irreparable breakdown of the marriage.
The five valid grounds listed above are there to discourage and prevent no-fault divorces or Las Vegas-style divorces. The proposed divorce bill also has some interesting provisions that might be unique to the Philippines, like asking couples to seek reconciliation before petitioning for divorce, extending legal and personal assistance to poor couples who want a divorce, and prescribing a six-month period for the courts to settle divorce cases. Divorces obtained by Filipino citizens abroad will be deemed valid as well.
The intended beneficiaries of the bill aren’t rich couples who can afford expensive annulment proceedings, but poor women who are trapped in dead-end marriages. According to government figures, which should be considered conservative, an average of 22 annulment cases are filed everyday all over the country. In 2010, the number of annulment cases was 40 percent higher than 10 years ago.
It’s crucial to note that in 2007, the Office of the Solicitor General reported that 92 percent who filed for annulment petitions were Roman Catholics. As expected, 61 percent of petitioners were females. During the same year, the police said that a woman is battered every one hour and 50 minutes in the Philippines.
Critics of the divorce bill aver that divorce is alien to Philippine culture and that it’s a bad Western legacy. They are wrong, since absolute divorce was popularly practiced among ancestral tribes in the country prior to the arrival of Spanish colonizers in the 16th century. Divorce was also available during the American period starting 1917. It was only in 1950, when the new Civil Code took effect, that divorce was disallowed in the country.
Opponents of the bill also argue that passing a divorce law would be unconstitutional since the 1987 Constitution explicitly mentions the need to protect the sanctity of marriage. But the same Constitution is silent on divorce, thereby not prohibiting its legalization.
Divorce wouldn’t necessarily destroy the foundation of the family, as has been shown by Italy and Spain, two predominantly Catholic countries with low rates of divorce. If a couple are happy, they wouldn’t file for divorce anyway. But it’s a reality that many are suffering in abusive and irreparable marriages. Why deny them the chance to regain their liberty and happiness?
The chances of legislating divorce in the Philippines is slim today since Congress has yet to finish deliberations on the equally, if not more controversial, Reproductive Health Bill. But it’s the duty of the government to protect the rights of all its citizens, whether Catholic or not. And this duty should include, among other things, the granting of the right of individuals, especially women, to end a bad marriage and seek a new life.By Rachel Harvey
BBC News
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Advertisement The word most often associated with West Papua is remote. An area of thick jungle and mountains, roughly the size of Spain, Papua is the eastern-most outpost of the Indonesian archipelago, some 3,200km (2,000 miles) from the government in Jakarta. Culturally it feels even further. Papua became part of Indonesia in 1969 after a controversial and very limited vote. Ever since there have been calls from some Papuans for independence and for decades a low-level armed resistance has been rumbling on, largely unnoticed by the outside. International journalists are severely restricted from working in the province. A special permit is required. But the BBC's Newsnight programme was recently offered rare footage of rebel fighters in their jungle hide-out. The pictures were filmed by a British man keen to document the independence movement. He travelled undercover, aided by local activists, and asked that he remain anonymous to protect those who helped him. It took him nine hours in a car and 16 hours on foot, trekking through the jungle, to reach the mountain stronghold of the Free Papua Movement Rebels. Cultural erosion They are, in truth, a pretty fragmented, poorly armed band of warriors. Some dress in Western-style shorts and T-shirts, with wellington boots the footwear of choice. This is my land - our ancestors gave us this land. Indonesia has stolen it from us
Rebel commander Goliath Tabuni Others proudly sport more traditional attire - a few feathers and beads, unkempt beards, wild hair and penis gourds. The size and curlicue of the latter denoting status. They are armed with a few assault rifles stolen from the Indonesian security forces, and homemade bows and arrows. The power of the rebels lies as much in the symbolism of their existence as it does in their ability to wage war. Many Papuans feel their culture and identity are slowly being eroded. Papuans don't look like other Indonesians. They are Melanesian, closer to Aboriginals than Asians. But migrants from other Indonesian islands now make up about half the local population. Some of these incomers consider the traditional Papuan way of life backward and uncivilised. Layers of grievance have built up over the decades. "We've had enough," said Anton, a tribal leader. "Indonesia has committed crimes, killing people and other human rights abuses. We want freedom, justice and democracy." Investigation promised A rebel commander, Goliath Tabuni, sits at Anton's right hand. Compared to the chief's traditional body decorations, the commander looks a bit dishevelled in his floppy camouflage hat. There is no sign yet that Papuan independence is any closer But in terms of their passion for the cause, they are equals. "This is my land," said Goliath. "Our ancestors gave us this land. Indonesia has stolen it from us." Over the years there have been serious abuses committed by the Indonesian security forces. Accusations of torture and rape persist. But under the democratically elected government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the military and police are being reformed. In a statement responding to the Newsnight programme, the Indonesian Embassy in London said: "No-one in Indonesia will ever condone human rights violations. Therefore, it is a sad fact if one still judges Indonesia by the old yardsticks. "We can confirm that all human rights abuses will be duly investigated in Indonesia and, if proven guilty by the court, all abusers of human rights will be punished. No-one is immune." But the legacy of past behaviour will take time to erase. Elusive dream As long as the independence fighters exist, the soldiers and police will stay in Papua in large numbers. Their mission is not just to root out the rebels, but also to protect vital business interests. Papua is rich in natural resources. Raising the Papuan flag, the Morning Star, is illegal in Indonesia It is home to the world's largest gold and copper mine and there are big investments in gas, timber and palm oil. A blessing for some. A curse for others. "We believe it's about morality," said Anton, the tribal leader. "Because the world is interested in our resources, they won't talk about us. That's why the world just ignores us and our struggle." On 1 December, independence supporters gathered in a clearing in the jungle to mark Papua's self-declared Independence Day. With great ceremony and formality they raised the Papuan flag. It was a very deliberate act of defiance: raising the Morning Star flag is illegal in Indonesia. In the jungle no one could see. But when, in 2004, the flag was raised in the provincial capital, Jayapura, the police were looking on. Yusak Package, who spoke at the rally, was arrested and charged with treason. He is currently serving a 10-year jail sentence and is considered by Amnesty International to be a prisoner of conscience. In terms of raising the international profile of the Papuan cause, Yusak's case, and others like it, are probably more effective than the armed rebellion. But there is no sign yet that independence is any closer. And in their remote mountain hide-out, that is still the dream the rebel fighters are striving for.
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"Anybody who upvotes the post i made at /r/FreeKarma and comments I will upvote your comment. Also Please up vote my comment i made As /u/MrLegoman301. Thank you!!!" So I guess this is a thing now, and thats cool I am doing these every week so yeah. Find the newest one! Titled "Karma Share Week One" (title due for change) Soo yeah, Happy Karma!!!Voters in the party that has not lost a statewide election in Texas since 1994 are most likely to say that elections are fraught with criminality, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.
The findings echo Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s “rigged election” theme and rising apprehension over foreign or criminal hackers.
Republicans, who have won every statewide election in Texas for the past two decades, were more likely than independents and much more likely than Democrats to say that “people voting who are not eligible” will be an “extremely serious” or “somewhat serious” problem in this year’s elections.
Nine of 10 Republicans said ineligible voters voting would be a serious problem, 69 percent of independents said so and only 23 percent of Democrats agreed. Three-quarters of the Democrats rated the problem “not too serious” or “not serious at all.”
Among the Republican voters, 70 percent ranked the problem as “extremely serious.”
“Wow,” said Daron Shaw, co-director of the poll and a professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, after looking over the results. “To me, it’s an indication of how unhappy people are with the system, how deeply they believe it is corrupt and incompetent.”
Emily Albracht
The same pattern held true when they were asked about people voting multiple times. Overwhelming numbers of Republican likely voters — 83 percent — said that will be a serious problem this year. Among independent voters, 61 percent agreed with that, but only 24 percent of Democrats think multiple voting will be a serious problem.
“This is one of these showcase results where you have to ask the chicken-and-egg question about Republican attitudes in Texas and what Donald Trump seems to have wrought — but might just be plugging into,” said Jim Henson, who heads the Texas Politics Project at UT-Austin and co-directs the poll. “Republicans nationally, but also in Texas, have been stoking worries about the election process in the absence of any systematic evidence of any real problems.”
Emily Albracht
The party lines blur a bit when voters are asked about “votes being counted inaccurately.” Three quarters of self-identified Republican and independent voters think that will be a serious concern this year, and 45 percent of Democrats agree with them.
And the lines fade more when it comes to “voting machines being hacked into by a foreign government or other bad actor.” That one got a serious ranking from 66 percent of Republicans, 68 percent of independents and 55 percent of Democrats.
Emily Albracht
The University of Texas/Texas Tribune internet survey of 1,200 registered voters was conducted from Oct. 14 to Oct. 23 and has an overall margin of error of +/- 2.83 percentage points. Among likely voters — those who said either that they are certain to vote or that they have voted in “every” recent election — the margin of error is +/- 3.16 percentage points (n=959). Numbers in charts might not add up to 100 percent because of rounding.
This is one of several stories on the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. Yesterday: The race for president. Also today: What Texas voters think about various state and federal officeholders and institutions.
Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.It might be hard to believe some 27 years later, but Robin Givens and Mike Tyson were at one point America’s most famous sporting couple. His fall from grace and her scattershot acting career may have diminished their notability in the years since, but the heavyweight champ and "Head of the Class" star were quite ubiquitous in 1988 both during their coupling and before their marriage came to a tabloid-fed end.
According to one retelling of Tyson’s life, a recently released book excerpted in the New York Post on Monday, Tyson once confronted the just-as-ubiquitous Michael Jordan in a liquor-fueled rant pitched in front of Jordan’s friend Richard Dent, and Dent’s Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka.
From the recollections of Rory Holloway, Tyson’s former friend and manager:
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“Mike Tyson’s sitting there with his drink of choice, a Long Island Tea, and when he drinks his real feelings come out …,” Holloway writes.
“I’m telling the server to water his drinks down ‘cause I see where this is going. Mike stares across the table at Michael Jordan. He says, ‘Hey man, you think I’m stupid? I know you f—-d with my b—h.’
“Jordan looks like he just seen a ghost. ‘I know you messed with her,’ Mike says. ‘You can tell me.’
[…]
“It was a circus, for real, that night. Don King trying to change the subject. Me and John trying to hold Mike down. Mike telling everyone he’s going to bust Jordan’s ass. Jordan’s dressed sharp as always and he can’t get out of there fast enough.”
Givens divorced Tyson in 1988 amid claims of spousal abuse. Tyson later lost the heavyweight crown in 1991, and was convicted in 1992 of a rape charge. Upon his parole, despite several comeback attempts, Tyson failed to regain his top rank in the boxing industry.
More NBA coverage:At about 8:30 A.M. on Monday, 15 May 2017, soldiers from an Israeli navy vessel shot and killed Muhammad Baker, 25, a married father of two froma-Shati Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip. The soldiers opened fire while their vessel was pursuing Baker’s fishing boat. B'Tselem’s investigation found that at the time of the shooting, Baker and his relatives were fishing three nautical miles off the coast, within the zone in which the military permits Gazans to fish. They began to flee after the navy vessel opened fire at them.
That morning, at about 6:00 A.M., two flatboard fishing boats sailed out of Gaza port, each carrying four fishermen. The boats sailed northwest toward the area opposite Beit Lahiya and stopped about three nautical miles off the coast, approximately one kilometer from the northern border of the zone in which Israel permits fishing. The fishermen cast their rods. At about 8:20 A.M., they saw two Israeli navy boats approaching them from the north. One vessel stopped at the border of the zone and the other continued at high-speed toward the fishermen. The soldiers on board opened fire at the fishing boat, shooting rubber-coated and live bullets. The fishing boats fled south and the navy vessel pursued them. When the fishing boats reached the coast of Jabalya, the navy vessel came up to 10-20 meters from one of them. The soldiers shouted at the fishermen to stop and fired at them.
Fadi Baker, 32, a married father of three from a-Shati R.C., recounted what happened next in a testimony he gave to B'Tselem field researcher Muhammad Sabah on 22 May 2017:
Suddenly I heard my brother Muhammad, who was next to the motor, saying he’d been hit. I thought he’d been hit by a rubber bullet, but he said that his chest really hurt. Our boat stopped because a bullet hit the motor. I held my brother and saw that he’d been shot in the chest, close to the heart. The soldiers shouted out to us to stand at the front of the boat. We told them that Muhammad had been hit and lifted him up for them to see. When the soldiers saw him, they sailed over and we lifted Muhammad up and handed him over to them. Then the navy boat headed off toward Ashdod port. It was obvious that Muhammad was badly injured. We stayed put because the motor wasn’t working. We signaled with a shirt to ‘Omar, who was nearby. He sailed over, tied our boat to his and towed us to Gaza port. We came home without my brother Muhammad, who had set out with us in the morning to work and make a living for himself and his family.
يعرض لأول مرة.. شاهد: لحظات مطاردة الاحتلال للشهيد محمد بكر قبل إطلاق النار عليه وإصابته في عرض بحر غزة. pic.twitter.com/yExN60HX1t — شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) 30 במאי 2017
Edited footage of the incident published by the Al-Quds News Agency
At the time of the shooting, ‘Omar Baker, 48, a fisherman and married father of six from a-Shati R.C., was on the second fishing boat, about a kilometer away from the first.
In a testimony he gave to B'Tselem field researcher Muhammad Sabah on 23 May 2017, he recalled:
I saw the navy vessel and the soldiers shooting at the other fishing boat, which was alongside them. A few minutes later, the fishing boat stopped and then the navy vessel sailed away. I saw one of the fishermen waving a shirt. I immediately sailed up to them. I was less than a kilometer away. When I got close, I saw ‘Umran Baker shouting and hitting his face. He told me that the soldiers had shot his brother and had taken him with them. I saw that the boat’s motor had been damaged. I immediately towed the boat toward the port.
After they disembarked, Muhammad’s two brothers and cousin, who had been on the boat with him, were interrogated for several hours by the Hamas Marine Police. After their release, they learned that Muhammad had been taken to Barzilai Hospital in Israel. The father received a permit to enter Israel to see his injured son, but by the time he reached the hospital, Muhammad had passed away.
In his testimony, ‘Omar Baker described the feelings of fishermen in Gaza:
As fishermen, we pay for working at sea with our lives. When we set out we feel as if we’re entering a firing zone, because the Israeli navy chases us and shoots at us. They try to stop us from fishing by firing live bullets at us, arresting us and damaging our boats. Fishing has become a very difficult job, because the Israeli navy chases us even within the zone in which we are allowed to fish.
B'Tselem’s investigation indicates that the soldiers who fired at the fishing boat and killed Muhammad Baker acted without justification. The boat was within the zone where the military permits fishing and, in any case, did not pose a threat to the force. Shooting at Palestinians sailing at sea to make a living is unjustified and unlawful, yet the Israeli military does so as a matter of routine off the coast of Gaza. This is compounded by the numerous restrictions that Israel imposes on the fishing sector in Gaza – limiting the permitted fishing zone, prohibiting the import of vital materials, arrests, and restricting the export and marketing of fish. The result is that fishing has been virtually eliminated as a sector in the Gazan economy. According to statistics forwarded to B'Tselem by the Fishing Department in the Ministry of Agriculture in Gaza, in 2016 the Israeli navy military arrested 113 fishermen, shot and injured 10 fishermen, and confiscated 38 motorized flatboard boats and eight boats without motors. That year, direct damage caused by confiscating or shooting at fishing boats and equipment amounted to approximately half a million dollars.
As long as Israel maintains this policy, innocent fishermen will sadly continue to risk their lives in an attempt to make a living for their families. Some will return safely. Others will be arrested, injured or killed. No one in Israel will be held accountable for the attacks, and the usual whitewashing formalities will be applied to these ongoing acts of violence.by Patti Kemp and Edward C. Corrigan
The photo of Alan Kurdi, the young Syrian boy, laying face and dead down on a beach captured the attention of the World. The newly elected Justin Trudeau Liberal government pledged to bring 25,000 refugees to Canada by the end of February 2016. However, millions of refugees remain vulnerable and displaced, living in camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. The horror stories about the Syrian civil war and the resulting refugee crisis caused many Canadian wondering how they can help.
Canada is the only country in the world [1] that allows private individuals to sponsor refugee applicants to relocate permanently.
The Law
Canada is unique in offering individual citizens the opportunity to participate in humanitarian-type immigration by offering them a mechanism for sponsoring refugees. Colloquially referred to as “Group of Five” sponsorship, five individuals can apply together to sponsor a refugee. There also can be more than five sponsors as part of the group. These individuals, or “sponsors”, must be either Canadian citizens or permanent residents, they must be over 18 years old and they must either live in the area where the refugee will settle, or have representatives there.[2] They must agree to support the refugee both emotionally and financially for the sponsorship period, which usually for one year.
The Syrian and Iraqi Exception to the UNHCR Recognition Requirement
For the refugee, or “applicant”, the principal applicant must already have refugee status.[9] Family members or “dependents” must be included in the application. (Note that Quebec has its own refugee selection process.) The government of Canada, due to the current refugee crisis in the Middle East, has waived the requirement that individuals who are sponsored to come to Canada as refugees and are from Iraq and Syria have to be recognized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The waiver is good for one year and expires on September 19, 2016.[10]
Finally, in order to qualify to come to Canada, applicants must pass medical, criminal and security admissibility checks. With some exceptions, they are also assessed on their ability to establish themselves successfully in Canada. If they are in urgent need of protection, or are vulnerable, they may not be assessed on this last point.[12]
The Application Process
The Group of Five sponsors should be able to provide an amount that is roughly equivalent to the local social assistance rate. The Sponsorship Cost Table provides a guideline for estimating the costs of sponsoring a refugee for 12 months. For a family of four, 12 months of income support would be roughly $20,000 plus estimated start-up costs of $7,000 for a total estimated annual settlement cost of $27,000.[14]
After Arrival
Sponsors take on significant responsibilities when they apply to bring a refugee and their family to Canada. The sponsors are responsible for providing the group with care, lodging, settlement assistance and support for either the sponsorship period, usually 12-months, or until the refugee is self-sufficient. The Government lists what sponsors normally provide. That list includes food, rent, utilities, clothing, furniture, help finding a family doctor and dentist, help applying for healthcare and enrolling children in school and help finding language training. They should also help with introducing newcomers to people with similar interests, help them become oriented to their communities and help with their employment search.[15]
The reasons for wanting to bring a refugee and their family to Canada are many. The sponsors could be relatives or friends of the refugees. The sponsors could have ethnic or cultural connections to the refugees. They could simply be a group of individuals with a shared sense of humanity and wishing to help vulnerable people. Whatever the reason, Canada offers a unique opportunity to take direct action. As with all types of immigration applications, it can be useful to have guidance and assistance throughout the process from a legally trained professional.
Patti Kemp is a member of the Law Society of England and Wales and the Law Society of Upper Canada. She trained and practiced at Birnberg Peirce & Partners in London, England. She works part-time time at Ed Corrigan Law Office in London, Ontario.
Edward C. Corrigan is certified as a specialist by the Law Society of Upper Canada in Citizenship, Immigration and Immigration and Refugee Law.Scientists presenting at the American Society of Human Genetics 2015 annual meeting in Baltimore have announced the discovery of a gene-based algorithm capable of predicting homosexuality in men with up to 70 percent accuracy.
“To our knowledge, this is the first example of a predictive model for sexual orientation based on molecular markers,” said lead author Dr. Tuck C. Ngun of UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine in a press release.
While the study doesn’t identify a single “gay gene” — arguably the most controversial concept in studies on homosexuality — it does identify modification patterns in certain DNA regions that were associated with sexual orientation. Specifically, the researchers looked at differences in the way methyl groups, tiny clusters of hydrogen and carbon molecules, were attached to genes. Methylation, as the process is known, is one way the body turns certain genes on and off in response to environmental factors. To do this, it was integral to the study to compare individuals with the exact same DNA. The researchers looked at sets of identical twins. They focused on 37 pairs in which one twin was homosexual and the other was heterosexual, as well as 10 pairs in which both twins were homosexual.
The algorithm uncovered nine regions of the genome where methylation patterns predictably differed between homosexual and heterosexual twins. By analyzing these differences, the researchers could predict the sexual orientation of the twins. Identifying methylation patterns and regions of DNA that are relevant to sexual orientation is one thing, but explaining why they’re important will take a lot more research. Dr. Ngun acknowledges that there’s a lot we don’t understand about the molecular basis of sexual attraction, and he’s now testing his algorithm on a broader group of men.
“Sexual attraction is such a fundamental part of life, but it’s not something we know a lot about at the genetic and molecular level. I hope that this research helps us understand ourselves better and why we are the way we are,” Dr. Ngun said in a statement.Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition, have announced that Fallout Shelter is expanding once more to a new audience, putting Overseers in control of their own Vault and an army of Dwellers on Xbox One and Windows 10. Fallout Shelter will be available on February 7 as an Xbox Play Anywhere title via a free download from the Xbox Store or Windows Store.
Fallout Shelter thrusts players into the role of Overseer to build their own Vault, manage dwellers, and adventure through Fallout’s iconic wasteland. Since the game’s original launch in 2015, the game has continued to expand and add features, including Crafting, Scrapping, Pets, additional rooms, iconic Fallout 4 characters, and special Dweller customization options. The game’s constantly growing Quest system allows Overseers to send Dwellers out into the Wasteland to abandoned buildings, decrepit Vaults, and mysterious caves to uncover legendary loot and face off against enemies like Radscorpions, Ghouls, and powerful bosses.
As an Xbox Play Anywhere title, player progress is retained across both Xbox One and Windows 10, meaning users can switch seamlessly between platforms and pick up where they left off, bringing all their saves, progress, and Achievements with them. The game has also been fully adapted to work with the Xbox One controller, so players can experience Vault life bigger and better, right from their TV.
Players can download Fallout Shelter for Xbox One and Windows 10 from the Xbox Store or Windows Store next Tuesday, February 7.Share This Story Tweet Share Share Pin Email
Todd Woodruff came here for his daughter's cats.
His wife, Carrie, who saw him off from their north Lafayette home before dawn Friday, wasn't thrilled about his need to go on this round trip 1,800 miles across the country in a single day. She wanted nothing to do with it. She and others in the family weren't sure how Woodruff would hold up.
An animal activist who worked to crowd-fund the trip wasn't quite sure what to make of his arrival or her role as chauffeur when Woodruff said that, yes, he wanted to see where his daughter, Amanda Miller, died after going on a killing spree on June 8.
Woodruff, himself, didn't know what he'd find. Certainly little sympathy in a city still reeling from the crime, he figured. This was hardly a sympathetic story, he knew.
But he was looking for a way to confront what his daughter did when she pulled the trigger, while still bringing home a piece of her to hold the way only a father can.
"I've been wanting to go out there since this happened," Woodruff said, halting a bit on the word "wanting." "Maybe 'needing' is a better way to put it. … I just get the feeling this is the final chapter in Las Vegas for us."
So on Friday, 83 days after Amanda and Jerad Miller killed two police officers and a bystander, Woodruff came to get his daughter's two cats, Oreo and Leo.
By the end of 21 hours on the road and in the air, Woodruff knew it was probably the last time he'd step foot in Las Vegas again. He had what he wanted. As for the rest, he'd seen enough.
Todd Woodruff carries this photo of his daughter, Amanda Miller, taken for her high school senior year at Jefferson High School. “I don’t know what happened to her,” he said, “but this is how I remember her.”
(Photo: Photo provided)
'Sunshine is what I called her'
Woodruff said he's been trying to apologize to anyone who will listen since the morning of June 9, when two Lafayette Police Department officers came to his door on 21st Street to break the news that Amanda Miller, 22, was dead. The police also gave him a rough scenario of what Las Vegas police were saying she and her husband, Jerad Miller, had done.
"My head went kind of numb," Woodruff said. "It just kind of went to a blur after that."
The details took a while to fill in. Every one of those details left him wondering — against the advice of counselors he's been seeing since June — what he could have done differently.
He looked at the picture he carries of Amanda. She's sitting in a purple gown, backed by a trellis of purple, white and gold flowers, and clutching on her lap a white electric violin her parents bought for her during her junior year at Jefferson High School. "Snowflake was what she called it," Woodruff said, sliding the picture across a table. "Sunshine was what I called her. Sweet as could be."
In that high school senior photo of his daughter, Woodruff can't see someone who could do what police were telling him that morning. But he knows she did. He knows a newer picture emerged, sometime after she met and married Jerad Miller in 2012, moved to Nevada in 2014 and walked into that CiCi's Pizza buffet that Sunday.
This is from the latest Las Vegas Metro Police Department account:
A poster with the images of the police officers that were killed is shown at a memorial at CiCi's Pizza during a vigil outside the restaurant on June 9, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
(Photo: Ethan Miller, Getty Images)
Jerad and Amanda Miller found Officers Igor Soldo and Alyn Beck and shot them, execution style, as policemen ate their lunch. The couple went to a nearby Walmart, where Jerad Miller announced to shoppers: "The revolution has started. The cops are coming. Get out!" He fired a shot in the air to make sure everyone knew he was serious, sending everyone running. When Joseph Wilcox, a bystander with a permit to carry a concealed weapon, confronted Jerad Miller, Amanda Miller shot and killed Wilcox. The couple, carrying ready-to-eat meals and armed with armor-piercing ammunition, set up a position in the store for a fight, but not before Amanda Miller was shot in the shoulder by one of the first officers in the store. Moments after Jerad Miller shouted to police — "Stand down. You have failed. I am in charge now" — police shot and killed him. Amanda Miller shot herself in the head and died later at a Las Vegas hospital.
The picture of Jerad and Amanda Miller that emerged was of a couple of outliers, angry at the government, angrier at the police and willing to bring on a revolution by themselves.
Woodruff said people on his block and friends in Lafayette — "and some friends we didn't know we had" — provided some buffer and comfort, refusing to pile on. "Lafayette circled around us real tight — protected us."
Woodruff still couldn't square the picture he carries in his pocket with the one that filled the news and the Internet. He couldn't kid himself, though.
"I have apologized all over myself," Woodruff said. "That's one of the things about it, after I got to sit down and think about it a few weeks later. After these other shootings, I can't look at (other) shooter's parents anymore and say, 'What kind of upbringing did he have?' because I know what her upbringing was, so I can't blame the parents (in those other cases), because she wasn't brought up that way. And she still did it. That changes your whole way of thinking."
Todd Woodruff and Gina Greisen, president of Nevada Voters for Animals, pick out bouquets of flowers at a Trader Joe’s store in Las Vegas. Woodruff bought the flowers to leave at a Walmart and a Cici’s pizza restaurant where his daughter, Amanda Miller, and her husband, Jerad Miller, killed two police officers and a bystander on June 8. Woodruff also planned to leave flowers for his daughter, who killed herself during a standoff with police that day at the Walmart. Greisen led a crowd-funding effort to save the Millers’ two cats and get them back to Woodruff’s family in Lafayette.
(Photo: Dave Bangert/Journal & Courier)
About the cats
Gina Greisen wasn't thinking about apologies or anything else when she started the ball rolling on Woodruff's trip to Las Vegas.
"For me, it really became about the cats," said Greisen, president of Nevada Voters for Animals.
She had seen Oreo and Leo in footage of the initial news coverage of June 8. Several weeks ago, she found out that one of the Millers' neighbors, who said she would care for the cats, had left them at a shelter. Greisen arranged to get the cats, put them in a foster home and started looking for a permanent home for them.
"I had a cat hoarder who asked for help with 20 cats, and it turned out she left off the hundred," Greisen said. "I could not get one person to take even one stinking kitten that day, let along two adult cats that are tied to such a high-profile incident."
So she called the Woodruffs, started a crowd-funding campaign to cover veterinarian bills and to raise $1,000 for a flight for Todd Woodruff and the two cats, and set a Labor Day weekend deadline to get it done. She raised $700 toward a $1,500 goal on GoFundMe.com. Woodruff said a donor in Lafayette who asked not to be named fronted the money for the plane ticket.
In the deal, Greisen agreed to cart Woodruff around town. But not without some trepidation.
"It's a weird situation. I'm sure I'll be labeled a lot of things for doing this, or for taking him to the Wal-Mart or the CiCi's Pizza or whatever," Greisen said. "Obviously, there's very mixed emotions. I think it's very hard for people to come to terms and accept that when something like that happens, like you can't hold the cats accountable for the sins of the owner, can you hold the parents accountable? I don't know. This community, obviously, holds some nasty feelings toward the Woodruffs. But honestly, they seem like nice people to me.
"He really mourns the loss of his daughter," Greisen said. "But the reality is, his daughter put a gun to a police officer's head and pulled the trigger, and then killed another guy, too. So it's hard. That's hard. I sat here and watched those officers' funerals. The whole community did. So this is going to be emotional. Hopefully, he can find some peace."
On Friday, Aug. 29, Todd Woodruff of Lafayette made his first — and what he says will be his last — visit to Las Vegas since his daughter, Amanda Miller, and her husband, Jerad Miller, killed two police officers and a bystander on June 8. Here's a look at his one-day round trip to Las Vegas to see where his daughter committed her crime, the Walmart where she died and to bring home the cats she left behind.
(Photo: Dave Bangert/Journal & Courier)
At Wal-Mart killing scene: 'Just empty'
After a stop for coffee after landing at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport, Greisen pulled into the parking lot of Wal |
resulting tax revenues.[7]
In contrast, Hoover was not supported by many of the more prominent Republicans and violently opposed by others, in particular by a number of senators who had fought him throughout his administration and whose national reputation made their opposition of considerable importance. Many prominent Republicans even went so far as to espouse the cause of the Democratic candidate openly.[8]
Making matters worse for Hoover was the fact that many Americans blamed him for the Great Depression. For more than two years, President Hoover had been restricting trade and increasing taxes on the wealthy with legislation such as the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act and the Revenue Act of 1932. As Governor of New York, Roosevelt had garnered a reputation for promoting government help for the impoverished, providing a welcome contrast for many who saw Hoover as do-nothing president.[9] Roosevelt also attacked Hoover for being, "the greatest spending Administration in peacetime in all our history."[10] The outrage caused by the deaths of veterans in the Bonus Army incident in the summer of 1932, combined with the catastrophic economic effects of Hoover's domestic policies, reduced his chances of a second term from slim to none. His attempts to campaign in public were a disaster, as he often had objects thrown at him or his vehicle as he rode through city streets. However, with unemployment at 23.6%,[11][12] Hoover's criticisms of Roosevelt's campaign promises did nothing more than further lower his popularity with the public. Roosevelt himself did not have a clear idea of the New Deal at this point, so he promised no specific programs.[13] It was said that "Even a vaguely talented dog-catcher could have been elected president against the Republicans."[14] Hoover even received a letter from an Illinois man that advised, "Vote for Roosevelt and make it unanimous."
Hoover called Roosevelt a "chameleon in plaid" and Roosevelt called President Hoover a "fat, timid capon".[15] In the last days of campaigning, Hoover criticized Roosevelt's "nonsense... tirades... glittering generalizations... ignorance" and "defamation".[15]
The election was held on November 8, 1932; however Maine held separate state elections in September.
Results [ edit ]
[16] Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage for the winning candidate. Shades of blue are for Roosevelt (Democratic), shades of red are for Hoover (Republican), grey indicates zero recorded votes and white indicates territories not elevated to statehood.
This was the first election since 1916 (16 years earlier) in which the Democratic candidate won.
Although the "other" vote (the combined vote total for candidates other than the nominees of the two major parties) of 1932 was three times that of 1928, it was considerably less than what had been recorded in 1920; the time of the greatest "other" vote with the exception of the unusual conditions prevailing in 1912 and 1924.
Roosevelt, the Democratic candidate, won the support of 22,817,883 voters (57.41%), the greatest vote ever cast for a candidate for the Presidency up until that time, and 1,425,000 greater than that cast for Hoover four years earlier. It is to be noted that Hoover won a greater percentage of the vote in 1928, as did Harding in 1920. But the national swing of 35.17% impressed all who considered the distribution of the vote, and indicated that more than one-sixth of the electorate had switched from supporting the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. Only once in this period had there been a comparable shift; in 1920, there was a 29.29% swing towards the Republicans.[8] The swing from Smith in 1928 to Roosevelt in this year remains the greatest national swing of the electorate between presidential elections in the history of the United States.
1932 was a realigning election, as Roosevelt won a sweeping victory over Hoover, with Democrats extending their control over the U.S. House and gaining control of the U.S. Senate. Twelve years of Republican leadership came to an end, and 20 consecutive years of Democratic control of the White House began.[15] Until 1932, the Republicans had controlled the Presidency for 56 of the previous 72 years, dating to Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860. After 1932, Democrats would control the Presidency for 28 of the next 36 years.
Roosevelt led the poll in 2,722 counties, the greatest number ever carried by a candidate up until that time. Of these, 282 had never before been Democratic. Only 374 remained loyally Republican. It is to be noted, however, that half of the total vote of the nation was cast in just eight states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin) and that in these states, Hoover polled 8,592,163 votes. In one section (West South Central), the Republican percentage sank to 16.21%, but in no other section did the party poll less than 30% of the vote cast. However, the relative appeal of the two candidates in 1932 and the decline of the appeal of Hoover as compared with 1928 are shown in the fact that the Republican vote increased in 1932 in only 87 counties, while the Democratic vote increased in 3,003 counties.
The great vote cast for Hoover, and the fact that in only one section of the nation (West South Central) did he have less than 500,000 votes and in only three states outside of the South less than 50,000 votes, made it clear that the nation remained a two-party electorate, and that everywhere, despite the triumph of the Democrats, there was a party membership devoted to neither the new administration nor the proposals of the Socialist candidate who had polled 75% of the "other" vote (as well as the highest raw vote total of his campaigns).[17]
This election marks the last time a Republican presidential candidate won a majority of black and African-American votes. As New Deal policies took effect, the strong support of black voters for these programs began a transition from their traditional support for Republicans to providing solid majorities for Democrats.
The Roosevelt ticket swept every region of the country except the Northeast and carried many reliable Republican states that had not been carried by the Democrats since their electoral landslide of 1912, when the Republican vote was divided. Michigan voted Democratic for the first time since the emergence of the Republican Party. Minnesota was carried by a Democrat for the first time in its history, leaving Vermont as the only remaining state never to be carried by a Democratic candidate (and it would not be until 1964). In contrast to the state's solid support of Republicans prior to this election, Minnesota continued supporting Democrats in every presidential election but three since 1932, the exceptions being 1952, 1956, and 1972.
Roosevelt's victory with 472 electoral votes stood until the 1964 victory of Lyndon B. Johnson, who won 486 electoral votes in 1964, as the most ever won by a first-time contestant in a presidential election. Roosevelt also bettered the national record of 444 electoral votes set by Hoover only four years earlier, but would shatter his own record when he was re-elected in 1936 with 523 votes.
This was the last election in which Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania voted Republican until 1948.
Source (popular vote): Leip, David. "1932 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Source (electoral vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration.
Popular vote Roosevelt 57.41% Hoover 39.65% Thomas 2.23% Foster 0.26% Others 0.45%
Electoral vote Roosevelt 88.89% Hoover 11.11%
Geography of results [ edit ]
Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote
Cartographic gallery [ edit ]
Presidential election results by county
Democratic presidential election results by county
Republican presidential election results by county
"Other" presidential election results by county
Cartogram of presidential election results by county
Cartogram of Democratic presidential election results by county
Cartogram of Republican presidential election results by county
Cartogram of "Other" presidential election results by county
Results by state [ edit ]
[18]
States won by Roosevelt/Garner States won by Hoover/Curtis
Close states [ edit ]
Margin of victory less than 5% (74 electoral votes):
Connecticut, 1.14% New Hampshire, 1.43% New Jersey, 1.90% Delaware, 2.44% Ohio, 2.85% Massachusetts, 4.00%
Margin of victory between 5% and 10% (64 electoral votes):
Pennsylvania, 5.51% Michigan, 7.92% Kansas, 9.43%
Statistics [ edit ]
Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Democratic)
Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Republican)
Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Other)
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]This blog uses affiliate links. Basically, I make a small commission when you use these links, at no additional cost to you.
free printable emotion drawing prompt for kids is a great way for kids to practice proper sentence structure in speech, reinforce correct pronoun usage, and work on identifying and recognizing emotions, both simple and complex. We've been doing a lot of work on developing speech and recognizing emotions here at home by using a lot of printables. Thisis a great way for kids to practice proper sentence structure in speech, reinforce correct pronoun usage, and work on identifying and recognizing emotions, both simple and complex.
This post contains affiliate links.
How to Use the Emotion Drawing Prompt
Download, print, cut, and laminate (optional) the free printable face templates. Laminating them is a great way to reuse these drawing prompts over and over. Just grab a dry erase marker for drawing the faces.
When we work on these with my son, I encourage him to the read the sentence out loud. It reinforces correct pronoun usage and sentence structure, which kids with hyperlexia struggle with. There are a few emotions in this free printable that are a bit more complex. I had to prompt my son to make the face himself or look at me making the appropriate face so that he could examine things like mouth shape or what the eyebrows were doing.
Download the Free Printable Emotion Drawing Prompt
This printable includes 6 pages with 12 different faces to draw on. Each face includes a short sentence describing the emotion to draw. As I mentioned above, encourage your child to read the sentence out loud to practice pronouns in speech.
Other Ideas You'll LoveEducation Minister Mike Bernier has fired all nine elected Vancouver School Board trustees.
It's a rare move, but one trustees knew could be coming since they rejected a proposal from the B.C. government to balance their budget last June, which was required by law.
Bernier said the board was dismissed for missing that deadline, and other issues including bullying accusations.
"What we have witnessed from the Vancouver School Board is a misplaced focus on political tactics rather than responsible stewardship," said Bernier.
The school board was set to finally pass a balanced budget tonight, because the minister made it clear it was a requirement to receive seismic upgrade funding.
But Bernier called it "impossible to have any confidence that a potential last-minute change of position... signals a fundamental change."
Over the years, the B.C. government has fired at least four other school boards for refusing to balance their budget, including Cowichan Valley in 2012 and North Vancouver in 1996. It last happened in Vancouver in 1985.
The role of trustees has recently come under some scrutiny following the decision of B.C.'s education minister to fire all nine of Vancouver's elected members after they refused to balance their budget. (Don Marce/CBC News)
'Extremely disappointed' says mayor
The dismissal of the board comes after months of conflict between the B.C. government and the Vancouver School Board amid budget concerns, and the possible closure of up to 11 schools in the city.
Fired trustees are calling the decision "disappointing" and "outrageous."
"It's outrageous that the democratically-elected Vancouver School Board was fired by the provincial government," said now-former school board chair Mike Lombardi.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said he was "extremely disappointed" with the minister's decision to fire the board. Robertson leads Vision Vancouver, which had four of the nine trustees including the board chair, and is a former MLA for the B.C. NDP.
"It makes no sense when they were about to pass the budget," he said. "I believe [the elected trustees] can do the best job for our kids, and were fighting to keep our schools open."
Mayor Gregor Robertson said he was 'extremely disappointed' the B.C. education minister fired all nine elected Vancouver school trustees. (CBC)
The board legally could have been fired more than three months ago, but Bernier said he didn't want to make any "knee-jerk reactions."
Allegations this month of a toxic work environment — currently the subject of a WorkSafeBC investigation — were taken into consideration, said Bernier.
He said the results of an audit — which he ordered after the school board missed the deadline — raised additional concerns about the Vancouver School Board.
The province cannot release the results of the audit until a privacy commissioner investigation is done, Bernier said.
The B.C. School Trustee Association called Bernier's move "unfortunate" but justified, since confidence in the board had been challenged by "what seems like an unending series of disputes" with the province.
"When you break the law as a school trustee you know what those consequences are," said Teresa Rezansoff, president of the B.C. School Trustees Association, referring to the board's failure to pass a budget.
Each of B.C.'s 60 school districts passed a balanced budget this year, besides Vancouver, the school trustee association said in a statement.
The Opposition New Democratic Party said the decision will lead to "more chaos" for students.
Government trustee appointed
The B.C. education ministry has appointed one of its own employees, Dianne Turner, as the official trustee to replace the board for one year.
Turner is a former superintendent of Delta School District who now holds the position of chief educator with the ministry, reporting to the deputy minister of education.
B.C. Ministry of Education appointed Dianne Turner as official trustee of the Vancouver School District, following the firing of the board. She is the Chief Educator of B.C., a ministry position, and former superintendent of the Delta School District. (Greater Vancouver Food Bank)
"Parents in Vancouver and the province are counting on Ms. Turner to end the continuing turmoil that has dominated the Vancouver school board for too long," Bernier said.
Lombardi, along with his three fired Vision Vancouver co-trustees, was critical of the government appointment.
"The Vancouver School Board is now being run out of Christy Clark's office," Lombardi said at a press conference. "Parents in Vancouver should be deeply worried about this."
"The people of Vancouver elected trustees to stand up for public education, not to do the provincial government's dirty work of closing schools, cutting programs, and selling off public assets [to] address a budget shortfall of their own making."
Stacy Robertson from the Non-Partisan Association (NPA), which had four trustees on the board, called the decision disappointing.
"My hope is that we could have managed through some of these difficult issues, but I think politics just got in the way of any kind of good governance or any kind of reasonable governance," he said.
Janet Fraser, the lone Green Party trustee on the board, said she was also very disappointed.HOUSTON - The owner of an auto body shop in Northwest Harris County shot and killed a man at his business in self-defense, said the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
It happened at IDB Racing, Repair and Restoration at 10541 FM 1960 near Windfern.
"This is a really high-crime area. Our offices have been broken into three times, we've got our windows shot out before," said Chris Reed, a business owner in the area.
According to HCSO, a man came into the business claiming he was "looking for someone." Detectives said the man then confronted the business owner.
"He was coming towards him aggressively as if he was fixing to do him harm," said Sgt. Robert Spurgeon, with the Harris County Sheriff's Office. "Shop owner was armed -- it was a concealed carry -- and discharged his weapon at the suspect, killing him on the scene."
It is unclear why the victim was so angry or who he came looking for, because investigators said nobody at the business had ever seen or heard of him.
"Honestly, I believe he's at the wrong place," said Sgt. Spurgeon.
No word on whether the victim was armed or under the influence of any drugs or alcohol.
2016 Click2Houston/KPRC2"You can't miss Antarctica!" my friend exclaimed, while discussing my "Around the World" plans, just less than a year ago. "That way you will hit all of the seven continents." I considered the idea and instantly started planning it. The day came quicker than we expected. Excited with adrenaline rushing we got ready to board the ship. We talked about it, we dreamed about it and now we are finally doing it!
The journey to Antarctica was the most exciting. At first I felt a bit dizzy of sea sickness, especially while passing through the Drake Passage, one of the most dangerous waters in the world. But, slowly the sights and the feeling of sailing to the southern end of the world grew on me. Storms are quite usual here, mostly during winters. The waves can rise to about 25 meters, on our journey the waves were about 5 meter waves, quite normal, but even then everything was swaying. We took 2.5 days crossing the Drake Passage to Antarctica, 4 days exploring Antarctica and 3 days coming back to Ushuaia.
Antarctica was not always at the Southern tip of the earth. Scientists believe that it was once part of Gondwanaland, adjacent to what is now Asia, Africa and Australia. After it broke off it took around 180 million years to migrate to its current position. The climate was not always cold as scientist have discovered dinosaur remains and believe that in fact the climate was tropical. It’s a bit of a different story now days, as Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, driest continent on earth, during winter the temperatures can reach up to -°C (-112°F). That, my friends, is freaking cold, perfect condition to store your beers before the game, or kill off all the blood sucking bed bugs. You could not paint Antarctica without black and gray. Mountain peaks or sheer cliffs are the darkest hues of gray surrounded by massive areas of white. But the white is gray too! Variations of gray tones are infinite and like a watercolorist's fine strokes change across the paper, so do the colors across the land.
We had some minor accidents on the journey due to the ship swaying, but all was well in the end. During the day we chilled on the outside decks observing flying things like the Wandering Albatross, the world's biggest albatross. It's also the bird with the biggest wingspan of any living bird. Measured from tip to tip, its wings can reach up to 3.5 meters across (11.5 feet)! They can glide for several hours without moving their wings. We finally reached our first stop, Aitcho Island. The following spots are the ones we went to in Antarctica.
A bit of advice to my friends who are planning to go to Antarctica, get to Ushuaia at the beginning or end of the summer season and you will find last-minute deals to Antarctica for much cheaper.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The babies of a huge, long-necked dinosaur called Rapetosaurus that lived on the island of Madagascar did not just sit in a nest and look cute. They were born ready for action.
An artist's illustration showing the size comparisons of a newborn dinosaur called Rapetosaurus (2nd from L) that lived on the island of Madagascar to some large-bodied mammalian newborns such as a baby black rhino, African elephant, hippo and dog. Scientists April 21, 2016 announced the discovery of fossils of a baby Rapetosaurus the size of a big dog that apparentlystarved to death during a drought several weeks after hatching from its soccer-ball-sized egg. D.Vital/Handout via Reuters ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE.
Scientists on Thursday announced the discovery of fossils of a baby Rapetosaurus the size of a big dog that apparently starved to death during a drought several weeks after hatching from its soccer-ball-sized egg.
Unlike many animal babies, particularly humans, the hatchling Rapetosaurus had adult proportions, meaning it likely did not need significant parental support and was actively foraging for plants rather than waiting for momma to feed it.
Such babies are known as “precocial,” as opposed to “altricial” offspring that have different body dimensions from adults, cannot get around by themselves and require considerable parental support for food and protection, Macalester College paleontologist Kristi Curry Rogers said.
“The main conclusion was that this is the first evidence for a truly precocial dinosaur: one that matured rapidly and without parental care,” Adelphi University paleontologist Michael D’Emic added.
Rapetosaurus lived about 67 million years ago, not long before the demise of the dinosaurs, and was the largest creature in Madagascar at the time.
The baby, known from a partial skeleton including limb bones, pelvic bones, fingers, toes and several vertebrae, was probably around 4 feet (1.2 meters) long from head to tail and weighed between 50 and 90 pounds (23-40 kg) when it died.
An adult Rapetosaurus was probably around 40 feet (12 meters) long, a little more than a school bus, and weighed around 16 tons, roughly 2-1/2 times as much as an elephant, Curry Rogers said. It was a medium-sized member of a dinosaur group called titanosaurs, which included the largest land animals ever on Earth.
Titanosaurs were part of a larger assemblage of dinosaurs called sauropods, known for their long necks, long tails and voracious appetite for plants.
D’Emic said the researchers looked at the microstructure of the baby’s bones to see preserved cavities that once held cells, blood vessels and nerves. The density and organization of those indicated a rapidly growing individual, and there was even evidence for bone repair, suggesting an active lifestyle and fast metabolism, D’Emic added.
Examples of precocial animals today include most lizards, snakes and reptiles, certain birds and some large mammals including wildebeest.
“Precocial young can avoid predation on their own, and there is a much smaller chance of the entire brood succumbing to predation at once,” Curry Rogers said.
The research was published in the journal Science.Talk of smart grid technology often revolves around how homeowners can reduce their utility bills by implementing smart meters on their homes. But focusing on such technology limits the understanding of how true technological innovations are transforming, and protecting, smart grids across the world.
For instance, fuel cell technology in India is changing how the country uses back up generators and, as a result, how it will keep tens of thousands of cellular towers running amid the country's pervasive blackouts.
Additionally, drones and robots are already making their mark on the agricultural and tech industries, and yet one of their biggest opportunities is doing the often dangerous work of power crews in surveying storm damage or maintaining power lines.
And perhaps most importantly, smart grid technology is evolving as governments and utility companies realize that one of the most important aspects of smart grid tech is knowing how to protect it from those who want to do damage to it.
These examples below are just a handful of smart grid technologies that are transforming our power grids, but they represent a cross-section of some of the most innovative uses so far.
Cybersecurity for smart grids
At the end of 2015, the lights went out for several hour for about 700,000 Ukrainian residents. The blackout appears to have been a cyber attack on the country's electrical grid, with most of the evidence pointing to Russia as the culprit.
The cyberattack was notable not just because of the amount of people affected, but because its the first documented attack on an electrical grid that resulted in an actual outage.
The news of the attack has reignited a conversation around how utility companies and countries will protect their grid from attacks. The U.S. has warned of such attacks for years, with President Obama mentioning back in 2009, that groups have probed the U.S. electrical grid for weaknesses already, and have attempted to take out power. Echoing those concerns, the Department of Energy recently said that cybersecurity is one of the major challenges for the U.S. power grid.
To combat this, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) are working on smart grid tech standards, and the departments of Homeland Security, Defense, and Energy all have their own programs for addressing electrical grid security already.
For now, smart grid cybersecurity relies on a combination of communication between utility companies and the government. Software and sensors that protect Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, which monitor and control electrical grid networks, is one of the keys to protecting the smart grid. And just as with any other technology, software updates to existing systems will always be required as new threats emerge.
Drones and robots
Electricity and technology companies are exploring new ways conduct routine maintenance and make repairs after major power outages, including using special robots that crawl along power lines and aerial drones.
Power company San Diego Gas & Electric says aerial drones can find and inspect downed power lines faster than manned crew members after a major storm. The drones can cover a larger area much faster, while keeping crews out of danger.
Ariel drones can also conduct routine line inspections that currently require several crew members and a helicopter to complete. The drones reduce both inspection times and cost and are already receiving approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to inspect 26,000 miles of transmission and distribution power lines.
Another robot, called the Ti, crawls along up to 80 miles of power lines to conduct routine inspection and storm damage, and uses inferred high definition cameras to inspect overgrown vegetation that could damage the lines.
The drones can send real-time data and live video streams back to smart grid systems, allowing power companies to mange potential electrical problems like never before. And they're only growing in popularity. By 2024, companies making drones and robots for utilities will see revenues of $4 billion, up from just $132 million last year, according to Navigant Research.
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Generators
It's no secret that India is quickly become a major player it the world's economic stage, but the country still has lots of progress to make to make with its electrical grid. Power outages are a normal part of life in the country, which leads to widespread cell phone outages. About 70% of the country's cell towers experience daily power outages for up to eight hours, according to Smart Grid News.
Right now, most the country's cell towers work on diesel-powered generators to keep them running when the power goes out, which increases the cost of keeping those towers running. About 40% of a cellular tower's running cost comes from simply supplying power to the tower, compared to just 12% in Europe, according to the World Bank.
To increase the efficiency of the cell towers, India is starting to use hydrogen fuel cell generators in place the diesel-powered ones. The UK-based Intelligent Energy will supply the generators to more than 27,000 cellular towers across the country over the next 10 years.
It may be a slow start to alleviating India's electrical grid woes, but as more towers offload their electrical demand to hydrogen fuel cells, the longer they'll run and the more users in India will be able to keep the lights, and their cell phones, running.
Just a small sampling
Of course, these are just a few examples of how smart grid technologies are developing, and there are plenty others that are transforming how we use energy. As more electrical grids are brought online and connected to increasingly sophisticated software systems, new technologies will emerge that increase efficiencies and protect our systems even better than before.In the upcoming video game Watch Dogs, you play Aiden Pierce, a rogue hacker in a seemingly dystopian future Chicago — a city where every piece of technology is controlled by a supercomputer, where every citizen is monitored by a citywide operating system. It's a surveillance state which wormed its way into place by providing Wi-Fi as a basic human right, and where the government claims it can use surveillance to stop crime before it happens.
Ubisoft announced the game nearly a year ago, when its ideas seemed plausible but perhaps slightly far-fetched. But in light of PRISM, the US government's alleged internet surveillance program, Ubisoft developers are starting to look practically prescient. "It's like reality is catching up to the game," Watch Dogs lead game designer Danny Belanger tells The Verge.
"Data collection is immensely powerful, and most of the big internet giants track it and use it," he suggests. "They can predict who you're going to vote for and predict the kind of person you are... and maybe try to influence that."
Watch Dogs, he says, is about asking ourselves the moral questions that arise when faced with that reality. "Data collection, social media, having all these cameras 24/7... in my most intimate moments, reading in bed, there's a camera in my face." Belanger relates.
"In my most intimate moments... there's a camera in my face."
In the game, Aiden has access to all of those cameras, and can use or abuse that power as players see fit. Hack into the city police's crime prediction server, and you can attempt to save citizens. But Ubisoft also showed us how you can hack into a mother's laptop webcam — you can hear baby cries coming from an adjacent room — and steal her bank account number to further your own ends. While both of these scenarios are totally optional, that's not true of "profiling" people you meet. In Watch Dogs, you'll know the name, occupation, salary, and secrets of every pedestrian, because Aiden has access to the government's secret database. It's a core element of gameplay.
As eerie (and entertaining to play) as the idea might be, Belanger admits that at least Aiden's powers over physical objects in the environment — car alarms, traffic bollards, individual devices connected to the power grid — aren't realistic as of today. "The smart city isn't there yet," he says. "But it's coming."When Once Upon a Time goes on a magic-carpet ride in season six, it won’t look exactly like the Aladdin that Disney fans know and love.
“[Jasmine] is a strong character with an agenda all her own,” co-showrunner Adam Horowitz tells The Hollywood Reporter, but he notes that how the character will be introduced will be a “surprise.”
Horowitz and fellow co-creator Eddy Kitsis could not say if the show's newest Disney characters — Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz), Jasmine (Karen David) and Jafar (Oded Fehr) — would stick around for the whole season, but they did reveal that they will intertwine into the “Savior mythology.” As seen in the season six Comic-Con footage, Aladdin is also a Savior, which will be explored in “Savior mythology” with Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and company.
Below, Horowitz and Kitsis discuss how a band of new characters from the Land of Untold Stories will be used to help develop the core characters’ storylines, how the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) is the most “formidable” villain yet, and the changes to expect as the show shifts from half-season arcs to one full season featuring Dr. Jekyll (Hank Harris) and Mr. Hyde (Sam Witwer).
Did you have any clearance issues with Disney to get the Aladdin characters?
Kitsis: No, Disney has been really supportive since season one. The greatest thing about Disney has not only been their support, but they oftentimes will let us use their characters or talk to the people behind them. We've had the Frozen characters, we've had Ariel, and we waited until the right moment to do the Aladdin story.
Horowitz: The Disney feature animation side has been really generous with us and they look at the show, I think, the way we present it. We like to call it the Disney cul-de-sac. These characters can come in here, go for a spin, we play with them a little bit, and then we set them back and try not to damage them.
Did you have big plans for Aladdin and company from the beginning of the show, or did you imagine something with the Jekyll and Hyde storyline as you were brainstorming the season?
Horowitz: It's been a long time coming. We talked about using these characters pretty much since the first season, internally. It was always about the right time and when it would fit into the storytelling the way we wanted to. With the Land of Untold Stories and with Jekyll and Hyde I think you'll see that the Aladdin, Jasmine, Jafar story folds in neatly.
Aladdin had many other beloved characters, including the late Robin Williams’ Genie and Abu. Any plans to bring them in?
Horowitz: There certainly are nods to the film that we all love so much, that we're peppering in throughout. We're, right now, focusing on those three.
Kitsis: Obviously, I don't think we would touch the genie. I would like to see a monkey, but I can't promise anything. I think, whereas some stories, like Frozen, we were very faithful to Frozen, I think you will see Aladdin will have its own Once twist.
Would you say it’s a darker twist than the Aladdin we know? Jafar's a pretty dark character — he's one of the most evil villains of the Disney universe.
Horowitz: I think it's the Once Upon a Time tone, which is to say that dark things happen, but it never gets bleak, which is the difference we always draw. Despite how dark and scary things can get, there's always a hopefulness at the core of the storytelling. I think with the Aladdin story and how it meshes with the Once Upon a Time story, the same will hold true. We're not going to pull any punches with Jafar in terms of being a really dark and evil character.
Does Aladdin and Jasmine's love story remain true? Is that part of the arc, or is it more about just putting those characters into Storybrooke?
Kitsis: I would say that it's a little of everything. I think that their love story is such a central part of their story that we want to honor that. I think that we're going to open up a new avenue for Aladdin and Jasmine in our little cul-de-sac.
How do the Aladdin characters impact the world of Storybrooke as we know it, especially as the Land of Untold Stories characters come in?
Kitsis: [In the opening scene showed at Comic-Con] we learned that Aladdin was another Savior. We find out that Emma is not the first, or the only. I would say that the fact that there's another Savior out there and last year we dove into Dark One mythology, I'd say this year we're going to dive into Savior mythology. That's kind of how Aladdin would impact our characters.
Horowitz: In the Comic-Con footage, what we didn't show was anything with Jasmine. That's something we're really excited about. The way we introduce her, we want to keep a surprise for now. When we do find her, she is a strong character with an agenda all her own, that we hope makes her another super-strong, empowered Disney princess on this show that is going to be special in her own way. We loved the character in the movie, and we were super excited to find something fun for her to be doing. That's one of the surprises we're excited to unveil this season.
Could there be more Saviors out there that bring the light to Storybrooke?
Kitsis: We are going to dive into that mythology. Whether or not there will be multiple Saviors, I can't say.
You do have a lot of other characters coming in, like Monte Cristo and Morpheus. Will there be a laundry list of new faces coming in from the Land of Untold Stories?
Kitsis: In season one we met the Mad Hatter, Jiminy Cricket, Cinderella and a host of fairy tale characters and learned their stories. We're going to find ourselves in a very similar situation where the people from the Land of Untold Stories have their stories paused. We have Emma and Regina trying to help them find happiness against Hyde and an Evil Queen, who's lurking out there.
Horowitz: I'd say a lot of it is akin to some of the season one stuff. For example, the Hansel and Gretel story in season one was a one-off episode, but what was really important about it was how Hansel and Gretel's journey affected Emma. That's what we're really focusing on. There'll be some characters where there will be some greater emphasis on them, but there'll be some where we meet them in an individual episode and it's really more about: How does this reflect on Emma? How does this reflect on Snow? How does this reflect on the Evil Queen? They all will be drawn into these stories, hopefully, in ways where we're seeing the development of our core characters and how they're overcoming their own internal issues.
Because you're shifting from the half-season storylines to a full season with Jekyll and Hyde and the Land of Untold Stories, are you able to flesh out characters’ storylines more? What changes happened from making that arc consistent throughout the season?
Kitsis: I think it's much more like we did in season one and season two where there are mini-arcs throughout the season but longer character arcs. The audience got used to us going to a new land, spending 10 episodes there, defeating the villain and coming home. I think the audience will see that the Hyde-Jekyll, the Land of Untold Stories, doesn't overwhelm the show. The show is back in Storybrooke, and it is fairytale characters in the modern world who need help.
Did that feel like coming home to you, to go back to basics with the one storyline?
Kitsis: It really is and, as a showrunner, every time the audience starts to figure out the show, you want to change it. We broke the curse in |
our needs and we bend it and we break it. Sometimes hacks are born, things like clearfix, but occasionally a new element, like the dialogue is born. Goodbye negative margins, our relationship was one of necessity but you made so many things possible. Whilst this might be goodbye, it could be, however, a chance to reacquaint ourselves with some patterns and thanks to your hacky ways, we may have lost our spark. Now, the final farewell I want to mention today is the shakeup that viewport units are going to give our typography and layout best practices. Viewport units have been around since 2012. In fact, IE was an earlier moving and they were supported as far back as IE 9. Viewport units are really easy to understand. It’s basically 1% of the viewport. There are four types of viewport unites, viewport VW, which is viewport width, VH which is the viewport height, VMin, which is the width or height, whichever is smaller, and Vmax which is the width or height whichever is largest. That’s pretty intuitive. [00:17:40] I think that the reason viewport units are not used more often isn’t due to a lack of developer’s understanding or browser support but rather more down to the lack of control that designers have and maybe specifically over things like font size. You might have thought we said goodbye to pixel based font sizes in the late 2000s, and we largely did, we favoured EMs and percentages because pixels don’t change according to user preferences and this is bad for accessibility, if not just rude. Pixel based typography wasn’t quite dead, it was just lurking in the shadows and waiting for the days when browsers offered zoom to enlarge text. With this, some developers decided that the accessibility concerns of pixel based fonts were no long an issue. That debate still rages but the truth is whether you’re using EMs, REMs, or percentages, these are all just abstractions of a base font size and we usually know that to be 16 pixels. We’ve never really had to give up complete control. Viewport units are different, they represent an evolutionary leap, a fundamental change in approach. For the first time, we have true responsive typography. Viewport units are not relative to the base font size in any way and I think that’s what scares some people. This means goodbye to clunky responsive type techniques like this. [00:19:01] The problem with this is that they’re jumpy. They require multiple media queries and they don’t necessarily resize in proportion to other elements on our page, this means that they can jump out of containers, trigger overflow, cause all kinds of mess. It’s like feeding a gremlin after midnight. Honestly, I don’t know why we’ve persisted with this method of responsive typography for so long. Avoiding some of these problems and we can limit the scaling by only applying viewport units above a certain screen size. We could also use CALC and this example says, set the font size at a viewport width of zero to exactly 16 pixels, so that’s a little bit more precise. Then, scale at a rate of three viewport widths from there. Yes, there are still limitations but there are ways to hack around them again. When I was preparing this talk initially, I was thinking about some of those limitations and whilst we can limit scaling with media queries and CALC, we still don’t have full control. We’re essentially not over multiple viewport widths anyway. We’re limited to whatever three viewport widths was in the previous example, at any screen size without another media query or a change in the font size. We can’t change it, for example, to 32 pixels at an 800-pixel resolution. [00:20:10] Like every eulogy you’ve ever been to, this one ends with a closing rank. Now that we’ve had a detailed look at the life and evolution of a few patterns, as well as some of the hacks we’ve used to get around those limitations, I hope you’ve realised a familiar thing. Our hacks are usually just clever work arounds for the limitations of CSS. In most cases, those limitations relate to layout. That’s because CSS was not designed for solving layout problems. It was designed for adding simple styles to HTML documents. In fact, not even necessarily HTML documents. XML was still a viable option then. Thank you.Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems, whose weapons systems are used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), will train British RAF aircrew, it was recently announced.
Affinity Flying Services Ltd, a joint venture in the UK owned 50-50 by Elbit and US-based Kellog, Brown and Root (KBR), “won a contract from the UK Defence Ministry’s military flight training programme worth about 500 million pounds over 18 years.”
The programme, according to Reuters, “is aimed at delivering aircrew training for the 21st century.” Affinity, a subcontractor, “will provide systems and training infrastructure and maintenance and logistics support services.”
Responding to the news, Elbit Systems CEO Butzi Machlis said: “We are very proud to take part in such an important project for the UK MOD [Ministry of Defence].” According to Machlis, “the United Kingdom is one of Elbit Systems’ primary markets.”
Industry publication ‘Defense News’ described the deal as “a substantial win for KBR and its Israeli partner”, noting that “Elbit already has a footprint in the UK, most notably as Thales UK’s partner in the supply of the Watchkeeper UAV program to the British Army.”
Elbit Systems is a long-standing target of human rights campaigners. According to activists, the company “has profited greatly from supplying the Israeli military with a variety of equipment used to sustain Israeli occupation of the Palestinian people.”
An article published by Vice in 2014, as Israel was bombarding the Gaza Strip, stated that Elbit had “several weapons systems currently being used by the IDF” in its offensive. Others have described Elbit as a “notorious war profiteer”, with its shares rising 6.6% after ‘Operation Protective Edge’.Make. It. Stop. Councillor Norm Kelly has just been dubbed the country's "most valuable tweeter" by Twitter Canada. It's a poufy bow on the 74-year-old politician's shiny social media year, which sees him closing out 2015 with more than 200,000 followers.
Mr. Kelly's Twitter stream is made up of jokes, pictures of Toronto and, as befits a Governor-General's award-winning historian, random tidbits about days gone by. Oh, and lots and lots of hip hop.
Though Mr. Kelly said in August that he hasn't "listened to the music that often," his feed is full of rap lingo and imagery – this syncs up with his friendship with Drake, which neither Mr. Kelly nor the young people whose affection he's courting can get enough of. The 6 God has dubbed Mr. Kelly the 6 Dad, shared a video of the politician dancing in a mock Hotline Bling setup with the Toronto Raptors mascot and opined recently that the older man should drop a mixtape.
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I beg you, Jimmy, no. Stop throwing confetti around @norm. The fluttering bits are obscuring the fact that despite his recent donning of black youth culture, he hasn't spent much of his 30-year stash of political currency on them at all.
Mr. Kelly has been a politician in Scarborough for decades, but his current notoriety started during Rob Ford's tumultuous reign.
When the crack-smoking chief was stripped of his powers, Kelly became acting mayor and steered the municipal ship with much less turbulence. After John Tory was elected, many city hall watchers were surprised that Kelly wasn't rewarded with a juicy post. But though both men lean right, the veteran councillor wasn't tapped to be on the new mayor's executive, nor asked to oversee any important files.
Whether or not Kelly found this a slight professionally, personally he sure seems to miss the attention. And so he has jumped on the Aubrey Graham bandwagon, using Toronto's exciting place in the hip hop spotlight to reflect a little light on himself. To me, the endless selfies and posing are cringeworthy. If you need heftier reasons to question them, I've got lots.
The politician says his interest in hip hop is youth-centered. Well, great. Scarborough has 100,000 residents under 14 and the city's highest population of 15-to-19-year-olds. But in the past five years alone, Kelly has voted against letting young people use city pools for free and against using millions of provincial dollars to create badly needed child care. He's also made insanely glib comments about climate change, the world's most pressing issue and one that matters more the younger you are.
Last month, Kelly visited an urban studies class at the University of Toronto; one student who was there, 20-year-old Melissa Vincent, found the discussion very disappointing. "When an issue of any depth came up, Norm was unable to answer," says Vincent, music editor at Canada's largest independent student newspaper who describes herself as a "black female."
One classmate wanted to discuss the racialization of poverty in Scarborough – like many suburban Toronto neighbourhoods, it keeps getting less white and more poor – and referenced the seminal Three Cities report that came out of U of T's Cities Centre, where the talk was held. Kelly replied with a pat answer about immigrant success, along the lines of "immigrants are the highest-earning individuals in Canada."
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"He was really, really disinterested in digging deeper," Vincent says of Kelly's appearance. The politician closed off with a mini-lecture on how rap began.
I'm not saying Kelly can't be cool because he's old – have you seen Joan Didion's ad for Céline? I'm also not saying he can't be cool because he's white. Lots of white people are cool, some even cool enough not to suck up all the oxygen in the room. There are also some semi-cool politicians, though their attempts usually wear a photo-op veneer – whether it's our new first couple, JustSo, embracing in Vogue, or Barack Obama playing ball with George Clooney.
There's no overt reason that an old, white politician can't be cool – it's just not the point. Kelly is not an entertainer and being cool isn't his job. This month, in a lengthy profile in Toronto Life magazine, he says that his Twitter feed has become work. The councillor (whose salary is $108,000) spends hours a day drafting tweets and tracking his stats. That's simply embarrassing and, as the Fords might say, a waste of taxpayer dollars.
The job of a city councillor is to make Toronto a better, more livable place. That isn't achieved by lobbying teenagers for retweets and likes. Ok @norm, I get it, you're a totally cool 6 Dad – but a dad's real job is to take care of us.Art collector donates work by German Renaissance artist to Stuttgart museum after spotting it on bric-a-brac stall
An art collector has donated a lost work by the German artist Albrecht Dürer to a Stuttgart museum after discovering it in a French flea market being sold for just a few euros.
Dürer's polyhedron: 5 theories that explain Melencolia's crazy cube Read more
The copperplate engraving, Maria Crowned by an Angel, was made in 1520 and remained in very good condition, said Anette Frankenberger, an expert at the Staatsgalerie art museum.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart is considering how to display the engraving. Photograph: AFP/Getty
A retired French archaeologist noticed the work on a bric-a-brac stall in Sarrebourg, eastern France, after the seller cleared it out of a house in the town. He bought the piece and, after noticing the Staatsgalerie’s stamp on the back, he decided to donate it anonymously.
The engraving had been missing since the end of the second world war and had probably been wrapped in paper for some of the intervening decades to preserve it, Frankenberger said.
It was owned by a former deputy mayor of Sarrebourg before ending up at the market, she added.
The museum has not decided how to display the engraving. “We have to find the right setting to present it in,” Frankenberger said.
Dürer was born in 1471 in Nuremberg, southern Germany. He travelled through Italy in his 20s and quickly established a reputation as one of the greatest Renaissance artists.Ever since Craig Wright said, but couldn't prove, he was mysterious Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakomoto, the world of cryptocurrency has been relatively silent. To most, it's a bunch of people with too many graphics cards creating value from nothing in order to anonymously spend money around the web.
So, you'd be forgiven if you saw the price of Ethereum jump some 2,300 percent this year, and assumed this was more internet hype once again mixing with the volatility of magic internet money. So, just what is this Ethereum thing? Will it really make our current monetary system obsolete? Are we all gonna be rich? The answer is, well, just maybe.
So Wait, It's Just Like Bitcoin, Right?
Well, sort of. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum run off of a technology called blockchain. As you might remember from past cryptocurrency explainers, a blockchain is just a public record of actions. For Bitcoin, it's a public record of bitcoin transactions, in which computers connected to the blockchain are constantly verifying those transactions and are rewarded with bitcoin of their own. It all has this recursive logic to it, which can be a little confusing! But Consensys, a blockchain venture capital firm, lays it out simply enough:
All bitcoin transactions are broadcast to the entire network, and these transactions are collected by miners who verify those transaction’s validity (essentially using the method described previously) and include all valid transactions into a “block.” The contents of the block are then hashed with an incrementing random number (called a “nonce”) until the resulting output contains a certain number of leading zeroes. The network dynamically adjusts the requisite number of leading zeroes (or the “difficulty”) so that a block is mined every 10 minutes on average. Because the results of hashing algorithms are unpredictable, finding a valid hash which the rest of the network will accept requires both luck and CPU power.
[Consensys]
Because of its nature, the blockchain is a decentralized public record of actions that cannot be tampered with by a single party. As far as technologies go, this is extremely useful. And because of bitcoin's popularity, developers have been trying to build stuff on top of the cryptocurrency — known as smart contracts. Imagine if you could not only use the blockchain to transfer money, but also use it to dictate when and why that money is transferred. Instead of building an online store that supports bitcoin payments, you just... build the store on top of the blockchain. The issue, however, is Bitcoin doesn't really support this.
Here's where Ethereum and Bitcoin differ. Ethereum isn't just a currency, it's a computer. You can upload code to it, and for a price, it'll run it. Here's Tom's Hardware on how that all works:
The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is a universal computer that gives developers the ability to operate and deploy nearly any type of application over the Ethereum network. The EVM decentralizes program operations in a transparent and secure blockchain network.
Imagine the internet as a series of nodes connected in the structure of a web. In this scenario, a server is a central node that many other smaller nodes (say, desktop PCs) connect to. Such a topology creates fail points that, if attacked, can take out large swathes of the internet, as was the case in the Amazon AWS outage earlier this year. By decentralizing and distributing information in identical, cryptographically secured blocks across its entire network, Ethereum eliminates those vulnerable fail points like the servers composing the backbone of our internet. For this reason, many are calling Ethereum the Web 3.0.
[Tom's Hardware]
Ethereum Is... A Computer?
That's right. This is the strength of Ethereum, or at least why it's a bit more useful than Bitcoin, since all that computing power used to keep it running can not only verify transactions, but also run any and all code. Which, for folks who are betting on the internet and technology to eventually replace the systems society runs on — things like the global financial system, government and so on — is extremely useful. Here's Motherboard on why:
[B]ecause the ethereum network also functions as a global computer thanks to smart contracts, this ether isn't limited to being used as a currency. Rather, ether can be used to underpin any sort of computer application you can imagine. The use cases for the ethereum network are only limited by the imaginations of application developers. For example, people are developing apps for energy distribution, digital advertising, and a digital marketplace for unused computing power.
[Motherboard]
To supporters of Ethereum, it's a crucial distinction. Ethereum is all about applications. In a way, the currency aspect is there just to "power" the applications — much in the same way money "powers" you to work. Sure, this all sounds very high-minded internet libertarian nonsense. But ConsenSys has a real-world example that might change your mind:
On the Old Internet we might have used something like PayPal to accept payments. PayPal would take a cut of every transaction, we would mail a copy of the album and then hopefully remember to mark off another sale in a spreadsheet such that when the one hundred and first person asked to make a purchase we would say no. The whole proposition is so rickety that it’s no wonder artists and fans alike pay premiums to transact through intermediaries like Ticketmaster and Bandcamp! Luckily, our drummer has some experience writing Ethereum smart contracts, so we decide to code up a simple “registry” to make this all happen.
The registry contract is simple. It is composed of three functions: purchase, provePurchase and claimAlbum. A fan sends the specified amount of Ether to the contract’s purchase function through a web page. If the amount sent is greater than or equal to the price specified, a counter is incremented and the sending account’s Ethereum address is recorded in an array as a struct with two fields: the address and an integer claimed set to 0. This transaction will fail (and refund the fan’s Ether) if incrementing the counter would leave it in excess of 100.
[ConsenSys]
In other words, Ethereum is Bitcoin that can execute code. This means you have a fully-autonomous system that's fully transparent, immune to attacks, and can run just about anything.
Okay, Who Built This Thing?
Unlike Bitcoin, we very much know the identity of the person who invented Ethereum: Vitalik Buterin. He may be a genius. To decide that for yourself, you should definitely read Backchannel's excellent profile of him:
That vision has since become a rallying cry for a whole army of developers, whose involvement in the space amounts to a technological crusade for increased access, transparency, and accountability—all of which are fundamental features of any open, decentralized blockchain architecture. Their goal is to create a new economy in which anyone can participate on their own terms...
Over the last two years, as Ethereum has evolved from concept to code, so too has the mystery surrounding Buterin. The resounding chorus of the people working on Ethereum is that he is to be admired and adored, and they are more than willing to contribute to Buterin’s colorful, often hilarious hagiography. I’ve been told by various people that Buterin learned to speak fluent Mandarin in just a few months, that he’s an autistic wunderkind, that all of his worldly possessions fit into one suitcase, that he once ate an entire lemon without removing the rind, that he’s an android powered by the Ethereum network.
[Backchannel]
There Has To Be A Catch, Right?
Of course. Ethereum has yet to replace the global financial system yet. It's also still kinda volatile, as rumors of Buterin's death managed to send the currency off a cliff briefly this week, reports Quartz:
This is what market manipulation looks like in the age of cryptocurrencies and fake news. The hoax did reveal something interesting about cryptocurrencies: Unlike bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, an almost mythical figure whose identity remains unknown, Buterin is the de facto public face of ethereum. He doesn’t control the network—it’s a piece of decentralised software that anyone can run or build on, just like bitcoin—but his status as its creator means that rumors like this one have a higher chance of taking hold in the markets.
[Quartz]
A larger, problem, however is one that faces all cryptocurrencies: They require a lot of power to run. And the more popular a currency becomes, the more active miners, the more expensive it is to just keep it going. Here, Motherboard explains:
A new real-time index from Alex de Vries, founder of cryptocurrency analysis site Digiconomist, shows that each ethereum transaction could now represent as much as 45 Kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity spent mining. That's about as much juice as the average American household uses in a day and a half. For comparison's sake, De Vries has estimated that a Visa transaction requires 0.00651 kWh. The entire network could be using as much as 4.2 Terawatt-hours (tWh), or slightly more than the country of Cyprus.
[Motherboard]WITH his steady aim and quick reactions, he has achieved global recognition and five-figure earnings by excelling at a video game played by millions every day.
Now a Glasgow teenager is preparing to take on elite gamers from around the world in the hope of securing the lion’s share of a $1 million prize pot at a US tournament.
Mark Bryceland
Mark Bryceland will this weekend pit his skills against the best players from across every continent at Call Of Duty: Ghosts, the latest instalment of the first-person shooter game that has become one of the most popular series of games ever made.
Having already secured the European title and its £12,500 prize earlier this month as part of a four-strong British team, the 19-year-old has flown out to North Carolina for a week of intensive practice against crack US teams before the Call of Duty Championships gets under way on Friday.
Depending on how he and his teammates in TCM Gaming perform against 31 other teams at the Los Angeles event, they could take home a sizeable part of the $1m prize fund, which will be divided up among the top eight teams. Overall success would net Bryceland and his team nearly a quarter of a million pounds, with lucrative sponsorship deals likely to follow.
Bryceland told Scotland on Sunday he has taken a year off from his course in interactive media at the City of Glasgow College to pursue his dream of turning competitive gaming – known as eSports – into a fully fledged career for “years to come”. Practising for several hours a day, he expressed confidence that he and his team will return from LA recognised as the best in the world at what they do.
“I think we can honestly win the entire world championships,” he said. “It’s going to be hard and we’re certainly going be underdogs, but being Scottish we love a good underdog story, so I’d love to make that happen.
“American squads are always going to be the favourites to win but I fancy our chances. Winning wouldn’t only be massive for ourselves, it’d be big for the whole of Europe.”
Bryceland, from Newton Mearns, said the skills required to succeed in Call Of Duty – a militaristic franchise which pits two opposing teams against one another across a range of battlefields – boils down to communication and practice.
“Working together to accomplish something is always rewarding, and Call Of Duty is no different,” he explained. “I suppose the easiest comparison to traditional sports and Call Of Duty eSports is practice makes perfect.”
Bryceland and his teammates – Londoner Tom Handley, Dylan Dally from Birmingham and Tomas Jones from North Wales – normally play online together for five to six hours every evening.
With more than 10,000 followers on social media channels such as Twitter, YouTube and Twitch, the Scot makes money by streaming live footage of his gaming sessions and compiling videos. Although eSports has not made him rich, he said he has started to make a “steady income”.
“Through prize money in the last year, I’ve made roughly around £10,000,” he said. “I believe that’s roughly around minimum wage but that’s fairly good considering I wasn’t in a top team until around June and didn’t win my first slice of prize money until then.”
A minority of leading players have amassed hundreds of thousands of pounds in winnings by competing in tournaments the world over, though others are able to make the kind of income ordinarily provided by a nine to five job.
The tournament, sponsored by Activision, the publishers of Call Of Duty, takes place between Friday and Sunday.So there was this recent ‘bombshell’ about how the NSA has hacked Google and Yahoo, giving it an (allegedly) unauthorized ‘back door’ to these companies’ customer data to supplement the FISA-warranted front door they have via PRISM. Does this tell us anything new about the NSA, that is, anything that damns the NSA any more than it already is? No, not really. We know they want all our data and we know they do not feel particularly constrained by any law or agreement in pursuit of same. So they’ve gone after it by yet another route.
But there’s that nagging, eternally open question of corporate complicity again. So hey Google, what’s up???
In a statement, Google’s chief legal officer, David Drummond, said the company has “long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping” and has not provided the government with access to its systems. “We are outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fiber networks, and it underscores the need for urgent reform,” he said.
Yeah, of course you’re gonna say that, lawyers. What else ya got?
Well, as The Washington Post notes, there are these ‘two engineers with close ties to Google’ who, ‘exploded in profanity’ when they saw among the Snowden documents a “drawing [noting] that encryption is “added and removed here!” to which “The artist [added] a smiley face, a cheeky celebration of victory over Google security.”
“I hope you publish this,” one of them said.
Now that’s something I could certainly go for, if I were, say, the kind of infantilized rube that is uncritically eating up the simplistic and, purely-by-coincidence, quite profitable, Davey vs The Surveillance State narrative the Leak Keepers keep feeding me. For the rube, plucky Google engineers giving the NSA hell are a nicely cinematic addition to the gatecrashers who are toppling the surveillance state and saving journalism at the same damn time. More please! says the rube.
Well, says Google, it just so happens that two of our engineers have written Plus posts about this. Now, we haven’t authorized what they’ve written. We have simply relied upon paid publicists and the usual army of dipshits who voluntarily worship cool companies, to propagate links to their posts all over social networks, in a way that is just totally, but purely by happy coincidence, in sync with those two adorably irate engineers mentioned in the WaPo story. Mind you, these are not official Google spokespeople and they’re kinda sweary.
Here’s Network Security Engineer Brandon Downey, who posted on Oct. 30, the same day the WaPo story came out:
Fuck these guys. I’ve spent the last ten years of my life trying to keep Google’s users safe and secure from the many diverse threats Google faces. I’ve seen armies of machines DOS-ing Google. I’ve seen worms DOS’ing Google to find vulnerabilities in other people’s software. I’ve seen criminal gangs… I’ve even seen oppressive governments use state sponsored hacking to target dissidents. But even though we suspected this was happening, it still makes me terribly sad. It makes me sad because I believe in America… But after spending all that time helping in my tiny way to protect Google — one of the greatest things to arise from the internet — seeing this, well, it’s just a little like coming home from War with Sauron, destroying the One Ring, only to discover the NSA is on the front porch of the Shire chopping down the Party Tree and outsourcing all the hobbit farmers with half-orcs and whips.
And here’s Google Security Engineer Mike Hearn, who posted six days later:
I now join [Brandon Downey] in issuing a giant Fuck You to the people who made these slides. I am not American, I am a Brit, but it’s no different – GCHQ turns out to be even worse than the NSA. We designed this system to keep criminals out. There’s no ambiguity here. The warrant system with skeptical judges, paths for appeal, and rules of evidence was built from centuries of hard won experience. When it works, it represents as good a balance as we’ve got between the need to restrain the state and the need to keep crime in check. Bypassing that system is illegal for a good reason.
You gotta really love that last paragraph in the Hearn excerpt, marking the crucial difference between a FISA rubber stamp and stealing the data outright. ‘The warrant system with skeptical judges, paths for appeal, and rules of evidence’, ha ha. That’s some funny shit, for anyone who knows how the FISA authorizations actually work.
But the funniest thing is that this is all being taken at face value by people who should know better. I don’t really doubt that Hearn’s and Downey’s outrage is sincere, which along with their obvious dedication to their work, makes them the perfect proxies for Google executives. The ‘unofficial’ aspect, encapsulated by Downey’s ‘They are my own thoughts, and not those of my employer’ and ‘Fuck these guys’ just makes it ring all the more true. But, of course, Hearn and Downey are not in any position to know in detail what arrangements Google executives have made with the NSA, nor the ways in which other engineers elsewhere in the company may have exposed Google’s systems to snooping, so both their outrage and their dedication are absolutely meaningless. It’s pure, deceptive PR, whether Hearn and Downey intended it that way or not.
But it seems to have worked, at least with some. Check out this from Jacob Appelbaum, Wikileaks insider, alleged bane of the security establishment and sometime co-author of Snowden stories with Leak Keeper Laura Poitras:
I suspect that Google will soon be a key element in the fight against #NSA spying. — Jacob Appelbaum (@ioerror) November 1, 2013
This seems a tad weirdly premature, but perhaps Appelbaum means the news about Google has been so damning lately, they have no choice but to completely reverse their current NSA policy of capitulation cum collaboration. Still, if that’s going to happen, I don’t see how pep talks on Google’s behalf like Appelbaum’s– based on pure speculation — help with the necessary pressure.
Nor does it help anyone but Google when neither the Washington Post nor the Guardian story on the same topic mention a 2010 agreement between the NSA and Google that flatly contradicts Drummond’s claim that the company “has not provided the government with access to its systems.”
In 2010, The Washington Post reported that Google invited the NSA to investigate a breach by Chinese hackers and to assist the company with shoring up its network against further attacks. As Wired wrote at the time:
The agreement between Google and the NSA, still being finalized, would allow Google to share critical information with the NSA about the attacks and its network — such as the malicious code that was used and its network configurations — without violating Google’s policies or laws that protect the privacy of users’ communications, the sources say.
Privacy advocates were justifiably alarmed. From the same Wired article:
The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request on Thursday, shortly after the agreement was made public, seeking more information about the arrangement (.pdf). Executive Director Marc Rotenberg believes the agreement covers much more than the Google hack and that the search giant and intelligence agency were in talks prior to Google discovering that it had been hacked. “What they’ve told you is that this is about an investigation of a hack involving China,” he told Threat Level in a phone interview. “I think and have good reason to believe that there’s a lot more going on.”
[Update 11/10/13] The NSA denied EPIC’s FOIA request on the grounds that confirming or denying any relationship with Google could make “U.S. government information systems vulnerable to attack”, even though the agreement had been widely reported at the time. A federal district court judge sided with the NSA in 2011, and in 2012, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for D. C. upheld the ruling. (source: USA Today)
On the same day Wired reported on the agreement, the site’s Noah Schachtman wrote an opinion piece condemning it:
The company pinkie-swears that its agreement with the NSA won’t violate the company’s privacy policies or compromise user data. Those promises are a little hard to believe, given the NSA’s track record of getting private enterprises to cooperate, and Google’s willingness to take this first step.
This would all seem amazingly prescient if Schachtman hadn’t simply been stating the obvious. No doubt Google was telling the truth when they pinkie-swore not to hand over user data. They simply handed over their network configurations. What could possibly go wrong?
If anyone with any journalistic muscle has weighed in on this, I’ve missed it in the hoopla over ‘Fuck These Guys’ and the shockingly deceptive portrait it is painting of Google as both victim of the NSA and trustworthy ally in the fight against it. This is particularly puzzling considering that the story of the 2010 NSA/Google agreement broke in Gellman’s Washington Post and that Spencer Ackerman, who co-authored the Guardian piece, was working at Wired when it reported on, and opined against, the agreement.
For Boss Leak Keeper Greenwald, it seems Google is still just that thing to which you snidely refer nosy people when they catch you lying. He’s made no mention of the Google/NSA agreement, though two days ago he did helpfully tweet a link to a Money article that reads like a Google press release. I guess that’s that “adversarial position to political and corporate power” he talks about, eleven dimensional chess style.
Google CEO "outraged" by latest report of NSA snooping, says it's "perhaps a violation of law" http://t.co/XaHLQnCsBS — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 4, 2013
Many thanks to Danny Colligan (@danny_colligan) and Thomas Lord (@thomas_lord) for crucial input on this post.
UPDATE 1
eBay Journalism Fellow and relentless dumb-downer Glenn ‘Free Speech for Corporations’ Greenwald continues to misleadingly darken the line between the evil government and Silicon Valley, this time tweeting an extremely simplistic WaPo article about how much the two differ from the standpoint of their privacy-violated subjects. There has always been a whole lot wrong with this distinction but it’s now in the realm of egregiously stupid — to put it charitably — as we learn more details of the truck the NSA has backed up to the major providers, seemingly without much, if any, resistance. A WaPo commenter spells this out nicely, and recommends this article which offers a more nuanced view of the problem.
My pal @danny_colligan has written a comprehensive reply to the WaPo piece in which he details the barriers to boycotting companies that harvest data.
The "huge difference" between government & corporate surveillance http://t.co/3As46CiD2L — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 5, 2013
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AdvertisementsFor Linus Pauling, it all started to go wrong when he changed his breakfast routine. In 1964, at the age of 65, he started adding vitamin C to his orange juice in the morning. It was like adding sugar to Coca Cola, and he believed – wholeheartedly, sometimes vehemently – that it was a good thing.
Before this, his breakfasts were nothing to write about. Just that they happened early every morning before going to work at California Institute of Technology, even on weekends. He was indefatigable, and his work was fruitful.
At the age of 30, for instance, he proposed a third fundamental way that atoms are held together in molecules, melding ideas from both chemistry and quantum mechanics. Twenty years later, his work into how proteins (the building blocks of all life) are structured helped Francis Crick and James Watson decode the structure of DNA (the code of said building blocks) in 1953.
The next year, Pauling was awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his insights into how molecules are held together. As Nick Lane, a biochemist from University College London, writes in his 2001 book Oxygen, “Pauling… was a colossus of 20th Century science, whose work laid the foundations of modern chemistry.”
But then came the vitamin C days. In his 1970 bestselling book, How To Live Longer and Feel Better, Pauling argued that such supplementation could cure the common cold. He consumed 18,000 milligrams (18 grams) of the stuff per day, 50 times the recommended daily allowance.
In the book’s second edition, he added flu to the list of easy fixes. When HIV spread in the US during the 1980s, he claimed that vitamin C could cure that, too.
In 1992, his ideas were featured on the cover of Time Magazine under the headline: “The Real Power of Vitamins”. They were touted as treatments for cardiovascular diseases, cataracts, and even cancer. “Even more provocative are glimmerings that vitamins can stave off the normal ravages of ageing,” the article claimed.
Sales in multivitamins and other dietary supplements boomed, as did Pauling’s fame.
But his academic reputation went the other way. Over the years, vitamin C, and many other dietary supplements, have found little backing from scientific study. In fact, with every spoonful of supplement he added to his orange juice, Pauling was more likely harming rather than helping his body. His ideas have not just proven to be wrong, but ultimately dangerous.
Pauling was basing his theories |
This can happen if you try to invoke an undefined function or access an undefined variable.
When the window.onerror event is fired, the browser will check to see whether a handler function is available. If one isn’t available, the browser will reveal the error to the user. If one is available, the handler function receives three arguments:
the error message,
the URL in which the error was raised, and
the line number where the error occured.
You can access those arguments in one of two ways:
by using the arguments object that is native to and locally available to all JavaScript functions; or by using named parameters.
In the example below, we will use arguments. For readability, though, you should use named parameters:
window.onerror = function(){ alert(arguments[0] +'n'+arguments[1]+'n'+arguments[2]); }init(); // undefined and triggers error event.
Fig 4: What our error looks like as an alert in Internet Explorer 9
Here init() has not yet been defined. As a result, the onerror event will be fired in supporting browsers.
Now the caveat: support for window.onerror is limited. Chrome 10+ and Firefox (including mobile) support it. Internet Explorer supports it, but truly helpful error messages are only available in version 9+. While the latest builds of WebKit support window.onerror, recent versions of Safari and slightly older versions of Android WebKit don’t. Opera also lacks support. Expect that to change as the HTML5 specification evolves and browser vendors standardize their implementations.
Modify JavaScript on the fly using the command line interface
One of the more powerful features available in today’s debugging tools is the JavaScript console. It’s almost a command line for JavaScript. With it, you can dump data or inject JavaScript to examine why your code has gone rogue.
Launching the JavaScript Console
In Chrome : View > Developer > JavaScript console
: View > Developer > JavaScript console In Safari : Develop > Show Web Inspector
: Develop > Show Web Inspector In Internet Explorer 8 & 9 : Tools > Developer Tools (or use the F12 key)
: Tools > Developer Tools (or use the F12 key) In Opera: Find Dragonfly under Tools > Advanced (Mac OS X) or Menu > Page > Developer Tools (Windows, Linux)
Firefox is a special case. For years, developers have used the Firebug extension. Firefox 4, however, added a native console (Tools > Web Console or Menu > Web Developer > Web Console).
Firebug fully supports the Console API, and has more robust CSS debugging features. I recommend installing it, though the Web Console is a capable tool for basic needs.
I’m using Opera’s debugging tool Dragonfly in the examples below (yes, I work for Opera). These examples, however, work similarly in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Firebug, and Internet Explorer.
Let’s take another look at the code from our previous examples. We’re going to add a new line— var a = document.querySelector(’#result’); —one that assumes an element with an id value of “result.”
A quick note about the querySelector() method: it and querySelectorAll() are part of the DOM selectors API. querySelector() returns the first element matching the specified CSS selector. Both methods are supported by the latest versions of most browsers. You could also use document.getElementById(‘result’), but document.querySelector() is more efficient:
function add(x,y){ if( isNaN(x) || isNaN(y) ){ throw new Error("Hey, I need two numbers to add!"); } else { // ensure we're adding numbers not concatenating numeric strings. return (x * 1) + (y * 1); } }var a = document.getElementById('result');try{ a.innerHTML = add(9); } catch(e) { console.error(e.message); }
Fig 5: The Dragonfly console
Our thrown error is still written to the console. But let’s inject some JavaScript that runs correctly. We’ll enter a.innerHTML = add(21.2, 40); in our console:
Fig 6: The Dragonfly console with injected code
As you can see, we have overwritten the innerHTML value of a :
Fig 7: A page with injected code
Now let’s change the value of a entirely. Enter a = document.querySelector(‘h1’); a.innerHTML = add(45,2); in the console:
Fig 8: Changing code in the console
You’ll see that 47 is written to the console, and it is also the new innerHTML of our h1 element:
Fig 9: Modifying the DOM
Now, we can even redefine our add() function. Let’s make add() return the product of two arguments and then update the h1. Enter function add(){ return arguments[0] * arguments[1]; } in the console, followed by a.innerHTML = add(9,9); :
Fig 10: Overwriting a function using the JavaScript console
The new innerHTML for our h1 element is now 81, the result of our redefined add function:
Fig 11: The results of overwriting a function
The JavaScript console offers a powerful tool for understanding how your code works. It’s even more powerful when used with a mobile device.
Remote debugging for mobile
Debugging code on a mobile device is still one of our biggest pain points. But, again: now we have tools. Opera Dragonfly and its remote debug feature provides developers a way to debug mobile sites from their desktop. WebKit recently added remote debugging to its core and Google Chrome has already folded it into its developer tools.
Independent developers offer similar products for other browsers. These include Bugaboo, an iOS app for Safari-based debugging; JS Console which is available on the web or as an iOS app; and Weinre for WebKit-based browsers.
Let’s look at two: Dragonfly remote debug and JSConsole.
Remote debugging with Opera Dragonfly
Dragonfly’s strong suit is that you can debug CSS or headers (see the Network tab) in addition to JavaScript. But it does require installing Opera on your desktop and Opera Mobile on your device.
Both devices should be connected to the same local network. You will also need the IP address of the machine running Dragonfly. Then complete the following steps:
open Dragonfly from the Tools > Advanced (Mac OS X) or Page > Developer Tools (Windows, Linux) menus, click the Remote Debug button, adjust the port number if you’d like, or use the default and click “Apply, ” Fig 12: The remote debugging panel in Dragonfly open Opera Mobile on your target device, and enter opera:debug in the address bar, and
Fig 13: Opera Mobile debug console enter the IP address and port number of the host machine and click “Connec,t” and
Fig 14: The IP and Port fields of the opera:debug console navigate to the URL of the HTML page you wish to debug on your device.
Fig 15: An alert on Opera Mobile
Dragonfly on the host machine will load the remote page. You can then interact with the page as though it was on your desktop. You will see the results on the device. For example, if you enter alert( add(8,923) ) in the host console, the alert appears on the mobile device screen.
Remote debugging with JSConsole
JSConsole is a web-based, browser-independent service. Unlike Bugaboo, Weinre, and Dragonfly, your computer and device don’t have to be connected to the same local network.
To use JSConsole:
visit the site and enter :listen at the prompt,
at the prompt, add the returned script tag to the document you wish to debug, and
open the document on your mobile device.
Remote console statements will appear in the JSConsole window (you do need to use console.log() rather than console.error() or console.warn() ). You can also send code from the JSConsole window to your device. In this case, alert( add(6,3) );.
Fig 16: Sending a command using JSConsole.com
Remote error logging
In the examples above, we’re logging to the console, or launching an alert box. What if you logged your errors to a server-side script instead?
Consider the following code that uses XMLHttpRequest(). In it, we are :
function sendError(){ var o, xhr, data, msg = {}, argtype = typeof( arguments[0] ); // if it is an error object, just use it. if( argtype === 'object' ){ msg = arguments[0]; } // if it is a string, check whether we have 3 arguments… else if( argtype ==='string') { // if we have 3 arguments, assume this is an onerror event. if( arguments.length == 3 ){ msg.message = arguments[0]; msg.fileName = arguments[1]; msg.lineNumber = arguments[2]; } // otherwise, post the first argument else { msg.message = arguments[0]; } } // include the user agent msg.userAgent = navigator.userAgent; // convert to JSON string data = 'error='+JSON.stringify(msg); // build the XHR request xhr = new XMLHttpRequest(); xhr.open("POST",'./logger/'); xhr.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www- » form-urlencoded"); xhr.send( data ); // hide error message from user in supporting browsers return true; }
Here we’re posting our error messages to a script that logs them in a flat file using PHP:
<?php// decode the JSON object. $error = json_decode( $_POST['error'], true ); $file = fopen('log.txt','a'); fwrite($file, print_r( $error, true) ); fclose($file);?>
Now the disclaimer: please for the love of tequila, don’t let this script write to a world-readable directory. The potential for code injection due to spoofed headers or variables is not worth the risk. Logging scripts like this should only be used during development, and never on production servers.
Conclusion
As the web has evolved, so have our tools. Code injection, error throwing and catching, and remote debugging services are all helping us ship better, less buggy apps.
Also in Issue № 328 Fluid Images Learn to how to make fixed-width images fluid and how to add them to your fluid grids to build a site that responds to the size… Further reading about Code Responsive Comping: Obtaining Signoff without Mockups If you’re making websites, chances are you’ve given some thought to what constitutes a responsive-friendly design… Mo’ Pixels Mo’ Problems Mobile devices are shipping with higher and higher PPI, and desktops and laptops are following the trend as well. There’s no…
Get our latest articles in your inbox. Sign up for email alerts.Say Anything have announced that they have tapped former Tallhart drummer Reed Murray and Eisley bassist Garron DuPree to fill in for Coby Linder and Adam Siska respectively on their upcoming summer U.S. tour. They write:
“Hey guys
We’re extremely pleased to announce that our good friend Reed Murray, formerly of Rory Record’s very own Tallhart, maverick drummer and great friend, will be playing for us on the Rarities and More tour.
Additionally, Garron DuPree from Eisley will be filling in for Adam, who cannot do the tour due to a previous commitment.
Thanks y’all!
MB”
A year has passed since Say Anything released their last album Anarchy, My Dear on Equal Vision Records. They have already announced a follow-up to that album, which will be produced by their singer and guitarist Max Bemis.OSTP also leads interagency science and technology policy coordination efforts, assists the Office of Management and Budget with an annual review and analysis of Federal research and development in budgets, and serves as a source of scientific and technological analysis and judgment for the President with respect to major policies, plans, and programs of the Federal Government.
Contact OSTP
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Please Note: OSTP does not monitor document requests submitted through this page. To submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to OSTP, please visit the OSTP FOIA webpage.UAE could become home to the world’s first Hyperloop system 1:27 PM ET Mon, 14 Nov 2016 | 01:05
"He says that he can build a mile of tunnel," LeFrak said. "He's obviously a force of nature," he added. "This guy is an imaginative guy."
Earlier this month, Musk tweeted a symbol of his tunnel idea, dubbed "The Boring Company."
"The real problem with doing this is gaining rights of way, gaining eminent domain, or having the rights of way to get the real estate to build the tunnel," LeFrak said.
"[Musk] still has to prove the concept," he argued. "But at least here's a man... doing something a little unusual, thinking out of the box, and willing to invest his own capital."
On Thursday, another one of Musk's visions, a super-fast hyperloop transport system, appeared to take a step closer to reality with the release of test track photos.A hit-and-run crash occurs about once every 18 minutes in Los Angeles, according to data analyzed by the NBC4 I-Team that illustrates the extent of a problem that has been called an "epidemic."
App Users: Click here to view hit-and-run map
The I-Team examined data reported to the California Highway Patrol on all hit-and-run cases in Los Angeles County for 2015. More than 28,000 reported hit-and-run crashes during that year occurred over a widespread area of the county at an alarming rate and 50 percent of all incidents in Los Angeles County are hit-and-run cases.
The national average is 11 percent, according to the American Automobile Association.
Los Angeles Faces Hit-and-Run 'Epidemic'
The NBC4 I-Team examined data from the California Highway Patrol on all hit-and-run cases in Los Angeles County for 2015 and uncovered some startling figures behind the problem. Robert Kovacik reports for the NBC4 News at 5 & 6 on Wednesday, March 2, 2016. (Published Thursday, March 3, 2016)
"The numbers are extremely high," said Los Angeles Police Detective Michael Kaden. "There is no rhyme or reason, that's why they call them accidents."
Most hit-and-run cases do not involve injuries, according to the data. They often involve a driver striking a parked vehicle, then leaving the scene.
But others leave families in grief and searching for answers. Frank Gillart is one of the faces behind those statistics. He was crossing a street in Los Angeles Feb. 20 when a sport utility vehicle driver ran him down and left him for dead.
"I couldn't believe that someone could just hit a person and keep going," said his sister, Olivia Holguin. "He was a father, he was an uncle, he was a person that was loved by many people."
There have been no arrests in the Gillart case, nor in the January hit-and-run death of 27-year-old Korina Campos. She parked her car on Boyle Avenue in Los Angeles and was struck by another driver as she was getting her 5-year-old daughter out of the car. Campos was killed and her daughter was injured in the crash caught on surveillance video.
In an effort to track down criminals in hit-and-run investigations, the Los Angeles City Council passed legislation that offers up to $50,000 in reward money for information to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in a fatal hit-and-run crash.
Hit-and-Run Epidemic Causes Vary
In Part 2 of an investigative report into LA's hit-and-run epidemic, we take a look at the reasons people flee after a collision. Robert Kovacik reports for the NBC4 News at 5 & 6 p.m. on March 16, 2016. (Published Thursday, March 17, 2016)
"For whatever reason, there is this epidemic, and it seems to be growing," said Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch Englander, chair of the city's public safety committee.Next Chapter >
The Z32 Nissan 300ZX is car that I personally consider to be one of the best looking Japanese cars of the 1990s, and from a design standpoint is right up there with the original S30 at the top of the Z food chain, It’s twin turbo powerplant also makes plenty of horsepower to back up it looks. With that said, it seems Z32 has always had more of a boulevard cruiser image rather than one of a hard-edged sports car.
At the same time, as the Z32 has aged it’s lost a bit of its glory. Here in the USA at least, it’s hard to find a Z32 these days that doesn’t have a trashed interior, faded paint, or a bunch of sketchy modifications done over the years. This is why I got so excited when I saw the email from Landon Shore in the featurethis@dev.speedhunters.com inbox. Landon lives in Northern California’s wine country and he’s the owner one of the cleanest Z32s I’ve ever seen.
Not only is Landon’s Z extremely clean, he also races the car regularly – whether it’s at an autocross event or at Sears Point, his local track. There he goes negating both of the stereotypes I had about Z32s…
Landon says there are two very different sides to his approach with the car. On one hand he keeps it at clean as possible and calls the Z “embarrassingly pampered”. When he pulls the car out of the garage though, he drives it well…like a rental.
The car was originally built for time attack competition and even won its class a few years ago. The overall goal was to improve the car’s performance without sacrificing any of its drivability. The twin turbo VG30 motor has been upgraded in all the typical spots, but is still pretty stock in its overall character. The same goes for the chassis and suspension.
I’m honestly not sure if I’ve ever seen an interior that’s so functional and so clean at the same time. It’s really the best of both of worlds.
Big thanks to Landon for sharing his car with us.
I’ve attached his spec list below if you are interested in all the work done to the Z.
-Mike
Engine/Exhaust
-Jim Wolf Technologies Single Pop intake
-Z1 Sidemount Intercoolers with silicone couplers and tbolt clamps
-Unorthodox Racing Pulley
-HI Water pump overdrive pulley
-SS concepts lower hard radiator pipe with samco silicone elbows/couplers
-Koyo Polished Aluminum Radiator and Specialty Z brackets
-Nismo 555cc Injectors
-Denso Iridium 8-series plugs
-Mirror Polished Plenum and Throttle bodies
-Red powdercoated Valve covers
-Kojima Race PCV relocation into valve covers and related plumbing
-JWT ECU (Single POP, 5spd, 555cc inj, CA emissions)
-B&B Stainless steel exhaust with 4.5″ Quadovals and non-resonated x-pipe (Specialty Z X-pipe)
-Z1 split downpipes
-Z1 Test pipes
-Electronic exhaust cutoffs
Driveline:
-RPS Segmented Aluminum flywheel
-RPS Max TT clutch with street disc
-Nismo delrin differential bushings
-Woody75 Shortshifter
-SPL bronze shifter bushings
-Technafit teflon coated SS clutch line
-SPL chromoly clutch pivotball
Suspension/brakes:
-SPL coilovers
-AP Racing 6 piston calipers
-2 piece 14.25” rotors
-Kazaama tension rods
-Stillen sway bars and endlinks
-ES polyurethane steering rack bushings
-SpecialtyZ subframe spacers
-Brembo black magnesium coated slotted and vented rear rotors
-Ferodo track pads front
-Hawk HP plus pads rear
-Coz SS Teflon coated brake lines
-Custom made dual brake ducts (each side) with
-Naca-style intake ducts in front airdam
-Custom aluminum undertray or new stock undertray
-Nismo longer front wheel studs
-ARP forged longer rear wheel studs
Electronics:
-Blitz SBC-iD III Boost controller
-Blitz Powermeter
-Optima Red Top Battery
-Powertrix Grounding kit
-Apexi AFC Neo
Interior:
-Jspec Black with Red stitching shift knob
-Red stitched Black connolly leather shift and ebrake boots
-Corbeau FX1 pro seats
-Custom fabricated sidemonts
-Schroth Profi II ASM Harnesses
-Autopower 4 pt race rollbar, powder coated to match exterior
Exterior:
-J-spec rear tail lights with Jspec center panel
-3M invisibra
-HID conversion/ Slim ballast Kit
-Euro-spec smoked corners
Wheels & Tires:
-Enkei RPF1: 18×10 38mm and 18×8.5 30mm
-Hankook Z214: 275/35/18 and 245/40/18
-5Zigen FN01R-C’s: 18×9.5 all around
-BFG Traction Sports: 255/35/18
If you have a cool car or build story that you think is worthy of being featured on Speedhunters, drop us a line at featurethis@dev.speedhunters.com. Please make sure to include your name and location, as well as some basic details and specs, along with at least 5-10 photographs. Photos should be no less than 800 pixels wide.Try this simple and light spicy coconut lime sauce with your pasta. It can be made under 20 minutes and requires very little effort.
Some days, you just want to eat something light, yet, fulfilling!
Today is one of those days. Lately it seems that I have been making heavy dishes which are carb heavy and cannot be good for the human body.
This spicy coconut lime sauce with pasta dish is perfect for lunch or a quick dinner idea. Add a quick side salad like this beet salad recipe and you have a well rounded meal on your hands. Or, you can eat is with this Sweet Potato Soup by The Foodie Affair. This soup is one of my all time favorite soups because it is easy to prepare. Normally, I substitute tomato pulp for the vegetable stock.
I like spaghetti for this recipe because it is hearty enough to be the full meal. However, you can use this sauce with any kind of Pasta. It will go great with fusilli pasta or even linguini.
This recipe has a very distinct Thai flavor to it. Adding pasta to it gives it a little Italian flare. Don’t you just love fusion cuisine?
I know I do!
I like using Thai pepper in this recipe because it adds a new taste dimension to the spicy coconut lime sauce. If you find it too spicy, go for Jalepeno peppers instead. Whatever you choose, make it a little spicy.
There is no better feeling than making your taste buds come alive with a little pepper in any dish.
I made this dish for Sunday lunch and it was one of the best Sunday lunches we have had in a long time. Then, came the best Sunday naps!
If you like spicy food, you have to try my pineapple smoothie with jalapeno. Spicy pineapple rice with jalapeno is also a fan and family favorite.
What is your favorite light dish to prepare?
Spicy Coconut Lime Sauce
Spicy Coconut Lime Sauce Spicy Coconut Lime Sauce Print Pin Prep Time: 2 minutes Cook Time: 3 minutes Total Time: 5 minutes Servings: 2 cups Calories: 1117 kcal Author: Healing Tomato Ingredients For the Lemon and Coconut Sauce 1 clove garlic
5 leaves cilantro
1 cup coconut milk
1 sprig green onion
1/2 lime juiced
2 Thai Chili
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp olive oil or sunflower oil
1/4 cup water For the Linguini 1 pound linguini
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
water to cook the linguini Instructions Boil water and add the linguini, oil and salt
In a mini food processor, add all the ingredients for the sauce except the coconut milk
Pulse about 5 times or until the ingredients are finely chopped
Introduce the coconut milk slowly and stir well
Add the sauce to the pasta and mix well. Serve the Spicy Coconut Lime Sauce with Spaghetti immediately Nutrition Serving: 2 g | Calories: 1117 kcal | Carbohydrates: 176 g | Protein: 32 g | Fat: 32 g | Saturated Fat: 22 g | Sodium: 2358 mg | Potassium: 754 mg | Fiber: 8 g | Sugar: 6 g | Vitamin A: 5.3 % | Vitamin C: 18.9 % | Calcium: 7.4 % | Iron: 38.2 % Tried this recipe? Follow me @healingtomato1 and mention #healingtomato1
3.3.3077
MORE FROM HEALINGTOMATOThe Death of Socrates (Detail), Jacques-Louis David, 1787
Life boils down to just two things: experience and information.
Experience is what happens in your brain. The slippery chill of diving into a swimming pool. The bittersweet taste of chocolate ice cream on your tongue. Those are experiences.
Information is the breadcrumb trail left behind by experience. The photograph of you by the pool. The chocolate stain on your shirt. Information points back to previous experiences, and, if we choose to act on it, guides us toward the future.
Take writing, for example. The rush of ideas, the mental blocks, the struggle for meaning—it’s all an experience. The words on the page, stark and cold, are the information left behind by the experience of writing.
The purpose of writing is not to store facts for later. Well, it can be, if you’re writing down an address or phone number. But the purpose of writing down ideas is to document a thought process. When you go back and read what you wrote before, you are transported back to that experience of thought. You are able to pick up where you left off, and continue whatever journey you had embarked upon.
Writing down ideas is not about saving information; it’s about time travel.
I began by writing this idea as a note in Evernote about 8 or 9 months ago. Since that time, my daughter was born, I went on paternity leave, I changed 10,000 diapers, I came back to work, I did a couple of projects, I went on vacation, and I came back from vacation…a lot of stuff happened. But when I revisited this writing today, I was able to transport myself right back to what I was thinking when I started it so many months ago. I remember the ideas bouncing around in my head as I rode my bike home that day in the half-light of dusk. I remember what it felt like, sitting on the couch with my laptop after dinner, feet on the coffee table. I remember the melancholic vibration between my ears as the ideas took shape. All this burst forth onto the stage of my consciousness as I re-read the visual descriptions that open the piece. Writing down ideas is not about saving information; it’s about time travel.
You could say the same about taking notes. In school, we learn that it’s virtuous to take notes. Somehow it helps you learn, or something. But why? Sure, you might get down a few facts and figures that could be useful if you have to write a paper, but couldn’t you just Google it? The thing is, the real reason to take notes is not to capture facts and figures. It’s much more important to leave enough information behind that you can transport yourself back to the frame of mind you were in during the experience of learning something. You can rekindle any ideas that might have been sparked as you watched the lecture or presentation. You can return to the experience and make something from it.
The author’s sketch notes from ConFab 2016
In my case, I do sketch notes exclusively now. It’s not because I’m a fancy designer and want to show off my drawing skills, which are rather primitive. No. I do sketch notes because I’ve found that doodling while people talk leaves behind much richer information that allows me to transport myself back to the experience more effectively. Drawing and writing together activate more of the receptive/intuitive/creative parts of my brain, which actually makes the experience itself richer. So when, months later, I transport myself back to the experience of the conference or class through the medium of information, I can see the past world in higher resolution.
Thomas Edison famously captured and collected his ideas in some five million pages of notes over the course of his life. Was he a megalomaniacal narcissist, obsessed with documenting his own brilliance? Perhaps. But I think he was more interested in time travel. He knew that the spark of an idea is the most transcendent experience in the world, and he wanted to leave himself some information so he could find his way back.
You can live life as a one-way street—time rushing senselessly forward as experiences fade behind you. But technology—beginning with the written word and evolving to the machine-aided capture and organization tools of today—gives you another option. Collecting, developing, and revisiting information expands your creative potential because you can draw from the sum total of your life, not just the fleeting thoughts of the moment. You can live life as a complete whole and create from the full depths of your well.There’s probably enough for three different stories here, but this is just a course of a week for me in Washington.
I’m sentimental over Washington State’s medical marijuana past but am optimistic for America’s future. As we grow and become what we once were, the nation’s best place for marijuana markets and events; markets that crossed gender, race, and age boundaries. I have a glimmer of hope for the nation with each occurrence that happens here in Washington State. The most recent turn of events is a recreational shop that just opened here in Redmond, Washington the home of Microsoft and many technology-based companies, a place called Always Greener, ‘Cause the grass is Always Greener.
I have hope for our backwards regulated recreational market and gain hope for a nation because marijuana can be the healing of a nation.Washington was one of the first states to take steps to end America’s racial travesty, but recreational legalization is not what I thought it was going to be when I started as a 17-year-old freedom fighter. When Alison Holcomb wrote I502 I heard many arguments from her side defending why there were so many “regulation” factors, one was the public wouldn’t approve legal marijuana unless there are guidelines so people who abuse the law can be punished, but my question is what is abuse?
There were many against I502 (myself included) because of the structure of the law. Many argued against the five ng DUI, others it had to do with not allowing homegrows and the restrictions placed on medical, my personal beef was placing the liquor control board in charge because that worked out so well for liquor.
Our inner cities are plagued by a drug war and asshole problem, not the zombie apocalypse due to legal marijuana or Isis.
There’s Room To Grow Because I Know Where We Came From
Recent attempts for a homegrow bill have been squashed due to politics, not common sense but I keep hope knowing what medical was once in Washington State. When it comes to policy, I wish I was more involved, but it’s the bigger picture I’m chasing. Until I can act more locally, there are those involved whose opinion I do respect, and on Facebook, I asked: “What Washington Bills are we hope that pass this year?”.
The first and saddest response was from activist John Kingsbury “Homegrows are dead. 1065 reduces criminal penalties. Other than that, we are working on a letter to the Department of Justice about LCB enforcement.” This, of course, was a disheartening response but not surprising cause in Washington we don’t completely have our shit together. Though there is a glimmer of hope from lawyer and activist John Novak “HA 2021 still has a chance. It would allow producers to sell seeds and plants directly to patients and designated providers without having to be in the registry.”
Besides the two previously disgust, there are some with intentions of opening the State to out of State investors, but there are some out for the good of it citizens like HR 1060 which allows for students to medicate in school. HR 2064 is to remove industrial hemp from the uniform controlled substance act; HR 1250-2017-18 allows for retail marijuana outlets to give a free lockable drug box to adults and qualifying patients; and HR 1692, agriculture and farming bill. To find more about these bills and any further Washington legislation go to The People Of Medical Cannabis Website.
Protesting The Protest
I love the Pacific for its social justice roots, in fact, I’ve written (link here) how I feel safer here than anywhere else in The United States but sometimes we’re a little upside down. The drug war has been used to manipulate minority and lower income communities from its inception, so it is when a pot shop opens in your neighborhood one should embrace it, but the people of Seattle’s Central District, historically a predominately black neighborhood have decided to protest the Jewish white owner of Uncle Ike’s. Regardless of how one feels about the person behind the business, what the business itself represents the nail in prohibition’s coffin and one less way to manipulate minorities and people of lower income.
Now I know not all the protestors knew this was going to happen but sometimes common sense doesn’t prevail, this is to be expected from the social outrage city that has given you the meme Hugh Mungus. Since a confused group of people managed to scare and close a business for a bit, I went there the following day and bought a preroll.This week’s a bit of a grab bag—or, as they say in the provinces, a pot-au-feu—but mainly we’re going to be taking a look at how the Dragon’s Maze Limited format is shaping up, based on some recent results of mine.
Here’s the nut graf: I really love this format. Also: I hate Fatal Fumes. Man that card is frustrating. Sure, sometimes it kills a Truefire Paladin or a guildmage and you’re pleased as punch, but at other times it’s an awkward-to-set-up removal spell that, oddly enough—in a format with bloodrush—leaves YOU open to a two-for-one, rather than the other way around, as a god’s-honest removal spell should.
A few weeks ago, on the day before the SCG Open team sealed event in New Jersey, I drafted with some Twenty-Sided regulars at the home of Mark Burstiner and his lovely girlfriend (and pup). (Thanks Mark!) It was a lovely day for an outdoor draft. I first-picked a Far // Away and went pretty firmly thereafter into Esper, finishing up 3-0 before taking off to see Mud, directed by my friend and fellow Arkansan Jeff Nichols, at the new movie theater in Williamsburg. Never thought I’d see the day. (Also, Mud is really good. Go see it. NB: I did not grow up quite how the kids in Mud did, but I know folks who did.)
After a couple of weeks on the bench from Twenty Sided, due to travel and other commitments, I got back on the horse this past Friday night, just sneaking in under the wire to draft. I had learned at Emerald Knights in Cali that an unopposed two-color strategy can pretty much roll over anything else on the table. So after being placed in a pod with Rob C., Derek, Chase, Micah, and Nick; and being presented with a Tajic, Blade of the Legion staring back out at me in pack one; I slammed Tajic and never looked back.
It helped that Nick promptly shipped me a foil Warleader’s Helix—which he of course hated to do, and said as much—thus cementing me in Boros. Here’s how the deck turned out:
A few notes on signaling: In a typical triple-set draft, the signals you send—meaning the cards you ship to your left—are not nearly as important as the signals you are receiving from your right. Why? It’s simple: All the packs are the same, and you will be getting one pack from your right and two from your left. Two > one. Make sense?
But full-block Dragon’s Maze is quite a different animal. Why? Because there are five guilds in Gatecrash and five guilds in Return to Ravnica—so if you start your draft by cutting Boros, Gruul, Orzhov, Dimir, or Simic hard, that makes it much more likely that you will be passed powerful gold cards in your guild from your left in pack two.
Similarly, you can plan ahead by the signals you are receiving. If you are in Boros—having, say, first-picked a Viashino Firstblade, which is a fine first pick—but you notice you also are getting passed good green or white cards, you can potentially plan ahead to be in Naya: Boros and Selesnya (with an emphasis on Boros, b/c of the reversal of the draft flow order in pack two) in Dragon’s Maze; Boros in Gatecrash; and back to Selesnya in Return to Ravnica. It’s complicated, but you see what I’m getting at.
But what happens if you open or get passed one of those bonkers three-color fuse cards in Dragon’s Maze, and really want to take it? Depending on which it is, I think you take it—but be aware of the path it’s sending you down.
Take Beck // Call, for instance—a stone bomb, I think, though I haven’t yet had the pleasure to play it. B // C is white, blue, and green. So what guild do you prioritize cutting in pack one? Simic, while keeping an eye out to see whether or not Azorius or Selesnya seem to be flowing from your right. If you can tell—and you can’t always, given that Dragon’s Maze is an all-over-the-place, 10-guild set, but try—note which color combo seems to be flowing better, so that in Gatecrash you can try to heighten that signal in pack three (RTR) by cutting cards of those colors.
Same thing goes for Flesh // Blood, a Jund-colored card which isn’t necessarily a first pick, though it could be: If you |
bottle
c = Small format (12oz) can
cc = 16oz format can
C = Larger format can
3 Nations – Texas Gold Kream Ale (c, K)
Abita – Amber (c)
Abita – Purple Haze Raspberry Lager (c)
Abita – Strawberry Harvest Lager (c)
Arborway Imports – Clown Shoes Hephaestus Russian Imperial Stout (K)
BJ’s – Root of Evil IPA (K)
BJ’s – Hopstorm IPA (b)
Blue Point – Armchair Nitro Stout (K)
Boulevard – Funkier Pumpkin Spiced Sour Ale (B)
Boulevard – Tripel Julep (K)
Brash – Fancy Sauce IPA (K)
Buffalo Bill’s – Orange Blossom Cream Ale (b)
Buffalo Bill’s – Blood Orange Imperial Ale (B)
Community – Texas Helles (c, K)
Elysian – Hawaiian Sunburn (b, B)
Elysian – Space Dust IPA (B)
Franconia – Belgium Ale (K)
Freetail – Cherry Bexarliner (B, K)
Freetail – RealTail (K)
Goliad – Watermelon Gose Ale (b, K)
Green Flash – Nuggest Single Hop Pale Ale (b, K)
Green Flash – Short Stack Breakfast Stout (K)
Guadalupe – Hweet Hwine Ale (K)
Jester King – Buford’s Roadside Wares (B)
Jester King – Multifarious (B)
Karbach – KR D Series IPL (K)
Kona – Koko Brown (b)
Krebs – Prairie Artisan Ales Phantasmagoria (b, K)
Long Wooden Spoon – P3 Coffee Porter (K)
Odell – Big Cookie A La Mode Vanilla Brown Ale (K)
Odell – Prop Culture (B, K)
On Rotation – Raspberry Tart Ale (K)
On Rotation – Saved by the Belma Beer (K)
On Rotation – Cafe Au Lait Milk Stout (K)
On Rotation – Citratrap IPA (K)
On Rotation – Jalapeno Saison Ale (K)
Oskar Blues – Hoppy Wit Ale (K)
Ranger Creek – Sunday Morning Coming Down (b, K)
Redhook Ale – Widmer Brothers Drop Top Amber (b)
Saint Arnold – Summer Pils (c)
Southern Tier – Tangier Session IPA (c)
Spindle Tap – Hop Option Monastic IPA (K)
Spindle Tap – Hop Gusher IPA (K)
Spindle Tap – Aceite Crudo Russian Imperial Stout (K)
Stone – Nitro IPA (K)
Stone – Ruination Double IPA 2.0 (K)
Sweetwater – Goin Coastal IPA with Pineapple (b, c, K)
Under the Radar – Dirty Blonde Ale (K)
Under the Radar – Midtown Bock (K)
Under the Radar – Mid-Frequency IPA (K)
Utah Brewers – Wasatch Jalapeno (K)
Whitestone – Lovely Day IPA (K)
Zilker – Onezie (K)
Brewery Approvals:
Note: I have only been putting new brewery approvals here – anything that is just getting reapproved, I do not list. Along with this, any macro brewery that is approved, I do not put. An example of this would be things like a South Korean macro brewery.
(For TX breweries: B = Brewery, BP = Brewpub)
Spindle Tap – Houston (BP) – Switched from a Brewery license
Pivovar Protivin – Czech Republic
Select Labels:
TABC Label and Brewery Approvals April 15 2016The recession, and the subsequent squeeze on disposable income, has encouraged millions of families to cut back on spending on luxuries, especially on meals in restaurants. This has encouraged many to trade down to cheaper meals, especially burgers and fried chicken.
According to NPD, the market research company which tracks consumer spending, 5.54 billion visits were made to a fast food chain in 2011, out of the 11bn meals eaten in total out of the home – be it at a work canteen, restaurant, pub or sandwich shop.
This means that 50.4pc of all means eaten out of the home are now at a so-called quick service restaurant, up from 47.3pc just two years ago. The term quick service restaurant is used by the industry to describe any outlet where the consumer queues to buy take-away food so this does include coffee shops.
Guy Fielding at NPD said: "It's a lot about trading down. Because fast food has become so cheap, it has driven families in particular away from independent restaurants and pubs to the fast food chains.
"Families want to know what they are getting. And with the likes of McDonald's or KFC they know it is a consistent experience and good value."In our culture, talking about the future is sometimes a polite way of saying things about the present that would otherwise be rude or risky.
But have you ever wondered why so little of the future promised in TED talks actually happens? So much potential and enthusiasm, and so little actual change. Are the ideas wrong? Or is the idea about what ideas can do all by themselves wrong?
I write about entanglements of technology and culture, how technologies enable the making of certain worlds, and at the same time how culture structures how those technologies will evolve, this way or that. It's where philosophy and design intersect.
So the conceptualization of possibilities is something that I take very seriously. That's why I, and many people, think it's way past time to take a step back and ask some serious questions about the intellectual viability of things like TED.
So my TED talk is not about my work or my new book – the usual spiel – but about TED itself, what it is and why it doesn't work.
The first reason is over-simplification.
To be clear, I think that having smart people who do very smart things explain what they doing in a way that everyone can understand is a good thing. But TED goes way beyond that.
Let me tell you a story. I was at a presentation that a friend, an astrophysicist, gave to a potential donor. I thought the presentation was lucid and compelling (and I'm a professor of visual arts here at UC San Diego so at the end of the day, I know really nothing about astrophysics). After the talk the sponsor said to him, "you know what, I'm gonna pass because I just don't feel inspired...you should be more like Malcolm Gladwell."
At this point I kind of lost it. Can you imagine?
Think about it: an actual scientist who produces actual knowledge should be more like a journalist who recycles fake insights! This is beyond popularisation. This is taking something with value and substance and coring it out so that it can be swallowed without chewing. This is not the solution to our most frightening problems – rather this is one of our most frightening problems.
So I ask the question: does TED epitomize a situation where if a scientist's work (or an artist's or philosopher's or activist's or whoever) is told that their work is not worthy of support, because the public doesn't feel good listening to them?
I submit that astrophysics run on the model of American Idol is a recipe for civilizational disaster.
What is TED?
So what is TED exactly?
Perhaps it's the proposition that if we talk about world-changing ideas enough, then the world will change. But this is not true, and that's the second problem.
TED of course stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and I'll talk a bit about all three. I Think TED actually stands for: middlebrow megachurch infotainment.
The key rhetorical device for TED talks is a combination of epiphany and personal testimony (an "epiphimony" if you like ) through which the speaker shares a personal journey of insight and realisation, its triumphs and tribulations.
What is it that the TED audience hopes to get from this? A vicarious insight, a fleeting moment of wonder, an inkling that maybe it's all going to work out after all? A spiritual buzz?
I'm sorry but this fails to meet the challenges that we are supposedly here to confront. These are complicated and difficult and are not given to tidy just-so solutions. They don't care about anyone's experience of optimism. Given the stakes, making our best and brightest waste their time – and the audience's time – dancing like infomercial hosts is too high a price. It is cynical.
Also, it just doesn't work.
Recently there was a bit of a dust up when TEDGlobal sent out a note to TEDx organisers asking them not to not book speakers whose work spans the paranormal, the conspiratorial, new age "quantum neuroenergy", etc: what is called woo. Instead of these placebos, TEDx should instead curate talks that are imaginative but grounded in reality. In fairness, they took some heat, so their gesture should be acknowledged. A lot of people take TED very seriously, and might lend credence to specious ideas if stamped with TED credentials. "No" to placebo science and medicine.
But... the corollaries of placebo science and placebo medicine are placebo politics and placebo innovation. On this point, TED has a long way to go.
Perhaps the pinnacle of placebo politics and innovation was featured at TEDx San Diego in 2011. You're familiar I assume with Kony2012, the social media campaign to stop war crimes in central Africa? So what happened here? Evangelical surfer bro goes to help kids in Africa. He makes a campy video explaining genocide to the cast of Glee. The world finds his public epiphany to be shallow to the point of self-delusion. The complex geopolitics of central Africa are left undisturbed. Kony's still there. The end.
You see, when inspiration becomes manipulation, inspiration becomes obfuscation. If you are not cynical you should be sceptical. You should be as sceptical of placebo politics as you are placebo medicine.
T and Technology
T – E – D. I'll go through them each quickly.
So first technology...
We hear that not only is change accelerating but that the pace of change is accelerating as well. While this is true of computational carrying-capacity at a planetary level, at the same time – and in fact the two are connected – we are also in a moment of cultural de-acceleration.
We invest our energy in futuristic information technologies, including our cars, but drive them home to kitsch architecture copied from the 18th century. The future on offer is one in which everything changes, so long as everything stays the same. We'll have Google Glass, but still also business casual.
This timidity is our path to the future? No, this is incredibly conservative, and there is no reason to think that more gigaflops will inoculate us.
Because, if a problem is in fact endemic to a system, then the exponential effects of Moore's law also serve to amplify what's broken. It is more computation along the wrong curve, and I doubt this is necessarily a triumph of reason.
Part of my work explores deep technocultural shifts, from post-humanism to the post-anthropocene, but TED's version has too much faith in technology, and not nearly enough commitment to technology. It is placebo technoradicalism, toying with risk so as to reaffirm the comfortable.
So our machines get smarter and we get stupider. But it doesn't have to be like that. Both can be much more intelligent. Another futurism is possible.
E and economics
A better 'E' in TED would stand for economics, and the need for, yes imagining and designing, different systems of valuation, exchange, accounting of transaction externalities, financing of coordinated planning, etc. Because states plus markets, states versus markets, these are insufficient models, and our conversation is stuck in Cold War gear.
Worse is when economics is debated like metaphysics, as if the reality of a system is merely a bad example of the ideal.
Communism in theory is an egalitarian utopia.
Actually existing communism meant ecological devastation, government spying, crappy cars and gulags.
Capitalism in theory is rocket ships, nanomedicine, and Bono saving Africa.
Actually existing capitalism means Walmart jobs, McMansions, people living in the sewers under Las Vegas, Ryan Seacrest … plus – ecological devastation, government spying, crappy public transportation and for-profit prisons.
Our options for change range from basically what we have plus a little more Hayek, to what we have plus a little more Keynes. Why?
The most recent centuries have seen extraordinary accomplishments in improving quality of life. The paradox is that the system we have now –whatever you want to call it – is in the short term what makes the amazing new technologies possible, but in the long run it is also what suppresses their full flowering. Another economic architecture is prerequisite.
D and design
Instead of our designers prototyping the same "change agent for good" projects over and over again, and then wondering why they don't get implemented at scale, perhaps we should resolve that design is not some magic answer. Design matters a lot, but for very different reasons. It's easy to get enthusiastic about design because, like talking about the future, it is more polite than referring to white elephants in the room.
Such as…
Phones, drones and genomes, that's what we do here in San Diego and La Jolla. In addition to the other insanely great things these technologies do, they are the basis of NSA spying, flying robots killing people, and the wholesale privatisation of biological life itself. That's also what we do.
The potential for these technologies are both wonderful and horrifying at the same time, and to make them serve good futures, design as "innovation" just isn't a strong enough idea by itself. We need to talk more about design as "immunisation," actively preventing certain potential "innovations" that we do not want from happening.
And so…
As for one simple take away... I don't have one simple take away, one magic idea. That's kind of the point. I will say that if and when the key problems facing our species were to be solved, then perhaps many of us in this room would be out of work (and perhaps in jail).
But it's not as though there is a shortage of topics for serious discussion. We need a deeper conversation about the difference between digital cosmopolitanism and cloud feudalism (and toward that, a queer history of computer science and Alan Turing's birthday as holiday!)
I would like new maps of the world, ones not based on settler colonialism, legacy genomes and bronze age myths, but instead on something more … scalable.
TED today is not that.
Problems are not "puzzles" to be solved. That metaphor assumes that all the necessary pieces are already on the table, they just need to be rearranged and reprogrammed. It's not true.
"Innovation" defined as moving the pieces around and adding more processing power is not some Big Idea that will disrupt a broken status quo: that precisely is the broken status quo.
One TED speaker said recently, "If you remove this boundary... the only boundary left is our imagination". Wrong.
If we really want transformation, we have to slog through the hard stuff (history, economics, philosophy, art, ambiguities, contradictions). Bracketing it off to the side to focus just on technology, or just on innovation, actually prevents transformation.
Instead of dumbing-down the future, we need to raise the level of general understanding to the level of complexity of the systems in which we are embedded and which are embedded in us. This is not about "personal stories of inspiration", it's about the difficult and uncertain work of demystification and reconceptualisation: the hard stuff that really changes how we think. More Copernicus, less Tony Robbins.
At a societal level, the bottom line is if we invest in things that make us feel good but which don't work, and don't invest in things that don't make us feel good but which may solve problems, then our fate is that it will just get harder to feel good about not solving problems.
In this case the placebo is worse than ineffective, it's harmful. It's diverts your interest, enthusiasm and outrage until it's absorbed into this black hole of affectation.
Keep calm and carry on "innovating"... is that the real message of TED? To me that's not inspirational, it's cynical.
In the US the rightwing has certain media channels that allow it to bracket reality... other constituencies have TED.
• This article first appeared on Benjamin Bratton's website and is republished with permission. It is the text of a talk given at TEDx San DiegoFor other people named Bob Ross, see Bob Ross (disambiguation)
American painter and television host
Robert Norman Ross (October 29, 1942 – July 4, 1995) was an American painter, art instructor, and television host. He was the creator and host of The Joy of Painting, an instructional television program that aired from 1983 to 1994 on PBS in the United States, and also aired in Canada, Latin America, and Europe. Ross went from being a public television personality in the 1980s and 1990s to being an Internet celebrity in the 21st century, becoming popular with fans on YouTube and many other websites after his death.[1][2]
Early life
Ross was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, to Jack and Ollie Ross (a Cherokee carpenter and a waitress, respectively), and raised in Orlando, Florida.[3][4] As a child, Ross entertained himself by caring for injured animals, purportedly including an armadillo, snake, and alligator. One of these animals, a squirrel named Peapod (full nickname "Peapod The Pocket Squirrel"), was featured most prominently in a few episodes of his show. Another squirrel, one with epilepsy Bob called "Squirrely Wirrelly Brown" (which was given 6 months to live by a Vet but Bob talked about her 4 to 5 years after getting her) was also on the show less frequently (she was usually kept at home in Ross' basement in a big cage next to where she'd watch him paint).[4][3] He had a half-brother, Jim, whom he mentioned in passing on his show.[5] Ross dropped out of high school in the 9th grade to work as a carpenter with his father, Jack Ross, when he lost part of his left index finger. This, however, did not affect the way he held his palette while painting.[6]:22
Military career
In 1961, 18-year-old Ross enlisted in the United States Air Force and was put into service as a medical records technician.[6]:15 He eventually rose to the rank of master sergeant and served as the first sergeant of the U.S. Air Force Clinic at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska,[7][8] where he first saw the snow and mountains that later became recurring themes in his artwork. He developed his quick-painting technique to create art for sale during brief daily work breaks.[8] Having held military positions that required him to be, in his own words, "tough" and "mean", "the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work", Ross decided that if he ever left the military, he would never yell or raise his voice again.[8]
Career as a painter
During his 20-year tenure with the U.S. Air Force, Ross developed a taste for painting after attending an art class at the Anchorage U.S.O. club. He found himself frequently at odds with many of his painting instructors, who were more interested in abstract painting. In Ross' own words: "They'd tell you what makes a tree, but they wouldn't tell you how to paint a tree."
Ross was working as a part-time bartender when he discovered a TV show called The Magic of Oil Painting, hosted by German painter Bill Alexander.[6]:17–18 Alexander touted a 16th-century style of painting called "alla prima" (Italian for "first attempt"), better known as "wet-on-wet", that allowed him to finish a painting in a little under 30 minutes. Ross studied and became quite good at alla prima through Alexander's show, and began selling Alaskan landscapes painted on the inside of novelty gold pans.[4][8] When Ross began making more money from selling the gold pans than his military job, he retired from the Air Force in 1981 after 20 years of service,[4][9] having the rank of Master Sergeant.[7][10]
He first went to Florida and studied painting under Alexander, then joined the "Alexander Magic Art Supplies Company" and became a traveling salesman and tutor. Annette Kowalski, who had attended one of his sessions, became convinced that there was a great opportunity for Ross to succeed on his own, and persuaded him to do so. She invested her life savings in the company, as did Ross and his wife. The business struggled at first; his permed hairstyle came about as a cost-cutting measure, when his regular crewcut haircuts became too expensive. Ross grew increasingly uncomfortable with the style in his later years, but kept it throughout his career.[9][6]:19
The origins of the TV show, The Joy of Painting, are unclear.[9] It was filmed at the studio of the PBS station WIPB in Muncie, Indiana.[11]
The show ran from January 11, 1983 to May 17, 1994, but reruns still continue to appear in many broadcast areas and countries, including the non-commercial digital subchannel network Create. During each half-hour segment, Ross would instruct viewers in oil painting using a quick-study technique from the imagination that used a limited palette of paints and broke down the process into simple steps. Art critic Mira Schor compared him to Fred Rogers, host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, noting that Ross' soft voice and the slow pace of his speech were similar.[12]
With help from Annette Kowalski, Ross built a $15 million business, Bob Ross Inc., selling his line of art supplies and how-to books, and marketing painting classes taught by instructors trained in the "Bob Ross method".[13] All of his income, he said, was derived from those sources;[8] the show was intended to be a vehicle to promote his classes and products.[4] All of his paintings, including those created during his shows, were donated to PBS stations.[14]
Ross also filmed wildlife, squirrels in particular, usually in his garden, and he would often take in injured or abandoned squirrels and other animals. Small animals often appeared on his Joy of Painting canvasses.[8]
Technique
Ross used the wet-on-wet oil painting technique, in which the painter continues adding paint on top of still-wet paint rather than waiting a lengthy amount of time to allow each layer of paint to dry. From the beginning, the program kept the selection of tools and colors simple so that viewers would not have to make large investments in expensive equipment. Ross frequently recommended odorless paint thinner (aka odorless mineral spirits) for brush cleaning. Combining the wet painting method with the use of large one- and two-inch brushes, as well as painting knives, allowed Ross to paint trees, clouds, mountains, and water in a matter of seconds. Each painting would start with simple strokes that appeared as nothing more than smudges of color. As he added more and more strokes, the blotches would transform into intricate landscapes.[13][15]
Ross painted three versions of almost every painting featured on his show. The first was painted prior to taping, and sat on an easel, off-camera, during filming, where Ross used it as a reference to create the second copy—the one viewers actually watched him paint. After filming the episode, Ross painted a third, more detailed version for inclusion in his instructional books.[16]
Influences
Ross dedicated the first episode of the second season of The Joy of Painting to Bill Alexander, explaining that "years ago, Bill taught me this fantastic [wet-on-wet] technique, and I feel as though he gave me a precious gift, and I'd like to share that gift with you [the viewer]".[17] As Ross's popularity grew, his relationship with Alexander became increasingly strained. "He betrayed me," Alexander told the New York Times in 1991. "I invented 'wet on wet', I trained him, and... he thinks he can do it better."[18] Art historians have pointed out that the "wet-on-wet" (or alla prima) technique actually originated in Flanders during the 15th century, and was used by Frans Hals, Diego Velázquez, Caravaggio, Paul Cezanne, John Singer Sargent, and Claude Monet, among many others.[19][20]
Style
Ross was well known for the catchphrases he used while painting such as "happy little trees".[21] In most episodes of The Joy of Painting, Ross would note that one of his favorite parts of painting was cleaning the brush.[22] Specifically, he was fond of his method of drying off a brush that he had dipped in odorless thinner by striking it against the thinner can (then striking a box for early seasons, and trashcan for later seasons; occasionally he would strike the brush hard on the trashcan, and say he "hit the bucket") and easel.[22] He would smile and often laugh aloud as he said to "beat the Devil out of it".[22] He also used a palette that had been lightly sanded down, which was necessary to avoid catching the reflections of the strong studio lighting.[23]
Ross wore clothes that he believed would be a "timeless look" (jeans and a button-down shirt). He also used a minimalist set and spoke as if he were only addressing one viewer.[4]
When asked about his laid-back approach, and his calm and contented demeanor, he commented,
I got a letter from somebody here a while back, and they said, "Bob, everything in your world seems to be happy." That's for sure. That's why I paint. It's because I can create the kind of world that I want, and I can make this world as happy as I want it. Shoot, if you want bad stuff, watch the news.[24]
The landscapes he painted—typically mountains, lakes, snow, and log cabin scenes—were strongly influenced by his years living in Alaska, where he was stationed for the majority of his Air Force career. He repeatedly stated on the show his belief that everyone had inherent artistic talent and could become an accomplished artist given time, practice, and encouragement, and to this end was often fond of saying, "We don't make mistakes; we just have happy accidents."[25] In 2014, the blog FiveThirtyEight conducted a statistical analysis of the 381 episodes in which Ross painted live, concluding that 91 percent of Ross' paintings contained at least one tree, 44 percent included clouds, 39 percent included mountains and 34 percent included mountain lakes. By his own estimation, Ross completed more than 30,000 paintings in his lifetime.[26]
Other media appearances
Ross was fond of country music, and in 1987 he was invited on stage by Hank Snow at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. The audience gave him a huge ovation; he was slightly nervous at first, but felt better after cracking a joke to the crowd. Snow was later given a private painting lesson by Ross.[27]
Ross visited New York City to promote his hardcover book, The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross,[28] and painting techniques to a studio audience several times. One visit in 1989 he appeared on The Joan Rivers Show. He returned in 1992 for a live show with hosts Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford. There was one in 1994, when Phil Donahue, who watched his videos and loved his painting technique, invited him to the show to promote his work. Ross took five audience members on-stage to do a painting and even Phil himself did a painting and showed it in that episode.
In the early 1990s, Ross did several MTV promotional spots that, according to the American City Business Journals, "dovetailed perfectly with Generation X's burgeoning obsession with all things ironic and retro."[29]
Personal life
Ross had one son, Steven Ross, with his first wife, Vivian Ridge. Steven, also a talented painter, occasionally appeared on The Joy of Painting and became a Ross-certified instructor.[10] Steven appeared on camera in the last episode of Season 1, in which he read a series of general "how-to" questions sent in by viewers during the season, and Bob answered them one at a time, technique by technique, until he had completed an entire painting.
Ross and Ridge's marriage ended in divorce in 1977. Ross and his second wife, Jane, had no children together.[10] In 1992, Jane died of cancer. In 1995, two months before his death, Ross married for a third time to Lynda Brown.[30]
Ross is known to have been very secretive about his life and had a great liking for privacy, with only a tight circle of friends. Some of only a few interviews with his close-knit circle of friends and his family can be found in the 2011 PBS documentary Bob Ross: The Happy Painter.[9] His company, Bob Ross Inc., is protective of his intellectual property and his privacy to this day.[4][9]
Illness and death
Ross was diagnosed with lymphoma in the spring of 1994, which eventually forced him to retire; the final episode of The Joy of Painting aired on May 17, 1994. He died at the age of 52 on July 4, 1995.[10][31] His remains are interred at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Gotha, Florida, under a plaque marked: "Bob Ross; Television Artist".[32][33] Ross kept his diagnosis a secret from the general public, and his lymphoma was not known outside of his circle of family and friends until after his death.[4][9]
Bob Ross T-shirts at Spencers in Washington State
Legacy
Since his death, Ross has been embedded in multiple instances of pop culture. Commenting for a 2017 news story about him, entertainment website Screen Rant would note that the artist "continues to have one of the most remarkable second lives of any media figure of the past several decades" [34] References to him have been included in television shows including Family Guy,[35] The Boondocks,[36] and Peep Show.[37] and Wreck it Ralph.
His videos became popular with devotees of the autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR).[11]
Google celebrated the 70th anniversary of his birth with a Google Doodle on October 29, 2012. It portrayed Ross painting a depiction of the letter "g" with a landscape in the background.[38][39]
In 2015, Bob Ross was included in a commercial for HGTV Sherwin-Williams paint along with Leonardo da Vinci, Andy Warhol, Michelangelo and Vincent van Gogh.[40]
As part of the launch of Twitch Creative, Twitch.tv hosted a nine-day marathon of Bob Ross' The Joy of Painting series which started on October 29, 2015 in commemoration of what would have been his 73rd birthday.[41][42][43] Twitch reported that 5.6 million viewers watched the marathon, and due to its popularity, created a weekly rebroadcast with one season of The Joy of Painting to air on Twitch each Monday, and will have a marathon of episodes each October 29. A portion of the advertising revenue has been promised to charities, including St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.[44]
In June 2016, Ross' series Beauty Is Everywhere was added to the Netflix lineup. The 30-minute episodes are taken from seasons 20, 21 and 22 of the original The Joy of Painting series.[45][46]
In May 2017, Ross' likeness was added as a skin for Sylvanus in the MOBA video game Smite[47] Of the inclusion, website Venturebeat would go on to call it,"one of the most bizarre crossovers in gaming history," [48] At one point Ross was going to have his own video game to be released on Wii, the Nintendo DS and PC with development handled by AGFRAG Entertainment Group [49][50] although this never came to fruition.
In 2017, a board game titled Bob Ross: The Art of Chill was released and carried by Target Stores.[51]
In November 2017, a spoof of Bob Ross and his TV show, The Joy of Painting, was used as the basis of a teaser trailer for the movie Deadpool 2.[52] The same month, a Chia Pet model in Bob Ross's likeness was also released.[53]
ReferencesThis is a guest post by List25.com for more interesting lists, subscribe to their newsletter here
1) In 2002, the BBC aired a report about German scientists who discovered that blond hair would be extinct in the next couple centuries due to being a recessive trait. Barely a year later, the New York Times published a report about how the findings had been faked, but the study has still been cited over the last 10 years in various publications.
A similar myth started in 2007 thanks to a study done by the Oxford Hair Foundation (funded by the hair dye maker Procter and Gamble who was trying to boost the sale of red hair dyes) showing redheads will very soon become extinct. This also has since been proven false because the mutated gene itself (see what causes red hair here) is still being passed on, even when a redhead is not produced (often producing brown haired women who insist on telling everyone they are redheads ;-)). So, while the numbers may continue to diminish by diffusification, the potential for a “redheaded step child” will remain for the foreseeable future.
2) In 1726, Johann Beringer discovered amazingly well-preserved fossils of lizards, birds, and spiders (actually made of limestone), some of which even had the name of God in Hebrew inscribed on them (today these are known as the “Lying Stones”). After publishing several papers on the topic, and even going so far as to theorize that they had been carved by God himself, as he thought they predated the Hebrews, yet had the Hebrew name for God on some of them.
Unfortunately for Beringer, it turns out some of his spiteful colleagues had hidden the artifacts there deliberately so as to tarnish Johan Beringer’s reputation. This worked, but it also backfired on them when his discoveries started getting widespread traction and they tried to convince Berginer it was all a hoax. He didn’t believe them, but they eventually admitted it was they that had been doing it. This not only ruined all their reputations in the scientific community, but also financially ruined Beringer himself.
3) Originally being mentioned in National Geographic in 1999, the Archaeoraptor was what scientists claimed to be the link between birds and therapods in the fossil record. It was later discovered that the supposed fossil was actually a composite of real fossils from various species, put together to make it look like it came from one animal.
4) Physicist Alan Sokal submitted a widely publicized research paper filled with jargon and intelligent sounding, but otherwise fairly nonsensical, such as this gem:
Just as liberal feminists are frequently content with a minimal agenda of legal and social equality for women and ‘pro-choice’, so liberal (and even some socialist) mathematicians are often content to work within the hegemonic Zermelo–Fraenkel framework (which, reflecting its nineteenth-century liberal origins, already incorporates the axiom of equality) supplemented only by the axiom of choice.
This paper was originally published in the Social Text, a journal published by Duke. Sokal’s goal was to prove that many journals of the day were nothing more than “a pastiche of left-wing cant, fawning references, grandiose quotations, and outright nonsense.” In other words, politically correct pseudoscience.
As he said,
The results of my little experiment demonstrate, at the very least, that some fashionable sectors of the American academic Left have been getting intellectually lazy. The editors of Social Text liked my article because they liked its conclusion: that “the content and methodology of postmodern science provide powerful intellectual support for the progressive political project” [sec. 6]. They apparently felt no need to analyze the quality of the evidence, the cogency of the arguments, or even the relevance of the arguments to the purported conclusion.
His paper was published and almost simultaneously Sokal came out with several other papers pointing to his hoax and making fools of the editors.
5) In 1783, an account was published in London Magazine about a tree in Indonesia, called the Upas tree, so poisonous that it killed everything within 15 miles, leaving the Earth bare and dotted with the skeletons of both man and beast. The truth is, however, that although the Upas tree really exists and it really does contain a powerful toxin, it’s not going to kill anyone even leaning up against it. It was commonly used in the regions it grows in for such things as dyes, lumber, and poison for arrow and spear tips.
6) About 30 years ago, a leaflet called the Villejuif leaflet, was circulated in Europe that listed a number of food additives as carcinogens. Nobody knows who first wrote it. The earliest known copy was from 1976, a single sheet listing the supposed carcinogens. This list spread about and at its peak, a full half of all French housewives were said to have read it, many of whom took it seriously. It was spread from France to Great Britain, Germany, Italy, then to the Middle East and Africa.
The problem was that it was completely made up. The list even included “citric acid” as a carcinogen, something that occurs naturally in every living organism. At its peak, a random survey of housewives in France showed that a full 19% had said they stopped buying product that had ingredients listed on the leaflet. It’s estimated that this leaflet greatly influenced the buying decisions of about 7 million people.
7) A German physicist specializing in condensed matter physics and nanotechnology, Jan Hendrick Schön, briefly flirted with fame after a series of breakthroughs in semi-conductor research, generally taking theorized ideas and writing papers around experiments he’d supposedly done that “proved” them to be true. At his peak in 2001, he was producing an average of 1 new research paper every 8 days. He was widely published and even won the Otto-Klung-Weberbank Prize for Physics, Outstanding Young Investigator Award (from the Materials Research Society), as well as the Braunschweig Prize.
Not long after his |
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The panel went away for a year and a half and came back and said: “Decriminalize everything from cannabis to crack. But”—and this is the crucial next stage—“take all the money we used to spend on arresting and harassing and imprisoning drug users, and spend it on reconnecting them with society and turning their lives around.”
Some of it was what we think of as treatment in America and Britain—they do do residential rehab, and they do therapy—but actually most of it wasn’t that. Most of it, the most successful part, was really very simple. It was making sure that every addict in Portugal had something to get out of bed for in the morning. It consisted of subsidized jobs and microloans to set up small businesses.
Say you used to be a mechanic. When you’re ready, they’ll go to a garage and they’ll say, “If you employ Sam for a year, we’ll pay half his wages.” The microloans had extremely low interest rates, and many businesses were set up by addicts.
It’s been nearly 15 years since this experiment began, and the results are in. Drug use by injection is down by 50%, broader addiction is down, overdose is massively down, and HIV transmission among addicts is massively down.
Compare that with the results in the United States over the past few years. In Portugal I interviewed a guy named Joao Figueira, who was the leader of the opposition to decriminalization at the time—the country’s top drug cop. He said a lot of the things a lot of people reading this will totally reasonably be thinking. Surely if you decriminalize all drugs, you’ll have all sorts of disasters? Figueira told me that everything he had predicted would happen didn’t happen—and everything the other side predicted came to pass. And he talked about how ashamed he felt that he’d spent 20 years arresting and harassing drug users, and he hoped the whole world would follow Portugal’s example.
One thing that is most striking to me: Everywhere I went that had moved beyond the drug war, it was hard to find people who wanted to go back. It was like Prohibition when it was over and people saw the alternatives in practice. It’s very similar to what you see in the polling on marijuana legalization. I’m sure your readers know that Colorado and Washington both have legalized marijuana, by 53%. The polling in Colorado and Washington after they had seen it in practice showed much higher margins supporting legalization. Once people see these things in practice, they discover that it’s not the kind of scary anarchy they had imagined.
Switzerland, a very conservative country, legalized heroin for addicts, meaning you go to the doctor, the doctor assigns you to a clinic, you go to that clinic every day, and you inject your heroin. You can’t take it out with you. I went to that clinic—it looks like a fancy Manhattan hairdresser’s, and the addicts go out after injecting their heroin to their jobs and their lives.
I stress again—Switzerland is a very right-wing country, and after its citizens had seen this in practice, they voted by 70% in two referenda to keep heroin legal for addicts, because they could see that it works. They saw that crime massively fell, property crime massively fell, muggings and street prostitution declined enormously.
I think one of the really important things, particularly in winning the debate in America, is to look at what arguments won in these places and what arguments didn’t. We found that in the places that successfully decriminalized or legalized, liberty-based arguments for ending the drug war were very unpopular. I’m philosophically sympathetic to the argument that it’s your body and you’ve got a right to do what you want with it. But it turns out that’s a politically toxic argument—people really don’t like it, and it only works with people who already agree.
The arguments that work well in persuading the people we still want to reach are order-based arguments. I think the Swiss heroin referenda are good models for that. Basically, what they said was drug war means chaos. It means unknown criminals selling unknown chemicals to unknown users, all in the dark, in our public places, filled with disease and chaos. Legalization is a way of imposing regulation and order on this anarchy. It’s about taking it away from criminal gangs and giving it to doctors and pharmacists, and making sure it happens in nice clean clinics, and we get our nice parks back, and we reduce crime. That’s the argument that will win. And it’s not like it’s a rhetorical trick—it’s true. That is what happens.
S. Harris: And the virtue of that argument is that it separates the problem of drug dependency from all the associated criminality and chaos that isn’t intrinsic to the act of taking drugs, whatever one’s level of dependency. The fact that drugs are as expensive as they are, necessitating the desperate and dangerous efforts we see addicts making to obtain them, is entirely the result of their legal status. Once the laws change, and we have well-behaved people showing up at clinics to get legally prescribed medication, then we can talk about whatever medical, psychological, and social problems remain. We shouldn’t confuse the problem of taking the wrong drugs, or the right ones too often, with the problem of criminal gangs and their associated violence, or with the misbehavior of desperate addicts trying to get their fix.
I think it’s a great insight to emphasize the pragmatic case for legalization, as opposed to the ethical one. It is always tempting to try to lead people through the door of personal liberty, arguing that peaceful, honest adults should be free to seek any experiences they want, as long as they don’t harm others in the process. I still think that this is the deeper argument to make. But it is, as you point out, very often ineffective.
J. Hari: Yes. As you say that, I think of all the horrors that come from the drug war, and I saw many of them. I went out with a chain gang of women in Arizona who were forced to wear T-shirts saying “I was a drug addict” and dig graves. I spoke to survivors of the gulag that is built for drug addicts in Vietnam. I could give you a long list here—they are all told through human stories in my book. But of all the horrors, far and away the worst is what you are alluding to—the violence created by drug prohibition.
I learned that mainly from Chino Harden, a transsexual former crack dealer in Brownsville, Brooklyn, whom I got to know over three and a half years, and from Rosalio Reta, who was a hit man for the deadliest Mexican drug cartel. From the age of 13 to 17, Rosario killed—best estimate—about 70 people, butchered and beheaded them. I tell their stories in the book, and they really helped me to understand how drug prohibition drives this part.
The best way to explain it is this: If you and I go to your local liquor store and try to steal the beer or the vodka, they’ll call the cops, the cops will take us away, and that’s fine. That liquor store doesn’t need to be violent or intimidating. But if we go up to a local weed dealer or coke dealer and try to steal what they’ve got, obviously they can’t call the cops. The cops would arrest them. So they have to fight back. Now, obviously, as a dealer, you don’t want to be having a fight every day, so you establish a reputation for being so terrifying that no one will dare to f*** with you.
The sociologist Philippe Bourgois says that prohibition creates a culture of terror. These people have to be frightening. I really saw that with Chino. Chino is one of the wisest people I know, and one of the most empathetic people I know, and yet he committed heinous acts of violence to maintain his position in this drug war hierarchy on his block in Brownsville. It’s what the system we have created demanded of him.
And Rosalio, not a person I admire, was nonetheless forced into much more extreme acts of violence than he would have committed otherwise, as I learned when I interviewed him. Sometimes we look at the Mexican drug war violence, which is like something out of the Saw movies, and it just seems like psychosis. It seems like Jeffrey Dahmer–style madness. It’s not. It’s important for people to understand that. It is created by prohibition: In the culture of terror created by prohibition, if you are prepared to push the moral limit a little bit further than the other guys, you gain a brief market advantage, because people will back off when they’re scared.
If you’re the first person who says, “We’re not just going to kill our opponents. We’re going to kill our opponents’ pregnant wives,” you get a brief competitive advantage. If you’re the first person to say, “We’ll not only kill their pregnant wives, but we’ll film it and put it on YouTube,” you get a brief competitive advantage. If you’re the first person to say, “We won’t just do that, we’ll cut off their faces, sew their faces onto a football, and post it to their families”—and this is a real thing that happens—you gain a brief competitive advantage.
I tracked how this dynamic works through the story of Rosalio, who is in constant solitary confinement in Texas. It is insane violence. But it’s insane violence within the structure and demands of prohibition. It is caused by prohibition.
There’s a very interesting study by Professor Paul Goldstein that I cite in the book, because it looks at one of the big distortions, where people often talk about “drug-related violence.” They look at the violence associated with the drug war and they think that somehow it’s caused by drugs themselves.
S. Harris: Yes, people sometimes imagine that the perpetrators of this violence are actually on drugs while they’re committing it.
J. Hari: Exactly. It’s like thinking that Al Capone was drunk and that’s why he shot people. It’s an error of judgment, and we can measure it exactly. Professor Goldstein did a study of all the murders that were described as drug-related in New York City in 1986. What he found is that in 7.5% of the killings, somebody was on drugs. (That doesn’t necessarily mean the drugs made them kill, of course.) In a further 2% an addict was committing property crime in order to feed his habit and got caught or it went wrong, and he killed someone.
All the rest, the vast majority, were rival drug gangs killing each other to control their patch, or to gain control of a patch, or to fend off rivals, or somebody getting caught in the cross fire between them.
Well, none of that is drug-related. That’s drug war−caused. If we banned milk and people still wanted milk, the milk trade would work that way. We wouldn’t call it milk-related violence, but it would make as much sense. Milton Friedman calculated that there are 10,000 additional murders every year in the United States as a direct result of this drug war violence. That’s a figure from the 1980s; we expect it to be somewhat lower now, because overall murder rates are lower, but the underlying dynamic remains the same. Look at the news from Chicago any day of the week—it happened under alcohol prohibition, and it happens in the same place under drug prohibition. So I think what you’re saying is exactly right.
This is atrocious enough. But now apply that to Mexico. Imagine a housing project in Brownsville, where Chino is from. Let’s say 5% to 10% of that economy is in the hands of armed criminal gangs. That will be a miserable place to live. In Ciudad Juárez, where I went, on the Mexican side of the US border, 70% of the economy is in the hands of armed criminal gangs. That doesn’t just cause horrific violence—it means that these gangs can outbid the state.
One of the most chilling moments for me in the research for the book was being shown around by Julian Cardona, the Reuters correspondent in Juárez, who was my fixer. He kept telling me stories of people who had been killed by the police. At some point I said, “Well, Julian, this is important, but I’ve got to meet the families of people who have been killed by the cartels.” And Julian just laughed and said words to the effect of “No, you don’t understand, Johann—when the cartels want to kill someone, they pay the police to do it. They’re not separate forces.”
S. Harris: That’s very depressing.
J. Hari: The state works for the cartels. Michelle Leonhart, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, was asked about the 60,000 civilian deaths in Mexico over the past seven years. That’s an underestimate, that figure. And she said—these were her exact words—that they were “a sign of success in the war on drugs.”
That should be a national scandal, that someone whose wages you pay describes the death of innocent civilians as a sign of success. She’s should be forced to explain—what do we gain for this mass slaughter of innocents? Are fewer drugs getting into the United States? No—we know that because the price hasn’t gone up.
S. Harris: What was it like to spend time in Juárez? How concerned were you for your own safety?
J. Hari: I’ve been to lots of dangerous places before, like Iraq, the occupied territories, the Congo, the Central African Republic, and various other places. Generally, I would stay overnight in El Paso and walk across the bridge every day into Juárez, which was itself a fascinating thing. That bridge is such a weird place. When you walk over it, the first thing you see is this sign to the left that says something like “Welcome to Historic Downtown Juárez” and shows the old tourist map. But the map is just covered with images of missing women. It’s a perfect symbol of what’s happened to Juárez.
I was with a journalist, Julian, whom I deeply respect, and who I knew would not take me into any situation that was needlessly dangerous. I think this is an important enough subject that people need to know about it. It was of course scary, but I knew there was no way I could get the story in full except by going in.
And that goes generally to what I wanted to do with the book, which is related to what we were saying before. I think part of the curse of how this subject is discussed is that it’s discussed in this abstract way, as if we were in a philosophy seminar. Now, as you know, I’ve spent a lot of time in philosophy seminars, and I love them, but that’s not a sensible way to talk about this subject.
I went into this because of the people I love who are addicts. What I wanted to do was sit with real people whose lives have been affected by this one way or another, all over the world, and listen to them about what has happened to their lives, and convey to readers who they are. They are an amazing range of people—from a transsexual crack dealer in Brooklyn searching for what happened to his mother, to a scientist feeding hallucinogens to a mongoose to see what would happen, to the president of Uruguay, who was kept at the bottom of a well for two years and emerged to end the drug war in his country. I did it this way because I think the drug war can continue only because we’ve dehumanized the people it’s harmed, whether they’re drug users, drug dealers, cops, or the people who live along the supply routes.
I think if we acknowledge that the people whose lives are being destroyed are in fact people with hopes, dreams, and fears just like ours, it’s much harder to support this war and the massive horror that it causes. I think if most people in America had met Chino, or Bud, or Leigh Maddox, the cop I met in Baltimore who very bravely came out against the drug war, or President Mujica of Uruguay, and had heard their stories, they couldn’t support the continuation of this war. I think the main job we have in ending the drug war is to re-humanize the people at its heart.
S. Harris: Part of the problem is that it has been happening in the dark, as far as most people are concerned. At one point people were being locked up for decades for marijuana possession. I’m talking not about hardened criminals but about paraplegics and cancer patients, and owners of garden supply stores whose customers were caught growing marijuana. And our property-seizure laws were just ruining people. A woman whose grandson was found to be growing pot in her basement would lose her home, with no recourse. It was just insane, and very few of us realized that peaceful people were having their lives destroyed in this way. In fact, I may be out of touch on this point myself, because I haven’t followed how our laws have changed nationwide in much detail. I can’t imagine anyone’s being locked up for years today for marijuana possession, but I could be wrong about that.
J. Hari: Oh, they are. A lot of that is still going on. The wonderful Drug Policy Alliance—which I urge anyone who cares about this to sign up with and support—has been doing some documentation on this. Some of these cases are absolutely outrageous. I saw this for myself when I went to Estrella Women’s Jail, better known as Tent City, in Arizona, where the women in chain gangs I mentioned were incarcerated.
S. Harris: Were they recently incarcerated, or had they been convicted years ago?
J. Hari: No one’s in Tent City for more than two years, and I was there a bit more than two years ago. These were recently incarcerated people. And for the prison system in the United States, some of the figures are extraordinary. I give this stat in the book: The United States has such an enormous prison population relative to any other human society there’s ever been, and rape is so endemic in its prisons, that the US today is almost certainly the only society in human history where more men have been raped than women. There’s a shining Tent City on a hill for you.
One of the things that blew me away when I was in Arizona was my interview with a woman named Donna Leone Hamm, an amazing woman who works for prisoners’ rights in Arizona. I asked her my standard question, “Tell me about something that shocked you.” She went down this long list, and somewhere down the list she said something like “There was the time they put that woman in a cage and cooked her. That was quite bad.” And then she carried on with her list. I said, “Sorry, Donna, could you go back a second?”
She told me about this woman named Marcia Powell, about whom very little was known when I started doing the research, who was a chronic meth addict. She kept being put in prison either for having meth or for prostituting herself to get meth. One day she woke up in prison and she was suicidal. The doctor refused to believe she was suicidal, but to shut her up they put her in a holding cage, which is literally a cage exposed to the desert, and left her there. She begged for water, and she shat herself, and in the end she collapsed. By the time they called an ambulance, she had been cooked.
No one was ever criminally prosecuted for what they did to Marcia Powell. To me, this tells you so much about how we’ve devalued addicts’ lives. There’s been a hashtag—#BlackLivesMatter—which I entirely endorse, and it’s made me think we need a #AddictsLivesMatter. We need to really absorb that truth, because what other minority group could you just brazenly murder a member of without there being any proper investigation? I think addicts are one of the most outlying of all minority groups.
S. Harris: This brings us to the topic of addiction. Is addiction an easily defined physiological state that is purely a matter of which substance a person takes and how regularly he takes it? Or is it largely the product of external variables? In your book, you make the latter case. And I think most people would be surprised to learn that in a context where drug use is more normalized, a heroin addict, for instance, can be a fully productive member of society. There’s nothing about regularly taking heroin that by definition renders a person unable to function. So let’s talk a bit about what addiction is and the various ways it changes with its social context.
J. Hari: This is the thing that most surprised me in the research for the book. I thought I knew quite a lot about addiction, not least because I’ve had it in my life since I was a child, with my relatives. But if you had said to me four years ago, “What causes, say, heroin addiction?” I would have looked at you as if you were a bit simpleminded, and I would have said, “Heroin causes heroin addiction.”
For 100 years we’ve been told a story about addiction that’s just become part of our common sense. It’s obvious to us. We think that if you, I, and the first 20 people to read this on your site all used heroin together for 20 days, on day 21 we would be heroin addicts, because there are chemical hooks in heroin that our bodies would start to physically need, and that’s what addiction is.
The first thing that alerted me to what’s not right about this story is when I learned that if you step out onto the street and are hit by a car and break your hip, you’ll be taken to a hospital where it’s quite likely that you’ll be given a lot of diamorphine. Diamorphine is heroin. It’s much more potent than what you get on the street, because it’s medically pure, not f***ed up by dealers. You’ll be given that diamorphine for quite a long period of time. Anywhere in the developed world, people near you are being giving loads of heroin in hospitals now.
If what we think about addiction is right, what will happen? Some of those people will leave the hospital as heroin addicts. That doesn’t happen. There have been very detailed studies of this. It doesn’t happen. You will have noticed that your grandmother was not turned into a junkie by her hip operation. We know that. I just didn’t know what to do with it.
I didn’t know until I went and interviewed Bruce Alexander, who’s a professor in Vancouver and, I think, one of the most important figures in addiction studies in the world today. He explained to me that our idea of addiction comes in part from a series of experiments that were done earlier in the 20th century. They’re really simple experiments, and your readers can do them at home if they’re feeling a bit sadistic. You get a rat, you put it in a cage, and you give it two water bottles: One is water, and the other is water laced with heroin or cocaine. The rat will almost always prefer the drugged water and will almost always kill itself. So there you go. That’s our theory of addiction. You might remember the famous Partnership for a Drug-Free America ad from the 1980s that depicted this.
But in the 1970s, Bruce Alexander came along and thought, “Hang on a minute. We’re putting the rat in an empty cage. It’s got nothing to do except use these drugs. Let’s try this differently.”
So he built a very different cage and called it Rat Park. Rat Park was like heaven for rats. They had everything a rat could possibly want: lovely food, colored balls, tunnels, loads of friends. They could have loads of sex. And they had both the water bottles—the normal water and the drugged water. What’s fascinating is that in Rat Park they didn’t like the drugged water. They hardly ever drank it. None of them ever drank it in a way that looked compulsive. None of them ever overdosed.
An interesting human example of this was happening at the same time; I’ll talk about it in a second. What Bruce says is that this shows that both the right-wing and left-wing theories of addiction are flawed. The right-wing theory is that it’s a moral failing—you’re a hedonist, you indulge yourself, all of that. The left-wing theory is that your brain gets hijacked, you get taken over, and you become a slave.
Bruce says it’s not your morality and it’s not your brain. To a much larger degree than we’ve ever before appreciated, it’s your cage. Addiction is an adaption to your environment.
The good human example I just mentioned was called the Vietnam War. In Vietnam 20% of American troops were using a lot of heroin. And if you look at the reports from the time, they were really sh***ing themselves, because they thought, “My God, we’re going to have hundreds of thousands of junkies on the streets of the United States when the war ends.”
Actually, this was studied very closely, and the overwhelming majority—95%—of the men who had been using lots of heroin in Vietnam came home and just stopped. They didn’t go to rehab, didn’t get any treatment. They just stopped. Because if you’re taken out of a hellish, pestilential jungle where you could die at any moment, and you go back to your nice life in Wichita, Kansas, with your friends and your family and your human connections, that’s the equivalent of being taken out of the first cage and put into Rat Park.
This has enormous implications for the drug war. What we do at the moment is take people who are addicted because they are isolated, distressed, and in pain, and inflict more isolation, distress, and pain on them in the hopes that it will make them stop. Think about what we did to Billie Holiday, and all those women I met in Arizona—they’re never going to work again in the legal economy.
When I went to that prison in Arizona, they took me to the segregation unit, which they call The Hole, and I saw these women who are addicts put in these tiny little stone cages for a month. I thought, “Wow, this is the closest you could possibly get to a literal human re-creation of the cages that guaranteed addiction in those rat experiments.” And we think this will stop addiction?
Gabor Mate, a doctor in Vancouver, said to me, “If you wanted to design a system that would make addiction worse, you would design the system that we have now.” We can understand why the Portuguese system works so well, because it’s all about reconnecting people with the collective, with the group, with the society, giving them a purpose. We can see why that works so much better than either prohibition or even residential rehab, which has a pretty poor success rate.
But this has much wider implications for the way we live—much wider than drug policy. We’ve created a society where life for a lot of our fellow citizens is more like that first cage and less like Rat Park. Bruce discusses how we talk a lot in addiction circles about individual recovery, and that’s really important, but we need to think much more about social recovery. Something’s gone wrong with us not just as individuals but as a group.
I’m interested in thinking about this in relation to religion and atheism—issues you and I obviously care about a lot. I haven’t thought about them in anything like as much detail as I’ve thought about stuff in my book, but I’d be interested to know if you think this frame would apply in some way to religion. I wonder if isolation and distress and pain drive people toward addiction and also play a crucial role in driving them toward religious belief. What do you think, Sam?
I don’t think it’s a coincidence, for example, that Scandinavia is the least religious society in the world, and Somalia is the most religious society in the world. Scandinavia looks a lot like Rat Park, and Somalia looks a lot like the worst rat cages you can imagine. Scandinavia has very low levels of insecurity and very high levels of social solidarity and social engagement. Somalia is obviously an anarchic nightmare. I wonder if there’s some connection there. I haven’t teased it out in my mind, but I suspect it has implications for how atheist campaigning and fighting should proceed. What do you think?
S. Harris: I’m worried that they’re not actually analogous. The one thing that jumps out at me immediately is that many people overcome their social isolation through religion—indeed, community is one of its main selling points. The most theocratic societies tend to engender profound social cohesion. In many places on this earth, one need only shout the words “She burned the holy Qur’an!” to summon a lynch mob. So a lack of social cohesion is the least of one’s problems here.
But the basic claim is that, in “Rat Park,” most people can have all drugs available to them without becoming addicts.
J. Hari: Yes, and that shouldn’t seem surprising to people if they relate it to their own lives. While we’re talking, I’ve got a bottle of water in front of me, and you’ve probably got a drink in front of you. Forget the drug laws for a second. You and I could both be drinking vodka now, right? You and I have probably got enough money in the bank that we could spend the next year drinking vodka and never stop. We could just be drunk all the time. But we don’t. And the reason we don’t is not because someone’s stopping us but because we want to be present in our lives. We’ve got relationships. We’ve got friends. We’ve got people we love. We’ve got books we want to read. We’ve got books we want to write. We’ve got things we want to do. Most of addiction is about not wanting to be present in your life.
And by the way, that’s true not just of drug addiction. If you’ve ever known a gambling addict, you see that the pleasure he’s getting is not the pleasure of the specific bet. It’s the pleasure of not being present in his own life. It’s the pleasure of being taken out of himself, even to what I regard as a very squalid and depressing world. It’s the same with sex addiction. There’s a continuity between drug addictions and other addictions that I think tells you something fundamental.
For the book I went—with the permission of the people present—to a Gamblers Anonymous meeting in Vegas, at a gambling addiction treatment center. It was just like a meeting of Narcotics Anonymous—it was really so analogous, I felt I was looking at the same thing. And yet no one thinks that you snort a roulette wheel or inject a game of craps. Most people now acknowledge that you can have all of the addiction and none of the chemicals. Well, that tells you something about the degree to which addiction is driven by things other than chemical components.
That’s not to say that there’s no chemical component. It’s important to stress that. The chemical component is real—and we can measure it. There’s no need, again, to have an abstract conversation about it. There’s a broad scientific consensus that one of the most physically addictive drugs available to us is tobacco. And we’ve isolated the part that’s chemically compelling—it’s nicotine. So when nicotine patches were invented in the early 1990s, there was this massive wave of optimism: Great, you can give smokers all the drugs they’re addicted to without the filthy carcinogenic smoke. Progress. You will see a huge fall in smoking.
Actually, the US surgeon general’s report found that only 17% of smokers stopped with nicotine patches. Now, it’s important to stress that 17% is a lot. It’s not nothing. That tells us that 17% of these addictions are chemically driven—or at least that 17% of people can stop when the chemical component is met. That’s huge. That tells us that the story we’ve been told up to now is not false. But it also tells us that it’s only 17% of the story, and that 83% has to be explained in some other way. These social and environmental factors should be a very big part of the conversation and the discussion.
S. Harris: Isn’t it also true that addiction to a drug like heroin, in a legal context, can still be compatible with living a decent life?
J. Hari: I guess there are two things to say about that. It will seem weird to people to hear that you can be an addict, you can take quite a lot of a drug, and you can carry on having a pretty functional life. But actually, that was the norm in the United States. There was a study, which I cite in the book, that was done by the US government before drug prohibition really kicked in—a study of addicts, not users. It found that heroin addicts prior to drug prohibition were no more likely to be poor than the rest of the population. They were spread throughout the population. They were no more likely to be criminal than the rest of the population. They were of course debilitated by their addiction to some degree, as a functional alcoholic today is. But they weren’t what we now associate with heroin addiction.
And yet, of course, as you were saying before, when it’s banned, instantly the price skyrockets. That’s because gangsters charge higher prices, because they’ve got to take the risk of going to prison in order to sell the product—so they demand a quite high risk premium. Everyone along the supply chain demands that risk premium, so the price goes way up. Therefore, you suddenly have two crime waves. One is the organized crime and all the violence that comes with it—as we were discussing. The other is the crimes that addicts have to commit in order to meet this massively inflated price—prostitution, property crimes, and so on.
So you’re totally right. One of the best ways to understand that is to look at the start of the drug war and then at places where the war has ended. In Switzerland, where they legalized heroin, when you start on the program, you set your own dose of heroin, and you can stay on it for as long as you want. There’s never any pressure to stop, which surprised me. I actually was taken aback by that. So anyone on that program can just stay on it their whole life, right? You can just carry on. The program’s been running for 20 years. But it’s interesting—there’s almost nobody on the program now who was on it at the start.
I said, “Well, how come that happened?” And they said that the chaos of street use, of scrambling to pay this grossly inflated price, ended, because people were given heroin as a medical prescription. The people in the clinic support you, they help you get housing, and they help you look for a job. So the majority of the people there get jobs, get homes, so they choose entirely of their own will to gradually cut down their heroin use over time, and eventually they stop. Because their lives become more bearable. Because they want to be more present in their lives. Because their lives slowly improve.
I thought that was significant, because sometimes in the drug debate you get polarization between the people who are in favor of abstinence and the people who are in favor of what’s called maintenance prescription—giving people the drugs they’re addicted to. Those are presented as opposites.
Actually, what was so revealing about talking to the doctors and addicts in the clinic in Switzerland and looking at the studies from there was that maintenance leads to reduced use or abstinence in a lot of cases. It leads to a significant reduction in drug use eventually, because most of the people who stop heroin then go on to methadone and then reduce their methadone.
S. Harris: You said before that people who are given diamorphine—heroin—in hospitals don’t become addicts. I take your point, but perhaps we should acknowledge that addiction to prescription pain medication is, in fact, a huge problem. Is that a wrinkle for your argument?
J. Hari: I asked myself that question a lot, and I talked to a lot of experts about it, and what I learned suggests that this debate about prescription pain medication—which is a crucial one—has been quite deeply misunderstood.
What I thought before my research was that when people take minor opiates like Oxycontin, they succumb to the chemical hooks and that’s how they become addicted. It’s like the story I believed about heroin. That’s the story that lots of people addicted to, say, Oxy tell themselves—it’s the only story our culture offers them.
But then it was explained to me that Oxy and the other painkiller opiates are milder than heroin. Similar, but milder. How could it be, then, that the stronger opiate doesn’t cause addiction when it’s given out medically, but the weaker opiate does? That doesn’t make sense. So what is really going on?
Once you understand Rat Park and everything that flows from it, this issue looks different. Why has there been such a big rise in addictions to Oxy and other opiates since 2008? Is it because the chemical hooks have become more potent? That’s not the case. Or is it because there’s a great deal more distress in America—much more insecurity because of the economic collapse, much more psychological pain that people are trying to self-medicate for? Through history, there have been spikes in addiction when there were spikes in suffering. In the 18th century, in England, people were driven off the land into vile urban slums—and the Gin Craze happened. In the eighties, you had the collapse of urban America and its jobs, and the crack epidemic occurred. The meth epidemic ripped through rural America after it was economically devastated.
So I think the evidence suggests that we’ve seen a big rise in prescription painkiller addiction because we have a big rise in psychological distress. It actually predates 2008, because the middle class in particular has been in collapse for longer than that.
You can well understand why people don’t see it that way yet. They’ve never been told this story about addiction. They don’t know it. All they know is that addiction is caused by the drug. So they explain their addiction using the only story to hand: It must be that I accidentally got hooked. When you actually speak to those people, though, you find that they were in a state of profound stress and distress and isolation from meaning. You don’t have happy, connected, bonded people with a strong sense of meaning who “accidentally” get hooked.
There are two ways of dealing with this that I discuss in the book, and we need both. One is the Swiss way. In Switzerland, they prescribe heroin to treat addiction. In the US, the opposite approach is taken. The moment a doctor discovers you are using Oxy or Percocet not for physical pain but because you are addicted, he or she is required by law to cut you off. Doctors can go to prison as drug dealers if they don’t—that has happened. So the first step I would take is to extend the Swiss model to cover prescription drugs in the US. |
of a person’s activity than if you had a single data point.”
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department used a single-engine Cessna to secretly photograph every corner of Compton, the 10.1-square-mile city south of LA. Officials captured images of minor car accidents, robberies and a shooting, according to the Los Angeles Times, all without telling city lawmakers or the mayor.
Then there was the U.S. military’s launch of a billion-dollar blimp over Washington meant to detect threats that could harm the capital. Built by Raytheon, the blimp was equipped with equipment that makes it possible for the operators to watch vehicles from miles away.
Before that, the city of Lancaster, California, voted for constant video surveillance from a $100,000 Cessna equipped with an infrared camera that could track cars and identify people at night. That tactic was controversial but came as the result of a ballot, whereas the planes flying over Baltimore and Compton were on secret missions.
“Hopefully, we can at least get a picture of what kind of data is being collected,” Lynch said. “It does worry me that we don’t know what was happening in Baltimore, because I think it has a good chance of happening in other cities.”
If it wasn’t a camera, it might have been a DRTbox, or dirtbox. Existence of the surveillance device was revealed by the Wall Street Journal only in November, and little is known other than it acts as a kind of airborne cell site simulator.
Police airplanes equipped with dirtboxes are able to mimic cell towers on the ground, tricking phones in the area into connecting with the dirtbox. From there police can obtain vast amounts of information about potentially thousands of individuals -- including their call history, most frequently dialed numbers, text message metadata, possibly even snippets of their phone conversation.
“Dirtboxes are definitely a possibility,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the ACLU. “‘The truth of it is we don’t know. There have been reports of planes circling over cities, but we need more information.”Over 100 prominent US-based academics, most of them Indian-Americans who last month raised privacy concerns about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Digital India' campaign have now alleged they are receiving threats on their blogs by his "Hindu nationalist followers".
The faculty members had said they were concerned that the project's potential for increased transparency in bureaucratic dealings with people is "threatened by its lack of safeguards about privacy of information, and thus its potential for abuse".
In their latest statement on September 1, they have alleged that they have been receiving threat messages on their blogs.
"The threats and ugly tone in the comments section of this blog and elsewhere illustrate exactly how academic freedom, and freedom of expression in general, is compromised by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist followers," it said.
Their statement came after a petition signed by over 1,200 people "rejected" the allegations of these 100-plus academicians.
Vamsee Juluri, professor of Media Studies and Asian Studies at the University of San Francisco on the Academe Blog, wrote: "The digital surveillance fear is a hoax, sir, as is the idea of Modi as a Muslim-hating mass murderer. Simple as that."
"The allegation that Narendra Modi ought to be viewed with suspicion, if not disdain, by business leaders in Silicon Valley because of surveillance implications in the Digital India initiative seems a desperate ploy rather than any genuine concern for India," the petition says.
Meanwhile, the academicians also expressed their "surprise" at the presumption that only science and technology experts pay attention to the effects of technology on society, since the questions of digital society and freedom require attention by scholars in other fields as well.
"Digital Humanities initiatives, for instance, illustrate the ways some of us actively think about the relationship between technology and society," they wrote.
The academicians said that historically, all technology has social, political, and ethical effects – precisely because technology is so powerful and far-reaching.
"Perspectives from our varied fields of scholarship offer crucial insights into the nature of this impact," they said.
However, they clarified that they never asked Silicon Valley companies not to invest in India, but their statement last month was to raise awareness and debate about the various policies of the Modi government.
"We did not send our statement to Silicon Valley CEOs. The statement is addressed to Mr. Modi's audiences in Silicon Valley, which includes Silicon Valley industries," the academicians, a significant majority of whom are Indian- Americans, said in a statement posted on the Academe Blog of American Association of University Professors.
"We did not ask Silicon Valley companies not to invest in India; we asked them to consider carefully the terms of partnership with India. The objective of our letter is to raise awareness and debate in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, of Mr. Modi's record on key issues related to 'Digital India'," it said.
The statement, written by scholars almost all of whom are of humanities and arts background, has since generated heated debate in the academic circles, many of them questioning motives behind writing such a letter before the Silicon Valley visit of the Narendra Modi, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in decades.
The petition says the academicians offer "no evidence for their claim, and neglect to mention that the Indian government has been pursuing several digital initiatives long before Narendra Modi assumed office, a fact that never bothered them when the UPA government, with which several US-based South Asian academics have had close ties of patronage and privilege, was in power".
In their petition, Juluri and others have alleged that it is Modi who has been a victim of assault of academic freedom.
"For all their talk about assaults on academic freedom, the signatories of the anti-Modi letter have never reflected on the possibility that the subject of the greatest censorship and distortion in South Asian academics in recent years might well have been Narendra Modi.
"Just a few years ago, Modi was effectively prevented from addressing by videoconference students and faculty at UPenn (University of Pennsylvania) because of a campaign similar to the present one," the petition said.
It went on to add that "the only effective (if invisible) restrictions on free speech and academic freedom that exist today are the ones that silence those scholars, writers and concerned citizens who have dared to question the South Asianist academy's institutionalised Hinduphobia and disdain for facts".Why Muslims are so inclined to Seduce, Rape and Marry non-Muslim Girls?
It's for the sake of carrying out reproductive Jihad, and is well sanctioned by the Islamic creed as taught in Islamic schools around the world.
Reproductive Jihad
Most of us have seen a video, titled "The Demographic Problem". It says that the minimum fertility rate (FR) for a culture, to sustain for coming 25 years, must be 2.11 children per family and a FR less than that, the culture would decline. In a country, where the present FR is 1.3, it would take 80 to 100 years to correct itself. The Table below shows the Fertility Rates of Some countries of Europe in 2007:
France 1.8 Great Britain 1.6 Greece 1.3 Germany 1.3 Italy 1.2 Spain 1.1 European Union 1.38
But, in spite of such low FR, the population in Europe is not declining, and that is due, to a greater part, to influx of Muslim immigrants. These immigrant Muslims have FR as high as 8.1 children per family. As a result nearly 30% of the children in France today are Muslims. And it is predicted that within 2027, 20% of the population in France would be Muslims and within next 39 years, it will be an Islamic country.
Thirty years ago, there were 28,000 Muslims in GB and at present; the figure has gone up to 2.5 million, i.e. a 90 fold increase in 30 years. In The Netherland, 50% of the population will be Muslims within next 15 years. In today’s Belgium, Muslims constitute 25% of the population, but 50% of the newborns are Muslims, and Germany will turn into an Islamic country within 2050. So, Muammar al-Gaddafi, the Libyan President, rightly predicted: “There are signs that Allah will grant victory to Islam in Europe without swords, without guns, without conquest. We don’t need terrorists, we don’t need homicide bombs. The 50+ million Muslims in Europe will turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades.”
A study by the German Government forecasted: “Present 52+ million Muslims in Europe will be doubled and grow into 104 million within next 20 years.” It also says that a similar fate is awaiting the USA and Canada.
From the above discussions, it becomes evident that Muslims are planning to conquer Europe and America, or the entire world for that matter, through rapid breeding of their kind, and in this demographic aggression, the wombs of the Muslim women is the vital weapon. So, in reality, seducing a Hindu or non-Muslim girl for converting her to Islam and marry her means converting a Hindu or non-Muslim womb into a Muslim womb. Hence, it is of vital importance in the Muslim scheme of demographic transformation of the globe. It is, indeed, a part of jihad. Muslims in the southern Indian state of Kerala have adopted a well-planned strategy, and set up a meticulously planned program, called “Love Jihad”, to achieve this goal. It is also to be noted here that, a study by the government of Maharastra, another Indian state, has revealed that, in almost all the cases of interreligious marriages in that state, the boys were Muslims while the girls were Hindus or Christians.
So says an observer: “This is the most effective of all jihads and is bringing European non-Muslims to their knees through explosion in Muslim population. Muslims, who had repeatedly failed to capture Europe in the battlefield, are finally winning through “achievements” in their bedrooms. Many of the Mujahids in European countries have four wives and over 20 children. Many of these wives are acquired from non-Muslim ranks and converted to Islam for extra blessings from Allah. The best part of this Jihad is that the ignorant white infidel imbeciles themselves are paying for it by providing welfare cheques to them, thus freeing the Mujahids from the worry of earning a livelihood, and allowing them to devote all their time to their reproductive jihad”.
Muslims all over the world are playing their part of this Reproductive Jihad. For example, a study in the district of Mewat, in the state of Haryana, India, revealed that, average Muslim birth-rates are 12-15 children per household. The fertility rate of Mohammed Ishaq’s family is astonishing: he has produced 23 kids out of his only wife, Bismillah.
It may be mentioned here that, in 2005, the state government of Haryana, led by the Indian National Congress Party, quietly created the said Muslim-majority district called Mewat, by vivisecting Gurgaon district. This move has certainly strengthened the clout of Islamic groups in the region, created a mini Islamic state.
So, it is needless to say that young Muslim men are running after Hindu or non-Muslim girls for the sake of this Reproductive or Bedroom Jihad. A Saudi fatwa in this regard says: “Saudis, who leave Saudi Arabia and go to countries like USA and GB for higher studies, have the Islamic permit to marry a Western girl by intending to leave her after a short time for just intercourse and when he will come back to Saudi Arabia, he must divorce her and without telling her the truth... They mean that a Saudi student, who studies abroad, can lie to a kafir girl that he loves her and want to marry her in order to have sexual relation with her. But when he has finished his studies, he must divorce her before he coming back to Saudi Arabia.” It should be mentioned here that, according to the Koranic verse 9/3, a Muslim, for the sake of Islam, can promise anything to an infidel kafir and withdraw that promise at the opportune moment. The verse says, “And an announcement from Allah and His Messenger, to the people (assembled) on the day of the Great Pilgrimage, that Allah and His Messenger dissolve (treaty) obligations with the Pagans.”
An Extraordinary Example of Bedroom Jihad in India
Consider the case of the 37-year old Liaquat Ali Khan from the town of Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu. Khan has sexually and emotionally trapped at least 200 women from all over the country over the past 3 years. Police believe that he drugged the victims to ensure compliance. Already married to four women and father of a two-year old kid, Khan would introduce himself as an IAS officer or a UK-based software engineer and promise to marry the gullible victims. Mostly the internet-driven youngsters get caught in his trap. This Master in Computer Engineering used the popular matrimonial portals to flaunt his meticulously-drafted profile and seek prospective brides. He won over the girls and at times their parents too, with his charming ways and smart appearance. He played the role to such perfection that the victim even agreed to pre-marital sex and at times her parents would part with money and/or jewelry to facilitate the prospective bridegroom arrange visa, etc., for the girl. A police officer describes him as one with a mind worse than that of a terrorist.
The Holy Islam Permits Raping of Kafir Women by Muslims
Muslims prefer to educate their children in Muslim schools, aka, madrasas. What do they learn in such schools? They learn to read and cram the Koran in Arabic, without understanding the meanings of what they read. But from the very childhood they learn the fundamentals of Islam from the lectures of their teachers, such as:
1) Hindus are mushrik-kafirs, and hence they are no better than animals.
2) Hindus are enemies of Muslims and Islam.
3) It is not a sin to kill the Hindus.
4) It is not a sin to plunder properties and riches of the Hindus.
5) It is not a sin to kidnap Hindu women, and, rape them.
Humayun Azad attacked
by Islamic assassins
In Bangladesh, Professor Humayun Azad of Dhaka University wrote a book “Pak Sar Zamin Sad Bad”, in which he disclosed some vital information regarding what is being taught in Bangladeshi madrasas or Jihadi Training Camps. For this offence, Islamic assassins attacked him with machetes critically injuring him, from which he never really recovered, and eventually died in Germany on 27 January 2004. However, some of the lectures, which Dr Azad had collected by clandestine means, delivered to the students of these institutions by the teachers, may be narrated below [as quoted by R N Datta in his book “Silent Terror” (in Bengali)].
Jihadi Education in Bangladesh
One such lecture says:
"We Muslims believe in jihad, which is obligatory for all of us. We have to continue our jihad until all the kafirs and idolaters bring iman (belief) in Islam. The Rahmanir Rahim Allah has commanded us to perpetuate jihad against the kafirs and we have to do the same with our blood and shedding the blood of the kafirs. We do not believe in hypocrisy, as hypocrisy is a principle of the kafirs and the malauns (a derogatory term for Hindus). But there are many munafeks (hypocrites) in our fold too, who are roaming here and there covering themselves with fake Islamic garbs. They explain Allah’s message like a Satan. They are Satans procreated by the Satan. These Satans say that there is no contradiction between democracy and the laws of Allah. Those who say like this are definitely kafirs and apostates.”
The lecture continues,
“Islam is Allah’s democracy and only the bastards like the kafirs, Jews, Christians and Hindus talk and praise the manmade institutions like Western type democracy, socialism and so on. Killing and extermination of the kafirs is the clear instruction of Allah. We have to exterminate the kafirs through day and night, without any pause, by organizing jihad against them. Only Hajrat Abualla Maududi and Ayatulla Ruhulla Khomeini could perfectly follow the message of Allah and His Rasul. They, therefore, would get the best place (Jannatul Ferdaus) in Allah’s paradise. Why should I talk about others? I myself have also gone astray. I happened to become a kafir, an apostate or a malaun. But I could have returned to Allah’s path now. Now I have become pak (holy), a true jihadi. Now I have regained my confidence. Now I can feel the vigor in me. Now I hate to behold the beauty of this creation. I feel pain in my heart when I see so many kafirs, mushriks and malauns in this world, while Allah had commanded us make the earth free of those despicable people nearly 1,400 years ago. In the recent past, Ayatulla Ruhulla Khomeini reminded us that, Jihad is obligatory for each and every Muslim.” (p. 9)
“We must have to establish Islam as the only religion throughout the world. We must have to conquer the entire world for Islam, so that each and every person in this world become a Muslim and respect Islamic principles. …Jihad is the essence of Islam and only the fools say that Islam is against war and bloodshed. They are stupid, they are hypocrites. Ayatulla Ruhulla Khomeini has said the truth. He said, “Jihad stands for killing all kafirs around the world. Push your sword into their bodies, cut them into pieces. …Sword is the key to Allah’s paradise.” (p.10)
“It is not possible to establish truth without killing and bloodshed. When we kill, we say ‘Bismillah’. We say, “O Allah, the Rahmanir Rahim, we are killing people with your name in our lips. If we kill the right people, O Allah, You please take us to your paradise. And if we kill wrong people, please pardon our sins.” The land has become infested with unholy (napak) people like the Jews and the apostates. They have turned the land into an unholy place. So, we shall not rest in peace until it is turned into a holy place.” (p. 11)
How a Jihadi should deal with kafir Women
Another teacher Alhaj Maulana Rahimuddin Rasulpuri says,
"Killing a Hindu kafir for the sake of Islam is not a sin. It is not at all a murder. It is the process of cleaning the earth for establishing the rule of Allah. Allah has put merit on such killings and He will reward such a jihadi with place in Jannahtul Ferdause (or best place in Allah’s paradise). He will also get the many many heavenly damsels (Houris/virgins) as companions. If you can kill an apostate, you will get a place in Jannahtul Ferdause, houris and, in addition to that, sharaban tahura (heavenly liquour). There you will enjoy sahabat (sex), and sahabat and sahabat. The pleasure of that heavenly sex would be 700 million times more than mundane sex. Sobhan Allah! There you also get tender boys for doing sodomy and sex with those tender boys in paradise is incomparable to anything on earth. Sobhan Allah! There is no sin if you do jina (sex or rape) with the malaun women in this world. These women are nothing but war-booty (mai-e-ganimat). Whenever you feel like doing sex in this world, do it with the malaun women. Shobhan Allah, there is no sin in it, and it is the process by which you have to drive them out of Bangladesh” (p. 14).
Another lesson says,
“We hate the malauns but not their women. Personally, I like the body-odour of the malaun women a lot. Whether they are Brahmins or Charals (a low caste), or Kaibartas (another low caste), their body odour is excellent. A highly intense, sweet mundane fragrance comes from their breasts, from the hairs of their armpit and thighs. The extremely sweet fragrance that comes from the sweat of their pubic-hairs makes me mad.”
Another lesson addressed the young students:
“I tell you to place your right hand at where your two thighs meet. Tell me what you find there?” Meanwhile the penis got erected. I asked again, “What you find there.” Learners, the tender adolescent boys said, “It is the penis sir.” Then I told them, “It is not the penis. It is a gun. It is an M-16 Gun that Allah has given to you. You have to push this Islamic gun into the wombs of as many malaun women you can. It is the law of jihad. Beside that you have to plunder money, all gold ornaments and other valuables of the malaun households.” The learners cried “Allahu Akbar.”
The lecture continues:
“I get really amazed by observing the power of that Islamic gun. They start pushing the Islamic gun without any pause. They pushed the Islamic gun into a malaun girl in front of her parents. After tasting the daughter, they tasted her mother. Some tasted the mother first and then the daughter, while some tasted the daughter first and then the mother. In one occasion, 10–12 jihadis seized a 10-year-old malaun girl. The mother of the girl came to me in tears and requested me to send the jihadis one by one. She also said that her daughter is very tender and she has not yet reached puberty and begun menstruation. If so many jihadis go to her at a time, my daughter will die. So, I asked the jihadis stand in a queue and go inside the room one by one.”
“A Jihadi, named Mohammad al-Jamiruddin, was the first man in the queue. He was a very strong man and had two wives in his house. It seemed that his penis was more than a gun. Shortly after he entered the room, I heard a heart-rending scream of the girl. I could understand that a cannon was entering her vagina. Then jihadis started entering and coming out the room one by one. No jihadi took much time and I could understand that, they were extremely excited and hence could finish the job quickly. Then onwards, I did not hear any scream of the girl. The girl was really nice and her parents were sitting at my feet and shedding tears.”
“One day, another jihadi, named Mohammad Hafijuddin, came to me with a unique proposal. He asked, “Sir, is it true that there is no sin in raping malaun women?” I said, “yes”. Then he said that, a khayes (intense desire) has come to his mind. When I enquired about the khayes, he said, “I want to rape four malaun women at a time.” A further enquiry revealed that he came to me after keeping four Hindu women, a mother, two daughters and one daughter-in-law, as captives under lock and key. I also told him that he must fulfill his khayes and get satisfied and that would be better for his physical and mental health. After receiving my consent, he returned and took two hours to complete the job. It appeared to me that, he did not take much time to rape four women.”
“While returning home, I saw that the father of those two daughters and his young son took their lives by hanging them from a mango tree. If someone gets pleasure by hanging himself, I should not obstruct them to enjoy that pleasure. Later on, I heard that the mother, her two daughters and her newly married daughter-in-law also committed suicide by hanging themselves from the same mango tree. Let them hang, as they are accustomed to hanging. What we can do, if they hang themselves like their deity Shyam (Lord Krishna)?” (p. 31)
“Here we teach jihad. Those, who have the correct knowledge of jihad, are best Muslims. We teach how to stab one with a knife, how to make bombs and grenades, how to operate pistols and guns and how to kill one by cutting his veins. Jihad is not possible without this knowledge. We teach holy terror, divine terror and terror for entering Allah’s paradise.” (p. 44)
In conclusion, above narrations divulge a number of points. Firstly, it uncovers the real face of Islam and unfolds the Islamic hatred toward non-Muslim kafirs. Secondly, it discloses the real Islamic attitude towards non-Muslim women. And finally, it portrays how Islamic teachings turn a human being into criminals of the worst kind.(RNS) Amid heightened tensions over ISIS-fueled terror attacks and anti-Muslim rhetoric, a prominent U.S. cardinal says Islam “wants to govern the world” and Americans must decide if they are going to reassert “the Christian origin of our own nation” in order to avoid that fate.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, a Rome-based prelate known as an outspoken conservative and critic of Pope Francis’ reformist approach, said in an interview on Wednesday (July 20) that Islam is “fundamentally a form of government.”
While Catholic teaching recognizes that all Abrahamic faiths worship the same God, Burke criticized Catholic leaders who, in an effort to be tolerant, have a tendency “to simply think that Islam is a religion like the Catholic faith or the Jewish faith.”
“That simply is not objectively the case,” he said.
Burke, who was once archbishop of St. Louis, stressed that he did not want to be “disrespectful” of Islam or “generate hostility.”
But he said he worries that many people do not understand that, in his view, “when they (Muslims) become the majority in any country they have the duty to submit the whole population to Shariah,” as the Islamic code of law is known.
The cardinal is a canon lawyer who headed the Vatican’s court system before Francis named him chaplain of the Knights of Malta, a Rome-based charitable order.
Burke was speaking by telephone from his home state of Wisconsin, where he was spending time this summer while doing interviews for a new book, “Hope for the World: To Unite All Things in Christ.” The book is an extended interview with a French journalist and it covers a range of often controversial topics.
Speaking to RNS, Burke said that individual Muslims “are lovely people” and can speak “in a very peaceful manner about questions of religion.”
“But my point is this: When they become a majority in any country then they have the religious obligation to govern that country. If that’s what the citizens of a nation want, well, then, they should just allow this to go on. But if that’s not what they want, then they have to find a way to deal with it.”
He said that in some cities in France and Belgium with large Muslim populations “there are little Muslim states” that are effectively “no-go zones” for government authorities – an assertion that is widely disputed.
But Burke claimed “these things aren’t anomalies for Islam. This is the way things are to go. … And if you do understand that and you are not at peace with the idea of being forcibly under an Islamic government, then you have reason to be afraid.”
He cited historical examples of famous military clashes between Muslim forces and the forces of Christian nations of Europe, such the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and the Battle of Vienna in 1683, both of which marked defeats for the Ottoman Empire.
“These historical events relate directly with the situation of today. There’s no question that Islam wants to govern the world,” Burke said.
When asked how the West should respond, the cardinal did not cite or endorse specific proposals, like those championed by the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and other conservatives, to ban or limit Muslims coming into the U.S.
“I think the appropriate response,” he said, “is to be firm about the Christian origin of our own nation, and certainly in Europe, and the Christian foundations of the government, and to fortify those.”
He said that form of government permits all people to exercise their religious faith – “as long as it’s not against good order” – and “practices that tolerance which follows from Christian charity.”
“I think we have to insist on that. We have to say no, our country is not free to become a Muslim state.”
Those comments elaborate on an answer that Burke gives in the new book, in which he says of Islam that “the (Catholic) Church really should be afraid of it.”
That is a marked contrast to the approach of Francis and most other church leaders, who have called for dialogue with Islam and a welcoming attitude toward Muslim refugees fleeing strife in many lands.
Official church teaching has for decades also recognized Islam as an Abrahamic faith whose followers worship the same God as Jews and Christians.
Burke has frequently made news with his sharp criticisms of Francis’ pontificate (he once called it “a rudderless ship”) and the pope’s more pastoral approach. The cardinal has also called on church leaders to be more forceful in battling abortion rights and gay marriage and has said the church has become too “feminized.”“We’ve given in to nativism and protectionism. And I think that if we’re going to be a governing party in the future and a majority party we’ve got to go back to traditional conservatism”
As Senate Republicans pick up the pieces of an embarrassing Obamacare repeal defeat, one that was self-imposed, those up for re-election in 2018 are grappling for an explanation.
Like other’s before him, Arizona’s Junior Senator Jeff Flake says returning to traditional conservatism is the GOP’s only hope of success.
Joining Face the Nation Sunday, Flake said the Republican Party has “lost its way.” Flake is also peddling his new book, “Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle”.
CBS Reports:
Sen. Jeff Flake says the Republican Party has “lost its way,” and is urging members to turn back to what he calls “traditional conservatism” — after a particularly contentious week in Washington. “We’ve given in to nativism and protectionism. And I think that if we’re going to be a governing party in the future and a majority party we’ve got to go back to traditional conservatism,” Flake said Sunday on “Face the Nation.” In his new book, “Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle,” the Arizona Republican — who will likely face challenges in his race for reelection next year — outlines some of his differences with President Trump. … Flake writes in his new book, “When we excuse on our side what we attack on the other, then we are hypocrites. If we do that as a practice, then we are corrupt. If we continually accept this conduct as elected officials, then perhaps we shouldn’t be elected officials.” Asked whether he believes Republican leaders are complicit in this notion if they don’t call out the president, Flake responded, “I do think so.” “The last thing you want to do is wake up every morning and see a tweet… You know, it’s tough not to just say, ‘I’m not going to respond,'” Flake said. “And we can’t respond to everything. But there are times when you have to stand up and say, ‘I’m sorry. This is wrong.'” “There are truths that are self-evident,” Flake added. “And you’ve got to stand up and call — whether it’s the White House or other elected officials — to task when they’re– they’re not doing what they should. And I do think that we bear the responsibility, if we’re elected officials, to do that.” Flake said the 24-hour news cycle and impact of social media is, in large part, helping drive the Republican Party apart. “I think certainly the modern media culture values those who yell the loudest,” Flake said. “And so the tougher path is frankly to have the kind of demeanor that some people might call boring.”
There’ve been plenty of GOP post-mortems following Trump’s ascendancy to Republican Party leader, and many prescriptions for riding the populist wave back to dry ground (some much better than others).
But Flake’s calls for a return to conservatism ring as hollow as all those before. In 2016, voters made abundantly clear that they’ve little interest in conservatism or boilerplate platitudes masquerading as Buckly Jr.’s brainchildren.
Reagan conservatism was fantastic in the 80s and perfect for that decade, but thirty years later, we’re surrounded by a populace largely disinterested in anything politically or socially conservative.
Blaming social media will not fix the Republican party. That beast is here to stay. Releasing a book and rebranding as a card-carrying Buckley conservative just in time for re-election is not only tired and trite but in no way does it advance the cause of conservatism nor the Republican agenda.
As long as Republicans continue to look backward rather than forward to the road ahead, they’ll never be the governing party. And as long as Republican politicians choose to blame others while ignoring the changing landscape before them, earnestly engaging in societal and political evolutions, they’ll continue to be dull and ineffectual.
Follow Kemberlee on Twitter @kemberleekayeThe sixth and final series of Girls returns to HBO this month, and so, too, does the flurry of online criticism, from oral histories to reflections on its contributions to thinkpiece culture.
But regardless of where you stand on Girls, for me, by far the best storyline in the show over the last five years has been Hannah’s uncovering of the affair between her ex-boyfriend and best friend, Adam and Jessa. So, with new episodes on the horizon, I’d like to take the opportunity to go back to the last scene of the last season.
Adam (Adam Driver) has long been figured as the epitome of desirable masculinity in Girls: he’s enormous, handsome, good with his hands, independent, an artist. The first season posits him as more of a sex addict using Hannah for kicks than a loving boyfriend: still, he’s so magnetic that Hannah (Lena Dunham) can’t resist going back to him for more and more. He’s both sexualised and hypersexual.
So, too, is Jessa (Jemima Kirke). She’s an impossible sex symbol in Hannah’s mind: she’s free, impulsive, and, of course, ridiculously beautiful. (As Hannah says in the series finale, “This is the best friend who I would say looks like Brigitte Bardot had a baby with a mermaid.”) Adam and Jessa are both addicts who struggle with impulse control. They are gorgeous, unpredictable, flighty, occasionally emotionally explosive, and yet infuriatingly cool.
So, here we have two characters who are, for Hannah, the very incarnation of what it is to feel desire, and be desired. Perhaps a result, they are also the two people in her life Hannah seems to crave attention from most, with the greatest potential to make her feel insecure. Over the course of the show, Adam and Jessa are the two characters who Hannah spends a significant amount of time chasing, emotionally and literally, desperately trying to pin them down (or at least get them to reply to her texts). Their embrace of each other is painful because it is a rejection of her, confirming Hannah’s deep sense of her own incontrovertible unlovableness.
At the end of “I Love You Baby”, the final episode of the season, Hannah delivers a fruit basket to the couple, with a note attached. It’s a move that many critics observed as a mark of the maturing of Hannah’s character: Entertainment Weekly said the episode showed Hannah was “no longer trapped in adolescence” and “finally growing up”, while The AV Club said it revealed “she is changing, and maybe for the better”. Flavourwire said it “demonstrated why TV is such a perfect medium for stories about growing up”.
The note is polite, friendly, and wishes them the best: it probably does reveal a more traditionally “adult” form of behaviour. But there’s also a power dynamic at play here, one that feels especially pointed in the context of the Girls world. So, I want to analyse this nine-word letter in a lot of detail.
Here it is, as we hear Hannah later dictate it:
“Good luck. I mean that sincerely. In perpetuity, Hannah.”
Let’s start with the context. Since they started their affair, Adam and Jessa have expected Hannah to explode in horror when she discovered their relationship. “Oh, God,” Hannah imagines them thinking. “Hannah’s freaking out. She’s gonna kill a cat and she’s gonna nail it to our door. She’s going to cry so hard that all of Greenpoint fills with tears and it’s like fuckin’ Waterworld.”
But she doesn’t do that. Instead, she becomes increasingly polite. “I just spend all my time trying not to sink to their level, which is really hard,” Hannah explains to her mother early on in the episode. “When I saw them last, I said, ‘Good day, sirs and misses,’ like I was a fucking Newsy.”
This is not what either Jessa or Adam expected, and it hurts Jessa. “Last time we saw Hannah, she called me ‘miss’ and you ‘sir’. Didn’t that upset you?” In the Girls world, brutal honesty (to the point of direct meanness) is the foundation of intimacy; politeness (even friendliness) its cold opposite. This is even more exaggerated in Jessa and Hannah’s relationship. When Adam rails at Jessa “Hannah fucking hates you!”, she responds: “Welcome to having a friend, something you would know nothing about, you fucking dumbfuck goat-faced fuck!”
So Hannah goes to Adam’s place, and “deliver[s] a very nice and not at all cheap fruit basket to his door”. A fruit basket. Is there anything more passive-aggressive than a fruit basket sent to a dear friend? It’s something you might send your boss or your doctor or your mother-in-law, not your partner or your friend. It says “thank you”, “congratulations”, or “my sympathies”, but it does so at arm’s length.
For Hannah, it’s the opposite of unrestrained feeling, clear from her comparison between “whether I, you know, start a new nuclear missile crisis with my emotions, or just sit back and chill and give someone a fruit basket”.
It’s also ostentatious, a kind of performative generosity, the kind of gift that screams LOOK AT THIS NICE GIFT more than it offers anything substantial, thoughtful or individual. With the fruit basket, Hannah is both putting distance between herself and Adam and Jessa, and declaring her own kindness, actively performing a lack of bitterness, resentment or jealousy.
To the |
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When a man took an upskirt photograph of Gina Martin at a music festival last month, she went straight to the police. But she was amazed to discover that there is no specific law against "upskirting" in most of the UK - only in Scotland. After the police closed her case, Gina began a petition to get it reopened, and now she is lobbying for a change in the law.
Martin's article about her experience struck a chord with many of you. We asked readers to tell us if they had been the victim of upskirting, and whether the perpetrator was punished. Here are some of your stories - names have been changed.
"I was at the bus stop"
It happened four years ago, when I was 17. It was a warm spring day and I was wearing a floral dress. I was waiting for the bus to go to college at 09:00 in the morning on a busy main road.
A man walked up to the bus stop and came and sat down next to me, and then started moving closer towards me. I was aware something wasn't quite right, but every time I turned around he pretended to be looking out towards the road where the bus was coming from.
You don't always have the confidence to say something, so I stood up and walked away.
But when I turned around to look at him he was holding up his mobile phone. It was a video of my bum - he had been trying to video up my dress. He was showing me, as if he was proud of it, and he was touching himself at the same time.
Image copyright Alamy
My initial reaction was: "That needs to be deleted, I need to get hold of that phone." I got angry.
I said: "Give me that now, you need to delete that." And he ran off. I chased him but he was too fast. Then it dawned on me what had just happened - the seriousness of it, and the intrusion of my personal space. I was very upset.
A man who had been driving past in a van stopped and came over. Traffic was slow and he said he'd got a good look at the man running off. The police came and took a statement and I went home - I didn't make it into college that day.
The police asked for the outfit that I was wearing on that day, and I went in to make a formal statement at the station. A female officer interviewed me, but I felt like it wasn't serious enough, and that I shouldn't be there.
When I was asked to identify the man from pictures I really struggled - none of them looked like the image I had in my head. I thought: "What if I don't recognise him and then he does it again?"
I was told afterwards that the witness had picked a different person to me. I don't know if he was arrested.
I still live here but I've never gone back to that bus stop. I found different routes to college. I'm still incredibly cautious of people when I'm on my own. People tell you not to walk home alone at night - but this happened in broad daylight, so should we just never go anywhere on our own? That's ridiculous. But that's how it made me feel.
I can't believe that upskirting doesn't fall into some sort of category like sexual harassment or sexual assault. It's a violation of personal space - they shouldn't be allowed to get away with it just because we don't have a law against it.
Debbie, 21
"My pupils upskirted me"
I teach in a secondary school. A few years ago I was called to a meeting together with some of my female colleagues and we were told that some pupils were being kept out of class because they had been caught using phone cameras to look up teachers' skirts.
They'd been working as a team - one pupil would call the teacher over to ask a question, and while she was leaning over the table or otherwise engaged in answering that question somebody else would kick the phone across the floor while it was filming - then they were taking stills from the film and uploading them on the internet.
It was horrific and quite upsetting - as you can imagine we had a thousand questions, like: "Can you see anything in these pictures?" But we were not allowed to see them. I don't think you could, because most of us wear tights, but the point is that these 13-year-old kids thought that that was an acceptable thing to do.
Image copyright Getty Images
The boys were kept out of school for a couple of weeks, and when they came back we were expected to carry on teaching them.
I wasn't remotely happy with the way the school handled it. I felt like I'd been a victim of a crime, and my main problem was that I didn't feel it had been recognised in that way, and I wasn't dealt with in the way that a victim would be. It wasn't taken as seriously as if someone had stolen my handbag.
For me it's the little things - I haven't been able to dress the same. I feel I have to put trousers on rather than a skirt. I'm paranoid about pupils with their phones or when they are asking questions - the trust is gone.
I think it affects your day-to-day job and you need to talk to pupils about that so that you're comfortable going back into the classroom.
Olivia, 31
"I found upskirt pictures on my partner's phone"
We were watching a film on his laptop - his phone was plugged in and when the film finished I saw hundreds of inappropriate pictures of different women.
I said: "What's that?" And he immediately jumped over to the laptop and spun it around so I couldn't see.
He said: "Oh it's just some old pictures. I'll delete them."
I wasn't sure how to react, especially as this was my first ever relationship. I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
But a year later, I found a lot more pictures on his phone. I could tell that they were from our local town centre and from his gym, and that he'd obviously taken them himself. I was absolutely horrified.
Eventually I got the confidence to leave him. It has caused me to have years of therapy, and I find it hard to trust my current partner.
Alice, 21
"My daughter was the victim of an upskirter "
It was about three years ago and my two daughters went to the shopping centre - they were aged 18 and 15 and it was a particularly hot day.
A man happened to notice that someone was following them and he suddenly saw the other chap go up to them and, without them noticing, take photographs up their skirt and shorts. He was very upset to see this and he called for security.
They apprehended this man and looked on his phone and realised he had taken several photographs up different women's skirts.
Image copyright Getty Images
The police arrived and were very concerned because they thought that my 15-year-old daughter had had a photograph taken of her. As it turned there wasn't a picture of her, but there was of my 18-year-old.
The difficulty was that the police couldn't really find much that they could charge him with because she was an adult and it was in a public place. First of all they wanted to charge him with voyeurism but apparently that can only happen if you're in your own home and someone's taking a picture through your window. So in the end I think they charged him with something like public nuisance.
He pleaded guilty and got a fine, and my daughter got compensation. So that was it really. The police took it so seriously, but they just didn't have anything that they could charge him with.
It's happened to me as well. I had a photograph taken up my skirt on the Piccadilly line. I probably didn't sit down in a particularly lady-like way. I was reading the newspaper and the woman next to me nudged me and said: "The man opposite's just taken a photograph up your skirt."
I was quite annoyed, so I took a photograph of him and as soon as I got to the station I gave it to the British Transport Police. They again were brilliant, they really took time and trouble to try and trace that man, but unfortunately they couldn't.
The police do take this seriously but the laws haven't yet caught up with technology.
Amanda, 55
As told to Vibeke Venema
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.Support & Bug Tracking
Only a few days to go before Banished is available for purchase!
I’ve set up some support forums to help with bug tracking and reporting. They aren’t pretty yet, but they’re functional. In addition to being able to get help from me and the rest of the community, the forums allow for uploading crash dumps and save games.
If the game crashes, a small crash dump will be output which you can then submit along with a bug report. This file will show me where in the code the game has crashed and helps to track down and reproduce bugs more quickly.
Save games can also help to reproduce bugs – usually if a problem exists a recent save game will continue to show the bugs after it has been loaded.
My plan is to collect any issues and bugs and list them in a known issues thread, so that everyone can see what issues exist and what I’m working on fixing.
Now it’s time to relax until the game is released, and have nice dreams that the Bug Reports category on the forum will stay empty….. Ha!Just 5 years ago Gallup found only 28 percent of Americans thought government did not have the responsibility to “make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage.” However, today Gallup finds the highest number since it began asking the question—56 percent—say government does not have a responsibility to ensure all American have healthcare coverage. Even a majority (55 percent) of Independents say government does not have this responsibility.
Source: Gallup
Throughout much of the 2000s, a solid majority of Americans believed it was government’s job to ensure all Americans have healthcare coverage, hitting a high in 2006 when 69 percent agreed while 28 percent said it was not government’s responsibility. However, after 2006, Gallup measured a steady decline among those who believed government should ensure healthcare for all.
By the time Congress began debating remaking the American health care system in 2009, Americans were evenly split and remained so until 2011.
However, once actual implementation of the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare got underway, the public for the first time since Gallup began asking the question diverged against government’s role in health care. Between 2011 and 2013 the share of Americans who believe it is not government’s job to ensure healthcare coverage increased +10 points from 46 to 56 percent.
Not only the glitch-ridden roll out of the healthcare law explains this results, but partisanship also. In 2000, only a slim majority (53 percent) of Republicans believed government should not be responsible for healthcare coverage and 42 percent believe it did. Just 13 short years later, while also losing most of Congress and the presidency, 86 percent of Republicans say its not government job to ensure healthcare coverage and 12 percent say it is. These are roughly 30-point swings in roughly a decade.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
Virginia Beach, Va. - Bill DeSteph doesn't want a mosque to be built on Salem Road.
"But you are saying this organization that wants to start a mosque in Virginia Beach is ill intentioned?" DeSteph was asked.
"I'm saying follow the money. There are ties to the Muslim Brotherhood," Councilman DeSteph said. "Follow the money."
DeSteph claims the planned Crescent Community Center mosque has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, even though earlier in our interview he wouldn't go that far.
"So this organization has terrorist ties in your opinion?" DeSteph was asked.
"I'm not saying that. I'm saying follow the money," DeSteph responded.
DeSteph says his role as a city councilman limited what he could say publicly, so he let Scott Saunders with the group act for Virginia Beach, be his in de facto spokesperson.
"We are concerned that the mosque will be used for the purposes of furthering the objectives of the brotherhood," Saunders said.
They had objections, even though they admittedly have no concrete proof.
"We can't confirm that there's a direct tie between Crescent Community and the Muslim Brotherhood, but we're working on it," Saunders said.
Tuesday's council meeting started out civil, with a rabbi giving an opening prayer about acceptance. His message went in one ear and out the other for most of the crowd.
Neighbors of the soon-to-be built mosque talked about traffic concerns, then one man decided to be more direct with his opposition.
"To stand here and talk about road usage, and not talk about the fundamental issue, we do not want mosques in Virginia Beach," one meeting-goer said as the crowd reached its crescendo.
The attorney for the mosque, Eddie Bourdon, made a rebuttal, not holding anything back, and calling the opposition ignorant. His comments were not surprisingly met with boos.
City Council passed the land-use application for the mosque 9-1 citing that while it is an unpopular decision in many people's eyes, federal and state law prevents them from discriminating against a religious organization's land-use application.If you haven't gotten the hint, today is all about Llano. The big story is of course Llano's notebook appearance; however, in the coming weeks you'll be hearing a lot more about Llano on the desktop as well. This is AMD's Socket-FM1, the brand new socket that'll be used for desktop Llano parts:
If you read our Computex coverage, the socket should look pretty familiar. Motherboard manufacturers all over Taiwan are busy readying their Socket-FM1 boards for retail release. In fact, there was so much interest in desktop Llano on behalf of the motherboard manufacturers that a number of Socket-FM1 boards and CPUs made their way off the island as Computex ended.
Existing Socket-AM3 coolers will work on FM1 motherboards
By now you may have already seen a lot of information leaked from AMD's Llano presentations, as well as its desktop strategy. In the past few days performance numbers have been revealed as well. While we're hard at work on our full review of AMD's desktop Llano APU, we wanted to chime in with some thoughts on Llano's desktop performance.
AMD isn't ready to disclose pricing or the entire product matrix for Llano on the desktop, but what we do have is the high-end desktop Llano SKU: AMD's A8-3850.
The 3850 has four cores running at 2.9GHz and doesn't support Turbo Core. On the GPU side it has the full Radeon HD 6550D configuration with 400 shader processors running at 600MHz.
Sandy Bridge's GPU performance is the target, but how much better will AMD do on the desktop? Let's find out.No matter how this asinine lockout winds up, the most hockey fans are going to get out of the NHL is 48 games.
In fact, that's by far the most likely outcome right now.
A 48-game season, just like in 1994-95, crammed between mid-January and early May, followed by 100-plus gruelling playoff games to decide a Stanley Cup winner.
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And we should be okay with that.
Here's the reality with the NHL: 82 games is way, way too many. Even 70 is high given the physical punishment involved.
Sure, 48 is on the low side, and something closer to 60 would be ideal, but there will be benefits to a season that's less than 60 per cent its normal length.
If you can get over the idiocy that has taken hockey away to this point (and no one would blame you if you couldn't) this will be an exciting season. Ask any NHL player who played in 1995, and they'll tell you it was one of the best, fast-paced and most tightly contested campaigns they ever took part in.
In fact, some have already been doing so.
"By far, of all the seasons I ever played in, that was the most exciting and competitive that I've ever been a part of," Kelly Hrudey said on Hockey Night in Canada radio last week. "Not even close."
That shouldn't come as a surprise either. Look at how physically demanding this sport really is, how beat up players get and at the travel the Western Conference teams go through and tightening the schedule should be a no-brainer.
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This is not the NBA. This is not baseball. It's much, much closer to the NFL, where they play only once a week and 16 games a season.
Obviously lopping off 25 per cent of the NHL schedule on a permanent basis is never going to happen. This is such a gate driven league that it desperately needs all those dates to get close to the $3.3-billion revenue they pulled in last season.
But with so many American teams not drawing well when hockey overlaps with the NFL season, here's betting the financial pain of going down to 70 games or so would be minimal. Heck, even in this potential 48-game season, it's believed the NHL will still earn 70 to 75 per cent of what it did with 82.
Whenever a deal is finally done, we're going to see a lot of reference to a shortened season being "a sham" because of all those games missed, but the real sham is cramming in 82 every season and allowing the athletes (and the hockey) to suffer for it.
This is a sport that should be played twice a week, not three or four times with back-to-back games in other cities. Instead of having a schedule flooded with game after relentless, meaningless game, those nights when teams play should have a little more meaning – for fans and players alike.
A two games a week schedule would also allow for more time to follow teams other than your own, more off nights to contemplate what occurred in the last tilt and, most importantly, playoff races that started almost as soon as the season did.
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Good luck making the postseason with a bad 15-game stretch in a season only three times that length.
All that said, there are obviously some issues with playing 48 games beginning in mid-January. The schedule will be very compressed, with 720 games shoved into 108 days – meaning teams will be playing basically every second night.
Not having any play between the conferences is also a downer, as repetitiveness of division play has been an issue with an 82-game schedule for years.
Then there's the issue of the Stanley Cup spilling into very late June (or even worse, July).
But 48 itself isn't the problem. Forty-eight, in fact, is better than 82.
It's just a shame how we have to get there – a lockout – every time it happens.It's Friday, which means it's time for PC Perspective's weekly mailbag, our video show where Ryan and team answer your questions about the tech industry, the latest and greatest hardware, the process of running a tech review website, and more!
Here's what you'll find on today's show:
00:36 - Why benchmark high-end components at 1080p?
03:52 - Release timing for Cannon Lake and Ice Lake CPUs?
05:31 - Due to x86 licensing, will AMD ever beat Intel?
07:06 - When will we see X399 NVMe RAID tests?
08:16 - Where are all the FreeSync 2, HDR, and OLED monitors?
11:05 - PCPer office tour?
12:08 - CPU and GPU bottlenecks for gaming?
15:09 - Video outro song?
15:57 - Achtung PCPer!
Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel to make sure you never miss our weekly reviews and podcasts, and please consider supporting PC Perspective via Patreon to help us keep videos like our weekly mailbag coming!The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says there is nothing out of the ordinary with the environment near where thousands of sea creatures washed up near Digby, N.S.
The distressing amount of sea life and diversity of species found dead on some beaches along the Bay of Fundy over the past few weeks has been puzzling. So far, tests haven't revealed what's killing the sea life.
Federal scientists went out on the water Thursday to examine the physical environment, taking water samples, testing dissolved oxygen, salinity and temperature — all of which were normal. They also scanned images of the bottom of St. Marys Bay off the Bay of Fundy. The video showed normal conditions with no masses of dead organisms that one would expect if the cause was an ongoing environmental problem.
"We have ruled out the usual suspects," said Kent Smedbol, manager of population ecology for DFO.
Smedbol said they've also consulted recent environmental data from the area. He said they don't have anything conclusive, but a recent winter storm caused a sudden drop in temperature, down to –5 C, in the shallow areas around Digby. He said that, combined with rough surf, could have caused bottom-dwelling sea creatures to die and wash up.
Dead fish and other aquatic creatures were discovered washed up on a beach in Plympton, Digby County on Boxing Day. (Eric Hewey)
Problem not getting worse
"It is a little bit perplexing and now we're broadening out our analysis again, looking at things that might be less likely," said Smedbol.
Derreck Parsons, a senior compliance program officer for DFO, said whatever the cause, there doesn't appear to be any more dying fish.
"The good news for me is that it doesn't seem like the event is worsening," he said.
Dead or dying herring have been washing up on beaches since late November from Tusket, off southwest Nova Scotia, to the Annapolis River. On Boxing Day, scores of crabs, lobsters, starfish and other sea creatures were also found at a beach near Digby, N.S.
Parsons said the majority of dead fish have been found in St. Marys Bay between the Sissiboo River and Plympton.
Other potential causes ruled out
So far, scientists have found no evidence of disease, parasites or toxins.
"There was nothing outstanding about the herring. No physical trauma, no sign of widespread disease," said Smedbol.
"Nothing really that would stand out to be honest."
Work by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Environment and Climate Change Canada to look for contaminants and by the fish health lab in Moncton has come back negative, Smedbol said.
Smedbol also said it's "highly unlikely" the tidal turbine that came online in November is responsible for two reasons. Firstly, if the turbine was responsible for the deaths, scientists would expect to see dead animals on more beaches in the area. Secondly, more fish species would likely be affected, other than herring.
These fish were just some of the creatures found washed up on a beach near Savary Park in Digby County on Boxing Day. (Eric Hewey)
If the problem was methane leaks causing a drop in oxygen, Smedbol also said more species of fish would be washing up, not just herring.
Nova Scotia's Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture said provincial veterinarians are also keeping a close eye on farmed fish in the area, with the most recent visit last week.
They haven't found any signs the scores of herring that have washed up have affected the farmed fish, said Heather Fairbairn, a spokeswoman for the department.
The Municipality of the District of Digby said there are no municipal sewer or water systems in the area where the fish have been found.20/20: The Iraq and Afghanistan Narratives
20/20 - The Iraq and Afghanistan Narratives is a retrospective of America’s most recent wars told through twenty oral histories from a cross section of veterans who served on the front lines of Operation Iraqi Freedom and/or Operation Enduring Freedom. These tales come “from the horse’s mouth” and explain the many physical and emotional highs and lows of life in the combat zone and after. More
20/20 - The Iraq and Afghanistan Narratives is a retrospective of America’s most recent wars told through twenty oral histories from a cross section of veterans who served on the front lines of Operation Iraqi Freedom and/or Operation Enduring Freedom. All profits from the book will go to veteran's organizations. These tales come “from the horse’s mouth” and explain the many physical and emotional highs and lows of life in the combat zone and after.
Readers are taken from serving on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan to discussing how to fix a troubled Veterans' Affairs system. Between these bookends, veterans give firsthand accounts on a range of historic and personal subjects including: being involved in the initial invasion of Iraq, battling insurgents in intense urban street combat during the Second Battle of Fallujah, combating the Taliban in the hills of Afghanistan, training Afghani security, surviving suicide bombers, IED blasts and green on blue violence, being part of the 2009 surge in Afghanistan, and many more unique and enthralling tales.
Although combat is the focus of several of the narratives, also detailed are the lesser known challenges our veterans faced while overseas such as dealing with a culture foreign to their own, giving and receiving emergency medical care, losing fellow battle buddies, experiencing friendly fire, and getting through the day-to-day struggles that come from life on a military base in the middle of a war zone. Lastly, the text gives several heartbreaking accounts of the difficult transition of re-joining the civilian world with tales about PTSD, traumatic brain injury, drug and alcohol abuse, relationship struggles, workplace problems and unemployment, suicide, and the faltering system that has yet to properly treat those returning from these wars with such problems – the Office of Veterans' Affairs.20 September 2013
New rat genus discovered in the birthplace of the theory of evolution
New rat genus A prominent tuft of spiny hair on the back, a white tail tip and three pairs of teats represent the unique set of characteristics describing a new genus of rat which has been discovered in the Moluccan province of Indonesia. This region had a profound influence on the British Naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace who independently developed the theory of evolution alongside Charles Darwin. The international team of zoologists was led by the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense in Indonesia and the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenhagen
One hundred years after the death of Sir Alfred Russel Wallace, an international team of zoologists has discovered a new genus of mammal in the Halmahera Island in Indonesia. It is located in Wallacea, an Eastern Indonesian region named after the British Naturalist himself. The team was surprised to find the new endemic rodent close to the locality of Boki Mekot, a mountainous area under severe ecological threat due to mining and deforestation.
Drawing: Jon Fjelså Download free press photo.
The species is only known in this locality and is named Halmaheramys bokimekot. Project leader Pierre-Henri Fabre from the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate states:
“This new rodent highlights the large amount of unknown biodiversity in this Wallacean region and the importance of its conservation. It constitutes a valuable addition to our knowledge of the Wallacean biodiversity and much remains to be learned about mammalian biodiversity across this region. Zoologists must continue to explore this area in order to discover and describe new species in this highly diverse, but also threatened region.”
Halmaheramys bokimekot is a terrestrial spiny rat of medium body size with brownish grey fur on its back and a greyish white belly. Together with its other characteristics it represents a unique set of features that has never been reported before in the Moluccas.
The region that inspired Wallace
It is clear that the region had a profound influence of Wallace’s thinking as it was from the Moluccan province of Indonesia that Wallace wrote his famous letter about natural selection and evolutionary theory to Charles Darwin. The two naturalists both published their findings in 1858.
The unique nature of the plants and animals found within the region and the large floral and faunal differences to the neighboring region of Australia, later inspired Wallace to define a zoogeographical boundary dividing the Indonesian archipelago into two distinct parts: a western portion in which the animals are largely of Asian origin and an eastern portion where the fauna reflect Australasia. This is known as the Wallace line.
New rat reveals a rare migration event
“The Halmaheramys discovery supports Wallace’s idea of an important faunal breakup in this region. Most of the species on the island of Halmahera reflect eastern origins, but our genetic analysis revealed a western origin of the new rat genus. That reflects the unique transition zone found in the Indo-Pacific, and warrants much greater scientific investigation,” says Pierre-Henri Fabre.
Photo: Pierre-Henri Fabre. The picture represents the colonisation road of native rat lineages in the Wallacean region. The map also illustrates the Indo-Malay travel of AR Wallace. Download free press photo.
Last year he and colleagues from the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate provided an update of Wallace’s zoogeographical world map from 1876 based on modern technology such as DNA analysis and hundreds of thousands of species records. The study showed that in spite of lacking modern techniques Wallace’s zoogeographical boundaries of the world were remarkably accurately.
“Such a remarkable island setting inspired one of the greatest biologists of all time, and if Sir Alfred Russell Wallace were alive today he would surely be excited by the prospect of further conservation and biodiversity study within the Moluccas,” says Pierre-Henri Fabre.
Photo: Pierre Henri Fabre
The team’s findings are published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean society:
Fabre P.-H.*, Pagès M., Musser G.G., Fitriana Y.S., Fjeldså J., Jennings A., Jønsson K.A., Kennedy J., Michaux J., Semiadi G., Supriatna N., & Helgen K. (early view) A new genus of rodent from the Wallacea (Rodentia: Muridae: Murinae: Rattini) and its implication for biogeography and Indo-Pacific Rattini systematics. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Vol.169(2).
Contact
Project leader Pierre-Henri Fabre, phone: +33 626242375, skype: pierrehenrifabreNEW YORK — A trove of Timothy Leary files, much of it previously unpublished, could shed new light on the LSD guru, his controversial research into psychedelic drugs and the emergence of the ’60s counterculture.
The New York Public Library, which acquired the vast archive for an undisclosed sum from the Leary estate in 2011, is making the material available for the first time Wednesday to scholars and the public.
The archive “is the missing link in every attempt to piece together an account of research into Timothy Leary and the emergence of scientific research into psychedelic drugs and popular drug counterculture,” said Denis Berry, a trustee for the Leary estate.
Leary, who coined the phrase “turn on, tune in, drop out,” was one of the most polarizing figures of the counterculture. He advocated the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs including LSD and psychedelic mushrooms. Allen Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman, Jack Kerouac, Aldous Huxley and other noted figures frequently visited Millbrook Estate in upstate New York where Leary continued to conduct his psychedelic experiments after being fired as a psychology lecturer at Harvard University.
He spent several years in prison and lived in exile for several years in the 1970s. He died in 1996.
The files, filled with never-published correspondence and manuscripts from leading scientific, artistic, literary and cultural figures of the day, “will force a reworking of the current narratives on Leary, his role in LSD research” and the counterculture, Berry said.
The archive contains drug session reports, completed questionnaires and letters relating to the various organizations Leary formed to continue his drug research after Harvard, including the International Federation for Internal Freedom, Castalia Foundation and the League for Spiritual Discovery.
Among the highlights is a neatly typed description from 1966 of the psychedelic training courses Leary conducted at Millbrook and a 1975 letter he wrote from prison to “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” author Ken Kesey in which he says, “I think the time has come for me to go public about what I’ve been doing and learning.”
These and the many unpublished manuscripts and letters from prison provide a rich source for research, said William Stingone, the library’s curator of manuscript and archives.
John McWhinnie, a rare-book dealer who appraised the archive for the Leary estate, said in his report that the archive “details a program into psychedelic research that was akin to (Alfred) Kinsey’s research into human sexuality.”
The archive embraces the lives and thoughts of all the players associated with the scientific and popular movement of LSD and drug counterculture, said McWhinnie, who died last year.
McWhinnie was an associate of bookseller Glenn Horowitz, who eventually brokered the sale of the archive to the Public Library.
Among the collection’s many photographs is one of Leary standing at a chalkboard in the 1950s giving a lecture on his first book, “Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality.” The book marked his reputation in the field of clinical psychology before he went to Harvard to begin his research with psychedelic drugs.
Among other things, it contains some 1,000 floppy discs that deal with Leary’s intense interest in cyberculture and the development of computer software for his self-help games.
For now, the library has no plans to make the archive available online |
generations!
Here are three of the biggest benefits I see that men get when they show up and decide to take on parenting as part of who they are:
1) Wholeness. The more time men spend with their families, the more perspective and balance they feel with their outside jobs (and yes, challenge to keep that balance). This results in greater ability to relax (it’s hard to be uptight with little ones jumping on you and giggling),more of an overall sense of well-being, and greater contact with the whole of their humanity, including the part that gets to relate to others. Yes, that great guy is more than a money-making machine–he’s a warm and wonderful DAD!
2) Greater closeness with partner. If a man is partnered, and he and his partner share child responsibilities, they share a significant part of their worlds. When two people have completely separate worlds, they have less to talk about and can become more entrenched in what’s necessary to inhabit the world they spend the most time in. This was most obvious in housewife-breadwinner “Leave it to Beaver” roles of the 1950’s, but still can exert influence on families today. When those roles are more fluid, there’s more common ground to share and bond around. Families who share responsibilities also have a chance to share more intimacy.
And here’s the best thing a “Show-Up” dad gets:
3) A real relationship with his children. We get the relationships we cultivate. When we show up and take an interest in what our kids are doing, listen to them, share in their worlds and share our worlds with them in appropriate and joyful ways, (funny, it works this way with adults, too!) we form the foundation for a rich and rewarding relationship for the rest of our lives.
What do you notice and feel about fatherhood, either your own or that of someone close to you? Please tell us in the comment box below.
Warmly,
JillLoading... Loading...
In what amounts to a declaration of war, the United States government chose to launch at least 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles Thursday night at a Syrian airfield in reaction to what it is claiming was the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government. It is important to remember, that despite the US government and its lap-dog mainstream media both claiming to have absolute certainty in regards to who carried out the attacks, the evidence is far from conclusive, mostly suggesting that Assad was in fact not responsible.
Armed with all the incomplete information they could patch together, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, have bluntly blamed Syria for the chemical weapons attack, whose victims reportedly included over 100 people, and at least 25 children.
Tillerson told reporters on Thursday that “there is no doubt in our minds” that the Syrian regime was responsible for the attack. And in a combative speech at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, Haley warned:
“When the United Nations consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action.”
Even in the face of this clear effort to display the type of certainty that will sway the minds of Americans to support yet another war, there are many, including Ron Paul, who have openly stated both that Assad was not responsible, and that this was likely a false flag carried out by western powers to create the justification needed to continue on with the previous administration’s foreign policy, also known as the policy of the deep state. That is the very policy that Trump has been executing, despite his ongoing promise to put America first, and stop doing the very thing he just openly committed to doing: continuing the globalist imperialism of the US empire, under the now highly insulting guise of spreading freedom and democracy that looks a lot like invasion and destabilization.
The President needs Congressional authorization for military action as required by the Constitution. — Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) April 7, 2017
This dance is getting tiresome. The dance where Americans are meant to get up in arms due to a baseless accusation, or at the very least, incomplete and inconclusive data with many contradicting reports. It worked after 9/11; it worked after just about every attack that followed. Yet, in recent years, Americans have begun to ask questions; they have begun to look to unlikely sources for truth, as mainstream media seems content to simply play the government mouthpiece. If one looks back on the promises that were made, the steps that have been taken, and the obvious distance between the two, it becomes all to clear that we have been lied to.
Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/04/06/us-launches-cruise-missile-strike-syria-after-chemical-weapons-attack/100142330/, http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-launches-missiles-syrian-base-after-chemical-weapons-attack-n743636, http://www.itv.com/news/2017-04-07/report-us-launches-cruise-missile-strikes-in-syria-targeting-airfield-near-homs/
Help Us Be The Change We Wish To See In The World.As the hockey world prepares for the return of the World Cup of Hockey, the staff at InGoal Magazine will take a closer look at the goaltending situation for all eight teams, including likely starters and style of play leading into the pre-tournament exhibition games. We started with the Czech Republic on Wednesday, and today take a closer look at the crease for Team Europe:
Team Europe’s options between the pipes may have simultaneously become both easier and more difficult during the past 12 months.
Heading in to the 2015-16 campaign, many would have given New York Islanders’ goaltender Jaroslav Halak the nod, with Frederik Andersen acting as deputy, an assumption which would continue when the pair were named to Team Europe’s preliminary roster in March.
Halak continues to play the same contained game he developed under Roland Melanson’s guidance in Montreal, and while he often likes to play inside the blue paint (leaving him vulnerable to shots from the middle due to his size) the 31-year-old has proven to have a well rounded game, with decent hands and a solid technique, and has gone on some incredible hot streaks in his career – most notably the 2010 playoffs.
He does tend to pull off a shots with is upper body at times, and has sometimes been vulnerable from tight angles in the past because of a reliance on the traditional VH for post integration on shape angle attacks, particularly off the rush – and this has led to some leaky goals – but the biggest strike against Halak heading in to the World Cup is a simple lack of action.
Jaroslav Halak Games Played SV% 5 vs 5 SV% HD SV% Record 2015-16 Pro Season 36.919.922.827 18-13-1
Halak was ultimately limited to just 36 games last season, missing the final 17 regular season games and all eleven playoff contests due to a groin strain. He underwent surgery on a sports hernia in May, which was expected to sideline him for six-to-eight weeks.
While Andersen played just 43 games for Anaheim, he remained largely healthy throughout the campaign and, along with John Gibson, helped the Ducks survive a sluggish start to the season to qualify for the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
With Gibson signing a three-year contract extension last September, Andersen was seen as something of an odd man out in Anaheim as he approached restricted free agency this summer however, and was eventually traded to the Maple Leafs in June. Signing a five-year, $25 million contract extension almost immediately upon his arrival Toronto, Andersen is set to takeover as the Maple Leafs’ number one this season – one of the most high pressure positions in the sport.
Frederik Andersen Games Played SV% 5 vs 5 SV% HD SV% Record 2015-16 Pro Season 43.919.930.814 22-9-4
With Halak’s health still under question, Andersen may now become the favourite to lead Team Europe at the World Cup as well.
A strong puck handler, the 6-foot-4 puck stopper has displayed a well rounded game during his three seasons in Anaheim, posting a respectable career save percentage of.918 through 125 career NHL games, though question marks still remain over his consistency.
That said, Andersen did perform well during the 2016 playoffs, with a goals-against average of just 1.41 and a.947 save percentage in five appearances, though he was unable to prevent the Ducks from being eliminated in seven-games by Nashville. And Andersen will have a head start on being game ready going into the World Cup because he is currently backstopping Denmark at Olympic qualifying in Minsk.
See Andersen’s WCoH mask here
While Halak’s absence has likely opened the door for Andersen at the World Cup, it also created an opportunity for German born goaltender Thomas Greiss, one the 30-year-old seized with both hands.
Thomas Greiss Games Played SV% 5 vs 5 SV% HD SV% Record 2015-16 Pro Season 41.925.933.844 23-11-3
Greiss played a career high 41 games for the Islanders last season, finishing the year with an impressive.925 save percentage to plunge the club – or its fan base at least – in to some kind of goalie controversy heading towards the 2016-17 season.
The former Sharks, Coyotes and Penguins netminder managed to carry his form in to the post season too, finishing with a.923 save percentage in eleven playoff games – though it should be noted he did noticeably fade during the Eastern Conference semifinal loss to Tampa Bay.
Considered to be a well rounded goaltender, neither too passive nor too aggressive, Greiss is technically sound with a tendency to play from his feet more than many of his peers, but still has to prove last year was not a fluke, while also having had an annoying habit of occasionally giving up bad goals and bad times in the past.
The increased workload did seem to benefit him however, and his calm demeanour puts him in good stead to handle pressure situations, which could make him a dark horse to seize an opportunity this fall should Andersen and/or Halak fail to impress.
Check out Greiss’s WCoH mask hereBlockchain Solutions in the Financial Industry
In this blog post, we will explain how a technology in its infancy, which is the Blockchain, could find solutions for one of the most well-established industries, which is financial industry.
From issues of regulation, trust, funding, miseducation; the battle of the millennials’ technology towards implementation is proving successful so far, but we have to ask ourselves two questions:
What is the financial industry's outlook on transparency and trustlessness?
What can we do to change that outlook? (Without losing the main components of the Blockchain)
The Current Landscape:
Most people in the blockchain industry believe that its implementation at this stage is virtually impossible. Banks are central. They have remained that way, successfully, for centuries now. Paraphrasing Chris Stewart, the CEO of SuredBits: “For a technology that defies everything that a bank is built on, to swoop in and chanwge the identity of a large, bureaucratic institution, the changes have to prove to not be destructive for the current setting which financial industries are built on.”
Arguably the financial industry, mostly banks, see this as a threat against the power they have. The blockchain is a people’s technology, in the sense that transparency is where the name of the game is. If banks can control everything they have without the use of transparency, why would they?
Yes, we do see fundings going everywhere towards this technology and proof-of-concepts are being developed at a quick pace, but are these fundings well-intended?
Our opinion on this matter is dualistic. Banks could either look to destroy the Blockchain’s image, through bad endorsement/publicity, or they could embrace the technology, but look to strip away the main concepts that build the Blockchain; like its decentralization, its transparency (this is a key point), and leave us with a technology that wasn’t the idea in the first place.
There is a third option: We find a middle-ground where the banks still have control over their services but the processes that the Blockchain is looking to enhance are augmented.
The Promising Future and Bitsapphire’s Efforts
As a company that develops blockchain solutions, our primary goal is to find ways to penetrate the industry with as little disruption as we can. Finding proof-of-concepts that conform to the investors, in the meanwhile suggesting innovative ideas that prove beneficial to the sectors in financial services.
In this post, we will explain some common scenarios that may occur during the implementation or your day-to-day confrontation with financial services, why they’re so frustrating, and what we, as a company, are trying to fix.
BaaS (Banking-as-a-Service)
Why are we mentioning Banking-as-a-Service? Taulant Ramabaja, our company’s expert in the blockchain industry, mentioned this term and made it very clear as to how banks were going to possibly expand with the implementation of blockchains. On the other hand, I saw as to why this could also be seen as an issue.
Imagine this scenario. You approach an investor with the idea that you want their banks to hand over the “monopolized” power they currently have, and in exchange, they get to provide services. How would that sound if it were your company? My guess is: “Not that great”.
If on the other hand, we were to approach the investor with the idea that this would allow the expansion beyond what they can and/or currently do, then it's a much better investment idea.
This is where our company’s expertise comes in. Our interest is in providing a universal, quicker service that is also within reach to everyone possible. How would we do this?
We show banks, with Proof-of-Concepts, that if they act as a place where money only “sits”, and every service that they provide could be done through an API, which is thousand-folds easier to expand than their current strategy, then why would they not be interested?
This would provide easier access to the bank's average customer, but also to (potential) customers all over the world, so that they don’t have to run a few miles to the next ATM/Bank for a simple withdrawal. In turn, this would generate more revenue for banks, and more revenue, means better service.
So BaaS is a very central subject in our company’s vision because not only do we provide banks with the opportunity to expand on a grander scale, we also provide you, the customer, with the faster and more accessible service that you deserve.
Loans
The loan process is a painful one. It is so long and straining, that people even result to using loan sharks that charge with extremely high-interest rates, just so they can avoid the bank documents that are a required to get a loan.
During our development as a company, we saw a lot of potential for financial services, and loans was one of the top contenders. The current process contains a lot of procedures, from optimizing your credit report, getting a credit score, gathering documentation, deciding whether you want a secure or unsecured loan, paying for fees, and if anything goes wrong this will damage your credit scores unbelievably and might even land you in court.
How does the blockchain industry come to the rescue? If we were to be realistic, the process wouldn’t be eliminated entirely, you’d still have to go through the documentation, but where the blockchain would shine is in expediting the process.
Taulant mentioned that through the use of blockchains, we could save all the data mentioned previously and the accessibility to that data would be much quicker. It wouldn’t have to be done through a government and the bank could simply check and approve.
A default scenario would be: You apply for a loan, you provide some required documents, for example, your ID and proof of ownership, and the bank would check under that ID whether or not you are truly the owner. They access the blockchain, confirm everything, and you’re set. So we eliminate the need to pile up documents on documents and not only would this serve the customer but it would also serve the bank because it’s in their best interest to also serve you with quality and fast service.
Transactions
Transactions take a lot of time to come through. The current TPS (Transaction Processing System) takes a lot of time, because all the information requested has to be gathered, organized and stored. Not only is the issue in the delay of accessibility, transactions have to be reliable and consistent. The process of securing the data is also costly because they must be saved in databases, warehouses, etc.
This delays the process of a transaction by a mile and it's one of the many reasons why blockchains would be so helpful to not only to customers, but also to banks.
Blockchains, according to Taulant, could be used to store information in a swift (but not SWIFT, unless they want to) and easy manner. Since blockchains are tamper-proof, because of the way it is built, this would mitigate the need to provide a separate, and costly, process of saving and securing information.
The speed of blockchains is beyond what any current services are providing and could speed up the process noticeably.
ICICI Bank of India completed its first transaction outside of the sandbox mode and in a real and present infrastructure for banks, so the future seems to be not so far.
One way we, at Bitsapphire, believe we could improve is in the sector of international transactions. International transactions are painful. Who hasn’t thought about it twice before they decided to pull cash overseas? Bank of America takes 3 percent on purchases or 1 percent plus $5 conversion fee on withdrawals - that’s a staggering amount.
This is because of all the middlemen that have to be used to confirm the transaction. Blockchains can be used to remove the middlemen of the transaction, since all the data for it can be confirmed on a blockchain. This would save the customer, a lot of money but it would also save banks a hefty sum.
Blockchain, Bitsapphire and the Future
The Blockchain Industry and its implementation is not necessarily within just these fields. We believe that as blockchains grow outside its current setting we will find use cases for it that will enhance the customer service that could be provided as well as save money. The win-win situation is necessary in this process because, the customer, doesn’t care about what technology is behind the process, they simply want a smoother and better experience.
We know that and we are working harder everyday to make that happen, but this includes educating everyone around the myriad of possibilities that blockchains provide.Tamsulosin 400 μg and nifedipine 30 mg are not effective at decreasing the need for further treatment to achieve stone clearance in 4 weeks for patients with expectantly managed ureteric colic.
Between Jan 11, 2011, and Dec 20, 2013, we randomly assigned 1167 participants, 1136 (97%) of whom were included in the primary analysis (17 were excluded because of ineligibility and 14 participants were lost to follow-up). 303 (80%) of 379 participants in the placebo group did not need further intervention by 4 weeks, compared with 307 (81%) of 378 in the tamsulosin group (adjusted risk difference 1·3% [95% CI −5·7 to 8·3]; p=0·73) and 304 (80%) of 379 in the nifedipine group (0·5% [–5·6 to 6·5]; p=0·88). No difference was noted between active treatment and placebo (p=0·78), or between tamsulosin and nifedipine (p=0·77). Serious adverse events were reported in three participants in the nifedipine group (one had right loin pain, diarrhoea, and vomiting; one had malaise, headache, and chest pain; and one had severe chest pain, difficulty breathing, and left arm pain) and in one participant in the placebo group (headache, dizziness, lightheadedness, and chronic abdominal pain).
For this multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled trial, we recruited adults (aged 18–65 years) undergoing expectant management for a single ureteric stone identified by CT at 24 UK hospitals. Participants were randomly assigned by a remote randomisation system to tamsulosin 400 μg, nifedipine 30 mg, or placebo taken daily for up to 4 weeks, using an algorithm with centre, stone size (≤5 mm or >5 mm), and stone location (upper, mid, or lower ureter) as minimisation covariates. Participants, clinicians, and trial personnel were masked to treatment assignment. The primary outcome was the proportion of participants who did not need further intervention for stone clearance within 4 weeks of randomisation, analysed in a modified intention-to-treat population defined as all eligible patients for whom we had primary outcome data. This trial is registered with the European Clinical Trials Database, EudraCT number 2010-019469-26, and as an International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial, number 69423238.
Meta-analyses of previous randomised controlled trials concluded that the smooth muscle relaxant drugs tamsulosin and nifedipine assisted stone passage for people managed expectantly for ureteric colic, but emphasised the need for high-quality trials with wide inclusion criteria. We aimed to fulfil this need by testing effectiveness of these drugs in a standard clinical care setting.
We now report the clinical results of the pragmatic randomised Spontaneous Urinary Stone Passage Enabled by Drugs (SUSPEND) trial, designed to resolve uncertainty about the benefit of these drugs when used in routine care of people with expectantly managed ureteric colic. We sought to establish whether tamsulosin or nifedipine increased the likelihood of spontaneous stone passage measured by the absence of need for further intervention and, if so, which was the better drug.
Results of previous studies showed a positive benefit on spontaneous stone passage with these agents. However, our methodologically sound and large trial offers a strong evidence base for the alternative view that they are unlikely to be useful in the routine clinical care of people with ureteric colic.
Both reviews emphasised uncertainty in estimates of effect due to the small size of most component studies, differences in inclusion criteria and outcome measurement, and inadequate masking of participants and assessors. We sought to overcome these deficiencies by designing a large, multicentre trial with robust means of concealment of allocated treatment. We also chose a clinically relevant, attributable, and clear primary outcome measure. Using this method we established that neither the most frequently used α blocker, tamsulosin, or the calcium channel stabiliser nifedipine showed any clinically useful benefit for increasing stone passage measured by the absence of need for further intervention.
In planning our trial we identified two contemporary high-quality systematic reviews that had appraised and meta-analysed previous randomised controlled trials in this specialty. One was a Cochrane review that included trials of treatment with α blockers retrieved from the Cochrane Renal Group's Specialised Register up to July 9, 2012. Meta-analysis of 32 trials involving 5864 participants showed that use of α blockers increased likelihood of stone passage compared with control, with a relative risk (RR) of 1·48 (95% CI 1·33–1·64). Additionally, from four trials involving 3486 participants, tamsulosin seemed to be better than nifedipine at increasing the likelihood of stone passage (RR 1·19, 95% CI 1·05–1·35). Overall, the included studies were deemed to have a high or unclear risk of bias around masking and a low risk of bias around outcome collection and reporting. The second, a systematic review by Seitz and colleagues, searched Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews up to Dec 31, 2008, for randomised trials of use of both α blockers and calcium channel stabilisers as medical expulsive therapy (MET). Combining all 29 studies involving 2419 participants, they noted that MET increased the likelihood of spontaneous stone passage (RR 1·45, 95% CI 1·34–1·57). Additionally, they found evidence from nine trials involving 686 participants that nifedipine increased likelihood of stone passage compared with controls (RR 1·49, 95% CI 1·33–1·66). Overall, the trials were found to be of low-to-moderate quality on the basis of a validated scoring method.
Treatments that increase likelihood of stone passage would be expected to benefit patients with ureteric colic because the need for an interventional procedure will be reduced. The smooth muscle relaxant drugs tamsulosin (an α-adrenoceptor antagonist) and nifedipine (a calcium channel stabiliser) are possible agents, their use being termed medical expulsive therapy (MET).Meta-analyses of data from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) report a statistically significant benefit for both tamsulosin and nifedipine over controls for the outcome of spontaneous stone passagewith tamsulosin better than nifedipine.However, the clinical usefulness of MET is uncertain because of the predominance of small, single-centre, low-to-moderate quality trials and variability in trial design with differing inclusion criteria and outcome measurement.Despite these cautions and although not licensed for this indication, MET is recommended by clinical guidanceand is being adopted as part of routine expectant management.
Ureteric colic is defined as episodic severe abdominal pain from sustained contraction of ureteric smooth muscle as a kidney stone passes down the ureter into the bladder.It is a common reason for people to seek emergency health care and was associated with 550 000 emergency room visits in the USA in 2009(costing US$3 billion) and 25 000 hospital admissions in England in 2012(costing £11·6 million). After clinical assessment and stone localisation by non-contrast CT of the kidneys, ureters, and bladder (CT KUB), patients can generally be managed at home with analgesia with the expectation of spontaneous stone passage.The likelihood that the stone will pass within 4 weeks ranges between 50% and 95% depending on stone size and location in the ureter.Expectantly managed patients who develop recurrent pain, sepsis, or compromised renal function need drainage if necessary followed by stone clearance using endoscopy or extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy.
The funder (through their peer and funding board review process) approved the study proposal but had no role in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, or writing of the report. The corresponding author had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.
All participants were analysed as randomised. Subgroup analyses explored the possible effect modification of stone size, location in ureter, and sex, all using treatment by subgroup interaction terms and 99% CI. Further details are available from our published protocol.We did all analyses in Stata 13. An accompanying cost-effectiveness analysis will be reported separately.
Use of drug therapy in the management of symptomatic ureteric stones in hospitalized adults (SUSPEND), a multicentre, placebo-controlled, randomized trial of a calcium-channel blocker (nifedipine) and an alpha-blocker (tamsulosin): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
Sensitivity analyses assessed the effect of missing data on pain and health status outcomes.First, we repeated analyses using multiple imputation models with predictions based on all baseline covariates collected with results combined across ten imputed datasets. We then tested the robustness of these results using pattern mixture models, which imputed missing SF-36 scores across a range of potential values from minus half the observed SD to plus half the SD of the outcome being analysed.
We use summary statistics to describe the characteristics of the trial groups at baseline and during follow-up. We used generalised linear models to analyse outcomes with adjustment for minimisation covariates, logistic regression for binary outcomes, and linear regression for continuous outcomes. We present treatment effects with 95% CI; for the primary outcome we present both the odds ratio and absolute risk difference. We estimated CIs for the risk difference using the delta method. We analysed data for the primary outcome from the modified intention-to-treat population, which included all randomly assigned participants apart from those with missing primary outcome data and those who were found to be ineligible after randomisation. For secondary outcomes, we included participants in a complete case analysis under a missing-at-random assumption.
The trial was powered for the most conservative hypothesis: that the proportion of participants who passed their stone would be 10% higher in the tamsulosin group compared with the nifedipine group (85% vs 75%). We prespecified two comparisons, MET (tamsulosin or nifedipine) against placebo, and tamsulosin against nifedipine. We also made post-hoc comparisons of each agent against placebo. For 90% power and a type I error rate of 5%, we required 1062 participants (354 in each group), which we inflated to 1200 to allow for 10% loss to follow-up.
The primary outcome was spontaneous stone passage in 4 weeks, defined as the absence of need for additional interventions to assist stone passage at 4 weeks after randomisation. Other outcomes were pain assessed by participant-reported number of days of analgesic use and visual analogue scale at 4 weeks, time to stone passage assessed by the date of imaging showing no stone at up to 4 weeks, health status assessed by the Short Form (SF)-36 questionnaire, and safety assessed by participant report of discontinuation of medication due to adverse effects and by serious adverse events monitoring. We also assessed health outcomes with the EQ-5D questionnaire, and heath-care resource use and participant costs (health economic components), the results of which will be reported elsewhere.
Safety outcomes were reported as and when they happened (via the case report form, patient questionnaires, and patient and clinician report). Suspected serious adverse events were graded at site by the local principal investigator, reported to the trial office to be confirmed by the chief investigator. Safety events were monitored by the sponsor, research ethics committee, and MHRA. Non-serious adverse events were not collected or reported.
Baseline data were collected before randomisation in hospital. Local research staff obtained follow-up data by use of participant questionnaires, which were completed at home at 4 and 12 weeks, and case report forms, completed during clinic visits or telephone contact at 4 and 12 weeks. No clinical tests were mandatory as part of the trial protocol.
Participants self-administered tamsulosin 400 μg, nifedipine 30 mg, or placebo orally once daily until spontaneous stone passage occurred, the need for intervention was agreed, or until 4 weeks had passed since randomisation, whichever came first. We did not verify adherence to trial medication.
Trained site personnel (research nurses and clinicians) enrolled participants at each site. Participants were allocated in a 1:1:1 ratio to either tamsulosin, nifedipine, or placebo by a remote randomisation system hosted at the Centre for Healthcare Randomised Trials (CHaRT) in Aberdeen, UK, using an algorithm with centre, stone size (≤5 mm or >5 mm), and stone location (upper, mid, or lower ureter) as minimisation covariates. Each randomly assigned participant was given 28 capsules of trial medication (over-encapsulated tamsulosin or nifedipine, or placebo) supplied by an independent source (Tayside Pharmaceuticals, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, UK) who had no further involvement in the trial, ensuring that participants, clinicians, and trial personnel remained unaware of the allocated group.
Patients gave written informed consent in line with Good Clinical Practice and the Declaration of Helsinki. The trial was approved by the East of Scotland Research Ethics Service (reference 10/S0501/31) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA; reference 2010-019469-26).
In this randomised, placebo-controlled trial, we recruited patients presenting to 24 UK National Health Service hospitals with ureteric colic. Adults aged 18–65 years with one stone of 10 mm or less (at the largest dimension) in either ureter identified on CT KUB were included. Patients who were ineligible included those needing immediate intervention decided by clinical assessment, those with sepsis, those with an estimated glomerular filtration rate of less than 30 mL/min, and those already taking or unable to take an α blocker or calcium channel stabiliser. We excluded people older than 65 years because nifedipine dose titration is recommended for this age group. Full details of all inclusion and exclusion criteria are available in our published protocol.
Use of drug therapy in the management of symptomatic ureteric stones in hospitalized adults (SUSPEND), a multicentre, placebo-controlled, randomized trial of a calcium-channel blocker (nifedipine) and an alpha-blocker (tamsulosin): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
Serious adverse events were reported in three participants allocated to nifedipine (one had right loin pain, diarrhoea, and vomiting; one had malaise, headache, and chest pain; and one had severe chest pain, difficulty breathing, and left arm pain) and in one participant in the placebo group (headache, dizziness, lightheadedness, and chronic abdominal pain). No deaths were reported.
Spontaneous stone passage, defined by absence of need for intervention to assist stone passage during the 4 weeks after randomisation, did not differ between groups ( table 2 ). 307 (81%) of 378 participants in the tamsulosin group needed no further intervention compared with 304 (80%) of 379 in the nifedipine group, and 303 (80%) of 379 in the placebo group. These findings were consistent across the predefined subgroups of sex, stone size, and stone location ( figure 2 ). We also noted no difference in stone passage at up to 12 weeks (data not shown), by which time an additional 27 (7%) participants in the tamsulosin group, 25 (6%) in the nifedipine group, and 28 (7%) in the placebo group had an intervention planned. No differences were recorded in the secondary outcomes of days of analgesic use ( table 3 ), time to stone passage ( table 3 ), and health status between the groups ( figure 3 ). Sensitivity analyses showed that these estimates were robust to assumptions about missing data for all but implausible scenarios (data not shown).
Interaction analyses showing odds ratio (OR) and 99% CI for the primary outcome for the subgroups of participant sex (women vs men), stone size (≤5 mm vs >5 mm), and stone location (upper vs middle vs lower ureter). The graphs show relation to OR of 1 (dashed line) and trial estimate of OR (solid line) for each of the comparisons of MET versus placebo, tamsulosin versus nifedipine, tamsulosin versus placebo, and nifedipine versus placebo. MET=medical expulsive therapy. *p interaction value. †p interaction value between upper ureter and lower ureter. ‡p interaction value between middle ureter and lower ureter.
Between Jan 11, 2011, and Dec 20, 2013, 1167 participants were randomly assigned (391 to tamsulosin, 387 to nifedipine, and 389 to placebo; figure 1 ). Of these, 17 were subsequently excluded because of ineligibility and 14 participants were lost to follow-up, and were not included in the primary outcome analysis. We were able to ascertain the primary outcome for 1136 (97%) participants in the final analysis. 719 (62%) of 1150 eligible participants completed the 4-week questionnaire and 564 (49%) of 1150 eligible participants completed the 12-week questionnaire, with no differences in the proportion returned between groups (data not shown). Baseline characteristics were similar for the three groups ( table 1 ).
Numbers of participants declining further follow-up or not responding are cumulative in direction of participant flow. CT KUB=CT of the kidneys, ureters, and bladder.
Discussion
The results of our trial, done in a routine care setting with masking of treatment allocation, showed that use of tamsulosin and nifedipine did not affect the proportion of patients needing further intervention to clear their stone during 4 weeks. This finding, suggesting similar rates of spontaneous stone passage across the trial groups, was consistent when possible modifiers of the likelihood of spontaneous stone passage were taken into account, and was unchanged at 12 weeks after randomisation. We found no evidence that the drugs reduced pain, hastened time to stone passage, or improved health state. The precision of trial estimates of treatment effect is sufficient to rule out any clinically useful benefit of these drugs to assist stone passage in this patient group at the dose and duration examined.
7 Campschroer T
Zhu Y
Duijvesz D
Grobbee DE
Lock MTWT Alpha blockers as medical expulsive therapy for ureteral stones. 13 Tchey D-U
Ha YS
Kim WT
Yun SJ
Lee SC
Kim WJ Expectant management of ureter stones: outcome and clinical factors of spontaneous passage in a single institution's experience., 14 Preminger GM
Tiselius HG
Assimos DG
et al. Guideline for the management of ureteral calculi. 7 Campschroer T
Zhu Y
Duijvesz D
Grobbee DE
Lock MTWT Alpha blockers as medical expulsive therapy for ureteral stones., 8 Seitz C
Liatsikos E
Porpiglia F
Tiselius H-G
Zwergel U Medical therapy to facilitate the passage of stones: what is the evidence. We used a pragmatic trial design in a multicentre setting to ensure that the drugs were tested in a manner aligned with present clinical practice recommendations, allowing direct translation of the results into standard clinical care. As recommended by a Cochrane review,the key entry criterion was identification of one ureteric stone by CT KUB, ensuring that only patients with a symptomatic ureteric stone were included. The trial cohort was representative of the target population for MET with baseline characteristics such as stone size and location consistent with recent case series.We chose to include treatment with tamsulosin as the α-adrenoceptor antagonist most often used for MET, and nifedipine since, |
that would be a waste of time? The miner we are going to configure isn’t profitable.
What’s mining and why is it interesting?
I do not go into depth how mining exactly works; I assume you’ve already read a bit about digital digging and put your first steps into the miners world. If you want to read more about mining, you can check this article.
To give some global clarity: All Gulden transactions are stored in the Gulden-blockchain. These transactions are verified by miners. You will probably understand: There’s no such thing as a free lunch. In exchange for checking and calculating new blocks in the blockchain a miner receives a reward. For Gulden this is 100 NLG per block.
The ingredients for our cheapass Gulden miner
Free Gulden sounds good to my ears, that’s why I came up with DIY miner for as cheap as possible. To do this you need A) a miner who is responsible for processing the calculations. B) a computer that drives the miner.
For if you do not like lists: the computer in this setting will be the Raspberry Pi 3. The miner will be a the particularly cheap LKETC, imported from China.
I’ll say it again: “If you pay peanuts, you get monkey.” This miner is not profitable.
Raspberry Pi 3 starters kit
Costs around 59 euro via SOS Solutions (other design, same quality)
LKETC asic usb miner
Costs around 23 euro via AliExpress (220 kH/s)
Software
Lan Scan (freeware)
CGminer (freeware)
Other hardware
I assume you do have a keyboard + mouse (with USB connection), ethernet cable, hdmi cable and television / display with hdmi connection. If not, you can purchase starter sets with the early mentioned accessories here. Alternatively, AliExpress will be your best friend.
USB-mouse (1,50 euro)
Ethernetcable (1,5o euro)
HDMI-cable (1,50 euro)
Keyboard (9 euro)
Firstly, this explanation is for Mac users, but should for Windows users as well. Secondly, based on this explanation, someone without any knowledge of programming should be able to build a miner.
Getting started
Step 1: Raspberry Pi
If you are well known with Lego, assembling a Raspberry Pi (RPi) will be no problem. Follow the instructions provided in the box. When done, attach the mouse and keyboard to the RPi. Grab the hdmi cable and insert one end of the cable into the RPi, the other end in a screen. Finally, power the RPi.
At the starter kit, the RPi already has an operating system, so we can turn on the RPi immediately. If everything is as should be, you’ll see some rows of letters on the screen. Nothing’s going on, just wait until a huge broom comes to light. Click the Wi-Fi icon at the top right and select your own Wi-Fi network.
Your Raspberry Pi must be connected to (wireless) internet so that you can connect with the Raspberry from your computer through SSH.
You do not need the keyboard and the mouse anymore.
Step 2: Link your computer to the Raspberry Pi
Because the Raspberry Pi is now connected to (wireless) internet, you can access it from your Macbook or iMac. We will use the IP address of the Raspberry Pi. The IP address can be found with Lan Scan. Open the program and click ‘Scan Now’. The RPi appears on the screen as ‘raspberrypi’. In this example he has IP address 192.168.1.129.
Open Terminal; Here we make the connection between your Macbook and the Raspberry Pi. Enter the following command.
ssh pi@192.168.1.129
Terminal will ask for a password. That password is by default ‘raspberry’. Type it and press Enter. Tadaa! The connection with your Raspberry Pi has been established!
Step 3: Installing miner software
Now that you’re connected to the Raspberry Pi, you can enter remotely commands. In this case that certain software needs to be installed.
I’ve searched for hours to find mining software that a) works with Raspberry b) can drive the purchased miner. Lucky you: I found it! 🙂
For now we want to install a modified version of the software ‘CGminer’ on the Raspberry Pi. Follow the following steps line by line. Note: The installation may take a while, so be patient.
Enter the following commands in your terminal:
sudo apt-get install screen
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
Last step can take a while, grab some coffee. Then:
git clone https://github.com/wareck/cgminer-lketc.git && cd cgminer-lketc.git
sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool pkg-config libcurl4-openssl-dev libudev-dev libjansson-dev libncurses5-dev libudev-dev libjansson-dev
./autogen.sh
./configure --enable-scrypt --enable-lketc && make
Step 4: Choosing a Gulden mining pool
Now that the custom version of CG Miner has been installed, you can theoretically start with mining. All we have to do is find a mining pool. In a mining pool, miners jointly search for the next block in the blockchain; Joint search = joint computing power = a greater chance of finding a block = being jointly rewarded.
On the Gulden website you will find several mining pools. Choose a pool where many miners are connected, as that will increase your chance of finding a block (and getting a reward).
When you’re new to mining, I recommend Coinpool, because there you can also check if your miner works properly. At Coinpool there is a simple manual, which I will describe in my own words for convenience. Add to Terminal:
Example
sudo./cgminer --scrypt --lketc-clock 220 -o stratum+tcp://coinpool.nl:20000 -u Gulden-address for receiving reward -p a random password
Which means
sudo./cgminer --scrypt --lketc-clock 220 -o stratum+tcp://coinpool.nl:20000 -u GZANXTBDuLUka46NreA4bovGuUuNa5e2hT -p asdfasdf
Step 5: Let the mining begin
Congratulations! If it’s ok, your miner can start working! Return to Terminal and fill in the above rules (note: replace the Gulden address and password :-))
screen
Screen bash keeps your miner running when you closed Terminal.
cd cgminer-lketc
sudo./cgminer --scrypt --lketc-clock 220 -o stratum+tcp://coinpool.nl:20000 -u GZANXTBDuLUka46NreA4bovGuUuNa5e2hT -p asdfasdf
If you’ve followed the steps above, you will see the commands in Terminal showed below. That means: Your miner works!
As you can see in the animation above, my LKETC miner helps to calculate the blocks. Coinpool shows you very user-friendly how much your miner has helped. As you can see, my worker is number 7 of the 8 miners who perform in the mining pool.
Mine other altcoins
With this setup you can basically also mine other altcoins like Bata, Litecoin or Einsteinium.
Note
As mentioned earlier in this article, you won’t get rich from the LKETC miner (and RPi). Even ‘better’, you’re really lucky if you even get rewarded with Gulden for all the calculation your miner does. To make it even more clear:
The startup costs are around 75 euros.
If you leave the miner running 24 hours a day, it generates about 0.24 NLG (at current euro rate 1 eurocent) per day.
It will take 12 years to earn your startup costs back (energy and internet costs are not yet taken into account.
FAQ
Since I have to searched for a few days to get all the answers.PHOENIX (Reuters) - An Arizona man who admitted to decapitating his wife and her two dogs in a bloody incident last month in Phoenix told authorities he was attempting “to get the evil out” of her, according to court documents released on Monday.
Kenneth Dale Wakefield, 43, also told police that he had smoked marijuana and the designer drug Spice about an hour before the gruesome killings in a Phoenix apartment on the morning of July 25, the documents showed.
Wakefield, a transient with a history of mental illness who also maimed himself in the incident, was booked into a Maricopa County jail Aug. 1 on one count of first-degree murder and two counts of animal cruelty after being released from a local hospital. He is being held on $2 million bond.
In court papers, police said Wakefield told them during an interview that he stabbed his 49-year-old wife, Trina Heisch, multiple times before decapitating her, and killed the dogs by cutting their heads off.
“He said he was trying to get the evil out of Trina,” police said in a probable cause statement filed in Maricopa County Superior Court.
Police said the Phoenix man then severed his left arm at the elbow and gouged out one of his eyes before being discovered.
The blood-splattered scene was found by a neighbor who told police he was checking on the couple he knew had mental illness issues.
The neighbor said he saw Wakefield naked, with part of his arm cut off and his right eye missing, when he opened the door to the apartment. The neighbor then called police.
Officers said they entered the home and found the headless Heisch in a bedroom closet along with the two dogs.
Large amounts of blood was spread across the floors, cabinets and walls of the apartment, police said. Several bloody knives were recovered.
Investigators said both Wakefield and his wife had histories of mental illness, domestic violence and drug abuse.
In a video also released on Monday, Wakefield can be seen during his initial court appearance on Saturday lowering his head, then putting his right hand to his mouth and emitting a wail as the prosecutor spoke.
He is expected to appear in court for a status conference on Aug. 7.
Wakefield was arrested in 2003 for attempting to kill a family member. Heisch was arrested in March for domestic violence assault, when it was alleged she tried to stab Wakefield, police said.
Family members told police that the two married after meeting in a mental health facility.A spermatozoon (pronounced, alternate spelling spermatozoön ; plural spermatozoa ; from Ancient Greek : σπέρμα "seed" and Ancient Greek : ζῷον "living being") is a motile sperm cell, or moving form of the haploid cell that is the male gamete. A spermatozoon joins an ovum to form a zygote. (A zygote is a single cell, with a complete set of chromosomes, that normally develops into an embryo.)
Humans Edit
The human sperm cell is the reproductive cell in males and will only survive in warm environments; once it leaves the male body the sperm's survival likelihood is reduced and it may die, thereby decreasing the total sperm quality. Sperm cells come in two types, "female" and "male". Sperm cells that give rise to female (XX) offspring after fertilization differ in that they carry an X-chromosome, while sperm cells that give rise to male (XY) offspring carry a Y-chromosome.
A human sperm cell consists of a flat, disc shaped head 5.1 µm by 3.1 µm and a tail 50 µm long.[2] The tail flagellates, which propels the sperm cell (at about 1–3 mm/minute in humans) by whipping in an elliptical cone.[3] Sperm have an olfactory guidance mechanism, and after reaching the Fallopian tubes, must undergo a period of capacitation before penetration of the ovum.[4]
Head: It has a compact nucleus with only chromatic substance and is surrounded by only a thin rim of cytoplasm. Above the nucleus lies a cap-like structure called the acrosome, formed by modification of the Golgi body, which secretes the enzyme spermlysin (hyaluronidase, corona-penetrating enzyme, zona eyesin, or aerosin.) On the surface of the head lies a decapacitating substance which is removed before fertilisation.
Neck: It is the smallest part (0.03 ×10−6 m), and has a proximal and distal centriole. The proximal centriole enters into the egg during fertilisation and starts the first cleavage division of the egg, which has no centriole. The distal centriole gives rise to the axial filament which forms the tail and has a (9+2) arrangement. A transitory membrane called the Manchette lies in the middle piece.
Middle piece: It has 10–14 spirals of mitochondria surrounding the axial filament in the cytoplasm. It provides motility, and hence is called the powerhouse of the sperm. It also has a ring centriole (annulus) that form a diffusion barrier between the middle piece and the principal piece and serve as a stabilizing structure for tail rigidity.[5]
Tail: It is the longest part (50×10−6 m), having an axial filament surrounded by cytoplasm and plasma membrane, but at the posterior end the axial filament is naked.
Semen has an alkaline nature and the spermatozoa do not reach full motility (hypermotility) until they reach the vagina, where the alkaline pH is neutralized by acidic vaginal fluids. This gradual process takes 20–30 minutes. During this period, fibrinogen from the seminal vesicles forms a clot, securing and protecting the sperm. Just as they become hypermotile, fibrinolysin from the prostate gland dissolves the clot, allowing the sperm to progress optimally.
The spermatozoon is characterized by a minimum of cytoplasm and the most densely packed DNA known in eukaryotes. Compared to mitotic chromosomes in somatic cells, sperm DNA is at least sixfold more highly condensed.[6]
The specimen contributes with DNA/chromatin, a centriole, and perhaps also an oocyte-activating factor (OAF).[7] It may also contribute with paternal messenger RNA (mRNA), also contributing to embryonic development.[7]
Electron micrograph of human spermatozoa magnified 3140 times.
Sperm cells in the urine sample of a 45-year-old male patient who is being followed with the diagnosis of benign prostate hyperplasia.
Another image from the same urine sample as with the image on the left.
The human spermatozoon contains at least 7500 different proteins.[8]
DNA damage and repair Edit
DNA damages present in spermatozoa in the period after meiosis but before fertilization may be repaired in the fertilized egg, but if not repaired, can have serious deleterious effects on fertility and the developing embryo. Human spermatozoa are particularly vulnerable to free radical attack and the generation of oxidative DNA damage.[9][10] (see e.g. 8-Oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine)
Exposure of males to certain lifestyle, environmental or occupational hazards may increase the risk of aneuploid spermatozoa.[11] In particular, risk of aneuploidy is increased by tobacco smoking,[12][13] and occupational exposure to benzene,[14] insecticides,[15][16] and perfluorinated compounds.[17] Increased aneuploidy of spermatozoa often occurs in association with increased DNA damage. DNA fragmentation and increased in situ DNA susceptibility to denaturation, the features similar to these seen during apoptosis of somatic cells, characterize abnormal spermatozoa in cases of male infertility.[18][19]
Avoidance of immune system response Edit
Glycoprotein molecules on the surface of ejaculated sperm cells are recognized by all human female immune systems, and interpreted as a signal that the cell should not be rejected. The female immune system might otherwise attack sperm in the reproductive tract. The specific glycoproteins coating sperm cells are also utilized by some cancerous and bacterial cells, some parasitic worms, and HIV-infected white blood cells, thereby avoiding an immune response from the host organism.[20]
The blood-testis barrier, maintained by the tight junctions between the Sertoli cells of the seminiferous tubules, prevents communication between the forming spermatozoa in the testis and the blood vessels (and immune cells circulating within them) within the interstitial space. This prevents them from eliciting an immune response. The blood-testis barrier is also important in preventing toxic substances from disrupting spermatogenesis.TORONTO — Salman Hossain is a Canadian fugitive. Wanted for promoting a genocide against Jews, he is the subject of an Ontario Provincial Police warrant and an Interpol notice that asks police worldwide to locate and arrest him.
But he is not that hard to find.
On Sunday, a photographer caught the 32-year-old former Toronto resident outside a coffee franchise in the Gulshan district of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. He arrived in a silver Toyota Corolla with Bangladeshi licence plates.
Photos he has shared privately in recent weeks show him in the restaurant and gym at Dhaka’s luxury Lakeshore Banani hotel, and standing behind his Corolla in an area of Dhaka known as Diabari Uttara.
“That individual is still wanted,” said Acting Staff Sgt. Peter Leon of the OPP, which conducted the investigation that resulted in Hossain becoming the first person charged in Canada with advocating genocide.
When charges were laid against Hossain in July 2010, the OPP said it would do “everything in our power to bring him to justice.” Seven years later, he has not been arrested, despite facing a total of five counts that could see him imprisoned for 16 years.
Aside from notifying Interpol, it’s unclear what steps authorities have taken to return him to Canada for trial. Canada does not have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh, but at the time the charges were laid police said they would still seek his arrest.
A senior Bangladeshi official in Ottawa, however, said he knew nothing about the case. “We are not aware of the issue,” said the official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak. “If someone is wanted in a foreign country, our government needs to know.”
He said the Canadian government had “mechanisms” to inform Bangladesh about fugitives. “I can assure you that the present government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is against any kind of extremism, terrorism and transnational crime,” he said.
Asked what the Canadian government had done to secure Hossain’s arrest, Global Affairs Canada referred the question to the RCMP, which said an Interpol red notice requesting his arrest had been posted at the request of Canadian authorities.
“However each member country decides for itself what legal value to give a red notice within their borders and therefore the ability to arrest and extradite a subject in a given country is not a guarantee,” said Sgt. Harold Pfleiderer, an RCMP spokesman.
Since Hossain left Canada shortly before the charges were approved, hints of his whereabouts have appeared online. The local Bangla language can be heard in a video posted last September in which he watched men slitting the neck of a goat.
“This is how the evil Yahud (Jews) and their helpers and slaves need to be executed when caught and punished worldwide,” read the post on YouTube. “Daesh have you forgotten your duties to target Israel and important Jews yet?” Daesh is another name for ISIL.
A Facebook user, who said he became a social media acquaintance of Hossain’s before realizing he was wanted by Interpol, said the Bangladeshi-Canadian used more than a dozen online aliases and claimed he was involved in credit-card hacking. Hossain had talked about moving to Malaysia, said the man, who asked not to be named.
The acquaintance provided a Dhaka phone number he said Hossain had shared with him. The man who answered the number spoke North American English. When a reporter introduced himself, he said, “You got the wrong dude,” and hung up. He did not respond to questions sent by text and social media.
“We are surprised and concerned that he has not yet been apprehended and turned over to Canadian authorities, particularly since his general whereabouts is known and he continues to call for the death of Jews,” said Shimon Koffler Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
With anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim incidents on the rise, the case shows how difficult it can be to prosecute hate crimes in Canada. Hossain came to the attention of Canadian authorities a decade ago over Internet posts urging “Muslim militants” to attack Canada.
His online incitement prompted visits from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and RCMP, which Hossain said was investigating him. But he continued to advocate extremist violence, particularly against Jews, calling repeatedly for their “extermination.”
Despite complaints from Jewish groups, Ontario’s Attorney-General declined to approve hate crimes charges in 2009 on the grounds Hossain had stopped posting online and was undergoing rehabilitation.
But he soon resumed his campaign, campaigning unapologetically for the Jewish populations of North America and Europe to be “exterminated.” York University expelled him in March 2010. He fled Canada after police opened a new investigation — but before charges were approved.
At the news conference announcing the charges, Vince Hawkes, who was then OPP deputy commissioner and is now commissioner, said police were working with federal and provincial authorities to “examine options with regard to extradition.” He said he had no doubt police would “get him.”
“I recall that it took a very long time for the Attorney General of the day to give the OPP permission to proceed with those charges,” said Julian Fantino, who was the OPP commissioner at the time and later became a Conservative MP and cabinet minister.
The Canadian government should “give immediate priority” to Hossain’s arrest, Fantino added. “The charges against him are extremely serious,” he said, calling Hossain’s provocations a throwback to the Nazi era. “I am extremely disappointed that to date Hossain has not been brought to justice.”
The advocacy group CAIR-Canada (now the National Council of Canadian Muslims) called Hossain’s comments “disgusting” at the time and supported the charges against him, saying they sent “a clear message that speech of this nature will not go unchecked.”
In online posts that appeared under his name last year, Hossain said he had left Canada “in order to organize a revolution and attempt to begin promoting and pushing for a full-blown genocide against the Jewish-owned nations of the Western world.”
He said an “extermination program” was needed to stop Jews and their supporters from labelling Muslims as terrorists. “I will never stop promoting and attempting to facilitate and organize multiple genocides against the Jews and their allies until Jewish power is permanently decimated.”
National Post
sbell@nationalpost.com
Twitter.com/StewartBellNPPittsburgh Penguins forward Pascal Dupuis will no longer play hockey because of a medical condition related to blood clots, Dupuis and the Penguins announced Tuesday.
Dupuis felt pain in his chest during a Dec. 1 game against the San Jose Sharks, one of several games he either left early or did not play this season for precautionary reasons. He was cleared and returned to play on back-to-back nights against the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks last weekend but said he was already considering retirement.
"We've been talking about it for a little while on this road trip, since the San Jose game. It made it more clear in my head that it was weighing on me, my wife, kids, my teammates," Dupuis told the Penguins website.
"One hundred percent, it was definitely all about [my family]. If all this was on me or if I'd taken a selfish approach to this, I'd probably still be playing."
Dupuis was playing this season taking blood thinners. He was diagnosed with blood clots in January 2014 shortly after sustaining torn ligaments in his knee and missed the remainder of the 2014-15 season after a blood clot in his lung was discovered in November. He was cleared to work out and take contact in June 2015.
"Despite playing on a medical protocol that has worked for other players in the NHL, we feel that the risk of Pascal playing with his condition and the side effects of the tests to monitor him are just not in the best interest of his long-term health," Penguins team physician Dr. Dharmesh Vyas said.
Dupuis spoke about the aftermath of coming out of the game against the Sharks and the mental toll the health concerns took.
"Nothing was there, but it's going through all the testing, the radiation every time I get tested, CAT scan and everything. I don't think I should have my body go through this again," he said.
The Penguins will place Dupuis, 36, on long-term injured reserve and continue to pay his salary. He is in the third year of a four-year contract with an average annual salary of $3.75 million.
"I feel very badly for Pascal," Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford said. "I've never seen a man more determined to play and more determined to help his team. Unfortunately, we've reached the point where it's not in the best interest of his health to allow him to do that anymore.
"It's tough to watch something like this, especially with a terrific guy like Dupuis and what he's done for the team. When you sit back and think about it, he's doing it for the right reasons. You have to keep his priorities straight and he's got his priorities straight."
Dupuis made the NHL as an undrafted player, scoring a goal in his first game for the Minnesota Wild on April 2, 2001. He became a regular with the Wild over the following four-plus seasons, scoring 20 goals and 48 points during the 2002-03 season, when Minnesota reached the Western Conference Final.
Dupuis was traded twice during the 2006-07 season, from the Wild to the New York Rangers, and after six games from the Rangers to the Atlanta Thrashers.
Dupuis played 79 games with the Thrashers before he was dealt again prior to the 2008 NHL Trade Deadline, this time to the Penguins in a trade that also involved forward Marian Hossa. Dupuis helped Pittsburgh reach the 2008 Stanley Cup Final, where it lost in six games to the Detroit Red Wings, and win the Stanley Cup in 2009 in a seven-game series against Detroit.
"He will leave a big hole from what he does for the team," Rutherford said. "From the off-ice in the dressing room to being on the bench between periods, all those things. Plus, all the things he does on the ice. I'm not going to be able to find the same player as he is. But we're going to have to replace him."
A frequent linemate of Sidney Crosby during his time with the Penguins, Dupuis set NHL career highs in 2011-12 with 25 goals and 59 points. He averaged 18 goals and 40 points in his first five full seasons in Pittsburgh before his final three seasons were curtailed by injuries and the blood clots.
"We're going to miss him a lot," Crosby said. "He's a great guy, great teammate. I know he'll have a hard time staying away from the rink, so hopefully we'll see lots of him."
Dupuis said he wants to continue to be around the Penguins.
"My main goal is to help this team as much as I can to win the Stanley Cup, but it's definitely not going to be on the ice," he said.
Dupuis finishes with 190 goals and 409 points in 871 regular-season games, and 19 goals and 44 points in 97 Stanley Cup Playoff games.Remarks of Tom Wheeler,
Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
National Cable & Telecommunications Association
April 30, 2014
It's great to be with you, and great to be in L.A.
I had originally intended to open this with some light banter about being back here. But there is a serious issue that I want to address right away – the future of the Internet. I want to specifically direct these remarks to you, the nation's largest providers of broadband connectivity.
We have circulated a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to my fellow commissioners on the topic of the Open Internet. There are two things that are important to understand. First, this is a Notice, which asks a number of questions and seeks input on the best way to protect and promote the Open Internet. Second, all options are on the table. Our goal is to put into place real protections for consumers, innovators and entrepreneurs that until now have been only a matter of debate and litigation. I believe this process will put us on track to quickly get to legally enforceable Open Internet rules.
I am interested in results. The Commission has been trying to do something for almost a decade, starting, in fact, when Michael Powell was Chairman. It's time for this job to be finished. We have been waiting long enough.
Because cable has become a principal provider of broadband, this is an appropriate forum to discuss our intentions. If you read some of the press accounts about what we propose to do, those of you who oppose net neutrality might feel like a celebration was in order. Reports that we are gutting the Open Internet rules are incorrect. I am here to say wait a minute. Put away the party hats. The Open Internet rules will be tough, enforceable and, with the concurrence of my colleagues, in place with dispatch.
For all the millions of Americans who access the Internet, and to you who provide broadband connectivity, it is only fair to spell out some expectations that will inform the proposed Open Internet rules on which we are seeking public comment.
The D.C. Circuit in the Verizon v. FCC decision upheld the Commission's judgment that, "absent such rules such as those set forth in the Open Internet Order, broadband providers represent a threat to Internet openness and could act in ways that would ultimately inhibit the speed and extent of future broadband deployment."
I believe that innovation is fragile and that, as we said in our 2010 Order, broadband providers have "incentives to interfere" with competing edge-providers and, as the D.C. Circuit wrote, have, "powerful incentives to accept fees from edge providers, either in return for excluding their competitors or for granting them prioritized access to end users."
Our proposed course of action builds on the court's strong legal justification for regulation that guarantees every user the ability to effectively use the Internet. We are beyond the question of the scope of the FCC's authority; the court has decided that. Knowing that authority, we now must move expeditiously to make it manifest.
There has been a great deal of talk about how our following the court's instruction to use a "commercially reasonable" test could result in a so-called "fast lane" and Internet "haves" and "have nots." This misses the point that any new rule will assure an open pathway that is sufficiently robust to enable consumers to access the content, services and applications they demand and innovators and edge providers the ability to offer new products and services.
Put another way, the focus of this proposal – on which we are seeking comment – is on maintaining a broadly available, fast and robust Internet as a platform for economic growth, innovation, competition, free expression, and broadband investment and deployment. Our goal is rules that will encourage broadband providers to continually upgrade service to all. We will follow the court's blueprint for achieving this, and, I must warn you, will look skeptically on special exceptions.
In the 30 years since I last stood on this stage I have built new technology-based companies as an entrepreneur, and helped other companies grow as a venture capitalist. I know in my bones how hard it is to start a company with innovative ideas. Now, as Chairman of the FCC, I do not intend to allow innovation to be strangled by the manipulation of the most important network of our time, the Internet.
As an entrepreneur and as an investor, I understand the importance of supplying businesses with certainty. That's another reason why the sooner we can get enforceable rules in place, the better off everyone will be. Internet entrepreneurs and those who support them need the certain knowledge that their ability to get to market will not be degraded by manipulation of the Internet.
Let me be clear. If someone acts to divide the Internet between "haves" and "have-nots," we will use every power at our disposal to stop it. I consider that to include Title II. Just because it is my strong belief that following the court's roadmap will produce similar protections more quickly, does not mean I will hesitate to use Title II if warranted. And, in our Notice, we are asking for input as to whether this approach should be used.
Since we are in Los Angeles, let me use a highway traffic metaphor. Prioritizing some traffic by forcing the rest of the traffic into a congested lane won't be permitted under any proposed Open Internet rule. We will not allow some companies to force Internet users into a slow lane so that others with special privileges can have superior service.
Consumers have rightfully come to expect quality access to all points on the Internet. Blocking access to lawful content and services would be inconsistent with the transaction that made them your subscribers.
The bottom line on the proposed Open Internet rules is that the Internet will remain an open pathway. If users can't effectively use the pathway then the conduct will be a violation of the Open Internet rules.
I do not expect this debate to end today and I don't want it to. We are moving quickly to tee up the issues and invite discussion and debate. Let's move this process forward.
***
Now that I've addressed that topic at the front of everyone's mind, let me revert to my favorite activity-historical reflection. And to a theme that encapsulates my perspective on your industry, namely from those to whom much has been given, much is to be expected.
In my professional lifetime, the industry has gone from Cable 1.0 to Cable 2.0.
Cable 1.0 was all about video. The industry, along with DBS, enabled an enormous expansion in the quantity and quality of video content. The record provides substantial reason for industry pride, although any celebration should be tempered by continuing criticisms involving both price and service.
Today's Cable 2.0 industry is different in two significant ways:
First, it is now the incumbent, not the insurgent.
Second, as we have been discussing, it has transformed from video to broadband.
The move from Cable 1.0 to Cable 2.0 was accompanied by an almost unimaginable change in cable's regulatory circumstance. It has gone from regulatory constraints that were breathtakingly inhibiting to regulatory constraints that are barely discernible.
In my present line of work, I encounter people who believe that the FCC's broadband deregulation was equivalent to the discovery of fire and invention of the wheel and others who believe that it was the equivalent of original sin. I don't propose to join in that debate today, nor to attempt to sort out whether deregulation and levels of cable investment in broadband are causal or coincidental. But I do want to point out that for all of its importance, cable today confronts relatively little regulation in its principal business, which has become, and will continue to be, broadband.
But, as we have been discussing with regard to the open Internet, that does not put it in a zone free of obligation and oversight.
I have written and spoken about the Network Compact-the essential relationship between those who build and operate networks and their consumers. There are five components to the Network Compact: access, interconnection, consumer protection, public safety, and national security. Especially in connection with broadband, both you and we at the FCC have important responsibilities to the American people with regard to these values.
It is not too much to say that our nation's prosperity, security, and values are affected in fundamental ways by your broadband networks.
Our prosperity is a function, among other things, of the quality of our broadband networks, and therefore of the investments you make in their construction, operation, and maintenance.
Our security is a function, among other things, of the reliability of our broadband networks, and therefore of the effectiveness of the measures you undertake to protect them.
Our values are implicated, among other things, by our ability to transmit and receive facts, ideas, and opinions, and therefore of the practices you adopt with respect to the openness of our broadband networks.
As a result of the importance of our broadband networks, our society has the right to demand highly responsible performance from those who operate those networks.
And the FCC has the responsibility to oversee such performance and to intervene if it falls short. At the FCC, our focus is on the availability, security, and openness of your broadband networks. Let me address each for a moment.
On availability, we believe that the private sector must play the leading role in extending broadband networks to every American. That's why we are committed to removing barriers to investment and to lowering the costs of broadband build-out. But we also are interested because, in Section 706 among other places in the Communications Act, Congress has placed broadband deployment and infrastructure investments very high among our priorities.
We also recognize that there are some areas where it doesn't make financial sense for you to build. That's why the Commission modernized our Universal Service Fund to focus on broadband, establishing the Connect America Fund. Already, the Connect America Fund has made investments that will make broadband available to 1.6 million unserved Americans, and, just days ago, the Commission voted to move forward with Phase II of the Connect America Fund.
As part of our universal service reforms, we are making a major effort to recast the E-rate program-to assist schools and libraries in securing broadband services at advantageous prices. Here is a place where you can and should apply the expertise you have developed in supplying broadband services to small and medium-size businesses. If you can configure good service and good deals to SMEs, you can and should do it for our schools and libraries.
That the security of broadband networks is a matter of utmost significance and urgency is not news. We are at a critical juncture. The more we learn about the challenges of cybersecurity and the costs of failure, the more apparent the importance of addressing it with best efforts, including yours. We know that these are non-trivial issues. We also know that the best solutions come from when we work together to identify solutions and get them implemented throughout the industry. This must be done in a deliberate, responsible and transparent fashion that balances security, privacy and innovation.
Cable is already working with the FCC to do just that within our Communications, Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC). We expect the outcome of CSRIC's work to be an industry-led effort to proactively assess cyber readiness within your companies, communicate your risk assessments with your boardrooms and |
” might mar the school’s centennial celebration with “distraction and controversy.” Score: Alt-Right Vigilantes 1, Catholic University 0.
Except maybe not exactly Catholic University 0.
In its account of the disinvitation, America, the venerable Jesuit magazine for which Martin has long worked, noted — with a subtlety some might call Jesuitical — that Theological College “originally said the decision was made ‘after consulting with [Catholic] University and archdiocesan advisers.'”
It then proceeded to quote from a statement from the university throwing the seminary under the bus. After pointing out that Martin had spoken on campus the year before, the statement said, “We regret the implication that Catholic University supported yesterday’s decision.”
There followed a quote from University president John Garvey that began by lamenting pressure on universities “from the left” to withdraw speaker invitations. “It is problematic,” said Garvey, “that individuals and groups within our Church demonstrate this same inability to make distinctions and to exercise charity.”
It could be asked why Garvey, as head of the whole Catholic U. operation, didn’t simply arrange for the invitation to be reinstated. Likewise, the disappearance of any mention of an implied go-ahead from “archdiocesan advisers” fell well short of the Archdiocese of Washington or its cardinal archbishop weighing in directly. Perhaps this should be put down to the hallowed Catholic principle of subsidiarity.
In any event, a full-blown teapot tempest ensued, with news coverage in the New York Times and Washington Post, plus defenses of Martin from San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy on the left and Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput on the right. Cupich’s pointed invitation was merely the icing on a cake of some fairly serious pushback.
But such religious vigilantism will not stop, neither in the Catholic Church nor elsewhere. And in every case, there’s a family resemblance.
Take Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Commission, nearly lost his job for angering Trump enthusiasts in his denomination by presuming to criticize the Republican presidential nominee during last year’s presidential campaign. His board stood up for him but, it appears, not without his agreeing never to criticize Trump again by name.
Then there’s David Myers, a UCLA historian recently named president and CEO of the Center for Jewish History in New York City, who’s been attacked by alt-right Jewish vigilantes for being too left-wing on Israel. The pushback on behalf of a first-rate scholar has been substantial, but as my RNS colleague Jeffrey Salkin bitterly puts it, the war is only the most recent example of “McCarthyism with a smear of cream cheese” in the American Jewish community.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, a bunch of traditionalist Catholics, including no less than the head of the schismatic Saint Pius X Society, issued a “filial correction” of Pope Francis, charging him with seven counts of heresy relating to his readiness to permit divorced and remarried Catholics access to the Eucharist. Call it McCarthyism with a smear of holy oil.Leigh Maibes’ Twitter page. Twitter
Here’s a weird Ferguson-related story from October that didn’t get a lot of attention nationally: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that a St. Louis city police officer named Keith Novara called the boss of a real estate agent named Leigh Maibes to inform him about “inciteful” messages she’d sent from her activism-oriented Twitter account, @stackizshort. She recorded a conversation with Novara in which he confirms that he made the call.
Novara says that he was giving the broker [Maibes’ boss] a “heads up” and communicating with him as part of his responsibilities as a South Patrol officer. Novara adds that he was warning Maibes’ boss that the phones at the business might be “blowing up,” from people upset about her tweets.
“Why did you think it was your place to do that?” Maibes asks.
“Some of the tweets that I was seeing were inciteful,” Novara said. “That’s why I just wanted to let him know.”
Here’s the conversation, from Oct. 15:
Novara doesn’t appear to have identified which particular tweets were objectionable. Maibes’ tweets from the time document her participation in protests and are generally critical of police tactics, though none appear to call for violence or other retaliation against officers.
The Post-Dispatch’s story from October said the police department was investigating Novara’s actions, which could be considered inappropriate because he contacted Maibes’ boss in an official capacity as an officer. No further updates on Novara’s status have been reported. A call to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to inquire about the outcome of the investigation was not answered (as in, the “Media Relations” phone line rang indefinitely without being picked up or connecting to voice mail). Contacted via Twitter, Maibes said she does not know whether Novara was disciplined and has not been contacted by any police investigators.
A St. Louis Police Officers Association official named Jeff Roorda defended Novara at the time, arguing that his behavior was protected by the First Amendment. Roorda, who made news this weekend by demanding an apology from the St. Louis Rams after several Rams players made a “hands up” protest gesture, was fired from a police job in 2001 after being found to have lied on multiple official reports.OK, this analysis from Steven M. Rosenthal at the Tax Policy Center is revelatory. It makes a simple point, but one everyone — myself included — somehow missed: the Trump tax plan is a huge giveaway to foreigners. Among other things, this means that the tax plan almost certainly reduces U.S. welfare even if you ignore distributional issues. This observation should transform discussion of the whole issue, at least among economists, although my cynical guess is that Republican-leaning academics will ignore it.
Some of what follows is wonkish, but I’ve left off the label because the basic point doesn’t require the technical analysis.
So here goes: the core of the Trump tax plan, to the extent we know what’s in it, is a huge cut in corporate taxes — about $2 trillion over the next year 10 years, according to TPC’s best estimates. The administration would like you to believe that all of that tax cut will be passed on to higher wages, but this is overwhelmingly unlikely, especially in the short to medium run. In fact, the bulk of that tax cut will almost surely accrue to stockholders.
And now Rosenthal’s point: unlike the situation in previous tax reforms, we now live in a world where investment holdings are diversified across countries. Specifically, around 35 percent of U.S. equity is owned by foreign residents. So of that $2 trillion windfall, $700 billion goes to foreigners. Make non-US investors great again!
Note that you can’t wave this away by insisting that international investment considerations are somehow secondary — supposed effects on global capital flows are the whole administration rationale for the tax cut! Nor can you say that you only care about global welfare, not U.S. parochial issues — not under an administration that has adopted America First as its slogan.
So this is, or certainly should be, a very big deal.
Now for the moderately wonkish part.
I continue to find a simple MPK diagram the clearest way to think about these issues. So Figure 1 is a slightly modified version of the diagrams I’ve been using in previous posts. MPK is the marginal product of capital, r the pre-tax rate of return, declining in the capital stock K because of diminishing returns. I ignore monopoly profits. I assume that t is the rate of profit taxation, with r(1-t) therefore the after-tax rate of return. I make no assumptions about global rates of return, except to assume that in the relevant time horizon there’s no reason to expect enough capital inflows to equalize such rates.
Photo
So Figure 1 shows what is, in effect, the conventional analysis. Suppose we cut the corporate tax rate. This will bring in some additional capital from abroad, but not enough, in practice, to keep the after-tax rate of return from rising. So there will be a direct revenue loss, some (although probably not much) being passed on to workers, but the rest showing up in higher corporate after-tax profits.
On the other hand, there will some inflow of foreign capital, and this new capital will pay taxes. These additional taxes represent an addition to overall U.S. national income, so that if you ignore distributional issues, the U.S. achieves a net gain.
But as Rosenthal points out, this misses an essential point of the situation: a lot — around 35 percent — of U.S. corporate profits actually accrue to foreign owners. This wouldn’t matter if all of the corporate tax cut were passed on to workers, but most of it won’t be, and the higher after-tax profits on foreign investments will — as shown in Figure 2 — be a windfall to foreign investors. And it’s one heck of a windfall: $700 billion over a decade.
Photo
What this means, as I said, is that unless a lot of tax-paying capital comes in, the overall effect will be to make the U.S. as a whole poorer — even ignoring the fact that we’re cutting taxes for wealthy investors and will have to offset by, say, taking health care away from the poor.
Is it harsh to call the Trump tax plan a $700 billion foreign aid program? Yes. But it’s also completely fair.A few days ago, image sharing app 500px submitted an update to Apple’s App Store. The update did not feature any changes to the search functions of the app, but was nonetheless flagged by a reviewer at the company for objectionable content. Updated with statement from 500px below.
An Apple spokesperson supplied The Next Web with the following statement about the removal:
The app was removed from the App Store for featuring pornographic images and material, a clear violation of our guidelines. We also received customer complaints about possible child pornography. We’ve asked the developer to put safeguards in place to prevent pornographic images and material in their app.
Late last night, Apple sent a notice to 500px, letting it know that it was too easy to find objectionable nude content via the search function of its iOS apps, including the recently acquired ISO500 app. After looking into the issue, the 500px team found that they could prevent the content from appearing through searches by tweaking their backend databases, a process that would not require updates to the app, but that would require about a day’s worth of work.
I spoke to 500px COO Evgeny Tchebotarev about the removal, which was first reported by Techcrunch, and he said that they were responsive to Apple’s notice and that the fix is being put into place now. The changes to the backend will be ‘less elegant’ than they would like, but will solve the problem of the content being displayed to users too easily. 500px would then work to implement a more elegant filtering solution that would prevent the content from being displayed.
There are several key issues at play here. First, 500px does feature an opt-out ‘safe search’ mode. This means that users have to choose specifically on its website whether or not they’re ok with seeing content that’s tagged as mature. Second, 500px also uses filtration technology to find and identify images that aren’t tagged as mature content, but are.
Unfortunately, those filters slipped up in the review process, and images were easily surfaced that likely infringed on Apple’s rules about pornography in the App Store Review Guidelines:
18.1 Apps containing pornographic material, defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings”, will be rejected
18.2 Apps that contain user generated content that is frequently pornographic (ex “Chat Roulette” Apps) will be rejected
When an app crosses those lines, especially ones related to what could be child pornography, Apple is going to pull apps first and ask questions later. In the case of 500px, that means that corrections will be made and the app will be back, but Apple is under no obligations to leave it up while the fix is being made.
In fact, if complaints about child pornography were to be followed up by legal action, Apple could be held liable for not taking immediate action by removing the app.
Note that the Apple statement only says that it received customer complaints about possible child pornography. That doesn’t mean that the service hosts such imagery intentionally or condones it, but there was apparently enough information for Apple to take action. It’s worth 500px’ guidelines also prohibit pornography on the service, as it’s a place for ‘artistic nudity’, rather than sexually explicit works.
Of course, the irony of any such situation (and this comes up every time this happens) is that Apple’s guidelines about pornography and that sort of thing run completely counter to the freely accessible content available in any web browser. Indeed, almost any application, no matter how innocuous, that includes access to the web is required by Apple to carry a 17+ Mature rating. Often, this rating includes statements about explicit content and such that will never appear in the app, but technically could, as the app features access to the web.
In my talk with Tchebotarev, he noted that 500px is constantly working on the filtration processes that it uses to make sure that people don’t see nudity unless they’re ok with that. In this case, it appears as if, at the very least, those filters failed to perform as desired. The issue that Apple discovered with the app was not introduced with the latest update, but has existed in all versions of the app, which have been on the App Store for over a year.
Update: 500px has issued the following statement in response to Apple’s reasoning:
We take the issue of child pornography incredibly seriously. There has never been an issue or one complaint to us about child pornography. Although it has never happened, a complaint of this nature would be taken very seriously and would immediately be escalated to appropriate law enforcement agency. In all our conversations with Apple a concern about child exploitation was never mentioned.
Image Credit: Oli Scarff/Getty Images
Read next: Google's Page not worried about Facebook's Graph Search, says he's “confident of our core business”Apple is agreeing to pay $53 million to settle a class action accusing the company of failing to honor warranties on iPhones and iPod Touches, according to an agreement obtained today by Wired.
The settlement, (.pdf) set to be filed in a San Francisco federal court in the coming weeks, provides cash payouts to potentially hundreds of thousands of iPhone and iPod Touch consumers who found Apple unwilling to repair or replace their faulty phones under Apple’s one-year standard, or a two-year extended, warranty. Apple chief litigation counsel Noreen Krall signed the agreement Wednesday. Apple admits no wrongdoing in the settlement, which needs a judge’s approval.
According to several lawsuits combined in San Francisco, no matter what the problem, Apple refused to honor warranties if a white indicator tape embedded in the phone near the headphone or charging portals had turned pink or red. However, the tape’s maker, 3M, said humidity, and not water contact, could have caused the color to at least turn pink.
Affected devices include the original iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and the first-, second and third-generation iPod Touch. Payouts are around $200 and could be less or double based on the number of claims submitted.
Lead counsel for the plaintiffs, Jeffrey Fazio, declined to be quoted on the deal because the settlement is not public. Apple did not immediately respond to a telephone inquiry late Thursday.Arsene Wenger has long been known for his ability to spot a diamond in the rough - and he could have another gem on his hands.
Cohen Bramall’s signing from Hednesford Town is the latest example of a non-league player moving to the Premier League, and the Arsenal manager feels that grounding gives players a real hunger to succeed.
“I believe that when you go down, there’s mental selection,” Wenger told Arsenal Player. “It’s a mental test - do you love football enough?
“Are you ready enough to fight [to show] that you are above this level and that you absolutely want to come back? Players like Giroud and Koscielny have had that test. They are similar to that. Once they get up, they really mean it.
“[Bramall] is a young, promising left back who has a lack of experience at the top level but who has fantastic ingredients.
“He has tremendous pace, a good left foot, a great desire to do well. Overall, he’s a very exciting prospect.”
More polls and quizzes to follow soonHave you ever started watching a movie thinking it was your first time watching it. But then halfway through, you realize you’ve either already seen the movie before or have caught parts of it playing somewhere else? It’s happened to me plenty of times. Someone suggests a movie to me and I find on Netflix or RedBox and start watching it. Then I realize that I’ve seen parts of the movie playing on USA or TNT on a slow weekend afternoon in the past.
The Reggie Jackson situation with the Oklahoma City Thunder has caused me to seek a comparable situation. Everybody always wants to rush to the Jackson:James Harden comparison. A great 6th man combo guard with the talent and skill set to start in the NBA, but in a situation that doesn’t allow him to be a consistent starter on his current team. Also, in both situations, the players were coming up on their first contract extensions. With Harden, Thunder coach Scott Brooks felt more comfortable with Harden coming off the bench and liked the defensive presence Thabo Sefolosha provided in the starting line-up. With Jackson, the situation is more positional. When you have one of the top 10 players in the world ahead of you on the depth chart, there’s not much you can do other than waiting (wishing, hoping) for an injury to occur. Not saying that Jackson would do that. With the same coach and coaching philosophies in tow, the off-guard position was given to another perimeter defender in Andre Roberson. Jackson, like Harden before him, wants to be a starter in the league. And like Harden, Jackson wants to get paid his market value. But that is where the similarities ends.
Say what you will about the Harden trade, but recent leaked stories have confirmed the trade had as much to do with the finances and future flexibility of the team as it did with Harden wanting a bigger role (either on the Thunder or on another team). With the Thunder unable to promise Harden a bigger role (likely as a starter), and with the possibility of Harden getting, not only a max deal, but a super max deal from another team, the wheels were put into motion to get the trade done. If the Thunder would have been willing to promise Harden the bigger role and possibly a max or near max contract, there’s no telling whether Harden would still be wearing a Thunder jersey.
That is not the situation with Jackson. Russell Westbrook is one of the top point guards in the league. There is no way, barring injuries, of course, that Jackson is going to supplant Westbrook for that position on the team. And the team’s philosophy of having a defender/normal sized SG next to Westbrook kind of negates the possibility of Jackson consistently starting for the team. So where does that leave Jackson? He sees himself as a starter in this league, but doesn’t have a starting spot on this team to aim towards. He knows that his body of work up to this point almost guarantees him a sizable contract. He knows that he has a place as a starter and a nice contract coming up somewhere other than Oklahoma City. So then why does it seem like he is dogging it this season?
The answer may lie in the only player whose situation compares to Jackson’s more than Harden. In the 2011 NBA playoffs, the Thunder made a surprising run all the way to the Western Conference Finals. The No. 1 seeded Spurs were upset by the upstart Grizzlies in the first round, and the No. 4 seeded Thunder won their first playoff series, defeating the Denver Nuggets 4-1. This set-up an epic 7-game series with the Grizzlies in the 2nd round. After a back and forth series, Russell Westbrook’s triple-double in Game 7 proved to be too much for Memphis as the Thunder rolled into the Western Conference Finals. Awaiting them in the 3rd round was the veteran Dallas Mavericks.
The experienced Mavericks went on to defeat the Thunder 4-1 in the Western Conference Finals. That much was expected. Experience usually trumps naivete. What wasn’t expected was how the Thunder won their only game in the series. In Game 2, the Thunder were nursing a 1 point lead heading into the fourth quarter. Thunder coach Scott Brooks substituted Eric Maynor in for Westbrook for the last 32 seconds of the third quarter, in what was Westbrook’s normal rest time in the 2nd half. Up to that point, Westbrook had played a typical Westbrook game: 18 points on 7-15 shooting, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 turnovers. He was a bit erratic defensively, but really, it was a game that was par for the course for Westbrook.
In the 4th quarter though, Eric Maynor, along with the rest of the bench mob (James Harden, Nick Collison, and Daequan Cook) teamed up with Kevin Durant to hold on to that one point lead and win the game by 6. The talk after the game was not of how Durant led the team to victory, but of how Maynor controlled the flow of the game in that 4th quarter and made the right plays almost every time down the floor.
When the season ended for the Thunder, there was an excitement for the future of the team. They had a developing nucleus, not just in the starting line-up, but also on the bench. Maynor was getting lauded with talk of being “the best back-up point guard in the league,” and “a young, up and coming floor general”. With all that talk, the Thunder knew they had an asset on their hand. They drafted a developmental point guard by the name of Reggie Jackson in that year’s draft in hopes that Jackson would eventually replace Maynor on the bench. The Thunder knew their core was Durant, Westbrook, Harden, and Serge Ibaka. Anything past those four players was considered an asset to be flipped.
As the Thunder entered the next season, the word title contender was being tossed around. One of the reasons for that thought was the strong bench the Thunder brought into every game. Nine games into the season though, in a game in Houston, Maynor drove to the basket in the 4th quarter when his knee buckled. He went down in a heap and had to be carried off the court. A day later he learned his fate: a torn ACL that would keep him out the rest of the season.
After the injury, Maynor was never the same. His game suffered as the little bit of athleticism that he had was sapped by the injury. He struggled to recover and eventually lost his back-up job to Jackson. As the season wore on, the inevitable became more and more clear: Eric Maynor was no longer a part of the Thunder’s future. They evetually traded him to the Portland Trailblazers at the trade deadline for a Traded Player Exception and the rights to Greek player Georgios Printezis. In all likelihood, the injury probably cost Maynor tens of millions of dollars. Within two years of the injury, Maynor was out of the league.
Fast forward to the end of last season. Jackson had a great regular season as a starter for Westbrook when he was out for almost half the season and as a 6th man when Westbrook returned. Then in the playoffs, Jackson single-handedly won what was basically an elimation game for the Thunder in Game 4 of their first round series against the Grizzlies. In the West Conference Finals, Jackson started in place of an ineffective Sefolosha for the final four games of the series. After the season, Jackson was anointed with the tags “best back-up point guard in the league” and “could probably start for 10-12 teams right now.” It seemed like deja vu for the Thunder all over again. Except this time, the team actually wanted to keep their back-up point guard. To this day, though, Jackson has not reciprocated that same feeling towards the Thunder.
Now, the player that took over for Maynor two years ago, is likely hoping to avoid the same fate that befell his predecessor. Players learn from experiences and think about their futures just like you and I think about ours. That their futures include a couple more zeroes on their paychecks than ours do is inconsequential. Athletes know that their worth is only as good as their product (play/health). If the health aspect of that goes away, then the player is viewed as a risky asset, which usually means much less money. So while it doesn’t necessarily excuse Jackson’s play of late, I do understand where he may be coming from. We talk about athletes all the time like they’re robots, but in reality, these guys are humans that pessimistically think about their futures just like you or I.UPDATE: EW has learned that NBC aired the promo sparingly and that it reached out to DiMarco after he expressed his displeasure on social media.
EARLIER: A decision by Jamie Foxx to perform pretend sign language during a Tonight Show promo has raised the ire of one of the deaf community’s most prominent members.
Model/activist Nyle DiMarco, who won season 22 of Dancing with the Stars last year as well as America’s Next Top Model in 2015, tweeted that Foxx’s actions during a tease for Thursday’s show were “disrespectful” and lacked “cultural sensitivity.”
“How was this allowed?” DiMarco tweeted to The Tonight Show and host Jimmy Fallon.
Along with releasing a statement, DiMarco posted the segment via Twitter of Foxx faux-signing Fallon’s comments.
“We simply do not make fun at the expense of other cultures, especially those with a history of being marginalized. When we do this, progress takes a step backward,” he wrote in part. “What Foxx did on Fallon Tonight made our struggle that much harder.”
My response to Jamie Foxx making up sign language on Fallon Tonight with @jimmyfallon. pic.twitter.com/GpDN8iB9xL — Nyle DiMarco (@NyleDiMarco) May 27, 2017
.@iamjamiefoxx, It is straight up disrespectful to make up sign language. Everything is in gibberish. pic.twitter.com/X5AHkusq3o — Nyle DiMarco (@NyleDiMarco) May 27, 2017
Foxx appeared on Fallon to promote his new Fox reality show Beat Shazam.Britain is at risk of facing a power blackout after it was reported that the Kremlin had ordered the hacking of the country's energy grid.
The chief of the National Cyber Security Centre, Ciaran Martin, is set to say that Russia targeted major power and telecommunications companies, having already been successful in bringing down websites with denial of service (DoS) attacks.
The Sun reported that Martin will tell the Times Tech Summit on Wednesday (15 November) how the UK faces the biggest threat from Russia since the end of the Cold War.
"I can confirm that Russian interference, seen by the National Cyber Security Centre over the past year, has included attacks on the UK media, telecommunication and energy sectors," he will say.
"Russia is seeking to undermine the international system. That much is clear.
"The PM made the point on Monday night - international order as we know it is in danger of being eroded," he will say, in reference to the strident criticism of Moscow by Theresa May on Monday (13 November) when she warned Russia not to meddle in elections.
Meanwhile it emerged that that more than 400 fake Twitter accounts thought to be based in St Petersburg published posts about Brexit. University of Edinburgh researchers identified 419 accounts operating from the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) which tried to influence UK politics.
One account claimed that a Muslim woman ignored victims from the Westminster Bridge terror attack in March. The photo, shared by @Southlonestar, showed a woman in a hijab walking past a victim laying on the ground and clutching her phone as she walked along the bridge. It went viral and stoked racial tension in the UK and the US.
Also, the Times reported how Russian-based Twitter accounts posted almost 45,000 messages about Brexit over 48 hours during the referendum campaign.
Experts from Swansea University and the University of California, Berkeley, found that almost 150,000 accounts, mostly generated from fully-automated bot accounts, or so-called "cyborg" accounts, posted tweets encouraging people to vote for Brexit.
Damian Collins, the chairman of the Commons culture, media and sport wants Twitter to answer how it thinks Russia has been influencing UK politics.
"What is at stake is whether Russia has constructed an architecture which means they have thousands of accounts with which they can bombard [us] with fake news and hyper-partisan content," he said.
"We need to understand how widespread it is and what the impact is on the democratic process."Matthew Shepard died from severe injuries he sustained in a violent gay-related hate crime attack. His death set off a nationwide debate about hate crimes and homophobia that ultimately led to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009).
Who Was Matthew Shepard?
Matthew Shepard was born in Wyoming on December 1, 1976, to Judy and Dennis Shepard. In 1998, two men, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, abducted Shepard and drove him to a remote area where he was tied to a split-rail fence, beaten severely, and left to die in the cold of the night. Shepard died just a few days later on October 12, 1998 at the age of 21. His brutal and gruesome death has become one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in American history and eventually led to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009).
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Photo: Gina van Hoof - All rights reserved
Brother
Shepard had a younger brother, Logan, to whom he had a close relationship. Logan is currently a staff member of The Matthew Shepard Foundation and overseas its daily operations.
Early Life
Born on December 1, 1976 in the oil boomtown Casper, Wyoming to Judy and Dennis Shepard, Matthew Wayne Shepard, the elder of two sons, was a sensitive, soft-spoken, and kind young boy. He went to public school in Casper until his junior year of high school when Shepard moved with his family to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia where his father worked in oil safety engineering. He completed high school at The American School in Switzerland where he studied German, Italian, and theater and enjoyed music and fashion.
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During his senior year, Shepard took a vacation with three classmates to Morocco. During this trip, Shepard was raped, beaten and robbed by a gang of locals. Some assert that Shepard's petit stature (he was only 5’ 2” and 100 pounds) made him particularly vulnerable to victimization. Although the police attempted to ascertain who committed the attack, the perpetrators were never caught. After the assault, Shepard sought therapeutic treatment but had flashbacks, panic attacks, and nightmares. He continued to experience periods of paranoia, depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation for the remainder of his short life.
College Career
After graduating high school, Matthew Shepard briefly attended a small liberal arts school, Catawba College, in Salisbury, North Carolina, in pursuit of a theatre career. Although Shepard knew he was gay from a young age, he came out to his mother only after high school; she reassured him she had known about his sexual identity for years. He then moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, before moving back home to attend community college at Casper College.
At Casper, a teacher introduced him to Romaine Patterson, an outgoing lesbian who became one of Shepard’s close friends. The two moved to Denver, Colorado and Shepard worked a string of part-time jobs but always knew his passion was helping people. In 1998, he moved to Laramie and enrolled at the University of Wyoming, his parents’ alma mater, because he felt that living in a small town would help him feel safe. As a 21-year-old freshman, Shepard studied political science and international relations and wanted to pursue a Foreign Service career. Known to be polite, thoughtful and a great conversationalist, Shepard quickly became active on campus and joined the university’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) student alliance.
Abduction and Murder of Matthew Shepard
Just a few months after arriving in Laramie, on October 6, 1998, Shepard encountered Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson at a local pub, The Fireside Lounge. McKinney and Henderson saw Shepard as an easy target and made plans to rob him. In the early hours of October 7th, the pair lured him away from the bar and drove him to a rural area where they tied him to a split-rail fence, beat him severely with the butt of a.357 Smith & Wesson pistol, and left him to die in the near-freezing temperatures of the early morning hours.
McKinney later stated he assumed Shepard was dead when they left. Shepard was discovered 18 hours later by a bicyclist, Aaron Kreifels, who at first thought he was a scarecrow. Still alive but in a coma, Shepard was rushed to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. For four days, Shepard lay comatose in a hospital bed just down the hall from McKinney (who was there as the result of a hairline fracture of the skull that he received in a brawl he had instigated just a few hours after attacking Shepard).
In addition to numerous bruises, welts, and lacerations, Shepard’s brain stem was severely damaged and he also was suffering from hypothermia. He was pronounced dead at 12:53 A.M. on October 12, 1998. Shortly after, police found the bloody gun as well as Shepard's shoes and wallet in McKinney’s truck. McKinney and Henderson were arrested and were convicted of felony murder and kidnapping. Both received two consecutive life terms.
Immediate Aftermath: Funeral and Public Responses
Shepard’s memorial service was held at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Casper, Wyoming on October 16, 1998 and was attended by over 700 people (many had to stand outside in the snow), including friends and family from around the world. Also present were notorious protestors from the Westboro Baptist Church, including Fred Phelps himself, who picketed the funeral with homophobic signs. To combat their bigotry, Shepard’s friend Romaine Patterson organized a group, now called Angel Action, to block the protestors by wearing white robes and large angelic wings. Because his brutal attack attracted so much media coverage, Shepard's death was front and center of the outcry against anti-gay hate and violence.
Matthew Shepard-Byrd Act
Despite the anti-gay rhetoric spouted by McKinney and Henderson throughout the trials that ultimately led to their life sentences for Shepard’s murder, they were not charged with a hate crime. As a result, Shepard’s high-profile murder case sparked protests, vigils and calls for federal legislation to protect LGBT victims of violence.
On October 28, 2009, over eleven years after Shepard’s murder, President Barack Obama, with Judy Shepard by his side, signed into law The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The new legislation expanded the definition of the federal hate crime law by including crimes instigated by an individual's perceived gender or gender identity (which were previously not included in FBI hate crime data) and revising the collection standards for biases motivated by sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity. The Shepard/Byrd Act gives the Department of Justice the power to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violent crimes against LGBT victims.
Matthew Shepard Foundation
Shepard’s life and untimely death have served as an inspiration for activism against hate. Following his death and inspired by Shepard’s passion to foster a more caring and just world, Shepard’s parents created the Matthew Shepard Foundation whose mission is for "individuals to embrace human dignity and diversity" and "to replace hate with understanding, compassion and acceptance."
'The Laramie Project,' 'Considering Matthew Shepard'
Shepard’s death and life have also been chronicled in the play The Laramie Project and the 2016 musical Considering Matthew Shepard, as well as feature-length films, documentaries, and songs.Dish is getting into smartphone repairs. The satellite provider has announced that beginning today, anyone in the United States can request an on-site screen fix or battery replacement, and Dish will send one of its technicians out to handle the job. For now, Dish is only repairing iPhones ranging from the 5 through the 6 Plus; older phones (and newer ones like the 6S) aren't yet part of the servicing program. But Dish will be adding more devices — including Android phones, hopefully — over the coming weeks and months. The company claims to use "high-quality replacement parts from respected third parties" for its repairs, and Dish's employees will go pretty much wherever is most convenient for you.
It makes total sense when you think about it
Prices start at $74.99 for a battery swap and go up to $224.98 if you're replacing both the display and battery in an iPhone 6 Plus. If you're only interested in screen repairs, those cost $134.99 for 4-inch iPhones, $154.99 for the iPhone 6, and $184.99 for the 6 Plus. That might be a little more expensive than having those same components replaced at a sketchy kiosk at your local shopping mall, but again, Dish is willing to come to you. These prices are significantly higher than what you'd pay at the Apple Store for a new display, however. And when you go that route, your iPhone's original warranty remains intact. Having the Genius Bar service your broken screen costs $129 for the iPhone 6 Plus, for example, and $109 for the iPhone 6. (4-inch iPhones share the $129 fee.) So, uh, Dish is probably hoping you don't have an Apple retail location in close proximity — or that you're just real lazy.
"Fixing your phone shouldn’t mean losing your phone for days on end, so we come to you — whether you’re at the office, the gym or even the coffee shop," John Swieringa, Dish's executive vice president of operations, said in a press release. Appointments can be scheduled in two-hour windows for any day of the week (with same-day and next-day options available), and Dish is backing its work with a 60-day warranty. There's a $35 "Drive to Me" fee, but that's baked into the pricing reflected below. And once that fee is covered |
CIA in early 1980 but claimed to have begun working behind the scenes with his financier brother, Cyrus, to help Republicans make contact with key Iranians. Cyrus Hashemi had personal business ties to William Casey.
Jamshid Hashemi said both in press interviews and in sworn testimony that he and his brother arranged meetings in late July 1980 in Madrid for Casey and a senior Iranian cleric, Mehdi Karrubi. Hashemi described those conversations as spilling over into a second day, as Casey sought to ensure that the Iranians would not release the hostages to Carter before the U.S. elections in November.
In the October Surprise debunking articles, Newsweek and The New Republic claimed to have shut the window on Casey’s whereabouts by placing him at the London conference on the morning of July 28, thus making a two-day Madrid meeting impossible and proving that Jamshid Hashemi was lying.
And, since the Casey-Madrid allegations were central to the October Surprise mystery, the whole story must be a myth, a “conspiracy theory” run wild.
White House Rejoicing
It is hard to overstate the impact of those matching debunking stories, splashed across the magazines’ covers. The articles and their sneering tone scared the Senate into backing away from a full-scale October Surprise investigation and the House acted as if it would only go through the motions before clearing Reagan and Bush.
The Republicans rejoiced and escalated their counteroffensive to shut down any further inquiries. The just-released White House documents show senior Bush officials and other Republicans circulating the magazine articles, which were used to bludgeon any remaining skeptics into submission.
Among neocon journalists in Washington, there was plenty of high-fiving. They had never liked the Iran-Contra scandal to begin with, since it put the Reagan administration and the Israeli government in a negative light.
In particular, ABC’s “Nightline” program came in for a nasty round of ridicule because it had highlighted Hashemi’s Madrid account. The producer who handled the Hashemi interview was soon out of a job.
Steven Emerson, the lead author of The New Republic’s story, basked in his glory as the new standard-setter for investigative journalism. Newsweek drew praise for its readiness to expose a baseless “conspiracy theory.”
The only problem was that both magazines had sloppily misread the London attendance records and had failed to do the necessary follow-up interviews, which would have revealed that Casey was not at the morning session on July 28 after all. He didn’t arrive until that afternoon, leaving the “window” open for Hashemi’s account.
At PBS “Frontline,” where I was involved in the October Surprise investigation, we talked to Americans and others who had participated in the London conference. Most significantly, we interviewed historian Robert Dallek who gave that morning’s presentation to a small gathering of attendees sitting in a conference room at the British Imperial War Museum.
Dallek said he had been excited to learn that Casey, who was running Reagan’s presidential campaign, would be there. So, Dallek looked for Casey, only to be disappointed that Casey was a no-show. Other Americans also recalled Casey arriving later and the records actually indicate Casey showing up for the afternoon session.
In other words, the high-profile Newsweek-New Republic debunking of the October Surprise story had itself been debunked. However, typical of the arrogance of those publications and our inability to draw attention to their major screw-up the magazines never acknowledged their gross error.
Update: I learned on Thursday that the journalistic malfeasance at Newsweek was even worse than sloppiness.
Journalist Craig Unger, who had been hired by Newsweek to work on the October Surprise story, told me that he had spotted the misreading of the attendance records before Newsweek published its article and alerted the investigative team, which was personally headed by executive editor Maynard Parker.
“They told me, essentially, to fuck off,” Unger said.
During my years at Newsweek, from 1987-90, Parker had been my chief nemesis. He was considered close to prominent neocons, including Iran-Contra figure Elliott Abrams, and to Establishment Republicans, such as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Parker also was a member of banker David Rockefeller’s Council on Foreign Relations, and viewed the Iran-Contra scandal as something best shut down quickly.
Jumping to a false conclusion that would protect his influential friends and allies would fit perfectly with what I knew of Parker.
In November 1991, after the Newsweek-New Republic tandem finished jumping into the ring, there would be no serious reconsideration of the October Surprise mystery. The damage was done.
Still, the evidence of the Newsweek-New Republic error was so obvious that the House Task Force investigators had no choice but to jettison the magazines’ London alibi for Casey. But they then replaced it with another equally ridiculous one, putting Casey at California’s Bohemian Grove of all places and having him take an overnight flight from San Francisco to London, arriving on the afternoon of July 28.
That alibi was bogus, too. Casey actually attended the Bohemian Grove on the first weekend of August, not the last weekend of July, as documentary evidence and witnesses made clear.
But these continued absurdities spoke to the determination of Official Washington to put the October Surprise story to bed, a Zeitgeist that Newsweek and The New Republic had helped create with their false reporting in mid-November 1991. [For more details on this journalistic fiasco, see Robert Parry’s Secrecy & Privilege.]
White House Silence
Yet, what Beach’s “memorandum of record” suggests is that Bush’s White House knew in real time as Newsweek and The New Republic were trumpeting their misplaced certainty about Casey never going to Madrid that U.S. embassy officials on the ground were indicating that he had been there.
At this point, it’s still impossible to say what was in the Madrid cable that Williamson mentioned to Beach. The archivists at the Bush library in College Station, Texas, continue to withhold nearly one-quarter of the 4,800 “October Surprise” pages citing national security and other reasons. So, it is not clear whether the State Department ever turned over the cable or how conclusive it was.
Other documents at the Bush library suggested tensions within Republican ranks over how cooperative to be with the October Surprise investigation.
One document reveals that Secretary of State James Baker favored quicker production of documents and viewed “the delay/filibuster strategy of the House and Senate Republicans as counterproductive.”
Another set of cryptic notes, apparently reflecting comments from Republican national security official Gardner Peckham, makes apparent references to the State Department’s “‘anxiousness’ abt. awareness of Oct Surprise” and adds “believes DOS already has docs.” DOS is the common government abbreviation for the Department of State.
There are other signs that Republicans went to some length to conceal Casey’s clandestine travels in 1980.
In 1991-92, as October Surprise investigators tried to nail down Casey’s whereabouts on key dates, their efforts were frustrated by Casey’s family, which had received many of Casey’s personal records from the CIA after his death from a cancerous brain tumor on May 6, 1987. Casey had become Reagan’s first CIA director in 1981, was implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal when it broke open in fall 1986, and collapsed shortly before he was scheduled to testify.
Casey’s family grudgingly turned over his personal records to congressional investigators, but Casey’s 1980 passport was missing along with several pages from his personal calendar for that year.
From the Bush library files, there’s no indication that the White House told investigators about Williamson’s information regarding a Casey trip to Madrid. Nor did anyone in power do anything to stop the Washington press corps’ rush to judgment, which condemned Jamshid Hashemi as a liar and a perjurer.
Instead, the media stampede was allowed to surge forward, trampling anyone still foolish or brave enough to stand in the way and making a mess of U.S. history in the process.
[For more on these topics, see Robert Parry’s Secrecy & Privilege and Neck Deep, now available in a two-book set for the discount price of only $19. For details, click here.]
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book,Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com. His two previous books, Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & ‘Project Truth’ are also available there.[See Also:
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For people who are supposed to be "living in the shadows," it's far easier for illegal immigrants to appear on television than those who think immigration laws should be enforced. From the Democratic National Convention to Jose Antonio Vargas, illegal immigrants, many of whom don't even bother to pretend to be patriotic or respectful towards our country, are constantly lecturing us about how racist and evil we are and, for some reason, why we should reward them for saying so.
Of course, if our country actually was as xenophobic as they claim it was, we wouldn't have them here and they wouldn't have the opportunity to guilt trip us into giving our country. As always, a hard line on immigration from the beginning is the best way of avoiding "preventable evils," as Enoch Powell said.
Deporting a few of the most arrogant invaders would obviously have a salutary effect and serve pour encourager les autres. And the Trump Administration took a major step in that direction today.
Moments after an immigrant spoke out about her fears of deportation, she was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Daniela Vargas, 22, was detained by ICE agents Wednesday morning, shortly after speaking at a news conference in downtown Jackson, according to her attorney, Abby Peterson. The news conference was hosted by local immigration attorneys, churches and the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance to bring attention to families impacted by deportation... Vargas has no bond and is in ICE detention. Since she came into the country on a visa waiver program, Vargas could be processed without a hearing, Peterson said. Immigrant detained after press conference, by Sarah Fowler, The Clarion-Ledger, March 1, 2017]Riz Ahmed is in early talks to join Sony’s “Venom” movie.
Ruben Fleischer is directing the spinoff of the Spider-Man franchise, and Tom Hardy is attached to star.
While details on Ahmed’s role have not yet been revealed, sources say that he’ll be playing a popular Marvel Comics character. Sony had no comment on the casting.
Sony has already made it clear that “Venom” will play no part in the Spider-Man universe, and that the film will stand on its own.
Scott Rosenberg (“Jumanji”) and Jeff Pinkner (“The Dark Tower”) will write the script for “Venom,” with Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach producing the movie, along with Amy Pascal. Palak Patel and Eric Fineman are overseeing the project for Columbia Pictures.
“Venom” is set to hit theaters on Oct. 5, 2018.
Since his inception in 1988, Venom has been one of “Spider-Man’s” most popular characters, making it a top priority for the studio to get the movie off the ground. Venom made his first big-screen appearance in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man 3,” where he was portrayed by Topher Grace.
Throughout the history of Marvel Comics, Venom has appeared alongside Spider-Man, Iron Man, Deadpool, Hulk, and other Marvel Comics characters.
Ahmed is coming off a banner year, both on the television and film front. He starred in HBO’s critically acclaimed “The Night Of,” which earned him a SAG and Emmy nomination, and followed that up with “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” He also appeared in “Jason Bourne” opposite Matt Damon.
Ahmed’s other credits include the Toronto Film Festival movie “The City of Tiny Lights” and a recurring role on Netflix’s “The OA,” as well as a guest starring role on HBO’s final season of “Girls” that earned him rave reviews. He just wrapped production on “The Sisters Brothers” opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix, and John C. Reilly.
He is repped by CAA and Kate Bryden of Gordon and French in the U.K.Legacy boot with AMD Radeon HD 7xxx and and Rx-200 graphics cards. Allows full usage of Chimera/Chameleon to boot without use of integrated graphics. For details on the issue, see here.
Legacy boot with GPT disks on ASUS 8-series motherboards. Allows full usage of Chimera/Chameleon to boot GPT (GUID Partition Table) disks. No need to format MBR.
Open /Utilities/Terminal
Type diskutil list
Type: sudo -s Enter your password Type: newfs_hfs -v EFI /dev/disk0s1 Type: mkdir /Volumes/EFI Type: mount_hfs /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/EFI Close Terminal
Plug in your UniBeast USB Drive (Named USB for this example) Open Applications/Utilities/Terminal Type: diskutil list and locate your EFI partition. It will be under IDENTIFIER. Be sure to use the correct one. (For this example: disk0s1) Type: cd /Volumes/USB/usr/standalone/i386 Type: sudo -s Type: fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdisk0 Type: dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdisk0s1 Type: cp boot /Volumes/EFI/ Close Terminal
Open Applications/Utilities/Terminal Type: sudo -s Enter your password. Type: fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0 Type: p Type: f 1 Type: w Type: y Type: quit Type: rm -R /boot /Extra Reboot
Type mkdir /Volumes/EFI Type sudo mount_hfs /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/EFI
You may or may not be aware of it, but there is a 200 megabyte partition on the root of your drive. It's the OS X EFI partition, part of OS X's default GUID partition method, which normally holds information specific to Apple hardware. For Hackintosh users, however, it has no use whatsoever. It can therefore be re-purposed to hold the bootloader, and any extra files such as DSDT, /Extra folder, org.chameleon.boot.plist, and smbios.plist.If you're one of those users who like an extremely 'vanilla' installation of OS X, you may want to rid your drive of all extra Hackintosh-related files. The following method will lead you through installing all of these files to your EFI partition.NOTE: This procedure is entirely optional, and will not give you any other benefits beyond cleaning the root of your install. Also, each time you want to make changes, you'll have to mount your EFI partition through the Terminal. If you're uncomfortable using the Terminal, do not proceed.For the purposes of this guide, I recommend unplugging all drives except your main hard drive and rebooting. This will minimize any problems with disk number and partition number. I will use disk0 by default in this guide.To make sure your disk is identified as disk0:If your drive's root is disk0, you're ready to begin.Because Chimera will not be on the drive partition anymore, you must re-install it to the EFI partition. We can use he same Chimera binary files that are installed via UniBeast on the USB drive.Drag your current /Extra file to your EFI Partition. Alternately, install basic boot options, system definition, and theme from MultiBeast. If this is a fresh installation, you'll also need to install FakeSMC to your main hard drive.You now have to set the EFI partition so that your computer boots from it first. Then delete the duplicate extra files from your system drive.The EFI partition will not automatically mount as other partitions do at boot time. If you ever need to change/update files in the EFI partition:The EFI Partition will then mount on the desktop and in Finder. If you'd rather stay out of the Terminal, you can use EFI Mounter. It's a nice little app/script you can stick in your Applications folder to mount and unmount with a click.Credit to Chameleon EFI install scripts/Munky's EFI install guides. Revised and reprinted from tonymacx86 Legacy BlogImage caption The Kaesong zone has been closed for five months
North and South Korean officials have reached an agreement about re-opening the Kaesong joint industrial zone, officials from Seoul say.
Operations there have been suspended since April when the North withdrew its workers amid rising political tensions.
On Wednesday the South's Unification Ministry said a five-point accord had been agreed, but it remains unclear when operations might resume.
It comes after Seoul called for "final talks" following six previous rounds.
The agreement was signed by the chief delegates from the two Koreas, reports the Yonhap news agency. There are few details about the accord, but Yonhap says the deal is believed to ensure that a similar suspension of operations could not be repeated.
"The South and the North will prevent the current suspension of the Kaesong industrial complex caused by the workers' withdrawal from being repeated again," the Agence France-Presse news agency also quoted from the agreement.
A joint committee will also be set up to discuss compensation for economic losses, AFP reports.
Kaesong Industrial Zone Launched in 2003, largely financed by the South to increase co-operation
More than 120 factories employ 50,000 North Koreans in manufacturing industries, with goods exported to the South
Complex as a whole produced $470m worth of goods in 2012 - the biggest contributor to inter-Korean trade
South Korean companies pay more than $80m a year in wages to North Korean workers Q&A: Kaesong Industrial Complex
The Kaesong Industrial Complex, which lies just inside North Korea, is home to 123 South Korean factories which employ more than 50,000 North Korean workers.
It is the last functioning inter-Korean joint project and a key source of revenue for Pyongyang.
North Korea withdrew its workers in April, angered by the expansion of UN sanctions afters its 12 February nuclear test and annual US-South Korea military drills.
Tensions have eased somewhat since then.
Pyongyang agreed to Wednesday's talks hours after Seoul said it would start distributing compensation payments to South Korean firms hit by the stoppage - a move seen as a precursor to formal closure of the zone.
On Tuesday, the owners of South Korean businesses at the zone called for a deal.
North Korea said last week that reopening Kaesong was in both nations' interests.“Even in the crane industry, few people get a chance to see a growing city from a tower crane operator’s perspective. Ken Derry has been working with giant cranes for thirty years, and taking photos from his cab throughout his career. They give a unique insight into a life worked above the clouds.
Derry’s photos give a new appreciation of the work that goes into building the modern city: days that start as the sun rises and ends as its sets, ironworkers who spend their lives among the lattice work of cranes hundreds of feet above the ground, and crane operators who view it all from their swaying perches.
From this height, the city is seen with new eyes. Instead of the canyons that soar above us as we walk along Michigan Avenue, Derry sees the city’s skyscrapers as glass and steel islands in an ocean of cloud; where the city might feel cramped and enclosing on the ground, from the sky Derry sees an open prairie of twinkling lights.”
Will North, Deputy Editor
Cranes TodayNicola Sturgeon has unveiled plans for those earning as little as £24,000 to pay more income tax as hard-pressed Scottish households faced a fresh double assault on their finances.
Speaking shortly before the Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in a decade, the First Minister insisted “the time is right” for income tax hikes and unveiled a Scottish Government report containing four proposals.
All the scenarios suggested increasing the 40p higher rate and 45p top rate of income tax in April next year, with three of them also backing a penny rise in the 20p basic rate and a 50p top rate. One proposal argued for the creation of three additional income tax bands, making a total of six rates.
The average impact, if introduced now, would see any Scot earning more than £24,000 paying more tax than at present. Those earning £50,000 would pay up to £260 more, while a higher earner with a £90,000 salary could face handing over an extra £810.
Ms Sturgeon said the crossover point at which workers pay more would increase to £31,000 if the UK Government goes ahead with planned increases in the personal allowance, the tax-free amount people can take home before the levy kicks in.Zebras are a highly-developed species of sapient, four-legged ungulate mammals. They are distinguishable by the unique black-and-white stripes that adorn their coats and the glyph-like Cutie Mark that adorns their haunch.
Zebras are one of the most influential species in history, and, at the apex of their civilization's existence, had established a powerful industrialized empire. The most notable zebra nation, an unnamed zebra empire, was a belligerent in the Great War against the pony nation of Equestria, and was thus partially responsible for the megaspell apocalypse that befell the Equestrian Wasteland and potentially the entire world.
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History Edit
There were a number of communities in Equestria that had zebras living and working among ponies, often as the minority. While zebra interaction with ponies was not uncommon, their strange mannerisms invited speculation and irrational fear among ponies in some areas.
During the War Edit
Zebras were the first to master the technology behind stealth gemstones. Coupled with a history of martial prowess, they were remarkably effective at non-conventional warfare. Zebra operatives were able to get close enough to both Celestia and Rarity to attempt assassination, though were foiled in both attempts.
Modern Day Edit
The most notable post-war zebra is Xenith, a member of Littlepip's group. She was found in Fillydelphia where she was forced to fight as a gladiator, until her rescue by Littlepip. She joins Littlepip on her journey, providing knowledge of zebra alchemical concoctions as well as the knowledge and beliefs of her people.
A village of zebras was wiped out by slavers that had taken Xenith and left her daughter Zephyr and the rest of the foals to fend for themselves. These foals would later go on to name themselves after Angel Bunny and establish trade connections by brewing and creating drugs.
Many zebras still cling to their beliefs, which seem preposterious and bizarre to many Equestrians, such as their fear of the stars.
History of Zebra in Project Horizons Warning! The following information applies only to its associated side story, Project Horizons, and is thus considered non-canon in the Fallout: Equestria universe. Before the War The Zebra began a large cultural renaissance when various tribes began to pull their resources together and make large scale settlements. They learned how to build weapons and make talismans and used their new weaponry to begin securing their lands and driving back wild beasts that had been plaguing them. The zebra eventually had a fairly stable nation, though clan and superstitions still played an important role in their society. The zebra needed gemstones to continue to expand and maintain their empire, but had already exhausted their supplies of gemstones, the nearest source of gemstones was Equestria which had them in great bulk. Equestria needed coal which the zebra had in great abundance and thus trade was established. Tensions would rise between the two nations over the supply of gemstones and coal, both needing more of their respective resources and unwilling to back down and compromise, the zebra Caesar being under great strain to maintain control of the various clans of zebra when they learned that Luna was co-ruling Equestria. Their were various, minor political situations, including the return of a group of captured pony military personnel by pirates off the zebra coast. Tension continued to rise, until the slaughter at crescent moon valley, resulting in the death of zebra refugees and a school of equestrian school students. During the War The war drew Zebra from various far flung tribes into the conflict, forming up legions to fight and remove Luna from the Equestrian throne. One of their first targets was Hoofington which all but levelled the settlement, though this action fuelled the anger of the survivors to build Hoofington bigger and better than before, daring the zebra to attack. Some zebra refused to participate in the war as they revered Celestia. The war continued, the zebra managing to hire Dragon mercenaries and the Griffin mercenaries/talons who worked for both sides. The zebra also dragged the Highlanders into the war and betrayed them, leaving the Highlanders with a permanent resentment of the zebra. Celestia tried to broker a peace with the zebra but before this could happen, a sniper tried and failed to kill Celestia resulting in the death of Big Macintosh After they acquired the knowledge on making Megaspells, the zebra tested and created Balefire bombs, many of which were stored in silo's. The war finally ended when the zebra launched their balefire bombs and Equestria retaliated with its own megaspells, wiping out both sides and any allies they had. Modern Day Zebra military Remnants have been shown active in the Hoofington area. The Remnants continue to fight the war against Equestria, even though most pony's don't see the point anymore. Zebra seperatists are targeted by Remnants for refusing to aid them. A notable remnant Zebra is Lancer who managed to kill nine out of eleven surviving Zebra's in a mine. The Zebra remnants showed up during a major confrontation in the Steel Ranger & Reaper War driving a tank. Despite Blackjack using explosives on it, the tank regenerated much like Magical Power Armour. The tank layed waste to anypony in it's wake and forced Blackjack to retreat. Remnants have been shown as willing to sacrifice their own, as Lancer detonated a mueseum full of his fellow Remnants in an attempt to kill Blackjack and anything that fell from the sky, that might be hidden in the mueseum. Their leader, Legate, wanted a special talisman from the body of a long dead Proditor Shuuja, but the talisman had already been taken and placed inside Rampage during the war. Legate desired the talisman so he would have a chance of personally killing Blackjack who they believe is the infamous Star-maiden.
Known Settlements Edit
There have been several mentions of towns of Zebra. However, the only ones mentioned by name are very poor areas or occupided by others. There was one listed Stable where Zebra's and Ponies were forced to get along, Stable 3 in Canterlot.
Glyphmark - Home of Xenith's child Xephyr. All Zebras from a certain tribe of children are sent here when they earn their cutie mark. The town is run down, and are just now learning to defend themselves from slavers.
Zebratown - A old pre-war town of Zebras. Mostly destroyed due to Pink Cloud and the Megaspells. Zebras from this town were supposed to be re-located to Stable 3.
Side Stories Edit
Karkhoof (Heroes) Edit
Karkhoof was a settlement built upon a mountain that was a zebra settlement. The village was eventual assaulted by protestors from the extremist group, Celestia's Vision but managed to survive. The zebra left their settlement before the NCA could counter-attack Karkhoof for the attack on Celestia's Vision.
Red Light (Misfits) Edit
Zebra of different tribes have been shown living in Red Light, most notably were the Marked Mares, ritualistically scarred zebra mares who hunt and kill alicorns on sight.
Stable 53 (Broken Steel) Edit
The stable was a joint Zebra/Pony mix, Zyon is a Zony born from the stable.
The zebra capital of Roam is the primary location of the story Fallout Equestria : New Roam. The author, Delvius, depicts the zebras as having a very Romanesque culture; even to the point that their architecture is Roman, and that, aside from star-phobia, they also have a pantheon of gods similar to the actual Romans.
Moscva (Metro) Edit
Industrial city of Zebra Empire, mainand location of Fallout Equestria: Metro. In the area of the city that was blown up by Celestia-1. After the explosion, the city was plunged into a dark nuclear winter, and almost the entire population of the city and their descendants hide in the Metro. This all refers us to the universe of Metro 2033.
The zebras have also been depicted as being advanced enough to have actual sentient AI's built into some of their vehicles.
Technology Edit
The only mentions of technology shown are the infamous Zebra Rifle, an Invisiblity Cloak, and a Zebra Stealth suit. We do know that the zebras took Fluttershy's megaspells of healing, and reverse engineered them to create the Pink Cloud megaspell bombs and used regular balefire megaspells. The zebra also deployed advanced robotics on the battlefield, requiring Equestria to develop technologies like the Anti-machine rifle.
In the story New Roam, the zebras are depicted as having hovering, AI-controlled APC's. They have also been shown to have access to power armor, albeit a very Roman looking power armor, as described in the story.
Medicine Edit
The full extent of Zebra medicine is curently unknown but in the Pre-war era the Zebra's made Mint-als, which is a mint-tasting drug that temporarily boosted a Pony/Zebra's thought processes allowing them to think clearly and quickly. There was also a variant of stronger Mint-als called Party-Time Mint-als which Pinkie Pie was addicted to. Mint-al addiction is not uncommon and taking just one can be enough to addict a Pony, the Pony in question will become more dependent on Mint-als until they need them just to think clearly. Mint-al addiction can be cured like most drug addictions but it requires a great deal of effort and willpower as seen with Littlepip as she was treated by Dr Helpinghoof.
Other Zebra Medicine includes potions that can permanently alter a creature's genetic makeup and improve them as Xenith did for Littlepip & Regina Grimfeathers. Xenith also showed the ability to brew potions that could stop bleeding from amputated limbs by dipping them in the potion.
Traits Edit
Zebras are well-known for their natural marital-art skills and physical prowess which is comparable to Earth ponies. They excel in non-conventional warfare such as infiltration, assassination and sabotage.
A well-known zebra, Zecora was depicted to possess her own form of magic (refilling a cup of tea by rubbing her hooves over the cup). She also proved to be very knowledgeable in the usage of magic, and was able to coach a young Twilight Sparkle, who was an extremely accomplished Unicorn. It is unknown if all zebras have an innate magical ability as Zecora did.
Mythology Edit
Zebras associate exo-atmospheric events such as meteor showers with evil. By extension, anything that originated in space, such as the remnants of a meteorite, is believed to be inherently evil. They believe that Nightmare Moon was influenced solely by the stars.
Social structure Edit
The zebras are led by their Zebra Caesar. In the event that the Caesar is killed, the next ranking figure would be the legatus legionis.
While not canon, the story New Roam depicts Zebras as Romanesque in many things, including their social structure. Thus, there exists such classes as plebeians and patricians, and in the military legates and centurions.
Note Edit
Zecora was the most well known pre-war Zebra who served as a double agent for the ponies (notably Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash).Eugenic Sterilization Laws Paul Lombardo, University of Virginia While some eugenicists privately supported practices such as euthanasia or even genocide, legally-mandated sterilization was the most radical policy supported by the American eugenics movement. A number of American physicians performed sterilizations even before the surgery was legally approved, though no reliable accounting of the practice exists prior to passage of sterilization laws. Indiana enacted the first law allowing sterilization on eugenic grounds in 1907, with Connecticut following soon after. Despite these early statutes, sterilization did not gain widespread popular approval until the late 1920s. Advocacy in favor of sterilization was one of Harry Laughlin’s first major projects at the Eugenics Record Office. In 1914, he published a Model Eugenical Sterilization Law that proposed to authorize sterilization of the "socially inadequate" – people supported in institutions or "maintained wholly or in part by public expense. The law encompassed the "feebleminded, insane, criminalistic, epileptic, inebriate, diseased, blind, deaf; deformed; and dependent" – including "orphans, ne'er-do-wells, tramps, the homeless and paupers." By the time the Model Law was published in 1914, twelve states had enacted sterilization laws. By 1924, approximately 3,000 people had been involuntarily sterilized in America; the vast majority (2,500) in California. That year Virginia passed a Eugenical Sterilization Act based on Laughlin’s Model Law. It was adopted as part of a cost-saving strategy to relieve the tax burden in a state where public facilities for the "insane" and "feebleminded" had experienced rapid growth. The law was also written to protect physicians who performed sterilizing operations from malpractice lawsuits. Virginia’s law asserted that "heredity plays an important part in the transmission of insanity, idiocy, imbecility, epilepsy and crime…" It focused on "defective persons" whose reproduction represented "a menace to society." Carrie Buck, a seventeen-year-old girl from Charlottesville, Virginia, was picked as the first person to be sterilized. Carrie had a child, but was not married. Her mother Emma was already a resident at an asylum, the Virginia Colony for the Epileptic and the Feebleminded. Officials at the Virginia Colony said that Carrie and her mother shared the hereditary traits of "feeblemindedness" and sexually promiscuity. To those who believed that such traits were genetically transmitted, Carrie fit the law’s description as a "probable potential parent of socially inadequate offspring." A legal challenge was arranged on Carrie’s behalf to test the constitutional validity of the law. At her trial, several witnesses offered evidence of Carrie’s inherited "defects" and those of her mother Emma. Colony Superintendent Dr. Albert Priddy testified that Emma Buck had "a record of immorality, prostitution, untruthfulness and syphilis." His opinion of the Buck family more generally was: "These people belong to the shiftless, ignorant, and worthless class of anti-social whites of the South." Although Harry Laughlin never met Carrie, he sent a written deposition echoing Priddy’s conclusions about Carrie’s "feeblemind-edness" and "moral delinquency." Sociologist Arthur Estabrook, of the Eugenics Record Office, traveled to Virginia to testify against Carrie. He and a Red Cross nurse examined Carrie’s baby Vivian and concluded that she was "below average" and "not quite normal." Relying on these comments, the judge concluded that Carrie should be sterilized to prevent the birth of other "defective" children. The decision was appealed to United States Supreme Court. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., himself a student of eugenics, wrote the formal opinion for the Court in the case of Buck v. Bell (1927). His opinion repeated the "facts" in Carrie’s case, concluding that a "deficient" mother, daughter, and granddaughter justified the need for sterilization. The decision includes the now infamous words: It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind…Three generations of imbeciles are enough. Recent scholarship has shown that Carrie Buck’s sterilization was based on a false "diagnosis" and her defense lawyer conspired with the lawyer for the Virginia Colony to guarantee that the sterilization law would be upheld in court. Carrie’s illegitimate child was not the result of promiscuity; she had been raped by a relative of her foster parents. School records also prove that Vivian was not "feebleminded." Her 1st grade report card showed that Vivian was a solid "B" student, received an "A" in deportment, and had been on the honor roll. Nevertheless, Buck v. Bell supplied a precedent for the eventual sterilization of approximately 8,300 Virginians. Borrowing from Laughlin’s Model Law, the German Nazi government adopted a law in 1933 that provided the legal basis for sterilizing more than 350,000 people. Laughlin proudly published a translation of the German Law for the Prevention of Defective Progeny in The Eugenical News. In 1936, Laughlin was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Heidelberg as a tribute for his work in "the science of racial cleansing." The second Supreme Court case generated by the eugenics movement tested a 1935 Oklahoma law that prescribed involuntary sexual sterilization for repeat criminals. Jack Skinner was chosen to test the law’s constitutionality. He was a three-time felon, guilty of stealing chickens at age nineteen, and convicted twice in later years for armed robbery. By the time his case was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1942 some 13 states had laws specifically permitting sterilization of criminals. The opinion striking down the sterilization law in the case of Skinner v. Oklahoma (1942) was written by Justice William O. Douglas. He highlighted the inequity of Oklahoma's law by noting that a three-time chicken thief could be sterilized while a three-time embezzler could not. Said Douglas: "We have not the slightest basis for inferring that … the inheritability of criminal traits follows the neat legal distinctions which the law has marked between those two offenses." Despite the Skinner case, sterilization of people in institutions for the mentally ill and mentally retarded continued through |
!== undefined) { return [ field, not? '!=' : '=', self.createBinding(value.data, value.modifier) ].join(' '); } // we don't know how to handle the value throw new Error('Encountered unexpected value while parsing a JOIN ON condition for'+ field); }); } // remove any undefined or empty string values ons = ons.filter(function (d) { return d; }); return ons.join(''+ onBoolean +''); };
query.as Defines the name to be used to identify the results of a subquery Usage: query.as(name) name string View Code query.as = function asNamed (name) { this._attributes.asName = name; return this; };
query._buildSubquery Compiles this query for use as a subquery in another query object. Usage: query._buildSubquery() View Code query._buildSubquery = function _buildSubquery () { if (!this._attributes.tableName &&!this._attributes.fromSubquery) throw new Error('No table name has been defined for a sub-query.'); // I couldn't find a single instance of a non-select subquery, so I'm just assuming it here var queryString = builders.select.call(this); var queryData = this._collectNamedParameters(queryString); queryString = '(' + queryString + ') as `' + (this._attributes.asName || _uniqueId('subquery')) + '`'; return { query: queryString, data: queryData }; };
query._buildCompoundWhere Compiles this query for use as a where clause in another query. Usage: query._buildCompoundWhere() View Code query._buildCompoundWhere = function _buildCompoundWhere () { var wheres = this._attributes.where.concat(); // if the whereBoolean is defined and contains AND, the compound condition was explicitly defined as an AND. if (this._attributes.whereBoolean === 'AND') { // an array of wheres is normally processed as an OR condition. // prefixing it with 'AND' changes it to an AND condition wheres.unshift('AND'); } return { where: wheres, data: this._collectNamedParameters(wheres.join(' ')) }; };
query._mergeSubquery Extracts an external query object as a subquery and merges the bound data values into this query Usage: query._mergeSubquery(query) query query View Code query._mergeSubquery = function _mergeSubquery (query) { if (!isQueryizeObject(query)) throw new TypeError('Provided subquery is not a queryize object.'); var q = query._buildSubquery(); Object.assign(this._attributes.dataBindings, q.data); return q.query; };
query._mergeCompoundWhere Extracts the where clauses of an external query object and merges the bound data values into this query Usage: query._mergeCompoundWhere(query) query query View Code query._mergeCompoundWhere = function _mergeCompoundWhere (query) { if (!isQueryizeObject(query)) throw new TypeError('Provided compound where is not a queryize object.'); var q = query._buildCompoundWhere(); Object.assign(this._attributes.dataBindings, q.data); return q.where; };
query.disableBoundParameters Causes queryize to insert escaped data directly into the query instead of using data bound placeholders.
This is not recommended and should only be used for debugging purposes. You can also set queryize.useBoundParameters = false to disable databinding for all queries Usage: query.disableBoundParameters(enable) enable boolean View Code query.disableBoundParameters = function disableBoundParameters (bool) { this._attributes.useBoundParameters = isDefined(bool)?!bool : false; return this; };
query.useBoundParameters This method is deprecated: Use disableBoundParameters instead. Usage: query.useBoundParameters(bool) bool Boolean View Code query.useBoundParameters = function (bool) { this.disableBoundParameters(isDefined(bool)?!bool : true); return this; };
query._buildTableName Constructs the table name to use in queries, with backticks Usage: query._buildTableName() View Code query._buildTableName = function _buildTableName () { if (this._attributes.fromSubquery) { return this._attributes.fromSubquery; } var q = []; if (this._attributes.database) { q.push('`' + this._attributes.database + '`.'); } q.push('`' + this._attributes.tableName + '`'); if (this._attributes.alias) { q.push(''+ this._attributes.alias); } return q.join(''); };
query._buildWhereBoolean Parses the comparisonMethod value and returns a string suitable as a delimiter. Usage: query._buildWhereBoolean() View Code query._buildWhereBoolean = function _buildWhereBoolean () { return'' + (this._attributes.whereBoolean && this._attributes.whereBoolean.trim() || 'AND') +''; };
query.compile Compiles the final MySQL query Usage: query.compile() View Code query.compile = function compile (useBoundParameters) { if (!this._attributes.builder ||!builders[this._attributes.builder]) throw new Error('Query operation undefined, must identify if performing a select/update/insert/delete query.'); if (!this._attributes.tableName &&!this._attributes.fromSubquery) throw new Error('No table name has been defined'); if (this._attributes.builder === 'insert' && this._attributes.rows) { this._attributes.builder = 'insertMultiple'; } if (typeof useBoundParameters === 'undefined') useBoundParameters = this._attributes.useBoundParameters; var query = builders[this._attributes.builder].call(this); if (typeof query ==='string') { return this._convertNamedParameters(query, useBoundParameters); } else { if (typeof query!== 'object' ||!query.query) throw new Error('INTERNAL ERROR: Query builder returned unrecognized output.'); return query; } };
query._convertNamedParameters Processes the freshly compiled query string, replacing all data bindings with placeholders and constructs the data array
If useBoundParameters is turned off, it replaces the placeholders with their escaped values. Usage: query._convertNamedParameters(queryString) queryString string The query string to be processed View Code query._convertNamedParameters = function _convertNamedParameters (queryString, useBoundParameters) { var data = []; var self = this; queryString = queryString.replace(/({{\w*}})/g, function (match, name) { if (self._attributes.dataBindings[name] === undefined) throw new Error('The data binding'+ name +'could not be found.'); data.push(self._attributes.dataBindings[name]); return '?'; }); if (!useBoundParameters) { queryString = SQLString.format(queryString, data); data = []; }
query._collectNamedParameters Processes the freshly compiled query string, finding all data bindings placeholders and collecting the values for those bindings. Usage: query._collectNamedParameters(queryString) queryString string The query string to be processed View Code query._collectNamedParameters = function _collectNamedParameters (queryString) { var data = {}; var self = this; (queryString.match(/({{\w*}})/g) || []).forEach(function (name) { // Subqueries might reference data bound to the parent query, so it's ok if a value doesn't exist if (self._attributes.dataBindings[name]!== undefined) { data[name] = self._attributes.dataBindings[name]; } }); return data; };
query.exec Compiles the MySQL query and runs it using the provided connection or connection pool from node-mysql or node-mysql2.
If the connection provided is a node-mysql2 connection, then the query will be executed as a prepared statement (connection.execute). Usage: query.exec(connection, [options], [callback]) connection Object node-mysql(2) connection(Pool) options Object Optional Options object to be passed to connection.query with the query string and data mixed in. callback Function Optional Callback function to be invoked when the query completes. var connection = require('mysql').createConnection('mysql://dev@localhost/testdb'); // query exec used with callback queryize().select().from('employees').orderBy('lastname', 'firstname').exec(connection, function (err, employees) { if (err) console.error(err); else console.log(employees); }); // query exec used as promise queryize().select().from('employees').orderBy('lastname', 'firstname').exec(connection).then(function (employees) { console.log(employees); }).catch(function (err) { console.error(err); }); // insert query exec with insert id queryize().insert({ name: 'John Doe', birthdate: new Date('1992-05-20') }).into('employees').exec(connection).then(function (response) { console.log(response.insertId); }); View Code query.exec = function exec (connection, options, callback) { var q = this.compile(); if (this._attributes.debugEnabled) console.log(q); // eslint-disable-line no-console // if the second argument is a callback, remap the arguments if (!callback && typeof options === 'function') { callback = options; options = null; // if the second argument is an options object, wrap it and apply our query & data to it. } else if (typeof options === 'object') { options = Object.assign({}, options, { sql: q.query, values: q.data }); } if (typeof connection.query!== 'function') { pcb(new TypeError('Connection object is not a mysql or mysql2 connection or pool.')); return pcb.promise; } var pcb = proxmis(callback); if (options) { connection.query(options, pcb); } else { connection.query(q.query, q.data, pcb); } return pcb.promise; };
query.export Copies the attribute data for the query object and returns the copy Usage: query.export() View Code query.export = function exportAttributes () { return clone(this._attributes, true); };
query.clone Generates a duplicate of the current query Usage: query.clone() var findCompleted = queryize().from('orders').where('status', 'completed').select(); var archiveCompleted = a.clone().update().set('status', 'archived'); findCompleted.exec(connection, function (results) { // do something with the results and then... archiveCompleted.exec(connection); }); View Code query.clone = function clone () { return this._constructor(this); };
toString Compiles the query without bound parameters, escaping data in-line with the query. Usage: toString() var q = queryize().select().from('employees').where({ type: 'fulltime'}); console.log('' + q); // SELECT * FROM `employees` WHERE (type = "fulltime") ORDER BY lastname, firstname View Code query.toString = function toString () { return this.compile(false).query; };
_uniqueId creates a string that is unique to this runtime session Usage: _uniqueId([prefix]) prefix string Optional View Code function _uniqueId (prefix) { var id = (++idCounter).toString(16); return prefix? prefix + id : id; }
isDefined Test if a value is defined and not null Usage: isDefined(value) value mixed View Code function isDefined (value) { return value!== undefined && value!== null; }
isValidPrimative Tests if a value is a valid type for storing in mysql Usage: isValidPrimative(value) value mixed View Code function isValidPrimative (value) { return typeof value ==='string' || typeof value === 'boolean' || typeof value === 'number' || value === null || (value instanceof Date); }
isQueryizeObject Tests if the provided value is a queryize query object Usage: isQueryizeObject(value) value mixed View Code function isQueryizeObject (value) { return typeof value === 'object' && value._isQueryizeObject; }
flatten Flattens a nested array into a single level array Usage: flatten(input, [includingObjects]) input Array The top level array to flatten includingObjects boolean Optional (Default: false) If an object is encountered and this argument is truthy, the object will also be flattened by its property values. View Code function flatten (input, includingObjects) { var result = []; function descend (level) { if (isArray(level)) { level.forEach(descend); } else if (typeof level === 'object' && includingObjects) { Object.keys(level).forEach(function (key) { descend(level[key]); }); } else { result.push(level); } } descend(input); return result; }
mysqlDate Formats a Date object into a MySQL DATETIME Usage: mysqlDate(date) date Date [description] View Code function mysqlDate (input) { var date = new Date(input.getTime()); date.setMinutes(date.getMinutes() + date.getTimezoneOffset()); var y = date.getFullYear(); var m = ('0' + (date.getMonth() + 1)).substr(-2); var d = ('0' + date.getDate()).substr(-2); var h = ('0' + date.getHours()).substr(-2); var i = ('0' + date.getMinutes()).substr(-2); var s = ('0' + date.getSeconds()).substr(-2); return y + '-' + m + '-' + d +'' + h + ':' + i + ':' + s; }Though accused by detractors of saffronisation of campus, BHU vice-chancellor Prof Girish Chandra Tripathi claims his functioning is not governed by any ideology.
“As a vice-chancellor, it is my duty to run the university as per the rules of the BHU Act. My functioning as V-C doesn’t have influence of any specific ideology,” Tripathi told HT Sunday.
The V-C is drawing flak for the violence and the police lathi-charge on girl students who were protesting against an incident of molestation on the university premises on Saturday night.
Violence broke out when some unidentified elements hurled stones at the vice-chancellor when he was on his way to Triveni Hostel to meet the student who was allegedly molested. A demonstration at the campus’ main gate began on Friday morning which continued until late Saturday night.
“If saffronisation means shaping students’ talent, I am doing it,” the BHU vice-chancellor had said in an interview earlier this year.
“I don’t run the university on the basis of RSS or any political ideology,” the V-C said. “Do those levelling allegations against me have any proof to support their claim?” he asked.
His critics claim he enjoys the blessings of top RSS leaders and that he was a close confidante of VHP leader, late Ashok Singhal.
Often accused of saffronisation of BHU, Tripathi has time and again rebuffed the allegations, claiming that he runs the university as per the rules laid down under the BHU Act.
In an interview with the HT in April earlier this year, Tripathi did not mince words in taking on his detractors, saying that if saffronisation meant overall personality development of students, enhancing their knowledge and inculcating moral values in them — then he was making “serious efforts” at it. “If saffronisation means shaping students’ talent, I am doing it.”
When detractors accused him of allowing RSS path sanchalan – an annual march by Sangh volunteers – on the BHU campus, he said the tradition was followed even before he joined as the V-C.
Social activist Ekta Shekhar said it was no secret that senior RSS leaders like Indresh Kumar visit BHU to deliver lectures. “It is a fact that he has turned BHU into a centre of RSS activities.”
“The V-C has a strong RSS background. Leaders of the Sangh have delivered lectures on the university campus in the past,” a university student said.
As BHU V-C, Prof Tripathi started Bharat Adhyayan Kendra for the study of ancient sciences — “soul of Indian culture.”
First Published: Sep 27, 2017 00:26 ISTLONDON (Reuters) - The leaders of eight of the world’s top oil companies will meet in Paris next week to explain how they will help combat climate change, as part of an offensive ahead of a U.N. summit later this year.
Patrick Pouyanne, Chief Executive Officer of Total, speaks during the 26th World Gas Conference in Paris, France, June 2, 2015. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
The Oct. 16 meeting will be followed by a press conference, where the company heads are also expected to renew their call for a global carbon pricing mechanism, the chief executive of French oil major Total, Patrick Pouyanne, said on Wednesday at a conference in London.
Pouyanne said the company leaders would present proposals to combat global warming ahead of the December Paris climate talks, where governments will set new goals for combating climate change.
“We need to be on the offensive... We need to be serious to bring answers and solutions to the table and not leave policy makers raising their fingers that they (oil companies) are the devils,” Pouyanne said at the Oil and Money conference.
“We are looking at areas of cooperation, for example in research and development, in CCS (carbon capture and storage)... We all have some experience individually but it’s one area where we could join efforts,” Pouyanne added.
The meeting will be part of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, a U.N.-backed scheme involving a number of major oil and gas companies.
PRICING SYSTEM
Earlier this year BG Group, BP, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and Total wrote to U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres, urging governments around the world to introduce a pricing system for carbon emissions.
Pouyanne and other executives have called for replacing coal with less polluting gas to reduce carbon emissions.
Setting a price for each tonne of carbon that emitters produce is meant to encourage companies to adopt cleaner technologies and shift away from fossil fuels, primarily coal.
In a joint statement, the companies acknowledged the current trend in greenhouse gas emissions was too high to meet the United Nation’s target of limiting global warming by no more than 2 degrees.
Responding to the letter, Figueres said oil companies needed to step up their own efforts to fight climate change.
Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the two largest U.S. oil companies, did not take part in the letter. Exxon chief Rex Tillerson on Wednesday called for a revenue-neutral global carbon tax that would differ in each country.
“We believe the risks posed by climate change are serious. We also believe by taking sound and wise action now we can better mitigate those risks,” Tillerson said at the conference.
“We have held the view that a revenue-neutral carbon tax is the best option. The revenue-neutral carbon tax could be a workable policy framework for countries around the world. They can tailor it to their own economic conditions.”Oh, hi Juh-nelle! It’s time to catch up on what’s been going on with the Teen Mom 2 gals since we last checked in. Those of you who sat through last week’s crapisode know that the girls seem to have all kinds of problems– from marital trouble, to heavy backpacks to absentee baby daddies and even sweaty legs! It’s a disaster!
This week, we kick things off with Leah, who is basically eye-balling her pal Kayla‘s baby and trying to her friend to leave the baby with her. It’s been a while since Leah’s put her baby chute to use, so she’s got herself a case of the baby fever. (She does not, however, have itchy legs or the ability to see ‘molecules’ like Jenelle.)
Leah asks her pal if it would be OK if she watches her baby. (“I done bought a whole new package of them generic Sweet ‘n’ Lows up at the Walmart, so he’d have something to eat!”) Kayla looks at Leah like she’d rather leave her baby in a cardboard box on the street rather than let Leah watch him.
As per usual, Leah quickly starts bitching about that dern ex-husband of hers (the first one), talking about the BackpackGate video from last week. Leah says she had a chance to talk to Corey about her Ali, the backpack and the video.
Wouldn’t you know it, though, that Corey Tyler didn’t find it shocking that his wife Miranda chose to carry their newborn baby instead of the backpack. All of a sudden, Leah gets a text on her iPhone and she scurries over to see who’s blowing up her phone. Wouldn’t you know it, it’s THAT BITCH MIRANDA!
Apparently Miranda has heard that Leah is off telling every hillbilly west of the Feed ‘n’ Seed that she’s a lazy, non-backpack-carrying bitch. Miranda texts Leah to let her know that she doesn’t appreciate Leah’s kinfolk sending her weird, creepy videos in hopes of getting Miranda “in trouble” with Corey Tyler. Miranda also says that she rarely makes Ali carry her own backpack, but sometimes it’s unavoidable unless she wants to just leave her baby in the car or something. (Obviously, we know this is A-OK behavior for Leah but I guess Miranda isn’t down with that. Go figure.)
While Leah rattles on and on, Kayla is just sitting there with a sad look on her face. It’s almost like she had hoped that– after she went and had a baby (and got a snazzy asymmetrical haircut), she’d at least be able to be the center of one conversation she has with Leah. But…no….
In Delaware, everyone is carrying their own backpacks and whatnot, but there’s still trouble brewing. Isaac is still missing Javi, who has been off on deployment for a month now. He asks Kail how she feels about Javi being gone. (Jesus God Leah, please tell me the producers aren’t starting to make the kids ask their moms the questions they usually make the moms’ friends ask on camera. That’s just too much.) Kail tries to sidestep Isaac’s question and it’s obvious that Kail is quite happy sans Javi.
In South Dakota, Chelsea is hanging out with her pal Brittany (who, for some reason is wearing a bathrobe and looking like a cross between Chelsea circa Season 3 and Richard Simmons). Chelsea is (once again) talking about changing the amount of child support that Adam pays. She must be as bored with this conversation as we are, because she’s had to draw her eyebrows into an “interested” position to make it look like she cares.
Adam wasn’t thrilled when he heard that Chelsea wanted more money to pay for his kid’s food and clothing and whatnot. (Adam must have figured that instead of money, he could just send extra protein powder or PowerBars to Aubree. Every kid loves to find a protein shake in their lunch box, duh!) He is appealing the child support ruling so that he can pay less money.
Even Adam’s parent’s seem to know that their son is a power-lifting piece of poop. When Chelsea tells them about the father/daughter dance that Adam missed, they tell her that they’re glad that Cole was there to pick up their son’s slack. (Imagine how red and veiny Adam’s face and head must have been while he watched this scene play out. That kind of makes me giggle to think about…)
Finally, we check in with the sweaty mess that is Jenelle. She’s still in New York “seeing doctors” (aka looking for anyone with a prescription pad who can write her and Lurch an order for some happy pills). Since she’s not having any luck getting her clammy mitts on some benzos, she’s upped her list of symptoms to include…well, everything.
She’s dying, you guys, and nobody even cares!
Jenelle and Lurch are pounding the pavement in NYC, visiting doctors and Jenelle has herself hooked up to all sorts of machines, hoping that some doctor will eventually get so creeped out by Lurch that he’ll write her any prescription she wants as long as she promises to make Lurch stop staring at him. (That’s actually a pretty solid plan.)
We get to see some “undercover” footage that was filmed on Lurch’s cell phone in which Jenelle is all sprawled out on an exam table. (She did, of course, manage to put on a full face of makeup– fake eyelashes included!– before crawling out of her death bed to see the doctor.)
Hey– she may be on death’s door but she still has Instagram photos to take, y’all! She can’t be looking like Leah after a bender!
Lurch assures Jenelle that she has no reason to be scared because, “I’m here witcha!”
Later, Jenelle (the former heroin addict, mind you) is mad that she had to be stuck with a bunch of needles for “some sort of acupuncture.” The nurse injected something into Jenelle’s sweaty knee, and it caused her to double over in pain. She’s even madder because the nurse later told her that she had no clue what is wrong with Jenelle.
Wait– so this nurse just started sticking things in Jenelle without having any idea what she was doing? (Then again, she wouldn’t be the first person to stick something in Jenelle and have no clue what they’re doing. Surely that was the case every time Jenelle and ol’ Nathan got their lovin’ on.)
Jenelle moans and groans in pain as she and Lurch head to the airport. Jenelle reports that her nervous system and muscles are all OK. Lurch suggests that maybe it’s Jenelle’s birth control that is making her all hot and bothered, but Jenelle, ever the medical expert, flat out denies that it’s the birth control that’s making her body go haywire.
It’s obviously anxiety. And MS. And restless leg syndrome. And the bubonic plague. And possibly rabies.
Unsuccessful at getting any type of prescription drug, Jenelle cries her way to the airport, stating that she doesn’t know how she will cope with things.
Um…you’re probably going to do the same thing you always do when you’re stressed out: scream “Leeeeeave me alooooone!” and then hit your friend on the head with a drumstick.
In Delaware, Lincoln’s screaming that everyone is a puta while Kail and the boys go out to paint crap at a store. Kail asks Isaac if he thinks that she and Jo should hang out more, and Isaac says yes.
Later, Kail goes up to New York City, but, unlike Jenelle’s voyage to the Big Apple, Kail’s not there to prove that her legs are sweaty. Kail is actually there to meet up with someone about “working in TV” as a career.
Wait…isn’t that what she’s been doing for a job for like six years now? You have to give her credit, though. At least she realizes that there will be a point in her life where MTV is not paying her to let them film her birthing babies.
Kail is brought into a TV studio control room. (This has to be MTV studios, right?) Kail says she wants to do on-air hosting, and that she doesn’t really know what to do to get there once she graduates.
Later, she goes to meet up with her uniquely-named pals Shakirah and JonPaul. They are kind of confused why Kail came up to New York to see what it’s like to work in the television industry, when she literally has a television crew following her around. Shakirah wants Kail to know that hips don’t lie it will be hard for Kail to have a career while being a mom and a wife to a guy in the military.
Kail’s friends quiz her about how things with Javi are going. Kail says that things between them are “rough” because she’s living her life while Javi is gone. Shakirah gives Kail some interesting life advice.
“If you’re not where you want to be in life, for real-wise, you’re not going to have anything important to him,” she tells her.
Wait…what now? Shakirah is like Miss Cleo of the new millennium.
Kail seems to know what the hell Shakirah was talking about, because she agrees that, married or not, she has to follow her dreams.
You guys see where this is going, right?
In West Virginia, Leah’s trying her best to figure out a witty way to respond to Miranda’s text. (We could be here all day, folks. You better “set” down.)
Leah says that thoughts of BackpackGate have consumed her, but she’s trying to remember what she learned in “treatment” about staying calm and not calling up your ex-husband’s new wife and screaming like a dingdang banshee at her. Leah says that pre-treatment, she would have texted Miranda a bunch of mean things and stated that, “Ali is not going to lie.”
Wait…what? Didn’t Leah herself literally call Ali a liar like two episodes? Leah needs to keep better notes in her Trapper Keeper phone.
Leah is still hoping that she can someday be friends with that bitch Miranda, but she doesn’t know how to handle it. She breaks down and cries, and Kayla forces herself to ask Leah why the hell she’s crying. Leah says it’s because she’s realized that she’s been knee-high in chaos her whole dang life.
“I grew up the wrong way and I didn’t know that,” Leah says. “You only know what you’re taught.”
Basically, Leah is starting to realize that her mama didn’t “learn” her to handle situations correctly, and that she gravitates toward drama over the smallest issues. We could have told her that in, like, Season 2. If only Leah had realized this sooner, she might have a few less ex-husbands right now. Maybe she is making progress, y’all!
In South Carolina, Nathan is bowling with pals and has somehow managed to make himself look more douchey than ever before. He’s all suited up in a bright orange muscle tank and has his head shaved up into a tiny mini ponytail at the top of his head. It’s a haircut that has only been previously seen on TV on shows such as Cops.
As he bowls, the little ponytail flaps like a white trash flag waving in the breeze. It’s mildly amusing/horrifying.
Nathan’s pals bring up the fact that Jenelle has been jetsetting all over the country and that Kaiser has not been accompanying her on all of her vacations. Nate says he has no clue where the hell his son is while his ex-soulmate is out traveling the country with her booooyfriend. For all he knows, Jenelle may have FedEx’d their son to Chelsea to have her watch him. After all, kids are a drag to bring on planes, dude, so there’s no way Jenelle would bring Kaiser with her.
“I have no clue what’s going on with my son,” Nate tells his friends.
Nate’s girlfriend Jessica has pulled herself out of Hot Topic long enough to attend the bowling festivities. She gives an update on the assault charges she has filed on Jenelle. She does this while wearing a sweatshirt that she’s had embroidered to say “N&J Swole Mates.”
No, seriously. You can’t even make this crap up.
The swolemates state that they are going to continue to pursue the assault charges, even though Jenelle is trying to use Kaiser as a pawn in the fight.
Over in South Dakota, Adam is busy battling Nate for the title of biggest douche on this show. He’s all fired up because he has a lifting competition. For some reason, the competition is taking place in someone’s parent’s basement…or something. I’m pretty sure that they just found a basement full of old exercise equipment, set up some folding chairs and invited every meathead in South Dakota to come lift crap.
Adam has both Paislee and Aubree there to watch him lift stuff, but he seems bothered by the fact that his daughters are cheering loudly for him. Aubree is being completely adorable as she proudly cheers for her dad, but Adam seems embarrassed that he got stuck “babysitting” the kids during an important lifting competition.
After Adam is awarded first place (for being the meatiest meathead in all the land), Aubree decides to confront him about standing her up for her father/daughter dance. She asks him where the hell he was, and Adam tells her that he was busy “doing this.”
Um…do they make the meatheads all line up a day before the competition? Why would him lifting on Saturday have anything to do with him taking Aubree on Friday?
Even Aubree thinks Adam’s answer is lame. She tells him that all her friends had dads who actually showed up for them, and Adam promises that he’ll come eat with her at her school soon. She basically gives him a dirty look, probably knowing that if Adam ever were to show up, he’d start powerlifting teachers on the playground in an effort to show off his muscles.
In West Virginia, Leah is still trying to figure out what to say to that dern Miranda. It’s taken her a day to respond (most likely because she couldn’t see what she was writing due to the ding-dang glass on her phone’s screen being so splintered.)
After reading the text aloud, Leah sends it off to Miranda, letting her know that if her youngins tell her something, you better bet your britches she’s gonna listen to them. Leah actually handles the situation fairly well. (She doesn’t run over to Corey’s house and start throwing backpacks full of Sour Patch Kids at Miranda, so there’s that…)
Corey, meanwhile, is chatting with his dad about his ex-wife’s latest complaint. Corey says he has no clue what the hell Leah was even mad at. All he knows is that it had something to do with a backpack and a video, and that luckily, he didn’t have to set up his deer cam to make sure Leah and her kinfolk weren’t creepin’ over to their house late at night to attack Miranda or anything.
Corey seems surprised that Leah and Miranda were able to communicate like adults.
Corey states that he and Miranda want to eventually go to co-parenting counseling with Leah in hopes that it will help them communicate even better.
Meanwhile, Jenelle is continuing her quest for benzos, despite the fact that she is on death’s door. She and Lurch have collected Kaiser from whatever highchair he was stuck in while they were in NYC, and are heading to yet another emergency room.
Barbara hasn’t heard from her corpse of a daughta in a while, so she calls up Jenelle to see if she’s still alive. Jenelle tells her mom that she’s still in the hospital, but that she’s been having night terrors and bad dreams where Lurch dies. She also talks about a dream that she had in which Kaiser had to have brain surgery. (Maybe it was that ‘dye in the baby’s head’ procedure Leah was talking about a few seasons ago?)
Barb suggests that the bad dreams may not be caused by Jenelle’s assorted deadly illnesses. Instead, she thinks that Jenelle may just be watching too much “of that Walkin’ Dead movie!”
Jenelle says that she did manage to get her claws on some anxiety meds, so Barb is now free to bring Jace over to her Castle Chaos whenever she wants.
“I thought ya were real sick?” Barb asks.
Jenelle confirms that she is, indeed, dying but she still wants to see Jace.
Once she’s home, Lurch leaps at the chance to go pick up Jenelle’s bounty of pills. Jenelle, meanwhile, reads online that the anxiety meds may cause addiction. She is worried because she was once addicted to the “purest form” of pain pills, heroin. Lurch doesn’t like to hear that his soulmate was once addicted to heroin.
“I’d rather you be a crackhead,” he tells her.
It’s nice to have goals….
Well, maybe if Lurch waits a season or two, he’ll get his wish?
In a slightly horrifying clip shown during the commercial break, Lurch explains to Jenelle what kegel exercises are. In case you are wondering what those are, they are things you can do to “strengthen your gooch,” according to Lurch.
The thought of Jenelle squeezing her um, ‘gooch’ is now permanently burned into my brain forever. Thanks, Lurch.
“That’s where you flex your cooter or your penis to stop your pee,” Lurch advises a confused Jenelle.
After Lurch finishes giving his hillbilly hard-on tips, it’s time to once again check in with Leah who, undoubtedly, knows all about flexing her cooter and whatnot.
She has her entire litter with her, but soon it’s time to drop the twins off with Corey. They talk about the stupid video again, and Corey states that he doesn’t see what the big deal is about the whole thing. He does, however, say that Leah is now in a better place than she was the previous season, when she was doozing off on baby’s heads and stuff.
Corey says that he filed the new court paperwork because he disagrees with the wording used in the order, not with Leah getting more time with the girls. They both agree to look into co-parenting counseling.
In Delaware, Kail is bringing Isaac to Jo’s house. They talk about how they can get along better. Jo says that he and Kail have managed not to fight for the time that Javi has been gone, and he’s hoping that once Javi reappears, things don’t go back to them screaming at each other like they’re in an episode of “Jerry Springer.”
Kail admits that she and Javi aren’t doing all that great in their marriage, so she doesn’t know how he’ll react to finding out that Kail is getting along with Jo and Vee. She vows to get her relationship with Vee and Jo squared away, and then “deal with the rest” when Javi comes home.
You guys see where this is going now…right?
In North Carolina, Barb is dropping Jace off at Jenelle’s. As soon as Babs walks in, we can see that Jenelle is just waiting to start screaming at her. Barb compliments Kaiser’s new haircut (which is creepily cut in the exact same style as Lurch’s moptop.)
Barb tells Jenelle that she’ll need to pull it together and act like a mom for one day to cover for Babs while she goes to see Jenelle’s sister in New Jersey. Jace will be participating in a soapbox derby on March 5, and Jenelle will need to take him.
But…wouldn’t you know it!? That’s the day of Jenelle’s Spring Break trip! How can Barb expect Jenelle to go slum it at a Boy Scouts event when she could be funning and sunning with Lurch for Spring Break!? COME ON!
Jenelle screams at her mom to stop talking. (Anyone else agree that if we’d talk to our moms like that we’d have a backpack full of Sour Punch Kids hit us in the face? Just me? OK.)
Barb just laughs at her bitch of a daughta, knowing that it’s probably better that Jenelle doesn’t go to the Boy Scouts event because she’d just bring Lurch and he’d creep everyone there out.
Jenelle is angry that Barb |
intuitive to use? How long did it take you to build up skills that you were satisfied with?
At first I was really confused and a bit frustrated, just trying to make my own versions of the little tutorial games. A lot of my really early games had layers upon layers of bugs, and it would get so bad that I’d just leave them in there. One of my first games was a platformer with this stick figure guy who could wall-jump, but I couldn’t get the collisions right, so he’d just stick into the walls from time to time. I told my friends that the walls were made out of quicksand when they played it.
Who do you take influence from in terms of other independent videogame developers?
Nowadays, guys like Locomalito and Amon26 inspire me. They both know how to create great experiences, with Locomalito’s stuff being really fun retro / arcade-y greatness, and Amon26 pulling players into surreal worlds with creepy imagery / audio. I also really admire their work ethic. It always seems like they’re just working on their games around the clock, and the effort really shows.
Do you have the desire to enter any competitions or attend any game jams?
Yes and yes. I’d love to do both, but I’m never close enough to any game jams being held, and some competitions on forums have lame themes. I guess I’ll just go for the IGF and Indiecade when I feel like I have something really, really great.
Bonus page: Prototype // Mock-up // WIP snaps.Tripoli, Libya (CNN) It took one Somali woman seven months and 4,000 miles to trek to Libya. From there, she hoped to cross the Mediterranean Sea so her baby could be born in Europe. She didn't get there.
She was arrested as she was sailing north and is now one of 350 migrants being held in a facility just outside Tripoli.
Other pregnant women fleeing repression have come to Libya -- many fleeing fighting that refuses to stop. They, like male migrants, are willing to risk their lives on crowded boats to make the final part of the trip.
The Somali woman's baby, Sabrine, was born a week after she was detained.
Libyan officials are in a quandary. The prison head admitted to CNN there is no system in place to send these people home, jail them or let them go.
About one-third of the migrants are from Eritrea on the east coast of Africa. They denied they were heading to Europe and told CNN they just want to go home, which is several thousands of miles away.
In one sense, they are fortunate, even though the time in prison seems like forever. They are alive.
Many others have died when smugglers' ships sink. Bodies wash up on Libyan beaches. They are anonymous -- no IDs, no links to who they were and what was in their past that drove them to try the dangerous trip.
Many deaths
In Malta, there are similar stories of death.
On Thursday, the bare, stark caskets came in one by one on the shoulders of Maltese soldiers.
JUST WATCHED Mediterranean migrants share their stories of survival Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Mediterranean migrants share their stories of survival 03:13
The tears soon came along with them.
That was the scene in a tent outside the Mater Dei Hospital in Valletta, Malta, a chance for citizens and dignitaries to remember 24 of what's thought to be hundreds of migrants killed when their crammed ship sank in the Mediterranean Sea.
Almost all the other victims haven't been accounted for yet, with the presumption that their bodies remain trapped inside the 66-foot (20-meter) boat that capsized late Saturday roughly 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Libya. Italian authorities have said that many of the estimated 850 aboard had been locked in the ship's lower levels with no way out.
The tragedy has prompted questions about the growing migrant crisis facing Europe, as well as about who is responsible for Saturday's tragedy. The Catania, Italy, prosecutor's office announced Tuesday that the vessel's 27-year-old captain, Mohammed Ali Malek, and crew member Mahmud Bikhit have been arrested on suspicion of "reckless shipwreck, multiple manslaughter (and) abetting clandestine immigration" for their roles in the disaster.
Those questions still need to be answered. But Thursday, at least, was a day for reflection -- about lives snuffed out simply because people wanted a better life.
"This event reminds us that we are all immigrants and our life is a journey of migration," Imam Mohammed El Sadi said at Thursday's funeral. "Our grandparents Adam and Eve, peace be onto them, emigrated from heaven to earth. We emigrated from our mothers' wombs to this world, and we will immigrate to the graves."
The deaths are the latest illustration of the increasing flow of migrants from North Africa and the Middle East through the Mediterranean and into Europe -- assuming they survive the trip.
Gemma Parkin, a spokeswoman for Save the Children, said that the number of migrants who have fled to find refuge in Europe has skyrocketed 70% this year over last, a dramatic rise that she attributed mostly to the deteriorating security situation in Libya
About 8% of the recorded migrants between January and April 19 of this year are children, Parkin said. Of those, 70% aren't unaccompanied by adults -- some of them as young as 9 years old.In the submission to the 26–member committee, Mark Burby, a businessman based in the Channel Islands, claimed that he had been gagged by the "ex–spouse of an Asian head of state" in 2009.
He said the "Asian head of state" – whom he does not identify – was a "substantial" backer of al–Qaeda, and had advance warning of the suicide bombings on London's transport system in 2005.
The ex–wife "and her solicitors have boasted to me and others that she 'owns' the courts in England and Wales and the Government", he said.
Mr Burby alleged the unnamed ex–spouse, whom he described as one of the wealthiest women in the world, had a sexual relationship "with one of her two solicitors", as well as two other men, one of which resulted in her having an abortion.
Last night, lawyers for the claimant threatened The Daily Telegraph with an injunction, but failed to make any application.
The decision by the committee to post the claims on the parliamentary website, represents another challenge to the supremacy of the courts after injunctions involving Ryan Giggs, the footballer, and Fred Goodwin, the former banker, were also exposed by MPs.
According to Mr Burby the super–injunction governed six general areas including "information/allegations concern–ing any personal relationship of any kind between the claimant and a man who is not her ex–husband".
The gagging order covered any "information/allegations" relating to the ex–wife's attempt to secure payment of monies owed by her family, as well as "any allegation that the claimant was involved in or responsible for" a murder, he says.
Mr Burby said he felt compelled to provide the information to parliament's joint committee on privacy and injunctions after Kenneth Clarke, the Lord Chancellor, had told MPs and peers that super–injunctions "are now being granted only for very short periods" and "you cannot have just long–running secret litigation".
Mr Burby said: "That of course is incorrect as the super–injunction against me has been in place since Sept 9 2009. None of the interim rulings made by the judges in these proceedings have been published, even in an anonymised or redacted form." John Whittingdale, the committee's chairman, said yesterday that Mr Burby's evidence was an "interesting and relevant submission", given that his committee had been told by judges that the super–injunctions were now "time–limited" only.
"The points he makes are valid," he said. "It is very dif–ficult for him to make those points without some reference to his own position."
Mr Burby set out other allegations, published on the committee's website, that he said were "pleaded by the claimant as being private and/ or confidential but that are not expressly covered by the terms of the super–injunction (but are impliedly covered by it)".
They included "that the claimant's ex–husband, as a head of state, sympathised with and supported Islamic fundamentalists; that the claimant knew or suspected from conversations with her ex–husband that there would be major terrorist attacks on the UK (7/7) and Israel.
"That the claimant's exhusband flew a senior member of al–Qaeda to the country of which he is head of state and gave him substantial funding for al–Qaeda."
Mr Burby raised a number of other allegations and said that if these were untrue, "then the proper course is for the claimant to sue in defamation".
He added: "The claimant has been using her immense wealth to harass and bully people with overpowering UK legal process under the protection of a web of interlocking super–injunctions.
"The claimant boasted to a member of staff (who has provided a witness statement) about the assassination of an opponent engaged in litigation against her in another jurisdiction and saying that 'Burby' was next."
News of the gagging order is the latest in a series that have allowed celebrities to cover up sexual scandals using super–injunctions, the very existence of which cannot be reported.Goal-line technology is being used at the 2014 World Cup in June and July, but was given the thumbs down after a vote involving the 36 clubs in Germany's top-two flights at Monday's German Football League (DFL) meeting in Frankfurt. Just nine representatives of clubs in the Bundesliga were in favor, while the other nine voted against carrying forward proposals to implement the system in time for the 2015-16 season.
A two-thirds majority would have been needed for any plans to be rubber-stamped. Among those clubs which had voted in favor were Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Mönchengladbach.
"We at FC Bayern regret this, but as democrats, we have to accept that," Karl Heinz Rummenigge said of the outcome.
Christian Seifert, Managing Director of the DFL, added: "The initial studies go back almost two years already. Arguments were worked out for or against it. Then there's a democratic vote, which is valid."
"Football is played everywhere, so this was a pragmatic and grassroots decision," said Eintracht Frankfurt Chairman Herbert Bruchhagen, one of those against the introduction of technology.
In a separate vote between 2. Bundesliga clubs, only three sides were in support of change.
Had it passed, the Bundesliga would have become the third major league in Europe to introduce the additional technology, after England and the Netherlands.
The English Premier League and Dutch Eredivisie have already used video assistance through the British-made Hawk Eye system, which is prominent in tennis, cricket and rugby.
The KNVB, Holland's football association, spent around €500,000 ($689,900) on the technology over two seasons of testing. It will, however, only be used for high-profile matches, such as the final matchday of the Eredivisie season, league play-offs, KNVB Cup finals and the Johan Cruyff Shield.
The Premier League, meanwhile, has rolled out the technology at all stadiums in the top-flight using the Hawk Eye scheme, costing £250,000 ($412,075) for each club.
The Bundesliga has had its share of refereeing controversy this season, including the 'ghost goal' scored by Stefan Kiessling for Leverkusen against Hoffenheim in October.
"If ever there was one example to be in favor of goal-line technology, then this is the match," Leverkusen's sporting director Rudi Völler said.
Stefan Kiessling's 'ghost goal' was missed by referee Felix Brych and aided calls for technology.
The subject of goal line or video technology has attracted conflicting verdicts from the two major governing bodies, UEFA and FIFA.
UEFA president Michel Platini has previously argued the €54 million ($74.5 million) cost for installation and maintenance would be "quite expensive" to clarify incidents that happen "once every 40 years."
Brazil's national top-flight and Italy's Serie A has opted for extra referees behind both goals, the same experiment that's been used in both the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League since 2009.
rd/ph (SID, dpa)Two of the Reds organization's top four promising players, according to MLBPipeline.com, are power-armed starting pitchers in No. 1 prospect Robert Stephenson and No. 4 prospect Michael Lorenzen. Both right-handers, who have fastballs that reach the mid-to-high 90s, are enjoying strong 2014 seasons at Double-A Pensacola -- and both have been healthy.
CINCINNATI -- The rash of elbow injuries and Tommy John surgeries among young pitchers this year at the Major League level has been alarming. Organizations such as the Reds can't help but take notice and continue to work towards keeping their pitchers healthy.
CINCINNATI -- The rash of elbow injuries and Tommy John surgeries among young pitchers this year at the Major League level has been alarming. Organizations such as the Reds can't help but take notice and continue to work towards keeping their pitchers healthy.
Two of the Reds organization's top four promising players, according to MLBPipeline.com, are power-armed starting pitchers in No. 1 prospect Robert Stephenson and No. 4 prospect Michael Lorenzen. Both right-handers, who have fastballs that reach the mid-to-high 90s, are enjoying strong 2014 seasons at Double-A Pensacola -- and both have been healthy.
"We're confident in our preparation. We are confident in our staffs to help us make the best decisions possible," Reds Minor League director Jeff Graupe said. "Injuries happen every year. But we're confident in our ability to avoid as many as possible. We're confident in our medical team to help us rehab and get guys back soon as possible and as effective as they once were."
Since the start of Spring Training, nearly 20 Major League pitchers -- including Jose Fernandez, Patrick Corbin and A.J. Griffin -- have had the ulnar collateral ligament replacement operation, aka Tommy John surgery. Recovery times can often take between 12-18 months.
According to the Fort Myers News Press, the Twins organization is one that has made an immediate change in direction. For its affiliates below Double-A, Minnesota directed teams to institute a six-man rotation, instead of the traditonal five-man rotation, to curb starting pitcher workloads.
The Reds already made some adjustments before Spring Training, before the epidemic of elbow injuries really spiked. It has relied on the experience of pitching coordinator Mark Riggins, special assistants to the general manager Cam Bonifay and Jerry Walker, pro scouting director Terry Reynolds, senior director of amateur scouting Chris Buckley and the field staffs of each affiliate to help make individual decisions on each pitcher. Innings totals could soon become less of a barometer over a season as opposed to total pitches thrown, which gives a more accurate idea on how much stress has been put on an arm.
"What we look for are red flags, such as velocity drops, groundball rates changing, and we have the coaches talking to guys," Graupe said. "Do they look tired? Do they feel tired? When you put all your information together, you come away with the best picture of how each pitcher is doing. We're not in a position right now to make radical overhauls without all the empirical data being in place telling us that's the right move."
Graupe declined to specify individual workload limits for his organization's pitchers, namely Stephenson and Lorenzen.
Through six weeks of the season, the results have been positive. Stephenson, 21, is 2-4 with a 3.74 ERA in nine games. Over 45 2/3 innings, he has allowed 35 hits with 21 walks while striking out 55.
Stephenson, the Reds' first-round Draft pick in 2011 (27th overall), struck out 11 over five scoreless innings in his first start, but allowed three or more earned runs in four of the first six starts. He seems to have found a groove in recent outings.
"Robert did a nice job adjusting," Graupe said. "He's been able to throw his breaking ball and changeup for strikes -- both in hitter's counts and when he's ahead in the count. He's mixing his pitches, while staying aggressive with his fastball in the zone has been a key for him."
Most importantly, there has been growth and progress for Stephenson, who participated in his first big league camp during Spring Training.
"The ability to react to adversity and make an adjustment and come out of it with positive results is something we really enjoy seeing," Graupe said. "While you hope each guy breezes through and never struggles, there is something positive about having some tough times and coming out the other end better. This has definitely been a positive first month and a half for Robert."
In his first full year in a rotation at the pro level, the 22-year-old Lorenzen has done more of the breezing through. He has a 2-2 record and 2.26 ERA in nine starts. Over 51 2/3 innings, he has given up 40 hits and 18 walks with 37 strikeouts. He was a supplemental first-round pick (38th overall) in the 2013 Draft.
"A lot of Michael's development and struggles have been more about figuring out who he is," Graupe said. "He's done a really nice job of that so far. He's come up with a routine that works for him. He's learning how to pitch, how to turn a lineup over two or three times, and he's learning what it takes to get deeper into games by being efficient and aggressive. It hasn't been easy for him every start, but he's done a really nice job.
"We have a plan set up to get him through the full season, but we're really, really pleased with how he is carrying himself so far."
Add in 20th-ranked prospect Jon Moscot, a right-hander who has a 2.11 ERA through nine starts, the Blue Wahoos' rotation looks even more impressive. Pensacola also has 10th-ranked prospect Daniel Corcino.
Stephenson and Lorenzen, though, seem to be on the fast track. Just how express that track is remains to be seen. It's unclear if they could soon move up to Triple-A Louisville, or perhaps even be considered for September callups to the big leagues.
"We're pretty comfortable with where they are and the challenges they face at Double-A at this moment," Graupe said. "Their performance will dictate how their year finishes."Insurance company Progressive felt the wrath of the Internet this week after the brother of a policyholder who died in a car crash posted a startling missive about how the family's claim was handled. Progressive has now reached a financial settlement with the family.
Matt Fisher detailed his family's nightmare in a Tumblr post on Monday with a shocking title: "My Sister Paid Progressive Insurance to Defend Her Killer In Court."
Three days later, Progressive said it reached a settlement with the Fishers.
The family's attorney, Allen Cohen, told CNN it was a monetary settlement for "tens of thousands of dollars" more than the $75,000 claim balance that the family was originally seeking.
The payment "is for their failure to exercise good faith towards their insured," Cohen told CNN. "While I cannot tell you the amount, they did pay 100% of what we asked in this regard."
Here's the gist of the tragic story: Fisher's sister Katie died in a 2010 crash after another driver ran a red light. The driver was underinsured, and Fisher's family had to sue the driver for negligence in order to force Katie's insurance company, Progressive, to pay the difference.
What really irked Fisher was that Progressive actively participated in the other driver's legal defense. His scathing post about the debacle quickly went viral and turned into a social media nightmare for Progressive.
The company has spent several days trying to explain its actions. In its latest blog post, in which it announced the settlement, Progressive wrote that it "participated in the trial procedures on our own behalf while Nationwide represented the other driver."
The company also defended its decision to bring the case to trial: "Under Maryland law, in order to receive the benefits of an underinsured driver claim, the other driver must be at fault... A trial was necessary so that a jury could review all of the evidence and come to a decision."
A jury ruled on August 9 the other driver was at fault, and Progressive said it "worked with the Fisher family and their legal representative to resolve the claim" after the verdict.
Court records show that the jury awarded Katie's estate $760,000 plus legal fees. But that verdict falls against the driver, not Progressive, and the family was unlikely to actually collect most of that money.
The Fisher case is finally settled, but the PR damage Progressive suffered could linger. Progressive's Facebook and Twitter pages were under attack all week, with scores of people posting negative comments about the handling of Katie's case.
Progressive (PGR) didn't handle the social media replies well. On both sites, the company responded to its detractors with stiff-sounding statements like: "We fully investigated this claim and relevant background, and feel we properly handled the claim within our contractual obligations."
That tin-ear reply fueled critics' anger.
As one commenter wrote on Progressive's Facebook page after it announced the settlement deal: "Hey look at that, you agreed to pay off the claim the family was originally entitled to. All it took was losing a trial, a media firestorm, and the impending loss of countless customers."
-- CNN's Dana Garrett contributed reporting.The House Budget Committee voted narrowly Thursday to advance the troubled Republican health care bill, with defections by three GOP conservatives underscoring the obstacles party leaders face in maneuvering to avoid a stinging setback to their showpiece legislation.
The vote was 19-17, with Democrats unanimously voting no. Had one more Republican joined them, the measure would have failed in what would have been a damaging, embarrassing — but not fatal — blow to the measure, despite its backing by President Donald Trump.
The committee planned to debate a slew of non-binding proposals suggesting changes in the measure, with some expected from Republicans. Those may provide clues about the types of changes GOP leaders believe the legislation will need for it to win House approval, which top Republicans hope will occur next week.
Before the vote, panel Chairwoman Diane Black, R-Tenn., appealed to fellow Republicans to back the legislation, calling it "the conservative health care vision we've been talking about for years." The measure would strike down much of former President Barack Obama's 2010 overhaul and reduce the federal role, including financing, for health care consumers.
"Don't cut off discussion. Stay with this effort," she said., calling the measure "a good first step."
Three members of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus — Reps. Dave Brat of Virginia, Gary Palmer of Alabama and Mark Sanford of South Carolina — opposed the measure.
Democrats said the legislation would strip coverage from millions who gained it under Obama's 2010 overhaul and would bestow a massive gift on the wealthy by repealing many of that law's tax increases.
"This is Robin Hood in reverse, but far worse," said the panel's top Democrat, Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky. Citing lawmakers' town hall meetings that have been jammed with activists opposing the GOP bill, he said, "This bill is not what the American people want."
The White House and Republican leaders are already talking to rank-and-file Republicans about revising the bill to nail down support.
The committee vote came four days after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected the legislation would boot 24 million people from health coverage. That includes 14 million who'd lost it next year — a scary scenario for lawmakers facing re-election next year, and overt GOP opposition has grown since that report was released.
The bill would eliminate the tax penalty that pressures people to buy coverage and the federal subsidies that let millions afford it, replacing them with tax credits that are bigger for older people. It would cut Medicaid, repeal the law's tax increases on higher earning Americans and require 30 percent higher premiums for consumers who let coverage lapse.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters Wednesday that leaders could now make "some necessary improvements and refinements" to the legislation.
At a late rally in Nashville Wednesday, Trump said: "We're going to arbitrate, we're all going to get together, we're going to get something done."
Vice President Mike Pence met with House GOP lawmakers and pressed them to unite behind the legislation.
"'It's our job to get it out of here and get it to the Senate,'" Pence told Republicans, according to Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla. That would let Trump pressure "Democrats in these red states to come on board,'" Ross said, referring to Republican-leaning states where Democratic senators face re-election next year.
But insurgents still abound.
Conservatives want to end Obama's expansion of Medicaid to 11 million additional low-income people next year, not 2020 as the bill proposes. They say a GOP proposed tax credit to help people pay medical costs is too generous, and they want to terminate all of Obama's insurance requirements, including mandatory coverage of specified services like drug counseling.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., head of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus, continued pushing for changes. He claimed at least 21 members of his group would oppose the measure as written; the bill would fail if 22 Republicans join all Democrats in opposing it.
But underscoring the push-pull problem GOP leaders face in winning votes, moderates feel the tax credits are too stingy, especially for low earners and older people. They oppose accelerating the phase-out of the Medicaid expansion and are unhappy with long-term cuts the measure would inflict on the entire program.
Terminating the Medicaid expansion in 2020 and not 2018 "is sacrosanct to me," said moderate Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J.
In a new complication, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the measure lacked the votes to pass in the Senate, where Republicans hold a precarious 52-48 majority. That left House members angry over being asked to take a politically risky vote for legislation likely to be altered.
Moderates "don't like the idea of taking a vote in the House that may go nowhere in the Senate," said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa.0 of 4
When the Washington Capitals hired Dale Hunter to replace Bruce Boudreau in November 2011, it was hoped the organization would get a long-term coach to led the team to the Stanley Cup.
However, a mere 14 playoff games later, in May, Hunter informed the team he would not return, and so, general manager George McPhee is searching for a coach again.
McPhee will have several options on the table, including, for example, coaching veteran Marc Crawford, Caps assistant Dean Evason, and former Caps playoff hero Ron Wilson.
One name that has been discussed in the Caps community as a potential option for the Caps is that of Adam Oates, ex-Cap and current New Jersey Devils assistant. With the Devils' season finally over, McPhee could approach Oates.
Here are four reasons why he should.I
There is something surprising about the sheer number of interpretations of Machiavelli’s political opinions. There exist, even now, over a score of leading theories of how to interpret The Prince and The Discourses—apart from a cloud of subsidiary views and glosses. The bibliography of this is vast and growing faster than ever. While there may exist no more than the normal extent of disagreement about the meaning of particular terms or theses contained in these works, there is a startling degree of divergence about the central view, the basic political attitude of Machiavelli.
This phenomenon is easier to understand in the case of other thinkers whose opinions have continued to puzzle or agitate mankind—Plato, for example, or Rousseau or Hegel or Marx. But then it might be said that Plato wrote in a world and in a language that we cannot be sure we understand; that Rousseau, Hegel, Marx were prolific theorists and that their works are scarcely models of clarity or consistency. But The Prince is a short book: its style is usually described as being singularly lucid, succinct, and pungent—a model of clear Renaissance prose. The Discourses are not, as treatises on politics go, of undue length and they are equally clear and definite. Yet there is no consensus about the significance of either; they have not been absorbed into the texture of traditional political theory; they continue to arouse passionate feelings; The Prince has evidently excited the interest and admiration of some of the most formidable men of action of the last four centuries, especially our own, men not normally addicted to reading classical texts.
There is evidently something peculiarly disturbing about what Machiavelli said or implied, something that has caused profound and lasting uneasiness. Modern scholars have pointed out certain real or apparent inconsistencies between the (for the most part) republican sentiment of The Discourses (and The Histories) and the advice to absolute rulers in The Prince. Indeed there is a great difference of tone between the two treatises, as well as chronological puzzles: this raises problems about Machiavelli’s character, motives, and convictions which for three hundred years and more have formed a rich field of investigation and speculation for literary and linguistic scholars, psychologists, and historians.
But it is not this that has shocked Western feeling. Nor can it be only Machiavelli’s “realism” or his advocacy of brutal or unscrupulous or ruthless politics that has so deeply upset so many later thinkers and driven some of them to explain or explain away his advocacy of force and fraud. The fact that the wicked are seen to flourish or that wicked courses appear to pay has never been very remote from the consciousness of mankind. The Bible, Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle—to take only some of the fundamental works of Western culture—the characters of Jacob or Joshua, Samuel’s advice to Saul, Thucydides’ Melian dialogue or his account of…Documentary Description
The Battle of the Atlantic
Author/Presenter: Andrew Williams
Winston Churchill once wrote that "The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril". In saying this, he correctly identified the importance of the threat posed during World War Two by German submarines (the 'Unterseeboot') to the Atlantic lifeline. This lifeline was Britain's 'centre of gravity' - the loss of which would probably have led to wholesale defeat in the war.
This three-part cable TV project was advertised as the first documentary series devoted exclusively to the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest and costliest sea battle of WWII, one which ultimately claimed 30,000 lives. The miniseries features archival footage and interviews with survivors from both sides of the conflict, and illustrates emphatically that, despite many Allied victories, the back-and-forth battle might well have turned in the Nazis' favor had the war gone on longer. Individual episodes include "Grey Wolves," "Keeping Secrets," and "The Hunted." Battle of the Atlantic first aired on April 27, 2003
Episodes:
* Grey Wolves
* Keeping Secrets
* The Hunted
The Battle of the Atlantic
By Dr Gary Sheffield
The Battle of the Atlantic was a fight for Britain's very survival. Winston Churchill, wartime prime minister, claimed that the 'U-boat peril' was the only thing that ever really frightened him during World War Two. Here, Gary Sheffield explains why.
The U-boat peril
Winston Churchill once wrote that, '... the only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril'. In saying this, he correctly identified the importance of the threat posed during World War Two by German submarines (the 'Unterseeboot') to the Atlantic lifeline. This lifeline was Britain's 'centre of gravity' - the loss of which would probably have led to wholesale defeat in the war.
If Germany had prevented merchant ships from carrying food, raw materials, troops and their equipment from North America to Britain, the outcome of World War Two could have been radically different. Britain might have been starved into submission, and her armies would not have been equipped with American-built tanks and vehicles.
Moreover, if the Allies had not been able to move ships about the North Atlantic, it would have been impossible to project British and American land forces ashore in the Mediterranean theatres or on D-Day. Germany's best hope of defeating Britain lay in winning what Churchill christened the 'Battle of the Atlantic'.
Germany had waged a similar campaign in World War One, and in 1917 had come close to defeating Britain. But in spite of this experience neither side was well prepared in 1939. Germany had underestimated the impact of U-boats, and was fighting with only 46 operational vessels, using mostly surface vessels - rather than submarines - to prowl the Atlantic. However, on 3 September 1939, the day Britain declared war on Germany, the British liner Athenia was torpedoed by a U-boat. This marked the beginning of the second Battle of the Atlantic.
In the early stages of World War Two, the Royal Navy placed much faith in ASDIC (an early form of sonar) to detect submerged U-boats. The British were largely able to master the surface threat posed by Germany, sinking the pocket battleship Graf Spee in December 1939 and the battleship Bismarck in 1941, but from the summer of 1940 the U-boat menace grew.
This was in part because the conquest by Germany of Norway and France gave the Germans forward bases, which increased the range of the U-boats and also allowed Focke-Wulf FW200 'Kondor' long-range aircraft to patrol over the Atlantic, carrying out reconnaissance for the U-boats and attacking Allied shipping.
The British were consequently forced to divert their own shipping away from vulnerable UK ports, and were faced with the need to provide convoys with naval escorts for greater stretches of the journey to North America. The Royal Navy was critically short of escort vessels, although this problem was eased somewhat by the arrival of 50 old American destroyers that President Roosevelt gave in return for bases in British territory in the West Indies
U-boats, supplemented by mines, aircraft and surface ships, succeeded in sinking three million tons of Allied shipping between the fall of France in June 1940 and the end of the year. Admiral Dönitz, the commander of the U-boat arm, introduced the 'wolfpack' tactic at the end of 1940, whereby a group of submarines would surface and attack at night, thus greatly reducing the effectiveness of ASDIC.
Not surprisingly, the German submariners called this phase of the war the 'happy time'. This remorseless attrition of merchant shipping was a far greater threat to Britain's survival than the remote possibility of the Kriegsmarine landing German troops on the English coast.
Learning to fight back - with ships
The British survived this period through a number of factors, including the development of improved tactics. Corvettes, small warships of less than 1000 tons, helped to plug the gaps in the Royal Navy's escort capability, and the Allied occupation of Iceland, which belonged to German-occupied Denmark, gave Britain some valuable Atlantic bases.
The emergence of powerful allies was also vital. The Royal Canadian Navy, which was tiny in 1939, began an amazing period of growth that eventually made it capable of bearing a substantial part of the fighting in the North Atlantic. Even more importantly, the United States, although neutral, began to behave in a most un-neutral fashion.
From May 1941 the US Navy became a British ally in the struggle in the Atlantic. By taking over escort duties in the western Atlantic, it became involved in a shooting war with Germany, and on Halloween 1941, the inevitable happened. While escorting a British convoy, an American warship, the destroyer Reuben James, was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine U-562.
This was at a time when Roosevelt still faced fierce opposition from isolationists within the USA, and escort duties in the Battle of the Atlantic had so far been the most that the President could do to bring the USA into the war on the British side. However, eventually this undeclared German-American naval war probably played a role in Hitler's decision to declare war on the USA - in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor.
Apart from ships, two other factors played a vital role in the winning of the Battle of the Atlantic. The first was the aeroplane. One of the major problems faced by the Allies in the early years of the war was the existence of a'mid-Atlantic gap', an area that could not be reached by friendly aircraft.
It was crucial to find a way of reaching this area, as simply by flying over the sea, aeroplanes could force submarines to submerge and cease activity, and they could, of course, counter the Kondor. Early in the war, fighter aircraft such as the 'Hurricane' could be carried to the mid-Atlantic, and catapulted from the decks of specially adapted ships (known as Catapult Aircraft Merchant ships, or CAMs), although these were 'one-shot weapons', the planes having to ditch in the sea afterwards. Light escort carriers, also capable of carrying aircraft, entered service in September 1941, and these were a major step forward.
The role of long-range aircraft such as the American 'Catalina' flying boat was also crucial for the battle in the mid-Atlantic area, although there is a big question mark over whether the Allies made the best use of their available aircraft.
The B-24D 'Liberator', a very-long-range aircraft, was the victim of a power struggle within the RAF. At first it was used only for the strategic bombing of Germany, the dominant strategy within the RAF at that time, and was only released to Coastal Command towards the end of 1942.
The argument of 'Bomber' Harris had been that the RAF's most useful contribution to the Battle of the Atlantic was to bomb the U-boat pens and production facilities on land - a view that was, and remains, deeply controversial. By the second half of 1943, however, as these longer-range aircraft were released for the sea battle, the mid-Atlantic gap was at last being satisfactorily covered.
The Role of Intelligence
Intelligence was the other major factor in this second Battle of the Atlantic. Both sides at various times were able to read the signal traffic of the other. Britain's ability to break the Enigma codes, and the resulting 'Ultra' intelligence was a priceless advantage, particularly after the Royal Navy (not, as a recent Hollywood movie |
E. Trenberth, John T. Fasullo, and Jeffrey Kiehl, 2009: Earth’s Global Energy Budget. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 90, 311–323.
3) Bode H, Network Analysis and Feedback Amplifier Design assumption of external power supply and linearity: first 2 paragraphs of the book
4) Manfred Mudelsee, The phase relations among atmospheric CO content, temperature and global ice volume over the past 420 ka, Quaternary Science Reviews 20 (2001) 583-589
5) Jouzel, J., et al. 2007: EPICA Dome C Ice Core 800KYr Deuterium Data and Temperature Estimates.
6) ISCCP Cloud Data Products: Rossow, W.B., and Schiffer, R.A., 1999: Advances in Understanding Clouds from ISCCP. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 80, 2261-2288.
7) “Diviner Lunar radiometer Experiment” UCLA, August, 2009
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RedditMinneapolis-based Xcel Energy has unveiled its Colorado Energy Plan, an initiative that could lead to $2.5 billion in clean energy investments in rural Colorado, as well as the early retirement of two coal plants in the state.
In a newly filed stipulation with a broad coalition of over a dozen groups, the utility company asked the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to approve the plan, which proposes what Xcel calls a “proactive and widely supported electricity generating portfolio” to augment the company’s current 2016 Electric Resource Plan.
Importantly, the Colorado Energy Plan would be advanced only if the resulting portfolio of resources reduces, or at least does not increase, the cost of energy to Xcel Energy’s Colorado customers, the company says.
“As the state’s largest utility, it is important to us that we also support rural areas in Colorado, and this proposal’s investment will accomplish this goal,” states David Eves, president of Xcel Energy Colorado. “The proposal could increase renewable energy to 55 percent by 2026, save customers money, and dramatically reduce carbon and other emissions.”
Parties to the Colorado stipulation include Xcel Energy’s Public Service Co. of Colorado; the CPUC staff; the Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel; the Colorado Energy Office; the City of Boulder; Climax Molybdenum Co.; the Colorado Energy Consumers Group; the Colorado Independent Energy Association; the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association (COSEIA); Interwest Energy Alliance; Invenergy LLC; Southwest Generation Operating Co. LLC; the Rocky Mountain Environmental Labor Coalition and the Colorado Building and Construction Trades Council (jointly); Vote Solar; and Western Resource Advocates.
Parties to the stipulation are seeking approval of the proposal from the CPUC by the end of 2017. Among the major components of the Colorado Energy Plan are as follows:
Retirement of 660 MW of two coal-fired generation units at the Comanche Generating Station, located in Pueblo, including Unit #1 by the end of 2022 and Unit #2 no later than the end of 2025 (with Unit #3 remaining in service).
Issuance of an “all source” request for proposals (RFP) as part of Phase II of the 2016 Electric Resource Plan. The RFP could result in additions of up to 1 GW of wind, 700 MW of solar and 700 MW of natural gas and/or storage. No coal resource will be added as part of the RFP. Carbon emissions could be reduced up to 60% by 2026 in comparison to 2005 levels.
Reduction of the Renewable Energy Standard Adjustment (RESA) bill rider to 1%, from the maximum 2% allowed – and currently being funded – under state law. The reduction of the RESA would be the subject of future regulatory proceedings and would not take effect until 2021 or 2022.
Accelerated depreciation for the early retirement of the two coal-fired units at Comanche, also to be addressed in future regulatory proceedings.
Construction of a new switching station for a southern Colorado transmission “energy resource zone,” to help foster the further development of renewable generating resources in rural Colorado.
Xcel Energy plans to issue the RFP in the next several days and anticipates filing a recommended portfolio with the CPUC in the first quarter of 2018. The RFP will target a mix of utility- and IPP-owned facilities, and Xcel Energy is targeting an investment of 50% of the renewable generation and 75% of the natural gas-fired, storage or renewable-with-storage generation resources in the portfolio. A final decision on the recommended portfolio by the CPUC is expected in summer 2018.
Erin Overturf, chief energy counsel at Western Resource Advocates, says the stipulation “starts a conversation about how Colorado will transition to the clean energy economy of tomorrow.”
“If approved, the commission will have an opportunity to evaluate transitioning our power production away from coal and toward less-expensive clean renewable resources,” Overturf continues. “Taking advantage of these low-cost options now would reduce customers’ bills while improving air quality and reducing greenhouse-gas pollution that causes climate change. We ask the CPUC to consider this plan and welcome an open, collaborative conversation among all stakeholders to create our affordable, clean energy future.”
Rick Gilliam, program director for national advocacy group Vote Solar, says, “We are pleased to support the efforts of Xcel Energy to close coal plants, reduce carbon emissions and move Colorado closer to a future where anyone can choose clean energy.”
Rebecca Cantwell, executive director of COSEIA, adds, “We hope this agreement will make more room for affordable clean solar energy on the Xcel Energy system, while protecting the rights of customers to generate their own solar energy and receive fair credit.”
In the event of coal plant closures, Xcel has signaled its intention to help impacted employees transition, says the Sierra Club, which adds that securing local economic development opportunities will be key to this proposal’s success.
The group notes that demand for renewable energy is growing throughout Colorado: The cities of Pueblo, Aspen and Boulder have already declared their respective commitments to meet 100% of their electricity needs with clean energy sources.
Zach Pierce, senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, says, “Renewable energy is leading the way in the transition away from coal to cleaner, more cost-effective electricity generation. It’s a promising development to see Xcel join a diverse group of stakeholders to explore taking advantage of low-cost, clean energy. We look forward to engaging in an open and collaborative process to modernize our electric sector in a way that benefits local economies, improves public health and conserves our environment.”While DC is doing its big move from coast to coast and interspersing its biggest event in years, it is also using this year’s Free Comic Book Day as a way of keeping the brand alive. They have created a slate of artist and creator signings to represent their properties across the entire country. This is a relatively impressive offering, and most states have one(or several) signing for today’s big event.
Where are you at? Will you be heading into the crowds to get books signed?
Arizona
Name Time Location Scott Kolins TBD Gotham Comics
46 West Main Street
Mesa, AZ 85201
California
Florida
Name Time Location Paul Pellitier 12:00-5:00 pm Heroes’ Haven
4339 Gunn Highway
Tampa, FL 33618 Amanda Conner 1:00-3:00 pm Emerald City Comics
4902 113th Ave N.
Clearwater, FL 33760 Jimmy Palmiotti 1:00-3:00 pm Emerald City Comics
4902 113th Ave N.
Clearwater, FL 33760 Chad Hardin TBD Yancy Street Comics
9409 U.S. Highway 19
Port Richy, FL 34668 Aaron Lopresti TBD Yancy Street Comics
9409 U.S. Highway 19
Port Richy, FL 34668
Georgia
Name Time Location Van Jensen 1:00-4:00 pm Dr. Nos Comics
3372 Canton Rd #104
Marietta, GA 30066 Tony Shasteen TBD Area 52 Comics & Games
3640 Mundy Mill Road #140
Gainesville, GA 30504
Iowa
Name Time Location Kyle Higgins TBD Daydream Comics
21 S Dubuque St.
Iowa City, IA 52440
Minnesota
Name Time Location Dan Jurgens TBD The Source Comics and Games
Snelling Ave. N.
Roseville, MN 55113
Missouri
Name Time Location Phil Hester TBD Big City Comix & Games
12317 State Line Road
Kansas City, MO 64145
New Hampshire
Name Time Location Babs Tarr TBD Double Midnight
245 Maple Street
Manchester, NH 03103
New Jersey
Name Time Location Jim Califiore TBD Amazing Heroes
966 Stuyvesant Ave
Union, NJ 07083
New Mexico
Name Time Location Brett Booth 12:00-7:00 pm Zia Comics
1300 El Paseo Suite E-1
Las Cruces, NM 88001
New York
Oregon
Name Time Location Kurt Busiek TBD Dragonvine Comics & Gifts
1859 E. Pioneer Parkway
Springfield, OR 97477
Pennsylvania
Name Time Location Jose Garcia-Lopez 1:00-4:00 pm Comics Master Store
Whitehall Mall
Whitehall, PA 18052 Tom Derenick TBD Comics On The Green
307 N Washington Ave.
Scranton, PA 18503
South Carolina
Name Time Location Robert Venditti TBD Richard’s Comics & Collectables
1214A Laurens Road
Greenville, SC 29607
Wisconsin
Name Time Location Tim Seeley TBD Johnny Cee Cards
536 Grand Ave.
Schofield, WI 54476
AdvertisementsWhat happens when you challenge hundreds of elite programmers to put on their robes and wizard hats, enchant their minions to solve a constantly shifting multi-agent traveling salesman problem, use the loot to build mighty armies, and vie for eternal glory and tournament prizes?
You get a lot of clever coding, dirty tricks, attempted exploits, brilliant strategies, and an epic programming war that left millions of human and ogre widowers weeping for their fallen wives. And you get two unspeakably powerful Archmage champions.
Here are the results from our Greed multiplayer programming tournament. By the way, many of our talented players are open to job opportunities, so if you're hiring (or know someone who is), check out our employers page.
The Numbers
545 players submitted over 126,000 lines of solution code
Each player spent an average of 10 hours crafting their solutions, for a total of 7.5 months of playtime
The final ranking was performed with a 673-core computer cluster, which simulated 153,439 games in under one hour for just $5.74
The war raged across 390 billion statements of player code executed
Winners are taking home over $40,000 worth of prizes
The Winners
The #1 human champion is the undefeated Wizard Dude (Michael Heasell) with 363 wins, 0 losses, and 14 ties across all ogre opponents. In second is Vettax, with HighSea in third.
The #1 ogre champion is Bellardia (Ian Elliott) with 387 wins, 7 losses, and 14 ties, trailed by blinkingTore and Eye.
We’ve posted the full rankings here, with hundreds more terrifically strong players on both teams.
So is there one undisputed champion? Watch the intense head-to-head battle between human Wizard Dude and ogre Bellardia to find out if one can crush the other before the three-minute time limit! (Note: it may take several minutes to simulate on older hardware, even after the progress bar is full–tracking the bug here.)
Michael Heasell (Wizard Dude)
The top human player, Michael Heasell (Wizard Dude), is a 23-year-old software developer from the UK. He prepared years ahead for Greed, as he started programming for fun in his early teenage years by modding the RTS game Total Annihilation.
His coin collecting algorithm is very unique; he explains it in his own words.
My coin-collecting algorithm uses a novel forces-based mechanism to control movement. Each coin on the map applies an attractive force on collectors (peasants/peons) proportional to its value over distance squared. Allied collectors and the arena edges apply a repulsive force, pushing other collectors away. The sum of these forces produces a vector indicating the direction in which the collector should move this turn. The result is that: collectors naturally move towards clusters of coins that give the greatest overall payoff
collectors spread out evenly to cover territory Additionally, the value of each coin is scaled depending on its distance from the nearest enemy collector, weighting in favour of coins with an almost even distance. This encourages collectors not to chase lost coins, but to deprive the enemy of contested coins first and leave safer coins for later.
His unit production strategy is also very sophisticated. He uses an advanced AI architecture to coordinate a number of behaviors.
Poke - Some opponents will build a large army in response to any attacker. I try to trick them into doing this by probing their base with a single soldier in the middle of the game.
- Some opponents will build a large army in response to any attacker. I try to trick them into doing this by probing their base with a single soldier in the middle of the game. Collect - When gold is still plentiful or the enemy has more collectors than me, I build collectors, up to 6.
- When gold is still plentiful or the enemy has more collectors than me, I build collectors, up to 6. Stockpile - When the enemy builds an army, I stockpile gold until I have enough to counter them.
- When the enemy builds an army, I stockpile gold until I have enough to counter them. Defend - When the enemy arrives, I build only as many units as I need to counter the attack.
- When the enemy arrives, I build only as many units as I need to counter the attack. Attack - To decide whether to attack, I use linear regression to predict an upper bound on the enemy's future gold reserves based on their collection history. I only attack in force if I am confident that, by the time my army gets to the enemy base, it will still be better than what my enemy could produce.
When we asked him how he thought of such an advanced strategy, he told us that he started with a greedy algorithm, tried to brainstorm better strategies, and:
One day a single word popped into my head: springs. From this I quickly had a vision of spring-like forces pulling collectors around (a better analogy would be gravity/anti-gravity, but the word "springs" stuck). My initial implementation was disappointing and did not appear to be an improvement, but I wouldn't let it go, so I built my own simulation and found that, over hundreds of runs, it did just a little better on average. Things gradually got better from there.
Update: Michael has now written up his own blog post about his strategy.
Ian Elliott (Bellardia)
Ian Elliott (Bellardia), a Canadian software developer, won the top spot on the ogres leaderboard. On the forums, he explained his strategy.
My strategy dealt with mainly beating an opponent at his own pathing strategy. Some universal truths of my workers first: Always move at least 1.25 m per turn - provided I don't need to move the opposite direction next turn. This ensures that I maximize distance traveled over the course of a game. Never allow workers to target the same coin. Use state saving to store & precompute as much as possible. This includes vectors to each coin, armies and army values. Determine which coins were added and which were removed. Calculate a few metrics for each case. Be able to do this in 4 * n operations. Figure out the direction each enemy worker is heading Grab the first coin the enemy will reach while following that path Determine if any of my workers can intersect that point before the enemy. Since I'm dealing with the actual directional vectors of the workers rather than coin positions, this works amazingly well. Most opponents will continue to race my workers for a lot longer than they should. Position my worker so that it will reach the coin first, and intersect back as close to the enemies path as possible, so I can continue to 1-up his pathing. Also continue to grab coins along the way if they still keep me in a favorable position. Ensure that my closest worker will steal the coin from the enemy. Make sure that several of my workers don't head towards the same coin. Enemy AI would race itself to the same coin surprisingly often late game. If I couldn't find a coin worth stealing, design a best path algorithm as follows: Grab the closest 3 coins by distance alone. These will be candidate coins for pathing, I call them "anchors". The bountyGold of anchors isn't considered when they're being chosen, just their distance from the worker. For each anchor, find the shortest hamiltonian path from the anchor, to "K" highest weighted coins in the area. Weight was simply ( distance / value ). Close coins could be ignored if they're low weighted. Select the overall minimum path, determined to be ( weight of anchor + weight of hamiltonian path ) If a worker can't find any path at all, move him into an empty section of the map. This is a specific point determined as the centroid of all the coins that spawned in that area since game start. After 80 seconds, I stop trying to steal coins. There's simply too few worth stealing - its more practical to simply find the highest weighted path. Continue to ignore all coins on the enemies path (I won't ignore a coin if it's directly behind an enemy but the enemy is moving away from it). After 120 seconds, I noticed a trend of people starting to segment their workers into 6 areas. There's also too few coins to provide a suitably minimal path to more than 1 or two coins, so I abandon all long term pathing. I try to remain in an advantaged position as follows: When enemy segments the map, segment it with him. Stop trying to find overall best path. Use the best path to only 2 coins. A worker will only consider coins that it's sure it can reach before an enemy and any allied worker. If we can't reach a coin, consider the enemy position instead of coin positions. Follow behind an enemy so that I'm in the same position, but 5m closer to the center of the segment. If the enemy moves near a corner, I'm now closer to all coins in the segment besides any coins in that corner. In this sense, even if I share a segment with an enemy, I always control more than 50% of its area, or am fetching a coin.
We asked Ian a bit about his experience playing and how he developed his solution.
I found CodeCombat on HackerNews. I've seen you on there a few times previously. I happened to be working on hacking features onto a different HTML5 RTS game when the tournament was released, and this tournament had prizes and competition! I came up with my solution very slowly as I theory crafted various algorithms. I was focused mostly on graph and clustering algorithms. At first I was really concerned with the big O complexity, but after trying a few solutions out it was very clear that while most of these algorithms performed well for huge data sets, they were extremely poor with smaller ones due to their constant time overhead - I think that played the biggest role. Once I determined my algorithm choice, I spent a few days thinking of creative ways to reduce the amount of operations I needed to do common tasks, like tracking coins added/removed and finding nearest neighbours. My battle code is pretty embarrassing and I wrote most of it the night before the competition ended. I loved playing! It really made me dig back into my CS routes and think creatively. Ranking my code after a big change was so nerve wracking! Battling against other top players, and trying to beat all their unique strategies with just one myself was very difficult, but very rewarding. I think this was the biggest appeal. I told myself I could win this tournament when I saw it on HN, and I had to follow through!
Some entertaining statistics
We were interested to see just how Greedy our players became during our final ranking. How much gold was collected during the final ranking? And how many units perished?
How much gold was collected?
We know that 8.2 units of currency spawn per second in a ratio of 5% gems, 10% gold, 20% copper, and 65% silver. Multiplying this by an average match length of 120 seconds a match with, say, a 90% collection rate, this gives 885.6 currency units per match. If we use the real-world value of silver to translate currency units into real-world value, we can estimate how much gold was collected in USD.
In the level editor, the size of a coin is 1 meter high by 1 meter wide. Coins are usually about 7% as deep as their diameter, so we know that a coin’s volume in game is approximately 0.07 meters cubed. 0.07 meters cubed of silver is 734kg, which at a market price of $627.07 dollars per kilogram, is worth $460,269.38, or $230,134.69 per currency unit. (Training a soldier apparently costs $2.3MM USD–about right!)
Multiplying this by the average amount of currency spawned per game, as well as the total number of games, it turns out the estimated value of coins collected is $31 trillion-perhaps three times the financial cost of WWII.
How many units died?
If we figure that 70% of gold was spent on units that were killed, that’s 620 gold spent on units per match. At an average price of 20 gold per unit, that’s 31 deaths per match. Multiplying that by 153,000 matches, over 4.6MM units perished. To put this in terms of world conflicts, about as many people died in the Napoleonic Wars as they did in Greed on Tuesday night.
As for civilian casualties (peasants and peons), this much is known:
Many players read the targetPos of enemy peons to see if their peasants could snatch a closer coin away first.
Some players then countered by reading the targetPos of those peasants to counter the steal.
Player COGSMITH reported some success with detecting when an opponent would do this and intentionally setting a peasant’s targetPos off the edge of a cliff, causing the fatally clever enemy peon to fall to his death while yelling a Wilhelm scream.
So probably a few dozen civilians were lured to their doom during the tournament.The Eternal King of Tennis Roger Federer is indistinguishable with records on a rectangular arena as the man appears to smash records with almost each match he contests. Still, after achieving so much in the sport, the hunger to succeed and demolish his young counterparts has not vanquished from his mind.
It is actually striking, that the Swiss at 31 is exhibiting the most beautiful tennis the fans could ever see. He probably has the 'WWW' (Wilson Wand from Wonderland) to mesmerize the crowds with his artistry, array of shot-making and the effortless proficiency in smacking the ball to all corners of the park.
The Swiss will be starting his new season straight at Melbourne Park as he is skipping all the customary warm-up tournaments before the Australian Open and believes that he has made the right changes to have a healthy schedule in order to remain injury free.
The seventeen time Grand Slam champion said: "I am very happy that the year is starting. It's a bit of a different preparation for the Australian Open this year but I'm confident, I am mentally refreshed, which I am, and physically I am fine and that I will play a good Australian Open. I have been practicing really hard the last few weeks and didn't play a leading up tournament this year just because I thought practice is very important for me coming up in the next year, year-and-a-half."
After tying Pete Sampras on top of the leader-board at the All England Club with his seventh triumph at the sacred lawns and by going past the great American's record for most weeks at no.1 as well, the Basel resident heads into the New Year on a mission to attain more glory. In spite of the challenge from the new brigade (read Novak, Murray, Del Po, Berdych), the legend will possibly rise to the top of the table at multiple venues, further reinforcing his case as the Greatest Player of all Time.
Here’s a glance at the feats the world no.2 can accomplish in 2013:
1. Appearances at the Grand Slams: If Roger plays in all four Majors; he will join Jonas Bjorkman for a joint third position all time with 58 appearances at the Slams.
2. Successive Slam Appearances: If he turns up at all four, he will tie Wayne Ferreira for the most number of consecutive Grand Slam appearances with 56.
3. Grand Slam quarters reached: By the end of the year Federer can go past Jimmy Connors who sits pretty at the top with 41 quarterfinal showings at the Slams.
4. Aussie Open crowns: If the emperor triumphs this year, he will have five titles at the Grand Slam of Asia Pacific, making him the first man to do so in the Modern Era.
5. Roland Garros match victories: Presently he is at no.2 with 54 wins at the clay Major and can be no.1 if the maestro reaches the semis yet again. That would take him to at least 59 triumphs in Paris, one ahead of Guillermo Vilas’s record of 58. Nadal though is snapping at his heels with 52.
6. Wimbledon match triumphs: At the moment Roger is third with 66 wins at the hallowed lawns of SW19, but a repeat performance will move him ahead of Boris Becker who is second with 71.
7. Trophies at SW19: This year, Federer put himself level with Pete Sampras on seven Wimbledon titles. Retaining the title in 2013 would make him the most successful man in the All England Club's history.
8. US Open match conquests: He's currently a close 6th with 64 followed by the mercurial John McEnroe with 65.
9. Career ATP titles: The Swiss has won 76 titles so far (fourth overall) and is certain to overtake McEnroe who is at no.3 with 77.
10. Successive years with more than one title: The seven time Wimbledon winner has captured at least a single tournament for the past twelve years in a row and is third on the all-time list. And if the genius is able to take home a title in 2013, he will equal Connors' for second place with 13 consecutive seasons on the tour.
11. Tournaments Outdoors: Roger shares the record with Vilas with 56 titles – the most in the history of the game. Even a solitary trophy can make him the lone man standing in this segment.
12. Match wins: The four time victor at the Rod Laver Arena sits at the fourth position in career match wins with 878. He can outshine Vilas by winning 44 matches this year, as that will take him in front of Vilas who is third with 921 victories.
13. Rankings: He can surpass Ivan Lendl’s record of being ranked either one or two in the world for most weeks. The Czech had spent 409 weeks at the pinnacle of the men’s tour while Federer has been there for 402.Virtual private networks offer some security protection, but they’re not a cure-all, Patrick Marshall writes. He also addresses some puzzling toolbar and taskbar behavior.
Q: I’ve heard that the only way to be secure on a public Wi-Fi network is to use a VPN — a virtual private network. Is that so? If so, what’s involved in setting one up?
— Sam MacKay, Seattle
A: There’s a lot to be said for using a VPN, and I use one myself. A primary benefit is that it keeps you anonymous on the internet. As for security, it’s a bit more complicated.
First, I’ll explain what a VPN is. A virtual private network simulates a private network on the public internet by creating an encrypted connection between the client and the VPN server. So if you are at a Starbucks and connect to your company’s VPN, your work will be very safe from prying eyes.
A VPN service provides the same functionality for consumers. When you establish a connection to the internet, all your traffic is actually moving through the VPN service’s server, and websites will not know your actual IP address.
As for security, yes, traffic between you and the VPN service is encrypted. But traffic between the VPN server and the websites you visit is not. So potentially a hacker could tap into your traffic.
Still, so much data moves in and out of the servers that connecting it up to you would be like searching for a needle in a haystack, so there’s some protection in that.
Beware, though, that some secure sites, such as banking sites, may reject your attempts to log in through a VPN server. That’s because they may detect that you’re trying to log in from an unexpected location.
So should you connect to the bank over public Wi-Fi? Most bank services are conducted over secure connections so in principle your communication with the bank should be secure.
But hackers can trick users into logging in to spoofed “secure” sites. Yes, that’s unlikely. But my recommendation is not to do banking and other sensitive data transfers on public Wi-Fi.
Most VPN services also include other tools, such as ad blocking and protection from malicious websites, as well as the ability to get around some countries’ attempt to block certain websites.
As for what’s involved in setting up a VPN, it takes very little. Many VPN services offer a free version that has limited connect times, may be limited to a single device and may involve delays in making connections. Most subscriptions to VPN services are about $50 a year. Either way, the software is very easy to set up and use.
Q: On my laptop, I have Yahoo as my home page. It is listed under my Start button as Yahoo (2). Consequently, whenever I open my Yahoo from a toolbar, etc., it opens up to my Yahoo pages. I have looked to resolve the issue. Any ideas?
Second, on my desktop PC, I have the Google taskbar installed above the Yahoo home page. I use it for all of my Google searches. However, quite a while back I noticed that it does not save my search history. When I use the drop-down menu from the Google search box it is blank. It used to list all of the recently visited sites.
Any thoughts on how I may get the browsing history to show up in the Google search box drop-down menu?
— Ted Williams
A: If I understand your first question correctly, you’ve got a website pinned where you don’t want it. You should be able to right-click on the item and then select “unpin.”
As for your second question, if you’re not logged into any Google service, such as Gmail, Google won’t keep your search history. That will then just be up to your browser. If you log into a Google service, your history should be available through the Google search bar.Vietnam: Scientists from Hanoi University and Engineering Technology have invented an air pollution warning system that uses satellite imageries. The air pollution management (APOM) system is integrated with Google and it runs on FIMO’s site.
The program uses WebGIS database which can provide information about pollution levels, indices about dust pollution, and density of fine dust in the air in each area. The information is shown on a map of Vietnam.
Utilizing the technology on collecting and processing remote sensing satellite images, this is the first research work in Vietnam that uses satellite imagery to give air pollution warnings. The program uses WebGIS database which can provide information about pollution levels, indices about dust pollution, and density of fine dust in the air in each area.
According to a website, the system has several advantages. First being, the system works online, which means it automatically collects and processes image data from remote sensing satellites Terra MODIS, Aqua MODIS and Suomi NPP VIIRS of NASA and the satellite receiving station of UET installed by eOsphere Limited, UK.
Second, it calculates the PM2.5 parameter (concentration of dust with size <2.5 micrometers in the air) for the entire territory of Vietnam, spatial resolution 10×10 km with a frequency of 4 times/day (based on Terra/Aqua MODIS image processing) and 6×6 km at 2 times/day (based on NPP VIIRS image processing).
Third, it applies the formula of transformation from PM2.5 to air quality index (AQI) according to Vietnam standards and international standards. Through separating data for 63 provinces/cities, the system supplies an image source of PM2.5 dust, AQI for the entire territory of Vietnam and provinces/cities from 2010 to present.
According to Dr Nguyen Thi Nhat Thanh, the head of the research team, in 2014, Hanoi National University developed a satellite data receiving station to serve scientific research. She then thought of taking full advantage of satellite images the station collects to analyze the concentration of dust in the air and show information on maps associated with warnings.
Thanh and her students set about to work on the system in late 2014. The system was completed one year later, while the software trial went smoothly. According to Thanh, information about dust pollution throughout the country has been provided from automatic monitoring systems operating in Hanoi, Phu Tho, Quang Ninh, Hue, Da Nang and Khanh Hoa.
Hanoi, which is believed to have the highest air pollution level, only has one monitoring station on Nguyen Van Cu street in Long Bien district.As Josh mentioned in “This Week in Spring” already, Eugen Paraschiv recently did a noteworthy survey on the adoption of Spring 4 and Java 8 as well as Spring Boot:
http://www.baeldung.com/java-8-spring-4-and-spring-boot-adoption
Those are interesting numbers for us. Within the Spring universe, Java 8 adoption seems to be approaching 40%! And in terms of Spring Framework versions, Spring 4 is at 65% already, which I’m really happy to see. Even taking into account that a large part of the corporate use of Spring might not be represented in those numbers, that’s a great trend. And Pivotal’s early production support for Spring 4 on JDK 8 certainly helped in the corporate world as well.
It’s equally great to see that a third of the responders are using Spring Boot in the meantime. In other words, half of the Spring 4 userbase is also using Spring Boot, which is impressive for such a young project. Spring Boot’s immediate inclusion in our Spring I/O Platform with full production support last year might have boosted its adoption quite a bit. But even more importantly, it simply seems to be a fit for today’s application development challenges…Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian homes in an occupied West Bank area near Nablus in retaliation for the murder of an Israeli settler couple. Assailants torched a car and sprayed "Revenge Henkin" on a wall in the Palestinian village of Beitillu, near Ramallah. The Israeli army, the IDF, declared the south of Nablus a military area and blocked all routes to the city.
Eitam and Naama Henkin, in their thirties, were shot dead in front of their children while driving on Thursday 1 October between the settlements of Itamar and Elon More. The four children, aged between four months and nine years, were found unharmed in the back of the car.
A paramedic recounted to Ynet news the scene of the murder. "It was a very difficult sight," said Boaz Malka. "We saw a car in the middle of the road with a man in his thirties next to it with wounds to his upper body, and a woman in her thirties inside the car also seriously wounded in her upper body. They were without signs of life, and unfortunately we had to declare them dead at the scene." Ofir Gendelman, spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: "Palestinian terrorists" were responsible for the attack.
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas praised the attack as a "heroic operation carried out by resistance fighters in the West Bank".
After the shooting, over 200 settlers attempted to storm the town of Huwwara south of Nablus in retaliation. Settlers raided Burin and destroyed Palestinian vehicles near the checkpoint, according to Ma'an news. Over 15 Palestinian vehicles were damaged as a result. Netanyahu condemned the killings, which he called "the effects of Palestinian incitement".
In Jerusalem, a crowd of 10,000 gathered for the couple's funeral. Israel's President Reuven Rivlin told the mourners: "We are facing a brutal wave of terror. And you are at the front lines – paying a heavy price."BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Current federal efforts to revive the coal industry will likely do more harm than good to fragile Appalachian communities transitioning from coal as a major source of employment, according to a study conducted by Indiana University researchers.
Based on research involving focus groups and interviews in Appalachia, the research team reached these key conclusions about an industry that has seen employment drop by 71 percent since 1985:
Rolling back environmental regulations will not lead to a significant resurgence of the coal industry because those regulations played only a minor role relative to slowing demand for electricity and a surge in cheaper, cleaner sources of energy.
Promising coal communities a return of their jobs has the potential to fill them with false hope, which can threaten the very progress that has been made in launching job training programs and other transition steps.
Government programs should focus on helping communities find and harness new economic and human development opportunities with a focus on health and education, professional growth, and public services.
Quotes from two participants in focus groups underscore the study's findings:
In reference to the decline of the coal industry, one former coal miner said, "I can tell you what my grand-daddy always said: 'No matter how many times you beat and kick that dead horse, it's not getting up to plow again.'"
Another participant said, "I'm beginning to see some real enthusiasm, particularly among young people in small communities in West Virginia, to begin looking for something beyond, something beyond coal."
The researchers conducted interviews with former coal miners, religious leaders, economic development experts and many others in Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia. The focus group discussions were held in Williamson and Ghent, West Virginia |
acceptable starter on the right side this offseason. Cap space of $27.5 million remaining.
http://gty.im/459322978
Latavius Murray RB: $5m Cap Hit In 2017
Not a fan of Andre Roberts as the Kick Returner? I disagree with you, but the best return man on the roster is Ameer Abdullah. This signing pushes Abdullah to a change of pace role on offense, and kick returner. Relying on a player whose season has ended with his health in a place where he needed surgery in two out of two seasons is madness. Murray has incredible burst for a player of his size, and better straight line speed than any of the Lions running backs. He is a three down capable back, who has benefited at times from the Raiders being able to spell him for a drive or two and their great line play. The Lions offense and situation fits him like a glove, and he’s 6’3″ 230lbs. This is the best available running back under 30 this offseason. Cap space of $23m remaining.
http://gty.im/629165058
Zach Brown MLB: $5m Cap Hit in 2017
Brown is a sideline to sideline spark plug. His coverage ability is elite, which is the biggest need for the Lions defense from their MLB. The Lions front seven missed this exact player in 2017; someone to pair with Levy in nickle situations and keep Tahir Whitehead from having too much responsibility. Whitehead moves into the role he was built for, the SLB who can move to the middle in the event of an injury to Brown. A dynamic athlete who has proven he can play is the perfect fit for the Lions linebacker situation. Cap space of $18.5 million remaining.
Alterraun Verner CB: $5m Cap Hit In 2017
Verner was a talented press man corner who signed with a Tampa Two team because they threw an enormous amount of money at him. Then that team had a coaching upheaval and brought in players that the new staff wanted. He lost his slot to save his team a huge amount of cap space. There are two ways to go with Verner, and the Lions could likely lock him up as a short term option on a show me deal. Another option would be a long term deal that grows significantly after the first year and has a little more guaranteed money. Either way the first season will probably be a fairly cheap, starting caliber player at corner who pushes the Lions other corners down a slot, making the secondary a much better group. Cap at $14 million remaining.
Glen Dorsey DT: $3m Cap Hit In 2017
Dorsey needs to get out of the 3-4 nose role in the league. It is a rare man that can stand up to that role for an extended period. He is massive upgrade over the Lions bevy of marginal defensive tackles that were brought in last offseason. Dorsey tore his ACL toward the end of the 2015 season and it affected him in the 2016 season. He is not a gap shooting pass rusher, but does not give ground to the point of impeding linebackers against the run. Dorsey would effectively fill the role that Stephan Charles and Khyri Thornton did this season. He is not a young man, but he’s still effective when he’s on the field. Cap space of $12 million remaining.
http://gty.im/502626524
The Rest Of The 90-Man Roster
The Lions exclusive rights free agents, restricted free agents, Andre Roberts, Josh Bynes, John Bostic, Armonty Bryant, Devin Taylor and a few other random camp bodies who may or may not make the 53 man roster, will likely suck up the rest of that cap space this offseason.
Now what you may be thinking is that this puts the Lions in a place where they can’t extend Stafford and Ansah but you’re wrong. Extending a player almost never raises their cap hit if they’re already at a high number. They typically get a huge bonus in year one, and are thus willing to take a low salary. Stafford’s deal may be $25 million a year, but the cap hit in 2017 could be as low as 15 million without too much difficulty if the team wanted it to be. Later years take a hit, but that’s manageable if it’s the team’s only mega-deal. As for Ansah, he is currently at the likely average per year number of his long term deal value, the first season would certainly be a lower cap number.
Next up I’ll be doing a seven round mock draft to go with this free agency group.
Follow @a5hcrack on Twitter and follow more Lions news and opinions on our subreddit!You will always be remembered, Steven Hiller.
After Will Smith was noticeably missing in the trailer for the upcoming sequel to Independence Day, it was confirmed that the actor’s alien-killing alter ego would not be appearing in Independence Day: Resurgence, because, sadly, he’s dead.
And it turns out, Smith, 47, was just as shocked by the news as fans.
“I was working on Suicide Squad during that time,” he told Yahoo! Movies of learning of his character’s fate.
According to the War of 1996 website, Hiller’s obituary reads: “While test piloting the ESD’s first alien hybrid fighter, an unknown malfunction causes the untimely death of Col. Hiller. Hiller’s valor in the War of ’96 made him a beloved global icon whose selfless assault against the alien mothership lead directly to the enemy’s defeat. He is survived by his wife Jasmine and his son Dylan.”
And Smith didn’t take the news of his character’s death lightly. In fact, Smith said he and Independence Day director Roland Emmerich “had talked” about the possibility of working together on the sequel.
“The trailer looks really cool. I’m going to be sitting around with tears in my eyes when that one comes out,” he said. “It was terrible when I found out my character died.”
RELATED: Will Smith’s Changing Looks!
Emmerich explained that Smith would not be part of the film because “he’s too expensive.”
“It would be too much,” the director told the New York Daily News in 2013. “We have like maybe half of the people that you know would know from the first film [in the script] and the other half people who are new.”
Jeff Goldblum, Vivica A. Fox and Bill Pullman will reprise their roles from the original film, while Liam Hemsworth and Jessie Usher join the cast.
Independence Day: Resurgence hits theaters June 24.The Eagles spent the first day of free agency adding to their offense. Since then, they’ve remained silent. The lack of cap space after those signings, at about $3 million, is certainly a factor. But they’ve still got needs to address. Bennie Logan and Connor Barwin’s starting jobs are up for grabs, and both starting cornerbacks from last year are no longer on the team. The current depth chart lacks actual depth: Jalen Mills, Ron Brooks, Dwayne Gratz, C.J. Smith, Aaron Grymes, and Mitchell White. Smith played just one snap on defense, Grimes just 9 on special teams last year, the Eagles were Gratz’s third team in 2016, White was in the CFL the last three years. Brooks might be released, which would save $1.6 million in cap space, but like Ryan Mathews’s $4M in savings, the Eagles would have to wait until he is medically cleared to release him, and if he’s cut then they’re down another corner, which only amplifies the issue.
At this point the Eagles have to draft a corner, and given the depth at the position in the draft and their needs, they should take two. There will be a corner available at 14 that could start, but planning to roll with two rookie starters is a bad idea. And only adding rookies to the depth chart above still makes for a poor group of CBs. At the very least, as unpleasant as it seems, a stop gap is needed. Looking at the free agent market, the least might be all they can do.
Signed
Not spending big on corner was justifiable, but now the second-tier players are starting to go off the market.
Prince Amukamara, Bears - 1/$7M. Amukamara’s second straight one year contract as he tries to stay healthy and productive.
A.J. Bouye, Jaguars - 5 years/$67.5 million with $26 million guaranteed. That’s a lot of money for someone who has never been a full time starter.
Nolan Carroll, Cowboys - 3/$9M, $3M guaranteed. Sums it up:
Dallas literally spent the last 3 ysr trying to find as many ways as possible to throw at Nolan Carroll. They'll spend 2017 paying him $4M — Joey Ickes (@JoeyIckes) March 11, 2017
Marcus Cooper, Bears - 3/??. Details aren’t available, but considering Cooper spent one inconsistent year as a starter in Arizona, it’s probably comparable to Carroll’s contract.
Stephon Gilmore, Patriots - 5/$65M with $40M guaranteed. An enormous amount of guaranteed money.
D.J. Hayden, Lions - 1/$5.25M. That’s a little pricey for a guy who’s struggled on the field and to stay healthy.
Captain Munnerlyn, Panthers - 4/$17M, $8.8M guaranteed. Munnerlyn returns to Carolina after three years in Minnesota, the latter two in the slot.
Logan Ryan, Texans - 3/$30M. No details on how much is guaranteed, but the total money is more palatable, though the track record of internally developed DBs by the Patriots is terrible.
Unsigned
There are some options still available. They’re not much more than warm bodies or reclamation projects, but that also means they should come cheap. Another one year deal would be in line with the Eagles offseason.
Morris Claiborne - Signing Claiborne would essentially be swapping him for Carroll, which means the Eagles would get the younger player (he’s 27) who was actually good last year, though his season was cut short with a groin injury.
Davon House - Signed from Green Bay in 2015, House was a starter his first year in Jacksonville then found himself a backup in 2016. He’ll be 28 when the season starts, and the Eagles already have a guy he replaced in Dwayne Gratz. A reunion with the Packers seems likely.
Sterling Moore - Moore has been on three teams in three years, starting 28 games in that span, but he’s just 27. He’d probably like some stability, but with the Eagles dishing out one year deals, he could make some sense.
Patrick Robinson - The Eagles had some interest in Robinson last year, but he ultimately signed with the Colts. He missed 9 games with injuries and was released on Friday. Could they be interested again?
Sam Shields - Shields missed 15 games recovering from his fourth concussion in his seven seasons. If he can recover, he can be a good player, but the Packers weren’t willing to take that chance and released him in February.
Alterraun Verner - A big signing in 2014, Verner spent the last two years as a backup in Tampa. He’s just 28, a one year deal to get back to a starting job somewhere makes sense for him.
Kayvon Webster - The Eagles are thought to have some interest in Webster, who Cory Undlin coached in Denver and was buried behind Chris Harris, Aqib Talib and Bradley Roby. Expectations should be low, but at 26 and with coaching staff familiarity, he might be a pleasant surprise.
There’s also the shells of Darrelle Revis, Tramon Williams Lardarius Webb, and Terence Newman, but the Eagles should stay away from players over 30—and they’re unlikely to want to sign with a team that wasn’t a contender in 2016. And there are players with more name recognition that playing ability such as Brandon Flowers, Brandon Carr and Justin Gilbert. Stay away from them too.
It’s slim pickings, but the longer the Eagles wait to add at least some depth, the slimmer they get.It is unbearable to see once again—in spite of the lessons of so many African countries—African politicians fashioning the very instruments by which they and their countries are in the end destroyed.
—V.S. Naipaul, in a letter written from Kampala in 1966
It is election time in Uganda, and the boxy plastic television set in my room in the provincial city of Mbale, four hours east of Kampala, is humming with ads, nearly all of them for Yoweri Museveni, the president for the past 24 years. Museveni is up for another five-year term in office, and his ads mimic the slow-mo camerawork of a Ken Burns documentary—pans and zooms of images of the besuited leader flipping the switch at power plants and pumping wells and unlocking medicine cabinets, all backed by Louis Armstrong’s version of “What a Wonderful World.” His signature flourish is a light khaki boonie hat with a drawstring and a wide brim, which gives his shiny oval head the aspect of a haloed icon. He’s been telling his supporters at campaign rallies across the country to “vote the old man with the hat.” The country and its capital have been plastered with yellow posters of his beatific smile and watchful, unblinking eyes.
What a wonderful world indeed! More than half of Uganda’s 34 million people have known no other leader. The other half knew Idi Amin. A local newspaper declares, straight-faced, that “Spirits predict 87 percent victory” for Museveni’s National Resistance Movement. His TV ad closes on the slogan “Why change?”
The mototaxi boda boys sitting under a frangipani tree on a median in Mbale had just finished something resembling a conference on the pitcher’s mound about the location of the people I had come to see: a small community of Ugandan Jews who live in the hills outside Mbale and who call themselves the Abayudaya. Some of the boys pointed me one way, some in the opposite direction. Then I placed my palm on my head to make the universal sign for Jew. “Oh!” said a boda in a striped Oxford shirt that—like most of Uganda’s clothes—used to belong to an American. “People of the very small hats!” Off we went on his Chinese-made motorcycle down the last of the town’s tarmac, past the municipal town council, and onto red dusty roads rising through coffee and plantain patches, in search of the Abayudaya and their leader, a man who in what can be seen as a late fulfillment of one early version of the Zionist dream, is the first native African-born rabbi to run for parliament in Uganda.
I’d heard about the rabbi because he had used Facebook a few months earlier to make an international appeal for campaign funds to support his candidacy. According to accounts I read, the Abayudaya are, variously, an exotic spiritual flowering, “one of the world’s least-known Jewish communities,” or proof of God’s mystery and the reach of his hand. Led by the diminutive, charismatic, and spiritually endowed Rabbi Gershom Sizomu Wambedde, they are irresistible to the U.S.-based organizations that in the name of Jewish diversity and brotherly feeling support “emerging,” “historic,” or “lost” communities of Jews around the world. A magnet for Jewish charity, Sizomu has celebrated Hanukkah at the White House with President George W. Bush and now has his sights set on becoming the spiritual leader of the Jews of Africa and a power broker in his own country.
In his trading-card-sized campaign flyers (and posters and silk-screened T-shirts, on which misaligned color printing makes his image seem like it should be viewed in 3D), the rabbi looks as if he were posing for a junior-college basketball team’s yearbook-photo—eyes at the lens, flat nose spread over a youthful-looking dusting of mustache hairs. His white shirt is a neck-size too large under a dark suitcoat and tie, but his blue crocheted kippa, with decorative white trim, nestles perfectly over the shaven round expanse of his crown. He seeks election to parliament from the Bungokho North constituency on the list of the opposition FDC party, which is led by presidential candidate Dr. Kissa Besigye, whose sign is the two-fingered V of victory and whose slogan is “One People! One Uganda!” According to his flyer, Sizomu is “For: Community Development and Provision of Accessible Social Services,” meaning food, health, wells, mosquito nets, and maybe transport to a market, a chance to go to school, a little dignity, a small platform on which to build a tiny castle of happiness.
The Abayudaya—perhaps as many as 5,000 at their peak and as few as 50 at their nadir under Idi Amin—trace the origins of their religious affiliation to an extraordinary African chieftain, elephant hunter, warrior king, and colonial agent named Semei Kakungulu, who in 1917, or 1919, or 1920, depending on the source, perhaps following a visit from a trader from Jerusalem, or after encounters with Jewish rail engineers, or in reaction to political slights and rivalries, or because of his refusal to be inoculated, or sometime after he was circumcised, which may have been in 1880 or any time after that (although one of his wives testified that he was not circumcised)—decided to reject all the forms of biblical religion that had been introduced to him by turn-of-the-century English Protestant and French Catholic missionaries for his own textual interpretation of the first five books of Moses, which made him (and his followers and later their descendants) something very close to Jews.
Kakungulu garnered followers and begat children, who raised Jewish-identified children, who eventually met white Jews who helped the Abayudaya become more universally accepted as Jewish. Emissaries brought religious, financial, and material support from abroad and paid for Gershom Sizomu Wambedde, the grandson of one of the chief’s first followers, to travel to America to train to be a rabbi, meet the president of the United States, and run for parliament in Africa.
***
Over the week in February that I watch Sizomu’s campaign, he spends most of his time swapping cell phones and speaking to his supporters, solicitors, and workers across the district of 120,000 people. Gershom is shuttled over dusty roads to rallies in villages and on school patios and then back to his headquarters in the yard outside his 4-room home in Nabugoye, a village perched atop Kakungulu’s hills. His candidacy is shaping up to be a significant challenge to the one-term incumbent, a Muslim named Yahaya Gudoi Wojje who lives in the opposite corner of the district. The Jews number no more than 1,500, but Sizomu expects votes from Muslims and Christians who want a taste of the relative prosperity that Sizomu has brought to the Abayudaya. To hear the Abayudaya tell it, Wojje has a reputation for general inaction and a taste for the luxuries of the capital. Accusations and counter-accusations of religious smears, intimidation, and Jewish land grabs have been flying throughout the bruising campaign.
Sizomu’s rallies are simple, fast encounters between Sizomu’s team and gathered villagers. A local leader, usually an imam, pastor, or school teacher, delivers a respectful welcome address, even if the locality isn’t necessarily pro-Gershom. Women, in long layers of wrapped, colorful, patterned cloth, sit to one side, and men stand together in a group. If Sizomu is popular there, the women may dance and ululate in front of him as he arrives. After the local leader speaks, the microphone, connected to a battery-powered amplifier, is passed to campaign managers and other witnesses who whip up the crowd through call and response. At one rally, a young imam tells 150 people in an unshaded schoolyard not to vote along tribal or religious lines. “The Americans didn’t,” he says. “They voted for Obama, and he is from Kenya.” The sun begins to burn orange, low in the sky. The imam concludes, “What Gershom did for his community, he’ll do for us.”
The gist of Sizomu’s stump speech is this: I’ve made a school. (Two, actually: Hadassah primary school and the Semei Kakungulu High School, where the motto is “Persist to Succeed.”) I’ve been the contact to help an American group build us a health clinic. (It’s the Tobin Health Clinic—“Services Offered,” reads the illuminated sign—where a pair of properly trained doctors and a staff of nurses work in a clean building on the outskirts of Mbale.) I’ve helped get wells drilled in Nabugoye, Namanyonyi, Nasenyi, Namatumba, and Nangolo villages. If I’ve done all this without being elected, then imagine what I can do once I’m given access to the 10 million shillings, or about $4,500, for development allotted to each constituency, the 200-million-shilling government project loans, the 20-million-shilling monthly salary and benefits that, if not horded for personal use, can be used to provide for school uniforms, medicine, and mosquito nets. The incumbent has brought no electricity, no roads, and has left the people of Bungokho North to live like orphans. Sizomu’s schools, wells, and clinic are there. If elected, there could be an ambulance to transport the sick to the health clinic. And the solar-panel construction industry might be lured here to provide jobs. He rounds out his speech with a reminder to “Gershom Tick!” No X, he says, but a clean check mark or thumbprint, next to the picture of “owaka kofira”—the man with the small hat.
Eliyahu, a campaign worker in dark aviator glasses, tells me at the first rally I see that at this point Sizomu is now going to “give some water,” with a wry smile. You mean like make it rain? I ask. The rally quickly turns into a friendly pushing match, with two long lines, men to one side and women to the other, pressing chest-to-back with no room for cutting, like kids lining up for candy on Halloween. Sizomu is driven away in a white sedan, while Eliyahu and some others start to distribute 1,000-shilling bills, or about 50 cents, to each of the supporters as they step forward, peeling off the notes from a stack clutched in Eliyahu’s hand. After, in the car to catch up with Sizomu’s next rally a few miles down the road, Eliyahu explains a little sheepishly that the supporters must be compensated for having transported themselves to the rally. “It would be rude not to,” he says.
In a rare moment when I can corner Sizomu in the back seat of his jeep, I tell him I’m surprised not to see religion play a more central role in his campaign. So far, all Judaism has done is provide a quirky tool for recognizing Sizomu on the ballot, by his kippa. I haven’t heard any praying or invocations or “Hashem”; at the rallies in Muslim-dominated villages, Imams have begun with “bismillah” and sometimes moved on to prostration. I’m curious, too, because, as I tell Sizomu, it’s rare for people already endowed with rabbinical authority to seek more of it from politics. Why not help your people and leave it at that? One of his phones buzzes, but for once he lets it ring. He says to me that his campaign has very little to do with Judaism and that, furthermore, he is a politician first. “My profession is I’m a rabbi,” he says, “like any other person who would be a teacher, engineer, or anything, but they can be politicians, too.” Then down the road a little, he elaborates on the obligation he says he feels to all people, not only the Jewish people, in the aphoristic style of the Mishnah: “When mosquitoes bite,” he says, “they bite indiscriminately, and they cause malaria.”
And yet, the struggle for the parliamentary seat pits Sizomu against a Muslim incumbent, in a largely Muslim district in a country that is 85 percent Christian with a fanatical born-again first lady. “We thought that people resented the Jewish people,” Sizomu says to me before a well-attended campaign rally. “We are surprised that people can say yes to a Jew. Standing there in front of them, I think it is a miracle.”
Back at Nabugoye, on another day, Sizomu’s team is training official poll observers to watch the 125 stations that election day. Sizomu stands at a metal table, while his agents sit in the thick shade of a mango tree. “Who will help us if we are bullied?” asks Kiswabula Joseph Sombe, a volunteer polling agent in his once-blue jacket and a white polo buttoned to the top. “You must not hesitate,” Sizomu tells him. “Inform the Electoral Commission representative right away.” The agents applaud. “We must be very vigilant or we will not win,” Sizomu continues, pulling off his glasses. “On election day, we shall be up all night. We shall not sleep. We shall be as wizards.”
***
Until about 1840, Uganda was an isolated set of kingdoms. Then Arab traders from the east came to exchange guns and what amounted to toys for slaves and ivory, and in 1874, King Mutesa I told H.M. Stanley to bring missionaries. It is easy to forget that the waves of colonialism that washed through the Bugandan, Busoga, and Bukedi kingdoms along the Nile were products of the quest for legitimacy by the newly consolidated and resource-hungry nation-states of Europe. Nationalism required a driving idea—that of the “white man’s burden,” for example—to take the natural inward gaze of romantic peoplehood and turn it outward onto other lands. (An 1894 cartoon in Punch titled “The Black Baby” shows John Bull, representative of the English people, exclaiming, upon discovering on his doorstep a black child in a Moses basket labeled Uganda, “What, another!!—Well, I suppose I must take it in!!!”)
Semei Kakungulu, that first Ugandan Jew, was the sort of vital but marginal man who flourishes in times of rapid change. Born in 1869 to obscure parentage, Kakungulu was converted to Christianity by early Protestant missionaries, and the combination of his Christian attachments and his powerful connections to the Bugandan court made him precisely the kind of warrior the British sought. Kakungulu served the English, from what we can tell, with the idea that his fealty would be rewarded with a kingdom of his own in the lands he was sent to conquer east of the Nile. For at least a brief period during which he had made conquests beyond the colonial frontier, he did rule a tiny kingdom near Mbale. But political and tribal rivals never stopped challenging Kakungulu, and as the English colony’s reach extended east he was soon reduced to being just another African chief in the colonial system. In the first decades of the 1900s, Kakungulu and others returned to religion—the basis of their original European encounter—as a political tool to realign their engagement with outsiders.
Bugandans had been shown by competing Protestant and Catholic missionaries that the Bible was to be interpreted and shaped to fit different organizational structures, and Islamic traders brought additional Abrahamic relativism. Furthermore, missionaries had emphasized in their conversion practice that Jesus was a Jew. This led many of the eventual Abayudaya, including Kakungulu, to join a growing group of followers of a Bugandan named Malaki Musajakawa, who, initially a Protestant, developed a mixture of Christianity and Judaism that partially resembled Christian Science, especially in its faith in God’s healing power. The version of the religion Kakungulu adhered to seemed to be strongly influenced by Moses. “The cause of the religion,” one surviving leader of the Malakites told historian Michael Twaddle, author of Kakungulu and the Creation of Uganda, in 1965, “was that we saw the Europeans who brought us the Bible were not doing what it said, though they told us to do what it said.”
Western medicine was a particular sticking point. In 1914 Kakungulu refused a British-ordered inoculation while crossing the Nile westward from Bukedi to Buganda. “The medicine has no power,” he told the Indian doctor. “Only God has that.”
Now fully disengaged from the British—who decided it better to leave him alone—Kakungulu settled north of Mbale and apparently began to read the Bible with ever greater attention, finding further sources of disenchantment. The Malakites, for example, kept the Sabbath on Sunday, not Saturday, and in the ledgers of Malakite religious councils there is evidence of other quasi-Talmudic squabbles over the dating of holidays, where and when to break bread, whether to hold hands palm-up in prayer or clasped together, and if the devout should be circumcised. Kakungulu’s secession from the Malakites happened over a period of several years leading up to 1920—punctuated by a circumcision ceremony in 1919 for several of Kakungulu’s young children as well as some adult coreligionists. But the schism was based as much on Kakungulu’s political need to gather his people as on his spiritual proclivities. Like any good leader, Kakungulu then wrote and published a 90-page book of rules and prayers for his followers. Regardless of the complex causes, though, it’s safe to say that by sometime after 1920, Kakungulu was some form of Jewish.
Ask the oldest Abayudaya today, like 83-year-old Solomon Magoma in Namanyonyi, to explain the founder’s religion, as I did, and you’ll get the conflicting influences cross-bred into a simplified mutt of a story transmuted by time. How did Kakungulu know he was Jewish? “He just read the Bible,” Magoma says.
“He just read and knew and understood?” I ask.
“He watched many religions,” Magoma says through his grandson Moshe Sebagabo, who wears a bright purple crocheted kippa and is on break from his law studies. “O-Kakungulu was a Malakite, but then he just chose. Out of the many religions, he chose to be Jewish. He just decided. He said, ‘I will not follow any other religion except the religion that was given the Ten Commandments.’ ”
Kakungulu’s Judaism was no revelation. There was no burning bush or thunderbolt or deep-voiced injunction. Kakungulu’s religious affiliations and alignments were choices, which in retrospect seem highly pragmatic. In fact, Kakungulu may not have known he was Jewish at all. And he may not have cared. The history of religious encounters is littered with misunderstandings. Christians, for example, chose a minor Bugandan deity—Katonda, who created the world of the living but fell into oblivion—to be the name of the Christian missionary God, the sustainer of all things, in the Lugandan Biblical translation. Kakungulu was spiritually restless and indomitable, and his devotion was, like that of many seekers and leaders, an ever-evolving phenomenon. Had he not died in 1928, likely of pneumonia unattended to by doctors—Solomon Magoma said that Kakungulu had been “bewitched”—it’s entirely possible that Kakungulu could have moved on from Judaism to religions unimagined. But the path to Gershom Sizomu was set. “He had become disillusioned with politics, as he told us himself,” one of Kakungulu’s followers told historian Twaddle, long after Kakungulu was buried near Nabugoye. “He told us to see first the kingdom of God and to forget about the things of earth and its rulers.”
***
Eliyahu toot-toot-tooots the car horn as if it were a vuvuzela, waving Sizomu’s two-finger salute out the window to partisans, who cheer back before being engulfed in our dust. In the back seat, on our way to a campaign rally in Namanyonyi sub-district, Sizomu admits to me that he has no idea what it’s like to be a Ugandan MP. Two days a week, maybe, in Kampala, or three? When he presented the idea of running for parliament to his mother, Devora, she asked: “Can you manage?” And now I’m asking him the same. “The biggest challenge,” he says, “will be meeting the people. Because their needs are not going to end.”
Given these pressures, I ask Sizomu if when he was in rabbinical school at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles he had ever considered staying abroad. “My family, yes,” he says. “Me no.” And then he surprises me by saying that he’d just discussed the matter with his wife, Tzipora, because he had received word a few days ago that he had won a green-card lottery for U.S. citizenship.
We have arrived at the campaign stop, and Ugandans are crowding around Sizomu’s door to catch him as he emerges from the car, so the moment for an explanation is lost. At this rally, Sizomu shares the staging area with four late-middle-aged American women—Jane, Judy, Jill, and Ria—who knew the rabbi from L.A. and have come to support his campaign. Judy takes the lead, speaking slowly and clearly so that Sizomu or one of his managers can translate: “I have known Gershom for a long time. I have seen him make schools. I have seen him make a health clinic. He is an honorable man.” Sizomu later acknowledges that just having whites as part of his entourage—and in this he includes me, reporting on him—is a subtle but vital part of his pitch to voters. In a country where the state’s budget is about 30 percent donor funded, the presence of what Kakungulu might have confused as musawa, or doctors, but who today are called mzungu, or foreigners, makes Sizomu a conduit, maybe even a conjurer.
From his “Gershom Sizomu for Parliament” Facebook campaign, as well as a few unnamed major donors, the rabbi has raised $34,000. More than 80 percent of his campaign budget, he tells me, came from his “international friends,” the most important of whom right now is 59-year-old Diane Tobin, Jane’s sister-in-law and the director of Be’chol Lashon (“In every tongue”), a San Francisco-based Jewish diversity and “community-building” group. Tobin, born to a Jewish father, is an Episcopalian-raised convert and the mother of an adopted African-American son, among other children. The adoption led her to study ethnic and racial diversity and what she called “angst about converts.” Her group, though not the first to reach out to the Abayudaya, has actively made Sizomu the focus of its development efforts in that part of Africa. In 2002, without having met him personally, Tobin invited Sizomu to participate in a conference on emerging Jewry in California and, impressed with his “strength and smarts,” decided to sponsor his desire to become a rabbi.
Be’chol Lashon used its contacts to help push through a U.S. visa, and Sizomu, his wife, and their two children—Igaal and Dafnah—left the villages of their birth and moved to Bel Air, where Sizomu began five years of rabbinical study, with a year in Israel in the middle. In Israel, a third child, Navah, was born. Sizomu grew into a perspicacious interpreter of Torah. And on a July day in 2008, Sizomu was installed as the first black sub-Saharan rabbi, in a highly publicized ceremony officiated in Nabugoye by a West Hills, Calif., rabbi. Then, taking advantage of the visit by a number of foreign rabbis, more than 250 Africans from Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria followed through on conversions. Sizomu became Africa’s rabbi.
Back at headquarters another day, Tzipora, overseeing the vats of rice, plantains, beans, and cabbage cooking for all 50 assembled campaign workers and hangers-on, tells me that she would have been happy to stay in Bel Air. When I ask Sizomu if losing the election might tempt him into accepting the green card lottery he said he’d won, he says, “Oh, no, I couldn’t,” a little wistfully. “It was—how do you call it?—spam.”
Next: The Abayudaya show visitors what it means to be Jewish.
Matthew Fishbane is a senior editor at Tablet Magazine.Many Vietnam veterans see similarities between their war and those fought in Iraq and Afghanistan — and the comparison is tragic.
Five decades later and still weary from the war that was never officially declared, many of these veterans know all too well how extended fighting, waning public support, and an unrelenting enemy can end.
"We certainly didn't win in Vietnam," said Hugh Bassette, an infantryman during the war in Southeast Asia, "and we're not going to the win in Afghanistan and Iraq, either."
Vietnam was America's longest conflict, spanning 12 years between 1961 and 1973, until our involvement in Afghanistan continued into its 13th year in 2014. There are still nearly 10,000 U.S. services members there advising and training a reluctant home force against the Taliban, a fundamentalist Islamic political movement accused of allowing terror groups such as Al-Qaeda safe haven.
Then there's Iraq, where U.S. troops invaded in 2003 and withdrew, then in 2011 ousting dictator Saddam Hussein but without quashing an insurgency and the sectarian violence that broke out between religious groups. A new foe, Islamic State, emerged last year, renewing hostilities there.
"You can't go to another country and make people do what you want to do. They're going to fight you back," Bassette, a 73-year-old Hampton native, said.
In |
, who is also currently authoring a chapter for a book on the moon. “And in the case of Europa, the best place to look is where cracks on its icy surface are active today.”
But finding signs for current geological activity is no easy task. Kattenhorn can tell a lot about fractures because they form very specific patterns that allow him to unravel their relative ages. His goal in this project is to find the youngest fractures and compare them to the tidal forces that Europa would be experiencing today to see if the features and recent forces match up.
Although there is some debate over how thick Europa’s outer shell of ice is—some say over 20 miles and some claim only a few—it is generally agreed that it covers an ocean more than 60 miles deep. This means that although Europa is only about the size of our moon, it has more water than Earth.
As the moon orbits Jupiter, it gets closer and further from the giant planet, changing the amount of gravitational pull it experiences. The result is that the moon is constantly being squeezed and released like a balloon full of water, which causes cracks and fissures, raising the question of the possibility of geysers, like the ones recently spotted on Saturn’s moon Enceladus.
Recent photos from the Cassini spacecraft passing by Enceladus revealed stunning plumes of water-ice jetting out into space. The discovery sent a flurry of excitement and activity through the academic community, including Kattenhorn, whose second recent NASA grant will allow him to apply what he’s learned from Europa to studies on Enceladus.
The discovery also led to a renewed vigor to study and explore Europa in order to find out if similar, active processes might be occurring today.
“This research feeds that need that I have as a geologist and as a person to be the explorer, to be the adventurer, to see things that no one else has seen before and figure out things that no one else has figured out before,” said Kattenhorn of his research into the two moons. “And out in the solar system is a great place to do that, because there are some things—like the plumes on Enceladus—that we really are seeing for the very first time.”
Only a few decades ago, nobody would have believed any form of life could exist on or in an icy moon like Europa. But recent discoveries of amazingly adaptive bacteria in some of Earth’s harshest environments have led to the speculation that it is possible.
“Europa has the potential for something very similar to hydrothermal systems we have here in our oceans,” said Susan Childers, head of the geomicrobiology research team at the University of Idaho, who studies life in extreme environments. “Very ancient organisms that thrive on oxidized metals could potentially be centered on one of these oases formed by heat and metals seeping from cracks in the ocean floor.”
The search for extraterrestrial life has long guided NASA’s choices in mission planning. Currently, NASA is in the process of choosing its next flagship mission; the most ambitious, long-term programs that often provide the most data. The choices include sending a satellite to explore Saturn’s moon Titan, Europa or the entire Jupiter system, meaning there is a two in three chance the next major mission will include Europa. This makes research detailing where to look—or maybe even land with a probe — that much more important.
But even if further exploration of Europa wasn’t a possibility, Kattenhorn would still be eager to study the fascinating moon.
“We don’t walk around on Earth with our eyes closed. We want to know what’s going on; why things happen,” said Kattenhorn. “It’s like Galileo looking through his telescope all those centuries ago and going, ‘Gosh! What’s out there?’ It’s that same spirit of exploration and I just get a real kick out of that.”Antonio Conte blasted Jose Mourinho on Wednesday night after the Manchester United manager appeared to call the Chelsea manager a whinger.
In a largely infuriating night for Conte, that saw Chelsea concede a two-goal lead to draw 3-3 against Roma, the Blues boss ripped into Mourinho after the Portuguese took thinly-veiled dig at the Italian.
After United’s win in Benfica, the United boss made reference to managers who ‘moan and cry’ about their injury problems.
Antonio Conte has snapped back and told Jose Mourinho to stop talking about Chelsea
Mourinho made reference to Conte in his post match comments and irked the Italian
Conte, on various occasions this season, has bemoaned the lack of depth in his squad - a problem that has been compounded by Chelsea’s current injury crisis.
And in response to Mournino’s jibe, Conte said: 'A lot of time Mourinho has to see what happens at Chelsea.
'A lot of time, also last season. I think he has to think about his team and stop... to look at himself, not the others.'
Chelsea are already without N'Golo Kante, Victor Moses (both hamstring) and Danny Drinkwater (calf).
And David Luiz suffered a calf injury against Roma which could make him doubtful for Saturday's clash with Watford, when Chelsea will be seeking to avoid three straight Premier League losses after defeats to Manchester City and Crystal Palace.
Tiemoue Bakayoko, meanwhile, played on despite a groin problem, while Conte played down concerns over captain Gary Cahill after the defender finished the game with a heavily bandaged head, saying it was 'nothing serious'.
David Luiz was removed by Conte after suffering a calf issue against Roma at Stamford Bridge
Chelsea had surrendered a two-goal lead, earned through strikes from David Luiz and Eden Hazard, to trail 3-2 with 20 minutes remaining.
Edin Dzeko's quick-fire double, after fellow former Manchester City man Aleksandar Kolarov's strike, looked like handing the visitors victory before Hazard headed in an equaliser.
It meant Chelsea avoided what would have been the first three-match losing streak under Conte's stewardship.
Conte, who deployed defender Luiz in midfield, admitted his tactics contributed to Chelsea being second best.
When Luiz went off for Pedro, Chelsea reverted to their usual 3-4-3 formation.
'I didn't like the type of football we did for a lot of the game, but it's right to take the responsibility for this,' Conte said.
Tiemoue Bakayoko played on despite a groin issue and may now face a spell on the sidelines
Gary Cahill was also forced to finish out the game with heavy bandaging on his head
'I tried on one hand to protect my team, to become more solid and to move our central defender into midfield. On the other hand we lost totally our style of football.
'Sometimes you have to find the right solution to try to protect your team. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. But you know very well our situation.
'It was good to draw. Roma deserved this result. I have to praise my players, because my players showed me a big effort, a big commitment tonight. Otherwise we lose the game.'
Hazard rued conceding a two-goal lead, but said Chelsea can be happy to top Group C by two points from Roma ahead of the October 31 return in the Eternal City.
Chelsea already have influential French midfielder N'Golo Kante watching on with an injury
'When you are 2-0 up at home you must win the game,' Hazard said on BT Sport 3.
'But one point is enough today after two defeats, it's not easy to bounce back against a great team but we did.'
Roma boss Eusebio Di Francesco said: 'We could've easily secured the three points, but we should not forget we were two goals down.
'Today we proved our character and we are definitely on the right track.'0 of 5
With the Major League Baseball season right around the corner, it's time to begin mulling over options for a solid fantasy baseball 2012 roster.
Just like on a real team, the catcher is not only expected to be an important piece of the puzzle on the defensive side, but should also carry his weight as a hitter.
Most draft kits are a pretty good place for any fantasy owner to begin a wish list of possible players, but they are mostly based on last season's statistics, making them an inexact science. As we all know, a player's numbers can often be vastly different from year to year.
Get a leg up on your buddies for fantasy baseball this season by making sure you have a solid man behind the plate.Have Glenn Beck and Chris Matthews linked peaceful activists with violent acts to spring the trap for an era of thought crime laws and politically-correct repression?
Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com Commentary
March 5, 2010
“The first casualty of War is Truth”
Why are so many random acts of violence being blamed on dissenting free speech groups? We are repeatedly told that lone individuals who carry out violence may be 9/11 truthers or may be Tea Party members or may be Constitutionalists.
This pattern accusation is particularly perturbing because, most of these “groups” are really broad movements made up of many small groups, many of whom disagree profoundly, and of many individuals, some of whom associate, some of whom are isolated. The only unifying element, if any, is in sharing a belief. How these individuals act on such a belief is a different matter altogether.
But for media pundits like Glenn Beck, Chris Matthews and etc., it is fuel to link individual acts of violence with broad political beliefs. What is the agenda?
It is clearly manifest an effort to neutralize dissent via a paralyzing guilt-by-association holding pattern. The media smear campaign is clearly coordinated to stop the spread of popular outrage against Washington. But how could widespread popular support for formal hate speech legislation or a de facto atmosphere of thought crime ever be generated under the bitter and divided party lines that have emerged under Obama’s presidency?
You’d have to unite the right AND the left to back thought crime.
It has already been played out in the mainstream media’s script over the past year:
What have the FOX-fueled ‘right’ pundits like O’Reilly, Hannity and Glenn Beck railed against more than 9/11 truthers and Bush “haters”? Outrage is triggered in the left and Democrat wing by racism and now by Obama “haters”.
Under the Obama-era, the phony ‘left’-leaning talking heads have declared open-season on branding political opponents as “racists,” often desperately playing the race card at every sign of opposition to anything in the President’s agenda. Chris Matthews has wielded the “racist” tea party mantra in combination with smearing the ‘violent’ Tea Parties and groups like theOath Keepers. Now, via Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), groups such as We Are Change, who are essentially citizen journalists, and groups including the Constitution Party have also been smeared. Astonishingly they have alleged violence where there is none.
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
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Yet the connection is established with a scattered “pattern” of lone individuals who have been painted in the colors of various targeted groups. I suspect a ‘false flag’ of a different kind all together– primarily media driven, and disconnected in terms of the flagrant or violent acts in question. Perhaps a dirty tricks campaign.
All of these groups are, at any organizational level (if any) and in its body politic, completely within the bounds of free speech and non-violent political action.
But these smear campaigns have preemptively labeled broad groups as “potential” violators of some foggy, abstract category like “terrorist” or “racist” or even “hurtful.” Sadly, it’s nothing new for developing countries who were mired by cheap dictators and brutally repressive regimes. Political dissent has been criminalized and purged in too many ‘banana republics’. For it to now take root in the United States is deplorable.
Yet it has cropped up at law enforcement fusion centers (there’s no law against belief or political speech) in the leaked MIAC report and in the Federal government’s “mother” organization Homeland Security. Both hold veterans and peaceful political groups as potential “domestic terrorists”. Things have become so bad in this country that The People have become indistinguishable from “the enemy” to our civil servants and watchdog authorities. Many of these same groups were named in their report.
White House “Czar” Cass Sunstein has even written policy papers which propose censoring and even penalizing conspiracy theories (outlawing a belief, i.e. thought crime) and even belief in the basic goodness of sunshine.
The loudest voice in the room in all of this has been Glenn Beck, who has mapped out the battlefield of supposedly violent, subversive “thought crime.” His mental map and belief system seems mired in a middle-ages Inquisition mindset.
For Beck, it is a sinister plot held in the mind that centers over 9/11 truth beliefs. It has been the poison of the White House via Czar Van Jones’ alleged thought crime, it has been the poison of the Tea Parties, and it was the poison latent belief of candidate Debra Medina who was mired in doublethink and 9/11 controversy fallout. He has brazenly “predicted” coming violence from the wings of the Tea Party, from the midst of 9/11 truth and from the other ‘violent’ wings of the mind. Beck has even claimed that a 9/11 Truther will try to assassinate the President.
If this random campaign is carried out by ‘violent minded’ 9/11 truthers and Tea Party racists, as the media smear would have us believe, how does Glenn Beck know so much about what’s going to happen? It’s all been on his chalkboard for months.
LOOK AT THE CASUALTY REPORT
Consider a few incidents from the Bush era:
– A student asked John Kerry an uncomfortable question about his connection with Bush and Skull and Bones. He was unnecessarily tasered and arrested by police. The media chorus celebrated the use of force against an accused 9/11 truther engaging in free speech. A sensation was made out of his outburst ‘Don’t taze me bro!’ – A random “bombing” at Times Square was arbitrarily linked to 9/11 truthers and anti-war activists. The mainstream media smear agents cried out and demonized the wide and varied groups as “violent.” – We Are Change member German “Gary” Talis was set up and charged with ‘attacking a girl in a wheelchair’ after loudly questioning two Bush women outside an event. Witness accounts confirm Talis’ story and he defeated the trumped up charges in court, but was smeared in the media and demonized as a senseless brute. – The Simon Weisenthal Center accused Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth and its founder Richard Gage of being violent extremists. The group is comprised of professionals spouting nothing more controversial than Newton’s law of physics, but it’s come off as more controversial than Galileo in the time of the Holy Roman Empire. Galileo was condemned for “grave suspicion of heresy” due to his scientific explanation of the cosmos. You could say he lost the battle but won the war. – During the 2008 Election season, pundits called for “tazing” 9/11 truthers who asked questions to candidates and Constitutional candidate Ron Paul, whose grassroots supporters worried the establishment, was demonized and smeared under the same tactics. One could say he lost the battle but won the war. I predict the same for Richard Gage.
Now consider under the Obama-era, we have unconnected events that the establishment media has connected with terrorism, racism and truther-ism. The true nature of many of these events, at a minimum, is under question, but they amount to a hazy campaign of fear and possibly dirty tricks.
The Holocaust museum shooting, Ft. Hood shooting, Underwear Bomber, Texas Capital gun firing, Joe Stack’s crash into the Austin IRS building, Pentagon shooting…
Yet the political damage for these isolated events is painted against the typical targets, i.e. Van Jones, Debra Medina, anti-Federal Reserve activists, the Texas Gun Show, Tea Party, 9/11 Truthers, Veterans, Birthers, We Are Change, Oath Keepers, Chuck Baldwin, Ron Paul, Bob Barr, Constitution Party, and et al.
But these are faces of a decentralized political movement challenging the status quo. There’s no connection to the acts of a few isolated individuals, and it’s unfair for Glenn Beck and others to insist on making that connection.George Washington was a leader of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, and was the first to become U.S. president.
Who Was George Washington? George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Washington served as a general and commander-in-chief of the colonial armies during the American Revolution, and later became the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. He died on December 14, 1799, in Mount Vernon, Virginia. A portrait of George Washington ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website
Early Life and Family George Washington could trace his family's presence in North America to his great-grandfather, John Washington, who migrated from England to Virginia. The family held some distinction in England and was granted land by Henry VIII. Much of the family’s wealth was lost during the Puritan revolution and in 1657 George’s grandfather, Lawrence Washington, migrated to Virginia. Little information is available about the family in North America until George’s father, Augustine, was born in 1694. ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website Augustine Washington was an ambitious man who acquired land and slaves, built mills, and grew tobacco. For a time, he had an interest in opening iron mines. He married his first wife, Jane Butler and they had three children. Jane died in 1729 and Augustine married Mary Ball in 1731. George was the eldest of Augustine and Mary’s six children, all of which survived into adulthood. The family lived on Pope's Creek in Westmoreland County, Virginia. They were moderately prosperous members of Virginia's "middling class." Mount Vernon Augustine moved the family up the Potomac River to another Washington family home, Little Hunting Creek Plantation - later renamed Mount Vernon - in 1735. They moved again in 1738 to Ferry Farm on the Rappahannock River, opposite Fredericksburg, Virginia, where George Washington spent much of his youth. Education Little is known about George Washington's childhood, which fostered many of the fables later biographers manufactured to fill in the gap. Among these are the stories that Washington threw a silver dollar across the Potomac and after chopping down his father's prize cherry tree, he openly confessed to the crime. It is known that from age seven to fifteen, George was home-schooled and studied with the local church sexton and later a schoolmaster in practical math, geography, Latin and the English classics. But much of the knowledge he would use the rest of his life was through his acquaintance with backwoodsmen and the plantation foreman. By his early teens, he had mastered growing tobacco, stock raising and surveying. George Washington’s father died when he was 11 and he became the ward of his half-brother, Lawrence, who gave him a good upbringing. Lawrence had inherited the family's Little Hunting Creek Plantation and married Anne Fairfax, the daughter of Colonel William Fairfax, patriarch of the well-to-do Fairfax family. Under her tutelge, George was schooled in the finer aspects of colonial culture. In 1748, when he was 16, George traveled with a surveying party plotting land in Virginia’s western territory. The following year, aided by Lord Fairfax, Washington received an appointment as official surveyor of Culpeper County. For two years he was very busy surveying the land in Culpeper, Frederick and Augusta counties. The experience made him resourceful and toughened his body and mind. It also piqued his interest in western land holdings, an interest that endured throughout his life with speculative land purchases and a belief that the future of the nation lay in colonizing the West. In July 1752, George Washington's brother, Lawrence, died of tuberculosis making him the heir apparent of the Washington lands. Lawrence’s only child, Sarah, died two months later and Washington became the head of one of Virginia's most prominent estates, Mount Vernon. He was 20 years old. Throughout his life, he would hold farming as one of the most honorable professions and he was most proud of Mount Vernon. He would gradually increase his landholdings there to about 8,000 acres.
Pre-Revolutionary Military Career In the early 1750s, France and Britain were at peace. However, the French military had begun occupying much of the Ohio Valley, protecting the King's land interests and fur trappers and French settlers. But the border lands of this area were unclear and prone to dispute between the two countries. Washington showed early signs of natural leadership and shortly after Lawrence's death, Virginia's Lieutenant Governor, Robert Dinwiddie, appointed Washington adjutant with a rank of major in the Virginia militia. French and Indian War On October 31, 1753, Dinwiddie sent Washington to Fort LeBoeuf, at what is now Waterford, Pennsylvania, to warn the French to remove themselves from land claimed by Britain. The French politely refused and Washington made a hasty ride back to Williamsburg, Virginia's colonial capital. Dinwiddie sent Washington back with troops and they set up a post at Great Meadows. Washington's small force attacked a French post at Fort Duquesne, killing the commander, Coulon de Jumonville, and nine others and taking the rest prisoners. The French and Indian War had begun. The French counterattacked and drove Washington and his men back to his post at Great Meadows (later named "Fort Necessity.") After a full day siege, Washington surrendered and was soon released and returned to Williamsburg, promising not to build another fort on the Ohio River. Though a little embarrassed at being captured, he was grateful to receive the thanks from the House of Burgesses and see his name mentioned in the London gazettes. Washington was given the honorary rank of colonel and joined British General Edward Braddock's army in Virginia in 1755. The British had devised a plan for a three-prong assault on French forces attacking Fort Duquesne, Fort Niagara and Crown Point. During the encounter, the French and their Indian allies ambushed Braddock, who was mortally wounded. Washington escaped injury with four bullet holes in his cloak and two horses shot out from under him. Commander of Virginia Troops Though he fought bravely, he could do little to turn back the rout and led the broken army back to safety. In August 1755, Washington was made commander of all Virginia troops at age 23. He was sent to the frontier to patrol and protect nearly 400 miles of border with some 700 ill-disciplined colonial troops and a Virginia colonial legislature unwilling to support him. It was a frustrating assignment. His health failed in the closing months of 1757 and he was sent home with dysentery. In 1758, Washington returned to duty on another expedition to capture Fort Duquesne. A friendly fire incident took place killing 14 and wounding 26 of Washington's men. However, the British were able to score a major victory, capturing Fort Duquesne and control the Ohio Valley. Washington retired from his Virginia regiment in December 1758. His experience during the war was generally frustrating, with decisions made excessively slow, poor support from the colonial legislature, and poorly trained recruits. Washington applied for a commission with the British Army but was turned down. In December 1758, he resigned his commission and returned to Mount Vernon disillusioned. Martha Washington A month after leaving the army, Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis, a widow, who was only a few months older than he. Martha brought to the marriage a considerable fortune: an 18,000-acre estate, from which George personally acquired 6,000 acres. With this and land he was granted for his military service, Washington became one of the more wealthy landowners in Virginia. The marriage also brought Martha's two young children, John (Jacky) and Martha (Patsy), ages six and four, respectively. Washington lavished great affection on both of them, and was heartbroken when Patsy died just before the Revolution. Jacky died during the Revolution, and George adopted two of his children. Slaves During his retirement from the Virginia militia until the start of the Revolution, George Washington devoted himself to the care and development of his land holdings, attending the rotation of crops, managing livestock and keeping up with the latest scientific advances. He loved the landed gentry's life of horseback riding, fox hunts, fishing, and cotillions. He worked six days a week, often taking off his coat and performing manual labor with his workers. He was an innovative and responsible landowner, breeding cattle and horses and tending to his fruit orchards. While George Washington kept over 100 slaves, he was said to dislike the institution, but accepted the fact that slavery was the law. He also entered politics and was elected to Virginia's House of Burgesses in 1758.
Revolutionary War Leadership Though the British Proclamation Act of 1763 — prohibiting settlement beyond the Alleghenies — irritated him and he opposed the Stamp Act of 1765, Washington did not take a leading role in the growing colonial resistance against the British until the widespread protest of the Townshend Acts in 1767. His letters of this period indicate he was totally opposed to the colonies declaring independence. However, by 1767, he wasn't opposed to resisting what he believed were fundamental violations by the Crown of the rights of Englishmen. In 1769, Washington introduced a resolution to the House of Burgesses calling for Virginia to boycott British goods until the Acts were repealed. After the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774, Washington chaired a meeting in which the Fairfax Resolves were adopted calling for the convening of the Continental Congress and the use of armed resistance as a last resort. He was selected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in March 1775. Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army After the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the political dispute between Great Britain and her North American colonies escalated into an armed conflict. In May, Washington traveled to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia dressed in a military uniform, indicating that he was prepared for war. On June 15th, he was appointed Major General and Commander-in-Chief of the colonial forces against Great Britain. As was his custom, he did not seek out the office of commander, but he faced no serious competition. Washington was the best choice for a number of reasons: he had the prestige, military experience and charisma for the job and he had been advising Congress for months. Another factor was political. The Revolution had started in New England and at the time, they were the only colonies that had directly felt the brunt of British tyranny. Virginia was the largest British colony and deserved recognition and New England needed Southern support. Political considerations and force of personality aside, George Washington was not necessarily qualified to wage war on the world's most powerful nation. Washington's training and experience were primarily in frontier warfare involving small numbers of soldiers. He wasn't trained in the open-field style of battle practiced by the commanding British generals. He had no practical experience maneuvering large formations of infantry, commanding cavalry or artillery, or maintaining the flow of supplies for thousands of men in the field. But he was courageous and determined and smart enough to keep one step ahead of the enemy. Washington and his small army did taste victory early in March 1776 by placing artillery above Boston, on Dorchester Heights, forcing the British to withdraw. Washington then moved his troops into New York City. But in June, a new British commander, Sir William Howe, arrived in the Colonies with the largest expeditionary force Britain had ever deployed to date. Crossing the Delaware In August 1776, the British army launched an attack and quickly took New York City in the largest battle of the war. Washington's army was routed and suffered the surrender of 2,800 men. He ordered the remains of his army to retreat across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. Confident the war would be over in a few months, General Howe wintered his troops at Trenton and Princeton, leaving Washington free to attack at the time and place of his choosing. On Christmas night, 1776, Washington and his men crossed the Delaware River and attacked unsuspecting Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, forcing their surrender. A few days later, evading a force that had been sent to destroy his army, Washington attacked the British again, this time at Princeton, dealing them a humiliating loss.
Winning Independence General Howe's strategy was to capture colonial cities and stop the rebellion at key economic and political centers. He never abandoned the belief that once the Americans were deprived of their major cities, the rebellion would wither. In the summer of 1777, he mounted an offensive against Philadelphia. George Washington moved in his army to defend the city and was defeated at the Battle of Brandywine. Philadelphia fell two weeks later. In the late summer of 1777, the British army sent a major force, under the command of John Burgoyne, south from Quebec to Saratoga, New York, to split off the rebellion in New England. But the strategy backfired, as Burgoyne became trapped by the American armies led by Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold at the Battle of Saratoga. Without support from Howe, who couldn't reach him in time, he was forced to surrender his entire 6,200 man army. The victory was a major turning point in the war as it encouraged France to openly ally itself with the American cause for independence. Through all of this, Washington discovered an important lesson: The political nature of war was just as important as the military one. Washington began to understand that military victories were not as important as keeping the resistance alive. Americans began to believe that they could meet their objective of independence without defeating the British army. On the other hand, British General Howe clung to the strategy of capturing colonial cities in hopes of smothering the rebellion. He didn't realize that capturing cities like Philadelphia and New York would not unseat colonial power. The Congress would just pack up and meet elsewhere. Valley Forge The darkest time for Washington and the Continental Army was during the winter of 1777 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The 11,000-man force went into winter quarters and over the next six months suffered thousands of deaths, mostly from disease. But the army emerged from the winter still intact and in relatively good order. Realizing their strategy of capturing colonial cities had failed, the British command replaced General Howe with Sir Henry Clinton. The British army evacuated Philadelphia to return to New York City. Washington and his men delivered several quick blows to the moving army, attacking the British flank near Monmouth Courthouse. Though a tactical standoff, the encounter proved Washington's army capable of open field battle. For the remainder of the war, George Washington was content to keep the British confined to New York, although he never totally abandoned the idea of retaking the city. The alliance with France had brought a large French army and a navy fleet. Washington and his French counterparts decided to let Clinton be and attack British General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. Facing the combined French and Colonial armies and the French fleet of 29 warships at his back, Cornwallis held out as long as he could, but on October 19, 1781, he surrendered his forces. George Washington had no way of knowing the Yorktown victory would bring the war to a close. The British still had 26,000 troops occupying New York City, Charleston, and Savannah and a large fleet of warships in the Colonies. By 1782, the French army and navy had departed, the Continental treasury was depleted, and most of his soldiers hadn’t been paid for several years. A near mutiny was avoided when Washington convinced Congress to grant a five-year bonus for soldiers in March 1783. By November of that year, the British had evacuated New York City and other cities and the war was essentially over. The Americans had won their independence. Washington formally bade his troops farewell and on December 23, 1783, he resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the army and returned to Mount Vernon. For four years, George Washington attempted to fulfill his dream of resuming life as a gentleman farmer and to give his much-neglected plantation the care and attention it deserved. The war had been costly to the Washington family with lands neglected, no exports of goods, and the depreciation of paper money. But Washington was able to repair his fortunes with a generous land grant from Congress for his military service and become profitable once again.
Constitutional Convention In 1787, Washington was again called to the duty of his country. Since independence, the young republic had been struggling under the Articles of Confederation, a structure of government that centered power with the states. But the states were not unified. They fought among themselves over boundaries and navigation rights and refused to contribute to paying off the nation's war debt. In some instances, state legislatures imposed tyrannical tax policies on their own citizens. Washington was intensely dismayed at the state of affairs, but only slowly came to the realization that something should be done about it. Perhaps he wasn't sure the time was right so soon after the Revolution to be making major adjustments to the democratic experiment. Or perhaps because he hoped he would not be called upon to serve, he remained noncommittal. But when Shays' rebellion erupted in Massachusetts, Washington knew something needed to be done to improve the nation’s government. In 1786, Congress approved a convention to be held in Philadelphia to amend the Articles of Confederation. At the Constitutional Convention, Washington was unanimously chosen as president. Among others, such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, Washington had come to the conclusion that it wasn't amendments that were needed, but a new constitution that would give the national government more authority. He spoke but once during the proceedings, but he lobbied hard with his fellow delegates in the after hours for major changes in the structure of government. In the end, the Convention produced a plan for government that not only would address the country's current problems, but would endure through time. After the convention adjourned, Washington's reputation and support for the new government were indispensable to the Constitution’s ratification. Opposition was strident, if not organized, with many of America's leading political figures — including Patrick Henry and Sam Adams — condemning the proposed government as a grab for power. Even in Washington's native Virginia, the Constitution was ratified by only one vote. George Washington: Presidency Still hoping to retire to his beloved Mount Vernon, Washington was once again called upon to serve this country. During the presidential election of 1789, he received a vote from every elector to the Electoral College, the only president in American history to be elected by unanimous approval. He took the oath of office at Federal Hall in New York City, the capital of the United States at the time. As the first president, Washington was astutely aware that his presidency would set a precedent for all that would follow. He carefully attended to the responsibilities and duties of his office, remaining vigilant to not emulate any European royal court. To that end, he preferred the title "Mr. President," instead of more imposing names that were suggested. At first he declined the $25,000 salary Congress offered the office of the presidency, for he was already wealthy and wanted to protect his image as a selfless public servant. However, Congress persuaded him to accept the compensation to avoid giving the impression that only wealthy men could serve as president. George Washington proved to be an able administrator. He surrounded himself with some of the most capable people in the country, appointing Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury and Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State. He delegated authority wisely and consulted regularly with his cabinet listening to their advice before making a decision. Washington established broad-ranging presidential authority, but always with the highest integrity, exercising power with restraint and honesty. In doing so, he set a standard rarely met by his successors, but one that established an ideal by which all are judged. Accomplishments During his first term, Washington adopted a series of measures proposed by Treasury Secretary Hamilton to reduce the nation's debt and place its finances on sound footing. His administration established several peace treaties with Native American tribes and approved a bill establishing the nation's capital in a permanent district along the Potomac River. In 1791, Washington signed a bill authorizing Congress to place a tax on distilled spirits, which stirred protests in rural areas of Pennsylvania. Quickly, the protests turned into a full-scale defiance of federal law known as the Whiskey Rebellion. Washington invoked the Militia Act of 1792, summoning local militias from several states to put down the rebellion. Washington personally took command, marching the troops into the areas of rebellion and demonstrating that the federal government would use force, when necessary, to enforce the law. Jay Treaty In foreign affairs, Washington took a cautious approach, realizing that the weak, young nation could not succumb to Europe's political intrigues. In 1793, France and Great Britain were once again at war. At the urging of Alexander Hamilton, Washington disregarded the U.S. alliance with France and pursued a course of neutrality. In 1794, he sent John Jay to Britain to negotiate a treaty (known as the "Jay Treaty") to secure a peace with Britain and clear up some issues held over from the Revolutionary War. The action infuriated Thomas Jefferson, who supported the French and felt that the U.S. needed to honor its treaty obligations. Washington was able to mobilize public support for the treaty, which proved decisive in securing ratification in the Senate. Though controversial, the treaty proved beneficial to the United States by removing British forts along the western frontier, establishing a clear boundary between Canada and the United States, and most importantly, delaying a war with Britain and providing over a decade of prosperous trade and development the fledgling country so desperately needed. All through his two terms as president, Washington was dismayed at the growing partisanship within government and the nation. The power bestowed on the federal government by the Constitution made for important decisions, and people joined together to influence those decisions. The formation of political parties at first were influenced more by personality than by issues. Political Party As Treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton pushed for a strong national government and an economy built in industry. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson desired to keep government small and center power more at the local level, where citizens' freedom could be better protected. He envisioned an economy based on farming. Those who followed Hamilton's vision took the name Federalists and people who opposed those ideas and tended to lean toward Jefferson’s view began calling themselves Democratic-Republicans. Washington despised political partisanship, believing that ideological differences should never become institutionalized. He strongly felt that political leaders should be free to debate important issues without being bound by party loyalty. However, Washington could do little to slow the development of political parties. The ideals promoted by Hamilton and Jefferson produced a two-party |
grows, wins elections, rebuilds the cause of Liberty and allows the people to live their chosen lives in peace. Government retracts and stays out of our lives. The people can grow to their full potential and enjoy the satisfaction of freedom that was intended for us.
After all, would we rather sit around and complain and be judgmental of each other, or would it be better for us to band together and make a difference? I can tell you that complaining never got me anywhere, so I ran for President because I wanted to make a difference. I hope you all will join me in that goal.Another student has been suspended for a BB gun. Did he brandish it in the school halls? Show it off in a classroom? Was it a random search? No. But it did involve the parent of another child calling authorities. This time, a parent in Iowa saw the BB gun in a car that wasn't even parked on school grounds. Via the NBC affiliate in Waterloo, Iowa:
Dubuque Community School District director of school and community relations Mike Cyze said in a press release a parent noticed the BB pistol in the student's car and called police, who responded, located the student and confiscated the BB gun.
Cyze said there was never a threat to students or staff because the BB gun never left the student's car until police arrived and confiscated it.
"This incident is an important reminder that the school district and area law enforcement do not take the presence of these weapons lightly," Dubuque Senior High School principal Dan Johnson said to parents in an e-mail and voicemail that went out to all Dubuque Senior High School families this morning.
The school suspended the student even though there was no threat and the toy gun wasn't found on campus because, according to a district spokesperson, "there was a significant disruption to the learning environment and having the student on campus would have continued that disruption throughout the day." The suspension, the spokesperson said, could be followed by more "disciplinary action" after an investigation is completed. It's too bad disrupting the learning environment for students is something that could yield administrators a suspension the way it does for childrenGetty Images
Apparently, Darrelle Revis likes Sam Bradford’s chances of keeping the Eagles starting quarterback job.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, the Jets cornerback reflected on his team’s back-to-back AFC Championship Game appearances, and pointed at Mark Sanchez as the reason those runs didn’t go any further.
“We almost made it, and we didn’t have a quarterback,” Revis said, via the New York Daily News.
Perhaps realizing that that quote sounded exactly as he probably meant it, he circled back to add: “Mark was solid. He wasn’t elite.”
Maybe he was hacked.
No one’s arguing that Sanchez was great, but he’s also an easy piñata at this point for the Jets. Plenty of quarterbacks who weren’t elite won Super Bowls on similarly built teams, but blaming it all on one guy is probably an easier narrative to sell.The health ministry would give special thrust to foster growth of Ayush (ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha and homeopathy) during the 12th plan period, Minister for Health and Family Welfare said today.
"The acceptance of homoeopathy and other alternative therapies are growing both in and abroad. The government will take special measures to encourage growth of these line of treatments during the 12th plan," Azad said at the launch of book 'Banerji Protocols' authored by father-son duo Prasanta Banerji and Pratip Banerji.
Azad said that most health ministers of the world were now willing to collaborate with the to know more about homoeopathy and ayurveda.
He said that the government had taken a decision to co-locate allopathy and other forms of medicines like Ayush in the same hospital where people would be able to exercise their choice of treatment.
"It is a useful co-existence of both allopathy and Ayush," the minister said.
The Centre had provided a grant-in-aid of Rs 553 crore for development of homoeopathy, he added.Exclusive Preview | ‘Black Widow’ # 6
Despite rumors that Natasha Romanoff could have been Tony Stark’s biological mother, Marvel opted to not go in that direction. But that doesn’t mean that she didn’t play a part in the creation of Iron Man!
Within the pages of the new Black Widow series, Natasha found herself being blackmailed by a man calling himself the Weeping Lion. With her greatest secret at stake, Natasha seemingly agreed to steal intel from S.H.I.E.L.D., burning herself in the process. But Natasha had a longer play in mind to triple cross the man who dared to blackmail her. Unfortunately for Natasha, the late Agent Elder wasn’t aware of those plans and Natasha’s bid to clear her name has gone up in smoke.
It gets worse. The Weeping Lion made good on his threat and revealed to the world that before Natasha defected to the West, the Black Widow helped kidnap Professor Ho Yinsen; the man who gave his life to help Tony Stark build his very first Iron Man suit! In CraveOnline’s exclusive preview for Black Widow # 6, Tony finally becomes aware of this fact and he begins the hunt for his former friend!
Click on the doublepage splash for a bigger image!
Black Widow # 6 was co-written by Chris Samnee and Mark Waid, with artwork and cover by Samnee. Here’s Marvel’s solicitation text, which sets the stage for an epic Iron Man vs. Black Widow fight!
“DRAWING BACK THE IRON CURTAIN! The WEEPING LION has released the BLACK WIDOW’s most dangerous secret into the world. Now Natasha is on a collision course with the INVINCIBLE IRON MAN! Even if they survive CIVIL WAR II, the AVENGERS will never be the same!”
Marvel will release Black Widow # 6 on Wednesday, August 17.
What did you think about this preview? And which side are you on: Natasha or Tony? Let us know in the comment section below!
Photo Credits: All images provided by Marvel Comics.Amazon is committed to gamers, and building great teams who are excited to use Twitch, the AWS cloud, and technical innovation to radically evolve gameplay. We believe that games have just scratched the surface in their power to unite players and will produce some of the future’s most influential voices in media and art.
The team is made of former Portal, World of Warcraft and BioShock creators, and we’re building a team of top talent for an ambitious new PC game project using the latest technology. Our team in Seattle has worked on a lot of other great titles like Half Life 2, Left for Dead, Dota 2, Halo, Infamous, Shadows of Mordor and The Last of Us.
If you want to be on the tip of the spear for game design and technology, contact us. We want people that are driven to make the best games in the industry. We're looking to take interesting risks, and invent!
You can also check out Amazon's job listings today on Gamasutra's job board.A United Nations economist was arrested on Tuesday on charges that he brought a household worker from Bangladesh to New York, where he underpaid and overworked her and also took steps to cover up his scheme.
The economist, Hamidur Rashid, a Bangladeshi, had obtained a special visa for the employee after submitting a signed contract to the United Nations stating that he would pay her $420 for a 40-hour workweek, or $10.50 an hour, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
The contract said Mr. Rashid, 50, would also pay the woman, who had once worked in his home in Dhaka, Bangladesh, for overtime hours and not charge her for food or lodging, the complaint added.
But Mr. Rashid then had her sign a second contract that said she would be paid only $290 a week, or $7.25 an hour, and that he could deduct up to $75 per week from her salary for food and lodging, the authorities said.Financial speculation in rich industrialised countries like the UK and US is pushing up food prices of staples like maize in low-income countries.
Banks including Goldman Sachs and Barclays have created funds that allow investors to speculate on the price of key food crops. It has generated huge profits for those involved, with Goldman Sachs estimated to have made more than $1 billion in 2009 alone and Barclays as much as £340 million a year from trading food commodities.
From a relatively small $3 billion market in 2003, a UN report recently estimated the total amount invested in food commodities had jumped in size to more than $55 billion by 2008.
However, gambling on the price of food comes at a cost. The high volume of trading in food commodity funds is leading to higher and more volatile prices, say campaigners, which affect poor families in less industrialised countries the hardest as they can’t afford basic foods and also make it more difficult for farmers to plan and invest.
Charities like Christian Aid and even UN representatives are now calling for tighter regulation to curb volatile price rises – something the banking industry is strongly opposing.
To help you navigate the arguments being made by both sides, former city broker Brett Scott provides this guide to understanding food speculation
Real Food vs. Derivatives
It is important to recognise the distinction between the real global markets in food, and the agricultural derivatives markets that are referenced to those real global markets in food. A Ukrainian commercial farmer exporting wheat to North Africa is engaged in a different undertaking to someone entering into a futures contract based on wheat. The former is a physical ‘spot’ transaction, and the latter is a synthetic ‘derivatives’ transaction.
Derivatives are contracts between counterparties. There are ‘exchange-traded’ agricultural futures and options, and there are ‘over-the-counter’ swaps and forwards facilitated by dealers at investment banks. These derivatives contracts are, more or less, analogous to bets on the real market in food, much like a sports bet is a bet on a real world sports event. Taking a ‘position’ in wheat futures, for example, is putting oneself in line to gain or lose from a change in the price of wheat. It is conceptually similar to, but not the same as, buying real wheat. It is as if one were buying wheat.
The original purpose of agricultural derivatives was to allow producers of real commodities to use a bet to protect themselves from decreases in commodity prices (short hedging), and users of real commodities to use a bet to protect themselves from increases in commodities price (long hedging). If you’re not a producer or a user of real commodities though, all you have is a bet, and then you’re called a speculator. The controversy around ‘food speculation’ then, refers to speculation in agricultural derivatives markets, not literal transactions in physical grains.
The controversy can be broken down into two separate issues. Firstly, are financial players in commodity derivatives markets causing derivatives prices to disassociate from what the price ‘should be’ if it were reflecting the fundamental balance of supply and demand in the underlying commodity? Secondly, does such a disassociation in futures prices get transmitted into the real price of food people end up paying?
They might seem like straightforward questions, but they’re not. Can you, for example, assign causation between speculative activity on an American derivatives exchange and a literal change in the cost of a bag of wheat in South Africa? It is this grey area that allows the debate to fracture into confusing technical trivia.
What determines the price?
Most financial theory assumes futures prices are determined by the thing the future is betting on, much like a horse race determines the value of a bet on that horse race. Indeed, in financial theory the prices of derivatives are structurally tied to the value of the underlying asset that they’re based on, and are supposed to be kept that way through a process called arbitrage, which ensures that if the price of the derivative moves too far away from the spot price of the underlying asset, it is pulled back towards the spot price.
Here’s a real world example from the oil markets: In early 2009, oil futures prices rose ‘too high’ relative to the spot price of oil that could be purchased in the present. Arbitrage traders bought physical oil, stored it in tankers, and simultaneously sold futures. The effect of the transaction is that they managed to buy oil at one price in the present, and simultaneously lock in a higher price for selling it in the future. This type of trade theoretically allows traders to secure a risk-free profit, provided that the cost of ‘carrying’ the oil (e.g. storage, insurance, finance costs) does not exceed the difference between the spot and the futures price. Theoretically, through this process, the spot and futures price should come back in line in order to remove the risk-free profit opportunity.
That sound complicated? It is pretty complicated. For example, who actually has the ability to charter ships to store oil? Does it matter which grade of oil is stored? Does this bring the futures price back down, or does it bring the spot price of oil up? I get the impression that nobody really knows, because the fact of the matter is that, in commodities markets, arbitrage processes are complicated because actually accessing the physical commodities to enforce arbitrage relationships is difficult.
The conventional wisdom regarding the mathematical relationship between spot prices and derivatives prices has thus been challenged by concerns that this relationship can break down, and actually invert, such that underlying spot prices begin to move towards disassociated derivatives prices, not the other way around. It’s analogous to the idea that betting on horses can determine the outcome of a horse race, a classic case of ‘tail wagging the dog’.
Why banks started betting on food
The fact that physical commodities are dirty and cumbersome means that speculation in physical commodities has generally been dominated by specialist physical trading houses like Glencore and Cargill. There are indications that banks are increasingly getting involved in physical trading as well, but initially at least, speculative activity by financial players developed in the commodity futures markets. Financial classics like Market Wizards, published in 1988, have fascinating interviews with speculative traders describing their exploits in the 1970s soy, corn and wheat futures markets, where they operated alongside those that used the markets for non-speculative purposes. Many of these traders would now fit into the mold of hedge funds, or ‘proprietary trading’ units of investment banks.
Futures though, need to be managed on a day-to-day basis. That’s fine for a specialist hedge fund, but not for ‘institutional investors’ like pension funds. If hedge funds are like nifty raptors, pension funds are like slow-moving brontosauruses, often oblivious to the day-to-day ups and downs of the market. Most pension funds investing in stocks, bonds and property do not have the time or inclination to jump into and out of futures contracts. They like to buy something that can be held for several years, not contracts with 6-month expiry dates.
The whole idea of ‘investing’ in commodities then, really only came with the advent of ‘index investing’ products designed by investment banks in the 1990s. These include products like exchange-traded fund and commodity index-linked notes. These presented an appealing story for investors: The investor simply puts money into the product, and the investment bank that manages it executes a trading strategy in the background to give the investors a return directly linked to a commodity index, as if the investor were buying real commodities, but without the hassle of it all. Over time, these products have allowed the number of financial players in commodities to skyrocket.Commodity Index products though, are actually based on futures. Here’s the technical part: To create an index product, dealers at banks enter into ‘swap’ transactions with investors, through which they pass returns from the futures markets on to those investors. Investors don’t necessarily know this – the swap transaction may be embedded, or implied, in a packaged investment product – but the net effect remains the same: The dealer is basically holding futures positions on behalf of investors, and the activity in the swaps market, as it were, creates a ‘shadow’ in the futures markets. For those who are interested, this shadow can be observed in the CFTC ‘Commitment of Traders Reports’, which display futures trading position held by market participants. The category called ‘swap dealers’ are always shown holding ‘long’ positions, which means they are buying futures, probably on behalf of investors.But why does all this technical stuff matter? The vociferous debate centres on whether the increased involvement of these financial players has led to disruptions in commodity futures prices. It all got rather heated following a 2010 report by two academics, written on behalf of the OECD, casting doubt on any connection between ‘financialisation’ of commodities markets and the huge price spike in commodities in 2008.The nuances of the debate are too numerous to list here, but some straw men are worth tearing down. This is not a debate about whether or not speculators are good for markets in principle. Finance textbooks suggest that speculators are useful because they provide liquidity, which simply means they increase the number of orders in a market, which in turn increases everyone’s ability to trade. In so doing they are thought to enhance the process of rational ‘price discovery’ in markets by allowing the balance of supply and demand to effectively express itself in clear prices based on fundamental considerations.There’s no doubting that speculators can play an important role in the functioning of markets. I, for example, spent two years operating in some of the most illiquid markets in the financial world, newly developing types of exotic derivatives. I longed for speculators to come in, just to get things moving. The key issue though, really concerns the degree of speculative involvement in markets.It may be the case that a market with 30 per cent of activity accounted for by speculation might work well, but what about a market with 60 per cent? What about 85 per cent speculation? These are not linear relationships – a market does not inevitably get more and more efficient as more speculators come in, and it is easy to imagine that there’s a tipping point where too many speculators destabilise prices rather than help them. Most speculation is short-term trading for short-term profit and it works if it’s done amidst a market concerned with long-term fundamentals. But what if it’s done amidst a market that’s already largely constituted by speculators? That’s speculation on speculation, and that’s how bubbles form.Any trader could tell you that, but the dry technical debate drones on in academic journals, devoid of the much richer source of colour on the issue that comes from those who are actually involved in these markets. Indeed, an informal subset of this debate is actually found in the financial trading world, rephrased in terms of the distinction between fundamental and technical traders.A fundamental trader is a speculator concerned with speculating on supply and demand of commodities. A technical trader is a speculator concerned with speculating on market patterns formed by the actions of other traders. Fundamental traders are worried that the increasing number of technical traders is increasing the randomness and ‘noise’ found in markets. If technical traders base their decisions on other traders, and their numbers are increasing, the market becomes circular and self-referencing and runs the risk of disconnecting from supply and demand concerns altogether.The key to trading in that environment then becomes a variant of the ‘greater fool theory’ – running with trends and trying to get out before everyone gets psyched out. This is no secret.Focusing on the issue of short-term speculation though, may obscure a major concern in the markets. Pure speculation on the part of proprietary traders and hedge funds seems to exacerbate upward and downward movements in markets, creating volatility, but how does this relate to the activities of longer term players like pension funds? It’s not apparent that institutional investors overtly ‘speculate’ in commodities. A pension fund does not put its money into a commodity ETF, only to take it out a week later. They’re thinking about long-term trends, not short-term oscillations. They’re ‘investing’.A further difference is that, unlike hedge funds that are able to ‘short’ markets to bet on a decline, large institutions tend to be ‘long only’, in that they only invest in things they think will go up in value. In practice then, if a large number of institutional investors decide to invest in the commodities markets through index products, the indirect result is only an increase in the demand for futures contracts. Derivatives markets though, are zero sum games – for a contract to exist, there has to be a buyer and a seller taking opposing views. If institutional investors only constitute a source of demand, but not supply, the question then emerges about who sells those futures contracts, and whether the index investors represent a structural source of upward pressure on derivatives pricing.There’s a curious argument found in the OECD report that caused controversy in this regard. It’s the idea that, because derivatives markets are zero-sum games, these new investors have to be matched by sellers, and thus by definition cannot represent a source of excess demand in futures markets, and thus have little effect on the price. It’s a weird angle to take, because anyone involved in derivatives markets knows that if participants in general are more interested in buying, the price of the derivative must move up to induce others to sell.The degree of that increase can be a function of the depth of a market – a smaller market has less ability to absorb big orders. Imagine Sainsbury’s arriving at a small village fruit market in search of stock for its shelves. It’s simply not true that sellers naturally materialise without a disruption to price, and it seems plausible that a drastic increase in money flowing only one way into futures markets could have an upward impact.There are many more technicalities in the debate, including the physical dynamics of commodities, strange words like ‘contango’ and ‘backwardation’, ‘convenience yields’, and ‘rolling’ of futures contracts. There’s the potential for circularity of index products – the fact that they seek to track the commodities market by investing in the commodities market, but as they get bigger, more of the commodities market is constituted by their positions, which means they might sort of track themselves. There’s the related issue of the potential for an increase in correlation among commodity derivative prices.Index investing is often based on a ‘basket’ of commodities, which simply means an investor buys a product that exposes them to a broad array of commodities at once. This translates into simultaneous purchasing of different commodity futures, which might create pressures for a range of commodity futures to move in tandem. This poses a potential problem for diversification – if money flows out of index products then the whole commodity futures market might crash at once, rather than just single commodity futures.It is never possible to predict exactly how markets respond to new pressures. Trading decisions are not determined by abstract economic models of rational behaviour. Academics might use mathematics to prove that markets are efficient, yet nobody pays attention to that, and certainly don’t waste time ensuring that markets are abiding by static theories. Markets work on dynamic human strategies and emotions, as witnessed by the numerous spectacular crashes we’ve seen over the last few decades.The reason why these debates matter goes beyond the efficiency of pricing in derivatives markets. It’s how that derivatives pricing can then impact the real price of food, especially in less industrialised countries dependent on food imports. Statistical studies have pointed to a breakdown in the causality between agricultural spot and futures prices, showing futures prices determining spot prices. What might be the mechanisms for this though?Firstly, benchmarking. There is no straightforward answer to ‘what is the global price of wheat?’ It’s grown in different countries in different grades, and when it comes to a buyer and a seller agreeing on an actual transaction in physical wheat, how do they decide what the price is? It helps if there’s an external and independent benchmark against which they can price. That’s why they can turn to the derivatives price to help them. The futures prices serve as de facto benchmark prices, the only publically visible indication of apparent overall supply and demand. If, for example, import contracts are referenced to the CBOT futures price, that serves as a direct transmission mechanism from futures prices into real food prices.Secondly, food prices can rise through hoarding. This is the real world arbitrage situation. If futures prices rise, that can incentivise those that have the ability to warehouse food, for example, large commercial grain dealers, to do so whilst selling futures. Locking it up in storage in anticipation for future delivery can create a supply shortage in the present, driving up prices.Some skeptics point to how foodstuffs with no derivatives markets have also shown price rises, thereby attributing all food price rises to the fundamental issues like the growing demand from east Asia. It’s a fair enough point to make, but it’s also an argument that glosses over the concept of substitution. If the global price of major grains rise, then consumers have incentives to switch to alternatives, which creates convergence in prices.The concept of substitution raises another contentious issue – the link between energy prices and food prices. The rise in oil price creates incentives to move towards biofuels, which are based on corn and sugar, one of the reasons why oil speculation is seen to have an effect on food prices. Energy also happens to be the biggest input into commercial agriculture, through mechanisation, transportation, and fertilisers created through energy-intensive natural gas methods.These issues are not likely to be resolved any time soon. In the mean time, food prices are showing dangerous signs of heading to new highs. The talk in City pubs is all about commodities, and when that happens, strange things start to occur. It’s time to get serious about this.You can follow Brett Scott at www.suitpossum.blogspot.comImage credit: Wikipedia
Machu Picchu's ET connection
Columnist: Leonard Farra Posted on Friday, 25 July, 2014 | 2 comments Columnist:
Article Copyright© Leonard Farra - reproduced with permission.
Leonard Farra's book The Pleiades Legacy,(The Stone Age) (The Return of the Gods) can be purchased Online from Blurb.Com and the Pleiades Legacy (The Old World) and The Pleiades Legacy (The New World) are now available there as Ebooks which can also be viewed on Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.
In order to appreciate the deeper religious significance of Machu Picchu, we must travel back in time long before the Incan era. Around 5,000 years ago, when Earth was in total upheaval as a result of climate change and flooding, numerous versions of a sky-god religion spread around the world and it has been an influence on many aspects of human life right through to present times. According to legend, our world was visited by civilising sky-gods who taught man agriculture and many useful arts, but who later destroyed evil people with a flood. One of the ‘civilising gods’ had the appearance of a tall, white, bearded man who wore a long white robe and carried a multi-purpose staff which could be used for healing, dowsing, etc. Although he had long since been gone, many early people enacted religious rituals celebrating his ‘annual return’.Many of the Ancients associated their visitors with the Pleiades whose stars played a major role in early religions and traditions. (1) These ‘Seven Sisters’ were linked with ‘The Flood’,the Creation of the universe, the civilisers of man and the beginning of the agricultural season. Some people believed that their ancestors came from them and that they will return there when they die.( 2) Their appearance at certain times of the year regulated some of the early calendars and heralded the dawn of a new age. At the end of an era, or of the year, in cultures separated by time and space, fires throughout the land were extinguished and were relit after the Pleiades appeared. And around the beginning of November, in countries which allegedly had no contact with each other, when the Pleiades appeared, people celebrated the Festival of the Dead when departed souls were thought to return to Earth.In the era around 3,000 b.c.e, when a major El Nino event occurred in the Pacific, a civilisation arose in the Supe Valley in Peru and it lasted for about 800 years. In the upper level of the city of Caral, 14 miles from the coast, there was a ceremonial site with six large platform mounds. The circle was also of special significance to the Caral people as they built sunken circular courts and on the summit of their pyramids they had a circular altar. They also aligned a stone circle, with a central standing stone, to their tallest pyramid. ( 3 )A few stone circles have been found elsewhere in Peru, Brazil, North America, Easter Island and in many other countries, but not nearly as many as in the British Isles where a standing stone surrounded by a circle of stones was a common feature. A circled dot often appeared in stone age art and in Egypt, it was a symbol of the god Ra. Surrounding a stone with a circle implies that there is something special about it. Could it be that it represented a god in his circular home?( 4 )Researchers at Caral were intrigued to find a small male figure, dating back to around 2280 -2180 b.c.e, which was shown wearing a hat and holding a staff in his right hand and, possibly, a snake in his left hand. This figure appears to represent the Early World’s civilising god who was depicted in the form of the staff-god in Peruvian art. Chavin de Hauntar,in the Mosna Valley in the Northern Highlands of Peru, is thought to span the period from 850 b.c.e to 200 b.c. e.(5 ) Chavin’s Old Temple consisted of a U shaped pyramidal platform, open towards the rising sun, and in the centre of the two wings there was a ‘circular’ plaza. The axis on the west is said to be ‘remarkably near the azimuth of the setting of the Pleiades around the time of its construction’ (6) The 7ft tall Raimondi Stone, now in the Lima Museum, originally stood somewhere in Chavin but it’s original position is unknown. This stylised mystical stone, which has snakes rising from its head, represents the Peruvian staff-god holding an elaborate staff in each hand and it appears to be a later version of the figure that was found at Caral. Around the circular plaza, there are several slabs and on some of them there is symbolism associated with the sky-god religion.( 7 ) One slab shows an individual blowing a shell trumpet and another depicts a figure holding a staff. Twenty conch shell trumpets have been discovered at Chavin which suggests that they were blown on important occasions. In the southwest corner of the site’s lowest plaza’s upper level, in its New Temple, there’s a limestone slab upon which are carved seven circular depressions resembling the Pleiades ( 8 ) As these stars were of special significance at Chavin, could it be that, when they appeared on important festivals, staff-carrying priests blew conch shell trumpets and rituals were enacted that related to the return of the staff-god?Around 200 b.c.e, when Chavin came to an end, the Mochica civilisation arose on the North Coast of Peru. The Mochica were a highly skilled warrior people who built pyramids and temples and who practiced human sacrifice. It's generally believed that their calendar began with the rising of the Pleiades, (i.e a new beginning), as it did others in Peruvian cultures. Their supreme god, Ai Aepeac –the decapitator, was shown with a human male torso,clawed feet, snakes for hair and holding a staff - a hideous version of the staff-god. The Mochica are famous for their stirrup jars which show scenes of everyday life and religious themes. One scene reveals that the Mochica used the same type of sacred architecture as other early followers of the sky-god religion.(9 )The age of the Andean Tiahuanaco civilisation is very controversial. According to the conservative point of view it flourished from 300.C.E to 1000 C.E. but some alternative scholars suggest that it could date back 14,000 years. What’s not generally appreciated,though, is that there is sky-god architecture at Tiahuanaco, ( i.e the Akapana pyramid), (10) a version of which was depicted on the Mochica jar and which dates back no further than 5,000 years.According to Christobel de Molina of Cuzco.1873 : ‘the Creator was in Tiahuanaco and that was his principal abode’ ( 11) The Creator, ( Virachoca), is thought to be represented on Tiahuanaco ’s monolithic Gateway of the Sun where he is shown holding two serpent like staffs with jaguar and condor features. This supreme god is standing on a three tiered stepped pyramid and he’s surrounded by 32 winged staff figures kneeling down. The trumpet blowing figures on this monolith suggest that they are announcing his arrival. According to a popular theory, the Gateway of the Sun represents a calendar and if so then H.S.Bellamy’s suggestion that one of the trumpeters is linked with the winter solstice and another with the summer solstice might be correct especially since it’s in accord with other Peruvian traditions. (12)The indications would appear to be that after the priests at Tiahuanaco sounded their trumpets, on the solstices, a priest, representing Viracocha, dressed in long white robes and carrying a staff, stood on the summit of the Akapana which appears to be associated with the Creation. (13 ) The congregation of mixed races standing around the pyramid, who enacted the colourful rituals, may have included the peculiar cone-headed people whose skulls are on display in the local museum. Although Tiahuanaco was abandoned before the Incas incorporated it into their empire, it might have influenced their religious traditions.The Incan civilisation dates back 700 years and it ended 200 years later when it was destroyed by the Spaniards. The Incan capital, Cuzco, was surrounded by the four provinces and in its centre stood the sacred Coricancha temple which was built with huge close fitting blocks of stone. Only the Incan nobility were allowed into this holy sanctuary. Astronomy played an important role in Inca religion (14) and the Coricancha was dedicated to the worship of the Sun, Viracocha,( the Creator) and the Pleiades to which it was astronomically aligned.The Pleiades were of special significance to the Incas and, in common with several other early people, they regarded them as the great mother of all creation. (15) The Coricancha was also aligned to the equinoxes and solstices at which time festivals were celebrated.Viracocha was described as a tall, white, bearded man who wore a long white robe and carried a staff and he appears to be the staff-god who was depicted nearly 5000 years ago at Caral. When the bearded Spaniards arrived in Peru, the Incas thought that he had returned with his companions. Many early gods were associated with a bird and Viracocha’s companion was the condor which is represented by a 440ft drawing in the Nazca Desert. Several other sky-god symbols are also etched into its surface among the thousands of lines and drawings. (16)Capac Raymi, one of the two most important Incan festivals, began the first month of the Incan year and it was celebrated on the December (Summer) solstice. The festival lasted for several days and the ceremonies took place in Cuzco’s great plaza with colourful processions starting from the Coricancha. On the eve of the festival, the Incan priests blew conch shell trumpets and for three days prior, no fire was allowed in homes. (17) A new flame was later lit and it was distributed among the people. Capac Raymi was a time of renewal when some of the young boys were initiated and, in a custom which was popular in several earlier Peruvian civilisations and elsewhere, such as on remote Easter Island, their ears stretched for the insertion of ear plugs.(18 ) These boys later became known as the Orejones-the long ears. The Capac Raymi celebrations began when the Pleiades appeared and started the year. In the Nazca desert there is a huge white sand dune, Cerra Blanco, where the sun rises around the December solstice, where Viracocha ‘descended from the sky’. (19) Over in Cuzco, a colourful procession, probably led by priests, circled a statue of him in one of the rituals(20) and as the Incas believed that the dead returned to Earth on the December solstice, this may be one of the reasons why the ancestral mummies were paraded in the Capac Raymi festival.The other main festival, Inti Raymi, also lasted several days.It was celebrated on the June (winter) solstice and people came to the capital from all over the empire to join the joyful celebrations. At an early point in the rituals, the priests left the Coricancha and proceeded to a high vantage point where they waited for the Pleiades to appear. The Incas called these stars Collca, (the granary).They associated this festival with the harvest and made offerings to Viracocha who protected their crops. In some of their Inti Raymi rituals dancers wore wings to represent the god’s companion-the condor.Peru’s famous Incan site, Machu Picchu, is perched on a small hilltop,between two mountains, overlooking the Vilcanota river. The complex is divided into three areas, agricultural, residential, and sacred, but it’s the sacred region which draws our attention. On the summit of a rock, reached by a flight of stairs, rear of the main temple, there is a carved rock - the Inti huatana – the Hitching Post of the Sun, which is aligned to the equinoxes and to the December solstice when the sun sinks behind the snow covered Pumasillo in the western Vilcabamba range. The December solstice, as we have seen, began the first month in the Incan year when Viracocha’s presence ( return?)on Earth was celebrated. There are also alignments at Machu Picchu to the June solstice,(the Inti Raymi harvest festival) and to the rising of the Pleiades on that day. (21) The June solstice alignment is linked with certain ‘star-god related architecture’, in one important sanctuary, which is also found in the main one.(22 )Based upon what happened in Cuzco’s religious rituals and the astronomical alignments at Machu Pichu, we can surmise that immediately prior to the solstices, Machu Pichu’s priests scanned the sky for the appearance of the Pleiades and when they appeared conch shells were blown. This ritual was followed, on the respective days, by Capac Raymi and Inti Raymi ceremonies. Viracocha may have ‘arrived’ at Machu Picchu on the December solstice, to start the year, and, as at Cuzco, a statue of him |
important is all but over. Likewise, smart contracts in general and Ethereum in particular are here to stay. For a technology that is still in its infancy, this is remarkable. It is also a tremendous responsibility. The hacking of the DAO (Distributed Autonomous Organization) last summer was catastrophic, at least until the Ethereum hard fork got people their money back. Something similar involving a few mega-banks like JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Mellon Bank could take down a big chunk of the world economy. The pressure on them to have a rock-solid, safe and secure implementation is immense.
In many countries (including the U.S.) finance is a highly regulated industry. Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering laws have spread almost worldwide since 9/11. They require banks and similar institutions to gather information on who their customers are, verify their identities and often report transactions over a certain limit (In the U.S. I think that limit is $10k). This is where Quorum or something like it comes in. It seems to allow institutions to run an instance of a blockchain, which may contain proprietary data and PII (Personally Identifiable Information) internally, where it can be protected. In addition, they can interact in a more protected way with a public blockchain. Authorities can audit the internal blockchain for compliance while companies can do business on the public one. This may only be a start but it shows that someone is thinking hard about the risks and looking for real solutions. So far, so good.
One of the more interesting goals claimed by the EEA, is the development of standards and governance for the interoperable blockchains they envision. Think about it. Two banks, each with an internal blockchain, want to do business. Maybe they have large corporate customers — or even countries — that want to send large amounts of money back and forth on a regular basis. They need to protect data about who the clients are behind the money but they also need to reveal the amount and type of currency, the rate of exchange, the institution initiating the transfer and who knows what else?
A standard transaction format seems essential not just for interactions with the public blockchain but for transparency, so everyone can read the blockchain and know its state. So it can be audited. Blockchains optimize data storage. They measure them in bits, meaning that some format like JSON, lightweight for transferring data between a web browser and an API, is much too verbose for a blockchain. Millions of transactions take up too much room to be saved as ordinary text. There is much to consider when developing data formats.
Governance is another aspect of standards and of the work of developing blockchains. The hard fork of Ethereum referred to earlier repaired the damage done by the hack and returned money (Ether) to DAO investor’s. Some people thought this action was unethical and kept working the old way, with what is now called Ethereum Classic. In essence, the users of Ethereum Classic rejected the legitimacy of the governance then in place. Banks and other companies that may come to depend on Ethereum for day to day operations are unlikely to have a similar option. It would upset shareholders, regulators and clients, too much. Nor do they want far-reaching decisions about the protocol being made by a bunch of developers who they do not know and have no control over. They will want (need) to have a say in what happens.
Smart contracts add another layer of complexity to the standards issue. What terms or operational data should smart contracts always have so that all the entities involved can understand and verify them? What terms should they never have? How can terms be modified, or terminated? These questions can be answered by technology in multiple ways. Answering them in a way that also satisfies regulators and customers is another question. Development of standards that allow people to have confidence in the state of any given smart contract seems incredibly important.
Interestingly, a project out of Australia is considering some of the same issues of standards, legality and governance, in an international context. Meanwhile, last summer, the EU’s International Securities Association for Institutional Trade Communication (ISITC) published a set of benchmarks for blockchain standards. In other words, this is the frontier. Efforts are arising around the world to set up the legal and logistical infrastructure that will allow blockchain tech and smart contracts to be integrated into the world economy.
With the amount of information currently available, it’s hard to tell how far along the EEA is in developing its own standards and in interacting with these others around the world. However, we should note that the current membership of the EEA includes heavy hitters such as JP Morgan and Microsoft, companies that are veterans in dealing with legal, regulatory and standards issues. If their expertise is brought to bear, we can expect to see interesting and well-thought-out results.
So we’ve seen that, on the technology front, the EEA is off to a good start. There is more to do, especially in scaling up to “enterprise-grade” transaction volumes and speeds and the interoperability of multiple blockchains and blockchain-based currencies. For businesses like banks and investment companies, having not only the tech but some predictability in its behavior are crucial. The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance seems to be well positioned to push this frontier forward. It will be interesting to see what comes next.
SingularDTV
www.singulardtv.comPregnant women face a lot of dos and don'ts when it comes to food and drink, as in other areas of life. Working out where to draw the line is not always easy - though having a good head for statistics can help.
"When I first found out I was pregnant, I really wanted to have a cup of coffee. It was first thing in the morning. And then I thought all of a sudden, 'Oh my gosh - am I even allowed to have one cup of coffee?'" recalls Emily Oster, an associate professor of economics at the University of Chicago.
She turned to the internet and found, not surprisingly, that there was no consensus. Then she found that even books disagreed... and her doctor didn't always agree with the books.
Some writers said pregnant women should avoid coffee completely. Others advised drinking no more than two cups. Yet others drew the limit at three.
When you look at six or eight cups of coffee, there is some more evidence that that might be risky Emily Oster
"I've read books that said six. And so I felt like there must be an answer to this," says Oster.
"The answer isn't both zero and six. Surely there is an actual number in here, and I wanted to try to understand both why there's so much disagreement but also really what is the right decision."
Using her statistical training, Oster decided to review the medical literature herself.
It is fine to have two cups a day, she concluded. But she describes herself as "more of a two-to-four cups a day coffee lady" - and at this level, she says, the evidence appears to be mixed.
"Early on I felt terrible, and I was not really able to have any coffee which was very sad for me, but once I got into the second and third trimester and I was feeling better, I often had three cups a day and I felt comfortable with that.
The NHS on caffeine You don't need to cut out caffeine completely, but don't have more than 200mg a day... if you have, for example, one bar of chocolate and one mug of filter coffee, you have reached almost 200mg of caffeine. Don't worry if you occasionally have more than this amount - the risks are small. To cut down on caffeine, try decaffeinated tea and coffee, fruit juice or mineral water instead of regular tea, coffee, cola and energy drinks. Foods to avoid in pregnancy: Caffeine
"When you look at more - at six or eight cups of coffee - there is some more evidence that that might be risky."
Oster, now the proud mother of a healthy two-year-old girl, has gathered together her work in a book, Expecting Better. She hopes that where the evidence is mixed, readers can consider the facts and make their own decision, based on what they are personally comfortable with.
It is difficult to draw firm conclusions, she says, because most of the studies are not randomised - it wouldn't be fair to divide pregnant women under study into two random groups and ask one group to drink coffee and the other to drink none.
Consequently, Oster says, the people involved in the studies differ in many ways that could affect the course of their pregnancies, not just in their coffee-drinking habits.
"The big issue is that caffeine consumption correlates very strongly with how nauseous you are. A lot of pregnant women are very sick, especially early on - the women who are sicker tend to drink less coffee.
"But we know that being sick is a sign of a healthy pregnancy. And so when we see that women who drink less coffee also have more successful pregnancies we don't really know if that's just about coffee or whether it's really a confounding factor from this nausea."
But coffee was just one item on a long list of forbidden, or semi-forbidden, items that Oster wanted to investigate.
Alcohol for example.
Some health services, like the National Health Service in England, recommend that women avoid alcohol altogether in pregnancy, but Oster says she decided that on the available evidence, she felt comfortable having three glasses of wine - in total - in the first trimester, and then half a glass three or four times a week in the second and third trimester.
"One thing that comes out very quickly, which is very important to emphasise, is that heavy excessive drinking in pregnancy is very dangerous. That's something you see very clearly in the data.," Oster says.
More or Less: Behind the stats Listen to More or Less on BBC Radio 4 and the World Service, or download the free podcast Download the More or Less podcast More stories from More or Less
"But when I looked at the evidence on having an occasional drink - a couple of drinks a week maybe in the first trimester, up to a drink a day in later trimesters - I found that the evidence suggests that is safe.
"We don't have large randomised trials, but we do have a lot of high-quality studies which show that the children of women who drink occasionally have very similar outcomes to the children of women who abstain."
This is not the view of the UK's National Health Service.
Dr Vivek Muthu, director for healthcare at the Economist Intelligence Unit and chief executive of the healthcare evidence consultancy, Bazian, says the evidence suggests that even a low alcohol intake can risk damaging the developing foetus.
"Therefore the best and simplest advice which the NHS gives out is not to drink at all," he says.
The NHS on alcohol When you drink, your baby drinks - avoid drinking alcohol while you're pregnant... It can cause birth defects like facial deformities, and can cause learning difficulties and problems with emotional development. It can stunt your baby's ability to grow, even after it is born, and increases the risk of having a miscarriage or a stillborn baby. If you choose to drink, to minimise the risk to your baby, don't drink more than 1-2 units of alcohol - that's the same as a small glass of wine - once or twice a week. Start4life: Alcohol
And while the risk of damage might be lower the less alcohol the pregnant mother drinks, that doesn't mean, Muthu says, that the magnitude of the damage will be lower.
"The consequences could be just as bad as with higher levels of intake, and could result in permanent and severe physical and mental disability," he says.
He adds: "There are additional difficulties around defining from the evidence what a 'low intake' would be in terms of units of alcohol, and how this might be interpreted by different people in practice."
But of course there are many other things pregnant women are told to avoid.
"One of the things I found overwhelming about the food list was that it was just so long," Oster says.
"There were so many things to not eat. I was carrying it around trying to sneak it out during lunch so people wouldn't know I was pregnant. What I came to think was, 'Look I need to understand why these foods are restricted, so I can at least have some sort of framework for understanding what's really going on.'"
Image caption Maybe the fig would be OK...
Oster reviewed the last 15 years of data from the US Center for Disease Control on listeria outbreaks.
The evidence on unpasteurised milk and cheese was clearer than on other "banned" foods, Oster says.
The NHS watch list Some cheese
Raw eggs
Cold cured meats
Raw shellfish
Undercooked meat
Liver
Some fish
Unpasteurised milk
Caffeine
Food with soil on NHS Choices: Foods to avoid in pregnancy
"I found that about 20% of those outbreaks can be linked to unpasteurised cheese; about 10% to deli turkey. But there's one outbreak linked to ham; there's one outbreak linked to cantaloupe [melon]; one outbreak linked to celery; one to beansprouts - there are many things like this. And I came to think for a lot of these things there's kind of no way to predict.
"So I decided that on the occasion when I wanted ham, that was OK."
Much of the information pregnant women receive is over-simplified in Oster's view. Doctors just don't have time to explain things in detail, and help patients think through the decisions.
"And so I came to think that maybe it's time for women to understand these decisions - really think through the details carefully for themselves - and that that will ultimately improve the quality of medical care," she says.
"Then you can come into your doctor and say, 'Look, now I understand what's going on, let's talk about how this applies to my particular situation.'"
That, she says, is when "really productive conversations" can happen.Earlier today we mentioned that Digg.com appears to have changed the behavior of its short URLs so they no longer go to the source of the story for logged-out users: instead they direct visitors to a landing page on Digg.com.
The change has many negative implications for publishers, including the fact that readers who think they are creating a link to your content are actually just pushing traffic to Digg.
Digg support: "This is working as intended"
Now Digg appears to have confirmed this questionable move was intentional. While we've yet to receive a response to our email, reader JD Rucker (who was one of the first to blog about the change) complained about the issue to Digg support and received a reply confirming the switch has been made deliberately:
JD: Not sure if this is a mistake or something that was planned, but it appears that when people who aren't logged into Digg click on Diggbar links, they are now taken to the Digg page and not the source. Are you aware of this? Is it going to be fixed? Thanks! Digg: Hi from Digg,
Thank you for writing us about this matter. This is working as intended. Please let us know if you have any feedback or have additional questions we can assist you with.
Digg Support
The move has many implications which are sure to irk Digg's most valuable source of traffic and content: the publishers. Not only is Digg diverting traffic away from publisher sites, but many Twitter applications added Digg URL support on the assumption that Digg URLs would always work the same way as Bit.ly, TinyURL and the rest.
For instance, Tweetmeme, the service we use at Mashable to allow people to retweet posts, rotates through multiple URL shorteners including Digg. In some cases, people trying to share our stories will unknowingly be directing their followers to Digg instead of this site.
Old Links Redirect, Too
There are two further problems. First, Digg has failed to inform the community of the change - users are still using the shortener to create links to their favorite sites with no idea that they're actually diverting their Twitter followers to Digg.
Worse: all previously created Digg URLs now appear to redirect to Digg.com. When I created this Tweet in April and included a Digg URL, I meant to link to a story here on Mashable. Now Digg has decided it would be better for my followers to visit their site, even though that wasn't my intent when creating the link.
It's the equivalent of opening a highway to Chicago, then diverting it to St. Louis without telling any of the drivers.
In short, Digg has broken the trust relationship with its publishers and users. They might not be hurting, however, since the use of Diggbar links significantly increased the amount of traffic to their site. Now that they're driving a bunch more traffic from thousands of hijacked URLs, they'll experience a veritable traffic bonanza at the expense of users and publishers.
UPDATE: Digg founder Kevin Rose responds on Twitter saying he was not aware of the change since he has been on a two-week vacation:Like everywhere else where legal gun ownership is strongly complicated by basic laws and unbelievable bureaucratic procedures, it’s expected that illegal, homemade DIY weaponry abound in Brazil. The final products range from finely tuned, decent-looking guns to scary-looking examples that would seem not to go past a first-and-only shot! There are also those that are not firearms at all, having just been put together to look like real (or almost) McCoys, so that their bearers might look “armed”.
I’ve just gathered a selection of items recently (some, not just so) seized by Brazilian police around the country, with place of origin mentioned when available. Technical details are usually limited to the caliber used, only, and I’ll leave to you, smart TFB readers, the task of figuring out the rest. Just a glance at the creativity involved in their manufacture. Hope you enjoy!
Higher-res pics? Here: https://imgur.com/a/20f5DHedge fund billionaire David Einhorn is struggling to make sense of the stock market. In his latest investor letter, the founder of Greenlight Capital raised an interesting question about valuation.
“Given the performance of certain stocks, we wonder if the market has adopted an alternative paradigm for calculating equity value,” Einhorn wrote in a letter to investors dated October 24. “What if equity value has nothing to do with current or future profits and instead is derived from a company’s ability to be disruptive, to provide social change, or to advance new beneficial technologies, even when doing so results in current and future economic loss?”
Einhorn, who identifies as a value investor, said the market “remains very challenging” for folks like himself as growth stocks with speculative earnings prospects outperform value stocks.
David Einhorn speaks at the Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, U.S. May 4, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid More
“The persistence of this dynamic leads to questions regarding whether value investing is a viable strategy,” he wrote. “The knee-jerk instinct is to respond that when a proven strategy is so exceedingly out of favor that its viability is questioned, the cycle must be about to turn around. Unfortunately, we lack such clarity. After years of running into the wind, we are left with no sense stronger than, ‘it will turn when it turns.’”
It’s tough being a value investor these days
Greenlight Capital returned 6.2% in the third quarter, bringing the fund’s year-to-date returns through September 30 to 3.3%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 4.5% during the period, bringing its year-to-date return to 14.2%.
Value investors like Warren Buffett and finance academics would argue that a company’s true intrinsic value can be derived by discounting its projected future profits. Of course, it’s almost impossible to accurately forecast a company’s future profits. Furthermore, it’s widely accepted that a company’s market price in the short-run is affected by other factors including investor emotions.
One of the most widely-reported signs that the market as a whole is expensive is the cyclically-adjusted price-earnings ratio (CAPE), a measure of stock market value popularized by Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Shiller. CAPE is calculated by taking the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and dividing it by the average of 10 years worth of earnings. It has a long-term average of just over 16. Currently, CAPE is just above 31, which some view as trouble. The only other times CAPE climbed like this was before the market crash of 1929 and the bursting of the tech bubble in the early 2000s.
Einhorn explained that his investment strategy “relies on the assumption that the equity value of a company equals the market’s best assessment of the current and future profits discounted at the company’s cost of capital.” The fund should outperform when it finds opportunities where “the market has misestimated current or future profitability or miscalculated the cost of capital by over- or underestimating the risks.”
Unfortunately, that strategy hasn’t worked well as momentum stocks have continued to move higher.
“It’s clear that a number of companies provide products and services to customers that come with a subsidy from equity holders. And yet, on a mark-to-market basis, the equity holders are doing just fine,” he wrote.
Consider Amazon, Tesla and Netflix
Einhorn has placed bets against a handful of high-flying momentum stocks that he’s dubbed “The Bubble Basket.”
He pointed to Amazon (AMZN) as an example, writing that the company recently revealed “a much lower level of long-term structural profitability, causing consensus estimates for the next five years to drop by 40%, 22%, 18%, 14% and 8%, respectively.” Even still the company’s stock dipped less than 1% during the third quarter, he noted.
Story continues- Tempers flared at a Temple Terrace Publix as shoppers and even some employees got into a brawl that started in the deli section.
A bystander who caught the Sept. 16 incident on video, Jessica Jordan, said one of the customers didn't like the way a female Publix deli employee was being treated by another customer and the two exchanged words.
Temple Terrace police confirmed that Raleigh Harris, 59, was ordering chicken at the deli counter when he got into a verbal altercation with a Publix employee. Leon Travis Lightbody, 25, overheard the conversation and took offense to it, police said, and that's when the fists started flying.
Jordan said other random shoppers also got involved in the brawl. The video shows Publix workers trying to break it up.
Jordan said when she realized no one was calling for help, she dialed 911. Harris was injured in the fight and Lightbody was charged with simple battery.
A spokesman for Publix said no one was seriously hurt in the incident. "That's not a normal thing to happen at any Publix," said Brian West.This item has been removed from the community because it violates Steam Community & Content Guidelines. It is only visible to you. If you believe your item has been removed by mistake, please contact Steam Support
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Last Online 40 hrs, 30 mins ago See all 1648 collections created by Caratacus and other people (some may be hidden) 175,375 Unique Visitors 72,951 Current Subscribers 4,109 Current Favorites(FinalCall.com) – There is a very real threat to law enforcement officers in America, however, the primary threat is not coming from ISIS, Al-Qaeda or any radicalized Muslims in the United States as the controlled media would have you believe.
A direct threat has emerged from within the sovereign citizens movement, an ideologically committed group of people with documented views against the U.S. government, who advocate violent overthrow of existing government structures, laws and call for citizen arrests of high-ranking political officials. It is also referred to in some circles as the “Patriot” movement.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, sovereign citizens are anti-government extremists who subscribe to a wide range of beliefs. A central theme, however, is that although they physically reside in this country, they are separate or “sovereign” from the United States. They don’t believe they have to answer to any government authority, including courts, taxing entities, motor vehicle departments, or law enforcement.
In 2009, the United States Department of Homeland Security under the direction of then Secretary Janet Napolitano released a report titled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”
The report warned White supremacist, right wing militias and sovereign citizen groups were gaining strength, becoming more dissatisfied, and that could quite possibly lead to violent incidents. The election of the nation’s first Black president, the country’s significant economic downturn and fears of more stringent gun laws were largely cited as reasons for concern. The report specifically mentioned terrorism, “White supremacists and violent anti-government groups,” and the response from Republican Party leaders was swift and vocal. They immediately objected to the use of the word “terrorism.”
Rep. John Boehner criticized Secy. Napolitano saying the word “terrorist” should not be used “to describe American citizens who disagree with the direction Washington Democrats are taking our nation.” The Republican Party, seemingly always eager to maintain a cozy relationship with racism and bigotry, has continued acerbic and racially charged rhetoric, contributing to the toxic racial climate that exists in the country today.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, chairs a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 10, 2011, investigating homegrown terrorism in America. That homegrown terrorism is a threat in and of itself is not surprising. What may be surprising is that the most threatening of these “homegrown terrorists” are not the “radicalized Muslims” often described by Islamophobic Republican Congressman Peter King. Rep. King, a member of the Homeland Security Committee.
“I don’t see things getting better in the short term, in fact I think they will be getting worse,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI). Mr. Walid also served in the U.S. Navy. The controlled media’s tendency to ignore militia members and members of the sovereign movement is part of a broader narrative of how White privilege dominates every part of American society, he noted.
“America still cannot have a frank discussion about racism and White supremacy in every part of our lives,” said Mr. Walid. “White privilege shields White male Christians from being called terrorists, and we cannot deal with the mislabeling of Muslims as terrorists until we have the discussion.”
Another more recent report suggests Mr. Walid is correct and that this domestic threat has continued to grow.
The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) ranked the “perceived threat” posed by 17 groups they categorized as “extremist.” Fifty-two percent of law enforcement officials in the study “agreed” and 34 percent “strongly agreed” that sovereign citizens “were a serious terrorist threat” topping the list. Sovereign citizens were ranked as the eighth highest group of concern when this study was conducted in 2006-2007.
In June 2014, Jerad and Amanda Miller, went on a shooting spree in Las Vegas killing two officers. After killing them, they reportedly covered the bodies with the Gadsen flag, which is now popularly recognized as the Tea Party movement’s symbol. Not only had the couple previously espoused anti-government views, but Jerad Miller was present during the Bundy Ranch standoff.
“Although Islamic extremists remain a major concern for law enforcement, they are no longer their top concern,” said researchers. “Such changing perceptions about what is a serious terrorist threat is an important finding because identifying and prioritizing a threat is akin to hitting a moving target and evolves as new intelligence, data, and events develop. Law enforcement must be steadfast in identifying major concerns, substantiating the concerns, providing products and resources to better understand the nature of the threat, and supporting efforts to respond to such concerns,” the report concluded.
A definition of terrorism
Domestic terrorism is described by the Federal Bureau of Investigation includes activities that:
-Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law;
-Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination. or kidnapping; and
These undated photos provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows Jerad and Amanda Miller. Investigators are looking into whether Miller and his wife Amanda, who shot and killed two Las Vegas police officers, had been at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch during a standoff last year, police said, June 9. Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Jerad Miller and his wife, Amanda, had ideology that was along the lines of “militia and White supremacists” and that law enforcement was the “oppressor.”
-Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.
Despite sensationalist news stories about foiled terrorist plots and seemingly non-stop fear mongering from right wing political officials, the real threat to the country’s economic interests and lives of the American people comes in the form of homegrown terrorism. That homegrown terrorism is a threat in and of itself is not surprising. What may be surprising is that the most threatening of these “homegrown terrorists” are not the “radicalized Muslims” often described by Islamophobic Republican Congressman Peter King. Rep. King, a member of the Homeland Security Committee and chairman of the Sub-Committee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence held hearings in 2011 and 2012 while chair of the House Homeland Security Committee.
Many saw the hearings as thinly veiled bigotry targeting Muslims while using politics and patriotism as a shield.
“It is more likely for a suburban White child to join a street gang than it is for an American Muslim child to go and join ISIS,” said Mr. Walid. “Those hearings and even in some of the discourse right now, American Muslims, despite there being no real issues are pressured that we have to wave the American flag and preempt and, or stop a problem that really isn’t an issue in our community.”
Although his views on Islam are questionable, even author and CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen in a 2014 article wrote, “In fact, since 9/11 extremists affiliated with a variety of far-right wing ideologies, including white supremacists, anti-abortion extremists and anti-government militants, have killed more people in the United States than have extremists motivated by al Qaeda’s ideology.”
In this Feb. 24, 1985 file photo, Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan leader Glenn Miller addresses members in front of the North Carolina General Assembly in Raleigh. Miller also known as Frazier Glenn Cross is suspected of fatally shooting two people in the parking lot behind the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, then driving to a retirement community where he shot a third person. He was arrested in an elementary school parking lot.
Focusing on Muslims not Sovereign Citizens
On Oct. 30, Eric B. Frein, a 31-year-old American White man born in New Jersey and living in an unincorporated community in Pennsylvania was captured after being on the run from law enforcement for weeks after allegedly killing a police officer and wounding another a month prior. According to court records, the anti-government survivalist told law enforcement after the manhunt: “He wanted to make a change (in government) and that voting was insufficient to do so, because there was no one worth voting for. He also acknowledged that he shot Troopers because he wanted to make a change (in government) and that the murder of the Trooper was an assassination. The DEFENDANT further acknowledged taking action (shooting the Troopers) to wake people up, because it was all he could do.”
In a letter that appeared to be written to his mother and father, recovered from one of Mr. Frein’s disk drives, he wrote: “Our nation is far from what it was and what it should be. I have seen so many depressing changes made in my time that I cannot imagine what it must be like for you. There is so much wrong and on so many levels only passing through the crucible of another revolution can get us back to the liberties we once had.”
This is only one of the latest incidents of violence by one espousing White supremacists and, or anti-government beliefs. Here are a few others:
– February 2010: Joseph Andrew Stack, who reportedly attended meetings of radical anti-tax groups in California, flew a single-engine plane into an Austin, Texas, building housing IRS offices. He and an IRS employee died and 13 others were injured.
– April 2010: Darren Huff, a Georgia member of the Oath Keepers, a group that advocates its members, many of whom are current and former members U.S. military and law enforcement, disobey any orders they receive if they believe them to be in contradiction to the Constitution of the United States was arrested and charged with plotting the armed takeover of a Madisonville, Tenn., courthouse with plans to arrest the local, state and federal officials.
– November 2011: members of a Georgia militia planned to bomb a federal building and to release ricin in Atlanta.
– March 2011: Kevin Harpham, a White Supremacist with a military ordnance background planned to set a bomb off during a Martin Luther King Day parade in Seattle, Washington.
– August 2012: Wade Michael Page killed six and wounded four others at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Mr. Page was a documented White Supremacist and U.S. Army Veteran.
– April 2014: there was the Bundy Ranch standoff, when Cliven Bundy and many of his armed followers refused to vacate federally-owned land. They actually successfully forced the Bureau of Land Management to back down in a dispute that has lasted over two decades. According to a New York Times article, Mr. Bundy was honored at a celebratory party in which many of his supporters wore “domestic terrorist” name tags.
– June 2014: Jerad and Amanda Miller, went on a shooting spree in Las Vegas killing two officers. After killing them, they reportedly covered the bodies with the Gadsen flag, which is now popularly recognized as the Tea Party movement’s symbol. Not only had the couple previously espoused anti-government views, but Jerad Miller was present during the Bundy Ranch standoff.
– April 2014: Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr (a.k.a Frazier Glenn Cross) a 73-year-old Missouri man, U.S. Army Veteran and former leader of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (later known as the White Patriot Party militia) shot and killed three people near a Jewish community center in Kansas.
Many White supremacists, militias and sovereign citizen groups are located in conservative so-called “Red States,” and their existence is well known, however, it would appear that the government is spending more time and resources infiltrating mosques and attempting to enlist high-level informants within the Muslim community in America.
A wide net is cast in the Islamic community and Muslims continue to be under heavy surveillance by the FBI. Around the country mosque officials are asked to meet with FBI agents and then pressed to become informants. It has been documented that informants are being placed in mosques and entrapment has occurred in several sting operations conducted by government agents.
“American Muslim leaders and institutions should maintain positive relations with local and federal law enforcement authorities, but those relations must be built on respect for constitutionally-protected civil rights,” said CAIR Litigation Director Jenifer Wicks. She said all Americans are invested in protecting the nation; but the FBI’s overbroad and coercive use of informants in mosques, reports of outreach meetings for intelligence gathering and other acts of abuse show community leaders should engage legal professionals to ensure the protection of their rights and those of their congregations.
FBI visits to Muslims goes all the way back to the 1930s and 1940s when members of the Nation of Islam received visits.
“You are under no legal obligation to talk to the FBI,” said Abdul Arif Muhammad, general counsel for the Nation of Islam. “Never talk to the FBI because you don’t know if you are a witness against someone or are self-incriminating yourself. Be civil and cordial, ask for their card and tell them someone will get back to them. Let the lawyer engage with the FBI and not you.”
“The FBI are federal police. The minute you start talking to them you waive your Fifth Amendment rights. You don’t know why they are there,” he said.
FBI questioning is just the beginning of the discrimination and bigotry targeting many Muslims today. A report titled “Inventing Terrorists: The Lawfare of Preemptive Prosecution,” by Project SALAM (Support and Legal Advocacy for Muslims) found that “the war on terror has been largely a charade designed to make the American public believe that a terrorist army is loose in the U.S., when the truth is that most of the people convicted of terrorism-related crimes posed no danger to the U.S. and were entrapped by a preventive strategy known as preemptive prosecution.”
The 175-page study defines preemptive prosecution as “a law enforcement strategy … to target and prosecute individuals or organizations whose beliefs, ideology, or religious affiliations raise security concerns for the government.”
Inventing Terrorists draws on the metaphor of “lawfare”––the use of the law as a weapon of war––to detail the government’s deliberate use of preemptive prosecution and associated legal tactics.
The study argues the government “has used preemptive prosecution to exaggerate the threat of Muslim extremism to the security of the country,” and compares a list of 399 “official” terrorism cases published by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2010 to a unique database of terrorism cases from 2001 to the present compiled by Project SALAM.
An analysis of the 399 cases found that 94 percent were either preemptive prosecution cases or cases that contained significant elements of preemptive prosecution. The study makes a firm distinction between individuals who represented real security threats to the nation and those who were preemptively prosecuted and never represented any threat.
Examples of preemptively prosecuted cases and individuals include the New |
overnight. What we didn't count on was an unusually "warm" night at 24°F, and so in the morning we found some very, very cold but still entirely liquid beer. Part of the problem was that Stormbringer is already 12% ABV. When I did some research, I discovered that I would need temperatures between 20°F and 15°F to get the desired freezing effects. Because that wasn't going to happen for another two nights, I opted to throw the beer into the downstairs freezer, which was a pleasing 15°F.
And there it sat, perched atop a frozen pizza, for two hours. When we checked on it, beer slushy! So we raced upstairs, decanted the beer off the ice, and measured the volume. By our very rough calculations, we concentrated the beer from 12 percent to maaaayyyybe 15 percent or 16 percent ABV. Honestly, we could have probably concentrated it further, as 20 percent ABV has a freezing point of 15°F. But this experiment wasn't about that, we just wanted to see if it would work and what the beer would taste like.
As it turns out, pretty damn awesome. That said, if I were to do it again, I'd purposefully brew a beer with slightly lower hop presence (not surprisingly, that also gets amplified during concentration). You know, make an all-Maris Otter barleywine and then try to concentrate it to 20 percent ABV. If one wants to go colder, feel free to opt for a different cooling medium. That freezer only made it to about 15°F/-9C. If you use the tried-and-true ice-salt mixture, you can reach -20C.
For the really enterprising, although PLEASE don't try this at home unless you know what the hell you are doing, you can use the cold bath I used frequently in lab experiments: dry ice in isopropanol, which gets down to a brisk -77C and can freeze liquids that are 90 percent ABV. You won't be able to go much more concentrated than that, as the mixture will form a eutectic at about 93 percent ABV. This means that the entire mixture will freeze, rather than just the water. Something similar happens during distillation, where water and ethanol form an azeotrope at about 95 percent ABV.
I don't recommend actually trying the isopropanol/dry-ice bath chilling for a variety of reasons, one of which is that it's probably illegal to make booze that concentrated without a license. But more importantly, -77C is dangerously cold and you could risk serious injury if it were to splash on your skin or in your eyes or in your mouth."He has made a decision I think, that on these worst of the worst things, it's not worth fighting, and he's going to add this I think, the 'preventative detention' as they call it to--it may go down as one of the things like the Japanese Internment, like a lot of--Lincoln suspending Habeas Corpus as one of our great sins, but wartime presidents commit great sins and I think he's willing to do that," said Jon Meacham, Editor of Newsweek.
This is coming from one of the main establishment voices in the American media. This raises two questions. First, why do "wartime presidents" in America get to suspend the constitution when they say so? Second, what exactly is preventative detention?According to Constitutional lawyer and blogger Glen Greenwald, it doesn't "merely allow the U.S. Government to imprison people alleged to have committed Terrorist acts yet who are unable to be convicted in a civilian court proceeding". This would include people like 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who according to just released "torture memos", was waterboarded 183 times, Such suspects are difficult to convict without using evidence obtained by torture.Greenwald continues, "Far more significant, 'preventive detention' allows indefinite imprisonment not based on proven crimes or past violations of law, but of those deemed generally 'dangerous' by the Government for various reasons..."White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs elaborated on this need, "These detainees based on any number of circumstances aren't able to be tried but still pose an obvious threat to this country."What is the "War President". This title was given to President George W. Bush as a way to excuse his unconstitutional behavior. In a time of war, anything is justifiable to "protect the American people" right? Greenwald shows the fraudulent nature of this title, "We never go more than a few years without some kind of a direct war, and are always waging covert and indirect ones. American presidents are inherently 'war presidents.' We don't really have any other kind." So this becomes a permanent power, not just during a “time of war” because in the US we are always at war with someone. What we’re really talking about is the permanent power of permanent preventative detention.For all the Obama loyalists who don’t want to believe their man is capable of this radical totalitarian move I ask, “How is locking up hundreds if not thousands of untried unconvicted Muslim men any different than what FDR did to the Japanese with the internment camps?” Isn’t Guantanamo Bay and other future “detention centers” just internment camps for Muslims?Essentially, President Obama wants to hold people indefinitely without trial because he said so. It's hard to believe that anyone cannot see the danger in this precedent. Americans' phones have already been tapped without warrants, our library and medical records no longer require warrants to be obtained thanks to the Patriot Act, and now Obama wants to just skip ahead to keeping people imprisoned forever with no charges, no lawyers, no right to habeas corpus, nothing. This is really horrifying.If we put our loyalty to our principles ahead of our loyalty to presidents, it's clear for all to see Obama is now talking about throwing out the Constitution along with 200 years of legal history, case law, and various precedents in favor of "Even though (Insert name of random Muslim man here) hasn't been convicted, he's guilty and needs to be locked away forever because I say he’s dangerous". If this becomes policy America now becomes a dictatorship.For those who think: "They're terrorists, they shouldn't have rights!” They are not convicted of any crime yet. In America, we used to have something called “innocent until proven guilty”, now it’s more like “guilty until proven innocent if you’re Muslim”. Just because the government says these suspects are terrorists doesn’t mean anything.This is the same US Government that told you to go shopping after 9-11, that considered Martin Luther King a dangerous subversive that needed to be spied on, that lied to you about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, and has called everyone from Cat Stevens to Nelson Mandela a terrorist. If you still don’t care about these Muslim prisoners being held indefinitely without a crime being committed: now it’s the Muslims. It always starts with the most vulnerable and vilified members of society, but who’s next? The gays? Trade unionists? The Jews?Consider this quote from Martin Niemoeller, “First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the trade unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.”[image-51]A new NASA study shows Earth's climate likely will continue to warm during this century on track with previous estimates, despite the recent slowdown in the rate of global warming.
This research hinges on a new and more detailed calculation of the sensitivity of Earth's climate to the factors that cause it to change, such as greenhouse gas emissions. Drew Shindell, a climatologist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, found Earth is likely to experience roughly 20 percent more warming than estimates that were largely based on surface temperature observations during the past 150 years.
Shindell's paper on this research was published March 9 in the journal Nature Climate Change.
[image-36]
Global temperatures have increased at a rate of 0.22 Fahrenheit (0.12 Celsius) per decade since 1951. But since 1998, the rate of warming has been only 0.09 F (0.05 C) per decade -- even as atmospheric carbon dioxide continues to rise at a rate similar to previous decades. Carbon dioxide is the most significant greenhouse gas generated by humans.
Some recent research, aimed at fine-tuning long-term warming projections by taking this slowdown into account, suggested Earth may be less sensitive to greenhouse gas increases than previously thought. The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was issued in 2013 and was the consensus report on the state of climate change science, also reduced the lower range of Earth's potential for global warming.
To put a number to climate change, researchers calculate what is called Earth's "transient climate response." This calculation determines how much global temperatures will change as atmospheric carbon dioxide continues to increase – at about 1 percent per year -- until the total amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide has doubled. The estimates for transient climate response range from near 2.52 F (1.4 C) offered by recent research, to the IPCC's estimate of 1.8 F (1.0 C). Shindell's study estimates a transient climate response of 3.06 F (1.7 C), and determined it is unlikely values will be below 2.34 F (1.3 C).
Shindell's paper further focuses on improving our understanding of how airborne particles, called aerosols, drive climate change in the Northern Hemisphere. Aerosols are produced by both natural sources – such as volcanoes, wildfire and sea spray – and sources such as manufacturing activities, automobiles and energy production. Depending on their make-up, some aerosols cause warming, while others create a cooling effect. In order to understand the role played by carbon dioxide emissions in global warming, it is necessary to account for the effects of atmospheric aerosols.
While multiple studies have shown the Northern Hemisphere plays a stronger role than the Southern Hemisphere in transient climate change, this had not been included in calculations of the effect of atmospheric aerosols on climate sensitivity. Prior to Shindell's work, such calculations had assumed aerosol impacts were uniform around the globe.
This difference means previous studies have underestimated the cooling effect of aerosols. When corrected, the range of likely warming based on surface temperature observations is in line with earlier estimates, despite the recent slowdown.
One reason for the disproportionate influence of the Northern Hemisphere, particularly as it pertains to the impact of aerosols, is that most man-made aerosols are released from the more industrialized regions north of the equator. Also, the vast majority of Earth's landmasses are in the Northern Hemisphere. This furthers the effect of the Northern Hemisphere because land, snow and ice adjust to atmospheric changes more quickly than the oceans of the world.
"Working on the IPCC, there was a lot of discussion of climate sensitivity since it's so important for our future," said Shindell, who was lead author of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report's chapter on Anthropogenic and Natural Radiative Forcing. "The conclusion was that the lower end of the expected warming range was smaller than we thought before. That was a big discussion. Yet, I kept thinking, we know the Northern Hemisphere has a disproportionate effect, and some pollutants are unevenly distributed. But we don't take that into account. I wanted to quantify how much the location mattered."
Shindell's climate sensitivity calculation suggests countries around the world need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the higher end of proposed emissions reduction ranges to avoid the most damaging consequences of climate change. "I wish it weren't so," said Shindell, "but forewarned is forearmed."
For more information about the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, visit:
http://www.giss.nasa.gov
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Chi-Town! Here comes the pictures we took around the city this summer… gotta love the talent this city has to offer. So sit back, scroll down and let your mind be blown away by high level of skills you can witness on the Chicago streets.
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Check more Chicago graffiti pictures here or check the Chicago graffiti thread in our forums.A new agreement between the Western Governors’ Association and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for improving the development and delivery of climate science and services will boost efforts to ensure Western states and the U.S. Pacific islands are better able to plan for severe drought, floods, wildfire, extreme storms, and other impacts of global climate disruption and variability. The Governors have recognized the need. Attacks by Congressional know-nothings on climate science and federal climate service decision-support acitivty cannot be allowed to stand in the way of NOAA doing its job on climate preparedness.
Earlier posts:
Proposed NOAA Climate Service attacked and defended at House Science Committee hearing
Letters in support of the NOAA Climate Service that the House Science Committee hasn’t made public
NOAA Climate Service blocked in 2011 budget – Will Obama and Democrats let this happen again in 2012?
NOAA announced in a June 30 release (excerpt):
Western Governors, NOAA agree to work together to improve climate services for the West
The Western Governors’ Association (WGA) and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) today announced a joint agreement for improving the development and delivery of climate science and services to Western states. In the midst of a record-breaking season for extreme drought, flood, wildfire and severe storms, this timely agreement will increase collaboration and boost existing efforts to ensure Western states and the U.S. Pacific islands are better able to plan for these types of natural hazards.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed today at the WGA’s Annual Meeting in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, by NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco and Govs. C.L. “Butch” Otter (Idaho) and Chris Gregoire (Washington), the Chair and Vice Chair of WGA. WGA includes Governors from 19 Western states and three U.S. Flag Pacific Islands.
In today’s agreement, WGA and NOAA committed to improve the development, coordination and dissemination of climate information to support the important long-range hazard planning priorities and resource management decisions of WGA members. The agreement articulates two priority areas:
disaster risk reduction focusing on the impact of extreme events, such as droughts, floods, fires and tropical cyclones; and,
improved science and climate information to support the management of coastal, estuarine, and marine resources important to achieving resilient coastal communities and ecosystems.
The Governors recognize the inextricable link between the climate and the natural resources, infrastructure, economies and communities of the West. This agreement expresses a unified commitment to develop and use sound data and information to effectively manage natural resources and human infrastructure and build a more resilient West. …
Given recent events in the West, immediate priorities will include improved coordination and bringing NOAA’s climate information to bear to meet natural resource challenges related to flooding in the Northern Rockies, drought and fire risk in the Southwest, and ocean and coastal management for the West Coast states. …
Also see:
Western Governors Association Initiative on Climate Change and Adaptation
Emerging scientific research indicates that the Western U.S. will be disproportionately impacted by climactic variability and change. This is due to the natural topographical and geographical diversity of the region combined with increased population growth and a changing economy.
In particular, research has found that water resources, natural ecosystems, agriculture and tourism could be significantly impacted by any increase in average temperature. The dominance of federal land coupled with complex water adjudications has complicated the ability of the region to reach consensus on adaptation policies.
Western Governors have adopted resolutions that specifically speak to Regional and National Policies Regarding Global Climate Change and Supporting the Integration of Climate Change Adaptation Science in the West. In the latter resolution, the Governors encouraged Congress and the Administration to create a National Climate Service, which is now being pursued within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 2010, WGA issued a climate adaptation report that emphasizes the need for coordination between state and federal efforts to identify key science that is Western specific and begins to share and implement smart practices.
The Governors support streamlined coordination of federal agencies that respond to climate adaptation and greater cooperation with state agencies, and they agreed the new entity should undertake, coordinate and communicate necessary research and modeling with respect to climate change and adaptation. The new service should also provide relevant decision-making tools for local and state governments in addressing climate change and adaptation issues; connect social, health and economic trends to climate change (and vice versa); and include in its mission public education and outreach. The WGA climate adaptation report emphasizes the need for coordination between state and federal efforts to identify key science that is Western specific and begins to share and implement smart practices. …
A Climate Service in NOAA
NOAA’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Budget Request includes a reorganization that brings together its existing widely dispersed climate capabilities under a single line office management structure, the Climate Service.
The principal goal of this reorganization is to more efficiently and effectively respond to the rapidly increasing demand for easily accessible and timely scientific data and information about climate that helps people make informed decisions in their lives, businesses, and communities. NOAA provides this to citizens as climate services.
The Climate Service will allow NOAA to provide a reliable and authoritative source for climate data, information, and decision support
services and to more effectively coordinate with other agencies and partners.
This website provides the context and background materials concerning the reorganization to establish a climate service in NOAA.Deep Learning is a rapidly growing area of machine learning. To learn more, check out our deep learning tutorial. (There is also an older version, which has also been translated into Chinese; we recommend however that you use the new version.)
Machine learning has seen numerous successes, but applying learning algorithms today often means spending a long time hand-engineering the input feature representation. This is true for many problems in vision, audio, NLP, robotics, and other areas. To address this, researchers have developed deep learning algorithms that automatically learn a good representation for the input. These algorithms are today enabling many groups to achieve ground-breaking results in vision, speech, language, robotics, and other areas. Our deep learning tutorial will teach you how to apply these algorithms to your own problems.Bernie Sanders was traveling through Trump country (West Virginia and Kentucky) last weekend in an effort to rally opposition to Republican attempts to repeal and replace Obamacare. These efforts notwithstanding, Sanders still refuses to embrace Obamacare. “As soon as we defeat this disastrous bill, I will be introducing a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program,” he said during the rally.
Sanders still describes himself as a “democratic socialist,” rejecting the moderate left progressivism of the Clintons, as he emphasized in his presidential campaign. According to Sanders, the Clintons embraced Wall Street, where Hillary Clinton had made hundreds of thousands of dollars giving speeches, following in the footsteps of Bill Clinton, who during his presidency had deregulated banks by signing the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, repealing the Glass-Steagall cornerstone of New Deal banking reform. The Clintons had accommodated consolidations and mergers in the world of banking, they had encouraged the growth of too-big-to-fail big banks, and Sanders was the only candidate willing to take on Wall Street and break up the big banks.
Putting aside the question of the practicality of a break-up-the-big-banks reform agenda, we should pose a simpler, conceptual question first: Why would a socialist want to break up big banks? Socialists want to nationalize banks, not break them up. If anything, socialists prefer bank consolidation to simplify the administrative task of running a nationalized banking system. Nationalization is the only path to provide the collective ownership of the means of production (in this case, the production of financial products). Socialism entails the abolition of private property in business life, but breaking up banks would leave banks as privately owned enterprises still seeking to make profits through the marketplace. Socialists argue that profit-making in a competitive market leads inevitably to exploitation and alienation.
The proposal to break up the banks sounds more like the trust-busting Progressive Era agenda one would associate with Woodrow Wilson than anything socialist. Eugene Debs, not Woodrow Wilson, was the socialist of the Progressive Era, and Debs had been sufficiently schooled in Marxist theory to realize that socialism required the abolition or private ownership of the means of production. Sanders admires Debs (he had a picture of Debs displayed in City Hall when he was mayor of Burlington, Vt., but it isn’t clear he understood the radical agenda Debs had embraced. Is it possible that the only prominent national politician who describes himself as a socialist today is clueless regarding the meaning to the term socialism?
Prepared remarks by Sanders on democratic socialism suggest as much. He begins his commentary on democratic socialism by focusing on Franklin Roosevelt’s 1937 inaugural address, where Roosevelt famously stated that one-third of the nation was “ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.” Sanders identifies with FDR and his campaign against the “economic royalists,” praising New Deal policies for succeeding in putting “millions back to work” and taking “them out of poverty” and restoring “their faith in government.” Democrats would almost universally share these laudatory views of Franklin Roosevelt, but Sanders proceeds to note that almost everything FDR proposed was called “socialist.” Does this make FDR a socialist? The implication of Sanders’ logic, given that he embraces both FDR and democratic socialism, is that because FDR’s enemies labeled his agenda socialist, he was a socialist. FDR’s political enemies also called him a dictator, especially after he introduced his court-packing bill. Did that make FDR a dictator?
Later in his speech, Sanders finally defines what democratic socialism means to him. “Democratic socialism means that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy,” he said. Adam Smith, the author of the The Wealth of Nations in 1776 and the father of capitalism, would have said that capitalism intends to “create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy” (Sanders’ definition of democratic socialism).
Finally, Sanders concedes, “I don’t believe government should own the means of production, but I do believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth deserve a fair deal.”
Sanders isn’t a socialist. He is an American progressive. Given the dismal history of socialism in the 20th century, which is inextricably intertwined with the history of totalitarianism, Sanders would do well to start using words with their conventional meaning. The only cause that Sanders’ idiosyncratic usage of words promotes is his own political ambition.
Donald Brand is a professor of political science at the College of the Holy Cross.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed the following quote to Bernie Sanders: “Not even remotely anymore. The Democratic Party now is a disaster, an absolute mess. I don’t see a party now that represents me.” A rally attendee said it, not Sanders.Yesterday, I witnessed history being made here in Guantánamo, as jury selection began today in the first war crimes prosecution of a child soldier since World War II, and the first ever in U.S. history.
Accused of throwing a grenade that killed Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer and participating in a terrorist conspiracy beginning when he was only 10 years old, Khadr literally has grown up at Guantánamo. Now 23, the full beard Khadr has grown since his imprisonment in 2002 obscures the fact that he was only 15 at the time he was shot and captured by U.S. forces.
Khadr has now spent a third of his life at Guantánamo, and after five years in the discredited military commissions, his trial began today. Khadr faces charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, providing material support to terrorism, and spying. He faces a maximum life sentence if convicted.
Khadr's is the first trial in the illegitimate military commissions under President Obama. The trial of an alleged child soldier who was abused in U.S. detention is a terrible case for the administration to open with, and yet here we are, in the middle of jury selection.
Guantánamo's youngest prisoner, Khadr is the only one of the 176 remaining detainees who was a juvenile when transferred here. A Canadian, he's also the only Westerner remaining at Gitmo. Khadr's case is also unique because it will be the first prosecution in history for murder in violation of the laws of war (murder isn't a recognized war crime; like the charges of spying and material suppport for terrorism that Khadr also faces, the charge was fashioned out of whole cloth for the purposes of the military commissions).
Omar Khadr's trial flies in the face of international law and policy that recognizes child soldiers as victims and candidates for rehabilitation. The U.N. Special Representative on Children in Armed Conflict said in a statement today that Khadr's trial sets a dangerous precedent that could endanger child soldiers around the world. She also said "juvenile justice standards are clear—children should not be tried before military tribunals."
Since World War II, there hasn't been a war crimes prosecution of a child soldier—until today. And that's not because children don't commit war crimes. Children committed some of the most heinous abuses of the Sierra Leonean civil war in the 90's, including murder, rape, and amputation of limbs. But the U.N. war court convened to prosecute those responsible for wartime atrocities chose not to prosecute anyone under 18 at the time of their crimes, and instead entered these child soldiers in rehabilitatation programs and used them as witnesses in the war crimes trials against the adults who recruited or used them during the war.
The former chief prosecutor of the Sierra Leonean war court, former Defense Department official David Crane, has said that Khadr's trial is "morally and legally wrong." Author Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone who, like Khadr, was captured when he was 15, has also criticized Khadr's prosecution. Beah admits that during the civil war he killed "too many people to count," but since a stint in a rehabilitation center he has written a best-selling memoir, graduated from Oberlin, and served as a UNICEF ambassador. Beah has said he struggles to understand the dramatic difference between the compassion shown him and the lack of compassion shown Khadr.
(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)Please visit the official 9 Kingdoms Publications ApocalypZe Website to view the rules and lists of cards for all 4 decks from our initial release.
ApocalypZe is a card game that puts you, the player, into a world filled with zombies. In a unique twist of mechanics, you play not only the survivors who must defend their stronghold against the ravenous hordes, but the ravenous hordes themselves...or any other raiders you choose.
The game comes with two 60 card playable decks featuring 4 very different strongholds.
The game is designed for 2 or more players. Each player plays a stronghold. During your turn you must choose to either defend your stronghold or attack your opponent. Be strong in defense, clever in attacks, and guard your resources well. When the food runs out, you become the food.
ApocalypZe is unlike any other card game on the market. Designed to give you the feel of the zombie ApocalypZe, the game focuses on survival, scavenging, and atmosphere rather than just straight combat. From the black and white artwork to the rich development of our characters and locations, ApocalypZe will make you believe in a world dominated by the dead. The game is also supported by a range of fictional ebooks that will help you get to know the characters whose stories you will write and rewrite time and again.
Reviews, Interviews, & General Press
Not Just Another Gaming Podcast Episode 28
Cardboard Jungle Episode 16
Not Just Another Gaming Podcast Review of ApocalypZe
Cardboard Jungle's Review of ApocalypZe
Zombie Gamer Online Recommends ApocalypZe
Interview with igorslab.com
What's In The Game?
ApocalypZe will be made available in 2 separate 2-Player Box Sets. Each set will come with 2 playable decks featuring a stronghold, 1 survivor faction, and 1 raider faction.
The first set comes with the Roadside Diner Deck and the Military Base Deck. The Roadside Diner is protected by Bikers while you can use Gang members and zombies as your attack force. The Military Base is, of course, protected by soldiers. This deck is chocked full of zombies and zombie cards.
Our second set comes with the Church Deck and the Police Station Deck. Civilians keep the Church strong and stocked with supplies while zombies tear into your opponent. Police Officers are tough for your opponent to bring down while you are pounding away at his or her stronghold with Cult Fanatics.
Kickstarter Exclusive Customization Packs
In an effort to kickstart you into making your own decks, we've come up with 2 customization packs (one for each box set). These 30 card packs are designed to allow players to swap out their raiders. For instance, instead of playing your bikers with gang raiders, you could add in zombies and zombie cards without having to tear apart your other deck.
These customization packs will not be sold in stores. They are being made available to our kickstarter backers only!
Box Set 1's customization pack comes with everything you need to make a Biker/Zombie deck and a Soldier/Gang deck:
Box Set 2's customization pack comes with everything you need to make a Police/Zombie deck and a Civilian/Cultist deck:
The customization packs are also useful for making your deck more aggressive. You can easily pull out some of your defensive cards and replace them with raiders and other offensive cards.
Your Rewards for Backing ApocalypZe
$5 Researcher Reward
$25 Scavenger Reward
$30 Survivor Reward
$50 Heroes of the ApocalypZe Reward
$100 Raiders of the ApocalypZe Reward
$150 Never Get Left Behind Reward
$300 Dying for the Game Reward
$500 Live the Game Reward
$800 Band Together Reward
$1,100 Build a Community Reward
$3,000 Stronghold Defenders Reward
$5,000 Rising from the Ashes Reward
Add-Ons
Many of you have asked about add-ons, so we put together a list. All costs include shipping.
Additional copies of either 2-player set: $25 ($35 International)
Set of both Customization Packs: $12 |
term, analysts said an anti-European Union backlash would gain force after the West’s support for an independent Kosovo. But Marko Blagojevic, an analyst with the Center for Democracy and Free Elections in Belgrade and a pollster, stressed that recent polls showed that 65 percent of Serbs saw their future in the European Union.
Mr. Blagojevic said he did not believe this had drastically changed. He noted that only about 10 percent of Serbs supported going to war over Kosovo.
Serbian analysts said that rather than reflecting a resurgence of dangerous nationalism, the protests over Kosovo reflected disenchantment by the “losers of the transition” — those Serbs who have not benefited from the country’s democratic transformation during the eight years since Mr. Milosevic fell.
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Unemployment hovers at about 21 percent, while the country’s annual per capita gross domestic product of about $7,400 has made Serbia one of Europe’s poorest countries.
Without European Union membership, Serbs do not enjoy the open borders of their neighbors. Many Serbs say they feel isolated and closed in. Yet many of the younger generation say they would happily trade poor, landlocked Kosovo for better jobs and economic security.
“For my generation, the opportunity to have a good life is far more important than this piece of land,” said Aleksandar Obradovic, a 23-year-old political scientist from Belgrade who did not protest on Thursday and, like many Serbs, has never been to Kosovo.
Ljubica Gojgic, a leading Serbian commentator, noted that Mr. Milosevic had been overthrown by the Serbian people, who had recently put their faith in a newly elected moderate president, backed by the West. “If Tadic is good enough for the E.U. and Washington, why is he not acceptable to the Albanians in Kosovo?” she asked. “Milosevic is dead.”CWE-77: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in a Command ('Command Injection'), CWE-306: Missing Authentication for Critical Function, and CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) R6250, R6400, R6700, R6900, R7000, R7100LG, R7300, R7900, R8000, D6220, and D6400 contain an unauthenticated command injection vulnerability that may be executed directly or via cross-domain requests. Known affected firmware versions include Netgear R7000 version 1.0.7.2_1.1.93, R6400 version 1.0.1.12_1.0.11, and R8000 version 1.0.3.4_1.1.2. Earlier versions may also be affected. The command injection vulnerability has been assigned CVE-2016-6277.
By convincing a user to visit a specially crafted web site, a remote, unauthenticated attacker may execute arbitrary commands with root privileges on affected routers. An unauthenticated, LAN-based attacker may do the same by issuing a direct request, e.g. by visiting:
http://<router_IP>/cgi-bin/;COMMAND
An exploit demonstrating these vulnerabilities has been publicly disclosed.
Netgear's advisory indicates that the R6250, R6400, R6700, R6900, R7000, R7100LG, R7300DST, R7900, R8000, D6220, and D6400 are vulnerable, though affected firmware versions are not enumerated. The vendor has indicated in their advisory that all listed models now have firmware updates available.PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG REEVES Visitors of all ages were amazed by the Chico Lego User Group’s 65-foot-long display at the Chico Collectors Show on April 30 at the East Avenue Church. Get connected:
Bryan’s Bricks is located at 932 W. Eighth Ave., Ste. G. 521-2938.
Bricks 4 Kidz is located at 1141 Forest Ave., Ste. 40. 332-9172.
For more information on the Chico Lego Users Group, search ChicoLUG on Facebook. Advertisement
One Saturday in late April, the East Avenue Church’s basketball gym was filled with the stuff of childhood dreams and nostalgic fits, with table after table laden with pop culture trinkets, toys and treasures during the Chico Collectors Show. There were comic books, Hot Wheels, signed sports memorabilia, and dolls and action figures depicting characters ranging from The Simpsons to wrestling superstars. But in a room filled with curiosities, one display gathered by far the most attention.
Filling an entire corner of the gym was a sprawling Lego exhibit spread across several tables, a miniature world unto itself built from tens of thousands of the multicolored bricks and pieces filling an estimated 65 feet of table space. Trains, a sky tram and other vehicles whirred and whistled around magnificent city centers filled with towering, multistoried buildings, amusement parks with working rides, waterways dotted with boats of varying sizes, a construction site and much more.
Closer inspection revealed a population of hundreds of 1 1/2-inch-tall figurines (known as minifigs in Lego lingo; devotees also avoid pluralizing the brand name Lego, referring to individual blocks as “bricks” or “pieces”) engaged in all manner of mundane and mischievous activities: Lonely Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett rode a swan boat solo through the Tunnel of Love; a storm-trooper dropped a coin into a parking meter to avoid a ticket on his speeder bike; and a battalion of bumbling firemen battled a trash can blaze.
Anyone who has fumbled through building the simplest of Lego sets, even with directions, might have a hint at the time and patience it takes to assemble—let alone design, engineer and transport—such an exhibit. The display represented the collective labor, imagination, amassed collections and intensive planning of the Chico Lego Users Group (ChicoLUG), a local group of adult Lego fanatics.
PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG REEVES Members of ChicoLUG are fond of hiding funny scenes in their builds, like this cadre of stormtroopers enjoying treats from an ice cream truck.
ChicoLUG comprises a membership of about a dozen unique individuals who come together over a shared, admittedly offbeat, passion. The group includes parents and working professionals, and was brought together partly by an epiphany experienced by one Lego-loving lawman.
Like many kids growing up in the 1970s and after, Bryan Marshall played with Lego bricks as a child. And, like most of us, he eventually put his toys away.
Then he had kids of his own. Watching Natalie and Cody play with their collections renewed Marshall’s interest in the Danish-made building blocks, and he found himself feeling confused and conflicted when they set their bricks aside to pursue more mature interests. His childhood bricks, combined with those of his children, formed quite a collection, and he couldn’t bring himself to let go of it.
“I was feeling kind of weird about it,” Marshall recently said of his peculiar predilection. “I didn’t really tell a lot of people that I had a whole bedroom just for my Lego collection.”
Marshall was especially reluctant to discuss his hobby with his co-workers, as he was—and still is—a sergeant and civil division supervisor at the Butte County Sheriff’s Office. Then, one fateful day in 2010, a report on a Sunday morning news magazine show brought him to terms with his offbeat hobby.
PHOTO BY JOHN DOMOGMA Bryan Marshall plans to devote more time to his Lego store, Bryan’s Bricks, when he retires from the Butte County Sheriff’s Office in December.
“They did a profile on AFOLs—Adult Fans of Lego,” Marshall said. “I realized this wasn’t just something I should just be doing privately and inwardly; that there are other adults who play with these toys. I recognized that I was an AFOL, and that I wanted to be a part of this culture.”
Marshall immediately began amassing a collection that today numbers an estimated half-million pieces. Along the way he also began selling Lego sets and pieces on Craigslist, eBay, and at conventions where AFOLs gathered, such as the Bricks by the Bay and Bricks Cascade (sponsored by the Bay Area Lego Users Group, or BayLUG, and the Portland Lego Users Group, or PortLUG, respectively).
Two years ago, Marshall started a proper online Lego store called Bryan’s Bricks, and last November opened a storefront with the same name at Redwood Towers on West Eighth Avenue. The physical store is open only on weekends or by appointment until Marshall retires from the BCSO in December.
“My goal has always been to make enough money to open a brick-and-mortar store … pun intended,” Marshall said. “The mail-order business reached the point that there was Lego product in the living room, the bedroom, the kitchen, everywhere. My wife, Rana, has always been supportive, but she got tired of having them all over the house and underfoot, and said it was time for me to rent a space.”
Marshall said Bryan’s Bricks is doing brisk business, split roughly even between online and in-store sales. The space also serves as the de facto headquarters of ChicoLUG, which meets there monthly. He’s also had some unexpected customers, like several mechanical engineering students from Chico State.
PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG REEVES ChicoLUG displays feature many moving parts, such as trains, other vehicles and carnival rides.
“They were given a small Lego motor and assigned to build a working model of a mineshaft recovery vehicle that would travel down a shaft, deliver a payload and then return to the surface, and it had to be built entirely out of Lego pieces,” he said. The students came in with prototypes made on a 3-D printer and asked him to help match Lego pieces to their design, and invited him to sit in on class when they debuted their vehicles.
“It was fun to watch,” he said. “I saw everything from a speedy, successful recovery to one that fell straight down the shaft and shattered to pieces.
As Marshall embraced his AFOL status, grew his collection and started slinging bricks to other fanatics, he also began meeting like-minded locals who would form ChicoLUG. In 2011, he went to a yard sale to buy five storage bins filled with Lego pieces, and there he met Jayson Denman, a science teacher at Sycamore Middle School in Gridley who not only collects Lego pieces, but also incorporates them into his curriculum. The pair ended up splitting the bins and became fast friends.
Soon after, at a Lego convention in San Jose, the pair met James Smith. Together, the three would found ChicoLUG. Smith is the most veteran AFOL in the group, having emerged from his “Dark Ages” (a term used to describe the period of time when a person packs away his or her Lego pieces in favor of other pursuits) in 2001, when he bought the Hogwarts Express train, from the Harry Potter series, to run around the family Christmas tree.
Smith is a computer programmer whose Lego specialty is using the company’s Mindstorm system of motors and microcomputers to make his creations move. A former member of BayLUG, Smith has won several awards at Lego conventions for his “Goofy Trains”—locomotives that don’t just move around a track but also have moving pistons, propellers, whirligigs and other machinery built into each car.
PHOTO BY JOHN DOMOGMA Scott Wenberg’s Lego collection fills two rooms of his home. “ChicoLUG isn’t competitive at all,” he said, before adding in a hushed voice, “but mine’s probably the biggest.”
Marshall also discovered a fellow Lego lover closer than he expected. Sgt. Greg Reeves has been with the BCSO for 21 years and not only works in the civil division alongside Marshall, but also will fill Marshall’s shoes as supervisor when he retires. Reeves said he started collecting Lego about eight years ago to build cities to fly his radio-controlled helicopter through: “The helicopter crashed and broke into a million pieces, but I kept up with the Lego.”
Marshall explained that, for the time being, ChicoLUG is not recognized by The Lego Group, as “official” LUGs must have at least 20 members and host at least three public events a year. Recognized LUGs receive support from the company in the form of promotions and free products.
The Chico Lego scene also got a boost with the 2014 opening of Bricks 4 Kidz, a Lego-centric daycare, kids’ camp and play space that recently moved to Forest Avenue from Walnut Street. Bricks 4 Kidz owners Dave and Linda Phelps invited the growing ChicoLUG group to meet at their original storefront, and remain involved. Bricks 4 Kidz sponsored a Brick Builderz Festival at the Boys and Girls Club in Chico in May 2015, which gave kids a chance to show off their creations and also served as ChicoLUG’s coming-out party, as the group assembled a 30-foot display for the occasion. Smith noted the event helped attract several new members.
Both new and old members were eager to participate in another public display, which led club member Nick Rosemann—a self-proclaimed lover of “all things nerdy” and a Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. delivery driver—to arrange the Chico Collectors Show in April. With a $1 admission fee, the event raised about $800 for Chico youth rugby.
‘'I’ve been playing with Legos my whole life,” mechanic and ChicoLUG member Scott Wenberg declared recently at Bryan’s Bricks, where several members of the group met to discuss their love of Lego. “I have a very large collection and a very understanding wife.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG REEVES Scott Wenberg made this model of fellow ChicoLUG member Greg Reeves, one of two BCSO deputies involved in the group of adult Lego fans.
The other members present, including Marshall, Reeves, Rosemann and Smith, laughed and began razzing Wenberg about putting an “S” at the end of Lego. Some AFOL’s also avoid the word “play” when describing what they do with the bricks, favoring more mature-sounding verbiage like “build” or “engineer.” But the ChicoLUG group is not as dogmatic and more focused on fun, the members said.
“I’m going to be 36 next month, and I still play with my Legos,” Wenberg said. “I have no shame in getting down on the floor, pushing cars around and making motor sounds with my mouth.”
Wenberg was introduced to the group through Rosemann, whom he bought 80 pounds of bricks from off Craigslist. Also present at Bryan’s Bricks was George Rosell, who explained he and Marshall were acquaintances—their wives were good friends—before they discovered their shared interest in Lego.
“One day I asked [Marshall’s] daughter what her dad was up to, and she said, ‘I don’t know, probably home playing with his Legos.’” Rosell was ecstatic; he said he’d recently asked his son, “You done with your Legos? OK, they’re mine now,” and was looking for someone to play with.
The assembled members offered insight into what ChicoLUG does. Of course, there’s club business to attend to, and members sometimes bring in builds-in-progress to show off and/or get tips. They also play Lego-centric games, like “Lego No Lego,” in which one member reveals a building block and the members have to guess if it is a true Lego piece or a knockoff, like those made by Mega Bloks. The ChicoLUG members do not like Lego knockoffs and went on a tangent about how they should be disposed of—filling potholes with them was one suggestion.
PHOTO BY GREG REEVES Detail from Greg Reeves’ “city,” measuring 40-by-90 inches total.
“Sometimes the 12-year-old parts of our brains will come up with an idea, like, ‘Hey guys, how about train jousting?’” Smith said. “Then we’ll do it … build trains ridden by minifigs with weapons and then crash them into each other until they break into pieces.” Another time, the group raced motorized AT-AT Star Wars vehicles across the room.
As charming as a bunch of adults, and particularly middle-aged men, getting on the ground to play with toys together is, ChicoLUG really shines at public showings, which offer a rare opportunity to showcase their collections and creativity.
Putting together massive Lego dioramas like the one at the Chico Collectors Show is far from child’s play, the members explained.
“I don’t even know how to estimate the amount of time that went into the whole thing,” Wenberg said of the display. “My part was roughly 8-by-12 feet, and a lot of the elements have been sitting on display in my Lego room for years … it takes a lot to take multiple sets that look cool sitting on a shelf, like a car and a building, then tie them together somehow. Then you’re also taking things Lego designed and putting it together with things you design yourself.”
Wenberg noted some individual creations evolve and develop over time. Smith, for example, has been perfecting and updating his Goofy Trains for 15 years. Big layouts are generally built at home over the course of weeks or months, and then there’s the problem of transporting the fragile creations (hardcore Lego fans never use glue to hold pieces together). To accomplish this, the builders take photos of their creations from different angles and create a “plate map” (plates are the large flat pieces that serve as foundations for Lego creations) before breaking them into smaller components. Once transported to the site, it’s time for reassembly.
PHOTO BY JOHN DOMOGMA Nick Rosemann, Bryan Marshall, Greg Reeves and Scott Wenberg share a laugh during a ChicoLUG meeting.
“At the April show, we had six hours to set up and most of us were still adding final touches when the doors opened,” Wenberg said. “I was still building really late, so I just threw a tub of minifigs at George and Greg and said, ‘Go to town.’”
The placement of minifigs is very important. Many adult Lego users are fond of hiding “Easter eggs” throughout their dioramas—funny little scenarios, some of which are specifically directed at adults. Reeves, as a sheriff, is fond of putting firemen in foolish situations. A campground area of the April display featured a Bigfoot minifig hiding behind a tree and taking a picture of a hiker. The list goes on and on.
The group is currently getting ready for its next show, to be held in December. The whole display is based on a Winter Wonderland theme, which has members scrambling online and in Marshall’s store to find the proper pieces.
“I’m kind of like the mercantile owner during the Gold Rush, because I’m the only one who makes any money from all these guys’ Lego obsessions,” Marshall quipped.
Several of the ChicoLUG members half-jokingly said that being part of a club helps legitimize their obsession to loved ones (called NLSOs, or non Lego significant others, by some AFOLs). They also said the revelation that they collect and build with Lego bricks is generally well-received.
“When I say I play with Lego, most people just kind of say, ‘That’s awesome,’” Rosell said. “I think a whole lot of adults want to play with them. Some people use their kids as an excuse.”
All of the members spoke of Lego as a shared childhood and cultural experience that most Americans today can relate to. The bricks are nothing short of iconic, perhaps now more than ever with the popularity of The Lego Movie and several new Lego-brand video games (there have actually been 64 released since 1997). Each of the ChicoLUG members also noted the therapeutic value of the toys, with many saying they turn to the bricks to destress. Rosell said he finds the act of sorting bricks while watching TV meditative, while others build when they need a pick-me-up. Marshall said Lego has helped him through his long career at the sheriff’s office, which has included stints on the SWAT Team and as a sexual assault/child abuse detective.
“In a job where you rarely see the outcome, it is nice to have a hobby that allows me to be constructive and see the end product and the joy it brings to a wide spectrum of people,” he said.
Most of the ChicoLUG members agreed that joy is the greatest payoff, and that there’s nothing like watching the faces of children and adults as they take in the displays. Wenberg was the only one to disagree on that point.
“Doing the show was a lot of fun, and it was really surprising and satisfying to watch the kids’ reactions,” he said, “but I really do it for me.
“I have this strong personal connection, like Legos have always been a part of my life,” he said, stumbling over his words before finding the best way to explain himself. He stopped speaking, stuck his arm into a 6-inch-deep mass of bricks piled on his sorting table and moved his arm through it, creating a whooshing sound most people would find instantly recognizable, even if they haven’t touched a Lego in 20 years.
“That sound, man … there’s just nothing like it.”Naby Keita admits he would like to play for Manchester City
Naby Keita scored eight Bundesliga goals from midfield for RB Leipzig last season
Liverpool target Naby Keita has ambitions of playing for "one of the very big clubs" but appears to have a preference for Manchester City over Jurgen Klopp's side when it comes to the Premier League.
The highly-rated Guinea midfielder, whom RB Leipzig reportedly value at £70m, name-checked City alongside Barcelona and Real Madrid when discussing where he wants to be in a couple of years' time.
Keita claims he was approached by a number of English clubs - including Liverpool, City and Arsenal - last summer prior to his £12.75m move from Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg.
"Arsenal, Southampton, Manchester City and Liverpool, although I did not talk with the coach," Keita told Welt when asked about who had expressed an interest in him last summer.
The German newspaper claims Keita talked to Gunners boss Arsene Wenger, with whom he shares a common language of French, but did not speak with Klopp.
According to Welt, the 22-year-old turned down a move to England as he felt he needed more development time at a non-Champions League club.
However, a successful season in the Bundesliga, in which he helped Leipzig to second place securing Champions League football, has enhanced his profile and now he is now more confident about his abilities.
"I hope, however, that I have the level in two, three years and could play for one of the very big clubs," Keita added.
"This includes Barcelona, but it also includes Real Madrid or Manchester City."US more segregated in rich and poor neighborhoods
By Barry Grey
17 November 2011
A new study released Wednesday on the relationship between family income and housing patterns in the US provides a stark picture of a society in which economic disparities are increasingly reflected in the physical separation of different income groups. It underscores the degree to which social inequality pervades every aspect of life in America.
The study, authored by Stanford University researchers and published jointly by the Russell Sage Foundation and Brown University, concludes that the proportion of American families living in middle-income neighborhoods has declined sharply over the past four decades, while the share of families living in either poor or affluent neighborhoods has dramatically increased.
The report, entitled “More Unequal and More Separate: Growth in the Residential Segregation of Families by Income, 1970-2009,” notes that the trend has accelerated this decade.
The study’s abstract begins: “As overall income inequality grew in the last four decades, high- and low-income families have become increasingly less likely to live near one another. Mixed income neighborhoods have grown rarer, while affluent and poor neighborhoods have grown much more common.
“In fact, the share of the population in large and moderate-sized metropolitan areas who live in the poorest and most affluent neighborhoods has more than doubled since 1970, while the share of families living in middle-income neighborhoods dropped from 65 percent to 44 percent.”
The authors stress that affluent families have grown far more “residentially isolated” than poor families over this period.
The study is based on an analysis of Census and other data for large and moderate-sized metropolitan areas in the US, defined as those having populations of at least 500,000 in 2007, a total of 117 metro regions that account for roughly two-thirds of the US population. The authors found that neighborhoods have grown more segregated in terms of family income in 89 percent of these areas.
The report states: “In 1970, only 15 percent of families were in neighborhoods that we classify as either affluent (neighborhoods where median incomes were greater than 150 percent of median income in their metropolitan areas) or poor (neighborhoods where median incomes were less than 67 percent of metropolitan median income). By 2007, 31 percent of families lived in such neighborhoods.” [Emphasis in the original]
The proportion of families living in affluent neighborhoods doubled from 7 percent to 14 percent from 1970 to 2007, while the proportion of families in poor neighborhoods rose from 8 percent to 17 percent. Over the same period, the proportion of families living in middle-income neighborhoods fell by 21 percentage points.
According to the study, a typical metropolitan area in 2007 had a median family income of roughly $75,000. In such an area, what it defined as a poor neighborhood would be one where more than half the families had incomes below $50,000. An affluent neighborhood would be one in which more than half the families had incomes above $112,500.
The authors note that family income segregation grew in every decade from 1970 to 2007, but the rate of growth since 2000 is faster than in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, the report underestimates the current scope of the polarization of neighborhoods on the basis of income, since, as the authors explain, the patterns it describes largely reflect trends prior to the collapse in the housing market and the economic slump that began in 2008.
That means it does not take into account the impact of mass unemployment, the millions of home foreclosures, the decline in incomes and social benefits, and the growth of poverty in the intervening years, or the further increase in the share of the national wealth going to the rich and the super-rich.
Among the ten most segregated metropolitan areas are New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, Detroit, Houston and Los Angeles. In metro Detroit, the proportion of families living in poor or affluent neighborhoods more than tripled from 1970 to 2007, rising from 13 percent to 45 percent.
The report indirectly points to economic divisions, rather than race or ethnicity, as the decisive factor in US society. It notes that the growth of social inequality has been even more pronounced among blacks and Hispanics than among whites or within the population as a whole, resulting in even greater housing segregation on the basis of income within these minority populations.
“Income segregation among black and Hispanic families increased much more than did income segregation among white families from 1970 to 2007,” the report states. “Notably, income segregation among black and Hispanic families grew very sharply from 2000 to 2007. Income segregation among black and Hispanic families is now much higher than among white families.”
It adds: “When we describe income segregation within a given racial group, we are referring to the extent to which high- and low-income members of a given racial group tend to live in different neighborhoods.”
The overall growth of housing segregation on the basis of income, which has developed particularly over the past thirty years, is the result of definite policies pursued by the American ruling class and implemented by Democratic as well as Republican presidents and Congresses. The embrace of so-called “free market” policies, in the form of tax cuts for corporations and the rich and the deregulation of business, combined with the dismantling of large sections of industry and proliferation of financial speculation, mass layoffs, wage-cutting, and ever more brutal cuts in social programs, was calculated to redistribute the wealth from the working class to the ruling elite.
At the same time, the ruling class made a conscious decision to foster the growth of a thin layer of privileged and wealthy blacks and other minorities by means of affirmative action and similar programs, and encourage identity politics to obscure the class divisions in society. This social layer forms the basis for the black and Hispanic politicians, academics, administrators and union officials who help administer and defend the capitalist system and impose ever deeper poverty on the broad mass of workers, black and white.
This report is the latest in a string of recent studies documenting the staggering and accelerating growth of poverty and inequality in the US. Last week, the US Census Bureau released a new measurement of poverty that raised its estimates of both the total number of poor Americans—49 million—and the percentage of the population that is poor—16 percent—from the figures contained in the already disastrous report it had released in September.
The previous week, the Brookings Institution, a liberal Washington, DC think tank, reported that the number of Americans living in extreme poverty neighborhoods rose by one-third from 2000 to 2005-2009.
In October, a series of reports showed a record decline in geographical mobility in the US (reflecting the collapse of house prices and the general growth of social distress), a more than doubling of the share of national income going to the richest 1 percent between 1979 and 2007, and a ten percent drop in median household income since the official start of the recession in December 2007, with incomes falling twice as rapidly during the Obama “recovery” that supposedly began in June 2009.
This is the context in which Obama is demanding that the congressional deficit-reduction committee make “tough choices” and agree to hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts in vital social programs such as food stamps, home heating assistance, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
The author also recommends:
49 million Americans in poverty, Census study finds
[9 November 2011]
Sharp rise in extreme-poverty neighborhoods in the US since 2000
[4 November 2011]
A portrait of America in decline
[31 October 2011]Russia's Unity Day march a show of defiance over Ukraine
Updated
Tens of thousands of people have marched through Moscow under flags and banners hailing Russia as a great power, in an annual parade which this year amounted to a show of defiance to the West over Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin did not join the march marking Unity Day but later delivered a speech portraying Russia as morally superior in the standoff with the West, adding that the country had united in the face of "difficult challenges".
Politicians went much further in their own displays of patriotic fervour at a concert after the march, which police said had attracted more than 70,000 people, some of them dancing and singing and many waving the Russian tricolour.
Others held banners and signs including one that said: "A people that is united is a people that cannot be defeated." Another read: "Our unity is our strength."
Some had banners supporting pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces in east Ukraine.
At the open-air concert near Red Square, communist leader Gennady Zyuganov called for Russian recognition of elections held on Sunday to legitimise the separatists' self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics in eastern Ukraine.
In a typically fiery speech, populist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky hailed Mr Putin for reclaiming Crimea from Ukraine in March and spat defiance at the West over sanctions imposed in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine.
"And Unity Day will come to Ukraine, but it will be Unity Day in Novorossiya and Malorossiya, and let people in western Ukraine have their own little state power," he said, referring to the territory in Ukraine which some nationalists regard as historically Russian.
"The United States can celebrate Independence Day, but they must remember the Russian Navy helped their struggle against the British colonialists.
"The Europeans can speak about democracy and human rights but the Soviet army liberated Europe from fascism which is again rising in west Ukraine and other areas."
Crooner Joseph Kobzon, who visited east Ukraine last week in a show of support for the rebels, said before opening the concert with a patriotic song: "We are strong and people fear us. Let them be afraid".
'We have had to face difficult challenges'
Unity Day commemorates a popular rising against a Polish invasion in 1612 and was revived under Mr Putin in 2005.
Marches and rallies in Russia are often organised by groups loyal to the Kremlin or by factories that want to curry favour, but the authorities are likely to hold the march up as a display of unity behind Mr Putin in the face of the Western sanctions.
The sanctions, which target people close to him and state companies in the energy, finance and defence sectors, are intended to weaken support for his policies, but polls show his popularity ratings are still greater than 80 per cent.
The desire for justice, for truth has always been honoured in Russia, and threats will not force us to abandon our values and ideals. Vladimir Putin
Mr Putin has hit back with some of the fiercest attacks of Western policy, and particularly the United States, since he first rose to power in 2000.
This has rallied support in Russia, though he risks being isolated by the West.
"Dear friends, this year we have had to face difficult challenges," he told a gala reception.
"And as has happened more than once in our history, our people responded by consolidating and with a moral and spiritual upsurge.
"The desire for justice, for truth has always been honoured in Russia, and threats will not force us to abandon our values and ideals."
He also placed flowers on Red Square with various religious leaders from different faiths and kissed an icon - again underlining his closeness to the Russian Orthodox Church, the religion practised by tens of millions of compatriots.
Since annexing Crimea following the overthrow of a Ukrainian president sympathetic to Moscow in February, Mr Putin has defied the West by backing the separatists in mainly Russian-speaking east Ukraine.
He denied sending troops or weapons to back the rebels but the West said it has overwhelming evidence of direct Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine.
Reuters
Topics: world-politics, russian-federation, ukraine
First posted(CNN) Eternally blooming in Kolkata, India, along the Hooghly River is Malik Ghat, a wholesale flower market that attracts more than 2,000 sellers each day. Photographer Ken Hermann visited the market for his project "Flower Man," which is a series of portraits that casts light upon the people behind the petals.
When Hermann was in Kolkata working on another assignment, he went to the market as a tourist. After that first encounter with Malik Ghat, his captivation with the market did not diminish and he became intent on returning.
"(The flower sellers) woke my curiosity. But at that time, I didn't really have the time to do the project," Hermann said. "And this idea just kind of stuck in my head for almost two years."
Hermann was able to spend about 10 days at the market, and did not allow any challenges to hinder the completion of "Flower Man." He said that in addition to language barriers and the heat of Kolkata making communication complicated and shooting at certain times difficult, another adversity he faced was taking portraits of the female flower sellers.
"I had a really clear idea before I went (to the market) about what I wanted to do," Hermann said. "I wanted to shoot the sellers -- the male and the female sellers."
Photographer Ken Hermann
But none of the female flower sellers wished to be a part of Hermann's project, so he focused only on those who were interested in and comfortable with having their portrait taken.
For the portraits, Hermann sought a neutral background. He first tried shooting under a bridge near the market, but quickly realized the lighting did not match the mood he wanted to create. He then decided to create the portraits by the Hooghly River. This allowed him to combine the hazy smog in the air, sunlight from above and studio lights of his own, which culminated to produce a surreal effect and overexposed look that made his subjects stand out.
"All the pictures are shot within noon and 3 p.m. when you have the sun straight from above, which gives (the portraits) this very hard light," Hermann said. "And then I just used some studio light as a fill to make it a little bit more soft."
Although the composition of the majority of Hermann's portraits encompasses the flower sellers in front of a neutral background, other portraits forgo this characteristic and consequently bring a sense of movement and fluidity to "Flower Man." Viewers may see people or a dog appearing in a frame, or even birds flying in the sky and a boat floating in the water.
One of the reasons Hermann did not create the flower sellers' portraits directly inside the market is because of the hectic atmosphere. Hermann compares Malik Ghat to the environments of financial trading and fish markets.
"It's impossible to shoot at the market, especially if you want a clean and quiet background, because there's so much going on," Hermann said.
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Similar to the commitment needed to effectively and successfully operate within the financial and food industries, Hermann emphasized that the competitive atmosphere of the market and work ethic of the flower sellers was a major factor in whether a seller would agree to have their portrait made.
"All the other sellers -- they are so busy, so just convincing them to go near the river to get their portrait done and spend maybe 15 minutes of their time was a challenge," Hermann said. "Because every minute they're not standing in the flower (market), they lose money."
Hermann said that another important reason some flower sellers decided not to be photographed was because flowers are highly valued in India and serve as a prominent feature during many events and moments in people's lives, including everything from religious rituals and festivals to weddings and parties.
"Some of the flowers, (the sellers) didn't allow us to take pictures of because they're flowers used for offering in the temple," Hermann said. "It was more a problem about the flowers than actually the guy |
(right) are thought to be missing as people have posted requesting information about their whereabouts on the Facebook event page
His girlfriend's car was still parked at a transit station in San Bruno, south of San Francisco.
Fighting tears, Dan Vega said he's frustrated authorities hadn't been able to tell him anything about his 22-year-old brother.
'I just want to go over there. I have my work boots on, I'm ready to go,' Dan Vega said.
'Just give me some gloves. I'll help out any way, shape or form, I don't care. This is infuriating. I don't know where my brother's at. I just want to find him.'
A Facebook event page showed 176 people planned to attend the party, which featured electronic music performances.
Golden Donna, Cherushii and Nackt were among the acts scheduled to perform as part of the Los Angeles-based 100% Silk label's West Coast tour, Variety reported.
David Marks of San Francisco, who was searching for news of a friend, said: 'We are all just hoping people ditched their phones when they got to the party.'
Marks had planned to go to the party after working late, but checked Facebook before setting out and saw news of the deadly blaze.
Oakland residents, join the community, friends and family at the Chapel of the Chimes to reflect and meditate for the victims of the fire
Robert Berger, at right, and Lori Kaplan embrace during a memorial for the victims on Saturday
Genevieve Griseau cries as she attends the memorial for victims of a warehouse fire at Chapel of the Chimes on Saturday
A man places flowers in a fence as part of a makeshift memorial following an overnight fire that claimed the lives of at least nine people
Sabrina May Dolan told DailyMail.com that her sister, Chelsea Faith, was performing at the party under her stage name Cherushii when the fire started on the second floor of the building.
Dolan said she is standing by waiting for an update, as her sister still has not been located and cannot be reached.
Numerous people have been posting on the event page on Facebook about who they believe is missing, as others have posted on the event page to say they are safe and escaped the fire unharmed.
'It was too hot, too much smoke, I had to get out of there,' Bob Mule, a photographer and artist who lives at the building and suffered minor burns, told the Times.
'I literally felt my skin peeling and my lungs being suffocated by smoke. I couldn't get the fire extinguisher to work.'
Mule was able to make it out of the building that was engulfed in a matter of minutes.
'It's just so hard to accept that some really wonderful people's lives got cut short,' said Jenny Yang, 34, an artist and activist who was waiting for news of missing friends at Eli's, an Oakland bar that opened early as a gathering spot.
'I don't have high hopes,' said a woman who had four friends among the missing, declining to give her name. 'We've just spent the night calling hospitals and listening to police scanners.'
At least nine people died and 25 are still missing after a massive fire destroyed a northern California warehouse during a party early Saturday morning, officials said
Firefighters examine the roof of the warehouse to check its stability after a portion of it collapsed in the fire
It's unclear what started the deadly blaze that has left at least 9 people killed and dozens more missing
Firefighters are still working at the aftermath of a warehouse fire in the Fruitavale district of Oakland at the corner of 31st Avenue and International Boulevard
Fire Chief Teresa Deloche-Reed (above) said that at least another 25 people are still unaccounted for after the deadly blaze started around 11:30pm in the 1300 block of 31st Avenue during an event featuring musician Golden Donna's 100% Silk West Coast tour
Terry Ewing said his girlfriend was at the party and is missing.
Ewing, who went to a sheriff's office building on Saturday to await information, said he didn't know about the party and that he learned of the fire from friends who came to his house.
Golden Donna, the electronic dance musician headlining the warehouse party, whose real name is Joel Shanahan, was reportedly performing when the fire broke out.
Early reports indicated the Wisconsin-based musician was one of the missing, but a post on his Facebook late on Saturday morning confirmed he made it out of the blaze alive, according to CBS.
'Joel is safe but like many people he is heartbroken and has several friends among the missing,' the Facebook post read.
'Please refrain from messaging this page or Joel's personal channels unless you have information on the Oakland fire victims. Sending love to everyone affected by this horrific event.'
The fire is thought to be one of the deadliest single-structure fires in Oakland's history.
'We still have to do a more thorough search of the building and we don't know the potential number of other victims,' Deloche-Reed said earlier on Saturday.
'In my career of 30 years, I haven't experienced something of this magnitude.'
Alameda County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Ray Kelly said they fear up to 40 people could have possibly died in the blaze that has destroyed the warehouse (above)
Firefighters assess the scene where a fire tore through a warehouse party early Saturday
Oakland City Councilman Noel Gallo, who represents the Fruitvale district and lives a block from where the fire occurred, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the building 'has been an issue for a number of years.' Above firefighters work at the aftermath of the warehouse fire
The next day the city launched an investigation into an illegal interior building structure, but the status of that investigation is unknown. Above firefighters work at the aftermath of the warehouse fire
Records show on November 13 a neighbor filed a complaint over a 'a ton of garbage piling up on the property' at 1305 31st Ave. Above firefighters work at the aftermath of the warehouse fire
She said 50 to 100 people were believed to have been at the party when the fire started and that clutter'made it difficult for people to escape.'
The warehouse was partitioned into artist studios and was packed with furniture, mannequins, statues, lamps, and other objects and did not have a clear entry or exit path, the fire chief said.
She added that there was no sprinkler system and that firefighters saw no evidence that smoke detectors were activated during the blaze inside the two-story building that is known as an artists enclave called The Oakland Ghost Ship.
The mayor of Oakland said that she's spent most of the day with the family's of loved ones waiting for information.
'This is a devastating scene. This is going to take time to do a methodical investigation,' she said.
Sgt. Kelly said that some 'foreign nationals' were believed to have been inside the building attending the party, which could make it difficult for authorities to locate some of the families.
Authorities have set up a family assistance center at the sheriff's substation at 2425 E. 12th Street in Oakland as a place for fire survivors and families to meet.
Deloach-Reed said that fire crews found a'makeshift stairwell' between the first and second floor and that most people who died were on the second floor of the building.
She said that when fire crews first entered the building to fight the blaze, they were impeded by a massive amount of clutter that included furniture, art and several mannequins.
'It filled end to end with furniture, whatnot, collections,' Deloach-Reed said. 'It was like a maze almost.'
Just last month city officials cited the owner of the warehouse and had launched an investigation into whether the interior structure was illegal. Above firefighters work at the aftermath of the warehouse fire
Just last month city officials cited the owner of the warehouse and had launched an investigation into whether the interior structure was illegal, records show.
According to The East Bay Times, records show on November 13 a neighbor filed a complaint over a 'a ton of garbage piling up on the property' at 1305 31st Ave.
'Also, a lot of items are left on the sidewalk near the property,' the complaint said.
'Some of trash was hazardous. This property is a storage but the owner turned it to become trash recycle site.
'The yard became a trash collection site and the main building was remodel for residential. The change causes our neighborhood looks very bad and creates health issue.'
The next day the city launched an investigation into an illegal interior building structure, but the status of that investigation is unknown.
Property records list the owner as Chor N. Ng and that he purchased the warehouse in 1997. He also owns other properties in the city.
Oakland City Councilman Noel Gallo, who represents the Fruitvale district and lives a block from where the fire occurred, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the building 'has been an issue for a number of years.'
Oakland Police Department PIO Johnna Watson speaks to the media at a press conference as firefighters and investigators continue work at the scene of the warehouse fire
A person collapses to the street as coroners begin work at the scene of the warehouse fire on Saturday
'People have been living inside, and the neighbors have complained about it,' he said.
'Some of these young people that were in there were underage. They frequently had parties there.'
The party featured numerous electronic musicians, performers and producers as well as visual projections, the Facebook page for the event states.
'SECRET EAST OAKLAND LOCATION ANNOUNCED DAY OF SHOW,' the page said.
More than 200 people had responded to say they would attend the event, but it's unclear if that many people were at the party.
In terms of efforts of party-goers trying to flee or firefighters trying to rescue people, Deloach-Reed said, 'We know it was going to be difficult if it started anywhere near that stairwell.'
A man who only gave his name as John said at the time of the blaze he was working at the door, since he was one of the organizers of the event, the Chronicle reported.
He said that the fire appeared to start on the ground floor and went up, and that he was able to escape the building because he was near the exit.
'I watched that building burn for five hours,' he said. 'And those people didn't walk out.'
Alameda County Sheriffs Office Sergeant J.D. Nelson told KTVU the coroner's office is preparing for 40 or more bodies, but only one body has been removed from the building as of 6pm ET.
Deloach-Reed explained that a multi-agency task force was created to investigate the fire and begin the task of recovering victims inside.
Flowers are placed on a street sign as people begin to leave memorials while firefighters and investigators continue work at the scene of the fire
'The building is a huge building,' Deloach-Reed said.
'There's going to have to be a methodical way we go about body recovery, and then also trying to find out where the fire started and how the fire's spread took place.... We have not done a complete search of the building.'
Fifty-five firefighters battled the blaze at the scene, as crews found flames on three sides of the building located in the Fruitvale district of the city, Battalion Chief Lisa Baker told the East Bay Times.
An aggressive attack on the fire was underway when conditions suddenly changed and firefighters had to go back outside.
Officials say it took an estimated four hours to bring the huge blaze under control.
Firefighters are still at the scene along with police who are investigating what happened. International Boulevard is closed between Derby and Fruitvale avenues.
Terry Lightfoot, a representative of Oakland's Highland Hospital, told CNN that 'the hospital received two patients and one of them has been discharged. Lightfoot did not know the condition of the patient who remained hospitalized.'
California Gov. Jerry Brown issued a statement of condolences and said he and his wife, Anne, were saddened to hear about the deadly blaze.
In the statement Saturday he said: 'Our thoughts are with the entire city in this difficult time and we extend our condolences to the family and friends of those lost.'
Deloach-Reed said that fire crews found a'makeshift stairwell' between the first and second floor and that most people who died were on the second floor of the building. The interior of the warehouse before the fire is pictured above in an undated photo
Deloach-Reed said that when fire crews first entered the building to fight the blaze, they were impeded by a massive amount of clutter that included furniture, art and several mannequins. The interior of the warehouse before the fire is pictured above in an undated photo
She said: 'It filled end to end with furniture, whatnot, collections,' Deloach-Reed said. 'It was like a maze almost.' The interior of the warehouse before the fire is pictured above in an undated photo
Officials say between 50 to 100 people were in the building for the party when the fire started around 11:30pm PT
Fifty-five firefighters battled the blaze at the scene, as crews found flames on three sides of the building, Battalion Chief Lisa Baker told the East Bay Times
Numerous people have been posting on the event page on Facebook about who they believe is missing
It's unclear how the fire started, as it's believed an artists' collective that is adjacent to the warehouse was also engulfed in flames. No firefighters were injured.
Oakland police said those who were concerned about missing people in the fire should contact the Alameda County Sheriff's Coroner's Bureau 510-382-3000.
The electronic music label, 100% Silk, that hosted the party issued a statement offering up resources for friends and family of the victims.
'What happened in Oakland is an unbelievable tragedy, a nightmare scenario. Britt and I are beside ourselves, utterly devastated,' the statement shared to Facebook reads.
'We are a very tight community of artists and we are all praying, sending love and condolences to everyone involved and their families.
'Thank you for everyone who's been reaching out, we are hoping so hard for the best. We will be posting here on how you can help, and any information as it comes to us.'
The electronic music label, 100% Silk, that hosted the party issued a statement (above) offering up resources for friends and family of the victims
Other people have posted on the event page to say they are safe and escaped the horrific fire unharmed
As of 4:20am PT, the fire was not officially under control, as smoke was still coming from an upper floor in the building. It took firefighters four hours to put the blaze out
Some Facebook users commenting on a post about those who have been reported missing by family or friends have shared their experiences at The Oakland Ghost Ship and how it apparently was disorganized by the clutter
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf released a statement late Saturday morning: 'Last night's fire was an immense tragedy. I am grateful to our first responders for their efforts to deal with this deadly fire.
'Our focus right now is on the victims and their families and ensuring that we have a full accounting for everyone who was impacted by this tragedy.
'We are fully committed to sharing as much information as we can as quickly as possible.'
Oakland Vice Mayor Annie Campbell Washington said: 'This is a huge tragedy for Oakland, such a deep loss of life last night.
'This is being reported as the worst structure fire in Oakland and I'm here to express my deepest condolences.'
Some Facebook users commenting on a post about those who have been reported missing by family or friends have shared their experiences at The Oakland Ghost Ship and how it apparently was disorganized by the clutter.
George Goatmandan Weber said on Facebook: 'This was the nightmare I always had about hazmat. I spent alotta (sic) time planning escape routes from that sh******.'
Another user, Kristen Parks, replied back to him about how 'narrow' walkways were inside the building.
'yes (sic) true no windows too. I remember this (sic) place being super scary escape wise with wood everywhere and narrow walkways'.
On Saturday, a Google Doc had been created with a list of resources for survivors and concerned family and friends looking for their loved ones.
Well-wishers were offering lodging, cooked meals, car rides, clothes and emotional support and therapy.A website version of a police scanner introduced six months ago as part of a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office initiative to communicate with residents has been shut down over concerns about officer safety, according to police officials.
The callsforservice.jaxsheriff.org website, begun at the same time as a free AudioTraffic app that gives real-time traffic updates on smartphones, now shows a blank screen with the tiny words "This website is not available at this time."
Pulling the plug was initiated a week ago by Sheriff John Rutherford's special assistant, Lauri-Ellen Smith, after internal discussions over officer safety concerns "in light of recent events nationally." She said the website may not be gone for good as Sheriff's Office administrators continue to discuss it.
"Please know that in weighing the value of having the community know where police activity is occurring, there is also a concern that we don't compromise officer safety," Smith said in an email. "That is what we will continue to discuss. I have since been told that other agencies were also removing content with officer locations, although this wasn't a factor for us. …"
Rutherford unveiled the new ways to allow his office to "talk" to residents at a July news conference, part of his "promise to be transparent and help citizens know about their police agency and how to engage with us as easily as possible."
The AudioTraffic app broadcasts audio information on major and secondary road incidents and alternate routes from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays. The service, still in operation, also offers police alerts on major crimes. The app can be found at audiotrafficapp.com or on the Apple AppStore and Googleplay on Android phones.
The "Calls for Service" website showed police calls that were dispatched in red and completed calls in gray. All listings were delayed for 30 minutes to allow the dispatched officer to get the situation under control. Certain incidents like sexual assaults and child abuse were not shown for privacy reasons, Rutherford said.
The final part of the announcement was a live monthly Sheriff's Office Internet call-in show that takes telephone calls and tweets from listeners with questions. The next one is scheduled for 2 p.m. Feb. 19.
The Sheriff's Office does broadcast some events and news conferences on its website coj.net/departments/sheriffs-office.aspx or its Facebook page.
Dan Scanlan: (904) 359-4549Zack Collins played his first game this year for the University of Miami on Feb. 19, and he's still playing in the Arizona Fall League.
In between, Collins played in the College World Series, was drafted 10th overall by the White Sox and played in his first 39 professional games.
So he's tired.
"I'm ready for a break," Collins said Monday before the Glendale Desert Dogs' 15-3 victory over the Peoria Javelinas at Camelback Ranch. "I'd be lying to you if I said no."
But the exhaustion has been worth it for Collins, whom Baseball America named the Sox's top prospect Monday. The 21-year-old catcher said he has built confidence over the last month while working with the game's best young players in the Phoenix area, which becomes the center of the baseball universe this week as it hosts the general managers meetings.
"He has come a long way already from when he got drafted in his receiving behind the plate (and) his game-calling," said Desert Dogs manager and former Sox outfielder Aaron Rowand. "Being able to play here with an older, veteran guy who has been around the game for a while in Carson Kelly, that's going to help his maturation process.
"You can see (Collins' confidence) in the way he works behind the plate. You can see it in his at-bats."
Because of his long year, Collins is on the Glendale taxi squad. He plays twice a week and is 4-for-17 with a home run, three RBIs, six walks and five strikeouts in seven games.
The bigger challenge has been working on his catching skills with more elite pitching. When he's not playing, he catches most of the bullpen sessions. He works with Sox catching coordinator John Orton and tries to soak up pointers from Kelly, a Cardinals minor-leaguer who plays for the Desert Dogs.
Playing in the fall league in his first professional season could have been a leap, but Collins, who hit.258 with an.885 OPS at Class A Winston-Salem this year, said he hasn't found it intimidating.
"I knew they were sending me here for a reason, and I knew I would be able to compete," Collins said. "I thought the guys here were going to be a lot better than me, but that really hasn't been the case. I feel like I can compete with anybody at this point.
"That's probably the main reason they sent me here: for me to understand I could play with guys like this."
Collins has room to grow at catcher after blooming late. He was a shortstop, pitcher and third baseman growing up, but he asked to try catcher as a high school freshman because he figured it was the most action-packed position.
"At that age, I was playing with the dirt at third base and bored over there," Collins said. "I wanted to be in the game for every pitch, and I figured that was the position to do it.... I love it. I hope to be back there for another 20 years."
Collins said he didn't realize his potential at the position until his junior year at Miami, when he worked under a catching coach for the first time. With the help of Norberto Lopez, he won the Johnny Bench Award as the country's top college catcher.
"I was a little lost when I went to college, but I knew I was good enough to stick back there, just not as an elite catcher," Collins said. "After that, I have so much more confidence.
"I don't know if I would be able to catch the guys here if it wasn't for last year and how much we worked on stuff. It has made it so much easier."
Waiver moves: The Sox claimed left-handed reliever Giovanni Soto off waivers from the Athletics. Soto, 25, owns a 3.29 ERA and.235 opponents average over eight minor-league seasons, which included playing for the Cubs' Triple-A team this year.
In an expected move, Sox right-hander James Shields chose not to opt out of his contract and will return to the South Side in 2017. Shields went 6-19 with a 5.85 ERA this year for the Padres and Sox.
• The Cubs claimed right-handed pitcher Conor Mullee off waivers from the Yankees. Mullee is 13-6 with 14 saves and a 2.00 ERA in 103 minor-league relief appearances since 2010. He is coming off ulnar nerve decompression surgery in August.
The Cubs also selected the contract of right-hander Jose Rosario from Triple-A Iowa and activated three players from the 60-day disabled list: right-hander Aaron Brooks, left-hander Zac Rosscup and infielder Christian Villanueva. They outrighted right-handers Dallas Beeler and Andury Acevedo and catcher Tim Federowicz to Iowa.(CNN) Extreme rainfall this week has claimed two lives in Oregon and prompted states of emergencies there and in Washington state. Storms spawned a tornado not far from the state line.
Fire and maintenance personnel look at a large sinkhole in Gresham, Oregon, on December 9.
Fire and maintenance personnel look at a large sinkhole in Gresham, Oregon, on December 9.
Jeff Limb steers his boat through a flooded area of the Snoqualmie River, near the Tolt Hill Bridge in Carnation, Washington, on December 9.
Jeff Limb steers his boat through a flooded area of the Snoqualmie River, near the Tolt Hill Bridge in Carnation, Washington, on December 9.
A 5-year-old boy walks on a flooded street outside of Duvall, Washington, on December 9.
A 5-year-old boy walks on a flooded street outside of Duvall, Washington, on December 9.
Kevin McLeod, co-owner of the Riverview RV Park, wades through floodwaters December 9 in Puyallup, Washington.
Kevin McLeod, co-owner of the Riverview RV Park, wades through floodwaters December 9 in Puyallup, Washington.
A house in Portland, Oregon, lies in ruins Wednesday, December 9, after a tree fell and killed a 60-year-old woman in the early hours of the morning. Heavy rain and winds have battered Oregon and Washington state, causing widespread flooding and power outages.
The deluge set a record in Portland, which saw 2.75 inches of rain on Monday, setting a daily record, CNN affiliate KOIN said.
Also in Portland, a fallen tree trapped a 60-year-old woman in her bed on Wednesday, killing her, Lt. Rich Tyler with Portland Fire and Rescue told Oregonlive.com
And in Clatskanie, a woman drowned Wednesday after the car she was in drove into high water, CNN affiliate KOIN reported, citing a fire official. A man who was also in the car escaped through its sunroof.
States of emergency
As the weather forecast predicted a steady stream of rainfall to come in off the Pacific for the rest of the week, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency in a dozen counties.
"Heavy rains and wind have required the evacuation of residences, and mudslides and high water have severely damaged or blocked major roadways in these areas of the state," Gov. Brown said late Thursday.
In neighboring Washington state, where streets and homes were flooded, and landslides closed some highways, Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency on Wednesday.
E-F1 twister
Early Thursday, a twister tore through an area near Battle Ground, Washington, close to the state line with Oregon, the National Weather Service said. Tornadoes are most common in the U.S. midsection from Texas to roughly Minnesota, and they are also common in the Deep South.
But in the Northwest and upper Northeast of the country, they are rare, the weather service has said.
The tornado was measured as an E-F1, a relatively weak reading for a tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale. Its maximum winds measured 104 mph.
It touched down twice, damaging dozens of homes and two businesses, but did not tear off roofs. Dozens of stout trees were uprooted or snapped.
15 inches rain
On Tuesday and Wednesday, 15 inches of rain flooded several areas of the Oregon coast, and residents in Tillamook couldn't cross a bridge to get to work, CNN affiliate KPTV reported.
"It's nuts. Just trying to get out of my neighborhood was bad," Adam Goldsborough told the station.
The Nehalem River crested at 23 feet Wednesday morning, the fourth worst recorded levels of the river in its history, officials told the news outlet.
The Wilson River crested at 20 feet, the highest it's been since 2006, threatening an RV park.
"We had to move. We moved our trailer at 9 last night, got to bed at 10. I'm guessing this is going to be the second or third worst flood here over the years. A lot of people are comparing it to '96," Vicki Tarpley told KPTV on Wednesday.The Associated Press
BEIJING -- An American man killed himself by slashing his neck with a scissor blade inside a courtroom in Taiwan after being given a four-year sentence on drugs charges, prompting moves to increase security.
Tyrel Martin Marhanka, 41, was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead Thursday, according to a statement from the Changhua District Court.
Marhanka had been indicted in March for growing opium and marijuana at a rented site in Changhua county in central Taiwan, said the official Taiwanese Central News Agency.
CNA said Marhanka told investigators he was growing the plants purely for his own consumption. The American had been teaching English and was living in Changhua with his Taiwanese wife and two children. The Taipei Times said he'd lived in Taiwan for more than 15 years.
The court said Marhanka apparently smuggled two scissor blades by hiding them in a magazine tucked underneath his arm. The metal detecting gate at the courthouse failed to detect the blades, the court said.
Both the blades and the magazine were recovered by police, the official statement said.
The court expressed regrets over Marhanka's death and said it had installed two X-ray scanners to strengthen the security check.Itamar Gelbman helps Lea Rosenfeld aim at the target during a shooting class for Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Los Angeles.
It’s a sunny morning in Southern California and Lea Rosenfeld, a soft-spoken, bespectacled woman who looks like a Jewish grandmother, squares her feet, faces her target and squeezes off five shots with a handgun.
All of them miss.
“I never even held a gun in my hands before,” she later confesses. “I’m still shaking.”
Still, Rosenfeld keeps shooting in the hot sun. She says she’s doing it because of her parents and what they endured. Both were Holocaust survivors.
“My question has always been why they didn’t fight back, and my mother could never give me a good answer,” Rosenfeld told JTA. “They weren’t prepared for it, they didn’t believe it was going to happen and they didn’t have anything to fight back with.”
That’s what motivated Doris Wise Montrose, president of the Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, to organize the recent day of firearms instruction at the Angeles Shooting Range in northeast Los Angeles.
Montrose’s organization is more of a one-woman operation than a group. By her own account, it consists of Montrose and “a humongous email list.” The organization is dedicated, according to its website, to “The New Holocaust Resistance.”
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Much of that has consisted of Montrose organizing lectures with a decidedly right-wing bent. She has hosted such figures as Eugene Volokh, the libertarian-leaning UCLA law professor, and Pamela Geller, the anti-Islam activist behind the current bus ad campaign in Washington that features a photograph of Hitler and the grand mufti of Jerusalem with the line “Islamic Jew-hatred: It’s in the Quran.”
“I think what Doris is trying to do is to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive so we will not forget its important lessons,” said Alex Kozinski, the chief judge of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and a friend of Montrose who has spoken to her group.
Recently, however, Montrose decided that lectures and emails were not enough.
So it was that on a Monday in mid-May, she and seven others — three of them children of Holocaust survivors — gathered to receive “point and shoot” instruction from Itamar Gelbman, 32, a former lieutenant in the Israel Defense Forces.
“We talk about defending ourselves, but we have to do something aside from sharing email articles,” Montrose said.
Gelbman — a strapping 6-foot-3-inch grandson of survivors who has served as a bodyguard for Britney Spears (“Never again,” he vows) and run for Congress from Texas (he lost) – began by running through safety instructions. He taught the handgun technique used by the IDF: square feet, square shoulders, both eyes open.
With varying degrees of accuracy and confidence, the participants blasted away at paper targets depicting an armed shooter. After each cycle of shooting, Gelbman assessed the results.
“He’s dead.”
“He would definitely be on the floor.”
Who precisely the attacker would be is unclear. Gelbman frames his instruction mostly in terms of home invasions, but it’s clear attendees are concerned about more than just their homes.
“When the Muslims say they want to kill us and drive us into the sea, I believe them,” said David Sievers, a retired cancer surgeon and reserve sheriff’s deputy who turns out to be a crack shot.
“No cattle car for me,” Montrose quips after one good round of shooting.
Over lunch, Les Hajnal, a Holocaust survivor from Hungary, points out that often it was not the Nazis but locals who rounded up the Jews in countries such as Poland and Hungary.
“You know what the Hungarians did to the memorial of the shoes?” Hajnal asked, describing a memorial to murdered Jews on the banks of the Danube in Budapest. “They defecated in it. Such nice people.”
Montrose warns that anti-Semitism is rising again (a recent Anti-Defamation League survey found that approximately 1.1 billion people around the world harbor deeply anti-Semitic attitudes).
While Montrose and Gelbman believe there is a growing interest in self-defense – the firearms class quickly sold out – they know that the men and women who turned out for the training represent a distinct minority within the Jewish community.
Diaspora Jews prefer to be passive and non-confrontational rather than fight back, Gelbman says.
“I think that Jews in general, they give the benefit of the doubt, and they don’t like to be aggressive,” he said. “I think that’s one of the things that was a problem in the Holocaust.”
As the day wraps up and the shooters start to head home, Rosenfeld stays on, firing round after round. Gelbman rewards her with a target of his own creation: a depiction of the late Muammar Gadhafi as a zombie. Gelbman hands Rosenfeld a Glock 9 mm handgun and steps back.
She squares to the target, aims and blasts away, hitting the zombie Gadhafi dead-on with all five shots.
Itamar Gelbman and Sam Shink inspect the target during a shooting lesson. Anthony Weiss / JTA Photo Service
Itamar Gelbman adjusts Les Hajnal's stance as he fires an AR15 rifle. Anthony Weiss / JTA Photo ServiceImage copyright AFP Image caption The hospital in Leer, Unity state, which was opened 25 years ago, was the only secondary healthcare facility in the region before its destruction
Medical charity MSF has warned its work in South Sudan is being jeopardised as a result of "brutal" attacks on medical facilities in which patients and its hospital staff have also been targeted.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been effectively denied lifesaving assistance, MSF says in a new report.
Fighting between the government and rebels since mid-December has displaced about 860,000 people, the UN says.
The sides have accused each other of violating a January ceasefire.
"As entire towns in South Sudan suffer devastating attacks, medical care has also come under fire, with patients shot in their beds, wards burned to the ground, medical equipment looted and, in one case, an entire hospital destroyed," the MSF report released on Wednesday says.
Image copyright AFP Image caption The MSF report says that Leer is now empty of civilians who have fled continued insecurity and are living in terrible conditions in the bush, too terrified to return home
Image copyright AFP Image caption In the first 10 weeks of the crisis, MSF carried out more than 40,000 consultations of children aged under five
Image copyright AFP Image caption Assaults on medical facilities and patients are part of a broader backdrop of attacks on towns, markets and public facilities, MSF says
MSF mission head Raphael Gorgeu said hospitals are "now targets of attack and brutality" rather than "safe havens for treatment".
He said: "Assaults on medical facilities and patients are part of a broader backdrop of brutal attacks on towns, markets and public facilities.
"These attacks show a complete lack of respect for medical care and deprive the most vulnerable of lifesaving assistance just when they need it most."
The report lists numerous recent "gruesome attacks", including:
Patients murdered in their beds in the town of Malakal, Upper Nile state
A hospital in Leer, Unity state, was "thoroughly looted, burned and vandalised"
The MSF compound in Bentiu, capital of Unity state, was looted amid heavy fighting
On 22 February, MSF teams discovered at least 14 bodies at the Malakal teaching hospital compound, scattered among 50 to 75 patients who remained in the facility, too weak or elderly to flee for safety.
"Several patients showed signs they had been shot dead while lying in their beds," it said.
"Many of the hospital wards, including the therapeutic feeding centre for malnourished children, had been burned, and general looting had clearly taken place throughout the hospital."
Malakal, a dusty market town that serves as the gateway to the oilfields of the Upper Nile region, has been at the centre of clashes and has repeatedly changed hands.
Local MSF emergency co-ordinator Carlos Francisco said he can "find no words to describe the brutality in Malakal, which has left in its wake a ransacked city and a thoroughly traumatised people".
Last month the army said that it had recaptured the town after days of heavy fighting.
What started as a political dispute between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar escalated into full-scale conflict, with some of the fighting along ethnic lines.
Although both men have supporters from across South Sudan's ethnic divides, fighting has often been communal, with rebels targeting members of Mr Kiir's Dinka ethnic group and government soldiers attacking Nuers, Mr Machar's people.
MSF has 333 international staff working in its projects alongside 3,330 South Sudanese staff.
Image caption Fighting erupted in the South Sudan capital, Juba, in mid-December. It followed a political power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his ex-deputy Riek Machar. The squabble has taken on an ethnic dimension as politicians' political bases are often ethnic. Image caption Sudan's arid north is mainly home to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in South Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own languages and traditional beliefs, alongside Christianity and Islam. Image caption Both Sudan and the South are reliant on oil revenue, which accounts for 98% of South Sudan's budget. They have fiercely disagreed over how to divide the oil wealth of the former united state - at one time production was shutdown for more than a year. Some 75% of the oil lies in the South but all the pipelines run north. Image caption The two Sudans are very different geographically. The great divide is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. South Sudan |
, but I wanted to continue to participate in the march.
After about a half hour to forty-five minutes of this, the police started to detonate what looked to me like flash grenades. Protesters continued to chant “Whose streets? Our streets!” and “The people, united, will never be defeated!” I could see a considerable amount of smoke at times, although whether this was from tear gas or something else was unclear to me, and I was able to avoid it. The blasts from flash grenades intensified sometimes in what appeared to be an effort to reroute the protesters, although no directives were issued about what we should do or how to disperse. Some of the protesters panicked and started to run. I heard officers yelling and threatening protesters, including one cop who yelled what sounded to me to be something like “get down and put your hands on your head or you will be killed.” I also heard one say “Get your hands up or get sprayed.” It was hard to hear over the sound of panic and the helicopter overhead.
At this point I was very afraid that I might be assaulted and seriously hurt, but I was not sure what to do, and it was not clear how best to leave the situation. Some people passed me stating that “we’re trying to find a bus” and noting that they weren’t part of the march. Later in the evening I would have the chance to talk to a photo journalist who said he had been blocks away from the march, but had been pushed in with it with no way out.
After a little while, when the crowd arrived at Marion Avenue, officers started herding protesters south. They announced into a megaphone: “This is an unlawful assembly. Go southbound or be subject to arrest.” What appeared to be flash grenades continued to detonate. It was around this time that I saw a flash and felt an abrupt impact on my upper right cheek. I believe that I had been struck with some kind of shrapnel from a flash grenade. Fortunately, this shrapnel narrowly missed my eye. I asked another protester if I was bleeding and he said I seemed to be all right.
Finally, police officers they pushed us south onto the I-94 bridge over Marion near St. Anthony Avenue, where we ran into line of officers in riot gear which stretched across the length of the bridge to the south. We were completely trapped here. After some confusion, protesters began to sit down. Police officers stated clearly through megaphones that we were to put our hands on our heads and that if we were to take them off or stand up, we would be shot. We were also told that we were all going to be arrested.
After a while, things started to seem somewhat less dangerous. At this point, I began a long process of waiting. At around 8:35, I spoke with ImpeachForPeace.org cofounder Michael Rudolph. I spoke with him, while holding the phone from a position with my hands on my head, until an officer ordered me to put the phone away at about ten minutes to 9:00. I was informed by Mr. Rudolph that the permit for the evening’s Anti-War March was “suddenly, arbitrarily and inexplicably shortened to an hour by Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher.”
Soon started to arrest people, but they seemed to be doing it quite slowly for reasons of which I never became aware. I was one of the last fifty people or so to be arrested. I estimate it took about three and a half hours before I was finally put on a police bus. Protesters sang and talked to pass the time. Some had medical needs, which as far as I could tell appeared to have been mostly ignored, and others had to use the restroom. Those that did have to use it were instructed to urinate into plastic bottles (and some did). I heard from police at one point that a gun had been found on one of the protesters. An officer also stated that no protesters had assaulted any police officers.
The police officer who cuffed me with plastic bands was somewhat friendly, and he helped me to make some phone calls to significant people before processing me. He refused, however, to allow me to bring my sign, which remained on the street. I was photographed, my other possessions were taken, and I was arrested. After being routed to a bus, where I waited for some time, I was taken to Ramsey County Jail. I waited there again for quite a while before being taken inside. I was fingerprinted and my cuffs were removed, and I was finally allowed to urinate. Subsequently I was placed in a cage with perhaps twenty other protesters. Over the next several hours, I was moved with other protesters from one cage to another with no obvious pattern. At around 5:30 a.m., after about 9 hours of waiting, I was finally released onto the street. I was able to walk back to my car from here and make phone calls.Agent Orange is a forest-clearing herbicide that killed over 400,000 people during the Vietnam War. Almost 40 years later, ranchers in the Amazon region of Brazil are still using the substance to illegally clear out 440 acres of rainforest.
According to Treehugger and the Brazilian environmental agency IBAMA, ranchers have turned to Agent Orange as a deforesting method because it's difficult to detect.
Officials from Brazil's environmental agency IBAMA were first tipped to the illegal clearing by satellite images of the forest in Amazonia; a helicopter flyover in the region later revealed thousands of trees left ash-colored and defoliated by toxic chemicals. IBAMA says that Agent Orange was likely dispersed by aircraft by a yet unidentified rancher to clear the land for pasture because it is more difficult to detect than traditional operations that require chainsaws and tractors.
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In addition, four tons of (fortunately) unreleased Agent Orange was discovered in another part of the Amazon, which would have wiped out 7,500 acres of foliage and wildlife, and would have caused catastrophic consequences for decades to follow. According to Brazilian publication Folha de Sao Paulo, this is the first time since 1999 that Agent Orange has been used in Brazil. [IBAMA and <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/07/…">Folha de Sao Paulo via Treehugger]Speaking with DairyReporter.com, Polish Milk Chamber director, Maliszewska - last week crowned Personality of the Year by DairyReporter.com - said the country's dairy sector has undergone a "substantial transformation" since emerging from decades of Soviet rule.
Since Poland's accession to the European Union (EU) in 2004, this "transformation" has "accelerated," she said.
Just over 10 years on, Poland is the sixth largest producer of milk in the EU, with its dairy farmers delivering more than 10m tonnes to processors in the year ended March 31 2014.
Polish dairy product sales stood at more than US$5bn (€4.43bn) in 2014 - up from around US$4.4bn (€3.89bn) in 2010 (Euromonitor).
Maliszewska, who is responsible for strengthening the Polish dairy sector domestically and abroad, said the Polish Milk Chamber also understands the increasing importance of "international activity."
"Many trips and meetings"
As a result, 2014 was one "of many trips and meetings" for Maliszewska.
She recently returned from visits to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, and is now preparing for a trip to Dubai.
"Typically, business trips are associated with specific markets in which we want to strengthen our presence as a country that offers good quality and attractively priced dairy products," she said.
The EU milk quota abolition, scheduled for April 2015, was the reason for many.
But in August 2014, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev threw a spanner in the works - announcing a one-year ban on the import of agricultural products, including cheese and milk, from EU Member States, the US, Australia, Canada, and Norway.
"As you know, Poland is one of those countries that were quite severely affected by the Russian embargo," said Maliszewska. "We had a well-established customer base there. Many companies have focused a large part of their production on that market."
"For us the embargo has changed that geographical map of dairy products trade."
Just prior to Medvedev's announcement, the Polish Milk Chamber embarked on a three-year project to promote Polish dairy products in China and Russia. The project, which is part-funded by the EU, was "immediately concentrated on the Chinese market."
"World milk map"
Despite this setback, Maliszewska is "very optimistic" about the future development of the Polish dairy sector.
"We have huge potential and we are not afraid of hard work. Our facilities are modern and products are very high quality," she said.
"I am convinced, therefore, that the Polish dairy industry will mark its presence on the world milk map."
With nearly 40% of the public vote, Maliszewska was last week named the DairyReporter.com Personality of the Year - an achievement she branded her "greatest" in 2014.
"This a great honour, but an even greater surprise. I have received many congratulations from many countries," she said. "It is an honour for me, but most of all for my country."
"I take this opportunity to thank my team, because we work together towards the success of the Polish Milk Chamber and the dairy industry in Poland."Roundup - Royalty Free Icons and Images for Web Developers
Published Wed, 28 Apr 2010
We all need, 'em - quality icons and images for websites and applications.
One of the biggest problems is finding packs that are -
Consistently high quality
Have a consistent look and feel
There's little point in have a hodge-podge of different image flavours across the site, like some sort of acid-induced Web 2.0 Geocities flash-back.
So here's the best that I've found - post any I've missed in the comments!
Yusuke Kamiyamane's "Fugue" and "Diagona" Packs
http://p.yusukekamiyamane.com/
Don't let the pink background put you off, these packs are fantastic. In fact, they're so good you've probably seen them before... all over the web.
They are CC 3.0 Attribution licenced, and you can buy a full commercial licence for a paltry $60 USD. A huge set of quality and consistent icons. Yum!
Tango Desktop Project Pack
http://tango.freedesktop.org/TangoDesktopProject
The Tango project is an open source initiative to provide a set of consistent high-res, quality icons for use in Linux desktop window managers and applications. The project has a style and standards guide which means the icons have a consistent quality and feel.
And they are released into the Public Domain, so you can use them however you wish!
FamFamFam Silk Icon Pack
http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/
You definitely seen these before too, all across the Web and in a whole bunch of open-source (and non-open source apps).
They were pretty much the best until the "Fugue" pack above came along, but they've still got their place and mix quite well with the Fugue pack anyhow.
Licenced under CC 2.5 and CC 3.0 Attribution.
Dynamic Drive Favicon Generator
http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/
Not a pack of images as such, but generating a favicon is something that needs to be done by most sites at some stage. Dynamic Drives tool gets you a pretty good favicon 99% of the time, with very little graphic design effort.
Handy!
Smashing Magazine Freebies
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/tag/freebies/
Smashing Magazine (other than being a pretty good design blog) regularly publishes high quality freebies, in the form of icon packs, images and themes (e.g. for Wordpress). They are generally to give exposure to a given designer and made available for any sort of commercial or non-commercial endeavor.
In particular the "Flavour" icon pack is very nice, but I'd highly recommend mining their archives as they have some very good "domain specific" icon and vector packs.
$99 Designs, $99 Logo Store
http://99designs.com/logo-design/store
Of all the graphic resources in your app, your logo is probably the most important. It's your branding, your ID and the way you build association with your users.
If you're designing on a budget, or building something as an experiment, then $99 is not much to spend on a high-quality and professional logo for your site. Having bought two logos from the site and having them customized to my request within the day, I'd say this is a great one-stop shop for getting something in place that will serve you well until you really need to spend more on it.
About the Author
Richard Nichols is an Australian software engineer with a passion for making things.
Follow him on twitter or subscribe by RSS or email.
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p. 3 media information quick facts general name university of south alabama location mobile ala founded 1963 enrollment 14,883 nickname jaguars colors blue red and white stadium capacity ladd-peebles stadium 33,471 surface fieldturf press box phone 251.208.2677 affiliation ncaa football bowl subdivision conference sun belt acting president dr john smith berry [ga college 76 ncaa faculty athletic representative dr david turnipseed phd alabama 87 athletics director dr joel erdmann south dakota state 86 athletic office 251.460.7121 athletics ticket office 251.461.1usa 1872 history first season of competition 2009 first season of ncaa division fbs/i-a transition 2011 all-time record 25-15 625 postseason record last 0-0 n/a last postseason appearance n/a media relations assistant athletic director/football contact brian fremund office 251.414.8032 cell 251.623.3191 e-mail bfremund@southalabama.edu assistant director/secondary football contact charlie nichols office 251.414.8017 cell 251.751.9788 e-mail charlesnichols@southalabama.edu assistant directors kevin beasley matt horne media relations assistant zac kennedy administrative assistant tba office fax 251.460.7297 mailing address university of south alabama 171 jaguar drive hpels room 1105 mobile al 36688 athletics website www.usajaguars.com coaching staff head coach joey jones alabama 89 record at usa years 25-15 4 career record years 28-22 5 best time/day to contact coach contact sid usa assistant coaches jerry mack arkansas state 03 wide receivers robert matthews georgia 99 offensive coordinator/offensive line travis pearson alabama state 97 inside linebackers freddie roach alabama 08 defensive ends outside linebackers kevin sherrer alabama 96 defensive coordinator/defensive backs chase smith jacksonville state 05 assistant offensive line brian turner troy 00 defensive tackles john turner jacksonville state 88 tight ends bryant vincent west alabama 98 quarterbacks strength and conditioning coach justin schwind texas state 04 director of operations/recruiting coordinator brendt bedsole auburn 88 video coordinator errol seaver appalachian state 08 equipment operations manager jeff bailey football trainers jinni frisbey chad stefano alyse king football secretaries karen barrick lisa callaghan deb robinson football office phone 251.445.4004 team information 2012 overall record 2-11 2-4 home 0-7 road 2012 conference record finish 1-7 10th final 2012 ranking n/a basic offense multiple spread basic defense multiple 3-4 letterwinners returning/lost 41/14 offense 20/9 defense 18/4 specialists 3/1 starters returning/lost 16/8 returning starters offense 7 shaun artz ol jr 6-4 290 corey besteda wr sr 6-3 190 jeremé jones wr jr 5-8 160 bryant lavender wr sr 6-0 185 chris may ol so 6-4 285 melvin meggs ol jr 6-3 310 ross metheny qb sr 6-3 205 defense 8 terrell brigham db jr 6-0 190 clifton crews olb sr 6-3 220 romelle jones dl sr 6-2 275 pat moore olb sr 6-3 240 darrius morrow db sr 5-10 170 alex page dl sr 6-1 245 tyrell pearson db sr 5-8 150 enrique williams ilb sr 6-0 235 special teams 1 scott garber p sr 5-9 195 honors candidates dl alex page ilb enrique willams returning statistical leaders rushing kendall houston 12 gp 81-217 2.7 avg 2 tds passing ross metheny 13 gp 189-345-12 2,148 yds 12 tds 111.60 rating receiving jeremé jones 13 gp 45-513 11.4 avg 7 tds tackles enrique williams 13 gp 50-55 105 tt 6 tfl 1 ff 1 fr 1 pbu table of contents media information 1-4 2013 jaguars 5-50 2013 rosters 6-7 pronunciation guide 7 2013 preseason depth chart 8 returning letterwinners 9-33 returning squad members/redshirts 34-44 newcomers 44-50 coaches/staff 51-66 joey jones 53-54 assistant coaches 55-62 support staff 63-66 2013 opponents 67-74 year in review 75-98 statistics/results 76-78 miscellanea 79-82 individual superlatives 83 game-by-game statistics 84-85 team superlatives 86 scoring drive summaries 87-89 long plays 90-91 boxscores 92-98 records 99-130 honors/jaguars in the pros 100 history 101-102 year-by-year statistics/annual season leaders 103 team game records 104-109 team season/miscellaneous records 110-112 individual game records 113-121 individual season records 122-123 individual career records 124-125 opponent team game records 126-127 oppponent individual game records 128-130 the university 131-148 university of south alabama 132-134 acting president dr john smith 135 director of athletics joel erdmann ph d 136 athletic staff 137-139 student-athlete academic services 140 ncaa compliance 141 sports medicine 142 strength and conditioning 143 south alabama athletic hall of fame 144-146 sun belt conference 147 ladd-peebles stadium 148 2013 jaguar football 1
[close] media information quick facts general name university of south alabama location mobile ala founded 1963 enrollment 14,883 nickname jaguars colors blue red and white stadium capacity ladd-peebles stadium 33,471 surface fieldturf press box phone 251.208.2677 affiliation ncaa football bowl subdivision conference sun belt acting president dr john smith berry [ga college 76 ncaa faculty athletic representative dr david turnipseed phd alabama 87 athletics director dr joel erdmann south dakota state 86 athletic office 251.460.7121 athletics ticket office 251.461.1usa 1872 history first season of competition 2009 first season of ncaa division fbs/i-a transition 2011 all-time record 25-15 625 postseason record last 0-0 n/a last postseason appearance n/a media relations assistant athletic director/football contact brian fremund office 251.414.8032 cell 251.623.3191 e-mail bfremund@southalabama.edu assistant director/secondary football contact charlie nichols office 251.414.8017 cell 251.751.9788 e-mail charlesnichols@southalabama.edu assistant directors kevin beasley matt horne media relations assistant zac kennedy administrative assistant tba office fax 251.460.7297 mailing address university of south alabama 171 jaguar drive hpels room 1105 mobile al 36688 athletics website www.usajaguars.com coaching staff head coach joey jones alabama 89 record at usa years 25-15 4 career record years 28-22 5 best time/day to contact coach contact sid usa assistant coaches jerry mack arkansas state 03 wide receivers robert matthews georgia 99 offensive coordinator/offensive line travis pearson alabama state 97 inside linebackers freddie roach alabama 08 defensive ends outside linebackers kevin sherrer alabama 96 defensive coordinator/defensive backs chase smith jacksonville state 05 assistant offensive line brian turner troy 00 defensive tackles john turner jacksonville state 88 tight ends bryant vincent west alabama 98 quarterbacks strength and conditioning coach justin schwind texas state 04 director of operations/recruiting coordinator brendt bedsole auburn 88 video coordinator errol seaver appalachian state 08 equipment operations manager jeff bailey football trainers jinni frisbey chad stefano alyse king football secretaries karen barrick lisa callaghan deb robinson football office phone 251.445.4004 team information 2012 overall record 2-11 2-4 home 0-7 road 2012 conference record finish 1-7 10th final 2012 ranking n/a basic offense multiple spread basic defense multiple 3-4 letterwinners returning/lost 41/14 offense 20/9 defense 18/4 specialists 3/1 starters returning/lost 16/8 returning starters offense 7 shaun artz ol jr 6-4 290 corey besteda wr sr 6-3 190 jeremé jones wr jr 5-8 160 bryant lavender wr sr 6-0 185 chris may ol so 6-4 285 melvin meggs ol jr 6-3 310 ross metheny qb sr 6-3 205 defense 8 terrell brigham db jr 6-0 190 clifton crews olb sr 6-3 220 romelle jones dl sr 6-2 275 pat moore olb sr 6-3 240 darrius morrow db sr 5-10 170 alex page dl sr 6-1 245 tyrell pearson db sr 5-8 150 enrique williams ilb sr 6-0 235 special teams 1 scott garber p sr 5-9 195 honors candidates dl alex page ilb enrique willams returning statistical leaders rushing kendall houston 12 gp 81-217 2.7 avg 2 tds passing ross metheny 13 gp 189-345-12 2,148 yds 12 tds 111.60 rating receiving jeremé jones 13 gp 45-513 11.4 avg 7 tds tackles enrique williams 13 gp 50-55 105 tt 6 tfl 1 ff 1 fr 1 pbu table of contents media information 1-4 2013 jaguars 5-50 2013 rosters 6-7 pronunciation guide 7 2013 preseason depth chart 8 returning letterwinners 9-33 returning squad members/redshirts 34-44 newcomers 44-50 coaches/staff 51-66 joey jones 53-54 assistant coaches 55-62 support staff 63-66 2013 opponents 67-74 year in review 75-98 statistics/results 76-78 miscellanea 79-82 individual superlatives 83 game-by-game statistics 84-85 team superlatives 86 scoring drive summaries 87-89 long plays 90-91 boxscores 92-98 records 99-130 honors/jaguars in the pros 100 history 101-102 year-by-year statistics/annual season leaders 103 team game records 104-109 team season/miscellaneous records 110-112 individual game records 113-121 individual season records 122-123 individual career records 124-125 opponent team game records 126-127 oppponent individual game records 128-130 the university 131-148 university of south alabama 132-134 acting president dr john smith 135 director of athletics joel erdmann ph d 136 athletic staff 137-139 student-athlete academic services 140 ncaa compliance 141 sports medicine 142 strength and conditioning 143 south alabama athletic hall of fame 144-146 sun belt conference 147 ladd-peebles stadium 148 2013 jaguar football 1
p. 4 media information media information media information the 2013 south alabama football media guide is designed to aid members of the media covering jaguar football we appreciate your coverage and if there is anything we can do to assist you please contact the assistant athletic director for media relations brian fremund at 251 4148032 or via e-mail at bfremund@southalabama.edu the athletic media relations office has certain policies and procedures that we ask for you to abide by while covering south alabama these are for the benefit of your needs and those of the student-athletes and coaches we ask that you please respect these requests in order to maintain a good working atmosphere for all parties involved media relations office the university of south alabama media relations office is located in room 1105 of the hpels building located next to the mitchell center home credential requests the south alabama athletics media relations office will issue credentials to working press only passes for spouses children or friends will not be issued these credentials are non-transferable and any unauthorized use of a credential will result in the pass being immediately revoked all credential requests should be made in writing either on company letterhead or via e-mail by sports editors or directors of accredited media outlets requests should be made no later than 24 hours prior to the start of the desired contest credentials can be picked up the day before an event in the athletic media relations office any credentials obtained after that time may be picked up at media will call which is located outside the lobby of the main offices on the west side of laddpeebles stadium media will call will be open approximately two hours before the start of the event credential requests can be sent to the athletic media relations office at 171 jaguar drive hpels 1105 mobile al 36688 faxed to 251 460-7297 or e-mailed to fremund road credential requests working members of the media who plan to cover south alabama on the road are encouraged to make credential requests through the south alabama athletics media relations office visiting radio all visiting radio crews can make credential requests either through the south alabama athletic media relations office or through their normal media relations contact after the request is made space will be reserved for the visiting broadcast team two courtesy lines are available for each team while additional lines are available for a fee credits the 2013 university of south alabma football media guide is a production of the athletics media relations office covers designed by the university of south alabama publication services interior designed written and edited by assistant athletic director for media relations brian fremund using adobe indesign cs6 additional editorial assistance provided by kevin beasley matt horne charlie nichols the football coaching staff and the publications services staff photography was provided by john adams karen barrick michael chang scott donaldson chip english bobby mcduffie brad puckett jeff tesney additional assistance and photography provided by opposing school media relations offices printing by the university of south alabama publication services office media relations staff brian fremund assistant athletic director football men s golf office 251.414.8032 cell 251.623.3191 e-mail bfremund@southalabama.edu kevin beasley assistant director women s basketball volleyball matt horne assistant director men s basketball men s and women s tennis student assistants daniel ballard men s and women s cross country/track field deidre benton game day and office management michelena d alonzo game day and office management charlie nichols assistant director football secondary baseball women s golf office 251.414.8017 cell 251.751.9788 e-mail charlesnichols@southalabama.edu zac kennedy assistant softball soccer sally faulk game day and office management baley murphy men s and women s tennis secondary contact 2 2013 jaguar football
[close] media information media information media information the 2013 south alabama football media guide is designed to aid members of the media covering jaguar football we appreciate your coverage and if there is anything we can do to assist you please contact the assistant athletic director for media relations brian fremund at 251 4148032 or via e-mail at bfremund@southalabama.edu the athletic media relations office has certain policies and procedures that we ask for you to abide by while covering south alabama these are for the benefit of your needs and those of the student-athletes and coaches we ask that you please respect these requests in order to maintain a good working atmosphere for all parties involved media relations office the university of south alabama media relations office is located in room 1105 of the hpels building located next to the mitchell center home credential requests the south alabama athletics media relations office will issue credentials to working press only passes for spouses children or friends will not be issued these credentials are non-transferable and any unauthorized use of a credential will result in the pass being immediately revoked all credential requests should be made in writing either on company letterhead or via e-mail by sports editors or directors of accredited media outlets requests should be made no later than 24 hours prior to the start of the desired contest credentials can be picked up the day before an event in the athletic media relations office any credentials obtained after that time may be picked up at media will call which is located outside the lobby of the main offices on the west side of laddpeebles stadium media will call will be open approximately two hours before the start of the event credential requests can be sent to the athletic media relations office at 171 jaguar drive hpels 1105 mobile al 36688 faxed to 251 460-7297 or e-mailed to fremund road credential requests working members of the media who plan to cover south alabama on the road are encouraged to make credential requests through the south alabama athletics media relations office visiting radio all visiting radio crews can make credential requests either through the south alabama athletic media relations office or through their normal media relations contact after the request is made space will be reserved for the visiting broadcast team two courtesy lines are available for each team while additional lines are available for a fee credits the 2013 university of south alabma football media guide is a production of the athletics media relations office covers designed by the university of south alabama publication services interior designed written and edited by assistant athletic director for media relations brian fremund using adobe indesign cs6 additional editorial assistance provided by kevin beasley matt horne charlie nichols the football coaching staff and the publications services staff photography was provided by john adams karen barrick michael chang scott donaldson chip english bobby mcduffie brad puckett jeff tesney additional assistance and photography provided by opposing school media relations offices printing by the university of south alabama publication services office media relations staff brian fremund assistant athletic director football men s golf office 251.414.8032 cell 251.623.3191 e-mail bfremund@southalabama.edu kevin beasley assistant director women s basketball volleyball matt horne assistant director men s basketball men s and women s tennis student assistants daniel ballard men s and women s cross country/track field deidre benton game day and office management michelena d alonzo game day and office management charlie nichols assistant director football secondary baseball women s golf office 251.414.8017 cell 251.751.9788 e-mail charlesnichols@southalabama.edu zac kennedy assistant softball soccer sally faulk game day and office management baley murphy men s and women s tennis secondary contact 2 2013 jaguar football
p. 5 media information media information photographers only photographers shooting for accredited media outlets or for the south alabama athletic media relations office will be issued photo credentials and be allowed on the field photographers are allowed to shoot from the 25-yard line through the goal line and along the end zones no photographers are permitted to shoot inside the team bench area on either sideline flash photography is prohibited at ladd-peebles stadium parking media parking will be available in the vip section of the parking lot on the west side of ladd-peebles stadium news stations with uplink trucks must provide advance notice when bringing that equipment satellite trucks will be parked inside the gate by the southwest corner of the stadium gameday services the south alabama athletic media relations staff will be on hand to assist all media members covering jaguar football all customary gameday services will be available all working members of the media will be provided with game notes current statistics rosters and game programs prior to kickoff statistical updates and a play-by-play summary will also be provided at the end of each quarter and at halftime power outlets complementary telephone lines and a wireless internet connection are available to all credentialed media members in the press box the intent of the press box is to provide a working facility for the media professional scouts and immediate game personnel family members friends guests and other non-credentialed people cannot be accommodated soft drinks bottled water and a pregame meal will be available in the press box professional scouts professional scouts may request a single-game credential by submitting a written request either on team letterhead or via e-mail to the south alabama athletic media relations office practices the south alabama athletic media relations staff encourages coverage of jaguar football outside of games as a general rule all practices are open to the media and the public there may be instances however when all or part of a practice session is closed please contact fremund in advance if you are interested in conducting interviews and/or attending a practice session so an escort can be made available interviews in-person interviews with members of the coaching staff and studentathletes can be arranged by calling or e-mailing fremund interviews with student-athletes must be arranged in advance through the athletic media relations office players are generally available 30 minutes before practice and immediately following practice phone interviews are also available but will be arranged around the student-athletes class and practice schedules student-athletes phone numbers are not available under any circumstance all phone interview requests must be made 24 hours prior postgame interviews after a 10-minute cooling off period requested players and coaches will be made available to members of the media the jaguar locker room is closed both at home and on the road requested players and coaches will be escorted by a south alabama athletic media relations staff member to the designated interview area in the lobby of the main offices on the west side of ladd-pebbles stadium for road games usa will adhere to the home team s postgame policies and procedures game notes a set of game notes will be made available before each contest a copy of these game notes will be placed on the usa athletic department web page at www.usajaguars.com before each game and can be downloaded from there the game notes can also be e-mailed upon request press box phone the press box phone number at ladd-peebles stadium is 251 2082677 fax e-mail and internet media outlets may request to be included on the broadcast fax and email lists to receive daily news regarding south alabama football to be added contact the media relations office for complete coverage of all 17 intercollegiate sports at south alabama point your web browser to www.usajaguars.com each week news releases game notes and statistics are updated media and fans can view player and coaches bios schedules results and the most comprehensive records and history pertaining to jaguar athletics anywhere south alabama football media coverage south alabama radio network once again this fall wnsp 105.5 fm in mobile will serve as the flagship radio station for the university of south alabama football program games will also air on live on bama 106.1 fm wbmh in jackson ala lee shirvanian play-by-play rick cleveland analysis and pat greenwood sidelines/pre and postgame/halftime will all return for their fifth season as part of the broadcast team shirvanian who has been the voice of the jag men s basketball and baseball teams for over 30 years also is co-host of the morning sportscenter on wnsp since arriving in mobile he has been named the mobile sportscaster of the year in 1985 while in 92 he received a south alabama athletics hall of fame award shirvanian also has experience covering rutgers football and basketball as well as professional teams in new york and philadelphia cleveland is a member of the coaching staff at ums-wright preparatory school in mobile and he also supplies color commentary for the alabama high school athletic association state playoff championship games he also hosts the prep sports report on wnsp covering prep sports all over the southeast on saturday mornings greenwood is the longest-tenured member of the nbc 15 staff in mobile having worked at the television station since 1997 after becoming the station s sports director in 1999 he returned to news in september 2007 greenwood was selected the best sportscaster by the alabama ap in 2001 and was named the best sportscaster by the mobile press club in 04 south alabama coach s shows head coach joey jones will have both weekly television and radio shows that air throughout the season the television show which is hosted by greenwood will be broadcast on utv 44 in mobile pensacola and ft walton beach saturdays at 10:30 a.m shirvanian will host the hour-long radio show which will be broadcast live on wnsp 105.5 fm as well as bama 106.1 fm in jackson every tuesday from noon-1 p.m 2013 jaguar football 3
[close] media information media information photographers only photographers shooting for accredited media outlets or for the south alabama athletic media relations office will be issued photo credentials and be allowed on the field photographers are allowed to shoot from the 25-yard line |
big, why not?
He said he got his first big money in 1998 when a friend saw his hidden motor prototype and thought he could sell it to a professional racer.
Bill Whitaker: So your friend said, “With all this doping going on, you’re-- you’re crazy not to try to sell your invention--”
Stefano Varjas: Exactly. And--
Bill Whitaker: “--to these professional--”
Stefano Varjas: He proposed me--
Bill Whitaker: “--racers”?
Stefano Varjas: He proposed me, “Give me this bike and I fix it up, your life.” And it’s happened.
He told us his friend found a buyer in 1998 and Stefano swears he has no idea who it was. He gave us this bank record that shows that he had about $2 million at the time. We also know that he spent time in jail for not paying a substantial tax bill in Hungary. He said whoever paid him all that money wanted an exclusive deal—he couldn’t work on the motor, sell it or talk about it for 10 years.
Bill Whitaker: And you were OK with that?
Stefano Varjas: For 10 years. $2 millions-- if you are in Hungary, if you live in Hungary, if you-- they offer you $2 million to don’t do nothing--
Bill Whitaker: You couldn’t refuse it?
Stefano Varjas: Can you refuse it? I don’t think.
Bill Whitaker: So you believe that hidden motors have been used by professional cyclists since as far back as 1998?
Stefano Varjas: I think, yes.
In France, where cycling is a religion, the newspaper Le Monde said this past December that the timeline of Stefano’s story might implicate Lance Amstrong. Armstrong won his first of seven Tour de France victories in 1999, just a year after Stefano Varjas’ said he sold his first motor. Armstrong denied to the paper ever meeting Stefano in person or putting a motor in his bike.
We asked Armstrong too through his lawyer and he denied ever using a motor and declined an interview.
Former U.S. Postal Service team cyclist Tyler Hamilton and 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker CBS News
We contacted Armstrong’s former teammate Tyler Hamilton who has admitted to being part of all the chemical doping by members of the U.S. Postal team. And Tyler told us he never knew of any motors on the team back then.
In order to demonstrate the motors existed as far back as 1998, Stefano Varjas suggested to us that we find a carbon fiber 1999 U.S. Postal Service team bike, the same bike the U.S. Postal team used in the 1999 Tour de France. We bought this bike off the Internet and he installed a motor based on his first design into the bike. He charged us $12,000, saying that covered his costs for the parts and labor.
We then asked Hamilton to test out the bike.
Bill Whitaker: You could feel the difference?
Tyler Hamilton: Oh yeah, oh, yeah. It’s not super obvious. You know, you-- all of a sudden, you’re just like, “Ah.”
Bill Whitaker: It seems easier?
Tyler Hamilton: It feels a little bit smoother, yeah. Yeah.
Bill Whitaker: So you could see how somebody could get away with it?
Tyler Hamilton: I could see how teams are doing it. Yeah. I could.
The motor gives a limited boost of power for about 20 minutes. Tyler Hamilton said that much motorized assistance during a race on a mountain road could be a game changer for a professional rider.
Bill Whitaker: What kind of benefit could this motor give a cyclist?
Tyler Hamilton: That’s the difference between winning and losing for sure. For sure.
“I guess we shoulda known this was coming, you know? ‘Cause, I mean, there’s more pressure in today’s cycling world than ever to win.” Tyler Hamilton
Few riders know that better than Tyler Hamilton. When he spoke to 60 Minutes in 2011, he was one of the first to talk openly about chemical doping in the sport. He said riders have always looked for ways to stay ahead of the authorities.
Tyler Hamilton: They’d find-- you know, for a while, they didn’t have an EPO test. EPO increases your red blood cell production. When the new tests came out, you’d figure out new ways around them.
Former U.S. Postal Service team cyclist Tyler Hamilton CBS News
Tyler Hamilton: I guess we shoulda known this was coming, you know? ‘Cause, I mean, there’s more pressure in today’s cycling world than ever to win.
During this car ride in Hungary with Stefano Varjas we listened as he talked on the phone with one of his clients about delivering some new motorized bikes. He said he was speaking to this man, Dr. Michele Ferrari. Ferrari is the man behind the doping programs of Lance Armstrong and other top cyclists. He has been banned from the sport of cycling.
Still Stefano Varjas told us that Ferrari bought bikes with hidden motors in the past three years. We spoke to Dr. Ferrari by phone and he denied buying motorized bikes from Stefano but said he has tested one.
Three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond and his wife Kathy first learned about hidden motors in 2014 when Greg met Stefano Varjas in Paris and took a test ride. Greg was outspoken about chemical doping and now has the same level of concern about the motors.
Three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond and his wife, Kathy CBS News
Greg LeMond: I’ve watched-- last couple years-- and I’m going I know the motor’s still in the sport and--
Bill Whitaker: You know it is still in the sport?
Greg LeMond: Yeah. Yeah. There’s always a few bad apples and-- because it’s a lotta money.
He is so concerned about it that while working as a broadcaster at the Tour de France he and his wife worked secretly with the French police investigating the motors. His best source it turns out was Stefano Varjas.
Kathy LeMond: I asked Stefano if he would please come and talk to the French police.
Bill Whitaker: Did he? Is he cooperating with the police?
Kathy LeMond: Completely.
Stefano said he told the French police that just before the 2015 Tour de France he again sold motorized bikes to an unknown client through a middleman. He said he was directed to deliver the bikes to a locked storage room in the town of Beaulieu Sur Mer, France.
Stefano Varjas told us that in addition to the motors in the bike frames, he’s designed a motor that can be hidden inside the hub of the back wheel seen here in a video he gave us.
Kathy LeMond: Stefano had said, “Weigh the wheels. You’ll find the wheels. The wheels are in the peloton.”
According to Varjas the enhanced wheels weigh about 800 grams—or 1.7 pounds more than normal wheels.
Bill Whitaker: You could detect it by weight?
Greg LeMond: Yeah. Cycling weight is everything. Your body, your bike. If your bike weighs a kilo more, you would never race on it.
“This is curable. This is fixable. I don’t trust it until they figure out how to take the motor out. I won’t trust any victories of the Tour de France.” Greg LeMond
In the 2015 Tour de France, bikes in the peloton were weighed before one of the time trial stages. French authorities told us the British Team Sky was the only team with bikes heavier than the rest—each bike weighed about 800 grams more. A spokesman for Team Sky said that during a time trial stage bikes might be heavier to allow for better aerodynamic performance. He said the team has never used mechanical assistance and that the bikes were checked and cleared by the sports governing body.
A heavy bike doesn’t prove anything on its own but to Greg LeMond the weight difference should have set off alarm bells. In this case, sources told us, the sport’s governing body would not allow French investigators to remove the Team Sky wheels and weigh them separately to determine if the wheels were enhanced. LeMond said not enough is being done by the International Cycling Union to prevent cheating with motors.
Greg LeMond: This is curable. This is fixable. I don’t trust it until they figure out how to take the motor out. I won’t trust any victories of the Tour de France.(Denver,CO) – There are different levels of ethics being shown across the ever evolving craft beer industry. The Full Pint is guilty of having a stance on not covering non-craft beer, based solely on what the Brewers Association deems craft and not craft. Some people are appalled by the inclusion of breweries such as Boston Beer Company and Yuengling being deemed craft, as their beer and sales practices are viewed by some as counter to the independent craft beer movement.
The latest debate, as mentioned here at The Full Pint is how to view breweries that have taken to private equity firms for funding and expansion. In the crosshairs of those down on the private equity model lies Fireman’s Capital, better known to you as Oskar Blues Holding, LLC, the parent company of Oskar Blues Brewery. If you are wondering my stance on Oskar Blues, I am happily hanging on to the Brewers Association’s definition of Oskar Blues being a craft brewery, as I have been a fan boy of their working man’s style, economical pricing and highly drinkable offerings. However, even as a fan boy, I have taken notice of their rapid ascension into all 50 US states and have hoped all stays kosher.
So while I don’t have skin in the game as to what kind of moves OB is making in the retail space, I couldn’t help but notice that a very vocal, highly regarded member of the old guard in craft beer made some significant noise this past Friday evening in response to Oskar Blues setting up an establishment in Denver. Owner of the insanely famous Falling Rock Tap House Chris Black took to Facebook and put Oskar Blues founder and Dale’s Pale Ale namesake Dale Katechis on blast. While it seems Chris is upset with many recent business decisions OB has been making, he is most upset that Oskar Blues Brewery is opening up a destination pub featuring guest taps in addition to Oskar Blues lineup. My take away is that Mr. Black views this as a brewery that he is soured on that is now entering into the craft beer bar space, acting as direct competition.
Rightfully so, Oskar Blues did not comment on this, here was the publicly printed note from Chris himself.TALL forward Tom Lee is the 18h player to sign a contract extension with the club as part of the #SaintsFutureFest campaign.
The 24-year-old has had an injury-interrupted start to his AFL career after arriving at the Saints in 2012 in a deal with GWS.
Struggling to overcome shoulder issues, Lee has managed to play 13 AFL games in the red, white and black and is looking forward to what the future holds.
“After such a frustrating year and not playing too many games it’s really humbling to know that the club has got that faith in me to bring the group forward. I’m really looking forward to the challenge,” he told SAINTS.com.au.
“It’s good to know the coaches and the footy department have that faith in me to sign me for a further two years.
“We all have to work really hard towards a common goal and I think we’re all doing that and it’s really exciting.”
Head of Football Chris Pelchen said Lee has showed a lot of potential at the elite level and the club is enthusiastic about his future in the game.
"While Tom's season was interrupted by injury, he continued to work on various areas of his game for further benefit in 2015,” he said.
“Tom has developed a better understanding of forward roles and tactics with his line coach, Aaron Hamill which we are confident with improved fitness, will have him ready for a stronger season next year."
The West Australian has had a frustrating start to his AFL career, notching just three games this season and 10 in his debut year.
He is now hoping to be fit and raring to go by the time pre-season starts in October.
“Hopefully by the start of pre-season I’ll be 100 per cent ready to go and should get a full pre-season in,” Lee said.
“I think I’ve been able to show I can play at AFL level but I just need to be able to run out games better and what better to learn from than Nick Riewoldt.
“I’ve struggled to put on weight with my shoulders and I’ve struggled to maintain that strength and that’s going to be a big focus for me this pre-season and for the rest of my career basically.”From RPGnetWiki
These are LARP scenarios with pregenerated characters, that are ready to be run. They may be available in hardcopy form or for download. Some are commercial products available for purchase, others are free.
1 - 9 players
Scenario Genre Authors Size Price Access All Saints' Eve Modern horror Shifting Forest Storyworks 4-8 Free Download All the President's Zombies Political comedy Interactivities Ink, Ltd 8 Free Download Against the Grain (War Birds) Historical Drama Unruly Designs, Moyra Turkington 4 $19.00 (in anthology) View Argentin Fantasy philosophy Shifting Forest Storyworks 4-8 Free Download Argonautica Reality TV Anna Klein 8 $4.99 Buy Arsenic & Lies Murder mystery Karolina Soltys 5-10 US$25 Buy Best Of The Wurst WW2 comedy Peaky Games 9 £5 Buy Boats Against the Current Great gatsby Anna Klein 9 $5.99 Buy Boots For The Glory Of Russia Revolutionary comedy CJR 9 Free Download Boxed Set Supernatural Steampunk Andrea Landaker 8-10 Free Download Bus Stop Slice of life with a twist Douglas Milewski 9 Free View The Business of Murder Murder mystery John H. Kim 7 Free Download Cast Party Theatre / Realist Susan Weiner 8 Free Download The Climb Mountain climbing Jason Morningstar 5-6 US$8 Buy Communing In Darkness Horror Nick Huggins 6 Free Download Crossing Borders Neighbourhood comedy Claus Raasted 8 Free Download Death of the Japanese Emperor Prisoner's dilemma Ivan Žalac 4-8 Free View The Devil's Brood Medieval politics Malcolm Harbrow 7-9 US$8 Buy Did you hear the one? Haunted house Sophie Melchior 6 Free Download Elevator Elevator horror Nick Huggins 6 Free Download Emotional Baggage Airline / hostage Quinn D, Steve Vig, and Susan Weiner 7 PWYW Buy Eridanus Rising Modern mythology Shifting Forest Storyworks 4-8 Free Download Executive Decision US politics Greg Stolze 3-6 Free Download The Face of Oblivion SF drama Catherine Pegg 6-8 Pay what you want Buy Far Space Scifi Survival Christian Griffen 4-8 Free Download The First of December Hostage thriller Shifting Forest Storyworks 4-8 Free Download The Freighter Coralus SF / Disaster Quentin Bourne 8 Free Download From All The Worlds Elevator inaction Carsten Andreasen 5 Free Download Garden Station 4 Science fiction Shifting Forest Storyworks 4-8 Free Download Graduation Day Magical university intrigue Donna Giltrap 9 Free Download Hamlet Shakespeare Shifting Forest Storyworks 6-8 Free Download Hold Someone Liable Economic politics Florian Berger 3-6 Free Download Howling Fire Theomachy Mythology / deicide Kristen Hendricks 8 US$10 Buy I'm a Psychic, Get Me Out Of Here! Modern horror Baz Nugent 9 Free Download Inheritance Posthuman sci-fi drama Warren Tusk 7 $10 Buy Juggernaut Computer horror Jason Morningstar 5-6 US$15 Buy Keeping the Candles Lit (War Birds) Historical WWII Drama Unruly Designs, Shoshana Kessock 5 $19.00 (in anthology) View The Kyme Summit SF / baroque Malcolm Harbrow 6 PWYW Buy Lifters Elevator horror Mike Craughwell 4 Free Download Listen at the Maximum Volume Rock band reunion Luiz Prado 3-7 Free Download A Little Magic Modern romantic fantasy Shifting Forest Storyworks 4-8 Free Download Longest Night Seance Quentin Bourne 9 Free Download Maroons SF / Isolation Jason Morningstar 8 US$10 Buy The Mirror Room Modern thriller Shifting Forest Storyworks 4-8 Free Download Mobilize (War Birds) Historical WWII Drama Unruly Designs, Kira Magrann 5 $19.00 (in anthology) View Model Protectorates (War Birds) Historical WWII Drama Unruly Designs, Moyra Turkington 5 $19.00 (in anthology) View Murder at Miskatonic Mythos murder Skirmisher 6 US$2.99 Buy My Bloody Valentine Domestic horror Catherine Pegg 5-8 Pay what you want Buy Night Floors Occult horror Donna Giltrap 8 Free View On Display Steampunk Romance Paracelsus Games 6 US$10 Buy Persona: Too Late Time travel Xavid 7 Free Download Plan Eight From Outer Space Sci-fi comedy Interactivities Ink, Ltd 8 Free Download Quarantine Sci-fi mystery Andrea Landaker 6 Free Download Queen of Spades Mystery Shifting Forest Storyworks 4-8 Free Download Quiet Day in the Library Armageddon Jenni Sands 7 US$10 Buy A Retreat to Remember Amnesia Lelah Frey, Jaime Frey, Philip Kelley 7 US$5 Buy Sight Unseen Classic Cthulhu William T. Thrasher 7-9 US$4.99 Buy download Snow White Dark fairy tale Shifting Forest Storyworks 6-8 Free Download Storm Cellar Small-town disaster Kathleen De Smet and Eva Schiffer 8 US$5 Buy Space Station Sheckley Comedy SF intro LARP Last Person Shooter 4 Free View Strangers on a Bus Espionage Bruce Glassco 5 Free View Toil and Trouble Fantasy Kristen Hendricks and Warren Tusk 6 US$10 Buy Trapped Elevator inaction Interactivities Ink, Ltd 4 Free Download The Upgrade Reality TV dating show Vi åker jeep 3-6 Free View We Were WASP (War Birds) Historical Drama Unruly Designs, Ann Kirstine Eriksen 4 $19.00 (in anthology) [1] Will That Be All? 1930's servants / romance Graham Walmsley 6-10 US$10 Buy WINTERHORN Political suppression Jason Morningstar 3-8 US$12 Buy
10 - 19 players
20 - 39 players
40+ playersWell whats your definition of core gameplay? I always thought it was the trinity? Which has remained essentially the same. Secondly games NEED to evolve. Just like any other industry. You cannot stay stale. You have to innovate. Halo needs to be innovative. H1 and H2 were very innovative. They introduced a lot of new concepts or just did it better than everyone else.
What you guys are looking for is that feeling of innovation. 343 for better or worse are trying to find that again. Going back to the innovative solutions that H2 and H1 provided isn't the answer. This is 2014. Halo needs to solve shooter stagnation for 2014. You cant be innovative in this industry by doing THE SAME THING. If Halo did the SAME thing we wouldn't have had H1 or H2.
Like I said the answer may not be mechanics that are familiar to COD it's definitely NOT what you guys think. If you want to play those games play MCC."It was tough with myself playing not as well as I should've and the team not going well. I was disappointed because I thought I would be home in Queensland for three years. But that's footy, and you can't have everything your way.
"People don't realise the mental side of rugby league. When your confidence is down it's very hard to put out a good performance. That's something I really need to work on. When I do it'll be easier for me to focus and concentrate on my job."
An indifferent 2014 resulted in his switching between fullback and five-eighth for the Broncos. While Barba has doubts if he can reproduce his scintillating 2012 form, he said he had not felt as comfortable in a team since helping lead the Bulldogs to a grand final appearance in his breakthrough year.
"I always think that," Barba said. "It's hard to say it because that year was really really good. To do something like that again would be pretty special. I don't have to be the star in this side. It's not just about me now, it's about the team. I need to get my smile back and the happier I am the performances will get better.
"I have found a new home here and they made me feel welcomed. That's what I might have needed – a bit of love. I thought at the start [moving here] it would've been tough. People at this club, Shane [Flanagan] and the board have made me feel really welcomed."The economic beauty of the Internet is that the startup cost for businesses can be significantly lower. There is no longer a need to rent a storefront or fight for spots in stores, and it’s easier than ever to find and target new customers. Not to mention the fact that consumers can research products better than ever. The primary benefit of online business is that producers can more easily sell directly to the consumer, saving both sides money.
There are a number of companies that take advantage of this direct-to-customer opportunity. The setup is more “look at our product” than “look at our logo.”
Selling directly to the consumer is not a new idea. L.L. Bean has mailed catalogs to customers since 1912, and there’s a reason you can only buy Gap clothes from Gap (unless you include every Salvation Army). Newer brands, however, are forced to accept smaller margins in order to compete with larger corporations.
Everlane practices “radical transparency” and tells customers where everything is made and why everything costs what it does. Warby Parker charges only $95 for their prescription eyeglasses and can still afford to donate a pair to someone in need. GoLite is a company that operated for fourteen years selling their products in other chain stores before deciding to sell directly to its customers. Removing the middleman allowed GoLite to sell the same products at far lower costs while better controlling its own profit margin.
While there is a growing number of brands operating in the direct-to-consumer space (from pants to mattresses and even cars), the Internet has also enabled an economic monster: the middleman company. These, of course, already exist all over the country in brick-and-mortar locations and are sometimes necessary (see: grocery stores or pharmacies), but they oddly have flourished on the Internet—where finding a product’s source is so easy.
Best Made Company sells a half-gallon of maple syrup for $72. The company lists the source of the syrup, and after a quick Google search, you can find that same half-gallon on the farm’s website for $32.50.
Is the sleeker packaging and curatorial effort worth the 123 percent markup? Should the middleman be making more than the creator? Always consider the question: “Would I purchase this same product if it didn’t have the logo?”
There are websites that thrive without even rebranding products. Kaufmann Mercantile curates products, but you’ll notice they often hide logos in photos and don’t include brand names, so you can’t identify the original creator. You shouldn’t be paying 22 percent extra for a fancy beer growler just because someone else found it first. This brand is the essence of a middleman by charging higher prices for other company’s products. The only value it provides is curation.
Nowadays all one needs to create a successful brand on the Internet is a logo, a website, and a story. Stories give products weight and value and include terms like “American made” and “family farm,” which aim to give the consumer an impression that the product they sell is better than their competitors. Often these terms do add value, but it’s important to be careful when shopping. In an online shop, where customers can’t physically feel the products, stories are necessary for brands to sell you their merchandise.
In general, this can be okay. If you enjoy a brand’s product more because their message has reached you, all the better. But luxury brands have preyed on this weakness for years telling consumers, “You’ll look better and be better if you own something we sell.” Internet middlemen are exploiting this same deficiency by creating shell brands and filling them in with other people’s work.
Branding can be dangerous, but it’s a necessary human invention. As the Soviet Union discovered in the early 1900s, getting rid of brand names has severe consequences because people can no longer judge what has value before a purchase. On the other hand, branding creates economic waste because it’s easy for people to overspend in an advertisement-filled society.
Our reliance on branding is supported biologically. Psychologist Paul Bloom illustrates how the history behind products influences how we enjoy them. Bloom explains, “If you believe you’re drinking expensive stuff, parts of the brain associated with pleasure and reward light up like a Christmas tree.”
Consumers pay for stories as much as they do products. It’s the same reason people pay millions for original paintings and nothing for perfect forgeries and why people pay more than twice as much for Advil than for the identical generic ibuprofen pills. This biological reaction to knowledge applies to art, it applies to food, and it applies to branding. All we can do is be aware of it and know that companies are constantly trying to light your “Christmas tree” brain.
Middlemen are often better at providing a story than the producer and can therefore sell the products at an inflated price. They are masters of the story, but customers should take advantage of the fact that we live in a world where any story can be fact-checked in minutes.
In addition to costing the consumer more, middlemen can also hurt the businesses involved.
In December of 2013, Josh Steinman launched what would eventually become a successful Kickstarter for American-made dress socks called Penance Hall. Throughout the campaign, the company emphasized the fact that producing merino wool socks in America—which cost $30 a pair on their site—is an expensive process. They started receiving offers from a number of luxury product services including a men’s fashion subscription box service, like Birchbox, that offered to buy 10,000 pairs of socks for its subscribers at $2 per pair. Steinman replied, “That would be about one toe’s worth.”
If you’re ever wondering how a middleman is selling a product for the same price as the producer, it’s usually because the producer is making less.
Seamless and Grubhub make it easier to get food delivered, but they take a 13.5 percent cut from restaurants, which is significant considering the difficulties of running a food business.
Next time you want to order food online, consider if the middleman deserves the rate its receiving. If you’re ordering for a group or have a coupon or your favorite taco place doesn’t accept orders in English (like mine), then online ordering is a good solution. But does Seamless deserve a significant portion of a restaurant’s profit if you can just call in for the bento box?
Middlemen can be useful. Kickstarter and eBay are great examples for how companies should operate between buyers and sellers. Good middlemen provide a value that producers can’t provide, but consumers desire. There is no clear-cut rule regarding the worth of a middleman; sometimes it’s worth having your car valeted and other times you don’t mind the walk.
The ideal economic setup for the customer would be a company that owns a factory and sells directly to its consumer. This exists in several forms, but is rare. An informed buyer is a smart buyer, and getting information about products is easier than ever with the Internet, so you have no excuse to be swindled. Buy from the producer—and if you can’t, make sure you know the true value of what you’re getting.
Photo via scottjwaldron/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)It's a new week and a new national convention. With Democrats flocking to Philadelphia today for the first day of the Democratic National Convention, the action turns now to Donald Trump's general election opponent: Hillary Clinton.
After an action-packed week in Cleveland that included everything from charges of plagiarism, booing a non-endorsing candidate off the stage and a dark picture of America from the nominee himself, Democrats are striving for a comparatively drama-free convention. That said, there's plenty happening this week that's worth paying attention to.
Monday's theme is "Putting Families First," a switch from the initial plan of "United Together." According to the Clinton campaign, the program will focus on Clinton's history of work for families.
Here's CBS News' guide for what to watch Monday, the first day of the convention:
1.) Bernie's night
Bernie Sanders may not have won the Democratic nomination, but he gets top billing in Monday night's program - a nod to the resonance his message had among many Democratic primary voters, and to the effect he's had on the party's policies and platform.
Did the DNC undermine Bernie Sanders' candidacy?
Sanders, who formally endorsed Clinton in New Hampshire earlier this month, has made it clear he's backing her, and his supporters should do the same. In other words, don't expect him to pull a Ted Cruz on the convention stage Monday night. But how he frames the race, and how effusively he praises Clinton, will give a clue as to how united the Democratic Party is heading into the general election--especially in the wake of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's resignation.
And it's not just Sanders who will take the stage tonight: Elizabeth Warren, the other major progressive icon, will take the stage as Monday night's keynote speaker.
Also speaking are Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota), two lawmakers who endorsed Sanders in the primary.
2.) Michelle Obama
The first lady's convention speeches have been in the headlines again lately--as the source of plagiarism in Melania Trump's Cleveland speech last Monday night. Michelle Obama has been quiet on the topic thus far, and it's unlikely she would address it in her speech Monday night.
Michelle Obama has given standout speeches at both of her husband's conventions, in 2008 and 2012--but she hasn't campaigned on behalf of Clinton yet, so it will be interesting to hear the arguments she makes on Clinton's behalf.
3.) Debbie Wasserman Schultz/DNC scandal
Report: DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is out
A trove of internal emails from Democratic National Committee staffers released through Wikileaks late last week included some evidence that top Democratic officials were dismissive of Sanders' campaign, causing cries of favoritism and problems for the party on the eve of its national convention.
The situation has gotten so bad that Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will step down after the convention and is no longer taking the stage. Whether or not it's explicitly addressed, this situation will be hanging over the convention as it's gaveled in on Monday afternoon.
4.) The protests
All the action on the protests front was expected to be in Cleveland, while Trump accepted his nomination there last week. But apart from a few arrests and scuffles here and there, tensions stayed low in Cleveland.
Nothing big is expected in Philly--but there are plenty of Sanders supporters who are hitting the streets in spite of the heat, and some are still upset about the way things turned out and will be on hand to call for the elimination of superdelegates and other party reforms. Though the action at the Democratic convention is expected to take place more inside the convention hall, it's worth keeping an eye on how the protests go outside.
4.) Trump talk
In Cleveland last week, the words "Hillary Clinton" were a familiar refrain: speakers trashed her policies, brought up the various scandals and bad headlines she's been involved in and even called for her to go to jail.
How big a part of Monday's program will Trump be? Clinton has made no secret of her criticism for the GOP nominee--nor have Sanders and Warren.
CBS News' Steve Chaggaris contributed to this story.The BBC's Peter Watson was reporting from the UN in New York when the news broke of President John F Kennedy's assassination. Within hours he was broadcasting from Dallas. His reports capture the atmosphere of a city in shock, and Texas's shame - and the gloom that descended on the country. He typed this summary a few days later, on 29 November 1963. Peter Watson died last week.
For an accessible text version of Peter Watson's diary, click here.
Image caption The president and first lady arrive at Love Field, Dallas, on 22 November 1963
Image caption Jesse Curry of the Dallas police department briefs reporters
Image caption The cinema where Lee Harvey Oswald was caught
Peter Watson's despatch: 'Dallas the day after' (23 November 1963)
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Image caption The president's body leaves Parkland Hospital in Dallas
Image caption Lee Harvey Oswald is shot by Jack Ruby, 24 November 1963
Image caption Dallas mourners gather at the scene of JFK's murder
Peter Watson was born in Essex in 1925. He joined the BBC in 1950 or 1951, after serving in India during WWII and studying PPE at Oxford. He worked as a newsroom sub-editor before assignments in Algeria, Paris, Cyprus, Beirut and the US. Later he presented From Our Own Correspondent and edited Yesterday in Parliament. When he left the BBC in 1975, his reports from Dallas, and on the civil rights Freedom March, were described as "outstanding". David Witherow, then Editor of External Services News, wrote: "We shall miss his knowledge and professional ability, and also his pleasant companionship."
Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on FacebookThe Rio Grande Valley FC Toros announced today the club has signed forward Rubén Luna, who joins the Toros roster ahead of tonight’s game against Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2.
Luna, 24, was born in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico and moved to Dallas at age two before joining the FC Dallas Academy at age 12. The striker signed as a Homegrown Player with FC Dallas in July 2010 and scored two goals in 27 career MLS appearances, including four starts.
Luna scored 10 goals in 19 appearances with the Atlanta Silverbacks in 2013, helping Atlanta win the North American Soccer League (NASL) Spring season. He played for Inter Playa del Carmen in the Mexican third division from 2014-15. Luna made one appearance for the Mexico Under-20 national team in 2011.
Transaction: Rio Grande Valley FC Toros sign forward Rubén Luna on July 13, 2016.
Name: Rubén Luna
Position: Forward
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 185 lbs.
Born: February 10, 1992
Birthplace: Ciudad Victoria, Mexico
Hometown: Mesquite, TexasIntroduction
Welcome to our company's first Kickstarter and thank you for taking the time to look at our products. Hopefully after reviewing our Kickstarter you find it interesting enough to contribute to the success of our miniatures range. We have been working for almost a year preparing for this Kickstarter and launching our company into the marketplace.
Purpose:
This is the first army of a planned range that represents the civilizations and their mythical creatures on Asian Continent during the late B.C. / early A.D. time period. Our goal is to hopefully release this army followed by several new armies that will support a rules system that we are currently writing.
In the meantime, our Warring States / Qin Dynasty army range is capable of being used for your favorite rules systems and can be combined with other miniature ranges. Our miniatures are true 28mm and match up well with against the popular miniature ranges in the industry.
Future Rules Design:
While every army that we are considering for future release might have different organizations we are using the ‘Rule of 5’ for the Chinese Warring States and Qin Dynasty forces. This concept basically means that the smallest unit type we will be focusing on for the Chinese is 5 and then multiples of 5 troops as armies increase in size.
We plan on designing historical armies allowing players to build accurate looking forces in their historical tabletop settings. We are also expanding the army range by introducing a fantasy element to the force giving players the option to bring in the mythical creatures of that civilization. This game design concept will give players the option to incorporate fantasy into their games or not without the need to change rules systems.
Goal:
The goal of this Kickstarter is to raise enough funds to release a core range of product enabling players to build a respectful Chinese army. The miniatures will be produced in metal with the expanded goal of converting some of the metal miniatures into plastic.
Element Packs:
We wanted to make the pledging process easy to understand and even easier when it comes to selecting your product. We didn’t want to restrict how you build your own army so we have created Element Packs allowing you to determine the contents of your force regardless of the pledge level you purchase. One Element Pack has a $40 USD value and we have provided enough troops in each Element Pack to make all of them a very fair value.
The initial Element Packs being offered allow you to select from our infantry, cavalry, chariots, Fu Dogs, and Terracotta Warriors with the infantry and cavalry offering unit options from which you can pick. We have provided digital pictures of our miniatures and show you the contents of each unit you can purchase. You will notice that the term sprue is used with a number corresponding to the amount of sprues you will receive in that unit Element Pack. For each sprue you will receive one item and if you are supposed to get x2 sprues then you would receive two of each item on the sprue.
For example, a person buying two Element Packs will select from the above troop types and then if needed, make a further selection deciding which unit type they would like. For their first choice they would like an infantry pack consisting of heavy melee infantry so they would select the Wood Element Pack and then choose the Oak Unit. For their second selection they decided to pick a Water Element Pack (cavalry) and selected the heavy cavalry unit.
You do not have to select which Element Packs you want until the Kickstarter has ended and we send you the Survey. We decided to create this flexibility because as new units are unlocked by Stretch Goals you will have the ability to select from those Element Packs as well.
Pledge Levels & Add-ons:
You will find several pledges listed below that may be purchased more than once but some of them have |
letter writer. Those letters addressed to her comrades, friends, and admirers would form her real biography; in them we trace her heroic struggles, her activity, her beliefs, her doubts, her mental changes—in short, her whole life, mirrored in a manner no biographer will ever be able to equal. To collect and publish this correspondence as a part of Voltairine de Cleyre's works is impossible; the task is too big for the present undertaking. But let us hope that we will find time and means to publish at least a part of this correspondence in the near future.
The average American still holds to the belief that Anarchism is a foreign poison imported into the States[Pg 6] from decadent Europe by criminal paranoiacs. Hence the ridiculous attempt of our lawmakers to stamp out Anarchy, by passing a statute which forbids Anarchists from other lands to enter the country. Those wise Solons are ignorant of the fact that Anarchist theories and ideas were propounded in our Commonwealth ere Proudhon or Bakunin entered the arena of intellectual struggle and formulated their thesis of perfect freedom and economic independence in Anarchy. Neither are they acquainted with the writings of Lysander Spooner, Josiah Warren, Stephen Pearl Andrews, William B. Greene, or Benjamin Tucker, nor familiar with the propagandistic work of Albert R. Parsons, Dyer D. Lum, C. L. James, Moses Harman, Ross Winn, and a host of other Anarchists who sprang from the native stock and soil. To call their attention to these facts is quite as futile as to point out that the tocsin of revolt resounds in the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Whitman, Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and other seers of America; just as futile as to prove to them that the pioneers in the movement for woman's emancipation in America were permeated with Anarchist thoughts and feelings. Hardened by a fierce struggle and strengthened by a vicious persecution, those brave champions of sex-freedom defied the respectable mob by proclaiming their independence from prevailing cant and hypocrisy. They inaugurated the tremendous sex revolt among the American women—a purely native movement which has yet to find its historian.
Voltairine de Cleyre belongs to this gallant array of rebels who swore allegiance to the cause of universal liberty, thus forfeiting the respect of all "honorable citizens," and bringing upon their heads the persecution of the ruling class. In the real history of the struggle for human emancipation, her name will be found among the[Pg 7] foremost of her time. Born shortly after the close of the Civil War, she witnessed during her life the most momentous transformation of the nation; she saw the change from an agricultural community into an industrial empire; the tremendous development of capital in this country, with the accompanying misery and degradation of labor. Her life path was sketched ere she reached the age of womanhood: she had to become a rebel! To stand outside of the struggle would have meant intellectual death. She chose the only way.
Voltairine de Cleyre was born on November 17, 1866, in the town of Leslie, Michigan. She died on June 6, 1912, in Chicago. She came from French-American stock, on her mother's side of Puritan descent. Her father, Auguste de Cleyre, was a native of western Flanders, but his family was of French origin. He emigrated to America in 1854. Being a freethinker and a great admirer of Voltaire, he insisted on the birthday of the child that the new member of the family should be called Voltairine. Though born in Leslie, the earliest recollections of Voltairine were of the small town of St. John's, in Clinton County, her parents having removed to that place a year after her birth. Voltairine did not have a happy childhood; her earliest life was embittered by want of the common necessities, which her parents, hard as they tried, could not provide. A vein of sadness can be traced in her earliest poems—the songs of a child of talent and great fantasy. A deep sorrow fell into her heart at the age of four, when the teacher of the primary school refused to admit her because she was too young. But she soon succeeded in forcing her entrance into the temple of knowledge. An earnest student, she was graduated from the grammar school at the age of twelve.
Strength of mind does not seem to have been a characteristic[Pg 8] of Auguste de Cleyre, for he recanted his libertarian ideas, returned to the fold of the church, and became obsessed with the idea that the highest vocation for a woman was the life of a nun. He determined to put the child into a convent. Thus began the great tragedy of Voltairine's early life. Her beloved mother, a member of the Presbyterian Church, opposed this idea with all her strength, but in vain: the will of the lord of the household prevailed, and the child was sent to the Convent of Our Lady of Lake Huron, at Sarnia, in the Province of Ontario, Canada. Here she experienced four years of terrible ordeal; only after much repression, insubordination, and atonement, she forced her way back into the living world. In the sketch, "The Making of an Anarchist," she tells us of the strain she underwent in that living tomb:
"How I pity myself now, when I remember it, poor lonesome little soul, battling solitary in the murk of religious superstition, unable to believe and yet in hourly fear of damnation, hot, savage, and eternal, if I do not instantly confess and profess! How well I recall the bitter energy with which I repelled my teacher's enjoinder, when I told her I did not wish to apologize for an adjudged fault as I could not see that I had been wrong and would not feel my words. 'It is not necessary,' said she, 'that we should feel what we say, but it is always necessary that we obey our superiors.' 'I will not lie,' I answered hotly, and at the same time trembled lest my disobedience had finally consigned me to torment! I struggled my way out at last, and was a freethinker when I left the institution, three years later, though I had never seen a book or heard a word to help me in my loneliness. It had been like the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and there are white scars on my soul yet, where[Pg 9] Ignorance and Superstition burnt me with their hell-fire in those stifling days. Am I blasphemous? It is their word, not mine. Beside that battle of my young days all others have been easy, for whatever was without, within my own Will was supreme. It has owed no allegiance, and never shall; it has moved steadily in one direction, the knowledge and assertion of its own liberty, with all the responsibility falling thereon."
During her stay at the convent there was little communication between her and her parents. In a letter from Mrs. Eliza de Cleyre, the mother of Voltairine, we are informed that she decided to run away from the convent after she had been there a few weeks. She escaped before breakfast, and crossed the river to Port Huron; but, as she had no money, she started to walk home. After covering seventeen miles, she realized that she never could do it; so she turned around and walked back, and entering the house of an acquaintance in Port Huron asked for something to eat. They sent for her father, who afterwards took her back to the convent. What penance they inflicted she never told, but at sixteen her health was so bad that the convent authorities let her come home for a vacation, telling her, however, that she would find her every movement watched, and that everything she said would be reported to them. The result was that she started at every sound, her hands shaking and her face as pale as death. She was about five weeks from graduating at that time. When her vacation was over, she went back and finished her studies. And then she started for home again, but this time she had money enough for her fare, and she got home to stay, never to go back to the place that had been a prison to her. She had seen enough of the convent to decide for herself that she could not be a nun.
[Pg 10]
The child who had sung:
"There's a love supreme in the Great Hereafter,
The buds of Earth are bloom in Heaven,
The smiles of the world are ripples of laughter
When back to its Aidenn the soul is given,
And the tears of the world, though long in flowing,
Water the fields of the bye-and-bye;
They fall as dews on the sweet grass growing,
When the fountains of sorrow and grief run dry.
Though clouds hang over the furrows now sowing
There's a harvest sun-wreath in the After-sky.
"No love is wasted, no heart beats vainly,
There's a vast perfection beyond the grave;
Up the bays of heaven the stars shine plainly—
The stars lying dim on the brow of the wave.
And the lights of our loves, though they flicker and wane, they
Shall shine all undimmed in the ether nave.
For the altars of God are lit with souls
Fanned to flaming with love where the star-wind rolls.
returned from the convent a strong-minded freethinker. She was received with open arms by her mother, almost as one returned from the grave. With the exception of the education derived from books, she knew no more than a child, having almost no knowledge of practical things.
Already in the convent she had succeeded in impressing her strong personality upon her surroundings. Her teachers could not break her; they were therefore forced to respect her. In a polemic with the editor of the Catholic Buffalo Union and Times, a few years ago, Voltairine wrote: "If you think that I, as your opponent, deserve the benefit of truth, but as a stranger you doubt my veracity, I respectfully request you to submit this letter to Sister Mary Medard, my former teacher, now Superioress at Windsor, or to my revered friend, Father Siegfried, Overbrook Seminary, Overbrook,[Pg 11] Pa., who will tell you whether, in their opinion, my disposition to tell the truth may be trusted."
Reaction from the repression and the cruel discipline of the Catholic Church helped to develop Voltairine's inherent tendency toward free-thought; the five-fold murder of the labor leaders in Chicago, in 1887, shocked her mind so deeply that from that moment dates her development toward Anarchism. When in 1886 the bomb fell on the Haymarket Square, and the Anarchists were arrested, Voltairine de Cleyre, who at that time was a free-thought lecturer, shouted: "They ought to be hanged!" They were hanged, and now her body rests in Waldheim Cemetery, near the grave of those martyrs. Speaking at a memorial meeting in honor of those comrades, in 1901, she said: "For that ignorant, outrageous, bloodthirsty sentence I shall never forgive myself, though I know the dead men would have forgiven me, though I know those who loved them forgive me. But my own voice, as it sounded that night, will sound so in my ears till I die—a bitter reproach and a shame. I have only one word of extenuation for myself and the millions of others who did as I did that night—ignorance."
She did not remain long in ignorance. In "The Making of an Anarchist" she describes why she became a convert to the idea and why she entered the movement. "Till then," she writes, "I believed in the essential justice of the American law and trial by jury. After that I never could. The infamy of that trial has passed into history, and the question it awakened as to the possibility of justice under law has passed into clamorous crying across the world."
At the age of nineteen Voltairine had consecrated herself to the service of humanity. In her poem, "The[Pg 12] Burial of My Past Self," she thus bids farewell to her youthful life:
"And now, Humanity, I turn to you;
I consecrate my service to the world!
Perish the old love, welcome to the new—
Broad as the space-aisles where the stars are whirled!"
Yet the pure and simple free-thought agitation in its narrow circle could not suffice her. The spirit of rebellion, the spirit of Anarchy, took hold of her soul. The idea of universal rebellion saved her; otherwise she might have stagnated like so many of her contemporaries, suffocated in the narrow surroundings of their intellectual life. A lecture of Clarence Darrow, which she heard in 1887, led her to the study of Socialism, and then there was for her but one step to Anarchism. Dyer D. Lum, the fellow worker of the Chicago martyrs, had undoubtedly the greatest influence in shaping her development; he was her teacher, her confidant, and comrade; his death in 1893 was a terrible blow to Voltairine.
Voltairine spent the greater part of her life in Philadelphia. Here, among congenial friends, and later among the Jewish emigrants, she did her best work. In 1897 she went on a lecture tour to England and Scotland, and in 1902, after an insane youth had tried to take her life, she went for a short trip to Norway to recuperate from her wounds. Hers was a life of bitter economic struggle and an unceasing fight with physical weakness, partly resulting from this very economic struggle. One wonders how, under such circumstances, she could have produced such an amount of work. Her poems, sketches, propagandistic articles and essays may be found in the Open Court, Twentieth Century, Magazine of Poetry, Truth, Lucifer, Boston Investigator, Rights of Labor, Truth Seeker, Liberty, Chicago Liberal,[Pg 13] Free Society, Mother Earth, and in The Independent. She translated Jean Grave's "Moribund Society and Anarchy" from the French, and left an unfinished translation of Louise Michel's work on the Paris Commune. In Mother Earth appeared her translations from the Jewish of Libin and Peretz. In collaboration with Dyer D. Lum she wrote a novel on social questions, which has unfortunately remained unfinished.
Voltairine de Cleyre's views on the sex-question, on agnosticism and free-thought, on individualism and communism, on non-resistance and direct action, underwent many changes. In the year 1902 she wrote: "The spread of Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' and 'The Slavery of Our Times,' and the growth of the numerous Tolstoy clubs having for their purpose the dissemination of the literature of non-resistance, is an evidence that many receive the idea that it is easier to conquer war with peace. I am one of these. I can see no end of retaliation, unless some one ceases to retaliate." She adds, however: "But let no one mistake this for servile submission or meek abnegation; my right shall be asserted no matter at what cost to me, and none shall trench upon it without my protest." But as she used to quote her comrade, Dyer D. Lum: "Events proved to be the true schoolmasters." The last years of her life were filled with the spirit of direct action, and especially with the social importance of the Mexican Revolution. The splendid propaganda work of Wm. C. Owen in behalf of this tremendous upheaval inspired her to great effort. She, too, had found out by experience that only action counts, that only a direct participation in the struggle makes life worth while.
Voltairine de Cleyre was one of the most remarkable personalities of our time. She was a born iconoclast;[Pg 14] her spirit was too free, her taste too refined, to accept any idea that has the slightest degree of limitation. A great sadness, a knowledge that there is a universal pain, filled her heart. Through her own suffering and through the suffering of others she reached the highest exaltation of mind; she was conscious of all the vanities of life. In the service of the poor and oppressed she found her life mission. In an exquisite tribute to her memory, Leonard D. Abbott calls Voltairine de Cleyre a priestess of Pity and of Vengeance, whose voice has a vibrant quality that is unique in literature. We are convinced that her writings will live as long as humanity exists.
Hippolyte Havel.
[Pg 15] [Pg 16]
[Pg 17]
Poor Heart, so weary with thy bitter grief!
So thou art dead at last, silent and chill!
The longed-for death-dart came to thy relief,
And there thou liest, Heart, forever still.
Dead eyes, pain-pressed beneath their black-fringed pall!
Dead cheeks, dark-furrowed with so many tears!
So thou art passed far, far beyond recall,
And all thy hopes are past, and all thy fears.
Thy lips are closed at length in the long peace!
Pale lips! so long they have thy woe repressed,
They seem even now when life has run its lease
All dumbly pitiful in their mournful rest.
And now I lay thee in thy silent tomb,
Printing thy brow with one last solemn kiss;
Laying upon thee one fair lily bloom,
A symbol of thy rest;—oh, rest is bliss.
No, Heart, I would not call thee back again;
No, no; too much of suffering hast thou known;
But yet, but yet, it was not all in vain—
Thy unseen tears, thy solitary moan!
For out of sorrow joy comes uppermost;
Where breaks the thunder soon the sky smiles blue;
A better love replaces what is lost,
And phantom sunlight pales before the true!
The seed must burst before the germ unfolds,
The stars must fade before the morning wakes;
Down in her depths the mine the diamond holds;
A new heart pulses when the old heart breaks.
And now, Humanity, I turn to you;
I consecrate my service to the world!
Perish the old love, welcome to the new—
Broad as the space-aisles where the stars are whirled!
Greenville, Mich., 1885.
[Pg 18]
O'er the sweet, quiet homes in the silent grave-city,
Softly the dewdrops, the night-tears, fall;
Broadly about, like the wide arms of pity,
The silver-shot darkness lies over all.
Heroes, asleep 'neath the red-hearted rose-wreaths,
Leaf-crowned with honor, flower-crowned with rest,
Gently above you each moon-dripping bough breathes
A far-echoed whisper, "Sleep well; ye are blest."
Oh! never, as long as the heart pulses quicker
At the dear name of Country may yours be forgot;
Nor may we, till the last puny life spark shall flicker,
Your deeds from the tablets of Memory blot!
Spirits afloat in the night-shrouds that bound us,
Souls of the "Has-Been" and of the "To-Be,"
Keep the fair light of Liberty shining around us,
Till our souls may go back to the mighty SOUL-SEA.
St. Johns, Mich., 1886 (Decoration Day).
(The two following poems were written at that period of my life when the questions of the existence of God and the divinity of Jesus had but recently been settled, and they present the pros and cons which had been repeating themselves over and over again in my brain for some years.)
We contrast light and darkness,—light of God,
And darkness from the Stygian shades of hell;
Fumes of the pit infernal rising up
Have clouded o'er the brain, laid reason low;—
For when the eye looks on fair Nature's face
And sees not God, then is she blind indeed!
No night so starless, even in its gloom,
As his who wanders on without a hope
In that great, just Hereafter all must meet!—
No heart so dull, so heavy, and so void,
As that which lives for this chill world alone!
No soul so groveling, unaspiring, base,
[Pg 19] As that which, here, forgets the afterhere!
And still through all the darkness and the gloom
Its voice will not be stilled, its hopes be quenched;
It cries, it screams, it struggles in its chains,
And bleeds upon the altar of the mind,—
Unwilling sacrifice to thought misled.
The soul that knows no God can know no peace.
Thus speaketh light, the herald of our God!
In that far dawn where shone each rolling world
First lit with shadowed splendor of the stars,
In that fair morning when Creation sang
Its praise of God, e'er yet it dreamed of sin,
Pure and untainted as the source of life
Man dwelt in Eden. There no shadows came,
No question of the goodness of our Lord,
Until the prince of darkness tempted man,
And, yielding to the newly born desire,
He fell! Sank in the mire of ignorance!
And Man, who put himself in Satan's power,
Since then has wandered far in devious ways,
Seeing but now and then a glimpse of light,
Till Christ is come, the living Son of God!
Far in his heavenly home he viewed the world,
Saw all her sadness and her sufferings,
Saw all her woes, her struggles, and her search
For some path leading up from out the Night.
Within his breast the fount of tears was touched;
His great heart swelled with pity, and he said:
"Father, I go to save the world from sin."
Ah! What power but a soul divinely clad
In purity, in holiness and love,
Could leave a home of happiness and light
For this lost World of suffering and death?
He came: the World tossed groaning in her sleep;
He touched her brow: the nightmare passed away;
He soothed her heart, red with the stain of sin;
And she forgot her guilt in penitence;
She washed the ruby out with pearls of tears.
He came, he suffered, and he died for us;
He felt the bitterest woes a soul can feel;
He probed the darkest depths of human grief;
He sounded all the deeps and shoals of pain;
[Pg 20] Was cursed for all his love; thanked with the cross,
Whereon he hung nailed, bleeding, glorified,
As the last smoke of holocaust divine.
"Ah! This was all two thousand years ago!"
Two thousand years ago, and still he cries,
With voice sweet calling through the distant dark:
"O souls that labor, struggling in your pain,
Come unto me, and I will give you rest!
For every woe of yours, and every smart,
I, too, have felt:—the mockery, the shame,
The sneer, the scoffing lip, the hate, the lust,
The greed of gain, the jealousy of man,
Unstinted have been measured out to me.
I know them all, I feel them all with you!
And I have known the pangs of poverty,
The cry of hunger and the weary heart
Of childhood burdened with the weight of age!
O sufferers, ye all are mine to love!
The pulse-beats of my heart go out with you,
And every drop of agony that drips
From my nailed hands adown this bitter cross,
Cries out, 'O God! accept the sacrifice,
And ope the gates of heaven to the world!'
Ye vermin of the garret, who do creep
Your weary lives away within its walls;
Ye children of the cellar, who behold
The sweet, pale light, strained through the lothsome air
And doled to you in tid-bits, as a thing
Too precious for your use; ye rats in mines,
Who knaw within the black and somber pits
To seek poor living for your little ones;
Ye women who stitch out your lonely lives,
Unmindful whether sun or stars keep watch;
Ye slaves of wheels; ye worms that bite the dust
Where pride and scorn have ground you 'neath the heel;
Ye Toilers of the earth, ye weary ones,—
I know your sufferings, I feel your woes;
My peace I give you; in a little while
The pain will all be over, and the grave
Will sweetly close above your folded hands!
And then?—Ah, Death, no conqueror art thou!
For I have loosed thy chains; I have unbarred
[Pg 21] The gates of heaven! In my Father's house
Of many mansions I prepare a place;
And rest is there for every heart that toils!
Oh, all ye sick and wounded ones who grieve
For the lost health that ne'er may come again;
Ye who do toss upon a couch of pain,
Upon whose brow disease has laid his hand,
Within whose eyes the dull and heavy sight
Burns like a taper burning very low,
Upon whose lips the purple fever-kiss
Rests his hot breath, and dries the sickened palms,
Scorches the flesh and e'en the very air;
Ye who do grope along without the light;
Ye who do stumble, halting on your way;
Ye whom the world despises as unclean;
Know that the death-free soul has none of these:
The unbound spirit goes unto its God,
Pure, whole, and beauteous as newly born!
Oh, all ye mourners, weeping for the dead;
Your tears I gather as the grateful rain
Which rises from the sea and falls again,
To nurse the withering flowers from its touch;
No drop is ever lost! They fall again
To nurse the blossoms of some other heart!
I would not dry one single dew of grief:
The sorrow-freighted lashes which bespeak
The broken heart and soul are dear to me;
I mourn with them, and mourning so I find
The grief-bowed soul with weeping oft grows light!
But yet ye mourn for them not without hope:
Beyond the woes and sorrows of the earth,
As stars still shine though clouds obscure the sight,
The friends ye mourn as lost immortal live;
And ye shall meet and know their souls again,
Through death transfigured, through love glorified!
Oh, all ye patient waiters for reward,
Scorned and despised by those who know not worth,
I know your merit and I give you hope;
For in my Father's law is justice found.
See how the seed-germ, toiling underground,
Waits patiently for time to burst its shell;
And by and by the golden sunlight warms
[Pg 22] The dark, cold earth; the germ begins to shoot.
And upward trends until two small green leaves
Unfold and wave and drink the pure, fresh air.
The blossoms come and go with Summer's breath,
And Autumn brings the fruit-time in her hand.
So ye, who patient watch and wait and hope,
Trusting the sun may bring the blossoms out,
Shall reap the fruited labor by and by.
I am your friend; I wait and hope with you,
Rejoice with you when the hard vict'ry's won!
And still for you, O prisoners in cells,
I hold the dearest gifts of penitence,
Forgiveness and charity and hope!
I stretch the hands of mercy through the bars;
White hands,—like doves they bring the branch of peace!
Repent, believe,—and I will expiate
Upon this bitter cross all your deep guilt!
Oh, take my gift, accept my sacrifice!
I ask no other thing but only—trust!
Oh, all ye martyrs, bleeding in your chains;
Oh, all ye souls that live for others' good;
Oh, all ye mourners, all ye guilty ones,
And all ye suffering ones, come unto me!
Ye are all my brothers, all my sisters, all!
And as I love one, so I love you all.
Accept my love, accept my sacrifice;
Make not my cross more bitter than it is
By shrinking from the peace I bring to you!"
St. Johns, Mich., April, 1887.
Grand eye of Liberty, light up my page!
Like promised morning after night of age
Thy dawning youth breaks in the distant east!
Thy cloudy robes like silken curtains creased
And swung in folds are floating fair and free!
The shadows of the cycles turn and flee;
The budding stars, bright minds that gemmed the night,
Are bursting into broad, bright-petaled light!
Sweet Liberty, how pure thy very breath!
[Pg 23] How dear in life, how doubly dear in death!
Ah, slaves that suffer in your self-forged chains,
Praying your Christ to touch and heal your pains,
Tear off your shackling irons, unbind your eyes,
Seize the grand hopes that burn along the skies!
Worship not God in temples built of gloom;
Far sweeter incense is the flower-bloom
Than all the fires that Sacrifice may light;
And grander is the star-dome gleaming bright
With glowing worlds, than all your altar lamps
Pale flickering in your clammy, vaulted damps;
And richer is the broad, full, fair sun sheen,
Dripping its orient light in streams between
The fretted shafting of the forest trees,
Throwing its golden kisses to the breeze,
Lifting the grasses with its finger-tips,
And pressing the young blossoms with warm lips,
Show'ring its glory over plain and hill,
Wreathing the storm and dancing in the rill;
Far richer in wild freedom falling there,
Shaking the tresses of its yellow hair,
Than all subdued within the dim half-light
Of stained glass windows, drooping into night.
Oh, grander far the massive mountain walls
Which bound the vista of the forest halls,
Than all the sculptured forms which guard the piles
That arch your tall, dim, gray, cathedral aisles!
And gladder is the carol of a bird
Than all the anthems that were ever heard
To steal in somber chanting from the tone
Of master voices praising the Unknown.
In the great wild, where foot of man ne'er trod,
There find we Nature's church and Nature's God!
Here are no fetters! though is free as air;
Its flight may spread far as its wings may dare;
And through it all one voice cries, "God is love,
And love is God!" Around, within, above,
Behold the working of the perfect law,—
The law immutable in which no flaw
Exists, and from which no appeal is made;
Ev'n as the sunlight chases far the shade
And shadows chase the light in turn again,
[Pg 24] So every life is fraught with joy and pain;
The stinging thorn lies hid beside the rose;
The bud is blighted ere its leave unclose;
So pleasure born of Hope may oft-time yield
A stinging smart of thorns, a barren field!
But let it be: the buds will bloom again,
The fields will freshen in the summer rain;
And never storm scowls dark but still, somewhere,
A bow is bending in the upper air.
Then learn the law if thou wouldst live aright;
And know no unseen power, no hand of might,
Can set aside the law which wheels the stars;
No incompleteness its perfection mars;
The buds will wake in season, and the rain
will fall when clouds hang heavy, and again
The snows will tremble when the winter's breath
Congeals the cloud-tears, as the touch of Death
Congeals the last drop on the sufferer's cheek.
Thus do all Nature's tongues in chorus speak:
"Think not, O man, that thou canst e'er escape
One jot of Justice's law, nor turn thy fate
By yielding sacrifice to the Unseen!
Purged by thyself alone canst thou be clean.
One guide to happiness thou mayst learn:
Love toward the world begets love in return.
And if to others you the measure mete
Of love, be sure your harvest will be sweet;
But if ye sow broadcast the seed of hate,
Ye'll reap again, albeit ye reap it late.
Then let your life-work swell the great flood-tide
Of love towards all the world; the world is wide,
The sea of life is broad; its waves stretch far;
No range, no barrier, its sweep may bar;
The world is filled, is trodden down with pain;
The sea of life is gathered up of rain,—
A throat, a bed, a sink, for human tears,
A burial of hopes, a miasm of fears!
But see! the sun of love shines softly out,
Flinging its golden fingers all about,
Pressing its lips in loving, soft caress,
Upon the world's pale cheek; the pain grows less,
The tears are dried upon the quivering lashes,
[Pg 25] An answering sunbeam 'neath the white lids flashes!
The sea of life is dimpled o'er with smiles,
The sun of love the cloud of woe beguiles,
And turns its heavy brow to forehead fair,
Framed in the glory of its sun-gilt hair.
Be thine the warming touch, the kiss of love;
Vainly ye seek for comfort from above,
Vainly ye pray the Gods to ease your pain;
The heavy words fall back on you again!
Vainly ye cry for Christ to smooth your way;
The thorns sting sharper while ye kneeling pray!
Vainly ye look upon the world of woe,
And cry, "O God, avert the bitter blow!"
Ye cannot turn the lightning from its track,
Nor call one single little instant back;
The law swerves not, and with unerring aim
The shaft of justice falls; he bears the blame
Who violates the rule: do well your task,
For justice overtakes you all at last.
Vainly ye patient ones await reward,
Trusting th' Almighty's angel to record
Each bitter tear, each disappointed sigh;
Reward descends not, gifted from on high,
But is the outgrowth of the eternal law:
As from the earth the toiling seed-germs draw
The food which gives them life and strength to bear
The storms and suns which sweep the upper air,
So ye must draw from out the pregnant earth
The metal true wherewith to build your worth;
So shall ye brave the howling of the blast,
And smile triumphant o'er the storm at last.
Nor dream these trials are without their use;
Between your joys and griefs ye cannot choose,
And say your life with either is complete:
Ever the bitter mingles with the sweet.
The dews must press the petals down at night,
If in the dawning they would glisten bright;
If sunbeams needs must ripen out the grain
Not less the early blades must woo the rain:
If now your eyes be wet with weary tears,
Ye'll gather them as gems in after years;
And if the rains now sodden down your path,
[Pg 26] Ye'll reap rich harvest in the aftermath.
Ye idle mourners, crying in your grief,
The souls ye weep have found the long relief:
Why grieve for those who fold their hands in peace?
Their sore-tried hearts have found a glad release;
Their spirits sink into the solemn sea!
Mourn ye the prisoner from his chains let free?
Nay, ope your ears unto the living cry
That pleads for living comfort! Hark, the sigh
Of million heartaches rising in your ears!
Kiss back the living woes, the living tears!
Go down into the felon's gloomy cell;
Send there the ray of love: as tree-buds swell
When spring's warm breath bids the cold winter cease,
So will his heart swell with the hope of peace.
Be filled with love, for love is Nature's God;
The God which trembles in the tender sod,
The God which tints the sunset, lights the dew,
Sprinkles with stars the firmament's broad blue,
And draws all hearts together in a free
Wide sweep of love, broad as the ether-sea.
No other law or guidance do we need;
The world's our church, to do good is our creed.
St. Johns, Mich., 1887.
Some souls there are which never live their life;
Some suns there are which never pierce their cloud;
Some hearts there are which cup their perfume in,
And yield no incense to the outer air.
Cloud-shrouded, flower-cupped heart: such is thine own:
So dost thou live with all thy brightness hid;
So dost thou dwell with all thy perfume close;
Rich in thy treasured wealth, aye, rich indeed—
And they are wrong who say thou "dost not feel."
But I—I need blue air and opened bloom;
To keep my music means that it must die;
And when the thrill, the joy, the love of life is gone,
[Pg 27] I, too, am dead—a corpse, though not entombed.
Let me live then—but a while—the gloom soon comes,
The flower closes and the petals shut;
Through them the perfume slips out, like a soul—
The long, still sleep of death—and then the Grave.
Cleveland, Ohio, March, 1889.
So, you're the chaplain! You needn't say what you have come for; I can guess.
You've come to talk about Jesus' love, and repentance and rest and forgiveness!
You've come to say that my sin is great, yet greater the mercy Heaven will mete,
If I, like Magdalen, bend my head, and pour my tears at your Saviour's feet.
Your promise is fair, but I've little faith: I relied on promises once before;
They brought me to this—this prison cell, with its iron-barred window, its grated door!
Yet he, too, was fair who promised me, with his tender mouth and his Christ-like eyes;
And his voice was as sweet as the summer wind that sighs through the arbors of Paradise.
And he seemed to me all that was good and pure, and noble and strong, and true and brave!
I had given the pulse of my heart for him, and deemed it a precious boon to crave.
You say that Jesus so loved the world he died to redeem it from its sin:
It isn't redeemed, or no one could be so fair without, and so black within.
I trusted his promise, I gave my life;—the truth of my love is known on |
See possessed abundant evidence of the atrocities committed by his regime.”
U.S. intelligence also confirmed that Pavelic had numerous secret meetings with the Under Secretary of State of the Holy See, Monsignor Montini, who later became Pope Paul VI. According to one intelligence official Unholy Trinity quotes, “Pavelic’s contacts are so high and his present position is so compromising to the Vatican, that any extradition of [Pavelic] would deal a staggering blow to the Roman Catholic Church.”
Any right-thinking person ought to ask why the very highest officials in the Catholic Church, including the pope, would associate with and even protect Croatian fascists. Is that the kind of history more “conservative” Vatican officials today want to hold on to?
“For fugitive Nazis,” Aarons and Loftus wrote, “all roads led to Rome.”
High-ranking ministers, civil servants, even Ante Pavelic himself, with help from the Vatican’s Ratlines, were able to disappear into thin air, intelligence sources have confirmed. At the time, the Vatican labeled these escapees “refugees.” But they were Croatian fascists who were helping Hitler’s regime!
Remember this all happened at the end of World War II!
Pope Pius XII was by far the greatest Nazi smuggler at the end of World War II! The man who succeeded him as pope, Giovanni Montini, was also deeply involved in this crime against humanity!
What if this Holy Roman Empire turns its wrath toward America, first of all, the next time around? That is precisely what the post-World War II Nazi underground has pledged to do!
They know that we mass-produced most of the armaments that beat them in World Wars I and II.
We can’t afford to take this lightly.
These shocking facts reveal that the Vatican was deeply involved with the Germans in World War II. There is simply no other explanation. But most people continue to ignore the truth—to their own great peril!
Aarons and Loftus understand the important history between Croatia and the papacy, dating back to a.d. 700. The Catholic Church has been involved in mass murder since a.d. 514, when the first Holy Roman Empire began. This church has more to hide—or repent of—than any other institution in the history of the world!
A church either represents the true God or it is a false church. And because a church supposedly represents God, it must be held very accountable. It certainly is by God, if not by man. Read Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34 to see how severely God judges rebellious pastors.
The most terrifying history by far is coming in the very near future. It is time we understand the truth. The worst mistake you can make is to refuse to understand!
Germany and the Vatican primarily started the war in Yugoslavia. This is the so-called Holy Roman Empire in action! This power should be feared 1000 times more than the Serbs. Still the world races madly toward disaster because men refuse to face the truth.
Why can’t we see that Germany and the Vatican are renewing their ties from World War II? A history that reaches back to Charlemagne.
Why would a church which is supposed to teach God’s love again ally itself with Croatia and Germany, considering their heinous Nazi crimes? Wouldn’t a repentant church or state do just the opposite? Unless they plan for a future somewhat akin to the dream of Adolf Hitler!
Margaret Thatcher was the only high-ranking politician who would even discuss the “German problem.” Only she had the understanding and courage to do so!
No politician has yet had the courage to discuss the Vatican problem. That attitude can only lead to a bloody disaster.
So expect Germany to repeat their history. How could we expect it to be otherwise?
Thatcher came to see that she and President Mitterrand of France could do nothing to stop German reunification. She and the whole world must come to see that nothing can stop Germany’s rise to power and the resulting destruction it will bring on the world scene. That is because God is raising Germany to punish biblical Israel—mainly the American and British peoples—for their sins, unless they repent! (See Isaiah 10:5-7.)
Our reaction should not be to rise up and try to stop Germany. That wouldn’t work. Our only hope is to repent of our sins. Then God would humble Germany.
The new Charlemagne is to lead the world into the greatest sea of blood that humanity has ever seen or even dreamed about. Whether we realize it or not, the Fourth Reich has arrived—though still in disguise to most of the world.
The Modern Charlemagne
We are going to see the rise of a man who is prophesied to do great evil. And he undoubtedly will be a German. “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up” (Dan. 8:23). This verse is dual. It applies to Antiochus Epiphanes anciently. But it also refers to the end time, “when the sinners fill up their measure” (literal translation). Mankind is not getting better and better, as evolutionists and others think! Just the reverse is happening in this “latter time”!
A leader will rise who is the epitome of all this end-time evil. He has a “fierce countenance,” meaning he is unyielding and merciless. The expression “dark sentences,” most commentaries agree, means he conceals his true motives. He is highly skilled at intrigue, deceit, double-talk and double-dealing. He comes to destroy, but is disguised as a peacemaker! Like Satan, he comes as “an angel of light.”
The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary relates that anciently, “Antiochus made himself master of Egypt and Jerusalem successively by craft.” JFB then quotes two verses from the book of Maccabees: “The king sent his chief collector of tribute, who came unto Jerusalem with a great multitude, and spake peaceable words unto them; but all was deceit: for when they had given him credence, he fell suddenly upon the city, and smote it very sore, and destroyed much people of Israel…. Antiochus sent also that detestable ringleader, Apollonius, with an army of two and twenty thousand, commanding him to slay all those that were in their best age, and to sell the women and the younger sort; who, coming to Jerusalem, and pretending peace, did forbear till the holy day of the Sabbath, when, taking the Jews keeping holyday, he commanded his men to arm themselves, and so he slew all them that were gone to the celebrating of the Sabbath” (I Macc. 1:30; II Macc. 5:24).
This is the kind of leader who is about to rise in Germany!
The European Union
“And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people” (Dan. 8:24). He destroys, “but not by his own power.” Ten nations will be unified. This political power is guided by a great false church. But the real power is from Satan himself! (Rev. 13:2; 17:13). This will be the European Union led by Germany and the Vatican. It is a power that will terrify the entire earth!
The “holy people” shall also be destroyed. God’s own rebellious church will be destroyed by this beast power. This ought to sober and motivate all of God’s people! Unfortunately, most of them continue to sleep.
“And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand” (Dan. 8:25). The word “craft” means fraud. The expression “by peace he shall destroy many” means he is pretending “peace” and friendship. Then suddenly comes the malignant shock! He destroys suddenly, while his enemy is in a peaceful state of mind. This illustrates the deceitful malice practiced by this political tyrant.
The good news is that it’s connected directly to the return of Jesus Christ. Do we realize how close we are to this magnificent event? Christ will destroy that great empire and rule this earth! We must not lose sight of this glorious end!
A great false religious leader is also going to come on the scene about the same time. He will be allied with this political leader of “fierce countenance” (Rev. 17:5). The fulfillment of these mind-chilling prophecies is almost ready to explode on the world scene! We must stay close to God so that we can escape this gigantic nightmare.
This vision was so stark and grisly that it caused Daniel to get sick and faint (Dan. 8:27). If a vision did that to Daniel, what will the actual event be like?
A Religious Clash
The pope said, “It must be understood that Jews, who for 2,000 years were dispersed among the nations of the world, had decided to return to the land of their ancestors. This is their right.
“And this right,” he said, “is recognized even by those who look upon the nation of Israel with an unsympathetic eye” (Parade interview). This is a very significant and dramatic statement. The pope knows there are millions of Arabs who have an “unsympathetic eye” toward Jerusalem! This statement is sure to offend many Arabs. And that is doubly true concerning radical Islam.
Already friction is building between the Islamic world and the Catholic Church. The Bible says this division will lead to a great clash.
“And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over” (Dan. 11:40).
The king of the south will undoubtedly be radical Islam, led by Iran. We had thought in the past that the “push” would be a cutting off of oil supplies to the European Union, which is the king of the north. But it now seems so much more likely that the “push” is going to be over Jerusalem. That city is the third-most holy city in the Arab world. And the pope has publicly talked of possibly moving his headquarters there.
These two great and powerful religions passionately desire Jerusalem. Most believe these events are leading to peace. Actually they are leading to war!
“He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon” (v. 41). The king of the north conquers the king of the south. Then he “enters” into “the glorious land”—or Jerusalem. If the “push” will be over Jerusalem, it would be a natural step to then “enter.” The Hebrew word for “enter” indicates this is a peaceful entry—not done by military force.
For many years, the Vatican demanded that Jerusalem be internationalized, or ruled by the international community. In recent months, Yasser Arafat has been pleading for the same situation.
After war explodes in the Middle East, there will probably be a thunderous call for a peacekeeper in Jerusalem. The king of the north will no doubt take the job, but then will quickly become a war-maker! (Ezekiel 23 discusses a shameful double-cross. Write for our free booklet The Ezekiel Watchman.)
By peace he shall destroy many! (Dan. 8:25.) A great church actually guides this militaristic union. It looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon! (Rev. 13:2.) That makes the political beast, which is empowered by Satan, all the more deceitful.
This great religion is a “mystery” to the world (Rev. 17:7). Today, most of the truth is underground—hidden from the world. But that is changing fast.
Russia and China will then strike fear in the king of the north. “But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many” (Dan. 11:44). The king of the north is then defeated. “And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him” (v. 45). Here we see a great religious leader—“tabernacles of his palace”—moving his headquarters to Jerusalem. But he also comes to his end. Why?
Here is another statement by the pope: “We trust that with the approach of the year 2000, Jerusalem will become the city of peace for the entire world and that all the people will be able to meet there, in particular the believers in the religions that find their birthright in the faith of Abraham” (ibid.).
The pope is right! “Jerusalem will become the city of peace for the entire world,” but not the way he believes.
The “Holy” Roman Empire’s version of “peace” has brought nothing but rivers of blood. History’s record cannot be ignored!
Jesus Christ, on the other hand, has an unblemished record of peace. He will soon return to this earth and give its inhabitants rivers of living water.– Security checkpoints were set up on Staten Island late Friday afternoon after several people were spotted carrying what looked like assault rifles – but police later said the weapons were likely paintball guns.
The NYPD had issued a “be on the lookout” alert after several people carrying what appeared to be assault rifles were photographed at the Midland Beach parking lot.
The photos were taken by a retired member of the NYPD, CBS2’s Dave Carlin reported.
The images showed a man and woman handling the rifles and pointing them in the windows of two cars.
But NYPD firearms experts conducted a forensic examination of the photographs, and their preliminary opinion was that “the weapons in the pictures strongly resemble replicas of firearms used in paintball games,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism John Miller said in a statement.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
Network Rail has ‘lost its grip’ on projects like the Manchester-Leeds electrification - and it’s costing the taxpayer.
That’s the damning conclusion from the Committee of Public Accounts, appointed by the House of Commons to probe how public cash is spent.
The TransPennine electrification was ‘paused’ after an original budget of £260m escalated to what experts claim could have been £600m following Network Rail ‘failings’.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced it was back on track last month following an M.E.N campaign - and there is now a 2024 completion date. But the cost has not been revealed.
The Committee of Public Account report highlights severe planning and budgeting failures in Network Rail’s current five-year investment programme.
It says the Department for Transport, Network Rail and the Office of Rail and Roads wrongly agreed an ‘unrealistic’ programme for 2014-19.
It says there is still ‘far too much uncertainty’ over costs and delivery dates for the TransPennine electrification.
Such are the committee’s concerns, it has called for a review of the Office of Rail and Roads role and effectiveness.
It also calls for a new and realistic programme of electrification.
Committee chair Meg Hillier MP said: “Network Rail has lost its grip on managing large infrastructure projects.
“The result is a two-fold blow to taxpayers: delays in the delivery of promised improvements, and a vastly bigger bill for delivering them.”
Slamming the ‘continuing uncertainty’ over the Manchester-Leeds electrification, she added: “The government has identified rail infrastructure as a vital part of its economic plans, for example in establishing what it describes as a ‘Northern Powerhouse’.
“It is alarming that, in planning work intended to support these plans, its judgement should be so flawed.”
He said the agreed work could never have been delivered within the agreed timeline and budget - but the DfT and Office and Rail and Road signed up anyway.
“Passengers and the public are paying a heavy price and we must question whether the ORR is fit for purpose,” he added.
(Image: Mark Waugh)
Network Rail sets out five-yearly budget plans.
In October 2013, a £38.3bn rail programme was agreed for April 2014-March 2019.
In June 2015, the government called for three reviews into Network Rail over concerns the scheme was taking too long and costing too much.
In response to the CPA report, A Network Rail spokesman said the industry had been ‘overly ambitious’ with the funds and resources available.
He said they had delivered 5,000 projects over the last five years but added; “Our understanding of how best to plan and deliver major new electrification schemes was not good enough. We have now made significant changes to the way we plan and deliver our investment programme, which will see schemes progress only once they are sufficiently developed that a reliable cost estimate can be established.”
A DfT spokesperson said: “We are proud to have a hugely ambitious investment programme, but agree that lessons should be learned on all sides.
“We are committed to seeing the £38 billion programme through and delivering the railway passengers deserve. That’s why the Secretary of State asked Dame Colette Bowe to look at the lessons learned and make recommendations on what can be done better in future, and why Sir Peter Hendy is developing proposals to get the rail upgrade programme back on track and ensure it is both affordable and deliverable. Both reports will be published later in the autumn. We will respond to the committee in due course.”Is it possible liberal billionaires would support a racist group that markets white guilt for political gain and embraces activists calling for the lynching of white people and cops?
In November, members of Black Lives Matter (BLM) met behind closed doors with Democracy Alliance, a coterie of wealthy liberals who have pledged to fund leftist organizations.
The donor club was founded by former Clinton Treasury official Rob Stein. Members include the billionaire “philanthropist” George Soros, Taco Bell silver spoon baby Rob McKay, uber liberal Norman Lear, “meathead” Rob Reiner, co-founder of Tides Network Drummond Pike, SEIU boss Anna Burger (members of the union like to beat up opponents), and former Rockefeller Family Fund president Anne Bartley.
“The DA, as the club is known in Democratic circles, is recommending its donors step up check writing to a handful of endorsed groups that have supported the Black Lives Matter movement. And the club and some of its members also are considering ways to funnel support directly to scrappier local groups that have utilized confrontational tactics to inject their grievances into the political debate,” Politico reported.
Investigative journalist James Simpson has exposed connections between BLM and a constellation of leftist and Marxist groups, a number of them established as fronts by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).
“BLM is one of many projects undertaken by the FRSO,” writes Simpson. He points out that FRSO and BLM receive funding through the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA). “FRSO/BLM organizations are generously supported by a universe of wealthy foundations. Some, like those employing BLM founders [Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi] receive money directly.”
Many FRSO connected leftist and Marxist groups are also funded by other wealthy individuals, foundations, and corporations, including Kellogg, Ben & Jerry’s, Soros Funds, Hewlett, Rockefeller, Heinz, and others.
The Ford Foundation tops the list of NDWA financial contributors. It has funded CIA cultural fronts since the 1950s.
“At times it seemed as if the Ford Foundation was simply an extension of Government in the area of international cultural propaganda. The Ford Foundation had a record of close involvement in covert actions in Europe, working closely with Marshall Plan and CIA officials on specific projects,” writes the author of The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters, Frances Stonor Saunders.
It may seem contradictory for the state and wealthy liberals—many undoubtedly brainwashed dupes—to support organizations and individuals calling for abolishing capitalism and advocating the most severe form of Marxist ideology.
As the late Gary Allen so eloquently pointed out (None Dare Call It Conspiracy), socialism is a perfect mechanism for controlling humanity.
“If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth program, but is in reality a method to consolidate and control the wealth, then the seeming paradox of superrich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all. Instead it becomes the logical, even the perfect tool of power-seeking megalomaniacs. Communism, or more accurately, socialism, is not a movement of the downtrodden masses, but of the economic elite.”New questions about the integrity of Donald Trump’s income tax returns, and new indications that he does not pay income taxes, arise from rulings in two tax appeals that Trump filed in the 1990s. Trump lost both cases.
Trump’s 1984 federal income tax return included a Schedule C, the form used by sole proprietors, the decision in the first case shows.
Trump listed no income on that form, yet he deducted $626,264 as expenses. His New York City tax return also showed no income, but listed slightly less in expenses: $619,227.
No receipts, invoices, or other documentation were provided when Trump was under audit or during his appeal from what he argued was an unfair demand for more tax.
“The record does not explain how Petitioner [Trump] had significant expenses without any concomitant income from his consulting business,” wrote H. Gregory Tillman, the city administrative law judge who heard the case on April 29 and May 28 of 1992.
Jack Mitnick, the lawyer and accountant who prepared Trump’s tax returns for more than two decades, was Trump’s only witness. Mitnick testified that he was “thoroughly familiar” with the Trump tax returns and all aspects of the finances of Trump Tower, which were central to the appeal.
But when shown a photocopy of Trump’s 1984 tax return, Mitnick testified that “we did not” prepare that return, referring to himself and his firm, and he said did not know who did. However, Mitnick did not dispute that it was his signature on the photocopy.
The original tax return was never found, the judge noted.
Among the issues raised by Mitnick’s 1992 testimony is whether Trump or someone acting on his behalf substituted a return that he or someone else prepared and then transferred Mitnick’s signature using a photocopier.
Mitnick, now 71 and semi-retired, told me in a telephone interview Tuesday that he had no recollection of that case or a second appeal in which he represented Trump, whose returns he prepared until about 1995.
The second case was before the New York State Division of Tax Appeals in 1994 and concerned taxes on profits from selling units in an East 61st Street apartment building which was 90 percent owned by Trump, with his brother Robert and aide Louise Sunshine splitting the remaining share.
Again the issue was 1984 deductions Trump took without providing any documentation to auditors or when Frank W. Barrie, a state administrative law judge, heard his appeal.
It was in this appeal that the record shows Trump paid no income tax in 1984.
“Mr. Mitnick has prepared Donald Trump’s income tax returns for the last 20 years and testified that Mr. Trump had no income tax due against with the credit ‘could have been applied,’” Judge Barrie wrote in his 23-page opinion.
In the city case, Judge Tillman noted that Trump complained of double taxation, but found that claim baseless. Using bold face to emphasize his point, Judge Tillman wrote, “The problem at issue is not one of double taxation, but of no taxation.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to an emailed list of detailed questions about the two cases. A second email was also ignored.
These two decisions should prompt new calls for Trump to release his tax returns. He claims, falsely, that he cannot release his returns since 2012 because they are being audited. But a tax return is filed under penalty of perjury and releasing a return has no effect on an audit, as many tax authorities (including a former IRS commissioner) have noted.
But even accepting Trump’s specious claim, no reason exists for him to withhold his complete returns from 1980 through 2011 since by his account those audits are closed.
And to be clear, releasing just the summary of the tax return, the Form 1040, is not adequate. Trump, like all candidates as well as sitting presidents and vice presidents, should disclose his complete tax returns including every form, schedule, statement, and the worksheets so we see just how the tax liability was determined.
That Trump has no intention of ever releasing his tax returns became clear on May 13 when he snapped at an ABC anchor that his federal income tax rate “is none of your business.”
The tradition of presidential candidates disclosing their tax returns has an august purpose: making sure that another criminal is not a heartbeat from the presidency or in the Oval Office.
The disclosure tradition dates to when Spiro Agnew resigned as vice president in 1973 and then plead guilty to a tax crime. President Richard Nixon was an unindicted conspirator in a felony for which his tax lawyer Edward L. Morgan went to prison for creating a fraudulent $576,000 tax deduction on his behalf—one of the specifications in the impeachment proceedings that never came to a vote because Nixon resigned in August 1974.
Hillary Clinton, Trump’s expected opponent in the November election, and her husband have made public their complete tax returns going back more than three decades. Their returns since 1992 are available here.
Congressional Republicans who are distressed about Trump’s fitness to run for president could make his tax returns public. Indeed, in the 1920s tax returns were public record and newspapers routinely reported the precise income and tax paid by prominent Americans.
Congress could simply add a one-line amendment to Section 6103 of the tax code, which makes returns confidential, providing that the nominee of any party whose name appears on the ballot in say 10 or more states will have his or her complete tax returns, for as many years as the IRS has copies, posted on the IRS website.
Such a rule would be based on an objective standard—appearing on the ballots of many states as a presidential candidate—and thus any federal court should dismiss a legal attack as unfounded with an expedited appeal to the Supreme Court.
The record in these two cases offers clear evidence that Trump, at least in these two instances, has played fast and loose with his obligations as a taxpayer. It could throw light on why he’s offered so many different explanations about why he hasn’t disclosed his complete tax returns at least through the year 2011.
The facts in the two appeals could arguably be construed as evidence of calculated tax fraud, a felony. They certainly cry out for disclosure because, as Richard Nixon told us, Americans should know to a certainty that their president is no crook.- Dungeons. I want traditional Dungeons, that are very maze-like, very big, themed, and well-designed, including the Key Searching, the important-item hidden away, Boss Key, at least one mini boss, some neat gimmicks, etc.- The lack of physics engine. I LOVE physics puzzles and I find ragdoll do always be very amusing, but I feel it does not 'fit' in a Zelda for me. And as good and multi-solveable as they were, the physics puzzles did not feel as satesfying for me. Basically all games does physics puzzles. Zelda could still make amazing and creative puzzled without it. Though, the engine they made is one of the best I have seen, I admit. Ragdoll, as well, I feel does not 'fit'. Plus, it is so easy to abuse it, even on huge moblins.- Story. While I do not care for story THAT much, it felt a bit underwhelming with the memories and such, and it did not have the epic-sense-of-adventure-story that I felt from OoT and TP and such, as linear as some parts of those games are.- Voice acting. Most agrees that the voices in BOTW are hit or miss, and overall, I prefer having no actual voice acting. Cuz' then at least they cannot do it badly, hah.- Bosses and enemies. The nature of such a huge game means that enemies and bosses will be reused a LOT, which will eventually get a bit dull. I understand working so long on something like the Bokoblins, and even things like Hinox, means they feel it is a waste to have them be so limited. But that makes replaying the game, or just playing it for a long time, not feel as exciting. In past games, most dungeons or special areas had unique enemies that you might only see once or twice in a playthrough. Which made it fun to replay it and meet these rare bosses and enemies and etc. When you always see the same bosses and enemies over and over, and learn them, it both gets too easy, and less exciting. Note that I am not saying the enemies and bosses are bad, they are VERY good in this game, but... yeah.- Gear and Weapons. As awesome it is to use basically whatever you want, it takes away from the 'iconic' feel of the franchise when they give you too many options. I do not think any of the new items or weapons/clothes are very iconic, the Blue Standard one aside maybe. And the Runes are, personally, a bit boring compared to having actual items.- Also, the actual climbing, which I also do love and is glad they made, I'd prefer to not have in future Zelda games. I get that they have it for such a open game, but I feel it makes areas... a but of a waste. When you can climb over everything, it takes away areas that feel cool and special in a sense. I like pre-determined places and encloused areas that are more 'well made' and thought-out. Plus, I get little satesfaction climbing over everything, since it means I rarely get a sence of accomplishment for getting past something.- Difficulity. I feel it is allover the place. On one hand, it is 'too hard' as enemies often one-hit-KO you. But then you CAN make it super easy by upgrading gear a few times. As well as the basically limitless amount of food and healing you have. I miss having maybe a few Bottles of Magic stuff to heal myself with, and finding hearts in grass and from enemies. The pause thing to constantly heal up with food is not as interesting to me. However, also do not have it AS easy as other 3D Zelda games. Have it somewhere in-between, but with the return of hearts and potions, hah.
Note that I, again, do not dislike BOTW. I love it, and I love what it is and what is does. And had Aonuma said that style would live on next to the traditional 3D Style, I'd be allover it, but I do not want it to fully replace it. :cOver the past few months I have covered a number of handy Ubuntu applications that many users might not be aware of. I thought it would be a good idea to compile a list of these useful applications for my readers. While I have tried to avoid very common applications like GIMP, ShotWell, TweetDeck, Pidgin, etc, some of you may or may not find the below applications common. I have noticed that apps which may appear generic or common for some users are unheard by others, so I have compiled a list keeping in mind the needs of both of kind of Ubuntu users. Some of these applications might be Ubuntu specific but many also have versions for other Linux operating systems, including RedHat, CentOS, OpenSUSE, Fedora, ArchLinux and others. Hope you all enjoy the list and find some useful applications to benefit from. Note: Click the application names hyperlinked in blue to see their review and download links.
1. Turpial (Twitter Client with a minimalist interface).
2. Natural Scrolling (Get Mac OS X “Natural Scrolling” feature in Ubuntu).
3. LiveUSB Install (Easily create Linux live USB, CD/DVD & download ISO images)
4. MyUnity (Comprehensive Unity tweak for Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, 11.04 Natty Narwhal and 12.04 Precise Pangolin).
5. QMediaInfo (Get information about media file attributes, including audio files, videos and photos).
6. Kazam (Create video screencasts with voice over and upload it to YouTube or VideoBin).
7. XScreenSaver (Application that provides a set of screensavers. Can be used to replace the blank Gnome 3 screensaver).
8. Cryptkeeper (Encrypt Folders)
9. Nautilus Terminal (Embedd the Terminal to Nautilus)
10. Gnome Tweak Tool (Application for tweaking Gnome 3 settings)
11. Gloobus Preview (Preview any kind of audio, video or code file before opening it).
12. Deja Dup Backup (As most you you know this is a file backup application, the reason I have added it to the list is as the link above will provide you with a comprehensive guide on Deja Dup Backup).
13. Gnome Pie (Hotkey based application launcher).
14. Ubuntu One Indicator (Displays upload and download stats for Ubuntu One).
15. Simple LightDM Manager (Change Ubuntu logon screen background image).
16. PlexyDesk (Widget based application to bring color to your desktop).
17. Audicious (Lightweight audio player for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions).
18. Touchpad Indicator (Automatically disable touchpad when the mouse is plugged in to your laptop).
19. Gnome Subtitles (Edit, split, merge and create subtitles).
20. GM Notify (Get Gmail notifications using Notify OSD (bubble) messages).
21. Hamster Indicator (Time tracking application to track time spent on numerous tasks).
22. HardInfo (Get detailed hardware information about your computer, including processor type, USB device ports, RAM, battery, hard disk, etc).
23. Synapse (Quickly search for videos, audio files, documents, applications, images, etc on your computer).
24. Guake (Tabbled Linux Terminal with hotkey support).
25. CLI Companion ( GUI based Terminal).
26. Screenlets (Wiget packed application containing all kinds of handy desktop gadgets).
27. Apt Fast (Command line utility to speed up Apt-Get downloads).
28. Angry IP Scanner (Scan and locate active/inactive IPs on a network).
29. Y PPA Manager (Search and Add PPAs easily from the internet, using the application’s name).
30. SysPeek (Monitor CPU usage, RAM, hard disk, etc from the app-indicator menu).
31. Gnac (Convert audio files and extract audio from video files).
32. Bleeding Edge (Install applications not present in default Ubuntu repositories in a click).
33. Slingshot (Get Mac OS X style Launchpad).
34. DockbarX (Highly customizable dock with transparent glass effect).
35. UGet (Download manger).
36. Puddletag (Tag, edit and auto arrange audio files).
37. Lookit (screenshot taking application).
38. Boot Up Manager ( Start, stop Ubuntu services).
39. Nautilus Facebook Uploader (Upload photos and videos to your Facebook account).
40. Back in Time (Backup tool for Linux computers, alternative to Deja Dup Backup).
41. Boot Repair (Fix Ubuntu boot problems).
42. My Weather Indicator (Get weather forecasts).
43. Sunflower (Dual pane file browser).
44. dmidecode (CLI based tool for obtaining detailed hardware information).
45. Gmediafinder (Stream YouTube videos without flash).
46. Cairo Dock (Mac style dock for Linux).
47. iptux (LAN Messenger for Linux).
48. Gnome Activity Journal (Find and locate recently downloaded files).
49. LiVES (Advanced video editing application for Linux).
50. Noow (Cross-platform application for streaming and downloading videos, file management, downloading torrents and more).
If you know of a useful application that is not covered at WML Cloud, then leave a comment or email me at admin@wmlcloud.com. You can check for reviewed applications by entering their names in the search box at the top of each page (before tipping me). If you likethis list, please share it with your friends. The sharing buttons are located below.Hey Gang!
Every day is looking brighter here at YEI Technology! The settlement between YEI Corp and YEI Tech has been finalized and signed! What this means is YEI Technology is now officially an independent company. This change in ownership and structure has allowed us to move forward with PrioVR and as a company.
Along with this new found independence, several of the PrioVR production roadblocks are being lifted! Plastic cases, sensors and circuit board are gearing up for manufacturing; while the software continues to be refined.
Paul has recruited VR industry veteran Greg Merril as our new CEO. Greg is focused on helping the business side of the company so Paul can focus on getting back to R&D innovation. Greg is very familiar with technology startups and has had exceptional success. His previous efforts have lead to numerous product design awards including Best Wearable Technology from the 2015 International Sports Technology Awards. To learn more about Greg please check out his LinkedIn profile here.
The bases are loaded and we are stepping up to the plate. We are ready to take this home!Developer: Volition, High Voltage Software
Publisher: Deep Silver
Platforms: PC (review platform), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360
PC version reviewed. Machine specs: Intel i7-4770k, 8GB RAM, 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 770. Used Xbox 360 controller to play.
Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell is a $20 stand-alone expansion to Saints Row IV. Let that sink in for a second and adjust your expectations accordingly. Think Blood Dragon, not Far Cry 3. With that out of the way and our expectations adjusted, let’s jump right in.
The President of the United States/God-Emperor for Life (Appearance imported from your Saints Row IV save if you have one) has been kidnapped by Satan after a bizarre but hilarious incident with a Ouija board. Johnny Gat and Kinzie follow The Boss into Hell with one goal: Shoot Satan in the face.
Volition… Are you telling me that I get to play a Saints Row game where Johnny Gat is not only the player character, he calls the shots and stages a violent takeover of Hell? I’m in love already.
G |
place, only one person's ever really killed me. Well, plenty of people have killed my body, but I think I can count the number who've made me say uncle."She stared into space, as if reminiscing about the past, and loudly gnashed her teeth as she laughed."Let me see... I think Old Man Kishua was first. Saint-Germain the hedonist; the fairy-tale witch who lives forever — oh, I guessed it's 'lived' forever now — then there was that rich bloodsucker in Monaco... and a teacher at some school who uses Godo Word, a super old dialect... and speaking of teachers, there were also my masters in magecraft, and..."The litany of names and words made Faldeus, who was versed in every secret corner of magical society, wonder if it was some kind of joke. The final nickname out of Francesca's mouth, however, sparked a particularly strong recollection in him."Oh! And that girl! Scar Red!""...It's more than your life's worth to call her that to her face."The peculiar nickname, charged with both scorn and awe, belonged to one of the Clock Tower's greatest mages, a genius puppeteer who far outranked Faldeus and Rohngall. Among mages affiliated with the Clock Tower, it was simultaneously rather famous and an absolute taboo.That woman mage, who had ultimately achieved the rank of Grand, had been granted a "Color" — effectively a title — by the Clock Tower. She had not been able to obtain her coveted title of "Blue," however, and had ended up receiving a shade close to "Red"; not even the actual primary color. She harbored an abnormal hatred of the aforementioned nickname, which she had been given sarcastically as a result. It was rumored that she would kill anyone who used it to her face, without exception. Faldeus knew that it was no mere rumor; it was the undeniable truth.Although... I suppose Ms. Francesca might actually do it..."Yup, even I was no exception," Francesca cackled, as if she had guessed Faldeus' thoughts. "I said it to her face, and I ended up getting killed!"After her laughter had subsided, Francesca puffed up her cheeks and looked a little cross."It really was awful, you know? You see, she's stubborn, and crafty, and she smashes up people's workshops and swipes whatever strikes her fancy, and even when you turn the tables and kill her instead, she just activates the _______ built into her body, and then she comes back acting all innocent. After she'd killed me about thirteen times, I put in a request with her family and got them to intercede, but..."Francesca sighed and shook her head. Presumably something had happened between her and the "family.""In the end, she killed me one last time, and threatened me, all, 'never show your twisted Magic Circuits in front of me again'! And that's how I ended up in this body."At that point Francesca regained her grin, and flexed her body alluringly. "What do you think?" The gesture seemed to ask. Faldeus, however, did not turn a hair, and raised a question of his own."You got that body roughly three years ago, correct? Is that the reason you were strongly opposed when the higher ups at the time suggested hiring her?""Well, that was part of it... Either way, I bet she would've turned you down. She only takes jobs that suit her tastes. Apparently her family values interest over money. Oh, but she might have cooperated if you'd asked her to make a puppet that incarnates Heroic Spirits."When she had finished talking about mages who were not currently directly involved in this Grail War, Francesca suddenly wiped the grin from her face."I may not be one to talk, but the memory copies in Scar Red's puppets are perfect. So perfect that it makes me wonder if she even copies her soul.""That's..."Faldeus started to say something in response to the girl's words, but then he furrowed his brows and thought better of it. Francesca then casually spoke the words he had hesitated to."You're wondering if she might've arrived at the Third Magic, right? Well, if she has, it'd make everything we're doing a farce, and that would be hilarious! Ha ha!"The girl burst into another fit of laughter. Faldeus, across from her, heaved another sigh, and the wrinkles on his brow deepened."There's nothing funny about it. I would be a lost to not only this country, but to magical society in general.""It's fine. I'm sure the Third Magic will stop being Magic before long. Speaking of which, did you forget you guys' ultimate goal? 'Drag the Third Magic down to the level of magecraft'?""...Our goal? Don't you mean yours?""It's on my list, but it's just one stop on the way. I think we'll be able to reproduce it once the pioneers of the stars advance a few more levels. Same for the Holy Grail War itself. So, I'm going to be starting as many Grail Wars as I can. I'd like you guys to show some enthusiasm analyzing its pattern."Francesca's tone had grown gentle, as if out of affection for something. Faldeus' eyes widened."I was certain you were aiming to become the master of the Third Magic.""What a surprise," Francesca laughed. Then she stretched out her legs on the sofa, and leapt energetically to her feet."Upsy-daisy... Well, Scar Red aside, let's just leave it that it's not even possible, given my nature... What'd be the fun be in a mage like me becoming a Magician this late in the game?""...Those don't sound like the words of someone who was just calling other 'hedonists,' and 'families that don't act unless they're interested.'""Did I say I was any different? Although, I am cuter than those two.""..."Faldeus' face said that he was exasperated beyond words. The smile Francesca flashed was unlike the innocent grins she had worn so far. There was something mature and bewitching about it."Magecraft, which people can recreate, is fine. But Magic defines human limits. We'd be better off without it. I believe that, and I also believe the folly of facing that wall is human nature."Then she quietly shut her eyes, as if pondering the future of the "festival" that was about to begin."Whether it's rooted in bottomless virtue... or malice with no upper limit."The meat processing plant. Basement."I would ask that you answer my question, O mage."A "great hero." Or else something that left even such words in its wake."Is it you who is to become my Master, and assign me trials?"There was no other way to describe the being that had manifested in the basement of the meat processing plant, surrounded by a multi-layered barrier."You're the one to decide that, not me," the man who had summoned him, Bazdilot Cordelion, replied coolly.The suit-clad mages who served him, meanwhile, were making their Magic Circuits tremble as they broke out in cold sweats. One look was all it had taken to make them understand that the entity that had just manifested belonged on a different plane from themselves.First, its stature exceeded human bounds. It looked like a statue carved by a god. More than two and a half meters in height, the tips of its hair brushed the ceiling. It was a great, muscular man, but every fiber of his muscles, and every drop of blood in his veins, was overflowing with Od so pure it could be called divine. The mages got the impression that his body alone would be sufficient to easily dispel even large-scale magecraft that required a group to cast, not to mention their mediocre spells.The mere atmosphere he exuded was enough to dominate the room. A mere few seconds of his conduct was enough to make those who saw him feel that he was practically divine. If this Heroic Spirit were to go out of control, there would be nothing they could do, and. Such fantasies began to seize Bazdilot's men in the presence of the perfect figure.The Heroic Spirit was, in fact, capable of slaughtering every human in the room bare-handed. In contrast to the pressure exerted by his body and his magical energy, however, he stood in the center of the workshop with the calm bearing of a gentleman.That, however, only made the Heroic Spirit's exceptional nature more obvious, and all the mages there, except for Bazdilot, had their brain's continually rocked by the urge to flee. This was no place for worthless mages like themselves. They were looking on a being it was not right for them to look on.And yet, not one of them moved. Their fear was being kept in check by a greater fear. They could not run away while Bazdilot was still there. That was the only reason."______________________.""______________________."Bazdilot was discussing something with the Heroic Spirit, but the men did not hear it. It was a conversation between a being that was far more than human, and their own ruler. By the time they did manage to make out the words, the Heroic Spirit's expression had clouded over. Faced with a Heroic Spirit in an obvious ill humor, their superior, Bazdilot, remained expressionless."Well? Answer the question.""...""I asked you if, in order to achieve victory in battle, you could kill a small child with your own hands.""I could not. If any person would order such a thing, that person is my enemy."A solemn voice flowed from the lips of the expressionless hero."Are you... testing me?"An invisible pressure caused a wind to gust through the workshop as he spoke. It was pure might; not magical energy. A presence so weighty that an ordinary human could hardly help losing their life from suffering it head-on robbed the mage's of their freedom of movement."If you speak thus, knowing my origins... I judge that you have taken your life in your hands."From the perspective of the extraneous mages, those words, delivered with such force, sounded like nothing less than a sentence of death. They prepared themselves to become collateral damage. And yet, they felt no hatred for their superior; only fear mixed with resignation.That superior — unfazed in the face of the pressure that threatened to crush him, room and all — returned the hero's glare with that inhuman gleam in his eyes, and gave his answer."Naturally. I threw my life away a long time ago."Then he held his right hand aloft, making the design on its back shine."By my Command Seal, I order you:""...Foolish."The Heroic Spirit shook his head, judging that the man intended to impose his dominance by means of a Command Seal.Restraints effected by means of a Command Seal were merely momentary. He knew that he could easily shake them off with his own magical energy. Even if he was ordered to kill himself with all three Command Seals, he judged that. He decided, however, that if the attempt would teach the mage the futility of binding him with Command Seals, and help him to understand his place, he would not prevent the mage from wasting one Seal.The Heroic Spirit was too noble. Had he been the type to stick at nothing in the face of danger, he would have smashed in the mage's head or sent it flying before he could finish activating his Command Seals. In fact, if he had been summoned as Rider or Assassin, he would probably have done just that. When summoned as one of the three knights, as he was now, however, his aspect as a "faultless hero," handed down in epics, came strongly to the fore. Accordingly, he had taken on a dignity that resembled a form of chivalry.That created a fatal chink in the armor of that great hero beyond human understanding. For the order barked at him by means of a Command Seal was no demand for an oath of loyalty."Do not make excuses."The hero let out a startled cry as one of Bazdilot's Command Seals shone... and its potent magical energy began to eat its way into his brain.Impossible.Even including past Grail Wars, the hero's magical energy was top class. The witches of the age of the gods would be one thing, but no modern mage should be capable of interfering with his mind. But, although it was through a Command Seal, "something" in the mage before his eyes had begun to jolt his brains. The hero recalled that he had experienced a similar gnawing sensation once before. Something of the same kind was being loosed into him by the man before his eyes."What... have you...""There is no need to hide your crimes, or your regrets. Lay bare your depths. I will see it all."Bazdilot, still expressionless, tempted the hero in a voice that seemed to sound from the depths of hell."I do not need your power as a hero. I need the avarice that will drive you to stick at nothing for the sake of your goal. I need the deluded conviction that will drive a man to choose any vicious means without hesitation, even in pursuit of noble ends," he murmured to the now motionless Heroic Spirit, and raised his left hand a second time."By my Command Seal, I order you once more: remember theyou have seen."There must have been some special meaning in those words. Otherwise, they must have been charged with some malefic intent.The Command Seal, become a mass of magical energy, took the order that shook the hero's ears and caused it to seep deep into his brain.His vision flickered. In the intervals, the faces of all the human beings the hero had encountered in life floated. There were distant descendents of gods among them, but before him they had all been no more than "mere humans."A tyrant, a picture of cowardice, wailed, too frightened to stand:A blond man, remarkable for his haughty bearing, said:Just before she had chosen her own death, the woman he had loved said:Just before he stove his head in and flung him into the flames, what should have been an enemy soldier had said:Human figures piled up, many, many layers deep, without regard for the order he had met them, and vanished. As if they were calling to each other, an unnatural volume of magical energy came pouring into him through the Command Seal.The matchless hero fell silently to his knees on the spot.Confronted with that unbelievable scene, Bazdilot's men were baffled. A being of a clearly higher order was suffering before a mage, their own superior.A Master-Servant relationship.Everyone who beheld that scene understood that it could not be explained away so simply. They did, however, realize that a definite toll had been exacted.In the Holy Grail War, the Command Seals that each Master possessed amounted to lifelines. They were trump cards capable of enforcing an order or prohibition on a Servant, and even feats, such a instantaneous transportation and emergency escape, that approached Magic. And Bazdilot had spent two of his three. When they considered that the last remaining Command Seal had to be held in reserve in case the Servant rebelled, Bazdilot effectively had no more usable Command Seals for the duration of the Grail War.The mages felt worried that he had taken on a definite handicap, but a species of trust, which accompanied their fear, put their minds at ease that Bazdilot would manage somehow. That ease, however, collapsed just a few seconds later."By my Command Seal, I order you once more:"The words froze the mages in the underground workshop. Bazdilot was going to expend all three of his Command Seals in his summoning. Faced with their superior committing an action so foolish that even a child, if they were familiar with the Grail War, would not do it, the mages prepared to die this time for certain.The Heroic Spirit, meanwhile, also resolved himself as he held back the magical energy worming its way into him.He did not see Bazdilot expending his final Command Seal as folly. He had realized that, although it did not show in his expression, the mage was taking his life in his hands. He was gambling his whole existence in order to transmute the Heroic Spirit into something else.Even the Heroic Spirit was not able to grasp the nature of the power eating into him. If he was not careful, however, this corrosion could spread to the other Heroic Spirits who had been summoned for the Holy Grail War. Even as he desperately suppressed the curse from his own lifetime welling up inside him, the great hero remained noble.Even as the mental pollution passed a point that would likely drive most Servants mad, this great hero still reached out his hand, not to defend himself, but for the sake of the other Heroic Spirits and the inhabitants of this era, who he had not yet even met. He did not care if he was called unprincipled. He did not care if he was called a mad spirit that turned his hands against his own Master. The man famed as a hero among heroes was determined to throw even his own honor to the winds, and slay the mage in front of him for the sake of someone he had not yet see.Then, just as he had shaken off the mental pollution and his hand was about to reach the mage's neck... Bazdilot spent his last Command Seal, as if to sneer at the hero's nobility."Accept human nature — the robe of earth."Everyone in the workshop, except for Bazdilot himself, saw "it." The moment that Bazdilot had expended all his Command Seals, another, reddish-brown tattoo peeked out of his left cuff... and began to squirm like some ghastly creature.In the gloom."Well then, if you'll excuse me. I've got to start preparations for my summoning.""Sure, I don't mind. I want to take my time watching Artie get summoned on my own, anyway," Francesca said, flapping her legs. She had shifted herself from the sofa to the bed.Observing that, Faldeus issued one last warning."Ms. Francesca, I am well aware of the carnage you've been through. An amateur mage such as myself, however, cannot help being concerned."At that point, Faldeus narrowed his eyes, and made no attempt to conceal his hostility toward the man called Bazdilot as he continued."Was it really alright to give that man 'it'?""Does it bother you that much? But not even I could contrive enough magical energy to run the Heroic Spirit you can summon with that catalyst at full spec, you know? It really does take the combo of Baz and the Scladios for that.""I'm not talking about the catalyst. I'm talking about the 'byproduct' you brought back from Fuyuki.""Oh," Francesca nodded, and flashed a malicious grin. "That couldn't be helped. I mean, me and Baz are about the only ones who can handle 'it,' much lessit, with our egos intact..."And I don't want to always be touching that repulsive'mud'! Ahaha!"The meat processing plant.It was a bizarre scene.The reddish-brown something that had flowed into the Heroic Spirit's body along with the power of the Command Seals were eating away at it. The Heroic Spirit released magical energy of his own to oppose it, blowing away more than half the barriers around the workshop. Several of the mages, bombarded by more magical energy than they could handle, collapsed twitching.Even as he was exposed to the torrent of magical energy, however, Bazdilot kept his piercing glare locked on the Heroic Spirit."Celebrate, affirm, and love that which they rejected. Do not hold back."He launched not only the power of the Command Seals, but also his own accumulated magical energy through his outflung left hand. He continued to force the reddish-brown something that stretched from his hand into Heroic Spirit, making use of even the oriental folk magic that the Clock Tower spurned as heresy.He was cutting through the wall of magic resistance with his primitive sorcery, clearing the way for the shadowy, writhing, reddish-brown thing to worm its way in directly. The cost was now greater than it seemed conceivable Bazdilot's cumulative magical energy could cover. The Heroic Spirit suspected some kind of trick, but he could not afford the effort to expose it.Clutching his own body, clawing at every inch of it, the Heroic Spirit remembered the pain of the poison that had brought about his death. The suffering he felt ought to be of another kind, but his instincts dragged the torment of the poison out of his memories. His instincts were screaming that the power flowing into him now was just as dangerous.Even as he bore the almost indescribable pain, the Heroic Spirit struggled desperately to repress the "urges" that prodded him from within and without. The next instant, however, the "mud" Bazdilot had sent into him had intertwined with the "curse" he had harbored within him as karma, and the kneeling hero let out a bellow that shook space itself."______________As if in sympathy with that roar, a dramatic change took place in his body.Just as it seemed that the Heroic Spirits whole body had enveloped in reddish-brown mud, the muscles dropped from his thick, burly limbs. His height shrunk almost 50 centimeters, as if his very skeleton had contracted. The mud-like something that coated his body became a dye, and stained the hero's skin reddish-brown. Then the other type of power that had intertwined with the "mud" formed a white pigment, and marked his chest with a radial design, like a scar from having his heart gouged out. As it did, the hero's scream suddenly stopped, and he rose silently to his feet as though nothing had happened."How does it feel to have rid yourself of excess?" Bazdilot asked coolly, his left hand still raised. "From now on, that mud should give you power to make up for it."The Heroic Spirit stared wordlessly back at him."The pass is already connected, but... I'll ask first."Bazdilot stared at the Heroic Spirit who, although shrunken, was still a head taller than himself. His tone was indifferent."I ask you: are you my Servant?"After a brief lapse of silence, the Heroic Spirit answered."...Why not?"He spread the cloth that he had been wearing on his shoulders, and draped it over his head so that it concealed his face."In order to achieve my revenge... I will use you. When you lose your value... I will twist your head off with my own hands."Having donned this bizarre outfit, the Heroic Spirit delivered a disturbing pronouncement in a voice so intelligent that it was difficult to believe he had been on the verge of madness."Why do you hide your face?" Bazdilot asked. Naturally, he still wore no expression."...A precaution. So that the works of man never again enter my sight.""...Oh, I see. So that cloth is 'its' skin. If you can move freely like that, it's no problem.""That is the way of it... Either way, I have no intention of exposing my face to the world. Not until I use the Holy Grail to purge my."The Heroic Spirit claimed that he would use the Holy Grail to erase a "name."When Bazdilot heard that strange declaration, he grunted, then brought a hand to his chin and mused aloud:"In that case, what should I call you? Your original nature has altered so much... Alternative... Why don't I call you 'Alter'?"In response, the Heroic Spirit gave a little shake of his head, and uttered his name. He had changed completely since he had been summoned, and yet the name he spoke was his origin."My name is..."Beginning with the events at the meat processing plant, a number of Heroic Spirits descended on Snowfield that night, at roughly the same time Saber materialized in the opera house. Some accomplished the summoning as they had planned, some called up Heroic Spirits they could never have predicted, and some lost their lives before they even had a chance to see what they had summoned.While the Masters and the Heroic Spirits they had summoned played with each other's fates, the "Fake Holy Grail War," whose full complement of Heroic Spirits had already been summoned, gave itself to a brief period of slumber. In order to submit themselves as medals of honor to the victors who sought them.With the feast of Heroic Spirits that swallowed the town for a lullaby.This is the second part of the guide to de-radicalization of Muslim youth. In this section an attempt has been made to explore the thinking pattern of a radicalized mind-set. For the sake of brevity and the ease of reader, this segment will be split into two parts. In the first part, radical ideologies from around the world will be examined. In the second part, recent phenomenon of radicalization specifically among Muslims will be covered.
Understanding Religious Radicalization Part-1
Before to topic of Muslim radicalism is delved into, it would be worthwhile to mull over the term “ Radical” or “Extremist” ideology.
An extremist ideology is a result of a supremacist attitude that has been nurtured on a bed of grievances. The origins of extremism will be explored later on, but at this point it is critical to understand that extremism or radical mind-set is not a product of a particular religion for example, Islam. In fact it can be argued that its origin is not dependent on religion at all.
The Nazi and the Fascist movement of the recent past were radical ideologies, both were secular. The former rode on a wave of racism/nationalism while the latter was influenced by national syndicalism. More recently, concern has arisen over the rise of militant atheism. It should be noted that organisations that have patronized Militant Atheism in the last century like (LMG) have seen banning orders in many countries because of their extreme views and culture of implied violence. Therefore, it is not necessary that religion is the cause of extremism. However this myth prevails because of the hostile views (against religion) perpetrated by the “New Atheists” like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, who are popular among the youth of today.
On the other hand the persecution of Rohingya Muslims by Buddhist monks also is an extremely telling case. Buddhism is considered as world’s most pacifist religion and yet within their ranks rose an army that committed the most heinous and heart wrenching crimes. The crisis lead to thousands of Rohingya Muslims-that were settled in Myanmar for generations- fleeing to neighboring lands.
Thus it can be safely concluded that the extremist mind-set is not borne out of any religion. However religion is often twisted to add impetus to an extremist ideology. And in all cases, where religion is used as a proponent, the focus of extremism is on selective rather than collective teachings of religion.
Socratic paradox
The Socratic paradox is a historic argument that can help to understand the radical mindset. Unlike its sophisticated name, it can be easily recognized and understood by the phrase “I know that I know nothing”. Although there are several tales based on the Socratic paradox, the following one is worth mentioning:
Socrates happens to pass by a village. When the village folks become aware of Socrates’ presence, they take him to the meet the village chief. Socrates is famous in all Greece for his wisdom. The village chief is also aware of Socrates’ reputation and wants to make an impression of his own knowledge, both on Socrates and his village folk.
By the order of the Chief, Socrates is ushered to the village green where all the villager gather. The Chief than announces a knowledge competition between him and Socrates and lays down the rules. He says that the members of the audience will ask three questions and whoever gives the most satisfactory answers will be deemed the wiser man.
Before Socrates could agree, the first question is thrown in. It is about the water well in the village. The question is whether the well is dry or not? Socrates, shrugs his shoulders while the village chief responds with the right answer. The audience cheer. The second question similarly is about the number of sheep in the village and third is about the number of people in the village. The village chief answers both of them right while Socrates doesn’t hide his cluelessness.
The Chief then claims in front of everyone that it has been proven that he was the more knowledgeable of the two. He further claims that all this hype about Socrates is ill founded. The audience applause and Socrates is on his way out before he is once again confronted by the Chief who asks him to acknowledge the outcome. Socrates simply responds “The difference between me and you is that you don’t know what you know. And I know what I don’t know”.
Socrates’ answer is worth contemplating as it entails the key to understanding a radical mind-set. It sums up beautifully the reason for Chief’s arrogance and Socrates’ own humility. It was simply the awareness of the lack of knowledge. In many ways this story also sizes up the certitude and arrogance of a radical mind. All extremist views thrive in the absence of knowledge. It should be of no surprise that in despotic regimes knowledge is controlled. On the other hand the story also informs us about modesty and level-headedness that is instilled by ones level of awareness.
So the first characteristic of a radical mind is limited or selective knowledge. It may well be that a subject has access to holistic knowledge, however due to their mental conditioning, they themselves ignore some bits for convenience. Else it creates an uncomfortable cognitive dissonance.
Parents who need to confront their children about their extreme attitudes should take heart from the fact that the information they will have to deal with is both limited and selective.
The question now is, what acts as a filter for selectivity in knowledge?
The plain and simple answer to this is a belief in an ideology. All that concurs with the prefabricated belief is accepted while all that goes against the ideology is ignored.
What seeds a radical ideology?
Belief in an Ideology could be part of positive behaviour. Human’s stand up for what they believe is right. It’s what constitutes as right and wrong that can be debated. The trouble comes when an ideology is founded on negative sentiments such as hatred or revenge. Such deep seeded negativity can be only tapped into when there is an existing grievance or sense of grievance. It should be noted that often exploiting grievance is the biggest tool of the radical leader to convince and mobilize people.
A society should have mechanisms to settle grievances in a positive manner. An ideology that tries to settle grievance by hook and crook is the problem. So the second commonality of a radical mind-set is the perception of grievance, be it genuine or not.
The other aspects of a radical ideology are:
Focus on end and not the means
There are many among us who long for a utopian world, each having their own idea of utopia. Each of us wants to share our version of utopia with others. In some cases, one wants to impose their version on others. The fine line between sharing and imposing depends upon the methodology adopted.
If one wants to propagate idea through proper channel, build consensus and bring change through mutual consent, than this strategy is generally accepted by the populace.
On the other hand if one wants to pursue utopian dream by working in the corridors of power, use force, operate covertly and topple the existing governing structure, than such change is generally not acceptable to the modern mind.
Self-Differentiating Mechanism
Another aspect of a radical ideology is a mechanism of differentiation. All radical ideologies have within them defined lines. These demarcations can be more easily understood by the question “Are you with us or against us?” There is always a criterion by which adherents of an ideology determine who/what constitutes its group and who doesn’t. It clearly bifurcates between friends and foes leaving little room for any middle ground.
Transition from Anarchic to Nihilistic Ideology
Any ideology no matter how radical can be quarantined as long as it has some reigns within itself through which it controls the call to action. There are hundreds of separatist movements operating in every major country. Even in the US for example, there are people who would like to free the state of California from the rest of USA. Can such groups be called radical?
The difference is that California separatist group is trying to bring change through referendum. On the other hand, if the leaders of any separatist movement call for arms to be taken up and start a conflict, without the backing of the majority of people effected by the issue at hand, then the outfit can enter a grey area.
Even than conflict can be reversed as long as there is discipline in the ranks and reigns held tightly by a commander. The problems starts when any anarchic movement, opens its doors to sadistic and criminal elements to balloon its number. It than becomes extremely hard to roll back or deescalate any confrontation. Only a little tweak in the ideology can push a group from anarchic to nihilistic, where very little difference stands in the way of damage and collateral damage.
Radical movements that do not have mechanisms to discipline its followers have an extremely high likelihood of turning Nihilistic. Once they adopt this modus operandi, their organic life is reduced due to their unsustainable nature. It is than a matter of time before they are wiped out of existence. However, they can cause serious damage before eventually fizzling out and hence have to be kept in check
Frankenstein effect
When Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein was published in 1918, little was known about the timelessness and endearing quality of the tale that would make it a compulsory part of the curriculum for English literature. The story has inspired many Hollywood movies. Such has been its impact that the term “Frankenstein effect” is used frequently in pop culture to identify any entity that cannot be controlled or destroyed, even by its own creator.
Radical ideologies have a tendency of nurturing elements within its ranks that eventually go rogue. For someone that has been conditioned on extreme ideology, hatred and vile speech, any shift in stance towards a soft approach often results in defection. It is because of this tendency that the more radical the idealogy, the more important it is to hold reigns by the leaders and discipline followers. Fringe radical groups such as the Klu Klux Clan are often in the spotlight because one of their existing members or ex members commits an atrocious crime, that wasn’t sanctioned by the group.
It is a catch 22 situation because such groups need to constantly drip feed vile propaganda to main their Raison d’ Etre.
Having covered a few common aspects of radical ideology, focus will now be turned on the radical ideology among groups like ISIS, Boko Haram and Al-Shabab. It will be noted that all the features discussed herein are common to the three mentioned groups.New discoveries on how underwater ridges impact the ocean's circulation system will help improve climate projections.
An underwater ridge can trap the flow of cold, dense water at the bottom of the ocean. Without the ridge, deepwater can flow freely and speed up the ocean circulation pattern, which generally increases the flow of warm surface water.
Warm water on the ocean's surface makes the formation of sea ice difficult. With less ice present to reflect the sun, surface water will absorb more sunlight and continue to warm.
U.S. Geological Survey scientists looked back 3 million years, to the mid-Pliocene warm period, and studied the influence of the North Atlantic Ocean's Greenland-Scotland Ridge on surface water temperature.
"Sea-surface temperatures in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans were much warmer during the mid-Pliocene warm period than they are today, but climate models so far have been unable to fully understand and account for the cause of this large scale of warming," said USGS scientist Marci Robinson. "Our research suggests that a lower height of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge during this geologic age was a contributor to the increase of poleward heat transport."
"This is the first time the impact of a North Atlantic underwater ridge on the ocean circulation system was tested in a mid-Pliocene experiment," said Robinson. "Understanding this process allows for more accurate predictions of factors such as ocean temperature and ice volume changes."
Research was conducted on the mid-Pliocene because it is the most recent interval in the earth's history in which global temperatures reached and remained at levels similar to those projected for the 21st century by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Therefore, it may be one of the closest analogs in helping to understand the earth's current and future conditions.
The article was published in the journal, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, and can be viewed online. Any journalists who are not registered with this journal and cannot view this article can contact us to have a copy emailed to them.
This research contributes to the scientific foundation needed to make sound planning decisions in response to changes in climate and land use. To learn more, visit the Climate and Land Use Change website (http://www.usgs.gov/climate_landuse/).
The USGS led this research through the Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping group. The primary collaborators in this research are the University of Leeds, University of Bristol and the British Geological Survey. More information about PRISM research is available online (http://geology.er.usgs.gov/eespteam/prism/index.html).An open letter
Socialist Equality Party (UK) demands the Undercover Police Inquiry release the names of all police agents and spies
By Socialist Equality Party
10 December 2015
The following letter has been sent to the inquiry into undercover police operations in Britain, being chaired by Lord Justice Pitchford.
The Socialist Equality Party demands the immediate release of the names of all undercover police operatives, especially those active in the Workers Revolutionary Party (and its forerunners and successor organisations), their pseudonyms and dates of operation.
We reject the terms of reference of the inquiry, which was convened only after the names of some undercover operatives were either disclosed by the agents themselves or uncovered by their victims.
Even the small amount of information in the public domain makes clear that, in numerous instances, these undercover officers were involved in and directed criminal activity. These include the state-sanctioned rape of eight female activists, who were deceived into long term relationships and who in some instances had children by male officers sent to spy on them and their co-thinkers. Five such officers have been identified—John Dines, Andrew Boyling, Mark Jenner, Bob Lambert and Mark |
his postgame comments, Mayfield's parents again criticized how TCU handled the recruitment and acknowledged the Mayfield-Patterson feud worsened in 2014 when Mayfield was caught stealing TCU's hand signals for playcalls on the sideline during the Frogs' win over the Sooners.
Despite his frustration about officiating, Patterson did praise Oklahoma for coming into his stadium and pulling off the victory. The Sooners trailed 21-7 after one quarter but rallied with a 42-3 scoring run over the second and third quarters. TCU mounted a 22-point comeback in the fourth and got the ball back down six with 1:49 left. The Frogs' drive stalled after two penalties and Hill's fourth-down pass fell incomplete.
"We're not happy about a 6-point loss, simple as that," Patterson said. "That's not what this program's about. I didn't know if we had the people to be able to challenge for a conference championship, but the bottom line is to it, we're dang sure gonna try to."When he arrives at work Monday morning, Khalid Marshall is greeted by a slate of complaints from Austin residents. Marshall is a code enforcement officer with the city, and his work specifically focuses on short-term rentals, or STRs, like those you’d find on HomeAway or Airbnb.
“We get the complaints directly from 311, so whenever you text in your complaint or you call 311, for short-term rentals, they come directly to my inbox,” Marshall said.
After a scroll through his messages, Marshall heads to investigate a noise complaint about an STR on West 8th Street. He parks down the street and walks up to the property. It’s a triplex, like a duplex plus one, and there’s a woman sitting outside on the porch.
KUT's Syeda Hasan reports
The woman tells Marshall that she’s renting unit A of the building through Airbnb. She says there were more people staying next door, but they seem to have left. Marshall knocks on the doors of units B and C, but there’s no answer.
“So we’ll go back and check to see and make sure they have a license for all three units or just one unit,” Marshall says as we walk back to his truck. “Since we found renters in A, I might have to write a warning or a citation. We’ll see how this goes.”
Most years, Marshall sees an influx of complaints about STRs around festival season. His department has also increased enforcement hours for the duration of South by Southwest, and now, there are even more rules to enforce. Last year, the city passed sweeping new regulations on STRs. They limited the number of occupants and banned any outdoor gatherings between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. The city also plans to phase out so-called type-2 STRs, those that are not owner-occupied, by 2022. Vacation rental companies and STR owners have responded with sharp criticism, protests and even a lawsuit.
Chance Weldon, an attorney with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, represents a group of short-term rental owners who sued the City of Austin last year over the new regulations.
“We don’t have any problem at all with them increasing enforcement on loud parties or trash in the yard or parking violations,” he says. “As a matter of fact, that would actually be a constitutional way to address the problems that they say they have with short-term rentals.”
"If people are getting away with charging $600 a night for staying in Austin, that clearly shows that there’s sort of unmet demands in the city.”
But despite existing rules and increased monitoring, some homeowners say the STR regulations can be virtually impossible to enforce. Mike Polston lives in the Northwest Hills neighborhood, where STRs aren’t a common sight. But about two years ago, Polston said an investor bought the house across the street from his for the sole purpose of renting it out as an STR. He said it essentially became a party house, and he’s got some stories he can tell you.
“I think the worst one that a couple of neighbors witnessed at like 1 o’clock in the morning, the guys got off the party bus or out of the cab, they forgot the number of the STR house, and they were kind of going around knocking on doors, and then they had to urinate in the front yard because they’d been downtown drinking,” Polston said.
Polston approves of Austin’s increased regulations, but he questions whether the city has the resources to keep enforcing them. He said overall, he just doesn’t approve of the idea of STRs in residential neighborhoods.
“It’s a very difficult thing to manage,” he said. “I think they’re doing a better job now than they did, but I don’t think you can sustain it.”
The debate over regulations is ongoing. Lawmakers have introduced a bill in the Texas Senate that seeks to limit local control over STRs. It could prevent cities like Austin from enacting their own restrictions on the rental properties. Polston testified against the bill at a hearing this week.
Vacation rental companies also made their case. Websites like Airbnb don’t actually own the homes listed on their pages, but their businesses depend on property owners having the freedom to rent out their homes.
Philip Minardi is with the Austin-based STR website HomeAway, which supports the bill.
“It preserves the property rights of individual homeowners in our community, while at the same time recognizing that municipalities should have the role and the responsibility to regulate things that are important to the local community such as trash, noise, nuisance parking and the like,” he says.
Minardi said HomeAway’s Austin rentals are 95 percent booked through the remaining days of SXSW.
“The lesson we learn from South By is that responsible vacation rentals are foundational to Austin’s economic health,” he says.
HomeAway estimates that in 2014, short-term rentals contributed $234 million to the Austin economy. Beyond the financial impact, some analysts wonder what would happen to Austin’s tourism industry should non-owner-occupied STRs be phased out. Last year, research firm Datafiniti found that Austin needs STRs to house all of its visitors during major events.
“Last year, I was kind of on the fence,” Datafiniti's founder and CEO Shion Deysarkar says. “I thought the city was obviously trying to build more hotels and things like that, so maybe they could do it, but I think with the data we see this year, I’m more convinced the STRs are absolutely needed to help Austin if they want to continue growing as they are.”
Datafiniti did an updated analysis this year. It found, unsurprisingly, that the price of Austin’s STRs spikes a few times a year around big events. Datafiniti estimates the median price of an STR in Austin to be $200 a night, but during SXSW, it’s about $600.
“The spike in the pricing just speaks to that,” Deysarkar says. “If people are getting away with charging $600 a night for staying in Austin, that clearly shows that there’s sort of unmet demands in the city.”
He says if the city does phase out some STRs by 2022, it could take a toll on much-needed rental capacity.Data Use - Fine Particulate Air Pollution and Diabetes The Lancet Planetary Health – July 13, 2018
Using satellite-based Global Annual PM2.5 Grids from MODIS, MISR and SeaWiFS Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), v1 from SEDAC to uncover the relationship between air pollution and type 2 diabetes.
Data Use - Closed Season - Land Subsidence and Groundwater Sensing Our Planet – July 3, 2018
Population data from SEDAC combined with NASA satellite imagery to examine groundwater storage and land subsidence in Mexico.
Data Use - Population, Storm Energy and Tornado Casualties Geophysical Research Letters - April 30, 2017
SEDAC Gridded Population of the World (GPW) v4 data were used in an examination of the population and energy elasticity of tornado casualties.
Map Gallery - Urban Spatial Data Historical Urban Population: 3700 BC - AD 2000
A map collection featuring historical urban population from 3700 BC to 2000 AD for the world.
Map Gallery - India Data Collection India Winter Cropped Area, 2016
A new map collection featuring annual winter cropped area for India (2001-2016).
Map Gallery - Satellite-Derived Environmental Indicators Global Annual PM2.5 Grids from MODIS, MISR and SeaWiFS Aerosol Optical Depth with GWR, 1998-2016
A map collection featuring data derived from satellite observations such as Global Annual PM2.5 Grids from MODIS, MISR and SeaWiFS Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) with GWR, 1998-2016.
Tools and Apps - GMIS and HBASE from Landsat Global Man-made Impervious Surface (GMIS) and Global Human Built-up And Settlement Extent (HBASE) datasets from Landsat are available via mapping tool.
Tools and Apps - Population Estimation Service (PES) v3 The Population Estimation Service (PES), v3 is a Web-based service for estimating population totals, basic demographic characteristics, and related statistics within a user-defined region.
Tools and Apps - SEDAC Hazards and Population Mapper (HazPop) The Hazards and Population Mapper (HazPop) is a free mobile application that enables users to easily display recent natural hazard data in relationship to population, major infrastructure, and satellite imagery.
Theme - Applications of Satellite Remote Sensing Find data sets, maps, map services, featured uses of data and other resources related to Applications of Satellite Remote Sensing.
Theme - Biodiversity Conservation and Protected Areas Find data sets, maps, map services, featured uses of data and other resources related to Biodiversity Conservation and Protected Areas.
Theme - Land Use and Land Cover Change Find data sets, maps, map services, featured uses of data and other resources related to Land Use and Land Cover Change.
Resource - GMIS and HBASE: Data Products from NASA SEDAC A brief video introducing the Human Built-up and Settlement Extent (HBASE) and Global Man-made Impervious Surface (GMIS) data sets and how to use the mapping tool to visualize the data.
Resource - Webinar: People and Pixels Revisited This cyberseminar looked at future directions for the integration of remote sensing into social science research.Following its record annual revenue of more than one billion dollars, Red Hat has announced that it is making a donation of $100,000 (£62,400) to "the future of open source". In a post on Red Hat's opensource.com community site, President and CEO Jim Whitehurst says that the "billion dollar milestone is not only a win for Red Hat – it is a victory for open source advocates everywhere," adding that the company wanted to give back to honour the open source community.
The donation will be split between four projects which do not benefit, normally, from Red hat's work: Creative Commons (CC), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) and UNICEF Innovation Labs. The $100,000 award is 0.7 per cent of the company's annual net profit of $146.6 million. Much of Red Hat's development work is available as open source anyway though, a contribution potentially worth millions of dollars to the community.
See also:
Red Hat's billion dollar milestone, a feature from The H.
(crve)Johnathan Foyle,
Nieuwstaat World News, UK
LONDON - A new robotics company aiming to capitalize on the growing trend of automation in the private sector has just raised $17.2 million in investments to develop technology and expand their operation catering to new autonomous shipping and delivery services.
Starship Technologies was founded in 2014 by Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, two names that may sound familiar for their role as co-founders of the popular video and voice chat service Skype.
"Starship is reinventing the last mile transportation process, allowing convenient and sustainable robotic delivery," said the CEO Ahti Heinla, CEO of Starship Technologies, in a statement.
The robots in question, which have been referred to as "ground drones", are small, six-wheeled cuboid vehicles, capable of carrying up to 20lbs in an on-board compartment to be delivered to local customers.
The drones are constantly connected to the internet via wifi, which they use to send and transmit data about their location, as well as to find the customer's location, and are completely self-driven, using technology similar to that being developed for driverless cars, including an on-board camera and sensor suite that detects obstacles and pedestrians.
They can travel at around 4mph along the sidewalk, and are even capable of crossing the street at crosswalks, being mindful of the traffic around them.
To err on the side of caution, the drones can be monitored by human operators, who can take control at any time, but for the most part, will operate fully automatically.
The drones have already been tested in pilot programs in 59 cities, including New York and London, where a takeaway food delivery service called Just Eat is already using the robots to deliver meals to their customers.
Starship Technologies claims that their drones have collectively travelled more than 16,000 miles and interacted with more than 3.1 million people, including pedestrians and customers.
"In the not too distant future, this will just be commonplace. Robots are doing more and more and becoming a larger part of our lives every day" said one employee who works as a delivery person himself. When asked if he was worried his job might become obsolete any time soon, he replied "no comment."Suggestions, comments
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INTRODUCTION
'The nation-state', writes A D Smith, 'is the norm of modern political organisation...It is the almost unquestioned foundation of world order, the main object of individual loyalties, the chief definer of a man's identity...It permeates our outlook so much that we hardly question its legitimacy today.' (1)
To most readers, Smith's generalisations may appear as statements of the obvious. But it would be a mistake to suppose that the legitimacy of the nation state has never been seriously questioned or even that it is not so questioned today. The strong tide that has flowed in the direction of the nation state has been resisted from the start, and this essay looks at two traditions of political thought and action which have been 'against the current'.
The first, pacifism, may be seen as the ideology and movement that has resisted an institution closely related to the development of the nation-state: it challenges the right of the state to engage in, and conscript its citizens for, war. The nature of this challenge is exemplified in the statement issued by the No Conscription Fellowship, the British organisation of conscientious objectors to military service in the First World War. Affirming their belief in the sacredness of human life, its members, the statement declared, 'deny the right of governments to say, "You shall bear arms"...They will, whatever the consequences, obey their conscientious convictions rather than the commands of governments.' (2)
The second, anarchism, is even more radical: it challenges not merely the nation state's right to make war, but also its very right to exist. The central thrust of anarchism is directed against all the core elements that make up the nation state: its territoriality with the accompanying notion of frontiers; its sovereignty, implying exclusive jurisdiction over all people and property within those frontiers; its monopolistic control of the major means of physical force by which it upholds that sovereignty, both internally and externally; its system of positive law which overrides all other law and custom, and which implies that rights exist only if sanctioned by the state; and finally, the element that was added last - the idea of the nation as the paramount political community. PACIFISM, PACIFICISM AND ANTI-MILITARISM
In discussing pacifism some clarification of terms is necessary. The word 'pacifist' was coined (as recently as 1901) to refer to all those who opposed war and worked to create or maintain peace between nations. This broad sense of the term is still current, but in Anglo-American usage, 'pacifist' has the narrower meaning in which it refers to those whose opposition to war takes the form of refusing personally to take part in it or support it. Such persons, for reasons which will become clear, have also usually opposed all overt violence between human beings, though not necessarily the covert violence, usually referred to as 'force', the kind used by police. 'Pacificist' is perhaps the more appropriate term to convey the broader meaning. 'Pacificists' may support the use of military forces in 'peace-keeping' operations, whereas 'pacificists' are generally 'anti-militarists'. However, not all anti-militarists are pacifists. Historically, anti-militarism is associated with the belief that most modern wars are fought in the interests of ruling classes, such as feudal lords or capitalists. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before socialist parties controlled any states, many socialists were anti-militarists and some socialist leaders, such as Keir Hardie, were also pacifists. The socialist anti-militarist might, if he were not a pacifist, when war broke out, join the army in the hope that thereby he could speed the downfall of capitalism, perhaps by spreading disaffection among the troops and persuading them, if a revolutionary situation arose, to use their weapons against their class enemies. In practice, 'pacificism', 'pacifism' and 'anti-militarism' often overlap, but the terms do stand for fairly distinct orientations.Ludvik Vaculik, a leading Czech writer, dissident and intellectual, whose calls for human rights and trenchant critique of Communism helped foster a short-lived period of freedom that culminated in the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, has died. He was 88.
The Czech news media announced his death on June 6 but did not say when or where he had died or provide the cause.
Mr. Vaculik was a key figure in the Czechoslovak underground publishing world in the 1970s and ’80s, helping to give voice to other dissident writers in the country who were banned by the government. He himself was censored for more than two decades but still managed to write a series of influential articles, books and novels, including “The Guinea Pigs” (1970), “The Czech Dreambook” (1980) and “A Cup of Coffee With My Interrogator” (1987), which used humor and a developed sense of the absurd to distill the struggles of living under despotic circumstances.
Perhaps most notable among Mr. Vaculik’s achievements was a concise and eloquent political manifesto in 1968 called “Two Thousand Words,” in which he critiqued the moral, economic and political decay wrought by the Communist state and called for an expansion of democracy and human rights.Fallout 3
Prepare for the future with Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition - experience the most acclaimed game of 2008 like never before!
Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition includes all five of the Fallout 3 Game Add-on Packs:
Operation: Anchorage - Enter a military simulation and fight in the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from its Chinese Communist invaders
Enter a military simulation and fight in the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from its Chinese Communist invaders The Pitt - Travel to the post-apocalyptic remains of Pittsburgh and become embroiled in a conflict between slaves and their Raider masters
Travel to the post-apocalyptic remains of Pittsburgh and become embroiled in a conflict between slaves and their Raider masters Broken Steel - Increase your level cap to 30, and finish the fight against the Enclave remnants alongside Liberty Prime
Increase your level cap to 30, and finish the fight against the Enclave remnants alongside Liberty Prime Point Lookout - Embark on a mysterious and open-ended adventure in a huge, murky swampland along the coast of Maryland
Embark on a mysterious and open-ended adventure in a huge, murky swampland along the coast of Maryland Mothership Zeta - Defy hostile alien abductors and fight your way off the alien mothership, orbiting miles above the Capital Wasteland
Key Features
Limitless Freedom! – Take in the sights and sounds of the vast Capital Wasteland! See the great monuments of the United States lying in post-apocalyptic ruin! You make the choices that define you and change the world. Just keep an eye on your Rad Meter!
Take in the sights and sounds of the vast Capital Wasteland! See the great monuments of the United States lying in post-apocalyptic ruin! You make the choices that define you and change the world. Just keep an eye on your Rad Meter! Experience S.P.E.C.I.A.L.! – Vault-Tec engineers bring you the latest in human ability simulation – the SPECIAL Character System! Utilizing new breakthroughs in points-based ability representation, SPECIAL affords unlimited customization of your character. Also included are dozens of unique skills and perks to choose from, each with a dazzling variety of effects!
Vault-Tec engineers bring you the latest in human ability simulation – the SPECIAL Character System! Utilizing new breakthroughs in points-based ability representation, SPECIAL affords unlimited customization of your character. Also included are dozens of unique skills and perks to choose from, each with a dazzling variety of effects! Fantastic New Views! – The wizards at Vault-Tec have done it again! No longer constrained to just one view, experience the world from 1st or 3rd person perspective. Customize your view with the touch of a button!
The wizards at Vault-Tec have done it again! No longer constrained to just one view, experience the world from 1st or 3rd person perspective. Customize your view with the touch of a button! The Power of Choice! – Feeling like a dastardly villain today, or a Good Samaritan? Pick a side or walk the line, as every situation can be dealt with in many different ways. Talk out your problems in a civilized fashion, or just flash your Plasma Rifle.
Feeling like a dastardly villain today, or a Good Samaritan? Pick a side or walk the line, as every situation can be dealt with in many different ways. Talk out your problems in a civilized fashion, or just flash your Plasma Rifle. Blast ‘Em Away With V.A.T.S.! – Even the odds in combat with the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System for your Pip-Boy Model 3000! V.A.T.S. allows you to pause time in combat, target specific body parts on your target, queue up attacks, and let Vault-Tec take out your aggression for you. Rain death and destruction in an all-new cinematic presentation.
Even the odds in combat with the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System for your Pip-Boy Model 3000! V.A.T.S. allows you to pause time in combat, target specific body parts on your target, queue up attacks, and let Vault-Tec take out your aggression for you. Rain death and destruction in an all-new cinematic presentation. Mind-Blowing Artificial Intelligence! – At Vault-Tec, we realize that the key to reviving civilization after a global nuclear war is people. Our best minds pooled their efforts to produce an advanced version of Radiant AI, America’s First Choice in Human Interaction Simulation. Facial expressions, gestures, unique dialog, and lifelike behavior are brought together with stunning results by the latest in Vault-Tec technology.
At Vault-Tec, we realize that the key to reviving civilization after a global nuclear war is people. Our best minds pooled their efforts to produce an advanced version of Radiant AI, America’s First Choice in Human Interaction Simulation. Facial expressions, gestures, unique dialog, and lifelike behavior are brought together with stunning results by the latest in Vault-Tec technology. Eye-Popping Prettiness! – Witness the harsh realities of nuclear fallout rendered like never before in modern super-deluxe HD graphics. From the barren Wasteland, to the danger-filled offices and metro tunnels of DC, to the hideous rotten flesh of a mutant’s face.
Fallout: New Vegas
Welcome back to New Vegas!
Key Features
The Definitive Compilation: The Ultimate Edition includes all four mission expansion add-on packs—Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues and Lonesome Road—along with two additional DLC packs—Courier’s Stash and Gun Runners Arsenal—that increase the range of unique weapons, weapon mods, ammo types and recipes waiting to be uncovered in the vast Mojave Wasteland.
The Ultimate Edition includes all four mission expansion add-on packs—Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues and Lonesome Road—along with two additional DLC packs—Courier’s Stash and Gun Runners Arsenal—that increase the range of unique weapons, weapon mods, ammo types and recipes waiting to be uncovered in the vast Mojave Wasteland. Beyond the Wasteland: New Vegas is more expansive than ever with the Sierra Madre Casino, Zion National Park, Big MT research crater and the treacherous Divide now open for exploring. Each distinct area presents a fresh set of branching quests, remarkable personalities and more chances to play the Savior or Pariah to the natives of New Vegas.
New Vegas is more expansive than ever with the Sierra Madre Casino, Zion National Park, Big MT research crater and the treacherous Divide now open for exploring. Each distinct area presents a fresh set of branching quests, remarkable personalities and more chances to play the Savior or Pariah to the natives of New Vegas. Shiny New Toys: Each add-on pack adds to the mountain of armaments already at your disposal. Whether you’re an in-your-face brawler or a long-range gunner, unique ballistic fists like the Two-Step Goodbye or a handy 10mm Sub-Machinegun such as the Sleepytime will ensure that the warmonger in you will flex its ammo-filled muscles.
Each add-on pack adds to the mountain of armaments already at your disposal. Whether you’re an in-your-face brawler or a long-range gunner, unique ballistic fists like the Two-Step Goodbye or a handy 10mm Sub-Machinegun such as the Sleepytime will ensure that the warmonger in you will flex its ammo-filled muscles. Room to Grow: With all of the DLC packs, the maximum is increased by 5 levels, ultimately raising the ceiling to Level 50.
System Requirements
OS: Windows 7/Vista/XP
Processor: Dual Core 2.0GHz
Memory: 2GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 10GB free space
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6 series, ATI 1300XT series
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Vault-Tec engineers have worked around the clock on an interactive reproduction of Wasteland life for you to enjoy from the comfort of your own vault. Included is an expansive world, unique combat, shockingly realistic visuals, tons of player choice, and an incredible cast of dynamic characters. Every minute is a fight for survival against the terrors of the outside world – radiation, Super Mutants, and hostile mutated creatures. From Vault-Tec, America’s First Choice in Post Nuclear Simulation.Vault 101 – Jewel of the Wastes. For 200 years, Vault 101 has faithfully served the surviving residents of Washington DC and its environs, now known as the Capital Wasteland. Though the global atomic war of 2077 left the US all but destroyed, the residents of Vault 101 enjoy a life free from the constant stress of the outside world. Giant Insects, Raiders, Slavers, and yes, even Super Mutants are all no match for superior Vault-Tec engineering. Yet one fateful morning, you awake to find that your father has defied the Overseer and left the comfort and security afforded by Vault 101 for reasons unknown. Leaving the only home you’ve ever known, you emerge from the Vault into the harsh Wasteland sun to search for your father, and the truth.With the introduction of the Ultimate Edition Bethesda Softworks presents the definitive edition of the award-winning Fallout: New Vegas®. This complete package, which includes the Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues and Lonesome Road add-on packs, allows you to experience everything that New Vegas has to offer. To sweeten the pot, you’ll be armed with the latest cache of unique weapons, ammo types and recipes from the most recent add-on packs Courier’s Stash and Gun Runners Arsenal.You’ll find there are more friends – and enemies – to make whether you’re a seasoned explorer of the Mojave, or playing the game for the first time. You’ll discover there are also more consequences to be responsible for, and more opportunities to live in glory – or infamy – throughout the Wasteland. The choices you make will be as influential as ever.Enjoy your stay.Image copyright PA Image caption The CMA will announce its banking competition conclusions on Friday
Markets watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is set to recommend a full competition inquiry into banks, the BBC has learned.
BBC business editor Kamal Ahmed said any full-scale inquiry into the banking sector would include looking at current accounts and business lending.
The big four High Street banks, which provide 77% of current accounts, will be watching the CMA's decision closely.
They may ultimately be forced to divest businesses and allow new competitors.
Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC are considered to be the big four high street banks.
A full-scale inquiry would take about 18 months to complete.
Changing industry
As well as their monopoly on current accounts, the big four also control some 85% of business lending.
The CMA was officially launched in April and is made up of the Office of Fair Trading and the old Monopolies and Mergers Commission.
The Office of Fair Trading said in March - before the CMA creation - that there was evidence, not necessarily conclusive, of a lack of competition in banking.
But the British Bankers' Association has argued that now is not the time to investigate competition in the banking sector, because the industry is undergoing some major changes.
These include the introduction of new technology, such as mobile banking, and rules to make switching accounts easier.
In addition there has also been the emergence of competitors such as Tesco, Virgin Money and TSB.
They will be joined by the Williams and Glyn brand, which will be split out of RBS.France's former President Nicolas Sarkozy is to face trial over accusations that he exceeded the legal spending limit in his failed 2012 re-election campaign, the Paris prosecutor's office said on Tuesday.
One of two judges in charge of the case, Serge Tournaire, decided that the case should go to trial after the failure of Sarkozy's legal efforts to prevent it in December, a legal source said.
The prosecution claims Sarkozy "greatly exceeded" a spending limit of 22.5 million euros ($24 million) by using false billing from a public relations firm called Bygmalion.
'Inane decision'
The prosecutor's office said that 13 others would also face trial in connection with the affair.
Thierry Herzog, Sarkozy's lawyer, described the decision as "inane" said he would appeal it.
If convicted, the 62-year-old conservative politician would face a one-year prison sentence.
Questioned by police in September 2015, Sarkozy said he did not recall ever being warned about the accounting and described the controversy as a "farce."
Run of scandals
Sarkozy - who was defeated in November in the center-right Republicans' primary by his own former prime minister, Francois Fillon - was put under formal investigation last February, when he was questioned by magistrates at the Paris financial prosecutor's office over claims of dual accounting and the discovery of 18 million euros in false invoices issued by Bygmalion.
Sarkozy's ambitions over the years have been regularly hit by scandals, including allegations he used money from the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to fund his 2007 campaign and that he was involved in kickbacks from an arms deal in the 1990s.
Only one other president - Jacques Chirac - has been tried in France's Fifth Republic since its founding in 1958. Chirac was give a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 over a fake-job scandal.
Fillon, who beat rivals including Sarkozy to become the center-right candidate in this year's presidential elections, is also embroiled in a financial scandal over payments of public funds to his wife and children.
French politicians have come under increased scrutiny ahead of the elections in April and May.
What you need to know about Francois Fillon and "Penelopegate" Frontrunner no more Many expected Francois Fillon to be a shoo-in for the presidency. The former French prime minister easily won the conservative primary with 67 percent of the vote. But then Penelopegate hit. Weekly newspaper Canard Enchaine reported that Fillon's wife Penelope and two of his children had received close to one million euros in salaries from Fillon, paid by the state. Fillon's popularity tumbled.
What you need to know about Francois Fillon and "Penelopegate" Working for her husband? It is not illegal in France to hire family members as parliamentary assistants - provided they have real jobs. Fillon's wife was paid 830,000 euros ($900,000) as a parliamentary assistant for 15 years, working (or - as some have suggested - "working") for Fillon and his replacement in parliament. Police are currently investigating whether Penelope provided services for the salary she received.
What you need to know about Francois Fillon and "Penelopegate" Keeping it in the family Reporters also revealed that Fillon paid his two oldest children 84,000 euros for working as assistants between 2005 and 2007. Fillon argued that he had hired Marie and Charles Fillon for their legal expertise - though the two were still in law school when they had jobs with their father.
What you need to know about Francois Fillon and "Penelopegate" More accusations Penelope was also employed at an art magazine from May 2012 to December 2013, where she was paid roughly 5,000 euros a month. The owner of the magazine had previously been recommended for France's highest honor, the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, by then-prime minister Francois Fillon. Fillon has said that these two facts were unrelated.
What you need to know about Francois Fillon and "Penelopegate" A smear campaign? Fillon has repeatedly denied charges that he used "fake jobs" to enrich his family. He has said that he employed his wife and children because he trusted them and accused the media of running a smear campaign against him. Nevertheless, Penelopegate has severely damaged the campaign of the 63-year old, who has sold himself to French voters as an honest family man keen on cutting public spending.
What you need to know about Francois Fillon and "Penelopegate" Certainly not a first The accusations against Fillon are hardly the first of their kind in France. Ex-President Jacques Chirac was found guilty in 2011 of employing party members in "fake jobs" as mayor of Paris. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy is being investigated for illegal campaign financing, and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is suspected of paying officials in her far-right party with EU funds. Author: Mara Bierbach
jbh/tj (AFP, Reuters, AP)Ecuador Villagers Seek $2 Billion of Chevron Assets In Argentina
Amazon Defense Coalition
1 November 2012 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Karen Hinton at +1.703.798.3109
Buenos Aires, Argentina – Indigenous groups and villagers from Ecuador are filing suit today to freeze an estimated $2 billion of Chevron assets in Argentina to help pay for a remediation of the extensive toxic pollution left by the oil giant on their ancestral lands in the Amazon rainforest, representatives of the communities announced.
The move is the fourth legal action filed to enforce a $19 billion judgment in Ecuador against Chevron for creating what experts believe is the world's worst oil-related contamination, dubbed the "Rainforest Chernobyl" by local communities. Earlier legal actions were filed this year against Chevron assets in Canada, Brazil, and Ecuador.
Brought by the prominent lawyer Enrique Bruchou, the action in Argentina differs from the earlier seizure actions in that it derives its authority in part from an international treaty in Latin America called the Inter-American Convention on the Execution of Preventive Measures. The treaty, which dates from the late 1970s, allows for the automatic freezing of assets of a defendant that fails to abide by the law and refuses to pay a final foreign judgment.
The Preventive Measures treaty has been ratified by Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, Guatemala, and Uruguay. Venezuela and Chile have signed the treaty, but have not ratified it.
Chevron maintains oil operations and bank accounts in Argentina worth about $2 billion, said Bruchou and Pablo Fajardo, the lawyer representing dozens of indigenous and farmer communities in Ecuador. Chevron's operations in Argentina produce about 26,000 barrels of crude and 4 million cubic feet of natural gas daily.
In all, the amount of Chevron assets in the four countries are worth at least an estimated $8 billion, said Fajardo. Because the judgment in Ecuador against Chevron is for $19.04 billion, seizure actions will continue to be filed against Chevron assets in more countries to make sure the full amount of the judgment is collected, he added.
Bruchou, a native of Buenos Aries, founded his firm in 1990 after working for several years at the U.S. law firm Shearman & Sterling. International Financial Law Review named his law firm, Bruchou Fernandez Madero & Lombardi the best in Argentina for five consecutive years. Bruchou himself was named "Law Firm Leader of the Year" in 2011 by the prestigious Latin Lawyer magazine.
In a press conference in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, Bruchou said that enforcement of the Ecuador judgment in Argentina and other Latin American countries will signal to foreign investors that they should apply the same environmental standards they use at home to areas where vulnerable indigenous and farmer communities are located. "We ask for no more than that and no less than that," he said. "We call it responsible foreign investment."
Just recently, a court in Ecuador ordered the seizure of an estimated $200 million in Chevron's assets in that country, which include bank accounts and a $96.3 million debt owed the oil giant by Ecuador's government. Any further investments that Chevron tries to make in the four countries would be subject to seizure and auction, said Fajardo.
The case originally was filed in the U.S. in 1993, but shifted to Ecuador in 2002 at Chevron's request after the oil company praised the courts there as fair and transparent.
After an eight-year trial, the court in Ecuador found in 2011 that Chevron admitted to deliberately dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste into |
cars, the EB 16/4 featured the four-bank W16 engine architecture installed in every production example of the Veyron.[15]
The decision to start production of the car was made by the Volkswagen Group in 2001. The first roadworthy prototype was completed in August 2003. It is identical to the later series variant except for a few details. In the transition from development to series production considerable technical problems had to be addressed, repeatedly delaying production until September 2005.[16]
The Veyron EB 16.4 is named in honour of Pierre Veyron, a Bugatti development engineer, test driver and company race driver who, with co-driver Jean-Pierre Wimille, won the 1939 24 Hours of Le Mans while driving a Bugatti.[17] The "EB" refers to Bugatti founder Ettore Bugatti and the "16.4" refers to the engine's 16 cylinders and 4 turbochargers.[18]
Production variants [ edit ]
Bugatti Veyron (2005–2011) [ edit ]
Specifications and performance [ edit ]
The Veyron's quad-turbocharged W16 engine
The Veyron features an 8.0-litre, quad-turbocharged, W16 cylinder engine, equivalent to two narrow-angle V8 engines bolted together. Each cylinder has four valves for a total of 64, but the configuration of each bank allows two overhead camshafts to drive two banks of cylinders so only four camshafts are needed. The engine is fed by four turbochargers and displaces 7,993 cc (487.8 cu in), with a square 86 by 86 mm (3.39 by 3.39 in) bore and stroke.
Bugatti Veyron 16.4
The transmission is a dual-clutch direct-shift computer-controlled automatic transmission with seven gear ratios, with magnesium paddles behind the steering wheel and a shift time of less than 150 milliseconds, built by Ricardo of England rather than Borg-Warner, who designed the six speed DSG used in the mainstream Volkswagen Group marques. The Veyron can be driven in either semi-automatic or fully automatic mode. A replacement transmission for the Veyron costs just over US$120,000.[19] It also has permanent all-wheel drive using the Haldex Traction system. It uses special Michelin PAX run-flat tyres, designed specifically to accommodate the Veyron's top speed, and cost US$25,000 per set.[19] The tyres can be mounted on the wheels only in France, a service which costs US$70,000.[19] Kerb weight is 1,888 kg (4,162 lb).[20] This gives the car a power-to-weight ratio, according to Volkswagen Group's figures, of 530 PS (390 kW; 523 bhp) per ton.
The car's wheelbase is 2,710 mm (106.7 in). Overall length is 4,462 mm (175.7 in) which gives 1,752.6 mm (69.0 in) of overhang. The width is 1,998 mm (78.7 in) and height 1,204 mm (47.4 in). The Bugatti Veyron has a total of ten radiators:[21]
3 heat exchangers for the air-to-liquid intercoolers.
3 engine radiators.
1 for the air conditioning system.
1 transmission oil radiator.
1 differential oil radiator.
1 engine oil radiator
It has a drag coefficient of C d =0.41 (normal condition) and C d =0.36 (after lowering to the ground),[22] and a frontal area of 2.07 m2 (22.3 sq ft).[23] This gives it a drag area, the product of drag coefficient and frontal area, of C d A=0.74 m2 (8.0 sq ft).
Engine output [ edit ]
According to Volkswagen Group and certified by TÜV Süddeutschland, the W16 engine utilised by the Veyron engine has a power output of 1,001 PS (736 kW; 987 hp), and generates 1,250 N⋅m (922 lbf⋅ft) of torque.[3][24] The nominal figure has been stated by Bugatti officials to be conservative, with the real total being 1,020 PS (750 kW; 1,006 bhp) at 6,000 rpm.
Top speed [ edit ]
German inspection officials recorded an average top speed of the original version at 408.47 km/h (253.81 mph)[6] during test sessions on Volkswagen Group's private Ehra-Lessien test track on 19 April 2005.
This top speed was almost matched by James May on Top Gear in November, 2006, at the Ehra-Lessien test track, at 407.5 km/h (253.2 mph).[6] May noted that at top speed the engine consumes 45,000 L (9,900 imp gal) of air per minute (as much as a human breathes in four days). Back in the Top Gear studio, co-presenter Jeremy Clarkson commented that most sports cars felt like they were shaking apart at their top speed, and asked May if that was the case with the Veyron at 407 km/h (253 mph). May responded that the Veyron was very controlled, and only wobbled slightly when the air brake deployed.[25]
The car's normal top speed is listed at 343 km/h (213 mph). When the car reaches 220 km/h (137 mph), hydraulics lower the car until it has a ground clearance of about 9 cm (3.5 in). At the same time, the wing and spoiler deploy. In this handling mode, the wing provides 3,425 newtons (770 lbf) of downforce, holding the car to the road.[21]
Top speed mode must be entered while the vehicle is at rest. Its driver must toggle a special top speed key to the left of their seat, which triggers a checklist to establish whether the car and its driver are ready to attempt to reach 407 km/h (253 mph). If so, the rear spoiler retracts, the front air diffusers shut, and normal 12.5 cm (4.9 in) ground clearance drops to 6.5 cm (2.6 in).
Braking [ edit ]
The Veyron's brakes use cross drilled, radially vented carbon fibre reinforced silicon carbide (C/SiC) composite discs, manufactured by SGL Carbon, which have less brake fade and weigh less than standard cast iron discs.[26] The lightweight aluminium alloy monobloc brake calipers are made by AP Racing; the fronts have eight[21] titanium pistons and the rear calipers have six pistons. Bugatti claims maximum deceleration of 1.3 g on road tyres. As an added safety feature, in the event of brake failure, an anti-lock braking system (ABS) has also been installed on the handbrake.
Prototypes have been subjected to repeated 1.0 g braking from 312 km/h (194 mph) to 80 km/h (50 mph) without fade. With the car's acceleration from 80 km/h (50 mph) to 312 km/h (194 mph), that test can be performed every 22 seconds. At speeds above 200 km/h (124 mph), the rear wing also acts as an airbrake, snapping to a 55° angle in 0.4 seconds once brakes are applied, providing an additional 0.68 g (6.66 m/s2) of deceleration (equivalent to the stopping power of an ordinary hatchback).[21] Bugatti claims the Veyron will brake from 400 km/h (249 mph) to a standstill in less than 10 seconds, though distance covered in this time will be half a kilometre (third of a mile).[21]
Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport (2009–2015) [ edit ]
Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport
The targa top version of the Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4, dubbed the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport, was unveiled at the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.[27][28] It has extensive reinforcements to compensate for the lack of a standard roof [29] and small changes to the windshield and running lights. Two removable tops are included, the second a temporary arrangement fashioned after an umbrella. The top speed with the hardtop in place is the same as the standard coupé version, but with the roof down is limited to 369 km/h (229 mph)—and to 130 km/h (81 mph) with the temporary soft roof. The Grand Sport edition was limited to 150 units, with the first 50 going exclusively to registered Bugatti customers. Production began in the second quarter of 2009, with the car priced at €1.4 million (excluding taxes and delivery).
Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Special Edition featuring a bright yellow exterior paint and yellow interior
A bespoke version was introduced at the 2012 Qatar Motor Show with a horizontal colour split with a bright yellow body framed in visible black carbon (including black-tinted wheels), seats in yellow-coloured leather upholstery with black stitching, middle console in black carbon, dashboard, steering wheel and gearshift made of black leather with yellow stitching.[30] It was priced at €1.58 million.
Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport, World Record Edition (2010–2011) [ edit ]
The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport World Record Edition – the fastest road legal production car attaining a top speed of 431 km/h (268 mph) Rear 3/4 view
The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport is a faster, more powerful version of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4. Production was limited to 30 units. The Super Sport has increased engine power output of 1,200 PS (883 kW; 1,184 hp) at 6,400 rpm and a maximum torque of 1,500 N⋅m (1,106 lb⋅ft) at 3,000–5,000 rpm and a revised aerodynamic package.[31] The Super Sport has a 431.072 km/h (267.856 mph) top speed, making it the fastest production road car in the world at the time of its introduction[4][32][33] although it is electronically limited to 415 km/h (258 mph) to protect the tyres from disintegrating.[31]
The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport World Record Edition is a version of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport. It is limited to five units. It has an orange body detailing, orange wheels, and a special black exposed carbon body. The electronic limiter is also removed with this version.[34]
The model was unveiled in 2010 at The Quail, followed by the 2010 Monterey Historic Races at Laguna Seca, and the 2010 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.[35]
The Super Sport is valued at GB£1.2 million.[1][36]
Top Speed World Record [ edit ]
On 4 July 2010 James May, a television presenter on BBC Two's television show Top Gear, drove the Veyron Super Sport at 417.61 km/h (259.49 mph). Later that day, Bugatti's official test driver Pierre Henri Raphanel drove the Super Sport version of the Veyron on Volkswagen's Ehra-Lessien (near Wolfsburg, Germany) high-speed test track to establish the car's top speed. With representatives of the Guinness Book of Records and German Technical Inspection Agency (TÜV) on hand, Raphanel made passes around the big oval in both directions achieving an average maximum speed of 431.072 km/h (267.856 mph), thus taking back the title from the SSC Ultimate Aero TT as the fastest production vehicle of all time.[7] The 431.072 km/h mark was reached by averaging the Super Sport's two test runs, the first reaching 427.933 km/h (265.905 mph) and the second 434.211 km/h (269.806 mph).[37][38]
When the record was certified it was already well known to the public that the customer car would be electronically limited to 415 km/h (258 mph). Yet, after a query by the Sunday Times Guinness' PR director Jaime Strang was quoted on 5 April 2013: "As the car’s speed limiter was deactivated, this modification was against the official guidelines. Consequently, the vehicle’s record set at 431.072 km/h is no longer valid." On 10 April 2013 it was written on its website: "Guinness World Records would like to confirm that Bugatti's record has not been disqualified; the record category is currently under review."
On 15 April 2013 Bugatti's speed record was confirmed: "Following a thorough review conducted with a number of external experts, Guinness World Records is pleased to announce the confirmation of Bugatti's record of Fastest production car achieved by the Veyron 16.4 Super Sport. The focus of the review was with respect to what may constitute a modification to a car’s standard specification. Having evaluated all the necessary information, Guinness World Records is now satisfied that a change to the speed limiter does not alter the fundamental design of the car or its engine."[39][40][41]
Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse (2012–2015) [ edit ]
Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse
The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse is a targa top version of the Veyron Super Sport. The engine in the Vitesse variant has a maximum power output of 1,200 PS (880 kW; 1,200 bhp) at 6,400 rpm and a maximum torque of 1,500 N⋅m (1,100 lb⋅ft) at 3,000–5,000 rpm. These figures allow the car to accelerate from a stand still to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 2.6 seconds. On normal roads, the Vitesse is electronically limited to 375 km/h (233 mph).
The Vitesse was first unveiled at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show [42][43] and later appeared at the 2012 Beijing Auto Show [44] and the 2012 São Paulo Motor Show.[45]
The Base price of the Vitesse is €1.69 million (without tax and transportation), with the car shown at the Geneva Motor Show costing €1.79 million and the car shown at the São Paulo Motor Show costing €1.9 million.
Special editions [ edit ]
A number of special editions of the Vitesse were made. The Vitesse SE, inspired by Bugatti Type 37A, was unveiled in 2012 and sold for €1.74 million (US$2.2 million).[46][47][48] The World Record Car (WRC) Edition was limited to 8 units, debuted in 2013, and went on sale for €1.99 million.[49][50][51]
In 2013, Bugatti produced a series of Vitesse dedicated to racing legends, including Jean-Pierre Wimille[52][53] Jean Bugatti,[54][55] Meo Costantini,[56] and Ettore Bugatti.[57]
Records [ edit ]
A Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse driven by the Chinese racing driver Anthony Liu at Volkswagen Group's proving grounds in Ehra-Lessien became the fastest open-top production sports car, with a top speed of 408.84 km/h (254.04 mph).[50]
After the world record attempt, Dr. Wolfgang Schreiber, President of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S, said “When we introduced the Vitesse, we established the top speed for open-top driving to be 375 km/h. Still, we could not let go of the idea of reaching the 400 km/h mark with this car as well. The fact that we have succeeded in reaching 408.84 km/h is a thrill for me, and it reaffirms once again that Bugatti is the leader when it comes to technology in the international automotive industry." The driver, Anthony Liu, claimed "Even at such high speeds it remained incredibly comfortable and stable. With an open top, you can really experience the sound of the engine and yet even at higher speeds I did not get compromised by the wind at all.”[49]
Specifications (all variants) [ edit ]
Performance Standard Super Sport Top Speed 408.47 km/h (253.81 mph)[58] 431.072 km/h (267.856 mph); 415 km/h (258 mph) limited[38] 0-100 km/h (62 mph) 2.46 seconds[59][60] 0-200 km/h (124 mph) 7.3 seconds[61][62] 6.7 seconds[63][64] 0-300 km/h (186 mph) 16.7 seconds[61][62] 14.6 seconds[63][64] 0-400 km/h (249 mph) 55.6 seconds[62]? Standing quarter-mile (402 m) 10.1 seconds[65] 9.7 seconds[63] Standing mile (1609 m) 25.9 seconds at 204.4 mph[66] 23.6 seconds[63] Braking from 100 km/h (62 mph) 31.4 m[61][63] 0-200-0 mph? 23.6 seconds[63] Lateral acceleration? 1.4 g[63]
Fuel economy [67] EPA city driving 8 miles per U.S. gallon (29 L/100 km; 9.6 mpg ‑imp ) EPA highway driving 14 miles per U.S. gallon (17 L/100 km; 17 mpg ‑imp ) Top speed fuel economy 3 miles per U.S. gallon (78 L/100 km; 3.6 mpg ‑imp ), or 1.4 U.S. gal (5.3 L; 1.2 imp gal) per minute
Production [ edit ]
The Bugatti Veyron "La Finale", the last Veyron ever produced was unveiled at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show
As of 6 August 2014, 405 cars have been produced and delivered to customers worldwide, with orders have already been placed for another 30. Bugatti was reported to produce 300 coupés and 150 roadsters up to the end of 2015.[68] Production amounted to 450 units in a span of over 10 years. The final production vehicle, a Grand Sport Vitesse titled "La Finale" (The Last One), was displayed at the Geneva Motor Show from 5–15 March 2015.[69]
Name Units made Veyron 16.4 178 Grand Sport 150 Super Sport 30 Grand Sport Vitesse 92 Total 450
Future development [ edit ]
In 2008, Bugatti then-CEO Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen confirmed that the Veyron would be replaced by another high-end model by 2012.[70] In 2011, the new CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer revealed that the company was planning to produce two models in the future — one a sports car-successor to the Veyron, the other a limousine known as the Bugatti 16C Galibier, which was later cancelled since Bugatti was later then working on a successor to the Veyron, which became the Bugatti Chiron.[71]
Originally the new model due in 2016 was meant to be no faster or more powerful than the Super Sport. This was later changed after a faster and more powerful in-game counterpart of the Super Sport appeared in Gran Turismo 6, known as the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo. The Vision Gran Turismo debuted at the September 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show.
A toned-down version of the Vision Gran Turismo concept car, now called the Chiron, debuted at the March 2016 Geneva Motor Show. Production started in 2017 and will be limited to 500 units.
Sales [ edit ]
Year Units sold 2005 5[72] 2006 44[72] 2007 81[73] 2008 71[74] 2009 50[74] 2010 40[75] 2011 38[76] 2012 31[77] 2013 47[78] Total 407 ISI
^ o. 450 was sold in May 2014.
Reception [ edit ]
Top Gear [ edit ]
All three former presenters of the popular BBC motoring show Top Gear have given the Veyron considerable praise. While initially skeptical that the Veyron would ever be produced, Jeremy Clarkson later declared the Veyron "the greatest car ever made and the greatest car we will ever see in our lifetime", comparing it to Concorde and S.S. Great Britain. He also pointed out that the actual production cost of a Bugatti Veyron car was GB£5 million, but was sold to customers for just GB£1 million. When asked why, he jokingly said that Volkswagen designed the car merely as a "Technical Exercise". James May described the Veyron as "our Concorde moment." Clarkson test drove the Veyron from Alba in northern Italy to London in a race against May and Richard Hammond who made the journey in a Cessna 182 aeroplane.
A few episodes later, May drove the Veyron at the VW test track and took it to its top speed of 407.16 km/h (253.00 mph). In series 10, Hammond raced the Veyron against the Eurofighter Typhoon and lost. He also raced the car in Series 13 against a McLaren F1 driven by The Stig in a one-mile (1.6 km) drag race in Abu Dhabi. The commentary focused on Bugatti's "amazing technical achievement" versus the "non-gizmo" racing purity of the F1. While the F1 was quicker off the line and remained ahead until both cars were travelling at approximately 200 km/h, the Bugatti overtook its competitor from 200 to 300 km/h and emerged the victor. Hammond has stated that he did not use the Veyron's launch control in order to make the race more interesting.
The Veyron also won the award for "Car of the Decade" in Top Gear's end of 2010 award show. Clarkson commented "It was a car that just rewrote the rule book really, an amazing piece of engineering, a genuine Concorde moment". When the standard version was tested in 2008, it did not reach the top of the lap time leader board, with a time of 1:18.3, which was speculated as being due to the car's considerable weight disadvantage against the other cars towards the top. In 2010 the Super Sport version achieved the fastest ever time of 1:16.8 (dethroned the Gumpert Apollo S, replaced by the Ariel Atom V8 in 2011),[79] as well as being taken to a verified average top speed of 431 km/h (268 mph) by Raphanel on the programme,[80] thenceforth retaking its position as the fastest production car in the world.[81][82][83]
Martin Roach [ edit ]
In 2011, Martin Roach's book Bugatti Veyron: A Quest for Perfection – The Story of the Greatest Car in the World[84] took the stance that the car had now become so famous that it is effectively a bona fide celebrity. The book follows its author as he attempts to track down and drive the car, along the way interviewing chief designers, test drivers, and the president of Bugatti.
Gordon Murray [ edit ]
During its development period McLaren F1 designer Gordon Murray said in UK auto magazine Evo: "The most pointless exercise on the planet has got to be this four-wheel-drive, thousand-horsepower Bugatti." But after driving it he called it "a huge achievement".[85]
Murray was impressed with the Veyron's engine and transmission after he test drove one for Road and Track magazine. He also praised its styling: "The styling is a wonderful mélange of classic curves and mechanical edges and elements — this should ensure that the car will still look good years from now, and therefore have a chance of becoming a future classic."[86]
See also [ edit ]Web sleuths have stumbled across an enormous trove of US Military surveillance files that were sitting wide open on the internet.
The three AWS S3 buckets contain billions of social media posts, web and forum comments and were gathered by officials working for the US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, and at Pacom, the US Pacific Command in Hawaii, over the last eight years.
They include posts about Donald Trump, ISIS and foreign politicians.
While many were not written in English or composed in the US, the files do contain some posts that were made by American citizens.
They were found by UpGuard's Chris Vickery on September 6, 2017.
Billions of files including Facebook posts and web comments from around the world which were gathered by US Military surveillance teams have been viewed and downloaded online. Some of the files are pictured above in folders called'scraped' and 'outpost'
They were stored by CentCom, the US Central Command, under folders titled 'Centcom Archive' and 'Centcom backup'
UpGuard is a cyber security company firm which previously uncovered another stash of DoD files online. They contained the resumes and work details of thousands of military personnel.
The new files were stored on an Amazon cloud-based storage bucket and were only made available to the public because an internal security glitch known as misconfiguration.
It meant that any Amazon Web Services S3 user could download them.
UpGuard estimates that misconfigurations are among the riskiest cyber security dangers and account for up to 90 percent of breaches, far outweighing the realistic risks of hackers or viruses.
The three buckets found in September were named 'centcom-backup,''centcom-archive,' and 'pacom-archive.'
CENTCOM implemented additional security measures to prevent unauthorized access US Central Command
In one folder, titled'scraped, there were posts from the Canadian forum Connect2Edmonton which included comments such as 'President Donald Trump what now?' and 'Anyone think a trade war developing along US boarders (sic) because of Trump is going to happen?'
In the 'centcom archive' folder, at least 1.8million posts and messages were stored.
The majority were harvested from Central Asia and the Middle East, Vickery said.
Some anti-ISIS comments written in groups for Iraqi anti-jihadi groups were discovered along with Pashto comments written on Pakistani politician Imran Khan's Facebook page.
Pacom's stash contained similar content but it was harvested from Southeast and East Asia.
Some included references to Donald Trump, trade wars and possible coups in Turkey
Another referred to 'the freeman of America'. All were gathered by troops monitoring the Middle East and Asia
Poker ads and messages from other forums referencing the boycott of Trump's companies were also stored
The DoD is tight-lipped about programmes it uses to harvest information to hone in on persons of interest.
Vickery, after compiling the data, asked in a post on UpGuard's website: 'Why, for instance, were each of these posts collected?
'What triggered their inclusion in these repositories?' He contacted the DoD after discovering the materials last month.
The DoD would not comment on the breach on Saturday morning and instead directed all questions to Centcom.
Its officials told DailyMail.com that none of the information was'sensitive' and appeared to play down the breach, saying none was used for official intelligence and that it had been merely given to them by an unnamed 'contractor' which harvested it using an 'off the shelf program'.
'It is not collected nor processed for any intelligence purposes.
'All of the information is readily available public information related to our activities and obtained through commercial off-the-shelf programs in accordance with U.S. Code and Department of Defense policy in a consistent manner,' they said.
The official added that it was obtained to'support public information gathering, measurement and engagement of our online programs' but would not go into more detail over why the military wanted to have it.
Centcom, the US Central Command HQ in Tampa, Florida, said none of the information was sensitive
Others were stored by the US Pacific Command whose headquarters are in Hawaii
'U.S. Central Command has used commercial off-the-shelf and web-based programs to support public information gathering, measurement and engagement activities of our online programs on public sites.
Cyber security expert Chris Vickery discovered the files and shared details of them online
'The information is widely available to anyone who conducts similar online activities.
'The data is raw data that was provided to us by a contractor,' they said.
Since discovering it their Amazon cloud-based storage unit was breached, they said they have taken 'additional measures' to prevent any other 'unauthorized access'.
Last month, it was revealed that thousands of files containing sensitive information about US military personnel had also been breached.
They were discovered by UpGuard in the same way as the new ones were.- Advertisement -
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
If you had followed May Day protests in New York City in the mainstream media, you might hardly have noticed that they happened at all. The stories were generally tucked away, minimalist, focused on a few arrests, and spoke of "hundreds" of protesters in the streets, or maybe, if a reporter was feeling especially generous, a vague "thousands." I did my own rough count on the largest of the Occupy protests that day. It left Union Square in the evening heading for the Wall Street area. I walked through the march front to back, figuring a couple of thousand loosely packed protesters to a block, and came up with a conservative estimate of 15,000 people. Maybe it wasn't the biggest protest of all time, but sizeable enough given that Occupy, an organization without strong structures but once strongly located, had been (quite literally) pushed or even beaten out of its camps in Zuccotti Park and elsewhere across the country and toward oblivion.
It's true that if you were checking out the Nation or Mother Jones, you would have gotten a more accurate sense of what was going on. Still, didn't the great protest movement of our American moment (on a planet still in upheaval) deserve better that day? And no matter what you read in the mainstream, here's what you would have known nothing about: this country is increasingly an armed camp and those marchers, remarkably relaxed and peaceable, were heading out into a concentration of police that was staggering and should have been startling.
Cops on motor scooters patroled the edges of the march, which was hemmed in by the usual moveable metal barricades. Police helicopters buzzed us at rooftop level. The police managed to alter the actual path of the marchers partway along and the police turnout -- I estimated up to 75 cops, three deep on some street corners doing nothing but collecting overtime -- was little short of incomprehensible.
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Though Occupy marchers used to chant, "Whose streets, our streets!" it was never so. The streets belong to the police. If this is the democracy and freedom to dissent that American officials constantly proclaim to the world as one of our core values, then pinch me. If most of it is even legal, I'd be surprised. But when it comes to legality, we're past all that. So any march on a sunny day is instantly imprisoned, and the protesters turned into a captive audience. When young people break out of the barricades and the serried ranks of cops and head in unexpected directions, it has the unmistakable feel of a jailbreak.
The fact is that, in a country whose security forces are up-armored to the teeth from the Mexican border to Union Square, just behind any set of marchers, you can feel the unease of those in power, edging up to fear. And no wonder. We remain in a "recovery" that's spinning on a dime. Let the Eurozone falter and begin to fall, the Chinese housing bubble pop, or the Persian Gulf go up in flames, and hold onto your signs. Like Bloomberg in the Big Apple, many mayors sent in their paramilitaries (with a helping hand from the Department of Homeland Security) to get rid of the "troublemakers." Only problem: their real problems run so much deeper and when the next "moment" comes, Occupy could look like a march in the park (which, in many inspirational ways, it largely was). In the meantime, the streets increasingly belong to the weaponized. Americans who protest blur into the "terrorists" who, since 9/11, have been the obsession of what passes for law enforcement.
If you want some sense of just what's lurking under the surface of all the police drones and helicopters and tanks and even mini-drone submarines, what underpins our fragile, edgy moment, then check out this talk TomDispatch regular Noam Chomsky gave. It's excerpted from his new book Occupy, with special thanks to its publisher Zuccotti Park Press. Tom
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Plutonomy and the Precariat
On the History of the U.S. Economy in Decline
By Noam Chomsky The Occupy movement has been an extremely exciting development. Unprecedented, in fact. There's never been anything like it that I can think of. If the bonds and associations it has established can be sustained through a long, dark period ahead -- because victory won't come quickly -- it could prove a significant moment in American history. The fact that the Occupy movement is unprecedented is quite appropriate. After all, it's an unprecedented era and has been so since the 1970s, which marked a major turning point in American history. For centuries, since the country began, it had been a developing society, and not always in very pretty ways. That's another story, but the general progress was toward wealth, industrialization, development, and hope. There was a pretty constant expectation that it was going to go on like this. That was true even in very dark times. I'm just old enough to remember the Great Depression. After the first few years, by the mid-1930s -- although the situation was objectively much harsher than it is today -- nevertheless, the spirit was quite different. There was a sense that "we're gonna get out of it," even among unemployed people, including a lot of my relatives, a sense that "it will get better." There was militant labor union organizing going on, especially from the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations). It was getting to the point of sit-down strikes, which are frightening to the business world -- you could see it in the business press at the time -- because a sit-down strike is just a step before taking over the factory and running it yourself. The idea of worker takeovers is something which is, incidentally, very much on the agenda today, and we should keep it in mind. Also New Deal legislation was beginning to come in as a result of popular pressure. Despite the hard times, there was a sense that, somehow, "we're gonna get out of it." It's quite different now. For many people in the United States, there's a pervasive sense of hopelessness, sometimes despair. I think it's quite new in American history. And it has an objective basis. - Advertisement - On the Working Class In the 1930s, unemployed working people could anticipate that their jobs would come back. If you're a worker in manufacturing today -- the current level of unemployment there is approximately like the Depression -- and current tendencies persist, those jobs aren't going to come back. The change took place in the 1970s. There are a lot of reasons for it. One of the underlying factors, discussed mainly by economic historian Robert Brenner, was the falling rate of profit in manufacturing. There were other factors. It led to major changes in the economy -- a reversal of several hundred years of progress towards industrialization and development that turned into a process of de-industrialization and de-development. Of course, manufacturing production continued overseas very profitably, but it's no good for the work force.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 42B’s Basic Characteristics Battle is performed in a seamless, open world. In battle the Square button is for “speed attacks”, the Triangle button for “heavy attacks”, and any additional attacks can be chained together depending on which button is pressed to create a simple yet refreshing battle system. Speed & Heavy Attacks For these types of attacks, you are able to equip whatever set of weapons you like, from single-handed and double-handed swords to gauntlets and twin blades. You can equip two sets of two weapons, and you can switch between these two sets with the touch of a single button. For example, if you have a single-handed and double-handed swords equipped in Set 1, you can easily switch to Set 2 with a gauntlet and single-handed sword to continue your attack. Simple controls allow you to perform a multitude of attacks! There are no complex strings of combo attacks; instead, your attack will continue as it registers additional button inputs. Single-handed Blade
This type of weapon is easy to use and has a nice balance of attack power, speed, and range. There are plenty of different skills that have easily connecting combos regardless of the situation in battle. Double-handed Blade
This type of weapon is both large and heavy, requiring the use of both hands. The pride of this weapon lies with its exceptional power and reach, but since its attacks are relatively slow, it gives the enemy a slight window of attack. ＊ By charging your weapon, the range of your attack will increase. Gauntlets
Although the attack range is relatively short, the advantage of this weapon is its speed and how many successful fits you can achieve in a short amount of time. It is the singular weapon of choice in one-on-one combat with its strength in speed and ease of landing special attacks. ＊ Pre-orders for the special edition “Black Box” release of NieR:Automata is currently available through the Square Enix e-STORE! This comes with the game, a 2B figure, the audio soundtrack from the NieR Music Concert & Talk Live from last April, an artbook, and novelized version of the original NieR. The sale price is set at 25,800yen. Evasion
By |
” (hel‐mart.com); a Facebook group called “Anti Wal‐Mart”; and a poll asking if it is acceptable to steal from Walmart, in which 17.5% of individuals answered “Yes, Walmart is evil and should burn in hell” (escapistmagazine.com). Relatedly, Walmart has reported losses of $3 billion dollars annually because of consumer shoplifting and wardrobing (Matthews, 2015). These consumer actions lend empirical credence to the phenomenon of brand punishment via unethical behavior, even when the consumer is not personally harmed. Accordingly, we call on other researchers to continue examining how and why consumers engage in unethical actions towards brands. A more precise understanding of which consumers see unethical treatment as morally acceptable and why consumers come to believe a brand is harmful provides exciting opportunities for consumer psychologists to more fully understand the phenomenon of brand punishment via unethical behavior.
Author Contribution The authors contributed equally to this paper, and order of authorship was determined randomly.
Supporting Information Filename Description jcpy1002-sup-0001-Appendix.docxWord document, 788.5 KB Appendix S1. Key Measures across Studies Appendix S2. Summary Statistics, Scale Reliabilities across Studies 1‐3 Appendix S3. Pilot Study: Instructions and Measures Appendix S4. Study 1: Instructions and Manipulations Appendix S5. Study 2: Instructions, Manipulations, and Post‐test Appendix S6. Study 3: Instructions, Manipulations, and Post‐test Appendix S7. Correlation Matrices Appendix S8. Additional Studies Not Included in the Manuscript Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.In China hundreds of millions of people will now never be able to spell koala correctly.
But Australians shouldn't be too precious, Aussie farmers and manufacturers will be laughing all the way to the bank.
NetEase, a leading Chinese internet, email and gaming company listed on the NASDAQ and worth about $35 billion expanded into e-commerce last year launching Kaola.com.
Despite the website's Chinglish name, cross-border commerce is now a 10 per cent chunk of NetEase's revenue and going gangbusters.
Kaola operates on a similar basis to Amazon.
NetEase spokeswoman Maggie Liu said the koala was chosen as a symbol because, like the marsupial, NetEase wants its online customers to be "lazy and comfortable" - while it does all the hard work of delivering the best foreign products to people's doors.
There are tens of thousands of products and more than 100 brands from Australia sold through Kaola so far.
Among Australian products in high demand are vitamins, baby goods such as nappies, various infant milk brands as well as skincare and make-up.
A typical Kaola customer is a Chinese woman, professional, aged 23-35, who is looking for top quality products and authentic brands.
There have been scores of consumer product scandals in China in recent years, denting confidence and trust in locally-made products.
Families are prepared to pay a premium for Australian products following China's 2008 melamine milk scandal which killed six babies and caused 300,000 others to become ill.
Ms Liu is also a young mother and used to get her sister, who is studying in Sydney, to send her baby formula but now she says it's cheaper to source it through Kaola.
"I like to know I'm getting a safe product," she told reporters in Hangzhou, which is 200 kilometres from Shanghai and ia Chinese equivalent of Silicon Valley in the US.
NetEase Australian general manager Jianing Liu has been busy sourcing seafood such as rock lobsters from Western Australia this week as part of a new push into fresh food.
He's also scouted WA beekeepers for honey and fruit from north Queensland.
Kaola was a great platform for small and medium sized companies to get a foothold into the Chinese market, especially in the wake of the Chinese-Australian free trade deal, he said.
Hangzhou is also home to another E-commerce giant Alibaba, similar to eBay, which recently signed a deal with Austrade during Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's visit to the city for the G20 summit.
* The reporter travelled to China on a delegation hosted by the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs.Find An Event Create Your Event Help Anchor Brewing Company Self-Guided Tour Anchor Brewing Company
San Francisco, CA Share this event:
Come visit Anchor Brewing Company for a unique tour and tasting experience! For the first time ever, Anchor Brewing will open it's doors to the public for a self guided tour of our facility. This tour will take you through our Taproom and Brew House while showcasing several of our beers along the way.
This is a great opportunity to come visit one of San Francisco's oldest companies and the largest manufacturer in the city! Anchor Brewing Company prides itself on using only the highest quality ingredients while maintaining the traditional brewing styles that have been in use for over a century! During your tour you will see our traditional all-copper brew system and our unique open-fermentation techniques.There will be educational stations along the tour where all your questions can be answered.
Included in the price of admission are five 5oz. tastings of our beers along the tour. Tickets will also be available at the door for $20 in limited quantities! Get Tickets There are no active dates for this event. Not Available Location Anchor Brewing Company (View)
1705 Mariposa St.
San Francisco, CA 94107
United States 1705 Mariposa St.San Francisco, CA 94107United States
Categories Food > Beer, Wine, Spirits
Minimum Age: 21 Kid Friendly: No Dog Friendly: No Non-Smoking: Yes! Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! Contact Owner: Anchor Brewing Company On BPT Since: Jan 05, 2016 Anchor Brewing Company 415-863-8350 info@anchorbrewing.com
Ask a question... Ask!Whitehead Institute researchers have developed a novel method of removing potential cancer-causing genes during the reprogramming of skin cells from Parkinson's disease patients into an embryonic-stem-cell-like state. Scientists were then able to use the resulting induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to derive dopamine-producing neurons, the cell type that degenerates in Parkinson's disease patients.
The work marks the first time researchers have generated human iPS cells that have maintained their embryonic stem-cell-like properties after the removal of reprogramming genes. The findings are published in the March 6 edition of the journal Cell.
"Until this point, it was not completely clear that when you take out the reprogramming genes from human cells, the reprogrammed cells would actually maintain the iPS state and be self-perpetuating," says Frank Soldner, a postdoctoral researcher in Whitehead Member Rudolf Jaenisch's laboratory and co-author of the article.
Since August 2006, researchers have been reprogramming adult cells into iPS cells by using viruses to transfer four genes (Oct4, Sox2, c-Myc and Klf4) into the cells' DNA. Although necessary for reprogramming cells, these genes -- the known oncogene c-Myc in particular -- also have the potential to cause cancer. In addition, the four genes interact with approximately 3,000 other genes in the cell, which may change how the cell functions. Therefore, leaving the genes behind in successfully reprogrammed cells may cause unintended alterations that limit the cells' applicability for therapeutic use, for drug screens or to study disease in cell culture.
In the current method, Whitehead researchers used viruses to transfer the four reprogramming genes and a gene coding for the enzyme Cre into skin cells from Parkinson's disease patients. The reprogramming genes were bracketed by short DNA sequences, called loxP, which are recognized by the enzyme Cre.
After the skin cells were reprogrammed to iPS cells, the researchers introduced the Cre enzyme into the cells, which removed the DNA between the two loxP sites, thereby deleting the reprogramming genes from the cells. The result is a collection of iPS cells with genomes virtually identical to those of the Parkinson's disease patients from whom original skin cells came.
Removing the reprogramming genes is also important because of those genes' effect on an iPS cell's gene expression (a measure of which genes the cell is using and how much it's using those genes). When the researchers compared the gene expressions of human embryonic stem cells to iPS cells with and without the reprogramming factors, iPS cells without the reprogramming genes had a gene expression closer to human embryonic stem cells than to the same iPS cells that still contained the reprogramming genes.
"The reprogramming factors are known to bind to and affect the expression of 3,000 genes in the entire genome, so having artificial expression of those genes will change the cell's overall gene expression," Dirk Hockemeyer, who is also a co-author of the Cell article. "That's why the four reprogramming genes can mess up the system so much. From now on, it will be tough for researchers to leave the reprogramming genes in iPS cells."
Jaenisch, who is also a professor of biology at MIT and a member of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, says that the process to remove the reprogramming genes is very successful, when compared with earlier experiments. "Other labs have reprogrammed mouse cells and removed the reprogramming genes, but it was incredibly inefficient, and they couldn't get it to work in human cells," he says. "We have done it much more efficiently, in human cells, and made reprogrammed, gene-free cells."
After removing the reprogramming genes, the Jaenisch researchers differentiated the cells from the Parkinson's disease patients into dopamine-producing nerve cells. In Parkinson's disease patients, these cells in the brain die or become impaired, causing such classic Parkinson's symptoms as tremors, slowed movement and balance problems.
Because the cells reside in the patients' brains, researchers cannot easily access them to investigate how the disease progresses at the cellular level, what kills the cells, or what might prevent cellular damage. Therefore, the ability to create patient-specific iPS cells, derive the dopamine-producing cells, and study those patient-specific cells in the lab could be a great advantage for Parkinson's disease researchers.
Although the initial results are extremely promising, Jaenisch acknowledges that the process is far from over. "The next step is to use these iPS-derived cells as disease models, and that's a high bar, a real challenge. I think a lot of work has to go into that."Getty Images
1. The Fashion Buyer "When I was in college, my mom bought me a sweater at a store called Kinnucan's. The sweater was too small, so I went in to exchange it. When I went in, a friend of mine was working part time as an associate and encouraged me to apply. Since I was in my last semester of college, I decided to go for it. I got the job. I was a part-time sales associate when I started in January of 2011, and by June the same year I was the general manager. Four years later, I now work at their corporate office as a clothing buyer/designer and analyst. I studied fashion in school, but never dreamed that I'd have this amazing job now! All because my mom bought me a too-small sweater. Funny how things work out." —Sara Elizabeth Denton (Facebook)
2. The Preschool Teacher "I took a break from the rat race of academia so I could stay home with my daughter when she was born. When I needed to go back to work, I randomly applied for a job at the preschool she was going into, kinda just out of curiosity. But when I actually got the job, and decided to take it instead of resuming my old career, I discovered very quickly that teaching preschool was the dream job I never even knew I wanted! It's fun and rewarding and makes me a better father." —marlint
3. The Self-Made Editor "I married young and was a stay-at-home mother for 15 years. I held a few jobs here and there: teacher, medical assistant, volunteer, but nothing long term. I dabbled in writing children's books and poetry, but when I got involved in writer's groups I always liked the part where I got to critique other people's work more than submitting my own. Group members seemed to really like and seek out my feedback, so I started offering additional readings outside of the group for, like, $5. Then my husband left. So there I was, with two kids, and a mortgage, and bills to pay, and NO MONEY. We were eating from the food shelf. I got desperate and sat down one day and thought, OK. What are my resources? What DO I have? I had a B.A. and remembered the critiques I had done for writing groups. I took my last few dollars, created a website, and started an editing business. Much to my amazement and gratitude, it worked! I started off on the cheap and raised my prices as I gained experience. As I earned money, I was able to join professional organizations, network with other editors, and take classes to improve my skills. Now a few years later I make enough money to support the three of us. I'm always booked out several weeks, and I love my job. I can do it in my pajamas at midnight if I want to, and I'm always home to be with my daughters. Plus I get to read all the time, which is like a dream come true! I never knew what I wanted to do with my life when I was younger. It took me 36 years and a crisis to stumble upon my career, but I'm so incredibly happy now." —Sonnet Fitzgerald (Facebook)
4. The Sexpert "I work at a sex shop. A higher-end sex shop, but still, we sell vibrators and Fleshlights and lingerie and porn. And it is the most challenging, intellectually stimulating, rewarding job I have ever had. I went to NYU for journalism. I came back to my hometown and went to college for science ed. I come from a family of lawyers, college graduates, and intellectuals. In short, my family had big plans for me. But I will tell you that not one feature piece, publishing internship, or trip to the watershed to collect samples has ever been as rewarding as helping a sexual abuse survivor choose her first vibrator. Or showing a woman living with her ailing, religious mother that we can find her a totally silent toy. Or assisting a cancer survivor toward finally being able to have sex with her partner again, after scarring had made it impossible for years. When I was desperate for a job, I got wind of this one: full time, with benefits, retail sales (which is always what I've done while trying to get my degree/s). I practically fell into it, with zero to negative expectations. And it is by far the best job I have ever, ever had." —Xana Stathea (Facebook)
5. The Stock Clerk "I always thought I would end up something like a secretary or receptionist. You know, an office job. When I hit 20 I ended up working for a national merchandising company doing grocery store resets. It wasn't until I had been with this company for years that I decided to make the jump into working in a grocery store as a stock clerk. Here I am, almost three years in with a highly rated grocery chain, and I've never been happier with my job. You think it's just opening boxes and putting things on shelves, but I'm in charge of a whole corner of my department. I do it by myself. I have men who have been doing this job for over a decade that know less than me. At this moment I'm the only female stock clerk and I hold my own (I am also stocking water from our deliveries…and I weigh just over 120 lbs). I have found my dream job and I didn't even know it would be something that seems as menial as it does. I put a lot of work and pride into my part of the store and it shows." —leahfu
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6. The Bilingual Sexual Assault Advocate "I always thought I would be some kind of translator in another country and move abroad. That was my plan. I graduated undergrad with a degree in Spanish and women's studies. Someone showed me a job posting for a bilingual sexual assault advocate a few months before I graduated. It fit both my majors perfectly and is the weirdest, most unusual job I could've asked for. I didn't even know this position existed, but I love what I do now. They pay me to be a feminist who helps Spanish-speakers. It makes perfect sense for what interests me but I don't think I would've ever dreamed of this if it didn't fall into my lap. And now I can't imagine any other career path that would fit me nearly as perfectly." —Courtney Love Foster (Facebook)
7. The CPA "I almost didn't graduate high school because I failed so many classes, including multiple math classes. I took community college classes here and there but couldn't decide on a degree. In my mid-twenties, I worked at a hardware store for several years as a cashier and then in the back office, doing bookkeeping. That experience led me to get an accounting degree. Today I'm a CPA (passed all four parts the first time!)" —claraw4d93ea57b
8. The Manager "In my sophomore year of college, I was accepted to my school's study abroad program in London, but in order to support myself during my semester abroad, I decided that I really needed to get a job. I worked on my resume and printed at least 50 copies that I gave to different stores, restaurants, supermarkets, etc. every weekend. One of those resumes went to a cute little gift boutique in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, where I chatted with the nice woman at the counter. Fast forward a couple of months, I get an email from her asking if I would like to accept a position at her store. Unfortunately, I already had two jobs that summer, so I couldn't take her offer. So I went to London, had the time of my life, and came back to Philly to finish my junior year. I had planned on going back to my old hosting job at the brunch spot I worked at during the summer, but I changed my mind at the last minute. I decided to try my luck again at that little shop. Not only were they looking, the same woman at the counter was working that evening, and she totally remembered me! Two years later, what started as a part-time retail job to support myself through my last two years of college has become my full-time job and career! I'm now the general manager and buyer for the shop and I've been working side by side with my boss ever since. I had always imagined that I would be working my way up to becoming an editor at a major publishing company, but I fell into this job and I haven't looked back since." —Jess Lai (Facebook)
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9. The Body-Sugaring Practitioner "I never expected to have a job in hair removal and then like that job in hair removal. I'm a body-sugaring practitioner and now part owner of the company I work for. What I love about my job is the client interaction. I've always been an outgoing person, but this job has brought me completely out of my shell, where I can now start a conversation and hold a conversation with almost anyone. In my younger years that was much more difficult for me. I did leave my job here for a little while and got an office job, and I completely hated it! There was no interaction with others, aside from lunch and breaks, and you were sitting at a computer all day. I decided to come back to my current job. Now I'm a part owner, and should have my own shop within the next two years!!" —Nemi1969
10. The Nail Polish Creative Director "When I was 17, I started getting into makeup. I started a beauty blog in 2012 as a hobby, doing nails and makeup looks. This eventually turned into an everyday thing. I tried learning something new every day, created an Instagram for it, and decided I'd eventually go to cosmetology school to get my license. (Or so I thought.) In November of 2013, I was asked to be a graphic designer for one of my favorite nail polish companies. I did this for about a year and started to rethink cosmetology. I got a surprise email from my favorite indie nail polish company asking if I'd be interested in managing their social media accounts. The months following, jokes were made about me moving across the country to work full time with them. Next thing I know, three months later, I'm visiting Las Vegas. Two months later, I'm packing everything I own up and moving from Florida to Nevada. I'm now the assistant creative director of ILNP Cosmetics. I get to work with people I absolutely love and admire and do the things I love, something that I never thought I'd be doing as a full-time job. I'm one of the few lucky people, who at only 19, has their dream job." —ChrissyAi (Facebook)
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11. The Video Game Admin "I work for a video game company. I started off in property management post-college — it paid the bills, but I truly hated it. I went to school for theater production. I picked up projects outside of work on contracts here and there, and I was production-managing a show. The writer was the person who would become my boss. In our roundtable updates, she mentioned she was looking to hire two executive assistants at her company. I was working as the assistant to a VP at a property management company. I told her I was interested. A little background: My husband was actually a game designer at the same company, but I never applied there, because what do I know about the video games industry? Anyway after two interviews I was in. I've been here for going on three years and I can say it's the best job I've ever had. The environment is amazing, the work can be challenging, and the people are great. It's like the nerd place I never knew I belonged in." —Tiba LaMusga (Facebook)
12. The Biotechnician "I had no idea I was good at science. At 25, I was going to a community college for nursing, but I was slowly starting to see the nursing world wasn't for me. One day, there was a poster for a new biotechnology program outside of one of my classes. I didn't even know exactly what that was, but I enrolled. I quickly started to notice that I not only loved biotech, but I was also at the top of my class. Everything fell into place: I got a paid internship at one of the few biotech companies in town, and after I graduated they hired me full time. For a long time, I woke up every morning excited to get to the lab. The perks and benefits were unbelievable too. I don't work there anymore, but that's because I'm back in college, working on my bachelor's (and possibly a master's later) in biotechnology." —Darah Johnson (Facebook)
13. The Deli Clerk "I got fired from my job as executive chef for "not trying hard enough" even though I constantly got treated like garbage. I got a job in the deli at Publix, and I'm still amazed at how much I love working there. I get up a lot earlier, I get to socialize with all kinds of different people, and my overall lifestyle has just become healthier. For the first time in my life, I have health insurance. I have a retirement savings and they match my contribution in company stock (which just took a major jump). But the most important thing that makes me love going to work every day is that I always know that my hard work and dedication are appreciated." —McMollis
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14. The Paramedic "During high school I became very sick and [had] liver failure. I was supposed to be in an occupational health class junior and senior year, but I ended up being too sick to commit to the classes. The next year, senior year, I had a bunch of open hours in my schedule, so my guidance counselor told me to take the EMT class. I became enthralled with medicine and went straight from high school to paramedic school. I gave up a full-ride scholarship to Michigan State University that I had worked my entire high school career for. I gave up the plans that I had set in place years before to go do what I have a true calling for. All of that to go work on an ambulance, for poor pay, and being exposed to the worst of the worst. However, when you join EMS you gain a family that will support you through anything. I wake up (almost) every day happy to go to work. It's not a job if you love what you do, and that can't be more true for me. That was three years ago and I haven't looked back. I love being a paramedic and helping my community. I know that this decision will make me a better doctor when I go to medical school." —Carson29The IRS Spent $17,000 For A 'Speaker' To Make These Paintings
The IRS is under more scrutiny after a new Inspector General's report detailed millions in lavish spending by the agency on conferences, on everything from speakers' fees to parody videos.
One of the most bizarre speaking fees the IRS produced, though, was the $17,000 it spent on a "keynote speaker" who painted six portraits — of Michael Jordan, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, and Bono, as well as two of the Statue of Liberty.
Here's one of the portraits:
More details from the report:
One keynote speaker was contracted to perform two keynote speeches that lasted approximately one hour each, and the speaker was paid $17,000. According to the contract signed by the IRS, this speaker was "uniquely qualified to deliver this presentation because of the combination of his artistic abilities and his presentation skills. In each presentation, he will create a unique painting that reinforces his message of unlearning the rules, breaking the boundaries, and freeing the thought process to find creative solutions to challenges."
The speaker created six paintings at these two keynote sessions (three at each session). These paintings consisted of the following portraits: Albert Einstein (one); Michael Jordan (one); Abraham Lincoln (one); U2 singer Bono (one); and the Statute of Liberty (two).
According to the report, three of the paintings were donated, two were given away, and one was "lost."
The report shows that the IRS spent $4.1 million on a single conference in Anaheim in 2010, most of which the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration deemed stemmed from "questionable expenses."
Pamela LaRue, the IRS' chief financial officer, acknowledged in response to the inspector general's report that the spending on the 2010 conference was out of line and pointed to reduced spending that has ensued in the last two years.
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See Also:In a ruling that adds to police powers in investigating rape, the Supreme Court of Canada says police have the right to take a penile swab from suspected attackers, forcibly if necessary, as long as they do so in a private cell and have reasonable grounds to believe they will find relevant evidence.
The new power allows officers to do a more modest, male version of the rape kit – the intrusive examination of victims, albeit with their consent, done in medical clinics for DNA evidence on their assailant. Suspected attackers could be subjected to an obligatory physical search of their genital area for the bodily tissue of victims. Police will not need a warrant to demand such a swab. (The suspect's own DNA obtained from the swab cannot be used in court unless police first obtain a warrant, or the suspect's consent to do the search, the court said.)
It is the first time the court has empowered police to take bodily samples without a warrant, according to Ottawa criminal lawyer Howard Krongold, who represented the Criminal Lawyers Association, which intervened in the case.
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The case – involving the rape of a 15-year-old girl from an Edmonton group home – comes at a time when the prosecution of sexual assault is receiving heightened attention in cases such as that of former CBC broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi, U.S. actor Bill Cosby, and incidents on campuses in Canada and the United States.
The Supreme Court's majority stressed the importance of getting tough on sexual assault despite the intrusiveness of the swab. "Sexual assaults are notoriously difficult to prove," Justice Michael Moldaver wrote, with six other judges in support. He cited the importance of obtaining the evidence before a suspect can wipe or wash it away, or it degrades. And he said swabbing can be done in minutes and is not inherently invasive.
The ruling illustrates a Supreme Court trend toward expanding police powers in key areas – the taking of confessions, the limiting of the right to counsel, the use of sniffer dogs – even as the court opposed government attempts to toughen sentencing and limit judicial discretion during the just-ended Stephen Harper era, one legal observer said.
"The main story in the court's relationship to the police has been permissive expansion of the scope of police powers over the last 10 to 12 years," Ben Berger, associate dean at Osgoode Hall Law School, said in an interview.
A rape crisis centre cheered the ruling. "If it means the criminal justice system will be able to hold more rapists accountable, that it will increase the likelihood of charges, then we think it's a useful judgment," Hilla Kerner, facilitator at the Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter, told The Globe and Mail.
Under common law, a centuries-old body of precedents, police can conduct a search to protect safety and protect evidence when they make an arrest. The question in the case of Ali Hassan Saeed, who was 26 at the time of the sexual assault in 2011, was whether those powers allowed police to do a genital search for the DNA of the victim. The evidence from the swab was crucial, because the victim recanted her identification of Mr. Saeed when cross-examined, and a witness who did identify him was intoxicated at the time.
The trial judge ruled the search illegal but said the evidence could be used because police acted in good faith and because society had a strong interest in ensuring the case was heard on its merits. She sentenced Mr. Saeed to five years in prison. He appealed to the Alberta Court of Appeal, where one judge ruled the search legal, and two others said it was illegal but would have allowed the evidence. Mr. Saeed appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld his conviction.
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Just two Supreme Court judges, both of them women, said a penile swab should be deemed an illegal search.
The ruling is a change in tone and direction from a 1997 case known as R v. Stillman, in which police took dental impressions and hair samples from a 17-year-old man suspected in a rape-killing. The majority of the court said the police acted illegally when they obtained those samples without a warrant, and that the evidence had to be excluded. (Under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, prosecutors may use illegally obtained evidence if a judge decides keeping it out would harm the justice system's reputation more than using it would.)
In a strong dissent in the Saeed case, Justice Andromache Karakatsanis accused the majority of straying from precedents that found a "close relationship between bodily privacy and human dignity." Comparing the case with Stillman, she said the privacy rights involved were more compelling for Mr. Saeed – a penile swab is more intrusive than a dental imprint, she said – and the government's interest in prosecuting the crime was no greater. At the time of the Stillman case, warrants were not available to gather DNA from suspects. Parliament created those warrants as a result of the case, Justice Karakatsanis reminded the court, urging the majority to leave the expansion of police powers to elected legislators. However, she said she would have permitted the evidence to be used in this case.
Justice Rosalie Abella said she would have disallowed the penile swab and barred the evidence from being used.
Mr. Krongold said in an interview he is troubled that police will be empowered to take invasive samples from a detainee's genital area "on the spur of the moment. Inevitably, you're going to have cases where this extraordinary power is abused."
Elizabeth Sheehy, a University of Ottawa law professor specializing in violence against women, said she finds it disturbing that the court "fails to place much weight on what one might think would be the most serious privacy invasion of the body," and added: "It's hard for me to see swabbing men's penises as a great victory for women who have been raped, given how few men deny contact (most argue "consent" or "mistaken belief in consent") as well as the many other substantive, procedural and credibility hurdles that women face, many of which have been given the court's seal of approval."Hoppus dishes to MTV News about the EP, set for a December 18 release, as well as the band's newfound 'agility' after leaving Interscope.
Last month, Blink-182 cut ties with Interscope Records, ending a 15-year history with the Universal Music Group and officially kicking off what Mark Hoppus described to MTV News as the band's "independent" era.
"The future's a wide-open door," he wrote in an email. "We're lucky to be in a position where, after 20 years in our band, we can be... open to all options."
And by now, most Blink fans know what the first of those options will be: Last week, the band announced they'd have an EP in stores by Christmas, marking their first new music since 2011's Neighborhoods album.
So once again, MTV News hit up Hoppus to get some details on the project, and he definitely delivered... starting by revealing the tentative release date for the new EP.
"We're very excited about getting these songs out before Christmas. As it stands today, the EP is set to release on December 18," Hoppus wrote. "We're not sure how many songs will make the final EP... hopefully all five, but we'll make the final determination when the mixes are complete."
Hoppus said that the EP will be released on iTunes and through Blink-182's website, and added that pre-orders will begin though the band's site "in the next week or so." He also let it be known that Blink also plan on releasing limited-edition gift packages that include "a special screened, museum-quality poster, limited-edition T-shirts and sweatshirts, wrapping paper, holiday cards and whatnot."
"It'll be something fun and funny for the holidays," he wrote. "But the music is the most important thing by far, and we are truly excited for people to hear new music."
And to that end, he also wrote about Blink's newfound creativity — and flexibility to do things their way — both of which have been stoked by their departure from UMG.
"This kind of agility is exactly what we were looking for, post-label. We have ideas for songs, we get into a studio and put the ideas together, grind hard, chase that paper, and weeks later we release the songs on our own," he wrote. "I spent last week in the studio with Travis and Tom. It was great, ideas falling everywhere. Lots of long hours spent on five new songs.... The band is in a great place creatively. Having everyone in the same room at the same time makes all the difference for us."Originally published September 16, 2014 at 6:47 AM | Page modified September 17, 2014 at 2:24 AM
Alibaba now plans to raise up to $25.03 billion in its upcoming IPO, making what was expected to be the biggest stock market debut even bigger.
NEW YORK —
Alibaba now plans to raise up to $25.03 billion in its upcoming IPO, making what was expected to be the biggest stock market debut even bigger.
The Chinese e-commerce company said it still plans to sell 368.1 million shares, but at $66 to $68 apiece, according to a regulatory filing, instead of its previously set range of $60 to $66 apiece.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has emerged as a hot commodity because of its e-commerce bazaar, a shopping magnet for businesses and consumers alike as China's economy steadily grows. The company's network of sites includes Taobao, Tmall, and AliExpress, as well as Alibaba.
Most of Alibaba's 279 million active buyers visit the sites at least once a month on smartphones and other mobile devices, making the company attractive to investors as computing shifts away from laptop and desktop machines.
Investors have been salivating over the trifecta of growth that Alibaba offers: "There are very few companies that are this big, grow this fast, and are this profitable," said Wedbush analyst Gil Luria. He initiated coverage on the company with a 12-month price target of $80.
The company's revenue in its latest quarter ended June 30 surged 46 percent from last year to $2.54 billion while its earnings climbed 60 percent to nearly $1.2 billion, after subtracting a one-time gain and certain other items.
Alibaba has been meeting with potential investors over the past week, and demand spurred the increase. Alibaba is expected to be priced late Thursday and start trading Friday under the ticker 'BABA' on the NYSE.
The fundraising target eclipses the $16 billion Facebook raised in 2012, the most for a technology IPO. It also would top the all-time IPO fundraising record of $22.1 billion set by the Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. in 2010, according to the research firm Dealogic.
Four weeks for 99 cents of unlimited digital access to The Seattle Times. Try it now!On paper my résumé for photographing bridge jumpers is very impressive. It spans 10+ years and 5000+ miles; from the Northeastern corner of the US to the southwestern end in Hawaii. All of that is true, but my experience is limited in part to a chance experience in Hawaii in 2005 as depicted in the photos below. It’s a classic story of locals drink tequila, locals jump off a bridge.
All of my other experiences comes from Martha’s Vineyard in the last 5 years. It’s limited to early August, and at around noon time, so the variables in light are limited to clouds vs. sun. It’s also focused only on the Jaw’s Bridge in Martha’s Vineyard, but it’s arguably the most famous and family |
when I went to search I saw the dead eyes, and in them dead though they were, such a look of hate, though unconscious of me or my presence, that I fled from the place, and leaving the Count’s room by the window.[42] ” He requires Transylvanian soil to be nearby to him in a foreign land or to be entombed within his coffin within Transylvania in order to successfully rest; otherwise, he will be unable to recover his strength. This has forced him to transport many boxes of Transylvanian earth to each of his residences in London. It should be noted however that he is most powerful when he is within his Earth-Home, Coffin-Home, Hell-Home, or any place unhallowed.[26][43] Further, if Dracula or any vampire has had their fill in blood upon feeding, they will be caused to rest in this dead state even longer than usual.[44] Other abilities Edit While universally feared by the local people of Transylvania and even beyond, Dracula commands the loyalty of Gypsies and a band of Slovaks who transport his boxes on their way to London and to serve as an armed convoy bringing his coffin back to his castle. The Slovaks and Gypsies appear to know his true nature, for they laugh at Harker when he tries to communicate his plight, and betray Harker's attempt to send a letter through them by giving it to the Count. Dracula seems to be able to hold influence over people with mental disorders, such as Renfield, who is never bitten but who worships Dracula, referring to him over the course of the novel as "Master" and "Lord". Dracula also afflicts Lucy with chronic sleepwalking, putting her into a trance-like state that allows them not only to submit to his will but also seek him and satisfy his need to feed. Dracula's powers and weaknesses vary greatly in the many adaptations. Previous and subsequent vampires from different legends have had similar vampire characteristics.
Character development subsequent to the novel Edit
Modern and postmodern analyses of the character Edit
Screen portrayals Edit
See also Edit
References EditCalling the episode'very serious,' Rep. David Wu did not specifically address allegations. Wu at center of sex allegation
Rep. David Wu has been accused of an “unwanted sexual encounter” with the teenage daughter of a longtime friend, the latest scandal to engulf the troubled Oregon Democrat.
The Oregonian reported that the 56-year-old Wu “acknowledged a sexual encounter to his senior aides but insisted it was consensual,” according to sources aware of the incident.
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The unidentified teenager and her family did not file any criminal complaint over the incident, which apparently took place sometime around last Thanksgiving.
Calling the episode “very serious,” Wu did not specifically address allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances toward the young woman who is the daughter of a donor.
“This is very serious, and I have absolutely no desire to bring unwanted publicity, attention or stress to a young woman and her family,” Wu said.
The Oregonian reported the person involved graduated from high school in 2010 but did not mention her age. She and her family declined to speak to the newspaper.
Wu, who is being treated for an unspecified mental health condition, is separated from his wife Michelle and the couple reportedly is seeking a divorce. They have two children.
Wu, who was born in Taiwan is the first Chinese-American elected to Congress and has served in the House since 1999.
This episode is the latest in a long list of troubling incidents for Wu, including a previous allegation of sexual assault lodged against him by a former girlfriend when they were both attending Stanford University in 1976. Wu was not charged with a crime, but he was made to see a counselor and was disciplined by the university.
This incident was reported by The Oregonian shortly before the 2004 elections. Wu admitted to “inexcusable behavior on my part” when confronted about the allegations.
“As a 21-year-old, I hurt someone I cared very much about. I take full responsibility for my actions and I am very sorry,” Wu said in a statement to The Oregonian. “This single event forever changed my life and the person that I have become.”
Shortly before the 2010 elections, Wu began behaving erratically, according to The Oregonian and other news outlets. Wu sent a bizarre picture of himself in a tiger costume to his staffers, and some of them urged him to seek psychiatric help. More than a half dozen staffers and campaign consultants quit as Wu bombarded them with troubling phone calls and emails.
“I freely admit that it was an intense campaign, and I was not always at my best with staff or constituents,” Wu said in a statement to Williamette Week, a Portland newspaper. “For all those moments, I wish I’d been better and I apologize.”
These latest allegations against Wu add to the growing list of sex scandals that have rocked Capitol Hill over the past two years.
Former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) recently resigned from Congress following a national firestorm over lewd photos he sent to women he met over the Internet.
Former Rep. Christopher Lee (R-N.Y.) was caught sending a topless online photo and also resigned. Former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) had an affair with one of his campaign aides, who also happened to be the wife of his deputy chief of staff. Ensign stepped down from office on May 3.
And ex-Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) quickly departed Capitol Hill in March 2010 after POLITICO reported he was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for allegations of sexual harassment of male staffers. The Ethics Committee recently announced that it will continue looking into whether any Democratic lawmakers or staffers knew about those allegations but failed to take action against Massa.Americans who want to celebrate their First Amendment rights and thumb their noses at political correctness have a few upcoming opportunities to don an Obama mask while fleeing from bulls.
One company offering Pamplona-style "Running of the Bulls" events in the U.S. says the masks, which prompted nationwide condemnation for one Missouri rodeo clow, are allowed at its events.
"We have no problem with that," Phil Immordino, an organizer for Running With the Bulls USA, told U.S. News.
Immordino helped coordinate a 1998 event in Mesquite, Nev., that featured runners wearing masks of former presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, the Associated Press reported.
The man behind this Obama mask lost his career after an Aug.10, 2013, performance at the Missouri State Fair. (Jameson Hsieh/AP)
"I wouldn't say political masks are common," Immordino told U.S. News. "What is common are costumes."
Running With the Bulls USA is currently promoting an Oct. 25-27 event in Phoenix, Ariz., and an April 11-13 run in Las Vegas.
Another organization, The Great Bull Run, which Immordino calls "the new kids on the block," doesn't allow masks or anything else that may block runners' vision, its spokesman, Rob Dickens, told U.S. News.
The Great Bull Run has events three 2013 events scheduled. Its Aug. 24 debut in Richmond, Va., has 5,000 registrants so far. Other bull runs are scheduled Oct. 19 in Atlanta, Ga., and Dec. 7 in Houston, Texas. Seven events are scheduled for 2014.
Although bull-running is a relatively new phenomenon in the U.S., political impersonations are somewhat of a tradition at bull-bucking rodeos, according to news reports.
At southern New Jersey's Cowtown Rodeo, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 1994, a dummy meant to look like President George H.W. Bush dummy was gored – "sending the rubber mask flying halfway across the sand" – in front of a cheering crowd.
A Saturday performance featuring an Obama mask at the Missouri State Fair, however, angered and embarrassed Perry and Lily Beam, locals who brought a Taiwanese student along with them. Perry Beam wrote a Facebook post describing the performance, which was reposted to the blog Show Me Progress. The story exploded into the national newscycle during a slow August.
Videos of the performance went viral. "We're gonna smoke Obama, man," the announcer says before a bull is unleashed on a masked rodeo clown. "Obama, they're coming for you this time.... Soon as this bull comes out, Obama, don't you move he's gonna getcha, getcha, getcha, getcha, you big goober." The clown whirled around and was not "smoked" by the bull.
Amid feverish news coverage, Republican and Democratic officials in Missouri condemned the performance and on Monday the Missouri State Fair Commission apologized for "the unconscionable stunt" and banned the rodeo clown wearing the mask, who was not named, for life.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest weighed in to the rodeo skit Wednesday, saying "[i]t was certainly not one of the finer moments in our state," CBS News reported. The state NAACP chapter's president, Mary Ratliff, issued a statement calling on the U.S. Secret Service to investigate the performance for "targeting and inciting violence against our President," KOZL-TV reported.
More News:The Oil Production Story: Pre- and Post-Peak Nations
In reviewing BP’s latest Review, the big story for world oil last year was obvious: the USA’s third straight record-breaking increase in average annual production. Just over 75% of the net increase in world oil production during 2014 came from the USA; add in Canada and 90% of the total increase came from North America. Throw in Brazil’s first significant increase in three years and you have all the world’s net gain in world oil production accounted for by three non-OPEC players. Production from all other producers combined was flat. So the question for 2015 is straightforward: will we see a repeat of those gains…and the flat-liners?
The second-biggest oil story from 2014 came at year’s end: the oil price crash. While that event came too late to impact production data for 2014, it is already slowing the USA’s shale oil train and dominating investment decisions–near- and long-term–throughout the non-OPEC oil sector. The early indication is that the history-making growth rates from North America during 2014 will be significantly reduced during 2015. If so, where might 2015 production growth come from?
In pursuing possible answers to that question, here are three additional trends from BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy 2014 to consider going forward:
Production declines related to violence and political upheaval in Libya, Syria and Yemen totaled 521,000 b/day during 2014 on top of 673,000 b/day drop during 2013, with Libya accounting for most of that decline. How likely is a reversal of that trend during 2015? Might production in adjacent nations be impacted?
Russia and China, the world’s #2 and #5 producers, together produced nearly 18% of the world’s oil. But recently, their annual gains have been shrinking: BP’s Review shows Russia’s gain during 2014 was 0.6% and China edged up 0.7%.
Iraq and Iran have the potential to make significant production gains going forward. Iraq increased by 144,000 b/day last year, its 9th consecutive annual increase, and BP shows Iran increased a notable 89,000 b/day after declining a total of 848,000 during the two previous years. What are the odds that production from either or both of those two volatile producers will increase as dramatically as some analysts hope and expect?
The chart below tells a story about: 1) nations that are past peak (see “Peak Year,” turquoise fill) because ot geologic limits (e.g., Norway, the U.K.), or for above-ground reasons; and 2) nations that have yet to clearly peak. It appears that 8 of the top 20 producing nations have seen their all-time highs in production. But in a number of these, production is temporarily increasing, with the USA leading the way.
Adding it all up, peak oil appears close but is not yet here, delayed rather than dead (as widely written in the media since 2012), and disguised by the inclusion of natural gas liquids in BP’s accounting. Apart from the three items discussed above, there are upside possibilities (improved application of technology, new discoveries, a retreat from violence, improved energy efficiency, new policy initiatives, etc.) and downside risks (increased violence, geopolitical twists, financial system disruptions, policies, demand destruction, etc.). Despite all the happy talk about “American energy independence,” our petroleum future includes a peaking in world oil production, and the adjustments that is likely to require. Put this writer down for a likely (80% odds) peak in oil production between now and 2020.
Click HERE to see a larger version of the table.
ASPO-USA Peak Oil ReviewThe tax rebate of 2008, which is scheduled to begin this week when the first checks go into the mail, is the latest example of American mercantilism in action. I did my best to explain American mercantilism in the April 26 issue of Gary North’s Reality Check. There, I explained modern Keynesian economics as the American version of mercantilism.
My article, “Climbing of China’s Paper Money Tiger,” warned that the United States has adopted the Keynesian version of mercantilism: national consumption without production. It is a perfect match for China’s more traditional mercantilism, national production without consumption. You can read my analysis here.
While I do my best to make economics clear, I am no match for America’s most beloved retired humorist, Dave Barry. Breaking his book royalty-based silence, he has offered a stunningly brilliant insight into the likely economic effects of the 2008 tax rebate, which is called an Economic Stimulus Payment. I can do no better than to quote him verbatim.
Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment? A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers. Q. Where will the government get this money? A. From taxpayers. Q. So the government is giving me back my own money? A. Only a smidgen. Q. What is the purpose of this payment? A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy. Q. But isn’t that stimulating the economy of China? A. Shut up.
In presenting this analysis, he offered neither a graph nor an equation. He will therefore not receive the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Science and the $1.6 million economic stimulus payment it brings. But his analysis, I predict, will turn out to be far more relevant and unquestionably more coherent than any analysis ever offered by next year’s prize winner.
GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS
The good news is that the Federal government is sending a little tax-free money back to us. Never look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when it’s coming from the horse thief who stole it from you.
The bad news is that this money will be borrowed. Every penny will be added to the on-budget debt of the United States government.
What is the estimated deficit today for fiscal 2008? This figure is buried in the recently released report, “The Cyclically Adjusted and Standardized Budget Estimates” (April 2008). The figure is $361 billion. A year ago, it was $162 billion (Table 1, p. 3).
Next year, the CBO estimates, the deficit will be a mere $133 billion. Write that figure down in your diary of accounting illusions. (The phrase “Arthur Andersen” comes to mind.)
On March 12, the Treasury made its estimate: $410 billion. This was the same as in February.
These are large figures. We are only in the early stage of a recession. It has barely begun to raise the unemployment rate. Yet consumer confidence is at the lowest level since the recession of 1982 (Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers). Recall that 1982 was the year of the low point of the Dow: 777 (August). Today’s loss of confidence has not yet affected the stock market significantly. Optimism still reigns among most stock market investors.
As the deficit soars, which it will, the government will absorb more resources that would have gone into the private sector. This is denied by Keynesians and some monetarists, but this process is obvious. In a recession, investors seek safety. They want to protect themselves against falling stocks and bankrupt corporations. They buy Federal government-issued debt on the assumption that the Federal government will not default in a recession. This money does not go to fund private capital.
This is bad for the economy but good — in the short run — for investors. Because the government is involved, we get the reverse of Bernard Mandeville’s pathbreaking book and poem, Fable of the Bees: Private Vices, Public Benefits (1714). We get private benefits and public vices.
PRIVATE SPENDING
I am in favor of tax-free rebates from the Federal government — any time, any place, any amount. Just send out the checks. The taxpayers can do better things with their money than the Federal government can.
So, I am in favor of Federal deficits, if the alternative is higher taxes. I am in favor of lower taxes, even if these lead to higher deficits. I think the Federal government will not cut spending for any reason but one: bankruptcy. So, as long as the beast is going to spend money, it might as well raise it by borrowing. Let the people who trust the government wind up as creditors to the government. When the government defaults, one way or the other, those hurt most will be those who trusted politicians the most. This is as it should be. There is a kind of raw justice in the arrangement.
The assumption of the politicians and Keynesian economists is that what is needed is consumer spending. But why shouldn’t taxpayers put their money into savings? Why not fund the private sector? The hostility of Keynesians to thrift is legendary. They believe that consumption stimulates the economy. They ignore what economists had argued for two centuries before Keynes (except for Mandeville, a dentist): (1) consumption comes from prior production; (2) production comes from an increased supply of capital; (3) so, an increase in the supply of capital leads to increased consumption.
Will the rebate recipients save most of the money? Probably not. They will pay their bills. The best we can reasonably hope for is that they pay off their credit card debt or other forms of non-mortgage debt. This will get them out of the habit of borrowing to buy consumer goods. But people today are emotional Keynesians, even if they have never heard of Keynes. They believe in spending their way to wealth.
The politicians know their marks. They assume that a large percentage of voters will use this money to buy consumer goods and services. They assume, as Keynesians always assume, that consumer spending will stimulate the U.S. economy. This will provide profits for retailers. It will convince producers to produce even more.
But why should producers produce any more? This is a one-shot rebate. Spending will reduce inventories of unsold goods, but it will not convince producers to order more raw materials, hire more workers, or cut back on their cutbacks.
Retailers around the country are offering deals for shoppers with a little extra money in their bank accounts. How much money are we talking about? In total, about $106 billion. The expectation is that over $40 billion will go directly into the retail sector.
To imagine that this will in some significant way roll back the recession is grasping at economic straws. But the vote was mainly about grasping at political straws. It was one more example of politicians’ unwillingness to sit there and do nothing, meaning spend nothing. This, they will not do. They did not want to go into the November election with a target on each of their backs: “He did nothing to fight the recession.”
WHAT TO DO WITH THE MONEY
On March 8, I sent out this report in my weekly “Tip of the Week.”
What is the best thing to do with your income tax refund, i.e., the return of your enforced, interest-free “loan” to the U.S. Treasury? If you have any credit card debt, pay off principal. If you have no credit card debt, pay down some other debt, other than your mortgage. If you have no debt to pay down, make a contribution to your IRA. If you are maxed out on your IRA, set the money aside in a special bank account for your next car repair or new tires. This way, you can avoid charging this to your credit card. If you can get an extra year out of your car, you can defer purchasing a new car for another year. (Do this for the next five years. Then buy a used car.)
What you should not do is use any of the money to fund a consumer purchase. The money should be used to pay down non-tax-deductible debt, if you have any, or increase a thrift account.
I realize that this isn’t much fun. But recessions are not much fun except for entrepreneurs with cash reserves who buy distressed property.
CONCLUSION
Keynes was wrong. What we need is less government spending. But since we’re not going to get it, no matter what we do or how we vote, let’s give Keynesian politicians two cheers for the rebate. The money is better in our bank accounts than the government’s bank account.
The government will spend every dime that comes in. It is buying votes, and it is always in that market spending whatever it can beg, borrow, or steal.
We will spend the money, too. The question is: On what? On the future.
Fifty years ago, Mort Sahl revolutionized American comedy with his album, The Future Lies Ahead. He could have easily gotten his basic idea across with the addition of a colon: The Future: Lies Ahead. The biggest lie of all is that the government is competent to spend our money better than we can.
So, enjoy your rebate. Do something useful with it. Save it.
Gary North [send him mail] is the author of Mises on Money. Visit http://www.garynorth.com. He is also the author of a free 20-volume series, An Economic Commentary on the Bible.
Copyright © 2008 LewRockwell.comFrank Underwood.Loyal party man. Gets things done. Delivers on his promises. A good guy, if a little limited.Liar. Blackmailer. Cheat. Backstabber. Murderer –President of these United States.There are reasons why Frank Underwood, our chief confidante in House of Cards is so compelling to watch. It’s the rise of evil, and evil feels good – Shakespeare knew that in the 1500s when he had Macbeth and Iago, the villain of Othello, talk directly to us, tell us their plans, unravel their devil’s deeds to us and make us play along as they danced all the little people to their tune, to death, to power, to their rise and fall. Being party to the power and party to the evil feels good for an audience of we, the ordinary, who know we ourselves will never have that kind of power. It allows us to exorcise our tiny little Inner Psychopath. People have done this throughout history – exorcised their demons through a shared personification of malevolence in art – arguably, this is where the Devil myth comes from - but this is definitely an age where the Inner Psychopath is out to play – in a whole range of shows, from Dexter, through Hannibal, to The Following and Fortitude. But Underwood’s a very particular moral for whom the time is arguably right – he’s theDevil, the sweet-smiling slitherer through a matrix designed to bring out the best and the worst in people, where the prize is a power unique in the world. Again it’s a concept succinctly stated by one of Shakespeare’s prime villains, this time Richard III – ‘Since this world affords no joy to me but to command…I’ll make my heaven to dream upon the crown.’ But Shakespearean or not, the current level of political disillusionment in the States means Underwood appeals to both sides – those who believe the current administration is the ruination of America, and those who believe the other side are so hell bent on power they will do anything – to the nation and its people – to achieve it. Underwood embodies what both sides think about the other, and most people in the middle believe of both.But wait a minute. Long before there was Frank Underwood, there was another pretender to the crown. Half the box set binging world probably has no idea that Frank Underwood began life thousands of miles away, as Francis Urquhart.Geeks know better – they’ve done their homework.House of Cards began life as a novel by British author Michael Dobbs, published in early 1989, when Margaret Thatcher was still Prime Minister. It aimed to pose a simple question – what sort of politician would replace her? – but it also aimed to tell a Shakespearean story of a loyal man passed over, infuriated, and determined to show the true range of his abilities by rising to the top.So far, so familiar.When it came to televising the book though, Dobbs was assigned the help of the king of modern adaptation – Andrew ‘Pride and Prejudice’ Davies. Between them they turned a fairly dry novel into the fourth wall-breaking evil, smiling phenomenon that the UK took to the inner psychopath in its hearts, personified in a role that came to be unfairly career-defining for theatrical and televisual grandee Ian Richardson.And if Underwood is a monster whose moment has come, he could still learn a thing or two from Urquhart, whose prediction of a weak, friendly, ‘ordinary’ man to follow Thatcher aired on screenbefore the leadership challenge that saw Thatcher ousted in the real world by John ‘The Grey Man’ Major and his ideas of a classless society.So who’s the better villain? Which incarnation of the same character would win in the real world?Perhaps perversely, the contest would never be run – apart from operating in different countries, Urquhart was a Conservative, the British equivalent of a Republican, while Underwood is very definitively a Southern Democrat. Urquhart’s an aristocrat with old-fashioned ideas and somewhat Victorian political values, for all he’s willing to get down in the mud and wrestle with the real, modern world. Urquhart frequently seems to be having more fun on his road to power than Underwood does, joking with the viewer more distinctly. Richardson was a master of the sardonic eyebrow, and was characterised as a very much older man, so when he takes Mattie Storin – his own version of Underwood’s Zoe Barnes – to bed, there’s a really rather more creepy note to it, inasmuch as she won’t call him Francis.‘Daddy,’ she says. ‘I want to call you Daddy.’Similarly, when Urquhart kills Mattie, it’s a final test, and one on which his whole premiership depends. He’s already killed Roger O’Neil, the UK equivalent of Peter Russo, but that was a rather more remote and distant act. There’s a Godfather vibe to Mattie’s murder, a taking care of all family business before moving on. Underwood on the other hand appears to murder Zoe simply because it’s altogether easier than dealing with her any other way – though the Godfather vibe remains. He sends a message with her death to those who would pursue him – but then he returns to another day at the office.Overall, the two versions of House of Cards are trying to achieve different things – the UK version ran for only three seasons, each much shorter than a US prime-time drama, and each saw Urquhart face a particular challenge: the rise to power, the challenge from a newly-crowned, bleeding hearted king, and ultimately his own legacy and the inevitability of his fall from power. The US version, with more time to fill and a much harder challenge – to take the House Majority Whip to the Oval Office without ever once being elected President – is also dealing with a much more complex modern world of smartphones and cyber-hackers. That being the case, we see much more of Underwood’s manoeuvring, his skills at manipulating public and personal opinion, his international scope, than we ever got the chance to see with Urquhart. With Dobbs and Davies on board the US version as Executive Producers, the essential core characteristics of Urquhart are alive and well in Underwood, but Urquhart, who was so very much of his moment when he hit our UK screens, already feels like a history lesson, a ‘how-to’ of British political chicanery from the 90s, where Underwood feels necessarily current, modern and of the now. As such, it is probably Underwood who will enjoy the greater longevity, because of the relatively unchanging structures of American power and democracy – the West Wing is over a decade old, but the political set-up, the arguments, the flavours of debate, are fairly current still, and so it still feels relevant and fresh. Urquhart’s map of British politics looks fairly dated just twenty years on, because the nature of politics in the UK is generally much more fluid, and has changed practically beyond recognition since the days in which he practiced. That means that ultimately, it will probably be Underwood, rather than Urquhart, who becomes the definitive political Devil of the century. Nevertheless, the UK original is always worth catching precisely because it works as social history, and because Ian Richardson is a positively hypnotic incarnation of the political will to power. So while he may not still be the best at what he does, Urquhart will always retain a place in the geek heart and give a frisson to the Inner Psychopath in each of us, while Underwood takes the legacy forward to new, delicious, diabolical heights.Shattering pyrex To Show A Massive Weakness In Trademark Law
from the turn-up-the-heat-and-it-shatters dept
In 1998, Corning divested its consumer products division which subsequently adopted the name World Kitchen, acquiring the rights to the pyrex® trademark. The company introduced clear tempered soda-lime glass kitchenware and bakeware under the pyrex® name. link
When trademarked as PYREX® (all UPPER CASE LETTERS plus, in the USA, a trademark notice comprising a capital “R” in a circle) the trademark includes clear, low-thermal-expansion borosilicate glass used for laboratory glassware and kitchenware, plus other kitchenware including opaque tempered high-thermal-expansion soda-lime glass, pyroceram, stoneware, and metal items See. e.g., http://www.amazon.co.uk/s?index=kitchen-uk&field-keywords=pyrex. European trademark usage differs from American and the encircled "R" is not present on European PYREX items.
When trademarked as pyrex® (all lower case letters plus a trademark notice comprising a capital “R” in a circle) the trademark includes clear tempered high-thermal-expansion soda-lime glass kitchenware, plus other non-glass kitchenware, made by World Kitchen. See, e.g., http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_kitchen?node=1055398&field-brandtextbin=Pyrex
Trademark at its best is a means to protect the public and consumers. A brand may be associated with a particular product and a particular level of quality. Consumers seeking exactly that product and quality will seek that brand; Trademark laws ensure they're getting the real thing.Take Pyrex : it's heat-resistant glass, what we used in chemistry lab in high school, what you buy if you're cooking and baking with a lot of heat changes. Except it's not, as this highly amusing video demonstrates (start watching at about 28:00):What I and everyone I know always called Pyrex is in fact borosilicate glass. I didn't even know the term "borosilicate" until I watched this. Pyrex has never been commonly referred to as "Pyrex brand borosilicate glass." It was just Pyrex, the stuff you used in a lab, that you could heat up and cool down without breaking.Trademark treats brands as "property," controlled exclusively by "owners," who can buy and sell them:According to Wikipedia, Corning's responsibility extends to this formality:I don't think this passes the " moron in a hurry " test, but it's not put to the test because Corning isn't having a dispute with a competitor. Rather, they are misleading consumers, and Trademark law as it currently exists offers no remedy. Consumer Reports did a video about glass bakeware exploding, but didn't address the Trademark issue at all:Imagine if a counterfeiter were passing off soda lime glass as Pyrex. The outcry would be huge. Government agencies would be busting down doors and arresting people and using it as a reason to pass ACTA. But if Corning and their licensees do it under the Pyrex brand, all we can do is shrug.In his book Against Intellectual Property, Stephan Kinsella argues that Trademark should protect the rights of. He suggests Trademark suits should be brought by consumers against monopolists, not by monopolists against competitors. I have no answers, and like I said I'm not a Trademark abolitionist. I certainly don't want to increase the reach of Trademark law; I generally don't think more lawsuits are an answer to anything. But it's a good story to show that Trademark isn't as functional as we'd like it to be.
Filed Under: consumer protection, pyrex, trademark
Companies: pyrexT-Mobile told the FCC this week that it should be able to complete the post-broadcast incentive auction repack in the 39 months the FCC has allotted and under—though not much—the $1.75 billion cap on repack relocation expenses.
T-Mobile plans to bid in the auction, so it is looking to get access to that spectrum as soon as possible after the auction. Wireless companies as a group have, understandably, urged the FCC to keep to the 39-month timetable for the spectrum handoff to winning wireless spectrum bidders.
The National Association of Broadcasters has used a study by Digital Tech Consulting (DTC) to argue that the 39-month timetable may need to be pushed and the $1.75 billion likely won't be enough. It says the FCC should not set a hard deadline before it knows how many stations will need to be moved, which won't be known until after the reverse auction.
Submitting its own study to the FCC this week, T-Mobile begged to differ, saying the NAB report was flawed "because it overstated demand and understated supply."
T-Mobile said its study was conducted in partnership with Jack Boone of Broadcast Tower Technologies, Inc. (BTTi) and William Hammett and Rajat Mathur of Hammett & Edison (H&E), and was based on "detailed station records for every television license in the country," as well as FCC auction simulations, "phone interviews with broadcast construction industry professionals, research of publicly available sources and BTTi’s and H&E’s decades experience and expertise in broadcast engineering..."
The telco said the collective conclusion they came to was that the supply of "transition resources"—tower crews, equipment—was sufficient to meet the demands of "every broadcast television station in the United States that will need equipment and services to relocate following the incentive auction."
T-Mobile outlined seven reasons it has concluded the repack of TV stations after the forward auction can be done on time and at, or under, budget.
1. "Not All Stations Will Need New Antennas. Broadcasters will not need new antennas in many circumstances because they often share antennas, and some antennas can be used on multiple channels.
2. "Not All Towers Will Require Modifications. Using the FCC’s conservative 2014 repacking simulations, we found that, on average, only 845 unique antenna structures will be involved in the repacking process. This estimate is lower than DTC’s finding because it takes into account the number of antennas that will not need to be replaced.
3. "Television Antenna Supply Will Be Sufficient. Contrary to DTC’s assertions, more than two manufacturers are capable of providing and, in fact, do provide antennas to broadcast stations.
4. "Ample Radiofrequency ('RF') Consulting Engineers Are Available. We have identified 18 additional RF consulting engineers than DTC included in its analysis. An accurate tally of RF consulting engineers demonstrates sufficient capacity to assist with between 370 and 475 construction permit applications per month.
5. "More Than Enough Tower Structural Engineers Are Available to Meet Anticipated Demand. We have identified 19 structural engineering firms capable of conducting work on tall towers, which we define as towers more than 1,000 feet tall (305 meters).
6. "At Least 41 Tower Crews Are Available Today to Work on Tall Towers. We identified 41 tower crews [DTC had said 16] operating today that are capable of working on 1,000 feet tall towers. Even if one were to accept DTC’s assumption that one crew can complete only eight or nine antenna change projects per year and its assumption that these projects could not begin until six months into the repacking process, today’s workforce could complete at least 900 station relocations during the remaining 33 months of the transition.
7. "The Repacking Process Will Likely Cost Less than $1.75 Billion...DTC’s estimate that the cost of the repack could exceed $2.9 billion is overstated. Simply using a realistic number of stations that require repacking and identifying cost estimates based on broadcasters’ actual equipment would yield cost savings of as much as $1 billion or more. [It would need the 'or more' since that only takes it down to $1.9 billion]. Additional savings are possible and provide us with confidence that the congressionally mandated budget of $1.75 billion is realistic, if not generous, for the actual task at hand."
The incentive auction begins March 29, but that is simply the date by which broadcasters have to declare they are bidding and what options they will accept—giving up spectrum and getting out of the business, giving up spectrum and sharing channels, or moving to a different channel if that is an option.GETTY Angela Merkel has proposed a raft of new EU deals to stop migration
The under-fire Chancellor said the European Union must strike deals with a raft of African countries to stop economic migrants from reaching the continent. Her plea comes following disastrous election results for her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, which has taken a hammering over its open door asylum policy.
Mrs Merkel has significantly changed her tune since being dealt two electoral beatings at the hands of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, and now says it is critical "to prevent a repeat of the |
generalisability, or the extent to which my research findings can be applied to other settings beyond my originally test. Nonetheless, characteristics of the sample largely resemble ones of the population, which improves our confidence in the generalisability of the study.
I randomly assigned respondents into groups, with each group presented with a different wording of the question. The Control Group serves as a baseline. How much do voters support Ahok if they are not reminded about his religion and ethnicity? The Ethnicity Group reminds respondents that Ahok is a Chinese descent. The Religion Group reminds respondents that Ahok is a Christian. The Ethnicity and Religion Group reminds respondents that Ahok is a Chinese descent and a Christian. Lastly, the Religion and Ulemma Group reminds respondents that Ahok is a Christian and some ulemmas forbid Muslims to vote for a non-Muslim.
Thanks to randomisation, the analysis is very straightforward. To estimate the effects of reminding respondents of Ahok’s ethnicity, religion, and the advice from some ulemmas, we only need to compare the levels of support in the four treatment groups against the level of support in the control group.
There is a baseline support of about 30 per cent for Ahok, as indicated by the level of support in the control group. There is no statistically significant difference between the level of support in the control group and the levels of support for Ahok in the last three groups. In other words, reminding respondents that Ahok is a Christian does not significantly decrease or add their support for Ahok. Even reminding respondents that some ulemmas forbid Muslims to vote for a non-Muslim also does not decrease the level of support for Ahok.
However, there is a 10 per cent decrease in the level of support for Ahok when respondents were reminded that Ahok is a Chinese Indonesian. Ten per cent is obviously not a trivial number in a close race like the one happening in Jakarta now.
What does the finding mean? It means that SARA indeed matters in the Jakarta election. But, contrary to what we might have assumed, the part of SARA that matters is not the religion part. It is the ethnicity part. More respondents reject Ahok because he is a Chinese descent than because he is a Christian.
If we only look at the demonstrations, the finding might be surprising. But, on hindsight, it should not be. In part as a legacy of Suharto’s racial policies, Chinese Indonesians are still often regarded as second-class citizens. Religion might matter less in this election than we think, but that does not mean that Indonesia is already doing well. As the experiment demonstrates, there are still resentments toward certain ethnic groups and these resentments carry with them political consequences.
Nathanael Sumaktoyo is a doctoral student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, USA. He specialises in American politics (first subfield) and comparative politics (second subfield). Concurrent with his PhD, he also has completed a Master’s degree in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics (ACMS), where he focused on Bayesian analysis and computational statistics.
A version of this article was also published at the Indonesia at Melbourne blog.If you’re wondering whether any conservative governors will seek cover under John Kasich’s decision to embrace the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, check out what’s happening in the Virginia legislature.
Virginia Democrats, who control half the seats in the state’s Senate, are threatening to derail Gov. Bob McDonnell’s key legislative priorities unless the new state budget expands Medicaid unconditionally.Democrats’ leverage is somewhat limited. But among other priorities McDonnell is keen to designate nearly $50 million in sales tax revenue for transportation projects. Democrats hope McDonnell’s desire to lock in those accomplishment before his term comes to an end will convince him to relent and agree to avail the state of federal funding that would expand the Medicaid program to cover people up to 133 percent of the federal poverty line.
The existing language calls for expanding Medicaid, but only contingent upon the state adopting measures to contain the growth of spending on the program. Both the House and Senate drafts would require future legislative action for the expansion to occur. The House budget retains for Virginia the option of dropping out of the expansion if federal funding decreases in the future.
Senate Democrats, still furious about an mid-decade redistricting plan Republicans muscled through the Senate on inauguration day last month, think they can stick together to oppose the budget amendments unless Republicans agree to remove strings from the Medicaid expansion. All five Democrats on the Finance Committee voted against it. They have a degree of implicit support from Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R ), who also backs the expansion. Bolling lacks the authority to vote on the budget, but he may be speaking for less conservative Republicans in the assembly who may be wiling to negotiate. And though a similar legislative tactic failed last year when a Democratic senator defected, this year the threat of a government shutdown has been removed. What’s at stake now are McDonnell’s priorities, along with measures both parties support — and Democrats think that gives them power.
“The chances of them holding this are actually pretty good,” says Ben Tribbett, a Virginia state politics blogger and Democratic consultant.
He cautions, though, that the real prize for Democrats isn’t the Medicaid expansion, but the possibility that they could use the threat of a budget stalemate to convince McDonnell to deep six the redistricting plan — even if that means the Medicaid expansion remains imperiled.
According to The Virginian Pilot, which explains other moving parts in this process, Democratic Sen. Kenny Alexander is the weakest link in the caucus. But a lot hangs on a Wednesday House vote on the redistricting plan. If Republicans pass it and McDonnell signs it, it will embolden Democrats to keep up the push on Medicaid.There was a time when random game requests and filtered photos of food were the worst things clogging up my Facebook news feed.
These days, it's something much worse: racism.
Ever since the heart-breaking terrorist attack in Paris, a wave of intolerance has seeped into my Facebook feed.
A man kneels and weeps at the site of a makeshift memorial for the Paris attacks at the Place de la République. (Ellen Mauro/CBC)
It's repulsive and it comes in many forms: Islamophobic rants, petitions and memes about anti-immigration. Not to mention so-called news agencies broadcasting frustratingly inaccurate facts and figures that are then shared hundreds of times.
Don't have those kind of "friends?" You're lucky. I've got enough to go around.
Here's just one example of a post I've come across recently:
"Many Canadian people will become a minority just like the UK now most common name in their country is Mohammed... Unreal."
Here's another:
"I guess when the refugees come here, fill up our jobs, our schools, our house, our roads... Make no wonder half our doctors are foreign f--ks. It's 'cause they can afford to go because the Canadian government will pay for it."
Who are they?
To be fair, only a handful of my 814 Facebook friends have chosen to advertise their intolerance in a status update.
Maybe I'm just too liberal with my friends list. Do you post cute cat memes and music videos? If so, you've made the cut.
If you don't want to see posts from certain 'friends,' you can always use Facebook's unfriend feature and delete them from your list. (Caroline Hillier )
What's most frightening is that I know the people behind the hate-filled posts — not always well, but I know them.
When I scroll through my news feed and find a particularly horrifying rant, it isn't written by some faceless racist jerk — the kind you come across when skimming through the comment section of, well, anything.
The posts are written and shared by the guy I used to sit next to in homeroom, an old university roommate or the girl I called my best friend back in junior high.
Here's another example:
"To let 25,000 unknown refugees in, you are putting millions of Canadians in danger. As a loyal Facebooker, I urge you to like and share this post to put a STOP to this new government insanity."
My tall, dark and handsome Syrian husband
From our engagement announcement, to wedding photos to our many — and I mean many — vacation selfies, my Facebook friends have virtually seen it all.
A vacation selfie from a recent trip to Turkey. (Caroline Hillier )
They've liked, congratulated and commented on dozens of photos of me and my husband. My Syrian-Canadian husband.
For those posting anti-immigration status updates, do they realize the face smiling back at them is the face of someone who was born in Syria?
If it wasn't for a few spontaneous decisions made by my husband when he was younger, his life could have been very different. He could easily be one of the millions of Syrians displaced from their homes and living in refugee camps. Or worse, he could have been killed.
Eyad Sakkar, a Syrian-Canada, poses in front of St. John's Harbour. (Caroline Hillier )
When he left Syria over a decade ago, most of his family stayed behind. Back then, his country was a beautiful place, rich in heritage and full of lively markets.
Today it stands in ruins, ravaged by the war.
However, my husband did leave. He's now a successful real estate agent and optician who volunteers as a soccer coach, regularly gives blood and donates 2.5 per cent of his annual earnings to charity. He even has a generous habit of dropping spare change in expired downtown parking meters.
Sure I'm biased, but I'd say that makes him a contributing member of society.
Eyad Sakkar holds dual citizenship and has both a Canadian and Syrian passport. (Caroline Hillier )
Some of my husband's relatives have applied for refugee status. Their claims sit in a pile along with thousands of others looking to leave the war behind and start a new life in a safe country.
Those relatives are generous people who have lost their homes, businesses and family members to a war that has ripped their peaceful lives apart.
They are trying to get away from the very same terrorists who attack our freedoms.
'I'm not racist, but... '
I understand that without a personal connection it can be hard to sympathize with refugees living a world away.
I also understand that posting an offensive, ignorant or hurtful comment doesn't necessarily make you a bad person.
We're all entitled to our opinion — that's what makes this country so great. But I can't support fear-mongering and outright xenophobia (the irrational fear of people from other countries).
Eyad Sakkar left Syria in 2002 and now holds a Canadian passport. (Graham Kennedy )
And here's a tip: If you ever feel compelled to start a post with 'I'm not racist, but …,' please reconsider. From my experience, a racist comment typically follows.
Don't delete, educate
So, you scroll down your feed and find out your friend endorses the genocide of the entire Muslim population and you think, "That's it, I'm deleting this moron. That'll show 'em!"
What does that really achieve? Sometimes (but certainly not always) I think it's worth calling your "friends" out on their biases.
I wouldn't recommend leaving a comment and publicly shaming someone, but private messages usually work.
After I've sent a private note to Facebook friends, they've removed the post and thanked me for educating them on a subject they knew little about.
Confrontation not your thing? Facebook has a handy report post feature that lets you flag particularly offensive comments.
In extreme cases, a seemingly innocent meme can have dangerous connotations.
The recent spike in hate crimes we've been seeing across Canada is what's most upsetting, and a reason not to shy away from discussions around intolerance.
The vicious and violent acts of hatred have people like my husband wishing to hide their Syrian roots.
Newfoundlanders — certainly not the only ones sharing anti-immigration posts — are famous for being friendly. Maybe it's time for us to step up and prove it on social media.
After all, no matter what your political or religious views are, we're all just one human race.
And sometimes, as I've learned, you have to know when to let go and just walk away. Which is why on Facebook — like in life — you always have the option to unfriend."These superb leather offerings from Axess boast an excellent level of functionality and performance which will see their appeal continue to rise exponentially".
TheCoolector
"Axess Fits a Surprising Amount of Money within Its RFID-Blocking Pockets".
Trendhunter
"Slim yet sturdy, this stylish accessory organizes your basics while maintaining a thin profile that you’ll barely notice in your front pocket".
YankoDesign
"Cut down on excess and move the wallet to your front pocket with Axess Front Wallets".
GearHungry
Model No. 5, "Superior", (Caramel Color)
Axess fits seamlessly in your front pocket
Sitting on your wallet for long hours is not very comfortable! It also ruins your credit cards. That is why I created Axess, which is designed to fit seamlessly in your front pocket so that you don’t have to sit on your bulky wallet. Each design is half the size of a regular wallet, yet fits the cash and cards you usually carry around in a regular billfold.
My mission is to create a new and comfortable wallet experience for your front pocket and it can become possible with your help!
Axess fits seamlessly in your front pocket. Here showcasing model 05 and model 03 respectively!
Model No. 03, "Smooth" (Caramel color)
Model No. 04 "Triumph", Blue Color in scratch-proof Saffiano leather
Axess is handmade
The people involved in modern-day products are often forgotten or replaced by machines, but not in Axess' products. Every component of Axess is hand cut, hand stitched and handmade, including the Italian vegetable tanned leather itself – which adds a level of care and attention and quality to each product that a mass produced product will never achieve.
Axess fits the cash cards and cash you usually carry around
All Axess models comes in a cotton bag that could also be used for storing the wallet in.
The leather is made by hand with the passion of a few master tanners located in Tuscany using techniques and traditions hailing from the Renaissance, which means that there are no harmful chemicals used in the tanning process.
Model No. 6 "Admire" (blue color)
Model No. 06, "Admire", Caramel Color. The "strap wallet" holds a lot of bills, similar to a money clip.
Axess is RFID-blocking
To prevent your sensitive credit card information from being subjected to “electronic pickpocketing” or other methods of wirelessly accessing your credit card info or personal information; all Axess wallets have an RFID-blocking pocket where special material will protect your sensitive cards (similar to physically wrapping your credit cards in tin foil). The RFID-blocking material used by Axess have successfully gone through substantial testing and verification by a third-party inspection firm.
I left some pockets without the RFID-blocking material, so that you can still scan your subway card and access cards without having to remove the cards from the wallet each time. (Being an avid commuter myself, I find it very annoying to have to remove the subway card from the wallet each time I needed to scan, hence I left some pockets without the RFID-blocking material). The wallets will also come with a physical marker in the pockets that are RFID-blocking.
"Being able to have your credit cards protected whilst still having the convenience of using a transport or work pass card inside the wallet will appeal to many".
Slimwalletjunkie
The following pockets are RFID-blocking:
(The arrows indicate which pockets are RFID-blocking).
Model No. 03, "Smooth", Black Color
Model No. 3 "Smooth" (blue color)
Model No. 04, "Triumph", Caramel Color in Saffiano leather
Saffiano leather variation
Models 1 and 4 are made in Saffiano leather, which is a type of textured genuine leather, which is common in modern day luxury accessories. Saffiano is scratch proof and robust and makes for a great wallet material.
Model No. 5 "Superior" (black color)
Model No. 3 "Smooth" (blue color) in action
Model No. 5 "Superior", (From left blue, caramel, black color)
Italian leather without harmful chemicals
The vegetable tanned leather comes from a member of the The Genuine Italian Vegetable-Tanned Leather Consortium which consists of 23 member tanneries, all of them based in Tuscany, in the area between Pisa and Florence called the ‘Leather District’.
These suppliers revived vegetable tanned leather traditions used during the Renaissance. The leather processing is thus not harmful to the environment, ages like a fine wine, and looks amazing.
Axess leather does not wear out like cheap leather – it gets richer and grows in character.
Model 6, "Admire" fits seamlessly in your front pocket
The backs of model 06 "Admire"
USD-SEK
The US dollar currency in regards to the Swedish krona is fluctuating daily, (1 SEK = 0.116 USD),
COLORS TO CHOOSE FROM:
BLACK
CARAMEL
BLUE
(Choosing colors will be done via a survey after that the project is funded!)After leaving fans with the greatest cliffhanger ending ever, its finally time to bring UBER back for an all-new massive series, with your help! Kieron Gillen returns with artist Daniel Gete for a shocking new chapter in the UBER epic, as the Germans use their monstrous power to invade America!
Fans and critics alike agree that UBER is a breathtaking masterpiece, and Alan Moore offers the most compelling of raves: "Situating the superhuman in its only credible real-life context, UBER gives us an appallingly logical and brilliantly-imagined world where the Third Reich’s science lived up to its rhetoric. In a carefully-realized geopolitical landscape, the giant names of the Second World War act out their revised destinies to jaw-dropping and spectacular effect, with Kieron Gillen right at the top of his dazzling form and his artistic collaborators expertly embellishing the vast historical canvas he’s prepared for them. Making fifteen-foot-tall invulnerable monsters with reality-warping psychic abilities seem as acceptable and grimly inevitable in its alternate timeline as nuclear weapons came to seem in ours, UBER is simply the most compelling, addictive and ambitious ongoing comic-book series that I have seen in years. Unless you happen to be made of vapour, it will grip you and refuse to let you go." - Alan Moore
Uber Stretch Goals
Stretch Goals: We are having so much support on the digital-only levels, we wanted to be sure to offer Stretch Goal items that could be enjoyed by every supporter. So we present two digital-only, but enormously cool, Stretch Goal Items that would be added to every single supporter to show our thanks for the tremendous support!
$39,000 -- If we can hit this amount raised, every supporter will get this 64 page digital-only cover gallery collection! It features loads of the most rare covers that did not appear in any of the collections!
-- If we can hit this amount raised, every supporter will get this 64 page digital-only cover gallery collection! It features loads of the most rare covers that did not appear in any of the collections! $44,000 -- At this amazing amount of support, we deliver another giant 64 pages of digital-only goodness that collects every other Uber cover not in print!
Uber Add-ons
Digital-only Add-ons -- Add these amounts to your $29 pledge to get these add-ons!
Add $13 -- Mercury Heat #1-10 digital. Luiza enforces laws with extreme prejudice as a bounty agent on Mercury in Kieron Gillen’s space epic!
. Luiza enforces laws with extreme prejudice as a bounty agent on Mercury in Kieron Gillen’s space epic! Add $15 -- Uber #3-6 digital. Uber: Invasion #3, 4, 5, 6 digital copies, each issue delivered as they are released in print.
Print Comic & T-Shirt Add-ons -- Add these amounts to your $24 or $89 and up Pledge!
Add $9 or $12 -- Extra Uber T-Shirt: You can snag an extra Uber t-shirt by adding $9 to your pledge for sizes S/M/L, or $12 for sizes XL and up!
You can snag an extra Uber t-shirt by adding $9 to your pledge for sizes S/M/L, or $12 for sizes XL and up! Add $10 -- Mercury Heat Vol 1 Print TPB: This volume collects issues #1–6 and the Free Comic Book Day Edition of Kieron Gillen’s space epic Mercury Heat.
This volume collects issues #1–6 and the Free Comic Book Day Edition of Kieron Gillen’s space epic Mercury Heat. Add $20 -- Uber: Invasion Early Access Set: All 6 covers for #1 that will be offered to comic stores: Regular, Wrap, War Crimes, Blitzkreig, Propaganda Poster, and VIP Premium. $29.94 retail value, only $20 add on!
All 6 covers for #1 that will be offered to comic stores: Regular, Wrap, War Crimes, Blitzkreig, Propaganda Poster, and VIP Premium. $29.94 retail value, only $20 add on! Add $21 -- Top Secret Century: Ultra-rare edition at a killer price for the lucky people who grab them. Uber: Invasion #1 Top Secret Century is limited to just 100 copies!
Upcoming Uber Artwork
We also are offering a special slipcase set of all five previous collections, never before available, for those that want to get caught up in style!
Use of Funds: Our main goals: 1) Fund as many issues of UBER: INVASION as possible 2) Create the new slipcases and t-shirts. Funds raised go to creative expenses, production costs, and shipping. We aren't expecting to raise enough money to cover all the costs of the project, simply asking for your support in helping us along. Also, a significant portion of the funds will go towards all the product offered and shipped to backers.
Fulfillment date: We expect to ship all backers' physical orders by February 1, 2017. The time used is to get multiple issues and the slipcase created and printed. Just a short few months from Goal achieved, to books printing, to product shipping out to you! Digital copies will be sent out the day of release of each issue.
About the Publisher: Avatar Press has been one of the top publishers of comic books for the past 20 years. With a stellar track record of on-time shipping and high quality books, you know this will be the same top-flight quality as the thousands of other publications Avatar Press has released.
Uber Pledge Levels
$8 -- Front Line -- To start things off we include digital copies of the new UBER: INVASION #1 and 2, to be delivered as PDF or CBZ files from the Comic Cavalcade digital store! These will be available the same day each issue is released in print. We also offer our appreciation and gratitude for your support!
Uber: Invasion #1 and 2 digital copies
$24 -- Forward Scout -- If you are already caught up on UBER, grab the whole first story arc of UBER: INVASION! As well as the digital copies from the previous level, you get Kickstarter-exclusive printed editions of the first two UBER: INVASION issues, both by series artist Daniel Gete. To top it off, you'll also be getting digital copies of the next four issues, so you will have the entire first story arc! Each issue will be delivered as they are released in print. Shipping note: Add $20 for shipping outside US.
Uber: Invasion #1 and 2 digital copies
+ new this level
Uber: Invasion #3, 4, 5, 6 digital copies
Uber: Invasion #1 Fall of Boston cover
Uber: Invasion #2 Homage cover
$29 -- Digital Defender -- New to UBER and want a digital set? This level offers only digital books, and it has every previous issue! You will also get the first two issues of UBER: INVASION.
Uber: Invasion #1 and 2 digital copies
+ new this level
Uber #0-27, Special #1 Digital copies (all previous issues)
$89 -- Backbone of America -- All the digital editions from all the previous levels are added to some killer new items for a huge value! Things get really exciting as this is the first time anywhere you can get the Complete Deluxe Slipcase set of Uber Volumes 1-5! It's the entire story-to-date in a striking new slipcase. We also offer the very first Uber T-Shirt! This level includes one shirt, proudly worn in the new series by the defenders of America, the US Enhanced Army 1st Corps! This is available in both Men's and Women's styles, sizes Small, Medium, Large, X-Large, XX-Large, or XXX-Large. You will be able to select what size you would like after the campaign has closed but before we ship. Thanks for going that extra mile to support us!
Shipping note: Add $55 for shipping outside US. (sorry, the slipcase sets are very heavy!)
Uber: Invasion #1 and 2 digital copies
Uber #0-27, Special #1 Digital copies (all previous issues)
Uber: Invasion #3, 4, 5, 6 digital copies
Uber: Invasion #1 Fall of Boston cover
Uber: Invasion #2 Homage cover
+ new this level
Uber Slipcase set of Volumes 1-5
Uber t-shirt (in your choice of size)
$199 -- Limited to 33 -- Enhanced Activation -- Welcome to the elite reward levels, where we really pile on the limited editions! Take the killer lineup from the previous level and hold onto your hat as this rocket ship blasts off! The original Uber series had many red-hot special editions and we add the Uber #1 Apocalypse Editions (set of 3) to start. For the original art fans, how about the Uber Vol 1 Enhanced Hardcover Remarqued Sketch Edition which features an original Caanan White sketch inside! Then to bring it home, the first ever Uber Century editions! Century editions are limited to just 100 copies each, making them very rare collectibles! We add a set of FIVE of them Uber: Invasion #1 Century covers A, B, C, D, E!
Shipping note: Add $80 for shipping outside US.
Uber: Invasion #1 and 2 digital copies
Uber #0-27, Special #1 Digital copies (all previous issues)
Uber: Invasion #3, 4, 5, 6 digital copies
Uber: Invasion #1 Fall of Boston cover
Uber: Invasion #2 Homage cover
Uber Slipcase set of Volumes 1-5
Uber t-shirt (in your choice of size)
+ new this level
Uber #1 Apocalypse Editions (set of 3)
Uber Vol 1 Enhanced Hardcover Remarqued Sketch Edition
Uber: Invasion #1 Century covers A, B, C, D, E (set of 5)
$299 -- Limited to 15 -- Battleship Class -- The previous level stash of goodies is tough to beat, but here we add all that to an incredible bundle of Uber VIP editions! These are all very limited and we add SIX of them! VIP covers on Uber #1 NY VIP, 6, 10, 17, 25 and Special #1 are included. Then to seal the deal, we deliver a copy of Uber #1 Phoenix VIP CGC Signature Series that is signed by both Kieron Gillen and original artist Caanan White! Your copy will be a certified grade of 9.8! What a haul!
Shipping note: Add $90 for shipping outside US.
Uber: Invasion #1 and 2 digital copies
Uber #0-27, Special #1 Digital copies (all previous issues)
Uber: Invasion #3, 4, 5, 6 digital copies
Uber: Invasion #1 Fall of Boston cover
Uber: Invasion #2 Homage cover
Uber Slipcase set of Volumes 1-5
Uber t-shirt (in your choice of size)
Uber #1 Apocalypse Editions (set of 3)
Uber Vol 1 Enhanced Hardcover Remarqued Sketch Edition
Uber: Invasion #1 Century covers A, B, C, D, E (set of 5)
+ new this level
Uber VIP variants bundle (#1 NY VIP, 6, 10, 17, 25, Special #1)
Uber #1 Phoenix VIP CGC Signature Series 9.8
$569 -- Limited to 5 -- Commander-in-Chief -- We can only offer FIVE of these, but oh my, talk about tough to beat! All the previous level items are included and then we pile on a set of THREE CGC Signature Series books! The Uber #1 Insignia Set was one of the rarest special edition sets ever offered on Uber. Here we have all three of the books CGC certified 9.8 and signed by Kieron Gillen and Caanan White! We thank you once again for going that extra mile to help us reach our goal and congratulations for getting an amazing batch of collectibles! Shipping note: Add $110 for shipping outside US.
Uber: Invasion #1 and 2 digital copies
Uber #0-27, Special #1 Digital copies (all previous issues)
Uber: Invasion #3, 4, 5, 6 digital copies
Uber: Invasion #1 Fall of Boston cover
Uber: Invasion #2 Homage cover
Uber Slipcase set of Volumes 1-5
Uber t-shirt (in your choice of size)
Uber #1 Apocalypse Editions (set of 3)
Uber Vol 1 Enhanced Hardcover Remarqued Sketch Edition
Uber: Invasion #1 Century covers A, B, C, D, E (set of 5)
Uber VIP variants bundle (#1 NY VIP, 6, 10, 17, 25, Special #1)
Uber #1 Phoenix VIP CGC Signature Series 9.8
+ new this levelRAHANKERÄYSLAKI
Suvi Korhonen
Kuva: Olivier Le Moal
Aalto-yliopiston opiskelijat luovuttivat viime viikolla ohjelmoimansa rahankeräysrekisterijärjestelmän sisäministeri Päivi Räsäselle. Projektin ideana on kannustaa ministeriötä uudistamaan rahankeräyslakia niin, että se yksiselitteisesti mahdollistaisi joukkorahoituksen keräämisen verkossa. Ministeriö saa kehittää avoimen koodin järjestelmää omien tarpeidensa mukaan.
Mistä idea rekisterin tekemiseen opiskelijavoimin syntyi, Aallon tutkija Ville Oksanen? Oliko opiskelijat helppoa saada mukaan koodaustalkoisiin?
”Syksyisin alkaa kurssi, jossa simuloidaan ohjelmistotuotantoprojektia. Yksi opiskelija on projektipäällikkö ja muut ovat arkkitehteja ja ohjelmoijia. Kun projekteille mietittiin aiheita, minulle tuli mieleen, että tämä olisi ajankohtainen ja sopivan kokoinen projekti kurssille”, Oksanen kertoo.
Kahdeksan opiskelijaa teki järjestelmän viidessä kuukaudessa. Aikaa kului arviolta 1600 työtuntia. Sen perusteella Oksanen laskee järjestelmän arvoksi noin 150 000 euroa. Julkisen puolen it-järjestelmät maksavat tyypillisesti moninkertaisesti.
Palkaksi opiskelijat saivat opintopisteitä. Oksanen maksoi omasta pussistaan ryhmälle pizzat ja kolat muutaman kerran.
Onko julkisten it-projektien hinnassa ilmaa?
”Se vaihtelee aika paljon sen mukaan, kuka siellä on ostamassa. Osassa yksiköitä on osaavia ostajia, mutta valitettavasti kaikissa ei ja heiltä voi laskuttaa. Pienissä kunnissa erityisesti ei usein ole it-puoleen erikoistuneita hankintaosaajia.”
Miten todennäköisenä pidät, että rekisteri otetaan käyttöön?
”Kyllähän sitä toivon. Tällä hetkellä eduskunnassa on eri puolueissa aika laaja yksimielisyys, että rahankeräyslaki pitäisi korjata. Tällainen rekisteri tarvitaan, jotta laki voitaisiin korjata.
"Huomioiden julkiset varat, olisi merkittävä etu hyödyntää tätä jossain muodossa. Kyse on opiskelijaprojektista, joten koodia tarvitsisi siistiä lopulliseen tuotantokäyttöön, mutta pohja olisi valmiiksi käyttökelpoinen jatkokehitykselle. Järjestelmä on koitettu tehdä valtionhallinnon speksien mukaan, jotta se olisi mahdollisimman helposti pultattavissa kiinni järjestelmiin. Kuormanhallintaa ei ole toistaiseksi erityisesti mietitty. Sen pitäisi kestää normaali liikenne, mitä tällaiseen rekisteriin pitäisi olla tulossa."
Voisiko opiskelijoita hyödyntää muiden julkisten it-hankkeiden kanssa? Olisiko opiskelijavoimin mahdollista kehittää vaikkapa potilastietojärjestelmä?
”Heh, siihen tarvittaisiin kaikkien TKK:n opiskelijoiden useamman vuoden työpanos”, Oksanen toteaa.
”Yliopistoissa voisi olla järkevää vahvistaa hyödyllisten projektien tekemistä. Opiskelijoille on mielekästä tehdä jotain, mikä tulee oikeaan käyttöön”, Oksanen sanoo.
Hän näkee paljon mahdollisuuksia tehdä yhteistyötä yliopistojen eri laitosten kesken. Tietojenkäsittelytieteilijät voisivat esimerkiksi kehittää kasvatustieteilijöille opetusohjelmien suunnittelussa auttavan järjestelmän.
Ole hyvä ja kytke Javascript päälle nähdäksesi kommentit.ABOVE: Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center lights a candle in remembrance of Holocaust victims at an event held at Chulalongkorn University on Jan. 27.
Thailand needs to increase its understanding of history to more successfully engage the world today and build peace in Southeast Asia, according to a recent discussion of the Holocaust and genocide held at Chulalongkorn University.
Students, teachers and dignitaries gathered on the occasion of International Holocaust Memorial Day on Jan. 27 to discuss legacies of genocide as much in Southeast Asia as in Europe, and why it matters today in Thailand just as much as elsewhere.
Israeli Ambassador Simon Roded, appearing along with his counterpart from the Czech Republic, artists and academics, said the event was intended “to teach lessons of the Holocaust and prevent future genocide” on a day which marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.
Organized by the Israeli embassy and Chulalongkorn’s Rotary Peace Center, the university setting for the event had special significance, as noted by Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
Cooper said a late 2013 incident in which graduating seniors posed in front of a mural of Adolf Hitler, who was featured among various “superheroes,” underscored the need for greater awareness.
Photo: Simon Wiesenthal Center
Candles were lit as part of the ceremony and a moment of silence was held in memory of the 11 million lives that were lost at hands of the Nazis during World War II.
The primary discussion however addressed awareness, education and cultural relevance of the Holocaust and genocide in Southeast Asia.
Among speakers was renowned composer Somtow Sucharitkul, who said Thai people need to increase their understanding of history.
“The lack of knowledge is absolutely abysmal,” he said about awareness of what happened in Europe during World War II.
Somtow recently produced an adaption of “Brundibar,” an opera created during the Holocaust inside a Czech concentration camp. Cooper called on youth to leverage their technological savvy to work together to promote peace.
“We need armies of young people who understand the power of the selfie and of the internet and social networking and put it to work for great things,” Cooper said.
Chulalongkorn Professor Surichai Wun’gaeo spoke on the need for peace to counter hate and abuse of minority groups.
Chy Terith, executive officer of the Documentation Center of Cambodia who spoke on the lack of essential media coverage of crimes against humanity as perpetrated in his country by the Khmer Rouge. Cambodia is struggling to educated its children so they don’t forget of its brutal recent history.
The event concluded with the screening of award-winning documentary, “The Power of Good.”
A traveling exhibition from the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles called “The Courage to Remember” is on display until tomorrow on the first floor of the Mahitaladhibersra Building at Chulalongkorn University.
Isaiah Somanas is a junior Communication Arts student at Chulalongkorn University.
Related:
Israel condemns ‘Thai Values’ Hitler scene
Director of ’12 Values’ film doesn’t get the Hitler fuss
In Prayuth’s ‘Thai Values,’ school children love painting Hitler
World Cup celebrants go off the chain with Hitler, celebrate their ignorance with world
Chulalongkorn Fine and Applied Arts Faculty dean |
proceeds collected from the $10 entrance fee will be donated directly to the families. Doherty worked at the CraftBar Kitchen briefly over the summer. General Manager Kelly Dakas told WPBF 25 News that she was also best friends with the head bartender, Mariah, who she described as doing "okay" though still in the grieving process. "She's been best friends with her for 16 years," Dakas explained. Fifteen other employees worked at the restaurant and knew Doherty as well. Dakas said on Monday morning, as word slowly spread of the shootings, her staff took it hard. "I know she was really energetic. I heard she was a great surfer. I know she had a great heart and she was a lively 20 year old," Dakas remembered. "It's a devastating situation." A GoFundMe account has also been set up for the families. It's called Jupiter Shooting Victim Fund.OTTAWA – RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson says it “shouldn’t be very long” before the public finds out why Mounties didn’t lay criminal charges against Nigel Wright.
In a letter written in response to NDP MP Charlie Angus and made public Wednesday, Paulson says the force has documented “very precisely” why they didn’t charge Wright.
He agrees the public should be informed – just not yet.
“I am confident they will be informed since we have documented very precisely why and on what basis we have elected not to bring criminal charges against Mr. Wright,” Paulson writes.
“Unfortunately this cannot happen now, when other work remains to be done. l can’t tell you precisely when it will be except to say that it shouldn’t be very long.”
Paulson also defended the RCMP’s independence, hitting back at “some quarters of the media who have questioned – unfairly and unjustifiably in my view – the independence of the RCMP.”
“Nobody screens or approves my correspondence just as no one screens or approves what I do during the course of my duties. This ongoing questioning of our operational independence is quite confounding for me, l have to tell you,” Paulson wrote.
Paulson pointed out that the RCMP never dropped charges against Wright, as he was being investigated but was never charged with any offence.
READ: RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson’s letter to NDP MP Charlie Angus
Paulson was responding to a letter from Angus, the NDP’s ethics critic, requesting “clarification” as to why Wright wasn’t charged after it was revealed he secretly gave suspended Senator Mike Duffy $90,000 to repay ineligible expenses.
Sources say it’s likely Duffy will be charged next month. He was being investigated for bribery, breach of trust and frauds on the government.
Angus suggested Wright, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff, potentially breached Section 16 of the Parliament of Canada Act, which says it is an indictable offence to offer compensation to a member of the Senate in regard to any claim or controversy before the upper chamber.
“Like many Canadians, I do not understand how it can be that writing a secret personal payment out of the Prime Minister’s Office to a sitting senator doesn’t contravene the law,” Angus wrote in a letter dated last Thursday.
“If Mr. Wright’s actions did not cross this line, the average Canadian is justifiably left wondering where exactly the legal and ethical line is in Ottawa today.”
On Wednesday, Angus said he was satisfied with Paulson’s response.
“He’s responded saying that they will be at some point responding in a transparent and accountable way, so I’m pleased,” Angus said.
He added he did not question the operational independence of the RCMP in his letter, but only asked the force to tell the public why they decided not to charge Wright under the Parliament of Canada Act.
“If laws were broken, the RCMP should explain to us why they decided not to follow through on charges with Mr. Nigel Wright,” he said.
On Monday, RCMP investigator Cpl. Greg Horton told Global News “nothing will be hidden” about why charges weren’t laid against Wright and the reasons will be revealed either in court or through an access to information request.
There was some confusion as to whether the RCMP had leaked the letter to CTV before sending it to the NDP. Angus chalked it up to “a mixup with our fax machine.”The consequences of teen pregnancy are serious. Regardless of marital status, young mothers are frequently isolated, have little or no educational opportunities and are often trapped in long term poverty. In addition to this, pregnancy-related deaths are the leading cause of mortality for girls aged 15 to 19 worldwide. Although poor health care is a factor, physical immaturity increases the risks of both maternal and infant mortality. Girls under twenty have twice the maternal mortality risk of older women, girls under fifteen have five times the risk. Infant mortality is also higher among young mothers. Each year, 1 million children born to teen mothers will die before their first birthday.
Girls in Africa and South Asia are often married young and are under pressure to produce children. In Bangladesh almost 16% of fifteen-year old girls are pregnant or already have children. 75% of girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo and over half of all girls in Afghanistan and Bangladesh are married before the age of 18. In Nepal, 7% of girls are married before they are 10, and 40% by age 15. In developed nations, young mothers are usually unmarried.
In response to: Teen pregnancy is an issue incountries. Globally 10% of all births are to mothers under the age of twenty, 90% of these are in developing nations.
"Countries Compared by People > Teenage birth rate. International Statistics at NationMaster.com", UNICEF. Aggregates compiled by NationMaster. Retrieved from http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/People/Teenage-birth-rate
"Countries Compared by People > Teenage birth rate. International Statistics at NationMaster.com, UNICEF. Aggregates compiled by NationMaster." 1998. <http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/People/Teenage-birth-rate>.
'Countries Compared by People > Teenage birth rate. International Statistics at NationMaster.com, UNICEF. Aggregates compiled by NationMaster.', <http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/People/Teenage-birth-rate> [assessed 1998]
"Countries Compared by People > Teenage birth rate. International Statistics at NationMaster.com", UNICEF. Aggregates compiled by NationMaster. [Internet]. 1998. Avaliable from: <http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/People/Teenage-birth-rate>.
"Countries Compared by People > Teenage birth rate. International Statistics at NationMaster.com", UNICEF. Aggregates compiled by NationMaster. Avaliable at: nationmaster.com. Assessed 1998.
"Countries Compared by People > Teenage birth rate. International Statistics at NationMaster.com, UNICEF. Aggregates compiled by NationMaster.," http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/People/Teenage-birth-rate (assessed 1998)
"Countries Compared by People > Teenage birth rate. International Statistics at NationMaster.com", UNICEF. Aggregates compiled by NationMaster., http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/People/Teenage-birth-rate (last visited 1998)
"Countries Compared by People > Teenage birth rate. International Statistics at NationMaster.com", UNICEF. Aggregates compiled by NationMaster., http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/People/Teenage-birth-rate (as of 1998)
0 Funny: Teen pregnancy is an issue in all countries. Globally 10% of all births are to mothers under the age of twenty, 90% of these are in developing nations.
In response to: Teen pregnancy is an issue incountries. Globally 10% of all births are to mothers under the age of twenty, 90% of these are in developing nations. Girls in Africa and South Asia are often married young and are under pressure to produce children. In Bangladesh almost 16% of fifteen-year old girls are pregnant or already have children. 75% of girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo and over half of all girls in Afghanistan and Bangladesh are married before the age of 18. In Nepal, 7% of girls are married before they are 10, and 40% by age 15. In developed nations, young mothers are usually unmarried.
The consequences of teen pregnancy are serious. Regardless of marital status, young mothers are frequently isolated, have little or no educational opportunities and are often trapped in long term poverty.
In addition to this, pregnancy-related deaths are the leading cause of mortality for girls aged 15 to 19 worldwide. Although poor health care is a factor, physical immaturity increases the risks of both maternal and infant mortality. Girls under twenty have twice the maternal mortality risk of older women, girls under fifteen have five times the risk. Infant mortality is also higher among young mothers. Each year, 1 million children born to teen mothers will die before their first birthday. Posted on 08 Apr 2005 Edria Murray, Staff Editor
0
Make parents of the children share some of the responsibility. Posted on 06 Nov 2010 You+can+retire+now Education of such a huge impact on the life of all involved is most important in life decisions.Make parents of the children share some of the responsibility.
0
That said, Japan IS number 10 in abortion rates, though Korea isn't anywhere to be seen on that particular list. Posted on 15 Sep 2010 Rick R. To unclear: Actually, if one were to explore this site a little, they would see that the US is still number 2 when it comes to abortion rates (with Russia being number 1). So no, neither Japan nor Korea's low birth rates are due to abortion. The amount of teenage pregnancy is just simply ridiculous in the US, no matter which way you look at it.That said, Japan IS number 10 in abortion rates, though Korea isn't anywhere to be seen on that particular list.
0 Posted on 01 Aug 2010 me I'm pretty sure these are birth rates which changes things in prespective as in Ireland abortion is illeagal making birth rates higher and I've heard a statistic before saying Swedish girls lost their virginity younger than any other european country but the teenage birth rate would be lower due to abortions, quite sad really.
0
43 births in US. Therefore, the 22.2 for the 15 to 17 is
not contradictory to the 52.1 from 13 to 19.
Posted on 18 Feb 2010 joshua Teen is from 13 to 19. For 15 to 19, the data shows43 births in US. Therefore, the 22.2 for the 15 to 17 isnot contradictory to the 52.1 from 13 to 19.
0 Posted on 03 Nov 2009 Jane Chamberlain It looks to me like UNICEF might have made a mistake here. US govt stats show 51 per 1000 (most recent = 53) as percent births to UNMARRIED WOMEN AGES 15–44. The most recent figure for births to females ages 15–17 is 22.2 per 1,000 (2007). This doesn't reflect all teenage births; however it looks like something is wrong here. Using the US statistic puts us at number 7 rather than number 1, still pretty distressing.SAN FRANCISCO — California drillers eager to use hydraulic fracturing to tap the nation’s largest oil shale formation will face comprehensive regulation for the first time next year under rules issued this week.
The rules take effect on Jan. 1, though they will be replaced a year later by permanent regulations that are still being developed but are expected to be similar. In September, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law that established the outlines for the regulations.
The new rules require drillers to alert neighboring landowners at least 30 days before using hydraulic fracturing techniques, known as fracking, and to test their water wells upon request. The drillers must do other groundwater monitoring and also disclose many of the chemicals used. The rules cover the use of acids, which are sometimes used to dissolve rock to access oil.
The rules cover many phases of the drilling process, analysts say, though they fall short of what many environmental groups want.It’s a dream come true for Glover Teixeira, who will challenge UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 172.
Teixeira first entered the Octagon at UFC 146 last year, and needed 113 seconds to submit Kyle Kingsbury with an arm-triangle choke. Sixteen months later, the Minas Gerais native has improved his UFC record to 5-0 with four finishes, and a first-round knockout over Ryan Bader earned him a shot at the gold.
Undefeated over the last 20 bouts, Teixeira promises to be ready to go five rounds against the light heavyweight kingpin on April 26 at the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Md.
"In a perfect world, I’ll win via first-round knockout," Teixeira told MMAFighting.com. "But I believe it’s going to be a tough fight. Jon Jones is an excellent fighter, so I expect a tough bout. I will be ready for five rounds. I was ready to go five rounds against Bader and will be ready now, so we’ll see who will leave the cage as the champion."
Jones broke the record for most title defenses in the UFC light heavyweight division with his unanimous decision victory over Alexander Gustafsson last September, and Teixeira didn’t predict such a close bout.
"I expected Gustafsson to have the advantage standing, but I expected Jones to be smart and take the fight to the ground," he said. "He was smart and he tried to (take Gustafsson down), but I didn’t expected Gustafsson to defend the takedowns so well."
It was a close fight, but Teixeira agreed with the judges.
"When the fight was over, I thought Jon had won," he said, "and I re-watched it later and scored it to Jones again."
Gustafsson’s surprising performance against Jones helped Teixeira by showing "new holes" to the champion’s game, as Jones’ previous appearances did.
"We see holes in every fight but this last one showed more," he said. "But I can’t train focused on that. I have to believe in my boxing and wrestling to impose my game. He’s a super champion and will be back stronger after he studies his own weaknesses. I can’t focus on that."Judge Andrew Napolitano appeared on “Fox and Friends” Thursday morning to slam President Barack Obama’s planned executive amnesty, calling it “unlawful,” “profoundly unconstitutional,” “disturbing” and “destabilizing.”
“In the years that I’ve been watching presidents and criticizing them because I disagree with them, I have not seen anything as profound as this,” Napolitano said. “The president is a former professor of constitutional law at one of the finest law schools in the world, the University of Chicago Law School. He knows the Constitution very well.”
“He knows that he cannot rewrite the law of the land and he cannot nullify the law of the land,” he continued, “and that if the effect of his executive action is the functional equivalent of nullifying it, it’s wrong, it’s unlawful, it’s profoundly unconstitutional, and it is disturbing, it’s destabilizing to the relationship of the Congress to the presidency and the courts.”
Follow Alex Griswold on TwitterLongtime media activist Mitchell Szczepanczyk presents the issues on the upcoming shake down on Net Neutrality, in a series of four half-hour lectures.
Place: Chicago MultiKulti (1000 N. Milwaukee).
Date/Time: Saturday, June 21st, starting at 1PM.
Cost: FREE!
LECTURE ONE
* What is net neutrality?
* Why is it necessary?
* Who wants net neutrality abolished, and why?
* What would happen if it were abolished?
LECTURE TWO
* Why has it grown to be such an issue now?
* What's the policy/legal history of this?
LECTURE THREE
* What's the history of activism on net neutrality?
* How is this tied to the history of activism on media?
LECTURE FOUR
* What's coming up in the short term?
* What's apt to happen?
* What are some of the deeper issues regarding activism, corporations, markets, and the public?
* How is this connected to the "critical juncture" -- a rare opportunity -- that we find ourselves in?As members of the VFW, you are united by common experiences and shared commitments. In the military, you devoted yourselves to a cause above self-interest, served with a firm sense of duty and developed personal standards that make you an example for your families and your fellow citizens. The daughter of an Army Air Corpsman described growing up with her father, and the values she learned from him without even knowing it. As she recalls, "Honesty, integrity, hard work, personal responsibility, and perseverance were all around me and I absorbed them almost imperceptibly." Our veterans have had a similar effect on the entire nation.
Those values are embodied in this organization. In the VFW our nation sees a continuing ethic of service, shown in the time, talent, and money you have given to citizens in need. Last year alone, VFW members gave more than 16 million hours to worthy causes. Your Operation Uplink has allowed service members and hospitalized veterans to make free calls home. I know they and their families are deeply grateful to all of you.
The VFW also serves the nation by leading on a range of important issues, such as health care and education, employment opportunities and homeland security, military readiness and the quality of life for our service families. The VFW stands firm for protecting our country's flag and for defending the right of every American to pledge allegiance to one nation under God.
Our administration is proud to have strong ties with the leadership and the membership of the VFW. We believe that in dealing with the federal government, every veteran deserves a response that is fair, respectful and prompt.
We are working every day to improve the level of service to our veterans. On taking office we found a large claims backlog, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The backlog is falling steadily, as is the average time for processing each claim. But there's a lot more work to be done and America's veterans can now be certain that someone is doing it. The President has put a solid, results-oriented veteran in charge of the Department, Secretary Tony Principi. Under our administration you won't receive excuses, you will receive action.
To further improve health care services to veterans, President Bush has established a veterans health task force, of which Bob Wallace is an influential member. And although we are holding most discretionary spending to 2 percent increases, the President has asked Congress for an 8 percent increase for veterans' health care, and a seven percent increase for veterans' programs overall. The money is necessary to meet pressing needs, some of which have gone neglected in recent years.
We will continue working with VFW leaders and members on homeland security, drawing upon your experiences in military and civilian life. And we share common cause on the matter of servicemen whose fate is still undetermined. For all the uncertainties that remain, the basic issue is clear: thousands of brave Americans, last seen doing their duty, remain unaccounted for. The nation remembers these men, and this government will persist in the effort to account for every last one of them.
As we meet all of these commitments, our administration is moving forward on an agenda to build a safe and prosperous future for the American people. We have laid the foundation for greater prosperity and opportunity with the most significant education reforms in 35 years, with free trade legislation to open up markets to American producers, with tough new laws to ensure corporate integrity and honest accounting, with spending discipline in Washington and with the largest federal tax reduction in twenty years.
There is a full agenda for the fall, and beyond. Yet the President and I never for a moment forget our number one responsibility: to protect the American people against further attack, and to win the war that began last September 11th.
The danger to America requires action on many fronts all at once. We are reorganizing the federal government to protect the nation against further attack. The new Department of Homeland Security will gather under one roof the capability to identify threats, to check them against our vulnerabilities, and to move swiftly to protect the nation.
At the same time, we realize that wars are never won on the defensive. We must take the battle to the enemy. We will take every step necessary to make sure our country is secure, and we will prevail.
Much has happened since the attacks of 9/11. But as Secretary Rumsfeld has put it, we are still closer to the beginning of this war than we are to its end. The United States has entered a struggle of years -- a new kind of war against a new kind of enemy. The terrorists who struck America are ruthless, they are resourceful, and they hide in many countries. They came into our country to murder thousands of innocent men, women, and children. There is no doubt they wish to strike again, and that they are working to acquire the deadliest of all weapons.
Against such enemies, America and the civilized world have only one option: wherever terrorists operate, we must find them where they dwell, stop them in their planning, and one by one bring them to justice.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban regime and al Qaeda terrorists have met the fate they chose for themselves. And they saw, up-close and personal, the new methods and capabilities of America's armed services. May I say, as a former Secretary of Defense, that I have never been more proud of the America's military.
The combination of advantages already seen in this conflict -- precision power from the air, real-time intelligence, special forces, the long reach of Naval task forces, and close coordination with local forces represents a dramatic advance in our ability to engage and defeat the enemy. These advantages will only become more vital in future campaigns. President Bush has often spoken of how America can keep the peace by redefining war on our terms. That means that our armed services must have every tool to answer any threat that forms against us. It means that any enemy conspiring to harm America or our friends must face a swift, a certain and a devastating response.
As always in America's armed forces, the single most important asset we have is the man or woman who steps forward and puts on the uniform of this great nation. Much has been asked of our military this past year, and more will be asked in the months and the years ahead. Those who serve are entitled to expect many things from us in return. They deserve the very best weapons, the best equipment, the best support, and the best training we can possibly provide them. And under President Bush they will have them all.
The President has asked Congress for a one-year increase of more than $48 billion for national defense, the largest since Ronald Reagan lived in the White House. And for the good of the nation's military families, he has also asked Congress to provide every person in uniform a raise in pay. We think they've earned it.
In this war we've assembled a broad coalition of civilized nations that recognize the danger and are working with us on all fronts. The President has made very clear that there is no neutral ground in the fight against terror. Those who harbor terrorists share guilt for the acts they commit. Under the Bush Doctrine, a regime that harbors or supports terrorists will be regarded as hostile to the United States.
The Taliban has already learned that lesson, but Afghanistan was only the beginning of a lengthy campaign. Were we to stop now, any sense of security we might have would be false and temporary. There is a terrorist underworld out there, spread among more than 60 countries. The job we have will require every tool at our means of diplomacy, of finance, of intelligence, of law enforcement, and of military power. But we will, over time, find and defeat the enemies of the United States. In the case of Osama bin Laden -- as President Bush said recently -- "If he's alive, we'll get him. If he's not alive -- we already got him."
But the challenges to our country involve more than just tracking down a single person or one small group. Nine-eleven and its aftermath awakened this nation to danger, to the true ambitions of the global terror network, and to the reality that weapons of mass destruction are being sought by determined enemies who would not hesitate to use them against us.
It is a certainty that the al Qaeda network is pursuing such weapons, and has succeeded in acquiring at least a crude capability to use them. We found evidence of their efforts in the ruins of al Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan. And we've seen in recent days additional confirmation in videos recently shown on CNN -- pictures of al Qaeda members training to commit acts of terror, and testing chemical weapons on dogs. Those terrorists who remain at large are determined to use these capabilities against the United States and our friends and allies around the world.
As we face this prospect, old doctrines of security do not apply. In the days of the Cold War, we were able to manage the threat with strategies of deterrence and containment. But it's a lot tougher to deter enemies who have no country to defend. And containment is not possible when dictators obtain weapons of mass destruction, and are prepared to share them with terrorists who intend to inflict catastrophic casualties on the United States.
The case of Saddam Hussein, a sworn enemy of our country, requires a candid appraisal of the facts. After his defeat in the Gulf War in 1991, Saddam agreed under to U.N. Security Council Resolution 687 to cease all development of weapons of mass destruction. He agreed to end his nuclear weapons program. He agreed to destroy his chemical and his biological weapons. He further agreed to admit U.N. inspection teams into his country to ensure that he was in fact complying with these terms.
In the past decade, Saddam has systematically broken each of these agreements. The Iraqi regime has in fact been very busy enhancing its capabilities in the field of chemical and biological agents. And they continue to pursue the nuclear program they began so many years ago. These are not weapons for the purpose of defending Iraq; these are offensive weapons for the purpose of inflicting death on a massive scale, developed so that Saddam can hold the threat over the head of anyone he chooses, in his own region or beyond.
On the nuclear question, many of you will recall that Saddam's nuclear ambitions suffered a severe setback in 1981 when the Israelis bombed the Osirak reactor. They suffered another major blow in Desert Storm and its aftermath.
But we now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Among other sources, we've gotten this from the firsthand testimony of defectors -- including Saddam's own son-in-law, who was subsequently murdered at Saddam's direction. Many of us are convinced that Saddam will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon.
Just how soon, we cannot really gauge. Intelligence is an uncertain business, even in the best of circumstances. This is especially the case when you are dealing with a totalitarian regime that has made a science out of deceiving the international community. Let me give you just one example of what I mean. Prior to the Gulf War, America's top intelligence analysts would come to my office in the Defense Department and tell me that Saddam Hussein was at least five or perhaps even 10 years away from having a nuclear weapon. After the war we learned that he had been much closer than that, perhaps within a year of acquiring such a weapon.
Saddam also devised an elaborate program to conceal his active efforts to build chemical and biological weapons. And one must keep in mind the history of U.N. inspection teams in Iraq. Even as they were conducting the most intrusive system of arms control in history, the inspectors missed a great deal. Before being barred from the country, the inspectors found and destroyed thousands of chemical weapons, and hundreds of tons of mustard gas and other nerve agents.
Yet Saddam Hussein had sought to frustrate and deceive them at every turn, and was often successful in doing so. I'll cite one instance. During the spring of 1995, the inspectors were actually on the verge of declaring that Saddam's programs to develop chemical weapons and longer-range ballistic missiles had been fully accounted for and shut down. Then Saddam's son-in-law suddenly defected and began sharing information. Within days the inspectors were led to an Iraqi chicken farm. Hidden there were boxes of documents and lots of evidence regarding Iraq's most secret weapons programs. That should serve as a reminder to all that we often learned more as the result of defections than we learned from the inspection regime itself.
To the dismay of the inspectors, they in time discovered that Saddam had kept them largely in the dark about the extent of his program to mass produce VX, one of the deadliest chemicals known to man. And far from having shut down Iraq's prohibited missile programs, the inspectors found that Saddam had continued to test such missiles, almost literally under the noses of the U.N. inspectors.
Against that background, a person would be right to question any suggestion that we should just get inspectors back into Iraq, and then our worries will be over. Saddam has perfected the game of cheat and retreat, and is very skilled in the art of denial and deception. A return of inspectors would provide no assurance whatsoever of his compliance with U.N. resolutions. On the contrary, there is a great danger that it would provide false comfort that Saddam was somehow "back in his box."
Meanwhile, he would continue to plot. Nothing in the last dozen years has stopped him -- not his agreements; not the discoveries of the inspectors; not the revelations by defectors; not criticism or ostracism by the international community; and not four days of bombings by the U.S. in 1998. What he wants is time and more time to husband his resources, to invest in his ongoing chemical and biological weapons programs, and to gain possession of nuclear arms.
Should all his ambitions be realized, the implications would be enormous for the Middle East, for the United States, and for the peace of the world. The whole range of weapons of mass destruction then would rest in the hands of a dictator who has already shown his willingness to use such weapons, and has done so, both in his war with Iran and against his own people. Armed with an arsenal of these weapons of terror, and seated atop ten percent of the world's oil reserves, Saddam Hussein could then be expected to seek domination of the entire Middle East, take control of a great portion of the world's energy supplies, directly threaten America's friends throughout the region, and subject the United States or any other nation to nuclear blackmail.
Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us. And there is no doubt that his aggressive regional ambitions will lead him into future confrontations with his neighbors -- confrontations that will involve both the weapons he has today, and the ones he will continue to develop with his oil wealth.
Ladies and gentlemen, there is no basis in Saddam Hussein's conduct or history to discount any of the concerns that I am raising this morning. We are, after all, dealing with the same dictator who shoots at American and British pilots in the no-fly zone, on a regular basis, the same dictator who dispatched a team of assassins to murder former President Bush as he traveled abroad, the same dictator who invaded Iran and Kuwait, and has fired ballistic missiles at Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, the same dictator who has been on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism for the better part of two decades.
In the face of such a threat, we must proceed with care, deliberation, and consultation with our allies. I know our president very well. I've worked beside him as he directed our response to the events of 9/11. I know that he will proceed cautiously and deliberately to consider all possible options to deal with the threat that an Iraq ruled by Saddam Hussein represents. And I am confident that he will, as he has said he would, consult widely with the Congress and with our friends and allies before deciding upon a course of action. He welcomes the debate that has now been joined here at home, and he has made it clear to his national security team that he wants us to participate fully in the hearings that will be held in Congress next month on this vitally important issue.
We will profit as well from a review of our own history. There are a lot of World War II veterans in the hall today. For the United States, that war began on December 7, 1941, with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the near-total destruction of our Pacific Fleet. Only then did we recognize the magnitude of the danger to our country. Only then did the Axis powers fully declare their intentions against us. By that point, many countries had fallen. Many millions had died. And our nation was plunged into a two-front war resulting in more than a million American casualties. To this day, historians continue to analyze that war, speculating on how we might have prevented Pearl Harbor, and asking what actions might have averted the tragedies that rate among the worst in human history.
America in the year 2002 must ask careful questions, not merely about our past, but also about our future. The elected leaders of this country have a responsibility to consider all of the available options. And we are doing so. What we must not do in the face of a mortal threat is give in to wishful thinking or willful blindness. We will not simply look away, hope for the best, and leave the matter for some future administration to resolve. As President Bush has said, time is not on our side. Deliverable weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terror network, or a murderous dictator, or the two working together, constitutes as grave a threat as can be imagined. The risks of inaction are far greater than the risk of action.
Now and in the future, the United States will work closely with the global coalition to deny terrorists and their state sponsors the materials, technology, and expertise to make and deliver weapons of mass destruction. We will develop and deploy effective missile defenses to protect America and our allies from sudden attack. And the entire world must know that we will take whatever action is necessary to defend our freedom and our security.
As former Secretary of State Kissinger recently stated: "The imminence of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the huge dangers it involves, the rejection of a viable inspection system, and the demonstrated hostility of Saddam Hussein combine to produce an imperative for preemptive action." If the United States could have preempted 9/11, we would have, no question. Should we be able to prevent another, much more devastating attack, we will, no question. This nation will not live at the mercy of terrorists or terror regimes.
I am familiar with the arguments against taking action in the case of Saddam Hussein. Some concede that Saddam is evil, power-hungry, and a menace -- but that, until he crosses the threshold of actually possessing nuclear weapons, we should rule out any preemptive action. That logic seems to me to be deeply flawed. The argument comes down to this: yes, Saddam is as dangerous as we say he is, we just need to let him get stronger before we do anything about it.
Yet if we did wait until that moment, Saddam would simply be emboldened, and it would become even harder for us to gather friends and allies to oppose him. As one of those who worked to assemble the Gulf War coalition, I can tell you that our job then would have been infinitely more difficult in the face of a nuclear-armed Saddam Hussein. And many of those who now argue that we should act only if he gets a nuclear weapon, would then turn around and say that we cannot act because he has a nuclear weapon. At bottom, that argument counsels a course of inaction that itself could have devastating consequences for many countries, including our own.
Another argument holds that opposing Saddam Hussein would cause even greater troubles in that part of the world, and interfere with the larger war against terror. I believe the opposite is true. Regime change in Iraq would bring about a number of benefits to the region. When the gravest of threats are eliminated, the freedom-loving peoples of the region will have a chance to promote the values that can bring lasting peace. As for the reaction of the Arab "street," the Middle East expert Professor Fouad Ajami predicts that after liberation, the streets in Basra and Baghdad are "sure to erupt in joy in the same way the throngs in Kabul greeted the Americans." Extremists in the region would have to rethink their strategy of Jihad. Moderates throughout the region would take heart. And our ability to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process would be enhanced, just as it was following the liberation of Kuwait in 1991.
The reality is that these times bring not only dangers but also opportunities. In the Middle East, where so many have known only poverty and oppression, terror and tyranny, we look to the day when people can live in freedom and dignity and the young can grow up free of the conditions that breed despair, hatred, and violence.
In other times the world saw how the United States defeated fierce enemies, then helped rebuild their countries, forming strong bonds between our peoples and our governments. Today in Afghanistan, the world is seeing that America acts not to conquer but to liberate, and remains in friendship to help the people build a future of stability, self-determination, and peace.
We would act in that same spirit after a regime change in Iraq. With our help, a liberated Iraq can be a great nation once again. Iraq is rich in natural resources and human talent, and has unlimited potential for a peaceful, prosperous future. Our goal would be an Iraq that has territorial integrity, a government that is democratic and pluralistic, a nation where the human rights of every ethnic and religious group are recognized and protected. In that troubled land all who seek justice, and dignity, and the chance to live their own lives, can know they have a friend and ally in the United States of America.
Great decisions and challenges lie ahead of us. Yet we can and we will build a safer and better world beyond the war on terror. Over the past year, millions here and abroad have been inspired once again by the bravery and the selflessness of the American armed forces. For my part, I have been reminded on a daily basis, as I was during my years at the Pentagon, of what a privilege it is to work with the people of our military. In whatever branch, at whatever rank, these are men and women who live by a code, who give America the best years of their lives, and who show the world the finest qualities of our country.
As veterans, each of you has a place in the long, unbroken line of Americans who came to the defense of freedom. Having served in foreign wars, you bore that duty in some of our nation's most difficult hours. And I know that when you come together, your thoughts inevitably turn to those who never lived to be called veterans. In a book about his |
at this time of writing
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Glad to share with you my builds of CyanogenMod 13.0 (Android 6.0 Marshmallow) for Nexus 4 (mako).These will probably become obsolete when CM will officially release nightlies for our device, but if as me you can't wait, you can flash it as usual zips.It is important to note that ** (october 2015), things are not that stable in CM sources. I fixed various issues to make this, and I deeply test everything I build. So, even if I plan a release every day or two (and also depending of my free time in life), nothing will be out if it is too much unstable, I release only "usable" builds.- Require bootloader/radio from Lollipop minimum- Contains all CM (kernel, system,... )- I suggest you to backup your app data with Titanium Backup if you want to restore your apps later Gapps (Google Apps) ("Micro" gapps works pretty fine on mine).- Boot in recovery (TWRP - please use latest - Wipe Data, System, Cache, Dalvik-cache- Install the ROM- (Optional) Install gapps- Reboot. If TWRP prompt you to install SuperSu, deny it.So you want root on your Nexus 4At time of writing this (october 2015), root doesn't work *from scratch* Marshmallow/CM kernel. So I included into this, "StephanMc Kernel" for mako, which is basically the same "stock" kernel (the CM one is stock-based) with SELinux set as permissive to allow root. No more adds or tweaks, just a root-possible stock kernel.All you have to do is install SuperSu and it is good to go.- Download SuperSU Beta - Flash them Super Su- Reboot- Enable Developer Options: Settings -> About -> tap 7 times on Build number- Enable USB Debbuging- Enable Offline APK installations: Security -> Unkown sources- Titanium Backup is fixed since build 2015-11-05- Expand the Notification bar until you see the Settings icon (on top right corner)- Hold on the icon for about 5 seconds! You can find System UI Tuner menu into Settings -> just under "About phone" menu- Snapchat crashes at login with Marshmallow. You can workaround this by downgrading to v9.9.0 (google it), then log in the app. Once done, you're free to update it as usual if you want.- See attachments- (Annoying) When In landscape view, notification panel redraw itself also on navigation bar (fixes coming soon)- Switching from 3G to 2G network seems not working (fixes coming soon)- Everything else- Some gapps can lead you to wierd "force closes", please make sure you choose aone.- Any other issue found? Let me know, please first go to the "Application Info" screen in Settings, and make sure this app have its required-to-work permissions enabled. For example, Browser app need "Storage" if you need to download from it.- Google / CyanogenMod / Dmitry Grinberg for his awesome work on N4 / Benzo for his nice gapps- Check CM changelog related to the date of my build : http://www.cmxlog.com/13/mako If you find this useful, feel free tobutton, or share it with people you loveFighters from the militant Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah joined forces with commandos from the Lebanese army Monday to battle followers of an extremist Sunni Muslim cleric in a day of urban warfare that offered worrisome evidence that Syria’s civil war had spilled across Lebanon’s borders.
At least 18 Lebanese soldiers died in the fighting, which began Sunday. At least four Hezbollah fighters died and at least 20 gunmen from the other side were killed.
Hezbollah fighters said that in addition to Lebanese supporters of Sheikh Ahmad al Assir, who’s a staunch opponent of Hezbollah and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, they’d battled radical Islamists from a nearby Palestinian refugee camp and suspected rebels from neighboring Syria.
One Hezbollah fighter said he’d killed Palestinians and Syrians in Assir’s compound.
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“That sniper we just killed had a Syrian ID card,” he called out to his commander, without noticing that two Western journalists were seated nearby. “It said he was from Aleppo.”
By the end of the fighting, Hezbollah fighters and Lebanese army special forces had taken control of Assir’s mosque complex. Dozens of Assir’s followers had been killed or captured in what participants described as bloody house-to-house fighting in a dense urban environment.
While most of Assir’s followers appeared to have died or surrendered, the cleric’s fate was unknown. Rumors of his death, injury or escape made the rounds of local news media.
Such open cooperation between the army and Hezbollah seemed likely to inflame Sunni partisans in Lebanon, where the army is seen as a neutral arbiter among the country’s religious sects. But after sustaining heavy casualties on the first day of the fighting, the army may have had little choice but to accept a massive influx of Hezbollah’s highly trained and well-equipped fighters.
“If it wasn’t for Hezbollah, this would have been a massacre of the Lebanese army,” one Hezbollah fighter said. “They would have lost more than 100 soldiers if we were not there to show them how to do this.”
Lebanese officers called Hezbollah’s intervention “limited assistance” but Hezbollah fighters described their role as crucial to vanquishing Assir’s supporters.
Speaking to two Western journalists, the top Hezbollah official on the scene – who was introduced with the Muslim honorific “Hajj” – said the group felt obligated to enter the battle because Assir had threatened Shiites and Hezbollah members in the area while promoting a political and religious agenda in line with the al Qaida-linked rebels Hezbollah has been battling in Syria.
“We don’t like having to do this,” Hajj explained while giving orders to dozens of fighters armed with sniper rifles, automatic weapons, grenade launchers and even, in one case, a truck-mounted anti-aircraft gun.
“We are forced to remove this cancerous gland from Lebanon,” he said. “But this medicine for us is bitter because we don’t wish to fight the Lebanese and Arabs. If we were fighting the Israelis, the medicine would taste sweet but instead it tastes bitter.”
The fighting began Sunday when Assir’s followers accused the army of harassing them and, in retaliation, attacked an army checkpoint in the Abra neighborhood of the port city of Sidon, which lies less than an hour south of Beirut.
The usually quiet city was wracked by two days of artillery shelling, heavy sniper fire and fierce gun battles that spread to include the nearby Ein el Hilweh refugee camp and left much of Abra in ruins.
An army statement said the offensive would continue until Sidon returned to government control, and intermittent gunfire could be heard into the night as operations – which a Hezbollah commander described as “mopping up” – continued, albeit at a much slower pace than earlier in the day.
The fighting was surprisingly fierce, considering that Assir’s followers were thought to have limited military skills. One Islamist leader from Sidon said the group had been stockpiling arms for the past two months with the support of Sunni Persian Gulf nations, which also have been arming the anti-Assad rebels in Syria.
“His men have been storing weapons for two months with money given to them by Qatar,” said Sheikh Maher Hammoud, a conservative Sunni cleric who has a close relationship with Shiite Hezbollah. Hammoud said a few dozen radical Sunni Islamists from the Palestinian camp had bolstered Assir’s military capability.
Hezbollah, which openly sent thousands of men to support the Syrian regime’s efforts to retake the rebel-held city of Qusayr over the border, was quiet about its involvement in the fighting in Sidon, but several of its men said they’d taken the lead in Monday’s battles.
“We know how to fight these sorts of battles,” Hajj said. “The Lebanese army does not have the same experience we have.”
As for the U.S. position that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, Hajj was critical of any comparison between his Shiite group and the radical Sunni ideology of al Qaida.
“We see these evil men all over the world. They even cut the head off a soldier in England, because they’re animals who follow the wrong idea of Islam,” he said. “No Christian could have this sort of evil in their heart, only these types of men.”Four-star offensive linemen Brodarious Hamm of Griffin (Ga.) Spalding told AuburnUndercover on Sunday night he not only has de-committed from Tennessee but Auburn now leads and a final decision is coming very soon -- possibly any day.
Hamm said his interest level in Auburn is "very high" and added he is "close" to committing.
According to Hamm, he talks to the Tigers "almost every day."
Not only that, but he visited them last week. While at Auburn, Hamm spent time with head coach Gus Malzahn, offensive line coach J.B. Grimes and defensive line coach Rodney Garner, his area recruiter.
"They told me they just really want me," Hamm said.
According to Hamm, Malzahn made it clear he doesn't want him to commit unless he is 100 percent sure of his decision. Hamm said the coach would prefer he commit, then not visit other schools.
The 6-foot-5, 320-pound Hamm committed to the Vols over Auburn and Georgia in April.
He attended multiple games at Jordan-Hare Stadium last year, then visited the Tigers on April 4.
"I've always liked Auburn," Hamm said.
Hamm is the No. 32 offensive tackle in the 247Sports Composite. He could play tackle or guard in college. According to Hamm, Auburn has not told him precisely which spot he would play.UPDATE: Grant County's top elected official plans to talk with sheriff about the investigation.
The state Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer, who met with militants from the wildlife refuge takeover in eastern Oregon and urged authorities to concede to some of their demands.
The investigation will be handled by the Criminal Justice Division in Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum's office. The division investigates public corruption as part of its duties.
Justice Department officials wouldn't comment on the focus of the investigation other than to confirm they are examining one of nine complaints passed along by the state agency that regulates police officers. The complaints have been filed since late January.
Palmer, 54, who has been sheriff since 2000, has said he won't comment to The Oregonian/OregonLive on any matter.
He is the third sheriff currently enmeshed in state criminal investigations. Klamath County Sheriff Frank Skrah has been indicted on assault and official misconduct charges but remains in office. The Justice Department recently opened an investigation into Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton for alleged misconduct involving office employees.
Palmer is likely to remain in office during the investigation because county officials have no authority to suspend him or otherwise act to limit his police duties.
Scott Myers, Grant County judge who chairs the county commission, said Thursday he was unaware the state had opened a criminal case and he intended to talk to Palmer. He noted Palmer has no undersheriff who could step in.
The last undersheriff, Todd McKinley, resigned and is now running against Palmer, who is seeking his fifth term. McKinley is director of Grant County Community Corrections.
The complaints against Palmer came after Ammon E. Bundy, 40, of Emmett, Idaho, and other armed protesters on Jan. 2 seized control of the headquarters compound of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Later that month, Bundy invited Palmer to visit the militants at the refuge, but he declined.
Palmer, however, told the local Blue Mountain Eagle newspaper he considered the occupiers to be "patriots." He told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the takeover would be resolved only if authorities granted some of Bundy's demands, including freeing two jailed ranchers and the retreat of FBI agents who arrived in Harney County.
In January, Palmer twice met with militant leaders in John Day, including Ryan W. Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Montana, and Jon E. Ritzheimer, 32, of Peoria, Arizona. Ritzheimer said in a later interview that he and Payne autographed Palmer's pocket version of the Constitution.
The militants then agreed to appear at a community meeting in John Day on Jan. 26, a session organized by a handful of Grant County residents who are sharply critical of federal government conduct. Palmer also was scheduled to speak.
The militants never appeared because they were stopped by state troopers and FBI agents on the state highway between Burns and John Day. Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, 54, was shot and killed as he attempted to evade police. Ammon Bundy and other leaders were arrested.
Later, Palmer referred to the police operation as an "ambush."
Last weekend, Ammon Bundy released a statement defending the sheriff, encouraging people to "stand with Sheriff Palmer" in the face of the state licensing agency's actions.
The nine complaints filed with state regulators all cite Palmer's involvement with the armed militants. Licensing officials said in letters to those submitting the complaints that the conduct they complained of would violate state licensing standards if proven.
John Day Police Chief Richard Gray was among those complaining. He recounted how Palmer twice met in John Day with the militants as the occupation continued.
"I have a great public safety concern when the Grant County sheriff is allowed to openly meet with and be part of this group of lawbreakers," Gray wrote in his complaint.
He also cited a 2012 episode as evidence of misconduct by Palmer that should be investigated, referring to the apparent deletion of a police report from electronic files. Gray at the time was running against Palmer for sheriff.
Another complaint was filed by Valerie Luttrell, manager of the John Day dispatch center that serves local agencies, including the sheriff's office. She said Palmer was judged a "security leak" by local police, state troopers and the FBI. She said Palmer promotes his personal agenda "over the welfare and safety of the general public he is sworn to protect."
The remaining complaints were filed confidentially as allowed by law.
-- Les Zaitz
@leszaitzA tractor cuts a small plot of hemp at a University of Kentucky research plot near Lexington on Sept. 23, 2014. Marijuana's non-intoxicating cousin has gained a foothold as a potential cash crop in Kentucky. Dylan Lovan/AP
American farmers may soon be allowed to freely grow fields of food, oil and fiber-producing plants whose leaves superficially resemble marijuana.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who introduced the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015 on Wednesday afternoon with 46 original co-sponsors, believes Congress may lift the decades-old ban on growing industrial hemp this year.
“The sense of the House is moving in our direction,” he says. “People understand this is not marijuana.”
Industrial hemp plants are related to marijuana, but contain much lower concentrations of the euphoria-producing compound THC. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970, however, does not distinguish between types of cannabis plants and therefore puts growing hemp off-limits.
Despite Congress' reputation for inertia, there’s reason to believe Massie’s optimism about the bipartisan effort is well-founded.
Congress recently included two pro-hemp measures in larger bills. A provision in the farm bill that President Barack Obama signed in February allowed states to roll out hemp-growing pilot projects.
The House then approved two amendments protecting those projects from the Drug Enforcement Administration after the agency impounded hemp seeds bound for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. One of the measures was included in a spending bill that became law in December.
The large spending bill also disallows the Department of Justice from going after state-authorized medical marijuana programs, a huge win for drug policy reformers that also offers hope to hemp advocates.
And in yet another positive sign, newly minted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is cosponsoring companion legislation to Massie’s bill.
McConnell, who was influential in pushing the farm bill provision, joined fellow Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican, and Oregon Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, in introducing the bill earlier this month.
“We’ve taken away many of the arguments against this bill,” Massie says. “We grew acres and acres [of hemp] in Kentucky without barbed wire or concertina wire and nobody got high off any of the hemp plants.”
Identical versions of the House and Senate bills, which would amend the Controlled Substances Act to specify that marijuana does not include low-THC industrial hemp, died without a floor vote last year.
According to the advocacy group Vote Hemp, 21 states have laws allowing for industrial hemp production, but only three states - Colorado, Kentucky and Vermont - rolled out pilot programs in 2014.
"Allowing farmers throughout our nation to cultivate industrial hemp and benefit from its many uses will boost our economy and bring much-needed jobs to the agriculture industry," Sen. Paul said in a statement circulated by Vote Hemp.
“The federal ban on hemp has been a waste of taxpayer dollars that ignores science, suppresses innovation, and subverts the will of states that have chosen to incorporate this versatile crop into their economies," said Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., who's co-sponsoring the House bill.
Massie says he doesn’t expect the DEA to rally opposition, even though the agency’s administrator, Michele Leonhart, is a well-known hemp skeptic. Leonhart reportedly said July 4, 2013, when a flag made of hemp flew over the U.S. Capitol at Polis' request, was the lowest day of her law enforcement career. The first American flag, made by Betsy Ross, was also made from hemp.
In support of the legislation, Massie says he will have a dried hemp leaf on the wall of his congressional office in Washington to help people "get over the stigma of the shape and form of this plant.”
“Some people may say it’s a marijuana leaf, but it will be a good topic of conversation,” says Massie, who ate a hemp seed snack bar during a TV interview last year. “It’s for rope, not dope.” Hemp products can legally be imported into the U.S.If you are driving on Route 61 from Ashland to Aristes in Pennsylvania you’ll be branched onto a short detour. It is not immediately clear to travelers what the detour is circumventing; however few passers-by pay it any attention, a detour is nothing unusual. But if you ignore the detour and follow the original route 61 highway, you’ll soon encounter an unexplained road closure. Beyond it lays a patch of land with overgrown streets, smoke coming out of the earth, and various warning signs. These are the remains of the mining town Centralia.
Centralia warning sign (Photo by pquijal)
Centralia, Pennsylvania was never a large community, but it was once a lively and industrial place. At its peak in 1960 the coal mining town was home to 2,761 people, but today almost everybody is gone and no home advisor would ever suggest moving there. However, a home advisor, government buyout and toxic gas seeping from the ground isn't enough to get some stubborn residents to move. As of October 2013, there are still 7 residents remaining in the town. Of course, even if a home advisor tried to suggest you move to Centralia, you'd be out of luck as all of the buildings have been condemned and the land has been owned by the state since 1992. The series of events which led to the community’s demise began about forty-eight years ago.
What happened in Centralia?
In May of 1962 the Centralia Borough Council hired five volunteer fire fighters to clean up the town land fill, something they had done every year right before Memorial Day. The landfill was located in an abandoned strip mine pit next to the Odd Fellows Cemetery. In the previous years the landfill was in a different location and this time, there was an exposed vein of anthracite coal at the scene. The material was rapidly ignited by the trash fire, prompting a quick effort to put it out. The flames were successfully extinguished, but unbeknownst to the fire fighters, the coal continued to burn underground. Over the following weeks it rapidly expanded to the surrounding coal mines and beneath the town.
Centralia cemetery, right next to the landfill where the fire started (Photo by Cricket)
Soon the Environmental Department began monitoring the fire by drilling holes into the earth to determine the extent and temperature of the fire. This wasn’t a very good idea. After some time the workers realized they provided the fire with a natural draft by drilling these boreholes, expanding and feeding the combustion. Several residents living in the affected area complained of symptoms of carbon monoxide exposure. Carbon monoxide is colorless, odorless and tasteless, but highly toxic. It causes a tired feeling, and can be lethal when you inhale large amounts of it.
Seven years after the fire was started, another effort was made to contain the fire using clay seals to block the air supply to the fire, but the attempt was met with failure. In the 1970s, people began to realize how dangerous the area became. A gas station owner noticed that the gasoline he delivered seemed hot, so he then lowered a thermometer down on a string and when he pulled it back out, he found the temperature of the gasoline inside the holding tank was a troubling 180 degrees Fahrenheit (82°C)!
Several other attempts were made to extinguish or contain the underground fire over the next years, but all of them were unsuccessful.
Wasteland around the town (Photo by Raj Mahtaj)
Ghost town
After burning beneath the surface for almost twenty years, the fire drew national media attention when the ground crumbled beneath the feet of a twelve-year-old boy in 1981. The sinkhole, about four feet (1,2m) wide and 150 feet (50m) deep, would have killed the boy had his cousin had not been there to help pull him to safety.
At that point, about seven million dollars had been spent in the firefighting effort. Experts determined that the only option remaining to effectively battle the fire would be a massive trenching operation, excavating every bit of coal out of the mine at the cost of about $660 million. Left with such limited options, the state of Pennsylvania basically condemned the entire town, and spent $42 million in government funds relocating most of its residents.
Centralia today
The fire still burns today beneath about four hundred acres of surface land, and it’s still growing. There is enough coal in the mine to feed the fire for up to two hundred and fifty years. Most of the unoccupied homes and buildings have been razed, and large portions of the town are being reclaimed by nature, leaving meadows crisscrossed with overgrown asphalt roads and the occasional steaming or smoking hillside.
Downtown centralia (Photo by pquijal)
Some of the areas are filled with new growth, while others are fields of fallen down dead trees. In the winter months you can see the steam rising up from the ground. There are low round metal steam vents sticking out of the ground south of the borough, and several signs warning of the underground fire, carbon monoxide and unstable ground. In some places the ground down beneath is too hot for almost anything to grow. It's mostly brown and there are fallen down, charred, dead trees everywhere.
Wasteland near Centralia
One of the most interesting parts of Centralia is the abandoned stretch of highway 61. Informally known as "Graffiti Highway" this section was cut off from the rest of the highway because a large series of cracks formed in the center of the left lane from the underground coal fire. It is now used for dirt-biking and graffiti.
Original part of Route 61We wrote last week about how CNN’s Carol Costello did an incredible job shutting down the spokesman for an officially-designated hate group who was on her show to talk about why the group, the American Family Association, thinks a high school day devoted to anti-bullying is actually a secret plan to recruit kids into homosexuality.
The AFA representative, known for his hateful commentary, was telling Costello that the Southern Poverty Law Center, a renowned civil rights organization, was really a “hate group” because it had called out AFA for its own hateful language. Costello then read Fischer his own quote claiming that Hitler’s top lieutenants were all gay, because Hitler knew he needed someone extra savage to kill all the Jews, so he chose gays. (This is long-standing blood lie of the far right.)
“Hitler recruited around him homosexuals to make up his Stormtroopers, they were his enforcers, they were his thugs. And Hitler discovered that he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders, but that homosexual solders basically had no limits and the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whomever Hitler sent them after. So he surrounded himself, virtually all of the Stormtroopers, the Brownshirts, were male homosexuals.”
As if the premise of the conversation weren’t bad enough, the AFA representative, known for his offensive commentary, started lecturing Costello about all the health risks he claimed, falsely, were associated with being gay. At that point, Costello had heard enough, and shut down the interview.
CNN’s COSTELLO: I would think most historians would take issue with that. But what I’m saying to you is that, by many people’s standards, would be hate speech. AFA’s FISCHER: Well, but the reality is, it’s the Southern Poverty Law Center. They’re out to destroy the AFA and the FRC (Family Research Council), that makes them the bullying group, that makes them the hate group. They’re the ones that want to silence any view that would criticize the normalization of homosexual behavior. And we know from the CDC, and from the FDA, not part of the vast rightwing conspiracy… COSTELLO: Well… FISCHER: …that homosexual behavior has the same health risks… COSTELLO: …okay… FISCHER: …associated with it… COSTELLO: That, that’s just not true. I’m gonna end this interview now, sir, I’m sorry, because that’s just not true. Mr. Fischer, um, thanks for sharing your views. I guess.
Bra-va.
You can watch Costello in action here.
Well, as you can imagine, the AFA, as it often does, threw a hissy fit. And again, Costello was having none of it. IN today’s broadcast, Costello plays the AFA’s hissy fit, then responds:
AFA’s BRYAN FISCHER: Homosexual behavior, it is immoral, it is unnatural, and it is unhealthy. That is a simple, straight-forward statement of fact. But for the gay Gestapo, they’re gonna call that an insult…. Now, Carol Costello, she showed you what this looks like. I mean Carol Costello, when I was on with her on CNN, she showed you what the gay Gestapo looks like in action, cuz she cut my water off just as soon as I started to talk about the health risks of homosexual behavior. CNN’S CAROL COSTELLO: Well, Mr. Fischer, if that’s the definition of the “gay Gestapo,” then I am a proud, card-carrying member.
Love. Her.
This was not unlike NBC’s Chris Matthews recently standing up to the race-baiting coming out of the Romney campaign via Reince Priebus, the head of the Republican National Committee. Or when CNN’s Soledad O’Brien recently stood up to Romney surrogate John Sununu and called him out on his lies.
Republicans think truth has a liberal bias, so they lie routinely as a matter of strategy. And they think that the media will be willing cohorts in that lie, out of some twisted sense of fairness. And as Candy Crowley showed Mitt Romney in the last debate, and Carol Costello showed the representative of the AFA, you are permitted to lie on national television if you want to, but don’t expect the media to aid and abet the lie.
Part of being an objective journalists is honoring the truth.
In case you missed it, here’s the part of the last debate when President Obama destroyed Mitt Romney for claiming that the President hid the truth of the Libya attack for political purposes, and then Candy Crowley corrected Romney’s lie.Philadelphia Flyers prospect and Union defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2014 Frozen Four. The Margate, Fla. native was an astonishing +7 on the hockey game with a goal and two assists. "A +7 is pretty staggering," summed up Union head coach Rick Bennett.
The junior blue liner will likely sign with the Flyers in the next few days, but it was a welcoming to the city he will begin his professional hockey career. "He's been tremendous for us all year," said Union captain Mat Bodie.
Union College won the 2014 NCAA Championship with a 7-4 victory over the University of Minnesota. The Dutchmen earned their first national championship in school history.
The All-Tournament Team
Forward: Sam Warning (Minnesota)
Forward: Kyle Rau (Minnesota)
Forward: Daniel Ciampini (Union)
Defenseman: Shayne Gostisbehere (Union)
Defenseman: Mat Bodie (Union)
Goalie: Colin Stevens (Union)
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Jeff Cox covers college, junior and high school hockey, NCAA recruiting and NHL Draft prospects. Follow him on twitter @JeffCoxSBNation.This is the heartwarming moment a young woman left her stepfather in tears after asking him to legally adopt her as part of a big birthday surprise.
Gabriella Guardado, 22, placed adoption papers and a pen inside a gift bag and presented them to her stepdad, David Lynde, earlier this month for his birthday.
In video capturing the tear-jerking moment, David is seen opening the bag and pulling out the papers while surrounded by his family in their Florida home.
After taking some time to realize what the papers said, the 53-year-old becomes very emotional by Gabriella's sweet gesture.
Gabriella will officially take David's last name on Friday when the paperwork is finalized at the courthouse, Daily Mail Online has learned.
This is the heartwarming moment Gabriella Guardado, 22, left her stepfather, David Lynde, in tears after asking him to legally adopt her on his birthday (David left and the pair together, right)
Moments before pulling the papers out the bag, David did not what to expect when he first saw the pen, reacting very enthusiastically as if that was the only gift inside.
He then is shown digging through the bag and pulling out the papers.
Holding the stack in his hand, he reads out 'adult adoption' before skimming through the pages.
Gabriella, the oldest of five children, then asks him, 'do you know what that is?'
The stepdad responds, 'Am I adopting you?' and starts to tear up after realizing he was going to get to legally adopt her.
Gabriella, pictured left with her stepdad, explained on Facebook that she had wanted David to legally adopt her since she was about 12
After realizing what the papers said, David was overcome with emotion after receiving the gift, shown above as he wipes tears from his face
'I want you to, you don't have to, you can say no, but I want you to adopt me,' Gabriella tells him.
'You've been my dad and I know legal papers don't change anything,' she continues as a weeping David interrupts her when he goes in for a hug.
'Wow, Gabby, you have no idea...,' he says before getting choked up.
'I was waiting for it to register,' Gabriella jokes.
David, still choked up on tears, then apologizes, noting he does not cry much.
He then tells her again, 'Gabby you have no idea how much that means to me. You have no idea.'
Gabriella told Daily Mail Online on Wednesday that she wanted David to adopt her when she was younger but that her biological father would not sign off on it.
Initially as he opened the bag, he pulled out a pen (left), joking as if that was the gift. But then he read the papers that said 'adult adoption' and was moved to tears (right)
Gabriella and David embraced one another after the tear-joking moment as other family members also became emotional during the birthday celebration earlier this month in Florida
Once she turned 18 years old, she thought she no longer could not be adopted so she stopped trying.
However, after recently learning from her boyfriend that she could do an adult adoption, the registered nurse started looking into it.
'So I did research and found out that I could do that without the consent of my biological dad,' she said.
She said David's reaction brought everyone in the room to tears.
'His reaction was so funny because at first he had no idea what I was handing,' Gabriella said.
'And then when it clicked, he just started crying, which made me cry and my mom and everyone else in the room.'
She also noted that having David take the role as her father over the years when he did not have to meant more to her 'than words can describe.'
Gabriella (left), who is a registered nurse, shared on Facebook that the papers will not change the love she already has for David but now it is official
'He helped me grow into the young woman that I am and helped me through all the hard times of getting through nursing school and becoming a young adult,' she said.
Gabriella’s mother, Lori Ann, told Daily Mail Online that David came into Gabriella's life when she was 10 years old, after Lori Ann and David married in 2004.
Lori Ann, 44, was previously married to the father of Gabriella and three of her siblings, but they divorced in 2001 following an abusive relationship.
Since then, Lori Ann told Daily Mail Online that he has not been in her children's lives.
So this month as part as a belated birthday gift for David, whose birthday was on July 31, Gabriella came up with the idea to present him with the papers.
'She came to me and said this is what I want to do, his birthday is coming up and I want him to adopt me,' Lori Ann told Daily Mail Online.
'When she told me, of course I cried. She said I want his name.'
Lori Ann explained that every Sunday she holds a family dinner at their house and that Gabriella said she wanted to present the gift to him during dinner on August 21.
Gabriella pictured younger in a Facebook photo with her mother, Lori Ann. The mother said David has been in her daughter's life since she was 10 years old
'He cried his eyes out, and to me, it was the most beautiful thing,' Lori Ann told Daily Mail Online as she recalled the moment.
'To see his reaction just made parenting worth it,' she said.
'All the tears, all the arguments all the good times and the bad.
'It just made it all worth it. I didn't have a good first marriage, but I did good this time.'
She added: 'I am so thankful he came into my life.'
Lori Ann also said she is so happy Gabriella came up with the idea.
'I know this is something she has wanted,' the mother-of-five told Daily Mail Online.
'She is very strong-headed and so to see her do it and see the appreciation she has for him...
'Growing up it was not the easiest, but he hung in there and never stopped loving them and anything they needed he was always there and it all paid off.'
Lori Ann and David pictured together. They have been married since 2004 and reside in Florida
Lori Ann told Daily Mail Online that she has four children with her ex-husband, Gabriella, a 20-year-old daughter and 19-year-old twin boys, and she also has a 10-year-old son with David.
She said her other three children expressed they also wanted to be adopted by David but will do so in their own time.
Ahead of Friday, she said David and Gabriella are both thrilled for it to all become official. Lori Ann said she will also videotape that special moment.Sri Lanka’s coastguard Sunday detained an Indian boat which had illegally entered the island’s territorial waters and rescued 30 Rohingya refugees including 16 children who were on board, an official said.
The dhow operated by two Indians had entered Sri Lanka’s northern waters after crossing the sea border, said navy spokesman Chaminda Walakuluge.
“The coastguard noticed that there were very small children on board and escorted the dhow to a port and provided them with emergency assistance,” Walakuluge told AFP.
He said seven men, seven women and 16 children were on board, in addition to the two-man Indian crew who had been detained pending investigations.
“There was a 15-day-old baby and a four-month-old child on board,” Walakuluge said. “We have taken them to port and provided food and medical attention.”
He said it appeared that the passengers had left India, where they had lived for about four years as refugees. They were handed over to local authorities to decide further action.
Investigators suspect that the crew were trying to bring the Rohingya to Sri Lanka.
The Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine are denied citizenship and face brutal discrimination in the Buddhist-majority country.
Thousands have sought refuge in other countries in the region.
Four years ago Sri Lanka’s navy rescued 138 refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar whose boat had been drifting off Sri Lanka for over 10 days.
The United Nations Human Rights Council last month agreed to send a fact-finding mission to Myanmar to investigate claims that police and soldiers carried out a bloody crackdown on the Rohingya in Rakhine.
More than 120,000 Rohingya have languished in grim displacement camps ever since bouts of religious violence between Muslims and Buddhists ripped through the state in 2012.
Most are not allowed to leave the squalid encampments, where they live in dilapidated shelters with little access to food, education and health care.This is one of those situations where we might be able to take two seemingly incongruous facts and put them together to find a deeper meaning. Ready? Fact number one: Connecticut is one of the richest states in the nation depending how you measure such things. Fact number two: Connecticut has managed to run up nearly $75B in debt and is teetering on the edge of being in worse financial shape |
ed and restricted by the basically unsound theories they hold. As has been emphasised before, they can only see the problem as one of control and not – as it really is – one of ownership. They are willing to loosen the grip of the capitalist on the administration of industry but would allow ownership to remain essentially intact though changed in outward appearance.
It has been remarked before that the primary interest of the capitalist is to receive an income from his investment, but within this primary interest different groups of capitalists have sectional interests. In a new and expanding business those shareholders who own “ordinary” shares, on which the dividend is not a fixed amount but fluctuates from year to year with the amount of profit, are in the position of anticipating that profits may continue to increase, thus affording them an increasing income. Other investors who do not hold ordinary shares usually receive a fixed rate of interest, this being the condition on which their particular class of shares or stock is issued. It will be seen that there is more of a speculative element in the first kind of investment than in the second ; the holders of the second kind of investment are in effect giving up the chance of higher dividends in return for greater security. The largest element of security (coupled of course with a willingness to take a smaller return) is to be found by investing in Government or Municipal loans. In practice it is not only that some investors look more to security while others look more to the prospect of a larger income. What often happens in practice is that wealthy individuals or Insurance Companies or other bodies with large funds to invest, guided by investment experts, spread their investments over many different types of investment, often including holdings in companies or Government or Municipal loans all over the world.
Let us now see what is the attitude of the capitalist towards a proposal to establish an amalgamation of companies, a monopoly of a whole industry, a State supervised Public Utility Board, or to go over to complete State or Municipal control. (The reasons for such developments will be examined in a later chapter.) Each investor and each type of investor will be concerned with the problem whether the change will improve his position, give him a larger return or alternatively give him greater security. If the concern in which his capital is invested is past its most prosperous period, faced perhaps by dangerous competition such as the competition of motor transport with the railways, he may wonder whether it would not be prudent to seek amalgamation or get the Government to bail him out. These are the questions the capitalist asks, and answers to the best of his knowledge ; but in public (as part of his natural endeavour to strike the best possible bargain) he may talk about the desirability of competition and the abuses of monopoly, the inefficiency of big business, the bureaucratic evils of Government Departments, and, of course, he will claim to be interested not only with his own investment but with the welfare of the customers. This, however, is only “sales talk” ; if the terms offered are sufficiently attractive the capitalist will enter into amalgamation or sell out to the Government notwithstanding all the high-sounding principles he may have enunciated. As a case in point, when in 1868 the telegraph companies and the railway companies (which also had telegraph systems) were faced with the decision of Disraeli’s Conservative Government to take over the telegraphs as a State concern “the Parliamentary Bill was opposed at the outset by both the telegraph companies and the railways, but during its passage through Parliament terms were agreed with both these interests and the opposition was withdrawn”. (The Post Office, Sir Evelyn Murray, Secretary to the Post Office. Putnams, 1927, p. 69.)
Likewise with the railways to-day. Now that they are losing more and more of their profitable traffic to road transport concerns and have a very uncertain future, the directors, in public, oppose the whole idea of State railways, but in July, 1942, it was reported that there had been a rise in the prices of railway shares and “the current market explanation... was that it was inspired by statements of trade union officials that plans for the unification of the railways under a public board are well under way” (News Chronicle, 8 July, 1942). Obviously some of the railway shareholders thought that unification and a change in the form of control might benefit them, though the City Editor of the News Chronicle himself thought differently. In his view there was “very little reason to suppose that the merging of the railways, if it comes off, will either benefit the stockholders or, indeed, produce substantial working economies.”
On 7 June, 1942, the City editor of the Sunday Express also reported the “slow upward move in home rail stocks,” and said : “The buying is based on the theory that Britain’s railways will never return wholly to private ownership... Instead of a fluctuating income dependent on operating results, their (i.e., the shareholders) revenue would be fixed.”
The News Chronicle writer in the article referred to above described the suggested unification of the railway under a public board as “socialisation”, and this brings us to the many Labour Party spokesmen and theorists who hold the same misconception.
A man whose works have had considerable influence in Labour Party circles and in the I.L.P., of which he was a member, is Mr. R. H. Tawney. In his book The Acquisitive Society (George Bell, 1921, pp. 66 and 117), after condemning various formers of private property, he argues that the payment of what he calls “pure interest” will be necessary under “Socialism”. It is justified, he says, provided that the owner of the capital is not allowed to have any share in or responsibility for, the organisation of the industry. The late J. Ramsay MacDonald, leader of the Labour Party and for many years a prominent member of the I.L.P., held the same erroneous view as Mr. Tawney. In his Socialism, Critical and Constructive, he wrote :–
“When Labour uses Capital and pays it its market value, property is defensible ; when Capital uses Labour and retains as its reward the maximum share in the product upon which it can keep its grip, property is devoid of a sure defence.” (Cassell’s Pocket Edition, 1929, pp. 302-3.)
An old I.L.P. pamphlet How Socialists would run Industry (1925, p. 14) asked “Why should not Labour hire capital and devote the whole of the surplus to the improvement of the service?” and went on to propose that “the surplus earnings after paying a fixed rate of interest for the hire of loan capital, should... be reserved for specific purposes...” (Our italics).
In another I.L.P. pamphlet Socialism in the Village (1920) we read :–
“The owners will receive Government Bonds in return for their land, the interest on which will be more than covered by the rents paid to the State.” The pamphlet went on to express the view that “there is every reason to expect that agriculture will yield a far better return to labour and capital than it now does.” (Our italics).
Though the above quotations are taken from publications more than 20 years old it will be found that the theory on which they are based is still held in its entirety by the Labour Party and trade unions to-day. Their proposals for nationalisation or State control are still framed on the principle of depriving the capitalist of his control of industry while guaranteeing him a fixed return on his capital.
Subsequent programmes of the Labour Party adhere to this illusory change of form while retaining the substance of the exploitation of the workers by the capitalists. The Labour Party programme For Socialism and Peace (1938) contains the following:–
“The public acquisition of industries and services will involve the payment of fair compensation to existing owners ; but thereafter the former owners as such should have no further part of any kind in the control or management or policy or finances of the publicly-owned concerns. The suggested basis of compensation, broadly, is the net reasonable maintainable revenue of the industry concerned” (p. 19).
It was on this basis that London’s buses, trams and tubes were merged into the London Passenger Transport Board on the initiative of Mr. Herbert Morrison in the Labour Government of 1929-31 (though the merger was actually not completed until 1933, by the National Government). The capitalist investors who had their money in the private companies were compensated on the basis of the average net profits for the preceding three years. The stock of the new undertaking, London Passenger Transport Board, pays interest at 4½%, or 5% in the main, though what is known as “C” Stock pays whatever amount is available fro ; profits but in any event not more than 5½%.
Under the Labour Government’s Bill to nationalise the Bank of England (October 1945) the stockholders are to receive as compensation the same dividend, 12%, as they have received each year for the past 20 years. For each £100 of Bank Stock they will receive £400 of Government Stock paying 3% a year.
In an article demanding nationalisation of the railways the Scottish journal Forward, which professes to have “advanced” Labour views, instanced the L.P.T.B. as a model for railway nationalisation – “after all, nationalisation of railways would not be a leap in the dark. It is many years now since the London Passenger Transport Board came into existence, and nobody can seriously argue that this has been a failure either as a public service or as a commercial undertaking.” (Forward, 11 March, 1944). It may be remarked in passing that the employees of the Board who have several times come out on strike over wages and conditions, as well as the users of the service, know very well that the Board is not different from any other profit-making concern. Despite the claim of its originator, Mr. Herbert Morrison, that it is a form of “socialisation”, it is merely one of the many forms of capitalism. Only when industry and transport, etc., are owned and democratically controlled by the whole community can service to the whole community be a reality. Nationalisation or State capitalism is not the solution to the problem.
Chapter 4 The Passing of Competition and Rise of Monopoly
There was a time when avowed defenders of capitalism rested their principle charge against Socialism on the plea that capitalism means free competition of independent undertakings and that Socialism would fail because it involves the ending of that competition.
Even as late as 1927 the late Lord Melchett (then Sir Alfred Mond), head of the great combine Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., devoted space in his book Industry and Politics (MacMillan, 1927), in the chapter “Why Socialism Must Fail”, to the benefits of competition. He claimed that “captains of industry” are produced by competition and he wondered “what is to happen when these men disappear, as they must do in time? What is the machinery which is to create the new captains required to direct industry and commerce?”
“Competition,” he wrote, “is the breath and soul of human endeavour, whether in business, in sport, in politics, or in any other form of human activity. It is nature’s way of proving who is the best man.”
Sir Alfred Mond wrote his book just after the formation of the combine of which he was head, a combine designed, of course, to eliminate competition between the component companies, though at the same time it was obviously also aimed at meeting the competition of foreign concerns. The Manchester Guardian Commercial, writing at the time I.C.I. Was formed, had this to say :–
“We may take it for granted at the outset that the object of the promoters is less to consolidate the chemical industry into a better dividend-earning machine than to build up a more easily managed organisation for the purpose of meting foreign competition, itself very closely organised. Naturally, any success obtained in this direction will be reflected in the profits, but a mere profit-seeking policy alone has not hitherto led to gigantic grouping of this character. There will now be a concern which will be more capable of talking on equal terms with I.G. Farbenindustrie A.G. of Germany and the two combines in the United States, Du Pont’s and the Allied Chemical Industry” (M. G. Commercial, 28 October, 1926). Even then, though he proclaimed that competition is so beneficial Sir Alfred Mond was an advocate of reaching agreement with the foreign combines – in other words, of eliminating competition, as far as possible, abroad as well as at home. The Manchester Guardian Commercial anticipated that “in view of Sir Alfred Mond’s persistent advocacy of international co-operation it will not be surprising if an effort is made to arrive at some agreement with the German trust granting an exchange of patents and experience with the British and delimiting markets to satisfy the German demand.”
Under Lord McGowan, the present head of I.C.I., the combine has fulfilled the anticipations of the writer quoted above. Lord McGowan, rebutting a charge made in U.S.A. that I.C.I. and the American chemical combine, Du Pont’s, had instructed their representatives in South America to continue co-operation with representatives of a German corporation in Chile and Bolivia after the outbreak of the war, issued a statement in January, 1944, in which he said that “for over 40 years I.C.I. (or its predecessor companies) have pursued a policy of co-operating with the great American chemical firm Messrs. E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co.... “ (quoted in Labour Research Dept. Fact Service 14 January, 1944), while the Observer (23 January, 1944) stated that close association between I.C.I. and the German combine I.G. Farbenindustrie A.. existed before the war.
It is a far cry from the late Sir Alfred Mond’s eulogy of competition to his successor Lord McGowan’s statement to the company in May, 1944, attacking what he called competition “carried to extremes.” The Times (13 May, 1944) said, of this statement :– “He has lost none of his mistrust of competition ‘carried to extremes’” ; but The Times went on to say that inquiry is warranted “into what is meant” by that phrase. The Manchester Guardian of the same date quotes Lord McGowan as having declared his belief in international agreements with private groups abroad “as instruments of world rationalisation of industry”, and as having expressed the fear that without such co-ordination this industry would “suffer the economic anarchy of cut-throat competition.”
Lord Melchett, director of I.C.I. and son of the late Sir Alfred Mond, had likewise repudiated his father’s declared belief in competition, for in 1935 he introduced into the House of Lords the “Industrial Re-organisation (Enabling) Bill” (which however was not passed). The object of the Bill was to give the majority of owners in any industry the legal power to force re-organisation on the industry notwithstanding the opposition of a minority with the object, among others, of “eliminating wasteful competition”.
In short when capitalists used to attack Socialism for being against competition, they held that competition was “the breath and soul of human endeavour” ; but when, in the course of the natural capitalist development towards monopoly, these same capitalists have done their utmost to eliminate competition they denounce it as “cut-throat” and as “economic anarchy”.
An interesting sidelight on the I.C.I. is that when, in 1892, Frederick Engels wrote about the early trend towards monopoly, in his Socialism Utopian and Scientific, he referred to the formation in 1890 of United Alkali, a merger of 48 English alkali concerns (Allen & Unwin edition, pp. 68-69). The capital of United Alkali was £6,000,000, a very large amount in those days, but United Alkali was one of the companies which in 1926 merged into I.C.I. and that company now has an increased capital of £74,000,000, owned by 180,000 shareholders, and employs 100,000 workers in its home factories alone (Manchester Guardian, 13 May, 1944).
Some other giant concerns with headquarters in Great Britain are the following :–
Lloyds Bank Ltd. (capital £73,000,000).
Dunlop Rubber Co. Ltd. (capital £12,773,000).
Prudential Assurance Co. Ltd. (capital £2,250,000 ; assets £240 million).
Lever Bros. & Unilever Ltd. (capital £69,597,000, owns interests in over 300 associated companies operating all over the world).
Shell Transport & Trading Co. Ltd. (£41 million).
Cable & Wireless Ltd. (£30 million, owns practically all telegraphic, cable and wireless systems of British Empire).
London, Midland & Scottish Railway (£305 million).
It should be noted that the above figures of capital relate to the total of capital issued. Many of the stocks and shares are priced at far above their nominal value (as a consequence of high rates of profit being earned by the companies) and the total assets of the companies are often very much more than the figures of issued capital.
According to Mr. H. Leak, chief statistician of the Board of Trade, “though there were in 1935 some 257,000 firms (including local authorities) active in industry, British industry as a whole was dominated by no more than 2,000 separate large undertakings and the 1,000 largest businesses were responsible for half of all industrial output”. (The Times, 21 February, 1945) ; and as The Times points out, much further amalgamation has taken place since 1935.
Although there are and doubtless will continue to be large numbers of small and medium-size concerns, industry, commerce, transport and banking are more and more coming under the domination of huge amalgamated undertakings, or of national and international cartels and associations set up for the purpose of eliminating competition, fixing prices, or dividing up the market so that rival firms do not compete in the same region.
Up to the middle of the 19th century and for many years afterwards the prevailing attitude of capitalists and of capitalistic politicians was one of opposing the encroachments of monopolistic concerns of all kinds. Thus when Disaeli’s Tory Cabinet had decided in 1868 that the Government should take over existing telegraph systems from the companies they did not at first propose to give the State telegraphs a monopoly, “but by 1869 opinions had changed and it was thought prudent to obtain protection against the establishment of new companies,” and a new Act in 1869 established the desired monopoly, (The Post Office, Sir Evelyn Murray, p.2.)
The general line of development has been that in periods of fairly widespread trade expansion and capitalist prosperity competition is not very keen – there is room for all and all are expanding. In such a period the Government (which is in a position either to encourage or to prohibit combines) has little occasion to interfere and the capitalists, not being faced with ruinous competition, do not strongly favour it. The great body of capitalists at such a time would be against the establishment of a monopoly in any field that might prove detrimental to their general interest, and if for any reason such a monopoly is established (e.g., the postal, telegraph and telephone monopoly) they would use every effort to see that its charges were strictly controlled.
When, however, capitalism has one of its recurrent crises of “overproduction”, trade declines, prices are cut and capitalists find themselves forced by competition to sell at small profit or even at a loss. Then amalgamation and other means of eliminating competition are the order of the day in those industries which have already reached a stage of development which makes such amalgamation practicable. The formation of such monopolies or near-monopolies itself produces a new problem for capitalists in general and particularly for the smaller concerns and for the industries not yet capable of unification, the problem that their interests will suffer through the activities of big and powerful groups which can at least temporarily force up the prices of their products when competition is eliminated. To meet this situation the capitalist groups whose interests may be adversely affected call upon the Government either to prevent the monopoly or at least to control its activities. A typical example of this was the way in which the British railways developed towards amalgamation. The traders who used the railways for transporting their goods and whose interests were threatened, pressed the Government to place legal restrictions on the charges made by the railways.
The late Mrs. Lilian Knowles in her Industrial & Commercial Revolutions in Great Britain during the 19th Century points out that at the end of the century rising railway costs and declining dividends forced the companies to the view that “the only hope seemed to be amalgamation to stop competition”. “Violent competition”, she wrote, “inevitably gives rise to amalgamations and the railways were no exception.” (Pages 281 and 283, 2nd Revised Edition. Routledge, 1922.)
The large number of independent railway companies were gradually reduced by amalgamation, with consequent avoidance of competition, and at the same time traders waged an unceasing struggle to get Government intervention to control the railways’ charges for the carriage of their goods.
In 1872, in response to the fears of the traders, a Commission was appointed to inquire into threatened amalgamation schemes, but the progress of amalgamation was inevitable and when in 1911 another official inquiry took place the report found “that the era of competition between railway companies is passing away and it was recognised by witnesses on behalf of the traders that this could not be prevented.” (Knowles, p. 284.)
The railways, here and abroad, were among the first undertakings to take the path of amalgamation, but what happened to the railways is more or less typical of the evolution of industry generally.
One important point to notice is that amalgamation and the demand by other capitalists that monopoly should be prevented, or failing that controlled by law, has everywhere caused the Governments more and more to abandon their earlier attitude of laissez-faire, that is of leaving industry to conduct its own affairs without State interference. Mrs. Knowles makes the following comment on this :–
“The chief characteristic of railway development between 1873 and 1894 is the progressive intensification of control of the railways by the State. The development of Germany and the growing world competition were important influences in the general reaction from laissez-faire, but the tendency to abandon it as a maxim of State policy, is, however, noticeable first of all in the railways and this is true not merely of England, but of the United States” (p. 275).
After the War (1914-1918) the considerable number of railways still in existence as separate bodies were compulsorily grouped by Act of Parliament into four large systems. The second world war promises to lead to further unification, necessitated in order to protect the railways from road transport competition which was growing rapidly in the years before 1939.
Leaving the railways and looking at the progressive elimination of small competing firms in industry generally we have the findings of two official bodies which reported in 1919 and 1927.
The Committee on Trusts reported in 1919 :–
“We find that there is at the present time in every important branch of industry in the United Kingdom an increasing tendency to the formation of Trade Associations and Combinations, having for their purpose the restriction of competition and the control of prices.” (Report. Page 2).
“.... Trade Associations and Combines are rapidly expanding in this country, and may within no distant period exercise a paramount control over all important branches of the British Trade.” (Report. Page 11).
The Committee on Industry and Trade reported in 1927 as follows :–
“The progress of the industrial revolution in Great Britain during the earlier half of the 19th century was marked by increasing freedom and fierce of competition in industry as old restrictive regulations were swept away and as transport enormously improved... during the last quarter of the century there was a marked trend towards the limitation of competition in many ways.” (Third Report, p. 68).
The Report went on to say this about “associations for allocating contracts” :–
“Such associations exist in certain industries where work is allocated by tender. The Association decides which firm is to receive a particular contract and it is arranged that other firms either do not tender or tender high. In some cases it is arranged that the members of the Association shall each be allocated a particular area.” (Third Report, p. 71).
It is true that many of the associations formed by competing companies to eliminate competition do not last a long time. They are constantly breaking up and being re-formed. Often their initial success is, in the long run, a direct cause of their undoing because, by raising prices and consequently profits in the industry concerned, they give an additional stimulus to outside monied groups to enter that field in competition with the associated companies, or to seek to produce cheaper substitutes for the article in question. An example of a “cartel” that broke up was the Mercury cartel formed by Italian and Spanish groups. The Manchester Guardian gave the following account :–
“A group of producers concluded a high-minded cartel to stabilise supplies and prices and then proceeded to screw down supplies and screw up prices. This went on merrily until somebody grew tired of it. A search for mercury was started overseas, and within a year or two the supposed monopoly was exposed as a bluff. The United States is now probably producing not much less than Italy, and a large output has been developed in Mexico and Canada. Preparations are being made in China for the development of large mercury deposits. Never again will the Italo-Spanish cartel recover its restrictive grip.” (Manchester Guardian, 8 March, 1944).
Nevertheless the failure of that attempt and of similar attempts in other fields does not alter the fact that capitalist concerns are more and more trying to eliminate competition by one means or another, and that failure on a too limited basis will not prevent further, more widespread, attempts later on.
The Times in 1941 and 1942 published articles surveying the development of capitalist industry in recent years. Below are extracts from the articles and from the editorial comment :–
“The early philosophers of capitalism wrote of it as a highly competitive system. The labourer could not be exploited because employers were fighting each other for his services. The entrepreneur was the servant, not the master of the consumer. He could not charge exorbitant prices, or make excessive profits ; he must always strive to introduce new inventions ; his inefficiency was penalised with loss. How different is this picture from the world we know to-day. Already before the war the iron and steel industry, transport, textiles, shipbuilding, and all our staple trades were riddled with price agreements, quotas, or restrictions of one kind or another ; in all the consumer had been dethroned.” (The Times, 18 September, 1942).
“The typical British industry to-day is privately owned but centrally controlled. It is not often realised to what an extent combination, in its carious forms such as price-fixing arrangements, market-sharing agreements, rings, cartels, trusts, pools, combines, and plain monopolies, has spread over British industry. The trade in which prices are determined by competition and in which the newcomer can enter on terms of approximate equality is now a distinct rarity. It would be an easy task to show how, in a wide range of industries, prices in the British market have been kept above the world level. There have been several public demonstrations of the art of excluding the newcomer and of hamstringing the firm that is ill-advised enough to try to increase its technical efficiency and thereby its competitive power. The great bulk of British industry is divided into industrial fiefs fully as much as if every industry had been nationalised by the State. Furthermore the tendency has been immensely strengthened by the war. In some industries a controller chosen from the trade itself has been given legal powers. In others, the Government has, in effect, made the trade association responsible, first for organising the export trade, and now for devising a scheme of concentration.” (The Times, 29 November, 1941).
The comment of The Times’ editor on this was as follows :–
“The abandonment of laissez-faire as a basis of industrial policy has been brought about not by the triumph of any contrary doctrine, but by the natural trend of modern industry towards monopoly. Individualism in economic life has been driven to the wall not by the State collectivism of nineteenth century socialist theory, but by the practical collectivism of the corporation, the trust, and the cartel. ‘Private enterprise’ is a misnomer when applied to the vast industrial and commercial organisations which are the characteristic and dominating feature of the modern economic system...” (The Times, 6 December, 1941).
While, as The Times has it, “the natural trend of modern industry” is towards monopoly, and “individualism in economic life has been driven to the wall” that is not to say that the process is, or will ever be, complete, or that the capitalists themselves are all in favour of it. The small firms will fight hard to save themselves from being crushed out of existence. Their efforts are backed by certain influential groups and from time to time, here and in other countries, they succeed in getting governments to limit and control the process. Lord Beaverbrook’s Daily Express, for example, carries on a campaign both against the co-operatives societies and the combines :–
“Make the small trader secure, clip the claws of the Co-ops and the combines... Dig up cartels by the roots. Now is the time to end the international cartels... There can be no healthy growth where cartels flourish”. (Daily Express, 18 March, 1944).
It may be noticed in passing that the Daily Express does not accept the logical course of refusing to accept advertisements from the combines, justifying its attitude on the plea that it “does not allow any advertiser, big or little, to influence the news in the news columns.” (Daily Express, 12 May, 1944).
Moreover it is absurd for this newspaper with its 3,000,000 circulation and its control of other newspapers to talk of making the small trader secure. One consequence of the growth of the handful of mammoth newspaper groups was that between 1910 and 1928 the number of newspapers in the United Kingdom declined by 181, quite apart from the fact that many are now controlled by one or other of the big concerns. London now has three evening papers : it formerly had nine. (The British Press, Europa Publications, 1929. Pages 26 and 27).
In the United States at the moment international cartels to eliminate competition are in disfavour. The Assistant Attorney-General made the following declaration :–
“After the war America will join in foreign trade on a scale never before imagined, but she will have no business with any foreign cartels.” (Daily Express, 17 May, 1944).
It can however be foretold with certainty that when capitalism produces its inevitable next crisis and trade depression, if not before that happens, the urge to enter international cartels will arise once more. Of course there will be no smooth passage for cartels in the future any more than in the past. Rival groups backed by their governments will continue to fight against each other and even within the cartels the struggle will go on over the share of the world market that is to be allotted to each national group. It is, however, undeniable that the old defence of capitalism that it is a system which lives by and encourages competition no longer harmonises with the facts of the situation. In the words of The Times “private enterprise is now a misnomer.”
Chapter 5 When and Why the Capitalists Support Nationalisation
A curious and unfounded myth held by many of the Labour Party advocates of nationalisation or Government control is the belief that it is specifically a Labour Party project and that it marks hostility towards capitalism. The truth is far otherwise. Except that when Mr. Herbert Morrison used the term “socialism” he really means nationalisation or State Capitalism, he spoke only the truth when he told the boys of Malvern College “that more Socialism was done by the Conservative Party, which opposed it, than by the Labour Party, which was in favour of it.” (The Times, 12 February, 1944).
Practically all the schemes of nationalisation have been carried out by avowedly capitalist Governments, Liberal or Tory.
In order to see the matter in correct perspective it will be useful to examine some of these schemes and see why they were carried out. It will be found, broadly speaking, that they are the outcome of a cleavage of interest between particular groups of the capitalist class and the main body of that class. The State, the “committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie” as Marx called it, intervenes when the interests of the class as a whole are being injured or jeopardised commercially or from a military standpoint by some group which owns a key industry or transport system, or when for some reason (usually the great cost involved) a new technical development is being hampered by the inability of private groups to handle it on a sufficiently large scale. The Indian Government is at present planning to set up State ownership of various industries, the reason being that the industries are essential and private capital to develop them is lacking. “Nationalisation of those major industries would be undertaken only if adequate private capital was not forthcoming.” (Daily Telegraph, 23 April, 1945).
Because one of the greatest obstacles to the early expansion of capitalist trade and industry was defective transport and communications it was in this field that State intervention occurred first and on the largest scale.
Let us glance first at the nationalisation of the roads in England. Until the 18th Century the public highways were earthen tracks or bridle paths for pack horses or riders, and for 200 years or more they had been kept more or less in order in each Parish by the compulsory labour of persons living there. At the end of the 17th Century wheeled traffic was still uncommon :– “It was, however, increasing with the expansion of trade and the growing necessity to move large quantities of goods. These wheeled vehicles wore the earthen surface of the highways into great ruts and the roads became more and more of a scandal just at the time when it became more and more necessary to be able to move masses of raw material or manufactured goods. The whole industrial development of the 18th Century would have been held up if the roads could not have been improved.” (Mrs. L. Knowles, Industrial and Commercial Revolutions. Routledge, 1922. 2nd Revised Edition, p. 236).
Mrs. Knowles goes on to explain that, in accordance with the tradition of the English Government, of leaving everything to individuals, the practice developed during the 18th Century of landowners and others obtaining power under a Private Act of Parliament to reconstruct stretches of road to make them suitable for wheeled traffic. They formed what were called “turnpike Trusts” and were allowed to make profit by charging tolls to the users of the roads. This, however, left a great network of parish roads which were still unmettalled tracks.
“Out of a total length of recognised public highways in 1820, amounting to 125,000 miles, only 20,875 miles were under the turnpike trusts ; the remainder were cared for in 1830 by the inefficient labour of the poor, or the equally unsatisfactory labour of those who had to render six days compulsory service.” (p. 238).
The system of compulsory labour was abolished under the Highways Act of 1835. Then “just as the highways were really improving they were overwhelmed by the ‘calamity of the railways.’ The coaches that had paid such a large proportion of the tolls were taken off the roads ; the turnpikes became bankrupt and the Government was obliged to abandon the policy of laissez-faire and do something for road maintenance. The turnpike trusts were gradually wound up... In 1888 the care of the main roads was transferred to the County Councils, the others being given over to the Rural or Urban District Councils.” (pp. 238-9).
Mrs. Knowles draws attention to the different course taken by road development in France where for reasons of State and for the speedy movement of troops roads were early under the care of the central government.
From roads let us turn to railways. Here again England and the Continental countries followed divergent courses. In England the railways were built to cater for existing traffic, and accumulations of capital were there ready to find scope for investment. The State, therefore, did not need to give financial assistance to start the railways and had no military motives for doing so. On the Continent capital was scarce, the traffic did not already exist in profitable quantities, and the State had to intervene both to provide the necessary capital and because of military needs. The continental railways were largely planned for strategic reasons. Such lines as those in Prussia leading to the Russian frontier would not have been built if commercial reasons alone had dominated.
It is interesting to notice that the United States, in later years held up as the outstanding example of an “individualist” country abhorring State interference, was early in the field with Government subsidies to develop the railways. “The United States, which followed English tradition so closely in its turnpikes, did not follow it in its railways at first. Improved transport was so vitally necessary to a new country that the State Governments subsidised and encouraged many railways between 1830 and 1838, raising the money by loans. No less than 42,871,084 dollars were spent by the States on railways before 1838. A great financial collapse followed in 1837 ; some States repudiated their debts and sold their railways, and the new State constitutions nearly all inserted a prohibition on the use of State funds for internal improvements. After that they adopted the English method of allowing private individuals to finance the railways. The peculiarity of the railways of the United States lay in the fact that they were built in advance of existing traffic in order to open up the country.” (Knowles, p. 254).
As has already been mentioned, trade depression and acute competition led the English railway companies to seek salvation in working agreements and amalgamation. When this occurred the Government stepped in and exercised more and more control over the conduct of the railways in order to prevent the monopoly they held from being used to the detriment of traders. Under the 1888 Railway and Canal Traffic Act maximum rates had been fixed for all the railways and they were restricted in various other ways, but this by no means satisfied the opponents of railway monopoly, and as Mrs. Knowles points out, this cessation of competition was giving rise in the early years of this century “to proposals to develop the canals as competitors, and to the question of the acquisition of the railways by the State.” (p. 284).
After 1918 a new factor entered into play, the competition of road transport. Just as the turnpike road interests had earlier tried to resist the encroachments of the railways so now the railways have made every effort to cripple and hamper |
or 5mph rolling traffic but it dragged her under.
“The bike was badly damaged and she wasn’t moving.”
Amhurst Park is closed at the junction with Seven Sisters Road while police investigate. Motorists are being asked to avoid the area.
Anyone with information can contact police on 101.Jonas Akerlund Archive
Nawet jeśli wydaje ci się, że nie masz pojęcia, kim jest Jonas Akerlund, zapewniam cię, że bardzo dobrze znasz jego twórczość. Chyba każdy widział teledysk Smack My Bitch Up, albo zatrzymał się na chwilę przy klipach Rammsteina. Pewnie nie raz też widziałeś klip do Paparazzie, czy Telephone Lady Gagi. Jeden z najwybitniejszych twórców teledysków – fotograf, pisarz, montażysta, kiedyś nawet perkusista metalowego zespołu i szef sztokholmskiego cyrku. Prywatnie przyjaciel Madonny, Ozziego Osbourna, czy Paula McCartneya. Miałam szczęście go spotkać na festiwalu Camerimage, by w końcu usłyszeć odpowiedzi na pytania, z jakimi czekałam pół swojego życia.
VICE: Podobno MTV cię nienawidzi, z resztą z wzajemnością?
Jonas Akerlund: Moje relacje z MTV nigdy nie były dobre. Nigdy mnie nie lubili, bo zawsze w jakiś sposób rzucałem im wyzwanie, sprawdzałem ich. Chciałem zmienić to gówno i przesunąć granice. MTV tego nie lubiło i przez to zostałem takim „bad boyem", co nawet nie było złe, dla mnie raczej śmieszne. Tym bardziej teraz traktuję to jak żart, ale wtedy braliśmy to bardzo do siebie i był to poważny konflikt.
Foto Marta Pawłowska
Zrewolucjonizowałeś teledyski przez klip do Smack My Bitch Up. Powiedziałeś, że gdybyś wiedział jak dużo on zmieni zrobiłbyś go wcześniej?
To po pierwsze był projekt, który zmienił moje życie, ale tak naprawdę byłem bardzo zaskoczony, jak łatwo można zszokować ludzi. Jak łatwo można wywołać w nich skrajne emocje, takim prostym rodzajem ekspresji. I pewni nigdy bym tego nie zrobił wcześniej, bo sam musiałem dotrzeć do tego momentu. Ale zdecydowanie był to moment, który zmienił moje życie, otworzył mi drzwi i mnie samego na nowe możliwości.
Wytłumacz dlaczego, że nie robiłeś więcej klipów dla The Prodigy? Znam historię faksu od managementu zespołu, w którym napisali, żebyś rzucił tę robotę, bo teledysk do niczego się nie nadaje. Jednak zespół był zachwycony.
Nie wydaje mi się, żeby robili dalej muzykę. Tak jakby już nie istnieją, coś dalej robią, ale to już nie to samo. W sumie raz pracowałem z Keithem, jednym z członków zespołu. Zrobiłem dla niego klip. Ale nic więcej. Z Liamem nigdy nie utrzymywałem kontaktu. Ja go nawet nie spotkałem przed zrobieniem dla nich klipu. Potem przez lata nic nie nagrywali. Faktycznie zazwyczaj współpraca ciągnie się latami, w tym przypadku tak nie było.
Miałeś na wymyślenie tego klipu dwa dni, potem byłeś na imprezie, której nie pamiętasz. Czy z tej imprezy zrodził się pomysł na teledysk?
Tak, dokładnie tak było. Najtrudniejsze to wpaść na pomysł. Jakby się temu przyjrzeć, to trzeba najpierw patrzeć wokół siebie i otworzyć oczy na te najbliższe nam rzeczy. Pomysły nas otaczają, bo prawie niemożliwym jest wymyślenie czegoś nowego. Ty po prostu musisz wziąć coś, co jest zaraz obok ciebie.
Chcesz mi powiedzieć, że to co widzimy w teledyskach Rammsteina jest wokół ciebie?
No prawie, bo Rammstein jest totalnie inny niż wszyscy, z którymi współpracuję. U nich zawsze teledyski budują teksty. Ze słów powstaje obraz i układasz historię. To, co lubię najbardziej we współpracy z nimi to fakt, że każdy klip jest niepowtarzalny i unikalny. Różni się od wszystkich innych. Kocham z nimi pracować - oni zawsze popychają mnie do wyskoczenia z czymś innym, nowym, czymś, czego jeszcze wcześniej nikt nie zrobił. Wiadomo, że czasami to się udaje, czasami nie, ale kocham artystów, którzy mają w sobie taki rodzaj ambicji.
To prawda, że byłeś szefem cyrku w Sztokholmie?
Tak! Byłem też reżyserem pokazów cyrkowych. Nawet miałem przez chwilę własny cyrk. Jeździliśmy z przedstawieniami po Europie. W 1998 roku, kiedy Sztokholm był Europejską Stolicą Kultury mój pokaz był jednym z głównych wydarzeń całego eventu. Potem pracowałem w Las Vegas, tam przez chwilę reżyserowałem różne show, potem znów zrozumiałem, że robienie filmów to moja rzecz. Rzuciłem cyrk i zacząłem robić wszystko, żeby tylko się zajmować kręceniem.
Foto Marta Pawłowska
Praca w cyrku wpłynęła na Twoje późniejsze filmy i pomysły?
Nie za bardzo. Zauważam wiele wspólnych cech miedzy cyrkiem, muzyką i rozrywką ogólnie, ale to życie jakie prowadzą cyrkowcy jest zupełnie inne. Jest wspaniałe, tyle, że nie ma w nim pieniędzy. Jest ogromnym poświęceniem i może się zdarzyć tak, że w wieku 25 lat kończysz już karierę. To strasznie ciężkie życie, ale było coś co mnie w nim fascynowało. To dziwne porównanie, ale masz gwiazdy filmowe, muzyczne, które żyją na bardzo wysokim poziomie, maja mnóstwo kasy, mają po prostu dobre życie i wszystko pięknie pachnie. Nagle wchodzisz do karawanu cyrkowego i już nie wszystko tak pięknie pachnie, a poświęcenie jest nadal takie samo i tak samo ciężko trzeba pracować.
Jak bardzo lubisz piosenki, do których tworzysz obraz?
To się cały czas zmienia. Jak jakąś lubię to super, ale tak nie musi być zawsze. Prawda jest taka, że nie musisz do nich tańczyć, żeby zrobić teledysk. Większość utworów, na których pracuję, to są dobre piosenki, bardzo utalentowanych artystów. Ale utwór to zawsze tylko narzędzie.
Na Festiwalu Camerimage w Bydgoszczy odebrałeś nagrodę za Wybitne Osiągnięcia w Dziedzinie Wideoklipów. Ostatnio odebrałeś kolejną nagrodę Grammy, w kategorii Najlepszy Film Muzyczny za Live Kisses Paula McCartneya. Co takie momenty zmieniają w twoim życiu?
Ten moment w Polsce był bardzo emocjonujący. Nawet nie spodziewałem się, że tak zareaguję na przyznanie mi tej nagrody. Przede wszystkim traktuję je jak szanse. Szanse, żeby popatrzeć wstecz i poczuć się docenionym przez ludzi.
Zazwyczaj jesteś po drugiej stronie, za kamerą, robisz wszystkie te rzeczy i nie masz, kiedy poczuć, że ludzie honorują twoją pracę. To wiele znaczy. Nie lubię festiwali filmowych, ale żałuję, że nie mogłem w Polsce spędzić więcej czasu. Byłem w tym kraju wiele razy, ostatnio w trasie z Madonną, ale takie wypady chyba się nie liczą. Camerimage sprawiało wrażenie dobrej zabawy, luzu i chyba zmieniło moją opinię na temat wielkich filmowych wydarzeń.ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - More than two million Ethiopians are in need of food aid due to drought caused by one of the worst La Nina weather phenomenon in a decade, the United Nations said.
Women involved in pastoral farming gather with their children at a drought-stricken area of Oromiya region, where the Ethiopian Red Cross Society and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) will soon start food aid distributions, January 14, 2009. IFRC/Yonas Mekonnen/Handout
La Nina, which was blamed for Australia’s floods this year, is an abnormal cooling of waters in the Pacific Ocean that wreaks havoc with weather patterns across the Asia-Pacific region, and has brought poor rains to the Horn of Africa.
The U.N. humanitarian affairs office (UNOCHA) said the March-May rainy season had largely failed in Ethiopia’s lowland areas, and appealed for $75 million in food and other assistance to meet the needs of two million people.
“Pasture and traditional water sources un-replenished by rains have been depleted in most of the affected areas,” UNOCHA said in a report released late on Wednesday.
“Animal body conditions are declining rapidly, resulting in lower livestock prices at market even as the price of staple cereals is increasing.”
An additional one million people are also seeking relief aid throughout Ethiopia — one of the world’s largest recipients of foreign aid, receiving more than $3 billion in 2008, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).
UNOCHA said increases in food and fuel prices have worsened the situation, while unrest in the Arab world has depleted demand for cattle exports — a vital source of income for pastoralists in the regions.
UNOCHA said the emergency conditions in the affected areas are likely to persist until the next rainy season in October.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had previously said his country may not need any food aid within five years thanks to an ambitious development plan that targets an average economic growth of 14.9 percent over the period.
The government says over the past five years economic growth has averaged about 11 percent in Ethiopia, a Western ally seen as a bulwark against militant Islamism in that part of Africa.That clearly limits the number of schools that can host. Hofstra stepped in for the first debate after Wright State University in Ohio, which was originally slated to host it, said costs that had ballooned to some $8 million and mediocre fundraising hauls made it a financially risky prospect. Several wealthy alumni picked up most of the tab at Hofstra. But for schools that can swing it, there are plenty of reasons to sign up.
In the short term, being a debate site graces a school with “a flash of visibility,” as Givens put it. (This obviously works best when the candidates don’t forget the name of the university at which they’re debating.) In the days leading up to the event, local, national, and even international outlets write about the school. Reporters visit the campus and talk to professors and students, sometimes making contacts they’ll tap into long after the election is decided. And, if whatever PR apparatus the school uses does its job right, the school will in turn have a spate of new reporters to add to its contacts.
Still, Givens acknowledges all of that is short lived. “That doesn’t change anything on a grand scale,” he said. The same way that few people who aren’t Beltway insiders remember which city hosted the 1992 Democratic Convention (New York), and that few people beyond diehard sports fans recollect where the Winter Olympics of 1984 took place (Sarajevo, in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina), not many people are going to remember where the second presidential debate of 2016 transpired.
For Washington University, it’s the potential for longer-term impact that makes hosting worthwhile.
As of late September, the school had registered more student voters (2,065) through TurboVote than all but three of around 200 participating universities, a ranking Givens attributes in part to the fact that the school is a debate host this year. The school tries to register students every year, he said, but “I think people’s consciousness is raised in general, so they see everything that’s going on. They know the debate’s coming here.” People who vote when they are young are more likely to also vote whey they are older. It’s unclear yet how many of these newly registered students will actually turn out to cast ballots, but registering is obviously a crucial first step.
Givens also says the fact that the university is hosting a debate for the fifth time—more than any other school—allows it to bolster its reputation as a school that values civic engagement. (That’s in line with why the president of Longwood University agreed to host the vice-presidential debate.) No more than a few hundred students will get into the debate hall itself, but they are hosting watch parties and discussions about the debates around the school, and several centers on campus are bringing speakers like David Brooks to campus in the days leading up to October 9 for conversations about things like the future of politics and religion in the United States. Several courses have been created around the election. “That’s important to us,” Givens said. “Maybe [students will] be a little more civically engaged … because they were here.”Knema Rezaei Bazazidad, a pediatrician at Austin Regional Clinic Southwest, examines a child prior to updating her immunizations. (Courtesy of Austin Regional Clinic and Leindani Creative)
Donald Trump just made my job harder. The work of every medical provider for children is likely to become more difficult, and our nation may well become sicker.
Yesterday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that Trump had asked him to head a commission to study the safety of vaccines. Saying “we ought to be debating the science,” as he left Trump Tower, Kennedy caused grave concern for those of us who truly understand that science. A proponent of the thoroughly debunked theory that vaccines cause autism, Kennedy’s implication that any real debate exists is genuinely troubling.
[Vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy Jr. says Trump asked him to lead commission on ‘vaccine safety’]
Hardly a day I spend in the office goes by when I don’t give vaccines. I do so because I know there is no actual debate. I do so as a pediatrician because the welfare of my patients, welfare I took an oath to safeguard, depends on protecting them against diseases that could seriously sicken or kill them.
Speaking to members of the media, Robert Kennedy Jr. said he plans to chair a commission on vaccine safety as part of President-elect Trump's administration, on Jan. 10 at Trump Tower in New York. (The Washington Post)
The idea of creating a commission to study one of the most settled subjects in medicine confirms a gnawing fear I’ve had since the earliest days of Trump’s presidential campaign. Drowned out by the noise of his outrageous statements and intemperate tweets is the fact that Trump believes vaccines cause autism. He has loudly proclaimed that misinformed belief for years, long before he was ever considered a serious candidate for the White House.
He is unambiguously wrong about this. In the words of my colleagues at the American Academy of Pediatrics in a statement released shortly after Trump’s meeting with Kennedy, “Vaccines are safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines save lives.”
To believe otherwise requires a couple of different things. First, it requires the rejection of a huge amount of medical science. Not merely one study or two, but study after study after study confirms that vaccines are safe, and that there is no connection with autism. If that mass of evidence doesn’t convince you, what can medical science produce that will? If you reject those data, which data can be found that will somehow prove trustworthy?
But the implications of a vaccine-autism connection go beyond that. If vaccines genuinely cause autism like their opponents claim, one of two things must be true of pediatricians like me who administer them. Either we are too incompetent to discern the relationship between the two, or we are too monstrous to care. One cannot believe that autism is related to vaccination without simultaneously indicting the overwhelming majority of physicians, nurses and other medical providers in this country. Even your local Rotary Club is in on it.
By saying that immunizations cause autism, Trump is training his sights on me and every other provider who delivers the same care I do.
I encounter the effects of the anti-vaccine movement on a regular basis. Mine is an office that asks parents to agree to protect their children by having them immunized according to the standard schedule for early childhood, but there are a few shots they can opt out of later. Despite ample evidence of its safety and efficacy, many parents choose not to give their children the vaccination against the carcinogenic human papillomavirus, leaving their sons and daughters at increased risk of several different cancers. When I ask why, they mention vague things they’ve heard about ill effects.
When I worked previously at a practice that had a more lenient policy regarding vaccines, the experience was even more stark. Several parents rejected them outright, and nothing I could say would change their minds. Every study I could reference was cooked, and there was some malign influence behind it all.
Here are some of the most common arguments for and against vaccination. (The Washington Post)
Preventing measles isn’t a matter of avoiding some minor ailment. The disease killed over 100,000 people in 2015. Even in patients who recover there is a risk of severe brain damage years after getting over measles. Why on earth would parents opt for that risk when there’s a safe way of protecting their children? Why allow your son or daughter to remain vulnerable to the potentially devastating effects of invasive Haemophilus influenzae or diphtheria?
If enough parents refuse to have their children vaccinated, the herd immunity that protects the nation as a whole will wane. There were a record number of measles cases in 2014, the majority in people who were unvaccinated. Does anyone want to share the experience of the Spanish parents whose unvaccinated son died of diphtheria in 2015, after that country had been free of the disease since 1986?
Of course not. But vaccine-preventable illnesses will only stay at bay if parents are appropriately reassured that the means of preventing them are safe and effective.
Will that be the conclusion of a Trump-created, Kennedy-led commission? I have absolutely no confidence that it will be. The mere creation of the commission, meant to investigate a question that has already been asked and answered many times over, is ominous, even aside from the anti-vaccine agenda both men unmistakably share. Given Trump’s disdain for facts that inconveniently conflict with his opinions, to believe the commission will land on the side of vaccination requires an optimism bordering on the deranged.
Instead, what is likely to happen is that confidence in one of the greatest benefits to public health in human history will be further eroded. Its findings will certainly be as unfounded, perhaps fraudulent, as the anti-vaccine efforts that have come before it. But this time they will bear the seal of the President of the United States.
Daniel Summers is a pediatrician in New England.
Read more:
Scientists race to develop Zika vaccine: Health of a generation of babies depends on it
Cancer doctors leading campaign to boost HPV vaccine
Parents are insisting on doctors who insist on vaccinations
Seven things about vaccines and autism that the movie 'Vaxxed' won't tell youThe European Union's antitrust regulator on Tuesday fined Alphabet's Google a record EUR2.42 billion ($2.71 billion) for favoring its own comparison-shopping service in search results and ordered the search giant to apply the same methods to rivals as its own when displaying their services.
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The decision, which comes after seven years of legal wrangling and can be appealed to EU courts, could force Google to reshape the way it presents search results for products in Europe. It could also lead Google to make broader changes because it sets precedent for other search services, such as travel and maps, which the EU is also scrutinizing.
"Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors," said EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager. "What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules."
Google general counsel Kent Walker said the company will review the decision and consider an appeal, adding that "we respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today."
In its decision, the EU detailed what it said were years of abuses, including demoting the results of rivals and artificially promoting its own shopping service above all other results. Those changes led to what the EU said was a 45-fold traffic increase in the U.K. and a 35-fold increase in Germany, with drops of traffic to rivals of 85% in the U.K. and 92% in Germany.
In response, the EU more than doubled what had been the bloc's previous record penalty for a company allegedly abusing its market position-- a EUR1.06 billion fine on Intel in 2009.
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The EU also ordered Google to treat rival comparison-shopping services equally in its search results. Google has 90 days to end the conduct and explain how it will implement the decision, or face additional penalties of up to 5% of average daily global revenue, the EU said.
The big fine and broad remedy order mark a major escalation in Brussels' fight over whether the Mountain View, Calif., company has used its dominance in markets stretching from online ads to mobile-phone software as a cudgel to promote its own services at the expense of competitors.
Tuesday's decision is the first of three separate advanced investigations by the commission into Google's practices. The EU is continuing to probe Google over its Android mobile operating system and its Adsense advertising service.
The first decision now opens a new chapter in the drama that will likely play out in EU courts for years to come. At the heart of that litigation will be whether the EU can make stick its the novel case that a dominant firm cannot favor its own services above those of competitors--something that could end up affecting other big tech firms as well.
The EU's move highlights divergence with U.S. regulators in their approach to Google. The Federal Trade Commission closed its own probe into Google's search practices in 2013 after the company agreed to voluntary changes, though some firms have been lobbying U.S. regulators to pick the case back up.
Tuesday's decision will also likely renew complaints from U.S. firms that they are being unfairly targeted in the EU, something European officials strenuously deny. U.S. companies are under scrutiny in Europe for their tax affairs, as well as for their privacy practices, leading to decisions against firms like Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. Google, for instance, this week faces a hearing in France over that country's order to apply the EU's "right to be forgotten" from search engines globally--not just for searches in the EU.
Initially, Google and the EU attempted to settle the antitrust case without lengthy litigation of formal charges. Google proposed three separate sets of remedies over more than four years, going so far as to redesign some of its search-results pages. But in the end, under intense political pressure from Germany and France, the EU's executive arm rejected those settlement offers as insufficient, and issued formal charges that could lead to legally binding changes to how it and other companies operate.
The possibility of a prolonged antitrust battle in some ways resembles--and is the outgrowth of--the fight a decade ago between the EU and Microsoft. The software maker eventually was fined a total of EUR2.2 billion in decisions that accused Microsoft of abusing the power of its Windows operating system. Then Microsoft turned around and lobbied the EU heavily to open some of its initial investigations into Google, which was then ascendant.
But the two companies--each with new CEOs--last year agreed to bury the hatchet, after Microsoft withdrew from some of the main groups of complainants against Google.
News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has also formally complained to the EU about Google but over the company's handling of news articles on its search service, not the shopping service.
Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com and Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.comA painless “microneedle” that mimics the way a female mosquito sucks blood has been built by engineers in India and Japan. The needle could be used to draw blood, inject drugs, and as a glucose-level monitor for diabetics.
A female mosquito sucks blood by flexing and relaxing certain muscles in its proboscis. This creates suction (or negative pressure) that draws blood into its mouthparts.
The new biocompatible microneedle, designed by Suman Chakraborty of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur and Kazuyoshi Tsuchiya of Tokai University in Kanagawa is based on the same principle.
In this case, the sucking action is provided by a microelectromechanical pump, which works using a piezoelectric actuator attached to the needle.
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Contrary to popular belief, a mosquito bite does not hurt. It is the anticoagulant saliva that the creature injects to stop your blood clotting that causes inflammation and pain.
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The new needle has an inner diameter of around 25 microns and an external diameter of 60 microns, which is about the same size as a mosquito’s mouthpart. Its size and the fact that it works by suction, makes it painless. To compare, a conventional syringe needle has an outer diameter of around 900 microns.
In contrast to previous microneedles, which were made of silicon dioxide, the new device is robust because it is made of stronger titanium and related alloys, which dramatically reduces the risk of it snapping during injections.
The needle is also strong enough to penetrate as far as 3 millimetres into skin and reach capillary blood vessels.
Its size compared to earlier models also means that surface tension effects are exploited further, and the same capillary flow that draws water up into trees helps draw blood into the microneedle.
The researchers have calculated that their needle can extract 5 microlitres of blood per second. This volume is sufficient for measuring blood-sugar levels in diabetics using a glucose sensor that can be attached to the needle in a “wristwatch” design.
Production challenges
The design uses a shape-memory alloy to drive the needle into skin and a micro-pump for delivering drugs. The latter could be used to inject insulin (or other drugs) into the patient when required.
“The working principle of this device follows on from our discovery that in a well-designed microneedle, surface tension forces may overcome resistance from friction and draw up blood with unprecedented efficiency,” Chakraborty told New Scientist.
Chakraborty and Tsuchiya hope to commercialise their needle, but there are still some challenges to overcome, including cost, scaling up the fabrication method, and making it more user-friendly.
“This new blood extraction is interesting, but I question its ability to be fabricated and initialised en masse,” said Geoffrey Thomas of the University of Calgary, Canada, who is working on a similar blood glucose sampling and analysis project.
Journal reference: Journal of Applied Physics (DOI: 10.1063/1.2936856)Perhaps no other political figure since American President Theodore Roosevelt has been more visible in experiencing the outdoors than Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. His time in the field has been witnessed, admired and, yes, even criticized the world over, thanks to a wealth of media exposure. His adventures, ranging from fishing to horseback riding to "hunting" animals with a tranquilizer rifle for scientific research, are lead stories in many news markets. For the first time ever, Prime Minister Putin talks about his deeply held love for the outdoors in an exclusive interview with Outdoor Life. Outdoor Life: A great deal of your popularity, both in Russia and in the United States, stems from your involvement in and enjoyment of the outdoors. At what point in your life did you first become interested in the outdoors? And how has your affection and appreciation for the outdoors grown since then? Vladimir Putin: I know there are a lot of enthusiasts in the United States who share my love for the outdoors, but I hope it's not the only thing that attracts their attention. What is important for me is how people evaluate my work and whether Russia's international policy is clear and understandable to them. With respect to your question, I would say that my fondness for the outdoors, like that of many other people, has its roots in my youth and, particularly, in the books I've read. I have always loved and avidly read the novels of Jack London, Jules Verne and Ernest Hemingway. The characters depicted in their books, who are brave and resourceful people embarking on exciting adventures, definitely shaped my inner self and nourished my love for the outdoors. Besides, youth summer camps have long been popular both in Russia and in the United States. Young folk who go there simply cannot stay away from their community's life, which abounds with numerous sports events, outdoor games and competitions. In fact, if a person has been happy enough to meet a good tutor during his early years, he or she will keep a lifelong habit of spending his or her time in an effective and useful manner. In this respect, I was lucky enough. I had an interesting childhood strongly connected with sports. I also had very good teachers. Probably thanks to this fact, I have not changed my attitude toward outdoor activities. Maybe it has become even more profound and deliberate. I increasingly appreciate what I have achieved because of sports. In other words, a habit for a healthy lifestyle and an opportunity to be outdoors. I would also like to add that recently my passion for adventures, journeys and outdoor activities has got a new dimension. In 2009, our oldest non-governmental organization, the Russian Geographical Society (RGS), suggested that I should head its Tutorial Council, and, of course, I agreed. I might now start describing the RGS's longstanding and really legendary history, its great contribution to developing new lands, including the Arctic, the Far North, Siberia and the Far East, as well as to studying ethnography, geography and a range of other scientific disciplines, and developing Russia's environmental activities and statistics. However, it would take this Outdoor Life issue and a few ones to follow. Moreover, you may find everything connected with the RGS on its website (rgo.ru). I will only define its key objectives. The majority of them are geared to raising public interest in accurately exploring national geography and our historical and cultural heritage, involving our citizens in environmental activities and stimulating scientific work. The very mission of the RGS reaches out to my heart, namely to inspire people to love Russia. This phrase contains a desire to open up Russia's beauty, diversity and identity to our society and to the whole world, to present its authentic image. And I am happy to get an opportunity to take a personal part in the RGS's work and help to realize its outstanding and substantive projects.
OL: Perhaps one of the reasons you are popular with American outdoors enthusiasts is that you seem not to be concerned with "political correctness." For example, it is highly unlikely that President Obama (or any past president) would ever allow himself to be photographed holding a scoped hunting rifle or with his shirt off, holding a fish he just caught, for fear it would offend some people. Do you think the Russian people are more open-minded about sports such as hunting and fishing, or have Americans just become hypersensitive? VP: I think this question should rather be addressed to a professional psychoanalyst. I am not ready to assess transformations in Americans' sensitivity and, more than that, I do not think it would be right to ascribe certain characteristics to representatives of one or another ethnic group. The area where a person lives, the prevailing social and economic conditions and cultural traditions surely leave an imprint on his or her personality but, still, I have met quite a few Americans who could easily be taken for Russians if they did not speak English. In general, we have a rather similar mentality. In any case, we are not snobs. My "popularity," as you call it, with American outdoors enthusiasts is just another proof of that similarity of our views and perceptions. You say that you cannot imagine the U.S. President even allowing himself to be photographed while hunting, or with his shirt off. But I can because I remember pictures of Theodore Roosevelt taken not just with a hunting rifle or a fishing rod in his hands, but with a lion he killed. And indeed, as recently as last summer, President Barack Obama was bathing in the Pacific Ocean in front of TV and photo cameras, and he was not wearing a tie, to put it mildly. Does this look like politically incorrect behavior? Not to me, and my ethnic origin has nothing to do with that. It is certainly very important, particularly for the Head of State, to carry oneself in such a way as not to offend or humiliate people's feelings, in word or deed; however, the society is so rich in various--sometimes mutually exclusive--customs, hobbies and forms of self-expression that it is merely impossible to measure one's actions against each of them every now and then. We cannot reduce everything to absurdity, but we should not show off in this context, displaying ostentatious commitment to the so-called "standards of decency." We need to identify and maintain essential, basic things. I would like to say a few words on political correctness on the whole, and on tolerance, representing the crucial values of modern civilization; on the topics that have no direct bearing either to hunting or fishing, but belong to basic moral and ethical foundations of our existence. I have observed more than once that in some countries, including the United States, people who call themselves Christians feel shy, resentful or afraid of showing their commitment to Christian traditions and rituals in public. In fact, they do nothing that could offend other confessions--provided, of course, that they treat those confessions with genuine respect and consider them to be of equal value with the Christian faith; all the more so since ethical values that lie at the basis of all religions of the world are essentially the same. Here the feeling of superiority is unacceptable, even destructive, and we all see it very well. I rank strict observance of political correctness principles in religious matters among those very essential foundations of human behavior. Returning to the topic of hunting and fishing, I would like to say that these activities are natural for man, being an integral part of our ancestors' life. In many countries of the world--in Great Britain, for instance--hunting remains one of the vivid national traditions. On the other hand, here, as well as in every sphere concerned with nature, man should feel a special responsibility and clearly realize what his actions will lead to. I come out strongly against uncontrolled mass killing of animals and irresponsible fishing. There should be a limit in all things. In the old days, people used to hunt in order to survive, killing just as much as was necessary. Today, when hunting and fishing are more like a tribute to traditions, a sort of hobby, enthusiasts of these outdoor activities should guide themselves by the "Do No Harm" principle. OL: You recently met with other global leaders for a "Tiger Summit," where you pledged to double the tiger population in Asia. What do you think will be the most difficult hurdle in achieving this goal? VP: Most difficult hurdles indeed exist--in those countries, for instance, where the tiger habitat is shrinking due to the intensification of economic activity. Of course, it can be artificially curbed, but who will compensate for the lost profits, the consequences of the economic and, as a result, social slowdown? It is not always an easy task to decide what is more important--the well-being of people or that of nature, and this is the matter of achieving a very subtle and fragile balance. And of responsibility as well, and not merely for what is happening in your native country. Tigers are a very good example. They, as well as all the wild animals, recognize no boundaries, and our Amur tigers move freely in the territory of China and enter the Korean peninsula. You should agree that in such a context, no measures taken in an individual country to protect them will be efficient. This is why I consider the St. Petersburg Tiger Summit and its resulting documents a real breakthrough in international nature conservation. This was the first time in history that the conservation of a certain animal species was discussed on such a large-scale and high level. Yet, we were all well aware of the fact that the |
oon, who addressed the conference on the same day, to condemn the selection of the Tehran regime.
Although the U.N. conference website and summary fail to name the 15 members elected to the bureau on July 3rd, UN Watch has discovered that the countries elected to the five regional groups include Iran, Japan, and South Korea for the Asian group; Kenya, Egypt and Nigeria for Africa; Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Ukraine for Eastern Europe; Australia, Netherlands and Switzerland for the Western Europe & Others Group; and Mexico and two others for Latin America. (See U.N. webcast here, announcing election of Iran at minute 4:45.)
The United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, which opened last week and runs until July 27, promises to deliver a new agreement to regulate the transfer of arms.
“Right after a UN Security Council report found Iran guilty of illegally transferring guns and bombs to Syria, which is now murdering thousands of its own people, it defies logic, morality and common sense for the UN to now elect this same regime to a global post regulating the transfer of guns and bombs,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a non-governmental monitoring group based in Geneva.
“This is like choosing Bernie Madoff to police fraud on the stock market. And the U.N.’s scandalous choice of Iran is exactly why we fear that Syria’s declared bid for a U.N. Human Rights Council seat is not impossible.”
UN Watch called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who addressed the conference on the same day as the election, to condemn the decision to give Iran a position of responsibility in regulating the arms trade.
“He should remind the conference that the Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt its probited nuclear program, and that Iran continues to defy the international community through illegal arms shipments to the murderous Assad regime,” said Neuer.
“Syria continues to be the central party to illicit Iranian arms transfers,” the Security Council report recently found, citing the discovery of Iranian shipments to Damascus of assault rifles, machineguns, explosives, detonators, 60mm and 120mm mortal shells and other items.
Neuer expressed concern that the UN’s election of Iran “injects ambiguity about the U.N.’s position on illicit Iranian arms transfers, fuels Iranian propaganda, and grants international legitimacy to a regime that tortures student activists, hangs gays and subjugates women.”
Iran is already boasting about the UN election in its state-controlled media.
IRNA announced that Iran was elected “as deputy for the talks to regulate global arms trade treaty. Some 193 participating countries unanimously voted in favor of Iran during the 4th day of the meeting.” ISNA also ran the report. The Tehran Times declared that Iran “is assisting the president of the Arms Trade Treaty Conference in the general conduct of the business of the conference.”Let's turn to the lighter side of the news. No animals were harmed in the making of this film...
The popular film trilogy, The Matrix, presented a cyberuniverse where humans live in a simulated reality created by sentient machines. Now, a philosopher and team of physicists imagine that we might really be living inside a computer-generated universe that you could call The Lattice. What's more, we may be able to detect it. In 2003, British philosopher Nick Bostrom published a paper that proposed the universe we live in might in fact really be a numerical computer simulation. To give this a bizarre Twilight Zone twist, he suggested that our far-evolved distant descendants might construct such a program to simulate the past and recreate how their remote ancestors lived. He felt that such an experiment was inevitable for a supercivilization. If it didn't happen by now, that meant humanity never evolved that far and we're doomed to a short lifespan as a species, he argued. To extrapolate further, I'd suggest that artificial intelligent entities descended from us would be curious about looking back in time by simulating the universe of their biological ancestors.
There is of course a strictly theological view of "reality" which has exactly the same form as Bostrom's argument. On that view, God (the sim programmer) put fossils in the rocks to fool us into thinking that life evolved over the 4.56 billion years of the Earth's existence, and hominins evolved in the last 6-7 million of those years. (Homo sapiens is last remaining hominin species.) The Gnostic variant of this argument says that Satan put those fossils in the rocks, for it is the Prince of Darkness who actually runs this world—I find this last part plausible
There is a name for some variants of this theological argument—it is called Intelligent Design.
Back to Discovery Magazine—
As off-the-wall as this sounds, a team of physicists at the University of Washington (UW) recently announced that there is a potential test to seen if we actually live in The Lattice. Ironically, it would be the first such observation for scientifically hypothesized evidence of intelligent design behind the cosmos. The UW team [also] propose that super-intelligent entities, bored with their current universe, do numerical simulations to explore all possibilities in the landscape of the underlying quantum vacuum (from which the big bang percolated) through universe simulations. "This is perhaps the most profound quest that can be undertaken by a sentient being," write the authors.
It is perhaps unnecessary and embarassing for me to point out some additional confusion amongst all this serious confusion, but here we go—
Before you dismiss this idea as completely loony, the reality of such a Sim Universe might solve a lot of eerie mysteries about the cosmos. About two-dozen of the universe's fundamental constants happen to fall within the narrow range thought to be compatible with life. At first glance it seems as unlikely as balancing a pencil on its tip. Jiggle these parameters and life as we know it would have never appeared. Not even stars and galaxies. This is called the Anthropic Principle. The discovery of dark energy over a decade ago further compounds the universe’s strangeness. This sort of “antigravity” pushing space-time apart is the closest thing there is to nothing and still is something. This energy from the vacuum of space is 60 orders of magnitude weaker that what would be predicted by quantum physics.The eminent cosmologist Michael Turner ranks dark energy as "the most profound mystery in all of science."
The (weak, valid) form of the Anthropic Principle simply states that we can only observe a Universe which is compatible with the existence of those who observe it. In other words, we could not observe a Universe which precludes our existence! As for dark energy, it does not follow that we need exotic explanations (like computer simulations from our super-evolved descendants) to explain things about the Universe we do not currently understand.
Finally, an artificial universe solves the Fermi Paradox (where are all the space aliens?) by implying that we truly are alone in the universe. It was custom made for us by our far-future progeny. Biblical creationists can no doubt embrace these seeming cosmic coincidences as unequivocal evidence for their "theory" of Intelligent Design (ID). But is our "God" really a computer programmer rather than a bearded old man living in the sky? [My note: I wrote about the Fermi Paradox in Are We Alone In The Milky Way? ]
Humans apparently need a "God" in all cases, whether he is imagined to be a computer programmer or a bearded old man living in the sky. That's the bottom line, and things get even more complicated than that.
Bostrom imagined a hierarchy of deities, "In some ways, the post-humans running a simulation are like gods. However, all the demigods except those at the fundamental level of reality are subject to sanctions by the more powerful gods living at lower levels."
Well, OK, let's assume we're living in a computer simulation. In that case, I give you Dave's Plea for Mercy—
To Whom it may concern, Please don't pull the plug! Thank You! But may I suggest a few small modifications to the current simulation program? I humbly submit that You might consider these changes, including but not limited to the following, regarding Your Homo sapiens subroutine— make it such that they don't kill or physically harm each other anymore
make it such that they no longer want to fuck each other over all the time
give them a low threshold of gratification
make it such that they don't kill off other species and destroy their natural habitat, including the oceans, the climate, wetlands, tropical forests and so on
make it such that they're not so damned crazy and confused all the time
give them the gifts of Reason and Self-Knowledge, tempered with Compassion
make them humble, such that they always take a realistic view of themselves
get rid of those irksome Animal Instincts that cause them to grow like bacteria in a Petri dish
If You would consider these small but not insignificant changes, and some others I might submit in the future, I would be eternally grateful.
Yours in simulation software,Falls Church Police are asking for help from the public in finding the man who opened fire outside a popular concert venue early Monday morning.
On Sunday night The State Theatre was hosting a show featuring the rapper Scarface and the go-go band Northeast Groovers, ironically advertised on Facebook as a show of "love, peace, and unity." At the end of the show a fight broke out inside the theatre, then spilled into the street where about 100 people were in the crowd.
Police say one man fired 15-20 shots into the crowd, with 2 officers there trying to contain the chaos.
One man was shot in the shoulder and transported to Inova Fairfax with non-life threatening injuries. Two other men drove themselves to a hospital in Frederick, Maryland where they reported being shot during the fight. Their injuries also non-life threatening.
Falls Church Police Chief Mary Gavin says investigators are struggling to get information, "Well the witnesses haven't given a lot of detail. It makes it hard to follow up leads when you don't have many." Police are asking anyone with information to please come forward and call 703-248-5053.
Representatives from the State Theatre had no comment following the incident.OKLAHOMA CITY – Seven years ago, Lindsey Andrews and her husband went to Ethiopia to adopt two children. While there, they met a little boy who took them to a dirty river, telling the couple along the way about how everyday he makes this trek to get water for him and his family.
“There were cows in it, women were washing clothes in it…it looked like Lake Thunderbird after a really hard rain. It was disgusting,” Andrews said. “We came home and took the kids to visit my sister in Phoenix and they were all having so much fun, splashing around in this swimming pool and I looked at my husband and I said the boy from Ethiopia has never seen this much water that is clear and here we are, letting our kids play in it. So I sat down that afternoon and wrote I Walk for Water.”
Written by Andrews and illustrated by local artist Jerry Bennett, the initial self-published print-run of I Walk for Water sold out immediately, gaining popularity in many homes, schools and churches, with the demand calling for another print-run that Andrews is said due “pretty soon.”
“The thing I love about writing for kids is that if you give them a problem, they will give you a solution,” Andrew said. “They’re not going to give you an excuse, or tell you about the bureaucracy behind it; if you tell them there’s a little kid across the world that needs clean water, they’ll ask how do we fix that.”
The book has inspired many children across America to become clean water activists, most recently via a girl in Missouri who started an annual “water-walk,” which has so far built five separate water wells in three separate continents. According to Andrews, it was “amazing” to watch it all happen.
Andrews and Bennett are planning two more books in the series, including I Walk for Freedom, detailing a Syrian refugee’s journey from Aleppo to Paris, and I Walk for Chocolate, about where chocolate comes from, how it is produced and why, even as a child, we should be looking for the “Fair Trade” symbol.
Jerry Bennett
“I feel like there are a lot of really good conversations happening among adults about global issues, but no one is really talking to their kids about them,” Andrews said. “Kids raise money from lemonade stands and Girl Scout cookies, so I feel like kids just have a heart for being kind to one another and understand having a purpose. I feel that these books help them find that purpose in a way that is not only educational, but also gives them a real sense of empowerment.”
To contribute to the I Walk For… series Kickstarter, click here.People love to pamper their pets, but back in the Victorian era, London’s felines received daily, hand-delivered skewers or packages of meat from a peddler known as the “cat’s meat man.”
Writer and editor Carrie Frye recently wrote about this long-gone profession in her newsletter, Black Cardigan. She discovered the profession after reading about Harriet Hardiman, a cat’s meat (wo)man, who lived at 29 Hanbury Street, the location where Jack the Ripper's second victim, Annie Chapman, was found in 1888. While Chapman had no prior connection to the address, everyone there was questioned, including the woman whose job it was to deliver meat to cats.
A cat’s meat man sold chopped meat (usually horse scraps from local slaughterhouses) to cat owners—as Frye writes, “meat for cats, not of cats.” They had regular routes and clients, just like a milkman, and were a fixture of London street life: hundreds, if not thousands of vendors serviced London’s estimated 300,000 cats.
If this description from 1880’s Harper's Young People is any indication, it was a dream job:
“Everywhere the cats and kittens are anxiously waiting and watching for him, and sometimes they run out and meet him at the corners half a block or more away from their homes. Often when he is feeding the cats on one side of the street, those living on the other side run across, and rubbing against his legs, mewing and purring, seem to beg him to hurry and get over to their side … The cats all know and love him, and are generally expecting him; but if he opens the door of a store where one of his cats lives, and she is not to be seen, he calls "Pss-pss-pss," and the kitty comes racing down stairs, or from some distant corner, so fast that she nearly tumbles head over heels in her hurry to get at her breakfast.”
We wouldn't mind bringing this lost profession back—and performing it ourselves. For more (including what Charles Dickens has to do with all of this), check out Frye’s post and subscribe to her newsletter, Black Cardigan, here.As previously announced, developers NetherRealm and High Voltage Software rolled out a substantial patch for the Windows PC version of Mortal Kombat X today. While the patch promised "huge improvements" for the PC version, bringing it to parity with its console counterparts, it also came with a major bug.
Shortly after rolling out the patch through Steam, players reported that the new update was deleting their save data. Players found that unlocked characters were no longer available and all of their progress in the game's Krypt, a dungeon crawler-like game stuffed with unlockables, had been reset.
Publisher Warner Bros. has since pulled the patch from Steam and said it's investigating the issue.
"We are temporarily removing the patch until we can pinpoint the cause of save data loss," an update posted to Steam reads. "We are actively working on this and will keep everyone posted as we work towards a fix. We sincerely apologize for this disruption."
The update for Mortal Kombat X included a long list of changes, tweaks and improvements, including fixes for a number of crashes and performance issues related to the PC version. NetherRealm said earlier this week that it's working to improve the game's online networking code and address player concerns.
Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon appeared on NetherRealm's livestream yesterday, saying, "We are slaving to try to get [the game] as good playing as possible. There's no way we consider ourselves content with where we are as far as the online experience."
For more on Mortal Kombat X, check out Polygon's review.Three hours south of Los Angeles, nestled inside 600,000 acres of protected land, sits the tiny community of Borrego Springs.
With a population of just over 3,000 people, the town has no need for stoplights. Its downtown consists of just a few shops, one pizza parlor, a Mexican restaurant, and a small convenience store. The community prides itself on its protection of the surrounding natural environment, which includes Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the second-largest contiguous state park in the United States.
In fact, the people of Borrego Springs hold the environment in such high regard that the use of lights after dark is restricted, including a rule stating no outdoor light can point upward, to keep the dazzling view of the night sky intact. This rule helped the town become only the second community in the world to be awarded the prestigious Dark Sky Community designation by the International Dark Sky Association.
While the community may be a small, dusty desert blip on the map, travelers from all over are making the journey to visit for one spectacular and wildly rare show put on by Mother Nature.
“They are blooming everywhere right now. There are some great displays already,” Kathy Dice, Superintendent of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park said of the once-in-a-decade Borrego Springs desert flower super bloom. “Anybody who parks their cars and walks around is going to see all kinds of interesting flowers.”
Thanks to an unusually rainy year in California, the park and town is experiencing its first super bloom since 2008.
“I think the morning is prime time,” Dice, who has lived and worked in Borrego Springs for 30 years, advises visitors.
We arrived just as the sun was rising over the hills of the state park, and just as the flowers opened their petals to soak up the 90-degree sun. If you don’t see the flowers at first you’ll certainly be able to smell them out. By dawn the entire community is glazed over with the sweet scent of wildflowers.
Flower hunters should beware that the field outside the state park’s visitor center isn’t the only place where the magic happens. Get adventurous and drive a few miles away to Coyote Canyon and be rewarded with a less crowded space and more diverse blooms including Desert Lilies, Brown-Eyed Primrose, Little Gold Poppies, and fields packed with Desert Sunflowers.
“What we’re known for really, we have a large variety, 100 different types of flowers. It’s very colorful,” Dice said.
If you want to see the desert in full bloom you’d better act fast. “The length of bloom depends on weather, and of course the hungry caterpillars that are now hatching,” Dice explained, adding that these little creatures “can change a field in a day.”
But if you can’t make it for the bloom, which will likely only last another week or two, it’s still worth the drive as the next phase is the cacti bloom. Bright fuchsia-pink flowers are preparing to dot the tops of the Beavertail Cactus, while yellow and red flowers will soon sit like eggs in a nest atop the Barrel Cactus.
“The color continues, it just continues in different forms,” Dice said. “Every year, for me, it’s a discovery. This year, you’re going to trip over flowers.”CHAPTER SIXTEEN
DANNY’S ORDEAL The following video is based upon chapters 16 & 17 of this analysis, though both the video and article equivalents
contain their own pieces of unique information. The text version is slightly more in-depth as well. One of the most frequent questions I’ve received about The Shining is “What does the guy in the bear costume mean?” The popular interpretation is that the scene is a throwback to a subplot of Stephen King’s book, in which a party guest in a dog costume has a homosexual relationship with one of the hotel’s former owners. For a detailed description of this subplot follow this link. The first thing to note is that in the film the guy is dressed in a bear costume instead of a dog costume. A shift from dog to bear costume doesn’t have any significant effect on the aesthetic scariness of the scene so there must have been some sort of logic at work in Kubrick’s decision. The second obvious factor is that Kubrick has omitted the entire back story associated to the dog costumed man in the book, leaving his audience at a complete loss as to the scene’s meaning. In researching the film I have found three thematic interpretations of the bear man scene and I believe Kubrick intended all three of these metaphors as part of the subliminal narrative. This chapter will cover the first of those themes. There are actually several other references in the film to bears. The easiest one to notice is in the scene of Danny talking to the psychiatrist. In the close up of Danny we see that his pillow has a teddy bear face on it. Look carefully at this teddy pillow. Its eyes are similar in design to the floor dials of the gaping mouth elevator, which we’ve already identified as symbolic eyes, and the teddy’s mouth is bright red, which again is similar to the gaping mouth doors of the elevator. Another connection is that both of these bear motifs are featured in relation to beds or bedrooms. Now I won’t beat around the bush by building up to my interpretation of this theme. Some readers will probably disapprove or take offence at what I’m about to say regardless of how I explain it, so I’ll just say it outright. Danny has been sexually abused by Jack. Here is a piece of evidence which on its own acts as virtual confirmation of this theme. When Ullman and Bill Watson approach Jack in the lobby on Closing Day, Jack is reading a January 1978 issue of Playgirl Magazine. First of all there’s the obvious homosexual innuendo, but the story titles featured on this particular issue include the following: INTERVIEW: THE SELLING OF (STARSKY & HUTCH’S) DAVID SOUL INCEST: Why parents sleep with their children. HOW TO AVOID A DEAD END AFFAIR. Of course the caption relating to incest is the one that’s relevant to this chapter, while the Starsky & Hutch caption may be a reference to Jack giving his soul for a drink and the affair caption could be related to Jack’s encounter with the woman in room 237. Notice how Ullman even points his finger at the magazine as if informing us of its significance. Returning to the comparisons between the bear costumed man scene and Danny talking to the psychiatrist, sexuality is subtly referenced in both scenes. The bear man appears to be giving felatio to the man on the bed, just as the dog man in the book was carrying out a sexual submission role with his partner. The open patch on the bear man’s behind in the film simply adds to the sexual emphasis. In the psychiatrist scene Danny lays on the bed with his jeans removed and his hands curiously covering his groin area, just as Jack did in the fatherly love scene. The dialogue of the scene is full of innuendos about abuse. Danny: "Tony is a little boy that lives in my mouth." Doctor: "If you were to open your mouth could I see Tony?" Danny: "No." Doctor: "Why not?" Danny: "Because he hides." Doctor: "Where does he go?" Danny: "To my stomach." Doctor: "Does Tony ever ask you to do things?" Danny: "I don’t wanna talk about Tony any more." Another bear reference is found in Danny’s bedroom at the Overlook. Ullman shows the Torrance’s their apartment and Jack, not Wendy, steps forward and peaks into the child’s room. Directly above Danny’s bed is a framed picture of two bears, one standing and one sitting. The bears are only discernible in the HD version. Of all the places in the film that a picture of bears could appear this one is right above Danny’s bed and there are no other framed bear pictures in the film. It’s also possible that the framing of the bear picture is a parallel of the felatio bear being seen within a door frame. And the parallels continue. Our partial view of the felatio bear, before he leans back from the bed, matches our partial view of Danny brushing his teeth before his first Shining vision. Is this implying that Jack forced his son to perform felatio in the fatherly love scene? This concept is further paralleled in our first view of Danny’s bedroom in the Overlook. Next to the bed is a mirror above a sink and in front of the sink is a stool for the child to stand on, just as he was stood on a stool when brushing his teeth. We identified in previous chapters that Jack strangled Danny in the fatherly love scene and with these new details it would seem that he also sexually abused his son during this event. Jack’s manifestation as a rotten, naked old woman in the room 237 dream sequence parallels the horrific physical disgust Danny would have felt during his nightmarish ordeal. It’s now even more clear why Kubrick chose such a sombre piece of music for the fatherly love scene. Here’s another parallel. Danny (manifested as his own father in room 237) embraces the naked woman and sees the horror of his predicament in a mirror. Jack embraced Danny on the bed in the fatherly love scene, from which Danny would have also been able to see his own predicament in a mirror. This is the same mirror in which Wendy hugs Danny before seeing the REDRUM graffiti on the bathroom door. Not only that, but Wendy is wearing Jack’s blue robe. There are lots of parallels going on here. There is also an odd Mickey Mouse parallel. Mickey and Minnie Mouse stickers are shown on Danny’s bedroom door as he brushes his teeth and in the fatherly love scene he wears a Mickey Mouse sweater. Many people have asked me about the significance of the number 42 on Danny’s T-shirt in the tooth brushing / shining scene. I don’t go for number interpretations generally, but here I’ll make an exception. In the lobby Danny and Wendy watch a film called Summer of ’42, which is about a young man who has an affair with an older woman. This is right before the fatherly love scene. The number 42 was shown on Danny’s shirt as a parallel with the sexual relationship content of the film Summer of ‘42, and Danny is wearing it in the early summer scenes of the film. The particular scene from Summer of ’42 that we see on the lobby television shows the older woman telling the young man to sit down while she makes lunch for him. Wendy parallels this in her last line of dialogue to Danny as he runs to get his fire engine: “Make sure you come right back 'cause I’m gonna make lunch soon”. The film within a film parallel is also hinted at by the television content initially filling up our entire view of the scene before zooming out to reveal Danny and Wendy in the lobby. The complete lack of wires running to the TV, pointed out by of my correspondents, may also be related to the concept of a fractal film. These observations could easily be interpreted as evidence that Wendy has also had an incestuous relationship with Danny, but my guess is the “older woman” relationship refers to the woman in room 237, who we know is simply a dream manifestation of Jack. There seems to be many hints in the film that Wendy is aware of her son’s abuse and is covering up and denying the issue. Her gullible belief of Danny’s room 237 story is plain silly. When the psychiatrist asks Danny “Who's Tony” Wendy, stood defensively with her arms folded, quickly interjects, “Tony’s his imaginary friend”, as if trying to gloss over the issue. Her relationship with Jack seems to be totally lacking in intimacy. Add to that the fact that he reads Playgirl magazine. And another strange aspect is that there are lots of pornographic pictures of women on the billboard in the basement (see HD version of the film). How did these pictures get there if Wendy does all the menial chores. Is she a lesbian? Did Jack put them there? Some details supporting the latter is that Jack leers at other women several times in the film. There’s the woman in room 237 obviously, but there’s also a woman walking down a flight of stairs in the lobby who he briefly stares at and there’s the two women who say goodbye to Ullman outside the Torrance apartment – Jack is last to enter the apartment and sneaks a sly peak at them. Another important detail is that Jack doesn’t wear a wedding ring at all in the film, not even when he and his family are driving to the hotel, but Wendy always wears hers. Hasn’t she ever challenged him on this? He doesn’t want to spend any time with her, he refuses to take her for a walk after breakfast, he bars her from entering the Colorado Lounge where he hangs out and he stays up all night while she's in bed and sleeps alone in the day. It’s not much of a marriage. On the subject of wedding rings, a consistent detail is that none of the males in the film wear one. Jack, Ullman, Bill Watson, Lloyd the bartender – not one wedding ring, and Grady’s hands are gloved so we can’t see whether he is wearing a ring or not. It seems that commitment to family is a problem for all of these males. The sexual abuse theme is even communicated in the “making of” documentary. Kubrick was renowned for not allowing visitors during a shoot, but in the documentary we see James Mason and his family visiting the Torrance apartment set. Vivian Kubrick explains in the commentary that James Mason was acting in a local theatre, and so Kubrick gave him an invitation. In particular, we see Jack Nicholson and James Mason having a personal chat, while the rest of Mason’s family meet Kubrick himself. Why did Kubrick break his code of on-set secrecy and why did he show this meeting in the documentary? It’s actually quite simple. He was creating a parallel between Jack Torrance and the main character of Kubrick’s earlier film Lolita. In Lolita, Mason played Humbert Humbert, a man who has a sexual relationship with his underage stepdaughter. Sound familiar? Let’s compare the two characters in more detail. Both Jack and Humbert are writers. Both of them keep their personal writings hidden from their wives. Both of them secretly despise their wives. And both of them have sexual relations with a minor within their own family unit. Elsewhere in the documentary there is an emphasis on sexual behaviour from Jack. He tells Kubrick’s daughter Vivian, “You look cute in your red shirt”, a soft porn calendar is seen on his bathroom door, he is seen unzipping his pants to pull out a tape recorder and he provocatively unbuttons his shirt to pull out the connecting wires. Kubrick didn’t just show us random footage from the set. He chose each clip for thematic reasons. As well as the incest parallels with the film Lolita, The Shining also carries abuse parallels with another Kubrick film called Barry Lyndon. In Barry Lyndon a commoner, who marries his way into high society, systematically beats his stepson, Lord Bullingdon. Bullingdon bares a striking resemblance to Danny Torrance. Later in the film, the adult Bullingdon is played by Leon Vitali. Vitali became a close career-long collaborator of Kubrick’s and on the set of The Shining he was assigned to work closely with the young actor Danny Lloyd (there are several parallels in The Shining between actor’s first names and the first name’s of character’s – two Jack’s, two Danny’s and two Lloyd’s). We see this relationship between Vitali and Danny when shooting the scene of Danny looking for a hiding space. This parallels the big brotherly relationship in Barry Lyndon between the adult Lord Bullingdon and his younger half brother, who is also a Danny Torrance look-alike. In the HD version, several book and newspaper titles are visible in the psychiatrist scene. One newspaper article is called “Illness as metaphor” and was written by Susan Sontag. This was a controversial essay claiming that the medical professions have a tendency to mistakenly label physical health conditions as manifestations of psychological problems. It’s more than likely that Kubrick placed this article title in the scene to communicate that the psychiatrist’s dismissal of Danny’s health problem is mistaken. She has either overlooked or deliberately ignored the abuse that has cause Danny’s problems. One final detail hinting at Jack's guilt as an abuser of his family is his rotten glance to Danny's bedroom (and the camera) after argueing with Wendy about Danny's injuries. PREVIOUS CHAPTER NEXT CHAPTER CHAPTER LIST MAIN SITE PAGEShare. Plus new concept art revealed. Plus new concept art revealed.
The creative director of Visceral's as-yet-untitled 2018 Star Wars game has dropped a few hints about the project she calls, "an original Star Wars story with new characters, new locations, new tech, new creatures, you name it.”
As part of a panel on EA's Star Wars games, Amy Hennig explained that in studying the Star Wars films, "the first thing that jumped out was that these are always ensemble stories [...] So the same is true of our game."
Exit Theatre Mode
Hennig was understandably hazy on details, but her words seem to hint at a game focused on more than one principal character, whether that's through multiple playables, a squad or otherwise:
"The end goal of a game like [this] is that by the time the player has finished playing the game they feel like they really did play a Star Wars film [...] So part of our deconstruction is to figure out how we enable that not only just in the story and honour it, but do it in gameplay as well. Because your characters - it’s not a lone wolf story, that’s not Star Wars - your characters have to be a coordinated ensemble acting in the moment and in parallel."
Hennig discussed her approach to writing the game in some detail, comparing it to her work on the series she made her name with:
"The process that I’ve been using is really similar to what I did for Uncharted, to be honest. [Crowd cheers] Oh good, they’ll like this game, then."
Exit Theatre Mode
Uncharted voice actor Nolan North has previously said that the game will be in the style of the series Hennig wrote three games for, and the tone she ascribes to Star Wars does sound similar:
"It’s what my writing partner Todd calls 'breezy urgency', the idea that there’s a sort of swashbuckling charm to the thing, there’s humour and buoyancy. At the same time there’s stakes and jeopardy."
The best hints, however, may lie in what we've already seen. Hennig says the small crop of concept images released from the game previously - and some new images shown during the panel - contain more than meets the eye:
"With the few images that we’re allowed to show, we did breadcrumb a lot of clues in there. So I would invite people to scrutinise them, speculate away, because we stuck some stuff in there.”
Scrutinise away - we've popped them below:
Visceral Star Wars Game Concept Art 4 IMAGES Fullscreen Image Artboard 3 Copy Artboard 3 ESC 01 OF 04 Concept art from Visceral's Star Wars project. 01 OF 04 Concept art from Visceral's Star Wars project. Visceral Star Wars Game Concept Art Download Image Captions ESC
Sadly, that seems to be all we'll get until 2017. “We’re probably going to go dark for a little while now," explained Hennig at the end of the panel. "We’re just really excited to really blow everything out and show you guys stuff next year.”
Don't worry, Star Wars Celebration has revealed far more concrete stuff from other corners of the Star Wars universe. Like a new Rogue One teaser. And the Star Wars Rebels Season 3 premiere. And magical Star Wars drones. It's been fun! You should check it all out.
Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor, and all he's got in his head is that this is a Star Wars reskin of Brute Force. He's cool with that. Follow him on Twitter.The house where three members of a familiy and their housekeeper were held captive and then murdered in May sold for $3 million less than one week after it hit the market. The French estate-style home, located on leafy Woodland Drive, Northwest, came under contract Thursday night, the Washington Post reports.
The residence was the scene of the gruesome deaths of businessman Savvas Savopoulos, his wife, Amy, their 10-year-old son, Philip, and their housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa, who were found dead May 14. The house had also been heavily damaged by fire. Officials have also said the family and Figueroa had been held against their wills for a $40,000 ransom. Police later arrested 34-year-old Daron Wint, who at one time worked for one of Savvas Savopoulos’s companies.
The 10,828-square-foot house was listed Sunday night at $3.25 million and was being sold “as-is,” including fire damage that was never repaired. While real-estate agents in the District are only required to disclose whether houses they’re selling have been crime scenes if asked by a potential buyer, the quick sale of the Savopoulos house suggests its status as a “stigmatized property” did not turn off the winning bidder, similar to other Washington houses that have been the sites of grisly homicides.If you don’t typically read my entire analysis, this is the time to read it all. There are many caveats to the below numbers.
Tuesday is effectively the last of the Democratic primaries for 2016 (with the exception of D.C.), and is indeed the last opportunity for the Sanders campaign to close the pledged delegate gap. As we all know, all eyes are on the state of California, which is set to allocate 475 delegates between the two candidates. Bernie Sanders will need a massive majority of these 475 delegates (and, realistically, several large wins elsewhere too) to take the lead before the Democratic convention. Unfortunately for Bernie, my models are not suggesting that a pledged delegate lead is currently possible, despite four projected wins on Tuesday. However, it does look like California will be a very close race, and there is a very real possibility that Sanders could win there after all. Here are my projections:
If you would like to support my work and want me to be able to afford Top Ramen (or maybe even Mellow Mushroom pizza if you all are extraordinarily generous) while I’m working on these statistics, please click this link to donate to Tyler’s Food & Rent Fund!
CALIF |
just stopped being so damn stubborn and owned up to-
Elsa groaned and pressed the button four times, the treadmill suddenly went from its stroll-like level to a brisk jog. Today would be different, today would hurt. It had to hurt. Two minutes passed with Elsa keeping herself from pressing the button again too soon, she had to pace herself at least somewhat. Above all else these runs were supposed to help clear her head and focus only on the here and now. The here…and the now.
She pressed the button three times, hearing a protesting whirr from the machine as the mat cycled faster, she was now running at a pace she only had to reach on the lacrosse field. Her lungs burned, and her heartbeat just barely outpaced the thumping of her feet. This had to be enough to drown out the noise in her head, it had to. And for one solitary moment, it really was; all she focused on was keeping her breath steady and keeping her legs moving towards that theoretical finish line, and all she could hear was her heartbeat growing faster and faster as she herself ran faster and faster with each press of the button.
But that was all she had, a moment, and no matter how many times she pressed that damn button her thoughts kept pace with her until they overtook her. Now all she could do was think as her heartbeat climbed dangerously high and her breath grew more and more ragged.
Elsa was trapped, forced to think about how today would have gone so much better had she just stopped being so damn stubborn and owned up to the fact that she screwed up. She could have taken so many other steps not just today but every day since the festival to be at least a decent person and own up to her faults and think of someone other than herself. But she didn't, because she was a selfish, arrogant disgrace of a person who fired one of her favorite employees and…and forced Hannah to quit.
Why did she have to be like this? Why couldn't she just be the person she was in her interviews? The borderline cheery, overly professional character people saw on TV and magazines? Why did she have to needlessly keep living this stupid double life?
She was out two employees now and who knows what else this mystery person would have her do, and it was all her fault. Everything was her fault, and would always be her fault because she was a terrible excuse for a CEO, an awful mistake of a human being and-
Elsa pressed the emergency stop button on the treadmill. With a low hum the machine immediately halted and the green, glowing numbers 5:32 flashed on the screen. She gripped the handles as if they were the only thing keeping her standing, and hunched over trying desperately to catch her breath. Streams of water dripped down her face, she told herself it was just sweat.
Everything finally clicked, and Anna was finally, sorta, seventy percent sure that this was the same girl that, just a few weeks ago, she had gotten into an argument with right outside of Elsa's office. Anna couldn't help herself, she let out a gasp and exclaimed, "Hey I know you! At least I think I do, you're Elsa's assistant, right?"
Or at least that's what she wanted to say; instead all that escaped her lips was one word: "Elsa!"
Hannah immediately looked at Anna with an expression of shock and for some reason anger, like the name was the most offensive curse word imaginable. "Excuse me?", Hannah said, looking like she wanted to punch her.
"I, uh…sorry, it's just…you work for Elsa, right?", Anna asked, trying to smooth out this second impression.
Hannah continued to stare, no, glare at Anna, who was growing increasingly uncomfortable underneath her piercing brown eyes and the whirring and booming that apparently passed as music. Finally, she broke the glare and scoffed, turning back towards her drink. "Used to, I quit today.", she said as she brought the glass to her lips.
Anna was surprised, but she wasn't sure why. Was it because Hannah didn't look shaken up about it? Or was it because it meant that something big had to have happened in the two weeks since she last saw Elsa? Nonetheless, she still couldn't help but say, "That sucks, I'm sorry to hear that."
"Well don't be.", Hannah replied as she downed her glass. "I had to get out of there at some point, Elsa…she's way too complicated to be around sometimes. What sucks is that now I have to find another place to do the rest of my internship hours, but I'll figure that out later."
Despite herself, Anna let out a short laugh, "Complicated is a bit of an understatement."
Hannah poured more of the whiskey into her glass, still not looking at Anna. "Yeah? You have to do business with her before or something?"
Understandably, Anna wasn't sure how she didn't notice her yet- typically you remember the people you have screaming matches with- but she decided not to press it. Instead she, for some strange reason, replied bluntly, "No actually, we used to date."
And that got Hannah's attention and got her to look at Anna again, this time not with a glare, but with raised eyebrows. A look of curiosity, of intrigue. "Really? Elsa actually dated someone?"
"Well yeah, but it was back in high school and we broke up before the end of senior year."
"Huh, why'd you two broke up?"
Anna didn't know why she was telling her all this, and why she seemed so curious about their past relationship. All she wanted out of this conversation was to break the ice with someone that looked approachable, and these two had at least a tiny bit of history together; plus, talking to her would have been a good way to apologize for yelling at her before.
But she also didn't want to relive the history between her and Elsa again, not this soon. "It's a really long story.", Anna replied dismissively, "I'm not sure if you'd want to hear it."
"Try me.", Hannah said bluntly, pouring herself another drink.
"A-are you sure? I mean, like…it's a really long story, we'll probably be here for like…sixteen hours and I wouldn't even be halfway through with it."
"Try. Me.", Hannah repeated, more of a demand than a suggestion. "Tell you what: You tell me why you and Elsa broke up, and I'll tell you why I quit my job."
"Why…", Anna was about to ask why she would be interested in knowing why Hannah quit her job, but maybe it was probably going to be a good story. Plus it would keep the only person she'd succeeded in talking to from leaving. "Alright fine, I'll tell you."
And so, Anna told her everything, not cutting out a single detail, and you'd think retelling the story for a second time and having to relive it a fourth time would have been draining for her, but it really wasn't. In fact, the longer she went on, noticing the way Hannah had completely stopped drinking and listened intently with her head resting on her hand, the more she realized that finally having a somewhat unbiased perspective on this situation would be good for her.
She continued to talk, and talk, and talk, and before she could stop herself, Anna had moved away from talking about her relationship and breakup with Elsa, and started talking about the bakery and the incident at the festival. This new information elicited a wide-eyed expression from the girl sitting in the other barstool, and once Anna had run out of things left to say, all Hannah could respond with was a "Wow…"
"Yeah…that's our story, or at least the abridged version."
"Man, you must have some serious guts to break up with a woman like Elsa. God knows I could never do it.", Hannah stated.
Anna put on a skeptical look, wanting to ask what Hannah meant but instead all she said was, "I didn't break up with Elsa." Because apparently that was a bigger priority.
"You didn't? Huh, from your story I guess I kinda assumed that you were the one that ended things. So, then Elsa was the one that ended things?"
"Yes. I mean, no. I mean…maybe?"
"That's all three possible answers, yeah, but which one's true?"
To be honest, Anna really didn't know. It was a thought that, up until now, she had never entertained much. Who was the one that ended things between the two? Sure, Elsa was the one that walked out of her room when Anna dropped that bombshell on her, but she didn't do so with a declarative break-up statement. Or maybe walking out of the room was that statement.
But then again, Anna was the one who continued to try and make contact afterwards, and stopped after their freshman year of college. Did that put the blame on her for ending things?
Either way, she didn't want to entertain these thoughts any longer. This wasn't what this night was supposed to be about, new perspective be damned; tonight was supposed to be about meeting new, or relatively new, people and to keep herself from being a lazy, lonely bag of trash at her apartment. She'd still talk about Elsa, sure, but not about their relationship. Not anymore, at least not tonight.
Anna waved her hand and drastically changed the subject, "Too many questions, besides you told me that if I told you about the breakup, then you would spill the beans on why you quit ArenCorp."
Hannah's frown made it known that she didn't appreciate the subject change, but thankfully she didn't drag the conversation back to the messier topic. She instead shrugged and poured herself another drink, "I didn't quit ArenCorp, I just quit on Elsa. Which…I mean yeah technically that would mean quitting her company, which is ArenCorp, but everything about that place was perfect. Everything except for her."
Anna almost made a noise, but kept it to herself and continued to listen.
"I guess…I don't know, I've been working with her for over a year now and I never learned more than the bare minimum about her. And yeah, that's still more than the average worker at ArenCorp, but I was her personal assistant, I spent almost all my time with her. That should account for something, right?", Hannah didn't wait for an answer and continued, "I guess it didn't; I tried putting in some effort to get to know her better, but she just wouldn't have any of it. She made this stupid rule against 'advancing the relationship' and damn if she didn't stick to it like glue. In the year or so we spent together, she barely made any effort to get to know me."
Hannah downed the drink and pushed the bottle and glass away for the time being, with another heavy sigh she added, "She didn't even know when my birthday was…"
Anna found herself pitying this poor girl, because she didn't know the Elsa that Hannah was describing. The Elsa she knew, the one before all this ArenCorp nonsense, was so open about everything and would share anything and everything with her. Granted they were in a romantic relationship rather than a business one, but it still didn't ease the guilt she felt knowing what she had with Elsa, and knowing that Hannah wanted at least a tiny sliver of that.
This also brought a new question to the surface for Anna: What exactly was the relationship between Elsa and Hannah?
Because according to the depressed ex-assistant, it didn't really sound like it was a typical boss-employee kind of deal, Hannah was looking for more, and Elsa went out of her way to set rules blocking that sort of thing. There was more to this story, hopefully Hannah would tell her.
"Anyway, your drama with Elsa happened at the festival, right? Well mine happened after. After we got back I tried to get something out of her, anything, just to see where her head was at because something happened that night. And now I know what it is, but I'd hoped to hear it from her. Maybe if I did, then things would be different now.
Instead she just shut me out, and for two whole weeks didn't make any sort of contact at all with anybody. Apparently she took a 'vacation' but I'd bet anything that she didn't go any farther than the front door of her apartment. I tried contacting her- I mean I sent her general emails about what was going on in the company, but I hoped that would establish some sort of dialogue. Clearly it didn't."
Anna could see her eyeing the almost half-empty bottle of whiskey and instinctively moved it closer to her own side, the girl's expression was already slightly glazed over and the last thing she wanted was for her to pass out with no place to go. Plus, she wanted to hear the rest of this story.
Surprisingly, Hannah didn't protest the move and continued to speak, "So after that phony vacation, she comes back and we barely exchange any words with each other. Which…okay yeah that's on me too, I could have said something other than 'Hey', but seeing her again just brought back all that anger at something so dumb and pointless. I knew I couldn't say anything else that wasn't just me going off on her- which wouldn't be a good idea because she knows how to cut deep."
She swirled her empty glass, "Which she did anyway. Some work-related thing didn't go her way and she just…was not in the best of moods. And me, being stupid, tried to press her instead of being supportive- even though she gave me no reason to be supportive- and…well she cut deep. I knew right then that I had to get out of there, so I just walked out of her office and told her I quit. And that was that. I bet she doesn't even care that I'm gone…"
Anna swore she was sober- not a single drop of alcohol had touched her lips that entire night, thanks especially to the exasperated bartender- so there was no blaming it on the booze when she leaned over her barstool and gave Hannah the most awkward hug ever.
However, it put her in an awful conundrum. On the one hand, if she let go it would be admitting that the hug was a mistake, which would risk making Hannah feel even worse; on the other hand, if she continued the hug without any sort of reciprocation from Hannah…well then it would further cement the fact that Anna had no idea how to make friends.
Fortunately, Hannah reciprocated, if barely, with a slightly less awkward pat on her back. "Uh, thanks…I guess."
Anna pulled back and noticed a judgmental look from Hannah as if she was gauging just how insane she really was, she didn't blame her. "Sorry, it looked like you needed it.", she tried explaining, "I realize now that that was a little out of line."
"Just a little bit. But…I kinda get where you were coming from." Hannah's expression saddened in the same way it had been when she was retelling what happened between her and Elsa, "You know, I was hoping that I could spend tonight just forgetting about everything that happened; guess this just shows you can't always run from your problems."
"Well, I'm sorry if I ruined your night. I didn't mean to.", Anna apologized again.
Hannah shook her head, "Nah, it's not your fault. And I guess…I dunno, I guess it's not Elsa's fault either. Or maybe it is. This is all just one big mess, and I don't honestly know how I feel about it all; right now, all I want to do is just put it aside, at least for tonight, and just…get my mind somewhere else." She went to pour herself another drink and then stopped herself, setting it down like it had just grown mold in and out of the bottle, "I don't even want this anymore. And hey, thanks for listening to me bitch about all this stuff. It's Anna, right?"
Anna nodded, "Yup, that's me, Anna Dawson."
"Well nice to meet you, Anna Dawson.", Hannah scooted the whiskey bottle out of sight and stretched out her hand towards Anna. "The name's Hannah, Hannah Baker."
The redhead stifled a giggle, reveling in the irony over how much she wanted to change her last name to "Baker" when she was a kid, and decided against telling Hannah that she already knew her name after being nosy and reading her ID. Instead she stretched out her own hand and shook Hannah's, "It's nice to meet you too, Hannah Baker." It was also nice to successfully give off a second impression better than the first.
Hannah smiled, it was small and nothing more than courteous, but it was still better than the sulking and brooding she had been doing before. "So Anna, where you from?"
They continued to wash the taste out of their mouth from their previous awful conversation by getting to know each other a bit better. They covered topics like where they were from, what their families were like, where they went to college, and even what their favorite foods were (Anna's was chocolate, Hannah's was fish).
Time passed by fast in that night club, people came and went but the two stayed where they were, reveling in this brief moment of reprieve from their lives outside of the building.
Finally, Anna was the first to admit that it was getting a bit too late for the both of them to be out on this Monday night when she yawned and checked her phone. There was one new message from Rapunzel telling her not to stay up too late, and the irony of that message was hammered in when she noticed the time: 11:24 PM.
"Oh shoot, I have work in the morning.", Anna groaned. "I completely lost track of time."
Hannah surprised her with just how understanding she was, given how into it they both were in the conversation that they were having, "Hey it's cool if you have to go, I can just finish up my drink or something and then head back, I don't have classes tomorrow so I'll be fine."
Anna knew that had she just left the poor girl alone here, it would do a number on her conscience, plus it would put a sour end to the relationship they both established throughout the night. She felt a genuine connection to Hannah, a friendly one, and didn't want this to be the last time they saw each other; but if it was the last time, then she sure didn't want it to end with her leaving the lonely college student to drink by herself. "Where would you go back to?", she asked, all ready to offer to drive her back if it wasn't too far.
"Back to North Mountain, I haven't seen my roommates in a while anyway.", Hannah replied with a slight slur to her voice.
North Mountain, Anna calculated, was almost an hour drive at best. Even if she was able to get Hannah back there, it would be midnight and she was already beat from work today, who knows if she would be any shape to get herself back home. She had to think up another solution and did so, and even though it was a little bold and bit too forward, Anna had to try. "That's really far, Hannah…why don't you just stay at my place? It's close by, and I can drive us both."
Hannah surprised her again by not rejecting the idea outright, looking away for a second as if she was seriously pondering it, and then finally giving a hopeful reply, "You sure you don't mind?"
"Of course I don't mind, you're in no shape to get back by yourself. I mean what else are you gonna do?"
"I could call an Uber."
"And spend even more money tonight? No way."
"I could sneak back into ArenCorp and sleep in Elsa's office, she has a bed there and I still have the key."
"Yeah, the last thing you want is for Elsa to find you in her office hungover." Anna didn't even question why Elsa would have a bed in her office in the first place, although it did sound like something she would do.
"I could…walk?"
"Absolutely not! Now come on, get your butt up and come with me, you can stay at my place and leave first thing in the morning if you have to, but there's no way I'm going to leave you alone tonight. You're drunk and...yeah, you're drunk." Anna decided not to imply out loud that Hannah might be depressed. She stood up from her barstool and, much like Hannah had earlier, stretched out her hand. Not for a handshake, but for an invitation for help she hoped the girl would take.
Hannah looked at the outstretched hand, back at her half-empty bottle, and then right into Hannah's eyes, seeing nothing less than genuine benevolence. With a sigh, she finally conceded and took Anna's help to get out of her barstool and go with her. "Fine…you've convinced me."
The drive back was contrastingly quiet, Hannah barely spoke as she slipped in and out of consciousness, and Anna didn't speak as she forced herself to try and not do the same so she could focus on the road in front of her. Thankfully the drive wasn't too long and before she knew it they were at the driveway.
Anna helped Hannah out of the car, the drowsiness finally overtaking the younger girl along with the alcohol, making her incapable of walking without some support. Once they got inside the dark apartment, Anna maneuvered them around the kitchen/living room, kept Hannah from tumbling over the couch, and ducked over a string of lights she reminded herself to hang back up tomorrow. With her free hand, she opened her room and decided against turning on the lights so to not wake up the already half-unconscious girl in her other arm, she knew the layout of her room well enough anyway to walk through it in the dark.
She placed Hannah gingerly on the bed- a tough feat considering there was no bedframe and she had to literally squat to get her on without dropping her- and took off her shoes. As she did so, she heard Hannah mumble out something that sounded like "You really didn't have to do this."
"I know, now get some sleep.", Anna replied softly. Despite the protest, Hannah cuddled up to her blanket right away and let out a content sight. It was kind of adorable, really.
Anna heard her name being called as she grabbed a spare blanket from her dresser and turned around. Hannah's eyes were still closed, at least they looked like they were in the pitch black of her room, but her mouth wasn't. With a completely sober yet groggy tone, Hannah spoke again, "Elsa's not a bad person. That night after the festival…she really wanted to just blame herself for everything, I could see it, but it wasn't all her fault. Life would be so much easier if we all just owned up to all the shit we do. She's really not that bad."
Before she left the room Anna accepted those words, and she replied softly to herself, "I know…"
A/N: Before you get your New York Knickerbockers in a twist, a Hannah/Anna romantic relationship isn't happening. Good writers can create good conflict without having to resort to a dumb love triangle. Not saying you're a crap writer if you use a love triangle in your story, and I'm not saying that I'm a good writer.
So I guess…I really don't know what I'm saying.Maulana Masood Azhar's Jaish-e-Mohammed is accused of the deadly terror attack on Pathankot air base
Highlights India wants Masood Azhar on UN blacklist for terrorists Earlier, China had used 'technical hold' to prevent this Now, in big snub to Delhi, it has outright blocked India's move
China has stopped India from accomplishing a crucial goal at the United Nations: getting Masood Azhar, the chief of terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, blacklisted as a terrorist. The Foreign Ministry reacted sharply, stating "(the) Chinese action confirms the prevalence of double standards in the fight against terrorism."In April, China placed on hold India's request to add Azhar to the United Nations' al Qaeda-Islamic State blacklist. In October, it extended the "technical hold" which was to expire today. What it did yesterday was exercise its veto, so Beijing's objections are no longer temporary or subject to a search for more details of India's request.The Jaish-e-Mohammed has already been blacklisted by the 15-nation Security Council, but not its leader, Maulana Masood Azhar. China's blocking of India's move is an international and significant show of support for its long-time ally Pakistan.India has accused the Jaish-e-Mohammed of the deadly terror attack in January on the Pathankot air force base in which seven military personnel were killed.Technical holds can be lifted and often arise when a Security Council member wants more information. But sometimes they lead to a permanent blocking of a proposed blacklisting.Pakistani security officials have said that a special investigation team set up to probe the Pathankot attack found no evidence implicating Azhar.If the 48-year-old was blacklisted by the UN Security Council, he would face a global travel ban and asset freeze. Beijing's stand on Azhar has been an acute stress point on India-China relations this year.The Socratic Catholic has recently written posts about libertarianism, culture, and the incoherence of libertarianism. You can find them here, here, here, and here. I’ll be addressing the first two posts in order.
Before I address the two posts, however, I will to make a positive case for libertarianism, i.e., the private property ethic.
The first subject I want to draw attention to is what The Socratic Catholic and I are engaging in. We are engaging in an interaction where we are following certain rules and where we are exchanging truth claims and questions for the purpose of finding truth. This interaction is generally called argumentation, dialogue, discourse, etc. To clarify, argumentation is the interaction between two or more speakers who must follow certain rules, i.e, norms, and where they are exchanging truth claims and, possibly, questions for the purpose of finding truth, i.e. justifying or denying truth claims and seeking reasons.
Furthermore, the idea of validity of any claim, including normative claims, only comes into existence with argumentation. To realize this one only needs to note that “the question [of what is valid or not] does not arise for a stone or fish because they are incapable of producing validity-claiming propositions. Yet if this is so–and one cannot deny that it is without contradicting oneself, for one cannot [consistently] argue the case that one cannot argue–then any ethical proposal, or indeed any proposition, must be assumed to claim it can be validated by propositional or argumentative means. In producing any proposition, overtly or as an internal thought, one demonstrates one’s preference for the willingness to rely on argumentative means to convince oneself or others of something…Without argumentation there would be nothing but silence or meaningless noise.” In other words, there are no activities other than argumentation where one can justify truth claims. Any person denying this would be contradicting their own claim as they would have to justify it in argumentation.
As already mentioned in the Hoppe quote, one cannot consistently argue that one cannot argue because the denial itself would be an argument. Additionally, one cannot consistently deny that one knows what it means to say a truth claim because the denial itself would be a truth claim. It is from these two facts that we can prove that the statement “humans are capable of argumentation and hence know the meaning of truth and validity” is true. The statement is called the a priori of argumentation.
It is from the a priori of argumentation that we can find certain norms and facts that are only deniable with contradiction. Rather, these certain norms and facts are implied as justified in argumentation, and since argumentation is the place where justification must happen it is the case that what is argumentatively justifiable is justifiable and what is argumentatively unjustifiable is unjustifiable.
The norm that is implied in argumentation that I will first mention is the universalization principle, i.e. “only those norms can be justified that can be formulated as general principles which are valid for everyone without exception.” This principle is implied in argumentation as valid because “argumentation implies that everyone who can understand an argument must in principle be able to be convinced of it simply because of its argumentative force.”
The second norm that follows from the a priori of argumentation is that of body-ownership, i.e. the prima facie justifiable exclusive control of one’s body. Speakers in an argument must presuppose as valid that each has a prima facie property right in their body. If they didn’t respect the other’s exclusive control over their body then the activity would no longer be about justification. It would be an activity that has some other purpose. Rather, for there to be argumentation the speakers must be able to at least, in principle, agree to disagree on everything else. This is sufficient enough to prove that the norm of body-ownership is only deniable with contradiction, but Hoppe strengthens the case more in a German publication:
The answer to the question what makes my body “mine” lies in the obvious fact that this is not merely an assertion but that, for everyone to see, this is indeed the case. Why do we say “this is my body”? For this a twofold requirement exists. On the one hand it must be the case that the body called “mine” must indeed (in an intersubjectively ascertainable way) express or “objectify” my will. Proof of this, as far as my body is concerned, is easy enough to demonstrate: When I announce that I will now lift my arm, turn my head, relax in my chair (or whatever else) and these announcements then become true (are fulfilled), then this shows that the body which does this has been indeed appropriated by my will. If, to the contrary, my announcements showed no systematic relation to my body’s actual behavior, then the proposition “this is my body” would have to be considered as an empty, objectively unfounded assertion; and likewise this proposition would be rejected as incorrect if following my announcement not my arm would rise but always that of Müller, Meier, or Schulze (in which case one would more likely be inclined to consider Müller’s, Meier’s, or Schulze’s body “mine”). On the other hand, apart from demonstrating that my will has been ‘objectified’ in the body called “mine,” it must be demonstrated that my appropriation has priority as compared to the possible appropriation of the same body by another person. As far as bodies are concerned, it is also easy to prove this. We demonstrate it by showing that it is under my direct control, while every other person can objectify (express) itself in my body only indirectly, i.e., by means of their own bodies, and direct control must obviously have logical-temporal priority (precedence) as compared to any indirect control. The latter simply follows from the fact that any indirect control of a good by a person presupposes the direct control of this person regarding his own body; thus, in order for a scarce good to become justifiably appropriated, the appropriation of one’s directly controlled “own” body must already be presupposed as justified. It thus follows: If the justice of an appropriation by means of direct control must be presupposed by any further-reaching indirect appropriation, and if only I have direct control of my body, then no one except me can ever justifiably own my body (or, put differently, then property in/of my body cannot be transferred onto another person), and every attempt of an indirect control of my body by another person must, unless I have explicitly agreed to it, be regarded as unjust(ified).
It is from this norm of body-ownership that we can derive the “non-aggression principle.” The non-aggression principle simply says that it is unjustifiable to aggress upon another person’s property rights. Aggression as it is concerned with bodies is “the unconsented to (or uninvited) change in the physical integrity (or use, control or possession) of another person’s body…”
It also needs to be brought to the attention of the reader that a body is simply a scarce resource, and a scarce resource is a resource that there can be physical conflict over.
Another insight we can discover from the body-ownership principle is that the function of property rights is physical conflict avoidance. If everybody respects the property rights that others have in their own body then there would be no (physical) conflict with regard to bodies.
I must address two more points. (1) Why body-ownership is a prima facie right and (2) why Hoppe is wrong in the quote that nobody ever could justifiably own some other person’s body. The reason for both is a person can forfeit property rights in their body as a result of an act of aggression.
Any other norms concerning property rights must be compatible with the principle of body-ownership.
The third norm that follows from the a priori of argumentation is that of private property rights in external scarce resources. For there to be argumentation the speakers must have used external scarce resources to survive and have the ability to argue, and as such it must presupposed as valid in argumentation that there can be property rights in external scarce resources. If a person’s argument is that property rights in external scarce resources cannot be justified then their argument is self-defeating and self-refuting.
It is self-defeating in that if the person denying property rights in external scarce resources didn’t exclusively use external scarce resources in the past then they would not even be able to argue their position. The norm of property rights in external scarce resources must be presupposed as valid in argumentation because if the norm is not presupposed as valid then argumentation would not occur but since one would be engaged in argumentation it is occurring. It is in this way their claim is self-refuting. It is also self-refuting in another way. The claim that it is justifiable to be alive must be presupposed as valid in argumentation as well. Anybody denying this would be alive and arguing and would be contradicting oneself. If one denied property rights in external scarce resources then one would die, and since one must presuppose that it is justifiable to be alive the claim that denies property rights in external scarce resources must be unjustifiable as it leads to death.
There are more norms concerning property rights in external scarce resources that are implied in argumentation. External scarce resources are different from bodies in that they are initially unowned. As such there must be ways to acquire property rights in external scarce resources, as we have seen that having property rights in external scarce resources is justifiable, and these norms must be compatible with the body-ownership principle.
The first norm concerning the acquisition of property rights in external scarce resources that is implied in argumentation is the homesteading principle, or rather the first-use-first-own rule. The homesteading principle states that the first person to appropriate an external scarce resource is its owner. Appropriation is “the transformation or embordering of a previously unowned resource…the first use or possession of the thing.”
It should be noted that Locke’s idea of homesteading, i.e. the labor theory of property, is invalid. Locke said that one owns one’s labor and that one owns the fruits of one’s labor. There are two ways in which this idea breaks down. The first being that labor is just an action and thus cannot be owned. A person can own their body which they can perform actions with, but one cannot own one’s labor because one can only own scarce, contestable resources. Owning labor makes as much sense as owning a snapping of the fingers. Second, labor is not some metaphysical substance that can be imbued in a scarce resource. Labor is simply action.
An alternative to the homesteading principle is the norm that whoever declares an external scarce resource as theirs is the owner of the scarce resource. There are many issues with this norm.
First, it is not compatible with the body-ownership principle. A person could just declare that another’s body is theirs, but as we have seen every person has a prima facie property right in their body.
Second, this norm does not fulfill property rights’ function of physical conflict avoidance. Two people might declare some scarce resource as theirs, maybe even at the same time, and there would be no way to say that one owns it and the other doesn’t.
Third, this norm is in conflict with another norm presupposed in property rights. This other norm is the “objective link” principle. In the case of bodies one’s objective, intersubjectively ascertainable link to their body is the direct use of it. The norm that supposes as valid that one can simply declare a scarce resource as theirs only provides an arbitrary link.
The homesteading principle is in accordance with the body-ownership principle and thus the “objective link” principle as well. It avoids physical conflict and it requires an objective link between a specific person and a specific external scarce resource for a person to own the external scarce resource, i.e. the person must be the first to appropriate the external scarce resource.
Another alternative to the homesteading principle would the the norm of the late-comer. This norm allows for a person to claim ownership to an external scarce resource after another person already homesteaded it. The first owner, however, has a better objective claim to the external scarce resources than the late comer by virtue of appropriating the external scarce resources first. This norm also fails because it would result in death. If the first owner had to wait for a late comer then they could do nothing with the external scarce resources until the late comer came; however, the late comer too would have to wait until another potential late comer arrived. Then that late comer would also have to wait to use the external scarce resources until another late comer came and so on and so forth. This norm is self-defeating because it would stop argumentation from happening. It is self-refuting because a norm that prevents argumentation from existing cannot be accepted as valid in argumentation, and it is self-refuting because it is contradictory to the norm that being alive is justifiable.
The last norm I will discuss that is implied in argumentation is contractual exchange. Since a person can acquire property rights in external scarce resources and can permit non-owners to use their scarce resources a person can also abandon an external scarce resource “in favor” of another specific individual(s).
We can see aggression in fuller view now. Aggression is “the unconsented to (or uninvited) change in the physical integrity (or use, control or possession) of another person’s body or [external scarce resources].” Furthermore, for an act to be an act of aggression it must either be an act of negligence or of intention
This approach to a libertarian, rationalist ethics is called Argumentation Ethics. It was thought of by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Argumentation Ethics only gives |
book main exercises is to build a simpler version of Poolboy in pure Elixir (Poolboy is written in good, old, Erlang).
In my journey to really understand how a proper Elixir application should be written I am exercising through Benjamin Tan Wei Hao's excelent The Little Elixir & OTP Guidebook. If you're just getting started, this is a no-brainer: buy and study this guidebook. Yes, it will help if you already read Dave Thomas' Programming Elixir book first.
Yes, Erlang allows us to not just see what's going on inside its runtime environment but we can even take action on individual Processes running inside it! How cool is that?
But before we can show Fault Tolerancy and the Observer I need to explain what Processes are, and why they matter. You must understand the following concepts to successfully understand Elixir programming:
You don't have "objects", which are runtime instances of classes (or prototipical objects, which are copies of other objects). Instead of "Classes" you have collections of functions organized in modules, without dependency in internal state. And instead of "objects" we have, roughly speaking, "processes". For example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 defmodule MyProcess do def start do accepting_messages( 0 ) end def accepting_messages (state) do receive do { :hello, message} -> IO.puts " Hello, #{ message } " accepting_messages(state) { :counter } -> new_state = state + 1 IO.puts " New state is #{ new_state } " accepting_messages(new_state) _ -> IO.puts " What? " accepting_messages(state) end end end
We can execute a function inside another process. This is how we can spawn a brand new, concurrent, lightweight process:
1 2 iex( 2 )> pid = spawn fn -> MyProcess.start end #PID<0.87.0>
When the accepting_messages/1 is called, it stops at the receive/0 block, waiting to receive a new message. Then we can send messages like this:
1 2 iex( 3 )> send pid, { :hello, " world " } Hello, world
It receives the {:hello, "world"} atom message, it pattern matches the value "world" into the message variable, and concatenates the "Hello, world" string, which it prints out with IO.puts/1 and recurse to itself again. We call the receive/0 block again, and block, waiting for further messages:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 iex( 4 )> send pid, { :counter } New state is 1 { :counter } iex( 5 )> send pid, { :counter } New state is 2 { :counter } iex( 6 )> send pid, { :counter } New state is 3 { :counter } iex( 7 )> send pid, { :counter } New state is 4
We send the {:counter} message to the same process pid again and when it receive this message, it gets the state value from the function argument, increments it by 1, prints out the new state, and calls itself again passing the new state as the new argument. It blocks again, waiting for further messages, and for each time it receives the {:counter} message, it increases the previous state by one again and recurses.
This is basically how we can maintain state in Elixir. If we kill this process and spawn a new one, it restarts with zero (which is what the start/0 ) function does.
So, while you don't have "objects" you do, however, have Processes. Superficially, a process behaves like an "object". Careful not to think that a Process is like a heavyweight Thread though. Erlang has its own internal scheduler that controls the concurrency of parallels and you can load as many as 16 billion lightweight processes if your hardware allows it. Threads are super heavy, Erlang processes are super light. As we saw in the example, each process has its own internal mechanism to receive messages from other processes. Those messages accumulate in an internal "mailbox" and you can choose to receive and pattern match through those messages, recursing to itself again in order to receive new messages if you want. Processes can be linked to or monitor other processes, for example, within an IEx shell, we are within an Elixir process, so we could do:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 iex( 1 )> self #PID<0.98.0> iex( 2 )> pid = spawn fn -> MyProcess.start end #PID<0.105.0> iex( 3 )> Process.alive?(pid) true iex( 4 )> Process.link(pid) true
With self we can see that the current process id for the IEx shell is "0.98.0". Then we spawn a process that calls Myprocess.start/0 again, it will block in the receive call. This new process has a different id, "0.105.0".
We can assert that the new process is indeed alive and we can link the IEx shell with the "0.105.0" pid process. Now, whatever happens to this process will cascade to the shell.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 iex( 5 )> Process.exit(pid, :kill ) ** ( EXIT from #PID<0.98.0>) killed Interactive Elixir ( 1.1. 1 ) - press Ctrl + C to exit (type h() ENTER for help) / home / akitaonrails/.iex.exs: 1 : warning : redefining module R iex( 1 )> self #PID<0.109.0>
And indeed, if we forcefully send a kill message to the "0.105.0" process, the IEx shell is also killed in the process. IEx restarts and its new pid is "0.109.0" instead of the old "0.98.0". By the way this is one way a process is different from a normal object. It behaves more like an operating system process where a crash in a process does not affect the whole system as it does not hold external shared state that can corrupt the system's state.
The important concept is that we now have a mechanism to define a Parent Process (IEx in this example) and Children processes linked to it.
Parent processes don't need to stupidly suicide itself because their children screwed up. Instead, they can trap exits and decide what to do later:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 iex( 2 )> Process.flag( :trap_exit, true ) false iex( 3 )> pid = spawn_link fn -> MyProcess.start end #PID<0.118.0> iex( 4 )> send pid, { :counter } New state is 1 { :counter }
First, we declare that the IEx shell will trap exists and not just die. Then we spawn a new process and link it. The spawn_link/1 function has the same effect of spawn/1 and then Process.link/1. We can send a message to the new pid and check that it is indeed still working.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 iex( 5 )> Process.exit(pid, :kill ) true iex( 6 )> Process.alive?(pid) false iex( 7 )> flush { :EXIT, #PID<0.118.0>, :killed} :ok
Now we forcefully kill the new process again, but IEx does not crash this time, as it is explicitly trapping those errors. If we check the killed pid, we can assert that it is indeed dead. But now we can also inspect IEx's own process mailbox (in this case, just flushing whats queued in the inbox) and see that it just received a message saying that its child was killed.
From here we could make IEx process treat this message and decide to just mourn for its deceased child and commit suicide itself, or move on and spawn_link a new now. We have choice in the face of disaster.
OTP Workers
Letting aside the grim metaphor, we learned that we have Parent and Child processes, but more importantly they can fit the roles of Supervisors and Workers that are supervised, respectivelly.
Workers is where we put our code. This code can have bugs, it can depend on external stuff that can make our code crash for unexpected reasons. In a normal language we would start using the dreaded try/catch blocks, which are just ugly and wrong! Don't catch errors in Elixir, just let it crash!!
As I explained in my previous article, everything in Elixir ends up being a so called "OTP application". The example above is just a very simple contraption that we can expand upon. Let's rewrite the same thing as an OTP GenServer:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 defmodule MyFancyProcess do use GenServer def start_link (_) do GenServer.start_link(__MODULE__, 0, name : __MODULE__) end ## Public API def hello (message) do GenServer.call(__MODULE__, { :hello, message}) end def counter do GenServer.call(__MODULE__, :counter ) end ## GenServer callbacks def init (start_counter) do { :ok, start_counter} end def handle_call ({ :hello, message}, _from, state) do IO.puts " Hello, #{ message } " { :reply, :noproc, state} end def handle_call ( :counter, _from, state) do new_state = state + 1 IO.puts " New state is #{ new_state } " { :reply, :noproc, new_state} end end
This new MyFancyProcess is essentially the same as MyProcess but with OTP GenServer on top of it. There are Public API functions and GenServer callbacks.
Benjamin's book go to great lenghts to detail every bit of what I just implemented. But for now just understand some basics:
The module does " use GenServer " to import all the necessary GenServer bits for your convenience. In essence one of the things it will do is create that receive block we did in the first version to wait for messages. The start_link/1 function will create the instance of this GenServer and return the linked process. Internally it will call back to the init/1 function to set the initial state of this worker. This is a flexible language, we have multiple ways of doing the same thing, and this is good, having just a single way of writing code is boring. The convention is to have one public function that calls the internal handle_call/3 (for synchronous calls), handle_cast/2 (for asynchronous calls), and handle_info/2. You could just call handle_call from the outside, but it's just ugly, so you will find this convention everywhere.
Once we have this in place, we can start calling it directly:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 iex( 11 )> MyFancyProcess.start_link( 0 ) { :ok, #PID<0.261.0>} iex( 12 )> MyFancyProcess.hello( " world " ) Hello, world :noproc iex( 13 )> MyFancyProcess.counter New state is 1 :noproc iex( 14 )> MyFancyProcess.counter New state is 2 :noproc iex( 15 )> MyFancyProcess.counter New state is 3 :noproc
And this is much cleaner than the version where we manually spawn_link and send messages to a pid. This is all handled nicely by the GenServer underneath it. And as I said, the results are the same as the initial crude MyProcess example.
In fact, this convention does make us type a lot of boilerplate many times over. There is a library called ExActor that grealy simplifies a GenServer implementation, making our previous code become something like this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 defmodule MyFancyProcess do use ExActor. GenServer, initial_state : 0 defcall hello(message), state do IO.puts " Hello, #{ message } " noreply end defcall counter, state do new_counter = state + 1 IO.puts " New state is #{ new_counter } " new_state(new_counter) end end
This is way cleaner, but as we are just using IEx, I'm not using this version for the next section, stick with the longer version of MyFancyProcess listed in the beginning of this section!
OTP Supervisor
Now that we have a worker, we can create a Supervisor to supervise it:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 defmodule MyFancySupervisor do use Supervisor def start_link do Supervisor.start_link(__MODULE__, []) end def init (_) do children = [ worker( MyFancyProcess, [ 0 ]) ] opts = [ strategy : :one_for_one ] supervise(children, opts) end end
This is just a simple boilerplace that most Supervisors will have. There are many details you must learn, but for this article's purposes the important bits are, first, the definition of the children specification, saying that this Supervisor should start the MyFancyProcess GenServer instead of us having to MyFancyProcess.start_link manually. And the second important bit is the opts list which defines the strategy of :one_for_one, meaning that if the Supervisor detects that the child has died, it should restart it.
From a clean IEx, we can copy and paste both the MyFancyProcess and MyFancySupervisor above and start playing with it in the IEx shell:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 iex( 3 )> { :ok, sup_pid} = MyFancySupervisor.start_link { :ok, #PID<0.124.0>} iex( 4 )> MyFancyProcess.hello( " foo " ) Hello, foo :noproc iex( 5 )> MyFancyProcess.counter New state is 1 :noproc iex( 6 )> MyFancyProcess.counter New state is 2 :noproc
This is how we start the Supervisor and you can see that right away we can start sending messages to the MyFancyProcess GenServer because the Supervisor successfully started it for us.
1 2 3 4 iex( 7 )> Supervisor.count_children(sup_pid) %{ active: 1, specs: 1, supervisors: 0, workers: 1 } iex( 8 )> Supervisor.which_children(sup_pid) [{ MyFancyProcess, #PID<0.125.0>, :worker, [MyFancyProcess]}]
Using the Supervisor PID that we captured right when we started it, we can ask it to count how many children it is monitoring (1, in this example) and we can ask the details of each children as well. We can see that the MyFancyProcess started with the pid of "0.125.0"
1 2 3 4 iex( 9 )> [{_, worker_pid, _, _}] = Supervisor.which_children(sup_pid) [{ MyFancyProcess, #PID<0.125.0>, :worker, [MyFancyProcess]}] iex( 14 )> Process.exit(worker_pid, :kill ) true
Now, we can grab the Worker pid and manually force it to crash as we did before. We should be screwed, right? Nope:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 iex(15)> Supervisor.which_children(sup_pid) [{MyFancyProcess, #PID<0.139.0>, :worker, [MyFancyProcess]}] iex(16)> MyFancyProcess.counter New state is 1 :noproc iex(17)> MyFancyProcess.counter New state is 2 :noproc
If we ask the Supervisor again for the list of its children, we will see that the old "0.125.0" process did indeed vanish but a new one, "0.139.0" was spawned in its place by the Supervisor strategy of :one_for_one as we defined before.
We can continue making calls do the MyFancyProcess but you will see that the previous state was lost and it restarts from zero. We can add state management in the GenServer using a number of different persistent storages such as the built-in ETS (think of ETS as a built-in Memcache service), but I think you get the idea by now.
Graphically visualizing Processes
This entire article was motivated by just this simple thing in Benjamin's book: by the end of page 139 of the book you will have built a very simple pool system that is able to start 5 process in the pool, guarded by a supervisor. And from there he goes on to show off the Observer.
Erlang has a built-in inspector tool called Observer. You can use the Supervisor built-in functions to inspect processes as I demonstrated before, but it's much cooler to see it visually. Assuming you installed Erlang Solutions propertly, in Ubuntu you have to:
1 wget https://packages.erlang-solutions.com/erlang-solutions_1.0_all.deb && sudo dpkg -i erlang-solutions_1.0_all.deb
Only then, you can start the observer directly from the IEx shell like this:
1 :observer.start
And a graphical window will show up with some stats first.
This is very powerful becuase you have insight and control over the entire Erlang runtime! See that this status window even show you "uptime", it's line a UNIX system: it is made to stay up no matter what. Processes have its own garbage collector and they all behave nicely towards the entire system.
You can hook a remote Observer to remote Erlang runtimes as well, if you were wondering. Now you can jump to the Applications tab to see how the "Pooly" exercise looks like with 5 children under its pool:
Because those children are supervised with proper restart strategies, we can visually kill one of them, the one with the pid labeled "0.389.0":
And as the Observer immediatelly shows, the Supervisor took action, spawned a new child and added it to its pool, bringing the count back to 5:
This is what Fault Tolerance with proper controls mean by using OTP!
With the bits I explained in this article you should have enough concepts to finally grasp what the Erlang's high reliabiliby fuzz is all about. The basic concepts are very simple, to hook your application to OTP is also a no-brainer, what OTP has implemented under the hood is what makes your application much more reliable.
There are clear guidelines on how to design your application. Who supervises what. What should happen to the application state if workers are restarted? How you divide responsabilities between different groups of Supervisor/Children?
Your application is supposed to look like a Tree, a Supervision Tree, where failure in one leaf does not bring the other branches down and everything knows how to behave and how to recover, elegantly. It's really like a UNIX operating system: when you kill -9 one process, it doesn't bring your system down, and if it's initd monitored service, it gets respawned.
Most important: this is not an optional feature, a 3rd party library, that you choose too use. It's built-in in Erlang, you must use it if you want to play. There is no other choice and this is the best choice. Any such pattern that is not implemented in a concurrent language, to me, represents a big failure of the language. This is Elixir's strength.
This is high level control you won't find anywhere else. And we still didn't even talk about how OTP applications can exchange messages across the wire in really distributed systems, and how the Erlang runtime can reload code while an application is running, with zero downtime, akin of what IEx itself is capable of and how Phoenix allow development mode with code reloading! OTP gives all this for free, so it's well worth learning all the details.
We went through processes, pids, send a kill message to a process, trap exits, parent having child processes. Feels very similar to how UNIX works. If you know UNIX, you can easily grasp how all this fit together, including Elixir pipe operator "|>" compared to UNIX's own pipe "|", it's similar.
Finally, The Little Elixir & OTP Guidebook is a very easy to read, very hands-on small book. You can read it all in a couple of days and grasp everything I quickly summarized here and much more. I highly encourage you to buy it right now.Farah Stockman / Boston Globe | June 23, 2008
US soldiers assigned to guard a crucial part of Iraq’s oil infrastructure became ill after exposure to a highly toxic chemical at the plant, witnesses testified at a Democratic Policy Committee hearing yesterday on Capitol Hill.
"These soldiers were bleeding from the nose, spitting blood," said Danny Langford, an equipment technician from Texas brought to work at the Qarmat Ali Water treatment plant in 2003. "They were sick."
"Hundreds of American soldiers at this site were contaminated" while guarding the plant, Langford said, including members of the Indiana National Guard.
Langford is one of nine Americans who accuse KBR, the lead contractor on the Qarmat Ali project and one of the largest defense contractors in Iraq, of knowingly exposing them to sodium dichromate, an orange, sandlike chemical that is a potentially lethal carcinogen. Specialists say even short-term exposure to the chemical can cause cancer, depress an individual’s immune system, attack the liver, and cause other ailments.
Yesterday’s hearing – one among several organized to hold contractors accountable for alleged malfeasance in Iraq – was chaired by Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat. "Hundreds of US troops, who may not even know of their exposure to sodium dichromate that could one day result in a horrible disease, cancers, and death," he said.
Roughly 250 American soldiers were believed to have come in contact with the chemical, according to Defense Department documents. Sodium dichromate is the same substance that poisoned residents in Hinkley, Calif., an incident made famous by the movie "Erin Brockovich" in 2000.
In Iraq, the chemical was used as an antirust coating for pipes that supply water to the oil fields. After the 2003 US-led invasion, looters raided the Qarmat Ali facility; afterward, the chemical was found strewn around the facility and its grounds.
Langford and his former colleagues have said KBR supervisors initially told them the chemical was a "mild irritant." The company, however, eventually acknowledged that sodium dichromate was a potentially deadly substance and moved to clean up the site.
KBR has denied any wrongdoing in the matter. The company has insisted the safety of its workers and the troops they work with are its "highest priority."Saudi Arabia is ruled under an austere and patriarchal form of Sunni Islam Media reports say an arranged marriage between a Saudi girl aged eight and a man in his 50s has been annulled, in a case attracting worldwide criticism. The Saudi Gazette says the divorce was agreed in an out-of-court settlement after a judge rejected two attempts to grant the girl a divorce. The case prompted Saudi officials to say it would start regulating the marriages of young girls. Rights groups say some Saudi families marry off young daughters for money. The judge who first heard the case in the town of Unaiza refused to end the marriage at the request of the girl's mother, but he stipulated the groom could not have sex with the girl until she reached puberty. The girl's father is said to have married her off against her mother's wishes to a close friend in order that he could pay off a debt. A new judge was appointed to oversee the case, who issued the annulment after the husband finally gave up his insistence that the marriage had been legal, reports say. Saudi Arabia implements an austere form of Sunni Islam that bans free association between the sexes and gives fathers the right to wed their children to whomever they deem fit. Saudi commentators pointed out that the marriage took place in the central province of Qaseem - the heartland of Saudi Islamic fundamentalism. Earlier this year, the country's highest religious authority, the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Shaikh, said it was not against Islamic law to marry off girls who are 15 and younger. On 15 April, after this case generated considerable negative publicity, Justice Minister Muhammad Issa said he wanted to put an end to the "arbitrary" way in which parents and guardians could marry off their young daughters. However, he he did not say that the practice would be banned.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version5 Reasons Mississippi Republicans Should Send Thad Cochran Packing Today
Today, grassroots conservative Chris McDaniel is going up against establishment Republican Thad Cochran in a primary election in Mississippi. Other than Dave Brat's victory over Eric Cantor, this has the potential to be the most important race of the election cycle so far. If you're in Mississippi, you need to get out and vote for Chris McDaniel today. If you don't live in Mississippi, then you need to send this column to anyone you know in Mississippi via Twitter, Facebook, or email to encourage him to vote for Chris McDaniel.
Why?
1) Thad Cochran is not mentally up to the job of being a senator anymore: There are certainly plenty of 76 year olds who can handle being a senator, but Thad Cochran isn’t one of them. The first indication that Cochran was slipping was that he wasn’t even capable of debating Chris McDaniel. If you’re not sharp enough to handle a debate any more, how can you handle being a senator? How far gone is Thad Cochran’s memory? After Eric Cantor’s major news-making loss, Cochran didn’t seem to know anything about the race even though he talked about it the day before. Worse yet, a half hour after he was interviewed by Atlantic reporter Molly Ball, Cochran had forgotten who she was.
Cochran didn't pose for any pictures during his brief sweep. As he made his way toward the exit, the senator held out his hand to me. I had met and interviewed him less than half an hour before.
"Hello, how are you doing?" he said with a kindly smile. "I'm Thad Cochran."
Running Thad Cochran for office when he’s just not up to the job any more mentally is not just unfair to the people of Mississippi, it’s exploitive. He’s just not mentally equipped to do the job anymore and it’s wrong that the people around him are pushing him to do it.
2) Thad Cochran has served long enough: Thad Cochran has been in the Senate since 1978. Isn’t 36 years in office enough for any one man? Especially since Cochran has been an undistinguished backbencher who is only noteworthy because he has been one of the biggest spenders on the Republican side? His defenders have tried to turn his love of pork into an asset, but what good is an earmarker to Mississippi in an era when earmarks have been banned?
3) Thad Cochran isn’t conservative enough to be a senator for a state like Mississippi: Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama in Mississippi by almost twelve points in 2012. Moreover, this is shaping up to be a wave year for the GOP. What that means is that barring some sort of Todd-Akin-style meltdown, the winner of this election is going to be elected to the Senate. Since that’s the case, why should Mississippi Republicans choose the less conservative candidate? McDaniel is a fire-breathing, Tea Party-friendly conservative who has been endorsed by Sarah Palin, the Tea Party Express, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Freedomworks, the Club for Growth, the Senate Conservatives Fund and Right Wing News (I wrote the endorsement) among many others. On the other hand, Cochran has been running up the sort of ratings you’d expect to see from a Republican in a blue state. His lifetime ratings are 57% on the Freedomworks scorecard, 67% from the Club for Growth and 59% from Heritage Action. The ACU gave him a 60% rating in 2013. Those numbers would be perfectly acceptable for a Republican in, say Massachusetts or Connecticut, but they’re closer to the numbers you’d expect to see from a Democrat in Mississippi, than a Republican.
4) Thad Cochran is explicitly trying to get Democrats to put him over the top in the primary: Do you think the next Republican senator in Mississippi should be chosen by Democrats? Thad Cochran’s campaign does. His supporters ran an ad in a weekly newspaper patronized by Democrats touting his support of food stamps. Worse yet, Mississippi’s Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole says, "Large sums of cash are being passed around. These guys are old-school 'walking around money' vote buyers.” Do you think the next Republican senator of Mississippi should be determined by pay-offs to Democrat voters to participate in a Republican primary? If Thad Cochran were to win that way, do you think you could trust him the next time there’s a tough vote on Obamacare or gun control or would Thad Cochran sell conservatives out to please the Democrats who got him into office?
5) You can send a message to the Establishment by voting Cochran out of office: If you’re a conservative Republican in flyover country, like Mississippi, in a very real sense you have no government representation right now. The Democrats don’t care whether you live or die and unless you have deep enough pockets to funnel thousands of dollars into the pockets of politicians like Thad Cochran, he doesn’t care what you want either. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, a group that’s supposed to represent all Republicans, is smearing, attacking, and trying to destroy a Republican candidate, in a Republican primary, because Chris McDaniel actually cares more about representing the people of Mississippi instead of the lobbyists who give them campaign contributions. If someone like Ted Cruz or Mike Lee was in trouble during a primary, the NRSC would be cheering his opponent on because those candidates actually represent conservatives, not the go-along-to-get-along Republicans in D.C. that are happy to lose every fight for America as long as the New York Times doesn’t beat up on them too much and they get to keep their cushy jobs. Is that really all we can aspire to as conservatives? Politicians who don’t represent us and a party apparatus that takes our contributions and uses them to actively work against us? Chris McDaniel has a different vision of what the Republican Party should be doing in D.C.
Every compromise conservatives reach, the liberals always win. That's not compromise. That's called surrender.
The eyes of America will be on Mississippi tonight and the same establishment Republicans that supported Arlen Specter, Dede Scozzafava, and Charlie Crist will be rooting for Thad Cochran to win. They think nothing needs to change and the status quo is just fine. Chris McDaniel thinks we need more men like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee in the Senate and pledges to be one of them if the voters of Mississippi put him in office. Tomorrow, we go forward together as Republicans to put a candidate in office in November, but tonight we should make sure that candidate is someone who represents the people, not the lobbyists, the consultants and the GOP establishment.In what may be a worldwide first, a rabbinical school has hired an Orthodox woman as its top official.
Tamar Frankiel Share
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The Academy for Jewish Religion, California, a small non-denominational Jewish seminary in Los Angeles, selected Tamar Frankiel as its new president effective this month. Frankiel, who is Orthodox, was previously the school’s provost.
Orthodox communities don’t recognize women as rabbis, and Frankiel herself is not a rabbi. Her position at the head of a school that ordains rabbis, however, appears to be part of a slow shift towards increased religious roles for Orthodox women.
“My friends in the Orthodox community are very supportive of me,” Frankiel told the Forward. “Orthodox women are often portrayed as not so intellectual and not… as broad-ranging leaders. I think it’s good for the image of the Orthodox woman.”
Frankiel’s appointment comes two years after one Modern Orthodox New York rabbi attempted to ordain a woman, sparking a massive backlash. The rabbi, Avi Weiss, abandoned the move under pressure.
AJRCA, founded in 2000, is non-denominational, and as such isn’t subject to the Orthodox community’s strictures. Students and teachers in the school’s small rabbinical, cantorial and chaplaincy programs come from across the Jewish denominational spectrum. The students in its five-year full-time rabbinical program are generally pursuing second careers, and seek placement in Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist communities.
Frankiel is a lifelong academic with a doctorate from the University of Chicago. Her route to Orthodoxy was somewhat indirect. Frankiel converted to Judaism as an adult, then became a member of a Berkeley, California minyan founded by Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi, the onetime Lubavitcher Hasid who founded the Buddhist-influenced Jewish Renewal movement. Frankiel later joined a Chabad synagogue. She now lives in Fairfax, a Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles, and attends an Orthodox congregation.
“I see myself as a spiritual leader,” Frankiel said, drawing a distinction between her role at the head of the seminary school and the roles of the rabbis on her faculty. “As an Orthodox woman I have a fair amount of learning, but I don’t make [Jewish law] decisions for the school.”
Frankel said that she sees particular value in the school’s pluralistic approach. “ In America people have choices, and we can acknowledge their choices and we can all learn together from each other, from all our different perspectives,” Frankel said.
This story "Orthodox Woman Picked To Lead L.A. Rabbinic School" was written by Josh Nathan-Kazis.Photo by Yvonne Jukes
Mutoid Man is a supergroup. Mutoid Man defies all of the trappings that come with that. But more than anything Mutoid Man is fun. At a recent "surprise" gig at Brooklyn's St. Vitus, the trio boozily ran through selections from their debut EP and forthcoming Bleeder LP all while trading middle fingers in between complex instrumentation and covering Tom Jones's "She's a Lady." No furrowed brow seriousness, despite their hardcore-meets-math complexity, just a badass riff fest and a damn good time.
Their approach and the PMA that comes with it shines through on Bleeder, which hits on June 30 via Sargent House (get it iTunes or in physical formats), and is streaming below for the first time. Check that out in full while you read an interview with Stephen Brodsky on the past and future of Cave In, the formation of Mutoid Man, and keeping it family.
NOISEY: What do you consider to be your first project? Is there such a thing for you? A priority?
Stephen Brodsky: By default, I’ve been doing Cave In for 20 years, but at this point it’s a little tricky to get everyone on board to do stuff for a number of reasons. A couple of the guys have pretty demanding family schedules, we don’t all live in the same area either. It’s just like anything, when you’re sort of in your own bubble sometimes it’s hard to break out of it. I think the trickiest thing with Cave In is that we haven’t put out a record in like four years so I think for that band there’s a real sort of thriving element to being creative and just sort of playing shows without having a new record to sort of promote or even a label behind us- like as of now Cave In technically doesn’t have even a label. Cave In is just sort of at this stationary point where we’re not quite sure what the next move is or if there is one at this point.
So that in contrast with Mutoid Man which is a new band, new bands have little to no baggage. And we have a label that’s- it’s not just any label too it’s one of the best labels out there- that’s totally gung-ho about the band. It’s just kind of a different scenario right now. I feel like it’s a lot easier to do stuff with Mutoid Man since we just made a new record and as far as playing music goes, I mean, that’s Ben’s gig, that’s what he does, you know? So even though he has a family schedule music is his bread and butter. I don’t know if that answers your question, but I guess it’s not more one thing taking ultimate priority over the other it’s just sort of-
How things lay out.
Yeah. The lifeline and sort of the blood is moving pretty quickly into Mutoid Man right now so I’m just kind of roling with it.
As far as that’s concerned, clearly you and Ben must have a long history growing up together in that same scene. Such a small, tight scene, Boston in the 2000s. So many solid bands came out of that. How did you come across Nick, was that basically just living in Brooklyn?
We were talking about this the other day. I think the first time I ever had an interaction with Nick was when I was at Saint Vitus just hanging out, I wasn’t even there for a show. I remember he comes walking in to the bar from the live room and he looked really upset. I was sitting at the bar and he came up right next to me and he was like- I think Artie may have been working the bar- and he was like ‘Artie! I need a shot!’ Right next to |
the feeling with which it is delivered, but you also recall Brando's voice. You need sound to display the voice; you need sound for voice to be one of the elements in the composition making up the whole. Color similarly extends the working palette of the director and so extends what can be presented to an audience.
We do not similarly extend the informational content of a movie when we add 3-D spatial effects. And for the simple reason that regular film already allows us to see the spatial relations between the actors and objects that make up the scene; 3-D doesn't change the palette.
Consider: Right now I can see that my coffee table is nearer to me than the dining room table. And I can see that the window is off to the right. I can also see that the window is smaller than the doorway beside it. That is, I can visually experience the three-dimensional spatial relations among the things around me.
I can also put these spatial relations in words. That's what I did in the previous paragraph. I used words to capture spatial relations such as near/far, left/right, above/below, bigger/smaller, and so on. And I can also depict spatial relations such as these. It is possible to make drawings, paintings, or photographs, in which the spatial relations of depicted elements can be readily perceived.
None of this comes for free, by the way. Just as we need to learn the language and logic of spatial relations to describe them adequately in words, so we need to learn the methods of artificial perspective to make drawings that adequately depict spatiality. Similar issues confront the film maker; spatial and temporal coherence and continuity are the stuff of craft.
We get a better sense of what 3-D is by comparing its introduction not to that of sound and color, but rather to that of monster-sized buckets of popcorn and soda, or with big reclining oversized theater seats. People love popcorn and business-class seats at the movies. These greatly enhance, or at least alter, the movie-going experience. But neither has anything to do with film. And so it is with 3-D. It makes a qualitative change in the movie-going experience, no doubt. But one that has about as much to do with the movie as the seat you are sitting on or the candy you are eating. It's a gimmick. A special effect.
And boy, there is an effect. No doubt about it. Just how should we describe this effect? What sort of effect is it? We've already appreciated that it has nothing to do with the representation of spatial relations. 3-D does not stand to film as artificial perspective stands to painting. So what's going on?
What is sometimes claimed is that 3-D gives you a greater sense of really being there, of immersion in the scene. But this is obviously not true. Remember, in normal life we don't usually experience the world the way we experience a 3D movie. When was the last time you ducked and exclaimed "whoa!" when someone walked past you? When was the last time you felt a sense of dizzying motion when you looked around? If 3-D were really an immersion experience, then it would be an experience of the normal, of the humdrum, of our familiar bodily location in the world where we find ourselves. But that is decidedly not what 3-D is like. 3-D is thrilling, surprising, and slightly upsetting (in a thrilling, surprising kind of way).
What 3-D movies deliver is stereoscopic illusion — they manipulate where you focus and create a bizarre sense of pop-out and floating. They don't change the spatial relations you see; they change what it is like for you to experience those relations. They make them feel bizarre and they give you a thrill. For this reason, 3-D is not a step in the direction of virtual reality.
Children love a feeling of bizarre pop-out and floating. Movie lovers shouldn't.Beginning with Season 4, we experimented with prioritizing tournament-style maps on the StarCraft II ladder. This has been working out very well not only because it’s allowed pro players better opportunities to practice on the ladder, but also because players across all skill levels can now experience the tournament feel when playing on Battle.net. Given the success of these changes, we’re removing the last two maps in the current map pool that aren’t tournament-viable, and will be replacing them with new, tournament-ready maps.
Season 5 brings with it the following changes to the existing map pool, which begins the week of December 19:
These maps will be removed:
(4)Abyssal Caverns
(4)Nerazim Crypt
These maps will be added in their place:
(2)Arid Plateau
The rush distance on this map is comparable to Shakuras Plateau or the longest distance on Metalopolis. We tried to go for a slightly more exposed natural expansion, followed up by a greater choice of which third expansion to take. The high-yield expansion offers better resource acquisition, but is also the most difficult to defend, while the corner expansion is similar to expansions found on Metalopolis or Shattered Temple. The base closest to your main is open, but remains easy to defend because of short travel time from the natural expansion. We wanted to go for a more open center with very powerful Watch Tower placements.
(4)Entombed Valley
We’ve seen that rotationally symmetric four-player tournament maps can provide an advantage depending on where you start compared to your opponent and which races are involved in the match-up. This is feedback that we received from the community as well.
Our goal with this map was to address that issue. Whether you start horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, the game should be almost completely symmetric for both players. Also, no matter where you start, we were focused on minimizing features which tend to favor a specific race such as certain races experiencing challenges expanding beyond two bases, air-to-air distances which are too short between starting locations, the center path being the only viable attack route, or too many choke points.
TL Open
On the subject of new maps, TeamLiquid.net recently hosted a map contest to offer map makers a chance to show off their skills. This past weekend, the top contenders in the TL Open battled it out on the top maps that emerged from that contest. The TL Open tournament has now concluded, but you can still see these new maps in action by checking out the replays and VoDs. We’re carefully reviewing the maps that were featured in the tournament, and those which meet our standards have a chance to be included in future ladder seasons.
We’re very much looking forward to your feedback, so please let us know what you think about Arid Plateau and Entombed Valley, as well as the maps that were featured in the TL Open!This country’s population has grown by 1 million because we now live with Syrians. Obviously, this will be the case for a long time to come, because so long as Assad doesn’t leave they can’t go back home and Assad has no intention of leaving. Whether we want it or not we are going to live together in Gaziantep, Hatay, Sanliurfa, Adana, Ankara and Istanbul. Fine, we are going to live together, but how?
In Istanbul’s Taksim, Talimhane and Nisantasi districts, the number of people living in the streets and begging increases by the day. Most of the beggars are children, even babies. To see children jumping on passing cars creating dangers and government officials just watching is a common sight.
Leave that aside and look at the widespread news reports of “Syrians attack” or “Syrians mug.” The results could be disastrous.
The other day in Ankara when reports came out that Syrians mugged someone, local people stoned the building Syrians lived in and set it alight. Violence escalated, many were wounded and detained. There is increasing resentment of Syrians and they are being marginalized. This is dangerous for both sides.
True, Turkey opened its doors to save these people. But no steps were taken to build a sentiment of solidarity with Turkish society. If it continues like this, and the state doesn’t take steps soon, ordinary Turks will start treating the Syrians living in the streets as “dangerous foreigners.” Both sides are then likely to ignore the basic rules of being civilized. It is definitely time to debate what needs to be done.
Sociologist Ferhat Kentel says: “Ideologically we have been indoctrinated to think in terms of as black and white, us and them. That Syrian who mugged in Ankara could have been someone suffering from poverty, trauma or anger. Sadly, we don’t see him as an individual, but as a Syrian. That quickly becomes ‘Death to Syrians!’ The situation could become more complicated. Just as there is racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia in all corners of the world, we too might be facing increasing racism against Syrians. This anger could even become lynching and massacres of the Syrians.”
Kentel added: “There is a spreading perception in poor segments of Turkey that Syrians are stealing their jobs. This is scary. All weak actors tend to blame the easiest targets as the cause of their misery. Instead of taking on the state, militarism or capitalist classes as the culprits, it is easier for them to designate scapegoats.
“This is how racism and xenophobia work in Europe. Instead of showing anger to the boss who hires cheap labor, the anger is directed against the foreigner who accepts such a job. Turkey’s state, civil society and media has lot to do to prevent targeting of foreigners and to explain that the true guilty ones are other forces,” Kentel continued.
Senay Ozden, a researcher and a founder of Syria Culture House Hamish in Istanbul, said: “The general belief is that there are more than 1 million Syrians in Turkey, but without any communication channels between the Turks and Syrians. This incites more discrimination. Unless communications are improved between the Syrians and Turks such attacks are going to increase. Preventing that is one of the goals of the Hamish House we set up together with Syrians. We want to eliminate the belief that the presence of Syrians is only an outcome of the government policy. We want to tell the Turks that it is wrong to see the Syrians only as ‘guns, war, beggars.’”
She added: “It is a gross mistake to lock up the Syrians in camps. Many a Turk I talked to as part of my research says, ‘OK, they brought the Syrians here. But they should not live among us. They should be locked up camps outside cities.’ This is extreme discrimination. Anyone living in cities with us has the right to be as visible as Turkish citizens and participate in our life. What is needed is to develop the environment for the Syrians to live in dignity.”
She then referred to rumors about Syrians, saying: “There is a rumor that the government is paying monthly salaries to Syrians. This is definitely wrong. The Syrians who live outside the camps, which is about three quarters of the total, don’t get anything from the state. Relief assistance in kind is handled by local and foreign NGOs [nongovernmental organizations]. To prevent such prejudices, rumors, and discrimination, the government has to be transparent and tell its citizens the reality.”
Lawyer Mebuse Tekay was more concerned about the status of children. “Begging is not a crime according to the law," she said. "But it is a crime to use children or mentally handicapped people for begging. In such situations, not the beggar but the person who directs him to beg will be punished. The question is: Why is the state allowing this to go on? There is no policy. All governors and police must be informed that there is a law which has to be implemented.”
Tekay went on: “They are already victims, especially children. Children don’t have to work, make money. This is banned. They have to go to school. The state has to look after them. The state has to provide employment opportunities for adults. If the state wants, there won’t be anyone begging in the streets.”
Tekay then asked what the police should do when they see children begging in the streets. “It doesn’t matter if they are Turkish or Syrian. They all deserve state aid. According to current rules, children found begging will first be taken to the Police Children's Bureau. From there, the child is to be sent to the Protect the Children Fund’s shelters. If the child has parents and is begging with their knowledge, then their guardianship should be annulled because making a child beg is ill treatment. I am afraid this process can be against the welfare of children. Think, to separate a Syrian child from his family and place him in a shelter... may not be the right way to separate a child from his family.”
As for adult beggars, Tekay said if these are people who are truly incapable of surviving on their own, then they have to be taken care of in state institutions.(I am at the local library, checking out Bram Stoker’s Dracula. A teenage girl barges up to the desk with the entire Twilight collection in her arms.)
Me: “Hey, I was checking—”
Girl: *completely ignoring me* “I would like to check these out!”
Librarian: “Please wait in line, miss.”
Girl: “Are you refusing me service?”
Librarian: “No, ma’am. How can I help you?”
Girl: “I really love these books! This is, like, the fifth time I’ve read them!”
Librarian: “Perhaps I could interest you in other vampire related materials?”
Girl: “Oh, my god! There’s more?”
(I’m really angry at this point and interject, since the girl is oblivious to the fact she cut in front of me.)
Me: “Yes, there are. However, no other book that has anything to do with vampires is as loaded with useless Mary Sues as that mountain of garbage you oh so adore.”
Girl: *completely clueless* “What do you mean? These books are great!”
Me: *points at cover of Dracula’* “This guy is a vampire.”
Girl: “No he’s not! He’s way too ugly!”
Me: “Yes, he is a vampire. Vampires, as they should be, are hideous predators that only seek to feed on humanity. The so called vegetarianism’ that is present in Twilight offers no sustenance to a vampire. Also, when they go out in the daylight, they burn, not take a bath in a vat of rhinestones.”
Librarian: “He does have a point there.”
Girl: “That’s disgusting! Who would want a vampire like that?”
(She storms out of the library with the Magnum Opus of snowflakes in her book bag.)A New Zealand teenager travelling on a one-way ticket to the United States to meet a convicted sex offender was stopped at the border.
Photo: sainaniritu/123RF
The17-year-old boy told customs officials in Los Angeles he was visiting a man in Michigan who he had met on social media four years ago. The two had never met in person.
United States Customs and Border protection said in a statement the teenager had $26 in cash on him, and had said he was going to visit the man and his family.
The officers found the man had two convictions dating back to 2001, including criminal sexual conduct with a person under 13 and sexual assault.
In the statement, Carlos Martel - CBP director of field operations - said strict standards were followed to protect minors who were travelling alone.
"Minors are particularly vulnerable to sexual predators that commonly present themselves as individuals they can trust," he said.
"CBP officers took decisive action to protect a potential victim from a convicted criminal."
The teenager was refused entry, and has returned home to his caregiver.
A New Zealand police spokesperson said they were aware of the matter and enquiries were ongoing.The NDP is calling for the removal of the Wildrose renewables and electricity critic, who insists the science of man-made climate change isn’t settled.
Don MacIntyre’s latest comments came Monday at a news conference about the new carbon tax, but the official Opposition says the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake MLA isn’t going anywhere.
MacIntyre doesn’t question climate change as such; ask him about it and he’ll tell you it’s a reality, but the climate has been changing since “this world was first spit out into orbit.”
He does question to what extent it’s being caused by humans.
On Tuesday, the NDP caucus issued a news release saying after a year of similar comments from MacIntyre, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean needs to put his foot down and remove the MLA from the renewables portfolio.
The official Opposition didn’t make anyone available for an interview Tuesday, but in an emailed statement, Wildrose caucus whip Jason Nixon said rather than calling for MacIntyre’s head, NDP backbenchers “should be more worried about getting rid of incompetent NDP ministers bringing in carbon taxes, making a mess of children’s services and tearing up confidence in Alberta’s economy.”
Leduc-Beaumont NDP MLA Shaye Anderson said Tuesday if an opposition critic is going to talk about something, “it would be appreciated if they had all the facts.”
“I’m not taking anything away from MLA MacIntyre — he’s done some incredible things in his career and he’s very smart man. His background is really quite interesting, that’s why it frustrates me even more,” Anderson said.
“This is an important issue, and if you’re not going to go on fact-based discussions, then maybe someone else can.”
And those discussions, Anderson said, shouldn’t be about scoring cheap political points.
“I want to make sure it’s not a partisan issue,” he said. “I think it’s something we could actually work on together, because solving climate change is a profitable opportunity for our industries we have here, our manufacturers, our energy companies.”
The term “climate change denier” became highly charged in the legislature last year after the NDP government repeatedly threw it at the Opposition.
On June 1, Speaker Robert Wanner cautioned MLAs to be more selective in bandying it around: “Clearly, it does on occasion create disorder.”
The next day he repeated his plea, after Premier Rachel Notley used the term in question period.
While some Wildrose MLAs have posted comments and links to anti-climate-change videos and articles online, they’re at odds with Jean, who said during the 2015 election: “Man-made climate change is real and we need to tackle it head-on.”
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egraney@postmedia.com
twitter.com/EmmaLGraneyCharges have been laid against a Mississauga man accused of stabbing his former co-workers in a north Toronto office building.
Chuang (Ray) Li, 47, faces charges including three counts of attempted murder and four counts of aggravated assault.
The attack happened just after 9:30 a.m. ET on the fifth floor of an office complex at 4110 Yonge St., near York Mills Avenue.
Three men and one woman — employees of a human resources company — were sent to hospital with injuries following the attack. Three were still there by early evening. The woman, who is 32, was still in critical condition by late Wednesday evening. Two of the men have less serious injuries, police said.
Initial reports indicated the males are between the ages of 35 and 45.
Police received numerous 911 calls Wednesday morning about an assailant attacking people with "a sharp instrument" they believed may have been a knife.
The suspect was subdued by employees until officers arrived.
That afternoon, a statement was issued by Ceridian, the parent company of Dayforce, whose employees were attacked.
"At approximately 9:30 a.m. today, four Ceridian employees were attacked by a former employee at our Toronto office," said the statement from Ceridian CEO David Ossip and president Dave MacKay.
Toronto police stand outside an office building in the city's north end following a stabbing on Wednesday morning. (Nathan Denette / Canadian Press)
While Ceridian did not identify the suspect or the wounded employees, the company said "the entire Ceridian family is shocked and deeply saddened by this incident."
The suspect was not injured in the incident. Footage from outside the office building showed a man wearing a striped blue office shirt and dress pants being led into a police cruiser.
Later Wednesday, police were seen towing a vehicle from the garage of the building.
Li is due to appear in court Thursday morning.If you are feeling suicidal now, please stop long enough to read this. It will only take about five minutes. I do not want to talk you out of your bad feelings. I am not a therapist or other mental health professional - only someone who knows what it is like to be in pain.
I don't know who you are, or why you are reading this page. I only know that for the moment, you're reading it, and that is good. I can assume that you are here because you are troubled and considering ending your life. If it were possible, I would prefer to be there with you at this moment, to sit with you and talk, face to face and heart to heart. But since that is not possible, we will have to make do with this.
I have known a lot of people who have wanted to kill themselves, so I have some small idea of what you might be feeling. I know that you might not be up to reading a long book, so I am going to keep this short. While we are together here for the next five minutes, I have five simple, practical things I would like to share with you. I won't argue with you about whether you should kill yourself. But I assume that if you are thinking about it, you feel pretty bad.
Well, you're still reading, and that's very good. I'd like to ask you to stay with me for the rest of this page. I hope it means that you're at least a tiny bit unsure, somewhere deep inside, about whether or not you really will end your life. Often people feel that, even in the deepest darkness of despair. Being unsure about dying is okay and normal. The fact that you are still alive at this minute means you are still a little bit unsure. It means that even while you want to die, at the same time some part of you still wants to live. So let's hang on to that, and keep going for a few more minutes.
Start by considering this statement:
"Suicide is not chosen; it happens
when pain exceeds
resources for coping with pain."
That's all it's about. You are not a bad person, or crazy, or weak, or flawed, because you feel suicidal. It doesn't even mean that you really want to die - it only means that you have more pain than you can cope with right now. If I start piling weights on your shoulders, you will eventually collapse if I add enough weights... no matter how much you want to remain standing. Willpower has nothing to do with it. Of course you would cheer yourself up, if you could.
Don't accept it if someone tells you, "that's not enough to be suicidal about." There are many kinds of pain that may lead to suicide. Whether or not the pain is bearable may differ from person to person. What might be bearable to someone else, may not be bearable to you. The point at which the pain becomes unbearable depends on what kinds of coping resources you have. Individuals vary greatly in their capacity to withstand pain.
When pain exceeds pain-coping resources, suicidal feelings are the result. Suicide is neither wrong nor right; it is not a defect of character; it is morally neutral. It is simply an imbalance of pain versus coping resources.
You can survive suicidal feelings if you do either of two things: (1) find a way to reduce your pain, or (2) find a way to increase your coping resources. Both are possible.
Now I want to tell you five things to think about.
1 You need to hear that people do get through this -- even people who feel as badly as you are feeling now. Statistically, there is a very good chance that you are going to live. I hope that this information gives you some sense of hope. 2 Give yourself some distance. Say to yourself, "I will wait 24 hours before I do anything." Or a week. Remember that feelings and actions are two different things - just because you feel like killing yourself, doesn't mean that you have to actually do it right this minute. Put some distance between your suicidal feelings and suicidal action. Even if it's just 24 hours. You have already done it for 5 minutes, just by reading this page. You can do it for another 5 minutes by continuing to read this page. Keep going, and realize that while you still feel suicidal, you are not, at this moment, acting on it. That is very encouraging to me, and I hope it is to you. 3 People often turn to suicide because they are seeking relief from pain. Remember that relief is a feeling. And you have to be alive to feel it. You will not feel the relief you so desperately seek, if you are dead. 4 Some people will react badly to your suicidal feelings, either because they are frightened, or angry; they may actually increase your pain instead of helping you, despite their intentions, by saying or doing thoughtless things. You have to understand that their bad reactions are about their fears, not about you. But there are people out there who can be with you in this horrible time, and will not judge you, or argue with you, or send you to a hospital, or try to talk you out of how badly you feel. They will simply care for you. Find one of them. Now. Use your 24 hours, or your week, and tell someone what's going on with you. It is okay to ask for help. Try: Send an anonymous e-mail to The Samaritans
Call 1-800-SUICIDE in the U.S.
in the U.S. Teenagers, call Covenant House NineLine, 1-800-999-9999
Look in the front of your phone book for a crisis line
Call a psychotherapist
Carefully choose a friend or a minister or rabbi, someone who is likely to listen But don't give yourself the additional burden of trying to deal with this alone. Just talking about how you got to where you are, releases an awful lot of the pressure, and it might be just the additional coping resource you need to regain your balance. 5 Suicidal feelings are, in and of themselves, traumatic. After they subside, you need to continue caring for yourself. Therapy is a really good idea. So are the various self-help groups available both in your community and on the Internet. This resource is hosted by mental health information at Psych Central
Well, it's been a few minutes and you're still with me. I'm really glad.
Since you have made it this far, you deserve a reward. I think you should reward yourself by giving yourself a gift. The gift you will give yourself is a coping resource. Remember, back up near the top of the page, I said that the idea is to make sure you have more coping resources than you have pain. So lets give you another coping resource, or two, or ten...! until they outnumber your sources of pain.
Now, while this page may have given you some small relief, the best coping resource we can give you is another human being to talk with. If you find someone who wants to listen, and tell them how you are feeling and how you got to this point, you will have increased your coping resources by one. Hopefully the first person you choose won't be the last. There are a lot of people out there who really want to hear from you. It's time to start looking around for one of them.
Now: I'd like you to call someone.
And while you're at it, you can still stay with me for a bit. Check out these sources of online help.
Additional things to read at this site:
How serious is our condition?..."he only took 15 pills, he wasn't really serious..." if others are making you feel like you're just trying to get attention... read this.
Why is it so hard for us to recover from being suicidal?...while most suicidal people recover and go on, others struggle with suicidal thoughts and feelings for months or even years. Suicide and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Recovery from grief and loss...has anyone significant in your life recently died? You would be in good company... many suicidal people have recently suffered a loss.
The stigma of suicide that prevents suicidal people from recovering: we are not only fighting our own pain, but the pain that others inflict on us... and that we ourselves add to. Stigma is a huge complicating factor in suicidal feelings.
Resources about depression...if you are suicidal, you are most likely experiencing some form of depression. This is good news, because depression can be treated, helping you feel better.
Do you know someone who is suicidal... or would you like to be able to help, if the situation arises? Learn what to do, so that you can make the situation better, not worse.
Handling a call from a suicidal person...a very helpful ten-point list that you can print out and keep near your phone or computer.
What can I do to help someone who may be suicidal?...a helpful guide, includes Suicide Warning Signs.
The Samaritans - trained volunteers are available 24 hours a day to listen and provide emotional support. You can call a volunteer on the phone, or e-mail them. Confidential and non-judgmental. Short of writing to a psychotherapist, the best source of online help.
Talk to a therapist online - Read this page to find out how.
Depression support group online: Psych Central Depression Support Group - Please note: this is a very big group, but amidst all the chatter, it is possible to find someone who will hear you and offer support.
Psych Central has a good listing of online resources for suicide and other mental health needs.
Still feel bad? These jokes might relieve the pressure for a minute or two.
If you want help finding a human being to talk with in person, who can help you live through this, try reading this article about how to Choose a Competent Counselor.
Sometimes people need additional private help before they are ready to talk with someone in person. Here are a few books you could read on your own in private. I know from personal experience that each one has helped someone like you.
Suicide: The Forever Decision by Paul G. Quinnett, PhD (Continuum, ISBN 0-8264-0391-3). Frank and helpful conversation with a therapist who cares.
Choosing to Live: how to defeat suicide through cognitive therapy by Thomas E. Ellis PsyD and Cory F. Newman PhD (New Harbinger Publications, ISBN 1-57224-056-3). Another conversational book with practical help for suicidal persons.
How I Stayed Alive When My Brain Was Trying to Kill Me: One Person's Guide to Suicide Prevention by Susan Rose Blauner (William Morrow, ISBN 0066211212). A very practical survival guide by an actual survivor.
Out of the Nightmare : Recovery From Depression And Suicidal Pain, by David L. Conroy, PhD (Authors Choice Press, ISBN 0595414974). As if suicidal persons weren't feeling bad enough already, our thoughtless attitudes can cause them to feel guilt and shame, and keep them from getting help in time. Dr. Conroy blasts apart the myths of suicide, and looks at suicidal feelings from the inside, in a down to earth, non-judgmental way. This is a book that will save lives by washing away the stigma of suicide and opening the door to a real way out of the nightmare.
I make no money whatsoever on recommending these books... they are simply recommendations.
Would you like to print out this page? Here is a plain black-on-white version that should print more easily.
Want to share your suicide story?
Please visit the Suicide Project and leave your story
Have feedback?Halliburton reported better-than-expected first quarter earnings on Monday, but still swung to a loss and said the slump in oil prices will continue to be a headwind and it's unsure for how long.
The Houston, Texas-based company also called the quarterly decline in North American drilling activity "unprecedented," saying it drove pressure to cut costs and has squeezed its margins.
Oilfield services companies like Halliburton have felt pressure to offer price concessions as their customers grapple with the lower price of oil and are forced to slash their spending.
“Industry prospects will continue to be challenged in the coming quarters, and visibility to the ultimate depth and length of this cycle remains uncertain," said CEO Dave Lesar in a statement.
The company recorded some $823 million in after-tax charges during the quarter related to inventory write-downs and severance costs, among other charges, provoked by the downturn in the energy market.
Halliburton reported a net loss of $643 million, or 76 cents per share, compared to a profit of $622 million, or 73 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding special items, net income was 49 cents per share, beating analyst estimates of 37 cents per share.
Revenue declined 4% to $7.1 billion, also surpassing analyst estimates of $6.9 billion.
Halliburton, which makes the majority of its revenue in North America, said revenue in the region declined by 9%. This comes as the number of rigs in the U.S. has dropped by 21% and activity has fallen by 50% from its November peak, according to the company.
Its overseas operations have fared better, helped in part by an increase in drilling activity in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. Yet the company is still bracing for customers to slash their budgets as they take into account low commodity prices.
Halliburton is set to acquire smaller competitor Baker Hughes for $34.6 billion, a deal announced in November that is expected to help both companies weather lower oil prices.
Shares of Halliburton, which are down 23% over the last 12 months, were up slightly in pre-market trading to $47.23.Like many other little American kids, all I wanted to do was eat junk food, play video games and goof around with my friends. I didn’t like being made to go to school, going to bed at 9 PM, eating vegetables, doing homework after school, or taking out the garbage. And like most other little kids who don’t like abiding by the rules of their parents, I sometimes fantasized about what it would be like to run away from home. But when I packed my backpack full of clothes and individually-wrapped packs of peanut butter crackers from the pantry, I could never go through with my plan. I knew if I ran away, I’d be hungry, cold, lost, and eventually found by the police and returned home.
Libertarian views of government regulation are very similar to how the 6 year-old views the authority exerted by their parents. Ron Paul’s every-individual-for- themselves rhetoric appeals to young, radical libertarians with simplistic viewpoints of authority, and an ignorance of why government exists in the first place.
In Ron Paul’s ideal America, safety regulations imposed on employers by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would be a thing of the past. Clean air and water regulations imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency would be no more. Taxpayers would save money since Ron Paul would abolish the Department of Education and cut the Food & Drug Administration budget by 40%. Employers would save money by paying workers as little as they wish, since Ron Paul would abolish the Davis-Bacon Act. Corporate giants would be free to monopolize markets, since Ron Paul opposes federal antitrust legislation. And employees would no longer be required to pay into Social Security.
So what would this libertarian utopia look like, if Ron Paul were elected and followed through on his campaign promises?
-Families grieving for loved ones lost due to Massey Energy’s negligence in the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion would have to accept that their relatives were casualties of the invisible hand of the unfettered free market. And Massey would've gotten off scot-free for polluting Martin County, Kentucky's drinking water supply with 300 million gallons of coal slurry.
-Millions of college students dependent on Pell grants would be forced to move back home and work minimum-wage jobs, no longer financially able to further their education. Oh wait-- what minimum wage?
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-Food recalls would be a regular occurrence when tainted meat and vegetables hit supermarket shelves and cause record outbreaks of e-coli. And risky new drugs will avoid FDA tests and hit the express lane to the pharmacy, endangering the health of millions.
-Too-big-to-fail banks like Wells Fargo, Citi, Chase and Bank of America would be allowed to merge and/or buy out their competitors, as would oil giants like ExxonMobil, and Chevron, as would cell service providers like AT&T and Verizon.
-The Social Security trust fund would become insolvent, making retirement that much harder for those who paid into it all their lives.
Ron Paul and his right-libertarian ideology does espouse a new kind of freedom, just as rebellious children who fantasize about running away from home dream of a new kind of freedom. But as much as we may have rebelled against our parents as little kids, we eventually matured and realized that the rules and regulations our parents imposed on us were meant so we’d grow up to be responsible, functioning adults in society.
An unregulated little kid free to eat junk food and play video games all day won’t ever learn the responsibilities of adulthood. And an unregulated society where every individual is out for themselves will quickly collapse.Texans quarterback Brock Osweiler lined up in the shotgun formation on Sunday, scanning the field and searching in vain for precious space in tight passing windows against the San Diego Chargers.
It was ultimately the anatomy of another red-zone failure for the Texans' offense.
Although Osweiler located big tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz, his pass was 2 yards shy of the first-down marker. So, the Texans wound up settling for a 19-yard Nick Novak field goal during an eventual 21-13 defeat.
It was a familiar story for the Texans. They rank 30th in red-zone offense. The Texans went 1-for-2 in the red zone against the Chargers.
Worn-out script
"We've got to be better in the red zone," Texans coach Bill O'Brien said. "We got down there a few times. We can execute better down there. We can design better plays down there. We all have to a better job in the red zone, there's no doubt about that."
The Texans have scored just 13 red-zone touchdowns for a 43.3 percent success rate out of 30 scoring opportunities inside opponents' 20-yard line.
One of the reasons the Texans have struggled in the red zone is their inability to run the football effectively in close quarters.
During the third-quarter failure against the Chargers, the Texans had a first-and-goal at the Chargers' 6-yard |
blockchain works is simple: Blockchain supports a highly distributed master list of all currency currently outstanding. It's validated through anonymous consensus -- using a very strict set of technical rules -- on a networked public ledger, a full and exhaustively complete copy of which is held by every entity holding Bitcoins around the world.
The key to the whole approach is surprisingly simple: If a Bitcoin being proffered isn't in the blockchain, it's not valid, and everyone agrees it doesn't exist or is fraudulent. Transactions are logged in perpetuity, and everyone has a copy of every single transaction that's ever taken place in a cryptographically sealed chain, ensuring documentation of not only the genesis of the Bitcoin itself, but all past and current ownership.
It's like having one massive digital bank ledger, one that's big enough to hold every single transaction that will ever occur, and which everyone agrees is the final record on what currency exists and who holds it.
Because everyone has a copy of the blockchain, if for instance someone tries to alter it to claim ownership of currency that isn't really theirs, the discrepancy is immediately obvious to every other user of the cryptocurrency. It's a simple yet powerful concept, and because of what it can enable, an important one.
The significance of blockchain was recognized early on, but like most technology, it took a while for the broader market to understand what a big leap forward it was in creating a workable model of total network transparency that fosters deep mutual trust of a system which has no 'owner.' This is why discussions of blockchain have created so much interest recently in the financial world, with sober voices now saying blockchain has become a 'big opportunity' for accounting and finance.
Blockchain moves into the large enterprise
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and so it's been interesting to watch the latest announcement this week from a highly-respected financial firm like Deutsche Bank, as they begin testing blockchain approaches to improve "enforcement and clearing of derivatives contracts, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering registries and surveillance, and securities asset servicing." In short, Bitcoin technology has moved into the big leagues.
Deutsche Bank joins well-known organizations like CME Group, BNP Paribas, and UBS in investigating how blockchain technologies can create shared environments with complete transparency and subsequent trust to create instruments like'smart bonds' or reducing the overhead of increasingly expensive 'post-trade processes.' Even Deloitte is now using blockchain in trials for client auditing.
But the implications for blockchain go far beyond the financial world. Almost any process that involves the outcomes of shared transactions can be improved by what blockchain brings to the table: A highly theft and tamper resistant model in which all the information about what has happened and what is happening is contained entirely with a closed-system which everyone can keep and observe. The record cannot be lost or corrupted due to everyone having a copy of the total transaction chain.
'Trust but verify' has long been the mantra of business. Now the blockchain turn this into 'trust because you can always 100% verify.'
Uses for Blockchain in the enterprise
The implications for the enterprise are profound, and run the gamut from visionary to perhaps a bit concerning. It is possible -- even likely -- you will soon encounter blockchain as the underlying technology in the following types of business activities:
Smart property. The overhead of managing the official records for ownership of objects smaller than cars or houses hasn't been worth the trouble, until now. Blockchain can track the ownership and exchange of billions of objects in our businesses and households, identifying them in the case of theft, ensuring fair transfer during purchasing, while also making everything easier to amortize, tax, and otherwise track.
. The overhead of managing the official records for ownership of objects smaller than cars or houses hasn't been worth the trouble, until now. Blockchain can track the ownership and exchange of billions of objects in our businesses and households, identifying them in the case of theft, ensuring fair transfer during purchasing, while also making everything easier to amortize, tax, and otherwise track. Next-generation copyright and IP. Use a blockchain approach to claim the intellectual property of a business or person as their own and set its rules for their use. Anywhere that work goes, when it is used, its use is recorded, and payments triggered. Monegraph is a good example of this already operating today.
Use a blockchain approach to claim the intellectual property of a business or person as their own and set its rules for their use. Anywhere that work goes, when it is used, its use is recorded, and payments triggered. Monegraph is a good example of this already operating today. Digital contract management. While services like Docusign have taken a lot of the friction out of paper agreements already, the next step is to make contracts -- and all the attendant changes to them, modifications of parties, and extensions, etc -- all part of a third party blockchain that ensures everyone agrees what was done and when, which can then be used as unforgeable, indisputable evidence in arbitration and court.
. While services like Docusign have taken a lot of the friction out of paper agreements already, the next step is to make contracts -- and all the attendant changes to them, modifications of parties, and extensions, etc -- all part of a third party blockchain that ensures everyone agrees what was done and when, which can then be used as unforgeable, indisputable evidence in arbitration and court. Employment and work records. As the economy tends towards more freelancing, e-lancing, and on-demand types of work -- and which has always been the case with contractors -- a blockchain can do what LinkedIn can't: Ensure that is a clear chain of workplace/job documentation, ideally facing two ways in terms of feedback, of work history that can be verified.
Given the versatility of blockchain, this list is just the very early beginning. The uses for blockchain has been considered or actively implemented for already continues to grow in leaps and bounds. And like almost any promising technology, it'll inevitably be shoehorned into functions that aren't always the best fit, and no doubt the hype cycle will go up on an down over the next few years.
Yet blockchain has already captured the imagination of thousands of entrepreneurs and innovators. We're already seeing blockchain consultants and system integrators begin to emerge in good numbers, always a sign that a new industry is beginning.
Blockchain will be a new digital foundation for business
Even in my work in collaboration, we can see parallels with blockchain. For example, we've seen an increasing move to engage in "working out loud" on enterprise social networks to build a shared sense of understanding and trust across an organization by logging our work and ideas out in the open for all to see. The blockchain model is really just one of radical openness, sharing, and trust over networks, a model that we're seeing recur over and over again.
It's not hard to realize that blockchain is a convergence of many related good ideas, some from open source ("everyone can participate", "with enough eyeballs, all bugs are scarce"), some from earlier but similar technologies like BitTorrent, and a bit from the DIY/maker ethic of self-sufficiency and self-determination.
Will most enterprises need a blockchain strategy? Not all of us. But if you're in an industry for which blockchain stands to revolutionize the fundamental process (such as financial services), it's time to start studying it closely as it's part of your digital transformation challenges. But for the rest of it, blockchain will just appear in the products and services we will consume.
What is important is a level of understanding of how it works, how to avail the organization to its advantages, and how to determine how it brings unique opportunities to the table for the business.
Additional Reading
Intuit launches Bitcoin payment service
The enterprise technologies to watch in 2015
New York finalizes Bitcoin trading rulesPosted by Suns
Since Overwatch has become very popular, a lot of pro player find new meta each months.
Because of the evolving metagame, which pretty much dictate all heroe pick in the competitive format, not all heroes are regarded as equal.
Heck, some heroes pick are considered "troll", like Symmetra and Torbjorn.
Thoses heroes flagged as 'useless' are not healthy for anyone.
My question is: Will the current effort toward hero balance will completely erase or dissipate those "troll" pick?
I like all heroes. I understand some perform better than other. But no heroes deserve to be so underwhelming that no one wants to see them ever.
It's never our intention to have a hero be perceived as a "troll pick", but that will inevitably happen sometimes. Let's say that we all agreed that all of the heroes were perfectly balanced (just pretend with me), even if we touched nothing, eventually the balance would shift over time due to evolving playstyles, strategies and meta-trends. A lot of us like pro sports and tend to think of those games (soccer, football, hockey, basketball) as "timeless". But if you follow those games closely, the leagues have had to make minor tweaks to the games to keep them fun and balanced over time. It's a weird analogy, but it is very similar to hero balance in a game like Overwatch. In those pro sports, players and coaches evolved their ways of thinking about the game that required the game itself to change at times.We will absolutely do our best to make sure all of our heroes our viable. With so many heroes, I do believe the playerbase will (at times) decide that certain heroes are out of fashion and therefore deem them as "troll picks". Sometimes this will be very valid. And sometimes it will be perception.Both Torb and Symmetra are being looked at right now. We want to try to improve them in ways that makes them more fun to play, more enjoyable to have on your team and try to make sure they are not infuriating to play against.We wrestle with the issue that players get very upset at us when they perceive "the meta is stale" and certain heroes are not viable. Yet it's also very disruptive to the playerbase for us to make changes. It's a bit of a Catch-22 but we do our best to responsibly look at all heroes all the time and make sure nothing is terribly unbalanced or worse, un-fun.Get rich and not only can you buy a fancy car; you can probably afford a longer life, right? After all, in the US, wealthy elderly live 5% to 10% longer than poorer seniors. Not so in the case of Costa Rica. As it turns out, the country is home to one of the five global pockets of extreme longevity (the others are in Italy, Greece, Japan and the US). And new scientific research suggests that the area’s residents don’t live long in spite of their penury; they’re still kicking because of it.
The studies involve residents of the Nicoya Peninsula, in the northwest. A remote area where the Chorotega people intermarried with Spanish settlers long ago, its isolation has kept tourists and other industries at bay.
Nicoya is impoverished even by Costa Rican standards, which are lower than the other four countries to begin with. For instance, in 2012, GDP per capita was $12,800, compared with the US’s $50,700. And Costa Rica spent $1,330 per person on health care, 15% of what the US spent. Yet Costa Rican 60-year-olds are four times more likely to reach age 90 than those in the US, according to Dan Buettner, who studies “blue zones,” as he calls those five pockets of extreme longevity. Centenarians—people older than 100—make up around 0.010% of Costa Rica’s population; in the US, they compose 0.016%.
However impressive that is, Nicoyans are the true Methuselahs of Costa Rica, living two to three years longer than their countrymen. They also have the lowest rates of middle-aged mortality on the planet, and the world’s second highest concentration of centenarian males (the graybeards of the Barbagia region of Sardinia take first place).
Until recently, those pondering the mystery of Nicoyan longevity chalked it up mainly to a combination of mineral-rich water and a fairly meat-free diet. But as Nature explains, research by a team of Stanford School of Medicine epidemiologists offers another answer. It has to do with telomeres, the caps on the end of DNA sequences that prevent genes from losing crucial information for cell reproduction—the “plastic ends of a boot lace.” The shortening of telomeres over time limits the number of times a cell can divide without abnormalities forming (such as those that lead to cancer, cardiovascular disease and dementia).
Nicoyans have really long telomeres, compared with those of other Costa Ricans. As for the cause, the Stanford researchers found no connection to diet (Nicoyans actually had more problems with obesity and blood pressure than average Costa Ricans). Instead, they discovered that families with the longest telomeres were also the poorest.
It’s not clear why this would be the case, though there are some clues. For one, the poorest Nicoyans also tend to live together; those that lived alone had telomeres that resembled those of average Costa Ricans.
Other research suggests telomere length relates to stress and the quality of social relationships. Michel Poulain, a demographer at the Estonian Institute for Population Studies, told Nature that family support that helped give the elderly a sense of purpose could also be a factor. In short, the psychological wellbeing that comes from companionship and reduced stress could hold the secret to Nicoyan longevity.A TEENAGE girl was sexualy assaulted by four men before being abducted and subjected to a second round of abuse, police in Victoria say.
A hunt is underway for the men over the girl’s terrible ordeal, which began in St Albans Park in Geelong about 4am on Sunday.
Police said the four men, believed to be aged between 20 and their mid 30s, allegedly approached the girl and a teenage boy in the park. The boy was physically assaulted before he managed to run for help while the female was sexually assaulted nearby.
The men then allegedly took the girl to a nearby house, where a further sexual assault occurred.
Police eventually found the woman near the park about an hour later.
The four males are described as:
1. Youngish looking, 173cm and had a thick black beard. He was wearing a long sleeve black T-shirt with no collar and blue jeans and spoke with an Australian accent.
2. Aged 25 to 30, 183cm tall with solid and muscly build and unshaven stubble on his face. He was bare chested with tattoos which may have been tribal along the length of both arms and across the chest. This male was wearing jeans and was possibly bare footed and spoke with an English accent.
3. Aged in his mid 20s, 178cm tall with a bulky build and clean shaven face. He was wearing white long sleeve plain T-shirt top and black jeans.
4. Aged in his mid 30s, 184cm in height, unshaven stubble on his face and with a bulky build. He was wearing a short sleeve black T-shirt and possibly spoke with an English accent.
Sexual Crime Squad detectives are appealing for public assistance to identify these males.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.Electronic Arts has admitted that its refusal to provide refunds for games purchased digitally via Origin was against Australian consumer law and is amending its refund policy after being warned by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Kotaku Australia reports.
According to the report, the publisher will also be setting up a contact number for Australian consumers who digitally purchased a faulty video game via Origin after January 2012. At the time of writing, users are able to refund a game on Origin within 24 hours after it is first launched, within seven days from the date of purchase, or within seven days from the game’s release date if it was pre-ordered; whichever condition comes first.
"Businesses such as EA selling digitally downloadable goods cannot avoid their responsibilities under the Australian Consumer Law just because they are located outside of Australia," ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.
"It is a breach of the Australian Consumer Law for businesses to state that customers are not entitled to refunds under any circumstances. Where a product has a major failure, consumers can insist on a refund or replacement at their choice. Representations that this right has or can be excluded, restricted or modified are false or misleading," Sims said.
In a statement sent to GameSpot, EA regional public relations manager for Asia Pacific Snezana Stojanovska said, "We're pleased to have worked co-operatively with the ACCC to resolve the ACCC's concerns and ensure our players in Australia have the best possible experience when purchasing and playing EA games. In addition to rights available to our players under the Australian Consumer Law, we are also proud to offer our global, industry-leading Great Game Guarantee that allows for digital returns within certain timeframes if anyone is not satisfied with a digitally-downloaded game from EA." More details on the EA's Great Game Guarantee can be found on the Origin website.
EA came under fire in 2013 for its refusal to offer refunds for SimCity, a game which launched in March with various server issues that negatively impacted gameplay. At the time, the publisher's Returns & Cancellations page stated that it did not offer refunds. The Origin Great Game Guarantee feature was introduced in August 2013 to a selected list of countries, which included Australia.
EA is not the only company to face warnings from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Last year Valve came under fire for the refund policy of products on its digital platform Steam, and its alleged conflict with Australian consumers' right to a refund under the Australian Consumer Law.After having deployed a Meteor application in under 1 minute, I thought I’d try myself at another deployment. This time I wanted to go for something dynamic and having watched Simple Made Easy by Rich Hickey, the author of Clojure, I thought I’d try myself at deploying that. Again for the impatient, here the 1 minute fix:
Prerequisites
Quick Steps
Put [com.palletops/uberimage "0.4.1"] into the :plugins vector of your :user profile. Add :uberimage {:tag "registry.giantswarm.io/<username>/<repo>:<tag>"} to your project’s project.clj. Open the project root and run lein uberimage. You will get back an image uuid. Run docker push registry.giantswarm.io/<username>/<repo>:<tag>. Create a simple swarm.json using the image you pushed above. swarm up Profit
The Basics
One cool thing with Clojure is that with Leiningen, you get a pretty cool tool for automating projects and builds. There’s tons of plugins for Leiningen, incl. tools for development, testing, and deployment. Luckily, I stumbled upon the lein-uberimage plugin, which basically builds a Docker image that runs your Clojure project’s uberjar.
For getting this plugin running you first need a Java JDK, which you should have anyway, if you’re developing Clojure apps. You also need Leiningen installed, which again should be quite common for Clojure developers. You also need Docker to build, run, and push your image.
Building and Testing Your Application Locally
If you don’t have an own Clojure project, yet, you can clone this helloworld repo that Dennis made. Once you have a Clojure project, you need to add [com.palletops/uberimage "0.4.1"] to the :plugins vector of your :user profile. A minimal ~/.lein/profiles.clj should look like:
{:user {:plugins [[com.palletops/uberimage "0.4.1"]]}}
For more information check out the lein-uberimage GitHub repo.
Now, open the project root and run lein uberimage. You will get back an image uuid. You can test the image locally with
$ docker run -d -p 3000:8080 <image-uuid>
, where 8080 is the port that your application listens on and 3000 the port that the container exposes. Open your browser at http://<docker-host>:3000 to see if it worked.
Preparing and Pushing Your Docker Image to the Registry
However, the image we built above, does not have any name or tag. To make lein ubermage add those to the image it builds, add :uberimage {:tag "registry.giantswarm.io/<username>/<repo>:<tag>"} to your project’s project.clj.
Now you can run lein uberimage again to build an image with your desired name ( <repo> ) and tag. To push this image to your Giant Swarm private registry you just run
$ docker push registry.giantswarm.io/<username>/<repo>:<tag>
Running your Application on the Swarm
Having your image on the registry makes running it on the Swarm a breeze.
First, you create a short swarm.json using the image you pushed above. In my example it looks like following:
{ "name": "clojure-test", "components": { "clojure-test": { "image": "registry.giantswarm.io/puja/clojure-test:1.0", "ports": [ 8080 ], "domains": { "8080/tcp": [ "clojure-puja.gigantic.io" ] } } } }
Note: You should change the image entry to reflect your own username instead of puja.(Photo: Shutterstock)
A North Carolina church that is already under investigation for kidnapping a gay man and attempting to beat his homosexuality out of him is once again in the spotlight after it was revealed that church members have been importing worshipers from Brazil and turning them into slaves.
According to the Associated Press, the Word of Faith Fellowship recruits young members from two affiliated churches in Brazil to come to the U.S. on tourist and student visas where they are put to work on the church’s 35-acre compound in Spindale for no pay.
One man, identified as Andre Oliveira, told the AP that he was forced to work 15 hours a day, usually for no pay, cleaning offices and warehouses owned by the evangelical church. He well also forced to work at private businesses owned by some of the church’s ministers. Olivera stated that failure to comply resulted in beatings and shaming from the pulpit.
“They kept us as slaves,” Oliveira explained. “We were expendable. We meant nothing to them. Nothing. How can you do that to people — claim you love them and then beat them in the name of God?”
According to AP, “Under U.S. law, visitors on tourist visas are prohibited from performing work for which people normally would be compensated. Those on student visas are allowed some work, under circumstances that were not met at Word of Faith Fellowship.”
Former congregants who came from Brazil said that they had their passports taken away and lived in “horrific” living conditions, with as many as eight people living in the basement of a church leader’s home. What little money they were paid was immediately returned to the church to pay for their living expenses.
“Brazilians came here for labor. I’m telling you, that’s it,” claimed Thiago Silva who was recruited at age 18. He called the treatment “a violation of human rights.”
The church is currently being investigated by the U.S. Attorney in Charlotte for crimes that may go back years and involve hundreds of young Brazilians.Reagan's 'Tear Down This Wall' Myth As the United States celebrates Ronald Reagan’s centennial birthday, the defining proof of his greatness as president will be represented by two sequential film clips – Reagan in Berlin ordering Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” followed by scenes of the Berlin Wall coming down. Email
Printer friendly The intended impression of this editing technique is to suggest a causal relationship: tough-guy Reagan tells the Soviet leader to do something and, poof, it’s done. Ronald Reagan “wins the Cold War.” While this video sophistry has worked wonders with the American public – and has been used frequently by U.S. networks, including in a 2007 PBS documentary by neoconservative Richard Perle – the reality is that the two events, Reagan’s speech and the Wall’s destruction, had little to do with one another. Reagan made his speech on June 12, 1987, and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall did not begin until November 1989, more than two years later when Reagan was in retirement. Even then, President Gorbachev didn’t “tear down this wall”; the German people did, starting with sledgehammers and later using industrial equipment, as East and West Germany were reunified. Nevertheless, the deceptive “tear down this wall” editing has become a hallmark of the Reagan mythology – and given the right-wing media's power in the United States and the timidity of the mainstream press, few talking heads are likely to object when the clips are shown again as Reagan’s birthday rolls around on Feb. 6. Nor will any politician, Republican or Democrat, complain. Careerists in Washington know that the better part of valor is to play along with the Reagan myths. After all, for the past two decades, the conventional wisdom has been to give Reagan credit for “winning the Cold War.” So why rock the boat now? But the truth is far more complex and much less favorable to Reagan’s historical legacy. It would be more accurate to say that Reagan extended or even re-ignited the Cold War at the cost of well over $1 trillion in additional U.S. military spending, while he also implicated the United States in human rights atrocities that badly damaged America’s reputation around the world. Clearly, the course of history might have been very different – and possibly far more peaceful – if Reagan had not emerged as an attractive political figure on the national stage in the 1970s and 1980s. He provided an amiable face to cover years of human horror and budgetary madness. The Dream of Détente In the early-to-mid-1970s, the mainstream political consensus was that the Cold War was winding down as President Richard Nixon promoted an era of détente. Washington and Moscow – both weary from their long competition – were looking for ways to ease tensions, especially on nuclear arms. At that point, Reagan began his rise to national power, fueled by a right-wing contention that supporters of détente were wrong about the Soviet interest in accommodations with the West. The Right's view was that Moscow was only lulling Washington to sleep before a final push for global conquest. It also became an article of faith on the Right – and among a new group, called the neoconservatives – that CIA analysts were willfully underestimating Soviet strength and overstating Moscow’s vulnerabilities. So, in 1976, as Reagan was scaring President Gerald Ford by making a strong bid for the Republican nomination, Ford banished the word “détente” from his administration’s lexicon and allowed a group of Cold War hardliners (and some early neocons, such as Paul Wolfowitz) to conduct an unprecedented challenge to the assessment of the CIA’s famed Kremlinologists. The idea of this right-wing counter-analysis, known as “Team B,” had been opposed by the previous CIA director, William Colby, as in inappropriate intrusion into the integrity of the CIA’s analytical product. But Ford’s new CIA director, a politically ambitious George H.W. Bush, was ready to acquiesce to the right-wing pressure. “Although his top analysts argued against such an undertaking, Bush checked with the White House, obtained an O.K., and by May 26 [1976] signed off on the experiment with the notation, ‘Let her fly!!,” wrote Anne Hessing Cahn after reviewing declassified documents on the “Team B” experiment. [See “Team B: The Trillion Dollar Experiment,” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.] Although the CIA’s raw data did not support the right-wing alarmist suspicions anymore than the polished analysis did, Team B still went with a worst-case scenario of Soviet power and intentions. Team B simply concluded that the absence of evidence about suspected Soviet super-weapons simply meant the Soviets were well-skilled at hiding the weapons from U.S. detection. In other words, the absence of evidence became not only evidence that the Soviet weapons existed but that U.S. intelligence was too incompetent to find them. (Years later, it would become clear that the exotic weapons never existed, though the same tactic would be used by Wolfowitz and other hardliners in 2002-03 to sell the public on Iraq’s non-existent WMD caches.) Looking back, Team B’s analysis of the Soviet Union as a rising power on the verge of overwhelming the United States is recognized by intelligence professionals and many historians as a ludicrous fantasy. Still, it distorted the national security debate in the late 1970s and drove Reagan’s ascension to the top of the U.S. political system. American right-wingers and neocons wielded the analysis like a club to bludgeon more moderate Republicans and Democrats who saw a declining Soviet threat. Team B also set the stage for a full-scale assault on the CIA’s analytical division after Reagan won the presidency in 1980. Purging the Analysts As Reagan and his vice presidential running mate, George H.W. Bush, prepared to take office, right-wing hardliners wrote Reagan’s transition team report on the intelligence community, suggesting that the CIA analytical division was not simply obtuse in its supposed failure to perceive the worsening Soviet threat, but treasonous. “These failures are of such enormity,” the transition team report said, “that they cannot help but suggest to any objective observer that the agency itself is compromised to an unprecedented extent and that its paralysis is attributable to causes more sinister than incompetence.” [See Mark Perry’s Eclipse.] Even CIA official Robert Gates, an anti-Soviet hardliner himself, recognized the impact that the incoming administration’s hostility had on the CIA analysts. “That the Reaganites saw their arrival as a hostile takeover was apparent in the most extraordinary transition period of my career,” Gates wrote in his memoirs, From the Shadows. “The reaction inside the Agency to this litany of failure and incompetence” from the transition team “was a mix of resentment and anger, dread and personal insecurity.” Amid rumors that the transition team wanted to purge several hundred top analysts, career officials feared for their jobs, especially those considered responsible for assessing the Soviet Union. With Reagan in the White House, Team B‘s analysis became the basis for a massive U.S. military buildup. Hundreds of billions of dollars poured in to build weapons to close the supposed U.S. "window of vulnerability." The imminent danger of Soviet victory also justified U.S. support for brutal right-wing regimes in Central America and elsewhere. Since the Soviets were believed to be rapidly eclipsing the United States, it followed that even peasant uprisings against “death squad” regimes in El Salvador or Guatemala must be part of a larger Soviet strategy of world conquest, an assault on the “soft underbelly” of the U.S. southern border. Any analysis of these civil wars as primarily local conflicts arising from long-standing social grievances was dismissed as fuzzy thinking or worse. Nevertheless, early in the Reagan administration, CIA analysts mustered up the courage to challenge poorly supported charges against the Soviet Union, such as blaming Moscow for virtually all acts of international terrorism, including the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981. The CIA Putsch With William Casey, a fierce Cold Warrior installed as CIA director, the assault on the analytical division began in earnest. Casey put the analytical division under the control of his protégé, Gates, who installed a new bureaucracy within the DI, or Directorate of Intelligence, with his loyalists in key positions. “The CIA’s objectivity on the Soviet Union ended abruptly in 1981, when Casey became the DCI [director of central intelligence] – and the first one to be a member of the president’s Cabinet,” wrote former CIA senior analyst Melvin A. Goodman. “Gates became Casey’s deputy director for intelligence in 1982 and chaired the National Intelligence Council.” [See Foreign Policy magazine, summer 1997.] Under Gates, CIA intelligence analysts increasingly found themselves the victims of a bureaucratic pummeling. According to several former CIA analysts whom I interviewed, analysts faced job threats; some were subjected to allegations of psychiatric unfitness; one described having his analytical paper literally thrown in his face. The Gates leadership team made sure that respectful attention was given to right-wing propaganda from around the world. For instance, Reagan and his hierarchy wanted the CIA to back media claims pinning European terrorism on the Soviets, but the CIA analysts knew the charges were bogus because they were based on “black” or false propaganda that the CIA's operations division had been planting in Europe. The White House saw the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981 as another opportunity to make propaganda points against what Reagan called the “Evil Empire.” Though the attack had been carried out by a neo-fascist extremist from Turkey, right-wing U.S. writers and journalists began to promote allegations of a secret role by the Soviet KGB. In this case, CIA analysts knew the charges were false because of the CIA’s penetration of East Bloc intelligence services. But responding to persistent White House pressure in 1985, Gates closeted a special team to push through an administration-desired paper linking the KGB to the attack. Though many analysts opposed what they believed to be a dishonest intelligence report, they couldn’t stop the paper from leaving CIA and being circulated around Washington. Reagan’s politicizing of intelligence had other consequences, such as blinding the U.S. government to emerging national security threats. For instance, CIA analysts learned that Pakistan was violating nuclear proliferation safeguards with the goal of building an atomic bomb. However, at the time, Pakistan was assisting the Reagan administration’s anti-Soviet insurgency in Afghanistan, so the analysts on Pakistan were pressured to back off their assessment. Yet, a dire consequence of giving Pakistan a pass on proliferation was that Pakistan did succeed in developing nuclear weapons, which have contributed to an escalating arms race with India in South Asia. It also has created the potential for Islamic extremists to gain control of the Bomb by taking power in Pakistan. [See Robert Parry’s Secrecy & Privilege.] Missing the Collapse Under pressure to exaggerate the Soviet threat, analysts had no incentive to point out what was becoming more obvious – that the Soviet Union was a decaying, corrupt and inefficient regime tottering on the brink of collapse. To justify soaring military budgets and interventions in Third World conflicts, the Reagan administration always needed the Soviets to be 10 feet tall. Ultimately, this systematic distortion of the CIA’s Soviet assessments turned out to be a political win-win for Reagan and his supporters. Not only did Congress appropriate hundreds of billions of dollars for military projects favored by the Right, the U.S. news media largely gave Reagan the credit when the Soviet Union “suddenly” collapsed in 1991. The neocons also had the satisfaction of seeing their old nemesis, the CIA’s analytical division, take another hit in the news media – for having “missed” the Soviet collapse. The truth, of course, was that honest CIA analysts had been silenced in their efforts to do their job, which in this case was to tell Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush something they didn’t want to hear, i.e. that the Soviet bogeyman wasn’t the terrifying threat that the White House was selling to the American people. Yet, with the bravest analysts sidelined, the CIA failed to do its job. But it wasn’t as much a CIA “failure” as a “victory” for politicization. (Some neocons even spun the CIA’s “failure” to detect the Soviet collapse as further proof that the CIA analysts were sympathetic to the Soviet Union and thus were blinded to the weaknesses of the communist system.) By the early 1990s, one of the Right’s top priorities was to consolidate the idea that Reagan had “won the Cold War,” a recognition that would elevate Reagan and his right-wing policies into an iconic status that would endure for decades. The campaign hit a bump, however, when Reagan’s “authorized” biographer Edmund Morris produced a less-than-flattering portrait of the 40th president in Dutch. Not only did Morris paint a self-absorbed Reagan who lived in a fantasy world of made-up facts, but Morris questioned Reagan’s Cold War role. Morris gave respectful treatment to the argument that the Russians were driven to perestroika -- their restructuring -- not by Reagan's hard-line military strategy but by the technological revolution that was sweeping the rest of the world and by pent-up consumer demands behind the Iron Curtain. "Since at least the time of Brezhnev, Soviet realists had been aware that the West was computerizing itself at a rate that threatened to advance the millennium, while Russian shopkeepers in central Moscow were still using the abacus," Morris wrote. "When one factored in the coefficient that computers improved themselves at a compound rather than a simple rate, the arithmetic grew truly frightening. By the turn of the century, if Soviet sciences continued to lag, Moscow's world power might prove to have been as transitory as that of Manueline Lisbon." Contrary Views In the book, Morris also described a conference that pitted Reagan loyalists who argued that Reagan's “Star Wars” Strategic Defense Initiative had won the Cold War against academics and diplomats who cited the inept Soviet economy and the allure of Western consumer goods. "A German historian named Ullmann argued that … the USSR collapsed because of its own economic despair, and would have done so anyway, no matter who was President of the United States," Morris wrote. "[A] former American envoy, Arnold A. Saltzman, said he 'didn't believe that SDI helped the peace process one minute.' Computers not 'imaginary lasers' had won the Cold War: the Soviets had felt themselves increasingly isolated from the Western technological revolution. “Gorbachev had personally told him that a generation was growing up there who felt starved of the consumer benefits young Westerners took for granted." As heretical as these analyses were to Reagan loyalists -- and to much of Official Washington -- the observations did not stand alone. Even former State Department official George F. Kennan, whose seminal analysis of the Soviet system in 1947 helped launch the Cold War, objected to the Republican claims of "winning" the Cold War. In his book, At A Century's Ending, Kennan wrote that "the suggestion that any American administration had the power to influence decisively the course of a tremendous domestic-political upheaval in another great country on another side of the globe is intrinsically silly and childish." Kennan noted that by the late 1940s and the early 1950s, "it was visible to some of us then living in Russia that the Soviet regime was becoming dangerously remote from the concerns and hopes of the Russian people. … “It was quite clear, even at those early dates, that the Soviet regime as we had known it was not there for all time. We could not know when or how it would be changed. We knew only that the change was inevitable and impending. “By the time Stalin died, in 1953, even |
man, Butowsky and Fox had created fake news to advance President Trump’s agenda.” Wheeler “was subsequently forced to correct the false record, and, as a result, lost all credibility in the eyes of the public.”
The original Fox News posting on the matter lent momentum to right-wing outlets including Breitbart and The Drudge Report, which had suggested with items and links, but little credible evidence, that Rich could have been killed for the leak of DNC emails during last year’s presidential campaign, an act that has largely been attributed to Russian interference.
“The accusation that FoxNews.com published Malia Zimmerman’s story to help detract from coverage of the Russia collusion issue is completely erroneous,” said Jay Wallace, president of news at Fox News Channel, in a statement. “The retraction of this story is still being investigated internally and we have no evidence that Rod Wheeler was misquoted by Zimmerman. Additionally, Fox News vehemently denies the race discrimination claims in the lawsuit — the dispute between Zimmerman and Rod Wheeler has nothing to do with race.”
In the complaint, Wheeler seeks damages to be determined at trial to compensate him for mental anguish and emotional distress, and loss of earnings from his job.
The DNC on Tuesday condemned anyone who might plant fake news items of the sort alleged in the complaint. “If these allegations are true, it is beyond vile that the White House – and possibly even Trump himself – would use the murder of a young man to distract the public’s attention from their chaotic administration and Trump’s ties to Russia. The Rich family has begged those responsible for these conspiracies to stop. And yet, Trump’s allies have ignored their pain and their pleas, degrading the office of the president by spreading repulsive lies,” said Xochitl Hinojosa, DNC Communications Director, in a statement. “This should outrage any decent human being. There is no excuse for the suffering that Trump’s associates and their conspirators at FOX have caused the Rich family and those closest to him. Both parties should denounce these sick and twisted tactics.”What You Need to Know
Cost: $12
Time: 20 min.
Difficulty: EASY
Equipment like this makes it really hard for me to believe that people do not have the time or money to workout at their own home. This was a very simple, very cheap, and fun crossfit equipment build. Enjoy!
The Wall Ball
Material Needed
Rubber Indoor/Outdoor Basketball
Tire Patch Kit
40lb of salt pellets
How to Build a Wall Ball Step 1: Make Incision
I started with an X cut and then ended up making a square like shape where I could fit the bottle in the top.
How to Build a Wall Ball Step 2: Fill the ball with salt pellets
I know I am going to get this question. WHY SALT PELLETS? WHY NOT SAND?? Glad you asked. Why use salt pellets instead of sand:
Salt pellets will NOT leak if you damage your ball after repeated use, sand will.
Salt pellets will fully fill your basketball for better balance, sand will not
Salt pellets are just a little bit cheaper than sand
Salt pellets are easy to work with and clean up
Need anymore reasons…
When you make your own crossfit equipment you have to get a little creative. I used the bottle for filling 98% full. Then you have to kind of shake it around and do a few drops to get that last pound of sand in there. Still easy though. I got a little over zealous.
I left mine at around this weight because my scale kept fluctuating and I figured I’d rather be a little over than a little under, 20.0 would be optimal.
How to Build a Wall Ball Step 3: A wall ball is no good with holes, Patch time
Use the tire puncture kit, the largest size, and follow the directions to patch up your ball.The first picture of the Pentax KP leaked online and the camera looks very much like the Nikon Df. There will be also a new Pentax D-BG7 battery grip andAC adapter K-AC167J. The KP will be available in three different grip sizes (small, medium and large) - see more pictures at PentaxRumors. The rumored price of the Pentax KP in the UK is £1,099 (around $1,350$ or €1,270).
Update - here are the Pentax KP specifications:
New generation 24.33 Mpix APS-C CMOS sensor
‘PRIME IV’ image processing engine with image accelerator unit
5-axis ‘SR II’ in-body image stabilization (5-stop correction)
27-point ‘SAFOX 11’ autofocus system (25 cross-type)
Sensitivity: ISO 100-819,200
Continuous drive: 7 fps
Maximum shutter speed 1/24,000 s (electronic shutter)
Dust-proof and drip-proof casing with 67 seals; cold resistance up to minus 10℃
Pixel Shift
Optical viewfinder with 100% coverage
3-inch tilting LCD screen
Video: Full HD
DR II
Dimensions: 131.5 x 101 x 76mm
Weight: 643g
Via PentaxRumors, Xitek, NokishitaMichael Cohen testifies before Congress: Live updates, livestream
Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, will testify to a U.S. House committee Wednesday that the man he worked for for more than a decade is a racist, a conman and a cheat. Cohen, in his planned opening statement released in advance of his testimony, will offer the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform a list of wrongdoings he said Trump was involved both before and after he was elected president, and admit his part in helping Trump in those activities. He will also tell the committee that he is ashamed to have worked for Trump. Cohen will appear before the committee beginning at 10 a.m. ET. Below are live updates from Cohen’s testimony. Live updates: Cohen arrives on Capitol Hill 8:43 a.m. ET, Feb. 27, 2019: Cohen has arrived at the Capitol in advance of his testimony that is set to begin at 10 a.m. Cohen says he ‘looks forward’ to testimony 8:38 a.m. ET, Feb. 27, 2019: Cohen told reporters shortly after his closed-door Senate testimony ended on Tuesday, 'I really appreciate the opportunity that was given to me to clear the record and to tell the truth. 'And I look forward to tomorrow to being able to in my voice to tell the American people my story and I'm going to let the American people decide exactly who is telling the truth.” Trump tweets 7:40 a.m. ET, Feb. 27, 2019: Trump has tweeted about Cohen from his summit with Kim Jong Un in Vietnam. Cohen opening statement released 11:40 p.m. ET, Feb. 26, 2019: The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has released Cohen’s opening statement. In it, Cohen says he will provide documents that he says prove Trump committed “illicit” acts and that his former boss is a racist and a conman.Image copyright Reuters Image caption Much of UK farming policy is currently set in Brussels
UK ministers have outlined plans to take control of EU laws immediately after Brexit before decisions are taken on further devolution.
Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns said the Great Repeal Bill would set out a "holding pattern" before negotiations with the nations.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have been told to expect a "significant increase" in powers after Brexit.
First Minister Carwyn Jones said power in devolved areas should "come to us".
A white paper on the bill said the aim was "to provide the greatest level of legal and administrative certainty upon leaving the EU".
It said the UK Government would replace "the current frameworks provided by EU rules through UK legislation".
'Pro-devolution'
At the same time, there would be "intensive discussions with the devolved administrations to identify where common frameworks need to be retained in the future, what these should be, and where common frameworks covering the UK are not necessary".
The white paper stressed that the UK Government would "work closely with the devolved administrations to deliver an approach that works for the whole and each part of the UK".
Mr Cairns said that as the powers returned to the UK from the EU "we expect that there will be a significant increase in powers to the Welsh Government, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive but, of course, there's a process that we need to go through before we get to that".
"There will be a holding pattern until we get our framework of agreement in the negotiations with Europe, and when that's been concluded we can then clearly decide where these powers sit," he said.
"But we hope we're going to be in a position to devolve powers at an early stage in order to demonstrate the pro-devolution approach that we're taking."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Alun Cairns says the UK Government has to go through a process to transfer the powers
First Minister Carwyn Jones rejected the idea of all powers returning from Brussels to go to Westminster even temporarily,
"At the end of the day these are powers that are devolved to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. They come to us," he told BBC Wales.
"Then of course we have a discussion with the four governments to work out a common framework. That's the way of doing it in the 21st Century, not looking back to the way things were in the 19th Century.
"We would be absolutely opposed to any suggestion that the UK Government takes over any of the powers in devolved areas that come back from Brussels. That's not what people voted for at all."
Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies welcomed the bill as "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to chart a positive new course for the United Kingdom and for the people of Wales".
He called on the first minister to "work positively with the UK Government to ensure that we get a deal which works for everyone".
'Refused to listen'
Plaid Cymru denounced the bill as the "biggest Westminster power grab" since England and Wales were united in 1536.
MP Jonathan Edwards, who sits on the Commons Brexit committee, said: "The document makes it perfectly clear the intention from Westminster to take EU responsibilities relating to areas already devolved to Wales and put them in the hands of Westminster MPs, not our directly elected National Assembly.
"It will make English MPs responsible for devolved Welsh matters for the first time since devolution."
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Mark Williams said he had "doubts" about the UK Government's commitment to Wales.
"Despite having watched Theresa May drive up and down the M4 to engage with Wales' concerns, she has refused to listen and Wales will bear the brunt of her decisions," he said.
"As Wales loses access to the world's biggest single market, decisions about our economy, our industries, and our environment must be made in Wales for the benefit of the people of Wales."NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil prices edged up for a fourth consecutive session on Wednesday, close to their highest levels since mid-2015, ahead of U.S. oil inventory figures and as the market awaits evidence of OPEC supply reductions in the new year.
Plants are pictured near an oil pump, owned by oil company Rosneft, in the settlement of Akhtyrskaya in Krasnodar region, southern Russia, December 21, 2014. REUTERS/Eduard Korniyenko
U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures CLc1 were up 30 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $54.20 per barrel by 1:29 p.m. EST (1829 GMT), not far from the year’s high of $54.51 reached on Dec. 12.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 30 cents at $56.39 a barrel. The international benchmark hit $57.89 on Dec. 12, its highest since July 2015.
Oil prices have gained 25 percent since mid-November, helped by expectations for OPEC’s supply cut and solid U.S. economic figures that have also bolstered equity prices.
Trading was thin, with just 238,000 front-month futures contracts changing hands in WTI by 1:29 p.m. EST, compared with a daily average of 525,000 over the last 200 days. It is expected to remain quiet for the balance of the week.
Five analysts polled ahead of weekly inventory reports from industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated, on average, that crude stocks declined by 1.5 million barrels in the week to Dec. 23.
The API data will be released on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT), while the EIA report has been rescheduled to Thursday at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT), following the federal holiday on Monday because of the Christmas holiday.
The market is taking a wait-and-see approach to the official start of the landmark deal reached by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and several non-OPEC members to reduce their output. The deal is set to kick in from Jan. 1.
OPEC and non-OPEC producers are expected to lower production by almost 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd), with Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, agreeing to bear the lion’s share of the cuts.
Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi said on Wednesday his country, which has seen fast production growth in the past two years, would cut supply by 200,000-210,000 bpd from January.
Luaibi said on a visit to fellow OPEC member Kuwait that he saw oil prices rising to $60 per barrel as the cuts would help ease the global glut of the past three years, according to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh also said on Tuesday he expected OPEC to abide by the deal. “While competing, we do have engagement,” Iranian news agency Shana quoted him as saying.
OPEC member Venezuela also said it will cut 95,000 bpd of oil production in the new year.
Statements from various officials “holds market expectations at a high level, but also entails some risk of disappointment if actual January production data shows output only ramping gradually toward the lower target levels,” wrote Tim Evans, analyst at Citi Futures.Though he left this earth far too soon, J Dilla’s indisputable legacy carries on, having influenced just about every artist in hip hop, funk and beyond. After his untimely death in 2006 at the age of 32, Dilla still had about 150 unreleased tracks in the vault, as well as several projects he had been plotting that never got to see the light of day. Today, Dilla is back in full force with the release of 41 previously unheard instrumentals.
The late producer’s mother, Maureen Yancey, aka Ma Dukes, put together the huge collection of tracks for a new project called Dillatronic, which will be officially released on October 30th. You can pre-order the limited edition 3xLP vinyl set here, which is sure to be a collector’s item.
“I can smile in my heart, knowing my son’s work is being shared with the people as we planned before he passed,” gushed the proud mama. “I only share the best, and I only hope to continue introducing the world to the genius of J Dilla.”
Stream ALL 41 infectious beats below:
[Via Hypetrak]Chinese authorities seize 20,000 tonnes of illegal meat products and detains gang passing off fox, mink and rat as mutton
Police in China have arrested 904 people for "meat-related offences" over the past three months, including a gang that made more than £1m by passing off fox, mink and rat meat as mutton, the country's public security ministry has announced.
Since January, authorities have seized 20,000 tonnes of illegal products and solved 382 cases of meat-related crime – primarily the sale of toxic, diseased and counterfeit meat.
One suspect, named Wei, earned more than £1m over the past four years by purchasing fox, mink and rat meat, treating it with gelatin, carmine (a colour produced from ground beetles) and nitrate, then selling it as mutton at farmers' markets in Jiangsu province and Shanghai. Authorities raided Wei's organisation in February, arresting 63 suspects and seizing 10 tonnes of meat and additives.
Suspects in the Baotou city produced fake beef and lamb jerky from duck meat and sold it to markets in 15 provinces. Levels of E coli in the counterfeit product "seriously exceeded standards", the ministry said.
A baby treated for kidney stones after drinking tainted milk powder, in Chengdu, China. Photograph: China Photos/Getty
Hao, another suspect, from Fengxiang city, Shaanxi province, last year sold mutton that had turned black and reeked of agricultural chemicals to a barbecue restaurant, killing one customer and poisoning a handful of others.
In Fujian province, five suspects were arrested and two factories shut for butchering disease-ridden pig carcasses and selling their meat in nearby provinces. The suspects had been hired by the agriculture ministry to collect the carcasses from farmers and dispose of them properly.
Authorities closed two factories in the south-western province of Guizhou for soaking chicken feet in hydrogen peroxide before shipping them to markets. And in Zhenjiang city, Jiangsu province, two people were arrested for selling pork products that were made with meat from "poor quality pig heads".
China's meat markets are already reeling from a spring riddled with food safety scares. Pork sales plummeted in March after about 16,000 pig carcasses were dredged from a river in Shanghai, an incident authorities have yet to fully explain. A virulent strain of avian flu has killed 26 people and put more than 129 in hospital since mid-April, wreaking havoc on the domestic poultry industry.
New guidelines calling for harsher penalties for those found guilty of producing or selling unsafe food products were announced by the country's top court on Friday.
The supreme people's court said the guidelines would list as crimes acts such as the sale of food excessively treated with chemicals or made from animals that have died from disease or unknown causes.
A gang made more than £1m by passing off mink and rat meat as mutton. Photograph: PA
China's food safety authorities are turning their attention to dairy products, according to the Xinhua state news agency. In 2008, more than 54,000 infants became ill and six were killed after being fed milk and baby formula that was tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.
Other food safety scandals in recent years include reports of glow-in-the-dark pork, exploding watermelons, cadmium-laced rice, fake eggs, salmonella-tainted seafood, carcinogenic recycled cooking oil and pesticide-soaked fruit.Malaysia Airlines MH17: Missile expert arrested near border, Ukraine government says
Updated
The Ukrainian government says it has evidence three people were operating the missile launcher that brought down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over rebel-held territory near the Russian border.
Twenty-eight Australians died on board the passenger jet which was shot down by a ground-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew.
Authorities in Kiev say two men have been captured near the border on the Ukrainian side, one of whom reportedly had paperwork indicating he was a missile specialist.
Pro-Russian separatists are being blamed for the attack, which left bodies and smouldering wreckage scattered across fields.
But Russian president Vladimir Putin has denied the accusations, saying Ukrainian forces are responsible because they continue to fight the rebels instead of negotiating.
Mr Putin called for a ceasefire in Ukraine's east to allow for negotiations.
"It is with great concern and sadness that we are watching what is happening in eastern Ukraine. It's awful, it's a tragedy," Mr Putin said at a meeting with Russian Orthodox Church leaders.
"All sides in the conflict must swiftly halt fighting and begin peace negotiations."
Ukrainian prime minister Arsney Yatsenyuk has called on the international community to support moves to catch who he called "those bastards" responsible for the attack.
He wants the tragedy treated as a war crime in The Hague.
Many of the bodies remain where they fell, and there are unconfirmed reports of some looting, as fighting continues unabated in eastern Ukraine.
International investigators have been unable to secure an access corridor to the wreckage of a Malaysia Airlines plane that was shot down in eastern Ukraine.
A team of 17 investigators from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe were allowed to examine the wreckage for about 75 minutes, before being forced out by gunmen.
It is understood officials are negotiating with rebels to secure a safe passage to the Ukraine crash site, with Ukrainian emergency services reportedly finding two black boxes at the crash site.
Interfax-Ukraine quoted an adviser to the governor of eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region as saying the black boxes had been located.
"Two black boxes were found by our emergency services. I have no information on where these boxes are at the moment," Kostyantyn Batovsky said.
However, earlier reports suggested pro-Russian separatists were in possession of the black boxes.
Obama calls for investigation, immediate ceasefire
US president Barack Obama said a surface-to-air missile fired from territory controlled by Russian separatists in Ukraine brought down the jet, adding that it was too early to determine whether the airliner was deliberately targeted or mistakenly shot down.
Mr Obama called for an immediate ceasefire and a "credible, international investigation" into the incident.
Nationalities of MH17 passengers Netherlands: 189*
Malaysia: 44 (including 15 crew)
Australia: 28**
Indonesia: 12 (including 1 infant)
UK: 9
Germany: 4
Belgium: 4
Philippines: 3
Canada: 1
New Zealand: 1
Unverified: 3 *N.B. One victim was a dual US citizen
**N.B. DFAT says 28 Australians were on board; Malaysia Airlines says 27 Australians were on board
Source: Malaysia Airlines *N.B. One victim was a dual US citizen**N.B. DFAT says 28 Australians were on board; Malaysia Airlines says 27 Australians were on boardSource: Malaysia Airlines
"I think it's too early for us to be able to guess what the intentions of those who might have launched this surface-to-air missile might have had," he said.
"What we have confidence in saying right now is that a surface-to-air missile was fired, and that's what brought the jet down."
US representative to the UN, Samantha Power, told an emergency session of the Security Council the Malaysia Airlines jet was likely shot down by a SA-11 Buk missile.
"Because of the technical complexity of the SA-11, it is unlikely that the separatists could effectively operate the system without assistance from knowledgeable personnel," she said.
"Thus we cannot rule out technical assistance from Russian personnel in operating the systems.
"If indeed Russian-backed separatists were behind this attack on a civilian airliner, they and their backers would have good reason to cover up evidence of their crime.
"Thus, it is extremely important that an investigation be commenced immediately."
Australia's deputy representative to the UN, Philippa King, said those responsible for the attack must be brought to justice.
"There must be immediate preservation of the crash site and unfettered access for independent investigators," she told the Security Council.
"Safe access must also be provided to allow for the recovery of the bodies of those who have lost their lives in this tragedy."
Abbott demands full inquiry and Russian cooperation
Earlier, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was not accepting Russian explanations for the downed plane and demanded Moscow allow a full inquiry into the tragedy.
The idea that Russia can somehow say that none of this has anything to do with them because it happened in Ukrainian airspace, frankly does not stand up to any serious scrutiny. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott
Mr Abbott says it appears Russian-backed rebels shot the plane down.
"These were innocent people going about their lives and they have been wantonly killed by Russian-backed rebels, quite possibly, maybe probably using Russian-supplied equipment," Mr Abbott said.
"It really is a test for Russia... how transparent and fair dinkum is it going to be," Mr Abbott said.
"There can be no excuses, no buck-passing, no blame-shifting."
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, death, air-transport, disasters-and-accidents, ukraine, russian-federation, australia
First postedOn September 30, 2016, Westside-based Monday Night Brewing revealed it would anchor a new commercial development along the Atlanta BeltLine’s Southwest Trail. Now, almost exactly one year later, The Garage is ready to open to the public. The new facility, which includes a taproom, plenty of outdoor space, and a facility for producing barrel-aged and sour beers, debuted with a preview party last weekend at Lee + White in West End.
Monday Night’s new outpost, located at 933 Lee Street SW, covers 22,000 square feet, and it’s one of a few new spaces for some local, artisanal food and beverage purveyors. Decatur-based Wild Heaven Beer and Banyan Roots Brewing Co., a new project focusing on sour brews, are also on board at Lee + White. A new outpost for Buckhead-based ASW Distillery will provide the whiskies. Golda Kombucha will serve kombucha. Beyond alcoholic beverages, the development will be home to Southern Aged Cheese, Doux South Pickles, and Honeysuckle Gelato.
The Garage’s brew menu includes Monday Night staples and selections that are exclusive to the location. After hosting last weekend’s preview event, it will officially open to the public this Friday, September 29. Hours are Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from noon to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Get an idea of what to expect at The Garage and take a look at the brewery in action during its kickoff event via the photos below.
• Monday Night Brewing Will Anchor Southwest Atlanta's First Major BeltLine Development [EATL]
• Governor Signs Booze Bill Into Law, Allowing Direct Sales at Breweries and Distilleries [EATL]
• All Beer Coverage [EATL]
• All Eater Scenes Coverage [EATL]“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” —John Maxwell
On that note, there is no one but one leader who comes to my mind — Rahul Gandhi. You might be surprised but he’s the same person whom I earlier mistook as indecisive, work-shy and an utterly reluctant politician. But over these years, the way he’s turned up and taken politics in stride, he has only injected greater hope and self-belief in each one of us. It’s not limited to his contribution to the Congress, but his larger commitment towards national goals. Rising way above other politicians, he stands way ahead as a matchless political reformer.
2004: Rahul Gandhi enters into politics
After obtaining degrees in International Relations and Philosophy from the Universities of Rollins and Cambridge and working in London, it was least expected that Rahul would ever join politics. But to everyone’ surprise this shy guy did choose a public platform to voice his opinion. And the rest, as they say, is history. Rahul entered into politics in May 2004 when he decided to contest the Lok Sabha polls from the traditional family constituency of Amethi which Rajiv Gandhi had once held. At that time, this move generated great surprise amongst political commentators who considered his sister Priyanka more charismatic and likely to succeed. But his whopping victory with a margin of over 100,000 votes against BJP put an end to all the doubts that ever existed. While some treated it as “gene talent”, others called it a “political ploy”. The real truth that stealthily rose to great heights was the fact that a new leader had finally arrived.
2007: Rahul Gandhi is appointed as the General Secretary, IYC & NSUI
In September 2007, Rahul was appointed the ‘General Secretary’ in charge of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) and the National Students Union of India (NSUI). It was during this time that he pledged to reform youth politics. Consequently, keeping up to his promise, in November 2008, he held interviews at his 12, Tughlak Lane residence in New Delhi to handpick at least 40 people who would make up the ‘think-tank’ of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC). In doing so, he succeeded in bringing a positive change to the organization that he had always wanted. Not just that, it was under his leadership that IYC and NSUI witnessed a dramatic increase in number of members from two lakhs to twenty five lakhs. Be it his individual efforts or his breakthrough vision, finally we have a leader who believes in practicing first and preaching later.
Rahul Gandhi: The Youth Icon
Ever thought about it… what’s the reason behind the immediate youth connect of Rahul Gandhi? No doubt, our fifth-generation scion of the politically powerful Nehru–Gandhi family, 42-year-old Rahul Gandhi is the strongest youth icon in this country. His efforts to bring transparency in the political system by incorporating the youth brigade in strategic posts have won him wide praise. He firmly believes that educated youth of today can surely revolutionize the standard of Indian governance. And that’s why he consistently works towards giving younger players an equal opportunity in the elections. Very well captured by Arindam Chaudhuri, “If Rahul Gandhi can successfully pave a path for young and visionary leaders with clean track records to plunge into mainstream politics; it would be the biggest contribution to the nation!”
2009: Rahul Gandhi and UP Elections
The results of 2009 General Elections proved that the legacy of the Gandhi family and its deep union with the Congress Party is not just for namesake. Other than this, the other major factor behind the win was that barring Congress, there was no other political party which had fielded so many young candidates. And without any iota of doubt, the credit of this victory of UPA goes straight to Rahul Gandhi. He proved his mettle again by almost single-handedly winning more than 20 seats in Uttar Pradesh and an overall of 204 seats in the Lok Sabha. Such incredible results in Uttar Pradesh when no one expected Congress to do so well were not because of any significant or strategic caste calculations. Rather against all the odds, it was solely because of a young visionary who reached out to the common masses and showed them a better future without fragmenting them on the basis of caste or religion. Rahul once said, “I feel we should all be detached from power. Only then we can contribute to the society better.” Envisaging the same thought, he motivated the youth to join politics and make way for its holistic reformation. After a long time, it’s indeed refreshing to see someone doing things which this nation really needs.
Rahul Gandhi on building transparency and freedom of thought
Let me quote his thought here, “Give me all the power you want – give one individual all the power you want, give him everything, he cannot solve the problems of a billion people.” In a democracy where, power centralization is the ruling reality of political system, Rahul Gandhi daringly experiments and challenges the prevalent statuesque. Despite having a political lineage, this young leader finds dynastic rule undemocratic and does not flinch away from confessing it. In a meeting with the Congress MPs, he said, “I want to empower the 720-odd MPs in Parliament. I want to give voice to the middle tier, empower the middle-level leaders. There are some parties in India which are run by one leader, two leaders, five to six leaders and 15 to 20 leaders. My priority is that I want to empower the MPs as also the 5,000-odd legislators in various states.”
As a believer of secular politics, he says, “The Congress as I see, does not belong to me or to you, but it belongs to the whole country.” Highlighting the problems of over-centralization of power in India, brazenness of corruption in the country, women’s rights and alienated youth who are “excluded from the political class,” Rahul has always initiated a step towards covering the loopholes of our current system. At crucial decisive times, he brought the issues of massacre of Muslims in Modi ruled Gujarat, killing of Christians in Kandhamal and problems faced by the Dalit community to the forefront. In case you don’t know, it was Rahul Gandhi, who appointed Sam Pitroda, the man behind telecommunication revolution, as a Cabinet Minister in the Prime Minister Office.
Rahul Gandhi: The spokesperson of the masses
In 2011, he was arrested by the UP police at Bhatta Parsaul village after he turned out in support of agitating farmers demanding more compensation for their land being acquired for a highway project. This showed his real courage to stand by his men and support their cause. Such connect with the grassroot level is something India has rarely seen in a politician. Supporting his party, he once said, “The Congress Party is now my life. The people of India are my life. And I will fight for the people of India and for this party. I will fight with everything I have.”
His unshakeable belief in democracy, oneness of thought and youth-oriented political style makes him one of the best leaders this country has ever seen. His achievements and significant contribution have not only strengthened Congress, but strategically positioned it as a party which is committed to the real cause of its people. And this positioning is all that a nation needs to engender trust in its political machinery. Under the progressive leadership of Rahul Gandhi, a better and emancipated India is surely in making.The sleeper hit of the year
A lot of doubts filled the air when Dead Rising 3 was announced. As both an Xbox One exclusive and a Capcom-produced title, not a whole lot of excitement was abound when the game was first announced. Then you add in the "We're going for a Call of Duty audience" developer comments, and you have one certified shit-storm of a release.
But nothing compares to actually playing it for yourself, and I'm pleased to say that the third iteration of this now famous franchise has risen (ha!) to the occasion. In fact, Dead Rising 3 is the first game I've seen that really harnesses the power of next-gen consoles.
Oh, and it's also a phenomenal game as well.
Dead Rising 3 (Xbox One)
Developer: Capcom Vancouver
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Release Date: November 22, 2013
MSRP: $59.99
During the opening moments of the tutorial of Dead Rising 3, everything looks fairly familiar. You'll slowly make your way through an underground area, learning the basics of the game while you battle a few zombies -- nothing too spectacular. But then you go outside, and see what the new engine really has to offer.
Literally hundreds of zombies dotted the landscape. For a second, I thought it was a cutscene, but then the game gave me control and expected me to make my way through a giant sea of zombies to reach the first objective. It was completely unreal, and I was sold on the engine almost immediately. For the first time in a videogame, I really felt like I was in a zombie apocalypse, unfettered by the limits of prior console engines.
It sounds like an overstatement, but it completely took me by surprise, to the point where if my car broke down in the middle of a highway, I was legitimately scared of having to battle my way through hundreds of undead to survive. I'm the kind of person who really couldn't care less about how great a game looks if it plays well, but in this case, the engine really does wonders for gameplay.
Having said that, everything else looks very, very good. There's a ton of detail in almost every piece of road, with a huge draw distance to boot. Dead Rising 3 also sports a solid framerate, despite the fact that the game is rendering so much on-screen (the only dips are occasionally indoors, and they did not impede my enjoyment of the game whatsoever). When coupled with other nuances like shadows, lighting, and the sheer amount of weapon models available, it really is a sight to behold, and a great way to show off your new console. A ton of care went into making this game, and it's the best next-gen release I've seen so far, all things considered.
Frank and Chuck will take a backseat this time around in favor of Nick -- a mild-mannered mechanic who is stuck in the middle of yet another outbreak, 10 years after the the events of Dead Rising 2. The setting is Los Perdidos. California, an area modeled after Los Angeles. As you might be able to tell from the new visual style, things look a little more bleak this time around, which changes the tone of the game a bit. In short, it's decidedly less camp.
Nick, in many ways, is not as iconic as the prior two heroes, and I didn't really connect with him as much. Frank had the camp factor and droves of cheesy lines, and Chuck had a rather lavish backstory as a racer, with a decent father-daughter tale to boot. But Nick's identity isn't as pronounced, as it evolves over the course of the game. It's not bad, per se -- it's just...different, and slightly a cut above your average zombie flick. Although I'll take the vibrant visual style of Dead Rising 2 any day of the week, I still much prefer the technical advancements in Dead Rising 3, as they make for a far better game.
But make no mistake -- just because Dead Rising 3 is less out there doesn't mean the core humor isn't present -- because it totally is. There's still tons of crazy characters to meet, and the new Psychos (modeled after the seven deadly sins) are as colorful as ever, including Sloth, who is literally too lazy to get out of his chair to fight. The cast is a bit more well rounded this time around, as there's a good mix of walking campy caricatures, and actual characters.
The core silliness of the series is also preserved through gameplay. You can still put Servbot masks on your head, play with RC helicopters, wear banana hammocks and disco outfits, and throw machine-gun-toting teddy bears at zombies. All of it is a ton of fun, as you're constantly looking for the next "out there" item. There's also a few big surprises in store for Dead Rising fans, and some enjoyable Capcom-related fan service littered about. While the story is a bit more low-key to a fault, the actual gameplay is anything but, and as a series fan I enjoyed all of the connections made to the overall storyline.
One of the biggest advancements I |
hopes to pay for his medical treatment, he starts cooking methamphetamine. We would think in any real civilized society, someone shouldn’t have to worry about their family being torn apart by medical expenses. That’s a truly American way of life! Go USA!
#6 – Phillip J. Fry – Futurama – Not Sure if…
We would like to think the writers at Futurama would approve of this meme, the standard Phillip J. Fry “Not Sure if x or y” meme, done for the appreciation of minerals. There are hundreds, nay, might I guess THOUSANDS of stoners getting lost inside a quartz crystal or aragonite cluster, maybe even RIGHT THIS MOMENT! Put down the bong, son, Minerals are cool, even when not high.
#5 – Holy Shit – This Rock is PERFECT!
There is a positive way to look at that face planting that is about to occur. Makes my face hurt…and makes me wonder…is it a quartz crystal? We hope so!
#4 – Bismuth
The internet has a hardon for Bismuth. Lab grown Bismuth crystals are shared with reckless abandon, so this great meme, featuring a NATURAL BISMUTH crystal, a winner in our books!
#3 – Bill Larson, your argument is invalid
The meme that is dedicated to the form “This is x, your argument is invalid” where X is a something completely random and pointless, used as a tactic to make distracting point in a dispute to which you have no good retort. At an annual Tucson party celebrating the TGMS, a wild iguana appeared, coupled with countless bottles of wine, several people posed with the reptile. When it took to Pala Minerals owner “Burma Bill” Larson, a man with more untold mineral stories than you might ever hope to acquire over a lifetime, the flashes went off all over the place and as soon as an image was posted online, this meme was created.
#2 – Gave that Bitch a Crystal, Bitches love Crystals – MineralClassics’ founder Richard Kosnar and the legendary phosphophyllite.
Brian Kosnar showed me this meme that was created with a famous photo of the standard smiling face of his dad, Richard Kosnar. In his hands, the ultimate phosphophyllite. The meme? Based on a line from the TV show “The Boondocks” where the rich, violent whiteboy gangster styled after another dimensions’ George Bush Jr, saying, while texting a woman “Hold Up, I’m gonna send this bitch a smiley face. Bitches love smiley faces.”. Thus, the “I’m going to give this X a Y, X’s love Ys.” You can find wonderful minerals from Bolivia (where this crystal comes from), colorado and more at the website www.minclassics.com
And, finally, the Meme we believe might have been the first…
#1 – Out of nowhere…Feldspar!
What could have been the first mineral meme, and surely, one of the most popular…”Out of Nowhere…It’s X” where X is the thing in the picture, in this case…two nice feldspar crystals.
There you have it, our Top 10 Mineral/Rock themed Memes! We certainly had MORE to share, but these were our favorites around the office. Hope you enjoyed it!Representatives with Correctional Service Canada co-ordinated to ignore questions and suppress media coverage following the death of an inmate at a Nova Scotia prison, internal documents obtained by CBC News show.
Veronica Park, a 38-year-old woman from Corner Brook, N.L., died April 24 while serving a three-year sentence at the Nova Institution for Women in Truro for robbery and breach of recognizance.
In the days leading to her death, her family said Park complained of respiratory problems to prison staff.
Park's brother, Gordon Park, told CBC News the family has been frustrated with Correctional Service Canada, which has not shared many details about Park's death. They were told in order to learn the cause of her death, Park's family may have to file a request through the Access to Information Act.
CBC News also asked for details about the Park's death. When those questions weren't answered, CBC News filed a request for information to learn why.
"Any comment will serve to protract the media interest," said one email sent May 1 between two CSC media officials.
"I don't know why he [Brett Ruskin] would want an on-camera interview," wrote Etienne Chiasson, the CSC's Atlantic region media spokesperson, in an email the Monday following Park's death.
Chiasson later instructed a local representative to ignore media requests.
"One advice: if your phone rings and you suspect it's a reporter, you don't have to answer," he wrote.
"It is the weekend, and this is in no way an urgent matter. For them maybe, but not for us. Take the weekend off ;-)."
This statement was in response to the CBC's renewed calls for Correctional Service Canada to share Park's cause of death with her family.
The CBC's access to information request garnered 79 pages of internal emails, with redacted sections on nearly every page.
In an unrelated matter, during the period that these emails were being written and shared, the CSC issued a public tender seeking a company to train its representatives on how to deal with the media.If a structural change to Amazon.com is any indication, the company is looking to take on the 3D printer scene.
According to reporting from 3D printing enthusiast blog Personalize, the online retail giant has recently opened a 3D printer storefront for U.S. consumers. It’s a bit hard to find ordinarily–you have to look for the “Additive Manufacturing Products” subcategory inside the Industrial and Scientific department.
Once there, you’ll be presented with a one-stop-shop for all your 3D printing needs, whether you want to plunk down a couple grand on a new printer, or just pick up a book or two on the subject to see if it’s something you want to invest in.
All of this comes at an interesting time in the 3D printing industry. Makerbot Industries, maker of a number of consumer-grade 3D printers, is said to be in acquisition talks. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has invested in Makerbot in the past, so some have speculated that this could be a prelude to an Amazon acquisition. We’ve reached out to Amazon, and we’ll update this post if we hear more.
What do you think? Is this a sign of things to come?Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) says he'll ask the legislature there to require drug testing of anyone who receives government aid through both unemployment benefits and welfare.
But why stop there, Governor? Why not require Marc Lasry and Wes Edens -- owners of the Milwaukee Bucks -- to submit to drug tests, too? Edens and Lasry, after all, have asked for welfare to the tune of $220 million in stadium subsidies from the state. See, Edens and Lasry claim they can't run their business operating a professional basketball franchise in Milwaukee without a huge amount of government aid for a new stadium. Gov. Walker believes it's in the state's interests to lend them a helping hand, and that's why he proposed the subsidy. One wonders if he'll also explain that, before he can trust them with public money, he'll need Edens and Lasry do the right thing and get in line at the drug testing facility with people drawing unemployment and welfare benefits.
I'm not sure what the governor thinks, but, as for me, I don't believe that Lasry and Edens should be peeing in a cup every few months for the next 30 years (the term over which they'll get their subsidy). Nor should individuals getting unemployment and welfare benefits. I'm tired, however, of seeing corporate welfare recipients consistently portrayed as inherently noble while poor people on unemployment and welfare are automatically suspected of crime. Especially when state and local corporate subsidies are often a bad deal for taxpayers while aid going to poor people is put straight back into the local economy because it buys groceries, clothes, or pays the rent.
Drug testing people on government aid is a waste of time and money.
What's worse is that the logic of drug testing welfare recipients has no factual grounding. In reality, the data tells us that poor people use drugs less often. Data in 2011 showed that only 3.6 percent of welfare recipients were "using drugs illicitly or suffering from drug abuse or dependence." (Interestingly, alcohol abuse among the poor is a much bigger problem. But that's not the concern of state legislators because alcohol is legal.)
State testing programs have backed up that research. In Tennessee, the state found one drug user out of 800 recipients. As Think Progress points out, "[w]ith an overall drug use rate of 8 percent in Tennessee, the crackdown indicates that the poor are 64 times less likely to use drugs than everyone else." Florida tested welfare recipients for four months before its drug test mandate was thrown out by the courts. Only 2.6 percent of welfare recipients tested positive. The rest of the Florida's population use drugs at a rate of 8 percent. So, again, welfare recipients used drugs less than everyone else.
This is just a cynical ploy.
So if this is just a whole big nothing, why do politicians suggest it? Because it's a cheap, cynical way to score political points and act like a guardian of taxpayer dollars -- even though drug tests are a huge waste of money. And it does nothing to fix real drug addiction.
“If Governor Scott Walker cared about families in his state, his first response would be to ensure that people who struggle with problematic drug use are able to receive treatment on demand and the help they need to live a healthy and productive lifestyle,” a spokeswoman for the Drug Policy Alliance said to ThinkProgress. “Drug testing families and individuals struggling to make ends meet is uncaring, uncompassionate and unconstitutional.”
Yes, but Gov. Walker does not really care about the scourge of drug addiction, nor does he really care about saving taxpayer money (heck, look at those Bucks subsidies). He's just positioning himself to run for president in 2016, and shaming poor people seems like a good way to do it.
If this story depressed you and you'd like to laugh now, watch how The Daily Show embarrassed Florida politicians on this issue back in 2012:The lawsuit, led by Massachusetts and joined by 18 other Democratic attorneys general, accuses Education Secretary Betsy DeVos of illegally delaying the regulations, which were finalized by the Obama administration and had been set to take effect on July 1. | Getty 18 states, consumer groups sue DeVos over delay of student loan protections The lawsuits accuse DeVos of illegally delaying the regulations aimed at predatory colleges.
Eighteen states and the District of Columbia filed suit against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday over her delay of regulations meant to protect federal student loan borrowers defrauded by their schools.
The lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in D.C., led by Massachusetts and joined by 18 other Democratic attorneys general, accuses DeVos of illegally delaying the regulations aimed at predatory colleges, which were finalized by the Obama administration and had been set to take effect on July 1.
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The rules, known as “borrower defense to repayment,” sought to make it easier for defrauded student loan borrowers to seek debt forgiveness. They also prohibit colleges from requiring students to resolve complaints against their school through arbitration rather than in court.
The Trump administration last month delayed implementation of the rules, citing a legal challenge by a California association representing for-profit colleges. DeVos said at the time the rule created “a muddled process that's unfair to students and schools, and puts taxpayers on the hook for significant costs.” The Education Department has said it will begin a process to rewrite the rules later this year.
Separately, consumer groups on Thursday filed a second legal challenge to the Trump administration’s delay of the regulations.
Public Citizen and Harvard Law School’s Project on Predatory Student Lending filed a lawsuit on behalf of two former students who claim they were defrauded by the New England Institute of Art, which is owned by the Education Management Corporation. The students say they want to sue that company but can’t because they signed an agreement to resolve any complaints through arbitration — an agreement that would have been banned by the regulations DeVos is delaying.
Both lawsuits argue that DeVos’ delay of the rules violates the Administrative Procedure Act and ask a federal court to order the administration to enforce the rules.
“Since Day One, Secretary DeVos has sided with for-profit school executives against students and families drowning in unaffordable student loans,” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement. “Her decision to cancel vital protections for students and taxpayers is a betrayal of her office’s responsibility and a violation of federal law.”
The Massachusetts lawsuit was joined by California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia.
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A spokeswoman for DeVos dismissed the lawsuit as “ideologically driven” and said the Obama-era rules were drafted “through a heavily politicized process” that “failed to account for the interests of all stakeholders.”
Liz Hill, the spokewoman, defended DeVos’ decision to delay the regulations based on the legal challenge by the for-profit college trade group, which she said raised “serious and credible charges” about the rules' legality.
The Obama administration began preparing new regulations following the 2015 collapse of Corinthian Colleges, a chain of for-profit schools, amid allegations of fraud. Tens of thousands of former Corinthian students — as well as those from other troubled schools like ITT Tech — flooded the Education Department with claims for debt relief relying on a seldom-used provision of the Higher Education Act that makes federal student loans unenforceable when a college engages in misconduct.
Using existing rules, Obama's Education Department had already approved debt relief claims from more than 30,000 student borrowers, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. DeVos has promised to honor those claims, but the processing of undecided claims has slowed to a virtual halt during the Trump administration.
Obama's regulations were meant to clarify and make uniform the standard for when borrowers could seek loan forgiveness — for example, when a school makes a “substantial misrepresentation” to students. The rules also set up a more formal system for allowing the Education Department to stick the predatory colleges, rather than taxpayers, with the cost of loan forgiveness. But the government would still pick up the tab in cases where the school became defunct.
The Obama administration estimated that the regulations would cost taxpayers $16.6 billion over the next decade.
Congressional Republicans expressed concerns about the cost to taxpayers, but opted not to include the regulation as one of the many Obama-era rules they axed through a flurry of Congressional Review Act resolutions earlier this year.
Democrats, meanwhile, have blasted DeVos for delaying the regulations, which they say are crucial protections for student borrowers.
Both lawsuits will likely center around complex questions of the Trump administration’s authority under the Administrative Procedure Act to delay regulations that have already been finalized. DeVos cited a section of that law — section 705 — that allows an agency to postpone a regulation when “justice so requires,” while a rule is “pending judicial review.”
The administration’s reliance on the California for-profit colleges association’s lawsuit as a reason to delay the rule is a “mere pretext for repealing the rule and replacing it with a new rule that will remove or dilute student rights and protections,” the Massachusetts lawsuit says.
Internal documents obtained by POLITICO last month show that the administration had previously considered a different way to delay the rule.
The agency considered, but ultimately decided against, writing a new “interim final rule” that pushed back the effective date of the rules by two years to July 2019. That draft notice cited the need for additional review of the regulation as well as its estimated cost to taxpayers.Randy Blythe of Lamb Of God was found non guilty on manslaughter charges several months ago, but the trial itself ended up bankrupting the band. Check out details on the after effects of the trial below after the jump.
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Randy Blythe (Lamb Of God) Found Not Guilty On Manslaughter Charges
Adler said he and the band were relieved, even ecstatic, that Blythe was freed of the charges. But the incident pushed Lamb of God to a turning point.
“Not only were we not able to generate any income, but we ended up having to pay more than half a million dollars in legal fees,” said Adler, calling from a tour stop in Madison, Wis. “It bankrupted the entire band, no money left for any kind of payroll or anything. When Randy was acquitted, everything was on the line at that point. Either it was completely over, or we had a chance to get back out there and pay these bills and get ourselves back on our feet.”
Some say Lamb of God had no real future without Blythe anyway.
“They started as an instrumental group, but it took Randy to give them focus and bring them a visual frontman who was capable of captivating an audience while this aggressive, multi-faceted music was hitting them like an assault to the chest,” said Jon Wiederhorn, co-author of “Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal,” which includes a chapter on Lamb of God. “Even at their most non-melodic, Randy is capable of keeping it in a wholly compelling range so that it never resorts to sheer dissonance.”
During the hiatus from touring, the main way Lamb of God makes its money, Adler said he explored other options, namely as a session drummer. For two months he was holed up in Canada playing drums on an album by the metal band Protest the Hero.After my first post about the dating feedback loop, I wanted to include a male perspective to make a more balanced conversation. While it may piss some women off, it is meant to shed light on another perspective — not to criticize. I spoke to men who are super aware of themselves and the people around them.
What do men think about the dating scene in San Francisco? Is it hard for them as well? What do men want, and what is their experience of dating us?
It often begins with the most trivial of gestures: a swipe to the right. Let’s face it, online dating is the primary means to meet people here in S.F. Men have a different selection strategy: volume. They are selective about who they want to be in a relationship with, but in order to find that person, they need to have a number of “prospects” in order to find that special someone. According to one guy, online dating could be a red flag. “Once I do see a match I have made offline, there are times where I see something off socially,” he said. There is a reason why some people are online instead of out there meeting real people, and it can be troubling. “Online dating is doing the same thing over and over again,” he said. “As time goes forward, you wake up and realize there are just less and less new people.”
Online dating and the swiping model takes what could be a collaborative process of “let’s figure out together if we’re a fit” into a mobile game where we’re objectified into a profile that someone can accept or reject in an instant. It sets us up to not take a date seriously when we do ultimately meet in person because no serious vetting has happened beforehand.
Another aspect of online dating that rarely gets addressed is how just a few lines give you very little room to be different. It isn’t a coincidence that many girls sound the same. They are just trying to highlight what they think is relevant even though there is a lot more there than meets the description and the picture. In a way, dating software forces us to sell ourselves short by its own limitation. Even more so, part of the problem with online dating is that many guys have made mistakes they aren’t over or don’t trust their judgment, so tend to be less sure of themselves.
So how do men go about meeting women offline? They go out and do things they like. This of course takes a man who isn’t shy and who doesn’t live off of the on-demand economy that keeps you inside your house. Men who actually interact with society by going to the gym, charity events or even the grocery store have a better chance of meeting someone. But this of course favors the friendly and outgoing. If men haven’t begun to think about really putting themselves out there and investing in an offline life, they will be alone more often, causing more women to be alone as a result. “It doesn’t matter if you are rich and your company is cool, you can definitely mess this up,” he said. “An easy way is by being too introverted.”
So what about age? This subject was most definitely the hardest to write about because it can seriously make women feel like shit — but I must represent for men. Age is an issue. Even for me at 30, I know part of my allure is gone. I am not in my 20s, not thinking about a serious relationship. “Being older is challenging,” according to a friend. “A girl’s outlook and prospects are diminished by being older.” According to the book, “Defining Decade” this age thing is also about challenging society to do what works for you but focusing more on what you build over your 20s. It contends that your 20s are a time to work hard professionally but also learn how to develop relationships.
Women want a ton of stuff and most of the time it is different. For women, there is nowhere in the conversation of dating that states what they want and how they are going to invest to get it. “Some guys strategize to meet women, but women don’t strategize to meet guys or strategize for guys to invest,” according to another friend. But according to the feedback loop, most women will have to let men come to them to be able to communicate their value.
There are tradeoffs to be made in the lives of men and women. If we focus solely on our careers, we may be sacrificing quality and lasting relationships, and this is something we should be very honest with ourselves about. How we invest our time will determine our results. We are also told not to settle.
But something here has to give. If we don’t put ourselves out there, figure out what we want, focus on building relationships and invest in ourselves, will we forever remain single?
With a background in journalism, Melissa Eisenberg has been working in the tech industry for eight years, currently leading the SF FashTech community.
Click here or scroll down to commentThe UK government has cancelled its £1bn competition for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology just six months before it was due to be awarded, breaking a pledge in the Conservative party’s election manifesto.
The abandonment of a technology championed by David Cameron and seen as vital in tackling global warming will be an embarrassment to the UK, just days before a major UN climate change summit in Paris. Industry figures called the move “devastating” and while experts said it would make meeting the UK’s binding carbon cuts “almost impossible” and more expensive.
Two projects had been in the running to build plants demonstrating CCS at commercial scale. One was backed by Shell and SSE at Peterhead. The White Rose consortium was based at Drax, the UK’s largest power plant, but was in trouble after Drax halted its investment in September.
The government informed the London Stock Exchange at 3pm, stating: “Following the chancellor’s autumn statement, HM government confirms that the £1bn ring-fenced capital budget for the CCS competition is no longer available. We will engage closely with the bidders on the implications of this decision for them.” The decision was not mentioned in Treasury documents.
“This is devastating,” said Luke Warren, chief executive of the CCS Association. “Moving the goalposts just at the time when a four-year competition is about to conclude is an appalling way to do business. It is a real blow to confidence for companies investing in CCS. This technology is critical for the UK’s economic, industrial and climate policies.”
Are mini-nuclear reactors the answer to the climate change crisis? Read more
Shell said the Peterhead project was now dead and its CCS work would be focused in other countries. “Shell remains committed to CCS – as our involvement in demonstration projects in other parts of the world shows – and we view it as an important part of a low-carbon energy future,” said a spokesman.
CCS traps the carbon dioxide from coal and gas power plants and buries it underground so it cannot warm the climate. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded CCS is hugely important to tackling climate change in the most cost-effective way. Without CCS, the costs of halting global warming would double, the IPCC said.
The UK government’s own advisors, the Committee on Climate Change, agreed and said in October: “CCS is very important for reducing emissions across the economy and could almost halve the cost of meeting the 2050 target in the [UK’s] Climate Change Act.”
The Conservative’s 2015 general election manifesto said: “We have been the greenest government ever... committing £1bn for carbon capture and storage.” Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow energy secretary, said: “CCS offers huge economic opportunities for Britain. Year after year the prime minister has personally promised to support CCS, so this is a huge betrayal.”
Claire Jakobsson, at EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, said CCS could save the UK £32bn a year by 2050 and abandoning the competition was a false economy: “In choosing to save a relatively small sum of taxpayer money in 2015, the government is unnecessarily committing vast amount of future energy consumers’ money.”
The UK’s energy policy was reset on 18 November and aims to build many new gas-fired power stations. To meet carbon targets, any new stations would have to stop generating by 2030 unless CCS is fitted, but the cancellation of the CCS competition makes this less likely.
“If we are serious about building a clean and secure energy sector we need a diverse energy system, and CCS is central to this,” said Jenifer Baxter, at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. “Without CCS this will mean we are locking ourselves into relying on unabated fossil fuel power for generations to come.”
George Osborne’s autumn review and comprehensive spending review also cut spending on home energy efficiency by £132m - an 83% reduction - on the same day that over 40,000 excess deaths were announced for the last winter. The UK has some of the worst housing in the EU and improvements in efficiency are needed to meet carbon targets. Another £700m - 40% - was cut from a scheme supporting green heating.
What is carbon capture and storage? Read more
The chancellor announced a doubling of investment in energy research and technology over five years. He singled out mini nuclear reactors - called small modular reactors (SMRs) - as a promising technology for the UK. Foreign SMR companies have been courting the UK in recent months.
The spending review pledged “at least £250m over the next five years in an ambitious nuclear R&D programme that will revive the UK’s nuclear expertise... This will include a competition to identify the best value SMR design for the UK. This will pave the way towards building one of the world’s first SMRs in the UK in the 2020s.” A new large nuclear power station at Hinkley Point is set to receive billions in subsidies.
“The chancellor is slashing renewables and energy efficiency investment, and eliminating CCS funding, making it almost impossible to meet our carbon budgets,” said Sepi Golzari-Munro, at climate policy thinktank E3G. “Rather than building the low-carbon infrastructure fit for the future, he has doubled down on building the infrastructure of the past.”(This story first appeared in USA TODAY.)
Saturday night’s UFC 168 event features one of the most anticipated title fights in UFC history, but one man sitting cageside in Las Vegas will be watching more intently than just about anyone else: Vitor Belfort.
Many will watch the pay-per-view broadcast (10 p.m. ET) to see if UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman can down former champ Anderson Silva for a second time. But Belfort will be watching for a different reason. “The Phenom” wants to know whom he’ll need to beat to become UFC champion.
“I don’t care who will win on Saturday, because whoever wins will already be preparing to lose,” Belfort (24-10 MMA, 13-6 UFC) told USA TODAY Sports. “That belt belongs to me.”
Fighting professionally since he was a teenager, Belfort is 36 and performing perhaps better than at any point in his career. He’s No. 3 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com MMA middleweight rankings, behind Weidman and Silva. Yet in the past 12 months, his knockout victories against Dan Henderson, Luke Rockhold and Michael Bisping have earned Belfort serious consideration for “Fighter of the Year.”
He also appears to be in line for a shot at the title. He has vigorously campaigned for the chance during his streak.
“I conquered my space,” Belfort said. “I wanted the opportunity to fight for the belt, and here I am. The one thing the fans wanted to see is me getting the title shot. Now I am more than ready to be a world champion in another division.”
Belfort wore a UFC championship belt once before, earning the light heavyweight title in 2004 in bizarre fashion when the seam of his glove cut then-champ Randy Couture’s lower eyelid. Forty-nine seconds into the bout, the fight was waved off, and Belfort was awarded a TKO.
Belfort lost the belt in a rematch and left the promotion shortly after, taking fights around the globe for different organizations. The Brazilian returned to the UFC in 2009 and has been intent on a title victory since. He has had two opportunities, losing to Silva in 2011 and moving up to light heavyweight in 2012 in an unsuccessful bid against Jon Jones.
But Belfort has established himself as a top contender, and UFC President Dana White has hinted he will be booked to fight the winner of the Weidman vs. Silva rematch.
As far as Belfort is concerned, the suggestions might as well be a guarantee. “I don’t like this little word ‘if,'” Belfort said. “If we start adding ‘if, if, if,’ that means I wouldn’t conquer anything completely. The sweet feeling is knowing that nobody gave me anything for free. I paid the price and made my way here.”
UFC officials don’t typically announce future plans until title fights are complete. But Belfort plans to follow up a big year by kicking off 2014 with a victory against the UFC 168 winner.
“I have the most loyal fans that have been with me since I was 19 years old, when I was just a young guy becoming a world champion,” Belfort said. “I would like to say thank you to all of them. We are about to get another amazing year.
“Be ready, because I am.”
For more on UFC 168, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.ETF2L Premiership team Full Tilt (formerly Perilous Gaming), have undergone a roster swap following their DreamHack Summer appearance. Silentes, who couldn't play at DreamHack Summer and was replaced by tek, will be moved back up to the starting roster for the rest of the ETF2L season and Insomnia 58. The team also returned to their roots after saying goodbye to their namesake sponsor, Perilous Gaming.
Full Tilt has drawn their Ace in the Hole for Insomnia 58 (picture by Ness "uberchain" Delacroix)
Full Tilt was picked up by the Perilous organization at the beginning of 2016 with the intent of taking top level TF2 seriously. Their financial support from Perilous would enable them to attend LANs such as DreamHack Summer and Insomnia 58 without paying entirely out of pocket or requiring community fundraisers. However, communication issues led to Full Tilt dropping their partnership.
Silentes’ return to Full Tilt won’t be new for him. He has been a part of the roster ever since Full Tilt’s inception last year in Season 22. After missing out on DreamHack Summer, Silentes is ready to make his first LAN appearance at i58.
Full Tilt’s medic and part time Squirrel King kos spoke to us about the recent changes to the team:
We left the Perilous organisation due to their inability or unwillingness to give us proper LAN support. We discussed support for DHS and were told explicitly by the organisation that we would have accommodation paid for and organised by Perilous. The week leading up to the event we asked multiple times about where we were supposedly staying but received no response and so at the event were forced to pay for a hotel out of pocket, costing us more money since it was booked at the last minute. Because of this lack of communication and follow through we decided to leave the Perilous organisation to pursue a more trustworthy organisation or support ourselves for i58.
Moving forward through the ETF2L Premiership Season 24 Playoffs and Insomnia 58, Full Tilt are:GARDAÍ IN LIMERICK have seized a range of illegal drugs as well as two guns and ammunition following a search in the county.
The search by local gardaí assisted by the Limerick Divisional Drugs Unit was carried out at a premises at Brooksbridge in Pallasgreen this afternoon.
Gardaí say they discovered cannabis herb, cocaine, benzodiazepines and alprazolam with a combined estimated value of €126,000.
Alprazolam is an anxiety drug commonly sold as Xanax with the quantity found by gardaí valued at €2,000.
Subject to analysis, the value of the rest of the drugs has been estimated as €94,200 worth of cannabis, €22,500 of cocaine and €7,300 of benzodiazepines.
Two firearms, ammunition and a firearm component were also found by gardaí during the search.
No arrests were made following the search with gardaí saying investigations are ongoing.Obama is ahead in seven polls in the key state of Ohio released in the past 48 hours, and PPP has just released a Michigan poll showing Obama with a healthy lead in that state. First, from PPP:
A new Public Policy Polling survey in Michigan, conducted on behalf of Health Care for America Now, finds Barack Obama leading Mitt Romney 53-45. Although there has been a lot of talk recently about Romney having the chance to pull off an upset in the state, these numbers indicate that possibility is quite a long shot Key findings from the survey include: -An outright majority of Michigan voters approve of Obama’s performance as President with 52% giving him good marks to 46% who disapprove. Romney is not a popular figure in his native state with only 46% of voters rating him favorably to 49% with an unfavorable opinion. -Obama is leading thanks to wide advantages with women (60/38), African Americans (86/8), and voters under 65 (55/42). Romney is ahead with men (53/44), whites (50/48), and seniors (53/45), but he’d need much wider margins with those groups to have any hope of winning Michigan. -Obama has wide advantages over Romney in terms of who voters trust more to stand up for the middle class (55/42) and protect Medicare (52/44). Romney’s inability to convince regular people that he would be an advocate for them makes it very difficult for him to compete in a state like Michigan.
Next, Nate Silver’s recent tweet about Ohio:
The Washington Post has more about the Ohio polls:
President Obama continues to hold slight leads in the crucial battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, while the equally critical races in Florida and Virginia are too close to call, according to a new crop of swing state polls.
More on Ohio and why it matters from a different article in the Post:
As we’ve written many times on this blog, the Electoral College math for Romney is, quite simply, very difficult. According to the current Fix projections, Obama has 255 electoral votes either solidly in his column or leaning towards him (including Ohio’s 18), while Romney has just 206. So assuming Obama wins Ohio, he would need to win just 15 of the 77 electoral votes in the toss-up states.
One of the many Ohio polls Obama is doing well in is the Project New America/US Action poll, where Obama leads Romney 48% to 45%. They say that women are providing the lead for Obama:You know how it goes. A friend raves about a game that you aren’t familiar with, and you then keep meaning to check it out but never quite get around to it. Well, we’re giving you a chance to catch up on some of those ‘hidden gems’ at discounted prices.
A bucket-load of great titles, including Sound Shapes, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes, Oddworld, Deathspank and Trine, will be discounted for your pleasure from 24th April until 8th May 2013. Here’s the full list of deals:
PS3
After Burner Climax
Was €7.99/£6.49, now €3.99/£3.19
Additional 10% off for PS Plus subscribers
Back to the Future: The Game – 5 Game Series
Was €19.99/£15.99, now €9.99/£7.99
Additional 10% off for PS Plus subscribers
Beyond Good & Evil HD
Was €9.99/£7.99, now €4.99/£3.99
Additional 10% off for PS Plus subscribers
Calling All Cars
Was €4.99/£3.99, now €2.49/£1.99
Additional 10% off for PS Plus subscribers
Crystal Defenders
Was €9.99/£7.99, now €4.99/£3.99
Additional 10% off for PS Plus subscribers
Datura
Was €7.99/£6.49, now €3.99/£3.19
Additional 10% off for PS Plus subscribers
Deathspank
Was €12.99/£9.99, now €6.49/£5.19
Eat Them!
Was €7.99/£6.49, now €3.99/£3.19
Additional 10% off for PS Plus subscribers
Echo Chrome
Was €9.99/£7.99, now €4.99/£3.99
Additional 10% off for PS Plus subscribers
Echo Chrome 2
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, and that for me was really refreshing. And it still happens now, that Jesu has gone to a new audience. I almost find it refreshing to read people saying they heard Jesu and were really into it, and they went to see what Godflesh was about, but it didn’t interest them. That, for me, is much more thrilling, the fact that you can move on, as opposed to playing to the same established audience. Quite clearly, I don’t just operate in one singular, narrow, sound. I guess it’s wishful thinking; you hope that your audience may be as eclectically minded. I’m displaying every side of my personality through music, and it’s not going to be agreeable to [everyone]. People like certain facets of what I do, and that’s it, I think.” From a personal point of view: I read an interview in PopMatters from a few years ago, and the interviewer had heard of you from Jesu, and not heard Godflesh, and worked backwards, whereas Godflesh were in the very first rock magazine I got, when I was 11, in 1992. There was a picture of you playing live, and messing with pedals. When I was 11, I was like ‘wow, what’s this?’ First of all, you had a shaved head, which was completely freaky… “Wow, that was probably Kerrang! Magazine, or Raw or something.” It was actually Raw, with Slash on the cover. “I probably still have that, in my garage! I kept all the magazines from around the Godflesh time, because the music press was obviously pretty huge. And Godflesh, as you recognised yourself, as a young boy, was somewhat unusual next to all the hair metal bands and the established machismo within metal.” That was an eye-opening issue in general, because it had a feature on the heaviest albums ever. So seeing stuff like Slowly We Rot and Necroticism: Descanting the Insalubrious is different from seeing Poison, Thunder and Bon Jovi, which is what I was listening to at the time. “As you know, when Godflesh started being featured in worldwide rock magazines, metal was still at the poodle stage. We were seen as total outsiders, but managed to get a lot of attention because of it, I think. We were one of those bands that stepped outside the comfortable sense of normality that metal had. Like you say, you’d rarely see a band in a magazine like that with a guy with shaved head, sitting on the floor and messing with a delay pedal. We were seen as a freakish thing I guess, but there was a comfort in that.”
“Seeing derision in a way is almost… I do take some sort of comfort from it”
It stayed with me anyway, and from a personal point of view the reason why I’m not surprised about stuff like Jesu or Techno Animal or Pale Sketcher is because I’d heard Godflesh itself evolving as time went on from this kind of brutal electro-Swans kind of thing at the start into Songs of Love and Hate, and then Us and Them and Hymns being more subtle and textured. So when I heard Jesu it was like a natural progression. “Yeah, there’s a lot of other like-minded people that travelled from an early age some of the music I was making… it was very natural for people to take the direction I went in you know, I obviously felt it was as well for me after the demise of Godflesh and some of the shit I went through in my life. To me that was the sole new way of expressing myself, you know. I’d got over the bile and the anger, so it felt very natural for me to express another side of something I’d loved for years, which was basically pop music; to come out with something that was a bastardisation of an existing form.” With Jesu there was definitely a sense of the early ’90s Creation indie stuff, like My Bloody Valentine. And when I was listening to the Pale Sketcher record, even though it was reworkings of Jesu stuff I was getting a completely different feel from it. So I approached it like it as just its own piece of work. “Good, yeah, that’s good.” And then it was just like lots of completely different reference points: Boards of Canada and Manual and legit really awesome electronic stuff and it was only really track four that was the first song that actually made me think ‘oh yeah this was based on Jesu stuff’. “Yeah. Yeah it was quite recognisably that mood. For me, Pale Sketcher is a new project, but a lot of the electronica elements of Jesu that I’d started to bring in I really wanted to develop, without the context of it being so fusiony in terms of heavy guitars and electronica. I really just wanted to take it into just electronica, just to try and – that sound is important. I just like a lot of electronic music which touches on that same mood like some of the people you just mentioned like you know Boards of Canada and stuff. But the reference points are still really wide, and for me even hark back to when I loved Kraftwerk when I was a kid and Human League, even. This Pale Sketcher project, for my established audience, is even more daring because I’m stepping into areas that I loved in the ’80s, which I could barely talk to anyone about who liked the similar stuff. Again people would accuse me of being too daring with my established audience and I should play it safe and all the rest of it but it’s just not fun and it doesn’t feel entirely satisfying.” I always loved it when bands like Pitchshifter would completely change their sound with every album, and say ‘the fans aren’t gonna like it’. That’s way better than when bands like Metallica or Pantera on their later stuff would be like ‘we’re doing this for the fans’. Why are you doing stuff for the fans? They’ve got albums that already exist. “Exactly, yeah, that sense of repetition and just existing in a safe… I know a lot of bands who operate like that, they just keep churning out the same record essentially because its security. It’s artistic security and financial stability. And as for me its just it’s not satisfying to… even with Godflesh, we could quite easily have churned out Streetcleaner time and time again, and people – probably the majority of, say, the metal audience, would have been quite satisfied to hear the same record churned out. But I would have been so absolutely dissatisfied with just doing what’s safe, and to me it’s just not true expression at all. I mean, I admire bands that feel satisfied with that but I’d be questioning whether they are entirely satisfied or whether it’s just security. “I took a lot of these risks, and even reading some of the immediate responses from the crowd I had which were more into the heavier side of things and seeing such derision in a way is almost… I do take some sort of comfort from it because I know I must be doing something challenging. If it was just noise people going ‘yeah yeah it’s what I expected and it’s fantastic’; it’s so predictable and safe’. Not that I make any record just to be challenging for the sake of it which couldn’t be further from the truth. I don’t do anything unless I love doing it.”
Loading Video… ;hl=en_GB” /> Loading Video… ;hl=en_GB” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true”>Pale Sketcher: ‘Can I Go Now’ (Gone Version) (2010)
“…I do it because I love making music and its quite as simple as that. I can’t just rest on my laurels and I can’t just do things just because it’s the safe option. I mean Godflesh, again, it lost an audience record after record almost because it kept challenging what we did previously and fans wouldn’t feel comfortable with that. You constantly see the same sort of stuff like ‘yeah the first album was great but they lost their way’ and ‘I don’t understand this hip hop shit’ or ‘I don’t understand this electronic shit’, you know what I mean? “And you’d be like oh my god isn’t this just a world of music as opposed to just a world of single avenues people exist in: I find that really frustrating. The amount of music I listen to myself, I can literally listen to the most obscure black metal record and then listen to a Jay-Z record and then listen to a Teenage Fanclub record. It’s just music I love and enjoy and I find it all inspirational and I’d love to communicate the same range of emotions. And even if it’s in singular ways, I like to do it in many singular ways, if that makes any sense. Besides, for the people who were after more bludgeoning stuff, the Greymachine [Broadrick’s project with members of Isis, Jesu and Head of David] album came out not so long ago, and that’s noisy. “Exactly! It’s all there. I get constantly knocked for being a prolific musician, as any prolific musician I guess does. You’re always gonna be accused by people of either milking it or ‘oh they should take a break’. But I do this for a living. I don’t have a day job to go to so I can spend all my time creating, which I’m absolutely fortunate to be able to do and it’s an absolute pleasure, but for me if there are infinite ways to express oneself I’d rather use all these different languages than just stick with one. It just seems so boring; it’s not fun. [laughs] You’ve got a wealth of ways of communicating musically – why choose one?”
“Let’s see how we feel. And if we feel like a couple of idiotic, self-conscious, 40 year olds, then we’ll forget it.”
While I was reading this interview that you did with PopMatters, I noticed a particular line. You said ‘it’s two different things, my past and where I am now’, which is obviously a very solid point. But then you’ve recently brought Godflesh back to the live circuit. I was wondering about your motivations behind that. “To be honest, very many promoters have been attempting to get Godflesh back into the live arena for many years, particularly in the last three years, because we’re living in an era of reunions and I was completely anti the whole concept. And also the other half of Godflesh, Ben Green, has moved on quite dramatically since he was in music, even though he’s still a huge fan of music and still makes music in his own private time, I’d almost assumed, and he’d assumed with me, that we’d never revisit it. Irrespective of how many offers we were getting, and very rewarding offers as well, it was still ‘no, this would not feel right’. “It was only really the last year and a half where we actually agreed – we did that one performance at Hellfest in France; it was a really big metal event, where we actually discussed in all seriousness that we could do it. And we actually became, at first quite sentimental about the old Godflesh and quite nostalgic, which is obvious I guess. It doesn’t mean it should be the premise of a reunion. But I was quite surprised when I put it to Ben Green and said what If we did do this? Could we get anything out of it? He was quite immediate about wanting to do it. And wanting to be what we were originally. The most important thing was that we got back to the roots of being the two guys and a drum machine, which we felt was arguably where we were at our purest. And we actually felt excited About the idea of just presenting that, being so much older, and just seeing if we got any thrill out of it. We didn’t really say yes until we played together again, you know. “And when we played together again it felt like hand in glove. It felt really exciting, like ‘let’s do this. Let’s see how we feel. And if we feel like a couple of idiotic, self-conscious, 40 year olds, then we’ll forget it’. And we partly felt like that with the reunion – unfortunately we had a lot of technical problems with the first reunion show. But we’re now doing another one in Birmingham, at the Supersonic Festival. I don’t know whether you’re aware of that…” I am, and I want to go. Swans are playing as well, which is just childhood awesomeness. I try not to get too nostalgic, but when I see something like that then I can’t resist it. “Exactly, and it’s nice to hear that as well. People are saying it’s Swans one night and Godflesh the following, and for some people it’s a dream. That was also what excited us: not only people would wish to see us again who were there originally, but there has also become quite an established audience for this music who never saw us. And when we did the Hellfest performance, even though largely it was failed, mostly just because of a lot of technical bullshit like power generators blowing up and all the rest of it, when it actually reached some of the peaks, it felt more exciting than when we played originally. Because we got jaded quite quickly when we used to tour that material for six, seven months a year, like any rock and, they go through the motions eventually., and we used to hate the concept of going through the motions.”The question of Michel's sexuality on "Gilmore Girls" is perhaps best summed up by this fan page asking if he is "gay or just French." The show's creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, spoke with The Huffington Post at ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas, Friday and gave us what may be the closest thing we'll ever have to a definitive answer.
"We all know men who seem creative, who have wives and children," she said, giggling. "So we never actually pursue it one way or the other and sort of let it lie."
"We left it ambiguous and I think that was a choice," said Yanic Truesdale, who played Michel. "I actually never asked Amy!... I've never asked, swear on my mother's head."
As Sherman-Palladino noted, early on in the series Michel makes a few comments insinuating he is straight. "We sort of went on record saying he was into women, because we put it in the script once," she said, "but things can change or shift."
Truesdale remembered that people speculated his character was in love with Lorelai, though his sexuality was never really part of Michel's character. "They couldn't figure it out and Amy liked that," he said. "That's why she made it like, 'Oh, he loves Celine Dion.' But he's French. French guys are more feminine. French guys are more sophisticated... If you go to Paris, it's like, 'Oh my god, is he gay?'"
Sherman-Palladino did, however, explicitly think of other Stars Hollow residents as gay. "We had characters in the town that we thought of as gay," she said, refusing to reveal who. "And we just thought of them as characters."
When the show started in 2000, LGBT characters were few and far between (read: mostly limited to Showtime's "Queer As Folk"). Sherman-Palladino actually intended Sookie (Melissa McCarthy) to be gay, but executives wouldn't approve.
"Things were different back then," Sherman-Palladino said. "The networks were very different in how permissive they would allow you to be. So, Sookie was originally supposed to be gay, but that was a non-starter at that time."
Although she has said the show couldn't exist today, if it had started a bit later, things might have been different.
"It changed so quickly," she said. "By the time 'Gilmore' had been on a year or two, that shit was starting to drop right and left. But by that point, Sookie was in a relationship. It was really right at the cusp of when things were starting to turn. You know, today everyone would be gay. Lorelai would be gay!"Just Say No
“He who defends everything, defends nothing.”
By Eric Margolis
September 06, 2014 " ICH " - Washington DC – “We’ve got to stop ISIS…al-Qaida…Syria’s Assad…Hamas…Hezbollah…Taliban …Shebab…the wicked Ruskis in Ukraine..those Yemeni Houthis…Iran… Sudan…Islamists in Libya and Mali… Boko Haram in Nigeria…the Red Chinese in Asia. Oh yes, and defend Latvia and fight the Lord’s Army in Uganda.
That’s the view in Washington where international police fever and growing hysteria over ISIS, the latest Mideast bogeyman, have gripped the nation, as elections near and politicians talk more nonsense than usual.
Listen to Republican windbags and you’d believe the hordes of ISIS are about to put Cleveland to the sword.
My question is: which “we” is going to stop all these malefactors?
To quote Frederick the Great, “he who defends everything, defends nothing.” To which we may add, he who spends on wars everywhere, ends up broke. And he who ignores domestic needs for the sake of imperial glory abroad is cruising for a bruising.
The American Imperium can no longer enforce the international status quo that had given it immense power and wealth since 1945. The Hapsburg Emperor Charles V and poor Louis XVI faced the same problem.
When confronted by complex problems – as the US is now in Iraq and Syria – sometimes the best strategy is to do nothing at all. The problem may go away or burn itself out.
But the Obama administration is under growing pressure from the neoconservatives, Republicans and pro-war media to attack Syria and confront Russia in Ukraine.
President Barack Obama just made the surprisingly candid admission that he had not yet developed a strategy for dealing with ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Republicans screamed.
Take your time, Mr. President. Fools charge in where angels fear to tread.
Speaking as an old Mideast hand and veteran war correspondent, I say no plan is a good plan. Washington has made such an awful mess of its foreign policy that inaction is an increasingly attractive option. More little wars will mean the US falling into the trap set by Osama bin Laden.
Who came down from the mountain and said the US must police the globe, from the South China Sea to the jungles of Peru? After losing wars in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, the US should reconsider its overly militarized foreign policy and exaggerated international pretensions. You can’t rule the globe on money borrowed from China and Japan.
Obama’s decision to send tiny US military forces to Ukraine and Iraq violates the basic laws of war: strike swiftly with maximum concentrated force. More worrying, expanded US naval patrols in the Black Sea are a dangerous provocation. Imagine if Russian naval units sailed into Lake Ontario?
Pushing the European Union into sanctions against Russia has ended up hurting the western powers more than Russia. The EU will now have to bail out its farmers and other exporters whose business in Russia was shut down.
President Putin’s offer nine months ago of a referendum in Ukraine leading to more local autonomy is the sensible way out of this mess. Allowing ISIS to run around in Mesopotamia until the local powers – including Turkey – decide to shut it down is the best strategy for dealing with these upstarts.
US Republican hawks calling for sending US troops back into Iraq and Afghanistan should bear in mind a terrible number: 253,000 former US military veterans suffering grave permanent brain damage from wars in those nations. They will require intensive lifetime medical care. This figure pales compared to the nearly 8,000 US soldiers killed in action.
Bombing Iraq now costs the US $7.5 million daily, or $562 million since June. This is just the opening ante for Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama’s very own Iraq War. George W. Bush’s Iraq War cost well over $1 trillion. This at a time when 44 million Americans rely on food stamps and infrastructure is crumbling all over America.
As they say at the Betty Ford Clinic for drug and alcohol addicts, “just say no.” Or, if Americans really want more jolly little wars around the globe, then raise taxes to pay for them instead of hiding their cost in the national debt.
Americans now face two conflicts in places they can’t even find on the map.
Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune the Los Angeles Times, Times of London, the Gulf Times, the Khaleej Times, Nation – Pakistan, Hurriyet, – Turkey, Sun Times Malaysia and other news sites in Asia. http://ericmargolis.comBy MAGDALENA GUILLEN
There is no doubt about it that Stevie Wonder is looking great these days, but what contributes to his already fabulous self?
"I've been a vegan for two years, so that's helped my already good-looking self," joked the musician. "I think that eating healthy is important."
The legendary singer put his best green foot forward at Global Green's Annual Pre-Oscar Party and told AOL why he's supporting the fight against climate change.
"We have to be about making our planet more greener, the urban areas more sustainable for the children," said Wonder. "We can't just talk about it, we have to be about it."
Converting to a vegan lifestyle definitely has contributed to his cause of saving the environment and he wants others to follow suit.
"I'm motivating people to do something about how we are living on this planet," said Wonder.
The musician expressed himself strongly on the ways we're treating our planet and how plans to use his talents to be able to make a difference.
See images from the event:
23 PHOTOS Global Green Pre-Oscar party - orig See Gallery Stevie Wonder talks being vegan and living a green lifestyle LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Stevie Wonder attends Global Green USA's 13th annual pre-Oscar party at Mr. C Beverly Hills on February 24, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Singer Charlie Puth attends the Global Green USA's 13th Annual Pre-Oscar Party at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Actress Paula Abdul attends Global Green USA's 13th annual pre-Oscar party at Mr. C Beverly Hills on February 24, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage) LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Maggie Grace attends Global Green USA's 13th annual pre-Oscar party at Mr. C Beverly Hills on February 24, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage) LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Heather McDonald attends Global Green USA's 13th annual pre-Oscar party at Mr. C Beverly Hills on February 24, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage) LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Actress/model Emily Ratajkowski attends Global Green USA's 13th annual pre-Oscar party at Mr. C Beverly Hills on February 24, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage) LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Robyn Lawley attends Global Green USA's 13th annual pre-Oscar party at Mr. C Beverly Hills on February 24, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage) LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Ria Antoniou attends Global Green USA's 13th annual pre-Oscar party at Mr. C Beverly Hills on February 24, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage) LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Cheryl Tiegs attends Global Green USA's 13th annual pre-Oscar party at Mr. C Beverly Hills on February 24, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Olympian Apolo Ohno attends the Global Green USA's 13th Annual Pre-Oscar Party at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Mia Maestro attends Global Green USA's 13th annual pre-Oscar party at Mr. C Beverly Hills on February 24, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Actor Peter Mensah attends the Global Green USA's 13th Annual Pre-Oscar Party at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Actress Emily Foxler (L) and actor Justin Baldoni attend the Global Green USA's 13th Annual Pre-Oscar Party at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Actor Josh Radnor attends the Global Green USA's 13th Annual Pre-Oscar Party at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Singer Josh Moreland attends the Global Green USA's 13th Annual Pre-Oscar Party at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - FEBRUARY 24: DJ Fulano attends the Global Green USA's 13th Annual Pre-Oscar Party at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Actress Daphne Zuniga attends the Global Green USA's 13th Annual Pre-Oscar Party at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Actor Ed O'Neill (L) and Catherine Rusoff attend the Global Green USA's 13th Annual Pre-Oscar Party at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Actress Rainbeau Mars attends the Global Green USA's 13th Annual Pre-Oscar Party at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Rachel Avalon attends the Global Green USA's 13th Annual Pre-Oscar Party at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Actor Francesco Carrozzini attends the Global Green USA's 13th Annual Pre-Oscar Party at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Radha Mitchell attends Global Green USA's 13th annual pre-Oscar party at Mr. C Beverly Hills on February 24, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage) LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Jason Ritter and Melanie Lynskey attend Global Green USA's 13th annual pre-Oscar party at Mr. C Beverly Hills on February 24, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by JB Lacroix/WireImage) Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE
"You know it is only possible to be able to have the blessing of song through the fact that God has given me life," said Wonder. "And the only way we can have life is by perpetuating life in how we live."
And speaking of talents, where does Mr. Wonder keep his infamous Oscar statue?
"I keep it close to my heart."
Well said, Mr. Wonder.
See images of the legendary singer through the years:
3 PHOTOS Stevie Wonder through the years See Gallery Stevie Wonder talks being vegan and living a green lifestyle CALABASAS, CA - DECEMBER 12: (L-R) Singer/Songwriters Stevie Wonder and Eric Benet attend 'In A Perfect World 10 Year Celebration Of Giving' on December 12, 2015 in Calabasas, California. (Photo by Earl Gibson III/Getty Images) TORONTO, ON - SEPTEMBER 26: Stevie Wonder performs at the David Foster Foundation Miracle Gala And Concert held at Mattamy Athletic Centre on September 26, 2015 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by George Pimentel/WireImage) NEW ORLEANS, LA - DECEMBER 01: Stevie Wonder performs at a fundraiser for Senator Mary Landrieu at the Windsor Court Hotel on December 1, 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Josh Brasted/Getty Images) Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE
More from AOL.com:
Rachel McAdams debuts gorgeous new platinum 'do ahead of the Oscars
Home Free debuts their music video for 'Good Ol Country Harmony'
Victoria Beckham is giving up her signature high heels: Find out why!Example code: https://github.com/d6u/example-redux-update-nested-props/blob/master/one-connect/index.js
View live demo: http://d6u.github.io/example-redux-update-nested-props/one-connect.html
How to optimize small updates to props of nested component?
I have above components, Repo and RepoList. I want to update the tag of the first repo (Line 14). So I dispatched an UPDATE_TAG action. Before I implemented shouldComponentUpdate, the dispatch takes about 200ms, which is expected since we are wasting lots of time diffing <Repo/> s that haven't changed.
After added shouldComponentUpdate, dispatch takes about 30ms. After production build React.js, the updates only cost at about 17ms. This is much better, but timeline view in Chrome dev console still indicate jank frame (longer than than 16.6ms).
Imagine if we have many updates like this, or <Repo/> is more complicated than current one, we won't be able to maintain 60fps.
My question is, for such small updates to a nested component's props, is there a more efficient and canonical way to update the content? Can I still use Redux?
I got a solution by replacing every tags with an observable inside reducer. Something like
// inside reducer when handling UPDATE_TAG action // repos[0].tags of state is already replaced with a Rx.BehaviorSubject get('repos[0].tags', state).onNext([{ id: 213, text: 'Node.js' }]);
Then I subscribe to their values inside Repo component using https://github.com/jayphelps/react-observable-subscribe. This worked great. Every dispatch only costs 5ms even with development build of React.js. But I feel like this is an anti-pattern in Redux.
Update 1
I followed the recommendation in Dan Abramov's answer and normalized my state and updated connect components
The new state shape is:
{ repoIds: ['1', '2', '3',...], reposById: { '1': {...}, '2': {...} } }
I added console.time around ReactDOM.render to time the initial rendering.
However, the performance is worse than before (both initial rendering and updating). (Source: https://github.com/d6u/example-redux-update-nested-props/blob/master/repo-connect/index.js, Live demo: http://d6u.github.io/example-redux-update-nested-props/repo-connect.html)
// With dev build INITIAL: 520.208ms DISPATCH: 40.782ms // With prod build INITIAL: 138.872ms DISPATCH: 23.054ms
I think connect on every <Repo/> has lots of overhead.
Update 2
Based on Dan's updated answer, we have to return connect's mapStateToProps arguments return an function instead. You can check out Dan's answer. I also updated the demos.
Below, the performance is much better on my computer. And just for fun, I also added the side effect in reducer approach I talked (source, demo) (seriously don't use it, it's for experiment only).
// in prod build (not average, very small sample) // one connect at root INITIAL: 83.789ms DISPATCH: 17.332ms // connect at every <Repo/> INITIAL: 126.557ms DISPATCH: 22.573ms // connect at every <Repo/> with memorization INITIAL: 125.115ms DISPATCH: 9.784ms // observables + side effect in reducers (don't use!) INITIAL: 163.923ms DISPATCH: 4.383ms
Update 3
Just added react-virtualized example based on "connect at every with memorization"U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media are part of a global trend of hostility to freedom of speech and damage the U.S. public interest, a U.N. human rights expert said Friday.
David Kaye, the U.N. special rapporteur on the freedom of expression, said Trump’s attacks, such as a Feb. 17 tweet listing news outlets that he considered “the enemy of the American People,” were not without purpose.
“They have concrete aims: to intimidate reporters into certain kinds of coverage, or clarify for his favored outlets what coverage he desires, or plant the seeds of doubt about news stories (such as the Russia investigation led by Robert Mueller).”
The president’s broadsides also served to silence criticism of his policies and to undermine the public’s right to know what the government is doing with their tax dollars, he said.
“The primary victim of Trump’s campaign against independent news is the American public. He may see it as valuable politically, but it’s wrong, and it risks doing long-term damage to a core value,” Kaye wrote in an article published on the Just Security online forum.
“When we tie together the jeremiads and rhetoric with what the Trump administration is doing in other governing spaces, the practice of attacking the press becomes clearer as policy than solely reckless rant.”
Kaye’s analysis of Trump’s attacks on the media comes two days after U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein raised the question of whether Trump’s remarks amount to an incitement to attack journalists.
“President Trump’s statements are indeed reckless, but they are consistent with a troubling trend of hostility toward open and honest government,” Kaye wrote. “And sadly, from the global perspective, it’s part of a general trend of hostility to freedom of expression, online and off.”
Freedom of the press exists, Kaye said, because the public has a right to information. He referred to an Aug. 4 press conference where Attorney General Jeff Sessions demanded that the “culture of leaking must stop.”
Sessions’ intent was not only to deter sources and whistleblowers but “to deprive the public of stories of the highest public interest” about the administration, Kaye said.
He said Trump is a “regular purveyor” of fake news, defined as “intentionally fraudulent information given to the public,” and his administration operates as if it has something to hide.So as I sat on the couch having lunch I see a shadowy bearded face run by my front window and with a quick bang on the door they were gone.
I ran to the door but alas his red white and blue sleigh I mean mail van was gone in a flash. But to my delight a package was upon my step. As I raced it inside to open with feror I thought this should be captured for posterity.
My Secret Santa hit it out of the park. They sent a great shirt of a show I am a big fan of a snack I love and a cool bonus gift. But best of all hanging on my fridge in a place of honor a hand drawn picture and note. Thank you very very much. This made my week! TomEvery party has a party pooper and judging by this flyer, it’s Hillary Clinton.
Here’s an untouched flyer advertising a “Young Americans for Hillary”event for students, indicating there isn’t much energy for Hillary Clinton’s campaign among the youth in New Hampshire.
A photo of a flyer was posted on Twitter Friday for the party in Manchester, New Hampshire today.
Super popular event. It's in 2 days and no one has torn off a reminder. #ReadyForHillary #OhHillNo pic.twitter.com/u7FXYSHyvX — Nancy ن (@Of_Angelis) July 24, 2015
Attendees are promised “young people, Hillary swag, Pizza, Political discussion, A good time.” And a photo of a young Hillary in garishly striped pants — what else could a college student possibly want?
Apparently a lot of things, as no one wants to be reminded about this “party.”
As Nancy points out:
.@EF517_V2 oh yeah, I'm going to the 3rd floor of some random building to have a "good time" getting some "Hillary swag" – lol! No. — Nancy ن (@Of_Angelis) July 24, 2015
The event is today at 1pm.
h/t Chicks on the RightWhen the world’s largest democracy goes |
participant in the Champions League) has a brand value that is less than half the brand value of Tottenham, and is less than one quarter the brand value of Liverpool. The question is, if the Liga deal was fairer, wouldn’t Valencia have a much stronger brand value, more commercial revenue, and wouldn’t they be able to keep hold of their best players, have a stronger squad and challenge Barca and RM for the league title?
or 4 best Spanish team, and pretty consistent participant in the Champions League) has a brand value that is less than half the brand value of Tottenham, and is less than one quarter the brand value of Liverpool. The question is, if the Liga deal was fairer, wouldn’t Valencia have a much stronger brand value, more commercial revenue, and wouldn’t they be able to keep hold of their best players, have a stronger squad and challenge Barca and RM for the league title? Stoke and West Brom have a brand value almost similar to Sevilla.
Clubs like Newcastle, West Ham and Aston Villa have a higher brand value than Atletico Madrid, even though the Spanish club has achieved more success in Europe in recent years, and has had players like Falcao.
The reason brand values are important is because it is a major factor in determining the size of the clubs commercial revenue, number of sponsors, size of sponsorships, etc. Due to the EPL deal distributing a lot more fairly than Liga, the EPL clubs are essentially buying clubs while Liga are mostly selling clubs, which continues to make the EPL more attractive to viewers and thus sponsors, and this continues to make the Liga less attractive to viewers and clubs outside the Top 2 in Spain struggle to increase commercial revenue, increase sponsorships, increase brand value, etc.
Even the Bundesliga and Serie A have more clubs in the Top 50 brands than the Liga. Thats why i never understand how Barca and RM fans can call the Liga competitive, especially when its compared to the major rival EU leagues, and their opinions of this matter are often worthless to me. There is a famous saying, if you want to know the character of a man (Barca & RM), dont ask his friends or superiors, instead ask those that are under him or weaker than him. Often when i go to English versions forums of the other 18 Liga clubs, they say how they hate the way Barca and RM behave, how they steal all the TV money, how the actions of the Top 2 has been a major factor in the league being uncompetitive and making most of them into selling clubs and they barely have two pennies to spend, etc.
Football over the past few years has seen clubs starting to focus time, effort and administration personnel into increasing sponsorship revenue and brand value. So its important that clubs work on it now, otherwise they will be left behind by their competitors a few years from now. Currently EPL clubs and Bundeliga clubs are well played to not only benefit from increasing broadcasting revenue due to fair, viable league TV revenue distribution methods, but also the knockon effect leads to these clubs buying better players, increasing the quality of the league and its brand value as well as the individual club in question and its brand value. The Liga on the other hand only has 2 clubs growing well, the other 18 clubs are barely growing, and many of them are selling clubs that have to sell players in order to survive. If the TV revenue system isn’t changed in Liga, majority of their clubs will continue to see their brands and commercial revenue suffer, and an even bigger gap will open between them and clubs from rivals league (EPL, Bundesliga, Serie A).
TABLE 7
Comparison table. EPL vs LaLiga
EPL EPL La Liga La Liga Total Revenue of EPL clubs 2.9 billion Euros 1.8 billion Euros Total Revenue of La Liga clubs Total Wages of EPL clubs 2 billion Euros 1.1 billion Euros Total Wages of La Liga clubs Wages to Revenue ratio of EPL 0.689 : 1 0.611 : 1 Wages to Revenue ratio of La Liga Total Revenue of clubs outside Top 4 places in EPL (*) 1.604 billion Euros 0.804 billion Euros Total Revenue of clubs outside Top 2 places in La Liga Averaged Revenue of each club outside Top 4 in EPL 0.1 billion Euros 0.0447 billion Euros Averaged Revenue of each club outside Top 2 in La Liga Total Revenue of Top 4 clubs in EPL 1.296 billion Euros 0.996 billion Euros Total Revenue of Top 2 in La Liga Averaged Revenue of each club in Top 4 in EPL 0.324 billion Euros 0.498 billion Euros Averaged Revenue of each club in Top 2 in La Liga Total Revenue of Top 4 : Total Revenue of non-Top 4 (in ratio format) 0.808 : 1 1.23 : 1 Total Revenue of Top 2 : Total Revenue of non-Top 2 (in ratio format) Averaged Revenue of any Top 4 club : Averaged Revenue of any non-Top 4 club (in ratio format) 3.24 : 1 11.14 : 1 Averaged Revenue of any Top 2 club : Averaged Revenue of any non-Top 2 club (in ratio format) Total Wages of Top 4 (EPL) 0.8 billion Euros 0.467 billion Euros Total Wages of Top 2 (La Liga) Averaged Wages of Top 4 in EPL 0.2 billion Euros 0.2335 billion Euros Averaged Wages of Top 2 in La Liga Total Wages of clubs outside Top 4 (EPL) 1.2 billion Euros 0.633 billion Euros Total Wages of clubs outside Top 2 (La Liga) Averaged Wages of clubs outside Top 4 in EPL 0.075 billion Euros 0.035 billion Euros Averaged Wages of clubs outside Top 2 in La Liga Total Wages of Top 4 : Total Wages of non-Top 4 (in ratio format) 0.67 : 1 0.74 : 1 Total Wages of Top 2 : Total Wages of non-Top 2 (in ratio format) Averaged Wages of any Top 4 club : Averaged Wages of any non-Top 4 club (in ratio format) 2.67 : 1 6.67 : 1 Averaged Wages of any Top 2 club : Averaged Wages of any non-Top 2 club (in ratio format)
Averaged Revenue of Top 4 club in EPL : Averaged Revenue of Top 2 club in Liga (in ratio format) 0.324 billion euros : 0.498 billion euros 0.65 : 1 Averaged Wages of Top 4 club in EPL : Averaged Wages of Top 2 club in Liga (in ratio format) 0.2 billion euros : 0.2335 billion euros 0.856 : 1 Averaged Revenue of non-Top 4 club in EPL : Averaged Revenue of non-Top 2 club in Liga (in ratio format) 0.1 billion euros : 0.0447 billion euros 2.237 : 1 Averaged Wages of non-Top 4 club in EPL : Averaged Wages of non-Top 2 club in Liga (in ratio format) 0.075 billion euros : 0.035 billion euros 2.142 : 1
(*) Revenue of Tottenham was included instead of Chelsea, since Chelsea won the Champions League that season and were given the final Champions League place, even though Tottenham had ended up 4th in the EPL whereas Chelsea ended up 6th in the EPL.
(**) Top 2 (La Liga)= Barcelona and Real Madrid.
(***) Top 4 (EPL)= Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, and Arsenal.
Table 7 is a comparison table of EPL and Liga, using different tools. Each of the points and figures in that table are very important, and take the time out to look at the figures carefully. What is important to remember when viewing Table 7 is asking yourself how each factor contributes to:
Making the Liga uncompetitive (in terms of challenging Barca and RM), and compare the figures with the EPLs and see why the EPL is considered a more competitive league where even the best teams really have to struggle to win a lot of their games.
Making EPL a league where most clubs are termed as “buying clubs”, and making the Liga a league where most clubs are termed as “selling clubs” and many of their products are sold to EPL and its clubs.
CONCLUSION
Now that you have seen all the figures and thought everything over for a while, the statistic that we were supposed to keep in mind before we started this exercise was that in 2011/12, 62.2% of players in the EPL were foreigners, whereas “only” 37.5% of players in the La Liga were foreigners. The reason the EPL has so many foreign players is due to the league being richer, and more teams having money to spend and compete for players in the transfer market, and a major factor that allows this to happen is the TV rights distribution in the EPL is a lot more fairer on the smaller clubs. This results in less English players being regulars in the EPL, and even fewer are starters (especially in the top clubs). This has resulted in less playing time for developed English players, and even less playing time for young, developing English players. As Roy Hodgson said: “I go to quite a few games these days and there are no English players. One has to be very careful talking about the Premier League and the Englishness of it because two thirds of the players are not English. We have one of the lowest numbers of homegrown players and that must put us at a major disadvantage to other nations.”
Spain on the other hand have many clubs in La Liga that aren’t strong enough to compete in the transfer market, and often have to sell before they consider buying players. For example, in 2012/13 season, 10 Liga clubs spent less on players than they earned from player sales, 2 Liga clubs had net transfer spending of 0 (one of which was Real Madrid), and only 8 Liga clubs had net transfer expenditure. In the EPL, 4 clubs made a profit from transfers, 16 clubs had net transfer expenditure. Due to present, but avoidable, circumstances, the La Liga has to recruit players for small fees (preferably free transfers or young Spanish players), and they get the playtime they need to develop, thus increasing the pool of Spanish players available for national team selection. Liga clubs mostly prefer to buy Spanish players due to lessened fees involved, and a lot of them are young players, and they continue their development in those clubs and they become as good as they could be. So, despite the Liga being overall far less competitive than the EPL, the flipside is that the present circumstances of both leagues results in Spain having a much better chance of having a bigger national player pool than England, along with having players that are generally of higher quality, especially the senior players and youngsters around the age of 18-21. Of course, Spain does have a better understanding and methods of producing quality young players, many more coaches, etc, but the state of their top national league also plays a big part in Spain being top dogs in international tournaments. England on the other hand has arguably the most competitive league, but the flipside is that this weakens their national teams options and chances of ever winning a European Championship or World Cup, or playing the likes of Spain, Germany, France, etc off the park.
As things stand right now, the question that England and EPL fans need to ask themselves is, would you prefer England to be as good as Spain in international tournaments, at the expense of making the EPL uncompetitive by following the same TV rights revenue distribution system that the La Liga has right now?
As things stand right now, the question that Spain and La Liga fans need to ask themselves is, would you prefer La Liga becomes very competitive by following the EPL/Bundesliga method of TV revenue distribution, at the price of seeing Spain no longer be strongest, or strong, favourites in international tournaments?
There is certainly hope for La Liga becoming competitive, without having to seriously harm Spains standing in world football. But that depends of LFP growing a set, Barca and RM allowing things to change, politicians getting involved and helping the smaller clubs fight for their rights, and the smaller clubs uniting and making a stand,such as playing reserve/youth teams vs Barca and RM as a sign of protest until their demands are met, because as things stand what do the smaller clubs have to lose? Most of them are already selling clubs, many of them are in debt, and economists saying that if things don’t change within the next few years then Spanish football and Liga would be dead.
There is also hope for England and their chances of becoming strong favourites, in future, for international tournaments, without having to weaken the EPL. The FA needs to become pioneers and have progressive, sustainable and effective long terms policies for development of young English talent. They need more national academies like France have. The Elite Player Performance Plan has some promise, FFP may help bring through more English players to the EPL first team squads. Its also good to see the EPL accept the home-grown quota and still be competitive, but its important that their coaches and academies do better on the training pitch by lessening the amount of players that play “the English way” and instead focus on making their young players more complete technically, intelligent on the ball, etc. According to Deloitte, the new EPL TV deal (which will give each club an average of 25 million pounds), will make the EPL clubs richer, stronger in the transfer market, and we will see even more EPL representatives in the top 30 Deloitte Money League (total revenue) and even more EPL representatives in the BrandFinance league (brand value). i agree with that, and as the EPL becomes more attractive, the broadcasting revenue will increase and that alone will help the smaller EPL clubs tower over their Liga counterparts in the transfer market, and the top EPL clubs will close the revenue gap between them and the Spanish Top 2, and thats before the knockon effects on commercial revenue is even factored in. I dont expect the Liga TV deal to grow much, and if the distribution of revenue continues to be unfair to the smaller Liga clubs, then i expect their league to collapse in the next 5-10 years. Barca’s and RM’s actions are making their fellow Liga clubs (slaves) so poor, that they will run into even more difficulties, such as servicing debts, keeping hold of talented players, etc. When the the other Liga clubs have run out of patience, i wouldn’t be surprised if they put youth teams and reserve teams in match vs Barca and RM, as a sign of protest so that the whole world will see, and this will shame the authorities and especially Barca and RM to act and try to find a long term solution for the Liga.
Hopes
I hope this blog piece has helped show how the finances and affairs of the EPL and Liga have contributed to the state of the England and Spain national team, and why the EPL is competitive wheras the Liga isnt. It took over a week to write this and research this stuff. I dont know what I will write on next, but there are a few topics I can write about which are somewhat linked to what you have just read. Let me know your thoughts if you are interested in sharing them.
I hope England learns from its mistakes and improves the quality of young English players so that it can be on par with those from Germany, Spain, etc. i hope Spain learns from its mistakes and makes the Liga TV distribution fair before its too late, otherwise La Liga will disappear in a few years.
Useful links to check out
http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_GB/uk/industries/sportsbusinessgroup/sports/football/annual-review-of-football-finance/infographic-2013/index.htm
http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_GB/uk/industries/sportsbusinessgroup/sports/football/deloitte-football-money-league/c0d0cc64dac5c310VgnVCM3000003456f70aRCRD.htm
http://brandirectory.com/league_tables-table-the-brand-finance—football-50-2013.html
http://www.football-espana.net/28297/madrid-and-barca%E2%80%99s-tv-effect
http://www.football-espana.net/32102/great-spanish-exodus
http://comparetheleagues.com/
AdvertisementsRocketship's debut full-length, A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness, has been out-of-print for over a decade. Nonstop Co-op, however, is going to change that with your help. Let's all come together and put Rocketship's A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness back out on vinyl.
Play Rocketship's A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness:
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Nonstop Co-op is proud to offer two previously unreleased Rocketship songs from the 90s for lossless digital download: "You Make Me Happy In My Sorrow" and "I Don't Know If I'll Love You Tomorrow". These two remixed and remastered tracks are exclusively available through the A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness LP reissue Kickstarter, and were formerly only found on a Rocketship demo cassette from 1994, "the red tape".
Rocketship's Third Demo Tape from 1994
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"Hey, Hey Girl" Pin
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"Mix-tape" Rocketship record art reproductions with hand-numbered sleeve
People who choose the LP as their Kickstarter reward will receive their copy of A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness hand-numbered by Dusty.
Nonstop Co-op will print Rocketship's record on vinyl in the U.S. at Cascade Record Printing in the band's home state of Oregon. 500 copies which mimic the original -- black vinyl, white sleeve, full-color jacket and label -- will cost about $2,500. Shipping in the U.S. for all 500 copies will be an additional $2500, more or less. As well, Kickstarter and credit card processing fees can run up to an additional 10%, so Nonstop is setting our goal at $5,500.
If we meet our goal, additional money raised could go to making the re-release more "fancy", i.e. colored vinyl, 180 gram vinyl, and full-color sleeves or inserts, if desired by fans.ESTERO, Fla. — Sidney Crosby’s right wrist appears to be on the road to recovery.
Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ captain and the N.H.L.’s reigning most valuable player, said Friday that he was pleased with the way his wrist had responded to treatment over the summer and that he was eager for training camp to begin. The Penguins are trying to recover from a second-round collapse in the playoffs.
“It’s good,” Crosby said during a workout in Southwest Florida. “You want to see how things progress throughout the summer once you start skating and get back to that regular routine. You want to see how it reacts, so I’m happy with the way it’s gone.”
Crosby led the N.H.L. with 108 points on his way to a second Hart Trophy as the league’s top player, but he scored only one goal in 13 playoff games. Pittsburgh fell to the Rangers in seven games after squandering a 3-1 lead in a second-round Eastern Conference series. He insisted in the aftermath that he was healthy, only to reveal that he had been dealing with the wrist problem for the latter part of the season.
Crosby, 27, considered surgery before opting to wait and see if further treatment would be beneficial. He looked fine skating alongside the fellow N.H.L. players Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Duchene of the Colorado Avalanche, John Tavares and Kyle Okposo of the Islanders, and David Clarkson of the Toronto Maple Leafs under the direction of the trainer Matt Belfry.One year since the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) took over Mosul and large swaths of territory in both Syria and Iraq, and despite the nine month-old US-led Operation Inherent Resolve to defeat it, ISIL is still standing, and expanding. The group's recent territorial gains in Syria and Iraq are alarming.
Political and military analysts interviewed by Al Jazeera, provide a more sober assessment of ISIL's capacity in both Syria and Iraq behind the sensationalism of the group's propaganda machine and Western punditry's fears of a wholesale ISIL takeover of Iraq and Syria.
Samer Abboud, Assistant Professor of History and International Studies, Arcadia University
ISIL's recent advances in Palmyra have fuelled the recent predictions in Western circles that the collapse of the Syrian regime is near.
A more realistic assessment, however, is that the conflict is mired in a military stalemate in which no armed
Thus far, ISIL has been unable to make military progress in Idlib, Hama, Homs, Aleppo, and Damascus due to its own military weaknesses and the relative strength of regime and rebel forces that control these areas.
group has a definitive advantage over others. The Syrian regime has indeed withered but is not facing a coherent or cohesive military force capable of defeating it militarily, let alone one that can force a negotiated political solution.
ISIL is merely one of many armed groups vying for territorial control of Syria. Yet, they are neither the most militarily powerful armed group nor do they control the major population centres. Thus far, ISIL has been unable to make military progress in Idlib, Hama, Homs, Aleppo, and Damascus due to its own military weaknesses and the relative strength of regime and rebel forces that control these areas.
Though regime forces and their allied militias have retreated in some areas, they remain relatively strong compared to the armed groups and are in control of key transport corridors while continuing to enjoy air supremacy.
Meanwhile, Jabhat al-Nusra-led Jaish al-Fatah [Army of Conquest] has begun to consolidate territorial gains in the northwest. The Kurdish People's Protection Units [YPG] have also proven militarily successful in direct battles with ISIL forces in north and northeastern Syria.
These groups have vied with ISIL over territorial control and it is these battles among and between armed groups that led to the slow fragmentation of the country.
Syria's fragmentation into smaller enclaves reflects the balance of military power between the various armed groups. While ISIL and others appear to control large areas of the country, the main areas in and around the cities remain highly contested with the battle fronts constantly changing and no single group emerging as more powerful than the others.
As such, while ISIL has gained significant territory since the outbreak of the conflict it has also been forced into retreat on multiple occasions.
ISIL's advances must be contextualised within these broader patterns.
A more sober assessment of ISIL's capacity in Syria would suggest that ISIL is hardly winning in Syria, but no armed faction really is.
Salah Nasrawi, Iraqi journalist
When ISIL declared itself a caliphate, with its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi setting himself up as a ruler "by order of God", following the group's advances in June, sympathisers quickly cheered the pronouncement as a heaven-sent victory.
Its spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, even boasted that "the legality of all emirates, groups, states and organisations becomes null and void by the expansion of the caliphate's authority and the arrival of its troops to their areas".
To further establish the status of its 'jihadist' state, the group abolished the border between the two Arab countries and began issuing passports to its 'citizens'.
ISIL is probably seen surviving setbacks and probably engineering new advances but its ability to sustain an 'unholy' nation state or even victory in the war remains very much in doubt.
A growing number of zealots from around the world, including Americans and Europeans, flocked to ISIL's territory which runs from northern Syria to the Iraqi province of Diyalah on the border with Iran.
But as followers celebrated, detractors dismissed the declaration of the holy state as nothing more than propaganda. The phenomenon - they believed - was just "a response to the chaos" that had spread in Iraq and Syria. Time, they argued, will prove that such optimism is unrealistic.
Regardless of the likelihood of the global Islamic Caliphate to be accepted on the international and regional arenas, the question remains: Is ISIL insurgency, that has spilled out of local power bases and sanctuaries, sustainable?
It is true that the dramatic fall of Ramadi to ISIL earlier this month made the group control virtually all of Anbar province and pushed it to the edge of Baghdad.
But, the new onslaught may have also exposed how the ISIL insurgency in Iraq has neared its limits.
In order to maintain its gains, ISIL needs to pursue two sets of goals. First, it should win over the Sunni population in areas under its control by striking a delicate balance between its radical religious platform and this population's traditional Arab nationalism. Second, it has to subdue Iraq's Shia population, or at least, force them to leave Sunni areas to ISIL to control.
ISIL has showed no inclination to transform itself into a nationalist Sunni insurgency.
ISIL has ruled vast Sunni areas since last June and there is not much to admire. The group is harsh, narrow-minded and intolerant of dissent. Millions of Sunnis have left their homes and refuse to return. Others are taking arms to fight ISIL in the name of Iraqi nationalism.
On the other hand, the Iraqi Shia, who consider ISIL as an existential threat, do not seem interested in a compromise with ISIL fighters.The Iraqi state, under their control, enjoys legitimacy and support among large numbers of world nations. Their militias on the front line have overwhelming firepower and motivation in the fight against ISIL.
ISIL is probably seen surviving setbacks and probably engineering new advances but its ability to sustain an "unholy" nation state or even victory in the war remains very much in doubt.
Muhammed Abu Rumman, Researcher, Center for Strategic Studies, University of Jordan
A year after its rise in the region, all international efforts to defeat ISIL have failed. Not even the new chapter of "the war on terror" led by the US was able to stop the group's expansion.
Syrian and Iraqi armies, aided by the Iranian revolutionary guards, also failed to deal ISIL a strategic defeat. With its latest victories in Iraq and Syria, ISIL which controls more than 50 percent of Syria has now become larger than many countries in the region such as Jordan and Lebanon.
The Iraqi government is no longer speaking of a decisive battle to remove ISIL out of Mosul. Iraqi officials are more concerned about protecting Baghdad, liberating Ramadi and preventing ISIL from controlling strategic airbases in Anbar province.
As long as there is no international or regional deal on the table that will end the internal conflicts in both Syria and Iraq, conditions on the ground will continue to give ISIL an advantage and manoeuvrability even if it cannot expand its presence beyond the traditional Sunni areas.
In the short term, the internal conflicts in Syria and Iraq are still serving ISIL especially what can be termed as "the Sunni dilemma" whereby the Sunnis feel a real existential threat to their survival and identity as a result of the expansive Iranian influence.
The internal chaos and sectarian conflicts in these two countries constitute an ideal environment for ISIL to thrive and establish its ideological, political, and religious roots.
Moreover, ISIL victories were not shrewd military victories in and of itself, rather it was a natural outcome of the political conflicts in Iraq and Syria.
In reality, this is the core of the problem that faces the US in dealing with ISIL. The US' direct and indirect allies here are Iran, and the Shia militias under its control, as well as a weak alliance of Sunni tribes whom - at one point - were touted at the "lethal weapon" to defeat ISIL.
Given the sectarian environment in the region, Sunnis naturally would choose to side with ISIL. As a result, the group finds a receptive environment in the Sunni regions of Iraq which would make the efforts to defeat it very difficult, if not impossible.
The other factor that helps ISIL in Iraq is President Barack Obama's reluctance to be drawn into yet another war in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the situation in Syria is equally complicated. The US has no partner on the ground to rely on the same way it has in Iraq. The US choices in Syria are between the Syrian regime and ISIL, or other Islamic groups like Nusra Front, all of which the US considers terrorist organisations.
Given these factors, and as long as there is no international or regional deal on the table that will end the internal conflicts in both Syria and Iraq, conditions on the ground will continue to give ISIL an advantage and manoeuvrability even if it cannot expand its presence beyond the traditional Sunni areas.
That said, however, ISIL has several important weak points that will undermine its existence in the long run and would usher in its sudden collapse in the same fashion it came onto the scene.
The factors that will eradicate ISIL lie in its own ideology which is based on an idealistic and puritan approach to exercise political power.
At the end, there are several factors that are crucial to understanding the mechanism that helped ISIL rise and expand and how it will retreat and fall. While ISIL has developed its own military capabilities, its existence, however, hinges on and is subject to the changing political and regional conditions. This dependency makes its existence temporary and not a permanent one.
Riad Kahwaji, Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis
ISIL made big advances in Syria and Iraq capturing two key cities - Palmyra and Ramadi - in a blitzkrieg. This was not the first time ISIL fighters have achieved such accomplishments.
About a year ago, they pushed their way all through to Mosul within a couple of weeks, and today they occupy nearly half of Syria and one-third of Iraq.
ISIL is not the best armed force on the ground and does not have a quantitative superiority against its adversaries in either Iraq or Syria. However, its combatants are bold, vicious, and audacious and employ tactics based on shock-and-awe with swift blitz.
It takes a unified, courageous and non-sectarian force with adequate firepower [from air or ground] to defeat ISIL, a formula that hardly exists on today's battlefields in Iraq and Syria. So it might be quite a while before we see the end of ISIL.
Acting as precision weapons, ISIL suicide bombers usually open up the assault by hitting key targets that implant fear and breach the adversary's defences, opening corridors for its fighters to move in quickly and outflank their opponents and squeeze them out.
Syrian and Iraqi regular troops have not put up much of a fight in most cases despite the fact that they outnumber and outgun ISIL fighters.
The US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter commented on the fall of Ramadi by saying that Iraqi troops did not have "the will to fight" and simply withdrew from the city leaving their weapons and vehicles behind.
In other words, Carter was diplomatically saying Iraqi troops deserted their positions and fled the fight.
The same could be said about Syrian troops that withdrew in an organised manner from Palmyra a week after ISIL started its offensive on the historic city and its nearby vital gas fields and phosphate mines.
Moreover, the overdependence of Iraqi and Syrian governments on Iranian-backed Shia militias to fight ISIL has enabled the group to win support and sympathy of many young Sunni men from inside and outside the warzone.
Following the fall of Ramadi, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abbadi did not call on the Iraqi military to save the city, rather he called on the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a predominantly Shia militia, to do the job.
US military officials have expressed reservation about the involvement of PMF in fighting in predominantly Sunni areas in Iraq, and called for arming Sunni tribes in order to give them a leading role with the Iraqi Armed Forces in taking on ISIL.
The differences over the strategies and objectives of the war on ISIL between Washington and members of the international and Arab coalition on the one side, and Baghdad and Tehran on the other, has affected the coalition's operations, rendering them ineffective.
Hence, ISIL has been scoring victories in Iraq and Syria because its fighters are yet to face a worthy opponent in a non-sectarian environment as was the case when they came up against the Kurdish fighters in Kobane.
At Kobane, ISIL opponents stood their ground bravely and received considerable air support from the US-led coalition which enabled the Kurds to defeat the group.
So it takes a unified, courageous and non-sectarian force with adequate firepower [from air or ground] to defeat ISIL, a formula that hardly exists on today's battlefields in Iraq and Syria.
So it might be quite a while before we see the end of ISIL.You may have the perfect suit or dress for an upcoming special event, but your creased dress shoes may take away from the entire look. Over time, both men's and women's closed-toes dress shoes will develop a crease in the front where your toes bend as you walk. You can avoid or eliminate these creases with proper care of your shoes. Plan ahead and check your favorite dress shoes a few weeks before the event to see if they are deeply creased. That way you'll have time to work the crease out before the special event.
Place your dress shoes on a wooden shoe tree. The shoe tree will help to eliminate the creases and help the shoes hold their shape. Keep the dress shoes on the shoe tree for about two weeks to see a significant fading of the crease.
Massage conditioning oil on the crease. Use a conditioner appropriate for the type of dress shoe you have, such as leather or suede. Gently buff the conditioner into the crease on the shoe, which helps to revive the leather and plump it back up, causing the crease to fade.
Carefully use an iron on the crease. This will work only on soft dress shoes, such as leather or suede. Wrap the front of the shoe with a cotton cloth or heavy brown paper and turn the iron to a low setting. Iron over the crease, making sure to keep the iron moving so that it doesn't burn the leather. Place your hand inside the shoe and push up on the crease as you iron to reshape the shoe. Keep the reshaped shoe on a shoe tree for a week before wearing it again.Few things are as enigmatic as the ABC Television Show Lost. The endless plot twists, flash-forwards, flash-backwards, and flash-everywhere-in-betweens left us with many questions and very few answers. There’s only one question more mysterious, more pressing, and more elusive than those we ask about Lost: who is Peter the Panda’s nemesis?
Okay, maybe that isn’t a question you ask yourself every day, but it was an important query for Damon Lindelof (co-creator of Lost and huge fan of Phineas and Ferb) to tackle. His obsession began when his wife, Heidi, suggested that he watch a few episodes. She and their son were already loyal viewers and Damon quickly became one too.
Despite each episode being conveniently packaged into 12-minute plotlines, Damon loved that the show was still serialized. The more you watched it, the more nuances you picked up on and understood. In Damon’s words, “the show invites in newcomers, but it also rewards the people who are looking at details.” As we know from Lost, Damon loves details.
There was one detail that caught his attention and didn’t let go—Peter the Panda. Damon would constantly ask questions about Peter to his wife and son, none of which could be answered. That is, until Damon partnered up with Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh to create an episode exploring all of his pressing panda questions.
This crossover episode was also an opportunity for Damon to get back to the other side of production–the side where he didn’t have the final say. According to Damon, “When you’re running your own show you lose the thrill of the pitch and you’re just being pitched to.” Now it was his turn to pitch again. Dan, Swampy, and Damon kicked around ideas and crafted an outline. Pride for Lost aside, Damon felt it was important to laugh at himself. We think he succeeded in creating a character who embodied the negative effects of not revealing your master plan to people (Sound familiar, Lost fans?). Don’t worry, there’s a satisfying ending to this one.
You’ll be happy to see a familiar hatch appear in a very familiar backyard, as well as a hauntingly familiar voice. Terry O’Quinn (John Locke from Lost) voices a mysterious character. This episode has time travel, strange happenings, and polar bears (Dan and Swampy’s doing this time, not DHARMA’s). Even Buford continues the long line of Lost plot twists. It is definitely one episode Phineas and Ferb fans and Lost fans will watch over and over again to catch all the details.
Remember to set (and reset) your clocks for September 29 at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT and watch the premiere of “Lost in Danville” on Disney XD. Until then you can brush up on your Lost knowledge and take our quiz to see how well you know Lost.
Posted 4 years AgoTarget Hack A Tipping Point In Moving Away From Magnetic Stripes
Enlarge this image toggle caption Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
The credit and debit card data breaches at Target and Neiman Marcus compromised more than 70 million American consumers, and analysts say even more of us are at risk. That's because the technology we use to swipe for our purchases — magnetic stripes on the backs of cards — isn't hard for a skilled fraudster to hack.
"It's totally unprotected and it's static, so it's the same data that's read every single time. It's just about the worst security that you can put into a payment system," says Avivah Litan, a security analyst for Gartner, a firm retailers hire to assess their cybersecurity gaps.
Sophisticated cyberthieves got consumer data during the holiday season breaches by injecting a virus into Target's card payment terminals. From there, the bad guys systematically captured the information found on every card sw |
a challenge to the general agent population to find and reports all the facts related to the interference of Russia in the general election," former FBI counterterror executive (and VICE contributor) David Gomez wrote me Tuesday evening. "To paraphrase the words of Admiral Yamamoto following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 'I fear Trump has awakened a sleeping giant in the FBI.'"
Comey's firing creates a bunch of new problems for Trump. Already, the administration and federal agencies under Trump have been notably leaky; now that the president has essentially declared war on America's chief domestic law enforcement agency, those leaks could become even more damaging. Wannabe whistleblowers may come out of the woodwork. A new FBI director will have to be confirmed, sure to be a tough political battle. And with many suspecting Comey was pushed out to stall the Russia investigation, even some Republicans are calling for an independent probe into ties between Trump's campaign and Russia.
For some perspective on this saga, I called up Michael German, a fellow at the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security program at NYU and a former FBI special agent who specialized in domestic terrorism and covert ops. He was in the bureau the last time a president directly ousted the FBI head, under Bill Clinton in 1993. Here's what we talked about:
VICE: You've been around your share of FBI drama. How shocking is this, really, in the broader context of its history?
Michael German: I'm not surprised by the Justice Department memorandum [laying out the reasons for the firing]—I think that clearly lays out the serious issues with Comey's interjection into the presidential election and his inappropriate comments about the investigation into Hillary Clinton. Certainly, firing an FBI director is a very unusual step. But this is a problem we faced during the Bush administration with the attempts to politicize hiring at the Department of Justice—the firing of US attorneys for political reasons. Once you politicize an agency like the Justice Department and then the FBI, which demands independence in order to function, it's hard to correct it without appearing to re-politicize it. And that's why the policy was so strict about not doing what Comey did, and unfortunately, I think it's going to do great and lasting harm to the FBI.
Obviously, the concern is what it will do to potential investigations regarding the alleged Russian influence in the election—and suggests that we need to have a lot more transparency about that right away.
How do you think the FBI moves forward after this?
It's a difficult problem, because it's not just about selecting a director who will give the public confidence that this person will lead the agency but also convincing the rank-and-file agents that their agency is properly focused on its mission and will utilize their time and efforts appropriately.
Looking back, one of the reasons that Louis Freeh—who was the next director appointee [after Clinton fired William Sessions] was picked was because he had a background in the FBI. I think part of that was to assuage the concerns within the rank and file that this was somebody who understands our mission, who understands the type of work that we do and will support us in doing it the right way.
What do you know, if anything, about acting director Andrew McCabe, a 20-year vet of the bureau?
I don't think I had any personal dealings with him. Obviously he was involved in the decisions that have become so controversial. Particularly, [he had a] potentially inappropriate conversation with the White House chief-of-staff about the Russia investigation. He's not somebody without controversy himself.
Initial reports have been pretty alarmist when it comes to what this means for the Russia probe—basically that it's over, or that this firing was clearly designed to scuttle it. But how much is the director actually involved day to day in an investigation like that?
So in your average investigation, the director has very little knowledge of it until it's ready to indict—and even then probably not very much visibility into an average investigation. Unfortunately, directors have had a habit of sticking their fingers into investigations that have received public attention, whether that's the Richard Jewell situation during the bombing of the Olympics, or the Anthrax investigations, or any number of cases where management takes a heavy hand—and it's often those cases that end up becoming quite controversial.
Frankly, when the referral first came over regarding the Clinton email server, Comey made this very odd statement where he said he was going to make sure this investigation was done like every other one and that he would have personal oversight of it. Well, it's not being done like every other one, if a political appointee has personal attention on it!
Unfortunately, he did not seem to have an objective view of his own behavior. And one of the things that's been missing from the debate over Russian influence on the election is that we have a $70 billion-a-year intelligence apparatus designed to prevent exactly this sort of thing: a hostile nation having a negative influence on our democracy. So why it took so long for the FBI to initiate that investigation and prevent that from happening rather than just reacting to it afterward hasn't really been discussed yet. There's reporting that the British and some other European governments had warned the intelligence community back in 2015, so it's hard to understand why it took until July 2016 for the FBI to open an investigation.
How worried should we be, given what you know about the way the bureau operates, about the fate of the probe?
To the extent that it's a counterintelligence investigation, those tend to be highly political—you're talking about policy, particularly foreign policy, and national-security policy. By definition, these cases tend to be highly politicized and the administration in furtherance of its role in implementing foreign policy often has an outsized role how those cases are run.
If a French intelligence officer is spying on some economic meeting here in the US, the FBI might have that person dead to rights and ready to arrest them, but because we have many dealings with France and consider the French an ally, the decision whether to just gently tap them on the shoulder and ask them to leave is a policy decision. I think it's pretty clear that this is already a pretty politicized investigation, for good or for ill.
Given that there are actual criminal violations under investigation, it becomes much harder for the White House to have any influence over that in a normal, appropriately functioning White House and Justice Department. Now it's not clear that's what we have today.
The way Trump removed Comey seems, to a lot of people, bizarre and dangerous. Comey was reportedly addressing employees at an LA office when the news of his firing flashed on TV and initially thought it was a prank. Trump also claimed in his letter about the firing that Comey had told him three times he was not under investigation. Doesn't all of this affect the probe?
Certainly. I'm sure for the agents who are actually involved in that investigation to hear that the director is making statements to the president—if that's true—that's quite unsettling. What's the point of doing an investigation if the FBI director is going to tell people they're off the hook? Whether those are believable statements or not is a different question, but certainly that type of letter is going to undermine the agents' confidence that their investigative efforts are going to be viewed objectively and processed appropriately through the Justice System.
What safeguards are in place, if any, to keep the Russia probe alive without Comey?
One thing to keep in mind is that facts are stubborn things, and they tend to persist even when people don't want them to be there. If the FBI has gathered information to suggest that what has been leaked to the media in many different forms is true, I think that it will be hard to stop that investigation from moving forward.
Moreover, even if the FBI closed its investigations tomorrow, you have congressional investigations, and obviously the inspector general is looking at the way the bureau handled the Clinton email situation. To the extent that investigation is not focused entirely on Comey—which I hope it isn't—that should probably continue. If any agents feel their investigations are being impeded by any kind of official action, they will [be able to] make complaints to both Congress and the inspector general. Such an attempt would be ineffective in the end: It might delay things, but as a political matter, that [perception of obstruction] is going to be more difficult for the administration to deal with than anything else.
How do you see the FBI responding to this historic situation as an institution?
The agents will continue to do their jobs as effectively as they can under whatever circumstances they're presented. And if they're being obstructed, they will be very vocal about that—and hopefully will come to their appropriate committees in Congress, the inspector general, to ensure such obstruction is investigated.
Follow Matt Taylor on Twitter.This week the Keene Sentinel published a front-page article about Christopher Cantwell, a racist, white-supremacist podcaster who lives in Keene. Unfortunately the Sentinel’s original version of the article, which appears in the print edition, erroneously claims that Chris Cantwell was a Free Keene blogger. Thankfully, the Sentinel quickly corrected that error in their online edition, as Chris has never been a blogger here at Free Keene. Free Keene’s motto is “Peaceful Evolution”. Chris’ message over the years has never been one of peace, so he never has been invited to blog here. People advocating violence and hate are not welcome to blog on this site.
If you search for his name on this site, you’ll find a bunch of articles about him. That’s because until the last year or two of his life, he’d been a libertarian activist with no known racist streak. Free Keene reports on libertarian activism statewide, so we’ve covered some of the things he’s done over time.
When Chris first moved to Keene several years ago, he was just an angry libertarian comedian who had a major hatred for the police. His then-beliefs about using violence against the state’s agents were immediately controversial among the various libertarians who’d moved here as part of the Free State Project. Those beliefs aren’t atypical of some libertarians, especially those who’ve been directly affected by the police state, as Chris had back in New York, where he was born and raised. However, they were voiced by him loudly enough to get him kicked out of the Free State Project and ostracized by a bunch of people.
As I predicted, once Chris was able to connect with the Keene police, he started to see them as human beings, just as I had a decade ago after moving here with a similar axe to grind against police. Unfortunately, Chris’ anger shifted away from the police and onto people who look different from him.
A couple of years ago, he began down this road to his current skinhead-racist form and once that happened, we had to dump him as a co-host of my radio show, Free Talk Live. As libertarians, we believe in the individual and don’t see people as groups based on color, gender, or religion. Chris now only sees the group rather than the individual. He’s one of the few people who has turned away from the libertarian message after having embraced it.
As long as I’ve known him, he’s always fed off the hate directed towards him. He’s even said that the more people hate him, the more money he makes. Now he’s more hated than he’s ever been after this weekend’s huge publicity explosion for him after his involvement in the protests and fights down in Charlottesville. Here’s a 20 minute VICE documentary that has gone viral featuring his horrible, racist views.
Is this racist turn just a money-making scheme for him? Others believe Chris is actually an undercover agent or confidential informant for the federal government. While I don’t personally believe that about him, having known him pretty well for several years, I understand why they believe that. He fits the bill for an agent provocateur. The advocates of this theory say that Chris came into the libertarian movement advocating for violence against police, but when that didn’t work, he got reassigned to advocate for violence in the white supremacy movement. It wouldn’t be the first time the federal government had a radio host working for them inside the white supremacists.
Regardless of whatever the truth is about Chris and his motivations, his racist views are despicable and I think I can speak for all the bloggers here (if not, they can reply with their own blog) when I say we don’t support racism or hating people because of their religion or gender. Individuals should be judged on their actions and words, not the circumstances of their birth.By Edward Chaykovsky
Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, who promotes WBO junior welterweight champion Terence Crawford (26-0, 18KOs), says he would like to have his fighter face Mauricio Herrera (22-5, 7KOs) on October 24th in Omaha.
Herrera returned this past Saturday night, winning a fifth round technical decision over Hank Lundy. Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions, who promote Herrera, have very good relationship and the possibility of a deal coming together would be strong.
“Terence Crawford is fighting 24 October in Omaha and we hope it will be against Mauricio Herrera - that will be a good fight," Arum told Mark Butcher of Boxing Monthly. “The relationship with Golden Boy is excellent. We’re competing companies, but we’re allies in a lot of other things and their fighters fight our fighters and our fighters fight their fighters.”
Crawford moved up to junior welterweight earlier this year and won the vacant WBO championship after knocking out Thomas Dulorme. With many of the fighters from lightweight to welterweight signed up with Al Haymon and Premier Boxing Champions, Crawford's options are limited for the fall.By Edward Chaykovsky
Retired former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) is already on pace with his 2017 UK tour.
On Thursday, the boxer turned promoter hit Leicester and sat down with former world champion and Sky Sports broadcast analyst Johnny Nelson to tackle numerous questions from the audience.
One of those questions pertained to the highly anticipated fight between IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook (36-1, 25 KOs) and undefeated mandatory challenger Errol Spence (21-0, 18 KOs).
The fight is targeted for either the last week of May or the first week of June at Bramall Lane in Brook's hometown of Sheffield. The venue holds over 32,000 fans.
According to Mayweather, Brook made a big mistake by not taking an easier fight and believes that decision is going to cost him when he faces Spence.
In his last fight, Brook jumped up by two weight divisions to challenge middleweight king Gennady Golovkin last September. Brook fought very well, but suffered a fractured right orbital bone and was stopped in the fifth round. The orbital bone injury required surgery, which kept Brook out of the ring for the remainder of the year.
Brook had little choice in the matter with Spence. The IBF ordered him to make the mandatory, so either he was going to fight Spence or vacate his title.
“I think [Spence] and Kell Brook is a good matchup, but I don’t think it’s going the distance. I think that Kell Brook took a lot of wear [from the Golovkin fight]. It was a tough fight with him and Triple G, so I think hopping in another battle that fast.... it’s not really that fast, but hopping in another tough fight like that, right after the Triple G fight - it’s going to be rough," Mayweather said.
Mayweather thinks very highly of Spence and often called him "the future of the sport" - but he's not yet convinced on whether or not Spence can become a crossover superstar.
"It takes more than just [skills in the ring].. to become a mega-superstar. You have to have that certain aura. Errol Spence has punching power, he has all the skills inside the ring, but it takes a certain look [outside the ring], a certain type pf personality to become that rockstar. We'll just have to see in due time," Mayweather said.Get out your crop tops and leather pants because… Teen Mom OG star Debra Danielsen is reportedly getting her own MTV special! (The Ashley has not completely confirmed this, so please file it under “report” for now!)
Debra, the mother of Farrah Abraham, recently announced that she is the next ‘Teen Mom OG’ grandparent to get an hour-long special episode devoted to her life. On Sunday, Debra posted a video featuring her and her fiance, David Merz. In the caption of the video, Deb broke the big news that they were filming “Being Debra.”
“We are having fun with the filming and friends and family!” Debra told a fan in the comment section of the video.
Debra recently announced that she is engaged to David, so it’s likely that the “Being Debra” special will cover the topic of her engagement and upcoming wedding.
“Being Debra” follows two previous specials that centered on a parent of one of the ‘Teen Mom’ franchise stars. Fans were previously treated to “Being Butch,” starring Tyler Baltierra‘s father, Butch Baltierra; and “Being Barbara,” which starred Jenelle Evans‘ mother Barbara Evans. (Click here to read The Ashley‘s recap of “Being Butch!”)
MTV has yet to confirm the special. The Ashley is not aware of any other “grandparent” specials that are taping currently, although she’d very much like to see another episode of “Being Butch!” (MTV- make it happen!) Although fans have been asking for a “Being Randy” special starring Chelsea Houska‘s father, Randy Houska, The Ashley’s sources tell her it’s “very unlikely” that will ever happen.
Which ‘Teen Mom’ franchise grandparent should get the next special? Vote below!
(Photos: MTV)(Reuters) - Actor and comedian Tracy Morgan and others in his limousine were not wearing seat belts when their vehicle was struck by a Wal-Mart truck in a June highway accident, the retailer said on Monday.
Writer and executive producer Tracy Morgan participates in the panel for the comedy special "Tracy Morgan: Black and Blue" during the HBO summer Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, California August 7, 2010. REUTERS/Phil McCarten
Wal-Mart Stores Inc made its contention in a court filing responding to a lawsuit by Morgan and three other plaintiffs over the crash on the New Jersey Turnpike.
Known for his work on NBC’s “30 Rock” and “Saturday Night Live,” Morgan spent several weeks in rehabilitation following the June 7 accident, which killed his friend and fellow comedian James McNair.
In its filing, Wal-Mart said the injuries suffered by surviving passengers were caused in whole or in part by their “failure to properly wear an appropriate available seatbelt restraint device.”
Wal-Mart said that by failing to use seat belts, the passengers “upon information and belief, acted unreasonably and in disregard” of their best interests.
Other plaintiffs include comedian Ardley Fuqua Jr, Morgan’s assistant Jeffrey Millea and Millea’s wife, Krista Millea.
“It’s not a defense. They’re trying to mitigate their damages,” Benedict Morelli, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a phone interview.
“Any time a lawyer says ‘upon information and belief,’ it means they don’t know,” he added. “Maybe they want to play hardball. If so, I’m ready.”
In their July 10 lawsuit, the plaintiffs claimed that Wal-Mart knew or should have known its truck driver, Kevin Roper, had been awake for more than 24 hours before the crash, which under the law meant he should not have been on the road.
Federal investigators have said Roper was driving roughly 20 miles per hour (32 km per hour) over the speed limit just before the crash.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said the company remains “willing to work with Mr. Morgan and the other plaintiffs” to resolve the lawsuit.
Wal-Mart has said it was sorry that one of its trucks was involved. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer declined in its filing to address many of the plaintiffs’ claims, citing a pending probe by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Roper has been charged with vehicular homicide and assault-by-auto and pleaded not guilty.You'd need six months to watch every presidential campaign ad
hello
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama are on even footing when it comes to political advertising. File photos
At 30 seconds a spot, and sometimes 60, it would take more than six months to watch all 526,633 presidential election ads that have run on television since the general election began in earnest in early April.
It breaks down to roughly one spot promoting President Barack Obama or attacking Republican challenger Mitt Romney for every spot taking the opposite stance for the Nov. 6 election, according to data compiled by New York-based Kantar Media's CMAG, which tracks ads on national network, national cable and local broadcast stations.
Of the 526,104 presidential ads supplied by groups that paid for at least 200 such commercials to run from April 10, when Romney effectively clinched his party's nomination, to Aug. 20, the last day for which data are available, 264,542 came from campaigns or groups that favor Romney and 261,562 came from pro- Obama organizations. That's a partisan breakdown of 50.3 percent Republican to 49.7 percent Democratic.
While the cumulative total points to partisan parity, it hasn't been like that for long stretches of the campaign.
Obama had the edge on TV advertising in the spring, followed by Romney and Republican allies having the advantage on television for most of the summer.
The pro-Obama advertising effort is coming overwhelmingly from the president's own campaign, which has aired more than 10 times as many ads as an allied super-political action committee, Priorities USA Action, which is headed by former Obama White House aides.
The push to elect Romney is far more reliant on outside groups, including super-political action committees and 501c nonprofit groups that are focusing their ads on attacking Obama. Crossroads GPS, a nonprofit founded with the help of Republican strategist Karl Rove, and Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney super-PAC, have together supplied more ads than Romney's campaign.
While the two parties are at cumulative parity in TV advertising for the presidential race, the Republican side is pulling ahead as the campaign enters its final months.
In the 14-day period ending Aug. 20, the pro-Romney side aired 52,637 ads and the pro-Obama side ran 38,706 spots, a 58 percent to 42 percent split, CMAG data show.Share this...
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Lots of people are complaining that what kids are taught in schools will not be relevant in their adult lives. You may agree with that or disagree, that doesn’t matter. We all know that there are more important life lessons for kids. I found all this life lessons for kids on Quora, printed it out and now have it on my ‘Inspiration board’.
Life Lessons for Kids
1. Don’t dream your life, live your dreams.
2. Mistakes are your best friend. Aside from things like riding bulls or kissing cobras, never miss an opportunity where you can make a mistake. From mistakes we learn.
3. Care deeply about something.
4. Leave the world a better place than you found it.
5. Use your time, talents, and mind to help those around you. Even if you don’t have money, you can influence your world.
6. Be brave! Speak out and share your unique perspective. Make connections, innovate, and don’t be afraid of failure.
7. Appreciate the small things in life.
8. Life is the journey, not the destination.
9. Never give up on a dream.
10. Take chances on new things.
11. Listen to your heart.
12. Every person you meet knows something that you don’t.
13. If you have a question, ask.
14. Be confident in yourself.
15. Never bow down if you are not wrong.
16. Help the Helpless.
17. Don’t be bothered with what others might think of you. Be your own person and stay true to what you believe and know to be true.
18. You can never say “I love you” too often to the people who really matter to you.
19. No matter what be honest to the person you love.
20. If you have a dream – get on with it.
21. You will regret the things you don’t do more than the things you do.
22. You are responsible for what you do and how you handle life’s issues.
23. Admitting when you are wrong, when you don’t know, and apologizing are not signs of weakness, but of strong character.
24. No one really has a clue to what is going on, everyone is just like you.. Figuring it out as they go along.
25. Happiness doesn’t come from perfection, perfection comes from happiness.
26. Being weird is something that should be celebrated. Embrace who you are.
27. Everyone has his own story. Never be quick to judge.
28. Mind your own business.
29. Surround yourself with people who let you grow.
30. Mean what you say. If what you’re about to say is mean, then don’t say anything at all.
31. People and places are a reflection of your perceptions – hate yourself and the world is hateful, love yourself and the world is wonderful.
32. Smile. A positive attitude will get you through most problems.
33. Don’t sweat the small stuff. A lot of life’s problems are not worth worrying about.
34. Words hit harder than a punch. Choose them wisely.
35. You can’t get to the top without climbing to it.
36. Above anything, be happy. If you aren’t happy, change something. Don’t think about it. Change it.
37. Spend more time listening than talking.
38. Making assumptions is the worst thing you can do to yourself and others around you.
39. Being a producer of content is much better than a consumer of content. Don’t just sit and read, watch, listen, play etc but do something. Write a paragraph. Create a tune.
40. The best things in life are free.
41. The only thing you take with you when you die are your experiences. Collect them. Nurture them. Cherish them.
42. You should be able to live with your choices, as well as the consequences.
43. It doesn’t matter how smart you are. If you don’t know how to work hard and rebound from disappointment, you won’t reach your potential. No matter what reality TV says, life isn’t just handed to you.
44. It’s okay to be different, and to appreciate differences in others and in ourselves.
45. You owe us nothing. You owe your own kids everything.
46. Learn to think critically. Question. Be skeptical. This is how you become who you are, not a copy of those around you.
47. Learn how to fail. What to do when they fail. How to know when failure is the universe calling for another approach and when it is evidence that you should try something else entirely.
48. Find a job you enjoy and that gives you a reason to live.
49. Being in the moment is the only choice you have – be it a painful one, or a lighthearted one.
50. Eat healthy. Don’t smoke. Don’t drink too much. Get exercise. Take care of your teeth. Pay your bills on time. Reply to personal e-mails. Show up on time. Make time for your friends.
You might not be able to teach your kids all of the above life lessons for kids, but it’s our job to at least try!WARNING: Things are about to get NSFW…
How in the world did this happen? And who is about to get fired? Those are just two of many questions we can ask about US Airways Monday afternoon after the airline’s Twitter responded to a customer’s complaint with an image that just might traumatize you for life.
It started innocently enough, when someone named Elle tweeted at US Airways about an hour delay on her flight from CLT to PDX:
@USAirways Unhappy that 1787 sat for an hour on tarmac in CLT because overweight, resulting in over hour late arrival in PDX… — Elle (@ElleRafter) April 14, 2014
US Airways responded, as they do to nearly all similar tweets, with a sincere apology:
@ellerafter We truly dislike delays too and are very sorry your flight was affected. — US Airways (@USAirways) April 14, 2014
Still unsatisfied, Elle replied with this retort:
@USAirways yeah, you seem so very sorry. So sorry, in fact, that you couldn't be bothered to address my other tweets. — Elle (@ElleRafter) April 14, 2014
Then this happened (black bar added):
US Airways quickly deleted the tweet once they realized what they had done, but not before the entire internet had a chance to take some screenshots. To see the uncensored version, you’re going to have to go elsewhere on the internet. But seriously, do so at your own peril.
UPDATE (4pm ET): Shortly after deleting the tweet, US Airways issued the apology below and said they are investigating what happened:
We apologize for an inappropriate image recently shared as a link in one of our responses. We’ve removed the tweet and are investigating. — US Airways (@USAirways) April 14, 2014
[photo via Twitter]
— —
>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comNew Tree Ring Study Ignores The Effect Of CO2
By Paul Homewood
https://ntrenddendro.wordpress.com/tr-data/
Andrew Montford has a post up on the latest tree-ring based temperature reconstruction of summer temperatures in the northern hemisphere. It attempts to show that current temperatures are unprecedented in the last millennium.
Steve McIntyre is already poring over the statistics, but there is one issue raised by several commenters. That is the question of what effect increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have had on the tree rings.
It is well established that CO2 has a significant effect on plant growth, and accepted that tree ring studies can be skewed as a result.
It was therefore astonishing to find this comment from one of the study’s authors, the UEA’s Tim Osborn, on Bishop Hill:
5. CO2 fertilisation effects. We don’t identify or remove such effects. The empirical evidence for sustained effects (i.e. over decades) on trees in cool, moist locations over long periods of time is scarce.
Jan 14, 2016 at 5:36 PM
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2016/1/14/wilson-trending.html?currentPage=2#comments
This one comment tells us so much about the lack of integrity in climate science nowadays. Just because there is a lack of empirical evidence does not mean the whole issue can be trundled off onto the sidelines.
Now maybe CO2 will make little or no difference. But if it cannot be properly accounted for, the whole study (or at least the 20th part of it) becomes worthless. Indeed it simply confirms what we already knew, the fact that the climate went very cold in the 19thC, and that since then temperatures have somewhat recovered.
There are 23 authors listed for the study, all I gather tree ring experts. Surely one should have had the integrity to stand up and point out the elephant in the room?
We often talk about the corruption of money in climate science, but I sense another factor in play here. This is the belief that they are all doing something so wonderfully important.
When saving the planet is the objective, why let a few inconvenient facts get in the way?
Advertisements47 passengers were kidnapped today by militants in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz Province, on the outskirts of the provincial capital, when gunmen forced a bus to pull over and made off with the passengers, the second such incident in Afghanistan in the past two weeks.
The passengers were taken to Uqtash, a town in Kunduz that is under the control of the Taliban, though it has not yet been confirmed if the Taliban were responsible for this particular kidnapping, as they didn’t issue a claim of responsibility like they usually do.
The previous mass kidnapping targeted buses ferrying Afghan troops and other government employees, and it was them who were targeted by the kidnappers. It is unclear who the passengers on today’s bus were, however.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has expressed annoyance at the recent kidnappings, saying they “overshadow the recent economic development,” and that he has ordered the Interior Ministry to “pay serious attention to the safety of the highways.”
Last 5 posts by Jason DitzWednesday November 6th, 2013 by Heiko Tietze
Following the Universal Model of a User Interface we group all guidelines concerning controls within three, user-centered sections:
controls that are used for viewing and navigation, controls that user apply to edit and manipulate content, and controls for help and assistance.
We started with the simple Editing and Manipulation section and have now continued with…
Viewing and Navigation
It consists of the following guidelines:
Access functions
Apply a menu bar to every standard application.
Try to omit the status bar from your application.
Provide a context menu for controls with implicit functions.
Provide a toolbar for frequently used functions.
Use a push button to initiate an action when the user clicks it.
Use a toogle button to indicate a state, preferably in toolbars only.
Use a command link to navigate between pages.
Support keyboard access by accelerators and shortcuts.
Follow the guidelines for dialogs for secondary windows.
Grouping
Arrange associated controls by using a labeled group box or an unlabeled frame.
Allow users to re-size aligned groups by placing a splitter between the groups.
Use tabs to show related information on separate pages.
Provide an accordion (aka tool box) for different views to content.
Complex views
Use a list view to show some items out of one category.
Use a tree view to show items with a single, natural, hierarchical categorization.
If you really need to create your own widget follow the guidelines for custom controls.
Participate
We explicitly ask about your opinion. So please make use of the comments section. Please read the guidelines carefully and make sure that the text is informative and complies with your requirements. The content should be both generic and comprehensive and intends to make KDE awesome. But we are also interested in support. If you are able to create nice sample UIs with Qt please contact the usability team via the kde-guidelines mailinglist.Updated As its custom-built file system strains under the weight of an online empire it was never designed to support, Google is brewing a replacement.
Apparently, this overhaul of the Google File System is already under test as part of the "Caffeine" infrastructure the company announced earlier this week.
In an interview with the Association for Computer Machinery (ACM), Google's Sean Quinlan says that nearly a decade after its arrival, the original Google File System (GFS) has done things he never thought it would do.
"Its staying power has been nothing short of remarkable given that Google's operations have scaled orders of magnitude beyond anything the system had been designed to handle, while the application mix Google currently supports is not one that anyone could have possibly imagined back in the late 90s," says Quinlan, who served as the GFS tech leader for two years and remains at Google as a principal engineer.
But GFS supports some applications better than others. Designed for batch-oriented applications such as web crawling and indexing, it's all wrong for applications like Gmail or YouTube, meant to serve data to the world's population in near real-time.
"High sustained bandwidth is more important than low latency," read the original GPS research paper. "Most of our target applications place a premium on processing data in bulk at a high rate, while few have stringent response-time requirements for an individual read and write." But this has changed over the past ten years - to say the least - and though Google has worked to build its public-facing apps so that they minimize the shortcomings of GFS, Quinlan and company are now building a new file system from scratch.
With GFS, a master node oversees data spread across a series of distributed chunkservers. Chunkservers, you see, store chunks of data. They're about 64 megabytes apiece.
The trouble - at least for applications that require low latency - is that there's only one master. "One GFS shortcoming that this immediately exposed had to do with the original single-master design," Quinlan says. "A single point of failure may not have been a disaster for batch-oriented applications, but it was certainly unacceptable for latency-sensitive applications, such as video serving."
In the beginning, GFS even lacked an automatic failover scenario if the master went down. You had to manually restore the master, and service vanished for up to an hour. Automatic failover was later added, but even then, there was a noticeable service outage. According to Quinlan, the lapse started out at several minutes and now it's down to about 10 seconds.
Which is still too high.
"While these instances - where you have to provide for failover and error recovery - may have been acceptable in the batch situation, they're definitely not OK from a latency point of view for a user-facing application," Quinlan explains.
But even when the system is running well, there can be delays. "There are places in the design where we've tried to optimize for throughput by dumping thousands of operations into a queue and then just processing through them," he continues. "That leads to fine throughput, but it's not great for latency. You can easily get into situations where you might be stuck for seconds at a time in a queue just waiting to get to the head of the queue."
GFS dovetails well with MapReduce, Google's distributed data-crunching platform. But it seems that Google has jumped through more than a few hoops to build BigTable, its (near) real-time distributed database. And nowadays, BigTable is taking more of the load.
"Our user base has definitely migrated from being a MapReduce-based world to more of an interactive world that relies on things such as BigTable. Gmail is an obvious example of that. Videos aren't quite as bad where GFS is concerned because you get to stream data, meaning you can buffer. Still, trying to build an interactive database on top of a file system that was designed from the start to support more batch-oriented operations has certainly proved to be a pain point."Accord / Shutterstock.com
Seattle has joined a growing list of major American cities trying out the Swedish approach to reducing traffic deaths.
When it comes to traffic fatalities, Seattle is already one of the safest cities in the United States. But last week Mayor Ed Murray stood up at a press conference, alongside Seattle’s chief of police and department of transportation director, and declared that the city's official policy will now be to make it even safer, by implementing what's known as “Vision Zero." The |
usage of the system, most importantly the swap space usage.
It is important to note that as processes use resident memory, they will also increase their use of virtual memory, in step. Processes will actually appear to consume more of this “virtual memory” than the amount of actual physical memory of the system. This is perfectly normal, since most operating systems can manage in-memory paging and sharing of resources, but, when this virtual memory begins the process of “paging” to disk, using swap space to utilize the hard drive to simulate physical memory, do we experience slowness or worse – out of memory problems.
Think about it this way. If you worked in a restaurant and I gave you a big load of dishes (your processes) and 5 really fast dish-washing machines (resident / physical memory), and 5 really slow dish-washers (hard drive / swap space), you would do best to try and optimize all your dishes to be handled by the fast machines. Only when you really needed to, would you utilize those slow dish-washers, and only if you couldn’t handle all the dishes coming in.
Many Rails applications – either the apps themselves or third party libraries – suffer from memory leaks. As your server uses more and more memory, both their resident memory and virtual memory begin to grow. They begin to use the hard drive as swap space for virtual memory, which is far slower than physical memory. This can dramatically slow performance of the entire system, and thus, all requests. We generate an alert through the Process Usage Plugin if our Mongrel processes exceed a given threshold (usually around 100 MB) and if the percentage of swap space used exceeds a given threshold (usually around 60%) using the Memory Profiler Plugin.
Why
This is often an easy problem to fix: if finding the leak is hard (and it usually is), you can do a scheduled restart. If you are constantly using a lot of swap space, you probably need more memory (that’s cheap compared to development hours).
4. Fixing slow requests
So, Scout sends you an alert regarding a slow web request – now what?
Install the Query Reviewer Rails Plugin
As stated earlier, most of our performance issues are related to the database, and the Query Reviewer Plugin does a tremendous job of finding issues with MySQL and benchmarking the entire request cycle. The key feature of this plugin is that the query information is embedded directly on in the view.
The Optimization Process
We use the following process when Scout identifies a slow web request:
Login to Scout and view the data across the slow Rails requests, CPU load, and memory usage plugins. If the CPU load is high, the memory usage of our Mongrel proccess are high, or the % of swap space used is unreasonably high, other issues could be impacting this slow request. We may restart our mongrel process or check on any background jobs that are running and re-run the request. Re-run the slow request in our local environment, seeing if we can replicate the issue. Make sure the MySQL query reviewer plugin is enabled. Review the information provided by the MySQL Query Reviewer plugin, massage your SQL queries. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until performance is acceptable.
Summary
We’ve seen lots of people waste time tracing the Rails stack for performance issues when the cause is usually quite simpler – look at the obvious places first before digging through the Rails stack.
Links:It's legal medicine under state law — and it's on the potential full-legalization track for 2012 — but Colorado has had some issues with federal raids of their medical marijuana dispensaries in the last few years especially. However, a raid on the home of legal two medical marijuana users has made the residents fighting-mad. Chuck Ball says police used excessive force on him and his roommate on February 10. According to KRDO News Channel 13:
"They acted like they were coming for a big terrorist," said Ball.... "They came in here, drug me across the kitchen floor and handcuffed me," said. "They kept telling me to shut up."
The raid required "at least 13" SWAT officers (which you can see on the home's surveillance video here). Once there they allegedly handcuffed Ball and his roommates, including fellow medical marijuana patient Lynda Glandorf (who doesn't seem to have arrived until later). Residents say police broke some items in the house, singed one of the dog's fur with a flash-bang grenade and scorched the floor, and kept Ball and a neighbor handcuffed for 25 or so minutes. Ball also says they "ripped off [his] shirt" and generally screamed at him as he tried to explain that he was disabled and that he and Glandorf had permission to grow their plants.
And after that, no arrests were made or charges were filed, because the patients were not growing more than Colorado state law permitted after all. Supposedly a handgun was found, but Glandorf denies this.
In this video, Ball and Glandorf describe the raid in their own words. It's a long one, though. One of the key parts is around 15 minutes in where they show off what they describe as the top of the flash-bang grenade, as well as another twisted chunk of metal from the weapon.
Further details from KRDO reveal that when the police came to the home previously (at around 10 p.m. on Christmas 2011), Ball and Glandorf showed their medical marijuana cards, but refused to let officers in because they didn't have a warrant. This, says Colorado Springs police spokesperson Barbara Miller, is kind of dubious:
"If you have nothing to hide, most people would open the door and say, 'Yes, please come in and and let's dispel any information you have because it's false."
Miller, however, told Reason that she understood that the reaction to a so-called "knock and talk" on Christmas was understandable, and she might have done the same thing. And also that she "really appreciate[s] everybody's constitution rights" and "everybody should use them." However, according to KRDO:
Miller said officers smelled a very strong presence of marijuana in the home, and continued their investigation. Miller said police found out that someone living in the house had a prior felony weapons charge, and also noted that the electric bill was very high for the property."That's really important when you're talking narcotics because that's a tell-tale sign that they're doing a grow there," said Miller. Miller said that SWAT officers did knock on the door and gave enough time for someone to answer before going in [during the February 10 raid]."If you look at the video, it does look like maybe it's a large police presence," said Miller. "But if you put yourself in a police officer's shoes, they've been to many of these where you never know how it's going to play out, if weapons are involved, if someone's going to use it."
Colorado Springs Indyblog tells the story of the raid from the viewpoint of the other roommate, Glandorf. After the Christmas would-be search that Glandorf and Ball declined to accept:
Glandorf says she heard nothing further from the police until Feb. 10, when she found herself pulled over by a detective who had been following her for some way. The officer told her the department's Tactical Enforcement Unit was minutes away from raiding her household, partially based on another tip (that came from someone with a personal ax to grind, according to Glandorf). And he wanted to ask a few questions about its contents.
Ball and Glandorf say that "shrapnel" from the flash-bang hurt their dog. Miller is quoted as saying that's not possible because flash-bangs don't produce shrapnel. (She stressed to Reason that she didn't have the technical knowledge to talk further, and she wasn't there, however. She also said that she didn't want to describe the unnamed roommate's previous weapons charge as "a violation." So things are a bit vague at the moment, but Miller's official statement, including on the weapons allegation, can be found here.)
Regardless of all the details, flash-bangs are explosive and dangerous (and occasionally deadly) to human beings, so it doesn't seem impossible that something-which-is-not-technically-shrapnel but was caused by the weapon injured the dog. At 26 minutes into the video above, Ball demonstrates what he says is the welt that the grenade gave his dog. Another one supposedly had a chunk of something impeded under its skin and fur which caused swelling.
In other ill-advised Colorado Springs police actions, a 2009 SWAT raid lead to an October 2011 lawsuit by a 71-year-old woman who suffered a heart attack after police used a flash-bang while she was bed-ridden. So maybe using them on two dogs and a man who has multiple screws in his back is indeed overkill, especially when nobody here seems to have even violated state law.
Mostly Jacob Sullum on Colorado's troubles with the feds on medical marijuana law. And Radley Balko on the dangers of flash-bang grenades.The Price Tag of Being Young: Climate Change and Millennials' Economic Future
Key Findings
This report quantifies the cost of climate change to millennials and their children, compared to a world without climate change. The climate change costs are compared to other significant economic burdens millennials will face over the course of their lifetime, including student debt, child care, stagnant wages, and the lack of good jobs. The key findings of this analysis include:
A 21-year-old college graduate in the class of 2015 earning a median income will lose over $126,000 in lifetime income, and $187,000 in wealth. *
Without action on climate change, a 21-year-old earning a median income will lose $100,000 in lifetime income, and $142,000 in wealth.
For the children of millennials, the losses from climate change will be drastically greater. A child born in 2015 with median earnings will lose $357,000 in lifetime income and $581,000 in wealth. A child born in 2015 who will graduate college will lose $467,000 in income over her lifetime, and $764,000 in wealth.
Without action on climate change, the millennial generation as a whole will lose nearly $8.8 trillion in lifetime income.
The economic losses caused by climate change are substantially greater than the damages of other economic challenges.
Student debt costs the median- earning college-educated individual approximately $113,000 in lost wealth over a lifetime, due to reduced savings for retirement and homeownership.
Losses from the Great Recession cost the median-earning college-educated household $112,000.
We must act quickly to address climate change because the impacts are occurring now faster and stronger than predicted:
June 2016 was the 14th straight month of record-breaking heat. 1
The 21st century has seen 15 of the 16 hottest years on record. 2
For the eighth consecutive year, extreme weather has cost U.S. taxpayers over $10 billion. 3
Sea levels are rising and in Miami, Norfolk, and other coastal cities, tidal flooding is becoming the norm—even on days without storms.
Drier and longer droughts are threatening our public health and crops.
We must transition to a 100 percent clean energy economy in order to avoid the devastating economic impacts of climate change detailed in this report. And we must capitalize on the significant economic driver clean energy can be for the U.S. economy. According to a recent study from ICF International4, transition to a clean energy economy will:
Create up to 2 million new jobs
Boost our economy by $290 billion
Increase household disposable income by $650
Save families $41 billion on energy bills
* We calculate wealth as long-term savings if lost income due to climate change were to be invested in a conservative portfolio of stocks and bonds returning 3.5 percent annually.
Introduction
The millennial generation—the largest in U.S. history—faces serious economic challenges. Politicians have made a series of policy choices that are leaving the millennial generation in bad shape, and this is particularly true for what could be the biggest threat ever faced over the lifetime of a single generation: climate change.
Millennials are already facing many difficulties in an economy slowly recovering from the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. Quality full-time jobs are often out of reach for many young people, wages have stagnated, and millennials have less wealth and financial stability than previous generations. Getting a college degree is less and less affordable, and student debt has exploded. Without access to quality, affordable child care, young parents have to fend for themselves as they struggle with the financial burdens of caring for their children in the years prior to K-12 schooling. These are some of the many reasons that the millennial generation is likely to be the first in our country’s history to be worse o than the generations which preceded it.
But millennials face a challenge unlike anything previous generations have had to tackle. Unless our elected leaders take aggressive and immediate action, the millennial generation will have to live with the devastating economic health and environmental impacts of climate change.
Climate change will have a significant impact on millennials’ household incomes and wealth, with rapidly worsening effects by mid-century, as the youngest millennials reach their peak earning years. In this report, we investigate these economic losses for millennials and future generations if we fail to act on climate change, compared to a scenario of no climate change. Our study finds that:
A 21-year-old college graduate in the class of 2015 earning a median income will lose over $126,000 in income over her lifetime, and $187,000 in wealth if the income were to be saved and invested.
A 21-year-old college graduate in the class of 2015 earning a median income will lose over $100,000 in income over her lifetime, and $142,000 in wealth if the income were to be saved and invested.
For the children of millennials, the losses from climate change will be drastically greater. A median-earner born in 2015 will lose approximately $357,000 in income over her lifetime, and approximately $581,000 in wealth if the income were to be saved and invested. A median-earner born in 2015 who will graduate from college will lose approximately $467,000 in income over her lifetime, and approximately $764,000 in wealth if the income were to be saved and invested.
The lifetime economic losses caused by climate change are substantially greater than the negative impacts of student debt.
Student debt costs the median- earning college-educated individual approximately $113,000 in lost wealth over a lifetime, due to reduced savings for retirement and homeownership.
Because of the Great Recession, the median-earning college-educated household lost $112,000 in wealth.
Young people today are uniquely exposed to the risks, costs, and devastation of climate change on its current path. Yet, the economic risks are compounded even further since inaction on climate change means that we are missing out on a major opportunity for much- needed new investment and millions of new jobs by transitioning to clean energy. Properly targeted, these investments could be especially important for young people in communities of color, who are disproportionately exposed to the toxic pollution and climate risks that inevitably arise in a fossil- fuel driven economy. Additionally, for communities whose economies have been dependent on the fossil fuel industry, proper investment in a just transition to a clean energy economy could lead to an important economic revitalization.
For the millennial generation, today’s status quo on climate and inequality is not only unjust but it is also unsustainable. A powerful, principled, and deeply American way to change the status quo for young people, our country, and our planet is by demanding action at the ballot box. More than any previous generation, millennials have the power to chart a better course for themselves and for future generations—and that starts with voting for leaders who will make the right choices on the things that matter most, like climate change and inequality.
I. Millennials' High Costs in the New Inequality Economy
The Biggest Generation Gets the Rawest Deal
We examine the economic challenges and rising financial burdens facing young people: student debt, child care, jobs and stagnant wages, financial insecurity, and inaction on climate change. We find that, left unaddressed, climate change will bring substantial additional costs and income losses to the millennial generation and future generations, in essence, placing a societal climate penalty on their income and wealth.
In all of these issue areas—but especially for climate change—bad public policies (including policy inaction) are the main drivers of damages for millennials; taken together, they add up to a massive betrayal of young people by our political leaders, unfolding over the last several decades and punctuated by the financial crash and economic slowdown since 2008.
Millennials’ are facing the stingiest economy in three generations, and the most unequal economy in more than a century. In many key areas for enabling upward mobility and raising living standards over a lifetime, our political system is letting millennials down. In the remainder of this section, we examine four core aspects of the larger inequality crisis that are disproportionately affecting millennials—even without taking into account the devastating consequences of a failure to address climate change.
First there is college affordability. Getting a college education—a near-necessity for upward mobility today—is increasingly unaffordable leaving most students with a heavy burden of debt from college loans. Second for millennials raising children child care costs are wreaking havoc on household budgets and limiting parents’ ability to move up the ladder in the workplace especially for women. Third the wages of middle- and low-income jobs have stagnated even as more and more income flows to the richest Americans: since 1993 approximately 52 percent of income gains have gone to the top 1 percent of households and more than 91 percent went to the top 1 percent in the three years after the 2008 financial crash.5 Finally, millennials’ wealth and financial security has deteriorated with cascading effects that could leave their children even worse off.
While this report cannot provide a detailed examination of the policy drivers of the millennials’ raw deal, some of the core policy failures should be noted here to contextualize this urgent turning point for issues of climate and inequality. The college affordability problem for one has many causes, but fundamentally is a problem created by politicians failing to keep up investment in higher education with the growing number of students attending college. This has led universities to rely more and more on tuition to cover the cost of a college education. As the cost of tuition rises, students rely more and more on loans to be able to afford an education.
In stark contrast with what we see almost universally in other wealthy democracies, our elected leaders have also failed to invest in the child care needs of working families, many of whom have no access to paid family leave or to affordable, high-quality child care for young children. There has been modest progress on this front: the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 required employers with 50 or more employees to allow three months unpaid leave for the care of a newborn or an ailing family member, and a few states have started to experiment with paid parental leave programs. However, overall, we’ve made almost no progress in this area, and families are paying the price.
For wages and employment, several core policy failures have been at work, including trade policies that drive jobs and investment overseas, financial deregulation and new business models pitting “shareholder value” against workers, communities, and the environment, aggressive attacks on unions and the steep decline of union membership, and the failure to raise the federal minimum wage. Finally, millennials’ declining wealth has mainly been driven by rising household indebtedness as incomes have stagnated amid rising costs for college, health care, and other essential goods.
In the remainder of this section, we examine what millennials are up against as a result of these policy failures. Armed with such an analysis, millennials can recognize the urgency of this moment and the need to force change by voting in record numbers in 2016. No generation has more of a need to demand significant, meaningful change in the way things are working today.
Higher Education and Student Debt
While college is still the surest pathway to economic security, millennials face a higher education system in which costs have skyrocketed and the need to borrow for college is ever-increasing. Overall student debt in the economy has increased from around $260 billion in 2003 to nearly $1.3 trillion today.6 While most students who graduated in the early 1990s did not take on debt for their degree, seven in ten students borrow today. Undergraduate student debt, moreover, is not taken on equitably—81 percent of black students and 84 percent of lower-income students borrow more often and in higher amounts than white students (63 percent), even at public colleges and universities (Figure 01). 7
Even as the economy has slowly recovered from the Great Recession, student borrowers are falling behind on their payments and the percentage of student loans in default has continued to rise. 8 Even more troublingly, around one-third of student borrowers drop out of college—including four-in-ten black student borrowers. The problem is particularly pronounced at for-profit institutions, where two-thirds of black and Latino student borrowers drop out of four-year degree programs.9 Even for those who are able to meet their monthly payments, the rise in student debt means that millennials are still entering the workforce with a financial burden that other generations simply did not endure.
Young households with no student loan debt are more likely to own homes and have retirement and liquid assets that are considerably larger than those households weighed down by debt. Households with a college degree and no debt have nearly $100,000 in average retirement savings, while college-educated households with debt have less than half that amount.10 As noted in the introduction, Demos has found that even average levels of student loan debt may result in lifetime wealth losses of over $100,000 for college-educated individuals earning a median income.11
Paid Parental Leave and Child Care Needs
Today nearly four out of ten young adults age 25-34 are raising children, and millennials are the parents of most new babies born in the United States.12 Yet millennial parents face formidable challenges when it comes to caring for their children. This begins immediately at birth, when most parents lack paid time o to care for a new baby, which only continues with the exorbitant cost of childcare, the lack of public preschool, and the high price that parents pay for taking time out of the workforce to care for children. Although 73 percent of women age 25-34 are in the labor force and 40 percent of households with children are supported by mothers as the primary source of income for the family, our economy is largely structured as if all families still had a stay-at-home parent raising children.13
Unlike nearly every other wealthy democracy, the United States offers no guarantee of paid time off for parents to care for a new baby.14 While some employers voluntarily provide paid time to new mothers and fathers, these benefits are disproportionately offered to highly-paid professionals, leaving out the majority of working people. In 2015, only 12 percent of full-time workers age 25-34 had access to paid family leave through their employers.15 Foryoungworkersemployedpart- time, just 5 percent have access to paid family leave. Furthermore, black and Latino/a parents are less likely than white parents to have access to paid time off for a new baby.
As a result, one in four mothers report returning to work within two weeks of giving birth, despite the potential negative health consequences for mothers and infants alike.16 And some new mothers—including 26 percent of working black women having their first child, 24 percent of Latinas and 21 percent of white women—report quitting their jobs entirely in order to take care of a new baby.17 Among the same group, 6 percent of black women, 8 percent of Latinas and 4 percent of white women say their employers fired them after their baby was born.18
In order to remain in the workforce, parents must often pay the exorbitant cost of child care. According to the research and advocacy group Childcare Aware, the average cost of full-time care for a single infant in center-based care ranges from $4,822 a year in Mississippi to $17,062 in Massachusetts.19 Similarly, costs to place a 4-year-old in a childcare provider’s home range from $3,675 in Mississippi to $10,000 in Massachusetts. The expenses add up quickly: Childcare Aware estimates that married couples earning the median family income in their state would have to spend between 6.8 percent and 15 percent of their income on center-based care for their infant during a full workweek. For single parents, the costs can be even more overwhelming, with an average annual cost of over 40 percent of the state median income for single mothers in every state. While some low- and moderate-income families receive public subsidies to help defray the cost of child care, eligibility for this assistance varies widely by state, and some states have long waiting lists that prevent eligible families from accessing child care.
The Struggle to Find Good Jobs
Unemployment and Underemployment
The Great Recession could not have come at a worse time for millennials.20 Just as many were entering the job market for the first time, the economy bottomed out, significantly shrinking the supply of jobs and shifting many jobs to part-time hours.
The job market has slowly improved, but many young people (25-34) still face persistent unemployment. This is especially true for young workers of color. Around one in seven young black workers were unemployed for 5 weeks or more in 2014, despite several years of economic recovery (See Table 1; note that this is worse than the same statistic among young white workers at the height of the Great Recession). Indeed, the Great Recession hit men, black workers, and those without college experience the hardest. A full quarter of millennials without a high school diploma were unemployed for more than a month at the height of the recession, and about one in six remain so today (Table 2).
Even for millennials who could nd work, many have been forced into part-time work and often low-wage work. The number of part-time workers who were seeking a stable, full-time job skyrocketed during the recession and remains well above the level experienced by previous generations. In 2014, seven years into the recovery, more than 36 percent of young part-time workers were only working part-time because they either could not nd a full-time job or they experienced a forced reduction in work hours (Figure 2).
Stagnant Wages
The jobs millennials do nd often pay less than the jobs previous generations of young people enjoyed. For the past several decades, wages and incomes for most families have remained stubbornly stagnant or even decreased. The average young white worker (age 25-34) earns about the same as his counterpart from a generation or two ago, while the average millennial black or Latino worker earns slightly less than their counterparts in previous generations. Women have seen a boost in average earnings, while the average young male worker earns over $7,000 less annually than he would have in 1980 (Table 3).
While a college degree has provided a bu er for many workers, those without a college degree have seen incomes drop dramatically. Today, although the average young worker with a bachelor’s degree makes slightly more than his or her counterpart did a generation or two ago, the average young worker without a bachelor’s degree earns significantly less. Workers with some college or a high school diploma have seen their average incomes drop by nearly $6,000, and the average worker with less than a high school diploma now earns sub-poverty level wages (Table 4).
Wealth and Financial Security
The financial security of young households—those headed by a person between 25-40 year olds—has eroded in the past generation, particularly for young adults with lower education levels.21 The median wealth of young households declined from $34,561in 1989 to $20,135 as of 2013, a 42 percent decline. At the same time, large racial wealth gaps have persisted through the overall decline. The wealth decline was concentrated among young white households, who had much more wealth to lose and saw their median wealth decline by a third to $34,163. Starting at much lower levels of wealth due to enslavement, land theft, segregation, and continuing exclusion from America’s wealth-building policies, the median wealth of young black households increased slightly since 1989, to $3,625. Latino households’ median wealth also increased slightly, to $10,195. Young households of all education levels have seen their wealth fall, but the decline was most pronounced for college-educated households, who had more to lose: the median wealth of young households with a bachelor’s degree or higher declined by 24 percent over the past quarter century and households with some college or an associate’s degree saw their wealth fall by more than 60 percent.
The major reason for the decline in the wealth of young households was the large increase in the amount of debt they carried, mainly student debt. Overall, young households’ median debt increased nearly 75 percent, from $38,682 in 1989 to $67,115 in 2013. The increase was highest among college-educated households, who saw their debt rise by 47 percent over the past quarter-century. The rise in debt also explains the increase
in the share of young households who have negative wealth, meaning they have more debt than assets. The share of young households with college degrees with negative wealth more than doubled in the past 25 years, rising from 9.7 percent in 1989 to 20.1 percent in 2013.
On average, young people who dropped out of high school actually reduced their household debt by 64 percent over the last 25 years. But this was largely due to a precipitous decline in homeownership: just 27 percent of young people without a high school diploma owned their homes in 2013, a little more than half as many as the 47 percent who owned their homes in 1989.
Unfortunately, the decline in young households’ wealth is actually much greater than the debt statistics show, if we also account for changes in the retirement system. In particular, the radical shift from defined benefit retirement plans to defined contribution plans, such as 401(k)s, has taken a serious toll on retirement security, especially for younger workers. If a worker had a typical defined benefit plan that guaranteed $20,000 per year in retirement, it would take more than $250,000 in 401(k) savings to provide that same level of retirement income. Given the current 401(k) savings of young households, most will not reach retirement with savings remotely in the ballpark of what a typical defined benefit pension would have provided. Only 48 percent of young households have begun saving for retirement, and the median 401(k) balance among those with savings is just $18,750. Young households of color are even worse off: only 40 percent of young black households and 24 percent of young Latino households have any retirement savings, and the median balances among savers are just $9,425 and $8,200 respectively.
There are some bright spots for young households. Homeownership among those with high school diplomas and college degrees has remained stable over the past quarter century, at 46 percent and 62 percent, respectively. Homeownership rates have also been stable among young black and Latino households, at 30 and 33 percent respectively (however, this is still much lower than the white homeownership rate of 58 percent). The credit card debt of young households has also declined across all races and education levels. Although the shares of young black and Latino households with credit card debt have remained steady at 34 percent and 37 percent respectively, the median credit card debt among indebted households has declined, falling by $2,000 for young black households and $2,200 for young Latino households. The share of young white households with credit card debt has fallen significantly, from 59 percent in 1989 to 43 percent in 2013.
Although there are some positive statistics, the overall financial picture for young households is bleak, particularly given the growth in our national economy over the past 25 years. In a quarter century where real economic output has grown by 87 percent, we would expect young households to have shared in the new wealth that has been generated. Instead, their wealth has fallen, their debt has grown, and their retirement finances have become very insecure.
II. Millennials' Climate Costs: The Hidden Penalty of Inaction on Climate Change
In the broader public narrative, the economic challenges described above are often discussed as part of a larger systemic crisis in our economy—the crisis of inequality. The impacts of climate change, however, are rarely factored into this narrative. But our findings show that climate change is an integral and major part of systemic inequality. We already know that its damages are—and will continue to be—felt unequally. Communities of color and low-income communities will be hit the hardest, as these communities have fewer resources to deal with the impacts of climate change—for example, in protecting themselves from extreme weather events. Further, these same communities have always had the highest exposure to coal-burning power plants and other sources of fossil fuel pollution, with sharply negative health impacts including high rates of asthma and other health conditions. If the transition to a clean energy economy is delayed, or if it is implemented unequally in keeping with historical patterns of racial exclusion, the fossil fuel economy will only deepen its toll on the health and well-being of America’s poorest and most vulnerable communities.
However, there is another form of inequality at the heart of climate change—generational inequality, in the form of younger and future generations bearing a disproportionate share of the devastating economic costs of the climate crisis. The fact is, unchecked climate change will impose heavy costs on millennials and subsequent generations, both directly in the form of reduced incomes and wealth, and indirectly through likely higher tax bills as extreme weather, rising sea levels, drought, heat-related health problems, and many other climate change-related problems take their toll on our society. The climate penalty alone is likely to significantly reduce the living standards of the largest generation in our history and will have an even more severe impact on the children of millennials. This burden alone would be crippling, but combined with the costs of student debt, unmet childcare needs, stagnant wages, involuntary underemployment, and, for young people of color in particular, high rates of joblessness, the climate penalty could be a knockout blow for millennials. Thus, while millennials are the greatest hope for a more progressive, inclusive, and democratically empowered society, their future is all too precarious thanks to a profound failure of leadership on the serious economic challenges, and the huge climate risks, they uniquely face.
Impacts of Climate Change and Economic Costs
Virtually all scientists agree that climate change is a human-made crisis driven by skyrocketing emissions of “heat-trapping” greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere, which are causing the planet to warm at an alarming rate. These gases, most notably carbon dioxide and methane, are emitted by the production and consumption of fossil fuels for power generation, by fossil fuel-intensive industrial and commercial development, by gasoline-powered transportation amid vast residential sprawl, as well as by deforestation, certain kinds of agriculture, and other destructive land-use practices. These practices either generate GHG emissions or deplete natural sinks that absorb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, or do both.
The driver of climate change impacts is rising global temperatures and changing weather patterns, where even small shifts can have massive impacts on a large scale. The impacts of climate change are occurring now, faster and stronger than predicted. June 2016 was the 14th straight month of record-breaking heat.
Sea levels are rising and in Miami, Norfolk, and other coastal cities, tidal flooding is becoming the norm—even on days without storms. Over 10 million acres of American forest burned in 2015, the worst wild fire season on record. We know that drier and longer droughts are threatening our crops and pelting rains are leading to more frequent inland flooding. We know that Arctic ice covers less of our northern ocean than ever before, in both summer and winter, and that the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland are shrinking rapidly. All of these changes are happening as average global temperatures have risen more than one degree Celsius compared to preindustrial levels.
If significant climate change impacts are already evident today then it should be patently clear that urgent action is needed to reduce GHG emissions dramatically in a very short time to limit further warming. The Paris Agreement of 2015 commits the United States and more than 180 other countries to reductions that will keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial levels, which is estimated to require at least an 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2050.
Many commonly used economic models of climate change damages in the United States emphasize several major areas of impact, varying regionally:
Rising sea levels that will eventually inundate coastal communities.
Rising frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and related flooding.
Extreme water stress due to combined effects of over-consumption and climate- related water supply shrinkage, with likely mega-droughts in the Southwest, California, and the Central Great Plains states.
Climate-related health impacts from various sources, including heat waves, poorer air quality, and increased rates of insect-borne infectious disease.
Declining agricultural productivity due to weather events, soil changes, pestilence, and other climate-related factors.
Wildfires of increasing frequency and intensity.
Depletion of corals, shellfish, pteropods (a cornerstone of marine food chains), and other marine life.
For the eighth consecutive year, extreme weather has cost U.S. taxpayers over $10 billion.22 In Pennsylvania and Ohio, pollution from coal- and gas-burning power plants is estimated to have caused 4,400 deaths and $38 billion in health costs in 2015 alone.23 An estimate of Florida’s mounting coastal liabilities found that damages in the state from a single hurricane could reach $641 billion by 2030 due to rising sea levels and more extreme weather.24
But what does this mean for individual households, and particularly for millennials who will bear the brunt of rapidly rising climate change costs by the middle of this century? We can estimate the climate costs facing millennials with the help of a model developed by researchers from Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley, with which they measure the effects of rising temperatures on long-run economic growth.25 Drawing on 50 years of historical data from 166 countries, and using rigorous controls, they investigate how rising temperatures will affect national productivity. In a “no climate action” scenario, they find that, by 2100, global per capita GDP will shrink by 23 percent relative to per capita GDP in a world without climate change. The U.S. GDP, without climate action, is projected to take a hit of 5 percent by 2050, and, by 2100, 36 percent of U.S. GDP per capita will be lost due to climate change. In other words, compared to a world without climate change, millennials’ lifetime incomes will be reduced in line with recessionary GDP impacts by mid-century if we do not act on climate change; by the end of the century, when the children of the youngest millennials are retiring, the losses from climate change will be much greater, comparable to Great Depression-era losses.
Extrapolating from the long-run U.S. growth curve under a scenario of no action on climate change, we calculate how climate |
't even get close to him. Reinforces the tedious theme that intact penises are "dirty".
Short Skin
UK/Italy/Iran, 2014 Billed as a comedy, reportedly actually crude propaganda for male genital cutting. Synopsis
Ever since he was a child, the seventeen-yearold Edoardo has suffered from a malformation of the foreskin that stops him from masturbating and makes him insecure and ill at ease with girls. Shut up in his sexless microcosm, Edoardo reacts with irritation to the pressures of the outside world, which do nothing but exacerbate his insecurity. No one around him seems to be capable of talking about anything but sex: his friend Arturo, obsessed with the idea of losing his virginity; his parents who urge Edoardo to make overtures to Bianca, the girl next door who has arrived from Milan as she does every year to spend the vacation with her grandmother; even his little sister Olivia, frantically in search of a bitch with which to mate her dog. It will not be the pressures of others that will release Edoardo from his shyness but the close encounter with a girl he meets by chance and an unexpected receptiveness toward him on Bianca’s part. Forced against his will to emerge from the shadows in which he has hidden for years, Edoardo will initially try to solve his problem by clumsy stratagems before finding, at last, the courage to face his own fears. - Venice Film Festival A doctor first gives him a cortisone cream and tells him to masturbate with it. He takes a big heap of it and slathers it on his penis, rather than just put a little on the very end of the foreskin and apply tension. Unsurprisingly it doesn't work. He sees an Internet video of a man getting cut and says, "Lucky him, it makes it better and you can last longer." Paradoxically, once he is cut, the doctor says, "I gave you a racing pole". He is then "happy as a dog hangin' out a car window with the wind in his face" according to one viewer. Reportedly filled with other misinformation.
Shriek if you know what I did last Friday the 13th
US, 2000 (Splatter comedy) Teacher asks teenage pupils if they knew Frankenstein was circumcised.
More details needed (but the movie is so uniformly panned that it would be inadvisable to watch it all just to find out).
Sixty six
UK, 2006 Comedy/drama about Bernie Reubens (Gregg Sulkin), about to have his Bar Mitzvah. It clashes with the World Cup final and has to be radically scaled down. Friend: Will you have your tonker cut off?
Bernie: What?
Friend: My mum said when you have your bar mitzvah you have your tonker cut off by a rabbi with a cake knife.
Bernie: It's not called a tonker, it's called a cock and I've already had a bit cut off. (Friend's dad looks up in astonishment.) Gentiles commonly confuse Bar Mitzvah and Brit Milah, but the cake knife and penectomy are added touches. Cake knives are especially blunt. The lines are presumably to illustrate Bernie's knowledge and urbanity, but the scriptwriters' own knowledge of Judaism is shaky: a rabbi tells Bernie there's nothing in "the Old Testament" about hoping your home side loses. ("Old Testament" is a Christian expression; Jews acknowledge no other.)
Skin Deep
India, 2015
(Several other films have the same name) A short film, shown together with Bawdi, Blouse and Manila Running as Chaar Cutting... Hardik Mehta’s Skin Deep is a little more involving [than Bawdi] largely because of the performances by Aditi Vasudev and Navin Kasturia and Hardik’s ability to steer clear of sleazy innuendos in a story that hangs on circumcision.
The boy feels pain in making love with [his] girl friend who is being forced to get married by her parents to a boy not of her choice.
The boy decides to go for circumcision before eloping but things go awry in the operation theatre. It is a strange story that fails to evolve into something more ambitious. - review in The Hindu, June 5, 2015 Such a young man would probably have phimosis or frenulum breve, both of which can be treated by other surgery or non-surgically. The influence of both Islam and the British Raj may prejudice Indian doctors towards cutting.
Sling Blade
US, 1996 Drama about a mentally disturbed man, Karl (Billy Bob Thornton, who also directs) In the opening scene, in a mental hospital, a very disturbed patient, Charles (J.T.Walsh) says to Karl:
"I [finally got to look at] her bush... and there before me, lay this thin, crooked, uncircumcised penis! You can imagine how bad I wanted my $25 back, huh?" (Implying Charles killed the prostitute over it.)
The intonation suggests that being intact was the worst thing about the unwanted penis.
The South Park Movie: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
US, 1999 In the TV trailer, after the word "Uncut", the cartoon boys can be heard in the background shouting "Eeeewwwww!"
This casual bigotry against intactness is one of the most insidious ways circumcision is promoted.
For South Park, the TV series, see the TV Sitcoms pages, S-Z.
The Spy Who Dumped Me
US, 2018 Spy thriller/comedy Morgan (Kate McKinnon) and Audrey (Mila Kunis) are friends caught up in a spy plot. The two women have been involved with a sexist Ukranian agent (Dustin Demri-Burns) who they've been trying to educate in feminism. He has sent Morgan some pictures. Morgan is on the phone to her mother. Morgan (on phone) "Mom, did you get the dick pics I forwarded? Audrey thinks it's weird that we tell each other everything. I know it's normal... that's what I said!... It looks like an unbaked crescent roll. Mom I know you like them uncut, hold on... (to Audrey, who is trying to interrupt her) My mom wants to know if you've been with an uncircumcised man... Audrey: Morgan, I'm begging you to get off the fucking phone! It is (slight) progress that a character (unseen) likes intact men.
State and Main
US, 2000 A woman is about to make love to a man and asks him if he is Jewish. He replies, "Yes, why do you ask?"
She says, "I love Jewish men."
He asks, "Why?"
She then looks at his crotch excitedly and says, "Ohh, you know why!" This reinforces the first myth, that only Jews (and all Jews) circumcise. (She might as well have asked, "Are you American?")
For him to know why would assume that all women prefer circumcised penises.
Summer Storm
[Sommersturm]
Germany, 2004 A comedy about a young rower coming to terms with being gay during a training session camped by a lake. One of the rowers is brought to the camp in agony. His body is hunched up, and when they force his arms and legs apart one lifts the blanket that wraps him and says "His foreskin is caught in his zipper." Then some woman rowers come to complain that a man has been peeking at them, and they identify him as the culprit. He is taken away to see a doctor. Some of the youths joke about serving his foreskin at a barbecue. At the end of the film he confesses to one of the women that he had been "choking the chicken" and she slaps his face. Having a foreskin is taken for granted. There is only a comical suggestion that it, rather than the zipper, will be sacrificed.
Superman
US, 1978 The baby Superman walks out of the crash-landed rocket from Krypton, circumcised.
(The question arises, coming from a super-civilization, why?)
Superman II
US, 1980 The infant Superman is again shown circumcised. Other anomalous circumcisions.
Supot (Intact)
Philippines, 2002 A short film (10:49, embedded in its entirety here) about a supot young man who breaks free. A little slow and symbolist at first, but with an uplifting ending (from 7:20 on). Supot (Uncircumcised) from OGi Sugatan on Vimeo.
Suzie Gold
UK, 2003 Comedy. Suzie, a Jewish girl (Summer Phoenix) in London, under pressure to marry a nice Jewish boy (Iddo Goldberg), falls for Darren (Leo Gregory), a gentile. Suzie's more orthodox friend Debbie (Sophie Winkleman) questions her about Darren: Debbie: Well I just don't know how you can do it. Suzie: It's really not that different. I mean it's got its pluses as well. Debbie: Such as?
Suzie: Well it's full of surprises, it's not like with a Jewish boy, you don't just get what you see, it's like, there's an extra layer, like, a mystery you uncover. Debbie: Something like loads of cheese underneath. Suzie: No, he's very clean. Suzie may have been speaking about gentiles, not genitals. It is Debbie who is focused on his foreskin.
Debbie: When the foreskin fetish has worn off and you're sitting in your warmest cardigan in your council flat with your six snotty-nosed kids, and you're waiting for your goyische fella to come back from the pub and beat you up, I'll try very hard not to say I told you so. Later, in the synagogue: Debbie: You know you can do some extra repenting for your non-kosher diet...?... Two days fasting on Yom Kippur - and no cheese for a week. Since the film is about love finding a way, the supposed obstacle of his foreskin is soon dismissed.
Things I Never Told You
[Cosas que nunca te dije]
Spain/US, 1996 In two scenes of traffic jams, we can hear the drivers' thoughts. In the first, a man says, "Why was I circumcised, anyway?" In the next, he answers himself, "It's cleaner and healthier, women prefer it."
Threads
Khait Errouh
Morocco, 2003 Producer's synopsis: Hayat, a young American woman, accompanies her dying father, Mehdi, on a trip to his childhood home in Bejjaad - a small Moroccan town teeming with people she may never meet, but whose lives unfold before our eyes: Karim (Mohamed Farhat), a young boy, is plagued with nightmares on the eve of his circumcision.... As each of these characters undergoes a rite of passage, Mehdi embraces the end of his life.
... and well he might have had nightmares.
Three Needles See 3 Needles
Time of the Coment
(Koha e kometes) Germany/Albania, 2008 Historical comedy Upon learning that Albania is no longer under Ottoman rule, Shestan (Blerim Destani)... ventures forth with his men to seek out and defend the newly named German king of Albania.... The makeshift troop finally reaches King Weid (Thomas Heinze), who has ethnic problems of his own. Faced with a choice between his throne and his foreskin (Albania's considerable Muslim population demands he be circumcised), Weid abdicates." - Variety September 21, 2009 As someone commented, "I think I'd abdicate, too." [The comet in question, Halley, came in 1910. The film is set on the eve of WW1, in 1914, so the time of the comet is well over. Perhaps that is part of the comedy.]
Time to Say Goodbye
Simon sagt 'Auf Wiedersehen' zu seiner Vorhaut
Germany, 2016
Comedy [How can anyone even think of making a comedy about genital cutting? Humour at its most nervous.] The German title "Simon says 'See you again' to his foreskin" is misleading (Simon sagt 'Tchüß'... perhaps?). Twelve-year-old Simon Grünberg (Maximilian Ehrenreich, "The Book of Life") approaches his Bar Mitzvah in the midst of his parents' marital separation. His recently observant Jewish father (Florian Setter) advocates for his circumcision, seeing the significance of his son's covenant with God as a non-negotiable rite of passage. His mother (Lavinia Wilson), a fiery and headstrong erotica author, finds this appalling and refuses to subject her son to circumcision for the sake of pious rules. Simon, for lack of a better term, is torn.
To complicate matters, Simon's new Rabbi, Rebecca (Catherine De Léan), is a warm, beautiful, intelligent woman—and he's not the only one who notices. With well-meaning strategic help from his buddies Ben and Clemens, Simon sets off to win her heart before his father can. When an especially intimate tactic (that drew groans of all kinds from its North American Premiere audience) becomes public fodder for a private feud, Simon considers more drastic measures. His desperation to attract a first love twenty years his senior drives him to bond with God on his own terms. - from the Reel Georgia review
Typically, it is taken as normal that a virgin boy is expected to part with his foreskin without ever knowing what it does.
Tiyabu Biru
Senegal, 1978 Made in the Soninke language, English title "Circumcision". No other information available.
The To Do List
USA, 2013 Comedy about teenage girls wanting to experiment sexually. A teenage girl is about to masturbate a youth, who turns out to be intact. She reports: "It has skin, I don't remember seeing that in any of the health books." She asks her mother why some boys aren't circumcised and the mother replies: " The better question is, why are boys circumcised? " She goes on to explain the foreskin and how much extra sensitivity it has, and that it is a shame that we cut them off our sons at birth.
A touch of spice
(Politiki kouzina) Greece, 2003 A drama set in Greece and Turkey. A Turkish customer and his son enter a spice shop owned by a Greek in Istanbul. The son is dressed in festive garments resembling a king's or sultans's dress. While the two men talk about politics, the boy approaches the merchant's grandson, but his father forbids him from doing so. He explains to the merchant that the son is to be circumcised shortly, but he will allow him to come another day to play with his grandson. (Later in the movie the two boys meet again as men and we realise that the promised visit - after the circumcision - never took place.)
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
95 mins
UK, 2005 "An unfilmable 18th century literary classic becomes a comic film-about-a-film." Laurence Sterne's 'The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman' is a mock autobiography renowned for its digressions and its asides, These are paralled in this film version by stepping out of the story into its filming. During the re-creation of a crucial point in Shandy's childhood, when he was circumcised by a plunging sash window, this painful accident is interrupted by Steve Coogan as Shandy hectoring the child actor (Conal Murphy) for his poor performance.
The Two Of Us
Le viel homme et l'enfant
France, 1967 Drama The parents of a little Jewish boy (Alain Cohen) decide to evacuate him at the height of the bombing of their town in 1944. He goes to stay with an elderly couple. Jews are being rounded up and the old man (Michel Simon) is superficially anti-Semitic, so the boy is told to say he is Catholic, and even learns the Lord's Prayer. The drama is about the developing relationship between the boy and the man. He has a couple of near-disclosures, especially when he's told to bathe in the iron bath in the middle of the kitchen. We see his "problem", the determined old lady (Luce Fabiole) who wants to wash him does not.
Tuli
Philippines, 2005 A lesbian feminist film. Daisy (Desiree Del Valle) has inherited, from her abusive father, the role of circumcising all the young men in the village, and she bristles against the expectation that she must then marry one of them. “Let’s show all the men here our world doesn’t revolve around their balls,” she tells her friend Botchok (Vanna Garcia). There are several scenes of circumcisions in the first hour. I rented the movie Tuli from netflix. I expected, from the descriptions I'd read on various websites, that Tuli was an anti- circumcision film, as it is repeatedly described as the story of a young woman bucking against traditional Filipino society and her circumciser-father. And so it seemed, throughout the entire movie, beginning with the horrible opening scene of children being circumcised; the circumciser (Bembol Roco) portrayed as an evil drunk; then his daughter, Daisy (Desiree del Valle), specifically choosing the one intact young man in town, Nanding (Carlo Aquino), to impregnate her. The movie is filled with depictions of the evils of superstition; from villagers who believe that dwarves and lesbians curse children; to Catholics who whip themselves with instruments of torture on Holy Days. The recurring theme is that all the 'bad' men in town are circumcised, while the one kind man in town is uncut: contrary to what the villagers believe, circumcision does NOT make the man. At the movie's climax, the village people get together to violently tear Daisy and her female lover, Botchok (Vanna Garcia), from their home. It is Nanding alone who comes to their defense, fighting off the attackers, and when he succeeds, Botchok shouts to the villagers: "YOU are the uncut ones after all!" ("supot", the derogatory term in Tagalog for intact -- as well as homosexual -- carries the connotation of "bad".) And yet, after all that, just like ALWAYS, the very last scene of the movie, after spending two hours depicting their uniqueness and independence, shows Daisy circumcising Nanding, because he, after all, is a "REAL" man - and, like the idiotic villagers shouted all along, "REAL" men are circumcised. There are repeated Catholic images and scenes throughout the movie; even the ending credits are adorned with various Christian drawings. The current pope has even again reminded Catholics that they are "a church without circumcision." Why won't his church listen? Danielle in Pasadena
The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story
UK, 2003 IMDb summary: The first of three parts, we follow Tulse Luper in three distinct episodes: as a child during the first World War, as an explorer in Mormon Utah, and as a writer in Belgium during the rise of fascism. Packed with stylistic flourishes, it's a dense, comic study of 20th century history, revolving around the contents of one man's suitcases. During Tulse's childhood (5'40" in), he (Richard Pask) and his friends are playing war and explain to their friend David (Joshua Light) that he must be Jewish because he's "lost a piece of his willy." Circumcision was also a class marker in the UK in the early 20th century.
Uncut
Canada, 1997 A comedy set in Ottawa in 1979, about three gay men named Peter - one, Cort (Matthew Ferguson), is writing a book about male circumcision; another, Koosens (Michael Achtman), is transcribing that book in a typing agency and is obsessed with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to a degree that draws the attention of a police officer; the third, Peter Denham (Damon D'Oliveira), seduces the first two and then betrays them both. "[a] witty, imaginative and frequently subversive reapraisal of cinematic form... this is certainly different and refreshing viewing." - Time Out
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
US, 2011 Comedy about two dopers, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) and their dangerous quest for a Chrismas tree. A Jewish man who has converted to Christianity is extolling the new-found joys of being a Christian at Christmas: "Next week I have an appointment to get uncircumcised. That's right, I'm going to get my snozzle!" Implying only Jews are circumcised, even though the two main - gentile - characters' circumcised penises both appear in the film. Harold's is absurdly stretched when he tries to pull it from a post to which it has frozen, and is probably a stunt-cock.
Click on images for larger Clearly the restoration involved is surgical.
View from the Top
US, 2003 A romantic comedy about becoming a flight attendant. At a dinner party, a veteran flight attendant, Sally Weston (Candice Bergen) married to a rich Texan, is host to several new flight attendants. Donna (Gwyneth Paltrow): So what was it like, Mrs Weston, when you started flying?
Sally: Sally, please. Oh, it was wonderful! The exotic cities -
Christine (Christina Applegate): I hear all those Europe men are uncircumcised.
Randy (Joshua Malina, informatively): Uh, not all. (Mr Weston looks pained) The humour lies in the inappropriateness of the question, topped by the inappropriateness of the answer, with a mildly homophobic dig at Randy's supposed promiscuity (though one circumcised European would be sufficient for him to be correct). On another level, it is anti-intact: he is reassuring her that she can date a European without having to put up with a foreskin.
Virtual Sexuality
UK, 1999 Romantic comedy with a touch of sci-fi. Justine Parker (Laura Fraser), 17, wants to lose her virginity. She goes to a virtual reality fair for a date with self-styled superstud Alex Thorne (Kieran O'Brien), but he stands her up and she goes with her friend Chas Lovett (Luke de Lacey). In a machine intended to give her a virtual makeover, she sets the controls for her ideal man (Rupert Penry-Jones) instead. An explosion puts her into his body and she calls herself Jake, but has much to learn about being a man. Jake and Chas are in a locker-room, where naked men are horsing around: Jake: Jesus, would you look at Carter's. Chas: Don't point. Jake: But he's got no - the inside's showing. Chas: He's been circumcised. Jake: Poor bastard! A scene that would probably have been turned on its head in the US.
Waiting for Guffman
US, 1996 A semi-improvised comedy. Blaine, Missouri. To celebrate the town's 150th anniversary, an off5-Broadway director is mounting an historical pageant. (Guffman is a Broadway theatre critic who has been invited to the opening night.) Two of the cast - a travel agent who has left town only once and the dentist - and their partners are having dinner together. Ron Albertson (Fred Willard): How'd you find this place? Dr. Allan Pearl (Eugene Levy, who played Dr Wasserman in "Off Centre" ): Well, we've been, uh coming here for many years Sheila Albertson (Catherine O'Hara rather the worse for wear) What's it.. what's it.. Ron: Shhh... Sheila: Girl talk. What's it like to be with a circumcised man? Mrs [first name not given] Pearl (Linda Kash) reacts. Sheila : I'd ask you more about that but Ron said the whole Jew thing... Ron whispers in Sheila's ear. Reaction from Dr Pearl. Sheila: When Ron had his surgery... when Ron had his surgery... Ron (interrupting): All right, all right... Sheila:... I said, 'Hey circumcise it while you're at it,' you know... because I had never been with anyone else. Ron's the only man I've been with. [This does not follow. ~75% of the world's women have never been with any but intact men.] Dr. Pearl: What surgery did he have? Ron: A minor corrective surgery. (to a waiter) Can we have some coffee at the table please? Sheila (sarcastically): It's not minor anymore. [?] Dr. Pearl (noticing Ron's embarrassment): Well maybe we should change the subject. Ron: I had, uh, what most guys would, um, dream of: I had penis reduction surgery. Dr. Pearl (startled): I'm sorry? Ron: Penis reduction surgery. Which there aren't many. You're gonna say, 'I've never heard of that,' because there haven't been that many cases. (Reaction from Mrs Pearl) Sheila: I said, 'Ron do something' and he said, 'Why don't you get one of those vagina enlargements?' The scene continues without further reference to circumcision.
Walk on Water
Israel, 2004 Explores Israeli-German and straight-gay relationships, among other things. An Israeli intelligence man, Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi), is hunting down an old Nazi. He poses as a tourist guide and befriends the Nazi's grandson, Axel Himmelman (Knut Berger). They are showering after swimming in the Dead Sea. Eyal: So they didn't circumcise you? I think I never saw one. You know, we used to talk about it in the army. If it looks bigger and if it's better in bed... Axel: I don't know. It's the only one I ever had. Eyal: Is everybody like that in Europe? Axel (as they get dressed): In Germany, hardly nobody's circumcised - except for the Turks. In other countries of Europe...? Let me think... Italians? Definitely not circumcised. Also the English and the French. Definitely not. Actually, only the Muslims are circumcised in Europe. And the Jews, of course. I think it looks better circumcised. Eyal (thoughtfully): I see you know quite a lot about it. Circumcision is a plot device to develop the relationship between the men. Axel is giving away that he is gay, but Eyon doesn't notice. Not many gay Germans would think a circumcised penis looks better than their own - perhaps he is flirting.
Waiting in the Wings
USA, 2014 Musical about a would-be Broadway actor whose CV is switched with a stripper's. In a song "Gays, Jews and Girls Who Need Love" about people who support musicals, is the line: No-one is more loyal
Than those who use a mohel. - underlining "Judaism = circumcision"
Wassup Rockers
USA, 2005 Dramatised documentary by Larry Clark about a group of Guatemalan American and Salvadoran American teenagers in South Central Los Angeles who, instead of conforming to the hip hop culture of their gang-infested neighborhood, wear tight pants, listen to punk rock,and ride skateboards. Jonathan (Jonathan Velasquez) and a young woman have been pulling their clothes off as they go upstairs. When they reach the bedroom, Jonathan takes off his trousers. (0:50)
She: You're not circumcised.
Jonathan: No, I'm Latino. Why, it looks different?
She: It looks dangerous! (Kisses him passionately. They begin to have sex.) A welcome change from "Eew!"
What's Cooking?
USA, 2000 Comedy-drama about two days - around Thanksgiving - in the lives of four Los Angeles families, African-American,Vietnamese, Latino and Jewish. On Thanksgiving morning, Ruth Seelig (Lainie Kazan) is showing Carla (Julianna Margulies), the partner of her daugher Rachel (Kyra Sedgwick), how to stuff the turkey, and complaining about her son, Art, and his wife. Ruth: You know they haven't spoken in over a year? It's terrible. That's it, Carla. Just make sure it goes all the way in the back. Carla: Mmm, that's my favorite part. Ruth: I mean, our only grandson not circumcised, yet. It's a shanda [disgrace, scandal]. And, and, and they spoke to the moyel in Beverly Hills about the bris and everything. Rachel (who is pregnant by artificial insemination, unknown to her mother): But it's up to his parents! Ruth: It's tradition! As usual, circumcision is not treated seriously in its own right, this time merely as a prop to illustrate the generation gap, and the grandson's rights or wishes do not get a look in.
What To Expect When You're Expecting
USA, 2012 Comedy about pregnancy and parenthood. Stars Cameron Diaz and Matthew Morrison joke nervously pre-release about the decision how much detail to include about circumcision. (Christopher Hitchens said, "Genital mutilation is no joke.") Keeping the larger-audience rating seems more important than informing parents about the grim reality of circumcising. The preview is not encouraging and Matthew Morrison seems to agree with his character, Evan: In their arguments, Ewan's case for cutting is that "How is it even a question?"
He's Jewish
People will make fun of their son
He likes sex just fine
"I'll feel shafted if he's not done." [We may hope that this means that if circumcision is unnecessary, he'll feel that he was shafted by being circumcised.] Jules's case for intactness is There's more sensation [intact]
Circumcision is violent and
Unnecessary A passing nurse says "Actually a lot of couples are choosing not to circumcise these days." A woman listening to their conversation says uncut guys are better and she had a blast in Europe. In the (happy) event, the baby is a girl, so the question never needs an answer - and the moviemakers are off the hook. They discuss the issue a few more times – MM tries to trivialize the idea of circ. While CD is in labor, she mumbles something about “I don’t care about his penis.” The issue is resolved when, to their surprise, the sonogram was wrong and she delivers a baby girl. Cameron Diaz told Jimmy Fallon she thinks it's strange that men want their sons to be circumcised and aren't comfortable with [a child having] a foreskin. There’s reality TV stars Jules (Cameron Diaz) and Evan (Matthew Morrison), a high-maintenance pair who argue about circumcision purely so the writers can throw in a few dick jokes but without the slightest degree of truth about how parents can disagree about major decisions even before they know the sex of the child.... There are so few moments or scenes in “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” that don’t feel like they were processed by a machine. “What do we need to put in this movie? Nipple pain? Check. Flatulence? Check. Circumcision jokes? Check. Gags about how awful dads are? You bet.” - HollywoodChicago.com For circumcision critics, it is a slam-dunk in terms of pop-culture attention to this issue. Jules (Cameron Diaz) is an LA celebrity who is determined not to circumcise her son despite the protestations of the baby’s father Evan (Matthew Morrison). When a tabloid magazine prints that Jules won’t be circumcising on its front cover, the couple’s tensions over the issue escalate. The circumcision issue is not merely addressed in passing. It is a major plot point in the film. - Beyond the Bris, May 19, 2012
When Father was away on Business
[Otac na sluzbenom putu], Yugoslavia, 1985 A drama-comedy directed by Emir Kusturica and set in 1950s Yugoslavia. Early on the film, the father decides to have his two boys, Mesa (Miki Manojlovic), aged about nine, and Malik (Moreno D'E Bartolli), 12, circumcised. The adults throw a little party in the house. The boys are presented and circumcised by their uncle who is a butcher. Their father tells the butcher to "go easy" with the skin and is told that there is "enough skin left for a good fuck". Later on, Mesa shares a bathtub with a little girl. He resents being circumcised since a friend of his "can stick a stone in, while he can't". The girl tells him that her father, who is a doctor, performs such operations and that it is better to be cut by a doctor.
The Wicker Man
UK, 1973 Cult suspense/horror. A Calvanistic Scottish police sergeant (Edward Woodward) goes alone to an offshore island where the locals, led by their Lord (Christopher Lee), have abandoned Christianity in favour of pagan fertility rites, and becomes more involved than is good for him. A scene in the local chemist/photographer's shop opens with a closeup of jars labelled "Foreskins" and "Dimethyl glyoxime" (used to detect nickel, of no apparent significance) and tracks past jars containing "Rat Brains", a weasel, "Snake Oil Embrocation", "Brains" and "Hearts" and ends on a tank of calf embryos. The foreskins appear to be from adults. This is explained by a scene that was cut from the film: (Lennox leads the way into the shop. Howie's attention is taken by a large bottle marked "foreskins".) HOWIE: Foreskins? How do you get foreskins? LENNOX: Circumcision - how else? I pay Ewan a reasonable price for them. HOWIE: But what for? LENNOX: If ritually burnt they bring the rain. But, of course, up here there's very little call for them. Now, how can I help you? A character is credited as "Doctor Ewan". It is most unlikely that he would ever need to cut off as many foreskins as appear in the jar, suggesting he did it without medical need.
The Wound
Inxeba (in Xhoxa with English subtitles)
South Africa, 2017 Director: John Trengove A slow-burning drama set at a Xhosa initiation. The initiates are all cut early on in the film; nothing is shown but there is mention of painful herbs being applied, and infections. The foreskin is mentioned only once, near the end. It is clear that it is not genital cutting that turns boys into men.
The film was first given a 16LS classification n South Africa, then after demonstrations, X18 for "classifiable elements of sex, language, nudity, violence and prejudice" meaning it can only be shown in "designated adult premises".
Y tu mamá también
[And your mother, too]
Mexico, 2001 Two best friends, 17 years old, spend most of their time horsing around, swearing, smoking dope and having sex with their girlfriends. One, Tenoch (Diego Luna), is the son of a leading politician and a psychotherapist (very well off). The other, Julio (Gael García Bernal), is the son of a secretary (middle to middle/lower class) whose husband ran off many years ago. In an early scene, the boys are showering together alone at a country club. As Julio dries off, Tenoch comments on his "ugly dick." Julio ignores the comment but Tenoch continues by saying Julio's penis looks like a "deflated balloon." Julio tells him to "blow up my balloon, faggot!" winning the exchange. Later, during a road-trip with a Spanish relation of Tenoch's, Luisa (Maribel Verdú), they banter about the relative size of their penises. Tenoch: Plus, Julio has a really ugly cock.
Luisa: Oh really? Why do you say that?
Tenoch: It looks like a deflated balloon. It has a hood on it; it's really gross.
Luisa: Mmm, yummy. Foreskins. I love them!
Tenoch: Well, I think a hood is just gross.
Julio: Ah, you're just jealous 'cause I'm bigger. As the film goes on, they express the sexual tension between them in class terms. Tenoch calls Julio "white trash" and "a peasant", while Julio calls Tenoch a "spoiled preppie" and the beneficiary of a corrupt politician father. A voice-over mentions that Tenoch uses his foot to lift the toilet seat in Julio's home. Circumcision is just one clear line in the sand. The message is that boys in upper- and middle-class Mexican families are routinely circumcised, like the Americans they envy, while intactness is a mark of social inferiority in sophisticated Mexico City, where both boys live. Julio is unfussed about being intact, but Tenoch has a hangup about foreskins - not that they're dirty, but rather that they label social class. His best friend's intactness is a daily reminder that they're from different sides of the tracks. The connection is made very deliberately. Diego Luna is actually intact, but was made to wear a circumcised stunt penis in the nude scenes.
Year One
US, 2009 Prehistoric/biblical comedy. "What's with all the genital mutilation?" asks Oh, a sensitive gatherer (as opposed to hunter), upon hearing the circumcision action plan put forth by Hank Azaria's Abraham. Don't worry, the bearded one says. "It's a very sleek look." Chicago Tribune, June 19, 2009 Many a true word is spoken in jest! This could be the first time "genital mutilation" has been used to describe male circumcision in a mainstream movie. (Actually, Oh didn't ask that until a eunuch in Sodom offered to |
1954)
“Cruel Story of Youth,” Nagisa Oshima (1960)
“Boy,” Nagisa Oshima (1969)
“High and Low,” Akira Kurosawa (1963)
“Red Beard,” Akira Kurosawa (1965)
“To Live,” Akira Kurosawa (1952)
“Hands Over the City,” Francesco Rosi (1963)
“The Tarnished Angels,” Douglas Sirk (1957)
“Sobibór, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m.,” Claude Lanzmann (2000)
“Cleo from 5 to 7,” Agnès Varda (1961)
“Father and Master,” Paolo et Vittorio Taviani (1976)
“The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice,” Yasujirō Ozu (1952)
“There Was a Father,” Yasujirō Ozu (1942)
“La Strada,” Federico Fellini (1954)
“Nights of Cabiria,” Federico Fellini (1957)
“Dekalog,” Krzysztof Kieslowski (1989)
“Life, and Nothing More….,” Abbas Kiarostami (1991)
“Where Is the Friend’s Home?” Abbas Kiarostami (1987)
“High Hopes,” Mike Leigh (1988)
“Riff-Raff,” Ken Loach (1991)
“Northern Lights,” John Hanson and Rob Nilsson (1978)
“Naked Hearts,” Édouard Luntz (1966)
“The Visitors,” Elia Kazan (1971)
“Wanda,” Barbara Loden (1970)
“Sunrise,” F.W. Murnau (1927)
“M,” Fritz Lang (1931)
“The Kid,” Charlie Chaplin (1919)
“Modern Times,” Charlie Chaplin (1935)
“The Life of Oharu,” Kenji Mizoguchi (1952)
“Herman Slobbe/Blind Child 2,” Johan van der Keuken (1966)
“The Wild Child,” François Truffaut (1969)
“The 400 Blows,” François Truffaut (1958)
“Dear Diary,” Nanni Moretti (1993)
“Drifting Clouds,” Aki Kaurismäki (1996)
“Naked Childhood,” Maurice Pialat (1967)
“Through the Olive Trees,” Abbas Kiarostami (1994)
“The Band Wagon,” Vincente Minneli (1953)
“It’s a Wonderful Life,” Frank Capra (1946)
Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures
“Taxi Driver,” Martin Scorsese (1975)
“Shoah,” Claude Lanzmann (1985)
“Le Boucher,” Claude Chabrol (1970)
“Gentleman Jim,” Raoul Walsh (1942)
“College,” Buster Keaton and James W. Horne (1927)
“Summer With Monika,” Ingmar Bergman (1952)
“Bring of Life,” Ingmar Bergman (1957)
“Interiors,” Woody Allen (1977)
“Crimes and Misdemeanors,” Woody Allen (1988)
“Pather Panchali,” Satyajit Ray (1955)
“My Childhood,” Bill Douglas (1972)
“Ce gamin, là,” Renaud Victor (1975)
“Shadow of a Doubt,” Alfred Hitchcock (1942)
“Kes,” Ken Loach (1969)
“Raining Stones,” Ken Loach (1993)
“Ivan’s Childhood,” Andrei Tarkovsky (1962)
“Rome Open City,” Roberto Rossellini (1945)
“The Man From Laramie,” Anthony Mann (1954)It’s almost time!
Just about thirty years ago, the CiTR’s Shindig began as The Hot Air Show, a student judged band competition. From UBC’s Pit Pub to the Savoy to The Railway Club, Shindig has been going strong ever since! Now three bands vie to become Shindig Thirtieth Anniversary Champions!
Of the 27 bands that have battled their way to the finale, these three will finally face one another. Expect none other than an absolutely monstrous closer; reverb dripping off the walls, fuzz clinging to your spine.
If the little train making its rounds above the patrons at the Railway Club goes off the rails, you’ll have none other than Skinny Kids, Zen Mystery Fogg, and War Baby to thank.
Skinny Kids
Zen Mystery Fogg
War Baby
PS: As is recent tradition, though not mandatory at all, we would love for attendees to come in their best formal wear for the Shindig finale!If you get around Ottawa by bike to eat, drink, shop or spend money in any way, Jeff Leiper wants to know about it.
The Kitchissippi councillor is expanding his "I Bike, I Buy" campaign to four additional wards in an attempt to track how much money cyclists are spending at local businesses.
"Anywhere you shop by bike, please tell us how much you spend," Leiper said Thursday at the campaign launch at the Ministry of Coffee on Elgin Street.
Cyclists can report what they spend on the campaign's website, which uses GPS to track shopping patterns.
Leiper also showed off a bluetooth beacon which, when combined with an app to be released by the end of July, will prompt cyclists to report their spending at participating businesses.
"It's going to say, 'Hey, you're at Ministry of Coffee. Did you spend any money? Tell us how much,'" said Leiper, who so far has recruited three other stores to carry the beacon, with plans to recruit more this summer.
Expanding campaign
launched a modest version of the campaign in June 2015, recruiting about 100 cyclists who reported their shopping habits near a bike corral at the corner of Wellington Street West and Fairmont Avenue. They reported spending roughly $6,000 at area businesses. Coun. Jeff Leiper shows off one of several bluetooth beacons being installed in participating businesses as part of the expanded I Bike, I Buy campaign. (Giacomo Panico/CBC) Leiper
This year's campaign has been expanded to include Leiper's entire ward of Kitchissippi, as well as Somerset, Capital, Rideau-Vanier, and Rideau-Rockcliffe wards.
Leiper is hoping the data collected will help convince business owners of the merits of investing in facilities for cyclists.
"There's sometimes merchant pushback to increasing cycling infrastructure," said Leiper. "I think a lot of merchants in the city of Ottawa think of their primary customer base as being those who drive to their stores."
Bike corral removed
That resistance was on display in 2014 when a bike parking corral on Wellington Street West was removed following complaints from nearby business owners who wanted the spot converted back to on-street parking.
"The way we're going to be successful at getting more safe cycling infrastructure down our traditional main streets in particular, is going to be get merchants to push for it," Leiper said.
Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney agrees that adding cycling infrastructure such as bike corrals or bike lanes on main streets can be a difficult sell because they reduce available on-street parking.ROME (AP) — A male apprentice, longtime companion and possible lover of Leonardo da Vinci was the main influence and a model for the “Mona Lisa” painting, an Italian researcher said Wednesday.
But the researcher, Silvano Vinceti, said the portrait represents a synthesis of Leonardo’s scientific, artistic and philosophical beliefs. Because the artist worked at it at various intervals for many years, he was subjected to different influences and sources of inspiration, and the canvas is full of hidden symbolic meanings.
“The ‘Mona Lisa’ must be read at various levels, not just as a portrait,” Mr. Vinceti said.
This is one of many theories that have circulated over the decades about the identity of “Mona Lisa” and the meaning for her famously enigmatic smile. Others have said the painting is a self-portrait in disguise, or the depiction of a Florentine merchant’s wife — the latter drawing a consensus among scholars.
The apprentice Gian Giacomo Caprotti, known as Salai, worked with Leonardo for more than two decades starting in 1490. Mr. Vinceti described their relationship as “ambiguous,” and most art historians agree Salai was a Leonardo lover.
Several Leonardo works, including “St. John the Baptist” and a lesser-known drawing called “Angel Incarnate,” were based on Salai, Mr. Vinceti told a news conference at the Foreign Press Association. These paintings show a slender, effeminate young man with long auburn curls.
Mr. Vinceti said similarities with the “Mona Lisa’s” nose and mouth are striking.
“Salai was a favorite model for Leonardo,” he said. “Leonardo certainly inserted characteristics of Salai in the last version of the Mona Lisa.”
It is not the first time that Salai’s name has been associated with the “Mona Lisa,” though some scholars expressed skepticism.
Pietro Marani, art historian and Leonardo expert, called the theory “groundless.”
Mr. Vinceti said other influences may have affected Leonardo. He does not rule out that Lisa Gherardini, wife of Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo, may have provided an early inspiration.
Equally, Mr. Vinceti said, further inspiration may have come from noblewoman Beatrice D’Este, who was married to Ludovico Sforza, the duke of Milan, at whose court Leonardo worked in the late 15th century. Mr. Vinceti said Leonardo often would see the woman while he was painting “The Last Supper” for the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, where she went to pray.
Typically, art historians say Leonardo started panting the “Mona Lisa” in 1503, when Leonardo was back from that Milan stay. But Mr. Vinceti has said Leonardo may have started it in the late 1490s in Milan.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC.The University of California, Berkeley invited certain “special populations” of new students to move in a day early to attend racially-exclusive orientation sessions.
According to a guide to the new “Golden Bear Orientation” program, the school offered a special programming on Monday for a variety of populations, including Hispanic students, black students, Native American students, and Asian American/Pacific Islander students.
"We want all our students to make it to orientation and to have an accessible and equitable experience."
“Most other students,” meanwhile, spent the day moving into their residence halls and preparing for the main freshman orientation program, which runs from August 15-22.
The “Black Student Orientation” aimed to address “the specific transitional and community needs of African American/Black students” at the university with “community building activities, academic and campus life workshops, and a resource fair.”
As part of the “Black Student Orientation,” students participated in a “Black World Tour” in which they were taken around the surrounding area for a showcase of “black owned businesses.”
[RELATED: Black Harvard grads to hold separate commencement ceremony]
Similarly, a “Familia Orientation” was offered for “Chicanx and Latinx” students on August 13, while an “Asian American Pacific Islander Student Orientation” was reserved for responding to the “specific transitional and community needs of Asian American, Pilipinx, and Pacific Islander students.”
A final “special population” orientation was provided for “native students” enrolled at the elite institution, who were encouraged to show up early to “map locations of your classes, get to know campus, meet continuing Cal Native students and other new Native students, and have a little fun before classes start.”
In fact, the Native American Student Development Office touts on its website that “another bonus” of attending the exclusive orientation was being “eligible for early move-in,” a benefit that the African American Student Development Center similarly advertises on its website, noting that participants were able to move in before “most other students.”
[RELATED: UC-Berkeley evicts Native American protesters for illegal squatting]
An official with the Native American Student Development Office explained to Campus Reform that the “purpose for the orientation was to make Native students know that they have a space on campus that they can come to,” since the several Native student groups on campus “tend to not get noticed.”
Additionally, the office confirmed with Campus Reform that the orientation was reserved exclusively for Native Americans, Indigenous people, and Pacific Islanders to introduce the many resources available for them on campus.
Notably, according to a university press release, all incoming students (9,500 in total) are asked to complete a “Bear Territory” program where they will “receive diversity and inclusion training.”
Participation in the “Golden Bear Orientation” as a whole is “considered mandatory,” with it being the “university’s expectation that [students] attend” unless there are extenuating circumstances.
“We want all our students to make it to orientation and to have an accessible and equitable experience,” Director of New Student Services Chrissy Roth-Francis remarked in the release.
[RELATED: Kent State offers minorities-only orientation, mentorship]
Troy Warden, president of Berkeley College Republicans, told Campus Reform that “it doesn’t surprise [him] that the university held segregated orientations,” noting that the school actually has “racially ‘themed’ accommodations and residential programs that offer services and perks [he] never received while in student housing.”
In addition to the supplemental orientations based on race, Berkeley also offers similar programming geared toward disabled students, international students, student-athletes, "readmitted" students, and Pell Grant recipients.
Campus Reform reached out to the university, and each organization cited previously, for additional information on the orientation programming, and is currently awaiting responses. Rita Zhang, acting director of Asian Pacific American Student Development, informed Campus Reform that she would respond at a later time due to the time constraints of orientation.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @AGockowskiMulti-Class Feats
Arcane Academic
Prerequisite: Intelligence 13 or higher, level 4 or higher, ability to cast at least one spell
You have studied the magical arts, through which you create a small compilation of spells. This collection takes the form of a six page tome containing a 1st-level wizard spells of your choice on each page.
To use these spells you must prepare each long rest by taking time to study the tome, doing this allows you to temporarily memorize a number of spells equal to your intelligence modifier +1. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability when using these spells because you learned them through dedicated study.
If your spell booklet is lost or destroyed, you may spend 6 hours of work and 60 gp worth of materials to create a new one. When you do this the spells the new tome contains may not replaced with others. The spells learned through this feat do not count against the number of spells you already know, and cannot be changed or switched at a later level. This feature does not grant any additional spell slots.
Arcane Manipulator
Prerequisite: Charisma 14 or higher, level 4 or higher, ability to cast at least one spell
You have awoken inherent magical power within yourself. Through this power you gain the ability to twist your spells to suit your needs giving you the following features:
You gain one option from the Metamagic feature in the Sorcerer class.
You gain a pool of sorcerer points equal to your proficiency +1 which you can use to power your Metamagic option. You regain all spent sorcery points when you finish a long rest.
If you have the Fount of Magic feature from the Sorcerer class, you do not gain any additional sorcerer points with this feature.
Dedicated Enemy
Prerequisite: Dexterity and Wisdom 13 or higher, level 4 or higher
Through your significant experience of studying, tracking, hunting, and even talking to a certain type of enemy. Choose a type of favored enemy: aberrations, beasts, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, giants, monstrosities, oozes, plants, or undead. Alternatively, you can select two races of humanoid (such as gnolls and orcs) as favored enemies.
You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favored enemies, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them. When you gain this feature, you also learn one language of your choice that is spoken by your favored enemies, if they speak one at all.
Divine Channeler
Prerequisite: Wisdom 14 or higher, level 4 or higher, devotion to a deity
Your connection with your deity grants you the ability to call on them for assistance in dire times. You learn to channel divine energy directly from your deity. As an action, you can present your holy symbol and speak a prayer censuring the undead. Each undead that can see or hear you within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes any damage.
A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can’t willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you. It also can’t take reactions. For its action, it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there’s nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action.
Once you have used this feature, you must finish a long rest before you are able to use it again. If you already have the Channel Divinity feature or gain a level in a class that also grants this feature, you gain the Channel Divinity effects granted by that class, but getting the feature again doesn’t give you an additional use of it. You gain additional uses only when you reach a class level that explicitly grants them to you.
Divine Judicator
Prerequisite: Strength and Charisma 14 or higher, level 4 or higher, ability to cast at least one spell
Your devotion to your deity grants you the power to deal out their justice. When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one a spell slot to deal radiant damage to the target, in addition to the weapon’s damage. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d8. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an undead or a fiend.
You can use this feature one time, after which you will need to take a short or long rest before being able to use it again.
Eldritch Seeker
Prerequisite: Charisma 14 or higher, level 4 or higher
You have studied occult lore and have unearthed fragments of forbidden knowledge that imbue you with an abiding magical ability. You gain two options of your choice from the Eldritch Invocations feature in the Warlock class.
You may only choose from those options that do not have a level requirement, and must meet all other requirements. Once gained through this feature your choices may not be switched later. If you already have the Eldritch Invocations feature, you only gain one additional option instead of two.VADODARA: Asia’s biggest milk brand, Amul, has followed BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi to Varanasi. Palanpur-based Banas Dairy, a member the union of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation that markets Amul, will set up a dairy processing plant in the holy city. The plant will initially process five lakh litres per day with the capacity to double the production.Banas Dairy, Asia’s biggest milk union, will invest Rs 200 crore to set up this plant, its chairman Parthi Bhatol told TOI on Wednesday. “We’ve completed the process with UP State Industrial Development Corporation Ltd for land acquisition at Karkhianv industrial area near Varanasi airport,” Bhatol said.Interestingly, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, whose Samajwadi Party professes diametric opposition to Modi, has offered Amul 30 acres land in Varanasi which, in all likelihood, will be represented by the Gujarat CM. In fact, Yadav has helped Amul increase its footprint in UP, which is India’s largest milk producing state, by facilitating land in Kanpur and Lucknow as well, where Banas Dairy has started work to set up dairy plants.After the Akhilesh government invited Amul for dairy development in UP, Banas Dairy also acquired 40 acres land in Kanpur and another 20 acres land in Lucknow to set up dairy processing plants, each with Rs 200 crore investment. Like the Varanasi plant, both Kanpur and Lucknow plants will have the capacity to process five lakh litres per day, expandable to 10 LLPD.“We will start with milk, curd and buttermilk packaging, and later add ice cream and other dairy products,” said Bhatol.Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation MD R S Sodhi said, “Amul is the most preferred milk brand in all milk markets in UP including Varanasi, which consumes 75,000 litres milk per day. Since Banas Dairy began procuring milk locally in UP based on Amul model of co-operatives, farmers in UP are getting better remuneration for their milk.“Although UP is India’s largest milk producing state, the share of organized sector was only one lakh litres milk per day while private players were exploiting the farmers,” said Bhatol.Recently the focus of the election has shifted to John McCain’s “dirty politics” and his inability to tell the truth. Many have begun criticizing him for this (although still not nearly enough), but they’re overlooking his big problem: if McCain starts telling the truth, he will lose.
There is no way to sugar-coat that. John McCain cannot win this election without deceiving the American people into believing his false accusations against Barack Obama. At the beginning of this race, both candidates promised clean campaigns that focused on the issues. Obama has held his promise; McCain hasn’t. Obama has said that McCain would rather lose his integrity than lose this election, and he is absolutely right. John McCain has gone from a man of high integrity, or at least higher than the average politician, to being a sleazy liar who thinks America is dumb enough to believe him.
The only problem for us lies in the fact that he is right. America is dumb enough to believe him. The average voter doesn’t care enough to do research on the facts. They see McCain’s dishonest campaign ads and assume that it’s all true. Usually, the mainstream media has to be the one to call a politician out on their lies, but for some reason, they have chosen to ignore McCain’s smear campaign. This is why I find it hilarious when people complain that the media is liberally biased. They covered McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin negatively because it was a stupid decision. I suppose when the cable news networks were all frantically reporting news of Barack Obama being a secret Muslim, that was a rare moment of fairness and balance, right?
I really don’t like calling America stupid, mostly because I wish it wasn’t the case. But I look at the polls and see that 32% of Americans still think Bush has done a good job, and 12% of voters think Barack Obama is a Muslim… not to mention the number of voters who think being a Muslim is actually a bad thing. (HINT: it’s like Christianity, but you aren’t allowed to draw their Jesus)
Honestly, people, please show McCain that he isn’t going to win this way. If he does, then that is the future we have to look forward to: more politicians winning based on lies that we refuse to call them out on… and it’ll be exactly what we deserve.
AdvertisementsCanadian writer Kelly Oxford called on women to tweet about their first assaults after Republican’s remarks about grabbing women ‘by the pussy’
Thousands of women have shared their experiences of sexual assault and rape culture on Twitter in the wake of Donald Trump’s comments about grabbing women “by the pussy”.
Amid the outrage over Trump’s remarks, Canadian writer Kelly Oxford called on women to tweet about their first assaults, describing the first time she was sexually assaulted, on a bus when she was 12. Oxford went on to describe a total of five sexual assaults.
kelly oxford (@kellyoxford) Women: tweet me your first assaults. they aren't just stats. I'll go first:
Old man on city bus grabs my "pussy" and smiles at me, I'm 12.
The response to her tweet was overwhelming, with Oxford saying she was received replies at the rate of 50 per minute for 14 hours. “Anyone denying rape culture,” she wrote, “look at my timeline now.”
kelly oxford (@kellyoxford) I posted my assault, asked women to share theirs, thinking "if no one discusses I'll pull it down." 9.7million later pic.twitter.com/h1y7iIiU7M
Many of the attacks took place when the women involved were minors.
Rachelle Lefevre (@RachelleLefevre) @kellyoxford 35yr old hairdresser offers 2 drive me home. Shoves his tongue down my throat. I'm 15. He'd been cutting my hair since I was 9.
Helen Austin (@helenaustin) @kellyoxford #1 10 years old gymnastics coach grabbed me by the 'pussy'.
Solange (@ihrtreid) @kellyoxford my 1st is similar to yours. Old man on city bus grabbed my pussy. I was 8 and my parents were sitting two rows behind me.
The stories, which can be viewed on her timeline, included a litany of all kinds of sexual abuse suffered by women, including rape.
Monica (@MsMonica_E) @kellyoxford During my 2nd month in the military a supervisor raped me n my barracks room (the day before Thanksgiving). I was 19 years old.
Oxford said the volume of the responses had left her in “horrendous shock” and called on Americans not to ignore their testimony.
kelly oxford (@kellyoxford) 3 hours ago I asked women to tweet me about their sexual assault & rape. 3 hours later, new women sharing- every second #notokay
kelly oxford (@kellyoxford) I am in such horrendous shock and yet so proud of the women sharing their assaults. #notokay is trending in US. Not our shame anymore ❤️
kelly oxford (@kellyoxford) women have tweeted me sexual assault stories for 14 hours straight. Minimum 50 per minute. harrowing. do not ignore. #notokay
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Hotlines in other countries can be found here.Republican Rep. Peter King, responding to the rush-hour explosion near New York City’s Port Authority bus terminal, called Monday for more vetting and surveillance to help prevent attacks.
“We can’t afford to be politically correct,” the New York congressman told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”
One person was in custody Monday morning following the blast that prompted mass chaos and halted multiple subway lines, the NYPD said.
The person arrested has non-life threatening injuries, The Associated Press reported. Four people suffered minor injuries, the FDNY said, though it's unclear if the attacker was included among them.
Former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton told MSNBC his sources in the department said the explosion was an "ISIS-inspired attack." Bratton said the suspect was a man from Bangladesh who had been living in the U.S. for about seven years.
King, who has long advocated for tough policies when it comes to surveillance in New York City and beyond, said many people could have been killed if the explosive had detonated in a subway car.
“We’re always that close to a disaster,” he said.
King said authorities will now have to look into whether this was part of a coordinated effort, saying “this has all the … hallmarks” of either being controlled or inspired by ISIS.
President Trump has been briefed on the attack.
The National Counterterrorism Center, meanwhile, is monitoring the situation in New York City.Who Regulates Oklahoma Pipelines? No One, Until They’re Built or Broken
Joe Wertz Bio Recent Stories Joe Wertz is a senior reporter and managing editor at StateImpact Oklahoma. He reports regularly on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets, and serves as president-elect of Freedom of Information Oklahoma, an open records and government transparency nonprofit. Previously, he worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers. He lives in Oklahoma City, and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.
Joe Wertz / StateImpact Oklahoma
Landowners in Major County who depend on aquifer water say a planned crude oil pipeline threatens the Cimarron Aquifer — their primary water source.
Rural homeowners use well water from the aquifer, which also feeds nearby towns and comprises about 87 percent of nearby Enid’s permitted water production.
Oklahomans in the area are puzzled about the Glass Mountain Pipeline route, the Enid News & Eagle‘s James Neal reports:
Landowners, conservationists and Cimarron Aquifer consumers may wonder why any regulatory agency would approve a pipeline route through the “heart of our aquifer.”
But no state or federal agency or entity has authority over Oklahoma pipeline projects until construction has started, or until there’s a problem — like a leak.
The biggest pipeline project in Oklahoma, the Keystone XL pipeline, is up against federal regulation because it crosses the international border with Canada. The State Department, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers all have a say in various stages of that crude oil pipeline, which passes through the Cushing storage hub on its way from Canada’s oil sands to refineries along Texas’ Gulf Coast.
But intrastate pipeline projects — like the Glass Mountain Pipeline — aren’t regulated until construction has started, or until there’s an environmental problem.
The Glass Mountain Pipeline — a joint venture of Chesapeake Energy, Tulsa’s SemGroup and Gavilon — is a 210-mile pipeline that will carry crude from Arnett and Alva to the Cushing storage hub. The Arnett and Alva pipeline segments will join near Cleo Springs, which sits atop the Cimarron River Aquifer.
The pipeline project was announced in May. The Arnett and Alva pipeline segments are expected to carry about 90,000 barrels of crude each day. The combined pipeline will have a 180,000 barrel-per-day capacity.
All About the Route
But when it comes to pipelines, route is everything.
Keystone XL was waylaid by environmental concerns in Nebraska, where it was originally planned to cross the ecologically sensitive Sand Hills and parts of the Ogallala Aquifer. The company behind the pipeline, TransCanada, had to reroute Keystone XL, which had become a presidential campaign issue.
Keystone XL has faced other routing issues, including fights with Oklahoma and Texas landowners over eminent domain, and concern among tribal leaders that construction could unearth unmarked graves or expose sacred archeological sites.
But route alone isn’t enough for a pipeline project to be regulated.
Oklahoma’s Corporation Commission, which regulates oil and gas drilling, doesn’t have any authority in the early stages of pipeline construction, the Eagle reports:
Once the pipeline is built, we make sure the line is operated properly and meets material safety rules … but we don’t have much to do with it until it’s built,” said Matt Skinner, spokesman for Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
Related Topics The Economic and Environmental Impact of the Keystone XL Pipeline
What about the state Department of Environmental Quality?
… DEQ only becomes involved with pipelines if there is a spill, and then only in a support role to the corporation commission.
Since the aquifer is a primary concern among landowners in Glass Mountain’s path, maybe the Oklahoma Water Resources Board?
Brian Vance, director of information for Oklahoma Water Resources Board, said OWRB has no authority over pipeline routes or their potential impact to groundwater.
On the federal level, representatives from both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission tell the Eagle they have no authority over a private pipeline project that doesn’t cross state lines. And no representative from any state or federal agency could think of any other state or federal agency with authority over a project like Glass Mountain, Neal writes.This is Tan Boon Wah's second jail sentence for stalking the same victim.
SINGAPORE: The day he was released from prison for stalking his ex-boyfriend, Tan Boon Wah turned up at his doorstep, ringing the doorbell and loitering around the area in an attempt to make contact again. The victim called the police, and he was subsequently arrested.
Tan was on Wednesday (May 17) jailed nine months for unlawfully stalking the victim on at least two occasions from October to December 2016, after his release from prison on Oct 1. He had already been sentenced to six months’ jail in August last year for unlawfully stalking his ex-boyfriend for a year, in what prosecutors called a “suffocating” intrusion into the victim’s life.
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Tan harassed his former boyfriend, then a 22-year-old full-time National Serviceman, every day from May 2015 until May 2016:
Every morning at 6am, Tan would loiter outside the victim’s flat, waiting for him to leave the house at 7.30am. He would also try to make conversation with him. The victim’s father was forced to escort his son out of the house every morning, and suffered “anger issues” due to daily confrontations with Tan, prosecutors said.
Every evening at about 5pm, Tan would wait outside the victim’s army camp at Jurong to confront him again.
Then, every evening, Tan would return to loiter outside the victim’s flat to wait for him to come home. He would confront him again, and remain outside until about 11pm or until the lights in the unit were turned off for the night. The victim’s mother became paranoid and had difficulty sleeping, worried that Tan remained outside her home and could eavesdrop on the family’s conversations. The family installed a CCTV camera outside their flat.
"I WON'T GIVE UP... NOT EVEN IF I'M THROWN IN JAIL"
When he was not physically stalking the victim, Tan harassed him via email or would call him incessantly. In one day, the victim received up to 1,408 calls from Tan.
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In an email to the victim on Aug 18, 2015, Tan said: “I’m sure u’ll be tired out by this soon. But I won’t ever give up trying to find u … not in this life. Not even if I get thrown into jail. I’d rather be dead … than to give up trying to look for u or trying to be friends with u. (You’re) gonna be stuck with dealing with me for life.”
In a separate email on Feb 29, 2016, Tan sent the victim two nude photographs he had taken of him, without his consent, during their relationship. Tan wanted to blackmail the victim and force him to reply to his emails.
The victim lodged a total of 22 police reports in the year he was stalked by Tan.
He also changed his phone number repeatedly and subscribed to a second phone line in attempts to shake Tan off, but was unsuccessful. This was because Tan called Singtel to ask for the victim’s new phone number, and got it when he provided the latter’s NRIC number and other personal particulars.
For this, Tan faced a charged under the Personal Data Protection Act.
AN "OMINOUS" WARNING
He was finally arrested on Mar 30, 2016. and remanded at the Institute of Mental Health. Psychiatrist Dr Stephen Phang said Tan was fit to plead and not of unsound mind.
The psychiatrist’s report also contained a warning: “It is manifestly apparent that (Tan’s) recurrent attempts to contact and communicate with the alleged victim, as well as his self-declared admission that he would seek out the other party (immediately upon his release) … should necessarily be regarded in a somewhat ominous light, as the possibility of future harm to the other party cannot be safely excluded.”
The psychiatrist was proven right.
COME TO YOUR SENSES, ACCEPT COUNSELLING: JUDGE
Upon his release from prison on Oct 1, Tan went straight to his ex’s flat. The man called the police, who told Tan to leave. But he refused, and when he was spotted still loitering in the area nearly two hours later, the victim called the police again. Tan was arrested.
Out on bail, Tan continued to harass his ex-boyfriend of four years by loitering outside his flat, ringing the doorbell and following him each time he left the house, pestering the victim to unblock him on social media.
Tan was arrested again on Dec 8. Denied bail, he spent Christmas in jail. In January 2017, after he had been released on bail, Tan posted links to videos of the victim on an online forum, also commenting publicly about his ongoing case.
In court on Wednesday, District Judge Kenneth Yap said it is “clear” Tan is not remorseful. He pointed to a letter Tan submitted to the court, in which he stated his desire to see the victim again. “You are clearly not getting the message,” Judge Yap said. He made Tan promise “never to see the victim or bother him again”.
After a moment’s pause, Tan grudgingly replied: “I will undertake that.”
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jason Chua called for a nine-month jail term, saying Tan’s previous six-month term did nothing to deter him.
Judge Yap agreed, but urged DPP Chua to make arrangements with the prison service to provide counselling to Tan. “This is the best way to solve the issue”, the judge said. He told Tan to “come to your senses. Relationships start and relationships end. If you don’t face the truth, you will cause yourself, and the victim, greater damage”.
The judge also ordered Tan to serve the remaining 60 days of his previous six-month stint, making a total jail term of nine months and 60 days.
The victim was present in court, and seen leaving in a huff after Tan was sentenced.
For each charge of unlawful stalking, Tan could have been jailed up to two years and/or fined up to S$10,000.Mother, Should I Trust the Government?
Let’s start by getting a few things out of the way. I think the birthers are nuts, and the “death panel” nonsense is just that–nonsense on stil |
—a server that accepts “export-grade” encryption.
Servers
Servers that accept RSA_EXPORT cipher suites put their users at risk from the FREAK attack. Using Internet-wide scanning, we have been performing daily tests of all HTTPS servers at public IP addresses to determine whether they allow this weakened encryption. More than a third of all servers with browser-trusted certificates are at risk.
Currently Vulnerable Change Since Mar. 3 HTTPS servers at Alexa Top 1 Million domain names 8.5% down from 9.6% HTTPS servers with browser-trusted certificates 6.5% down from 36.7% All HTTPS servers 11.8% down from 26.3%
You can test servers using the SSL FREAK Check tool or the Qualys SSL Labs’ SSL Server Test, which can also identify other security problems.
Clients
Update (Mar. 5): Browsers are vulnerable to the FREAK attack because of bugs that allow an attacker to force them to use weak, export-grade encryption. One example is the OpenSSL bug described in CVE-2015-0204, but some other TLS libraries have similar problems. Far more browsers are vulnerable to the FREAK attack than was initially thought when the attack was announced, including:
Vulnerable Browser Status Internet Explorer Patch available now — Security advisory Chrome on Mac OS Patch available now Chrome on Android Patch available now Safari on Mac OS Patch available now Safari on iOS iOS 8 Patch available now Stock Android Browser Patch available now Blackberry Browser Opera on Mac OS Patch available now
Chrome for Windows and all modern versions of Firefox are known to be safe. However, even if your browser is safe, certain third-party software, including some anti-virus products and adware programs, can expose you to the attack by intercepting TLS connections from the browser. If you are using a safe browser but our client test says you’re vulnerable, this is a likely cause. You can check whether your browser is vulnerable using the Qualys SSL Client Test.
In addition to browsers, many mobile apps, embedded systems, and other software products also use TLS. These are also potentially vulnerable if they rely on unpatched libraries or offer RSA_EXPORT cipher suites.
What should I do?
If you run a server …
You should immediately disable support for TLS export cipher suites. While you’re at it, you should also disable other cipher suites that are known to be insecure and enable forward secrecy. For instructions on how to secure popular HTTPS server software, we recommend Mozilla’s security configuration guide and their SSL configuration generator. We also recommend testing your configuration with the Qualys SSL Labs SSL Server Test tool.
If you use a browser …
Make sure you have the most recent version of your browser installed, and check for updates frequently. Updates that fix the FREAK attack should be available for all major browsers soon.
If you’re a sysadmin or developer …A couple of guys just hangin' out.
Two important developments in the World of Men this week:
1. A group of scholars, led by a man with the almost suspiciously masculine name of Lionel Tiger, established a new discipline of gender studies: Male Studies. Male Studies differs from the already existing discipline of Men's Studies in that it is devoted to studying the "male as male," as opposed to the "male as Easter Bunny" or whatever Men's Studies is passing off as scholarly research nowadays. Also, Male Studies really fucking resents Women's Studies. Cage match, anyone?
2. Sady Doyle of Tiger Beatdown, the preeminent scholar in the field of Lady Business Studies, invited some men to talk about their experiences for once. Sady's Visions of Manliness series (see A, B, and C) has addressed stuff like the simultaneous marginalization and privilege of trans men, ironically homophobic sports blogging, and how deeply Valentine's Day truly blows. Strangely, none of the posts are about how feminists have stolen their male identity, trampled upon their masculine phenomenon, and overall been super mean. In other words, this is total Men's Studies shit.
In this edition of Sexist Beatdown, Sady and I YELL ABOUT THESE THINGS AND ALSO bell hooks SO JOIN US!
SADY: hello, Fellow Lady Person!
AMANDA: Why hello! I am prepared to speak about the experiences of... Men People.
SADY: About which I know, I will tell you, not a whole lot! Like, I have known Men People throughout my lifetime. Sometimes in the sense that they are related to me! Or friends! Or I have known them BIBLICALLY! But also, like, pursuant to the Liz Lemonism critique of Times Past, I feel like I am privileged in 99% of the ways that people can be privileged on this our planet Earth. And it frustrates me — and has been a schism in The Feminist History — that, as a lady who is so very fucking privileged, I'm allowed to concentrate so much on my own Oppression By The Man and not notice that some of The Men are going through their own bullshit.
AMANDA: Right. In the Oppression Olympics, I would not qualify for the finals. I would be disqualified in the first heat. I also am really no good with sports metaphors!
SADY: Well, The Man has staked his claim in those. BASICALLY WE NEED TO TAKE THE QUARTERBACK OF DISCOURSE TO THE GOAL NET OF DISCUSSION TO SCORE A HOME RUN HAT TRICK OF ANTI-OPPRESSION THEORY! Is my understanding.
AMANDA: I plan on blaming all of my deficiencies in forming metaphors, drawing conclusions, and overall making sense on my Oppression today. For the record.
SADY: I intuitively understand you, due to my woman's intuition. But, like, this is a long-standing Beef within the feminist community, in fact. Like, bell hooks covered it along with approximately everybody else.
AMANDA: Yeah, I mean, a distinction must be made between men and The Man.
SADY: Right. We oversimplify. And a ton of feminists have needed to clarify that "when we say'men,' we mean the Platonic ideal of'men!' The way'men' are encouraged to behave and act and such!" And as a person who types the words 'dudes' and'men' a lot, I am sympathetic. Because we DO need a word to denote all that junk. But, to revisit bell hooks for JUST A SECOND, here is how that works out in practice: Some white feminist ladies walk up to some ladies of color, and are like "join the cause, sister!" And the ladies of color are like, "sure, I've experienced sexism, let's go. On the way, can we talk about how you white ladies are enacting some bullshit that hurts me and also the men in my community?" And then the white ladies are like, "YOU ARE SO MALE-IDENTIFIED. WHY CAN'T YOU JOIN OUR GLORIOUS SISTERHOOD AND IDENTIFY AS A WOMAN FIRST."
AMANDA: Allow me to flip that dynamic around for a second, as I think the distinction between "Men's Studies" and the totally brand new discipline of "Male Studies" helps to illustrate that point. So, "Male Studies" just had its first conference on Wednesday, to declare "Male Studies" a thing, even though "Men's Studies" already exists and is welcoming of all who study men and masculinity. And the reason "Male Studies" has decided to branch off from "Men's Studies" is that Men's studies thinks too much about Women's Studies.
SADY: Oh, dear.
AMANDA: When there is just no reason to segregate these two studies, of course.
SADY: Well, unless you want to teach an entire seminar on barbecue grilling!
AMANDA: And I think feminism suffers from the impulse to segregate the experiences of people and treat our cultural systems (patriarchy, masculinity, femininity, race, class) as separate fields, and I think my work often suffers from that distinction, actually.
SADY: Well, I mean, to be honest, mine does, too. Mostly due to my vast narcissism, and the fact that I write mostly about my own experiences!
AMANDA: Right.
SADY: You could run over my foot with a shopping cart at the Costco, and I'd write this very ideological post that was like, "SHOPPING CART PRIVILEGE: Does It Lead You To Run Over My Foot, and Are You A Monster? Yes."
AMANDA: But it's a very tricky thing to attempt to write about the experiences of others, and that's why your masculinity series is so great! TIGER BEATDOWN PLUG!
SADY: Which is why I try to bring other people into the discussion.
AMANDA: But what about, in addition to bringing in these voices, also writing about issues that don't directly affect us and which we can't talk about from personal experience? I think it's important to do that too, but I think it's a lot trickier.
SADY: Right. And also, you have to be open to getting yelled at! Is my experience!
AMANDA: Agreed!
SADY: Because there's a big difference between "speaking about these things that do not affect me directly" and "speaking FOR these people who are having these experiences because I am A GENIUS and get your experience way better than you do." But, like, it is easy to cross the line?
AMANDA: Yeah. It is. And that's where the productive yelling comes in.
SADY: So you have to be a good listener, ESPECIALLY when people are yelling.
AMANDA: But, so, then I also sometimes get yelled at if I write about how something affects men? I get the "O but what about the menz!!!!!" comments. I don't know why it's written like an Internet cat is saying it, but it is. Even though I write about women a whole lot!
SADY: They are all basically internet cats, those dudes, though. Like, if you write a post about Vajazzling, to use a totally fictional example, and people are like, "did you know some dudes get CIRCUMSIZED??? Monstrous! Your vagina post has inspired me to talk about the ill fates of penises, instead, and at length!' Like, at a certain point, the "WHAT ABOUT ME" posts from dudes are just blatantly obnoxious, and blatantly intended to keep women from writing about their OWN experiences of manliness, ill or well.
AMANDA: Yeah. I have a good friend who is hurt that I don't write on the expectations on men to move furniture for girls.
SADY: OH MY GOD. OPPRESSION! I too am disappointed that you have not covered this topic Amanda! Also: Being asked to open pickle jars. WORSE THAN DEATH???
AMANDA: Well I'm waiting to roll out my big investigative series. On the possible lingering lower back problems.
SADY: "Once I Had To Carry Your Books Up Some Stairs: A Post About Traumatic Experiences, By A Dude."
AMANDA: But, I write about a lot of really minor shit that women are expected to do and about how these very little things are reminders of society's expectations of men and women. And a lot of times men get really pissed when I do that, too! For it is annoying to be forced to think about. SADY: Right. I mean, here's the thing: I'm a lady who gets called out on my privilege. A lot. As I see it, my job description is: Write about lady stuff, try to remember not all ladies have exactly the same life as I do, listen when ladies with different lives are like "uh, you missed something." So the plague of dudes on the Internet who are like, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN LADIES EXPERIENCE THINGS DIFFERENTLY THAN I DO, SOMETIMES NOT WELL?!???!" Like: I try to listen to people EVERY SINGLE DAY, dude, and I haven't actually had an aneurysm and died yet, so maybe it's not actually that fucking hard. You know? The Internet is not a thousand little knives stabbing you in the face. The Internet is some people talking. In conclusion, calm down.
AMANDA: Yeah. And that's when things get tough, for me, when we start talking about the experiences of men like that. Because it's so obvious how our culture is constructed to make guys like that never have to—-and to actually avoid—-listening to a woman's experience, just as it's constructed to help white people avoid listening to anyone else, and straight people, and cis people, &c.
SADY: Yeah. But then you have things like "Male Studies," where "The male as male will be permitted to appear in all his complexity as new values are being forged and traditional values that have proven the test of time are affirmed."
SADY: And I get the feeling those traditional values that have proven the test of time kind of involve OPPRESSING THE VAST MAJORITY OF MALES???
AMANDA: Yes. And that traditional man has always been permitted to appear. It's all the other men who haven't. But Male Studies cuts them out of the picture when it devotes itself to "males as males," as if we're only talking about one very clearly defined and biologically determined type of person. SADY: Right. Because "the male as male" means cisgendered. It means straight. It means white. It means, like, a lot of shit! Actually! As it is commonly employed! Everybody else, if they can even get recognized as dudes, is treated in the discourse as, "well, okay, you're a dude. But a SUBSET of dude. We have trouble imagining you as a character on 'Mad Men,' so, like, clearly you're not a part of the glorious history of The Male As Male to the same extent." But here's the thing. The ominous thing that I always phrase in a manner that brings to mind, like, the James Cameron movie 'Aliens.'
AMANDA: Okay. SADY: All of those dudes excluded from the discourse of Traditional Old-Fashioned-Swilling Wife-Cheating-On Empowered Non-Chest-Waxing Masculinity? And all of the ladies? Add it up. THERE ARE MORE OF US than there are of anyone else. Which is why we need to start fucking talking to each other more.
AMANDA: This reminds me more of that Beyonce song than Aliens, but I see what you're getting at.
SADY: Like, if we start looking at "masculinity" as this very exclusive concept that has all of these other concepts and privileges packed into it, then we get to my I Went To Liberal Arts College And Have Simplistic Ideas Place where, like... we can create a discourse without you, substantially, Ultimately Privileged People. If we can get over our own bullshit and have each others' backs, we can do a lot. And maybe this conversation needs to take place on THOSE terms. Provided you're okay with getting yelled at when you fuck it up. Also, I have had three beers, because it's hot. THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE SOBER!
AMANDA: NO IT WILL NOT. And I will fight to the death for men to gain the right to drink as much as women do without being labeled irresponsible sluts who deserve whatever is coming to them.
SADY: Yes! Also, that person who ran over my foot in the Costco: A MONSTER. I think we need to centralize this issue. Because that hurt.
AMANDA: Kumbayah!
Photo via George Eastman HouseThe telecommunications workers' union wants a government inquiry into claims of workers being exploited during the ultra fast broadband roll out.
Photo: RNZ
Stories are emerging of workers - hired by firms subcontracted by Chorus service partners -being under-paid and performing tasks they were not trained for.
It followed recent reports that some workers have been unlawfully used as volunteers.
Crown Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has contracted Chorus to build part of the Ultra-fast Broadband Network across New Zealand, the $1.7 billion programme to provide better, faster internet to homes around New Zealand set up by the previous government.
The new Minister for Communications, Clare Curran, said she was aware that CIP had sent a cease and desist letter to all its contractors about inappropriate use of volunteer labour.
Former fibre technician Wilem Brown, 24, quit his $12-an-hour job in August after a year.
He had been told the difference compared to the minimum wage, which was increased to $15.75 an hour in April - would go towards training.
"In the whole year I worked there, I did not ever get any training courses or anything like that. I was just told to 'do it', pretty much," Mr Brown said.
He was employed by a company called Frontier Communications, which was subcontracted by Chorus partner Visionstream, an Australian firm.
Frontier Communications is listed as a wireless communication service, registered in December 2015. One of its two directors had his contract terminated in November 2016.
Mr Brown said he took up the role through Work and Income because he wanted a change after being a passport officer with the Department of Internal Affairs.
He said he assumed he would be trained, but ended up digging up roads and connecting fibre cables to peoples' houses.
"You should be certified to handle certain things, but um, yeah... I just had to use my wits to get around it.
"That's the thing - I know what to do but I'm not too sure about the certifications I'm supposed to have to do it."
Kay Read, from the Ministry of Social Development, said clients were only referred to employers whose job offers were legitimate and suitable to the individual client, and where the contract terms and conditions met employment legislation.
However, Mr Brown said his employment contract differed from what he actually ended up doing.
He raised his concerns with the employment tribunal, but left the job before there was any formal resolution.
Joe Gallagher of E tū union said workers were being exploited, and tasks were being poorly handled by a delivery model that placed Chorus too far from the coalface.
He said Mr Brown's experience was fairly typical.
"Well, how the set up works is Chorus has awarded the contract to Visionstream as a primary contractor.
"Visionstream runs a dependent contractor model - which means they then go out and look for guys and a van and they essentially set up their own business - then generally what happens, they look for guys to work for them."
Mr Gallagher said the union wanted an inquiry into how the model has been allowed to evolve.
He said it fell short on many fronts, including how use of voluntary labour is interpreted.
A letter sent to all delivery partners in September said volunteering could only be used for observers or trainees, but not in any way that generated economic benefit.
Ms Curran said CIP would support any investigation by the Labour Inspectorate into the alleged practices, which was the right approach.
"The use of voluntary labour in this way is completely unacceptable, and anyone operating a business in this country should be complying with relevant employment laws and standards," she said.
Chorus said it was working hard with all its service companies and their sub-contractors to constantly improve performance. Spokesman Nathan Beaumont said it had made clear that service companies must comply with New Zealand employment law.
"If individuals do have issues with their employment agreements then they should go directly to their employer, but of course, we would be happy to look into any complaints as soon as we're made aware of them, as we did with the use of volunteers in Nelson."
Mr Beaumont said Chorus conceded there was always more to do to ensure the culture was good right across the board.
"Chorus has thousands of people working out in the field rolling out the fibre programme and we are confident this complaint is not reflective of the wider industry.
"However, we are constantly refining our framework for working with our contractors to ensure the best outcomes that we can."
MSD said clients should consider the conditions for employment before accepting a role including appropriate hours of employment, access to childcare facilities, family and religious commitments, required skills, location of the job, and wages.Well, I was wrong. I thought AMD may actually send the Limited Edition of Radeon RX Vega 64 to reviewers, but apparently, the only thing that was limited was the budget on marketing.
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Review Sample
TechGage posted the first unboxing of their Vega sample, which arrived this morning. We have actually seen this packaging before, it’s the same one we saw during LinusTechTips unboxing. The only difference was the card design and Holocube. Reviewers did get a crystal square with Vega logo, but it’s far from what Holocube has to offer (allegedly).
The card they received is a reference, blower-type black design similar to Radeon RX 480’s, just a longer design.
The packaging also includes a Vega chip GPU (broken chip), two stickers, Vega wristband and a manual.
One more thing, it appears that there is no Vega 64 logo on the box. So maybe it was a last minute decision while the boxes were already made?
The good news is that you don’t have to wait much longer, AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 reviews will go live on Monday, August 14th.
Source: TechGage
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There will always be people out there picking weird names for their kids, but when you look at the choices that make their way to the top you'll see that Americans tend to play it safe. The maps above, based on data from the Social Security Administration, show the most popular baby names for girls by state, for babies born from 1960 through 2012, with the colors representing the most popular single name for that year.
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Baby naming generally follows a consistent cycle: A name springs up in some region of the U.S.—"Ashley" in the South, "Emily" in the Northeast—sweeps over the country, and falls out of favor nearly as quickly. The big exception to these baby booms and busts is "Jennifer", which absolutely dominates America for a decade-and-a-half. If you're named Jennifer and you were born between 1970 and 1984, don't worry! I'm sure you have a totally cool, unique middle name.
Notably, the recession seems to have put a temporary damper on creative baby naming. In 2007, eight different baby names made the map—including less-traditional names like Addison, Ava, and Madison—and all carried at least two states. By 2012 the map has just five names, and 47 states went with either "Sophia" or "Emma." A yearning for simpler times?
For your perusing pleasure, here are the maps for each year:
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AdvertisementDOJ Redefines Separation Of Powers, Tells Court It Has No Power To Order Government To Hand Over Documents
from the stand-by-for-OLC-memo-justifying-destruction-of-First-Amendment... dept
The US government is comprised of three branches: legislative, judicial and executive. The branches are supposed to work to balance the government, with each one acting as a check against excesses by the others. As a theory, it's impeccable. In practice, it's a mess.
At a hearing today on a lawsuit seeking to make videotapes of force-feedings at Guantánamo public, Justice Department attorneys argued that the courts cannot order evidence used in trial to be unsealed if it has been classified by the government. “We don’t think there is a First Amendment right to classified documents,” stated Justice Department lawyer Catherine Dorsey.
“Your position is that the court has absolutely no authority (to order disclosure), even if the government is irrational?” [Judge Merrick] Garland asked, pointedly raising a scenario in which the government classifies a copy of the Gettysburg Address.
Chief Judge Merrick Garland characterized the government’s position as tantamount to claiming the court “has absolutely no authority” to unseal evidence even if it’s clear the government’s bid to keep it secret is based on “irrationality” or that it’s “hiding something.”
“That is our position,” Dorsey agreed.
She added that a more appropriate tool to compel the release of the videos was through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The judges, of course, reserve the right to tell the DOJ it's full of crap. It hasn't yet, but that may be coming. It did, however, get off a shot of its own in response The information being argued over is recordings of Guantanamo Bay detainees being force-fed. These were ordered to be released last October by District Judge Gladys Kessler, who granted a stay while it was appealed.In the arguments presented here, the government claims to be the sole arbiter of any information it deems classified -- something that's only going to lead toclassification andsecrecy. Judge Garland pressed the US attorney on this disturbing claim and found the government was saying exactly what he thought it was saying.Dorsey did, however, point out an option that didn't include the judicial system. (Well, at least not immediately …)Hilarious.The government is trying to prevent these videos from being released, citing national security concerns. Does anyone actually feel a FOIA request will result in anything more than a rejection on the same grounds? And when it happens, the FOIA request refusal will eventually end up in court… where the government's "right" to declare information too secret to be released will still keep these recordings out of the public's hands.The executive branch's position is clear: it feels it should have sole control over the release of classified documents. The courts are welcome to ensure its assertions remain unchallenged, but in no way is it invited to second guess its secrecy efforts, or the motivations behind them.
Filed Under: classification, classified, first amendment, judicial system, olc, separation of powersShare. Learn about secrets and tricks for Super Mario 3D World and Kirby Triple Deluxe. Learn about secrets and tricks for Super Mario 3D World and Kirby Triple Deluxe.
Nintendo revealed today a new video series for the eShop based off Cat Mario and Cat Peach from Super Mario 3D World.
Called The Cat Mario Show, the free video series is a puppet show that features tips and tricks for Nintendo's youngest fans. The first episode — available now on the European eShop for Wii U and 3DS — has Cat Mario and Cat Peach showing secrets in Super Mario 3D World, as well as detailing strategies to become the best at Kirby Triple Deluxe.
There's plans to release more Cat Mario Show episodes over time, helping young Nintendo fans become better at some of their favorite games on Wii U and 3DS. While the series is only available in Europe at this time, a North American release — as well as other territories — is most likely not far off.
Exit Theatre Mode
Evan Campbell is a freelance news writer who streams games on his Twitch channel, talks about Nintendo weekly on the NF Show, and chats about movies and TV series on Twitter.CHARLOTTE, NC—During his speech Wednesday evening at the Democratic National Convention in downtown Charlotte, former U.S. president Bill Clinton finally just unzipped his fly and showed the entire country his penis.
Sources at the convention told reporters that shortly after stepping onstage at the Time Warner Cable Arena, the 42nd president of the United States quieted the audience’s extended standing ovation with his raised hands and began to speak loudly and confidently.
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“My fellow Americans, for the past 20 years you have all, at various points, talked and thought about my penis, or at least heard direct or indirect references to my penis in news reports, in court records, or in the culture at large,” the former commander in chief said. “My penis has, in a sense, been a central part of American life for the better part of two decades. And yet, the nation has never seen it. Tonight, I’d like to finally change that.”
“So should we just get this over with then?” the president asked the 20,000-member audience, as well as millions watching the nationwide telecast. “Should I show you my penis?”
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Immediately after Clinton asked this question, there was reportedly a brief pause, after which a few murmured consents of approval were audible in the crowd, as well as a number of voices clearly shouting “okay” and “sure.”
Sources said the sounds of convention attendees shifting in their seats could then be heard as the president stepped forward to the end of the stage.
“Okay, I’m going to show you my penis now,” said the former president, his hand reaching for his pants zipper as a dead quiet fell over the arena. “Wow. You know, it’s funny, now that it’s finally happening, I actually feel a little nervous. I think it’s good that I’m doing it, but still… Okay, here goes.”
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Clinton then slowly unzipped his fly, gingerly reached inside his pants, and retrieved his flaccid penis, which he proceeded to let hang out in the open in clear view.
“There’s my penis,” the nation’s former chief executive said on live television. “There he is.”
“I’m just going to leave it out for a while so everybody can get a good look,” added Clinton, turning his waist from side to side in order to give everyone in the audience an optimal view. “Can everyone in the back see okay? Make sure the cameras here in the front can get a good close-up of my penis.”
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After a full five minutes of standing silently with his penis in full view as cameras flashed all around him, the president carefully tucked his penis back into his pants, zipped up his fly, smiled, told the audience, “Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America,” and walked off stage.
When reached for comment on the speech, President Obama told reporters, “We are glad to have President Clinton’s support.”Quarterback Alex Smith, according to a league source, is considering changing agents. Tom Condon has been Smith’s agent since he was the top overall selection in 2005, and has done several contracts with the 49ers for Smith.
But Condon is also the agent for Peyton Manning, the player the 49ers are now courting. Thus, it makes sense for Smith to seek different representation because of the obvious conflict of interest. The 49ers are one of three teams Manning is considering along with the Broncos and Titans.
Reportedly, 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman traveled to North Carolina Tuesday to work out Manning. Subsequently, team doctors have checked out Manning, who has undergone four neck surgeries.
Manning would demand a huge contract and Denver reportedly is offering a five-year, $90 million deal. Denver and Tennessee both have far more room under the cap than San Francisco, however, the 49ers have plenty of cap space to make a legitimate offer to Manning.
Also, according to a league source, the 49ers have offered Smith a three-year, $24 million deal that Smith is currently weighing. A call to Smith was not immediately returned.
No one is quite sure why the 49ers became suddenly interested in Manning after general manager Trent Baalke said signing Manning had not even been discussed internally as of two weeks ago. Some speculate that the interest in Manning is a tactic to get Smith to accept their offer.
Manning is expected to make a decision on where he will sign early next week.Montes de Maria, Colombia - Mayerlis Angarita is convinced she was born with a rebellious streak.
As a 15-year-old in the mid 1990s, she watched as clashes between rebel fighters, paramilitaries and the Colombian army swept in violent waves through Montes de Maria, the northern region where she lived with her family.
When hundreds of people marched through the streets, burning tyres, blocking roads and confronting the police with stones in protest at the warring groups, Mayerlis was among them.
"The guerrillas attacked us because they said we aided the paramilitary, the paramilitary attacked us because they said we aided the guerrillas, and the government was suspicious of us because they believed anyone speaking up was a left-leaning extremist," she says.
She was growing up in one of the regions most affected by the decades-long civil war - and its violence had exacted a heavy and deeply personal toll on her.
Disappeared
Mayerlis' mother, or Mami, as she called her, was her best friend. A loner at school, Mayerlis always looked forward to the end of the day and to her mother's meticulously prepared home-cooked meals. She wasn't the only person who appreciated them: Mami would also cook large quantities of food for homeless people.
Then, one day, Mayerlis' mother set off to visit her sister in a nearby city as she often did.
When she failed to return, the family's anxiety grew. Days passed with no word until Mayerlis' aunt called. Some men "took [her] away in a big car", she told them, soon after she had set off to feed a group of homeless people.
Her mother's kidnapping is one of the thousands of still unresolved disappearances. Mayerlis suspects paramilitary forces, who were engaged in a process of social cleansing that included trying to rid the area of its homeless, were responsible.
Her father feared that they would come for his children next, so he moved them closer to his wife's relatives.
Mayerlis suddenly found herself living in a faraway town, sleeping on a mattress on the floor of a small, dirty room with her father and two siblings. She was living in poverty, unable to attend school and haunted by questions about what had become of her mother.
The loss of her own mother inspired her to fight for justice for the other victims of the war.
She's now 35, and her work takes the form of what she calls "peaceful feminism". It is an ideology that permeates the women's organisation - one of the most prominent in Colombia - that she runs.
The massacre of El Salado
Lying between the mountains of Montes de Maria, El Salado was once a town of around 7,000 people. By the mid-1990s, it had become a refuge for guerrilla leaders. Its fertile land attracted the FARC, the country's oldest and largest Marxist-leaning rebel group, who later began a campaign of intimidation against residents of the area.
READ MORE: Juan Manuel Santos, 'I want peace'
Meanwhile, in the nearby regions of Magdalena and Antioquia, the United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group, was tightening its grip. Tracing its roots to powerful drug cartels, such as the Medellin Cartel under the leadership of Pablo Escobar, the group forged alliances with rich landowners, cattle raisers and prominent political figures.
The AUC became one of the most brutal forces Colombia has ever seen. It sought to eliminate the FARC and anyone associated with it. El Salado was an obvious target.
According to the Open Truth Project, a coalition of journalists and investigators who have taken on the task of recording Colombia's historic violence, paramilitary forces began their descent on the small town on February 16, 2000.
Unable to confront the hundreds of AUC fighters entering the town, the few stationed FARC members ran into the nearby jungle, leaving the citizens of El Salado to defend themselves.
On the morning of February 18, approximately 450 AUC combatants arrived. In the hours that followed, they raided local stores, drank heavily and turned on the sound systems of music shops. What they were celebrating was a torture and killing spree.
Many of the town's men were shot in front of their families and neighbours. Others had their ears cut off and were repeatedly stabbed before being killed. One man, it was reported, had ropes tied to his neck and legs which were then pulled apart by the AUC fighters.
Then they turned on the women: gang raping, torturing and killing many of them. It is estimated that more than 100 people were killed.
Word about the massacre reached the now 19-year-old Mayerlis. With several other activists and a local priest, she entered the town the next day.
As they walked through the streets of El Salado, they saw survivors collecting the bodies of the dead and throwing them into large pits that had been dug around the town's central park.
At the open-air football field, Mayerlis found a table in the middle of the pitch. Beside it, a towel covered a pool of drying blood. The paramilitaries had forced the town's inhabitants to play a morbid game of raffle, she was told: the winners had their heads cut off with a chainsaw.
"That's when I realised that what had happened to me was nothing compared to what happened to these people," she says. "And that what I was doing till then was never going to win against bullets."
Mayerlis decided that she needed a new strategy.
To heal you need to tell
She felt a desperate need to tell people what she had witnessed and experienced, and believed other women - who had been disproportionately affected by the violence - shared that desire.
But the paramilitary that controlled most of her region threatened anyone who spoke out against them.
Fearful of being punished, Mayerlis and some other women said they were planning a collective harvesting project. But, in reality, they were narrating the tragedies of their lives to each other, unconsciously engaging in a form of psychological therapy.
That was how, in March 2000, the organisation Narrate to Live was born.
READ MORE: Colombia - the end game
Beatriz Suarez remembers the first time she met Mayerlis. It was early March 2000 and Mayerlis had come to her hometown of Carmen as a volunteer for one of the many NGOs working there.
Beatriz was part of a government-sponsored programme that promoted citizen participation in the search for solutions to the conflict. Mayerlis stood out, she remembers.
"Back then, no one talked about victims of war, much less about the concept of women victims," says Beatriz, who had herself been displaced.
A study by a group of women's rights organisations and sponsored by Oxfam, entitled Violations and other Violence: Pull My Body out of the War estimates that between 2001 and 2009, more than 54,000 Colombian women were victims of sexual violence. The study also found that less than 18 percent of women affected by sexual violence report it - deterred, often, by the high |
feel embarrassed to intrude for so long. They too can’t keep us forever. Their homes are small. I did not even get the time to take out my valuables and money when our side of the building was demolished. I don’t have any money. So we have no choice.”Kanchan Yadav, mother of Deepak Yadav, who saved several people after the collapse, is among those who was allowed to set up a temporary home in a warehouse. “The people have been kind enough to give us food,” she said. “But that won’t go on for long.” She said she intends to get by on a 10 kg container of rice that she rescued from the debris of her home in Thakurli. The KDMC’s ward officer Hiren Kumavat reiterated that the families had been allocated “sufficient accommodation in the night shelter”. He wouldn’t say if they would be allowed back into the hall.Acolleague of Kumavat, who requested that he remain unnamed, told this newspaper the KDMC had done all it could to help the families, and that the consequences of their refusal to move into the night shelter was theirs to bear. He also pointed out that those living in buildings deemed dangerous would frequently turn away KDMC officials who turned up with eviction notices. In all, the civic administration issued such warnings to residents of 139 buildings in the municipality, 12 of these structures had been declared “extremely dangerous”.Chair of HIV and Aids committee says failure to get drugs to low and middle-income countries is a ‘tragedy of epic proportions’
Millions of people with HIV die because they cannot get access to Aids drugs, according to a cross-party group of MPs.
As of this summer, 13.6 million people were taking combinations of antiretroviral drugs that keep HIV levels so low in the blood that people stay well and do not infect others.
But, says the all-party parliamentary group on HIV and Aids, that means two-thirds of adults with HIV, and three-quarters of the children, are not on treatment.
Its report says the global effort to get the drugs to children and adults in low and middle-income countries and save lives is still falling short, in part because of high prices charged by pharmaceutical companies and cuts in donor funding.
It is “a modern tragedy of epic proportions”, according to Pamela Nash, the MP who chairs the committee. “This is a stark warning to governments, including the UK, that if we fail to address the barriers to access we will ultimately lose the battle to control and end the epidemic,” she said.
The committee’s report, Access Denied, says it is expected that 55 million people will need HIV treatment by 2030. Last year, 1.5 million people died of HIV-related illnesses.
Two groups in particular are in jeopardy – children, for whom there are inadequate drug formulations, and people who need second-line drug combinations because the basic first-line medicines have stopped working as drug resistance has set in.
Second-line drug combinations are far more expensive than the basic cocktail, which costs not much more than $100 (£64) per person per year. As resistance inevitably grows, more and more people will need second-line drug combinations, as has happened in Europe and north America.
But, says the report, “international funding for the Aids response has stalled”. That is causing particular problems for middle-income countries such as India, where the UK and the Global Fund, which pays for Aids drugs in poor countries, have their reduced financial aid.
“Funding is being removed very quickly from middle-income countries,” said Nash. “I think we need to re-think that. I understand where that is coming from, the idea is to get best value for money and there’s nothing wrong with that. But we are doing it far too quickly.”
The report calls for the UK government, drug companies and multilateral organisations to work together to make second-line and third-line Aids drugs available and affordable to all.
It also calls for more attention to developing drugs that are suitable for children, who were left behind because they did “not represent a lucrative sales market for the pharmaceutical industry”, said Nash
“People need to come before profits,” she said
More money for the specialised lab facilities that allow viral load testing is also vital, says the report. The test shows raised levels of virus in the blood, indicating a need for second-line treatment. Charities told the committee of patients dying while on the waiting list for a test.
Ben Simms, director of the charity StopAids, urged the UK government, the Global Fund and others to act on the report’s recommendations. “This report shows that the fantastic progress we’ve made in scaling up access to treatment and turning the tide in the Aids epidemic masks some deeply worrying challenges and growing threats,” he said. “We are failing to reach key population groups, witnessing a building crisis in middle income countries around pricing and resources, seeing trade deals threaten global access to medicines, and persisting with an approach to medical innovation that excludes billions of the world’s poor.”
Gareth Thomas, Labour’s shadow minister for Africa and the Middle East, said he was concerned about the slow progress on women’s rights, long recognised as key to tackling the epidemic, and the anti-gay legislation in countries such as Gambia and Uganda. This, he said, was “only reinforcing the stigma that those living with HIV/Aids still have to face and therefore making the task of tackling the epidemic harder still”.
The One Campaign said the tipping point in the epidemic had finally been reached, because more people were put on treatment last year than became newly infected. It said the fight against Aids is $3bn per year short of what is needed to control the disease and unsustainable because contributed mostly by just three countries – the US, UK and France. Progress is fragile and HIV is increasingly concentrated in groups that are hard to reach, such as those who inject drugs, men who have sex with men, sex workers and adolescent girls.The'secret' documents clutched by Mr Quick were clearly on show Twelve men have been arrested in the north west of England after Britain's most senior counter-terrorism police officer sparked a security alert. Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick said he "deeply regretted" revealing a secret document to photographers when he arrived for a briefing at No 10. The document, clearly marked "secret", carried an outline briefing on an ongoing counter-terrorism operation. The 12 suspects were later arrested at locations across north-west England. It is understood raids took place at 10 addresses sooner than planned due to the documents being revealed. Opposition MPs criticised Mr Quick, with the Liberal Democrats describing him as "accident prone" and the Conservatives condemning his "very alarming" lapse of judgement. But former Labour Mayor of London Ken Livingstone said it would be wrong for such an experienced officer to resign "for holding a piece of paper the wrong way". Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith made no comment about the officer's mistake. Instead, she praised police for their professionalism. "The decision to take such action was an operational matter for the police and the security service," she said, adding that she and the Prime Minister had been kept informed of developments. Police were shouting at [a suspect] and one of the officers had what looked like a machine gun pointed right into his head
Student Daniel Taylor Some hours after the Downing Street incident, armed officers from the North West Counter-Terrorism Unit arrested a man outside the main library at Liverpool John Moores University. Students said they heard police shouting at two suspects as they were advised over the library loudspeaker to stay away from the windows for their own safety. Journalism student Daniel Taylor said: "I saw a man on the floor. Police were shouting at him and one of the officers had what looked like a machine gun pointed right into his head." Police wearing blue plastic gloves were searching the man, along with a second man nearby, and both appeared to be "ordinary students", Mr Taylor said. Ten of those arrested are Pakistan-born nationals on student visas and one is a UK-born British national. Their precise ages are not known but range between a youth in his mid-to-late teens and a 41-year-old man. Greater Manchester Police said several hundred officers were involved in the operation, including armed officers during some of the arrests. Five addresses in the Cheetham Hill area of Manchester, including an internet cafe, are being searched. Three premises are being searched in Merseyside, plus a guest house in Clitheroe, Lancashire. Two men are understood to have been arrested at a Homebase DIY store in Clitheroe, where dozens of police officers carried out a raid. In Cheetham Hill, witnesses described two men being taken from the cafe after police arrived. Mesu Raza, who lives in the flat above, said: "I saw police arrest two people and put them in a police van. They had handcuffs on, they were Asian men, and the police were armed." The counter-terrorism officers were assisted by officers from the Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Lancashire police forces. Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Porter, head of the North West CTU said: "Today's action is part of a continuing investigation and we have acted on intelligence received. "This phase is still in its very early stages, so the information we can release about it is limited." Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Advertisement Earlier on Wednesday press photographers in Downing Street pictured Mr Quick clutching a white document marked "secret" and containing the names of several senior officers, locations and details about the nature of the overseas threat. Details of the information revealed cannot be reported. Mr Quick was attending the meeting in his role as lead for counter terrorism and for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo). On Wednesday evening he apologised to Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson for the error. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Assistant Commissioner Quick accepts he made a mistake on leaving a sensitive document on open view and deeply regrets it." Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said Mr Quick's judgement had been called into question. "This was highly sensitive information that should not have been carried under an arm in front of a line of photographers," he added. Secrets revealed Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick seems to be increasingly accident prone which is potentially dangerous given the serious responsibilities of his role." Ken Livingstone said: "The idea that we should offer up the person who's at the head of our counter terrorism, with years of experience - a dedicated public servant, for one mistake of holding a piece of paper the wrong way - well, al-Qaeda will be delighted." Mr Quick, once seen as a "safe pair of hands" by Scotland Yard colleagues, ordered the controversial arrest of senior Tory MP Damian Green over alleged security leaks. Last December, he accused the Conservatives of involvement in newspaper stories about his wife's hire car business. It is not the first time secret information has been revealed to journalists who habitually stand outside Downing Street. Last year housing minister Caroline Flint inadvertently showed off secret Cabinet briefing notes revealing a steep projected fall in UK house prices.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version[SC2B] Team Liquid SC2 Invitational #2 - US Text by Plexa
UPDATE: you can follow the tournament as it progresses
You ask, we deliver - that's always been our motto here at Team Liquid, and we're back this May to keep a promise. A little over a month ago, the
Here's when and how it's going to go down!
Saturday, May 08 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Yeah, you can stop gawking now.
It's full of stars, right? Well, TL sat down with one of the brightest to see what he has to say about Saturday. Below, Brood talks to our resident TSL Champion about SC2, the TLI, and what his goals are for the tournament.
Nony Talks
By Brood
TL: How are you feeling about the upcoming TLI?
NonY: I think it will be fun. I don't feel very competitive about it because I have limited practice time.
TL: Do you feel like you have a strong sense of the strengths, weaknesses or game style of the gamers in this tournament?
NonY: I don't know much about the SC2 styles of these players. I have not been watching all the SC2 events going on.
TL: In BW, you were renowned for your clean builds and efficient execution. How much of that description applies to your play style now, in SC2beta?
NonY: When I'm well rested, I think my execution is among the best in the world right now. Unfortunately, it's been rare for me to be well rested lately. I think I have cleaner builds than other people but I still hesitate to call them clean. There was just way too much knowledge and experience behind my builds in BW and I'm not anywhere near that point in SC2.
TL: Which map or maps do you feel the most comfortable on?
NonY: I like Metalopolis and Lost Temple but I think that might be common, especially among BW players. They don't have backdoors and they have many expansions.
TL: Is there a match-up that you feel is stronger than the others for you right now?
NonY: I feel good about PvZ. From the start of SC2 I have been thinking "I don't want to be awesome at PvZ and bad at PvT like I was in BW" because I'd rather have balanced matchups. But I can't help it. I love killing Zerg. PvP is probably my weakest right now just because I'm having trouble coming up with solid builds on many maps. Against good players, I have yet to overcome the rock-paper-scissors dynamic like I did in BW PvP. But of course I feel that's entirely my fault, not some flaw in the game.
TL: Where do you feel you fall in regards to the rankings of American players before this tournament? How dependant would your personal rankings be on race?
NonY: I think I rank pretty well. Not as well as I did in BW but I am getting there. I don't think about race at all -- only how well they are playing. : How are you feeling about the upcoming TLI?: I think it will be fun. I don't feel very competitive about it because I have limited practice time.: Do you feel like you have a strong sense of the strengths, weaknesses or game style of the gamers in this tournament?: I don't know much about the SC2 styles of these players. I have not been watching all the SC2 events going on.: In BW, you were renowned for your clean builds and efficient execution. How much of that description applies to your play style now, in SC2beta?: When I'm well rested, I think my execution is among the best in the world right now. Unfortunately, it's been rare for me to be well rested lately. I think I have cleaner builds than other people but I still hesitate to call them clean. There was just way too much knowledge and experience behind my builds in BW and I'm not anywhere near that point in SC2.: Which map or maps do you feel the most comfortable on?: I like Metalopolis and Lost Temple but I think that might be common, especially among BW players. They don't have backdoors and they have many expansions.: Is there a match-up that you feel is stronger than the others for you right now?: I feel good about PvZ. From the start of SC2 I have been thinking "I don't want to be awesome at PvZ and bad at PvT like I was in BW" because I'd rather have balanced matchups. But I can't help it. I love killing Zerg. PvP is probably my weakest right now just because I'm having trouble coming up with solid builds on many maps. Against good players, I have yet to overcome the rock-paper-scissors dynamic like I did in BW PvP. But of course I feel that's entirely my fault, not some flaw in the game.: Where do you feel you fall in regards to the rankings of American players before this tournament? How dependant would your personal rankings be on race?: I think I rank pretty well. Not as well as I did in BW but I am getting there. I don't think about race at all -- only how well they are playing.
Of course, Nony wont be getting a PvZ straight off. He'll start the day by facing qxc in a TvP. How do we know? The bracket, of course. Courtesy of random.org, we bring you the battle lines.
Look at that bracket and tell us you're not expecting great games. We certainly are!
From big names like Nony, Artosis, Tasteless and Day[9] to Team EG representing en masse in the form of Incontrol, Inka, Machine, Lzgamer and Louder, this TLI is littered with well known Starcraft: Broodwar personalities. We've got a few WCG US winners and even a TSL champion thrown in here, and if these guys don't give us some games to remember, no one will. What's more, all of these players know each other very well, and the matches that unfold are sure to display this in style.
The rest of the pack includes TL favourites like Orb, a Protoss who is know for his great manner and awesome sentry usage and Cauthonluck, a player who, apart from being famous for his 11Port build against Idra in MLG, is regarded as one of the best Terrans on US at the moment.
Speaking of Idra, the top American Zerg declined our invitation to play in this TLI and will be sitting this one out. Of course, this doesn't mean that there will a shortage of the swarm in the tournament. Among other Zergs, Slush, an old school BW player is back after a lengthy RTS hiatus in which he played Counter-Strike. Along with PainUser, Attero, Huk and qxc, he fills out the rest of the bracket, and completes the sixteen who will battle it out this weekend!
The Liquipedia team has been hard at work and compiled some information on all the players involved in this tournament. To brush up on your player knowledge checkout
With a healthy dose of Terran, Protoss, Zerg and Random, we think this bracket is going to give us some great Starcraft, and we hope you'll join us this weekend as this event is casted live by TL's own Chill. Be there, or risk welling up with envy as you hear over and over just how fantastic it was to see this go down. See you Saturday, TL!
UPDATE: you can follow the tournament as it progresses here You ask, we deliver - that's always been our motto here at Team Liquid, and we're back this May to keep a promise. A little over a month ago, the first ever Team Liquid SC2 Invitational was played off on the European server, with WhiteRa emerging as Champion and TheLittleOne securing second place. With some of the most exciting SC2 games to date, the tournament was awesome to watch, and as we step into the second leg of our Beta TLIs, we're hoping that the US Edition will be nothing short of spectacular as well.Here's when and how it's going to go down!It's full of stars, right? Well, TL sat down with one of the brightest to see what he has to say about Saturday. Below, Brood talks to our resident TSL Champion about SC2, the TLI, and what his goals are for the tournament.Of course, Nony wont be getting a PvZ straight off. He'll start the day by facing qxc in a TvP. How do we know? The bracket, of course. Courtesy of random.org, we bring you the battle lines.Look at that bracket and tell us you're not expecting great games. We certainly are!From big names like Nony, Artosis, Tasteless and Day[9] to Team EG representing en masse in the form of Incontrol, Inka, Machine, Lzgamer and Louder, this TLI is littered with well known Starcraft: Broodwar personalities. We've got a few WCG US winners and even a TSL champion thrown in here, and if these guys don't give us some games to remember, no one will. What's more, all of these players know each other very well, and the matches that unfold are sure to display this in style.The rest of the pack includes TL favourites like Orb, a Protoss who is know for his great manner and awesome sentry usage and Cauthonluck, a player who, apart from being famous for his 11Port build against Idra in MLG, is regarded as one of the best Terrans on US at the moment.Speaking of Idra, the top American Zerg declined our invitation to play in this TLI and will be sitting this one out. Of course, this doesn't mean that there will a shortage of the swarm in the tournament. Among other Zergs, Slush, an old school BW player is back after a lengthy RTS hiatus in which he played Counter-Strike. Along with PainUser, Attero, Huk and qxc, he fills out the rest of the bracket, and completes the sixteen who will battle it out this weekend!The Liquipedia team has been hard at work and compiled some information on all the players involved in this tournament. To brush up on your player knowledge checkout the foreign players page With a healthy dose of Terran, Protoss, Zerg and Random, we think this bracket is going to give us some great Starcraft, and we hope you'll join us this weekend as this event is casted live by TL's own Chill. Be there, or risk welling up with envy as you hear over and over just how fantastic it was to see this go down. See you Saturday, TL! UPDATE!:
djWheat and Chill will be casting this event on wheat's ustream. Day9 will be joining them between games to give insight in the event that he is eliminated.
This post was made by the Team Liquid Starcraft 2 Coverage Team. For more of TL's coverage, please visit the Team Liquid Starcraft 2 Beta Page. djWheat and Chill will be casting this event on wheat's ustream. Day9 will be joining them between games to give insight in the event that he is eliminated. Administrator ~ Spirit will set you free ~17.4 million people voted to leave the European Union. They did so not just because they were frightened by the consequences of staying in the EU as it fell apart at the seams, but also because they sensed that this was a moment of tremendous opportunity for Britain.
On the day after the vote, there was something beautiful and unfamiliar in the air: a belief in Britain’s ability to flourish as an independent country. It was beautiful because this is a lovely, generous and inventive nation. It was unfamiliar because the decision to choose our own destiny came from right across the political spectrum.
The impact of our vote to leave the EU is far greater than that of any general election result. The British people have issued an instruction to revive the British spirit of enterprise and community in every corner of the nation – in effect, to redesign politics for the 21st century.
That is a very big challenge, especially as we first need to extricate ourselves from the machinery of the European Union that regulates so much of our lives.
When David Cameron stood down as Prime Minister following the referendum, I quickly came to the view that his successor should be someone who believed in and voted for Britain to leave the EU. I had confidence that Boris Johnson could be that Prime Minister.England one-day allrounder Liam Dawson has signed up at the last minute for Rangpur Riders in the Bangladesh Premier League.
He becomes the latest English player to reject advice from the Professional Cricketers Association not to take part in the tournament for security reasons.
Dawson, unused on England's ODI tour of Bangladesh, will travel to Dhaka later this week and will remain for the entire tournament.
The Rangpur franchise is coached by former Bangladesh batsman Javed Omar and captained by Shahid Afridi, who featured alongside Dawson for Hampshire in the 2016 NatWest T20 Blast.
England's tour of Bangladesh went ahead only after detailed security arrangements were put in place following a terrorist attack on a Dhaka cafe frequented by Westerners in July.
That led the PCA's chief executive David Leatherdale to advise all English cricketers to stay away from the BPL, which runs from November 4 until December 9, because the same levels of security could not be promised for a Twenty20 domestic competition.
Dawson joins former England players Ravi Bopara and Samit Patel, among others, in accepting security assurances from the Bangladesh Cricket Board.
"It's going to be a good challenge," Dawson said. "There's some very good overseas players in the competition, so it'll be hard work from a cricket point of view, but I hope I can put in some good performances and do myself proud.''The Dodgers unveiled a new era for their franchise Wednesday with praise for its history and predictions for its future.
"We're gonna get it done," new owner Magic Johnson said Wednesday at a Dodger Stadium news conference. "I know Matt Kemp challenged me in basketball but we gotta win the World Series first, Matt, and then you'll get that chance."
Johnson also had another promise: Parking at Dodger Stadium will be reduced from $15 to $10.
"We're gonna pour money into the team," Johnson said. "We're gonna pour money into the fan experience and we're here to win."
In front of a throng of Dodgers greats, including Don Newcombe, Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, Tommy Lasorda, Steve Garvey and, of course, Vin Scully, the Lakers great got choked up talking about Jackie Robinson and his new role in Los Angeles. He praised Scully, a Dodgers broadcaster since 1950, and Peter O'Malley, whose family owned the team for decades, for helping instill Dodger tradition and vowed to get it back.
"Mr. O'Malley, we owe you a lot!" Johnson said, according to the Los Angeles Times' Bill Shaikin. "This man put pride into the Dodgers. We want to bring that pride back."
The Guggenheim Baseball Management team, led by Mark Walter and Johnson, paid $2.15 billion to purchase the Dodgers in a sale completed Tuesday.
"It's time now to meet the group that will take the Dodgers higher than the Sistine Chapel," Scully said, according to Shaikin.
Since winning the World Series in 1988, the Dodgers have reached the playoffs six times but won only two series. The first-round playoff wins came under previous owner Frank McCourt in 2008 and 2009, though McCourt has since been forced to sell the team when he encountered financial problems. As a consequence, the team's payroll suffered.
"We are moving this franchise forward. We are not going to talk about Frank McCourt anymore," Johnson said, according to Shaikin. "Let's move forward. Frank is not here. He is not part of the Dodgers anymore. We should be clapping for that."
New CEO Stan Kasten, who has previously run the Braves and Nationals, said the team will be built on player development, but will be open to pursue improvements at midseason should it remain in contention. The Dodgers entered the day at 17-7 and in first place in the National League West.
"When we can acquire someone that can help us, we're going to do that," he said.
Kasten also said the Dodgers are committed to improving Dodger Stadium, which opened in 1962 and is the third-oldest ballpark in the majors. He called the Wrigley Field clubhouse, "The only (one) in America that is worse," according to Shaikin.
For the most part, though, the mood was overwhelmingly positive, from the moment Johnson was heading to his new job this morning.
"This is one of the happiest days of my life," Johnson tweeted before the press conference.The legendary Coney Island Cyclone gave passengers a scare Sunday when it got stuck on its first public run of the season, forcing a number of riders to climb down the wooden structure on foot. (Published Sunday, March 29, 2015)
Cyclone Gets Stuck on Opening Day, Forcing Riders to Take Long Climb by Foot
The legendary Coney Island Cyclone gave passengers a scare Sunday when it got stuck on its first public run of the season, forcing a number of riders to climb down the wooden structure on foot.
All the passengers - attending what were to have been leisurely festivities to mark the reopening of Luna Park for the season - appeared to have escaped the roller coaster unharmed. But some said the slow climb from high up on the open structure left them feeling shaken.
"It was terrifying, because I was up there and everything was spinning," Gabriella Centeno said after she reached solid ground. "I didn't know what to do."
Anna Dartany said the park staffers' assistance made climbing down possible.
Cyclone Gets Stuck on Opening Day, Forcing Riders to Take Long Climb by Foot
The legendary Coney Island Cyclone gave passengers a scare Sunday when it got stuck on its first public run of the season, forcing a number of riders to climb down the wooden structure on foot. (Published Sunday, March 29, 2015)
"I'm scared of heights," she said, "but with their help I made it down.... This was insane."
Angie Morris, brand manager at Luna Park, said the historic roller coaster had undergone tests over the past month ahead of Sunday's season opening. Such a problem hadn't occurred for a very long time, she said, although she declined to specify how long.
She said the Cyclone would be back up and running within a matter of hours.
Despite the less-than-summery temperatures, longtime fans had flocked to the roller coaster Sunday morning to celebrate the amusement park's reopening and to take advantage of free tickets being offered to the first 100 people who showed up to ride the wooden icon.France says samples from April 4 Syria chemical attack prove government used sarin: minister
Samples obtained by French intelligence show that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "undoubtedly" used sarin nerve gas in an April 4 attack in northern Syria, France's foreign minister said on Wednesday, citing a declassified report.
The attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun killed scores of people and prompted the United States to launch a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base in response, its first direct assault on the Assad government in the conflict.
"We know, from a certain source, that the process of fabrication of the samples taken is typical of the method developed in Syrian laboratories," Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters.
"This method is the signature of the regime and it is what enables us to establish the responsibility of the attack. We know because we kept samples from previous attacks that we were able to use for comparison."“It’s become more rough. It’s become generally more… humiliating,” offers Julianna, a top porn agent. “Anyone can open the internet and find anything they want, and when you watch this, you go, ok, what’s the next step? You’re always curious about going deeper and deeper and deeper.”
Julianna is the co-founder of Julmodels, an agency for porn performers based in Hungary. She is also one of the subjects of Pornocracy, an eye-opening documentary about the state of porn playing at SXSW. The crux of the film, directed by the French porn veteran turned director Ovidie, is that free XXX tube sites have not only left the adult industry in tatters, but are a pox on society: a danger to sex workers, forcing them into extreme acts of degradation due to dwindling demand, and to our youth, allowing them unfettered access to hardcore pornography.
The latter issue looms large in Ovidie’s harrowing film, a stygian exploration into porn’s white collar underbelly that likens its hoodied, pierced creator to a Lisbeth Salander-esque hacktivist truth-bombing the system. In one particularly cringe-inducing scene, Pierre Woodman, a renowned DIY porn filmmaker, captures the corrupting influence of tube sites.
“The root of it all is that internet piracy is killing adult movies, streaming content that should only be for adults but that is now unfortunately available to young people as well,” he says. “And I’m fed up with hearing every day during casting sessions a girl who says, ‘Oh I’ve known you since I was eight years old.’ That’s just too much.”
After navigating her way past performers, handlers, and producers, Ovidie’s quest leads her to the kingpin: MindGeek, a multinational corporation with a near-monopoly on free streaming porn. The conglomerate owns all the sites in the Pornhub network, including YouPorn, RedTube, GayTube, Tube8, and Pornhub; as well as the porno studios Brazzers, Digital Playground, Reality Kings, Twistys, and the bulk of Playboy’s digital and TV operations. But the sprawling company, which previously operated under the names Mansef and Manwin, has run afoul of the law on numerous occasions. In 2009, the Secret Service seized $6.4 million in funds from two fidelity bank accounts controlled by Mansef, with Feds accusing the syndicate of money laundering; and in 2012, its then-owner Fabian Thylmann, a young German programmer once hailed as the Mark Zuckerberg of porn, was arrested on charges of tax evasion.
What Pornocracy does is raises plenty of questions concerning MindGeek’s operations. Why is it headquartered in Luxembourg, a notorious tax haven, when most of its operations appear to be run out of Canada? Do Wall Street hedge funds have a controlling interest in the company? Who is actually pulling the strings? How are these sites not violating copyright laws? And why is the money allegedly being routed through various countries to performers?
“They’re a fishy, weird company,” says Stoya, a Digital Playground contract girl from 2007-2013, in the film. “My Fleshlight royalties, when the wire transfers come in, go through banks in places like South Africa. They have offices in Ireland. It’s a bunch of men with Greek last names and thick Greek accents claiming to be Quebecois.”
It all began with the “great crash of 2006.” That year, adult DVD sales experienced a sharp decline. The cratering coincided with the arrival of YouPorn, porn’s version of YouTube featuring millions of pirated XXX videos that are free to stream. In 2011, YouPorn was purchased by Manwin, which proceeded to gobble up most of the other tube sites—before acquiring the adult industry’s leading production studios as well. Female performer’s wages dropped from around $3,000 to $600 a shoot, and even the biggest and brightest porn stars now flock to “extreme” sites like Kink for work. Today, many of the premier porn studios are struggling; pirated videos, on the other hand, make up approximately 95 percent of the porn consumed across the globe.
“Up until 10 years ago, the industry consisted of a constellation of smaller producers who produced and sold their own content directly on DVD or via VOD,” Ovidie tells me. “Within the past 10 years, the entire industry has been taken over by big tech companies, multinationals managed by businessmen based in tax havens who don’t have any real connection to the porn industry. These people are not there on-set during shooting; they have no contact with the workers or the actual production process. What is happening in porn is exactly what’s happening in many other sectors: an ‘Uberisation’ of the workforce, with huge platforms who have no consideration for performers.”
The answer, Ovidie says, is for various governments to begin regulating these tube sites in order to protect minors from accessing them, which will in turn grant the adult industry a degree of latitude.
“In France, my film and the issues it tackles was taken very seriously on a national level, and politically by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. They are considering putting in place legal protections for minors. This is the most urgent thing that can be done,” she says. “The Tube sites have no system to protect minors from watching, as opposed to paid porn sites where you generally at least need a credit card to watch. On the Tubes, the access is immediate, and they don’t verify age. They are free, easy, and accessible via a phone. The age of porn site consumers has gone down dramatically, and the effects of this are catastrophic. If free access to porn is limited, then producers can get their funding back, start working legally again, and pay their talent fairly.”Photo: Justina Mintz/AMC
Most Mad Men recaps include the sentence “Mad Men has always been about [insert any of life’s big themes here]” and last night’s final episode really had writers questioning what big theme the show wanted to leave us on. Was the ending essentially a cynical look at commodification or an optimistic breakthrough for Don? Is Peggy’s ending a romantic conclusion for a character who has grown so much in her work, or fan service? Do people really change? Was the episode any good at all? These are all things we could debate for hours, perhaps over a Coke. If there’s one thing we loved more than watching Mad Men, it was analyzing Mad Men. So here are some of the best thoughts on the finale. One thing they have in common: an aggressively anti-soda stance (but, as a good Mad Men recapper would say, everything is slowly killing us, anyway).
“If anyone in the show has reached full enlightenment, it’s Joan. She traveled the furthest of any character. Peggy was always ambitious, and Don was always troubled. But the Joan we met in the pilot was a self-appointed female defender of patriarchy, and by the close of the finale she is determined to burn it all down. She learned that supporting your own oppression doesn’t help you to get spared. Women and minorities are discouraged from speaking up about the systematic oppression they encounter, and often gaslit into pretending it doesn’t exist. One day Joan will meet a guy who won’t make her choose between love and her job. You can’t stop a ginger with a plan, even when one is making up that plan on the fly.” —Molly Lambert, Grantland
“Of course, all these happy endings wouldn’t make sense on ‘Mad Men’ without an undertow of sadness — and Weiner has always seemed to be interested in how this generation would shape the next. In references and brief shots of the children, we get a sense of how they will feel the ripple effects of their parents’ drama. As Roger signs over half his inheritance to his child with Joan, it underscores the fact that this child may never know his father. Their child is filmed twice plopped in front of the television. Sally has been forced to grow up fast and compensate. Bobby, burning food in the kitchen, knows |
in a temporary spike in grants and nonretirement benefit payments during and immediately after the Great Recession; that aid has been almost entirely phased out. (See Figure 4.)
Download the accompanying data tables and methodology. Ten-year historical data are available upon request. Please contact Sarah Leiseca.
EndnotesThe appreciation of objects and subjects is the same for an enlightened as for an unenlightened person. the former has one greatness: he remains in the subjective mood, not lost in things.
T here is a very beautiful method. You can start it as you are; no other prerequisite is needed. The method is simple: you are surrounded by persons, things, phenomena — every moment something is around you. Things are there, events are there, persons are there — but because you are not alert, you are not there. Everything is there but you are fast asleep. Things move around you, persons move around you, events move around you, but you are not there. Or, you are asleep.
So whatsoever happens in your surroundings becomes a master, becomes a force over you; you are dragged by it. You are not only impressed, conditioned by it, you are dragged by it.
Anything can catch you, and you will follow it. Somebody passes — you look, the face is beautiful — and you are carried away. The dress is beautiful, the color, the material is beautiful — you are carried away. The car passes — you are carried away. Whatsoever happens around you, catches you. You are not powerful. Everything else is more powerful than you. Anything changes you. Your mood, your being, your mind, depend on other things. Objects influence you.
This sutra says that enlightened persons and unenlightened persons live in the same world. A Buddha and you both live and move in the same world — the world remains the same. The difference is not in the world, the difference happens in the Buddha: he moves in a different way. He moves among the same objects but he moves in a different way. He is his own master. His subjectivity remains aloof and untouched. That is the secret. Nothing can impress him; nothing from the outside can condition him; nothing can overpower him. He remains detached; he remains himself. If he wants to go somewhere, he will go, but he will remain the master. If he wants to pursue a shadow, he will pursue it, but it is his own decision.
This distinction must be understood. By `detachment’ I don’t mean a person who has renounced the world — then there is no sense and no meaning in detachment. A detached person is a person who is living in the same world as you — the difference is not in the world. A person who renounces the world is changing the situation, not himself. And you will insist on changing the situation if you cannot change yourself. That is the indication of a weak personality. A strong person, alert and aware, will start to change himself… not the situation in which he is. Because really the situation cannot be changed — even if you can change the situation, there will be other situations. Every moment situations go on changing so every moment the problem will be there.
This is the difference between the religious and the non-religious attitude. The non-religious attitude is to change the situation, the surrounding. It doesn’t believe in you, it believes in situations: when the situation is okay, you will be okay. You are dependent on the situation: if the situation is not okay, you will not be okay. So you are not an independent entity. For communists, Marxists, socialists, and all those who believe in changing the situation, you are not important; really, you don’t exist. Only the situation exists and you are just a mirror which reflects the situation. The religious attitude says that as you are you may be a mirror, but this is not your destiny — you can become something more, someone who is not dependent.
There are three steps of growth. Firstly, the situation is the master, you are just dragged by it. You believe that `you are’, but you are not. Secondly, `you are’, and the situation cannot drag you, the situation cannot influence you because you have become a will, you are integrated and crystalized. Thirdly, you start influencing the situation: just by your being there, the situation changes.
The first state is that of the unenlightened; the second state is of the person who is constantly aware but as yet unenlightened — he has to be alert, he has to do something to be alert. The alertness has not become natural yet so he has to fight. If he loses consciousness or alertness for a single moment, he will be in the influence of the thing. So he has to stand on his toes continuously. He is the seeker, the SADHAK, the one who is practising something. The third state is that of the SIDDHA, the enlightened one. He is not trying to be alert, he simply is alert — there is no effort to it. Alertness is just like breathing: it goes on, he does not have to maintain it. When alertness becomes a phenomenon like breathing, natural, SAHAJ, spontaneous, then this type of person, this type of centered being, automatically influences situations. Situations change around him — not that he wishes them to change, but he is powerful.
Power is the thing to be remembered. You are powerless so anything can overpower you. And power comes through alertness, awareness: the more alert, the more powerful; the less alert, the less powerful. Look… while you are asleep even a dream becomes powerful because you are fast asleep, you have lost all consciousness. Even a dream is powerful, and you are so weak that you cannot even doubt it. Even in an absurd dream you cannot be skeptical, you will have to believe it. And while it lasts, it looks real. You may see just absurd things in the dream, but while you are dreaming, you cannot doubt.
You cannot say this is not real; you cannot say this is a dream; you cannot say this is impossible. You simply cannot say it because you are so fast asleep. When consciousness is not there even a dream affects you. While awake, you will laugh and you will say, “It was absurd, impossible, this cannot happen. This dream was just illusory.” But you have not noticed that while it was there you were influenced by it, you were totally taken over by it. Why was a dream so powerful? The dream was not powerful — you were powerless. Remember this: when you are powerless even a dream becomes powerful.
While you are awake, a dream cannot influence you, but reality, the so-called reality around, does. An awakened person, an enlightened person, has become so alert that your reality also cannot influence him. If a woman passes, a beautiful woman, you are suddenly carried away. Desire has arisen, the desire to possess. If you are alert, the woman will pass by, but the desire will not arise — you have not been influenced, you have not been taken over. When this happens for the first time, when things move around you and you are not influenced, you will feel a subtle joy of being.
For the first time really you feel that you are; nothing can drag you out of you. If you want to follow, that is another thing. That is your decision. But don’t deceive yourself. You can deceive. You can say, “Yes. The woman is not powerful, but I want to follow her, I want to possess her.” You can deceive. Many people go on deceiving. But you are deceiving nobody except yourself — then it is futile. Just take a close look: you will know the desire is there. The desire comes first, and then you start rationalizing it.
For an enlightened person, things are there and he is there but there is no bridge between him and the thing. The bridge has broken. He moves alone. He lives alone. He follows himself. Nothing else can possess him. Because of this feeling we have called this attainment MOKSHA — total freedom, MUKTI. He is totally free.
All over the world, man has searched for freedom; you cannot find a man who is not hankering after freedom in his own way. Through many paths man tries to find a state of being where he can be free, and he resents anything that gives him a feeling of bondage. He hates it. Anything that hinders, that makes him imprisoned, he fights. He struggles against it. Hence so many political fights, so many wars, revolutions; hence so many continuous family fights — wife and husband, father and son, all fighting each other. The fight is basic. The fight is for freedom. The husband feels confined, the wife has imprisoned him — now his freedom is cut. And the wife feels the same. They both resent each other, they both fight, they both try to destroy the bondage. The father fights the son because every stage of growth in the son means more freedom for him. And the father feels he is losing something: power, authority. In families, in nations, in civilizations, man is hankering after only one thing — freedom.
But nothing is achieved through political fights, revolutions, wars. Nothing is achieved. Because even if you get freedom, it is superficial — deep down you remain in bondage. So every freedom proves a disillusionment. Man longs so much for wealth, but as far as I understand it, it is not a longing for wealth, it is a longing for freedom. Wealth gives you a feeling of freedom. If you are poor, you are confined, your means are limited — you cannot do this, you cannot do that. You don’t have the money to do it. The more money you have, the more you feel you have freedom, you can do anything you like. But when you have all the money and you can do all that you wish, imagine, dream about, suddenly you feel this freedom is superficial, because inside your being knows well that you are powerless and that anything can attract you. You are impressed, influenced, possessed by things and persons.
This sutra says that you have to come to a state of consciousness where nothing impresses you, you can remain detached. How to do it? Throughout the whole day the opportunity is there to do it. That is why I say this method is good for you to do. Any moment you can become aware that something is possessing you. Then take a deep breath, inhale deeply, exhale deeply, and look at the thing again. While you are exhaling look at the thing again, but look just as a witness, as a spectator. If you can achieve the witnessing state of mind for even a single moment, suddenly you will feel you are alone, nothing can impress you; at least in that moment nothing can create desire in you. Take a deep breath and exhale it whenever you feel that something is impressing you, influencing you, dragging you away from you, becoming more important than yourself. And in that small gap created by the exhalation look at the thing — a beautiful face, a beautiful body, a beautiful building, or anything. If you feel it is difficult, if just by exhaling you cannot create a gap, then do one thing more: exhale, and stop inhalation for a single moment so the exhalation has thrown all the air out. Stop, don’t inhale. Then look at the thing. When the air is out, or in, when you have stopped breathing, nothing can influence you. In that moment you are unbridged — the bridge is broken. Breathing is the bridge. Try it. It will be only for a single moment that you will have the feeling of witnessing, but that will give you the taste, that will give you the feeling of what witnessing is. Then you can pursue it. Throughout the whole day, whenever something impresses you and a desire arises, exhale, stop in the interval, and look at the thing. The thing will be there, you will be there, but there will be no bridge. Breathing is the bridge. Suddenly you will feel you are powerful, you are potential. And the more powerful you feel, the more YOU will become. The more things drop, the more their power over you drops, the more crystalized you will feel. Individuality has begun. Now you have a center to refer to, and any moment you can move to the center and the world disappears. Any moment you can take shelter in your own center, and the world is powerless.
This sutra says, THE APPRECIATION OF OBJECTS AND SUBJECTS IS THE SAME FOR AN ENLIGHTENED AS FOR AN UNENLIGHTENED PERSON. THE FORMER HAS ONE GREATNESS: HE REMAINS IN THE SUBJECTIVE MOOD, NOT LOST IN THINGS. He remains in the subjective mood, he remains within himself, he remains centered in consciousness. Remaining in the subjective mood has to be practised. As many opportunities as you can get, try it. And every moment there is an opportunity, every single moment there is an opportunity. Something or other is impressing you, dragging you out, pulling you out, pushing you in.
I am reminded of an old story. A great king, Bharthruhari, renounced the world. He renounced the world because he had lived in it totally and he had come to realize that it was futile. It was not a doctrine to him, it was a lived reality. He had come to the conclusion through his own life. He was a man of strong desire, he had indulged in life as much as possible, then suddenly he realized it was useless, futile. So he left the world, he renounced it, and he went to a forest.
One day he was meditating under a tree. The sun was rising. Suddenly he became aware that just on the road, the small road which passed nearby the tree, lay a very big diamond. As the sun was rising, it was reflecting the rays. Even Bharthruhari had not seen such a big diamond before. Suddenly, in a moment of unawareness, a desire arose to possess it. The body remained unmoved, but the mind moved. The body was in the posture of meditation, SIDDHASANA, but the meditation was no longer there. Only the dead body was there, the mind had moved — it had gone to the diamond.
Before the king could move, two men came from different directions on their horses and simultaneously they became aware of the diamond lying on the street. They pulled out their swords, each one claiming that he had sene the diamond first. There was no other way to decide so they had to fight. They fought and killed each other. Within moments two dead bodies were lying there next to the diamond. Bharthruhari laughed, closed his eyes, and went into meditation again.
What happened? He again realized the futility. And what happened to these two men? The diamond became more meaningful than their whole life. This is what possession means: they threw away their life just for a stone. When desire is there, you are no more — desire can lead you to suicide. Really, every desire is leading you to suicide. When you are in the power of a desire, you are not in your senses, you are just mad.
The desire to possess arose in Bharthruhari’s mind also; in a fragment of a moment the desire arose. And he might have moved to get it but before he could, the other two persons came and fought, and there were two dead bodies lying on the road with the stone there in its own place. Bharthruhari laughed, closed his eyes, and went into his meditation again. For a single moment his subjectivity was lost. A stone, a diamond, the object, became more powerful. But again the subjectivity was regained. Without the diamond the whole world disappeared, and he closed his eyes.
For centuries meditators have been closing their eyes. Why? It is only symbolic that the world has disappeared, that there is nothing to look at, that nothing is worth anything, even to look at. You will have to remember continuously that whenever desire arises, you have moved out of your subjectivity. This is the world, this movement. Regain, move back, get centered again! You will be able to do it: the capacity is there with everyone. No one ever loses the inner potential, it is always there. You can move. If you can move out, you can move in. If I can go out of my house, why can I not come back within it? The same route is to be traveled; the same legs are to be used. If I can go out, I can come in. Every moment you are moving out, but whenever you move out, remember — and suddenly come back. Be centered. If you feel it difficult in the beginning then take a deep breath, exhale, and stop. In that moment look at the thing which was attracting you. Really, nothing was attracting you, YOU were attracted. That diamond lying there on the road in the lonely forest was not attracting anybody, it was simply lying there being itself. The diamond was not aware that Bharthruhari had been attracted, that someone had moved from his meditation, from his subjectivity, had come back into the world. The diamond was not aware that two persons had fought for it and lost their lives.
So nothing is attracting you — YOU get attracted. Be alert and the bridge will be broken and you will regain balance inside. Go on doing it more and more. The more you do, the better. And a moment will come when you will not need to do it because the inner power will give you such a strength that the attraction of things will be lost. It is your weakness which is attracted. Be more powerful and nothing will attract you. Only then for the first time are you master of your own being.
That will give you real freedom. No political freedom, no economic freedom, no social freedom, can be of much help. Not that they are not desirable, they are good, good in themselves, but they will not give you the things which the innermost core of your being is longing for — the freedom from things, from objects, the freedom to be oneself without any possibility of being possessed by anything or anybody.
Next Meditation Technique No. 101"Herod care" anyone?
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference led last night's "prayercast" co-sponsored by the Family Research Council.
In the "prayercast," Rodriguez prayed:
Heavenly father, righteous God, in this season as we celebrate birth of our savior, the one who came to give us life, everlasting life abundant, we come in His name to intercede for that very gift of life. Father, the same spirit of Herod who 2000 years ago attempted to exterminate the life of the Messiah today lives even America....
If you're backing health care reform you're a new Herod. Obama (and presumably all Democrats and sane Republican voters, is (accordingly) trying to kill babies, the innocent, as did King Herod who did a preemptive strike against all male children after he decided to kill the baby Jesus.
So a big "Merry Christmas" from your friendly evangelicals, now using this holiday to quash a bill designed to help the poor. And another example of how some evangelicals on the right are willing to trivialize and demean their scriptures in their anti-Obama crusade.
Okay, there may or may not be a God. But if there is and he's the God the religious right claims to worship, then he is probably not pleased with them. I say this judging by their own oft-stated standards, not mine.
If the God described in the Bible exists and if the fundamentalists are correct that the Bible describes his likes and dislikes then the greatest sin is taking God's name in vain and using God for non-holy purposes -- say, grandstanding in the Senate against health care reform and dragging God into it.
Maybe God doesn't want to become a shill for the insurance industry -- as have the Republicans and the "preachers" who support them.
I was raised by an evangelical leader of the religious right and was his sidekick for a bit before coming to my senses. So this is home territory for me, the stuff I was literally taught at my mother's knee. Like Mom said: "Never take the Lord's name in vain!"
According to scripture humans may not call upon God to place a curse on any individual. To call on God to curse or damn a person or situation (say to call for Obama's death by quoting Psalm 109:8 on T-shirts), or for the defeat of health care reform is therefore a vain attempt at usurping God's power. In the Bible people get eaten by worms for stuff like this.
So when the Republican far right "pro-life" and pro-insurance industry lobbyists took a time out to be led by some of the nation's biggest religious flakes, paranoids and hysterics in "prayer" to delay and defeat health care reform they were playing with eternal damnation (if their theology is correct).
From the evangelical point of view, our words must be well pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ who purchased us with His own blood "that He might redeem us from all iniquity [lawlessness] and purify unto Himself a peculiar people [a people of His own], zealous of good works" (Titus 2:14). May the fruit of our lips always honor "that worthy Name by the which ye are called" (James 2:7)
Religious Right leaders and their supporters in Congress attended a "prayercast" Wednesday night held by the Family Research Council. Attendees asked God to kill the bill.
James Dobson, of Focus on the Family, spoke to the group by phone hookup. According to Rachel Maddow, he said, "I just pray that you will frustrate the plans of the Evil One, and revive us again with conviction and forgiveness. Republicans Sen. Sam Brownback (Kansas) was there too with Rep. Todd Akin (Missouri) who spoke by video. He said the Pilgrims believed "that the Bible was a blueprint for all of mankind... to tell us about economics, to tell us about education, to tell us about government."
The Family Research Council held the one-hour webcast. Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN), Jim DeMint (SC), Sam Brownback (KS) and Rep. Randy Forbes were there. Tony Perkins (well known paranoid and delusional moralist leader of the Family Research Council) prayed:
"Life and death hinges on the Senate health care bill. We face significant threats to the God-given right to human life through government funding of abortions, our health from rationing, our family finances from higher taxes, and our general freedoms posed by the government plan to take over health care. There have been a number of critical hours in American history. Our nation has struggled mightily and, under God, always risen to the challenges before us. Tonight, we will face this moral crisis by taking action and obeying the Biblical mandate to pray for our nation and its leaders."
Dobson referred to President Obama as: "I just pray that you will frustrate the plans of the Evil One [Obama and/or Satan take your pick]." Pastor Jim Garlow made the case that the reform "violates nearly all Ten Commandments."
Bachmann's contribution? -- "And we say oh Lord we deserve your wrath. But would you yet give our nation mercy? We ask for your mercy. We cry out to you oh God this is our moment and this is our time Lord. We are at the end of ourselves and now we need you. We need you Lord."
All this to stand up for the insurance industry against the widows and orphans! Quite a stretch for "Christians" wouldn't you think?
I'd hate to still be an evangelist these days (as I used to be when -- sad to say -- as I young man I was my late religious right leader father's sidekick back in the 70s and 80s.) How could I ever tell anyone about Jesus now when the public image of Christ has been hijacked by the Republicans using religious language to defeat compassion?
Let's get one thing straight, and I say this as a former "pro-life" leader: I don't think that the Republicans using abortion funding in the health care bill as an excuse don't give a rat's ass about the unborn. If they did, and if their various presidents over the last 30 years plus had, they would have instituted massive health care reform for families, mothers and children rather than fighting it. Because the chief cause of abortion is economic hardship. How is a mom supposed to pay for health care? (For that matter how is a dad supposed to either?)
Anyone who cares about the unborn would want to go to a single payer universal system tomorrow no questions asked. Take away the economic uncertainty from millions of Americans -- and health care costs are the biggest worry of all -- and you've gone a long way to a family and child-friendly climate.
So no, the people who have encouraged Africans to burn condoms and practice abstinence only non-sex sex, (Hi Pastor Rick Warren are you listening?!) in other words the people who are stopping health care reform, are the same hypocrites using health care reform as a means to defeat the man they hate -- President Obama.
That is their real agenda: stop the uppity black man!
They care about only one thing: the defeat and humiliation of the black man who has the temerity to be smarter than they are and/or they are dupes of the Dick Army-led insurance lobby.
In the process they have turned their hand against God, and, if he exists and if he's the God of the Bible (an even bigger if) he is being exploited by the Republicans today. By their own beliefs they stand condemned not by me or you but by their own double standards born of born-again hatred for our president.
Let's give Jesus the last word (as recorded in Matthew 7:15, 20-23)
"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves... Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them... Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers!'"You can catch flies with vinegar after all
Q: You mentioned having to identify flies in order to control them. What is the difference -- a fly is a fly, isn't it? So what? Are there different kinds that we should be concerned about?
A: There are a number of kinds of flies found in and around homes, and it is important to know the difference, as some can cause problems, some are an indicator of another problem and some are innocuous.
I monitor flies around my home with a simple fly trap. I cut the tops off several plastic water bottles and invert the tops into the lower portions, forming a funnel. I put about 2 inches of apple cider vinegar in each bottle with 1/4 teaspoon of sugar. Almost all flies, no matter their normal food preference, will enter the trap. I then pour them out through a sieve, let them dry and identify them.
The following flies are commonly found around homes:
-- House flies. These flies have a gray thorax (the part where the head is connected and wings are attached) with four dark stripes, and a mottled abdomen (posterior portion). These flies are considered "filth flies" and will feed on excrement, garbage, carcasses and even human secretions from wounds and mucous membranes. If you accidentally eat the larvae (maggots) in contaminated food, they can survive in your intestine.
-- Little houseflies. These common little flies resemble houseflies, but they fly in circles in the middle of a room or on a porch and don't appear to land. They can lay their eggs in any organic material, including compost piles, pet feces, dead leaves, etc. They have been known to enter the urinary tract of sleeping people and cause urinary myiasis.
-- Blowflies. These flies are larger than houseflies and are normally shiny green, blue, bronze or black. Blowflies feed on decaying animal matter, and if you have them in your house, it is an indication of a dead animal in the wall or ceiling. These flies are also used by forensic entomologists to establish the time of death in human fatalities.
-- Cluster flies. These flies resemble large houseflies but are more closely related to blowflies. They are not filth flies, as they parasitize earthworms. They do have the disconcerting habit of invading homes in large numbers in the fall to pass the winter. Sealing them out is the only practical way to deal with cluster flies.
-- Flesh flies. These flies resemble houseflies but differ in having only three stripes on a gray thorax. Some species lay their eggs in foul-smelling dead animal matter, while others lay their eggs in wounds on horses, cattle and other animals. There was a case several years ago where these flies laid their eggs in the festering wound of a person in a nursing home. One species can lay eggs in the noses or eyes of humans, causing myiasis, which can be serious.
Other flies also are common, but these are the most serious. You certainly don't want any of these flies around schools, day care centers, hospitals, nursing homes, animal shelters or other areas where they can infect people or animals. If you have a fly problem, electric fly traps work well, but they are expensive.
I use the apple cider vinegar trap at our place. Gallon-size milk jugs cut as described above and baited with apple cider vinegar and sugar will catch a lot of flies in a barn or other large building.
Of course if you don't recognize your flies, you can call a pest control professional. Any competent professional will instantly recognize all of the flies I mentioned. If they can't, I can ID them for you.
If you send bugs to be identified, here is how to mail them. Place them in a leak-proof vial of any type of alcohol, then pack the vial, very carefully padded, in a small box. (Otherwise, the vial often breaks and the post office will not deliver it.) Or you may pack bugs in cotton in a film canister or similar container. Bugs simply sent dry in an envelope are usually crushed beyond recognition.
Once the bugs are properly packaged, mail the package to Richard Fagerlund, P.O. Box 1173, Corrales, NM 87048. Be sure to include an e-mail address or a stamped, self-addressed envelope for the reply.
If you'd like, you may include a $10 check made out to me. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to animal rescue organizations.When Lydia McLaughlin opted not to return to the Real Housewives of Orange County for season 9, most viewers — me included — thought she just didn't want to deal with all the drama. During her season she had to deal with the whole Vicki/Laurie skiing screaming match, if you do recall. But that actually was not the case at all.
The real reason Lydia opted not to return, was in order to focus on having a third baby. After announcing in April that she was pregnant, Lydia is now ready to reveal the baby's gender. In a new interview with OK! magazine, the entrepreneur also talks about some up-coming projects and if she keeps in touch with any of the other housewives.
CLICK THE CONTINUE READING BUTTON FOR MORE!
Well, it will be another boy for Lydia and her husband, Doug. After having two boys, Lydia openly wished for a girl. So was there any disappointment?
"No, I actually surprised myself, because even though I told friends I wanted a daughter, as soon as you find out you’re having a healthy baby, the gender doesn’t matter and you just get excited. I wouldn’t trade my boys for anything. We’re going to raise three great little gentleman, and the world needs more gentlemen."
Agreed! The world does need more gentlemen!! After naming her first two sons Stirling and Maverick, Lydia also could not go with just any other name for the new baby, "we’re going with Roman, which represents my Italian roots."
Lydia and her husband run several businesses, including a magazine, plus she is writing a memoir. (Really?? Does every housewife need to become a writer?? This is getting out of hand!) Despite everything she has going on, Lydia has no plans to slow down.
"My book is going to be released later this year, right around Roman’s due date, or in early 2015, so he’ll be coming on the book tour with us. I love my work and feel like it gives me a lot of energy. If I didn’t have that outlet, I’d probably just sit at home, thinking, “Oh, my gosh, I’m pregnant. How many days do I have left?”
Now for the juicy stuff — you know you all want to know if she watches the show or has kept in contact with any of the other Housewives.
"I haven’t seen an episode. I didn’t watch the show before I was on it, so I haven’t watched it after. I still see Gretchen and Alexis, though. We’ve remained friends. Alexis and I were actually workout buddies before this pregnancy, and we’ve continued to go to classes together. There are aspects of the show that I miss. Who knows what the future holds? That door definitely hasn’t closed."
Has a Housewife ever left the show and come back? I guess Laurie kind of did. But she was only a bit player when she came back and we haven't seen her since. And there's Dina Manzo, too.
Isn't it ironic that she keeps in touch with the two women who were fired after her season?? Weird!
TELL US!! DO YOU THINK LYDIA SHOULD RE-JOIN THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF ORANGE COUNTY??
[Photo Courtesy: Lydia McLaughlin on Instagram]As times change, so does language. Circumstances arise that drive the creation of new vocabulary, modify meanings of existing words, and resurface terms that had been confined to the dustbin.
Donald Trump’s presidential election is one of these key moments. Supporters of The Donald have generated new insults, like cuck, and detractors have revived colorful terms, like kakistocracy. This glossary will help you keep track of the political terms du jour, and will be updated to ensure that your lexicon remains of-the-moment as English adjusts to the time of Trump.
Alt-right
Refers to the extreme political right and was first used in 2008 by Richard Spencer, head of the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist think tank. Some have called on media to stop using the term, which, with its evocations of alt-rock, creates cool, edgy-sounding associations for a group that believes in white supremacy. The alt-right ideology is deliberately vague to hide the unsavory and racist beliefs it promotes, but according to the Associated Press, it is “often associated with efforts on the far right to preserve ‘white identity,’ oppose multiculturalism, and defend ‘Western values.'” Breitbart News, voice of the alt-right, describes the movement as “unapologetically embracing a new identity politics that prioritizes the interests of their own demographic.”
Blind trust
A legal term for an official arrangement where one party (the “trustee”) manages the assets (or “trust”) of another on behalf of a beneficiary, who is kept unaware (or “blind”) of the trustee’s activities so as to avoid conflicts of interest. Given the vast Trump holdings, it’s not clear how he will make the nation’s interests his sole priority while also continuing his dealings at home and abroad. Reports in the international media of Trump’s exchanges with foreign leaders are already raising concerns about his ability to separate his role as public servant from that of servant to his own interests.
Civic society
A term first used by Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, in a Breitbart News Daily radio interview with The Donald before he was elected that The Verge reported is a suspected code term for nationalism. When Trump asked Bannon if he shared his concern about foreign students at Ivy League schools taking their talents back home, Bannon replied, “When two-thirds or three-quarters of the CEOs in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia, I think... ” he trailed off. “A country is more than an economy. We’re a civic society.” The implication in the statement, when taken with Bannon’s other anti-minority expressions, is that “civic society” is a polite way to imply “white society.”
Cuck
This term, which sounds alarmingly like a mash-up of two vulgarities, is in fact derived from the word cuckold, meaning a man betrayed by a lover technically or just one who is emasculated. “Cuckold” has its origins in bird behavior, specifically that of the cuckoo bird, which lays its eggs in another bird’s nest—the term was used often by Shakespeare and other writers of his time. The term “cuck” was added to Urban Dictionary in 2007, and this year it became a popular alt-right insult for anyone displaying weakness or failing to exploit strength (in other words, liberals and their ilk). Cuck is also a term for a genre of pornography involving white men watching black men having their way with their wives, which is why the New Republic warns that the word has racist implications and is “popular because it pushes psycho-sexual hot buttons.”
Cuckservative
A portmanteau of “cuckold” and “conservative.” The term “cuckservative” is, according to Breitbart News, “a gloriously effective insult” to describe anyone who sells out their political base. (See also: cuck).
Drain the swamp
A phrase used often by Trump in his campaign to indicate a cleanup or clearing out of current government. As an anti-establishment catchphrase, “drain the swamp” was an effective if startlingly strong condemnation of the status quo by someone seeking to be chief of the establishment, according to linguist David Clementson, of Ohio State University’s School of Communication. Trump used the phrase in a video he published setting forth his priorities for the first 100 days in office, signaling to his fans that he’ll act as an outsider even though he is now insider-in-chief.
Emolument
Refers to clauses in the US Constitution that bar the president from profiting from his position in office, whether through dealings at home or with foreign governments. Emoluments are of particular interest in light of the president-elect’s many existing businesses and deals in the US and abroad. While he may officially eschew emoluments, however, there is little doubt that Trump’s businesses will benefit from his lofty position. (See also: blind trust).
Fake news
Fake news is false information, usually created as propaganda, that spreads easily on social media and influences popular opinion at least as much, if not more, |
sites and commentators have let their fingers jump up mechanically in accusatory fashion. Google, caught red-handed being evil!
Here, I think, is a time when the word “bias” is actually warranted. Everyone wants so badly for Google to do something truly evil (instead of just questionable or inconvenient) that their perceptions of Google actions are actually being affected. Casting events systematically in a non-objective light is the exhibition of bias, and the continual presentation of policies one disagrees with as evidence of “evil” seems to fall under that category.
Google going evil has become the Godwin’s Law of tech commentary.
What specifically is evil about this particular action? What is happening is a consolidation of privacy policies across most of the services Google offers. Other companies and services do this already rather than maintain separate documents, agreements, and records across several related sites. This way there is a single privacy policy that applies across Google products. That is a good thing: it’s simpler for users to understand, they don’t have to sign multiple documents, they know that certain things are and aren’t private across multiple services, and now something like removing demographic data from yourself applies universally, not just on one service. Why shouldn’t it be that way?
To be fair, compartmentalizing services is something that some users prefer. Just last week I lamented the loss of compartmentability when Google changed its account signup process to require new Gmail and G+ accounts. Forcing someone to use a service is bad. But creating policy consistency and cross-talk between related services doesn’t strike me as such. You already had Google-wide preferences. Now you have more.
What about the ad targeting? Now, it is whispered, you could search for basketball tickets and then find that the ads on Gmail or YouTube reflect that history! Your ad profile is now tied to your Google account, not specific site accounts, in other words. Again, it is just assumed people agree this is evil. Why should they? Where is the harm? If anything, it simplifies things and again makes it more intelligible to the average user what Google is tracking. Hint: everything, just like before.
More evil is prophesied by a wild-sounding privacy advocate quoted in the Washington Post: “There is no way anyone expected this. There is no way a user can comprehend the implication of Google collecting across platforms for information about your health, political opinions and financial concerns.” You can almost see the froth on his lips.
What about not being able to opt out? What is it people want to opt out of exactly? The new, simplified privacy policy? What would you opt into instead — the older policy? Being tracked per-site instead of by account? Perhaps you would you like to opt into pre-Timeline Facebook as well? Maybe you’d like to opt out of Apple’s restrictions on selling your iBooks? How, specifically, are people being harmed by the new policy, and in what way can they be demonstrated to have less privacy than under the old system, under which the exact same data and behaviors were recorded, analyzed, and packaged? Google is not collecting more information, they are not selling new information, they are not changing anything but the level at which the data is collated before you are anonymized into an ad group (baseball, travel, Boston, gadgets) and exposed to ads targeted to your general type of consumer.
And of course, you can opt out of the part worth opting out of:
The worst one can say about this change is that it causes yet more overlap between Google services that people may not have requested. If you call that evil, you’ve forgotten what evil looks like.By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Michael Selby tried. He gave everything to Marshall football until his body couldn't give it anymore.
In the practices leading up to the Thundering Herd's game against Southern Mississippi on Oct. 29, the 6-foot-2, 296-pound senior from Sandersville, Georgia, twice attempted to compete with his brothers on the football field. On Tuesday of that week, Selby practiced with the scout team to see if his injured left shoulder could allow him to adequately play his position. A day later, Selby welcomed a full-contact practice to determine, once and for all, if the right guard with 33 career starts would be able to start a 34th game and beyond.
"I could deal with the pain but I couldn't deal with the fact that I couldn't use my shoulder and I couldn't block people," Selby said. "I couldn't deal with the fact that I could let the team down by being out there and being selfish. I knew me being out there was going to hurt the team."
Selby injured his left shoulder Oct. 15 against Florida Atlantic. The verdict: torn rotator cuff. He needed surgery, which meant his collegiate career was over. He called his father, also named Michael, to inform him of the news. It was a difficult phone conversation.
"Football is part of who he is," Selby Sr. said. "I always told him that his self-worth is not based on what he does on a football field, it's not what defines him, but football means so much more to him than a lot of people."
The younger Selby's time on the football field dates back to when he was 7 years old. He didn't tower over anyone in flag football, but he was too big to stay at that level, so he moved up to compete against older kids.
Selby started at right guard. He played there all but one season - his sophomore year at Washington County High School. Instead, he starred at defensive tackle and looked to be a promising defensive prospect for colleges. He didn't play consistently there his last two seasons of high school football, though, so his major college interest came on the offensive line.
He entered the 2016 season as the Herd's active leader in career starts - one season at center and the rest of the time at right guard. He became known for his leadership and his toughness.
Levi Brown, also a Marshall offensive lineman from Georgia, remembers connecting with Selby on a recruiting visit. He also recalled seeing him on the field earlier this season at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, the third or fourth offensive drive of the game, and seeing Selby's ring finger on his right hand dislocated and pointing away from his other four digits.
"You keep going," Selby said. "When I went to the sideline they put (the finger) back in place and I didn't miss a play."
That dedication will stick with Brown, a center who played directly to the left of Selby and has rarely left the field this season.
"He personifies what a great offensive lineman should be," Brown said. "On the field and off the field, so this is heartbreaking. This is his last little bit of playing, this is all he's got, and it's heartbreaking to see it happen to someone I look up to."
Selby had surgery Oct. 31. He anticipates four-to-six months of rehabilitation, and then he will make an attempt to play football professionally.
"I have played four years here and this game has pretty much been my life," Selby said. "I think it'd be unfair to myself to not try and play at the next level. I love the game and I'm not ready to say bye yet."
Until then, Selby is an extra coach and voice for his teammates.
"I'm always going to give this team everything I've got," Selby said, "whether it's on the sideline or on the field."
He is still watching film, still encouraging his team, still traveling with the team so he can be with the team. It was days after shoulder surgery and Selby told his father he was going to travel to Norfolk, Virginia, to watch Marshall play at Old Dominion.
"He's four or five days removed from surgery," Selby Sr. said. "But he wanted to be with his team."
That is the heart and determination that will be Selby's legacy at Marshall University and inside the school's football program. Perhaps he will channel that into a coaching career down the road, but for now he is focused on his final weeks with his teammates; he has his mind set on rehabbing his shoulder; he has goals of becoming a pro at something he has loved since the days of outgrowing flag football.
"Don't count him out," Selby Sr. said. "Not so fast. He's that underdog. If someone doubts him, you don't know my son. You don't know his determination. I wouldn't bet against him. I'd put my money on him any day over somebody who has both arms working right now."This post is an example of classic religious “fart logic”. If you don’t know my expression “fart logic”, you might want to read the definition here.
___________
This weekend, I again heard a religious excuse which I have heard many times before. Two friends, from different families, gave similar excuses for why they send their kids to church. Neither of the families have significantly religious parents. In fact, in both families, one parent is an atheist and the other a minimal Christian at best. Yet both families send their kids to religious education classes and church services. And both friends, at different times this weekend, gave the following reasons:
“I just want my kids to be exposed to a religion so they can then later choose for themselves if they believe in religion or not.”
I didn’t say this, but I wondered to myself:
“Well, why didn’t you send your kids to the Jewish Synagogue or the Buddhist Temple or the African-American Methodist church in town rather than the exact same denomination you just happened to have been raised in?”
To me, the friends’ explanations are obvious fart-logic. The reason they gave probably did not significantly influence their decision but instead the major reasons for their choice are probably to be found among any or all of the following:
I want my kid to have my experiences
I want my kid to have morals and morals come from church and God
I want my kid to fit in with all her/his friends and society
I want to be looked at by my community as doing the right thing
I want to play my bets right, because what if God wants this. I don’t want my kid to go to hell because I didn’t think this out right.
I like to stick to the familiar
I don’t want my kids or family picked on unnecessarily, so we will just blend in
I don’t want to be hassled by my extended family about the whole issue
Besides these, I am sure there are more possible reasons. Feel free to suggest them in the comments.
Am I being over cynical, harsh, self-righteous and judgmental, or does anyone else suspect the fart-logic? I am not saying that sending your kids to church is necessarily bad, I am just pickin’ on the fart logic excuses used here. Of course I have no clue if the parents are actually aware of their fart logic or if they are consciously offering socially acceptable excuses which they themselves don’t believe. I wonder if they would confess to any of the other reasons which may be influencing their minds. All that said, may I say that I am sure I justify much in my life with similar fart logic — but I depend on readers to point that out.
Addendums:
A) I am not saying that going to church is the “fart logic”, but that the reason they put forward is not their real reason.
B) Commentors at /r/Atheist (reddit.com) tell me that they have not heard such excuses in European countries where the percent of sincere believers is much lower.Russia cut off electricity supplies to Belarus at midnight on Wednesday until Belarus fully repays its 1.2-billion ruble ($43 million) debt, Russia's electricity export monopoly Inter RAO said.
Russia cut off electricity supplies to Belarus at midnight on Wednesday until Belarus fully repays its 1.2-billion ruble ($43 million) debt, Russia's electricity export monopoly Inter RAO said.
Russia has prolonged until Tuesday evening the deadline for Belarus to pay off its electricity debt for April and May, threatening to cut off supplies if it does not, but no payment has been made.
"As of 10.00 p.m. Moscow time (18:00 GMT) no payment for electricity was made...We confirm that from June 29, at 00:00 Moscow time (June 28, 20:00 GMT) we completely cut electricity supplies to Belarus. We are waiting for Belarus to make the next payment in the next few days," an Inter RAO official told RIA Novosti.
Inter RAO halved electricity supplies to Belarus on June 9 as a warning and then threatened to cut off exports on June 22 as Belarus's utility Belenergo continued to run up debts amid an economic crisis in the former Soviet republic.
Belenergo transferred 600 million rubles ($21.2 million) on June 15 as debt payment for March.
Inter RAO said on June 21 it had delayed cutting off power supplies until June 27 after negotiations, and later extended the deadline until midnight June 29.
Belarus meets about 10 percent of its electricity needs through Inter RAO supplies.
The Belarusian electricity debt occurred because of the currency crisis which is hampering all transactions with foreign partners. Belarus says it has enough domestic currency. The problem is converting it into hard-to-find international currency.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said on June 28 that the Belarus electricity supply cuts were not politically motivated and simply reflected the interaction between two companies on a corporate level.Dagenham & Redbridge 0 Leyton Orient 0: Daggers and Orient to meet again in FA Cup replay
James Dayton of Leyton Orient and Charlee Adams of Dagenham & Redbridge (pic: David Simpson/TGS Photo) ©TGS Photo tgsphoto.co.uk +44 1376 553468
Emirates FA Cup fourth qualifying round: Dagenham & Redbridge 0 Leyton Orient 0
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Dagenham & Redbridge and Leyton Orient must do it all again after their FA Cup fourth qualifying round tie ended in a draw.
In a first half played at a good tempo, Orient were unfortunate not to take the lead after hitting the bar twice in quick succession.
The second half followed a similar narrative, with boys sides pushing hard, but unable to beat either keeper.
Daggers made three changes for the clash, with Kevin Lokko, Elliott Romain and Corey Whitely returning to the starting XI.
The trio came into the line-up in place of Ben Nunn, Fejiri Okenabirhie and Luke Howell, who both dropped to the bench.
With back-up goalkeeper Elliot Justham injured and third-choice custodian Lewis Moore cup tied, Daggers named academy stopper Louis Chapman on the bench.
Orient were without the cup-tied Mark Ellis and James Brophy, as well as the injured Jobi McAnuff for the trip to their local rivals, forcing them into three changes.
In their palace came Dan Happe, Myles Judd and James Dayton, while Zain Westbrooke, signed on loan from Brentford in the week, was on the bench.
Morgan Ferrier took the first shot in anger in the seventh minute, but the Daggers forward shot straight at O’s stopper Charlie Grainger from 18 yards.
Less than a minute later, the visitors went close when skipper David Mooney beat the offside trap, but lobbed wide of the far post.
In the ninth minute, Daggers midfielder Charlee Adams saw an effort blocked behind, which led to a four corners in succession that ultimately came to nothing.
Nine minutes later, the Victoria Road side went close again when Jake Howells delivered a delicious free kick, but no colleague could get on the end of it.
Orient, though, came closest by far, with both Macauley Bonne and David Mooney heading against the bar in the 23rd minute following good build-up play.
Ferrier was certainly causing the O’s defence problems with his strength, bulldozing his way through on goal four minutes later, but his effort was saved by Grainger.
With five minutes left in the half, Corey Whitely nearly opened the scoring in fortuitous fashion, curling a corner from the left just wide of the far post.
However, neither side were able to find a breakthrough as they went into the break with the score goalless.
Just five minutes after the restart, though, the hosts were unfortunate not to take the lead when Romain headed wide of the post following a free kick.
Two minutes later, Ferrier showed good strength again to fashion room for a shot, but ended up firing off target.
Romain was involved again in the 57th minute, drawing a wonderful save from Grainger with a glancing header.
In a period of dominance for the hosts, defender Craig Robson then headed over from a corner two minutes later.
Those misses were almost costly for Daggers as Macauley Bonne nodded over for Orient following a Dayton cross in the 62nd minute.
With 13 minutes remaining in the match, Whitely almost fired the hosts in front in spectacular fashion, shooting just wide from 25 yards.
Six minutes later, the former Enfield Town man went close again after another strong run from midfield, but again shot wide.
That was as close as either side came in the closing minutes to a goal, with Daggers and Orient to meet in the replay at Brisbane Road on Tuesday night.
Dagenham (4-2-3-1): Cousins; Ling, Doe, Robson, Lokko; Adams, Boucaud; Whitely (Howell 90+3), Ferrier (Bloomfield 74), Howells; Romain.
Subs: Chapman (GK), Nunn, Robinson, Okenabirhie, N’Gala.
Orient (3-5-2): Grainger; Sendles-White, Happe, Widdowson; Caprice (Westbrooke 88), Clay, Lawless (Boco 66), Dayton, Judd; Mooney (Sotiriou 90), Bonne.
Subs: Sargeant (GK), Clark, Ochieng, Dalby.
Referee: Thomas Bramall
Attendance: 2,529 (including 911 Orient fans).A Mock Draft Of The 2016 USA National Team
Excruciating decisions, but three phenomenal rosters.
As sports fans, there are few things more fun than speculating on the make-up of dream teams. With the US set to compete in the World Ultimate and Guts Championships this summer in London, USA Ultimate has decided for the first time to build rosters of true National Teams, selecting the best-of-the-best to represent our country in each of the Men’s, Mixed, and Women’s divisions.
Naturally, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to pick our own teams from the pool of players who participated in the tryout process. So we had Ultiworld’s own Charlie Eisenhood, Steve Sullivan, and Keith Raynor collectively select the US delegation as mock Men’s, Mixed, and Women’s coaches, respectively.
Let’s start this off with two huge caveats. First, we at Ultiworld have no knowledge of which players asked to be considered for which teams1. We conducted this exercise under the assumption that all players could be assigned to either team, aware that some of our selections may ultimately have chosen not to be considered for one division. Second, none of the three of us were at either of the tryout weekends, nor have any of us watched much raw footage from the events. To the extent that we are basing decisions off of tryout performance, we are reliant on the accounts of our reporting team of Ian Toner, Daniel Prentice, and Bryan Jones, along with videographers Tim Vothang and Justin Warnecke. In general, our decisions when drafting teams come from years of competing with or against and spectating the players in this pool.
Note that these selections are not designed to serve as predictors of what the National Team coaches will do; this was an exercise for us to act as our own coaching staff and draft our own players.
Steve Sullivan
While I think we all entered this exercise with the shared goal of building a full delegation of teams with the best chance of bringing three gold medals back from London, as the theoretical Mixed coach in this exercise, I came into the process knowing full well that the onus was likely on me to fight Keith and Charlie for the players we both would want. Knowing that, I set myself some goals for building the Mixed squad:
Come away with at least 1-2 world-class superstars that would immediately demonstrate to the rest of the world that the US takes Mixed ultimate seriously and will not accept that it be considered anything less than an equally important pursuit. Secure a few leaders who would command the respect of everyone else on the team, both as on-field contributors and as spirited ambassadors of the sport. Build a roster filled with players who have both demonstrated a commitment to or affinity for Mixed ultimate and who I believe would be actively excited to represent the US in a Mixed setting.
With those goals in mind, I started by coming up with my ideal Mixed roster — assuming, of course, that I didn’t want to completely compromise our ability to build dominant Men’s and Women’s teams. Charlie did the same for the Men’s team and Keith did the same for the Women’s. Then the negotiating started.
My first and – spoiler alert – ultimately fruitless overture was for Jimmy Mickle to lead the Mixed team. As one of the current faces of the sport — both for his undeniable talent and his gregarious personality — I felt there was no one player who would more completely convince the world that the US takes Mixed just as seriously as the single gender divisions. Furthermore, I believe that of all the truly top tier men, his skillset would most seamlessly adapt to the Mixed game. I made my case, offering to Charlie as makeweight the entire rest of the agreed top tier of male talent.
This offer did not work as well as I had – perhaps naively – envisioned.
For all the reasons that I valued Jimmy, Charlie also could not imagine a Men’s roster that did not include the singular epitome of the sport in this country. He’s not wrong. Jimmy is a generational talent on the field, is by all accounts a spirited competitor – language not-withstanding – and has a growing chemistry with the other top male talents in the country, as he, Beau, Cassidy, and Kurt enhance their bromance in Dallas. Beyond that, he has no history of demonstrated interest in the Mixed game.
In the end, I begrudgingly relented and agreed that leaving Jimmy to the Men’s team was best for the delegation. I probably knew that would end up being the case all along.
However, it didn’t hurt that Keith stepped up to offer me Opi Payne.
Going into this, I leaned toward Jimmy as the ideal face of the Mixed team, thinking Opi would be completely off the table. She is the female analog to Mickle — a strong leader, dominant athlete, and all-around compelling force — but perhaps with fewer like-for-like replacements. I assumed that she was an even less feasible pursuit than Jimmy.
Meanwhile, Keith listened to my arguments for wanting Mr. Mickle, largely agreed with my reasoning, and so offered Opi as a compromise for allowing Charlie to have Jimmy. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I quickly accepted Keith’s offer and, in turn, he ended up getting much easier negotiation from me throughout the rest of the discussion, as I truly felt he was working toward a shared goal. Perhaps that was his ploy all along.
By granting me the world-class superstar I sought in Opi, Keith was pretty quickly able to wrestle Rohre Titcomb and Jenny Fey away from my wish list. When I stood firm on Hana Kawai to ensure I had a dominant deep defender, I had to give up Calise Cardenas to do so. But I still got the leader I wanted in Alex Snyder2 and a couple of all-around studs in Georgia Bosscher and Robyn Wiseman — both can do it all and are completely fearless in a Mixed setting, which counts for a lot. I have a number of versatile female players who can play multiple roles as well as a few that I can count on in very specific positions. Landing Jaclyn Verzuh after Keith decided he was too worried about her current injury was the cherry on top for my massively talented female roster. Good luck, world.
I ended up keeping around 70% of the women I had initially hoped for and the series of trades Keith and I negotiated aligned with all of my stated goals, including allowing me to build a roster of ladies who nearly all have experience in Mixed: Nine of 14 who made the cut have competed in the Mixed division for a USAU Club Series while two others have previously competed in Mixed play internationally.
Keith Raynor
OPI PAYNE? ARE YOU INSANE, KEITH?
While I may be insane, I don’t think it is because I gave up Opi Payne. It is true that Steve’s arguments for Mickle were pretty compelling and made a lot of sense if you swapped the names. When I considered it, it seemed Opi’s skillset ported over to Mixed perhaps better than any woman, and men at the tryouts reported playing comfortably with her. She gives the Mixed team an elite defender, but also powerful thrower.
And as we saw, it bought me a lot of leeway to snag a lot of the other women I wanted. Ultimately, I wound up with eight of the top 10 women I hoped to build the team around, including a wealth of incredible handlers I desperately needed but that might have been wasted in the 1-2 female handler sets popular in coed.
My roster was pretty systematically arranged once I locked up my core. Krier laid out the U23 strategems and I was already apt to apply them, approaching the team construction like I would a fantasy football or baseball team. When I needed an elite downfield defender, I looked for Kami Groom. When I needed a frustrating handler cover, I found Kelly Johnson. Terrifying deep threat? Calise Cardenas and Sarah Levinn, you’re up!
One thing I considered when constructing both my roster and my vision of the Mixed roster for trading purposes was leadership. I wanted players who could communicate well, could inspire teammates, and help unite them. Opi, Alex Snyder, and Robyn Wiseman were all players I had to pass up in that regard. So I was really pleased to get Anna Nazarov, Claire Chastain, Emily Baecher, Leila Tunnell and Rohre Titcomb. I feel confident that their collective intelligence, familiarity with each other and their teammates, and international experience would help them take the National Team from a roster to a team.
I also wanted a stable of workhorses who wouldn’t have a problem putting their nose to the grindstone, even as role players. This helped me decide the final few spots on my roster, which were incredibly tough decisions. At that point, I was essentially cutting players and they were such exceptional individuals that I’d find myself literally gnashing my teeth.
Two of the surprises for my roster were Marisa Mead and Becca Miller. Not because of their talent, but because they both have had extensive Mixed success; Mead hasn’t played in the women’s division in two seasons. However, both fit needs I had: Mead is an excellent D-line handler who can play great handler defense and Miller is an explosive downfield defender who can cover midrange cutters. Especially after Mead’s tryout and Miller’s club season, it was tough to turn her away.
Offense: Tunnell, Chastain, Titcomb, Hoffmann, Cardenas, Desmond, Fey, Shofner, Jones, Jorgenson, Bitterman, Kiesow
Defense: Nazarov, Johnson, Baecher, Griffith, Jorgensen, Groom, Ruden, Mead, Finney, Slattery, Sherwood, Sharman, Harris, Davis, Miller, Levinn
In the end, despite giving away perhaps the best woman in the pool of players, I wound up with a team that I think would not only win Gold, but do so without a contest.
Steve
On the men’s side, the negotiations between Charlie and I felt far more painful, though they ultimately proved equally successful.
The easiest conversation was around Mac Taylor. Mac has been amongst the class of the Mixed division since joining Blackbird and has stated a preference to play on the Mixed team. Having him as a cornerstone of the Mixed national team was a no brainer for both of us. Similarly, Charlie amicably conceded Robbie Cahill. I like Robbie both as a leader with big game experience at the international level and as I guy who has played Mixed before. The idea of pairing him up on an O line with former Revolver teammate Taylor is tantalizing.
Once I had those two, it made sense to capitalize on chemistry and compliment them with additional Revolver difference-makers — especially since both Lucas Dallman and Simon Higgins started their careers with Polar Bears. I also snagged Nicky Spiva and Dylan Freechild, top end talents whose skills I think translate well in Mixed.
In general, I found that players on the male side of my roster fit more specialized roles than those on the female side, which I don’t think is a problem. If the men know exactly what roles they are being asked to fill, it will allows the space for some of our dynamic female talents to truly dominate on the world stage.
Again, I ended up with about 70% of the male players I had initially targeted, though did have to make some painful concessions near the top of my roster. After all our negotiations — some where I felt I won, some where I gave up players I truly wanted for the sake of the delegation — I still felt like I was one male superstar away from an ideal roster. Namely, I felt I was a Jeff Graham short from a nigh unstoppable Mixed team.
Purportedly, Jeff had applied for this tryout and was deemed ineligible due to the fact that he was not on a USAU club roster in 2015. I am not positive on the exact details here, but whatever the circumstances, I hate not having the ability to take the best available players who are interested in competing. While there are some players that have taken themselves out of consideration for their own personal reasons, it is incredibly unfortunate that a guy like Jeff — who is perhaps still among the ten best players in the sport, is widely considered one of the best and most spirited leaders a team could have, and who actively wants to be involved in representing his country — cannot be taken. Looking at my roster, I’m not sure there is a single guy I wouldn’t trade straight up for Jeff, given the opportunity. Incredibly frustrating.
I am also pretty disappointed in myself for not selecting more current male Mixed players. Despite it being among my overarching goals at the outset, when it came right down to it, I looked at who I had on my roster and who was going to be left at home not making either national team. I had every intention of using Mixed division experience as a tiebreaker between roughly equivalent players, but there were too many phenomenally talented, supremely spirited, and inspiring leaders from the Men’s division that I felt could not be left out of the delegation. Too frequently, adding them to the Mixed team came at the expense of players I was targeting that currently play in the Mixed division. Unlike the female side of my team, only half of the men have Club Series Mixed experience. I wonder — and hope? — if Jake Henderson will find a way to recognize more current Mixed players than I did.
Which leads me to my biggest takeaway here: deciding the final few spots on all of these teams was absolutely brutal. Once we had all settled on what we felt were the core of our teams, we still had a list of about 30 players we felt deserved to be on a roster — yet that list needed to get whittled down basically in half. What a disaster. I have spent many hours staring at this list wondering how I can possibly leave some deserving players at home and I still hate my answers. The only reason you’re seeing the list below is because we were at deadline. If the deadline had been hours earlier or hours later, I likely would have had somewhere between 3-5 different players on my roster. I imagine Charlie and Keith feel the same injustice. Just wildly unfair.
I can state without an ounce of exaggeration that the remaining players in our player pool could go to WUGC as USA Mixed 2 and still have a very solid chance to medal. I apologize to any player at the tryouts who ultimately did not end up on any of these lists and I sympathize with the coaches who will have to make similar decisions, with far more real consequences.
Charlie Eisenhood
Steve has already outlined many of the difficult decisions we had to make in bargaining. I felt pretty strongly — and made clear from the start with the discussion about Mickle — that the Men’s delegation really needed to have at least 8 of the top 10 players available. The fact is that we know what we are going to get from the countries most capable of winning gold in the Men’s Division: the very best those countries have to offer. Canada’s men’s team is going to be vicious, Great Britain’s core on Clapham nearly beat Revolver at WUCC 2014, Japan will be as dangerous as ever, and the list goes on.
You can’t afford to go up against these powerhouses without the best. That’s why players like Rasmussen, Mickle, Gibson, and Kittredge were off the bargaining table. Once I established that top tier, it became more of a matter of filling positions on the field and making sure to have a good blend of star types and role player types, who will be comfortable fitting into a team without a lot of practice time.
I have a set of handlers ranging from the eccentric brilliance of Brett Matzuka to the elite speed of Alan Kolick. The cutters — like Goose Helton, Peter Prial, Josh Markette, and BJ Sefton — are the best in their various roles. The bigs — Kittredge, Degirolamo, Stuart — are scary.3 The defense was a category of its own, and I couldn’t be more pleased with how the team turned out. From lockdown handler covers like Sam Kanner to grinders like Trent Dillon, the D line will be filled with talent. This team’s deep defense, featuring David Cranston, Hylke Snieder, Reid Koss, and Nathan White, has to be the best in the world.
I also have a sizable youth contingent; it will be interesting to see if Alex Ghesquiere has a similar selection. Less known players like Abe Coffin, Peter Graffy, Chris Kocher, and John Stubbs flesh out a roster with mostly established names.
One thing is certain: making the final few cuts was tremendously difficult. There were at least five, if not ten, players that I badly wanted to include, but simply could not find room for on the 28 man roster. The talent pool is truly exceptional. This process, in general, was much harder than I initially anticipated, and I think I speak for Steve and Keith as well when I say that we are not envious of the task facing Ghesquiere, Henderson, and Matty Tsang.
Still, we are proud of the rosters we created and do feel that each of these teams could compete effectively for a World Championship. Without further ado, here are the teams:
Men’s Roster
Abe Coffin
David Cranston
Tyler Degirolamo
Trent Dillon
Ryan Farrell
Christian Foster
Kurt Gibson
Peter Graffy
Jonathan “Goose” Helton
Ashlin Joye
Sam Kanner
Danny Karlinsky
Beau Kittredge
Chris Kocher
Alan Kolick
Henry Konker
Reid Koss
Josh Markette
Brett Matzuka
Jimmy Mickle
Peter Prial
Cassidy Rasmussen
Joel Schlachet
BJ Sefton
Hylke Snieder
Nick Stuart
John Stubbs
Nathan White
Mixed Roster
Sarah Anciaux
Georgia Bosscher
Robbie Cahill
Lucas Dallmann
Khalif El-Salaam
Dylan Freechild
Jack Hatchett
Simon Higgins
Sarah Itoh
Hana Kawai
Sally Lambert
Magon Liu
Becky Malinowski
Sarah Meckstroth
Simon Montague
Jonathan Nethercutt
Opi Payne
Lisa Pitcaithley
Matt Rehder
Amber Sinicrope
Alex Snyder
Nicky Spiva
Mac Taylor
Jaclyn Verzuh
Russell Wallack
Asa Wilson
Robyn Wiseman
Russell Wynne
Women’s Roster
Emily Baecher
Laura Bitterman
Calise Cardenas
Claire Chastain
Crystal Davis
Claire Desmond
Jenny Fey
Carolyn Finney
Sarah Griffith
Kami Groom
Meg Harris
Lien Hoffmann
Kelly Johnson
Jessi Jones
Kaela Jorgenson
Sandy Jorgensen
Courtney Kiesow
Sarah Levinn
Marisa Mead
Becca Miller
Anna Nazarov
Maggie Ruden
Claire Sharman
Julia Sherwood
Jesse Shofner
Dena Slattery
Rohre Titcomb
Leila Tunnell
So how did we do? We acknowledge that there are any number of other players who could have made these rosters — and apologize that we could not recognize everyone who is talented enough to represent the country in London — so if you’re going to quibble with our choices, don’t just name snubs, but discuss who could be replaced and how that swap would improve the make-up of these rosters.Some basic NLP techniques:
Now that we know what is and is not NLP and what problems does it face, we can start to learn which are the most basic NLP tools. In the next post we will apply these techniques using a Python NLP library called SpaCy. This post focuses on the concepts.
a. Stemming and Lemmatizing: this tasks consist of reducing different forms of a word to a common base form. For example:
In the sentence “I am a student” the process would result in “I be a student”.
In the sentence “My dog’s fur is dark” the process would result in “My dog fur be dark”.
Stemming usually refers to a crude process that chops off the ends of words in the hope of achieving this goal correctly most of the time, and often includes the removal of derivational units (the obtained element is known as the stem).
On the other hand, lemmatization consists in doing things properly with the use of a vocabulary and morphological analysis of words, to return the base or dictionary form of a word, which is known as the lemma.
If we |
23: Corby Town v Newcastle United XI
July 24: PSV Eindhoven XI v Newcastle United XI (at Corby Town)
July 30: York City v Newcastle United XI
TBC:
Sporting Lokeren v Newcastle United (pencilled in for July 24)
Newcastle United v Vitesse Arnhem (pencilled in for July 30)Zsa Zsa Gabor pictured in the 1950s -- the actress has died of a heart attack aged 99 (AFP Photo/)
Los Angeles (AFP) - Zsa Zsa Gabor, the Hungarian-born Hollywood siren perhaps better known for her prodigious love life than her movie credits, died Sunday after suffering a heart attack, her husband said. She was 99.
An emotional Frederic von Anhalt told AFP that Gabor had passed away at home surrounded by friends and family.
"Everybody was there. She didn't die alone," he told AFP by telephone, choking back sobs.
The pair married in 1986, making it her longest marriage.
Gabor, who in her heyday embodied the film industry's platinum blonde ideal, was a voluptuous former beauty queen with a penchant for lame gowns that accentuated her hourglass curves.
Her resume includes a long list of film roles in such hit movies as "Moulin Rouge," "Lili" and "Arrivederci Baby!"
But the actress was at least as famous for her conquests between the sheets as her triumphs on the silver screen.
Like her famous great-granddaughter by marriage Paris Hilton, Gabor was among the first celebrities to be famous for her celebrity.
Her thick Hungarian accent was much parodied -- especially her penchant for calling everyone she met "darling" -- or "dahlink" as she pronounced it.
It became her unique signature.
"I call everyone 'dahlink' because I can't remember their names," the socialite once said.
- Nine marriages -
Born in Hungary on February 6, 1917, as Sari Gabor, Zsa Zsa was one of a trio of ravishing sisters known for their shapely curves and passion for well-heeled men.
Her sisters were Magda, and Hollywood star Eva Gabor, who achieved greater acting success in the United States than her sister for her role in the 1960s hit television series "Green Acres."
Zsa Zsa also came to be known for her love of diamonds and frequently was photographed dripping in the sparkling gems.
During nine marriages and a prodigious number of affairs that made her a fixture in America's gossip magazines, she had just one child -- a daughter Francesca, fathered by hotel magnate Conrad Hilton.
She wrote in her 1993 autobiography "One Lifetime is Not Enough" that she lost her virginity at the age of 15 to Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.
"For the rest of my life, I would search for another god to eclipse him," Gabor wrote.
Her romantic scorecard was a "Who's Who" of Hollywood heartthrobs of her day, and her kiss-and-tell book detailed romances with screen legends Sean Connery and Frank Sinatra.
Gabor was known to be picky, however, spurning the advances of John F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley, John Huston and Henry Fonda, she wrote in her autobiography.
Her romantic dalliances even included a flirtation with screen legend Greta Garbo.
"She kissed me straight on the mouth. And I couldn't help kissing her back because she was so overwhelmingly strong and so beautiful," Gabor wrote.
In June 1989, Gabor made headlines when she slapped the face of a Beverly Hills police officer for giving her a traffic ticket. She was sentenced to three days in jail and ordered to pay $13,000 in court costs.
Gabor was briefly married to British-born actor George Sanders, who later wooed and briefly wed her sister Magda.
- Love, sex, romance, divorce -
The loquacious actress was known for an endless stream of bon mots, mostly uttered on the talkshow circuit, about her favorite topics: love, sex, romance and divorce.
They included:
- A man in love is incomplete until he has married. Then he's finished.
- Getting divorced just because you don't love a man is almost as silly as getting married just because you do.
- Husbands are like fires -- they go out when unattended.
- I never hated a man enough to give him diamonds back.
- I'm a great housekeeper. I get divorced. I keep the house.
- You never really know a man until you have divorced him.
Gabor, who had been in and out of hospital since a hip replacement in 2010, had several close brushes with death in recent years.
A 2002 car accident left the actress partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound. She also had a stroke in 2005. One of her legs was partially amputated.
In 2011, von Anhalt said he had kept the extent of Gabor's medical problems from her, so that she could enjoy the festivities in typical style.
"We had some champagne and caviar.. we really celebrated good," he told AFP at the time. "I knew she had to go to the hospital, but I didn't want to tell her anything."Singapore’s parliament is currently elected via a First Past the Post, Winner-take-all system combined with multiple-member constituencies for the majority of seats and single member constituencies for a minority of seats. This policy was put in place to make sure that minorities were represented and to prevent mono-ethenic political parties from gaining significant political influence but it has also had the effect of distorting the results of the election from the way the electorate has voted. It has allowed the PAP to gain almost 90% of seats with 70% of the vote and cut-out many small parties from gaining any representation in parliament
NCMP are a woefully inadequate solution as it doesn’t even come close to combating this problem as it only allows the opposition to gain 10% of the parliament even when the receive more than 30% of the vote and lack many of powers normal parliamentarians posses. One of the major power that NCMP’s lack is the ability to vote on changes to the constitution as demonstrated during the 12th parliament. A constitutional amendment was passed in 2014 on a party-line vote despite the majority party receiving less than 2/3rds votes because the distortive effects gave them more 2/3 of the seats.
To show how distortive this effect is, I have modelled 2 alternate version of the Singapore parliament below. The first one allocates GRC seats in proportion to their vote-share in the GRC using the d’hondt method, this keeps local representation and is easy to implement under our current electoral framework while also being more proportionate.
GRC allocated proportionally-parliament
*PAP should have an extra seat that isn’t included because the current speaker is a PAP MP
This prevents a slim 51-49% majority in a GRC gaining all the seats present in that GRC and greatly increases the diversity of political parties present in parliament from the present 2 to 7. The PAP still has a super-majority in accordance to their election results and are only slightly over-represented while the opposition has a far larger and more diverse representation. One of the main flaws of this system, however, is that good results SMC do not result in any representation as they can not be represented proportionally meaning that parties that focused on SMC’s aren’t represented as well as they should be.
My second model fixes this issue by treating Singapore as one huge GRC and allocating seats proportionally using the entire vote, this removes local representatives but makes the representation more representative of the populace as a whole and completely removes the effect of gerrymandering. Similar systems are used in countries such as Israel and the Netherlands.
Pure ProportionalRepresentationn Parliament
*PAP should have an extra seat that isn’t included because the current speaker is a PAP MP
This result puts the PAP representation to almost exactly the same as their vote-share and allows every vote to be counted and meaningful. It also makes it harder for the PAP to pass controversial constitutional amendments without compromising as a few defectors can prevent them from passing. The two Main-flaws of this system is that it completely removes any idea of having a personal MP whose jobs it is to represent you and can create unstable governmental collations as seen in the Netherlands and Israel. It’s two main strengths on the other hand are is that it makes every vote meaningful as there is no such thing as a safe area, where someone’s vote has no influence while also making the results in almost alignment to what the general populace wants.
Tell me in the comments if you think we should change the voting system and if so in what way?
*Data for all these calculations are here:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-mGv0ILQDN5ZlNUZERuYnZyeWs/view?usp=sharingAnother great weekend coming your way, folks.
I’d like to take this moment to say a very happy birthday to my hubby, AltDaily contributor, star dad, and all around good guy. He’s put up with this weirdo for a while; he deserves a nice weekend to celebrate. Happy Birthday, Mark!
In addition, it is Mother’s Day weekend. Tell your mother figure (whether that is your aunt, grandma, dad, friend, etc.) that you appreciate them. And while you’re celebrating, check in with your friends who have always wanted to be moms or want to be moms to more, but haven’t had a great time in the realm of pregnancy. This weekend is for them, too. To my friends who read this: I love you.
Thursday
4-7pm: Sample wings from area restaurants along with other food and drink items at the Wild Wing Fling in Portsmouth. For more, click here.
6:30-8pm: Celebrate the National Day of Prayer at the Hampton Roads Convention Center. For more, click here.
7-10pm: Head to the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art for a lively evening at ARTini 2015: Belles & Bow Ties. For more, click here.
9:30pm: Kayce Laine will be at the Parlor. For more, click here.
Friday
9am: The Virginia International PAN Fest kicks off this Friday through Saturday at the Oceanfront. For more, click here.
10am-5pm: Looking for flowers for Mom this weekend? Get her something that will last at the Norfolk Botanical Garden Spring Plant Sale. It goes through Sunday. For more, click here.
5pm: While outside of the 757, who wouldn’t want to mention an old-school rodeo within driving distance? Friday and Sunday has one for you at the NC/VA State line! The Gates County Rodeo should be a rootin’, tootin’, good time. For more, click here.
5:30pm – Sunday: Monsters arrive at the Oceanfront this weekend for the Kalbones Off Road Monsters on the Beach. The event runs through Sunday. For tickets and information, head here.
6-9pm: The Hermitage knows how to party, and this time they will transform for their spring exhibit. Find out more about Above the Fold Opening Party here.
7-10pm: Got a nice car you’d like to showcase? Head to the Night Moves May Meet at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex. Food, music and cars will be offered, but according to their write-up, no jackassery is allowed. Sorry, Mark – no b-day car fun for you. For more, click here.
10pm: Always jamming, the Taphouse offers The Wrist Cutter, Against The Crucifix, Clary Sage and more this Friday. For more, click here.
10pm: Also putting a beat into the night, The Fuzz Band will be at Pancho N Luigi’s for Funky Friday. For more, click here.
Saturday
9am: Get your morning walk while hearing some history in Portsmouth at the Steeple-to-Steeple Tour. Tickets include lunch and help support the HER Shelter. For more, click here.
9am: Love the beast they call the stair step machine? Want to help out a local nonprofit? This is the weekend for you! Step Up for the UP Center at the Westin Virginia Beach. I’ll cheer you on in the lobby while drinking a mimosa. For more, click here.
9am: Another cool event for the exercise gurus, you can race, walk, or paddle in Virginia Beach at Beyond the Paddle. This one also supports local charities. For more, click here.
10am: Enjoy the Elizabeth Riverfront in Portsmouth at the Gosport Arts Festival on both Saturday and Sunday. For more, click here.
10am-1pm: Participate in a cool, interactive workshop with Cuban recycled-goods artist, Lazaro Salsito. Salsito encourages the use of art as an escape from street life. Hosted by Artfully Yours, this family friendly event is only $5 a child ($15 total for a family of 4 or more). For more, click here.
10am-2pm: The City Center at Oyster Point in Newport News will be celebrating Mom at their Mother’s Day event. This should be fun for the whole family. For more, click here.
10am-5pm: Don’t miss the Strawberry JAMboree at Hickory Ridge Farm in Chesapeake as they offer you-pick strawberries, hayrides, pony rides, bounce houses, farm animals and more. For more, click here.
12-5pm: Have fun at the best Breast Fest at Hunt Club Farm. This is 21 and up only, but is free. There will be drinks, vendors, music and a decorated bra competition leading to the crowning of Mr. Breast Fest. For more, click here.
12-6pm: The Pungo Wine Festival kicks off at noon at Back Bay Farms. The Jesse Chong Band and the Brandon Bower Band will offer your drinking soundtrack. For more, click here.
12-6pm: Grab your records for the Norfolk Vinyl Record Exchange Swap Meet at Alchemy Norfolk. If you don’t know what a record is, go to this event and learn about the human race’s awesome musical history. For more, click here.
12-7pm: Spend your day at the Chic’s Beach Festival at HK on the Bay. Entertainment includes Keller Williams (which I always thought was a paint company), Cheap Thrills, Hey Hey Hooligan, and Plastic Eddie (I assume this is Barbie’s friend). For more, click here.
12-7pm: A street party is only as good as its beer, so this one will be fab! Join Smartmouth Beer as they release their Maibock beer, listen to music, eat food, and enjoy comradery. For more, click here.
5pm: Enjoy the Downtown Hampton Block Party this weekend with musical guests Fishbone with Rocky 7. For more, click here.
7pm: If you want to learn about Brackish water in Hampton Roads, I’d suggest heading to the Virginia Beach Aquarium. If you want to listen to Brackish Water Jamboree, make your way to Cure Coffeehouse and Brasserie for some bluegrass fun. For more, click here.
7pm: The Hampton Coliseum will feature We Are One Mother’s Day Celebration for a spiritual and uplifting show focusing on all mothers. For more, click here.
7:30pm: Grab the fam and head to the Ntelos Wireless Pavilion for the free showing of Disney’s BIG HERO 6. I hope to see many fist bumps, Baymax style. For more, click here.
Sunday
9am: The Kroc Center of Hampton Roads will offer a Mother Daughter breakfast. This is a free event. For those of us that only have sons, we can head to the playground and make mud pies. It is more fun anyway. For more, click here.
9am-2pm: Murphy’s in Virginia Beach will offer a special Mother’s Day Champagne Brunch. For more, click here.
11am-2pm: Charlie’s American Café will offer a Mother’s Day special with The Muddy Gems. For more, click here.
11am-4pm: The Pagoda Restaurant will have their own Mother’s Day Brunch on the patio with live music by Red Stapler. For more, click here.
11am-5pm: Celebrate with Mom at the monthly Street Festival in Downtown Williamsburg. For more, click here.
7pm: The Broadway Boys vocalist group will be at the Chesapeake Conference Center. For more, click here.
7:30pm: What would Mother’s Day be without a concert from R. Kelly? He will take stage with Demetria McKinney at the Hampton Coliseum. I hear he requested that bathrooms be closed for this event. For more, click here.
If you would like your event included in the Reasons, e-mail the information with the date of the event in the subject line to mermaidcitygal@gmail.com.
Facebook CommentsUPDATE: Facebook's CTO Joe Sullivan addressed this incident on a blog post on Tuesday. Read the full story here.
If you're a hacker and you find a bug in Facebook, you have the chance to submit it through the company's white hat disclosure program and get a reward.
But what if you've found a bug, and Facebook ignores you?
A Palestinian hacker took the inadvisable step of posting on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's Timeline, taking advantage of the very bug he was trying to report.
See also: How Hackers Can Turn Your Android Into A SpyPhone
Khalil Shreateh, a Palestinian developer and hacker, discovered that there was a way to bypass Facebook's privacy settings and post on anyone's timeline — even users who are not your friends.
He first reported the vulnerability via email to the bug bounty program. But the social network failed to recognize the vulnerability in his report, according to Shreateh's blog post.
Before reporting the bug, Shreateh successfully tested it by posting on the wall of Sarah Goodin, Zuckerberg's former college classmate. He included a link to this post in the email, but the Facebook security employee who received the email — identified only as Emrakul — couldn't see the post, since he wasn't friends with Goodin.
That's what Shreateh tried to explain in a follow up to Emrakul, warning that he could very well post to Zuckerberg's wall if he wanted. He added that he wouldn't "cause I do respect people privacy," he allegedly wrote. His second email, however, was ignored.
Shreateh then sent another official report, explaining the bug again. This time, Emrakul allegedly answered: "I am sorry this is not a bug." To which Shreateh answered: "ok, that mean [sic] I have no choice other than report this to Mark himself on Facebook."
And so he did.
The exploit got the attention of Ola Okelola, another Facebook security engineer. Okelola commented on the post, asking for more information on the bug. After a brief discussion, Shreateh's Facebook account got suspended "as a precaution," as another Facebook security engineer named Joshua explained to Shreateh by email.
"Unfortunately your report to our Whitehat system did not have enough technical information for us to take action on it," Joshua wrote. "We cannot respond to reports which do not contain enough detail to allow us to reproduce an issue." He added that Facebook would "unfortunately not able to pay you for this vulnerability because your actions violated our Terms of Service."
By posting on Zuckerberg's wall, Shreateh also violated Facebook's responsible disclosure policy — which prohibits people who discover bugs to take advantage of them and demonstrate the bugs on people's accounts without their permission.
"The more important issue here is with how the bug was demonstrated using the accounts of real people without their permission," explained Facebook's Matt Jones on the site Hacker News. Facebook has confirmed to Mashable that Jones is indeed an employee.
"Exploiting bugs to impact real users is not acceptable behavior for a white hat. We allow researchers to create test accounts here to help facilitate responsible research and testing. In this case, the researcher used the bug he discovered to post on the timelines of multiple users without their consent," Jones added.
Facebook declined to comment further. Besides, the bug was fixed on Thursday, according to Jones.
Shreateh won't be rewarded for his finding, because he violated the disclosure policy. A video showing how he took advantage of the bug can be seen below.
Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesAllison Steiner, a researcher at the University of Michigan, was sweeping her porch one day and pondering the abundance of dusty pollen. What does this fine-grained material do during the time it's in the air, she wondered, as any atmospheric scientist would. That train of thought led her to discover that pollen has an unexpected role in seeding clouds and possibly affecting the climate.
Clouds are centers of energetic activity, all kinds of itlightning, precipitation and windspowered by the exchange of heat between air and water. Melting ice and evaporating water absorb heat energy while condensation and freezing of water release it.
Clouds also reflect sunlight back into space to keep the ground cool, while at the same time blanketing the ground to keep it warm. In all their energetic, contradictory complexity, clouds are central actors in the world's climate.
But computer models of global climate stumble when they handle clouds. One problem is calculating how water droplets form in humid air. Water will condense out of air that is saturated in water vapor, but outside the laboratory, real droplets grow on seed particles of some sort. The droplets are extremely tiny, about 20 microns across, or 50 to a millimeter. Seed particles, called cloud condensation nuclei (CCNs), are a hundred times smaller, or 200 nanometers.
Pollen grains, being larger than that, always seemed like poor CCN candidates. But they're very common in the environment, as anyone with hay fever can tell you. Seed-bearing plant species, from the tiniest grasses to the tallest trees, release pollen from male plants to fertilize female plants.The Baltimore state's attorney's office said it is reviewing convictions in cases that leaned heavily on the word of the seven Baltimore police officers indicted last month on federal racketeering charges.
The announcement came as prosecutors have been dropping pending cases involving the officers, and as defense attorneys across the city have been exploring options for reopening cases where clients were found guilty.
"We recognize that these indictments will have pervasive implications not only on open and pending cases but closed cases as well," Melba Saunders, spokeswoman for State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby, said in a statement. "As such, we have already begun to reallocate resources in an attempt to evaluate and assess the magnitude of the impact that these indictments will ultimately have on both."
Saunders did not elaborate on the potential results of such a review. Some defense attorneys have been reviewing past cases in hopes of getting convictions overturned.
Some defendants charged by the officers with gun or drug crimes entered guilty pleas just weeks before the indictments were unsealed.
Attorney Marc Zayon represented a client who pleaded guilty Feb. 8 to a gun charge and received a suspended sentence and probation. Zayon said his client had asserted that he was wearing a seat belt when three of the officers pulled him over for not wearing a seat belt and allegedly found a gun.
"You have officers with clear credibility issues, but we were not aware at the time the case was set for trial," Zayon said. He said his client's constitutional rights were "impacted by the federal government's decision to keep their investigation secret."
The public defender's office has been reviewing its closed cases to determine if it should seek new trials or other "post-conviction relief." Last week the office posted a form online for anyone seeking to have a case reviewed.
Baltimore's deputy public defender, Natalie Finegar, said "potentially thousands of cases" could be affected. In addition to her office's review, about 200 people have contacted the public defender's office asking for help.
Many of the cases involve guilty pleas, Finegar said, but she said the pleas were "decisions made in the dark."
The seven officers — Sgt. Wayne Jenkins and detectives Momodu Gondo, Evodio Hendrix, Daniel Hersl, Jemell Rayam, Marcus Taylor and Maurice Ward — are charged with robbing and extorting citizens, filing false affidavits and police reports, and falsifying hours worked for overtime pay. They have pleaded not guilty and are being detained pending trial in U.S. District Court.
The prolific detectives, publicly praised by the Police Department as recently as October, were involved in more than 100 gun cases last year alone. Prosecutors in federal court quietly dismissed five cases involving the officers as the long-term wiretap investigation played out, but the Baltimore state's attorney's office was not aware of the probe until it was unsealed and announced.
The morning the indictment was announced, one defendant was weighing a plea offer when a prosecutor received a text message and asked for a delay. The case was dropped.
Warren Brown, a defense attorney representing Detective Gondo, noted that federal prosecutors have not made any accusations about the officers planting evidence as some defendants and their attorneys have claimed.
"I don't know if we're cutting off our nose to spite our face by pillorying these officers and making it easy for folks" who may have committed crimes "to get out" of jail, Brown said.
Other attorneys for the officers could not be reached or declined to comment.
Attorney David B. Shapiro said no one is saying "that the defendants are all choir boys or girls. But everybody should play by the rules, and clearly these officers were not."
Overturning convictions is a difficult process, attorneys say. When defendants plead guilty, they are asked a series of questions designed to make sure they are certain they want to proceed. The questions often include whether the accused is pleading guilty voluntarily, has been promised anything, and is in fact guilty. Those questions also make it harder to undo a plea, attorneys said.
Finegar said defendants may take a deal that accelerates their release from jail, or because they fear a worse outcome if they take a case to trial.
"Our system has become dependent on plea bargains," Finegar said.
C. Justin Brown, a defense attorney, said the state's attorney's office's willingness to revisit cases could be key to the cases getting a fresh look. Defendants may otherwise need to demonstrate specific violations, instead of pointing to the general pattern of allegations against the officers.
"As much as an outrage as the alleged conduct of the officers may be, it doesn't translate easily into a post-conviction or motion for new trial," Brown said.
Shapiro, who ran an ad in the Baltimore Sun seeking to get criminal records changed or win compensation for arrests, said those who outlined their claims to their attorneys or in court will be in the best position for relief. He is representing a man who in 2014 sent a letter to the judge in his case, alleging misconduct by Hersl.
Many defense attorneys say that even before the indictments, prosecutors were trying to prevent other accusations regarding the officers from being mentioned in court. Claiming that prosecutors failed to disclose such information about the officers could be one avenue to getting the cases reopened, attorneys said.
Prosecutors say they're providing the appropriate disclosures or asking courts for guidance when challenged by defense attorneys.
"I really think the state's attorney's office and Baltimore police need to own up to the fact that either they knew or should've known that they had seven rogue officers out there," Shapiro said. "Among the private bench, it was no surprise when these names came up."
Tyler Mann represented a man who pleaded guilty to a gun charge Nov. 30, when the federal investigation was still ongoing. His client had been in jail for months, and the offer was considered a "fairly good deal," he said.
"My case came down to questions of credibility," Mann said. "They say they saw him run, and saw him throw a gun."
With more information about the officers available, Mann said, "my advice to him certainly would've been different."
jfenton@baltsun.com
twitter.com/justin_fentonI stayed home from work today, my body was just exhausted from fighting off the evil glutens. One of my coworkers texted me, “Hey hope you’re feeling better. Whenever I don’t feel well I eat a donut, you should give it a try.” Damn you, Tom! ALL DAY I’ve been craving donuts. Real, fried donuts, not like the fluffy baked kind I’ve made before. Finally, I made my way over to the greatest website of all time: Pinterest. Somehow (as one does in Pinterestland), I found this recipe. DONE.
I ended up doing it a tad bit differently, making it both gluten and dairy free. I think the original author must have used a different type of potato, you’ll notice the color difference in our dough balls. And I didn’t have to use any liquid at all because by microwaving them in their skins they’ll retain a lot of their moisture. You may have to use a tiny bit of milk, but certainly not a cup as in the original recipe. Enjoy! (And for a variation in ingredients, scroll to the bottom and read how Jen made hers!)
Ingredients:
2 large sweet potatoes
2 cups of sweet glutinous rice flour
1/3 cup of buckwheat flour (you could use oat, sorghum or millet)
1/3 cup of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
Bowl of sugar and a pinch of cinnamon, for coating
Heat a large skillet on the stovetop with about 2 inches of oil (I used my cast iron skillet). This should be a low heat, I started mine at 3.5 and eventually brought it down to 2.5. These need just a little time to cook so we don’t want the outside to burn.
Stab your sweet potatoes with a fork a couple of times, all the way around. Set on a plate and microwave in 5-minute intervals, 3 times should do it. Let cool for a few minutes before you try to peel off the skin. In a large bowl, mash the sweet potatoes, and add in all the ingredients. Using your hands, mix and knead until you get a well-formed dough.
Pull off little chunks of dough and roll into doughnut hole-sized balls. You should be able to make about 2 dozen doughnut holes.
Fry about 6 at a time, for about 5 minutes, rolling them over frequently to prevent any one side from getting overly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate. Once cooled slightly, roll in the sugar-cinnamon bowl and return to the plate.
O.M.G. These are amazing. And the best part? Marco hates sweet potatoes. I had to physically restrain him from eating all of these so that I could get some to work. Go make these. Now.
P.S. – Jen made these too, but with a few different ingredients. She used 1 and 3/4 C regular white rice flour, and about 1/4 C of Raw Coconut Palm Sugar substituted for the last 1/4 C of the rice flour (this helps re-create the sweetness of sweet white rice flour, since she didn’t have any) and then she used 1/3 C millet flour. She also used a mixture of white sugar and raw coconut palm sugar in her bowl of rolling sugar. She fried them in a mixture of about 1/2 coconut oil and 1/2 vegetable oil, filled about 1 inch up her pan. Her recipe yielded 30 doughnut holes – about 10 of which her husband promptly ate.
Even with all of these changes, they still turned out AH-MAZING.
Oh – side note. These doughnut holes aren’t oily at all, even though they’re fried. This is be because rice flour doesn’t allow nearly as much oil absorption as wheat flours (you can read more about that here). Ha! Take that, Gluten!
AdvertisementsThe Manchester United midfielder has taken the long route to the top and believes Gareth Southgate’s young squad can compete with the world’s best
Everything is happening in a hurry for Jesse Lingard. First picked in a Manchester United matchday squad by Sir Alex Ferguson at the age of 18, he waited nearly three more years to make his debut, which was curtailed by injury after 24 minutes, and was a couple of months short of his 23rd birthday before he made a second first‑team appearance for United. Those four years brought four loan spells and enormous uncertainty about his future at the club of his childhood dreams – but then the doors started to open. And they kept opening.
Within a year of that second match he had played 46 more, scored an extra-time winner in the FA Cup final against Crystal Palace and another goal on his return to Wembley for the Community Shield, and made his full international debut. Now he has played in four of England’s past five games (he was an unused substitute in the other) and is expected to win a fifth cap against Lithuania on Sunday afternoon. He says of footballing success that “it can come quick, but other times you’ve got to be patient and wait for your chance” and it is a lesson borne of personal experience. “Marcus [Rashford] got straight in and then stayed there,” he says of his friend and team‑mate. “Others like myself had to take the long route.”
Gareth Southgate lets England players and Eddie Jones do the talking | Dominic Fifield Read more
Like his career, his body also grew slowly. Coming through at United he played with younger age groups because he was not tall or strong enough to compete with his contemporaries. He remains slender and, at 5ft 9in, short for a professional footballer, but that stature no longer holds him back.
Last year he described himself as “pretty much fearless” and he showed as much against Slovenia in October, his second England outing, when he threw himself at the 6ft 2in Aljaz Struna after the defender had pushed Rashford in the neck. “You’ve got to look after each other,” Lingard says. “You come on trips like this, we team-bond and get to know each other and it’s like family. We’re not going to let another team bully us or be tougher than us.”
Lingard was part of United’s FA Youth Cup-winning side of 2011, alongside Paul Pogba and Michael Keane, now at Burnley, who made his own England debut against Germany on Wednesday. “It’s great for Mike,” he says. “I knew his love for Manchester United growing up, and then he had to move on and get out of his comfort zone, but he’s done it pretty well.”
There were times when Lingard felt that he, too, would have to leave Old Trafford in search of opportunity, particularly after his United debut in August 2014 was followed by injury, six months on the fringes and then a fourth loan spell.
“About the time I went to Derby on loan I was thinking about it,” he says. “That year had to be a make‑or‑break season because I couldn’t play reserve football any more. I had to be playing against grown men and learning the game and getting that experience. So at the start of the season after Derby I didn’t play and I was so conscious: what shall I do? What shall I do? I spoke to my family and we made a decision.”
In October 2015, he replaced Juan Mata at half-time of a game at Everton, and everything changed. He became one of several emerging players to profit from Louis van Gaal’s willingness to trust young talent and Gareth Southgate is bringing a similar approach to the England side.
“Now we start from scratch,” he says when asked about the team’s long history of major-tournament failures. “We’ve got a young squad, a young manager, and for us as a young group we’ve got to pull together with the talent we’ve got and make the most of it.
England veteran Jermain Defoe set to return from international wilderness Read more
“We played well against Spain, we competed against Germany and we beat France, so we’re up there now, and when it comes to a tournament we’ll be on it. With the talent we’ve got in the squad, we can do damage in the game.”
On the subject of damage, Lingard’s video footage of United’s team bus being attacked by West Ham fans as it arrived at Upton Park last May became one of several contributions to social media that became viral sensations.
When, in February, Pogba posted footage on Instagram of he and Lingard dancing in the dressing room, Rio Ferdinand criticised it, saying: “Until you’ve won something you can’t go out and do stuff like that.” (Lingard’s elder brother, Louie Scott, runs a dance school in Thessaloniki and the player says his parents are both good dancers and that moves “just come natural”.) Ferdinand has since reconsidered and phoned both players to apologise.
“Fun plays a massive part in anyone’s life,” Lingard says. “I’m the type of guy that’s always having a joke, messing around but also when it comes to the serious stuff, you know, your head’s on the game.
“You train hard all week and in your downtime you can relax with your friends and have fun. Nowadays the papers pick up on it quick, and you can be quick to be judged, but you can’t really judge anyone unless you can meet them in real life. We’re happy‑go‑lucky people and we do what makes us happy.”
When you have overcome uncertainty to also make many other people happy, with their number including the managers of the national team and the nation’s most successful club, a little jig is perhaps understandable.I got the idea from this video, which I really thought kinda described things anti-SJWs were triggered by than the other way around.
1. Write a trigger warning for a trigger warning.
I remember my first time.
I didn’t think of myself as an SJW. I was just being nice. I knew there were people who might be reading my blog — real-life friends I knew — who might be honestly pained by what I wrote. And I figured there were others like them out there. So I put up a “trigger warning” for a post on rape in the Bible.
In hindsight, I gotta laugh my ass off about how “triggered” anti-SJWs became after seeing the trigger warning. They were beside themselves with shock and outrage. Typical comment from that type was, “I was going to read your post, but then I saw the trigger warning and [insert “triggered” language here].” I was pretty entertained by how offended this maddened crowd became. These days, I’m half-tempted |
peddlers out, I want to get the drug dealers out. We’ve got a lot of people in this country that you can’t have, and those people we’ll get out," Trump said. "And then we’re going to make a decision at a later date once everything is stabilized... I think you’re going to see there’s really quite a bit of softening."
18. I won't rule out a path to citizenship.
Asked September 6 if he'd rule out a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, Trump declined.
"I'm not ruling out anything," Trump said. "We're going to make that decision into the future. OK?"
19. We'll pay for the wall, Mexico will pay us back, OK? “The End Illegal Immigration act fully funds the construction of a wall on our southern border,” Trump said on October 22nd, outlining the plans for his first 100 days in office. “With the full understanding that the country of Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such a wall, OK?"
Current position: Trump says he will deport millions, but he has not ruled out creating a pathway to citizenship. He'll build a wall, pay for said wall, but later he'll get reimbursed by Mexico.
YOUNG UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS AND CHILDREN OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
1. Dreamers can maybe stay.
Trump wavered on what to do with the Dreamers — young undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country by their parents as children who are now afforded limited protection from deportation via the DREAM Act but no path to citizenship.
When asked if Dreamers would have to go back, he said, “It depends.”
2. Nope, they can’t stay.
By August 2015, that ambiguity was gone: “They have to go,” he said on “Meet the Press.”
3. End birthright citizenship.
Trump first proposed ending the 14th Amendment — the Constitutional provision that grants citizenship to those born in the country — last August. This is something few in his party agree on, and it's even more unclear how it would be applied: Does it apply to children of mixed status parents, where one parent is illegal? Or simply those with two undocumented immigrant parents? Would he revoke the citizenship of the estimated 4.5 million children born to illegal immigrants already here?
The Trump campaign did not answer questions from reporters at the time.
4. "American children" also deserve dreams.
"Where is the sanctuary for American children?" Trump asked during a late August rally while alluding Dreamers.
"The dreamers we never talk about are the young Americans. Why aren't young Americans dreamers also? I want my dreamers to be young Americans,” he said, offering up a rhetorical device in place of policy.
Current position: Deport children benefiting from the DREAM Act, repeal the 14th Amendment to end birthright citizenship.
PROPOSED MUSLIM BAN
1. No Muslims should be allowed to enter the United States —as immigrants or visitors.
Donald Trump called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” in a statement about “preventing Muslim immigration” in December.
2. Ban Muslims from entering but make an exception for friends and Muslims serving in the US military.
He later amended his stance in an interview with Fox News, saying the 5,000 Muslims serving the United States military would be exempt from the ban and allowed to return home from overseas deployments. He also suggested that current Muslim residents — like his “many Muslim friends” — would be exempt, too, and able to come and go freely.
3. The Muslim ban was just an suggestion.
“We have a serious problem, and it’s a temporary ban – it hasn’t been called for yet, nobody’s done it, this is just a suggestion until we find out what’s going on,” Trump said on in mid-May, softening for the first time in months on the ban.
4. Ban Muslims as a matter of policy, as well as people from countries with a history of terrorism.
In a national security address after the terror attack in Orlando, Trump said that if he’s elected he would “suspend immigration from areas of the world where there’s a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies until we fully understand how to end these threats.”
5. Ban people from countries with a history of terrorism.
When a reporter asked Trump how he'd feel about a Muslim Scot entering the U.S. while on a trip to visit his golf courses in Scotland, Trump said it "wouldn't bother me." He then went on to emphasize that he did not want "people coming in from the terror countries." When asked, Trump would not name one such country.
6. Ban Muslims from countries with a history of terrorism, and potentially also other Muslims.
That same day, when pressed about how his statement in Scotland jived with Trump's proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the country, spokesman Hope Hicks said that the ban would just apply to Muslims from countries with a history of terrorism. She would not, however, confirm that Muslims residing in peaceful countries would be exempt.
7. The Muslim ban was never about Muslims.
The next week, a top spokesperson said the initial ban was not about Muslims.
"I know the news media has been reporting that the initial ban was against all Muslims, and that simply was not the case. It’s simply for Muslim immigration, and Mr. Trump is adding specifics to clarify what his position is,” Katrina Pierson told CNN, though advisers at the time said it was indeed about religion exclusively.
8. Nothing has changed, nothing to see here.
“This is not accurate,” spokesperson Hope Hicks said when asked if the policies were changing and removing the word "Muslim." “There has been no change from the exchanges over the weekend.”
9. The ban is negotiable.
Then-campaign manager Paul Manafort in late May said the Muslim ban was negotiable, and how Trump initially articulated it was not what it would turn out in the end. Manafort said the policy is currently that "where there is terrorist activity — Syria or Iraq — we will temporarily suspend immigration until we can establish a vetting system in which we can identify who people are who are coming in."
The government already has a rigorous, nine-step vetting process in place for refugees. Trump has previously included all Syrian refugees, including children and non-Muslims, in the ban.
10. The ban would call for "extreme vetting."
Mid July, Trump told "60 Minutes" that people from suspicious "territories" would receive "a thing called 'extreme vetting.'" He did not describe how "extreme vetting" would differ from the current vetting process.
"Call it whatever you want," Trump told CBS when asked if he was changing his previously released policy.
11. The ban hasn’t changed, I just don’t like saying the word “Muslim.”
On Fox News in late July, Trump told Sean Hannity his position hadn’t changed from his initial ban on Muslims entering the country.
“I think my position’s gotten bigger, I’m talking about territories now. People don't want me to say Muslim—I guess I’d prefer not saying it, frankly, myself. So we're talking about territories.”
12. There's a ban, plus "extreme vetting" that includes an ideological test.
“The time is overdue to develop a new screening test for the threats we face today,” Trump said in a speech in mid-August that reiterated his call for "extreme vetting" and reiterated that he'd temporarily ban immigration from some countries that he declined to identify.
He then proposed an ideological test for immigration.
“In addition to screening out all members or sympathizers of terrorist groups, we must also screen out any who have hostile attitudes toward our country or its principles ― or who believe that Sharia law should supplant American law,” he said.
13. There's no way to really do an ideological test.
"We don't know if they have love or hate in their heart," Trump said in September, articulating the problem many onlookers have expressed about his ban. "There's no way to tell."
14. Only people who love America are allowed.
Later, despite acknowledging the impossibility of the task, Trump maintained that an ideological test is key to the nation's immigration system.
"We want to make sure we’re only admitting those into our country who support our values and love – and I mean love – our people," he said.
15. The ban has "morphed."
Trump was pressed on whether or not the Muslim ban still exists during the second presidential debate, and insisted that it was now only extreme vetting.
"The Muslim ban is something that in some form has morphed into an extreme vetting from certain areas of the world," Trump said, without actually saying whether or not the ban on travel still stands. "It's called extreme vetting."
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Current position: Trump will not say whether or not he intends to ban people of Muslim faith from the U.S., but he will say that "extreme vetting" will apply to people from certain countries. It's unclear where those countries are, what "extreme vetting" entails or how he intends to institute an ideological test for entry.
VISAS FOR HIGH-SKILLED WORKERS
1. H-1B visas are bad for American workers.
Trump’s immigration plan was published on his website in August 2015: it opposed the H-1B program, which allows non-immigrant visas for specialty occupations, arguing then that it was bad for American workers.
2. H-1B visas are good.
At the CNBC debate in October, Trump denied that he’d been critical about the program. “I am all in favor of keeping these talented people here so they can go to work in Silicon Valley,” he said.
3. H-1B visas are still bad, according to Trump’s unchanged website.
At the Fox News debate on March 3, some five months later, Fox News host Megyn Kelly pressed Trump on which of these conflicting views he supports.
4. H-1B visas are necessary: ’I’m changing.’
“I’m changing. I’m changing. We need highly skilled people in this country. If we can’t do it, we will get them in. And we do need in Silicon Valley, we absolutely have to have. So we do need highly skilled,” he said.
5. H-1B visas are definitely bad.
His campaign later released a statement reversing this shortly after the March 3 debate ended.
“Megyn Kelly asked about highly skilled immigration. The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: These are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay,” Trump wrote in a statement. “I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions.”
He reaffirmed this position in the GOP debate on March 10, one week later, vowing to end the program that he noted he uses himself as a businessman.
Current position: Back where he started — against the H-1B visa program.
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BORDER CONTROL AND THE REFUGEE CRISIS
1. The U.S. has a ‘humanitarian’ obligation to take in some Syrian refugees.
Trump initially said the country should absorb Syrian refugees.
“I hate the concept of it, but on a humanitarian basis, you have to,” Trump told Bill O’Reilly on Fox News on a Tuesday night in September. “But you know, it’s living in hell in Syria. There’s no question about it. They’re living in hell, and something has to be done.”
2. The U.S. cannot and should not accept Syrian refugees.
The next day, Trump said the country couldn’t welcome refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war.
“Look, from a humanitarian standpoint, I’d love to help. But we have our own problems,” he said on Fox.
During the March debate, Trump defended his changing view.
“First time the question had been put to me, it was very early on. The migration had just started. And I had heard that the number was a very, very small number. By the second day, two or three days later, I heard the number was going to be thousands and thousands of people. You know, when they originally heard about it, they were talking about bringing very, very small numbers in, and I said, begrudgingly, well, I guess maybe that’s OK,” Trump said. “By the time I went back and studied it, and they were talking about bringing thousands and thousands, I changed my tune. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
3. Close the border.
“I’d close up our borders to people until we figure out what is going on,” Trump said on Fox News the morning of the Brussels attacks claimed by ISIS that killed at least 28 and injured more than 270.
4. Don’t close the border, just be careful.
“I didn’t say shut it down — I said you have to be very careful, you have to be careful on who’s coming into our country,” he said the same day as the Fox News interview on CBSN, reiterating that people from Syria without papers shouldn’t be allowed in.
Current position: Against closing the borders entirely. Against accepting Syrian refugees in the United States.
DEFEATING ISIS
1. Maybe send troops in. Definitely go after the oil fields.
In Trump’s first interview after announcing his bid, he signaled that he’d both send in ground troops to Iraq and not send in ground troops.
“You bomb the hell out of them, and then you encircle it, and then you go in,” he told Bill O’Reilly, who remarked that the plan necessitated ground forces. “I disagree, I say that you can defeat ISIS by taking their wealth — their wealth is the oil.”
2. Bomb the oil fields. Send some troops in.
On CNN, Trump said, “I would bomb the hell out of those oil fields. I wouldn’t send many troops because you won’t need them by the time I’m finished.”
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3. Send troops to defeat ISIS. Don’t forget about the oil fields.
In a single August interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he offered three solutions for what to do with the oil field profits: keep them, give them to veterans and their families, or, when pressed, perhaps give some to the Iraqi people.
Months later, in a March debate, Trump ballparked the number of troops he would need to send in to defeat ISIS.
“We really have no choice, we have to knock out ISIS,” Trump said. “I would listen to the generals, but I’m hearing numbers of 20,000-30,000.”
4. I've got this! I know more than the generals.
"I know more about ISIS than the generals do," Trump said in November in Iowa. "Believe me."
5. Destroy the oil. Let our regional allies send ground troops. If they don’t, stop buying their oil.
In a foreign-policy focused interview with the New York Times published March 26, Trump said that the U.S. should “take” ISIS’ oil, but then said the U.S. should “knock the hell out of the oil and do it because it’s a primary source of money for ISIS.” Trump also ruled out sending in U.S. troops, saying that other countries in the region — “regional Arab partners” such as Saudi Arabia — should provide the ground troops. If these countries did not, the United States would stop buying their oil and withhold “protection” in the region.
6. Declare war, send in some troops.
"We're going to declare war against ISIS. We have to wipe out ISIS," Trump said in his first interview with running mate Gov. Mike Pence. "I am going to have very few troops on the ground. We're going to have unbelievable intelligence, which we need; which, right now, we don't have. We don't have the people over there.”
Trump said he’d involve NATO, despite the fact that he has said the U.S. should withdraw from NATO, and the surrounding states, as well. He added that Hillary Clinton created ISIS. (PolitiFact deemed this statement to be false.)
7. I'm going to ask the generals.
Months after saying he knew more than the generals, Trump said in early September that he'd ask them to map out a plan for defeating ISIS.
"Immediately after taking office, I will ask my generals to present to me a plan within 30 days to defeat and destroy ISIS," he said. "This will require military warfare, but also cyber warfare, financial warfare, and ideological warfare."
8. He's got a plan, and he'll tell you if asked.
“I’ve heard it,” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on MSNBC. “He’ll tell you if that question is asked. He’ll be happy to offer specifics without telling the enemy exactly what we’re going to do.”
9. Do more with computers.
Trump cited his 10-year-old's proficiency with computers to argue that the U.S. needed to better fight ISIS using the internet.
"When you look at what ISIS is doing with the Internet, they're beating us at our own game, ISIS," Trump said. "So we have to get very, very tough on cyber and cyber warfare. It is — it is a huge problem. I have a son. He's 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it's unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it's hardly doable."
Current position: It's still unclear what Trump's plan to defeat ISIS is, but it will involve computers and it will be tough.
GUNS
1. Get rid of gun-free zones
In a speech at the National Rifle Association convention on May 20, where Trump was endorsed by the country’s most powerful gun group, Trump promised again to do away with gun-free zones, which include schools and military bases. At a campaign stop in Vermont, he had previously vowed to get rid of gun-free zones on his “first day.”
2. No guns in classrooms, except maybe some guns in classrooms.
In an interview on May 22, Trump advocated against, and then for, and then against, and then for guns in classrooms.
“I don’t want to have guns in classrooms, although in some cases, teachers should have guns in classrooms, frankly,” Trump said, offering up two distinct views in an interview days after he was endorsed the NRA. “Because teachers, you know — things that are going on in our schools are unbelievable.”
3. I’m not advocating for guns in classrooms, but wait, yes I am.
Trump walked back his view that teachers should have guns a second later, then reiterated that some teachers should have guns.
“I’m not advocating guns in classrooms,” he continued. “But remember, in some cases … trained teachers should be able to have guns in classrooms.”
4. Let’s put trained gunmen in schools.
Forty-eight hours later, Trump sought to clarify his muddled remarks, saying he wanted “school resource officers” to have guns in schools while slamming rival Hillary Clinton’s criticism of his stance.
“The way she said it meant like every student should be sitting there carrying guns,” Trump said on CNN on May 24. “If trained people had guns, you wouldn’t have the carnage that you’ve had.”
5. We should only get rid of some gun-free zones.
While he decried gun-free zones as “offering up candy to bad people,” he backed away from axing all of them, telling CNN in the May 24 interview that they would only be eliminated “in some cases.”
6. More guns would save lives.
Trump has repeatedly said that he wished there were other armed individuals present during terror attacks to fight back.
“I think it would’ve been a lot better if they had guns in that room, somebody could protect,” Trump said after the San Bernardino shooting in December. “They could’ve protected themselves if they had guns.”
In the wake of the deadly shooting in Orlando, Florida at a gay nightclub in June, Trump reiterated this view.
“It’s too bad that some of the young people that were killed over the weekend didn’t have guns, you know, attached to their hips, frankly, and you know where bullets could have flown in the opposite direction,” he said on the “Howie Carr Show” on June 13, one day after the attack. “They had a security guard. Other than that there were no guns in the room. Had people been able to fire back, it would have been a much different outcome.”
At a rally in Atlanta on June 15, Trump declared that the outcome would have been different if “some of those great people that were in that club that night had guns strapped to their waist or strapped to their ankle.”
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7. I didn’t actually mean arming clubgoers.
After he spent a week advocating for arming more of the victims (who were predominantly clubgoers, in addition to several club employees), Trump tweeted on June 20 that he didn’t mean he wanted to arm clubgoers. Trump changed his stance just hours after the National Rifle Association pushed back against the idea of allowing people to bring weapons into nightclubs.
“I was obviously talking about additional guards or employees,” Trump tweeted.
Current position: More guns are better, though the details are murky and evolving on how many gun-free zones would be abolished.
'FIRST USE' AND NUCLEAR ARMS
1. I wouldn't strike first.
Asked during the first presidential debate about whether he'd support 'first use," an un-official U.S. prohibition on the use of nuclear weapons against enemies who don't have nuclear capability, Trump said he wouldn't strike first against rivals -- a completely different issue.
"I would like everybody to end it, just get rid of it," he said of nuclear weapons. "But I would certainly not do first strike."
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2. Or maybe I would.
Shortly after saying he wouldn't do the first strike, Trump then reversed himself.
"At the same time, we have to be prepared. I can't take anything off the table. Because you look at some of these countries, you look at North Korea, we're doing nothing there," he said.
Current Position: It's unclear where Trump stands on "first use," or if he'd be willing to strike first.
MINIMUM WAGE
1. Against raising the minimum wage. Jobs would move to China.
During the thick of the primaries, Trump repeatedly argued that raising the minimum would move jobs to countries like China. Speaking in the cold language of a businessman looking at his bottom line, Trump even seemed to indicate overall American wages, regardless of the law, were too generous already.
“Taxes too high, wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world,” Trump said in a November debate hosted by Fox Business. Trump clarified afterwards that he did not believe American wages were too high, but he did make crystal clear he was fundamentally opposed to a minimum wage increase.
2. Wages should be raised through economic growth.
Trump in an interview with CNBC in May said he would prefer to try to raise wages through economic growth. His abrupt move toward a possible increase that he opposed in tough terms is a significant general election shift.
3. Raise the minimum wage.
“I am looking at it, and I haven’t decided in terms of numbers. But I think people have to get more,” Trump said on ABC on May 8, acknowledging that his statement was a shift when pressed.
“Sure, it’s a change. I’m allowed to change,” he said. “But my real minimum wage is going to be — I’m going to bring companies back into this country, and they’re going to make a lot more than the $15 even.”
4. Get rid of the federal minimum wage, leave it to the states.
On NBC on the same day, Trump said more specifically that he wanted states to mandate wages.
“Let me just tell you, I’ve been traveling the country for many months. Since June 16, I’m all over,” he said. “I have seen what’s going on. And I don’t know how people make it on $7.25 an hour. Now, with that being said, I would like to see an increase of some magnitude. But I’d rather leave it to the states. Let the states decide. Because don’t forget, the states have to compete with each other.”
5. I want to increase it!
In a May 11 tweet criticizing Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Trump argued that he was "asking for increase" of the federal minimum wage.
6. States should change it, but it will hurt them.
“I actually think that the states should make the decision,” Trump said in an interview with a Seattle radio station, but argued that "In some cases, states are going to become noncompetitive, and they’re going to start losing maybe jobs and losing business, and they’re going to have to readjust. Otherwise, they’re just not going to have anything.”
7. Let's make it $10 dollars an hour.
As the Washington Post notes, Trump's shift here are lengthy and significant: He says he would support raising it to $10 an hour, argues he never wanted to abolish the federal minimum wage, which he did.
8. It should go up, but states should call the shots here.
In a June news conference, Trump said “the minimum wage has to go up. People are — at least $10, but it has to go up. But I think that states — federal — I think that states should really call the shot."
Current position: Raise it to $10 an hour, ignore what I said before.
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TAXES
1. The wealthy should pay more.
“I would take carried interest out, and I would let people making hundreds of millions of dollars a year pay some tax, because right now they are paying very little tax and I think it’s outrageous,” Trump told Bloomberg last August, noting that he’d be OK paying more taxes. “I want to lower taxes for the middle class.”
2. Cut taxes for the wealthy big time.
In September, Trump released a plan that silenced anti-tax critics with a proposal that slashed taxes for the wealthy by making the top marginal tax rate 25 percent. He radically simplified the tax plan by proposing just three brackets, 10 percent, 20 percent, and 25 percent. A whopping 67 percent of the overall cost of his individual tax cuts would go to the top 20 percent of earners, while 35 percent of it would go to the top 1 percent, according to the Tax Policy Center’s analysis.
His plan is estimated to cut $10 trillion in tax revenue, which would be added to the national debt and deficit over a decade (more on Trump’s flip-flopping position on paying off the national debt below). It’s unclear how Trump would pay for such drastic cuts, but Trump insisted he could do it by offering the vague promise of striking better deals and cutting government waste.
3. People like me should pay more.
Trump was asked again in April during a "TODAY” town hall if he believed in raising taxes on the wealthy. Despite the big tax cuts for the wealthy outlined in his own tax plan, he said:
“I do, I do, including myself. I do.”
In a series of interviews in early May, he claimed that his tax proposal was a starting point for negotiations and the taxes on the rich would go up.
On Sunday, May 8, Trump told ABC that taxes on the wealthy would “go up a little bit” in negotiations and that, as a wealthy person himself, he is personally OK with higher taxes. “I am willing to pay more. And you know what? Wealthy are willing to pay more. We’ve had a very good run,” he said.
He told NBC’s Chuck Todd something similar: It’s all negotiable.
“Under my proposal, it’s the biggest tax cut by far, of any candidate by far. But I’m not under the illusion that that’s going to pass. They’re going to come to me. They’re going to want to raise it for the rich. Frankly, they’re going to want to raise it for the rich more than anybody else,” Trump said. “But the middle class has to be protected. The rich is probably going to end up paying more. And business might have to pay a little bit more. But we’re giving a massive business tax cut.”
Pressed on that last, confusing point – that business might pay more but also get a tax cut – Trump said he meant more than his existing proposal: ”Excuse me. I said they might have to pay a little bit more than my proposal.”
He didn’t offer such a qualification for the wealthy until the next day.
4. I never said that. Cut everyone’s taxes!
On Monday, May 9, he went on CNN to refute what he’d said the day before.
“I said that I may have to increase on the wealthy — I’m not going to allow it to be increased on the middle class — now, if I increase it on the wealthy, that means they’re still going to be paying less than they’re paying now. I’m not increasing it from this point, I’m talking about increasing from my tax proposal,” Trump told CNN, insisting that overall there would be a tax decrease for the rich and middle class alike.
5. Maybe don’t slash taxes by $10 trillion — slash taxes by $3 trillion, instead.
Trump senior economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Wednesday at an RNC event that the tax plan had been revised to only slash taxes by $3 trillion — a third of what was initially proposed — and lower the top individual tax rate to between 30-33 percent, up from the 25 percent initially proposed but below the current top tax rate of 39.6 percent. The campaign did not confirm this.
6. Scrap the earlier plan entirely. Here are new tax brackets.
Trump took his earlier tax plan offline before a major economic policy address in early August, where he hiked his initially proposed tax brackets from 10 percent, 20 percent and 25 percent to 12 percent, 25 percent and 33 percent. These brackets more closely mimic his party's past views on taxes.
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7. Maybe ditch, maybe keep a $1 trillion tax cut for small businesses (depending on who is asking).
Trump publicly backed away from a trillion-dollar tax cut aimed at small businesses in order to optimistically claim that his tax plan won't add to the debt. But his campaign privately told a leading small business group he'd keep it.
His campaign then reiterated to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan group that analyzes tax plans, that he'd definitely get rid of it, according to a report by the New York Times on what they called a "trillion-dollar lie."
Current position: Despite Trump's frequent talk about helping working people, his tax plan so far seems to mostly benefit the wealthy. It's unclear whether or not his plan will include that small business tax cut.
CLIMATE CHANGE
1. I don’t believe in it.
”I don’t believe in climate change,” he told CNN in September after a long history of calling it both a hoax and a Chinese invention to undermine U.S. business interests. In May 2016, he vowed to “renegotiate … at a minimum” the Paris climate agreement, one of the Obama administration’s landmark achievements.
2. Global warming is threatening one of my golf courses.
A statement of environmental impact filed by the Trump International Golf Links & Hotel Ireland, owned by Trump, cited rising sea levels and extreme weather due to global warming as the reason the company needed to build a seawall to protect its coastal resort, Politico reported Monday. The sea wall is necessary protect the course from “global warming and its effects.”
3. I never said climate change was a hoax.
During the first presidential debate in late September, Trump denied ever saying climate change was a hoax perpetuated by the Chinese (though you can still read his tweet on the matter here.)
4. Trump believes in climate change, but not that it's man-made.
Trump's campaign manager offered a more common Republican theory to explain Trump's views: Climate change is real, but it's "naturally occurring."
Current position: Global warming is real, but it's not man-made.
NATIONAL DEBT
1. Get rid of the national debt in 8 years.
On March 31, Trump told the Washington Post that the country needed to eliminate the national debt and that he could do it “fairly quickly” without raising taxes.
“I would say over a period of eight years,” he said, arguing he could do it simply by renegotiating the country’s trade deals. “I’m renegotiating all of our deals, Bob. The big trade deals that we’re doing so badly on. With China, $505 billion this year in trade. We’re losing with everybody.”
2. Only pay down a little. Invest in infrastructure first.
Three weeks later, he told Fortune “you could pay off a percentage of it” in a decade but he wouldn’t advise being too aggressive because the country’s infrastructure needs to be rebuilt and it’s a good time to borrow.
“It depends on how aggressive you want to be. I’d rather not be so aggressive,” he said. “Don’t forget: We have to rebuild the infrastructure of our country. We have to rebuild our military, which is being decimated by bad decisions. We have to do a lot of things. We have to reduce our debt, and the best thing we have going now is that interest rates are so low that lots of good things can be done that aren’t being done, amazingly.”
It’s an argument progressive liberal economists like Paul Krugman could have (and actually have) made. Not only is it far from his original position, it’s far from his party’s view on the issue.
3. Pay off the debt by getting America’s creditors to accept less.
Despite the U.S. economy being fundamentally grounded in its ability to borrow at very low interest rates, Trump told CNBC that he would negotiate with creditors to get them to accept less than the full amount owed.
“I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal,” Trump said.
Experts say this idea is pure fantasy, no matter how good Trump’s deal-making skills are. In addition to imperiling the economy, the proposal could also be unconstitutional.
4. Don’t worry about it — the U.S. can’t default because we “print the money.”
A week after suggesting that he could get U.S. creditors to accept less than the full amount, Trump defended his stance on CNN by calling himself “the king of debt” and railing against publications that reported his earlier proposal.
“People said I want to go and buy debt and default on debt, and I mean, these people are crazy. This is the United States government,” he said on CNN on May 9.” “First of all, you never have to default because you print the money, I hate to tell you, OK?”
He then advocated for buying back some of the government’s debt at a discount, using interest rates to save the country money. It’s a strategy that works may work for businesses but would be more difficult, if not impossible for the U.S. government, economists told the Washington Post.
“I understand debt better than probably anybody. I know how to deal with debt very well. I love debt — but you know, debt is tricky and it’s dangerous, and you have to be careful and you have to know what you’re doing,” Trump said.
5. I won't try to renegotiate the national debt.
“We have to start chopping that debt down,” Trump told CBS in June. “I wouldn't renegotiate the debt. I'd negotiate, if I do a deal in a corporation, as an example, and if the economy goes bad, I'll oftentimes renegotiate that debt. But that's a different thing. That's just a corporate thing. And other people like me, very big people in the world of business, they do that.”
6. Take out new loans and pay back debt with new debt.
“I think it could be a good time to borrow and pay off debt, borrow debt, make longer-term debt,” he said in the same June CBS interview.
7. My plans are deficit neutral.
"It will be deficit neutral," Trump said of his economic plan released in September. "It will be accomplished through a complete overhaul of our tax, regulatory, energy and trade policies."
8. Maybe borrow $10 trillion.
One of Trump's advisers echoed the skepticism many had of Trump's plans: that they would cost a lot more than Trump's tax plan would bring in.
Tom Barrack, an adviser, said Trump's policies would increase the national debt by $10 trillion — money the nation would have to borrow to accomplish Trump's plans.
Current position: Either "chop" the national debt using an approach that is still unclear, or add $10 trillion to the debt to accomplish plans.
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ABORTION
1. Criminalize women who have abortions.
Though Trump said in 1999 that he was “very pro-choice,” Trump has consistently claimed that he’s against abortion, except for in cases of rape, incest, or to save the mother’s life, since starting his bid last June.
But during an exclusive interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews just after 1 p.m., Trump struggled to define his views on abortion aside from describing himself as “pro-life.” When continually pressed for how he’d handle women who violated a theoretical ban on abortion, Trump said the “answer is that there has to be some form of punishment, yeah.”
2. Let the states decide what to do about criminalizing abortion.
At 3:36 p.m., Trump put out a statement saying the issue is “unclear and should be put back into the states for determination.”
3. Never mind. Don’t punish the women.
He fully walked back his position |
running back Joe Cribbs also defected to the USFL, a loss incoming head coach Kay Stephenson unsuccessfully attempted to stop in court. In a 1984 article in The Buffalo News announcing Greg Bell's signing with the Bills, owner Ralph Wilson stated that the team was not yet in jeopardy, but that attendance would have to remain high, and television revenues would have to continue coming in for the team to survive. In 1984 and 1985, the Bills went 2–14. By this point, attendance at Rich Stadium had fallen to under 30,000 fans per game for most of the 1985 season, leaving the team's long-term future in doubt. Wilson was fielding offers, including one from Leonard Tose to trade the Bills for the Philadelphia Eagles.[7] Steve Tasker, who joined in 1986, recalled that "being acquired by Buffalo was akin to being sentenced to prison in Siberia" because of the team's poor record at the time and Buffalo's bad weather.[8]
1986–1997: Marv Levy–Jim Kelly era [ edit ]
Among the names that Buffalo picked up after the USFL's demise in 1986 were general manager Bill Polian, head coach Marv Levy (both from the Chicago Blitz), special teams coach Bruce DeHaven, starting quarterback Jim Kelly (of the Houston Gamblers), center Kent Hull (of the New Jersey Generals), and linebacker Ray Bentley (of the Oakland Invaders), all of whom joined the Bills for the 1986 season. Midway through the 1986 season, the Bills fired coach Hank Bullough and replaced him with Levy, who in addition to the Blitz had also previously coached the Kansas City Chiefs and Montreal Alouettes. Levy and Polian put together a receiving game featuring Andre Reed, a defense led by first-overall draft pick Bruce Smith, and a top-flight offensive line, led by Hull along with Jim Ritcher, Will Wolford and Howard "House" Ballard.
After the strike year of 1987, in 1988, the rookie season of running back Thurman Thomas, the Bills went 12–4 and finished atop the AFC East for the first of four consecutive seasons. After a 17-10 victory over the Houston Oilers in the divisional playoff, they lost the AFC championship 21-10 to the Cincinnati Bengals.
1989 was a relative disappointment, with a 9–7 record and a divisional playoff loss to the Cleveland Browns. The Bills had a chance to win the game as time was running out, but Ronnie Harmon dropped a Kelly pass in the corner of the end zone. During this season, the Bills were called the "Bickering Bills" by the fans and media due to significant infighting among the players and coaches throughout the season.[9]
The Super Bowl years [ edit ]
1990 [ edit ]
In 1990, the Bills switched to a no huddle, hurry-up offense (frequently with Kelly in the shotgun formation, the "K-gun", named for tight end Keith McKeller and not Jim Kelly[10]), and it led the Bills' offense to one of the best in the league; their 428 points (26.75 points per game) scored was first in the league. The team finished 13–3, and behind their no-huddle attack, beat the Miami Dolphins 44-34 and blew out the Los Angeles Raiders 51–3 in the playoffs on their way to Super Bowl XXV. The Bills were favorites to beat the New York Giants (whom they had beaten on the road during the regular season), but the defensive plan laid out by Giants coach Bill Parcells and defensive coordinator Bill Belichick kept Buffalo in check (and without the ball) for much of the game. The game featured many lead changes, and with the score 20–19 in favor of New York with eight seconds left, Bills kicker Scott Norwood attempted a 47-yard field goal. His kick sailed wide right, less than a yard outside of the goalpost upright.
1991 [ edit ]
The Bills won their fourth consecutive AFC East title in 1991, finishing 13–3 again and with Thurman Thomas winning a couple of awards. In the playoffs, they routed the Kansas City Chiefs 37-14 in the divisional round and beat the Denver Broncos in a defensive struggle, 10-7, in the AFC Championship. The Bills looked to avenge their heartbreaking Super Bowl loss a year earlier by playing the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XXVI, but it was not to be. The Redskins opened up a 17–0 halftime lead and never looked back, handing the Bills a 37–24 loss. Early in that game, Thurman Thomas lost his helmet and had to sit out the first two plays, making the Bills the butt of jokes nationwide.[11]
1992 [ edit ]
The Bills lost the 1992 AFC East title to the Miami Dolphins and Jim Kelly was injured in the final game of the regular season. Backup quarterback Frank Reich started their wild card playoff game against the Houston Oilers, and they were down 35–3 early in the third quarter. But the Bills rallied behind Reich, taking the lead late in the 4th quarter and winning the game in overtime 41-38. The 35-3 deficit remains, to this day, the largest deficit (32 points) overcome to win a game in NFL history. Buffalo then defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 24-3 in the divisional playoff and upset the archrival Dolphins 29-10 in the AFC Championship to advance to their third straight Super Bowl. Super Bowl XXVII, played against the Dallas Cowboys, turned out to be a mismatch. Buffalo committed a Super Bowl-record 9 turnovers en route to a 52–17 loss, becoming the first team in NFL history to lose three consecutive Super Bowls. One of the sole bright spots for the Bills was Don Beebe's rundown and strip of Leon Lett after Lett had returned a fumble inside the Bills' 5-yard line and was on his way to scoring. Lett started celebrating too early and held the ball out long enough for Beebe, who had made up a considerable distance to get to Lett, to knock it out of his hand. The play resulted in a touchback, not a touchdown, thus stopping Dallas from breaking the record for most points scored by a team in a Super Bowl (55), which was set three years earlier and is still held today by the San Francisco 49ers.
1993 [ edit ]
The Bills won the AFC East championship in 1993 with a 12–4 record, and again won playoff games against the Los Angeles Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs, setting up a rematch with the Cowboys in Super Bowl XXVIII on January 30, 1994. The Bills became the only team ever to play in four straight Super Bowls, and in this game became the first team to face the same team in 2 straight Super Bowls, and looked ready to finally win one when they led at halftime. A Thurman Thomas fumble returned for a touchdown by James Washington tied the game, with Super Bowl MVP Emmitt Smith taking over the rest of the game for the Cowboys and the Bills were stunned again, 30–13.
1994–97: Decline [ edit ]
The four consecutive failures to win the title game, despite a 14–2 regular-season record against the NFC, inspired many jokes. Tasker recalled that when he made motivational speeches to groups of children, "invariably, some little guy raises his hand. He goes, 'Do you know what Bills stands for?' and I've heard it a hundred times. I go, 'No, what?' He goes 'Boy, I Love Losing Super Bowls'." A player denounced the team's poor reputation: "They still consider us losers. That is the most unfair statement that I've ever seen or heard or read in my life". Andrea Kremer recalled, however, that "I don't think there's any doubt that America, that the national fan base, turned their back on the Bills. They're just tired of it".[12][13] The Bills would not get a chance to make it five straight in 1994. The team stumbled down the stretch and finished 7–9, fourth in the division and out of the playoffs. During this period Tasker established himself year in and year out as the league's top special teams performer.
In 1995, Buffalo signed free agent linebacker Bryce Paup to anchor the defense. The expansion Carolina Panthers ended up selecting several key Bills contributors (backup quarterback Frank Reich, wide receiver Don Beebe and tight end Pete Metzelaars) in the expansion draft, where they formed the core of that team's inaugural roster.
The Bills again made the playoffs with a 10–6 record, and defeated Miami in the wild card round. They would not get a chance to get back to the Super Bowl—the Pittsburgh Steelers, who went on to advance to the Super Bowl, beat Buffalo in the divisional playoffs 40–21.
In 1996, the Bills saw their commanding lead in the AFC East race disappear to a surging New England Patriots team; the Bills won against the Patriots in September, then in late October the Patriots won after three touchdowns were scored in the final 85 seconds. The Bills still made the playoffs as the Wild Card home team; they became the first victim of the cinderella Jacksonville Jaguars, the first (and as of the present only) visiting team ever to win a playoff game at Rich Stadium. Jim Kelly retired after the season after the Bills management told him they were moving in a new direction and wanted him to help develop a younger QB to take over, signaling an end to the most successful era in Bills history. Thurman Thomas gave way to new running back Antowain Smith. Kelly's loss was felt in 1997, when his replacement Todd Collins faltered and the Bills stumbled to 6–10. Coach Marv Levy retired after the season.
1998–2000: The Wade Phillips-Doug Flutie era [ edit ]
1998 [ edit ]
Doug Flutie quarterbacked the Bills for three years, including the last two playoff appearances to date, amid controversy.
The Bills, under new coach Wade Phillips signed two quarterbacks for the 1998 season, one that Buffalo traded a high first round pick for, and one that was signed as almost an afterthought. The former was for Jaguars backup Rob Johnson and the latter was former Heisman Trophy winner and Canadian Football League star Doug Flutie. Despite many Bills fans wanting Flutie to get the starting job after Flutie looked the better of the two QBs in camp and in preseason, Phillips named Johnson to the position. The Bills stumbled to begin the season 0-3, and after Johnson suffered a rib injury against the Indianapolis Colts, Flutie came in and led the Bills to a playoff spot and a 10–6 record. They faltered in their first playoff game against the Miami Dolphins.
1999 [ edit ]
Flutie's popularity continued into the 1999 season, with the Bills finishing 11–5, two games behind the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC East standings. Wade Phillips gave Rob Johnson the starting quarterback job in the first round playoff game against the Tennessee Titans even though Flutie had won 10 games and had gotten the Bills into the playoffs. The Bills scored a field goal with 16 seconds left to give them a 16–15 lead. But the Titans won the game on a controversial play that became to be known as the "Music City Miracle": During the ensuing kickoff, Frank Wycheck lateraled the ball to Kevin Dyson who then scored the winning touchdown. Although Wycheck's pass was close to an illegal forward lateral, replays were ruled inconclusive and the call on the field was upheld as a touchdown.[14] The Titans went on to advance to the Super Bowl. Until 2018, this was the last appearance by the Bills in the postseason.
2000 [ edit ]
The final ties to the Bills' Super Bowl years were severed in 2000, when Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed and Bruce Smith were all cut. Antowain Smith, Eric Moulds, and Marcellus Wiley respectively had long since eclipsed them on the depth chart. After an 8–8 season, and the team still caught up in the Johnson vs. Flutie controversy, general manager John Butler departed for the San Diego Chargers—and took Flutie and Wiley with him, among many other Bills contributors. Doug Flutie left the Bills with a.677 winning percentage in 31 starts. Antowain Smith also left as a free agent for the New England Patriots, where he was the starting running back on their first two Super Bowl championship teams. Both Flutie and Smith were dominant in their final game as Bills, in a 42–23 victory over the Seattle Seahawks. Thomas would be quickly replaced by rookie Travis Henry.
2001–2014: The Playoff Drought and Ralph Wilson's final years [ edit ]
2001–04: The Tom Donahoe era [ edit ]
In 2001, following the departure of John Butler, team owner Ralph Wilson announced his retirement as president of the organization and handed the reins of his franchise to Tom Donahoe, a former executive with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The move turned out to be disastrous. Donahoe (just a year after the team had released three eventual Hall of Famers in a salary cap move) proceeded to gut the franchise of most of its remaining recognizable talent and replaced it with young, inexperienced, unknown lower-end players, much of which joined Butler in San Diego that year, and installed Rob Johnson as the starting quarterback. The team went from playoff contenders to a 31–49 record during Donahoe's five-year tenure.
2001 [ edit ]
Titans defensive coordinator Gregg Williams took over as head coach for the 2001 season, which proved to be the worst in recent memory for the Bills. Rob Johnson went down in mid-season with an injury and Alex Van Pelt took over. Buffalo finished 3–13. The Bills even lost a much-hyped mid-season match up with "Bills West" (the Flutie-led Chargers). After the season, they traded for quarterback Drew Bledsoe, deemed expendable by the Patriots after Tom Brady led them to a Super Bowl victory.
Bledsoe revived the Bills for the 2002 season, leading them to an 8–8 record, setting 10 team passing records in the process. However, in a tough division with all other teams finishing 9–7, they were still in last place. Another Patriots castoff, safety Lawyer Milloy, who joined the Bills days before the 2003 season began, gave the team an immediate boost on defense. After beating eventual champions New England 31–0 in the first game, and crushing the Jaguars in their second game, play-by-play announcer Van Miller immediately announced his retirement as of the end of the season, expecting the team to have a shot at the title. However, the Bills stumbled through the rest of the season, finishing 6–10. In fact their season had ended the exact opposite of the beginning as they were trounced by New England 31–0. In one game, however, the Bills' fans gained a small measure of satisfaction when the defense sacked Rob Johnson multiple times in his relief effort for the Washington Redskins.
2004 [ edit ]
J. P. Losman was the first in a string of unsuccessful Bills quarterbacks in the 2000s.
Gregg Williams was fired as head coach after the 2003 season and replaced with Mike Mularkey. The Bills also drafted another quarterback, J. P. Losman, to be used if Bledsoe continued to struggle in 2004. Unfortunately, Losman broke his leg in the pre-season and missed most of the regular season, seeing very limited action.
Bledsoe continued to struggle in 2004. The Bills started the 2004 season 0–4, with Bledsoe and his offense struggling in their run-first offense, averaging only 13 points per game. Additionally, each loss was heartbreakingly close. The team finally managed to turn things around with a victory at home against the also winless Miami Dolphins. This, along with the emergence of Willis McGahee (a first round-pick and a gamble by the Bills due to the knee injury that McGahee suffered in his last college game) taking over the starting running back role from the injured Travis Henry, and emergence of Lee Evans to give the Bills a second deep threat, sparked the Bills to go 9–2 in their next eleven games. This string of victories allowed the Bills to be in the hunt for a final AFC wildcard playoff spot. Though they would lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the final game of the season, costing them a playoff berth and devastating the fans, the late season surge gave the team a positive direction to approach 2005.
After the season, wanting to go in a younger direction and unhappy with Drew Bledsoe's overall performance, the Bills decided to hand the starting quarterback reins to J. P. Losman. This angered Bledsoe, who demanded his release, which the Bills granted. Bledsoe then signed with the Dallas Cowboys, reuniting him with his former New England Patriots coach Bill Parcells.
2005–07: Marv Levy returns to the fold [ edit ]
2005 [ edit ]
Losman's development did not proceed as quickly as the Bills had hoped it would. He began the 2005 season 1–3 as a starter, prompting Kelly Holcomb to replace him. Losman would not see action again until Holcomb was injured in Week 10 against the Kansas City Chiefs. He led the Bills to a win in that game, but would again be replaced by Holcomb after losing the next several games. Perhaps the low point of Losman's season was a 24–23 loss to the Miami Dolphins, a game in which Buffalo led 21–0 and 23–3, but gave up 21 unanswered points in the 4th quarter. Buffalo's 2005 campaign resulted in a 5–11 record and the firing of General Manager Tom Donahoe in January 2006. Marv Levy was named as his replacement, with hopes that he would improve a franchise that failed to make the playoffs during Donahoe's tenure. That same month, Mike Mularkey resigned as head coach, citing family reasons along with disagreement over the direction of the organization. Dick Jauron was hired as his replacement.
2006–07: Dick Jauron becomes coach [ edit ]
The Buffalo Bills' uniforms from 2001 to 2010.
The 2006 and 2007 seasons both brought 7–9 records under Jauron's coaching, having been eliminated from playoff contention in December in both years. 2006 saw the additions of Donte Whitner, Ko Simpson, Ashton Youboty, Anthony Hargrove and Kyle Williams to the defensive corps while 2007 brought in Trent Edwards to quarterback the offense, rookie first-round draft pick Marshawn Lynch, second-round pick Paul Posluszny, offensive linemen Derrick Dockery and Langston Walker, and backup running back Fred Jackson. J. P. Losman played all 16 games in 2006 but was benched in early 2007 in favor of Edwards.
At the end of the 2007 season, Levy retired once again, citing the fact that he had reached the end of his two-year contract. Meanwhile, offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild, a frequent fan target for the Bills' offensive woes, was hired as head coach of Colorado State University's football program. Offensive line coach Jim McNally retired shortly after the end of the season. All of those positions were filled from within, with Turk Schonert promoted to offensive coordinator.
2008–09: Toronto and Terrell Owens [ edit ]
2008 [ edit ]
One of the most notable moves in the league occurred during the 2008 offseason, when league officials approved an October 2007 proposal by Bills owner Ralph Wilson to lease his team to Canadian media mogul Edward S. "Ted" Rogers, Jr. to play an annual regular season game and a biennial preseason game in Toronto, Ontario, Canada's Rogers Centre over the next five years, in exchange for a sum of C$78,000,000 cash. The games began during the 2008 season. Notable additions to the roster for 2008 include linebacker Kawika Mitchell, acquired as a free agent from the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants, and defensive tackle Marcus Stroud, in addition to draft picks, cornerback Leodis McKelvin and wide receiver James Hardy. The Bills started extremely well that season, starting out with a 5–1 record before their bye week and showing promise in Trent Edwards as finally being a capable quarterback for the Bills. However, Edwards suffered a concussion from a huge hit in a game against the Arizona Cardinals. The team then went 2–8 in their last games, earning them another 7–9 record, which then resulted in the longest active streak of missed playoffs at the time.
2009 [ edit ]
On March 7, 2009 the Buffalo Bills made a major splash in the free agency market when it acquired veteran wide receiver Terrell Owens, who had recently been released by the Dallas Cowboys and is known as much for his elaborate touchdown celebrations as he is for his on-the-field play. Owens was signed to a one-year deal. In addition, former starting quarterback J. P. Losman, by this point relegated to third string behind Trent Edwards and Gibran Hamdan, was allowed to become a free agent. In the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft, the Bills selected defensive end/linebacker Aaron Maybin from Penn State with the 11th overall pick and center Eric Wood of Louisville with the 28th overall pick. Buffalo also selected free safety Jarius Byrd of Oregon, guard Andy Levitre of Oregon State, tight end Shawn Nelson of Southern Mississippi, and cornerbacks Cary Harris of USC and Ellis Lankster of West Virginia. As the season began, Terrell Owens proved to disappoint for most of the season, and the offensive line suffered from severe turnover, leading the team to stumble to a 3–6 start, after which the Bills fired head coach Dick Jauron midseason. Overall, Owens' stats for 2009 were modest: 829 yards and five TDs. The season opener against New England was a loss, although Buffalo's morale was raised by the fact that it was only by a single point. Other notable games included a 16–13 OT victory over the Jets in Week 6, and the Week 10 game against Tennessee, where that team's owner Bud Adams made an obscene gesture at Bills fans and was fined $250,000. The Week 13 game against the Jets was an international series match held across the border in Toronto. In Week 15, the Bills hosted New England, but despite optimistic predictions, fell 17–10, marking the fifth season in a row where they lost both matches against the Patriots. This completely eliminated Buffalo from playoff contention and marked their tenth consecutive season without a playoff appearance. On the season ender, they "routed" the 14–1 Indianapolis Colts 30–7 to end the year at 6–10, however, it should be noted that Peyton Manning was benched early due to this being a meaningless game for the playoff bound Colts. Quarterback Trent Edwards battled injury throughout the whole season, splitting games with back-up Ryan Fitzpatrick, formerly of the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bills were hit with another hard blow when star running back Marshawn Lynch was given a three-game suspension by Commissioner Goodell for pleading guilty to misdemeanor weapons charges. Though back-up running back Fred Jackson did quite well in Lynch's absence, his performance then hindered on Lynch's return but he still had a 1,000-yard rushing season. However, the performance of free Safety Jarius Byrd showed extreme promise as Byrd led the NFL with 9 interceptions and was selected to the 2009 Pro Bowl.
2010–2012: The Buddy Nix/Chan Gailey Era [ edit ]
2010 [ edit ]
Buddy Nix, a former assistant general manager of the San Diego Chargers, was named general manager in the final week of the 2009 season. One of his first personnel moves was to cut ties with Owens (ironically, a man he had recruited during his time in college football).
On January 20, the team named Chan Gailey as head coach. Gailey was previously the offensive coordinator of Kansas City and head coach of Georgia Tech and the Dallas Cowboys, going 8–0 in the division in 1998, and leading the team to the postseason in both 1998 and 1999.
With the expiration of Terrell Owens' contract in March 2010, the Bills chose not to re-sign him.
As 2010 began, the Bills lost to Miami at home. After going 0–4, the Bills released Trent Edwards and named Ryan Fitzpatrick starting quarterback. Despite some close games, they ended up at an 0–8 record before beating Detroit at home in Week 10. Then came a 49–31 win in Cincinnati and an OT loss to Pittsburgh. The team finished 2010 with a 4–12 record.
2011 [ edit ]
The Bills fired Tom Modrak, one of the last connections to the Donahoe era, shortly after the 2011 NFL Draft. As a result of the Bills' poor play in 2010, the team earned the third overall selection in said draft, using it to select defensive tackle Marcell Dareus in an effort to improve the team's long-struggling run defense.
Buffalo had an excellent start to 2011, routing Kansas City 41–7. The following week, they hosted Oakland and erased a 21-3 deficit, winning 38–35. In week 3, the Bills hosted the Patriots; they erased a 21-0 Patriots lead and led 31-24 in the fourth; a late Tom Brady touchdown tied the game, but the Bills whipped into range of a last second field goal. The 34-31 win ended a 15-game franchise losing streak spanning 8 years to the Patriots. Despite starting the 2011 season with a 5–2 record, leading the AFC East for several weeks, a wave of injuries to several key starters led to the Bills compiling a 7-game losing streak, pushing the team out of playoff contention for the twelfth straight year. The losing streak was finally broken with a defeat of the Tim Tebow-led Denver Broncos on Christmas Eve, in a game that had unusually poor attendance.
2012 [ edit ]
Following another disappointing season in 2012 where the Bills went 6-10, the Buffalo Bills relieved Chan Gailey and his entire coaching staff of their duties.
2013–2014: The Doug Marrone years and the death of Ralph Wilson [ edit ]
2013 [ edit ]
Linebacker Kiko Alonso made a major impact in his 2013 rookie season.
On January 1, 2013 it was announced that Ralph Wilson had "passed the torch" to Russ Brandon, and that he would have complete control of football operations. He then served as CEO and President of the team.
Early during the morning on January 6, 2013 it was reported by Adam Schefter that the Buffalo Bills had hired Doug Marrone as their new head coach.
In the 2013 NFL Draft the Bills traded back from their 8th pick to the 16th pick and selected quarterback E. J. Manuel out of Florida State. Olympic sprinter Marquise Goodwin and linebacker Kiko Alonso were among the other notable players chosen in the 2013 draft. After the draft, Nix announced his resignation; Doug Whaley moved into the general manager position. A knee injury to Manuel almost forced the team to start undrafted rookie Jeff Tuel as their opening day starting quarterback; Manuel nonetheless recovered in time to start week 1 only to injure his other knee a few weeks later, which resulted in the signing of Thad Lewis (who himself had started a game as an undrafted rookie the previous year with the Cleveland Browns). The Bills finished yet again 6-10 and missed the playoffs for the 14th consecutive season.
2014 [ edit ]
Owner Ralph Wilson died March 25, 2014, at the age of 95. Wilson's assets, including the team, were placed into a trust governed by four members: Wilson's widow, Mary Wilson; his niece, Mary Owen; Jeff Littman, the Bills' chief financial officer; and Eugene Driker, an attorney.[15][16] The trust sold the team to Buffalo Sabres owner Terrence Pegula, along with his wife Kim, reportedly for $1.4 billion in cash, which the Wilson trust intends to use as an endowment for charitable causes in Western New York (and Wilson's hometown of Detroit); Pegula outbid two other parties, a Toronto-based consortium led by Jon Bon Jovi and a stalking horse bid from Donald Trump (the latter's failure was a major factor in Trump's decision to run for President the next year), to secure the team. The deal closed October 10, 2014.[17][18]
The Bills finished the 2014 season with a 9–7 record, which broke a league-leading streak of nine consecutive losing seasons. However, they were eliminated from playoff contention after a loss to the Oakland Raiders in the second to last week of the season, which extended their league-leading playoff drought to fifteen seasons. The starting quarterback for most of the 2014 season was Kyle Orton, a last-minute signing who was named starter a month into the regular season. Orton announced his retirement the Monday following the conclusion of the season.
2015-present: New ownership under the Pegulas [ edit ]
2015–2016: The Rex Ryan Years [ edit ]
2015 [ edit ]
Rex Ryan with the Bills in 2015.
The 2015 season was the first full season for the Bills under the Pegula Family's ownership. On December 31, 2014 Doug Marrone chose to opt out of his contract with the Bills. He asked for a contract extension, but his request was denied by Mr. Pegula. On January 11, 2015 it was reported that Rex Ryan, who had recently been fired from his head coaching job with the New York Jets, would become the next head coach. Ryan was officially named the new head coach the next day, January 12, 2015. The day after that, January 13, 2015, it was announced that defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz would not be returning for the 2015 season. The team dramatically overhauled its offense in the offseason, bringing in a number of new starters: quarterback Tyrod Taylor, running back LeSean McCoy, fullback Jerome Felton, wide receiver Percy Harvin and tight end Charles Clay.
The Bills set a franchise record for season ticket sales for the 2015 season with more than 60,000 season tickets sold. The Rex Ryan hiring has been linked to the high increase in sales.[19] The Bills opened the 2015 season with a 24-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts, but faltered (despite an unsuccessful late-game comeback) against traditional nemesis New England. Through the first quarter of the season the Bills led the NFL in penalties heading into their Week 5 game against the Tennessee Titans. After being flagged 17 times in Week 4 against the New York Giants, the Bills were penalized only seven times in their 14-13 victory over the Titans.[20] In the end, the Bills finished a middling 8-8, missing the playoffs for the 16th consecutive season, the longest active streak in major professional sport (after the 2015 Toronto Blue Jays broke their then-22-year streak).
2016 [ edit ]
In 2016 Kathryn Smith became the first woman to be a full-time coach in the NFL, when she was hired by the Bills as a special teams quality control coach.[21] The start of the 2016 season was marred by long-term injuries to both of the team's top draft picks, first-rounder Shaq Lawson and second-rounder Reggie Ragland (who will miss his entire rookie season). On December 27, 2016, Rex Ryan was fired after compiling 15-16 record in 2 seasons along with his brother Rob which made the Bills the third team in the NFL to fire a coach in-season (along with the Los Angeles Rams and Jacksonville Jaguars who both fired Jeff Fisher and Gus Bradley), Anthony Lynn was promoted to interim coach. After winning four straight games from weeks 3-6, they only won three more games to finish 7-9.
2017–present: The Sean McDermott Era and the end of the playoff drought [ edit ]
2017 [ edit ]
On January 11, 2017, Sean McDermott was hired as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills.[22] McDermott had previously spent the past six seasons as the defensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers. Along with McDermott, Brandon Beane, the Panthers' assistant general manager, replaced Doug Whaley as the Bills' general manager. Many of the players that Whaley had added or extended, including receiver Sammy Watkins, cornerback Ronald Darby, and defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, were traded away before or during the season.
On December 31, 2017, the Bills secured a playoff berth for the first time in 17 seasons with a win over the Miami Dolphins (concurrently with a Baltimore Ravens loss to the Cincinnati Bengals). Their season ended on January 7, 2018, when the Bills lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC Wild Card game by a score of 10-3.
2018 [ edit ]
During the offseason, the Bills overhauled their roster yet again, trading away Tyrod Taylor and tackle Cordy Glenn. In addition, longtime center Eric Wood announced his retirement due to health issues, and guard Richie Incognito began suffering mental breakdowns and was released from his contract at his request. They then brought in former Bengals backup AJ McCarron and drafted Josh Allen to compete for the starting quarterback position. On May 1, just days after the 2018 NFL draft, Russ Brandon abruptly resigned from the organization. He was replaced as president by Kim Pegula.[23]
Nathan Peterman, who performed the best of the three quarterbacks during the 2018 preseason, was named the Opening Day starter. Midway through the first regular season game, in which he failed to obtain a first down until the third quarter and threw two interceptions (the team was down 40–0 by the end of Peterman's day), he was benched in favor of Allen; that game ended up a 47–3 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Peterman would play several more games for the Bills due to injuries but would be released later in the season, with Matt Barkley signed to replace him and Allen entrenched as the team's starter by the end of the year. The Bills would finish the 2018 season 6–10.
2018 was also notable for being the final season for longtime defensive tackle Kyle Williams, who retired at the end of the season, and was widely considered the heart and soul of the team. Williams caught a pass from Allen in his final game with the Bills, a 42-17 victory over the Dolphins.
Future [ edit ]
On December 21, 2012 team CEO Russ Brandon, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz announced a new 10-year lease for Ralph Wilson Stadium. Included in the terms are $130 million in renovations and a $400 million buyout to move the team out of Buffalo (in addition to the NFL re-locating fee). The lease will include the team paying for part of the renovations for the first time. The deal also calls for a committee to explore building a new stadium in the Buffalo vicinity,[24] a proposal the Pegulas have put on hold for the time being.… a twenty gigabyte folder of music, on my server, that acts as an offsite backup. I’m not sure what to do with it. After I made the switch to Apple products from a GNU+Linux solution on my laptop and server (utilizing ownCloud and other pieces of software to connect my devices) I now have this backup sitting on my server that ever increasingly varies itself from the music collection on my daily-use computer.
When I was younger I started converting my music collection from CDs to MP3s which got stored on my computer. With the aforementioned home server solution I was able to save music files on my computer, sync them to my server and then listen to them locally with my player of choice (Banshee) and over the web or through my phone with Subsonic. This was a nice solution because I didn’t have to worry about syncing files with my phone or filling up the storage within it. Everything was automatic and worked exactly to the way I expressly told it to. However, we now have services like Spotify and Apple Music. For a pretty nominal cost I can use iCloud and Apple Music to sync/listen to my music on the desktop or from my iPhone without having to mess with my files. Subscriptions to Apple Music and or Spotify also give me access to albums I don’t personally own in my collection. While Apple Music doesn’t have a web-based player, I can use Spotify’s option for the times I need to go that route. This negates almost all the need for having files saved to my computer, barring local bands whose music isn’t available on these services. While considering my desire to declutter, I can’t help but wonder if these files that I’ve played with for a very long time are now an encumbrance that I don’t need to hold on to. Is my desire to keep these files around a legitimate concern of maintaining ownership of the files I’ve paid for or simply a sentimental attachment?
My switch to Apple products from Linux-based machines comes from my desire to pay less attention to how my computer works and to spend more time living my life away from a computer (I get into this a bit in my video for my wife’s YouTube channel here). With this, I’ve had to rearrange my whole conception of how I interact with my personal data, being on a journey of decluttering and directing towards a simpler way of living has given me more angles with which to look at this “digital clutter”.
I’m getting close to just taking the plunge and wiping the folder, then counting on my conviction to stick with Apple products and services. Another of the main reasons I’ve made the change is the Fair Labor Association recognizes Apple as an affiliate. I’m more than happy to sacrifice some of my personal digital freedoms (and money) to support a company actually concerned with the fairness of its suppliers and workers.
There are other concerns and considerations I’ve had to make relating to the switch from Linux to Apple, but I’ll hold those off for some other time.
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600,000 conscripts to date.
Hanipa said the opposition would not be deterred from filing more urgent motions on pressing issues.Michael Jace, a veteran actor who appeared in the FX cop drama “The Shield,” has been arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of murder following the shooting death of his wife.
Jace was detained by the LAPD at the couple’s Hyde Park home Monday night after his wife, April, was found dead of gunshot wounds. The actor was booked on suspicion of homicide early Tuesday morning, a police spokeswoman said. An investigation is ongoing.
TMZ reports that Jace called police at approximately 8:30 p.m. Monday and said, “I shot my wife,” remaining on the phone until police arrived to find his wife dead. Sources reportedly tell TMZ that Jace’s children witnessed the shooting.
Jace also appeared in the TNT drama “Southland” as well as several other TV shows and films, including “Forrest Gump.”Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption TV footage showed water sweeping through streets after rivers burst their banks
About 250,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes to avoid floods caused by torrential rainfall in south-west Japan, officials say.
Flooding and landslides on the southern island of Kyushu have left at least 20 people dead in the past three days.
TV footage showed muddy waters sweeping through homes and streets as rivers burst their banks in the north of the island.
The Japan Meteorological Agency has warned of further rain and landslides.
At least seven people were said to be missing on Friday, Japanese media said. Japan's Self-Defence Forces have been brought in to help search for the missing.
Image copyright AP Image caption Japan's Self-Defence Forces have been helping to search for the missing
More than 75cm (30in) of rain fell in 72 hours in the city of Aso, in Kumamoto prefecture, according to weather officials quoted by the French news agency AFP.
The evacuation orders affect 85,000 households in the prefectures of Fukuoka, Saga, Kumamoto and Oita, the Kyodo news agency reported.
In Fukuoka prefecture alone, around 190,000 people from 65,000 households were issued the order, with the entire area of the cities of Yanagawa, Yame and Miyama to be evacuated.
Another 140,000 have been advised to vacate their homes as well, AFP quoted local officials as saying.
Those being asked to leave their homes have been told to go to designated shelters such as schools and other facilities, according to the agency.The generals — White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis — speak frequently, see the world similarly and privately express a sense of duty to help steer Trump. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, is an ally.
— White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis — speak frequently, see the world similarly and privately express a sense of duty to help steer Trump. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, is an ally. The New Yorkers, including economic adviser Gary Cohn and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell (with 25 years of foreign-policy experience), have subsumed some of their personal views to blunt Trump's worst ideas. This crowd is highly skilled at communicating with the president (using visuals and grand positioning) to refine or moderate "America first" provocations. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is also very involved, helping demand a process where POTUS has all the information to make domestic and international economic decisions.
including economic adviser Gary Cohn and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell (with 25 years of foreign-policy experience), have subsumed some of their personal views to blunt Trump's worst ideas. This crowd is highly skilled at communicating with the president (using visuals and grand positioning) to refine or moderate "America first" provocations. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is also very involved, helping demand a process where POTUS has all the information to make domestic and international economic decisions. Republican congressional leaders won't win any profiles in courage for standing up to Trump. But almost all could move against the president if special counsel Bob Mueller finds crimes, or the president succumbs to radical instincts.
These officials see their successes mostly in terms of bad decisions prevented, rather than accomplishments chalked up:
They view their main function as getting real facts to the president, and injecting their belief in the importance of alliances and military relationships around the world.
their main function as getting real facts to the president, and injecting their belief in the importance of alliances and military relationships around the world. As an example, if Trump had plunged ahead with his thirst for a trade war, the U.S. might not have won China's backing in the U.N. vote last weekend for sanctions against North Korea.
if Trump had plunged ahead with his thirst for a trade war, the U.S. might not have won China's backing in the U.N. vote last weekend for sanctions against North Korea. These officials pick their battles, knowing that Trump is going to go ahead with some decisions — like renouncing the Paris climate agreement — no matter what.
pick their battles, knowing that Trump is going to go ahead with some decisions — like renouncing the Paris climate agreement — no matter what. And much of what they do is silent. AP reported that Mattis and Kelly, when he was still Secretary of Homeland Security, "agreed in the earliest weeks of Trump's presidency that one of them should remain in the United States at all times to keep tabs on the orders rapidly emerging from the White House."
is silent. AP reported that Mattis and Kelly, when he was still Secretary of Homeland Security, "agreed in the earliest weeks of Trump's presidency that one of them should remain in the United States at all times to keep tabs on the orders rapidly emerging from the White House." These officials think Trump deserves a functioning staff, West Wing and process. They say they believe in him, but want the processes in place to give him accurate information and the right options.
think Trump deserves a functioning staff, West Wing and process. They say they believe in him, but want the processes in place to give him accurate information and the right options. Outside critics contend that these aides are rationalizing their role as enablers.
Be smart: One of the biggest dangers to Trump's reign is that if Mueller acts or public support plummets, he suddenly could be lonely in his own White House.
Editor's Note: Get more stories like this by signing up for our daily morning newsletter, Axios AM.Hello, and welcome to Tropes vs Anita Sarkeesian. Today, we're going to be looking at the representation of Anita Sarkeesian on the internet, as part of an examination of the wider issues affecting those women who appear online with opinions.
Let's start with a quote from the film critic Pauline Kael. In 1972, she reviewed A Clockwork Orange in the New Yorker. Here's an extract:
There seems to be an assumption that if you're offended by movie brutality, you are somehow playing into the hands of the people who want censorship. But this would deny those of us who don't believe in censorship the use of the only counterbalance: the freedom of the press to say that there's anything conceivably damaging in these films - the freedom to analyse their implications. If we don't use this critical freedom, we are implicitly saying that no brutality is too much for us - that only squares and people who believe in censorship are concerned with brutality. Actually, those who believe in censorship are primarily concerned with sex, and they generally worry about violence only when it's eroticized. This means that practically no one raises the issue of the possible cumulative effects of movie brutality. Yet surely, when night after night atrocities are served up to us as entertainment, it's worth some anxiety. We become clockwork oranges if we accept all this pop culture without asking what's in it. How can people go on talking about the dazzling brilliance of movies and not notice that the directors are sucking up to the thugs in the audience?
We expect this kind of analysis in a film review - it isn’t enough for Kael to merely state that she did or didn't enjoy the film. She also looks at the film's relevance to, and its possible influence on, the society which produced it. Where did it come from? What does it mean?
Kael could have picked up the phone and called Clockwork Orange's director Stanley Kubrick - or even Anthony Burgess, who wrote the original novel and hated the film adaptation - to ask what he meant, but it should be obvious that that’s a dumb thing to do. She doesn’t call Kubrick or Burgess because A Clockwork Orange is no longer theirs. Movies - like TV, literature, painting, culture - are orphans. They have parents who produce them and nothing more; their effect upon those who meet them later - the audience - is determined by all kinds of other factors. What an artist intended with a piece of art is mostly irrelevant, because what a work of art is is not defined by that intent.
If this all seems terribly basic, that's because - it is. But it's relevant when talking about Anita Sarkeesian, the pop culture critic with the temerity to have opinions about computer games. To recap: she raised $158,922 on Kickstarter to fund a web series called Tropes vs Women in Video Games - the idea being that each episode deals with a common cliché when it comes to the representation of women in games. (It directly follows her Tropes vs Women series, which deals with more general representations of women in media.)
The seventh episode, “Women as Background Decoration (Part 2)”, was released yesterday. Here’s part of Sarkeesian’s concluding remarks - it’s typical of the tone and content of the rest of the series:
There is a clear difference between replicating something and critiquing it. It’s not enough to simply present misery as miserable and exploitation as exploitative. Reproduction is not, in and of itself, a critical commentary. A critique must actually center on characters exploring, challenging, changing or struggling with oppressive social systems. But the game stories we’ve been discussing in this episode do not centre or focus on women’s struggles, women’s perseverance or women’s survival in the face of oppression. Nor are these narratives seriously interested in any sort of critical analysis or exploration of the emotional ramifications of violence against women on either a cultural or an interpersonal level. The truth is that these games do not expose some kind of “gritty reality” of women’s lives or sexual trauma, but instead sanitise violence against women and make it comfortably consumable.
There’s nothing in what Sarkeesian says about games that you wouldn't expect in a Kael-type film essay - but the bile that she’s had to put up with for saying it has been extraordinary. Even before the Kickstarter fundraising finished she was subjected to death and rape threats. Someone made a game where players could beat her up, she was subjected to racial and sexist slurs, and she was labelled a liar and a con artist. Sarkeesian became a lightning rod for attacks from anyone pissed off at the concept of serious literary criticism of gaming, especially from a feminist perspective.
And, again, what Sarkeesian is doing is standard pop culture criticism, of the kind that films and books have been subjected to for decades - and TvsWVG is pretty good. It’s thorough and accessible, and it’s both a good introduction to the concept of feminist cultural criticism and an example of the increasing respect that games receive as an artform. The world was a very tedious place when all people asked was whether games were art at all; now that we know that they are, in their place come both external critiques (which includes TvsWVG) and intelligent responses from the industry itself (such as Jonathan Blow’s Braid, a platformer which deconstructs the “damsel in distress” trope).
Yet for pointing out obvious, incontrovertible evidence of sexist and misogynist parts of popular games, Sarkeesian gets vitriol. To be clear, this is still going on, two years later, every time a new video is released:
“Go ahead, screen capture this and tweet it you piece of shit” ummm… ok. I’m not afraid of strawman "rebuttals". pic.twitter.com/8B74uYJOOU — Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) August 27, 2014
A few days ago, Sarkeesian tweeted that she had left her home to stay with friends because she had received specific threats - ones so serious that she had reported them to police.
In light of this, some of the games industry's high-profile figures have publicly backed Sarkeesian - as has geek hero Joss Whedon. But not everyone is convinced of the need for the kind of critique that she is bringing to videogames.
Two of her more dedicated critics are currently crowdfunding a feature film documentary they call The Sarkeesian Effect, a ludicrous project that seeks to expose the "social justice warrior" movement and its grip on the mainstream media:
(“A serious work of investigative journalism,” indeed.)
Today, we're going to be looking at some of the common ways in which Anita Sarkeesian is portrayed in the gamer community, and how to assess and critique the mistakes that are made in responding to her work. There are lies passed off as truths and meaningless non-sequiturs presented as devastating proofs by the kinds of people who like to bang on and on and on about the "marketplace of ideas" as if that justifies being a total ass. They don't send death threats, but they build and sustain the environment that means a woman like her is treated the way that she is.
(They won't agree with me. I don't really care.)
Trope 1: Goody Sarkeesian is a witch
Perhaps the most common trope to be found in criticisms of Sarkeesian is that she was dishonest in her intentions - a liar who misled her Kickstarter backers, making her a "scammer" or "con artist":
The fact of the matter is, that's what sells. Some people like it, and some people - like Anita Sarkeesian - don't. But just because some people don't like it doesn't mean we should give them money.
She asked for $6,000 on Kickstarter, and ended up with more than $150,000. There's no way she can spend all that on games, ergo, she must have pocketed the difference to make a tidy profit. Minor delays in producing the first episode, common to many Kickstarter projects, reinforced this perception among her critics.
God forbid a woman should make money from her work, it seems.
The strangest thing about this criticism is that none of the people making it will have given money to the TvsWVG Kickstarter. They're complaining on behalf of people who willingly paid to an overfunded project, and kept donating even when they knew it was wildly over target.
It's a critique that oftens refers to some faceless, voiceless majority which is being disenfranchised or misrepresented in some way by TvsWVG, and that "everyone" - except those pesky, fun-hating feminists! - hate her. Therefore, the only reason people gave so much to Sarkeesian's Kickstarter was as a response to the abuse she received, not in support of her project. After all, if the market wanted feminist themes in its media, then it would pay for it, no?
Quite what would constitute evidence for a gap in the market for feminist criticism of video games is a mystery.
This has led to the situation where everything Sarkeesian does or says regarding the abuse she has received is treated as if she's "whining" for the sake of sympathy and money, with her TEDx talk on the subject in particular cited as an example of how she exaggerated her abuse (or even encouraged it by daring to eg advertise her Kickstarter on 4Chan) to gain sympathy and money.
It's classic victim blaming - for everyone who sends outright death and rape threats to her, there's a cloud of people who follow behind, thinking they're being so clever pointing out her "lies". There isn't some stark divide between online abuse of women and online criticism of women - they often overlap in ways that never happen for men in the same field, and the most violent and dangerous threats are explicitly influenced by the crap that presents itself as objective critique.
The work of obsessives like jordanowen42 - he's one of the two guys behind The Sarkeesian Effect, and here's just one of his many, many videos where he claims to be "exposing" Sarkeesian's false credentials or conspiratorial control of the media through digging through her employment history and her old work - is directly responsible for encouraging this:
This is what happens when women in the online space are marked out as a witch - push back against the abuse, try to stay afloat, and you're burned for it. The "evidence" compiled by her worst critics feeds the pyre, while the evidence of the actual abuse she's had to compile to prove her side of the story is dismissed. We'll come back to this.
Trope 2. Girl gamers vs “real” gamers
Within (male) gaming communities, there's a trope to disregard or look down upon women because they're "fake" gamers. The premise is that girls don't genuinely, sincerely enjoy gaming, and so when they appear to do it's because they're pretending for the sake of male attention, or they're trying to claim they're part of the hardcore gaming community when all they really want to do is play Farmville. Sarkeesian gets hit with this a lot because her background isn't from within the games industry.
Earlier, we saw a tweet from Sarkeesian featuring a hate email that cites the work of thunderf00t. He's a prominent YouTube capital-A Atheist, who mainly focuses on Dawkins- or Hitchens-type criticism of organised religion, but with a sideshow channel devoted also to debunking prominent feminists. His videos are often masterclasses in substituting smug for substance, with his Sarkeesian critiques particularly good examples. This one features a short clip that is often used as damning evidence that Sarkeesian isn't a "real" gamer (1:18 onwards):
...so it's not exactly a fandom, I'm not a fan of video games. I had to learn a lot about video games in the process of making this. And also, video games, I would love to play video games, but I don't want to go around shooting people and ripping off their heads, and it's just gross, so..."
That clip is taken from a longer lecture Sarkeesian gave on the subject of remixing pop culture videos to change their meaning, at Santa Monica College in 2010. It's used far too much as "proof" that, in thunderf00t's words, she "lied to everyone's face [sic] for her Kickstarter". (And, of course, it helps reinforce the narrative of her lying about being abused as a promotional tactic.)
The idea that tastes change over time doesn't appear relevant here. Nor the idea that ripping a five-second clip out of context might not be a watertight proof of duplicity and deception.
Pauline Kael was an ad copywriter before she became a film critic; Roger Ebert wrote science fiction. It's never been necessary to have experience creating something before being allowed to critique it. As for experience of playing games...
Photo: Anita Sarkeesian
...how many games makes a gamer?
Trope 3. Manufacturing outrage
This one's a doozy. Sarkeesian is alleged to have deliberately created the sexist in-game scenarios she's critiquing in her videos, therefore rendering her argument irrelevant. Over to you, thunderf00t:
The idea here revolves around a section in Hitman: Absolution, where the character has to sneak past two exotic dancers in their dressing room while on the way to assassinate someone else. There are two choices: sneak past the dancers, or kill them and hide their bodies to avoid suspicion. Sarkeesian's example video shows her killing them; thunderf00t presents multiple examples of where players have chosen not to kill them, thereby showing that the game isn't encouraging the player to kill every woman they meet. The hypothesis that the game, by design, is meant to create misogynist violence is therefore redundant.
This is literally as stupid as saying that, in games where you can fall to your death, you're being encouraged to fall to your death."
Of course, it's not the same at all. This video is specifically referring to Sarkeesian's discussion of women as background decoration - that is, they don't have any influence on the narrative, and their existence is entirely predicated on their usefulness or otherwise to the player. Hitman: Absolution does penalise the player (slightly) for killing the exotic dancers, just as it does other civilians, but the crucial point is not whether the player chooses to kill them or not. It's that the game presents it as an option at all.
(Yeah, that definitely makes everything better...)
When women are featured within many games, Sarkeesian is arguing, their appearances conform to a narrow range of identities, body types, social roles and occupations. The repetition of the same kinds of possibilities, presented to players over and over again in game after game, is the visible example of structural prejudice against women, regardless of whether the player chooses to take that option.
There's a common trope of framing Sarkeesian's work as "cherry-picked", as she takes isolated examples from many games and presents them as a stream of misogyny in order to create the illusion that all of these games are entirely misogynist, the entire way through. That's a fundamental misunderstanding of what it is Sarkeesian is doing with TvsWVG, and what cultural criticism in general is. These are tropes - they're fragments of a whole. By definition they don't make up the entirety of a work of art by themselves, but are instead definable cultural touchstones which artists, writers, developers etc, can use when creating a fictional reality.
In other words, Anita Sarkeesian only presents sections of games as sexist because she's only talking about the sexist bits of games, and how, of the tropes developers choose to put in their games when designing for female characters, they frequently fall back on sexist ones. Seriously, she couldn't be clearer about this - in the introduction to the very first video she says:
This series will include critical analysis of many beloved games and characters, but remember that it is both possible (and even necessary) to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects."
Remember The Wire? One of that show's greatest strengths is in illustrating how a group of individuals can each make choices which, to them, seem noble or just, but where the collective impact is one of corruption and violence. For example - spoiler alert - Carcetti gets elected as mayor on a platform of reducing crime and tackling corruption, but quickly finds he has to make compromises in order to stay in his job. He needs his job because otherwise he can't fulfill his election pledges, but remaining in power requires exactly the same backroom shenanigans that he hated his predecessor for. By the end of his term in office he's become everything he hates, because the structure of power within the city, and its competing interests, restrict the possibility of change coming from one individual's actions.
It's basically that, but with the games industry and sexism. Countless unconscious and conscious compromises get made as a game is developed - just like a film - and it's easy to miss that, sometimes, the sum effect of those decisions can be that Assassin's Creed 2 ends up with a sequence where sex workers get their throats slit as a way of marking checkpoints. Pointing out how fucked up this is isn't tangential to experiencing games as art, it's necessary. Calling the derision of Anita Sarkeesian rational debate is an insult to both her and the idea of debating ideas.
Ignore these tropes when used against her and other women, and those of us who have the privilege of having our opinions not automatically dismissed because of our gender - howdy! - have an obligation to call out the nonsense as we see it, not pander to childish ideas of what debate and critique are.
EDIT [18:06 28/08/2014]: The title of this piece originally contained the word "lame" as a pejorative, and has now been removed.
EDIT 2 [09:58 29/08/2014]: The piece referred to the most recent episode of TvsWVG with the title of a different episode - "Damsel in Distress (Part 2)" - and has now been corrected.Complaints that Apple’s App Store algorithms are broken, often returning nonsensical results for highlighted categories like ‘New’ and ‘Hot,’ have finally caught the company’s attention. Phil Schiller yesterday responded to tweeted complaints by Mozilla’s Lisa Brewster and Screenshot++ developer Wesley Dyson.
App Store editors, you had one job https://t.co/uLLOuXTDvb — Lisa Brewster (@Adora) March 12, 2016
Both drew attention to the fact that highlighted app categories in Canada and other countries (though seemingly not the U.S.) were filled with a whole range of similarly-named apps, and that apps whose names put them at the top of alphanumeric sorting remain in the ‘New’ category forever …
NordVPN
The issue isn’t new, being the subject of a Radar bug report dating back almost three years. That report was listed as ‘closed/behaves correctly’ by Apple. However, Twitter users posting screenshots to illustrate the extent of the problem appear to have succeeded where the bug report failed.
Phil Schiller, who took on responsibility for App Stores in December from Eddy Cue, tweeted that the issue shouldn’t be happening, and promised to investigate.
Schiller took action recently to ensure that the Best New Apps section was refreshed more regularly, and said that further changes were on the way.After Ather Energy and Tork Motors, another Indian start-up is eyeing the electric two-wheeler space. Enter Emflux Motors Pvt. Ltd., a Bengaluru based start-up that has promised India’s first electric sports bike by 2018. The Emflux electric sports bike will debut at the 2018 Auto Expo.
Emflux Motors is headed by CEO Varun Mittal, an IIT Delhi alumnus and co-founder Ankit Khatry, a graduate of Indus Business Academy. The duo have recently managed to raise funds via independent investors. The investors include IIT Delhi alumnus and cryptocurrency expert Meher Roy; investment bankers Nikhil Arora, Meet Kanodia and Krit Sankalp; Nitish Singh, CFO of on-demand urban transport aggregator Jugnoo, and serial entrepreneur Risabh Gupta.
Currently in the testing stage, Emflux’s first prototype is called the Model 1. It is expected to be completed by June 2017. Once completed, the fully faired sports bike will be powered by a lithium ion battery that’s claimed to take less than 36 minutes to charge to 80% from a DC fast charger. As for performance, Emflux’s sharp looking baby will purportedly scant to 100 km/h in under 3.5 seconds and attain a top speed of 170 km/h, apart from offering a commuting range of 200 km.
The first model, yet to be named, will be a limited edition bike with only 199 units to be produced. It will come with an estimated price of INR 5 lakh. The Model 1 will be followed by Model 2, which will be a naked sports bike with the same specifications as Model 1. The Model 2 will come in two variants – one with a range of 150 km and the other with a range of 220 km. There’ll be a Model 3 as well, a power cruiser with even more poke than the Model 1, and better range as well.
All key components, including the electric motor, the motor controller (Mosfet-based technology), battery pack, battery management system, charger circuit, electric vehicle supply equipment, chassis, swing-arm, suspension, transmission, body panels and lighting are being developed in house by Emflux Motors. The Model 1 has been styled in house as well, and if these teasers are anything to go by, it looks the business.President Donald Trump for the third morning in a row began his day on by criticizing Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Trump questioned Sessions’ decision to keep on acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Trump questioned McCabe’s ties to associates of 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and erroneously said McCabe’s wife received a campaign donation from Clinton.
Why didn't A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017
...big dollars ($700,000) for his wife's political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017
Trump on Monday referred to Sessions as “beleaguered” and on Tuesday attacked him for not investigating former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Last week, he told The New York Times that he would have chosen someone else for the position had he known Sessions would recuse himself from the FBI’s investigation into Russian election meddling.
Sessions stepped away from the probe in March following revelations that he met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak multiple times last year.
Trump’s comments have increased speculation that Sessions’ time as attorney general is almost up. Pressed by reporters on Tuesday, the president declined to say whether or not he was going to fire Sessions, but hinted that it was a possibility.
“We will see what happens,” he said at a press conference. “Time will tell. Time will tell.”A court in Bihar has ordered that an FIR be filed against Jammu and Kashmir former Chief Minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah under Section 156(3) of the CrPC for saying, "Even if the entire Indian Army comes (to Jammu and Kashmir), they cannot defend people against militants and terrorists," on 28 November.
Sitamarhi Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Ram Bihari on 8 December ordered that the FIR be registered following a petition in this regard by local advocate Thakur Chandan Kumar singh, which was filed on 30 November.
Singh told IBTimes India over the phone that he had filed the petition because he considered Abdullah's statement, which was part of his speech at a seminar on Indo-Pak ties, was an affront not only to the Indian Army but the entire country as well.
Interestingly, some reports suggest that Singh had filed the case for Abdullah's remark: "Pakistan-occupied Kashmir will remain in Pakistan, and Jammu and Kashmir will remain in India," a couple of days earlier. However, Singh confirmed that this was not the case, and he had filed the petition over only the Army remark.
"I am doing what the law should have done right from the beginning," said Singh over the phone from Sitamarhi.
"He shows no faith in the country's security forces. Such statements also pose a threat to the country's peace and law and order situation," the man who contested the Bihar Assembly elections from the Riga constituency in Sitamarhi as an Independent candidate went on to add.
Singh's petition was subjected to some harsh questioning by the local CJM, who asked him why he was not filing it in Jammu and Kashmir, or at least with the Patna High Court. However, Singh told IBTimes India that the judge finally ordered the FIR to be registered after he successfully argued for it.Rocky.JS is the first step in Pebble journey to run JavaScript directly on the watches (unlike Pebble.JS which runs on your phone). Previously I described how to convert a simple watchface from C to Rocky.js. But that was a static watchface with unchangeable settings.
Here I will show how to create a configurable watchface in Rocky.js similarly how classic SDK faces can be configured. You will be able to reuse your existing config page – and if it was set to work with Pebble emulator as well as real watch – you will reuse it without any changes at all.
First let’s review how classic Pebble SDK calls config page. In PKJS (JavaScript) portion of Pebble code usually there’s a piece like this:
Pebble.addEventListener("showConfiguration", function(e) { Pebble.openURL("http://my.cool.server/pebble/my_cool_config.html"); } );
If user requests config of face/app – this event fires and opens page with configurable options from specified URL. After user modifies settings usually “Save” button is clicked on that page and code similar to this executes:
$('#xbtnSave').click(function () { var location = (decodeURIComponent(getURLVariable('return_to')) || "pebblejs://close#") + encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify(settings)); document.location = location; })
Here, first we determine which location to redirect config page to. If parameter "return_to ” is passed in query string (here custom function getURLVariable() is used to extract individual parameters – look it up), so if this parameter is passed – it means config page is called form the emulator and we use it for redirection. Otherwise we use standard "pebblejs://close#" URL to save settings into real watch. We also take settings object which has our collective options combined, convert it to string and add to the URL as a parameter. Page then is redirected to resulting URL and Pebble emulator or real watch takes care of processing parameters.
So, how can we (re)use it in a Rocky.js watchface?
Assuming you already have a running watchface similar to described in previous post let’s add a config button (it can be an image) – add it right after your canvas declaration:
<img src="configure.png" style="cursor:pointer" onclick="open_config();" />
And add actual function open_config() to your JS code:
function open_config() { window.open("http://my.cool.server/pebble/my_cool_config.html?return_to=" + encodeURIComponent(location.href + "?config=true&json="), "config", "width=350, height=600") }
Similarly to the original approach this code opens your config page in a separate window of predefined size, but in this case it explicitly adds "return_to" parameter which is current page’s own URL plus 2 additional parameters – “config=true” – to indicate that page is called to save config settings and “json=” which is placeholder for returned settings.
Let’s go back to HTML and add following code before your CANVAS declaration:
<script type="text/javascript"> if (getURLVariable('config') == 'true') { var json_string = getURLVariable('json'); if (json_string!= '') opener.save_config(json_string); window.close(); } </script>
Using getURLVariable() function (did you look it up?) this code determines whether config=true parameter is passed in query string. If it isn’t – that means it’s a normal page load and we skip to the rest of watchface code. But if config=true is passed – that means we’re currently in a popup window and returning from the external config page. In that case we check if any payload was passed in the “json=” parameter (remember placeholder we added before?). If it’s empty that means user clicked “Cancel” on the config page and we simple close the popup window. Otherwise the popup calls save_settings() function of the main parent page, passes the received string with settings and then closes the window.
Let’s go back to your main JS code and add the save_settings() function:
var flag_showSeconds; var flag_invertColors function save_config(json_string) { //getting settings var settings = JSON.parse(decodeURIComponent(json_string)); //storing them flag_showSeconds = settings.showSeconds; localStorage.setItem("flag_showSeconds", flag_showSeconds); flag_invertColors = settings.invertColors; localStorage.setItem("flag_invertColors", flag_invertColors); rocky.mark_dirty(); }
Here we restoring objects with settings from its stringified version and store settings (in this case.showSeconds and.invertColors ) both into variables (for use in code) and localStorage for persistent save. Traditional C SDK uses Pebble persistent storage, but in JavaScript world we use localStorage. We then mark canvas a dirty so it can refresh with new settings
We’re done with retrieving and persisting settings. Now to use them. Before your main code runs – you need to load settings from localStorage, should saved settings already exist. Or fill them with default values otherwise:
flag_showSeconds = localStorage.getItem("flag_showSecondse") === null? '1' : localStorage.getItem("flag_showSeconds"); flag_invertColors = localStorage.getItem("flag_invertColors") === null? '1' : localStorage.getItem("flag_invertColors");
Now that you have your settings – either read from localStorage on initial run or returned from config page – you can use them:
rocky.update_proc = function (ctx, bounds) { //.... some important stuff if (flag_showSeconds == '1') { //.... run code to display seconds } //.... more important stuff if (flag_invertColors == '1') { //.... run code to invert colors } //.... some really important stuff }
See wasn’t that easy? To see this shenanigan in action take a look at Vortex watchface in at the beginning of this article. Tap or click gear icon next to it. Change any settings (besides battery and Bluetooth because – come on!) and hit “Save” button. Close and reopen the page. It’s a miracle.I first saw The Commitments when it came to home video in the US in 1992. I wasn’t much for movies that fell far from the mainstream at that point, but as an Irish-American, I’ve tried my best to keep the culture of the homeland as close to me as possible. On a suggestion from a group of friends I would never expect to pass a movie like this along, I watched it. I was immediately enamored to say the least. At that time, it was hard to see something about Ireland that didn’t involve The Troubles or The IRA (the protestant paramilitary groups always seemed to escape the conversation somehow, but that’s another story). So, I was excited that this film didn’t involve any of that. Based on the Roddy Doyle novel of the same name, the film adaptation of The Commitments fell to able musical director Alan Parker who is responsible for two stone cold classics – Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Bugsy Malone, one of the most underrated films of all-time.
The film opens with Jimmy Rabbite, Jr. (Robert Arkins) Going from booth to booth at an outdoor flea market of sorts trying to sell his wares to the various proprietors with no luck. Most of what he appears to be selling is musical in nature – band |
. I will continue to write & record music. More will be announced soon. I thank you all for everything. Sincerely–Christopher
No word just yet on whether Girls' other half, bassist/producer JR White, will keep the band together without him. Girls have released two albums, 2011's Father, Son, Holy Ghost and 2009's Album, as well as 2010's Broken Dreams Club EP.
Watch the band perform "Vomit" at an abandoned Brooklyn church for Pitchfork.tv's "Special Presentation".
Embedded content is unavailable.Google Home - UK user
Very easy to setup using Android app - although I had to change my phone's language from English(UK) to English(US). I had trouble getting good UK- US plug adapter, because supplied power adaptor has built-in plug and is quite heavy, so it tends to fall out of plug adapters that don't grip tightly! Also, you can not use your favourite 5V USB power supply, as the supply is 16.5V, 2A with an angled jack plug that fits in the bottom of the Home device. This plug adapter worked well for ebay dot co dot uk/itm/30112866514 Easy to link to my chromecast tv, but I have not yet managed to connect it to my chromecast audio, rather when I try to connect it, the chromecast audio, it says 'voice control not supported'. Google Home only plays google music tracks my name and/or artist if you subscribe to google music. If you only have the free google music service, it will only play playlists that you have created. This is bad, as the Echo Dot can play tracks by name from Prime music. I also bought Echo Dot (as most of my music is on Amazon Prime). Google Home is better at contextual questions, but the Echo Dot is not bad either.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: NewCarbine Studios' upcoming MMO WildStar--developed by a team of former Blizzard Entertainment designers--has gone gold, the company announced today during a presentation at PAX East 2014 in Boston, Mass. The game launches in full on June 3.
When WildStar launches this summer, you'll be able to buy two versions of the game. The Standard Edition will include the game, 30 days of play time, and three 7-day friend passes, as well as an Eldan-themed housing decor item. For $75, you can buy the Digital Deluxe version, which includes everything from the Standard Edition, as well as exclusive digital content like an Eldan Hoverboard, a unique costume, a unique Eldan player title, and a limited-edition Eldan dye set.
WildStar's business model is a hybridized. Carbine Studios will sell a monthly subscription for $15, while you can also use an in-game item called C.R.E.D.D. to earn game time. You can do this through buying it from other players using in-game gold or you can purchase it directly from Carbine Studios at the WildStar website for $20.
For more on WildStar, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.Photo: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg/Getty Images Rejeev Suri, chief executive of Nokia
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The head of Nokia says a policy of net neutrality would deprive self-driving cars of the near-instantaneous data that they need.
"There are some services that simply require a different level of connectivity," said Rajeev Suri at the World Mobile Congress, in Barcelona, on Sunday. "You need this differentiated quality of service."
Autonomous cars use exquisitely detailed maps to refresh their onboard memory of the roads, and it greatly helps if they can enrich that data with just-in reports from other cars and the infrastructure itself. Such vehicle-to-other, or V2X, communication can serve as a kind of auxiliary sensory organ. Nokia’s navigation business, Here, provides such services.
Suri thus adds a new variant to the old argument that faults net neutrality for giving users no way to get priority access to time-sensitive communications. The most commonly cited such communication is voice, which can be ruined by just a few second’s delay. Others include telemedicine and securities trading.
In its vote last week backing net neutrality, the Federal Communications Commission ruled out giving priority to any kind of Internet traffic. Verizon, like other Internet service providers, was miffed at the decision; unlike them, it denounced the FCC vote in a press release written in Morse Code.HP has just announced a "multi-year productivity initiative" that will see 27,000 employees leave the company: eight percent of HP's workforce, which numbered 349,600 in 2011. The goal of the restructuring is to generate savings between $3.0 and $3.5 billion for the company, money that will then be reinvested in HP. The company mentioned its three major areas of focus going forward, saying it will invest in cloud, big data, and security, and is trimming elsewhere to direct more resources toward those three. The layoffs are scheduled to run through the end of the company's fiscal year 2014, and some portion of the reduction will be from employees accepting an early retirement plan.
We'd heard before that HP was considering a layoff of this magnitude, and it certainly appears the company's having to take drastic steps to begin moving in the right direction. It comes after two poor quarters for HP, including a just-reported 31 percent decline in earnings in the most recent period.The nib Newcastle Knights have granted utility Tyler Randell’s request for an immediate release.
Randell is a local junior, who played from Harold Matts in 2007 through to making his NRL debut in 2014. The 24-year-old has since played 44 NRL games.
It was a difficult decision for the Club to make at this stage of the season, however the Club accepts it is in Randell’s best interest.
“This is an opportunity that provides security for Tyler and his family long-term,” CEO Matt Gidley said.
“Tyler was a popular member of the team and he made a great contribution on and off the field over many years.
“We thank Tyler and wish he and his family all the best for the future.”
Randell will take up an immediate opportunity with another Club.
“The Knights is all I have known and it has been a tough decision to leave,” Randell said.
“I have loved playing here and I will definitely miss everyone at the Club, including the fans.”Six months have passed since Donald Trump entered the Oval Office.
His administration remains deeply understaffed. His legislative agenda is stymied. He has been active in issuing executive orders, but many are toothless, others are only in the early stages of undoing Obama policies and some are tied up in the courts. So far, Trump’s leadership has mostly been defined by his rhetoric.
And his rhetoric, the conventional wisdom holds, could not be more different from his predecessor’s.
Barack Obama was, as president, eloquent. His language was sophisticated. He spoke in measured tones and advanced informed, reasoned dialogue.
Donald Trump is inarticulate and brusque. His language is simplistic. He dishes out invective. He shows so little regard for the facts that some say he’s the exemplar of a “bullshit artist.” And he promotes a dialogue of the deaf.
The differences between Trump’s and Obama’s rhetorical styles seem stark. Yet, when we set aside the presidents’ speaking styles and looked more carefully at the specific words Trump employed in his first months in office, we were surprised to discover that, in certain ways, these two presidents are remarkably like each other and unlike their predecessors. Here’s what we found – and why Obama and Trump have more in common than you would think.
How we did our research
Our analysis is based on Trump’s more substantial speeches – which we somewhat arbitrarily define as those longer than 500 words – which were directed primarily at domestic audiences. We scraped from the website of the American Presidency Project all of Trump’s campaign speeches and presidential addresses through July 1 that met these criteria. We ended up with 74 campaign speeches, representing more than 230,000 words, and 56 presidential addresses, which included more than 122,000 words. We compared these bodies of speech to each other and to a separate database of postwar presidential speech that one of us had collected, using these same criteria, for a recently published book.
We ran these speeches through a specialized computerized content analysis program called Diction. Diction contains 33 separate dictionaries tailored to political speech. It searches texts for the words contained in the designated dictionaries and then calculates the number of words from each dictionary that would be present in a typical 500-word sample.
Obama and Trump vs. everyone else
On two key dimensions, Obama and Trump look similar – and stand in marked contrast to all other presidents.
First, their rhetoric is much more self-referential, meaning it uses more first-person pronouns. Obama’s rhetoric is 69 percent more self-referential than the presidential average, and Trump exceeds Obama by another 20 percent.
Trump employs almost 50 percent more first-person pronouns than the second most heavily self-referential president after Obama, Gerald Ford. Trump’s rhetoric is twice as self-referential as the postwar presidential average.
Second, both Trump and Obama rank very high on measures of “tenacity.” This dictionary includes a series of words such as “must” and “need” that call for action and that “connote confidence and totality.” Obama’s rhetoric is around 45 percent more tenacious than the presidential average. Trump’s rhetoric is a bit more tenacious than even Obama’s. They are the only two presidents who substantially exceed the average.
Obama and Trump’s rhetoric suggests that the prime mover of government is not separation of powers, political parties or the bureaucracy – but the will of the president. Its self-referentialism projects an image of strong leadership and of the president as the central pivot of action. Its tenacity expresses confidence that the president will triumph over the many obstacles in his way.
For all their differences, both Obama and Trump consistently presented themselves as the solution to the nation’s problems. Accepting the nomination at the Republican National Convention, Trump assured Americans, “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” He regularly cited his own biography as the reason that Americans should “trust” him. The irony is that the predecessor who, on this dimension, most resembles Trump is the very one whom Trump cast as an utter failure and weak leader and as his chief foil. Obama too regularly invoked his unique personal story as the reason that Americans should place their faith in him. Minus Trump’s boastfulness, Obama too portrayed himself as the key agent of national transformation: “I’m the one who brings change. It is my vision. It is my agenda,” he told The Washington Post in January 2009. He saw other government officials as just “good mechanics.”
Yearning for a strong leader
The computerized content analysis of presidential rhetoric sets out a pattern, it does not explain it. However, we believe it likely that Obama and Trump adopted the same rhetorical tack for the same reason: Audiences across the political spectrum have craved a strong leader who will overcome Washington’s paralysis and address the nation’s challenges.
Especially since 9/11, American politics has grown more partisan and polarized, even as Americans’ values have converged. That partisan divide has produced gridlock in the halls of power, and Congress has become a site of minority party obstruction. As a result, Americans have become frustrated with Congress, and their trust in government has plummeted. They have increasingly looked to the president to seize the initiative, conquer Washington’s dysfunction and persuade Congress to act.
In 2007, “honesty” mattered most to Americans in selecting the nation’s next president, with “leadership/strength” a distant second. In 2012, American voters said that “shares my values” was their top consideration in electing a president. By 2016, having a president who was a “strong leader” had easily taken the top spot, across voters of all parties, and was twice as important to them as it had been four years before.
Obama and Trump’s self-referential and tenacious rhetoric – one might even call it authoritarian – seems designed to satisfy that demand for strong leadership centered in the presidency. It is not accidental that their rhetoric, as the linked charts show, also reflects a continued, long-term decline in “cooperative” and “accomplishment” language, as collaboration across party lines has been rare and as there have been few achievements. Ironically, “satisfaction” rhetoric has experienced a corresponding rise – perhaps because there has been less to celebrate and therefore more reason for presidents to proclaim that all is well.
Of course, some of this may be Donald Trump’s inimitable rhetorical style. The figures above reveal that Trump the candidate was somewhat less self-referential and less tenacious than Trump the president has been. Perhaps he was simply restraining himself during the campaign. Once ensconced in the White House, he could become more himself. Trump the president may be Trump unleashed.
But the data suggest that Trump is also a manifestation – albeit an extreme manifestation – of our political age. Obama’s self-centered, self-confident but soaring speeches gave way to his successor’s self-centered, overconfident and vain tweets. Karl Marx knew what he was talking about: History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
Nevertheless, we’d better get used to authoritarian rhetoric. It appears to be here to stay.About
Timekeepers: A Documentary
Horology is the science of measuring time and the art of making timepieces. For thousands of years humans have been developing ingenious ways to keep track of time. It first started as humans looked up to the skies and noticed patterns in the way celestial bodies moved. However, they soon needed a way to keep track of time in smaller increments. Thus began the quest of mankind to accurately and uniformly measure time. Before long sundials, incense clocks from Asia, and clepsydras (water clocks) began to emerge.
Our goal is to investigate the evolution of Horology and how general scientific innovation has grown steadily along with innovations in Horology. A few months ago we started interviewing watch and clockmakers in hopes of understanding their profession. However, we soon came to the realization that there was much more to the subject. There was a rich history full of amazing stories that needed to be told. These watch and clockmakers that we interviewed are a vital part of keeping the field of Horology alive. We felt that they needed our help. Each one the people that were interviewed are both engineers and artisans. From ornate designs on the outside to small mathematical calculations on the inside, everything needs to be perfect for a timepiece to operate properly. In hopes of sparking an interest in Horology, we decided to put together a smaller and shorter video to showcase these people.
However, we do not want to only cover watch and clockmakers in our documentary. We are going to show how the mechanics of these timepieces work, how ancient timepieces developed over centuries, the theory of time travel and space time, and much more.
FACEBOOK PAGE
Please like our Facebook page to receive updates on the progress of the documentary once funding is complete.Everything from production stills to previews of what is to come will be posted!
"Timekeepers: A Documentary" Facebook page
THE NEXT STEP
We decided to look towards Kickstarter for help because we are unable to keep the project running with our own funds. Also, we felt that time is everybody's story. Everyone is affected by time each day. We use watches, clocks, phones, ovens, televisions and billboards to keep track of time. We rely on it to be accurate and constant. But how did we get to this point? That is the story that we want to tell.
With the funds that we receive through our campaign, we will be able to make use of all the contacts that we have made over the last few months to properly investigate the field of Horology. It will cover equipment costs, traveling expenses to a variety of Horological organizations and licensing fees.
THE FINAL PRODUCT
This documentary will be for educational purposes to hopefully spark an interest in the next generation to appreciate and even pursue Horology as a career or hobby. It will be available to national organizations such as the NAWCC (National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors) and AWCI (American Watchmakers and Clockmakers Institute) to hopefully be used to as a means to educate and enthuse young kids or those who have never given thought to how their watches and clocks actually work.
REWARDS
We want to be able to thank everyone for the help they give us. We have put together some great rewards to get everyone excited about the documentary and Horology.
We are most excited about the original documentary artwork designed by, Anastasia Gentry. She has put together a great piece of artwork for us to use throughout our campaign. This artwork will be available to those who can help contribute to our campaign.
Other rewards that we have put together include pocket watches, cuckoo clocks, a beautiful anniversary clock and digital downloads of the final film.
(Photos are meant to give an approximation on what final rewards will look like!)
THANK YOU
We are really looking forward to being able to spend time working on this project. Please contribute whatever you might be able to, and even if you can't than just pass our message along. Because like we said before time is part of everybody's life.720x577
Similarities between Socialism and White Nationalism
Now, please don't leave just because you read the title and assumed I'm one of those braindead horseshoe retards. I'm a socialist but lately I've been thinking how there's a lot in common with Socialism and white nationalism that goes way beyond the retarded "they're both authoritarian therefore the same lmao" centrists love to shit out.
The first huge thing I noticed is the relation we have with the working class and the relation white nationalists have with whites. Obviously, we believe workers are being opressed by capitalists and they believe whites are being oppressed by jéws/their useful idiots. But then we see another similarity in that socialists and white nationalists alike have pointed out that both of these oppressed groups have been submissive with their oppressors and have tolerated their oppression for way too long, which makes both of us somewhat pissed at them. Now, I'm not saying these socialists hate workers (how would that even be possible) but that imo a proper socialist that has a proper understanding of history should recognize and be aware that another key element of why socialism hasn't happened is that workers have tolerated their oppression for quite a while now, or worse, they become class traitors. After all, being all "oh you poor, poor workers, this isn't your fault in the slightest, it's all the capitalists' fault!" is a pretty garbage stance to make, and the workers themselves don't like it and the few class conscious workers that exist are aware that a big part of their fellow workers are reactionary and tolerant of their own oppressors. I believe also it was Trotsky who acknowledged this issue by saying something like "obviously I want the liberation of the workers, but it's hard for me to have sympathy for someone who has tolerated their oppression for centuries". After all, socialism when you really think about it isn't so much about sympathy and embracing the brutal reality: not only the capitalists, imperialists or revisionist party members are at fault.
Then you analyze the white nationalist stance; obviously they like the white race and want them to "liberate" themselves or whatever by having their own ethnostate and overthrowing the oppressive jewish elite but they themselves are also very critical of their race. They understand that many members of their own race have tolerated their "oppression" for forever and that in a way they're also at fault for not having a white utopia yet. To this we can also add how many workers and whites don't really feel opressed and that our explanations of their oppression won't click with them. In this scenario, it actually ends up being feels>reals unironically. How can you get someone to stand up for themselves and act if they don't feel they're oppressed?
Then we move on to other things, like how capitalists control and separate the working class by smart and intelligent deceptions. Being brutal and privatizing everything isn't what crushes the worker's spirits, in fact that would make them hate the capitalists and revolt against them. What deceives them into accepting (or even liking) their oppressors is what truly keeps them ignorant and willfully oppressed. Shit like welfare, obssessive idpol, immigrants, that horseshit bussiness owners say about "being a family" and all that other shit that divides the working class without having to be violent against them. Like history has shown us, at that point where the capitalists are brutal against the working class is where a revolution (or fascist counterrevolution) are imminent.
The same thing applies to white nationalists. They (stupidly) believe the jews are deceivingly keeping the white race submissive and ignorant by also other methods which exclude violence. If we did live in the world where white nationalists believe we live in and the jews were truly ruling the world, whites would probably also revolt against them if they were being explicitly brutal and deeply triggering and problematic against them.
Discuss further some other examples of this topic also yes I'm aware that one of the reasons for many of this similarities is that both socialists and white nationalists believe there's something very wrong with the way our current world works but for different reasons obviously, I still wanted to share this similarities I foundIt’s predictable that Sarah Palin would threaten to sue a blogger who posted a story claiming Palin and her husband Todd were divorcing. Palin has shown that she can’t let any slight or grievance go unanswered, no matter how small, and no matter how relatively insignificant the source.
She apparently has a bottomless supply of money to pay lawyers to address these sorts of things. But the fact that her lawyer threatened to serve the blogger with the lawsuit at the kindergarten where he or she works is a new low.
From Alaska Report:
Thomas Van Flein, Sarah Palin’s lawyer, threatened Saturday to serve libel papers at a kindergarten to the owner of the highly trafficked “ImmoralMinority” blog for a divorce story on the Palins. The blog was given until 3pm Saturday to remove the story and post a retraction. The blogger stands by the story… “Gryphen”, the owner of the blog, laughed off the threat and told Alaska Report – “Nothing that I wrote in my post was meant to be malicious. I trust my source and simply reported what I had been told. Threatening to serve legal papers to an educator in a room full of five year olds? Now that is malicious.”
Alaska Report says that this is the fourth threat of a lawsuits from Palin, but that none of the threats have been carried out so far.
Good politicians ignore stories like this, even if they’re true, because these sorts of stories, true and false, come with the territory and — especially when the stories are true — the politician’s efforts to stifle the stories are also news and only serve to perpetuate the story she’s trying to tamp down.Advertisement Colerain Twp. man accused of shooting, killing sisters Teen boy wounded; suspect surrendered to police at scene Share Shares Copy Link Copy
Two girls were shot and killed at a Colerain Township home early Wednesday, and their brother is charged in their deaths.Police were called to the 3400 block of Banning Road at about 2:30 a.m. after reports of shots fired and people wounded.Watch the report"For some reason, the shooter pretty well took a good number of shots at the vehicle that they were in or around, as well as at them," spokesman Jim Love said. A car at the scene had several bullet holes.Angela Hayden called 911, begging for help for her two daughters and their friend. Hayden told the 911 operator that her son had shot the three victims in a van parked behind the house.“They are 17, 17, and 16. They have been shot,” Hayden told 911 dispatchers.“He just went crazy or something,” Hayden said.The victims’ mother told police that her son threatened to kill himself after the shooting.Officers arrived to find three juvenile victims with gunshot wounds in a van. Sarah Hayden, 16, and Elizabeth Hayden, 17, were killed. A third victim was taken to the hospital for treatment.Matthew Hayden, 21, the slain girls' brother, was arrested at the scene by police. Witnesses said he surrendered peacefully after the shooting."We saw them running down the street, telling him to surrender. It was just right away. It didn't sound like there was any fight or anything. He just went right away with the cops," a neighbor told News 5.Local school districts said that the teenage victims were home schooled.Officers said they are continuing to investigate what led up to the shooting.Matthew Hayden has been charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. He is expected to be arraigned in court on Thursday.One day back in 2003, DeMont Conner sat in a room at the Kulani Correctional Facility, listening to a recording of a frantic 911 call.
A woman was on the line, clearly in distress: Her house was being broken into. Terrified, she was hiding in a closet and begging for help — but to no avail. A man soon broke in, raped the woman and killed her.
Conner, who had been locked up for seven life sentences — including one for a rape conviction — says listening to the recording was “torture.” “It hit me really hard. It broke me down. I cried profusely,” he said.
The exercise was designed to be a step on Conner’s road to redemption.
Conner was participating in the state’s sex offender treatment program, and learning to empathize with others — particularly his victims — was a prerequisite for success.
Cory Lum/Civil Beat
“Empathy was not in my vocabulary. I didn’t give a rip about anybody. I just didn’t care,” Conner said. “But it got me to understand and appreciate that we cannot continue to victimize people. Simply because we’re angry or because somebody did the same thing to us is no excuse. It’s no justification. That, right there, was an eye opener.”
Since 1988, the program has treated more than 800 sex offenders like Conner, setting them on a path to a crime-free life at a remarkable rate: Just 20 of its “graduates” have returned to prison for a new sex crime.
Barry Coyne, the program’s administrator, says the low rate of recidivism — slightly more than 2 percent — makes it one of the most successful sex offender treatment programs in the country.
The key to success is holding sex offenders accountable for their past behaviors.
“Unlike in some other states, we do not treat sex offenders as if they have a mental health disease. If you say to a sex offender, ‘Oh, you have a mental problem,’ he doesn’t have to take responsibility for that. He has a ‘disorder’; it’s not his fault,” Coyne said. “Instead, we say, ‘You made a choice. A conscious, deliberate choice. And it resulted in a criminal act.’ So we’re putting the responsibility on them, and they have to change their behaviors. Not like, ‘Oh, a doctor’s going to give you a pill.'”
Kat Brady hails the program for giving people a second chance, a concept she calls quintessentially Hawaiian.
The program is finding success even though it doesn’t cherry-pick by admitting only the most amenable offenders — in contrast to “tough on crime” approaches in the 1980s and 1990s that kept many violent offenders out of treatment.
Kat Brady, coordinator of the Community Alliance on Prisons, hails the program for giving people a second chance — it’s a concept, she says, that’s quintessentially Hawaiian.
“Here, we don’t give up on people,” Brady said. “To me, if there are things that we could do to help people better their lives and benefit the community in the long run, then we should be doing everything we possibly can. And that’s what this sex offender treatment program is all about.”
‘We Love to Manipulate’
With an annual budget of about $450,000, the Hawaii Department of Public Safety offers the program’s core courses at two prisons — Kulani and the Halawa Correctional Facility — and provides “after-care” at each of the state’s four jails to those who are on work furlough and parole.
Coyne says the program is open to almost all sex offenders who are near the end of their sentences; only those who still maintain their innocence, or are appealing their conviction, are ineligible. The goal, after all, is to make the participants accountable for their past behaviors, he says.
About 80 sex offenders are now enrolled in the core courses, and an additional 23 are participating in after-care.
Sessions are held two to three times a week for the core courses and once a week for after-care, but the duration of the program can vary widely — it could be as short as 10 months or as long as four years, depending on the progress of each participant.
“If you’re going to be in (the program), we cannot tell you, ‘Here is the date you’re going to finish,'” Coyne said, “because we don’t know how fast you can learn this material to our satisfaction.”
Cory Lum/Civil Beat
The program doesn’t guarantee an automatic ticket out of prison; those who “graduate” can become eligible only for work furlough, not parole.
Conner says the set-up discourages participants from trying to game the system.
“You’re dealing with a population that knows how to manipulate. We love to manipulate,” Conner said. “So, when you set a time limit and say, ‘We’re going to do 18 months,’ I, as a manipulator, will wait you out. I’ll just participate in the program, say whatever you want me to say, do whatever you want me to do, just because I know that, ‘If I go through that, I get to do whatever I like.’ But, if there’s no concrete timeframe, I can’t do that. So this system gives all the leverage that the department needs to ensure that each graduate of the program is ready for re-entry.”
To be considered “ready,” participants are expected to develop “cognitive coping skills” that can prevent them from engaging in sexually abusive behavior.
To do that, they first have to acknowledge their past behaviors, learn to empathize with their victims, and recognize the series of bad decisions that led them to commit their crime and figure out how to avoid — or deal with — high-risk situations.
That can be a lengthy undertaking, Coyne says.
“There’s a lot of shame when you commit a sex offense. You want to keep it secret,” Coyne said. “So, at the beginning, we spend a lot of time pushing back denial, pushing back minimization, getting you to admit what you really did, as opposed to what you want us to believe you did.”
To help ease the process, the program combines individual sessions with group therapies.
“I’m one of the violent offenders that people often talk about and say, ‘To hell with these guys.’ And, yet, I’m reformed. I’m rehabilitated. How is that possible?” — DeMont Conner
“The best people to perceive if you’re telling the truth are other sex offenders,” Coyne said. “So, if you are being less than truthful, the other offenders around the table are going to sniff that out and say, ‘Bullshit.'”
Coyne also organizes each group based on the participants’ type of offense.
“We try to make sure that there’s a common ground for each group, so that people have an easier time giving feedback to each other,” Coyne said. “So, if you’re an incest offender, you should have your own group. If you’re a predatory child molester, we want you in your own group. If you rape adult women, we want you in your own group.”
Given enough time, most participants go on to develop their own set of coping skills to steer clear of trouble, Coyne says; only about 3 percent of the participants end up dropping out or getting kicked out of the program.
For Conner, the key was recognizing that he has to be intentional about his actions.
“It’s about the choices that we make,” Conner said. “We have the choice every day to choose whether or not we go left or right, or if we’re going to be violent or not going to be violent, or if we’re going to steal or not going to steal. Whatever it is, we always have that choice.”
A Violent Crime Spree
Conner is not one to mince words. Ask him about his criminal past, and he gives it straight up: “I was the worst of the worst. I was locked up with the baddest of the bad. And I’ve done the evilest things you can do to a person.”
It all stemmed from the “violent upbringing” he had growing up in a Kalihi Valley housing project, Conner says.
“In my immature mind, the violence was always the answer. That was the way you responded,” Conner said. “You don’t like what anybody says, punch them in the mouth. You don’t like what they do, punch them in the mouth. If I want to take something from you, I’m just going to take them.”
Conner had his first run-in with the law at age 13, when he was arrested for stealing a moped, and kept up on “the career of the streets” until he turned 18 in 1982.
PF Bentley/Civil Beat
Two months after his 18th birthday, Conner stole a car and got charged as an adult for the first time. He ended up spending the next eight months at the Oahu Community Correctional Center. When he earned a supervised release, he moved to California — in violation of the terms of his release — and became a bodyguard and chauffeur for a big-time cocaine dealer he had met in jail.
After six weeks, Conner returned to Hawaii and immediately went on a violent crime spree, robbing tourists and burglarizing apartments in Waikiki. On his way back from California, he also met a woman at the airport and took her back to his hotel room, where he raped her.
“The best people to perceive if you’re telling the truth are other sex offenders. So, if you are being less than truthful, the other offenders around the table are going to sniff that out and say, ‘Bullshit.'” — Barry Coyne, administrator of the sex offender treatment program
At the time, he had no compunctions about committing the crimes, Conner says.
“The justification that I used was, ‘All these haoles and Japanese are coming over here, stealing our land, so I’ll steal from them,'” said Conner, who is half Native Hawaiian. “Honestly, that was the justification that I used to make myself feel better, like I was fighting a cause. But, in actuality, I was just out of control. I needed to be put back inside.”
Two weeks after returning to Hawaii, Conner was finally arrested and charged with an array of offenses: attempted murder, kidnapping, rape, robbery and sodomy. Ultimately, he was convicted and received seven life sentences — to be served concurrently — because of Hawaii’s tough rules for repeat offenders.
Conner spent the next several years at Halawa and then got shuffled around on the mainland — prisons in Tennessee, Minnesota and Arizona — until he was sent back to Hawaii in late 2001 to participate in the sex offender treatment program at Kulani.
Looking back now, Conner says being admitted to the program was “one of the best things that ever happened to me.”
‘One-Hundred Percent Accountable’
By all accounts, Conner thrived in the program — but, he says, he had to work hard at it.
“The program is tough. It’s no joke,” Conner said. “It’s because you’re held 100 percent accountable for everything you’ve done, everything you’ve said and everything you believe. They have your face smashed in your stink until you understood that it was your stink and that you had to fix it. There was no room for blaming others, for denying or minimizing your actions. So you’re forced to deal with yourself and what you’ve done. It was hard for me.”
Conner completed the program in 18 months.
“You come to the place where you understand what you’ve done and the extent of the damage of what you’ve done, and it causes you not to go back that way. I get that now,” Conner said. “No matter how upset I get today, in any kind of situation, I know it’s not worth it. It is not worth causing harm to another person.”
Conner earned a chance for parole in 2004, after spending 21 years behind bars and meeting minimum-sentence requirements.
His freedom was short-lived: A year later, Conner was put back into prison after being accused of a technical violation of the terms of his parole. But he had learned a thing or two about how to represent himself while in prison, so he fought back against the parole board at the federal courts and — after five and a half years — won a reversal of his parole revocation.
Since his release in 2011, Conner has stayed trouble-free. He’s now using his legal knowledge to earn a living doing paralegal work and teaching others how to represent themselves in court.
Lately, Conner has also begun voicing support for establishing a more comprehensive re-entry program for all prisoners in Hawaii, not just sex offenders.
“I’m one of the violent offenders that people often talk about and say, ‘To hell with these guys.’ And, yet, I’m reformed. I’m rehabilitated. How is that possible?” Conner said. “It’s because elements in the system that taxpayers have paid for are working. Then why not expand it? Here, we have a great opportunity to set the standard for how rehabilitation should work in Hawaii.”London buses might be fitted with smart sensors after the road safety trials conducted. The intention is to reduce the number of collisions with pedestrians and cyclists.
Smart London Buses Fleet
TfL is “upgrading” its London buses fleet. The new safety sensors, which could save the lives of dozens of vulnerable road users, might be installed on all London buses by the end of 2016.
Transport for London asked leading manufacturers to come forward with designs back in 2014. One of the favourites was CycleEye and its pedestrians sensing sensors.
IoT Sensors For London Buses And Lorries
“We’ve made some great strides in improving road safety in recent years, and although things are moving in the right direction there is still much to be done.” he said.
Cycle Eye was rejected because of |
and 196Pt. Detection limits mainly depend on blanks of the chemicals used and were estimated at 3 ppb for Ru, 40 ppb for Rh, 50 ppb for Pd, 4 ppb for Ir, and 300 ppb for Pt. The PGE concentrations were determined at a level of 30‐ to 3000‐fold the detection limit.
Since the year 2009, the statue has been in the possession of one of the authors and we were able to cut a plate (that was very lightly nital‐etched) from the socket of the statue in Vienna (for a picture of the socket plate, see Fig. 1); the slice of the socle is stored at the Naturhistorische Museum, Wien. The socket plate is approximately 1.5 cm thick and approximately 15 cm wide. We were now able to take more fresh samples from the inner part of the object. Two further analyses on the PGEs (Table 2, columns #2 and #3) were carried out on these fresher samples (each 320 mg in weight) in Karlsruhe in the year 2009. For analytical procedure, see description of PGE analyses in Karlsruhe in the text above.
Figure 1 Open in figure viewerPowerPoint A) Slice of the socle of the statue (very lightly natal‐etched, 15 cm in length); arrows mark position of inclusions and rust veins embedded in the structureless metallic groundmass that are depicted in the four photographs (B–E). B) Inclusion of daubreelite/Cr‐troilite intergrowth; troilite has 1–2 wt% Cr; black center is hole. C) Large spindle of daubreelite/Cr‐troilite intergrowth with curved lamellae. D) Detail of rare kamacite crystals (approximately 7 wt% Ni) in very fine‐grained metal matrix (approximately 15 wt% Ni). E) Rust vein with fragments of large daubreelite/Cr‐troilite intergrowths, partly brecciated, and a few Cr‐troilites and variable rust generations.
For internal control, we carried out further geochemical analyses of major and trace elements (Table 1, columns #6 to #10) at the Department of Lithospheric Research, University of Vienna in 2009, using a Cameca SX100 electron probe microanalyzer equipped with four WDS and one EDS. In addition, a high‐resolution inductively coupled mass spectrometer was utilized. Operating conditions for EPMA were 20 kV accelerating voltage and 10 nÅ beam current. A 5 μm defocused beam was used and the counting times at the peak position were 30 sec. Pure metals were used for calibration and the ZAF method for matrix correction procedures. The relative analytical error was below 5%. PGEs, Ga, and Ge data obtained are reported in Tables 1 and 2. In 2012, we carried out further analyses (EPMA) at the University of Vienna on the minerals kamacite, taenite, troilite, and daubreelite (Table 3) by using the equipment described above.
Table 3. Electron microprobe analyses of metal and sulfides from a slice of the socle of the “iron man”; standard deviation (in parentheses) in units of the last digit; n/a: not available; b/d: below detection limit. Minerals Kamacite Taenite Troilite Daubreelite Number of analyses n = 9 n = 8 n = 30 n = 26 Fe (wt%) 91.49 (44) 83.36 (44) 60.80 (21) 18.65 (24) Ni (wt%) 7.15 (22) 15.85 (20) 0.07 (03) b/d Co (wt%) 0.67 (05) 0.50 (02) b/d b/d Cr (wt%) 0.03 (01) 0.07 (02) 1.33 (12) 36.23 (21) V (wt%) b/d b/d 0.83 (09) 0.02 (01) S (wt%) n/a n/a 36.49 (24) 43.80 (24) Total (wt%) 99.34 99.79 99.52 98.70
We decided to rely mainly on the geochemical data achieved (at the Universities of Vienna and Karlsruhe) from the fresher samples from the inner part of the object taken in 2009 and to compare this data to the values of known iron meteorites mentioned in the literature. The material from the surface of the statue taken in 2007 and analyzed in Stuttgart and Karlsruhe might possibly be affected by weathering and/or forging.Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises. By Timothy Geithner. Crown; 580 pages; $35. Random House Business Books; £25. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
THE financial crisis that began with the collapse of America’s mortgage market was just one of many episodes of recent financial mayhem, from the Mexican and Asian financial crises of the 1990s to the euro crisis and America’s near-default in the summer of 2011.
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To draw common lessons from such disparate events, it helps to have had a hand in responding to them. Tim Geithner, President Barack Obama’s former treasury secretary, has certainly done so, and it shows. Consider the moment when he was trying to negotiate a deal to keep a bank from cutting off funding to Countrywide, a big mortgage lender. Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide’s chief, brought to mind Thailand’s bewildered finance minister at the start of the Asian financial crisis a decade earlier: Mr Mozilo seemed “overwhelmed and unclear about what was happening,” Mr Geithner writes in “Stress Test”. That sort of battlefield observation cannot be learned from briefing books; it is what makes this less a memoir and more a how-to manual for anyone faced with a financial crisis.
The author has always been something of an enigma. At a state dinner in 2011, Barbra Streisand told him he must be alright because he was a Brooklyn Jew. It was “kind of her,” he writes, “except that I’m not Jewish and I’ve never lived in Brooklyn.” Congressmen often assumed he was an investment banker, when in fact he had spent almost his entire life in public service. Perhaps his lack of political or economic conviction is to blame; he holds no lasting partisan allegiances, and found his one university economics course “dreary”.
Mr Geithner is good under pressure, though. He became a point man for Robert Rubin and Larry Summers during the Mexican and Asian financial crises in the 1990s, and, as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then treasury secretary (he stepped down in 2013), he was a central player in America’s own crises. Though often overcome with fear, dread and nausea, Mr Geithner seems to thrive in the cauldron of crisis. When the stress of the Asian crisis ebbed briefly in 1998, he took up triathlons to compensate.
Mr Geithner was known for his brutal candour, and as an author, he does not disappoint. At one meeting he realised that John Thain, Merrill Lynch’s chief, did not know the name of his chief risk officer who was sitting next to him. It was, he writes, “an awkward moment”, and explained the sorry state of Merrill’s risk management. Mr Geithner also takes the opportunity to respond to his many naysayers. He describes Neil Barofsky, the self-styled crusading inspector-general of the Treasury’s bail-out programme, as being “untainted by financial knowledge or experience…outraged by every programme, uninterested in context.”
Mr Geithner has been criticised for doing too little to rein in the banks, in particular Citigroup, that he supervised before the crisis, and for doing them too many favours afterwards. He concedes the first point, a bit, admitting that Mr Rubin’s presence on its board “gave Citi an undeserved aura of competence in my mind”. On the second, he is defiant. Saving the financial system was essential to saving the economy, and his book is full of charts and notes that try to prove his point.
Mr Geithner is hardest on himself for failing to persuade the public of this point, blaming his failings as a public speaker and his “empathy mistakes”. He cuts off one liberal advocate who is trying to describe the human costs of the crisis and demands practical advice instead. When people complained that Mr Obama was not doing enough, he responded defensively instead of listening. “You’re only making it worse,” he was told.
Mr Geithner will not convince his most strident critics, but less obdurate readers will find his advice invaluable. Governments should not respond to every financial failure, he counsels, but must be ready to intervene with overwhelming force to keep them from becoming a systemic crisis. An institution that is important, but badly run, should not be allowed to fail if the government lacks the tools to protect other similar institutions. Letting it fail to prevent moral hazard will just trigger more runs, bigger bail-outs and, ultimately, more moral hazard.
Putting such advice to use is no easy task. How can anyone know when the failure of one firm is an isolated event or the start of a broader conflagration? Mr Geithner leans towards the latter, though it makes him, in others’ eyes, the “walking embodiment of moral hazard”. Unlike Hank Paulson, George Bush’s treasury secretary, and Ben Bernanke, the then Fed chairman, Mr Geithner would have used public money to help another bank take over failing Lehman Brothers.
In 2008 he had the right instinct. But taken too far, it affirms suspicions that many firms and markets are “too big to fail”—surely an invitation to future crises. Mr Geithner thinks the financial reforms he helped design will enable his successors to shut down big firms without the chaos of Lehman’s collapse or the moral hazard of bail-outs. Only the next crisis will prove whether he is right.[Total: 4 Average: 4.8/5]
For those who don’t know the great David Hestenes, he is the inventor of the geometric algebra formalism of physics. Here we go!
1) What is the best application of geometric algebra in theoretical physics that you can think of? In other words, what application shows the power and elegance of geometric algebra best?
The single most striking feature of Geometric Algebra (GA) is that it reduces electrodynamics to a single (relativistically invariant) “Maxwell’s equation:”
DF = J,
where F is the electromagnetic field, J is the charge current density and the differential operatorD turns out to be the same as the “Dirac operator” when the Dirac equation is formulated in GA.
Furthermore, when an inertial frame is selected, GA easily splits this single equation into the familiar set of four “Maxwell equations” formulated in standard vector algebra.
2) What are the best sources for physicists and graduate students to learn about geometric algebra and its applications?
These days the internet is the best resource for getting up to speed on just about anything. For GA the websites at Arizona State University [GA-ASU] and Cambridge University [GA-CamU] are recommended:
[GA-ASU]: http://geocalc.clas.asu.edu/
[GA-CamU]: http://geometry.mrao.cam.ac.uk/
A comprehensive overview of GA in physics is given in a three paper follow-up to my 2002 Oersted Medal Lecture at [GA-ASU]:
Reforming the Mathematical Language of Physics,
Spacetime Physics with Geometric Algebra,
Gauge Theory Gravity with Geometric Calculus.
Geometric Calculus (GC) is an extension of GA to include differentiation in the same sense that Vector Calculus, which it generalizes, is an extension of Vector Algebra.
3) Do you think undergrad students in physics should be taught geometric algebra? If so, can you recommend a good book for them?
Yes, but for introductory physics it should probably wait until someone writes a GA-based textbook. Some advantages of GA at this level are demonstrated in a GA Primer, available at [GA-ASU].
For advanced undergraduates I have written a textbook:
New Foundations for Classical Mechanics (1986) now published by Springer.
It contains the most thorough introduction to GA available anywhere, with many examples and exercises. It is the only mechanics book using completely coordinate-free methods. In particular, it employs spinors in extensive treatments of rotations, rotational dynamics and celestial mechanics without matrices, thus demonstrating that spinors are as useful in classical mechanics as they are in quantum mechanics. For anyone who wants to master GA through independent study, I recommend this book. Unfortunately, it is still exorbitantly priced, though thousands of copies have been sold.
4) Likewise, can you give some recommendations for more experienced physicists who would like to use the formalism of geometric algebra? Some kind of geometric algebra book for people who are already used to the language of forms and tensors?
A comprehensive treatment of GA for physicists is given in the book: Geometric Algebra for Physicists by Chris Doran and Anthony Lasenby, Cambridge U. Press. Slides for a lecture course on GA are available at [GA-CamU].
The book that started it all in 1966, Space Time Algebra, is still useful as a compact introduction for physicists. It has been reprinted in a second edition by Springer (2015) with a forward by Anthony Lasenby.
5) Can pure mathematicians benefit in learning geometric algebra? That is, if you’re interested in only mathematics by itself, is it still worth it?
Certainly. The evolution of GA is firmly grounded in the history of mathematics, especially in the seminal work if Hermann Grassmann, as documented in [GA-ASU]. Already GA and GC unifies a broader range of mathematics than any other mathematical system, and, of course, it facilitates applied mathematics through its close connections to physics. An extensive treatment of mathematical foundations is given in the monograph:
Clifford Algebra to Geometric Calculus, a unified language for mathematics and physics by D. Hestenes and G. Sobczyk (1984), now published by Springer.
This work provided an essential foundation for Gauge Theory Gravity (See [GA-CamU]).
6) What are the main advantages that geometric calculus has over differential forms? Should one learn differential forms if geometric calculus is superior?
With only minor adjustments in notation, GC generalizes the standard theory of differential forms to include spinor and tensor fields. It reduces differential and integral calculus on manifolds to properties of a single differential operator D, a natural generalization of the Dirac operator already recognized as fundamental in Maxwell’s equation.
7) Geometric algebra has found many applications. I have even seen applications in programming. Did you expect this kind of success? Are there any other unexpected applications that will be developed in the near future?
A big surprise came in 2000 with the formulation of Conformal Geometric Algebra, which enables direct composition and intersection of points, lines, planes and spheres. This proved to be a boon to computer graphics, as explained in the book:
Geometric Algebra for Computer Science: an object oriented approach to geometry,
by L.Dorst, D.Fontijne and S.Mann, Morgan Kaufman publishers 2007.
Many people are now involved in creating software for GA computing.
8) Various different authors use very different formulations and terminology of geometric algebra. Case in point, the mathematicians prefer the term Clifford algebra or analysis, while physicists prefer some other names. How does one deal with these different formulations? Is there some kind of canonical reference or Rosetta Stone to deal with this?
Virtually anyone who prefers the term “Clifford algebra” to “Geometric algebra” is unaware of the power and broader range of applications given to GA by its various geometric interpretations. That is abundantly clear in the GA references already cited.
9) Do you think Geometric algebra would give a new perspective on quantum gravity that is not captured by current approaches?
Quantum gravity is not a subject but a problem: namely, to reconcile quantum mechanics, which is grounded in energy-momentum conservation laws, with General Relativity, which does not recognize those laws. I think the best shot at resolving this problem is with the GA-based Gauge Theory Gravity, already mentioned above.
10) What do you feel is the main problem with high school teaching of physics nowadays? How do you propose to solve this?
The main problem is to empower teachers already in the classroom with (1) professional support from a community of colleagues animated by (2) a common vision of good teaching, and (3) scientific support from physics departments in nearby colleges and universities.
I am pleased to report that the essential mechanism for a nationwide solution has already been created by physics teachers themselves, namely a community of practice called the American Modeling Teachers Association, with a membership or more than 2000. Each summer the AMTA organizes and conducts nearly 100 STEM teaching workshops for more than 2000 inservice teachers nationwide. The AMTA is a partner with the AAPT and has been formally recognized for the quality of its service by the APS 2014 Excellence in Physics Education Award. Unfortunately, as I opine in an AJP editorial (Am. J. Phys. 83 (2), February 2015), the AMTA has not received the support it needs and deserves from the physics community to drive rapid, deep and sustained STEM education reform for the nation.
11) Can you tell us a bit about Modeling Theory in education? How does it work? Where can interested teachers learn about it? Do you think it has been successful so far?
The Modeling Method of Instruction (adopted by the AMTA) has three basic elements: (1) course content is organized around a small set of basic scientific models; (2) students are introduced to each model through an instructional cycle that engages them in all aspects of formulating the model theoretically, testing it empirically and defending their conclusions with argument and evidence; (3) teachers guide students through each cycle with “modeling discourse” that is informed by difficulties that students may encounter and subtly directs their attention to salient points.
Foundations for a Modeling Theory of Cognition and Instruction are discussed in papers available in the Modeling section of [GA-ASU].Always keen to pick a fight with Britain’s socially conservative opponents of mass immigration, the BBC is using DNA evidence to prove London has always been a “diverse” city. But guess what? Even Emperor Constantius could have told you that – and he’s been dead 1,700 years.
Chances are, if you were born in the United Kingdom and care about it, you’ll also know some simple things about its history. Key dates, people, places — what one might pithily refer to as “1066 and all that”.
One might know for instance that London was founded by the Romans as a centre of trade on the river Thames. The location gave them excellent access to the ports of northern Europe while being far enough inland to take advantage of the rich mineral wealth of the British Isles for export.
Anyone who went to a state school before the Labour Party decided child-centric education was a great thing might also know that after the mass migration and barbarian incursions that brought forth the collapse of the Roman empire and their withdrawal from Britain, the City of London stood near abandoned for decades.
Being resettled by recognisably British peoples in the 6th century, London retained an essentially majority homogeneous character ever since — a near 1,500 year run.
Although the majority of Londoners have until recently always been of this one group, there has always been this oft-celebrated ‘diversity’ of inhabitants. As befits a mercantile city which eventually grew to a centre of global trade, transient foreign groups have come and gone over the centuries.
London was, along with other major coastal British and northern European cities, a member of the Hanseatic league — a sort of Tudor predecessor to the European Common Market, except without the suffocating political union and Kafkaesque laws. This continental influence is quite besides the French protestants, small numbers of empire slaves, eastern European Jews, and others who came to London before the mass migration which started in the 20th century.
Yet the BBC’s ‘one in the eye for the racists’ attitude towards DNA testing the large archive of excavated graves held by the Museum of London deliberately ignores the simple fact of this settled-British, London population. A population that might be referred to as a “white working class” that remained constant for centuries while other transient groups came and sometimes went.
This attitude is best displayed by the presumably carefully chosen bodies picked first for DNA analysis — against all sense of proportionality for the people who have in fact made London for over a millennia, only one of the four tested so far was a “native Briton”.
With two of those tested from beyond the bounds of Europe, and the third from the continent, the mix picked for analysis perhaps deliberately more closely resembles the modern London Borough of Tower Hamlets where over half of the population originates from outside Europe, and fewer than a third are native British, according to census figures.
This sort of diversity — or rather homogeneity of foreign peoples, as it now is — is totally alien to Britain, and to London. For the first time ever the city is now minority white British, a remarkable change wrought by mass migration and white flight.
Not even in the founding days under the Roman merchants was the city so “diverse” as it is today, and proving otherwise with selective reporting on foreigners who happened to be buried in the city over the past 1,900 years is deceitful, and contrary to recent, genuine scientific studies which have proven beyond doubt the settled nature of Britain’s native peoples.
In some strange twist of fate, there is today a bronze statue of the Roman Emperor Trajan standing before the old city walls in the Borough of Tower Hamlets. A great military leader who pushed the boundaries of the Roman Empire and ruled much of Britain remotely, one might very well wonder what he would have made of Londinium today.My students need books they can access in order to improve their reading skills and be set up for a successful future as scholars.
Because most of my students speak Spanish at home, I want them to be immersed in the English language in the classroom but in a way that is accessible to them.
My elementary school is a Title I school in which most students receive a free/reduced cost lunch. A majority of the students are English Language Learners, and my classroom consists of about 95% students whose primary language is Spanish.
Reading and listening to reading are two of the most important things that Kindergarteners need in order to ensure success in school. Access to leveled books is limited, and the funding to enrich classroom libraries is not always available. As a first year teacher, I started at square one in building my library and the cost adds up. I want to provide my English Language Learners with as much access as possible to materials that can enrich their experience in school and allow them to connect with the material.
Audiobooks help students listen to reading in English, which may not always be possible at home due to language barriers.
It is important that students have as much access as possible to models of fluency in reading. At this point in the year a number of my students are excelling academically and performing above grade level. The books I want to purchase will allow me to properly differentiate instruction in order to challenge these students as well as support others who are struggling academically.Boston has long had a reputation for challenging the status quo, especially during the 18th century, when it gave rise to people and ideas that sparked the American Revolution. It's in this spirit that we are proud to announce the Boston Uprising, a name which evokes resilience and determination—qualities which we expect will be on prominent display by the team during the Overwatch League’s inaugural season. The team colors of blue and yellow reference the Boston flag, which has a blue and yellow city seal on a background of sky blue. Congrats to the Boston Uprising and team owners Robert and Jonathan Kraft!
For more background, check out the team's official press release and follow the Boston Uprising on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Be sure to keep up with the latest Overwatch League news on overwatchleague.com and our official Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram feeds as well.Packs of Marlboro cigarettes are displayed for sale at a convenience store in Somerville, Massachusetts July 17, 2014. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Philip Morris USA’s challenge to a $25 million Oregon jury verdict in favor of a man whose wife died of a lung cancer-related brain tumor after smoking the company’s low-tar cigarettes.
By rejecting the cigarette maker’s appeal, the high court left in place a July 2015 Oregon Court of Appeals ruling in favor of Paul Schwarz, the husband of Michelle Schwarz, a long-term smoker who died in 1999. Philip Morris is owned by Altria Group Inc. (MO.N)
Michelle Schwarz began smoking in 1964 at age 18 and tried but failed to quit numerous times before switching in 1976 to the company’s Merit brand that was advertised as “full flavor” but “low-tar” cigarettes, according to court papers.
She died in 1999 at age 53 from a brain tumor that was the result of metastatic lung cancer, according to court papers. The suit accused the company of negligence and fraud.NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Pope Francis will meet with President Donald Trump at the Vatican later this month.
The meeting will take place on May 24 at the Papal Palace, the Vatican Press Office announced Thursday.
The president will also travel to Saudi Arabia and Israel later this month in his first international trip since taking office, CBS2’s Dick Brennan reported.
The news comes as Trump signs an executive order protecting religious freedom.
The order scales back an Obama administration mandate that requires religious organizations to provide contraception services in employee’s health plans.
“Not only are we a nation of faith but we are a national of tolerance. As we look at the violence around the world, and believe me, it’s violent — I get to see it perhaps better than anybody — we realize how truly blessed we are to live in a nation that honors the freedom of worship,” Trump said.
The order also relaxes IRS rules that prohibit tax-exempt churches and organizations from engaging in politics and supporting candidates.It’s obscene that our country is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on the military when so many of our neighbors are suffering from poverty, hunger and the inability to meet their basic needs. Can we really justify this in the name of “National Security”? I don’t think we’re very secure at all when one in seven Americans lives below the poverty line.
The reality is that many more Americans die of poverty than terrorism. According to the U.S. State Department, 56 American civilians died due to terrorism worldwide in 2005. That same year, 472 lives were cut short due to homelessness (pdf) in Los Angeles County alone.
Having these numbers doesn’t curb military spending, though. It’s important to note that last year the United States made up 46 percent of all worldwide military spending and dished out more than seven times as much money as the next runner up, China.
For fiscal year 2011, $1,398 billion (48 percent) of our nation’s budget is allotted for military spending (pdf). Of that, $399 billion is for paying off the interest on loans from previous military expenditures. In contrast, this year we’ll only be spending $1.79 billion on homeless assistance grants like help with back rent for at-risk families.
These discrepancies raise some questions about our nation’s priorities. Is war more important to us than feeding the hungry? Is the $600,000 we spend on a cruise missile sent to blow up someone’s home in Iraq worth more than the six or so lovely U.S. houses we could build with such money?
When we look at our priorities, we also need to look at how we can shift them. For example, the proposed Afghan war spending for 2011 is $119.4 billion dollars. That’s enough to provide one year of scholarships for 15,144,040 university students, or one year’s salary for 1,828,484 elementary school teachers, or enough to retrofit our energy grid, providing 72,101,449 American households with renewable wind power and new jobs. (Find more budget tradeoffs at the National Priorities Project.)
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Here are a few more stories Of mine UFOs in Worldwide Revelation on Oct 13
Donald Trump sets his sights on the White house To Save Our Country
UFOs to Bring ‘Great Events,’ Chinese Scientist Predicts
Massive FBI Takedown!OPERATION GUARD SHACK Historic Takedown in Puerto RicoActivist Ali Abdul Jalil who fled the country to escape sedition charges claims he has been granted Swedish permanent residence (PR).
"Thank you Sweden for giving me PR. I love Sweden so much.
"If I was evil, Sweden wouldn't have given me PR," Ali posted on his Facebook today.
In 2014, he was arrested four times, slapped with three sedition charges and detained for 22 days in prison for criticising the monarchy on Facebook.
The student eventually fled the country after claiming to receive countless death threats.
Following this, the Immigration Department cancelled his passport.
Ali, who left the country through Thailand, settled for Sweden after learning that it was among the friendliest countries in the world for asylum seekers.
Before he fled, Amnesty International had described him as a "prisoner of conscience".Falcom has released new Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana information and screenshots introducing the game’s skill attacks, and “Flash Guard” and “Flash Move” techniques.
Get the information below.
■ Skill Attacks: Swoop the Enemy with Powerful Skills!
Each character has a fixed amount of Skill Points, which can be used to actiave unique skill attacks.
Skill attacks are activated by pushing the skill button + the Circle, X, Triangle, or Square buttons. Each button is tied to a different skill. Skills can be set to the Circle, X, Triangle, and Square buttons in the menu screen.
Adol’s Exclusive Skill: Force Edge
Adol’s exclusive skill creates an aura with his sword blade, and collectively mows down the surrounding enemies. It’s an easy to use skill with a wide attack range, and doesn’t take long to perform.
Laxia’s Exclusive Skill: Slyphide Kiss
Laxia’s exclusive skill sees her point her rapier to the sky, from which a tornado converges. It is particularly effective against flying enemies, and can deal consecutive damage by hitting the enemy in multiple stages.
Sahad’s Exclusive Skill: Seine
Sahad’s exclusive skill sees him throw a fishing net to the area in front of him, and damages all the enemies that become entangled in its ropes.
Dana’s Exclusive Skill: Ice Edge
Dana’s Exclusive skill sees her jump to the sky, and all at once strikes the ground with compressed waves of cold. It is a powerful skill that deals great damage to a wide range of enemies.
■ Flash Guard: Turn a Perfect Defense into a Critical Attack!
By pressing a button with proper timing in accordance with the enemy’s attack, “Flash Guard” will be triggered.
When activated, the player character’s body will glow white with the attack, and all of the enemy’s attacks will have no effect.
Additionally, for a certain period of time after it is activated, since it makes all of the player’s attacks critical ones, you can deal great damage to the enemy via consecutive attacks and skill attacks.
■ Flash Move: Extreme Evasion Around the Battlefield!
If you perform an evasion action just before an enemy attack hits, “Flash Move” will be triggered, and the player character’s offshoot will be displayed on screen.
The trigger time only lasts for a certain period, and with the exception of the player, slow-motions the enemies’ movements. By dodging an enemy’s big technique with a Flash Move, you can gain distance, move around to to the enemy’s back, and turn the battle in your favor.The year is 2017. The date is September 21. Jason Witten is the No. 1 tight end in fantasy football and has 24 percent more fantasy points than the next closest player at his position. If he were included in the wide receivers, he would be the No. 3 receiver. You want more? J.J. Nelson is the No. 2 wide receiver, behind only 30-year-old Michael Crabtree. Oh, I should also mention that Alex Smith and Trevor Siemian are the top two quarterbacks.
Imagine reading that paragraph before the start of the season. You would be a very rich man/woman if you were able to predict even one of those things, but no one did. But that’s the beauty of the NFL. Not only can any team win in any given week (okay, maybe not the Jets), but any player can be a contributor to fantasy teams. That’s not what we’re here to say, though. No, you’re here to read what the most likely outcome is, and not just one game or player, but every one of them.
Get start/sit advice for free with My Playbook >>
If this is your first time reading The Primer, I want to give you an idea as to what you should expect. Knowledge, facts, stats, numbers… lots of numbers. The idea is to give you so much knowledge that you’ll feel better than ever when you hit that ‘submit lineup’ button. The Primer will be here for you every single week of the NFL season, where we’ll dive into every game, talking about every fantasy relevant player. Once done reading it each week, you should have a better idea as to how the game should go, as well as an idea as to who you should be playing in season-long and who to target in DFS. All games are in order of the time they are taking place, with the Thursday game first and Monday night game last.
*Keep in mind that the game lines and totals may change as the games approach. All of my up-to-date rankings can be found right here.
Baltimore Ravens (-4.0) at Jacksonville Jaguars (Wembley) Over/Under: 40.0
Yep, we have another London game on the slate that will be taking place at 9:30 am EST this week, so set your lineups on Saturday night if you don’t wake up that early. The London games are always interesting because we search for narratives about the teams and who it’ll affect more. Jetlag is a real thing, but they should be over there days before to eliminate this as much as possible. This game has a weird resemblance to the one the Jaguars played in Week 1 against the Texans, which obviously turned out well for them. The difference is that Joe Flacco is competent, whereas Tom Savage and Deshaun Watson were not. The big storyline, though, is that the Ravens lost LG Marshal Yanda for the season in Week 2 to a fractured ankle. This is big news, as he is a perennial Pro Bowler who clears lanes for the run-game and helps provide protection for Flacco. The Jaguars front-seven is no joke, making this an interesting game that the Jaguars could pull off.
QBs: Now missing both of his offensive guards, Flacco may under duress throughout this game, which obviously does nothing but drag down his fantasy potential. Over their last 17 games, the Jaguars have allowed just two quarterbacks to produce 20-plus fantasy points against them. Despite the high total scored against them in Week 2, they held Marcus Mariota to just 215 yards passing and one touchdown. Look for the Jaguars to try and control the ball with the run in this game, limiting the Ravens offensive plays. Flacco isn’t someone who should be started in fantasy leagues, if at all possible. Blake Bortles looked like… well, Blake Bortles in Week 2, only without Allen Robinson. He’s far off the fantasy radar and shouldn’t even be considered in 2QB leagues for this game.
RBs: Over the last two weeks, Terrance West has been out-snapped 76 to 43 to Javorius Allen, and has also been out-touched 40 to 29. The odd part is that the game-script actually better suited his perceived skill-set, so it’s possible that Allen is the running back to own in this backfield. I’d say Allen’s definitely the running back to own this week, as the Jaguars have held opposing running backs to just 463 yards on 135 carries (3.43 YPC) over their last seven games, and the loss of Yanda looms large. If the running backs are going to do anything this week, it’ll likely be through the air and Allen has already seen seven targets in the passing game while West has just three. Consider Allen a solid RB3 this week, especially in PPR formats, while West is best left on fantasy benches as a touchdown-or-bust candidate. Leonard Fournette has now overcome two of the worst matchups in fantasy football and came out of them as the No. 8 running back in fantasy – he’s really good. The Ravens are another brutal matchup, but considering the game-script and how the Jaguars will play this game, he belongs in lineups as an RB2, at worst. You simply cannot bench a player with his talent level who is getting 20-plus touches per week. They may want to involve him a bit more in the passing game this week, as the Ravens have allowed over 110 receiving yards to running backs in the first two weeks. Chris Ivory is apparently his backup while T.J. Yeldon is out, but they have no value unless something happened to Fournette.
WRs: You are going to want to avoid most No. 1 wide receivers against the Jaguars, but not Jeremy Maclin. Reason being, he has played out of the slot on nearly 70 percent of his snaps, which allows him to evade A.J. Bouye and Jalen Ramsey in coverage. Maclin has now led the wide receivers in targets in back-to-back weeks, and has also led in production with a total of six catches for 87 yards and two touchdowns. The touchdowns will slow down, but the yardage and targets will increase as the matchups call for them to pass a bit more. The matchup against Aaron Colvin will be interesting, as the Jaguars figure to bring a lot of pressure to Flacco, opening things up underneath for Maclin. Consider him a solid WR3 in this matchup. Mike Wallace has seen just four targets through two games, which is half of what Breshad Perriman has seen. |
, a teacher and childhood friend. Coloring became a useful distraction, and then a preoccupation: ”I would be doing other things, and I’d be like, ‘I can’t wait until I get to do that again.'” For a month, she colored every day, at times twice a day.
In a very short time, coloring has proven surprisingly addictive for America’s stressed, anxious, and overworked. Therapeutic without being therapy, meditative without being meditation, creative without being creation, artsy without being art, the supposedly soothing activity has also become a big business—in 2015 alone, US sales of coloring books shot up from 1 to 12 million units.
It’s hard to overstate the trend: Coloring books are one of the big reasons print had such a strong showing last year in the US. Bookstores and craft stores alike are bursting at the seams with coloring books geared toward the 20 and up, and there are YouTube channels that let people watch other people color and critique coloring books. Coloring is so big, it’s spun off its own bizarre subcultures, like coloring book parties, coloring books that are just swear words, and adult coloring apps. Even colored pencil production is feeling the effects of the craze.
Courtesy Samantha Wuu
Wuu’s obsessive interest in coloring extended to her pens: She bought Prismacolor colored pencils (with special sharpener), Sakura 3D glossy ink pens (which give a raised, embossed effect), and Fiskars gel pens (which come in four different finishes) to add to her collection of Sakura Pigma Microns and Staedtler Triplus Fineliners (for the “really intricate stuff”).
“This is crazy now that I’m thinking about it,” she says, laughing.
“Self-care” vs. therapy
A sizable number of the best-selling titles have one promise: “relax,” “stress relief,” and “good vibes.” Anecdotally at least, coloring seems to make people feel calmer. But unlike with drugs or exercise, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how.
“People with a lot of anxiety respond really well to coloring books,” says New York-based art therapist Nadia Jenefsky. “There are some choices involved—in terms of choosing what colors you’re going to use and how you’re blending your colors—but there’s also a lot of structure.”
Though coloring books are frequently described as stress-relieving and branded as art therapy, there’s no research yet that shows proof of its health benefits. In a statement, the American Art Therapy Association draws a fine line:
“The American Art Therapy Association supports the use of coloring books for pleasure and self-care, however these uses should not be confused with the delivery of professional art therapy services, during which a client engages with a credentialed art therapist.”
Gloria Webb, a stay-at-home mother in New York City, says she colors because it helps her sleep. She and seven other women, mostly seniors, meet every week in an “adult coloring book club” in Manhattan’s Kips Bay public library.
At one such coloring party, retired elementary school teacher Wendy Ceracche pulled up a folder on her phone, showing me about 90 photos she’d taken of her colored designs—kimonos, animals, mandalas, and cityscapes colored in fine, bright detail. She’d only started coloring last year.
The mindfulness industrial complex
The coloring fad can be traced to illustrator Johanna Basford, known in adult-coloring circles as the “Queen of Coloring,” who exploded onto the scene in 2013 with her best-selling coloring book Secret Garden. But our search for just such a mind-numbing leisure activity is nothing new.
Courtesy Wendy Ceracche
According to the American Psychological Association, last year Americans reported (pdf) being more stressed than the year before. And even though stress was on the decline in the years before that, Americans routinely report that their stress levels are higher than what they believe is healthy. Work, along with money, is consistently among the top reasons people say they’re stressed.
From knitting crazes to mindfulness training centers, Americans today will take anything they can get to escape the hum of their perceived hyper-connectivity and overwork. That demand has created a sort of mindfulness industrial complex, a sprawling, lucrative industry that peddles DIY relaxation of all kinds, from calming crafts to downloadable guided meditation, week-long silent retreats and a $150 “calmness” tracker.
Sheerly Avni, a TV writer based in Mexico City, says she’s the perfect audience for a trend like adult coloring: “I haven’t relaxed since 1973,” she jokes. “I was born to be the market demographic for anything new that makes people calm down with them not actually having to work for it.”
Growing down
Because it’s monotonous, coloring promises calm. Because it’s paper-based, it offers an escape from screens. And a major draw of coloring for adults is its ”creative” side. “It has an appeal to people who may want to be creative but don’t think of themselves as artistic,” says Jenefsky.
“Most of us, if we’re not encouraged to continue with art-making, we usually stop making art when we finish middle or high school. It’s an activity you’re not encouraged to do unless you’re demonstrating some kind of talent for it,” she says.
Courtesy Dover Books
A 2012 study published in Psychological Science showed that a mindless activity may indeed spark creativity: Researchers showed that a non-demanding activity like showering, gardening, and perhaps coloring, could lead to productive mind-wandering and creative problem-solving.
We color to feel like children again, and to flex creative muscles, but as Jenefsky says, the truth is that children are actually so creative that coloring books slow them down. “For children a lot of times coloring books can inhibit their creativity,” she says. Their natural creativity, she says, lends itself better to creating art from scratch.
Burned out adults, on the other hand, can be overwhelmed by a blank page. For them, selecting colors to fill in the lines may be all the creativity they can muster. And that makes sense.
It’s precisely coloring’s noncommittal not-quite-therapy, not-quite-art qualities that make it compelling. The activity takes less energy than jogging or yoga, is easier than picking up knitting, and is more productive than watching House of Cards (or can be done alongside it). Easier than yoga or meditation, it offers low-stake quick-hit escapism wrapped in the faddish trappings of self-medication.
And while it can give you a short break from your screens and devices, coloring also promises something productive and social-media friendly: You can do it stoned, or you can do it drunk, and at the end, you still have something pretty to put on Instagram.
Wuu says she’s cut back significantly on her coloring, partly because she started to question just how “productive” she was being by filling her hours with shading. Still, she thinks her obsession was an ultimately positive distraction during a time of intense stress. “You can’t do it wrong—and even when you do, you’re like, ‘Whatever, I have another shot,'” she says.
“It felt like I could mess up. I would look at this, and be like, ‘Oh, that’s not really what I wanted to do. But there are, like, 10,000 other flowers in this book.'”Diaper close-up: A dark-greenish, sticky, tarlike goop. There isn't much of an odor, but it can smell like licorice.
When it happens: Within 24 to 48 hours after birth
What's going on? Meconium. The sludgy stuff is the waste that your newborn has been accumulating in utero -- amniotic fluid, cells that flake off his skin and hair, and intestinal secretions. It's excreted within 24 to 48 hours after birth, so your baby may pass most of his meconium in the hospital.
How to handle: If you're nursing, your colostrum (the first milk) acts as a natural laxative; the initial poop may take longer for formula-fed babies. Meconium can be hard to wash off -- a dollop of petroleum jelly or mineral oil can help. If your newborn doesn't poop within a few days of being born, call your doctor.
Plus:
Best Diapering ProductsPRINCETON, NJ -- Americans widely support each of three job creation proposals, including offering tax breaks to businesses that create jobs in the U.S. and a program that would put people to work on urgent infrastructure repair projects. Support for these programs is only slightly lower in a variant of the question that asks respondents if they are in favor of spending government money to pay for the programs.
The data are based on Gallup polling from March 2-3 and March 4-5. The job creation items were included with other policy proposals in a Gallup issue referendum, asking respondents if they would vote "for" or "against" the proposal in a hypothetical vote on the issue. The items asked March 2-3 did not mention the need for government spending on these programs but the March 4-5 items did. The explicit mention of government spending reduced support for the programs by three to five percentage points. This suggests Americans' support for job creation outweighs concerns they may have about government spending.
President Obama offered all three of these job creation proposals in his 2013 State of the Union address. He also put forward some of the same proposals -- including business tax breaks and infrastructure programs -- in a nationally televised speech on jobs legislation he gave in September 2011. Americans were about as likely to support those proposals at that time as they are now. Interestingly, though, support for Obama's 2011 job package as a whole was significantly lower than it was for most of the individual proposals included in it.
Majority of Party Groups Favor Each Jobs Proposal
A majority of Democrats, Republicans, and independents support each of the three job creation proposals tested in the poll. Republicans are much more supportive of business tax breaks than the new job programs, and Democrats are more likely to favor the job creation programs, while independents show roughly equal support for all three.
Democrats' support for the job creation proposals are as high when mentioning government spending as when not mentioning it, while independents' and Republicans' support declines when spending is mentioned.
Implications
Job creation proposals enjoy widespread public support, including majority backing among all party groups, even when the issue of government spending is raised in an era when deficit reduction is one of the major priorities for the federal government. Despite the high levels of support for the job creation proposals, the political realities in Washington are such that Congress has not passed any of the proposals since President Obama first advocated many of these more than a year ago. The major sticking point with jobs legislation -- as with most other measures being considered in Washington -- may not be whether the programs should be pursued but whether the government should pay for them through increased taxes or cuts in other government programs.NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Amazon said Thursday it is terminating its relationship with thousands of California associates because of a new law that would require the online mega-retailer to collect sales taxes if it has affiliates in the state.
Governor Jerry Brown signed the measure into law on Thursday as part of the state's plan to reduce its budget gap. It is expected to add $200 million to the Golden State's coffers.
"We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive," Amazon wrote in its letter to associates. "Similar legislation in other states has led to job and income losses, and little, if any, new tax revenue."
Brown and lawmakers responded by saying the measure levels the playing field for California's brick-and-mortar retailers, which are required to collect sales taxes.
"It's odd that a company would voluntarily dilute its business in the most populous state in the country simply because it's being asked to collect what is lawfully owed," said Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.
Other states that have passed the so-called "Amazon tax" in recent years include Connecticut, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Arkansas and Rhode Island. The retailer has dropped the associates program in all these states, except New York, where it has a brought a lawsuit against the state.
Amazon's (AMZN, Fortune 500) associates program provides a commission to website or blog operators who refer shoppers to the retailer's site. The operators are paid if the shopper makes a purchase.
The retailer, which has had associates in California for more than a decade, works with 10,000 affiliates in the Golden State. They range from mom-and-pop shops who participate to supplement their income to larger companies that survive on marketing referrals, said Rebecca Madigan, executive director, Performance Marketing Association, a trade group.
The law could force some affiliates to close their doors, said Steve Gill, an accounting professor at San Diego State University.
It could be "devastating for certain businesses in California," he said.Dave Smith Instruments today announced that it has collaborated with Pioneer DJ, the market leader in DJ equipment and software, to provide analog filters for the company’s TORAIZ SP-16 sampler/sequencer. Boasting a 16-step sequencer, 16-voice polyphony, and 2GB of pre-loaded samples and loops, the new instrument allows DJs to trigger loops, one-shots, and electronic percussion live with its 16 multi-colored performance pads and other real-time controls.
Said Dave Smith: “When Pioneer DJ approached us about collaborating on one of their products, we were very excited. Given their expertise and deep knowledge of the DJ market, we knew that it was bound to be interesting.” Added Smith: “And when they asked us to adapt our filters from the Prophet-6, we immediately saw that it was going to be a great fit.”
The TORAIZ SP-16 features two discrete voltage-controlled filters developed by Dave Smith Instruments: a four-pole, resonant, low-pass inspired by the original 1970’s-era Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 filter, and a two-pole high-pass filter. “The Prophet filters add real analog warmth to the TORAIZ SP-16. They also allow a lot of creative sound manipulation when you use the live-performance controls of the instrument,” explained Smith. “DJs will put them to good use, I’m sure.”
The TORAIZ SP-16 features a 7-inch color touch screen for accessing its factory sound library and viewing sound and performance parameters. The 16-step sequencer can store up to 256 patterns. Sixteen sequence step buttons allow color coding of sounds. Patterns can be saved as “scenes” for instant recall in the studio or on stage. When the instrument is connected to a Pioneer DJ CDJ or XDJ DJ Deck using Pioneer DJ’s Pro DJ Link, the system synchronizes its loops and one-shots to the beat of a master deck. (Users will need to update the TORAIZ SP-16 to the latest firmware to use this feature.) MIDI clock support allows users to connect and synchronize other devices.
The TORAIZ SP-16 is manufactured and sold by Pioneer DJ Corporation. It will be available in summer of 2016. Price in Europe: 1599 including VAT.Astral projection (or astral travel) is a term used in esotericism to describe a willful out-of-body experience (OBE)[1][2] that assumes the existence of a soul or consciousness called an "astral body" that is separate from the physical body and capable of travelling outside it throughout the universe.[3][4][5]
The idea of astral travel is ancient and occurs in multiple cultures. The modern terminology of 'astral projection' was coined and promoted by 19th century Theosophists.[3] It is sometimes reported in association with dreams, and forms of meditation.[6] Some individuals have reported perceptions similar to descriptions of astral projection that were induced through various hallucinogenic and hypnotic means (including self-hypnosis). There is no scientific evidence that there is a consciousness or soul which is separate from normal neural activity or that one can consciously leave the body and make observations,[7] and astral projection has been characterized as a pseudoscience.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]
Accounts [ edit ]
Western [ edit ]
According to classical, medieval and renaissance Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, and later Theosophist and Rosicrucian thought the astral body is an intermediate body of light linking the rational soul to the physical body while the astral plane is an intermediate world of light between Heaven and Earth, composed of the spheres of the planets and stars. These astral spheres were held to be populated by angels, demons and spirits.[15][16]
The subtle bodies, and their associated planes of existence, form an essential part of the esoteric systems that deal with astral phenomena. In the neo-platonism of Plotinus, for example, the individual is a microcosm ("small world") of the universe (the macrocosm or "great world"). "The rational soul...is akin to the great Soul of the World" while "the material universe, like the body, is made as a faded image of the Intelligible". Each succeeding plane of manifestation is causal to the next, a world-view known as emanationism; "from the One proceeds Intellect, from Intellect Soul, and from Soul - in its lower phase, or that of Nature - the material universe".[17]
Often these bodies and their planes of existence are depicted as a series of concentric circles or nested spheres, with a separate body traversing each realm.[18] The idea of the astral figured prominently in the work of the nineteenth-century French occultist Eliphas Levi, whence it was adopted and developed further by Theosophy, and used afterwards by other esoteric movements.
Biblical [ edit ]
Carrington, Muldoon, Peterson, and Williams claim that the subtle body is attached to the physical body by means of a psychic silver cord.[19][20] The final chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes is often cited in this respect: "Before the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be shattered at the fountain, or the wheel be broken at the cistern."[21] Scherman, however, contends that the context points to this being merely a metaphor, comparing the body to a machine, with the silver cord referring to the spine.[22]
Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians is more generally agreed to refer to the astral planes:[23] "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows."[24] This statement gave rise to the Visio Pauli, a tract that offers a vision of heaven and hell, a forerunner of visions attributed to Adomnan and Tnugdalus as well as of Dante's Divine Comedy.
Ancient Egypt [ edit ]
Similar concepts of soul travel appear in various other religious traditions. For example, ancient Egyptian teachings present the soul (ba) as having the ability to hover outside the physical body via the ka, or subtle body.[25]
China [ edit ]
Taoist alchemical practice involves creation of an energy body by breathing meditations, drawing energy into a 'pearl' that is then "circulated".[26] "Xiangzi... with a drum as his pillow fell fast asleep, snoring and motionless. His primordial spirit, however, went straight into the banquet room and said, "My lords, here I am again." When Tuizhi walked with the officials to take a look, there really was a Taoist sleeping on the ground and snoring like thunder. Yet inside, in the side room, there was another Taoist beating a fisher drum and singing Taoist songs. The officials all said, "Although there are two different people, their faces and clothes are exactly alike. Clearly he is a divine immortal who can divide his body and appear in several places at once...." At that moment, the Taoist in the side room came walking out, and the Taoist sleeping on the ground woke up. The two merged into one."[27]
Buddhism [ edit ]
In Buddhism the ability to do Astral Projection is one of many believed super normal powers for those who reach 4th Jhana.
According to Samaññaphala Sutta: The Fruits of the Contemplative Life (Digha Nikaya 2.85-87) Buddha said.
"With his mind thus concentrated, purified, and bright, unblemished, free from defects, pliant, malleable, steady, and attained to imperturbability (reaching 4th Jhana), he directs and inclines it to creating a mind-made body. From this body he creates another body, endowed with form, made of the mind, complete in all its parts, not inferior in its faculties. Just as if a man were to draw a reed from its sheath. The thought would occur to him: 'This is the sheath, this is the reed. The sheath is one thing, the reed another, but the reed has been drawn out from the sheath.' Or as if a man were to draw a sword from its scabbard. The thought would occur to him: 'This is the sword, this is the scabbard. The sword is one thing, the scabbard another, but the sword has been drawn out from the scabbard.' Or as if a man were to pull a snake out from its slough. The thought would occur to him: 'This is the snake, this is the slough. The snake is one thing, the slough another, but the snake has been pulled out from the slough.' In the same way — with his mind thus concentrated, purified, and bright, unblemished, free from defects, pliant, malleable, steady, and attained to imperturbability, the monk directs and inclines it to creating a mind-made body. From this body he creates another body, endowed with form, made of the mind, complete in all its parts, not inferior in its faculties." [28][29]
Hinduism [ edit ]
Similar ideas such as the Lin'ga S'ari-ra are found in ancient Hindu scriptures such as the YogaVashishta-Maharamayana of Valmiki.[25] Modern Indians who have vouched for astral projection include Paramahansa Yogananda who witnessed Swami Pranabananda doing a miracle through a possible astral projection,[30]
The Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba described one's use of astral projection:
In the advancing stages leading to the beginning of the path, the aspirant becomes spiritually prepared for being entrusted with free use of the forces of the inner world of the astral bodies. He may then undertake astral journeys in his astral body, leaving the physical body in sleep or wakefulness. The astral journeys that are taken unconsciously are much less important than those undertaken with full consciousness and as a result of deliberate volition. This implies conscious use of the astral body. Conscious separation of the astral body from the outer vehicle of the gross body has its own value in making the soul feel its distinction from the gross body and in arriving at fuller control of the gross body. One can, at will, put on and take off the external gross body as if it were a cloak, and use the astral body for experiencing the inner world of the astral and for undertaking journeys through it, if and when necessary....The ability to undertake astral journeys therefore involves considerable expansion of one’s scope for experience. It brings opportunities for promoting one’s own spiritual advancement, which begins with the involution of consciousness.[31]
Astral projection is one of the Siddhis considered achievable by yoga practitioners through self-disciplined practice. In the epic The Mahabharata Drona leaves his physical body to see if his son is alive.
Japan [ edit ]
In Japanese mythology, an ikiryō (生霊) (also read shōryō, seirei, or ikisudama) is a manifestation of the soul of a living person separately from their body.[32] Traditionally, if someone holds a sufficient grudge against another person, it is believed that a part or the whole of their soul can temporarily leave their body and appear before the target of their hate in order to curse or otherwise harm them, similar to an evil eye. Souls are also believed to leave a living body when the body is extremely sick or comatose; such ikiryō are not malevolent.[33][34]
Inuit Nunangat [ edit ]
In some Inuit groups, people with special capabilities are said to travel to (mythological) remote places, and report their experiences and things important to their fellows or the entire community; how to stop bad luck in hunting, cure a sick person etc.,[35][36] things unavailable to people with normal capabilities.[37]
Amazon [ edit ]
The yaskomo of the Waiwai is believed to be able to perform a "soul flight" that can serve several functions such as healing, flying to the sky to consult cosmological beings (the moon or the brother of the moon) to get a name for a new-born baby, flying to the cave of peccaries' mountains to ask the father of peccaries for abundance of game or flying deep down in a river to get the help of other beings.[38]
"Astral" and "etheric" [ edit ]
The expression "astral projection" came to be used in two different ways. For the Golden Dawn[39] and some Theosophists[40] it retained the classical and medieval philosophers' meaning of journeying to other worlds, heavens, hells, the astrological spheres and other imaginal[41] landscapes, but outside these circles the term was increasingly applied to non-physical travel around the physical world.[42]
Though this usage continues to be widespread, the term, "etheric travel", used by some later Theosophists, offers a useful distinction. Some experients say they visit different times and/or places:[43] "etheric", then, is used to represent the sense of being "out of the body" in the physical world, whereas "astral" may connote some alteration in time-perception. Robert Monroe describes the former type of projection as "Locale I" or the "Here-Now", involving people and places that actually exist:[44] Robert Bruce calls it the "Real Time Zone" (RTZ) and describes it as the non-physical dimension-level closest to the physical.[45] This etheric body is usually, though not always, invisible but is often perceived by the experient as connected to the physical body during separation by a "silver cord". Some link "falling" dreams with projection.[46]
According to Max Heindel, the etheric "double" serves as a medium between the astral and physical realms. In his system the ether, also called prana, is the "vital force" that empowers the physical forms to change. From his descriptions it can be inferred that, to him, when one views the physical during an out-of-body experience, one is not technically "in" the astral realm at all.[47]
Other experients may describe a domain that has no parallel to any known physical setting. Environments may be populated or unpopulated, artificial, natural or abstract, and the experience may be beatific, horrific or neutral. A common Theosophical belief is that one may access a compendium of mystical knowledge called the Akashic records. In many accounts the experiencer correlates the astral world with the world of dreams. Some even report seeing other dreamers enacting dream scenarios unaware of their wider environment.[48]
The astral environment may also be divided into levels or sub-planes by theorists, but there are many different views in various traditions concerning the overall structure of the astral planes: they may include heavens and hells and other after-death spheres, transcendent environments, or other less-easily characterized states.[44][46][48]
Notable practitioners [ edit ]
Astral projection according to Carrington and Muldoon, 1929
Emanuel Swedenborg was one of the first practitioners to write extensively about the out-of-body experience, in his Spiritual Diary (1747–65). French philosopher and novelist Honoré de Balzac's fictional work "Louis Lambert" suggests he may have had some astral or out-of-body experience.[49]
There are many twentieth century publications on astral projection,[50] although only a few authors remain widely cited. These include Robert Monroe,[51] Oliver Fox,[52] Sylvan Muldoon, and Hereward Carrington,[53] and Yram.[54]
Robert Monroe's accounts of journeys to other realms (1971–1994) popularized the term "OBE" and were translated into a large number of languages. Though his books themselves only placed secondary importance on descriptions of method, Monroe also founded an institute dedicated to research, exploration and non-profit dissemination of auditory technology for assisting others in achieving projection and related altered states of consciousness.
Robert Bruce,[55] William Buhlman,[56] Marilynn Hughes,[57] and Albert Taylor[58] have discussed their theories and findings on the syndicated show Coast to Coast AM several times. Michael Crichton gives lengthy and detailed explanations and experience of astral projection in his non-fiction book Travels.
In her book, My Religion, Helen Keller tells of her beliefs in Swedenborgianism and how she once "traveled" to Athens:
"I have been far away all this time, and I haven't left the room...It was clear to me that it was because I was a spirit that I had so vividly'seen' and felt a place a thousand miles away. Space was nothing to spirit!"[59]
The soul's ability to leave the body at will or while sleeping and visit the various planes of heaven is also known as "soul travel". The practice is taught in Surat Shabd Yoga, where the experience is achieved mostly by meditation techniques and mantra repetition. All Sant Mat Gurus widely spoke about this kind of out of body experience, such as Kirpal Singh.[60]
Eckankar describes Soul Travel broadly as movement of the true, spiritual self (Soul) closer to the heart of God. While the contemplative may perceive the experience as travel, Soul itself is said not to move but to "come into an agreement with fixed states and conditions that already exist in some world of time and space".[61] American Harold Klemp, the current Spiritual Leader of Eckankar[62] practices and teaches Soul Travel, as did his predecessors,[63] through contemplative techniques known as the Spiritual Exercises of ECK (Divine Spirit).[64]
In occult traditions, practices range from inducing trance states to the mental construction of a second body, called the Body of Light in Aleister Crowley's writings, through visualization and controlled breathing, followed by the transfer of consciousness to the secondary body by a mental act of will.[65]
Scientific reception [ edit ]
There is no known scientific evidence that astral projection as an objective phenomenon exists.[7][8][9]
There are cases of patients having experiences suggestive of astral projection from brain stimulation treatments and hallucinogenic drugs, such as ketamine, phencyclidine, and DMT.[9]
Robert Todd Carroll writes that the main evidence to support claims of astral travel is anecdotal and comes "in the form of testimonials of those who claim to have experienced being out of their bodies when they may have been out of their minds."[66] Subjects in parapsychological experiments have attempted to project their astral bodies to distant rooms and see what was happening. However, such experiments haven't produced clear results.[67]
According to Bob Bruce of the Queensland Skeptics Association, astral projection is "just imagining", or "a dream state". Bruce writes that the existence of an astral plane is contrary to the limits of science. "We know how many possibilities there are for dimensions and we know what the dimensions do. None of it correlates with things like astral projection." Bruce attributes astral experiences such as "meetings" alleged by practitioners to confirmation bias and coincidences.[68]
Psychologist Donovan Rawcliffe has written that astral projection can be explained by delusion, hallucination and vivid dreams.[69]
Arthur W. Wiggins, writing in Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction: Where Real Science Ends...and Pseudoscience Begins, said that purported evidence of the ability to astral travel great distances and give descriptions of places visited is predominantly anecdotal. In 1978, Ingo Swann provided a test of his alleged ability to astral travel to Jupiter and observe details of the planet. Actual findings and information were later compared to Swann's claimed observations; according to an evaluation by James Randi, Swann's accuracy was "unconvincing and unimpressive" with an overall score of 37 percent. Wiggins considers astral travel an illusion, and looks to neuroanatomy, human belief, imagination and prior knowledge to provide prosaic explanations for those claiming to experience it.[11]
In popular culture [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Music has played such an important part in shaping who I am today. As lame as that sounds, it’s very true. And while this is true about music in a broad sense, it’s even more so because of the music scene in Winnipeg.
From my early upbringing in musical theater on Rainbow stage, middle/high school and a Winnipeg-based group called Junior Musical Theater Company, I solidified my reputation as the coolest kid in school, and earned the nickname “midget queen” (like the ABBA song, except midget because I was short, hahahaha great one) along with some other great ones that were written on my locker.
As I grew up and could not longer fit inside my locker, my music tastes changed and I found myself in love with rock music. I joined a band that evolved from a classic rock cover band, to one that played the majority of venues in Winnipeg there were to play at with our own originals (and still some covers because they’re so fun to play) called Table 21. I fell in love with the local music scene during this period in my life and truly realized how many great bands are out there, creating incredible unique music that goes highly under-appreciated. Which brings me to my point.
When I started this blog I had several ideas for things I would do, but one idea that has stuck with me is the fact that I wanted to do a Winnipeg music showcase. I’ve reached out to some of my favorite local bands, and maybe it’s just in their friendly Manitoba nature, but they all responded and were willing to participate in my shenanigans!
Clear some space in your schedules (or take an extra long poop break at work) because for the next while I will be updating with posts dedicated to some fantastic homegrown Winnipeg bands. If you’re a local Winnipeger and these bands are new to you, I hope these posts will convince you to go immerse yourselves in the local music scene and check them out. If you’re tuning in from abroad and you love what you hear, spread the word about these bands! A larger fanbase means a greater chance of them coming to you.
Get ready for the first post tomorrow, featuring a great up and coming band: YES WE MYSTIC!
AdvertisementsSALT LAKE CITY — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Wednesday evening it has approved an electronic method for members in the U.S. to pay tithing and charitable donations.
Historically, donation envelopes and contributions were given to priesthood leaders in each church ward or branch. This same process will continue to be used, but the new Online Donations system will give members in the U.S. an additional method to submit their contributions to the church, according to a statement from the LDS Church.
Along with tithing and charitable donations, members can also use the website to donate financially to LDS missionaries.
“The Church’s Finance and Records Department says the initial site not only demonstrated a simplified donation process for members, but also showed that this new approach reduced the load on local leaders and clerks charged with processing donations,” the statement said.
The LDS Church Online Donations website will be rolled out to congregations in the U.S. throughout 2015 and the Church will notify local leaders when it becomes available in their area, the statement said.
Tithing is an integrated aspect of the belief and practice of the LDS Church where members pay a tenth of their “increase,” or income, annually.
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Related LinksMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman questions Mr Berlusconi on claims he used an offensive term to refer to German Chancellor Angela Merkel
"In 20 years of politics, I have never insulted anyone."
Silvio Berlusconi is being asked about claims he once referred to Angela Merkel using two derogatory terms.
"No, I have never had any problems with Angela Merkel.... this has been made up by someone who wanted to turn Angela against me," he tells BBC Newsnight in a rare TV interview.
The former Italian prime minister, now 77, once mingled with the German chancellor and other world leaders at global summits.
These days, the three-time leader is more likely to be found at a care home near Milan, where he is carrying out a year's community service after being convicted of tax fraud in 2013.
Turbulent relationships
After years of successfully brushing off sex scandals and allegations of corruption, he has also been sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for having sex with an under-age prostitute and abuse of power.
He is currently appealing in this case.
Berlusconi's battles with Mrs Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the height of the eurozone crisis are thought by some commentators to have exacerbated its problems.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Berlusconi insists he got on well with Angela Merkel on the whole
"I was not an easy person to deal with and I was quite tough. I had the courage to oppose some of the proposals made by Merkel and Sarkozy," he says.
He adds that his relationship deteriorated with Mr Sarkozy because of a differing approach to Libya.
'Cuckoo'
Berlusconi says the Frenchman feared the Italian's relationship with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi would stop Libya from supplying France with gas and oil.
"So he moved before the other countries to attack Libya and Gaddafi and I think it was a big mistake," says Berlusconi.
He insists though that he based his politics on "friendly relationships with all of my colleagues".
"I have had long-lasting friendships with George Bush, Vladimir Putin, with Aznar, with Tony Blair - many others… so it is almost impossible not to have a friendly relationship."
The time in 2008 that Berlusconi jumped out from behind a monument in Trieste and shouted "cuckoo" to Angela Merkel as she arrived for talks was just a joke, he insists.
He was merely replicating a trick Russian President Vladimir Putin had played on him in |
Paul Marat suffered from a gluten intolerance which led to him being confined to his bath, which led to him being murdered, which led to him being
Weren't we talking about Middle Ages stuff? Well, read all about it in my new book, How to write jokes about topics that are unrelated.
And for heaven's sake, watch I have been obsessing over Medieval history in the past while. It only seemed natural to come back to the world of our old friends. I like the idea of recurring characters in this strip, and that's why you're seeing more of it! Though we might take them from 15th century to 14th century. The 14th century is just so.. gloriously Medieval.I like a good old mix of funny history with a lil' anachronism thrown in the mix. For allergies, I'll be honest: I have no idea what people thought then. And I've been looking at medical Medieval image catalogues like nobody's business. I should really make a tumblr or something to record research travels on the internet, because I just want to share everything with you! There is so much great stuff out there! We'll see. But anyway, back on track re: allergies-I once read that it's possible Jean Paul Marat suffered from a gluten intolerance which led to him being confined to his bath, which led to him being murdered, which led to him being painted Pieta-style with a bathtub instead of the Virgin Mary. Can you imagine, an old timey French dude just chowing down baguettes every day and wondering what the heck was the matter while all the doctors bang their heads on the wall? C'est tragique. But in a funny way.Weren't we talking about Middle Ages stuff? Well, read all about it in my new book,And for heaven's sake, watch Terry Jones' Medieval Lives and do it now- you won't find a more charming, intelligent host anywhere. Terry, if you're reading this (you're not, but just in case you are), you're the best. Store!Next month's DVD release of The Green Death: Special Edition includes another in the series of The Doctor Forever looking at the "wilderness years" of Doctor Who before its 2005 return. Titled The Unquiet Dead, the special feature includes interviews with former showrunner Russell T Davies and former Controller of Drama Commissioning at the BBC, Jane Tranter. They both discuss the story of Doctor Who and how they both brought it back to BBC One on Saturday nights. Below are some highlights from the fascinating documentary:
• Just before the Channel Four show Queer As Folk hit the screens in 1999, its writer Russell T Davies came to the attention of Mal Young (BBC Controller, Drama Serials 1997-2004). RTD remembers the first meeting:
"I remember, actually, someone in the room said, 'Why don't we bring Tom Baker back?' and we all said, 'Yes!' I was sitting there, going with anything, 'Yeah, that'd be great!'"
• Jane Tranter (pictured left) wanted to bring back Doctor Who with Judi Dench.
• After market research, BBC Worldwide decided there was: "great awareness of Doctor Who, but very little desire to see it"
• In 2001, the BBC wanted RTD to write a science-fiction version of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, but he turned them down saying, "If I'm going to do science-fiction with the BBC then I want to do Doctor Who."
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) wanted to redub Christopher Eccleston (pictured right) with a Canadian actor, but Russell T Davies told them, "You're not doing that to our lead actor!" • In 2001, the BBC wanted RTD to write a science-fiction version of Charles Dickens', but he turned them down saying, "If I'm going to do science-fiction with the BBC then I want to do." • Co-producers of the(CBC) wanted to redub Christopher Eccleston (pictured right) with a Canadian actor, buttold them, "You're not doing that to our lead actor!"
• Michael Grade returned to the BBC in early 2004 and, as he had done before, wanted a Doctor Who-free schedule. Jane Tranter says, "The person who was completely opposed to bringing back Doctor Who was Michael Grade. He thought this was a really bad idea." On his return to the BBC as Director General, Mark Thompson also spoke to Jane Tranter about halting production on Doctor Who. The former BBC Head of Drama stated that he: "asked me if we could stop making it. 'Were we able to stop?' And I said' No!'"
The Doctor Forever: The Unquiet Dead includes much more fascinating recollections and revelations. It is released on The Green Death: Special Edition DVD, out on August 5 (full details includes much more fascinating recollections and revelations. It is released on: Special Edition DVD, out on August 5 (full details HERE ).
Labels: jane tranter, RTD, RTD Interview, Russell T Davies, Russell T Davies Interview, the green deathFighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an academic publication relating to the fictional Buffyverse established by TV series, Buffy and Angel.
Book description [ edit ]
The book looks at the struggle to examine meaning in the television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series is examined from a variety of viewpoints, and especially the social and cultural issues dealt with by the series and their place in a wider literary context.
Contents [ edit ]
The chapters are grouped as follows:
Part 1: Forces of Society and Culture: Gender, Generations, Violence, Class, Race and Religion (Chapters 1–10).
Part 2: Forces of Art and Imagination (Past): Vampires, Magic, and Monsters (Chapters 11–16).
Part 3: Forces of Art and Imagination (Present): Fan Relationships, Metaphoric and Real (Chapters 17–20).The killing of Osama bin Laden is often considered one of the highlights of President Obama’s first term as President and more specifically, as Commander-in-Chief. In his first interview, Admiral William McRaven, the Admiral in charge of the invasion that successfully captured and killed the master mind behind the 9/11 attacks. He had some stellar words about the man whom he credits with making the greatest decisions on that now infamous night, President Obama. From CNN’s The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer (emphasis added):
BLITZER: We always think of, in recent years, of course, at least in the past year, with admiral McRaven, as the orchestrator, the architect of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. And you know, we’ve all read a lot about it. I know Peter Bergen is here, he’s written a whole book about it, an excellent book about it. But this is the guy who’s sitting right here, who had the guts to tell the commander in chief, we should do it, let’s do it, and when you ordered that raid, and when you said, you think — you didn’t even know for sure that bin Laden was in a Abbottabad in that compound, about a mile or so away from the west point of Pakistan, did you?
ADMIRAL WILLIAM MCRAVEN, COMMANDER, U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS: Well, let me make one thing clear, I didn’t order the raid.
(LAUGHTER)
BLITZER: But he told the president of the United States that he thought he could do it.
MCRAVEN: And this is not a small point. The fact of the matter is, it was the president of the United States that ordered the raid.
BLITZER: And he deserves an enormous amount of credit for that decision.
MCRAVEN: Absolutely, he does.
BLITZER: What kind of commander in chief is he?
MCRAVEN: The president of the United States? Fantastic. Again, I’m not a political guy. I’ve worked in both administrations. I very much enjoyed working for President Bush. And I very much enjoy working for President Obama.
And it’s, again, this isn’t about politics but a commander in chief who I have the opportunity to engage with on a routine basis. And watching him and the decisions he makes along with his national security team. They’re a very impressive group of guys and gals.Posted by Andy, under INSTRUCTIONAL DIAGRAMS
Most baby changing signs aren’t concerned with things like accuracy or safety. They’re designed to have a more pleasing and compact composition, so the adult is commonly shown crammed up close, hovering over a baby as if the diaper were going on its head.
I’m a designer, so I can appreciate the reasons for this. But I’m also a parent, so I’m no-so-hot on bulls##t. Consider this a more accurate representation of a diaper change and its adult safety factors.
Side Note: You must understand that it’s not that babies and kids are mean, because it will seem like that from time to time… well, actually they can be evil little critters, but generally-speaking they’re really more like “Weeeee! Look at what my legs are doing!!!”
However, as a parent, you should know better than to trust them to lie there like an obedient, lazy little sack of burps and giggles. The expression for parents should go “Fool me once, shame on ME (not “you”). Fool me twice, get me an ice pack.”
–
See All the Stick Figure Warning Signs
You probably don’t NEED these, but you’re going to WANT them.
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Instructional Diagrams
Lots of ’em.Heading into week 5 of the 2017 college football season, there are still 24 undefeated teams, including the top 10 ranked teams in the nation, consisting of Alabama, defending national champions Clemson, Oklahoma, Penn State, USC, Washington, Georgia, Michigan, TCU and Wisconsin.
Last year, we didn’t have any undefeated teams in division I; Clemson went 14-1. Alabama didn’t go undefeated the previous season as well, finishing with a 14-1 record too as they won the national championship. In 2014, Ohio State ended up winning the title, beating Oregon in the first ever college football championship game. They too lost one game along the way, at home to Virginia Tech.
In fact, the last season with an undefeated team was 2013, when Florida State, led by Jameis Winston on the field in his Freshman year, went 13-0 en route to the national title. Surprisingly, or not, this is the longest “undefeated drought” there has ever been.
More often than not, there’s at least one undefeated team. It’s not rare to have more than one. In 2010, Auburn won the national title with Cam Newton steamrolling defenses, finishing the season at 14-0. In the same season TCU, then still not in the Big 12, went 13-0, concluding the season by beating Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl. In 2009 both Boise State (winning the Fiesta Bowl) and Alabama (winning the BCS championship game) finished undefeated. In 2004, we even had three teams without a loss: USC (winning the national title), Auburn (taking the Sugar Bowl) and Utah (winning the Fiesta Bowl). That Utah team was coached by Urban Meyer, the current Ohio State coach. He is the head coach of the last team to go undefeated without winning the national title, the 2012 Buckeyes, who were banned from playing in the postseason or picking up any silverware, although they did finish the season at 12-0.
Before this current stretch without undefeated teams, the longest we’ve had is two consecutive years without a team posting a perfect season. Between 1988 (Notre Dame) and 1991 (Miami & Washington), we had Miami finishing on top of both polls in 1989 with an 11-1 record. And in 1990 there was Colorado topping the AP Poll (11-1-1) and Georgia Tech on top of the UPI/Coaches Poll. The Yellow Jackets didn’t lose, but they didn’t sweep the field, winning 11 games and tying one against North Carolina. The team won the coaches poll by a single point over Colorado.
To find another case of tow consecutive seasons without a perfect undefeated team we go to 1982 and 1983, sandwiched between Danny Ford’s Clemson in 1981 and Lavell Edwards’ BYU in 1984. In 1982 Penn State under Joe Paterno were on top of both polls, losing one game (to Alabama) but beating number one Georgia in the Sugar Bowl to win the championship. In 1983, Miami were 11-1 en route to the title, crushed by Florida on the opening week before winning 11 in a row, including the Orange Bowl vs #1 ranked Nebraska.
And this year? Too soon to tell. Projecting Alabama to go undefeated is never out of the question – last season Clemson, in the national title game, were the only team that managed to stop them. Considering the state of the SEC, it won’t surprise anyone if they go that far without losing once again. But perhaps the next undefeated, perfect undefeated that is, will comes from a completely new direction, one that we’re not expecting.I'm too old for this shit. -- Detective Roger Murtaugh
If I look back 25 years and think about the information available to me then compared to now, I realize why my ADD brain swirls like one of the cheap pinwheels my husband puts on our deck.
I was still decades away from caring about headlines that had to do with aging. Back then, I just scanned headlines in Cosmo for 3,609 Ways To Please Your Man articles.
Hint: Say yes. That's really all it takes.
For the record, I just lied. I never scanned for those articles. They annoyed me all those years ago. Now I find them unworthy of contemplating.
Today? I can read one of thousands of articles on aging ranging from reasons it sucks (no it doesn't) to age appropriate ways to wear eye shadow (you can have my black eyeliner when you can pry it from my cold dead fingers).
I love getting older. I spent a life time filled with self loathing. I gave that up. I gave up feeling stupid, because I'm not. I gave up beating myself up over being awkward. I'm socially anxious. That's who I am. There are a lot of us. We're a tribe. Well, a tribe whose members prefer to keep to themselves. I have replayed times when I've said or done something embarrassing literally decades after it happened. I'm done with that. I'm done worrying about how I look. I spent decades worrying about every gray hair and every bulge.
I stopped dying my hair over a year ago. I won't lie though, I still worry about the bulges. But see? That's the other thing, I'm cool with that as well. I accept me for who I am. Who I am right now is someone who would like to be a little less squishy. I am all about self-acceptance. And that is very nearly true.
My mind doesn't understand that I'm 52-years-old. It still feels 31. My body, however, is fully aware of the number of years it's lived.
There are things I am too old for. Time does change a person and I am finding that it is easier to accept these changes than to fight them.
These are things for which the ship has sailed:
1. Shutting up -- I no longer want to keep my mouth shut when I see an injustice. Or feel one. It's not that I never spoke out, there were times when I did, but it was usually on behalf of someone else. Not for myself. I'm done with that. I don't know how much good it will do, but if I get treated like shit, I'm going to shout about it.
2. Worrying how I look to others -- My husband and I had breakfast at an upscale cafe this morning, well, upscale compared to Waffle House. We were going grocery shopping afterward. My hair would have looked okay if I hadn't run out of dry shampoo, Also, it's possible I was wearing jeans that should have been washed three wearings ago. But really... jeans don't ever get dirty, do they? There were four women sitting at the table next to us and every one of them was wearing an infinity scarf. I had a brief moment of panic. I kind of looked like a pan handler and my husband... well, he definitely looked like a pan handler. What would the infinity women think of me? Then I decided that their opinion of me wouldn't change how my bacon and avocado omelet tasted. For the record, Waffle House has better coffee.
3. Guilty Pleasures -- I no longer have any guilty pleasures. I just have regular pleasures. I don't feel guilty about liking Lady Gaga. I don't feel guilty about reading every Stephanie Plum book and I certainly don't feel guilty about getting obsessive about a TV show and watching it over and over. I have moved on from Supernatural and Doctor Who. I am currently re-binge watching The Walking Dead. Because Daryl.
4. Uncomfortable shoes -- Screw wearing uncomfortable shoes. I also don't care if my socks match or not. If they mostly match, that's good enough.
5. Making excuses for my messy house -- You know why my house is messy? Because I don't feel like cleaning right now. Also, it's messy because I'm unorganized and a bit of a slob.
6. Accumulating stuff I don't need -- I cannot convey how much I am done with this. Nearly everything we have isn't necessary or entertaining or comforting. We have less than two years before our youngest graduates and starts college. During that time, it is my goal to relieve ourselves of at least half of everything we own. Maybe more.
7. Spending unnecessary time with people I don't like -- I actually started this one a few years ago. I used to go to lunch a few days a week with a group of coworkers. I don't like them. They are mean, petty, and we don't share the same interests. One day, I looked at them while they squabbled over sports or politics or a work project and thought what am I doing here? And then I stopped having lunch with them. Life is too short to spend unnecessary time with douche twizzles.
8. Finding the good in every person I know -- Sometimes, people are assholes. I'm sure, even with the biggest asshole, if you do enough digging, you'll find something good about that person. But why would I do that? Why have I done that? I don't want to waste anymore time than I have to on unpleasant people. People make their choices. If they decide to be insufferable, then so be it. I no longer feel compelled to find something attractive about people like that. I just want move on from them as quickly and painlessly as possible.
What are you finding that you are too old for? I'd like to grow this list.
Earlier on Huff/Post50:James Horner, the consummate film composer known for his heart-tugging scores for Field of Dreams, Braveheart and Titanic, for which he won two Academy Awards, died Monday in a plane crash near Santa Barbara. He was 61.
His death was confirmed by Sylvia Patrycja, who is identified on Horner's film music page as his assistant.
"We have lost an amazing person with a huge heart and unbelievable talent," Patrycja wrote on Facebook on Monday. "He died doing what he loved. Thank you for all your support and love and see you down the road."
© Sean Gallup/Getty Images for Doha Film Institute Composer James Horner attends day 3 of the 2011 Doha Tribeca Film Festival on October 27, 2011 in Doha, Qatar. Horner was piloting the small aircraft when it crashed into a remote area about 60 miles north of Santa Barbara, officials said. An earlier report noted that the plane, which was registered to the composer, had gone down, but the pilot had not been identified.
For his work on the 1997 best picture winner Titanic, directed by James Cameron, Horner captured the Oscar for original dramatic score, and he nabbed another Academy Award for original song (shared with lyricist Will Jennings) for "My Heart Will Go On," performed by Celine Dion.
"My job - and it's something I discuss with Jim all the time - is to make sure at every turn of the film it's something the audience can feel with their heart," Horner said in a 2009 interview with the Los Angeles Times. "When we lose a character, when somebody wins, when somebody loses, when someone disappears - at all times I'm keeping track, constantly, of what the heart is supposed to be feeling. That is my primary role."
His score for Titanic sold a whopping 27 million copies worldwide.
His fruitful partnership with Cameron also netted him Oscar noms for original score for the blockbusters Aliens (1986) and Avatar (2009). The pair reportedly were also at work on Avatar sequels.
The Los Angeles native earned 10 Oscar noms in all, also being recognized for his work on two other best picture winners: Braveheart (1995) and A Beautiful Mind (2001). He also received noms for An American Tail (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Apollo 13 (1995) and House of Sand and Fog (2003).
Always busy, Horner has three films coming out soon: Southpaw, the boxing drama that stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Rachel McAdams and is due in theaters in July; Jean-Jacques Annaud's Wolf Totem, out in September; and The 33, a drama based on the 2010 mining disaster in Chile that's set for November.
His lengthy film résumé includes The Lady in Red (1979), Wolfen (1981), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1983), Red Heat (1988), Glory (1989), The Rocketeer (1991), Patriot Games (1992), Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), Jumanji (1995), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), Troy (2004) and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012).
His father was two-time Oscar-winning art director/set designer Harry Horner (The Heiress, The Hustler).
Horner spoke about the state of his career in a December interview with David Hocquet.
"I'm much choosier," he said.' "I don't want to be doing these movies that now 85 or 90 composers want, as opposed to six. And now all these movies, action movies. I don't get offered all the movies obviously, but I see a lot of them and I do get asked to do a lot of them, and I just know they're not asking me to do something that I can do something original, they're asking me to do a formula and I'm too rebellious."
A great tragedy has struck my family today, and I will not be around for a while. I would like some privacy and time to... Posted by Sylvia Patrycja on Monday, June 22, 2015
Twitter: @mikebarnes4If ever your hatred for empty-headed “independent” voters who care just enough about politics to vote but not quite enough to know anything begins to wane, spending 30 seconds listening to Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban ought to fix you right up. In an interview on CNN’s New Day Thursday morning, Cuban told anchor Chris Cuomo that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is to blame for Republicans’ dehumanization of Hillary Clinton, and so people should vote for Donald Trump because otherwise, Republicans will just obstruct Hillary because they hate her so much:
If you look at the obstructionism they’ve offered to Obama, it will be 1,000 times worst for Hillary Clinton. And so you know, the argument, if I had to make an argument for Donald Trump, the argument is I think right now, he would do a better job of crossing the aisle and reducing gridlock than Senator Clinton would. And I think that’s a reflection of the fact that Senator Clinton has done a horrible job of communicating and humanizing herself. I mean, it’s horrible to say for a presidential candidate we’re talking about humanizing, right, but they made her not human. They demonized her so bad with Hillary and all this name-calling that she has got, if she has any hope of accomplishing anything, if she wins, she is going to have to get out there and really connect.
To a normal person, that’s not an argument in favor of voting for Trump, it’s an argument in favor of flipping the entire US Congress. If he were arguing that the attacks on Hillary are legitimate, that would be a different story, but what Cuban is arguing is that whichever political party most refuses to work with the other should be rewarded with more power, regardless of the merits. That’s frighteningly dumb, because as an “independent” voter, Cuban’s view reflects the “thinking” of a lot of people who are paying just enough attention to elect an overt racist to the highest office in the land.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.Sysadmin Blog Friday, July 31 is 2015's Systems Administrator Appreciation Day, better known as Sysadmin Day. It is a day during which sysadmins feel sad that nobody remembers there is a day dedicated to them, and they go on being as unappreciated as every other day of the year. The exception being vendors and other sysadmins; they remember to care.
Marketing loves Sysadmin Day. Articles from previous years show an ever increasing number of contests, discounts, and attempts at "customer engagement." This year is no different for vendors: they're out in force.
There is an uptick, however, in community-organized events. It seems that sysadmins are emerging from their cave-like abodes, venturing out underneath that great big ball of photon-spewing fusion in the sky, and actually socializing with other sysadmins in pubs all around the world.
What a brilliant idea.
As always, my Google-fu is imperfect, and not everyone alerts El Reg about their sysadmin day plans. The following rundown of contests and community get-togethers is not remotely a comprehensive list, and I do hope that events I miss will get added to in the comments section of this article.
General contests and marketing faff
Perhaps the most intriguing Sysadmin Day-related bit of marketing faff is only tangentially related to Sysadmin Day at all, but there is some pretty sexy hardware on offer. Catalogic is doing a Sysadmin Day webinar all about the copy data management market in which it operates.
So far, so boring, why am I bothering you with this pointless marketing tat when you can just read the articles in the hyperlinks? Well, a little birdie told me that the back quarter of the Catalogic webinar would be used to discuss the details of their VMworld home lab contest. More to the point, this home lab isn't going to be some crappy Intel NUCs and a switch.
The home lab "will include a free license for ECX and a NetApp box so the lucky winner can experience for himself/herself the power of SW-defined copy data management for VMworld." Details on what, if any, compute servers will be included are sketchy at this point, but any home lab serious enough to include a NetApp box has my interest piqued. Sysadmin Day 2015 will mark the start of a contest that ends quite well for some lucky nerd.
2015 is the first year in I can't remember how long that ThinkGeek doesn't seem to be celebrating Sysadmin Day. Perhaps their marketing people are just slow this year, or perhaps this is part of ThinkGeek's ongoing strategy of trying to appeal to the mainstream and largely abandoning its "geek" base.
If you were hoping to get your ThinkGeek fix on for the year, you needn't fear: Netwrix is here. $25 gift certs are the prize for the best "what stresses you out" short form. Terms and conditions aren't posted, so I have no idea who is allowed to participate.
Manage Engine has fully embraced Sysadmin Day. There is the usual contest, this time based around sending e-cards to your sysadmins. 20 people will be picked from among the senders to receive $20 gift cards for Amazon. More intriguingly, ManageEngine has put together a fun picture-thingie on "sysadmin myths," seemingly sourced from a survey of their community members. The contest is open to everyone unless you live in a country that the US government doesn't like.
Spiceworks is running a 12 days of sysadmas that hasn't seen as much engagement from the community as past years, but is fun nonetheless. There are sponsors listed, but what events or prizes they might be sponsoring isn't immediately evident.
Thwack (SolarWinds) is at it again this year with its own contest. The grand prizes are an Nvidia Shield Pro and a video gaming chair. There are some runner-up prizes as well. The contest seems to be open to residents of Canada, the US, UK, and Germany.
Softinventive Lab is offering a 20 per cent discount for Sysadmin Day, so if you need network auditing and inventory management software you may want to give them a boo.
In the US of A
Events are also occurring around the world. For those sysadmins living in Dayton, OH, DataYard is holding a shindig at the Fifth Street BrewPub. Tip of the hat to those folks for doing something beyond a quick marketing giveaway and for showing local sysadmins some appreciation face to face.
New York City area sysadmins should join in the festivities at The Gingerman, courtesy of Digital Ocean.
If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area you might want to take the opportunity to hang out with OpenDNS at their headquarters. They promise pizza and beer. From experience, they're pretty fun guys to spend time with.
CDW and Kingston are also doing a contest this year. There's a Microsoft Surface 3 64GB up for grabs, along with a Microsoft Arc touch mouse and a Logitech wireless keyboard/mouse combo. Americans only.
In Australia
Australians are really stepping up to the plate this year. Sysadmin Day's Australian tentacle is running a contest that includes a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 (courtesy of Samsung Communications Centre), a Targus rolling travel laptop case (from Datacom), and one year membership to SAGE-AU. There's even an official trophy and certificate from SysAdminDay.com.au up for grabs.
Paessler – whom we all know as the folks behind the PRTG network monitoring software – is also running a contest. The best response to "Only Aussie SysAdmins Know" gets a $500 Red Balloon voucher.The 'liberal agenda' of the Rights To Ricky Sanchez can be denied no more! Dan Pfeiffer of Crooked Media's Pod Save America joins the podcast to talk about selling out and cheering for the Warriors, being a Sixers fan in the White House, what Obama thought about The Process, whether he is still actually a Sixers fan, and his rather large podcast.
We also discuss some Ricky personnel changes and the potential NBA Lottery reform.
Follow Dan on Twitter @danpfeiffer, and get the podcast at Crooked Media.
Bus The Process III: Operation Shithole (aka Fly The Process aka Bucks The Process) is on sale now but packages are going really fast. Reserve your seat now by clicking on the fake Rookie Of The Year Malcolm Brogdon. We're going to Chicago and Milwaukee. It's going to be sweet.Control of the Virginia governor’s mansion is also significant for redistricting after the 2020 Census. The Virginia governor can veto any congressional-district maps passed by the state legislature.
Democrats also flipped a number of Virginia state legislative seats on Tuesday. All 100 house seats in the Virginia House of Delegates, which has been under Republican control, were on the line in the November 7 general election. As of 9 p.m., it looked as if control Virginia’s lower chamber could flip to the Democrats.
Democratic candidate Danica Roem became Virginia’s first openly transgender legislator on Tuesday night when she defeated Republican incumbent Bob Marshall to win the 13th District seat in the House of Delegates. In January, Marshall introduced a so-called “bathroom bill,” which was later voted down by a GOP-controlled subcommittee. “Mere separation of the sexes should not be considered discrimination," Marshall said when he proposed the legislation.
In another House of Delegates race, Democrat Lee Carter won out over Republican Jackson Miller, who had served as a member of the House GOP leadership. In August, the DC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America endorsed Carter, who the chapter identified as “a member of DSA in good standing” in his House of Delegates race.
Another notable Democratic House of Delegates pickup occurred when Chris Hurst won out over incumbent Joseph Yost. Hurst is a former television news anchor whose girlfriend, news reporter Alison Parker, was fatally shot during a live television broadcast in August 2015.
Northam described himself as a progressive champion during his primary campaign and highlighted his track record of supporting reproductive rights. He went so far as to label President Trump a “narcissistic maniac,” but his tone softened during the general election when he said that he would work with the president if he helped Virginia. Murphy is a former Goldman Sachs alum who embraced progressive agenda items like raising the minimum wage to $15 dollars an hour, and won the endorsement of progressive groups like New Jersey Working Families.
President Trump weighed in on the results of the Virginia election on Tuesday to say on Twitter that “Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for.” Gillespie did attempt to keep his distance from the president, rarely mentioning him by name during his campaign. But the Republican candidate did take some Trump-like positions, attacking his opponent over sanctuary cities and promising to defend Confederate monuments. In Virginia, however, that wasn’t a winning strategy.Photo
CAIRO — Citing recent episodes of violence, the government of Bahrain on Tuesday banned all public rallies and demonstrations, a move that drew swift condemnation from human rights groups and opposition activists who said it was intended solely to stifle criticism of the ruling monarchy in the tiny Persian Gulf nation.
In a statement, Bahrain’s interior minister said protests were banned after “repeated violations” by rally organizers, including riots, attacks on property and calls for the overthrow of “leading national figures.” Legal action would be taken against anyone attempting to organize a rally, the statement said.
A government spokesman, Fahad al-Binali, said in an interview that the ban would be temporary and was intended to “calm things down” after the recent deaths of protesters and police officers.
Instead, though, the move seemed likely to inflame the already dangerous standoff involving a protest movement that has been unable to wrest freedoms from a government that opposition activists say is methodically blocking all avenues for dissent. In recent weeks, activists have been prosecuted for postings on social media, and doctors, charged with illegal gathering and other crimes after treating protesters, have been sent to jail.
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“They don’t want people to express their opinions, their anger,” said Sayed Hadi al-Mosawi, a member of Al-Wefaq, the largest opposition group. “This will not take the country to stability.”by Mindy Aguon
Guam - Another teacher has been arrested by the Guam Police Department, accused of having inappropriate relationships with students. Juvenile Investigation Section agents arrested 58-year-old Jimmy San Nicolas Taitano of Yigo today.
Taitano, a former physical education teacher, was arrested on two counts each of 1st and 2nd degree criminal sexual conduct and official misconduct and three counts of child abuse.
GPD spokesperson Sergeant Mike Aguon says they conducted an investigation following reports of students and teachers at John F. Kennedy High School having inappropriate relationships.
Deputy superintendent Rob Malay says Taitano resigned when the investigation was launched back in August of last year. Taitano will spend the night in jail awaiting a magistrate's hearing tomorrow.
Just two weeks ago, a former JFK High teacher was also arrested on similar charges, as 37-year-old Jack Eugene Hattig, III was accused of having sex with students on campus. The students were 16 at the time.Police can call on troops in an emergency Scientists from Porton Down have been deployed in the UK a "number of times this year", the government's head of counter-terrorism has told MPs. The lab mainly specialises in nuclear and biological warfare but the reason for the deployments is not known. Brigadier Chip Chapman told a committee of MPs he could not go into details for national security reasons. The Commons defence committee is probing the UK's level of readiness for a terrorist or other emergency. Lord West said ministers did not know the location and capability of all deployable troops in the UK at any one time but he was confident they could find out "straight away" in the event of an emergency. The security minister said government agencies were now better informed about the counter-terrorism forces and scientific capabilities available to them - and a compendium had been made available to officials. Major emergency Brigadier Chapman told MPs "immediate response" teams from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) had been deployed on a number of occasions in the past year. "The number of occasions they have been used and the circumstances I can not go into in this forum," said Brig Chapman, director of counter-terrorism and UK operations at the ministry of defence. To stop this radicalisation and extremism is going to take - and I get into trouble for saying this - about 30 years
Lord West The DSTL, which is based in Wiltshire, is the UK's leading biological and chemical defence research centre. It also develops a range of other technologies for military and civilian use, including X-ray scanning equipment and armour. On the broader question of whether the UK was prepared for a major incident, Lord West confessed he did not know how many hospital beds could be made available in the event of an emergency of the order of 10,000 deaths. But he said the Department of Health "would know" the figures and plans would be coordinated by the government's emergency planning committee Cobra. Radicalisation The security minister also said progress was being made on preventing young people becoming "radicalised" but he said it was going to be a long process. He said he accepted Britain's foreign |
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Strauss : Did you have a Pro Day?
Nalbone : Interestingly, I did have a Pro Day but I didn’t get invited to the NFL Combine. I had some teams that came and scouted me and stuff like that. I had a Pro Day at Monmouth, but it wasn’t actually at the school. I had a representative from the Jets come and scout me and put me in this database. I had one at Hofstra that I attended. There were plenty of teams there. So, I had two Pro Days.
Strauss : What was your draft day experience like?
Nalbone : It was pretty cool. I didn’t do anything crazy. The Draft was split and in a different format. I watched the first day of the Draft. I obviously knew I wasn’t going to go in the first day. That weekend I had family over my house. They came over, and it was nice. I didn’t pay too much attention to watching it. The fourth round came and went, and then I got a phone call from Miami, and the rest is history.
Strauss : What was going through your mind when Miami selected you?
Nalbone : It was excitement. To go through all of that hard work, and it paid off. At the same time that I was excited and happy and anxious, I knew I had a long way to go. I have a huge responsibility being a drafted player. I can’t believe it happened. It was a dream for me as a kid to get drafted. I was more anxious and excited, and felt really blessed to have that opportunity.
Strauss : Tell me as much as you want about each team and your experiences with them.
Nalbone : Miami was exciting to be drafted there. It was to a new coaching staff. They were successful the year before with a new coaching staff. I imagine the adapting was like coming from a smaller school to a bigger school. I had adapt to the new offense and everything like that. I was excited about the opportunity. Obviously, they felt they needed a change. I went onto Minnesota. My time there was very brief. I was on the practice squad there. It was the same story. They need to make some moves though. I then went onto Denver and was there until the end of the year. Then, I got a call at the end of the year from the Eagles that they were interested in offering me a future’s deal as well. I decided that would be a better fit, but then with the whole lockout, I was cut before camp. I then ended up with Cincinnati throughout all of camp. I didn’t really get an opportunity to play many snaps at all. I came in a week late, but there’s no excuses. I’m happy where I’m at right now in Seattle. We’re a young team. We have an exciting coach. I’m on the practice squad right now and staying healthy until I make it.
Strauss : Do you have a favorite memory in the NFL so far?
Nalbone : Yeah. I played in the first two games with Miami, not the preseason ones. They scaled back the game plan a little bit, but being able to contribute was great. It wasn’t my rookie year, I was active for those preseason games. But the year after that, to just get some time in the game.
Strauss : Do you have any relationships in the NFL that you think have helped you become a better tight end?
Nalbone : Absolutely. When I was with the Dolphins, Anthony Fasano and I worked together. He’s a great guy. He helped me while I was a rookie. He’s a great and well-rounded tight end. I see that he had success down there this year with Miami. He’s a hard worker. He helped me out a lot and showed me a lot of things. He helped me with the offense too. Watching him play and watching film with him was great. I was a rookie from a small school, and he does it right. He’s a complete professional. He was in Dallas for some time too. I don’t think it could have been better for me. I’m very thankful for that.
Strauss : How do you describe your style of tight end play?
Nalbone : I think I’m more of a balanced tight end. I think I’m better at blocking than receiving. I usually play at around 250-260 around that area. I have run routes pretty well. I guess you can I’m balanced. I don’t want to brag about myself.
Strauss : Would you say you watch tape of someone who you want to emulate on the field?
Nalbone : I mean, not necessarily. I just learn from my coaching and from the guys that I’m with. There’s a difference in playing college and high school. You’re obviously competing with guys in your position group. It’s a pretty tight-knit group. I’ve never been in a situation where they won’t help someone else out. I wouldn’t say I watch someone and try to model myself after them.
Strauss : If you could describe yourself as any ice cream flavor, what would you be and why? Nalbone : Hahaha. I don’t know about that one. I don’t know if I have a response to that one. Uh wow. I’m going to with a chocolate-vanilla swirl with rainbow sprinkles and because that’s what I always get. Strauss : For someone aspiring to play football in the NFL, what’s the best advice you can give them? Nalbone : That’s a pretty good question. The best advice I could give them just stay healthy and get your grades in order. Grades are huge. You have to have them if you’re going to play football. I never was the best student until I got to college and then I straightened out a bit. Work hard. Stay healthy. You can achieve it. The competition is so great that it’s tough, but you got to make the best of your opportunities when you can. Strauss : Is there anything you want to tell your fans that we haven’t talked about? Nalbone : The NFL has a cool fan base. Playing professional sports is awesome. It’s such an awesome league because of how many people are involved in it, and football is the ultimate team sport. That is pretty much it. Strauss : Thank you so much for your time John. I really appreciate it. Nalbone : Ah, no problem man. Hit me up on twitter whenever. Announcement : Thank you for listening to the interview with John Nalbone. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you leave your comments below as well! Please check out my website https://prointerviews.org/ for other interviews, “LIKE” the Facebook page at http://facebook.com/ProInterviews/, and follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/ProInterviews/. Thanks again for listening! Stay tuned for more, and feel free to contact me. ->Here are the personal questions that John Nalbone answered.<-
Strauss : If you could meet anyone, who would it be and why?
Nalbone : I would say Abraham Lincoln. He’s an interesting guy. I liked learning about him.
Strauss : Who was your childhood star?
Nalbone : I would say Joe Montana and Michael Jordan. I loved watching both of them play.
Strauss : If you weren’t playing in the NFL, what would you want to do?
Nalbone : If I wasn’t in the NFL, I’m not really sure about that. I don’t know what I would want to be. I haven’t really put much thought into it though. I’d probably want to start my own company. I’m not sure exactly what, but maybe go back to school. I might want to get into sports management. I’m not too sure though.
Strauss : What is your favorite TV Show?
Nalbone : I watch a couple different things. I like Modern Family, that’s a killer.
Strauss : What is your favorite movie of all time?
Nalbone : Forrest Gump is a great movie… I think I’m going with that one.
Strauss : What is your favorite type of pie?
Nalbone : I think that I would have to go with apple pie.
Strauss : What would be your last meal on earth?
Nalbone : It would have to be a really good pizza and Surf N’ Turf.
Strauss : What’s your favorite dessert?
Nalbone : I’m not really a dessert guy. I would say ice cream or a really good piece of cake.
Strauss : Thank you so much for your time.
Nalbone : Thank you Max.Call it interesting, awkward, or both but next Tuesday, February 19th both the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival and the Firefly Music Festival will unveil their 2013 initial lineups.
Since this is the first year Bonnaroo has moved its weekend back to let the Nashville area breathe during the CMT Festival, this marks amongst the latest lineup drops in their history whereas Firefly is moving into its sophomore year where their first roster of talent just seemed to appear on subway trains everywhere. This may help to explain the conflict, but frankly, music fans can’t complain and should be looking to develop that fake cough to get out of work as it appears February 19th is going to be packed full of amazing surprises.
Although we don’t know what to expect from Firefly, Bonnaroo is taking a giant step forward with their 365 campaign deciding to announce their lineup live with the help of Weird Al Yankovic and a host of classic Bonnaroo moments. Sounds like the best infomercial imaginable.
Check out the video for all the juicy details regarding the Bonnaroo lineup release next week and visit Firefly’s official site for the countdown clock.BEIJING (Reuters) - Phuntso Wangye, a veteran Tibetan Communist leader who became an outspoken critic of Beijing’s hardline policies towards the Himalayan region, died on Sunday, his son said. He was 91.
Phuntso Wangye is seen during an interview in Beijing December 10, 2006. REUTERS/Benjamin Kang Lim
“He left this morning,” Phuntso’s son, Phunkham, told Reuters by phone. “Before his death, he was a Communist Party member. After his death, we have invited lamas to pray (for his soul) according to traditional Tibetan culture.”
Phuntso, who was in a Beijing hospital since July, recently developed lung problems.
Born in 1922 in the Tibetan county of Batang, now part of China’s Sichuan province, Phuntso founded the Tibetan Communist Party and launched a series of guerrilla uprisings against Nationalist Chinese rule until joining forces with the Chinese Communist Party in 1949.
He led China’s People’s Liberation Army troops into the remote mountain region in 1951 and served as translator for Chinese leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai during talks with the Dalai Lama in 1954. Phuntso was later purged and spent 18 years in solitary confinement before being rehabilitated in 1978.
According to his biographer Melvyn Goldstein, Phuntso said while his years at the notorious Qingchen Prison brought hardships that were “beyond description”, they let him escape an even worse fate during what he called China’s “chaotic” Cultural Revolution.
Later, Phuntso turned down the opportunity to be chairman of the Tibet regional government, and became increasingly critical of Beijing’s position on Tibet and the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against communist rule.
LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT
Phuntso wrote a series of letters to then-President Hu Jintao condemning local leaders for using the campaign against “splittism” in Tibet to serve their own political ambitions and for refusing to acknowledge the role played by the Dalai Lama in Tibetan society.
He also urged Hu to allow the Dalai Lama to return to his homeland, saying this would help make the region stable.
Dissident Tibetan writer Woeser, speaking to Reuters by telephone, said Phuntso’s death “brings huge regrets”.
She said Phuntso continued to urge Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping, to reconsider China’s stance towards Tibet.
“He had hoped the Chinese leadership could hold talks with the Dalai Lama and let the Dalai Lama return to Tibet,” she said.
Wang Lixiong, author of several books on Tibet, said that with Phuntso’s death, “there will one fewer voice sympathetic towards the Dalai Lama” in the Communist Party.Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzTrump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 Inviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Trump endorses Cornyn for reelection as O'Rourke mulls challenge MORE (R-Texas) on Friday cast the Senate's rejection of a skinny ObamaCare repeal bill as a "betrayal" of Americans who voted for Republicans vowing to do away with the healthcare law.
"There are going to be a great many Americans who tonight feel a sense of betrayal — feel a sense of betrayal that politicians made a promise," Cruz told Fox News shortly after the healthcare vote.
"I'll tell you this, if you stand up and campaign and say we're going to repeal ObamaCare and you vote for ObamaCare, those are not consistent," he continued. "And the American people are entirely justified in saying, 'Any politician who told me that and voted the other didn't tell me the truth; they lied to me.' "
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The Senate narrowly turned down a scaled-down version of a measure to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) early Friday morning, with three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsHouse to push back at Trump on border Hillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid | Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration | New malicious cyber tool found | Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration MORE (Maine), Lisa Murkowski Lisa Ann MurkowskiHouse to push back at Trump on border GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration Pence meeting with Senate GOP ahead of vote to block emergency declaration MORE (Alaska) and John McCain John Sidney McCainGOP lobbyists worry Trump lags in K Street fundraising Mark Kelly kicks off Senate bid: ‘A mission to lift up hardworking Arizonans’ Gabbard hits back at Meghan McCain after fight over Assad MORE (Ariz.) — voting with Democrats to reject the legislation.
The rejection all but upended Republicans' current efforts to uphold their seven-year promise to wipe out, at least in part, former President Obama's signature healthcare law.
Despite suffering years of low approval ratings, the ACA has risen in popularity in recent months, with more people in favor of keeping the law than doing away with it, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.Who would have thought it, by playing a World Class player in his favoured position, granting him the freedom to get around the pitch that he desires, results in World Class performances.
This is now Mesut Ozil’s 3rd season at the club. It has been a love hate relationship. People’s comments on his ability have tended to side on whether you back Wenger or despise him.
Back him, and you would have pointed to obscure statistics showing that he has the highest pass percentage in the Premier League using his little toe on his right foot.
Believe he is useless and you would have questioned his work rate, desire and toughness.
What has happened this season though is he has come into his own. This season, he has been Arsenal’s stand out performer.
Before now, he was a scapegoat. He had not performed to his previous high ability at Real Madrid. Plenty of myths as to why he had no performed. Mainly surrounding where he had been played. People tended to ignore the fact that he played every (or almost every, I do not have the energy to look it up) minute in Germany’s World Cup winning side. And that he had previously played on the wings countless times for club and country.
It was easy to blame the positioning and therefore the management, for his struggles. Or perceived struggles.
What a lot of the criticism came down to was a lack of understanding about Mesut Ozil the player. He was not a Messi. A Neymar. A Hazard. A player who would pick up the ball, take it past 4 players and bend one in the corner. He is just simply not that type of player.
Now people are starting to appreciate his set of skills, a very particular set of skills, skills he has acquired over a very long career.
Whilst I have slightly contradicted myself talking about positions, it is the freedom that he has been given playing in the middle that has now seen him flourish.
Ozil follows the ball. When you watch him closely, he is always there, always available, within a 10 yard pass of the ball. He loves to be involved. Playing in the middle means he can follow the ball, left and right, without it destroying the sides structure.
He drifts into pockets of space, where he is hard to pick up, dragging players out of position, creating space for other players to move into.
His movement, his ability, everything about his game at the moment is exceptional.
He is the king of assists. But we already knew that didn’t we?
With 9 assists this season, he has 3 more than the next highest on the list, David Silva, with 6.
In fact, he has more assists this season than Juan Mata, Cesc Fabregas, Eden Hazard and Coutinho. Combined. Between them they have just the 8.
Of course, there will still be those who will always be on Ozil’s back, unable to ever accept him as the talent he is. However, these people are idiots. what they are doing is using Ozil as a pawn to bash Wenger. An example of how Wenger ruins players (untrue). An example of how Wenger can not spend big money (whilst also demanding that Wenger need’s to spend big money).
It is mad to think that Mesut Ozil has only just turned 27. It seems like a decade ago that he ran past the heavy legged Gareth Barry for Germany. He is entering his peak. And will continue to get better.
With the way Ozil plays, he does not rely on blistering pace. Realistically, he has another 6/7 years in him at the top level. Pulling the strings at Arsenal.
In 1995, Arsenal signed a 26 year old Dutchman named Dennis Bergkamp. 11 seasons and 423 appearances later, he became an Arsenal legend.
If Ozil wants to, he can also become an Arsenal legend.
He is that good.
KeenosThe Arctic Sea Ice Bucket Challenge September 18, 2014
Ok, I’m a little slow getting this together, but it seems to be getting some traction.
So I get this email from Jason Box, basically throwing down a gauntlet and challenging my all-around manliness if I don’t follow his example in doing something stupid.
Well, that wouldn’t be the first time. Ok, I’ll bite.
Jason challenged me, as well as Dana Nuccitelli of the Guardian and John Cook of Skeptical Science to dump icy water on our heads – while mumbling some weak Euro-trash excuse about why he doesn’t actually have any ice in his bucket.
I’ve been pretty busy, but managed finally to put a response together, and here it is.
So, while I’ve been putting this together, Dana responded smartly, a few days ago, himself challenging Mike Mann, Katharine Hayhoe, and Kevin Cowtan to take up the bucket.
John Cook is still MIA, citing his being in England, where its much too cold for an Aussie to engage in chilly activities. I think he’ll come around.
And now we have a response to Dana from Scientist Kevin Cowtan – below
and finally, the original instigator, Andy Lee Robinson, here.
as well as his famous Arctic Death Spiral Graph.
Donations welcome at:
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge site
Climate Science Legal Defense Fund
Dark Snow Project
AdvertisementsThe Stress Test will start tonight at 7 PM US Central Time and last for around 2 hours.
If you haven't downloaded the stress test client yet, you can get the link on the forums. There are also instructions in that post on how to extract the client, log in, and launch the game.
Welcome to OrbusVR
As we approach this test, we just want to say on behalf of our development team (i.e. myself and my brother), welcome! We started the journey of building this game a few months ago, and since then we've spent hundreds of hours getting it ready to finally begin having people run around and break it. We're very excited you're here!
We're still a long, long way from an Alpha let alone a final game, so please keep that in mind. But what there is to test thus far, we're happy to share with you!
Feedback During the Test
We have a forum post here where you can chat with us during the test itself:
https://community.orbusvr.com/t/stress-test-during-the-test-thread/108
We'll try to monitor that thread during the test so if you run into a major bug or something, we'll do our best to help. However, keep in mind this is a basically a prototype so it may break and we may not be able to fix it in 2 hours. If there's anything crazy going on, like we need to restart the server or end the test early for some reason, we'll post in there. It's probably worth keeping that thread open in a browser window while you're playing so you know what's going on.
Playing the Game
Every time you log in currently, you will log in as the Ranger class and start in the Village. This is just a precautionary measure in case you get stuck -- just close the client and log back in and you'll be unstuck since you'll be at the beginning.
Switching Classes
To switch classes, use the class stones in the Village marketplace (head back toward the village houses and the giant dead tree from where you start.) Just walk up to a stone and you'll change to that class after about 2 seconds.
Getting Around
Currently we have teleport locomotion. For the Ranger, you use the arrow controller to teleport. Just press down on the Trackpad to bring up a green line, then let go to teleport. The green bar on your HUD (which is on the bow for the Ranger) shows how long until you can teleport again. You can teleport very quickly when out of combat, and more slowly when in combat.
Note that the controller you use for teleporting varies by class currently. For the Barbarian, Runemage, and Orbhealer it's the left, for the Ranger it's the right.
Leveling Up
You will start at level one. You gain XP for each monster you kill. You can advance to level 4 in the current prototype. If you look up you can see a green XP bar to show your progress. We forgot to add a place for you to see your own level...and it's too late to add it now. Whoops. :-) Just try and keep track of how many times you ding.
Note that the level of the monsters in the game is displayed next to their names, so don't fight things that are way higher level than you. No monsters in the game currently aggro on you unless you attack them first.
Dying
If you die, you just go back to the starting Village. No other penalty right now.
How do I talk to the other players?
Currently, you can't. There's no voice or text chat. We're deciding what if anything we want to add in that regard to the game, but right now you'll have to bring your own voice chat (via Discord, Curse, etc.) if you want to talk to people while playing.
You can however wave your arms and dance so feel free to do that instead.
What about looting, quests, crafting, fishing...?!
This is just a test of the networking of the game. At this point we are still a long ways from having all that stuff in. But hey at least you get to fight stuff right? :-)
Can I record video or stream the game?
Absolutely! It would be nice if you would note that this is only a prototype when you inevitably broadcast a game breaking bug to all your viewers, but we're flattered you'd like to show off the game to others! Thanks!
The Classes
Here's a quick guide to each class and how to play it.
The Ranger
The Ranger is pretty straightforward to play. It's a bow and arrow archetype, which lots of VR games have already done. Put the bow controller in your off hand and the arrow controller in your dominant hand. Then just put the arrow near the bow string, pull the trigger on the arrow hand, and pull back and release to fire. Note that if you don't pull the string back far enough the arrow won't fire. To aim, just aim the bow itself where you want to shoot.
In addition to the basic arrows, the Ranger has 4 abilities to choose from. To use an ability, just press the corresponding portion of the trackpad on the bow hand. So for example to use your Aimed Shot, which is the top-left ability on the bow, you would press the top-left part of the trackpad on your bow hand.
Aimed Shot -- Causes your next arrow to do increased damage.
Rain of Fire -- Causes your next arrow to spawn an area of effect attack at the location. Note that currently you have to actually hit an enemy, you can't shoot it at the ground.
Poison Shot -- Puts a poison on the enemy that does damage over time.
Concentration -- A self-buff that increases your damage output by 25% for a short time.
Note that if you imbue an arrow with an ability and then miss your shot, you just wasted the ability!
Finally, the Ranger also has a trap on their left hip. Just look down, and use your arrow hand to move near the trap, then hold down the Trigger button to grab the trap, and then throw it and release the Trigger. The trap will be placed on the ground and the next enemy that walks over it will take damage.
The Runemage
The Runemage is one of the most interesting classes we've been designing thus far. Rather than having a set of ability buttons to choose from, the player must memorize rune patterns that they then draw with their wand. Drawing the correct rune will cast the spell.
To draw a rune, just hold your Wand controller in front of you, and press down on the Trigger button. Currently the runes all require two strokes to draw. So you would draw one stroke, then release, then hold again to draw another stroke.
Once you've drawn the rune, press the Trackpad button on your Wand controller to "submit" the cast. If you were successful, you will see the spell appear on your Wand tip. Press the Trackpad button again to cast the spell. If you were not successful, no spell will appear, and you can try drawing again. If you mess up while drawing, just press the Trackpad button to clear the rune and start over.
After you cast the spell, you must guide it. While the spell is flying through the air, it will move in whatever direction your wand is pointing. The spell will collide with the first thing it hits, be it friend or foe (although currently there is no friendly fire). Also note that the spell will only go so far before fizzling out.
Here are the diagrams of the runes currently available:
Fireball -- casts a classic fireball spell that deals damage to the target.
Frostbolt -- casts a frost bolt at the target that slows its movement speed
Arcane Ray -- casts a ray that shoots out from the wand's tip that deals damage to all targets caught in its line.
Shield -- casts a protective barrier on the first friendly target it hits, decreasing damage taken
It may take some practice to draw all the runes correctly. Good luck!
The Orbhealer
This class has two crossbows, one in each hand. To fire the crossbow, just pull the Trigger on either remote.
The left crossbow does damage to the target it hits. It will deal a moderate amount of damage and also put a Poison on the target. If you attack another target then the Poison will be transferred to the next target. You can repeatedly fire the crossbow at the same target to deal the most damage.
The right crossbow has 3 buffs for friendly targets. You can only have one buff on one target active at a time -- so if you fire a different buff the previous one will be canceled. The buffs are:
Renew -- Heals a moderate amount of damage every second.
Concentration -- Increases the damage that the target deals to enemies
Shield -- Reduces the amount of damage that the target takes
Note that the buffs all have a very long duration. The idea is that you always want to have one buff up on a target at all times, and then you move your buff around to different targets as needed.
Like the Ranger, to select the buff just use the trackpad on the right controller -- each quadrant of the controller trackpad matches an ability to select.
The Barbarian
This is the only melee class currently in the game. The combat works on a beat-based system. Whenever you attack a target, you will start to see little circles appear on the left and right side of the enemy. You should hit the enemy with your axes to correspond with the "beats" displayed. So if you see a circle on the right side, hit it with your right axe. If you see a circle on both sides, hit it with both axes.
You want to strike the target when the beat is about 75% of the way up. You'll know you were successful if the target takes damage and you see a blue "hit" effect display on the target. If you're hitting the target but not seeing the blue hit effect, try hitting it sooner or later. This varies a lot based on your latency to the server currently (which is something that we need to fix but haven't figured out a good solution for just yet).
In addition to hitting the target, you'll see that the Barbarian has a few abilities that they can use to self-buff.
Reinforce -- Decreases the damage you take by 50% for 6 seconds. Really useful for boss fights.
Fortitude -- All damage you deal will heal you by 25% of the damage dealt for a short time.
Taunt -- Shout loudly, causing all enemies in a short radius around the Barbarian to focus on attacking it instead of whatever they were attacking.
Note that this is probably the least polished class, I would start with one of the other ones and play this one if you want to see what it's like, but we're still not happy with the gameplay yet.
If you have any questions that this guide didn't answer or need clarification on something before the test begins, please feel free to discuss this post here on our forums:
See you tonight!Donald Trump has demolished just about every pillar of Republican philosophy, leaving the party to grapple with an identity crisis deeper than anything it has seen in half a century.
The GOP has chosen as its 2016 standard-bearer a candidate who has flouted a litany of its once-sacred conservative principles. Trump is disdainful of free-trade agreements, leery of foreign intervention, less than strident on social issues and a champion of protecting entitlements.
Trump has also shattered Republican efforts to appeal to minorities and women by taking extreme positions on building a wall along the Southern border and barring Muslims from entering the country — and offending women with a series of insulting comments.
And Trump has risen as the institutional powers of the party, from its congressional leadership to its thought leaders at think tanks and in the media, have seen their support and stature diminished and fragmented during the Obama era, leaving vulnerable both the party and the right overall.
“As this develops, he’ll help shape — at least for this year, and maybe for a long time after that — what it means to be a Republican,” said former New Jersey governor Thomas H. Kean (R).
Donald Trump won a sweeping victory in the Indiana Republican primary. Here's how. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)
“There has been so much anger and fear and turmoil this cycle that I don’t think we’ve fully digested the philosophical bent of Trump,” added Al Cardenas, former head of both the American Conservative Union and the Florida GOP. “There have been votes of discontent and emotion, but little consideration on the bandwidth of his candidacy and what it really means for who we are.”
What Trump understands and channels is the frustration of the GOP’s grass roots, whose fury is directed as much at traditional Republicans as anywhere else.
“I don’t believe Trump has any beliefs. What I sense happened is he saw an arbitrage opportunity, a huge disconnect of the rank and file from the elite on immigration and trade, and he just exploited that,” said Reihan Salam, a conservative intellectual and author. “He walked in, took advantage and recognized there is a constituency.”
Trump discerned that early, even as the GOP establishment was sifting through the rubble of 2012, trying to figure out why it had lost the popular vote in five out of the past six presidential elections.
Their prescription for victory was to soften their party’s image by appealing to young people, Hispanics and women.
Trump’s was the opposite.
Just six days after GOP nominee Mitt Romney conceded defeat to President Obama, Trump quietly filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for rights to the phrase that has become the signature line of his campaign: “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump held a campaign event at Trump Tower in Manhattan, after sweeping the Indiana primary. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)
“This has never been a campaign about ideology or policy per se, or a 14-point policy plan,” said former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele. “It’s been about sending a message about Washington and the direction of the country.”
On the GOP debate stage, Trump stood out in a field of former and current governors and senators as the ultimate outsider. He railed against failing institutions, political correctness and a world that seemed to be pushing this country around.
Republicans have always put a premium on experience and had expected the cast of 2016 to be their most appealing in a generation. Instead, their voters turned to a figure with no government or military experience — the first nominee to lack either of those bona fides since Wendell Willkie in 1940 — and one who was best known to many Americans as the host of a reality television show.
Trump’s moment is the culmination of many trends that have taken hold on the right, especially since the end of George W. Bush’s presidency eight years ago.
The economic recession and financial bailouts angered and alienated the party base, sparking the rise of the tea party movement and its subsequent disappointment with the GOP-controlled Congress that it had been instrumental in bringing to Washington.
For his part, Trump is still adjusting to the sudden turn Tuesday that ended the nomination battle and put him as the de facto head of the Republicans. One of his first moves was to send a signal of reconciliation.
“I absolutely do not want to take over the party,” he said in an interview. “I want to work with the party.”
But the two leaders of the GOP on Capitol Hill — House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) — barely know Trump and have had only occasional phone calls with him in recent months. On policy, Trump can appear to be worlds apart, such as with his opposition to the sweeping budget overhaul and trade pacts that have been the cornerstone of Ryan’s national career.
Unlike McConnell, who comes out of the trench warfare of partisan Kentucky politics, and Ryan, who is a scion of the supply-side conservative movement, Trump is a product of the New York real estate business and the city’s tabloid culture, a political agitator lacking an ideological project.
The main thing many Republican leaders want right now is reassurance that, despite polls to the contrary, Trump is not leading the GOP to a massive defeat in the fall that could wipe out candidates all the way down the ballot and possibly cost them their Senate majority.
“The question is whether Trump can put together a majority coalition with unfavorable ratings in the mid-60s,” said veteran GOP pollster David Winston. “Granted, Clinton is in the mid-50s with her ratings, but he has to define a plan to get his unfavorable numbers down. If he can’t, it’ll be a big problem.”
And they are anxious to see whether he can grow into a figure whom voters beyond the Republican base can see as a credible occupant of the Oval Office.
“We’re going to have to wait and see if there is an evolution of the candidate,” Cardenas said. “The whole thing is a work in progress.”
The most optimistic among Republicans hope that Trump has the capacity to bring in new voters and expand the party’s reach. But they realize that could ultimately come at the cost of their identity and the coherence of their worldview.
“It’s about to grow into a much bigger coalition than it has been in a long time,” said former House speaker Newt Gingrich, whose name is being mentioned as a possible running mate for Trump. “And that will inevitably involve a lot of stress.”Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
There is no scientific formula for picking a national team. There simply is no recipe, with precise measures of well-balanced ingredients as a fixed-point guideline.
This is cooking up an impromptu soup with ingredients on hand – and remembering that you still need to save something for dinner.
So we get to Brek Shea, the struggling winger who was tossed a lifeline with Sunday’s announcement of the U.S. roster.
There is simply no way to justify Shea’s choice if this roster is about winning one match, and about the ongoing demonstration that spit-polished form and fitness are unquestioned requirements for national team call-ups. Generally speaking, that needs to be the presiding message.
(MORE: The Geoff Cameron conundrum)
But, of course, this isn’t about winning a game in Mexico – a mission of low-probability success potential, by the way.
This is all about getting to Brazil 2014 and about achieving as much as realistically possible once there.
Klinsmann’s job right now is to maximize those chances, to squeeze as much opportunity factor into the larger work. And that’s where selecting rosters becomes far more art than science.
And it’s why I have no problem with Shea’s selection.
(Some other choices, I can’t explain, except that to say Klinsmann is clearly a man who zigs when we think he’s sure to zag.)
Here’s what Klinsmann had to say about Shea on last night’s conference call from Mexico:
I had good conversations the last week with Schellas Hyndman of FC Dallas and we both see a lot of upside in Brek Shea. We all knew that after the big disappointment of not qualifying for the Olympics that our youngsters from |
the scene, these mites shifted their feeding habits, and today, only 3 percent of the species live on conifers. This shows how gall mites tracked plants in time and evolved with their hosts."
The third amber specimen, a fly, cannot be identified because, outside of the insect's antennae, its body parts were not well preserved. But now that the researchers have shown that amber preserved Triassic arthropods, they are eager to find more specimens.
"There was a huge change in the flora and fauna in the Triassic because it was right after one of the most profound mass extinctions in history, at the end of the Permian," Grimaldi said. "It's an important time to study if you want to know how life evolved."
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This research was funded by the German Initiative of Excellence. Other authors include Saskia Jancke, of the Natural History Museum in Berlin; Paul Nascimbene, American Museum of Natural History; Kerstin Schmidt, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany; and Torsten Wappler, University of Bonn, Germany.Meet the tech CEO who creates war games as a hobby
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Matt Calkins, founder and CEO of low-code development platform, Appian, started the company aged 26 in 1999, but the thing he is really passionate about is his hobby, creating war games. “The two are more deeply connected than they get credit for,” he tells me when we meet at his PR agency’s offices near London’s Victoria.
The process to build board games he explains, with marked enthusiasm, is you study a historic event to see what caused it and then “build the mechanism to understand it”. An economist would do the same thing, adds Calkins, who won Dartmouth’s award for top economics graduate in 1994 and founded a tech company with three other individuals who also didn’t have science degrees.
Calkins’ game on the Japanese civil war which covered seven weeks in October 1600 won several awards. While his latest looks at the aviation industry because “I wanted to do a game about business that felt like business” and the others out there out there don’t. “Having run a business it is much more about pure white knuckle fear,” he adds.
This intense dedication to his hobby has interesting parallels with his business. Firstly, it means Calkins places a lot of emphasis on the hobbies of his employees. And secondly the long-term underlying commitment (all in, each game takes about seven years to complete and publish) highlights the slow, steady progress of a company that began 18 years ago and just had its $75M IPO this May.
Back in the early years few people understood the need for ‘low code’ or BPM and although levels of awareness have risen, Calkins believes, they are still not where they should be. There has been a “nice upswing” since the IPO, he says, very keen to stress that the company didn’t need the money and only went public for the publicity. “We want the world to know about the low code market.”
Interestingly, in terms of competitors, cloud darlings, such as Service Now and Salesforce, are often cited, yet as Calkins points out, these are “not competing directly”. For the kind of high-end, complex work that Appian pins its hat on – like automating the entire customer journey process for John Lewis – SaaS businesses wouldn’t even be in the running as unique software is needed.
The industry suffers from the “pall of homogenisation”, says Calkins. Many things are done in exactly the same way across numerous companies but “low code helps give brands some personality”. In future he believes things will need to change as customers will demand more individual treatment from companies.
In the 80s there was controversy about whether IT was money well spent, he explains. In the 90s that argument was put to rest when IT deployment became simple and intuitive enough not to be a burden. “You’ll see the same for unique software,” he says. “Low code… BPM…. [whatever you choose to call it] behind the buzzwords is an important idea that is worth 18 years of my life.”
One other outcome of the high-profile IPO has been an “uptick in hiring” says Calkins, who has prided himself on interviewing every single individual who joins Appian. With around 800 current staff, not surprisingly, time constraints now mean he can’t see absolutely everyone but he still interviews “most” North American personnel. The time slot has gone from “30 minutes to 10 minutes”, he says, but usually he knows within “10 seconds” whether they’ll be the right fit for the company.
“My philosophy of hiring is someone who is excellent at hobbies,” he says, adding the real clue to someone’s personality “is the way they say I”. He is not necessary looking for someone humble or someone confident, he explains, but from those self-reflective moments he can usually spot if they have a “healthy relationship or unhealthy relationship” with the world.
“The Appian culture is one of my greatest achievements,” he says. “I am looking for positive givers” not the negative takers.
This very naturally leads on to a discussion about bullying in IT and the technology industry. This is a bit of a pet subject for us as back in 2014 IDG Connect conducted some in-depth research into bullying in the IT workplace and, while the results were pretty inconclusive, it definitely suggested issues.
“The problems are not specific to technology,” says Calkins. “Abuse tends to follow power imbalances and most abusive behaviour depends on the lack of options. Technologists [on the other hand] are mobile, smart, modern and in demand. There is more of a power balance in a university than almost any tech company going.”
Problems at Uber and other industry leaders have, however, have made it popular to talk about tech as a problem industry. It is impossible to draw any hard and fast rules, of course, but Calkins suggests that “channelling your ambition can put you in place that lets you be abused”.
“The same thing probably happens on Wall Street,” he says. “Ambition makes you inured to poor treatment.” Maybe that’s where hobbies can come into their own then? They can provide a healthy outlet for bright, ambitious individuals, instead of resorting to Machiavellian office politics.
Creating board games “helps me unwind” concludes Calkins. Whatever I’m working on is always there in the “back of my mind”. There are only a finite number of game positions so you don’t need to be in front of a computer the whole time. “I can work on it when I’m commuting… or when I’m boarding an aeroplane.”BREAKING NEWS: The Kansas Senate approved SB 11, bill that would avert looming state furloughs and let all Kansas employees return to work on Monday. The measure, which had passed the House earlier on Saturday, now heads to Gov. Sam Brownback's desk for his signature.
Gov. Brownback issued a statement around 6 p.m. Saturday, which said, "Today the Legislature passed, and I will sign, House Substitute for SB 11, designating all state employees as "essential" through Sine Die."
In the statement, Bownback said that every state employee is essential, and that they should all report to work as normal, beginning Sunday, June 7. He did add that SB 11 means employees will work without the guarantee of being paid for that work.
"The circumstances creating the potential for a furlough still exist: 'an immediate or imminent lack of funding to continue agency operations,' as defined by K.A.R. 1-14-11 (a)(1). Article 11, Section 4 of the Kansas Constitution requires Legislature to provide'sufficient revenue to defray the current expenses of the state for two years and further in section 24 states that 'no money shall be drawn from the treasury except in pursuance of a specific appropriation made by law," said Brownback.
The House is scheduled to debate Saturday evening on a proposed tax bill. The Tax Conference Committee will meet after the vote to find common ground on the two bills proposed Saturday.
This story is still developing. Stay with 13 NEWS for more information as it becomes available.
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Senate leaders may consider a stopgap measure to avoid a partial shutdown of state government over the Legislature's impasse on budget and tax issues.
Without such a measure or a deal by Sunday on taxes and spending, the state is not authorized to pay nonessential state employees next week. Majority Leader Terry Bruce said Saturday that the Senate could consider its own stopgap measure or a bill passed unanimously by the House earlier that day.
Employees' compensation lags several weeks behind their work, so their salary for the next pay period would come out of the budget from the fiscal year beginning July 1.
The House measure would define all state workers as "essential" in a bid to avoid the furloughs of nonessential staff.
© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.A report that Quebecers have lately been leaving Quebec for elsewhere in the country in greater numbers than at any time since the turn of the century comes as something of a jolt, but as no great surprise.
Quarterly demographic estimates released by Statistics Canada for the first nine months of last year show that 28,439 people moved from Quebec to other provinces — the highest number for that period in any year since 2000.
The province’s net population loss from interprovincial migration was 11,887 residents in the 12 months from October 2012 to last September. That was substantially up from the 7,700 lost during the previous corresponding period, and more than double the 4,394 lost during the period before that.
Because the beginning of the latest net loss calculation period roughly coincided with the election of the current Parti Québécois government, one might readily conclude that the outflow was driven by the nasty political climate that government has generated with its attempt to impose more restrictive language laws and its discriminatory values charter.
But then, the 2013 departures were recorded before details of the charter were officially released. A more likely driver than the political climate is the relatively decrepit state of the Quebec economy coupled with the highest income taxes of any Canadian jurisdiction.
Quebec lags behind the national average in most key economic indicators, particularly in comparison with the country’s three other most populous provinces, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, which are the destinations for nearly all those who have left Quebec.
Figures registered last year show that compared to these three, Quebec has a 25-per-cent-lower gross domestic product on a per capita basis; a 16-per-cent-lower average salary, a four-percentage-point lower rate of employment; and a 17-per-cent-lower rate of productivity growth.
Where Quebec leads the country is in taxes and in public debt. Quebec income tax rates in all income brackets are more or nearly double what they are in neighbouring Ontario, the prime destination for those who have left.
But then, it is also highly likely that while the degraded political climate in itself is not primarily responsible for driving people out of the province, it is having a detrimental impact on the provincial economy, and thereby accelerating the outflow.
Not just the government’s disruptive language and values initiatives, but widespread opposition to such projects as the Enbridge 9B pipeline reversal and the TransCanada Energy East pipeline are likely discouraging badly needed private investment in Quebec’s economy, an indicator in which Quebec ranks second to last per capita among provinces.
Nor is there any short-term assurance of improvement in the political or economic climate.
The early weeks of this year will be dominated by continuing controversy over the values charter as extended National Assembly committee hearings on the measure begin next week. As well, population loss due to economic stagnation is a malady that feeds on itself in that those who leave tend to be among the best and brightest, and demand decreases for such economic drivers as housing starts.
On the upside, there is the prospect of a provincial election this spring, one that will give Quebecers an opportunity to elect a government focused on reviving the economy, as opposed to one primarily concerned with disruptive social engineering and promoting the potential disaster of Quebec separation.The state-based movement to continue meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change following President Trump’s choice to withdraw is making headway.
The U.S. Climate Alliance, as the group is called, said Wednesday that it is on track to meet and possibly surpass its portion of the Paris Agreement’s targets of a 24% to 29% reduction in greenhouse gas emission rates from 2005 levels by 2025. The Paris Agreement, which was adopted in 2015 by 195 countries, aims to reduce emissions in order to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.
The bipartisan coalition of states was created by three Democratic governors — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, California Gov. Jerry Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee — after President Trump announced in June his plan to withdraw the U.S. from the international accord. North Carolina became the latest and 15th state to join the U.S. Climate Alliance, which also includes Puerto Rico. Additionally, two states with Republican governors, Massachusetts and Vermont, are part of the alliance. “Either we end this problem or this problem will end us,” Cuomo said during a press conference in New York, which was also attended by Brown, Inslee and former Secretary of State John Kerry.
In recent days, reports suggested that the Trump administration might be reconsidering its stance on the agreement, but the White House later issued a statement saying that there had been no change to the U.S.’s position. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also tweeted that the U.S. will withdraw “unless we get pro-America terms.”
Don’t miss: 11 ways to build a Paris climate change accord — in your own community
During the press conference, the attendees lambasted the president’s choice to pull out of the agreement. “No burden was placed on the United States other than what we in the United States set for ourselves,” Kerry said. “He forfeited American leadership.”
The governors and Kerry also made repeated references to the hurricanes that have made landfall on U.S. soil — Harvey, Irma and now Maria — as well as the wildfires burning across the West Coast as an indication of what could occur if climate change worsens.
The U.S. Climate Alliance is just one way in which state governments are working to continue the U.S.’s commitment to the climate change agreement despite Trump’s actions. Cuomo touted New York’s Green Bank, a state-sponsored financial entity that aims to increase investment in clean energy markets, and said that the bank will be going national.
He also expressed interest in potentially working with California on a carbon market. The Golden State has already established a cap-and-trade program with the Canadian province of Quebec, with Ontario set to join the burgeoning market.
Get a daily roundup of the top reads in personal finance delivered to your inbox. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Personal Finance Daily newsletter. Sign up here.Pre-Fab is sure showing a lot more lately, and I like it! Jacinto Monteiro owner of Metro Cúbico Digital ArchVIZ studio recently showcased a remarkable set of visuals they made for Portuguese architectural company “Modular System” showing a single vacation home design they made for the Pestana Group – Ecoresort. While the “House in the Forest” theme is generally overused, this one was done to resemble the exact forest-like location with great results. Join in as Jacinto takes us through there process of making these project. Enjoy!
Introduction
First of all, we would like to thank Ronen Bekerman for inviting us to write this Making Of.
‘Treevillas’ was a work done for a Portuguese company called Modular System. Unfortunately, we aren’t authorized to show the modelling form inside-out with all it´s beautiful detail due to technical confidential issues, but I’m sure what we do show is great enough.
These vacation houses are essentially Pre-Fab designs due to its modular construction, easy assemble/disassemble, flexibility and economy. It could be considered as eco-friendly since it is non-aggressive to the surroundings in which it is being placed. That´s why these houses were approved to be inserted in an eco-resort, located near the Bay of Troy in Portugal.
The goal of this work was to develop for the client very realistic images before the end of the construction, so that pre-sales could run more smoothly or efficiently.
Inspiration
Like in architecture, location is everything. The client sent us several photos of the existing location of the project as well as photos of the actual house under-construction and other similar houses located in the same eco-resort.
Below you can check out some of these photos and other shots we used for inspiration. Always use real photos for inspiration!
Landscape
We are big fans of the raw render process, in other words we prefer to have everything in 3D and not use Photoshop… We don´t like to rely on it.
There are very few exceptions (I would name Christopher Malheiros as the best Portuguese example) but for us the excessive use of Photoshop makes images look unrealistic, sometimes even cartoonish.
To avoid Photoshop, time needs to be used very well.
When a new job comes along, most times we start doing the landscape even before the project is ready or even started.
Why?
Because as we all know, architects only have the project finished at the last days. Once they have it, we got a cool scene already prepared to merge it into. When time is available, or in personal works, we don´t follow this procedure to the letter.
After analyzing all the existing landscape information we started gathering all the elements to insert into the scene. The most important thing was achieving realistic ground. We knew most of the images would have it in the foreground so we needed to pay special attention to it – which was simple really.
The texture was download from CGTextures.com and we almost didn’t touch it in Photoshop. We created a simple V-Ray material with soft reflection (0.6) a diffuse map in color correction (-20 desaturation) and gamma (0.6) to make it darker. We then inserted this V-Ray material into a V-Ray blend material with another V-Ray material with fractal noise to avoid some map repetition.
Below you can check the slate editor, diffuse and bump map (for 2d V-Ray displacement we used the same map with just 2cm strength, 516 resolution and 8 precision).
Next we selected the vegetation from our library. For the trunks we modeled around 15 different types of branches. Once they were spread all over the ground we had to move the iToo’s Forest Pack Pro branches object up on the Z axis about 2 cm because the ground plane had 2d V-Ray displacement and was covering most of them.
Below you can see the objects and the iToo Forest Pack Pro settings.
As you can see, there´s nothing special about it except that we used Area to delete some trunks here and there, and we used Forest Color in the material diffuse slot which we will show a bit later.
And below you can see the rocks, low vegetation, mid-high vegetation and conifer cones that we also spread throughout the terrain. All objects were converted to proxies (though, with the use of Forest Pack Pro, it is not a must).
For low vegetation we used iAlpine form iCube.
Mid-high vegetation was done with iCube iTree summer.
Conifer Cones, model from Evermotion (don´t know exactly from which vol) :
Small rocks :
For the trees distribution we also used iToo’s Forest Pack. We took advantage of an area to also delete trees where they weren’t desired and Forest Color in the leafs diffuse slot to achieve a more colorful random result.
Texturing
It doesn’t make sense to show every single mat we used so we will focus on the vegetation where we used Forest Color and the water material.
Below you can see that in the branches diffuse slot we used Forest Color, and inside this one, there are four copies of the same diffuse map. With the color correction we changed the gamma or the RGB of each map to achieve slightly different results. You can also use Get color from gradient inside the Forest Color.
Branches Material :
V-Ray 2 Sided – Tree Leaf Material :
For the water we created a plane and subdivided it (50×110). We then applied Houdini Ocean (plugin) to it.
This plugin is free and you can download it from here :
http://www.guillaumeplourde.com/
It is an amazing plugin to create waves.
Below you can see the material settings as well as the Houdini Ocean settings. In this case, the amount of waves used was very low, but mixed with bump noise I think it created a nice result.
Lightning
For all shoots we used a HDRI inside a V-Ray Domelight (default) without V-Ray Sun. For the normal day shoots we used Peter Guthrie´s HDRI 1433, and for the fog and interior shoot we used his HDRI 1044.
Here are some light tests we made :
Below you can see both HDRI settings and camera settings (almost default) used for the shoot where we see the swimming pool + chair.
Rendering
For all exterior scenes we used good old Universal Settings exactly like below. The only difference for the interior shoot was changing the Reinhard Color Burn to 0.05 and multiplier to 1.2.
Post Production
We show below a sequence of the post production in Photoshop done for the general exterior shoot. For the other shoots we used almost the same procedure.
I hope you found the ‘Treevillas’ Making of useful. Good luck and see you next time!In web design, clients often ask for mockups before any content is written. Originally, lorem ipsum was used as filler text, but then placeholder generator Cupcake Ipsum came along. Years later, I decided that my very first attempt at a song should commemorate the desserty app. More years later, I realize that listening to this and keeping it on the internet is a great way to keep myself humble.
Lyrics
Welcome to the page where
You never lack content
“Love” is now and always
One of the options
If you're stuck on words
Put in the number of paragraphs, please
Whoa oh oh oh oh oh
Let's generate now
Chorus:
I, I love cupcake ipsum
Muffin pastry chocolate toffee
I, I love Unerdwear
Bonbon caramel icing candy
All we need is design
Don't worry about content
For what it's worth:
Just keep it flexible
Let's wait and see
Iterate if we need
Jelly beans ice cream
It's not the same without meaning...
ChorusSignaling that he's not prepared to concede the language of "family values" to sanctimonious social conservative scolds, Bernie Sanders on Thursday unveiled his own "family values agenda," centered on a series of proposals to guarantee paid family and medical leave.
Noting that the United States lags other wealthy, industrialized nations in paid leave policies -- indeed, the country ranks last on family policies -- the Vermont senator and 2016 Democratic presidential hopeful called for the U.S. to catch up with the rest of the world.
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“Last place is no place for America. It is time to join the rest of the industrialized world by showing the people of this country that we are not just a nation that talks about family values but that we are a nation that is prepared to live up to these ideals," Sanders said in a statement.
Accordingly, the democratic socialist introduced the Guaranteed Paid Vacation Act, legislation that would ensure 10 days of paid vacation annually for employees who have been with the same employer for at least a year. Other elements of Sanders' "family values agenda" include 12 weeks of paid parental leave and at least seven paid sick days a year.
It's an agenda that evokes the Scandinavian-style social democracy Sanders has heralded throughout his five decades in politics. After launching his 2016 bid this spring, Sanders signaled that his campaign forcefully advocate for such a social welfare state; when ABC News' George Stephanopoulos told Sanders that he could envision Republican attack ads arguing that the senator wanted to make America more like Scandinavia, Sanders responded, "That's right. And what's wrong with that?
"What's wrong," Sanders continued, "when you have more income and wealth equality? What's wrong when they have a stronger middle class in many ways than we do, higher minimum wage than we do, and they are stronger on the environment than we do?"
Similarly, Sanders now defies those who constantly hector about "family values" to make their case against paid leave policies geared toward promoting family stability. While the chances that, say, Marco Rubio will come around on such issues are between "zero" and "negative 1,000 percent," Sanders' proposals nevertheless expose the moral bankruptcy of a "values" agenda built on denying women and LGBT families rights -- as opposed to actually strengthening families in all their forms.A rabbit passed away this week. Some of my readers will say: Awww that’s a shame. Some of my readers will actually say: So what? It’s just a rabbit.
Let me tell you about him. His name was Scooch. Scooch was a Mini Rex, like my own Miss Moo. He was also an abandoned bunny. No one knows for sure how old he was, but in 2009 he was noticed around a neighbourhood along with another rabbit.
In March 2010, the other rabbit was found dead on the side of the road, hit by a car. A week later, Scooch was found on a families lawn, with his back legs not working. Eventually he found his way into the care of a lady named Lisa. It was determined that his back had been broken, and the little fellow was paralyzed.
Most stories like this would end right here with me saying that the rabbit was put to sleep as he would never recover, and would have a poor quality of life. Interesting phrase that….”quality of life”. Little Scooch was not put down, and the quality of his life was superb.
He became the little bunny that could. Paralyzed? No problem…he grew to be strong in his front legs, and could “scooch” as fast and as good as any other bunny could hop. Being paralyzed he also had a diaper, and he never let that hold him back either. Scooch had not one but TWO girlfriends. They were as devoted to him as he was to them. When his mate Hattie became deathly ill, and could not stand up on her own, Scooch, the little bunny that could, helped nurse her back to health. He would prop her up so that she would not roll over so much, and would wash her face over and over so she would be soothed and comforted.
Every year at BunFest, the annual outreach and fundraising event for Rabbit Rescue Inc, Scooch was there to show people that a disabled rabbit could be happy, and have an excellent quality of life. He inspired everyone who met him, including myself. His legacy lives on in the dozens of disabled rabbits that are being cared for due to the example he set.
He was a hero to hundreds of people, but for himself, he was just a happy boy who loved life, and reveled in what he COULD do. If he could no longer jump in the air (binky) like other bunnies, he would instead throw his head up and shake it to show his joy.
Here are the remembrances of a few of Scooches human admirers.
Jeanne says:
It was truly special when I saw Scooch in the garden for the first time…not his first time, cause he was out as often as all the other bunnies, but rather the first time I saw him myself, in person. There he was in his well-fitting diaper, a fit designed to keep him dry, protect his fragile skin, and of course give the ultimate “glide” along the ground cover. I could see in no time, that he had not only adapted to his broken body, but he excelled at moving quickly around the property. His joy, adventure and curiosity shone through his very awkward gait. I could finally see why Lisa felt compelled to invite one more broken bunny into her home, she saw in him the capacity for joy, and knew that he deserved a chance to live his best life possible. If there was a doubt in my mind about Lisa’s choice, it disappeared that day. Scooch, you had the best life possible, and were loved by sister-bunnies, and all the humans who met you. You were such a great example of what could be, to those who may have bailed before their bunnies were ready to go. You deserved to know the kind of love, care and acceptance you got, as you now deserve to be free of your broken body, and are once again whole. Run free little one.
Michelle says:
I’ve seen videos of two-legged cats, two-legged dogs, pigs in wheelchairs, a goldfish in a sling (I swear!) and all of them, every single one, carried on with life. They had no self pity, no grudges, no depression, just a will to live and a love of life. For me, Scooch is the epitome of this very amazing animal ability. With no use of his back legs, that little guy lived on. He never let his paralysis get in the way of moving around, loving Hattie, playing, napping, lounging, eating. He never minded his condition, but we as humans grieved for him because of all of the things he couldn’t do. But animals don’t do that, and neither did Scooch. For me, he will always be a shining example of how to live life to its fullest, how to not let things beyond your control limit your dreams. His life was one of love, acceptance, perseverance and inspiration. I have included a link to my favourite video of Scooch – him binkying in the backyard on a warm summer day. There he is, a little bunny in a diaper, pulling himself through the silky grass, breathing the air, listening to all the sounds, and binkying! Shaking his little head as his only way to express his pure joy at that moment in time, blissfully unaware of the disadvantages that we felt pity for on his behalf. Wow, were we ever wasting our time ❤
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k7VK5YwDJ4&sns=em
Kimmy says:
The one thing I remember most about Scooch is the incredible kisses he gives. I was visiting Lisa with Jeanne and we were all sitting, holding a bunny each while chatting.
Scooch was nestled on my chest with my arm around him. He reached that sweet little face up and started giving me the softest little bunny kisses all up and down my cheek and chin.
That little bunny, although disabled, had so much love to give. His body may not have worked for him, but his heart worked overtime with the love. 🙂
He will always have a special place in my heart.
Susan says:
They say lightning never strikes twice in the same place. It is a once in a lifetime event. For many people, meeting Scooch is a once in a lifetime shot of inspiration. How fitting it is that when he began his tenure as a Bruce Bunny, his name was Lightning. He is a remarkable rabbit, cared for by a remarkable woman. The bond that Lisa and Scooch share is enviable – rarely do you find such a true and pure example of unconditional love and dedication. Scooch was a casanova, he was a prankster, and he was happy. The Rainbow Bridge will never be the same…it will be better. The love that Scooch embodied was pure, it was deep, it was kind, and it was infectious. He cared for his girls, Hattie and Belle with the joy and unapologetic enthusiasm of a binky. He loved. He is love. He loved having his ears scratched. He loved his twig tunnel. He loved his lettuce box. He loved food. He DID NOT love Gleason’s visits from the other side of the fence. He loved treats. He loved doing half-head-shake binkies. He DID NOT love being held. He loved the hostas. He loved scooching up and down the hill. He loved farting. But most of all, he loved Lisa. Scooch loved playing tricks on people. His favourite trick was to sit in such a way that an unsuspecting person might become frantic and panicked truly believing that his leg had ACTUALLY fallen off. Just as this unsuspecting person would make a plea to Lisa to “come HERE!” He would put his leg back on and change the words in his speech bubble from “my leg fell off!” To “GOTCHA”! But I wouldn’t know anything about that. Scooch was a prankster, but by far his most common trick was stealing people’s hearts. The Rainbow Bridge will never be the same. It will be better. Scooch brings to the Bridge the love, compassion, light and energy that he picked up from the hundreds of people who have been touched by his story. But most of all, he brings to the Bridge a Scooch-heart full of love, appreciation, and peace for his soul-mate, Lisa. The world will never see another bunny just like Scooch. I guess it is true…Lightning really doesn’t strike twice in the same place.
Over the past few weeks the strain of moving only on his front limbs really began to take its toll on his little body. He was about to lose all mobility and one of his two remaining limbs that worked had to be immobilized. More importantly his spirit declined. Despite medication, he was in pain, and was not the joyous Scooch we all loved and admired so much. It was time. He had lived a life of SUCH high quality, but that quality had declined. The decision was made to help him painlessly to the other side.
He may have been “just a bunny”, but he will be sorely missed, not only by his guardian Lisa and his mate Hattie, but also by me, and literally hundreds and hundreds of others. This was the story of Scooch, the little bunny that could. You’re in a better place now little man. We miss you.
AdvertisementsSexual assault is commonplace on campuses on both sides of the Atlantic, so students at one London university are taking matters into their own hands.
Sexual assault and harassment is commonplace on campuses on both sides of the Atlantic, so students at one London university are taking matters into their own hands.
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“This is a public problem, this is a public feeling and we require public healing,” yells an impassioned voice through the cobbled entrance to South East London’s Goldsmiths University, followed by multiple cheers.
Although it’s a cold Monday afternoon, around 50 students from different courses are lined up against the main wall of the college holding placards written in blood-red paint. They’re here to protest the university management’s response to sexual harassment claims. They’re not the first to do so, and unfortunately, they probably won’t be the last.
Right now there’s a sexual harassment crisis ripping through British universities, and while it’s been going on behind the scenes of academia and student life for years, the true extent of the impunity awarded to perpetrators on campuses is now finally coming to light. One in three female students at UK universities will experience sexual assault or abuse while studying; in the United States the figure sits at 1 in 4.
Now new revelations show the issue is even more horrifying than previously thought. In a recent investigation into UK universities, The Guardian reported that over the past 5 years, almost 300 claims of sexual assault have been made against staff at universities, both by other staff members and students. Considering the fact that sexual harassment goes largely unreported, it’s safe to assume this figure, as high as it is, is still far lower than the true numbers.
Goldsmiths is at the centre of this particular protest, but it’s not the only British institution to have been called out by the Guardian’s investigation – others named include Oxford University, London School of Economics and University of the Arts London.
During the hour and a half protest students make their demands clear: they’re requesting an independent inquiry into accusations of harassment, as well as mandatory consent and accountability training for all students and staff.
As the group begins to disperse, I approach a trio who were at the centre of the protest holding up placards (namely “THIS CONCERNS US ALL” and “A 10 POINT PLAN BY STUDENTS”). Danielle, Monah and Chloe are all MA students who were taught by professor Sarah Ahmed before her resignation from Goldsmiths, an act of protest against what she saw as the normalisation of sexual assault. They sit together on one of the stone benches, supporting each other with nods and cheers as they speak.
“It is specifically difficult to speak out against a tutor if you’re a student because you might potentially lose your advisor, your entire course – you might feel like you’re putting your career in jeopardy,” says Danielle, a first year Gender, Media & Culture MA student who led the chants during the protest.
“When it comes to student-staff sexual misconduct, some of the harassment doesn’t fit into specific guidelines. Sexual harassment is a complex and multifaceted issue, which is why institutions try to compartmentalise it, rather than attempting to gain a better understanding of it.”
According to the protesters standing out in the cold today, the issue of harassment goes far beyond only a gender dynamic on campuses; it has to do with the power play present in academic relationships.
The under-addressing of harassment seems to have become part of university culture worldwide. Columbia University made the news throughout 2014 for Emma Sulkowicz’ mattress-carrying protest, looking to draw attention to the issue of sexual assault at the university after she accused a fellow student of rape in 2012. At the end of last year, a man accused of three accounts of sexual assault was allowed to graduate from one of Brazil’s most respected universities, USP, and is going on to become a doctor after serving the minimal penalty of being suspended for a year and a half.
Right now, the protesters are asking for an open, transparent discussion about sexual harassment that highlights it for what it is – a systemic problem that is highly connected to power dynamics present in all academic institutions, worldwide. This includes spreading awareness about how common a problem it is, in order to make victims feel safer when speaking out.
“This extreme individualisation of the issue of sexual harassment only serves to isolate survivors,” adds Chloe, a second year Masters student. “It makes people feel like this is one singular person screaming ‘sexual harassment’, one person who has been wronged, but this is not one person. It is a crowd of people who have been wronged, who have been silenced. People cannot speak out for a variety of reasons.”
It’s clear |
, I urge our readers to check out Dr. Danny Faulkner’s DVD Things That Go Bump In The Night. In this DVD the physics that applies to black holes and dark matter are clearly explained and illustrated. Answers in Genesis astronomer Dr. Danny Faulkner has devoted much of his professional career to researching binary systems to learn more about the universe God created. His engaging and well-illustrated presentation shows viewers how we can know that black holes are real and shows us much that we can learn from the relationship of black holes to binary stars and to galaxies.
The heavens do indeed declare the glory of our Creator.
For More InformationThis year California legislators passed the largest gas tax increase in decades, a move which will hit the middle class the hardest. When middle class taxpayers got upset, Gov. Brown hit back, calling them "freeloaders" and invoking the "everyone has to pitch in for society!" talking points.
Maybe they'd have more money if they weren't spending it on things people don't rely on the government to provide.
One thing legislators have found the money for is anti-gun research. They call it "gun violence research," but make no mistake, there is only one acceptable outcome for the research. During the 2016 legislative session lawmakers approved a bill creating the "University of California Firearms Violence Research Center," allotting $5 million over five years to establish the center and fund operations.
Five million dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to the billions California needs to improve roads, crumbling bridges, and deteriorating dams, but, as they keep reminding residents of the drought-stricken state, drops add up.
The Center opened July 1 at UC Davis, with Dr. Garen Wintemute, a well-known name in both gun control and gun rights circles. He told the Sacramento Bee he "hopes to assess the effectiveness of current laws, including the newly adopted requirement that people who buy ammunition have the legal right to own guns, and of California’s new gun violence restraining orders.”
Wintemute and the Center's proponents claim to be apolitical, but his writings have been used to devastating political effect in the past. Wintemute is the author of the "Ring of Fire" paper, which documented a group of handgun manufacturers in Southern California who made inexpensive "Saturday Night Special" handguns. That report was used as a justification for California politicians to establish the "Not Unsafe Handgun Roster," which severely limits the number of guns Californians are allowed to purchase.
Before their product can be listed on the Roster, gun manufacturers are forced to conduct costly and extensive testing on their guns and pay fees to the California DOJ. If they make any changes - even changes that improve safety or are simply cosmetic - the tests must be performed again and a new fee paid. The state now requires microstamping technology on guns before they can be placed on the roster, a technology which is not commercially available (in Sen. Kevin de Leon's words, one might call it a "ghost technology.).
Due to the inability to meet the microstamping requirement, the number of guns on the Roster is constantly shrinking. And, though the Roster's supposed purpose is increasing the firearm safety, new handguns with the most up-to-date safety features can't be approved because of this obsession California's anti-gunners have with microstamping.
So, California's gun owners are understandably very nervous about what additional infringements on Second Amendment rights might result from Wintemute's "research."
In an interview with the LA Times Friday, Wintemute said one of the first things the Center would look at is determining risk factors that contribute to gun violence.
“At an individual level, those are alcohol and controlled-substance abuse and a prior history of violence. At a structural level, they’re poverty and poor education, lack of opportunity.”
It wouldn't be surprising if, based on the Center's findings on this issue, California legislators added socioeconomic requirements for gun ownership.
In addition to the state funding, if a bill pending in the Assembly passes, Wintemute's organization will be the only one the CA DOJ is required to share its Gun Violence Restraining Order data with. As a result, other researchers who want to independently verify any of his findings will probably not be able to. Under SB 536, the DOJ would have the discretion to deny other researchers access to that data, which is publicly funded. SB 536 has passed the California Senate and is on the Assembly floor awaiting a vote.A lack of clear-cut and secure land rights means people from post-conflict African countries are prevented from getting the most out of land they rely upon for survival, experts say.
WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A lack of clear-cut and secure land rights means people from post-conflict African countries are prevented from getting the most out of the land they rely upon for their survival.
Experts at the World Bank conference on Land and Poverty said on Wednesday that overlapping formal and informal laws and differing views about the value of land hamper their efforts at improving the situation.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for instance, less than 5 percent of the land is registered because the land registration system is so intricate.
“We have to change the way people perceive the land if we are going to develop our economies in Africa,” said Francesca Marzatico, a European Union land governance expert in South Sudan. “It is difficult to have land reform if you understand the perception of land as a social, rather than economic good.”
The Minister of Land of the DRC, Robert Mbwinga Bila, said that post-conflict countries such his own have had to deal on the one hand with people from villages whose relationship with the land is guided by long-established communal laws and on the other hand with government and development officials who want to install more modern land tenure systems.
The government of the DRC recently introduced a land reform process to secure investment and improve land across the country, but Mbwinga Bila said this has run into resistance from people who could not understand why they need to secure title for communal land. He also said his government was determined to implement the new land registration policy.
“We can’t do things differently because there is resistance from local communities,” he said. “The reforms that we are rightly undertaking will ensure that the interests of everyone are protected in the same way. There are no separate laws for the towns and for the villages. The law is for everyone,” he said in an interview.
Speakers at the session on land tenure in post-conflict situations agreed on the need for such societies to have a recognisable system of land tenure laws. But there is not always agreement on land policies between donor countries and governments. If the donors push too hard, it can be difficult to persuade governments to take ownership, they said.
Ferrari Florence, an official at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, said donors and governments should collaborate to design programmes that benefit everyone, especially women.
“Development agencies provide legal and technical support in the drafting of laws to ensure they respect the rule of law and other human rights norms and are in accordance with international standards,” she said.
However, imposing a one-size-fits-all system, especially in societies that are yet to stabilise, can also have its dangers.
In newly created South Sudan, for instance, a fresh outbreak of violence last year between followers of President Salva Kiir and those of his then-deputy Riek Machar has created additional problems for people working on a land registry for the country.
“Land is a factor for peace and development,” said Marzatico. “Land is also a trigger for conflicts. So if we don’t build structures now despite the crisis, we will move back to square one when this ongoing violence is resolved.”
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.Washington: The TV anchorwoman was conducting a split-screen interview with a journalist who had volunteered to be a witness at the execution of a man on death row in Utah for 25 years. "He had a choice," said the journalist, "lethal injection or firing squad." "Wow!" said the anchorwoman. Cue a blizzard of commercials for fast food, tooth whitener, stomach stapling, the new Cadillac. This was followed by a reporter in Afghanistan sweating in a flak jacket. "Hey, it's hot," he said on the split screen. "Take care," said the anchorwoman. "Coming up" was a reality show in which the camera watched a man serving solitary confinement in a prison's "hell hole".
The next morning I arrived at the Pentagon for an interview with one of President Barack Obama's senior war-making officials. There was a long walk along shiny corridors hung with pictures of generals and admirals festooned in ribbons. The interview room was purpose-built. It was blue, ice cold, windowless and featureless except for a flag and two chairs: props to create the illusion of a place of authority. The last time I was in a similar room at the Pentagon, a colonel called Hum stopped my interview with another war-making official when I asked why so many innocent civilians were being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then it was in the thousands; now it is more than a million. "Stop tape!" he had ordered.
Information warriors
This time there was no Colonel Hum, merely a polite dismissal of soldiers' testimony that it was a "common occurrence" that troops were ordered to "kill every motherfucker". The Pentagon, says the Associated Press, spent $4.7bn in 2009 alone on public relations: that is, winning the hearts and minds not of recalcitrant Afghan tribesmen, but of Americans. This is known as "information dominance" and PR people are "information warriors".
American imperial power flows through a media culture to which the word imperial is anathema. Colonial campaigns are really "wars of perception", wrote the present commander, General David Petraeus, in which the media popularise the terms and conditions. "Narrative" is the accredited word because it is postmodern and bereft of context and truth. The narrative of Iraq is that the war is won, and the narrative of Afghanistan is that it is a "good war". That neither is true is beside the point. They promote a "grand narrative" of a constant threat and the need for permanent war. "We are living in a world of cascading and intertwined threats," wrote the celebrated New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, "that have the potential to turn our country upside down at any moment."
Friedman supports an attack on Iran, whose independence is intolerable. This is the psychopathic vanity of great power that Martin Luther King described as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world". He was then shot dead.
The psychopathic is applauded across popular, corporate culture, from the TV death watch of a man choosing a firing squad over lethal injection to the Oscar-winning Hurt Locker and a new acclaimed war documentary, Restrepo. The directors of both films deny and dignify the violence of invasion as "apolitical". And yet, behind the cartoon façade is serious purpose. The US is engaged militarily in 75 countries. There are said to be as many as 900 US military bases across the world, many at the gateways to the sources of fossil fuels.
But there is a problem. Most Americans are opposed to these wars and to the billions of dollars spent on them. That their brainwashing so often fails is America's greatest virtue. This is frequently due to courageous mavericks, especially those who emerge from the centrifuge of power. In 1971, the military analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaked documents known as the Pentagon Papers, which put the lie to almost everything two presidents had claimed about Vietnam. Many of these insiders are not even renegades. I have a section in my address book filled with the names of former CIA officers who have spoken out. They have no equivalent in Britain.
Imperialism's face
In 1993, C Philip Liechty, the CIA's operations officer in Jakarta at the time of Indonesia's murderous invasion of East Timor, described to me how President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had given the dictator Suharto a green light, secretly supplying the arms and logistics he needed. As the first reports of massacres landed on his desk, Liechty began to turn. "It was wrong," he said. "I felt badly."
Melvin Goodman is now a scholar at Johns Hopkins University in Washington. He was in the CIA for more than 40 years and rose to be a senior Soviet analyst. When we met the other day, he described the conduct of the cold war as a series of gross exaggerations of Soviet "aggressiveness" that wilfully ignored the intelligence that the Soviets were committed to avoid nuclear war at all costs. Declassified official files on both sides of the Atlantic support this view. "What mattered to the hardliners in Washington," Goodman said, "was how a perceived threat could be exploited." The present secretary of defence, Robert Gates, as deputy director of the CIA in the 1980s, was one of those who had hyped the "Soviet menace" and is, says Goodman, doing the same today "on Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran".
Little has changed. In America, in 1939, W H Auden wrote:
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives [...]
Out of the mirror they stare,
Imperialism's face
And the international wrongSupreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch said he was bound by precedent in a case where he ruled against the family of an autistic student that had sued a school district, claiming the district did not do enough to educate the student. | Getty Gorsuch: 'I'm sorry' about ruling against autistic student
Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch said an opinion he wrote siding with a Colorado school district over the family of an autistic student was "wrong" and "I'm sorry" for it — but he had been bound by precedent.
The 10th Circuit judge made the comments after Sen. Dick Durbin announced during Gorsuch's confirmation hearing that the Supreme Court had just ruled unanimously in a similar case that school districts must go the extra mile to accommodate students with disabilities.
Story Continued Below
"It’s a powerful decision, it’s a unanimous decision, it was written by the chief justice of the court,” Durbin said. "Why in your early decision did you want to lower the bar so low?"
Gorsuch responded that he is often asked whether he abides by precedent and always like the rulings he reaches.
"Here’s a case for you," he said. "If anyone is suggesting that I like a result where an autistic child happens to lose, that’s a heartbreaking accusation to me. Heartbreaking."
"But the fact of the matter is I was bound by circuit precedent," Gorsuch continued. "I was wrong because I was bound by circuit precedent and I’m sorry."
The 2008 opinion Gorsuch wrote for a unanimous 10th Circuit took the side of a school in a case in which the parents of an autistic child argued the school wasn’t doing enough to educate the student. While the student showed educational progress in classes, he didn’t seem to retain what he’d learned. Gorsuch's opinion, which reversed three prior rulings, said the school had complied with federal disabilities law because the student needed to show gains that were “merely more than de minimis."
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The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that public schools must go the extra mile to educate special needs children. The decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts specifically challenges the Tenth Circuit's minimalist interpretation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which requires a “free and appropriate public education” for disabled students.
"This standard is more demanding than the'merely more than de minimis' test applied by the Tenth Circuit," Roberts wrote. "It cannot be right that the IDEA generally contemplates grade-level advancement for children with disabilities who are fully integrated in the regular classroom, but is satisfied with barely more than de minimis progress for children who are not."Over the weekend, a small earthquake swarm hit in the Okataina Caldera Complex on the north island of New Zealand. The swarm itself only lasted a few hours and generated a few dozen earthquakes, all less than magnitude 3. The swarm was located directly underneath the Waimangu Geothermal Valley, the chain of hot springs, mudpots and geysers left by the 1886 eruption of Tarawera—the last eruption from the Okataina Caldera Complex. That 1886 eruption was an impressive event, creating one of the few, recent basaltic plinian eruptions that spread dark ash all the way into the Bay of Plenty. The Waimangu Valley itself is amazing, even if the world's largest geyser no longer erupts along its length.
Now, why would I bring up a small earthquake swarm in a volcanically active area? Mostly to show how rumbling like this is to be expected anywhere that has recent (and repeated) volcanism. The Okataina Caldera Complex has a multitude of eruptions over the last few thousand years, including the two that I've studied: the Kaharoa (~1300 AD) and Whakatane (5600 years ago). Most of the eruptions since 1886 have been steam-driven explosions that, as we've seen in the past, have little-to-no precursor. However, there is no doubt magma still underneath this area of the Okataina. The current earthquake swarm (which is already over) was located ~5-7 kilometers below the surface, which is likely the depth of the rhyolite magma body that fed the Kaharoa eruption.
GNS Science, modified by Erik Klemetti
So, [SPECULATION] these earthquakes could be related to magma movement within this body of rhyolite, whether it be recharging or reorganizing since the 1886 basaltic eruption blasted through it. If you look at a map of earthquakes in the area (see above), there is an alignment of earthquakes (and volcanoes) that likely represents a preferred pathway for magma to ruse from the mantle under Okataina. So, it makes sense that if magma is percolating up into the cooling crystal mush, the earthquakes associated with that would be along that trend. [/SPECULATION]. In any case, earthquake swarms like this are a reminder that although it has been quiet for an anthropologically long time (127 years), for the volcano, the last eruption was just yesterday (and the next one is around the corner).
You can watch the GNS Science webicorder for Okataina to see if the swarm returns. Even with this small swarm, the alert status at Okataina has not been raised above Green/0 (the lowest).Pop!_OS comes with the GNOME desktop environment and Ubuntu before 17.10 comes with the Unity desktop environment. A desktop environment is responsible for the look and feel of the graphical desktop, and includes many of the key programs that get used every day.
Desktop environments can be installed with a single command and can be selected at the login screen (image below). All desktop environments have access to your home folder and files, so they can share data. They are basically the top, graphical layer of Pop!_OS, each with it’s own individual settings.
Important
In Ubuntu 16.04, make sure to choose lightdm as the display manager when prompted. Choosing gdm, sddm, or another, will break the installation. Other display managers work fine in 17.04 and later. If needed, this command can be run to choose the display manager again:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm
MATE
Mate is an intuitive and attractive desktop using traditional concepts. MATE is a fork of GNOME 2.
MATE is installed with:
sudo apt install mate-desktop-environment-extras mate-dock-applet lightdm
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is used in Linux Mint by default. Cinnamon strives to provide a traditional experience and is a fork of GNOME 3.
Cinnamon is installed with:
sudo apt install cinnamon-desktop-environment
GNOME
GNOME is the default desktop environment in Pop!_OS and Ubuntu 17.10. It contains both a modern and a classic version.
In Ubuntu, GNOME is installed with:
sudo apt install ubuntu-gnome-desktop
KDE
The KDE Plasma desktop environment is a familiar working environment and looks similar to Windows’ desktop. It is highly customizable and looks clean. It is more heavy on system resources than other desktop environments, and isn’t recommended for low power usage on laptops.
KDE is installed with:
sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop
KDE may have a packaging conflict which will cause the installation to fail. If so, two packages need removed to complete the installation. After an error, please run these commands to remove the packages and finish the installation:
sudo dpkg --purge unity-scope-gdrive account-plugin-google sudo apt install -f
Xfce
Xfce embodies the traditional UNIX philosophy of modularity and re-usability. This environment provides a good bit of conformity for the programs written for it. Xfce also provides a highly customizable environment, while being leaner on resources.
Xfce can be installed with:
sudo apt install xubuntu-desktop
LXDE
The Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment is a fast and energy-saving desktop environment. It looks similar to older versions of Windows. This is the leanest desktop environment and can help extend battery life in laptops.
LXDE can be installed with:
sudo apt install lubuntu-desktop
Edubuntu
Edubuntu has been developed in collaboration with teachers and technologists in several countries and is aimed at users aged 6 to 18. It is designed for easy installation and ongoing system maintenance. It uses GNOME for it’s desktop manager.
Edubuntu can be installed with:
sudo apt install edubuntu-desktop
Resource Use
GNOME and KDE are heavy resource desktop environments. Installations consume more disk space than lightweight alternatives and more CPU and memory resources while in use. This is because they are full-featured; they provide the most complete and well-integrated environments.
LXDE and Xfce, on the other hand, are lightweight desktop environments. They are designed to work well on older or lower-power hardware and generally consume fewer system resources while in use. This is achieved by cutting back on extra features.
Troubleshooting
Desktop environments can interfere with each other or change universal settings. Issues with a desktop environment looking different can generally be fixed by changing the theme in the Appearance control panel.
Change Login Greeter
GNOME will add it’s own login greeter, which is shown as the second image at the top of this article. To change it, run this command:
sudo gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
And add a line at the bottom to set the preferred greeter:
Unity:
greeter-session=unity-greeter
GNOME:
greeter-session=lightdm-gtk-greeter
Change Automatic Login Environment
If you currently use automatic login to bypass the password login, a default can be set with this command:
sudo gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
And add a line at the bottom to set the (default):
LXDE:
user-session=Lubuntu
KDE:
user-session=kde-plasma-kf5
Unity:
user-session=ubuntu
MATE:
user-session=mate
GNOME:
user-session=gnome
-or-
user-session=gnome-classic
XFCE:
user-session=xubuntu
Edubuntu:
user-session=gnome-flashback-compiz
-or-
user-session=gnome-flashback-metacity
Change Startup/Shutdown Splash Screen
Many desktop environments change the startup and shutdown splash screens. To change the Plymouth splash screen, run these commands:
sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth sudo update-initramfs -u
Change Notification Dialog
Xfce will change the notification dialog to it’s own. It can be configured with this command:
xfce4-notifyd-config
Or changed back to Unity’s with this command:
sudo gedit /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.xfce.xfce4-notifyd.Notifications.service
And replace this line:
Exec=/usr/lib/xfce4/notifyd/xfce4-notifyd
With this one:
Exec=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/notify-osd
Fix Broken Desktop Background
If your background turns to black or white, or stops changing when you select a new background, re-enable it with this command:
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.background active true
Remove Duplicate Options From Login Screen
Many desktop environments supply both a bare-bones environment, a full featured environment, or other options. Cinnamon provides both a 2d and 3d environment. Some of the extra options aren’t needed, and don’t have to be presented as options. The options available at login are in the /usr/share/xsessions folder. Simply rename or delete the files to remove them as options.
Lubuntu’s extra options:
/usr/share/xsessions/Lubuntu-Netbook.desktop /usr/share/xsessions/LXDE.desktop /usr/share/xsessions/openbox.desktop
Xubuntu’s extra option:
/usr/share/xsessions/xfce.desktop
Cinnamon’s extra option:
/usr/share/xsessions/cinnamon2d.desktop
Change Automatic Startup Programs
Some desktop environments add addition programs to be started at boot. To change them, run the Startup Applications program, and turn off any additional startup programs that were undesirably added.
Double Lock Screen Passwords
Sometimes the GNOME screensaver presents a second password unlock screen after suspending or locking the screen. It can be disabled with this command:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-enabled false
Or, if that doesn’t stop the 2nd prompt, the screensaver can be removed with this command:
sudo apt purge gnome-screensaver
When using GNOME, the lock screens will still function normally even with the screensaver disabled.
Enable Cinnamon Lock Screen
If Cinnamon’s desktop lock screen isn’t functioning, this command will re-enable it:
gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.lockdown disable-lock-screen false
Managing Multiple Desktop Environments
Ubuntu’s unity greeter signin screen will only accommodate a certain number of desktop environments. If the list is too large, then extra options can be deleted from this folder:
/usr/share/xsessions/
Another solution is to switch to the lightdm-gtk-greeter following the instructions above. This secondary greeter is installed with GNOME, or can be installed manually with this command:
sudo apt install lightdm-gtk-greeter
Removing Desktop Environments
If you no longer want to use a desktop environment, it can be removed by using:
sudo apt purge... sudo apt autoremove
For example, to remove KDE:
sudo apt purge kubuntu-desktop sudo apt autoremove
Or to remove Unity:Introducing Special Moves!
In this new series of quick videos, we will explore the trademark techniques of history's greatest fighters. In this first episode, I analyze the pawing jab of Thomas "Hitman" Hearns. Though Hearns was known for his powerful right hand, a punch that few boxers could withstand, it was his clever left jab that led most of his 48 knockout victims to the finish.
In particular, it was Hearns' pawing jab that kept his opponents blind to their impending doom. Hearns was a student of the late Emanuel Steward, and the pawing jab was a specialty of the Philly trainer, who counted Michael Moorer and Wladimir Klitschko among his students.
If you have trouble with the embedded player, feel free to watch the video over on Youtube, and while you're there click "Like" and be sure to subscribe to MMANationDotCom for more videos like this.
For more analysis, check out Heavy Hands, the only podcast dedicated to the finer points of face-punching. Our latest episode features BE's own Coach Mike Riordan, who discusses his background in wrestling, and how this underappreciated art is fundamental to mixed martial arts.Many Heathens awoke on the morning of September 2nd to the news that the Asatru Folk Assembly’s “Midwest Fallfest” had been kicked out of the camp that they had booked for the event just days before the event was due to take place. Given the recent flurry over the AFA’s statements and stances, the article (written by the “StarTribune”) quickly made the rounds and received a mixed review. While the reporting done on our religious community was refreshingly thorough and honest, many AFA supporters were furious over the accusations made in the article as well as by Camp Courage.
Due to the timing of this press release, shortly after a number of highly controversial statements made by the AFA, this news had many of the organization’s proponents pointing fingers at various Heathen organizations. Namely, those which had recently taken the AFA to task. The Troth and H.U.A.R. were among those most commonly accused.
Each of these parties independently denied any responsibility for the phone campaign that resulted in the AFA’s being banned from multiple campgrounds in Minnesota. H.U.A.R. announced their non-participation on their Facebook feed, while The Troth did so on their official blog. It was the Troth that initially discovered the first piece of evidence about who really did get the AFA event shut down. Their brief search of Twitter revealed a local Anti-Fascist (or ‘Antifa’) page called ConflictMN, who tweeted the following. (see below)
ConflictMN seemed to be just boosting the signal, so Huginn’s Heathen Hof reached out to them to see if they knew where it had originated. They responded, explaining that the image had come to them via a burner email with a @riseup.net address. (An address which is apparently fairly common in Anti-Fascist networks.) Likewise, the “StarTribune” was also tipped off to the story by a similar burner email account. This left little choice but to try and track down the image itself since we couldn’t contact the anonymous tipper.
The tweet (see left) turned out to be a cropped screen capture from the Facebook post of a larger Twin Cities area Antifa group, who in turn got it from a smaller group local to Minneapolis. The original post included a header saying “Received and transmitted:”, but the trail seemed to end there. The point of connection actually comes from a single sentence within the original statement.
Quote: “Notably, one of their members Josef Sigmundr is also a member of the Golden State Skinheads who attended a white nationalist-organized pro-Trump rally where a fellow Skinhead stabbed multiple people.”
The event in question, which was dubbed “The Battle of Sacramento” by some news outlets, took place on June 26th of this year on the steps of the Sacramento capital building. The event, which was hosted by the Traditionalist Workers Party, was backed by the local Golden State Skinheads. It erupted into a massive conflict between Anti-Fascist protesters and the two groups of white supremacists which resulted in at least ten people being injured. Two of the TWP people were beaten and pelted with rocks, while at least seven protesters ended up being stabbed by the Skinheads.
The Minneapolis Antifa group had recently been involved in a large fundraiser to try and help the Sacramento Antifa protesters that had been injured, particularly the two who had been put in critical condition. Huginn’s Heathen Hof reached out to them in order to verify their claim that one of the Skinheads involved was also a member of the AFA, but they declined to comment. So instead, we tracked down the man mentioned in the post. Who is Mr. Josef Sigmundr?
For that info, we turned to the leader of the Traditionalist Workers Party (Matthew Heimbach), who tweeted the following image of the TWP and GSS members just before they left for the ill-fated march. Josef Sigmundr appears at the far right, wearing a TWP shirt and camouflage shorts. He was also filmed at the march during the conflict that resulted in the stabbing of several protesters and, reportedly, one bystander. So how does all of this link back to the Camp Courage incident?
Just as the above tweet suggests, Josef Sigmundr appears to be a member in good standing of the Asatru Folk Assembly.
This was quickly confirmed by the AFA’s own website, which features Josef (Joe) Sigmundr helping to refurbish the NewGrange Hall. (see right) In addition, since the AFA’s event lists are viewable to the public, it was possible to track his participation in AFA events from the founding of the hall all the way up to the beginning of 2016. Now we here at Huginn’s Heathen Hof cannot confirm whether or not he was still a member at the time of the stabbings. It should also be noted that, as far as our sources could find, he was not acting on behalf of the AFA at the time. The important thing here is that every piece of information listed in this article is publicly available. These are likely the same sources that were used by the people who originated the phone campaign that got the AFA banned from their campsite.
So it turns out that the rumors of some Heathen group being responsible for setting this in motion are true. It just so happens that that group is the AFA. The Camp Courage incident wasn’t the vindictive act of the Troth, HUAR, or some other Heathen organization. It was retaliation, by an entirely secular Antifa group, who targeted the AFA because one of their members was involved in a conflict which resulted in 7 Sacramento Antifa members being hospitalized. In fact, the Asatru Folk Assembly has been on their radar for quite some time, due to their (unofficial) association with some of these extremist elements. In this particular case the timing of this phone campaign, so shortly after the AFA’s recent controversy, is completely coincidental.Black Lives Matter movement co-founders Opal Tometti and Alicia Garza as well as affiliated activist Janaya Kahn participated in a panel discussion as part of Cornell’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture held in Sage Chapel.
The event was highly anticipated on campus and in Ithaca. Ushers had to turn people away after Sage Chapel was filled to capacity—750 seats.
The discussion was moderated by Ithaca College Professor Sean Eversley-Bradwell, education, and featured the panelists discussing the genesis of the Black Lives Matter movement, its meaning, and other issues regarding race and racism in the United States and abroad.
Much of what the panelists spoke about consisted of giving examples of institutional, structural, and systemic anti-black racism, with other topics including white supremacy, white fragility, the role of love in the Black Lives Matter movement, and the issue of black-on-black crime. On the last topic, Garza said she wishes to “retire” that phrase and prefers to focus instead on the violence of the state, claiming “not all violence is created equal”.
Towards the end of the event Tometti turned to the topic of “structural racism on the global scale”. After commenting on the European migrant crisis, she turned to the issue of free trade, calling trade deals between European and African countries forms of “anti-black racism” and “neo-colonialism” because according to her they have worsened African economies. In consequence, she stated that global capitalism is unsustainable. Climate change, also, is a form of “global anti-blackness” according to Tometti because six out of the 10 countries that ranked highest on the “climate change vulnerability index” are in Africa, according to a study she referenced.
Absent from the event was the third co-founder, Patrisse Cullors—the first to actually write “#BlackLivesMatter”—due to personal reasons. Garza explained that after the announcement of the not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial she wrote a message on Facebook which was shared by Cullors along with the now-famous hashtag.
Preceding the panel discussion were several performances and introductions, including ones from Cornell Vice President Ryan Lombardi and President Elizabeth Garrett.
Lombardi spoke of the “most meaningful conversations” he had last semester, his first at Cornell, which he said were those with students about creating a “more just campus environment… and eradicating the systemic racism that still plagues the nation.” Garrett praised the Black Lives Matter movement for “fighting the myth [that] since the Civil Rights movement [the] United States has become color-blind or post-racial.” Concluding this thought, Garrett also said that eventually Black Lives Matter and affiliated activists will successfully “turn history around”, which suggests that history is an object, or rather a force, in motion, a notion that might seem familiar to some.
When speaking about the origins of #BlackLivesMatter, Garrett, quit oddly, called George Zimmerman “a white man” (in contrast to her calling Trayvon Martin “a black man”) in such a way as to draw attention to that contrast, despite the fact that Zimmerman is mixed race (half White, half Hispanic) and identified himself as Hispanic on his voter registration. This glaring error was even corrected by panelist Alicia Garza later in the event, when she referred to Zimmerman as “actually not a white person.”
Last year’s MLK commemorative lecture featured MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, whose speech was widely covered in the press after a video taken by The Cornell Review caught her on video saying she hoped Trayvon Martin “whooped the shit out of George Zimmerman”.Millions Of People Are Quitting Their Jobs Every Month. That's Good News.
It might be hard to imagine in this sputtering recovery, but 2.4 million people actually quit their jobs in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's nearly a million more quitters than there were during the darkest months of the recession.
As the graph shows, there's a big range in quit rates between industries. Some industries, like retail, always have a higher share of quitters than others, like government. But what matters is the change over time in each industry. In general, a rise in quitters is a promising sign: People usually quit because they have another job, or are confident that they can get one.
Janet Yellen, who is going to be one of the world's most important policymakers, singled out the quit rate early last year as an important labor market signal. She said: "A pickup in the quit rate, which also remains at a low level, would signal that workers perceive that their chances to be rehired are good...."Falun Gong practitioners protest against organ harvesting; demonstration outside the European Parliament, 2016
Reports of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners and other political prisoners in China have raised increasing concern by some groups within the international community. According to the reports,[1] political prisoners, mainly |
renewal effort has to be conceived as a process of building on the inherent social and economic values of a local community. Neglecting these values through programs of massive clearance and redevelopment can disrupt an entire community,” the plan begins. “The physical improvements which will attract a higher income group must — first of all — benefit those affected by the program, not cause them to suffer from it.”
Thirty-five years later, after many legal and legislative battles, the Cooper Square Committee incorporated as a community land trust and mutual housing association. Basically, what this does is remove a given parcel of land (and the housing built upon that land) from the wider real estate market, thereby preserving its affordability. The land trust and the housing association are two separate, legal entities comprising building residents and neighborhood stakeholders. A community land trust is a non-profit organization that treats land as a public good; a mutual housing association is a non-profit organization that manages the housing that is built on that land. John Davis of the National Housing institute explains the dual-ownership model thus:
One party holds the deed to a parcel of land; another party holds the deed to a residential building located upon that land… Although CLTs do not resell their land, they provide for the exclusive use of their land by the owners of the buildings located thereon. Parcels of land are conveyed to individual homeowners (or to the owners of other types of residential or commercial structures) through a ground lease. This lease typically runs for ninety-nine years, unless a shorter term is required by state law. The lease is renewable and inheritable, giving homeowners (and their heirs) an exclusive right to occupy the land on which their homes are located.
The New York City Community Land Initiative (NYCCLI; pronounced “nicely”) is an alliance of organizations, led primarily by the New Economy Project and Picture the Homeless, that is working to establish community land trusts and mutual housing associations throughout the city, beginning in East Harlem — a desirable neighborhood for developers that also has a relatively high proportion of vacant plots and residential buildings that the city has acquired by tax lien. “Some of these buildings have a lot of untapped resources. We think that if they were given the support that they need from a community land trust and a mutual housing association, other buildings that may be doing well, that they could be brought up to be in much better shape, essentially,” Monica Garcia, of the New Economy Project, told me. “Really the idea is that if these buildings come together and at least some of them form this large scale co-op or a mutual housing association that they can create economies of scale, that they can cross-subsidize.” She emphasized, “The idea is that we want to take this housing out of the real estate market indefinitely.”
What NYCCLI is doing in East Harlem — which already has a long history of anti-gentrification activism — is a pilot project: Activists and organizers are knocking on doors, talking to residents about what is happening the neighborhood (“In the next five years, we will invest $75 million to connect East Harlem to the Upper East Side,” one developer told the New York Times), and explaining how incorporating as a community land trust and a mutual housing association can preserve the neighborhood’s affordability. “We essentially are doing grassroots organizing: going into community meetings, speaking with as many residents in those buildings that have already shown some interest, and making sure that the entire building is on board, so we’re not just talking to one person who thinks it’s a great idea,” Garcia said. “We really want to have the full buy-in consent and awareness from the entire building, that they understand what the option is and that they feel like it’s a good one for their building.”
Some of the buildings that NYCCLI has approached are low-income co-op buildings incorporated under the Housing Development Fund Corporation, acquired by the city through foreclosure and then sold to community groups for rehabilitation. Known as HDFCs, these buildings are already owned by their shareholders; other buildings are owned by the city. (If you are a bad landlord, for example, and you don’t pay your taxes, eventually the city will take your building away from you.) The city, however, is bad at building management, and generally looks to unload such properties, either through programs like the Tenant Interim Lease program (these buildings are called TILs) or the Affordable Neighborhood Cooperative Program (ANCPs), which is good for the neighborhood, as it encourages rehabilitation and community ownership amongst people who are already there, or by selling the tax lien on to investors, which is bad for the neighborhood. Claudia Wilner, who works on policy at the New Economy Project, told me that NYCCLI is focusing on figuring out ways to create a pipeline so that the city can feed these kinds of properties into a community land trust. “It’s definitely in the city’s interest to give the building to the trust,” Wilner said. “Selling liens to investors does not help create affordable housing or improve conditions.”
In both Marcus Moore and Garcia’s estimation, most community land trusts elsewhere in the country focus on preserving ownership of single-family homes. Which is important! But New York is a city of renters and of gaping inequality. “We want to focus on reaching the most marginalized, with the least amount of means,” Garcia said. “That definitely includes currently homeless people as well as those who are seniors, who have shrinking incomes, that are just receiving social security benefits, for example, or disability, and also those who are making slightly more money but are still very very low on that income pay scale.” She added, “One of the things we’re looking at is the amount of vacant land that is in East Harlem. So it’s important for us not to just look at existing buildings that people are already living in, but, if we want to include people who are homeless, we need to have units where they can move in.”
Picture the Homeless’ office happens to be in East Harlem, where Moore is involved in community outreach; he commutes there from Far Rockaway, where he lives, and where he was also recently involved in organizing a workshop for residents who were interested in organizing a land trust. “We’re in New York City. Real estate is serious business in New York City,” he said, with a raised eyebrow. “I always felt like community land trusts is revolutionary because you can’t make a killing by selling the units… Whatever guidelines that’s in the package of the community land trust, you’re gonna have to follow it. And try to make money off it like it’s the private market, how you can go and sell your apartment, make money off your apartment, sell your brownstone, and make a killing — it’s not gonna happen with a community land trust. It keeps it affordable for the next person.”
“Communities gonna start fighting back for their community. It’s just a matter of time,” he said. “People are waking up. Maybe not as fast as we want them to, but they are waking up.” He went on: “And those that’s waking up is gonna let those that don’t know, listen, we been doing this for a while. This is it. You gotta get on board with this here. They gonna wake up eventually.”I realized today that one of our newer add-on features in Fennec is in Firefox Beta at this point, and I’ve never done anything to blog about it! So here it is, Prompt.jsm!
Prompt.jsm is a module that can be used to show dialogs in Fennec. We use it pretty extensively in our UI for everything from Select popups, Context menus, HTML5 date and time input elements, Certificate dialogs, etc. Previously, those were all done via a similar messaging system, but Prompt.jsm makes it a little easier to deal with and less error prone.
The API is pretty simple. Like I always like to do, I wrote a little addon to show off what you could do. This one I called ReaderPlus and lets you easily add a bunch of articles to Firefox for Android’s ReadingList (i.e. cached offline to see in ReaderMode. You can access your ReadingList through Bookmarks). The code’s a bit more complex than some of my earlier demos, but you’re welcome to peruse it on github if you want (patches welcome!)
The addon loads RSS feeds for a page, and lets you pick articles from them to add to your reading list. It adds a page action on pages where it finds feeds (I used a floppy disk here because you’re kinda “saving” the article, but I’d love something better). When you click the page action, we show a dialog listing all the feeds on the page:
The code to do something like this is pretty simple, we just import Prompt.jsm and create a new Prompt object:
Cu.import("resource://gre/modules/Prompt.jsm");
var p = new Prompt({ title: "Select a source" })
.setSingleChoiceItems(list.map(function(listItem) {
return { label: listItem.title }
})).show(function(data) {
readerPlus.showSelectArticles(list[data.button].list);
});
The prompt constructor takes an object that can give some basic details about the prompt (i.e. a title, message, and the buttons to show). For more complex prompts, it exposes a Fluent interface, so we can chain a call to setSingleChoiceItems, which shows a list of items. If we had added “selected: true” to one of those items, the dialog would also have shown checkboxes to the right. (You can’t add other inputs to prompts that have lists in them… yet).
Finally, we can call show on the prompt, and pass a callback to be called when its dismissed. The callback gets data bout what was tapped or selected, or the value of any inputs, checkboxes or any time/colorpickers (coming soon!).
The second prompt in the demo app is pretty similar, but uses setMultiChoiceItems to create a dialog where you can check multiple rows:
The code here is pretty similar:
var p = new Prompt({
title: list.title,
buttons: ["OK", "Cancel"]
}).setMultiChoiceItems(list.map(function(listItem) {
return { label: listItem.title }
})).show(function(data) {
for (var i = 0; i < data.button.length; i++) {
if (data.button[i]) {
readerPlus.addToReadingList(list[i].link, list[i].title);
}
}
});
In this case, we have to be careful to add some buttons to the prompt so that users have a way to close it. They get passed in in the constructor. Because its possible for some items to initially selected, the return has an array that’s the same length as the list and tells you the final state for each row.
Like I mentioned, you can do lots of other interesting things with prompts, adding input elements, labels (which support a subset of HTML if you need to do some advanced formatting), I’ve tried to document them as well as I can on MDN, but feel free to ping me if you have questions! Happy add-on-ing.
AdvertisementsStaff at Silicon Valley companies including Netflix and Facebook are now being offered gender reassignment procedures as an employee benefit.
Goldman Sachs has offered the procedures as part of their health care package since 2008, but this year a further 82 companies have included gender reassignment in their deals.
Netflix, Facebook and Tesla Motors are among 415 companies included in a survey of 780 firms who now offer the procedures.
The Human Rights Campaign, a Washington NGO, said that the number of companies offering the procedures has doubled since 2012. In 2009, only 49 companies offered such schemes.
And the addition of gender reassignment procedures to the list of permitted treatments under staff health cover was being seen as a way for companies to promote their commitment to a diverse workforce.
“It becomes a bit of a rat race as to who can out-commit whom,” said James Baron, a professor who studies human resources at the Yale School of Management.
“Committing to this form of equality allows a company to put another arrow in its quiver without terribly profound cost implications.”
One in about 10,000 to 20,000 employees typically uses gender transition coverage per year, according to a study by Jody Herman, a researcher at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Fewer than a dozen people a year, out of 100,000, have used the benefit at the University of California. The average claims cost was $29,929 (£19,600).
Curtis Crane, a doctor in San Francisco, told Bloomberg News he will perform around 700 surgeries this year related to gender change – and the demand is growing to such an extent that he is hiring a second doctor and opening a second clinic in Austin, Texas.
“Now instead of a six-month wait list, I have about a year wait list,” he said.
He said that when he started his transgender practice three years ago, about 90 per cent of patients paid in cash, but now 95 per cent pay through their health insurance schemes. A full transition from a woman to a man, the most complex surgery, can cost more than $150,000, he said.Getty Images
Within days after a new comet is first discovered, astronomers can tell you exactly what its path through the solar system will look like. They can calculate when it will make its closest approach to the Sun, how near it will be to Earth at any given moment and even when — or whether — it’s likely to make a return visit.
What they can’t say for sure is how brilliant a show it will put on for us. Back in the 1970’s, Comet Kohoutek was billed as the “Comet of the Century,” but it turned out to be so disappointing that it ended up as a laugh line for Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. Even a well-known comet like Halley’s, whose 1986 appearance was ballyhooed years in advance, can turn out to be a dud.
With that caveat noted, however, there’s a reasonable chance that Earth is in for a celestial display just about a year from now. Comet ISON, discovered by two amateurs — one from Belarus, one from Russia — in September, shows early signs of being truly spectacular. At its brightest, in fact, ISON could put out as much light as the full Moon but concentrated into a smaller area — and if that turns out to be true, the term “dream comet,” now floating around the internet, would be an understatement.
(PHOTOS: The Cosmos In Living Color: Michael Benson’s Interstellar Imagery)
There’s a legitimate possibility this might indeed be the real deal: for one thing, ISON (named for the International Scientific Optical Network, of which discoverers Artyom Novichonok and Vitali Nevski members) was first seen when it was nearly 600 million miles (965 million km) from the Sun, well beyond the orbit of Jupiter. That’s unusually distant for a comet to be spotted: these interplanetary chunks of debris usually live in the frigid realms out beyond Neptune and are more or less invisible until solar heat begins boiling ice and dust from their surfaces, forming a light-reflecting halo (known technically as its coma), that makes them seem bigger than they really are.
The fact that ISON can already be seen means it may be reasonably large — perhaps a couple of miles across — which suggests that when it dips to less than a million miles (1.6 million km) above the Sun’s fires next November 28, it may be robust enough to avoid the breakup that often happens to smaller comets. And if it does survive, ISON could go on to light up the night sky in the Northern Hemisphere for much of December, 2013 and on into January.
Comet experts are also making much of the fact that ISON’s path is very similar to that of Kirch’s Comet, a.k.a. Newton’s Comet, a.k.a. the Great Comet of 1680, which was bright enough to be seen in daylight and had a magnificently long tail (it was also the first comet ever discovered with a telescope). It’s not the same object, but it’s quite possible that both are chunks of a much larger body that broke apart long ago, maybe during its own passage through the inner solar system. The fact that such larger bodies exist isn’t in doubt: Pluto, for example, is essentially a gigantic chunk of dirty ice.
(PHOTOS:Spinning In the Heavens — Spiral Galaxies)
If ISON is truly destined to become one of the greatest comets in history, we won’t have to wait until November to find out. By August, it will still be more than 200 million miles (320 million km) from the Sun, but that’s close enough for it to start forming its halo. How bright it is then should be a good indication of how much brighter it could get.
Even then, comet-lovers would be wise to stay calm. “Comets are like cats,” the great amateur astronomer and comet hunter David Levy, who has found 22 comets himself, has said. “They have tails, and they do precisely what they want.”
PHOTOS: Looking at the Depths of Our Solar SystemSerogroup B Meningococcal Disease Outbreak and Carriage Evaluation at a College — Rhode Island, 2015
Heidi M. Soeters, PhD1,2; Lucy A. McNamara, PhD1,2; Melissa Whaley, MS, MPH2; Xin Wang, PhD2; Nicole Alexander-Scott, MD3; Koren V. Kanadanian, MS4; Catherine M. Kelleher4; Jessica MacNeil, MPH2; Stacey W. Martin, MS2; Nathan Raines, MPH5; Steven Sears, EdD4; Cynthia Vanner3; Jeni Vuong2; Utpala Bandy, MD3; Kenneth Sicard, PhD4; Manisha Patel, MD2 (Author affiliations at end of text)
On February 2, 2015, the Rhode Island Department of Health was notified of a case of meningococcal disease in a male undergraduate student at Providence College. Three days later, a second case was reported in a male undergraduate with no contact with the first student, indicating an attack rate of 44 cases per 100,000 students, nearly 500 times higher than the national incidence of 0.15 cases per 100,000 among persons aged 17–22 years (Division of Bacterial Diseases, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC, unpublished data, 2013). Both cases were caused by a rare outbreak strain of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B (ST-9069); neither case was fatal. In response to the outbreak, potential contacts received antibiotic chemoprophylaxis, and a mass vaccination campaign with a recently licensed serogroup B meningococcal (MenB) vaccine was implemented. In collaboration with CDC, the first phase of a meningococcal carriage evaluation was undertaken.
Meningococcal disease is uncommon in the United States but can infect otherwise healthy persons. N. meningitidis serogroup B accounts for approximately half of all meningococcal cases among persons aged 17–22 years in the U.S. (Division of Bacterial Diseases, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC, unpublished data, 2013) and caused four recent outbreaks in college settings (1,2). N. meningitidis is transmitted through direct contact with large-droplet respiratory tract secretions from persons with meningococcal disease or asymptomatic nasopharyngeal carriage (3). Two MenB vaccines, MenB-FHbp (Trumenba, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) and MenB-4C (Bexsero, Novartis Vaccines) were recently licensed in the United States.* Although there are no current recommendations for general use of MenB vaccines, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends use of MenB vaccines in persons aged ≥10 years at increased risk for serogroup B meningococcal disease, including in outbreak settings (4). CDC's interim guidance suggests consideration of vaccination during outbreaks in which two or more primary cases of N. meningitidis serogroup B are reported in organizations of <5,000 persons within a 6-month period (5).
As part of the outbreak response, ciprofloxacin chemoprophylaxis (3) was provided to 71 persons who were potentially exposed to oral secretions from either of the two students. Additionally, the school provided education to students on signs and symptoms of meningococcal disease and safe hygiene practices to prevent transmission. Molecular testing on the outbreak strain detected the gene coding for FHbp B24 (6), predicting cross-protection with both MenB vaccines (7).
During 2 vaccination days (February 8 and 11), the first of 3 doses of MenB-FHbp was offered to eligible persons affiliated with Providence College: 1) all undergraduate students; 2) graduate students or staff aged <25 years who lived or worked on campus, 3) persons in an intimate physical relationship with an undergraduate, and 4) asplenic persons or persons with an immunocompromising condition known to place them at risk for meningococcal disease. Persons who declined vaccination were required to sign opt-out forms. Among 3,745 eligible persons, 3,525 (94%) received the first dose. No further college-associated cases were identified as of June 8, 2015.
An evaluation to assess the prevalence of nasopharyngeal carriage of N. meningitidis among students and the impact of MenB vaccination on carriage was conducted during February 16–20. Undergraduate students and graduate students who lived on campus were eligible to participate. After obtaining informed consent, an oropharyngeal swab and a short questionnaire assessing risk factors for meningococcal disease and carriage were collected from each participant. Specimens were tested using bacterial culture, real-time polymerase chain reaction, and molecular methods. Log-linear binomial regression models were used to calculate prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
Of 717 participants in the carriage evaluation, 470 (66%) were female, 655 (91%) lived on campus, and 701 (98%) had received the first MenB-FHbp vaccine dose. Preliminary data indicate that 176 (25%) were carriers of N. meningitidis. Among 31 (4%) participants with serogroup B carriage, none carried the outbreak strain. Eight (1%) participants carried serogroup C, one (<1%) carried serogroup X, four (1%) carried serogroup Y, and 132 (18%) carried nongroupable N. meningitidis. Males (PR = 1.5, CI = 1.2–2.0), smokers (PR = 1.5, CI = 1.1–2.0), and persons who reported visiting bars or nightclubs or attending parties one or more times per week (PR = 2.7, CI = 1.8–4.2) had increased carriage prevalences, whereas recent antibiotic use was associated with decreased carriage (PR = 0.4, CI = 0.2–0.7).
The baseline carriage prevalence of N. meningitidis among Providence College students is comparable to prevalences of up to 34% previously observed among university students in the United Kingdom (8) but is higher than previous U.S. estimates of 1%–8% among the general population (9,10). No carriage of the outbreak strain was detected. There are several possible explanations for this finding. First, the outbreak strain ST-9069 might have a lower propensity for developing a carrier state. Second, the well-targeted chemoprophylaxis strategy, the vaccination campaign, or both, might have eradicated ST-9069 carriage on the campus before the carriage evaluation. Third, our sample size might not have been large enough to detect a very low prevalence of the outbreak strain. A second carriage evaluation was conducted in April; laboratory testing is ongoing, and a third evaluation is planned for the fall of 2015. These additional evaluations will permit assessment of the impact of the MenB vaccination campaign on carriage over time among Providence College students, and might inform recommendations for other college populations.
Acknowledgments
The Rhode Island Meningococcal Carriage Evaluation Team: Conrad P. Quinn, Leonard Mayer, Tami Skoff, Amanda Faulkner, Amy Blain, Christine Miner, Adria Lee, Anna Acosta, Sarah Meyer, How-Yi Chang, and Marsenia Harrison.
1Epidemic Intelligence Service, CDC; 2Division of Bacterial Diseases, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC; 3Rhode Island Department of Health; 4Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island; 5Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
Corresponding author: Heidi M. Soeters, hzx8@cdc.gov, 404-639-3769.
References1 in 8 Australians living in poverty: report
Updated
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Poverty getting worse (7pm TV News NSW)
A report by welfare organisation the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) has found one in eight Australians is living in poverty.
ACOSS says that equates to more than 2.2 million people living below the poverty line in Australia and close to 600,000 of them are children.
The report provides the most comprehensive picture of poverty in Australia since 2006.
It shows people who are unemployed, children (especially in lone parent families), and people whose main source of income is social security payments, are the groups most at risk.
ACOSS says despite 20 years of economic growth, poverty has increased in Australia.
ACOSS chief Dr Cassandra Goldie says it is a national disgrace.
"This is the first time this figure has been counted in six years and it is deeply concerning to us that there is no reduction in the rate of poverty in Australia," she said.
"In fact it has slightly increased.
"In a wealthy country like Australia, this is simply inexcusable."
Dr Goldie says it is unacceptable that the Newstart payment has not been increased in almost 20 years and that the Government last week made cuts to payments for sole parents.
"Two-thirds of people on Newstart have been unemployed for more than a year and they clearly need more help than they are getting now from employment services," she said.
She says the Government's parenting payment cuts are disturbing, given the report shows almost 300,000 children living in poverty are with sole parents.
"There are almost 600,000 children living in families below the poverty line. About half of those children are in sole parent families, and one quarter of people in sole parent families are living below the poverty line," Dr Goldie said.
"This makes the Federal Government's recent cuts to payments for sole parents all the more disturbing.
"Under the changes passed in the Senate last week, over 100,000 sole parents on the parenting payment will be between $60 and $100 a week poorer from January 2013."
ACOSS is urging the Federal Government to commit to a national goal to reduce poverty.
It is calling for an increased investment in wage subsidies and training for the long-term unemployed, as well as initatives to ease housing cost pressures.
"It is simply unacceptable that so many people are still going without the basics and the sorts of opportunities the rest of us take for granted," Dr Goldie said.
"A wealthy country such as ours can and should do better to ensure that everyone is afforded an adequate standard of living.
"It is a fundamental human right."
Topics: poverty, welfare, federal-government, australia
First postedI’m turning down the rest of the grant that I haven’t received yet—which is a lot of money—and donating what I have already received to a charity or project related to climate change, because our planet is about to get wrecked.
I refuse to watch complacently as the world falls apart around me. This is my tiny way of sending a message about what I believe in.
I refuse to continue taking money from someone who has contributed millions of dollars to the ultimate success of our next Hitler-elect. Aware of Thiel’s support of Trump when I accepted the fellowship, I experienced a crisis of faith. Who would say no to free money? But the results of the election have only further deepened and solidified the moral dissonance gnawing away at me.
I cannot justify being associated with someone who helped a psychopathic, sexist, racist, bigoted, xenophobic, poisonous demagogue rise to power. Trump represents the darkest, most cruel aspects of our society, and the free money is not worth having that on my conscience every few months when a wire transfer comes through my bank account.
That said, I am so grateful to have met such an awesome group of young, like-minded entrepreneurs in the program. The organizers of the fellowship have also been very kind to me. It was truly a remarkable and rare opportunity.
I don’t know Peter Thiel very well at all, and I understand there are many reasons he might support Trump that I may never understand. I know my decision won’t change the results of the election, nor will it solve the plethora of complex issues our nation faces. But I refuse to watch complacently as the world falls apart around me. This is my my tiny way of sending a message about what I believe in.
Oh, the irony: I find it difficult to rationalize how the first outside investor in Facebook, a software platform that has connected billions of people at a historically unprecedented scale, empowered a political platform built on profound disconnection.David Cook David Cook Photo by Ashlee Culverhouse /Times Free Press.
IF YOU GO What: People’s History of Chattanooga Poster Exhibit When: Thursday, Feb. 25, at 6 p.m. Where: Apothecary Gallery, 744 McCallie Ave. Visit peopleshistoryofchattanooga.com for more info.
Think you know history? Our history?
Can you name the emancipated slave who moved to Chattanooga, learned to read, then began a weekly newspaper devoted to fighting white supremacy?
Who was the Rev. Susine, and why were his marriage ceremonies an act of civil disobedience?
During the civil rights struggle, how many black homes were bombed in Chattanooga? How many acts of arson?
In 1961, five Freedom Riders came to test Chattanooga's bus system. What happened when they arrived?
In 1980, three Ku Klux Klansmen drove down Ninth Street and shot five black women. How did the women — who all survived — respond?
Anybody know?
They fought back.
They all fought back.
These five questions? They each tell of valiant, (extra)ordinary Chattanoogans fighting back against racism, and their stories should tumble easily out of our mouths, placed centrall in the canon of Chattanooga history.
Yet I didn't know these stories. Did you?
"There is a treasure trove of significance that isn't talked about," said Michael Gilliland, board chairman for the social justice group Chattanooga Organized for Action.
Last summer, COA began a 100-hour project — combing through library archives, microfilm and old newspapers to document the forgotten stories of anti-racist resistance in Chattanooga. (Did you know that an original Black Panther grew up near 10th Street?)
With the help of graphic design majors at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, COA turned this history into something profound, democratic and beautiful.
A five-piece poster series.
"The people's history of Chattanooga," COA proclaims.
This Thursday at 6 p.m., COA unveils its "People's History" poster series in a free exhibit at the Apothecary Gallery. In months to come, the group will exhibit more posters on different themes — our city's feminist history, or environmental activism, for example — yet it began the series with racism and resistance.
"The content is so obviously relevant to the city's current problems," Gilliland said.
In 1864, Gen. William Sherman marched through Georgia freeing slaves. Among them Randolph Miller, who made his way to Chattanooga where he found work as a pressman, learned to read, and then, in 1869, started his own paper.
He called it The Weekly Blade.
He soon began publishing inside a building on Vine Street — "ambition and an invincible heart," he wrote, as his keys to success — and The Blade endured for 16 years. It is believed that Miller, who died in 1916, and Frederick Douglass, are the only former slaves who published newspapers.
"One of the most unique papers on earth," The Chattanooga Times proclaimed.
Miscegenation.
That's the post-Civil War term used to describe interracial dating and marriage.
Hatred.
That's how many white Southerners felt about interracial dating and marriage.
Yet in 1885, a black minister — known as the Rev. Susine — began openly encouraging interracial relationships in Chattanooga, presiding over multiple marriages that were seen as both immoral and illegal: police investigated more than 30 interracial relationships in Chattanooga.
"Susine is to be prosecuted in each case where it can be proved that he officiated," The Chattanooga Times reported.
As COA's poster shows, the Rev. Susine, who called miscegenation "a relic of barbarism," made love an act of resistance in Chattanooga.
Nineteen.
That's how many acts of recorded violence — bombs, arson, beatings — happened in Chattanooga between January 1957 and September 1960.
Homes and schools bombed or set on fire. An integrated YMCA was bombed, along with the home of an anti-segregation lawyer. White men and youths beat up black men and women.
Why?
"Facing federal desegregation legislation, integrating neighborhoods brought on black displacement and growing civil rights activity," COA writes.
In 1961, with the FBI on their tail, five Freedom Riders came to Chattanooga. Since our bus system was already integrated, their arrival was somewhat peaceful. (They were still refused service at a diner). That night, they spoke at a rally that drew hundreds, along with civil rights leaders the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and the Rev. C.T. Vivian.
"A strange wind is blowing in the world and it's blowing empires away," Shuttlesworth said that night.
In April 1980, five black women were shot by three shotgun-wielding Klansmen on Ninth Street, now M.L. King Boulevard. After an all-white jury acquitted the Klansmen of the crime, riots and protests broke out in the city. Yet the five women — Viola Ellison, Lela Mae Evans, Katherine O. Johnson, Opal Lee Jackson, Mary Tyson — sued.
And won.
"In 1982, the federal courts ordered the Klan to pay the women $535,000 on account of the terror attack," COA's poster says. "This case created the legal strategy for dismantling the Klan across the country in the following years."
The work of dismantling racism continues today in Chattanooga. Are those stories being told?
David Cook writes a Sunday column and teaches at McCallie School. Contact him at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329.A Marine was injured over the weekend in the eighth shark attack along the North Carolina coast so far this season.A spokesman for the Naval Hospital at Camp Lejeune said the victim was brought into the hospital late Saturday night.The bite happened in Surf City. The 32-year-old Camp Lejeune Marine was treated for bites to forearm and right hand and was later released. WWAY reported that Pender County Emergency Management and Surf City Police received no calls of shark bites in the area, so the location of the incident is unknown.Seven other people have been attacked by sharks along the North Carolina coast in the past three weeks. The most recent was Wednesday when a 68-year-old man was injured off Ocracoke Island.Andrew Costello suffered wounds to his ribcage, lower leg, hip and both hands as he tried to fight off the animal, said Justin Gibbs, the director of emergency services in Hyde County. The attack happened around noon on a beach on Ocracoke Island, right in front of a lifeguard tower, he said.North Carolina has seen the most attacks in one year in the 80 years for which the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File keeps records. The highest previous total was five attacks in 2010. Three of the 52 confirmed shark attacks between 1935 and 2014 were deadly, according to the database.Most of this year's attacks happened in shallow water. The injuries ranged widely: An 8-year-old boy had only minor wounds to his heel and ankle, while at least two others have required amputation.Shark experts say the recent spate of attacks along on the coast of the Carolinas is due to so many more people getting in the water. Americans made 2.2 billion visits to beaches in 2010, up from 2 billion in 2001, according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimate.The record-breaking numbers of shark bites might be related to an unseasonably hot June that rapidly raised ocean temperatures off North Carolina and prompted fish to migrate north earlier than usual, said Chuck Bangley, a shark researcher at East Carolina University.Roger Rulifson, a distinguished professor of biology and senior scientist at East Carolina University, said recently that there have been reports of small bait fish coming closer to shore this summer, which attracts sharks. There have also been reports of larger numbers of sea turtles along the coast, which sharks also like to eat, he said.The Mind Boggling Promise of Energy Storage December 30, 2013
A well connected individual in the EV industry told me the other day, “There are three kinds of liars. Liars, damn liars, and battery salesmen.”
Having said that, he went on to relate how, despite all the hype, false promises, and vaporware we’ve seen in recent years, it appears that serious people now believe we are on the cusp of transformative energy storage technology in wide use – tech that will make electric cars with performance comparable to gasoline, at a price point the middle class can afford, within this decade.
Welcome to the days of miracles and wonders.
ABB Conversations:
We are now in a transition period where battery prices are dropping by 20-30% each year. The consequences for the automotive industry are mind boggling. About a century ago the nascent automotive industry started out by producing electric vehicles. Even big names such as Porsche started their business on a pure-electric basis. In the hundred-year hiccup that followed we have burned billions of tons of fossil fuel, but the clean times of pure electric are returning. The trigger to this all is simple: affordable batteries. Just as the television business was turned upside-down by the prices of flat-panel TVs in the 90’s and similarly the solar business by plummeting panel prices in the decade thereafter, we are now in a transition period where battery prices are dropping by 20-30% each year. The consequences for the automotive industry are mindboggling. Battery prices are the main cost drivers of electric vehicles. Last year |
–I mean, I think that–and I don’t only think about the president; I mean, I think about the whole political culture. We’ve–I say “we”; I’m a democrat, and tried to get elected as a democrat–but we’ve been in this position of defending a status quo for about 35 years against what we describe as a reckless, irresponsible, increasingly partisan, sharp-edged, ideological, right-wing adversary. And we never really, truthfully, we never countered their palaver with a viable vision for the American voters. And we haven’t really given them a reason to proudly come forward and say, “I’m a democrat, I’m backing a doctrine of fairness, supporting a policy of job creation and balanced taxation, distribution of public services, that every American can get behind and benefit from.” Look at the numbers. I mean, when I was a kid, everybody was supportive of the measures that the Democratic Party had provided in the middle and the latter part of the 20th century. And now you’d have to, in most communities in this country you’d have to–outside of California and New York–you’d have to really search pretty aggressively to find a people who shared that view. That shift is underway, like it or not.
RS: Let me take a break, which I have to do. I’m talking to Hamilton Fish, who has been the publisher of The Nation, is now the publisher of The New Republic magazine, and has been a major force in American journalism in keeping a progressive alternative alive in the media. And really, one of the key figures in the health, survival and the healthiness to the extent it exists, of the progressive media the last 40 years or so. [Omission] So let me shift the topic a little bit and ask, what is the future of journalism? And I know you–my own view is the model of journalism is broken, and no one has a way of putting it back. And it’s basically not a conspiracy, it’s the result of technology and the growth of the Internet. And the fact of the matter is, when I worked at the LA Times for 29 years, they could run a pretty good paper based on advertising, ‘cause the advertisers had no choice; if they–maybe they could go to broadcast, but print was a pretty good way of displaying your car ads and everything else. And that’s the only way they could find their readers. And what happens on the Internet now is you get your readers any way you want. Once you find out they’re New York Times readers of a certain affluence, you can find them on Yelp, you can find them in all sorts of places, and targeted advertising frees the advertisers from traditional sources of any content. The model is broken. And then we have alternative media; thanks to the Internet, as long as there’s net neutrality, we can still reach significant numbers of people, you know?
HF: You should take a bow on the great achievements of the award-winning Truthdig, which you brought into the world.
RS: Right. Yeah, and I believe we all have to give the college try, and we have to be out there doing it, and I applaud what you’re doing, and I’m certainly trying to do it myself.
HF: Well, nobody misses the kind of journalism that you’re talking about more than the residents of the mid-sized American city that’s lost its newspaper. Whatever low esteem they may have held for that newspaper, the fact that there is nobody minding the store as a general cultural proposition, has created a rising alarm throughout this country. And it’s not satisfied by a national NPR daily broadcast; it’s not, at this point, satisfied by some of the valiant little digital startups that have cropped up in some of the voids that have been created by the loss of these papers. But when you don’t know who’s giving money to your city councilman, and you don’t know how much, and you don’t know what they’re doing with that money, and they don’t worry about taking the money ‘cause they’re not fearful of anybody finding out–everything collapses. And that’s a broad prescription for a democratic decline. So, yeah, I think journalism is our number one priority right now in terms of the rehabilitation of our nation. I think people are coming around to this perspective; I think they’ve seen the value of it, and they broadly have missed it. There’s also a generation that has benefited from this Internet phenomenon. People who used to sit with their coffee and read the paper in the morning are now downloading four or five sources in a 45-minute period that they’ve curated themselves, and they come away with a pretty good grounding in facts and commentary on domestic and foreign news by the time they get to the workplace.
RS: Agreed. Agreed. There’s definitely a bright side as well as a despairing, concerning side to the Internet. But let me say, when we talk about actually covering–and this is what you’ve done. I’m talking to Hamilton Fish, who’s trying to keep reporters in the field. He’s trying to get people to get plane tickets and be able to go to, you know, where there’s a civil rights disturbance or where there’s a miscarriage of justice or where there’s war or so forth. I mean, that’s what publishers do, and the better ones try to actually pay–
HF: You and I have both employed the apostle of that old-fashioned virtue, which is Chris Hedges, who tells all of this emerging journalism students to get out from behind the desk and in front of the computer and get out into the field and report the story. Interview the people who were witnesses, and go to the police blotter, and find out what happened.
RS: And the fact of the matter is, that requires resources. In some sense, it’s compensated by, yes, on the Internet you can get some of these records yourself; we can all become reporters, and citizen journalists and so forth. But the fact of the matter is, this Fourth–ah, First Amendment; the Fourth Amendment, forget–the First Amendment to the Constitution was written to protect freedom at a time when the individual voice could matter. You could get up in the town square and be the town crier, something one of your distant relatives would have known about, you know. And you could get some printer to publish your little publication and be Tom Paine, right, and have this great document out there and reach people. Right now, the game is terribly rigged, because money can control everything.
HF: We need new models. I’m very interested in introducing your readers, your listeners, people generally who are anxious about the current decline in American journalism, to the general idea of journalism as a public good. There are countries where governments underwrite independent journalism. Interestingly, those are the most democratic countries; cross-analyze the amount of public funding for journalism with the countries that are ranked the highest on the scale of the measurement of democratic values and democratic institutions, you’ll find that they’re the same country. So I mean, I know that even to this day, every time there’s a hint of a liberal perspective on NPR, there’s some Southern senator who winces and calls his staff person and starts getting a bill ready to defund public media. But they have succeeded in those countries in insulating journalism, public media, from the partisan fray. And they do this through transparency; interesting paradox. We have models. We’ve always pounded our chests about the First Amendment and about the great American Fourth Estate. But the truth is, other countries produce as good if not better journalism than we do, all over the world. And that’s not just limited to journalism; it’s true of other social institutions. We have a lot to learn from the successes of our neighbors and our allies and some of our opponents. And I think in the spirit of the globalism of the day, we should steal freely from the success that other countries have demonstrated.
RS: This system that we have, which is unique in that it’s so explicitly governed by a constitution, and it’s so explicitly to be judged by its responsiveness to the voters; how you pick the voters is a somewhat different issue. And it seems to me at the heart of that experiment was that if you ever got too big, if you ever became an empire, if you got involved in foreign mischief, you didn’t have a chance. That’s what they took from studying Greece and Rome and then the, you know, what happened to Spain and France and England–after all, they revolted against one of the most enlightened countries by the standards of the time, right? England–and that had already had its Magna Carta, and had restraints and so forth. And it seems to me the wisdom of the founders–and as I say, family members of yours were in their peer group or among them–it seems to me for all of their failings they had one bit of wisdom, which is if some public, however you define the public, couldn’t hold the powerful accountable, it would always go awry in really frightening ways. That was their explanation of what happened in England. That the checks were not sufficient because basically the people were not empowered. And it seems to me key to that was, don’t have the foreign expansion; don’t have the constant war; don’t have greed be rampant, and develop some alternative basis of loyalty to those you’re supposed to be governing. This is what Confucius dealt with, it’s what Aristotle dealt with; it’s always been the key issue in trying to have sanity in the ordering of human affairs: how do you remain accountable to the people who are being governed, OK, so that you’re not screwing over these people. And somehow, and we began by discussing the failure of elite education and the meritocracy; we talked a little bit about what happened to liberals. But the saving graces of society was the assumption that people of power could also be held accountable or hold themselves accountable. The power would not be allowed to just corrupt them. And that’s been lost. And we just went through an election in which the greediest guy in the country gets to be president because, amazingly enough, he’s able to cast himself as a populist–Donald Trump–and amazingly enough, the media did not actually support any serious alternative or critique of that. So I ask you: How in the face of this can one really think this hope of a sane, stable, de Tocqueville hope of a democratic society with an ever-increasing group of stakeholders, could succeed? It seems to me we are in that sense at the darkest moment in American history. Is that not the case?
HF: De Tocqueville did also share your sense of importance of maturity of journalism and the prevalence of journalism, and remarked on how much a function of this new emerging society journalism had become. And it does provide a measure of accountability that you don’t get when, as we currently see, you have a republican Congress and a republican Senate and a rogue executive, and no one with any especial enthusiasm in the republican ranks to hold this executive accountable, even in the short few months of this obscene presidency. I guess I think, maybe wishfully, that there is this pendulum of history, and that this society is strong enough so that when the acts and the policies of the present figures in power seem wanting to an electorate, it does go on a national level to vote every two years; that they’ll be skeptical of providing these people with continuing occupancy in these jobs, and that they’ll vote them out and vote in a replacement. It’s not a very stable political system, but you know, with all the concerns that we have about how vulnerable people are to the exploitation of huge amounts of money, and the way in which information is distorted, and the way in which they’re being entertained to death, and the reference that you just made about when things go bad domestically these figures go into these foreign adventures in order to distract people and to drum up patriotism–with all of that, it’s still dynamic, it’s still complex, it’s still resilient; it has a pretty good system in place that for all of its weaknesses is capable of reinvention. If I had to predict, I think voters will decide that what they’re currently being fed is not appetizing, and they’ll quite eagerly and enthusiastically look elsewhere.
RS: Well. Good college try, Ham Fish. [Laughs] I applaud, I applaud your effort to find a bright spot here. Ah, that’s Ham Fish, the publisher of The New Republic, former publisher of The Nation, so he’s moved over a bit. And ah, this has been another edition of Scheer Intelligence. My producers are Joshua Scheer and Rebecca Mooney. Our great engineers at KCRW are Kat Yore and Mario Diaz. We’re particularly grateful that we could do these recordings in the wake of the Berkeley, or the Bay Area Book Festival, where Ham was participating at a great event, I think now finished its third year, and we were able to use the facilities of Sports Byline and its leader Darren Peck, who has made this all possible. So see you next week.
—Posted by Emma NilesJian Ghomeshi's trial will be different from any other sexual assault trial we've ever seen. But in some ways it'll be like all the others.
Starting with the basics, a criminal sexual assault trial is anything BUT a he said-she said situation. The accused doesn't have to say anything at all, and with minor exceptions, has no responsibility to prove any aspect of the case.
By contrast the complainant, via the Crown's case, must prove every aspect of the offence beyond a reasonable doubt -- most of all her (or his, as the case may be) lack of consent. And everything really does depend on the complainant's testimony. So much for blind Themis and her scales of justice.
All of which means that the complainant's credibility is key. The time-honoured tradition in sexual assault trials is to pry and prod at the complainant until an opening appears, or simply to bludgeon her credibility by any means possible, while the accused watches silently. There are endless variations on this theme, but that's sort of sexual assault law in a nutshell.
The Jian Ghomeshi trial will be very different.
Apart from the media notoriety and Ghomeshi's status as a public figure, the most outstanding evidentiary feature of this case is his own widely disseminated statement on Facebook (now removed). This one act, seemingly taken in solitary desperation, radically re-set the trial dynamic by putting Ghomeshi's own credibility and even his character on trial.
In light of multiple but very consistent versions of events from a variety of sources dating back many years, that Facebook statement is devastating.
While there will be many legal technicalities, the complainants' evidence will be measured against Ghomeshi's own publicly stated defence. That defence, almost lost in an effusion of highfalutin malarkey, amounts to a claim that his sexual relations were not merely consensual but unambiguously and consensually violent; any statements to the contrary are all lies and the fruit of embittered female collusion.
Well. That's a fine mess for Marie Henein, Ghomeshi's defence counsel, to try to clean up. Wherever possible, counsel want to leave open the possibility of a mistake -- in other words, that both parties are honest and one of them is honestly mistaken. That crack in the doorway allows just enough light of day for reasonable doubt. But Jian slammed it shut on Facebook.
Assuming one or more of the complainants are described in the Facebook post, how is Henein now supposed to claim they drank too much to remember clearly or that the accused had a mistaken but honest belief in consent? Her client left virtually no room for any strategy but an all out attack on his accusers. Her problem is that she's dangerously low on ammunition.
And Jian's biggest problem is Lucy DeCoutere. A 43-year-old captain in the Royal Canadian Air Force and a public figure in her own right, Ms. DeCoutere came forward apparently out of a sense of civic duty. Her riveting account of being choked by Mr. Ghomeshi without warning on a date some 11 years ago will colour every other aspect of the trial.
And against her version of that night long ago, it will be almost impossible to square Ghomeshi's version with anything else that follows.
And yet what's become starkly clear in the allegations engulfing Jian Ghomeshi, the MPs in Ottawa, and Bill Cosby, is that our justice system, civil procedures, and even our press and media traditions are wholly inadequate for the issue of sexual offences and crimes.
Had Ghomeshi not posted his Facebook statement, the Toronto Star would never have published its story. Even when the Star went to print, it faced an overwhelming barrage of criticism that anonymous sources shouldn't be permitted to besmirch a man's reputation. The clear implication being that if women were not prepared to file police reports, they weren't credible.
How far we've all come from those innocent days of a few short weeks ago. And yet we still have far to go. Notice anything about the complainants who've surfaced in all these cases?
Most of them are white, and all of them (as far as I know) are middle class.
Yet millions of our weakest and most vulnerable (including children) are neither, and they live in daily fear of sexual violence from assailants who know society will never believe them.
Wherever we go from here, let's make sure we bring them with us.
RELATED ON HUFFPOST:Qatar Name Al-Adaam Use National flag and ensign Proportion 11:28 Adopted 9 July 1971 Design A white band on the hoist side, separated from a maroon area on the fly side by nine white triangles which act as a serrated line
The national flag of Qatar (Arabic: علم قطر) is in the ratio of 11:28. It is maroon with a broad white serrated band (nine white points) on the hoist side. It was adopted shortly before the country's declaration of independence from Britain on 3 September 1971.
The flag is very similar to the flag of the neighbouring country Bahrain, which has fewer points, a 3:5 proportion, and a red colour instead of maroon. Qatar's flag is the only national flag having a width more than twice its height.[1]
History [ edit ]
Qatar's historic flag was plain red, in correspondence with the red banner traditionally used by the Kharjite Muslims.[2] In the 19th century, the country modified its entirely red flag with the addition of a white vertical stripe at the hoist to suit the British directive.[3] After this addition, Sheikh Mohammed bin Thani officially adopted a patterned purple-red and white flag which bore a strong resemblance to its modern derivative.[4] Several additions were made to the Qatari flag in 1932, with the nine-pointed serrated edge, diamonds and the word "Qatar" being integrated in its design.[4] The maroon colour was standardised in 1949. In the 1960s, Sheikh Ali Al Thani removed the wording and diamonds from the flag.[4] The flag was officially adopted on 9 July 1971 and was virtually identical to the 1960s flag, with the exception of the height-to-width proportion.[4]
Characteristics [ edit ]
Pattern [ edit ]
Nine serrated edges separate the coloured and white portions. They signify Qatar's inclusion as the 9th member of the'reconciled Emirates' of the Persian Gulf at the conclusion of the Qatari-British treaty in 1916.[5]
Colour [ edit ]
In 2015, the Qatari government defined the exact shade of the Qatari flag as Pantone 1955 C, or 'Qatar maroon'[6][7]. The history of purple dye in the country dates back several centuries.[4] It has been asserted that Qatar was the site of the earliest known production of shellfish dye during the rule of the Kassites due to the presence of a purple dye industry on Al Khor Islands.[8][9] Qatar was also known for its production of purple dye during the rule of the Sasanian Empire.[10] Mohammed bin Thani, who ruled from 1847 to 1876, proposed the creation a flag with a purple-red colour in order to unify the state, and to highlight its historic role in the production of dye. In 1932, the British Navy suggested an official flag should be designed. They proposed that the flag be white and red, but Qatar rejected the red colouring and continued using a mixture of purple and red instead.[4] Due to the country's subtropical desert climate, the flag's colours were prone to being tinted darker by the sun, which resulted in the eventual adoption of a maroon colouring in 1949.[4] The white portion of the flag symbolizes the peace procured from signing anti-piracy treaties with the British.[3]
Historic flags [ edit ]
around 1916
around 1936
11:30 1949 to 1971
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]The Blogaround
Ana Mardoll posted:
Twilight: Heads He Wins, Tails She Loses
If there is a redeeming spot to be found in Twilight, it is perhaps that in the end Bella will transcend the gendered expectations of a sexist society and will transform into something god-like and untouchable. The road there is a poor one, and frequently seems less like a rejection of societal rules and more a perfect completion-and-reward system of the same, but the end is a good one, and – if you squint at it just right – it almost does seem a little feminist. This weekposted:If there is a redeeming spot to be found in Twilight, it is perhaps that in the end Bella will transcend the gendered expectations of a sexist society and will transform into something god-like and untouchable. The road there is a poor one, and frequently seems less like a rejection of societal rules and more a perfect completion-and-reward system of the same, but the end is a good one, and – if you squint at it just right – it almost does seem a little feminist.
Ana Mardoll posted:
Deconstruction: The Best Day Of My Life
All this time I’ve been criticizing Twilight for the “falling” female lead, for the abelism associated with “cute” falling, and for the unfortunate implications of a heroine whose defining fault is clumsiness. Now, thanks to Cracked and a YouTube montage, I’ve had to realize that this “falling flaw” is actually everywhere... and I just never noticed. This weekposted:All this time I’ve been criticizing Twilight for the “falling” female lead, for the abelism associated with “cute” falling, and for the unfortunate implications of a heroine whose defining fault is clumsiness. Now, thanks to Cracked and a YouTube montage, I’ve had to realize that this “falling flaw” is actually everywhere... and I just never noticed.
Ana Mardoll posted:
Narnia: Good Kings, Bad Laws (and why Lawful Stupid isn't a valid alignment)
TRIGGER WARNING: Violence
Now we come to the chapter where an innocent character is tied up by the Bad Guys, placed on a brutal forced march, and threatened with whippings and death. No, it’s not Tolkien’s Merry and Pippin in the clutches of the orcs; rather, it’s Lewis’ Edmund in the custody of the White Witch. What’s telling is that if you’re going to feel sorry for Edmund here, it’s sort of on your own time – the less Edmund is humanized and sympathized with in text, the less jarring it will be when Aslan fiercely reaffirms the Witch’s absolute right to kill the boy a few chapters from now. This weekposted:Now we come to the chapter where an innocent character is tied up by the Bad Guys, placed on a brutal forced march, and threatened with whippings and death. No, it’s not Tolkien’s Merry and Pippin in the clutches of the orcs; rather, it’s Lewis’ Edmund in the custody of the White Witch. What’s telling is that if you’re going to feel sorry for Edmund here, it’s sort of on your own time – the less Edmund is humanized and sympathized with in text, the less jarring it will be when Aslan fiercely reaffirms the Witch’s absolute right to kill the boy a few chapters from now.
Kit Whitfield makes the most of her limited free time and begins a series of deconstructions of really short texts - famous novels, first sentences only. This week: makes the most of her limited free time and begins a series of deconstructions of really short texts - famous novels, first sentences only. This week: Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead
Ruby reports: This week in Soon, Paul travels to Sin City to investigate a cult in reports: This week in Soon, Paul travels to Sin City to investigate a cult in Chapters 21-22: Vegas, Baby! and Chapter 22: Thyatira's
Literata wrote a pastiche on Wilfred Owen about how it feels to be On Veterans' Day,wrote a pastiche on Wilfred Owen about how it feels to be in the trenches of the war on women.
storiteller wrote this week about options for keeping produce on hand all winter long - With the fall quickly coming to a close,wrote this week about options for keeping produce on hand all winter long - Be Like the Squirrel - Food Storage Options for the Winter
Ian needs a nickname reports: I have a
Occupy Vancouver has done a remarkable job of seeking consensus among its adherents, and a remarkably poor job of seeking consensus in the city as a whole. Use of the
Due to purportedly nonviolent protesting gone wrong, I've felt the need to disassociate myself from Occupy Vancouver. I have a long post coming on what caused a Nov. 7 scrap with police. In short, OV caused a bad situation and failed to police its own members. I don't want to be part of an organization that inflicts "human bites" on police officers, especially since they were doing their job correctly. reports: I have a post on tent cities which might be of interest. Due to foreclosures, they've been springing up on the fringes of American cities. I think they can work, and I argue that under current circumstances tent cities have the right to exist.Occupy Vancouver has done a remarkable job of seeking consensus among its adherents, and a remarkably poor job of seeking consensus in the city as a whole. Use of the MIC CHECK! technique to disrupt municipal mayoral debates is a good example of what's gone wrong.Due to purportedly nonviolent protesting gone wrong, I've felt the need to disassociate myself from Occupy Vancouver. I have a long post coming on what caused a Nov. 7 scrap with police. In short, OV caused a bad situation and failed to police its own members. I don't want to be part of an organization that inflicts "human bites" on police officers, especially since they were doing their job correctly. I'm out, but I'll keep watching.
Coleslaw writes: This week, when a simple tag on a pair of sunglasses proved hard to remove, (Huge Trigger Warnings: Child Rape) writes: This week, when a simple tag on a pair of sunglasses proved hard to remove, I Bought a Knife Part 3 of my history with foreign exchange students is now up. Most of the goals I've achieved in life I got to by baby steps, but the sad situation at Penn State reminds me, sometimes truly bad decisions are reached by Baby Steps as well.
Ross reports: As the 25th anniversary DVD release approaches, I continue my series of Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future reviews with reports: As the 25th anniversary DVD release approaches, I continue my series of Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future reviews with Episode 3: "The Abyss", in which the prospect of what it does to a soldier's psyche to be trapped in a seemingly hopeless, endless war for over a decade is a concept that seems far more poignant today than it likely did in 1987.
Ana Mardoll posted:
Twilight: Emotional Abuse Workshop
It’s one thing to say that Edward can’t stay away from Bella because the power of love compels him. But if Edward really loves Bella, and this isn’t just a relationship born of blood-lust and sex-lust, then where is the ‘love’ in his interactions with her? He abuses her emotionally and verbally, and never misses a chance to convey contempt via his words and facial expressions. Bonus in the comments: a Twilight abuse bingo card for readers to follow along. Last weekposted:It’s one thing to say that Edward can’t stay away from Bella because the power of love compels him. But if Edward really loves Bella, and this isn’t just a relationship born of blood-lust and sex-lust, then where is the ‘love’ in his interactions with her? He abuses her emotionally and verbally, and never misses a chance to convey contempt via his words and facial expressions. Bonus in the comments: a Twilight abuse bingo card for readers to follow along.
Ana Mardoll posted:
Deconstruction: Trigger Jokes
It’s never too late to resurrect internet drama. With this weigh-in on the Penny Arcade comic, we look at how trigger warnings affect jokes and why it might be prudent to pick a new punchline rather than risk triggering your audience for a quick laugh. Side discussion on tone arguments in the comments. Last weekposted:It’s never too late to resurrect internet drama. With this weigh-in on the Penny Arcade comic, we look at how trigger warnings affect jokes and why it might be prudent to pick a new punchline rather than risk triggering your audience for a quick laugh. Side discussion on tone arguments in the comments.
In case you missed this
Leum writes: ProfMTH, a gay rights activist and Constitutional (I think) law professor, argues that the Michigan bill that has been widely condemned as giving students and teachers a license to bully does not do so. The first half of writes: ProfMTH, a gay rights activist and Constitutional (I think) law professor, argues that the Michigan bill that has been widely condemned as giving students and teachers a license to bully does not do so. The first half of the video is about whether the bill violates the establishment clause, the second half (starts around 3:20) is on whether the bill is a license to bully.
Things you can do
(Trigger Warning: Rape)
(Trigger Warning: Rape culture)
MercuryBlue summarizes this argument as follows: So because rape culture is a part of our culture, we have to put up with it on Facebook, even though rape-culture-supporting pages are not merely 'outrageous' and 'offensive' but actually violate the bits of the Facebook Terms of Service that go as follows: You will not bully, intimidate, or harass any user. You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence. From the BBC article Facebook rape joke pages taken down from social network : Groups or pages that express an opinion on a state, institution, or set of beliefs - even if that opinion is outrageous or offensive to some - do not by themselves violate our policies. These online discussions are a reflection of those happening offline, where conversations happen freely.summarizes this argument as follows: So because rape culture is a part of our culture, we have to put up with it on Facebook, even though rape-culture-supporting pages are not merely 'outrageous' and 'offensive' but actually violate the bits of the Facebook Terms of Service that go as follows:
Raj reminds readers of The Slacktiverse of (Trigger Warning: Description of Children being endangered, injured and killed) : reminds readers of The Slacktiverse of the petition to save our children from cluster bombs
As concerned citizens we call on you to do all in your power to stop cluster bombs being used. Over 100 governments have agreed to ban these indiscriminate weapons. The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons that will be negotiated in the coming days must align with this ban, ensuring cluster munitions are comprehensively outlawed and innocent children protected.
MercuryBlue sends in a link to MercuryBlue adds the following comment: My personal suspicion is that the White House does take the petitions seriously and is of the honest opinion that nothing good will come from changing the national motto from 'in God we trust' or taking 'under God' out of the Pledge of Allegiance, but it can't hurt to sign the petition. sends in a link to a petition the White House to take petitions seriously adds the following comment: My personal suspicion is that the White House does take the petitions seriously and is of the honest opinion that nothing good will come from changing the national motto from 'in God we trust' or taking 'under God' out of the Pledge of Allegiance, but it can't hurt to sign the petition.Next week, the “six strikes” system in the “war against downloaders” will take effect in the US. The music and movie industry has lobbied (and paid for) this law. However, it seems it might not have the desired effect, lest people are very compliant. After the first couple of times, you might get a warning, and have to complete courses on how to secure your Wifi. At the sixth strike, your Internet speed will be slowed down for a couple of days. However, after the 7th, 8th and 9th time, nothing else is in store for you. So, your duty as a freedom loving citizen is to pirate as much as possible, and break free from the whole system after six warnings you can happily ignore.
On an international scale it gets even more interesting. For their reluctance to comply with US law, Spain and Canada have been put on a special US “watch list”. Now, in Spain’s case, it is interesting that it seems it is actually legal to both upload and download copyrighted material, as long as it is not for commercial profit. Being on this “watch list” is in fact a sign of living in a country that care more about their citizens than old fat American corporations.
So, make sure you pirate to contribute to a free society, and get your country listed as a free nation.
Enjoy your weekend!Introduction:
When Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was announced, most of the internet hated it right away. People were hoping that Infinity Ward would keep the series fresh and not move into the futuristic warfare that the series has evolved into. Sadly, they did exactly that, they jumped head first into the futuristic side of Call of Duty. For the last three games, we have gotten futuristic warfare that has gone from boost jumping, to running on walls and boost jumping, to running on walls and boost jumping in space. The series has gone so far from its roots that many fans are angered and are worried for the future of the franchise.
I was initially optimistic of Infinite Warfare. I would’ve prefered to go back in time or at least stayed in modern day (maybe Modern Warfare 4), but I had faith in Infinity Ward. After all, they are the ones who changed the FPS genre in a massive way by giving us the Modern Warfare series. They took a risk by going outside of the norm and making a shooter set in our current time period, where the events in the game reflected events in real life. It gave us kill streaks, visceral and cinematic campaigns (I know, they didn’t invent this or even popularize it but they took it to another level), and changed the shooter space forever! Who’s to say they couldn’t do it again with Infinite Warfare? Sure, they had a misstep with Call of Duty: Ghosts and they’ve acknowledged that but they could easily go back to the studio they used to be and deliver an excellent game, right?
Probably not. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is one of the laziest games I have seen in a long time from such a high caliber studio such as Infinity Ward. They literally rip animations, mechanics, and even the HUD from Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. They didn’t even attempt to change these things in the slightest, if it looks remotely like something from Black Ops 3, it hasn’t been changed whatsoever.
Stolen mechanics and pure laziness:
One of the biggest things they have copy and pasted is the movement system. Last year, Treyarch built on the movement system created by Sledgehammer Games in Advanced Warfare. Black Ops 3 allowed players to run on walls, swim, slide, boost through the air, and dodge dangers with its new movement system. It was well crafted and felt natural, it was incredibly fun to chain together moves and build momentum and speed while popping headshots on enemies. It is easily one of the most innovative features in Call of Duty and whether you liked Black Ops 3 or not, you have to admit it was damn satisfying when you chained together crazy moves and get an awesome kill.
Infinity Ward has literally copy and pasted this great mechanic and added little to no changes to it. The animations are the same, the bar for recharging your boosts is the same, it feels the same, etc. While the movement system is enjoyable, it feels incredibly lazy and sort of wrong to take someone else’s work and slap your name on it. I don’t even know how Infinity Ward got away with this. They have had three years to develop this game and this is what they were able to come up with? How is Activision even letting them do this? You would at least hope they would make some subtle changes so they could say they did something to the movement system! It feels disrespectful to hardcore fans of the series, as if we would be too stupid to notice something this obvious.
Not only did they copy that, but the HUD is the exact same. Your super move is in the same spot, it charges up the same way as it would in Black Ops 3, you press the same button to use it, everything is exactly how you remember it! Worst of all, they’re making most people pay $80 for this rehash of last year’s CoD so they can give out Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered which is a much better game, and they clearly know that.
As I mentioned before, the game features “super moves” that come from the game’s several specialist characters. Sound familiar? That’s because this was another major innovation in Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. The game added 9 specialist characters that would all play the same for most of the match, but you could charge up a special attack or bonus by performing well during a match and unleash hell for a short period of time. These characters had flamethrowers, explosive bow and arrows, mini-guns, and much more. It felt rewarding to use these awesome attacks while earning even more rewarding kill streaks and some of these weapons even required a |
for a complete recharge using a special, thick cord attached to the household grid, or at the very least 12 hours using an ordinary 110-volt cord. But Marc Tarpenning, Tesla's co-founder, has an answer for that. "We expect to tell upscale hotel chains and restaurants to put charge posts in," he says, "because the posts are inexpensive and Tesla owners will be a very desirable demographic group." Some drivers will still balk at having to charge a car for hours instead of gassing up in minutes. But for how long? "As the battery technology gets better," Tarpenning says, "the mileage will continue to increase. At what point is it really not an issue? Five hundred miles? Would people complain about how it takes hours to recharge with a 500-mile range?" For a car, Musk adds, that means the benefits of no trips to the pump for $3-a-gallon gas, no oil, no oil changes, no fuel filters, no new catalytic converters, and no emissions inspections, not to mention the satisfaction of generating no emissions at all.
As Tesla's engineers designed their drivetrain and charger, they saw that more and more of the Roadster's surrounding parts would need to be reconfigured. Lotus hadn't signed on to make new parts, so new suppliers would have to be found. A generation ago, the Big Three would have made that search almost impossible: they owned all the suppliers that made all the parts, and they weren't inclined to share. "DeLorean literally was out trying to make windshield wipers," marvels Tarpenning of the G.M. rebel who, against all odds, managed to manufacture almost 9,000 of his gull-winged sports cars before slipping into bankruptcy. But times had changed. To save money, the Big Three had come to outsource everything but their internal-combustion engines—the very "core technology" that Tesla's engineers didn't want—to outside suppliers, who were happy to sell them to Tesla or anyone else. So the engineers had the luxury of designing their own parts. Musk, it turned out, had some strong opinions. One fierce debate was whether the Roadster should have headlight covers or not. "My opinion," says Musk, "was that if we had uncovered headlights it would look like a kit car—a little cheesy." Eberhard pointed out that the change would cost half a million dollars. Musk said he'd pay. Eberhard had no problems with the doorsill, but Musk did. It was difficult to step up into the car, so high and thick was the sill. At Musk's insistence, the engineers redesigned it, narrowing it and lowering it by two inches. It was Musk, too, who refused to use those hard-shell Elise seats. A carbon-fiber body replaced the fiberglass one. "On some of these changes I had to be quite forceful," Musk admits, "because Martin [Eberhard] didn't want to spend the money."
As Tesla's workforce grew—from a handful of engineers to a company of more than 80 by late 2005, the year the first prototype cars, or "mules," were made—Eberhard was struck by its diversity. Its political diversity. In Washington, an administration set on exploiting partisan issues had deepened the lines between red and blue states. But eager arrivals from both sides of the political divide had made their way to Tesla's sandstone bunker in San Carlos. One of the new arrivals was Ron Lloyd, 47, a big and burly former plant manager for Sun Microsystems, who called himself a fiscal Republican. Lloyd had retired at 42 to go fishing, but a growing concern about global warming had pushed him to Stanford for a master's degree in environmental engineering. When he called, Eberhard and Tarpenning weren't sure how they could use him. But they knew they wanted their four-door follow-on sedan, code-named White Star, to be assembled somewhere less expensive than England. Maybe Lloyd could help. "I said, 'I don't care, take me, don't pay me, I'm coming,'" Lloyd recalls. "At the end of the day, for me, this is about making a change in the energy policies in the United States. I can't imagine there are many times in anyone's career where they get to have that kind of a potential impact on the world. And to see one of those happen and not grab it, I think, would be almost criminal." Diarmuid O'Connell, Tesla's director of strategic affairs, wasn't merely a Republican voter. Until last year he worked for the Bush administration as a mid-ranking chief of staff in the U.S. State Department. "We were basically tasked with all sorts of military policy and operational support to the uniformed military in Iraq and Afghanistan," O'Connell says in brisk government-speak. Every morning, a list of the latest American casualties crossed his desk. "I developed a very poignant realization that … energy security is all about oil, and if it's all about oil, you better be doing something about transportation." In the spring of 2006, O'Connell saw an early article about Tesla in Business Week. The next day he was in San Carlos, talking to Eberhard about how he could use his government experience to help Tesla lobby for state and federal subsidies and tax breaks.
By the time O'Connell arrived, the first mules had been built by hand and test-driven to see how all those much-debated parts worked together. The mules weighed all of 2,600 pounds each, 400 pounds less than a small economy gas car, or about half the weight of an S.U.V.: good for range, even better for speed. Late at night, the mules began rolling onto the freeway ramp, stopping, then rocketing forward. An engineer rode shotgun, recording data on a laptop plugged into the car's controls. One night, JB Straubel took a modified mule out and for the first time hit 0 to 60 in four seconds. For a car meant to be high-performance, that was the moment, Straubel felt, that the Roadster came to life. There were problems—for one, the mules' engine mounts cracked when Straubel floored the accelerator—but by the spring of 2006 fixes had been made, and Eberhard felt confident enough to have the initial 10 prototypes made in England. The first of them reached California just days before the Roadster's scheduled launch date—July 19, 2006. So far, the only cars actually sold were to Tesla's investors. The night of the launch, in Santa Monica, a lot of celebrities mingled with automotive journalists and E.V. geeks. Eberhard had often run up against what he called "E.V. burnout"—the tendency of E.V. pioneers to lose all hope that E.V.'s would ever reach the market. There wasn't any burnout in evidence that night. Potential buyers and backers began taking test-drives, proving to themselves that the Roadster does, in fact, accelerate from 0 to 60 in four seconds. Within a month, the first 100 of the still-unmade 2007 production Roadsters were claimed. For all their success, not everyone at Tesla felt the car was on the right course. Ian Wright, 51, Tesla's first head of vehicle development, is a New Zealand–born computer engineer and amateur racer who signed on almost as soon as the company was founded. He'd even helped make the original pitch to Elon Musk, joining Eberhard on that fateful trip to SpaceX. Wright loved the Roadster. He just didn't feel that Musk's grand scheme of producing cheaper follow-ons made sense. "I didn't want to go the route of family cars," Wright explains. "I want even higher performance." Wright's point is that most Americans spend no more than $2,000 on gas a year. How much of a premium would they pay for an E.V. that saved them $1,000 a year in fuel costs? Would they buy a $30,000 car, let alone a $50,000 one, that did that? Perhaps some would, he concedes. But wouldn't they be the ones who would have bought a Prius hybrid instead? And if so, what was the difference between a Prius that got 50 miles per gallon and an E.V. that got the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon? A mere doubling of the efficiency of a modest number of cars. "So replacing the Prius with an E.V.," Wright argued, "doesn't solve the problem." Better, Wright said, to make even higher-performance E.V.'s to replace ever higher-performance gas cars. If Wright could replace 10,000 high-performance gas cars that got 10 miles per gallon with high-performance E.V.'s that got 100 miles per gallon, that would be meaningful. "It's certainly true that gas will get more expensive and batteries will get cheaper, and eventually you'll get a mass market," Wright argued. "But in the meantime the answer is high performance." So Wright left to design his own two-seat racecar, the Wrightspeed X1. He says it accelerates from 0 to 60 in three seconds. But it's still a concept car in search of an angel. "We were very lucky finding Elon at Tesla," Wright says. "You can't always get that kind of luck, and in fact I haven't."Tuesday at the memorial service for the five slain Dallas police officers, President Barack Obama said that “it hurts” when peaceful protestors who are attempting to forward their grievances with the police treatment of African-Americans are “dismissed perhaps even by your white friends and co-worker and fellow church members again and again and again.”
Obama said, “When study after study shows that whites and people of color experience the criminal justice system differently — so that if you are black you are more likely to be pulled over, searched or arrested, more likely to get longer sentences, more likely to get the death penalty for the same crime. When mothers and fathers raise their kids right, and have the talk about how to respond if stopped by a police officer, ‘Yes, sir, no, sir,’ but still fear something terrible may happen when their child walks out the door, still fear that kids being stupid and not quite doing things right, might end in tragedy.”
“When all of this takes place, more than 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, we cannot simply turn away and dismiss those in peaceful protest as troublemakers or paranoid,” he added. “We can’t dismiss as a symptom of political correctness or reverse racism. To have your experience denied like that, dismissed by those in authority, dismissed perhaps even by your white friends and co-worker and fellow church members again and again and again, it hurts. Surely we can see that, all of us.”Getty White House: Obama to attend Paris climate talks despite attacks
President Barack Obama still plans to attend international climate talks in Paris that are proceeding in the wake of attacks that rocked the city Friday, a White House official said Saturday.
The president is scheduled to join dozens of world leaders in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 1 for the beginning of the high-stakes negotiations. Diplomats are hoping to finalize a new agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the two-week talks, which conclude on Dec. 11.
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A White House official told POLITICO Obama would still attend. The Associated Press reported Secretary of State John Kerry would be attending the talks as well.
French officials have vowed that the negotiations, which have required months of planning, will go on as planned. But the already-high security will likely be dramatically increased.
The talks "must be held," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said today, according to Agence France-Presse.The Iberá wetlands system, one of the world’s largest freshwater bodies, lies in the province of Corrientes in Northern Argentina. The wetlands harbor 30 percent of the country’s biodiversity and are home to several endangered species, including the marsh deer, neo-tropical river otter, maned wolf, caimans, and pampas deer. However, vast monocrop pine and eucalyptus plantations have virtually eliminated biodiversity in more than half of the wetlands, devastating freshwater levels and dramatically affecting the livelihoods of the Guaraní Indigenous People who have lived in relationship with the lands for generations and depend on these ecosystems. The owner of these invasive plantations is none other than the world-renowned, progressive institution of Harvard University.
Harvard invests large sums of its $32.7 billion endowment in natural resources in the developing world. This includes Empresas Verdes Argentinas Sociedad Anonima and Las Misiones S.A., two timber companies jointly worth $55.2 million that control approximately 350 square miles of the Iberá wetlands system. While Harvard invests millions of dollars in these plantations, the bordering towns of San Miguel, Concepción, and San Roque have the highest rates of poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment in the province. Villagers who are employed on the plantations report that they work and live in unsafe conditions.
The Guaraní people are deeply distraught by the plantations, which have destroyed ancestral lands that held great spiritual, mythological, and subsistence value to their communities. The monoculture plantations also devastate the surrounding environment, reducing the availability of water for farming, worsening summer droughts, and creating water shortages in local communities.
Last April, Adrián Obregón, a Guaraní farmer and community leader, met with the Harvard Management Company, which manages Harvard University’s endowment and related financial assets. Obregón is from the village of Montaña, a rural area that borders on a Harvard-owned plantation. “Many of the residents of Montaña have the plantations right on top of them. Around the Ipacarapá Lagoon, which forms part of our ancestral territory—my grandfather’s house was on the edge of it—the whole area is planted with pine trees now, right up to the water. There is only a small area of native forest left and we can’t access it without ‘intruding’ on private property,” he says.
The inhabitants around Iberá depend on natural resources native to the area. Traditionally their subsistence livelihoods were based on hunting wild animals. They also fished, maintained family vegetable gardens, and gathered edible and medicinal plants from every part of the wetland ecosystem. Today, approximately two-thirds of the wetlands are privately owned.
Residents, many of whom live within a few miles of the plantations, are asking Harvard to lead the way in responsible and sustainable land management. Asks Emilio Spataro of the Corrientes-based Campaign to Save Iberá: “If Harvard doesn’t listen, who will?”
Ask Harvard to initiate a system of dialogue with the Guaraní in Iberá respecting their rights as Indigenous Peoples.
Harvard University spokesman Kevin Galvin has defended the University’s plantation holdings by pointing to their Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, an internationally recognized program that seeks to ensure that certified timber companies are "environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable.” For many years, however, a variety of environmental organizations have criticized the Council for certifying inherently unsustainable plantations that harm the environment and hurt local communities. In the case of Iberá, the Council has certified irresponsible companies that continue to consolidate a massive amount of land and pay poverty wages to people for unsafe jobs.
FSC certification ignores the presence of Indigenous Peoples in the region and their right to be consulted. In the certification reports for Empresas and Las Misiones, the Council simply placed an ‘X,’ meaning “does not apply,” for Indigenous Peoples. But many communities surrounding the plantations identify as Indigenous and are native Guaraní speakers; the name Iberá derives from the Guaraní language, “ý berá” meaning “bright water.” The provincial constitution of Corrientes also recognizes the existence of original peoples in Article 66: “We declare the Iberá ecosystem, including its wetlands, biodiversity, [and] freshwater reserves, to be of strategic, natural, and cultural patrimony of the province of Corrientes, with the goal of preservation, conservation, and defense…The right of original peoples should be preserved, respecting their forms of community organization and cultural identity.” Article 26 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples declares that the Guaraní, as Indigenous Peoples, have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinctive spiritual relationship with their traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used lands, territories, and waters.
Harvard is in violation of the Guaraní’s traditional rights to their lands and waters. The institution has not achieved the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of the Guaraní, which is the right to self-determine development activities on their lands and territories. Mechanisms for dialogue are meant to form part of the FSC certification system, but local groups report they are entirely absent in Corrientes. Las Misiones S.A. recently obtained certification of its plantations, but there have been no meetings with communities and no evidence of a real process to achieve their Free, Prior and Informed Consent.
The Responsible Investment at Harvard Coalition recently visited the Iberá wetlands to investigate the university-owned companies and released a report with the Oakland Institute, which has led to protests in front of Harvard University President Drew Faust’s office. Students are outraged over these unethical investments and are urging Faust to address the concerns of the most affected communities.
Add your voice. Tell Harvard it's time to address the problem and seek solutions.One of the central tenets of Trumpism, and one of the main reasons that Donald Trump won the hearts of millions of Americans outside the coastal enclaves of the self-appointed elites, is Trump’s joyful rejection of political correctness.But what, exactly, is political correctness?Most Americans in flyover country probably think of political correctness somewhat like pornography – they know it when they see it.However, our friend writer and thinker Stella Morabito in her article, “How Political Correctness Hijacked Trump Inauguration Protesters’ Brains,” says that political correctness is much more than a hypersensitive demand for protection from offense, it is “mind hacking,” a form of propaganda that induces self-censorship in order to send politically incorrect ideas into a spiral of silence.When people fear talking about an idea, says Morabito, it tends to go out of circulation. The alternative view becomes perceived as the only socially accepted view. When most outlets of communication—Hollywood, academia, and the media—collectively push political correctness, social distrust grows and more people believe they are all alone with their “unpopular” opinions.Appleby Global Group Services Limited is a very old law firm with a very old mission – helping wealthy people and corporations avoid scrutiny. Beginning on Sunday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists began releasing findings from a trove of 13.4m documents from Appleby and its subsidiaries. The media has dubbed these the “Paradise Papers”, and they are deeply troubling.
To carry out its mission for its elite clients, Appleby plays a complicated shell game with carefully crafted tax havens. Here’s a simplified version of its playbook: find jurisdictions with low taxes and lax incorporation laws, set up anonymous shell corporations, and run money through untraceable bank accounts. Sounds dodgy, but it is completely legal.
Why have we built a paradise for offshore billionaires? | Thomas Frank Read more
When the client is a large multinational corporation, this can involve an international web of dummy corporations, taking intangible property – such as patents and trademarks – on an imaginary round the world trip to stay one step ahead of the IRS and other tax authorities.
The game keeps money tucked away from the lawful review of tax authorities, the prying eyes of journalists, or the threatening reach of law enforcement. The result is an astounding windfall for the biggest corporations and the wealthiest individuals. And numerous news outlets have revealed the stunning totals of sheltered wealth belonging to Appleby’s 31,000 American clients, some of them large political donors.
The New York Times’s review of the Paradise Papers reveals that Apple stashed upwards of $128bn in profits offshore by exploiting tax law in the English Channel island of Jersey, which has no corporate income tax. NBC reports that, despite his ethics pledges and financial disclosures, commerce secretary Wilbur Ross kept a stake in a shipping venture with ties to a Russian energy company, which happens to be owned by the son-in-law of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
What should Congress do about an international law firm and the powerful people it represents? The answer is quite a bit.
We can start by enacting tax policy that makes it harder for corporate goliaths and the ultra-wealthy to dodge taxes by sending jobs and assets overseas. The typical American family can’t set up their own Grand Cayman subsidiary, so they’re left paying a bigger share of taxes. That’s unfair, and Congress can level the playing field by passing the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, which Congressman Lloyd Doggett and I introduced earlier this year to help to close some of the main avenues for corporate tax dodgers.
America is now a top target for corrupt officials and criminals looking to set up shell companies to hide assets
Our bill would discourage “inversions” – where large corporations dodge US taxes by merging with a smaller foreign firm. It would block corporations’ trick of deferring taxes on profits to the future, while writing off now the expenses incurred to produce the profits. And it would deem corporations worth $50m or more and managed and controlled in America to be US taxpayers.
I’ve also introduced legislation with Senator Chuck Grassley to tackle the shell corporations that mask the kind of mischief exposed in the Paradise Papers. The bipartisan TITLE (True Incorporation Transparency for Law Enforcement) Act would require our states to keep track of the real owners of corporations formed under their laws, and make that information available to law enforcement. It would also extend due diligence requirements, like the ones currently in place for financial institutions, to lawyers, accountants, and other professionals who set up shell corporations for clients at firms like Appleby.
America is now a top target for corrupt officials, tax cheats, drug traffickers, terrorists and criminals looking to set up shell companies to hide assets and obscure illegality. Our law enforcement community has made it clear they need authority to find out who is behind shell corporations established on our shores, which play a central role in the kind of schemes Appleby concocts.
As former acting attorney general Sally Yates testified before the Senate judiciary committee in May, “we’re actually lagging behind other countries in the world” in helping law enforcement track the criminals behind shell corporations.
Allowing authorities to follow the flow of ill-gotten gains will make it much harder for international tax cheats, Russian kleptocrats and foreign drug dealers to carry on their schemes. That’s why the TITLE Act has won the support of the National Association of Attorneys General, the Fraternal Order of Police, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, and the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys.
Trump ally Robert Kraft revealed as longtime owner of offshore firm Read more
The Paradise Papers ought to be a wake-up call. We need to shut down tax havens and bring jobs and earnings back to our shores. And we need to stop making it easy for the likes of Vladimir Putin and other corrupt oligarchs to stash money here using shell corporations.
In 1630, John Winthrop told his fellow American settlers that: “We must always consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill – the eyes of all people are upon us.” But the list of American corporations and billionaires littered throughout the Paradise Papers calls our commitment to good governance into question. To uphold our American status as a beacon of justice, Congress must act.PHILADELPHIA — Protesters set an Israeli flag on fire and chanted “Long live the intifada” outside of the Democratic National Convention site in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, as others clashed with police.
A woman wearing a black bandana on her face lit the flag on fire, as protests continued outside of the secure zone around the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Someone stood nearby waving a Palestinian flag.
Protesters also set alight pro-Bernie Sanders fliers that were hanging on steel fencing around the site.
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Meanwhile, die-hard Sanders loyalists demonstrated inside and outside the Wells Fargo Center, where the convention is taking place, and clashed with police after Hillary Clinton won the party’s presidential nomination Tuesday.
Despite calls by the liberal Vermont senator for them to support the nominee, thousands of activists have taken to the streets during the convention to voice support for Sanders and his progressive agenda.
Moments after Clinton became the first woman to ever be nominated for president by a major US political party, a large group of Sanders delegates and supporters exited the site to hold a sit-in inside a media tent. Some had their mouths taped shut. A few spontaneously sang the chorus of the folk song “This Land Is Your Land,” and a banner read “We the people.” They said they were holding a peaceful protest to complain about being shut out by the Democratic Party.
“This was not a convention. This was a four-day Hillary party. And we weren’t welcome,” said Liz Maratea, a New Jersey delegate at the media tent protest. “We were treated like lepers.”
In the streets outside, Sanders supporters who had spent the day protesting began facing off with police. Protesters began scaling eight-foot-high walls blocking off the secure zone around the arena parking lot, and several were detained. An officer sprayed one of the protesters.No. 1 Florida Gators basketball (26-2, 15-0 SEC) clinched the outright regular-season 2014 Southeastern Conference Championship on Thursday night without even stepping foot on the hardwood.
Now four games ahead in the SEC standings with only three contests left to play – after No. 17 Kentucky (21-7, 11-4 SEC) fell 71-67 at home to Arkansas in overtime on Thursday night – Florida is guaranteed to finish the season in first place and bring home the regular-season title for the seventh time in school history.
Six of those seven titles have come under head coach Billy Donovan with the Gators winning three in the last four seasons (2011, 2013) and back-to-back regular-season SEC crowns for just the second time in school history (2000-01).
UF has been in sole possession of five of its seven league titles and done so in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history.
Florida also clinched the No. 1 overall seed in the 2014 SEC Tournament, which is set for March 12-16 in Atlanta, GA. UF will get two byes and play its first game on Friday, March 14 at 1 p.m. against the No. 8 or No. 9 seed.
The Gators have won three SEC Tournament titles in school history, doing so consecutively in three-straight years from 2005-07. Florida’s first and only time sweeping its league crowns was in 2007.
Florida looks to continue setting records and making history this season. Below are a number of other program marks that the Gators have set in 2014:
» Record to start a season (overall): 26-2
» Record to start a season (SEC): 15-0
» Winning streak (overall): 20 games
» SEC wins (single season): 15
» SEC road wins (consecutive): 8
» Home wins (overall, consecutive): 30
» Home wins (SEC, consecutive): 16Biphobia: When your community doesn’t want you
Margot Mazur Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 4, 2017
Not queer enough. Not straight enough. Not normal enough. Not as part of the community as you could be if you had just chosen right.
I had dated mostly women in my young adult and adult life. I cultivated a fiercely queer community of friends, chosen family, lovers, and folks around the way. We grew together, partied together, explored together, shared intimate parts of who we were with one another. We were friends in the ultimate sense of the word. That is, before I moved away and met a man.
He was average height, brown hair, big bushy beard, glasses. He wore suits, corduroys, ties. He was an academic. I was happy, just like I’d be in any other relationship. This was a beautiful blossoming romance that I wanted to share on social media, with friends, out in public—you know, normal in-love shout-it-from-the-rooftops type of stuff. It wasn’t long until my friends, who I’d previously shared everything with, began falling away.
You don’t choose who you fall in love with, but being bisexual means having the option to pass for straight, or to force yourself to date only same sex partners. When my friends became distant, I couldn’t understand what was wrong. They knew I was bisexual, although they didn’t know me to have any male partners that they’d ever met. Now that I was in love with a cis man, and it was out in the world, in their face, I was an outsider. I had betrayed them. I was suddenly not queer enough.
Meeting queer folks in my new city became a challenge as well. I’d go to queer events, and even put on my own, but as soon as folks found out I had a male partner, the conversation dulled, their eyes downcast, and they found some excuse to, oh wait, I see one of my friends over there. Talk to you later. I was heartbroken. My community, the only thing that keeps me going, keeps me being a full, whole, healthy person, had shunned me. Why couldn’t I have just chosen right?
I stuck out like a sore thumb, not able to belong in the only community I’ve ever felt like a true part of. I questioned my relationship and my love for my partner. I wondered if this love was worth losing my people, my community. It hurt, and every time I experience bi-phobia, the sting does not get any easier to bear.
I recently went back to my old city, to see some of my old friends. We were at a dinner and board game party at my friend’s house, whom I’ve known for years. One of the girls I used to be crazy about was there. I felt my breath quiver, remembering. I was wearing a Queers Against Mike Pence patch on my jacket, and turned around to show it to a friend of mine. She laughed. “I don’t get it though”, she said. “You’re not queer”. My heart sank to my stomach as I softly muttered “What do you mean? Yes I am”. “I mean, how?”, she said. I wanted to sink. We’d known each other through several relationships, yet, now, today, I was no longer queer. I was a traitor.
I refuse to turn away from my community because I’m dating a cis man at the moment. I refuse to keep quiet about bi-phobia in my very own community. I am not less of a member of this tribe that hold us all together than the L and G in LGBT (trans folks suffer with erasure as well!). Every day, we fight for one another’s rights, liberties, and quality of life. We resist with one another, we nurture one another, we grow with one another. I will not be visible only when it is convenient.
Queer folks turn to their LGBTQ+ family in times of joy and in times of struggle. We are there for each other in our toughest moments. Thankfully, I am strong, happy, and in good mental health right now, but for other bi folks who suddenly lose their community they worked so hard for just because of who they’ve fallen in love with, I reach out to you. Find your community who will love you unconditionally.
We’re not confused, looking for attention, want it all, or any other hurtful stereotype that is put on us. We’re queer, we’re full of love, and we struggle with the same issues that others in our community face. I love my LGBTQ+ family. I hope that you love me too—at all stages of my existence.February 10, 2016
As per usual, I cabbed home at the end of the working day, I usually find one right outside my office on Agmashenebeli Ave. Like any other day, I found a driver to take me to Vake, just a short commute across the river.
As we approached my building, I pulled 20 GEL from my wallet and prepared to give it to the driver as we came to a stop. He quickly gave me, what I thought were a few notes and I walked toward my flat. As I’m walking, I realize that the cabbie had given me 5 GEL note change from a 20, instead of 15 GEL. I should have checked before I got out of the car but I was in a hurry to get home. The feeling of anger overwhelmed me as I realized I had paid 15 GEL for a quick drive from the old city into Vake.
This wasn’t the first time I have been overcharged in Tbilisi while taking a cab but it’s definitely the most egregious.
As I rode the elevator up to my flat I began thinking about transparency in the taxi industry in Georgia and some gaping holes in regulation as compared against other parts of the world. After a quick search online, the reality became clear.
There is virtually no regulation.
Anyone can become a taxi driver, any car is sufficient, there is no licensing and drivers pay no tax. I do understand that public safety is in the interest of the current Prime Minister and that discussions are underway relating to regulation. I have a few thoughts regarding this.
How should fares be “metered” from one spot in the city to the next?
Who is qualified to become a driver? Will there be background checks?
Will there be actual meters within the car, gauging distance and time traveled?
Will alternative payment methods beyond cash for be accepted?
What standards will be in place to ensure both the safety of the rider and the driver?
Will vehicles need to meet a minimum requirement to be deemed road worthy?
And if so, what will those requirements be?
Will drivers be legally permitted to turn down fares if those fares clearly pose no threat to the driver?
From a technological perspective, many of these point can be address without an investment in hardware. With most drivers using smartphone and/or tablets while driving it wouldn’t be difficult to apply technological changes to how cabbies operate and deliver riders.
Uber, a scrappy private car service based in San Francisco and evaluated at more than $50 billion, has seen its service pop up everywhere from Nairobi to Beijing to New York. Uber leverages smartphones to deliver an optimal experience for both the driver and the rider while creating a seamless during the entire trip.
Here’s how Uber works; the rider launches the Uber app on his/her smartphone, chooses the type of car he/she wants (taxi, private car, SUV, etc.) and pushes a button to request a car. When a driver accepts the request, a profile photo, a picture of the car, the car model, the license plate, aggregate ratings from all users of the driver, the car location and how long it will take him or her to get to the rider all appear. At that point the rider is required to input his/her destination before pickup.
When the driver arrives, he/she will ask for the rider’s name to verify that he/she is the person who made the request. Once seated in the car the rider will see a map showing location within the Uber app, destination, how long it will take to get there and the optimal route for the driver. If needed the passenger can get a fare estimate before getting in the car.
At the passenger’s destination, all he/she will need to do is exit the car. Payment is transacted behind the scenes because a credit card is attached to the rider’s profile. The rider is also expected to rate the driver from one to five stars, for the future benefit of other riders.
From start to finish, this is a system of radical transparency for both the user and the driver. Drivers get to rate riders and vice versa, the route taken is transparent, cost is transparent, the amount of time it will take is clear and the entire system is expedient.
All of this is transacted through a smartphone.
This is well and good but will Uber come to Tbilisi? I have no idea. In the meantime, you can find white label and open source frameworks for building your own Uber.
5 KudosCharles Koch first likened candidate Donald Trump’s plan to ban Muslim immigrants to something Adolf Hitler would have done in Nazi Germany.
The billionaire industrialist and his chief lieutenants offered a more delicate response this weekend when asked about President Trump’s plan to block immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. They described Trump’s plan as “the wrong approach” that violated Koch’s dedication to “free and open societies.”
The criticism comes as the Koch network, among the most powerful conservative groups in the nation, works to strike a delicate balance in the early days of the new administration. The Kochs refused to support Trump’s candidacy last fall, but they now see a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to influence the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress.
Their optimism is fueled by strong relationships inside the administration, despite their vow to oppose Trump’s policies if they deviate from the Koch brothers’ conservative priorities.
Trump critics were easy to find at the California desert resort this weekend, where attendance at a semi-annual conference was limited to the 550 people who donate at least $100,000 each year to the various conservative political and policy groups backed by Charles and David Koch.
The critics included Charles Koch himself, although the conservative patriarch did not mention Trump by name Sunday as he warned that the nation is facing a moment of “tremendous danger.” He said the nation could “go the authoritarian route … or we can move toward a free and open society. So this is our opportunity.”
Still, the Koch network says it’s confident about its ability to shape the direction of the Trump administration’s policies from the inside.
“Many former network staffers that are in the White House now remain good friends of ours. So we’re in constant contact with them,” said Koch spokesman James Davis. “Conversations have been open and continue to be.”
There is perhaps no bigger Koch ally than Vice President Mike Pence, whose staff and ideology has been in close alignment with the Kochs for years.
Charles Koch spoke directly with the vice president on the phone days before his inauguration as Pence considered hiring a Koch communications staffer, Stephen Ford, to serve as his chief speechwriter. Ford was soon hired, along with former Koch chief Marc Short, who now serves as the White House legislative director.
“The reason we’re optimistic … is really Mike Pence,” said Doug Deason, a prominent Trump supporter and major Koch donor. “If you think Cheney had power in Bush White House, just watch and see what happens with Mike Pence.”
Several reporters, including one from The Associated Press, were invited to attend the |
, Spain or the Occupy movement of the 99% in the US.
As the Spanish indignados said:
"We fail to understand why we should have to pay the costs of the crisis, while its instigators continue to post record profits. We're sick and tired of one injustice after another. We want human dignity back again.
This isn't the kind of world we want to live in, and it's we who have to decide what world we do want. We know we can change it, and we're having a great time going about it."
A paradigm shift is desperately needed. And it will not come those who have created the crisis, and who are looking for new ways to extend the life of the Greed economy by commodifying and privatising all life on earth. They will come to Rio+20 to paint the Greed Economy Green, and call it the Green Economy. And they will have powerful governments on their side.
Movements for ecological sustainability, social justice and deep democracy will come to Rio+20 with another paradigm, one centred on the Rights of Mother Earth, the rights of future generations, of women, indigenous communities and farmers.
It is this epic contest between a destructive and dying outmoded paradigm and a life enhancing emergent paradigm that will be the most significant aspect of Rio+20. The outcome of this contest will determine the future of humanity. It will not enter the negotiations, which can only be the lowest common denominator in the current context of corporate influence. But it will provide the energy for the People's Summit, and many government initiatives at Rio Centro. This contest will continue beyond Rio, in every country, in every village and town, every farm and workplace, every home and street.
None of us are immune to the crisis, or the response to it. None of us are bystanders. We are all immersed in processes that are either threatening the planet and our own future, or finding creative ways to shape a sustainable and just future. Every day is an earth summit in our lives. And each of us is negotiating our collective fate on the earth.MAYS LANDING -- An Atlantic County politician who shared a meme on Facebook during January's Women's March in Washington asking whether the protest would be "over in time for them to cook dinner" is eating his words.
A woman who was angered by Republican John Carman's remarks on Tuesday defeated his bid for a second term as an Atlantic County freeholder.
Democrat Ashley Bennett is a first-time candidate. The 32-year-old Egg Harbor Township resident works as a psychiatric emergency screener in the crisis department at Cape Regional Hospital.
Carman said the meme was "a bad choice" but said the women in his life were "strong and confident" enough to not be offended by his joke. He apologized a few days later.
He later drew more criticism for wearing a confederate flag patch.With four silver sheets hung
from horizontal arms and attached to a stout mast, MegaWatt Solar's trademark solar system brings to mind a square-rigged schooner of old. But instead of catching the wind, the sheets—actually parabolic mirrors—reflect sunlight onto a thin band of photovoltaic cells suspended in front of them. MegaWatt Solar, based in Hillsborough, N.C., is one of dozens of companies around the globe who are counting on a new generation of concentrating solar photovoltaics (CPV) to provide renewable electricity on a utility scale at a price competitive with conventional sources.
All photovoltaic (PV) systems use solar cells made of a semiconductor material to capture sunlight and convert it to electricity. Most are flat-plate systems that are stationary and involve no concentration of sunlight. Thin film systems do the same. The most expensive component of these PV systems is the cell, so if you can use less of them to produce the same amount of energy, you are dollars ahead. One way to do that is to concentrate sunlight on the cell. CPV systems designed with parabolic reflectors concentrate sunlight on the order of 20 times (20x). Systems using magnifying lenses that can achieve concentrations of up to 1000x.
Parabolic reflectors are also used for concentrated solar thermal power, such as the Solar Energy Generating Systems built in the Mojave Desert in the 1980s. These systems heat fluid in a pipe, which in turn produces steam to drive an electric turbine. CPV systems convert sunlight directly into electricity with much greater efficiency and, theoretically, far less up front and maintenance costs.
CPV currently represents a small fraction, about 0.1 percent, of installed PV capacity around the world. Flat-plate systems, with their simple, well-proven design, are better suited to the small, off-grid applications that have dominated the markets to date. But recent mandates that electric utilities generate a certain fraction of their output from renewable sources, combined with breakthroughs in CPV technology, are opening doors for this industry.
The biggest advances are being made in solar-cell efficiency. Traditional PV systems use silicon cells that capture only one band of sunlight and convert it to electricity with about 20 percent efficiency. CPV systems use multi-junction cells that, layered like a cake, capture three bands of light. These have achieved efficiencies of 41 percent and hold the promise of 50 percent or higher. Made of materials such as germanium and gallium arsenide, multi-junction cells are more expensive than silicon, but in CPV systems far fewer are needed to capture the same amount of light.
Improvements in optics and an ingenious use of materials are also raising efficiencies and lowering costs. Megawatt Solar is taking a low-cost approach, manufacturing its 20x parabolic reflectors out of Dibond, a material used to make advertising signs. SolFocus, of Mountain View, Calif., has gone high-tech with its optics, using a unique combination of mirrors and lenses to achieve a concentration of 500x.
Motors and controls that allow the solar array to track the sun have also improved. Software programs have been developed to keep the array pointed at the sun even when it has gone behind clouds or over the horizon. Stronger materials and better designs give the latest arrays a higher wind tolerance than earlier systems.
Because lenses or reflectors on CPV systems can only focus a direct beam of light, not diffuse light, they are best suited for areas like the southwestern U.S., where peak electrical demand occurs on sunny afternoons. "CPV is already cost-effective in Southern California at times of peak demand," says Bob Cart, founder of San Francisco–based GreenVolts, which has a contract with Pacific Gas & Electric Company to provide 4670 megawatt-hours per of electricity, roughly the annual demand of 1000 homes.
Despite its recent allure, CPV faces serious challenges. Because the industry is young and demand for its products low, manufacturing costs remain high. Lowering prices requires automation; however, investors are reluctant to put big money into a technology for which there is limited field experience.
"The problem is greatest for the many newcomer CPV companies that have no real-world deployment experience to back up their claims," says Terry Peterson, solar power consultant to the Electric Power Research Institute and the U.S. Department of Energy. "Prudent investors know the odds are that these systems will require design adjustments in the first several incarnations … and this invariably drives up costs, sometimes dramatically."
Sarah Kurtz, principal scientist for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, remains optimistic. Kurtz just returned from CPV-6, the International Conference on CPV held in Freiberg, Germany. "System efficiencies are edging up, a few companies are reporting installation of automated assembly lines, and several are reporting months or years of field data," she says. "CPV has the potential to capture a significant fraction of the market, but will require a few more years before we can see large increases in deployment."Story and photos by Maria Sherman
The other day, I got to live out many a pop punk fan's dream: I got to hang with All Time Low for an entire day -- eating burritos, chilling with child stars and, of course, petting Internet-famous dogs. Take a moment to be jealous while I continue on with my account of this magical day.
If you're unfamiliar with ATL, well, it's time to get schooled: In pop punk world, like any other musical landscape, there's a canon. For those who prefer palm-muted power chords and gang vocals to other genres, there's Blink-182, Green Day, and if you're of a certain age, there's All Time Low.
The Maryland-via-California band formed 12 years ago while the boys were still in high school, their juvenile antics and youthful enthusiasm securing them a place on Warped Tour, and, later, the hearts of melodic rock fans everywhere. In that time, they’ve managed to do what many pop punk bands fail at: reinvent themselves. They’ve stayed relevant; they’ve grown with their diehard fans and have adopted their young ones with open arms.
Their secret? Well, it’s hard to be certain, but one thing’s clear -- the guys are endlessly entertaining, fun, smart dudes. Which is why we -- and probably many of you -- wanted to hang out with them.
So, as the band wrapped up their Future Hearts tour, we shadowed them at their penultimate date at Manhattan’s Pier 97, overlooking the Hudson River. Here’s what it’s like to be a fly on the wall with one of the biggest bands in the game.
12:00 P.M. I'm told the band usually gets up around noon, and to show up to the show grounds around 1pm for soundcheck.
1:13 P.M. Soundcheck. Only half the band shows up. This is normal. Drummer Rian Dawson and bassist Zack Merrick report for duty -- it’s always the percussion section doing the leg work, right? (We kid.)
1:13:24 P.M. I realize they're not soundchecking with any ATL songs. They're playing Dashboard Confessional's "Vindicated," a perfectly self-deprecating tune that gained popularity via the 2004 "Spider-Man 2" soundtrack. With frontmen Alex Gaskarth and Jack Barakat not on stage, roadies and their tour manager take over. The tune feels especially heartbreaking in the summer heat.
1:23 P.M. They're still working through "Vindicated." I learn this isn't a song they've practiced, and one of the guys playing guitar has never even heard the song before. A voice cracks through a walkie-talkie, "There's been a request for 'Boys of Summer.'”
1:26 P.M. Brian, ATL's tour manager, asks if they're ready to play the Dashboard cover at the last show on tour. They aren't.
1:27 P.M. They begin to cover "Boys of Summer," but the Ataris version. Very pop-punk. Rian walks over to me. “A lot of the time the guys are doing something during soundcheck so if there are two or three of the guys are available, we'll soundcheck with the crew," he says. "We used to have a band with the crew called the Crew Fighters. We used to do eight to 10 songs but a bunch of them left. As of now we have one song -- we do 'Boys of Summer,' the Ataris version. We have [tour manager] Brian Southall on guitar and the band is called the Southalls for now.”
1:45 P.M. Alex walks over. I ask him about their daily, multi-hour meet and greets. Most bands don’t take the time. In the middle, Jack Barakat joins in. “We do a 300-hundred person poster signing and then after that we do a 50-person, very personal meet and greet that we've always done," Alex says. "It's through our fan club. We've looked at a lot of people's meet and greets and seen how sterile and regimented they can be so we try to keep it small and very intimate. We just hang out. There are no lines. There are no tables. Come talk and take a picture.”
Jack interjects: “You’re allowed to kiss and touch.”
Rian stops him. “I had to stop doing that," he says. "Especially with this tour -- it's the first time it's ever happened. Kids have started requesting certain poses --squat poses, this pose, that pose. They're doing the prom pose and I just have to say no now, I feel so uncomfortable. One time on this tour a girl asked her dad to take a photo of us and then said. 'Dad, your turn.' Dad just comes up to me and picks me up. I didn't like it.”
2:00 P.M. Rian gives Jack a back massage. Jack asks for Zyrtec.
2:30 P.M. The first of the band's daily meet and greets commence. A mom mentions meeting the guys on Warped Tour with her daughter almost a decade ago. Another girl isn't as lucky. "It's taken me 10 years to meet you," she says, and asks them to sign her boobs.
2:39 P.M. Surprise celebrity appearance from Marnie the Dog! She successfully steals some of the thunder from the boys -- kids see it as a two for one deal. She’s also wearing an All Time Low crew shirt, gifted just for her.
2:45 P.M. The meet and greet continues. One kid says ATL were the first band he saw while in college and that he's graduating next week -- they'll be the last, too. One mom drove her twin daughters from Cleveland. A girl brings a One Direction shirt with Zayn Malik crossed out because Alex wore a similar one once.
3:00 P.M. As the guys continue the signing, I'm introduced to a man named Dave Sherman who works for Living the Dream Foundation, an organization dedicated to making the dreams of children facing life-threatening afflictions come true. Today, he's here with Mariah, a teen with cystic fibrosis who is excited to meet Issues, a band opening the show. She wants to meet ATL, too.
3:20 P.M. Eventually the meet and greets wrap up and we end up relaxing in catering. Rian is given a few free burrito gift cards from Chipotle with the message "Great tweeting with you." The rock 'n' roll dream.
4:00 P.M. It's time for part II of the meet and greets -- this one for the fan club. Each member stands a few yards from the other as kids who had paid like $40 come up to each individual member for some one-on-one time. They're also admitted into the show early. The entirety of Blink-182's Enema of the State plays over the loud speakers. It's impressive that kids born in 1999 know the 1999 album so well.
4:05 P.M. Marnie the Dog decides to join in the fun and distracts some girls. Rian even helps a fan take a photo with the Internet celebrity.
4:41 P.M. The guys are in a top-secret band meeting. I’m not allowed in.
5:00 P.M. Alex and I get to talking about the new album and the difference between UK and U.S. audiences.
Future Hearts hit #1 in the UK, which the guys are really excited about. “England has their finger on the pulse of what's awesome," Alex says. "They've supported us and we're almost, in some ways, bigger there than we are in the States -- which is weird because we obviously didn't start there. They appreciate rock music. Some Americans are a bit jaded. It seems to be coming back around over here.”
6:00 P.M. After a few hours of sitting around (such is the life of a touring band), Jack makes a cocktail and tells us his friend Abigail is coming and that she really wants to meet Marnie the Dog. Turns about "Abigail" translates to "Abigail Breslin," child-star-turned-badass-babe and genius behind “You Suck,” a song allegedly about 5 Seconds of Summer’s resident punk Michael Clifford.
Highly Relevant Sidenote: Barakat wears a 5SOS shirt on stage -- and the two bands are as close as brothers.
8:00 P.M. When ATL hits the stage, girls immediately throw bras. Somewhere near the hour mark, Jack puts one on, shedding his 5SOS tee.
9:30 P.M. When All Time Low get on stage for their encore, they cover Green Day's "American Idiot" and Blink-182's "All the Small Things." They end their performance with their 2007 single "Dear Maria," a track that was recently certified platinum -- and one I especially like, for obvious reasons.
This is the kind of band that makes almost two hours on stage feel like 30 minutes -- a brevity inherent in punk, an immediacy that keeps us coming back. The kids, as they say, are alright.HBO Go is saving the world, one awkward millennial moment at a time.
After generating some violent backlash when the volume of viewers wanting to catch the "Game of Thrones" premiere caused the site to crash, HBO Go is hoping to prove it's still the best way to watch your favorite shows and it's hilarious new ad campaign has us thoroughly convinced.
The series of funny commercials addresses that age-old problem every young adult faces: watching sex scenes with your parents. Seven new online spots show the cringe-inducing moments that happen when families attempt to watch their favorite shows together and those graphic sex scenes suddenly pop up. From parents over-sharing about their very active sex life to mom trying to guess the name of the actor who plays Robb Stark -- it's Paul Rudd, obviously -- and dad affirming the "it's your body, your choice" slogan, each commercial reenacts the horrific moments we've all experienced when watching TV as a family.
All of the ads end with the on-screen line, "Might be a good time for HBO Go," followed by a voiceover: "HBO Go. The best of HBO on all your favorite devices. Far, far away from your parents."Coincidences proliferate, flashing with authorial intent. “The tiles were covered with designs of yellow and brown overlapping squares which overlapped more and more as they converged towards the center of the room.” Thomas and “I” see Lionel pounding his head against a wall, saying, “Why! Why!” At the ends of conversations various characters say, “The pains in my legs are killing me.” Characters give slightly different perspectives on the same event, or have the same experience at different times: the wind blowing ash onto one’s trousers— “It doesn’t annoy me, it delights me”. They are all at one remove: neighbours, lovers, friends; former friends, lovers, and neighbors. With a light touch Marois moves the scenes towards an expected climax.
At the crucial three-quarter mark, Lobster is executed by the state for a murder he doesn’t remember. Then “I” murders another character to no consequence, and the repetitions persist. You stop reading for character-driven action, because the characters aren’t agents: they’re a chorus in separate rooms. The resulting effect is distinctly, annoyingly familiar. But there is no revelation at the end of The Telephone Pole. It nags at the brain. Marois seemed to have left his novel without closure, and then killed himself. I was cruising through dead-end leads on him when I came across Auden’s “The Guilty Vicarage,” an essay on the subterranean structure of murder mysteries (Harper’s 1948), and “The Visionary Detective”, an essay by Joyce Carol Oates in the NYRB—where else—about Derek Raymond’s detective novels (June 20th, 2013). Together they argue that a murder mystery is grounded in two things: the relationship between the detective and the victim, and a setting’s absolution after a murder.
The one is plain: a past fictional Montreal unsettlingly like the one you’ll find today if you take the 40 into downtown. The other element is less clear. Who are the victim and detective supposed to be?
A typical murder mystery a la Agatha Christie or author of your choice relies on clues that would allow a reader to spot the killer. The clues are in relationships between characters and details about the setting. The Telephone Pole seems to work this way, setting up a complex of relationships and revealing the psychology of the setting as if with dynamite. But the pieces don’t fit together. The victim, Dorothy, is killed for no reason. Her death doesn’t reveal a vice particular to the setting except a disjointed absence of values. There is no detective. Montreal is left disfigured. The only motive force that develops coherently is a transgressive, transcendent crossing-over. The Telephone Pole’s subversions of the murder-mystery genre are not just to prove what can be done, as with so much lackadaisical subversion. Marois was pointing at his death.
Old Port Train depo, 1968. Via @pentaxclic on Flickr
As I looked for him I passed in and out of an authorial overlay on the world, a reading that either was there, or wasn’t. Like a detective I obsessed and badgered, worked overtime, scraped by, and drank when I could. I wanted to talk with someone who knew Marois, the young bilingual college dropout from Sherbrooke, whom Dennis Lee and Scott Symons respected but felt they didn’t entirely know. His eye for detail, his humor and pathos suggest he wanted the hard heart of life without compromise.
I called twenty-five or so R. LeBlanc’s in Montreal and Toronto, looking for the Richard LeBlanc The Telephone Pole is dedicated to. LeBlanc is likely still alive. He published a book of poems with Beat Raven in ‘86. I reached a Francophone man who told me about that his parents had recently died. I didn’t find LeBlanc. I filled the flyleafs with leads and place-names Marois mentions. Leaning against the wall near the Argo bookstore, I called David Godfrey’s BC farm. His phone rang for a while. The voicemail box was full. I called a few weeks later waiting for the bus down Papineau in the rain. The mailbox was still full.
I called up Anansi and explained myself to Jolise Beaton. She said she could send an email on to Dennis Lee. I sent her an email for him and followed-up, but never heard back. I enlisted a McGill librarian to find Buitenhuis’ New York Times review, but neither of us could find it.
I did a tour of the English bookstores whose owners might know something, starting with Odyssey on Stanley, because Mr. Wolf probably wouldn’t. He thought I was asking about the location replaced by the sports megabar. I went to S.W. Welch on St. Laurent, to pet the resident cat. Nothing there except the owner’s pleasant blue eyes under furrowed brows. Once I asked him if was looking for help and he said “we had an employee once… in the nineties”. I asked at Cheap Thrills on Metcalfe, where I used to loiter after class. It smells dank and slants but the music is pretty good. If you’re lucky you’ll find a well-introduced, obscure bookclub book or a new book sold by a shoplifter. No dice. I skipped the beautiful but vain Encore in NDG. Its shopkeepers aren’t old enough. I saved The Word for last. I stopped at the black-painted bricks. The doorbell tinkled and the door creaked open. I asked Adrian. Whatever engrossing thing goes on behind his eyes coalesced to a bright point. He remembers the book— “That’s a rare one.” He used to hang out at The Swiss Hut, but he didn’t meet Marois.
Adrian King-Edwards in front of The Word bookstore.
After two months dead ends I met with one of this issue’s editors at a facsimile of the Swiss Hut, the Chalet BBQ in NDG. Its booths are arranged in such a way as to give you the illusion you are sitting in a train and its waitresses are surly. He ordered half a chicken like a civilized person and I sat behind a slice of Boston cream pie and explained that everyone was dead, didn’t know Marois, or wouldn’t respond. He was encouraging. “Some ghost stories never include the genuine article.” There’s a point at which a detective finds himself isolated, following a theory that seems to exist only in his skull. I had that feeling, except to people generally there was no mystery. Nobody else had had a chance to read the book, since I needed my copy, and Marois had been dead for forty years.
I felt it. Going home from work at midnight I’d stumble on a place he talked about; the southeast corner of Bleury and Sherbooke, or Mountain Street, or the bus terminal on Dorchester, now René-Lévesque. Marois’ Montreal is right there, on the street, and his writing would repeat in my head; if the structural scheme of the novel was playing itself out, the repeated phrases transformed me into a character in the book, because their points of view were sliding into mine. Not all of the places: the old an all-night restaurant in the Old Port called L’Aiglon is gone. The ferry between Montreal and Levis, if it ever existed, no longer does. Still, settings from books carry their lives forward relentlessly, and if you let them they will catch you.
I wanted a real lead. There had to be one. Marois had done this on purpose; I knew it with the uncanny intuition of paranoia. I reread the book. There’s mention of “an old Indian in Whitehorse who strangled his lover with a beautiful rendition of Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” Only an author bent on an intertext would shoehorn it in like that. I clambered over to the tiny copy of Bierce’s story, from the McgGill book fair. The first sign I was on the right track: “The commandant has issued an order that any civilian caught interfering with the railroad, its bridge, tunnels, or trains, will be summarily hanged.” The second clue is that one character’s internal monologue sounds just like this sentence of Bierce’s: “‘To be hanged and drowned,’ he thought, ‘that is not so bad; but I do not wish to be shot. No; I will not be shot; that is not fair.’ ” Lionel sits in his room smoking, being contrite. In Lionel’s dreams people say, “Put it back,” repeating what a shopkeeper said when he was caught stealing for the first time. Peyton Farquhar from Bierce’s story hears a voice say, “Put it back, put it back!” as he wrestles the noose off, drowning. His body is resisting the indelible surge of pain from not suffocating. It would be better to be hanged and drowned. Then again—spoiler—Peyton Farquhar was already dead.
I put the story down. Lionel, the suicidal one, dreams what Bierce—yes, Bierce, who walked off into Mexico and was never heard from again—wrote about being better off with a noose around your neck. I submitted to Marois’ lugubrious wit. The confirmation was there— if you went looking for Marois, you were going to find him, as they say in French. Late in The Telephone Pole Lionel says to himself, “How much longer Lionel? Three, four months? […] ‘Oh no,’ he thinks to himself smiling. ‘Much longer than that. Much much longer.’ Lionel looks down at the street. After all he’s just a young man.”
I could find no physical trace of Marois besides the book, whose cover was falling off. I’d dog-eared and underlined it, defacing the only artefact of a story looking like it would never finish. There is Marois’ phrase: “It makes a difference.” When an acquaintance dies, especially if you know what he sounds like, it makes a difference. A silence falls that will not lift. It’s an amputation of feeling that brings you closer to death.
William, Dorothy, and the first-person character walk across the Jacques Cartier bridge at night. Without other leads, I got to the foot of the bridge around 2 am. The tenement apartments of Ville Marie were lit up yellow and brown to the right. A fast wind blew off the water, clearing the smell of the lower city: cigarettes, litter, run-off, asphalt and exhaust. When the wind blew it smelled like being far away. We use a magical word for that smell and that feeling: ‘off-island’. As young bookseller told me while we watched a lightning storm over St. Henri, ‘Montreal is the last of the great city-states.’ Well, if we delude ourselves, so be it. It was June, warm. The nights were clear; the days hadn’t gotten muggy yet, and if there was thunder it came all at once, in the evening. The neighborhood was still and I heard my footsteps knock and ring. Looking forward, a metal cage stretched in front of me until it appeared to close on the other side.“Where there is no love, put love - and you will find love."
– St. John of the Cross
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
- Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30, The Message
Twenty minutes after World Vision announced that in response to financial pressure from evangelicals it would reverse its decision to employ Christians in same-sex relationships, I climbed into the giant SUV of a Baptist minister, where bags of Chick-fil-A were waiting to be consumed by a group of hungry college students, and cried.
I try so hard to be professional when I’m out on the road speaking, but this had been such a blow I was shaking with anger.
“I’m so sorry,” my host said when I told him what happened. “This was wrong. This was ugly and wrong.”
(It’s amazing how, in certain moments, a simple acknowledgement of pain can be such a gift of grace.)
“You know what?” I said after a few minutes of quiet. “I’m done. I’m done with this whole conversation. I’m starting a cereal blog. That’s always been my backup plan anyway.”
“You mean….like breakfast cereal?”
“Yeah, like breakfast cereal. I’m kind of an expert on it.”
“Oh…well that sounds fascinating!”
(Say what you will about Baptists, but they are consistently, sometimes inconceivably, nice.)
“I know, right? And the only controversy would be between Cinnamon Toast Crunch people and Gold Graham people. Maybe I could work on getting those two sides to talk to each other.”
“Well, with God all things are possible.”
“Indeed.”
Within minutes I was laughing and eating chicken nuggets with a bunch of bright, engaged Christian students (at Wingate University), remembering once again that the Church is bigger and more beautiful than its ugliest moments.
***
After what happened last week, I hear a lot of people asking, “What now? What do we do after this?”
The response to World Vision revealed some major fault lines in the Church, and many of us who grew up evangelical interpreted all the gleeful “farewelling” from evangelical leaders as our final kick out the door.
As I talked to the Baptist minister about this, he said, “Seems like you’ve been wanting to leave evangelicalism for a while but can’t quite let go.”
“Exactly,” I said. “When people at progressive conferences dis on evangelicalism, I’m the first to jump in and defend it. I identify myself as evangelical in interviews with the press because I want people to know that evangelicalism is a broad and diverse movement with a common spirit, but not necessarily uniform theological or political beliefs. And I speak up when a few vocal evangelical leaders say hateful things about LGBT people or encourage bullying or condone misogyny because I feel like I have this investment in the community and it’s important for those invested in the community to speak up when its leaders are hurting our witness to the world...But I’m not sure I can do that anymore. I’m not sure I can defend a label when the label has come to mean something in our culture that isn’t worth defending anymore and when it’s been made abundantly clear that I’m not welcome at the table anyway.”
“It seems to me,” he responded, “that for you, evangelicalism is like the ex you broke up with a while ago but still stalk a little bit on Facebook.”
(I’m telling you, the dude is like a prophet.)
“That’s exactly what it is!” I said.
“Maybe it’s time to pull the plug,” he said, “for you own health and happiness.”
“Maybe it is.”
***
Don’t worry. I’m not starting a cereal blog, nor am I pulling the plug.
But I’m done fighting for a seat at the evangelical table, done trying to force that culture to change.
For many years, I felt that part of my call as a writer and blogger of faith was to be a different sort of evangelical, to advocate for things like gender equality, respect for LGBT people, and acceptance of science and biblical scholarship within my community. But I think that perhaps I became more invested in trying to “fix” evangelicalism (to my standards! oh the hubris!) than in growing Kingdom. And as helpful as I know that work has been for so many of you, I think it’s time to take a slightly different approach.
So rather than wearing out my voice in calling for an end to evangelicalism’s culture wars, I think it’s time to focus on finding and creating church among its many refugees—women called to ministry, our LGBTQ brother and sisters, science-lovers, doubters, dreamers, misfits, abuse survivors, those who refuse to choose between their intellectual integrity and their faith or their compassion and their religion, those who have, for whatever reason, been “farewelled.”
Instead of fighting for a seat at the evangelical table, I want to prepare tables in the wilderness, where everyone is welcome and where we can go on discussing (and debating!) the Bible, science, sexuality, gender, racial reconciliation, justice, church, and faith, but without labels, without wars.
I want this little online community to be like Kathy Escobar’s beautiful church in Denver, The Refuge, “where everyone is safe but no one is comfortable.” I want it to be a place where we can tell our stories, confess our sins, discuss Scripture, ask questions, disagree with grace, grieve, heal, create, follow Jesus, and rally together to do justice and love mercy—not just with our words, but with our actions. I want it to be a community that partners with people and organizations serving those on the margins. I want it to be a community led by people like Jeff Chu, Ben Moberg, and Christena Cleveland who exhibited more grace and patience last week than I knew was possible. I want it to feature and celebrate the voices of those speaking prophetically from the margins. I want us to continue to advocate for "the least of these."
I want this community to be a place where the churched and un-churched, Republicans and Democrats, American citizens and people from around the world, can come together to dream big dreams for the future. I want it to be a place where those who tired and worn out from religion can find rest…not more fighting, not more judgment…just rest and peace for weary souls. I want us to be a community where we "learn the unforced rhythms of grace" together.
Of course, each of us will respond to the events of last week differently. Sarah Bessey wrote two beautiful and instructive posts that I hope you will read after this:
For the ones leaving
For the ones who stay
I certainly hope we create a community here where everyone - those leaving evangelicalism, those staying, and those just trying to figure it out - is welcome to the table, so long as it is approached with peace.
***
Finally, you can take the girl out of evangelicalism, but you can never take evangelicalism out of the girl. And that’s fine by me.
I will forever be grateful for all the beautiful gifts evangelicalism gave me—a high esteem for and knowledge of Scripture, a heart for activism, and a deeply personal experience and expression of faith. It was, after all, evangelicals who baptized me, evangelicals who taught me to read and pray and cook. It was evangelicals who first called me a Christian, evangelicals who first told me I was beloved by God. And it was evangelicals (my parents) who let me sob in their arms yesterday, evangelicals who risked their reputations to reach out in peace last week.
Evangelicalism has been and always will be home. I suspect a part of me will always miss it.
But there’s something strangely liberating about standing in the middle of this scorched earth terrain with the resolution to stop fighting, the resolution to give up. I am reminded of the one thing all we Christians have in common, whether we’re Evangelical, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Greek Orthodox, Seventh-Day Adventist, Anabaptist, Quaker, or something in between: We are Resurrection people.
Our God is in the business of bringing dead things back to life, so if we want in on God’s business, we better prepare to follow God to all the rock-bottom, scorched-earth, dead-on-arrival corners of this world—including those in our own hearts— because that’s where God works, that’s where God gardens. There’s no ladder to holiness to climb, no self-improvement plan to follow. It’s just death and resurrection, over and over again, day after day, as God reaches down into our deepest graves and with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead wrests us from our pride, our apathy, our fear, our prejudice, our anger, our hurt, and our despair.
Most days I don’t know which is harder for me to believe: that God reanimated the brain functions of a man three days dead, or that God can bring back to life all the beautiful things we have killed. Both seem pretty unlikely to me.
This never-ending winter has felt like one long Easter Saturday.
But Sunday's coming....I can feel it.
***
So, how do we recover from the mess of last week? What do we do to grieve, to heal, to build bridges, to open up some tables, and to move on? What does |
2 aircraft, manufactured by Eurocopter, was loaded on to a lorry and taken to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) base in Farnborough, Hampshire.
Analysis We've now learnt some important details that will help to ascertain what caused this crash. For example, nothing fell off the helicopter before it came down, a rotor blade for instance, which is the first thing investigators would have checked. There was also no mayday call and the investigation team used the phrase "vertical descent" to describe its final moments. Both suggest that things went wrong very quickly. And the rotors appear to be intact, which suggests that they weren't turning very quickly as it hit the building. That points towards a loss of power. But there could still be a long way to go before we get the final answer. The fact that this helicopter wasn't fitted with a flight data recorder, a black box as they are known, will make the task much harder. It could have provided quick clues to any mechanical problems. The remains of the aircraft will now be painstakingly labelled and then examined at the headquarters of the Air Accident Investigation Branch in Farnborough.
AAIB deputy chief inspector David Miller revealed on Monday that the pilot had not made a mayday call before its vertical descent.
He said: "I can confirm that the helicopter does not have a flight data recorder. However, it does have a significant number of modern electronic systems on board and it may be possible to recover recorded data from those systems.
"There were no emergency transmissions from the pilot before this accident."
Mr Miller said nothing detached from the craft in flight before the crash.
Management of the incident scene has now been handed over from the emergency services to Glasgow City Council.
The council's chief executive George Black said: "Every Glaswegian is immensely grateful for the work the emergency services have done for us since Friday night.
"And every Glaswegian is immensely proud of their fellow citizens who ran towards trouble when they were needed.
"While the initial response to this incident has now come to an end, we still have work to do."
Scotland's Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill and Community Safety minister Roseanna Cunningham have met officers and crews who took part in the rescue efforts.
'Remarkable courage'
Ms Cunningham said: "The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service played a key role as part of the emergency services response which undoubtedly saved lives after the helicopter crashed on Friday night, the way in which they responded to an incident of this scale is truly exemplary.
"Air accident investigators have described this as one of the most complex crash sites that they've ever worked on."
She added: "We are all indebted to their remarkable courage and dedication, working on a hugely complex operation, the relief effort from all of our emergency services has been simply heroic."
Alasdair Hay, chief officer for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, paid tribute to fire and rescue staff.
He said: "This incident was a very challenging, complex situation and I am extremely proud of my staff for such a dedicated and professional response.
"Whilst firefighters train for these sorts of emergency situations, the reality of actually dealing with them takes its toll on us emotionally and physically.
"It has been an extremely difficult time for everyone involved and I have the utmost respect for every single person who was part of this operation."Intro
During this past/last week of the podcast Serial, Sarah Koenig explains (unsurprisingly) that throughout her journalistic investigation of the murder of Hae Min Lee she has changed her opinion many times about Adnan’s guilt or innocence:
Several times, I have landed on a decision, I’ve made up my mind and stayed there, with relief and then inevitably, I learn something I didn’t know before and I’m up ended. Sometimes the reversal takes a few weeks, sometimes it happens within hours. And what’s been astonishing to me is how the back and forth hasn’t let up, after all of this time. Even into this very week and I kid you not, into this very day that I’m writing this.
Given the transparent method by which Koenig has shared large chunks as well as scraps of information pertaining to the case week by week, we, the listeners, have similarly been able to shift our opinions/beliefs/doubts about Adnan’s guilt as time has passed. Unlike in the case of a conventional television crime drama, there is no formulaic ending – no revealing of a killer who had been hiding in plain sight the during the entire 40-something minutes of predictively-paced intrigue. Uncertainty – not Adnan, Hae, or Jay – is the key player whose perpetual presence defines our experience with Serial. And given the overarching, dominant role that uncertainty has played in the “Serial phenomenon,” I wondered, after finishing the final episode, how opinions had been shifting over the course of the podcast… Was this uncertainty – the uncertainty that I had heard in coworkers’ debates, read about in think pieces, and fought to accept in the cluttered, MailChimp-ad-filled corners of my mind – evident in the numbers somewhere?
The podcast is weekly, meaning there is time between each episode’s release to ponder, debate, maybe even cast a vote on your opinions…? In fact, yes, there is aggregate-level data with respect to public opinion on Adnan’s guilt (what is the percentage of people that think Adnan is guilty? innocent? what percentage is undecided?) thanks to the dedicated Serial coverage by /r/serialpodcast (note for the less media savvy, more mentally healthy among us: /r/serialpodcast is a subreddit, a page on Reddit, dedicated to discussion of the podcast). After the release of episode 6, users on the sub started creating weekly polls in order to keep track of listeners’ wavering opinions. Every Thursday, starting with October 30th (the date of release for episode 6), a poll was accessible on Reddit. People would vote on the poll until the next week when the poll would close just before the next episode became available. The poll opening and closing times ensured that no information from later episodes $ e \in \{X+z | z \in \mathbb{Z}^+\}$ would influence listeners’ opinions for a given poll meant to illustrate opinions’ in the aftermath of episode $X$. Thus, percentages from the polls accurately reflect where listeners stand after a given episode’s recent reveals!
Going a step further, one could argue that since the voter base for these polls (/r/serialpodcast subscribers) are loyal repeat voters, the percentages associated with each subsequent episode less the corresponding percentages from the previous episode illustrate the differential effect of that very episode. This seems like a logical conclusion since listeners are adjusting their evolving opinions based on new information in the most recent podcast. Therefore, by looking into the changes in aggregate opinion between the airing of episodes 7-12 (we don’t know how episode 6 changed the public’s opinion since we don’t have data before that episode’s release), we can see the effect that episodes 7-12 had on the crowd’s collective opinion.
Less talk, more graphs
In order to visualize the impact of this range of episodes, I graphed public opinion on Adnan’s guilt following the release of episodes 6-12:
This graph depicts public opinion on Adnan's guilt (in terms of percentages who believe he is guilty, innocent, and the percentage of those who are undecided) over the course of the release of Serial episodes 6-12.
There are many interesting things to note about this progression. First off, the percentage of individuals who believe Adnan is innocent ends on a high note after the finale, What We Know, of the podcast – 54% of voters believe Adnan is innocent. This percentage is exactly three times (!) that following the release of episode 8, The Deal With Jay. Furthermore, it is clear that after Episode 9, To Be Suspected, there are no more aggressive changes to public opinion. Instead, all three stances seem to move steadily – very steadily when compared to the changes brought about in consequence to the release of episodes 7-9.
Turning to episodes 7-9, are the movements in opinion due to said episodes logical given the episodes’ substance? I believe so. Listeners are also potentially mimicking, without realizing it, Koenig’s own state of mind in the episodes. Episode 7, The Opposite of the Prosecution, causes a dip in the guilty percentage (of 10 percentage points) and a jump in the not guilty percentage (of 19 percentage points) – a consequence that is predictable just given the name of the episode. However, episode 8 undoes all the hard work episode 7 did for Adnan’s case in the eyes of the public. The not guilty percentage drops down to post episode 6 levels at 18%, while the guilty percentage is above post episode 6 levels at 42%. The largest of all the weekly changes of heart comes with the release of episode 9, To Be Suspected, which highlights Adnan’s calm demeanor during his time in prison. The guilty camp goes from containing 42% of the voters to just 17% while the not guilty camp goes from 18% to 44%. In the graph, this change almost creates a perfectly symmetrical “X” with the guilty and not guilty lines. It is also in this episode that Adnan also makes an emotional appeal to Koenig saying that that his parents would be happier if they thought he deserved to be in prison – therefore saying that if he were lying about his innocence he would be bringing pain to his parents – something that Adnan, the same person with the funny anecdote about T-mobile customer service behind bars, wouldn’t do.
Another interesting element to note in this analysis is that, over our available time period, the percentage of people who vote as undecided has declined or remained the same every week. This potentially illustrates that despite the fact that more and more scraps, facts, and individuals were added into the mix throughout the progression of the postcast, the aggregate group of voters did feel more certain in their convictions – to the point of no longer checking the “undecided” option. However, this result could also be a fragment of something I felt myself when answering the poll near the end of the podcast – I wanted to vote one way or the other because I felt increasingly useless to the polling exercise by voting undecided repeatedly. Perhaps with the end of the podcast nearing, individuals wanted to be able to make a decision and stick to it, regardless of the constant insecurity in their beliefs.
After looking into how each episode affected aggregate opinions, I wondered if this could differ between the subgroups that reddit users included in their polls – specifically, those with legal training and those without legal training.
This graph depicts the opinion of those with legal training on Adnan's guilt (in terms of percentages who believe he is guilty, innocent, and the percentage of those who are undecided) over the course of the release of Serial episodes 6-12.
This graph depicts the opinion of those without legal training on Adnan's guilt (in terms of percentages who believe he is guilty, innocent, and the percentage of those who are undecided) over the course of the release of Serial episodes 6-12.
It is immediately evident that the percentages in these two graphs are very similar once episode 8 has aired. However, there is a large and obvious difference in how the two groups respond to episode 7, The Opposite of the Prosecution. For those without legal training, it bumped up the numbers for not guilty by 21 percentage points and pushed down the numbers for guilty by 13 percentage points…but, for those with legal training, it bumped up the numbers for not guilty by just 5 percentage points and even pushed up the numbers for guilty by 6 percentage points.
An easier way to visualize and understand the differences between the two divergent responses to episode 7 is by ignoring the undecided percentages in order to create a “innocence index” of sorts. This quasi-index is equal to the percentage of voters who vote that Adnan is not guilty minus the percentage of voters who vote that Adnan is guilty. The index doesn’t have any meaning other than the differential between perceived innocence and perceived guilt according to the crowd of voters.
This graph depicts the constructed innocence indices between those with and without legal training over the course of the release of Serial episodes 6-12.
Since we don’t have information from before the release of episode 6, we can’t speak to the differential nature of episode 6 (it could have been that the two groups were divergent in a similar way before that episode and, therefore, episode 6 had little or no effect on aggregate opinion), however, in the case of episodes 7-12, it is very clear that the paths of the two subgroups are extremely similar except for in the aftermath of episode 7. For those with legal training, the innocence index doesn’t move substantially, it actually goes down one point, meanwhile the index increases by 34 points for those without legal training.
Perhaps this drastically different response is because of the fact that episodes 6 and 7 deal with the case against and the case for the innocence of Adnan. It could be that those with legal training are aware of the potential brutal nature of the case that could be made against Adnan as well as the potentially very favorable nature of the direct opposite approach. Perhaps these individuals are not surprised by the way episode 7 threw off much of the doubt cast on him by episode 6 because they are familiar with the legal process, and understand how a single case can be framed in extremely different ways. Meanwhile, the opinions of those of us more in the dark when it comes to the dynamics of a prosecution/defense were more malleable. Regardless of the exact reasons for this divergence, the difference in the two groups’ innocence indices following episode 7 is immediately striking.
In short
I have doubted myself with respect to my thoughts on Adnan’s case over the past many weeks. I’ve oscillated up and down with the severity of the rises and falls in the included figures. In brief, it is incredible to see that the week of Serial you just consumed can so profoundly alter the core of your beliefs about the case.
You don’t need Sarah Koenig to serenade you during the finale with tales of the tenuous nature of truth in order to have the point driven home that we are often unsure, uncertain, unclear about our convictions… Just look at the pretty pictures.
Or just listen to that girl pronounce Mail Chimp. Is it Kimp or Chimp? We may never know.
My original approach in visualizing this data used line charts, which I think are often the best option for depicting time-series data (due to their simplicity and corresponding comprehensibility). However, using line charts in this context generates lines out of what are truly discrete points–in other words, the plot assumes a linear trend in opinion changes between episodes, which does not reflect the true nature of the data. Because of this conceptual shortcoming that accompanies line charts, I decided to try out another form of visualization that could more accurately represent the discrete nature of the data points. Thanks to a great FlowingData post, I realized an interesting way to do this would be to use stacked bar charts since all the percentages for each opinion of guilty, no guilty, or undecided add up to 100%. (Originally I was attracted to the stacked area chart because it seems sexier–or, as sexy as a chart can be–however, this method also fails to accurately depict the discrete nature of the data points! So, stacked bar chart it is.) Here is the result (made with the ggplot2 package in R) :
These charts depict public opinion on Adnan's guilt (in terms of percentages who believe he is guilty, not guilty, and the percentage of those who are undecided) over the course of the release of Serial episodes 6-12.
Data/Code
Here are the poll percentage sources in case anyone is curious: Percentages for episodes 6-8, Percentages for episodes 9-11, and Percentages for episodes 12 – I collected the data for episode 12 at 6:30pm EST Thursday 12/18/14. I looked at the updated information at 12:50am EST 12/19/14 and, of course, more people had voted, but the percentages for guilty/innocent/undecided were the same. So, I use these numbers without fear of dramatic change in the next few days.
All data and scripts used for this project are available in my “Serial” Github repo.Norman is a 2010 drama film directed by Jonathan Segal. It stars Dan Byrd, Emily VanCamp, Adam Goldberg, and Richard Jenkins. The film features an original score and songs by multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird. Norman began its theatrical release at various U.S. locations on October 21, 2011.
Plot [ edit ]
Norman tells the story of Norman Long (Byrd), a self-aware and darkly funny teen who is trying to handle his daily high school existence. An unexpected set of life-changing circumstances turns his world upside down and then ultimately right side up as he meets the magnetic Emily (VanCamp). With love, humility and a heavy dose of truth, he emerges to face challenges not meant for a boy his age.
The plot of Norman follows the young man's life as we learn about the different difficulties he has encountered along the path of his life so far. It is a very touching movie and shows what true friendship can mean to those in need.
Norman’s soundtrack, on Mom + Pop Records, features Andrew Bird’s first-ever original instrumental film score. It also includes new and previously released songs by Bird along with Wolf Parade, Chad VanGaalen and The Blow with Richard Swift.
Cast [ edit ]
Soundtrack [ edit ]
The film's soundtrack features, in majority, songs composed and performed by multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird. Included in the soundtrack are three songs performed by other notable acts: The Blow with Richard Swift (singer-songwriter), Chad VanGaalen, and Wolf Parade. Pitchfork Media reviewed the album most favorably as a piece detached from the film.[1] The soundtrack was released by Mom + Pop Music on October 11, 2011.
References [ edit ]The Ukrainian army used cluster bombs during the fighting in eastern Ukraine - according to international human rights organization Human Rights Watch. Six people are said to have been killed, and dozens injured, in 12 documented cases.
"At the start of October, we sent a mission to eastern Ukraine in order to follow up on reports on the use of cluster bombs," Hugh Williamson, HRW regional director for Europe and Central Asia told DW. This mission comprised the organization's own weapons experts, and Williamson claims they spoke to people on the ground and a journalist who was in the affected area. "He was able to determine the type of rocket used, which the Ukrainian army owns," he said.
Hugh Williamson says HRW's experts are certain cluster bombs were used
But the most important point, he said, was to confirm from which positions had been fired. "Our experts calculated the paths of the rockets, viewed the positions struck, and the locations of the rocket launchers," said Williamson. "They came to the conclusion that Ukrainian government troops fired the weapons. We can't be absolutely sure, but all the evidence points that way."
Banned weapons
HRW considers the use of cluster bombs as a war crime, pointing to an international agreement that came into force in 2010. Some 114 countries signed that convention and it has been ratified by 86 - although it does not include Ukraine or Russia. Now, HRW has called on Kyiv to do so, and says that its representatives in Donbass have discovered 22 fragments of rockets with cluster ammunition - 16 from a Uragan-type multiple rocket launcher and six from a Smerch-type.
Kyiv denies the allegations. Ukrainian military spokesman Vladyslav Selesnyov told DW that though the country's troops did indeed have Uragan and Smerch rocket launchers, it did not have cluster ammunition. "If we know that there could be civilians at the rebel positions, we cannot shoot them under any circumstances," he said.
OSCE spokesman Bociurkiw doubts the accuracy of the report
Michael Bociurkiw, spokesman for the OSCE mission in Ukraine, also denied that the Ukrainian military had used cluster bombs. "We have around 90 observers in eastern Ukraine," he told DW. "If we had encountered anything like that, we would have reported it, but that hasn't happened. Everything we can say about ammunition and shelling is in our daily reports."
Doubts over report
Anton Michnenko, of the Ukrainian Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies, says that only military experts can offer definite insights into the use of cluster bombs. He is critical of the HRW report. "Social organizations don't have any highly qualified experts who can say whether these are explosions with cluster ammunition and what direction it might have come from," he said. He thinks that separatists might have deliberately misled the HRW representatives. It is also possible that separatist captured stocks of Ukrainian army weaponry.
Nikolaj Sunhurowsky, of the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center, also doubts the allegations. "They are only based on the reports of witnesses who claim to have seen the direction of the shelling," he told DW, and doesn't rule out that "rogue rebel units" are using cluster bombs, after having penetrated the buffer zone between separatists and the Ukrainian army.
Gernot Erler says there needs to be an urgent inquiry
Serhij Sgurez, of the Ukrainian consultancy firm Defense Express, says Ukraine has no interest in destroying infrastructure or residential buildings in Donbass, because Kyiv will have to build up the region again when the conflict is over. He thinks Moscow wants to weaken the economic potential of the area and discredit the Ukrainian military. "Using cluster bombs is very well suited to that purpose," he said.
Berlin wants independent investigation
In the meantime, the German government has called for an independent inquiry into the allegations against the Ukrainian military. Gernot Erler, Russia policy commissioner for the foreign ministry, said the German government has no information on the matter.
"But Human Rights Watch is a serious organization," he said. "And the project was done in cooperation with the New York Times, which means it is not likely to have anything against the Ukrainian government. For that reason there is a real need for an explanation. That's why we are calling for an independent inquiry."This is a picture I drew of Jack from Mass Effect using words. I used various quotes from her as the words to draw with and, other than some light pencil shading on her face and jacket, this is composed of mostly just the words. I was hoping to do an angle where you could see more of her tattoos but her face would have been made smaller and it would have looked weird and I didn't think I had enough patience to do a life sized picture with just words.If you like this style you can check out my Pictures with a Thousand Words gallery for more pictures done in this style.Leave a comment if you have any suggestions of what game/movie/tv show/whatever I should attempt next.James Wan could go from racing on the streets to riding the currents of the ocean blue.
The director, hot off the smash opening of his Furious 7 ($392 million worldwide, but who’s counting?), is the frontrunner to direct Aquaman, Warner Bros.’ water-borne superhero movie centering on the classic DC Entertainment character, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.
Wan has no offer at this stage but he is the studio's choice and some preliminary talks have taken place.
Jason Momoa is already attached to star as the underwater breathing hero and will make his appearance as the character in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He also is card-carrying member of DC’s premiere superhero team, the Justice League, and will be part of Warners’ two part movies.
Aquaman, the standalone, is being developed on two tracks, with Will Beall and Kurt Johnstad writing separate scripts for the project.
There are several obstacles that any deal will face, the biggest one involving the sequel to Furious 7. That project does not have a director at this stage nor a release date but with a box office that has already crossed $500 million in under week, Universal will look to fill that seat soon.
While some believe that Wan will not return for the eighth installment of the Fast & Furious franchise, Universal does hold his option and could exercise it.
Also, Wan is already in prep for The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist, which is due to shoot this fall. While Aquaman has a release date of July 27, 2018, a movie of this magnitude will take considerable work, and the studio is eager to get started.
One of Warner Bros.' challenges is to make a movie that will successfully sail the seas, on a critical level let alone a financial one. Despite being an iconic comic character and known around the world, Aquaman has found himself to be the butt of jokes in recent decades. Riding a sea horse in the classic Super Friends cartoon didn’t help but neither did episodes of Entourage which played an Aquaman movie for laughs. (Adrian Grenier’s character, actor Vincent Chase, portrays the hero in a fictional movie directed by James Cameron.)
If Wan does take on the King of Atlantis, it would mark the latest point in an incredible career trajectory. The director broke onto the film scene with low-budget horror, and for the most part, despite making slicker and slicker movies hasn't deviated from that path.
His feature debut was with Saw, launching the Lionsgate franchise. He also directed horror movies Insidious and its sequel, as well as the first Conjuring (which were not only hits but very profitable ones), before nabbing the coveted gig of helming Furious 7 after Justin Lin dropped out of the series. This fall's Conjuring 2 will be a return to his roots.
Warner Bros. is already high on Wan and wants to continue to be in business with him. Sister company New Line last year made a first-look deal with the Australian filmmaker and his Atomic Monster label to develop movies in the horror and sci-fi genres.
He is repped by Paradigm, Stacey Testro International and Myman Greenspan.Millennium Films have teamed up with the estate of Curious George creators H.A. and Margaret Rey, and Lay Lee Ong, estate literary executor, for an untitled new Curious George Biopic project that will chart the origin story of this iconic character. This comes just weeks after Millennium brought on new president Jeffrey Greenstein and co-president Jonathan Yunger, who had both been chasing this project for over two years. Writer Sam Cohn brought the project to the studio, who was thanked by Jonathan Yunger in his statement.
"We are incredibly fortunate to have the Rey estate's complete confidence and consent, and the approval of Lay Lee, to tell this story. We are also grateful to our friend and writer, Sam Cohan, for bringing us the project."
It was Sam Cohan who introduced Greenstein and Yunger to Ema Ryan Yamazaki, the director of the documentary Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George's Creators, which was acquired for distribution by The Orchard last year. A deal was then signed for Yamazaki to use her new documentary to base this narrative feature film on, which will be written by Cohan. Here's what JEffrey Greenstein had to say about the extraordinary lengths these creators took to make Curious George.
"The epitome of mixing passion with business is being blessed to tell this tremendous story of the great lengths H.A. and Margaret Rey went through to save their manuscript, while fleeing Nazi occupied Europe for their lives. Curious George went on to inspire and charm millions worldwide, and soon, so shall the Reys' unbelievable true story."
Jeffrey Greenstein and Jonathan Yunger will be producing alongside Sam Cohan and Ema Ryan Yamazaki, although no director has been attached at this time. Millennium's Avi Lerner, Trever Short, Boaz Davidson and John Thompson will all be serving as executive producers. Curious George was first known as Fifi in the first story, 1939's Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys, before the first Curious George book was published in 1941. That book centered on George, a monkey living in Africa, who was brought to America to live in the big city by a character only known as The Man With the Yellow Hat. The creators published seven books between 1941 and 1966, with H.A. Rey passing away in 1977 and Margaret Rey passing away in 1996. This project is not related to Universal's Curious George reboot with Andrew Adamson (Shrek franchise) set to direct.
In 1989, the Curious George Foundation was created to help fund programs for children and programs that also benefit animals, including preventing animal cruelty. This report from Deadline reveals that a portion of the movie's profits will be donated to the Curious George Foundation. Sam Cohan's writing credits include the Sundance hit Fishing Without Nets and The Closest Thing to Rain.Insects, caterpillars, and other invertebrates.
Seeds and nuts.
Flowers, leaves, and other plant parts.
Lizards and other small animals.
Various salads like potato salad and macaroni salad.
Different recipes of eggs.
When you keep Emus as pets, you need to know what to feed them. As is the case with any other pets that you may have seen, Emus require food that they like and food that provides nourishment to their strong bodies. They are extremely curious by nature and will try to eat anything that they can get their long beaks on. The most common foods to feed an Emu can range from small plants to homemade recipes. Here is a list of what you can feed your pet Emus.Ensure that you feed your Emus regularly, because if they find that they are not receiving enough food, then they tend to move on in search of other food sources. This could be harmful and very dangerous for them.How to create Snapchat-like stickers for Android
Andriy Bas Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 16, 2016
After spending 2000+ hours and releasing 4+ successful apps working with image transformations, we’ve decided to share our experience with the community.
In this article you’ll learn how to move, scale and rotate images on Android, enabling customers to create super fancy selfies (like the Snapchat’s).
Task
So the task is pretty simple: add the ability to move, scale and rotate stickers on Android.
Even though it sounds easy, there are a couple of challenges as well. First, there is a zillion of screen sizes of Android devices, and we’d better support them all (or as many as we can). Moreover, it could be the case that you would need to enable users to save/edit their selfies. And if they open their custom works on other devices — the screen size might change, the loaded images might be of a different quality, etc.
As you might have guessed, the task is getting more complicated now.
The solution needs to work on different screen sizes and be independent of the image quality.
So let the fun begin…
Model
Let’s define our model the following way:
Since you need to make it work on different screen sizes, sticking to absolute coordinates is a bad idea.
The position should be relative to the parent canvas — where the image will be drawn.
Relative coordinates of the model
The “scale” should also be relative. The initial image has scale 1.0 when its larger side matches the smallest size of the canvas. In other words — when the largest size fits within the canvas:
Initial scale of the images
Holy Scale
As you might have guessed by now, not all images fit the canvas like on the image above. The image needs to be pre-scaled to fit in. We called the param “holyScale”. It can be calculated the following way:
It is basically a dynamic variable that depends on the size of the sticker and the canvas.
What is good about this param is that you can resize canvas or take images of the different quality. And without changing the model — you’ll have the same relative sticker position and size. Only need to recalculate the holy scale of the image.
Also, you don’t need to save the value, just calculate it when you need it.
The use case of this is pretty clear. For the preview we can show user images of the lower quality, and when saving to disk — better ones.
Transformation
Ok, now that you have the model, the holy scale, it’s time to do some magic with the image.
When working with image transformation it’s usually best to use matrices. It could have a steep learning curve, yet when you get familiar with them — it does pay off.
“All problems in computer graphics can be solved with a matrix inversion”
Jim Blinn
In 2D users can scale theimage, rotate and translate it. Each of the transformations can be represented by its own transformation matrix: S, R, T. To get the correct transformation matrix L, we need to apply the transformation in the following way:
L = S * R * T
You can find on the web why it works like that. Note, that applying the transformations in a different order will have some interesting and funny consequences, just try it.
One more thing. You need to also apply the holy scale described above. Let the transformation matrix for holy scale be S`. Resulting matrix will look like:
L = S * R * T * S`
So, let’s transform a matrix with our model. Android has a fancy class Matrix. Using it we don’t need to perform all the math by ourselves (which can be tricky sometimes).
Gestures
Now you know how to draw stickers, let’s transform the user input into the model.
Translating all the touches on the screen to the right gestures could be a tricky part, and could take a lot of time for debugging. Android provides some basic functionality to track gestures, like GestureDetectorCompat. However, as it is usually with Android, it’s by far not enough, especially in our case.
Luckily, there are a couple of open source solutions. We’re going to use one of them, Android Gesture Detectors by @Almeros.
With an external gesture library updating the model becomes as easy as adding/subtracting the delta:
Some more math
If I stopped here, this tutorial would look like most coding tutorials:
Most coding tutorials look like this
There are actually a couple more details. For example, we need to organize it all into classes, add code to actually draw the images on the canvas, etc.
One of the interesting parts could be detecting if the touch was inside the rect of the sticker or not.
The standard Android Rect cannot be rotated. So you have to write your own code to find the coordinates of the sticker rectangle vertices. You can do that by saving initial vertices of the image. And then map them to the new points using the transformation matrix created before:
NOTE! Don’t forget that you shouldn’t create new classes or arrays in the draw()-like methods. Thus you’d better create destPoints and srcPoints in advance.
The easiest way to check if the point is inside the rectangle is by using the vector cross product:
Check the full explanation on the StackOverflow.
Final Result
Here’s the video of what we got in the end.
Video of the result
Check out the source code on the Github, download the app on Google Play.
Feel free to use it for your own purposes. Let me know if you have any challenges with it.
And what is your experience with image transformation or gestures on Android? Feel free to share / ask questions in the comments, I would be glad to help.On-Site Verification May Be Required to Withdraw From Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges
New regulatory guidelines in China may require citizens to verify their identities in person to deposit or withdraw 50,000 yuan when using a Chinese bitcoin trading platform.
Also read: An Alliance Forms Under China’s New Bitcoin Regulations
The PBOC Aims to Standardize Regulatory Framework and Identity Verification Requirements for Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) recently revealed new requirements for Chinese bitcoin exchanges within the country. Zhou Xuedong, PBOC director of business management, has now detailed an anti-money laundering (AML) prospectus that has been sent to trading platforms for review. Last week Zhou detailed bitcoin trading platforms were not to be called “exchanges” anymore and revealed new AML rules which were sent to bitcoin-based businesses for consideration and recommendations.
This week Zhou has further explained that the central bank wants to standardize the AML framework for virtual commodity trading platforms. Zhou said to a Chinese finance publication that Beijing’s central bank management has emphasized two important aspects of the regulatory prospectus. The fundamental regulatory guidelines include self-regulation and clarity concerning criminal finance prevention and AML control measures. Furthermore, bitcoin trading platforms are required to establish a *sound customer identification system” and practice transaction record preservation.
“From the perspective of anti-money laundering — the identity of the account is very critical.” Zhou Xuedong’s translated comments said. “Transaction data synchronization can be sent to the regulatory authorities, as the basis for regulation, from this data authorities can find money laundering information and abnormal transactions.”
Depositing or Withdrawing 50,000 Yuan Worth of Bitcoin May Require ‘On-Site Certification’
The paper under review also detailed some particularly noteworthy identity verification rules for customers depositing and withdrawing 50,000 yuan. Chinese customers looking to exchange virtual currency on a platform may need to verify their identities in person for “on-site certification.” PBOC management wants bitcoin trading platforms in the region to establish and improve Know Your Customer (KYC) guidelines.
The regulatory prospectus also notes bitcoin trading platforms may also utilize “remote video certification” in order to ensure customer identity. Bitcoin.com’s correspondent from China has stated some exchanges have already implemented video verification methods this month. The Chinese finance publication also explains the “presence certification” aspect of the prospectus is a new detail being discussed in the industry, where customers must appear in person at the exchange headquarters.
Chinese Bitcoin Trading Platforms Need to Perform Self-Regulation
In addition to the new identity verification details, the proposed regulations draft says bitcoin trading platforms should hold senior management responsible for anti-money laundering standards. The PBOC recommends businesses should set up specific departments and positions that are completely focused on anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing practices.
The central bank explains that as well as keeping customer records, trading platforms need to maintain a complete and “accurate reproduction” of each customer transaction. Suspicious transactions with specific money laundering behaviors should be reported to the central bank’s management team immediately, the prospectus concludes.
What do you think about the PBOC’s recommendations for on-site certification and remote video verification? Do you think this will hinder Chinese bitcoin exchange operations? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Caixin, and Pixabay.
Do you agree with us that Bitcoin is the best invention since sliced bread? Thought so. That’s why we are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything Bitcoin. We have a store. And a forum. And a casino, a pool and real-time price statistics.A survey says the people most likely to start new businesses are |
2) of the Hungarian Family Law Act are:
- rights and obligations for caring and raising the child;
- rights and obligations for managing the child’s possessions;
- rights and obligations for legally representing the child;
Parental custody is the parent’s right and obligation to decide on behalf of the child and act accordingly. The child, however, has the right to express his or her opinions and wishes, provided that he or she has reached a certain degree of maturity and understanding. The parents or legal guardians must consider the child’s opinion.
Parental responsibility in case of divorce and other occurrences
According to the Hungarian Family Law, both parents, whether married or not, are entitled to a joint and equal custody of their children. The most common case in which the joint custody is replaced is when the parents’ divorce. Even if, legally speaking, the divorce should not affect the joint responsibility, in most cases the custody is established by a mutual agreement or by a court decision.
If the parents were not married when the child was born, legally the child has only one parent: the mother, until the paternity is legally established.
In case of adoption, the child has the same rights as if he or she were the natural child of the adoptive parents. Both of the adoptive parents will share custody for an adopted child until he or she is no longer a minor.
Child placement in case of divorce
According to law, the term of child placement refers to the household of one of the parents with which the child will be placed. The parent that will take care of the child can be established through an agreement or through a judicial decision. The chosen parent will have custody of the child. However, the parent with whom the child is placed does not have full parental custody. The other parent can also contribute on fundamental issues and decisions that concern the child’s life.
If you need to address a matter of parental responsibility in a Hungarian court or if you need legal representation or counselling, please contact our law firm in Hungary.It didn’t take Bruce Feldman long to find his next writing gig, as arguably the most plugged-in college football reporter on the national beat has announced he will be joining Sports Illustrated.
This move was precipitated thanks to FOX Sports moving completely away from the written word on its website and moving to exclusive video content. During the final episode of the FOX Sports college football podcast “The Audible,” co-hosted by college football writer Stewart Mandel, Feldman announced he is still employed by FOX as a sideline reporter for the upcoming season.
FOX has expanded its television coverage for the upcoming season and will broadcast a large portion of the Big Ten schedule, including premier matchups such as Ohio State at Michigan and Penn State at Ohio State.
Feldman made the announcement Monday morning on Twitter. Look for his first Sports Illustrated content to potentially drop sometime this week:
Proud to announce that I'm joining Sports Illustrated (@SInow) to write about college football. Excited to get started this week. — Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) July 3, 2017
The college football season just wouldn’t be the same without content from Feldman, luckily, it appears none of us will have to suffer through that anytime soon.Ambiguous Term? This article is about the Tyranid species. For other uses of Genestealer, see Genestealer (disambiguation).
Genestealer
A Genestealer is a species of Tyranid used as the ultimate shock trooper. Their purpose is to advance ahead of a Hive Fleet and pinpoint potential planets for the Tyranids to devour. They are amongst the most deadly creatures in the Galaxy, combining high cunning, lightning-fast reactions and movement, with large, extremely sharp claws that can rip through the toughest armour in seconds.[1b]
History
Genestealers were the first Tyranid species to be encountered by the Imperium. But before the Imperium had knowledge of the Tyranids as a species, they believed Genestealers were a separate species indigenous to the moons of Ymgarl (using leech-like creature called Csith as main host for reproduction)[11] but then spread to other planets by infiltrating passing cargo ships and derelict Space Hulks.[1a] It is believed Genestealers were introduced to the moons of Ymgarl in M35 from Hive Fleet Tiamet in the Tiamet System, carried inside the Imperial vessels that were sent to destroy the system.[2a] In 680.M41, the first Genestealer Cult was encountered by the Imperium on Ghosar Quintus.[9]
When the Battle for Macragge with Hive Fleet Behemoth took place, Technomagi spent years classifying the left-behind bodies, including Genestealers used as Tyranid shock troops. Further investigation confirmed that all Genestealers were in fact Tyranids.[1a]
The truth is that infiltrating Genestealers had been working their way into the galaxy for thousands of years prior to the invasion of the Hive Fleets proper.[3]
Basic Info
Ordo Xenos Departmento Analyticus Record [3] Designation Genestealer Common Title Stealer, Leech, Sewerstalker, Scuttler, Clawfiend, Ghost [2c] Species Name Corporaptor hominis, Corporaptor ymgarli [5], Vermis (Tyrannus) Furii [4] Average Height 1.9m Average Weight 0.3 tonnes First encountered Ymgarl Role Infiltration Threat evaluation High
Physiology
Two Genestealers
Genestealers are stronger and hardier than Humans, able to withstand even the most hostile environments unprotected, including hard vacuum, and are capable of living for centuries [6]. They are a highly intelligent species with a disproportionately large and adaptive brain that is housed in a bulbous head [1b]. They combine extraordinary intelligence and subtlety of mind with remarkable strength and quickness of body.
Genestealers are bipedal, standing in a perpetual crouch, and have two sets of arms, one equipped with Human-like hands, one with powerful ripping claws. Their dense musculature and the distending hinge of their jaw allows the generation of incredible bite-pressure.[4]
Their olfactory organ is linked at its base to the rear of their palate, combining their scent and taste for possible use as a sophisticated air-analysis method. They also display respiratory gill systems along the dermis/valves between their fused exo-ribs. This system is then somehow linked to breathing holes on their limbs and cranium.[4]
However these characteristics may not be general across all Genestealers, as they are one of the most mutable Tyranid species and often exhibit a wide and varying range of different traits. It has been hypothesised that these traits manifest depending on the particular host species the infection discovers; but this theory has been disregarded by some experts, citing that the traits are more likely different Genestealer subspecies altogether, which are separate from the host.[2c]
Purestrain Genestealers are Genestealers which have been spawned not through the process of infecting hosts but rather by the hive ships themselves in great bio-factories and birthing vats. Not polluted or altered by “inferior” genetic material, they are markedly stronger and faster than a normal Genestealer and possess a wider variety of adaptive biomorphs. This is intentional, as Purestrain Genestealers are the creatures from which all other Genestealers are born, and even a single Purestrain Genestealer can create a vast brood from a local population given time and enough raw material.[7]
Reproduction
A Genestealer Ovipositor
Possibly the most terrifying aspect of Genestealers is their insidious method of reproduction. Genestealers reproduce completely separate from a Hive Fleet, unlike the majority of other Tyranid creatures. Through the use of a tube-like tongue called an Ovipositor known informally as the Genestealer's Kiss[10], they insert a tiny embryonic organism containing their own genetic material into a host victim. Over time this organism alters the host's genetic code, and their consciousness is also completely suppressed by a localised version of the Hive Mind, known as the Brood Mind, becoming a virtual slave. Any offspring born by the host will be horrific Genestealer Hybrids, which the host will be psychically mesmerised to care for, giving rise to the Genestealer Cults that grow in secret within human and other societies. [3][4]
Brood Mind
Genestealers have an interlinking telepathy similar to the greater Hive Mind which is generated by the entire Tyranid race. This Brood Mind is smaller and more localised than the Hive Mind and is used to exert complete control over their host victims [3] and also for communication [6]. Their telepathic link with each other can function clearly and without restriction (such as from intervening objects or other forms of shielding) up to one kilometre[8]. It also acts as a psychic beacon to draw a Hive Fleet towards the infestation in order to devour the planet.[3]
Sub-Species
Ymgarl Genestealer[1b] An example of an
Broodlord
A Broodlord is the Genestealer leader organism, the strongest and most dangerous Genestealer of the brood.[1b]
The relationship, if any, between the Broodlord and Genestealer Patriarch is undetermined.
Patriarch
A Genestealer Patriarch is the founder and leader of a Genestealer Cult.
Ymgarl Genestealers
A Ymgarl Genestealer is a unique Genestealer subspecies that can morph its own flesh within moments to react to incoming attacks or change its colour to remain unseen.[1c]
Infiltration
A group of Genestealers of several generations. The Magus is giving orders, but notice also the much larger Patriarch behind him.
Main article: Genestealer Cult
Genestealers form the first wave of a Tyranid invasion, either infiltrating a suitable world hundreds of years before the actual invasion, or in the more short term, where they are deployed onto a planet by Mycetic Spores from the hive fleet. In both cases they pave the way for the invasion by weakening the planet's defences.[2b]
Once upon a new world, the Genestealers seek out all forms of life, attempting to home in on species of a highly organised nature. Genestealers at first concentrate on infecting host victims, who go on to breed Genestealer/host hybrids and begin a generational cycle of new hybrids increasingly like the host species. Over decades, the hybrids will spread through a society and a hidden cult is established within the host's society. All members of the Genestealer cult are psychically linked and controlled by the original Genestealer. The cult is totally devoted to gaining political power within the society, often cloaking itself in the guise of a legitimate religion, while infecting suitable hosts, prospering and multiplying, and hiding their true nature from the broader society.[6]
Infiltration Cycle
The different phases, beginning with a Purii. The contagii, who are mere hosts and not Genestealers at all, are not shown.
Reproductive cycle of the Genestealer
Purii
A full Genestealer starts the infection cycle by inserting their genetic material into a host victim. As the infestation spreads and the cult grows, the first Genestealer takes the role of a Genestealer Patriarch and often grows larger into an obese and psychic monstrosity.[4]
Purestrain Genestealer
Infection Generation - Contagii
The host victims, or Contagii, return to their own societies and begin to have an urgent need to find a mate and begin a family. This mate also becomes infected with Genestealer DNA.[6] Contagii still physically resemble other members of their species, though they may have a slight blue or mauve pallor to their skin and can be psychically controlled by the Patriach to become mindless slaves, making them the perfect infiltrators.[3]
Genestealer Patriarch
1st Generation - Maelignaci
As the contagii mate, the Genestealer genetic material passes onto their offspring, the Maelignaci, also known as Genestealer Acolytes[10]. The Maelignaci are animals, slow, clumsy and moronic. Within the cult they generally regarded as expendable shock troops.[4] They often possess three or even four arms, and are unable to use their host species technology or weaponry.[6]
1st Generation Genestealer Hybrid
2nd Generation - Hybrid
The Hybrid offspring of the Maelignaci, still referred to as Acolytes[10] are born unique with no two alike. However this generation can be selectively bred, using their parents like live-stock, and is often manipulated for traits such speed, strength or aggression.[4] They bear more resemblance to their host species than a Genestealer, but are still unable to use their host's technology.[6]
2nd Generation Hybrid
3rd Generation - True Hybrid
The next generation are True Hybrids, and can be mistaken for a member of their host species, if they wear disguising clothes, or stay in dark areas, etc. Some of this generation are capable of using weapons of their host species.[6] Kelermorph's and Locus' are refined spawns of the third generation cycle.
Genestealer Hybrid
4th Generation - Primacii
The fourth generation, the Primacii or Neophytes[10] are almost indistinguishable from their host species, only with slight physical deformities. Some still sport give-away signs such as being bald [6]. They are able to blend in to the host society and work to lure, kidnap, or do whatever it takes to provide more hosts.[3] Some rare individuals of this generation have psychic powers and become a Genestealer Magus or Genestealer Primus.[6] Other types of Fourth Generation Genestealer Hybrids are Clamavuses, Nexoses, Sanctuses, and Biophagus'.
Between the fourth and fifth generations, the Genestealer cult will prepare for all-out war. They will spawn Metamorphs, creatures that echo Tyranid Hive Fleets that are built for war alone.[10]
4th Generation Genestealer Magus
4th Generation Genestealer Primus
5th Generation - Purii
Paradoxically, the Genestealer's DNA reemerges in the fifth generation, giving birth to a full Genestealer, albeit one showing some physical characteristics of the host species.[1b] Thus the cycle can begin anew, as the new Genestealers have the potential to infiltrate other worlds and become a Patriarch.
Purestrain Genestealer
Over Deviations
The following types of Genestealers may appear in any given generation of reproduction.[10]
Hive Fleet Invasion
The Brood Mind of a Genestealer infestation acts as a psychic beacon to draw in a Tyranid Hive Fleet. When a Hive Fleet comes within a few hundred light years of an infected world, a sublimiminal reaction is triggered within the Brood Mind which forces the Genestealers into a frenzy of killing and breeding, thus collapsing the society in which they were hidden and making way for the full Tyranid invasion.[3]
However Genestealers are notoriously independent from the Hive Mind and have a great will to survive. During a planetary invasion Genestealers wanting to survive are innately driven onwards and outwards from the Hive Fleet by infiltrating fleeing ships. Or, after the invasion, the Genestealers are reabsorbed into the Hive Fleet as pure bio-matter like all other life is. The infiltrating Genestealers go on to infest more worlds and then in turn lead the Hive Fleet to them. No one amongst the Imperium knows how deep and widespread the Genestealer infestation of the galaxy has become.[1b]
Notable Encounters with Imperium
Names of Genestealers in Languages of Other Races
Eldar know Genestealers by many names, the most famous of which are — The Hider in Plain Sight, Hearth-lurkers, Bloodshadows, Kin-thieves.[12]
Images
Related Articles
Sources
UncitedOnce again, Evil Scientists have thwarted a plan by those vile Creationists to take over the world.
Creation Science and its more moderate offspring, Intelligent Design (ID), have never been taken seriously by scientists. This is because most of the actual science is poor, and in ID, at least, is never about the designer. Because of this, ID's supporters have difficulty publishing in the scientific literature, so they have to resort to other methods of getting their message out, like starting their own journal. Their latest ruse is to hold a conference and publish a book of conference proceedings.
This all unravelled last week when someone noticed. A long time ID watcher known online as "sparc" saw that the German publishers, Springer-Verlag, announced a book edited with the title Biological Information: New Perspectives. The editors of the book were well known names: Robert Marks II, Michael Behe, William Dembski, Bruce Gordon, and John Sanford. Despite clearly being an ID book (more on that below), it was being published in the "Intelligent Systems Reference Library" series in Engineering and Applied Science, i.e., not in biology. The more cynical (sensu Sir Humphrey) suspected this was an attempt to get the book through the Springer review process by sending it to an editor less likely to understand the context of the book and its proposal. The senior editor (Marks) is a computer scientist, who apparently is well respected in his field, and it may be that his reputation helped steer the book proposal through the publisher.
After some digging around by ID watchers, the following story has emerged. The book is a collection of papers presented at a meeting held on the campus of Cornell University, in the School of Hotel Administration(!). About 120 people were invited, including roughly 27 speakers. Presumably this was arranged by John Sanford, who is a "courtesy professor" at Cornell (meaning, he was a professor, but retired in 1998, evidently to spend more time with his gene gun).
But what is the book about? This is how the book's blurb described it:
In the spring of 2011, a diverse group of scientists gathered at Cornell University to discuss their research into the nature and origin of biological information. This symposium brought together experts in information theory, computer science, numerical simulation, thermodynamics, evolutionary theory, whole organism biology, developmental biology, molecular biology, genetics, physics, biophysics, mathematics, and linguistics. This volume presents new research by those invited to speak at the conference. The contributors to this volume use their wide-ranging expertise in the area of biological information to bring fresh insights into the explanatory difficulties that biological information raises. Going beyond the conventional scientific wisdom, which attempts to explain biological information reductionistically via chemical, genetic, and natural selective determinants, the work represented here develops novel non-reductionist approaches to biological information, looking notably to telic [sic] and self-organizational [sic] processes. Several clear themes emerged from these research papers: 1) Information is indispensable to our understanding of what life is. 2) Biological information is more than the material structures that embody it. 3) Conventional chemical and evolutionary mechanisms seem insufficient to fully explain the labyrinth of information that is life. By exploring new perspectives on biological information, this volume seeks to expand, encourage, and enrich research on the nature and origin of biological information.
The clear themes sound pretty much like biology to me, only loosely linked to intelligent systems. It also differs somewhat from how the meeting was described by its organiser, John Sandford (starting at 30:08 here, transcribed by me):
Well, it turns out that Darwin's theory is coming down. And there was a really exciting symposium at Cornell organised by myself and some associates, and it was entitled 'Biological Information: New Perspectives'. And basically it was over 120 people gathered, about half of them PhDs, 25 speakers were PhD scientists [who] talked about the reality [of] number 1: biological information in living systems is astounding, wonderful, beautifully [?] and wonderfully made and number 2: it is coming undone. And this conference had people from every field, from physicists, bio-physicists, chemists, biochemists, mathematicians, geneticists, molecular biologists, computer scientists. All these people came together. We were agreed one one thing, and that is that Darwin was wrong.
So "Darwin was wrong" somehow is transmuted into "conventional chemical and evolutionary mechanisms seem insufficient to fully explain the labyrinth of information that is life" (this is Science Communication [tm] at its finest). An analysis of the titles of the talks at the meeting definitely identified co-authors for 10 of the chapters in the book, and provide good guesses for the identities for 10 more authors. Almost all are either YECs, young earth creationists (Sanford is a YEC), or part of the ID crowd, associated with the Discovery Institute in Seattle. The titles suggest the usual creationist nonsense, claiming that evolution can't create the complexity we see (but remaining almost uniformly silent on how this complexity arose).
As the contents of the volume are the typical ID/creationist subjects, how did this book get accepted by Springer-Verlag? Presumably the proposal to have the book published didn't mention ID (nor creationism), but what did it say? Presumably, it would have been more detailed than the book's blurb, and would probably have listed the proposed chapters and authors. I think this would have been spotted rather quickly by biologists, so sending the proposal to an engineering/computer science editor makes sense. But who were the reviewers? Marks II & co. would have provided some suggestions (presumably their friends), but did Springer ask anyone else? And did they query the book's suitability for their Intelligent Systems section?
A couple of days after the book was noticed, the announcement on Springer's webpages disappeared. The editors decided that "additional peer review would be necessary", according to their executive vice president of corporate communications, which sounds like there was a collective "oh bugger" when Springer realised their mistake, so they've bought themselves some time to sort out the mess. Of course, this may not mean that they won't publish the book anyway: they may decide that the extra sales to creationists is worth the hit to their credibility (especially if they reduce the price from the $179 it was originally listed for). This would also avoid the inevitable accusations of suppression of creationist viewpoints, recriminations that don't impress proper scientists. Perhaps Springer may try to have the best of both worlds by publishing it in their Design section, alongside titles like Functional Aesthetics, Emergency Design, and Max von Moos' Surrealistic Depiction of War [Das surrealistische Kriegsbild bei Max von Moos].
This is just the latest chapter in the normal fun-and-games saga that is the ID circus. But, bizarrely, the ID crowd hasn't come out to play this time. Since the withdrawal of the book announcement, all that we've seen has been a couple quotes in an article online, and a post on the Discovery Institute's blog, which was quickly taken down. This is surprising, as the Disco Institute is usually quick to leap up and down complaining that they're being oppressed. So why has there barely been a peep out of them? Don't they care any more? Are they too busy doing more Sooper Top Seekrit Science? Or are they being oppressed by their lawyers?
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Thanks to the netizens at The Panda's Thumb and After the Bar Closes for their research.
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Bob O'Hara is a biostatisician who conducts research at the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Germany. In his free time, he writes the blog, Deep Thoughts and Silliness at Nature Network and he tweets from his twitter account @BobOHara
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twitter: @GrrlScientist
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email: grrlscientist@gmail.comImage copyright AFP Image caption The gunmen fled the scene by motorcycle
Gunmen have shot dead four people, including a mayor, at Manila airport in the Philippines, officials have said.
Ukol Talumpa, mayor of the southern town Labangan, and three others were hit while waiting outside the airport terminal.
Gunmen approached Mr Talumpa and shot him and three others at close range, airport manager Jose Angel Honrado said.
The attackers then escaped. The motive behind the shootings is unclear.
Manila's Ninoy Aquino airport handles international and domestic flights and was crowded at the time of the shooting.
"The mayor and his family and some security escorts were attacked," Mr Honrado said, adding that the mayor's wife was also among the dead.
"Government agencies are trying their best to determine the perpetrators and bring them to justice," he said.
The other two killed were a one-year-old boy and a 25-year-old man, AP news agency reported.
Four other people were reportedly wounded in the shooting.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Ukol Talumpa was said to have survived two previous attacks
The gunmen fled the scene on a motorcycle, Mr Honrado said.
Police investigators were considering political rivalry as a possible motive for the attack, The Philippine Star newspaper reported.
Local media reports said Mr Talumpa had survived two attacks before: an ambush in 2010 and a grenade attack in 2012.Part III
Present/Future
36. The crisis of statism (^)
Towards the end of the 20th century, statism entered a terminal crisis from which there seems to be no way out. This is because the state itself, its very existence and permanence, has come to be The Problem, i.e. the very source of most problems. And so, as the solution of a problem consists in overcoming the problem itself by eliminating its source, so the solution to the crisis of statism consists in going beyond statism itself through the progressive extinction of the state.
Too many hopes and beliefs about the state that too many people held dear for a long time are becoming too dear to hold anymore. Too dear in terms of moral corruption, material failure and sheer political idiocy.
Let us examine the main points of the crisis. They involve at least three facets:
- Moral crisis - Material crisis - Political crisis
37. Moral crisis (^)
The most evident sign of the moral crisis of statism is its lack of any progressive values. Fake principles such as patriotism, race, military heroism and the like, having collapsed, they have been replaced by other fake messages condensed into catch phrases like 'public interest' and 'public welfare', convenient formulas used to cover up the hoarding and looting of resources by parasitic groups.
Nothing better exemplifies the moral bankruptcy of statism than the total replacement of morality with legality. The functioning of society is seen as the controlled implementation of all sorts of regulations and restrictions imposed from above and not as the free interplay of human beings endowed with morality and rationality. The result is that the states with more regulations and more policing are those with more disorder and social disease. As the drug addict sees in the continuous consumption of drugs the solution to his/her problems and does not want to acknowledge that this supposed solution is in reality the enlargement and deepening of the problem, so does happen with statism when it advocates more and more regulations and restrictions.
A further indicator of moral crisis is the belief in the thaumaturgic power of money. Statism believes that money can solve every problem arising from any situation at any time and in any place. The result has been the multiplication and intensification of moral problems, with the institution and insertion of powerful mafia groups and petty criminals as sub-sections of the state.
Within the dominion of statism there seem to be no limits to legal madness (e.g. miscarriages of justice) and money squandering (e.g. misappropriation and misuse of financial resources), especially when sustained by strong parasitic interests masquerading as general public interest. In this respect, at least, capitalism offered a less hypocritical and more open picture of personal interests, advocating (rightly or wrongly) that they would eventually work for the public good. More cunningly, statism deceptively portrays sectorial or egotistic interests as general public interests.
But the main difference between the two is that while capitalism was a progressive and productive period of history, statism is a parasitic one and there is no way that parasitism could ever be in the general interest. Furthermore capitalism was provident in the use of resources while statism is profligate.
And this fact leads straight to the second aspect: the material crisis.
38. Material crisis (^)
Statism has found favour with the masses because, in periods of deep misery and uncertainty (war, strife, famine, unemployment, etc.), very often produced or provoked by the state itself, the same state has either provided some semblance of security (albeit fake and ephemeral) or the impression of being the only organization capable of restoring security.
The main aspect of security provision has been the redistribution of material resources (goods) that entrepreneurs (risk takers), inventors (device makers) and workers (commodities producers) generated firstly through mechanization and later automazation.
The redistribution of resources has been the master stroke of statism but it could also play a large part in its undoing. In fact it has created bigger and bigger expectations on the part of a larger and larger number of people. It has multiplied parasitism and parasitic occupations to a level never attained in human memory. At the same time, it has given people fictitious reasons to believe that they are performing useful activities that are essential in a modern society or that they are playing roles sustainable in a progressive society.
Lawyers, accountants, notaries, civil servants, welfare recipients, etc., most of them are part of a magma made of a mixture of illusion in the present and likely disillusion in the future. They are, directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously, part of a massive bureaucracy or, in other words, a vast parasitocracy.
To feed and sustain this parasitocracy, the states, all over the world, have accumulated huge debts that they will hand down as a legacy to future generations. To keep the façade from falling down, the states are hurriedly selling assets previously grabbed and monopolised, desperately promoting gambling (lotteries and all sorts of money games) and are pushing as ever for consumerism, to keep the flow of tax revenues running.
To every free and rational human being the state appears, more and more, as a tentacular racket based on extortion, corruption and fraud.
It is a moral and material disaster.
The bubble will burst when the perception of a moral and material crisis becomes more palpable and is compounded by a political crisis, the overdue discovery that the king is not only stark naked but flaccid and wretched.
39. Political crisis (^)
The veil of fiction that shrouded and supported representative democracy has finally fallen.
Representative parliamentary democracy should have been more appropriately called manipulative totalitarian statocracy, as the state has intervened to regulate (or tried to regulate) each and every aspect of people's lives, drinking habits and sexual practices of adult couples included.
In any case, transformed or not, the electoral process no longer represents, if ever it did, the will of the majority, entrusted to honest and faithful delegates and translated by them into reality through appropriate and well-thought out measures.
In fact, even in the past, this idealtype portrait of representative democracy did not correspond to reality, as we had a majority of people electing an élite and, almost submissively, without much interference, accepting to be run by it.
Now we have reached the point where a minority of the population elects and delegates everything to a micro élite. It makes the old belief that the electoral process is an expression of the will of the majority appear not just fictional but farcical.
Faith in the polls has collapsed. The ballot box has become an empty box.
The crisis of political representation is a crisis of politics 'tout court', or of politics as it has operated throughout the period of statism, which is to say of parties, lobbies and pressure groups busily selling votes, putting on masks, setting up smoke screens, manufacturing lies, manipulating minds, again and again, ad nauseam.
At present, there is such frustration and desperation with politics that whoever appears to be saying something new with a new tone of voice and a new posture attracts interest and followers, at least for a while.
But the way out of this mess is not any longer (if it ever was) through preachers and followers of new Gospels.
The way out consists, first of all, in a personal awakening to and awareness of a new reality and of the new seeds of potential empowerment it is nurturing and bringing to life.
40. The new reality (^)
The new reality exposes, in many subtle but unequivocal ways, to all whose eyes are not blinded by a vested interest, the unremitting decay and obsolescence of the state.
The state is on the retreat, everywhere, on all fronts. It has had to give up its role as producer/operator in nationalized industries amid mounting debts and incompetent management. As patronizing distributor of public resources, the state is heading towards disaster as the growth in resources does not match the increase in expectations and demands. As controller of the life of people the state is totally impotent except in culturally poor and technologically backward societies.
Many tasks and powers that were the prerogatives of the national state have been taken away by international organizations or recaptured by regional communities.
The nation state is under pressure from above (globalism) and from below (localism) and is gradually being minced up by the concomitant action of these two powerful jaws.
Certainly the state and its parasitic strata are not about to go gracefully, without putting up a fight.
Revenues lost in one sector are balanced by a more stringent fiscalism in another sector (i.e. reducing direct taxation while increasing or even doubling indirect taxation). The right hand routinely recovers what the left has conceded or lost.
Reality is multi-faceted. For instance, as far as state control is concerned, the same year (1989) that saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of dictatorial states in eastern Europe, witnessed also the Tien-an-men massacre with the strengthening of Chinese state dominance. The same year saw also the coming on the scene of the World Wide Web, which sounded the death knell to any future attempt at the control and fixing of borders by the state.
So, with ups and downs, this more and more useless and dangerous entity that the state has become is vainly struggling against the new seeds sown by the ingenuity and resiliency of human beings all over the globe. These new seeds are making the state superfluous and are hastening the moment when the state will wither away as a bygone remnant of past ages.
41. The new seeds (^)
Even while statism was on the rise, new seeds were being sown that would lead, in the long run, to its demise.
It is all to do, as often in history, with going beyond actual or artificial borders. Nowadays it is happening with a speed and to an extent that is quite remarkable.
This going beyond borders concerns three main aspects that are drawing people together:
- expressing (talking) : individuals are connected to and are communicating with the entire world more and more freely, easily, and cheaply than ever before - exploring (travelling) : individuals are moving all over the earth, navigating and criss-crossing it physically and virtually - exchanging (trading) : individuals are exchanging with the entire world not just material goods but also ideas and projects.
Through this universal expressing/exploring/exchanging, human beings and the communities of which they feel to be part are progressively becoming nationless and stateless as they grow more and more acquainted with the different cultures and familiar with the various localities and societies they go through, stop at, live in, trade with and so on and so forth.
In fact, it is not the talking, travelling or trading in itself that is noteworthy or the simple fact that this is happening on an unparalleled scale, but what it could lead to and is already leading to in terms of a new conceptual and empirical paradigm.
42. The new paradigm (^)
A new reality, following the coming to fruition of new seeds of opportunities, must be matched by the emergence of a new paradigm, that means a new, more appropriate way of seeing reality and seizing possibilities.
This new paradigm conceives the world as made of small interconnected cooperating communities instead of big monolithic separate blocks (the nation states) in opposition to one another.
It is based on the concepts of:
- micro : through communication, space becomes smaller and time shorter; people can virtually be almost anywhere in space (ubiquity) in a fraction of time (instantaneousness). Miniaturization of components and downsizing of instruments go hand in hand with increase in power and scope for each human being. Many individuals already have at their disposal tools that not even the rich and powerful possessed not so long ago. - poly : the empowerment offered by new small devices at incredibly reduced cost leads to a multiplication of decision centres, to a diffusion of knowledge and power that gives birth to a polyphony of voices, in a vast universal network on a worldwide scale. - continuum : this polyphonic universal reality can be seen as a continuous network of communities in which sounds (languages), colours (bodies), tastes (attitudes), etc. mingle and blend like on a spectrum of gradation and variety. For this reason, the entities composing a networked world are not any longer to be seen as opposing dualities within distinct borders but as interconnected cooperating pluralities (rich entities) on a borderless continuum.
In brief, the world is becoming a planetary polyphonic network of micro-societies, a continuous variety of hamlets inhabited by cosmopolitan individuals and communities, in touch with one another and in charge and care of their own reality.
43. The new requirements (^)
The passage from big monolithic clashing blocks to a continuum of small polyphonic interconnected entities demands the fulfilling of some requirements and their continuous refinement.
These requirements can be summed up as:
- variety : as smallness feeds plurality so plurality feeds variety. The variety of situations and entities replaces uniformity and is accompanied by the need for versatility. - versatility : this means flexibility and adaptability in responding to a rich and various reality. It replaces rigidity and is accompanied by the need for velocity. - velocity : this is promptness of intervention, especially to avert a disaster or to avoid a nuisance and to solve a problematic situation without being hampered or blocked by irresponsible procrastination or meaningless procedures.
These requirements of variety/versatility/velocity are not and cannot be met by statism and its bureaucratic way of thinking and acting, based fundamentally on exactly opposite principles, that |
2013, 2015), archaic birds and related theropods (Dyke et al. 2012, Cau et al. 2015) and turtles (Dyke et al. 2015). There are also in-prep projects on multituberculate mammals, crocodyliforms and lizards.
Our latest contribution has just appeared. It’s a paper that reviews our knowledge of the faunas concerned and aims to better pin down their stratigraphic and temporal context, effectively providing the first comprehensive stratigraphic framework for these vertebrate-bearing strata (Csiki-Sava et al. 2015a).
This montage - showing the vertebrate groups reported from the localities of the Haţeg Basin - gives some idea of how diverse the Upper Cretaceous Romanian vertebrate record is. Diagram from Csiki-Sava et al. (2015a).
This is therefore one of those papers that does a good job of showing just how rich and diverse the Haţeg Island fauna is. Zoltán and colleagues also recently discussed the region’s vertebrate assemblage in another review paper (Csiki-Sava et al. 2015b). So, yes, we have a quite detailed view of the region’s vertebrate fauna, though of course there’s much left to discover and there are a great many taxa that are as yet known only from fragments and which remain enigmatic.
The dwarf, island-dwelling dinosaurs of this fauna – the weird archaic hadrosaurs, miniature titanosaurian sauropods and small ankylosaurs – are relatively familiar, and you might say the same about the giant azhdarchid pterosaur Hatzegopteryx (Buffetaut et al. 2002, 2003). But there’s also a rich assemblage of small animals, including albanerpetids* (a group of terrestrial, superficially salamander-like amphibians), frogs of several sorts, multituberculates, lizards, snakes and crocodyliforms. I’m especially interested in the lizards and an article on them is forthcoming, I promise. Haţeg Island lizard fossils don’t just include bones and teeth, but eggshell fragments too, much of which is the dispersituberculate type characteristic of gekkotans. We report assorted new lizard fossils from several Romanian localities (Csiki-Sava et al. 2015a).
* I’ve previously been calling these animals ‘albanerpetontids’. But this seems to be incorrect: they should be Albanerpetidae, not Albanerpetontidae. Thanks to Christian Kammerer for pointing this out.
Some of the new fossils we report. The specimens here represent albanerpetids (C), frogs (D), lizards (E), crocodyliforms (F-G), snakes (H-I), small theropods (J-O), nodosaurids (P), and multituberculates (R-T). Scale bars = 1 mm. From Csiki-Sava et al. (2015a).
The three classic Romanian maniraptoran taxa. As you can see, there isn't a tremendous amount to go on. The Elopteryx and Heptasteornis illustrations are from Naish & Dyke (2004); the Bradycneme photos are (c) NHMUK.
We also report a set of new theropod remains. Frustratingly, most Upper Cretaceous Romanian theropod specimens consist of isolated teeth and fragmentary specimens: only the paravian Balaur bondoc – originally described as a dromaeosaurid (Csiki et al. 2010, Brusatte et al. 2013) but more recently argued to be a jeholornithid-grade member of the bird lineage (Cau et al. 2015) (and recently discussed here on Tet Zoo) – is represented by good remains. Of the new specimens we discuss and illustrate, some of the teeth have been assigned to the Richardoestesia morphotype (I really don’t think that all these teeth, found at so many locations and horizons worldwide, represent the same one animal). Others are of troodontid- or dromaeosaurid-like morphology. We also report a new partial femur that looks referable to the poorly known maniraptoran Elopteryx (Csiki-Sava et al. 2015a). Incidentally, there is as yet no indication whatsoever of large theropods in the Haţeg Island assemblage. Hold that thought, since we’ll come back to it at some point in the future.
A really weird thing about several of the Haţeg Island theropods is that the outside surfaces of their bones possess a distinctive ‘wrinkled’ texture that consists of subparallel, raised ridges. Nobody has any firm idea what’s going on here. The texture doesn’t seem to be pathological. Rather, it’s a normal feature of these animals. If this is so, it seems mightily suspicious that the texture is present in animals that are supposed to belong to wholly different (and phylogenetically disparate) maniraptoran lineages, including alvarezsaurids, Jeholornis-grade avialans, and dromaeosaurids.
Bradycneme, reconstructed as a giant owl by Gregory Irons in the 1980 book The Last of the Dinosaurs.
Indeed, another interesting thing about the taxa concerned is that they’ve been re-interpreted on several occasions as the members of different theropod groups. My favourite of these suggestions is that two of them – Heptasteornis and Bradycneme – might have been giant archaic owls (Harrison & Walker 1975). Back in 2004, Gareth Dyke and I argued that Heptasteornis might actually be an alvarezsaurid (Naish & Dyke 2004). But proposals of this sort are hypotheses, and hypotheses that are liable to be overturned as we learn more about the animals concerned, especially when they’re based on horribly incomplete, fragmentary specimens. Heptasteornis is, after all, based only on the incomplete distal ends of tibiotarsi.
What seems more likely – it’s now been mentioned several times by several researchers – is that the various specimens don’t represent disparate lineages at all, but close relatives within an endemic clade (Csiki-Sava et al. 2015a). Some might be synonymous, perhaps being different bits of the same one animal. You might recognise this as being similar to the ‘Holy-Grail-o-saurus Hypothesis’ discussed here previously in connection with Wealden theropods and Eotyrannus. Oh, yeah, Eotyrannus. That.
The 'Holy-Grail-o-saurus Hypothesis' as once applied to the (non-Romanian!) British theropod Eotyrannus. It failed: those different Wealden theropods really are from different Wealden theropods. This illustration is a slide from a talk I gave in 2013.
New bits and pieces of lizards and dinosaurs are all very nice. But the raison d’etre of this paper is to better pin down the age of the localities (and hence their constituent faunas) better. Views on the ages of these strata have varied considerably since they were discovered in the late 1800s. They were initially suspected to be Paleogene or Miocene, and – for some of the locations – this view was the dominant paradigm really recently. Some were thought to date to the Miocene until just a few years ago, the discovery of undoubtedly Cretaceous dinosaur bones and palynomorphs finally causing opinion to shift.
Late Cretaceous Romania was home to several titanosaurian sauropods, some of which were really quite small (for sauropods). This is a life-sized model of Magyarosaurus at Centrul de Ştiinţă şi Artă, General Berthelot, beautifully made by Brian Cooley. It's super-accurate.
What we argue in the new paper is that several of the faunas are upper Campanian or lower Maastrichtian, and thus date to perhaps 72 Ma or so. Others are mid Maastrichtian, and others upper Maastrichtian. It’s complicated, and it can be hard to work out which locality specific historical specimens or taxa might come from since original collection data on them is sometimes scant. Regardless, many surprises emerge. Balaur is ‘only’ known from the lower and mid Maastrichtian while some taxa (like the turtle Kallokibotion and the Zalmoxes species) seem to have persisted across most of these time zones (Csiki-Sava et al. 2015a). Zalmoxes shqiperorum is seemingly around for an impressive 5 Ma... do the specimens concerned really all represent the same one species? Incidentally, a Zalmoxes specimen described in the paper (Csiki-Sava et al. 2015a) represents an even smaller individual (represented by a 72 mm long tibia) than the one we previously described in 2013 (Brusatte et al. 2013b).
The presence of large titanosaurs throughout the time-frame indicates that there was not one progressive dwarfing event but that things were more complicated (Csiki-Sava et al. 2015a). Did dwarfing happen independently several times? Did it only affect one lineage? Were dwarf populations ‘contaminated’ with big-bodied animals that swam in from adjacent regions? We don’t yet know.
Closeup of the head of Cooley's Magyarosaurus model. Photo by Darren Naish.
So, Haţeg Island animals don’t represent one fauna, but several distinct ones separated quite considerably in time. This makes it more difficult to use the Haţeg Island animals as a whole to make generalisations about events and trends in the region, and also means that animals from different regions shouldn’t be assumed to be contemporaneous.
More work on this diverse and fascinating island-endemic fauna is coming – on the azhdarchids, the lizards, the multituberculates, the theropods and more. But this new study is a significant one, sure to prove integral to ongoing research in the research, and sure to prove essential as goes our views on latest Cretaceous animal diversity and evolution in Europe.
Refs - -
Brusatte, S. L., Vremir, M., Csiki-Sava, Z., Turner, A. H., Watanabe, A, Erickson, G. M. & Norell, M. A. 2013a. The osteology of Balaur bondoc, an island-dwelling dromaeosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Late Cretaceous of Romania. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 374, 1-100.
Brusatte, S. L., Vremir, M., Watanabe, A., Csiki-Sava, Z., Naish, D., Dyke, G., Erickson, G. M. & Norell, M. A. 2013b. An infant ornithopod dinosaur tibia from the Late Cretaceous of Sebeş, Romania. Terra Sebus. Acta Musei Sabesiensis 5, 627-644.
Buffetaut, E., Grigorescu, D. & Csiki, Z. 2002. A new giant pterosaur with a robust skull from the latest Cretaceous of Romania. Naturwissenschaften 89, 180-184.
Buffetaut, E., Grigorescu, D. & Csiki, Z. 2003. Giant azhdarchid pterosaurs from the terminal Cretaceous of Translyvania (western Romania). In Buffetaut, E. & Mazin, J.-M. (eds) Evolution and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs. Geological Society Special Publication 217. The Geological Society of London, pp. 91-104.
Cau, A., Brougham, T. & Naish, D. 2015. The phylogenetic affinities of the bizarre Late Cretaceous Romanian theropod Balaur bondoc (Dinosauria, Maniraptora): dromaeosaurid or flightless bird? PeerJ 3:e1032.
Csiki-Sava, Z., Buffetaut, E., Ősi, A., Pereda-Suberbiola, X. & Brusatte, S. L. 2015b. Island life in the Cretaceous – faunal composition, biogeography, evolution, and extinction of land-living vertebrates in the Late Cretaceous European archipelago. ZooKeys 469, 1-161.
Csiki, Z., Vremir, M., Brusatte, S. L., Norell, M. A. 2010. An aberrant island-dwelling theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Romania. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107, 15357-15361.
Csiki-Sava, Z., Vremir, M., Vasile, S., Brusatte, S. L., Dyke, G., Naish, D., Norell, M. A. & Totoianu, R. 2015a. The East Side Story – The Transylvanian latest Cretaceous continental vertebrate record and its implications for understanding Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary events. Cretaceous Research http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2015.09.003
Dyke, G. J., Vremir, M., Brusatte, S., Bever, G., Buffetaut, E., Chapman, S., Csiki-Sava, Z., Kellner, A. W. A., Martin, E., Naish, D., Norell, M., Ősi, A., Pinheiro, F. L., Prondvai, E., Rabi, M., Rodrigues, T., Steel, L., Tong, H., Vila Nova, B. C. & Witton, M. 2014. Thalassodromeus sebesensis – a new name for an old turtle. Comment on “Thalassodromeus sebesensis, an out of place and out of time Gondwanan tapejarid pterosaur”, Grellet-Tinner and Codrea. Gondwana Research 27, 1680-1682.
Dyke, G., Vremir, M., Kaiser, G. & Naish, D. 2012. A drowned Mesozoic bird breeding colony from the Late Cretaceous of Transylvania. Naturwissenschaften 99, 435-442.
Harrison, C. J. O. & Walker, C. A. 1975. The Bradycnemidae, a new family of owls from the Upper Cretaceous of Romania. Palaeontology 18, 563-570.
Naish, D. & Dyke, G. J. 2004. Heptasteornis was no ornithomimid, troodontid, dromaeosaurid or owl: the first alvarezsaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Europe. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Monatshefte 2004, 385-401.
Vremir, M., Kellner, A. W. A., Naish. D. & Dyke, G. J. 2013. A new azhdarchid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous of the Transylvanian Basin, Romania: implications for azhdarchid diversity and distribution. PLoS ONE 8(1): e54268.
Vremir, M., Witton, M., Naish, D., Dyke, G., Brusatte, S. L., Norell, M. & Totoianu, R. 2015. A medium-sized robust-necked azhdarchid pterosaur (Pterodactyloidea: Azhdarchidae) from the Maastrichtian of Pui (Haţeg Basin, Transylvania, Romania). American Museum Novitates 3827, 1-16.The former Boomtown Rats singer hit out as he joined David Davis on the campaign trail ahead of next week's Haltemprice and Howden by-election.
Geldof received a warm reception as he addressed a group of students at Hull's Guildhall.
The rock star, a close ally of Gordon Brown on tackling poverty and repression in Africa, spoke for 30 minutes to local school pupils and constituents.
The Live Aid organiser said as an immigrant from Ireland he owed a great deal of "gratitude" to Britain for allowing him to "get on with it and speak my mind".
"This by-election isn't normal, it is extraordinary," he told the audience.
He said the electorate was not being asked to consider the merits of the Government or opposition but "something profound".
"This time you are being asked to think about who we are. What it is we stand for?"
"This is a fight about illegal boundaries of the state," he added.
"This time, uniquely, we are being asked what kind of people we are and what kind of country we wish to live in. We are being asked to vote about us and we may never get to vote on something so profoundly fundamental."The Newsweek story by Leah McGrath Goodman falls well short of proving that Dorian S. Nakamoto of Temple City, Ca. is the Satoshi Nakamoto credited with the creation of Bitcoin. The whole drama has gotten under my skin in a way that’s tough to scratch, so I thought I’d arrange my thoughts here.
This is not an attempt to prove or disprove who invented a cryptocurrency. Dorian Nakamoto may very well be the creator of Bitcoin. I’m only interested in showing whether or not the Newsweek article answered the question it asked on its cover.
This is mostly a logic experiment for me, so it’s going to read pretty high-school debate nerdy. I plan on updating this pretty regularly as I continue my own reporting into the story.
Newsweek’s parts are in itals.
THE LEDE:
Satoshi Nakamoto stands at the end of his sunbaked driveway looking timorous. And annoyed.
He’s wearing a rumpled T-shirt, old blue jeans and white gym socks, without shoes, like he has left the house in a hurry. His hair is unkempt, and he has the thousand-mile stare of someone who has gone weeks without sleep.
He stands not with defiance, but with the slackness of a person who has waged battle for a long time and now faces a grave loss.
What, exactly, is being established in this lede? Is Goodman (a) trying to graft the cliched image of a bleary-eyed computer genius onto Nakamoto? Or is she (b) trying to show a man who is about to lose everything because she, intrepid reporter, has arrived in his driveway with the truth?
Option A makes no sense because Nakamoto, by nearly every account, no longer works on Bitcoin. If he’s bleary-eyed for some other reason (like say, his recent stroke), then its a floating detail that’s highly prejudicial in this context.
Option B is a bit tacky, but plausible. But if we want to talk about wild speculation and the general style of this article, let’s start with “the slackness of a person who has waged battle for a long time and now faces a grave loss.” Goodman piles a full narrative range of emotions onto Dorian Nakamoto that she could not have possibly ascertained in two minutes without relying heavily upon confirmation bias.
As in, “he clearly looks defeated because he knows I defeated him and the reason why I know he knows that I defeated him is because I know I defeated him.”
If it’s some Option C, Goodman has decided to start the piece with a non-sequitur.
THE “SMOKING GUN”
Now face to face, with two police officers as witnesses, Nakamoto’s responses to my questions about Bitcoin were careful but revealing.
Tacitly acknowledging his role in the Bitcoin project, he looks down, staring at the pavement and categorically refuses to answer questions.
“I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it,” he says, dismissing all further queries with a swat of his left hand. “It’s been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection.”
I admit that when I first read the piece, I latched onto this quote as something close to proof. But after a second examination, it becomes pretty clear that this quote comes without any context. What was the question that provided the answer? What was the “tacit” acknowledgement?
Without a transcript of this conversation or some explanation from Goodman, the quote is meaningless. As a reporter, you always end up wishing that certain quotes were placed in different contexts to bolster whatever argument you’re trying to make. What if the conversation went like this?
GOODMAN: You are the inventor of Bitcoin.
NAKAMOTO: Please leave me alone. I don’t want any trouble.
GOODMAN: I have done some research into your past and you certainly have the capacity, with your background in secret defense projects, to have created Bitcoin.
NAKAMOTO: <INSERT “SMOKING GUN” QUOTE HERE>
Obviously, this is speculative and only one example of how the conversation could have taken place, but if Goodman wants to really stand by her story, she should release more information about this conversation and how it happened.
UPDATE:
This, from Forbes, on the driveway encounter in question and why it wasn’t recorded.
“I had a notebook, but it was obvious that a tape recording was not welcome,” says Goodman.
I can’t think of a single time when it has crossed my mind that a small, unobtrusive recorder would not be welcome in an interview, especially if I explained that it’s mostly there to protect the source from being misquoted. On a scale of high-risk, tense interviews with difficult subjects, the driveway confrontation described in the article is about a 6 out of 10. There’s no reason why it would be “obvious” that a recording was not welcome unless he explicitly said so.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles sheriffs’ department confirmed the Nakamoto quote, but not the specific context.
From ABC News:
“They had a dialogue, the deputies stood there and they were there while the two people were working things out,” said Parker. “The gentleman didn’t want to participate. He said enough for those quotes to be made and that was pretty much a wrap.”
Parker added that the deputy quoted in the story didn’t know about the mystery behind bitcoin’s creator prior to the call. After the reporter explained more about who she believed Nakamoto to be, that’s when the deputy made the quote, “This is the guy who created Bitcoin? It looks like he’s living a pretty humble life.”
This is telling because it shows Goodman’s propensity to tell anyone and everyone she encounters that Dorian Nakamoto is Satoshi Nakamoto. More on that later.
THE INVESTIGATION
But a two-month investigation and interviews with those closest to Nakamoto and the developers who worked most frequently with him on the out-of-nowhere global phenomenon that is Bitcoin reveal the myths surrounding the world’s most famous crypto-currency are largely just that — myths — and the facts are much stranger than the well-established fiction.
and then two grafs down…
Not even his family knew.
Two questions: Who are the people closest to Nakamoto, if not his family?
If his family didn’t know, why is the brother the closest thing we have to a source?
Without that information, this passage seems deliberately misleading—if all you have are estranged family members, that doesn’t necessarily mean you talked to those “closest to Nakamoto.” Why not just say “his family?”
None of these family members knew about Bitcoin and yet they all talk on the record about Bitcoin. Were they all prompted into these responses?
THE NAME
Of course, there is also the chance “Satoshi Nakamoto” is a pseudonym, but that raises the question why someone who wishes to remain anonymous would choose such a distinctive name.
Satoshi Nakamoto is not a distinctive name in Japan. It’s not even a distinctive name in the United States. In fact, if you wanted to just generate a “John Smith” type generic Japanese name, you might end up with Satoshi Nakamoto. Again, this is a small point, but it is reflective of the logic used throughout the article.
REACHIN’ OUT
Nakamoto ceased responding to emails I’d sent him immediately after I began asking about Bitcoin. This was in late February. Before that, I’d also asked about his professional background, for which there is very little to be found in the public record. I only received evasive answers.
It has already been established that Dorian Nakamoto worked on classified government projects. Why would he share any information with a reporter who would not divulge her background, except over the phone?
The “let’s do this over the phone, it’s too complicated over email,” is a pretty ordinary reporter trick. You get the source on the phone to discuss something mundane and then you spring loaded questions on them to gauge how they might respond. The fact that Nakamoto sensed that something weird was going on and refused to talk on the phone does not, in any way, indicate guilt. It just means that he’s not an idiot.
Dorian’s own account of the encounter in the driveway, then, fits in better with Goodman’s narrative. What’s more plausible: a private, elderly man who had worked on some non-BTC classified projects in the past would have misunderstood the question and said, “I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it?” Or that Satoshi Nakamoto, the Keyser Soze of the Internet, would just straight up out himself to a reporter?
The first option only requires a scared man who has no idea why a reporter is in his driveway to misunderstand a question. The second option requires several leaps of faith and a steadfast belief that Dorian and Satoshi are the same.
Goodman has since updated her story via Forbes.
“I was prepared up until the day I spoke to him for him to laugh and say it was a ridiculous coincidence. But he didn’t; he acknowledged it,” says Goodman. “I told him, ‘You’re acknowledging Bitcoin and if you weren’t involved you need to tell me now.’ He said, ‘I cannot do that.’”
WHY WASN’T THIS IN THE ORIGINAL PIECE?
THE CAR
The day I arrived at his modest, single-family home in southern California, his silver Toyota Corolla CE was parked in the driveway but he didn’t answer the door.
This is just me being nit-picky, but come on… the exact make of his Corolla? Why? To further compromise any semblance of privacy? Does that detail really show a mastery of the subject or a keen eye? I’d argue it does the opposite.
It’s possible that this was just a detail that got shoved through the final edit, but it does, in its small way, bring into question every other detail in the story. If you’re going to go as far as to specify the CE model of the Corolla, why did you gloss over other, more important details? Like, for example, the context of any of these quotes?
Goodman addressed the car issue on Twitter.
Huh? The only way to show a man’s humanity and humility is to note that he drives a Toyota Corolla CE (as opposed to the more expensive S model?) and that he lives in a reasonably nice home in Southern California? The detail you latch onto when describing a genius is the specific make of his car? Are we living in the Entourage movie?
Goodman’s explanation does not fit with the tone of the article, which reads almost like an old Village Voice expose of political corruption. In other interviews, Goodman has referred to Dorian Nakamoto as a visionary who changed the world. It’s very possible she believes that, but if you read her article in a vacuum, you’d come out thinking that Dorian Nakamoto had committed some sort of crime.
THE BROTHER
“My brother is an asshole. What you don’t know about him is that he’s worked on classified stuff. His life was a complete blank for a while. You’re not going to be able to get to him. He’ll deny everything. He’ll never admit to starting Bitcoin.”
His remarks suggested I was on the right track, but that was not enough. While his brother suggested Nakamoto would be capable of starting Bitcoin, I was not at all sure whether he knew for certain one way or the other. He said they didn’t get along and didn’t speak often.
This quote comes from Nakamoto’s brother. Again, without any context, it’s meaningless. Goodman has already established that this brother had no idea that Dorian invented Bitcoin and that the two have had a strained relationship. What is his speculation worth?
There are only two conclusions to draw here.
a) the earlier assertion that his family did not know is false.
b) Arthur Nakamoto’s statement was prompted by a reporter’s speculations about his estranged older brother.
If Goodman told the younger Nakamoto that her brother invented Bitcoin and that she has irrefutable evidence, then doesn’t it stand to reason that a stunned younger Nakamoto would say something like exactly like this?
This is the major logical error that’s committed throughout the article. If a reporter who claims to be in the know refers to Dorian as the creator of bitcoin and you have no idea whether or not she’s right, then your answer will probably reference him as the creator of Bitcoin, both out of conversational habit and because you trust that she’s found something more substantive.
UPDATE: Someone claiming to be Arthur Nakamoto has posted a lengthy diatribe on reddit. If it’s real, it provides some perspective on what the Newsweek story did to the Nakamoto family and places the “asshole” comment in some context.
THE ASSHOLE
“He was the kind of person who, if you made an honest mistake, he might call you an idiot and never speak to you again,” Andresen says. “Back then, it was not clear that creating Bitcoin might be a legal thing to do. He went to great lengths to protect his anonymity.”
The quote comes from Gavin Andresen, Bitcoin’s chief scientist. It seems to be in there to show that the asshole Nakamoto’s brother described was surfacing in Dorian’s interactions with Andresen. If that’s not the intention, then it’s another non-sequitur.
Andresen has since said on Twitter that he regrets talking to Goodman. This post-publication tweet, by the way, which some have interpreted as “proof,” does not indicate that Andresen believes that the “Nakamoto family” is involved.
ENGRISH
“I wish you wouldn’t keep talking about me as a mysterious shadowy figure,” Nakamoto wrote to Andresen. “The press just turns that into a pirate currency angle. Maybe instead make it about the open source project and give more credit to your dev contributors; it helps motivate them.”
Felix Salmon of Reuters wrote about Nakamoto’s fluency in English yesterday. I agree with his general argument that the Dorian Nakamoto who wrote these Amazon reviews does not seem capable of writing the Bitcoin papers or the email quoted above.
I will say, however, as an immigrant myself and as a devoted reader of what I’ll begrudgingly call “literature written by immigrants,” there are writers who come across much differently in print than they do in person. Ha Jin is an example. Aleksander Hemon is another. An accent and a flippant Amazon review don’t say much one way or another.
Here’s a video of Dorian Nakamoto speaking at a town hall meeting (via LAist). As you can see, his English is fine. Of all the weird possibilities and theories out there, the one that says Dorian Nakamoto is playing up his inability to speak English as an alibi isn’t all that far-fetched. It’s a well-worn trick, especially amongst Asian and Latino populations within the United States. Hell, I’ve even done it on a couple of occassions to avoid conversations on airplanes.
THE HOUSE
Without any explanation, Newsweek decided to publish a photo of Nakamoto’s house. Again, this is the small detail shell game. What is the point, except to show that a reporter went to a house? This is something newspaper reporters do every single day. It’s not evidence of anything except that the reporter did what reporters are supposed to do.
THE WIFE
Mitchell says her husband “did not talk much about his work” and sometimes took on military projects independent of RCA. In 1987, the couple moved back to California, where Nakamoto worked as a computer engineer for communications and technologies companies in the Los Angeles area, including financial information service Quotron Systems Inc., sold in 1994 to Reuters, and Nortel Networks.
Nakamoto, who was laid off twice in the 1990s, according to Mitchell, fell behind on mortgage payments and taxes and their home was foreclosed. That experience, says Nakamoto’s oldest daughter, Ilene Mitchell, 26, may have informed her father’s attitude toward banks and the government.
Dozens of redditors have pointed out that this passage is pure, wild conjecture— just one of dozens of tenuous, circumstantial threads that holds the argument together. Again, we’re asked to make the leap that a guy who works on classified projects and who has a taciturn, inward and prickly demeanor and who had trouble with banks would also be the type of guy who would anonymously create a cryptocurrency.
THE OLDS
Characteristics of Satoshi Nakamoto, the Bitcoin founder, that dovetail with Dorian S. Nakamoto, the computer engineer, are numerous. Those working most closely with Bitcoin’s founder noticed several things: he seemed to be older than the other Bitcoin developers. And he worked alone.
“He didn’t seem like a young person and he seemed to be influenced by a lot of people in Silicon Valley,” says Nakamoto’s Finnish protégé, Martti Malmi. Andresen concurs: “Satoshi’s style of writing code was old-school. He used things like reverse Polish notation.”
In addition, the code was not always terribly neat, another sign that Nakamoto was not working with a team that would have cleaned up the code and streamlined it.
“Everyone who looked at his code has pretty much concluded it was a single person,” says Andresen. “We have rewritten roughly 70 percent of the code since inception. It wasn’t written with nice interfaces. It was like one big hairball. It was incredibly tight and well-written at the lower level but where functions came together it could be pretty messy.”
There’s a missing internal link here.
It’s never been established that Dorian Nakamoto worked alone on ANYTHING, only that he was reclusive and closed-off to his family and did not like to talk about his classified work. Why would “he worked alone,” then, be evidence in any way of Dorian Nakamoto’s association with Bitcoin?
Along those same lines, Dorian Nakamoto may be an the older side of the programming spectrum, but does that necessarily mean he codes like an old guy? Do all old guys code the same? More importantly, does everyone from a certain era code the same? There’s some potential here to actually nail the story down better through an analysis of code, but Goodman breezes by it, content to assert that old dudes obviously code like old dudes.
Then there’s this, from Ed Felten, Princeton professor and expert in cryptology. (via Mashable)
No? Yes?
???
Mitchell suspects Nakamoto’s initial interest in creating a digital currency that could be used anywhere in the world may have stemmed from his frustration with bank fees and high exchange rates when he was sending international wires to England to buy model trains. “He would always complain about that,” she says. “I would not say he writes flawless English. He will pick up words and mix the spellings.”
Yet another example of where the suspicion is stated as fact by someone who does not know the veracity of the reporter’s claims. How were these quotes prompted? What was the context of the conversation? And how the hell do you explain, “Mitchell suspects Nakamoto’s initial interest in creating a digital currency …”?
Again, if you tell someone that something is true and they trust that you’re telling the truth, the conversation will proceed as if those things are true. And the moment they latch onto the new “truth,” everything they say will carry the aftershocks of the small bomb you just detonated in their heads.
THE “DENIALS”
[Dorian’s wife] has been unable to get Nakamoto to speak with her about whether he was the founder of Bitcoin. Eric Nakamoto says his father has denied it. Tokuo and Arthur Nakamoto believe their brother will leave the truth unconfirmed.
“Dorian can just be paranoid,” says Tokuo. “I cannot get through to him. I don’t think he will answer any of these questions to his family truthfully.”
Sorry to beat a dead horse, but HOW DID THESE CONVERSATIONS TAKE PLACE? WHAT DID YOU TELL THEM???
THE KICKER
Calling the possibility her father could also be the father of Bitcoin “flabbergasting,” Ilene Mitchell says she isn’t surprised her father would choose to stay under cover if he was the man behind this venture, especially as he is currently concerned about his health.
“He is very wary of government interference in general,” she says. “When I was little, there was a game we used to play. He would say, ‘Pretend the government agencies are coming after you.’ And I would hide in the closet.”
Nice scene, but what are we supposed to take away from this?
It seems as if Goodman here was hedging against the possibility that Nakamoto was going to deny everything. Again, the paraphrased statement from Mitchell should be placed within some context. If Mitchell hasn’t spoken to her father in years, what, really does she know about how he might react? And what does her prompted speculation really tell us about Dorian Nakamoto?
The kicker quote is the death knell for me. The game referenced, of course, was played before Bitcoin was ever a thought in anyone’s head. And it tells us nothing except that a Japanese-American man who had done some work for the government decided to use “government agencies” as the bogeyman.
That Goodman wants us to take this scene away as some sort of salient moment that provides insight into the inner-workings of Dorian Nakamoto actually provides more insight into just how far Newsweek was willing to go |
erroneously fired for incompetence, three teachers to miss out on $15,000 bonuses and 40 others to receive inaccurate job evaluations.
The miscalculation has raised alarms about the increasing reliance nationwide on complex “value-added” formulas that use student test scores to attempt to quantify precisely how much value teachers have added to their students’ academic performance. Those value-added metrics often carry high stakes: Teachers’ employment, pay and even their professional licenses can depend on them.
Story Continued Below
The Obama administration has used financial and policy levers, including Race to the Top grants and No Child Left Behind waivers, to nudge more states to rate teachers in part based on value-added formulas or other measures of student achievement. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has credited D.C.’s strong recent gains on national standardized tests in part to the district’s tough teacher evaluation policy, which was launched by former Chancellor Michelle Rhee.
But teachers have complained that the results fluctuate wildly from year to year — and can be affected by human error, like the missing suffix in the programming code for D.C. schools.
“You can’t simply take a bunch of data, apply an algorithm and use whatever pops out of a black box to judge teachers, students and our schools,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said this week. The AFT and its affiliates have signed off on contracts that use value-added measures as a significant portion of teacher evaluations — including in D.C. — but Weingarten called the trend “very troubling” nonetheless.
( Sign up for POLITICO’s Morning Education tip sheet)
The problem in D.C. stemmed from “a very small typo” inserted into complex programming code during an upgrade earlier this year, said Barbara Devaney, chief operating officer of Mathematica Policy Research, the private firm that holds the contract to calculate value-added scores for the district.
Devaney said the firm employs stringent quality control, which in this case included 40 hours of meetings to review the updated model and an analysis by independent programmers paid to comb through the code line by line. Yet no one noticed the missing suffix until yet another routine quality review took place this November — after the district had already distributed bonuses, layoff notices and evaluation scores based on the value-added data for the 2012-13 school year, Devaney said.
Jason Kamras, chief of human capital for the district, said Mathematica had certified that its results were accurate and had passed its quality control inspection before the district acted on the scores. When the error was belatedly discovered, the firm immediately recalculated those scores.
The recalculations produced “very small differences” in individual teachers’ scores, Devaney said. “But small differences can sometimes have big implications,” she added.
Mathematica’s other clients use different programming codes, Devaney said, and thus the error should not affect other districts’ teacher ratings.
In all, the error affected 44 teachers in D.C. — about 10 percent of those who receive value-added scores based on their students’ standardized tests. Half were rated higher than they should have been and half were rated lower, Kamras said.
( Also on POLITICO: Full education policy coverage)
The teacher who was fired for an “ineffective” rating in fact should have been ranked “minimally effective,” Kamras said. Three other teachers who scored effective were, in fact, “highly effective” by the district’s scale and deserved bonuses of $15,000 apiece.
Kamras said the district has already reached out to the teacher who was mistakenly fired with a job offer and the promise of salary payments retroactive to the start of the school year. He said the bonuses for the three highly effective teachers will be distributed immediately.
Kamras said he didn’t know if any of the teachers whose ratings were inflated by the Mathematica error received bonuses they didn’t deserve. Even if they did, he said the district will not ask them to repay the money. No one’s evaluation will be lowered as a result of the new calculations, he said.Croke Park is Ireland's sporting cathedral, but there's a lot more to it than big summer games, writes our Travel Editor.
Croke Park is Ireland's sporting cathedral, but there's a lot more to it than big summer games, writes our Travel Editor.
Set the mood
"There's only one continent that doesn't have a Gaelic games team," says Cian Nolan (above), our stadium tour guide at Croke Park. "And that's Antarctica."
We're in a dressing room deep inside Ireland's largest sporting arena; 82,300-capacity stands soar above us. The smell of fresh cut grass rises from a surface fit for snooker.
Pól Ó Conghaile on the Etihad Skyline tour at Croke Park
Pól on the Etihad skyline tour.
Our tour travels from player tunnels to pitchside pass-bys and the highest reaches of the Cusack Stand, taking in a galaxy of GAA culture, construction stats and legendary characters en route ("it looks like there's a bit of a shemozzle in the paralellagram," as one quote from Micheál Ó hEithir, who commented on 99 All Ireland finals, goes).
Summer hurling and football showdowns are Croke Park's biggest days, but there's a lot more to it than 70 minute spectaculars. This is a year-round attraction.
Cultural kicks
Jerseys in the dressing room at Croke Park
Jerseys in the dressing room.
Great tours need great guides, and both of mine were excellent - differing in tone and delivery, but engaging their groups, stirring the banter and bringing scripts to life with humour and passion. Croke Park is right up there with the Nou Camp or Old Trafford as a cultural institution, but what sets it apart is its meaning for 32 counties.
"Players run 12km in a game, in just 70 minutes," says Cian. "And then they go to work." The soccer fans in our group are silenced.
Afterwards, grab a bite at the Blackthorn Café.
Roof with a view
Ericsson skyline tour, Croke Park
View from 17 storeys up.
It's no surprise that the Etihad Skyline Tour, which sees guests walk atop of the Cusack, Hogan and Davin stands on specially-constructed metal platforms, serves up bird's eye views of Dublin.
Seventeen storeys up, the panorama stretches from Dublin Airport to the Wicklow Mountains, with several quirky stories along the way (did you know there's still a field of cows in Drumcondra?).
The Etihad Skyline Tour offers a view of Dublin, 17 stories up. Photo: Caroline Quinn
The highlight is a U-bend that veers out over the pitch itself - visitors are clipped to rails, and can skip the section if they wish - but essentially, the tour is a one-trick pony.
If you've only got time for one activity, I'd tip the Stadium Tour - pay less, learn more, and get a sniff of the views to boot.
Hotel Intel
A deluxe room at the Croke Park hotel.
A deluxe room at the Croke Park.
The Croke Park hotel, a stone's throw from the stadium, bills itself as 'Dublin's iconic sporting hotel'. That's a stretch, but the Doyle Collection's clued-in service, Sideline Bistro (try the slow-cooked, Tipperary lamb) and an executive floor with turndown service raise the four-star's game.
Overall, I felt breakfast and facilities fell short of Cork's River Lee Hotel, probably the closest comparison within the group, but it's good on city packages - bundling tickets for Dublin Zoo or sightseeing tours in solid value offers, for example.
Top tip
GAA Museum
The GAA Museum at Croke Park.
Croke Park's GAA Museum is chocca with memorabilia (highlights range from Michael Cusack's blackthorn stick to Muhammad Ali's shorts), and an exhibition on Ireland's Olympians runs to March. You can test your football and hurling skills, too.
Allow a good hour for a visit if you're a GAA fan.
Kyle Doyle (6) visits the GAA Museum in Croke Park. Photograph: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland
Glitches
Several of the streets around Croke Park (Summerhill Parade and the North Circular in particular) are woefully rundown. There are complicated reasons for that, but outside of match days, it makes for a forbidding walk for families.
Get me there
In the dressing rooms on the Stadium Tour, Croke Park
Touring the dressing rooms at Croke Park.
Croke Park's GAA Museum costs €6.50 for adults, €4.50 for kids, and €17 for families.
Stadium tours cost €13/€8.50/€35. The Etihad Skyline Tour costs €20/€12/€52 (both tours take around 1.5 hours, and include museum admission). Tours run adjusted schedules on match days (check crokepark.ie for details).
The Croke Park hotel's GAA family package bundles B&B, a three-course dinner and a stadium tour for a family of four from €229 (doylecollection.com).
Read more:
Top 10: Dublin from the DART 10 Best Sandwiches in Dublin Top 12 free things to do in Dublin: Lonely Planet's city cheat sheet
Weekend MagazineThiruvananthapuram: One family in Kerala, the Keyis of Kannur district, may have struck gold -- the state government has taken up with the Centre the issue of about $900 million due to them, being held by the treasury of Saudi Arabia.
The state government is urging the Centre to intervene to ensure the transfer of the money, amounting, in the 1950s, to 1.4 million Saudi riyals (one riyal today is equal to Rs.14.40), which has been lying in the Saudi treasury for the past nearly six decades.
Speaking to IANS, P. Naseer, director of the Minority Welfare Department, said that the Keyi family had, for over ten years, been trying to gain possession of the amount.
"The Kerala government has now appointed a special officer for this, to take up the matter with the centre. The centre will, in turn, have to speak to the Saudi Arabian authorities. The Keyi family has been trying for many years, but little headway has been made," Naseer told IANS.
Naseer said the matter was something he studied as part of his doctoral studies.
"The history of this treasure is like this: 136 years ago, a member of the Keyi family purchased land in the holy land of Mecca, and built a resting place for Haj pilgrims," Naseer said.
"In the 1950s, when the authorities, as part of modernisation of the infrastructure in and around Mecca, acquired this property, they set aside as compensation 1.4 million Saudi riyals. No one from the Keyi family has been able to effectively stake its claim to the money, with proper records," Naseer explained.
As per Wakf rules, any property dedicated to Allah can be claimed by none other than the person himself or his descendents. The Keyi family is thus entitled to the money, the director of the state minority welfare department said.
"According to current estimates, the deposit that is with the Saudi treasury would now be worth more than Rs.5,000 crore (about $900 million). Under Saudi law, if the family gets the money, it will have to use it there itself. The sum is enough to build residential properties for accommodating the faithful who arrive in the holy land," Naseer said.
Since 2001, the Keyi family has been attempting to claim the money. The then A.K. Antony government in the state had entrusted the matter to an official.
The present Oommen Chandy government has now appointed a special officer to liaison with the centre and concerned departments in this regard.
IANS
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.In this undated photo, James Hodgkinson holds a sign during a protest outside of a U.S. Post Office in Belleville, Ill. Hodgkinson has been identified as the suspect in the Wednesday shooting. | Derik Holtmann/Belleville News-Democrat, via AP James Hodgkinson’s long descent into rage 'Nobody really knew anything about him.'
James Hodgkinson lived a seemingly comfortable existence back home. He had a wife, friends and a pool where he hosted parties. How and why his life ended on a blood-soaked field halfway across the nation remains largely a mystery to investigators trying to piece together his life.
Anger, plain and simple, seemed to be one driver. A man prone to aggressive outbursts, Hodgkinson had grown increasingly angry at the political order in recent years, lashing out online against President Donald Trump and other Republicans.
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On Wednesday, that rage moved from social media to the real world when Hodgkinson opened fire on an early-morning baseball practice for lawmakers. After injuring at least five people, the 66-year-old Hodgkinson was shot and killed.
Investigators searching for a motive are piecing together a timeline of his last months in which neighbors, colleagues and public records show a man's descent into rage.
A home inspector from Belleville, Illinois, Hodgkinson was no stranger to law enforcement. He had a lengthy arrest record and seemed prone to violent fits. Most recently, he had been warned about shooting a high-powered gun in the vicinity of his neighbors’ houses.
William Schaumlefell lives about 150 yards north of Hodgkinson's property but barely knew his neighbor, whose house was across a cornfield and a stand of white pine. Their closest encounter came in March, when Schaumlefell’s grandchildren, ages 6 and 3, were outside playing on the swings.
“All of a sudden I heard some shots pretty loud,” Schaumlefell told POLITICO. “Then there’s a couple more shots, so I thought, ‘Who the hell’s shooting?’”
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It was Hodgkinson. After firing several more rounds, he emerged from the pines carrying a rifle.
“I said, ‘Hey you! Quit that shooting,” Schaumlefell said. “He may not have heard me or he may have heard me, I don’t know. He just didn’t pay attention.”
Schaumlefell called the sheriff, who paid Hodgkinson a visit, found his Illinois gun identification in order and let him off with a warning. Hodgkinson told the deputy he’d take his practice to a shooting range.
The FBI believes Hodgkinson drove to Alexandria, Virginia, soon after that. There, he lived out of a white van in the city’s quiet Del Ray community and haunted a bar on the town’s main drag, frequently during the day.
“He’d sit there with a slight grin after a few beers. Not a happy smile when I’d glance over at him, but a creepy one,” said Kristina Scrimshaw, a bartender at Pork Barrel BBQ in Del Ray.
“He was never belligerent or disruptive," she said, “but I remember feeling that this guy is a little off.”
Hodgkinson, in khakis and polo shirts, frequented the bar often, always keeping to himself and his Budweiser or Pabst Blue Ribbon. He never got angry, and he never talked politics.
“He’d just sit there with his old-school beer,” Scrimshaw said.
But there was violence in Hodgkinson’s past. In April 2006, he was arrested on firearms and battery charges after he allegedly punched a woman in the face and pulled a 12-gauge shotgun on a witness, Joel Fernandez, who had attempted to intervene.
“When Fernandez reached the outside porch area, Hodgkinson walked outside with a shotgun and aimed it at [his] face,” according to a St. Clair sheriff’s report. “Fernandez attempted to get away from the shotgun and was struck in the left side of his head with the wooden stock by Hodgkinson.”
The incident appeared to involve one of the couple’s foster children. Hodgkinson choked the child and dragged her by her hair, according to the sheriff's report. His wife, Suzanne, also was charged with domestic battery. The state eventually dropped the charges.
On New Year's Eve in 1992, Hodgkinson was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, resisting a police officer and fleeing to avoid arrest. All charges were dismissed by a judge.
On his Facebook account, which came under attack from an angry public Wednesday, Hodgkinson lashed out more, railing against Trump and the Republican Party.
“I Want to Say Mr. President, for being an ass hole you are Truly the Biggest Ass Hole We Have Ever Had in the Oval Office,” he wrote Monday on Facebook. That page and another that appeared to belong to Hodgkinson were taken down after the shooting.
In 2012, Hodgkinson protested outside the Belleville post office to call attention to wealth and political inequality, calling himself part of the 99 percent, according to the Belleville News-Democrat. He carried a sign that read, “Tax the Rich Like Congress Did for 70 Years Till Reagan’s ‘Trickle Down.’”
St. Clair County is surrounded by communities that voted heavily for Trump in the 2016 presidential election, but Hillary Clinton edged out Trump in St. Clair itself. Hodgkinson was a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders and had volunteered for his presidential campaign.
In a series of letters to the Belleville News-Democrat, he challenged GOP tax policies that he said helped the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. In November 2011 he called for higher taxes on the wealthy.
"I believe it's time for the 99 percent to demand that our Republican congressmen tax the rich like our great leaders of the past," he wrote. "Let's take back our country."
Ray Page, an electrical contractor from the nearby town of Millstadt, had known Hodgkinson for more than 30 years.
“I’ve never known him to be a violent man,” said Page, who worked with Hodgkinson in the construction business. “We never saw this one coming.”
Hodgkinson and his wife were “very generous” and raised several foster children over the years, Page said.
Hodgkinson also had troubles at his home inspection business, JTH Inspections. His temper got him banned as a contractor for the St. Clair County government in 2003 after he was caught going through a county employee’s desk while the office was closed.
"He was rifling through a desk, said he was looking for a check," county Chairman Mark Kern said. "He was told to leave. He got vocal and loud. He was told to leave the office. He went downstairs to the bank, and got very loud."
The episode got him barred from doing business with the county, Kern said.
"He came back in 2012 and requested paperwork to be reinstated, but he never submitted that paperwork," Kern said. If he had, his request would have been denied, Kern said.
In 2009, Hodgkinson was charged with petty offenses for failing to get an electrical contractor’s license and doing work without a permit. He paid a $100 fine.
He was an affiliate member of the Realtor Association of Southwestern Illinois until 2014. He appears to have been a member of the Carpenters Regional Council, a union that represents building trades workers in Missouri, Kansas and southern Illinois.
For now, the pieces of his life don’t add up to a whole. The FBI has asked the public for information, and people in Belleville are shaking their heads.
"I couldn't believe it when they said he was the guy that caused all that ruckus in Virginia today,” Schaumleffel said. “Nobody really knew anything about him. They kind of stayed to themselves. They had a boat and a Harley and a nice car and that kind of stuff. It seemed like they were OK people.
“They didn't bother anybody.”
Natasha Korecki, Darren Samuelsohn, Toby Eckert, Josh Gerstein and Marianne Levine contributed to this report.
CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to reflect who Hodgkinson allegedly punched during a 2006 incident.After a massive surge of effort, the administration is on pace to blow past President Obama’s goal of 10,000 Syrian refugees this fiscal year, and could end up taking in more than 12,000 if the pace continues — locking the next president into an even bigger 2017.
In July alone, 2,478 Syrian refugees were admitted. Another 453 were approved during the first week of August, and officials said that pace will continue beyond October, the beginning of fiscal year 2017.
At that rate, nearly 30,000 Syrians could be admitted in the next year.
“We can now say that we’ve welcomed 8,000 Syrian refugees so far this year and we are very confident we will welcome at least 10,000,” Assistant Secretary of State Anne C. Richard told reporters Friday, saying they plan to keep up the pace for the foreseeable future.
The increase in Syrian refugees has been controversial, particularly after some refugees were implicated in terrorist attacks in Europe. In addition, one man admitted as an Iraqi refugee, but who came from Syria, was charged in the U.S. this year with supporting terrorists.
Rep. Vern Buchanan, Florida Republican, warned that as the Islamic State loses ground in the Middle East, it is likely to send more operatives to carry out attacks in Europe and the U.S.
He said the U.S. should shut down its Syrian refugee pipeline as a result.
“We need to stop accepting Syrian refugees as a matter of national security,” he said in a letter last week to Mr. Obama.
The U.S. is relying on the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to screen and recommend refugees who might be appropriate for resettlement in the U.S. American officials then begin their own screenings.
Nearly 5 million Syrians have registered with the UNHCR as displaced, though only a small fraction of those are deemed appropriate for resettlement in the U.S. The UNHCR didn’t respond to several attempts to find out how many refugees have been approved as likely candidates.
Once refugees clear the UNHCR process, they are screened by the State Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Those who are approved are admitted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
USCIS Director Leon Rodriguez insisted that his officers are able to spot bogus applications and dangerous refugees. He said they are trained, are up to date on conditions in the countries and have access to a plethora of American databases.
He said that of the applications where they’ve reached a decision, they’ve approved some 92 percent and rejected 8 percent.
But Mr. Rodriguez failed to address the holes that other security analysts have identified: that the U.S. doesn’t have access to Syrian databases or to on-the-ground information in many cases, which could spot red flags in their home countries.
With those warnings in mind, Republicans in Congress last year tried to add protections by writing legislation that would have required the chiefs of the FBI, the intelligence service and the Homeland Security Department to sign off on each refugee. The goal was to elevate decisions to the highest level and bring more accountability to the process.
Mr. Obama threatened to veto the legislation, and Senate Democrats doomed the bill in January with a filibuster.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has called for a massive increase in the number of Syrian refugees in the U.S., and Republican nominee Donald Trump has called for a halt until the security situation is settled.
More than 99 percent of the Syrian refugees admitted so far are Muslim — a fact that has drawn criticism from some in Congress who say the Christian minority in Syria deserves more protection from the violence encircling them.
Of the 8,004 total refugees admitted, nearly half are children younger than 14. But 876 of them are males ages 14 to 30 — the prime demographic for radicalization.
Arizona has taken more than 400 in the past two months, and the Phoenix suburb of Glendale has become a major destination, with 309 Syrian refugees since Oct. 1.
Refugees from majority-Muslim countries have surged in recent years. The number from Afghanistan has hit 1,900 this fiscal year, more than twice the number from 2015, and Pakistan has more than doubled to 390 so far.
Meanwhile, some countries that had been sending more refugees, such as Myanmar, Bhutan and Cuba, have dropped off dramatically.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... solar... earlier today... you guys made a huge bond in that context of solar deal recently... on news stands up eight hundred and fifty million dollars... to hop on a twenty five years of solar power almost half the output of solar plant... done by First Solar... in California... and aam I'm curious not about the morality of that deal... but about the economics of the deal... we had a we have a discussion earlier today with a debate about whether solar makes sense economically so... to what extent you guys pencil out these numbers into the extent that you did it... was a good deal for Apple shareholders are always was this assertive and investment to look for in fact I have a feeling... yet know it is our it is a good deal... about... some money just walk through the deal a little bit... it is an island people looking in the comments hiding under forty eight million dollars it's over twenty five... years that's the nominal value of the deal says undiscounted... I that's important to know... um that something that... most people didn't don't understand and a tooth pick up on is that it so aam... on the back end of the deal we actually got seven hundred and thirteen and like feel to it to be so at the end of twenty five years you're buying twenty five years of power... hundred and thirty megawatts at the end of twenty five years you refer to getting the entire often that... was the end of the twenty five year period and I'm not the same way... um... we become... we we get the rest of the Chinese leader Xi Janie is the other of trying to fire in the Italian ten year lease right here right so... so so you have two people were part of it he also this is this is basically that the gets older he'll... thus far of candy and wine Expo in us the economics of this what what are you paying for that store tool for kilowatt hour basis and was a good thing for for for years to... the site so it's a pure power purchase agreement know people been speculating about when this accept the loss that that wasn't part of it... aam you know what I can say I'm not eventually give exact numbers to what I can say is that we start off the price that were painting is lower than that which would... only pay... I aam and then use aam some slight escalation over time... um but it's far less that was traditionally been seen... aam in escalation of commercial rates... so aam you know as we look at the deal and courses prospective so anything can happen... on that's that the difference in well with a pay out this year when the baby boomers is on its way to... say thanks to say and that's that's predicated on the assumption that the price of gas to rise to release twenty five years and that's for the doctor comes announcement stating pensions... I think it would be just easier this is predicated on the connected historic trendline and let you know the suites have been up and comparing the rate we know that if it's...Happy 2017, hunters! Here to welcome you to the New Year is the latest pack of Free DLC, bringing us plenty of challenges that will test even the most seasoned hunters.
This is it for DLC for Monster Hunter Generations. We hope you’ve enjoyed all these additions to an already massive game. Following the game’s release last July, we’ve brought you over 90 new bonus quests, over 40 new weapons, over 15 complete armor sets and over 30 equipment sets for your Felynes. And it was all free!
If you’ve just picked up Monster Hunter Generations over the holidays, know that you can still download all the previously released DLC (there’s also a quick guide at the end of this post), and they feature some pretty cool weapons and armor, including collaborations with beloved characters from other Capcom and Nintendo games, and more. Here are some of the highlights:
Now let’s talk about the January DLC pack. This one is all about challenging your skills as a hunter and as a team player, so gather your hunting party and take on some of the deadliest quests in the game. Are you ready to face multiple Hyper Monsters back-to-back or even at the same time? Check out the full quest list below:
REGULAR QUESTS
Quest: Secret Nibelsnarf Hunt
Objective: Hunt a Hyper Nibelsnarf
Quest: Absolute Power
Objective: Hunt a Hyper Tigrex
Quest: Picturesque Encounter
Objective: Hunt a Hyper Zinogre
Quest: How It’s Done
Objective: Hunt a Hyper Agnaktor, a Hyper Lavasioth, and a Hyper Brachydios
Quest: Raging Twins
Objective: Hunt 2 Furious Rajang
Quest: Unbridled Rage
Objective: Hunt 2 Savage Deviljho
Quest: Insanity and Destruction
Objective: Hunt a Savage Deviljho and a Furious Rajang
Quest: The Best of the Best
Objective: Hunt a Nargacuga, a Tigrex, a Silver Rathalos, a Gold Rathian and a Zinogre
Quest: The Greatest Hunter
Objective: Hunt a Rathalos, a Zinogre, a Brachydios, and a Savage Deviljho
Quest: The Five Kings of Destruction
Objective: Hunt a Hyper Gammoth, a Hyper Astalos, a Hyper Mizutsune, a Hyper Glavenus, and a Hyper Deviljho
Quest: Silver and Gold
Objective: Hunt a Hyper Silver Rathalos and a Hyper Gold Rathian
Quest: The White God Returns
Objective: Slay an Ukanlos
Quest: Harbinger of Death
Objective: Slay a Nakarkos
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ARENA CHALLENGES
Quest: Event: Endurance Quest 4
Objective: Slay a Gammoth, a Mizutsune, a Glavenus, and an Astalos
Quest: Event: Endurance Quest 5
Objective: (Prowler) Slay a Velocidrome, an Arzuros, and a Yian Kut-Ku
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EXTRAS
15x Guild Card Titles
1x Guild Card Background
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To access the free DLC, load your copy of Monster Hunter Generations and select the Download menu from the start screen and follow the steps to download all the treats. After that, load your character and talk to the following NPCs for each type of content:
Take on Regular Quests and Prowler Quests from the Wycademy Gal at the Hunters Hub;
and from the Wycademy Gal at the Hunters Hub; Take on Challenge Quests from the Arena Instructor at the Hunters Hub;
from the Arena Instructor at the Hunters Hub; Purchase Extras by using Wycademy Points from the Trader at the Palico Ranch (select “Limited Goods” option);
by using Wycademy Points from the Trader at the Palico Ranch (select “Limited Goods” option); Hire Special Palicoes from the Meowstress, Grandmeow or Grandmyama at all four villages
from the Meowstress, Grandmeow or Grandmyama at all four villages Claim Item Packs from your Housekeeper (select the “Claim Items” option)
Thank you for joining us on this hunt for the ages, and we hope you keep on monster hunting with your friends! Happy Hunting!Donald Trump has good reason to feel confident after last week’s debate.
After all, he seems incapable of saying anything so inflammatory or dumb that it turns the Republican base against him. Indeed, even after being upbraided by Carly Fiorina for his ugly personal attacks, he continues to lead all polls.
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The Republican establishment is hoping that someone will emerge to stop Trump. The Koch brothers’ favorite, Scott Walker, is now out of the running for the job. Tellingly, in his swan song, the Koch’s messenger boy called on the GOP to rally around an anti-Trump strategy. But efforts by party leaders to date to rein in Trump have only made him more powerful.
With Walker’s implosion, the Kochs aren’t looking especially fearsome in this week’s news cycle. That said, Trump should make sure to enjoy this moment while it lasts. Because when the Kochs – the GOP’s true power brokers – decide it’s time to put an end to this show, Trump’s bubble is likely to burst faster than he (or, in this case, the Kochs) can say, “You’re fired.” For all of Trump’s bluster, Charles and David Koch are the alpha dogs of the Republican Party. And the only thing more implausible than Trump’s hair is the notion that he can beat them at their own game.
As I detail in my new book, "Killing the Messenger," the Koch brothers have spent the last 30 years (and hundreds of millions of dollars) consolidating their control over our political system via what Charles has called a “vertically and horizontally integrated” strategy – in his words, the Kochs have their hands in everything “from idea creation to policy development to education to grassroots organization to lobbying to litigation to political action.”
The Kochs’ state-based infrastructure helped Republicans seize control of legislatures and governors’ mansions so they could gerrymander district lines, practically ensuring a GOP majority in the House until the next census in 2020. The Kochs’ attack ad factory helped demolish the Democratic Senate majority in 2014, handing the GOP complete control of Capitol Hill. And with a Koch-approved agenda already road-tested in states like Wisconsin and North Carolina, the only thing the brothers need to complete the hijacking of our democracy is a president they can call their own.
There are plenty of candidates who still aspire to that position. Jeb Bush’s Koch ties go back decades, pre-dating his first run for governor of Florida. Marco Rubio has taken special care to support every aspect of the Koch agenda, from opposing the Export-Import Bank to blocking a raise in the minimum wage. Ted Cruz is a longtime favorite speaker at Koch events. Even Carly Fiorina, a relative newcomer to politics, has been courting the brothers, hiring a former Koch Industries employer as her campaign manager.
One after another, these Republican candidates have strutted their stuff at private auditions for the brothers, as if they were interviewing for a job at Koch Industries (which, of course, they kind of are).
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But with the exception of the fiery Fiorina, an implausible general election candidate, no one in the GOP field seems up to the task of taking on Trump—indeed, they’re all desperately trying to crowd themselves into Trump’s spotlight.
Donald Trump, however, doesn’t need anyone -- including the Koch brothers -- to help him get attention, and he hasn’t bothered to promise his fealty to their agenda during his rise to the top of the pack. And that’s why, sooner or later, the Kochs are going to try to destroy him, even if they have to do the job themselves.
Watching Trump do battle with the Kochs will be like watching the Joker go to war with Lex Luthor; I can’t say I’ll be rooting for it to be quick or painless. But in this battle of the super villains, I’m betting on the brothers to emerge victorious.
For one thing, while the Kochs are legitimate titans of industry, Trump’s own record as a businessman is checkered – he inherited his wealth, was bailed out of countless business flops by his father, and how rich he actually is remains something of a mystery. No one doubts that the Kochs will put their money where their mouths are. Not so with Trump.
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For another, the Kochs aren’t winging it. They’ve spent decades patiently building infrastructure. They control media outlets, think tanks and even a grass-roots army, courtesy of Americans for Prosperity. They’ve proven their savvy in local, state and federal elections. As for Trump’s organization? Media Matters caught him paying supporters to show up for a rally.
Moreover, while Trump may enjoy the momentary attention that comes with leading the polls, the Koch brothers are in it for real. Their devotion to rolling back environmental regulations, dismantling worker protections and sheltering profits from taxation is an investment in their bottom line. Trump’s clumsy campaign, on the other hand, is actually costing him business, thanks to a concerted effort to punish him for his racist and sexist rhetoric by putting pressure on his partners to disassociate themselves from him.
There’s no doubt that Trump has thrown a wrench into the Kochs’ plan to focus on savaging Hillary Clinton while the battle for their favor played out quietly. And, it must be said, Trump is right when he charges that his GOP rivals are mere pawns, held captive by billionaire donors who wield the real power.
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Indeed, he’s about to find out just how on point he is. Trump is famous for playing an omnipotent mogul on TV, the kind of guy who can dismiss subordinates and dismantle enemies with a wave of his hand. He’s about to find that the Kochs really are what he pretends to be.The company’s founder and instrument designer, Wolfgang Kater, began building guitars at the age of 12, and soon branched out to lutes, viola da gambas and other small, historical keyboard instruments. At the inquisitive age of six he had apprenticed an elderly gentleman who taught him cabinet-making, machining, and the use and fabrication of tools. The Wolfelele ukuleles are the results of the combination of the precision required for each of these trades, his natural artistic abilities, and his engineering mind.
Wolfgang also completed his music degree and spent the better part of two decades building his world renowned harpsichords.
In addition to the knowledge he gained from the above experiences, he also acquired his teaching degree from McGill University (Montréal, Québec, Canada), explored race car development, machine tools fabrication, and taught high school.
As a fellow folk festival planner and past teacher, Wolfgang understands the importance of an attractive, dynamic, interactive workshop as well as the need for kinesthetic learning tools and the Galatea Effect on students.LEGO Set #31048
Wow! This set is a truly incredible one. I’m particularly fond of it because it’s everything I want for myself. The lone minifigure even looks like me! Who wouldn’t want a nice relaxing life living |
, modern humans have smaller, lower faces.
Body skeleton structure
The body skeletons of even the earliest and most robustly built modern humans were less robust than those of Neanderthals (and from what little we know from Denisovans), having essentially modern proportions. Particularly regarding the long bones of the limbs, the distal bones (the radius/ulna and tibia/fibula) are nearly the same size or slightly shorter than the proximal bones (the humerus and femur). In ancient people, particularly Neanderthals, the distal bones were shorter, usually thought to be an adaptation to cold climate.[68] The same adaptation can be found in some modern people living in the polar regions.[69]
Height ranges overlap between Neanderthals and AMH, with Neanderthal averages cited as 164 to 168 cm (65 to 66 in) and 152 to 156 cm (60 to 61 in) for males and females, respectively.[70] By comparison, contemporary national averages range between 158 to 184 cm (62 to 72 in) in males and 147 to 172 cm (58 to 68 in) in females, Neanderthal ranges approximating the height distribution measured, e.g., among Malay people.[71]
Recent evolution
Following the peopling of Africa some 130,000 years ago, and the recent Out-of-Africa expansion some 70,000 to 50,000 years ago, some sub-populations of H. sapiens have been essentially isolated for tens of thousands of years prior to the early modern Age of Discovery. Combined with archaic admixture this has resulted in significant genetic variation, which in some instances has been shown to be the result of directional selection taking place over the past 15,000 years, i.e. significantly later than possible archaic admixture events.[72]
Some climatic adaptations, such as high-altitude adaptation in humans, are thought to have been acquired by archaic admixture. Introgression of genetic variants acquired by Neanderthal admixture have different distributions in European and East Asians, reflecting differences in recent selective pressures. A 2014 study reported that Neanderthal-derived variants found in East Asian populations showed clustering in functional groups related to immune and haematopoietic pathways, while European populations showed clustering in functional groups related to the lipid catabolic process.[73] A 2017 study found correlation of Neanderthal admixture in phenotypic traits in modern European populations.[74]
Physiological or phenotypical changes have been traced to Upper Paleolithic mutations, such as the East Asian variant of the EDAR gene, dated to c. 35,000 years ago.[75]
Recent divergence of Eurasian lineages was sped up significantly during the Last Glacial Maximum, the Mesolithic and the Neolithic, due to increased selection pressures and due to founder effects associated with migration.[76] Alleles predictive of light skin have been found in Neanderthals, [77] but the alleles for light skin in Europeans and East Asians, associated with KITLG and ASIP, are (as of 2012 ) thought to have not been acquired by archaic admixture but recent mutations since the LGM.[78] Phenotypes associated with the "white" or "Caucasian" populations of Western Eurasian stock emerge during the LGM, from about 19,000 years ago. Average cranial capacity in modern human populations varies in the range of 1,200 to 1,450 cm3 (adult male averages). Larger cranial volume is associated with climatic region, the largest averages being found in populations of Siberia and the Arctic.[79] Both Neanderthal and EEMH had somewhat larger cranial volumes on average than modern Europeans, suggesting the relaxation of selection pressures for larger brain volume after the end of the LGM.[80]
Examples for still later adaptations related to agriculture and animal domestication including East Asian types of ADH1B associated with rice domestication,[81] or lactase persistence,[82] are due to recent selection pressures.
An even more recent adaptation has been proposed for the Austronesian Sama-Bajau, developed under selection pressures associated with subsisting on freediving over the past thousand years or so.[83]
Behavioral modernity
Behavioral modernity, involving the development of language, figurative art and early forms of religion (etc.) is taken to have arisen before 40,000 years ago, marking the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic (in African contexts also known as the Later Stone Age).[84]
There is considerable debate regarding whether the earliest anatomically modern humans behaved similarly to recent or existing humans. Behavioral modernity is taken to include fully developed language (requiring the capacity for abstract thought), artistic expression, early forms of religious behavior,[85] increased cooperation and the formation of early settlements, and the production of articulated tools from lithic cores, bone or antler. The term Upper Paleolithic is intended to cover the period since the rapid expansion of modern humans throughout Eurasia, which coincides with the first appearance of Paleolithic art such as cave paintings and the development of technological innovation such as the spear-thrower. The Upper Paleolithic begins around 50,000 to 40,000 years ago, and also coincides with the disappearance of archaic humans such as the Neanderthals.
The term "behavioral modernity" is somewhat disputed. It is most often used for the set of characteristics marking the Upper Paleolithic, but some scholars use "behavioral modernity" for the emergence of H. sapiens around 200,000 years ago,[86] while others use the term for the rapid developments occurring around 50,000 years ago.[87][88][89] It has been proposed that the emergence of behavioral modernity was a gradual process.[90]
In January 2018 it was announced that modern human finds at Misliya cave, Israel, in 2002, had been dated to around 185,000 years ago, the earliest evidence of their out of Africa migration.[91][92][93][94]
The earliest H. sapiens (AMH) found in Europe are the "Cro-Magnon" (named after the site of first discovery in France), beginning about 40,000 to 35,000 years ago. These are also known as "European early modern humans" in contrast to the preceding Neanderthals.[95][96]
The equivalent of the Eurasian Upper Paleolithic in African archaeology is known as the Later Stone Age, also beginning roughly 40,000 years ago. While most clear evidence for behavioral modernity uncovered from the later 19th century was from Europe, such as the Venus figurines and other artefacts from the Aurignacian, more recent archaeological research has shown that all essential elements of the kind of material culture typical of contemporary San hunter-gatherers in Southern Africa was also present by least 40,000 years ago, including digging sticks of similar materials used today, ostrich egg shell beads, bone arrow heads with individual maker's marks etched and embedded with red ochre, and poison applicators.[97] There is also a suggestion that "pressure flaking best explains the morphology of lithic artifacts recovered from the c. 75-ka Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa. The technique was used during the final shaping of Still Bay bifacial points made on heat‐treated silcrete."[98] Both pressure flaking and heat treatment of materials were previously thought to have occurred much later in prehistory, and both indicate a behaviourally modern sophistication in the use of natural materials. Further reports of research on cave sites along the southern African coast indicate that "the debate as to when cultural and cognitive characteristics typical of modern humans first appeared" may be coming to an end, as "advanced technologies with elaborate chains of production" which "often demand high-fidelity transmission and thus language" have been found at Pinnacle Point Site 5–6. These have been dated to approximately 71,000 years ago. The researchers suggest that their research "shows that microlithic technology originated early in South Africa, evolved over a vast time span (c. 11,000 years), and was typically coupled to complex heat treatment that persisted for nearly 100,000 years. Advanced technologies in Africa were early and enduring; a small sample of excavated sites in Africa is the best explanation for any perceived 'flickering' pattern."[99] These results suggest that Late Stone Age foragers in Sub-Saharan Africa had developed modern cognition and behaviour by at least 50,000 years ago.[100] The change in behavior has been speculated to have been a consequence of an earlier climatic change to much drier and colder conditions between 135,000 and 75,000 years ago.[101] This might have led to human groups who were seeking refuge from the inland droughts, expanded along the coastal marshes rich in shellfish and other resources. Since sea levels were low due to so much water tied up in glaciers, such marshlands would have occurred all along the southern coasts of Eurasia. The use of rafts and boats may well have facilitated exploration of offshore islands and travel along the coast, and eventually permitted expansion to New Guinea and then to Australia.[102]
References
Further readingThe White House has tapped a veteran top aide to Speaker Paul Ryan to serve as its chief liaison to the House of Representatives, sources tell the Washington Examiner.
Joyce Meyer is Ryan's deputy chief of staff, was staff director when he served as chairman of the Ways and Means committee, and was a top adviser to him before then.
Meyer is set to be named President Trump's point person for legislative affairs in the House. Marc Short is Trump's legislative director, reporting to deputy White House Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn.
Meyer is well regarded among House Republicans. Her installation into this key post is likely to be viewed favorably by House Republicans because of her Capitol Hill connections.
Ryan and Trump had an uneven relationship during the campaign but say they are now cooperating closely.Senior IDF source tells Arutz Sheva a ground invasion is all but inevitable as a result of Hamas's callous use of human shields.
A senior IDF official has told Arutz Sheva that the army has no choice but to launch a ground offensive into Gaza in order to stamp out rocket fire on Israeli civilians, because Hamas and other terrorist groups have embedded their military infrastructure so deeply into the civilian population that it is impossible to reach via air power without causing massive collateral damage.
In particular, the source said Hamas has hidden its missile stockpiles and even embedded launchpads specifically in schools and hospitals - callously using the most vulnerable members of society as human shields. At the same time, the Islamist group is not allowing civilians to leave the area; on the contrary, it is encouraging as many noncombatants as possible to "protect" its positions with their bodies.
As a result, he said, a ground invasion is all but inevitable.
'Double war-crime'
Earlier Thursday, it was revealed that Hamas had told Gazans not to listen to IDF warnings of impending strikes, but to stay indoors and act as human shields.
The Israeli Air Force has used numerous methods - from phone calls and leaflets, to firing dud missiles before a strike (known as "knocking on the roof") - to warn noncombatants prior to military strikes in their vicinity.
But the Hamas-run Gaza Interior Ministry said in a message to residents that the warnings "are designed to weaken our resolve and to sow panic and fear among us, in light of the failures of our enemies. We call on Gaza residents not to pay attention to these messages and not to leave their homes."
In previous operations, IDF footage and photos have shown how Palestinian terrorists hide weapons and munitions in mosques, schools and other sensitive civilian sites, in direct contravention of international law. Some Israeli leaders have referred to this practice as a "double war-crime": firing missiles indiscriminately at Israeli civilians, while using Palestinian Arab civilians as human shields.
During the current escalation Hamas has openly boasted about the "success" of this strategy, and the IDF has published extensive evidence of the practice.
Watch - Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu-Zuhri lauds the "success" of use of human shields:
Earlier Thursday, Economics Minister Naftali Bennett said Hamas was directly responsible for any civilian casualties in Gaza due to its "cowardly" tactics.
"Hamas has missile-launchers hidden in homes and in schools," he said. "I myself was a commando fighter in Gaza and I saw missile-launchers in the living room of a home. When you do this you are killing your own children. Hamas is clearly responsible for the very unfortunate death of Arab citizens."
82 Gazans have been killed since Operation Protective Edge began three days ago - 30 of them on Thursday - according to Gaza medical sources. Those figures have not been independently verified, but the majority are believed to be terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, killed in precision IAF strikes. Some, however, are civilians - and many of them were killed while heeding Hamas's calls to protect terrorist infrastructure with their bodies.
The tactic is win-win as far as Hamas is concerned. In most cases, it knows that Israel will simply refrain from taking action if Israeli forces are aware of the presence of civilians in the vicinity; but when IDF forces are unaware of the presence of human shields - as occurred in a tragic episode on Tuesday - Hamas can score a propaganda victory by presenting civilian deaths as "proof" that Israel is killing Palestinian civilians.
The only way to thoroughly root-out the rocket launchers and terrorist infrastructure without risking heavy civilians casualties is therefore to face Hamas in the streets and allies of Gaza City, Rafiah and other urban areas where they are based.
And, as Middle East expert and Arutz Sheva contributor Dr. Mordechai Kedar pointed out in a recent article, that may be precisely what Hamas is trying to achieve.
Indeed Israel has managed to avoid serious casualties until now by relying on its extensive defensive measures - from a comprehensive network of bomb shelters to the Iron Dome missile defense system.
A ground incursion, however, is likely to be much more costly. Bearing that cost in mind, if - as looks all but inevitable at this point - the IDF does indeed embark on such a mission, the only acceptable outcome will be a route of Hamas and its allies, and a complete end to the rocket fire.Catalyst on Debian
Introduction
Because Catalyst is a rapidly evolving project, packages supplied by operating system vendors like Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, and many others have historically been outdated compared to the stable versions. In effect, this limited users of Debian's package management system to outdated versions of this software. In 2009, thanks to the efforts of Matt S Trout and many others, Debian's Catalyst packages have been improving. The idea that Debian's Perl packages are outdated is an idea that is itself becoming obsolete. There are many situations where system-wide Debian packages (and similarly, Ubuntu packages) can be preferable to installing software manually via CPAN.
Advantages
Here are some reasons why packages managed by Debian are preferable to installing packages manually: Unattended installation: the majority of our packages require absolutely no user interaction during installation, in contrast to installs via CPAN.
Quicker installs for binary packages: since binary packages are pre-built, installing the package is as simple as unpacking the package and installing the files to the appropriate locations. When many modules need to be built (as with Catalyst and MojoMojo), this can result in a significant time savings, especially when one considers rebuilding due to upgrades.
No unnecessary updates: if an update only affects the Win32 platform, for example, it does not make sense to waste bandwidth downloading and installing it. Our process separates packages with bugfixes and feature additions from those that have no functional difference to users, saving time, bandwidth, and administrative overhead.
Only packages offered by Debian are supported by Debian: if there are bugs in your Debian software, it is our responsibility to help identify and correct them. Often this means coordinating with the upstream software developers (i.e. the Catalyst community) and working toward a solution together - but our team takes care of this on your behalf.
Updates occur with the rest of your system: while upgrading your system using aptitude, synaptic, or another package management tool, your Perl packages will be updated as well. This prevents issues where a system administrator forgets to update CPAN packages periodically, leaving your systems vulnerable to potential security issues.
Important changes are always indicated during package upgrades: if there are changes to the API of a library which can potentially break applications, a supplied Debian.NEWS file will display a notice (either in a dialog box or on the command line) indicating these changes. You will need to install the "apt-listchanges" utility to see these. This year has seen greatly improved interaction between the Debian Perl Group and the Catalyst community, which is a trend we'd like to see continue for many years to come. As with any open source project, communicating the needs of both communities and continuing to work together as partners will ultimately yield the greatest benefit for everyone.
Disadvantages
As with all good things, there are naturally some situations where using Debian Perl packages (or, indeed, most operating-system managed packages) is either impossible, impractical, or undesirable. Inadequate granularity: due to some restrictions on the size of packages being uploaded into Debian, there are plenty of module "bundles", including the main Catalyst module bundle (libcatalyst-modules-perl). Unfortunately, this means you may have more things installed than you need.
Not installable as non-root: if you don't have root on the system, or a friendly system administrator, you simply cannot install Debian packages, let alone our Perl packages. This can add to complexity for shared hosting scenarios where using our packages would require some virtualization.
Multiple versions: with a solution like local::lib, it's possible to install multiple versions of the same package in different locations. This can be important for a number of reasons, including ease of testing and to support your legacy applications. With operating-system based packages, you will always have the most recent version available (and if you are using the stable release, you will always have the most recent serious bug/security fixes installed).
Less useful in a non-homogeneous environment: if you use different operating systems, it can be easier to maintain a single internal CPAN mirror (especially a mini-CPAN installation) than a Debian repository, Ubuntu repository, Fedora/RedHat repository, etc. For my purposes, I use Debian packages for everything because the benefits outweigh the perceived costs. However, this is not the case for everyone in all situations, so it is important to understand that Debian Perl packages are not a panacea.
Quality Assurance
The Debian Perl Group uses several tools to provide quality assurance for our users. Chief among them is the Package Entropy Tracker (PET), a dashboard that shows information like the newest upstream versions of modules. Our bug reports are available in Debian's open bug reporting system. If you have any requests for Catalyst-related modules (or other Perl modules) that you'd like packaged for Debian, please either contact me directly (via IRC or email) or file a "Request For Package" (RFP) bug. If you have general questions or would like to chat with us, you're welcome to visit us at any time - we hang around on irc.debian.org, #debian-perl.
SEE ALSO
Our IRC channel, irc.debian.org (OFTC), channel #debian-perl
Package Entropy Tracker (http://pkg-perl.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/pet.cgi) is a dashboard where we can see what needs to be updated. It allows us (and others, if interested!) to easily monitor our workflow, and also contains links to our repository.
Our welcome page (http://wiki.debian.org/Teams/DebianPerlGroup/Welcome) talks about what we do and how you (yes you!) can join. You don't need to be a Debian Developer to join the group (actually, I'm not yet a DD and yet I maintain 300+ packages through the group).
This guide (http://pkg-perl.alioth.debian.org/howto/RFP.html) explains how to file a Request For Package (RFP) bug, so that the modules you use can be added to the Debian archive. Note that Debian is subject to many restrictions, so issues like inadequate copyright information may prevent the package from entering the archive.
STATISTICS
Here are some statistics of note: We maintain over 1400+ packages as of today. For our QA report, see: http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-perl-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org&comaint=yes
We have quite a few active members; probably around 10 or 20. The full list: https://alioth.debian.org/project/memberlist.php?group_id=30274
AUTHOR
Jonathan Yu <jawnsy@cpan.org>
ACKNOWLEDGMENTSYou must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters
Message: * A friend wanted you to see this item from WRAL.com: http://wr.al/Zb8Q
— A public water company might be contributing to dropping water levels in private wells that are going dry in a north Raleigh neighborhood, according to preliminary data collected by Wake County environmental inspectors.
Four of nine private wells serving homes along Norwood Oaks Drive have gone dry, leaving residents without any water.
"I don't have a well. I have a hole in the ground," resident Mark Finnicum said.
Finnicum said the lack of water service makes everyday chores – changing diapers and washing hands – into a worry.
"The kids spill the dog's water bowl, (and) I cringe because I know I have to fill the water back up from somewhere," he said.
Other neighbors said it's likely just a matter of time before their wells go dry, too.
"We're at the lowest level we've ever seen," resident George Kavelak said.
Wake County officials have started investigating to determine why the water table has dropped. They said Wednesday that preliminary data points to two of three large community wells that Aqua North Carolina has within 2,000 feet of the affected area.
"We haven't physically confirmed that they're related. We do see a pattern to suggest they're related," Wake County Environmental Services Director Tommy Esqueda said.
County officials said in late September that a large pumping source is drawing on the private wells between midnight and noon every day, a pattern that's apparently consistent with utility companies. Inspectors requested information about Aqua's nearby pumping stations part of an investigation into well interference.
Tom Roberts, president of Aqua North Carolina, said he could neither "confirm or deny" the county's preliminary data.
"We are one of many impacts to the groundwater levels in the Wake County area," he said.
Roberts said he is sympathetic to the homeowners' concerns but he is focused on serving his thousands of paying customers in Wake County. He said the situation is about supply and demand.
For now, the county's hands are tied. Esqueda said that the process to force any action could take six to nine months.
Well owner Linda Dunnivan said she hopes the situation gets solved before then. Her well went dry this weekend, and she's had to drive 10 miles to a laundromat twice a week.
"I have to think I've got to do this for nine months," Dunnivan said. "I have no water, and it's very frustrating."
Roberts suggested that concerned well owners could become Aqua customers. Residents, though, didn't take kindly to the proposal.
"For us to now have to pay them, it's not right," Finnicum said. "They're squashing us."The man whose job involved prosecuting criminals accepted his own guilty plea agreement before Judge Robert Lane on Monday.
Timothy Ryan Treffinger, 29, who prosecuted criminal cases in Nye, Esmeralda, and Mineral counties for the state Attorney General, pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance following his arrest earlier this year on heroin charges.
Lane said the guilty plea agreement indicates Treffinger pleaded to a category “D” felony, which can carry up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
“When it comes time to sentence you, I’m free to do what I think is the right thing and if I wanted to I could give you the maximum sentence in prison,” the judge told Treffinger and defense attorney Tom Gibson. “The defense is going to recommend a diversion program and in this case, mandatory probation.”
Lane accepted Treffinger’s guilty plea and set sentencing for Jan. 11.
Treffinger was arrested with Jesse James Lewis, 37, after a search warrant was served at his Alfano Avenue residence in May.
The month-long investigation indicated that narcotics were being used and sold from the residence, according to police.
Both Treffinger and Lewis were found in the residence at the time of the search, which produced heroin and various types of drug paraphernalia, including several small baggies with residue, metal spoons with residue, used syringes, tin foil with burn marks and glass pipes with methamphetamine residue, police said.
Drug paraphernalia was found in every room of the residence, police records state.
Lewis tried to conceal and destroy heroin that he had in his possession when he was arrested, in addition to being under the influence of several types of narcotics at the time, according to the sheriff’s office.
Upon arriving at the Nye County Sheriff’s Office, Lewis was given a urine test, which presumptively tested positive for methamphetamine, opiates, and THC.
It was determined that Treffinger was the primary resident of the house, and Lewis was also an occupant at the residence.
At the time, the state attorney general issued a statement on Treffinger’s arrest.
“This individual was first employed by the AG’s office on August 27, 2013. On January 14, 2015, approximately nine days into AG Laxalt’s administration, this individual separated from employment with this office. Any further details contained within his personnel file are confidential pursuant to Nevada law.”
The office did not directly answer if Treffinger was under investigation for any behavior during his time with the office, or if any of his cases were being reviewed.
Lewis, meanwhile, failed to show up for his for his sentencing on Sept. 21 of this year.
He is now being sought on a nationwide bench warrant.
Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. Find him on Twitter: @sharrispvt.An appeals court has sided with a Jimmy John's franchise owner who fired six employees for making signs protesting the company's sick day policy.
ppl that made this were fired and guess who the court sided with https://t.co/xzVib6IhxU pic.twitter.com/Hyffy8UWq1 — artdecade 🌹 (@artdecaderoo) July 5, 2017
The meme explains how the Twin Cities-based Jimmy John's franchise owner did not offer paid sick days, and it implies that employees risk losing their jobs if they call in sick, despite the risk that poses to customers.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled on Monday that the firing was legal and the employees were "so disloyal" when they made the images and protested that they don't deserve normal legal protections workers are supposed to receive. The decision reverses a previous ruling from 2016 that said the rights of the employees were violated.
The franchise is run by a company called MikLin Enterprises, which issued a statement saying: “The attacks on its operation were made to hurt the Company, not simply to enlist the support of the public for a change in workplace policies.”
"If you and your co-workers are forced to go to work sick because the company you work for won’t give you paid time off, it’s natural to join together to fight back," Erin Johansson, research director at Jobs With Justice, told ATTN:. "Now this court is giving more power over to corporations to continue to retaliate against employees brave enough to stand up to them."
Paula Brantner, senior advisor to the organization Workplace Fairness, told ATTN: she agrees. "I think [the court's decision] will certainly restrain some of the more creative forms of organizing action and make people a lot more hesitant to challenge the actions of the company that will grab the public's attention," she said.
This battle between workers and an employer highlights a larger issue: A lack of adequate sick leave policies nationwide is causing workers to be less healthy. A study put out by Wakefield Research last year found 62 percent of Americans have gone to work sick, often because they can't afford to miss a day of work. According to the Economic Policy Institute, only 27 percent of low-wage workers can get paid sick leave.
Things get worse when you look at the food industry specifically. A survey released by Alchemy Systems, which looks at safety in the workplace, in 2015 found roughly half of food workers say they "always" or "frequently" go to work when they're sick, potentially exposing customers to illness.
Brantner said food service employees going to work sick is a major problem across the country. "You have workers that can't afford to take time off and can't afford to be fired if they don't show up, so they come to work sick, and obviously it has implications for transmitting disease through food service and amongst fellow workers," she said. "What happens if everybody gets sick once a person infects everybody on the shift?"
Brantner said it's good business for companies to provide paid sick leave, because it keeps employees and customers healthy, which is the most important thing in the long run.THE name Stephen Milne meant little to the Brighton detective who got the call.
But it didn't take long for Scott Gladman to realise he'd been handed the most controversial case of his career in
March 2004.
Fears the investigation into claims that Milne, a dynamic St Kilda forward, had raped a woman – and that promising young teammate Leigh Montagna was present - would turn into a media circus were well-founded.
They were confirmed just 15 minutes after they left Brighton CIU, when Mr Gladman and colleague Mike Smith
arrived at Moorabbin's sexual offences unit to learn media had already been tipped off.
The alleged victim had first spoken to officers at Moorabbin, who had called in Mr Gladman and Mr Smith. The
players - who both maintain their innocence - had not even been questioned yet.
Neither remains in the force.
Years later they broke their silence on the investigation, telling Nine News the case was under attack from within Victoria Police from the moment the 19-year-old student made her complaint.
The Saints' motto of forti us quo fidelius - strength through loyalty - could just as easily apply to the police force.
But the Milne/Montagna rape investigation left both detectives questioning which badge some members were more devoted to - that of their employer, or their footy club.
Mr Gladman says immediate leaks of information from inside police ranks were just a taste of things to come.
After a marathon day of interviews early in the case, Mr Gladman said he shook hands with others in his office
with a vow that the job would be done properly.
''This was going to be a defining moment not only for us personally but especially for our office,'' he said.
''This was going to be the moment where people would look at our office and say Brighton CIU can be trusted because those blokes can shut up and not say a word.''
But he says those hopes had already been dashed by the time he arrived back at work the next day.
Tapes of the interviews with Milne and Montagna were missing from his desk. Six or more hours later, when he
returned from lunch, they were back.
On the photocopier Mr Gladman says he found a page of transcript from one player interview that somebody had
accidentally left behind while surreptitiously copying it.
And another member approached him who was ''adamant'' that the alleged victim's statement had been shown to
people at St Kilda, a claim then-president Rod Butterss denies.
And then there were the daily calls from random police who had no legitimate part to play in the investigation.
''I was left in no doubt in one particular phone call... was of the effect of you're a long time in this job and people
have long memories so make sure you do the right thing,'' Mr Gladman said.
One higher-ranked officer called repeatedly.
Colleagues stopped him in the street or while he was having a beer, telling him to make the problem go away and
he'd be "looked after".
Others would call up asking where the alleged victim lived, and probing for a name.
''The things we had to put up with on a daily basis were ridiculous,'' he said.
Mr Gladman says he resorted to inventing victim names when other police called - and within hours the fictitious
identities would be circulating.
He rode to work but would cart heavy case files home each night because he did not believe they were secure.
But he says they tried to focus on the job and ignore the rest.
The charge sheets were drawn up and ready to go before a second planned interview with Milne towards the end of the two-month investigation.
He says he was told by superiors ''unless something extraordinary happens today, you charge him''.
But that advice changed "on a moment to moment basis". "It depended on who was offering the greatest
argument and the loudest,'' he said.
Mr Smith says they were warned that no AFL player had ever been prosecuted for rape and it was ''never going to
happen''.
The Director of Public Prosecutions ultimately left the call whether to charge anyone up to police.
Even so, when the decision was made by their superiors not to lay charges, it hit both men hard.
"Scott and I did a professional job. We did everything by the book," Mr Smith said. "We thought all the bases
were covered, we couldn't do a better brief of evidence if we tried.''
Mr Smith says one reason they were given was that it would cost too much if they lost.
The police strategy was to announce the decision publicly the next day, after first telling the players and the
woman. It had to be scrapped when it was leaked almost immediately.
Reporters started calling and the two detectives said they went against orders to tell the alleged victim straight
away, rather than have her find out on The Footy Show that night.
Mr Gladman says every second of the journey to her house to break the news is as vivid in his memory as the births of his children.
"I've been present for some awful moments in people's lives, but nothing was harder than having to tell her that
the brief had been put to bed.''
Both men say natural justice was denied - not just to the alleged victim but to Milne and Montagna, who did not get
the chance to clear their names in court.
Mr Gladman says the case left him convinced that some officers valued loyalty to a sporting club ahead of their
responsibilities as law enforcers.
''There was certainly an element within Victoria Police that believed that they could call me up and demand the
investigation go a way that was a more positive outcome for the club,'' he said.
Smith agrees.
"Anything they could do to help the club, they would do," he says.
"My idea was I already belonged to one club... the police force."
The decision by the two officers to come forward forced an Office of Police Integrity probe in 2010.
Their report, published last year, recommended a review of the evidence.
Today Victoria Police released this statement:
“Victoria Police can confirm that it has today charged a 33 year-old man from Cheltenham with four counts of rape following an alleged incident in 2004.
“The decision to charge follows an extensive review of the initial investigation by specialist detectives within our Sexual Crimes Squad.
“That review was prompted by an OPI recommendation last year that the brief of evidence be reviewed to ensure all relevant evidence had been properly recorded and retained.
“As we have previously made clear, it is a matter of regret that this review found the initial investigation to have been substantially inadequate.
“As a result, further inquiries have been conducted by the Sexual Crimes Squad and after consulting with the Office of Public Prosecutions, the decision has been made to lay charges.”Federal data analysis by Germanys Fraunhofer ISE has revealed that export prices for surplus electricity the country has produced are higher than the price Germany pays for imported energy disproving the claim by critics of the Energiewende that Germany has been ‘dumping’ surplus power on to its neighbors.
According to Fraunhofers analysis, exported electricity yielded additional revenue of 1.7 billion in 2014 ($1.93 billion), and is on course to swell the countrys coffers by between 1.5 billion and 2 billion ($1.7-$2.2 billion) this year.
The data confirms that there is no basis to the argument that Germany is selling surplus energy at dumping prices, said Fraunhofer professor, Bruno Burger. "Over the past years, Germany was able to secure higher prices for its electricity exports than it paid for electricity imports," he said.
This year, Germany is on course to generate a record export surplus of 40 TWh of electricity, aided by the countrys renewables industry as nuclear outputs has fallen by 41 TWh between 2010 and 2014. Over that same period, solar, wind and biomass have added 118 TWh of energy production capacity.
This transition, the Energiewende, is serving to alter the landscape of Germanys energy mix, but some critics had rounded on the strategy, accusing Germany of selling off its surplus power cheaply to its neighbors.
"Major efforts in renewable energy expansion are still drastically needed in order to replace the remaining nuclear power plants and to reduce the electricity production from coal-fired plants, which are especially damaging to the climate," Burger said. Solar installations have fallen off sharply in the past 18 months, which reaffirms Burgers belief that more still needs to be done to ensure that the Energiewende maintains its current trajectory.It’s time for OKC to wear some throwback jerseys…
This week, it’s an observation about fashion. High fashion. I still don’t know if that means superior class or on drugs. Maybe both.
On Monday, the Grizzlies faced off against OKC with an apparent homage to the 2008 basketball comedy Semi-Pro:
Unfamiliar w/ the #MEMsounds of the ABA? Learn more about the ABA Throwbacks > https://t.co/TseVC3R7WT pic.twitter.com/tdybOuk5zw — Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) November 17, 2015
Those aren’t bad, actually. It got me thinking that Oklahoma City could use a throwback of their own. Since we really can’t do anything with old SuperSonics stuff, I was thinking something like this:
In case you didn’t know, Suckitseattle is the name of the newest Sonic Blast.
Some might say this is bad business for Sonic, but what’s the worst that can happen? There are four Sonics in the Seattle metro area, none of which are in the city limits. If they stage |
/… sorts before /2/…. How the encoding works can appear a bit magical if you haven’t encountered it before. If you’re interested in the nitty-gritty details, see {Encode,Decode}{Varint,Float,Bytes,Null} in the util/encoding package.
With this encoding tool at our disposal, we’re ready to take a peek at the encoding of SQL table data. In CockroachDB, each table has a unique 64-bit integer ID assigned to it at creation. This table ID is used as the prefix for all keys associated with that table. Now let’s consider the following table and data:
CREATE TABLE test ( key INT PRIMARY KEY, floatVal FLOAT, stringVal STRING ) INSERT INTO test VALUES (10, 4.5, "hello”)
Every table in CockroachDB must have a primary key. The primary key is composed of one or more columns; in our test table above, it is composed of a single column. CockroachDB stores each non-primary key column under a separate key that is prefixed by the primary key and suffixed by the column name. The row <10, 4.5, "hello”> would be stored in our test table as:
Key Value /test/10/floatVal 4.5 /test/10/stringVal "hello”
In this depiction, we’re using /test/ as a placeholder for the table ID and /floatVal and /stringVal as placeholders for the column ID (every column in a table has an ID that is unique within the table). Note that the primary key immediately follows the table ID in our encoding. This is the basis for index-scans in CockroachDB’s SQL implementation.
If we were to look under the hood, we would see the table metadata:
test Table ID 1000 key Column ID 1 floatVal Column ID 2 stringVal Column ID 3
In numeric form, the key-value pairs for our table look like:
Key Value /1000/10/2 4.5 /1000/10/3 "hello”
We’ll stick with the symbolic form for keys for the rest of this post.
[You might be thinking that the common prefixes ( /1000/10 ) for the keys are wasting storage, but RocksDB our underlying storage engine, eliminates almost all of the overhead via prefix compression of keys.]
Astute readers will note that storing key-value pairs for columns which are contained in the primary key is not necessary, as these columns’ values are already encoded in the key itself. Indeed, CockroachDB elides these.
Notice that all of the keys for a particular row will be stored next to each other due to the primary key prefix (remember, key-value data is stored in a sorted monolithic map in CockroachDB, so this property is “free”). This allows retrieval of the values for a particular row using a Scan on the prefix. And this is exactly what CockroachDB does internally.
The query:
SELECT * FROM test WHERE key = 10
Will be translated into:
Scan(/test/10/, /test/10/Ω)
This scan will retrieve only the two keys for the row. The Ω represents the last possible key suffix. The query execution engine will then decode the keys to reconstruct the row.
Null Column Values
There is a small twist to this story: column values can be NULL unless explicitly marked as NOT NULL. CockroachDB does not store NULL values and instead uses the absence of a key-value pair for a column to indicate NULL. The observant might notice a wrinkle here: if all of the non-primary key columns for a row are NULL we won’t store any keys for the row. To address this case, CockroachDB always writes a sentinel key for each row that is the primary key without a column ID suffix. For our example row of <10, 4.5, "hello”>, the sentinel key would be: /test/10. Huzzah!
Secondary Indexes
So far we’ve ignored secondary indexes. Let’s rectify that oversight:
CREATE INDEX foo ON test (stringVal)
This creates a secondary index on the column stringVal. We haven’t declared the index as unique, so duplicate values are allowed. Similar to the rows for a table, we’ll be storing all of the index data in keys prefixed by the table ID. But we want to separate the index data from the row data. We accomplish that by introducing an index ID which is unique for each index in the table, including the primary key index (sorry, we lied earlier!):
/tableID/indexID/indexColumns[/columnID]
The keys we used as examples above get slightly longer:
Key Value /test/primary/10 Ø /test/primary/10/floatVal 4.5 /test/primary/10/stringVal "hello”
And now we’ll also have a single key for the row for our index foo:
Key Value /test/foo/”hello”/10 Ø
You might be wondering why we suffixed this encoding with the primary key value ( /10 ). For a non-unique index like foo, this is necessary to allow the same value to occur in multiple rows. Since the primary key is by definition unique for the table, appending it as a suffix to a non-unique key results in a unique key. In general, for a non-unique index, CockroachDB appends the values of all columns which are contained in the primary key but not contained in the index in question.
Now let’s see what happens if we insert <4, NULL, "hello”> into our table:
Key Value /test/primary/4 Ø /test/primary/4/stringVal "hello” /test/foo/"hello”/4 Ø
All of the table data together looks like:
Key Value /test/primary/4 Ø /test/primary/4/stringVal "hello” /test/primary/10 Ø /test/primary/10/floatVal 4.5 /test/primary/10/stringVal "hello” /test/foo/"hello”/4 Ø /test/foo/"hello”/10 Ø
Secondary indexes are used during SELECT processing to scan a smaller set of keys. Consider:
SELECT key FROM test WHERE stringVal = "hello”
The query planner will notice there is an index on stringVal and translate this into:
Scan(/test/foo/”hello”/, /test/foo/”hello"/Ω)
Which will retrieve the keys:
Key Value /test/foo/”hello”/4 Ø /test/foo/”hello”/10 Ø
Notice that these keys contain not only the index column stringVal, but also the primary key column key. CockroachDB will notice the primary key column key and avoid an unnecessary lookup of the full row.
Finally, let’s look at how unique indexes are encoded. Instead of the index foo we created earlier, we’ll create uniqueFoo :
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX uniqueFoo ON test (stringVal)
Unlike non-unique indexes, the key for a unique index is composed of only the columns that are part of the index. The value stored at the key is an encoding of all primary key columns that are not part of the index. The two rows in our test table would encode to:
Key Value /test/uniqueFoo/"hello” /4 /test/uniqueFoo/"hello” /10
We use ConditionalPut when writing the key in order to detect if the key already exists which indicates a violation of the uniqueness constraint.
So that’s how CockroachDB maps SQL data to the key-value store in a nutshell. Keep an eye out for upcoming posts on query analysis, planning, and execution.
* The idea of implementing SQL on top of a key-value store isn’t unique to CockroachDB. This is essentially the design of MySQL on InnoDB, Sqlite4, and other databases, as well.
Does distributed SQL make you giddy? Then good news — we’re hiring! Check out our open positions here.When South Dakota's Republican activists convened in Pierre to pick their delegates to the Republican National Convention, they got an unexpected visitor.
Merle Madrid, senior aide to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, had flown in from Columbus to make an appeal: If the convention fails to elect front-runner Donald Trump on the first ballot, consider Kasich on the second — even if the state’s Republican voters sent them there to back Trump or Ted Cruz.
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Madrid was polite and earnest, but, according to interviews with 17 of the state’s 29 delegates, he came up empty.
"Kasich will not get my vote no matter what he does. That ain’t gonna happen," said delegate Allen Unruh, a Sioux Falls chiropractor and tea party activist.
Madrid’s visit to South Dakota on Saturday marked one of the earliest signs that the shadow campaign for the Republican nomination has begun. Kasich and Cruz are scrambling to secure commitments from bound delegates to break off on a second ballot and vote against Trump. In many cases, that means asking delegates to buck Republican primary voters in the name of settling on a nominee.
The fight will heat up in April, when a slew of states — including Arizona, Colorado and North Dakota — begin selecting their own slates of delegates, using methods ranging from statewide and congressional district conventions to meetings of state party leaders to county-level votes or caucuses.
Delegates Remaining: 30 Delegates 1,543 559 165 161 23 7 4 1 1 1 1,237 Delegates Needed for Nomination
But if Madrid’s results are any indication, it’s not Kasich who threatens to steal Trump’s South Dakota delegates in Cleveland — it’s Cruz.
"I’m not a Kasich fan. I would vote for him over a Democrat; however, I think there’s not a lot of difference between him and a Democrat," said Florence Thompson, a delegate from Caputa who described herself as a "raving conservative."
Added Dana Randall, South Dakota's national Republican committeeman and another delegate, "I’m not anti-John Kasich, but I don’t think [Madrid] swung one vote either way."
South Dakota's delegation is top-heavy with supporters of Cruz, the Texas senator whose ideological purity has resonated in this deeply conservative Midwestern state. Most delegates expect South Dakota to devolve into a slugfest between Cruz and Trump, and Cruz's ultraconservative identity gives him an early edge.
Madrid, who joined Kasich in South Dakota last year on a tour supporting a federal balanced budget amendment, said he was the natural choice to return to meet with the delegates. Though he acknowledged the tough, pro-Cruz audience, Madrid said proactively building relationships with delegates could pay dividends down the road — especially in states like South Dakota, often overlooked during GOP primaries and seldom fought-over in general elections.
“As we head toward Cleveland, I think it’s clear that this is going to be a convention unlike any other, and states that have perhaps been taken for granted in the past could be delegates that matter a great deal to the candidates,” Madrid said. “The opportunity to spend some time in the state meeting with delegates was worthwhile and could be advantageous down the road.”
He said Kasich’s team is likely to make similar forays into North Dakota or New Mexico with the same goal.
But South Dakota is in an unusual position because over the weekend it became one of the first states to name its full slate of convention delegates — a move that immediately plunged it into a three-way tug of war among the remaining presidential candidates.
Trump and Cruz opted against sending their own envoys into the South Dakota fray. But all three campaigns have been mobilizing staff and preparing for a nationwide organizing battle to ensure that their own loyalists win elections to become delegates to the convention. The campaign with the most success in this shadow campaign is likely to have an edge should the national convention become a once-in-a-generation floor fight among delegates.
For now, Cruz can take heart that even if South Dakota votes for Trump in June — binding nearly all 29 delegates to back the New York billionaire on the first ballot — the delegates signaled they're with him at heart.
"I have a preference for Cruz," said Matt Bruner, a Republican precinct chairman from White. "Right now, seeing Kasich in there — Kasich is in the race for nothing other than a hope and prayer.... It's very, very much a Cruz delegation."
The Cruz edge in South Dakota could be significant if Trump scores a primary win there on June 7. State party procedures require 26 of the state's 29 delegates to vote for the popular vote-getter on the first ballot in Cleveland. All 26 delegates signed a legally binding oath to fulfill that responsibility on Saturday. But Trump could find himself in a hole in a contested convention if members of the South Dakota delegation — and others around the country — begin abandoning him.
"There’s a strong resistance to Trump from a number of these people," said Lance Russell, a delegate and state representative from Hot Springs.
Many in the delegation are refraining from endorsements for now. The state's governor, Dennis Daugaard, will chair the delegation to Cleveland, and his wife, Linda, is another delegate. Neither has endorsed a candidate in the contest. State GOP Chairwoman Pam Roberts, another delegate, is also neutral.
"Most of the people in the room felt that it was not going to be a convention where the candidate would be decided. They are all ready — they’re prepared to do their duty if it does go to a second vote," Roberts said.
Most of South Dakota's delegates are current or former state lawmakers, tight with party insiders. Others are local businessmen and women active in Republican Party politics. Several told POLITICO they intend to keep their leanings quiet until a contested convention and make strategic decisions based on the unpredictable results of early balloting. For example, in a contested convention, candidates could choose to name running mates — or join forces and run together — which would change the delegates' calculus.
“I’m supporting Ted Cruz, but I’m going to support on the first ballot whoever the citizens of South Dakota support in the Republican primary. Beyond that, we’re gonna have to look at what the situation is and what kind of alliances can be drawn and how can the votes be structured to get somebody the nomination and what’s gonna unify the party," said John Teupel, a former state lawmaker and member of the delegation.
Other delegates still making up their minds: state Rep. Jim Bolin; state Rep. Steve Haugaard; former Senate president pro tempore Bob Gray; Jason Glodt, a lawyer, lobbyist and onetime adviser to Mike Rounds. State Rep. Isaac Latterell said he is “not a Kasich fan” and favors Cruz, but he’s open to surveying the situation if a second ballot becomes necessary.
Roger Meyer, a former Yankton County GOP chairman, said his only criterion for a second-ballot choice is someone who can "beat the Democrats." Though that's a pitch tailor-made for Kasich — who has long contended that he's the only candidate remaining who tops Hillary Clinton in general election polling — Meyer stopped short of backing the governor. Nancy Neff, a Republican activist from Sioux Falls, said she intends to support the statewide winner on subsequent ballots, not just the first.
"I don’t know that I’ve actually come down to that decision yet," said David Wheeler, a delegate from Huron. "For me, a second ballot — I’m weighing a lot of different factors. Who I prefer to be the candidate but also who’s more likely to win the general election. What is the outcome on the future of the Republican Party. I could see, depending on how those different values line up in July — any one of the candidates."
But where delegates expressed clear preferences, they were for Cruz every time.
"My intention, if it does go beyond a first ballot, at this point I would be supporting Ted Cruz," said Russell, the Hot Springs representative. "I’ve been a contributor to the campaign already. I’ve had communication from them."It’s the kind of bullying behaviour you wouldn’t expect from a 10-year-old. But shamefully it wasn’t considered to be too boorish or cruel to be acted out by two on-duty Toronto police officers. The officers had pulled Pamela Munoz over for allegedly running a red light last November. Riding in the car with her were her two daughters, one of whom, Francie, has Down Syndrome.
Police Chief Mark Saunders did the right thing by apologizing in person for the behaviour of two police officers who made disparaging remarks about a woman with Down Syndrome. ( Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star )
Cue the ignorant behaviour. Caught on the officers’ dashboard video, which Munoz recently obtained to fight the ticket, were the two officers referring to Francie as a half woman, “disfigured... or different,” and laughing loutishly. “Artistic... That’s going to be my new code for... different,” says one. The two cops must now do the right thing. At the very least, they should publicly apologize and take sensitivity training, though one would think they would have learned not to make such disparaging remarks about people with disabilities back when they were in grade school.
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On the positive side, Chief Mark Saunders and Mayor John Tory have both apologized to the Munoz family. To his credit, Saunders even went to their home in person to do so. Saunders did not tell the media about his conversation with the family. But he did tell CP24 that his officers “go out there and try to do a good job each and every day. By no means is this situation a fair representation of what goes on on a day-to-day basis.” Still, while the department investigates the officers to decide on the appropriate disciplinary measure (it could range from a reprimand to dismissal), it should take Francie Munoz up on her suggestion that all police officers should receive better training in dealing with people with disabilities. They might want to start by watching the videos Munoz has appeared in as an advocate for people with Down Syndrome created by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Clearly the two officers have a lot to learn from Munoz about respecting the people they serve. They should acknowledge that in what should be an immediate and fulsome public apology.Some GINKs (that is Green Inclined, No Kids) will tell you that going child-free helps reduce impact on our environment. They’ve tallied up the material needs, food and water that their prospective child might consume over his/her lifetime and decided our planet with 7.2 billion people at last count just can’t handle it.
Going child-free is a great strategy for those who have no interest in child-rearing. But for many people, the decision to raise a child isn’t one that necessarily comes from a critical look at the facts. It’s an emotional choice to make a life “complete.”
As a long-time environmentalist and sustainability advocate, I understand all the reasons to go child-free, but my emotional drive won out. Here’s my story.
From Birth, My Daughter Had Strong Opinions About Her Right To Consume And Produce Waste
Yes, my daughter will create garbage over her lifetime and she will use water and energy and other precious resources. But so do the rest of us humans (with the exception of No Impact Man). And yes, our family’s waste stream has nearly doubled because of her diapers, and we’re doing a lot of extra laundry. But I assure all of the GINKs out there that these things are only temporary.
But We Don’t Have To Be A GINK Or Live Child-Free To Live A No-Waste Lifestyle
Despite the many ways they add to the global waste stream, there are myriad ways parents can minimize their baby’s impacts through reuse. My husband and I are looking for used options and intend to pass along toys and clothing when we are done with them. And instead of disposables, we’ll explore compostable diapers as soon as we get used to the new routine.
The Decision to Bring a Child Into This World Has Increased My Capacity For Love, Patience And Compassion
These traits make me more effective at my work advocating for sustainability and corporate attention to the triple bottom line. Motherhood has strengthened my desire to fight the good fight so that the bounty of this world is still available for my daughter and future generations.
And as a waste hater in training, she will learn that she has a responsibility to the greater good beyond her own well-being; she will live lightly and help those around her to do the same.
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This and other stories published on WeHateToWaste.com are intended to prompt productive conversation about practical solutions for preventing waste. Opinions expressed are solely those of the contributors and WeHateToWaste implies no endorsement of the products or companies mentioned. All comments will be moderated and those that are overly promotional, mean-spirited or off-topic may be deleted. All postings become the property of WeHateToWaste.com.
Related PostsFrom Jill Dougherty, CNN
Syrian Prime Minister Ryad Hijab defected this week, joining the list of several other high-level members of the Syrian regime who have abandoned President Bashar al-Assad as he struggles to maintain his grip on power.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Hijab's actions are another sign that al-Assad will fall.
"I'm not going to put a timeline on it," she said. "I can't possibly predict it, but I know it's going to happen as does most observers around the world."
But the prime minister is the head of the government, and the government does not rule the country. The real power in Syria is held by the true "insiders," al-Assad's blood relatives.
Maher Al-Assad - Al-Assad's youngest brother and rumored to be Syria's second-most powerful man. He is head of the elite, rabidly loyal Republican Guard and the 4th Armored Division.
Namir Al-Assad - The president's cousin who is one of the top leaders of the Shabiha, the mercenary force used to suppress the opposition.
Rami Makhlouf - The money behind the regime, al-Assad's first cousin is believed to be the richest person in Syria. He allegedly funds the regime's violent battle against protesters and rebels who are seeking to oust the president.
Ali Mamlouk - As the head of national security, Mamlouk had U.S. sanctions leveled against him for human rights abuses and violence against civilians. Almost all members of al-Assad's inner circle are Alawites, a minority Muslim group. Alawites make up less than 15% of the population. Three-quarters of Syrians are Sunni Muslims.
Most of those who have defected are Sunni, including the prime minister.
In July, one of Syria's most senior diplomats, Nawaf al-Fares, defected, publicly embraced his country's uprising and called for a foreign military intervention. Al-Fares was Syria's ambassador to Iraq.
Manaf Tlas, a Sunni general in Syria's elite Republican Guards, also defected last month. Tlas is the son of a former defense minister and a cousin of a first lieutenant in al-Assad's army.
Syria expert Hussein Ibish said al-Assad's inner circle has only one message for its fellow Syrians. " 'It's us or the abyss,' " Ibish said. " 'Stick with us or you will be massacred in your beds.' "
The regime operates like an organized crime syndicate, he said.
"So it isn't possible to reform because what you would have to do to reform," Ibish said, "is start dismantling a mafia operation, a set of rackets, a set of interrelated criminal enterprises."September is here, which means the second of Four Roses’ annual limited releases have arrived. The 2014 Limited Edition Small Batch release from 4R is a vatting of four different bourbon recipes: 13 year old OBSV, 12 year old OESV, 11 year old OBSF, and 9 year old OBSK. Three of those four, the OB bottlings, are from Four Roses’ “high rye” recipe. While 13 years sounds old, this is actually fairly young stock for this release. Unlike most prior Small Batch releases, the stock here doesn’t reach into the upper teens, and the Small Batch series has never had a whiskey younger than 10 years old in it before now. (That youth may also explain why this cask strength release is so racy, at an estimated 120 proof.)
That said, 9 years is plenty old for a Kentucky Bourbon, and the 2014 Small Batch doesn’t disappoint. It is an exceedingly fruity expression of Four Roses, bursting with notes of cherry, strawberry, orange, and lemon. Compared to the 2013 (which is now drinking as surprisingly austere), the 2012 (burly but increasingly approachable), and the 2011 (balanced but full of spice), it’s positively doused with an almost candylike character to it. I think it’s the cherry notes that ultimately come across the strongest — almost presenting like a Starburst fruit chew. Over time, the nose develops more of a woodsy character that melds with the cherry notes in a fun and enjoyable way — after spending some hours with the whiskey, I found myself thinking of Baker’s. Fans of that Bourbon may find lots to like in the 2014 Small Batch as well.
This isn’t my favorite whiskey in the Small Batch series, but damn if I didn’t enjoy it as much as those that have preceded it. Four Roses and Jim Rutledge love to tout how those 10 vaunted recipes can generate all kinds of different Bourbons when blended with an expert hand. This 2014 release continues to show that they know what they’re talking about.
11,200 bottles made. That’s 40% more than last year, so hopefully there’s more to go around.
A- / $90 / fourroses.us
Similar Posts:Media Create has released its hardware sales figures for the week of November 18th to 24th in Japan, and while the Nintendo 3DS XL managed to rise above the previous week’s sales, the PlayStation Vita TV outright collapsed this week after debuting the week prior.
The 3DS XL managed to sell 63,709 units this week, with previous week’s sales being 47,852 units. The PlayStation Vita managed 21,044 units, which is significantly down from the previous week’s 46,350 units while the Wii U managed to sell 21,002 consoles which is up from the previous week’s 15,906 units. Meanwhile, PlayStation Vita TV managed to sell a meager 7,868 units. Consider that the week prior, the platform sold 42,172 units on its debut and you’ll get an idea of how big a fall this is.
The Wii U has had its own ups and downs since launch, so we might see an increase in sales for the PS Vita TV following the release of exclusives over the years. As always, time will tell.Suomalaisinta ikinä on, että metsätyökoneeseen jää jumiin juuri se käsi, jonka puoleisessa takintaskussa on kännykkä.Suomalaisinta ikinä on, että kun tilanne ei voi enää muuttua pahemmaksi alkaa sataa pesäpallon kokoisia rakeita.Suomalaisinta ikinä on keittää puuroa talteen tai lämmittää mikrossa vanhaa kahvia. Kääriä kalakukkoa folioon vaimolle evääksi. Hamstrata kahvipaketteja kertyneillä Kukkura-tarroilla ja hullutella törsäämällä Ässä-arpaan.Suomalaisinta ikinä on syödä hedelmät raakana ja palauttaa ne "pilaantuneina" kauppaan, jos ne ovatkin kypsiä. Mutta maistuvathan ne kummilta.Suomalaisinta ikinä on sanoa aivan aluksi. Mutta kyllä siitä aina tulee. Niin pieninä palasina on mun Ikea-hyllyni maailmalla.Suomalaisinta ikinä on ohjata jäänmurtajaa yhdellä kädellä ja neuvoa samalla puhelimessa aviomiestään pesemään pyykit oikeassa lämpötilassa. Suomalaisinta ikinä on paria tuntia myöhemmin sen saman aviomiehen pesemä villaneule, joka mahtuu enää pihatontulle.Suomalaisinta ikinä on asua mutsinsa luona. (Se on myös italialaisinta ikinä.)Suomalaisinta ikinä on tikkitakin taskuun hitaasti puristuva nyrkki. Se on se kuuluisa suomalainen tunnerekisteri, joka ulottuu aina ärtymyksestä pitkälle kiukkuun asti. Että perkele bensan hintakin ja Naapuri veti vessan vielä A-studion jälkeen, kyllä minä sen kuulin kun painoin korvani keittiön patteria vasten!Suomalaisinta ikinä on murjottaa. Murjottaminen on koko lailla parasta mitä suomalainen voi tehdä yksikseen, ellei katiskalla käymistä lasketa. Mutta suomalaisinta ikinä on, ettei vihaa ketään vaikka välillä vituttaisi niin että näköä haittaa.Suomalaisinta ikinä on ottaa housut pois Heti ku pääsee kotio.Suomalaisinta ikinä on istua porukalla löylyssä ilkitenmulkiten, vaikka kropassa olisi töyssyjä ja kuoppia ja molemmissa päissä jäljellä vain hassuja haivenia. Saunassa kaikki ovat kauniita.Suomalaisinta ikinä on, että joskus sydämeen sattuu tosi paljon, eikä sitä uskalla sanoa kenellekään.Suomalaisinta ikinä ovat vanhatpiiat ja peräkammarin pojat, Satuhäiden röökaava morsmaikku, puistonpenkillä torkkuva leskimies ja viimemaanantainen demari. Suomalaisinta ikinä on maailman alhaisin lapsikuolleisuus ja korkein lehdistönvapaus. Suomalaisinta ikinä on, että hallitukset ovat tylsiä mutteivät pelottavia, ja poliisikoiraa saa rapsuttaa. Suomalaisinta ikinä on, että kun en enää muista kuka olen ja missä olen, joku pitää minusta varmasti huolta.Suomalaisinta ikinä on kebab ranskalaisilla. Pizza alla Stouniin pyydetään ekstrana ananasta.Suomalaisinta ikinä on päättää rakentaa talo, vaikka sanaristikonkin ratkaiseminen jäi kesken.Suomalaisinta ikinä on puhua poria. Kovinta myös. Suomalaisinta ikinä on viestiä kanssaihmisten kanssa rappukäytävän ilmoitustaulun välityksellä. Suomalaisinta ikinä on kirjoittaa Suomenlinnan rantakallioon että Seiso omilla jaloillasi, runoon Yksin oot sinä ihminen, kaiken keskellä yksin. Suomalaisinta ikinä on vaieta suomeksi.Suomalaisinta ikinä on saada potkut sähköpostilla. Suomalaisinta ikinä on puskea eteenpäin tuulikaapin kuivassa viimassa räkätaudissa, huutava kakara kainalossa. Sillä suomalaisinta ikinä on, ettei anneta anteeksi eikä periksi.Suomalaisinta ikinä on katua, katkeroitua ja kuolla. Edellisten järjestystä voi vaihdella fiiliksen mukaan.Suomalaisinta ikinä on kaikki maailman haikeudet ja vaikeudet. Terveenäkin roppaa kolottaa, ja päänahka kuivuu mutta sukat kastuu.Suomalaisinta ikinä on vatuloida, kun hän odottaa soittoasi. Olla salaa ihastunut työmatkabussin tyttöön 15 vuotta tekemättä mitään, Mutta ehkäpä sitä huomenna rohkenisi. Suomalaisinta ikinä on kadehtia kaverilta venettä ja vaimoa.Suomalaisinta ikinä on tanssia hitaita toinen käsi vastustajan pepulle salakavalasti valahtaen. Suudella Ikuisen tulen muistomerkillä ja näyttää tyttärelleen kaupungin horisontti Vartiovuorenmäeltä.Suomalaisinta ikinä on Pispalan pienet pihat ukkoskuuron jälkeen. Suomalaisinta ikinä on Viikon luontoääni. Usein sitä ei vain kuule kun lehtipuhallin ulvoo puuttomalla pihalla. Suomalaisinta ikinä on, että päivä alkaa lyhetä ennen kuin lumet ovat sulaneet.Suomalaisinta ikinä on kaukokaipuu ja kaipuu kotiin. Mennä metsään tai suuriin valoihin ja tuntea olevansa aivan ainoa. Suomalaisinta ikinä on pään yllä pohjoinen taivas.Suomalaisinta ikinä on, että otetaan lakki päästä karaokessa, kun joku laulaa Kari Tapiota. Ja kaverin lakki myös.Suomalaisinta ikinä on aavan meren tällä puolen.Suomalaisinta ikinä ovat kaverit, jotka tulevat muuttamaan sinua yhteen tai erilleen. Suomalaisinta ikinä on ystävät, joita et saa, mutta kun saat, ne eivät lähde kulumallakaan. Ja suomalaisinta ikinä on, että poika tapaa tytön tai tyttö tapaa pojan tai poika tapaa pojan tai tyttö tapaa tytön.Sillä suomalaisinta ikinä on rakastaa hiljaa mutta lujaa.ES News Email Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in or register with your social account
Jeremy Corbyn has said he would "love" another general election, adding there is "no question at all" that Labour would win.
During a visit to marginal constituency Hendon, where Conservative Matthew Offord has a majority of just over 1,000, the Labour leader said his party was ready.
Prime Minister Theresa May lost her Commons majority in June and is relying on DUP support.
Mr Corbyn’s claims come amid speculation she will call another general election to try to strengthen her position.
"I'd love it straight away," Mr Corbyn said.
Asked if he thought Labour would win, he replied: "Yes, no question at all."
Mr Corbyn added that Labour would make no deals with other parties.
He met apprentices in plumbing and hairdressing before having a lesson in bricklaying from tutors at Barnet & Southgate College, in Hendon, north-west London.
As he laid bricks in a hi-vis jacket, he told photographers that he was "building for Britain".
Mr Corbyn then headed to the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency of former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith whose majority fell to less than 2,500 last month, down from more than 8,000 in 2015.
There, he called Mrs May's £1 billion deal with the DUP "simply unacceptable" and told the modest crowd gathered that they had to do the "sensible" thing and prepare for a Labour government.
"We're young, we're old, we're black, we're white, we're everything" he told the energetic crowd in Chingford Green Park.
Despite no election date looming, Labour activists have planned to campaign in Chingford and Woodford Green this weekend and Mr Corbyn said he would be visiting 73 other marginal seats in the imminent future.
He said he did not know when the next election would be but told the crowd: "We will be ready for it whenever it comes."
The Labour leader also said he would be taking a shadow cabinet delegation to Brussels for the Brexit negotiations.
Additional reporting by Press Association."The Host Broadcaster DR explored all options, and came to the conclusion that they keep maximum flexibility in chosing a venue and host city by scheduling the Final for the 10th of May," says Jon Ola Sand, Executive Supervisor of the contest on behalf of EBU/EUROVISION.
"The Host Broadcaster DR explored all options, and came to the conclusion that they keep maximum flexibility in chosing a venue and host city by scheduling the Final for the 10th of May," says Jon Ola Sand, Executive Supervisor of the contest on behalf of EBU/EUROVISION.
"The Host Broadcaster DR explored all options, and came to the conclusion that they keep maximum flexibility in chosing a venue and host city by scheduling the Final for the 10th of May," says Jon Ola Sand, Executive Supervisor of the contest on behalf of EBU/EUROVISION.After early discussions to play the Apple founder, Christian Bale has decided to part ways with the Steve Jobs biopic at Sony.
While negotiations were never fully under way, sources tell Variety that Bale had talks with director Danny Boyle about taking on the role, but a deal never came to fruition. The news comes almost two weeks after the biopic’s screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, told Bloomberg that Bale was a lock for the part of Jobs. ““We needed the best actor on the board in a certain age range and that’s Chris Bale,” he said. “It’s an extremely difficult part and he’s gonna crush |
who are having it, or will be very soon.
Netflix Alex (Laura Prepon) and Piper (Taylor Schilling), Orange is the New BlackGretchen Carlson is suing Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes.
According to papers obtained by PEOPLE, Carlson is alleging that her former employer “Ailes has unlawfully retaliated against Carlson and sabotaged her career because she refused sexual advances and complained about severe and pervasive sexual harassment.”
“I have strived to empower women and girls throughout my entire career,” Carlson, now 50, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Although this was a difficult step to take, I had to stand up for myself and speak out for all women and the next generation of women in the workplace. I am extremely proud of my accomplishments at Fox News and for keeping our loyal viewers engaged and informed on events and news topics of the day.”
Carlson claims the biggest form of Ailes’ retaliation was her firing from Fox News on June 23, nine months after allegedly “ostracizing, marginalizing and shunning” the Real Story anchor before suggesting she engage in a sexual relationship with him.
Gretchen Carlson and Roger Ailes Richard Drew/AP; Wesley Mann/FOX News via Getty
According to the legal filing: “As a direct and proximate result of her refusing his sexual advances and in retaliation for Carlson’s complaints about discrimination and harassment, Ailes terminated her employment, causing her significant, emotional and professional harm.”
Also under fire in Carlson’s filing is former Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy, whom Carlson claims “regularly treat[ed] her in a sexist and condescending way” when they worked together. The lawsuit claims Doocy “engaged in a pattern and practice of severe and pervasive sexual harassment” that was tantamount to treating her as “a blond female prop.”
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Steve Doocy and Gretchen Carlson on Fox amp#38; Friends Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Getty
Carlson – a Stanford University graduate and former Miss America – alleges Ailes, now 76, called her a “man hater” when she complained to him in 2009 about Doocy’s behavior.
Carlson claims she once again confronted Ailes in a meeting last September, and according to the legal documents: “Ailes stated: ‘I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago and then you d be good and better and I’d be good and better,’ adding that ‘sometimes problems are easier to solve’ that way.’ ”
Carlson alleges that Ailes subsequently “pursued a highly personal agenda” by limiting her assignments and exposure on the network, and ultimately firing her from Fox & Friends in 2013, which resulted in a new time slot and a pay cut.
Carlson’s suit claims Ailes urged her to “stop worrying about being treated equally and getting ‘offended so God d— easy about everything.’ ”
She alleges he asked “her to turn around so he could view her posterior,” commented on her body and wardrobe and once told her “she was ‘sexy,’ but ‘too much hard work.’ ”
Carlson, who has been married to sports agent Casey Close since 1997, is seeking an undisclosed amount for “lost compensation, damaged career path, damage to reputation and pain and suffering damages.”
Ailes has since responded to the allegations. In a statement obtained by PEOPLE, he calls the claims “retaliatory.”
“Gretchen Carlson’s allegations are false,” he says in the statement. “This is a retaliatory suit for the network’s decision not to renew her contract, which was due to the fact that her disappointingly low ratings were dragging down the afternoon lineup. When Fox News did not commence any negotiations to renew her contract, Ms. Carlson became aware that her career with the network was likely over and conveniently began to pursue a lawsuit.”
Ailes added, “Ironically, FOX News provided her with more on-air opportunities over her 11-year tenure than any other employer in the industry, for which she thanked me in her recent book. This defamatory lawsuit is not only offensive, it is wholly without merit and will be defended vigorously.”
Fox News did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.Balbir Punj By
An incident in political violence ridden north Malabar’s Tirur town of some CPM workers being attacked by an extremist Islamist group on public, should have been the object of a local police enquiry. But within a day the anti-terrorist agency NIA took over the probe. Obviously, the attack was not an isolated local incident. There seems to be a clear indication that the Islamist attackers might be linked to Pakistan directed terrorist groups like LET. The attackers were from the SDPI, a student wing of the NDFI (National Democratic Front of India), an extremist Islamist organisation that seeks to impose Sharia law on the country. It has several cases against it forcing ordinary Muslims to its diktat under the threat of violence.
NDF, SDFI, People’s Democratic Party (PDP, whose leader Abdul Naseer Madhani is detained in a Bangalore jail for alleged terrorist attack there) are the various manifestations of jehadi organisations in Kerala that have taken strong hold among the Muslim masses in recent years. Earlier it was SIMI which now stands banned. The same elements of SIMI have metamorphed into newer organisations but with the same objective. The surprising part is not that violence either of the Marxists (their leaders in Kozhikode district are among those who have been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a rebel party man) or of the Jihadi leader. The surprising part is the attitude of those politicians who claim to profess faith in “secular and democratic values”.
Ironically, the day the Tirur incident occurred, the Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala was telling public that the Congress- led UDF state government was putting pressure on the Karnataka government regarding “inadequate” treatment for the terror accused Madhani. The Congress has competed with CPM in spreading the red carpet for this jihadi leader when he got acquitted in a case of planning physical elimination of senior BJP leader L K Advani in 1998, through planting serial bombs in Coimbatore where he was to address a public rally.
Subsequently police in several states have traced many other terrorist activities to this leader. However, the Congress government in Kerala or its predecessor, the Marxist-led state government, have been reluctant to act. It was only the rule of law insisted upon by the previous BJP government in Karnataka that the jihadi leader was arrested for planning serial bomb blasts in Bangalore in 2008. He has also allegedly admitted his role in the 2010 Bangalore stadium bombing.
CPM even had a state-level electoral alliance with the PDP in 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The public demonstration of the surrender of the successive Kerala governments before the jihadi elements has only encouraged Islamists to penetrate further into the Muslim society. Of interest in this context is the allegation of the Marxist state Secretary Pinaray Vijayan that the Tirur incident actually was a League conspiracy.
The League leaders who are now part of the UDF Government in Kerala may be quite right in denying any part in jihadi broadcast of terror in the state. But they, along with other “secularists” have done nothing to disabuse the local Muslim community of its continuing victim hood mentality. It is the careful nurturing of the victim hood mentality that provides the mass support for both the league and the jihadis.
Of course, this phenomenon is not confined to Kerala. Muslim orthodox leaders in other parts are foremost in fostering this attitude. The MIM leaders in Hyderabad, for instance, have been making provocative speeches. The so-called secular parties like JD (U) in Bihar and its leader and Bihar CM, Nitish Kumar, used the communal angle to justify his break with the BJP hoping to cash in on a Muslim vote bank.
It may be politically reassuring to believe that the Muslim masses are not with the jihadi movement despite the evidence to the contrary from several sources. Why are the Islamist forces of various description on the ascendant everywhere? In Egypt they won power in democratic contest and were about to turn the constitution into a jihadi force, but for the strong opposition from liberals backed by the army. The Islamists have been targeting the communal harmony regime in Lebanon. Ditto in Iraq. Also in several countries like Male, Nigeria, Liberia, Kenya, Somalia, etc. Their attempts to overthrow the government in Germany, France, Spain and the UK also surface every now and then.
In Russia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, the governments have to keep a lynx-eyed vigil against the mass bombings organised by underground Islamist movements. In Afghanistan the possibility of the Islamist Taliban taking over once the international forces leave is self-evident. And in Pakistan, the mother of all jihadi movements, the newly elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif, after promising to contain terrorism, is seeking peace with the Pakistan Taliban!
Look what is happening in Bangladesh where resurged Islamists have sought to block the Awami League government’s attempts to return to secularism as the country’s creed and liberal environment in keeping with the cultural traditions of the dominant Bengali language and its extremely rich literature.
The pluralism that formed the dynamic of Bangladesh liberation had been sought to be extinguished by the regime of General Zia. The Islamists in Bangladesh, despite the strong determination of prime minister and Awami League leader to resist them, have partially succeeded in wrecking the recent elections. They have kept the reelected secular regime on tenterhooks despite its legislative majority.
The attempts of the Islamist movements in the country in incidents like the one we saw in Tirur and against the Christian college lecturer is to use terrorism as a weapon to force the issue on the Muslim masses and break the Indian democracy’s pluralist armour. But with the so-called secular political forces genuflecting before the known terror movement leaders, as we see across the country in key events, it would not require much effort for the Islamists to threaten their own masses into a submission to the diktat to usurp power through terror.
Is it not possible that this same identity paradox would make them good target for the jihadis?
Balbir Punj is National Vice President, BJP.
E-mail: punjbalbir@gmail.comOne of Britain’s top climate scientists has launched a blistering attack on actress Emma Thompson and the BBC, accusing them of ‘scaremongering’ over the speed of global warming – and risking a worsening of the refugee crisis.
Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at the Met Office and a professor at Exeter University, launched his attack on Twitter about an interview Ms Thompson gave to Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis last Wednesday.
He followed it up with a longer critique – an extract of which this newspaper publishes today – on the website of HELIX, a prestigious EU-wide climate research programme which he also directs.
Actress Emma Thompson (right) warned that if the drilling went ahead, the world would be 4C hotter by 2030
The actress, a Greenpeace activist who that morning had taken part in a protest against Shell’s plans to drill for oil in the Arctic, warned that if the drilling went ahead, the world would be a staggering 4C hotter by 2030.
She said: ‘If they take out of the Earth all the oil they want to take out, if you look at the science, our temperature will rise 4 degrees Celsius by 2030, and that’s not sustainable.’
Ms Maitlis did not challenge her.
In his first tweet, Prof Betts asked: ‘Who briefed Emma Thompson? Clearly not someone who actually knows about climate science.’
He added: ‘Has it occurred to scaremongers like Emma Thompson that exaggerating climate change could drive more migration unnecessarily? Irresponsible.’
Other scientists were equally critical. Dr Ed Hawkins, at Reading University, told this newspaper: ‘Climate change poses substantial risks to humans and ecosystems, but what Emma Thompson said about the timescales of predicted warming was inaccurate.’
In his blog post, Prof Betts points out that the authoritative UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change gives a ‘wide range of estimates of the speed of future warming’ – but none of them is anywhere near 4C by 2030.
He adds that under the highest scenario for future emissions, ‘the earliest time of reaching 4C above pre-industrial was around 2070, and the latest sometime after 2100’.
Ms Thompson hit back yesterday, saying: ‘I’d like to say to him [Richard Betts]: Are you insane, have you been to the Arctic, have you seen the state of the glaciers? I’ve talked to the experts... this is not scaremongering.’
A BBC spokeswoman said: ‘In a longer interview Emily would have pressed Thompson to justify her assertion.’ She refused to say whether the BBC would be correcting Ms Thompson’s statement.
Professor Richard Betts, Met Office head of climate impacts research
She is just crying wolf... It may even make refugee crisis worse
Comment by Professor Richard Betts, Met Office head of climate impacts research
In a recent BBC Newsnight item, the actress Emma Thompson spoke passionately and in no uncertain terms about 4C warming by the year 2030, and stated that ‘in a few years… whole swathes of the Earth will become uninhabitable’.
These statements do not reflect what the science actually says.
Some might argue that the focus should be on worst-case catastrophic scenarios, leaving no room for doubt, in order to promote urgency in emissions cuts.
It’s certainly easy to see why this might be tempting, as global emissions have continued to rise despite clear indications that unchecked climate change poses large risks.
This seems to be the case in Emma Thompson’s recent BBC Newsnight item. Does this matter? What’s the harm in a bit of exaggeration if it’s in a good cause? To my mind, there are three reasons why it’s a problem.
Firstly, making wild predictions that don’t come true obviously harms your credibility. It’s the old ‘boy who cried wolf’ story – he made up the story of the wolf, so when it eventually did come, nobody believed him. There was a wolf, but only later on.
When the world has not become a barren wasteland within a few years, it will be easy for critics to say that the whole climate change problem has been exaggerated.
It has not been exaggerated – at least not by mainstream science – but that will be easily overlooked when harking back to these claims.
Secondly, if people come to believe that catastrophic impacts are only round the corner, this could lead to wrong decisions made in panic.
A lot is being done to make us more resilient to the climate change we’ve already set in motion – new flood defences, plans for reservoirs and water supplies, and so on. But these are expensive, and doing these too early could cost billions. And if people are scared into moving away from their homelands because they think it will be uninhabitable, this would only add to the existing refugee crisis, for no good reason.
Finally, even if the world does make major emissions cuts very soon, this will take time to filter through into tangible effects on global warming. There is already more warming in the pipeline which is unavoidable. Therefore anything projected for the next few years is already unavoidable.
If ‘whole swathes’ really will become uninhabitable ‘in a few years’, then there is absolutely nothing we can do about it, however urgently we cut emissions.
Whether Shell drills for Arctic oil or not, the changes for the next few years are already locked in. Emma Thompson’s apocalyptic vision is therefore one of despair, not something that can credibly be avoided through action, however drastic.
Fortunately, while Ms Thompson’s concerns are valid in the longer term, her timing isn’t supported by the science.
Higher levels of climate change and the associated risks are further off than she fears, and hence could still be avoided.KABUL, Afghanistan -- At least a dozen Islamic State militants accidentally blew themselves up in eastern Afghanistan Sunday during a botched operation to plant a bomb, a local official said.
"They were attempting to move an IED (improvised explosive device) to a crowded area of Achin, but it went off before they reached the planned place,” said Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for Nangarhar province's provincial governor.
Twenty-one other militants were wounded, Khogyani said. There were no civilian casualties.
In recent months, Afghan security forces have been battling Islamic State loyalists in Nangarhar's Achin district on the border with Pakistan.
On Saturday, 24 militants were killed in ongoing operations, the Afghan army said in a statement.
The Islamic State group, which controls large areas of Syria and Iraq and has a growing presence in Libya, has struggled to establish a foothold in Afghanistan. The group's adherents in Afghanistan have faced strong resistance from security forces and the local Taliban. Most of the estimated 1,000 to 3,000 Afghans pledging loyalty to the group are believed to be former Taliban fighters.
President Ashraf Ghani said earlier this month that the Islamic State essentially had been defeated in the country's eastern border regions near Pakistan, where the group had overtaken some remote districts over the past year.
Earlier this year, after an attack on the Pakistani consulate in the eastern city of Jalalabad, President Barack Obama gave U.S. commanders the authority to strike Islamic State targets in Afghanistan -- the first such order allowing the U.S. military to attack the group outside its strongholds in Syria and Iraq.CES 2015: the makers of the first popular 3D-printing pen 3Doodler have unveiled a smaller device, which weighs just 50 grams.
The 3Doodler 2.0 by US company WobbleWorks is 75 per cent smaller than the previous version, which raised over $2.3 million on Kickstarter in 2013.
Related story Pen that doodles 3D objects attracts $500,000 on Kickstarter
It works in a similar way to a glue gun, melting plastic filament in its body and extruding the liquid from its tip. The plastic cools quickly, aided by a fan built in to the pen, solidifying in the air to create a stable structure.
"Our dream with creating the first generation 3Doodler was to build something that captured the imagination of people worldwide. People Doodled things far beyond our wildest expectations – from RC planes, to 3Doodled dresses, architectural models, and even writing braille," said Daniel Cowen, co-founder of WobbleWorks.
"Now drawing in the air just got even better. As we continue in our pursuit to create the world's first and best 3D printing pen, we're excited to see how our community pushes the boundaries of 3D art and creation."
The 3Doodler 2.0 is housed in an aluminium casing and has a new nozzle design that helps make it more efficient. It can use both PLA and ABS plastic filaments and, like its predecessor, requires no software, allowing users to create three dimensional objects by drawing freehand.
A patented fan system has been added to improve airflow, cooling the plastic faster as it is extruded and reducing noise. It also now has two speed options as well as a temperature setting, offering the user more control over the amount of plastic pushed out of the tip.
The designers also claim the pen is now more "stable" thanks to a reworked heating algorithm.
Four accessories will be released to use with the pen, including a portable power pack, a pedal for controlling the power to the pen, a nozzle set to produce different thicknesses of extruded material and a stand for storing plastic filaments.
WobbleWorks unveiled the design at the CES conference in Las Vegas yesterday, ahead of launching the pen on Kickstarter for a 20 day limited funding round to raise $30,000.
"Although we don't expect to raise millions again, it's our way of thanking the community for the support we were lucky enough to receive the first time around," said WobbleWorks CEO Max Bogue. "We're at a show surrounded by retailers interested in stocking this beautiful version of the pen in their stores, but it's important to us to offer our dedicated community the chance to own the brand new device first."One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has said that President Trump's controversial migration ban hasn't gone far enough.
According to Hanson, more countries should be included in the ban which has blocked immigrants and refugees from seven predominantly Muslim nations from entering America.
"President Trump's protections against Islamic Extremism are a good start, but I would go further and include Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia," Hanson said in a tweet.
Hanson expanded on her remarks in a statement, which praised Trump's executive order.
"The people of America have elected Donald Trump because they wanted to regain control of their borders and protect themselves against the influence and threat of Radical Islamic terrorism,"
"Our politicians can no longer sit by and ignore the fact that unless we do something, like ban Islamic immigration, Australia will continue to face an ever increasing threat from Islamic terror.”
Trump's order has banned citizens from Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the country.
The move has sparked demonstrations around the world, with thousands of people in the UK protesting the order.
Demonstrations have also taken place in airports around America, in front of Trump Tower in New York and outside the Whitehouse.Hope to see some of you at PAX East next week! As per usual, we’re mostly there to say hello, hello, hello, and hang out. We don't obsess over a bunch of games we’ll see through the year. Plus, with the Game Developers Conference kicking off as soon as PAX East closes out (we land on Sunday night, and GDC starts on Monday morning), we gotta conserve our energy.
I’m taking a new approach to my PAX coverage this year, and this should extend into GDC, as well. Being a writer for most of my career, I’m almost always looking for ways to flip what I’m seeing, hearing, or playing into a feature story. But...I’m not sure that makes much sense for the what the Giant Bomb audience reacts to and wants. Giant Bomb stuff gets the best response with good stories and good people, so while a supremely interesting panel may merit a writeup of some kind, it also requires an incredible amount of time and energy that may be better spent elsewhere. So here’s my idea.
Instead, I’m going to float around and talk to interesting people and try to have interesting conversations. Our new podcast tool makes it easy to dump audio files onto the site, so the plan’s to dump(truck) interviews onto the site not long after they physically happen. It’s not the fancy editing that Vinny and Drew do so well, but it also doesn’t require that, and it means you’ll get a sense of GDC on the fly. This won’t come at the exclusion of some other video coverage and our regular GDC-timed podcasts.
Sound good? I’m excited about. I’ve already booked Brad Muir, obviously.
Hey, You Should Play This
Kern Type by Mark MacKay for Method of Action
Maybe it’s just because I spend so much time with words, but that someone turned ideal typographical spacing into a game tickles me in exactly the right way. It reminds me of a seemingly ditched demo from the original Wii U unveiling, in which players competed to draw lines. It sounds really simple, right? Deliciously so. The game would ask you to draw four inches, and two people would try to...draw four inches. Have you ever tried to do that? It seems incredibly easy--just draw four inches! Turns out it’s really hard, and what our mind thinks of as four inches is so much harder to produce on the page. That’s a roundabout way of saying this game helped me better appreciate the work done by typographers.
And You Should Read This, Too
QTEs are such an oddity of modern game design. It’s understandable why QTEs exist. A developer has come up with a story for their game, and some part of that story cannot be communicated through the standard gameplay players spend most of their time with. Rather than having these moments play out devoid of any interactivity whatsoever, QTEs allow a small amount or player-driven involvement with the story beats. I’d make the argument that designers dreaming up stories that cannot be communicated through gameplay represent the larger problem, but Raph Koster articulates problems of a feature here to stay.
“In the case of AAA tentpole titles, narrative plus QTE therefore becomes the default gameplay mode. Often, we see highly varied stories where the protagonist can perform a huge array of actions, all condensed into the single mechanic. The story advances, the player feels powerful, and the systemic gameplay is tissue-thin. This then gets interrupted periodically with richer game interludes, such as combat sequences — still pretty simple, but rich enough to allow things like advancement and preparation and some degree of strategy, all of which are required to keep the player invested. So QTE’s are there to help big titles reach the mass market, and to do better storytelling. But there is one huge irony. Reaction time is not a mass market skill.”
Since I’m not usually assigned reviews here at Giant Bomb, I also don’t spend much time thinking about the review process--or even reading many reviews, to be honest. Every once and a while, though, one review really sticks out, and JC Fletcher’s take on Ridiculous Fishing is both inspired, intriguing, and thoughtful beyond examining the mechanics of a video game. Ridiculous Fishing has an interesting history, having been released in a simpler form as a Flash game, then copied by another developer as Ninja Fishing and released in the App Store far ahead of Ridiculous Fishing’s then-planned proper release. Fletcher doesn’t make Ninja Fishing a footnote in a review of Ridiculous Fishing, and instead presents Ninja Fishing’s own problems as reasons Ridiculous Fishing is a much better game. That doesn't make sense for every review, but Fletcher makes it work effectively.
“Vlambeer wouldn't want me to start my Ridiculous Fishing review by bringing up Ninja Fishing – and I kind of don't want to either – but Gamenauts' well-publicized clone actually works as an example of why Vlambeer's iOS update of its own browser game (which "inspired" Ninja Fishing) is so excellent, and so necessary. Playing Ninja Fishing and Ridiculous Fishing in quick succession illustrates what a difference it makes to care about your audience. The concept may be similar, but Ridiculous Fishing outclasses its would-be competitor in every way. It's just better.”
If You Click It, It Will Play
Kickstarter Has Promise, Hopefully Developers Don't Screw It Up
If I'd had a few drinks, you'd be able to convince me Shovel Knight is actually an old school game.
The subversive developer of Deep Sea is making something really peaceful and new with SoundSelf.
It's not looking very good for Robert Bowling's The Adventures of Dash. Hard to see it turning around.
Tweets That Make You Go "Hmmmmmm"
I’d wager that 98% of all the really compelling creative decisions in videogames have derived from workarounds for technical limitations. — Jason Killingsworth (@jasonkill) March 11, 2013
Given All the Discussion About Woman in Games, This Quote is Interesting
"I will tell you this. In this movie [Iron Man 3] we play with the convention of the damsel in distress. We are bored by the damsel in distress. But, sometimes we need our hero to be desperate enough in fighting for something other than just his own life. So, there is fun to be had with "Is Pepper in danger or is Pepper the savior?" over the course of this movie."
-- Marvel Studios producer Kevin Feige about the next Iron Man movie.
Hexels is a Nifty Art Program Helping Artist Make Beautiful Stuff
(If you're interested in seeing more, make sure to follow http://madeinhexels.tumblr.com.)
Oh, And This Other StuffPassenger traffic at Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee was up 2.2 percent in July, to 628,371, from 614,755 in July of 2016, county officials reported today.
July was the fourth month in a row of passenger growth at the airport.
For the first seven months of the year the airport has served nearly 4.1 million passengers, an increase of 2.46 percent from just under 4 million passengers during the first seven months of 2016.
Delta Air Lines and United Airlines added the most passengers, thanks to Delta’s new daily nonstop service to Seattle and United upgrading its Milwaukee-Denver service from smaller regional jets to full-size Airbus aircraft. Passenger counts were also higher due to summer seasonal service to Portland, Oregon on Alaska Airlines and Volaris international flights to Guadalajara, Mexico, county officials said.
“More airlines, more flights, and more destinations all add up to a great summer for Milwaukee travelers,” Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele said. “Airlines serving MKE have added ten new nonstop destinations to our route map in just the last year, and I encourage travelers to book tickets on these new routes. The more we all choose MKE, the more airline service we will get.”
Airlines now offer nonstop flights to 47 destinations from Milwaukee. About 6.8 million passengers traveled through Milwaukee’s airport in 2016, up 3.2 percent from 2015.
The April 3 cover story of BizTimes Milwaukee profiled airport director Ismael “Izzy” Bonilla and his plans to attract more flights and make improvements to the airport.
Read more economic data reports at the BizTracker page.Skyrim's blockbuster success has motivated Alan Wake developer Remedy to continue to create story-driven games.
Bethesda Game Studios' fantasy role-playing game exceeded all sales expectations when it launched last November, shifting millions of units and generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
Skyrim far outstripped the success of previous Elder Scrolls games, including Morrowind and Oblivion.
No exclusive PS3 or Xbox 360 game sold more copies than Bethesda's formidable open world fantasy romp Skyrim last year.
On PC, Skyrim outsold all other PC games 3:1 during November, and is Steam's fastest ever selling game.
In terms of money made worldwide, Skyrim was the second most successful game of 2011. Only Modern Warfare 3 will have finished higher, which puts Skyrim ahead of even FIFA 12 and Battlefield 3. Bethesda had shipped more than 10 million copies of Skyrim within the game's first month on sale.
It is this gargantuan success that has convinced Remedy, creator of Max Payne and Alan Wake, that it's on the right track with its complex stories.
"The Call of Dutys and the Battlefields are doing extremely well in the US," Remedy head of franchise development Oskari Hakkinen told Eurogamer. "Those are the type of games that are in popular demand, so it's really positive to see Skyrim and other RPG games that have a lot of story in be successful as well.
"It gives us motivation to do story-driven games, because there's obviously an audience out there of people who enjoy story as well.
"Seeing something like that being successful, we don't need to consciously try to make our stories any less than they are, not try to make them any simpler. Our stories are not necessarily complicated, but our games are very story heavy. And, just to see games like Skyrim succeed, it's like, let's not try to make it any less story-heavy."
Alan Wake, which launched on Xbox 360 in 2010 and last week on Steam, is a Twin Peaks-style thriller set in an American town called Bright Falls. Writer Alan Wake embarks on an existential journey after his wife disappears and he becomes the chief suspect.
As he battles against a mysterious entity known as the Dark Presence, Wake discovers a manuscript he recognises as his own work - but he can't remember writing it, and he can't work out why it foretells upcoming events.
"That's our thing. It's in our DNA," Hakkinen said. "We always want to take the story-telling in video games forward. Let's continue to do that and not try to make any simpler stories."Today, we are going to tell you 51 lesser known facts about Ramayan. Click on this slide show to know some unknown secrets of this epic…
Ramayan, the epic tale of Lord Rama has always filled people with awe and inspirations. It is said that Ramanad Sagar’s Ramayan used to bring the whole of India to a standstill. According to an questionable account trains used to be delayed as drivers sat watching the telecast at stations.
After Raavan and his brothers received boons from Lord Brahma, Raavan planned on invading the kingdom of Amaravathi, the capital of the heavenly kingdom of Indra. Knowing Raavan’s strength and capability Indra consults Narada for help. Narada tells Indra that Raavan is powerful because his family worships Lord Shiva and that the worship in turn gives them such tremendous power.
Narada then suggests Indra that he disrupt Kaikesi’s (Raavan’s Mother) worship of a Linga which is made of sand. Indra disrupts the prayer by destroying the Linga. Knowing this Raavan then promises Kaikesi that he will perform penance and bring Lord Shiva’s Aatma Linga for her to worship.Goddess Parvathi comes to know about Raavan’s penance and fears that Lord Shiva might leave Kailasa and go to earth forever. Narada then suggests Goddess Parvathi that she seek Lord Vishnu’s help in this matter. Lord Shiva impressed by Ravana’s penance grants him a wish.
Lord Vishnu then uses his magic to trick Ravana into asking Goddess Parvathi’s hand from lord Shiva instead of the Aatma Linga. Shiva grants Ravana’s wish. Goddess Parvathi then curses Lord Vishnu that he will also be separated from his spouse the next time he is born as a human. This curse laid the path for Sita’s abduction and the Ramayana.The Smashing Pumpkins are well known for creating a vast library of demos both before and after signing with a major label. Seemingly endless versions of songs were created and reworked until a finished product is released - which leaves behind a multitude of demos or alternate takes. Billy Corgan has recently stated the band's intent to release early material (1988-1992) which means fans may soon see a rather large dose of Smashing Pumpkins demos!
Today we feature the sixteen track analog recorder used for many demos from late 1988 through early 1990. This impressive piece of Smashing Pumpkins memorabilia still resides with the original owner, Mark Ignoffo, of Reel-Time Studios!
Keep Collecting!!
Looking for more on Smashing Pumpkins CDs, Vinyl, Posters, Awards, Press Kits, Clothing and more? Check out SPfreaks.com!Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling
Literally over night in May of 1970, President Richard M. Nixon's ill-planned and ill-fated invasion of Cambodia revived the dwindling antiwar movement to vigorous life. Whether it was his verbal barrages of "Peace with Honor" or his "Vietnamization" euphemism that lulled pro-life protesters to sleep, when President Nixon announced he was ordering a military "incursion" into Cambodia to "clean out" bases the enemy had been using for "its increased military aggression," a crescendo of anti-war demonstrations across America occurred. Anger at the draft, false optimism about the endless military occupation in Vietnam, and combat footage of atrocities in the nightly news all had an impact on antiwar protesters. But nothing infuriated them more than escalating the war with Cambodia.
Hundreds of thousands of antiwar protesters marched on, and then occupied, Washington DC. Millions participated in small rallies and pro-life marches on college campuses nationwide. Military rage and insanity was being met by a more peaceful and more sane and principled movement. Some protesters were willing to even sacrifice their own lives to assure the U.S.-Vietnam/Cambodia War was brought to an end and that senseless killings, killings that had cost the lives of four million Vietnamese and fifty-thousand U.S. troops, would not happen in Cambodia. On May 4, the National Guard opened fire on antiwar protesters at Kent State killing four students. Ten days later at Jackson State, police fired into a women's dormitory with automatic weapons killing two black students.
But since the U.S.-Vietnam War, most military engagements and occupations have been measured only by the loss of American soldiers. Principles, like increasing technological savagery, psychological distress and political repression, or the disregard for murdering thousands of non-Americans, or even one, has been ignored. The preemptive wars against Iraq and Afghanistan killed hundreds of thousands of people. Millions have become refugees. Prior to these military interventions and even though very few American troops died, sanctions against Iraq killed over 500,000 Iraqis, mostly children and the elderly. Past incursions into Central America, the Caribbean and Africa have also created mass carnage, maiming and killing thousands of people while causing hardship for millions.
Instead of measuring America's wars by how many U.S. soldiers have been killed, why not base them on universal principles that have somehow been lost. If a principle is an important rule, law and guideline which other rules or judgments are derived, why not measure wars on how many non-Americans are killed or the utter disregard for national sovereignty? Since principles denote moral decisions that are required for civilizations to thrive, even survive, should not individuals-especially in wartime-guard against the loss of democratic rights and life? And if the character of a nation is founded on principles and moral beliefs too, instead of self-interest or the tyranny of the market why not: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" and "Do no harm" values?(1)
If U.S. wars were measured by such principles, mass protests, ones filled with righteous rage, would literally occur over night. There would be a deep sense of betrayal towards political and military leaders, including their false promises regarding ongoing military occupations that have killed thousands and left millions maimed. If "do no harm" and "right to life" values were embraced, there would be an escalation of nonviolent and civil disobedience campaigns. Congress, the White House and the Pentagon would be occupied until their military insanities were ended in foreign territories. If democratic principles were embraced, protesters would not be called "bums" or "Nazis" or have to get permits. Neither would they be accosted by security forces or their encampments destroyed.
Perpetrators, those committing war crimes and massacres like the ones that just occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan, are very sensitive to silence by other people. They interpret such silence as implicit approval.(2) Some people just want to live their lives and to deal with their own problems without thinking about others. But in 1970 when President Nixon escalated the war, millions thought otherwise |
? Is there something you think we should be reporting on? Email news@usgamer.net.
After four years in development, Zeboyd Games' next RPG finally has a release date! In an update on the Kickstarter page for the game, the two-man duo announced that Cosmic Star Heroine will release on April 11, 2017 on PlayStation 4 and PC. The game's official price will be $14.99.
"We're super excited to finally be releasing Cosmic Star Heroine and hope everyone enjoys the finished game! This is by far the biggest, most sophisticated game we've ever released so we hope it meets the high expectations many of you have for it. Thanks again to all the people who have supported us in our Kickstarter, through feedback, and through kind words. We're almost there!" said the team in their press release.
The PlayStation 4 version will be cross-buy with the planned PlayStation Vita version, which will be coming sometime after the April 11 release.
"It was a tough decision to make, but we felt the Vita version needed some extra time to polish up and we didn't want to delay the other releases further," explained Zeboyd.
The PC version of the game is available for pre-purchase on the Humble Store at a discount, which gives buyers a Steam copy of the game plus a DRM-free copy. The game will be available for purchase on Steam as well.When she was 17, Ophelia Azriel De’lonta tried to rob a bank with a 9-millimeter handgun, but as she was driving away, the dye pack exploded. Unable to breathe, she pulled over and began to run, dollar bills streaming out the open car doors. Police quickly caught her, and a judge sentenced De’lonta to 73 years in a maximum-security prison.
For the next three-and-a-half decades, she lived among the most dangerous men in Virginia. “It was a nightmare,” she recalls. “I had long hair, soft skin and a female body, minus the breasts.” She was raped repeatedly. “I lost track after the tenth time,” she says.
De’lonta, 54, is a transgender woman with high cheekbones and big, sparkling eyes. Born as Michael Stokes, she realized she was really a female at the age of 8, and soon began to dress like one. She robbed the bank to get money to fly out to San Francisco—she’d heard the city was a refuge for people like her. Instead, prison nearly destroyed her. De’lonta’s story illustrates the uniquely horrifying experience of being transgender in prison—not only the repeated physical violence but also the lack of access to treatment.
Ophelia Azriel De’lonta, a transgender woman, served 35 years in a maximum-security prison in Virginia
Last week was an important one for transgender inmates. For the first time, the Department of Justice went on record saying that prisoners who have “gender dysphoria” (the clinical term for folks who experience extreme distress about their biological sex) should be treated just like anyone else who has a health condition — just like, say, diabetics or HIV patients. This entitles them to “individual assessment and care,” including hormone therapy, improved housing, choice of pronoun, and expressing gender identity through “dress” and “grooming.” States can still challenge that interpretation, but it was noteworthy that the federal government articulated it. Recently, courts in California and Boston have gone even further, insisting that taxpayers should pay for gender-reassignment surgery.
Transgender men and women are disproportionately represented in prisons. A recent survey says that one in six will be incarcerated at some point in their lives, and for African-Americans like De’lonta, the rate triples. Once inside, transgender women are typically placed with men, and as a result, about 60% of them are sexually assaulted. In cellblocks, they tend to make up a tiny minority of the general population, and often have few allies. De’lonta, for instance, says she was the only transgender inmate in the roughly eight prisons in which she lived. “I didn’t have a friend,” she says. “There’s no one to protect you. All you can do is fight back. I stabbed four people.”
Even worse than the constant danger of being assaulted, De’lonta says, was the state’s refusal to cover what proved to be a medical necessity: the operation that would physically make her a woman. On several occasions over the course of her imprisonment, De’lonta tried to castrate herself. “But I could never make it through,” she remembers. “I’d pass out from a loss of blood.”
De’lonta’s first attempt at self-castration was in the mid-80s, after she’d been locked up for several years. At the time, the Virginia Department of Corrections provided a minimal amount of counseling, but otherwise she was forced to live as a man. In 1999, she sued the state, allegeing cruel and unusual punishment. Four years later, after an extended legal battle, De’lonta was permitted to undergo hormone therapy and to receive psychological counseling; she also was allowed to dress as a woman.
But even with these improvements, her symptoms persisted, and then worsened. Her treatment team included a psychologist, but oddly not a gender identity specialist. She notified prison officials that her counseling sessions were causing her “extreme distress.” In the summer of 2010, she was again hospitalized for attempting self-castration. She desperately appealed to officials, explaining that the only way she could keep from harming herself was sexual-reassignment surgery.
Rate of suicide attempts (%)
For people in De’lonta’s position, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, an advocacy group, recommends sexual reassignment surgery when hormone therapy and the opportunity to experience some semblance of life as a woman don’t provide sufficient relief. De’lonta’s continued attempts at castration suggested she was a good candidate for the surgery. But her request was denied.
In 2011, De’lonta filed another lawsuit, which prompted another prolonged legal battle. Three years later, she began to make headway. But then, in the midst of the proceeding, De’lonta came up for parole and, in January 2014, Virginia released her from prison. As a result, the state didn’t have to pay for a medical procedure that could have cost up to $24,000. De’lonta does not think this is a coincidence.
Once out of prison, she went to live with her niece in Landover, Maryland. Soon after, Medicaid paid for the removal of her testicles—the first phase of the sex reassignment process. “I feel free,” De’lonta says. “Really free. But I’ve got issues with people. I’ve got some scars I’m going to have to carry for a long time.”Mark Lane, the defense lawyer, social activist and author who concluded in a blockbuster book in the mid-1960s that Lee Harvey Oswald could not have acted alone in killing President John F. Kennedy, a thesis supported in part by the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1979, died on Tuesday at his home in Charlottesville, Va. He was 89.
The cause was a heart attack, his friend and paralegal Sue Herndon said.
The Kennedy assassination, one of the manifest turning points of the 20th century, was the pivotal moment in Mr. Lane’s life and career. He would go on to raise the possibility of conspiracy in the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. five years later, but it was his Kennedy inquiry that made his name.
Before the president’s murder on Nov. 22, 1963, Mr. Lane was a minor figure in New York’s legal and political circles. He had organized rent strikes, opposed bomb shelter programs, joined the Freedom Riders, took on civil rights cases and was active in the New York City Democratic Party. He was elected a State Assemblyman in 1960 and served one term.
After the Kennedy murder, Mr. Lane devoted much of the next three decades to its investigation. Almost immediately he began the Citizens’ Committee of Inquiry, interviewed witnesses, collected evidence and delivered speeches on the assassination in the United States and in Europe, where he befriended Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher, who became an early supporter of Mr. Lane’s efforts.Veteran Naughty Dog lead Richard Lemarchand is moving on after some eight years with the studio, "excited and happy" to join the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.Specifically, Lemarchand -- most recently co-lead designer on-- will be teaching at the school's Interactive Media Division, which trained Thatgamecompany's Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen, among others. He'll also work on a series of experimental games, as part of a research project."In other words, I'll be surrounded by awesome people, talking craft and philosophy, and building strange new things!" he told Gamasutra.Lemarchand has been closely associated with the program for some years, having numerous friends involved, and praising the legacy of acclaim its games program has earned. As a frequent speaker and lecturer (and active Twitterer ) himself, he has developed close ties to academic and design practice communities from California to New York and everywhere in between."I've always been a very hands-on game designer," Lemarchand tells Gamasutra. "And I'm a big believer that no matter what level you're working at on a project, it's a very great thing to be able to stay connected to the practical processes of building out a game."He praises the IMD's "forward-looking" and "practical" approach toward teaching game design to students, as well as the program's perspective in terms of theory. "I also love to think and to talk about our approaches to games, about the way games work when they interface with our minds, and what aspects of ourselves they utilize to work."After years of service to Naughty Dog and, in particular, thefranchise, for which Lemarchand has become something of a creative ambassador, what makes this the best time to join the teaching community? "I think the simplest answer is that it seems like a natural transition point," Lemarchand says."I was involved with the development of theseries not quite from the beginning, but almost... and even though theseries isn't intended to be viewed as a trilogy, maybe there's something about the number three that felt... there is a certain amount of completeness for me," he says."For about 10 years now, I've wanted to make a different kind of game, alongside my professional practice," Lemarchand says. "I've always really loved working on the kinds of blockbuster AAA games that I've had the opportunity to work on, and I think I've been exceptionally lucky -- it's partly by luck and a little bit of judgment I've gotten to work on big games that are also, I think, real exemplars in terms of craft, and hopefully, ultimately, with some transcendent aspects to them."In particular he expresses gratitude to colleague Amy Hennig, writer and creative director on theseries, for their time working together: "In terms of being about real aspects of human existence... I think this is in part to do with Amy's great skill as a game designer."But even the most casual friend of Lemarchand knows of his great love for the independent community. "I've always loved the experimental and avant-garde," he reflects. "I wanted to try to make a game in that sphere for the best part of a decade, now."And while he has "dabbled" in his spare time, he always felt the passion of the Naughty Dog team deserved his full attention. "But... if I wanted to go out on a limb and take a chance to see some other opportunities, I always thought that the end ofwould be a good time to do that, and then I was very lucky that this opportunity came along," Lemarchand adds. "So I'll get to do what I've been yearning to do for a decade, in that regard -- I realize how very lucky I am."Lemarchand has acted as an external thesis advisor for USC, and as such has had experience in some respects on what it's like to advise and guide students, a role he feels he takes to naturally -- even if never having taught before may be a challenge. Still, having spent many years working with younger developers -- he feels "lucky" to have worked with "smart, talented young game designers" -- he feels the role of teacher is one he has occupied, albeit in an informal way, for some years now.He'll get started after a three-month backpacking trip all over the world -- including crossing the U.S., laptop in hand -- where he'll start by germinating some of his experimental game ideas, an exciting portion of his upcoming research work. "Some are to do with procedural narrative; some are to do with space and exploration," Lemarchand explains. "I've always been very interested in the power of environmental narrative.""Obviously with the kinds of projects that I'm considering, I have scope considerations, which is familiar to me, because every project I have been on has been constrained in some way in terms of the amount of resources we have available," he says. "Of course, this project will be a lot smaller, and I actually find that really stimulating, because I've always said... it's constraint that really gives your creativity something to push against."December 14, 2015
ANP Exclusive - More Strange Bulk Electronic Purchases By Middle Eastern Men Reported In Arkansas
By Susan Duclos - All News PipeLine
In the comment section of a recent ANP article a question was asked which has led to a number of emails back and forth between myself with a game store owner regarding some strange bulk purchases of Xbox 360 Kinect sensors, in conjunction with recent national reports of bulk purchases of pre-paid cell phones, missing propane tanks and stolen remote controlled cars.
Before going forward let me say that the store owner was very forthcoming with information, providing me details that allowed me to confirm this commenter is, in fact, the owner of the game store in question as well as the type of merchadise sold and the fact that the store, while individually owned, is under a lease agreement with a larger chain. The store in question is in Arkansas.
For safety and professional reasons ANP has agreed to not reveal the store owners name nor the name of her business.
THE QUESTION
The question from Ozarkana was "Y'all, I have a serious question here. Can someone who is knowledgeable about video game systems, please, tell me what someone could use 2,000 Xbox 360 Kinect sensors for? Two middle eastern men went through Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma recently and purchased over $40,000 worth of these xbox accessories from video game stores. I can not understand if these could be used in a destructive manner; but, could this have anything to do with the cell phones, remote cars, and propane tank acquisitions? This has really been bothering me."
In a follow up comment as the topic was discussed, Ozarkana stated "These were all purchased in less than a week."
Via the communications back and forth with Ozarkana we find out that the sales of the Kinect sensors that could be tracked by Ozarkana, by contacting regional managers in other locations, occurred at the store chain associated with the one owned by our source. We have no way of knowing how many other different game store chains this could be happening at.
Via the email, store name redacted by ANP:
These middle eastern guys tried to use a tax exempt form; and, one of my newer employees told the other one that they would have to call me about how to do it since neither of them had done a tax-exempt transaction before. The "customers" said that they didn't have time. They were on their way to [Redacted], about 80 miles to the West of us. This is actually what prompted me to call the 2 [Redacted] stores in [Redacted] and ask them about any unusual Kinect sales that they had. I am an independent store owner; but, the other stores are corporate stores; so, I called their regional manager; and, started asking questions. The regional managers had been comparing sales information. This is how they came up with the 2,000 sensors sold. There could have been even more than that if all of the stores in Oklahoma had similar transactions, as well.
After talking to my friend with the FBI, I contacted the Bureau in Little Rock. They sent a young man to talk with us. He was given a copy of the receipt and of relevant footage from our store security cameras. I gave them contact information for the regional manager over the other stores. There was nothing said about not talking about this; but, we pretty much dropped it until the recent big purchases of other electronic devices that started me to wondering and questioning.
In a follow up email I have asked how it was determined the men purchasing the Kinect sensors were middle eastern, the response was "We could tell that the men were middle eastern by their appearance, accent, and the names on the credit card. "
I also asked if the FBI indicated the would be following up on the information. The response was "We did not have any indication from the FBI that this information about the Kinect sensors was significant in any way or that they would be contacting us at any point in the future."
ANP is still in contact with the store owner as to whether we can get any video footage or screen shots from their footage, this will be updated with those images if it can be provided.
Update- In a follow up email, we are informed this incident happened in August and it was the reports of the bulk pre-paid phones and missing propane tanks that made the store owner start questioning these strange bulk purchases.
WHAT ARE KINECT SENSORS?
Wikipedia describes Kinect in the following manner:
Kinect (codenamed in development as Project Natal) is a line of motion sensing input devices by Microsoft for Xbox 360 and Xbox One video game consoles and Windows PCs. Based around a webcam-style add-on peripheral, it enables users to control and interact with their console/computer without the need for a game controller, through a natural user interface using gestures and spoken commands.
Other readers offered a variety of suggestions to explain how Kinect sensors could be used, some of which are shown below:
BerniMac: I don't know about the total number of them but you can actually see through walls with the kinect. Not completely through the wall but it's entire structure wood nails plastering etc. It can also be used as an Xray device. Have no idea if this is the intended use but.. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2503474/XBox-One-Kinect-camera-clothes-detect-anatomy.html"
That link led to a Daily Mail article from November 2013, titled "Xbox Kinect sensor goes X-rated: Device is revealed to detect every part of the anatomy - even parts you might want to keep covered."
It can read up to six skeletons at once, compared to the current two, and its'small object detection' is said to be two-and-a-half times better.
The second-generation Kinect sensor is also able to see faces, track eye movements and detect expressions.It is additionally said to be better at recognising features and body movements in the dark and dimly lit rooms because it uses what's called active infrared (IR).
IR works in a similar way to thermal imaging and is used in night-vision goggles, for example.
Commenter idontknow - Instead of viewing through a lens, the kinetic sensors return a 3D map of the room. People, furniture, map of the interior, everything. The problem is the police have that capability now even without video games...
FreedomDad points out possible uses - These are lasers that read body heat, which in return allows the the game system to see your active movements. This could probably be converter to a crude type of night/ heat vision. They would work best in cool/ cold environments like winter were currently headed into. They will use these sensors connected to cameras that will feed remote to an off site operation base. They will be attached to the stolen remote control cars and drones, and likely contain an explosive. I.e pipe bombs and strategically placed propane tanks. Remember they are amoung us and ready to kill us. You cant be too prepared, care your gun and stop the shooter yourself. Police take too muck time to respond. I hope this helps. Good luck and God bless."
After some back and forth on this issue, Ozarkana stated " The xbox 360 kinect sensor has an infrared laser projector and provides full body 3-D motion capture, facial recognition, and voice recognition. I know what it is-- I just don't understand how or IF it can be used in a terroristic way by the individuals who purchased them."
Being technically challenged in these matters, I reached out to a trusted source to get answer to that very question and the answer was highly disturbing as our source states "When coupled with a timer these sensors could be placed to detonate pre-positioned IEDS against people."
Note our source said "could," because without being privy to the connections and thought processes of those purchasing the Kinect sensors, or the bulk purchases of pre-paid cell phones in Missouri, or those that stle the dozens of propane tanks and remote controlled cars, we cannot know with 100 percent confidence what they plan to use any of these items for.
What we can say is purchasing these types of devices in bulk is not normal behavior.
BOTTOM LINE
With that said, had witnesses come forward, without the fear of being labeled "racist" about the comings and goings at the home of the San Bernardino killers, and had the jihadi leanings of the couple been reported, and radical social media commentary been connected, before the San Bernardino massacre, those that died might still be alive.
It is the opinion of ANP that all the puzzle pieces be put out there, all the possibilities be discussed with the hope that more people will be aware, be vigilant, speak up and speak out when something occurs locally that concerns them, because there is no way knowing what piece of the puzzle will finally connect the dots and it is possible that when seen all together, lives might be saved. An attack against Americans in the U.S. may be foiled.
We would like to thank our store owner for bringing this to our attention, for having the curiosity to follow up with other stores' purchases and the courage to step forward and speak out.
We also would hope that if other store owners or employees of other game or electronic stores are noting these same types of purchases, in bulk, that they will also step forward and report it.
The videos below explain the Kinect sensor with the first one bringing our attention to the fact that this device is capable of "creating a full 3-D map of a room."
The next is short and shows how the heat sensors work.
There are number of other videos on Kinetic sensors at YouTube.Imagine this: One day you’re sifting through your mail. In the pile of letters, bills and junk mail, you find a letter from a law firm informing you that you need to pay $50,000 to cover the cost of your father’s recent nursing home stay, or the care facility will sue you.
While this may seem farfetched, depending on your parents’ state of residence, this could be a possibility.
If your parents live in one of 29 states or Puerto Rico that has filial responsibility laws on the books, you could potentially be held legally responsible for their care under certain circumstances, such as when your parents are ailing and without sufficient financial resources to take care of themselves. Until recently, these statutes have been largely ignored. However, several recent court decisions indicate that there might be renewed interest in enforcing them.
States Currently with Filial Responsibility Laws
Alaska Kentucky New Jersey Tennessee Arkansas Louisiana North Carolina Utah California Maryland North Dakota Vermont Connecticut Massachusetts Ohio Virginia Delaware Mississippi Oregon West Virginia Georgia Montana Pennsylvania Indiana Nevada Rhode Island Puerto Rico Iowa New Hampshire South Dakota
Filial support laws aren’t new. In fact, they were initially derived from England’s 16th century “Poor Laws.” At one time, as many as 45 U.S. states had statutes obligating an adult child to care for his or her parents. Some states repealed their filial support laws after Medicaid took a greater role in providing relief to elderly patients without means. Other states did not, and a large number of filial support laws remain dormant on the books.
Now, with long-term care costs on the rise and funding sources under pressure, nursing homes and other health care providers may have increasing incentive to seek to use the courts to compel children to either help a parent financially or be at risk for covering the cost of his or her care.
In the last decade or so, a few court decisions in both South Dakota and Pennsylvania have opened the door to using filial support statutes to recover medical expenses. Underlying the earlier decisions was generally a finding of “unclean hands”—that the children had engaged in fraudulent conduct or had illegally transferred mom and dad’s assets. Recently, however, there has been at least one court decision that found a child responsible for his mother’s nursing home bill without any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the child.
Free Download: Northwestern Mutual’s Guide to Paying Taxes Now or In Retirement
In 2012, the Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld a lower court ruling (Health Care & Retirement Corporation vs. Pittas1) that allowed a nursing home to obtain payment from the son of Maryann Pittas for her nearly $93,000 nursing home bill after she relocated to Greece with her bill unpaid. Maryann Pittas had applied for Medicaid but had left the country before there was a decision on her application. The nursing home then sued her adult son, John Pittas, for payment. This case was significant because, unlike the previous rulings in other jurisdictions, the court made no finding that John had engaged in any fraudulent transfers to divert or hide his mother’s assets.
Could you be legally liable for paying for your parents’ care?
Filial support laws differ from state to state. Some states’ statutes impose criminal penalties. Other states’ statutes, such as the Pennsylvania statute in Pittas, impose financial responsibility. However, all state statutes require the court to find that the parent is indigent or unable to provide for his or her own support. Additionally, there are defenses to the filial support obligation, such as the child’s financial inability to pay for such care or evidence of neglect or abuse by the parent prior to the child’s emancipation.2 For example, the Pennsylvania statute states “a child shall not be liable for the support of a parent who abandoned the child and persisted in the abandonment for a period of 10 years during the child’s minority.”3
Pay or face potentially serious repercussions
As mentioned above, some states’ statutes impose criminal sanctions for failure to support one’s parent. Massachusetts imposes a fine of not more than $200 or imprisonment for not more than one year or both4, while in North Carolina, the person would be found guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor on the first offense.5 In those states where you could be held civilly responsible, a judgment against you could result in your wages being garnished or liens being placed against your property.
So, where are we now?
No one knows whether these recent court cases will encourage other states to enforce their filial support laws with greater vigor, but this is a development worth watching. However, as more of the Baby Boomer generation reaches their golden years, and as many nursing homes and local governments are faced with providing care to a growing number of indigent elderly patients, there’s a possibility that other states will look more closely at their filial support statutes in an attempt to find another way to fund mom’s or dad’s nursing home bill.
The law surrounding filial responsibility is complicated. Seek the advice of your financial and legal advisors to help you understand the law in your state. Your financial advisor can help ensure your parent is provided for in the event he or she needs costly, long-term care. He or she can also review your retirement plan to provide suggestions and strategies for funding your own potential future long-term care needs.
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1 Health Care & Ret. Corp. of Am. v. Pittas, 2012 PA Super 96, 46 A.3d 719, 723 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2012), reargument denied (July 18, 2012), appeal denied, 63 A.3d 1248 (Pa. 2013)
2 Va. Code Ann. §40-6-301
3 23 Pa. Cons. Stat. Section 4603(a)(1)(ii)
4 Mass. Gen Laws ch. 273Section 20
5 N.C. Gen. Stat. Section 14-326.1
This publication is not intended as legal or tax advice. It is intended as educational information and must not be used as a basis for legal or tax advice. Northwestern Mutual and its Financial Representatives do not give legal or tax advice. Taxpayers should seek advice regarding their particular circumstances from an independent tax advisor. Tax legislation is subject to change.
The Northwestern MutualVoice Team is a group of professionals who share insights and opinions from experts and industry leaders across the enterprise. Our vision is to inspire others to take action and plan for their financial future through topics ranging from financial planning, retirement planning and distribution strategies, wealth accumulation and preservation, to leadership, philanthropy and innovation.A New Way to Control Weight? Scientists Say Just Standing Up May Be as Important as Exercise
Scientists have found intriguing evidence that one major reason so many people are overweight these days may be as close as the seat of their pants. Literally. According to the researchers, most of us sit too much.
In most cases, exercise alone, according to a team of scientists at the University of Missouri, isn't enough to take off those added pounds. The problem, they say, is that all the stuff we've heard the last few years about weight control left one key factor out of the equation. When we sit, the researchers found, the enzymes that are responsible for burning fat just shut down.
This goes way beyond the common sense assumption that people who sit too much are less active and thus less able to keep their weight under control. It turns out that sitting for hours at a time, as so many of us do in these days of ubiquitous computers and electronic games and 24-hour television, attacks the body in ways that have not been well understood.
The Need to Putter
"It was hard to believe at first," said Marc Hamilton, associate professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia and leader of the research team. He said the team didn't expect to find a strong signal when they began researching what happens to fat when we remain seated. But the effect, both in laboratory animals and humans, turned out to be huge.
The solution, Hamilton said, is to stand up and "putter."
The research was published this month in the peer-reviewed journal Diabetes, and it will be presented by Hamilton's post-doctoral researcher, Theodore Zderic, at the upcoming Second International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health in Amsterdam.
Hamilton is not suggesting that anyone quit exercising. But he says his work shows that exercise alone won't get the job done. We have to pay more attention to what's happening when we aren't in the gym, because the body's ability to dispose of fat virtually shuts down, he says, at least if we're sitting down.
Hamilton recruited a few laboratory rats and pigs, as well as about a dozen human volunteers, including himself, to learn more about the physiological effect of sitting. The lab animals laid the foundation for the research in two different experiments. The animals were injected with a small amount of fat that contained a radioactive tracer so the researchers could determine what happened to the fat.
"What's the fate of that fat?" Hamilton asked during a telephone interview. "Is it burned up by the muscle?"
The radioactive tracer revealed that when the animals were sitting down, the fat did not remain in the blood vessels that pass through the muscles, where it could be burned. Instead, it was captured by the adipose tissue, a type of connective tissue where globules of fat are stored. That tissue is found around organs such as the kidneys, so it's not really where you want to see the fat end up.
The researchers also took a close look at a fat-splitting enzyme, called lipase, that is critical to the body's ability to break down fat.
After the animals remained seated for several hours, "the enzyme was suppressed down to 10 percent of normal," Hamilton said. "It's just virtually shut off."
The results from the animal studies were very convincing, he said, and human experiments were just as compelling. The researchers injected a small needle into the muscles of the human volunteers and extracted a small sample for biopsy. Once again, the enzyme was suppressed while the humans remained seated. That resulted in retention of fat, and it also resulted in lower HDL, the "good cholesterol," and an overall reduction in the metabolic rate.
You Need to Move Those Legs
The implications, Hamilton said, are clear. While much thought has been given to the good effects of regular exercise, scientists have not paid enough attention to what happens during the rest of the time when we may be fairly active but are probably sitting too much. That could help explain the rising tide of obesity, because people tend to sit more these days than they did a half century ago. Not to mention eating too much and getting precious little exercise.
Some might argue that playing video games, or even working at the computer, involves movement of the upper body, especially the hands and arms, so that's not really inactive. But Hamilton counters that arms don't weigh very much, and the big muscles in the human body which are so critical to burning fat are located in our legs and back.
"When we think about the postural muscles that are mostly in the legs and back, these are big, powerful muscles," he said. "We're talking probably 20 pounds of muscle in each leg. That's a lot of muscle that can be engaged in routine activities," including burning fat. But they can't do that without the enzyme that is suppressed while seated.
Much is still not known, including such fundamental issues as how long the effect lasts from getting up and moving around for a while, but Hamilton expects the answers to come fairly soon.
"There is going to be a flood of research on this in the next couple of years, and not just by us," he said. "This has raised the attention of a lot of great scientists around the world who have begun doing their own studies."
In the meantime, he suggests, we do the obvious. Take the time to get up and "putter" for a while. If his research turns out to be on the mark, it could save your life.
Lee Dye is a former science writer for the Los Angeles Times. He now lives in Juneau, Alaska.Over at the official Japanese website for D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die, Deadly Premonition creator Hidetaka “Swery65” Suehiro’s episodic Xbox One adventure game, various game creators have shared their thoughts on the upcoming title.
Find all the thoughts compiled below. If you’re at the Tokyo Game Show in Chiba this weekend, the game will be playable at the Microsoft booth.
George Kamitani (Dragon’s Crown)
This game features tons of uniqueness, crazy characters, and situations filled with full-on Sweryisms. No matter how tired your right arm may get, you’ll still be curious about what’s going to happen next.
Yu Suzuki (Shenmue, Virtua Fighter)
In D4, you dive into a cinematic space and use your entire body to interact with it. I feel like this is the future of games.
Abbie Heppe (Titanfall)
Swery definitely knows strange characters, weird mysteries, and how to keep players constantly intrigued. I expect nothing less from D4 from what I’ve seen.
Yasuhiro Wada (No More Heroes, Little King’s Story)
D4 boasts a mysterious, stout story supported by crazy, lovable characters. The conversations are an expertly-crafted mix of seriousness and Western Japan-style looseness. This is where Swery’s true worth lies!
Jake Kazdal (Galak-Z)
Swery and his team continue to stay on the bleeding edge of interactive storytelling with crazy original characters, a ridiculous sense of fun, and absolute fearlessness to craft their vision.
Ryan Payton (Republique)
D4 is freewheeling Japanese creative spirit. It should be on the radar of anybody with an Xbox.
Hiroyuki Kobayashi (Resident Evil 6, Dragon’s Dogma)
Looks so cool when he uses his special powers to dive into the past! Unique characters appear one after another, and the conversations and action parts are linked so well with the Kinect gestures!
Thomas Mahler (Ori and the Blind Forest)
D4 seems to be one of the most innovative games coming to Xbox One. Truly excited for another Swery masterpiece!
Yukio Futatsugi (Crimson Dragon, Phantom Dust)
The Kinect is a very unique play style. It felt like it was sucking me in, or like I was sticking my hand into another world. It felt different from the reality I know, but I can’t figure out how to describe what exactly is different about it. D4 is a title that utilizes the visceral sensation of Kinect to its maximum potential.
Masanobu Endoh (Xevious)
Quirky creators find audiences in quirky users. That’s important, and that’s what’s so great about this game.
Nathan Vella (Super Time Force, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Below)
Swery is known for making strange, unique games, and D4 will be no different. But what stands out with D4 is that it isn’t just “weird for weird’s sake.” It’s a cohesive, purposeful, all-encompassing “weird” that makes me so excited to play.
Toshiyuki Uehara (Lord of Vermillion I, Lord of Vermillion II)
It’s like a piece of gum that’s really hard at the start, but has something very delicious in the center. I became good enough at the Kinect controls so that I could bite the gum, and I continued to get that great flavor. That’s what kind of game it is, I think.Not bad for 105 days.
The fact is the United States spent most of the eight years before last January making things easy for its enemies. It was in the ammunition-supply business.
Nothing comforted U.S. foes as much as Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, axis-of-evil moral certitude and the schoolyard politics of punishment.
All you had to do, from Moscow to Caracas, was point a finger toward the White House and domestic woes paled. All you had to do, in the recruitment schools of Waziristan and Ramadi, was show video footage of Americans humiliating Muslims. Even among allies, nobody much wanted to help the former administration.
I like this definition from Obama of the impact of the mellow doctrine on countries with divergent interests from the United States |
. X. Tao, J. Li, H. Zhou, S. Huang, L. Tang, J. Hu, and J. H. He, Crystal Growth Des., 2766 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1021/cg100274m 40, 6677 (2001). 30. L. Rong, H. Komatsu, M. Natsuisaka, and S. Yoda, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Part 1, 6677 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1143/JJAP.40.6677 An alternative argument may be that the point group of the tetragonal aggregate films of lysozyme is lower than that typically assigned to tetragonal crystals of lysozyme. Lowering the symmetry to tetragonal point group 4 would permit longitudinal piezoelectricity. This type of symmetry lowering is not unprecedented. Both boneand woodwere reassigned to lower point group symmetries after experimental evidence contradicted the description of their original point group. Recently, Yamadahave reported that increasing the pressure to 950 MPa causes lysozyme to undergo a phase transition from point group 422 to the lower symmetry of point group 4.While the pressure used in this study is not in this range, the study by Yamadadoes show that symmetry lowering of tetragonal lysozyme crystals is possible. In our case, the substrate may strongly influence the lysozyme crystals during growth.The substrate may restrict 3D growth and alter the overall symmetry of the crystals.
in vivo by using lysozyme as a physiologically mediated pump that scavenging energy from its surroundings. 31 28, 5470 (2016). 31. S. A. M. Tofail and J. Bauer, Adv. Mater., 5470 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201505403 The magnitude of the piezoelectric effect in lysozyme is appreciable and may motivate further research in the area of energy harvesting and flexible electronics for biomedical devices. Being naturally biocompatible and piezoelectric, lysozyme may present an alternative to conventional piezoelectric energy harvesters, many of which contain toxic elements such as lead. The finding of piezoelectricity in a globular protein such as lysozyme may have relevance in biology. Perhaps, for example, protein piezoelectricity plays a role in the hydration and folding of these soluble proteins. Future applications may include controlling the release of drugsby using lysozyme as a physiologically mediated pump that scavenging energy from its surroundings.We also imagine that lysozyme may be employed as a biodegradable, piezoelectric, and antimicrobial additive/coating to conventional implants.
In summary, we have measured the direct piezoelectric effect in crystalline aggregate films of lysozyme. On average, the piezoelectric coefficients of films of monoclinic and tetragonal lysozyme were 0.94 pC N−1 and 3.16 pC N−1, respectively. The highest piezoelectric coefficient (6.5 ± 0.51 pC N−1) was measured in a tetragonal aggregate film of lysozyme. The observation of longitudinal piezoelectricity in monoclinic aggregate films of lysozyme is predicted by the classical theory of piezoelectricity. Our findings of longitudinal piezoelectricity in tetragonal aggregate films of lysozyme suggest an averaging effect or potentially a symmetry lowering effect.Share This Article:
NBC 4 L.A. reporter Fred Roggin reported Thursday during an interview with The Mighty 1090 that the Carson land which the Chargers and Raiders purchased on Tuesday cost them $20 million.
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Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani had been trying to keep the figure a secret, as he believed the number impacted the competition between rival L.A. stadium ventures.
“I’ll tell you what (they) paid for the land, it was $20 million,” Roggin said on the Scott and BR show. “The (Carson) mayor told me that. $20 million for 11 acres.”
If the Chargers and Raiders do not end up building the stadium, the land would be returned to the city at no cost, according to Fabiani.
Wheels for the stadium talks began to move fastly this week after the Citizen Stadium Advisory Group announced their financing proposal for a new San Diego stadium on Monday.
The Chargers then followed with several moves of their own, including Dean Spanos relinquishing his daily duties to his sons, hiring longtime NFL executive Carmon Policy to take over Carson negotiations and then the purchase of the land in Carson.
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Follow Us:'Israel Elite Force' takes the fight to anti-Israel hackers behind #OpIsrael attack - using their own webcams to expose them.
Israeli hackers have gone on the offensive against their anti-Israel opponents in revenge for the #OpIsrael hacking attack against Israeli sites and servers.
After the failed "operation" by members of the "Anonymous" hacker network, Israeli hackers from Israel Elite Force took the fight to them - robbing them of their anonymity by posting details and even photos of some of the hackers on their website.
The hacker behind the counterattack, an Israeli known as "Buddhax", said that he did it to make anti-Israel hackers "think twice" before attacking Israeli sites, and to expose them as amateurs.
Israeli hackers had already responded to attempts last week to infiltrate Israeli and Jewish sites by taking down or defacing anti-Zionist and Muslim sites.
But Buddhax has gone a step further.
After infiltrating the target computers via a Trojan horse, he managed to lure the hapless hackers to their computers and take pictures of them using their own webcams - which he promptly posted online together with a list of personal information and a direct message to his targets: "Next time don't take part in OpIsrael. Long live Israel."
"I’m not a great hacker, but I’m at least good enough to expose you," he wrote, and signed off with a message for anti-Israel hackers: "Israel will stay ISRAEL so forget about "Palestine". Long Live Israel."
Lior Pollack, CTO of information security at 2BSecure, told Geektime that the "exposure carried out by a team of hackers shows that the level of sophistication is very high as shown by the use of advanced tools to reach PC attackers to obtain information, photographs from their cameras through a Trojan horse.
"It’s not easy, they had to lure the attackers to press all kinds of links to get the Trojan horse in... there is a challenge even in recognizing which tools used can be accessed. Their methods suggests they are much more sophisticated and experienced than those attacking from OpIsrael, who are basically just kids who do basic things."
The exposed anti-Israel hackers hailed from a variety of countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, most prominently from Indonesia and Malaysia.Japan Studio’s brilliant action RPG is no longer digital-only
As many of you are aware, earlier this month we announced that Japan Studio’s forthcoming action RPG Freedom Wars would be a digital-only release when it arrives here in the SCEE region later this year. Since then you’ve let us know here on PlayStation Blog, on forums and on social media that you really wanted to see a full title card release for the game. And we’ve been listening. Duly, today I’m happy to confirm that Freedom Wars will now be made available as a full physical edition as well as a digital release, from day one.
Thanks for your feedback, and look out for more news on the game as launch approaches – this one is well worth the wait.You a fan of the fried chicken and waffle cone? What, you’ve never heard of such a thing? Well my friend, you’re in luck because we’ve found the perfect opportunity to get indoctrinated.
On Saturday Sept. 27 from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., a food truck and catering company called Carb & Nation will be serving up these waffle cone creations at the Tested.LA kitchen at 3329 Division Street in Glassell Park.
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Word is there will be two styles at the testing: an American made with fried chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, apple coleslaw with a lemon-coriander dressing, fig syrup and goat cheese, plus the Indonesian Style waffle cone with coconut rice, pickled veggies, Indonesian fried chicken, coconut-kaffir syrup and sambal.
Check below for some mouthwatering pics from the Carb & Nation Instagram, lest your interest has not already been piqued.
h/t: laistIt's been 22 long years since we last saw our heroes on the big screen in Return of The Jedi. But on Dec. 18, one of the most -- if not THE most --famous franchises in movie history is returning to theaters in the much-anticipated next chapter of their story with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Over the next 20 weeks, we will celebrate the franchise by looking back and ranking the best of the best moments in Star Wars history.
We may still have a couple months to go until The Force Awakens, but we're just weeks away from the newest Battlefront game's release in November. There have been over 140 Star Wars games over the decades; Some we loved, and others we wish we didn't spend the money on. While some people out there may have played them all, for the purposes of this list and my general sanity I'm focusing solely on console and arcade titles (What?? No TIE Fighter? For shame - Ed.).
Gaming has evolved a lot over the decades, which is evident in the graphics, gameplay, and general story. But even some of the older titles have managed to hold up well over the years. Let's take a look back at the top 50 console and arcade games in the Star Wars universe.
50. Masters of Teräs Käsi (Playstation)
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If someone told you there was a Mortal Kombat game in the Star Wars universe, wouldn’t you buy it? But though the idea seems incredible and perfect as a fighting game, Master of Teras Kasi is a shining example of how poor execution could result in the worst game you’ve ever played in your life. Teräs Käsi ( which is Finnish for steel hand) actually refers to the martial art used in the film. The game is unresponsive and the characters have a worse reaction time than my grandfather playing whack-a-mole. This game is the easiest way to lose friends and frustrate everyone around you.
49. Star Wars: Yoda Stories (Game Boy Color)
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During this game, Luke Skywalker must train with Yoda on the planet Dagobah. But instead of some cool training challenges, Yoda sends Luke on missions to other planets to do stupid tasks that seem like busy work.The game levels structure is really out of sync and confusing, and the animation and graphics are some of the worst on the Gameboy Color (and that really is saying a lot). The controls in this game and fulfilling the mission could also make the Dalai Lama himself lose his chill. A horrible, terrible, no good game that I hope you never played.
48. Kinect Star Wars (XBox 360)
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The dancing is so absurd. Why did video game developers take characters we know and love and make them dance like in Saturday Night Fever? Darth Vader is probably the best villain in movie history who's definitenly the last person you'd expect to see in a dance-off trying to out-twerk Boba Fett. This game would be hilarious if it weren't so horrible and sad that Lucasfilm would resort to such a blatant and tone-deaf money grabbing opportunity.
47. Star Wars: Obi Wan (Xbox)
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Much like the Star Wars prequels, Obi Wan deserved better than this game. The camera is loose, it’s easy to lose yourself and get really irritated, the level design is headache inducing, and the graphics are really lackluster and bland. I remember first getting my Xbox and being so excited about the potential of this game only to have my only hope mercilessly destroyed. I still want my money back.
46. Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon (Game Boy Advance)
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When you’re talking horrible Star Wars video games, it’s difficult to leave out Flight of the Falcon for the Gameboy Advance. In all honesty, there weren't really any good Star Wars titles on Gameboy Advance, but this one is exceptionally bad. The story takes place during the original movies. This aerial attack game had the longest levels you could ever imagine, horrible gameplay and terrible graphics.
45. Rebel Assault (3DO)
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A young rookie pilot named Rookie One is the main character in this rail shooter game. The best version of the game was on the 3DO and the game had pretty amazing movie sequences from the Episode IV. Unfortunately, the gameplay falls way short and ruins what could have been an innovative achievement in tying in a game to a movie.
44. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (Game Boy Advance)
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This Gameboy Advance game that had the player control Anakin, Obi Wan or Mace Windu in a run and gun style with a lightsaber. The game is incredibly easy yet hard to control, and simply badly designed. While the level looks like you have a lot of room, the player is actually restricted to a small track and to a slow and awkward fight style. This game would benefit from an increased speed of play, but unfortunately the character moves pretty clunky.
43. Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes (Xbox 360, Playstation 1-3, PSP, Wii, Nintendo DS)
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A third-person action adventure game that had 40 missions with the player taking the role of Jedi Knights and clone troopers. While all that sounds good, the graphics on the game are absolutely abysmal. To add to the lame graphics, the gameplay is difficult, the camera is frustrating and, well, I could continue to go on and on but let’s just say that this game isn't higher on the list for a reason. To top it all off, the player really doesn't get to fight droids all that often in the game, which is what you'd hope for in a Clone Wars game. Instead, you do a lot of jumping and falling and the overall gameplay is repetitive.
42. Jedi Power Battles (Playstation, Dreamcast, Game Boy Advanced)
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This game is Final Fight with a Star Wars theme. The difference is that Final Fight is actually easy to control and won’t have you wanting to throw your Game Boy Advance across the room crying. When you finally get a handle on the horrible controls, the animation and lag on the game make blocking attacks frustrating to time and the entire experience regrettable.
41. Return of the Jedi Death Star Battle (Atari 2600)
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Essentially Brick Breaker reworked into a Star Wars theme, this game gets points simply for the nostalgia factor. Watching the gameplay is like a timewarp when super simple games managed to be incredibly entertaining and shockingly hard despite how basic and limited the controls were.
40. The Force Unleashed II (Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo DS, Wii)
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Much like the first game in the series, this game underwhelmed with mixed reviews and lackluster sales. The story is super dark (in fact, this video game is frequently called the “dark entry") and the gameplay is third-person action with a lot of puzzle solving. While the game had cool Force powers, it lacked multiplayer on every platform but the Wii, and had a storyline that fell short.
39. Star Wars: The New Droid Army (Game Boy Advance)
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Much like previous games, the player gets to learn aspects of the Force that helps him in his journey but unlike previous versions, this game is incredibly boring. It takes forever to get anywhere cause Anakin walk SO SLOW, which makes this game one of the most boring games ever played. While the game does have some fun lightsaber fights, it feels like you can't really control it well. This game takes forever to get anywhere and the moves with the lightsaber look cool on the first go around, but after that act clunky and take forever. This game got boring pretty quickly.
38. Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire (Nintendo 64)
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One of the first games published for the Nintendo 64, the game clearly benefited from the time it was released. The first level is incredible, as the player fights AT-AT’s on Hoth in a snowspeeder, and is definitely a precursor to Rogue Squadron. Seeing the snowspeeder in the 3D environment, especially after first getting the N64, is definitely the main attraction here as it opens up to a new era in gaming. The disappointing part of the game is that the rest of the levels never seem to live up to the first one. Roaming around outside the spacecraft wasn't nearly as fun as being in it and the player character became progressively more difficult to control as opposed to the fluidity in the first level.
37. Star Wars Bounty Hunter (Gamecube, Playstation 2, 3, 4)
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Star Wars Bounty Hunter gives more information about the popular Boba Fett as well as providing a fun third person shooter. While the game definitely has it's flaws, it still offers fun and exciting gameplay as Jango Fett hunts down Dark Jedi Komari Vosa. Ultimately, since this offers so much potential with one of the most exciting secondary characters in the Star Wars universe, the game was somewhat of a disappointment in that it never quite lived up to my expecations. It's easy to get lost and wonder what the hell it is you're doing as the level design is expansive and, often times, confusing. Combine this with a frustrating camera angle and many times you'll be jumping around learning about the boring side to the bounty hunter business.
36. Rebel Assault II (Playstation)
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This game is incredibly beautiful for the time it was created.The player takes control of Rookie One as he fights for the fate of the galaxy. Yet with all its potential, this game doesn’t live up to the hype. The story is painstakingly bad with instances in which characters are having a conversation, on speeder bikes, comprised of some of the worst dialogue and voice acting for video game I've seen. The game has a lot of fun aspects to it, but the repetition of certain aspects of gameplay- like hiding behind something and moving out to shoot and back to cover- gets really old. The dogfight sequences are fun, though.
35. Star Wars 1991 NES version (Nintendo)
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Following Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the player controls Luke Skywalker as he picks up R2D2, meets Obi Wan, and rescues Princess Leia. A fun run and gun game, it is a product of its time but still definitely fun to play. It's old school Nintendo, in which players take a character and jump on lots of platforms and shoot in 8 bit glory. Later in the game, the player can be Han Solo and Princess Leia in playing out different parts of the movie. This is an old school classic.
34. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Playstation 2)
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A strange and problematic game, Revenge of the Sith has a lightsaber mode that could have been much better than what it was. While using the Force is cool, using it to clean wreckage isn't really my most favorite application of the power. The combat isn’t the best and the game has an alternate that allows the user to play as Anakin and kill Obi Wan in the final battle. Then, Anakin becomes a Sith and kills the Emperor, declaring himself the ruler of the galaxy. Let's just say things get a little dark in this one.
33. Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace (Playstation)
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The 3D environment looked pretty lame and though you got to use a lightsaber and the Force (pushing your opponents), the game was definitely not a highlight in the Star Wars canon. The Phantom Menace let you play as Obi Wan, Qui-Gon, Amadala, or Panaka (though I have no idea why, upon being given the chance, you wouldn't choose to play with a Jedi). Probably the most fun part of the game is that you can randomly kill people. But since nobody heard them scream, I guess you're still on the light side of the Force?
32. Star Wars: Demolition (Dreamcast, Playstation)
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The gameplay isn’t the best and after a couple rounds you'd notice the numerous simliarities to Vigilante 8. Moving the characters around is difficult at first, but once you get used to the drift of the vehicles, it's a pretty entertaining car combat game. If you aren't a fan of those types of games, then skip this one entirely.
31. Star Wars: Jedi Arena (Atari 2600)
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While it’s not the most recognizable Star Wars game, at the time it wasn’t bad and allowed for some fun gameplay. It's really difficult to see what you're doing is making any impact, and I remember I must have played this game for hours not knowing what I was doing.
30. Battlefront: Elite Squadron (PSP, Nintendo DS)
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This game was only available on the Nintendo DS and Playstation Portable and, sadly, it leaves a lot to be desired in its graphics. The premise sounded interesting- cloned siblings that are on opposing sides - but its gameplay can get frustrating and repetitve. So many times I tried to take down an AT-AT only to get irritated with my viewpoint or inability to hit what I wanted to hit.
29. Dark Forces (Playstation)
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Utilizing the Jedi Game Engine that was created just for this game, Dark Forces is a fun first person shooter that really expanded the range of the Star Wars video game canon. The levels were really well thought out and the gameplay was fun. The graphics were definitely not up to par (in fact, they look like an old Duke Nuke'em game) but overall the game had more pluses than minuses and was definitely worth playing at the time. They could have put more time into the level design as well as increase the graphics and really maximized the ability of the newer engine, but overall this game worked more than it didn't.
28. Battlefront: Renegade Squadron (PSP)
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While the single player game left a lot to be desired, this game really excelled in its online play and was significantly better than its predecessor. The game controls were not the best and the graphics were less than average, but it is a fun game to play with friends. The customization options the game has are actually quite nice. It was somewhat easy to get lost fighitng in the starship, where Luke not only had to battle the Empire but boredom as well. Not perfect, but definitely not bad.
27. Empire Strikes Back (Atari 2600)
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The Atari version of Empire Strikes Back was a test in patience that acted somewhat as a Force trial in itself. Playing as Luke Skywalker in a snowspeeder, the player must take down an endless attack of AT-AT walkers as they try to reach the end of the screen. And the walkers keep coming, no matter how long you play. While the game is pretty tedious after awhile, finally destroying an AT-AT is a great feeling and I can’t tell you how many hours I lost to this game growing up.
26. Empire Strikes Back (Arcade)
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Much like the 3D, Tron-like graphics of the original Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back kept with the same formula that made Star Wars a success. Sadly, arcades didn’t adopt the game as quickly as they did the Star Wars game since it was sold as an upgrade kit and was more an of added level than a reimagining of a game. If you were able to play this in the arcade, you were lucky, since there were not many to be found.
25. Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (Nintendo)
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Later succeed by the widely successful Super Star Wars in the same year, this was a run and gun style that suffered from being released at the end of the NES’s lifespan. While it gave the player the ability to ride a tauntaun and use both a blaster and lightsaber, it wasn’t as impressive as Super Star Wars (it was much better than the Star Wars NES equivalent though). The game on the NES platform wasn’t that bad, it had fun levels that had the player battle on Hoth, train with Yoda, and fight Darth Vader in the Cloud City. Plus it gave you powers with the force that was pretty outstanding. I’m still not sure if the Force allows you to levitate, but who am I to argue with Nintendo?
24. The Force Unleashed (Xbox 360, Playstation 2, 3, PSP, Wii, Nintendo DS)
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Set between Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope, The Force Unleashed opens a new story in the Star Wars storyline where Darth Vader fosters an apprentice to rule the galaxy with whom the Emperor doesn’t know about which serves as an origin story to the rebel alliance. The player gets to use the Force (the ability to push things around him) as well as a lightsaber in third person action. The combos and lightsaber moves makes this game fun, and utilizing tactics in combat reward the avid player. This was almost the perfect Star Wars game, however it fell a little short of really fullfilling its own potential.
23. Star Wars Episode I: Pod Racer (Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Dreamcast, Arcade)
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The arcade racer that accompanied the The Phantom Menace film, Star Wars Episode I: Pod Racer puts the user in Anakin’s pod racer as he races to beat Sebula. The game was made by Sega and also released on the Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, and Gameboy Color. While somewhat exciting as a multiple player game in the arcade, the racing game’s best quality was that it was in the Star Wars universe and that it had 21 characters from which to choose. Sadly, the game wasn’t as good as Mario Kart 64, the best racing game on the Nintendo 64 platform, but still stood strong as a good Star Wars game.
22. Star Wars: Lethal Alliance (Nintendo DS, PSP)
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Star Wars games usually fall into four categories: "OMG this is amazing", "This is pretty good", "Well it’s not a complete waste of money", and "OMG how did I fall for this again and buy another terrible Star Wars game". This definitely falls into the good category as the action is pretty great with more of an emphasis on shooting than lightsabers. The takedowns are pretty awesome and the excellent sound effects make for a compelling, fun time. Also the cartwheels you can do in this game are just fun, even if they are pretty pointless.
21. Republic Commando (Xbox)
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A fun first person shooter for the Xbox platform that is similar to Battlefront. The player takes command of a clone commando team. The clones, for all those who watched the second prequel, comes from the clone factories on Kamino and are an elite Delta squad that goes on select missions to help the Republic. While it’s interesting that there would be a first person shooter in the Star Wars universe that doesn’t have at least one Jedi in it (or Sith for that matter), this game is still pretty solid in combining the fun of a first person shooter where you can really put a blaster to use.
20. Star Wars: Racer Revenge (Playstation 2, 3, 4)
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Eight years after Star Wars Episode I, Sebula wants revenge on Anakin after his loss. The game is a lot of fun, with the ability to choose a variety of different spacecrafts. The graphics are a bit cartoony, but this is a fast-paced game that is actually pretty challenging. The racing arenas are well done, being both visually appealing and allowing for plenty of room during gameplay. This is a great racing game with Star Wars vehicles and characters that captures the exhilaration found in the movies.
19. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Arcade)
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A follow up to the original Star Wars arcade game, Return of the Jedi has the user pilot both the Millennium Falcon and the Speeder Bike (definitely the best vehicle of the movie) through missions that coincide with the film. While the Millennium Falcon section did feel a little like Zaxxon, the game is fast and challenging, letting the player take part in two exciting sections of the movie in a fun and difficult test of skill. Definitely a game full of nostalgia, this game is worth playing again or for the first time.
18. Star Wars: Starfighter (Arcade, Playstation 2, Xbox)
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Fighting the invasion of Naboo, Star Wars Starfighter is a action game that allows the player to pilot different starfighters. Available on the Playstation 2 and the Xbox, this was a fun spin-off of Episode I that had exciting 3D fighting in multiple environments. As with the spacecrafts, the view is much slicker than that of its predecessors (aka X-Wing). The environments that the player fights in and the graphics are pretty dang good with the high canyons and lucious green grass. Definitely a product of its time, but a good deal of fun, regardless.
17. Star Wars I: Battle for Naboo (Nintendo 64)
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After Rogue Squadron was a hit for the N64, the same ideas were put in place for Battle for Naboo. The 3D environment is top notch and the same ideas are at play with new vehicles and challenges. Yet, one can’t escape that this is somewhat of a money grab as it doesn’t really expand upon the ideas presented in Rogue Squadron, two years previous. Also the city of Naboo looks somewhat similar the more you move around, like they have been copied and pasted instead of giving more detail to the environment that could really benefit from an extra bit of effort. It is fun if you liked Rogue Squadron, just not groundbreaking.
16. Jedi Knight III: Jedi Academy (Xbox)
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Powered by the Quake III: Team Arena game engine, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is a first and third person shooter in which the player must learn the teachings of a Jedi. The player could both use Force powers as well as a lightsaber. The major allure is that you can choose a saber staff like Darth Maul's, which is pretty awesome in its gameplay. The combat allows a lot of player agility and it's kind of badass running around attacking with Jedis everywhere. Though the game didn’t have the best graphics, the idea is a lot of fun, especially the lightsaber combat which utilized different stances and speed of attack. The multiplayer option allows you to use these combats against your friends, which is always a bonus.
15. Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter (Xbox, Playstation 2, 3, 4)
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One of the better games in the Star Wars canon, Star Wars Jedi Starfighter has the player control different starfighters in missions in which the player must destroy targets or protect friends. While there are many missions that are pretty similar to those in the first Starfighter, there’s also quite an array of Force weapons. They take a little while to reload, but maybe that's how the Force works? The story takes place right before the Clone Wars during the Battle of Geonosis, and the ability to play as both a Jedi and a pirate makes this one of the most fun and entertaining Star Wars games.
14. Super Bombad Racing (Playstation 2)
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God bless whoever thought of this game, because you are clearly insane. I imagine you, insane individual, going in and pitching what is basically Star Wars Mario Kart and, funnily enough, a lot of this game plain works. It’s actually quirky and fun and the levels are well thought out and exciting to play. Plus, the multiplayer aspect of the game allows the player to seriously play for hours. This is a surprisingly fun title that also has somewhat stupidly enjoyable aspects like, for example, the kiddie samba mix for the John Williams Star Wars theme. Absolutely bonkers, but wonderful.
13. Super Star Wars Series (Super Nintendo, Wii, Playstation 4)
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Super Star Wars was the start of a franchise that did an excellent job of encapsulating all the elements of the film into a fun run and gun game. This is one of the better games on the Super Nintendo. It allowed the player to control Luke, Han, or Chewbacca, as well as drive the landspeeder and X-Wing fighter. This franchinse really had the player in every part of the movie and it not only spawned off two sequels, but it also won Electronic Gaming Monthly’s best movie-to-game award. You can still get this game in the PS4. I highly recommend downloading it and having a geeked out nostalgia day.
12. Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64)
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There are so many aspects of this game that is worth mentioning! First, this is one of the first games to use the N64 expansion pack, which rendered the 3D environments in 640 x 480 resolution. Second, this video game is actually inspired by the book, Rogue Squardon (how many books were inspired by games?). Taking the role of Luke Skywalker, and later Wedge Antilles, the player take their X-Wing, A-Wing, Y-Wing or Naboo Fighter through multiple worlds in the time between Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. This game sold over a million copies in the US alone and is one of the few N64 games that’s still fun to play today. It's one of the best N64 offerings ever made.
11. Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike (Gamecube)
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Made exclusively for Gamecube, the third in the successful Rogue Squadron series added the ability to leave the starship and fight on the ground. This is definitely a game that pushed the technical boundaries of the Gamecube and one that became a highlight of the system’s capabilities. This game continues the expectation of getting better with each iteration as the missions are more beautiful and have more firepower, and the cooperative mode is plain awesome. Also, the fights in space are plain astounding, especially on Gamecube. This is one that's easy to get caught up in and play for hours.
10. Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (Gamecube)
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One of the best games on the Nintendo Gamecube system, Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader allows the player to now use the greatest starship in the galaxy, the Millennium Falcon. It's like they knew the first one was going to be amazing and they waited to give you the Falcon until later. The sequel basically uses the same formula as the previous game, but with excellent new environments including an attack on the Death Star, which looks awesome. The upgrade to the new system adds to the graphics, especially as this is one of the most stunning games on the Gamecube. Also an added benefit to the game is Denis Lawson, the actor who plays Wedge Achilles, who recorded new lines for Rogue Squadron II.
9. Star Wars Trilogy (Arcade)
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This is a game for which you make a special trip to the arcade and bring your laundry money. Each part of the game is a lot of fun and full of high energy that really utilizes each vehicle from the original trilogy, including the speeder bike and the snowspeeder on Hoth. At the end, you fight in a lightsaber duel with Darth Vader. Add a little extra to it and put a black glove on your right hand to make it more realistic. One of the best Star Wars games made and definitely worth a handful of quarters.
8. Battlefront (Xbox, Playstation 2)
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One of the best Star Wars games on the Playstation 2, Star Wars: Battlefront allowed online play as well as a fun single player campaign (or, if you prefer, you can go in for instant action, which is exactly as it sounds). Ever since the first snowspeeder game on Hoth, players have wanted to wrap a cord around an AT-AT's legs and take one down, and this game finally allows you to. The game is a first and third person shooter that focuses on using strategy to take control of planets in a galaxy by eliminating all forces or capture command posts. Also, there’s a plethora of awesome vehicles, including an AT-AT and a speeder bike, that make this one of the most complex and fun games in all of Star Wars.
7. Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (Gamecube, Xbox)
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A great game for the Xbox and Gamecube platform, Jedi Knight II |
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